Uncle Gus
August 22, 2005
Aurelius Augustinus died in 430 AD, but he is on my short list of heroes, sort of a spiritual favorite uncle. He was a philosopher and a great Christian bishop, perhaps best known for his The Confessions of Saint Augustine. This little classic tells the life story of a young man both blessed and tormented by a brilliant mind, grasping for spiritual certainty, yielding to the pleasures of a profligate life, until he finally abandoned the profession of Rhetoric and devoted his life to God. All the while, his godly mother Monica never ceased to pray that her son would come to faith in God.
There’s something in Augustine’s pilgrimage for everyone, especially those of us who seek a rational basis for faith in God.
As Augustine’s faith matured, he started taking on skeptics who were asking questions like, “What did God do before He created the heaven and the earth?” Whether his arguments are still persuasive in these days of scientists vs. creationists is really beside the point. I think that every generation must wrestle with the idea of linear history for themselves, since it is ultimately a matter of faith, but we also can benefit greatly from the struggles of those who have gone before us.
Fr. Harold Gardiner nailed it in his introduction to a 1957 edition of The Confessions when he said, “He speaks to the atomic age as mightily and sweetly as he spoke to the age of dying Roman imperialism because ‘heart speaketh to heart,’ and if ever there was a great heart to speak, it was his, and if ever there are small and frightened hearts who need his words, they are ours.”
Dave, in debt to “Uncle Gus.”
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