LETTER XXXIX. [A.D.387.]

S. Ambrose in this Letter seeks to rouse Faustinus from excessive grief for his sister's death, first on the ground of duty towards the children left to his care and protection, and then on the higher ground of submission to the Divine will, and realization of Christian hopes.

AMBROSE TO FAUSTINUS, GREETING.

1. I was well aware that you would grieve with bitter grief for the death of your sister: still you should not go into banishment, but rather give yourself back to us, for although mourners are little inclined to receive consolation, it is sometimes necessary for them. But you have fled to the recesses of the mountains, and made your dwelling in the caves of wild beasts, laying aside all customary human converse and, what is worse, the use of your own reason.

2. Is it in accordance with your esteem for your sister, that human nature, which ought to be much regarded by you for producing a woman so excellent, should on her account be of less value in your eyes? In quitting this life it doubtless was a consolation to her to believe that she left you behind her as a parent to your nephews, a guardian of their tender years, a succour to their destitution; but you so utterly withhold yourself both from your nephews and from us, that we do not reap any benefit from what she thus found a ground of consolation. These dear pledges invite you not to grieve, but to comfort them, that in seeing you they may believe their mother to be still alive. In you then let them recognize her, in you let them enjoy her presence, in you think that she still survives to them.

3. But you grieve that she has been lately cut off in the flower of her age. This however is the common fate not only of men, but of states and countries themselves. Coming from Bononia  04-26  26. a S. Ambrose is here imitating the consolation ottered by Ser. Sulpicius to Cicero on the death of his daughter. See Up. ad Div. iv, 5, 4. you left behind you Claterna, Bononia itself, Matina, Rhegium; Brixillum was on your right, in front of you Placentia, by its very name still recalling its ancient lustre, on the left you saw with pity the wastes of the Apennines, you surveyed the fortresses of these once flourishing tribes, and remembered them with sorrowful affection. Do not then the carcases of so many half-ruined cities, and states stretched on their bier beneath your eyes, do not these remind you that the decease of one woman, holy and excellent as she was, is much less deplorable, especially as these are for ever laid prostrate and destroyed, but she though removed from us for a while is passing a more blessed life elsewhere?

4. Wherefore I deem that you ought not so much to deplore her, as to offer for her your prayers; make her not sorrowful by your tears, rather commend her soul to God by oblations.

5. Perhaps however you will declare yourself to be secure of her merits and faith, you cannot endure the feeling of regret at seeing her no longer after the flesh, which is to you a better grief. And does not the Apostolic saying move you that  henceforth we know no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.  For our flesh cannot be perpetual and lasting, it must needs die that it may rise again, it must be dissolved that it may rest, and sin come to an end. We too have known many according to the flesh, but now we know them no more.  We have known the Lord Jesus, says the Apostle,  after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. For now He has put off the coil of the body, and is not seen in fashion as a Man, but has died for all and all are dead in Him, to the intent that being renewed by Him and quickened in the Spirit they may no longer live to themselves but to Christ. Wherefore the same Apostle also says elsewhere,  I   live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. 

6. And well indeed was it that he who had before known Christ after the flesh, who had before persecuted and oppressed with bitter hatred the disciples of the Man, and the attendants on His bodily presence, but who now recognized His invisible workings, discerning not His bodily presence but His power,----well indeed was it that he became the teacher of the Gentiles, and began to instruct and prepare the worshippers of His Divinity to become preachers of the Gospel. Wherefore he added,  if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, that is, he that is perfect in Christ is a new creature, for all flesh is imperfect. And the Lord saith,  My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh. No carnal man then is in Christ, but  if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, formed by newness not of nature but of grace. These  old things which are according to the flesh  have past away, all things are made new. And what are they but the things which  the scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven knows,  like unto that householder, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old; neither old things without new, nor new things without old? Thus too the Church saith,  things new and old have I laid up for Thee. For old things, that is, the hidden mysteries of the Law are passed away, all things are made new in Christ.

7. This is the new creature of which the Apostle writing to the Galatians saith,  For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision, but a new creature, already our flesh now renewed flourishes, and having before borne the thorns of inveterate sin hath now found the fruit of grace. Why then need we grieve, if we can now say to the soul,  thy youth is renewed like the eagles? And why should we bewail the dead, now that by our Lord Jesus  the world has been reconciled to the Father? Since then we hold the benefits which Christ hath given, we are to you as well as to all ambassadors in Christ's stead, that you may know His Gift to be irrevocable, that you may believe what you always have believed, and not bring your opinion into discredit by too much sorrow. For the Lord Jesus was made sin that He might  take away the sin of the world, and we all might be  made the righteousness of God in Him; now no longer subject to the penalty of sin, but sure of the reward of righteousness.

Farewell; love me, for I love you.

944 EPISTOLA XXXIX.

 1098D  Faustinum propter sororis mortem hominum consortium  1099A  fugientem arguit, hoc ipsi sorori injurium, ac interitum non hominibus solum, sed et civitatibus communem esse monens. Nihil ergo illi jam deberi nisi preces; vetare siquidem Apostolum, ne quem secundum carnem jam cognoscamus, at novam creaturam. Quaenam illa sit, et quomodo illum solari Ambrosius ipse teneatur, expenditur. 

AMBROSIUS FAUSTINO salutem.

1. Acerbo te doliturum dolore obitum germanae tuae non ignorabam; non tamen ut a nobis te ablegares, sed ut nobis te redderes: nam et si minus jucunda solatia moerentibus, tamen nonnumquam necessaria sunt. Tu autem abiisti in secreta montium, et inter ferarum diversaris spelaea, omni humanae conversationis usu abdicato, et quod gravius  1099B est, judicio tuo.

2. Tantumne de te commeruit germana tua, ut propter quam excellere apud te debuit conditio humana, quae tam egregiam feminam tulit, propter eam apud te minoris praerogativae sit? Illa certe vita excedens, hoc se mulcebat solatio, quod te sibi superstitem derelinqueret, parentem nepotibus, praesulem parvulis, auxiliatorem destitutis: tu ita te et nepotibus et nobis abnegas, ut consolationis illius fructum non sentiamus. Illa te chara pignora vocant non ad dolendum, sed ad consolandum; ut cum te vident, matrem sibi non credant obiisse: in te eam recognoscant, in te ejus praesentiam teneant, in te vitam ejus sibi manere arbitrentur.

3. Sed doles quod dudum florentissima repente  1099C occiderit. Verum hoc nobis commune non solum cum hominibus, sed etiam cum civitatibus, terrisque ipsis est. Nempe de Bononiensi veniens urbe a tergo Claternam, ipsam Bononiam, Mutinam, Rhegium derelinquebas, in dextera erat Brixillum, a fronte occurrebat Placentia, veterem nobilitatem ipso adhuc nomine sonans, ad laevam Apennini inculta miseratus, et florentissimorum quondam populorum castella considerabas, atque affectu relegebas dolenti. Tot igitur semirutarum urbium cadavera, terrarumque sub eodem conspectu exposita funera non te admonent unius, sanctae licet et admirabilis feminae, decessionem consolabiliorem habendam; praesertim cum illa in perpetuum prostrata ac diruta sint: haec autem ad tempus quidem erepta nobis,  1099D meliorem illic vitam exigat?

4. Itaque non tam deplorandam, quam prosequendam orationibus reor: nec moestificandam lacrymis tuis, sed magis oblationibus 945 animam ejus Domino commendandam arbitror.

 1100A 5. Verum forte asseras securum te de meritis ejus ac fide; nequire tamen ferre desiderium, quod eam jam non videas secundum carnem, idque tibi summo dolori sit. Nec illud te movet Apostolicum, quod ait:  Quia neminem novimus ex hoc secundum carnem. Et si cognovimus secundum carnem Christum, sed nunc jam non novimus (II Cor. V, 16)? Caro enim nostra perpetua esse ac diuturna non potest; necesse est occidat, ut resurgat: necesse est resolvatur, ut requiescat, ut fiat quidam finis peccati. Et ideo multos cognovimus secundum carnem, sed nunc jam non novimus. Ipsum Dominum Jesum cognovimus, inquit Apostolus, secundum carnem:  sed nunc jam non novimus. Jam enim carnis deposuerat exuvias, jam specie hominis non videbatur, jam  1100B pro omnibus mortuus erat, et omnes in illo mortui; sed ut per ipsum renovati, et vivificati spiritu, jam non sibi, sed Christo vivant. Unde et alibi ait idem Apostolus:  Vivo autem jam non ego, vivit autem in me Christus (Gal. II, 20).

6. Meritoque qui ante cognoverat secundum carnem Christum, jam operationes ejus invisibiliter agnoscens, jam non carnem ejus, sed potentiam scrutans, qui ante persecutor discipulos hominis, et pedissequos carnis infestis odiis urgebat, postea doctor gentium factus, veneratores majestatis ejus ad praedicationem Evangelii instruere atque informare coeperat. Et ideo addidit:  Si quis in Christo nova creatura (II Cor. V, 17), id est, qui perfectus in Christo, nova creatura est; quoniam qui caro est,  1100C imperfectus est. Denique ipse Dominus ait:  Non permanebit spiritus meus in istis hominibus, quoniam carnes sunt (Gen. VI, 3). Carnalis itaque non est in Christo: sed si quis in Christo est; nova creatura est, non naturae novitate formatus, sed gratiae. Vetera itaque quae secundum carnem erant, transierunt: facta sunt nova omnia. Quae illa, nisi quae Scriba doctus in regno coelorum novit (Matth. XIII, 52), similis illius patrisfamilias, qui profert de thesauro suo nova et vetera, neque vetera sine novis, neque nova sine veteribus? Ideo et Ecclesia dicit, quia  nova et vetera servavi tibi (Cant. VII, 13). Sed transierunt vetera, id est, Legis mysteria abscondita, in Christo facta sunt omnia nova.

7. Haec est nova creatura, de qua Apostolus ad  1100D Galatas ait:  In Christo enim Jesu neque circumcisio aliquid valet, neque praeputium: sed nova creatura, per quam jam renovata caro floret, et fructum invenit gratiae, quae ante inveterati flagitii spinas habebat  (Gal. V, 6). Quid ergo est quod moereamus, si jam ad animam  1101A dicitur:  Renovabitur sicut aquilae juventus tua (Psal. CII, 5)? Quid est quod ingemiscamus pro mortuis, cum jam reconciliatio mundi apud Deum Patrem facta sit per Dominum Jesum (II Cor. V, 18)?

8. Quoniam ergo Christi beneficia tenemus, 946 cum apud omnes, tum apud te pro Christo legatione fungimur (Ibid., 20); ut noveris irrevocabilia ejus esse dona, ut credas, quod semper credidisti: nec nimio moerore tuam in dubium adducas sententiam; quia ideo peccatum factus est Dominus Jesus, ut tolleret peccatum mundi (Joan. I, 29); et essemus in illo omnes justitia Dei (II Cor. V, 21): jam non culpae obnoxii, sed justitiae remuneratione securi. Vale et nos dilige; quia nos te diligimus.