the mystical temple of god 624 bring holiness and are not useful. Much more to be avoided are discourses and readings that not only lack any usefulness but also cause greatest harm. “Whoever teaches something different,” (I am not afraid to declare with the Teacher of the Gentiles) “is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid disposition for arguments, and verbal disputes. From these come envy, rivalry, insults, evil suspicions, and mutual friction among people with corrupted minds, who are deprived of the truth” (1 Tim 6:3-5). Finally, may I be allowed to set forth these words from the most holy Father Augustine concerning all the senses in order to avoid sensuality, in which God is not found: “I have wandered like a sheep that was lost” (the one is speaking who once was weak) “seeking you outside” (namely God) “who are within. And I toiled greatly seeking you outside of myself, yet you dwell in me, if, however, I would desire you. I have walked all around the streets and squares of the city of this world, in search of you, but did not find you: because I unsuccessfully sought outside what was within. I sent my messengers, all my exterior senses, to seek you, but I did not find you, because I was seeking you wrongly” (Sol. Ch. 31).133 And so let us rather learn to seek God through the death of the senses, and we shall find him. They die, when they are directed wisely, when such things are removed from them by which brute animals themselves are attracted. Then, when the animal man dies, the spiritual one will arise, who, having found in himself God as his possession, will sweetly repeat with Paul: “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). 133 Augustine, A Book of Soliloquies of the Soul to God, Ch. XXXI, 1, in: St. Aurelius Augustine of Hippo, Bishop, Meditations, Soliloquies and a Handbook, Paris 1861, p. 155. The text contained in this quotation is not found in the same work as edited in: The Complete Works of St. Augustine Bishop of Hippo, XXV, Paris 1842.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==