A Wintery Way

Qui dat nivem sicut lanam, nebulam sicut cinerem spargit. Mittit crystallum suam sicut buccellas, ante faciem frigoris ejus quis sustinebit? Emittet verbum suum, et liquefaciet ea; flabit spiritus ejus, et fluent aquae. Vitae via, sicut Dominus in Evangeliis ait, angusta et tribulata est; neque nisi per maximas difficultates et molestias hac ad coelorum regnum via pergitur. Quod quidem de molestiis hujus saeculi dictum fuisse intelligi oportet; per praesentes enim vexationes in requiem aeternam aditur. Et quamvis rerum praesentium laboribus, quasi quadam violentis asperrimae himeis, uramur; tamen post harum praesentium acerbitatum rigores, Deo eos resolvente, in placidis et tranquillis et serenis quiescemus. Secundum enim dictum propheticum et allegorumeni constuetudinem, nunc in nive et nebula et crystallo, quae omnia per naturam suam urunt atque mortificant, saecularium in nos molestiarum et calamitatum et dolorum nocturnum frigus significatum esse credendum est. Scit hic idem propheta beatae hujus civitatis participem nequaquam jam frigore isto injuriae saecularis urendum, dicens: Per diem sol non uret te, neque luna per noctem. Haec enim omnia, quibus per praesentes calamitates adurimur, rursum Dei bonitate resoluta liquuntur. Nix namque lanae mollitudine defluens, tegens omnia intra se detinet: pruina quoque nebulae descendentis cineris modo sparsa constringit: crystallum etiam ultra consuetudinem grandinis duratum, et in frusta solidatum, habet in se et impetum et rigorem. Et si haec perpetuo permanerent, numquid non universa horum frigore perusta semper arerent? Quis enim ferre aeternas corporis calamitates indeficientesque posset, si series mali nostri sempiterna traheretur? Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis, Tractatus super Psalmos, Tractatus in Psalmum CXLVII Source: Migne PL 9.877a-c

He who gives snow like wool, scatters cloud like ash. He sends forth ice like morsels, who can stand before the face of His cold? He sends forth His word, and melts them, He makes his wind blow, and the waters flow. 1 The way of life, the Lord has said in the Gospels, is narrow and troublesome, 2 nor may one take the way to the kingdom of heavens but through great difficulties and trials. And this certainly should be understood as having been spoken about the troubles of this world, for through present vexations one is led to eternal rest. And although amid the labours of present things, as if amid the bitter buffetings of winter, we suffer, yet after the rigors of trial, with God dismissing them, we shall have rest in peace and tranquility and serenity. For according to the prophetic custom this is told allegorically, by snow and cloud and ice, which by their nature distress and mortify all things, so our troubles and calamities in the world and griefs through the night we judge to be the meaning of the cold. For the same prophet knows that a participant of the blessed city cannot in any way suffer the cold and injuries of this world, when he says, 'Through the day the sun shall not burn you, nor the moon through the night.' 3 For all these troubles and calamities by which we are beset are again dismissed by the soothing kindness of God. The wooly snow melts away, and all that was hidden is uncovered, and the hoarfrost that falls like ash from the clouds and binds fast is scattered, and even the icy hail which persists beyond custom, in vain is solid, having in itself weight and cold. And if these things remained forever, would not all things beset by them not always suffer? Who indeed would be able to bear the eternal and relentless afflictions of the body, if our series of evils were indefinitely dragged out? Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on the Psalms, from Psalm 147 1 Ps 147.16-18 2 Mt 7.14 3 Ps 120.6