87. Origen, Commentary on Jobn XIII.24, quoted in Bouyer, Spirituality, p. 410.
INTRODUCTION
insofar as they manifest the perfect Truth on which the mind in its knowing action depends, providing an indirect intuition of God. . For persons made to be "toward God," resting in God is authentic happiness. This does not imply devaluation of the temporal order or of earthly values. Augustine said: '"Am I not to love what God has made?''8* The answer is yes, but not to find one's complete happiness in them. All self-denial is to restore the "order of love" within persons so that God's world can be rightly loved and enthusiastically loved. The heart's yearning for God is profound prayer experienced by all. This aspiration to God does not remove one from time and history, for, as Augustine learned, the eternal is in the temporal as the source of its beauty that leads to God.
Although his early religious experiences were markedly intellectual, through faith in Revelation he understood the implications of graced orientation to Christ, who led him into the Trinitarian experience of life, wisdom, love—the fulfillment of all the basic human longings.
When'we speak of Augustine as a mystic we are referring to the experiential aspect of his Christian life, his experience as a "spiritual" man. As a Pauline term this word "spiritual" should not be interpreted merely Platonically. It signifies the proper unity between Christian doctrine and life, between theology and piety. The word "mystical," we have noted, was in Christian use before the origin of Neoplatonism and it did not signify the "extraordinary." It was used to convey the mystery of Christ, who communicates to us the divine reality, and it was used to refer to the hidden spiritual reality of the Sacraments. Origen spoke of Christ as "our guide in mystical and ineffable contemplation."®7
As Augustine deepened his theology of the Incarnation, he experienced union with God through Christ as head of the Mystical Body, the vine and the branches. One might almost say that as he became the Doctor of Grace, his spirituality, which included the consciousness of grace as friendship with God, became a mystical spirituality. If charity is common to our experience both here and hereafter, then the life of intimate union with the Trini-
86. Homilies on St. John's Epistles 2.15. Dah ane 87. Origen, Commentary on Jobn XIII.24, quoted in Bouyer, Spirituality, p. 410.
INTRODUCTION
ty has already begun. Yet to have Christian love the heart has to be purified of pride, greed, egoism of every sort. Asceticism is the purification of the heart from all that interferes with a sincere and generous love of neighbor. This purification prepares for the "seeing of God." Augustine taught that only those monasteries ordered for the promotion of love are justified as Christian institutions. Pastoral action provided the asceticism in his life of charity, a life motivated by the mystical aspiration to see God. This mystical spirituality is not introversion as a flight from the world. In this apostolic life there is concern for the self and for the other. Some have misunderstood Augustine's statement that "the love of God to the contempt of self built the City of God." In On the
Trinity he says that love of God is not a contempt for the true self inasmuch as it is love of the very Love from which all life and true love proceed.
Augustinian Spirituality: Conclusion We have seen that the essential process of the spiritual life for Augustine is the re-formation of the Image of God in the human person by the grace of Christ and human freedom. Transformed into a friend of God the soul enters into union with him not merely as creature with Creator but as friend with Friend. God offers this grace of friendship to all through Christ, the universal way. This is typical of all forms of Christian spirituality, which differs from other kinds by the centrality of Christ, whose signs are humility and love. Christ is present in the Church in Word and Sacrament. The ecclesial community is the beginning of the pilgrimage toward unity in the total risen Christ. This unity of minds and hearts is nourished by the Eucharistic bread and wine and manifested in charity toward all. Since God is Love, we enter by charity, the Spirit's gift, into the intimacy of Trinitarian life, the fulfillment of the deepest longings of mankind for life, wisdom, and love.
The Augustinian emphasis on love is an admission of the social dimension of* human existence. In his Letter 130 he speaks of friendship as a necessity of life; indeed, no one can be truly known except through friendship. Only in the risen Christ does friendship withstand death. Friendship not only liberates persons to be themselves but is the very goal of human existence. Thus