The Sermon on the Fall of Rome, стр. 52

barbarians, and in his blasphemous sorrow he forgets that Christians do not belong to the world, but to the eternity of the things eternal. In the churches at Hippo the faithful share their distresses and doubts and turn to their bishop to learn from his lips what black sin it is that has brought such a terrible punishment upon them. The shepherd must not reproach his flock for their fruitless fears. He must simply allay them. And it is for this purpose that in December 410 Augustine comes to his flock in the cathedral nave and takes his place in the pulpit. An immense crowd has come to listen to him, squeezed up against the chancels, waiting in the soft light of winter for the voice to arise that will release them from their pain.

Hear me, you who are dear to me,

We Christians believe in the eternity of the things eternal to which we ourselves belong. God has promised us only death and resurrection. The foundations of our cities are not embedded in the earth but in the heart of the Apostle upon whom the Lord chose to build his Church, for God does not raise citadels of stone, flesh and marble for us, outside of this world He raises the citadel of the Holy Spirit for us, a citadel of love that will never collapse and will forever stand in its glory when the things of this world have been reduced to ashes. Rome has been captured and your hearts are outraged by this. But I ask you, you who are dear to me, is not despairing of God, who has promised you the salvation of His grace, is that not the true outrage? Do you weep because Rome has succumbed to the fire? Did God ever promise that the world would live forever? The walls of Carthage fell, the fire of Baal was extinguished, and Massinissa’s warriors who brought low Cirta’s ramparts have vanished in their turn, like sands before the wind. You knew that, yet you believed Rome would not fall. Was not Rome built by men like yourself? Since when do you believe men have the power to build things that are eternal? Man builds upon sand. If you seek to cling fast to what man has built you are clinging only to the wind. Your hands are left empty and your heart is afflicted. And if you love the world you will perish with it.

You are dear to me.

You are my brothers and sisters and I am sad to see you thus afflicted. But I am yet more sad to find you deaf to the word of God. What is born in the flesh dies in the flesh. Worlds perish, passing from darkness into darkness, one after the other, and however glorious Rome may be, it still belongs to the world and it must perish with the world. But your soul, filled with the light of God, will not perish. The darkness will not swallow it. Do not shed tears over the darkness of the world. Do not shed tears over palaces and theaters destroyed. That is not worthy of your faith. Do not shed tears over the brothers and sisters whom Alaric’s sword has taken from us. How can you bring God to account for their deaths, He who gave His only son in sacrifice for the remission of our sins? God spares whom He wishes. And those whom He has chosen to leave to die as martyrs rejoice today that they have not been spared in the flesh, for they live forever in the eternal blessedness of His light. It is this and this alone which is promised, to us, who are Christians.

You who are dear to me,

Do not grieve either over these attacks by the pagans. So many cities that were not Christian have fallen and their idols could not save them. But as for you, is it a stone idol that you worship? Remember who is your God. Remember what He has foretold unto you. He has foretold that the world will be destroyed by fire and the sword, He has promised you destruction and death. How can you be made fearful by the fulfillment of these prophecies? And He has also promised that His son will return in glory amid these fields of destruction, so that the eternal reign of light may be established, in which you will take part. Why do you weep instead of rejoicing, you who live only in anticipation of the end of the world, at least if you are a Christian? But perhaps it is neither seemly to weep, nor to rejoice. Rome has fallen. It has been captured, but the earth and the heavens have not been shaken by this. Look around you, you who are dear to me. Rome has fallen but is it not, in truth, as if nothing had happened? The stars are not troubled in their courses, night gives way to day, which is followed by night, at every moment the present arrives from nothingness and returns to nothingness, you are here, before me and the world is still traveling toward its end but it has not yet reached it and we do not know when it will reach it, for God does not reveal everything to us. But what He reveals suffices to fill our hearts and helps us to find strength in the test, for our faith in His love is such that it saves us from the torments that must be endured by those who have not known this love. And it is thus that we keep a pure heart, in the joy of Christ.

Augustine pauses for a moment in his sermon. In the crowd he sees expectant faces, many of which have now become serene. But he still hears some stifled sobs. Very close to him, against the chancel, a young woman looks up at him, her eyes veiled in tears. At first he looks at