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Ärende: Vatican Information Service - Press Release
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                               VIS-Press releases

PASSION FOR TRUTH, THE KEY TO ST. AUGUSTINE'S LIFE

VATICAN CITY, APR 22, 2007 (VIS) - Having concluded his visit to Pavia's "San
Matteo" hospital, the Pope travelled by car to the "Almo Collegio Borromeo"
where he celebrated Mass at 10.30 a.m. Bishops of Lombardy, priests of the
diocese of Pavia and a number of Augustinian Fathers concelebrated with the
Holy Father.

In his homily, the Pope focussed on the "three great stages" of St. Augustine's
journey of conversion.

These "conversions" of St. Augustine, he said, "were in fact one big
conversion: searching for the Face of Christ and then walking alongside Him."

"The first fundamental conversion was Augustine's interior journey towards
Christianity, towards that 'yes' of faith and Baptism. ... The saint was
constantly tormented by the question of truth. ... He wanted to find the right
path, and not just to live blindly without meaning or goal. This passion for
truth is the true key to understanding his life."

"He had always believed - at times somewhat vaguely, at others more decidedly -
that God exists and that He looks after us. But truly knowing God and really
becoming familiar with Jesus Christ, to reach the point of saying 'yes' to Him
with all the consequences it brings: this was the great interior struggle of
the years of his youth."

St. Augustine's "second conversion," Pope Benedict explained, took place
following his Baptism, when he returned to Hippo in Africa where he founded a
small monastery and intended to dedicate his life to the contemplation of God.
However, by popular request and almost by force, he was ordained a priest and
so "had to live with Christ for everyone."

"The great philosophical work of his life, of which he had dreamed, remained
unwritten. In its place came something more precious: the Gospel translated
into the language of everyday life."

This, said the Holy Father "was the second conversion that this man, struggling
and suffering, had to achieve: being there for everyone, offering his life,
always and anew together with Christ, so that others could find Him Who is true
life."

Finally, "the third and decisive stage" on St. Augustine's journey of
conversion took place when he discovered that "only one person is truly perfect
and that the words of the Sermon on the Mount are fully realized only in one
person, in Jesus Christ Himself. And the entire Church - all of us, including
the Apostles - must pray every day: 'forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive
them that trespass against us.'

"Augustine had understood an ultimate level of humility. Not only the humility
to make his own great philosophy part of the faith of the Church, not only the
humility to translate his great knowledge into the simplicity of announcement,
but also the humility to recognize that he himself and the entire pilgrim
Church were in constant need of the merciful goodness of a forgiving God. And
we, Augustine added, become as similar as possible to the Perfect Christ when
we become like Him people of mercy."

Following the Eucharistic celebration and before praying the Regina Coeli, the
Pope addressed a special greeting to young people, to whom he expressed the
hope "that you become ever more aware of the joy of following Christ and of
becoming His friends. ... This is the same joy that brought me to write my
recently-published book 'Jesus of Nazareth.' It may be a little difficult for
the youngest of you, but I consign it to you ideally, that it may accompany the
journey of faith of the new generations."
PV-ITALY/MASS/PAVIAVIS 070423 (600)

SUMMARY

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