In St. Augustine’s response to the
deacon Deo Gratias on his question as
to what might be of use to him to instruct the beginners (or inquirers) who
expressed interest in Christian faith, St. Augustine responded in his reply “Instructing Beginners in Faith” on the
use of “historical exposition” as the method to present the salvation history
to the inquirers. St. Augustine’s “approach is thoroughly salvation-historical”
(Instructing Beginners in Faith Introduction).
“Historical exposition,” the narratio
recommended by St. Augustine, traces through the “Six Ages of this World,” from
its creation and culminated in Christ and the Church. It is essentially Christocentric in the sense that the holy patriarchs and prophets in the
Old Testament had already foretold that human salvation was to be brought about
by Jesus Christ before his Incarnation. Christ is the eternal Son of God born a
man of the flesh. These holy patriarchs and prophets also belong to the Church of
Christ even though they were born before the Savior, who is the head of the
Church. “The whole Scripture is said to tell of Christ and call to love. This
love is proposed to Deo Gratias as the goal to which he is to direct everything he
says to the beginners, and he is to recount every event in his historical
exposition in such a way that his listener ‘by hearing it may believe, by
believing may hope, and by hoping may love’ (Augustine 4, 8)” (Instructing Beginners in Faith Introduction).
The following is an outline of the narratio
of the “historical exposition,” arranged in the “Six Ages of the World.”
“First age from the creation of the world and of human beings to Noah”
(Augustine 18, 29 – 19, 32)
l
God is the “good, just and merciful” Creator who
“made all things good” (Augustine 18, 29).
l
He made man in his image to preside over the earth.
He also made woman a helper to him. Man would be “the glory of God, when he
acted in accordance with God’s wisdom” (Augustine 18, 29).
l
He gave them a commandment. Although God foresaw
that they were going to sin against Him, he gave them the gift of freedom so
that they might do good deeds and worship Him by their own free will and not be
constrained like slaves (Augustine 18, 30).
l
Neither the devil who tempted man nor the man who
sinned would do any harm to the Almighty God (Augustine 18, 30).
l
Those who followed the ways of the devil without
repentance would “go with him into eternal punishment,” while those who
“humbled themselves before God, and through His grace prevailed over the devil,
would merit eternal reward” (Augustine 18, 30).
l
There are two cities – “one of the wicked and the
other of saints” from the beginning of the human race until the end of time.
The citizens in these two cities are “mixed in body and separated in will” in
the present world, but will also be “separated in body” on the Final Judgement
Day (Augustine 19, 31).
l
God is a merciful God. He “shows forbearance to the
wicked and gives them scope for repentance and reform” (Augustine 19, 31). As
such, we also need to bear with the wicked as we do not know how they will
eventually become (Augustine 19, 32).
l
The flood at Noah’s time sends a salvific symbol.
The Noah’s ark is a symbol of the Church. The just were “delivered by the wood”
that made up the ark. “By the mystery of his cross, the Church’s king and God,
the Christ, has held her up and saved her from sinking beneath the waves of
this world” (Augustine 19, 32).
l
Human beings continued to sin after God’s salvation
brought about by Noah’s ark as a result of their “pride and the passions of the
flesh” (Augustine 19, 32).
“Second
age from Noah to Abraham” (Augustine 19, 33)
l
There were some virtuous people who “sought God and
overcame the pride of the devil” (Augustine 19, 33). They are citizens of the
holy city mentioned above. They received their salvation from Christ, who born
after them but “revealed to them through the Spirit” (Augustine 19, 33).
l
A notable figure is Abraham, who is a faithful
servant of God. The mystery of the Son of God was manifested in him, in such a
way that “believers of all nations, by modelling themselves on his faith, might
in future be called his children” (Augustine 19, 33).
l
From Abraham was born “a people who would worship
the one and true God,” the Creator of heaven and earth. In this people, “the
future Church was symbolically foreshadowed” (Augustine 19, 33).
l
Yet, other than the virtuous people, there remained
many descendants of Abraham who were “carnally-minded” and kept with “their
hardness of hearts” (Augustine 19, 33).
l
All the holy people who lived on earth before the
birth of Christ, “although they were born before him, were still integrally
connected, under the direction of the head (of the Church), to the entire body
of which he is the head” (Augustine 19, 33).
“Third
age from Abraham to David” (Augustine 20, 34 – 20, 36)
l
When this people of God were in Egypt, they faced a
very harsh leader. God therefore sent Moses, by means of great miracles,
delivered them out of the hands of the Egyptians through the Red Sea (Augustine
20, 34).
l
The salvific event of crossing the Red Sea, together
with the flood in Noah’s time, are “symbols of the holy baptism by means of
which the faithful pass over into a new life while their sins are brought to
nothing and destroyed like enemies” (Augustine 20, 34).
l
And even more importantly, the Passover event in
which the people were ordered to kill and eat a lamb and mark their doorposts
with its blood foretold the Paschal Mystery of the Lord, who is the Lamb of God
offered as a sacrifice for our salvation. The prophet Isaiah also vindicated the
Paschal Mystery (Isaiah 53:7) (Augustine 20, 34).
l
The sign of blood on the doorpost foreshadowed the
sign of the cross that is marked on the forehead of inquirers who are admitted
into the order of catechumens. In fact, all Christians mark the sign of the
cross bearing the same meaning (Augustine 20, 34).
l
The people of God wandered in the desert for forty
years. They received the ten commandments written by “the finger of God,” which
is an expression of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament (Augustine 20, 35).
l
Despite that God commanded the people to fulfill
the law, they were unable to do so because they desired God’s gifts of a
material nature, yet “it is love alone that fulfills the law” (Augustine 20,
35).
l
The ritual practices that they conducted were
useless in the absence of love. Again, a few holy ones understood the true meaning
of these ritual practices as the symbols of salvation and their “spiritual
realities related to Lord Jesus Christ and the Church” (Augustine 20, 35).
l
The people were led into the promised land. They
desired to be ruled by an earthly king. This earthly kingdom, centered in
Jerusalem, was the image of the heavenly Jerusalem – the spiritual kingdom. The
citizens of this heavenly city are all holy people of the past, present and
future. Their king is Jesus Christ (Augustine 20, 36).
l
Prefiguring the heavenly King was King David “from
whose seed according to the flesh” the Lord came into this world (Augustine 20,
36).
“Fourth
age from David to Babylonian captivity” (Augustine 21, 37)
l
After several generations, God “introduced a new
symbolic figure” – Babylon. From the city of Jerusalem, a great number of
people were taken into captivity in Babylon. While Jerusalem symbolizes the
holy heavenly city, Babylon symbolizes “the city in which the wicked come
together, for the very name is said to mean ‘confusion’” (Augustine 21, 37).
l
Yet, some of the kings of Babylon, convinced by the
miracles performed among the people of God, came to know the one true God and
worship Him. On the other hand, the people held in captivity in Babylon also
prayed for these foreign kings who established peace on earth. They were
promised that “after seventy years, they would be freed from their captive
state” (Augustine 21, 37).
l
This is a symbolic foreshadowing of the Church and
her holy people on earth are to be politically subject to the kings of this
world. It is fine as long as “the worship of our God remains unimpaired”
(Augustine 21, 37).
l
Nevertheless, after a predetermined period
symbolized by seventy years, the Church “is freed from the disorder this world
just as Jerusalem was freed from the captivity in Babylon” (Augustine 21, 37).
l
Such ruling of the Church on earth by the earthly
kings has provided an opportunity for these earthly rulers “to turn away from
the idols in whose name they were persecuting the Christians and to come to
know and worship the one true God and Christ the Lord” (Augustine 21, 37).
“Fifth age: From the Babylonian captivity to the
coming of Jesus Christ” (Augustine 21, 38)
l
After the seventy-year period, which the prophet
Jeremiah used it “in a symbolic sense in his prophecy to prefigure the end of
days, the work of re-building God’s temple in Jerusalem was carried out”
(Augustine 21, 38).
l
After the rebuilt of the temple, the Jewish people
suffered from persecutions of their gentile kings as they longed for the coming
of a political liberator. Yet, they did not understand that this liberator, who
was foretold by David in his psalms as well as by the holy prophets both before
and during their Babylonian captivity, “would set them free in a spiritual
sense” (Augustine 21, 38).
“Sixth age: from the first coming of Christ to his
second coming at the end of time” (22, 39 – 24, 44)
l
With the coming of Christ, the spiritual grace of
God which was only then recognized by a small number of holy patriarchs and
prophets, “would be revealed to all nations” (Augustine 22, 39).
l
“Human spirit will be renewed in the image of God”
and “the law itself (also) brought to completion” (Augustine 22, 39).
l
God’s love for human beings is so great that He
sent His only begotten Son to become one of us, “not only to live with us but
even to be put to death for us and by us” (Augustine 22, 39). In the new
covenant revealed by God, “human beings renewed by God’s grace could live a new
life, a life in the Spirit” (Augustine 22, 40).
l
Christ was born poor and his believers would not “claim
status on account of earthly riches” (Augustine 22, 40). In a spiritual sense,
Christ is the “bread for those who are hungry and spring-water for those who
are thirsty” (Augustine 22, 40).
l
The ten commandments are refined by Jesus into two:
“we are to love God with our whole heart, and with our whole soul, and with our
whole mind, and we are to love our neighbors as ourselves” (Augustine 22, 40).
l
He died for us on the cross, putting an end to our
crosses. He rose from the dead, bringing us hope to rise with him. Fifty days
after his resurrection, he sent the Holy Spirit among the early believers,
“through whom love was poured out in their hearts, enabling them to fulfill the
law not only without finding it a burden but even with joy” (Augustine 22, 41).
l
From the time of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the
disciples proclaimed Jesus with confidence, performed miracles and Peter even
raised a man from the dead. Although some Jews persecuted the early believers,
many others repented and believed in Jesus (Augustine 22, 42).
l
Among the persecutors was Paul who was later called
by the Lord to become a believer and an apostle to spread the Gospel to the
gentiles. As a result, Jews and gentiles of all nations who believe in Jesus
are united in fraternal love. At the same time, persecutions also came from the
gentiles against the Church of Christ (Augustine 22, 43).
l
Under persecutions, the Church which is symbolized
as a vine by the Lord, “grew more luxuriant the more abundantly it was watered
with the blood of the martyrs” (Augustine 22, 44). On the other hand, as
already foretold by the Lord, some unfruitful branches of the same vine, those
of heresies and schisms, had to be cut away from it. In this way, the Church
“would become more and more robust, and her teaching would be elucidated and
her forbearance demonstrated” (Augustine 22, 44).
Besides
elaborating on the “Six Ages of the World,” St. Augustine also included in “Instructing Beginners in Faith” a few
important reminders:
l
There is a need to adapt one’s instruction to
different kinds of audience, the well-educated and those who have studied in
the “run-of-the-mill schools of grammar and rhetoric” (discussed in Augustine
8, 12 – 9, 13).
l
It is important for the instructor to delight the
audience, therefore, it is necessary to “develop a cheerful disposition”
(discussed in Augustine 10, 14 – 14, 22).
l
The exhortation and percepts for beginners in
relation to the Last Judgement, in which the upright are divided from the
wicked. Moreover, while the inquirers were advised to “mix with good people,”
they should not “ground (their) hope” in them, because anyone may change except
God alone does not change. “Be humble before God so that He will not allow you
to be tempted beyond your strength” (discussed in Augustine 24, 45 – 25, 49).
l
Rite of reception into the catechumenate, marking
with the sign of the cross and symbolizing the rite with the seasoning element
of salt (discussed in Augustine 26:50).
Works Cited
Augustine,
Raymond F. Canning, and Boniface Ramsey. Instructing
Beginners in Faith. Hyde Park, NY: New City, 2006. Kindle.
No comments:
Post a Comment