Anti-Arian Works 6 part 2/24

Wherefore Paul teaches these two kinds of sorrow to be distinct no less in their working than in their recompense. Indeed, he shows the outcome of salvation to be set in the one, the destruction of death in the other, saying: «For the sorrow that is according to God worketh penance unto stable salvation; but the sorrow of the world worketh death» (2 Cor. 7:10). Therefore, do not, beyond the measure of Christian faith, hold an indiscreet sorrow over your husband's death; nor think him lost, but sent on before; nor think his youth prematurely cut off, which you see established in unending eternity. For to the faithful soul it is said: «Thy youth shall be renewed like the eagle's» (Ps. 102:5). CHAPTER III. — The dark day does not carry off the faithful.

The day of Christ's greatness is the day of the last judgement. — But far be it that, consenting to the errors of the unbelieving, we should reckon or say that «the dark day carried off» that young Christian «and plunged him in bitter death» (Virgil, Aeneid VI, 429). For the dark day carries off those who, according to the saying of the apostle John, «are in darkness, and walk in darkness, and know not whither they go, because the darkness hath blinded their eyes» (1 John 2:11). The dark day carried off those whom the true Light itself, vehemently rebuking, says: «And this is the judgement, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil» (John 3:19).

Such are they who so live that, when they have heard the voice of the Son of God, they are raised up not to life but to judgement, as the Lord says: «For the hour cometh, when all that are in the graves shall hear his voice; and they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life, but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgement» (John 5:28-29). And because to these a short life can profit no more than a long one, consequently it is said of such in the book of Wisdom: «And if indeed they be of long life, they shall be nothing regarded, and their last old age shall be without honour. And if they die quickly, they shall have no hope, nor speech of comfort in the day of decision» (Wis. 3:17-18).

But what is the day of greatness, if not the day on which the Lord shall come, not to be judged, but to judge? For now, when He came to be judged for us, it was not a day of greatness, but of diminishment, in which «He was made a little lower than the angels»; but then will be the day of greatness, when, according to John's attestation, all the wicked will desire to hide themselves in the caverns of the mountains, saying to the mountains and to the rocks: «Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of the Father sitting upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?» (Rev. 6:16-17). On this day of greatness the wicked shall have no address of comfort, but rebuke; for they shall not hear:

«Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world» (Matt. 25:34); but it shall be said to them: «Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels» (Matt. 25:41). Such persons, therefore, however long-lived they may die, are plunged in bitter death; and although their age may seem mature in body, yet a deadly love of the world retains in the heart the bitterness of an immature mind. CHAPTER IV. — A good Christian, even if young, is not plunged in bitter death. Not a long life profits, but a good one.

But a Christian who has lived in the fear of God, at whatever age of the body he may have died, is not plunged in bitter death, but is transferred, upheld by a maturity pleasing to God. For we read in the same book of Wisdom: «For venerable old age is not that of long time, nor counted by the number of years: but the understanding of a man is grey hairs, and a spotless life is old age; which, made pleasing to God, was beloved» (Wis. 4:8-9). And in what follows, it says that a certain man who lived well and was pleasing to God was for this reason quickly taken away, lest he should suffer any change of worldly malice, nor his soul be deceived by any feigning. Thus, therefore, it is said:

«He was taken away, lest malice should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul: for the bewitching of vanity obscureth good things, and the wandering of concupiscence perverteth the mind that is without malice; being made perfect in a short space, he fulfilled a long time. For his soul pleased God: therefore he hastened to take him away from the midst of iniquity» (Wis. 4:11-14). By these words, indeed, holy Scripture teaches us that in this world it is not a long life that profits faithful Christians, but a good one; and that, to know, as far as is possible, the merit of any deceased person, we must look not at how long, but at how well, each one has lived.

For just as an evil life, the longer it is prolonged in time, so much the more multiplies the punishment for offenders, so a good life, though here terminated in a short time, acquires for those who live well a great and everlasting glory. An evil life, therefore, plunges into hell old men immature and bitter; but a good life leads the deceased young, mature, to the kingdom. CHAPTER V. — A widow ought to be careful to be holy both in body and in spirit. The marriages of Christians are holy. — Do not therefore be sad that he has preceded you by a few days, but be careful, and so pass through the way of this mortal life that you may be able to attain to eternal life.

Accordingly, it behoves you unceasingly to remember the apostolic word, in which he says: «The unmarried woman and the virgin is careful for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit» (1 Cor. 7:34). By «unmarried» he here means a widow — not one who has never married at all, but one who, her husband being dead, has been loosed from the nuptial bond. Of whom he says in another place: «But if her husband die, she is loosed from the law of her husband» (Rom. 7:2). Her, therefore, he commands to be holy both in body and in spirit. But what else is it to be holy in body and in spirit, than to keep what is holy both in deed and in thought? For she is permitted to think on the things of the world who is held bound in bodily bond to a marriage, the same apostle saying:

«But she that is married is careful for the things of the world, how she may please her husband» (1 Cor. 7:34). There, therefore, is the necessity of worldly thought to be undergone, where mortal flesh carnally weds one about to die. And because that very necessity of the flesh holds those bound by harder bonds, on this account the Apostle says of them: «But such shall have tribulation of the flesh» (ibid., 28). Therefore the unmarried woman, that is, the widow, who is commanded to be holy both in body and in spirit — as she ceases in body to serve a husband, so she ought not in heart to think carnal things. Indeed, the marriages of Christians are holy: because both conjugal chastity is guarded there in the body, and the purity of faith is preserved in the heart.

For apostolic authority also says: «Marriage honourable in all, and the bed undefiled» (Heb. 13:4). Marriage, then, is not from the pollution of sin, but from the institution of God: and in that spouses render to each other the debt of the flesh, in so far as they do it modestly, they keep the precepts of Christ, because they in no way depart from conjugal charity and chastity. But conjugal chastity abhors adulterous embraces, and, tenacious of honour and modesty, one wife seeks from one husband, and one husband from one wife, that which each knows he owes lawfully to one alone. There indeed the debt of the flesh is rendered to the husband: but conjugal chastity is owed more to Christ than to the husband;

because the body is then truly chaste — that body which is not polluted by carnal fornication — when spiritual integrity is preserved by the fear and love of Christ. CHAPTER VI. — Let the unmarried woman go in a higher grade than the married. Nevertheless, the unmarried woman and the virgin is distinguished from the married woman by no small dignity of grade, seeing that the married woman is held bound by worldly thoughts, whereas the unmarried woman and the virgin is not subject to carnal tribulations, because she is not held by the bond of carnal matrimony. There the liberty of bodily and spiritual continence is more assured, because there is no necessity arising from conjugal servitude. Both, therefore, are the gift of God — both conjugal chastity and widowed continence:

For each one has his own gift from God (1 Cor. 7:7); and that gift indeed, so far as it is in itself, is praiseworthy, because it is good; but this other is more praiseworthy, because it is better. For by the servitude of marriage the shamefulness of fornication is overcome; but by the liberty of widowhood the dignity of chastity increases. In the one case faith takes counsel for weakness, lest it fall into vice; in the other the faithful soul stretches itself out toward the increase of virtue. For concerning the married it is said: 'But because of fornication let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband' (1 Cor. 7:2). But concerning the widow it is said: 'Yet she will be more blessed if she so remains' (ibid., 40).

Blessed therefore is she who, out of horror at shamefulness, does not desire an unlawful embrace; but more blessed is she who, out of a greater love of purity, disdains even the lawful one. Blessed is she who, bound to a husband, so lives that she renders to her husband alone the debt of her flesh; but more blessed is she who, being loosed, so remains unwedded that she owes it to none. CHAPTER VII. Consolation of the widow. Accordingly, in that from a married woman you have been made a widow, consider that God's gift has rather been increased for you, not taken away: for He has not forsaken you, who has shown you the way of a better life to follow. The Lord willed you to ascend by steps to better things, so that first, as a married woman, you might live faithfully with one husband, in order that afterward, without difficulty, you might remain a widow without a husband.

To this end, therefore, divine grace nourished your soul in conjugal chastity, so that you who had learned, while that one husband lived, not to seek another, might learn as a widow to keep yourself from every man. Do not, then, neglect the grace that is in you: for you too know how much better it is to abstain from intercourse continually than even to have intercourse for conjugal necessity. The husband who had been given to you for a time departed in time: for he had been given to you not for the blessedness of the fatherland, but for the consolation of the journey. For there are certain gifts of God which God so bestows upon His faithful in the present time, that their use is held necessary in this life only, whereby the merit of the future life may be procured;

such as is the belief that holds right faith, and the working that guards justice and mercy: so that right faith may not be despised of the help of charity, which is recognized in working; on account of which the Apostle approves that faith which works through love (Gal. 5:6). CHAPTER VIII. Faith and merciful working are necessary in this life; in the fatherland they will not be. Right faith, therefore, and merciful working will cease after this life, when that shall be seen by sight which now, while believed, is not seen; nor among the blessed will there be anyone wretched, to whom mercy might be extended. Yet these two, that is, faith and working, are so unnecessary after the end of this life, that before its end they are by no means to be forsaken.

For whoever, before the end of the present life, departs from right faith or good working, even if he has previously run vigorously and watchfully in these, yet because he desists from the right road, he loses the merit of the whole journey that he has run. Again, there are other things which the divine goodness so bestows upon men in this time, that they ought not only to remain continually with men in this life, but also to increase in the divine recompense: such as is the cleansing of sins, the knowledge of truth, the love of God and neighbor. For if anyone perseveringly guards these in himself in this time, and by the divine gift takes care to increase by progress what he has begun, in the future he will have them abiding with him in eternal perfection.

For then perfect cleansing will receive the perfect knowledge of truth, and perfect knowledge will permit nothing of perfect charity to be lacking in us. CHAPTER IX. Some things are both given and taken away by God temporally. The example of Job. Dives and Lazarus, the one blessed, the other wretched. But there are yet other things which are so given by God temporally, that they are taken away temporally: such as is the joining of spouses, the begetting of children, abundance of riches, soundness of bodies, and whatever things are similar; which of themselves can make men neither wretched nor blessed. Therefore these are given by the Lord to both the good and the evil, and are sometimes divinely taken away from both the good and the evil.

Job was blessed when he lived justly in riches; but more blessed when in poverty he proved himself more just. He was blessed when he was surrounded by ten children, but more blessed when, struck by the bereavement of them all at once, he remained unmoved in the love of God. He was blessed also in the health of his body, but he was made more blessed in his wound. More blessed also on the dunghill full of filth than in a palace adorned with marble. Consider too these two, the one wretched in riches and health, the other much blessed in want and wounds. That rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day (Luke 16:19),

how empty he was amid those feasts, how poor amid the multitude of his riches, how naked amid the beauty of his garments, how sick amid the health of his body, how famished amid the fullness of his belly, how wretched amid his joys, how desolate amid the conversations of his friends, how cast down amid the attendances of his servants! Consider also Lazarus, rich in poverty, blessed in misery, happy in unhappiness, whole in his wounds, and indeed without a home, but not without a Lord; without clothing, but not without faith; without good health of body, but not without the strength of charity; without food, but not without Christ;

exposed to the dogs, yet a companion of the angels, who did not receive of the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, but with his inward bowels belched forth the heavenly bread. CHAPTER X. Temporal goods are held both well and ill, and are likewise despised. These, then, are the things which are sometimes held well, sometimes ill; sometimes well despised, sometimes ill. For they are held well when in their use the fear of God is kept; but they are well despised when in the contempt of them glory is sought from the most high God, not from men. Such also is marriage, which can both be well undertaken, and be well despised. How well did Susanna preserve the work of marriage in conjugal chastity!

How much better did Judith and Anna despise it in the continence of widowhood! How best did Mary not know it in the integrity of virginity! Marriage, therefore, is not to be reckoned among the chief gifts of God, although it is not denied to be a divine gift; nor is it to be called a gift of blessedness, since what can be held with a good purpose can also be despised with a better purpose. For if it ought to be reckoned among the chief gifts of God, they would not be praised by the mouth of our Savior who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 19:12); nor would the Savior Himself command that, for His sake, father, mother, brothers, sisters, wife, children, and fields be left, with the promise of a hundredfold recompense and eternal life, saying:

'Everyone who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or fields for My name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess eternal life' (Matt. 19:29). But in saying this, Christ did not command that divorce be made, but with just discernment He showed that God's gifts, temporal though they be, are nevertheless to be set after eternal ones by His faithful — the fleeting after the abiding, the small after the great. He does not condemn goods, but rather praises the better; He does not hate the former, but loves the latter more. For their attainment or their loss is not the recompense of faith, but its testing. CHAPTER XI. Faith ought to be intent not on temporal but on eternal things. Let the widow not be entangled with worldly cares.

The adornment and habit of widows. But our faith ought to be intent not on temporal, but on eternal things. On account of which the Vessel of Election, exhorting us to endure the present tribulation, commands that we turn away the gaze of our heart entirely from the contemplation of temporal things, saying: 'For that which in the present is momentary and light of our tribulation works in us beyond measure, in sublimity, an eternal weight of glory, while we contemplate not the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal' (2 Cor. 4:17-18). Walk, therefore, as it is written, 'from virtue to virtue' (Ps. 84:7),

and let your soul pass from the intention of temporal things to the contemplation of eternal ones, and passing from the virtue of conjugal modesty to the more excellent virtue of widowly continence, you ought to be endowed with no less continence of heart than of body; and after the death of your temporal husband all the remnants of worldly thought ought to be extinguished in your heart. For why should a Christian widow carry a soul bound by the chain of any worldly thought, she who, her husband being dead, ought to reckon the world as dead with him? Therefore, the cause of worldly thought having ceased, worldly thought itself also ought to cease;

and just as before you were bodily adorned for a husband who took delight in the beauty of the body, so now you are to be spiritually adorned for Christ, who seeks in you only the beauty of the mind. Consider what blessed Peter enjoins even upon married women, to whom he forbids the adornment of outward habit, speaking thus: 'Wives, be subject to your husbands, so that if any do not believe the word of God, they may be won without a word through the conversation of their wives, considering your chaste conversation in fear;'

in which let there be not the outward braiding of hair, or the putting on of gold, or the adornment in the wearing of garments, but that hidden man of the heart in the incorruptibility of a quiet and modest spirit, which is rich before God' (1 Pet. 3:1-4). This precept the blessed apostle confirmed by the example of holy women, saying: 'For thus also of old the holy women, who hoped in God, adorned themselves, being subject to their husbands' (ibid., 5). CHAPTER XII. Let holy women be adorned not with necklaces, but with morals. The office of a widow is to cleave to God and to persevere in prayers.

If, then, holy women, even married ones, are to be commended not for necklaces but for morals, and ought to be adorned more with humility than with dress, what ought to be the habit and bearing of a widow, who desires to please not a man for a husband, but Christ? who, being released from the necessity of bodily wedlock, ought to pursue only spiritual adornments? Let your habit, therefore, be such as does not excite to wantonness, but provokes to continence; which does not entice to lust, but restrains toward fear; which does not kindle the concupiscence of the flesh, but extinguishes it; which does not allure to intercourse, but rouses to progress; from which the compunction of the heart, not the lust of the flesh, is born;

whereby you may please the Son of God, whereby you may show yourself truly chaste to the gaze of the heavenly Bridegroom. For that Bridegroom wishes to see your flesh mortified, not glossy; He makes use of the marriage of the soul, not of the flesh, and delights in the beauty of the soul, not of the flesh. Wherefore, by the chastisement of the body acquire the beauty of the heart: let the flesh be covered with mean coverings, and let the soul be clothed with precious garments; nor do you seek to please the eyes of men, but not to offend the gaze of Christ. Let Him see in you what He loves, let Him find what He gave, let Him recognize that in which He delights. 'For the King has desired your beauty; but all the glory of the King's daughter is within' (Ps. 45:11-13). The time of embracing has passed; now is the time to be far from the embrace.

Let those cleave to husbands who are held bound by the conjugal bond: but to you it must be said with the prophet, 'But for me it is good to cleave to God, to put my hope in God' (Ps. 73:28). Whence the Apostle also says: 'But she who is truly a widow and desolate has hoped in the Lord, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day' (1 Tim. 5:5). Let prayer, therefore, be yours in frequent petition, and in holy thought and continual working. For thus you will be able to fulfill what the Apostle commands (1 Thess. 5:16-17), that we pray without ceasing. For every good work is a prayer in the sight of God, in which God, who needs nothing, delights.

And that we may recognize that good works have the place of prayer with God, Holy Scripture thus admonishes us: 'Hide alms in the bosom of the poor, and it will make entreaty for you' (Sir. 29:12). CHAPTER XIII. How a widow should conduct herself in food and banquets. Beware lest you make provision for the flesh in its desires, lest you always indulge the gullet in what it demands: let not pleasure be sated by your refreshment, but let weakness be sustained.

But you ought to have as partners of your banquet such as are not wont to praise the delights of the flesh, but of the heart; who seek the bread of angels with the eagerness of the inner man; who run after your Bridegroom in the fragrance of His ointments; who perceive God with the sweetness of the inner taste; who with pure affection hunger and thirst after righteousness; who work for the food not that perishes, but that endures unto eternal life. With such let both conversations be woven for you, and banquets be frequented; so that, when you feed them with bodily food, there may accrue to you the merit of holy working;

and when you are fed by their spiritual words, the profit of holy conversation may increase for you; nor should you wish to fill your table now with such delights as you used to fill it with when you served carnal wedlock. Hear the Teacher of the Nations, what he says concerning the widow: 'She who lives in pleasures,' he says, 'is dead while living' (1 Tim. 5:6). CHAPTER XIV. Examples of the widows Judith and Anna. You have in both the Old and the New Testament examples of holy widows by which you may be edified. In the Old Testament, Judith; let Anna be considered in the New:

whose imitator if you become, with the Lord's help, you will trample underfoot both the delights of the flesh and worldly vanity, out of a true humility of heart, so that the affection of that Bridegroom, who is ever living, may ever live in you; even as, when He rose again, it is confirmed by the testimony of the angelic voice, when it is said to the women: 'Why do you seek the living among the dead?' (Luke 24:5). Concerning whom apostolic authority also speaks thus: 'For the word of God is living and effectual' (Heb. 4:12). Living, therefore, is He who is the Word of the Father; and therefore He Himself is the life of the faithful. Him the holy widows sought with contrition of heart and chastisement of body; Him with full continence of heart and body they most devotedly served. For concerning Judith it is written:

'And Judith was a widow in her house three years and four months; and she made herself a tent upon the roof of her house, and put sackcloth upon her loins, and the garments of her widowhood were upon her, and Judith fasted all the days of her widowhood' (Judith 8:4-6). And, lest anyone should think that holy widow fasted not out of devotion of heart, but out of the necessity of poverty, hear what is said of her in what follows: 'And Judith was of goodly appearance, and exceedingly beautiful of face, and prudent of heart, and good of understanding, and she was very honorable.

For her husband Manasses had left her, the son of Achitob, the son of Melchias, the son of Heliab, the son of Nathanael, the son of Surisodai, the son of Simeon, the son of Israel, gold and silver, menservants and maidservants, and cattle and lands' (ibid., 7-8). Behold a widow illustrious in birth, rich in possessions, young in age, wonderful in appearance, who despised riches, spurned delights, trampled the incentives of the flesh, and, clothed with power from on high, did not seek to serve a second wedlock. Therefore by the testimony of so illustrious a work it appeared how greatly beloved by God is the continence of widowhood.

Finally, when Holofernes had besieged Bethulia with a countless army, and all the might of the Israelites, thrown into confusion, languished, chastity goes forth to assault wantonness, and holy humility advances to the destruction of pride. He fought with arms, she with fastings; he with drunkenness, she with prayer. Therefore what all the people of the Israelites could not do, the holy widow accomplished by the virtue of chastity. One woman cut down the leader of so great a host, and restored to the people of God an unhoped-for liberty. CHAPTER XV. The praises of Anna. A comparison of Judith and Anna. Let us see also in the New Testament how the conduct of holy Anna is set before us. Of whom holy Luke thus relates:

'And there was Anna a prophetess, daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser; and she was advanced in many days, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow until eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, serving with fastings and supplications night and day' (Luke 2:36-37). These two widows, although they lived in different times, both nevertheless served the mystery of one faith; for the Christ whom Anna knew born in the flesh, Him Judith had known as about to be born. How greatly did God in both widows demonstrate that continence was pleasing to Him! For both Judith, girded with spiritual arms, cut off the head of the wanton robber;