saints

      The writings of the two Catholic Saints whom we will study, Augustine and
Catherine of Siena, offer distinctly different views of the how the body figures into the
experience of love. They each agree that the body is the lesser part of a person, second to
the soul. But, they disagree as to the functions which it can perform in loving God.
Augustine seems to think that the body is primarily a vehicle of evil temptation. He fears
indulgence in food, music, beauty, or physical love without intent to be dedicated to God.
Catherine, on the other hand, gives the body the ability to express perfect love of God.
Through tears, she believes one can create, after a series of imperfect stages, a perfect
love of God. She believes that "The heart gathers them(tears) up from its burning desire
and holds them out to the eyes,(Catherine, 1701)" and that no part of the body can give
satisfaction as well as the eyes can.
       Augustine limits the ability of the body to that of sensing the temptation of evil.
When he begins Book II of his Confessions he says, "I must carry my thoughts back to the
abominable things I did in those days, the sins of the flesh which defiled my soul. I do this,
my God, not because I love those sins but so that I may love you. For love of my love I
shall retrace my wicked ways." ( p.2122). He then goes on to express the plethora of
indulgences satisfaction of the body lead him to. He does not, however, express any way
which the body would serve a significant function in loving God.
       When he asked himself who he was, he knew that he was a man and though that
"it is clear that I have both body and soul(p.212). Later on that same page he says that he
tried to find God using his body. He tried to find God in the earth, sky, and his
surroundings. But, he did realize that his body can only show him the things that were
created by God. "If I am to reach him, it must be through my soul.(p. 213)" And, since
God is all that he loves, he would only be able to find love through his soul, and not his
body.
      Augustine writes several sections on temptations of the body. Of eating he says, "I
find pleasure in this need, though I fight against it, for fear of becoming its captive.(p.
235)" Although he is, at that point, speaking directly of eating, the things he says directly
indicate similar feelings about temptations for smell, music, beauty, and other pleasures.
He is even very worried about enjoying his dreams too much. "When I am awake they
obtrude themselves upon me, though with little strength. But when I dream, they not only
give me pleasure by are very much like acquiescence in the act.(p. 233)" He worries that
these dreams have a power so great that, "what is no more than a vision can influence me
in sleep in a way that the reality cannot do when I'm awake.(p. 233)" He says that he
should not be affected by any of these imperfections of the body and that for God it would
be "no great task to prescribe that no temptations of this kind, even such slight
temptations as can be checked by the least act of will, should arouse pleasure in
me...(p.234)"
      He speaks of a love reminiscent of Aristophones when he says that, "When at last I
cling to you with all my being, for me there will be no more sorrow, no more toil. Then at
last I shall be alive with true life, for my life will be wholly filled by you." But, here it
appears that he speaks of a time without body, a time after death when, he would have
believed, he would be with God.
      He also speaks of how love feels. "My love of you, O Lord, is not some vague
feeling: it is positive and certain. Your word struck into my heart and from that moment I
loved you."(p. 211) In the paragraph that follows he says, "And yet, when I love him, it is
true that I love a light of a certain kind, a voice, a perfume, a food, an d embrace."(p.211)
But, he is speaking here of these things not as though they are being experienced by the
physical body, but by his inner self, or soul.
     "But they are of the kind of love that I love in my inner self, when my soul is bated
      in light that is not bound by space; when it listens to sound that never dies away;
      when it breathes fragrance that is not borne away on the wind; when it tastes food
      that is never consumed by eating; when it clings to an embrace from which it is not
      severed by fulfillment of desire. This is what I love when I love my God."(p. 212)
Here he says how he loves God, and by omission he says that he does not do it with his
body.
     Catherine also very clearly states that the body is not nearly as important as the
soul in the love of God. She speaks pertinently of only two parts of the body: the heart
and the eyes. She says that they eyes are the most important part of her body. These two
parts of the body work together, as she says, "I want you to know that all tears come from
the heart. Nor is there any other bodily member that can satisfy the heart as the eyes
can."(p. 161)
      She then bases all that she has to say about the body and love around tears. She
gives an ascending list of 5 stages of tears. The first are tears that a person cries when they
are in sin, "tears of damnation.(p.161)" Then come tears of people, "who weep for fear
because they have risen up from the sin out of fear of punishment.(p.161)" The third type
of tears come from people who have risen above sin and are beginning to be close to God,
both their love is not perfect, so their tears are not either. Finally, in the fourth stage the
people have, "attained perfection in loving their neighbors and love me(God) without any
self interest....and their weeping is perfect.(p.161)" The fifth stage is of "sweet tears shed
with great tenderness," it brings a person closest to God. At this point "the soul is united
with Truth and the flame of holy desire burns more fiercely within her.(p.167)" She adds
also that the fruit of one's tears is made more or less depending on the amount love that
the soul has(p. 169) and that "a soul can experience all of these different stages as she rises
from fear and imperfect love to attain perfect love and the state of union."(p.161)
      An examination of Saints Augustine and Catherine of Siena shows a wide disparity
in how they view body's relation to experiences of love. Augustine says that he loves only
God, and the only function the body has shown him is to draw him away from God
through temptation and sin. The body, to him, would seem to serve no purpose in
experiences of love. Catherine, however, says that the body can express a love of God
through tears. And, the effect of those tears is determined by the amount of love for God
in one's soul. Like Augustine she makes it clear that the soul is more important to love
when she says, "It is true, then, that the soul is united to God through love's affection." (p.
26) But she, contrastingly, allows the body a function in experiences of love through
tears.

Back to Philosophy page

Ryan's Writings main page