THE WORD AND THE SAINT

A life of Integrity – Remembering St. Augustine

August 28, 2019: 1 Thessalonians 2: 9-13; Matthew: 23: 27-32

Yesterday was the mother, and today the son! St. Augustine is known for his passionate search for truth! And in the process he came across the Truth beyond all truth, the One Truth that accounts for all other truths and he declared, “Late have I known thee!” 

The Word of God both encourages and challenges us, explains St.Paul in the first reading and it depends on each of us, what we make of these encouragements and demands! And Jesus lashes it out at us; he minces no words: the demands are so categorical and so inescapable. We can of course pretend and wield facades that create an aura that is all hoax... but how long and to what extent? What would we achieve at the end of it all? 

Augustine tried it - he created a make-believe world around him and wanted to live in that preposterous state all his life. Thanks to the mercy of God, through the tears of his mother he saw the horizon of truth. He learnt to understand the call from God, as St. Paul says today, "as God's message and not some human thinking". That made all the difference.

Being worthy of God is the project that the Word and the saint of today propose to us and it is a matter of the inner self. No amount of exterior adornment or  rationalisations or self-justifications can give the internal peace, which comes only from a life of communion with oneself, with others and with God. This in one word could be called, “Integrity” – and that is what Jesus calls us to: a life of integrity.