Letter 244: Augustine comforts Chrisimus after a serious worldly loss.

To my truly and deservedly dear lord, and my praiseworthy brother Chrisimus: Augustine sends greetings in the Lord. Rumor has brought me a report - may God make it false - that your mind is so disturbed that I am deeply surprised your wisdom and your Christian heart are thinking so little about this truth: earthly things cannot in any way be compared with heavenly things, where our heart and hope must be placed. Man of good sense, was your whole good really in the things you now seem to be losing? Did you count them such a great good that, once they were taken away, the mind would grow dark with excessive grief, as if its light were earth and not God? I have heard - and I have already said, may God make what I heard false - that you even wanted to lay hands on yourself. I would rather not believe that such a thought either rose in your heart or came from your mouth. But because you are so troubled that this could be said of you, I have been deeply saddened for you, and I thought Your Charity should be consoled by this written address. I do not doubt that the Lord our God speaks better things in your heart, for I know with what devout zeal you have always listened to his word. Lift up your spirit, then, dearest brother in Christ. Our God neither perishes from his own people nor will he lose his own. He wants to warn us how fragile and uncertain these things are, which human beings love too much, so that we may loosen from them the bond of desire by which they entangle and drag us, and train all our love to run toward him, in whom we fear no losses. He himself exhorts you through our ministry. Think bravely that you are a faithful Christian and that you have been redeemed by the blood of the one who taught us, not only by eternal wisdom but also by his human presence, to despise the prosperity of this age with self-control and to endure adversity with courage. He promises the reward of that happiness which no one can take from us. I have also written to the praiseworthy count. It will be for you to decide whether you want that letter delivered. As for who might deliver it, I do not doubt that, with the Lord's help, a bishop, presbyter, or someone else can be found.

EPISTOLA 244 Scripta post a. 395. A. Chrisimo, rei familiaris iactura nimis perturbato, cum solans (n. 1) hortansque ad adversa toleranda (n. 2). DOMINO VERE AC MERITO CARISSIMO, ET PRAEDICANDO FRATRI CHRISIMO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM Terrena minime cum caelestibus comparanda. 1. Rumor ad me detulit (Deus faciat ut non sit) sic te animo perturbatum, ut multum mirer prudentiam tuam et christianum animum parum cogitare rerum terrenarum conditionem nullo modo aequari posse coelestibus, ubi cor nostrum et spes nostra collocanda est. Vir cordate, numquid aut totum bonum tuum in his rebus erat, quas nunc videris amittere; aut tam magnum bonum illic deputabas, ut eo subtracto sic tenebrescat mens nimia tristitia, quasi lumen eius, non Deus, sed terra sit? Audivi enim (iam dixi: Deus faciat ut falsum audierim) quod tibi manus etiam velles inferre; quod melius non credo aut ascendisse in cor tuum, aut exisse de ore tuo. Sed tamen quia ita perturbatus es, ut hoc de te dici potuerit, graviter de te contristatus, hoc litterarum alloquio putavi consolandam Caritatem tuam; quamquam non dubitem Dominum Deum nostrum in corde tuo loqui meliora: novi enim quam pio studio semper audieris verbum eius. Res adversae tolerandae aeternae mercedis gratia. 2. Erige itaque animum, frater in Christo carissime; Deus noster nec perit a suis, nec perdet suos: vult autem monere nos quam sint haec fragilia et incerta, quae nimis diligunt homines, ut solvamus ab eis vinculum cupiditatis, per quod implicatos nos trahunt, et totum amorem nostrum consuefaciamus in eum currere, in quo nulla damna timeamus. Ipse te hortatur per ministerium nostrum, viriliter cogites te fidelem esse christianum, et eius redemptum esse sanguine, qui non solum aeterna sapientia, sed etiam humana praesentia docuit nos temperanter prospera saeculi huius contemnere, et fortiter adversa tolerare; eius felicitatis mercedem pollicens, quam nemo possit a nobis auferre. Scripsi sane etiam ad virum laudabilem comitem; quam epistolam, in tuo erit arbitrio utrum dari velis. Nam per quem detur, non dubito deesse non posse, adiuvante Domino, vel episcopum, vel presbyterum, vel quemlibet.