What does St. Augustine’s path to baptism in the Holy Year of 387 teach us? Lucilo Echazarreta, OAR, evokes that interior and physical pilgrimage as a symbol of the true Jubilee: walking with active hope towards eternal life, with bare feet and a vigilant soul.
Jubilant pilgrims
During this Holy Year, I recall the joyful journey that Augustine and Adeodatus made from Casiciaco to Milan in the winter of 387, to “give the name” and register among the competent, those who were preparing to be baptized at Easter. With them also walked Adeodatus, the adolescent aware of the gift he was about to receive in the baptismal pool. And there was Monica, the mother and pedagogue of the accompaniment, animator of that group that had become a community in Casiciaco.
A whole family on pilgrimage towards grace. A true jubilee: walking towards a sublime purpose, crossing the holy door of baptism, stepping on sacred ground.
St. Augustine, in Confessions (9,6), emphasizes that Alipio made this journey barefoot:
“He walked barefoot on the frozen ground of Italy, a thing that takes uncommon courage.”
Symbol of humility and reverence: to go barefoot because the land towards which one walks is holy.
The Jubilee: a walking hope
Pope Francis, in the bull Spes non confundit, reminds us that:
“The pilgrimage expresses a fundamental element of every Jubilee event: to set out on a journey is a typical gesture of those who seek the meaning of life… it favors the value of silence, of effort, of what is essential” (n. 5). (n. 5).
Our life is that path with bare feet.
The Jubilee is not mere liturgical symbolism: it is an invitation to live in hope. But not a naive hope, but a strong hope, an activity of the soul that becomes an impulse to live each day with meaning.
Hope is not desire. It is decision. It is soul in motion.
St. Augustine said it clearly commenting on Psalm 103:
“The life of mortal life is the hope of immortal life.”
Pilgrims to the mother city
Everything in the Christian life points toward a goal. That goal is none other than eternal life, the ultimate city, the Jerusalem above.
As the Catechism reminds us (n. 1817):
“Hope is the theological virtue by which we aspire to eternal life as our happiness.”
St. Augustine develops a profound theology of the way. In one of his sermons (346B), he affirms that every pilgrim has a homeland; no one without a homeland can be called a pilgrim. Our goal is the “metropolis“, the mother city. Therein lies true rest, and for it we must hasten.
A year of grace… with feet on the ground
The exodus of Augustine, Adeodatus and Adeodius from Casiciaco to Milan, animated by Monica, a living image of the Church, represents a full Jubilee. They crossed the holy door of baptism with bare feet, with a clear awareness of what they were receiving.
Today, we, the faithful of the 21st century, are once again offered this same experience of grace.
Walking in faith.
Barefoot before the sacred.
Enliven our hope.
And to enter, one day, in the definitive community of the baptized, in the mother city.
Friar Lucilo Echazarreta, OAR
Lima