Click here for today’s Scripture readings.

1 Cor 1:26-31
Mt 25:14-30

Today we celebrate Augustine, the son of Saint Monica, a man whose intellectual significance shaped the western Church throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. Today we cherish the holiness of a saint whose spiritual stature mirrors the profoundly personal and passionate scrutiny of the human soul as every-man, every-woman eschews the banal and jejune and courageously steps through the golden doors that open into the courts of holy wisdom.

So much could be said about Saint Augustine. He was a brilliant scholar, a formidable rhetorician, an erudite man, a lettered teacher, a famous convert, a champion of orthodoxy, a spiritual guide, a priest and bishop, a magnificent preacher, a prudent judge, an expositor of holy writ, and, when life’s pilgrimage was over, a humble servant of God. As today’s Gospel amply points out, Augustine used the talents that God entrusted to him and invested them well. Indeed a life well done. What might we draw from such an awe-inspiring life? What insight might we take from such a star-studded life?

I have always been fascinated by Augustine’s quest for God and the manner in which he sought God. It was truly distinctive. Other giants of Christian conversion had blazed their trails in the wilderness of the desert, in the solitude of the cave, and in the bustle of the city. Saint Anthony of Egypt sold all and withdrew into the deepest desert. Similarly, Mary of Egypt and other “harlots of the desert” sought God in the rugged and barren wilderness. Syrian holy men, intoxicated with the spirit of Elijah, took up habitation in caves carved into mountains. “Having reached the insouciance of the grave”, as historian Peter Brown put it, they traveled down into villages in order to settle disputes and do arbitration. Still others, such as Saint Basil, sought the ascetic life and a regimen of exemplary discipleship in the midst of the city. Soul space was suited to human personality and holiness was mapped out in distinctive geographic places and in varied styles of spiritual experiences.

Augustine followed none of these paths in his quest for perfection. Instead he went his own unique way. In September 386 he repaired to a country villa in Cassiciacum. Here he was to enter into a life of creative leisure and cultured retirement. Here he lived a traditional, dignified and explicable life — time devoted to contemplation, observation of nature and beautiful landscapes, earnest conversation, energetic dialogues, study, and writing. This leisure was a time for self-searching and of conversion. Augustine found himself surrounded by Monica, his mother, Adeodatus, his son, Alypius, his friend, truly an intimate circle of seekers. This was a time for training the soul. Augustine encounters the God of the philosophers and the God of Saint Paul. Holy leisure leads Augustine, Adeodatus, and Alypius to “beg” baptism at the hands of Saint Ambrose in Milan on the night of April 24-25, 387.

Throughout this process Augustine wept. His heart was moved. Truth streamed into his heart. Devotion overflowed. He was ordained to the priesthood in 391 and the rest is history. Today we enter into the holy leisure of the liturgy. Today we pray a ritual that disciplines our souls and trains our wills in virtuous living. May Augustine abide with us in the pilgrimage of our lives.

Father John J. O’Brien, C.P. lives in Framingham, MA and is involved in preaching and teaching, research and writing, and ministry in area parishes and prisons.

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