The following is the Latin of a sermon that, initially, was (falsely) attributed to Augustine. The source of the following is:
Angelo Mai (a Roman Catholic Cardinal), “III. De evangelio ubi
Dominus de aqua vinum fecit. Iohan. cap. II.,” Spicilegium
Romanum 8 (1842): 718-22
The sermon is
also found in Migne, PL 47:1144-1147 and “CXVII. Incipit Sermo S. Augustini De
Evangelio Ubi Dominus De Aqua Vinum Fecit 2,” Patrum Nova Bibliotheca 1 (Rome: 1852): 247-51. A French
translation, as well as helpful background to the sermon, can be found in André
Wilmart, “Un Sermon African Sur Les Noces De Cana,
Passé Sous Le Nom De Saint Augustin,” Revue Bénédictine 42 (1930): 5-18.
Nuptiae, in quibus Christus et munerator et
conviva discubuit ; munerator scilicet in origine, conviva factus in genere, ut
qui in primordio copulae novellae concesserat nasci ex homine hominem, ipse
quoque nasci dignaretur ex virgine .. Aures nostrae pulsatae nunc e sancto
evangelio sonuerunt : die, inquit, tertio nuptiae factae sunt in Chanan
galilaea, et erat mater Iesu ibi; invitatus est autem Iesus cum discipulis ad
nuptias. Si Manichaeorum latebrosa voluptuosae turpitudinis foeditas de nuptiis
percontetur , Deus eas, inquit, non fecit. Si ergo Deus nuptias non fecit,
quomodo in eis Christus cum discipulis suis invitatus adcubuit ? Sed iam opaci
huius mysterii nubilum ventilemus. Die, inquit, tertio nuptiae factae sunt in
Chanan galilaea. Splendescente igitur super obscurum, delictis offuscantibus,
mundum Trinitatis die, Christus . venit ad nuptias. Tunc autem anima quae de
limi fuerat iam affricta consortio, per fornicationem oblectantis pomi
adulterum demutata maritum, pollutae societatis nuptias celebrat. Audi Paulum
huius malae coniugationis iterum vincla formidantem : timeo, inquit, ne sicut
serpens Evam fefellit astutia sua, ita corrumpantur mentes vestrae a
simplicitate et castitate quae est in Christo Iesu domino nostro. Dum itaque in
unius discubitionis instrumento iactati diabolus et anima lascivirent, invitato
Iesu . . dum vino luxuriae defecerunt. Genetrix autem Christi illa, quae
facinerosi concubitus pactum exhorruit, quae non solum corpore verum etiam
mente virgo permansit , intererat invitata, condicione generis non
participatione criminis, universitate nascendi non societate peccandi, quae ..
. Christo, non quae mundo consentiret iucundo.
Haec igitur mater Christi longum mundi miserata
laborem, quae se noverat de palmite fidei magnum duxisse . . . botrum, a
proprio germine coepit exposcere vinum. Quando autem angelo credidit , tunc pro mundo suggessit : tunc
inchoavit agere saeculi causam , quando non trepidavit ad nuntium. Ecce
enim ancilla Domini, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. Mox ex semine sancti
Spiritus propagata in saltu virginali primitiva vitis effloruit, quae
umbraculis opacata caelestibus subfrondet . . . nis occultum botrum procreavit.
Pependit salus in fidei apice, et turguit botrus ... Ecce postmodum ex
matricis utero racemus divinae prolis animatus ... natus est. Christus verus
betrus continebat equidem intra se vitae vinum ... crucis accesserat prelum. Dicit mater eius : vinum non habent. O
virgo sapientissima ! modo meruisti germinatam sobolem procreare, et iam botrum
. . ris exprimere? Equidem non potest nisi germen germini obviare, et (palmiti
suo) resistere. Sed qui de ligno carpsit supplicium , in ligno debet expectare
remedium ; et qui in arbore inlicitam demessuit frugem, expectare debet ad
crucem, ut ubi . . hauserat siccitatem, ibi salutis accipiat potionem. Vinum,
inquit, non habent. Attende virgo , paulisper; praeparet iudaeus lignum,
descendat clavus in botrum, et ... poterit vinum. Quid ante tempus curris ad
lacum, cum necdum inpresserit Iudas protervum super uva calcaneum? Ipse est
enim ille Iudas destructor sacratae vindemiae , qui ·XXX· pactus argenteis
botrum divinae prolis iudaeis ... inpiis venundavit. De quo in psalmis iam
fuerat decantatum : nam et homo pacis meae, in quem speravi, qui edebat panem
meum, ampliavit super me calcaneum. Aderit, virgo, certa dies qua prematur
fructus tuus, et tuam ipsius animam pertranseat gladius , ut constiterit de
botruo pendente quem profuderas ex radice.
Vinum, inquit, non habent. Et Iesus : quid
mihi et tibi est, mulier ? Nondum venit hora mea .. Utique non fati sed voti
hora, non necessitatis inpositae sed voluntatis inpensae ... non quo cogeretur
mori, sed quo pro mundo dignaretur mori. Quid mihi et tibi, mulier ? An oblitus
es matrem ?.. An discernis potentiam tuam ?.. . neret. Nulla est tibi cum matre
communitas ? An ... oculi tui debu ... maiestas ? Creatorem te designas ? An
cred .. nunc loqui .. ctorem propellere istinc .. periere nefandissim. . opus
dum cum . . . asti praestigium. Extulit hic Christus super matrem divinitatem
suam. Non negavit matrem suam, neque se natum negavit e carne, sed maiestati
suae suam subdidit genetricem. Et ideo ait : quid mihi et tibi, mulier ? Nondum
venit hora mea. In miraculo enim deitas matre altior praedicatur ; in hora
autem, mortis conmunitas intimatur. Interim Christus insipidos haustus merifica
: fatuus latex fundebatur in hydrias, et hauriebantur inebriata flumina. Quae
est ista tam repentina conversio ? In aqua vinum nascitur, in unda sapor
latenter exoritur : germinat suavitas in vinis, et nusquam fructificat vitis ;
nulla exprimitur uva, et fervescunt sine palmite vina.
O magni pulchritudo miraculi ! Inseruntur divini
praecepti vires , et in aqua nascitur fructus. Hoc fecit Christus in latice,
quod certo tempore facit in vite. Quis enim alius radicem ex imbre maritat ?
Quis alius per occultas venarum fibras stellatos palmites laqueat ? Quis
turgentes botros ac velut in apices gemmatos inpinguat, nisi is qui universa
provocat et multiplicat ? ut quod adstringitur in semine diffundatur in
germine, et quod latet in grano silvescat in folio. Interea ecclesia, quae in
mensa saeculi cum alieno viro polluta cubitabat, repentinis a Christo haustibus
muneratur. Transeunt ad Christum nuptiae. Qui enim vitavit, ipse dotavit.
Arripuit Christus convivium, et ecclesia mutavit sponsum. Pavit Christus, et
exclusus est inimicus. Miscuit sui sanguinis potionem, et duxit uxorem. Aptavi
inquit vos apostolus uni viro virginem castam exhibere Christo. Ecce illa
quondam fecunda nunc formosa, ante adultera nunc matrona, stat a dextris Dei in
vestitu deaurato, circumamicta varietate, per aquam mundata, per sanguinem
purpurata, per resurrectionem Domini candidata, pretiosis gemmis gratiae
varietata: et sicut dixit scriptura, fulvi sunt oculi eius a vino , et dentes
eius candidiores sunt lacte. Potemus ergo et nos vinum eius cum lacte eius, si
volumus et in fide pulchrescere, et in virtute candescere, et in ornatu sanctae
ecclesiae radiare.
Accipite grande aliut a parvo mysterium.
Aliquando et Iudaea vinum in convivio suo non habuit, quia munus sacrati
sanguinis non accepit ; et dum legi nuberet , non invenit omnino quod biberet. Venit Christus, mutavit legem in gratiam,
illam inflatricem , istam adiutricem. Fudit in legem sanguinis poculum, et
fecit moriendo convivium. Gustavit architriclinus, id est mundi dominus , aquam
vinum factam, et dicit : omnis homo primum vinum bonum ponit, et cum inebriati
fuerint homines , id quod deterius est ; tu autem servasti vinum bonum usque
adhuc. Et lex enim sancta, ut mandatum sanctum et iustum et bonum ; sed lex et
prophetae usque ad Iohannem prophetaverunt; et ideo adveniente Domino vina mosetica
defecerunt , et vina sanguinis profluxerunt. Illa acceperunt terminum, ista
sumserunt initium. Denique hoc est initium signorum quae fecit Iesus , quando
pavit gentes occi sus, et de vino sui sanguinis fecit convivium vulneratus.
Hunc botrum in terra promissionis seu in cespite virginitatis exortum,
aliquando iudaeus in palanga tamquam in praesa gio futurae crucis infixerat,
sub quo curvaretur, non ex quo reficeretur. Iam enim de eis
psalmus fuerat praelocutus : ob scurentur oculi eorum ne videant, et dorsum.
eorum semper incurva. Portabant igitur botrum duo, unus anterior, et alter
posterior ; in medio palmitis germinis propago pendebat. Primus indicabat
populum iudaeorum, secundus designabat populum gentium. Iudaeus quidem
anteibat, sed contra botrum dorsa ponebat. Gentilis posterior ambulabat, sed
botrum fidei oculis adtendebat, quia in pendente credebat. Posuerunt, inquit
Dominus de iudaeis, ad me dorsa et non facies suas. Primus aversabatur,
secundus pascebatur ; ille hanelabat sub delicti onere, iste bibebat ex
aethere. Iudaeo ergo botrus po sterior, gentili erat anterior : illis in fine,
nobis in princi pio; illos sequebatur ad supplicium , nos invitabat ad cibum.
Itaque illi desiccati sunt et aruerunt, nos vero comedimus et bibimus et
refecti sumus , per ipsum Iesum Christum qui vivit cum Patre et cum Spiritu
sancto in saecula saeculorum Amen.
English
Translation :
The wedding at which Christ
reclined both as bestower and as guest — bestower, namely, in origin; made a
guest in kind — so that he who at the beginning of the union had allowed that
from man a man be born might himself also deign to be born of a virgin. Our
ears have now been struck and have sounded from the holy Gospel: “On the third
day a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there;
and Jesus was invited with his disciples to the wedding.” If the secret
foulness of Manichaean voluptuous depravity questions weddings — “God did not
make them,” it says — if therefore God did not make weddings, how then was
Christ invited to them and reclined with his disciples? But now let us dispel
the cloud that obscures this mystery. “On the third day,” he says, “a wedding
took place in Cana of Galilee.” Therefore, the day of the Trinity shone forth
over the darkness that sins had cast, and Christ came to the wedding. Then the
soul, which had already been afflicted by association with filth, having
through the fornication of the beguiling fruit been turned into an adulterer
instead of a spouse, celebrates the nuptials of a polluted companionship. Hear
Paul, again fearing the bonds of this evil union: “I fear,” he says, “that as
the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so your minds may be corrupted from
the simplicity and chastity that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Thus, while —
tossed about by the means of a single banquet — the devil and the soul were
giving way to lasciviousness, with Jesus invited, they failed through the wine
of luxury. But the Mother of Christ — she who shuddered at the compact of
wicked intercourse, who remained a virgin not only in body but also in mind —
was present, invited: by the condition of her birth, not by participation in
crime; by the fullness of bearing, not by fellowship in sin; she belonged to
Christ, not to the world’s delights.
The mother of Christ, therefore,
pitying the long travail of the world — she who knew that from the shoot of
faith she had borne a great cluster — began to ask wine from her own stem.
When, however, she believed the angel, then she offered herself for the world:
then she began to act for the cause of the age, when she did not tremble at the
message. For behold, the handmaid of the Lord: “Let it be to me according to
your word.” Soon, propagated from the seed of the Holy Spirit, the original
vine flourished in the virginal soil, which, shaded by heavenly canopies, put
forth leaves and produced the hidden cluster. Salvation hung at the summit of
faith, and the cluster swelled. Behold afterwards from the mother’s womb a
cluster quickened by the divine offspring was born. The true cluster, Christ,
indeed held within himself the wine of life; the press of the cross had drawn
near. His mother says: “They have no wine.” O most wise virgin! You have just
deserved to bring forth a sprouted offspring, and already you run to press out
the cluster? For a shoot can only meet a shoot, and resist with its own little
branch. But he who suffered punishment from wood must await remedy in wood; and
he who plucked the forbidden fruit from the tree must wait for the cross, so that
where he had there drunk dryness, there he may receive the draught of
salvation. “They have no wine,” he says. Attend, virgin, for a little: let the
Jew prepare the wood, let the nail descend into the cluster, and … wine will be
able [to come forth]. Why do you run before the time to the vat, when Judas has
not yet pressed his proud heel upon the grape? For he is indeed that Judas, the
destroyer of the sacred vintage, who ·XXX· — by agreement for silver — sold the
cluster of the divine offspring to the Jews … to the impious. About whom it had
already been sung in the psalms: “Yea, even my companion in peace, in whom I
trusted, who ate my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.” There will
come, O virgin, a certain day in which your fruit shall be cut short, and a
sword shall pierce your very soul, so that it may be made plain from the
hanging cluster which you poured forth from the root.
“They have no wine,” he says. And
Jesus: “What is that to me and to you, woman? My hour is not yet come.”
Certainly not an hour of fate but of vow; not imposed by necessity but
undertaken by will… not that he was forced to die, but that he might deign to
die for the world. “What is that to me and to you, woman? Have you forgotten
your mother? … Do you perceive your power? …” [corrupt passage with lacunae]
“Is there no fellowship between you and your mother? … Do your eyes owe …
majesty? Do you set yourself forth as Creator? … Do you believe … now to speak
… to drive away the Creator from here … most foul deeds … while with … the
trickery of show?” [end corrupt passage] Here Christ exalted his divinity above
his mother. He did not deny his mother, nor did he deny that he was born of
flesh, but he subjected his mother to his majesty. And therefore he says: “What
is that to me and to you, woman? My hour is not yet come.” In the miracle the
deity is proclaimed higher than the mother; in the hour (that is) of death
communion is intimated. Meanwhile Christ wrought wondrous draughts from
tasteless liquid: the insipid fluid was poured into the jars, and rivers of
intoxication were drawn up. What is this so sudden conversion? In the water
wine is born; in the wave flavor secretly springs forth: sweetness germinates
in the wines, and the vine nowhere bears fruit; no grape is pressed, and wines
ferment without the vine’s shoot.
Receive a great mystery from a
small thing. At times even Judea had no wine at its banquet, because it did not
accept the gift of the sacred blood; and while the law held sway, it found
absolutely nothing to drink. Christ came, changed the law into grace — that
former thing enlivening, this one aiding. He poured the cup of blood into the
law, and by dying he made a banquet. The architriclinus [from αρχιτρικλινος], that is, the Lord of the
world, tasted the water made wine, and says: “Every man at first sets forth
good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse. But thou
hast kept the good wine until now.” For the holy Law is a holy, just, and good
commandment; but the Law and the prophets prophesied until John; and therefore,
at the coming of the Lord, the Mosaic wines failed, and the wines of blood
flowed forth. Those (former things) received their ending; these took their
beginning. Finally, this is the beginning of the signs which Jesus did: when,
being slain, he fed the nations, and, wounded, made of the wine of his blood a
banquet.
This cluster, sprung up in the
land of promise or on the turf of virginity, at times a Jew had fixed to a
stake — as it were in presage of the future cross — beneath which it would be
bent, not from which it would be restored. For already a psalm had been spoken
concerning them: “Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and let
their backs be always bowed.” Therefore two carried the cluster, one before and
the other behind; in the middle of the vine-shoot a shoot hung. The first
signified the people of the Jews, the second designated the people of the
Gentiles. The Jew indeed went before, but he placed his back toward the
cluster. The Gentile walked behind, but he looked attentively at the cluster
with the eyes of faith, because he believed in the one suspended. “They have
set their backs against me, and not their faces,” says the Lord concerning the
Jews. The first was turned away, the second was nourished; the one groaned
under the burden of sin, the other drank from the heavens. Therefore the cluster
was behind for the Jew, and before for the Gentile: for them it was at the end,
for us at the beginning; it followed them to punishment, it invited us to food.
Thus those were dried up and withered, but we ate and drank and were refreshed
— through Jesus Christ himself, who lives with the Father and the Holy Spirit
for ever and ever. Amen.
