1)
Conversion: “Augustine became a Christian by conversion and not by birth. And in the
two great conversions that divide his life into its main periods we today can
still clearly discern the real mission and meaning of Christianity. For it is a
permanently valid principle that a human being becomes a Christian not by birth
but by conversion. Just as the waters of the earth, obeying the law of gravity,
naturally flow downward but can be
controlled by man’s mind and technology and be made to flow in another
direction, so the waters of human existence flow downward of themselves, and
only by conversion to faith, hope and love can they be made to flow in the new
direction that leads men and women to their authentic stature as human beings.”
[1]
Else
where, Ratzinger writes that “belief signifies the decision that at the very
core of human existence there is a point which cannot be nourished and supported
on the visible and tangible, which encounters and comes into contact with what
cannot be seen and finds that it is a necessity for its own existence.
“Such an attitude is certainly to be
attained only by what the language of the Bible calls ‘reversal,’ ‘conversion.’
Man’s natural center of gravity draws him to the visible, to what he can take
in his hand and hold as his own. He has to turn round inwardly in order to see
how badly he is neglecting his own interests by letting himself be drawn along
in this way by his natural center of gravity. He must turn round to recognize how
blind he is if he trusts only what he sees with his eyes. Without this change
of direction, without this resistance to the natural center of gravity, there
can be no belief. Indeed belief is
the con-version in which man discovers that he is following an illusion if he
devotes himself only to the tangible. This is at the same time the fundamental
reason why belief is not demonstrable: it is an about-turn… it is a turn that
is new every day.”[2]
The Instrumentum Laboris for the “Year of Faith”
2012-2013 begins with the following:
“Increase our faith!” (Lk 17:5) is the Apostles’ prayer to
the Lord Jesus, when they realize that faith, which is a gift from God, is the
only way of having a personal relationship with him and fulfilling their
vocation as disciples. Their plea arose from an awareness that their
limitations kept them from forgiving others. Faith is also needed in performing
signs which illustrate the presence of the Kingdom of God in the world. Jesus
used the fig tree, withered to its roots, to encourage his disciples. “Have
faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up
and cast into the sea’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what
he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you,
whatever you ask in prayer,
believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mk 11:22-24). St. Mark the
Evangelist also emphasizes the importance of faith in accomplishing great
works. “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and never doubt,
you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to
this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea’, it will be done” (Mt 21:21).
On various occasions, the Lord Jesus
admonishes “the Twelve” for their lack of faith. To the question of why they were
unable to cast out a demon, the Master responds:“Because
of your little faith” (Δια την όλιγοπιστίαν ύμών)
(Mt 17:20). On the Sea of Tiberias, before calming the storm,
Jesus reproves his disciples: “Why are you afraid, O men of
little faith?” (όλιγόπιστοι) (Mt 8:26). They were to entrust themselves to God and to
Providence, and not worry about material things. “But if God so
clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown
into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?” (Mt 6:30; cf. Lk 12:28). A similar situation takes place before the
multiplication of the loaves. Faced with the realization that the disciples had
forgotten to take bread in crossing to the other side of the lake, the Lord
Jesus says: “O men of little faith, why do you discuss among
yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Do you not
remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you
gathered?” (Mt 16:8-9).
Matthew’s Gospel gives special attention to
the account of Jesus’ walking on the water and reaching the Apostles in the
boat. After calming the Apostles’ fear, he accepts the challenge of St. Peter:
“Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water” (Mt 14:28). At first, St. Peter walks towards Jesus on the water
without any difficulty. “But when he saw the wind, he was afraid,
and beginning to sink he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Jesus immediately reached
out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘O man of little faith, why did you
doubt?’” (Mt 14:30-31). Afterwards, Jesus
and St. Peter together get into the boat and the wind ceases. The disciples,
witnesses to this great happening, prostrate themselves before the Lord and
make a full profession of faith: “Truly you are the Son of
God!” (Mt 14:33).
In our times, St. Peter’s experience can be
reflected in many of the faithful as well as entire Christian communities,
especially in traditionally Christian countries. In fact, because of a lack of
faith, various particular Churches are witnessing a decline in sacramental and
Christian practice among the faithful to the point that some members can even
be called “non-believers” (άπιστοι; cf. Mt 17:17; 13,58). At the
same time, many particular Churches, after initially displaying a great
enthusiasm, are now showing signs of weariness and apprehension in the face of
very complex situations in today’s world. Like St. Peter, they grow fearful of
opposing forces and temptations of various kinds as well as challenges that
surpass their human capabilities. But, just as salvation came to St. Peter from
Christ alone, so too the faithful, when they become personally involved as
members of an ecclesial community, can experience Christ’s saving grace. Only
the Lord Jesus can extend his hand and indicate the sure path in the journey of
faith.
These brief reflections on faith in the
Gospels can help illustrate the topic of the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of
the Synod of Bishops: “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the
Christian Faith”. The importance given to the faith is further emphasized by
the decision of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI to celebrate a Year of
Faith, beginning on 11 October 2012, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of
the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the twentieth anniversary of the
publication of The Catechism of the Catholic Church. Both observances will take
place during the celebration of the synod. Once again, the Lord’s words to St.
Peter the Apostle, the rock on which he built his Church, have particular
meaning (cf. Mt 16:19): “But
I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned
again, strengthen your brethren” (Lk 22:32). “The door of faith” (Acts 14:27) will again be open to all of us.
Augustine’s Three
Conversions
“Late have I loved you,
O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within
me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my
unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were
with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if
they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you
shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and
you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in
breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst
for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.”
Ratzinger on the Three Conversions:
Thus, (Second Conversion): renouncing a life solely of meditation, Augustine learned, often with difficulty, to make the fruit of his intelligence available to others. He learned to communicate his faith to simple people and thus learned to live for them in what became his hometown, tirelessly carrying out a generous and onerous activity which he describes in one of his most beautiful sermons: "To preach continuously, discuss, reiterate, edify, be at the disposal of everyone - it is an enormous responsibility, a great weight, an immense effort" (Sermon, 339, 4). But he took this weight upon himself, understanding that it was exactly in this way that he could be closer to Christ. To understand that one reaches others with simplicity and humility was his true second conversion.
But there is a last step to Augustine's journey, a third conversion, that brought him every day of his life to ask God for pardon. Initially, he thought that once he was baptized, in the life of communion with Christ, in the sacraments, in the Eucharistic celebration, he would attain the life proposed in the Sermon on the Mount: the perfection donated by Baptism and reconfirmed in the Eucharist. During the last part of his life he understood that what he had concluded at the beginning about the Sermon on the Mount - that is, now that we are Christians, we live this ideal permanently - was mistaken. Only Christ himself truly and completely accomplishes the Sermon on the Mount. We always need to be washed by Christ, who washes our feet, and be renewed by him. We need permanent conversion. Until the end we need this humility that recognizes that we are sinners journeying along, until the Lord gives us his hand definitively and introduces us into eternal life. It was in this final attitude of humility, lived day after day, that Augustine died.
This attitude of profound humility before the only Lord Jesus led him also to experience an intellectual humility. Augustine, in fact, who is one of the great figures in the history of thought, in the last years of his life wanted to submit all his numerous works to a clear, critical examination. This was the origin of the Retractationum ("Revision"), which placed his truly great theological thought within the humble and holy faith that he simply refers to by the name Catholic, that is, of the Church. He wrote in this truly original book: "I understood that only One is truly perfect, and that the words of the Sermon on the Mount are completely realized in only One - in Jesus Christ himself. The whole Church, instead - all of us, including the Apostles -, must pray everyday: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us" (De Sermone Domini in Monte, I, 19, 1-3).
Augustine converted to Christ who is truth and love, followed him throughout his life and became a model for every human being, for all of us in search of God. This is why I wanted to ideally conclude my Pilgrimage to Pavia by consigning to the Church and to the world, before the tomb of this great lover of God, my first Encyclical entitled Deus Caritas Est. I owe much, in fact, especially in the first part, to Augustine's thought. Even today, as in his time, humanity needs to know and above all to live this fundamental reality: God is love, and the encounter with him is the only response to the restlessness of the human heart; a heart inhabited by hope, still perhaps obscure and unconscious in many of our contemporaries but which already today opens us Christians to the future, so much so that St Paul wrote that "in this hope we were saved" (Rom 8: 24). I wished to dedicate my second Encyclical to hope, Spe Salvi, and it is also largely indebted to Augustine and his encounter with God.” (Benedict XVI, February 27, 2008.)
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