Memorial of St.
Monica, holy woman
(II Thessalonians 3:6-10.16-18; Matthew23:27-32)
St. Monica is known today for her praying for her son,
the great St. Augustine. She was a holy
woman who remained faithful to her unfaithful husband and solicitous of her son’s
conversion. Augustine seems to have gone through opposite phases of detesting
the world and glorying in its pleasures.
For a while he was a Manichean, the sect that professed belief in a benign
principle of the spirit and an evil principle of matter. He also had a mistress and once prayed
famously, “Make me chaste, O Lord, but not just yet!”
In today’s gospel Jesus castigates such inconsistency. He tells the Pharisees that their intentions do
not match their actions. If they want to
honor the prophets, then they must follow the prophets’ call to reformation of
heart.
We should not be dismayed to see Augustine’s and the
Pharisees’ inconsistency in us. It is
deeply human in the sense that our physical emotions often run counter to right
reason. We should pray for one another
like Monica prayed for Augustine. We
need to ask the Spirit to transform our hearts completely so that we might love
like God loves.
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