St. Augustine
nos tuis litteris maestificari noluisti. Prodest aliquid, quantum ego arbitror, etiam ista cognoscere, primo quia iniustum est gaudere velle cum gaudentibus et flere non velle cum flentibus, deinde quia tribulatio patientiam operatur, patientia probationem, probatio spem, spes autem non confundit, quia caritas dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris per spiritum sanctum, qui datus est nobis.
2Absit itaque ut recusemus audire etiam quae amara et tristia sunt erga carissimos nostros. Nescio quo enim modo minus fit quod patitur unum membrum, si compatiuntur alia membra. Nec ipsa mali relevatio fit per communionem cladis sed per solatium caritatis, ut, quamvis alii ferendo patiuntur, alii cognoscendo compatiuntur, communis sit tamen tribulatio, quibus probatio, spes, dilectio spiritusque communis est. Omnes autem nos dominus consolatur, qui et haec temporalia mala praedixit et post haec bona aeterna promisit. Nec debet, cum proeliatur, infringi, qui vult post proelium coronari, vires illo subministrante certantibus, qui praeparat ineffabilia dona victoribus.
3Rescripta illa nostra non tibi ad nos auferant scribendi fiduciam, praesertim quia timorem nostrum non inprobabili defensione lenisti. Parvulos tuos resalutamus et in Christo tibi grandescere optamus,
Letters of St. Augustine
good or because you did not want your letter to sadden me. It does do some good, in my humble opinion, to know even sad news, first because it is unfair to be willing to “rejoice with them that do rejoice” and to be unwilling to “weep with them that weep,”a and then because “tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”b
Far be it from us, then, to refuse to hear even2 the bitter and sorrowful things that befall those who are very dear to us. For somehow or other what one member suffers is mitigated if the other members suffer with it.c But this mitigation of affliction is effected not by participation in the calamity but by the consolation love provides, and so, although some bear the actual burden of sorrow and others share the burden with sympathetic understanding, the tribulation is yet common to both, since they have in common the same experience, the same hope, the same love and the same spirit. But all of us alike have the consolation of the Lord, who both foretold these temporal afflictions and promised eternal blessings after them. And he who after the battle would receive the crown ought not to be broken in spirit while the battle is on, for He Who prepares unspeakable gifts for the victors ministers strength to them when they are engaged in the conflict.
Do not let that reply of mine take away your3 confidence in writing to me, especially since you have had a quite acceptable excuse for soothing my fears. I return the greetings of your little ones and pray that they may grow up for you in Christ.