St. Michael's Lent 2026 - Reading #17 - Discernment
Reading
Two men. Apply the test vigilantly, Augustine says, and you will see where real felicity dwells.
"But let us suppose a case of two men; for each individual man, like one letter in a language, is as it were the element of a city or kingdom, however far-spreading in its occupation of the earth. Of these two men let us suppose that one is poor, or rather of middling circumstances; the other very rich. But the rich man is anxious with fears, pining with discontent, burning with covetousness, never secure, always uneasy, panting from the perpetual strife of his enemies, adding to his patrimony indeed by these miseries to an immense degree, and by these additions also heaping up most bitter cares."
Set beside him the other man — and hesitate if you dare.
"But that other man of moderate wealth is contented with a small and compact estate, most dear to his own family, enjoying the sweetest peace with his kindred neighbours and friends, in piety religious, benignant in mind, healthy in body, in life frugal, in manners chaste, in conscience secure. I know not whether any one can be such a fool, that he dare hesitate which to prefer. As, therefore, in the case of these two men, so in two families, in two nations, in two kingdoms, this test of tranquillity holds good; and if we apply it vigilantly and without prejudice, we shall quite easily see where the mere show of happiness dwells, and where real felicity."
If your trajectory succeeds completely, which man does it make you?
Reflection
Notice what Augustine has done: he has relocated the measure of success from acquisition to tranquility, and he has put family at the center of it — most dear to his own family. Every ambitious man should sit with this passage annually, because the culture's creed you heard on Monday has one relentless message: be the first man. Bigger estate, bigger title, bigger footprint. And the price is quietly listed in the first man's description: never secure, always uneasy, a stranger at his own table.
Apply the test vigilantly and without prejudice, and you will see where the mere show of happiness dwells and where real felicity.
So apply it. If your current trajectory succeeds completely, which of these two men does it make you? Your wife and children would rather have the second man. So, when the fever passes, would you.