Today the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St Augustine of Hippo. Some of you know that, well, let's say I have a special fondness for St Augustine. And yet so many of you think lowly of him! It has been said that no author has been so thoroughly calumniated - without having actually been read! - as St Augustine. To you, what else can be said than this: may the light of Truth illumine your darkness! In his honor, a few loci mirabiles.
Although famous for his great works - Confessions and City of God are the most well known - St Augustine was first and foremost a bishop of the Catholic Church in North Africa, and it is estimated that over the course of his ministry he preached around 8,000 sermons (of which we possess around 500). Here is a quote from a sermon he preached on St John's Gospel to the people of Hippo:
"A death is attended to, that death may have no strength. But whose death? The death of Life - if it is possible to say - the death of Life. And to be sure, because it can be said, it is said wonderfully. And should that not be spoken, which had to be accomplished? Shall I hesitate to say what the Lord deigned to do for me? Is not Christ Life? And yet Christ is on the cross. Is not Christ Life? Yet Christ has died! Death died in Christ's death, because Life having died killed death: the plenitude of life has swallowed up death: death is absorbed in Christ's body."
St Augustine's theology, not only but especially in his sermons and in his Confessions, is always rhetorical through and through, verging on or simply passing over into a sort of exegetical poetry. From Confessions (which, you'll remember, is a prayer):
"What therefore is my God? What, I ask, but the Lord God? For who is Lord but the Lord? Or who is God besides our God? O thou highest, most excellent, most powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, most secret and most present, most beautiful and most strong, stable and incomprehensible, immutable yet changing all things, never new and never old, renewing all things: and insensibly leading the proud into decay; ever working and ever quiet, gathering yet never wanting, bearing, filling, protecting, creating, nourishing, perfecting; seeking yet needing nothing: you love yet are not transported, are jealous yet without fear; you repent but do not grieve; are angry, yet remain tranquil: you change your works but not your counsel: you take what you find, and never lose anything; you are never needy, and yet glad of gain; never covetous, and yet you exact advantage. Men pay you in superabundance of all things, that you may be their debtor: yet who has anything which is not yours? You pay debts yet owe nothing: forgive debts, and lose nothing. And what shall we say, my God, my Life, my holy sweetness? Or what can anyone say, when he speaks of you? Yet woe to those who remain silent, while the chatterboxes go on saying nothing!"
St Augustine's thought is suffused with love. He never tires of quoting our Lord's summary of the law - love of God and love of neighbor - and one of his favorite verses from St Paul's epistles is Rom 5.5: "the love of God is poured in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Love is, one could say, central to St Augustine's theology; but he is even more bold, because he believes that St Paul in 1 Cor 13 and St John in his first epistle spoke the truth. And he therefore insists that love, real Christ-like love which is the gift of the Holy Spirit, is the sine qua non of theology as such. Not of course academic theology, which St Augustine would not have understood, but the true theology of the saints - that theology which is communion with the God who is love. Hence he says in another sermon on St John's Gospel:
"You do not yet see God; by loving your neighbor you will obtain him whom you would see; by loving your neighbor you purge your eye in order to see God" - Mt 5.8 is also very important for St Augustine - "No one has ever seen God... love therefore your neighbor, and understand in yourself whence you love him: there if you are able, you will see God. Begin therefore to love your neighbor! Break your bread with the hungry. And the destitute man without a roof? Lead him into your home! If you see someone naked, clothe him; do not despise the fellow members of your own race!"
That's enough for this post, but I encourage ya'll, pick up Confessions and learn from the magnus doctor gratiae. A prayer:
"Almighty Father, renew in your Church the spirit you gave St Augustine; filled with this spirit, may we thirst for you alone as the fountain of wisdom, and seek you as the source of eternal love; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who is alive, and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, the God who is love. Amen."
