Sin often masquerades as freedom and goodness, yet it always collapses once we see that only God Himself can truly satisfy the human heart. In The Confessions, Augustine probes his own soul and asks why he delighted in stealing pears he did not want, discovering that his pleasure was not in the object but in the rebellion itself—a hollow love that imitated goodness while fleeing from the only true good, God Himself. Aquinas then clarifies this insight theologically by affirming first that God is good by His very essence, not by participation, and then going further to confess that God is the supreme good—the final end for which all other goods exist and toward which every created desire, rightly ordered or not, is ultimately drawn. Together, these readings expose the tragedy of disordered love and the hope of restored desire: we sin when we grasp at lesser goods as if they were ultimate, and we find rest only when our loves return to God, who alone is goodness itself and the highest good of all (Psalm 16:11; James 1:17).

Readings:

Augustine, The Confessions, Book 2, Chapter 6 (Section 12)

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1, Question 6, Article 1

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1, Question 6, Article 2

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