Letter 94: Paulinus thanks Augustine for a luminous letter and asks how the blessed will praise God after the resurrection.

To the holy lord Augustine, most blessed, uniquely of one mind with us, venerable father, brother, teacher, and bishop: Paulinus and Therasia, sinners. "Your word is always a lamp for my feet and a light for my paths." So whenever I receive letters from Your most blessed Holiness, I feel the darkness of my ignorance scattered. It is as though the eye-salve of your explanation has been poured into the eyes of my mind, so that I see more clearly, the night of ignorance driven away and the cloud of uncertainty wiped off. I have often felt this given to me through the gifts of your letters, but especially in this recent little book of yours. Its bearer was as welcome to me as he was worthy, our brother Quintus, a man blessed by the Lord. He had come to Rome long before, but when I later came there, according to my custom after the Lord's Passover, to venerate the apostles and martyrs, he brought us the blessing of your mouth. Although the time he had spent at Rome without my knowing it had faded from my memory, he seemed to me to have come most freshly from your sight. When I first saw him, I could hardly believe he had just then come to me from you, while he offered me the full fragrance of your sweetness in your words, words fragrant with the pure ointment of heaven. Still, I confess to Your venerable Unanimity that I could not read the volume itself at Rome as soon as I had received it. There were such crowds there that I could not look carefully at your gift and enjoy it as I desired, that is, so that if I had begun reading, I could read it through without interruption. So, as one does while securely expecting a prepared banquet, I restrained the hunger of an eager mind. Holding in my hand the loaves of my desire in the volume I wanted to devour, a volume that later was sweetest to me in mouth and stomach as I consumed it, I easily held back my gaping appetite for the honeycombs of your letters until I left Rome. At the day's stopping place on the journey, which we had in the town of Formiae, I gave the whole day to this work, so that in the spiritual delights of your letter I might feast free from all dregs and from the suffocation of crowds. What, then, can I, humble and earthly, answer to this wisdom given you from above, which this world does not grasp and which no one tastes unless he is wise by the wisdom of God and eloquent by God's Word? Because I have proof of Christ speaking in you, I will praise your words in God and will not fear the terror of night. You taught me in the Spirit of truth the healthy restraint by which the mind should be governed in the death of mortal people. You saw that the blessed mother and grandmother Melania did indeed weep for the bodily death of her only son, with silent mourning, but not with grief dry of a mother's tears. You understood her modest and grave tears more deeply, as one closer or equal to the spirit of her soul, and from the same standing better contemplated the maternal heart of a woman perfect in Christ, while preserving the strength of a manly mind. You saw that she was moved first by natural affection, and then pierced by a stronger cause: not so much the human fact that she had lost in this present age her only son, dead under the mortal condition, as the fact that he had been overtaken almost in worldly vanity. The ambition of senatorial rank had not yet left him, and so, according to the holy greed of her vows, she could not think of him as taken up from the glory of conversion to the glory of resurrection, where he would have received rest and crown in common with his mother, if in this life he had preferred sackcloth to the toga and the monastery to the Senate, following his mother's example. Yet this same man, as I think I have already reported to Your Holiness, departed enriched by such works that, even if he did not wear the nobility of his mother's humility as clothing, he carried it in his mind. He was so gentle in character and humble of heart according to the Lord's word that he is not undeservedly believed to have entered the Lord's rest. For "there is a future for the peaceful man," and "the meek will possess the earth," pleasing God in the land of the living. He also fulfilled the apostle's word not only in the silent affection of the mind, but in visible religious duties: though he shared the rank and honor of the high people of this age, he did not think high things as one of the glorious of the earth, but, as a perfect imitator of Christ, consented to the humble. All day he persisted in mercy and lending. From this his seed became powerful on the earth among those who are called mighty gods of the earth and are too greatly exalted, so that even through the blessed visitation of his family and household the holy man's merit is revealed. "The generation of the upright will be blessed. Glory and wealth are in his house," not failing glory or slipping wealth, but the house built in heaven, not by the labor of hands but by the holiness of works. I stop telling more from the memory of a man so dear to me and so devoted to Christ. In earlier letters I remember telling not a little about him, and I can say nothing better or holier about the blessed mother of this son, and the branches springing from the same holy root, Melania, than Your Holiness has deigned to pronounce and discuss about her. Since I, a sinner with unclean lips, could say nothing worthy, being far from the merits of her faith and the virtues of her soul, you, the man of Christ, the teacher of Israel in the Church of truth, were prepared by God's grace for a better purpose as a worthier herald of a soul so manly in Christ. You saw more closely, as I said, her mind strengthened by divine power, and with more worthy speech praised the piety mixed with strength. You were kind enough to ask me what the activity of the blessed will be in that age after the resurrection of the flesh. But I consult you about the present state of my life as a spiritual teacher and physician. Teach me to do God's wills, to walk in your footsteps after Christ, and first to die by that evangelical death by which we anticipate bodily departure through a voluntary leaving, departing from this age's life not by death but by judgment. This whole life is full of temptations, or, as you once said to me, is wholly temptation. May my ways be directed after your footsteps, so that by your example, taking the old sandal off my feet, I may break my chains and run free and exulting along the way, so that I may reach that death by which you died to this age, in order to live to God in Christ living in you. His death and life are known in your body, heart, and mouth, because your heart does not taste earthly things and your mouth does not speak the works of human beings. The word of Christ abounds in your breast, and the Spirit of truth is poured over your tongue with the force of the river above, making glad the city of God. What power works this death in us except love, which is strong as death? It so wipes out and kills this age for us that it fulfills death's effect through affection for Christ. Turned toward him, we turn away from this world, and living to him, we die to the elements of this world. We do not make decisions as though still living in their sight and use, because our portion is Christ's death. We do not lay hold of his resurrection from the dead in glory unless we imitate his death on the cross by putting to death the members and senses of the flesh. Then we no longer live by our own will, but by the will of the one whose will is our sanctification, who died and rose for us so that we might no longer live for ourselves but for him who died and rose for us. He gave us the pledge of his promise by his Spirit, just as he placed the pledge of our life in heaven in his body, which is the head of our body. Therefore our expectation and our substance is the Lord, made by him, with him, in him, and through him. He was conformed to the body of our humility so that he might conform us to the body of his glory and seat us with him in the heavenly places. For this reason those who are found worthy of eternal life will be in the glory of his kingdom, to be with him, as the apostle says, and to remain with him, as the Lord himself said to the Father: "I want those whom you have given me to be with me where I am." Surely this is what you have in the Psalms: "Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they will praise you forever and ever." I think this praise will be brought forth by voices singing together. Even if the bodies of the risen saints will be changed so that they are like the Lord's body after the resurrection, in which the living image of human resurrection shone before us, the Lord himself, in the very body in which he had suffered and risen, was like a mirror of contemplation for all. When he rose in the same flesh in which he had died and been buried, he often displayed to human eyes and ears the functions of all the members. If even angels, whose creaturely nature is simply spiritual, are said to have tongues by which they sing praises to the Lord their creator and never stop giving thanks, how much more will human beings, though their bodies after the resurrection are already spiritual, still have in their mouths the tongues of glorified flesh, with all members remaining in their forms and measures. With speaking tongues they will give voices by which they express divine praise or the affections of their senses and joys in words. Perhaps the Lord will add this to the grace and glory of his saints in the ages of his kingdom: that they sing with tongues and voices better to the degree that, by blessed change, they have advanced to a more blessed nature of body. Set now in spiritual bodies, perhaps they will speak no longer in human speech but in those angelic and heavenly words which the apostle heard in paradise. Perhaps he testified that those words were inexpressible for a human being because new languages are being prepared for the saints among the other kinds of reward, languages that people in this age are not yet permitted to use, so that as immortals they may speak in words fitting their glory. Of them it was said, "They will cry out and sing a hymn," surely in the heavenly places, where they will be with the Lord and will delight in the abundance of peace, rejoicing before the throne, casting bowls and crowns before the feet of the Lamb, and singing him a new song, gathered into the choirs of angels, powers, dominions, and thrones, so that they too, with the cherubim and seraphim and those four living creatures, may sing with perpetual voice, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts," and the rest that you know. This, then, is what I, your poor and needy one, your foolish little child whom you as a true wise man have been accustomed to bear, ask you to teach me, either as knowledge or as your opinion. I know you are enlightened by the Spirit of revelation from the very guide and source of the wise, so that just as you have known the past and see the present, you may also judge what is future. What do you think about the everlasting voices of those heavenly creatures, or even of those acting above the heavens in the sight of the Most High? By what organs are they expressed? The apostle, by saying, "If I speak with the tongues of angels," showed that they have some speech proper to their own nature, or, if I may say so, their own people, speech as much higher than human senses and words as the creature and station of angels surpass mortal inhabitants and earthly dwellings. Yet perhaps he used "tongues of angels" for kinds of voices and speeches, just as, when discussing the variety of charisms, he counts among the gifts of grace "kinds of tongues," meaning the sign by which it was granted to individuals to speak in the speech of many nations. And God's voice, often sent to the saints from a cloud, shows that there can be speech without a tongue. If the tongue is a small bodily member, and yet a great one, perhaps because God placed the function of voice in this member, he also called the speeches and voices of the bodiless angelic creature "tongue," just as Scripture is accustomed to assign the names of members even to God according to the forms of his works. Pray for us, and teach us. Our dearest and sweetest brother Quintus returns to us from you as slowly as he hastens from us back to you. His insistence in demanding letters is spoken by this letter itself, more crowded with erasures than with verses. The excessive haste of the collector I have mentioned made it a rough draft. He came to us the day before the Ides of May to ask for replies, and before the sixth hour on the Ides he obtained his dismissal. So consider whether I have commended him or accused him by such testimony. Surely, without doubt, he will be judged more praiseworthy than blameworthy, since he quite rightly hastened back from the darkness, which we are in comparison with your light, to his own light.

EPISTOLA 94 Scripta Idibus Maiis a. 408 vel a. 409. Paulinus Augustino gratias agit pro libro vel epistola ab ipso recepta (n. 1) et prosequitur laudes Melaniae senioris Publicolaeque, unici eius filii, nuper defuncti (n. 24); proponit denique nonnullas quaestiones de futura in coelis actione beatorum post resurrectionem (n. 5-8). SANCTO DOMINI BEATISSIMO ET UNICE NOBIS UNANIMO, AC VENERABILI PATRI, FRATRI, MAGISTRO AUGUSTINO EPISCOPO, PAULINUS ET THERASIA PECCATORES. Paulinus gratias agit pro litteris acceptis. 1. Lucerna semper est pedibus meis verbum tuum, et lumen semitis meis 1. Ita quotiescumque litteras beatissimae Sanctitatis tuae accipio, tenebras insipientiae meae discuti sentio, et quasi collyrio declarationis infuso oculis mentis meae, purius video, ignorantiae nocte depulsa et caligine dubitationis abstersa. Quod cum saepe alias per munera epistolarum tuarum mihi donatum senserim, tum praecipue isto recentium litterarum libello, cuius mihi tam gratus quam dignus portitor fuit vir benedictus Domini frater noster Quintus diaconus: qui longo quidem posteaquam ad Urbem venerat intervallo, cum eo iuxta solemnem meum morem post Pascha Domini, pro Apostolorum et martyrum veneratione venissem, benedictionem oris tui reddidit nobis; verumtamen oblitterato, quod nesciente me Romae consumpserat, tempore, recentissimus mihi visus est a conspectu tuo, ita ut tunc statim eum a te mihi venisse vix crederem, cum primum videbam et cum mihi plenum odorem suavitatis tuae in eloquiis tuis coelestis unguenti castitate fragrantibus offerebat. Fateor tamen venerandae Unanimitati tuae, non potuisse me volumen ipsum, statim ut acceperam, Romae legere. Tantae enim illic turbae erant, ut non possem munus tuum diligenter inspicere, et eo ut cupiebam perfrui; scilicet ut perlegerem iugiter, si legere coepissem. Itaque ut fieri solet secura exspectatione convivii praeparati, avidae licet mentis esuriem refrenavi, et spe certa capiendae saturitatis, cum in manu tenerem panes desiderii mei in volumine devorando, quod postea voranti mihi et in ore et in ventre dulcissimum fuit, inhiantem in favos litterarum tuarum gulam facile suspendi, donec Urbe proficiscerer, et interponendum ad itineris stativa diem, quem in oppido Formiano habuimus, totum huic operi manciparem, ut in deliciis epistolae tuae spiritalibus ab omni faece curarem et suffocatione turbarum liber epularer. Melaniae senioris laudes. 2. Quid ergo humilis et terrenus respondeam ad hanc sapientiam quae data est tibi desuper, quam hic mundus non capit, et quam nemo sapit, nisi sapientia Dei sapiens, et Dei verbo eloquens? Itaque quia experimentum habeo Christi in te loquentis, in Deo laudabo sermones tuos 2, et non timebo a timore nocturno 3. Quia docuisti me in spiritu veritatis salubre moderandi in occiduis mortalibus animi temperamentum, quo et illam beatam matrem et aviam Melaniam flevisse carnalem obitum unici filii, taciturno quidem luctu, non tamen sicco a maternis lacrymis dolore vidisti. Cuius quidem modestas et graves lacrymas, sicut propior vel aequalior animae eius spiritus altius intellexisti, et perfectae in Christo feminae, salva virilis animi fortitudine, cor maternum de cordis tui similitudine melius ex aequo statu contemplatus es, ut eam primum pro naturali affectione permotam, deinde causa potiore compunctam flevisse perspiceres, non tam illud humanum, quod unicum filium conditione mortali defunctum in praesenti saeculo amisisset, quam quod propemodum in saeculari vanitate praeventum (quia necdum illum deseruerat senatoriae dignitatis ambitio), non iuxta sanctam votorum suorum avaritiam cogitaret assumptum ut de conversationis gloria transisset ad gloriam resurrectionis, communem cum matre requiem, coronamque capturus, si in huius saeculi vita matris exemplo saccum togae et monasterium Senatui praetulisset. Publicolae, illius unici filii, laudes. 3. Verumtamen idem vir, ut et antea retulisse me puto Sanctitati tuae, his operibus locupletatus abscessit, ut maternae humilitatis nobilitatem si veste non gesserit, tamen mente praetulerit. Ita enim secundum verbum Domini mitis moribus fuit et humilis corde 4, ut non immerito credatur introisse in requiem Domini. Quoniam sunt reliquiae homini pacifico 5, et mansueti possidebunt terram 6, placentes Deo in regione vivorum 7. Nam certe et illud Apostoli, non solum tacito mentis affectu, sed et conspicuis religiosus implevit officiis, ut cum esset altorum huius saeculi in ordine et honore collega, non tamen ut gloriosus terrae, alta saperet, sed ut Christi perfectus imitator humilibus consentiret 8, et tota etiam die misereri et commodare persisteret 9. Unde et semen eius potens in terra factum est, inter eos qui dii fortes terrae nimium elevati sunt 10; ut etiam de beatissima familiae ac domus eius visitatione sanctum hominis meritum reveletur. Generatio, inquit, rectorum benedicetur. Gloria, non caduca, et divitiae, non labentes, in domo eius 11: domo quae aedificatur in coelis, non labore manuum, sed operum sanctitate. Sed cesso plura de memoria tam dilecti mihi quam devoti Christo hominis enarrare, cum et pristinis litteris non pauca super eo narrasse me repetam, et nihil possim de beata huius filii matre, et sanctorum pari radice ramorum, Melania melius aut sanctius praedicare, quam Sanctitas tua in eam profari et disputare dignata est; ut quia ego peccator immunda labia habens, nihil dignum loqui potueram, ut longinquus a meritis fidei eius animaeque virtutibus, tu ille vir Christi, doctor Israel in Ecclesia veritatis, procurante in melius Dei gratia, parareris dignior tam virilis in Christo animae praedicator, qui et mentem eius divina virtute firmatam, ut dixi, spiritu propiore conspiceres, et mixtam cum virtute pietatem eloquio digniore laudares. Quid sibi velit mori mundo. 4. Quae vero post resurrectionem carnis in illo saeculo beatorum futura sit actio, tu me interrogare dignatus es. At te ego de praesenti vitae meae statu ut magistrum et medicum spiritalem consulo, ut doceas me facere voluntates Dei, tuisque vestigiis ambulare post Christum, et morte ista evangelica prius emori 12, qua carnalem resolutionem voluntario praevenimus excessu; non obitu, sed sententia recedentes ab huius saeculi vita, quae tota tentationum, vel, ut tu aliquando ad me locutus es, tota tentatio est. Utinam ergo sic dirigantur viae meae post vestigia tua, ut exemplo tuo solvens calceamentum vetus de pedibus meis, disrumpam vincula mea, et liber exsultem ad currendum viam 13, quo possim assequi mortem istam, qua tu mortuus es huic saeculo, ut vivas Deo in Christo vivente in te, cuius et mors et vita in corpore tuo et corde et ore cognoscitur! quia non sapit cor tuum terrena, nec os tuum loquitur opera hominum; sed verbum Christi abundat in pectore tuo 14, et spiritus veritatis effunditur in lingua tua superni fluminis impetu laetificans civitatem Dei 15. Quomodo quis mundo moriatur. 5. Quae autem virtus hanc in nobis efficit mortem, nisi caritas, quae fortis est ut mors 16? Sic enim oblitterat nobis et perimit hoc saeculum, ut impleat mortis effectum per affectum Christi, in quem conversi avertimur ab hoc mundo, et cui viventes morimur ab elementis huius mundi 17. Nec tamquam viventes in eorum conspectu usuque decernimus, quia portio nostra mors Christi est: cuius a mortuis resurrectionem non apprehendimus in gloria, nisi mortem eius in cruce mortificatis membris et sensibus carnis imitemur; ut iam non nostra voluntate vivamus, sed illius, cuius voluntas sanctificatio nostra est 18, et qui ideo pro nobis mortuus est et resurrexit, ut iam non nobis, sed illi vivamus 19, qui pro nobis mortuus est et resurrexit, et dedit nobis pignus repromissionis suae spiritu suo, sicut pignus vitae nostrae posuit in coelis in corpore suo, quod est caput corporis nostri. Unde nunc exspectatio nostra Dominus est et substantia 20, quae ab ipso facta est apud ipsum, et in ipso, et per ipsum, qui conformatus est corpori humilitatis nostrae, ut nos conformaret corpori gloriae suae 21, et secum in coelestibus collocaret. Propterea et qui digni fuerint vita aeterna, erunt in gloria regni eius, ut cum ipso sint 22, sicut Apostolus ait, et cum ipso maneant sicut et ipse Dominus ad Patrem dixit: Volo ut ubi ego sum, et illi sint mecum 23. Beatorum in coelo condicio. 6. Sine dubio hoc illud est quod in Psalmis habes: Beati qui habitant in domo tua; in saecula saeculorum laudabunt te 24. Puto autem hanc laudationem vocibus concinentium esse promendam: etsi immutabuntur sanctorum resurgentium corpora, ut sint sicut et Domini corpus post resurrectionem apparuit; in qua utique resurrectionis humanae viva imago praefulsit, ut Dominus ipse, qui in corpore ipso quo passus fuerat et resurrexerat, quasi speculum contemplationis omnibus fuerit. Qui utique cum in eadem carne, qua mortuus et sepultus fuerat, resurrexisset, omnium omnia officia membrorum expressa oculis et auribus hominum saepe collatus exhibuit. Quod si etiam Angeli, quorum simpliciter spiritalis est creatura, linguas habere dicuntur, quibus utique laudes Domino creatori cantant et gratias referre non desinunt, quanto magis hominum, etsi spiritalia iam post resurrectionem corpora, manentibus tamen glorificatae carnis omnibus membris, et per omnia membra formis et numeris suis, et linguas habebunt in oribus suis, et linguis effantibus dabunt voces 25, quibus divinas laudes vel sensuum suorum gaudiorumque affectus per verba depromant. Forte etiam hoc gratiae gloriaeque apposituro sanctis suis Domino, in saeculis regni sui, ut tanto potioribus linguis et vocibus canant, quanto ad beatiorem naturam corporum beata immutatione profecerint, ut in corporibus iam spiritalibus constituti, iam forsitan non humanis, sed illis angelicis atque coelestibus, quales Apostolus audivit in paradiso 26 sermonibus eloquantur. Et ideo forsitan homini ineffabiles eos sermones fuisse testatus est, quia sanctis, inter alias praemiorum species, iam novae linguae parantur. Quibus idcirco hominibus huius saeculi adhuc uti non licet. ut iam his gloriae suae congruentibus immortales loquantur, de quibus dictum est, Etenim clamabunt et hymnum dicent 27; procul dubio in coelestibus, ubi cum Domino erunt, et delectabuntur in abundantia pacis 28, gaudentes in conspectu throni, mittentes ante pedes Agni pateras et coronas, et canentes ei canticum novum 29, aggregati choris Angelorum, Virtutum, Dominationum, Thronorum, ut et ipsi cum Cherubim atque Seraphim, et quatuor illis animalibus, voce perpetua concinentes dicant, Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Dominus Deus sabaoth 30, et reliqua quae nosti. Quibus organis exprimantur Angelorum voces. 7. Hoc est ergo quod egenus et pauper ego ille insipiens et parvulus tuus, quem ut verus sapiens ferre consuesti, rogo ut me scientiam vel opinionem super hoc tuam doceas (quia scio te illuminatum spiritu revelationis ab ipso duce et fonte sapientium, ut sicut praeterita cognovisti, et praesentia vides, ita etiam de futuris aestimes 31); quid censeas de his coelestium creaturarum, vel etiam super coelos in conspectu Altissimi agentium vocibus sempiternis, quibus tandem organis exprimantur. Quamvis enim Apostolus dicendo, Si linguis Angelorum loquar 32, proprium quemdam illos suae naturae, vel, ut ita dixerim, gentis habere sermonem ostenderit, tanto humanis sensibus et eloquiis altiorem, quanto ipsa Angelorum creatura et statio mortalibus incolis et terrenis sedibus praestat: attamen forsitan linguas Angelorum pro generibus vocum atque sermonum dixerit, sicut et de charismatum varietate disserens inter dona gratiarum numerat genera linguarum 33, utique hoc in signo esse significans, quod multarum gentium sermone loqui singulis donaretur. Sed et vox Dei saepe ad sanctos emissa de nube, ostendit posse loquelam esse sine lingua. Siquidem lingua corporis membrum sit pusillum, et magnum. Sed forte ex hoc ipso quia in hoc membro vocis officium Deus posuit, etiam incorporeae Angelorum creaturae sermones et voces linguam vocaverit, sicut Scriptura solet Deo quoque secundum species operationum, nomina assignare membrorum. Ora pro nobis, et doce nos. Quinti ad Augustinum redeundi festinatio. 8. Frater noster carissimus et dulcissimus Quintus, quam tarde ad nos remeat a vobis, tam cito a nobis ad vos redire festinat: instantiam vero eius in litteris exigendis et haec epistola lituris quam versibus crebrior loquitur, commemorati exactoris nimia festinatio schedia fecit. Nam pridie idus maias venit ad nos ut rescripta peteret, et idibus ante sextam dimitti obtinuit. Videte ergo utrum eum commendaverim, vel accusaverim huiusmodi testimonio. Forte enim, imo sine dubio laudabilis magis quam culpabilis iudicabitur, qui a tenebris, quod in comparatione vestri luminis sumus, iustissime refestinavit ad lucem suam.