"Enjoying Sin for its Own Sake"

What's in the image?

Our tour now jumps to the St. Thomas of Villanova Church, to look at an image of a serpent in a tree, which is a seemingly insignificant detail in one of the stained glass windows.  (We discuss this window in more detail in a later page.) The most obvious reference of this image is to the story of the serpent in Genesis. The image depicts a tall tree with a lot of ripe fruit on its branches. The serpent works its way up the branches of the tree, just as desire can sneak up on a person. The serpent is very long and wraps its entire body around the base of the tree. Its mouth is closing in around one of the pieces of fruit. This symbolizes how a person can be completely taken over by desire and give into temptation. The red color that surrounds the tree symbolizes temptation that overcomes a person, just as Adam and Eve gave into temptation and ate the fruit from the tree, even though God told them they could not.  But this image also symbolizes an extremely important incident in St. Augustine's teenage years that also involved a fruit tree, temptation, and sin.

What's in Confessions?

At a particularly low moment in his teenage years, Augustine spent a lot of time with a group of equally aimless young people.  On one occasion they all went to steal fruit from a pear tree (2.5.9). Augustine did not steal for a practical purpose; rather, he states, “I wanted to steal, and steal I did. I already had plenty of what I stole…and I had no desire to enjoy it when I resolved to steal it. I simply wanted to enjoy the theft for its own sake, and the sin” (2.5.9). Augustine recognizes that he is sinning for the sake of sin, and this tells him exactly what sin is. “Sin gains entrance through these and similar good things when we turn to them with immoderate desire, since they are the lowest kind of goods and we thereby turn away from the better and higher: from You Yourself, O Lord our God, and Your truth and Your law” (2.5.10). While it is completely acceptable and good to love good things, sin is when we love these good things with immoderate desire, or when we choose these things over God Himself. From this moment on, Augustine recognizes that objects are good, yet sin can enter the world through these good things when we use them immoderately, or with excess.  What is important here, then, is not so much the theft of the pears, but the symbolism of the fruit tree, which links this incident to the first human sin in the Garden of Eden.

What's in it for us?

The themes alluded to in the pear tree scene are extremely prevalent in everyday life, especially in the lives of young adults. The story of the pear tree deals with decision making. Augustine chooses to follow the crowd and make poor choices. Rather than reflecting upon the decision he is making and doing what is best for him, he does something for the sake of doing it. Augustine followed the crowd and fell victim to sin. In life, everyone is faced with choices from that range from minor to monumental. Young adults in particular are extremely vulnerable because we are just beginning to experience the real world and what independence really entails. The story of the pear tree illustrates what kind of decisions we should be making and the reasoning behind those decisions. We need to aware of the consequences that may arise, if this decision is in our best interest, and why we are truly making the choices that we make. One must develop their value system fully and be able to apply these values to their day to day life in order to make choices best suited to the individual. If not, it is very easy to get swept up in "group think" and act in a matter which may be regretted later as it is not what the person truly wants or needs. It is also necessary that a value system is in place and fully comprehended which can be employed in difficult situations in order to have the best outcome.