THE great lover, Bishop Augustine of Hippo, was also a ferocious fighter. His brilliant mind defended the Church, first against the heretical Donatists who taught that once Christians deny the faith under persecution, they should not be forgiven. More so, bishops and priests who, threatened with death, denied the faith, should be excommunicated; their masses declared invalid. Bishop St. Augustine correctly taught the validity of the sacraments, including mass, depended not on the priests’ merits but on Christ’s loving promise of forgiveness.
Another dangerous teaching came from the English priest, Pelagius, who denied original sin. Human nature, he said, is good and pure or as preachers of the power of positive thinking say, “I am ok, you are ok.”
A yet greater danger came from those who said Rome’s decline was due to Christianity. In defense of the Church, St. Augustine wrote “The City of God,” wherein he showed that Rome fell because her people no longer practiced traditional virtues of loyalty to the country, love for the people -- especially the weak -- justice and courage: virtues practiced admirably by Christians.
A much bigger fight was against deniers of the Trinity.
As St. Augustine weighed on how there are Three Persons in One and the Same God, he felt he needed to cool off his overheating intellect by walking along the seashore.
Highly amused at seeing a boy scoop sea water in a shell and pour the water into a hole in the sand, St. Augustine asked, “Young lad, what are you doing?” When the boy answered, “I’m pouring the sea into this hole,” Augustine remarked, “That’s impossible!” The boy replied, “If what I am doing is impossible, your attempt to pour the Most Blessed Trinity into your head is a greater impossibility!”
When the boy suddenly disappeared, St. Augustine realized that it was an angel.