The faith of saints in times of crisis

Saints are part of our Catholic tradition.  They went out of favor during the Protestant Reformation and have remained so in some present branches of Protestantism.  The cause may have been an exaggerated emphasis on relics and miracles ascribed to saints during the Middle Ages.  Emphasis on saints was seen during the Reformation as taking away from the true center of Christian faith.  That center is Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten son, and the biblical writings, Old Testament and New Testament, that describe God’s plan for our salvation through the faith experiences of one people, the Jews, and then Jesus’ mission accomplished through his birth, death, resurrection and the sending of his apostles and disciples throughout the world to proclaim his Gospel.  Gospel means “good news,” and it truly is, for in Christ God shares his eternal life with us.  In God we never truly die. That is why early church writers sometimes referred to all Christians in a particular church community as “saints.”
Furthermore, saints with a capital “S” are much more than miracle workers and their relics.  In the history of Christianity, they have been a visible sign of God’s grace working in and through men and women whose lives and works have transformed our world in times of great crisis.  They have often been our light, leading us from dark times into a more promising future.  How this has happened was illustrated in a recent book by Bishop Robert Barron, “The Pivotal Players: 12 Heroes who Shaped the Church and Changed the World.”  It is good reading for those who would like to get some historical perspective on our present crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  
Pope Francis recently wrote, “I see this time as a reckoning ... To enter into crisis is to be sifted.  Your categories and ways of thinking get shaken up; your priorities and lifestyles are challenged. The basic rule of a crisis is that you don’t come out of it the same.  If you get through it, you come out better or worse, but never the same.”  This is exactly what happened with the first of Bishop Barron’s “Pivotal Players,” St. Augustine.
Bishop Barron notes that “(St.) Augustine of Hippo (North Africa) was one of the three or four most important figures in the history of the church and a master of the Latin language.”  His “Confessions,”  the story of his early life and conversion to practicing Christianity, invented the genre of autobiography.  It was so masterfully written that in the seminary we had to translate it to learn good Latin.  It is, in Bishop Barron’s words, “a self-portrait of a soul  or even more precisely, a prayer overheard.” All that  St. Augustine writes in it is addressed to God.  On the very first page he writes one of the most quoted phrases in the history of Christian spirituality, “Lord, you have made us for yourself; therefore, our heart is restless until it rests in you.”  
As a college student, St. Augustine took a mistress whom he never names, but together they had a son, whom they named Adeodatus.  That translates, “Given by God.”  Whether it meant “Thank you, God” or “Oh my gosh!” St. Augustine never makes clear.  However, the boy did stay with him as he pursued a career as a teacher and writer, first in Rome and then in Milan, while the mother did not.  St. Augustine’s own mother, St. Monica, a devout Christian widow who had prayed for him with many tears during the years, joined him and Adeodatus in Milan. It was the year 384. Adeodatus died still a young man some years later.
About this time, St. Augustine came under the influence of St. Ambrose, the great bishop of Milan, who became a mentor and spiritual father to him.  Inspired by St. Ambrose,  he began a study of the Bible, especially the writings of St. Paul and St. John.  He asked for baptism and became a catechumen under the direction of St. Ambrose himself.  St. Augustine was baptized by St. Ambrose in the Milan Cathedral at the Easter Vigil of 387.  
St. Augustine decided to return to Africa with his mother and son.  He hoped to found there a Christian philosophical community like he had near Milan. They went to the Roman port of Ostia to catch  a ship.  While waiting there, St. Monica became ill and died.  She told her son and grandson to bury her there and then continue on.  The Catholic Church celebrates her now as St. Monica.  One of my favorite stories I read somewhere, perhaps in the “Confessions,” is St. Augustine teasing his mother by calling her a “meribibula.”  It meant that she liked her wine, and she drank it straight, without water.  People then, afraid of the impurity of drinking water, often mixed it with wine.  But not St. Monica.  Why dilute good wine?  
He did found his community but not long after, the people of the port city of Hippo needed a priest and pressed him into service.  St. Augustine intensified his study of Scripture to serve them better and soon gained a reputation as a preacher and administrator.  When the bishop of Hippo died, St. Augustine was their choice to succeed him, and he served them as bishop from 395 until his death in 430.  He was very active as a bishop but also dedicated his evening hours to writing many spiritual essays and books, including the “Confessions;” a study of the trinity, “De Trinitate;” which influenced the dogma of the trinity proclaimed by the Council of Chalcedon in 450; and finally his masterpiece, the “The City of God.”  He battled against the heresies of his day, adding greatly to the church’s theology of grace. He insisted that, yes we can lead holy lives, but only with God’s help.  
St. Augustine called his “City of God” “a big and difficult work.” It was 1,500 pages.  In it he critiques the pagan gods of the Roman Empire which was falling apart and would end in the West only 16 years after St. Augustine’s death.  Rome, he said, was dying because it was grounded in self-love.  It was the earthly city which worshiped false gods who were projections of the Romans themselves. The Roman gods were violent, promiscuous, jealous and vain.  Nations and empires can be judged by what they worship.  That is what they value most and seek to imitate.  The Roman gods were marked by what St. Augustine called the “lust of dominating.”  Rome, if you remember, in the Roman mythology was founded by twin brothers, Romulus and Remus, nursed by a wolf.  Romulus murders Remus.  Which one did the Romans name their city after?  The one who dominated.
St. Augustine argues that the City of God must be like God’s kingdom on earth, as we pray in the “Our Father.”  If it is to last, it must worship not its own will but the will of God, the one God of creation who according to Bishop Barron “brings the world into being in a purely generous and non-violent act of love. In a word, order comes through peace.” 
As Pope Francis said, we live in a time of reckoning, a time of crisis.  St. Augustine also lived in times that were changing drastically.  He died in 430 as the Vandals were sacking his see city of Hippo.
He truly was a pivotal player.  His view of the world, God’s place and ours, is worth considering.      

FATHER CARVILLE is a retired priest in the Diocese of Baton Rouge and writes on current topics for The Catholic Commentator. He can be reached at [email protected].