Church Voices

In his Confessions, St. Augustine recalls a conversation he had between himself, his friend Alypius, and Ponticianus, a “fellow countryman…from Africa, who held high office in the emperor’s court” (VIII,14 [Trans. & ed. Albert C. Outler]). Augustine quotes Ponticianus, who tells a story about one of his fellow political friends who happened upon a book containing the life of Antony, the Egyptian monk. His friend began reading it,

and was so fascinated and thrilled by the story that even before he finished reading he conceived the idea of taking upon himself the same kind of life and abandoning his career in the world – both he and his friend were officials in the service of the State – in order to become [God’s] servant. All at once he was filled with the love of holiness. Angry with himself and full of remorse, he looked at his friend and said, “What do we hope to gain by all the efforts we make? What are we looking for? What is our purpose in serving the State? Can we hope for anything better at court than to be the Emperor’s friends? Even so, surely our position would be precarious and exposed to much danger. We shall meet it in every turn, only to meet another danger which is greater still. And how long is it to be before we reach it? But if I wish, I can become the friend of God at this very moment.” (VIII, 15)

I recently had a family get-together, at which one of my relatives went on and on about the infinite woes of the American government. In his spiel, he denounced this and that and suggested such and so as respective appropriations. It was a passionate and angry pitch to all in ear shot. All the while I couldn’t help but think of questions similar to those asked by Ponticianus’s friend. Finally, he paused, looked at me and asked, “What do you think?” Somewhat nervously, I replied “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Suppose this utopia you’ve been imagining were actualized. Then what?” He didn’t really have an answer. When you don’t have a prior foundation upon which to build political perspective, the question seems unanswerable. That’s probably why Jesus asked it.