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Chapter 5PsAugSoliloquia.1.5

Caput 5. Miseria nostra a peccato. Quod peccatum nihil sit. Quod peccans nihil fiat.

Confessing Our Misery

Confessing his misery, the soul acknowledges that sin has reduced it to nothing while it remained unaware, because it was separated from the Word.

So let me confess—let me confess to you, Lord Father, King of heaven and earth—my misery, so that I may be allowed to come to your mercy. Indeed I have become wretched, and I have been reduced to nothing, and I did not know it; because you are the truth, and I was not with you. My sins wounded me, and I did not feel the pain; because you are life, and I was not with you.1 They have brought 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 became nothing, because what leads to nothing is itself nothing.2

All Things Made Good in the Word

All creation is made through the Word and is very good, so any goodness is measured by union with him.

All things were made through the Word—whatever things were made. And of what kind were they made? God saw all that he had made, and they were very good (Gen. 1:31). Whatever exists was made through the Word: and whatever was made through the Word is very good.✦✦ Why are they good? Because they were made through the Word.✦ And without him nothing was made (John✦

Evil, the Privation of the Good

Evil is not a thing made by God but the privation of the good; therefore it has no true being and is nothing.

1:3); because nothing is good apart from the supreme Good, but evil is where there is no good—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.✦3 Therefore evil is nothing; because it was certainly made without the Word, without whom nothing was made.✦4 But evil is that which strips away the good through which all good things were made—namely the Word, through whom whatever exists was made.✦ But the things that are not were not made through him, and therefore they are nothing.✦ So things that were not made are evils, because everything that exists was made through the Word, and everything made through the Word was made good. Since, then, all things were made through the Word, evils are not through Him. So it follows that whatever things were not made are not good, because all things that were made are good. So evils do not truly exist, because they were not made, and so they are nothing, because without the Word nothing was made. Evil, then, is nothing; because it was not made.5 But how can evil be, if it was not made? Because evil is the privation of the Word, through whom the good was made.6 To be without the Word, then, is evil — which is not to be, because without Him there is nothing.

The Word: Our Way, Truth, and Life

Since the Word is the way, the truth and the life, to be separated from him is to fall into the deficiency and nothingness of sin.

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 of God says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (Jn.✦ 14:6).✦ So to be separated from the Word is to be without the way, without the truth, without life; and so without him there is nothing, and so there is evil—because it is to be separated from the good through which all things were made very good.✦✦✦ But to be separated from the Word, through whom all things were made, is nothing other than to fail, and to pass from what has been made into deficiency: because without him there is nothing.✦7 So whenever you turn aside from the good, you separate yourself from the Word, because he himself is the good; and so you become nothing, because you're without the Word, without whom nothing was made.✦

Awakening to the Nothingness of Sin

The soul, awake at last, sees that without God it was as good as nothing—a deaf, blind, and lifeless idol—and mourns its sin.

Now, Lord, you have enlightened me so that I might see you: I saw you, and I came to know myself, because I became nothing as often as I was separated from you; because I forgot the good that you are, and so I became evil. Woe to me, wretched as I am! Why didn't I understand this — that by abandoning you I was becoming nothing?8 But why am I asking this? If I was nothing, how did I want to know? We know that nothing is nothing; and what is nothing does not exist; and what does not exist is not good, because it is nothing.9 So if I was nothing when I was without you, I was as good as nothing, and like an idol that is nothing: it has ears and does not hear; it has nostrils and does not smell; it has eyes and does not see; it has a mouth and does not speak; it has hands and does not feel; it has feet and does not walk; and it has all the outlines of the limbs without their senses.

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. ↩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.
  3. ↩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.
  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. ↩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.
  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.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.'
  12. ↩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.
  13. ↩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.
  14. ↩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.
  15. ↩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 ↩dolui rendered as 'feel the pain' (numbness under self-inflicted wound); could also be read as 'grieve'.
  2. 2 ↩quia est nihil quod ad nihilum ducit taken in the chapter's privation sense: what reduces a person to nothing (sin/evil) is itself nothing, not an existential 'there is nothing that leads to nothing'.
  3. 3 ↩Keeps Augustinian privatio boni as 'privation of good,' not a weaker paraphrase such as 'mere absence.'
  4. 4 ↩The paradox is intentional: if evil is 'made' apart from the Word, and nothing is made apart from the Word, then evil is nothing. The next section states the same conclusion as 'because it was not made.'
  5. 5 ↩Normalized Latin runs two sentences together before Malum; a full stop is supplied after nihil for sense.
  6. 6 ↩privatio Verbi kept as metaphysical privation of the Word, not mere absence of speech.
  7. 7 ↩Latin plays on factum/defectum: moving from what has been made into defect, lack, or falling-short.
  8. 8 ↩quia after cognoscebam taken as content-clause (“that”) naming what was not understood, rather than a separate causal “because”.
  9. 9 ↩nihil nihil est kept as the chapter’s ontological claim that nothingness truly is nothing (cf. peccatum nihil sit), not as a mere tautology for style.

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