“Our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.” This famous quote is from St. Augustine of Hippo, who is one of the most famous and influential theologians in Christianity, other than the Apostle Paul. Hailing from Africa, St. Augustine was also a philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity. St. Augustine and Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician who we focused on yesterday, are separated by 2000 years but both probed and answered the age-old questions regarding the need to connect with God and worship Him. 

Both of these theologians came to the Lord through reasoning and mental exercises. Pascal’s reasoning is famously known as Pascal’s Wager, which argues that it is in one’s rational self-interest to act as if God exists. I actually think it’s bad reasoning and logic, but God can use it to draw people to Him. This is the way Pascal reasoned and I paraphrase: “The risk is in not believing in God because if you believe in God and you’re wrong, nothing happens to you. But if you don’t believe in God and you’re wrong, then something bad happens to you.”

Friend, St. Augustine, and Pascal both had what St. Augustine coined as “a second conversion.” This was a conversion of the heart. As women and men, our lives can come to the point where all the thinking in the world cannot solve our problems. Both these great men, who were scientists, philosophers, and theologians, transitioned into real communion with God. For us today, we must also connect our hearts into a real relationship with God.