‘As St. Augustine teaches, may the Church be a community open for all’

By Tiziana Campisi

Saint Augustine sought God with all his heart and, “after encountering Him, made his life a gift to the Church,” which he loved deeply and never tired “of serving, preaching, forming Christians and defending the truth of the faith.”

With these words, Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, Archpriest of the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major, described the life and witness of Saint Augustine during the Mass he presided over on 28 August in Rome, in the Basilica dedicated to the Bishop of Hippo.

A “teacher of faith and the interior life,” Augustine teaches us never to tire of seeking the Truth and “to allow ourselves to be found by Christ.”

Looking to his example, the Cardinal said, we should ask God for “a Church capable of being a home, a community, a family,” where “the Word is heard,” the Eucharist is celebrated with faith, “the poor are welcomed,” and every person can feel that they are sought out and loved.

The Church according to Saint Augustine

The celebration was attended by Augustinian religious, Discalced Augustinians and Augustinian Recollects, as well as women religious belonging to congregations that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine. Lay faithful associated with the various Augustinian communities and institutions were also present.

They were welcomed by Father Pasquale Cormio, Prior of the community of friars at the Basilica of Saint Augustine. Among the concelebrants was Father Bruno Silvestrini, Custodian of the Apostolic Shrine, who proclaimed the Gospel.

In his homily, Cardinal Makrickas reflected on the Gospel as well as the other readings of the liturgy, saying that together they “offer a spiritual portrait” of the great Father of the Church.

The Acts of the Apostles, in which the first Christian community is presented as a “Church that lives by the Word, the Eucharist, fraternity and prayer,” express well “Saint Augustine’s great pastoral insight.” He “never thought of the Church as merely a reality made up of structures or institutions, but as a community gathered together by grace,” a community that also knows how to share its goods and its life.

Faith and reason

The Second Letter of Saint Paul to Timothy, with its exhortation to proclaim the Word of God, immediately calls to mind Augustine as “a man of the Word,” the cardinal said.

St. Augustine “studied, searched, debated, and passed through doubts and anxieties” in his quest for the Truth. “And when he finally encountered Christ,” Cardinal Makrickas explained, he understood “that Christian truth is not simply something to know, but Someone to love.”

Augustine also brought faith and reason together. “He teaches us that we can seek God through reason and, at the same time, kneel before the Mystery.” We can study “and remain humble,” the cardinal continued, and we can “ask questions without losing faith.”

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Christ the Good Shepherd, the Way, the Truth and the Life

The Gospel of John, which presents Christ as the Good Shepherd and the “gate of the sheep,” can be connected, according to the Archpriest of the Liberian Basilica, with the destination ultimately reached by the Bishop of Hippo.

After having “searched many paths,” “listened to many voices,” and “experienced the allure of culture, philosophy and human ambitions,” Augustine “discovered that no voice could give his heart what Christ, the Good Shepherd, ‘the true Shepherd,’ could give him.”

Bishops, priests and “every minister of the Church” must point to Him. They are authentic ministers when they remain united to Christ and lead others to Him, rather than to themselves, Cardinal Makrickas emphasized.

“The Church does not need shepherds who seek themselves,” he said. Rather, it needs “men capable of pointing to the Gate” and “giving an example through their own lives” that “Christ is the way, Christ is the truth, Christ is the life!”

From restlessness to God

The journey of Augustine teaches us that “restlessness, mistakes, questions, and even our resistance can become the place where God comes to seek us,” the cardinal noted.

The Bishop of Hippo experienced profound restlessness until he found “his rest in God.” In today’s society, likewise, “rich in words, images, opinions and voices,” we can become distracted by so many things that we risk “no longer recognizing the voice of the Good Shepherd.”

For this reason, Cardinal Makrickas invited the faithful to ask Saint Augustine that their hearts “may remain restless until they rest in God,” and to treasure the spiritual journey that led him to Christ.

Pope Leo XIV also highlighted this aspect of Augustine’s journey in a video message to the confreres of the Augustinian Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova. The Pope recalled that “Saint Augustine, through the grace of God, the prayers of his mother Monica and the presence of good people around him, ‘managed to find the path of peace for his restless heart.’”

Finally, Cardinal Makrickas encouraged the faithful, “looking to Saint Augustine,” to ask God for “a Church capable of being a home, a community, a family.”

At the conclusion of the celebration, he led the faithful in the recitation of a supplication to the Bishop of Hippo, asking that he accompany humanity in its commitment to peace and in the building of the City of God.

Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas presides over Mass at the Basilica of Saint Augustine in Campo Marzio