Gluttonous spirit creeps

It is often thus, that when we begin with good intentions in the eyes of God, a secret tagalong yen for the praise of our fellow men comes along, waylaying our intentions from the side of the road. We take food, for example, out of necessity, but while we are eating, a gluttonous spirit creeps in and we begin to take delight in the eating for its own sake. So often it happens that what began as nourishment to protect our health ends by becoming a pretext for our pleasures.

As commentator

But I think it’s worthwhile for me to reveal unhesitatingly here to the ears of my brothers everything I secretly revile in myself. As commentator, I have not hidden what I felt, and as confessor, I have not hidden what I suffer. In my commentary I reveal the gifts of God, and in my confession I uncover my wounds. In this vast human race there are always little ones who need to be instructed by my words, and there are always great ones who can take pity on my weakness once they know of it. Thus with commentary and confession I offer my help to some of my brethren (as much as I can), and I seek the help of others. . . . I have not withheld medicine from the ones I can help, but I have not hidden my wounds and lacerations from the others. So I ask that whoever reads this should pour out the consolation of prayer before the strict judge above for me, so that he may wash away with tears every sordid thing he finds in me. When I balance the power of my commentary and the power of prayer, I see that my reader will have more than paid me back if for what he hears from me, he offers his tears for me.

That extraordinary self-mistrust epitomizes his description of the ideal life of the Christian in the world. “Our life is all a temptation” (Job 7.1). Trial, temptation, travail: that is human life in this world for Gregory. Job’s story is not merely a story, not merely a case study, but an archetype. The world is not evil, but the world is a testing ground, shaped by man’s sin into a place imperfect in many ways, where death and suffering have power over human life and human hope. Augustine never took his innovative theory of original sin this distressingly far.