GENERAL AUDIENCE TODAY
Pope Benedict on St. Augustine and
the constant search for Truth
25 Aug 10 (RV) - During his general audience this morning at Castel Gandolfo, Pope Benedict launched an appeal for an end to violence in Somalia. In his catechesis he urged believers to view the saints as companions on the journey of faith and again returned to speak of St. Augustine, specifically of his constant search for Truth.
After his catechesis, the Pope turned his thoughts to the continuous reports of bloodshed in the Somali capital Mogadishu, with news today yet another massacre claiming innocent civilians,
He said "I am close to the families of the victims and all those in Somalia, who are suffering from [the consequences] of hate and instability. I hope that with the help of the international community, there will be unstinting efforts to restore respect for life and human rights. "
In his catechesis, Benedict XVI urged the faithful to view the saints as "fellow travellers" on the path of Christian life.
"Everyone," he said, "should have some saint who is familiar [to them], to feel close to in prayer and intercession, but also as an example to imitate".
Therefore, he added, we should know more about the saints, starting with those whose names we carry, their life and writings. He cited his own experience with St. Augustine....
Here is a full translation of his catechesis:
Dear brothers and sisters,
In the life of each of us, there are persons who are very dear to us, to whom we feel particularly close - some are already in the arms of God, others still share with us the journey of life. They are our parents, our relatives, our teachers - persons to whom we hsve done some good or from we have received some good, persons whom we knew or know we can count on.
But it is also important to have 'travelling companions' in the journey of Christian life - such as a spiritual director, a confessor, persons with whom we can share our experience of faith. But I am also thinking of the Virgin Mary and the saints.
Each of us should have a saint who is 'familiar' to us, to whom we feel close in prayer and in seeking their intercession, but also to be emulated.
Therefore, I wish to invite you to know the saints better, starting with the one whose name you carry - read his/her life and writings. You can be sure that the saints will be good guides for loving the Lord ever more and will provide valid assistance for your human and Christian growth.
As you know, I too have a special connection to some saints. Among them, in addition to St. Joseph and St. Benedict whose names I bear, there is St, Augustine, whom I had the great gift of knowing quite closely, so to speak, through study and prayer, and who has become a good travelling companion in my life and ministry.
I wish to underscore once more an important aspect of his human and Christian experience, which is relevant even in our time when paradoxically, relativism seems to he the 'truth' that guides thinking, choices and behavior.
St. Augustine is someone who never lived with the superficial: the search, the uneasy and constant thirst for Truth, is one of the fundamental characteristics of his existence - not, however, of 'pesudo-truths' that are incapable of bringing lasting peace to the human heart, but of that Truth which gives meaning to existence and which is 'the home' in which the heart finds serenity and joy.
We know his was not an easy journey. He thought he could find Truth in prestige, in career, in possession of things, in voices that promised him immediate human happiness. He committed errors, he underwent sorrows, he met with failures - but he never stopped, he was never content with anything that only gave him a glimmer of light. He learned in his most intimate and became aware, as he writes in his Confessions, that the Truth he sought, the God whom he sought with all his powers, was more intimate to him than his own self, that he was always with him, had never abandoned him, was waiting to be able to enter into his life definitively (cfr iii, 6, 11; x, 27, 38).
As I said in commenting on the recent film on his life, St. Augustine came to understand, in his uneasy seeking, that it was not he who had found the Truth, but Truth itself, who is God, who had chased him and found him.
Romano Guardini, commenting on a passage in Chapter 3 of the Confessions, said: "St. Augustine understood that God is "the glory who brings us to our knees, the drink that extinguishes thirst, the treasure that makes us happy... (He not only had) the pacifying certainty of someone who had finally understood, but also the beatitude of a love that knows: 'This is everything, and it's all I need'." (Pensatori religiosi, Brescia 2001, p. 177).
Also in the Confessions, Book 9, our saint recalls a conversation with his mother. St. Monica - whose memory we celebrate on Friday, day after tomorrow. It is a beautiful scene: he and his mother are in Ostia. in an inn, and from the window they can see both sea and sky - they transcend sea and sky, and for a moment, they touch the heart of God in the silence of Creation.
Here appears a fundamental idea in the journey towards Truth: that creatures should be silent in order to achieve the silence within which God can speak. This is true even in our time. At times, we seem to fear silence, meditation, thinking about our own actions, about the profound sense of our life. Often we prefer to live every fleeting moment, deluding ourselves that they bring lasting happiness. We fear searching for the Truth, or perhaps we fear that Truth will find us, take us in its grip ,and change our life, as it had happened with St. Augustine.
Dear brothers and sisters, I wish to tell everyone, even those who are in present difficulty in their journey of faith, and those who take little part in the life of the Church or who live 'as though God does not exist':
Do not fear the Truth, never interrupt the journey towards it, never stop searching for the profound truth about yourself and about things with the interior eyes of the heart. God will not fail to give us light to see and warmth to make our heart feel that he loves us and that he too wants to be loved.
May the intercession of the Virgin Mary, St. Augustine and St. Monica be with us on this journey.
After his plurilingual greetings, he made this special appeal:
My thoughts go to Mogadishu, from which we continue to get news of brutal violence and which was the theater of a new massacre yesterday. I express my nearness to the families of the victims and to all who are suffering in Somalia because of hatred and instability.
I hope that, with the aid of the international community, no efforts will be spared to re-stablish respect for life and for human rights.
After greeting the pilgrims gathered in the inner courtyard of the Apostolic Palace for the catechesis, the Holy Father proceeded to the balcony overlooking the main square of Castel Gaondolfo and addressed the crowd that could not be accommodated in the courtyard:
Dear friends,
Thank you for your presence and for your enthusaism! I wish you all a good day, happy vacations, and much joy in these hot days. May the Lord help and be with you always. I give you my blessing.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/08/2010 01:03]