In last week’s column, I noted how Pope Benedict used the example of St. Augustine and his call to put aside his desire to seek salvation in a private, contemplative way of life, embracing a life of service to others in imitation of Christ who died for all, thus providing the model for Christians to live no longer just for themselves, but for the good of others.
In the next paragraph of Spe salvi, the Holy Father gives a description from St. Augustine’s own writing as to what this “life for others” looked like for him. I think it is worth sharing those words, not so much because they necessarily pertain exactly to each of us in our state in life, but because they present an awareness of what living according to the Gospel demands for anybody who is serious about being a Christian. St. Augustine writes of his daily life:
The turbulent have to be corrected, the faint-hearted cheered up, the weak supported; the Gospel’s opponents need to be refuted, its insidious enemies guarded against; the unlearned need to be taught, the indolent stirred up, the argumentative checked; the proud must be put in their place, the desperate set on their feet, those engaged in quarrels reconciled; the needy have to be helped, the oppressed to be liberated, the good to be encouraged, the bad to be tolerated; all must be loved. (St. Augustine, Sermo 340, 3: PL 38, 1484; cf. F. Van der Meer, Augustine the Bishop, London and New York 1961, p.268.)
After that intimidating list of duties, the pope then quotes another line from another sermon from St. Augustine as he reflects on these demands of the Gospel, and he concludes: “The Gospel terrifies me.” (Sermo 339, 4: PL 38, 1481.)
That line struck me as I read it, and it is easy to see how, after reading the list of duties he needs to be attentive to, St. Augustine would come to this conclusion. But before we dismiss that conclusion as something applying just to his circumstances as a leader in the Church, I think we need to see how we must all come to that same conclusion. Though many of the duties he lists among his daily concerns may not apply to us directly in our state of life, that final one applies to all Christians, that “all must be loved.”
Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel about the necessity to love our neighbor as we love ourselves also includes loving our enemies, praying for those who persecute us, and blessing those who curse us. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about the judgment and how our judgment will take into account the following warning: “what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.” (Mt 25:45)
So if we do not feel somewhat terrified by the Gospel, then it might be worth asking whether it is full Gospel we are following, or just those parts with which we agree and with which we are comfortable. But the type of fear of which St. Augustine writes, and which we often feel regarding the demands of the Gospel are not meant to discourage us. Rather, as Pope Benedict writes, the challenge of the Gospel message produces “that healthy fear which prevents us from living for ourselves alone and compels us to pass on the hope we hold in common.” (Spe salvi, 29) Having been loved so generously by God, we desire to likewise imitate His generosity of loving all those who, in His Providence, He has allowed to be a part of our lives, thus being witnesses and instruments of hope in a world so desperately in need of it.