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| He Entreats God for Her Sins, and Admonishes His Readers to Remember Her Piously.
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Chapter XIII.—He Entreats God for
Her Sins, and Admonishes His Readers to Remember Her
Piously.
34. But,—my heart being now healed of that
wound, in so far as it could be convicted of a carnal790
affection,—I pour out unto Thee, O our God, on behalf of that
Thine handmaid, tears of a far different sort, even that which
flows from a spirit broken by the thoughts of the dangers of every
soul that dieth in Adam. And although she, having been “made
alive” in Christ791
even before she was freed from the
flesh had so lived as to praise Thy name both by her faith and
conversation, yet dare I not say792
| 792 For to have done so would have been to go
perilously near to the heresy of the Pelagians, who laid claim to
the possibility of attaining perfection in this life by the power
of free-will, and without the assistance of divine grace; and went
even so far, he tells us (Ep. clxxvi. 2), as to say that
those who had so attained need not utter the petition for
forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer,—ut ei non sit jam
necessarium dicere “Dimitte nobis debita nostra.” Those in
our own day who enunciate perfectionist theories,— though, it is
true, not denying the grace of God as did these,—may well ponder
Augustin’s forcible words in his De Pecc. Mer. et Rem.
iii. 13: “Optandum est ut fiat, conandum est ut fiat,
supplicandum est ut fiat; non tamen quasi factum fuerit,
confitendum.” We are indeed commanded to be perfect (Matt. v.
48); and the philosophy
underlying the command is embalmed in the words of the proverb,
“Aim high, and you will strike high.” But he who lives nearest
to God will have the humility of heart which will make him ready to
confess that in His sight he is a “miserable sinner.” Some
interesting remarks on this subject will be found in Augustin’s
De Civ. Dei, xiv. 9, on the text, “If we say we have no
sin,” etc. (1 John i. 8.) On sins after baptism, see
note on next section. | that from the time Thou didst
regenerate her by baptism, no word went forth from her mouth
against Thy precepts.793
And it hath been declared by Thy
Son, the Truth, that “Whosoever shall say to his brother, Thou
fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.”794
And woe even unto the praiseworthy
life of man, if, putting away mercy, Thou shouldest investigate it.
But because Thou dost not narrowly inquire after sins, we hope with
confidence to find some place of indulgence with Thee. But
whosoever recounts his true merits795
| 795 There is a passage parallel to this in his
Ep. to Sextus (cxciv. 19). “Merits” therefore would appear
to be used simply in the sense of good actions. Compare sec. 17,
above, xiii. sec. 1, below, and Ep. cv. That righteousness
is not by merit, appears from Ep. cxciv.; Ep.
clxxvii., to Innocent; and Serm.ccxciii. | to Thee, what is it that he
recounts to Thee but Thine own gifts? Oh, if men would know
themselves to be men; and that “he that glorieth” would
“glory in the Lord!”796
35. I then, O my Praise and my Life, Thou God
of my heart, putting aside for a little her good deeds, for which I
joyfully give thanks to Thee, do now beseech Thee for the sins of
my mother. Hearken unto me, through that Medicine of our wounds who
hung upon the tree, and who, sitting at Thy right hand, “maketh
intercession for us.”797
I know that she acted mercifully,
and from the heart798
forgave her debtors their debts; do
Thou also forgive her debts,799
| 799 Matt. vi. 12. Augustin here as elsewhere
applies this petition in the Lord’s Prayer to the forgiveness of
sins after baptism. He does so constantly. For example, in
his Ep. cclxv. he says: “We do not ask for those to be
forgiven which we doubt not were forgiven in baptism; but those
which, though small, are frequent, and spring from the frailty of
human nature.” Again, in his Con Ep. Parmen. ii. 10, after
using almost the same words, he points out that it is a prayer
against daily sins; and in his De Civ. Dei, xxi. 27,
where he examines the passage in relation to various erroneous
beliefs, he says it “was a daily prayer He [Christ] was
teaching, and it was certainly to disciples already justified He
was speaking. What, then, does He mean by ‘your sins’ (Matt.
vi. 14), but those sins from which not even you who are
justified and sanctified can be free?” See note on the
previous section; and also for the feeling in the early Church as
to sins after baptism, the note on i. sec. 17, above. | whatever she contracted during so
many years
since the water of salvation. Forgive her, O Lord, forgive her, I
beseech Thee; “enter not into judgment” with her.800
Let Thy
mercy be exalted above Thy justice,801
because Thy words are true, and
Thou hast promised mercy unto “the merciful;”802
which Thou gavest them to be who
wilt “have mercy” on whom Thou wilt “have mercy,” and wilt
“have compassion” on whom Thou hast had compassion.803
36. And I believe Thou hast already done that
which I ask Thee; but “accept the free-will offerings of my
mouth, O Lord.”804
For she,
when the day of her dissolution was near at hand, took no thought
to have her body sumptuously covered, or embalmed with spices; nor
did she covet a choice monument, or desire her paternal
burial-place. These things she entrusted not to us, but only
desired to have her name remembered at Thy altar, which she had
served without the omission of a single day;805
| 805 See v. sec. 17, above. | whence she knew that the holy
sacrifice was dispensed, by which the handwriting that was against
us is blotted out;806
by which the enemy was triumphed
over,807
who, summing
up our offences, and searching for something to bring against us,
found nothing in Him808
in whom we conquer. Who will
restore to Him the innocent blood? Who will repay Him the price
with which He bought us, so as to take us from Him? Unto the
sacrament of which our ransom did Thy handmaid bind her soul by the
bond of faith. Let none separate her from Thy protection. Let not
the “lion” and the “dragon”809
introduce himself by force or
fraud. For she will not reply that she owes nothing, lest she be
convicted and got the better of by the wily deceiver; but she will
answer that her “sins are forgiven”810
by Him to whom no one is able to
repay that price which He, owing nothing, laid down for
us.
37. May she therefore rest in peace with her
husband, before or after whom she married none; whom she obeyed,
with patience bringing forth fruit811
unto Thee, that she might gain him
also for Thee. And inspire, O my Lord my God, inspire Thy servants
my brethren, Thy sons my masters, who with voice and heart and
writings I serve, that so many of them as shall read these
confessions may at Thy altar remember Monica, Thy handmaid,
together with Patricius, her sometime husband, by whose flesh Thou
introducedst me into this life, in what manner I know not. May they
with pious affection be mindful of my parents in this transitory
light, of my brethren that are under Thee our Father in our
Catholic mother, and of my fellow-citizens in the eternal
Jerusalem, which the wandering of Thy people sigheth for from their
departure until their return. That so my mother’s last entreaty
to me may, through my confessions more than through my prayers, be
more abundantly fulfilled to her through the prayers of many.812
| 812 The origin of prayers for the dead dates back
probably to the close of the second century. In note 1, p. 90, we
have quoted from Tertullian’s De Corona Militis, where he
says “Oblationes pro defunctis pro natalitiis annua die
facimus.” In his De Monogamia, he speaks of a widow
praying for her departed husband, that “he might have rest, and
be a partaker in the first resurrection.” From this time a
catena of quotations from the Fathers might be given, if space
permitted, showing how, beginning with early expressions of
hope for the dead, there, in process of time, arose
prayers even for the unregenerate, until at last there was
developed purgatory on the one side, and creature-worship on the
other. That Augustin did not entertain the idea of creature-worship
will be seen from his Ep. to Maximus, xvii. 5. In his De
Dulcit. Quæst. 2 (where he discusses the whole question), he
concludes that prayer must not be made for all, because all have
not led the same life in the flesh. Still, in his Enarr. in
Ps. cviii. 17, he argues from the case of the rich man in the
parable, that the departed do certainly “have a care for us.”
Aërius, towards the close of the fourth century, objected to
prayers for the dead, chiefly on the ground (see Usher’s
Answer to a Jesuit, iii. 258) of their uselessness. In the
Church of England, as will be seen by reference to Keeling’s
Liturgicæ Britannicæ, pp. 210, 335, 339, and 341, prayers for
the dead were eliminated from the second Prayer Book; and to the
prudence of this step Palmer bears testimony in his Origines
Liturgicæ, iv. 10, justifying it on the ground that the
retaining of these prayers implied a belief in her holding the
doctrine of purgatory. Reference may be made to Epiphanius, Adv.
Hær. 75; Bishop Bull, Sermon 3; and Bingham, xv. 3,
secs. 15, 16, and xxiii. 3, sec. 13. |
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