Scripture: Understand and Teach

"There are two things on which all interpretation of Scripture depends: the mode of ascertaining the proper meaning, and the mode of making known the meaning when it is ascertained."
          -- Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching

Rhetoric Learned

"Given a sharp and eager mind, eloquence is picked up more readily by those who read and listen to the words of the eloquent than by those who follow the rules of eloquence."
              -- Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching

Reconciled

"The reconciled world is the church." -- St. Augustine (Sermon 46).

"But the sum is this, that Christ doth repair with his grace the world, being destroyed; which cometh to pass when he reconcileth us to the Father." -- John Calvin (Commentary on Acts 8:5).

Singing-and-Praying the Songs of Jesus

"Why . . . can Christians pray the Psalms? According to the ancient church, it is because it was always the Messiah at the head of his people who prayed them; in Augustine's fine phrase, it was always "the total Christ," the totus Christus, Christ as the head and his folk as the body, who gathered in the temple with these hymns and lamentations" (Robert W. Jenson, Canon and Creed, 23).

First Native American Saint: Witness

You can go to USA Today to read an AP article about Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint. Kateri was beatified by Pope John Paul II and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on 10/21/2012.

The article covers in detail that her canonization has sparked both skepticism and pride. On the one hand, "Traditional Mohawks" worry that "Kateri's sainthood could be used as a way to encourage Native Americans to eschew their ancestral values for Catholic dogma," but on the other hand, the article also cites that many don't think her sainthood is a contentious issue.

It will be interesting to see how this skepticism/pride develop in the upcoming years. I'm not Roman so I don't have a clue what is coming down the sainthood pipeline, but I would imagine that other Native Americans are slated to be beatified, canonized, et cetera by Rome in the upcoming century. I don't know the vesting particulars for someone to officially be recognized as a saint, but if the matriculation process has concluded for at least one Native American saint, then my assumption is that other Native Americans can't be very far behind. Take that with a grain of salt, it being an ill-informed assumption by an outsider of Roman Catholicism.

What I do know is this. "Traditional Mohawks" should be worried. Jesus Christ is Lord, contra the traditional-religious-mythological views of the Mohawk/Iroquois League of Nations.

Traditional Mohawks should be worried, the Lord probably will use Rome's sainthooding of Kateri to draw additional Mohawks to himself. God does, after all, use means, and church history is full of conversion stories attesting that God used godly Christians as means by which sinners were exposed to and heard the Gospel, repented and were drawn unto Christ the Redeemer (e.g., God used Saint Ambrose's ministry to prepare Augustine for conversion).

Kateri is a witness to non-Christian Mohawks, other non-Christian Native Americans, and non-Christian Americans alike. Kateri is a witness that all of them need to to stop their foolish raging (Psalm 2:1), repent of their sins, and "Kiss the Son" and put their trust in Jesus Christ (Psalm 2:12).

Saint Augustine: A Few Excerpts

A few excerpts demonstrating my generalizations from the previous post:

"Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this two-fold love of God and our neighbor, does not yet understand them as he ought."

"'For we walk by faith, not by sight.' Now faith will totter if the authority of Scripture begin to shake. And then, if faith toter, love itself will grow cold. For if a man has fallen from faith, he must necessarily also fall from love; for he cannot love what he does not believe to exist."

"Accordingly the Holy Spirit has, with admirable wisdom and care for our welfare, so arranged the Holy Scriptures as by the plainer passages to satisfy our hunger, and by the more obscure to stimulate our appetite."

"And by this sign of the cross all Christian action is symbolized, viz., to do good works in Christ, to cling with constancy to Him, to hope for heaven, and not to desecrate the sacraments."

"Now Scripture enjoins nothing except charity, and condemns nothing except lust, and in that way fashions the lives of men. . . . Now Scripture asserts nothing but the catholic faith, in regard to things past, future, and present."

"For the Church, without spot or wrinkle, gathered out of all nations, and destined to reign for ever with Christ, is itself the land of the blessed, the land of the living . . ."

Reading List: Saint Augustine

Recently I have re-visited a handful of Saint Augustine's works. For my undergraduate studies I was fortunate enough to take a course on Saint Augustine taught by Dr. Chris Bounds (fantastic course, fantastic teacher), but once again I have found the happy pleasure of marching through Augustine's Confessions and Christian Teaching, and the experience has been, yet again, quite uplifting.

I find his writings utterly compelling. When I read his writings I feel as though they have been written and addressed to me. This feeling is similar to the way I feel on the Lord's Day; I am sitting in a pew, I am listening to the sermon, and I feel as though the Pastor has peered into my soul and addressed my very own sin.

So, in addition to that, what is it exactly that I find to be so compelling about Saint Augustine? If I had to pin it down, I would emphasize three points: First, his hermeneutic of love; second, his pastoral concern; and third, his ability to write with the utmost emotion and sincerity. Pastor D.M. Lloyd-Jones once commented that the "lightning and thunder" of a pastor is oftentimes lost in a written text, but, with Saint Augustine, "lightning and thunder" is commonplace. His ability to communicate in love with livelihood is absolutely gripping.