So that you may understand that they are blind, look: they have stumbled over the mountain. I speak of the same thing so that it may not slip from your memory. Is that stone which was cut from the mountain without human hands not Christ, Who came forth from the Jewish kingdom without the involvement of a man? Did this stone not crush all earthly kingdoms, that is, all the power of idols and demons? Did this stone not grow and become a great mountain, filling the whole world (cf. Dan 2:34-35)?
Must this mountain be pointed out with a finger, as people point out the three-day moon? When people want to see the new moon, they say, “There is the moon; there it is.” If there are some who cannot reach it with their gaze and say, “Where?”, they point with the finger and indicate it so that they may see. Sometimes, out of shame lest they be thought blind, they say that they saw what they did not see.
Is this how we must point out the Church, my brethren? Is she not open? Is she not manifest? Has she not embraced all nations? Is not that being fulfilled which was promised to Abraham so many years before, that in his seed all nations would be blessed (Gen 22:18)? This was promised to one faithful man, and the world has been filled with thousands of faithful.
Behold the mountain filling the whole face of the earth, and the city of which it is said, “A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden” (Mt 5:14). But they, the Donatists, have stumbled over the mountain. When they are told, “Go up!”, they answer, “This is not the mountain. There is no mountain!” They would sooner smash their face against it than seek refuge in it.
Yesterday the prophet Isaiah was read. Whoever among you yesterday was awake not only with eyes, but also with ears, and not only with bodily ears, but also with the ears of the heart, noticed the words: “In the last days the mountain of the house of God shall be manifest, prepared on the top of the mountains” (Is 2:2). What could be as manifest as a mountain?
Yet mountains too can be unknown, because they are located in some one place on earth. Which of you knows Olympus? Likewise those who live near it do not know our Giddaba. These mountains occupy only part of the earth. Not so that mountain. It has filled the whole face of the earth, and of it it is said, “prepared on the top of the mountains.” This mountain is above the summits of all mountains. “And all nations,” says the prophet, “shall flow to it.”
Who can lose his way at this mountain? Who smashes his face against it? Who can fail to notice a city set on a mountain? But do not marvel that those who hate the brethren do not notice it. They walk in darkness and do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded their eyes. They do not see the mountain. Do not marvel: they have no eyes.
Why do they have no eyes? Because darkness has blinded them. How shall we prove it? By the fact that they hate the brethren. By the fact that, after colliding with the African brethren, they separate themselves from the whole world. For the sake of the peace of Christ, they refuse to endure those whom they revile. Yet for the sake of the supporters of Donatus, they endure those whom they condemn.
This refers to the Maximianists, a group that split from the Donatists. To preserve the appearance of unity in their own ranks, the Donatists recognized the baptism and ordination of the supporters of Maximian, while refusing this to members of the catholic Church.
Let us see, then, what follows, and let us not be in darkness. How are we not to be in darkness? By loving the brethren. How do we prove that we love the brotherly fellowship? By not breaking unity.
THEOSIS