Feast of St Augustine, St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 28 August 2026
Not long ago they were saying that in the Church we are now all Jesuits; these days we are all Augustinians! But it is not just Pope Leo the Augustinian who richly seasons his speeches and documents with quotes from St Augustine.[1] All the recent popes have in fact demonstrated a great affection for the ‘Doctor of Grace.’
But St Augustine is not a universal fan favourite. Some blame him for Original Sin—which I would have thought was Adam, Eve and Satan’s fault—and say he is the main source of ‘Catholic guilt.’[2] Some feminists have labelled him sexist,[3] some Easterners say he took Western theology down the wrong track,[4] and still others charge him with being behind a pessimistic strand in Catholic anthropology, politics and sexual ethics.[5] Still affected by the Manichean dualism of his youth and humiliated by his own moral failures, it is alleged he took evil too seriously. Ironically, he’s also accused of not taking evil seriously enough, because he was the one who clarified for Christian philosophy that evil is not a positive reality but rather a privation—something missing, or that has gone wrong, or has been misused—in an otherwise good reality.[6]
Goodie or baddie, what’s indisputable is Augustine’s output. His corpus is greater in volume than any other Christian writer, coming in at some five million words—and that’s just the works that survive![7] (If someone tells you they’ve read all of Augustine, they’re probably telling a porky!) However, it’s not just the volume that marks out Augustine as an exemplar of faith and reason. Consider the range of subjects on which he wrote: on God, Trinity, Christ and the Incarnation; on the Church and her Sacraments; on creation and redemption; on the nature of man, of time, of the soul, of knowledge and memory, and of free will. We have works by Augustine on evil, sin and concupiscence; on grace and salvation; on sexuality, marriage and celibacy; on morality and virtue more generally. There are his tracts on prayer and the spiritual life; on justice, politics and warfare; on friendship and community; on death, judgment, heaven and hell. And there are his polemics against the Manichees, Donatists, Pelagians and others.
There’s a lot of Augustine![8]
Unsurprisingly, he also had quite a bit to say about the priesthood. Shortly after his own ordination in the year 391—a short time before Fr John’s ordination—he wrote to his bishop, Valerius, confessing that only after ordination had he come to understand what exactly had been entrusted to him.[9] “How wonderful the dignity of the priesthood,” he wrote, “for in the priest’s hands is Son of God made flesh as in the womb of the Virgin.” The life of the ordained priest, Augustine says, can be the easiest life in the world—as long as you wrongly focus on people-pleasing. Or it can instead be the most difficult life, if the priest rightly focuses on God-pleasing, ministering as Christ intended. But hard or easy, Augustine thought the priesthood the best and most graced life. Having come to this conclusion after his short experience as a presbyter, Augustine begs his Bishop Valerius for some time away to pray and study, so that he might be better placed to minister to God’s people in word and sacrament.
On young Fr Augustine’s account, priesthood is a daunting prospect: for the priest is entrusted with things much greater than himself. The Gospel preached is not his own, nor the sacramental graces he dispenses. Even the flock he calls his ‘own’ is only his on trust. All three belong to God. But God nonetheless chooses to work in and through those creatures we call ‘priests.’ Here Augustine is, as always, a realist. Priests may indeed do ‘heavenly’ things, but in the end they are imperfect, damaged, earthly beings. All too aware of human frailty and sin from personal experience, he cries out with St Paul: I don’t understand my own actions. I fail to do the good I want to do and instead do things I should not do. There is sin in me, as well as God’s law. Who will rescue me from my wretchedness? Thanks be to God for Christ Jesus our Lord! (Rom 7:15-25)
Experiencing, like Paul, his own inadequacies but also the much greater power of God’s grace, Augustine was not a pessimist about humanity and its priests. Knowing the grace of God was undefeated in his own life, he was able to hold out hope to his flock that no one is beyond redemption and divine grace never exhausted. In his great sermon on the pastors, Augustine reminded his hearers that, however human the minister, it is Christ Himself who feeds the flock through him.[10]
In the iconography of St Augustine and prominent in Pope Leo’s coat of arms is a heart pierced by an arrow but aflame with love and zeal. In his commentary on tonight’s parable (Mt 25:1-13), Augustine asks what it is that distinguishes the wise from the foolish virgins.[11] After all, he says, they look very much the same: all ten brought the lamps of their good works with them; all ten, like all good Christian’s, excitedly but patiently awaited the arrival of the Bridegroom who is Christ; and all ten fell asleep, that is they died. So what, on this reading of the parable, is the difference between the wise and imprudent ones? The key difference, Augustine says, is the oil of charity. A deep love concerned for more than superficial praise and popularity. A burning love that yearns faithfully to glorify God. A true love, interiorised and animating all that we do. This oily love is what separates those ready to enter the eternal wedding feast with Christ, and those who find the door shut.
Such a love is no abstraction, no passing feeling, no distant ideal: it is something real, personal, and found most perfectly on the cross. It is a heart aflame but pierced also, so it seems weak by this world’s standards but is revealed to be the power and wisdom of God (1Cor 1:17-25). This is the love we preach and witness with our lives: that the one who gives Himself completely saves us through His love.
In his recent message to priests, Pope Leo pointed to the pierced Heart of the crucified Christ, teaching us again that holiness is revealed as a love which gives itself even to the point of being wounded, and in doing so becomes a source of mercy and life.[12] Tonight we recognise half a century of priestly life centred on remaining close to Christ and sharing His life and mercy with others. Fr John has baptised countless souls into the saving mysteries of Christ and His Church. He has broken open Christ’s Word and preached the wisdom of His Cross. He has brought Christ’s healing to sinners and the sick. He has offered Christ’s comfort to the dying and the grieving. He has accompanied those entrusted to his care with gentleness and compassion. At all times he has put the wounded and flaming love of Christ front and centre.
And so tonight, Fr John, we give thanks for the call you received, for the grace that has sustained it for 50 years, and for your own part in carrying the oil of charity into your ministry so your lamp might burn brightly for all to see. Thanks be to God!
[1] From the loggia of St Peter’s the new pope introduced himself as “a son of St Augustine”; his coat of arms incorporates symbols of his Order including the flaming heart; he visited Augustine’s tomb in Pavia and his homeland of Hippo Regius in Algeria early in his pontificate; and he heavily quotes Augustine in his documents and speeches. See: Kristina Millare, “Why Pope Leo XIV recommends St Augustine’s 1,700-year-old letter on prayer,” EWTN 23 August 2026; William Waltershield, “Pope Leo and St Augustine,” Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh 27 August 2025.
[2] See for example, Pier Franco Beatrice, The Transmission of Sin: Augustine and the Pre-Augustinian Sources (OUP, 2013); Paul Ham, “The man who forged Catholic guilt,” On Earth As It Is 3 April 2025; David Bentley Hart, ‘Traditio deformis,’ First Things 1 May 2015; T.A. Tanner, “How Augustine’s guilt turned Christianity into a religion of shame,” The Unholy Truth 7 October 2025.
[3] Judith Stark (ed.), Feminist Interpretations of Augustine (Pennsylvania State UP, 2007); Mae Forrest Barnes, “I hate St Augustine and so should you,” Women in Theology 14 February 2024.
[4] See for example, George Demacopoulos & Aristotle Papanikolaou (eds), Orthodox Readings of Augustine (Fordham UP, 2008);Christopher Iacovetti, “Filioque, Theosis, and Ecclesia: Augustine in Dialogue with Modern Orthodox Theology,” Modern Theology 34(1) (2018): 70–81; Carl Perkins, “Historiography of Orthodox approaches to St Augustine,” Academia.edu.
[5] E.g. Herbert Deane, The Political and Social Ideas of St Augustine (Columbia UP, 1963), 56-66, 241-43; Jean Bethke Elstain, Augustine and the Limits of Politics (Notre Dame UP, 1995), 19-21, though offering a more positive reading herself, notes various commentators that have read Augustine as pessimistic about human choices and politics; Stephen Gleenblatt, “How St Augustine invented sex,” The New Yorker 12 June 2017; John Strickland, “The rise of anthropological pessimism,” parts III, IV and V, Ancient Faith Ministries 11-13 November 2015 https://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/paradiseutopia/;
[6] Marilyn McCord Adams, “Evil as nothing,” Modern Schoolman 89(3-4) (2012): 131-145; Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God (Cornell UP, 1999).
[7] Henry Chadwick, Augustine: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2001), 1.
[8] St Augustine, De Trinitate; De Genesi ad litteram; Confessiones 10–13; De libero arbitrio; De natura boni; De doctrina christiana; De bono coniugali; De sancta virginitate; De continentia; Regula; Epistula 130; De civitate Dei, books 19–22; Contra Faustum 22.74–75; De baptismo; De natura et gratia; and De nuptiis et concupiscentia.
[9] St Augustine, Letter 21.1, 3.
[10] St Augustine, Sermon 46.2, 30
[11] St Augustine, Sermon 93.3, 5–10.
[12] Pope Leo XIV, Message to Priests on the Occasion of the Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests, 12 June 2026.
Introduction to Mass for the 50th Jubilee of Rev. Fr John Iacono
Feast of St Augustine, St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 28 August 2026
Welcome to St Mary’s Cathedral for this evening’s Mass celebrating the 50th anniversary of the priestly ordination of Fr John Iacono. Ordained exactly fifty years ago today, on the Feast of St Augustine, 28 August 1976, Fr John’s priestly life has been a true spiritual adventure, through various countries, cultures and ministries. From parish life here in Sydney to more than two decades of missionary work in Cebu, he has served prisoners, the poor, families in need, hospital patients and countless others entrusted to his pastoral care. Along the way he has helped establish housing, educational and charitable initiatives, while exercising his sacred duties as a faithful priest bringing Christ to his people in word and sacrament.
Concelebrating with me are several priests of the archdiocese and beyond.
To everyone here this evening, including international guests, and to all those joining via livestream a very warm welcome to you all!
