Homily for August 27th, 2018: St. Monica
The opening
prayer for today’s celebration of St. Monica speaks about her “motherly tears
for the conversion of her son Augustine.” He was a brilliant boy. But into his
30s he was unable to accept the Christian faith, despite his mother’s fervent
prayers and tears. Monica is said to have asked an old bishop whether her son
would ever accept baptism. “It is impossible,” the old man reassured her, “that
the son of so many prayers and tears should perish.” Augustine’s dramatic
conversion at age 33 caused his mother to “leap for joy,” Augustine tells us in
his Confessions.
In another passage in
that book, Augustine recounts a memorable conversation with his mother toward
her life’s end. “We talked together in deep joy,” Augustine writes, “and
forgetting the things that were behind and looking forward to those that were
before, we were discussing in the presence of Truth, who you are [O Lord], what
the eternal life of the saints could be like, which eye has not seen nor ear
heard, nor has it entered the heart of man. But with the mouth of our heart we
panted for the high waters of your fountain, the fountain of the life which is
with you. ... And my mother said, ‘Son, for my own part I no longer find joy in
anything in this world. ... One thing there was, for which I desired to remain
still a little longer in this life, that I should see you a Catholic Christian
before I died. This God has granted me in superabundance. What then am I doing
here?’”
A
few days later Monica fell ill. “Here you will bury your mother,” she said.
“Lay this body wherever it may be. This only I ask of you, that you should
remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be.” Augustine was able
to restrain his grief at his mother’s funeral and burial shortly thereafter;
but his tears flowed copiously later on.
What
a mother! And what a beautiful and holy death! May the Lord grant each of us such
a death, when the Lord sends his angel to call us home!
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