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| To Abigaus.
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Letter
LXXVI. To Abigaus.
Abigaus the recipient of this letter was a blind
presbyter of Bætica in Spain. He had asked the help of
Jerome’s prayers in his struggles with evil and Jerome now writes
to cheer and to console him. He concludes his remarks by commending to
his especial care the widow Theodora. The letter should be compared
with that addressed to Castrutius (LXVIII.). It was written at the same
time with the preceding.
1. Although I am
conscious of many sins and every day pray on bended knees,
“Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions,2300
yet because I know that it has been said by
the Apostle “let a man not be lifted up with pride lest he fall
into the condemnation of the devil,”2301
and that it is written in another passage, “God resisteth the
proud but giveth grace to the humble,”2302
there is nothing I have striven so much to avoid from my boyhood up as
a swelling mind and a stiff neck,2303
things
which always provoke against themselves the wrath of God. For I know
that my master and Lord and God has said in the lowliness of His flesh:
“Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart,”2304
and that before this He has sung by the
mouth of David: “Lord, remember David and all his
gentleness.”2305
Again we read in
another passage, “Before destruction the heart of man is haughty;
and before honour is humility.”2306
Do not, then, I implore you, suppose that I have received your letter
and have passed it over in silence. Do not, I beseech you, lay to my
charge the dishonesty and negligence of which others have been guilty.
For why should I, when called on to respond to your kind advances,
continue dumb and repel by my silence the friendship which you offer? I
who am always forward to seek intimate relations with the good and even
to thrust myself upon their affection. “Two,” we read,
“are better than one.…for if they fall, the one will lift
up his fellow.…a three fold cord is not quickly broken, and a
brother that helps his brother shall be exalted.”2307
Write to me, therefore, boldly, and
overcome the effect of absence by frequent colloquies.
2. You should not grieve that you are destitute of those
bodily eyes which ants, flies, and creeping things have as well as men;
rather you should rejoice that you possess that eye of which it is said
in the Song of Songs, “Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my
spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes.”2308
This is the eye with which God is seen
and to which Moses refers when he says:—“I will now turn
aside and see this great sight.”2309
We even read of some philosophers of this world2310
| 2310 Cicero ascribes this
piece of fanaticism to Democritus and Metrodorus. |
that they have plucked out their eyes in order to turn all their
thoughts upon the pure depths of the mind. And a prophet has said
“Death has entered through your windows.”2311
Our Lord too tells the Apostles:
“Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart.”2312
Consequently they are commanded to lift
up their eyes and to look on the fields, for these are white and ready
for harvest.2313
3. You request me by my exhortations to slay in you
Nebuchadnezzar and Rabshakeh and Nebuzar-adan and Holofernes.2314
| 2314 The legendary
oppressor of the Jews, whose fate is described in the Book of
Judith. | Were they alive in you, you would never
have sought my aid. No, they are dead within you, and you have begun to
build up the ruins of Jerusalem with the help of Zerubbabel and of
Joshua the son of Josedech the high priest, of Ezra and of Nehemiah.
You do not put your wages into a bag with holes,2315
but you lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven,2316
and if you seek my friendship, it
is because you believe me to be a servant of Christ.
I commend to you—although she needs no
commendation but her own—my holy daughter Theodora, formerly the
wife or rather the sister of Lucinius of blessed memory. Tell her that
she must not grow weary of the path upon which she has entered, and
that she can only reach the Holy Land by toiling through the
wilderness. Warn her against supposing that the work of virtue is
perfected when she has made her exodus from Egypt. Remind her that she
must pass through snares innumerable to arrive at mount Nebo and the
River Jordan,2317
that she must
receive circumcision anew at Gilgal,2318
that
Jericho must fall before her, overthrown by the blasts of priestly
trumpets,2319
that Adoni-zedec must be slain,2320
that Ai and Hazor, once fairest of
cities, must both fall.2321
The brothers who are with me in the monastery salute
you, and I through you earnestly salute those reverend persons who
deign to bestow upon me their regard.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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