Augustinan Spirituality

Transcription

1 Augustinan Spirituality What is Spirituality? Christians all around the world are familiar with the concept of spirituality. Franciscan, Benedictine, and Carmelite spirituality are well known phrases. But what do they really mean? An extensive number of authors have all offered definitions of spirituality and how it relates to theology. 17 According to Walter Principe, there are three elements to any early, Christian spirituality. All commonly focus on the lived reality of a specific person (i.e. saints Augustine, Clare, Francis). Secondarily, a concise formulation about his or her life is developed (i.e. life in community, friendship, love, fraternal correction). The final element of 59

2 spirituality is teaching and studying these two elements, then actively applying them to the present day and our own lives. 18 What is Augustinian Spirituality? Closer to home, Augustinian T. J. van Bavel, OSA, has identified five key elements. According to him, Augustinian spirituality or its charism is: 1) a permanent inner attitude of the human mind and heart, 2) obtained through a process of personal assimilation of an evangelical value, 3) in dialogue with both individuals and the human race as a whole, 4) a free choice of our independent will, and 5) made concrete as a particular center of our life-style with due emphasis and attention. 19 Perhaps a more concise definition is offered by Mary Clark, RSCJ. She writes, Augustinian spirituality is rooted in the life of the mind and grows by the love of the heart. It is interior and social, involving the individual and society. 20 Common among these two summaries are the importance of both the mind and the heart, and the necessity of interacting with others. Augustine was a person who surrounded himself with people and it was with them and because of them that he was able to proceed with 60

3 his own journey developing a relationship of love with God and with his fellow pilgrims on their restless search. Distinguishing Features Restless Search: A Pilgrimage to Christ Augustinian Tom Martin proposes that with the notion of journey one finds a key to understanding Augustinian spirituality. There is only one sweet homeland, one true homeland, everything else for us is pilgrimage (peregrinatio). 21 For Augustine this connotes not only the actual traveling to the destination but all of the preparations and concerns necessary for its accomplishment. 22 Christus Totus: Total Commitment Upon reading the biblical passage that led to his conversion (Romans 13: 13-14), Augustine accepted the call to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only did this mean a decision to become baptized, but more than that, it required letting Jesus Christ be the driving love, the total preoccupation of his life, the foundation and core of all that he wrote and did. No other previous Christian thinker had sought with such comprehensiveness to place every aspect of human life under a deliberately Christological lens, heart, body, relationships, politics, culture and beyond

4 Grace: Christ s Constant Gift Augustine was the first Christian thinker to deeply contemplate the intersection of divine and human agency grace and freedom. Known as the Doctor of Grace, Augustine rejects any notion that redemption results from any exercise of our own free will. To the question, Are we saved by God s grace or by our own strength of will?, he eventually concludes that I was in favor of the freedom of choice of the human will but grace won. 24 Augustine insists that all is grace, and as a consequence, we must ever be humble and grateful for the gift of our salvation. Love and gratitude are the only possible responses to the mystery of God s grace. 25 Scripture: The Guiding Voice of Augustine s Confessions The Confessions is a lasting monument to the place of the biblical word in Augustinian spirituality. In it, he allows the Word of God to take over his own, until the two become virtually identical. The Augustinian symbol of a heart afire emerging from the book of the Gospels is emblematic of a heart intimately united in love with God. Confessions is but one of many demonstrations of the absolute centrality of Scripture to Augustine s understanding of and living the Christian life

5 Interiority: The Way to Truth Father Martin describes Augustine s God inspired journey as an ongoing journey inward, toward the interior self, where the true self can be found. For here, Augustine believes, in the interiority of your humanity does Christ dwell, and there within, you are renewed according to God s image. 27 Within is where every search for truth must begin. Inside, to come to the heart, is to discover that we are God s work, and that He does dwell within us. 28 Humility: The Gateway to Love Humility is seen by Augustine as the door of our hearts which once opened, allows the Lord to enter. 29 For him, it is the prerequisite for Christian living. He writes, [u]nless humility precedes, accompanies, and follows whatever we do, we will find that we have done little good in which to rejoice. Pride will bereft us of everything. 30 Humility is the root of true charity. It calls us to accept the sacred in ourselves and others. It allows us to recognize that we are human, to accept our place in reality neither making oneself more nor less than what one actually is, and to love all things in an appropriate way

6 Love: The Taproot of Everything Good In his homilies on the First Epistle of John, Augustine explores the primacy of love. He writes those who have love are born of God; those who do not have it are not born of God. This is the distinctive sign par excellence. No matter what else you might have, if you lack this, it profits you nothing. And no matter what else you lack, if you have this you have fulfilled the law. 32 For Augustine, properly ordered love is everything. Love and do what you will, he writes, the root of love must be within and nothing but good can come forth from this root. 33 Community: Support for the Journey In an Augustinian community, the purpose of life is to search for God, the ultimate Truth, not alone, but among friends, who are committed to the same journey. 34 Here, love is at the center, at the heart of every act and interaction. Respect for each person, as a child of God, is primary. Members strive to live in harmony, in a quest for union of mind and heart, 35 share mutual concern for and give assistance to each other in every way possible. They assume responsibility for each other, in a spirit of love and understanding. 36 In this sense, according to van Bavel, community life and love are really only different words for the same reality. 37 Here, friends, 64

7 according to Augustine, are those who are especially close to me, those who are aflame with Christian love and who have become faithful friends to me...i entrust my concerns to them, not another human, but to God in whom they dwell and by whom they are who they are. 38 Conclusion Augustine s vast, complex and sometimes contradictory writings make summarizing his spiritual vision difficult. Through this brief sketch, several distinguishing features of his spirituality emerge. There can be no question that Augustine was profoundly aware of his own humanity and eventually came to recognize his total dependence on God. It is broad and sweeping in its concerns, is imbued with a personalism that defuses its rigor and a sense of community that challenges all forms of individualism. It is ever dynamic in its searching, yet ever securely anchored in God as Truth. 39 Sources: This essay draws heavily from a paper entitled Augustinian Spirituality by Rev. Joseph Farrell, OSA, presented at Villanova University and Chapter 1 of Our Restless Hearts: The Augustinian Tradition by Thomas Martin, OSA. The text is from Tolle Lege: A Brief Introduction to Villanova University. See this publication for footnotes. 65