INSIDE america

The Possibility to Know the Truth
From St. Augustine to the School of Community to affirm that faith is the reasonable response to the testimony of a witness who makes Truth present

The Holy Father’s obvious love for St. Augustine and his frequent quotes from him (especially when these confirm so powerfully  Father Giussani’s insights) have moved me to re-read sections of some of his most important works. Recently, exploring the topic of faith and reason according to the new book we are using in the School of Community, I came upon the following quote from St. Augustine’s Confessions: “I chattered away as if I were an expert; but if I had not sought thy Way in Christ our Savior, my knowledge would have turned out to be not instruction but destruction. For now full of what was in fact my punishment, I had begun to desire to seem wise. I did not mourn my ignorance, but rather was puffed up with knowledge. For where was that love which builds upon the foundation of humility, which is Jesus Christ? Or, when would these books teach me this? I now believe that it was thy pleasure that I should fall upon these books before I studied thy Scriptures, that it might be impressed on my memory how I was affected by them; and then afterward, when I was subdued by thy Scriptures and when my wounds were touched by thy healing fingers, I might discern and distinguish what a difference there is between presumption and confession–between those who saw where they were to go even if they did not see the way, and the Way which leads, not only to the observing, but also the inhabiting of the blessed country.”
In this Chapter VII, Augustine is talking about his conversion. His study of “some Platonic books” helped him abandon his Manichean views about God, creation, good and evil, and arrive at a knowledge of these mysteries that satisfied his intellectual demands. But as he writes, Jesus Christ was not part of this picture, however correct philosophically it might be. Indeed, had he not encountered Christ, all of this knowledge–a correct intellectual knowledge of God–would have brought about his “destruction.” This “orthodoxy” was not enough to bring him to a real knowledge of the Truth.
This is an amazing thing to say. For Augustine, intellectual knowledge alone was a source of pride. Such is the fallen condition of Man that even what is good and true can bring “destruction.” First, such intellectual knowledge can be a source of pride (“puffed up with knowledge”). “I had begun to desire to seem wise.” If such knowledge does not make us wise, what is lacking? Staying in ignorance and intellectual sloth is not the answer. What is lacking is the “love that builds upon the foundation of humility.” Knowledge detached from love may be theoretically correct, but it leads to destruction. But this is still too theoretical. The “love that builds upon the foundation of humility” is not a concept. It is a person. It is Jesus Christ. It is love for Christ. It is grace. Augustine’s conviction is clear: without grace, it is impossible to arrive at a true knowledge of God and therefore of reality.
For Augustine, this was not only an intellectual conviction; it was an experience. He describes it with amazing words. The knowledge that he obtained from the Platonic books  was theoretically correct, but it did not bring him to “mourn his ignorance.” Literally, he says non flebam, that is, “I did not cry.” If he really had found the Truth, he would have experienced his powerlessness to reach the communion with it that would fulfill his heart, to the point that it would have made him cry, mourning the  weakness that prevents us from truly reaching the knowledge of God. In the paragraph before this, he says he had come to find the truth about God in those books, but he did not “enjoy” God. True knowledge, therefore, is achieved only through a communion of love–the  “love that builds upon the foundation of humility” revealed in Christ through an encounter with Him. It is Christ alone who could “heal the wounds of his heart with His fingers.” This is what faith brings to reason.
Finally, note how he summarizes the possibilities before us in our efforts to know the truth: it is a matter either of “presumption” or a destructive pride, or “confession,” that is, a witnessing to an experience in the heart. Faith is the response to the testimony of a witness that not only informs us about the Truth, but makes it present. Faith is recognition of the presence of Christ.