The Confessions of St. Augustine - Response by Rev. Fr. Denys Scully
The Confessions is considered a classic of the Christian Church, especially by its western branch. It was written in A.D. 397 by Augustine of Hippo, approximately ten years after his baptism into the Christian faith. Throughout The Confessions one can see clearly, that what Augustine was confessing was two things: his/our sin and God’s great grace. These two topics reverberate over and over. I find it immediately and continuously striking that Augustine seems to have these two themes dancing together throughout. Some may find this odd because when one thinks of “confession” today it is commonly in the sense of confession of his/her sin(s) only, not confession additionally of God’s mercy and grace, the latter which is also a good and holy – yes, necessary – thing. Such is the tone of Augustine in this work.
But I do not see things like this with reference to Augustine’s Confessions. They reveal the human propensity to walk away from God in sinful pride and licentiousness but, in turn, generally draw the heart to the depths of God’s greatness, urging it to sing in praise and thanksgiving because of his mercy. The Confessions certainly allow one to see into the heart and keen mind of Augustine and, no doubt he is brilliant and articulate. But the very basic, grass roots theology of God’s mercy and grace in spite of human sinfulness screams at us in page after page. This is joy. Hear Augustine – hear all liberated human souls: “Can any praise be worthy of the Lord’s majesty? How magnificent his strength! How inscrutable his wisdom! Man….bears about him the mark of death, the sign of his own sin….[But t]he thought of you stirs him so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace unless they rest in you.”[1]
As a priest in the Church, I could not help but note how in a recent re-reading of The Confessions, they might be used as a tool to assist in dealing with people who wish to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation. Under the guidance of a wise spiritual director and Confessor this text may be referred as a tool of repentance, helping the penitent mine the depths of his/her soul and life. Why? Because in it Augustine bores down to the core of human issues and sin identifying pride, conceit, curiosity and the pursuit of and giving into the passions and pleasures of the flesh in all their deception, bondage and tyranny. The penitent should see clearly in The Confessions Augustine’s exhortations to find, understand, embrace and extol the greatness and goodness of God’s grace in spite of his/her own sin(s). The Confessions may also help a person know how to make Confession him/herself, maybe even writing such out as a healing and clarifying process. The Confessions can help doubting persons see the journey of one of the keenest minds of all history as he processed his thoughts in the duplicity of his lust and pursuit of truth – through Augustine’s youthful rejection of Christianity, to Manichaeism, to all-out disillusionment and doubt of any belief system, to neo-Platonism and then to the revelation of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.
This happened to me again. Upon re-reading The Confessions I was brought ever deeper into my own identification with Augustine – with humanity – an expressed goal in his writing that was met in me in more ways than just my own acknowledgement of my sin and praise of God’s grace. For I also was born to a non-Christian father and Christian mother. I also, due to a lack of teaching, knowledge, good fatherly guidance and a giving in to youthful lusts left the Lord and his Church to the satisfaction of my father and wounding of my mother. I gave in to my “…passions, [my] loves, the unclean leanings of [my] own spirit, which drag[ged me] downward in [my] love of the world and its cares” (Bk XIII.7). But my mother’s attributes, not at all unlike those of Augustine’s mother (cp Book IX.9 et al) were one of the many facets of God’s grace to me. Not only did she have to discern how to handle my often good but sometimes selfish, controlling and ungodly father. She also prayed much for me as I struggled to find my way, as I wandered and gave into my own self-centredness and lusts. Like Augustine, I too carried a guilt and fear that was almost crippling in spite of my waywardness. And like him, by God’s grace I sought truth and eventually had a revelation of the same. I gave way to the Holy Spirit’s call to surrender and was freed from the tyranny of my guilt, fear, sin and pride – to my mother’s great joy (Bk VIII.12) but my father’s consternation. As with Augustine, I regretfully also bear the pain of hurting my mother and grieving God so. But I now also bear the light burden of Christ Jesus and his grace.
Maybe I have become too personal and have allowed myself, in this book review, to stray from normal academic protocol. Forgive me of this. For with Augustine I must confess: “O Lord, you laid your most gentle, most merciful finger on my heart and set my thoughts in order….You were my helmsman when I ran adrift, and you did not desert me as I travelled along the broad way of the world” (Bk VI.5).
[1] Saint Augustine. “Confessions I.1,” 397 A.D. as reprinted in Robert Baldick and Betty Radice, editors and R.S. Pine-Coffin, translator, Penguin Classics. Saint Augustine: Confessions. (London: Cox & Wyman Ltd, 1974), 21.
Comments