Monica becomes a very significant
character in today’s reading. It is apparent that Augustine truly loves and
looks to his mother for advice. Her want to save his soul and to recognize God
is what makes him want to save himself. However, I began to wonder the extent
to which Augustine looked to Monica. He finds no fault in her, almost as though
she is a God figure to him. With Monica alive, there would still be someone in
addition to God whom Augustine thought was perfect. Even though it appeared
that Augustine had truly found God at the end of Book VIII, Monica’s death was
the final step for Augustine to fully accept God.
Augustine’s finding of God and
his reaction to his mother’s deaths are very similar. Throughout the rest of
the book, Augustine does not display much outward emotion, but both of these
events involve crying. Immediately preceding Augustine’s revelation, he is come
over with “a great deluge of tears” (177). During his crying, he hears chanting
that leads him to read Paul’s epistles, and thus leads him to what he sees as
his salvation. Similarly, when Monica dies, “it was a comfort to [him] to weep
for her and for [him]self” (202). This indicates that he feels the same emotion
for his mother as he does to God. He even admits this when he says, “I was
guilty of too much worldly affection” (203). He is striving to look only to God
and to shun worldly things, but his mother, and now his mother’s death, have
been keeping him from that goal. Augustine drawing similarities between God and
his mother kept him from accepting God as the one person to whom Augustine
admired and thought to be perfect.
Monica’s death allows Augustine
to see some of his mother’s imperfection, which led to his true acceptance of
God. He says, “I will aside for a while all the good deeds which my mother did.
For them I thank you, but now I pray to you for her sins” (203). Augustine has
finally accepted that his mother has faults and that she may have sinned
against God even though he previously asserted that she “always acted with
mercy and…forgave others with all her heart” (203). Her death allows Augustine
to see her on an equal level with him. She as a “will be [his] fellow citizen
in eternal Jerusalem” (205). This is the first time that Augustine puts himself
on the same moral level as his mother.
Even though Augustine may not
have purposefully, or consciously, elevated his mother to be on the same level
as God, her death allows Augustine to fully accept God. There is no one left alive
that Augustine holds in the same esteem as God.
I agree with Emma that Augustine's borderline obsession with Monica is questionable. Like Emma says, he treats her with the same reverence that he does God. However, when Monica dies, he is able to fully accept God. I found that this was the last element of earthly desire that Augustine felt, and once he was able to rid himself of it, he is able to thoroughly embrace God.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Emma and Lauren. Because Augustine held Monica in such high esteem he could not devote his energies completely to God. As he explains in book VIII his will was split between God and worldly attachments and he was thus unable to devote himself entirely to the Lord. After he has separated himself from want of wealth, false knowledge, worldly acclaim, and lust the last thing holding a portion of Augustine's will is Monica. Her death makes him entirely available to God.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that Monica appears to be the last thing holding Augustine back from fully accepting God because of the role she plays earlier in the narration. In contrast to Augustine father, Monica introduces Augustine to God and models proper behavior for him. In this way, Monica is also the reason that Augustine is able to accept God completely.
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ReplyDeleteI find the relationship between Monica and God to be a profoundly interesting one. As Emma says, Augustine dotes on his mother, and his mother clearly returns the sentiment. However, his mother is shown not to be completely pure either -- she holds Ambrose to a point of respect where she ceases her ritual with the wine-sipping to please him where she would not have done so for another. She clearly is not much farther along than Augustine in the path to heaven, but God takes her nonetheless. This is thought-provoking -- did God take her to help Augustine finish his way on his path?
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