Thoughts for Lent from St. Augustine

Lent is a liturgical season dedicated to encouraging a renewal of our baptismal commitment.
It is a time of conversion. Christian conversion is necessarily a conversion to God and to one another.

And so the three major penitential practices of this season, almsgiving, prayer and fasting, are to be lived in an authentically Christian spirit (see Matthew 6, 1f): not as simple external practices but rather as a testimony of our basic stance before God, one another and ourselves.

During this season of Lent, it is important for all Christians, as persons and as a community, to walk along the path to conversion as well.

In order to be better able to do that, we can reflect on what Saint Augustine frequently pointed out in his Lenten homilies: the importance of the Christian significance of fasting, which requires sharing with the needy from the fruit of our austerity.

Reflection
Augustine, who was bishop of Hippo in Africa, frequently preached on the Christian significance of fasting, which requires sharing with the needy from the fruit of our austerity.

Although we do not know much about Hippo at the time of Augustine, the Christian community there is not unknown to us. Generally, it was a poor but well organized church.

In order to provide help for the needy, the church administered donations and gifts. This attention to the needy gave the church economic significance in the life of the community. Augustine distributed the property of the church among the poor.

Augustine's deep pastoral sense assured that this help did not remain on the material level. Quite the contrary: he was committed to the authentic promotion of respect for the dignity of the poor.

Augustine became one with the poor, "making myself poor with the poor, a beggar with the beggars" (Sermon 66, 5). Augustine will remind people again and again of the presence of the Lord "in the person of the poor" (Sermon 206, 2; Sermon 113 B, 4), particularly in his commentary on Matthew 25 (Sermon 25, 8). "Christ is needy when a poor person is in need" (Sermon 38, 8), "is hungry when the poor are hungry" (Sermon 390, 2; Sermon 32, 20). "To come to the aid of the poor, members of Christ, is to come to the aid of Christ the Head who is present and in need in the poor" (Sermon 53 A, 6; Sermon 236, 3).

Sharing is required of the Christian who wishes to practice charity and justice. From this flows the religious commitment to sharing our goods, a central point for Augustine.

Just as avarice is linked to a lack of faith, as is the case in the rich person who ignores the need of Lazarus (Sermon 41, 4), so too mercy is an expression of our faith which understands that it is God who feeds and nurtures us, and desires to provide the same attention for the needy through us (Sermon 39, 4).

The true believer knows himself to be "a beggar of God", from whom he needs to beg each day, and who as a result feels obliged to respond to the needs of those who request it of him: "How can you ask of your Lord, when you do not even recognize him in others?" (Sermon 61, 7-8; Sermon 53 A, 10).

The genius of Augustine discovers with astonishment in Matthew 25 to what point God is inseparable from the poor, and with startling clarity he proposes this relationship as the unique and definitive criterion of salvation (Sermon 389, 5).

Almsgiving for Augustine is mercy, justice and charity; it is identified with being Christian. The fundamental manner of practicing Gospel charity is to not ignore the empty stomach of the poor (Sermon 36, 9). Prayer, fasting and the remaining good works are useless without almsgiving, mercy and fraternal love. Augustine frequently reminds his congregation of this during Lent. (Sermon 207, 1; Sermon 209, 2; Sermon 389, 2).

From the Sermons of Saint Augustine
Sermon 389
This is my recommendation to you, my brothers and sisters; give earthly bread, and knock at the door of the heavenly bread; the Lord is bread. I, he said, am the bread of life (Jn 6:35). How will he give to you, if you don't give to the person in need? Someone else needs something urgently from you; you need something urgently from someone else.

So while he is the Lord, and the real Lord, and has no need of our goods, all the same, in order that we might do something for him, he was ready to be hungry in his poor. In a word, therefore, let us all listen, and seriously reflect what great merit there is in having fed Christ when he was hungry, and what sort of a crime it is to have ignored Christ when he was hungry. Repentance for our sins does indeed change us for the better; but not even that will appear to be of much use to us, if it is barren of the works of mercy.

Sermon 390
Your Lord Christ has entered into such a transaction, being rich up above, poor here below. He is hungry here; he asks you for a mercantile loan, he will pay you back on the nail.

So why do you hesitate, why do you put off giving? Or isn't he a reliable partner, to be trusted to pay back? Give to the poor, you won't lose it, don't be afraid; you're giving to him, when you give to one of the least of his own.

Listen to the gospel; when those placed on the right hand side were amazed, as he recounted a number of needy situations he had been in, they said, When did we see you in any of these situations? The Lord replies, When you did it for one of the least of mine, you did it for me (Mt 25:37-40). I it was, I'm telling you, who received it whenever poor people received it; it was in them that I was hungry, in them that I was satisfied.

Give without a qualm; it's the Lord who receives, the Lord who is asking. You wouldn't have anything to give him, unless you had first received it from him. There is no other remedy to deliver us from death but acts of charity. It is difficult for any human being to lead this life without sins. So be generous in giving, my brothers and sisters, distribute your possessions. Make yourselves purses that do not wear out, treasure that abides in heaven.

Sermon 210
First and foremost, clearly, please remember the poor, so that what you withhold from yourselves by living more sparingly, you may deposit in the treasury of heaven. Let the hungry Christ receive what the fasting Christian receives less of. Let the self-denial of one who undertakes it willingly become the support of the one who has nothing. Let the voluntary want of the person who has plenty become the needed plenty of the person in want.