AUGUSTINE

THE EIGHT BEATITUDES, IN PRACTICE

GIVE to Christ; He will of His own accord press you to receive, whilst you will even wonder that He has not received anything from you. For to them who are placed on His Right Hand, He will first say, “Come, you blessed of My Father.”

Come where? “Receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

Come for what? “For I was hungry, and you gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick and in prison, and you visited Me.”

And they will say, “Lord, when did we see you?”

What does this mean? The debtor presses to pay, and the creditors make excuses. But the trusty debtor will not let them suffer loss thereby. “Do you hesitate to receive. I have received, and are you ignorant of it?”

And He makes answer how He has received: “Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these of Mine, you have done it to Me.” I received it not by Myself, but by Mine; what was given to them, came to Me; be secure, you have not lost it. You look to those who were little able to pay on earth, you have One Who is well able to pay in Heaven.

“I,” He says, “have received, and I will repay.”

And what have I received, and what do I repay?”

“I was hungry,” He said, “and you gave Me meat”; I received earth, I will give Heaven; I received temporal things, I will restore eternal; I received bread, I will give life.

St Augustine.

EASTER REFLECTIONS

Come and ye take light from the unwaning light, and glorifiy Christ, Who arose from the dead.

Jesus arose while the tomb was still closed. This happened a short while before the Angel rolled back the stone.

"To believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Whoever you may be, open your hearts to consolation, to the raptures of the most heavenly joy. That Jesus Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and was buried, arose from the dead on the third day. Perhaps your f aith hesitates or vacillates? When you are told: Believe that Jesus Christ was born, believe that He suffered, that He was crucified, that He died and was buried, you believe more easily as though we were speaking of only a man; and now that you are told: He arose from the dead on the third day, does your spirit hesitate? But, to choose only one proof from among many, consider what God is; think of the All Powerful, and all your doubts will disappear. How? God was able to create you from nothing, and could He not now raise from the dead that human nature which He had formed and which He had assumed? Believe, therefore: Oh my brethren. When faith is concerned, long discourses are useless. Only this faith in the resurrection of Christ distinguishes the Christian from the others.

FRUIT: Oh my Saviour, in order that I might have the hope of the resurrection of the body which I did not have, You arose before me, so that, where You have preceded me, I may hope to follow. I will arise gloriously, if I die in the state of grace.

AUGUSTINE

WHO HAS PETER'S KEYS?

When you hear the words: “Peter, do you love me?” John 21:15 imagine you are in front of a mirror and looking at yourself.

Peter, surely, was a symbol of the Church. Therefore the Lord, in asking Peter, is asking us too.

To show that Peter was a symbol of the Church, remember the passage in the Gospel: “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven”. Matt. 16:18

Has only one man received those keys? Christ himself explains what they are for: “Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matt. 18:18 If these words had been said only to Peter, now that he is dead who would ever be able to bind or loose?

I make bold to say that all of us have received the keys. We bind and loose. And you also bind and loose.

Whoever is bound is separated from your community: he is bound by you. When he is reconciled, however, he is loosed, thanks to you because you are praying for him. We all in fact love our Lord, we are all his members.

And when the Lord entrusts his flock to shepherds, the whole number of shepherds is reduced to one individual body, that of the one Shepherd. cf. John 10:16

Peter is undeniably a shepherd, but without doubt Paul also is a shepherd. John is a shepherd, Andrew is a shepherd, each Apostle is a shepherd. All the holy bishops are shepherds, without a shadow of doubt.

Augustine Serm. Morin, 16 (Miscellanea Agostiniana, 493 ff.)

AUGUSTINE

IS IT POSSIBLE NOT TO BE AFRAID OF DEATH?

What makes up this life that we love so much? Wishes and fears, hopes and disappointments, sufferings and sadness, genuine sorrows and counterfeit joys, prayers and suplications, anxieties and temptatoins. What sort of a life is that? And yet we love it.

And the other life? What makes up eternel life? The words of the Psalmist suffice to describe it: “I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.” - Ps. 146:2.

Just because they loved the other life, the martyrs endured death and despised it.

The present life is ugly and painful, and yet it is so dear to us that, without the help of the One who commanded them to despise it, even the martyrs would not have been strong enough to despise it for love of truth and eternal life. Anyone who despises death for the love of God cannot do it without God’s help.

You, no doubt, despise death, you love and long for eternal life. But “Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob” - Ps. 146:5. Take away that help and you will be no better than a deserter.

Augustine, Serm. Morin, 31, (Miscellanea Agostiniana 560-2)

AUGUSTINE

CHRIST IS THE GATE THAT IS HUMBLE AND LOW

Jesus said: “He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.” John 10:1 He is not, that is to say, the shepherd who enters the sheepfold to guard the flock and keep it safe.

There have been some people of that sort. They gave very subtle lectures on the virtues and the vices, they marked out distinctions and definitions, they drew conclusions from penetrating arguments, they wrote book after book, they puffed out their cheeks to proclaim their wisdom at the top of their voice, and they dared to say: “Follow me, join my sect.”

Those people, because they did not enter by the gate, were butchers and murderers.

Christ's sheepfold is the Church. Anyone who wants to enter the fold must enter by using the gate: he must preach the true Christ.

And not only preach Christ. He must also seek Christ’s glory, rather than his own. Many, in seeking their own glory, have scattered the flock of Christ, when they ought to have been uniting it.

Christ is the gate that is humble and low. All who want to enter by this gate must humble themselves and stoop low. Any who do not humble themselves, but make themselves important, are clearly proposing to enter by scaling the wall. But climbing the wall means heading for a fall.

Augustine On the Gospel of John 45, 2 (PL35, 1720 ff.)

AUGUSTINE

HAS THE LORD ABANDONED US AFTER TELLING US TO SET SAIL?

In all his dealings with us the Lord teaches us how to live on this earth.

There is not a person in this world who is not a voyager, even if not all are anxious to return to the homeland.

In the course of this voyage the waves and the storms make us seasick. But at least we are in the ship. Outside the ship death would be inevitable. When one is swimming among the breakers, however energetic one’s arms are, sooner or later one is defeated by the size of the ocean and allows oneself to drown. To complete the crossing, therefore, it is essential to remain in the ship, to be supported by its planks.

The plank that supports our weakness is the cross of Our Lord. He keeps us safe from the world that threatens to drown us. We suffer because we are tossed about by the waves, but the Lord himself supports us.

The Gospel tells us that Jesus left the crowd and went up a mountain to pray. That high mountain is a symbol) of heaven. The head of this body which is the Church takes his place upon high in order that all his members may follow him. With that intention he prays - he intercedes on our behalf.

Insofar as the ship is carrying his disciples, it may be called the Church. The storm of temptations assail it, the contrary winds disturb it: that is, the devil opposes the Church and tries to stop it reaching its haven.

But we have a powerful intercessor. The Lord who has told us to set sail and to voyage towards our homeland surely will not allow his Church not to reach its haven.

Augustine Sermons 75, 2-4 (PL38, 475 6)

AUGUSTINE

TRUST the past to the mercy of God,

The present to his love,

The future to his providence.

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430

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