THEOSISAugustine of Hippo
Consider the journey you wish to pursue. Observe the throngs populating the Wide Path. There is a purpose for the road that leads to the amphitheater, and there is a reason it leads to death. The broad path leads to death, as stated in Matthew 7:13. The width of this path may offer fleeting joy, but its conclusion is eternal narrowness. Indeed, crowds murmur, rejoice, rush, and gather together! Do not emulate them; do not chase after them; it is all vanity and deceptive folly. Let the Lord your God be your hope. Seek nothing but the Lord your God as your hope, for many aspire to gain riches and fleeting honors from God’s hand, seeking everything except God Himself. But you pursue God Himself; set aside all else and draw near to Him! Forget all other distractions and remember Him.
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Abandon anything that stands in your way and orient yourself towards Him, as Philippians 3:14 invites. Truly, He corrects you when you stray from His path; and now that you are on the right path, He guides you toward your destination. Therefore, let Him be your hope, for He leads you toward fulfillment.
What does worldly greed offer you? To what end does it ultimately lead? Initially, the aspiration may be for a small plot of land; soon you desire an estate and isolate yourself from your neighbors. You entangle yourself in others' possessions, expanding your covetous desires until you reach the shore. Upon reaching the shore, you seek islands; and after claiming land, you might even desire the heavens. Forsake all attachments. The one who created heaven and earth is supremely good. Blessed is the person who places their hope in the name of the Lord and does not lean towards vanity and deception. Why is folly considered a lie? Folly distorts the truth, misleading those who believe they have discerned goodness. You may be misled; you lack clarity because a fever has seized your mind, leading you to embrace illusions of reality. You cheer for the charioteer and are consumed by admiration; this is mere vanity and misleading insanity.
What can I offer to a person caught in delusion? Pray for such individuals if compassion stirs within you. Even a physician, faced with despair, looks to those around him who weep and hang on his words for guidance regarding a perilous patient. The physician experiences doubt, sees no hopeful prognosis, and fears to speak ill for fear of inciting alarm. He humbly suggests that the good Lord can do all things. Who among these mad individuals will I approach? Which of them will heed me? They consider us wretched because we appear to lack the myriad of pleasures they are crazily attached to; they fail to recognize that these pleasures are deceptive and lacking in honor.
One may proclaim victory, claiming to have harnessed horses. Such a person seeks the accolades of divination, turning away from the very Source of divine truth. Often, they are mistaken in their judgments. But why do their predictions occasionally hold truth? They aim to ensnare the gullible, enticed by the illusion of truth, only to fall into the snare of falsehood: let them be left behind, betrayed, and eliminated. If they were part of us, it would be a cause for sorrow. Mortify, as it is written, your members which are upon the earth (Col. 3:5). Let our God be our hope. He who constitutes all that exists is the finest! He who creates beauty exceeds all beauty. He who is mighty is greater than all things. He will embody everything you cherish. Learn to love the Creator within His creation, and in the works of the One who made them. Let not His creations hold your affections captive, lest you lose the One by whom you were made. Blessed is the man who trusts in the name of the Lord and disregards vanity and falsehood.
We shall offer him sights that transcend these illusions. What shall we present to the Christian whom we desire to redirect from these distractions? I thank the Lord our God; in the subsequent verse of the psalm, He reveals what displays we will offer to those wishing to see. Suppose he has turned away from the circus, the theater, and the amphitheater; he should indeed seek out a spectacle, and we will not leave him wanting. What shall we give in exchange for what the world offers? Pay attention to what follows.