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PROLOGUE OU ARE AWARE, my holy people,l that our normal practice is to expound in discourses2 upon the Gospel according to John in the regular sequence of its readings . But because there has now been interposed the solemnity of the holy days during which it is necessary that specific readings from the Gospel be rehearsed, and as these are repeated every year so that there cannot be others,3 that sequence which we had taken up has of necessity for a little while been interrupted , not disrupted. (2) But when I was pondering what I might discuss with you from the Scriptures throughout this week that was consonant with the joyousness of the present days and, as far as the Lord deign to bestow, something that could be finished in seven or eight days, the Epistle of the blessed John occurred to me: so that in expounding the Epistle of him whose Gospel4 we interrupted for a little while, we would not abandon him, especially since in this very Epistle, quite sweet to all for whom the heart's palate is healthy, where the bread of God has a good taste, and quite worthy of being spoken of in the Church of God, love is above all else commended. He has spoken many words and almost all are about love.5 He who has in himself that of which 1. On the use of an abstract substantive as subject in the place of a vocative, see Tr in Ev 1.1, note 2 (FOTC 78.41). 2. On the technical meaning in Christian Latin of tractatus and tractare as a sermon or homily expounding a scriptural text, see FOTC 78.31-32. 3. See the introduction where the order of the readings for Easter Week and the time of delivery of these sermons are discussed. 4. Augustine considers John the Apostle, the Evangelist, the writer of the three epistles, the writer of the Apocalypse, and the Beloved Disciple to be one and the same person. In the De Haeresibus 30 (CCL 46.304) he mentions the Alogi as heretics who deny John'S authorship of the Gospel and the Apocalypse . He also regards the First Epistle as a true epistle and as canonical; see Tr in 10 Ep 7,5 and the introduction. 5. Some codices have in the title of these tractates, De Dilectione or De Caritate , On Love. See Browne, LFC 29.1092; Dideberg, 35; and M. Comeau, "La commentaire augustinien de la 'Prima Ioannis' " in Augustinus Magister (Paris, 1954) !.l61. 119 120 ST. AUGUSTINE he is to hear necessarily rejoices at what he hears. For so will this reading be for that person as is oil upon a flame; if there is something to be nourished, it is nourished, and it grows and endures. So too, for some it ought to be just as a flame to kindling wood, so that ifit was not already ablaze, when discourse is added, it may be set afire. For in some [the fire] already there is nourished; in some a fire is set ablaze if there were none, in order that we all may rejoice in one love. But where love is, there is peace; and where humility is, there is love. (3) Now let us hear him. And in regard to his words, let us speak to you that you may understand well what the Lord suggests . ...

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