St Augustine of Hippo

ST AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

'Give me chastity, but not yet'

That was the daily prayer of the young Augustine of Hippo, whose feast day we celebrate on 28 August.

Who was Augustine and what is his relevance for us today? The story of his early life, during which he sought to run away from God and find happiness elsewhere, is to be found in his book, Confessions.

He was born in Tagaste in Numidia in 354 AD. Today it is called Algiers. His father was a pagan,and his mother, Monica, was a Christian. Every day she used to pray for the conversion of her wayward son, but to no avail. If he had lived today, he would probably have been the leader of the local Mafia!.

As a young lad in his teens, he used to steal apples from orchards, 'not for the sake of the apples' he writes, 'for they were green and sour', but merely to show his 'daring'.

At the age of 17 years, he was sent away to Carthage to complete his education. Away from parental influence, he found the temptations of the flesh too strong to resist. He therefore took a mistress with whom he had an illegitimate son. However, he still felt very ashamed, and so he prayed, ‘Give me chastity, but not yet'.

After a life of notoriety for nine years in Rome, he obtained a teaching post in Milan, where he was joined by his ever anxious mother. In an attempt to sort out her wayward son, and at the same time satisfy his sexual appetite, she undertook to find him a suitable wife.

Determined to turn over a new leaf in his life, Augustine promptly dismissed his mistress and sent her back to North Africa, where she joined a religious community. The illegitimate son stayed with him.

However, he soon grew tired of waiting for a suitable wife, and so he took another mistress to satisfy his sexual appetite.

It was here, in Milan, that he came under the influence of St Ambrose, the bishop of that city, whose preaching he admired.

As a consequence, he became increasingly dissatisfied with his life. Whilst reading St Paul's letter to the Romans, he came across the words, ‘Let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead put on the Lord Jesus, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires’.

Augustine took these words as applying to himself and wrote to bishop Ambrose, asking to be received as a convert. He was baptised in 387AD, after spending 33 years running away from God.

Having now surrendered his life to God, he returned to North Africa. Sadly, his mother, whose prayers had finally been answered, died at the port of departure. As regards the proposed marriage, and the fate of his second mistress, nothing is known. His illegitimate son, whom he took with him, died at the age of seventeen.

Three years later he visited the city of Hippo. Whilst there, the elderly bishop, Valerus, appealed for his parishioners to find a suitable person for the priesthood. The congregation promptly laid hand on Augustine who was ordained priest in 391AD.

The reputation of Augustine spread far and wide, and the bishop, anxious not to lose him to another diocese, consecrated him bishop, with a view to succeeding Valerus, which he did in 395AD.

Augustine was a prolific writer. Over 200 of his letters are preserved. He published some 250 books, of which his Confessions and The City of God are probably the best known. He became a major influence throughout Western Christendom until the thirteenth century.

'Give me chastity, but not yet'.

That could be the prayer of some of you here today not that we are necessarily tempted to take a mistress!

Nevertheless, there is within each of us, something which urges us to delay committing ourselves fully to God. We prefer to put off until another day, that which should be done today.

The attractiveness of sin is often too great to resist, and so we try to compromise our lives. We may well be dissatisfied with our lives and want to change, but we do not want to surrender our lives totally to God - well, not just yet. Perhaps tomorrow, next week or next year.

Whilst we may try to run away from God, as did Augustine, he still continues to pursue us and will not let go until we have finally surrendered our lives to him.

And when we do so, we find that inner restlessness disappears and is replaced with lasting happiness, which has hitherto been so elusive.

This is well expressed in Frances Thompson's poem: The Hound of Heaven.

'l fled him, down the nights and down the days;

I fled him, down the arches of the years;

I fled him, down the labyrinthine ways

of my own mind; and in the mist of tears

I hid from him, and under running laughter….

Still with unhurrying chase,

And unperturbed pace,

Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

Came on the following feet,

And a voice above their beat

“Nought shelters thee, who will not shelter Me.”'

The psalmist in the Old Testament puts it like this:

‘Whither shall I go from thy Spirit;

Or whither shall I go from thy presence?

If I climb up to heaven, thou art there;

If I go down to hell, thou art there also’.

Yes, God will pursue us, as he did St Augustine, and will not let us go until we surrender our lives to him, and then, and only then, will we find lasting happiness.

I conclude with a prayer which St Augustine wrote, and which sums up his, and maybe our, spiritual journey.

Almighty God,

in whom we live and have our being,

Who hast made us for thyself

So that our hearts are restless till they find their rest in thee,

Grant us purity of heart and strength of purpose,

That no selfish passion may hinder us from knowing thy will,

No weakness from doing it:

But in thy light we may see light clearly

And in thy service find perfect freedom,

Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.