Some things never change…
August 23, 2006, 9:36 am
Posted by Joseph A. Komonchak
In today’s office of readings there is a snippet from one of St. Augustine’s sermons in which he warns against grumbling over difficulties and has advice for those who yearn for “the good old days”:
“Is there any affliction now endured by mankind that was not endured by our fathers before us? What sufferings of ours even bear comparison with what we know of their sufferings? And yet you hear people complaining about this present day and age because things were so much better in former times. I wonder what would happen if they could be taken back to the days of their ancestors–would we not still hear them complaining? You may think past ages were good, but it is only because you are not living in them.”
The good old days are not what they once were, at least not among those who enjoy the benefits of the countless appliances and gadgets modernity confers. Does anyone really want to give up computers? Read by oil lamps? Have no printed books? I could go on and on.
Maybe the memories of his wild youth and early adulthood prompted Augustine’s comment…his fascination with sex; his long-term, out-of-wedlock relationship with a woman he greatly loved and whom he never names in his writings; the son, Adeodatus, born of that relationship and who died young; his saintly mother, Monica, who was nevertheless among the most overprotective mothers in history and to whom he lied so that he could sail to Italy without her. (She followed him there anyway.) There’s a lot of past baggage that might have been in Augustine’s mind when he made the comment about the bad old days.
He’s always been one of my favorite saints. It seems impossible not to identify with anyone who would pray, “Lord, give me chastity and continence, but not yet.” We need more rascal saints.
Bill,
I think Augustine is talking about the alleged good old days of generations past rather than the escapades of his youth.
As for mildly rascally saints, I recommend reading J.N.D. Kelly’s life of St. Jerome. He has become one of my heroes.