Today, to celebrate the Feast Day of St Augustine of Hippo (my confirmation saint), I thought I would reflect on his famous words:

Oh Lord, give me chastity, but do not give it yet.

St Augustine of Hippo

You see, I chose Augustine as my confirmation saint because I felt I could relate to him. Both of us had to intellectually “wrestle” with the Faith, but even once we could accept it on an intellectual level, we were/are both procrastinating (so to speak) our full conversion, and had trouble putting an old way of life out to pasture. And to be honest, especially as someone new to the Faith, I still struggle with this. Hence, on the one hand, while convicted of the truth of the Catholic Faith, it is at the same time possible to resist applying it to one’s life.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) We may believe him, yet still choose to “walk in darkness” in a textbook display of cognitive dissonance. There’s always the temptation to excuse sin by saying things like, “I’m already going to have to go to confession,” or, “I’m too stressed to give up that sin right now.” When you think about it, it’s like smoking: it never feels like there is a good time to quit.

Grace

How do you quit then? There is at least a part of us that wants to. Well, to begin with, it is not entirely up to us. St Paul tells us of a time when he was “trying to quit” in his second letter to the Corinthians:

And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

2 Corinthians 12:7–9

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” It sounds like an oxymoron to have power made perfect in weakness, yet this is precisely what grace entails. What need would we have of a redeemer if we could merely redeem ourselves.? “Apart from me you can do nothing,” the Lord says. So, if it is to be rid of a sin that one wants, one must first ask God for that grace.

Except in this case, St Augustine makes plain that he doesn’t want to at the moment. In these cases, I think we must realise:

1) The sinner at least wishes they would quit in the future, even if they’re hesitant to it now (i.e., they want to want to quit); and

2) It is inevitably a part of the Christian journey that one should suffer such afflictions.

None of us are perfect, and none of our journeys are going to be exactly the same. There is no set schedule that works for everyone, so if one is truly struggling with a particular sin, then it’s important they be patient with themselves as they seek improvement.

The Easy Way to Quit Sinning

So, while one must have patience with themselves, on the subject of improvement—hypocritical though it is for me, a sinner, to offer advice—what I would say is this:

What helped me to quit smoking (using the Alan Carr method) was the realisation that I’m not actually giving anything up. When you think about it, life is so much better when you’re smoke-free. It is possible and encouraged to look at sin in the same way: what sin offers you is a lie, and life is better without it. What is on offer, after all, is life eternal in God’s kingdom. What is a few temporary pleasures worth compared to that? And once you realise that the answer is “nothing”, then you realise there’s no time like the present to try to follow Our Lord’s command to “go, and sin no more” (John 8:11) because “remember — you’re not giving up anything” and you have everything to gain.

With all that taken to heart, St Augustine’s next prayer ought to read:

Oh Lord, give me chastity; not a year from now, not a week, not even soon, but today.

After all, why wait? God calls us all to be saints today.