Saint Augustin
Évêque d’Hippone, Docteur de l’Église (+430)
Né à Tagaste (actuellement Souk-Ahras, Algérie) le 13 novembre 354 d'un père incroyant et d'une mère chrétienne, sainte Monique.
Brillant étudiant, jeunesse dissipée, un enfant, Adéodat. En 383, il vient à Rome, puis enseigne la rhétorique à Milan.
Converti, baptisé par saint Ambroise à Pâques 387, il retourne en Afrique.
Ordonné prêtre en 391, évêque d'Hippone (près de l'actuelle Bône, Algérie) en 396, un des plus grands théologiens chrétiens. Il meurt au moment des invasions barbares en Afrique, le 28 août 430.
Voir aussi:
- "Œuvres complètes de Saint Augustin" (site de l'abbaye de saint Benoît de Port-Valais).
- "Saint Augustin, un fils de l'Algérie" (site de l'Église catholique en Algérie)
- vidéo: Saint Augustin par le père Georges Henri Pérès, prêtre à la basilique de Sainte Anne d'Auray, Morbihan, Bretagne. (webTV de la CEF)
= Catéchèse sur saint Augustin, Benoît XVI, ci-dessous: Portrait
de saint Augustin - Saint
Augustin nous encourage - Rencontre
d'Augustin avec le Christ - Saint
Augustin à travers ses œuvres
Le
9 janvier 2008, le Saint-Père a tracé un portrait de saint Augustin, le
célèbre évêque d'Hippone, qui fut "un homme de passion et de foi, à la
grande intelligence et à l'inlassable attention pastorale". Indiquant
qu'il reviendrait ultérieurement sur ses nombreuses œuvres, il a affirmé que
"tous les chemins de la littérature chrétienne latine portent à Hippone...
ville de l'Afrique romaine dont Augustin fut l'évêque de 395 à 430 et d'où
partent de nombreux sentiers du christianisme suivant, mais aussi de toute la
culture occidentale".
L'auteur des Confessions, cette "extraordinaire autobiographie spirituelle" qui porte "grande attention au mystère du soi, au mystère de Dieu caché en nous", naquit à Tagaste en 345. Sa mère Monique l'éduqua dans la foi qu'il abandonna ensuite tout en continuant de s'intéresser au Christ. Il étudia la rhétorique et la grammaire, qu'il enseigna ensuite à Carthage. Dans cette ville il lut l'Hortensius de Cicéron, qui réveilla en lui "l'amour du savoir", car malgré son abandon de la pratique ecclésiale il recherchait toujours la vérité. Mais l'Hortensius ne parlant pas du Christ, Augustin entreprit de lire les Écritures.
Sa rencontre avec la Bible fut une désillusion à cause de la médiocrité de sa traduction latine, "mais aussi parce qu'il n'y trouvait ni la hauteur philosophique ni la lumière qui éclaire la recherche de la vérité". Ne voulant plus vivre sans Dieu, Augustin cherchait "une religion répondant à son désir de vérité... et d'approche de Jésus". Cela le porta vers le manichéisme dont les pratiquants assuraient que leur "religion était totalement rationnelle". Le dualisme attira le futur évêque qui pensa alors avoir trouvé la synthèse entre "le rationnel, la recherche de la vérité et l'amour du Christ".
Mais la doctrine manichéenne fut incapable de résoudre les doutes du futur saint. Installé à Milan, Augustin prit l'habitude d'écouter les homélies de l'évêque Ambroise pour améliorer sa rhétorique. L'évêque de Milan exposait "une interprétation typologique de l'Ancien Testament, comme cheminement vers Jésus-Christ" et c'est ainsi qu'Augustin "trouva la clef pour lire la beauté et la profondeur philosophique de l'Ancien Testament, et qu'il comprit l'unité totale entre le mystère du Christ dans l'histoire et la synthèse entre philosophie, raison et foi dans le Logos, dans le Christ, Verbe éternel incarné".
Le 15 août 386 Augustin se convertit au christianisme "à la fin d'un long et difficile parcours intérieur". Il reçut le baptême le 24 avril suivant et fut ordonné prêtre en 391. Rentré en Afrique, il devint évêque quatre ans plus tard. Il fut, a souligné Benoît XVI, "un évêque exemplaire dans son travail pastoral..., attentif aux pauvres et à la formation de son clergé, fondateur de monastères". Et en peu de temps il devint "une des principales figures du christianisme de l'époque... L'évêque d'Hippone exerça une grande influence sur la conduite de l'Église en Afrique" et combattit avec vigueur des hérésies puissantes et malignes comme le manichéisme, le donatisme et le pélagisme.
Enfin, le Saint-Père a rappelé qu'Augustin se "confiait à Dieu chaque jour et cela jusqu'à la fin de sa vie". Peu avant de mourir il demanda qu'on lui écrive en grandes lettres les psaumes pénitentiels qu'il fit afficher près de son lit de malade afin de pouvoir les lire". Saint Augustin mourut le 28 août 430...VIS 080109 (560)
- Saint Augustin nous encourage
Le 16 janvier 2008, le Saint-Père a poursuivi sa catéchèse sur saint Augustin, évoquant les dernières années de ce Docteur de l'Église qui, quatre ans avant de disparaître, désigna son successeur afin de se consacrer totalement à l'étude de l'Écriture.
"Ce furent des années de grande activité intellectuelle...au cours desquelles il intervint en faveur de la concorde entre les provinces africaines menacées par des tribus méridionales... Le plus grand titre de gloire, déclara Augustin, est de tuer la guerre par la parole, plutôt que de tuer les gens par le glaive, de gagner ou maintenir la paix par la paix et non par la guerre". Le Pape a également rappelé que le siège d'Hippone par les Vandales fut une grande souffrance pour saint Augustin.
"Malgré l'âge et la fatigue, il demeura sur la brèche, trouvant le réconfort du peuple et le sien dans la prière, dans la méditation des desseins mystérieux de la Providence... Si le monde vieillit, déclara le saint évêque, le Christ demeure jeune à jamais. C'est pourquoi il invitait ses contemporains à ne pas renoncer à rajeunir avec le Christ qui a dit: Ne crains pas, ta jeunesse reviendra comme revient celle de l'aigle. Voici la raison pour laquelle -a précisé le Saint-Père- le chrétien ne doit jamais se laisser abattre et toujours se mettre au service de qui est dans le besoin".
Rappelant que la demeure-monastère d'Augustin était ouverte à ses frères dans l'épiscopat qui le désiraient, Benoît XVI a souligné combien il profita de ces années de liberté pour intensifier sa prière. "Il avait coutume de dire que personne, évêque, prêtre ou simple fidèle, ne pouvait se préparer à la mort sans une sérieuse pénitence. Pleurant abondamment, il répétait les psaumes pénitentiels tant de fois récités avec son peuple".
Puis le Pape a signalé que le corps du célèbre évêque d'Hippone, mort le 28 août 430, fut transporté en Sardaigne à une date inconnue, avant d'être porté vers 725 à Pavie, où il est toujours conservé en la basilique St.Pierre "in Ciel d'oro". Mais Augustin survit dans ses écrits, où nous pouvons le retrouver bien vivant. Il demeure une lumière qui éclaire notre cheminement. "Lorsque je lis ses écrits -a confié le Saint-Père- je n'ai jamais l'impression qu'ils sont ceux d'un homme mort il y a seize siècles. J'y trouve un homme contemporain, un ami qui me parle, qui nous parle, avec une foi fraîche parfaitement actuelle".
"On trouve dans l'œuvre de saint Augustin l'actualité de la foi qui vient du Christ, du Verbe éternel incarné, fils de Dieu et fils d'homme comme nous. Il est évident que sa foi n'est pas d'hier, bien qu'exprimée dans un lointain passé. Elle montre que le Christ est vraiment hier, aujourd'hui et à jamais la voie, la vérité et la vie. Augustin -a conclu Benoît XVI- nous encourage à nous en remettre à ce Christ perpétuellement vivant et à trouver ainsi le chemin de la vie"...VIS 080116 (510)
Le 30 janvier 2008, Benoît XVI a repris sa catéchèse sur saint Augustin, sa vie et son œuvre, rappelant que Jean-Paul II lui avait consacré la Lettre apostolique Augustinum Hipponensem en 1986, pour le 16ème centenaire de sa conversion. Son prédécesseur entendait ainsi rendre grâce à Dieu pour le don que cette conversion fut pour l'Église comme pour le monde.
Précisant que sa quatrième et dernière catéchèse sur ce grand Docteur de l'Église traiterait spécifiquement de la conversion, qui fut l'événement capital de sa vie et l'est encore pour nous, le Saint-Père a abordé le rapport entre foi et raison, "le sujet déterminant de la vie de saint Augustin... Tout son itinéraire spirituel et intellectuel constitue un modèle toujours actuel pour traiter du rapport entre foi et raison, et pas seulement -a-t-il précisé- pour les croyants. Il l'est pour tout homme en recherche de la vérité, question centrale en matière d'équilibre et de destin personnel. On ne peut dissocier ces deux dimensions, qu'il faut au contraire envisager ensemble".
Puis le Pape a cité deux formules augustiniennes exprimant "la synthèse cohérente de la foi et de la raison: Croire pour comprendre, car croire ouvre le chemin vers les portes de la vérité; et Comprendre pour croire, qui permet rechercher la vérité afin de rencontrer Dieu, afin de croire... L'harmonie entre foi et raison -a poursuivi Benoît XVI- signifie d'abord que Dieu n'est pas inaccessible, qu'il est proche de chaque être humain, à son cœur comme à sa raison. A condition de nous mettre en marche".
"La présence de Dieu en l'homme, qui est à la fois profonde et mystérieuse, peut être reconnue et découverte au plus profond de soi". Ainsi que l'a souligné Augustin, s'adressant à Dieu au début de ses Confessions, une autobiographie spirituelle et une louange: Tu nous a faits en fonction de toi et notre cœur est inquiet tant qu'il ne reposera pas en toi! ... L'homme est une grande énigme et un profond abysse, que seul le Christ éclaire et sauve. Ceci est capital: Qui est éloigné de Dieu est loin de soi même. Et ne peut se retrouver qu'en retrouvant Dieu, qu'en retrouvant sa véritable identité".
Le Saint-Père a alors dit que dans sa Cité de Dieu, Augustin rappelle que l'homme est par nature un être social, et anti-social par vice. Il ne peut être sauvé que par le Christ, unique médiateur entre Dieu et l'humanité, "chemin universel de liberté et de salut, ainsi que le rappela Jean-Paul II dans le document cité précédemment. "Comme médiateur unique en vue du salut, Jésus-Christ est le chef de l'Église à laquelle il est uni mystiquement".
Citant à nouveau la lettre Augustinum Hipponensem, Benoît XVI a indiqué que son
prédécesseur a désiré demander au saint "ce qu'il avait à dire aux hommes
de ce temps, et répondre avec les mots mêmes de la lettre dictée par Augustin
peu avant de mourir: Je crois qu'il faut ramener les hommes à l'espérance de
trouver la vérité, cette vérité qui est le Christ même, véritablement Dieu...
Saint Augustin -a conclu le Saint-Père- a rencontré Dieu, dont il reconnut la
présence au long de son existence, de telle manière que cette véritable
rencontre personnelle changea sa vie, comme elle change celle des femmes et des
hommes qui ont la grâce de faire sa rencontre de siècle en siècle. Demandons au
Seigneur de nous donner cette grâce pour trouver ainsi sa paix"...VIS
080130 (580)
- Saint Augustin à travers ses œuvres
Le 20 février 2008, Benoît XVI a poursuivi sa catéchèse sur saint Augustin. Le Pape a salué les pèlerins réunis dans la basilique Saint-Pierre puis s'est rendu à la Salle Paul VI où se trouvaient les autres personnes assistant à l'audience.
Le Saint-Père a rappelé que "saint Augustin fut un grand témoin du Christ, cher à mes prédécesseurs -a-t-il dit- et que j'ai moi-même beaucoup étudié et médité. C'est le Père de l'Église qui a laissé le plus grand nombre d'œuvres... dont certaines sont d'une importance capitale et pas seulement pour l'histoire du christianisme".
Benoît XVI a cité en premier lieu les "Confessions" où "nous pouvons suivre pas à pas le chemin intérieur de cet homme extraordinaire et passionné de Dieu". Il a ensuite cité les "Rétractations" "moins connues mais tout aussi originales et très importantes... dans lesquelles Augustin, alors plus âgé, accomplit une œuvre de révision de toute son œuvre écrite, laissant ainsi un document littéraire singulier et très précieux mais aussi un enseignement de sincérité et d'humilité intellectuelle".
Le Pape a ensuite ajouté que son œuvre "De la Cité de Dieu", avait été écrite entre 413 et 416 pour répondre aux accusations des païens qui accusaient le christianisme d'être la cause de la chute de Rome en 410, puisque le Dieu chrétien et les apôtres n'avaient pu protéger la ville, alors qu'avec les divinités païennes, Rome était "caput mundi" et que personne ne pouvait penser qu'elle puisse tomber entre les mains des ennemis. Beaucoup pensaient -a expliqué le Pape- que Rome "n'était pas sûre avec le Dieu des chrétiens" et que "le Dieu des chrétiens ne protégeait pas et que l'on ne pouvait donc pas se fier à lui". A cette objection "qui touchait profondément le cœur des chrétiens, Augustin répond avec l'œuvre grandiose "De la Cité de Dieu" en éclaircissant ce que nous pouvons attendre et ce que nous ne pouvons pas attendre de Dieu, ce qu'est la relation entre la sphère politique et la sphère de la foi de l'Église. Toutefois aujourd'hui -a-t-il poursuivi- ce livre est une source pour définir la vraie laïcité et la tâche de l'Église, la grande espérance et la vérité que nous donne la foi".
Dans ce texte, Augustin présente l'histoire de l'humanité gouvernée par la divine providence mais actuellement divisée entre deux amours qui, par leur différence, sont à l'origine de deux cités : la cité terrestre née de l'amour de soi et de l'indifférence à Dieu, et la cité céleste née de l'amour de Dieu et de l'indifférence à soi-même".
"De la Trinité" -a poursuivi le Saint-Père- traite du noyau principal de la foi chrétienne", alors que "De la Doctrine chrétienne" est une vraie introduction culturelle à l'interprétation de la Bible et donc au christianisme même, qui a eu une importance décisive dans la formation de la culture occidentale".
Le Pape a ensuite rappelé que "le saint était conscient de sa stature intellectuelle... mais il a toujours mis en avant les œuvres savantes de théologie, la diffusion du message chrétien aux personnes simples. Cette préoccupation se remarque dans "De catechizandis rudibus" dédié aux problèmes de l'instruction de nombreux chrétiens illettrés, et le "Psalmus contra partem Donati" d'argument doctrinal mais écrit d'une façon facilement compréhensible".
Benoît XVI a expliqué que "les donatistes à qui s'adressait ce livre, soutenaient que la véritable Église était l'Église africaine et a rappelé que saint Augustin avait combattu toute sa vie contre ce schisme en soutenant que dans l'unité seule cette africanité était possible. Ainsi le "Psalmus contra partem Donati" bien que texte d'argument doctrinal a un langage abordable pour que tous comprennent que seulement dans l'unité de l'Église a lieu notre relation avec Dieu, avec tous; ainsi la paix grandit dans le monde.
"Dans "Enarrationes in Psalmos" -a poursuivi Benoît XVI-
on trouve de nombreuses homélies "écrites par les tachygraphes pendant les
prédications du saint qui devenaient, par la réputation de leur auteur, des
textes très recherchés et servaient de modèles s'adaptant à de nouvelles
situations".
"Aujourd'hui encore -a conclu le Saint-Père- saint Augustin vit à travers
ses œuvres et est présent en nous. Nous voyons ainsi la vitalité permanente de
la foi pour laquelle il a donné toute sa vie". VIS 080220 (700)
28 août: Mémoire (En Afrique du Nord : Solennité) de saint Augustin, évêque et
docteur éminent de l'Église. Après une jeunesse agitée dans ses idées
religieuses et dans ses mœurs, il se convertit à la foi catholique, fut baptisé
par saint Ambroise à Milan, et, de retour en Afrique, mena avec quelques amis,
une vie d'ascèse vouée à Dieu et à l'étude des Écritures. Élu bientôt évêque
d'Hippone, il se fit, pendant trente-quatre ans, jusqu'à sa mort en 430, le
modèle de son troupeau, en l'instruisant par ses sermons et ses écrits
abondants, dans lesquels il lutta avec énergie contre les erreurs de son temps
ou mit en lumière, avec beaucoup de science, la vraie foi.
Martyrologe romain
Saint Augustin, évêque et éminent docteur de l'Église,
demeure un exemple intellectuel et spirituel pour de nombreux fidèles et
religieux catholiques, les Papes François et Benoît XVI se sont effectivement
souvent référés à l'évêque d'Hippone.
Saint
Augustin, figure intemporelle du christianisme, 28 août 2018.
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1751/Saint-Augustin.html
Pietro da Rimini e bottega, Affreschi dalla chiesa di S. Chiara a Ravenna, 1310-1320 ca. / Frescos from Santa Chiara (Ravenna) - Vault, volta con Evangelisti e Dottori : San Agostino e San Giovanni
Pietro
da Rimini e bottega, Affreschi dalla chiesa di S. Chiara a Ravenna, 1310-1320
ca. / Frescos from Santa
Chiara (Ravenna) - Vault, volta con Evangelisti e Dottori : San
Agostino e San Giovanni
Saint Augustin
Évêque d'Hippone, Père et
Docteur de l'Église
(354-430)
Saint Augustin est l'un
des plus grands génies qui aient paru sur la terre et l'un des plus grands
Saints dont Dieu ait orné Son Église. Moine, pontife, orateur, écrivain,
philosophe, théologien, interprète de la Sainte Écriture, homme de prière et
homme de zèle, il est une des figures les plus complètes que l'on puisse
imaginer. Ce qu'il y a de plus admirable, c'est que Dieu tira cet homme
extraordinaire de la boue profonde du vice pour l'élever presque aussi haut
qu'un homme puisse atteindre; c'est bien à son sujet qu'on peut dire:
"Dieu est admirable dans Ses Saints!"
Augustin naquit à
Tagaste, en Afrique, l'an 354, et, s'il reçut de la part de sa sainte mère,
Monique, les leçons et les exemples de la vertu, il reçut les exemples les plus
déplorables de la part d'un malheureux père, qui ne se convertit qu'au moment
de la mort. A l'histoire des égarements de coeur du jeune et brillant étudiant
se joint l'histoire des égarements étranges de son esprit; mais enfin, grâce à
trente années de larmes versées par sa mère, Dieu fit éclater invinciblement
aux yeux d'Augustin les splendeurs de la vérité et les beautés seules vraies de
la vertu, et le prodigue se donna tout à Dieu: "Le fils de tant de larmes
ne saurait périr!" avait dit un prêtre vénérable à la mère désolée. Parole
prophétique, qui renferme de grands enseignements pour les nombreuses Moniques
des Augustins modernes.
C'est à Milan, sous
l'influence d'Ambroise, qu'Augustin était rentré en lui-même. La voix du Ciel
le rappela en Afrique où, dans une retraite laborieuse et paisible, avec
quelques amis revenus à Dieu avec lui, il se prépara aux grandes destinées qui
l'attendaient.
Augustin n'accepta
qu'avec larmes l'évêché d'Hippone, car son péché était toujours sous ses yeux,
et l'humilité fut la grande vertu de sa vie nouvelle. Il fut le marteau de
toutes les hérésies de son temps; ses innombrables ouvrages sont un des plus
splendides monuments de l'intelligence humaine éclairée par la foi, et ils
demeurent comme la source obligée de toutes les études théologiques et
philosophiques.
Si les écrits d'Augustin
sont admirables par leur science, ils ne le sont pas moins par le souffle de la
charité qui les anime; nul coeur ne fut plus tendre que le sien, nul plus
compatissant au malheur des autres, nul plus sensible aux désastres de la
patrie, nul plus touché des intérêts de Dieu, de l'Église et des âmes. Il passa
les dix derniers jours de sa vie seul avec Dieu, dans le silence le plus
absolu, goûtant à l'avance les délices de l'éternité bienheureuse.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_augustin.html
Antonello de Messine (1430–1479),
Saint Augustin, Polyptyque des Docteurs de
l'Église, 1473, tempera et transposé
sur toile sur panneau, 46.5 x 36, palais Abatellis, Palerme.
Telle est maintenant
l’Église
« Jetez vos
filets. » Il ne dit ni à droite ni à gauche, mais
seulement : « Jetez vos filets. » Car s’il disait
« à gauche », il donnerait à entendre seulement les méchants, et
« à droite », seulement les bons. En ne disant ni à droite ni à
gauche, il donne à entendre les bons et les méchants. Telle est maintenant
l’Église, pleine de méchants et de bons. Une multitude remplit l’Église, mais
il arrive que cette multitude pèse lourd et conduise presque au naufrage. La
multitude des gens qui vivent mal désoriente ceux qui vivent bien, elle les met
en un tel désarroi que celui qui vit bien se prend pour un imbécile, quand il
en voit d’autres vivre mal.
La barque crie qu’elle
enfonce sous le poids de la multitude, comme si le bateau lui-même émettait
cette parole : La lassitude me prend à la vue des pécheurs qui
abandonnent ta loi (Ps 118, 53). Même si tu enfonces, prends garde de ne
pas sombrer. Maintenant il faut supporter les méchants et non s’en
séparer. Nous chanterons au Seigneur sa miséricorde et sa
justice (Ps 100, 1). La miséricorde est offerte d’abord, le jugement
aura lieu plus tard, la séparation se fera au jugement. Pour l’instant, que
l’homme de bien m’écoute et devienne meilleur. Que le méchant m’écoute aussi et
devienne bon. Voici le temps de la pénitence, non de la sentence.
St Augustin d’Hippone
Saint Augustin († 430)
était évêque d’Hippone, en Afrique du Nord. / Sermons pour la Pâque,
s. 250, 2, trad. s. Poque, Paris, Cerf, coll. « Sources
Chrétiennes » 116, 1966, p. 313-315.
SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/daily-prayer/792558/meditation-de-ce-jour-1/
Benozzo Gozzoli (1420–1497), Le
Baptême de Saint Augustin, circa 1464, fresque, 220 x 230, église Sant'Agostino, San
Gimignano
Saint Augustin, figure
intemporelle du christianisme
Ce 28 août, l’Église
commémore la fête de saint Augustin, évêque et éminent docteur de l’Église, qui
demeure un exemple intellectuel et spirituel pour de nombreux fidèles et
religieux catholiques, dont les Papes. François et Benoît XVI se sont
effectivement souvent référés à l’évêque d’Hippone.
Dès les mois qui
suivirent son élection au siège de Pierre, François s’était
adressé au Chapitre Général de l’Ordre de saint Augustin, en la basilique
Saint-Augustin de Rome, mercredi 28 août 2013. À quelques pas de la place
Navone, il encourageait ainsi à «l’inquiétude spirituelle» toute augustinienne
et au pari d’un «grand idéal»: celui de bâtir «un monde fait de bonté,
beauté et vérité».
Pour le Pape
François l’exemple de saint Augustin reste très actuel, son parcours est celui
que connaissent tant d’hommes et de femmes de notre époque, dans nos sociétés
occidentales: «Augustin – rappelait le Pape – a vécu une
expérience assez commune : il a été éduqué à la foi chrétienne par sa
mère, Monique [331-387], même s’il n’a pas reçu le baptême, mais en grandissant
il s’éloigne d’elle, ne trouvant plus de réponse à ses questions, aux désirs de
son cœur, et il est attiré par d’autres propositions». Augustin, durant sa
jeunesse, s’intéresse au manichéisme, mais ne renonce pas aux plaisirs, et
entreprend une brillante carrière de rhéteur. Il se convertit à Milan, quelques
temps après avoir rencontré son évêque, saint Ambroise. Ce dernier baptise
Augustin dans la nuit 24 au 25 avril 387, nuit de Pâques.
Des inquiétudes
spirituelles
«Augustin, poursuit
le Pape, est un homme «arrivé», qui a tout, mais dans son cœur persiste cette
inquiétude qui le pousse à chercher le sens profond de sa vie». Et c’est cette
inquiétude-là qui lui permettra, malgré une existence faite aussi d’excès, de
trouver le chemin qui le ramènera au Père.
«Certes, Augustin a commis des erreurs, il a même pris de mauvais chemins, a
commis des péchés, mais il ne perd pas cette inquiétude de la recherche
spirituelle. Et c’est comme cela qu’il découvrira que Dieu l’attendait,
ou plutôt … qu’il n’avait jamais cessé, lui le premier, de le chercher».
Au cours de l'audience
générale du 28 août 2019, le Pape François n'a pas manqué de faire référence à
Augustin, invitant les fidèles à «se laisser inspirer par sa sainteté et
par sa doctrine. Avec lui, redécouvrez la voie de l'intériorité qui conduit à
Dieu et au prochain dans le besoin», a-t-il demandé.
Cycle de catéchèses
Le Pape émérite Benoît
XVI voue quant à lui une admiration particulière à l’évêque d’Hippone.
Plusieurs fois au cours de son pontificat, il a évoqué saint Augustin, le
décrivant par exemple comme «un homme de passion et de foi, à la grande
intelligence et à l'inlassable attention pastorale».
L'auteur des Confessions,
cette «extraordinaire autobiographie spirituelle» qui porte «grande
attention au mystère du soi, au mystère de Dieu caché en nous», fut même l’objet
d’un cycle
de catéchèses du Pape bavarois en 2008.
«Lorsque je lis ses
écrits – confiait-il - je n'ai jamais l'impression qu'ils sont ceux
d'un homme mort il y a seize siècles. J'y trouve un homme contemporain, un ami
qui me parle, qui nous parle, avec une foi fraîche parfaitement
actuelle». «On trouve dans l’œuvre de saint Augustin l'actualité de la foi
qui vient du Christ, du Verbe éternel incarné, fils de Dieu et fils d'homme
comme nous. Il est évident que sa foi n'est pas d'hier, bien qu'exprimée dans
un lointain passé», concluait Benoît XVI.
Il faut aussi mentionner
Jean-Paul II, qui a consacré toute une lettre apostolique à ce saint des débuts
de la chrétienté: Augustinum
Hipponensem, rédigée en 1986, pour le 16ème centenaire de sa
conversion.
Merci d'avoir lu cet
article. Si vous souhaitez rester informé, inscrivez-vous à la lettre
d’information en cliquant ici
Sassetta (1392–1450), Saint Augustin, 1437, tempera et or sur panneau, 44.7 x 37.3, Collezione Fondazione Francesco Federico Cerruti per l’Arte (long-term loan Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Torino)
BENOÎT XVI
AUDIENCE GÉNÉRALE
Mercredi 9 janvier 2008
Sainte Augustin (1)
Chers frères et sœurs,
Après les grandes
festivités de Noël, je voudrais revenir aux méditations sur les Pères de
l'Eglise et parler aujourd'hui du plus grand Père de l'Eglise latine, saint
Augustin: homme de passion et de foi, d'une très grande intelligence et d'une
sollicitude pastorale inlassable, ce grand saint et docteur de l'Eglise est
souvent connu, tout au moins de réputation, par ceux qui ignorent le
christianisme ou qui ne le connaissent pas bien, car il a laissé une empreinte
très profonde dans la vie culturelle de l'Occident et du monde entier. En
raison de son importance particulière, saint Augustin a eu une influence
considérable et l'on pourrait affirmer, d'une part, que toutes les routes de la
littérature chrétienne latine mènent à Hippone (aujourd'hui Annaba, sur la côte
algérienne), le lieu où il était Evêque et, de l'autre, que de cette ville de
l'Afrique romaine, dont Augustin fut l'Evêque de 395 jusqu'à sa mort en 430,
partent de nombreuses autres routes du christianisme successif et de la culture
occidentale elle-même.
Rarement une civilisation
ne rencontra un aussi grand esprit, qui sache en accueillir les valeurs et en
exalter la richesse intrinsèque, en inventant des idées et des formes dont la
postérité se nourrirait, comme le souligna également Paul VI: "On peut
dire que toute la pensée de l'Antiquité conflue dans son œuvre et que de
celle-ci dérivent des courants de pensée qui parcourent toute la tradition
doctrinale des siècles suivants" (AAS, 62, 1970, p. 426). Augustin est
également le Père de l'Eglise qui a laissé le plus grand nombre d'œuvres. Son
biographe Possidius dit qu'il semblait impossible qu'un homme puisse écrire
autant de choses dans sa vie. Nous parlerons de ces diverses œuvres lors d'une
prochaine rencontre. Aujourd'hui, nous réserverons notre attention à sa vie,
que l'on reconstruit bien à partir de ses écrits, et en particulier des
Confessiones, son extraordinaire autobiographie spirituelle, écrite en louange
à Dieu, qui est son œuvre la plus célèbre. Et à juste titre, car ce sont
précisément les Confessiones d'Augustin, avec leur attention à la vie
intérieure et à la psychologie, qui constituent un modèle unique dans la
littérature occidentale, et pas seulement occidentale, même non religieuse,
jusqu'à la modernité. Cette attention à la vie spirituelle, au mystère du
"moi", au mystère de Dieu qui se cache derrière le "moi",
est une chose extraordinaire sans précédent et restera pour toujours, pour
ainsi dire, un "sommet" spirituel.
Mais pour en venir à sa
vie, Augustin naquit à Taghaste - dans la province de Numidie de l'Afrique
romaine - le 13 novembre 354, de Patrice, un païen qui devint ensuite
catéchumène, et de Monique, fervente chrétienne. Cette femme passionnée,
vénérée comme une sainte, exerça sur son fils une très grande influence et
l'éduqua dans la foi chrétienne. Augustin avait également reçu le sel, comme
signe de l'accueil dans le catéchuménat. Et il est resté fasciné pour toujours
par la figure de Jésus Christ; il dit même avoir toujours aimé Jésus, mais
s'être éloigné toujours plus de la foi ecclésiale, de la pratique ecclésiale,
comme cela arrive pour de nombreux jeunes aujourd'hui aussi.
Augustin avait aussi un
frère, Navigius, et une sœur, dont nous ignorons le nom et qui, devenue veuve,
fut ensuite à la tête d'un monastère féminin. Le jeune garçon, d'une très vive
intelligence, reçut une bonne éducation, même s'il ne fut pas un étudiant
exemplaire. Il étudia cependant bien la grammaire, tout d'abord dans sa ville
natale, puis à Madaure et, à partir de 370, la rhétorique à Carthage, capitale
de l'Afrique romaine: maîtrisant parfaitement la langue latine, il n'arriva
cependant pas à la même maîtrise du grec et n'apprit pas le punique, parlé par
ses compatriotes. Ce fut précisément à Carthage qu'Augustin lut pour la
première fois l'Hortensius, une œuvre de Cicéron qui fut ensuite perdue et qui
marqua le début de son chemin vers la conversion. En effet, le texte cicéronien
éveilla en lui l'amour pour la sagesse, comme il l'écrira, devenu Evêque, dans
les Confessiones: "Ce livre changea véritablement ma façon de voir",
si bien qu'"à l'improviste toute espérance vaine perdit de sa valeur et
que je désirai avec une incroyable ardeur du cœur l'immortalité de la
sagesse" (III, 4, 7).
Mais comme il était
convaincu que sans Jésus on ne peut pas dire avoir effectivement trouvé la
vérité, et comme dans ce livre passionné ce nom lui manquait, immédiatement
après l'avoir lu, il commença à lire l'Ecriture, la Bible. Mais il en fut déçu.
Non seulement parce que le style latin de la traduction de l'Ecriture Sainte
était insuffisant, mais également parce que le contenu lui-même ne lui parut
pas satisfaisant. Dans les récits de l'Ecriture sur les guerres et les autres
événements humains, il ne trouva pas l'élévation de la philosophie, la
splendeur de la recherche de la vérité qui lui est propre. Toutefois, il ne
voulait pas vivre sans Dieu et il cherchait ainsi une religion correspondant à
son désir de vérité et également à son désir de se rapprocher de Jésus. Il
tomba ainsi dans les filets des manichéens, qui se présentaient comme des
chrétiens et promettaient une religion totalement rationnelle. Ils affirmaient
que le monde est divisé en deux principes: le bien et le mal. Et ainsi
s'expliquerait toute la complexité de l'histoire humaine. La morale dualiste
plaisait aussi à saint Augustin, car elle comportait une morale très élevée
pour les élus: et pour celui qui y adhérait, comme lui, il était possible de
vivre une vie beaucoup plus adaptée à la situation de l'époque, en particulier
pour un homme jeune. Il devint donc manichéen, convaincu à ce moment-là d'avoir
trouvé la synthèse entre rationalité, recherche de la vérité et amour de Jésus
Christ. Il en tira également un avantage concret pour sa vie: l'adhésion aux
manichéens ouvrait en effet des perspectives faciles de carrière. Adhérer à
cette religion qui comptait tant de personnalités influentes lui permettait
également de poursuivre une relation tissée avec une femme et d'aller de
l'avant dans sa carrière. Il eut un fils de cette femme, Adéodat, qui lui était
très cher, très intelligent, et qui sera ensuite très présent lors de sa
préparation au baptême près du lac de Côme, participant à ces
"Dialogues" que saint Augustin nous a légués. Malheureusement,
l'enfant mourut prématurément. Professeur de grammaire vers l'âge de vingt ans
dans sa ville natale, il revint bien vite à Carthage, où il devint un maître de
rhétorique brillant et célèbre. Avec le temps, toutefois, Augustin commença à
s'éloigner de la foi des manichéens, qui le déçurent précisément du point de
vue intellectuel car ils étaient incapables de résoudre ses doutes, et il se
transféra à Rome, puis à Milan, où résidait alors la cour impériale et où il
avait obtenu un poste de prestige grâce à l'intervention et aux recommandations
du préfet de Rome, le païen Simmaque, hostile à l'Evêque de Milan saint
Ambroise.
A Milan, Augustin prit
l'habitude d'écouter - tout d'abord dans le but d'enrichir son bagage rhétorique
- les très belles prédications de l'Evêque Ambroise, qui avait été le
représentant de l'empereur pour l'Italie du Nord, et le rhéteur africain fut
fasciné par la parole du grand prélat milanais et pas seulement par sa
rhétorique; c'est surtout son contenu qui toucha toujours plus son cœur. Le
grand problème de l'Ancien Testament, du manque de beauté rhétorique,
d'élévation philosophique se résolvait, dans les prédications de saint
Ambroise, grâce à l'interprétation typologique de l'Ancien Testament: Augustin
comprit que tout l'Ancien Testament est un chemin vers Jésus Christ. Il trouva
ainsi la clef pour comprendre la beauté, la profondeur également philosophique
de l'Ancien Testament et il comprit toute l'unité du mystère du Christ dans
l'histoire et également la synthèse entre philosophie, rationalité et foi dans
le Logos, dans le Christ Verbe éternel qui s'est fait chair.
Augustin se rendit
rapidement compte que la lecture allégorique des Ecritures et la philosophie
néoplatonicienne pratiquées par l'Evêque de Milan lui permettaient de résoudre
les difficultés intellectuelles qui, lorsqu'il était plus jeune, lors de sa
première approche des textes bibliques, lui avaient paru insurmontables.
A la lecture des écrits
des philosophes, Augustin fit ainsi suivre à nouveau celle de l'Ecriture et
surtout des lettres pauliniennes. Sa conversion au christianisme, le 15 août
386, se situa donc au sommet d'un itinéraire intérieur long et tourmenté dont nous
parlerons dans une autre catéchèse, et l'Africain s'installa à la campagne au
nord de Milan, près du lac de Côme - avec sa mère Monique, son fils Adéodat et
un petit groupe d'amis - pour se préparer au baptême. Ainsi, à trente-deux ans,
Augustin fut baptisé par Ambroise, le 24 avril 387, au cours de la veillée
pascale, dans la cathédrale de Milan.
Après son baptême,
Augustin décida de revenir en Afrique avec ses amis, avec l'idée de pratiquer
une vie commune, de type monastique, au service de Dieu. Mais à Ostie, dans
l'attente du départ, sa mère tomba brusquement malade et mourut un peu plus
tard, déchirant le cœur de son fils. Finalement de retour dans sa patrie, le
converti s'établit à Hippone pour y fonder précisément un monastère. Dans cette
ville de la côte africaine, malgré la présence d'hérésies, il fut ordonné
prêtre en 391 et commença avec plusieurs compagnons la vie monastique à
laquelle il pensait depuis longtemps, partageant son temps entre la prière,
l'étude et la prédication. Il voulait uniquement être au service de la vérité,
il ne se sentait pas appelé à la vie pastorale, mais il comprit ensuite que
l'appel de Dieu était celui d'être un pasteur parmi les autres, en offrant
ainsi le don de la vérité aux autres. C'est à Hippone, quatre ans plus tard, en
395, qu'il fut consacré Evêque. Continuant à approfondir l'étude des Ecritures
et des textes de la tradition chrétienne, Augustin fut un Evêque exemplaire
dans son engagement pastoral inlassable: il prêchait plusieurs fois par semaine
à ses fidèles, il assistait les pauvres et les orphelins, il soignait la
formation du clergé et l'organisation de monastères féminins et masculins. En
peu de mots, ce rhéteur de l'antiquité s'affirma comme l'un des représentants
les plus importants du christianisme de cette époque: très actif dans le
gouvernement de son diocèse - avec également d'importantes conséquences au
niveau civil - pendant ses plus de trente-cinq années d'épiscopat, l'Evêque
d'Hippone exerça en effet une grande influence dans la conduite de l'Eglise
catholique de l'Afrique romaine et de manière plus générale sur le
christianisme de son temps, faisant face à des tendances religieuses et des
hérésies tenaces et sources de division telles que le manichéisme, le donatisme
et le pélagianisme, qui mettaient en danger la foi chrétienne dans le Dieu
unique et riche en miséricorde.
Et c'est à Dieu
qu'Augustin se confia chaque jour, jusqu'à la fin de sa vie: frappé par la
fièvre, alors que depuis presque trois mois sa ville d'Hippone était assiégée par
les envahisseurs vandales, l'Evêque - raconte son ami Possidius dans la Vita
Augustini - demanda que l'on transcrive en gros caractères les psaumes
pénitentiels "et il fit afficher les feuilles sur le mur, de sorte que se
trouvant au lit pendant sa maladie il pouvait les voir et les lire, et il
pleurait sans cesse à chaudes larmes" (31, 2). C'est ainsi que
s'écoulèrent les derniers jours de la vie d'Augustin, qui mourut le 28 août
430, alors qu'il n'avait pas encore 76 ans. Nous consacrerons les prochaines
rencontres à ses œuvres, à son message et à son parcours intérieur.
* * *
Je suis heureux de vous
accueillir, chers pèlerins francophones. Je salue en particulier les jeunes du
lycée d’enseignement agricole privé, de Saint-Maximin. Que saint Augustin soit
pour vous tous un modèle dans votre recherche de Dieu et qu’il vous aide à
approfondir votre foi! Avec ma Bénédiction apostolique.
© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Vincenzo Foppa (–1515), Saint
Augustin, circa 1465, 119 x 46, château des Sforza
BENOÎT XVI
AUDIENCE GÉNÉRALE
Mercredi 16 janvier 2008
Sainte Augustin (2)
Chers frères et sœurs!
Aujourd'hui, comme
mercredi dernier, je voudrais parler du grand Evêque d'Hippone, saint Augustin.
Quatre ans avant de mourir, il voulut nommer son successeur. C'est pourquoi, le
26 septembre 426, il rassembla le peuple dans la Basilique de la Paix, à
Hippone, pour présenter aux fidèles celui qu'il avait désigné pour cette tâche.
Il dit: "Dans cette vie nous sommes tous mortels, mais le dernier jour de
cette vie est toujours incertain pour chaque personne. Toutefois, dans
l'enfance on espère parvenir à l'adolescence; dans l'adolescence à la jeunesse;
dans la jeunesse à l'âge adulte; dans l'âge adulte à l'âge mûr, dans l'âge mûr
à la vieillesse. On n'est pas sûr d'y parvenir, mais on l'espère. La
vieillesse, au contraire, n'a devant elle aucun temps dans lequel espérer; sa
durée même est incertaine... Par la volonté de Dieu, je parvins dans cette
ville dans la force de l'âge; mais à présent ma jeunesse est passée et
désormais je suis vieux" (Ep 213, 1). A ce point, Augustin cita le nom du
successeur désigné, le prêtre Eraclius. L'assemblée applaudit en signe
d'approbation en répétant vingt-trois fois: "Dieu soit remercié! loué soit
Jésus Christ!". En outre, les fidèles approuvèrent par d'autres
acclamations ce qu'Augustin dit ensuite à propos de ses intentions pour
l'avenir: il voulait consacrer les années qui lui restaient à une étude plus
intense des Ecritures Saintes (cf. Ep 213, 6).
De fait, les quatre
années qui suivirent furent des années d'une extraordinaire activité
intellectuelle: il mena à bien des œuvres importantes, il en commença d'autres
tout aussi prenantes, il mena des débats publics avec les hérétiques - il
cherchait toujours le dialogue -, il intervint pour promouvoir la paix dans les
provinces africaines assiégées par les tribus barbares du sud. C'est à ce
propos qu'il écrivit au comte Darius, venu en Afrique pour résoudre le
différend entre le comte Boniface et la cour impériale, dont profitaient les
tribus des Maures pour effectuer leurs incursions. "Le plus grand titre de
gloire - affirmait-il dans sa lettre - est précisément de tuer la guerre grâce
à la parole, au lieu de tuer les hommes par l'épée, et de rétablir ou de
conserver la paix par la paix et non par la guerre. Bien sûr, ceux qui
combattent, s'ils sont bons, cherchent eux aussi sans aucun doute la paix, mais
au prix du sang versé. Toi, au contraire, tu as été envoyé précisément pour
empêcher que l'on cherche à verser le sang de quiconque" (Ep 229, 2).
Malheureusement, les espérances d'une pacification des territoires africains
furent déçues: en mai 429, les Vandales, invités en Afrique par Boniface
lui-même qui voulait se venger, franchirent le détroit de Gibraltar et
envahirent la Mauritanie. L'invasion atteint rapidement les autres riches
provinces africaines. En mai ou en juin 430, les "destructeurs de l'empire
romain", comme Possidius qualifie ces barbares (Vie, 30, 1), encerclaient
Hippone, qu'ils assiégèrent.
Boniface avait lui aussi
cherché refuge en ville et, s'étant réconcilié trop tard avec la cour, il
tentait à présent en vain de barrer la route aux envahisseurs. Le biographe
Possidius décrit la douleur d'Augustin: "Les larmes étaient, plus que
d'habitude, son pain quotidien nuit et jour et, désormais parvenu à la fin de
sa vie, il traînait plus que les autres sa vieillesse dans l'amertume et dans
le deuil" (Vie, 28, 6). Et il explique: "Cet homme de Dieu voyait en
effet les massacres et les destructions des villes; les maisons dans les
campagnes détruites et leurs habitants tués par les ennemis ou mis en fuite et
dispersés; les églises privées de prêtres et de ministres, les vierges sacrées
et les religieuses dispersées de toute part; parmi eux, des personnes mortes
sous les tortures, d'autres tuées par l'épée, d'autres encore faites
prisonnières, ayant perdu l'intégrité de l'âme et du corps et également la foi,
réduites en un esclavage long et douloureux par leurs ennemis" (ibid., 28,
8).
Bien que vieux et
fatigué, Augustin resta cependant sur la brèche, se réconfortant et
réconfortant les autres par la prière et par la méditation sur les mystérieux
desseins de la Providence. Il parlait, à cet égard, de la "vieillesse du
monde", - et véritablement ce monde romain était vieux -, il parlait de
cette vieillesse comme il l'avait déjà fait des années auparavant, pour
réconforter les réfugiés provenant de l'Italie, lorsqu'en 410 les Goths
d'Alaric avaient envahi la ville de Rome. Pendant la vieillesse, disait-il, les
maux abondent: toux, rhumes, yeux chassieux, anxiété, épuisement. Mais si le
monde vieillit, le Christ est éternellement jeune. D'où l'invitation: "Ne
refuse pas de rajeunir uni au Christ, qui te dit: Ne crains rien, ta jeunesse
se renouvellera comme celle de l'aigle" (Serm. 81, 8). Le chrétien ne doit
donc pas se laisser abattre, mais se prodiguer pour aider celui qui est dans le
besoin. C'est ce que le grand Docteur suggère en répondant à l'Evêque de Tiabe,
Honoré, qui lui avait demandé si, sous la pression des invasions barbares, un
Evêque, un prêtre ou tout autre homme d'Eglise pouvait fuir pour sauver sa vie:
"Lorsque le danger est commun pour tous, c'est-à-dire pour les Evêques,
les clercs et les laïcs, que ceux qui ont besoin des autres ne soient pas
abandonnés par ceux dont ils ont besoin. Dans ce cas, qu'ils se réfugient même
tous ensemble dans des lieux sûrs; mais si certains ont besoin de rester,
qu'ils ne soient pas abandonnés par ceux qui ont le devoir de les assister par
le saint ministère, de manière à ce qu'ils se sauvent ensemble ou qu'ils
supportent ensemble les catastrophes que le Père de famille voudra qu'ils
patissent" (Ep 228, 2). Et il concluait: "Telle est la preuve suprême
de la charité" (ibid., 3). Comment ne pas reconnaître dans ces mots, le
message héroïque que tant de prêtres, au cours des siècles, ont accueilli et
adopté?
En attendant la ville
d'Hippone résistait. La maison-monastère d'Augustin avait ouvert ses portes
pour accueillir ses collègues dans l'épiscopat qui demandaient l'hospitalité.
Parmi eux se trouvait également Possidius, autrefois son disciple, qui put
ainsi nous laisser le témoignage direct de ces derniers jours dramatiques.
"Au troisième mois de ce siège - raconte-t-il - il se mit au lit avec la
fièvre: c'était sa dernière maladie" (Vie, 29, 3). Le saint Vieillard
profita de ce temps désormais libre pour se consacrer avec plus d'intensité à
la prière. Il avait l'habitude d'affirmer que personne, Evêque, religieux ou
laïcs, aussi irrépréhensible que puisse sembler sa conduite, ne peut affronter
la mort sans une pénitence adaptée. C'est pourquoi il continuait sans cesse à
répéter, en pleurant, les psaumes pénitentiels qu'il avait si souvent récités
avec le peuple (cf. ibid., 31, 2).
Plus le mal s'aggravait,
plus l'Evêque mourant ressentait le besoin de solitude et de prière: "Pour
n'être dérangé par personne dans son recueillement, environ dix jours avant de
sortir de son corps, il nous pria, nous tous présents, de ne laisser entrer
personne dans sa chambre, en dehors des heures où les médecins venaient
l'examiner ou lorsqu'on lui apportait les repas. Sa volonté fut exactement
accomplie et, pendant tout ce temps, il se consacra à la prière" (ibid.,
31, 3). Il cessa de vivre le 28 août 430: son grand cœur s'était finalement
apaisé en Dieu.
"Pour la déposition
de son corps - nous informe Possidius - le sacrifice, auquel nous assistâmes,
fut offert à Dieu, puis il fut enseveli" (Vie, 31, 5). Son corps, à une
date incertaine, fut transféré en Sardaigne, puis, vers 725, à Pavie, dans la
Basilique "San Pietro in Ciel d'oro", où il repose encore
aujourd'hui. Son premier biographe a exprimé ce jugement conclusif sur lui:
"Il laissa à l'Eglise un clergé très nombreux, ainsi que des monastères
d'hommes et de femmes pleins de personnes consacrées à la chasteté sous
l'obéissance de leurs supérieurs, ainsi que des bibliothèques contenant ses
livres et ses discours et ceux d'autres saints, grâce auxquels on sait quels
ont été, par la grâce de Dieu, son mérite et sa grandeur dans l'Eglise, où les
fidèles le retrouvent toujours vivant" (Possidius, Vie, 31, 8). C'est un
jugement auquel nous pouvons nous associer: dans ses écrits nous aussi nous le
"retrouvons vivant". Lorsque je lis les écrits de saint Augustin, je
n'ai pas l'impression qu'il s'agisse d'un homme mort il y a plus ou moins 1600
ans, mais je le perçois comme un homme d'aujourd'hui: un ami, un contemporain
qui me parle, qui nous parle avec sa foi fraîche et actuelle. Chez saint
Augustin qui nous parle, qui me parle dans ses écrits, nous voyons l'actualité
permanente de sa foi; de la foi qui vient du Christ, Verbe éternel incarné,
Fils de Dieu et Fils de l'homme. Et nous pouvons voir que cette foi n'est pas
d'hier, même si elle a été prêchée hier; elle est toujours d'aujourd'hui, car
le Christ est réellement hier, aujourd'hui et à jamais. Il est le chemin, la
Vérité et la Vie. Ainsi, saint Augustin nous encourage à nous confier à ce
Christ toujours vivant et à trouver de cette manière le chemin de la vie.
* * *
Je suis heureux de vous
accueillir, chers pèlerins francophones, particulièrement le groupe de la
paroisse du Pradet. Que l’exemple de saint Augustin vous aide à tenir bon dans
les épreuves et à rester fermes dans la foi tout au long de votre vie. Avec ma
Bénédiction apostolique.
Semaine de prière pour
l'unité des chrétiens
Après-demain, vendredi 18
janvier, commence la traditionnelle Semaine de prière pour l'unité des
chrétiens, qui cette année revêt une valeur singulière car cent ans se sont
écoulés depuis son institution. Le thème est l'invitation de saint Paul aux
Thessaloniciens: "Priez sans relâche" (1 Th 5, 17); une invitation
que je fais mienne et que j'adresse bien volontiers à toute l'Eglise. Oui, il
est nécessaire de prier sans relâche en demandant avec insistance à Dieu le
grand don de l'unité entre tous les disciples du Seigneur. Que la force
inépuisable de l'Esprit Saint nous pousse à un engagement sincère de recherche
de l'unité, afin que nous puissions professer tous ensemble que Jésus est
l'unique Sauveur du monde.
© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Sandro Botticelli : Saint
Augustin dans son cabinet de travail, circa 1490, tempera sur panneau, 41 x 27,
galerie des Offices
BENOÎT XVI
AUDIENCE GÉNÉRALE
Mercredi 30 janvier 2008
Saint Augustin nous
rappelle que Dieu n'est pas loin de notre raison et de notre vie
Chers amis,
Après la Semaine de
prière pour l'unité des chrétiens, nous revenons aujourd'hui sur la grande
figure de saint Augustin. Mon bien-aimé prédécesseur Jean-Paul II lui a
consacré en 1986, c'est-à-dire pour le seizième centenaire de sa conversion, un
long document très dense, la Lettre apostolique Augustinum Hipponensem. Le Pape
lui-même souhaita qualifier ce texte d'"action de grâce à Dieu pour le don
fait à l'Eglise, et pour elle à l'humanité tout entière, avec cette admirable
conversion". Je voudrais revenir sur le thème de la conversion lors d'une
prochaine Audience. C'est un thème fondamental non seulement pour sa vie
personnelle, mais aussi pour la nôtre. Dans l'Evangile de dimanche dernier, le
Seigneur a résumé sa prédication par la parole: "Convertissez-vous".
En suivant le chemin de saint Augustin, nous pourrions méditer sur ce qu'est
cette conversion: c'est une chose définitive, décisive, mais la décision
fondamentale doit se développer, doit se réaliser dans toute notre vie.
La catéchèse
d'aujourd'hui est en revanche consacrée au thème foi et raison, qui est un
thème déterminant, ou mieux, le thème déterminant dans la biographie de saint
Augustin. Enfant, il avait appris de sa mère Monique la foi catholique. Mais
adolescent il avait abandonné cette foi parce qu'il ne parvenait plus à en voir
la caractère raisonnable et il ne voulait pas d'une religion qui ne fût pas
aussi pour lui expression de la raison, c'est-à-dire de la vérité. Sa soif de vérité
était radicale et elle l'a conduit à s'éloigner de la foi catholique. Mais sa
radicalité était telle qu'il ne pouvait pas se contenter de philosophies qui ne
seraient pas parvenues à la vérité elle-même, qui ne seraient pas arrivées
jusqu'à Dieu. Et à un Dieu qui ne soit pas uniquement une ultime hypothèse
cosmologique, mais qui soit le vrai Dieu, le Dieu qui donne la vie et qui entre
dans notre vie personnelle. Ainsi, tout l'itinéraire spirituel de saint
Augustin constitue un modèle valable encore aujourd'hui dans le rapport entre
foi et raison, thème non seulement pour les hommes croyants mais pour tout
homme qui recherche la vérité, thème central pour l'équilibre et le destin de
tout être humain. Ces deux dimensions, foi et raison, ne doivent pas être
séparées ni opposées, mais doivent plutôt toujours aller de pair. Comme l'a
écrit Augustin lui-même peu après sa conversion, foi et raison sont "les
deux forces qui nous conduisent à la connaissance" (Contra Academicos,
III, 20, 43). A cet égard demeurent célèbres à juste titre les deux formules
augustiniennes (Sermones, 43, 9) qui expriment cette synthèse cohérente entre
foi et raison: crede ut intelligas ("crois pour comprendre") - croire
ouvre la route pour franchir la porte de la vérité - mais aussi, et de manière
inséparable, intellige ut credas ("comprends pour croire"), scrute la
vérité pour pouvoir trouver Dieu et croire.
Les deux affirmations
d'Augustin expriment de manière immédiate et concrète ainsi qu'avec une grande
profondeur, la synthèse de ce problème, dans lequel l'Eglise catholique voit
exprimé son propre chemin. D'un point de vue historique, cette synthèse se
forme avant même la venue du Christ, dans la rencontre entre la foi juive et la
pensée grecque dans le judaïsme hellénistique. Ensuite au cours de l'histoire,
cette synthèse a été reprise et développée par un grand nombre de penseurs
chrétiens. L'harmonie entre foi et raison signifie surtout que Dieu n'est pas
éloigné: il n'est pas éloigné de notre raison et de notre vie; il est proche de
tout être humain, proche de notre cœur et proche de notre raison, si nous nous
mettons réellement en chemin.
C'est précisément cette
proximité de Dieu avec l'homme qui fut perçue avec une extraordinaire intensité
par Augustin. La présence de Dieu en l'homme est profonde et dans le même temps
mystérieuse, mais elle peut être reconnue et découverte dans notre propre
intimité: ne sors pas - affirme le converti - mais "rentre en toi-même;
c'est dans l'homme intérieur qu'habite la vérité; et si tu trouves que la
nature est muable, transcende-toi toi-même. Mais rappelle-toi, lorsque tu te
transcendes toi-même, que tu transcendes une âme qui raisonne. Tends donc là où
s'allume la lumière de la raison" (De vera religione, 39, 72). Précisément
comme il le souligne, dans une affirmation très célèbre, au début des
Confessiones, son autobiographie spirituelle écrite en louange à Dieu: "Tu
nous as faits pour toi et notre cœur est sans repos, tant qu'il ne repose pas
en toi" (I, 1, 1).
Etre éloigné de Dieu
équivaut alors à être éloigné de soi-même: "En effet - reconnaît Augustin
(Confessiones, III, 6, 11) en s'adressant directement à Dieu - tu étais à
l'intérieur de moi dans ce que j'ai de plus intime et plus au-dessus de ce que
j'ai de plus haut", interior intimo meo et superior summo meo; si bien que
- ajoute-t-il dans un autre passage lorsqu'il rappelle l'époque antérieure à sa
conversion - "tu étais devant moi; et quant à moi en revanche, je m'étais
éloigné de moi-même, et je ne me retrouvais plus; et moins encore te
retrouvais-je" (Confessiones, V, 2, 2). C'est précisément parce
qu'Augustin a vécu personnellement cet itinéraire intellectuel et spirituel,
qu'il a su le rendre dans ses œuvres de manière immédiate et avec tant de
profondeur et de sagesse, reconnaissant dans deux autres passages célèbres des
Confessiones (IV, 4, 9 et 14, 22) que l'homme est "une grande énigme"
(magna quaestio) et "un grand abîme" (grande profundum), une énigme
et un abîme que seul le Christ illumine et sauve. Voilà ce qui est important:
un homme qui est éloigné de Dieu est aussi éloigné de lui-même, et il ne peut
se retrouver lui-même qu'en rencontrant Dieu. Ainsi il arrive également à
lui-même, à son vrai moi, à sa vraie identité.
L'être humain - souligne
ensuite Augustin dans De civitate Dei (XII, 27) - est social par nature mais
antisocial par vice, et il est sauvé par le Christ, unique médiateur entre Dieu
et l'humanité et "voie universelle de la liberté et du salut", comme
l'a répété mon prédécesseur Jean-Paul II (Augustinum Hipponensem, 21): hors de
cette voie, qui n'a jamais fait défaut au genre humain - affirme encore
Augustin dans cette même œuvre - "personne n'a jamais trouvé la liberté,
personne ne la trouve, personne ne la trouvera" (De civitate Dei, X, 32,
2). En tant qu'unique médiateur du salut, le Christ est la tête de l'Eglise et
il est uni à elle de façon mystique au point qu'Augustin peut affirmer:
"Nous sommes devenus le Christ. En effet, s'il est la tête et nous les
membres, l'homme total est lui et nous" (In Iohannis evangelium tractatus,
21, 8).
Peuple de Dieu et maison
de Dieu, l'Eglise, dans la vision augustinienne est donc liée étroitement au
concept de Corps du Christ, fondée sur la relecture christologique de l'Ancien
Testament et sur la vie sacramentelle centrée sur l'Eucharistie, dans laquelle
le Seigneur nous donne son Corps et nous transforme en son Corps. Il est alors
fondamental que l'Eglise, Peuple de Dieu au sens christologique et non au sens
sociologique, soit véritablement inscrite dans le Christ, qui - affirme
Augustin dans une très belle page - "prie pour nous, prie en nous, est
prié par nous; prie pour nous comme notre prêtre, prie en nous comme notre
chef, est prié par nous comme notre Dieu: nous reconnaissons donc en lui notre
voix et en nous la sienne" (Enarrationes in Psalmos, 85, 1).
Dans la conclusion de la
Lettre apostolique Agustinum Hipponensem Jean-Paul II a voulu demander au saint
lui-même ce qu'il avait à dire aux hommes d'aujourd'hui et il répond tout
d'abord avec les paroles qu'Augustin confia dans une lettre dictée peu après sa
conversion: "Il me semble que l'on doive reconduire les hommes à
l'espérance de trouver la vérité" (Epistulae, 1, 1); cette vérité qui est
le Christ lui-même, le Dieu véritable, auquel est adressée l'une des plus
belles et des plus célèbres prières des Confessiones (X, 27, 38): "Je t'ai
aimée tard, beauté si ancienne, beauté si nouvelle, je t'ai aimée tard. Mais
quoi! Tu étais au dedans, moi au dehors de moi-même; et c'est au dehors que je
te cherchais; et je poursuivais de ma laideur la beauté de tes créatures. Tu
étais avec moi, et je n'étais pas avec toi; retenu loin de toi par tout ce qui,
sans toi, ne serait que néant. Tu m'appelles, et voilà que ton cri force la
surdité de mon oreille; ta splendeur rayonne, elle chasse mon aveuglement; ton
parfum, je le respire, et voilà que je soupire pour toi; je t'ai goûté, et me
voilà dévoré de faim et de soif; tu m'as touché, et je brûle du désir de ta
paix".
Voilà, Augustin a
rencontré Dieu et tout au long de sa vie, il en a fait l'expérience au point
que cette réalité - qui est avant tout la rencontre avec une Personne, Jésus -
a changé sa vie, comme elle change celle de tous ceux, femmes et hommes, qui de
tous temps ont la grâce de le rencontrer. Prions afin que le Seigneur nous
donne cette grâce et nous permette de trouver sa paix.
* * *
Je souhaite la bienvenue
aux pèlerins de langue française, et je salue particulièrement les membres de
la Congrégation de Saint-Victor et les jeunes. À la suite de saint Augustin, je
vous encourage à aimer et à servir toujours davantage l’Église, pour trouver
des réponses aux questions des hommes de notre temps. Avec ma Bénédiction
apostolique.
© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Saint Augustine, detail from Saint Augustine and Saint Lawrence by Tomás Giner, 1458, tempera on panel, Diocesan Museum of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain.
BENOÎT XVI
AUDIENCE GÉNÉRALE
Mercredi 20 février 2008
La leçon de saint
Augustin sur la véritable laïcité
Chers frères et sœurs,
Après la pause des
exercices spirituels de la semaine dernière nous revenons aujourd'hui à la
grande figure de saint Augustin, duquel j'ai déjà parlé à plusieurs reprises
dans les catéchèses du mercredi. C'est le Père de l'Eglise qui a laissé le plus
grand nombre d'œuvres, et c'est de celles-ci que j'entends aujourd'hui
brièvement parler. Certains des écrits d'Augustin sont d'une importance
capitale, et pas seulement pour l'histoire du christianisme, mais pour la
formation de toute la culture occidentale: l'exemple le plus clair sont les
Confessiones, sans aucun doute l'un des livres de l'antiquité chrétienne le
plus lu aujourd'hui encore. Comme différents Pères de l'Eglise des premiers
siècles, mais dans une mesure incomparablement plus vaste, l'Evêque d'Hippone a
en effet lui aussi exercé une influence étendue et persistante, comme il
ressort déjà de la surabondante traduction manuscrite de ses œuvres, qui sont
vraiment très nombreuses.
Il les passa lui-même en
revue quelques années avant de mourir dans les Retractationes et, peu après sa
mort, celles-ci furent soigneusement enregistrées dans l'Indiculus
("liste") ajouté par son fidèle ami Possidius à la biographie de
saint Augustin Vita Augustini. La liste des œuvres d'Augustin fut réalisée avec
l'intention explicite d'en conserver la mémoire alors que l'invasion vandale se
répandait dans toute l'Afrique romaine et elle compte plus de mille trois cents
écrits, numérotés par leur auteur, ainsi que d'autres "que l'on ne peut
pas numéroter, car il n'y a placé aucun numéro". Evêque d'une ville
voisine, Possidius dictait ces paroles précisément à Hippone - où il s'était
réfugié et où il avait assisté à la mort de son ami - et il se basait presque
certainement sur le catalogue de la bibliothèque personnelle d'Augustin.
Aujourd'hui, plus de trois cents lettres ont survécu à l'Evêque d'Hippone et
presque six cents homélies, mais à l'origine ces dernières étaient beaucoup
plus nombreuses, peut-être même entre trois mille et quatre mille, fruit de
quarante années de prédication de l'antique rhéteur qui avait décidé de suivre
Jésus et de parler non plus aux grandes cours impériales, mais à la simple population
d'Hippone.
Et encore ces dernières
années, la découverte d'un groupe de lettres et de plusieurs homélies a enrichi
notre connaissance de ce grand Père de l'Eglise. "De nombreux livres -
écrit Possidius - furent composés par lui et publiés, de nombreuses
prédications furent tenues à l'église, transcrites et corrigées, aussi bien
pour réfuter les divers hérétiques que pour interpréter les Saintes Ecritures,
en vue de l'édification de saints fils de l'Eglise. Ces œuvres - souligne son
ami Evêque - sont si nombreuses que difficilement un érudit a la possibilité de
les lire et d'apprendre à les connaître" (Vita Augustini, 18, 9).
Parmi la production
d'Augustin - plus de mille publications subdivisées en écrits philosophiques,
apologétiques, doctrinaux, moraux, monastiques, exégétiques, anti-hérétiques,
en plus des lettres et des homélies - ressortent plusieurs oeuvres
exceptionnelles de grande envergure théologique et philosophique. Il faut tout
d'abord rappeler les Confessiones susmentionnées, écrites en treize livres
entre 397 et 400 pour louer Dieu. Elles sont une sorte d'autobiographie sous
forme d'un dialogue avec Dieu. Ce genre littéraire reflète précisément la vie
de saint Augustin, qui était une vie qui n'était pas refermée sur elle,
dispersée en tant de choses, mais vécue substantiellement comme un dialogue
avec Dieu, et ainsi une vie avec les autres. Le titre Confessiones indique déjà
la spécificité de cette autobiographie. Ce mot confessiones, dans le latin
chrétien développé par la tradition des Psaumes, possède deux significations,
qui toutefois se recoupent. Confessiones indique, en premier lieu, la
confession des propres faiblesses, de la misère des péchés; mais, dans le même
temps, confessiones signifie louange de Dieu, reconnaissance à Dieu. Voir sa
propre misère à la lumière de Dieu devient louange à Dieu et action de grâce,
car Dieu nous aime et nous accepte, nous transforme et nous élève vers
lui-même. Sur ces Confessiones qui eurent un grand succès déjà pendant la vie
de saint Augustin, il a lui-même écrit: "Elles ont exercé sur moi une
profonde action alors que je les écrivais et elles l'exercent encore quand je
les relis. Il y a de nombreux frères à qui ces œuvres plaisent"
(Retractationes, II, 6): et je dois dire que je suis moi aussi l'un de ces
"frères". Et grâce aux Confessiones nous pouvons suivre pas à pas le
chemin intérieur de cet homme extraordinaire et passionné de Dieu. Moins
connues, mais tout aussi importantes et originales sont les Retractationes,
composées en deux livres autour de 427, dans lesquelles saint Augustin,
désormais âgé, accomplit une œuvre de "révision" (retractatio) de
toute son œuvre écrite, laissant ainsi un document littéraire original et
précieux, mais également un enseignement de sincérité et d'humilité
intellectuelle.
Le De civitate Dei - une œuvre imposante et décisive pour le
développement de la pensée politique occidentale et pour la théologie
chrétienne de l'histoire - fut écrit entre 413 et 426 en vingt-deux livres.
L'occasion était le sac de Rome accompli par les Goths en 410. De nombreux
païens encore vivants, mais également de nombreux chrétiens, avaient dit: Rome
est tombée, à présent le Dieu chrétien et les apôtres ne peuvent pas protéger
la ville. Pendant la présence des divinités païennes, Rome était caput mundi,
la grande capitale, et personne ne pouvait penser qu'elle serait tombée entre
les mains des ennemis. A présent, avec le Dieu chrétien, cette grande ville
n'apparaissait plus sûre. Le Dieu des chrétiens ne protégeait donc pas, il ne
pouvait pas être le Dieu auquel se confier. A cette objection, qui touchait
aussi profondément le cœur des chrétiens, saint Augustin répond par cette œuvre
grandiose, le De civitate Dei, en clarifiant ce que nous devons attendre ou pas
de Dieu, quelle est la relation entre le domaine politique et le domaine de la
foi, de l'Eglise. Aujourd'hui aussi, ce livre est une source pour bien définir
la véritable laïcité et la compétence de l'Eglise, la grande véritable espérance
que nous donne la foi.
Ce grand livre est une
présentation de l'histoire de l'humanité gouvernée par la Providence divine,
mais actuellement divisée par deux amours. Et cela est le dessein fondamental,
son interprétation de l'histoire, qui est la lutte entre deux amours: amour de
soi "jusqu'à l'indifférence pour Dieu", et amour de Dieu
"jusqu'à l'indifférence pour soi" (De civitate Dei, XIV, 28), à la
pleine liberté de soi pour les autres dans la lumière de Dieu. Cela, donc, est
peut-être le plus grand livre de saint Augustin, d'une importance qui dure
jusqu'à aujourd'hui. Tout aussi important est le De Trinitate, une œuvre en
quinze livres sur le noyau principal de la foi chrétienne, écrite en deux
temps: entre 399 et 412 pour les douze premiers livres, publiés à l'insu
d'Augustin, qui vers 420 les compléta et revit l'œuvre tout entière. Il
réfléchit ici sur le visage de Dieu et cherche à comprendre ce mystère du Dieu
qui est unique, l'unique créateur du monde, de nous tous, et toutefois,
précisément ce Dieu unique est trinitaire, un cercle d'amour. Il cherche à
comprendre le mystère insondable: précisément l'être trinitaire, en trois
Personnes, est la plus réelle et la plus profonde unité de l'unique Dieu. Le De
doctrina Christiana est, en revanche, une véritable introduction culturelle à
l'interprétation de la Bible et en définitive au christianisme lui-même, qui a eu
une importance décisive dans la formation de la culture occidentale.
Malgré toute son
humilité, Augustin fut certainement conscient de son envergure intellectuelle.
Mais pour lui, il était plus important d'apporter le message chrétien aux
simples, plutôt que de faire des œuvres de grande envergure théologique. Cette
profonde intention, qui a guidé toute sa vie, ressort d'une lettre écrite à son
collège Evodius, où il communique la décision de suspendre pour le moment la
dictée des livres du De Trinitate, "car ils sont trop difficiles et je
pense qu'ils ne pourront être compris que par un petit nombre; c'est pourquoi
il est plus urgent d'avoir des textes qui, nous l'espérons, seront utiles à un
grand nombre" (Epistulae, 169, 1, 1). Il était donc plus utile pour lui de
communiquer la foi de manière compréhensible à tous, plutôt que d'écrire de
grandes œuvres théologiques. La responsabilité perçue avec acuité à l'égard de
la divulgation du message chrétien est ensuite à l'origine d'écrits tels que le
De catechizandis rudibus, une théorie et également une pratique de la
catéchèse, ou le Psalmus contra partem Donati. Les donatistes étaient le grand
problème de l'Afrique de saint Augustin, un schisme volontairement africain.
Ils affirmaient: la véritable chrétienté est africaine. Ils s'opposaient à
l'unité de l'Eglise. Le grand Evêque a lutté contre ce schisme pendant toute sa
vie, cherchant à convaincre les donatistes que ce n'est que dans l'unité que
l'africanité peut également être vraie. Et pour se faire comprendre des gens
simples, qui ne pouvaient pas comprendre le grand latin du rhéteur, il a dit:
je dois aussi écrire avec des fautes de grammaire, dans un latin très
simplifié. Et il l'a fait surtout dans ce Psalmus, une sorte de poésie simple
contre les donatistes, pour aider tous les gens à comprendre que ce n'est que
dans l'unité de l'Eglise que se réalise réellement pour tous notre relation
avec Dieu et que grandit la paix dans le monde.
Dans cette production,
destinée à un plus vaste public, revêt une importance particulière le grand
nombre des homélies souvent prononcées de manière improvisée, transcrites par
les tachygraphes au cours de la prédication et immédiatement mises en
circulation. Parmi celles-ci, ressortent les très belles Enarrationes in Psalmos,
fréquemment lues au moyen-âge. C'est précisément la pratique de la publication
des milliers d'homélies d'Augustin - souvent sans le contrôle de l'auteur - qui
explique leur diffusion et leur dispersion successive, mais également leur
vitalité. En effet, en raison de la renommée de leur auteur, les prédications
de l'Evêque d'Hippone devinrent immédiatement des textes très recherchés et
servirent de modèles, adaptés à des contextes toujours nouveaux.
La tradition
iconographique, déjà visible dans une fresque du Latran remontant au VI siècle,
représente saint Augustin avec un livre à la main, certainement pour exprimer
sa production littéraire, qui influença tant la mentalité et la pensée des
chrétiens, mais aussi pour exprimer également son grand amour pour les livres,
pour la lecture et la connaissance de la grande culture précédente. A sa mort
il ne laissa rien, raconte Possidius, mais "il recommandait toujours de
conserver diligemment pour la postérité la bibliothèque de l'église avec tous
les codex", en particulier ceux de ses œuvres. Dans celles-ci, souligne
Possidius, Augustin est "toujours vivant" et ses écrits sont
bénéfiques à ceux qui les lisent, même si, conclut-il, "je crois que ceux
qui purent le voir et l'écouter quand il parlait en personne à l'église, ont pu
davantage tirer profit de son contact, et surtout ceux qui parmi les fidèles
partagèrent sa vie quotidienne" (Vita Augustini, 31). Oui, il aurait été
beau pour nous aussi de pouvoir l'entendre vivant. Mais il est réellement vivant
dans ses écrits, il est présent en nous et ainsi nous voyons aussi la vitalité
permanente de la foi pour laquelle il a donné toute sa vie.
* * *
Je salue les pèlerins
francophones, en particulier les nombreux jeunes des écoles, collèges et lycées
de France, notamment ceux de Fénelon Sainte-Marie et de Gerson. Je vous
encourage à fréquenter saint Augustin, afin qu'il vous ouvre à l'intelligence
des Ecritures et qu'il fortifie votre attachement au Christ. Avec ma
Bénédiction apostolique.
© Copyright 2008 - Libreria
Editrice Vaticana
Fra
Angelico et atelier (vers 1395–1455), La Conversion de
saint Augustin, Scènes de la Thébaïde. Extrait d'un panneau découpé en 6
morceaux, circa 1430, tempera sur panneau, 21.8 x
34.2, Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, musée Thomas-Henry : 1835 : donné
par Thomas Henry. Ce petit panneau constitue le fragment d’une composition plus
vaste, qui ornait la prédelle d’un retable à ce jour non identifié. Quatre autres
fragments des six sont conservés dans les musées d’Anvers, de Philadelphie, de
Chantilly et dans une collection particulière.
BENOÎT XVI
AUDIENCE GÉNÉRALE
Mercredi 27 février 2008
Les trois étapes de la
conversion de saint Augustin, un modèle pour chaque être humain
Chers frères et sœurs,
Avec la rencontre
d'aujourd'hui je voudrais conclure la présentation de la figure de saint
Augustin. Après nous être arrêtés sur sa vie, sur ses œuvres et plusieurs
aspects de sa pensée, je voudrais revenir aujourd'hui sur son itinéraire
intérieur, qui en a fait l'un des plus grands convertis de l'histoire
chrétienne. J'ai consacré une réflexion à cette expérience particulière au
cours du pèlerinage que j'ai accompli à Pavie l'année dernière pour vénérer la
dépouille mortelle de ce Père de l'Eglise. De cette façon, j'ai voulu lui
exprimer l'hommage de toute l'Eglise catholique, mais également rendre visible
ma dévotion personnelle et ma reconnaissance à l'égard d'une figure à laquelle
je me sens profondément lié, en raison du rôle qu'elle a joué dans ma vie de
théologien, de prêtre et de pasteur.
Aujourd'hui encore, il
est possible de reparcourir la vie de saint Augustin en particulier grâce aux
Confessiones, écrites en louange à Dieu, et qui sont à l'origine de l'une des
formes littéraires les plus spécifiques de l'Occident, l'autobiographie,
c'est-à-dire l'expression personnelle de la conscience de soi. Eh bien,
quiconque approche ce livre extraordinaire et fascinant, beaucoup lu
aujourd'hui encore, s'aperçoit facilement que la conversion d'Augustin n'a pas
eu lieu à l'improviste et n'a pas été pleinement réalisée dès le début, mais
que l'on peut plutôt la définir comme un véritable et propre chemin, qui reste
un modèle pour chacun de nous. Cet itinéraire atteint bien sûr son sommet avec
la conversion et ensuite avec le baptême, mais il ne se conclut pas lors de
cette veillée pascale de l'année 387, lorsqu'à Milan le rhéteur africain fut
baptisé par l'Evêque Ambroise. Le chemin de conversion d'Augustin continua en
effet humblement jusqu'à la fin de sa vie, si bien que l'on peut vraiment dire
que ses différentes étapes - on peut facilement en distinguer trois - sont une
unique grande conversion.
Saint Augustin a été un
chercheur passionné de la vérité: il l'a été dès le début et ensuite pendant
toute sa vie. La première étape de son chemin de conversion s'est précisément
réalisée dans l'approche progressive du christianisme. En réalité, il avait
reçu de sa mère Monique, à laquelle il resta toujours très lié, une éducation
chrétienne et, bien qu'il ait vécu pendant ses années de jeunesse une vie
dissipée, il ressentit toujours une profonde attraction pour le Christ, ayant
bu l'amour pour le nom du Seigneur avec le lait maternel, comme il le souligne
lui-même (cf. Confessiones, III, 4, 8). Mais la philosophie également, en
particulier d'inspiration platonicienne, avait également contribué à le
rapprocher ultérieurement du Christ en lui manifestant l'existence du Logos, la
raison créatrice. Les livres des philosophes lui indiquaient qu'il y d'abord la
raison, dont vient ensuite tout le monde, mais ils ne lui disaient pas comment
rejoindre ce Logos, qui semblait si loin. Seule la lecture des lettres de saint
Paul, dans la foi de l'Eglise catholique, lui révéla pleinement la vérité.
Cette expérience fut synthétisée par Augustin dans l'une des pages les plus
célèbres de ses Confessiones: il raconte que, dans le tourment de ses
réflexions, s'étant retiré dans un jardin, il entendit à l'improviste une voix
d'enfant qui répétait une cantilène, jamais entendue auparavant: tolle, lege,
tolle, lege, "prends, lis, prends, lis" (VII, 12, 29). Il se rappela
alors de la conversion d'Antoine, père du monachisme, et avec attention il
revint au codex de Paul qu'il tenait quelques instants auparavant entre les
mains, il l'ouvrit et son regard tomba sur la lettre aux Romains, où l'Apôtre
exhorte à abandonner les œuvres de la chair et à se revêtir du Christ (13,
13-14). Il avait compris que cette parole, à ce moment, lui était
personnellement adressée, provenait de Dieu à travers l'Apôtre et lui indiquait
ce qu'il fallait faire à ce moment. Il sentit ainsi se dissiper les ténèbres du
doute et il se retrouva finalement libre de se donner entièrement au Christ:
"Tu avais converti mon être à toi", commente-t-il (Confessiones,
VIII, 12, 30). Ce fut la première conversion décisive.
Le rhéteur africain
arriva à cette étape fondamentale de son long chemin grâce à sa passion pour
l'homme et pour la vérité, passion qui le mena à chercher Dieu, grand et
inaccessible. La foi en Christ lui fit comprendre que le Dieu, apparemment si
lointain, en réalité ne l'était pas. En effet, il s'était fait proche de nous,
devenant l'un de nous. C'est dans ce sens que la foi en Christ a porté à son
accomplissement la longue recherche d'Augustin sur le chemin de la vérité. Seul
un Dieu qui s'est fait "tangible", l'un de nous, était finalement un
Dieu que l'on pouvait prier, pour lequel et avec lequel on pouvait vivre. Il
s'agit d'une voie à parcourir avec courage et en même temps avec humilité, en
étant ouvert à une purification permanente dont chacun de nous a toujours
besoin. Mais avec cette Veillée pascale de 387, comme nous l'avons dit, le
chemin d'Augustin n'était pas conclu. De retour en Afrique et ayant fondé un
petit monastère, il s'y retira avec quelques amis pour se consacrer à la vie
contemplative et à l'étude. C'était le rêve de sa vie. A présent, il était appelé
à vivre totalement pour la vérité, avec la vérité, dans l'amitié du Christ qui
est la vérité. Un beau rêve qui dura trois ans, jusqu'à ce qu'il soit, malgré
lui, consacré prêtre à Hippone et destiné à servir les fidèles, en continuant
certes à vivre avec le Christ et pour le Christ, mais au service de tous. Cela
lui était très difficile, mais il comprit dès le début que ce n'est qu'en
vivant pour les autres, et pas seulement pour sa contemplation privée, qu'il
pouvait réellement vivre avec le Christ et pour le Christ. Ainsi, renonçant à
une vie uniquement de méditation, Augustin apprit, souvent avec difficulté, à
mettre à disposition le fruit de son intelligence au bénéfice des autres. Il
apprit à communiquer sa foi aux personnes simples et à vivre ainsi pour elles,
dans ce qui devint sa ville, accomplissant sans se lasser une activité
généreuse et difficile, qu'il décrit ainsi dans l'un de ses très beaux sermons:
"Sans cesse prêcher, discuter, reprendre, édifier, être à la disposition
de tous - c'est une lourde charge, un grand poids, une immense fatigue"
(Serm. 339, 4). Mais il prit ce poids sur lui, comprenant que précisément ainsi
il pouvait être plus proche du Christ. Comprendre que l'on arrive aux autres
avec simplicité et humilité, telle fut sa véritable deuxième conversion.
Mais il y a une dernière
étape du chemin d'Augustin, une troisième conversion: celle qui le mena chaque
jour de sa vie à demander pardon à Dieu. Il avait tout d'abord pensé qu'une
fois baptisé, dans la vie de communion avec le Christ, dans les Sacrements,
dans la célébration de l'Eucharistie, il serait arrivé à la vie proposée par le
Discours sur la montagne: à la perfection donnée dans le baptême et reconfirmée
dans l'Eucharistie. Dans la dernière partie de sa vie, il comprit que ce qu'il
avait dit dans ses premières prédications sur le Discours de la montagne -
c'est-à-dire ce que nous à présent, en tant que chrétiens, nous vivons
constamment cet idéal - était erroné. Seul le Christ lui-même réalise vraiment
et complètement le Discours de la montagne. Nous avons toujours besoin d'être
lavés par le Christ, qu'il nous lave les pieds et qu'il nous renouvelle. Nous
avons besoin d'une conversion permanente. Jusqu'à la fin nous avons besoin de
cette humilité qui reconnaît que nous sommes des pécheurs en chemin, jusqu'à ce
que le Seigneur nous donne la main définitivement et nous introduise dans la
vie éternelle. Augustin est mort dans cette dernière attitude d'humilité, vécue
jour après jour.
Cette attitude de
profonde humilité devant l'unique Seigneur Jésus le conduisit à l'expérience de
l'humilité également intellectuelle. En effet, au cours des dernières années de
sa vie, Augustin, qui est l'une des plus grandes figures de l'histoire de la
pensée, voulut soumettre à un examen critique clairvoyant toutes ses très
nombreuses œuvres. C'est ainsi que sont nées les Retractationes
("révisions"), qui insèrent de cette façon sa pensée théologique,
vraiment grande, dans la foi humble et sainte de celle qu'il appelle simplement
par le nom de Catholica, c'est-à-dire l'Eglise. "J'ai compris - écrit-il
précisément dans ce livre très original (I, 19, 1-3) - qu'une seule personne
est véritablement parfaite et que les paroles du Discours de la montagne ne se
sont totalement réalisées que dans une seule personne: en Jésus Christ
lui-même. En revanche, toute l'Eglise - nous tous, y compris les apôtres - doit
prier chaque jour: pardonne nous nos offenses, comme nous pardonnons aussi à
ceux qui nous ont offensés".
Converti au Christ, qui
est vérité et amour, Augustin l'a suivi pendant toute sa vie et il est devenu
un modèle pour chaque être humain, pour nous tous, à la recherche de Dieu.
C'est pourquoi j'ai voulu conclure mon pèlerinage à Pavie en remettant
idéalement à l'Eglise et au monde, devant la tombe de ce grand amoureux de
Dieu, ma première Encyclique, intitulée Deus caritas est. Celle-ci doit en
effet beaucoup à la pensée de saint Augustin, en particulier dans sa première
partie. Aujourd'hui aussi, comme à son époque, l'humanité a besoin de connaître
et surtout de vivre cette réalité fondamentale: Dieu est amour et la rencontre
avec lui est la seule réponse aux inquiétudes du cœur humain. Un cœur qui est
habité par l'espérance, peut-être encore obscure et inconsciente chez beaucoup
de nos contemporains, mais qui, pour nous chrétiens, nous ouvre déjà à
l'avenir, à tel point que saint Paul a écrit que: "Nous avons été sauvés,
mais c'est en espérance" (Rm 8, 24). J'ai voulu consacrer ma deuxième
Encyclique, Spe salvi, à l'espérance; elle doit elle aussi beaucoup à Augustin
et à sa rencontre avec Dieu.
Dans un très beau texte,
saint Augustin définit la prière comme l'expression du désir et il affirme que
Dieu répond en élargissant notre cœur vers Lui. Quant à nous, nous devons
purifier nos désirs et nos espérances pour accueillir la douceur de Dieu (cf.
In Ioannis, 4, 6). En effet, celle-ci est la seule qui nous sauve, en nous
ouvrant également aux autres. Prions donc pour que dans notre vie il nous soit
donné chaque jour de suivre l'exemple de ce grand converti, en rencontrant
comme lui à chaque moment de notre vie le Seigneur Jésus, l'unique qui nous
sauve, qui nous purifie et nous donne la vraie joie, la vraie vie.
* * *
Salle Paul VI
Je suis heureux
d'accueillir ce matin les pèlerins francophones. Je salue particulièrement les
prêtres et les séminaristes de Chambéry, accompagnés de l'Archevêque, Mgr
Laurent Ulrich, ainsi que les novices de la Congrégation Saint-Jean et les
jeunes. Suivant l'exemple de saint Augustin, soyez toujours des chercheurs de la
vérité, en allant avec confiance à la rencontre du Seigneur Jésus, l'unique sauveur.
Que Dieu vous bénisse!
Basilique Vaticane
Je salue cordialement les
pèlerins de langue française présents dans cette basilique. Que votre
pèlerinage au tombeau de l'Apôtre Pierre soit pour vous l'occasion de mieux
découvrir que Dieu est amour et que sa rencontre constitue la seule réponse aux
inquiétudes du coeur humain. Par l'intercession de la Vierge Marie, que Dieu
vous bénisse ainsi que vos familles et toutes les personnes qui vous sont
proches!
© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Langenzenn
( Bavaria ). City church - Altar of Mary ( Predella ): Saint Augustine (
1440/50 ).
Langenzenn ( Bayern ). Stadtkirche - Marienaltar ( Predella ): Heiliger Augustinus ( 1440/50 ).
Also
known as
Aurelius Augustinus
Doctor of Grace
5 May (his conversion)
Profile
Son of a pagan father who converted on
his death bed,
and of Saint Monica,
a devout Christian.
Raised a Christian,
he lost his faith in youth and led a wild life. Lived with a Carthaginian woman from
the age of 15 through 30. Fathered a
son whom he named Adeotadus, which means the gift of God. Taught rhetoric
at Carthage and Milan, Italy.
After investigating and experimenting with several philosophies,
he became a Manichaean for
several years; it taught of a great struggle between good and evil, and
featured a lax moral code. A summation of his thinking at the time comes from
his Confessions:
“God, give me chastity and continence – but not just now.”
Augustine finally broke
with the Manichaeans and
was converted by
the prayers of his mother and
the help of Saint Ambrose of Milan,
who baptized him.
On the death of
his mother he
returned to Africa,
sold his property, gave the proceeds to the poor,
and founded a monastery. Monk. Priest. Preacher. Bishop of
Hippo in 396.
Founded religious communities. Fought Manichaeism, Donatism, Pelagianism and
other heresies.
Oversaw his church and his see during the fall of the Roman Empire to the
Vandals. Doctor
of the Church. His later thinking can also be summed up in a line from his
writings: Our hearts were made for You, O Lord, and they are restless
until they rest in you.
Born
13
November 354 at
Tagaste, Numidia, North Africa (Souk-Ahras, Algeria)
as Aurelius Augustinus
28 August 430 at
Hippo, North Africa
—
Bridgeport, Connecticut, diocese of
Ida, Philippines, diocese of
Kalamazoo, Michigan, diocese of
Leiria–Fátima, Portugal, diocese of
Portalegre-Castelo
Branco, Portugal, diocese of
Saint
Augustine, Florida, diocese of
Superior, Wisconsin, diocese of
in Italy
flaming heart, an
allusion to a passage in his Confessions
Prayers
by Saint Augustine
Lord
Jesus, Let Me Know Myself
Prayer
for the Indwelling of the Spirit
Prayer
of Joy at the Birth of Jesus
Prayer
of Trust in God’s Heavenly Promise
Prayer
on Finding God after a Long Search
Prayer
to Our Lady, Mother of Mercy
Prayer
to Seek God Continually
Additional
Information
A
Garner of Saints, by Allen Banks Hinds, M.A.
Ad
Salutem, by Pope Pius
XI
Augustinum
Hipponensem, by Pope John
Paul II
Book
of Saints, by Father Lawrence
George Lovasik, S.V.D.
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Catholic
Encyclopedia: Saint Augustine
Catholic
Encyclopedia: Works of Saint Augustine
Catholic
Encyclopedia: Teaching of Saint Augustine
In
God’s Garden, by Amy Steedman
Life
of Saint Augustine, by Saint Possidius
Light
From the Altar, edited by Father James
J McGovern
Little
Lives of the Great Saints
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Francis
Xavier Weninger
Meditations
on the Gospels for Every Day in the Year, by Father Pierre
Médaille
Roman
Martyrology, 1914 edition
Saint
Augustine, Student of the Holy Scripture, by Father Hugh
Pope
Saints
and Saintly Dominicans, by Blessed Hyacinthe-Marie
Cormier, O.P.
Saints
and Saintly Dominicans, by Blessed Hyacinthe-Marie
Cormier, O.P.
Saints
and Their Symbols, by E A Greene
Saints
for Sinners, by Father Alban
Goodier, S.J.
Short
Lives of the Saints, by Eleanor Cecilia Donnelly
The
Struggles of Saint Augustine, by Lenora Blanche Lang
by Pope Benedict
XVI
General
Audience, 9 January 2008
General
Audience, 16
January 2008
General
Audience, 30
January 2008
General
Audience, 20
February 2008
General
Audience, 27
February 2008
General
Audience, 25 August 2010
Conversion of
Augustine, by Saint John
Henry Newman
Saint Augustine, by Louis
Bertrand
by Saint Augustine
Handbook
on Faith, Hope and Love
books
1001 Patron Saints and Their Feast Days, by Australian
Catholic Truth Society
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
Oxford Dictionary of Saints, by David Hugh Farmer
Saints
and Their Attributes, by Helen Roeder
Some Patron Saints, by
Padraic Gregory
other
sites in english
Catholic Exchange: The True Meaning of Peace
Catholic Exchange: Why Study the Works of Saint Augustine?
Christian Classics
Ethereal Library
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Augustine
Internet Encyclopedia
of Philosophy: Political and Social Philosophy
Jimmy Akin: 10 Things
Jimmy Akin: The Augustinian Hypothesis
Mark McNeil: Augustine, Apologist of the Humble Christ
Midwest
Augustinians: Saint Augustine
Midwest
Augustinians: His Conversion
Orthodox
Christian Information Center
Patron Saints and Their Feast Days, by the Australian Catholic
Truth Society
Paul Krause – Augustine of Hippo: Patron Saint of
Political Criticism
Renew
America: Augustine and the Theocratic Worldview
Saints
in Rome: re his Relics
Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Wikipedia:
Saint Augustine
Wikipedia:
The Augustinian Hypothesis
Wikiversity: Augustine’s Theory of Knowledge
Catholic Book Blogger
Saint Augustine: Don’t Be Surprised When Evil Enters the
Church
Saint Augustine: Pray for Conversions
Saint Augustine: Beware of Desiring Praise
Saint Augustine: Learn to Forgive
Saint Augustine: To Know God, Confess Your Sins
Saint Augustine: Keep the Soul Pure to Keep the Body Pure
Saint Augustine: Work to Heal the Wound of Schism
Saint Augustine: Don’t Blame the Church for Wicked
Christians
Saint Augustine: Listen to God in Your Elders
Saint Augustine: God’s Mercy Works Through Us
Saint Augustine: See the Big Picture
Saint Augustine: Trust God to Bring Good, Even from the Wicked
Saint Augustine: Never Desipair despair of God’s Help
Saint Augustine: Learn to Distinguish What Really Matters
Saint Augustine: Make the Right Use of Our Worries
Saint Augustine: Do What’s Appropriate, But Always in Love
Saint Augustine: Plant the Seeds of Love
Saint Augustine: Seek understanding with love
Saint Augustine: Drink from the Fountain of Love
Saint Augustine: Find All Virtues in Love
Saint Augustine: Let Love Lead Your Mind Back to God
Saint Augustine: Distinguish What’s Important to be Right
About
Saint Augustine: Put God’s Rules First
Saint Augustine: Recognize the Good Emotions
Saint Augustine: Our Daily Bread
Saint Augustine: Watch for Distractions
Saint Augustine: Rely on God
Saint Augustine: Remember God’s Greatest Gift
Saint Augustine: Turn Evil Into Good
Saint Augustine: Moral evils are the only true evils
Saint Augustine: Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin
Saint Augustine: Don’t Make Excuses
Saint Augustine: Vice proves that our nature is good
Saint Augustine: Put good things in their place
Saint Augustine: When God Speaks, Hear
images
video
Confessions (audio book)
Catechizing the Unlearned (audio book)
Life of Augustine, by Bishop Possidius
(audio book)
Of Holy Virginity (audio book)
On the Trinity (audio book)
Saint Augustin, by Louis Bertrand (audio book)
audio
Catholic Under the Hood #428: The Father of Mysticism
City of God, by Saint Augustine
Confessions, by Saint Augustine
Confessions, by Saint Augustine
Curious Catholic: Saint Augustine and the Women of His
Life, with Brother Bill Gabriel, O.S.A.
Curious Catholic: Saint Augustine and His Rule of Life,
with Father Kevin DePrinzio
Curious Catholic: Saint Augustine on Sin as Self-Harm, with
Father David Vincent Meconi, S.J.
Curious Catholic: Saint Augustine on Love and Loss, with Dr
Erika Kidd
Enchiridion,
by Saint Augustine
of Hippo (librivox audio book)
Life of Saint
Augustine, by Saint Possidius
Lumen Verum Apologetics: Saint Augustine
On Christian Doctrine, by Saint Augustine
of Hippo (librivox audio book)
Ten Homilies on the 1st Epistle of John, by Saint Augustine
of Hippo (librivox audio book)
The
Presentation of the Virgin Mary, by Saint Augustine
Saint
Augustin, by Louis Bertrand (audio book)
The Catholic Podcast #29: Taking Saint Augustine Seriously
e-books
Augustine
and the Pelagian Controversy, by Benjamin B Warfield
Augustine
the Man, by Amelie Rives
Augustine
the Thinker, by George W Osmun
Concept
of the Human Soul According to Saint Augustine, by Father William P
O’Connor
Conversion
of Augustine, by Blessed John Henry Newman
Explanation
of the Rule of Saint Augustine, by Canon Hugh of Saint Victor
Harmony of the
Gospels, by Saint Augustine
Letters of
Saint Augustine, by W J Sparrow-Simpson
Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church,
Confessions, by Saint Augustine of Hippo
Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, Sermons on
selected lessons of the New Testament, v1 , by Saint Augustine of Hippo
Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, Sermons on
selected lessons of the New Testament, v2, by Saint Augustine of Hippo
Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, 17 Short
Treatises, by Saint Augustine of Hippo
Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, Homilies on
the Gospel according to Saint John and his first Epistle, v1, by Saint
Augustine of Hippo
Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, Homilies on
the Gospel according to Saint John and his first Epistle, v2, by Saint
Augustine of Hippo
Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, Expositions
on the Book of Psalms, v1, by Saint Augustine of Hippo
Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, Expositions
on the Book of Psalms, v2, by Saint Augustine of Hippo
Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, Expositions
on the Book of Psalms, v3, by Saint Augustine of Hippo
Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, Expositions
on the Book of Psalms, v4, by Saint Augustine of Hippo
Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, Expositions
on the Book of Psalms, v5, by Saint Augustine of Hippo
Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, Expositions
on the Book of Psalms, v6, by Saint Augustine of Hippo
Life
and Labors of Saint Augustine, Dr Philip Schaff
Life
of Saint Augustine, Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church, by P E
Moriarty
Political
Aspects of Saint Augustine’s ‘City of God’, by John Neville Figgis
Political Ideas of Saint Augustine’s De Civitate Dei,
by Norman H Baynes
Saint
Augustin, by Louis Bertrand
Saint
Augustine, by A D Hatzfeld
Saint
Augustine, A Biographical Memoir, by Rev John Baillie
Saint
Augustine, A Poem in Eight Books, by Henry Warwick Cole
Saint
Augustine, A Sketch of His Life and Writings, by Charles Hastings Collette
Saint
Augustine, Aspects of His Life and Thought, by W Montgomery
Saint
Augustine and African Church Divisions, by W J Sparrow-Simpson
Saint
Augustine and His Age, by Joseph McCabe
Saint
Augustine the Preacher, by John M Ashley
Saint
Austin and His Place in the History of Christian Thought, by William
Cunningham
Sermon
on the Mount Expounded; Harmony of the Evangelists
Sources
of the First Ten Books of Augustine’s De Civitate Dei, by S Angus
Studies
in Saint Augustine, by Father Augustine F Hewit
Studies
in the Confessions of Saint Augustine, by R L Ottley
Study
of Augustine’s Conception of the Natural Order, by T A Lacey
Study
of Augustine’s Definition of the Commonwealth, by Hans Daniel Friberg
Study
of Augustine’s Versions of Genesis
Teaching
and Influence of Saint Augustine, by James Field Spalding
The
Augustinians from Saint Augustine to the Union, 1256, by Father E A Foran
Thirteen
Homilies of Saint Augustine on Saint John XIV
Treatise
on the City of God, abdriged by F R Montgomery Hitchcock
Works
of Aurelius Augustine, volume 1 – City of God, part 1
Works
of Aurelius Augustine, volume 2 – City of God, part 2
Works
of Aurelius Augustine, volume 3 – On the Donatist Controversy
Works
of Aurelius Augustine, volume 4
Works
of Aurelius Augustine, volume 5
Works
of Aurelius Augustine, volume 6 – Letters, part 1
Works
of Aurelius Augustine, volume 7 – On the Trinity
Works
of Aurelius Augustine, volume 8
Works
of Aurelius Augustine, volume 9
Works
of Aurelius Augustine, volume 10 – On the Gospel of John, part 1
Works
of Aurelius Augustine, volume 11 – On the Gospel of John, part 2
Works
of Aurelius Augustine, volume 12
Works
of Aurelius Augustine, volume 13 – Letters, part 2
Works
of Aurelius Augustine, volume 15
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
sites
en français
Abbé
Christian-Philippe Chanut
fonti
in italiano
Associazione Storico-Culturale S. Agostino
notitia
in latin
Readings
There is no one like
Saint Augustine for finding Christ in everything. – Father Sebastian
Bowden
God has no need of your
money, but the poor have. You give it to the poor, and God receives it. – Saint Augustine
The honors of this world,
what are they but puff, and emptiness and peril of falling? – Saint Augustine
Daily advance, then, in
this love, both by praying and by well doing, that through the help of Him who
enjoined it on you, and whose gift it is, it may be nourished and increased,
until, being perfected, it render you perfect. – Saint Augustine
What do you possess if
you possess not God? – Saint Augustine
Unhappy is the soul
enslaved by the love of anything that is mortal. – Saint Augustine
The love of worldly
possessions is a sort of bird line, which entangles the soul, and prevents it
flying to God. – Saint Augustine
This very moment I may,
if I desire, become the friend of God. – Saint Augustine
God bestows more
consideration on the purity of the intention with which our actions are
performed than on the actions themselves. – Saint Augustine
I will suggest a means
whereby you can praise God all day long, if you wish. Whatever you do, do it
well, and you have praised God. – Saint Augustine
This is the business of
our life. By labor and prayer to advance in the grace of God, till we come to
that height of perfection in which, with clean hearts, we may behold God. – Saint Augustine
God in his omnipotence
could not give more, in His wisdom He knew not how to give more, in His riches
He had not more to give, than the Eucharist. – Saint Augustine
God does not command
impossibilities, but by commanding admonishes you do what you can and to pray
for what you cannot, and aids you that you may be able. – Saint Augustine
Our life and our death
are with our neighbor. – Saint Augustine
Conquer yourself and the
world lies at your feet. – Saint Augustine
O eternal truth, true
love and beloved eternity. You are my God. To you do I sigh day and night. When
I first came to know you, you drew me to yourself so that I might see that
there were things for me to see, but that I myself was not yet ready to see them.
Meanwhile you overcame the weakness of my vision, sending forth most strongly
the beams of your light, and I trembled at once with love and dread. I sought a
way to gain the strength which I needed to enjoy you. But I did not find it
until I embraced “the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who
is above all, God blessed for ever.” He was calling me and saying: “I am the
way of truth, I am the life.” Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient,
ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it
was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely
things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created
things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not
been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You
flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed you fragrance
on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger
and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace. – from
the Confessions of
Saint Augustine
Neither are the souls of
the pious dead separated from the Church which even now is the kingdom of
Christ. Otherwise there would be no remembrance of them at the altar of God in
the communication of the Body of Christ. – from The
City of God by Saint Augustine
A Christian people
celebrates together in religious solemnity the memorials of the martyrs, both
to encourage their being imitated and so that it can share in their merits and
be aided by their prayers.” – from Against
Faustus the Manichean,
by Saint Augustine
There is an
ecclesiastical discipline, as the faithful know, when the names of the martyrs
are read aloud in that place at the altar of God, where prayer is not offered
for them. Prayer, however, is offered for the dead who are remembered. For it
is wrong to pray for a martyr, to whose prayers we ought ourselves be
commended. – from Sermons by
Saint Augustine
At the Lord’s table we do
not commemorate martyrs in the same way that we do others who rest in peace so
as to pray for them, but rather that they may pray for us that we may follow in
their footsteps. – from Homilies on John by
Saint Augustine
Since we cannot, as yet,
understand that He was begotten by the Father before the day-star, let us
celebrate His birth of the Virgin in the nocturnal hours. Since we do not
comprehend how His name existed before the light of the sun, let us recognize
His tabernacle placed in the sun. Since we do not, as yet, gaze upon the Son
inseparably united with His Father, let us remember Him as the ‘bridegroom
coming out of his bride chamber.’ Since we are not yet ready for the banquet of
our Father, let us grow familiar with the manger of our Lord Jesus
Christ. – Saint Augustine
He prays for us as our
priest, prays in us as our Head, and is prayed to by us as our God. Therefore
let us acknowledge our voice in him and his in us. – Saint Augustine
Question the beauty of
the earth, the sea, the air distending and diffusing itself, the sky, question
all these realities. All respond: ‘See, we are beautiful.’ These beauties are
subject to change. Who made them if not the Beautiful One who is not subject to
change? – Saint Augustine
One and the same Word of
God extends throughout the Scripture, that it is one and the same Utterance
that resounds in the mouths of all the sacred writers, since He who was in the
beginning God with God has no need for separate syllables; for he is not
subject to time. – Saint Augustine
Jesus Christ will be Lord
of all, or he will not be Lord at all. – Saint Augustine
If physical things please
you, then praise God for them, but turn back your love to Him who created them,
lest in the things that please you, you displease Him. If souls please you,
love them in God; for in themselves they are changeable, but in Him they are firmly
established. Without Him they pass away and perish. In Him, then, let them be
loved, and carry along with you to Him as many souls as you can, and say to
them, “Let us love Him, let us love Him; He made the world and is not far from
it. He did not make all things and then leave them, but they are of Him and in
Him. See, there He is wherever truth is loved. He is within the very heart, yet
the heart has strayed from Him. Return to your heart, O you transgressors, and
hold fast to Him who made you. Stand with Him and you will stand fast. Rest in
Him and you shall be at rest.” – Saint Augustine, from The
Confessions
Let us understand that
God is a physician, and that suffering is a medicine for salvation, not a
punishment for damnation. – Saint Augustine
O Sacrament of Love! O
sign of Unity! O bond of Charity! He who would have Life finds here indeed a
Life to live in and a Life to live by. – Saint Augustine
If you see that you have
not yet suffered tribulations, consider it certain that you have not begun to
be a true servant of God; for Saint Paul says plainly that all who chose to
live piously in Christ, shall suffer persecutions – Saint Augustine
I speak to you who have
just been reborn in baptism,
my little children in
Christ, you who are the new offspring of the Church, gift of the Father, proof
of Mother Church’s fruitfulness. All of you who stand fast in the Lord are a
holy seed, a new colony of bees, the very flower of our ministry and fruit of our toil, my
joy and my crown. It is the words of the Apostle that I address to you: Put on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh and its desires, so
that you may be clothed with the life of him whom you have put on in this
sacrament. You have all been clothed with Christ by your baptism in
him. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor freeman; there
is neither male nor female; you are all one in Christ Jesus. Such is the power
of this sacrament: it is a sacrament of new life which begins here and now with
the forgiveness of all past sins, and will be brought to completion in the
resurrection of the dead. You have been buried with Christ by baptism into
death in order that, as Christ has risen from the dead, you also may walk in
newness of life. You are walking now by faith, still on pilgrimage in a mortal
body away from the Lord; but he to whom your steps are directed is himself the
sure and certain way for you: Jesus Christ, who for our sake became man. For
all who fear him he has stored up abundant happiness, which he will reveal to
those who hope in him, bringing it to completion when we have attained the
reality which even now we possess in hope. This is the octave day of your new
birth. Today is fulfilled in you the sign of faith that was prefigured in the
Old Testament by the circumcision of the flesh on the eighth day after birth.
When the Lord rose from the dead, he put off the mortality of the flesh; his
risen body was still the same body, but it was no longer subject to death. By
his resurrection he consecrated Sunday, or the Lord’s day. Though the third
after his passion, this day is the eighth after the Sabbath, and thus also the
first day of the week. And so your own hope of resurrection, though not yet
realized, is sure and certain, because you have received the sacrament or sign
of this reality, and have been given the pledge of the Spirit. If, then, you
have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God. Set your hearts on heavenly things, not the things
that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in
God. When Christ, your life, appears, then you too will appear with him in
glory. – from a sermon by Saint Augustine
MLA
Citation
“Saint Augustine of
Hippo“. CatholicSaints.Info. 16 June 2024. Web. 23 August 2024.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-augustine-of-hippo/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-augustine-of-hippo/
Simone Memmi de Sienne (–1344), Polyptyque de Simone Martini à Cambridge : Trois saints avec des anges : Saint Géminien de Modène, Saint Michel Archange et Saint Augustin, tempera sur bois, 1320-1325, 59 x 35, Fitzwilliam Museum
Simone Memmi de Sienne (–1344), Polyptyque
de Simone Martini à Cambridge : Trois saints avec des anges : Saint Géminien
de Modène, Saint Michel Archange et Saint Augustin, tempera sur bois, 1320-1325, 59
x 35, Fitzwilliam Museum
St. Augustine
St. Augustine, bishop and
Doctor of the Church, is best known for his Confessions (401), his
autobiographical account of his conversion. The term “Augustinianism”evolved
from his writings that had a profound influence on the church.
Augustine was born at
Tagaste (now Algeria) in North Africa on 13 November, 354. His father,
Patricius, while holding an official position in the city remained a pagan
until converting on his deathbed. His mother, Saint Monica, was a devout
Christian. She had had Augustine signed with the cross and enrolled among the
catechumens but unable to secure his baptism. Her grief was great when young
Augustine fell gravely ill and agreed to be baptised only to withdraw his
consent upon recovery, denouncing the Christian faith.
At the encouragement of
Monica, his extensive religious education started in the schools of Tagaste (an
important part of the Roman Empire) and Madaura until he was sixteen. He was
off to Carthage next in 370, but soon fell to the pleasures and excesses of the
half pagan city’s theatres, licentiousness and decadent socialising with fellow
students. After a time he confessed to Monica that he had been living in sin
with a woman with whom he had a son in 372, Adeodatus, (which means Gift of
God).
Still a student, and with
a newfound desire to focus yet again on exploration of his faith, in 373
Augustine became a confirmed Manichaean, much against his mother’s wishes. He
was enticed by its promise of free philosophy which attracted his intellectual
interest in the natural sciences. It did not however erase his moral turmoil of
finding his faith. His intellect having attained full maturity, he returned to
Tagaste then Carthage to teach rhetoric, being very popular among his students.
Now in his thirties, his spiritual journey led him away from Manichaeism after
nine years because of disagreement with its cosmology and a disenchanting
meeting with the celebrated Manichaean bishop, Faustus of Mileve.
Passing through yet
another period of spiritual struggle, Augustine went to Italy in 383, studying
Neo-platonic philosophy. Enthralled by his kindness and generous spirit, he
became a pupil of Ambrose. At the age of thirty-three, the epiphany and clarity
of purpose which Augustine had sought for so long finally came to him in Milan
in 386 through a vast stream of tears as he lay prostrate under a fig tree. He
was baptised by Ambrose in 387 much to the eternal delight of his mother,
“..nothing is far from God.” The next event in his life leads to some of the
most profound and exquisite writings on love and grief; the death of his mother
Monica.
Surrounded by friends,
Augustine now returned to his native Tagaste where he devoted himself to the
rule in a quasi-monastic life to prayer and studying sacred letters and to
finding harmony between the philosophical questions that plagued his mind and
his faith in Christianity. He was ordained as priest in 391.
For the next five years
Augustine’s priestly life was fruitful, consisting of administration of church
business, tending to the poor, preaching and writing and acting as judge for
civil and ecclesiastical cases, always the defender of truth and a
compassionate shepherd of souls. At the age of forty-two he then became
coadjutor-bishop of Hippo. From 396 till his death in 439, he ruled the diocese
alone. At that point the Roman Empire was in disintegration, and at the time of
his death the Vandals where at the gates of Hippo. 28 August, 430, in the
seventy-sixth year of his age Augustine succumbed to a fatal illness. His
relics were translated from Sardinia to Pavia by Luitprand, King of the
Lombards. Saint Augustine is often depicted as one of the Four Latin Doctors in
many paintings, frescoes and stained glass throughout the world. The cult of
Augustine formed swiftly and was widespread. His feast is celebrated on 28
August.
Saint Augustine’s books,
essays and letters of Christian Revelation are probably more influential in the
history of thought than any other Christian writer since St. Paul, namely his
Confessions, sermons on the Gospel and the Epistle of John, the The Trinity
(400-416) and what he finished late in life, the The City of God (426),
writings that deal with the opposition between Christianity and the `world’ and
represents the first Christian philosophy of history. He also wrote of the
controversies with Manicheans, Pelagians, and Donatists which helped lead to
his ideas on Creation, Grace, the Sacraments and the Church. There is a massive
collection of his writings and they also include: Soliloquies (386-387), On
Grace and Free Will. (426) Retractions (426-427) and Letters (386-430).
SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-augustine/
Michael Pacher (1435–1498), Altarpiece
of the Church Fathers: St Augustine Liberating a Prisoner, retable,
circa 1483, 103 x 91, Alte Pinakothek
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Augustine of Hippo
(1)
Dear Brothers and
Sisters,
After the great Christmas
festivities, I would like to return to the meditations on the Fathers of the
Church and speak today of the greatest Father of the Latin Church, St
Augustine. This man of passion and faith, of the highest intelligence and
tireless in his pastoral care, a great Saint and Doctor of the Church is often
known, at least by hearsay, even by those who ignore Christianity or who are
not familiar with it, because he left a very deep mark on the cultural life of
the West and on the whole world. Because of his special importance St
Augustine's influence was widespread. It could be said on the one hand that all
the roads of Latin Christian literature led to Hippo (today Annaba, on the
coast of Algeria), the place where he was Bishop from 395 to his death in 430,
and, on the other, that from this city of Roman Africa, many other roads of
later Christianity and of Western culture itself branched out.
A civilization has seldom
encountered such a great spirit who was able to assimilate Christianity's
values and exalt its intrinsic wealth, inventing ideas and forms that were to
nourish the future generations, as Paul VI also stressed: "It may be
said that all the thought-currents of the past meet in his works and form the
source which provides the whole doctrinal tradition of succeeding ages"
(Inaugural Address at the Patristic Institute of the
"Augustinianum", 4 May 1970; L'Osservatore Romano English
edition, 21 May 1970, p. 8). Augustine is also the Father of the Church
who left the greatest number of works. Possidius, his biographer, said that it
seemed impossible that one man could have written so many things in his
lifetime. We shall speak of these different works at one of our meetings soon.
Today, we shall focus on his life, which is easy to reconstruct from his
writings, in particular the Confessions, his extraordinary spiritual
autobiography written in praise of God. This is his most famous work; and
rightly so, since it is precisely Augustine's Confessions, with their
focus on interiority and psychology, that constitute a unique model in Western
(and not only Western) literature—including non-religious literature—up to
modern times. This attention to the spiritual life, to the mystery of the
"I", to the mystery of God who is concealed in the "I", is
something quite extraordinary, without precedent, and remains for ever, as it
were, a spiritual "peak".
But to come back to his
life: Augustine was born in Tagaste in the Roman Province of Numidia,
Africa, on 13 November 354 to Patricius, a pagan who later became a catechumen,
and Monica, a fervent Christian. This passionate woman, venerated as a saint,
exercised an enormous influence on her son and raised him in the Christian
faith. Augustine had also received the salt, a sign of acceptance in the
catechumenate, and was always fascinated by the figure of Jesus Christ; indeed,
he said that he had always loved Jesus but had drifted further and further away
from ecclesial faith and practice, as also happens to many young people today.
Augustine also had a
brother, Navigius, and a sister whose name is unknown to us and who, after
being widowed subsequently became the head of a monastery for women. As a boy
with a very keen intelligence, Augustine received a good education although he
was not always an exemplary student. However, he learned grammar well, first in
his native town and then in Madaura, and from 370, he studied rhetoric in
Carthage, the capital of Roman Africa. He mastered Latin perfectly but was not
quite as successful with Greek and did not learn Punic, spoken by his
contemporaries. It was in Carthage itself that for the first time Augustine
read the Hortensius, a writing by Cicero later lost, an event that
can be placed at the beginning of his journey towards conversion. In fact,
Cicero's text awoke within him love for wisdom, as, by then a Bishop, he was to
write in his Confessions: "The book changed my
feelings", to the extent that "every vain hope became empty to me,
and I longed for the immortality of wisdom with an incredible ardour in my
heart" (III, 4, 7).
However, since he was
convinced that without Jesus the truth cannot be said effectively to have been
found and since Jesus' Name was not mentioned in this book, immediately after
he read it he began to read Scripture, the Bible. But it disappointed him. This
was not only because the Latin style of the translation of the Sacred
Scriptures was inadequate but also because to him their content itself did not
seem satisfying. In the scriptural narratives of wars and other human
vicissitudes, he discovered neither the loftiness of philosophy nor the
splendour of the search for the truth which is part of it. Yet he did not want
to live without God and thus sought a religion which corresponded to his desire
for the truth and also with his desire to draw close to Jesus. Thus, he fell
into the net of the Manicheans, who presented themselves as Christians and
promised a totally rational religion. They said that the world was divided into
two principles: good and evil. And in this way the whole complexity of
human history can be explained. Their dualistic morals also pleased St
Augustine, because it included a very high morality for the elect: and
those like him who adhered to it could live a life better suited to the
situation of the time, especially for a young man. He therefore became a
Manichean, convinced at that time that he had found the synthesis between
rationality and the search for the truth and love of Jesus Christ. Manicheanism
also offered him a concrete advantage in life: joining the Manicheans
facilitated the prospects of a career. By belonging to that religion, which
included so many influential figures, he was able to continue his relationship
with a woman and to advance in his career. By this woman he had a son,
Adeodatus, who was very dear to him and very intelligent, who was later to be
present during the preparation for Baptism near Lake Como, taking part in those
"Dialogues" which St Augustine has passed down to us. The boy
unfortunately died prematurely. Having been a grammar teacher since his
twenties in the city of his birth, he soon returned to Carthage, where he became
a brilliant and famous teacher of rhetoric. However, with time Augustine began
to distance himself from the faith of the Manicheans. They disappointed him
precisely from the intellectual viewpoint since they proved incapable of
dispelling his doubts. He moved to Rome and then to Milan, where the imperial
court resided at that time and where he obtained a prestigious post through the
good offices and recommendations of the Prefect of Rome, Symmacus, a pagan
hostile to St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.
In Milan, Augustine
acquired the habit of listening - at first for the purpose of enriching his
rhetorical baggage - to the eloquent preaching of Bishop Ambrose, who had been
a representative of the Emperor for Northern Italy. The African rhetorician was
fascinated by the words of the great Milanese Prelate; and not only by his
rhetoric. It was above all the content that increasingly touched Augustine's
heart. The great difficulty with the Old Testament, because of its lack of
rhetorical beauty and lofty philosophy was resolved in St Ambrose's preaching
through his typological interpretation of the Old Testament: Augustine realized
that the whole of the Old Testament was a journey toward Jesus Christ. Thus, he
found the key to understanding the beauty and even the philosophical depth of
the Old Testament and grasped the whole unity of the mystery of Christ in
history, as well as the synthesis between philosophy, rationality and faith in
the Logos, in Christ, the Eternal Word who was made flesh.
Augustine soon realized
that the allegorical interpretation of Scripture and the Neo-Platonic
philosophy practised by the Bishop of Milan enabled him to solve the
intellectual difficulties which, when he was younger during his first approach
to the biblical texts, had seemed insurmountable to him.
Thus, Augustine followed
his reading of the philosophers' writings by reading Scripture anew, especially
the Pauline Letters. His conversion to Christianity on 15 August 386 therefore
came at the end of a long and tormented inner journey - of which we shall speak
in another catechesis -, and the African moved to the countryside, north of
Milan by Lake Como - with his mother Monica, his son Adeodatus and a small
group of friends - to prepare himself for Baptism. So it was that at the age of
32 Augustine was baptized by Ambrose in the Cathedral of Milan on 24 April 387,
during the Easter Vigil.
After his Baptism,
Augustine decided to return to Africa with his friends, with the idea of living
a community life of the monastic kind at the service of God. However, while
awaiting their departure in Ostia, his mother fell ill unexpectedly and died
shortly afterwards, breaking her son's heart. Having returned to his homeland
at last, the convert settled in Hippo for the very purpose of founding a monastery.
In this city on the African coast he was ordained a priest in 391, despite his
reticence, and with a few companions began the monastic life which had long
been in his mind, dividing his time between prayer, study and preaching. All he
wanted was to be at the service of the truth. He did not feel he had a vocation
to pastoral life but realized later that God was calling him to be a pastor
among others and thus to offer people the gift of the truth. He was ordained a
Bishop in Hippo four years later, in 395. Augustine continued to deepen his
study of Scripture and of the texts of the Christian tradition and was an
exemplary Bishop in his tireless pastoral commitment: he preached several times
a week to his faithful, supported the poor and orphans, supervised the
formation of the clergy and the organization of mens' and womens' monasteries.
In short, the former rhetorician asserted himself as one of the most important
exponents of Christianity of that time. He was very active in the government of
his Diocese - with remarkable, even civil, implications - in the more than 35
years of his Episcopate, and the Bishop of Hippo actually exercised a vast
influence in his guidance of the Catholic Church in Roman Africa and, more
generally, in the Christianity of his time, coping with religious tendencies
and tenacious, disruptive heresies such as Manichaeism, Donatism
and Pelagianism, which endangered the Christian faith in the one God, rich
in mercy.
And Augustine entrusted
himself to God every day until the very end of his life: smitten by
fever, while for almost three months his Hippo was being besieged by vandal
invaders, the Bishop - his friend Possidius recounts in his Vita Augustini
- asked that the penitential psalms be transcribed in large characters,
"and that the sheets be attached to the wall, so that while he was
bedridden during his illness he could see and read them and he shed constant
hot tears" (31, 2). This is how Augustine spent the last days of his life.
He died on 28 August 430, when he was not yet 76. We will devote our next
encounters to his work, his message and his inner experience.
* * *
I am pleased to welcome
the English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s Audience, especially the
student groups from Australia and the United States. I greet the group of
deacons from the Archdiocese of Dubuque, and I thank the choir for their praise
of God in song. Upon all of you I invoke God’s abundant blessings of joy and
peace.
© Copyright 2008 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20080109.html
Michael Pacher (1435–1498), Les Pères de l'Église : Jérôme, Augustin, Grégoire, Ambroise, circa 1471, 103 x 91, Alte Pinakothek
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Augustine of Hippo
(2)
Dear Brothers and
Sisters,
Today, like last
Wednesday, I would like to talk about the great Bishop of Hippo, St
Augustine. He chose to appoint his successor four years before he died. Thus,
on 26 September 426, he gathered the people in the Basilica of Peace at Hippo
to present to the faithful the one he had designated for this task. He
said: "In this life we are all mortal, and the day which shall be the
last of life on earth is to every man at all times uncertain; but in infancy
there is hope of entering boyhood... looking forward from boyhood to youth,
from youth to manhood and from manhood to old age; whether these hopes may be
realized or not is uncertain, but there is in each case something which may be
hoped for. But old age has no other period of this life to look forward to with
expectation: in any case, how long old age may be prolonged is uncertain....
I came to this town - for such was the will of God - when I was in the prime of
life. I was young then, but now I am old" (Ep 213, 1). At this point
Augustine named the person he had chosen as his successor, the presbyter
Heraclius. The assembly burst into an applause of approval, shouting 23 times,
"To God be thanks! To Christ be praise!". With other acclamations the
faithful also approved what Augustine proposed for his future: he wanted
to dedicate the years that were left to him to a more intense study of Sacred
Scripture (cf. Ep 213, 6).
Indeed, what followed
were four years of extraordinary intellectual activity: he brought
important works to conclusion, he embarked on others, equally demanding, held
public debates with heretics - he was always seeking dialogue - and intervened
to foster peace in the African provinces threatened by barbarian southern
tribes. He wrote about this to Count Darius, who had come to Africa to settle
the disagreement between Boniface and the imperial court which the tribes of
Mauritania were exploiting for their incursions: "It is a higher
glory still", he said in his letter, "to stay war itself with a word,
than to slay men with the sword, and to procure or maintain peace by peace, not
by war. For those who fight, if they are good men, doubtlessly seek peace;
nevertheless, it is through blood. Your mission, however, is to prevent the
shedding of blood" (Ep 229, 2). Unfortunately, the hope of
pacification in the African territories was disappointed; in May 429, the
Vandals, whom out of spite Boniface had invited to Africa, passed the straits
of Gibraltar and streamed into Mauritania. The invasion rapidly reached the
other rich African provinces. In May or June 430, "the destroyers of the
Roman Empire", as Possidius described these barbarians (Vita, 30, 1),
were surrounding and besieging Hippo.
Boniface had also sought
refuge in the city. Having been reconciled with the court too late, he was now
trying in vain to block the invaders' entry. Possidius, Augustine's biographer,
describes Augustine's sorrow: "More tears than usual were his bread,
night and day, and when he had reached the very end of his life, his old age
caused him, more than others, grief and mourning (Vita, 28, 6). And he
explains: "Indeed, that man of God saw the massacres and the destruction
of the city; houses in the countryside were pulled down and the inhabitants
killed by the enemy or put to flight and dispersed. Private churches belonging
to priests and ministers were demolished, sacred virgins and Religious
scattered on every side; some died under torture, others were killed by the
sword, still others taken prisoner, losing the integrity of their soul and body
and even their faith, reduced by their enemies to a long, drawn-out and painful
slavery" (ibid., 28, 8).
Despite being old and
weary, Augustine stood in the breach, comforting himself and others with prayer
and meditation on the mysterious designs of Providence. In this regard, he
spoke of the "old-age of the world" - and this Roman world was truly
old -, he spoke of this old age as years earlier he had spoken to comfort the
refugees from Italy when Alaric's Goths had invaded the city of Rome in 410. In
old age, he said, ailments proliferate: coughs, catarrh, bleary eyes,
anxiety and exhaustion. Yet, if the world grows old, Christ is perpetually
young; hence, the invitation: "Do not refuse to be rejuvenated united
to Christ, even in the old world. He tells you: Do not fear, your youth
will be renewed like that of the eagle" (cf. Serm. 81, 8).
Thus, the Christian must not lose heart, even in difficult situations, but
rather he must spare no effort to help those in need. This is what the great
doctor suggested in his response to Honoratus, Bishop of Tiabe, who had asked
him whether a Bishop or a priest or any man of the Church with the barbarians
hot on his heels could flee to save his life: "When danger is common
to all, that is, for Bishops, clerics and lay people, may those who need others
not be abandoned by the people whom they need. In this case, either let all
depart together to safe places or let those who must remain not be deserted by
those through whom, in things pertaining to the Church, their necessities must
be provided for; and so let them share life in common, or share in common that
which the Father of their family appoints them to suffer" (Ep 228,
2). And he concluded: "Such conduct is especially the proof of
love" (ibid., 3). How can we fail to recognize in these words the
heroic message that so many priests down the centuries have welcomed and made
their own?
In the meantime, the city
of Hippo resisted. Augustine's monastery-home had opened its doors to welcome
episcopal colleagues who were asking for hospitality. Also of this number was
Possidius, a former disciple of Augustine; he was able to leave us his direct
testimony of those last dramatic days. "In the third month of that
siege", Possidius recounts, "Augustine took to his bed with a
fever: it was his last illness" (Vita, 29, 3). The holy old man
made the most of that period when he was at last free to dedicate himself with
greater intensity to prayer. He was in the habit of saying that no one, Bishop,
Religious or layman, however irreprehensible his conduct might seem, can face
death without adequate repentance. For this reason he ceaselessly repeated
between his tears, the penitential psalms he had so often recited with his
people (cf. ibid., 31, 2).
The worse his illness
became, the more the dying Bishop felt the need for solitude and
prayer: "In order that no one might disturb him in his recollection,
about 10 days before leaving his body, he asked those of us present not to let
anyone into his room outside the hours in which the doctors came to visit him
or when his meals were brought. His desire was minutely complied with and in
all that time he devoted himself to prayer" (ibid., 31, 3). He
breathed his last on 28 August 430: his great heart rested at last in God.
"For the last rites
of his body", Possidius informs us, "the sacrifice in which we took
part was offered to God and then he was buried" (Vita, 31, 5). His
body on an unknown date was translated to Sardinia, and from here, in about
725, to the Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia, where it still rests
today. His first biographer has this final opinion of him: "He
bequeathed to his Church a very numerous clergy and also monasteries of men and
women full of people who had taken vows of chastity under the obedience of
their superiors, as well as libraries containing his books and discourses and
those of other saints, from which one learns what, through the grace of God,
were his merits and greatness in the Church, where the faithful always find him
alive" (Possidius, Vita, 31, 8). This is an opinion in which we
can share. We too "find him alive" in his writings. When I read St
Augustine's writings, I do not get the impression that he is a man who died
more or less 1,600 years ago; I feel he is like a man of today: a friend,
a contemporary who speaks to me, who speaks to us with his fresh and timely faith.
In St Augustine who talks to us, talks to me in his writings, we see the
everlasting timeliness of his faith; of the faith that comes from Christ, the
Eternal Incarnate Word, Son of God and Son of Man. And we can see that this
faith is not of the past although it was preached yesterday; it is still timely
today, for Christ is truly yesterday, today and for ever. He is the Way, the
Truth and the Life. Thus, St Augustine encourages us to entrust ourselves to
this ever-living Christ and in this way find the path of life.
To special groups
I welcome all the
English-speaking pilgrims present at today's Audience, including the students
from Australia, Ireland and the United States of America. May your time in Rome
be one of uplifting spiritual renewal. Upon all of you I invoke God's abundant
Blessings of joy and peace.
Lastly, I greet the young
people, the sick and the newly-weds. May the example
of St Anthony Abbot, the distinguished Father of monasticism who worked hard
for the Church by supporting martyrs during the persecution, encourage you,
dear young people, to seek Christ constantly and follow him
faithfully; may it comfort you, dear sick people, in bearing your
suffering patiently and in offering it up so that the Kingdom of God may be
spread throughout the world; and may it help you, dear newly-weds, to
be witnesses of Christ's love in your family life.
APPEAL
The traditional Week
of Prayer for Christian Unity begins the day after tomorrow, Friday,
18 January. It is particularly important this year because 100 years have
passed since it was introduced. The theme is St Paul's invitation to the
Thessalonians: "Pray without ceasing" (I Thes 5: 17), an
invitation that I gladly make my own and address to the whole Church. Yes, it
is necessary to pray constantly, asking God insistently for the great gift of
unity among all the Lord's disciples. May the inexhaustible power of the Holy
Spirit encourage us to a sincere commitment to seeking unity, so that we may
profess all together that Jesus is the one Saviour of the world.
© Copyright 2008 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20080116.html
Michael Pacher (1435–1498), Vue générale
de l'autel des Pères de l'Église : Saint Augustin force le diable à
participer à la liturgie chrétienne, circa 1471, 103 x 91, Alte Pinakothek
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Augustine of Hippo
(3)
Dear Friends,
After the Week
of Prayer for Christian Unity we return today to the important figure
of St Augustine. In 1986, the 16th centenary of his conversion, my beloved
Predecessor John Paul II dedicated a long, full Document to him, the Apostolic
Letter Augustinum
Hipponensem. The Pope himself chose to describe this text as "a
thanksgiving to God for the gift that he has made to the Church, and through
her to the whole human race". I would like to return to the topic of
conversion at another Audience. It is a fundamental theme not only for
Augustine's personal life but also for ours. In last Sunday's Gospel the Lord
himself summed up his preaching with the word: "Repent". By following
in St Augustine's footsteps, we will be able to meditate on what this
conversion is: it is something definitive, decisive, but the fundamental
decision must develop, be brought about throughout our life.
Today's Catechesis, however, is dedicated to the subject of faith and reason, a crucial, or better, the crucial theme for St Augustine's biography. As a child he learned the Catholic faith from Monica, his mother. But he abandoned this faith as an adolescent because he could no longer discern its reasonableness and rejected a religion that was not, to his mind, also an expression of reason, that is, of the truth. His thirst for truth was radical and therefore led him to drift away from the Catholic faith. Yet his radicalism was such that he could not be satisfied with philosophies that did not go to the truth itself, that did not go to God and to a God who was not only the ultimate cosmological hypothesis but the true God, the God who gives life and enters into our lives.
Thus, Augustine's entire intellectual and spiritual development is also a valid
model today in the relationship between faith and reason, a subject not only
for believers but for every person who seeks the truth, a central theme for the
balance and destiny of every human being. These two dimensions, faith and
reason, should not be separated or placed in opposition; rather, they must
always go hand in hand. As Augustine himself wrote after his conversion, faith
and reason are "the two forces that lead us to knowledge" (Contra
Academicos, III, 20, 43). In this regard, through the two rightly famous
Augustinian formulas (cf. Sermones, 43, 9) that express this coherent
synthesis of faith and reason: crede ut intelligas ("I believe
in order to understand") - believing paves the way to crossing the
threshold of the truth - but also, and inseparably, intellige ut
credas ("I understand, the better to believe"), the
believer scrutinizes the truth to be able to find God and to believe.
Augustine's two
affirmations express with effective immediacy and as much corresponding depth
the synthesis of this problem in which the Catholic Church sees her own journey
expressed. This synthesis had been acquiring its form in history even before
Christ's coming, in the encounter between the Hebrew faith and Greek thought in
Hellenistic Judaism. At a later period this synthesis was taken up and
developed by many Christian thinkers. The harmony between faith and reason
means above all that God is not remote: he is not far from our reason and our
life; he is close to every human being, close to our hearts and to our reason,
if we truly set out on the journey.
Augustine felt this
closeness of God to man with extraordinary intensity. God's presence in man is
profound and at the same time mysterious, but he can recognize and discover it
deep down inside himself. "Do not go outside", the convert says, but
"return to within yourself; truth dwells in the inner man; and if you find
that your nature is changeable, transcend yourself. But remember, when you transcend
yourself, you are transcending a soul that reasons. Reach, therefore, to where
the light of reason is lit" (De vera religione, 39, 72). It is just
like what he himself stresses with a very famous statement at the beginning of
the Confessions, a spiritual biography which he wrote in praise of
God: "You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it
rests in you" (I, 1, 1).
God's remoteness is
therefore equivalent to remoteness from oneself: "But", Augustine
admitted (Confessions, III, 6, 11), addressing God directly, "you
were more inward than my most inward part and higher than the highest element
within me", interior intimo meo et superior summo meo; so that,
as he adds in another passage remembering the period before his conversion,
"you were there before me, but I had departed from myself. I could not
even find myself, much less you" (Confessions, V, 2, 2). Precisely
because Augustine lived this intellectual and spiritual journey in the first
person, he could portray it in his works with such immediacy, depth and wisdom,
recognizing in two other famous passages from the Confessions (IV, 4,
9 and 14, 22), that man is "a great enigma" (magna quaestio) and
"a great abyss" (grande profundum), an enigma and an abyss that only
Christ can illuminate and save us from. This is important: a man who is distant
from God is also distant from himself, alienated from himself, and can only
find himself by encountering God. In this way he will come back to himself, to
his true self, to his true identity.
The human being,
Augustine stresses later in De Civitate Dei (XII, 27), is social by
nature but antisocial by vice and is saved by Christ, the one Mediator between
God and humanity and the "universal way of liberty and salvation", as
my Predecessor John Paul II said (Augustinum
Hipponensem, n. 3). Outside this way, "which has never been
lacking for the human race", St Augustine says further, "no one has
been set free, no one will be set free" (De Civitate Dei, X, 32, 2).
As the one Mediator of salvation Christ is Head of the Church and mystically
united with her to the point that Augustine could say: "We have become
Christ. For, if he is the Head, we, the members; he and we together are the
whole man" (In Iohannis evangelium tractatus, 21, 8).
People of God and house
of God: the Church in Augustine's vision is therefore closely bound to the
concept of the Body of Christ, founded on the Christological reinterpretation
of the Old Testament and on the sacramental life centred on the Eucharist, in
which the Lord gives us his Body and transforms us into his Body. It is then
fundamental that the Church, the People of God in a Christological and not a
sociological sense, be truly inserted into Christ, who, as Augustine says in a
beautiful passage, "prays for us, prays in us and prays by us; he prays
for us as our priest, he prays in us as our head, and he prays by us as our
God: let us therefore recognize him as our voice and ourselves as his" (Enarrationes
in Psalmos, 85, 1).
At the end of the
Apostolic Letter Augustinum
Hipponensem, John Paul II wished to ask the Saint himself what he
would have to say to the people of today and answers first of all with the
words Augustine entrusted to a letter dictated shortly after his conversion:
"It seems to me that the hope of finding the truth must be restored to
humankind" (Epistulae, 1, 1); that truth which is Christ himself,
true God, to whom is addressed one of the most beautiful prayers and most
famous of the Confessions (X, 27, 38): "Late have I loved you,
beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you. And see, you were within and I
was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I
plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and
I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you, though if they did
not have their existence in you, they had no existence at all. "You called
and cried aloud and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent,
you put to flight my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and
now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You
touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours".
Here then, Augustine
encountered God and throughout his life experienced him to the point that this
reality - which is primarily his meeting with a Person, Jesus - changed his
life, as it changes the lives of everyone, men and women, who in every age have
the grace to encounter him. Let us pray that the Lord will grant us this grace
and thereby enable us to find his peace.
To special groups
I am pleased to welcome
all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today's Audience,
including groups from England, Scotland, Hong Kong and the United States of
America. I greet especially the representatives of the Pontifical Mission
Societies and the group who are preparing to be ordained deacons. Upon all of
you, and upon your families and loved ones, I invoke God's Blessings of joy and
peace.
Lastly, I address
the young people, the sick and the newly-weds. Tomorrow
is the liturgical Memorial of St John Bosco, a priest and educator. Look to
him, dear young people, especially you candidates for Confirmation
from Serroni di Battipaglia, as an authentic teacher of life. You, dear sick
people, learn from his spiritual experience and trust in every
circumstance in the Crucified Christ. And you, dear newly-weds, have
recourse to his intercession to take on your mission as spouses with generous
commitment.
© Copyright 2008 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20080130.html
Pedro Berruguete (1450–1504), Saint
Augustinus. Thomas altar in the cloister piece, church of the Royal Monastery of
Saint Thomas in Ávila, Spain /San Agustín por Pedro Berruguete. Retablo de
la iglesia del Real Monasterio de Santo Tomás en Ávila, España (https://www.kunstkopie.ch/kunst/pedro_berruguete/hl_augustinus_thomas_altar_im_hi.jpg)
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Augustine of Hippo
(4)
Dear Brothers and
Sisters,
After the interruption
for the Spiritual Exercises last week, today we return to the important figure
of St Augustine, about whom I have repeatedly spoken at the Wednesday
Catecheses. He is the Father of the Church who left us the greatest number of
works and I intend to speak briefly of them today. Some of Augustine's writings
were of major importance, not only for the history of Christianity but also for
the formation of the whole of Western culture. The clearest example is
the Confessiones, undoubtedly one of the most widely read books of
Christian antiquity. Like various Fathers of the Church in the first centuries
but on an incomparably larger scale, the Bishop of Hippo in fact exercised an
extensive and persistent influence, as already appears from the superabundant
manuscript transcriptions of his works, which are indeed extremely numerous.
He reviewed them himself
in the Retractationum several years before he died, and shortly after
his death they were correctly recorded in the Indiculus ("list")
added by his faithful friend Possidius to his biography of St Augustine, Vita
Augustini. The list of Augustine's works was drafted with the explicit
intention of keeping their memory alive while the Vandal invasion was sweeping
through all of Roman Africa, and it included at least 1,030 writings numbered
by their Author, with others "that cannot be numbered because he did not
give them any number". Possidius, the Bishop of a neighbouring city,
dictated these words in Hippo itself - where he had taken refuge and where he
witnessed his friend's death -, and it is almost certain that he based his list
on the catalogue of Augustine's personal library. Today, more than 300 letters
of the Bishop of Hippo and almost 600 homilies are extant, but originally there
were far more, perhaps even as many as between 3,000 and 4,000, the result of
40 years of preaching by the former rhetorician who had chosen to follow Jesus
and no longer to speak to important figures of the imperial court, but rather,
to the simple populace of Hippo.
And in recent years the
discoveries of a collection of letters and several homilies have further
enriched our knowledge of this great Father of the Church. "He wrote and
published many books", Possidius wrote, "many sermons were delivered in
church, transcribed and corrected, both to refute the various heresies and to
interpret the Sacred Scriptures for the edification of the holy children of the
Church. These works", his Bishop-friend emphasized, "are so numerous
that a scholar would find it difficult to read them all and learn to know
them" (Vita Augustini, 18, 9).
In the literary corpus of
Augustine - more than 1,000 publications divided into philosophical,
apologetic, doctrinal, moral, monastic, exegetic and anti-heretical writings in
addition precisely to the letters and homilies - certain exceptional works of
immense theological and philosophical breadth stand out. First of all, it is
essential to remember the Confessiones mentioned above, written in 13
books between 397 and 400 in praise of God. They are a sort of autobiography in
the form of a dialogue with God. This literary genre actually mirrors St
Augustine's life, which was not one closed in on itself, dispersed in many
things, but was lived substantially as a dialogue with God, hence, a life with
others. The title "Confessiones" indicates the specific
nature of this autobiography. In Christian Latin this word, confessiones, developed
from the tradition of the Psalms and has two meanings that are nevertheless
interwoven. In the first place confessiones means the confession of
our own faults, of the wretchedness of sin; but at the same time, confessiones also
means praise of God, thanksgiving to God. Seeing our own wretchedness in the
light of God becomes praise to God and thanksgiving, for God loves and accepts
us, transforms us and raises us to himself. Of these Confessiones, which
met with great success during his lifetime, St Augustine wrote: "They
exercised such an influence on me while I was writing them and still exercise
it when I reread them. Many brothers like these works" (Retractationum, II,
6); and I can say that I am one of these "brothers". Thanks to
the Confessiones, moreover, we can follow step by step the inner journey
of this extraordinary and passionate man of God. A less well-known but equally
original and very important text is the Retractationum, composed in
two books in about 427 A.D., in which St Augustine, by then elderly, set down a
"revision" (retractatio) of his entire opus, thereby bequeathing
to us a unique and very precious literary document but also a teaching of
sincerity and intellectual humility.
De Civitate Dei - an
impressive work crucial to the development of Western political thought and the
Christian theology of history - was written between 413 and 426 in 22 books.
The occasion was the sack of Rome by the Goths in 410. Numerous pagans still
alive and also many Christians said: Rome has fallen; the Christian God and the
Apostles can now no longer protect the city. While the pagan divinities were
present, Rome was the caput mundi, the great capital, and no one
could have imagined that it would fall into enemy hands. Now, with the
Christian God, this great city no longer seemed safe. Therefore, the God of the
Christians did not protect, he could not be the God to whom to entrust oneself.
St Augustine answered this objection, which also touched Christian hearts
profoundly, with this impressive work, De Civitate Dei, explaining what we
should and should not expect of God, and what the relationship is between the
political sphere and the sphere of faith, of the Church. This book is also
today a source for defining clearly between true secularism and the Church's
competence, the great true hope that the faith gives to us.
This important book
presents the history of humanity governed by divine Providence but currently
divided by two loves. This is the fundamental plan, its interpretation of
history, which is the struggle between two loves: love of self, "to the
point of indifference to God", and love of God, "to the point of
indifference to the self" (De Civitate Dei XIV, 28), to full freedom
from the self for others in the light of God. This, therefore, is perhaps St
Augustine's greatest book and is of lasting importance. Equally important is
the De Trinitate, a work in 15 books on the central core of the
Christian faith, faith in the Trinitarian God. It was written in two phases:
the first 12 books between 399 and 412, published without the knowledge of
Augustine, who in about 420 completed and revised the entire work. Here he
reflects on the Face of God and seeks to understand this mystery of God who is
unique, the one Creator of the world, of us all, and yet this one God is
precisely Trinitarian, a circle of love. He seeks to understand the
unfathomable mystery: the actual Trinitarian being, in three Persons, is the
most real and profound unity of the one God. De Doctrina Christiana is
instead a true and proper cultural introduction to the interpretation of the
Bible and ultimately of Christianity itself, which had a crucial importance in
the formation of Western culture.
Despite all his humility,
Augustine must certainly have been aware of his own intellectual stature. Yet
it was far more important to him to take the Christian message to the simple
than to write lofty theological works. This deepest intention of his that
guided his entire life appears in a letter written to his colleague Evodius, in
which he informs him of his decision to suspend the dictation of the books
of De Trinitate for the time being, "because they are too
demanding and I think that few can understand them; it is therefore urgent to
have more texts which we hope will be useful to many" (Epistulae 169,
1, 1). Thus, it served his purpose better to communicate the faith in a manner
that all could understand rather than to write great theological works. The
responsibility he felt acutely with regard to the popularization of the
Christian message was later to become the origin of writings such as De
Catechizandis Rudibus, a theory and also a method of catechesis, or
the Psalmus contra Partem Donati. The Donatists were the great
problem of St Augustine's Africa, a deliberately African schism. They said:
true Christianity is African Christianity. They opposed Church unity. The great
Bishop fought against this schism all his life, seeking to convince the
Donatists that only in unity could "Africanness" also be true. And to
make himself understood by the simple, who could not understand the difficult
Latin of the rhetorician, he said: I must even write with grammatical errors,
in a very simplified Latin. And he did so, especially in this Psalmus, a
sort of simple poem against the Donatists, in order to help all the people
understand that it is only through Church unity that our relationship with God
may be truly fulfilled for all and that peace may grow in the world.
The mass of homilies that
he would often deliver "off the cuff", transcribed by tachygraphers
during his preaching and immediately circulated, had a special importance in
this production destined for a wider public. The very beautiful Enarrationes
in Psalmos, read widely in the Middle Ages, stand out among them. The
practice of publishing Augustine's thousands of homilies - often without the
author's control - precisely explains their dissemination and later dispersion
but also their vitality. In fact, because of the author's fame, the Bishop of
Hippo's sermons became very sought after texts and, adapted to ever new
contexts, also served as models for other Bishops and priests.
A fresco in the Lateran
that dates back to the fourth century shows that the iconographical tradition
already depicted St Augustine with a book in his hand, suggesting, of course,
his literary opus which had such a strong influence on the Christian mentality
and Christian thought, but it also suggests his love for books and reading as
well as his knowledge of the great culture of the past. At his death he left
nothing, Possidius recounts, but "recommended that the library of the
church with all the codes be kept carefully for future generations",
especially those of his own works. In these, Possidius stresses, Augustine is
"ever alive" and benefits his readers, although "I believe that
those who were able to see and listen to him were able to draw greater benefit
from being in touch with him when he himself was speaking in church, and
especially those who experienced his daily life among the people" (Vita
Augustini, 31). Yes, for us too it would have been beautiful to be able to
hear him speaking. Nonetheless, he is truly alive in his writings and present
in us, and so we too see the enduring vitality of the faith to which he devoted
his entire life.
* * *
Vatican Basilica
I am pleased to greet all
the English-speaking pilgrims gathered here in the Basilica of Saint Peter.
Lent is a privileged time for all Christians to recommit themselves to
conversion and spiritual renewal. In this way, we rekindle a genuine faith in
Christ, a life-giving relationship with God and a more fervent dedication to
the Gospel. Strengthened by the conviction that love is the distinguishing mark
of Christian believers, I encourage you to persevere in bearing witness to
charity in your daily lives.
Paul VI Audience Hall
I cordially greet all the
English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s audience. I extend a particular
welcome to parishioners from the Church of Our Lady of Loretto in New York, as
well as Benedictines participating in an intensive course on the rule of their
order. A blessed Lent to you all!
© Copyright 2008 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20080220.html
Piero della Francesca (1415–1492),
Polyptych of
Saint Augustine, circa 1465, tempera on panel, 132 x 57, Museu
Nacional de Arte Antiga / National Museum of Ancient Art,
Lisbon
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Augustine of Hippo
(5)
Dear Brothers and
Sisters,
With today's meeting I
wish to conclude the presentation of the figure of St Augustine. After having
dwelt on his life, works and some aspects of his thought, I would like today to
return to his inner experience which made him one of Christian history's
greatest converts. Last year, during
my Pilgrimage to Pavia to venerate the mortal remains of this Father
of the Church, I particularly dedicated my reflection to this experience of
his. By doing so I wished to express to him the homage of the entire Catholic
Church, but also to manifest my personal devotion and gratitude in regard to a
figure to whom I feel very linked for the role he has had in my life as a
theologian, priest and pastor.
Today, it is still
possible to trace St Augustine's experiences, thanks above all to the Confessions, written
to praise God and which are at the origin of one of the most specific literary
forms of the West, the autobiography or personal expression of one's
self-knowledge. Well, anyone who encounters this extraordinary and fascinating
book, still widely read today, soon realizes that Augustine's conversion was
not sudden or fully accomplished at the beginning, but can be defined, rather,
as a true and proper journey that remains a model for each one of us. This
itinerary certainly culminated with his conversion and then with baptism, but
it was not concluded in that Easter Vigil of the year 387, when the African
rhetorician was baptized in Milan by Bishop Ambrose. Augustine's journey of
conversion, in fact, humbly continued to the very end of his life, so much so
that one can truly say that his various steps - and three can be easily
distinguished - are one single great conversion.
St Augustine was a
passionate seeker of truth: he was from the beginning and then throughout his
life. The first step of his conversion journey was accomplished exactly in his
progressive nearing to Christianity. Actually, he had received from his mother
Monica, to whom he would always remain very closely bound, a Christian
education, and even though he lived an errant life during the years of his
youth, he always felt a deep attraction to Christ, having drunk in with his
mother's milk the love for the Lord's Name, as he himself emphasizes (cf. Confessions, III,
4, 8). But also philosophy, especially that of a Platonic stamp, led him even
closer to Christ, revealing to him the existence of the Logos or
creative reason. Philosophy books showed him the existence of reason, from
which the whole world came, but they could not tell him how to reach this Logos, which
seemed so distant. Only by reading St Paul's Epistles within the faith of the
Catholic Church was the truth fully revealed to him. This experience was
summarized by Augustine in one of the most famous passages of the Confessions: he
recounts that, in the torment of his reflections, withdrawing to a garden, he
suddenly heard a child's voice chanting a rhyme never heard before: tolle,
lege, tolle, lege, "pick up and read, pick up and read" (VIII,
12, 29). He then remembered the conversion of Anthony, the Father of
Monasticism, and carefully returned to the Pauline codex that he had recently
read, opened it, and his glance fell on the passage of the Epistle to the
Romans where the Apostle exhorts to abandon the works of the flesh and to be
clothed with Christ (cf. 13: 13-14). He understood that those words in that
moment were addressed personally to him; they came from God through the Apostle
and indicated to him what he had to do at that time. Thus, he felt the darkness
of doubt clearing and he finally found himself free to give himself entirely to
Christ: he described it as "your converting me to yourself" (Confessions, VIII,
12, 30). This was the first and decisive conversion.
The African rhetorician reached this fundamental step in his long journey thanks to his passion for man and for the truth, a passion that led him to seek God, the great and inaccessible One. Faith in Christ made him understand that God, apparently so distant, in reality was not that at all. He in fact made himself near to us, becoming one of us. In this sense, faith in Christ brought Augustine's long search on the journey to truth to completion. Only a God who made himself "tangible", one of us, was finally a God to whom he could pray, for whom and with whom he could live. This is the way to take with courage and at the same time with humility, open to a permanent purification which each of us always needs. But with the Easter Vigil of 387, as we have said, Augustine's journey was not finished. He returned to Africa and founded a small monastery where he retreated with a few friends to dedicate himself to the contemplative life and study. This was his life's dream. Now he was called to live totally for the truth, with the truth, in friendship with Christ who is truth: a beautiful dream that lasted three years, until he was, against his will, ordained a priest at Hippo and destined to serve the faithful, continuing, yes, to live with Christ and for Christ, but at the service of all. This was very difficult for him, but he understood from the beginning that only by living for others, and not simply for his private contemplation, could he really live with Christ and for Christ.
Thus, renouncing a life solely of meditation, Augustine learned, often with
difficulty, to make the fruit of his intelligence available to others. He
learned to communicate his faith to simple people and thus learned to live for
them in what became his hometown, tirelessly carrying out a generous and
onerous activity which he describes in one of his most beautiful sermons:
"To preach continuously, discuss, reiterate, edify, be at the disposal of
everyone - it is an enormous responsibility, a great weight, an immense
effort" (Sermon, 339, 4). But he took this weight upon himself,
understanding that it was exactly in this way that he could be closer to
Christ. To understand that one reaches others with simplicity and humility was
his true second conversion.
But there is a last step
to Augustine's journey, a third conversion, that brought him every day of his
life to ask God for pardon. Initially, he thought that once he was baptized, in
the life of communion with Christ, in the sacraments, in the Eucharistic
celebration, he would attain the life proposed in the Sermon on the Mount: the
perfection bestowed by Baptism and reconfirmed in the Eucharist. During the
last part of his life he understood that what he had concluded at the beginning
about the Sermon on the Mount - that is, now that we are Christians, we live
this ideal permanently - was mistaken. Only Christ himself truly and completely
accomplishes the Sermon on the Mount. We always 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. It was in this final attitude of humility, lived day after day,
that Augustine died.
This attitude of profound
humility before the only Lord Jesus led him also to experience an intellectual
humility. Augustine, in fact, who is one of the great figures in the history of
thought, in the last years of his life wanted to submit all his numerous works
to a clear, critical examination. This was the origin of the Retractationum ("Revision"),
which placed his truly great theological thought within the humble and holy
faith that he simply refers to by the name Catholic, that is, of the
Church. He wrote in this truly original book: "I understood that only One
is truly perfect, and that the words of the Sermon on the Mount are completely
realized in only One - in Jesus Christ himself. The whole Church, instead - all
of us, including the Apostles -, must pray everyday: Forgive us our sins as we
forgive those who sin against us" (De Sermone Domini in Monte, I, 19,
1-3).
Augustine converted to
Christ who is truth and love, followed him throughout his life and became a
model for every human being, for all of us in search of God. This is why I
wanted to ideally conclude my Pilgrimage to Pavia by consigning to the Church
and to the world, before the tomb of this great lover of God, my first
Encyclical entitled Deus
Caritas Est. I owe much, in fact, especially in the first part, to
Augustine's thought. Even today, as in his time, humanity needs to know and
above all to live this fundamental reality: God is love, and the encounter with
him is the only response to the restlessness of the human heart; a heart
inhabited by hope, still perhaps obscure and unconscious in many of our
contemporaries but which already today opens us Christians to the future, so
much so that St Paul wrote that "in this hope we were saved" (Rom 8:
24). I wished to devote my second Encyclical to hope, Spe
Salvi, and it is also largely indebted to Augustine and his encounter
with God.
In a beautiful passage,
St Augustine defines prayer as the expression of desire and affirms that God
responds by moving our hearts toward him. On our part we must purify our
desires and our hopes to welcome the sweetness of God (cf. In I
Ioannis 4, 6). Indeed, only this opening of ourselves to others saves us.
Let us pray, therefore, that we can follow the example of this great convert
every day of our lives, and in every moment of our life encounter the Lord
Jesus, the only One who saves us, purifies us and gives us true joy, true life.
Vatican Basilica
Dear Brothers and
Sisters, I am pleased to welcome all the English-speaking visitors present here
today. May your stay in Rome strengthen your faith, and grant you courage to
continue your Lenten journey in prayer, fasting, reconciliation and compassion.
Upon all of you I invoke God’s abundant blessings of joy and peace!
* * *
Paul VI Audience Hall
I welcome all the English-speaking visitors present today, including the many
student groups and the pilgrims from England, Sweden, Malta, Japan, Canada and
the United States. Upon all of you I invoke God's abundant Blessings of joy and
peace.
Lastly, I greet the youth, the sick and
the newly-weds. Dear brothers and sisters, following the Lenten
itinerary, the Church invites us to follow in Christ's footsteps, which direct
us toward Jerusalem where he will complete his redemptive mission. Let
yourselves be enlightened by his Word, so that in study, sickness or family
life you may experience his presence and tread the path of authentic conversion
in this holy time of penance.
© Copyright 2008 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20080227.html
Sandro Botticelli: Saint
Augustine / Sant'Agostino nello studio, circa 1480, fresco, tempera, plaster and fresco painting,
152 x 112, Ognissanti Church, Florence
August 28th: Memorial of
St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
"I NEED say no
more about right conduct. For if God is man's chief good, which you cannot
deny, it clearly follows, since to seek the chief good is to live well, that to
live well is nothing else but to love God with all the heart, with all the
soul, with all the mind; and, as arising from this, that this love must be
preserved entire and incorrupt, which is the part of temperance; that it give
way before no troubles, which is the part of fortitude; that it serve no other,
which is the part of justice; that it be watchful in its inspection of things
lest craft or fraud steal in, which is the part of prudence. This is the one
perfection of man, by which alone he can succeed in attaining to the purity of
truth. This both Testaments enjoin in concert; this is commended on both sides
alike. Why do you continue to cast reproaches on Scriptures of which you are
ignorant? Do you not see the folly of your attack upon books which only those
who do not understand them find fault with, and which only those who find fault
fail in understanding? For neither can an enemy know them, nor can one who
knows them be other than a friend to them."
~St. Augustine of
Hippo: Of the Morals of the Catholic Church (A.D. 388), Ch. 25, par.
46.
• Teaching of St.
Augustine of Hippo
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Justus van Gent (fl. 1460–1480), Saint
Augustine of Hippo, 14
Portraits from the series of Famous characters, circa 1474, oil on panel, 119 x 62, Louvre
Museum
August 28th: Memorial of
St. Augustine, Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church.
From Jerome to Augustine
(A.D. 418):
"To His Holy Lord
and Most Blessed Father, Augustine, Jerome Sends Greeting.
"At all times I have
esteemed your Blessedness with becoming reverence and honour, and have loved
the Lord and Saviour dwelling in you. But now we add, if possible, something to
that which has alrea...
SOURCE : https://www.facebook.com/#!/churchfathers?fref=ts
Ambrogio Bergognone (1453–), Polittico
del Louvre : Saint Augustin et un donateur agenouillé [partie gauche]
; La Présentation au temple [partie centrale] ; Saint Pierre martyr et une
donatrice agenouillée [partie droite], circa 1494, oil
on canvas, 149.9 x 65.3 ; 89 x 76 ; 149.9 x 65.3 Louvre
Museum
St. Augustine of Hippo
The great St. Augustine's
life is unfolded to us in documents of unrivaled richness, and of no
great character of
ancient times have we information comparable to that contained in the "Confessions",
which relate the touching story of his soul,
the "Retractations," which give the history of his mind,
and the "Life of Augustine," written by his friend Possidius,
telling of the saint's apostolate.
We will confine ourselves
to sketching the three periods of this great life: (1) the young wanderer's
gradual return to the Faith; (2) the doctrinal development of the Christian
philosopher to the time of his episcopate; and (3) the full development of his
activities upon the Episcopal throne of Hippo.
From his birth to his conversion (354-386)
Augustine was born at
Tagaste on 13 November, 354. Tagaste, now Souk-Ahras, about 60 miles from Bona
(ancient Hippo-Regius),
was at that time a
small free city of proconsular Numidia which had recently been converted from Donatism.
Although eminently respectable, his family was
not rich,
and his father,
Patricius, one of the curiales of the city, was still a pagan.
However, the admirable virtues that
made Monica the
ideal of Christian mothers
at length brought her husband the grace of baptism and
of a holy
death, about the year 371.
Augustine received
a Christian education.
His mother had him signed
with the cross and enrolled among the catechumens.
Once, when very ill, he asked for baptism,
but, all danger being soon passed, he deferred receiving the sacrament,
thus yielding to a deplorable custom of
the times. His association with "men of prayer"
left three great ideas deeply
engraven upon his soul:
a Divine
Providence, the future life with terrible
sanctions, and, above all, Christ
the Saviour. "From my tenderest infancy, I had in a manner sucked with
my mother's milk that name
of my Saviour, Thy Son; I kept it in the recesses of my heart; and all that
presented itself to me without that Divine
Name, though it might be elegant, well written, and even replete with truth,
did not altogether carry me away" (Confessions I.4).
But a great intellectual and moral crisis
stifled for a time all
these Christian sentiments.
The heart was the first point of attack. Patricius, proud of
his son's success in the schools of Tagaste and Madaura determined
to send him to Carthage to
prepare for a forensic career. But, unfortunately, it required several months
to collect the necessary means, and Augustine had to spend his sixteenth year
at Tagaste in an idleness which was fatal to his virtue;
he gave himself up to pleasure with all the vehemence of an ardent nature.
At first he prayed,
but without the sincere desire of being heard, and when he reached Carthage,
towards the end of the year 370, every circumstance tended to draw him from
his true course:
the many seductions of the great city that was still half pagan,
the licentiousness of other students, the theatres, the intoxication of his
literary success, and a proud desire
always to be first, even in evil.
Before long he was obliged to
confess to Monica that
he had formed a sinful liaison
with the person who
bore him a son (372), "the son of his sin"
— an entanglement from which he only delivered himself at Milan after
fifteen years of its thralldom.
Two extremes are to be
avoided in the appreciation of this crisis. Some, like Mommsen, misled perhaps
by the tone of grief in the "Confessions",
have exaggerated it: in the "Realencyklopädie" (3d ed., II, 268) Loofs
reproves Mommsen on this score, and yet he himself is too lenient towards
Augustine, when he claims that in those days, the Church permitted concubinage.
The "Confessions" alone prove that
Loofs did not understand the 17th canon of Toledo.
However, it may be said that, even in his fall, Augustine maintained a certain
dignity and felt a compunction which does him honour,
and that, from the age of nineteen, he had a genuine desire to break the chain.
In fact, in 373, an entirely new inclination manifested itself in his life,
brought about by the reading Cicero's "Hortensius" whence he imbibed
a love of the wisdom which Cicero so eloquently praises. Thenceforward
Augustine looked upon rhetoric merely as a profession; his heart was in philosophy.
Unfortunately, his faith,
as well as his morals,
was to pass though a terrible crisis. In this same year, 373, Augustine and his
friend Honoratus fell into the snares of the Manichæans.
It seems strange that so great a mind should
have been victimized by Oriental vapourings,
synthesized by the Persian Mani
(215-276) into coarse, material dualism,
and introduced into Africa scarcely
fifty years previously. Augustine himself tells us that he was enticed by the
promises of a free philosophy unbridled
by faith;
by the boasts of the Manichæans,
who claimed to have discovered contradictions in Holy
Writ; and, above all, by the hope of finding in their doctrine a scientific explanation
of nature and its most mysterious phenomena. Augustine's inquiring mind was
enthusiastic for the natural
sciences, and the Manichæans declared
that nature withheld no secrets from Faustus, their doctor.
Moreover, being tortured by the problem of the origin of evil,
Augustine, in default of solving it, acknowledged a conflict of two principles.
And then, again, there was a very powerful charm in the moral irresponsibility
resulting from a doctrine which
denied liberty and
attributed the commission of crime to
a foreign principle.
Once won over to
this sect,
Augustine devoted himself to it with all the ardour of his character;
he read all its books, adopted and defended all its opinions. His furious
proselytism drew into error his
friend Alypius and
Romanianus, his Mæcenas of Tagaste, the friend of his father who
was defraying the expenses of Augustine's studies.
It was during this Manichæan period
that Augustine's literary faculties reached their full development, and he was
still a student at Carthage when
he embraced error.
His studies ended, he
should in due course have entered the forum litigiosum, but he preferred
the career of letters, and Possidius tells
us that he returned to Tagaste to "teach grammar." The young
professor captivated his pupils, one of whom, Alypius,
hardly younger than his master, loath to leave him after following him
into error,
was afterwards baptized with
him at Milan,
eventually becoming Bishop of
Tagaste, his native city. But Monica deeply
deplored Augustine's heresy and
would not have received him into her home or at her table but for the advice of
a saintly bishop,
who declared that "the son of so many tears could not perish." Soon
afterwards Augustine went to Carthage,
where he continued to teach rhetoric. His talents shone to even better
advantage on this wider stage, and by an indefatigable pursuit of the liberal
arts his intellect attained
its full maturity. Having taken part in a poetic tournament, he carried off the
prize, and the Proconsul Vindicianus publicly conferred upon him
the corona agonistica.
It was at this moment of
literary intoxication, when he had just completed his first work on æsthetics (now
lost) that he began to repudiate Manichæism.
Even when Augustine was in his first fervour, the teachings
of Mani had been far from quieting his restlessness, and although he
has been accused of becoming a priest of
the sect,
he was never initiated or numbered among the "elect," but remained an
"auditor" the lowest degree in the hierarchy.
He himself gives the reason for his disenchantment. First of all there was the
fearful depravity of Manichæan
philosophy — "They destroy everything and build up nothing";
then, the dreadful immorality in contrast with their affectation of virtue;
the feebleness of their arguments in controversy with the Catholics,
to whose Scriptural arguments
their only reply was: "The Scriptures have
been falsified." But, worse than all, he did not find science among
them — science in
the modern sense of the word — that knowledge of
nature and its laws which they had promised him. When he questioned them
concerning the movements of the stars, none of them could answer him.
"Wait for Faustus," they said, "he will explain everything to
you." Faustus of Mileve, the celebrated Manichæan bishop,
at last came to Carthage;
Augustine visited and questioned him, and discovered in his responses the
vulgar rhetorician, the utter stranger to all scientific culture.
The spell was broken, and, although Augustine did not immediately abandon
the sect,
his mind rejected Manichæan doctrines.
The illusion had lasted nine years.
But the religious crisis
of this great soul was
only to be resolved in Italy,
under the influence of Ambrose.
In 383 Augustine, at the age of twenty-nine, yielded to the irresistible
attraction which Italy had
for him, but his mother suspected
his departure and was so reluctant to be separated from him that he resorted to
a subterfuge and embarked under cover of the night. He had only just arrived
in Rome when
he was taken seriously ill; upon recovering he opened a school of
rhetoric, but, disgusted by the tricks of his pupils, who shamelessly defrauded
him of their tuition fees, he applied for a vacant professorship at Milan,
obtained it, and was accepted by the prefect, Symmachus. Having visited Bishop
Ambrose, the fascination of that saint's kindness
induced him to become a regular attendant at his preachings.
However, before embracing
the Faith,
Augustine underwent a three years' struggle during which his mind passed
through several distinct phases. At first he turned towards the philosophy of
the Academics, with its pessimistic scepticism;
then neo-Platonic
philosophy inspired him with genuine enthusiasm. At Milan he
had scarcely read certain works of Plato and,
more especially, of Plotinus, before the hope of
finding the truth dawned
upon him. Once more he began to dream that he and his friends might lead a life
dedicated to the search for it, a life purged of all vulgar aspirations
after honours, wealth,
or pleasure, and with celibacy for
its rule (Confessions VI).
But it was only a dream; his passions still
enslaved him.
Monica,
who had joined her son at Milan,
prevailed upon him to become betrothed,
but his affianced bride
was too young, and although Augustine dismissed the mother of Adeodatus,
her place was soon filled by another. Thus did he pass through one last period
of struggle and anguish. Finally, through the reading of the Holy
Scripture light penetrated his mind.
Soon he possessed the certainty that Jesus
Christ is the only way to truth and salvation.
After that resistance came only from the heart. An interview with Simplicianus,
the future successor of St.
Ambrose, who told Augustine the story of the conversion of
the celebrated neo-Platonic rhetorician,
Victorinus (Confessions VIII.1, VIII.2),
prepared the way for the grand stroke of grace which,
at the age of thirty-three, smote him to the ground in the garden at Milan (September,
386). A few days later Augustine, being ill, took advantage of the autumn
holidays and, resigning his professorship, went with Monica, Adeodatus,
and his friends to Cassisiacum, the country estate of Verecundus,
there to devote himself to the pursuit of true philosophy which,
for him, was now inseparable from Christianity.
From his conversion to his episcopate (386-395)
Augustine gradually
became acquainted with Christian
doctrine, and in his mind the
fusion of Platonic philosophy with revealed dogmas was
taking place. The law that
governed this change of thought has of late years been frequently misconstrued;
it is sufficiently important to be precisely defined. The solitude of
Cassisiacum realized a long-cherished dream. In his books "Against the
Academics," Augustine has described the ideal serenity of this existence,
enlivened only by the passion for truth.
He completed the education of
his young friends, now by literary readings in common, now by philosophical conferences
to which he sometimes invited Monica,
and the accounts of which, compiled by a secretary, have supplied the
foundation of the "Dialogues." Licentius, in his "Letters,"
would later on recall these delightful philosophical mornings
and evenings, at which Augustine was wont to evolve the most elevating
discussions from the most commonplace incidents. The favourite topics at their
conferences were truth, certainty (Against
the Academics), true happiness in philosophy (On
a Happy Life), the Providential order
of the world and the problem of evil (On
Order) and finally God and
the soul (Soliloquies,
On the Immortality of the Soul).
Here arises the curious
question propounded modern critics: Was Augustine a Christian when
wrote these "Dialogues" at Cassisiacum? Until now no one had doubted it;
historians, relying upon the "Confessions",
had all believed that
Augustine's retirement to the villa had for its twofold object the improvement
of his health and his preparation for baptism.
But certain critics nowadays claim to have discovered a radical opposition
between the philosophical "Dialogues"
composed in this retirement and the state of soul described
in the "Confessions".
According to Harnack, in writing the "Confessions" Augustine
must have projected upon the recluse of
386 the sentiments of the bishop of
400. Others go farther and maintain that the recluse of
the Milanese villa
could not have been at heart a Christian,
but a Platonist;
and that the scene in the garden was a conversion not
to Christianity,
but to philosophy,
the genuinely Christian phase
beginning only in 390.
But this interpretation
of the "Dialogues" cannot withstand the test of facts and texts. It
is admitted that Augustine received baptism at Easter,
387; and who could suppose that it was for him a meaningless ceremony?
So too, how can it be admitted that the scene in the garden, the example of
the recluses,
the reading of St.
Paul, the conversion of
Victorinus, Augustine's ecstasies in reading the Psalms with Monica were
all invented after the fact? Again, as it was in 388 that Augustine wrote his
beautiful apology "On the Holiness of the Catholic Church," how is it
conceivable that he was not yet a Christian at
that date?
To settle the argument, however, it is only necessary to read the
"Dialogues" themselves. They are certainly a purely philosophical work
— a work of youth, too, not without some pretension, as Augustine ingenuously
acknowledges (Confessions IX.4);
nevertheless, they contain the entire history of his Christian formation.
As early as 386, the first work written at Cassisiacum reveals to us the great
underlying motive of his researches. The object of his philosophy is
to give authority the support of reason,
and "for him the great authority, that which dominates all others and from
which he never wished to deviate, is the authority of Christ";
and if he loves the Platonists it
is because he counts on finding among them interpretations always in harmony
with his faith (Against
the Academics, III, c. x). To be sure such confidence was excessive, but it
remains evident that in these "Dialogues" it is a Christian,
and not a Platonist,
that speaks. He reveals to us the intimate details of his conversion,
the argument that convinced him (the life and conquests of the Apostles),
his progress in the Faith at
the school of St.
Paul (ibid., II, ii), his delightful conferences with his friends on
the Divinity of Jesus
Christ, the wonderful transformations worked in his soul by faith,
even to that victory of his over the intellectual pride which
his Platonic studies
had aroused in him (On The Happy Life, I, ii), and at last the gradual calming
of his passions and
the great resolution to choose wisdom for his only spouse (Soliloquies, I, x).
It is now easy to
appreciate at its true value
the influence of neo-Platonism upon
the mind of
the great African Doctor.
It would be impossible for anyone who has read the works of St. Augustine to
deny the existence of
this influence. However, it would be a great exaggeration of this influence to
pretend that it at any time sacrificed the Gospel to Plato.
The same learned critic thus wisely concludes his study: "So long,
therefore, as his philosophy agrees
with his religious doctrines,
St. Augustine is frankly neo-Platonist;
as soon as a contradiction arises, he never hesitates to subordinate his philosophy to religion, reason to faith.
He was, first of all, a Christian;
the philosophical questions
that occupied his mind constantly
found themselves more and more relegated to the background" (op. cit.,
155). But the method was a dangerous one; in thus seeking harmony between the
two doctrines he thought too easily to find Christianity in Plato,
or Platonism in
the Gospel.
More than once, in his "Retractations" and elsewhere, he acknowledges
that he has not always shunned this danger. Thus he had imagined that
in Platonism he
discovered the entire doctrine of the Word and
the whole prologue
of St. John. He likewise disavowed a good number of neo-Platonic
theories which had at first misled him — the cosmological thesis
of the universal soul,
which makes the world one immense animal — the Platonic doubts upon
that grave question: Is there a single soul for
all or a distinct soul for
each? But on the other hand, he had always reproached the Platonists,
as Schaff very properly remarks (Saint Augustine, New York, 1886, p. 51), with
being ignorant of,
or rejecting, the fundamental points of Christianity:
"first, the great mystery,
the Word
made flesh; and then love,
resting on the basis of humility."
They also ignore grace,
he says, giving sublime precepts of morality without
any help towards realizing them.
It was this Divine
grace that Augustine sought in Christian
baptism. Towards the beginning of Lent,
387, he went to Milan and,
with Adeodatus and Alypius,
took his place among the competentes, being baptized by Ambrose on Easter
Day, or at least during Eastertide. The tradition maintaining that
the Te
Deum was sung on that occasion by the bishop and
the neophyte alternately
is groundless. Nevertheless this legend is
certainly expressive of the joy of the Church upon
receiving as her son him who was to be her most illustrious doctor.
It was at this time that
Augustine, Alypius,
and Evodius resolved
to retire into solitude in Africa.
Augustine undoubtedly remained at Milan until
towards autumn, continuing his works: "On the Immortality of the
Soul" and "On Music." In the autumn of 387, he was about to
embark at Ostia,
when Monica was
summoned from this life. In all literature there are no pages of more exquisite
sentiment than the story of her saintly
death and Augustine's grief (Confessions IX).
Augustine remained several months in Rome,
chiefly engaged in refuting Manichæism.
He sailed for Africa after
the death of the tyrant Maximus (August 388) and after a short sojourn in Carthage,
returned to his native Tagaste. Immediately upon arriving there, he wished to
carry out his idea of
a perfect
life, and began by selling all his goods and giving the
proceeds to the poor.
Then he and his friends withdrew to his estate, which had already been
alienated, there to lead a common life in poverty, prayer,
and the study of sacred
letters. Book of the "LXXXIII Questions" is the fruit of
conferences held in this retirement, in which he also wrote "De Genesi
contra Manichæos," "De Magistro," and, "De Vera
Religione."
Augustine did not think
of entering the priesthood,
and, through fear of
the episcopacy,
he even fled from cities in which an election was necessary. One day,
having been summoned to Hippo by
a friend whose soul's salvation was
at stake, he was praying in
a church when
the people suddenly gathered about him, cheered him, and begged Valerius,
the bishop,
to raise him to the priesthood.
In spite of his tears Augustine was obliged to
yield to their entreaties, and was ordained in
391. The new priest looked
upon his ordination as
an additional reason for resuming religious
life at Tagaste, and so fully did Valerius approve that he put
some church
property at Augustine's disposal, thus enabling him to establish
a monastery the
second that he had founded. His priestly ministry
of five years was admirably fruitful; Valerius had bidden him preach, in spite
of the deplorable custom which
in Africa reserved
that ministry to bishops.
Augustine combated heresy,
especially Manichæism,
and his success was prodigious. Fortunatus, one of their great doctors,
whom Augustine had challenged in public conference, was so humiliated by his
defeat that he fled from Hippo.
Augustine also abolished the abuse of holding banquets in the chapels of
the martyrs.
He took part, 8 October, 393, in the Plenary
Council of Africa, presided over by Aurelius, Bishop of Carthage,
and, at the request of the bishops,
was obliged to
deliver a discourse which, in its completed form, afterwards became the
treatise "De
Fide et symbolo".
As bishop of Hippo (396-430)
Enfeebled by old age,
Valerius, Bishop of Hippo,
obtained the authorization of Aurelius, Primate of Africa,
to associate Augustine with himself as coadjutor. Augustine had to resign
himself to consecration at
the hands of Megalius, Primate of
Numidia. He was then forty two, and was to occupy the See
of Hippo for thirty-four years. The new bishop understood
well how to combine the exercise of his pastoral duties with
the austerities of
the religious
life, and although he left his convent,
his episcopal residence became a monastery where
he lived a community life with his clergy,
who bound themselves to observe religious
poverty. Was it an order of regular
clerics or of monks that
he thus founded? This is a question often asked, but we feel that Augustine
gave but little thought to such distinctions. Be that as it may, the episcopal
house of Hippo became
a veritable nursery which supplied the founders of the monasteries that
were soon spread all over Africa and
the bishops who
occupied the neighbouring sees. Possidius (Vita
S. August., xxii) enumerates ten of the saint's friends
and disciples who
were promoted to the episcopacy.
Thus it was that Augustine earned the title of patriarch of the religious,
and renovator of the clerical,
life in Africa.
But he was above all the
defender of truth and
the shepherd of souls.
His doctrinal activities,
the influence of which was destined to last as long as the Church itself,
were manifold: he preached frequently, sometimes for five days consecutively,
his sermons breathing
a spirit of charity that
won all hearts; he wrote letters which
scattered broadcast through the then known world
his solutions of the problems of that day; he impressed his spirit upon
divers African
councils at which he assisted, for instance, those of Carthage in
398, 401, 407, 419 and of Mileve in
416 and 418; and lastly struggled indefatigably against all errors.
To relate these struggles were endless; we shall, therefore, select only the
chief controversies and indicate in each the doctrinal attitude
of the great Bishop of Hippo.
The Manichæan controversy and the problem of evil
After Augustine
became bishop the zeal which,
from the time of
his baptism,
he had manifested in bringing his former co-religionists into the true Church,
took on a more paternal form without losing its pristine ardour — "let
those rage against us who know not
at what a bitter cost truth is
attained. . . . As for me, I should show you the same forbearance that my
brethren had for me when I blind, was wandering in your doctrines" (Contra
Epistolam Fundamenti 3). Among the most memorable events that occurred
during this controversy was the great victory won in 404 over Felix, one of the
"elect" of the Manichæans and
the great doctor of
the sect.
He was propagating his errors in Hippo,
and Augustine invited him to a public conference the issue of which would
necessarily cause a
great stir; Felix declared himself vanquished, embraced the Faith,
and, together with Augustine, subscribed the acts of the conference. In his
writings Augustine successively refuted Mani (397), the famous Faustus (400),
Secundinus (405), and (about 415) the fatalistic Priscillianists whom Paulus
Orosius had denounced to
him. These writings contain the saint's clear,
unquestionable views on the eternal problem
of evil,
views based on an optimism proclaiming,
like the Platonists,
that every work of God is good and
that the only source of moral evil is
the liberty of
creatures (City
of God XIX.13.2). Augustine takes up the defence of free
will, even in man as
he is, with such ardour that his works against the Manichæan are
an inexhaustible storehouse of arguments in this still living controversy.
In vain have the Jansenists maintained
that Augustine was unconsciously a Pelagian and
that he afterwards acknowledged the loss of liberty through
the sin of Adam.
Modern critics, doubtless unfamiliar with Augustine's complicated system and
his peculiar terminology, have gone much farther. In the "Revue d'histoire
et de littérature religieuses" (1899, p. 447), M. Margival exhibits St.
Augustine as the victim of metaphysical pessimism unconsciously
imbibed from Manichæan doctrines.
"Never," says he, "will the Oriental idea of
the necessity and
the eternity of evil have
a more zealous defender
than this bishop."
Nothing is more opposed to the facts. Augustine acknowledges that he had not
yet understood how the first good inclination
of the will is
a gift
of God (Retractions, I, xxiii, n, 3); but it should be remembered that
he never retracted his leading theories on liberty,
never modified his opinion upon what constitutes its essential condition,
that is to say, the full power of choosing or of deciding. Who will dare to say
that in revising his own writings on so important a point he lacked either
clearness of perception or sincerity?
The Donatist controversy and the theory of the Church
The Donatist
schism was the last episode in the Montanist and Novatian controversies
which had agitated the Church from
the second century. While the East was discussing under varying aspects the
Divine and Christological problem
of the Word,
the West,
doubtless because of its more practical genius, took up the moral question
of sin in
all its forms. The general problem was the holiness of
the Church;
could the sinner be pardoned,
and remain in her bosom? In Africa the
question especially concerned the holiness of
the hierarchy.
The bishops of
Numidia, who, in 312, had refused to accept as valid the consecration of
Cæcilian, Bishop of Carthage,
by a traditor, had inaugurated the schism and
at the same time proposed
these grave questions: Do the hierarchical powers
depend upon the moral worthiness
of the priest?
How can the holiness of
the Church be
compatible with the unworthiness of its ministers?
At the time of
Augustine's arrival in Hippo,
the schism had
attained immense proportions, having become identified with political
tendencies — perhaps with a national movement against Roman domination. In any
event, it is easy to discover in it an undercurrent of anti-social revenge
which the emperors had to combat by strict laws.
The strange sect known
as "Soldiers of Christ," and called by Catholics Circumcelliones (brigands,
vagrants), resembled the revolutionary sects of
the Middle
Ages in point of fanatic destructiveness — a fact that must not be
lost sight of, if the severe legislation of the emperors is to be properly appreciated.
The history of
Augustine's struggles with the Donatists is
also that of his change of opinion on the employment of rigorous measures
against the heretics;
and the Church
in Africa, of whose councils he
had been the very soul, followed him in the change. This change of views is
solemnly attested by the Bishop of Hippo himself,
especially in his Letters, 93 (in
the year 408). In the beginning, it was by conferences and a friendly
controversy that he sought to re-establish unity. He inspired various
conciliatory measures of the African
councils, and sent ambassadors to the Donatists to
invite them to re-enter the Church,
or at least to urge them to send deputies to a conference (403). The Donatists met
these advances at first with silence, then with insults, and lastly with
such violence that Possidius
Bishop of Calamet, Augustine's friend, escaped death only by flight,
the Bishop of
Bagaïa was left covered with horrible wounds, and the life of
the Bishop of Hippo himself
was several times attempted (Letter
88, to Januarius, the Donatist bishop).
This madness of the Circumcelliones required
harsh repression, and Augustine, witnessing the
many conversions that
resulted therefrom, thenceforth approved rigid laws.
However, this important restriction must be pointed out: that St. Augustine
never wished heresy to
be punishable by death — Vos
rogamus ne occidatis (Letter
100, to the Proconsul Donatus). But the bishops still
favoured a conference with the schismatics,
and in 410 an edict issued by Honorius put an end to the refusal of the Donatists.
A solemn conference took place at Carthage,
in June, 411, in presence of 286 Catholic,
and 279 Donatist bishops.
The Donatist spokesmen
were Petilian of Constantine, Primian of Carthage, and Emeritus of Cæsarea;
the Catholic orators, Aurelius and
Augustine. On the historic question then at issue, the Bishop of Hippo proved the
innocence of Cæcilian and his consecrator Felix,
and in the dogmatic debate
he established the Catholic thesis
that the Church,
as long as it is upon earth, can, without losing its holiness, tolerate sinners within
its pale for the sake of converting them.
In the name of the emperor the Proconsul Marcellinus sanctioned the
victory of the Catholics on
all points. Little by little Donatism died
out, to disappear with the coming of the Vandals.
So amply and
magnificently did Augustine develop his theory on the Church that,
according to Specht "he deserves to be named the Doctor
of the Church as well as the Doctor
of Grace"; and Möhler (Dogmatik,
351) is not afraid to
write: "For depth of feeling and power of conception nothing written on
the Church since St.
Paul's time,
is comparable to the works of St. Augustine." He has corrected, perfected,
and even excelled the beautiful pages of St.
Cyprian on the Divine institution of the Church,
its authority, its essential marks, and its mission in the economy of grace and
the administration of the sacraments.
The Protestant critics,
Dorner, Bindemann, Böhringer and especially Reuter, loudly proclaim, and
sometimes even exaggerate, this rôle of the Doctor of Hippo;
and while Harnack does not quite agree with them in every respect he does not
hesitate to say (History of Dogma, II, c. iii): "It is one of the points
upon which Augustine specially affirms and
strengthens the Catholic idea....
He was the first [!] to transform the authority of the Church into
a religious power,
and to confer upon practical religion the
gift of a doctrine
of the Church." He was not the first, for Dorner acknowledges
(Augustinus, 88) that Optatus
of Mileve had expressed the basis of the same doctrines.
Augustine, however, deepened, systematized, and completed the views of St.
Cyprian and Optatus.
But it is impossible here to go into detail. (See Specht, Die Lehre von
der Kirche nach dem hl. Augustinus, Paderborn, 1892.)
The Pelagian controversy and the Doctor of Grace
The close of the struggle
against the Donatists almost
coincided with the beginnings of a very grave theological dispute
which not only was to demand Augustine's unremitting attention up to the time of
his death, but was to become an eternal problem
for individuals and for the Church.
Farther on we shall enlarge upon Augustine's system; here we need only indicate
the phases of the controversy. Africa,
where Pelagius and
his disciple Celestius
had sought refuge after the taking of Rome by
Alaric, was the principal centre of the first Pelagian disturbances;
as early as 412 a council
held at Carthage condemned Pelagians for
their attacks upon the doctrine of original
sin. Among other books directed against them by Augustine was his
famous "De
naturâ et gratiâ". Thanks to his activity the condemnation of these
innovators, who had succeeded in deceiving a synod convened
at Diospolis in Palestine, was reiterated by councils held
later at Carthage and Mileve and
confirmed by Pope
Innocent I (417). A second period of Pelagian intrigues
developed at Rome,
but Pope
Zosimus, whom the stratagems of Celestius had for a moment deluded, being
enlightened by Augustine, pronounced the solemn condemnation of these heretics in
418. Thenceforth the combat was conducted in writing against Julian
of Eclanum, who assumed the leadership of the party and violently attacked
Augustine.
Towards 426 there entered
the lists a school which afterwards acquired the name of Semipelagian,
the first members being monks of Hadrumetum in Africa,
who were followed by others from Marseilles,
led by Cassian,
the celebrated abbot of
Saint-Victor. Unable to admit the absolute gratuitousness of predestination,
they sought a middle course between Augustine and Pelagius,
and maintained that grace must
be given to those who merit it
and denied to others; hence goodwill has the precedence, it desires, it asks,
and God rewards.
Informed of their views by Prosper
of Aquitaine, the holy Doctor once
more expounded, in "De
Prædestinatione Sanctorum", how even these first desires for salvation are
due to the grace
of God, which therefore absolutely controls our predestination.
Struggles against Arianism and closing years
In 426 the holy Bishop of Hippo,
at the age of seventy-two, wishing to spare his episcopal city the turmoil of
an election after his death, caused both clergy and
people to acclaim the
choice of the deacon Heraclius
as his auxiliary and successor,
and transferred to him the administration of externals. Augustine might then
have enjoyed some rest had Africa not
been agitated by the undeserved disgrace and the revolt of Count Boniface
(427). The Goths,
sent by the Empress Placidia to oppose Boniface, and the Vandals,
whom the latter summoned to his assistance, were all Arians.
Maximinus, an Arian bishop,
entered Hippo with
the imperial troops. The holy Doctor defended
the Faith at
a public conference (428) and in various writings. Being deeply grieved at the
devastation of Africa,
he laboured to effect a reconciliation between Count Boniface and the empress.
Peace was indeed reestablished, but not with Genseric, the Vandal king.
Boniface, vanquished, sought refuge in Hippo,
whither many bishops had
already fled for protection and this well fortified city was to suffer the
horrors of an eighteen months' siege. Endeavouring to control his anguish,
Augustine continued to refute Julian
of Eclanum; but early in the siege he was stricken with what he realized to
be a fatal illness, and, after three months of admirable patience and
fervent prayer,
departed from this land of exile on 28 August, 430, in the seventy-sixth year
of his age.
Portalié,
Eugène. "Life of St. Augustine of Hippo." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company,1907. 28
Aug. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02084a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Dave Ofstead.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2023 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02084a.htm
Antonio
Rodríguez (1636 - 1691), San Agustín, 187 x 136, Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico
City
Works of St. Augustine of
Hippo
St.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) was one of the most prolific geniuses
that humanity has ever known, and is admired not only for the
number of his works, but also for the variety of subjects, which traverse the
whole realm of thought. The form in which he casts his work exercises
a very powerful attraction on the reader. Bardenhewer praises his extraordinary
suppleness of expression and his marvellous gift of describing
interior things, of painting the
various states of the soul and
the facts of the spiritual world. His latinity bears the stamp of his
age. In general, his style is noble and chaste; but, says the same author,
"in his sermons and
other popular writings he purposely drops to the language of the people."
A detailed analysis is impossible here. We shall merely indicate his
principal writings and the date (often approximate) of their
composition.
Autobiography and correspondence
The Confessions are
the history of his heart; the Retractations, of his mind; while
the Letters show
his activity in the Church.
The Confessions (towards
A.D. 400) are, in the Biblical sense of the word confiteri, not
an avowal or an account, but the praise of a soul that
admires the action of God within
itself. Of all the works of the holy Doctor none has been more
universally read and admired, none has caused more salutary tears
to flow. Neither in respect of penetrating analysis of the most
complex impressions of the soul,
nor communicative feeling, nor elevation of sentiment, nor depth
of philosophic views, is there any book like it in
all literature.
The Retractations (towards
the end of his life, 426-428) are a revision of the works of the saint in chronological order,
explaining the occasion and dominant idea of
each. They are a guide of inestimable price for seizing the progress
of Augustine's thought.
The Letters,
amounting in the Benedictine collection to
270 (53 of them from Augustine's correspondents), are a treasure of
the greatest value, for the knowledge of
his life, influence and even his doctrine.
Philosophy
These writings, for the
most part composed in the villa of Cassisiacum, from his conversion to
his baptism (388-387),
continue the autobiography of the saint by
initiating us into the researches and Platonic hesitations
of his mind. There is less freedom in them than in the Confessions.
They are literary essays, writings whose simplicity is the acme of
art and elegance. Nowhere is the style of Augustine so chastened,
nowhere is his language so pure. Their dialogue form shows that they
were inspired by Plate and Cicero. The chief ones are:
Contra
Academicos (the most important of all);
De Beatâ Vitâ;
De Ordine;
the two books of Soliloquies,
which must be distinguished from the "Soliloquies" and
"Meditations" which are certainly not authentic;
De Immortalitate animæ;
De Magistro (a
dialogue between Augustine and his son Adeodatus);
and
six curious books (the
sixth especially) on Music.
General apology
In The
City of God (begun in 413, but Books 20-22 were written in
426) Augustine answers the pagans,
who attributed the fall of Rome (410)
to the abolition of pagan worship.
Considering this problem of Divine
Providence with regard to the Roman Empire, he widens the horizon
still more and in a burst of genius
he creates the philosophy of history, embracing as he
does with a glance the destinies of the world grouped around the Christian
religion, the only one which goes back to the beginning and leads humanity to
its final term. The City of God is considered as the most
important work of the great bishop.
The other works chiefly interest theologians;
but it, like the Confessions, belongs to
general literature and appeals to every soul.
The Confessions are theology which
has been lived in the soul,
and the history of God's action on individuals,
while The City of God is theology framed
in the history of humanity, and explaining
the action of God in
the world.
Other apologetic writings,
like the "De Verâ Religione" (a little masterpiece composed at Tagaste,
389-391), "De Utilitate Credendi" (391), "Liber de fide rerum
quæ non videntur" (400), and the "Letter 120
to Consentius," constitute Augustine the great theorist of
the Faith, and of its relations to reason. "He is the
first of the Fathers," says Harnack (Dogmengeschichte, III, 97)
"who felt the need of forcing his faith to reason."
And indeed he, who so repeatedly affirms that faith precedes
the intelligent apprehension of the truths of revelation —
he it is who marks out with greater clearness of definition and more
precisely than anyone else the function of the reason in preceding
and verifying the witness's claim to credence, and in
accompanying the mind's act of
adhesion. (Letter to Consentius, n. 3, 8, etc.) What would not have been
the stupefaction of Augustine if anyone had told him that faith must
close its eyes to the proofs of
the divine testimony, under the penalty of its becoming science!
Or if one had spoken to him of faith in
authority giving its assent, without examining any motive which
might prove the value of the testimony! It surely cannot be possible
for the human mind to
accept testimony without known motives for such acceptance, or,
again, for any testimony, even when learnedly sifted out, to give the science —
the inward view — of the object.
Controversies with heretics
Against the Manichæans:
"De Moribus Ecclesiæ
Catholicæ et de Moribus Manichæorum" (at Rome,
368);
"De Duabus
Animabus" (before 392);
"Acts of the Dispute
with Fortunatus the Manichæan" (392);
"Acts of
the Conference with Felix" (404);
"De Libero
Arbitrio" — very important on the origin of evil;
various writings
"Contra Adimantum";
against
the Epistle of Mani (the foundation);
Reply
to Faustus (about 400);
against Secundinus (405),
etc.
Against the Donatists:
"Psalmus contra
partem Donati" (about 395), a purely rhythmic song for popular use (the
oldest example of its kind);
"Contra epistolam
Parmeniani" (400);
"De Baptismo contra
Donatistas" (about 400), one of the most important pieces in this
controversy;
"Contra
litteras Parmeniani,"
"Contra Cresconium,"
a good number
of letters, also, relating to this debate.
Against the Pelagians,
in chronological order, we have:
412, "De
peccatorum meritis et remissione" (On merit and forgiveness);
same year, "De
spiritu et litterâ" (On the spirit and the letter);
415, "De Perfectione
justitiæ hominis" — important for understanding Pelagian impeccability;
417, "De Gestis
Pelagii" — a history of the Council of Diospolis,
whose acts it reproduces;
418, "De Gratiâ
Christi et de peccato originali";
419, "De nuptiis et
concupiscentiâ" and other writings (420-428);
"Against Julian
of Eclanum" — the last of this series, interrupted by the death of
the saint.
Against the Semipelagians:
"De correptione et
gratiâ" (427);
"De prædestinatione
Sanctorum" (428);
"De Done
Perseverantiæ" (429).
Against Arianism:
"Contra sermonem
Arianorum" (418) and
"Collattio cum
Maximino Arianorum episcopo" (the celebrated conference of Hippo in
428).
Scriptural exegesis
Augustine in the "De
Doctrinâ Christianâ" (begun in 397 and ended in 426) gives us a genuine
treatise of exegesis,
historically the first (for St.
Jerome wrote rather as a controversialist). Several times he attempted
a commentary on Genesis. The great work "De Genesi ad
litteram" was composed from 401 to 415. The "Enarrationes
in Psalmos" are a masterpiece of popular eloquence, with a swing
and a warmth to them which are inimitable. On the New
Testament: the "De Sermone Dei in Monte" (during his priestly ministry)
is especially noteworthy; "De Consensu Evangelistarum" (Harmony of
the Gospels — 400); Homilies on St. John (416), generally
classed among the chief works of Augustine; the Exposition of
the Epistle to the Galatians" (324), etc. The most remarkable of his Biblical works
illustrate either a theory of exegesis (one
generally approved) which delights in finding mystical or allegorical
interpretations, or the style of preaching which is founded on that view. His
strictly exegetical work
is far from equalling in scientific value that of St.
Jerome. His knowledge of
the Biblical languages was insufficient: he read Greek with
difficulty; as for Hebrew, all that we can gather from the studies of
Schanz and Rottmanner is that he was familiar with Punic, a language
allied to Hebrew. Moreover, the two grand qualities of his
genius — ardent feeling and prodigious subtlety — carried him sway into interpretations
that were violent or more ingenious than solid.
But the hermeneutics of Augustine merit great
praise, especially for their insistence upon the stern law of
extreme prudence in
determining the meaning of Scripture: We must be on our guard against
giving interpretations which are hazardous or opposed to science,
and so exposing the word of God to
the ridicule of unbelievers (De Genesi ad litteram, I, 19, 21,
especially n. 39). An admirable application of this well-ordered liberty
appears in his thesis on the simultaneous creation of the universe,
and the gradual development of the world under
the action of the natural forces which were placed in it.
Certainly the instantaneous act of the Creator did not
produce an organized universe as
we see it now. But, in the beginning, God created all
the elements of the world in a confused and nebulous mass (the word is Augustine's Nebulosa species apparet;
"De Genesi ad litt., " I, n. 27), and in this mass were
the mysterious germs (rationes seminales) of the future beings which
were to develop themselves, when favourable circumstances should permit.
Is Augustine, therefore, an Evolutionist?
If we mean that he had a
deeper and wider mental grasp
than other thinkers had of the forces of nature and the plasticity of
beings, it is an incontestable fact; and from this point of view
Father Zahm (Bible, Science, and Faith, pp.
58-66, French tr.) properly felicitates him on having been
the precursor of modern thought. But if we mean that he admitted
in matter a power of differentiation and
of gradual transformation, passing from the homogeneous to the
heterogeneous, the most formal texts force us to recognize
that Augustine proclaimed the fixity of species, and did not
admit that "from one identical primitive principle or from one germ,
different realities can issue." This judgment of
the Abbé Martin in his very searching study on this subject
(S. Augustin, p. 314) must correct the conclusion of Father Zahm.
"The elements of this corporeal world have also their
well defined force, and their proper quality, from which depends
what each one of them can or cannot do, and what reality ought or ought not to
issue from each one of them. Hence it is that from a grain of wheat a bean
cannot issue, nor wheat from a bean, nor a, man from a beast, nor
a beast from a man" (De Genesi ad litt., IX, n.
32).
Dogmatic and moral exposition
The fifteen books De
Trinitate, on which he worked for fifteen years, from 400 to 416, are the
most elaborate and profound work of St.
Augustine. The last books on the analogies which
the mystery of the Trinity have with our soul are
much discussed. The saintly author himself declares that they are
only analogous and are far-fetched and very obscure.
The Enchiridion,
or handbook, on Faith, Hope, and Love, composed, in 421, at the
request of a pious Roman,
Laurentius, is an admirable synthesis of Augustine's theology,
reduced to the three theological virtues.
Father Faure has given us a learned commentary of it, and Harnack a
detailed analysis (Hist. of dogmas,
III, 205, 221).
Several volumes of
miscellaneous questions, among which "Ad Simplicianum" (397) has been
especially noted.
Numberless writings of
his have a practical aim: two on "Lying" (374 and 420), five on
"Continence," "Marriage," and "Holy Widowhood,"
one on "Patience," another on "Prayer for the Dead" (421).
Pastorals and preaching
The theory of preaching
and religious instruction of the people is given in the "De
Catechizandis Rudibus" (400) and in the fourth book "De Doctrinâ.
Christianâ." The oratorical work alone is of vast extent. Besides
the Scriptural homilies,
the Benedictines have
collected 363 sermons which are certainly authentic; the
brevity of these suggests that they are stenographic, often revised
by Augustine himself. If the Doctor in him predominates
over the orator, if he possesses less of colour, of opulence, of
actuality, and of Oriental charm than St.
John Chrysostom, we find, on the other hand, a more nervous logic,
bolder comparisons, greater elevation and greater profundity of thought, and
sometimes, in his bursts of emotion and his daring lapses into dialogue-form,
he attains the irresistible power of the Greek orator.
Editions of St. Augustine's works
The best edition of his
complete works is that of the Benedictines,
eleven tomes in eight folio volumes (Paris, 1679-1700). It has been often
reprinted, e.g. by Gaume (Paris, 1836-39), in eleven octavo volumes,
and by Migne,
PL 32-47. The last volume of the Migne reprint
contains a number of important earlier studies on St.
Augustine — Vivés, Noris,
Merlin, particularly the literary history of the editions
of Augustine from Schönemann's "Bibl. hist. lit. patrum
Lat." (Leipzig, 1794).
Portalié,
Eugène. "Works of St. Augustine of Hippo." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1907. 28 Aug. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02089a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Dave Ofstead.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John
M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Copyright © 2023 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02089a.htm
Sandro Botticelli, Vision de Saint Augustin,
Retable de San Barnaba, circa 1488, tempera sur panneau, 20 x 38,
galerie des Offices
Teaching of St. Augustine
of Hippo
St.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is
"a philosophical and theological genius
of the first order, dominating, like a pyramid, antiquity and the succeeding
ages. Compared with the great philosophers of past centuries and
modern times, he is the equal of them all; among theologians he
is undeniably the first, and such has been his influence that none of
the Fathers, Scholastics,
or Reformers has
surpassed it." (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church)
Elsewhere, we have discussed his life and
his writings;
here, we shall treat of his teaching and influence in three sections:
I.
His Function as a Doctor of the Church
His function as a doctor of the Church
When
the critics endeavour to determine Augustine's place
in the history
of the Church and of civilization, there can be no question of
exterior or political influence, such as was exercised by St.
Leo, St.
Gregory, or St.
Bernard.
As Reuter* justly observes, Augustine was bishop of
a third-rate city and had scarcely any direct control over politics, and
Harnack adds that perhaps he had not the qualifications of a statesman.
If Augustine occupies a place apart in
the history of humanity, it is as a thinker, his influence being
felt even outside the realm of theology,
and playing a most potent part in the orientation of Western thought.
It is now universally conceded that, in the intellectual field,
this influence is unrivalled even by that of Thomas
Aquinas, and Augustine's teaching marks a distinct epoch in
the history of Christian thought.
The better to emphasize this important fact we shall try to determine: (1) the
rank and degree of influence that must be ascribed to Augustine; (2)
the nature, or the elements, of his doctrinal influence;
(3) the general qualities of his doctrine;
and (4) the character of his genius.
The greatest of the doctors
It is first of all a
remarkable fact that the great critics, Protestant as
well as Catholic,
are almost unanimous in placing St.
Augustine in the foremost rank of Doctors and proclaiming
him to be the greatest of the Fathers. Such, indeed, was also the opinion
of his contemporaries, judging from their expressions of enthusiasm
gathered by the Bollandists.
The popes attributed
such exceptional authority to the Doctor of Hippo that,
even of late years, it has given rise to lively theological controversies. Peter the
Venerable accurately summarized the general sentiment of the Middle
Ages when he ranked Augustine immediately after
the Apostles; and in modern times Bossuet,
whose genius was most like that of Augustine, assigns him the first place
among the Doctors, nor does he simply call him the
incomparable Augustine," but "the Eagle of Doctors,"
"the Doctor of Doctors." If the Jansenistic abuse
of his works and perhaps the exaggerations of certain Catholics,
as well as the attack of Richard Simon, seem to have alarmed
some minds, the general opinion has not varied. In the nineteenth
century Stöckl expressed the thought of all when he said,
"Augustine has justly been called the greatest Doctor
of the Catholic world."
And the admiration
of Protestant critics is
not less enthusiastic. More than this, it would seem as if they had in these
latter days been quite specially fascinated by the great figure
of Augustine, so deeply and so assiduously have they studied him
(Bindemann, Schaff, Dorner, Reuter, A. Harnack, Eucken, Scheel, and so on)
and all of them agree more or less with Harnack when he says: "Where, in
the history of the West, is there to be found a man who, in
point of influence, can be compared with him?" Luther and Calvin were
content to treat Augustine with a little less irreverence than they
did the other Fathers, but their descendants do him full justice,
although recognizing him as the Father of Roman
Catholicism. According to Bindemann, "Augustine is a star of
extraordinary brilliancy in the firmament of
the Church.
Since the apostles he has been unsurpassed." In his "History
of the Church" Dr. Kurtz calls Augustine "the
greatest, the most powerful of all the Fathers, him from whom proceeds all
the doctrinal and ecclesiastical development
of the West, and to whom each recurring crisis, each new orientation of
thought brings it back." Schaff himself (Saint Augustine, Melanchthon and
Neander, p. 98) is of the same opinion: "While most of the great men in
the history
of the Church are claimed either by the Catholic or
by the Protestant confession,
and their influence is therefore confined to one or the other, he enjoys from
both a respect equally profound and enduring." Rudolf Eucken is
bolder still, when he says: "On the ground of Christianity proper
a single philosopher has
appeared and that is Augustine." The English Miter, W.
Cunningham, is no less appreciative of the extent and perpetuity of this
extraordinary influence: "The whole life of the medieval Church was
framed on lines which he has suggested: its religious orders
claimed him as their patron; its mystics found a sympathetic
tone in his teaching; its polity was to some extent the actualization of his
picture of the Christian
Church; it was in its various parts a carrying out of ideas which
he cherished and diffused. Nor does his influence end with the decline of medievalism:
we shall see presently how closely his language was akin to that of Descartes,
who gave the first impulse to and defined the
special character of modern philosophy." And after having
established that the doctrine of St.
Augustine was at the bottom of all the struggles between Jansenists and Catholics in
the Church of France,
between Arminians and Calvinists on
the side of the Reformers,
he adds: "And once more in our own land when a reaction arose
against rationalism and Erastinianism it
was to the African Doctor that men turned with
enthusiasm: Dr.
Pusey's edition of the Confessions was among the first-fruits of
the Oxford
Movement."
But Adolf Harnack is the
one who has oftenest emphasized the unique rôle of
the Doctor of Hippo.
He has studied Augustine's place in the history of the
world as reformer of Christian piety and
his influence as Doctor
of the Church. In his study of the "Confessions" he comes back to
it: "No man since Paul is
comparable to him" — with the exception of Luther,
he adds. — "Even today we live by Augustine, by his thought and
his spirit; it is said that we are the sons of the Renaissance and
the Reformation,
but both one and the other depend upon him."
Nature and different aspects of his doctrinal influence
This influence is so
varied and so complex that it is difficult to consider under all its different
aspects. First of all, in his writings the great bishop collects and
condenses the intellectual treasures
of the old world and transmits them to the new. Harnack goes so far as to say:
"It would seem that the miserable existence of
the Roman empire in the West was prolonged until then, only
to permit Augustine's influence to be exercised
on universal history." It was in order to fulfil this enormous
task that Providence brought him into contact with the three worlds
whose thought he was to transmit: with
the Roman and Latin world in the midst of which he lived,
with the Oriental world partially revealed to him through
the study of Manichæism,
and with the Greek world shown to him by the Platonists.
In philosophy he was initiated into the whole content and all the
subtilties of the various schools,
without, however, giving his allegiance to any one of them. In theology it
was he who acquainted the Latin
Church with the great dogmatic work accomplished in
the East during the fourth century and at the beginning of the fifth;
he popularized the results of it by giving them the more exact and precise form of
the Latin genius.
To synthesis of the
past, Augustine adds the incomparable wealth of his own
thought, and he may be said to have been the most powerful instrument
of Providence in development and advance of dogma.
Here the danger has been not in denying, but in exaggerating, this advance. Augustine's dogmatic mission
(in a lower sphere and apart from inspiration) recalls that of Paul in
the preaching of the Gospel. It has also been subject to the same attacks
and occasioned the same vagaries of criticism. Just as it was sought to
make of Paulinism the real source of Christianity as
we know it
— a system that had smothered the primitive germ of
the Gospel of Jesus —
so it was imagined that, under the name
of Augustinianism, Augustine had installed in the Church some
sort of syncretism of
the ideas of Paul and
of neo-Platonism which
was a deviation from ancient Christianity,
fortunate according to some, but according to others utterly deplorable. These
fantasies do not survive the reading of the texts, and Harnack himself shows
in Augustine the heir to the tradition that preceded him.
Still, on the other hand, his share of invention and originality in the
development of dogma must
not be ignored, although here and there, on special
questions, human weaknesses crop out. He realized, better than any of
the Fathers, the progress so well expressed by Vincent
of Lérins, his contemporary, in a page that some have turned against him.
In general, all Christian
dogmatics are indebted to him for new theories that
better justify and explain revelation, new views, and greater
clearness and precision. The many struggles with which he was identified,
together with the speculative turn of his mind, brought almost every
question within the scope of his research. Even his way of stating problems so
left his impress upon them that there Is no problem, one might almost say, in
considering which the theologian does
not feel the study of Augustine's thought to be an imperative obligation.
Certain dogmas in
particular he so amply developed, so skilfully unsheathing the fruitful germ of
the truths from
their envelope of tradition, that many of these dogmas (wrongly,
in our opinion) have been set down as
"Augustinism." Augustine was not their inventor, he was
only the first to put them in a strong light. They are chiefly the dogmas of
the Fall, the Atonement, Grace, and Predestination.
Schaff (op. cit. 97) has very properly said: "His appearance in
the history of dogma forms
a distinct epoch, especially as regards anthropological and
soteriological doctrines, which he advanced considerably further, and
brought to a greater clearness and precision, than they had ever had before in
the consciousness of the Church."
But he is not only the Doctor of Grace, he is also the Doctor
of the Church: his twenty years' conflict with Donatism led
to a complete exposition of the dogmas of
the Church,
the great work and mystical Body of Christ,
and true Kingdom
of God, of its part in salvation and
of the intimate efficacy of its sacraments.
It is on this point, as the very centre of Augustinian theology,
that Reuter* has concentrated those "Augustinische Studien"
which, according to Harnack, are the most learned of recent studies on St.
Augustine. Manichæan controversies
also led him to state clearly the great questions of the Divine Being and of
the nature of evil,
and he might also be called the Doctor of Good, or
of good principles of all things. Lastly, the very idiosyncrasy of
his genius and the practical, supernatural,
and Divine imprint left upon all his intellectual speculations
have made him the Doctor of Charity.
Another step forward due
to the works of Augustine is in the language of theology,
for, if he did not create it, he at least contributed towards its
definite settlement. It is indebted to him for a great number of
epigrammatic formulæ, as significant as they are terse, afterwards singled out
and adopted by Scholasticism.
Besides, as Latin was more concise and less fluid in
its forms than Greek, it was wonderfully well suited to the
work. Augustine made it the dogmatic language par
excellence, and Anselm, Thomas
Aquinas, and others followed his lead. At times he has even been credited
with the pseudo-Athanasian creed which is undoubtedly of
later date, but those critics were not mistaken who traced
its inspiration to the formulæ in "De Trinitate." Whoever
its author may have been, he was certainly familiar
with Augustine and drew upon his works. It is unquestionably
this gift of concise expression, as well as his charity, that
has so often caused the celebrated saying to be attributed to him:
"In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all
things charity."
Augustine stands forth,
too, as the great inspirer of religious thought
in subsequent ages. A whole volume would not be sufficient to contain the full
account of his influence on posterity; here we shall merely call attention to
its principal manifestations. It is, in the first place, a fact of paramount
importance that, with St.
Augustine, the centre of dogmatic and theological development
changed from East to West. Hence, from this view-point again, he
makes an epoch in the history of dogma.
The critics maintain that up to his time the most powerful influence
was exerted by the Greek
Church, the East having been the classic land of theology,
the great workshop for the elaboration of dogma.
From the time of Augustine, the predominating influence seems to emanate
from the West, and the practical, realistic spirit of
the Latin race supplants the speculative
and idealistic spirit of Greece and the East.
Another fact, no less salient, is that it was the Doctor of Hippo who,
in the bosom of the Church, inspired the
two seemingly antagonistic movements, Scholasticism and Mysticism.
From Gregory
the Great to the Fathers of Trent, Augustine's theological authority,
indisputably the highest, dominates all thinkers and is appealed to
alike by the Scholastics Anselm, Peter
Lombard, and Thomas
Aquinas, and by Bernard, Hugh
of St. Victor, and Tauler,
exponents of Mysticism, all of whom were nourished upon his writings and
penetrated with his spirit. There is not one of even the most modern
tendencies of thought but derives from him whatever it may have of truth or
of profound religious sentiment. Learned critics, such as
Harnack, have called Augustine "the first modern man,"
and in truth,
he so moulded the Latin world that it is really he who has shaped
the education of
modern minds.
But, without going so far, we may quote the German philosopher, Eucken:
"It is perhaps not paradoxical to say that if our age wishes to take up
and treat in an independent way the problem of religion, it is not so much
to Schleiermacher or Kant,
or even Luther or St.
Thomas, that it must refer, as to Augustine....
And outside of religion, there are points upon
which Augustine is more modern than Hegel or
Schopenhauer."
The dominating qualities of his doctrine
The better to understand St.
Augustine's influence, we must point out in his doctrine certain
general characteristics which must not be lost sight of, if, in reading his
works, one would avoid troublesome misapprehensions.
First, the full
development of the great Doctor's mind was progressive. It was
by stages, often aided by the circumstances and necessities of controversy,
that he arrived at the exact knowledge of
each truth and
a clean-cut perception of its place in the synthesis of revelation. He
also requires that his readers should know how
to "advance with him." It is necessary to
study St. Augustine's works in historical order and, as we
shall see, this applies particularly to the doctrine of grace.
Augustinian doctrine is,
again, essentially theological,
and has God for
its centre. To be sure Augustine is a great philosopher,
and Fénelon said
of him: "If an enlightened man were to gather from the books
of St.
Augustine the sublime truths which
this great man has scattered at random therein, such a compendium [extrait],
made with discrimination, would be far superior to Descartes' Meditations."
And indeed just such a collection was made by
the Oratorian ontologist, André Martin. There is then
a philosophy of St. Augustine, but in him philosophy is
so Intimately coupled with theology as
to be inseparable from it. Protestant historians have
remarked this characteristic of his writings. "The world,"
says Eucken, "interests him less than"
the action of God in
the world and especially in ourselves. God and
the soul are
the only subjects the knowledge Of
which ought to fire us with enthusiasm. All knowledge becomes moral, religious knowledge,
or rather a moral, religious conviction,
an act of faith on
the part of man, who gives himself up unreservedly." And with still
greater energy Böhringer has said: "The axis on which the
heart, life and theology of Augustine move
is God." Oriental discussions
on the Word had forced Athanasius and
the Greek Fathers to
set faith in
the Word and in Christ, the Saviour, at the very summit of theology; Augustine,
too, in his theology,
places the Incarnation at the centre of the Divine plan, but he looks
upon it as the great historic manifestation of God to humanity —
the idea of God dominates
all: of God considered
in His essence (On the Trinity), in His government
(The City of God) or as the last end of all Christian life (Enchiridion
and On the Christian Combat).
Lastly, Augustine's doctrine bears
an eminently Catholic stamp
and is radically opposed to Protestantism.
It is important to establish this fact, principally because of the change in
the attitude of Protestant critics towards St.
Augustine. Indeed, nothing is more deserving of attention than this
development so highly creditable to the impartiality of modern writers. The thesis
of the Protestants of
olden times is well known. Attempts to monopolize Augustine and
to make him an ante-Reformation reformer, were certainly not wanting. Of
course Luther had
to admit that he did not find in Augustine justification by faith alone,
that generating principle of all Protestantism;
and Schaff tells us that he consoled himself with exclaiming (op. sit., p.
100): "Augustine has often erred,
he is not to be trusted. Although good and holy, he was yet
lacking in true faith as
well as the other Fathers." But in general, the Reformation did
not so easily fall into line, and for a long time it was customary to oppose
the great name of Augustine to Catholicism. Article 20
of the Confession of Augsburg dares to ascribe to
him justification without works, and Melanchthon invokes his
authority in his "Apologia Confessionis." In the last thirty or
forty years all has been changed, and the best Protestant critics now
vie with one another in proclaiming the essentially Catholic character of Augustinian doctrine.
In fact they go to extremes when they claim him to be the founder of Catholicism.
It is thus that H. Reuter* concludes his very important studies on
the Doctor of Hippo:
"I consider Augustine the founder of Roman
Catholicism in the West....This
is no new discovery, as Kattenbusch seems to believe, but a truth long
since recognized by Neander, Julius Köstlin, Dorner, Schmidt,
...etc.." Then, as to whether Evangelicalism is to be found
in Augustine, he says: "Formerly this point was reasoned out very differently
from what it is nowadays. The phrases so much in use from 1830 to
1870: Augustine is the Father of evangelical Protestantism and Pelagius is
the Father of Catholicism,
are now rarely met with. They have since been acknowledged to be untenable,
although they contain a particula veri." Philip Schaff
reaches the same conclusion; and Dorner says, "It is erroneous to
ascribe to Augustine the ideas that inspired the Reformation."
No one, however, has put this idea in
a stronger light than Harnack. Quite recently, in his 14th lesson on
"The Essence of Christianity," he characterized
the Roman
Church by three elements, the third of which is Augustinism, the
thought and the piety of .htm-->St.
Augustine. "In fact Augustine has exerted over the whole inner
life of the Church, religious
life and religious thought,
an absolutely decisive influence." And again he says, "In the fifth
century, at the hour when the Church inherited
the Roman Empire, she had within her a man of extraordinarily deep and powerful
genius: from him she took her ideas,
and to this present hour she has been unable to break away from them." In
his "History of Dogma" (English tr., V, 234, 235) the same critic
dwells at length upon the features of what he calls the "popular Catholicism"
to which Augustine belongs. These features are (a) the Church as
a hierarchical institution with doctrinal authority;
(b) eternal life by merits, and disregard of the Protestant thesis
of "salvation by faith"
— that is, salvation by
that firm confidence in God which
the certainty of
pardon produces (c) the forgiveness of sins —
in the Church and
the Church;
(d) the distinction between commands and counsel — between grievous sine and
venial sins —
the scale of wicked men and good men — the
various degrees of happiness in heaven according
to one's deserts;
(e) Augustine is accused of "outdoing the superstitious ideas"
of this popular Catholicism —
the infinite value
of Christ's satisfaction, salvation considered
as enjoyment of God in heaven —
the mysterious efficacy of the sacraments (ex
opere operato) — Mary's virginity even in childbirth — the idea of
her purity and her conception, unique in their kind." Harnack does not
assert that Augustine taught the Immaculate Conception, but
Schaff (op. cit., p. 98) says unhesitatingly: "He is responsible also for
many grievous errors of
the Roman
Church...he anticipated the dogma of
the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, and his ominous
word, Roma locuta est, causa finite est, might almost be quoted in favour
of the Vatican decree of papal
infallibility."
Nevertheless, it were a
mistake to suppose that modern Protestants relinquish
all claim upon Augustine; they will have it that, despite
his essential Catholicism,
it was he who inspired Luther and Calvin.
The new thesis, therefore, is that each of the two Churches may claim
him in turn. Burke's expression quoted by Schaff (ibid., p. 102) is
characteristic: "In Augustine ancient and modern ideas are
melted and to his authority the papal Church has
as much right to appeal as the Churches of
the Reformation."
No one notes this contradiction more clearly than Loofs. After stating
that Augustine has accentuated the characteristic elements of Western
(Catholic) Christianity, that in succeeding ages he became its Father, and
that "the Ecclesiasticism of Roman
Catholicism, Scholasticism, Mysticism,
and even the claims of the papacy to
temporal rule, are founded upon a tendency initiated by him," Loofs
also affirms that he is the teacher of all
the reformers and their bond of union, and concludes with this
strange paradox: "The history of Catholicism is
the history of the progressive elimination of Augustinism."
The singular aptitude of these critics for supposing
the existence of flagrant contradictions in a genius
like Augustine is not so astonishing when we remember that,
with Reuter, they justify this theory by the reflection: "In
whom are to be found more frequent contradictions than in Luther?"
But their theories are based upon a false interpretation
of Augustine's opinion, which is frequently misconstrued by those who
are not sufficiently familiar with his language and terminology.
The character of his genius
We have now to ascertain
what is the dominating quality which accounts for his fascinating
influence upon posterity. One after another the critics have
considered the various aspects of this great genius. Some have been
particularly impressed by the depth and originality of his conceptions, and for
these Augustine is the great sower of the ideas by
which future minds are to live. Others, like Jungmann and Stöckl,
have praised in him the marvellous harmony of all the mind's higher qualities,
or, again, the universality and the compass of his doctrine.
"In the great African Doctor,"
says the Rev. J. A. Zahm (Bible, Science and Faith, Fr. tr.,
56), "we seem to have found united and combined the powerful and
penetrating logic of Plato,
the deep scientific conceptions of Aristotle,
the knowledge and intellectual suppleness
of Origen,
the grace and eloquence of Basil and Chrysostom.
Whether we consider him as philosopher,
as theologian,
or as exegetist...he
still appears admirable the unquestioned Master of all the
centuries." Philip Schaff (op. cit., p. 97) admires above all
"such a rare union of the speculative talent of the Greek and of
the practical spirit of the Latin
Church as he alone possessed." In all these opinions there is a
great measure of truth;
nevertheless we believe that the dominating characteristic
of Augustine's genius and the true secret
of his influence are to be found in his heart — a heart that penetrates the
most exalted speculations of a profound mind and animates them with
the most ardent feeling. It is at bottom only the traditional and
general estimate of the saint that
we express; for he has always been represented with a heart for his emblem,
just as Thomas
Aquinas with a sun. Mgr.
Bougaud thus interpreted this symbol: "Never
did man unite in one and the same soul such
stern rigour of logic with
such tenderness of heart." This is also the opinion of
Harnack, Böhringer, Nourisson,
Storz, and others. Great intellectuality admirably fused with an
enlightened mysticism is Augustine's distinguishing
characteristic. Truth is not for him only an object
of contemplation; it is a good that must be possessed, that must
be loved and
lived by. What constitutes Augustine's genius is his
marvellous gift of embracing truth with
all the fibres of his soul;
not with the heart alone, for the heart does not think; not with
the mind alone, for the mind grasps only the abstract or,
as it were, lifeless truth. Augustine seeks
the living truth,
and even when he is combating certain Platonic ideas he
is of the family of Plato,
not of Aristotle.
He belongs indisputably to all ages because he is in touch with all souls,
but he is preeminently modern because his doctrine is
not the cold light of the School; he is living and penetrated with
personal sentiment. Religion is not a simple theory, Christianity is
not a series of dogmas;
It Is also a life, as they say nowadays, or, more accurately, a source
of life. However, let us not be deceived. Augustine is not a
sentimentalist, a pure mystic, and heart alone does not account for his
power. If in him the hard, cold intellectuality of the metaphysician
gives place to an impassioned vision of truth,
that truth is
the basis of it all. He never knew the vaporous mysticism of
our day, that allows itself to be lulled by a vague, aimless sentimentalism.
His emotion is deep, true,
engrossing, precisely because it is born of a strong, secure, accurate
dogmatism that wishes to know what
it loves and why it loves. Christianity is life,
but life in the eternal, unchangeable truth.
And if none of the Fathers has put so much of his heart into his
writings, neither has any turned upon truth the searchlight of
a stronger, clearer intellect.
Augustine's passion is
characterized not by violence,
but by a communicative tenderness; and his exquisite delicacy experiences first
one and then another of the most intimate emotions and tests them; hence the
irresistible effect of the "Confessions." Feuerlein, a Protestant thinker,
has brought out in relief (exaggeratedly, to be sure, and leaving the
marvellous powers of his intellect in
the shade) Augustine's exquisite sensibility — what he calls the
"feminine elements" of his genius. He says: "It was not merely a
chance or accidental part that his mother, Monica, played in
his intellectual development,
and therein lies what essentially distinguishes him
from Luther,
of whom it was said: "Everything about him bespeaks the man".
And Schlösser,
whom Feuerlein quotes, is not afraid to say
that Augustine's works contain more genuine poetry than all the
writings of the Greek Fathers.
At least it cannot be denied that no thinker ever caused so many and
such salutary tears to flow. This characteristic
of Augustine's genius explains his doctrinal work. Christian
dogmas are considered in relation to the soul and
the great duties of Christian life,
rather than to themselves and in a speculative fashion. This alone explains his
division of theology in
the "Enchiridion," which at first sight seems so strange. He
assembles all Christian
doctrine in the three theological virtues,
considering in the mysteries the different activities of the soul that
must live by them. Thus, in the Incarnation, he assigns the greatest part
to the moral side, to the triumph of humility.
For this reason, also, Augustine's work bears an imprint, until then
unknown, of living personality peeping
out everywhere. He inaugurates that literature in which the
author's individuality reveals itself in the most abstract
matters, the "Confessions" being an inimitable example of it. It is
in this connection that Harnack admires
the African Doctor's gift of psychological observation
and a captivating facility for portraying his penetrating observations. This
talent, he says, is the secret of Augustine's originality and
greatness. Again, it is this same characteristic that distinguishes him from
the other Doctors and gives him his own special temperament. The
practical side of a question appealed to
the Roman mind of Ambrose,
too, but he never rises to the same heights, nor moves the heart as deeply as
does his disciple of Milan. Jerome is
a, more learned exegetist, better equipped in respect
of Scriptural erudition; he is even purer in his style; but, despite
his impetuous ardour, he is less animated, less striking, than his
correspondent of Hippo. Athanasius,
too, is subtile in the metaphysical analysis of dogma,
but he does not appeal to the heart and take hold of the soul like
the African Doctor. Origen played
the part of initiator in the Eastern
Church, just as Augustine did in the Western, but his
influence, unfortunate in more ways than one, was exercised rather in the
sphere of speculative intelligence, while that of Augustine, owing to
the qualities of his heart, extended far beyond the realm of theology. Bossuet,
who of all geniuses most closely resembles Augustine by his elevation
and his universality, is his superior in the skilfulness and artistic finish of
his works, but he has not the alluring tenderness of soul;
and if Augustine fulminates less, he attracts more powerfully, subjugating
the mind with gentleness.
Thus
may Augustine's universal influence in all succeeding ages be
explained: it is due to combined gifts of heart
and mind. Speculative genius alone does not sway the multitude;
the Christian world,
apart from professional theologians,
does not read Thomas
Aquinas. On the other hand, without the clear, definite idea of dogma, mysticism founders
as soon as reason awakes and discovers the emptiness of metaphors:
this is always the fate of vague pietism, whether it
recognize Christ or not, whether It be extolled by Schleiermacher,
Sabatier, or their disciples. But to Augustine's genius, at once
enlightened and ardent, the whole soul is
accessible, and the whole Church, both teachers and taught, is permeated
by his sentiments and ideas.
A. Harnack, more than any other critic, admires and
describes Augustine's influence over all the life of Christian people.
If Thomas
Aquinas is the Doctor of
the Schools, Augustine is, according to Harnack,
the inspirer and restorer of Christian piety.
If Thomas inspires the canons of Trent, Augustine,
besides having formed Thomas himself, inspires the inner
life of the Church and
is the soul of
all the great reforms effected within its pale. In his "Essence
of Christianity" (14th lesson, 1900, p. 161) Harnack shows how Catholics and Protestants live
upon the piety of Augustine.
"His living has been incessantly relived in the course of the fifteen
hundred years that have followed. Even to our days interior and living piety among Catholics,
as well as the mode of its expression, has
been essentially Augustinian: the soul is
permeated by his sentiment, it feels as he felt and rethinks his thoughts. It
is the same with many Protestants also,
and they are by no means among the worst. And even those to whom dogma is
but a relic of
the past proclaim that Augustine's influence will live
forever."
This genuine emotion is
also the veil that hides certain faults from the reader or else makes
him oblivious of them. Says Eucken: "Never
could Augustine have exercised all the influence he has exercised if
it had not been that, in spite of the rhetorical artifice of his
utterance, absolute sincerity reigned in the inmost recesses of
his soul."
His frequent repetitions are excused because they are the expression of his
deep feeling. Schaff says: "His books, with all the faults and repetitions
of isolated parts, are a spontaneous outflow from the marvellous treasures of
his highly-gifted mind and his truly pious heart."
(St.
Augustine, p. 96.) But we must also acknowledge that
his passion is the source of exaggerations and at times of errors that
are fraught with real danger for the inattentive or badly disposed reader. Out
of sheer love for Augustine certain theologians have
endeavoured to justify all he wrote, to admire all, and to proclaim
him infallible, but nothing could be more detrimental to
his glory than such excess of praise. The reaction already referred
to arises partly from this. We must recognize that
the passion for truth sometimes
fixes its attention too much upon one side of a complex question; his
too absolute formulæ, lacking qualification, false in
appearance now in one sense now in another. "The oratorical temperament
that was his in such a high degree," says Becker, very truly (Revue
d'histoire ecclésiastique, 15 April, 1902, p. 379), "the kind of
exaltation that befitted his rich imagination and
his loving soul,
are not the most reliable in philosophical speculations."
Such is the origin of the contradictions alleged against him and of the errors ascribed
to him by the predestinarians of
all ages. Here we see the rôle of the more frigid minds of Scholasticism. Thomas
Aquinas was a necessary corrective
to Augustine. He is less great, less original, and, above all, less
animated; but the calm didactics of his intellectualism enable him to
castigate Augustine's exaggerations with rigorous criticism, to
impart exactitude and precision to his terms — in one word, to prepare a
dictionary with which the African Doctor may be read without
danger.
His system of grace
It is unquestionably in
the great Doctor's solution of the eternal problem of
freedom and grace — of the part taken by God and
by man, in the affair of salvation —
that his thought stands forth as most personal, most powerful, and most
disputed. Most personal, for he was the first of all to synthesize the
great theories of the Fall, grace, and free
will; and moreover it is he who, to reconcile them all, has furnished us
with a profound explanation which is in very truth his,
and of which we can find no trace in his predecessors. Hence, the
term Augustinism is often exclusively used to designate his system
of grace. Most powerful, for, as all admit, it was he above all
others who won the triumph of liberty against the Manichæans,
and of grace against the Pelagians.
His doctrine has,
in the main, been solemnly accepted by the Church,
and we know that
the canons of the Council of Orange are borrowed from his
works. Most disputed, also.—Like St.
Paul, whose teachings he develops, he has often been quoted, often not
understood. Friends and enemies have exploited his teaching in the
most diverse senses. It has not been grasped, not only by the opponents of
liberty, and hence by the Reformers of
the sixteenth century, but even today, by Protestant critics the
most opposed to the cruel predestinationism of Calvin and Luther who
father that doctrine on St.
Augustine. A technical study would be out of place here; it will be
sufficient to enunciate the most salient thoughts, to enable the reader to find
his bearings.
(1) It is regarded as
incontestable today that the system of Augustine was complete in
his mind from the year 397 — that is, from the beginning of
his episcopate, when he wrote his answers to the "quæstiones
Diversæ" of Simplician. It is to this book that Augustine, in
his last years, refers the Semipelagians for
the explanation of his real thought. This important fact, to which for a long
time no attention was paid, has been recognized by Neander and established by
Gangaut, and also by recent critics, such as Loofs, Reuter, Turmel,
Jules Martin (see also Cunningham, St. Austin, 1886, pp. 80 and 175).
It will not, therefore, be possible to deny the authority of these texts on the
pretext that Augustine in his old age adopted a system more
antagonistic to liberty.
(2) The system of Pelagius can
today be better understood than heretofore. Pelagius doubtless
denied original
sin, and the immortality and
integrity of Adam; in a word, the whole supernatural
order. But the parent idea of
his system, which was of stoic origin, was nothing else than the complete
"emancipation" of human liberty with regard to God,
and its limitless power for good and for evil.
It depended on man to attain by himself, without the grace
of God, a stoic impeccability and even insensibility, or
the absolute control of his passions. It was scarcely suspected,
even up to our time, what frightful rigorism resulted from this
exaggeration of the powers of liberty. Since perfection was possible,
it was of obligation.
There was no longer any distinction between precepts and
counsels. Whatever was good was a duty.
There was no longer any distinction between mortal and venial sin.
Every useless word merited hell,
and even excluded from the Church the
children of God.
All this has been established by hitherto unedited documents which Caspari has
published (Briefe, Abhandlungen, und Predigten, Christiania, 1890).
(3) The system of St.
Augustine in opposition to this rests on three fundamental principles:
God is absolute Master,
by His grace, of all the determinations of the will;
man remains free, even
under the action of grace;
the reconciliation of
these two truths rests
on the manner of the Divine government.
Absolute sovereignty of
God over the will
This principle, in
opposition to the emancipation of Pelagius,
has not always been understood in its entire significance. We think that
numberless texts of the holy Doctor signify that not only
does every meritorious act require supernatural grace,
but also that every act of virtue, even of infidels,
should be ascribed to a Gift
of God, not indeed to a supernatural
grace (as Baius and
the Jansenists pretend),
but to a specially efficacious providence which has prepared
this good movement of the will (Retractations, I, ix, n.
6). It is not, as theologians very
wisely remark, that the will cannot accomplish
that act of natural virtue, but it is a fact that without
this providential benefit it would not. Many misunderstandings
have arisen because this principle has not been comprehended, and in particular
the great medieval theology,
which adopted it and made it the basis of its system of liberty, has not
been justly appreciated. But many have been afraid of
these affirmations which are so sweeping, because they have not
grasped the nature of God's
gift, which leaves freedom intact. The fact has been too much lost sight of
that Augustine distinguishes very explicitly
two orders of grace:
the grace of natural virtues (the
simple gift of Providence, which prepares efficacious motives
for the will); and grace for salutary and supernatural acts,
given with the first preludes of faith.
The latter is the grace of the sons, gratia fliorum; the former
is the grace of all men, a grace which even strangers
and infidels (filii
concubinarum, as St.
Augustine says) can receive (De Patientiâ, xxvii, n. 28).
Man remains free, even under the action of grace
The second principle,
the affirmation of liberty even under the action of
efficacious grace, has always been safeguarded, and there is not one of
his anti-Pelagian works even of the latest, which does
not positively proclaim a complete power of choice in man;
"not but what it does not depend on the free choice of the will to
embrace the faith or
reject it, but in the elect this will is
prepared by God"
(De Prædest. SS., n. 10). The great Doctor did not reproach the Pelagians with
requiring a power to choose between good and evil;
in fact he proclaims with them that without that power there is no
responsibility, no merit, no demerit; but he reproaches them with
exaggerating this power. Julian
of Eclanum, denying the sway of concupiscence,
conceives free
will as a balance
in perfect equilibrium. Augustine protests:
this absolute equilibrium existed in Adam; it was
destroyed after original
sin; the will has to struggle and react against an inclination
to evil,
but it remains mistress of its choice (Opus imperfectum contra Julianum, III,
cxvii). Thus, when he says that we have lost freedom in consequence of
the sin of Adam,
he is careful to explain that this lost freedom is not the liberty of choosing
between good and evil,
because without it we could not help sinning,
but the perfect liberty which was calm and without struggle, and
which was enjoyed by Adam in virtue of his original integrity.
The reconciliation of these two truths
But is there not between
these two principles an irremediable antinomy? On the one hand, there
is affirmed an absolute and unreserved power in God of
directing the choice of our will, of converting every hardened
sinner, or of letting every created will harden itself; and on
the other hand, it is affirmed that the rejection
or acceptance of grace or of temptation depends
on our free
will. Is not this a contradiction? Very many modern critics, among
whom are Loofs and Harnack, have considered these two affirmations as
irreconcilable. But it is because, according to
them, Augustinian grace is an irresistible impulse given
by God,
just as in the absence of it every temptation inevitably overcomes
the will. But in reality all antinomy disappears if we have
the key of the system; and this key is found in the third
principle: the Augustinian explanation of the Divine government
of wills, a theory so original, so profound, and yet absolutely unknown to
the most perspicacious critics, Harnack, Loofs, and the rest.
Here are the main lines
of this theory: The will never decides without a motive, without the
attraction of some good which it perceives in the object. Now,
although the will may be free in presence of every motive, still, as
a matter of fact it takes different resolutions according to the different
motives presented to it. In that is the whole secret of the influence
exercised, for instance, by eloquence (the orator can do no more than present
motives), by meditation, or by good reading. What a power over
the will would not a man possess who could, at his own pleasure, at
any moment, and in the most striking manner, present this or the other motive
of action? — But such is God's privilege. St.
Augustine has remarked that man is not the master of his first
thoughts; he can exert an influence on the course of his reflections, but he
himself cannot determine the objects, the images, and, consequently, the
motives which present themselves to his mind. Now, as chance is only a
word, it is God who
determines at His pleasure these first perceptions of men, either by the
prepared providential action of exterior causes, or
interiorly by a Divine illumination given to the soul.
— let us take one last step with Augustine: Not only does God send
at His pleasure those attractive motives
which inspire the will with its determinations, but, before
choosing between these illuminations of the natural and the supernatural
order, God knows the
response which the soul,
with all freedom, will make to each of them. Thus, in the Divine knowledge,
there is for each created will an indefinite series of motives
which de facto (but very freely) win the consent to what
is good. God,
therefore, can, at His pleasure, obtain the salvation of Judas,
if He wishes, or let Peter go down to perdition. No freedom, as
a matter of fact, will resist what He has planned, although it always
keeps the power of going to perdition. Consequently, it is God alone,
in His perfect independence, who determines, by the choice of such a
motive or such an inspiration (of which he knows the future
influence), whether the will is going to decide for good or
for evil.
Hence, the man who has acted well must thank God for
having sent him an inspiration which was foreseen to be efficacious,
while that favour has been denied to another. A fortiori, every one of
the elect owes
it to the Divine goodness alone
that he has received a series of graces which God saw
to be infallibly, though freely, bound up with final
perseverance.
Assuredly we may reject
this theory, for the Church,
which always maintains the two principles of the absolute dependence
of the will and of freedom, has not yet adopted as its own
this reconciliation of the two extremes. We may ask where and how God knows the
effect of these graces. Augustine has
always affirmed the fact; he has never inquired about the mode; and
it is here that Molinism has
added to and developed his thoughts, in attempting to answer this question. But
can the thinker, who created and until his dying day maintained this
system which is so logically concatenated,
be accused of fatalism and Manichæism?
It remains to be shown
that our interpretation exactly reproduces the thought of the
great Doctor. The texts are too numerous and too long to be reproduced here.
But there is one work of Augustine, dating from the year 397, in which he
clearly explains his thought — a work which he not only did not disavow later
on, but to which in particular he referred, at the end of his career, those of
his readers who were troubled by his
constant affirmation of grace. For example, to the monks of
Adrumetum who thought that liberty was irreconcilable with
this affirmation, he addressed a copy of this book "De Diversis
quæstionibus ad Simplicianum," feeling sure that their doubts would
be dissipated. There, in fact, he formulates his thoughts with great
clearness. Simplician had asked how he should understand
the Epistle to the Romans 9, on the predestination of Jacob and Esau. Augustine first
lays down the fundamental principle of St.
Paul, that every good will comes from grace, so
that no man can take glory to himself for his merits, and
this grace is so sure of its results
that human liberty will never in reality resist it,
although it has the power to do so. Then he affirms that
this efficacious grace is not necessary for
us to be able to act well, but because, in fact, without it we
would not wish to act well. From that arises the great difficulty:
How does the power of resisting grace fit in with the certainty of
the result? And it is here that Augustine replies: There are many
ways of inviting faith. Souls being
differently disposed, God knows what
invitation will be accepted, what other will not be accepted. Only those are
the elect for
whom God chooses
the invitation which is foreseen to be efficacious, but God could convert them
all: "Cujus autem miseretur, sic cum vocat, quomodo scit
ei congruere ut vocantem non respuat" (op. cit.,
I, q. ii, n. 2, 12, 13).
Is there in this a
vestige of an irresistible grace or of that impulse against
which it is impossible to fight, forcing some to good, and others
to sin and hell?
It cannot be too often repeated that this is not an idea flung
off in passing, but a fundamental explanation which if not understood leaves us
in the impossibility of grasping anything of his doctrine;
but if it is seized Augustine entertains no feelings of uneasiness on
the score of freedom. In fact he supposes freedom everywhere, and reverts incessantly
to that knowledge on God's part
which precedes predestination,
directs it, and assures its infallible result. In the "De Done
perseverantiæ" (xvii, n. 42), written at the end of his life, he explains
the whole of predestination by
the choice of the vocation which is foreseen as efficacious. Thus is
explained the chief part attributed to that external providence which
prepares, by ill health, by warnings, etc., the good thoughts which
it knows will bring about good resolutions. Finally, this
explanation alone harmonizes with the moral action which
he attributes to victorious grace. Nowhere
does Augustine represent it as an irresistible impulse impressed by
the stronger on the weaker. It is always an appeal, an invitation which
attracts and seeks to persuade. He describes this attraction, which is
without violence,
under the graceful image of dainties offered to a
child, green leaves offered to a sheep (In Joannem, tract. xxvi, n.
5). And always the infallibility of the result is assured by the
Divine knowledge which
directs the choice of the invitation.
(4)
The Augustinian predestination presents
no new difficulty if one has understood the function of this Divine knowledge in
the choice of graces.
The problem is reduced to this: Does God in
his creative decree and,
before any act of human liberty, determine by an immutable
choice the elect and
the reprobate? — Must the elect during eternity thank God only
for having rewarded their merits, or must they also thank Him for having,
prior to any merit on their part, chosen them to
the meriting of this reward? One system, that of the Semipelagians,
decides in favour of man: God predestines to salvation all
alike, and gives to all an equal measure
of grace; human liberty alone decides whether one is lost
or saved; from which we must logically conclude
(and they really insinuated it) that the number of the elect is
not fixed or certain. The opposite system, that of the Predestinationists (the Semipelagians falsely ascribed
this view to the Doctor of Hippo), affirms not
only a privileged choice of the elect by God,
but at the same time (a) the predestination of
the reprobate to hell and
(b) the absolute powerlessness of one or the other to escape from
the irresistible impulse which drags them either to good or
to evil.
This is the system of Calvin.
Between these two extreme
opinions Augustine formulated (not invented) the Catholic dogma,
which affirms these two truths at
the same time:
the eternal choice
of the elect by God is
very real, very gratuitous, and constitutes the grace of graces;
but this decree does
not destroy the Divine will to save all men, which,
moreover, is not realized except by the human liberty that leaves to
the elect full
power to fall and to the non-elect full power to rise.
Here is how the theory
of St.
Augustine, already explained, forces us to conceive of the Divine decree:
Before all decision to create the world, the infinite knowledge of God presents
to Him all the graces,
and different series of graces,
which He can prepare for each soul,
along with the consent or refusal which would follow in each
circumstance, and that in millions and millions of possible combinations. Thus
He sees that if Peter had received such another grace, he
would not have been converted; and if on the contrary such another
Divine appeal had been heard in the heart of Judas, he would
have done penance and been saved. Thus, for
each man in particular there are in the thought of God,
limitless possible histories,
some histories of virtue and salvation,
others of crime and damnation; and God will
be free in choosing such a world, such a series of graces,
and in determining the future history and final destiny of
each soul.
And this is precisely what He does when, among all possible worlds, by an
absolutely free act,
He decides to realize the actual world with all the circumstances of
its historic evolutions, with all the graces which
in fact have been and will be distributed until the end of the world, and
consequently with all the elect and
all the reprobate who God foresaw
would be in it if de facto He created it.
Now in the Divine decree,
according to Augustine, and according to the Catholic Faith on
this point, which has been formulated by him, the two elements pointed out
above appear:
The certain and
gratuitous choice of the elect — God decreeing,
indeed, to create the world and to give it such a series of graces with
such a concatenation of circumstances as should bring about freely,
but infallibly, such and such results (for example,
the despair of Judas and
the repentance of Peter), decides, at the same time, the name,
the place, the number of the citizens of the future heavenly Jerusalem.
The choice is immutable; the list closed. It is evident, indeed, that only
those of whom God knows beforehand
that they will wish to co-operate with
the grace decreed by Him will be saved. It is
a gratuitous choice, the gift of gifts, in virtue of
which even our merits are a gratuitous benefit,
a gift which precedes all our merits. No one, in fact, is able
to merit this election. God could,
among other possible worlds, have chosen one in which other series of graces would
have brought about other results. He saw combinations in
which Peter would have been impenitent and Judas converted.
It is therefore prior to any merit of Peter, or any
fault of Judas, that God decided
to give them the graces which saved Peter and
not Judas. God does
not wish to give paradise gratuitously to
any one; but He gives very gratuitously to Peter the graces with
which He knows Peter will be saved.
— Mysterious choice! Not that it interferes with liberty, but because
to this question: Why did not God,
seeing that another grace would have saved Judas, give it
to him? Faith can only answer, with Augustine: O Mystery! O
Altitudo! (De Spiritu et litterâ, xxxiv, n. 60).
But this decree includes
also the second element of the Catholic dogma:
the very sincere will of God to
give to all men the power of saving themselves and the
power of damning themselves. According to Augustine, God,
in his creative decree,
has expressly excluded every order of things in which grace would
deprive man of his liberty, every situation in
which man would not have the power to resist sin,
and thus Augustine brushes aside that predestinationism which
has been attributed to him. Listen to him speaking to the Manichæans:
"All can be saved if they wish"; and in his
"Retractations" (I, x), far from correcting this assertion,
he confirms it emphatically: "It is true,
entirely true,
that all men can, if they wish." But he always goes back to
the providential preparation. In his sermons he
says to all: "It depends on you to be elect" (In Ps. cxx,
n. 11, etc.); "Who are the elect?
You, if you wish it" (In Ps. lxxiii, n. 5). But, you will say,
according to Augustine, the lists of the elect and
reprobate are closed. Now if the non-elect can gain heaven,
if all the elect can be
lost, why should not some pass from one list to the other? You forget the
celebrated explanation of Augustine: When God made
His plan, He knew infallibly,
before His choice, what would be the response of
the wills of men to His graces.
If, then, the lists are definitive, if no one will pass from one
series to the other, it is not because anyone cannot (on the
contrary, all can), it is because God knew with infallible knowledge that no
one would wish to. Thus I cannot effect that God should destine me
to another series of graces than
that which He has fixed, but, with this grace, if I do
not save myself it will not be because I am not able, but because I
do not wish to.
Such are the
two essential elements of Augustinian and Catholic predestination.
This is the dogma common
to all the schools,
and formulated by all theologians: predestination in
its entirety is absolutely gratuitous (ante merita). We have to insist on this,
because many have seen in this immutable and gratuitous choice only a hard
thesis peculiar to St.
Augustine, whereas it is pure dogma (barring
the mode of conciliation, which the Church still
leaves free). With that established, the long debates of theologians on
special predestination to glory ante or post
merita are far from having the importance that some attach to them. (For a
fuller treatment of this subtile problem see the "Dict. de théol.
cath., I, coll. 2402 sqq.) I do not think St.
Augustine entered that debate; in his time, only dogma was
in question. But it does not seem historically permissible to maintain, as many
writers have, that Augustine first taught the milder system (post
merita), up to the year 416 (Tractate
12 on the Gospel of John, no. 12) and that afterwards, towards 418, he
shifted his ground and went to the extreme of harsh assertion, amounting even
to predestinationism.
We repeat, the facts absolutely refute this view. The ancient texts, even of
397, are as affirmative and as categorical as those of his last years,
as critics like Loofs and Reuter* have shown. If,
therefore, it is shown that at that time he inclined to the milder opinion,
there is no reason to think that he did not persevere in that sentiment.
(5) The part
which Augustine had in the doctrine of Original
Sin has been brought to light and determined only recently.
In the first place, It is
no longer possible to maintain seriously, as was formerly the fashion (even
among certain Catholics,
like Richard Simon), that Augustine invented in the Church the
hitherto unknown doctrine of original
sin, or at least was the first to introduce the idea of
punishment and sin.
Dorner himself (Augustinus, p. 146) disposed of this assertion, which lacks
verisimilitude. In this doctrine of
the primal fall Augustine distinguished, with
greater insistency and clearness than his predecessors,
the punishment and the sin —
the chastisement which strips the children of Adam of all the
original privileges — and the fault, which consists in this, that the
crime of Adam, the cause of the fall is, without having been
committed personally by his children, nevertheless in
a certain measure imputed to them, in virtue of
the moral union established by God between
the head of the human family and
his descendants.
To pretend that in this
matter Augustine was an innovator, and that before him
the Fathers affirmed the punishment of the sin of Adam in
his sons, but did not speak of the fault, is a historical error now proved to
demonstration. We may discuss the thought of this or
that pre Augustinian Father, but, taking them as a whole, there
is no room for doubt.
The Protestant R. Seeberg (Lehrbuch
der Dogmengeschichte, I, p. 256), after the example of many others, proclaims
it by referring to Tertullian, Commodian, St.
Cyprian, and St. Ambrose. The expressions, fault, sin,
stain (culpa, peccatum, macula) are repeated in a way to dispel
all doubt.
The truth is
that original
sin, while being sin,
is of a nature essentially different from other faults, and does
not exact a personal act of the will of the children
of Adam in order to be responsible for the fault of their father,
which is morally imputed to them. Consequently,
the Fathers — the Greeks especially — have insisted on
its penal and afflictive character, which is most in evidence,
while Augustine was led by the polemics of the Pelagians (and
only by them) to lay emphasis on the moral aspect of the fault of
the human
race in its first father.
With regard
to Adam's state before the fall Augustine not
only affirmed, against Pelagius,
the gifts of immortality,
impassibility, integrity, freedom from error,
and, above all, the sanctifying
grace of Divine adoption, but he emphasized its absolutely
gratuitous and supernatural character.
Doubtless, considering the matter historically and de facto, it
was only the sin of Adam that
inflicted death on us — Augustine repeats it again and again —
because God had
safeguarded us against the law of
our nature. But de jure neither immortality nor
the other graces were
our due, and Augustine recognized this in affirming that God could
have made the condition in which we were actually born the primitive
condition of our first
parents. That assertion alone is the very reverse of Jansenism.
It is, moreover, formally confirmed in the "Retractations"
(I, ix, n. 6).
(6) Does this mean that
we must praise everything in St. Augustine's explanation
of grace? Certainly not. And we shall note the improvements made by
the Church,
through her doctors,
in the original Augustinism. Some exaggerations have been abandoned, as,
for instance, the condemnation to hell of
children dying without baptism.
Obscure and ambiguous formulæ have been eliminated. We must say frankly
that Augustine's literary method of emphasizing his thought by
exaggerated expressions, issuing in troublesome paradoxes, has often obscured
his doctrine,
aroused opposition in many minds, or led them into error.
Also, it is above all important, in order to comprehend his doctrine,
to compile an Augustinian dictionary, not a priori, but after an
objective study of his texts. The work would be long and laborious, but how many
prejudices it would dispel!
The Protestant historian
Ph. Schaff (St. Augustine, p. 102) writes: "The great genius of
the African Church, from whom the Middle
Ages and the Reformation have
received an impulse alike powerful, though in different directions, has not yet
fulfilled the work marked out for him in the counsels of Divine Wisdom. He
serves as a bond of union between the two antagonistic sections of Western
Christendom, and encourages the hope that a time may
come when the injustice and
bitterness of strife will be forgiven and forgotten, and the discords of the
past be drowned forever in the sweet harmonies of perfect knowledge and perfect love."
May this dream be realized!
Augustinism in history
The influence of
the Doctor of Hippo has
been so exceptional in the Church,
that, after having indicated its general characteristics (see above), it is
proper to indicate the principal phases of the historical development
of his doctrine.
The word Augustinism designates at times the entire group of philosophical doctrines of Augustine,
at others, it is restricted to his system of grace. Hence, (1) philosophical Augustinism;
(2) theological Augustinism on grace;
(3) laws which
governed the mitigation of Augustinism.
Philosophical Augustinism
In
the history of philosophical Augustinism we
may distinguish three very distinct phases. First, the period of its almost
exclusive triumph in the West, up to the thirteenth century. During the
long ages which were darkened by the invasion of the barbarians, but which were
nevertheless burdened with the responsibility of safeguarding the sciences of
the future, we may say that Augustine was the
Great Master of the West. He was absolutely without a rival, or
if there was one, it was one of his disciples, Gregory
the Great, who, after being formed in his school,
popularized his theories. The rôle of Origen,
who engrafted neo-Platonism on
the Christian schools of
the East, was that of Augustine in the West, with the
difference, however, that the Bishop of Hippo was
better able to detach the truths of Platonism from
the dreams of Oriental imagination.
Hence, a current of Platonic ideas was
started which will never cease to act upon Western thought. This
influence shows itself in various ways. It is found in the compilers of this
period, who are so numerous and so well deserving of recognition — such
as Isidore, Bede, Alcuin —
who drew abundantly from the works of Augustine, just as did the preachers
of the sixth century, and notably St. Cæsarius. In the controversies,
especially in the great disputes of the ninth and twelfth centuries on the
validity of Simoniacal ordinations,
the text of Augustine plays the principal part. Carl Mirbt has
published on this point a very interesting study: "Die Stellung Augustins
in der Publizistik des gregorianischen Kirchenstreits" (Leipzig, 1888). In
the pre-Thomistic period of Scholasticism,
then in process of formation, namely, from Anselm to Albert
the Great, Augustine is the great inspirer of all the
masters, such as Anselm, Abelard, Hugo
of St. Victor, who is called by his contemporaries, another Augustine,
or even the soul of Augustine.
And it is proper to remark, with Cunningham (Saint Austin, p. 178), that
from the time of Anselm the cult of Augustinian ideas exercised
an enormous influence on English thought in the Middle
Ages. As regards Peter
Lombard, his Sentences are little else than an effort to synthesize
the Augustinian theories.
While they do not form a
system as rigidly bound together as Thomism,
yet Father Mandonnet (in his learned study of Siger
de Brabant) and M. de Wulf (on Gilles de Lessines) have been able
to group these theories together. And here let us present a summary sketch of
those theses regarded in the thirteenth century as Augustinian, and over
which the battle was fought. First, the fusion of theology and philosophy;
the preference given to Plato over Aristotle —
the latter representing rationalism,
which was mistrusted, whilst the idealism of
Plate exerted a strong attraction — wisdom regarded rather as
the philosophy of the Good than the philosophy of
the True. As a consequence, the disciples of Augustine always
have a pronounced tinge of mysticism,
while the disciples of St.
Thomas may be recognized by their very accentuated intellectualism.
In psychology the
illuminating and immediate action of God is
the origin of our intellectual knowledge (at
times it is pure ontologism); and the faculties of the soul are
made substantially identical with the soul itself.
They are its functions, and not distinct entities (a thesis which was to keep
its own partisans in the Scholasticism of
the future and to be adopted by Descartes);
the soul is
a substance even without the body, so that after death, it is truly
a person.
In cosmology,
besides the celebrated thesis of rationes seminales, which some have
recently attempted to interpret in favour
of evolutionism, Augustinism admitted the multiplicity
of substantial forms in compound beings, especially in man.
But especially in the impossibility of creation ab æterno, or
the essentially temporal character of every creature which
is subject to change, we have one of the ideas of Augustine which
his disciples defended with greater constancy and, it would appear,
with greater success.
A second period of very
active struggles came in the thirteenth century, and this has only lately been
recognized. Renan (Averroes, p. 259) and others believed that
the war against Thomism,
which was just then beginning, was caused by the
infatuation of the Franciscans for Averroism;
but if the Franciscan
Order showed itself on the whole opposed to St.
Thomas, it was simply from a certain horror at philosophical innovations
and at the neglect of Augustinism. The doctrinal revolution
brought about by Albert
the Great and Thomas
Aquinas in favour of Aristotle startled
the old School of Augustinism among the Dominicans as
well as among the Franciscans,
but especially among the latter, who were the disciples of the
eminent Augustinian doctor, St.
Bonaventure. This will explain the condemnations, hitherto little
understood, of many propositions of St.
Thomas Aquinas three years after his death, on the 7th of March, 1277,
by the Bishop of Paris,
and on the 18th of March, 1277, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert
Kilwardby, a Dominican.
The Augustinian school represented tradition; Thomism,
progress. The censure of 1277 was the last victory of a too
rigid Augustinism. The happy fusion
of the two methods in the two orders of Franciscans and Dominicans little
by little brought about an agreement on certain points without
excluding differences on others which were yet obscure (as, for instance,
the unity or the multiplicity of forms), at the same time that
it made for progress in all the schools.
We know that
the canonization of St.
Thomas caused the withdrawal of the condemnations of Paris (14
February, 1325). Moreover, the wisdom or the moderation of the new school contributed
powerfully to its triumph. Albert
the Great and St. Thomas, far from being adversaries of St.
Augustine, as they were reported to be, placed themselves in his school,
and while modifying certain theories, took over into their system
the doctrine of
the African bishop.
How many articles in the "Summa" of St. Thomas have no
other object than to incorporate in theology this
or the other theory which was cherished by St. Augustine (to take
only one example, that of exemplar ideas in God).
Hence, there was no longer any school strictly Augustinian,
because every school was
such. They all eliminated certain special points and retained the
same veneration for the master.
From the third period of
the fifteenth century to our days we see less of the special progress of philosophical Augustinism than certain tendencies
of an exaggerated revival of Platonism.
In the fifteenth century Bessarion (1472)
and Marsilio Ficino (1499) used Augustine's name for the
purpose of enthroning Plato in
the Church and
excluding Aristotle.
In the seventeenth century it is impossible to deny certain resemblances
between Cartesianism and
the philosophy of St.
Augustine. Malebranche was
wrong in ascribing his own ontologism to the great Doctor, as
were also many of his successors in the nineteenth century.
Theological Augustinism
The history of Augustine's system
of grace seems to blend almost indistinguishably with the progressive
developments of this dogma.
Here it must suffice, first, to enumerate the principal phases; secondly, to
trace the general laws of
development which mitigated Augustinism in the Church.
After the death
of Augustine, a whole century of fierce contests (430-529) ended in the
triumph of fierce contests (430-529) ended in the triumph of
moderate Augustinism. In vain had Pope St.
Celestine (431) sanctioned the teachings of
the Doctor of Hippo.
The Semipelagians of
the south of France could
not understand the predilection of God for
the elect,
and in order to attack the works of St.
Augustine they made use of the occasionally exaggerated formulæ
of St.
Fulgentius, or of the real errors of certain isolated predestinationists,
as, for example, Lucidus, who was condemned in the Council
of Arles (475). Happily, Prosper of Aquitaine, by his moderation,
and also the unknown author of "De Vocatione omnium gentium," by his
consoling thesis on the appeal addressed to all, opened the way to an
agreement. And finally, St. Cæsarius of Arles obtained
from Pope
Felix IV a series of Capitula which were solemnly promulgated at Orange,
and gave their consecration to
the triumph of Augustinism (529). In the ninth century, a new victory
was gained over the predestinationism of Gottschalk in
the assemblies of Savonniéres and Toucy (859-860). The doctrine of
the Divine will to save all men and the
universality of redemption was
thus consecrated by
the public teaching of the Church.
In the Middle
Ages these two truths are
developed by the great Doctors
of the Church. Faithful to the principles of Augustinism,
they place in especial relief his theory on Divine
Providence, which prepares at its pleasure the determinations of
the will by exterior events and interior inspirations.
In the fourteenth century
a strong current of predestinationism is
evident. Today it is admitted that the origin of this tendency goes back
to Thomas Bradwardin, a celebrated professor of Oxford, who
died Archbishop of Canterbury (1349),
and whom the best critics, along with Loofs and Harnack, recognize to have
been the inspirer of Wyclif himself.
His book "De causâ Dei contra Pelagium" gave rise in Paris to
disputes on Augustinian "predetermination," a word which,
it had been thought, was invented by Banes in the sixteenth century.
In spite of the opposition of theologians,
the idea of absolute determinism in
the name of St.
Augustine was adopted by Wyclif (1324-87),
who formulated his universal fatalism,
the necessity of good for the elect and
of evil for
the rest. He fancied that he found in the Augustinian doctrine the
strange conception which became for him a central doctrine that
overthrew all morality and all ecclesiastical,
and even civil, government. According as one is predestined or
not, everything changes its nature. The same sins are
mortal in the non-elect which are venial in the predestined.
The same acts of virtue are meritorious predestined,
even if he be actually a wicked man which are of no value in the
non-elect. The sacraments administered
by one who is not predestined are
always invalid; more than that, no jurisdiction exists
in a prelate,
even a pope,
if he be not predestined.
In the same way, there is no power, even civil or political, in a prince who is
not one of the elect,
and no right of property in
the sinner or the non elect. Such is the basis on which Wyclif established
the communism which aroused the socialist mobs in England.
It is incontestable that he was fond of quoting Augustine as his
authority; and his disciples, as we are assured by Thomas
Netter Waldensis (Doctrinale, I, xxxiv, § 5), were continually
boasting of the profound knowledge of
their great Doctor, whom they called with emphasis "John
of Augustine," Shirley, in his introduction to "Zizaniorum
Fasciculi," has even pretended that the theories of Wyclif on God,
on the Incarnation, and even on property,
were the purest Augustinian inspiration, but even a superficial
comparison, if this were the place to make it, would show how baseless such an
assertion is. In the sixteenth century the heritage of Wyclif and Hus,
his disciple, was always accepted in the name of Augustinism by
the leaders of the Reformation. Divine
predestination from all eternity separating
the elect,
who were to be snatched out of the mass of perdition, from the reprobate
who were destined to hell,
as well as the irresistible impulse of God drawing
some to salvation and
others to sin —
such was the fundamental doctrine of
the Reformation. Calvinism even adopted a
system which was "logically more consistent, but practically more
revolting," as Schaff puts it (St. Augustine, p. 104), by which the decree of
reprobation of the non-elect would be independent of the fall
of Adam and of original
sin (Supralapsarianism). It was certain that these
harsh doctrines would bring their reaction, and in spite of the
severities of the Synod of Dordrecht, which it would be interesting
to compare with the Council
of Trent in the matter of moderation, Arminianism triumphed
over the Calvinistic thesis.
We must note here that
even Protestant critics,
with a loyalty which does them honour,
have in these latter times vindicated Augustine from the false interpretations
of Calvin.
Dorner, in his "Gesch. der prot. Théologie," had already shown
the instinctive repugnance of Anglican theologians to
the horrible theories of Calvin.
W. Cunningham (Saint Austin, p. 82 sqq.) has very frankly called attention
to the complete doctrinal opposition
on fundamental points which exists between the Doctor of Hippo and
the French Reformers.
In the first place, as regards the state of human nature,
which is, according to Calvin,
totally depraved, for Catholics it
is very difficult to grasp the Protestant conception
of original
sin which, for Calvin and Luther,
is not, as for us, the moral degradation and
the stain imprinted on the soul of
every son of Adam by the fault of the father which is imputable to
each member of the family.
It is not the deprivation of grace and of all
other super-natural gifts; it is not even concupiscence,
understood in the ordinary sense of the word, as the struggle of base and
selfish instincts against
the virtuous tendencies of the soul;
it is a profound and complete subversion of human nature' it
is the physical alteration of the very substance of our soul.
Our faculties, understanding, and will, if not entirely destroyed,
are at least mutilated, powerless, and chained to evil.
For the Reformers, original
sin is not a sin,
it is the sin,
and the permanent sin,
living in us and causing a continual stream of new sins to
spring from our nature, which is radically corrupt and evil.
For, as our being is evil,
every act of ours is equally evil.
Thus, the Protestant theologians do
not ordinarily speak of the sins of mankind,
but only of the sin,
which makes us what we are and defiles everything. Hence arose the paradox
of Luther:
that even in an act of perfect charity a man sins mortally,
because he acts with a vitiated nature. Hence that other
paradox: that this sin can
never be effaced, but remains entire, even after justification, although
it will not be any longer imputed; to efface it, it would be necessary to
modify physically this human being which is sin. Calvin,
without going so far as Luther,
has nevertheless insisted on this total corruption. "Let it stand,
therefore, as an indubitable truth which
no engines can shake," says he (Institution II, v, § 19), "that
the mind of man is so entirely alienated from the
righteousness of God that
he cannot conceive, desire, or design anything but what is weak, distorted,
foul, impure or iniquitous, that his heart is so thoroughly environed
by sin that
it can breathe out nothing but corruption and rottenness; that if
some men occasionally make a show of goodness their mind is
ever interwoven with hypocrisy and deceit,
their soul inwardly
bound with the fetters of wickedness." "Now," says
Cunningham, "this doctrine,
whatever there may be to be said for it, is not the doctrine of Saint Austin.
He held that sin is
the defect of a good nature which retains elements of goodness,
even in its most diseased and corrupted state, and he gives no countenance,
whatever to this modern opinion of total depravity." It is the same
with Calvin's affirmation of
the irresistible action of God on
the will. Cunningham shows that these doctrines are
irreconcilable with liberty and responsibility, whereas, on the contrary,
"St. Austin is careful to attempt to harmonize the belief in God's
omnipotence with human responsibility" (St. Austin, p.
86). The Council
of Trent was therefore faithful to the true spirit of
the African Doctor, and maintained pure Augustinism in
the bosom of the Church,
by Its definitions against the two opposite excesses. Against Pelagianism it
reaffirmed original
sin and
the absolute necessity of grace (Sess. VI, can. 2);
against Protestant predestinationism it
proclaimed the freedom of man, with his double power of
resisting grace (posse dissentire si velit — Sess. VI, can. 4)
and of doing good or evil,
even before embracing the Faith (can. 6 and 7).
In the seventeenth
century Jansenism adopted,
while modifying it, the Protestant conception
of original
sin and the state of fallen man. No more than Luther did
the Jansenists admit
the two orders, natural and supernatural.
All the gifts which Adam had received immortality, knowledge,
integrity, sanctifying
grace — are absolutely required by
the nature of man. Original
sin is, therefore, again regarded as a profound alteration of human nature.
From which the Jansenists conclude
that the key to St. Augustine's system is to be found
in the essential difference of the Divine government and
of grace, before and after the Fall of Adam. Before
the Fall Adam enjoyed complete liberty, and grace gave
him the power of resisting or obeying; after the Fall there was
no longer in men liberty properly so called; there was only
spontaneity (libertas a coactione, and not libertas
a necessitate). Grace, or delectation in the good,
is essentially efficacious, and necessarily victorious once
it is superior in degree to the opposite concupiscence.
The struggle, which was prolonged for two centuries, led to a more profound
study of the Doctor of Hippo and
prepared the way for the definite triumph of Augustinism, but of
an Augustinism mitigated in accordance with laws which
we must now indicate.
Laws which governed the mitigation of Augustinism
In spite of what Protestant critics may
have said, the Church has
always been faithful to the fundamental principles defended
by Augustine against the Pelagians and Semipelagians,
on original
sin, the necessity and gratuity of grace, the absolute dependence
on God for salvation.
Nevertheless, great progress was made along the line
of gradual mitigation. For it cannot be denied that the doctrine formulated
at Trent,
and taught by all our theologians,
produces an impression of greater suavity and greater clarity than this or that
passage in the works of St.
Augustine. The causes of this softening down, and the successive
phases of this progress were as follows:
First, theologians began
to distinguish more clearly between the natural order and the supernatural,
and hence the Fall of Adam no longer appeared as a
corruption of human nature in
its constituent parts; it is the loss of the whole order of supernatural elevation. St.
Thomas (Summa,
I:85:1) formulates the great law of the preservation, in
guilty Adam's children, of all the faculties in
their essential integrity: "Sin (even original) neither takes
away nor diminishes the natural endowments." Thus the most
rigorist Thomists, Alvarez, Lemos, Contenson,
agree with the great Doctor that the sin of Adam has
not enfeebled (intrinsece) the natural moral forces
of humanity.
Secondly, such consoling
and fundamental truths as God's desire
to save all men, and the redeeming death
of Christ which was really offered and accepted for all
peoples and all individuals —
these truths,
which Augustine never denied, but which he left too much in the
background and as it were hidden under the terrible formulas of the doctrine of predestination,
have been placed in the full light, have been developed, and applied to infidel nations,
and have at last entered into the ordinary teaching of theology.
Thus our Doctors, without detracting in the least from the sovereignty
and justice of God,
have risen to the highest idea of
His goodness:
that God so
sincerely desires the salvation of
all as to give absolutely to all, immediately or mediately, the
means necessary for salvation,
and always with the desire that man should consent to
employ those means. No one falls into hell except
by his own fault. Even infidels will
be accountable for their infidelity. St.
Thomas expresses the thought of all when he says: "It is the common
teaching that if a man born among the barbarous and infidel nations
really does what lies in his power, God will reveal to
him what is necessary for salvation,
either by interior inspirations or by sending him a preacher of
the Faith" (In Lib. II Sententiarum, dist. 23, Q. viii, a.4, ad 4am).
We must not dissemble the fact that this law changes
the whole aspect of Divine
Providence, and that St.
Augustine had left it too much in the shade, insisting only upon the
other aspect of the problem: namely, that God,
while making a sufficing appeal to all, is nevertheless not bound to
choose always that appeal which shall in fact be efficacious and
shall be accepted, provided that the refusal of consent be due to the
obstinacy of the sinner's will and not to its lack of power.
Thus the Doctors most eagerly approved the axiom, Facienti quod
in se est Deus non denegat gratiam — God does
not refuse grace to one who does what he can.
Thirdly, from principles
taught by Augustine consequences have been drawn which are clearly
derived from them, but which he had not pointed out. Thus it is incontestably a
principle of St.
Augustine that no one sins in
an act which he cannot avoid — "Quis enim peccat in eo quod
caveri non potest?" This passage from "De libero arbitrio" (III,
xviii, n. 50) is anterior to the year 395; but far from retracting it he
approves and explains it, in 415, in the On
Nature and Grace 67, n. 80. From that pregnant principle theologians have
concluded, first, that grace sufficient to conquer temptations never
fails anyone, even an infidel;
then, against the Jansenists,
they have added that, to deserve its name of sufficient grace, it ought to
give a real power which is complete even relatively to the actual difficulties.
No doubt theologians have
groped about, hesitated, even denied; but today there are very few who would
dare not to recognize in St. Augustine the affirmation of
the possibility of not sinning.
Fourthly, certain secondary
assertions, which encumbered, but did not make part of the dogma,
have been lopped off from the doctrine of Augustine.
Thus the Church,
which, with Augustine, has always denied entrance into Heaven to
unbaptized children, has not adopted the severity of the
great Doctor in condemning such children to bodily pains, however
slight. And little by little the milder teaching of St. Thomas was to
prevail in theology and
was even to be vindicated against unjust censure when Pius
VI condemned the pseudo-synod
of Pistoja. At last Augustine's obscure formulæ
were abandoned or corrected, so as to avoid regrettable confusions.
Thus the expressions which seemed to identify original
sin with concupiscence have
given way to clearer formulæ without departing from the real meaning
which Augustine sought to express.
Discussion, however, is
not yet ended within the Church.
On most of those points which concern especially the manner of the
Divine action Thomists and Molinists disagree,
the former holding out for an irresistible predetermination, the latter
maintaining, with Augustine, a grace whose infallible efficacy
is revealed by the Divine knowledge.
But both of these views affirm the grace
of God and the liberty of man. The lively controversies aroused
by the "Concordia" of Molina (1588) and the long
conferences de auxiliis held at Rome,
before Popes Clement
VIII and Paul
V, are well known. There is no doubt that
a majority of the theologian-consultors thought they discovered an opposition
between Molina and St.
Augustine. But their verdict was not approved, and (what is of great
importance in the history of Augustinism) it is certain that
they asked for the condemnation of doctrines which are today
universally taught in all the schools.
Thus, in the project of censure reproduced
by Serry ("Historia Congregationis de Auxiliis," append.,
p. 166) the first proposition is this: "In statu naturæ lapsæ potest homo,
cum solo concursu generali Dei, efficere opus bonum morale, quod in
ordine ad finem hominis naturalem sit veræ virtutis opus, referendo
illud in Deum, sicut referri potest ac deberet in statu naturali" (In the
state of fallen nature man can with only the
general concursus of God do
a good moral work which may be a work of true virtue with
regard to the natural end of man by referring it to God,
as it can and ought to be referred in the natural state). Thus they
sought to condemn the doctrine held
by all the Scholastics (with
the exception of Gregory
of Rimini), and sanctioned since then by the condemnation
of Proposition lvii of Baius.
For a long time it was said that the pope had
prepared a Bull to
condemn Molina; but today we learn from an autograph document of Paul
V that liberty was left to the two schools until
a new Apostolic decision was given (Schneeman "Controversiarum
de Div. grat., " 1881, p. 289). Soon after, a third interpretation
of Augustinism was offered in the Church,
that of Noris,
Belleli, and other partisans of moral
predetermination. This system has been called Augustinianism. To
this school belong
a number of theologians who,
with Thomassin,
essayed to explain
the infallible action of grace without admitting
either the scientia media of the Molinists or
the physical predetermination of the Thomists.
A detailed study of this interpretation of St. Augustine may be found
in Vacant's "Dictionnaire de théologie catholique," I,
cols. 2485-2501; here I can only mention one very important document, the last
in which the Holy
See has expressed its mind on the various theories of theologians for
reconciling grace and liberty. This is the Brief of Benedict
XIV (13 July, 1748) which declares that the three schools — Thomist, Augustinian (Noris),
and Molinist —
have full right to defend their theories. The Brief concludes
with these words: "This Apostolic
See favours the liberty of the schools;
none of the systems proposed to reconcile the liberty of man with
the omnipotence
of God has been thus far condemned (op. cit., col. 2555).
In conclusion we must
indicate briefly the official authority which the Church attributes to St.
Augustine in the questions of grace. Numerous
and solemn are the eulogies of St. Augustine's doctrine pronounced
by the popes.
For instance, St. Gelasius I (1 November, 493), St.
Hormisdas (13 August, 520), Boniface
II and the Fathers of Orange (529), John
II (534), and many others. But the most important document, that which
ought to serve to interpret all the others, because it precedes
and inspires them, is the celebrated letter of St.
Celestine I (431), in which the pope guarantees
not only the orthodoxy of Augustine against
his detractors,
but also the great merit of his doctrine:
"So great was his knowledge that
my predecessors have always placed him in the rank of the masters," etc.
This letter is accompanied by a series of
ten dogmatic capitula the origin of which is uncertain, but
which have always been regarded, at least since Pope Hormisdas, as
expressing the faith of
the Church.
Now these extracts from African
councils and pontifical decisions end with this restriction:
"As to the questions which are more profound and difficult, and which have
given rise to these controversies, we do not think it necessary to
impose the solution of them." — In presence of these documents emanating
from so high a source, ought we to say that the Church has adopted all
the teaching of St. Augustine on grace so that it is never
permissible to depart from that teaching? Three answers have been given:
For some, the authority
of St.
Augustine is absolute and irrefragable. The Jansenists went
so far as to formulate, with Havermans, this proposition, condemned
by Alexander
VIII (7 December, 1690): "Ubi quis invenerit doctrinam
in Augustino clare fundatam, illam absolute potest tenere et docere,
non respiciendo ad ullam pontificis bullam" (Where one has found a doctrine clearly
based on St.
Augustine, he can hold and teach it absolutely without referring to
any pontifical Bull).
This is inadmissible. None of the pontifical approbations has a
meaning so absolute, and the capitula make an express reservation for
the profound and difficult questions. The popes themselves
have permitted a departure from the thought of St. Augustine in
the matter of the lot of children dying without baptism (Bull "Auctorem Fidei,"
28 August, 1794).
Others again have
concluded that the eulogies in question are merely vague formulæ leaving full
liberty to withdraw from St. Augustine and to blame him on every
point. Thus Launoy, Richard Simon, and others have maintained
that Augustine had been in error on
the very gist of the problem, and had really taught predestinationism.
But that would imply that for fifteen centuries the Church took
as its guide an adversary of its faith.
We must conclude, with
the greater number of theologians,
that Augustine has a real normative authority, hedged
about, however, with reserves and wise limitations. In the capital questions
which constitute the faith of
the Church in
those matters the Doctor of Hippo is
truly the authoritative witness of tradition; for example, on
the existence of original
sin, the necessity of grace, at least for
every salutary act; the gratuitousness of the gift
of God which precedes all merit of man because it
is the cause of it; the predilection for the elect and,
on the other hand, the liberty of man and his responsibility for
his transgressions. But the secondary problems, concerning the mode rather
than the fact, are left by the Church to
the prudent study of theologians.
Thus all schools unite
in a great respect for the assertions of St.
Augustine.
At present this attitude
of fidelity and respect is all the more remarkable as Protestants,
who were formerly so bitter in defending the predestination of Calvin,
are today almost unanimous in rejecting what they themselves call "the
boldest defiance ever given to reason and conscience"
(Grétillat, "Dogmatique," III, p. 329). Schleiermacher, it is true,
maintains it, but he adds to it the Origenist theory
of universal
salvation by the final restoration of all creatures, and he is followed in
this by Farrar Lobstein, Pfister, and others. The Calvinist dogma is
today, especially in England,
altogether abandoned, and often replaced by pure Pelagianism (Beyschlag).
But among Protestant critics the
best are drawing near to the Catholic interpretation
of St.
Augustine, as, for example, Grétillat, in Switzerland,
and Stevens, Bruce, and Mozley (On
the Augustinian Doctrine of Predestination), in England.
Sanday (Romans, p. 50) also declares the mystery to be unfathomable for man yet
solved by God:
"And so our solution of the problem of Free-will,
and of the problems of history and of individual salvation,
must finally lie in the full acceptance and realization of
what is implied by the infinity and
the omniscience of God."
These concluding words recall the true system
of Augustine and permit us to hope that at least on this
question there may be a union of the two Churches in a wise
Augustinism.
Portalié,
Eugène. "Teaching of St. Augustine of Hippo." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1907. 28 Aug. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02091a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Dave Ofstead.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2023 by Kevin
Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02091a.htm
BATTISTA
DI GERIO, Sant'Agostino vescovo, 1415, Pesaro, Collezione Altomani & Co.
La
tavola che raffigura sant'Agostino è una cuspide di un polittico realizzata con
la tecnica della tavola in legno delle dimensioni in altezza di cm 25 e in
larghezza di cm 19. Autore del dipinto è Battista di Gerio, che la portò a
termine probabilmente nell'ano 1415. Attualmente il dipinto si trova a Pesaro
nella Collezione Altomani & Co. In precedenza è stato segnalato a Roma in
una Collezione privata e prima ancora a Firenze nella Collezione C. De Carlo.
Battista
di Gerio ha qui raffigurato sant'Agostino nelle sue vesti episcopali con la
mitra in testa, il bastone pastorale nella mano sinistra e un libro chiuso
nella mano destra. Il viso del santo è di persona matura, lo sguardo intenso
rivolto verso sinistra alla ricerca di fedeli e devoti. La sue guance sono
interamente ricoperte da una folta barba nerastra e riccioluta. L'abito che
indossa è semplice, senza troppi ricami: d'un rosso sgargiante che risalta
ancor più per le finiture decorate in oro. Al retro l'abito è di un blu intenso
marino che contrasta efficacemente con il colore in primo piano.
Come
sovente accade in questi dipinti, di probabile committenza agostiniana, il
santo indossa con bella evidenza la mantellina nera dell'abito dei monaci
agostiniani. Questa presenza simbolica sta a significare che gli agostiniani si
ritenevano i diretti discendenti dell'esperienza monastica che il santo
promosse al suo ritorno in Africa. Gli agostiniani sin dal loro nascere nel
1256 hanno sempre adottato la regola di sant'Agostino, che è sempre stato
considerato il loro vero fondatore.
Battista di Gerio. Nasce a Pisa verso il 1350 e muore nella stesa città verso il 1420. Battista da Pisa, o Battista di Gerio, è documentato fra Pisa e la lucchesia dal 1414 al 1418. La sua opera si sviluppa nella temperie artistica del tardogotico, tuttavia viene influenzata dalla nuova cultura figurativa fiorentina degli inizi del Quattrocento. Di lui ci rimangono il trittico della pieve di Camaiore, il trittico realizzato nel 1417 per la chiesa lucchese di San Quirico all'Olivo, oggi smembrato fra il Philadelphia Museum of Art (la tavola centrale con la Madonna e il Bambino), il Petit Palais di Avignone (tavola sinistra con i Santi Rossore e Luca e figura di committente) e il Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi a Lucca (tavola destra con i Santi Quirico, Giulitta e Sisto papa).
SOURCE : http://www.cassiciaco.it/navigazione/iconografia/pittori/quattrocento/gerio/gerio.html
Sant' Agostino Vescovo
e dottore della Chiesa
Tagaste (Numidia), 13
novembre 354 – Ippona (Africa), 28 agosto 430
Sant'Agostino nasce in
Africa a Tagaste, nella Numidia - attualmente Souk-Ahras in Algeria - il 13
novembre 354 da una famiglia di piccoli proprietari terrieri. Dalla madre
riceve un'educazione cristiana, ma dopo aver letto l'Ortensio di Cicerone
abbraccia la filosofia aderendo al manicheismo. Risale al 387 il viaggio a
Milano, città in cui conosce sant'Ambrogio. L'incontro si rivela importante per
il cammino di fede di Agostino: è da Ambrogio che riceve il battesimo.
Successivamente ritorna in Africa con il desiderio di creare una comunità di
monaci; dopo la morte della madre si reca a Ippona, dove viene ordinato
sacerdote e vescovo. Le sue opere teologiche, mistiche, filosofiche e polemiche
- quest'ultime riflettono l'intensa lotta che Agostino intraprende contro le
eresie, a cui dedica parte della sua vita - sono tutt'ora
studiate. Agostino per il suo pensiero, racchiuso in testi come
«Confessioni» o «Città di Dio», ha meritato il titolo di Dottore della
Chiesa. Mentre Ippona è assediata dai Vandali, nel 429 il santo si ammala
gravemente. Muore il 28 agosto del 430 all'età di 76 anni. (Avvenire)
Patronato: Teologi,
Stampatori
Etimologia: Agostino =
piccolo venerabile, dal latino
Emblema: Bastone
pastorale, Libro, Cuore di fuoco
Martirologio Romano:
Memoria di sant’Agostino, vescovo e insigne dottore della Chiesa: convertito
alla fede cattolica dopo una adolescenza inquieta nei princípi e nei costumi,
fu battezzato a Milano da sant’Ambrogio e, tornato in patria, condusse con
alcuni amici vita ascetica, dedita a Dio e allo studio delle Scritture. Eletto
poi vescovo di Ippona in Africa, nell’odierna Algeria, fu per trentaquattro
anni maestro del suo gregge, che istruì con sermoni e numerosi scritti, con i
quali combatté anche strenuamente contro gli errori del suo tempo o espose con
sapienza la retta fede.
Agostino è uno degli autori di testi teologici, mistici, filosofici, esegetici, ancora oggi molto studiato e citato; egli è uno dei Dottori della Chiesa come ponte fra l’Africa e l’Europa; il suo libro le “Confessioni” è ancora oggi ricercato, ristampato, letto e meditato.
“Tardi ti ho amato, bellezza tanto antica e tanto nuova, tardi ti ho amato. Ed ecco che tu stavi dentro di me e io ero fuori e là ti cercavo…. Ti ho gustato e ora ho fame e sete di te. Mi hai toccato e ora ardo dal desiderio di conseguire la tua pace”; così scrive Agostino Aurelio nelle “Confessioni”, perché la sua vita fu proprio così in due fasi: prima l’ansia inquieta di chi, cercando la strada, commette molti errori; poi imbroccata la via, sente il desiderio ardente di arrivare alla meta per abbracciare l’amato.
Agostino Aurelio nacque a Tagaste nella Numidia in Africa il 13 novembre 354 da una famiglia di classe media, di piccoli proprietari terrieri, il padre Patrizio era pagano, mentre la madre Monica, che aveva avuto tre figli, dei quali Agostino era il primogenito, era invece cristiana; fu lei a dargli un’educazione religiosa ma senza battezzarlo, come si usava allora, volendo attendere l’età matura.
Ebbe un’infanzia molto vivace, ma non certamente piena di peccati, come farebbe pensare una sua frase scritta nelle “Confessioni” dove si dichiara gran peccatore fin da piccolo. I peccati veri cominciarono più tardi; dopo i primi studi a Tagaste e poi nella vicina Madaura, si recò a Cartagine nel 371, con l’aiuto di un facoltoso signore del luogo di nome Romaniano; Agostino aveva 16 anni e viveva la sua adolescenza in modo molto vivace ed esuberante e mentre frequentava la scuola di un retore, cominciò a convivere con una ragazza cartaginese, che gli diede nel 372, anche un figlio, Adeodato.
Questa relazione sembra che sia durata 14 anni, quando nacque inaspettato il figlio; Agostino fu costretto, come si suol dire, a darsi una regolata, riportando la sua condotta inconcludente e dispersiva, su una più retta strada, ed a concentrarsi negli studi, per i quali si trovava a Cartagine.
Le lagrime della madre Monica, cominciavano ad avere un effetto positivo; fu in quegli anni che maturò la sua prima vocazione di filosofo, grazie alla lettura di un libro di Cicerone, l’”Ortensio” che l’aveva particolarmente colpito, perché l’autore latino affermava, come soltanto la filosofia aiutasse la volontà ad allontanarsi dal male e ad esercitare la virtù.
Purtroppo la lettura della Sacra Scrittura non diceva niente alla sua mente razionalistica e la religione professata dalla madre gli sembrava ora “una superstizione puerile”, quindi cercò la verità nel manicheismo.
Il Manicheismo era una religione orientale fondata nel III secolo d.C. da Mani, che fondeva elementi del cristianesimo e della religione di Zoroastro, suo principio fondamentale era il dualismo, cioè l’opposizione continua di due principi egualmente divini, uno buono e uno cattivo, che dominano il mondo e anche l’animo dell’uomo.
Ultimati gli studi, tornò nel 374 a Tagaste, dove con l’aiuto del suo benefattore Romaniano, aprì una scuola di grammatica e retorica, e fu anche ospitato nella sua casa con tutta la famiglia, perché la madre Monica aveva preferito separarsi da Agostino, non condividendo le sue scelte religiose; solo più tardi lo riammise nella sua casa, avendo avuto un sogno premonitore, sul suo ritorno alla fede cristiana.
Dopo due anni nel 376, decise di lasciare il piccolo paese di Tagaste e ritornare a Cartagine e sempre con l’aiuto dell’amico Romaniano, che egli aveva convertito al manicheismo, aprì anche qui una scuola, dove insegnò per sette anni, purtroppo con alunni poco disciplinati.
Agostino però tra i manichei non trovò mai la risposta certa al suo desiderio di verità e dopo un incontro con un loro vescovo, Fausto, avvenuto nel 382 a Cartagine, che avrebbe dovuto fugare ogni dubbio, ne uscì non convinto e quindi prese ad allontanarsi dal manicheismo.
Desideroso di nuove esperienze e stanco dell’indisciplina degli alunni cartaginesi, Agostino resistendo alle preghiere dell’amata madre, che voleva trattenerlo in Africa, decise di trasferirsi a Roma, capitale dell’impero, con tutta la famiglia.
A Roma, con l’aiuto dei manichei, aprì una scuola, ma non fu a suo agio, gli studenti romani, furbescamente, dopo aver ascoltate con attenzione le sue lezioni, sparivano al momento di pagare il pattuito compenso.
Subì una malattia gravissima che lo condusse quasi alla morte, nel contempo poté constatare che i manichei romani, se in pubblico ostentavano una condotta irreprensibile e casta, nel privato vivevano da dissoluti; disgustato se ne allontanò per sempre.
Nel 384 riuscì ad ottenere, con l’appoggio del prefetto di Roma, Quinto Aurelio Simmaco, la cattedra vacante di retorica a Milano, dove si trasferì, raggiunto nel 385, inaspettatamente dalla madre Monica, la quale conscia del travaglio interiore del figlio, gli fu accanto con la preghiera e con le lagrime, senza imporgli nulla, ma bensì come un angelo protettore.
E Milano fu la tappa decisiva della sua conversione; qui ebbe l’opportunità di ascoltare i sermoni di s. Ambrogio che teneva regolarmente in cattedrale, ma se le sue parole si scolpivano nel cuore di Agostino, fu la frequentazione con un anziano sacerdote, san Simpliciano, che aveva preparato s. Ambrogio all’episcopato, a dargli l’ispirazione giusta; il quale con fine intuito lo indirizzò a leggere i neoplatonici, perché i loro scritti suggerivano “in tutti i modi l’idea di Dio e del suo Verbo”.
Un successivo incontro con s. Ambrogio, procuratogli dalla madre, segnò un altro passo verso il battesimo; si ipotizza che sia stato convinto da Monica a seguire il consiglio dell’apostolo Paolo, sulla castità perfetta, e che sia stato convinto pure a lasciare la moglie, la quale secondo la legge romana, essendo di classe inferiore, era praticamente una concubina, rimandandola in Africa e tenendo presso di sé il figlio Adeodato (ci riesce difficile ai nostri tempi comprendere questi atteggiamenti, così usuali per allora).
A casa di un amico Ponticiano, questi gli aveva parlato della vita casta dei monaci e di s. Antonio abate, dandogli anche il libro delle Lettere di S. Paolo; ritornato a casa sua, Agostino disorientato si appartò nel giardino, dando sfogo ad un pianto angosciato e mentre piangeva, avvertì una voce che gli diceva ”Tolle, lege, tolle, lege” (prendi e leggi), per cui aprì a caso il libro delle Lettere di S. Paolo e lesse un brano: “Comportiamoci onestamente, come in pieno giorno: non in mezzo a gozzoviglie e ubriachezze, non fra impurità e licenze, non in contese e gelosie. Rivestitevi del Signore Gesù Cristo e non seguite la carne nei suoi desideri” (Rom. 13, 13-14).
Dopo qualche settimana ancora d’insegnamento di retorica, Agostino lasciò tutto, ritirandosi insieme alla madre, il figlio ed alcuni amici, ad una trentina di km. da Milano, a Cassiciaco, in meditazione e in conversazioni filosofiche e spirituali; volle sempre presente la madre, perché partecipasse con le sue parole sapienti.
Nella Quaresima del 386 ritornarono a Milano per una preparazione specifica al Battesimo, che Agostino, il figlio Adeodato e l’amico Alipio ricevettero nella notte del sabato santo, dalle mani di s. Ambrogio.
Intenzionato a creare una Comunità di monaci in Africa, decise di ritornare nella sua patria e nell’attesa della nave, la madre Monica improvvisamente si ammalò di una febbre maligna (forse malaria) e il 27 agosto del 387 morì a 56 anni. Il suo corpo trasferito a Roma si venera nella chiesa di S. Agostino, essa è considerata il modello e la patrona delle madri cristiane.
Dopo qualche mese trascorso a Roma per approfondire la sua conoscenza sui monasteri e le tradizioni della Chiesa, nel 388 ritornò a Tagaste, dove vendette i suoi pochi beni, distribuendone il ricavato ai poveri e ritiratosi con alcuni amici e discepoli, fondò una piccola comunità, dove i beni erano in comune proprietà.
Ma dopo un po’ l’affollarsi continuo dei concittadini, per chiedere consigli ed aiuti, disturbava il dovuto raccoglimento, fu necessario trovare un altro posto e Agostino lo cercò presso Ippona.
Trovatosi per caso nella basilica locale, in cui il vescovo Valerio, stava proponendo ai fedeli di consacrare un sacerdote che potesse aiutarlo, specie nella predicazione; accortasi della sua presenza, i fedeli presero a gridare: “Agostino prete!” allora si dava molto valore alla volontà del popolo, considerata volontà di Dio e nonostante che cercasse di rifiutare, perché non era questa la strada voluta, Agostino fu costretto ad accettare.
La città di Ippona ci guadagnò molto, la sua opera fu fecondissima, per prima cosa chiese al vescovo di trasferire il suo monastero ad Ippona, per continuare la sua scelta di vita, che in seguito divenne un seminario fonte di preti e vescovi africani.
L’iniziativa agostiniana gettava le basi del rinnovamento dei costumi del clero, egli pensava: “Il sacerdozio è cosa tanto grande che appena un buon monaco, può darci un buon chierico”. Scrisse anche una Regola, che poi nel IX secolo venne adottata dalla Comunità dei Canonici Regolari o Agostiniani.
Il vescovo Valerio nel timore che Agostino venisse spostato in altra sede, convinse il popolo e il primate della Numidia, Megalio di Calama, a consacrarlo vescovo coadiutore di Ippona; nel 397 morto Valerio, egli gli successe come titolare.
Dovette lasciare il monastero e intraprendere la sua intensa attività di pastore di anime, che svolse egregiamente, tanto che la sua fama di vescovo illuminato si diffuse in tutte le Chiese Africane.
Nel contempo scriveva le sue opere che abbracciano tutto il sapere ideologico e sono numerose, vanno dalle filosofiche alle apologetiche, dalle dogmatiche alle morali e pastorali, dalle bibliche alle polemiche. Queste ultime riflettono l’intensa e ardente battaglia che Agostino intraprese contro le eresie che funestavano l’unità della Chiesa in quei tempi: Il Manicheismo che conosceva bene, il Donatismo sorto ad opera del vescovo Donato e il Pelagianesimo propugnato dal monaco bretone Pelagio.
Egli fu maestro indiscusso nel confutare queste eresie e i vari movimenti che ad esse si rifacevano; i suoi interventi non solo illuminarono i pastori di anime dell’epoca, ma determinarono anche per il futuro, l’orientamento della teologia cattolica in questo campo. La sua dottrina e teologia è così vasta che pur volendo solo accennarla, occorrerebbe il doppio dello spazio concesso a questa scheda, per forza sintetica; il suo pensiero per millenni ormai è oggetto di studio per la formazione cristiana, le tante sue opere, dalle “Confessioni” fino alla “Città di Dio”, gli hanno meritato il titolo di Dottore della Chiesa.
Nel 429 si ammalò gravemente, mentre Ippona era assediata da tre mesi dai Vandali comandati da Genserico († 477), dopo che avevano portato morte e distruzione dovunque; il santo vescovo ebbe l’impressione della prossima fine del mondo; morì il 28 agosto del 430 a 76 anni. Il suo corpo sottratto ai Vandali durante l’incendio e distruzione di Ippona, venne trasportato poi a Cagliari dal vescovo Fulgenzio di Ruspe, verso il 508-517 ca., insieme alle reliquie di altri vescovi africani.
Verso il 725 il suo corpo fu di nuovo traslato a Pavia, nella Chiesa di S. Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, non lontano dai luoghi della sua conversione, ad opera del pio re longobardo Liutprando († 744), che l’aveva riscattato dai saraceni della Sardegna.
Autore: Antonio Borrelli
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/24250
Křest sv. Augustina (původně revers) / Křest sv. Augustina – pozdně gotický obraz v Moravské galerii, tempera sur panneau, circa 1480, Galerie Morave de Brno
BENEDETTO XVI
UDIENZA GENERALE
Sant’Agostino
I: La vita
Cari fratelli e sorelle,
dopo le festività
natalizie, vorrei tornare alle meditazioni sui Padri della Chiesa e parlare
oggi del più grande Padre della Chiesa latina, sant’Agostino: uomo di passione
e di fede, di intelligenza altissima e di premura pastorale instancabile,
questo grande Santo e Dottore della Chiesa è spesso conosciuto, almeno di fama,
anche da chi ignora il cristianesimo o non ha consuetudine con esso, perché
egli ha lasciato un’impronta profondissima nella vita culturale dell’Occidente
e di tutto il mondo. Per la sua singolare rilevanza, sant’Agostino ha avuto un
influsso larghissimo, e si potrebbe affermare, da una parte, che tutte le
strade della letteratura latina cristiana portano a Ippona (oggi Annata, sulla
costa algerina) – la città dell’Africa romana, di cui egli fu Vescovo dal 395
fino alla morte nel 430 – e, dall’altra, che da questo luogo si diramano molte
altre strade del cristianesimo successivo e della stessa cultura occidentale.
Di rado una civiltà ha
trovato uno spirito così grande, che sapesse accoglierne i valori ed esaltarne
l’intrinseca ricchezza, inventando idee e forme di cui si sarebbero nutriti i
posteri, come sottolineò anche Paolo VI: «Si può dire che tutto il pensiero
dell’antichità confluisca nella sua opera e da essa derivino correnti di
pensiero che pervadono tutta la tradizione dottrinale dei secoli successivi» (AAS,
62, 1970, p. 426). Agostino è inoltre il Padre della Chiesa che ha lasciato il
maggior numero di opere. Il suo biografo Possidio dice: sembrava impossibile che
un uomo potesse scrivere tante cose nella propria vita. Di queste diverse opere
parleremo in un prossimo incontro. Oggi la nostra attenzione sarà riservata
alla sua vita, che si ricostruisce bene dagli scritti, e in particolare dalle Confessioni,
la straordinaria autobiografia spirituale, scritta a lode di Dio, che è la sua
opera più famosa. E giustamente, perché sono proprio le Confessioni agostiniane,
con la loro attenzione all’interiorità e alla psicologia, a costituire un
modello unico nella letteratura occidentale (e non solo occidentale) anche non
religiosa, fino alla modernità. Questa attenzione alla vita spirituale, al
mistero dell’io, al mistero di Dio che si nasconde nell’io, è una cosa
straordinaria, senza precedenti, e rimane per sempre, per così dire, un
«vertice» spirituale.
Ma, per venire alla sua
vita, Agostino nacque a Tagaste – nella provincia della Numidia, nell’Africa
romana – il 13 novembre 354 da Patrizio, un pagano che poi divenne catecumeno,
e da Monica, fervente cristiana. Questa donna appassionata, venerata come santa,
esercitò sul figlio una grandissima influenza e lo educò nella fede cristiana.
Agostino aveva anche ricevuto il sale, come segno dell'accoglienza nel
catecumenato, e rimase sempre affascinato dalla figura di Gesù Cristo. Egli
anzi dice di aver sempre amato Gesù, ma di essersi allontanato sempre più dalla
fede ecclesiale, dalla pratica ecclesiale, come succede anche oggi per molti
giovani.
Agostino aveva anche un
fratello, Navigio, e una sorella, della quale ignoriamo il nome e che, rimasta
vedova, fu poi a capo di un monastero femminile. Il ragazzo, di vivissima
intelligenza, ricevette una buona educazione, anche se non fu sempre uno
studente esemplare. Egli tuttavia studiò bene la grammatica, prima nella sua
città natale, poi a Madaura, e dal 370 retorica a Cartagine, capitale
dell’Africa romana: divenne un perfetto dominatore della lingua latina. Non
arrivò però a maneggiare con altrettanto dominio il greco e non imparò il
punico, parlato dai suoi conterranei. Proprio a Cartagine Agostino lesse per la
prima volta l’Hortensius, uno scritto di Cicerone, poi andato perduto, che si
colloca all’inizio del suo cammino verso la conversione. Il testo ciceroniano,
infatti, svegliò in lui l’amore per la sapienza, come scriverà, ormai Vescovo,
nelle Confessioni: «Quel libro cambiò davvero il mio modo di sentire»,
tanto che «all’improvviso perse valore ogni speranza vana e desideravo con un
incredibile ardore del cuore l’immortalità della sapienza» (III,4,7).
Ma poiché era convinto
che senza Gesù la verità non può dirsi effettivamente trovata, e perché in
questo libro appassionante quel nome gli mancava, subito dopo averlo letto
cominciò a leggere la Scrittura, la Bibbia. Ma ne rimase deluso. Non solo
perché lo stile latino della traduzione della Sacra Scrittura era insufficiente,
ma anche perché lo stesso contenuto gli apparve non soddisfacente. Nelle
narrazioni della Scrittura su guerre e altre vicende umane non trovava
l’altezza della filosofia, lo splendore di ricerca della verità che ad essa è
proprio. Tuttavia non voleva vivere senza Dio, e così cercava una religione
corrispondente al suo desiderio di verità e anche al suo desiderio di
avvicinarsi a Gesù. Cadde così nella rete dei manichei, che si presentavano
come cristiani e promettevano una religione totalmente razionale. Affermavano
che il mondo è diviso in due principi: il bene e il male. E così si
spiegherebbe tutta la complessità della storia umana. Anche la morale
dualistica piaceva a sant’Agostino, perché comportava una morale molto alta per
gli eletti: e a chi, come lui, vi aderiva era possibile una vita molto più
adeguata alla situazione del tempo, specie per un uomo giovane. Si fece
pertanto manicheo, convinto in quel momento di aver trovato la sintesi tra
razionalità, ricerca della verità e amore di Gesù Cristo. Ed ebbe anche un
vantaggio concreto per la sua vita: l’adesione ai manichei infatti apriva
facili prospettive di carriera. Aderire a quella religione che contava tante
personalità influenti gli permetteva di andare avanti nella sua carriera, oltre
che continuare la relazione intrecciata con una donna. (Da questa donna
ebbe un figlio, Adeodato, a lui carissimo, molto intelligente, che sarà poi
presente nella preparazione al Battesimo presso il lago di Como, partecipando a
quei Dialoghi che sant’Agostino ci ha trasmesso. Il ragazzo,
purtroppo, morì prematuramente.) Agostino, a circa vent’anni già insegnante di
grammatica nella sua città natale, tornò presto a Cartagine, dove divenne un
brillante e celebrato maestro di retorica. Con il tempo, tuttavia, egli iniziò
ad allontanarsi dalla fede dei manichei, che lo delusero proprio dal punto di
vista intellettuale in quanto incapaci di risolvere i suoi dubbi, e si trasferì
a Roma e poi a Milano, dove allora risiedeva la corte imperiale e dove aveva
ottenuto un posto di prestigio grazie all’interessamento e alle raccomandazioni
del prefetto di Roma, il pagano Simmaco, ostile al Vescovo di Milano
sant’Ambrogio.
A Milano Agostino prese
l’abitudine di ascoltare – inizialmente allo scopo di arricchire il suo
bagaglio retorico – le bellissime prediche del Vescovo Ambrogio, che era stato
rappresentante dell’imperatore per l’Italia settentrionale. Dalla parola del
grande presule milanese il retore africano rimase affascinato, e non soltanto
dalla sua retorica: soprattutto i contenuti toccarono sempre più il suo cuore.
Il grande problema dell’Antico Testamento – la mancanza di bellezza retorica e
di altezza filosofica – si risolse nelle prediche di sant’Ambrogio grazie
all’interpretazione tipologica dell’Antico Testamento: Agostino capì che tutto
l’Antico Testamento è un cammino verso Gesù Cristo. Così trovò la chiave per
capire la bellezza, la profondità pure filosofica dell’Antico Testamento e capì
tutta l’unità del mistero di Cristo nella storia e anche la sintesi tra
filosofia, razionalità e fede nel Logos, in Cristo Verbo eterno che si è
fatto carne.
In breve tempo Agostino
si rese conto che la lettura allegorica della Scrittura e la filosofia
neoplatonica coltivate dal Vescovo di Milano gli permettevano di risolvere le
difficoltà intellettuali che, quando era più giovane, nel suo primo
avvicinamento ai testi biblici gli erano sembrate insuperabili.
Alla lettura degli
scritti dei filosofi Agostino fece così seguire quella rinnovata della
Scrittura e soprattutto delle Lettere paoline. La conversione al cristianesimo,
il 15 agosto 386, si collocò quindi al culmine di un lungo e tormentato
itinerario interiore, del quale parleremo ancora in un’altra catechesi, e
l’africano si trasferì nella campagna a nord di Milano, verso il lago di Como –
con la madre Monica, il figlio Adeodato e un piccolo gruppo di amici – per
prepararsi al Battesimo. Così, a trentadue anni, Agostino fu battezzato da
Ambrogio il 24 aprile 387, durante la Veglia pasquale, nella Cattedrale di
Milano.
Dopo il Battesimo,
Agostino decise di tornare in Africa con gli amici, con l’idea di praticare una
vita comune, di tipo monastico, al servizio di Dio. Ma a Ostia, in attesa di
partire, la madre improvvisamente si ammalò e poco più tardi morì, straziando
il cuore del figlio. Rientrato finalmente in patria, il convertito si stabilì a
Ippona per fondarvi appunto un monastero. In questa città della costa africana,
nonostante le sue resistenze, fu ordinato presbitero nel 391 e iniziò con
alcuni compagni la vita monastica a cui da tempo pensava, dividendo il suo
tempo tra la preghiera, lo studio e la predicazione. Egli voleva essere
solo al servizio della verità, non si sentiva chiamato alla vita pastorale, ma
poi capì che la chiamata di Dio era quella di essere Pastore tra gli altri, e
così di offrire il dono della verità agli altri. A Ippona, quattro anni più
tardi, nel 395, venne consacrato Vescovo. Continuando ad approfondire lo studio
delle Scritture e dei testi della tradizione cristiana, Agostino fu un Vescovo
esemplare nel suo instancabile impegno pastorale: predicava più volte la
settimana ai suoi fedeli, sosteneva i poveri e gli orfani, curava la formazione
del clero e l’organizzazione di monasteri femminili e maschili. In breve,
l’antico retore si affermò come uno degli esponenti più importanti del
cristianesimo di quel tempo: attivissimo nel governo della sua Diocesi – con
notevoli risvolti anche civili – negli oltre trentacinque anni di episcopato,
il Vescovo di Ippona esercitò infatti una vasta influenza nella guida della
Chiesa cattolica dell’Africa romana e più in generale nel cristianesimo del suo
tempo, fronteggiando tendenze religiose ed eresie tenaci e disgregatrici come
il manicheismo, il donatismo e il pelagianesimo, che mettevano in pericolo la
fede cristiana nel Dio unico e ricco di misericordia.
E a Dio si affidò
Agostino ogni giorno, fino all’estremo della sua vita: colpito da febbre,
mentre da quasi tre mesi la sua Ippona era assediata dai Vandali invasori, il
Vescovo – racconta l’amico Possidio nella Vita di Agostino – chiese
di trascrivere a grandi caratteri i Salmi penitenziali «e fece affiggere i
fogli contro la parete, così che stando a letto durante la sua malattia li
poteva vedere e leggere, e piangeva ininterrottamente a calde lacrime» (31,2).
Così trascorsero gli ultimi giorni della vita di Agostino, che morì il 28
agosto 430, quando ancora non aveva compiuto 76 anni. Alle sue opere, al suo
messaggio e alla sua vicenda interiore dedicheremo i prossimi incontri.
Saluti:
Je suis heureux de vous
accueillir, chers pèlerins francophones. Je salue en particulier les jeunes du
lycée d’enseignement agricole privé, de Saint-Maximin. Que saint Augustin soit
pour vous tous un modèle dans votre recherche de Dieu et qu’il vous aide à
approfondir votre foi! Avec ma Bénédiction apostolique.
I am pleased to welcome
the English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s Audience, especially the
student groups from Australia and the United States. I greet the group of
deacons from the Archdiocese of Dubuque, and I thank the choir for their praise
of God in song. Upon all of you I invoke God’s abundant blessings of joy and
peace.
Von Herzen begrüße ich
die Pilger und Besucher aus den deutschsprachigen Ländern. Der hl. Augustinus
lebte immer in der Suche nach Gott, in der Suche, Jesus Christus näher und
ähnlicher zu werden. Auch wir wollen stets die Nähe des Schöpfers und die Nähe
Jesu Christi suchen, in dem Gott menschliches Antlitz hat und Ihm helfen, daß
er uns bereit macht, das Gute selber zu tun und es in der Welt zu verbreiten.
Der Herr geleite euch auf allen Wegen dieses noch jungen Jahres!
Saludo cordialmente a los
peregrinos de lengua española. En particular, a la Real Maestranza de
Caballería de Sevilla, a la Parroquia Nuestra Señora de los Milagros de Alange,
a los capitulares de la Congregación de San Pedro ad Vincula, así como a
los demás grupos venidos de España, México, Brasil y de otros países
latinoamericanos. Os invito a imitar la confianza en Dios de San Agustín y a
acogeros a su intercesión. Muchas gracias.
Saúdo com afeto no Senhor
todos os ouvintes de língua portuguesa, em particular o grupo de brasileiros de
Piracicaba do Estado de São Paulo. Desejo a todos felicidades, com os auspícios
de que levem de Roma uma consciência de Igreja mais clara, e a fé no seu divino
Fundador, Jesus Cristo, mais viva e operante. E peço a Nossa Senhora que os proteja
e aos que lhes são queridos, ao dar-lhes a Bênção.
Saluto in lingua polacca:
Serdecznie pozdrawiam
wszystkich Polaków. Życie św. Augustyna jest przykładem działania Bożej łaski,
która zawiłe dzieje człowieka kieruje ku poznaniu ostatecznej Prawdy, ku zjednoczeniu
z Chrystusem i ku posłudze Jego Kościołowi. Niech ta łaska przemienia naszą
codzienność, aby znalazła swe spełnienie w szczęśliwej wieczności. Niech Bóg
wam błogosławi!
Traduzione italiana:
Saluto cordialmente tutti
i polacchi. La vita di Sant’Agostino è un esempio dell’opera della grazia
divina che dirige le complicate vicende dell’uomo verso la conoscenza della
definitiva Verità, verso l’unione con Cristo e verso il servizio alla Sua
Chiesa. Questa grazia trasformi la nostra quotidianità, affinché trovi il suo
compimento nella felice eternità. Dio vi benedica!
* * *
Rivolgo un cordiale
pensiero ai pellegrini di lingua italiana. In particolare, saluto le Suore
Figlie della Croce, qui convenute a suggello delle celebrazioni per il
centesimo anniversario della morte del venerato fondatore, il Servo di Dio
Nunzio Russo, e le incoraggio a proseguire nel loro servizio al Vangelo con
rinnovato slancio apostolico. Saluto il folto gruppo di fedeli della Parrocchia
Sacro Cuore di Gesù, in Rocca di Papa, che compiono un devoto pellegrinaggio
presso la tomba degli Apostoli, e auguro che un sempre più grande fervore
missionario animi ogni loro attività pastorale. Saluto la Comunità
diaconale della diocesi di Biella, auspicando che ciascuno perseveri nella
fede e nella testimonianza della carità. Saluto poi i dirigenti e gli atleti
della Serie D. Possa il gioco del calcio essere sempre più veicolo di
educazione ai valori dell'onestà, della solidarietà e della fraternità,
specialmente fra le giovani generazioni.
Il mio pensiero va infine
ai giovani, ai malati e agli sposi novelli. Carissimi, in
questi giorni che seguono la festa dell'Epifania, continuiamo a meditare sulla
manifestazione di Gesù a tutti i popoli. La Chiesa invita voi, cari giovani,
a essere testimoni entusiasti di Cristo tra i vostri coetanei; esorta voi,
cari malati, a diffondere ogni giorno la sua luce con serena pazienza; e
sprona voi, cari sposi novelli, a essere segno della sua presenza
rinnovatrice col vostro amore fedele.
© Copyright 2008 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/it/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20080109.html
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682),
Visión de San Agustín con la Trinidad, circa
1664, óleo sobre tabla, 250 x 139, Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla
BENEDETTO XVI
UDIENZA GENERALE
Sant’Agostino
II: Gli ultimi anni e la
morte
Cari fratelli e sorelle,
oggi, come mercoledì
scorso, vorrei parlare del grande Vescovo di Ippona, sant’Agostino. Quattro
anni prima di morire, egli volle designare il successore. Per questo, il 26
settembre 426, radunò il popolo nella Basilica della Pace, ad Ippona, per
presentare ai fedeli colui che aveva designato per tale compito. Disse: «In
questa vita siamo tutti mortali, ma l’ultimo giorno di questa vita è per ogni
individuo sempre incerto. Tuttavia nell’infanzia si spera di giungere
all’adolescenza; nell’adolescenza alla giovinezza; nella giovinezza all’età
adulta; nell’età adulta all’età matura; nell’età matura alla vecchiaia. Non si
è sicuri di giungervi, ma si spera. La vecchiaia, al contrario, non ha davanti
a sé alcun altro periodo da poter sperare; la sua stessa durata è incerta… Io
per volontà di Dio giunsi in questa città nel vigore della mia vita; ma ora la
mia giovinezza è passata e io sono ormai vecchio» (Ep. 213,1). A questo
punto Agostino fece il nome del successore designato, il prete Eraclio.
L’assemblea scoppiò in un applauso di approvazione ripetendo per ventitré
volte: «Sia ringraziato Dio! Sia lodato Cristo!». Con altre acclamazioni i
fedeli approvarono, inoltre, quanto Agostino disse poi circa i propositi per il
suo futuro: voleva dedicare gli anni che gli restavano a un più intenso studio
delle Sacre Scritture (cfr Ep. 213,6).
Di fatto, quelli che
seguirono furono quattro anni di straordinaria attività intellettuale: portò a
termine opere importanti, ne intraprese altre non meno impegnative, intrattenne
pubblici dibattiti con gli eretici – cercava sempre il dialogo –, intervenne
per promuovere la pace nelle province africane insidiate dalle tribù barbare
del Sud. In questo senso scrisse al conte Dario, venuto in Africa per comporre
il dissidio tra il conte Bonifacio e la corte imperiale, di cui stavano
profittando le tribù dei Mauri per le loro scorrerie: «Titolo più grande di
gloria – affermava nella lettera – è proprio quello di uccidere la guerra con
la parola, anziché uccidere gli uomini con la spada, e procurare o mantenere la
pace con la pace e non già con la guerra. Certo, anche quelli che combattono,
se sono buoni, cercano senza dubbio la pace, ma a costo di spargere il sangue.
Tu, al contrario, sei stato inviato proprio per impedire che si cerchi di
spargere il sangue di alcuno» (Ep. 229, 2). Purtroppo, la speranza di una
pacificazione dei territori africani andò delusa: nel maggio del 429 i Vandali,
invitati in Africa per ripicca dallo stesso Bonifacio, passarono lo stretto di
Gibilterra e si riversarono nella Mauritania. L’invasione raggiunse rapidamente
le altre ricche province africane. Nel maggio o nel giugno del 430 «i
distruttori dell’Impero romano», come Possidio qualifica quei barbari (Vita 30,1),
erano attorno ad Ippona, che strinsero d’assedio.
In città aveva cercato rifugio
anche Bonifacio, il quale, riconciliatosi troppo tardi con la corte, tentava
ora invano di sbarrare il passo agli invasori. Il biografo Possidio descrive il
dolore di Agostino: «Le lacrime erano, più del consueto, il suo pane notte e
giorno e, giunto ormai all’estremo della sua vita, più degli altri trascinava
nell’amarezza e nel lutto la sua vecchiaia» (Vita 28,6). E spiega: «Vedeva
infatti, quell’uomo di Dio, gli eccidi e le distruzioni delle città; abbattute
le case nelle campagne e gli abitanti uccisi dai nemici o messi in fuga e
sbandati; le chiese private dei sacerdoti e dei ministri, le vergini sacre e i
religiosi dispersi da ogni parte; tra essi, altri venuti meno sotto le torture,
altri uccisi di spada, altri fatti prigionieri, perduta l’integrità dell’anima
e del corpo e anche la fede, ridotti in dolorosa e lunga schiavitù dai nemici»
(ibid., 28,8).
Anche se vecchio e
stanco, Agostino restò tuttavia sulla breccia, confortando se stesso e gli
altri con la preghiera e con la meditazione sui misteriosi disegni della
Provvidenza. Parlava, al riguardo, della «vecchiaia del mondo» – e davvero era
vecchio questo mondo romano –, parlava di questa vecchiaia come già aveva fatto
anni prima per consolare i profughi provenienti dall’Italia, quando nel 410 i
Goti di Alarico avevano invaso la città di Roma. Nella vecchiaia, diceva, i
malanni abbondano: tosse, catarro, cisposità, ansietà, sfinimento. Ma se il
mondo invecchia, Cristo è perpetuamente giovane. E allora l’invito: «Non
rifiutare di ringiovanire unito a Cristo, anche nel mondo vecchio. Egli ti
dice: Non temere, la tua gioventù si rinnoverà come quella dell’aquila»
(cfr Sermoni 81,8). Il cristiano quindi non deve abbattersi anche in
situazioni difficili, ma adoperarsi per aiutare chi è nel bisogno. È quanto il
grande Dottore suggerisce rispondendo al Vescovo di Tiabe, Onorato, che gli
aveva chiesto se, sotto l’incalzare delle invasioni barbariche, un Vescovo o un
prete o un qualsiasi uomo di Chiesa potesse fuggire per salvare la vita:
«Quando il pericolo è comune per tutti, cioè per Vescovi, chierici e laici,
quelli che hanno bisogno degli altri non siano abbandonati da quelli di cui
hanno bisogno. In questo caso si trasferiscano pure tutti in luoghi sicuri; ma
se alcuni hanno bisogno di rimanere, non siano abbandonati da quelli che hanno
il dovere di assisterli col sacro ministero, di modo che o si salvino insieme o
insieme sopportino le calamità che il Padre di famiglia vorrà che soffrano» (Ep. 228,2).
E concludeva: «Questa è la prova suprema della carità» (ibid., 3). Come non
riconoscere, in queste parole, l’eroico messaggio che tanti sacerdoti, nel
corso dei secoli, hanno accolto e fatto proprio?
Intanto la città di
Ippona resisteva. La casa-monastero di Agostino aveva aperto le sue porte ad
accogliere i colleghi nell’episcopato che chiedevano ospitalità. Tra questi vi
era anche Possidio, già suo discepolo, il quale poté così lasciarci la
testimonianza diretta di quegli ultimi, drammatici giorni. «Nel terzo mese di
quell’assedio – egli racconta – si pose a letto con la febbre: era l’ultima sua
malattia» (Vita 29,3). Il santo Vegliardo profittò di quel tempo
finalmente libero per dedicarsi con più intensità alla preghiera. Era solito
affermare che nessuno, Vescovo, religioso o laico, per quanto irreprensibile
possa sembrare la sua condotta, può affrontare la morte senza un’adeguata
penitenza. Per questo egli continuamente ripeteva tra le lacrime i Salmi
penitenziali, che tante volte aveva recitato con il popolo (cfr ibid., 31,2).
Più il male si aggravava,
più il Vescovo morente sentiva il bisogno di solitudine e di preghiera: «Per
non essere disturbato da nessuno nel suo raccoglimento, circa dieci giorni
prima d’uscire dal corpo pregò noi presenti di non lasciar entrare nessuno
nella sua camera fuori delle ore in cui i medici venivano a visitarlo o quando
gli si portavano i pasti. Il suo volere fu adempiuto esattamente e in tutto
quel tempo egli attendeva all’orazione» (ibid., 31,3). Cessò di vivere il
28 agosto del 430: il suo grande cuore finalmente si era placato in Dio.
«Per la deposizione del
suo corpo – informa Possidio – fu offerto a Dio il sacrificio, al quale noi
assistemmo, e poi fu sepolto» (Vita 31,5). Il suo corpo, in data incerta,
fu trasferito in Sardegna e da qui, verso il 725, a Pavia, nella Basilica di
San Pietro in Ciel d’oro, dove anche oggi riposa. Il suo primo biografo ha su
di lui questo giudizio conclusivo: «Lasciò alla Chiesa un clero molto numeroso,
come pure monasteri d’uomini e di donne pieni di persone votate alla continenza
sotto l’obbedienza dei loro superiori, insieme con le biblioteche contenenti
libri e discorsi suoi e di altri Santi, da cui si conosce quale sia stato per
grazia di Dio il suo merito e la sua grandezza nella Chiesa, e nei quali i
fedeli sempre lo ritrovano vivo» (Vita 31,8). È un giudizio a cui possiamo
associarci: nei suoi scritti anche noi lo «ritroviamo vivo». Quando leggo gli
scritti di sant’Agostino non ho l’impressione che sia un uomo morto più o meno
milleseicento anni fa, ma lo sento come un uomo di oggi: un amico, un
contemporaneo che parla a me, parla a noi con la sua fede fresca e attuale. In
sant’Agostino che parla a noi, parla a me nei suoi scritti, vediamo l’attualità
permanente della sua fede; della fede che viene da Cristo, Verbo eterno incarnato,
Figlio di Dio e Figlio dell’uomo. E possiamo vedere che questa fede non è di
ieri, anche se predicata ieri; è sempre di oggi, perché realmente Cristo è
ieri, oggi e per sempre. Egli è la Via, la Verità e la Vita. Così sant’Agostino
ci incoraggia ad affidarci a questo Cristo sempre vivo e a trovare in tal modo
la strada della vita vera.
Saluti:
Je suis heureux de vous
accueillir, chers pèlerins francophones, particulièrement le groupe de la
paroisse du Pradet. Que l’exemple de saint Augustin vous aide à tenir bon dans
les épreuves et à rester fermes dans la foi tout au long de votre vie. Avec ma Bénédiction
apostolique.
I welcome all the
English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s Audience, including the students
from Australia, Ireland, and the United States of America. May your time in
Rome be one of uplifting spiritual renewal. Upon all of you I invoke
God’s abundant blessings of joy and peace.
Gerne grüße ich alle
Pilger und Besucher deutscher Sprache. Sein Einsatz bis zum Lebensende und sein
Sterben zeigen uns nochmals die Größe dieses Menschen. Sein Beispiel und seine
Lehre sind lebendig in seinen Schriften, sprechen zu uns, lebendig und
gegenwärtig auch heute. Wir wollen im Vertrauen auf Gottes Gnade unseren Weg
gehen. Der Herr segne und geleite euch alle Tage.
Saludo cordialmente a los
peregrinos de lengua española venidos de España, Uruguay y otros países
latinoamericanos. Que la vida y escritos de San Agustín sean para todos
nosotros luz y aliento en nuestro camino. Muchas gracias.
Saluto in lingua polacca:
Serdecznie pozdrawiam
pielgrzymów polskich. Jutro przypada wspomnienie świętego Antoniego, opata.
Mimo młodego wieku, dojrzały w wierze, rozdał swoje dobra ubogim. Całe życie
poświęcił ascezie i pokucie. Nazywano go przyjacielem Boga. Jego wiarę
podziwiał święty Augustyn. Za jego wzorem nieśmy pomoc ubogim i potrzebującym.
Niech będzie pochwalony Jezus Chrystus.
Traduzione italiana:
Saluto cordialmente i
pellegrini polacchi. Domani ricorre la memoria di sant’Antonio, abate. Pur
essendo ancor giovane, ma maturo nella fede, ha distribuito tutti i propri beni
ai poveri. L’intera sua vita ha dedicato all’ascesi e alla penitenza. Lo
chiamavano amico di Dio. Sant’Agostino ammirava la sua fede. Mossi dal suo
esempio, portiamo l’aiuto ai poveri e ai bisognosi! Sia lodato Gesù Cristo!
Saluto in lingua ucraina:
Сердечно вітаю паломників
Мукачівської греко-католицької єпархії з їх єпископом Преосвященним владикою
Міланом Шашіком. Будьте завжди вірні єдності Святої Церкви Божої, за яку
Блаженний Теодор Ромжі поклав життя. Слава Ісусу Христу!
Traduzione italiana:
Saluto cordialmente i
pellegrini dell’Eparchia greco-cattolica di Mukacheve, provenienti dall’Ucraina
insieme al loro Vescovo Monsignor Milan Šašik. Restate sempre uniti alla Santa
Chiesa di Dio per la quale il beato Teodoro Romža ha donato la propria vita.
Sia lodato Gesù Cristo!
* * *
Mi rivolgo ora con
affetto ai pellegrini di lingua italiana. Grazie per la vostra presenza e la
vostra simpatia. Allora, andiamo avanti insieme! In particolare, saluto voi,
rappresentanti dell'Associazione Italiana Allevatori, realtà importante per
l'economia del Paese, e vi esorto ad operare sempre più nel rispetto
dell'ambiente e in favore della sicurezza alimentare dei cittadini. La festa
liturgica del vostro patrono sant'Antonio Abate, che celebreremo domani,
susciti in voi il desiderio di aderire con crescente generosità a Cristo e
testimoniare con gioia il suo Vangelo. Saluto poi gli esponenti della Biblioteca
Roncioniana, di Prato e le Piccole Sorelle dei Poveri. Vi ringrazio tutti
per la vostra presenza ed invoco su ciascuno la continua assistenza divina.
Saluto naturalmente con
particolare gioia gli universitari, gli studenti. Grazie!
Saluto, infine, i giovani,
i malati e gli sposi novelli. L'esempio di Sant'Antonio Abate,
insigne padre del monachesimo che molto lavorò per la Chiesa, sostenendo i
martiri nella persecuzione, incoraggi voi, cari giovani, a ricercare
costantemente e a seguire fedelmente Cristo; conforti voi, cari malati,
nel sopportare con pazienza le vostre sofferenze e ad offrirle affinché il
Regno di Dio si diffonda in tutto il mondo; ed aiuti voi, cari sposi
novelli, ad essere testimoni dell'amore di Cristo nella vostra vita
familiare.
APPELLO
Dopodomani, venerdì 18
gennaio, inizia la consueta Settimana di preghiera per l'unità dei
cristiani, che quest'anno riveste un valore singolare poiché sono trascorsi
cento anni dal suo avvio. Il tema è l'invito di San Paolo ai Tessalonicesi:
"Pregate continuamente" (1 Tes 5, 17); invito che ben volentieri
faccio mio e rivolgo a tutta la Chiesa. Sì, è necessario pregare senza sosta
chiedendo con insistenza a Dio il grande dono dell'unità tra tutti i discepoli
del Signore. La forza inesauribile dello Spirito Santo ci stimoli ad un impegno
sincero di ricerca dell'unità, perché possiamo professare tutti insieme che
Gesù è l'unico Salvatore del mondo.
© Copyright 2008 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/it/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20080116.html
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Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682), La Virgen y el Niño se aparecen a San Agustín. Óleo sobre tabla, 1664-1665. Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla. Procedente del Convento de San Agustín (Sevilla)
BENEDETTO XVI
UDIENZA GENERALE
Sant’Agostino
La dottrina. Fede e
ragione
Cari amici,
dopo la Settimana
di preghiera per l’unità dei cristiani ritorniamo oggi alla grande
figura di sant’Agostino. Il mio caro Predecessore Giovanni Paolo II gli ha
dedicato nel 1986, cioè nel sedicesimo centenario della sua conversione, un
lungo e denso documento, la Lettera apostolica Augustinum
Hipponensem. Il Papa stesso volle definire questo testo «un ringraziamento
a Dio per il dono fatto alla Chiesa, e per essa all’umanità intera, con quella
mirabile conversione» (AAS, 74, 1982, p. 802). Sul tema della conversione
vorrei tornare in una prossima Udienza. È un tema fondamentale non solo per la
sua vita personale, ma anche per la nostra. Nel Vangelo di domenica scorsa il
Signore stesso ha riassunto la sua predicazione con la parola: «Convertitevi».
Seguendo il cammino di sant’Agostino, potremmo meditare su che cosa sia questa
conversione: è una cosa definitiva, decisiva, ma la decisione fondamentale deve
svilupparsi, deve realizzarsi in tutta la nostra vita.
La catechesi oggi è
dedicata invece al tema fede e ragione, che è un tema determinante, o
meglio, il tema determinante per la biografia di sant’Agostino. Da
bambino aveva imparato da sua madre Monica la fede cattolica. Ma da adolescente
aveva abbandonato questa fede, perché non poteva più vederne la ragionevolezza
e non voleva una religione che non fosse anche per lui espressione della
ragione, cioè della verità. La sua sete di verità era radicale e lo ha condotto
quindi ad allontanarsi dalla fede cattolica. Ma la sua radicalità era tale che
egli non poteva accontentarsi di filosofie che non arrivassero alla verità
stessa, che non arrivassero fino a Dio. E a un Dio che non fosse soltanto
un’ultima ipotesi cosmologica, ma che fosse il vero Dio, il Dio che dà la vita
e che entra nella nostra stessa vita. Così tutto l’itinerario intellettuale e
spirituale di sant’Agostino costituisce un modello valido anche oggi nel
rapporto tra fede e ragione, tema non solo per uomini credenti, ma per ogni
uomo che cerca la verità, tema centrale per l’equilibrio e il destino di ogni
essere umano. Queste due dimensioni, fede e ragione, non sono da separare né da
contrapporre, ma piuttosto devono sempre andare insieme. Come ha scritto
Agostino stesso dopo la sua conversione, fede e ragione sono «le due forze che
ci portano a conoscere» (Contro gli Accademici III,20,43). A questo
proposito rimangono giustamente celebri le due formule agostiniane (Sermoni 43,9)
che esprimono questa coerente sintesi tra fede e ragione: crede ut
intelligas («credi per comprendere») – il credere apre la strada per
varcare la porta della verità –, ma anche, e inseparabilmente, intellige
ut credas («comprendi per credere») – scruta la verità per poter trovare
Dio e credere.
Le due affermazioni di
Agostino esprimono con efficace immediatezza e con altrettanta profondità la
sintesi di questo problema, nella quale la Chiesa cattolica vede espresso il
proprio cammino. Storicamente questa sintesi va formandosi, prima ancora della
venuta di Cristo, nell’incontro tra fede ebraica e pensiero greco nel giudaismo
ellenistico. Successivamente nella storia questa sintesi è stata ripresa e
sviluppata da molti pensatori cristiani. L’armonia tra fede e ragione significa
soprattutto che Dio non è lontano: non è lontano dalla nostra ragione e dalla
nostra vita; è vicino ad ogni essere umano, vicino al nostro cuore e vicino
alla nostra ragione, se realmente ci mettiamo in cammino.
Proprio questa vicinanza
di Dio all’uomo fu avvertita con straordinaria intensità da Agostino. La
presenza di Dio nell’uomo è profonda e nello stesso tempo misteriosa, ma può
essere riconosciuta e scoperta nel proprio intimo: non andare fuori – afferma
il convertito – ma «torna in te stesso; nell’uomo interiore abita la verità; e
se troverai che la tua natura è mutabile, trascendi te stesso. Ma ricordati,
quando trascendi te stesso, che tu trascendi un’anima che ragiona. Tendi dunque
là dove si accende la luce della ragione» (La vera religione 39,72).
Proprio come egli stesso sottolinea, con un’affermazione famosissima,
all’inizio delle Confessioni, autobiografia spirituale scritta a lode di
Dio: «Ci hai fatti per te e inquieto è il nostro cuore, finché non riposa in
te» (I,1,1).
La lontananza di Dio
equivale allora alla lontananza da se stessi: «Tu infatti – riconosce Agostino
(Confessioni, III,6,11) rivolgendosi direttamente a Dio – eri all’interno di me
più del mio intimo e più in alto della mia parte più alta», interior
intimo meo et superior summo meo; tanto che – aggiunge in un altro passo
ricordando il tempo antecedente la conversione – «tu eri davanti a me; e io
invece mi ero allontanato da me stesso, e non mi ritrovavo; e ancora meno
ritrovavo te» (Confessioni V,2,2). Proprio perché Agostino ha vissuto in
prima persona questo itinerario intellettuale e spirituale, ha saputo renderlo
nelle sue opere con tanta immediatezza, profondità e sapienza, riconoscendo in
due altri celebri passi delle Confessioni (IV,4,9 e 14,22) che l’uomo
è «un grande enigma» (magna quaestio) e «un grande abisso» (grande profundum),
enigma e abisso che solo Cristo illumina e salva. Questo è importante: un uomo
che è lontano da Dio è anche lontano da sé, alienato da se stesso, e può
ritrovare se stesso solo incontrandosi con Dio. Così arriva anche a sé, al suo
vero io, alla sua vera identità.
L’essere umano –
sottolinea poi Agostino nel De civitate Dei (La città di Dio XII,27)
– è sociale per natura ma antisociale per vizio, ed è salvato da Cristo, unico
mediatore tra Dio e l’umanità e «via universale della libertà e della
salvezza», come ha ripetuto il mio predecessore Giovanni Paolo II (Augustinum
Hipponensem, 21): al di fuori di questa via, che mai è mancata al genere
umano – afferma ancora Agostino nella stessa opera – «nessuno è stato mai
liberato, nessuno viene liberato, nessuno sarà liberato» (La città di Dio X,32,2).
In quanto unico mediatore della salvezza, Cristo è capo della Chiesa e ad essa
è misticamente unito, al punto che Agostino può affermare: «Siamo diventati
Cristo. Infatti se Egli è il capo, noi le sue membra, l’uomo totale è Lui e
noi» (Commento al Vangelo di Giovanni 21,8).
Popolo di Dio e casa di
Dio, la Chiesa nella visione agostiniana è dunque legata strettamente al
concetto di Corpo di Cristo, fondata sulla rilettura cristologica dell’Antico
Testamento e sulla vita sacramentale centrata sull’Eucaristia, nella quale il Signore
ci dà il suo Corpo e ci trasforma in suo Corpo. È allora fondamentale che la
Chiesa, popolo di Dio in senso cristologico e non in senso sociologico, sia
davvero inserita in Cristo, il quale – afferma Agostino in una bellissima
pagina – «prega per noi, prega in noi, è pregato da noi; prega per noi come
nostro sacerdote, prega in noi come nostro capo, è pregato da noi come nostro
Dio: riconosciamo pertanto in Lui la nostra voce e in noi la sua» (Esposizione
sui Salmi 85,1).
Nella conclusione della
Lettera apostolica Augustinum
Hipponensem Giovanni Paolo II ha voluto chiedere allo stesso Santo che
cosa abbia da dire agli uomini di oggi, e risponde anzitutto con le parole che
Agostino affidò a una lettera dettata poco dopo la sua conversione: «A me
sembra che si debbano ricondurre gli uomini alla speranza di trovare la verità»
(Ep. 1,1); quella verità che è Cristo stesso, Dio vero, al quale è rivolta
una delle preghiere più belle e più famose delle Confessioni (X,27,38):
«Tardi ti ho amato, bellezza tanto antica e tanto nuova, tardi ti ho amato! Ed
ecco tu eri dentro e io fuori, e lì ti cercavo, e nelle bellezze che hai
creato, deforme, mi gettavo. Eri con me, ma io non ero con te. Da te mi
tenevano lontano quelle cose che, se non fossero in te, non esisterebbero. Hai
chiamato e hai gridato e hai rotto la mia sordità, hai brillato, hai mostrato
il tuo splendore e hai dissipato la mia cecità, hai sparso il tuo profumo e ho
respirato e aspiro a te, ho gustato e ho fame e sete, mi hai toccato e mi sono
infiammato nella tua pace».
Ecco, Agostino ha incontrato
Dio e durante tutta la sua vita ne ha fatto esperienza, al punto che questa
realtà – che è anzitutto incontro con una Persona, Gesù – ha cambiato la sua
vita, come cambia quella di quanti, donne e uomini, in ogni tempo hanno la
grazia di incontrarlo. Preghiamo che il Signore ci dia questa grazia e ci
faccia trovare così la sua pace.
Saluti:
Je souhaite la bienvenue
aux pèlerins de langue française, et je salue particulièrement les membres de
la Congrégation de Saint-Victor et les jeunes. À la suite de saint Augustin, je
vous encourage à aimer et à servir toujours davantage l’Église, pour trouver
des réponses aux questions des hommes de notre temps. Avec ma Bénédiction
apostolique.
I am pleased to welcome
all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today’s Audience,
including groups from England, Scotland, Hong Kong and the United States of America.
I greet especially the representatives of the Pontifical Mission Societies and
the group who are preparing to be ordained deacons. Upon all of you, and upon
your families and loved ones, I invoke God’s blessings of joy and peace.
Ganz herzlich grüße ich
die Pilger und Besucher deutscher Zunge, insbesondere die
Bereichsverantwortlichen für die Vorbereitung meines Apostolischen Besuchs in
Mariazell und in Österreich im letzten Jahr. Ich freue mich sehr, daß wir uns
hier in Rom wiedersehen können. Danke! "Du hast uns auf dich hin
geschaffen, und unruhig ist unser Herz, bis es Ruhe findet in dir", hat
Augustinus gebetet. Dieses Gebet werde für uns auch Bewegungskraft unseres
Lebens, um uns dorthin zu führen, wo wir den Frieden und die Wahrheit finden
und selbst aktiv Träger des Friedens werden können. Der Herr schenke euch seine
Liebe und die Freude seiner Gegenwart!
Saludo cordialmente a los
visitantes de lengua española. En particular, a los distintos grupos de
estudiantes y peregrinos venidos de Argentina, Chile, España y de otros países
latinoamericanos. Siguiendo el ejemplo y las enseñanzas de san Agustín, os
animo a buscar a Cristo con todas las fuerzas, para encontrar en Él la verdad
de vuestras vidas. ¡Muchas gracias!
Saluto in lingua polacca:
Pozdrawiam obecnych tu
Polaków. Święty Augustyn uczy nas umiłowania Boga. W znanej modlitwie wyznaje:
„Późno Cię ukochałem! Z dala od Ciebie trzymały mnie stworzenia… Twoje światło
usunęło moją ślepotę… poczułem i chłonę Ciebie… płonę pragnieniem Twojego pokoju”
(por. Wyznania X, 27, 38). Niech ta modlitwa obudzi i w nas
pragnienie poznania Boga. Niech będzie pochwalony Jezus Chrystus.
Traduzione italiana:
Saluto tutti i Polacchi
qui presenti. Sant’Agostino ci insegna l’amicizia con Dio. Nella famosa
preghiera confida: “Tardi ti ho amato! Da te mi tenevano lontano quelle cose
(che, se non fossero in te, non esisterebbero). Hai mostrato il tuo splendore e
hai dissipato la mia cecità… mi hai toccato e mi sono infiammato nella tua
pace” (cfr. Confessiones X, 27, 38). Possa questa preghiera
risvegliare anche in noi la voglia di conoscere Dio. Sia lodato Gesù Cristo.
* * *
Rivolgo un cordiale
benvenuto ai pellegrini di lingua italiana. In particolare, saluto i Vescovi
qui convenuti in occasione del 40° anniversario di fondazione della Comunità
di Sant'Egidio, assicurando il mio orante ricordo affinché si rafforzi in
ciascuno il fermo desiderio di annunciare a tutti Gesù Cristo, unico Salvatore
del mondo. Saluto con particolare affetto i fedeli della Parrocchia di
Santa Caterina di Nardò - dove mi dicono che c'è un bellissimo mare -, con
un pensiero speciale per i giovani musicisti. Cari amici, vi ringrazio per la
vostra presenza ed auspico che questo incontro possa accrescere in ciascuno il
desiderio di testimoniare con gioia il Vangelo nella vita di ogni giorno. Vi
accompagno con la mia preghiera, affinché possiate edificare ogni vostro
progetto sulle solide basi della fedeltà a Dio. Saluto poi gli Operatori
Caritas della diocesi di Sabina-Poggio Mirteto e li incoraggio a
proseguire con generosità la loro opera in favore dei più bisognosi.
Mi rivolgo, infine,
ai giovani, ai malati e agli sposi novelli.
Ricorre domani la memoria
liturgica di san Giovanni Bosco, sacerdote ed educatore. Guardate a lui,
cari giovani, specialmente voi cresimandi di Serroni di Battipaglia, come
a un autentico maestro di vita. Voi, cari ammalati, apprendete dalla sua
esperienza spirituale a confidare in ogni circostanza in Cristo crocifisso. E
voi, cari sposi novelli, ricorrete alla sua intercessione per assumere con
impegno generoso la vostra missione di sposi.
© Copyright 2008 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/it/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20080130.html
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682), San Agustín entre Cristo y la Virgen, circa 1664, 274 x 195, Museo del Prado
BENEDETTO XVI
UDIENZA GENERALE
Saluto ai pellegrini
presenti nella Basilica Vaticana:
Sono lieto di accogliere
e di salutare cordialmente tutti voi, cari pellegrini provenienti da varie
parti d’Italia. Il cammino
quaresimale che stiamo percorrendo sia occasione favorevole di un
deciso sforzo di conversione e di rinnovamento spirituale per un risveglio alla
fede autentica, per un recupero salutare del rapporto con Dio e per un impegno
evangelico più generoso. Nella consapevolezza che l'amore è stile di vita che
contraddistingue il credente, non stancatevi di essere ovunque testimoni di
carità.
Chers pèlerins de langue
française, je vous accueille avec joie auprès de la tombe de Pierre. Que la
démarche spirituelle que vous accomplissez ici, en ce temps de Carême,
affermisse votre foi au Christ et votre amour de l’Église. En vous confiant à
l’intercession de la Bienheureuse Vierge Marie, je vous assure de ma prière
pour vous et pour vos familles, et à toutes vos intentions. Avec ma Bénédiction
apostolique.
I am pleased to greet all
the English-speaking pilgrims gathered here in the Basilica of Saint Peter.
Lent is a privileged time for all Christians to recommit themselves to
conversion and spiritual renewal. In this way, we rekindle a genuine faith in
Christ, a life-giving relationship with God and a more fervent dedication to
the Gospel. Strengthened by the conviction that love is the distinguishing mark
of Christian believers, I encourage you to persevere in bearing witness to charity
in your daily lives.
Mit Freude grüße ich die
Audienzteilnehmer aus den Ländern deutscher Sprache hier im Petersdom. Die
Fastenzeit, die österliche Bußzeit, bietet eine gute Gelegenheit, den Weg der
Umkehr entschieden weiterzugehen und sich um eine geistliche Erneuerung zu
bemühen für eine Neubelebung des Glaubens und unserer Beziehung zu Gott sowie
für einen großherzigen Einsatz im Geist des Evangeliums. Die Liebe ist der
Lebensstil, der den glaubenden Menschen auszeichnet. Werdet nicht müde, überall
Zeugnis für die Nächstenliebe zu geben. Euch allen wünsche ich
einen gesegneten Aufenthalt hier in Rom.
Saludo cordialmente a los
peregrinos de lengua española aquí presentes. Que el camino de conversión
cuaresmal sea una ocasión idónea para una auténtica renovación espiritual, a
fin de avivar la fe y la relación de amistad con Dios y para un mayor
compromiso evangélico. Con la certeza de que el amor es el estilo de vida que
distingue a los creyentes, no os canséis de ser testigos de la caridad allí
donde estéis. ¡Que Dios os bendiga!
Concludiamo questo nostro
incontro cantando la preghiera del Pater Noster.
* * *
Sant’Agostino
IV: Gli scritti
Cari fratelli e sorelle,
dopo la pausa degli
Esercizi Spirituali della settimana scorsa ritorniamo oggi alla grande figura
di sant’Agostino, sul quale già ripetutamente ho parlato nelle catechesi del
mercoledì. E’ il Padre della Chiesa che ha lasciato il maggior numero di opere,
e di queste oggi intendo parlare brevemente. Alcuni degli scritti agostiniani
sono d’importanza capitale, e non solo per la storia del cristianesimo ma per
la formazione di tutta la cultura occidentale: l’esempio più chiaro sono
le Confessioni, senza dubbio uno dei libri dell’antichità cristiana
tuttora più letti. Come diversi Padri della Chiesa dei primi secoli, ma in
misura incomparabilmente più vasta, anche il Vescovo d’Ippona ha infatti
esercitato un influsso esteso e persistente, come appare già dalla
sovrabbondante tradizione manoscritta delle sue opere, che sono davvero
moltissime.
Lui stesso le passò in
rassegna qualche anno prima di morire nelle Retractationes (Ritrattazioni),
e poco dopo la sua morte esse vennero accuratamente registrate nell’Indiculus («elenco»)
aggiunto dal fedele amico Possidio alla biografia di sant’Agostino, Vita
di Agostino. L’elenco delle opere di Agostino fu realizzato con l’intento
esplicito di salvaguardarne la memoria, mentre l’invasione vandala dilagava in
tutta l’Africa romana, e conta ben milletrenta scritti numerati dal loro
Autore, con altri «che non si possono numerare, perché non vi ha apposto nessun
numero». Vescovo di una città vicina, Possidio dettava queste parole proprio a
Ippona – dove si era rifugiato e dove aveva assistito alla morte dell’amico – e
quasi sicuramente si basava sul catalogo della biblioteca personale di
Agostino. Oggi, sono oltre trecento le lettere sopravvissute del Vescovo di
Ippona e quasi seicento le omelie, ma queste in origine erano moltissime di
più, forse addirittura tra le tremila e le quattromila, frutto di un
quarantennio di predicazione dell’antico retore che aveva deciso di seguire
Gesù e di parlare non più ai grandi della corte imperiale, ma alla semplice
popolazione di Ippona.
E ancora in tempi
recenti, le scoperte di un gruppo di lettere e di alcune omelie hanno arricchito
la nostra conoscenza di questo grande Padre della Chiesa. «Molti libri – scrive
Possidio – furono da lui composti e pubblicati, molte prediche furono tenute in
chiesa, trascritte e corrette, sia per confutare i diversi eretici sia per
interpretare le Sacre Scritture ad edificazione dei santi figli della Chiesa.
Queste opere – sottolinea il Vescovo amico – sono tante, che a stento uno
studioso ha la possibilità di leggerle ed imparare a conoscerle» (Vita di
Agostino 18,9).
Tra la produzione
letteraria di Agostino – quindi più di mille pubblicazioni suddivise in scritti
filosofici, apologetici, dottrinali, morali, monastici, esegetici, antieretici,
oltre appunto le lettere e le omelie – spiccano alcune opere eccezionali di
grande respiro teologico e filosofico. Innanzitutto bisogna ricordare le già
menzionate Confessioni, scritte in tredici libri tra il 397 e il 400 a
lode di Dio. Esse sono una specie di autobiografia nella forma di un dialogo
con Dio. Questo genere letterario riflette proprio la vita di sant’Agostino,
che era una vita non chiusa in sé, dispersa in tante cose, ma vissuta
sostanzialmente come dialogo con Dio e così una vita con gli altri. Già il
titolo Confessiones indica la specificità di questa autobiografia.
Questa parola confessiones nel latino cristiano sviluppato dalla
tradizione dei Salmi ha due significati, che tuttavia si intrecciano. Confessiones indica,
in primo luogo, la confessione delle proprie debolezze, della miseria dei
peccati; ma, allo stesso tempo, confessiones significa lode di Dio,
riconoscimento a Dio. Vedere la propria miseria nella luce di Dio diventa lode
a Dio e ringraziamento, perché Dio ci ama e ci accetta, ci trasforma e ci eleva
verso se stesso. Su queste Confessioni, che ebbero grande successo già
durante la vita di sant’Agostino, egli stesso ha scritto: «Esse hanno
esercitato su di me tale azione mentre le scrivevo e l’esercitano ancora quando
le rileggo. Vi sono molti fratelli ai quali queste opere piacciono» (Ritrattazioni II,6):
e devo dire che anch’io sono uno di questi «fratelli». Grazie alle Confessioni possiamo
seguire passo passo il cammino interiore di quest’uomo straordinario e
appassionato di Dio. Meno diffuse, ma altrettanto originali e molto importanti,
sono poi le Ritrattazioni, composte in due libri intorno al 427, nelle
quali sant’Agostino, ormai anziano, compie un’opera di «revisione» (retractatio)
di tutta la sua opera scritta, lasciando così un documento letterario singolare
e preziosissimo, ma anche un insegnamento di sincerità e di umiltà intellettuale.
La città di Dio –
opera imponente e decisiva per lo sviluppo del pensiero politico occidentale e
per la teologia cristiana della storia – venne scritta tra il 413 e il 426 in
ventidue libri. L’occasione era il Sacco di Roma compiuto dai Goti nel 410. I
pagani, ancora numerosi in quel tempo, ed anche non pochi cristiani pensano che
il Dio della nuova religione e gli stessi Apostoli avevano mostrato di non
essere in grado di proteggere la città. Ai tempi delle divinità pagane Roma
era caput mundi, la grande capitale, e nessuno poteva pensare che sarebbe
caduta nelle mani dei nemici. Adesso, con il Dio dei cristiani, questa grande
città non appariva più sicura. Quindi il Dio dei cristiani, che non proteggeva,
non poteva essere il Dio al quale affidarsi. A questa obiezione, che toccava
profondamente anche il cuore dei cristiani, risponde sant’Agostino con questa
grandiosa opera, La città di Dio, chiarendo che cosa dobbiamo aspettarci
da Dio e che cosa no, qual è la relazione tra la sfera politica e la sfera
della fede, della Chiesa. Anche oggi questo libro è una fonte per definire bene
la vera laicità e la competenza della Chiesa, la grande vera speranza che ci
dona la fede.
Questo grande libro è una
presentazione della storia dell’umanità governata dalla Provvidenza divina, ma
attualmente divisa da due amori. E questo è il disegno fondamentale, la sua
interpretazione della storia, che è la lotta tra due amori: amore di sé «sino
all’indifferenza per Dio», e amore di Dio «sino all’indifferenza per sé» (La città
di Dio XIV,28), alla piena libertà da sé per gli altri nella luce di Dio.
Questo, quindi, è forse il più grande libro di sant’Agostino, di un’importanza
permanente. Altrettanto importante è il De Trinitate (La Trinità),
opera in quindici libri sul principale nucleo della fede cristiana, la fede nel
Dio trinitario, scritta in due tempi: tra il 399 e il 412 i primi dodici libri,
pubblicati all’insaputa di Agostino, che verso il 420 li completò e rivide
l’intera opera. Qui egli riflette sul volto di Dio e cerca di capire questo
mistero del Dio che è unico, l’unico Creatore del mondo, di noi tutti, e
tuttavia, proprio questo unico Dio è trinitario, un cerchio di amore. Cerca di
capire il mistero insondabile: proprio l’essere trinitario, in tre Persone, è la
più reale e più profonda unità dell’unico Dio.
L’opera La dottrina
cristiana è invece una vera e propria introduzione culturale
all’interpretazione della Bibbia e in definitiva allo stesso cristianesimo, un
trattato che ha avuto un’importanza decisiva nella formazione della cultura
occidentale.
Pur con tutta la sua
umiltà, Agostino certamente fu consapevole della propria statura intellettuale.
Ma per lui, più importante del fare grandi opere di respiro alto, teologico,
era portare il messaggio cristiano ai semplici. Questa sua intenzione più
profonda, che ha guidato tutta la sua vita, appare da una lettera scritta al
collega Evodio, dove comunica la decisione di sospendere per il momento la
dettatura dei libri su La Trinità, «perché sono troppo faticosi e penso
che possano essere capiti da pochi; per questo urgono di più testi che speriamo
saranno utili a molti» (Ep. 169,1,1). Quindi più utile era per lui
comunicare la fede in modo comprensibile a tutti, che non scrivere grandi opere
teologiche. La responsabilità acutamente avvertita nei confronti della
divulgazione del messaggio cristiano è poi all’origine di scritti come il La
catechesi ai semplici, una teoria e anche una prassi della catechesi, o
il Salmo contro il partito di Donato. I donatisti erano il grande problema
dell’Africa di sant’Agostino, uno scisma volutamente africano. Essi
affermavano: la vera cristianità è quella africana. Si opponevano all’unità
della Chiesa. Contro questo scisma il grande Vescovo ha lottato per tutta la
sua vita, cercando di convincere i donatisti che solo nell’unità anche
l’africanità può essere vera. E per farsi capire dai semplici, che non potevano
comprendere il grande latino del retore, Agostino ha deciso: devo scrivere,
anche con errori grammaticali, in un latino molto semplificato. E lo ha fatto
soprattutto in questo Salmo, una specie di poesia semplice contro i
donatisti, per aiutare tutta la gente a capire che solo nell’unità della Chiesa
si realizza per tutti realmente la nostra relazione con Dio e cresce la pace
nel mondo.
In questa produzione
destinata a un pubblico più largo riveste un’importanza particolare la massa
delle omelie, spesso pronunciate «a braccio», trascritte dai tachigrafi durante
la predicazione e subito messe in circolazione. Tra queste spiccano le
bellissime Esposizione sui Salmi, molto lette nel Medioevo. Proprio la
prassi di pubblicazione delle migliaia di omelie di Agostino – spesso senza il
controllo dell’autore – spiega la loro diffusione e successiva dispersione, ma
anche la loro vitalità. Subito infatti le prediche del Vescovo d’Ippona
diventavano, per la fama del loro autore, testi molto ricercati e servivano
anche per altri Vescovi e sacerdoti come modelli, adattati a sempre nuovi
contesti.
La tradizione iconografica,
già in un affresco lateranense risalente al VI secolo, rappresenta
sant’Agostino con un libro in mano, certo per esprimere la sua produzione
letteraria, che tanto influenzò la mentalità e il pensiero cristiani, ma per
esprimere anche il suo amore per i libri, per la lettura e la conoscenza della
grande cultura precedente. Alla sua morte non lasciò nulla, racconta Possidio,
ma «raccomandava sempre di conservare diligentemente per i posteri la
biblioteca della chiesa con tutti i codici», soprattutto quelli delle sue
opere. In queste, sottolinea Possidio, Agostino è «sempre vivo» e giova a chi
legge i suoi scritti, anche se, conclude, «io credo che abbiano potuto trarre
più profitto dal suo contatto quelli che lo poterono vedere e ascoltare quando
di persona parlava in chiesa, e soprattutto quelli che ebbero pratica della sua
vita quotidiana fra la gente» (Vita di Agostino 31). Sì, anche per noi
sarebbe stato bello poterlo sentire vivo. Ma è realmente vivo nei suoi scritti,
è presente in noi, e così vediamo anche la permanente vitalità della fede alla
quale ha dato tutta la sua vita.
Saluti:
Je salue les pèlerins
francophones, en particulier les nombreux jeunes des écoles, collèges et lycées
de France, notamment ceux de Fénelon Sainte-Marie et de Gerson. Je vous
encourage à fréquenter saint Augustin, afin qu’il vous ouvre à l’intelligence
des Écritures et qu’il fortifie votre attachement au Christ. Avec ma
Bénédiction apostolique.
I cordially greet all the
English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s audience. I extend a particular
welcome to parishioners from the Church of Our Lady of Loretto in New York, as
well as Benedictines participating in an intensive course on the rule of their
order. A blessed Lent to you all!
Einen frohen Gruß richte
ich an die deutschsprachigen Pilger und Besucher. Unter ihnen grüße ich
besonders die Kirchenrechtsstudenten der Universitäten München, Augsburg und
Potsdam. In seinen Schriften zeigt uns Augustinus auch heute den Weg, den
Glauben tiefer zu verstehen. Wenn man sie liest, sieht man, daß der Glaube der
gleiche geblieben ist und immerfort Gegenwart ist, die uns auch heute den Weg
zeigt. So sollen wir wie er nicht müde werden, Gott immer neu zu suchen, um ihn
dann auch immer mehr zu lieben und seine Zeugen zu sein. Von Herzen segne ich
euch alle.
Saludo a los peregrinos
de lengua española, especialmente a las Hijas de María Auxiliadora y a los
estudiantes del Colegio Mater Salvatoris y Nuestra Señora del Huerto. Que en
esta Cuaresma, el ejemplo de san Agustín, la lectura de sus obras, su mensaje y
su camino interior os ayuden a un encuentro personal con Jesucristo que cambie
totalmente vuestras vidas. ¡Muchas gracias!
Saúdo os visitantes de
língua portuguesa, especialmente os brasileiros de Porto Alegre. Faço
votos por que vossa recente peregrinação à Terra Santa sirva de auspício para
invocar do Altíssimo abundantes graças que vos façam prosseguir, seguros e
concordes, na caminhada penitencial rumo à Páscoa eterna. Que Deus Nosso Senhor
abençoe vossas famílias e comunidades.
Saluto in lingua polacca:
Witam pielgrzymów
przybyłych z Polski i z innych stron świata. Wielki Post, jaki przeżywamy, jest
czasem przemiany serc, rekolekcji, powrotu człowieka do Boga. Niech naszą
modlitwę, dobre postanowienia, ożywia zawołanie świętego Augustyna:
„Niespokojne jest serce nasze, dopóki nie spocznie w Bogu” (por. Wyznania I,
1, 1). Na ten czas odnowy ducha serdecznie błogosławię wam tu obecnym i waszym
bliskim.
Traduzione italiana:
Saluto i pellegrini
polacchi giunti dalla Polonia e dagli altri paesi del mondo. La Quaresima è il
tempo della conversione dei cuori, degli esercizi spirituali e del ritorno
dell’uomo a Dio. Che le nostra preghiera ed i nostri buoni propositi siano
animati dall’invocazione di sant’Agostino: “inquieto è il nostro cuore, finché
non riposa in Dio” (cfr. Confessiones I, 1, 1). Per questo tempo di
rinnovamento dello spirito, a voi tutti qui presenti e ai vostri cari, imparto
una benedizione di cuore.
Saluto in lingua ceca:
Srdečně zdravím poutníky
ze Slavkovic u Nového Města na Moravě, Radešínské Svratky a Jámy! Drazí, v této
postní době prosme Pána o pravé a hluboké obrácení. K tomu ze srdce žehnám vám
i vašim drahým! Chvála Kristu!
Traduzione italiana:
Un cordiale benvenuto ai
pellegrini di Slavkovice u Nového Města na Moravě, Radešínská Svratka a Jámy!
Carissimi, in questo tempo di Quaresima chiediamo al Signore una vera e
profonda conversione. Con questi voti benedico di cuore voi e i vostri cari!
Sia lodato Gesù Cristo!
* * *
Rivolgo ora un cordiale
benvenuto ai pellegrini di lingua italiana. In particolare, saluto le Suore
Canossiane qui convenute in occasione della loro Assemblea capitolare e le
esorto ad essere sempre più presenze significative ovunque operano,
distinguendosi per una intensa comunione e attiva cooperazione con i Pastori
della Chiesa. Saluto con affetto i Seminaristi del Seminario Vescovile di
Lugano, accompagnati dal Vescovo Mons. Pier Giacomo Grampa, e li incoraggio a
dedicarsi con serio impegno alla propria formazione spirituale e teologica,
necessaria per l’impegno apostolico che li attende. Saluto le Guide della
Necropoli Vaticana, accompagnate dal Cardinale Angelo Comastri e da Mons.
Vittorio Lanzani, ed esprimo il mio apprezzamento per il competente e generoso
servizio che svolgono in favore dei pellegrini provenienti da tutto il mondo.
Saluto i fedeli della Parrocchia San Giovanni Battista, in Dossena e i
rappresentanti della Federazione Italiana Amici dei Musei.
Saluto poi i fedeli
delle Diocesi di Pavia e di Vigevano, guidati dai rispettivi Pastori
Mons. Giovanni Giudici e Mons. Claudio Baggini, qui convenuti per ricambiare la
visita, che ho avuto la gioia di compiere nel mese aprile dell’anno scorso in
terra pavese e lomellina. Cari amici, ancora una volta vi ringrazio per
l’affetto con cui mi avete accolto, ed auspico che da quel nostro incontro
scaturisca per le vostre Comunità diocesane una rinnovata vitalità spirituale
nella fedele e generosa adesione a Cristo e alla Chiesa. Guardate al futuro con
speranza e lavorate con appassionata fiducia nella vigna del Signore!
Il mio pensiero va infine
ai giovani, ai malati, e agli sposi novelli. L’amicizia nei
confronti di Gesù, cari giovani, sia per voi fonte di gioia e spinta a
compiere scelte impegnative. L’amore per Cristo vi rechi conforto, cari malati,
nei momenti difficili e vi infonda serenità. Cari sposi novelli, alla
luce dell’amicizia con il Signore, impegnatevi a corrispondere alla vostra
vocazione e missione con un amore reciproco e fedele.
© Copyright 2008 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/it/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20080220.html
.jpg)
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682),
San Agustín lava los pies de Cristo, circa
1650, pintura al óleo sobre lienzo, 251 x 171, Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia.
BENEDETTO XVI
UDIENZA GENERALE
Aula Paolo VI
Mercoledì, 27 febbraio 2008
Saluto ai pellegrini
presenti nella Basilica Vaticana:
Sono lieto di salutare
cordialmente tutti voi, cari pellegrini provenienti da varie parti d’Italia. Vi
incoraggio a crescere nella carità mediante concreti gesti di solidarietà verso
le persone più deboli e bisognose, il cui volto è immagine di quello di Cristo.
Quanto di materiale doniamo agli altri, è segno del dono più grande che
possiamo offrire ai fratelli con l’annuncio e la testimonianza del Vangelo.
Questo tempo di Quaresima sia caratterizzato da uno sforzo personale e
comunitario di adesione a Cristo per essere testimoni del suo amore.
Je salue cordialement les
pèlerins de langue française présents dans cette basilique. Que votre
pèlerinage au tombeau de l’Apôtre Pierre soit pour vous l’occasion de mieux
découvrir que Dieu est amour et que sa rencontre constitue la seule réponse aux
inquiétudes du cœur humain. Par l’intercession de la Vierge Marie, que Dieu
vous bénisse ainsi que vos familles et toutes les personnes qui vous sont
proches !
Dear Brothers and
Sisters, I am pleased to welcome all the English-speaking visitors present here
today. May your stay in Rome strengthen your faith, and grant you courage
to continue your Lenten journey in prayer, fasting, reconciliation and
compassion. Upon all of you I invoke God’s abundant blessings of joy and peace!
Ganz herzlich heiße ich
die Audienzteilnehmer aus den deutschsprachigen Ländern hier im Petersdom
willkommen. Eure Wallfahrt zum Grab des Apostels Petrus stärke euch im Glauben
und in der Liebe, damit ihr Zeugnis geben könnt für die Frohbotschaft des
Evangeliums. Die Fastenzeit lädt uns zudem ein, unser Herz für die materielle
und seelische Not unserer Mitmenschen zu öffnen, in denen uns Christus selbst
begegnet. Er ist es, der uns um unsere Zuwendung und unsere Solidarität bitten.
Seien wir großzügig und teilen wir unsere Zeit, unsere Güter und auch unseren
Glauben mit unseren bedürftigen Brüdern und Schwestern. Der Herr segne euch und
eure Familien.
Saludo con afecto a los
peregrinos de lengua española aquí presentes. Os deseo que vuestra visita a
Roma contribuya a reavivar vuestra vida cristiana con el testimonio de fe y
caridad que los Apóstoles dieron en su martirio. Al mismo tiempo, os animo a
proseguir con renovada esperanza vuestro camino de conversión cuaresmal para
llegar, con el corazón purificado, a la celebración gozosa de la Pascua.
* * *
Sant’Agostino
V: La triplice
conversione
Cari fratelli e sorelle,
con l’incontro di oggi
vorrei concludere la presentazione della figura di sant’Agostino. Dopo esserci
soffermati sulla sua vita, sulle opere e su alcuni aspetti del suo pensiero,
oggi vorrei tornare sulla sua vicenda interiore, che ne ha fatto uno dei più grandi
convertiti della storia cristiana. A questa sua esperienza ho dedicato in
particolare la mia riflessione durante il pellegrinaggio
che ho compiuto a Pavia, l’anno scorso, per venerare le spoglie mortali di
questo Padre della Chiesa. In tal modo ho voluto esprimere a lui l’omaggio di
tutta la Chiesa cattolica, ma anche rendere visibile la mia personale devozione
e riconoscenza nei confronti di una figura alla quale mi sento molto legato per
la parte che ha avuto nella mia vita di teologo, di sacerdote e di Pastore.
Ancora oggi è possibile
ripercorrere la vicenda di sant’Agostino grazie soprattutto alle Confessioni,
che sono all’origine di una delle forme letterarie più specifiche
dell’Occidente, l’autobiografia, cioè l’espressione personale della coscienza
di sé. Ebbene, chiunque avvicini questo libro straordinario e affascinante,
ancora oggi molto letto, si accorge facilmente come la conversione di Agostino
non sia stata improvvisa né pienamente realizzata fin dall’inizio, ma possa
essere definita piuttosto come un vero e proprio cammino, che resta un modello
per ciascuno di noi. Questo itinerario culminò certamente con la conversione e
poi con il Battesimo, ma non si concluse in quella Veglia pasquale dell’anno
387, quando a Milano il retore africano venne battezzato dal Vescovo Ambrogio.
Il cammino di conversione di Agostino infatti continuò umilmente sino alla fine
della sua vita, tanto che si può veramente dire che le sue diverse tappe – se
ne possono distinguere facilmente tre – siano un’unica grande conversione.
Sant’Agostino è stato un
ricercatore appassionato della verità: lo è stato fin dall’inizio e poi per
tutta la sua vita. La prima tappa del suo cammino di conversione si è
realizzata proprio nel progressivo avvicinamento al cristianesimo. In realtà,
egli aveva ricevuto dalla madre Monica, alla quale restò sempre legatissimo,
un’educazione cristiana e, benché avesse vissuto durante gli anni giovanili una
vita sregolata, sempre avvertì un’attrazione profonda per Cristo, avendo bevuto
l’amore per il nome del Signore con il latte materno, come lui stesso
sottolinea (cfr Confessioni III,4,8). Ma anche la filosofia, soprattutto
quella d’impronta platonica, aveva contribuito ad avvicinarlo ulteriormente a
Cristo, manifestandogli l’esistenza del Logos, la Ragione creatrice. I
libri dei filosofi gli indicavano che c’è la Ragione, dalla quale viene poi
tutto il mondo, ma non gli dicevano come raggiungere questo Logos, che
sembrava così lontano. Soltanto la lettura dell’epistolario di san Paolo, nella
fede della Chiesa cattolica, gli rivelò pienamente la verità. Questa esperienza
fu sintetizzata da Agostino in una delle pagine più famose delle Confessioni.
Egli racconta che, nel tormento delle sue riflessioni, ritiratosi in un
giardino, udì all’improvviso una voce infantile che ripeteva una cantilena, mai
udita prima: tolle, lege, tolle, lege, «prendi, leggi, prendi, leggi» (VIII,12,29).
Si ricordò allora della conversione di Antonio, padre del monachesimo, e con
premura tornò al codice paolino che aveva poco prima tra le mani, lo aprì e lo
sguardo gli cadde sul passo della Lettera ai Romani, dove l’Apostolo
esorta ad abbandonare le opere della carne e a rivestirsi di Cristo (13,13-14).
Aveva capito che quella parola in quel momento era rivolta personalmente a lui,
veniva da Dio tramite l’Apostolo e gli indicava cosa fare in quel momento. Così
sentì dileguarsi le tenebre del dubbio e si ritrovò finalmente libero di
donarsi interamente a Cristo: «Avevi convertito a te il mio essere», egli
commenta (Confessioni VIII,12,30). Fu questa la sua prima e decisiva
conversione.
A questa tappa
fondamentale del suo lungo cammino il retore africano arrivò grazie alla sua
passione per l’uomo e per la verità, passione che lo portò a cercare Dio grande
e inaccessibile. La fede in Cristo gli fece capire che il Dio, apparentemente
così lontano, in realtà non lo era. Egli, infatti, si era fatto vicino a noi,
divenendo uno di noi. In questo senso la fede in Cristo portò a compimento la
lunga ricerca di Agostino sul cammino della verità. Solo un Dio fattosi
«toccabile», uno di noi, era finalmente un Dio che si poteva pregare, per il
quale e con il quale si poteva vivere. E’ questa una via da percorrere con
coraggio e nello stesso tempo con umiltà, nell’apertura a una purificazione
permanente, di cui ognuno di noi ha sempre bisogno. Ma con quella Veglia
pasquale del 387, come abbiamo detto, il cammino di Agostino non era concluso.
Tornato in Africa e fondato un piccolo monastero, vi si ritirò con pochi amici
per dedicarsi alla vita contemplativa e di studio. Questo era il sogno della
sua vita. Adesso era chiamato a vivere totalmente per la verità, con la verità,
nell’amicizia di Cristo che è la Verità. Un bel sogno che durò tre anni, fino a
quando egli non venne, suo malgrado, consacrato sacerdote a Ippona e destinato
a servire i fedeli, continuando sì a vivere con Cristo e per Cristo, ma a
servizio di tutti. Questo gli era molto difficile, ma capì fin dall’inizio che
solo vivendo per gli altri, e non semplicemente per la sua privata
contemplazione, poteva realmente vivere con Cristo e per Cristo. Così,
rinunciando a una vita solo di meditazione, Agostino imparò, spesso con
difficoltà, a mettere a disposizione il frutto della sua intelligenza a
vantaggio degli altri. Imparò a comunicare la sua fede alla gente semplice e a
vivere così per essa in quella che divenne la sua città, svolgendo senza
stancarsi un’attività generosa e gravosa, che così descrive in uno dei suoi
bellissimi sermoni: «Continuamente predicare, discutere, riprendere, edificare,
essere a disposizione di tutti – è un ingente carico, un grande peso, un’immane
fatica» (Sermoni 339,4). Ma questo peso egli prese su di sé, capendo che
proprio così poteva essere più vicino a Cristo. Capire che si arriva agli altri
con semplicità e umiltà, fu questa la sua seconda conversione.
Ma c’è un’ultima tappa
del cammino agostiniano, una terza conversione: quella che lo portò ogni giorno
della sua vita a chiedere perdono a Dio. Inizialmente aveva pensato che una
volta battezzato, nella vita di comunione con Cristo, nei Sacramenti, nella
celebrazione dell’Eucaristia, sarebbe arrivato alla vita proposta dal Discorso
della montagna: alla perfezione donata nel Battesimo e riconfermata
nell’Eucaristia. Nell’ultima parte della sua vita capì che quello che aveva
detto nelle sue prime prediche sul Discorso della montagna – cioè che adesso
noi da cristiani viviamo questo ideale permanentemente – era sbagliato. Solo
Cristo stesso realizza veramente e completamente il Discorso della montagna.
Noi abbiamo sempre bisogno di essere lavati da Cristo e da Lui rinnovati. Per
questo abbiamo bisogno di quella conversione permanente, che si alimenta
all’umiltà di saperci peccatori in cammino, finché il Signore ci dia la mano
definitivamente e ci introduca nella vita eterna. In questo atteggiamento di
umiltà, vissuto giorno dopo giorno, Agostino visse e morì.
Questo sentimento di
indegnità davanti all’unico Signore Gesù lo introdusse all’esperienza di
un’umiltà anche intellettuale. Agostino, infatti, che è una delle più grandi
figure nella storia del pensiero, volle negli ultimi anni della sua vita
sottoporre a un lucido esame critico tutte le sue numerosissime opere. Ebbero
così origine le Retractationes (Ritrattazioni), che in questo
modo inseriscono il suo pensiero teologico, davvero grande, nella fede umile e
santa di quella che egli chiama semplicemente con il nome di Catholica,
cioè della Chiesa. «Ho compreso – scrive appunto in questo originalissimo libro
(I,19,1-3) – che uno solo è veramente perfetto e che le parole del Discorso
della montagna sono totalmente realizzate in uno solo: in Gesù Cristo stesso.
Tutta la Chiesa invece – tutti noi, inclusi gli Apostoli – dobbiamo pregare
ogni giorno: rimetti a noi i nostri debiti come noi li rimettiamo ai nostri
debitori».
Convertito a Cristo, che
è verità e amore, Agostino lo ha seguito per tutta la vita ed è diventato un
modello per ogni essere umano, per noi tutti in cerca di Dio. Per questo ho
voluto concludere il mio pellegrinaggio a Pavia riconsegnando idealmente alla
Chiesa e al mondo, davanti alla tomba di questo grande innamorato di Dio, la
mia prima Enciclica, intitolata Deus
caritas est. Questa infatti molto deve, soprattutto nella sua prima parte,
al pensiero di sant’Agostino. Anche oggi, come al suo tempo, l’umanità ha
bisogno di conoscere e soprattutto di vivere questa realtà fondamentale: Dio è
amore, e l’incontro con Lui è la sola risposta alle inquietudini del cuore
umano. Un cuore che è abitato dalla speranza, forse ancora oscura e
inconsapevole in molti nostri contemporanei, ma che per noi cristiani apre già
oggi al futuro, tanto che san Paolo ha scritto che «nella speranza siamo stati
salvati» (Rm 8,24). Alla speranza ho voluto dedicare la mia seconda
Enciclica, Spe
salvi, e anch’essa è largamente debitrice nei confronti di Agostino e del
suo incontro con Dio.
In un bellissimo testo
sant’Agostino definisce la preghiera come espressione del desiderio e afferma
che Dio risponde allargando verso di Lui il nostro cuore. Da parte nostra
dobbiamo purificare i nostri desideri e le nostre speranze per accogliere la
dolcezza di Dio (cfr Commento alla Prima Lettera di Giovanni 4,6). Questa
sola, infatti, aprendoci anche agli altri, ci salva. Preghiamo dunque che nella
nostra vita ci sia ogni giorno concesso di seguire l’esempio di questo grande
convertito, incontrando come lui in ogni momento della nostra vita il Signore
Gesù, l’unico che ci salva, ci purifica e ci dà la vera gioia, la vera vita.
Saluti:
Je suis heureux
d’accueillir ce matin les pèlerins francophones. Je salue particulièrement les
prêtres et les séminaristes de Chambéry, accompagnés de l’archevêque, Mgr
Laurent Ulrich, ainsi que les novices de la Congrégation Saint-Jean et les
jeunes. Suivant l’exemple de saint Augustin, soyez toujours des chercheurs de
la vérité, en allant avec confiance à la rencontre du Seigneur Jésus, l’unique
sauveur. Que Dieu vous bénisse !
I welcome all the English
speaking visitors present today, including the many student groups and the
pilgrims from England, Sweden, Malta, Japan, Canada and the United States. Upon
all of you I invoke God’s abundant blessings of joy and peace.
Von Herzen begrüße ich
die Pilger und Besucher aus den Ländern deutscher Zunge. Besonders heiße ich
die Konferenz der deutschsprachigen Seminarregenten und Konviktsdirektoren
willkommen. Mögen die Schriften und das Vorbild des heiligen Augustinus für uns
alle eine Hilfe auf unserem Weg der täglich neu nötigen Bekehrung sein. Dazu
bestärke uns der Allmächtige Gott mit seinem Segen.
Saludo cordialmente a los
visitantes de lengua española. En particular, a los formadores y seminaristas
de Córdoba, con su Obispo, a los que animo a seguir con entusiasmo su
preparación al sacerdocio. Saludo también a las Cofradías del Cristo de la
Expiración de Sevilla y de Málaga, a los distintos grupos de estudiantes y
peregrinos venidos de Argentina, Chile, España, México, y de otros países
latinoamericanos. Siguiendo el ejemplo de san Agustín, os exhorto a fijar vuestra
mirada en Cristo, que se entregó por nosotros, y proseguir con esperanza
vuestro camino de conversión cuaresmal. Muchas gracias.
Saluto in lingua polacca:
Witam Polaków obecnych na
tej audiencji. Pozdrawiam szczególnie głuchoniewidomych z Warszawy. Niech okres
Wielkiego Postu będzie dla wszystkich czasem dobrego przygotowania do świąt
zmartwychwstania Pańskiego. Serdecznie wam błogosławię. Niech będzie pochwalony
Jezus Chrystus!
Traduzione italiana:
Saluto i polacchi
presenti in quest’udienza. In modo particolare saluto i sordi-ciechi
provenienti da Varsavia. Il periodo della Quaresima sia per tutti un tempo di
buona preparazione alla festa della Risurrezione del Signore. Cordialmente vi
benedico. Sia lodato Gesù Cristo!
Saluto in lingua
slovacca:
Zo srdca pozdravujem
slovenských pútnikov z farnosti Blatné. Bratia a sestry, Pôstna doba nás
pobáda, aby sme uznali v Ježišovi Kristovi našu najväčšiu nádej. Pozývam vás,
aby ste boli vo svete vernými svedkami jeho Radostnej zvesti o vykúpení.
Ochotne žehnám vás i vaše rodiny. Pochválený buď Ježiš Kristus!
Traduzione italiana:
Saluto di cuore i
pellegrini slovacchi provenienti dalla parrocchia di Blatné. Fratelli e
sorelle, il tempo della Quaresima ci esorta a riconoscere Gesù Cristo come
nostra suprema speranza. Vi invito ad essere nel mondo testimoni fedeli della
Buona Novella della redenzione. Volentieri benedico voi e le vostre famiglie.
Sia lodato Gesù Cristo!
Saluto in lingua slovena:
Lepo pozdravljam vernike
iz Škofje Loke v Sloveniji! V času priprave na sveto birmo, ki jo boste letos
prejeli, ste se podali na romarsko pot po Italiji in prišli tudi na srečanje s
Petrovim naslednikom. Bodite vedno odprti za navdihe Svetega Duha in naj bo z
vami moj blagoslov!
Traduzione italiana:
Rivolgo un cordiale
saluto ai fedeli provenienti da Škofja Loka in Slovenia! In preparazione alla
Cresima che riceverete quest’anno, siete in pellegrinaggio ai luoghi sacri
dell’Italia e partecipate anche all’incontro con il Successore di Pietro. Siate
sempre aperti alle ispirazioni dello Spirito Santo e la mia Benedizione vi
accompagni!
* * *
Rivolgo un cordiale
benvenuto ai pellegrini di lingua italiana. In particolare saluto i Vescovi
amici del Movimento dei Focolari, e assicuro la mia preghiera affinché il
Signore li sostenga nel quotidiano ministero pastorale a servizio del Popolo di
Dio. Saluto i rappresentanti della Pontificia Facoltà di Scienze
dell'Educazione "Auxilium" e quelli della Scuola Antonio
Rosmini di Roma ringraziando ciascuno perché, con la partecipazione a
questo incontro, hanno voluto rinnovare la loro filiale devozione verso il
Successore di Pietro. Saluto i partecipanti al convegno promosso dall'Associazione
Italiana di Medicina Nucleare e auguro di portare avanti il loro
impegnativo lavoro diagnostico e terapeutico con rinnovati sentimenti di
profondo rispetto per la persona umana. Saluto poi gli esponenti della Marina
Militare Italiana, i militari del Reggimento Lancieri di Montebello e
i rappresentanti della Polizia di Stato di Isernia. Tutti incoraggio
a seguire con generosa fedeltà Gesù e il suo Vangelo, per essere cristiani
autentici in famiglia, nel lavoro e in ogni altro ambiente.
Saluto, infine, i giovani,
i malati e gli sposi novelli. Cari fratelli e sorelle,
proseguendo l'itinerario quaresimale, la Chiesa ci invita a seguire le orme di
Cristo che si dirige verso Gerusalemme, dove darà compimento alla sua missione
redentrice. Lasciatevi illuminare dalla sua parola affinché sia nello studio,
sia nella malattia, sia nella vita di famiglia possiate sperimentare la sua
presenza e percorrere un cammino di autentica conversione in questo sacro tempo
di penitenza.
© Copyright 2008 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/it/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20080227.html
_-_WGA10304.jpg)
Benozzo Gozzoli (1420–1497), La
Parabole de la Sainte Trinité, circa 1465, fresque, 220 x 230, San
Gimignano, église Sant'Agostino,
(fresques de la Histoire de la vie de Saint Augustin, scène 12, abside
centrale, mur sud / Storie
della vita di sant'Agostino di Benozzo Gozzoli (1464-1465) nell'abside centrale.)
Voir aussi : http://peresdeleglise.free.fr/Augustin/augustin.htm
http://www.clio.fr/BIBLIOTHEQUE/saint_augustin.asp
