Saint Monica

Title

Apostasy

Outline

St Augustine was a type of apostate

While he was not baptized as a child, he had asked for it while ill and St Monica had arranged for it, but his recovery meant that it was postponed. Thereafter he wandered far from the faith, in part because of what it would mean for him ethically, and St Monica’s prayers for his conversion would only be answered when Augustine was 33.

But what does it mean to become apostate? It means to turn from the faith.

In the New Testament this is usually a moral turning

The Pharisaic scribes were indeed diligent in their outward religious practice and could cite the Torah from memory to support their practice. But they had turned from or ignored: “the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity.” Christians would say that they practiced the cardinal virtues, which Christians have in common with such classical teachers as Plato and Aristotle, but neglected the theological virtues, faith, hope, and charity, so they were blind. They looked good on the outside but used the law to oppress. Their hearts were not in tune with God.

Eventually they would justify a revolution against Rome, ignoring Jesus’ revolution that would eventually convert Rome, and first century Judaism would go up in the flames of the revolution and later a new entity, Rabbinic Judaism would arise.

Monica had prayed for Augustine’s conversion of heart

I am sure that his having a concubine and other sins pained her, but she most wanted heart conversion, the submission of all he was to Jesus so that he could find his rest in the Trinity, not in this restless world.

This would mean not just stopping his outward sins, although they would stop, but an earnest seeking closeness to God that would transform him.

That is what to watch for in us and in the world today

In this USA much has the trappings of Christianity, but, as G. K. Chesterton pointed out 100 years ago and as Kenneth Craycraft more recently pointed out, whether religious bodies or sports or political parties right or left they are seeking a set of values different from Christianity. They may know the right words, but they do not know God. And they seek to guide you - you know the tug - and pull you into their same, often unconscious, hypocrisy or apostasy.

Call on St Monica to pray for you, on St Augustine to show what it looks like to turn back to God from the heart. Then we will enjoy the fate of the saints and not that of the Pharisees.