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 carnal670    Rom. viii. 7. 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 Christ671    1 Cor. xv. 22. The universalists of every age have interpreted the word “all” here so as to make salvation by Christ Jesus extend to every child of Adam. If their interpretation were true, Monica’s spirit need not have been troubled at the thought of the danger of unregenerate souls. But Augustin in his De Civ. Dei, xiii. 23, gives the import of the word: “Not that all who die in Adam shall be members of Christ—for the great majority shall be punished in eternal death,—but he uses the word ‘all’ in both clauses because, as no one dies in an animal body except in Adam, so no one is quickened a spiritual body save in Christ.” See x. sec. 68, note 1, below. 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 say672    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.673    Matt. xii. 36. 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.”674    Matt. v. 22. 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 merits675    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!”676    2 Cor. x. 17.

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.”677    Rom. viii. 34. I know that she acted mercifully, and from the heart678    Matt. xviii. 35. forgave her debtors their debts; do Thou also forgive her debts,679    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.680    Ps. cxliii. 2. Let Thy mercy be exalted above Thy justice,681    Jas. ii. 13. because Thy words are true, and Thou hast promised mercy unto “the merciful;”682    Matt. v. 7. 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.683    Rom. ix. 15.

36. And I believe Thou hast already done that which I ask Thee; but “accept the free-will offerings of my mouth, O Lord.”684    Ps. cxix. 108. 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;685    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;686    Col. ii. 14. by which the enemy was triumphed over,687    See his De Trin. xiii. 18, the passage beginning, “What then is the righteousness by which the devil was conquered?” who, summing up our offences, and searching for something to bring against us, found nothing in Him688    John xiv. 30. 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”689    Ps. xci. 13. 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”690    Matt. ix. 2. 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 fruit691    Luke viii. 15. 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.692    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.

CAPUT XIII. Orat pro matre defuncta.

34. Ego autem, jam sanato corde ab illo vulnere in quo poterat redargui carnalis affectus, fundo tibi, Deus noster, pro illa famula tua longe aliud lacrymarum genus, quod manat de concusso spiritu consideratione periculorum omnis animae quae in Adam moritur. Quanquam illa in Christo vivificata (I Cor. XV, 22), etiam nondum a carne resoluta, sic vixerit ut laudetur nomen tuum in fide moribusque ejus; non tamen audeo dicere, ex quo eam per Baptismum regenerasti, nullum verbum exisse ab ore ejus contra praeceptum tuum. Et dictum est a Veritate Filio tuo: Si quis dixerit fratri suo, Fatue, reus erit gehennae ignis (Matth. V, 22). Et vae etiam laudabili vitae hominum, si, remota misericordia, discutias eam. Quia vero non exquiris delicta vehementer, fiducialiter speramus aliquem apud te locum invenire indulgentiae . Quisquis autem tibi enumerat vera merita sua, quid tibi enumerat nisi munera tua? O si cognoscant se homines homines, et qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur! (II Cor. X, 17.)

35. Ego itaque, laus mea et vita mea, Deus cordis mei, sepositis paulisper bonis ejus actibus, pro quibus tibi gaudens gratias ago, nunc pro peccatis matris meae deprecor te; exaudi me per Medicinam vulnerum nostrorum quae pependit in ligno, et sedens ad dexteram tuam, te interpellat pro nobis (Rom. VIII, 34). Scio misericorditer operatam, et ex corde dimisisse debita debitoribus suis; dimitte illi et tu debita sua (Matth. VI, 12), si qua etiam contraxit per tot annos post aquam salutis. Dimitte, Domine, dimitte obsecro, ne intres cum ea in judicium (Psal. CXLII, 2). Superexaltet misericordia judicium (Jacobi II, 13), quoniam eloquia tua vera sunt, et promisisti misericordiam misericordibus (Matth. V, 7): quod ut essent, tu dedisti eis, qui misereberis cui misertus eris, et misericordiam praestabis cui misericors fueris (Exod. XXXIII, 19; Rom. IX, 15).

36. Et credo jam feceris quod te rogo, sed voluntaria oris mei approba, Domine (Psal. CXVIII, 108). Namque illa imminente die resolutionis suae non cogitavit suum corpus sumptuose contegi, aut condiri aromatibus, aut monumentum electum concupivit, aut curavit sepulcrum patrium; non ista mandavit nobis: sed tantummodo memoriam sui ad altare tuum fieri desideravit, cui nullius diei praetermissione servierat; unde sciret dispensari victimam sanctam, qua deletum est chirographum quod erat contrarium nobis (Coloss. II, 14), qua triumphatus est hostis computans delicta nostra, et quaerens quid objiciat, et nihil inveniens in illo in quo vincimus. Quis ei refundet innocentem sanguinem? Quis ei restituet pretium quo nos 0779 emit ut nos auferat ei ? Ad cujus pretii nostri sacramentum ligavit ancilla tua animam suam vinculo fidei. Nemo a protectione tua disrumpat eam. Non se interponat nec vi nec insidiis leo et draco: neque enim respondebit illa nihil se debere, ne convincatur et obtineatur ab accusatore caliido; sed respondebit dimissa debita sua ab eo, cui nemo reddet quod pro nobis non debens reddidit.

37. Sit ergo in pace cum viro, ante quem nulli et post quem nulli nupta est, cui servivit fructum tibi afferens cum tolerantia (Luc. VIII, 15), ut eum quoque lucraretur tibi. Et inspira, Domine meus, Deus meus , inspira servis tuis fratribus meis, filiis tuis dominis meis, quibus et voce et corde et litteris servio, ut quotquot haec legerint, meminerint ad altare 0780 tuum Monnicae famulae tuae , cum Patricio quondam ejus conjuge, per quorum carnem introduxisti me in hanc vitam, quemadmodum nescio. Meminerint cum affectu pio parentum meorum in hac luce transitoria, et fratrum meorum sub te patre in matre Catholica, et civium meorum in aeterna Jerusalem, cui suspirat peregrinatio populi tui ab exitu usque ad reditum; ut quod a me illa poposcit extremum, uberius illi praestetur in multorum orationibus per confessiones , quam per orationes meas.