Once again we are celebrating St. Augustine and thus the many qualities with which he marked the history of Christianity. Other great figures along the years looked up to his thinking in what he wrote and preached, and found in it a great wealth, as we still do today. So many men and women over the years have chosen to answer to God’s call through consecrated life prompted by his journey in the fellowship of Christ. All this, however, would not have been possible were it not preceded by a concrete experience of continuous search for truth, marked by a strong desire for meaning in life, which he eventually found when he allowed God’s grace to touch his heart.
Probably the most powerful experience that characterizes the figure of St. Augustine is the moment or rather the process of conversion he lived. It was a search that brought about a radical change in his life. A wonderful aspect of this experience is the ability with which he managed to look at himself and humbly recognize his weaknesses. It was then, this humble encounter with his weaknesses that made him aware of the potential in him to be better and worked with determination to reach this ideal. It was only with this attitude that he came to recognize the genuine beauty of God’s experience that his mother had long ago tried to teach him. Experiencing God is absolutely notorious of the way in which the Grace of God manifests itself in one’s life!
The humility with which he looked at himself is not only linked to the conversion he himself recounts in his Confessions through the journey that led him to receive the great gift of baptism, but more than that it became a natural attitude for him. Pope Benedict XVI, a great admirer of St. Augustine, in one of his catechesis speaks of three conversions Augustine lived. The first is precisely the most obvious one that led him to embrace the Christian faith. The second was that from a lifestyle dedicated to contemplation and study, as he was planning with some of his friends, to a call to live a life closer to the people by giving himself to the service of the Church, in supporting, teaching and leading people to the fellowship in Christ.
The third conversion is then “the one which led him every day of his life to ask God’s forgiveness”, and on this point I invite you to stop a little longer. Following his baptism, he felt that he had now entered into a life of communion with Christ through the sacraments and the celebration of the Eucharist and was convinced that now as a Christian he would live this ideal forever. However he later realized that he was wrong and that ideal state of which he speaks in his first sermons on the Sermon on the Mount was something that he had to constantly keep struggling for. In fact, every day we “need to be washed by Christ, who washes our feet, and be renewed by him. We need permanent conversion. Until the end we need this humility that recognizes that we are sinners journeying along, until the Lord gives us his hand definitively and introduces us into eternal life.” (General Audience, 27 February 2008)
This humble attitude became for him a continuous agenda and it is precisely with this attitude that he knew how to answer daily to what God was asking of him through the Church and to the challenges of life. In this way he could genuinely cooperate with the Grace of God which manifested itself through him and which continuously manifests itself in each and every one of us. This is the reflection that I want to propose, as we celebrate the great figure of St. Augustine who, in his wisdom and greatness, had the ability to recognize and confess his weaknesses and make of them a step which leads him closer to that God who he infinitely loved.
Let us give thanks to the Lord who has given us our father and guide, a person who has gone through such a great conversion and let this experience encourage us to humbly never give up looking for what we can change in ourselves and thus rendering ourselves a sign of the Grace of God that works in us and through us. Let us stop waiting for those around us to change and look at what we can change in ourselves. This is what the Church and Society continuously need from all of us who have received the grace of baptism and are willing to genuinely cooperate with such a unique grace.
This is an invitation for every Christian but I would like it to be particularly an invitation for us religious who are approaching the celebration of the Ordinary Provincial Chapter 2022 God willingly to be convened in a few weeks. Each Ordinary Provincial Chapter is in itself a moment of renewal in the life of the Province and an invitation to: take a good look at ourselves; give thanks to God for the way He works in us through His grace; and reflect humbly on what we can do better.
With this message I would like to introduce even a short questionnaire and invite you who are reading to find some time and fill it out. This is a contribution we would like all of you to do to help us in our reflection in the upcoming Ordinary Provincial Chapter. Therefore, whoever you are, I invite you to click on this link
Questionnaire – Augustinian Laity
and give your contribution. I assure you each contribution will be highly appreciated. In the mean time I urge you to keep us always in your prayers as we keep each and all in our prayers.
Happy feast of Saint Augustine!
Fr. Leslie Gatt osa
Prior Provincial