TRACTATE 59, ST AUGUSTINE (missing Peter and Judas received of the same bread, but Peter to

life, Judas to death.)

1. We have just heard in the holy Gospel the Lord speaking, and saying, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord, nor the apostle [he that is sent] greater than
he that sent him: if you know these things, blessed shall you be if you do them. He said this,
therefore, because He had washed the disciples' feet, as the Master of humility both by word
and example. But we shall be able, with His help, to handle what is in need of more elaborate
handling, if we linger not at what is perfectly clear. Accordingly, after uttering these words,
the Lord added, I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but, that the Scripture
may be fulfilled, He that eats bread with me, shall lift up his heel upon me. And what is this,
but that he shall trample upon me? We know of whom He speaks: it is Judas, that betrayer of
His, who is referred to. He had not therefore chosen the person whom, by these words, He
sets utterly apart from His chosen ones. When I say then, He continues, Blessed shall you be
if you do them, I speak not of you all: there is one among you who will not be blessed, and
who will not do these things. I know whom I have chosen. Whom, but those who shall be
blessed in the doing of what has been commanded and shown as needful to be done, by Him
who alone can make them blessed? The traitor Judas, He says, is not one of those that have
been chosen. What, then, is meant by what He says in another place, Have I not chosen you
twelve, and one of you is a devil? Was it that he also was chosen for some purpose, for which
he was really necessary; although not for the blessedness of which He has just been saying,
Blessed shall you be if you do these things? He speaks not so of them all; for He knows
whom He has chosen to be associated with Himself in blessedness. Of such he is not one,
who ate His bread in order that he might lift up his heel upon Him. The bread they ate was
the Lord Himself; he ate the Lord's bread in enmity to the Lord: they ate life, and he
punishment. For he that eats unworthily, says the apostle, eats judgment unto himself.
1 Corinthians 11:29 From this time, Christ adds, I tell you before it come; that when it has
come to pass, you may believe that I am He: that is, I am He of whom the Scripture that
preceded has just said, He that eats bread with me, shall lift up his heel upon me.
2. He then proceeds to say: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receives whomsoever I
send, receives me; and he that receives me, receives Him that sent me. Did He mean us to
understand that there is as little distance between one sent by Him, and Himself, as there is
between Himself and God the Father? If we take it in this way, I know not what
measurements of distance (which may God forbid!) we shall be adopting, in the Arian
fashion. For they, when they hear or read these words of the Gospel, have immediate recourse
to their dogmatic measurements, whereby they ascend not to life, but fall headlong into death.
For they straightway say: The Son's messenger stands at the same relative distance from the
Son, as expressed in the words, He that receives whomsoever I send, receives me, as that in
which the Son Himself stands from the Father, when He said, He that receives me, receives
Him that sent me. But if you say so, you forget, heretic, your measurements. For if, because
of these words of the Lord, you put the Son at as great a distance from the Father as the
messenger [apostle] from the Son, where do you purpose to place the Holy Spirit? Has it
escaped you, that you are wont to place Him after the Son? He will therefore come in
between the messenger and the Son; and much greater, then, will be the distance between the
Son and His messenger, than between the Father and His Son. Or perhaps, to preserve that
distinction between the Son and His messenger, and between the Father and His Son, at their
equality of distance, will the Holy Spirit be equal to the Son? But as little will you allow this.
And where, then, do ye think of placing Him, if you place the Son as far beneath the Father,
as you place the messenger beneath the Son? Restrain, therefore, your foolhardy

presumption; and do not be seeking to find in these words the same distance between the Son
and His messenger as between the Father and His Son. But listen rather to the Son Himself,
when He says, I and my Father are one. For there the Truth has left you no shadow of
distance between the Begetter and the Only-begotten; there Christ Himself has erased your
measurements, and the rock has broken your staircase to pieces.
3. But now that the heretical slander has been disposed of, in what sense are we to understand
these words of the Lord: He that receives whomsoever I send, receives me; and he that
receives me, receives Him that sent me? For if we were inclined to understand the words, He
that receives me, receives Him that sent me, as expressing the oneness in nature of the Father
and the Son; the sequence from the similar arrangement of words in the other clause, He that
receives whomsoever I send, receives me, would be the unity in nature of the Son and His
messenger. And there might, indeed, be no impropriety in so understanding it, seeing that a
twofold substance belongs to the strong man, who has rejoiced to run the race; for the Word
was made flesh, that is, God became man. And accordingly He might be supposed to have
said, He that receives whomsoever I send, receives me, with reference to His human nature;
and he that receives me as God, receives Him that sent me. But in so speaking, He was not
commending the unity of nature, but the authority of the Sender in Him who is sent. Let
every one, therefore, so receive Him that is sent, that in His person he may give heed to Him
who sent Him. If, then, you look for Christ in Peter, you will find the disciple's instructor; and
if you look for the Father in the Son, you will find the Begetter of the Only-begotten: and so
in Him who is sent, you are not mistaken in receiving the Sender. What follows in the Gospel
cannot be compressed within the shortness of the time remaining. And therefore, dearly
beloved, let what has been said, if thought sufficient, be received in a healthful way, as
pasture for the holy sheep; and if it is somewhat scanty, let it be ruminated over with ardent
desire for more.

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Source. Translated by John Gibb. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7.
Edited by Philip Schaff. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888.) Revised
and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight.
<http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701059.htm>.