Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
In the first reading, Paul praises those who have turned from false idols to the one true God. How fitting on this feast of St. Augustine who made the same journey, finally placing his restless heart within the Sacred Heart of Christ and thus finding his peace.
One of Augustine’s most famous writings was the Confessions. This legendary spiritual autobiography confesses three things in his life: his sins and faults, his experience of God’s mercy in his life, and his love of God and his faith in God after his conversion. These three confessions kept Augustine humble when he became a church leader and helped him avoid becoming a hypocrite like what Jesus criticizes in the Gospel today. The opposite of a hypocrite is one who is humble. A key aspect of humility is confession: of sin, of God’s glory, and of God’s mercy in my life.
Augustine is one of the greatest thinkers in church history and one of her greatest saints. His greatness passed by way of his humility and his constant work to combat pride, one of his greatest sins as a youth. Let us pray for the grace to be humble like Augustine and to always be men and women of confession: of our sins, of God’s mercy, and of our faith in God to others.