Restlessness within

At 6:00pm last evening, in the Roman Basilica of Saint Augustine in Campo Marzio, the Holy Father, Pope Francis celebrated Mass for the opening of the 184^th General Ordinary Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine (Augustinians).

Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

for the Mass inaugurating the 184^th General Ordinary Chapter

of the Order of Saint Augustine

You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. (Confessions, I,1,1). With these words, which became famous, Saint Augustine turns to God in the Confessions, and in these words is the synthesis of his whole life.

Restlessness. This word strikes me and makes me reflect. Let me begin with a question: What fundamental restlessness did Augustine live in his life? Or perhaps I should say, what kind of restlessness invites us to be mindful of and keep alive in our lives this great man and saint? I propose three types: the restlessness of the spiritual quest, the restlessness of the encounter with God, and the restlessness of love.

The first: the restlessness of the spiritual quest. Augustine lived an experience that is very common today: quite common with today's youth. He was educated by his mother Monica in the Christian faith, even if he did not receive Baptism, but growing up he began to distance himself, he didn't find in that faith the answer to his questions, to the desires of his heart, and he was attracted by other proposals. He then entered a group of Manicheans, he devoted himself diligently to his studies, he did not renounce light-hearted fun, in the spectacles of that time, intense friendships; he knew intense love and embarked on a brilliant career as a master of rhetoric that took him all the way to the imperial court of Milan. Augustine was an accomplished man, he had everything, but in his heart remained the restlessness of the search for the profound meaning of his life; his heart was not asleep. I would say that it was not anesthetized by success, by things, by power. Augustine did not close in on himself, he did not rest, he continued to search for the truth, the meaning of life, he continued to search for the face of God. Of course he made mistakes, he also took wrong paths, he sinned, he was a sinner; but he did not lose the restlessness of the spiritual quest. And in this way he discovered that God was waiting for him; on the contrary, that He never gave up looking for him first. I would like to say to those who feel indifferent towards God, towards the faith, to those who are far from God or have abandoned Him, even to us, with our distances and our abandonment of God, small abandonments maybe, but there are so many in our everyday life: look deep within your heart, look deep within yourself, and ask yourself: do you have a heart that desires something greater or a heart that is asleep, more concerned with physical things than with God? Has your heart preserved the restlessness of searching or do you let it suffocate from things that end up leaving it atrophied? God is waiting for you, he is looking for you: what will you respond? Do you realize this situation of your soul? Or are you sleeping? Do you believe that God is waiting for you or is this truth only just words to you?

In Augustine, there is this restlessness of the heart that leads him to the personal encounter with Christ, it leads him to understand that the God who he searched for far from himself, is the God close to every human being, the God close to our hearts, more intimate to us than we ourselves are (cfr ibid.,III,6,11). But also in the discovery and encounter with God, Augustine does not stop, he does not rest, he doesn’t close in on himself as one who has already arrived, but instead continues the way. The restlessness of the search for the truth, of the search for God becomes the restlessness to know him more and to come out of himself to make him known by others. It is the restlessness of love. He would have liked a quiet life of study and prayer, but God called him to be Pastor of Hippo, in a difficult time, with a community divided and war at their gates. And Augustine let himself be disquieted by God, he did not tire of announcing Him, of evangelizing with courage, without fear, he sought always to be the image of Jesus, the Good Shepherd who knows his sheep (cfr Jn. 10,14), indeed, as I love to repeat,  he smelled of his flock, and went in search of those who were lost. Augustine lived that which Saint Paul tells Timothy and every one of us: announce the Word, in season and out of season, announce the Gospel with the great magnanimous heart, (cfr 2 Tm, 4,2) of a Pastor who is restless for his sheep. The treasure of Augustine is precisely this attitude: to go out always towards God, to go out always towards the flock … He was a man in tension, between these two exits; not privatizing love … always on the way! Always on the move, his father would say. Always restless! And this is the peace of restlessness. We can ask ourselves: am I restless for God, to announce him, to make him known? Or do I let myself be enchanted by that spiritual worldliness that urges us to do all for love of ourselves? We who are consecrated think of personal interests, the functionalism of works, of careerism. There are so many things we can think of … Am I accommodated, so to speak, in my Christian life, in my priestly life, in my religious life, also in my community life … or do I preserve my strength of the restlessness for God, for His Word, that leads me to go out, towards the others?

We come to the final restlessness, the restlessness of love. Here I can't fail to look at the mother: this Monica! How many tears were shed by that holy woman for the conversion of her son! And how many mothers today shed tears so that their own children return to Christ! Do not lose hope in God's grace! In the Confessions, we read this sentence that a bishop said to Saint Monica, who had asked him to help her son to rediscover the way of faith: It is not possible that a son of so many tears would perish (III,12,21). The same Augustine, after his conversion, turning to God, wrote: For my love my mother wept before you, always faithful, shedding more tears than have ever been spilled by mothers at the death of their children (ibid., III,11,19). Restless woman, this woman, who, in the end, said those beautiful words: cumulatius hoc mihi Deus praestitit! [my God has satisfied me sufficiently] (ibid., IX,10,26). That for which she cried, God gave to her abundantly! And Augustine was heir to Monica, from her he received the seed of restlessness. Here, then, the restlessness of love: always seeking, without stopping, the good of the other, of a loved one, with that intensity that leads to tears. I am reminded of Jesus who wept before the tomb of his friend, Lazarus. Peter, who, after denying Jesus, met the rich gaze of mercy and of love and wept bitterly. The father who waited on the terrace for his son and when he was still far off, ran to meet him; I am reminded of the Virgin Mary who with love followed Her Son Jesus to the Cross.

How are we with the restlessness of love? Do we believe in the love of God and in love towards others? Or are we nominalists on this matter? Not in an abstract way, not only in words, but the real brother that we meet, the brother who is next to us! Do we let ourselves be restless for their needs or do we remain closed in on ourselves, in our community that many times for us is a comunita-comodita [community of comfort]? There are times where you can live in an apartment without knowing who lives next door; or one can be in a community, without truly knowing his own brother: with pain I think of those who are consecrated that are not fertile, that are zitelloni [elderly bachelors]. The restlessness of love urges us always to go meet the other, without waiting for the other to show his need. The restlessness of love gives us the gift of pastoral fruitfulness, and we should ask ourselves, every one of us: how is my spiritual fruitfulness going, my pastoral fruitfulness?

Let us ask the Lord for you, dear Augustinians, who begin the General Chapter, and for all of us, that he may preserve in our heart the spiritual restlessness to search for Him always, the restlessness to announce with courage, the restlessness of love towards every brother and sister. Amen.