Never Ending Childbirth

Simone Riva - His son would become one of the undisputed geniuses in the history of thought, especially Christian thought. He was uniquely able to get to the heart of issues and present them effectively and convincingly. 

A son is always on edge, used to enjoying everything and dominating every situation. He made that woman suffer greatly, shedding many tears so that she might find the true meaning of life. 

In the "Confessions," St. Augustine describes his mother Monica, whom the liturgy celebrates today, as follows: "She had been the wife of a man, had repaid her debt to her parents, had kept her house holy, had the testimony of good works, had brought up her children, giving birth to them as often as she saw them departing from you. Finally, Lord, since your generosity enables you to speak to your servants who, having received the grace of your baptism, were already united in you before she slept, she cared for us all as if she were a mother and served us all as if she were a daughter". 

The story of so many misunderstandings between parents and children, which often become real torments, is reflected in her, mainly because the former cannot avoid the mistakes of the latter. 

They suffer, they pray, they cry, in an apparent helplessness in the face of a destiny that they do not understand and cannot change, as when a child falls into the trap of drugs or, more simply, begins to stop speaking. They come from us, they have our characteristics, they carry our biology indelibly, and yet they elude us from all sides.

St. Monica, born in Tagaste in 331 A.D. to a Christian family, faced everyone's challenges. As a teenager, she was helped to correct the vice of wine to which she had succumbed. Her parents gave her in marriage to a pagan legionary named Patricius.

A year before his death, however, Monica rejoiced in her husband's conversion to the Catholic faith. She raised three children, "giving birth to them as often as she saw them turning away from God," and devoted her best energies to Augustine, the most restless. 

Augustine's meeting with Ambrose in Milan laid the groundwork for the change his mother had always demanded of her son. Again, in the Confessions, we read, "With greater fervor he also ran to the church, where he hung on Ambrose's lips, a fountain of gushing water for eternal life. 

She loved this man like an angel of God since she knew that by his merit, I had come in the meantime, at least in doubt, at this obligatory and most dangerous gate, as are the attacks that doctors call critical, of my transit, for her safe, from illness to health". 

Monica learned to wait for her son by seeing how she had been waited for, by experiencing with her own skin that the heart wants nothing more than to surrender to that love which is greater than every vice and every fall, and by undoubtedly finding consolation in Ambrose, another man whom God had unpredictably taken into his service. 

Consolation for these ancient events, which in a moment burn away all the span of years that separate us from their fulfillment, because they allow for immediate identification. And do we have men and women whom we can look at truthfully because of the intensity with which they enjoy the journey of their humanity?

Unrevised translation by the author. Download. Italian. Spanish. German. French.