True Sorrow for Sin

A friend has asked me to teach a class in his course on St. Augustine's classic work The Confessions. Reading it again is like breathing in the crisp morning air after a night of rain. It is simply refreshing

But what I have found most heartening is Augustine's genuine sorrow for sin. That sounds odd, but it is refreshing to witness. As Augustine looks back over his life he truly mourns his sins and sees them as slime in comparison to the true desirable-ness of God.

I find that so often when people look back over their lives and talk about "the good old days," they like to remember the "good old sins." Rather than having a sense of nausea for their former misdeeds, they have a sense of nostalgia. In essence, their mental scrapbook seems to commemorate their so called "former ways." But one wonders if they can be called "former ways" if they are still recalled in the same sense as one recalls a savory steak once enjoyed in a particular restaurant while on a trip. They might acknowledge the wrongness of it and may not seek to indulge in the same acts in the present day, but their fondness of the act reveals that they still revel in its wickedness.

I am by no means immune to such evil reminiscing. But that is why The Confessions is such a good read. It reminds us to hate the evil in our lives and see it for the foul thing that it really is.