The second chapter of the Confessions continues the Prodigal Son motif as the Prodigal Augustine travels to the far country to waste his inheritance and eat with the pigs. He describes his teenage years in vivid language: "I turned from unity in you to be lost in multiplicity" (the language of 'unity' and 'multiplicity' contain elements of Neo-Platonic philosophy which he will develop in greater detail in book IV). Augustine's greatest challenge during these years was his unrestrained sexual lust: "I was burning to find satisfaction in hellish pleasures. I ran wild in the shadowy jungle of erotic adventures." This chapter also contains the famous incident of the theft of pears. Here are the major themes of this chapter:
1. Prodigal Son Motif
Here are a couple selected quotations: "I traveled very far from you, and you did not stop me. I was tossed about and spilt, scattered and boiled dry in my fornications." (ii.(2))
I think there is a picture of the older brother in this chapter as well in vii(15). My personal interpretation here is that Augustine is subtlety attacking his Donatist critics, even though he never mentions them by name in the entire book. The Donatists were a splinter group of North African Catholics who had separated from the mainstream Roman Church. Under severe persecution by Roman authorities, some Catholic bishops and presbyters had renounced their faith and turned over religious texts and lists of other believers to the secular authorities. Many of them later repented of this sin and were restored to full fellowship. The Donatists were of the opinion that such priests were no longer fit for ministry and refused to recognize their authority. Schism resulted and the Donatist movement became very strong in North Africa. This group certainly fits the profile of the 'older brother' on the surface and may be the subject of the following remark: "If man is called by you, follows your voice, and has avoided doing those acts which I am recalling and avowing in my own life, he should not mock the healing of a sick man by the Physician, whose help has kept him from falling sick, or at least enabled him to be less gravely ill. He should love you no less, indeed even more; for he sees the one who delivered me from the great sicknesses of my sins is also he through who he may see that he himself has not been a victim of the same great sicknesses."
2. The Silence of God
This is a motif which was introduced in the last chapter and is further developed here. As the Prodigal Augustine was traveling further away from the Father, he seems amazed at the silence of God: "And you were silent. How slow I was to find my joy! At that time you said nothing, and I traveled much further away from you into more and more sterile things productive of unhappiness, proud in my self-pity, incapable of rest in my exhaustion." In iii(7) Augustine comes to the realization that God was speaking the whole time through his godly mother Monica: "Wretch that I am, do I dare to say that you, my God, were silent when in reality I was travelling farther from you? Was it in this sense that you kept silence to me? Then whose words were they but yours which you were chanting in my ears through my mother, your faithful servant?... I believed you were silent, and that it was only she who was speaking, when you were speaking to me through her." It was Augustine who was moving away from the Father, not the Father who was moving from Augustine - in fact the loving Father was calling the Prodigal Son to come home the entire time!
3. Sexual Ethics
We get insight into the sexual ethics of the mature Augustine as he reflects back with regret on the sexual exploits of his teenage years. It is clear that Augustine resents his parents for their lack of discipline and restraint: "If only someone could have imposed restraint on my disorder." He specifically criticizes Monica: "she did not seek to restrain my sexual drive within the limit of the marriage bond, if it could not be cut back to the quick. The reason why she showed no such concern was that she was afraid that the hope she placed in me could be impeded by a wife."
Although Augustine clearly supports marriage, he seems to indicate that complete celibacy is preferable: "Had I paid careful attention to [the writings of Paul] and 'become a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of heaven' (Matt 19:12), I would have been happier finding fulfilment in your embraces."
Even though Augustine practiced very little sexual restraint during this stage of his life, he traces God's hand of discipline in spite of his parent's failure: "For you were always with me, mercifully punishing me, touching with a bitter taste all my illicit pleasures. Your intention was that I should seek delights unspoilt by disgust and that, in my quest where I could achieve this, I should discover it to be in nothing except you Lord, nothing but you." Sex had become an idol for the young Augustine and even during these years, unrestrained sin left him with nothing but self-hatred and disgust.
4. The Theft of Pears
This is perhaps the most famous incident in the entire book. (cf. iv(9)) Augustine spends more time lamenting, what appears on the surface to be a typical and innocent teenage prank, than he does on any other sin he committed (including the putting away of his son's mother!). The rhetoric with which he describes this particular incident has baffled readers for centuries. Some have written Augustine off as psychologically imbalanced because they have missed the point of this incident completely. If you don't know the story, basically Augustine and his friends entered a pear orchard, stole some fruit and threw it to the pigs - so what's the big deal??
First of all, it is critical to understand that Augustine is analyzing his own internal motives, not the outward act of the theft itself. Augustine is so disgusted at this incident primarily because he stole something for the sake of stealing: "My desire was to enjoy not what I sought by stealing but merely the excitement of thieving and the doing of what was wrong." "I became evil for no reason. I had no motive for my wickedness except wickedness itself. It was found and I loved it. I loved the self-destruction, I loved my fall, not the object for which I had fallen but my fall itself. My depraved soul leaped down from your firmament to ruin" [notice the allusion to the fall of Satan which serves to heighten the rhetoric!] Once again, Augustine reduces the essence of this sin to idolatry: "Therefore in that act of theft what was the object of my love and in which way did I viciously and perversely imitate my Lord?...Was I acting like a prisoner with restricted liberty who does without punishment what is not permitted, thereby making an assertion of possessing a dim resemblance to omnipotence?...What rottenness! What a monstrous life and what an abyss of death! Was it possible to take pleasure in what was illicit for no other reason than it was not allowed?"
The theft of pears ought to remind us what a serious matter sin is before a holy and righteous God! At its root all sin is intricately related to idolatry - the attempt to imitate God and to usurp his authority. This is why so many pages are devoted to this seemingly insignificant childhood prank and why we should take it so seriously.
5. The Mercy of God
In spite of his sin and idolatry, Augustine stands confident of God's mercy and grace: "I will love you, Lord, and I will give thanks and confession to your name because you have forgiven me such great evils and my nefarious deeds. I attribute to your grace and mercy that you have melted my sins away like ice (Ecclus. 3:17)." Like all of us who have trusted Jesus alone for the forgiveness of sins because of his substitutionary atonement on the cross, Augustine knew what it meant to be a forgiven sinner.
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