August 2008 Message

Dear Friends at All Saints',

Goethe's Tragedy of Faust (publ. 1808) begins with these stirring words by its protagonist:

“I have alas! Philosophy,
Medicine, Jurisprudence too,
And to my cost Theology,
With ardent labour, studied through.
And here I stand, with all my lore,
Poor fool, no wiser than before.”

Dr. Faustus' journey through all the major disciplines of his day ended with the sad admission “that we in truth can nothing know”. If, as we the saying goes, ignorance is bliss, then why pursue knowledge? We run into the walls of opposite opinions, collide with mutually exclusive doctrines, are caught in the web of academic pronouncements and moral imperatives which even their most skilled proponents fail to explain to our satisfaction.

But not all search for knowledge must end in jaded sarcasm. If there ever was a life marked by the thirst for knowledge it was St. Augustine's. Whatever could be known, he set out to know. Whatever there was to be experienced, he had to experience. A hoarder, collector, sampler, a harvester of life in all its complexity lived life as though there was no tomorrow.

And yet, this wild man, enamored with leisure, sex, and drink, was destined to become one of the most influential theological voices of Christendom. It was two voices that gave him voice: while struggling with his raging hormones he heard a child singing a jingle, “Tolle, lege” (Latin for: take up and read!). We don't know why he thought that to be a reference to the one book that never let him go until his death, the Bible. But it took a second voice, that of bishop Ambrose of Milan, to help him understand a book which he, at first, found rather filled with superstitions and improbabilities. He describes the turning point in his famous Confessions:

“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.”

In rapid succession, this young man, now a professor of rhetoric, was baptized (378 AD), priested (391) and consecrated bishop of Hippo (395). He had learned from Cicero, Plato, Mani of Persia, St. Paul, St. Ambrose. His thirst for knowledge never ceased, indeed, it was increased by the supreme knowledge of God.

That we today can love God's word and research the whole world with the powers of our intellect, this is Augustine's special gift to the church. When we remember him on August 28, we thank God that study and an open heart can make us “wiser than before”.

May God Bless you and Keep you!

Fr. Georg Retzlaff+