The Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops celebrated yesterday afternoon in Rome the solemn liturgical commemoration of the great Father of the Church, in which several religious, nuns, and laity from the Augustinian family participated. In his homily, the cardinal emphasized that, as taught by the experience of the Bishop of Hippo, it is the encounter with Christ that changes a person’s life; without God, we always lack something.
Tiziana Campisi – Vatican City
It is necessary to rediscover the thirst for God, that thirst we often try to “satisfy with other things,” but which is not quenched unless we open our lives to an encounter with Christ: this is the message that St. Augustine offers to today’s society, especially to young people. This was stated by Cardinal Robert Prevost, Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, an Augustinian religious, who yesterday afternoon presided over the solemn mass of the liturgical commemoration of the Bishop of Hippo, Doctor of the Church, concelebrated with his Augustinian brother Monsignor Luis Marín de San Martín, Undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops, Monsignor Flavien Rami Al-Kabalan, Apostolic Visitor for the Syrian faithful in Western Europe and Procurator of the Patriarchate of Antioch of the Syrians to the Holy See, and several priests.
In his homily, the cardinal explained that “the human need to seek God, to find the true source of life and love, arises in our hearts, cries out like a voice from the silence within each of us, and makes us feel that with God we can find the meaning of life,” because without God, we always lack something; we lack “light,” we lack “direction in our lives.”
The example of the first Christian communities
Before the hundreds of faithful present at the celebration, among them several religious and nuns who follow the rule of St. Augustine, Cardinal Prevost highlighted the importance of the encounter with God that is experienced when we gather in community, as derived from the Acts of the Apostles in the pages that describe the life of the first Christian communities, who listened to the teachings of the apostles, lived in communion breaking bread, and prayed together.
Prayer is “so essential in our lives,” the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops added, praying, entering into relation with the Lord, not only to ask for what the heart desires, “but above all to live in the Love of God.” Thus, in the family, in the community, in the parish, prayer, listening to the Word, and dialogue about faith can help rediscover the restlessness and enter into a deeper relationship of love with God, said the cardinal, emphasizing the prayer that the Pope wished to dedicate this year to adequately prepare for the Jubilee. A prayer that St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, never tired of directing to God, whom the Church remembered yesterday, August 27, and whom Francis wished to venerate by visiting her tomb, the cardinal recalled.
The Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome crowded with believers
Keeping the restlessness of the heart alive
Returning to the liturgical commemoration of St. Augustine, Prevost also recalled that exactly eleven years ago, shortly after his election, Pope Francis celebrated with the Augustinians the opening mass of their General Chapter, and that on that occasion the Pontiff stopped in his reflection on the restlessness that the great Father of the Church evokes in today’s man and that must be kept alive: “the restlessness of spiritual search, the restlessness of encounter with God, the restlessness of love.”
In short, Francis invites us to look at this thirst, this “desire that arises in our hearts and seeks an answer, a relationship”; that seeks authentic love. The restlessness of the heart leads Augustine “to a personal encounter with Christ, leads him to understand that the God he sought far from himself is the God close to every human being, the God close to our heart, more intimate to us than we are to ourselves,” the Pope pointed out on August 28, 2013, adding that “in his discovery and encounter with God, Augustine does not stop, does not rest, does not close himself up as someone who has already arrived, but continues on the path. Because “the restlessness of the search for truth, the search for God, becomes the restlessness of knowing him more and of going out of himself to make him known to others.” Therefore, at the end of his homily, he urged us to pray to St. Augustine so that this restlessness may be rediscovered and that every person may have the desire for the love of God.
Cardinal Prevost with the concelebrants