Eighty-three Different Questions : a new translation.

81. On Quadragesima and Quinquagesima

212 ST. AUGUSTINE Apollinarians] from consenting to Catholic faith, provided they are not deterred by the deadly disgrace of an opinion in need of change which, in spite of its falsity, has been long and rashy defended. 81. ON QUADRAGESIMA AND QUINQUAGESIMAI (1) All instruction in wisdom, the purpose of which is the education of men, is for distinguishing the creator and the creature, and worshipping the one as Lord and confessing the other as subject. And the creator is God, from whom are all things, through whom are all things, and in whom are all things,2 and he is threfore a trinity-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The creature, however, as soul, is partly invisible; as body, partly visible. To the invisible the number 3 is assigned . For this reason, we are commanded to love God in a three-fold way: "with the whole heart, with the whole soul, and with the whole mind.' '3 To the body the number 4 is assigned on account of its clearly evident make-up,4 which consists of the hot and the cold, the moist and the dry. Consequently the number 7 is assigned to the creature taken as a whole. Wherefore all instruction which distinguishes and separates the creator and the creature is suggested by the number 10. This instruction, inasmuch as it is expressed through the movements of bodies in time, rests upon believing, and it nourishes its little children by an authoritative record5 of . transient events, as if by milk, so that it might ready them for the contemplation which does not come and go, but which remains ever the same. With this [instruction], and possessed of the record of the things carried out by God in time for the salvation of men (or to be carried out and now proclaimed as future), each one, if he has persevered in the faith and trusted in the promises, and if he has taken care to 1 Cf. Q. 57. 2 Rom 11.36. 3 Mt 22.37. 4, natuTam. 5 auctoritate (i.e., the Bible). QUESTION 81 213 fulfill with an indefatigable love what divine authority commands , will conduct his life, subject to necessity and time, uprightly. This life is designated by the number 40, since the number 10, which suggests the whole body of instruction, taken four times, i.e., multiplied by the number which is assigned to the body (because through the movement of material bodies is carried out the providential course of events6 on which faith rests, as was said a moment ago), produces the number 40. Thus [this instruction] brings about a stable wisdom independent of time. This wisdom is designated by the number 10, in order that 10 may be added to 40, because the whole factors of the number 40, added together, produce 50. Moreover, the number 40 has these whole factors: first, 1 times 40, then 2 times 20, 4- times 10, 5 times 8, 8 times 5, 10 times 4, and 20 times 2. Therefore the sum of 1 + 2 + 4 + 5 + 8 + 1° + 20 is 50. 7 Consequently , just as the number 40, when its whole factors are added together, generates an additional 10 and becomes 50, so the time of faith in what has been done and will be done for our salvation, when lived with wholeness of life,8 brings about an intellectual grasp of immutable wisdom, so that instruction [in wisdom] may be supported not only by belief, but also by understanding. (2) For this reason, although we are the sons of God, nonetheless, that which is now the Church, prior to the appearance of what we will be, lives in toils and afflictions, and in her the just man lives by faith. 9 For, "except you believe," it is said, "you will not understand." 10 And this is the time wherein we groan and suffer pain, awaiting the redemption of our bodies, II which is celebrated at Qu~dragesima.12 "However, we know that when it appears, 6 administratio geritur. 7 See above, Q. 57, n. 9. 8 cum aequitate uitae. Note that Augustine's term for "whole factors" is partes aequales. 9 Rom 1.17. 10 Is 7.9 (according to the Septuagint). 11 Rom 8.23. 12 Quadragesima, meaning" fortieth [day1," is the traditional name for the forty-day Lenten period. 214 ST. AUGUSTINE we will be like him, because we will...