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| To Castrutius.
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Letter
LXVIII. To Castrutius.
Castrutius, a blind man of Pannonia, had set out for
Bethlehem to visit Jerome. However, on reaching Cissa (whether that in
Thrace or that on the Adriatic is uncertain) he was induced by his
friends to turn back. Jerome writes to thank him for his intention and
to console him for his inability to carry it out. He then tries to
comfort him in his blindness (1) by referring to Christ’s words
concerning the man born blind (Joh. ix. 3) and (2) by telling him the story of
Antony and Didymus. The date of the letter is 397 a.d.
1. My reverend son Heraclius the deacon has reported to
me that in your eagerness to see me you came as far as Cissa, and that,
though a Pannonian and consequently a land animal, you did not quail
before the surges of the Adriatic and the dangers of the Ægean and
Ionian seas. He tells me that you would have actually accomplished your
purpose, had not our brethren with affectionate care held you back. I
thank you all the same and regard it as a kindness shewn. For in the
case of friends one must accept the will for the deed. Enemies often
give us the latter, but only sincere attachment can bring us the
former. And now that I am writing to you I beseech you do not regard
the bodily affliction which has befallen you as due to sin. When the
Apostles speculated concerning the man that was born blind from the
womb and asked our Lord and Saviour: “Who did sin, this man or
his parents, that he was born blind?” they were told
“Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works
of God should be made manifest in him.”1997
Do we not see numbers of heathens, Jews,
heretics and men of various opinions rolling in the mire of lust,
bathed in blood, surpassing wolves in ferocity and kites in rapacity,
and for all this the plague does not come nigh their dwellings?1998
They are not smitten as other men, and
accordingly they wax insolent against God and lift up their faces even
to heaven. We know on the other hand that holy men are afflicted with
sicknesses, miseries, and want, and perhaps they are tempted to say “Verily I have cleansed my
heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.” Yet immediately
they go on to reprove themselves, “If I say, I will speak thus;
behold I should offend against the generation of thy children.”1999
If you suppose that your blindness is
caused by sin, and that a disease which physicians are often able to
cure is an evidence of God’s anger, you will think Isaac a sinner
because he was so wholly sightless that he was deceived into blessing
one whom he did not mean to bless.2000
You will charge
Jacob with sin, whose vision became so dim that he could not see
Ephraim and Manasseh,2001
although with the
inner eye and the prophetic spirit he could foresee the distant future
and the Christ that was to come of his royal line.2002
Were any of the kings holier than Josiah?
Yet he was slain by the sword of the Egyptians.2003
Were there ever loftier saints than Peter and Paul? Yet their blood
stained the blade of Nero. And to say no more of men, did not the Son
of God endure the shame of the cross? And yet you fancy those blessed
who enjoy in this world happiness and pleasure? God’s hottest
anger against sinners is when he shews no anger. Wherefore in Ezekiel
he says to Jerusalem: “My jealousy will depart from thee and I
will be quiet and will be no more angry.”2004
| 2004 Ezek. xvi. 42. In the Vulgate the tenses are
different, but the sense is substantially the same. |
For “whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son
whom He receiveth.”2005
The father does not
instruct his son unless he loves him. The master does not correct his
disciple unless he sees in him signs of promise. When once the doctor
gives over caring for the patient, it is a sign that he despairs. You
should answer thus: “as Lazarus in his lifetime2006
received evil things so will I now gladly
suffer torments that future glory may be laid up for me.” For
“affliction shall not rise up the second time.”2007
If Job, a man holy and spotless and
righteous in his generation, suffered terrible afflictions, his own
book explains the reason why.
2. That I may not make myself tedious or exceed the due
limits of a letter by repeating old stories, I will briefly relate to
you an incident which happened in my childhood. The saintly Athanasius
bishop of Alexandria had summoned the blessed Antony to that city to
confute the heretics there. Hereupon Didymus, a man of great learning
who had lost his eyes, came to visit the hermit and, the conversation
turning upon the holy scriptures, Antony could not help admiring his
ability and eulogizing his insight. At last he said: You do not regret,
do you, the loss of your eyes? At first Didymus was ashamed to answer,
but when the question had been repeated a second time and a third, he
frankly confessed that his blindness was a great grief to him.
Whereupon Antony said: “I am surprised that a wise man should
grieve at the loss of a faculty which he shares with ants and flies and
gnats, and not rejoice rather in having one of which only saints and
apostles have been thought worthy.” From this story you may
perceive how much better it is to have spiritual than carnal vision and
to possess eyes into which the mote of sin cannot fall.2008
Though you have failed to come this year, I do not yet
despair of your coming. If the reverend deacon2009
| 2009 Heraclius, a deacon of
Pannonia, who had been sent to Bethlehem by his bishop Amabilis to
procure from Jerome a long promised commentary on the Visions of
Isaiah. This, which Jerome subsequently incorporated as book V. in his
complete work on the prophet, Heraclius succeeded in obtaining from
him. See the Preface to the Commentary. |
who is the bearer of this letter is again caught in the toils of your
affection, and if you come hither in his company I shall be delighted
to welcome you and shall readily acknowledge that the delay in payment
is made up for by the largeness of the interest.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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