Augustine of Hippo: Selected Writings
INTRODUCTION
which unifies the heart, making it whole. Maturity in freedom is reached by the authentic human person who is mindful of God, understanding and loving Him. In making man to be "toward" His own Image, God who is Love intended that man should image that love, the love uniting the Three.
If the true freedom of the mature person depends both on willing according to truth and on loving what he wills, the deeper one's participation in God, the greater one's freedom. To be truly free by oneself in isolation from others is an impossible metaphysical task in any order—before or after Adam's sin. Adam, who knew he was both creature and friend of God, was asked to keep his freedom by way of humility, an abiding in truth. When Adam withdrew from truth, he defied his metaphysical status as participated being, participated truth, participated freedom. On his own he sought an absolute independence. Slavery by way of pride, which is untruth, became the lot of his heirs, with free will a diminished power. Man continued to desire the good with his will and was able to choose to sin, but unable of himself to act righteously for eternal life.
To frée man for loving God there came one who humbled Himself and became obedient even unto death. Just as creation was a Trinitarian act, so was conversion or salvation. "It is only from God the Father, through Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, that men have the love of God through which they come to God."¢+ That is why mature freedom cannot be gained without Christ, who, as Mediator, reorients man to God. The Father "draws" man to Him by showing Christ His Son, Wisdom Incarnate, the generous healer of souls, the Truth that makes man free. The more conscious the person becomes that Christ is Incarnate
Love, the more spontaneously the will responds to His attraction. The law of pleasure that rules the physiological phases of life is not altogether absent from the psychological plane. If Grace is a participation in the divine nature, does it not bring with it divine tendencies, a delight in the Lord?
Grace makes it not difficult to do what one ought to do. If the choice of evil is a deviation from the will's natural tendency to the good, the choice of the good is the continuation of creation in harmony with the wisdom of God. For this, man opens himself to
64. Augustine, Against Julian, IV.3.33.