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| To Marcella.
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Letter
XXXVIII. To Marcella.
Blæsilla, the daughter of Paula and sister of
Eustochium, had lost her husband seven months after her marriage. A
dangerous illness had then led to her conversion, and she was now
famous throughout Rome for the length to which she carried her
austerities. Many censured her for what they deemed her fanaticism, and
Jerome, as her spiritual adviser, came in for some of the blame. In the
present letter he defends her conduct, and declares that persons who
cavil at lives like hers have no claim to be considered Christians.
Written at Rome in 385 a.d.
1. When Abraham is tempted to slay his son the trial
only serves to strengthen his faith.758
When Joseph
is sold into Egypt, his sojourn there enables him to support his father
and his brothers.759
When Hezekiah is
panic-stricken at the near approach of death, his tears and prayers
obtain for him a respite of fifteen years.760
If
the faith of the apostle, Peter, is shaken by his Lord’s passion,
it is that, weeping bitterly, he may hear the soothing words:
“Feed my sheep.”761
If Paul, that
ravening wolf,762
that little Benjamin,763
is blinded in a trance, it is that he
may receive his sight, and may be led, by the sudden horror of
surrounding darkness, to call Him Lord Whom before he persecuted as
man.764
2. So is it now, my dear Marcella, with our beloved
Blæsilla. The burning fever from which we have seen her suffering
unceasingly for nearly thirty days has been sent to teach her to renounce her over-great
attention to that body which the worms must shortly devour. The Lord
Jesus has come to her in her sickness, and has taken her by the hand,
and behold, she arises and ministers unto Him.765
Formerly her life savored somewhat of carelessness; and, fast bound in
the bands of wealth, she lay as one dead in the tomb of the world. But
Jesus was moved with indignation,766
and was
troubled in spirit, and cried aloud and said, Blæsilla, come
forth.767
She, at His call, has arisen and has
come forth, and sits at meat with the Lord.768
The Jews, if they will, may threaten her in their wrath; they may seek
to slay her, because Christ has raised her up.769
It is enough that the apostles give God the glory. Blæsilla knows
that her life is due to Him who has given it back to her. She knows
that now she can clasp the feet of Him whom but a little while ago she
dreaded as her judge.770
Then life had all
but forsaken her body, and the approach of death made her gasp and
shiver. What succour did she obtain in that hour from her kinsfolk?
What comfort was there in their words lighter than smoke? She owes no
debt to you, ye unkindly kindred, now that she is dead to the world and
alive unto Christ.771
The Christian
must rejoice that it is so, and he that is vexed must admit that he has
no claim to be called a Christian.
3. A widow who is “loosed from the law of her
husband”772
has, for her one duty, to continue
a widow. But, you will say, a sombre dress vexes the world. In that
case, John the Baptist would vex it, too; and yet, among those that are
born of women, there has not been a greater than he.773
He was called an angel;774
he baptized the Lord Himself, and yet he
was clothed in raiment of camel’s hair, and girded with a
leathern girdle.775
Is the world
displeased because a widow’s food is coarse? Nothing can be
coarser than locusts, and yet these were the food of John. The women
who ought to scandalize Christians are those who paint their eyes and
lips with rouge and cosmetics; whose chalked faces, unnaturally white,
are like those of idols; upon whose cheeks every chance tear leaves a
furrow; who fail to realize that years make them old; who heap their
heads with hair not their own; who smooth their faces, and rub out the
wrinkles of age; and who, in the presence of their grandsons, behave
like trembling school-girls. A Christian woman should blush to do
violence to nature, or to stimulate desire by bestowing care upon the
flesh. “They that are in the flesh,” the apostle tells us,
“cannot please God.”776
4. In days gone by our dear widow was extremely
fastidious in her dress, and spent whole days before her mirror to
correct its deficiencies. Now she boldly says: “We all with
unveiled face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the spirit
of the Lord.”777
In those days
maids arranged her hair, and her head, which had done no harm, was
forced into a waving head-dress. Now she leaves her hair alone, and her
only head-dress is a veil. In those days the softest feather-bed seemed
hard to her, and she could scarcely find rest on a pile of mattresses.
Now she rises eager for prayer, her shrill voice cries Alleluia before
every other, she is the first to praise her Lord. She kneels upon the
bare ground, and with frequent tears cleanses a face once defiled with
white lead. After prayer comes the singing of psalms, and it is only
when her neck aches and her knees totter, and her eyes begin to close
with weariness, that she gives them leave reluctantly to rest. As her
dress is dark, lying on the ground does not soil it. Cheap shoes permit
her to give to the poor the price of gilded ones. No gold and jewels
adorn her girdle; it is made of wool, plain and scrupulously clean. It
is intended to keep her clothes right, and not to cut her waist in two.
Therefore, if the scorpion looks askance upon her purpose, and with
alluring words tempts her once more to eat of the forbidden tree, she
must crush him beneath her feet with a curse, and say, as he lies dying
in his allotted dust:778
“Get
thee behind me, Satan.”779
Satan means
adversary,780
and one who dislikes Christ’s
commandments, is more than Christ’s adversary; he is
anti-christ.
5. But what, I ask you, have we ever done that men
should be offended at us? Have we ever imitated the apostles? We are
told of the first disciples that they forsook their boat and their
nets, and even their aged father.781
The
publican stood up from the receipt of custom and followed the Saviour
once for all.782
And when a disciple wished to return home, that he might take leave
of his kinsfolk, the Master’s voice refused consent.783
A son was even forbidden to bury his
father,784
as if to show that it is sometimes a
religious duty to be undutiful for the Lord’s sake.785
With us it is different. We are held to
be monks if we refuse to dress in silk. We are called sour and severe
if we keep sober and refrain from excessive laughter. The mob salutes
us as Greeks and impostors786
if our tunics
are fresh and clean. They may deal in still severer witticisms if they
please; they may parade every fat paunch787
| 787 Pinguis
aqualiculus—Pers. i. 57. | they can lay hold of, to turn us into
ridicule. Our Blæsilla will laugh at their efforts, and will bear
with patience the taunts of all such croaking frogs, for she will
remember that men called her Lord, Beelzebub.788
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