ST AUGUSTINE - FEAST DAY 28th AUGUST

 

ST AUGUSTINE

28th AUGUST

St Augustine, (354-430AD) was born in present-day Algeria. In 396AD he founded a monastery and became bishop of Hippo, Algeria. He died in 430AD during the sacking of Hippo by the Vandals. He is one of the most important of the Church Fathers of the Patristic period - from the time of the end of the Apostles. A prolific and beautiful writer, his writings, including City of God, Confessions and On Christian Doctrine, influenced the development of western philosophy.

His “Confessions”, are a poem telling the story of his search throughout his life for the truth in which his restless heart finally found peace and joy. He came to God at the age of 33 as the result of the prayers of his virtuous and faithful mother, St Monica. His journey to that destination was, however, by a circuitous route – a life of sin, social competitiveness and ambition, described by him with unrelenting honesty, in his Confessions, including –

his sexual promiscuity;

“The thorn bushes of my unchecked sexuality

grew head high.

And there was no way to root them out” (Book 2:3)

- a promiscuity not based upon enjoyment of the physical pleasure itself or the love of another, but rather grounded in social competitiveness;

“I did not realise what I was doing,

I scrambled recklessly on my way, blindly.

When I heard other young men boasting of their exploits,

I was ashamed to be less promiscuous

Than they were.

The more disgraceful their exploits,

The louder their boast.

And so I became as greedy for the applause

As for the pleasure itself.” (Book 2:3)

-his dishonesty, both by cheating and lying to others and to himself:

“In games I was so greedy to win that,

If I were outmatched, I would cheat.

Yet I was indignant if others cheated.

And I would argue fiercely if I caught them at it,

Even though I had no scruples in cheating them!” (Book 1:19)

-his dishonesty by way of stealing, for its own sake;

“Close to our orchard

there was a pear tree laden with fruit,

fruit that neither looked nor tasted good.

Late one night a gang of us went there

To shake the tree and carry off the fruit….

We took away an enormous quantity of pears,

Not to eat – for we barely tasted them-

But to throw to the pigs.

Our enjoyment was not in the eating:

Our pleasure was in doing something

That was forbidden.” (Book 2:4)

-As a young man he was consumed with ambition to excel at oratory and studied Law -his description, the vanity, hypocrisy, of himself and those of his kind:

“How hidden you are, O great God,

Wrapped in the silence of heaven!

By your unfaltering law you punish with blindness

People of unholy ambition.

Someone in quest of fame for his oratory

Will stand before a human judge in a crowded court

And viciously tear an opponent to shreds.

He will take immense care

Not to say ‘uman’ instead of ‘human’,

Yet he doesn’t care a fig if in his fury

He may remove a man from human society.” (Book 1:18)

His search was one by which he was driven. He engaged in a long-standing affair which brought him misery. His achievements as a legal practitioner left him unsatisfied. He entered into an attraction with the heretical sect, the Manicheans, who elevated knowledge to a level by which it became distorted, importing a consequent distortion to their perception of the world and creation. He remained in misery and dissatisfied, unable to recognize that which he sought:

“Where lies the truth?

Who can enlighten me,

Except the One who sheds his light

Into my heart and dispels the shadows?” (Book 2:8)

“Within me I was hungry for the food

which is you, my God.

But I was not aware of that hunger.

I felt no need of the food that lasts forever,

Not because I had my fill of it,

But because the more I was starved of it,

The less taste I had for it.” (Book 3:1)

He recalled his debasement as a response to his embrace of the world:

“So the human soul defiles itself

when it turns from you,

seeking things which it cannot find

in their purity and simplicity,

except by returning to You.” (Book 2:6)

The objects, people and achievement which he sought, he realised were counterfeits, once he abandoned the barriers in his mind and submitted himself to the realisation that it was God who was the Truth:

“You O God, are beauty itself,

You are goodness itself,

the Creator of all that is good.

You are my own true good.

Those pears I stole that night

Had a certain beauty,

As all things created by you have beauty.

They had beauty,

But it wasn’t the pears that

My miserable soul sought.

I had plenty of my own,

Better than those at home.

I plucked the stolen ones

Solely for the sheer pleasure of stealing.

For, once I had taken them, I flung them away.

If I tasted them at all,

The only taste was the flavour of my sin.

That I relished.” (Book 2:6)

Although it was his mother’s prayers that led to his destination - his love for God - it is also worth considering another aspect - perhaps Augustine's story is an example of God’s hidden path - a journey unknown to him at the time. For it is his very sinfulness that gave him an understanding of the human condition – a human capacity that, of its nature, is capable of great evil and yet simultaneously bears a capacity to rise up-to attain the image and likeness of the creator – to reflect God.

Moreover, it was his overwheening ambition that had driven him to perfect his oratory, rhetoric and writing skills - to give him the tools to shape and convey his thoughts and so to influence the discourse and development of medieval theology and thereby, in fact, to shape the western mind and western civilisation. His philosophical works led not only to the brilliance of the medieval philosophers, but gave rise to the principles which we take for granted today as grounding a civilised society.

His recognition and rejection of the baser aspects of his nature and his total submission to God's purpose allowed him to become the person whom God had ordained him to be. The gifts which he had once employed negatively - to hurt others, to elevate himself, to take - were now used for a purpose which was to outlive him and provide a legacy for subsequent generations, in fact for nearly two thousand years. His embrace of this new person and his joy at resting in the Truth he described in the famous passage in his Confessions:

“Late have I loved Thee,

O beauty so ancient and so new.

Late have I loved Thee!

For behold Thou were within me and I outside;

And I sought Thee outside

And in my unloveliness fell upon those lovely things that Thou hast made.

Thou were with me

And I was not with Thee.

I was kept from Thee by those things,

Yet, had they not been in Thee,

They would not have been at all.

Thou didst call and cry to me

And Thou did break open my deafness;

And Thou didst send forth Thy beams. “(Book 10:10).