| 1. Accepi quod de
iustis et piis laboribus manuum tuarum me accipere voluisti,
ne te gravius contristarem, quam potius consolandam viderem:
praesertim quia hoc ipsum tuum non parvum deputasti esse
solatium, si eam, quam germano tuo sancto Dei ministro
feceras tunicam, ego induerer; cum iam a terra morientium
recedens nullis rebus corruptibilibus indigeret. Feci ergo
quod desiderasti, et qualecumque hoc existimaveris, vel
quantulumcumque solatium, tuo erga fratrem pectori non
negavi. Missam abs te tunicam accepi, et quando haec ad te
scripsi, ea me vestire iam coeperam. Bono animo esto; sed
multo melioribus, multoque maioribus consolationibus utere,
ut nubilum tui cordis humana infirmitate contractum,
serenetur auctoritate divina: et perseveranter ita vive, ut
cum fratre vivas; quoniam sic mortuus est tuus frater, ut
vivat. |
1. The gift prepared
by the just and pious industry of your own hands, and kindly
presented by you to me, I have accepted, lest I should
increase the grief of one who needs, as I perceive, much
rather to be comforted by me;1
especially because you expressed yourself as esteeming it no
small consolation to you if I would wear this tunic, which
you had made for that holy servant of God your brother,
since he, having departed from the land of the dying, is
raised above the need of the things which perish in the
using. I have, therefore, complied with your desire, and
whatever be the kind and degree of consolation which you may
feel this to yield, I have not refused it to your affection
for your brother. The tunic which you sent I have
accordingly accepted, and have already begun to wear it
before writing this to you. Be therefore of good cheer; but
apply yourself, I beseech you, to far better and far greater
consolations, in order that the cloud which, through human
weakness, gathers darkness closely round your heart, may be
dissipated by the words of divine authority; and, at all
times, so live that you may live with your brother, since he
has so died that he lives still. |
| 2. Est quidem
materies lacrymarum, quod germanum dilectorem tuum, teque
plurimum pro tua vita et sacrae virginitatis professione
reverentem, diaconum Carthaginensis Ecclesiae non vides,
sicut solebas, intrantem et exeuntem, et in sui
ecclesiastici officii strenuitate versantem; et honorifica
illa ab eo verba non audis, quae tuae germanitatis
sanctitati, morigero, pio et officioso impendebat affectu.
Haec cum cogitantur, et consuetudinis violentia requiritur,
cor pungitur, et tamquam sanguis cordis fletus exoritur. Sed
sursum sit cor, et sicci erunt oculi. Neque enim quia ista,
quae tibi maeres esse subtracta, suo temporali cursu
praeterierunt, ideo periit illa caritas qua Timotheus
Sapidam dilexit, et diligit; manet illa servata in thesauro
suo, et abscondita est cum Christo in Domino. Qui diligunt
aurum, numquid perdunt quando recondunt? nonne tunc de illo,
quantum fieri potest, securiores fiunt, cum remotum a suis
oculis loculis tutioribus servant? Itane vero terrena
cupiditas munitius se habere putat, si non videat id quod
amat; et coelestis caritas dolet, tamquam amiserit quod in
horrea superna praemiserit. Sapida, quod vocaris attende, et
quae sursum sunt sape, ubi Christus est ad dexteram Dei
sedens; qui pro nobis dignatus est mori, ut viveremus etiam
mortui; et ne mors ipsa ab homine, tamquam consumptura
hominem, timeretur; nec mortuorum quisquam, pro quibus vita
mortua est, tamquam vitam perdiderit, doleretur. Haec atque
huiusmodi tua sint divina solatia quibus erubescat et cedat
humana tristitia. |
2. It is indeed a
cause for tears that your brother, who loved you, and who
honoured you especially for your pious life, and your
profession as a consecrated virgin, is no more before your
eyes, as hitherto, going in and out in the assiduous
discharge of his ecclesiastical duties as a deacon of the
church of Carthage, and that you shall no more hear from his
lips the honourable testimony which, with kindly, pious, and
becoming affection, he was wont to render to the holiness of
a sister so dear to him. When these things are pondered, and
are regretfully desired2
with all the vehemence of long-cherished affection, the
heart is pierced, and, like blood from the pierced heart,
tears flow apace. But let your heart rise heavenward, and
your eyes will cease to weep.3
The things over the loss of which you mourn have indeed
passed away, for they were in their nature temporary, but
their loss does not involve the annihilation of that love
with which Timotheus loved Sapida, and loves her still: it
abides in its own treasury, and is hidden with Christ in
God. Does the miser lose his gold when he stores it in a
secret place? Does he not then become, so far as lies in his
power, more confidently assured that the gold is in his
possession when he keeps it in some safer hiding-place,
where it is hidden even from his eyes? Earthly covetousness
believes that it has found a safer guardianship for its
loved treasures when it no longer sees them; and shall
heavenly love sorrow as if it had lost for ever that which
it has only sent before it to the garner of the upper world?
O Sapida, give yourself wholly to your high calling, and set
your affections4 on things
above, where, at the right hand of God, Christ sitteth, who
condescended for us to die, that we, though we were dead,
might live, and to secure that no man should fear death as
if it were destined to destroy him, and that no one of those
for whom the Life died should after death be mourned for as
if he had lost life. Take to yourself these and other
similar divine consolations, before which human sorrow may
blush and flee away. |
| 3. Non quidem
succensendum est de caris mortuis dolori mortalium; sed
diuturnus dolor non debet esse fidelium. Si ergo contristata
es, iam sit satis; nec sic contristeris quemadmodum Gentes,
quae spem non habent. Non enim constristari prohibuit Paulus
apostolus, cum hoc diceret, sed sic constristari quemadmodum
Gentes, quae spem non habent. Nam et Martha et Maria, piae
sorores et fideles, resurrecturum suum fratrem Lazarum
flebant, quamvis eum tunc ad hanc vitam rediturum esse
nescirent: et ipse Dominus eumdem, quem fuerat
resuscitaturus, Lazarum flevit; nimirum ut fleamus etiam nos
eos mortuos quos ad veram vitam resurrecturos credimus, etsi
non iussit praecepto, concessit exemplo. Nec frustra
Scriptura dicit in libro Ecclesiastico: In mortuo produc
lacrymas, et quasi dira perpessus incipe lamentationem: sed
paulo post ait, et consolare propter tristitiam; a tristitia
enim procedit mors, et tristitia cordis flectet
fortitudinem. |
3. There is nothing
in the sorrow of mortals over their dearly beloved dead
which merits displeasure; but the sorrow of believers ought
not to be prolonged. If, therefore, you have been grieved
till now, let this grief suffice, and sorrow not as do the
heathen, “who have no hope.” (1 Thess 4,12) For when the
Apostle Paul said this, he did not prohibit sorrow
altogether, but only such sorrow as the heathen manifest who
have no hope. For even Martha and Mary, pious sisters, and
believers, wept for their brother Lazarus, of whom they knew
that he would rise again, though they knew not that he was
at that time to be restored to life; and the Lord Himself
wept for that same Lazarus, whom He was going to bring back
from death; (Joh 11,19-35) wherein doubtless He by His
example permitted, though He did not by any precept enjoin,
the shedding of tears over the graves even of those
regarding whom we believe that they shall rise again to the
true life. Nor is it without good reason that Scripture
saith in the book of Ecclesiasticus: “Let tears fall down
over the dead, and begin to lament as if thou hadst suffered
great harm thyself;” but adds, a little further on, this
counsel, “and then comfort thyself for thy heaviness. For of
heaviness cometh death, and the heaviness of the heart
breaketh strength.” (Sirach 38, 16-18) |
| 4. Frater tuus,
filia, mente vivit, carne dormit; numquid qui dormit, non
adiciet ut resurgat? Deus qui spiritum eius iam suscepit,
restituet ei corpus suum, quod non perdendum abstulit, sed
reddendum distulit. Nulla est igitur causa tristitiae
diuturnae, quia potior est causa laetitiae sempiternae.
Quandoquidem germani tui nec pars ipsa mortalis, quae in
terra sepulta est, tibi peribit; in qua tibi praesentabatur,
per quam te alloquebatur, tecumque colloquebatur; ex qua
promebat vocem sic tuis auribus notam, quemadmodum faciem
tuis oculis offerebat, ita ut ubicumque sonuisset, etiam non
visus soleret agnosci. Haec enim vivorum sensibus
subtrahuntur, ut dolorem faciat absentia mortuorum. Sed
quando nec ipsa in aeternum corpora peribunt, uti nec
capillus capitis peribit, et ad tempus deposita sic
recipientur, ut numquam ulterior deponantur, sed in melius
demutata firmentur; profecto maior est causa gratulationis
in spe inaestimabilis aeternitatis, quam causa moeroris in
re brevissimi temporis. Hanc spem non habent Gentes,
nescientes Scripturas neque virtutem Dei; qui potest perdita
reparare, et vivificare mortua, et redintegrare corrupta, et
separata iterum iungere, et corrupta atque finita deinceps
sine fine servare. Haec facturum se esse promisit, qui ex
his fidem fecit, quae iam promissa perfecit. Haec tecum
sermocinetur fides tua, quoniam non fraudabitur spes tua,
etsi nunc differatur caritas tua: haec meditare; his uberius
et verius consolare. Si enim, quia vestior (quoniam ille non
potuit) ea veste quam fratri texueras, te aliquid
consolatur; quanto debes amplius et certius consolari, quia
cui fuerat praeparata, tunc incorruptibili indumento nullo
egens, incorruptione atque immortalitate vestietur! |
4. Your brother, my
daughter, is alive as to the soul, is asleep as to the body:
“Shall not he who sleeps also rise again from sleep?” (Ps.
41,8) God, who has already received his spirit, shall again
give back to him his body, which He did not take away to
annihilate, but only took aside to restore. There is
therefore no reason for protracted sorrow, since there is a
much stronger reason for everlasting joy. For even the
mortal part of your brother, which has been buried in the
earth, shall not be for ever lost to you;—that part in which
he was visibly present with you, through which also he
addressed you and conversed with you, by which he spoke with
a voice not less thoroughly known to your ear than was his
countenance when presented to your eyes, so that, wherever
the sound of his voice was heard, even though he was not
seen, he used to be at once recognised by you. These things
are indeed withdrawn so as to be no longer perceived by the
senses of the living, that the absence of the dead may make
surviving friends mourn for them. But seeing that even the
bodies of the dead shall not perish (as not even a hair of
the head shall perish), (Luk 21,18) but shall, after being
laid aside for a time, be received again never more to be
laid aside, but fixed finally in the higher condition of
existence into which they shall have been changed, certainly
there is more cause for thankfulness in the sure hope for an
immeasurable eternity, than for sorrow in the transient
experience of a very short span of time. This hope the
heathen do not possess, because they know the Scriptures nor
the power of God (Mt 22,29), who is able to restore what was
lost, to quicken what was dead, to renew what has been
subjected to corruption, to re-unite things which have been
severed from each other, and to preserve thenceforward for
evermore what was originally corruptible and shortlived.
These things He has promised, who has, by the fulfilment of
other promises, given our faith good ground to believe that
these also shall be fulfilled. Let your faith often
discourse now to you on these things, because your hope
shall not be disappointed, though your love may be now for a
season interrupted in its exercise; ponder these things; in
them find more solid and abundant consolation. For if the
fact that I now wear (because he could not) the garment
which you had woven for your brother yields some comfort to
you, how much more full and satisfactory the comfort which
you should find in considering that he for whom this was
prepared, and who then did not require an imperishable
garment, shall be clothed with incorruption and immortality!
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