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Sr. Margarita Cervantes, asm
Sister of the Covenant of St. Mary


SAINT AUGUSTINE


S. Augustine of Hippo: a man of brilliant intelligence and a remarkable writer, a man of passion, faith and Doctor of the Church. What can this saint tell us today?

S. Augustine was a tireless seeker of truth. After taking many paths, he ended up discovering it within himself, as something eternal, absolutely true and certain: the very God he longed for. “You created us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you” (Confessions I, 1,1).
The most important aspect of St. Augustine's life is his conversion. His spiritual journey can help us on our own path to holiness. From this itinerary, we can identify three moments:

The need for coherence of life is the first phase. Augustine experienced a tremendous struggle between two wills: his own and God's. Yes, he wanted to follow Christ, but he wasn't yet ready to let go of his bonds. Yes, he wanted to follow Christ, but he wasn't yet ready to let go of his bonds. So he always put off his conversion until tomorrow. It was in the midst of this struggle that, in a garden, he suddenly heard a voice singing: “take, read, take, read” (VIII, 12, 29) and came across St. Paul's exhortation to the Romans to abandon the works of the flesh and put on Christ (Rom 13, 13-14). He understood that it was God himself who was speaking to him through this text. In Scripture he found the peace and strength to give himself freely to Christ.

He then decided to follow Christ through contemplation and study in a monastery. But God's plans were different: he was ordained a priest and later Bishop of Hippo. What God wanted was for him to put the fruit of his intelligence at the service of others. Augustine, accustomed to great philosophical and theological debates, learned the humility of knowing how to speak in simple language, from which we can all benefit today. The second moment of his conversion was this: learning to serve Christ in others.

The third phase can be summed up in one word: journey. At first, St. Augustine thought that by being baptized and celebrating the Eucharist, he would once and for all become the perfect Christian idealized in the Sermon on the Mount. He soon realized that only in Christ is this perfection possible. So he teaches us that we are all sinners on the way, in need of continual conversion. With this attitude of humility, we learn to ask God for forgiveness and to praise him with our lives.

The incessant prayer and tears of St. Monica, his mother, were extremely fruitful in this process. St. Augustine recognized her value in this prayer: “You did not despise the tears that watered the earth everywhere she prayed. You, Lord, heard her pleas. Yes, you heard her”. (I, 11, 12).

St. Augustine shows us that the process of conversion is a lifelong journey that cannot be traveled alone; it is a journey made with God, the saints and us.

August 28, 2021
Saint Augustine


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