Confessions #6: Woe to the Silent

"But in these words what have I said, my God, my life, my holy sweetness? What has anyone achieved in words when he speaks about you? Yet woe to those who are silent about you because, though loquacious with verbosity, whey have nothing to say."

In the notes, Chadwick observes that in the Confessions "the loquacious" are usually "either pagan philosophical critics rejecting the Christian revelation or Manichees." So, it was not for want of speaking about the divine that Augustine criticized these, but for want of speaking truly and meaningfully about God. They were somewhat like the smooth-talkers and the weak-willed women of 2 Timothy who were "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth" or those from 1 Timothy who devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship which is from God by faith."

Instead of these wanderings and divergences, as Paul told Timothy, "the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." And as Augustine observes, in love we must speak of God, of His goodness and his nature, or else we will find ourselves like the prophet Jeremiah who said,

If I say, "I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,"
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.

So, "since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, 'I believed, and so I spoke,' we also believe, and so we also speak" with words that at best fall just short of the Word whose words are "spirit and life". If we don't speak, it is true, the rocks will cry out. But why wait for them, when it is we who have been charged to speak to the mountains and have them cast into the sea?

I will end with Augustine's words that led to his observation above:

"Most high, utterly good, utterly powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, deeply hidden yet most intimately present, perfection of both beauty and strength, stable and incomprehensible, immutable yet changing all things, never new, never old, making everything new and 'leading' the proud 'to be old without their knowledge'; always active, always in repose, gathering to yourself but not in need, supporting and filling and protecting, creating and nurturing and bringing to maturity, searching even though to you nothing is lacking; you love without burning, you are jealous in a way that is free of anxiety, you 'repent' without the pain of regret, you are wrathful and remain tranquil. You will a change without any change in your design. You recover what you find, yet have never lost..."