Out of Darkness into His Marvelous Light

Yesterday, I wrote about the process of daily conversion, of allowing the Son of God to dwell in us, as He has promised, to cleanse us from the darkness of sin and evil.  Today, I want to quote some of the passages from the Confessions that relate to the same idea, as I think Augustine expresses it so much better:

For those, on whom Thy good Spirit is said to rest, He causes to rest in Himself....for living is not one with happy living, seeing it lives also, ebbing and flowing in its own darkness: for which it remains to be converted unto Him, by Whom it was made, and to live more and more by the fountain of life, and in His light to see light, and to be perfected, and enlightened, and beautified.

 

[In the passage above, Augustine is comparing our lives/ our souls to the process of creation, at first unformed and chaotic, darkened -- with the Spirit of the Lord hovering over it--until the Word is spoken into the abyss:  "LIGHT, BE!"]  And gradually, not all at once, our lives, our souls, enlightened by the Word, begin to take on harmony, beauty, and form.]

 

To whom shall I speak this? how speak of the weight of evil desires, downwards to the steep abyss; and how Love raises up again by Thy Spirit which was borne above the waters?  To whom shall I speak it? How speak it?  ....the uncleanness of our spirit flowing away downwards with the love of cares, and the holiness of Thine raising us upward by love of unanxious repose...for even in that miserable restlessness of the spirits, who fell away and discovered their own darkness, when bared of the clothing of Thy light, dost Thou sufficiently reveal how noble Thou made the reasonable creature, to which nothing will suffice to yield a happy rest, less than Thee.  For Thou, O our God, shall lighten our darkness: from Thee rises our garment of light; and then shall our darkness as the noon day.

This only I know, that woe is me except in Thee: not only without but within myself also; and all abundance which is not my God is emptiness to me....My weight is my love....[Augustine has just reflected on the fact that the weight of any body "strives toward its own place."  For example, fire tends upwards; a stone downward.  Urged by their own weight, they seek their own places.  Oil poured below water rises above the water; water poured on oil sinks below the oil.  When out of their own order, they are restless until they find their place; then they are at rest.]  My weight is my love. We are inflamed; by Thy Gift, we are kindled, and are carried upwards; we glow inwardly, and go forwards.  We ascend Thy ways that be in our heart, and sing a song of degrees.....

 

Whoso can, let him understand this; let him ask of Thee....our darkness displeased us, and we turned unto Thee and there was light.  And, behold, we were sometimes darkness, but now light in the Lord.

 

In the First Letter of Peter, he says, "...that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (2:9).  This is the entire Christian story --- once, we were living in the darkness of sin, and now we are being continually rescued from the pit and being drawn to the Light of the World, through the action of the Holy Spirit hovering over our souls and infusing into them the Christ, the Savior of the world.  Whosoever can, let him understand this; let him ask of God if he does not.