The Augustinian Recollect Fabián Martín (Jalisco, Mexico, 1981) has just published the book “Steps that transform the heart” with the Editorial Avgvstinvs, a continuation of his previous work “Beats of a restless heart”. We spoke with him about this new publication.
What was the genesis, motivation and purpose of your second book?
Steps that transform the heart is the continuation of Beats of a restless heart, a book published by the Province of San Nicolás de Tolentino and freely accessible on the Internet, in which some themes were hinted at that I felt required further study.
Thus, in that first work, when speaking of the ages in the spirit of the new man, I quoted texts by St. Augustine but only developed one in particular; there were six others pending with great suggestions about progress in Christian life and our condition of “being pilgrims”.
The work par excellence in which St. Augustine shares his experience as a pilgrim is The Confessions. I drew up a plan: I selected texts from works prior to The Confessions in which Augustine speaks of constant progress in the Christian life; and, in a second step, I used them to shed light on the underlying spirituality of The Confessions.
This Christian spiritual experience that St. Augustine shares in The Confessions is closely related to the existential journey that he personally took; first he described it little by little in different works, and finally he described it using his own confessions as an example.
My intention was to make known what it means for St. Augustine to be a pilgrim and, familiar with his experience, to offer encouragement in our own journey of Christian life, in the transformation of the heart and the realization of new life in Christ.
And has this task of stimulating the condition of pilgrim affected the author of the book?
Through professional training, personal conviction and life experience, I understand that Christian life is a discipleship journey, a constant progress in the spirit, an advance along the path of love, faith and hope.
Life is, in itself, an existential process with moments of trust, improvement and encouragement or of crisis, struggles and resistance. Through all these things the Holy Spirit transforms people’s hearts. This is my own experience as a pilgrim: what has changed me inside are the steps I have taken in the direction of love. That is why I wanted this title for the book, Steps that transform the heart.
It is certainly not autobiographical, but it does express the way in which I have approached Saint Augustine and have personally benefited from his experience. At 43 years of age I can give an account of vital stages of crisis, resistance, inner struggles and search for meaning… And, in a more modest way, of when God has acted in my heart to change it, renew it and make it more of flesh and less of stone.
At the same time, since my existential path and my Christian condition have not always been coordinated, no matter how hard I have tried, I understand that the transformation of the heart is a matter of God and in God’s way. The path of the disciple consists of moving forward trusting in God the Father, while the Holy Spirit manages to act. This has been my experience and is, to a large extent, my hope.
Much has been written about the Confessions. Do you have anything new to offer?
The Confessions of Saint Augustine is one of the most widely read and studied works of Western and Christian literature, and I have come across a large number of writings and studies from philosophy, dogmatic theology, dynamic psychology, universal literature, history…
Since I turned to this work in 2009 as a source of study for the specialization I did in Spirituality, my method is that of Spiritual Theology, the historical-critical and hermeneutical method. I think that I contribute by going to The Confessions not to explain the spirituality of Saint Augustine, but to understand important aspects of his concrete spiritual experience; without being a specialist, my reading of The Confessions gains breadth and allows me to access the personal experience of the man, Augustine, and to become familiar with him.
Some specialists would rightly point out that I neglect the context of the work. In my defense, I have wanted to “listen” to The Confessions in open dialogue with psychology and pedagogy, which help with their guidelines to capture and express the density of the saint’s spiritual experience. Even when doing so in front of other people, in talks or meetings, I have noted their reactions of interest.
Saint Augustine is an artist of the genre of “confessio,” confession. He masters with art the confession of praise to God, merciful to the saint; the confession of sins and strayings in the face of his strong desire to love and be loved; and the confession of faith in the God of mercy, in the humble Christ and in the Fire that set him alight in charity.
If you remove one of these three aspects, The Confessions lose their beauty. And people with a restless heart who seek the truth, who yearn for happiness and who risk their lives by getting involved in relationships, easily connect with Augustine’s experience.
The interest for readers, and I consider myself one of them, is that everything that is deeply human, the good, the true, the beautiful and the free, finds a wonderful outcome in The Confessions.
What keys to Augustine’s pilgrimage would be applicable to any of us?
Saint Augustine is a pilgrim master; his vital, existential and deeply spiritual path was, first of all, a passionate journey to the center of his own life, to the depths of his heart. The first step that transformed his life was the courage to follow the invitation of that voice – which he did not know if it came from outside or from within – that urged him to return to his own heart.
The saint, scattered and fragmented, returned to his interior and there he discovered the truth of his life: he was fragile, sinful, proud, but also deeply loved by God. And from that truth about himself and from the truth that God made him know about himself, he undertook a new pilgrimage towards the heart of God. The pilgrimage to one’s own heart and the pilgrimage towards Christ, the heart of the Father, is a pilgrimage to the hearts of others, because Christ is present in them.
It is not about returning to one’s own heart as a selfish or narcissistic act, but because ambitions, attachments, rejections, failed relationships and conflicts indicate that, inside, we are broken; that our inner house is narrow and in ruins. The return to one’s own heart is so that the Doctor of the heart, Jesus, can repair that inner dwelling.
The pilgrimage to one’s own heart is a pilgrimage towards God and, from God, to the hearts of others, healed of selfishness and pride. And thus, the charity of Christ makes the Church a community of fellow disciples.
What do you consider to be the most important vital process for spiritual progress?
St. Augustine‘s life was changed, his heart was turned upside down, his truth was enlightened and he was made to taste beauty when he had his encounter with Christ in humility through the Word. This Word dispelled his ignorance, broke his arrogance and gave him the strength to emerge from mediocrity and self-deception.
I believe that the most sublime and important act in the process of Christian life is to open oneself to the encounter with Christ, who speaks primarily through his Word. He will see how and when he gives us the gift of experiencing his presence, his mercy and his friendship.
The horizon of every Christian life is to advance in this new life in Christ. It is difficult to transform the heart and progress in spiritual life without a founding experience, a living encounter with Christ, a relationship of love with him.
This encounter brings the sense of belonging and fidelity to the Word and a solid identity of one’s own condition as a disciple. The processes of evangelization need to recover the pedagogy of a kerygmatic or mystagogical Christian initiation, which serves as a real encounter with Christ.
Within the Augustinian Recollect Family, the formative itineraries for lay people and religious, young people and adults, run the risk of being empty if they do not draw the heart towards Christ, his Gospel and his Kingdom. This encounter is the key to Augustine’s pilgrimage that we should not take for granted or neglect in our accompaniment.
For you, personally, what is the vital aspect of Augustine that most attracts your attention?
The more I read The Confessions, the more strongly I feel that desire is the trigger of his vital process. On several occasions he speaks of the sweetness of loving and being loved, what his heart most longed for. The strength and dynamism of his restless heart had its origin in his capacity to desire.
He anxiously inquired about love, but only became calm when he experienced a free, gratuitous and generous love. To love and to be loved was not to indulge sensuality but to invoke a presence that would show him signs of its desire for him. He was conquered by the God of Jesus Christ, who desired him with an infinite desire and a completely free love. Augustine melted before God, who made him taste a resplendent light, a sonorous melody, an exquisite aroma, a tasty food and the embrace of a great peace.
I consider that the tenth book of The Confessions is the hinge and backbone of all his work, the support point of his approach to the “order in love” and of another important aspect: purification, that is, the fight against the selfishness of the “old man” who wants to return to his former self. Personal effort and the grace of God join forces so that the heart does not turn back.
Is it easy to accept today this idea of spiritual life as the axis of happiness?
When we talk about spiritual life, even in Christian circles, my experience is that we see different and even surprising visions. There is a certain tendency to separate human life from life in the spirit, as if spirituality were a later state, or a higher state, or a kind of “disconnecting to connect.”
All disembodied spirituality is alien to Christian inspiration, centered on concrete life, on concrete people who believe, hope and love. Saint Augustine restores unity to that mystery between human life and Christian life, because Christian life is realized in the concrete condition of one who lives, dreams, suffers, yearns, enjoys, seeks, decides…
Christian spirituality in general, and Augustinian spirituality in particular, describes the style or way of life of the disciple who walks at the mercy of the Spirit. The spiritual life of the Christian is his life in the Holy Spirit, his journey driven by the Holy Spirit to return to his own heart.
It is an arduous and fascinating journey towards the most important questions of life, which are the opposite of boredom, tedium or routine. But there are people who are more sensitive than others to these questions and to the search for answers.
Some prefer to avoid the fatigue and discomfort of giving meaning or finding the whys. In our world there is a certain standard that evades reflection, silence, the effort to understand more deeply what is happening and what is happening to me.
There is saturation of noise and entertainment of passive consumption; quick, simple and immediate answers, but incomplete and biased and, in the end, not very satisfactory for a meaningful happiness: having everything, not needing to work, consuming everything that is put in front of me, constantly sensualizing…
The pilgrimage spoken of in this book presents a path “against the current”: returning to the heart, promoting recollection, silence, listening to oneself, the inner space for other voices to resonate, like the voice of God.
The spiritual path requires attention, admiration, wonder and awakening to consciousness; these are the conditions that make spiritual life possible because they connect us with ourselves and with God; They activate new inner springs to acquire a vital practical wisdom; yes, in this way we will live, at least, “differently” from that standard.
Are the Augustinian Recollect Secular Fraternities a source of “different” life for lay people?
The Augustinian Recollect Secular Fraternities are in very different situations according to their sociocultural and religious context, the time they have been walking, the way they have been accompanied and the personal and community commitment they have assumed.
However, an atmosphere of trust and hope is perceived as the fruit of new expectations and a determined leadership to assume responsibilities, such as lay people being the agents of formation of the lay people.
There is an outstanding debt with the Secular Fraternities: the formation of the formators. Although the new Pilgrims III forms and the Instructions for accompaniment in the Secular Fraternities have been published, I believe that those responsible for the formation of the new candidates are lacking in the face of the great challenges they face.
I think it is important that in the coming years specific material be developed for formators and that general material be added. The experience of the new formation plan for religious can facilitate this.