Friday, January 5, 2024

Augustine and Gregory the Great: Cornelius was Not Saved Until he Received Water Baptism

  

I do not hesitate to put the Catholic catechumen, burning with divine love, before a baptized heretic. Even within the Catholic Church herself we put the good catechumen ahead of the wicked baptized person. Nor do we thereby do any injury to the Sacrament of Baptism, which the former has not yet received, while the latter has it already. Nor do we think that the catechumen’s Sacrament is to be preferred to the Sacrament of Baptism, just because we recognize that a specified catechumen may be better and more faithful than a specified baptized person. The centurion Cornelius, not yet baptized, was better than Simon, already baptized. For Cornelius, even before his Baptism, was filled up with the Holy Spirit, while Simon, even after his Baptism, was puffed up with an unclean spirit. (Augustine, Baptism 4.21.28, A.D. 400, The Faith of the Early Fathers, 3 vols. [trans. William A. Jurgens; Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1979], 3:67)

 

On the “catechumen’s Sacrament”:

 

The Council of Carthage of 397 A.D. mentions the Catechumen’s sacrament as the sacrament of salt; and it is mentioned elsewhere also in Augustine. The rites of Baptism were then, as now again in the restored liturgy, given in stages. The tasting of salt, symbolizing purity and incorruption, is that was termed the Catechumen’s sacrament. (Ibid., 69 n. 9)

 

 

Neither faith without works nor works without faith is of any avail, except perhaps, that works may go towards the reception of faith; just as Cornelius, before he had become one of the faithful, merited to be heard on account of his good works. From this it can be gathered that his performance of good works furthered his reception of faith. (Gregory the Great, Homilies on Ezekiel 1.9.6, A.D. 593, The Faith of the Early Fathers, 3 vols. [trans. William A. Jurgens; Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1979], 3:322)