Augustine of Hippo, considered to be one of the foremost philosophers of Christianity even to this day, was a hedonist prior to his conversion. In our modern day culture of excess and unbridled sensuality, we find a parallel to the world that Augustine was born in.
Despite his sensually indulgent life, Augustine found his life hollow and without meaning. After experimenting with Manichaeism, Skepticism and Neo-Platonism, Augustine converted into Christianity. In his book “Confessions”, he wrote that his conversion was prompted when he heard the singsong voice of a child saying “take” and “read”. Immediately, he took a Bible and opened it to a random page. And there he read the words of the Apostle Paul to the Romans saying:
“Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies
and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and
jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not
think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” (Romans 13:13-14 NIV)
Perhaps one of the most significant contributions of Augustine to Christian literature came as a result of the sack of Rome in 410 AD. The Eternal City, once thought to be an indomitable symbol of Western culture, fell into the hands of the Visigoth barbarians led by Alaric. As home to the largest and most prestigious Christian church in the West, many devotees questioned the significance of the fall of the Roman Capital. Augustine responded by putting together his magnum opus, “The City of God”, where he described God’s Kingdom as not being rooted in the physical or material realm, but rather in the spiritual realm where God dwells. The physical world is passing away, but the spiritual world is forever. Therefore the City or Kingdom of God is not one that is subject to the rising and falling of earthly kingdoms, but one whose glory is yet to be fully revealed.
But then, how do we know who are in the Kingdom?
“This is the door of the Lord, the righteous shall enter in,” was written on the lintel of a church in Numidia. However, “The man who enters,” Augustine wrote,
"is bound to see drunkards, misers, tricksters, gamblers, adulterers, fornicators, people wearing amulets, assiduous clients of sorcerers, astrologers. He must be warned that the same crowds that press into the churches on Christian festivals also fill the theaters on pagan holidays…Wherever the towering mass of the theatre is erected, there the foundations of Christian virtue are undermined, and while this insane expenditure gives to the sponsors a glorious result, men mock at the works of mercy….
It is only charity that distinguishes the children of God from the children of the Devil. They all make the sign of the Cross and answer “Amen” and sing alleluia, they all go to church and build up the walls of the basilicas…
Take away the barriers afforded by the laws! Men’s brazen capacity to do harm, their urge to self-indulgence would rage to the full. No king in his kingdom, no general with his troops…no husband with his wife, no father with his son, could hope to stop, by any threat or punishment, the license that would follow the sheer sweet taste of sinning….
Give me a man in love; he knows what I mean, give me one who yearns; give me one who is hungry; give me one far away in this desert, who is thirsty and sighs for the springs of the Eternal Country. Give me that sort of man; he knows what I mean. But if I speak to a cold man, he just doesn’t know what I’m talking about…
You are surprised that the world is losing its grip? That the world is grown old? Don’t hold onto the old man, the world; don’t refuse to regain your youth in Christ, who says to you: “The world is passing away; the world is losing its grip, the world is short of breath. Don’t fear, thy youth shall be renewed as an eagle.”
May God bless you all from the abundant riches of His Love and Grace this 2013.
Soli Deo Gloria!
