St Augustine - August 28
The other day I was looking for a wedding card when I came across one that had the verse: "I wish I had met you sooner so that I could love you longer."
The other day I was looking for a wedding card when I came across one that had the verse: "I wish I had met you sooner so that I could love you longer."
St. Augusttine, whose feast day we celebrate today, could have said the same thing to God. In fact, he did. "Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty ever ancient and ever new, late have I loved Thee" he wrote in his "Confessions".
Before his conversion, Augustine led quite a wild life. Totally nonreligious, his "trinity" was wine, women and song not Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Never married, Augustine had a girl in every port and hardly left any unsatisfied. He had at least one child, a son. Life was fun, fun, fun. But he was never satisfied, never fulfilled.
Somehow,he allowed Grace to touch him. (Thanks in part to the many years of prayers by his mother, St Monica.) He was baptized, later ordained a priest and eventually ordained a bishop. He became one the the church's greatest theolgians/philosophers. He writes powerfully yet tenderly about how God deals lovingly with even the most wretched sinner.
Below is a popular passage from his "Confessions". He says God "shouted, called and broke through my deafness".
We need to be grateful not only to God but also to those people --our friends-- who have shouted, called and broke through own own deafness, helping us finally accept we are, indeed, loved.
-------------------------Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were with me, but I was not with You, and 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.--------
-------------------------Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were with me, but I was not with You, and 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.--------
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