RBWords

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2013  ST. AUGUSTINE, bishop and doctor of the church

 [ Scriptures may vary at Dominican locations because of the importance of this feast to us. ]

 

    

     The story of the conversion of St. Augustine, as related in his classic, CONFESSIONS, is one that I have recommended to students many times over the years.  A successful and popular teacher, who had embraced a form of "Manicheanism," [much to his mother Monica's anguish], he found himself in great personal and spiritual turmoil.  An interior voice called his attention to a book lying nearby and told him, "Pick it up and read it!" [Tolle et lege!] It was the Bible and the first page he looked at was from the Epistle to the Romans which urged him to conversion of life. [Rom 13:13-14].  This word of God was the catalyst that brought him to Christian faith and the rest, as we say, is history!  But what a history!

 

     I mention this incident from Augustine's life because it is a great example of what St. Paul says today about "the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe."  Augustine had lived his life according to the "word of men" but it had brought him a success that simply did not satisfy his restless being!  It was only when he picked up the word of God that he found his "compass" and became one of the Western world's greatest writers and preachers!  Too many of us, I'm afraid, buy a Bible and put it on the coffee table in the living room to gather dust, or suffer from poor reading of the scriptures at Eucharist [and, sad to say, poor preaching too].  The first step away from this is to "pick it up and read it!"  I'm sure Augustine will help us through his intercession.  He knows what it was like!   AMEN