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| Augustine of Hippo |
Heroes and heroines in Christianity can guide or coach us. St. Augustine, whose feast day we celebrate in August, found his purpose after many detours, and wrote, “God, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Yes, our true purpose is to be in relationship with God.
Augustine was born in 4th century Africa (modern-day Algeria). His mother Monica did her best to educate her catechumenate son in the essentials. But he drifted away from Christianity when he began studies in Carthage. He excelled in rhetoric, and became a teacher. He also fathered a child out of wedlock, and lived with a mistress. One of Augustine's memorable thoughts was, “God, make me chaste but not yet.”
Eventually Augustine met Ambrose, bishop of Milan in Italy, whose persuasive homilies led Augustine to focus on a new direction for his life. Augustine describes his conversion graphically in his “Confessions.” He went into his garden and just sat there...he heard a voice compelling, “Take and read.” Augustine picked up the bible. “I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: 'conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ....' instantly at the end of the sentence, by a light, as it were,.... all the darkness of doubt vanished away.”
From that moment on, he became a passionate disciple, a major intellectual, spiritual and cultural icon. After Ambrose baptized him, Augustine went back to Africa to found a monastic community. But soon, acclaimed bishop, Augustine became a prolific author. He refuted the basic falsehoods that plagued Christianity. The universe, the work of God, he argued, is essentially good and a provident God guides this universe to the fullness of the kingdom. The Church or community of disciples is holy but is made up of saints and sinners. Above all, human beings need God's grace to live the kind of life God wants them to live.
Augustine is known for two classic books: “Confessions,” his spiritual autobiography and dialogue with God, and “City of God,” his interpretation of the Church, a community of saints and scoundrels, on pilgrimage to the heavenly City. Good spiritual reading.
He acknowledged that there's a tendency or pull within people to sometimes choose their worse rather than their better selves. He called this “original sin.” Human beings fallen from grace cry out for salvation. Augustine looked beyond the world of things, to an all-good God who became one of us in Jesus and is alive by the power of the Spirit in us.
Augustine challenges us to focus on the quality of our life and our soul’s destiny: trusting in an all-good and compassionate God who is ever near and who will guide us to our heavenly dwelling place.
