When you think someone who is a saint and
doctor of the Church, you probably think of someone who lived a long, holy life, who was
groomed from a young age in the teachings of the Church, who never held heretical beliefs
or committed terrible sins. You probably don’t think of someone who
spent 33 years as a heretic, had a child out of wedlock, and who’s most famous prayer
is “Lord, make me chaste—just not yet.” And yet, that is our St. Augustine, one of
the most important theologians and leaders in Church history. He lived a tumultuous early life, but ended
up saving the Church from two major controversies, and is certainly a saint you should know. What did he do and how is he still relevant
today? This is Catholicism in Focus. Few saints can say they’ve experienced more
carnal pleasures and shallow exploits than Augustine. Born in 354 to a Christian mother, Augustine
had no interest for religion in his early life, moving, instead to Carthage to study
rhetoric, and enjoying the temptations of the big city. That line about “make me chaste—just not
yet?” Yeah, he admits that he used that as a pickup
line… it apparently worked, because he fathered a child out of wedlock while in studies. At some point along the way, he did have a
religious conversion… but exactly the one you’re hoping for. Seeking answers to life’s deep questions
but indignant at the images of God he saw in the Old Testament, he became attracted
to the religion of Manichaeism, a gnostic religion that focused on the struggle between
good and evil forces. For Augustine, dualism, having a powerful
evil force, helped to explain how God could be good and yet evil exist in the world, but
more importantly, why he felt so much evil within him. Having made so many mistakes, particularly
of the sexual nature, it was comforting to think that some powerful being might be behind
it. Fortunately for Augustine and the Church,
though, his life with the Manichaeans would end up being short-lived. In 384, at the age of 30, he was appointed
as the professor of rhetoric in Milan, where he would meet his match: St. Ambrose. The bishop of the city and powerful orator,
Ambrose was familiar with the Manichees and knew how to exploit their flaws. Trained in rhetoric but also philosophy, he
introduced Augustine to Neo-Platonic thought, popular at the time among Christian intellectuals,
offering him entirely new ways to deal with the problem with evil. Augustine eventually became a Christian, baptized
by Ambrose in Milan in 387, and planned to live a quiet life of study and prayer as a
quasi-monk. Oh plans… how God laughs at them. Shortly after his baptism, he traveled to Hippo to recruit members to his monastery, he was surrounded by the congregation, seized, and
dragged to the bishop, who, get this… ordained him on the spot, something that sounds absolutely
extraordinary to us today… but was actually kind of normal back then. He eventually became the bishop of Hippo himself,
turning the bishop’s quarters into a monastery, requiring his priests to take vows of poverty,
chastity, and obedience, and lived happily ever after studying and praying with no controversy
whatsoever… the end. Yeah no. He had the wrong job at the wrong time to
think he could live out his days as a peaceful monk. The Church was in turmoil, and he was too
gifted not to get involved. The first of two major controversies that
he faced dealt with the issue of readmitting Christians that had sinned mortally, particularly
those who had abandoned the faith due to persecution. Under the rule of the Emperor Diocletian,
some priests and bishops had handed over the scriptures of the Church and fled for their
lives. After things were safe, some tried to come
back, wanting to serve again as leaders. Donatus Magnus and his followers, called Donatists,
rejected them—their sins removed them from the body of Christ, and so they needed to
be rebaptized. Any sacrament they celebrated would otherwise
be deemed illegitimate and invalid. Given the circumstances, and maybe even today,
this position may seem very attractive. People want to know that they are a part of
the pure Church, the one that has remained faithful—not one in which its ministers
are traitors. Given the choice between being baptized by
someone who denied the faith and one who remained faithful, we’re going to pick the latter
every time. But this is flawed logic. What Augustine rightly points out is that
it is not the faith or power of the minister that effects the sacrament, but the faith
and power of God. Even if the minister is in a state of mortal
sin, the sacraments are still valid. Given the priest abuse crisis in the Catholic
Church, this is good news for everyone. We strive for holiness, but the Church here
on earth is a mix of saints and sinners, and God can work through us all. But do we even need God to do what is right? This was the question of a man named Pelagius
who sparked an even bigger controversy just a few decades later. His argument was this: Adam and Eve
sinned, and that made things worse on earth, for sure. Sin is bad. But it doesn’t mean that any of us are permanently
damaged to the point that we can’t, on our own, from our own nature, choose what is good. Jesus came to show us the way, but he is at
most a guide—some don’t need him at all to get to heaven. Even if you’ve never studied theology a
day in your life… this should sound troublesome to you: we don’t need Jesus? Given that Augustine still had quite a bit
of guilt for the sins of his past life, his perspective on the human condition was not
this optimistic. Because of the stain of original sin, a concept
that he is credited with developing, each and every one of us suffers from what is called
concupiscence, a distortion of our desire for what is not good. While God created us as reasonable beings,
our carnal natures blind us, leaving us unable to fully choose what is right. It is for this reason that we need Jesus Christ’s
example, but even more than this, we need liberation from sin. We are unable to save ourselves, and so rely
on God’s mercy and Christ’s sacrifice to redeem us. Ultimately, Pelagius was condemned as a heretic, and most of St. Augustine’s teachings on Christian anthropology, sin, and redemption were codified
in the Council of Carthage and Synod of Orange, marking the first official records of Original Sin in Church teaching. Beyond saving the Church from these two controversies, Augustine served as a faithful pastor and influential thinker for decades, making major
contributions to the church in the field of creation, just war theory, free will, eschatology,
and scripture, and ultimately receiving the much-deserved title, Doctor of Grace. Spiritually, he wrote many pastoral works
meant to evangelize and catechize the faithful, classics of western literature that are still
read today. His City of God compares the Roman, earthly
city to the eschatological reality of the heavenly city yet to come, and his personal
memoir, Confessions, arguably the most famous work of the ancient world, captures the struggles
of his life and the faith that guided it all. Through folly, Augustine learned that nothing
could satisfy him from the outside world, only God, “Our souls are restless until
they rest in You, Lord.” Luckily for us, it was not our responsibility
to find God, for as he learned, “The Lord is closer to us than we are to ourselves.” No, Augustine never forgot that he was a
sinner. It was his early failings, his struggle with
lust, that, for better or for worse, informed his theology, guided his relationship with
God, and significantly affected Western Christianity. Some have argued that his inability to deal
with his own sins left us with a bleak view of human nature and sexuality, and there might
be some truth to that, but it is far more true that it led to an incredible foundation
in grace. No matter how badly we’ve sinned or how
far we’ve strayed from God, his grace is enough. It is God who created us, God who inspires
us to do good, and ultimately, only God who can fulfill our greatest longings. St. Augustine taught this… and our Church
benefits from this even today. Oh, and did you notice that it’s Augustine,
not Augustine… I’m sorry to the good people of Florida,
but you pronounce the name of your city wrong.
