Texts in Conversation
Augustine applies Wisdom's teaching about God's gift to eating and drinking in Confessions 10, using Scripture to explain why even his daily self-control requires God's help.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Wisdom of Solomon 8:21
Deuterocanon
19 I was a gifted child, and a good soul fell to my lot. 20 Or rather, being good, I came into an undefiled body. 21 But I saw that I could not possess wisdom unless God gave her to me, and it was itself a sign of understanding to know whose gift she was. So I pleaded with the Lord and begged him, and with my whole heart I said:
Augustine, Confessions 10.31
Early Christian
I hear the voice of my God commanding: "Let not your heart be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness." Drunkenness is far from me. You will have mercy that it does not come near me. But "surfeiting" sometimes creeps upon your servant. You will have mercy that it may be put far from me. For no man can be continent unless you give it. Many things that we pray for you give us, and whatever good we receive before we prayed for it, we receive it from you, so that we might afterward know that we did receive it from you. I never was a drunkard, but I have known drunkards made into sober men by you. It was also your doing that those who never were drunkards have not been—and likewise, it was from you that those who have been might not remain so always. And it was likewise from you that both might know from whom all this came. I heard another voice of yours: "Do not follow your lusts and refrain yourself from your pleasures." And by your favor I have also heard this saying in which I have taken much delight: "Neither if we eat are we the better; nor if we eat not are we the worse." This is to say that neither shall the one make me to abound, nor the other to be wretched. I heard still another voice: "For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. . .. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." See here a soldier of the heavenly army; not the sort of dust we are. But remember, O Lord, "that we are dust" and that you created man out of the dust, and that he "was lost, and is found." Of course, he [the apostle Paul] could not do all this by his own power. He was of the same dust—he whom I loved so much and who spoke of these things through the afflatus of your inspiration: "I can," he said, "do all things through him who strengthens me." Strengthen me, that I too may be able. Give what you command, and command what you will. This man [Paul] confesses that he received the gift of grace and that, when he glories, he glories in the Lord. I have heard yet another voice praying that he might receive. "Take from me," he said, "the greediness of the belly." And from this it appears, O my holy God, that you give it, when what you command to be done is done.
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Notes and References
“... The situation of a man “under grace”, i.e., his own situation after conversion
and, consequently, the acceptance of baptism, is also related by Augustine
as a struggle, yet a victorious one. Continence (continentia), to which he has
resolved himself, has always been so difficult for him that he does not hope
to persevere except through God’s gift.37 With God’s aid it is nevertheless
possible to succeed even in this formidable task: “Grant what you com-
mand, and command what you will.” (Da quod iubes et iube quod vis.)38 This
sentence appears in Augustine’s reflections on his present situation, still
endangered by the “snare of concupiscence” (laquaeus concupiscentiae),39
like a refrain. As for drunkenness (to which he is nevertheless not partial),
Augustine also asks: “Strengthen me that I may have this power (Phil. 4:13).
Grant what you command, and command what you will … it is by your gift
that your command is kept” (te dare, cum fit quod imperas fieri).40 By the
same token, moderation with respect to the human tongue and to vainglory
is God’s gift as well (for men often glory in having given up glory41): “In this
respect also you command us to be continent: grant what you command,
and command what you will.”42
[...]
37 …neminemposseessecontinentem,nisitudederis(Confess.VI,11,20:CCL27,87)Cf.Wisd.
8:21.
38 See Confess. X,29,40: CCL 27, 176. English translation by H. Chadwick, 202.
39 See Confess. X,31,44: CCL 27, 178.
40 See Confess. X,31,45: CCL 27, 178f. English translation by H. Chadwick, 206. ...”
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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