St. Monica
“It does not matter where you bury my body. Do not let that worry you. All I ask of you is that, wherever you may be, you should remember me at the altar of the Lord. Do not fret because I am buried far from our home in Africa. Nothing is far from God, and I have no fear that he will not know where to find me, when he comes to raise me to life at the end of the world."
Monica
Today, we celebrate the life of Monica who was born in North Africa, near Carthage, in what is now Tunisia, perhaps around 331. Her parents were Christian, and she was a Christian throughout her life. She was married to a pagan, Patricius. He and his mother became Christians before his death.
Monica recognized that her son (Aurelius Augustinus, also known as St. Augustine of Hippo) was a man of extraordinary intellectual gifts and a brilliant thinker. She grew in spiritual maturity through a life of prayer, and her ambitions for his worldly success were transformed into a desire in converting to Christianity. In his youth, Augustinus rejected Monica’s religion and looked to various pagan philosophies for clues to the meaning of life.
In Milan, Augustine met the bishop Ambrose, from whom he learned that Christianity could be intellectually respectable and under whose preaching he eventually converted and baptized on Easter Eve in 387, to the great joy of Monica.
Soon after his baptism, Augustine, a younger brother, Navigius, and Monica planned to return to Africa together, however, in Ostia, the port city of Rome, Monica fell ill and poke the words cited above.
As I reflect on these words, I realize that many of us will be buried far from our home country/town of birth and may not be near loved ones. However, if we are truly God’s beloved children then God will be with us wherever we are and as Christians, that is sufficient.
