Беседа 20

About one Donatist who turned to the Church 8 Thanks be to God! Brethren, rejoice for your brother, who “was dead and is alive, was lost and is found.” Glory to the patience and mercy of the Lord our God; patience, because He endured the stubborn; mercy, because he was pleased to accept the one who turned. This is a vineyard where I did not toil; I spent my strength elsewhere. O vineyard beloved by my Lord! Not only was I not at all useful to you, but I even served your enemy against you. I squandered it with great zeal when I was not collecting for you. Glory to your planter, with whom the wages of the workers called even at the latest hour do not remain. I come late, but I do not despair of receiving a denarius (Matthew 20:9). I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and an offender of You, but I received mercy because I did it “ignorantly” (1 Tim. 1:13). I kept the words of my parents, not patriarchs, prophets and apostles, but the parents of my flesh. But I did not follow flesh and blood to the end, I followed the truth, being defeated by it, and now I have calmed down, having returned to unity. Have I not read the same Scripture that I am now reading? But in the same way, that teacher of languages, the chosen vessel, from Saul became Paul, from the arrogant to the humble, from the destroyer to the shepherd, from the wolf to the lamb, “a Jew of the Hebrews, according to the teaching of a Pharisee” (Phil. 3:5), brought up at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), did not at first know about Christ, that He sits in heaven, and did not allow Him to be honored on earth. Unknowingly, he sang with his lips faith in Him, in His suffering and resurrection (that is, he recognized and read the Old Testament prophecies, which spoke of the suffering and resurrection of Jesus Christ) and, raging in error, caused devastation. According to the prophecies in which he (Saul) was raised from an early age, Christ had already risen from the dead and sat at the right hand of God (in coelo), and he was still blinded by the lies of his parents that the disciples stole Him from the tomb. So I wandered around around the Catholic Church, spread throughout the earth, according to the word of Divine Scripture, and I was made deaf to Him by false rumors about traitors passed down from my parents. I compare myself to Paul not based on merit, but based on sins. After all, although I did not deserve to be so great, however, before my conversion I was not so evil. He did not recognize the groom from the books he read; I didn't recognize the bride. Whoever revealed to him about the glorification of Christ in the words: “Be exalted above the heavens, O God,” the same one revealed to me about the spread of the Church in the words that follow: “over all the earth... Your glory” (Ps. 107:6) Both testimonies are clear to those who see, but hidden from the blind. Baptism into Christ opened his eyes, but to me the peace of Christ. The bath of holy water made him new, but for me love covered the multitude of my sins. Said at a vigil in memory of Maximian (ad vigilias Maximian) - probably one of the African martyrs. The conversation is conducted as if on behalf of the person addressed. You might be interested in: