Sermon to the People of the Church of Caesarea

1You know with what joy we receive the eagerness of your love. For we exult in the Lord our God, of whom the apostle says: "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one" (Ephesians 2:14). We give thanks, then, to the same Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, who has granted us that, before we have our brother Emeritus's will, we have already learned how much he loves unity. But hear what opening words God willed us to hear from his own mouth. As soon as he entered this church, standing in that place where we first began our conversation with him, with the Lord inspiring him—the Lord who both instructs the heart and governs the tongue—he said to us: "I cannot not want what you want, but I can want what I want." See what he has promised, the man who said he cannot not want what we want. For if he cannot not want what we want, he knows what we want; for we want what you also want, we all want what God wants. And what the Lord wants is not hidden. For his testament is read, the testament of him who made us coheirs with himself; in it is recited: "My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you" (John 14:27). So whether soon or late, he cannot not want what we want. But his second statement makes some delay for us: "I can want what I want." For he said: "I cannot not want what you want, but I can want what I want." He can want what he wants, but he cannot not want what we want. For we see what he says he can do. He wants right now what he wants, but what he wants right now God does not want. For what does he want right now? To be in disagreement with the Catholic Church, to be still in the communion of the Donatist party, to be still in schism, to be still among those who say: "I am Paul's," "I am Apollos's," "I am Cephas's" (1 Corinthians 1:12). But God does not want this, as the apostle rebukes: "Is Christ divided?" (1 Corinthians 1:13). So he can want what he wants, but for a time, for an hour of shame, not for the reason of wisdom can he want what he wants. For right now this is what he wants, and he can want what he wants. But since he cannot not want what we want, let him quickly not want what he wants, and let him do what we want. So do not let any little delay disturb you, brothers, while he wants what he wants, but pray that he may do what he promised, that he may not be able not to want what we want. —And all acclaimed: "Here or nowhere." —You who have declared your hearts with your voices, help us also with your prayers. The Lord who commands unity is able to change a will for the better. And what your love acclaimed—"Here or nowhere"—we recognized the voice of your love toward him, and we love it. This too we think not now for the first time, but always; we always desire it. The same is the mind, what is especially necessary, of our brother and fellow bishop, your bishop Deuterius. His mind has long been known to us. He poured out prayers with us to the Lord about this matter in council, where we promised and offered this to those who are outside. Our signatures are already on record about this matter. For we never so cherish our own honor that we begrudge unity. Let us be lesser in honor, while we are greater in love. We know how weakness must be invited, so that unity may be perfected.

2We do not say this, brothers, as if those who remain in schism have any hope before the Lord. Many people argue without understanding what they are saying, and they ask: "If they are schismatics, if they are heretics, why do you receive them like that?" Listen, my brothers. If we received them as they are, we would already be receiving our brother Emeritus here—whether good or bad, still a brother. I say this because he himself knows that the prophet told us, and we said it to them in the conference: "Say, 'You are our brothers,' to those who hate you." They hate us, and we believe their hatred must come to an end. But as long as he hates, he hears "brother." Until the hatred ends, the name will stand as a witness. So we do not receive them as they are—far be it from us, for they are heretics. We receive them as Catholics: they change, and then they are received. But because of the evil they possess, we cannot persecute in them the good things we recognize. The evil of dissension, of schism, of heresy—that evil is their own. But the good things we recognize in them are not their own. They belong to our Lord; they belong to the Church. Baptism is not theirs, but Christ's. The invocation of God's name over their heads when bishops are ordained—that invocation is God's, not Donatus's. I would not receive him as a bishop if, when he was ordained, Donatus had been invoked over his head. In a soldier who wanders off and deserts, the crime belongs to the deserter, but the mark is not the deserter's—it is the emperor's. But our brother did not desert where he had never been, since in that deserter the error was born when he was signed by a deserter. The one who first made the schism, who separated himself from the Catholic Church with those he dragged along with him, was a deserter. The rest were signed by deserters, but not with the deserter's mark—with the emperor's mark. For the deserter did not set his own mark. What do I mean when I say the deserter did not set his own mark? Donatus did not baptize in the name of Donatus. If Donatus, when he made the schism, had baptized in the name of Donatus, he would have stamped the deserter's mark. If I were calling to unity and found the deserter's mark, I would root it out, erase it, abolish it, cast it away, reject it, spurn it, anathematize it, damn it. But as it is, the deserter himself set the mark of his emperor. Our God and Lord Jesus Christ seeks the deserter, erases the crime of error, but does not root out his own mark. When I come to my brother and gather my wandering brother, I look for faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. That is my emperor's mark. It was about this mark that he commanded his soldiers—or rather his companions—to imprint it on those they gathered into his camp, saying: "Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). Paul knew that this mark, spoken by the Lord, was to be imprinted on all believers, and he was alarmed at those who wanted to belong to Paul. He said to them: "Was Paul crucified for you? Why do you want to be mine and not my Lord's? Why do you want to be mine and not rather his whose I am? Recognize, notice your mark: were you baptized in the name of Paul?" (1 Corinthians 1:13). So we gather them in such a way that those we do not gather should not flatter themselves. And let those very ones be gathered, not puffed up. Let them come; they will be received. We do not hate what is God's in them, and we do not hate them either, because they are God's and what they have is God's. They are God's because they are human beings, and every human being is God's creature. What they have is God's—the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Trinity is God's; the gospel they have is God's; the faith they have is God's.

3And what do they lack, someone says to me, who have these things? You say they have the baptism of Christ? I do. You say they have the faith of Christ? I do. So if they have these things, what do they lack? What is baptism? A sacrament. Listen to the apostle: If I know all sacraments. It is a great thing to know all the sacraments of God; however many sacraments we may know, who knows all the sacraments of God? What does the apostle say? If I know all sacraments, if I have all prophecy, add still more: and all knowledge. But you had spoken about faith. Listen further: if I have all faith. It is difficult to have all faith, just as it is difficult to know all sacraments. And what is it that he says: all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing? Pay attention, brothers, pay attention, I beg you, to the apostle's voice, and see why we seek our brothers with such labors and dangers. Love seeks them from our hearts. For the sake of my brothers and my neighbors, the psalm says, I was speaking peace about you, speaking to holy Jerusalem. See then, my brothers, what the apostle said: If I have all sacraments, all knowledge, prophecy, faith—what kind of faith?—so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. He did not say: those things are nothing, but: if I do not have love, I am nothing. For who in his right mind would say: the sacraments of God are nothing? Who in his right mind would say: prophecy is nothing, knowledge is nothing, faith is nothing? Those things are not nothing, but when those things are great, I who have great things, if I do not have love, am nothing. Those things are great, and I have great things, and I am nothing if I do not have love, through which the great things I have benefit me. For if I do not have love, those things can be in me, but they cannot benefit me.

4So pay attention, brother, pay attention, I beg you. You say to me: Why are you seeking me? I answer: Because you are my brother. You answer me and say: If I have perished, why are you seeking me? And I answer: If you had not perished, I would not be seeking you. Why are you seeking me? You say to me: If I have perished, why are you seeking me? When I answer: I am seeking you because you have perished. And why am I seeking you, for what gain? So that one day it may be said to me: Your brother was dead and has come to life again; he had perished and has been found. You answer me and say: But I have the sacrament. You do have it; I acknowledge that. That is why I am seeking you. You have given me a great reason to seek you all the more diligently. For you are a sheep from my Lord's flock; you have strayed with the sign. That is why I seek you more, because you have the sign itself. Why do we not possess one church? We have one sign; why are we not in one sheepfold? I am seeking you so that this sacrament may be for you a help toward salvation, not a testimony toward condemnation. Do you not know that a deserter is condemned by the mark by which a soldier is honored? That is why I am seeking you, so that you may not perish with the sign. For it is a sign of salvation, if you have salvation, if you have love. This sign of salvation can be on you outwardly, but it cannot benefit you. Come, so that what you had may benefit you—not so that you may receive what you had, but so that what you had may begin to benefit you, and you may receive what you did not have. For you had the sign of peace, but you did not have peace itself. In that house—that is, in you—discord was living, and on the threshold it was posting signs of peace. I recognize the signs, but I am seeking the inhabitant. I read the sign of peace: baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is a sign of peace; I read it. Who lives there, I am seeking. I look at my brother; I recognize the sign of peace. I too have it; I want to enter. What does 'I want to enter' mean? Accept me as your brother, so that together we may pray to the Father. 'I do not pray with you.' The signs of peace are there, and discord contradicts me? Clearly I will labor, with the Lord's help, to cast out discord, which possesses wrongly, and to bring in peace as the rightful possessor. So when I cast out discord and bring in peace, why should I take down the signs of peace? I say plainly to my Lord: O Christ, you who are our peace, who made both one—make us one, so that we may rightly sing: See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity. Bring in concord, drive out discord; bring in yourself into your own signs. You remain; let no other possess them and deceive by your signs.

5You changed the thief on the cross in one hour: change this opposer too. And surely let us see what you have. "I have," you say, "the sacrament, I have baptism." If I say to you, "Prove it," you show me what you received, you say what you confessed, you say what you hold. I recognize it, I do not change it, I do not breathe scorn upon it. Far be it from me that, when I seek the salvation of a deserter, I should insult the emperor. So you have proved to me that you have the sacrament; by explaining the sacrament you have proved to me that you have the faith. Prove to me that you have love: hold unity. I do not want you to say to me, "I have love." Prove it. We have one Father: let us pray together. What do you say when you pray, I ask you? "Our Father, who art in heaven." Thanks be to God. According to the teaching of our Lord you added: who art in heaven. For we each had fathers on earth; we have found one Father together in heaven. Our Father, who art in heaven: you call upon Him as Father. Our Father willed to have one wife. Why then, when we worship one Father, do we not recognize one mother? If you say you were born of another, she herself bore you from a foreign bosom. What I said, not all of you could understand. We know that through lawful wives it came about that even those who were not born of lawful wives were joined in the same inheritance. The will of the spouse did this. For Ishmael was disinherited. Sarah herself had borne him, though from another's womb. Sarah bore him from another's womb, by her own wish. For she said: I want you to make me children by her (Genesis 16:2), and so Abraham did it. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does (1 Corinthians 7:4). For he would have been a son, if he had not been proud; Ishmael was disinherited for pride. For the maidservant raised her neck, so that it was said: Cast out the maidservant and her son; for the son of the maidservant shall not be heir with my son Isaac (Genesis 21:10). Do you want to know what peace is worth, what concord is worth, what humility is worth, and what pride blocks? Pride disinherited Ishmael, but the sons of the maidservants from Jacob—because the lawful wives also wished them to be born—the sons of the maidservants of Jacob, we know, were called into one inheritance. All twelve patriarchs were counted together; no difference of womb separated one from another, because love joined them all. What difference does it make then where you received baptism? "Baptism is mine," Sarah says to you; "baptism is mine," Rachel says to you. Do not be proud; come to the inheritance, especially because that inheritance is not the land that was given to the sons of Jacob. The land was given to the sons of Israel; the more people possessed it, the more crowded it became. Our inheritance is called peace. I read the testament: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you (John 14:27). Let us hold together what cannot be divided. Many possessors do not crowd it; however many come, as it was promised: So shall your offspring be, like the stars of heaven and like the sand that is on the shore of the sea (Genesis 22:17). In your offspring shall all nations be blessed (Genesis 22:18). And I saw, he says in Revelation, many in white robes and holding palm branches, whom no one could number, coming from all nations (Revelation 7:9). Let them come, let them hold peace. Our possession does not become narrow; only dissension makes narrowness. See, my brothers, so that we still suffer narrowness, our brother's dissension is the cause: let him agree in peace, and breadth is made.

6But what can we do except bear our brother's weakness and not give up? I believe this sweat of mine will bear fruit. The Lord our God, who willed that we come to you, who commanded us to seek him, who brought it about that we have found him face to face for now, will help us through your prayers to find his heart, to rejoice in his concord, and to give thanks to God for his salvation—which he cannot have except in the Catholic Church. Outside the Catholic Church he can have everything except salvation. He can have honor, he can have the sacraments, he can sing alleluia, he can answer 'amen,' he can hold the gospel, he can have faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and preach it—but nowhere except in the Catholic Church will he be able to find salvation. All these things pass away, my brothers. Right now he thinks he will be great among his own people if he does not give in and is called a martyr of the Donatist party. God forbid! In the name of the Lord, let that pride be taken from his heart. He knows it himself, he has read it himself: If I hand over my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing (1 Corinthians 13:3). I am not saying that if he boasts of having suffered some injuries or some earthly losses for the Donatist party, it profits him nothing. I say more: if he suffers outside at the hands of an enemy of Christ—not a Catholic brother seeking his salvation, but an enemy of Christ—if he suffers outside the Church of Christ and an enemy of Christ says to him, 'Put incense to the idols, worship my gods,' and he refuses to worship and is killed by the enemy of Christ, he can shed blood, but he cannot receive the crown.

7They themselves know—they were at the conference we held at Carthage—how they admitted that their parents persecuted Bishop Caecilian. It was then that they broke away from the Catholic Church and made the schism. Their parents persecuted him—the first ones who formed the Donatist party persecuted Caecilian. They pursued him all the way to the emperor's court. They sent charges against him to the emperor, charges that were not true. The emperor ordered the case to be heard. It was heard before bishops, the false charges were found to be false, and Caecilian was acquitted. But they did not stop pursuing him. They kept appealing to the emperor again and again, until the emperor appointed a judge for the case and himself heard both parties and examined it. The emperor examined it and judged Caecilian innocent. And when we brought this up, they argued with us and said that the emperor condemned Caecilian to exile. That is false. But still, notice what they said: that Caecilian was brought before the emperor by their persecuting ancestors and sent into exile. We have read the records. Those are their own prosecutions; their own hand is preserved, subscribing with their own words. Pay attention, I beg you, and judge our case now. Certainly their ancestors persecuted Caecilian; certainly they brought him before the emperor; certainly they worked to have him condemned. I do not want to say that he was not condemned; I do not want to say that he was declared innocent. Let it be as they say. When they were persecuting him, when they got him condemned—what was Caecilian then? When he was suffering persecution at the hands of their ancestors, what was he? Tell me: what was he? Was he a Christian? Was he a Catholic? Or what was he? They do not say he was not a Catholic, but that he was a criminal. So criminals can suffer persecution at the hands of holy people. Let us accept that outright: Caecilian, who suffered persecution, was a criminal. I do not say they were lying; let us say they were deceived, so that we agree with them: he was a criminal. And those who did it—what were they? Choose whichever you like. If they were unjust, then abandon the unjust and come to us. But if they were holy, then it is possible for holy people to persecute an unjust man. Do not be angry with us if we persecute. Do not say, 'You are unjust because you persecute.' You have already shown that it is possible for the just to persecute the unjust. Is it possible or not? Tell me one of the two. If it is not possible, why did your people persecute Caecilian? But if it is possible, why are you surprised? Why do you praise the punishment and not show the cause? 'Blessed are those who suffer persecution,' says the Lord. Add: 'for the sake of righteousness,' and you have separated the robbers, separated the evildoers, separated the adulterers, separated the impious, separated the sacrilegious, separated the heretics. Such people suffer persecution, but not for the sake of righteousness.

8And yet what kind of persecution does our brother suffer, the one who has been brought to us? That very persecution is more glorious; I openly confess it. Let anyone who wishes find fault: I confess that kind of persecution. I read in the psalm: 'The one who secretly slandered his neighbor, this one I persecuted' (Psalm 100:5; Psalm 101:5 in Hebrew numbering). If I rightly persecute the one who secretly slanders his neighbor, do I not more rightly persecute the one who publicly blasphemes the Church of God, when he says 'It is not the Church,' when he says 'Ours is the Church that is in the party,' when he says 'That Church is a whore'? So shall I not persecute the one who blasphemes the Church? I shall persecute him plainly, because I am a member of the Church; I shall persecute him plainly, because I am a son of the Church. I use the voice of the Church itself; the Church itself speaks through me in the psalm: 'I shall persecute my enemies and seize them, and I shall not turn back until they fail' (Psalm 17:38; Psalm 18:37 in Hebrew numbering). Let them fail in evil, let them advance in good. Brothers, do not think that something new has been done to our brother. When the Donatist party prevailed at Constantina, Petilianus seized a lay catechumen of ours, born of Catholic parents; he used force on him against his will, searched for him as he fled, found him as he hid, dragged him out as he was terrified, baptized him as he trembled, ordained him against his will. See what violence he did to one of ours! Did he drag him off to death, and do we not draw him to salvation?

9I have said all this to your love because of what you cried out: here or nowhere. For this is what we too want: here, here—but in peace; here, here—but in unity; here, here—but in the fellowship of love. Then here is good. For if it is not so, nowhere is better than here. But may the Lord grant that it be here rather than nowhere. If it is not here, far be it that it be not elsewhere—far be it. Here or elsewhere. You have heard; he has heard. What God has done in his soul, he himself knows. For we strike the ear from outside; he knows how to speak within. He preaches peace within, and he does not cease to preach, if only he will listen. His mercy will be present, with your prayers helping, so that our labor may be fruitful. Yet if he is unwilling to communicate today, although we must not grow weary—but we must press on as much as we can—even so we must not grow weary. We can postpone; we cannot and must not take away our insistence. He who led him here to us will be present, to make us rejoice with him in unity with you and in his peace.