Saint Augustine

St. Augustine in these confessions talks about the sins he committed over his life. In book 2 he describes how his heart was, and how he was seeking fleeting pleasures. He describes how he was when he was 16, and consumed by lust. As he was venturing into the world, going through puberty and exploring his body, his Dad just encouraged him to do whatever “ he was as pleased as if I had already made him a grandfather” pg 34. Although Augustine cites this, he does not use it as an excuse as to his sins. He takes full responsibility for his actions, when we could have just blamed his Dad. I find this remarkable, and is a true glimpse of his character. The fact that he knows where he is at and takes full responsibility is astounding. That isn’t something you find often. I love the fact that Augustine is humbly confessing here, giving us a seemingly accurate representation of what’s going on in his life, especially around puberty.

But then he takes an interesting turn. Showing remarkable hindsight and discernment, Augustine goes on to explain that he didn’t sin for a purpose, except that it was sin. He committed crimes for the sake of committing crimes. I believe this is the most accurate description of the main reason we sin. Why do we speed? For the adrenaline rush. Now, I don’t mean when you’re running late and you go 15-20 over to get to your destination, but that 5-7 mph over we always go. We do it simply because we shouldn’t be allowed to but are. Pg 36 of his confessions, when Augustine is talking about stealing fruit “we did so only for the pleasure we had in tasting forbidden fruit”. Augustine shows great wisdom is saying this. He did those things simply because he wasn’t allowed to, for no other reason.

Augustine then goes on to talk about how he is searching for fulfillment, and how it can only be found in Jesus. He shows great insight into sin, and our drives towards sin. I love the way he talks about it. Sin for us is just looking to fill a hole in our hearts. We don’t always sin for a purpose, just for the pleasure to see if it becomes filled. It becomes this inner battle.

Augustine also talks about what happens in his heart after he starts following Jesus. It reminds me of Paul, doing what you do not want to do. This concept is great. I find in my life, oftentimes I look back at decisions i’ve made in confusion, unsure of why I did. Augustine touches on this and i’m glad he does. He presents a clear understanding of our hearts, and shows remarkable self-reflection in his own to do this.

So, I liked Saint Augustine. He presents wisdom, understanding, and insight into what  he is saying. He humbly admits his mistakes, and discusses what went on in him.

Saint Benedict

The Rule of Saint Benedict was a fascinating read. I loved hearing about the way he wanted the monastery to run, and seeing the why behind it. One of the biggest things I loved was the focus on humility. All throughout the rule Benedict emphasized being humble, and getting rid of yourself to completely live for Christ. He wrote about a reverence for God that showed in the way he did things. From keeping your prayers quick, to the 12 degrees of humility, it was written everywhere. Personally, I feel as though the modern church has lost it’s reverence for God, and because of that we have a skewed picture of our faith. We see God as more our best friend, then as the creator of the universe, the King of kings, Lord of lords. Yes, God wants a personal relationship with him, but when people such as isaiah had visions about heaven they were trembling, scared because of the glory of God. Modern Christians would walk in as though they owned the place. This is saddening to me, because in a way it is limiting God. Yes, I want God to be personal to me, but I also want a God I serve to be so powerful I am trembling in his presence. Where I am afraid to look on his face because he is so pure and I am so sinful. By losing this picture of God, we have lost a humility that is seen throughout the Bible. If, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore” -Hebrews 31:8, then we should be just as humbled when God speaks to us as the heroes of the faith were. We shouldn’t take it lightly that God comes down to be with us when we worship, that he goes with us everywhere.  In my CHED class we talked about how diving deep into Jesus starts with a fear of him. Obedience, Love, everything comes from that. As you read proverbs you can attest to how many times it starts with the fear of the Lord. It is important we remember who our Savior is, and I love how Saint Benedict knew, and made it vital.

The other big thing that stuck out to me was his thoughts and rules on dealing with sin. His big point? Take someone aside and deal with it personally. Remove them from everyone else, and separate them from the rest of the monks. I love this idea. Benedict is saying that there isn’t a need to call someone out publicly, when you could respect them and deal with it privately. “Do not embarrass each other, let things be dealt with in secret if they can “If, however, the cause of the offense is secret, let him disclose it to the Abbot alone, or to his spiritual Superiors, who know how to heal their own wounds, and not expose and make public those of others.” pg. 53”. Paul also says this. Work things out one on one. Oftentimes we can be so quick to judge, when we really could make it personal and try and work things out. Pages 30-33 outline how to deal with someone when they are sinning, or not following the rules. I like that Benedict went into such detail, he knew there had to be a plan. It starts with Grace, but ultimately removes a monk not obeying so the rest of them can continue. The way Saint Benedict approaches this is filled with love.

Some people will disagree with a lot of what Saint Benedict says, and that’s okay, but don’t be quick to judge someone who is a Saint of the Catholic Church. I only touched on a couple things, but I could write about issue after issue he brings up, and I would love to dive deeper into him. There is just one thought I have. In all of this Saint Benedict is trying to disassociate himself and live completely for Jesus, but it seems that by doing this he is becoming completely self-focused and losing his potential impact. Now this cannot be the case, and I would have loved to be able to find out the difference, and dive a little more into it. It was just something I noticed.

The Quran

I really appreciated reading the Quran this week. All of my life I have been curious as to the differences, knowing it came out of the same place as Judaism, so it was nice to see some of that, and be able to learn some of it myself.

But as I was reading something huge stuck out to me. The Quran, and how God and following him is described, reminds me of a rewards system. It sounds like a “Do this and you will get that” type of deal. Surah 57 finished with the argument of saying, is this was done for you why wouldn’t you believe? Now with Christianity I know that is my thought, but it is a place of going “Jesus did all this, how can I walk away?”, whereas the Quran sounds more like a payment owed. It reminds me of what I am learning in my CHED class, about the different moral levels. There are 6 stages of moral development, and the one described in the Quran is a level 2. It’s the reward system. Now the ages for this stage is childhood, and although having a childlike faith is good, I would propose it’s best to move beyond this. I believe this is an important difference for us following Jesus. The rewards system is very self-centered, and Jesus calls us to live for him, not us. This would be a major disagreement between the two religions, and it’s a fundamental shift in the way we do things. I want to live my life for Jesus, pouring it out, not because I have to or should, but because I want to live that way.

Another big shift is how we approach our enemies. Jesus preaches to love them, pray for them, be with them. The Quran takes a radically different approach, and says you can’t even associate with them at all. That although you can pray for them, that they are not believers and thus lost forever. This is another way the Quran is different, and it speaks to the deeper levels of the belief of it. The Quran sounds more like a return for your efforts, in any way. It also speaks to the idea that God will do to you what you do to others. This may be a bad return, but it is still a return. It is all about me, and what I get out of it.

I disagree with the way this is presented. Now I am not bashing the religion or the book, I just disagree with basing everything off of your actions. By doing it like this you leave no room for your heart, and who you truly are. Anybody can fake it. Anyone can be good, avoid unbelievers, and pray. But for something like this to advance you must look beyond their actions, at the heart. For heaven, and our kingdom under Jesus, it advances because of people radically transformed by his love. It is a kingdom with grace, reaching the lost, doing whatever it takes to help people know Jesus personally. Although I respect the Quran, and the religion is Islam, I just don’t believe it is the right way to go. The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob doesn’t sound like the god of the Quran, and that is what sticks out to me. If everything is based off of a return for your efforts, a reward system, then it is completely self-focused. You aren’t living for something more, just for yourself and what you will gain, or how you won’t get punished. This is why reading the Quran sat uneasy with me, as much as I appreciated the perspective. There are lots  of good insights, and some good things to take away, but for the way their salvation is presented, I just disagree, respectively.

Saint Basil

Saint Basil in this reading raises some very intriguing points. The first one I would like to discuss is the fact that we should not be ignoring secular readings: “Perhaps it is sufficiently demonstrated that such heathen learning is not unprofitable for the soul” (Basil 3). Unpacking this, it makes sense. Basil goes on to emphasize when authors or poets or songwriters approach virtue, and how that’s a good thing for us to take from them. But that’s not all. In my CHED class we are learning how to best educate people form a Christian viewpoint. A major part of this is knowing how people learn. This involves knowing Psychology and how people develop. Now this may be considered a secular thing, but ultimately it helps us advance the spiritual lives of people. This is why I agree with Basil. Sometimes by adding in things that aren't from a Christian perspective we can gain a more whole understand of what it is, and that can helps us complete our understanding with a Christian perspective. Basil said that when writers extol virtue that we should listen. This is just one example of where adding in that other perspective can be very helpful. I believe that we can gain a more full understanding of who we are by looking at things from all perspectives. God will show up in every part of creation, we can just explore and find it.

Another thing Basil brings up is training.  I love what he says about this. He talks about how a musician wouldn’t train with the way wrestlers do, how that a musician would need to train in the ways they need to, by practicing their instrument. If we are to fight this world, we need to train against it. Against the enemy that is controlling this world right now. This involves us getting out into it, exploring it, learning about it. We must know what we face, and how the world acts. By exploring things outside a Christian viewpoint we are better prepared to not only fight the bad, but also learn how to best help this world see Jesus. It’s very important to do this. If we don’t know what influences our world, we can’t effectively proclaim the gospel. We can be in the world but not of it. We can use technology to reach people, without spreading the hate and judgement that gets spread through it a lot.

The last thing that stuck out to me was his focus on spiritual growth. He says we need to keep our bodies healthy, but only for our spiritual growth. We should be focused on growing our spiritual selves in every aspect. I agree with this. It is okay, and even good, to stay healthy physically, but we need to be focused spiritually. This is really important because, although we live in this world, we are not of this world. We cannot spend all of our time and energy focused on the physical part. Money, health, etc. We must be concerned with our spiritual selves. It is vital to growing as Christians.

Overall, I highly enjoyed the reading. I would love to dive more into Basil’s writings as a whole.