LETTER LXXI. 

S. Ambrose in this letter continues the subject of the last, and, having described in that the steps by which the fallen soul recovers herself, here considers how the faithful soul is taken in charge, taught and conducted to perfection by Christ: and shews that the stages in the progress of such a soul are typified by the journies of Christ.

AMBROSE TO HORONTIANUS.

1. In my last letter I spoke of the soul that has made in its progress certain devious circuits, wavering, as Israel according to the flesh did of old, to and fro. For Israel herself also, when  the fulness of the Gentiles shall be come in, shall be delivered by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: the Gentile soul meanwhile, whose transgression has been lighter, having by her conversion worked her own recovery. In my present letter I will treat of the daughter of the Church; and consider how the Lord Jesus first took her under His care, taught her, and, in His Gospel, led her on to perfection.

2. Now it was as she lay in misery and confusion that He first took her under His care,----for how else but miserably can that soul live, which is exiled from Paradise?----and brought her to Bethlehem. The progress then, of this soul is at once signified in that it goes up to the "house of bread  08-1  1. a Bethlehem. ," where it can know no death or barrenness of faith. Observe, I am now speaking of souls in general, those souls by which we live and move, not of any soul in particular; for it is not of the individual or species, but of souls in general that I purpose to discourse.

3. Christ went down into Egypt, as Protector and Guide of our soul, from thence He returned into Judaea. He was in the wilderness, in Capernaum; near the borders of Zabulon; by the sea coast; He passed through the corn fields; He was in Bethphage; in Ephraim; in Bethany; then He passed over into the garden, where He gave Himself up; on Calvary, where He suffered.

4. All these are the progresses of our soul, and exercised thereby she receives the graces of a holy life  08-2  2. 1 institutis.  . For the human race, when excluded from Paradise in Adam and Eve, and banished to the village  08-3  3. 2 castellum. , began to roam up and down and to wander about with careless steps: but in His own good time the Lord Jesus  emptied Himself that He might receive this exile into himself, and re-form her again to her previous state of grace. And thus, when found, she retraced, as the Gospel lesson teaches us, her devious course of error, and was recalled to Paradise.

5. He led her through the cornfields that He might satisfy her hunger, first in the desert, then to Capernaum, making her abode to be not in the city but in the field: next He brought her to the borders of Zabulon, near unto the floods of night, that is, the darker riddles of the prophets; that she might learn thereby to reach to the borders of the Gentiles, that common centre, and not to fear the storms and billows of this world. Why should she, seeing that Christ has ships of Tarshish, mystical ships I mean, which traverse the sea, and bring pious offerings for the building of the Temple? In such ships as these Christ sails, and like a good pilot rests in the stern while the sea is calm; when it is disturbed He awakes, and rebukes the winds, that He may anew shew peace on His disciples. Furthermore, by passing over to the Gentiles, He delivers the soul which was bound by the chains of the Law, that she may not pass over and keep company with the heathen.

6. He came to Bethany to the "place of obedience;" therefore was the dead there raised; for when the flesh is subdued to the spirit, human nature no longer lies as if dead in the tomb, but is raised again by the grace of Christ; there also she professes to offer herself to 'suffering'  08-4  4. b [Hebrew] signifying affliction; [Hebrew] one humbled by affliction and so, it was inferred, brought to obedience. for the Name of God. From the place of obedience, as John tells us, He is led to Ephraim, that is, to the "fecundity of good fruits." Hence He returns to Bethany, that is, to "obedience;" for she who has once tasted the fruit of holy obedience is for the most part ready to preserve it and to be proved thereby.

7. And now, having been proved, she comes to Jerusalem, being made worthy to become the temple of God wherein Christ may dwell. Here it is that the Lord Jesus, sitting upon the foal of an ass, is received with the joy and congratulation of the age of innocence.

8. Afterwards are taught in the garden the words of eternal life; in that place where the Lord permitted Himself to be taken, as John the Evangelist writes, signifying that our soul, or rather human nature, released from the bonds of error, is restored by Christ to that abode from whence in Adam she was cast. "Wherefore to the thief who confessed Him it is said,  Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise. The thief had said,  Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. Christ answered not concerning His kingdom, but yet to the purpose,  To-day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise, that is, What has been lost must first be restored, then the increase bestowed; that thus the progress may be through Paradise to the kingdom, not through the kingdom to Paradise.

9. For the disciples it is reserved that they may receive an ample reward for their labours; and therefore to the thief He promised a sojourn, but deferred the kingdom. So that to him who is converted under the stroke of death, and confesses the Lord Jesus, to him let an abode in Paradise be vouchsafed, but for him who has undergone long travail, who has fought for Christ, who has won over souls and offered himself for Christ, for his wages let the kingdom of God be prepared; and let him rejoice in the fruition of this reward. To Peter it is said,  I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and thus, while the convert from robbery obtains rest, on him who has been proved in the Apostolate authority is bestowed.

10. This is the Evangelical soul, the soul of the Gentiles, the daughter of the Church, far better than the soul cast out of Judaea; raising herself from her earthly course to the Lord Jesus and to higher things by good counsels and works; received by Christ upon Golgotha. Upon Golgotha was the sepulchre of Adam; that Christ by His Cross might raise him from death. Thus where in Adam was the death of all, there in Christ was the resurrection of all.

Farewell, my son; love me, for I also love you.

EPISTOLA LXXI.

 Post varios gradus, queis anima lapsa sese reparat, supra descriptos, hic animae fidelis a Christo susceptio, eruditio et consummatio considerantur; ostenditurque in Christi itineribus diversos ejusdem animae progressus designari. 

AMBROSIUS HORONTIANO.

 1241B 1. Superiore epistola de ea anima sermonem contulimus, quae itineris sui devios aliquos habuerit anfractus, ut vetus Israel secundum carnem fluctuans; quia et ipse liberabitur per Domini nostri Jesu Christi gratiam,  cum intraverit plenitudo gentium (Rom. XI, 25): licet ista leviore 1069 errore conversione sese reformaverit. Hac vero epistola de Ecclesiae filia nobis sermo sit, quam Dominus Jesus quemadmodum primo susceperit, erudierit, consummaverit in suo Evangelio, consideremus.

2. Suscepit itaque eam primo tuendam in confusione positam; exsul enim paradisi (Gen. III, 23) ubi nisi in confusione degeret anima uniuscujusque hominis? deduxitque eam in Bethleem (Matth. II, 1). Jam profectus susceptae animae significatur, quod  1241C ascendit ad domum panis, in qua famem fidei et sterilitatem nesciat. De nostrarum animarum genere et ordine loquor, quibus nos vivimus et movemur, non de aliqua specialiter; non enim de proprietate et specie alicujus, sed de genere, ut dixi, animarum disputandum putamus.

3. Descendit in Aegyptum Christus (Ibid., 14), patrocinium et ductum nostrae animae ferens, inde rediit in Judaeam. Fuit in deserto (Matth. IV, 1), fuit in Capharnaum, fuit juxta fines Zabulon, circa maritima, transivit per sata, fuit in Bethphage, fuit in Ephraem, in Bethania; inde transivit in paradisum, ubi se capiendum dedit, passus est in Golgotha.

4. Omnes isti processus animae nostrae sunt, per quos exercitata gratiam piae institutionis invenit.  1241D Nam posteaquam exclusa de paradiso conditio humana in Adam et Eva, in castellum relegata est, vagari coepit huc atque illuc, errabunda circumferens vestigia sine ullo delectu: sed tempore complacito sibi exinanivit se Dominus Jesus, ut exsulem in  1242A se susciperet, et veteri reformaret gratiae. Itaque inventam recurso anfractu erroris revocavit ad paradisum, ut Evangelii docet lectio.

5. Per sata eam duxit, ut jejunam pasceret, primum in deserto, deinde in Capharnaum, agri non urbis incolatu: deinde juxta fines Zabulon, circa nocturna profluvia, id est, prophetarum obscuriora aenigmata; ut disceret praetendere ad fines gentium, quo omnes convenirent, nec timeret fluctus vitae hujus et procellas; quia habet Christus naves Tharsis (III Reg. X, 22), intelligibiles scilicet, quae percurrant mare, et ad templi constructionem pias merces advehant. In hujusmodi navibus navigat Christus, et in puppi tamquam bonus gubernator tranquillo quiescit mari: commoto excitatur, et increpat  1242B ventos, ut suis tranquillitatem refundat (Matth. VIII, 26). Transiens quoque ad gentes, hanc animam liberat, quae Legis vinculis tenebatur; ne transiret ad nationum consortia.

6. Venit in Bethaniam, in locum obeditionis, 1070 ideo ibi mortuus suscitatur: cum enim caro subdita fuerit animae, tunc jam non quasi mortua jacet in sepulcro suo conditio humana, sed resuscitatur per gratiam Christi: ibi etiam se pro Dei nomine passioni discit offerre (Joan. XI, 17 et seq.). De loco obeditionis, ut Joannes docet (Joan. XII, 1), in Ephraem ducitur, id est, ad bonorum fructuum fecunditatem: inde in Bethaniam reducitur, id est, obedientiam; semel enim quae piae subjectionis fructum gustaverit, servare eam, et in ea probari saepius  1242C nequaquam recusat.

7. Unde jam probata Hierosolymam venit, digna quae sit in templum Dei, in qua Christus habitaret. Denique sedens super pullum asinae Dominus Jesus cum gratulatione et gaudio innocentis suscipitur aetatis (Ibid., 14).

8. Postea in paradiso verba vitae aeternae docentur; unde etiam Dominus se permisit capi, sicut Joannes scribit evangelista (Joan. XVIII, 8), significans animam nostram, vel potius conditionem humanam, solutis erroris vinculis, eo unde ejecta erat in Adam, per Christum regressam. Unde et latroni illi confitenti dicitur:  Amen, amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Luc. XXIII, 42, 43). Ille dixerat:  Memento mei, cum veneris in regnum tuum; Christus  1242D non de regno respondit, sed ad causam:  Hodie mecum eris in paradiso, id est, reformandum est ante quod amissum est, postea conferendum id quod augendum est, ut per paradisum ad regnum perveniatur, non per regnum ad paradisum.

 1243A 9. Servatur discipulis, quod plus conferatur pro laboribus, ideoque incolatum promisit, regnum distulit. Itaque is qui sub ictu mortis convertitur, et confitetur Dominum Jesum, mereatur incolatum paradisi: qui vero multo ante se exercuit, et Christo militavit, acquisivit populorum animas, pro Christo se obtulit, habeat paratum stipendiis suis Dei regnum, cujus se remuneratione donatum gaudeat. Ideoque Petro dicitur:  Tibi dabo claves regni coelorum (Matth. XVI, 19). Ex latrocinio conversus requiem habet, in apostolatu probatus accepit potestatem.

10. Haec est anima Evangelica, haec est de gentibus, haec filia Ecclesiae, longe melior e cursu, quam illa ex Judaea projecta, ad Dominum Jesum, et ad  1243B superiora se bonis consiliis et operibus attollens, quam suscepit in Golgotha Christus. Ibi Adae sepulcrum; ut illum mortuum in sua cruce resuscitaret. Ubi ergo in Adam mors omnium, ibi in Christo omnium resurrectio. Vale, fili, et nos dilige; quia nos te diligimus.