Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vol. LVI: Augustini Epistulae Pars III

it appears that you do not possess these volumes yourself regarding the source of the biblical questions she is asking, yet I must be brief, so that I may not seem to have been silent altogether. John, while established in chains, sent his disciples so that, seeking for his own sake, he might learn through them, and, destined to be beheaded, he might teach that He must be followed whom he himself acknowledged as the master of all by his questioning. For he could not have been ignorant of the one whom he had demonstrated to those who were ignorant, and of whom he had said: He who has the bride is the bridegroom, and: Whose sandals I am not worthy to carry, and: He must increase, but I must decrease; and he had heard the Father, God, thundering: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

However, as to his saying: Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another? this can also have this meaning: I know that you are the one who has come to take away the sins of the world, but, because I am about to descend to the underworld Latin: inferi the place of the dead/underworld, I ask even this: whether you yourself are descending there, or whether it would be impious to believe this of the Son of God and you are going to send another? I desire to know this, so that I, who announced you to men on earth, may also announce you in the underworld, if perhaps you are about to come. For you are the one who has come to release the captives and to set free those who were held in chains.

The Lord, understanding his inquiry, answered with works rather than with words, and commanded that it be announced to John: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise, and—what is greater than these—that the poor have the gospel preached to them; poor either in humility or in wealth, so that there is no distance in salvation between poor and rich, but all are called equally. And what He adds: Blessed is he who shall not be scandalized in me, strikes not at John, but at his disciples, who had previously approached Him saying: Why do we and the Pharisees...