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Chapter 5PsAug.1.5

Miseria nostra a peccato. Quod peccatum nihil sit. Quod peccans nihil fiat.

The Soul's Confession of Wretchedness

The soul confesses its misery and nothingness, recognizing that apart from the Word through whom all things were made, it has been reduced to nothing.

I must confess, then — I must confess to you, Lord, Father, King of heaven and earth — my misery, so that I may be allowed to come to your mercy. I have been made wretched, truly, and reduced to nothing — and I didn't even know it; because you are truth, and I was not with you. My own iniquities wounded me, and I felt no grief; because you are life, and I was not with you. They led me down to nothing, because you are the Word and I was not with you — through whom all things were made, without whom nothing was made. And so without you I have been made nothing, because there is nothing that leads to nothing.✦ All things were made through the Word — whatever things were made.✦ And what kind of things were they that were made? God saw all that he had made, and it was very good (Gen.✦ 1, 31).

Evil as the Privation of the Word

Since all things made through the Word are good, evil is shown to be nothing — a privation of good, not a created thing.

All things that exist are made through the Word, and whatever is made through the Word is very good.✦✦ Why are they good? Because they are made through the Word. And without him nothing was made (John 1:3).✦ I, 3); because no good exists apart from the highest Good, but evil is present where good is not — and that is certainly nothing, because evil is nothing other than the privation of good, just as blindness is nothing other than the privation of light.✦ Evil, then, is nothing — because it was made without the Word, and without the Word nothing was made. That, however, is evil which deprives one of that good through which all good things were made — namely, the Word, through which all things that exist were made. But the things that do not exist were not made through him, and so they are nothing.

The Ontological Nothingness of Sin

Evil does not exist as a created thing but is the privation of the Word; to be separated from the Word is to cease to be.

And so the things that are evil are things that were not made; because all things that exist were made through the Word, and all things made through the Word are good.✦ Since, then, all things were made through the Word, evil things were not made through him. It follows, therefore, that whatever things were not made are not good; because all things that were made are good. And so evil things do not exist, because they were not made; and so they are nothing, because without the Word nothing was made. Evil, therefore, is nothing, because it was not made.1 But how can it be evil, if it was not made? Because evil is the privation of the Word, through which the good was made.2 To be without the Word, therefore, is evil — that is, not to be at all — because without him nothing exists. But what does it mean to be separated from the Word? If you want to know this, listen to what the Word is.

The Word as Way, Truth, and Life

To be separated from the Word is to be without way, truth, and life — and so to become nothing; every turning from the good is a turning toward annihilation.

The Word of God says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (Id.✦3 XIV, 6).✦4 To be separated from the Word, then, is to be without the way, without the truth, without the life—and so to be nothing in its presence, and so to be evil, because to be separated from the good through which all good things were made is a very great evil.5 But to be separated from the Word through which all things were made is nothing other than to fail and to pass from what has been made into failure—because without it, there is nothing.6 As often as you turn aside from the good, you separate yourself from the Word—because the Word is the good. And so you will become nothing, because you are without the Word, without which nothing was made.✦7

Self-Knowledge and the Idol of Nothingness

Illumined by God, the soul recognizes that every separation from God reduced it to nothing — like an idol with senses but no sensation — and laments its former blindness.

Now, Lord, you have given me light to see you: I have seen you, and I have come to know myself, because every time I was nothing, it was whenever I was separated from you; because I forgot the good that you are, and so I became evil.8 Woe is me, wretched as I am! Why did I never grasp this? The moment I deserted you, I was becoming nothing.9 But why do I even ask this? If I was nothing, how could I have wanted to know anything? We know that nothing is nothing; and what is nothing, is not; and what is not, is not good, because it is nothing.10 If, then, I was nothing when I was without you — as good as nothing — I was like an idol, which is nothing. It has ears but does not hear; nostrils but does not smell; eyes but does not see; a mouth but does not speak; hands but does not feel; feet but does not walk — every feature of its limbs without any sensation.1112

Read the original Latin

Confitear ergo, confitear tibi, Domine Pater, rex coeli et terrae, miseriam meam, ut me venire liceat ad misericordiam tuam. Miser quippe factus sum, et ad nihilum redactus sum, et nescivi; quia tu es veritas, et ego non eram tecum. Vulneraverunt me iniquitates meae, et non dolui; quia tu es vita, et ego non eram tecum. Ad nihilum deduxerunt me; quia tu es Verbum, et ego non eram tecum, per quem facta sunt omnia, sine quo factum est nihil: et ideo sine te factus sum nihil, quia est nihil quod ad nihilum ducit. Omnia per Verbum facta sunt, quaecumque facta sunt. Et qualia facta sunt? Vidit Deus cuncta quae fecerat, et erant valde bona (Gen. I, 31).

Omnia quaecumque sunt, per Verbum facta sunt: et quaecumque per Verbum facta sunt, valde bona sunt. Quare bona sunt? Quia per Verbum facta sunt. Et sine ipso factum est nihil (Joan. I, 3); quia nihil bonum sine summo bono, sed malum est ubi non est bonum, quod utique nihil est; quia nihil aliud est malum, quam privatio boni; sicut nihil aliud est caecitas, quam privatio luminis. Malum igitur nihil est; quia utique sine Verbo factum est, sine quo factum est nihil. Illud autem malum est, quod privat illo bono per quod facta sunt omnia bona, scilicet Verbo per quod facta sunt omnia quaecumque sunt. At quae non sunt, per ipsum facta non sunt, et ideo nihil sunt.

Et ideo mala sunt, quae facta non sunt; quia omnia quaecumque sunt, per Verbum facta sunt, et omnia per Verbum bona facta sunt. Cum igitur omnia per Verbum facta sunt, mala per ipsum non sunt: restat igitur, quod omnia quaecumque facta non sunt, bona non sunt; quia omnia quae facta sunt, bona sunt. Et ideo mala non sunt, quia facta non sunt, et ideo nihil sunt, quia sine Verbo factum est nihil Malum igitur nihil est; quia factum non est. Sed qualiter malum est, si factum non est? Quia malum privatio Verbi est, per quod bonum factum est. Esse ergo sine Verbo malum est; quod esse non est, quia sine ipso nihil est. Sed quid est separari a Verbo? Si hoc velis scire, audi quid sit Verbum.

Verbum Dei dicit, Ego sum via, veritas et vita (Id. XIV, 6). Separari ergo a Verbo, est esse sine via, sine veritate, sine vita; et ideo sine ipso nihil, et ideo malum; quia separari a bono, per quod facta sunt omnia bona valde. Separari autem a Verbo, per quod omnia facta sunt, nihil aliud est quam deficere, et a facto transire in defectum: quia sine ipso est nihil. Quoties ergo a bono devias, a Verbo te separas, quia ipsum est bonum; et ideo nihil efficeris, quia sine Verbo es, sine quo factum est nihil.

Nunc, Domine, illuminasti me, ut viderem te: vidi te, et cognovi me, quia toties nihil factus sum, quoties a te separatus sum; quia bonum quod tu es, oblitus sum, et ideo malus effectus sum. Vae mihi misero! ut quid hoc non cognoscebam, quia te deserens nihil fiebam? Sed quid hoc quaero? Si nihil eram, quomodo cognoscere volebam? Scimus quia nihil nihil est; et quod nihil est, non est; et quod non est, bonum non est, quia nihil est. Si ergo nihil fui, cum sine te fui, quasi nihil fui, et velut idolum quod nihil est: quod quidem aures habet, et non audit; nares habet, et non odorat; oculos habet, et non videt; os habet, et non loquitur; manus habet, et non palpat; pedes habet, et non ambulat; et omnia lineamenta membrorum sine sensu eorum.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩John.1.3 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
  2. ↩John.1.3 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
  3. ↩Gen.1.31 — And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
  4. ↩John.1.3 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
  5. ↩Gen.1.31 — And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
  6. ↩John.1.3 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
  7. ↩John.1.3 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
  8. ↩John.1.3 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
  9. ↩John.14.6 — Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
  10. ↩John.14.6 — Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
  11. ↩John.1.3 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The Latin plays on the double sense of 'nihil' (nothing / not a thing) and 'factum' (made / done). The tautological force of 'sine Verbo factum est nihil' — 'without the Word nothing was made' — is deliberately compressed.
  2. 2 ↩The privation theory of evil (malum as privatio boni) is Augustinian. Here the 'good' that is deprived is specifically the Word (Verbum) through which all good was created. This is a Christological application of the classical privation framework.
  3. 3 ↩Quotation from John 14:6. The source anchor "Id." is a citation marker whose referent is unclear from context; scripture resolution deferred to tx-08.
  4. 4 ↩Citation reference: John 14, verse 6. Parenthetical closes the scriptural citation begun in the previous sentence.
  5. 5 ↩The Latin builds a chain of inference (ergo…et ideo…et ideo…quia) equating separation from the Word with non-being and with evil. The final clause (valde) intensifies the evil of separation from the good, not the goodness of the things made.
  6. 6 ↩Deficere and defectum carry the sense of falling away, failing, or lapsing into deficiency. The contrast is between the created order (factum) and the void (defectum/nihil).
  7. 7 ↩Devias (turn aside / turn away) implies a willful swerving from the good. The future indicative efficeris (you will become) gives the consequence a prophetic force.
  8. 8 ↩The repeated quia clauses ('because… because… and so') are rendered to preserve the tight logical chain: self-knowledge flows from seeing God; nothingness follows separation; forgetting the Good produces evil.
  9. 9 ↩Ut quid is rendered as the natural English exclamatory 'Why' rather than a literal 'how… what' to capture the rhetorical force.
  10. 10 ↩The first quia after scimus is rendered as the complementizer 'that' (we know that…); the second quia is causal ('because').
  11. 11 ↩Cum is rendered temporally ('when I was without you') as the primary reading; a causal reading ('since') is also possible.
  12. 12 ↩Lineamenta membrorum rendered as 'feature of its limbs' to capture the sense of bodily outlines or formed parts without importing a technical anatomical term.

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