Outward Expressions of Piety - Phillip Vo

“Without me knowing that they were listening, lest they should think I was saying things just for their sake, I wish they could have heard what comments I made on these words. But in truth i would not have said those things, nor said them in that kind of way, if I had felt myself to be heard or observed by them. Nor, had I said them, would they have understood how I was expressing the most intimate feeling of my mind with myself and to myself.” 

- Book IX, Chapter 8

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

- Mathew 6:5-8

When I initially read the excerpt from Book IX, I immediately thought of Mathew 6, especially since we have been studying Jesus’s sermon on the mount in my moral philosophy and ethics class with Dr. Mashburn. I see in Augustine a change that goes deep into the core of his being; a desire to please God in every action, even to the point that he wishes to remove the selfish desire within him that tries to say the right things when certain people are around or pray a certain way when he knows he is being heard. He understands that about his nature, where as too many of us do not realize that in our attempt to do much for God we are truly just performing for the applause of man. Those who seek approval receive their reward in full, but our Father sees what is done in secret and will bless us accordingly. 

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