Man of the World: Man of God

St Augustine of Hippo

St Augustine is one of our greatest saints. He is a model of conversion for Christians of all ages, but his witness speaks in a special way to men and women today.

Prior to his conversion, St Augustine was steeped in a lifestyle which did not bring him the kind of joy, peace and happiness he craved. Living with his mistress who bore him a child, he was in every sense ‘a man of the world’. Nevertheless, he had all his life been on a quest for truth and was deeply attracted to the person of Jesus. In the spiritual and literary masterpiece we know as his Confessions St Augustine writes that prior to his conversion he never stopped trying to find out ‘where we come from, where we are going and how we can find the true life’. His life is an eloquent witness to the patience of God and the ongoing (indeed life-long) process of conversion.

In his public preaching after his ordination as a priest St Augustine had to wrestle with translating his profound and complex thought into language that could be understood by ordinary people. This required a conversion, a change of thinking, which he undertook humbly and obediently. Indeed, as a bishop, having earlier in his life written copiously on many subjects of the day, he had to correct and change his precious works. Again this was a process of conversion which he embraced by God’s grace. For St Augustine the gospel of Christ is fundamentally rooted in knowing that God is love and that we are loved by God. Serving Christ then becomes essentially a question of returning God’s love through acts of charity, with special attention to the material and spiritual needs of others. The Church exists to educate people in love and bring them to spiritual maturity.

Pope Benedict wrote his doctoral thesis on St Augustine and said that for this great saint: ‘The church was not a simple organization of collective events nor, on the contrary, the sum of individuals who live a private religiosity but a community of people who believe in the God of Jesus Christ and who commit themselves to implement in the world the commandment of charity which he left them.’

‘Lord Jesus, I commit myself to a process of ongoing conversion.
May your love transform and melt away any hardness or resistance to your work in my life.’