His sadness and tears belie the joy that he should be feeling. Why, then, does he cry? He knows that Monica is in the city of God and that he will again see her there. His family and faith are complete, as signified through the sacraments of baptism and eucharist, through which he can sacrifice himself to God.Augustine realizes that his sacrifice to libidinousness has been redeemed in his acceptance of the sacraments. In baptism, he has died so that his spirit might live in the so-called “vision at Ostia” he has achieved communion with Monica and at her funeral he offers sacrificium pretii nostri. As an adolescent, Augustine had been the victim of a sacrifice to libidinousness that had marked his distance from his mother’s faith now, he has been united with both his mother and her faith. Even during those prayers which we pured out to you when the sacrifice of our redemption was offered for her, when her corpse was placed beside the tomb prior to burial, as was the custom there, not even at those prayers did I weep” ). nam neque in eis precibus quas tibi fudimus, cum offerretur pro ea sacrificium pretii nostri iam iuxta sepulchrum, posito cadavere priusquam deponeretur, sicut illic fieri solet, nec in eis ergo precibus flevi …” (”When her body was carried out, we went and returned without a tear. ![]() ![]() ![]() Her funeral with the ritual re-enactment of Christ’s sacrifice, the fulfillment of the binding of Isaac, which, as Vance has reminded us, “underscored transformations of the sacrificial act upon which Christian life, as well as its liturgy, was grounded.” This liturgy provides a backdrop for Augustine’s discussion of his struggle with tears: “Cum ecce corpus elatum est, imus, redimus sine lacrimis.
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