Passage from the text:
"Can this be the innocence of childhood? Far from it, O lord! But I beg you to forgive it. For commanders and kings may take the place of tutors and schoolmasters, nuts and balls and pet birds may give way to money and estates and servants, but these same passions remain with us while one stage of life follows upon another, just as more severe punishments follow upon the schoolmaster's cane. It was, then, simply because they are small that you used children to symbolize humility when, as our King, you commended it by saying that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
- Book I Chapter XIX
Commentary:
St. Augustine makes the proposal in this passage that we all play with vain things, whether we are young or old. That, truly, as we grow up, we never stop being childish. While some would like to think that they are smart and mature, an educated adult, in their state in life the truth is that for all their gambles and vices they are still children. Who's to say that the childish games of children are much different from the "adult" games of grown-ups: hide-and-go-seek versus not paying taxes, tag versus gambling?
I believe him. Adults still have their toys; their iPhones and yachts and guns and stocks. The difference is only symbolic.
No comments:
Post a Comment