A Questioning Of Life

Quid enim est quod haec vita delectet, plena aerumnarum et sollicitudinum, in qua innumerae calumniae et multae molestiae, et multae lacrymae eorum qui afflictantur molestiis, et non est, inquit, qui eos consoletur. Et ideo laudat Ecclesiastes defunctos magis quam viventes. Et optimus, inquit, supra hos duos, qui nondum natus est, qui non vidit hoc malum. Et alibi idem Ecclesiastes meliorem longaevo viro eum asseruit, quem abortu ejecit mater sua; quia non vidit haec mala quae fiunt in hoc mundo, nec in has venit tenebras, nec in vanitate ambulavit saeculi; et ideo requiem hic magis habebit qui in hanc vitam non venit, quam ille qui venit. Quid enim boni est homini in hac vita, qui in umbra vivit, nec expleri potest cupiditatibus suis? Et si expleatur divitiis, fructum quietis amittit, quia cogitur custodire quod misera aviditate quaesierit; ut miserius eas possideat, cui prodesse non poterunt. Quid enim miserius quam ut custodia torqueat, quarum abundantia nihil prosit? Itaque si plena oneris vita, utique finis ejus allevamento est: allevamentum autem est bonum, mors autem finis: mors igitur bonum est. Neque enim aliter gavisus est Simeon, qui responsum acceperat non visurum se mortem, nisi prius videret Christum Domini; et cum eum parentes in templum inducerent, suscepit manibus suis, et dixit: Nunc dimittis servum tuum in pace; quasi necessitate quadam teneretur in hac vita, non voluntate. Ita dimitti petit, quasi a vinculis quibusdam ad libertatem festinaret. Sunt enim velut vincula quaedam corporis hujus, et quod est gravius, vincula tentationum, quae nos alligant, et ad injuriam captivitatis astringunt quadam lege peccati. Denique in exitu ipso videmus quemadmodum anima decedentis paulatim solvat se vinculis carnis, et ore emissa evolet tamquam carcereo corporis hujus exuta gurgustio. Denique festinabat etiam sanctus David de hoc loco peregrinationis exire, dicens: Advena ego sum apud te in terra et peregrinus, sicut omnes patres mei. Et Ideo tanquam peregrinus ad illam sanctorum communem omnium patriam festinabat, petens pro hujus commorationis inquinamento remitti sibi peccata, priusquam discederet e vita. Qui enim hic non acceperit remissionem peccatorum, illic non erit. Non erit autem qui ad vitam aeternam non poterit pervenire, quia vita aeterna remissio peccatorum est. Ideoque dicit: Remitte mihi, ut refrigerer, priusquam abeam, et amplius non ero. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, De Bono Mortis, Caput II Source: Migne PL 14.541a-542a

What is this life that delights, which is full of sickness and care, and in which there are numerous calamities and many troubles, and many are the tears of those who are afflicted with distress, and as Lamentations says, there is no one to comfort them. 1 Therefore Ecclesiastes praises the dead more than the living. And better than these two, he says, is he who was not born, who did not see this evil. And elsewhere the same Ecclesiastes says that a child stillborn from its mother is better than a man who lives long, 2 because he does not look on the evils which are done in the world, nor does he come into this darkness, nor does he walk in the vanity of the age, and therefore the one who does not come into this life has greater peace than he who does. What good is there for a man in this life, who lives in shadows, and is not able to satisfy his desires? And if he comes into riches he loses the fruit of peace because he is driven to guard what he sought with wretched avidity, so that he is more wretched who possesses and it cannot profit him. Who is more wretched than he who is tormented by guarding, when his abundance does not profit him? Thus if life is full of burdens then its end is an alleviation of them, and the alleviation is a good, and death is the end, and therefore death is good. There was no one so happy as Simeon who received the oracle that he would not see death until he had first looked on the Christ of the Lord, and when his parents brought him into the temple and he took Him in his hands and said, 'Now dismiss your servant in peace,' 3 it was as by necessity he was detained in this life and not by choice. Thus he seeks to be dismissed, as if he was hurrying from chains to freedom. Indeed the things of this body are chains, and what is heavier than temptation which binds us and by the law of sin is tightened to the injury of the captive? Finally in our departure we see that the soul is withdrawing itself little by little from the chains of the flesh, and it flies from the mouth as from the prison of its body, and as from a vile little hut. Finally the blessed David hurries to leave this place of pilgrimage, saying, 'I am a stranger on the earth and a wanderer like all my fathers.' 4 And therefore as a wanderer he makes haste to that common fatherland of ours, seeking against the soiling of his tarrying to be forgiven his sins before he is done with life. For he who does not receive forgiveness of sins here, shall not there. He shall not be able to come to eternal life because eternal life is forgiveness of sin. Therefore he says, 'Forgive me, that I be refreshed, before I go from here and am no more.' 5 Saint Ambrose, On the Good of Death, from Chapter 2 1 Lament 1.2 2 Eccles 4.2-3, 6.3 3 Lk 2.29 4 Ps 38.13 5 Ps 38.14