Heart and Voice of Jesus: The Heart of Our Catholic Faith

The Heart and Voice of Jesus: The Heart of Our Catholic Faith

St. Augustine taught that the Incarnation and Paschal Mystery reveal the entirety of the Christian Faith; he demonstrates that the voice of Christ is heard in the Psalms, through the mouths of the prophets, and in prefiguring the sacraments in both testaments of Sacred Scripture. “Augustine’s thought is always

Christocentric…Christ as the central Mystery of Christian faith.”1 Drawing primarily from de civitate Dei with support from other Augustinian works, Jesus will emerge as the key without whom we cannot understand ourselves or our relationship with God. Subtly but undeniably, Jesus veils Himself in the Old Testament. Covert in the Old Testament, the New Testament portrays Jesus’ saving Paschal Mystery overtly; Jesus is the mediator of the new and everlasting covenant in His Blood. Jesus, who instituted the seven sacraments, gives Himself to us in each of these sacraments, prefigured in the Old Testament and revealed in the New Testament. Jesus interpreted to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus “beginning with Moses and all the prophets…what referred to Him in all the Scriptures…and He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.” (Lk 24:27, 35 NABRE) The Savior’s hands and heart underlie the sacraments, and His voice resounds throughout all of Sacred Scripture.

St. Augustine sought the Scriptures early in his conversion, as he “took up and read” (Confessions 8.12.29) and took to heart what he read. Here the Holy Spirit led him to the conviction that while the ordinary, literal sense of the Scripture should be considered first, a careful Christian whose goal is to come into closer relationship with God will read the Scriptures in more than one sense. Shunning slavish adherence to the letter allowed him to broaden his horizon to the spiritual senses of Scripture: allegorical, eschatological, and the tropological (moral) sense. St. Augustine also spent many of his hours in prayer and meditating upon Scripture such that he “spoke scripturally.”2 Passages of Scripture flowed naturally in his thoughts and into his sermons, the fruit of his prayerful reflection on the Sacred Word of God. The same Holy Spirit who inspired the writers of Scripture is present to those who read the Scripture, who breathe in the Spirit in which Scripture was written.

1 Daly, Fr. Brian,(Oxford University Press, 2018), Christology, 164.

2 Harmless, William A Love Supreme: Augustine’s Jazz of Theology (Creighton University) http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/augstudies2013431/27

Exegetical tools uncover not only the literal but also the metaphorical meaning of Scripture passages.

The tools St. Augustine lists as indispensable for the exegete include approaching Scripture with piety; a knowledge of the original languages in which the Scripture was written and the idioms, expressions, and methods of religious teaching in use when those passages were written; a familiarity with customs and materials of the biblical times; and a reliable translation of the Bible. Piety is the first tool he mentions when approaching Scripture.3 Defining “piety” as “the worship of God,” Augustine clarifies: “the worship we hold to be due only

to Him who is the true God.”4 On the altar of our hearts, stoked with the flames of charity, we offer to God the sacrifice of humility and praise, and He condescends to dwell among us.5 He will not despise a humbled, contrite heart (Psalm 51); God desires us to “practice justice, and to love mercy, and to be prepared to go with the Lord.”6 Following Jesus is to tread the path of humility, as He is the perfect embodiment of humility in His Incarnation and Paschal Mystery.

Another tool of the exegete, historical criticism of the Bible, while shedding light on obscure pericopes, especially in relation to idioms, teaching methods, and the ambiguities of language when translated from one tongue into others, sheds a harsh light on Scripture when it neglects reverence for God’s Word. As St.

Augustine insists upon reading Scripture in its literal sense while remaining aware of metaphorical meanings, he opens our eyes to see how the New Testament is revealed in the Old and uncovers how the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New. “Many miracles have occurred to testify to that one supreme miracle of salvation, the

miracle of Christ’s Ascension in the flesh in which He rose from the dead. Those miracles are all recorded in the Scripture, which never lie.”7

3 Augustine, de doctrina Christiana (Translated by Edmund Hill, O.P., New City Press, 1996), Book III.1,1

4 Augustine, de civitate dei (Translated by Henry Bettenson, Penguin Classics, 1972), Book X.1

5 Ibid. , Book X.3 (Psalm 116)

6 Ibid., Book X.5

7 Ibid., Book XXII.8

The challenge of reading Scripture in its various senses prompts in the reader humility and gratitude.

Christ’s humility in the Incarnation is the doorway to the Eternal8 and our model for approaching God. Gratitude pours from a humbled heart that the Lord has helped us to soften our hearts enough to receive His graces and favors. The key to reading the Sacred Word fruitfully is conversion to Christ, for “unless you believe, you shall not understand.” (Isa 7.9) Once we have interpreted the signs and integrated the reality towards which they point, we become signs of His truth, beauty, goodness, and love. For priests, the wisdom they have gleaned from their prayerful reading of the Scripture serve their congregations well, for the hearts of those priests have seen into the heart of the Word of God.9 Their voice and manner, as well as the words of their sermons, can effectively communicate the layers of meaning, the various spiritual senses, and the literal meaning of the Sacred Word.

St. Augustine’s mastery of the allegorical sense of Scripture runs right through Tractate 41.10 His illustration of the Truth as bread clothed with flesh echoed the manna and quail from the Exodus. In his language of the Son setting the servants free, the reversal of the cry of the prodigal son is heard: I am no longer worthy to be called your son, but let me be your servant. The final passage of Tractate 41 urges us to allow Jesus, the Good Samaritan, to carry us to the Inn of the Church, with Scripture and Tradition to minister to our spiritual needs, paid in advance with the two Great Commandments: to love God above all else and to love all others for God’s sake.

Exhorting his flock as a pastor, a preacher, a theologian, and an exegete, St. Augustine instructs his flock that the primary purpose in understanding Scripture is to come to know God. One who comes to know God will come to love Him; loving God, people want to obey Him. In the study of Scriptures one finds God’s dual commandment to love Him for His own sake and to love others because He created them and loves them; thus,

8 Augustine, de trinitate (Translated by Edmund Hill, O.P., New City Press, Second Edition, 2015) Book IV.ii.4

9 Augustine, de doctrina christiana, Book IV.5.7

10 From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7. Translator John Gibb; editor Philip Schaff. (Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701041.htm

the primary purpose in plumbing the Scriptures is obedience to and observance of the law of love.11 Job knew in his wisdom that one who loves God obeys Him in good times and in bad. Augustine expressed in de civitate Dei 1.28 that “the providence of the Creator and Governor of the universe is a profound mystery.” While the Godhead is shrouded and inscrutable, He has revealed Himself to us that we might come to know Him in our limited capacity. Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans that to love God, you must know Him first. Augustine in the de civitate Dei 4.1 explained how the uneducated [pagans] have mistaken the fallen angels, who have become demons, for “gods” – “the false gods whom they used to worship openly and still worship secretly are really unclean spirits; they are demons.” Clearly the pagans did not know God; therefore they could not love Him properly.

Salvation history, studded with the jewels of Wisdom literature such as the Psalms and prophecies, coheres through the golden chain of love.12 Jesus assured His disciples that “what was written about Me in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms had to be fulfilled.” (Luke 24:44) Augustine, in his narrations on the Psalms, helped his congregation to hear the voice of Christ speaking as the Head of His Body, the Church. Augustine

interprets “He put a new song into my mouth,” from Psalm 40:3, as Jesus speaking on behalf of the members of His Body. Jesus spoke thus to St. Paul on the road to Damascus: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” (Acts 9:4) and “I was hungry and you gave Me food.” (Mt 25:35). Augustine asserts: “If He suffers in us, then we shall be crowned in Him,” and advises his flock to “be perfected in the Body”13 which has been prepared for us, that is, the Body of Christ, the Church. Jesus speaks as God to us and as Man to God. Augustine comments that Jesus is “one God with the Father, one Man with us…He prays for us as our priest…He is prayed to by us as our God.”14

11 Augustine, de doctrina christiana, Book I.36.40

12 Augustine, de catechizandis rudibus (Translated by S. D. F. Salmond, Dalcassian Publishing, 2017), Chapter 6

13 Augustine, Narration on Psalm 40

14 Augustine, Narration on Psalm 86

St. Augustine presents Jesus as the “principle” by which we are purified and born anew. He cites Jesus’ answer to the Jews in John 8:25, “I AM the beginning.” He is the seminal Son of the Father; He is the cause of all Creation according to the Creed; He is the origin of our new life in Him as He assumes our human nature and purifies it, taking our sins upon His sinless flesh. He destroyed death by assuming the penalty of death though He himself transgressed not, demonstrating that the evil lay in the sin and not in the flesh. The Three Persons in One God work in unity as one “principle” while retaining their individual identities. “In Jesus, the Word of God took on a complete humanity, in soul as well as in body and always remained joined to the Person of the Word.”15 Augustine argues against the heresies of modalism and dualism as he explains that Jesus’ Divinity, assuming human nature, purifies us by means of that very nature. Jesus, our Mediator and model, came to show us the Way to the Father and baptizes us with water and the Holy Spirit. He teaches us by His words and His deeds; He saves us by His Passion and the pattern of His life. His human body and soul, temporarily laid aside in death, emerged glorified at the Resurrection.

St. Augustine provided many examples from the Bible pointing to Jesus. He explained that with the Divine attribute of being pure spirit – above time and space, without form – Jesus Christ Incarnate is

“invisible,” for the Jews crucified His flesh as they did not perceive His Divinity.16 God, while immaterial, revealed Himself to the Israelites “incarnationally” by speaking through angels and prophets17 and with powerful signs in theophanies in Exodus such as the pillar of cloud; the pillar of fire; the burning bush; the booming voice people begged never to hear again; and the miracles wrought through His servant Moses. All of these Old Testament theophanies built up to the fulfillment in Jesus Christ. “We now see fulfilled in Christ the promise given to Abraham.”18 The signs of the Old Testament point forward to Jesus, including saving by water and wood. This imagery is found in Genesis with Noah and the Ark (Gn Chapter 7) and when Moses’ wooden

15 Daly, Christology, 167.

16 Williams, Rowan Language, Reality, and Desire: The Nature of Christian Formation. Journal of Literature and Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1989)

17 Augustine, de civitate dei, Book X.25

18 Ibid., Book XXII.3

staff parted the Red Sea (Ex 14:21-31) and again when his staff thrown into the water made the bitter water sweet19 (Ex 15:22-25). Baptism is prefigured in these narratives of salvation by water and “fulfills the prophecies of Isaiah 1:16-20.”20 Jesus’ pierced side poured forth water and blood as He hung upon the wood of the Cross.

The Rock who was Christ (1 Cor 10:4) followed the Israelites in the Exodus; and the Rock struck in the side poured forth water (Ex 17:1-6) prefigured Jesus, slain upon the Cross, from whose side, struck with a lance, a fountain of water and blood flowed. The manna, Bread from Heaven (Ex Chapter 16) foreshadows Jesus’ self- gift in the Eucharist. The safe passage to the Promised Land when the priests held back the Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant (Joshua Chapter 3) prophesies Jesus leading His faithful to the Kingdom of Heaven. Within the Ark of the Covenant lay the treasures of the Old Testament awaiting fulfillment in the New: manna, the Bread of Life; the tablets of the Law, the Word of God; and Aaron’s budded rod which proved he was the genuine High Priest, as Jesus is our eternal High Priest.

Jesus perfected and fulfilled the sacrifice of Isaac (GN Chapter 22) bearing the wood upon his back; God Himself providing the sacrifice. Jesus crowned with thorns was signified in the ram whose head was caught in the thorn bush. Incarnate, “He was offered; in this form He is the priest; in this form He is the sacrifice.”21 The Church, following His lead, “learns to offer itself through Him.”22 In 2 Samuel 6, David acts

as a kingly priest and a priestly king as a “type” of Jesus, as is Melchizedek, king of Salem – the king of peace – who brought Abram gifts of bread and wine (GN 14:17-18), prefiguring Jesus’ self-gift in the Eucharist.23 Just as Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (Jn 11:38-44), the prophet Ezekiel renewed life in the valley of dry bones (Ez 37) and the prophet Elisha brought the son of the Shunammite woman back to life (2 Kings 4:32-37).

19 Augustine, de civitate dei, Book X.8

20 Cavadini, John, Trinity and Apologetics in the Theology of St. Augustine (Blackwell Publishing, 2012), Footnote 2, page 2

21 Augustine, de civitate dei, Book X.6

22 Ibid., Book X.20

23 Ibid., Book 16. 22

Life in Christ is life in the Kingdom of Heaven for the Church Militant, the Church Suffering, and the Church Triumphant, for Christ is “Lord of both the living and the dead.” (Rom 14:9) For Christians, their “commonwealth is in Heaven.” (Phil 3:20) Augustine explains that saints and sinners inhabit the Church Militant together, just as the weeds and the wheat grow together until the angels “gather out of His Kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers” (Mt 13:41).24 He teaches that the pious dead remain in the Kingdom as the Church Suffering and are “commemorated at the altar of God”25 during Mass and are commended in the Book of Revelation 14:13: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.” The souls of saints and martyrs reign with Christ in Heaven as the Church Triumphant such that “they themselves are His Kingdom.”26 Those who die in a state of grace and those purified in the fires of Purgatory shall be “revealed with Him [Christ] in glory” (Col 3:4); Augustine had “no doubt [that] the resurrected body will be eternal” as Christ “showed us in His

Resurrection.”27 He rose from the dead to teach us to hope for resurrection, “just as “He suffered to teach us to suffer.”28

Jesus, speaking in the Psalms, bids us to remember our true citizenship in Heaven. Augustine’s tome City of God likely takes its name from Psalm 86: “Glorious things are said of you, City of God.” Psalms 45 and 47 refer to our heavenly homeland; Augustine refers to this City as a commonwealth which “exists for the common good because it has justice at its heart,”29 as God gives everyone his due. Jesus, the founder and ruler of this commonwealth, “whose bonds are bonds of love,”30 presides over the fellowship of the pious faithful and the angels. Citizens of the City of God are sojourners in this world31 on pilgrimage as they “work out their

salvation in fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). Augustine advises his congregation: “If you wish to be armed

24 Augustine, de civitate dei., Book XX.9.1

25 Ibid.., Book XX.9.5

26 Ibid., Book XX.9.3

27 Ibid., Book X.29

28 Augustine, Exposition of Psalm 56

29 Augustine, de civitate dei, Introduction page XLV

30 Ibid., Introduction page XLV

31 Ibid., Book XVIII.1

against temptations in the world, let the desire for the heavenly Jerusalem grow in your hearts.”32 Setting hearts on the higher gifts, the hope of the joy which lasts eternally braces the back of the pilgrims to continue their journey following the Way, Jesus Christ.

St. Augustine contrasts the city of Rome with the City of God, focusing on the foundations of each. The Roman Empire, built by conquest, bloodshed, and enslavement, was, in Augustine’s day, in the throes of ravishment by the barbarians. Jesus is the foundation of the City of God; Jesus, who was foretold by the Old Testament prophets, whose mighty deeds proved His Divinity, and who is the eternal reward of the faithful.

While no one died defending the divinity of Romulus, countless martyrs lost their earthly life rather than deny the Divine Son of God. In referring to salvation history as a whole (from the Old Testament through the New Testament and unto the present age), Augustine presents Jesus as the foundation and King of the Heavenly Jerusalem. He advises Deogratias in de catechizandis rudibus 6.10-7.11 to narrate salvation history, ending with the hope of the general resurrection at the Second Coming and eternal beatitude in the New Jerusalem. The heart of a Christian must reside in the heart of Jesus; our eyes must be fixed upon the horizon of eternity to live and love well in the present.

Apart from Christ, we cannot see God nor understand anything of Him. Jesus, the image of the invisible God, (Col 1:15) is our path to the Father. “Christ said, ‘I am the Way…Whither would you go?”33 Jesus “spoke of the measure of His charity and required the same measure of us.”34 Sin, the failure to love properly and to order our loves properly, can be healed only by Christ. His act of love in His Paschal Mystery shows us how and enables us to obey His twin commandments of love of God and neighbor. We ought to reflect upon His

Image within our hearts and “arise and return to Him whom we had abandoned by sin.”35 The Sacraments of Confession and Anointing of the Sick bring the Body of Christ back to health, as they “make a bridge to bring

32 Augustine, Narration on Psalm 136

33 Augustine, Sermon 92, from Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Volume 6, Edited by Philip Schaff, Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/160392.htm

34 Augustine, Exposition of Psalm 56

35 Augustine, de civitate dei, Book XI.28

them to [Jesus]. He heals…and nourishes.”36 “Christ Humbled is the Way,” taught St. Augustine in Sermon 92. Imitation of Jesus’ humility as we confess our sins cleanses or purifies our souls.37 The great Physician, the Divine Healer, came to us “because [we] could not go to Him…whereby we might return.”38 The whole Christ speaks in us, through us, and for us. As Head of the Body, Jesus leads us and intercedes for us. As members of His Body, we ought to cling to “His Blood as the price paid for our redemption.”39 Our lives, as members of His Body, ought to be Eucharistic, that is, a todah offering: a thanksgiving sacrifice. As we participate in the Eucharistic liturgy, the holy sacrifice of the Mass, we are fed by His Word, we feed upon His flesh, and we become “bread for the life of the world.”40

Citing St. Paul five times in Book 1.10 of Civ., St. Augustine exhorts Christians to fix their eyes on the living God, accepting fortune and misfortune as it may come to them, in the firm faith that they cannot lose their greatest treasure, Christ the Lord. In confessing Christ, they may lose their earthly life, but Christ will reward them with eternal felicity. St. Paul enjoined Christians to live in this world as though not living in it. Our labor may gain us material goods, but we are to use those goods for the sake of the Kingdom. Our hearts must be set upon the good, the true, and the beautiful; the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If we should be deprived of our material wealth, the treasure stored up for us in Heaven is not thereby lost. St. Augustine, in quoting St. Paul so often in this short passage, reiterates the message that Christ confessed is Christ possessed eternally.

St. Augustine wrote and taught exhaustively on Scripture41, committing a prodigious amount to memory. He approached every sermon and every debate well-stocked with the Sacred Word. His gift as an orator enabled him to engage in word-play which delighted his congregation and which “packaged” the Word in catchy

phrases. He broke open the Word to them because he had plumbed the depths of Scripture, prayerfully

36 Augustine, Confessions, (Translated by Maria Boulding, O.S.B, New City Press, 2016), Book VII.18, 24

37 Augustine, de civitate dei, X.28-29 and de trinitate, Book 4.1.3-4

38 Augustine, Sermon 92

39 Cavadini, Trinity and Apologetics, 108.

40 Ibid., 36

41Augustine wrote narrations on each of the 150 Psalms; on the Harmony of the Gospels; 97 sermons on the New Testament; 124 tractates on the Gospel of John; ten sermons on the First Epistle of John; and two books on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. (http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1601.htm, accessed April 9, 2021)

examining both testaments to discover Divine Revelation in all senses of Scripture. Pondering the Word in his heart, he discerned the sacraments present already in the Old Testament and instituted by Christ in the New Testament. Augustine harkened to the Savior’s voice throughout the Sacred Word and penned essays on baptism, confession42, matrimony, consecrated virginity, and holy orders,43 and wove wisdom about the sacraments throughout his voluminous body of works. He listened intently to the words of our Savior: “Everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.” (Lk 24:44) This fulfillment included the sacraments, as seen “in the breaking of the bread,” for Cleopas and the other disciple in Emmaus and “the forgiveness of sins,” for the disciples on the shore on the morning of the Ascension. Thanks to this “Doctor of Grace,” modern-day Christians who read Augustine can perceive the impress of the Lord’s Incarnation and Paschal Mystery in the Bible, in the sacraments, in their relation with God, and in their lives.

42 On Baptism, Against the Donatists; Merits and Remission of Sin and Infant Baptism; On the Grace of Christ and on Original Sin, (http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1601.htm, accessed April 9, 2021)

43 On the Good of Marriage; On Holy Virginity; On the Work of Monks; On Marriage and Concupiscence, Ibid.

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