The Essential Augustine (continued)
APPROACHING GOD THROUGH UNDERSTANDING 131 inward faculty, to which the bodily senses represent things external, whitherto reach the faculties of beasts; and thence again to the reasoning faculty, to which what is received from the senses of the body is referred to be judged. Which finding itself also to be in me a thing variable, raised itself up to its own understanding, and drew away my thoughts from the power of habit, withdrawing itself from those troops of contradictory phantasms, that so it might find what that light was whereby it was bedewed, when, without all doubting, it cried out, "That the unchangeable was to be preferred to the changeable"; whence also it knew That Unchangeable, which unless it had in some way known, it had no sure ground to prefer it to the changeable. And thus with the flash of one trembling glance it arrived at THAT WHICH IS. And then I saw Thy invisible things understood by the things which are made. But I could not fix my gaze thereon; and, my infirmity being struck back, I was thrown again on my wonted habits, carrying along with me only a loving memory thereof, and a longing for what I had as it were perceived the odor of, but was not yet able to feed on.
THE WHOLE WORLD PROCLAIMS ITS MAKER*
I have gone round and have offered in His taber12. nacle a sacrifice of jubilation. We offer up a sacrifice of jubilation, we offer up a sacrifice of gladness, a sacrifice of rejoicing, a sacrifice of thanksgiving, which no words can express. But where do we offer it? In his own tabernacle, in Holy Church. And what is the sacrifice we offer? An overflowing and ineffable joy, beyond words, not to be expressed in speech. This is the sacrifice of jubilation. Where seek for it, how find it? By looking everywhere. I have gone round, says the Psalmist, and have offered in His tabernacle a sacrifice of jubilation. Let your mind roam through the whole creation; everywhere the created world will cry out to you: "God made me." Whatever pleases you in a work of art brings to your mind the artist who wrought it; much more, when you survey the universe, does the consideration of it evoke praise for its Maker. You look on the heavens; they are God's great work. You behold the earth; God made its numbers of seeds, its varieties of plants, its multitude of animals. Go round the heavens again and back to * On Psalm 26, Serm. 2, 12; trans. ACW 29, 272-273. the earth, leave out nothing; on all sides everything cries out to you of its Author; nay, the very forms of created things are as it were the voices with which they praise their Creator. But who can fathom the whole creation? Who shall set forth its praises? Who shall worthily praise heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are in them? And these indeed are visible things. Who shall worthily praise the angels, thrones, dominations, principalities, and powers? Who shall worthily praise that power which works actively within ourselves, quickening the body, giving movement to the members, bringing the senses into play, embracing so many things in the memory, distinguishing so many things by the intelligence; who can worthily praise it? Now if in considering these creatures of God human language is so at a loss, what is it to do in regard to the Creator? When words fail, can aught but triumphant music remain? I have gone round and have offered in His tabernacle a sacrifice of jubilation.
ASCENDING TO THE SUPREME TRUTH*
Now that we have discussed the advantages of au29.52. thority to a length that at present seems sufficient, let us see to what extent reason can succeed in ascending from the visible to the invisible and from the temporal to the eternal. We must not be passive and thoughtless in our contemplation of the beauty of the Heavens, the order of the heavenly bodies, the splendor of the sun, the alternation of day and night, the monthly phases of the moon, the four seasons of the year corresponding to the four fundamental elements, the great power of the seeds in producing figures and numbers, all things preserving their proper order and nature, each in its own kind. Our consideration of these phenomena must not be one of thoughtless, passing curiosity, but should become a step towards the undying and the everlasting. And so we must next consider what is that vital nature which perceives all these things and which, because it gives life to the body, is necessarily superior to the body. For no mass whatsoever, no matter how it glitters in the light, is to be valued highly, if it be without life. And any living substance is by the law of nature exalted above any nonliving substance.
The True Religion, 29.52-31.58; trans. G. R. Sheahan, S.J., De vera religione (Chapters 18-38) (St. Louis University Master's
Thesis, 1946), pp. 49-63. Used with permission.