61. So that one may rightly say that the Holy Spirit has this day told us by the voice of the boy reader: “He that is innocent in his hands and of a clean heart, who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor used deceit unto his neighbour, this is the generation of them that seek the Lord.”25    Ps. xxiv. [xxiii.] 4, 6. He, then, shall both ascend into the hill of the Lord and dwell in the tabernacle of God; because “he hath walked without spot, he hath worked righteousness, he hath spoken truth, he hath not deceived his neighbour;”26    Ps. xv. [xiv.] 2, 3. nor did he lend his money for usury, who always wished [no more than] to retain that which was inherited.

62. Why should I relate that in his piety he went beyond mere justice, when he, having thought that in consideration of my office something ought to be given to the unlawful possessor of our property, declared that I was the author of the bounty, but made over the receipts of his own share to the common fund.

63. These and other matters, which were then a pleasure to me, now sharpen the remembrance of my grief. They abide, however, and always will do so, nor do they ever pass away like a shadow; for the grace of virtue dies not with the body, nor do natural life and merits come to an end at the same time, although the use of natural life does not perish for ever, but rests in a kind of exemption for a time.

64. For one, then, who has performed such good deeds, and is rescued from perils, I shall weep rather from longing for him than for the loss. For the very opportuneness of his death bids us bear in mind that we must follow him rather with grateful veneration than grieve for him, for it is written that private grief should cease in public sorrow. This is said in the prophetical language,27    2 [4] Esdr. x. 6. In the Vulgate, as in the older Latin Version used by St. Ambrose, there are four books of Esdras, the first and second answering respectively to the Anglican books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Esdras iii. and iv. are counted apocryphal, but are quoted as canonical by St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and the third Council of Carthage. not only to that one woman, who is figured there, but to each, since it seems to be said to the Church.

65. To me, then, does this message come, and Holy Scripture says: “Dost thou teach this, is it thus that thou instructest the people of God? Knowest thou not that thy example is a danger to others? save that perchance thou complainest that thy prayer is not heard. First of all this is shameless arrogance, to desire to obtain for thyself what thou knowest to have been denied to many, even saints, when thou art aware that God is no respecter of persons?”28    Acts x. 34. For although God is merciful, yet if He always heard all, He would appear to act no longer of His own free will, but by a kind of necessity. Then, since all ask, if He were to hear all, no one would die. For how much dost thou daily pray? Is, then, God’s appointment to be made void in consideration of thee? Why, then, dost thou lament that is sometimes not obtained, which thou knowest cannot always be obtained?

66. “Thou fool,” it says, “above all women, seest thou not our mourning, and what hath happened to us, how that Sion our mother is saddened with all sadness, and humbled with humbling. Mourn now also very sore, since we all mourn, and be sad since we all are sad, and thou art grieved for a brother. Ask the earth and she shall tell thee that it is she which ought to mourn, outliving so many that grow upon her. And out of her,” it says, “were all born in the beginning, and out of her shall others come, and, behold, they walk almost all into destruction, and a multitude of them is utterly rooted out. Who, then, ought to make more mourning than she that hath lost so great a multitude, and not thou, which art sorry but for one?”29    2 [4] Esdr. x. 6–11.

67. Let, then, the common mourning swallow up ours and cut off the bitterness of our private sorrow. For we ought not to grieve for those whom we see to be set free, and we bear in mind that so many holy souls are not without a purpose at this time loosed from the chains of the body. For we see, as if by God’s decree, such reverend widows dying so closely at one time, that it seems to be a sort of setting out on a journey, not a sinking in death, lest their chastity in which they have served God their full time should be exposed to peril. What groans, what mourning, does so bitter a recollection stir up in me! And if I had no leisure for mourning, yet in my own personal grief, in the loss of the very flower of so much merit, the common lot of nature consoled me; and my grief in consideration of one alone veiled the bitterness of the public funeral by the show of piety at home.

68. I seek again, then, O sacred Scripture, thy consolations, for it delights me to dwell on thy precepts and on thy sentences. How far more easy is it for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one tittle of the law to fail! But let us now listen to what is written: “Now,” it says, “keep thy sorrow to thyself, and bear with a good courage the things which have befallen thee. For if thou shalt acknowledge the determination of God to be just, thou shalt both receive thy son in time, and shalt be praised among women.”30    2 [4] Esdr. x. 15, 16. If this is said to a woman, how much more to a priest! If such words are said of a son it is certainly not unfitting that they should be uttered also concerning the loss of a brother; though if he had been my son I could never have loved him more. For as in the death of children, the lost labour and the pain borne to no purpose seem to increase the sorrow; so, too, in the case of brothers the habits of intercourse and joint occupations inflame the bitterness of grief.

69. But, lo! I hear the Scripture saying: “Do not continue this discourse, but allow thyself to be persuaded. For how great are the misfortunes of Sion! Be comforted in regard of the sorrow of Jerusalem. For thou seest that our holy places are polluted and the name that was called upon us is almost profaned, they that are ours have suffered shame, our priests are burnt, our Levites gone into captivity, our wives are polluted, our virgins suffer violence, our righteous men are carried away, our little ones given up, our young men brought in bondage, and our strong men become weak. And, which is the greatest of all, the seal of Sion hast lost her glory, since now she is delivered into the hands of them that hate us. Do thou, then, shake off thy great heaviness, and put from thee the multitude of sorrows, that the Mighty may be merciful to thee again, and the Highest shall give thee rest by easing thy labours.”31    2 [4] Esdr. x. 20–24.

70. So, then, my tears shall cease, for one must yield to healthful remedies, since there ought to be some difference between believers and unbelievers. Let them, therefore, weep who cannot have the hope of the resurrection, of which not the sentence of God but the strictness of the faith deprives them. Let there be this difference between the servants of Christ and the worshippers of idols, that the latter weep for their friends, whom they suppose to have perished for ever; that they should never cease from tears, and gain no rest from sorrow, who think that the dead have no rest. But from us, for whom death is the end not of our nature but of this life only, since our nature itself is restored to a better state, let the advent of death wipe away all tears.

61. Unde non immerito quantus fuerit, hodie quoque per vocem lectoris parvuli, Spiritus sanctus 1309D expressit: Innocens manibus, et mundo corde, qui non accepit in vanum animam suam, nec fecit proximo 1310A suo dolum: haec est generatio requirentium Deum (Psal. XXIII, 4, 6). Hic ergo et in montem Domini ascendet, et in tabernaculo habitabit Dei; quia ingressus sine macula, operatus est justitiam, locutus est veritatem, non decepit proximum (Psal. XIV, 2, 3): nec pecuniam feneratus est suam, qui semper voluit recuperare haereditariam. Agnosco oraculum; quod enim nulla ordinavit dispositio, Spiritus revelavit.

62. Quid vero illud recenseam, quod supra ipsam justitiam pietate progressus; cum quaedam incubatori communium fructuum mei contemplatione muneris putasset esse tribuenda, largitatis me jactabat auctorem, portionis suae lucrum ad commune consortium conferebat.

1310B 63. Haec et alia, quae mihi tunc erant voluptati, maxime nunc recordationem doloris exasperant. Manent tamen, eruntque semper, nec umquam velut umbra praetereunt, neque enim virtutis gratia cum corpore occidit, nec idem naturae meritorumque finis; licet ipsius naturae usus non in aeternum occidat, sed temporali quadam vacatione requiescat.

64. Talibus igitur perfunctum virtutibus, ereptum periculis desiderio magis quam amissione flebo. Suadet enim ipsa opportunitas mortis, ut prosequendum magis gratia, quam dolendum 1131 putemus; scriptum est enim in communi dolore proprium vacare debere (IV Esdr. X, 11 et seq.). Neque enim prophetico sermone uni illi mulieri, quae figuratur, sed singulis dicitur, cum Ecclesiae dictum 1310C videtur.

65. Dicitur ergo et ad me, et dicit Scriptura coelestis: Hoccine doces, sic instituis Dei plebem? An nescis quia exemplum tuum periculum caeterorum est? Nisi forte exauditum non esse te quereris. Primum istud arrogantis est impudentiae, mereri solum velle, quod multis etiam sanctis negatum noveris; cum scias, quia non est personarum acceptor Deus (Act. X, 34). Nam etsi misericors Deus, tamen si semper exaudiret omnes, non jam ex voluntate libera, sed ex quadam velut necessitate facere videretur; Deinde cum omnes rogent, si exaudiret omnes, nemo moreretur. Pro quantis ergo quotidie rogas! Numquid constitutio Dei contemplatione solvenda est tui? Cur ergo non impetratum aliquando 1310D doles, quod non semper impetrabile esse cognoscis?

1311A 66. Stulte, inquit, super omnes mulieres, nonne vides luctum nostrum, et quae nobis contigerunt, quoniam Sion mater nostra omnium tristitia contristatur, et humilitate humiliata est. Lugete validissime et nunc, quoniam omnes lugemus; et tristes sitis, quoniam omnes contristati sumus: tu enim contristaris in fratre. Interroga terram et dicet tibi, quoniam haec est quae debeat lugere, tantorum superstes germinum: et ex ipsa, inquit, ab initio omnes nati, et alii venient, et ecce pene omnes in perditionem ambulant, et in exterminium fit multitudo eorum. Et quis ergo debet lugere magis, nisi quae tam magnam multitudinem perdidit, quam tu qui pro uno doles (IV Reg. X, 6 et seq.)?

67. Absorbeat igitur nostrum dolorem communis dolor, et acerbitatem proprii moeroris excludat. 1311B Non enim dolere debemus eos, quos cernimus liberatos; neque enim otiose tam sanctas hoc tempore animas corporeis vinculis reminiscimur absolutas. Namque velut divino judicio tam graves viduas, ita uno tempore defunctas videmus, ut profectionis quidam videatur excessus, non mortis occasus; ne veterana emeritis stipendiis pudicitia in dubium diu servati pudoris incideret. Quos gemitus mihi, quos dolores tam acerba excitat recordatio! Et si moeroribus non vacabam; tamen in ipso dolore privato, in ipso tantorum amisso flore meritorum, communis quaedam naturae me conditio solabatur: defixusque in uno dolor acerbitatem publici funeris, domesticae specie pietatis obduxerat.

68. Repeto ergo, sacra Scriptura, solatia tua; juvat 1311C enim tuis praeceptis, tuis sententiis immorari. Quam facilius est coelum et terram praeterire, quam de Lege unum apicem cadere (Luc. XVI, 17)! Sed jam audiamus quae scripta sunt: Nunc, inquit, retine apud temet ipsam dolorem tuum, et 1132 fortiter fer, qui tibi contigerunt, casus. Si enim justificaveris terminum Dei, et filium tuum recipies in tempore, et in mulieribus collaudaberis (IV Esdr. X, 15, 16). Si hoc ad mulierem, quanto magis ad sacerdotem? Si de filio, non utique absurdum etiam de fratrum amissione talia posse memorari; quamquam si mihi fuisset filius, numquam eum amplius dilexissem. Nam sicut in obitu liberorum effusi labores, suscepti frustra dolores moerorem videntur augere; ita etiam in fratribus consuetudinis usus atque collegii acerbitatem 1311D doloris accendunt.

69. Sed ecce dicentem Scripturam audio: Noli facere hunc sermonem, sed consenti persuaderi. Qui enim casus Sion? Consolare propter dolorem Hierusalem. Vides enim quia sancta nostra contaminata sunt, et 1312A nomen quod nominatum est super nos, pene profanatum est, et illi nostri contumeliam passi sunt, et sacerdotes nostri succensi sunt, et levitae nostri in captivitate fuerunt, et mulieres nostrae contaminatae sunt, et virgines nostrae vim passae, et justi nostri rapti, et parvuli nostri proditi sunt, et juvenes nostri servierunt, et fortes nostri invalilidi facti sunt. Et quod omnium majus, signaculum Sion quoniam resignata est de gloria sua, nunc et tradita est in manibus eorum, qui nos oderunt. Tu ergo excute tuam multam tristitiam, et depone abs te multitudinem dolorum; ut tibi repropitietur fortis, et requiem faciat tibi Altissimus requietione dolorum (Ibid., 20 et seq.).

70. Cessabunt igitur lacrymae, parendum est enim remediis salutaribus, quia debet aliquid inter fidos et perfidos interesse. Fleant ergo qui spem resurrectionis 1312B habere non possunt, quam non sententia Dei eripit, sed fidei inclementia. Intersit inter Christi servulos, idolorumque cultores; ut illi fleant suos, quos in perpetuum existimant interiisse: illi nullas habeant lacrymarum ferias, nullam tristitiae requiem consequantur, qui nullam putant requiem mortuorum. Nobis vero quibus mors non naturae, sed vitae istius finis est; quoniam in melius ipsa natura reparatur, fletus omnes casus mortis abstergat.