Augustine, Confessions (bks. 2-3)

Augustine is famous for his story (among many, many other things) of his youthful offense of stealing pears.  On the surface, they are just pears and Augustine is a punk kid.  But surely that's not why he tells the story.  After all, if that is it, then the pear story has no more significance than to say that Augustine had a discipline problem as a youngster and should've been in trouble with the authorities.  I think he's speaking to something deeper though.

In the story of stealing the pears, Augustine is pretty explicit in his detail in regards to the stealing of pears being simply for the sake of doing bad.  I think what Augustine was doing rather was speaking to the depth of his sin apart from God.  Why is it so important to him that he is not stealing the pears to eat?  After all, doesn't he say that he gave most of them to the swine or simply threw them away? It seems the most important part of the tale is not that he stole the pears, but that he stole for the sake of stealing.

Augustine, in my opinion, is clearly making the point that though we sin with or without God, without God we sin for the sake of sinning.  We indulge the deepest of the evil within us- that is, doing that which is bad for its own sake.  It is the clear and pointed manifestation of our rebellion against the will of God.  And why do we do this?  It is to gain that completion God created us to seek only in him. As the Augustinian quote is often said 'our soul can not find rest till it finds rest in thee', or something to that effect.  I believe the Wills translation says 'stability' but the effect is the same.  The thrill and fleeting joy of our sin, we believe, will satiate us.

Nothing could be further from the truth however,  Just as Augustine says in regards to our seeking sexual pleasure to fulfill our desire for intimate love,"...though nothing is more intimate than your love..." making the point that what we are really doing as human sinners is seeking God where he is not-- that is, in sinful things.  This, I think, is important in relation to where Augustine is going.  It is important that we realize our evil for it's own sake in rebellion against God and finding completion in him.  Until we see that, Augustine seems to say, we will not see our need for a Savior.

It is a striking thought.