Friendship And Communication

Quanqum mihi multorum sim conscius peccatorum et quotidie in oratione flexis genibus loquar: Delicta juventutis meae et ignorantias meas ne memineris: tamen sciens dictum esse eb Apostolo: Ne inflatus superbia incidat in judicium diaboli: et in alio scriptum: Superbis Deus resistit; humilibus autem dat gratiam, nihil ita a pueritia conatus sum vitare quam tumentem animum et cervicem erectam, Dei contra se odia provocantem. Novi enim magistrum et Dominum et Deum meum in carnis humilitate dixisse: Discite a me, quia mitis sum et humilis corde: et ante per os David cecinisse: Memento, Domine, David, et omnis mansuetudinis ejus. Et in alio loco legimus: Ante gloriam humiliabitur cor viri; et ante ruinam elevatur. Itaque obsecro te, ne me putes sumptis litteris tuis ante tacuisse; et aliorum, vel infidelitatem, vel negligentiam in me referas. Quid enim causae erat, ut provocatus officio, tacerem et amicitias tuas meo silentio repellerem, qui altro soleo bonorum appetere necessitudinem, et me eorum ingerere caritati? Quia meliores sunt duo, quam unus: et si alter ceciderit, ab altero fulcietur. Funiculus triplex non facile rumpitur, et frater fratrem adjuvans, exaltabitur. Scribe igitur audacter; et absentiam corporum, crebro vince sermone. Nec doleas, si hoc non habeas quod formiculae, et muscae, et serpentes habent, id eas, carnis oculos: sed illum te oculum habere laetare, de quo in Cantico dicitur Canticorum: Vulnerasti me, soror mea sponsa, uno de oculis tuis; quo Deus videtur; de quo a Moyse dicitur: Transiens videbo visionem hanc magnam. Denique quosdam etiam mundi Philosophos legimus, ut totam cogitationem ad mentis  cogerent puritatem, sibi oculos eruisse. Et a Propheta dicitur: Intravit mors per fenestras vestras. Et Apostoli audiunt: Qui viderit mulierem ad concupiscendum eam, jam moechatus est eam in corde suo. Unde praecipitur eis, ut levent oculos, et videant candidas segetes, quae paratae sunt ad metendum. Quod autem precaris, ut nostris monitis Nabuchodonosor et Rapsaces et Nabuzardan et Holofernes in te occidantur, nunquam nostra auxilia postulares, si in te viverint. Sed quia illi mortui sunt, et cum Zorobabel, et cum Jesu filio Josedee Sacerdote magno, cum Ezra quoque, et Neemia ruinas Jerusalem aedificare coepisti; nec mittis mercedes in pertusum sacculum, sed thesauros tibi in coelestibus paras, idcirco nostras appetis amicitias, quos Christi famulos arbitraris. Sanctam filiam meam Theodoram, sororem beatae memoriae Lucinii, per se commendatam, meo sermone commendo, ut in coepto itinere non lassetur; ut ad Terram sanctam multo per eremum labore perveniat: ut non putet perfectam esse virtutem exisse de Aegytpo; sed per innumerabiles insidias ad montem Nabo, et ad Jordanem fluvium pervenire: ut accipiat secundum in Galgala circumcisionem: ut illi Jericho corruat, sacerdotalium tubarum subversa clangoribus: ut juguletur Adonisedee: ut Hai, et Azor pulcherrimae quondam corruant civitates. Sanctus Hieronymus, Epistula LXXVI, Ad Abigaum Source: Migne PL 22.689-690

Although I am conscious of many sins and every day I say in prayer on bended knees, 'Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions,' 1 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,' 2 and that it is written in another passage: 'God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble,' 3 there is nothing from my boyhood that I have endeavoured to avoid more than a bloated mind and a stiff neck, which always provoke against themselves God's revulsion. For I know that my teacher and Lord and God has said in the lowliness of the flesh: 'Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,' 4 and that before this He sang through the mouth of David: 'Lord, remember David and all his meekness.' 5 Again we read in another passage, 'Before glory the heart of a man shall be humble, and before ruin he shall be elated.' 6 Thus I implore you not to think that having received your letter I have been silent, nor attribute to me the dishonesty and negligence of others. For what reason would I, who am obliged to respond, be silent and by my silence repel your friendship, I who am accustomed to desire relations with the good and even to throw myself on their charity? Better are two than one, for if one falls, the other will lift him up, a three fold cord is not easily broken, and a brother who helps his brother shall be exalted. 7 Write to me, therefore, boldly, and conquer absence of bodies by frequent words. You should not grieve that you are destitute of those bodily eyes which ants, flies, and creeping things have, but rather you should rejoice that you have that eye of which it is said in the Song of Songs, 'You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse, with one of your eyes,' 8 which is the eye with which God is seen and of which Moses speaks of when he says: 'I will now turn aside and see this great sight.' 9 Then we even read that some of the philosophers of this world have plucked out their eyes to drive all their thoughts to the depths of the mind. 10 And a Prophet says: 'Death has entered through your windows.' 11 And the Apostles hear: 'Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.' 12 Thus they are commanded to lift up their eyes and to look on the white fields, for they are ready for harvest. 13 You bid me by my exhortations to slay in you Nebuchadnezzar and Rabshakeh and Nebuzaradan and Holofernes, but our help you would never request were they alive in you. They are dead within you, but with Zerubbabel and Joshua the son of Josedech the high priest, 14 and Ezra and of Nehemiah you have begun to build up the walls of Jerusalem. Nor do you put your wages into a bag full of holes, 15 but you lay up for yourself treasure in heaven, 16 and so if you seek my friendship, it is because you judge that I am a servant of Christ. My holy daughter Theodora, the sister of Lucinius of blessed memory, commends herself, and with this word of mine I commend her, that she not grow weary of the path on which she has entered, that she will come to the Holy Land only by much toiling through the wilderness, that she should not think that the work of virtue is perfected when she has come out from Egypt, but she must pass through snares innumerable to come to Mount Nebo and the River Jordan, 17 that she must receive circumcision again at Gilgal, that Jericho must fall before her, overthrown by the blasts of priestly trumpets, 18 that Adoni-zedec must be slain, that Ai and Hazor, once fairest of cities, must both fall.  St Jerome, Letter 76, To Abigaus 1 Ps 24.7 2 1 Tim 3.6 3 Jam 4.6 4 Mt 11.29 5 Ps 131.1  6 Prov 18.12  7 Eccl 4.9  8 Song 4.9  9 Exod 3.3  10 cf Democritus, Aulus Gellius Attic Nights 10.17 11 Jerem 9.21  12 Mt 5.28  13 Jn 4.23  14 1 Esd 3  15 Haggai 1.6  16 Mt 6.20  17 Numb 33.47-48  18 Josh 6.20