I was unable to participate in the recent screening of “Restless Heart: The Confession of Augustine,” so I look forward to the next opportunity to watch a perspective on his life and writings. I would like to say in jest, the Church has only three theologians and their names all begin with A — Augustine, Aquinas and Alphonsus. Even though we know that is really not true, we do know it is true that Augustine looms large as a Doctor of the Church and one of the Latin fathers of the Church. We know, too, that his life, his mother and his writings still can be a model and influence for our lives today.

Of course, it is difficult for us to appreciate St. Augustine because we are separated from him by centuries, a millennium and more of time and in a culture far different from his. He was a citizen of the late Roman Empire. The Roman Empire in its classic days with Cicero and Caesar and all those people whose writings we were tortured with in high school, had passed. But the Roman civilization lived on, kind of like the United States now. Some people say we are “passed it” in terms of the greatness of the country but we still have a semblance of the civilization that the really great people created.

Augustine was a part of a similar civilization in Roman times when ambition, getting ahead and doing the politically correct thing were very important. He was born of a mixed marriage, which back then and even today can be a problem. His father was a pagan and his mother, St. Monica, was an exemplary Catholic. Of course, there is no youngster who went to Catholic school who wasn’t told by the sisters about St. Monica who prayed and prayed and prayed for 20 years or more for the conversion of her son from his pagan and ambitious ways. She prayed for it and she got it. That part of St. Augustine’s life in itself can speak to the power of unyielding faith and prayer.

Her son, Augustine became a Catholic. He became a good Catholic. He became a priest and a bishop and then was an expositor of the mysteries of the Church under the guidance of St. Ambrose, an outstanding bishop of Milan and an outstanding Doctor of the Church in his own right, but also the influence of Augustine’s mother. We just celebrated St. Monica’s feast day on Aug. 27 and the lesson that the priests read in the breviary on that day is beautiful.  

It is about the days of her approaching death and is a lesson in Catholic life. Augustine and his brother were talking with their mother and she said I am not long for this world and they said “don’t say that.” They started talking about her burial and St. Monica said don’t worry about it, bury me anywhere. They were talking about going to the city of her birth and she said don’t worry about it. Just pray for me that when I go before the altar of God that I enter the kingdom of heaven. Her discourse with them as read by the priests on that day is quite beautiful indeed.

You can see that the influence of St. Augustine’s mother lives on and on and on in the conversion that she won from God for her son. If you try to read St. Augustine you may find it difficult and exhausting because he is thorough and he was smart, but it will be certainly worth your effort, as I am sure the movie of his life is worth your watching.