Saint Augustine was a fourth century writer and bishop that wrote the book, Confessions, to proclaim his faith in Jesus through an extended reflection and repentance. Throughout the masterpiece, he reminisces on the flawed actions of his life explaining his true feelings at the time. Overall, Augustine’s spiritual journey helps him understand why his actions are wrong; he relied heavily on the material world and the sensory aspects that make it definite. I also relied heavily on sensory truths when making spiritual decisions, but just as Augustine, my spiritual journey revealed sensory perception’s imperfect ability to comprehend the intangible. Ultimately, our spiritual growth empowered us with faith and confidence to abandon sensory perception to strive for what is inherently good.
My spiritual growth has greatly been affected by my Southern Baptist upbringing where I was taught many things about the Bible and Jesus Christ. I decided to create a personal relationship with Christ and be baptized when I was nine, and my church helped me through both of these endeavors. As I grew to be a teenager, I realized that I had never taken the time to actually solidify my faith. I had attended church and participated in Sunday school, but I never thought about the actually validity of my faith. I just thought it had to be true. When I started to look for answers, I realized there was no solid ground to make a definite claim for or against Christianity. This was discouraging, but my friends gave me great support, and one loaned me a book he and a few of my friends had read. I read the book and it opened my eyes to the Christianity that I had always believed in, but could not put into words. After reading the book, I found myself creating a reflection group with my friends to discuss the ideals of the book mainly hunger/homelessness and Jesus’ ministry. I came to the conclusion that life is a battle to fight the selfish human nature within and strive to be as selfless as Jesus. Jesus’ continuing selflessness throughout the New Testament is the solid ground I was looking for, and it made me realize that searching for sensory truths to base my faith off of were just defects of my selfish sins. This experience finally solidified my faith and I am still volunteering and trying to live more and more selfless everyday.
Our spiritual journeys resemble each other because we searched for the sensory truths of the world, and ended up realizing the truth is beyond sensory perception. Augustine struggles with lust, envy, and greed all of which are desires of the material world that are perceived with the senses. Humans trust the senses because they are definite truths in day-to-day life, and unfortunately, they can be trapped in this mindset accumulating possessions and fulfilled desires. On the other hand, the intangible aspects of life such as faith, morality, and justice are less desirable because they are difficult to prove. They might seem inherently correct and just, but there will never be physical proof to back up the claim. Augustine’s repentance throughout the book is a subtle indictor that he too believes his actions were immoral, but even when he realizes he is being immoral; he lacks the physical evidence to prove to himself his actions are wrong. This is the trap people fall into, but with faith and confidence, Augustine and I defeated our sinful natures and realized the true truths of the world.
The truths we realized and value are equality, justice, and morality. These are the intangible things that cannot be seen, heard, smelled, touched or tasted. These truths strengthen relationships with God because they are not focused on truths brought by sensory perception. They are focused on the truths revealed by God and the positive experiences of those served. Augustine and I were empowered by faith and confidence to abandon the truths held highest by humans for the truths forgotten and trampled on by the misled.
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