Loving A Hidden God

PIOUS LISTENING

What is needed next (after enduring the stage of "darkness") is to develop a modest piety. Through such piety we listen to the word of God (for example, in Sacred Scripture) and do not try to contradict the message received either when we understand it when it lashes out against our vices or when we do not understand it and begin to think that we have better ideas and can make better rules for living than are found there. Rather we should meekly accept that the word of God contained there is better and more true (even when we can't completely understand it) than anything we could devise by ourselves.

On Christian Doctrine, 2.9

Piety is the gift of the Holy Spirit through which I become meek and docile, patiently waiting for some guidance in choosing what I am to do in the future. This mild and gentle piety fills out the humility developed in the previous stage of darkness described by Augustine as "fear of the lord". In this new stage of "piety" I humbly accept the fact that I do not know all the answers to life and I begin to listen attentively and respectfully to the opinion of others. I wait with confidence for some sort of direction showing me what to do next. Augustine believed that this stage of pious listening was best exemplified by Job in the Old Testament, sitting quietly after losing most of what mattered to him, refusing to condemn God or anyone else, waiting for guidance, ready to yield to the will of God however it might come and whatever direction it might give. (Sermon 157, 2) Those who endure with hope this stage of patient listening are indeed already blessed. They are the "Blessed Meek" spoken of in the beatitudes. (Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, 1.4.11)

Though both true "fear of the lord" (the first step in my journey towards God) and "piety" are expressions of the same virtue (humility), the stage of pious "listening" takes me beyond the darkness of the first stage. Through "fear of the lord" I faced up to the fact that my life was empty, that it had little meaning and was not driven by love towards some worth-while achievement. Piety takes me further. Now aware that "I do not have all the answers", I am able to sit back and hopefully await any revelation that might point out an escape from my doldrums. Fear of the lord made me aware that I needed "something more" in my life; piety makes me ready to accept whatever that "something more" might be: a new vocation, a new love, or just a new dedication to live the life that I have in a more noble way.

The gift of piety gave Augustine an openness to new possibilities throughout his long life. Certainly it was crucial in his eventual conversion to Christ, but it did not stop with his baptism. Soon after his conversion he became convinced that God was calling him to the quiet life of the monastery. But he left himself open to other possibilities and thus when he made (in his view) a "fatal" trip to Hippo and the people demanded that he become a priest, he did not reject the offer. Nor did he reject the later call to become a bishop. He recognized that God may speak to humans in many different ways, sometimes through the needs of a beloved spouse or child, sometimes through the exigencies of time and place, sometimes through the loud demands of the people of God, sometimes through the call of the Church, sometimes through the advice of friends, sometimes through the accusations of enemies. Indeed, he came to understand that the Divine Spirit hidden in the hearts of each of us can speak to us in many tongues.

Augustine believed that the words of Sacred Scripture, as preserved and interpreted by the Christian community, were a special instrument of God's revelation. As he wrote to his Manichean adversaries:

For my part, I would not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Church. In truth, it was through the testimony of the Christian community that I came to believe in the gospel.

Against the Fundamental Letter of Mani, 5.6

By reading Sacred Scripture he eventually got the direction he needed in his confused life. In his youth, when he was still filled with himself (unwilling to accept any message that was not well delivered and open to rational proof), he rejected the lessons about Christianity learned from his mother. Now a pseudo-sophisticated teacher and imperial speech-writer, the message seemed crude and common, better suited for peasants than princes (as Augustine thought himself to be). It was only after he came to admit his own emptiness and humbly and piously submitted himself to the explanations of Ambrose, that he was able to hear the direction that God was giving him. He learned through experience that it takes a truly docile mind to hear and act on the message hidden in the sacred writings. (Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount 1.3.10)

Docility is obviously required when we cannot understand the message. At such a time of confusion we must humbly accept that the words sometimes contain great mysteries that can only be understood after a long period of study, or perhaps cannot be understood at all. If we have true piety, we will not reject out of hand truths that we think absurd at first reading. We will not reject the teaching on the Trinity because we cannot understand how God can be one and yet three. We will not reject the mystery of the Incarnation because we cannot understand how Jesus can be both human and divine. Our docility allows us to see that it is not the truth of the teaching that is the obstacle; it is our own limited powers of knowing.

Docility is also required when we think we do understand what the words of Scripture are telling us to do. This is especially the case when we think that we are being told to change our whole way of life. At such a moments we may be tempted to believe that an alternative plan created by ourselves makes more sense than the "hard saying" we hear from the sacred writings, perhaps angrily defending our own interpretation and our own plan against any who would dare to disagree with us. (On Christian Doctrine, 2.7.9; Commentary on the Sermon of the Mount 1.3.10)

An example of such reluctance to act was given by Augustine himself. In his late teens he had read Cicero's Hortensius and had become inspired to seek wisdom by living a spiritual life, but he was still unwilling to give up the pleasures of his body. Now in his late 20's and on the verge of a whole-hearted conversion to Christ he was still vacillating. He described his state as follows:

Your words (O God) had stuck fast in the depths of my heart, and on every side I was encompassed by you. I was now certain that you are eternal life. ... I was displeased with the course I followed in the world. I was no longer aflame with the passion for honor and wealth. Those things no longer gave me delight, but I was still tightly bound by love of women.

Confessions, 8.1.1-2.

In a later chapter he continues:

Many years of my life (perhaps as many as twelve) had flown by since that nineteenth year when my reading Cicero's Hortensius aroused a zeal for wisdom. Yet still I delayed to despise earthly happiness, and thus devote myself to that search. I realized that the bare search for wisdom, even when it is not actually found, was preferable to finding treasure and earthly kingdoms and to bodily pleasures swirling around me at my beck. But I, most wretched from the very early years of my youth, had sought chastity from you but had prayed: "Give me chastity and continence, but not yet!" I feared that you would hear me quickly, and that quickly you would heal me of that disease of lust, which I wished to have satisfied rather than extinguished.

Confessions, 8.7.17

Finally, after dabbling in almost every ideology current at the time, Augustine became convinced that Christ's call to a spiritual life was the only true solution to his confusion. But even so, it took some more months before he would actually follow that call and give up his accustomed way of living.

The grace to "listen" is indeed different from the grace "to act". But listening is the only way to begin to change our life. Once we have developed the gift of pious listening, we will be able to patiently wait for the message that comes through the Divine Spirit dwelling within us. Only then will we be prepared to move on to the next stage of our pursuit of the hidden God. As Augustine told the "listeners" in his parish congregation, it is only through pious listening that we are ready and able to ascend to the next level: the stage of knowing. (Sermon 347, 3)

In our own times of hope-filled waiting we should remember and be encouraged by the promise of God communicated through the words of Isaiah:

I will lead the blind on their journey;
By paths unknown I will guide them.
I will turn darkness into light before them
and make crooked ways straight.
These things I will do for them
and I will not forsake them

Isaiah, 42.16

Back to Top

Back to Table of Contents