In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit. Amen. Yesterday, I spent most of the day with Saint Augustine and Hippo, and that's the well, say roughly the first quarter of the fifth century. Three he died in 430. Then I spent a good bit of the time with Saint John Vianney, the Courier of Ars, reading a bit of his biography.
And then, to wind up the day, finished it with our present holy reigning father, John Paul. First, I read a sermon, a homily that he gave to a group of priests an international group of priests in Rome in February, and which has been distributed to the priest of the world as he has been doing for Holy Thursday to remind us of our what we are, the priest of Jesus Christ. Then I read his exhortation, it's called, to the religious of the world. It's a very important document. Trying to bring home the importance, the value, the esteem, the excellence of the religious life, which is defined in terms of the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
That's how my day was mostly spent. It wound up with the with the service here of confession last night. Now, I don't know whether this means much to you. I'm telling you because it means a lot to me. Now, Augustine remember, Augustine's life was lived at the change of the Roman world from paganism to Christianity.
He borders on both of those worlds, very much borders on. Before he's dead, before he dies, the barbarians as they're so called from the North had swept down into Italy and Spain, and it swept around through Africa, Northern Africa. And before he was dead, they were beating the doors of Hippo and Carthage. Augustine lived at least through three very serious challenges to the authentic doctrine of Rome. Notice I said Rome.
Because if there's anything comes out clearly with Augustine is how while he's in Northern Africa, the whole emphasis is upon Rome as the center, as the source, as the spring of the truth of Christ's religion. Because while the Manichae's were not exactly a heresy, the Donatists certainly were. And then, of course, the Pelagians. Now, the thing about all those three conflicts that Augustine faced is that they all were superior to the church of Rome and the authentic doctrine of Jesus Christ. At least they thought they were.
And in many ways they were superior, aloof. They were elitist. Now then you hop from a man like that in Northern Africa with all of this turmoil around him, then you come into a little village in France near Lyon with a curry of ours, Saint John Vianney. A priest who was so ignorant and dumb. He had it was only by a very great exception.
You almost would say a miracle that he ever became a priest. Now, the thing about him is that what I read yesterday was how he was received by his peers, his fellow priests. The answer was is, he wasn't received at all. He was kind of a clown going around in clothes which made him look like a bum. Although, the author I read gives testimony that his laundress gave testimony to the canonization that he was very careful in changing his linen.
But he wasn't careful in changing his shoes or polishing them or wearing a decent cassock. And above all, this is what I read yesterday, he didn't wear a sash. Now that's getting pretty low, believe me. So, was kind of a he was a pariah really because he went against the current. Augustine went against the current and looked to Rome.
Saint John because there was Peter, and where Peter is is Jesus Christ. Saint Saint John Vianney looked in the very same direction. He could have cared less what his associates thought of him. He didn't bother to think anything of them. He wasn't going around criticizing them for having shiny shoes.
But they blasted him to this well, you know where because his was dirty, unkempt, patched even, and of course not shined. Then you come to write down to the contemporary world. And you have John speaking to us. John Paul speaking and he always reminds us just as he reminds himself that I am speaking from the sea of Peter with the voice of the living Christ. And he speaks to his priests in that in that homily he gave it.
Much of it I can't understand. I must be a translation from the Polish. But the thing is, you certainly get the gist of this thing. What he's asking his priests to do is to be followers of Jesus Christ. Now, that's a pretty big order, but it's kind of minimal, isn't it?
And then when he addresses this long exhortation to the religious of the world, thing that he is emphasizing is the I wanted to bring in a paragraph. I think I'll bring it into more and read it to you. Is the essence, the essential necessity of being, of just being. What was a Maximilian Kolbe down in that dungeon starving to death? What was he doing for the world and for saving souls?
Where was he where the action was? And yet a criticism of this letter of John Paul to the religious of the world by by being president of some kind of an association of religious women superiors. She says it's a good document. I hope that doesn't go to our holy father's head and make him inflated. But she says it's a good document, but it doesn't emphasize action enough.
It that it doesn't put us where the action is. The whole point of taking vows isn't to put you where the action is of the world, is to put you where the action of God is in a very exceptional way. You see, they they missed the point. Until the third until the twelfth and the thirteenth century to be a religious with vows meant you weren't in the external world running around loose. It was a life mostly of contemplation or of retirement.
It it was it was an emphasis on being, to be. Flannery O'Connor, if any of you remember her and her wonderful stories. This is the thing she has emphasized. If you can make heads or tails out of her stories. The necessity of being to of the actuality of your existence.
And there's a paragraph in there which is so apical to put to married people and to all of us. To be what we're supposed to be. What we do, I don't say is unimportant. Yeah, of course, it's important. But what is most important is to be, not to see.
And even, I dare say, not to act. What was Maximilian Kobe acting down in that dungeon? What was the of ours doing for many years until he became popular? Then he was in real danger. What was a little flower of doing?
What is a former student of mine who joined the contemplative Carmelites, and by her own request was taken from being what was then called a choir sister and put down in the kitchen with all her education and experience? What are they doing where the action is? The point is we cannot, any of us, any of us, married or single, anyone. The most important thing is to be. This is what the holy father is emphasizing in this exhortation.
You'll say this is really theoretical stuff. You bet it is theoretical. Jesus Christ was extremely theoretical. It put him on the cross. In the name of the father, and of the son, and holy spirit.
Amen.