University of San Agustin

General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines

www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 6. SERVICE IN THE CHURCH AS LAY LEADER

AND SERVANT, PRIEST, AND BISHOP

A Grace-filled day! Welcome to Module 6.

Module 6 deals with the Service in the Church as rendered by

Augustine being a lay leader and servant, priest, and bishop. Service
is one of the tremendous impacts of Augustine’s conversion. His
to conviction to follow the Lord which is a lifetime commitment started on
his being a lay leader. Furthermore, this vocation to serve has given
Module 6! Augustine an impetus to teach, to guide, and to govern the Church as a
shepherd.

Consultation Hour:

Phone / messenger:

Virtual time:

Module 6: Learning Objectives:

By the end of the module, students will be able to:

1. Discuss the role of Augustine as lay leader, servant, priest, and bishop.
2. Appreciate the role of lay leaders, priests, and bishops in the Church.
3. Shout out in their Facebook account or messenger on how to support and pray for
our priests, bishops, and other Church leaders

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 University of San Agustin
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CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Activity Description Time to Complete

Prayer 2 minutes

Overview 2 minutes

Learning Objectives 2 minutes

1 Outline the different roles of Augustine 15 -20 minutes

in service to the Church

2 Reception by the magisterium 7-10 minutes

3 The Authority of Augustine 7-10 minutes

4 The problem of understanding Augustine 7-10 minutes

Assessment Tasks:
5 30 minutes

6 Quiz 20 minutes

Conclusion 7-10 minutes

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 University of San Agustin
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CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Module 6: Introduction:

By our baptism, we participate in the three-fold mission of Christ as Priest, King, and
Prophet. As a Christian, Augustine responded to this universal call to love, and to serve
the Lord- as a lay leader and servant. He serves the Church and eventually dedicates his
entire life in the service of the Church as a good shepherd of the flock.

Please read the script below.

SAINT AUGUSTINE: HIS PERSONALITY

Augustine possessed a complex and profound personality. He was at the same time
a philosopher, theologian, mystic, poet, orator, polemicist, writer, and pastor. These
prominent titles and characteristics all complement one another and made Augustine a man
“to the likes of whom almost no one, or certainly very few, can be compared of all those
who have lived since the beginning of the human race until today” (Pius XI, AAS
22(1930)). Altaner writes: “The great bishop united in himself the creative energy of
Tetutllian, and the breadth of the spirit of Origen with the ecclesiastical sensitivity of
Cyprian; the dialectical acumen of Aristotle with the soaring idealism and speculation of
Plato; the practical sense of the Latin with the spiritual subtlety of the Greeks. He was the
greatest philosopher of the Patristic era and, without doubt, the most important and
influential theologian of the Church in general. Since his own time, Augustine’s works
have found enthusiastic admirers” (Patrologia).

A. AUGUSTINE: PHILOSOPHER AND THEOLOGIAN

Augustine created in the Christian milieu the first great philosophical synthesis
which remains an essential component of Western thought. Departing from the evidence
of his knowledge of himself, he expounded on the themes of Being, of Truth, and Love,
and contributed much to the understanding of the problems of the search for God and the
nature of man, of eternity and time, of liberty and evil, of providence and history, of
beatitude, of justice and peace.

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With humility yet assurance, he expounded on the Christian mysteries, bringing
about the greatest progress in dogma in the history of theology, not only concerning the
doctrine of grace, but also concerning the Trinity, Redemption, The Church, the
Sacraments, and Eschatology. It could well be said that there is no theological question
which Augustine had not illuminated. He explained at length a moral doctrine centered on
love as well as on social and political theories. He defended Christian asceticism and
pointed out the highest summit of mysticism.

B. AUGUSTINE: APOLOGIST and POLEMICIST

As an orator, Augustine knew how to weave together the profound and dogmatic
precision of the teacher, the lyric exuberance of the poet, the vibrant emotion of the mystic,
and the evangelical simplicity of the pastor who desired to be all things to all men. He was
acquainted with the various oratorical styles, which he described toward the end of his life
in De Doctrina Christiana. He made us of these styles himself, passing with ease from the
simple to the more complex and often, to the sublime.

Augustine was a formidable polemicist. Profoundly convinced of the truth and

freshness of Catholic teaching, he defended it against all: pagans, Jews, schismatics,
heretics, with the weapons of dialectics and the resources deriving from faith and reason
(fides et ratio). However, he always respects his adversaries. He studied their works, related
their texts to which he was refuting and recognized their merits, yet did not conceal or pass
over their errors. He learned from his own painful experience of the error to be gentle with
those who were going astray.

C. AUGUSTINE: THE RHETORIC

Augustine was a consummate master of rhetoric. He made use of it himself and

taught others to do the same, subordinating it always, however, to the content. “It is
necessary to consider the content over the words, just as the soul is over the body” (De Cat.
Rud., 9,13). When it was necessary to make himself understood, Augustine did not hesitate
to make use of neologisms or irregular grammar. “I prefer to be criticized by the
grammarians than not to be understood by the people” (In Ps. 36; 138, 19; Serm. 3,6;
37.14). If his style in the early works is still marked by the imitation of the classical models

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– “inflated by the usage of secular writings” (Retrac.Prol. 3) - - Augustine draws his
inspiration in the other works more and more from the Bible and other ecclesiastical
writers, thus making an effective contribution to the formation of Christian Latin.
Augustine did not have one single style, but rather many, as many, it can be said, as the
contents of his works demanded: The Confessions, The City of God, The Sermons, and The
Letters. These prominent works have a style different concerning vocabulary and sentence
structure, which is adapted to the character of each work according to the diversity of the
subject.

D. AUGUSTINE: BISHOP AND PASTOR

Of particular interest is the study of Augustine’s character, for his understanding of

moral qualities corresponded to his extraordinary intellectual abilities. He possessed a
generous and strong constitution and was endowed with an insatiable thirst for wisdom, a
profound need for friendship, a vibrant love for Christ, the Church and the faithful, and an
astonishing devotion and stamina for work. Augustine was further marked by a moderate
yet austere asceticism, a sincere humility which did not hesitate to acknowledge his errors,
and an assiduous dedication of the study of the Sacred Scriptures, to prayer, to the interior
life, and contemplation.

The Bishop of Hippo was a pastor who considered himself to be and defined
himself as “Servant of Christ, and Servant of the servants of Christ” (Eph. 1:17), and who
accepted the full consequences of such a definition complete availability for the needs of
the faithful, the desire not to be saved without them (“I do not wish to be saved without
you, prayer to God to be ever ready to die for them, love for those who go astray even if
they did not desire love and even if they gave offense. Let them say against us whatever
they will; we love them even if they do not want us to” (Serm. 17,2; Ps. 36,3,19). He was
a pastor in the full sense of the word.

E. AUGUSTINE: DISCIPLE AND CO-DISCIPLE

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Augustine was a master who nevertheless considered himself a disciple and desired
that ll be disciples with him of the truth which is Christ. In his controversies, he desired but
one victory: that, namely, of The City of God, the victory of truth. “As far as I am
concerned, I will not hesitate to search if I find myself in doubt; I will not be ashamed to
learn if I find myself in error. Therefore... let him continue along with me, whoever with
me is certain; let him search with me, whoever shares my doubts, let him turn to me,
whoever acknowledges his error; let him rebuke me, whoever perceives my own” (De Trin.
1-5). He considered it a greater favor to be corrected, even if he did not hide the fact that
whoever wished to correct him must himself be on guard against error. Above all, he did
not wish to be identified as the Church, of which he considered himself to be merely a
humble and devoted son. “Am I perhaps the Catholic Church? ... It is sufficient for me to
be found in her.”

F. AUGUSTINE: A PATER COMMUNIS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

This is short, was the man who has been the most widely followed teacher in the
West, and who can well be called Pater Communis. “That which Origen was for theological
science in the third and fourth centuries, Augustine has been in a more lasting and effective
manner for the entire life of the Church in the succeeding centuries down to the present
time. His influence extends not only to the domains of philosophy, of dogmatics, and moral
and mystical theology but also to social life and welfare, ecclesiastical policy, and public
jurisprudence. He was, in a word, the great craftsman of the Western culture of the Middle
Ages” (Patrologia).

As a scholar and polemicist, Augustine desired to be a faithful interpreter of

Catholic teaching, and this teaching remains the best key to the interpretation of his
thought. “And if at times on the part of Protestants, it has been attempted and is attempted
to interpret his thought as partially, not in accord with the thought of the Church, it must
be noted to the contrary with K. Holl that the ‘Catholic Church has always understood him
better than her adversaries’. The ecclesiastical Magisterium has followed no other
theological author in this decision as much as Augustine, even for the doctrine of grace”
(Patrologia).

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G. RECEPTION BY THE MAGISTERIUM

Celestine I defended the memory of Augustine and numbered him among the “best
teachers” declaring that he had always been loved and honored by all (DS 237). Hormidas
(DS 366), Boniface II (DS 399), and John II referred in questions concerning grace to
Augustine “whose doctrine, according to the decisions of my predecessors, the Roman
Church follows and preserves” as the latter of the above-mentioned Pontiffs had noted.
Popes nearer to our days like Leo XIII, Pius XI, and Paul VI have extolled Augustine’s
doctrine and holiness. The Councils of the Church too notably Orange, on original sin and
grace; but also Trent, on justification; Vatican I, on revelation, and the mystery of man,
have drawn abundantly from his teaching. They have thus demonstrated that these
teachings, not merely that of Augustine, but of the Church, which consequently has
acknowledged it to be her own. It is hardly necessary to note that in these cases it is no
longer the Bishop of Hippo who is under discussion but the Church herself.

THE AUTHORITY OF AUGUSTINE

Augustine thus remains a thinker and writer on whom the repeated declaration of
the Magisterium and the continued esteem of subsequent theologians, not least among them
Aquinas, have conferred a particular authority. This authority, while it does not allow
anyone to prefer his teaching to that of the Church, likewise does not permit anyone to call
Augustine’s orthodoxy into question or to deny the incomparable service he rendered to
the Church and Christian culture.

H. THE PROBLEM OF UNDERSTANDING AUGUSTINE

The fact that Augustine’s thought has been interpreted through the centuries in
widely diverse ways is not a sign of obscurity. Augustine is not an obscure author, but
neither is he an easy one. The difficulties arise from various sources: the profundity of his
thoughts, the multiplicity of his works, the breadth of the questions treated, and the
different ways in which they are approached, the diversity of his language. One must also
take into account the uncertain characteristic of anyone taking the first steps in new and
difficult questions, the evolution of his thought, the lack of systematization, and finally,
the limits which Augustine, like any other writer, possessed. Only the one who succeeds in
patiently overcoming these difficulties will discover the true Augustine, the author of those

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 University of San Agustin
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writings, in which “the faithful always find him alive” (Possidius, Vita 31, 8).; the historical
Augustine, far richer and more balances than he appears through harshly interpretations or
“popular” Augustinianism.

Assessment Tasks:
A. Individual Reflection
a. shout out in your social media account (Facebook account, messenger, and twitter) on
how to support and pray for our priests, bishops, and other Church leaders.

B. Quiz

Conclusion:
After learning the amazing contributions of Saint Augustine to respond to the
urgency of the Gospel, we too are encouraged to do the same. Each of us received the
universal call to holiness to be an agent of building the kingdom of God. God has given
each of us a gift to be shared in the community. All of us have something to be shared for
the greater glory of God whether you are a lay, religious, or priest—we all belong to the
Body of Christ.

Closing Prayer: Prayer after Class.

Leader: Our help is in the name of the Lord,

All: Who made heaven and earth.
Leader: Let us pray.
All: God, the desire of every human heart, you moved Saint Augustine
to seek restlessly for truth and peace. Touch our hearts with his
burning desire for wisdom, for the Word made flesh. We ask this
through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Leader: Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
All: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Email: crs@usa.edu.ph | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Module 6: References
 Hernandez, P. (1993). St. Augustine of Hippo, Iloilo City: USA Press.
 Hojilla, F. (2020). Manual on the Life and Works of Saint Augustine of Hippo.
(unpublished). Iloilo City: USA Office for Theological Studies and Formation
 Trape, A. (1986). St. Augustine: Man, Pastor, Mystic. New York: Catholic Book Publishing
Co.

Email: crs@usa.edu.ph | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403