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Office Of Readings | Week 14, Tuesday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Discourses Of Saint Augustine On The Psalms | Psalm 32
‘Those who are outside the fold are our brothers, whether they like it or not.’
‘Whether they like it or not, those who are outside the Church are our brothers’
Saint Augustine appeals for Christian unity with a characteristic blend of pastoral urgency, theological depth, and spiritual realism. Preaching on Psalm 32, Saint Augustine addresses the tensions between the Catholic Church and the schismatic Donatists of his time. Augustine’s central plea is rooted in love: a love not merely for those within the visible bounds of the Church, but also for those who remain separated — those who, despite their divisions, share the same sacraments, pray the same Our Father, and invoke the same Christ.
Historical And Ecclesial Context
Augustine preached this sermon amid the Donatist controversy, a fourth-century schism that arose after the persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian. The Donatists insisted on the absolute purity of the Church and rejected the validity of sacraments administered by clergy who had lapsed under persecution. They also practised rebaptism, claiming that those baptised outside their sect lacked the grace of the true Church.
Augustine’s response was both theological and pastoral. He held firmly that the sacraments derive their efficacy not from the holiness of the minister but from Christ himself. Hence, baptism — even when performed outside full ecclesial communion — remains valid. Augustine’s use of Psalm 32 becomes a call not to division, but to reconciliation: ‘Say to them: you are our brothers.’
This is not merely conciliatory language; it reflects his theology of the Church as the Body of Christ. Though divided in discipline or doctrine, those who confess the Credo, invoke Christ, and pray the Our Father are not strangers — they are wounded members of the same Body.
Theological Themes
At the heart of this sermon lies Augustine’s vision of the Church: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, yet always in need of renewal and reconciliation. His theology resists any temptation to write off those in error or separation. Instead, he insists that shared baptism and the name of the Father establish a real, if imperfect, communion.
This generous Catholic ecclesiology anticipates the later developments of Vatican II, which would affirm that ‘many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church’ (Lumen Gentium, 8). Augustine’s concern is deeply pastoral: he knows that division among Christians wounds the Body of Christ and weakens its witness in the world. He urges the faithful not to grow cold or contemptuous toward those separated from the Church, but to love them into unity.
Moreover, Augustine’s argument is sacramental. His emphasis that schismatics ‘celebrate the same sacraments as we, not indeed with us, but still the same’ reflects his belief in the enduring power of grace even when ecclesial bonds are broken. By recognising the baptism of others, Catholics are in fact affirming their fraternity — you are our brothers.
Scriptural Resonance And Spiritual Application
Augustine’s homily is not dry polemic; it is suffused with scriptural depth and spiritual fervour. His use of the Our Father is especially moving: ‘They will only cease to be our brothers when they no longer say: “Our Father.”’ Here, the prayer becomes more than a formula — it becomes the bond of shared sonship and shared hope.
This line anticipates the ecumenical insight that Christians who call on the same Lord cannot be utterly foreign to one another. The implication is that unity is not merely institutional but spiritual. Augustine urges his hearers to avoid a Pharisaic contempt for those in error and to remember that we are all sinners, dependent on grace.
His plea that ‘we should grieve over them as over our brothers’ echoes Christ’s parable of the lost sheep. The faithful are not called to withdraw into superiority but to reach out in tears and prayer. Augustine’s realism — ‘They may say, “Leave us alone,” but we have everything to do with them’ — is rooted in Christ’s unifying love and the indivisible nature of his Body.
Jesus Christ Today
Augustine’s homily remains deeply relevant in our fragmented Christian landscape. His words challenge both triumphalism and indifference. In an age when many Christians are divided by history, doctrine, or misunderstanding, Augustine’s call to charity and recognition of a shared baptism is prophetic.
The Catholic Church today, particularly since the Second Vatican Council, has taken up Augustine’s spirit. In recognising Protestant and Orthodox baptisms, and in entering into sincere ecumenical dialogue, the Church continues to say, ‘You are our brothers.’ This reading challenges us not merely to accept this truth in theory, but to live it: in prayer, dialogue, humility, and shared service of the Gospel.
Augustine’s emphasis on shared sacraments, shared prayer, and shared hope is a model for Christian unity. His insistence that even those outside full communion ‘celebrate the same sacraments… not indeed with us, but still the same,’ provides a basis for mutual respect and a platform for healing.
A Reading From The Discourses Of Saint Augustine On The Psalms | Psalm 32
We entreat you, brothers, as earnestly as we are able, to have charity, not only for one another, but also for those who are outside the Church. Of these some are still pagans, who have not yet made an act of faith in Christ. Others are separated, insofar as they are joined with us in professing faith in Christ, our head, but are yet divided from the unity of his body. My friends, we must grieve over these as over our brothers; and they will only cease to be so when they no longer say our Father.
The prophet refers to some men saying: When they say to you: You are not our brothers, you are to tell them: You are our brothers. Consider whom he intended by these words. Were they the pagans? Hardly; for nowhere either in Scripture or in our traditional manner of speaking do we find them called our brothers. Nor could it refer to the Jews, who do not believe in Christ. Read Saint Paul and you will see that when he speaks of ‘brothers,’ without any qualification, he refers always to Christians. For example, he says: Why do you judge your brother or why do you despise your brother? And again: You perform iniquity and common fraud, and this against your brothers.
Those then who tell us: You are not our brothers, are saying that we are pagans. That is why they want to baptize us again, claiming that we do not have what they can give. Hence their error of denying that we are their brothers. Why then did the prophet tell us: Say to them: You are our brothers? It is because we acknowledge in them that which we do not repeat. By not recognising our baptism, they deny that we are their brothers; on the other hand, when we do not repeat their baptism but acknowledge it to be our own, we are saying to them: You are our brothers.
If they say, ‘Why do you seek us? What do you want of us?’ we should reply: You are our brothers. They may say, ‘Leave us alone. We have nothing to do with you.’ But we have everything to do with you, for we are one in our belief in Christ; and so we should be in one body, under one head.
And so, dear brothers, we entreat you on their behalf, in the name of the very source of our love, by whose milk we are nourished, and whose bread is our strength, in the name of Christ our Lord and his gentle love. For it is time now for us to show them great love and abundant compassion by praying to God for them. May he one day give them a clear mind to repent and to realise that they have nothing now but the sickness of their hatred, and the stronger they think they are, the weaker they become. We entreat you then to pray for them, for they are weak, given to the wisdom of the flesh, to fleshly and carnal things, but yet they are our brothers. They celebrate the same sacraments as we, not indeed with us, but still the same. They respond with the same Amen, not with us, but still the same. And so pour out your hearts for them in prayer to God.
Prayer With Jesus For Christian Unity
Heavenly Father,
you have made us your children through the waters of baptism
and sealed us with the name of your Son.
Though we are divided in many ways,
we are united in calling upon you as “Our Father.”
Grant us the grace to recognise our brothers and sisters in Christ,
even when we are separated by doctrine, history, or misunderstanding.
May our love be patient and constant,
our hearts generous in prayer,
our witness marked by humility and truth.
As Saint Augustine taught,
may we grieve for divisions within the Body of Christ
and labour, not in pride but in love,
for the healing of your Church.
We ask this through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever. Amen.
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Donatists – A schismatic group in North Africa who, in the wake of persecution, rejected the validity of sacraments administered by clergy who had lapsed under pressure. Augustine opposed their claim that only the morally pure could validly administer the sacraments.
Ecumenism – The movement towards unity among all Christians. The Second Vatican Council reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s commitment to dialogue and reconciliation with separated Christian communities.
Sacrament – A visible sign of God’s grace. Baptism and the Eucharist are examples. Augustine teaches that sacraments, when validly conferred, remain efficacious even outside full Church communion.
Rebaptism – The practice (rejected by the Catholic Church) of baptizing someone again who has already received valid baptism. Donatists required this of converts from the Catholic Church.
Our Father – The Lord’s Prayer, given by Jesus to his disciples (Matthew 6:9–13). For Augustine, praying this prayer is a powerful sign of Christian unity.
Body of Christ – A scriptural image (see 1 Corinthians 12) for the Church, emphasising both its unity and diversity under the headship of Christ.
Quaternity – Augustine warns against implying a fourth person in the Godhead. Christ is fully God and fully man, but remains one divine person. This term came up in previous readings and applies more broadly to Trinitarian theology.
When our hearts are pure, our vision becomes clear. We are able to recognize God’s hand at work, His love in action, and His guidance in our lives. We see the beauty of His creation, the divine purpose in every circumstance, and the ways in which God is leading us on the path of righteousness [ … ]
Saint Isaac of Stella reflects on the deep unity between Christ, Mary, the Church, and the individual Christian. His central conviction is that God’s saving work is one, though it is shared in different ways. What is true of Christ is extended to those who belong to him; what is true of Mary is reflected in the Church; and what is true of the Church touches each believer [ … ]
Sometimes, when I read my Bible, I pause in the reading and say to myself: ‘This bit’s real.’ It would be fair to say, I have issues with Mary, because, contrary to what we are taught to say, Mary isn’t my mother. Rather: Mum is. One bit of the Bible-text says this: And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for people were saying, “He is beside himself.” … And his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting about him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around on those who sat about him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Mark 3: 21; 31-35.) Here she comes. She is in considerable distress. I can imagine that. I can relate to that. To save her boy from whatever he’s got himself into this time. And you’re not telling me there isn’t something inside that. Her boy is beside himself. Radical. Radicalized. Radicalizing. A misunderstood word. /ˈradɪk(ə)l/ adjective & noun. 1 Forming the root, basis, or foundation; original, primary. 2a Inherent in the nature of a thing or person; fundamental. b Of action, change, an idea: going to the root or origin; far-reaching, thorough. c Advocating thorough or far-reaching change. d Characterized by departure from tradition; progressive; unorthodox. ‘He has a demon! And he is mad!’ – thus ‘the Jews’. (e.g. John 10: 20.) Come home! It’s all she wants. His family want him back now. But it is an exclusive cult: there is an inside and there is an outside; and on the outside, they are not meant to understand, lest they be converted. He has defined himself as different from anything she was. Only at the end does Jesus say to his Mum – and with savage, bitter irony: ‘Woman, behold your son.’ And then he dies. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. We ask that we might find Mary in our hearts as a Yes! place for Jesus. It is also recommended that we pray to Jesus that we may be further in oneness with Mary. It is self-emptying, such that we only exist insofar as we are responsive to God’s Word. * Last term, and put-out to pasture, the old Archbishop Emeritus came over to stay for a few days and did the odd class with us. He spoke of Yes! as the meaning of Mary’s virginity. And we were not very nice about him. One or two took umbrage. One or two got the hump. In a sense, his Grace, the Arch, basically wanted to move anyone he’d ever known from a high-place – a mountain – received theological ‘truth’ – to an imminent, human plane. Earthing the spiritual. Recalibrating metrics of life’s believability toward a spiritual sense of things. He might have asked the impermissible question: what happened? His Grace described it. God’s love as a cloud. This descended upon Mary – and subsumed her. Within the cloud, Mary capitulated utterly. She became only and purely a response to God’s love. As he spoke, the Arch cradled her. He carried her in his lap – in his hands. His Grace was a consecrated bishop. He was faith. He sat squat, a rounded man, hands cupped and ankles crossed, fingers interlocked, with parted thighs. Rumpled, washed, speckled. A lifetime’s skin… There could be no doubt His Grace spoke through long-term personal relationship with Mary. It was Julian went for him: ‘So are you saying Mary was a Virgin? Or are you not saying Mary was a Virgin?’ Nasty. No, it wasn’t pretty. Julian twisting his silver ring. For a moment, what Julian had said to the Arch simply failed to communicate. No, for a moment, that dumped on the air meant nothing. Then His Grace said: ‘There is a range of possible meanings we may understand in the question of Mary’s virginity. For example, there are understandings of the word virginity entailed in the action of giving birth.’ Julian said: ‘Duh! So had she had sex or hadn’t she?’ Trigger words. No, it wasn’t pretty. On that went for a little while. At length, Julian’s point seemed reluctantly conceded. Then the Arch told us a new story, an additionally human event, the more to baffle us. Controversially, he told us that Mary could not have been Joseph’s first wife, for this would not have been the way of things in the society of that time. His belief was that Joseph must have taken Mary into his household through pity. That would be normal, he said, for Joseph to bring a young, vulnerable girl, who is about to have a baby, within his protection, not meaning to enjoy with her marital relations, but through kindness. ‘And this story of the inn and stable,’ the Archbishop said, ‘it can’t have been like that really. Joseph has travelled with Mary to stay with his family, at home in Bethlehem, and they don’t want Mary in their house, for reasons which I am sure we can understand. It must have been there was considerable resistance to Mary. But Mary gives birth, and who can resist a baby? That’s what happened. It must have been. ‘I’m convinced that must have been how it happened really.’ Later that term, toward the beginning of Advent, we met boys who had been here before, in Valladolid, and now were in regular seminary. They had heard and recited verbatim all the Archbishop had said to them. Their spot-on impressions of each of the fathers were scathing. […]
