Solidarity and Justice

As Augustinian Values

Introduction

Other Augustinian values are Justice and Solidarity. Most often we think of St. Augustine as an intellectual or as a writer, contemplating and authoring philosophical and theological concepts. While this is partly true at is true, St. Augustine was a man who was concerned about his flock and his ministry. As a priest and as a bishop, he took care of the flock. He was very human and tried to respond to the needs and problems of his sheep.

We have also to remember that St. Augustine’s pastoral work has as its foundation, the Incarnation of the Son of God. He was astonished when he meditated on the mystery of the Word became flesh (Jn 1, 14),1 because of God’s love for us. St. Augustine meditated many times about this mystery of the Word of God, who took a human body, leaving aside the glory that was his as God (Fil 2, 6), and embracing his human nature even to the point of giving his life to save all of humanity. This is the reason that moved St. Augustine to be near those who suffer, those who share in a special way the passion and suffering of Christ:

(…) Christ despite of being God (…) he emptied himself taking the form of a servant (and in this way) we have to consider ourselves to be servants trying to be grateful to him, from whom we have received the sublime things, we have to descend to those who are weak, without despising the inferior things and trying to adapt ourselves to those who cannot see the sublime things as we do.2

St. Augustine showed his mercy and love not only through his writings but also through actions, which are an invitation to know how to listen to the voice of God in the events of daily life and to respond to them concretely through our loving actions.

And as a shepherd of God’s flock, he was well aware of the responsibilities that have been given to him; that he as a shepherd, had to pay attention to the weak members of the flock. St. Augustine will tell the lazy monks of Carthage, to whom he addresses the book De opera monachorum (About the Works of the Monks), that they have to work, and take care of the poor and the needy, since if they were really monks, then they have to take care of them because they were the servants of the Church and should therefore be aware of the needs of the people:

We are servants of his Church, especially of the weakest members of it, nevertheless the position we have in this Body of Christ.3

Nevertheless St. Augustine stresses that the reason for helping the poor and the needy is Christ’s love (2 Cor 5:14-15), that leads us to know that Christ is present in every poor and needy:

You have to give to the brother who needs. To which brother? To Christ. If you give something to your brother, you are giving to Christ, if you give to Christ you are giving to God, who is worthy over all things to be blessed forever. God wanted to need from you, and you are going to hide your hand to him?4

And since we serve others out of love and because of God’s love, St. Augustine will remind us of his reason for acting, his basic ethical rule, which he presents in the Confessions: For the love of your love I do what I do.5 Solidarity and justice should be manifestations of our just love of God and of the neighbor.

In fact, the text of the Gospel of Matthew about the final Judgment (Mt 25:31-46) is going to be commented many times by St. Augustine, as an invitation to recognize Christ in those who are poor or needy, because Christ is, according to St. Augustine, the guarantor of the poor:

And when they say, when did we see you hungry? He will answer to demonstrate that he is the guarantor of the poor, the guarantor of all the parts of his body, since he is the Head and they are his limbs, and when the limbs receive, the Head also receives: When you did this to one of this small, you did it to me.6

That is why St. Augustine said, “I fear Christ that is passing by”7. And it is true, Christ is passing in front of our lives everyday in the person of the poor and in all the events our daily life. Together with the poor, Christ is passing by and inviting us to do something for the poor that we encounter in our way:

Do not fear to give to the poor; do not think that the one who receives is the one whose hand you can see. The one who receives is the same that commanded you to give.8

According to St. Augustine, when a person helps a poor, he is helping Christ, and the same Christ will repay him in heaven whatever things he has received on earth:

You have to give to Christ so that he may give it back to you in heaven. Forget about what you are, and think what you are going to be9

Augustinian solidarity and commitment to justice has its origin in love, a love which is able to recognize the presence of Christ in the needy and poor, with the awareness that everything given with love on earth to the poor, will have its prize in heaven:

Hey you, rich! You can make lighter your burden giving to the poor what you have acquired with your work. Give something to the one who does not have, since you also need something. Do you have eternal life? You have to give from what you have, to acquire what you do not have.10

Moreover, when we show solidarity we have to do so with joy. He who gives with sadness, he not only is not enjoying the act of giving, but, according to St. Augustine, he is also losing the prize he could have because of his good deed:

If you give bread with sadness, you have lost bread and your price.11

St. Augustine also points that what matters when we do works of solidarity is not the amount or the things given to the needy, but the intention that the person has in giving:

Give not in a big quantity, but with a good intention. Since if you give few from the few you have, it will not be considered as few. God does not weight the quantity of what you give, but the intention.12

We need not be rich to be able to give and to show our solidarity with the poor because as St. Augustine says, charity does not go out of the pockets, but from the heart:

So nobody should say: I have nothing to give. Charity does not come out from the pockets.13

Even when we cannot give, says St. Augustine, we should never despise the poor. We have to be always polite with all:

Do not despise any beggar. If you cannot give him what he is asking for, do not despise him. If you can give, give it to him; if you cannot, be gentle with him. God will reward your internal desire, when you do not have things to give.14

And it is interesting how, who gives is preparing himself to receive from the Lord: “Many times the deed of giving, is a merit for receiving.”15

When St. Augustine commented on the parable of the rich man and the poor Lazarus (LK 16:19-31), he reflected on the consequences of not giving to the poor, and also about the social responsibility of sharing what we have with the needy. Moreover, in one sermon he says a very hard but interesting phrase that we can apply to our present society, where many people like to accumulate things that they really do not need, and people who do not want to share what they have with the poor. St. Augustine says:

It is a kind of robbery not to give to the needy the extra things that one may have.16

Moreover, St. Augustine will invite us to live with our eyes wide open to be able to see the presence of the Lord in all the persons and circumstances that surround us. The rich man in the parable was condemned, St. Augustine observes, not because he was rich, but because he was blind. He was so concerned with his own happiness, that he was not able to see the presence of the poor so near him lying just at his house’s door. To live the value of solidarity and to search for justice mean to be aware of all the things that are taking place now a days, and to try to give an answer based on the Gospel values and moved by a merciful love.17

St. Augustine gives us also a beautiful image of the fruits that we can have from sharing our own goods with the others, especially with the needy. For him, the poor are like the “baggage carriers”, those who receive material goods, and take them spiritually to heaven, so that when we arrive in heaven, we will be rich, not materially, but in good deeds:

We have to take to another part what we have, in order not to lose them. The poor to whom we give, are the “baggage carriers” (laturarii), who help us to take material things from the earth to heaven18

St. Augustine and the Poor of his Time

Maybe at this point some may think that St. Augustine had only interesting theories about our relationship with the poor and our solidarity with them but he really did not have actual and experiential dealings with the poor. If we have this perception then we are wrong because in reality St. Augustine had a very close and fraternal relationships with the poor. if we have this idea, we are wrong. St. Augustine had a very close and paternal relationship with the poor. When he was in the streets of Hippo, the poor people would approach him, and he had friendly talks with them and helped the poor with all that he had, but since this was not enough he asked the help of his congregation:

From the very moment that I go out to the Street to come to the Church the poor come to me and ask me that I should told you to give them alms (….) I give them all what I have, but can I be able to satisfy all their needs?19

He even, in this sermon, told his flock about the needs of the poor and how this poor people think that the sermons that St. Augustine was preaching were useless because the sermons did not move the hearts of the listeners to give alms, because they were not receiving anything from St. Augustine ‘s audience:

They (the poor) aked me to talk to you about this topic. And when they do not receive anything from you, they think that my work with you is useless.20

An interesting fact of the life of St. Augustine is that he had every year, on the anniversary of his consecration as Bishop of Hippo, a banquet, but not for the powerful people at Hippo, but for the poor and needy. He was aware that he was living a life of poverty as a monk, and he felt that he was also a poor. That is why he calls the poor his fellow-poor people (compauperes):

Make lighter my burden my brothers, helping me to carry it, live in a good manner. Today I have to feed those who are poor as I am (compauperes), I have to behave humanely with them (…)21

Pope Francis, (maybe without knowing that St. Augustine had done the same sixteen centuries before), on the day of his birthday invited for breakfast three poor persons from Rome. Of course these three persons were prepared, showered and shaved for this appointment with the Pope. Nevertheless, the event was the same that St. Augustine offered to the poor in his Diocese of Hippo. Another interesting detail through which St. Augustine expressed his solidarity and charity for the poor, was that he dressed in a very simple manner, and when someone gave him as a gift some elegant clothes, he just sold this clothes, to be able to give the money to the poor, and to avoid making a distinction between himself and the rest of the community of monks at Hippo:

If someone gives me better clothes, I sell it, since this is my custom when something cannot be common; since the price or the clothes can be common I sell it and give the money to the poor.22

We also know that the doors of the monastery of Hippo were open to help and nourish the poor. Furthermore, at times some poor or orphaned boys were sheltered in the Monastery. There these boys received not only the food and the lodging, but also education. When they grew, they were given the chance to stay in the Monastery as monks, or to return to the world23. The girls were lodged in the Monastery for the nuns at Hippo, were St. Augustine’s sister was the Abbess.

St. Augustine was also very aware of what was happening in the world in which he lived. We should also encourage our students to be aware of world events—that they could not simply close their eyes to the sufferings of the underprivileged due to poverty and injustice. We cannot simply remain in the comfort and security of our homes, with all the gadgets, computers and other high-tech electronic stuff, unmindful of the sufferings of others. St. Augustine was very much aware of this, and he knew of the great problems of his time: the sad plight of the slaves, and the illegal trade that some people made with the slaves24. So he not only tried to buy as many slaves as he could to liberate them. He even sold the chalices of the Church to have money in order to buy slaves and give them freedom again (St. Ezekiel in his time did exactly the same, he sold the chalices to have money to help the many poor that were in Spain in his time as prior of Monteagudo). What St. Augustine did is attested by his biographer, Possidius:

He sold the sacred chalices to free the slaves and to help other poor, (…) St. Ambrose did also the same, writing that it is a duty to do it in a moment of need. He (Augustine) recalled his congregation about the care they should have with the alms, and to provide the necessary things for the service in the altar. And he also recalled how St. Ambrose had dealt with this topic when he went to listen to his preaching.25

His example was so powerful and persuasive that once St. Augustine was away, a group of lay people of his Diocese did the same that he used to do and freed many slaves26.

St. Augustine was also aware of the social and economic situations of his city after the attack of Rome by the Alaric and the Goths (Vandals) in August, 410. Many people had escaped from Rome and wandered through the Empire. Many of these people arrived at Hippo, and did not have a place to stay. St. Augustine saw all these people sleeping in the streets, many of them being sick. So he had the idea to build a house near his Basilica, to take care of these persons and receive those who were in need27.The place was called Xenodochium. His dream was realized—a lodging was built where the poor and the needy in Hippo were accommodated and taken care of. we know that St. Augustine’s dreams came true: he was able to lodge and take care of the poor and the needy at Hippo.

Following the example of St. Augustine, we should teach our pupils to be creative, to propose new solutions to new problems that we have nowadays. We should invite them to dream great dreams to give solution to many social problems in the countries we live. For St. Augustine, to pretend not to see the suffering all around or be oblivious is not an answer. Fraternal love and charity should move our minds and hearts to think of new solutions to the new situations just a St. Augustine did in his time.

And one last thing; the last but not the least. St. Augustine will invite us to be always aware that we do works of solidarity and justice not only because our human spirit compels us to help others who are in need, but more so we perform acts of charity, solidarity and justice because of Christ . . . because we see Christ in every person in need. For St. Augustine it is also important to tell the recipients of our aid and that we are helping them, not only because of human feelings, but because of Christ:

The authentic mercy made to our neighbors should be done because of this: so that they may also please God. To this we have to exhort them, to this we have to teach them, because even those alms which are given for the material needs and for the earthly life, should be done with this attitude and intention, that those who receive them should love God, because in his name they have received those alms.28

This is very important because nowadays there is a danger of becoming mere social workers of Non-Profit Organizations (NPO) or other international institutions that help the needy and the poor in the name of human solidarity.

For St. Augustine, it is very important to underline always that we are Catholic and not mere civic or humanitarian organization and we give out our support and help not out of humanitarian reason but because of the love of God. Beware not to use our acts of charity as tools for propaganda nor as a way to convert people into our religion. It is also our duty to inform and teach the recipients of our aid that we are helping them because of Christ so that they should feel grateful to God.

Enrique A. Eguiarte B. OAR

Instituto de Agustinología Madrid

Edited by:

Fr. Francisco L. Antonio, OAR

1 Cf. ciu 10, 29.

2 en. Ps. 30, 2, 1, 2.

3 op. mon. 37.

4 en. Ps. 147, 13.

5 conf. 2,1; conf. 11, 1.

6 en. Ps. 36, 3, 6.

7 s. 88, 13.

8 s. 86, 3.

9 s. 367, 3.

10 s. 350B.

11 en. Ps. 42, 8.

12 s. 107ª.

13 en. Ps. 103, 19.

14 en. Ps. 103, 9.

15 ep. 266, 1.

16 s. 206, 2.

17 s. 178, 3.

18 s. 389, 4; s. 38, 9. laturarios: s. 38, 9.

19 s. 61, 13.

20 s. 61, 13.

21 s. 339, 4.

22 s. 356, 13.

23 ep. 20*, 2.

24 ep. 10*, 2.

25 Possidius, Vita Augustini, 24.

26 ep. 10*, 7.

27 s. 356, 10.

28 s. 350D, 2 (= s. Erfurt 2, 2).