Augustine and God's Grace

As Christians, sometimes we forget about what life would be like without Christ. Through The Confessions, Augustine helps us to remember. He helps us remember where we were and the grace it required to rescue us. Properly considered, our only response can be gratitude to Him and compassion for others.


The following is from Book X:38-40.


Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you. And see you were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you, though if they did not have their existence in you, they had no existence at all. You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.


When I shall have adhered (Psalm 72:28)to you with the whole of myself, I shall never have 'pain and toil' (Ps. 89:10), and my entire life will be full of you. You lift up the person whom you fill. But for the present, because I am not full of you, I am a burden to myself. There is a struggle between the joys over which I should be weeping and regrets at matters over which I ought to be rejoicing, and which side has the victory I do not know. There is a struggle between my regrets at my evil past and my memories of good joys, and which side as the victory I do not know. Alas, 'Lord have mercy upon me' (Ps. 30:10), wretch that I am. See, I do not hide my wounds. You are the physician, I am the patient. You are pitiful, I am the object of pity. Is not a human life on earth a trial (Job 7:1)? Who desires troubles and difficulties? You command that they should be endured, no loved. No one loves what he endures, even if he loves to be able to endure it. Although he is glad he can endure it, he would prefer that what he endures should not be there. In adversities I desire prosperity, in prosperous times, I fear adversities. Between these two is there a middle ground where human life is not a trial? Cursed are the prosperities of the world, not once but twice over, because of the fear of adversity and the corruption of success. Cursed are the adversities of the world, not once or twice, but thrice, because of the longing for prosperity, because adversity itself is hard, and because of the possibility that one's endurance may crack. Is not the human life on earth a trial in which there is no respite?


My entire hope is exclusively in your very great mercy.


But remember, our hope is in Christ:

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25)