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| A Specimen of a Catechetical Address; And First, the Case of a Catechumen with Worthy Views.
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Chapter 16.—A Specimen of a Catechetical Address; And
First, the Case of a Catechumen with Worthy Views.
24. Nevertheless, however that may
be, let us here suppose that some one has come to us who desires to
be made a Christian, and who belongs indeed to the order of private
persons,1428
and yet
not to the class of rustics, but to that of the city-bred, such as
those whom you cannot fail to come across in numbers in Carthage.
Let us also suppose that, on being asked whether the inducement
leading him to desire to be a Christian is any advantage looked for
in the present life, or the rest which is hoped for after this
life, he has answered that his inducement has been the rest that is
yet to come. Then perchance such a person might be instructed by us
in some such strain of address as the following: “Thanks be
to God, my brother; cordially do I wish you joy, and I am glad on
your account that, amid all the storms of this world, which are at
once so great and so dangerous, you have bethought yourself of some
true and certain security. For even in this life men go in quest of
rest and security at the cost of heavy labors, but they fail to
find such in consequence of their wicked lusts. For their thought
is to find rest in things which are unquiet, and which endure not.
And these objects, inasmuch as they are withdrawn from them and
pass away in the course of time, agitate them by fears and griefs,
and suffer them not to enjoy tranquillity. For if it be that a man
seeks to find his rest in wealth, he is rendered proud rather than
at ease. Do we not see how many have lost their riches on a
sudden,—how many, too, have been undone by reason of them, either
as they have been coveting to possess them, or as they have been
borne down and despoiled of them by others more covetous than
themselves? And even should they remain with the man all his life
long, and never leave their lover, yet would he himself (have to)
leave them at his death. For of what measure is the life of man,
even if he lives to old age? Or when men desire for themselves old
age, what else do they really desire but long infirmity? So, too,
with the honors of this world,—what are they but empty pride and
vanity, and peril of ruin? For holy Scripture speaks in this wise:
‘All flesh is grass, and the glory of man is as the flower of
grass. The grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away; but
the word of the Lord endureth for ever.’1429
Consequently, if any man longs for
true rest and true felicity, he ought to lift his hope off things
which are mortal and transitory, and fix it on the word of the
Lord; so that, cleaving to that which endures for ever, he may
himself together with it endure for ever.
25. “There are also other men who
neither crave to be rich nor go about seeking the vain pomps of
honors, but who nevertheless are minded to find their pleasure and
rest in dainty meats, and in fornications, and in those theatres
and spectacles which are at their disposal in great cities for
nothing. But it fares with these, too, in the same way; or they
waste their small means in luxury, and subsequently, under pressure
of want, break out into thefts and burglaries, and at times even
into highway robberies, and so they are suddenly filled with fears
both numerous and great; and men who a little before were singing
in the house of revelry, are now dreaming of the sorrows of the
prison. Moreover, in their eager devotion to the public spectacles,
they come to resemble demons, as they incite men by their cries to
wound each other, and instigate those who have done them no hurt to
engage in furious contests with each other, while they seek to
please an insane people. And if they perceive any such to be
peaceably disposed, they straightway hate them and persecute them,
and raise an outcry, asking that they should be beaten with clubs,
as if they had been in collusion to cheat them; and this iniquity
they force even the judge, who is the (appointed) avenger of
iniquities, to perpetrate. On the other hand, if they observe such
men exerting themselves in horrid hostilities against each other,
whether they be those who are called sintœ,1430
| 1430 Reading sive sintœ qui
appellantur, for which there occur such varieties of reading as
these: sint athletæ qui appellantur = those who are called
athletes; or sint æqui appellantur; or simply sint qui
appellantur = whatever name they bear, whether actors, etc. The
term sintæ, borrowed from the Greek Σίνται = devourers,
spoilers, may have been a word in common use among the
Africans, as the Benedictine editors suggest, for designating some
sort of coarse characters. | or
theatrical actors and players,1431
| 1431 Thymelici, strictly = the musicians belonging to the
thymele, or orchestra. | or charioteers, or
hunters,—those wretched men whom they engage in conflicts and
struggles, not only men with men, but even men with beasts,—then
the fiercer the fury with which they perceive these unhappy
creatures rage against each other, the better they like them, and
the greater the enjoyment they have in them; and they favor them
when thus excited,1432
| 1432 Reading incitatis favent,
for which some mss. give incitati =
excited themselves, they favor them; and others have
incitantes = exciting them, they favor them. | and by so favoring them they
excite them all the more, the spectators themselves striving more
madly with each other, as they espouse the cause of different
combatants, than is the case even with those very men whose madness
they madly provoke, while at the same time they also long to be
spectators of the same in their mad frenzy.1433
| 1433 Compare a passage in the
Confessions, vi. 13. | How then can that mind keep the
soundness of peace which feeds on strifes and contentions? For just
as is the food which is received, such is the health which results.
In fine, although mad pleasures are no pleasures, nevertheless let
these things be taken as they are, and it still remains the case
that, whatever their nature may be, and whatever the measure of
enjoyment yielded by the boasts of riches, and the inflation of
honors, and the spendthrift pleasures of the taverns, and the
contests of the theatres, and the impurity of fornications, and the
pruriency of the baths, they are all things of which one
little
fever deprives us, while, even from those who still survive, it
takes away the whole false happiness of their life. Then there
remains only a void and wounded conscience, destined to apprehend
that God as a Judge whom it refused to have as a Father, and
destined also to find a severe Lord in Him whom it scorned to seek
and love as a tender Father. But thou, inasmuch as thou seekest
that true rest which is promised to Christians after this life,
wilt taste the same sweet and pleasant rest even here among the
bitterest troubles of this life, if thou continuest to love the
commandments of Him who hath promised the same. For quickly wilt
thou feel that the fruits of righteousness are sweeter than those
of unrighteousness, and that a man finds a more genuine and
pleasurable joy in the possession of a good conscience in the midst
of troubles than in that of an evil conscience in the midst of
delights. For thou hast not come to be united to the Church of God
with the idea of seeking from it any temporal
advantage.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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