Lent with the Early Church Fathers Day 24

Day 24

Lent with the Early Church Fathers

A daily post from Tom Bandy 

Based on A Year with the Church Fathers (Ed. Mike Aquilina, St. Benedict Press, 2010) 

Seek understanding with love 

St. Augustine 

In your case, we must try, not to make you understand divine things (which is impossible), but to make you want to understand. This is the work of the pure and artless love of God, which is seen mainly in what we do, and of which we have already said much. This love, inspired by the Holy Spirit, leads to the Son – that is, to the wisdom of God, by which the Father himself is known. 

For if wisdom and truth are not sought with the whole mind, wisdom cannot possibly be found. But when it is sought as it deserves to be, it cannot run away or hide itself from those who love it. 

Thus, wisdom’s words, which you like to repeat: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be open to you” and “Nothing is covered that will not be revealed.” 

It is love that asks, love that seeks, love that knocks, love that reveals – and love, too, that keeps us firm in what is revealed. 

TGB: These words are addressed to Manichean heretics who see life as a contest between good and evil but fail to see God’s love working in the midst of the ambiguities of life. Among the contemporary Manicheans (best described as Evangelical Nationalists who use Christian language without understanding it), Augustine’s warning that wisdom is found in love rather than through hate is still profound.