Chapter 10.—Of the Attainment of Cheerfulness in the Duty of Catechising, and of Various Causes Producing Weariness in the Catechumen.

14. At this point you perhaps desiderate some example of the kind of discourse intended, so that I may show you by an actual instance how the things which I have recommended are to be done. This indeed I shall do, so far as by God’s help I shall be able. But before proceeding to that, it is my duty, in consistency with what I have promised, to speak of the acquisition of the cheerfulness (to which I have alluded). For as regards the matter of the rules in accordance with which your discourse should be set forth, in the case of the catechetical instruction of a person who comes with the express view of being made a Christian, I have already made good, as far as has appeared sufficient, the promise which I made. And surely I am under no obligation at the same time to do myself in this volume that which I enjoin as the right thing to be done. Consequently, if I do that, it will have the value of an overplus. But how can the overplus be super-added by me before I have filled up the measure of what is due? Besides, one thing which I have heard you make the subject of your complaint above all others, is the fact that your discourse seemed to yourself to be poor and spiritless when you were instructing any one in the Christian name. Now this, I know, results not so much from want of matter to say, with which I am well aware you are sufficiently provided and furnished, or from poverty of speech itself, as rather from weariness of mind. And that may spring either from the cause of which I have already spoken, namely, the fact that our intelligence is better pleased and more thoroughly arrested by that which we perceive in silence in the mind, and that we have no inclination to have our attention called off from it to a noise of words coming far short of representing it; or from the circumstance that even when discourse is pleasant, we have more delight in hearing or reading things which have been expressed in a superior manner, and which are set forth without any care or anxiety on our part, than in putting together, with a view to the comprehension of others, words suddenly conceived, and leaving it an uncertain issue, on the one hand, whether such terms occur to us as adequately represent the sense, and on the other, whether they be accepted in such a manner as to profit; or yet again, from the consideration that, in consequence of their being now thoroughly familiar to ourselves, and no longer necessary to our own advancement, it becomes irksome to us to be recurring very frequently to those matters which are urged upon the uninstructed, and our mind, as being by this time pretty well matured, moves with no manner of pleasure in the circle of subjects so well-worn, and, as it were, so childish. A sense of weariness is also induced upon the speaker when he has a hearer who remains unmoved, either in that he is actually not stirred by any feeling, or in that he does not indicate by any motion of the body that he understands or that he is pleased with what is said.62    The sentence, “either in that he is actually not stirred…by what is said,” is omitted in many mss. Not that it is a becoming disposition in us to be greedy of the praises of men, but that the things which we minister are of God; and the more we love those to whom we discourse, the more desirous are we that they should be pleased with the matters which are held forth for their salvation: so that if we do not succeed in this, we are pained, and we are weakened, and become broken-spirited in the midst of our course, as if we were wasting our efforts to no purpose. Sometimes, too, when we are drawn off from some matter which we are desirous to go on with, and the transaction of which was a pleasure to us, or appeared to be more than usually needful, and when we are compelled, either by the command of a person whom we are unwilling to offend, or by the importunity of some parties that we find it impossible to get rid of, to instruct any one catechetically, in such circumstances we approach a duty for which great calmness is indispensable with minds already perturbed, and grieving at once that we are not permitted to keep that order which we desire to observe in our actions, and that we cannot possibly be competent for all things; and thus out of very heaviness our discourse as it advances is less of an attraction, because, starting from the arid soil of dejection, it goes on less flowingly. Sometimes, too, sadness has taken possession of our heart in consequence of some offense or other, and at that very time we are addressed thus: “Come, speak with this person; he desires to become a Christian.” For they who thus address us do it in ignorance of the hidden trouble which is consuming us within. So it happens that, if they are not the persons to whom it befits us to open up our feelings, we undertake with no sense of pleasure what they desire; and then, certainly, the discourse will be languid and unenjoyable which is transmitted through the agitated and fuming channel of a heart in that condition. Consequently, seeing there are so many causes serving to cloud the calm serenity of our minds, in accordance with God’s will we must seek remedies for them, such as may bring us relief from these feelings of heaviness, and help us to rejoice in fervor of spirit, and to be jocund in the tranquility of a good work. “For God loveth a cheerful giver.”63    2 Cor. ix. 7

15. Now if the cause of our sadness lies in the circumstance that our hearer does not apprehend what we mean, so that we have to come down in a certain fashion from the elevation of our own conceptions, and are under the necessity of dwelling long in the tedious processes of syllables which come far beneath the standard of our ideas, and have anxiously to consider how that which we ourselves take in with a most rapid draught of mental apprehension is to be given forth by the mouth of flesh in the long and perplexed intricacies of its method of enunciation; and if the great dissimilarity thus felt (between our utterance and our thought) makes it distasteful to us to speak, and a pleasure to us to keep silence, then let us ponder what has been set before us by Him who has “showed us an example that we should follow His steps.”64    1 Pet. ii. 21 For however much our articulate speech may differ from the vivacity of our intelligence, much greater is the difference of the flesh of mortality from the equality of God. And, neverless, “although He was in the same form, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant,”—and so on down to the words “the death of the cross.”65    Phil. ii. 17. The form in which the quotation is given above, with the omission of the intermediate clauses, is due probably to the copyist, and not to Augustin himself. The words left out are given thus in the Serm. XLVII on Ezekiel xxxiv.: “Being made in the likeness of men, and being found in the fashion of a man: He humbled Himself, being made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” [See R.V.] What is the explanation of this but that He made Himself “weak to the weak, in order that He might gain the weak?”66    Cf. 1 Cor. ix. 22 Listen to His follower as he expresses himself also in another place to this effect: “For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that He died for all.”67    2 Cor. v. 13, 14 And how, indeed, should one be ready to be spent for their souls,68    Cf. 2 Cor. xii. 15 if he should find it irksome to him to bend himself to their ears? For this reason, therefore, He became a little child in the midst of us, (and) like a nurse cherishing her children.69    Cf. 1 Thess. ii. 7 For is it a pleasure to lisp shortened and broken words, unless love invites us? And yet men desire to have infants to whom they have to do that kind of service; and it is a sweeter thing to a mother to put small morsels of masticated food into her little son’s mouth, than to eat up and devour larger pieces herself. In like manner, accordingly, let not the thought of the hen70    Illius gallinœ,—in reference to Matt. xxiii. 37 recede from your heart, who covers her tender brood with her drooping feathers, and with broken voice calls her chirping young ones to her, while they that turn away from her fostering wings in their pride become a prey to birds. For if intelligence brings delights in its purest recesses, it should also be a delight to us to have an intelligent understanding of the manner in which charity, the more complaisantly it descends to the lowest objects, finds its way back, with all the greater vigor to those that are most secret, along the course of a good conscience which witnesses that it has sought nothing from those to whom it has descended except their everlasting salvation.

CAPUT X.

14. Jam de hilaritate comparanda. Causae sex taedium afferentes catechizanti. Remedium contra primam causam taedii. Hic tu fortasse exemplum aliquod sermonis desideras, ut ipso tibi opere ostendam quomodo facienda sint ista quae monui. Quod quidem faciam, quantum Domino adjuvante potuero: sed prius de illa hilaritate comparanda, quod pollicitus sum, dicere debeo. Jam enim de ipsis praeceptis explicandi sermonis, in catechizando eo qui sic venit ut christianus fiat, quantum satis visum est, quod promiseram exsolvi. Indebitum quippe est, ut 0321 etiam ipse faciam in hoc volumine, quod fieri oportere praecipio. Si ergo fecero, ad cumulum valebit: cumulus autem quo pacto a me superfundi potest, antequam mensuram debiti explevero? Neque enim te maxime conqueri audivi, nisi quod tibi sermo tuus vilis abjectusque videretur, cum aliquem christiano nomine imbueres. Hoc autem scio, non tam rerum quae dicendae sunt, quibus te satis novi paratum et instructum, neque ipsius locutionis inopia, sed animi taedio fieri; vel illa causa quam dixi, quia magis nos delectat et tenet, quod in silentio mente cernimus, nec inde volumus avocari ad verborum longe disparem strepitum; vel quia etiam cum sermo jucundus est, magis nos libet audire aut legere quae melius dicta sunt, et quae sine nostra cura et sollicitudine promuntur, quam ad alienum sensum repentina verba coaptare incerto exitu, sive utrum occurrant pro sententia, sive utrum accipiantur utiliter; vel quia illa quae rudibus insinuantur, eo quod nobis notissima sunt, et provectui nostro jam non necessaria, piget ad ea saepissime redire, nec in eis tam usitatis et tanquam infantilibus cum aliqua voluptate jam grandiusculus animus graditur. Facit etiam loquenti taedium auditor [immobilis vel quia non movetur affectu, vel quia nullo motu corporis indicat se intelligere vel sibi placere quae dicuntur ]: non quia humanae laudis nos esse avidos decet, sed quia ea quae ministramus Dei sunt; et quanto magis diligimus eos quibus loquimur, tanto magis eis cupimus ut placeant quae ad eorum porriguntur salutem: quod si non succedit, contristamur, et in ipso cursu debilitamur et frangimur, quasi frustra operam conteramus. Nonnunquam etiam cum avertimur ab aliqua re quam desideramus agere, et cujus actio aut delectabat nos, aut magis nobis necessaria videbatur, et cogimur aut jussu ejus quem offendere nolumus, aut aliquorum inevitabili instantia catechizare aliquem; jam conturbati accedimus ad negotium, cui magna tranquillitate opus est, dolentes quod neque ordinem actionum nobis conceditur tenere quem volumus, nec sufficere omnibus possumus: atque ita ex ipsa tristitia sermo procedens minus gratus est, quia de ariditate moestitiae minus exuberat. Aliquando item ex aliquo scandalo moeror pectus obsedit , et tunc nobis dicitur, Veni, loquere huic; christianus vult fieri. Dicitur enim ab ignorantibus quid nos clausum intus exurat: quibus si affectum nostrum aperire non oportet, suscipimus ingratius quod volunt ; et profecto languidus et insuavis ille sermo erit per venam cordis aestuantem fumantemque trajectus. Tot igitur ex causis, quaelibet earum serenitatem nostrae mentis obnubilet, secundum Deum sunt quaerenda remedia, quibus relaxetur illa contractio, et fervore spiritus exsultemus et jucundemur in tranquillitate boni operis. 0322 Hilarem enim datorem diligit Deus (II Cor. IX, 7).

15. Si enim causa illa contristat, quod intellectum nostrum auditor non capit, a cujus cacumine quodam modo descendentes cogimur in syllabarum longe infra distantium tarditate demorari, et curam gerimus quemadmodum longis et perplexis anfractibus procedat ex ore carnis, quod celerrimo haustu mentis imbibitur, et quia multum dissimiliter exit, taedet loqui, et libet tacere; cogitemus quid nobis praerogatum sit ab illo qui demonstravit nobis exemplum, ut sequamur vestigia ejus (I Petr. II, 21). Quantumvis enim differat articulata vox nostra ab intelligentiae nostrae vivacitate, longe differentior est mortalitas carnis ab aequalitate Dei. Et tamen cum in eadem forma esset, semetipsum exinanivit formam servi accipiens, etc., usque ad mortem crucis (Philipp. II, 6-8). Quam ob causam, nisi quia factus est infirmis infirmus, ut infirmos lucrificaret (I Cor. IX, 22)? Audi ejus imitatorem alibi etiam dicentem: Sive enim mente excessimus, Deo; sive temperantes sumus, vobis. Charitas enim Christi compellit nos, judicantes hoc, quia unus pro omnibus mortuus est (II Cor. V, 13 et 14). Quomodo enim paratus esset impendi pro animabus eorum (Id. XII, 15), si eum pigeret inclinari ad aures eorum? Hinc ergo factus est parvulus in medio nostrum, tanquam nutrix fovens filios suos (I Thess. II, 7). Num enim delectat, nisi amor invitet, decurtata et mutilata verba immurmurare? Et tamen optant homines habere infantes, quibus id exhibeant: et suavius est matri minuta mansa inspuere parvulo filio, quam ipsam mandere ac devorare grandiora. Non ergo recedat de pectore etiam cogitatio gallinae illius, quae languidulis plumis teneros fetus operit, et susurrantes pullos confracta voce advocat; cujus blandas alas refugientes superbi, praeda fiunt alitibus (Matth. XXIII, 37). Si enim intellectus delectat in penetralibus sincerissimis, hoc etiam intelligere delectat, quomodo charitas, quanto officiosius descendit in infima, tanto robustius recurrit in intima per bonam conscientiam nihil quaerendi ab eis ad quos descendit, praeter eorum sempiternam salutem.