The Good Of Misfortune

Nam cum tanta, quantam semper admiror, indole tua, ab ineunte adolescentia adhuc infirmo rationis atque lapsante vestigio humanam vitam errorum omnium plenissimam ingredereris; excepit te circumfluentia divitiarum, quae illam aetatem atque animum, quae pulchra et honesta videbantur avide sequentem, illecebrosis coeperat absorbere gurgitibus, nisi inde te fortunae illi flatus, qui putantur adversi, eripuissent pene mergentem. Si res secundae studio sapientiae obsint. An vero si edentem te munera ursorum et nunquam ibi antea visa spectacula civibus nostris, theatricus plausus semper prosperrimus accepisset; si stultorum hominum, quorum immensa turba est, conflatis et consentientibus vocibus ferreris ad coelum; si nemo tibi auderet esse inimicus; si municipales tabulae te non solum civium, sed etiam vicinorum patronum aere signarent; collocarentur statuae, influerent honores, adderentur etiam potestates, quae municipalem habitum supercrescerent; conviviis quotidianis mensae opimae struerentur; quod cuique esset necesse, quod cuiusque etiam deliciae sitirent, indubitanter peteret, indubitanter hauriret, multa etiam non petentibus funderentur; resque ipsa familiaris diligenter a tuis fideliterque administrata, idoneam se tantis sumptibus paratamque praeberet: tu interea viveres in aedificiorum exquisitissimis molibus, in nitore balnearum, in tesseris quas honestas non respuit, in venatibus, in conviviis, in ore clientium, in ore civium, in ore denique populorum humanissimus, liberalissimus, mundissimus, fortunatissimus, ut fuisti, iactareris: quisquam tibi, Romaniane, beatae alterius vitae, quae sola beata est, quisquam, quaeso, mentionem facere auderet? Quisquam tibi persuadere posset, non solum te felicem non esse; sed eo maxime miserum, quo tibi minime videreris? Nunc vero quam te breviter admonendum tot et tanta, quae pertulisti adversa fecerunt? Non enim tibi alienis exemplis persuadendum est quam fluxa et fragilia, et plena calamitatum sint omnia, quae bona mortales putant; cum ita ex aliqua parte bene expertus sis, ut ex te caeteris persuadere possimus.  Illud ergo, illud tuum, quo semper decora et honesta desiderasti; quo te liberalem magis quam divitem esse maluisti; quo nunquam concupisti esse potentior quam iustior, nunquam adversitatibus improbitatibusque cessisti: illud ipsum, inquam, quod in te divinum nescio quo vitae huius somno veternoque sopitum est, variis illis durisque iactationibus secreta providentia excitare decrevit. Evigila, evigila, oro te; multum, mihi crede, gratulaberis quod pene nullis prosperitatibus quibus tenentur incauti, mundi huius tibi dona blandita sunt: quae meipsum capere moliebantur quotidie ista cantantem, nisi me pectoris dolor ventosam professionem abicere et in philosophiae gremium confugere coegisset. Ipsa me nunc in otio, quod vehementer optavimus, nutrit ac fovet: ipsa me penitus ab illa superstitione, in quam te mecum praecipitem dederam, liberavit. Ipsa enim docet, et vere docet nihil omnino colendum esse, totumque contemni oportere, quidquid mortalibus oculis cernitur, quidquid ullus sensus attingit. Ipsa verissimum et secretissimum Deum perspicue se demonstraturam promittit, et iam iamque quasi per lucidas nubes ostentare dignatur. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis, Contra Academicos, Liber I Source: Migne PL 32.906-097

With such great innate talent, as ever makes me wonder, from your earliest youth, when reason's progress is but weak and faltering, you entered into this human life abundant with every error.  An excess of riches flowed around you, which at that age of the soul which avidly follows what seems beautiful and good would have begun to overwhelm it by the floods of pleasure, unless it was then that the winds of fortune, which are thought adverse, snatched you away, just when you were on the point of sinking. But truly if in giving bear fights and spectacles never seen before by our cities, you were always received with the most abundant applause of the spectators, if you were borne off to the skies by the unanimous and united voices of foolish men, the crowd of which is very great, if no one ever dared to be your foe, if municipal tablets were to proclaim in bronze that you are a benefactor not only of your fellow citizens but also of the neighbouring peoples, if they raised up statues of you, poured out honours on you, and even added to the powers greater than is customary in municipal appointments, if every day your tables were sumptuously strewn with feasts, if any man might without worry ask of you whatever he needed, or his delicacy desired, and be assured of receiving it, and if many things were lavished even on those who did not seek them, if your estate itself, carefully and faithfully administered by your own people, were sufficiently capable and organized to meet such great expenses, and if meanwhile you yourself were to live in exquisite buildings in luxury, in shinning baths, amid dice-games honour does not forbid, and with hunting, and with feasting, if in the mouths of your dependents and your fellow citizens and all the people you were proclaimed as a most kind man, most generous, most elegant, and most fortunate, would anyone, Romanianus, I ask you, dare to make mention to you of another happiness which alone is happiness? Who would be able to persuade you, since it did not appear to you that it was so, that not only were you not happy but that you were especially wretched? Now, however, have you not been swiftly admonished concerning all such things by the many reverses that you have suffered? Indeed one need not persuade you with examples of others concerning how fleeting, unreliable, and full of calamities are all things which mortals think good, when by you we will able to persuade others. That part of you, then, by which you have ever desired the honourable and the good, by which you have preferred to be generous rather than wealthy, by which you have never desired to be more powerful but more just, by which you have never given yourself up to adversity or dishonesty, that which in you, I say, is Divine, which has somehow been lulled to sleep by the long dream of this life, Providence, by various hard blows, working in secret, has decided to rouse up in you. Wake up, wake up, I beg you. Believe me, you will be most joyful that this world had scarcely charmed you with its gifts, by which it lays hold of the unwary, which things strove to seize me, I who sang of them every  day, had not chest pains compelled me to give up my profession of windy rhetoric and flee to the lap of philosophy. She now nourishes and cherishes me in that leisure which we have so much desired. She has freed me entirely from that heresy into which I had cast you along with myself. For she teaches, and teaches truly, that nothing should be worshipped and that all such things should be spurned which are discerned by mortal eyes, or are the object of any sense-perception. She promises to make known clearly the true and hidden God and is indeed now on the very point of condescending to present Him as through shining clouds. Saint Augustine of Hippo, Against the Academics, from Book 1

Thanksgiving in Difficulties

Ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν παντὶ μοι εὐχαριστεῖν διατέτακται. Εὐχαριστήσω στρεβλούμενος, αἰκιζόμενος, ἐπὶ τροχοῦ κατατεινόμενος, τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐκκοπτόμενος; Εὐχαριστήσω τυπόμενος τὴν ἄτιπμον πληγὴν παρὰ τοῦ μισοὺντος; πηγνύμενος ὑπὸ τοῠ κρύους, λιμῷ καταγχόμενος, ἐπὶ τοῦ ξύλου δεδεμένος, ἀτεκνωθεὶς ἀθρόως, ἤ καὶ τῆς γυναικὸς αὐτῆς ἐστερημένος; ἐκ ναυαγίων ἐξαίφνης ἐκπεσὼν εὐπορίας; πειραταῖς κατὰ θάλασσαν, ἢ λησταῖς κατ' ἢπειρον περιτυχών; τραύματα ἔχων, συκοφαντούμενος, ἀλητεύων, τὸ δεσμωτήριον οἰκῶν; Ταῦτα καὶ ἔτι πλείω τούτων, κατηγοροῦντες τοῦ νομοθέτου, συνειρουσιν, ἀπολογίαν τῶν ἁμαρτμάτων ἑαυτοῖς εὐτρεπίζειν ἡγούμενοι τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς διατεταγμένοις ἡμῖν, ὡς ἀδυνάτοις, διαβολήν. Τί οὖν φαμεν; Ὅτι πρὸς ἕτερα βλέποντος τοῦ Ἀποσλτόλου, καὶ τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμῶν περιωμένου χαμόθεν πρὸς ὕψος μετεωριζειν, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ οὐράνιον μετατιθέναι πολίτευρα, οἱ μὴ ἐφικνούμενοι τῆς μεγαλονοίας τοῦ νομοθέτου, περὶ γῆν καὶ σάρκας, ὡς περὶ τέλμα σκώληκες, ἰλυσπώμενοι εὐ τοῖς τοῦ σώματος πάθεσι, τὸ δυνατὸν τῶν ἀποστολικῶν διατάξεων ἀπαιτοῠσιν. Ὁ δὲ προκαλεῖται εἰς τὸ πάντοτε χαίρειν οὐχὶ τὸν τυχόντα, ἀλλὰ τὸν οἶος αὐτὸς ἥν, οὐκέτι ζῶν ἐν σαρκὶ, ἀλλὰ ζῶντα ἔχων ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὸν Χριστὸν, ὡς τῆς πρὸς τὸ ἀκρότατον τῶν ἀγαθῶν συναφείας μηδαμῶς τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν ὀχληρῶν τῆς σαρκὸς συμπάθειαν δεχομένης. Ἀλλὰ κἂν διακόπτηται ἡ σαρξ, ἡ τῆς συνεχείας διάλυσις ἐναπομένει τῷ πεπονθότι τοῦ σώματος μέρει, τῆς διαδόσεως τοῦ λυποῦντος οὐ δυναμένης διικνεῖσθαι πρὸς τὸ νοερὸν τῆς ψυχῆς. Εἰ γαρ ἐνεκρώσαμεν τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, κατὰ τὰς ὑποθήκας τοῦ Ἀποστόλου, καὶ τὴν νέκρωσιν τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματι περιεφέρομεν ἀναγκαίως ἡ ἀπὸ τοῦ νενεκρωμένου σώματος πληγὴ πρὸς τὴν ἀπολελυμένην τῆς συναφέίας αὐτοῦ ψυχὴν οὐ χωρήσει. Ἀτιμία δὲ καὶ ζημίαι, καὶ οἰκείων θάνατοι οὐκ ἀναβήσονται πρὸς τὸν νοῦν, οὐδὲ καταστέψουσι τὸ ὑψηλὸν τῆς ψυχῆς πρὸς τὴν ὦδε συμπάθειαν. Ἅγιος Βασίλειος Καισαρείας, Περὶ Εύχαριστιας

But in everything I am ordered to give thanks. 1 Shall I give thanks tortured, beaten, stretched on a wheel, with eyes gouged out? Shall I give thanks struck by shameful blows by one who hates me? Shall I give thanks pierced by the cold, wracked by hunger, bound on wood, suddenly deprived of children, my wife violated, having lost all my property in a shipwreck? Shall I give thanks at sea beset by pirates, or on land attacked by bandits? Shall I give thanks wounded, suffering abuse, living a vagrant life, shut up in prison? In all these cases and more, the legislator directs us to be bound, and though our sins think to excuse us, while the precepts are given to us , if we are unable to fulfill them, they denounce us. What therefore do we say? That doubtless the Apostle saw this otherwise, and he tries to raise our souls from earth to heaven and to transport us to a certain celestial way of living. However this high sense of the legislator has not been understood, for the Apostolic commands should not be sought among earth and flesh, like worms in food, sunk in the desires of the body, but he calls to eternal joy not in worldly matters but as he was, no longer living in the flesh but having life in Christ himself, for to that conjunction with the highest good heavy and troublesome carnal affections are not admitted. Truly even if flesh is torn, in that part of the body afflicted, placing it in a state of continuous dissolution, it will not able to communicate its grief to the intelligent part of the soul. For if in accordance with the Apostolic teaching we mortify our members on the earth and in our bodies we bear around the mortification of Jesus, it will be that the blows on a mortified body, it being dissolved, do not reach the soul. For disgrace and loss and proximity to death shall not at all then rise to the mind, nor shall present troubles be admitted to the heavenly soul. Saint Basil of Caesarea, On Thanksgiving 1 1 Thes 5.18

Rushing Into Danger

Dominus autem misit ventum magnum in mare, et facta est tempastas magna in mari et navis periclitabatur conteri. LXX: Et Dominus suscitavit spiritum magnum in mare, et facta est tempestas magna in mari, et navis periclitabatus conteri.   Potest fuga propetae et ad hominis referri in communi personam, qui Dei praecepta contemnens recessit a facie ejus, et se mundo tradidit, ubi postea malorum tempestate, et totius mundi contra se saeviente naufragio, compulsus est sentire Deum, et reverti ad eum quem fugerat. Unde intelligimus etiam ea quae sibi homines aestimant salutaria, Deo nolente, verti in perniciem et non solum non prodesse auxilium his, quibus praebetur, sed et ipsos qui praebent, pariter conteri. Sicut legimus victam ab Assyriis Aegyptum, quia opitulabatur Israeli contra Domini voluntatem. Periclitatur navis quae periclitantem susceperat: vento maria concitantur, in tranquillitate tempestas oritur, nihil, Deo adversante, securum est. Sanctus Hieronimus, Commentarius In Jonam Prophetem, Lib I, Cap I

'The Lord sent a great wind upon the sea and made a great storm in the sea and the ship was in danger of being destroyed.' The Septuagint has: 'And the Lord caused to rise a great spirit in the sea and there a great storm in the sea and the ship was in danger of being destroyed.' 1 One is able to refer the flight of the prophet to the person of the common man, he who, spurning the commands of God, withdraws from His face and gives himself to the world, and after a storm of evil, with all the world wildly against him and making his shipwreck, he is compelled to attend to God and return to Him whom he fled. Whence we may understand that even when men judge themselves to be safe, if God is unwilling, a man is thrown into ruin and not only does the help of those who offer it not avail, but even those who would assist are buffeted with him. So we read of the defeat of Egypt by the Assyrians, because it was aiding Israel against the will of the Lord. The ship imperiled is the one overtaken by danger, where the sea is troubled by the wind, where a storm arises in peace, where nothing, with God unwilling, is secure.  Saint Jerome, Commentary on Jonah, Book 1, Chapter 1 1 Jonah 1.4

Giving Thanks Always

Gratias agentes semper pro omnibus, in nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi Deo et Patri. Huic quid simile et in Epistola ad Thessalonicenses prima scriptum est: Semper gaudete, sine intermissione orate, in omnibus gratias agite. Quod praeceptum ille solus custodire potest, qui providentia Dei novit etiam quinque passeres, qui venduntur dipondio, gubernari: quorum unus non cadit in laqueum sine Patris voluntate. Quod autem ait: 'Gratias agentes, et semper, et pro omnibus,' dupliciter intuendum, ut et in omni tempore, et pro omnibus quae nobis accidunt, Deo gratias referamus: ut tantum pro his quae bona putamus, sed etiam quae nos coarctant, et contra nostram veniunt voluntatem, in Dei praeconium mens laeta prorumpat, et dicamus: 'Nudus exivi de utero matris meae, nudus et redeam: sicut placuit Domino, ita factum est: sit nomen Domini benedictum. Haec actio gratiarum apud prudentes viros, et generaliter et specialiter observatur. Generaliter, ut gratias agamus Deo, quod nobis sol oritur, dies currit, nox mutantur in requiem, splendore lunae tenebrae temperantur, et ortu occasuque stellarum tempora mutantur et redeunt: quod nobis serviunt pluviae, terra parturit, elementa famulantur: quod tantae animalium varietates, vel ad vehendum, vel ad operandum, vel ad vescendum, vel ad tegmen, vel ad exemplum, vel ad miraculum datae sunt: et ad extremum, quod nati sumus, quod subsistimus, quod in mundo quasi in quadam domo potentissimi patrisfamilias procurationem gerimus, et totum quidquid in mundo est, nostri causa intelligimus procreatum. Specialiter vero, quando in Dei beneficiis quae nobis accedunt, gratulamur. Sed hoc et gentilis facit, et Judaeus, et publicanus, et ethnicus. Christianorum propria virtus est, etiam in his quae advsera putantur, referre gratias Creatori. Si domus corruerit, si amantissima uxor et filii vel captivitate, vel veneno, vel naufragio intercepti sint, si divitias proscriptione perdidimus, si sanitatem innumerabiles morbi, et semper exspectanda miseris podagrae debilitas fregerit. Qui sibi santiores videntur, solent Deo referre gratias quod de periculis, vel de miseriis liberati sunt. Sed juxta Apostolum haec virtus est maxima, ut in ipsis periculis atque miseriis, Deo gratiae referantur, et semper dicamus: Bendictus Deus, minora me scio sustinere quam mereor: haec ad mea peccata parva sunt: nihil mihi dignum redditur. Hic animus Christiani est, hic curcem suam tollens, sequitur Salvatorem, quem nec orbitas, nec damna debilitant. Quem, ut Flaccus in lyrico carmine ait: 'Si fractus illabatur orbis, Impavidum ferient ruinae.' Sanctus Hieronimus, Commentarius In Epistolam Ad Ephesios, Liber III, Caput V Source: Migne PL 26.529-530

Giving thanks always for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Something very much like this is written in the first letter to the Thessalonians: 'Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in all things give thanks.' 2 Which precept he alone is able to guard who knows that by the providence of God even five sparrows that are sold for two coins are guided that not one of them falls into the trap without the will of the Father. So he says 'Give thanks always and for everything.' Two things must now be considered, the reference to every time and the reference to every thing which befalls us, that we must direct thanks to God not only for those things we think good but even those which are a trial to us and fall on us against our will, so that the happy mind must break forth into a cry to God and that we should say with Job, 'Naked I came out of the womb of my mother, naked I shall return, so it has pleased the Lord, so it is done, blessed be the name of the Lord.' 3 This act of thanks is of the prudent man and in both general and specific matters it is observed. In general matters we should give thanks to God that the sun rises on us, that the day passes, that the night brings rest, that the darkness is tempered by the glow of the moon, that the rising and the settings of the stars in time change and return, that the rains serves us, that the earth brings forth things which are useful to us, including the varieties of the animals that may bear burdens, or do work, or be food, or by used for coverings, or provide examples, or be admired, and further that we are born, that we exist, that in this world we are as the ruling agent of a powerful head of a household, and that all things in the world provide for our subsistence. In specific affairs when benefactions come to us by God we rejoice, but even the pagans do this and the Jews and the tax collectors and barbarians. It is a special virtue of the Christian to render thanks to the Creator even in things they think averse, If one's house collapses, if one's most beloved wife and children are taken off by captivity, or by poisoning, or shipwreck, if the law strips us of wealth, if health is exhausted by countless ailments, if the miseries of gout must be suffered. They may seem more saintly who are accustomed to give thanks to God because they have been freed from danger or misery but contrary to this is the great virtue of the Apostle which would have it that in every danger and misery we should offer thanks to God and always say, 'Blessed be God, I know that he sustains my littleness more than I am worth, and this is little for my sins, nothing worthy of what could be returned.' This is the soul of a Christian, this picks up the cross, this follows the Saviour, who neither grief nor loss weakened. So Horace in his lyric poems says, 'If the whole world falls apart, It would strike him unmoved.' 4 Saint Jerome, Commentary on The Letter to the Ephesians, Book 3, Chapter 5 1 Ephes 5.20 2 1 Thes 5 16-18 3 Job 1.21 4 Horace Odes 3.3.7-8

Natural Disasters and Virtue

ὁ γὰρ τῆς ἐπικειμένης συμφορᾶς φόβος ἀντὶ πάσης παραινέσεως καὶ συμβουλῆς ἀρκεῖ τὰς ἀπάντων σωφρονίσαι ψυχάς. Τίς γὰρ οὕτως ἄθλιος καὶ ταλαίπωρος, ὡς ἐν τοσούτῳ χειμῶνι μεθύειν; τίς οὕτως ἀναίσθητος, ὡς τῆς πόλεως οὕτω σαλευομνης, καὶ ναυαγίας τοιαύτης ἀπειλουμένης, μὴ νήφειν καὶ ἐγρηγορέναι, καὶ πάσης συμβουλῆς καὶ παραινέσεως ἀκριβέστερον άπὸ τῆς ἀγωνίας διορθοῦσθαι ταύτης; Οὐ γαρ τοσοῠτον ἐργάσασθαι δυνήσεται λόγος, ὁσον ἐργάζεται φόβος· καὶ τοῦτο αὐτὸ ἀπὸ τῶν συμβεβηκότων νῦν δυνατὸν ἀποδεῖξαι. Πόσους γοῦν ἀνηλώσαμεν λόγους, πολλοὺς τῶν ῥαθύμων παταινοῦτες, καὶ συμβουλεύοντες τὰ θέατρα ἀφεῖνα, καὶ τὰς ἐκεῖθεν ἀκολασίας; καὶ οὐκ ἠνέσχοντο, ἀλλ ἀεὶ κατὰ τὴν ἡμέραν ταύτην ἐπὶ τὰς παρανόμους τῶν ὀρχουμένων συνέτρεχον θεωρίας, καὶ σύλλογον διαβολικὸν ἀντικαθίστασαν τῷ πληρώματι τῆς Ἐκκλησίας τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ ταῖς ἐνταῦθα ψαλμῳδίαις ἀντήχουν αἱ ἐκεῖθεν κραυγαὶ μετὰ πολλῆς φερόμεναι τῆς σφοδρότητος· ἀλλ’ ἰδοὺ νῦν σιγώντων ἡμῶν, καὶ οὐδὲν περὶ τούτου λεγόντων, αὐτόματοι τὴν ὀρχήστραν ἔφραξαν, καὶ ὁ ἱππόδρομος ἀβατος γέγονε· καὶ πρὸ τούτου μὲν πολλοὶ τῶν ἡμετέρων πρὸς ἐκείνους ἔτρεχον, νυνὶ δὲ πάντες ἐκεῖθεν εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησιαν κατέφυγον, καὶ τὸν ἡμέτερον ἄπαντες ἐνυμνοῦσι Θεόν. Ὁμιλία Εἰς τὴν Συμφορὰν τῆς Πόλεως Ἀντιοχείας, Ἅγιος Ἰωάννης ὁ Χρυσόστομος

For the fear of pressing calamity seems to most effectively exhort and counsel all souls to be prudent. Who indeed is so wretched and forsaken that in such a storm he would make himself drunk? Who is so insensitive that with the city shaking and ruin impending that he would not be improved in prudence by this disaster? And that it is so on account of this earthquake which has caused so much fear one is able to demonstrate. How many speeches have we wasted on the admonishment of sluggish multitudes, counseling them to forgo the entertainments of the theatre and the vanity there? But they have not abstained, always even up to this time they have raced off to the lawless dance spectacles and have gathered there as a mob of a church against God, and in such a place they have bellowed their songs with all their might. But, behold, now they are silent, they do speak a word, suddenly the dances have stopped and the racetrack, that which before so many had raced to be at, is closed, for now all have fled to the church and we all hymn God. Homily on the Calamity that Befell the City of Antioch, Saint John Chrysostom