28 August 2020
Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
In the City of God, Augustine uses the example of St. Paul as a model of the Christian hero in opposition to the heroic ideal proposed by Cicero. Paul is the only Christian that Augustine mentions in the City of God as an Optimus uir as the alternative to Rome’s best citizens as optimi uiri/optimates. This proposition raises the question about the role of Jesus Christ in Augustine’s discussion of heroism. The question is whether Augustine only refers to Paul as the heroic Christian ideal or perhaps Paul is just a model, in which he looks upon the ultimate hero, that is, Jesus Christ. In the City of God, Augustine uses the term Optimus rex to describe Jesus (Civita Dei 17:6) as the best king.
In Augustine’s view, kenosis is essential to the meaning of Christ’s heroism. In his reflection on the Philippians hymn (Philippians 2:6-11), Augustine sees that kenosis is the manifestation of Christ’s humility. As the Son, Jesus shares all of the divine characteristics with the Father, but comes to us in the form of a human just like us. The Philippians Christ-hymn encapsulates the full scope of Christ’s humility because it describes Christ’s two modes of humility. The first mode of humility is revealed in the Incarnation, in which Christ’s self-emptying occurred. Augustine stated that “by taking what he was not, not by losing what he was. He emptied himself. He humbled himself” (Serm. 265E.2). In other words, here is the humility of God who becomes human and fully enters our corrupted body. Augustine posited further that the Incarnation is an act of grace, extended by God, to sanctify the created world. Augustine stresses, “Oh, had you but recognized the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord, and that very incarnation of His, wherein He assumed a human soul and body, you might have seemed the brightest example of grace” (Civita Dei X.29). Thus, Augustine sees the Incarnation of Logos is grace because it is an act of humility, in which by becoming human, the Logos forms a new bond between God and humanity.
St. Augustine never used the term “hero” to describe Christ in the City of God. Throughout his long career as a scholar and bishop, Augustine frequently referred to God as humble, and so the term “humility” (humilitas) is predicated of God. Augustine refers to Christ as humilis deus (De Catechizandis Rudibus 4.8), auctor humilitatis(Sermo. 77.11), magister humilitatis, (Sermo. 62.1; Johannis Evangelium Tractatus) and doctor humilitatis (Sermo. 340A.5). Augustine repeatedly proclaims that Jesus Christ as Incarnate Word is the expression of God’s humility, the fundamentum humilitatis quod est Jesus Christus (Confession 7.20.26). He also asserts that in Christ, the believers will find the standard of humility (norma humilitatis – Sermo 68.11). Although Augustine never explicitly labeled Christ as a humble hero, he was clear that Christ is the humble God (humilis deus) who possesses the quality and character of an ideal hero that is contrary to the Roman heroic ideal.
For St. Augustine, the Incarnation is the climactic moment of history because Christ becomes man. In doing so, he is taking a heroic action to sanctify life and banish all possibility that humanity will be trapped in the deplorable consequences of evil. It is through the Incarnation, the humility of Christ manifested into a heroic action, that finally cures us of our sins, both in its ability to purify, and to heal us from our depraved state.