Power Points: God at Work Through Women Yesterday and Today

MONICA

BY LEECY BARNETT

“Go home with God’s blessing. For it is not possible that the son of all these tears should perish.”1 It was this pastoral comfort that gave Monica the strength to keep praying for her son who seemed so far away from God.

As a young girl growing up in 4th century North Africa, Monica learned about Jesus from her maidservant and soon became His devoted follower. Like most women of the time, Monica had no choice about whom she married. Her parents arranged what they thought was a most advantageous marriage to Patricius, a Roman official in her hometown. Despite being married to a pagan, Monica brought up her children in the Christian faith. Although as a child her son Augustine did not fully embrace Christ, he later acknowledged, “There was implanted within me a trace of that mysterious unity from which I was derived.”2

But like many young men, Augustine abandoned his mother’s teaching when he went to study in the big city of Carthage. Egged on by his fraternity brothers, he lived a life of debauchery. He developed an interest in philosophy and became an adherent of Manichaeism, which “professed to be a religion of pure reason as opposed to Christian credulity; it professed to explain the origin, the composition, and the future of the universe; it had an answer for everything and despised Christianity, which was full of mysteries.”3

Her son’s profligate lifestyle and rejection of Christian truth broke Monica’s heart. She prayed for him day and night with many tears. At one point, she begged her pastor to talk to her son, but he wisely declined, sensing that Augustine was still unteachable. “Simply pray for him,” was the bishop’s sage advice.4

So she kept praying. She prayed as he had a child out of wedlock with his mistress. She prayed while her son pursued fame and fortune above everything. She prayed when he deceived her and moved to Rome without telling her. She listened to God’s Word and spoke to Him in prayer. “Her faithful heart grabbed hold of each promise, and she always continued praying, urging [God] to be faithful to what [He] had shown her.”5 She prayed when, after 10 years, he became disillusioned with Manichaeism, but still rejected Christianity. She praised God when Augustine came under the teaching of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. Her prayers were answered when Augustine read, “Let us live in a right way, like people who belong to the day. We should not have wild parties or get drunk. There should be no sexual sins of any kind, no fighting or jealousy. But clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and forget about satisfying your sinful self.” (Romans 13:13-14, NCV) “Instantly at the end of this sentence,” Augustine later wrote, “a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.”6 Augustine went on to be one of the greatest theologians and Christian philosophers of all time.

Monica’s example reminds all of us with loved ones who are far from God, that we “should always pray and never give up.” (Luke 18:1, NLT)

1 Augustine. (2008). The Confessions of St. Augustine: Modern English Version [Online version]. Revell, “At Cathage”, para. 62.

2 Ibid., “Monica: His Mother’s Care”, para. 19.

3 Arendzen, J. (1910). Manichæism. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. http://www. newadvent.org/cathen/09591a.htm, “Doctrine”, para. 1.

4 Augustine. (2008). The Confessions of St. Augustine: Modern English Version [Online version]. Revell, “At Cathage”, para. 59.

5 Ibid., “Healing and Refreshment”, para. 57.

6 Augustine. (1838). The Confessions of St. Augustine (E. B. Pusey, Trans.) Project Gutenberg, Book VIII, para. 29.