Our Hearts are Restless Until They Rest in You
Augustine of Hippo (354—430) was one of the greatest church fathers in history. Son of a pagan father and Christian mother, Augustine was raised going to church with his mother Monica. However, this quickly faded away when he began to climb the social ladder of Roman high society.
While he was in school in Carthage, Augustine joined the ranks of the Manicheans (a gnostic-Christian cult) and would stay in their midst for over a decade. He went on to Rome and Milan, almost reaching the pinnacle of success. However, things quickly changed upon meeting St. Ambrose of Milan. Here he met a man who knew and loved the Lord and gave him the tools to interpret and read Scripture.
In a somewhat wild turn of events, he was forced into the bishopric of Carthage, where he would remain the rest of his life. After his conversion in the late 380s, Augustine would go on to write some of the most important pieces of Christian literature, The Confessions of St. Augustine, The City of God, On the Trinity, On Christian Doctrine, and a host of others. He remains the most influential and brilliant Christian theologian of the AD era.
Augustine writes on God’s greatness in his Confessions:
1.1. "You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised. Great is your power, and of your wisdom, there is no measure." And (yet) man wants to praise you—man, some part of your creation. You arouse us so that it delights us to praise you. For you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
1.2. And how shall I call—in my God, my God and my Lord? For surely, I will call Him into myself when I invoke Him. And what room is there in me into which my God might come? Into which God might come into me, the God who made heaven and earth? Is it so, Lord my God, is there anything in me that can contain you? Or do the heaven and the earth—which you made, and in which you made me—do they contain you? . . .
1.4. What then are you my God? What, I ask, except the Lord God. For who is the Lord besides God? Or who is God besides our God?—Most high, most good, most powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, most secret and most present; most beautiful and most strong; most stable and incomprehensible; unchangeable (yet) changing all things; never new, never old; making all things new, and bringing the proud to (the collapse of) old age; ever acting, ever at rest; gathering, and not needing; carrying and filling and protecting (all things); creating and nourishing and perfecting; seeking, though you lack nothing.
You love, but are never disturbed; you are jealous, and secure; you regret, and you do not grieve; you are angered, and tranquil; you change your works, but do not change your plans; you regain what you find, and you never lose. Things are given in abundance to you, so that you are (our) debtor—and who has anything that is not yours? You repay debts, though owing to no one. You remit debts, losing nothing.
1.5. What am I to you that you order me to love you, and unless I do it, you are angry with me, and threaten immense miseries? The house of my soul is narrow—may you enlarge it. It is in ruins; remake it. It has things that offend your eyes, I confess and I know. But who will cleanse it? Or to whom besides you shall I cry: "From my hidden faults cleanse me, O Lord"?
1.6. But yet, permit me to speak before your mercy—me, who am dust and ashes—yet permit me to speak. For lo! it is your mercy—not man who laughs at me—to which I speak.