A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. As Jesus moved on from Capernaum, two blind men came after him, crying out, son of David, have pity on us. When Jesus got to the house, the blind men caught up with it. And Jesus said to them, are you confident that I can do this? Yes, lord, they replied.
At that, he touched their eyes and said to them, because of your faith, it shall be done to you. And they recovered their sight at once. Then Jesus warned them sternly. See to it that no one knows about this. But they went off and spread the word of Jesus throughout the entire area.
And this is the gospel of the lord. Praise to you, lord Jesus Christ. In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit. Amen. Today, we have the feast of Saint Ambrose, fifth century AD.
And unfortunately, or fortunately, Saint Ambrose is chiefly remembered by most people in connection with Saint Augustine of Hippo. Now I should take the time just to do a little geography, first of all you will see two things. Well, right off. That St. Ambrose is identified with the city of Milan in Northern Italy, and Augustine is over there on the Northern Shore of the Mediterranean in Hippo, not far from Carthage.
Now remember, in the fourth and the fifth century AD, that distance was a heck of a lot more than it is today. It's no trick to go from Carthage to Milan today if you have a four twenty seven waiting at your doorstep, and somebody doesn't hijack it, of course. But one of the most fascinating things about Saint Ambrose, or about Saint Augustine, or about Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine, is the way these lives intertwined. That's the fascinating part to me. There are a lot of other fascinating parts to it.
But this is the outstanding one, that here you have a woman over in Africa, a hippo. And she's married to a pagan, and they have a son, and they call him Augustine. Now, to think of Augustine as a a weirdo, or to think of him as promiscuous, or to have all of this Hollywood atmosphere around him is completely wrong. But he was no saint, and he and he certainly was no Christian until later in life. And he had no idea becoming a Christian either.
But don't make too much of that. Constantine was not baptized until shortly before he died. Anyway, here's this woman named Monica. She has a son, she has a pagan husband who beats her up once in a while. And all she does is pray, and obeys her husband, and prays for him too, Patricius.
And then this young man, after he gets finished doing what he can in Northern Africa, he becomes a rhetorician, and in order to improve his situation, he goes north. And who should he come into contact there with but an ex Roman soldier named Ambrose? Now, there's a long story to this business of Milan and Ambrose. It all goes back to some Greek philosophy, neo Platonism, and it was that neo Platonism which Augustine got in Milan, not necessarily from Ambrose, but in that city of Milan. He got in contact with that, and this was a whole new revelation to him.
Practically all he knew up to this time was the Manichees and their crazy ideas. So the upshot of it all is, as you know, Augustine is finally converted and is baptized by Ambrose in Milan with his mother present. Meanwhile, his father had died and had become a Christian before his death. And Monica is present at the baptism of her son, or after all of these years, when she did nothing but pray and follow him with her love. Then they start going back to Hippo, and she dies down in near Rome, in the Port Of Rome, Roman city.
Now, can you imagine all the forces of life converging this way on those lives, and bringing forth a man named Augustine? Now, you see, I'm talking more about Augustine than I am about Ambrose, But it's his feast today, Ambrose. Because Ambrose was a heroic figure in his own right. He became a learned man. He was something of a musician.
He was a very brave man. That's one of the things we prayed this morning, that our leaders would be courageous and have wisdom. Well, believe me, we need to pray for that kind of leadership today in the church. And Ambrose had it. Again, he was a minority up there in Milan, and he even he even challenged the queen of the Roman Empire.
Remember, the the capital was up in the North, and and hold himself up in his own cathedral, made a fortress out of his own cathedral. That was he was a man of courage, but at the same time, a man of wisdom. Ambrose. We have a lot of his writings. He's not a myth.
He's not a We know a lot about Saint Ambrose. And so today, I Well, the main thing that appeals to me, you can take out of it what you want, but is the concatenation, the way things pull together and God's will prevails. God's will prevails. That's one thing I'm sure of. My choice is conforming to it.
And he never said I would understand it. Because as Augustine's life unrolled remember Ambrose was was taken by force by the people and made to be an the bishop of Milan. He didn't want it. He was forced to do it, and then he became a mighty, wonderful, heroic, saintly bishop. Our blessed Lord never told us that we would understand everything going on around us.
All he said was come follow me. That's all he said. Follow him. Notice he did he's not on he's not behind us, pressing us, beating us over the head. He's out in front.
He's asking us to follow him. But he never promised, never suggested that we'd always understand and see the light clear. Never. With a great act of faith we have to make at times. Because there are plenty of things in life which happen and which are beyond comprehension, our human comprehension.
Let's let's not hesitate to to say that. Because God never said that I would comprehend everything. He never gave me that kind of a promise. Never, never, never. And so let us live our lives with that surety that God is running the world, and that his will will prevail, and that I have a part to play in this.
And here again, we come to the same old question. God saves me and I have to do something to save myself. How do you put these two things together? I don't know. I only know we have to hold them together.
And we do it certainly in many ways, but one of the ways is looking at men and women who have done it. You take mother Seaton, her life, take any of the saints' lives. How incomprehensible at times they were to the person involved at that time. Absolutely incomprehensible, if not downright repulsive. And it all works out.
And the answer to the conundrum is our lord's simple words, come, follow me. In the name of the father and of the son, holy spirit. Amen.