QUOTATIONS FROM AUGUSTINE ON AMOR, CARITAS, CUPIDITAS AND CONCUPISCENTIA
(1) What then is God’s law written by God himself on the hearts of men, but the very presence of the Holy Spirit, who is the finger of God, and by whose presence there is poured forth in our hearts the love (caritas) which is the fulfilling of the law and the end of the commandment. [Rom 5:5 and I Tim. 1:5]
De spiritu et littera, XXI, 36 (NPNF, Vol 5, 83-114)
(2) Love and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, of love hold thy peace;
whether thou cry out, of love cry out; whether thou correct, of love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare. Let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.
In Epist. Joannis ad Parthos, vii, 8 (NPNF, Vol.7, 450-529)
(3) Love itself cannot be empty. For what man is there that worketh at all, even to evil, except by love? Shew me the love that is empty and does not do anything! Shameful deeds, adulteries, acts of violence, murders, all excesses; is it not love which produces these? Cleanse therefore thy love! Turn the waters flowing into the drain into the garden; whatever desires it had for the world, let it have the same for the Creator of the world. Love! But take heed what you love! The love of God, the love of our neighbour is called caritas: the love of the world, the love of this life, is called concupiscentia. Let concupiscentia be bridled, caritas stirred up!
In Ps. XXXI (NPNF, Vol. 8)
(4) As impure love inflames the mind and summons the soul destined to perish to lust after earthly things, and to follow what is perishable, and precipitates it into the lowest places, and sinks it in the abyss; so holy love raiseth us to supernal things, and inflames us to what is eternal, and excites the soul to those things which do not pass away and die, and from the depths of hell raiseth it to heaven. Yet all love hath a power of its own, nor can love in the soul of the lover be idle: it must needs draw it on. But dost thou wish to know of what sort [a particular] love is? See whither it leadeth. We do not therefore warn you to love nothing, but that you love not the world, in order that you may freely love him who made the world. For the soul when bound by the love of the earth, hath as it were birdlime on its wings. It cannot fly. But when purged of the sordid affections of the world, extending as it were its pair of wings, and freeing them from every impediment, flieth upon them, that is to say, upon the two commandments of love unto God and our neighbour. Whither will it fly, but by rising in its flight to God? For it riseth by loving.
In Ps. CXXI, 1 (NPNF, Vol 8)
(5)For no one willingly does anything, which he has not first said in his heart. And this word is conceived by love, either of the creature or of the Creator... Conceived therefore either by desire (cupiditas) or by love (caritas). Not that the creature ought not to be loved, but if that love [of the creature] is referred to the Creator, then it will not be desire (cupiditas), but love (caritas). For it is desire when the creature is loved for itself. And then it does not help a man through making use of it (uti) but corrupts him in the enjoying of it (frui).
De Trinitate, IX, 7-8, 13 (NPNF, Vol.3, 130f.)
(6) Now Scripture enjoins nothing except charity and condemns nothing but lust, and in that way informs the practices of men... I mean by charity that affection of the mind which aims at the enjoyment of God for his own sake and of one’s self and one’s neighbour for God’s sake. By lust I mean that affection of the mind which aims at the enjoyment of one’s self and one’s neighbour without reference to God... Now in proportion as the dominion of lust is pulled down, in the same proportion that of charity is built up.
De doctrina Christiana, III, x, 15-16
(7) For when he says, ‘With thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind,’ he means that no part of our life is to be unoccupied, and to afford room, as it were, for the wish to enjoy some other object, but that whatever else suggests itself to the mind as something worthy of love is to be borne in the same channel in which the whole current of our affection flows. Whoever, therefore, loves his neighbour aright, ought to urge upon him that he too love God with his whole heart and with his whole soul and with his whole mind. For in this way, loving his neighbour as himself, a man turns the whole current of his love both for himself and his neighbour into the channel of the love of God.
De doctrina Christiana, I, xxii, 21
(8) Two loves built two cities. Love of self to the contempt of God built the earthly city: love of God to the contempt of self the heavenly.
De civitate Dei, XIV, 28
QUOTATIONS FROM AUGUSTINE ON PERFECTION
From De perfectione iustitiae hominis (‘On Man’s Perfection in Righteousness’),
NPNF (1), Vol. 5, 159-176.
15. Defines sin:
That however is sin in which there is either not the love which ought to be, or where the love is less than it ought to be.
16. No perfection till after death:
No man, therefore, can be without sin, even if he wish it, unless he be assisted by the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And that this perfection may be attained, there is even now a training carried on in growing [Christians], and there will be by all means a completion made after the conflict with death is spent and love, which is now cherished by the operation of faith and hope, shall be perfected in the fruition of sight and possession.
19. We may be running perfectly towards perfection, but we will never reach it in this life because concupiscence remains in us:
Let us, as many as are running perfectly, be resolved, that, being not yet perfected, we pursue our course to perfection along the way.
Then [hereafter] in all this plentitude of charity will be fulfilled the commandment, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.’ For while there remains any remnant of the lust of the flesh, to be kept in check by the rein of continence, God is by no means loved with all one’s soul.
In that perfect state the just shall live absolutely without any sin, since there will be in his members no law warring against the law of his mind [Rom. 7:23], but wholly will he love God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind...
24. Although we cannot be without sin in this life, we can be without blame:
However, it is one thing to be without sin, which in this life can only be predicated of the Only-begotten, and another thing to be without accusation, which might be said of many just persons even in the present life; for there is a certain measure of a good life, according to which even in this human converse there could no just accusation be possibly laid against him.
28. Our heart does not condemn us when we deny the concupiscence within: It is in this present life of ours, in which we live by faith, that our heart does not reproach us, if the same faith whereby we live does not neglect to rebuke our sin... But whensoever he [=the just man who lives by faith] suffers not sin to reign in
his mortal body to obey it in the lusts thereof [Rom 6:12], and yields not his
members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin [Rom. 6:13], sin no doubt is
present in his members, but it does not reign, because its desires are not obeyed.
Therefore, while he does that which he would not (in other words, while he
wishes not to lust, but still lusts), he consents to the law that it is good [Rom.
7:16]. For what the law would, that he also wishes, because it is his desire not to indulge concupiscence...but still he lusts because he is not without sin... He knows to be sure that in himself dwells no good thing, even in his flesh which is the dwelling place of sin. However, by not consenting to it, he lives by faith...
29. Only One was without sin, but we can be without accusation:
That man...abstains from every evil thing, who either never consents to sin, which
is always with him, or, if sometimes hard pressed by it, is never oppressed by it...
We read indeed, of a man without blame, of one without accusation; but we never
read of one without sin, except the Son of Man, who is also the Only-begotten Son of God.
31. We make progress, but sin still dwells in our flesh:
Although even now every man progresses, advancing ever with an upright purpose, departs from all sin, and becomes further removed from it as he approaches nearer to the fullness and perfection of the righteous state; because even concupiscence itself, which is sin dwelling in our flesh, never ceases to diminish in those who are making progress, although it remains in their mortal members. It is one thing therefore, to depart from all sin (a process which is even now in operation) and another thing to have departed from all sin, which shall happen in the state of future perfection.
44. A slight concession?
Finally, if it be asserted that there either have been or are in this present life, any persons with the exception of our Great Head, ‘the Saviour of the body’, who are righteous, without any sin (and this either by not consenting to the lusts thereof, or because that must not be accounted as any sin which is such that God does not impute it to them by reason of their godly lives)..., I do not deem it necessary to contest the point over much. I am quite aware that some hold this opinion, whose views on the subject I have not the courage to censure, although at the same time, I cannot defend them. But if any man says that we ought not to use the prayer, ‘Lead us not into temptation,’,,,then I do not hesitate at one to affirm that such a man ought to be ...anathematized!
