OUR UNION WITH GOD

SAINT AUGUSTINE, BISHOP, DOCTOR

1 Thess 3:7-13; Ps 90:3-4,12-14,17; Mt 24:42-51

The Path to Union with God

Our awareness is predominantly on ourselves during the initial stage of purification because the divine activity is centred on us, revealing our sins and imperfections to us. The purpose, as we have stated, is for us to own them and confess them to God in deep humility. Our awareness is predominantly focused on Jesus Christ, the Word of God, in the second stage of illumination, allowing us to absorb the truth of God. God’s revelation of his Son to us renews us spiritually and enables us to operate on a spiritual level. The word of God is spirit and life. So, the more we are filled with the light of God, the more spiritually alive and active we become. The major operation of the spiritually renewed soul is love. The Holy Spirit is love; hence, the more he fills us, the more we are able to love God, relate with him, and call Him Father. The divine activity of love characterises the third stage of union with God. The love of God is the river of living water that flows out of a faithful soul, flowing back to God and to our neighbour, in whom we see God. The union with God takes place in our souls as we receive his Word, Jesus Christ, in our souls, abandon ourselves, and own his life here and now. Thus, the faithful increasingly become like Jesus Christ in their daily living.

Our union with God increases gradually and continuously as long as we keep our attention on the Lord. As we grow in the Spirit of Jesus Christ through knowledge of His mysteries, we grow in our love for the Father and our neighbours. What is taking place spiritually within us is physically demonstrated in our love and communion with one another. Saint Paul prayed for the Thessalonian community to grow in the union of love. “May God our Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, make it easy for us to come to you. May the Lord be generous in increasing your love and make you love one another and the whole human race as much as we love you.” The love we have for God is demonstrated in our love for our neighbours, such that when we lack love for our brothers and sisters, it invariably implies that we lack love for God. Hence, communion with one another is a sure sign of our communion with God. The extent of our union with God or Jesus Christ is measured in our love and communion with our brothers and sisters. We see God in each other as we wait for the beatific vision. Because God lives in each of us, irrespective of our status, colour, race, or nationality, we demonstrate our love for him by loving everyone he places in our path. The love of the Thessalonians was a comfort for Saint Paul while enduring the present trials and difficulties. “Brothers, your faith has been a great comfort to us in the middle of our own troubles and sorrows; now we can breathe again, as you are still holding firm in the Lord.”

We understand this deeper through the words our Lord admonished us in the Gospel. To stay awake as he admonished is to keep our attention on the Lord, for that is the way to keep advancing in the mysteries of our Lord and union with him. To fall asleep is to be distracted by creatures. “Stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming. You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed awake and would not have allowed anyone to break through the wall of his house.” Because we grow in union with our attention fixed on the Lord, the one with more love for the brethren is appointed the shepherd of the flock in place of the Good Shepherd. The one who maltreats the brethren has the least love and does not represent the Master. “But as for the dishonest servant who says to himself, ‘My master is taking his time.’ And sets about beating his fellow servants and eating and drinking with drunkards, his master will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not know.” Saint Augustine was distracted early in his life, but found the path leading to God through the prayers of his mother, Saint Monica. He was born in Thagaste, in Africa, of a Berber family. He was raised a Christian but left the Church early. He spent a great deal of time searching for the truth, in the Manichaean heresy and later in Neoplatonism, until the grace of God found him through the prayers of his mother and the teaching of Saint Ambrose of Milan. He was baptised in 387, ordained a priest, and elected the Bishop of Hippo. He preached, taught, and wrote much on Christian faith. His sagacity and literary prowess are most evident in his works, especially his Confessions. He is venerated as a doctor of the Church and one of the Fathers of Catholic Theology.

Let us pray: Renew in your Church, we pray, O Lord, the spirit with which you endowed your Bishop Saint Augustine that, filled with the same spirit, we may thirst for you, the sole fount of true wisdom, and seek you, the author of heavenly love. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.