Augustine of Hippo: A hurtful life

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For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Mark 8:36

“Do you want to have a country cottage? I refuse to believe you want a bad one. You want to get a wife, but only a good one, a home, but only a good one. Why should I run through everything one by one? You don’t want to have a bad shoe, and you want to have a bad life? As though a bad shoe can do you more harm than a bad life! When a bad, ill-fitting shoe starts hurting you, you sit down, take it off, throw it away or put it right or change it, or order not to damage a toe. A bad life, which can lose you your soul, you don’t care to put right. But I can see clearly enough where you delude yourself; a hurtful shoe causes pain, a hurtful life causes pleasure. The first indeed hurts, the second pleases. But what pleases for a time, later on brings much worse pain, while what brings salutary pain for a time, later on brings endless pleasure and abundant, joyful happiness.”

Augustine of Hippo (354-430) in Sermon 339.4 “On the Anniversary of His Ordination” in Essential Sermons, translated by Edmund Hill, edited by Daniel Doyle (New York: New City Press, 2007). Augustine of Hippo is first of the Four Doctors of the Western Church that we will explore on the topic of abundance.

Augustine preached this sermon on the anniversary of his ordination as bishop of Hippo. On that day each year, the church hosted a feast for the poor. Sadly, as the people he served flourished, they cared more about having more and better possessions than they did about caring for needy people. Has much changed in modernity? Most people (then and now) choose “a hurtful life” because it “causes pleasure” rather than experience “salutary pain for a time” which later on “brings endless pleasure and abundant, joyful happiness.”

The church in Hippo, located on the northeastern coast of present-day Algeria, wrestled with sacrifice as the pathway for service to others. In that cultural setting, many appear to have equated “showing care for family members” as “giving every earthly pleasure” to loved ones. Frankly, that’s how to ruin your family. He urged them to inconvenience themselves to aid others following the example of Christ, citing 2 Corinthians 8:9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

Today I fly to Los Angeles and spend three days with leaders of thirteen seminaries at Fuller Theological Seminary. For many years, it’s been a privilege to facilitate a Think Tank annually with senior administrators of Asbury, Covenant, Dallas, Denver, Fuller, Gordon Conwell, Northeastern, Northern, Phoenix, Reformed, Sioux Falls, Western, and Westminster. We learn rich insights from each other. One thing the group has in common with Augustine: they want everyone they serve to know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and shift from amassing possessions to serving people.