Word to the Wise
Friday, August 28, 2020 - Friday in the 21th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Cor 1:17-25 and Matt 25:1-13]For the Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. [1 Corinthians]
AUGUST 28 ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO, (bishop and doctor of the Church)
Two figures stand like giants in the historical and modern development of theological thought in the western Catholic Church: Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. As it is, Augustine is the most quoted authority in Aquinas' Summa Theologiae. Today is Augustine's feast day. He has an impact on my life every day because we Dominicans use his "rule" as a fundamental framework for our own "constitutions." We are not the only ones who do this. I have found the Rule of St. Augustine printed in the constitutions of a number of congregations of religious women who are not Dominicans. On a broader level, outside the theological ivory towers, Augustine's Confessions, the story of his life and conversion to Christianity as a young man, continues to influence college students all over the world. Students of political science and philosophy still read his City of God as one of the great classics of all time.
Augustine was a teacher of rhetoric (a speech teacher) at the time of his conversion. He brought enormous passion to everything he wrote or said. In this, he reflects St. Paul's personality and the same passion for the gospel. One can see this in just one quote from the Confessions: "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you." That same restlessness shows in the passage from St. Paul in the first scripture for today. God's "foolishness and weakness" is powerful in the person of the crucified Christ!
One man, writing more than 1500 years ago, continues to inspire and challenge Christian faith. God's ways are truly mysterious. AMEN