4. The world sinks into ruin: yes! but shameful to say our sins still live and flourish. The renowned city, the capital of the Roman Empire, is swallowed up in one tremendous fire; and there is no part of the earth where Romans are not in exile. Churches once held sacred are now but heaps of dust and ashes; and yet we have our minds set on the desire of gain. We live as though we are going to die tomorrow; yet we build as though we are going to live always in this world. [3608] Our walls shine with gold, our ceilings also and the capitals of our pillars; yet Christ dies before our doors naked and hungry in the persons of His poor. The pontiff Aaron, we read, faced the raging flames, and by putting fire in his censer checked the wrath of God. The High Priest stood between the dead and the living, and the fire dared not pass his feet. [3609] On another occasion God said to Moses, "Let me alone....that I may consume this people," [3610] shewing by the words "let me alone" that he can be withheld from doing what he threatens. The prayers of His servant hindered His power. Who, think you, is there now under heaven able to stay God's wrath, to face the flame of His judgment, and to say with the apostle, "I could wish that I myself were accursed for my brethren"? [3611] Flocks and shepherds perish together, because as it is with the people, so is it with the priest. [3612] Of old it was not so. Then Moses spoke in a passion of pity, "yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book." [3613] He is not satisfied to secure his own salvation, he desires to perish with those that perish. And he is right, for "in the multitude of people is the king's honour." [3614]
Such are the times in which our little Pacatula is born. Such are the swaddling clothes in which she draws her first breath; she is destined to know of tears before laughter and to feel sorrow sooner than joy. And hardly does she come upon the stage when she is called on to make her exit. Let her then suppose that the world has always been what it is now. Let her know nothing of the past, let her shun the present, and let her long for the future.
These thoughts of mine are but hastily mustered. For my grief for lost friends has known no intermission and only recently have I recovered sufficient composure to write an old man's letter to a little child. My affection for you, brother Gaudentius, has induced me to make the attempt and I have thought it better to say a few words than to say nothing at all. The grief that paralyses my will will excuse my brevity; whereas, were I to say nothing, the sincerity of my friendship might well be doubted.
[3585] Spes in ea magis laudanda est quam res. Cic. de Rep. Jerome again quotes the words in Letter CXXX. § 1.
[3586] cf. Hor. 1 S. i. 25, 26.
[3587] Numb. xi. 4, 20, 31.
[3588] Prov. v. 3.
[3589] Rev. x. 9, 10.
[3590] Lev. ii. 11.
[3591] Ex. xxvii. 20.
[3592] Ex. xii. 8.
[3593] 1 Cor. v. 8.
[3594] Jer. xv. 17, LXX.
[3595] 1 Cor. vii. 24.
[3596] 1 Cor. vii. 18.
[3597] Gen. iii. 21.
[3598] Gen. iii. 25.
[3599] 1 Thess. iv. 4.
[3600] Jer. ii. 13, Cisternas dissipates.
[3601] Prov. v. 15.
[3602] 1 Cor. vii. 21, 22.
[3603] 1 Pet. iii. 7.
[3604] Eph. v. 13, R.V.
[3605] Male pacatæ, a pun on Pacatula, which means Little Peaceful.'
[3606] Lanifica. Cf. the well-known epitaph on a Roman matron: "She stayed at home and spun wool."
[3607] Already quoted in Letter CVII. § 8.
[3608] cf. Letter CXXIII. 15.
[3609] Nu. xvi. 46-48, Vulg.
[3610] Ex. xxxii. 10.
[3611] Rom. ix. 3.
[3612] Isa. xxiv. 2.
[3613] Ex. xxxii. 32.
[3614] Prov. xiv. 28.
Letter CXXIX. To Dardanus.
In answer to a question put by Dardanus, prefect of Gaul, Jerome writes concerning the Promised Land which he identifies not with Canaan but with heaven. He then points out that the present sufferings of the Jews are due altogether to the crime of which they have been guilty in the crucifixion of Christ. The date of the letter is 414 a.d.