ACC ~ Luke 23 v34
THEY CRY, “CRUCIFY HIM!” HE PRAYS, “FATHER, FORGIVE
” AUGUSTINE: Look at the Lord who did precisely what he commanded. After so many things the godless Jews committed against him, repaying him evil for good, did he not say as he hung on the cross, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing”? He prayed as man, and as God with the Father, he heard the prayer. Even now he prays in us, for us and is prayed to by us. He prays in us as our high priest. He prays for us as our head. He is prayed to by us as our God. When he was praying as he hung on the cross, he could see and foresee. He could see all his enemies. He could foresee that many of them would become his friends. That is why he was interceding for them all. They were raging, but he was praying. They were saying to Pilate “Crucify,” but he was crying out, “Father, forgive.” He was hanging from the cruel nails, but he did not lose his gentleness. He was asking for pardon for those from whom he was receiving such hideous treatment. SERMON 382.2. [1]
[1] WSA 3 10:376*.
STEPHEN’S FORGIVENESS AND MARTYRDOM AN EXAMPLE TO ALL CHRISTIANS
AUGUSTINE: So, brothers and sisters, let us learn above all from the example of this martyr [Stephen] how to love our enemies. We have just had the example given us of God the Father, who makes his sun rise on the good and the bad. The Son of God also said this after receiving his flesh, through the mouth of the flesh which he received for love of his enemies. After all, he came into the world as a lover of his enemies, he found absolutely all of us his enemies, he didn’t find anyone a friend. It was for enemies that he shed his blood, but by his blood that he converted his enemies. With his blood he wiped out his enemies’ sins; by wiping out their sins, he made friends out of enemies. One of these friends was Stephen, or rather, is and will be. Yet the Lord himself was the first to show on the cross what his instructions were. With the Jews, you see, howling at him from all sides, furious, mocking, jeering, crucifying him, he could still say, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing; after all, it is blindness that is crucifying me.” Blindness was crucifying him, and the crucified was making an eye-salve [1] for them from his blood.
But people who are reluctant to carry out the precept, eager to get the reward, who don’t love their enemies but do their best to avenge themselves on them, don’t pay any attention to the Lord, who would have had nobody left to praise him if he had wanted to avenge himself on his enemies. So when they hear this place in the Gospel, where the Lord says on the cross, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing,” they say to themselves, He could do that as the Son of God, as the only Son of the Father. Yes, it was flesh hanging there, but God was hidden within. As for us, though, what are we to do that sort of thing?
So didn’t he really mean it when he gave this order? Perish the thought; he certainly meant it. If you think it is asking too much of you to imitate your Lord, look at Stephen your fellow servant. …
So Stephen loved his enemies. I mean, while he stood up to pray for himself, he knelt down for them. Clearly he fulfilled what had been written. [2] He proved to be a true imitator of the Lord’s passion and a perfect disciple of Christ, completing in his own passion what he had heard from the Master. The Lord, you see, while hanging on the cross had said, “Father, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.” And the blessed Stephen, when he was already almost buried under the stones, spoke like this: “Lord Jesus, do not hold this sin against them.” [3] Oh, what an apostolic man, already from being a disciple become a master! It was necessary, after all, for the first martyr of Christ to follow the teaching of the Master. He prays for the godless, he prays for blasphemers, he prays for those who are stoning him. SERMON 317.2-3, 6. [4]
[1] Rev 3:18.
[2] It is difficult to see what text of Scripture Augustine had in mind here; probably it was just the Lord’s command to love one’s enemies. This hadn’t, of course, been written and become Scripture when Stephen was martyred.
[3] Acts 7:60.
[4] WSA 3 9:143, 145.
CHRIST’S FORGIVENESS PRODUCES BELIEVERS ON PENTECOST
AUGUSTINE: Let me now tell you something that will help you believe what you cannot possibly understand unless you believe. Tell me, how many souls were there, in the Acts of the Apostles, who believed when they observed the miracles of the apostles? I mean those Jews who had crucified the Lord, who brought along blood stained hands, who had sacrilegious ears, whose tongues were compared with a sword. “Their teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.” [1] Christ had not prayed for them in vain. He did not say in vain, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” From their number, a very great many believed. As we can read, “There believed on that day,” as it says, “three thousand souls.” [2] There you have thousands of souls, and here so many thousand souls. The Holy Spirit came on them, through whom loved is poured out in our hearts. SERMON 229G.5. [3]
[1] Ps 57:4 (56:5 LXX).
[2] Acts 2:41.
[3] WSA 3 6:292**.
CHRIST’S HEALING BLOOD
AUGUSTINE: You are a Christian. You carry the cross of Christ on your forehead. [1] The mark stamped on you teaches you what you should profess. He was hanging on the cross, which you carry on your forehead. Do not delight in the sign of the wood but in the sign of the one hanging on it. When he was hanging on the cross, he was looking around at the people raving against him, putting up with their insults and praying for his enemies. While they were killing him, the doctor was curing the sick with his blood. He said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” These words were not futile or without effect. Later, thousands of those people believed in the one they murdered, so that they learned how to suffer for him who had suffered for them and at their hands.
Brothers and sisters, we should understand this from this sign, from this stamp that Christians receive even when they become catechumens. From this, we should understand why we are Christians. SERMON 302.3. [2]
[1] Traditionally the celebrant traces the sign of the cross on the catechumen’s forehead before baptism.
[2] WSA 3 8:302**.
THE MYSTERY OF OUR SALVATION
LEO THE GREAT: The very appearance of the gallows showed the criterion that he would apply when he comes to judge everyone. The believing thief’s faith prefigured those who would be saved, while the blasphemer’s wickedness foreshadowed those who would be condemned. Christ’s passion, therefore, contains the mystery of our salvation. SERMON 55.1. [1]
[1] FC 93:237*.
JESUS CONQUERS THROUGH HIS NAKEDNESS
AMBROSE: It is important to consider what type of man ascends. I see him naked. [1] Let him who prepares to conquer this age ascend in this way so that he does not seek the help of the age. Adam, who desired clothing, was conquered. [2] He who laid down his clothes conquered. He ascended in the same way that nature formed us with God as Creator. In the same way as the first Adam lived in Paradise, the second Adam entered paradise. [3] In order not to conquer for only himself but for all, he held out his hands [4] to draw all things to himself. Having wrenched them from the bonds of death and hung them on the yoke of faith, he joined those of heaven to those who before were of earth. [5] EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 10.110. [6]
[1] See Jn 19:23.
[2] See Gen 3:7.
[3] See 1 Cor 15:47.
[4] Is 65:2; Rom 10:21.
[5] See 1 Cor 15:48-49.
[6] EHG 424**.
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