Liturgical Memorial of Saint Augustine

Our Hospitaller Order celebrates Saint Augustine on August 28, in communion with the whole Church. Though born in North Africa, He is one of the great Fathers of the Western Church. Together with other religious orders, we too have received from the Church the Rule that he wrote for his first Community.

Saint Augustine was a vigilant pastor and a theologian of rare insight.  He understood that true ecclesial communion is also expressed through the sharing of goods.  In his Commentaries on the Psalms, he reminds us that true Christians do not neglect love for those most in need: “By observing your brothers and sisters, you know whether they are in need of something; but if Christ dwells in you, do good even to strangers.” This sharing of goods therefore springs from theological charity and has the love of Christ as its ultimate goal. For Augustine, the poor are not merely people to be helped, but the sacramental presence of the Lord.

Saint Augustine, known as the Doctor of Grace, saw caring for the poor as a concrete proof of the sincerity of faith.  Pope Leo XIV, in his Encyclical Dilexi te, writes: “A Church that recognizes the face of Christ in the poor and sees in material goods an instrument of charity, finds in Augustinian thought a sure light.  Today, fidelity to Augustine’s teachings requires not only the study of his works, but also the readiness to live radically his call to conversion, which necessarily includes the service of charity.”

Continuing his reflection, the Holy Father recalls that Christian compassion has been manifested in a particular way through the care of the sick and those who suffer, to such an extent that: “The Christian tradition of visiting the sick, washing their wounds and comforting the afflicted is not simply an act of philanthropy, but an ecclesial action through which, in the sick, the members of the Church touch the suffering flesh of Christ.”

In this regard, the Pope cites Saint John of God as a model.  In the sixteenth century, when he founded the Hospitaller Order, he created model hospitals that welcomed everyone, regardless of their social or economic condition.  His famous expression, “Do good, my brothers!” became a motto for active charity towards the sick.

May Saint Augustine and Saint John of God continue to watch over and protect our religious Family, freeing it from every form of selfishness and making it increasingly capable of generating new forms of evangelical hospitality, so as to restore health and dignity to so many brothers and sisters in need.