I’ve been hearing (and at times feeling) a lot of concern lately about the many internal and external threats to Western Civilization and Christianity. According to some reports, Muslims have a birthrate that is four times as high as Westerners and they are flooding into Europe and North America. The homosexual movement is gaining traction across the country and influencing large segments of our population (especially our young people). Add to this, a few extremely vocal and well-publicized atheists like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins and throw in politicians and a secular media for good measure, and it feels like a full scale attack on the Church. It’s at this moment that I’m so thankful for Saint Augustine.
In 410 AD, the Great City of Rome was sacked by the Visigoths (an East Germanic tribe). Fear swept across the Empire. The security of every Roman citizen was shaken, and Christians began to wonder what would become of the Church. By this time, Rome had become a Christian Empire and these barbarian hordes were pagans of the worst kind. To make matters worse, some leaders within the Empire began to blame all of Rome’s troubles on the Christians.
To address these concerns, Augustine began to write The City of God in order to defend the faith and give Christians a proper perspective on the Kingdom of Christ and the Kingdom of this World. One of the points he makes is that Christians need to see these present enemies with a new perspective. He writes in Book 1 Chapter 36:
"[The Church] must bear in mind that among [her] very enemies are hidden her future citizens; and when confronted with them she must not think it a fruitless task to bear with their hostility until she finds them confessing the faith…some predestined friends, as yet unknown even to themselves are concealed among our most open enemies.”
In other words, don’t fret about all our enemies in the world. They can do no real damage to Christ’s Church and the Gospel is powerful enough to save even godless barbarian hordes…and praise God, it did save many of our own ancestors! Thank you, Augustine!