Lent 2025 Day 35

Augustine of Hippo, Theologian and Bishop
Isaiah 53:3-7 | Judges 9:7-15
 
Augustine of Hippo (354–430) is one of the most influential theologians in the history of Christianity. Born in North Africa to a Christian mother, Monica, and a pagan father, Augustine’s early life was marked by ambition, intellectual curiosity, and a restless pursuit of pleasure, fame, and philosophical truth. His journey led him through Manichaeism, Neoplatonism, and deep personal struggle until, under the influence of St. Ambrose and the persistent prayers of his mother, he experienced a dramatic conversion to Christ at age 32.

One of Augustine’s most famous lines comes from his Confessions: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Lent is a season that speaks directly to this restlessness—the ache for something more, the longing for healing, the desire to come home to God. In Isaiah 53, we hear of the suffering servant—despised, rejected, silent in the face of oppression. Augustine came to understand that the One he had long resisted was not a distant judge, but a wounded healer. Christ’s suffering became for him not a scandal, but a revelation of divine love.

Judges 9:7-15 offers a fable about leadership and desire. The trees seek a king and are finally ruled by the bramble—an image of distorted ambition and the dangers of self-serving power. Augustine knew well the seduction of worldly power, having lived a life of rhetorical success and social ambition before his conversion. He later served as Bishop of Hippo, but his leadership was marked by humility and a fierce commitment to truth, shaped by the realization that without God, even the most brilliant mind becomes a bramble.

Augustine’s theology wrestles with the deep paradoxes of human life: sin and grace, freedom and dependence, suffering and redemption. He taught that evil is not a substance, but a distortion of the good. He believed that even our wandering hearts—when offered back to God—can be healed and transformed. In Lent, we echo his journey. We acknowledge our sin and our sorrow. We confess the ways we have sought false kings. And we return to the One who suffers with us and for us.

Isaiah’s suffering servant, silent before his shearers, calls us into the mystery of redemptive suffering. Augustine’s story reminds us that no one is beyond the reach of grace—not the philosopher, not the rebel, not the restless. The bramble can be uprooted. The wound can be healed. The heart can find its home.

Reflection:

• Where in your life are you seeking peace but finding restlessness? 
• How does Augustine’s journey invite you to reflect on your own conversions—both past and ongoing? 
• What false kings—ambitions, ideals, identities—might you be anointing instead of Christ? 

Breath Prayer: Inhale: My heart is restless… Exhale: …until it rests in You.

May this Lenten season be a path from wandering to wonder, from bramble to grace, from restless heart to risen Lord.

Amen.