Letter 43: To our holy, venerable, and most longed-for brother Desiderius — the desire of my desires — Paulinus and Therasia,...

To the holy and deservedly venerable brother, and most longed-for Desiderius of my longings, Paulinus and Therasia, sinners, send greeting in Christ the Lord. We had already, long before, given a brief letter for you to brother Victor, and I wished that this very letter too be carried to your holiness, so that it might bear witness for its own bearer that the delay among us was not of his own choosing. For this was the reason for its brevity: that, a short time after his arrival, Victor, hurrying back from us to you, had hardened himself with such obstinacy to set out again upon the journey that he scarcely allowed us even the opportunity for a brief letter to you. Meanwhile, sudden obstacles of circumstance held him back as he was setting out, since winter and fear were closing the sea-voyage and the roads; hindered and recalled by these, he who, when asked, had refused to delay out of love, now granted to necessity a long postponement. Amid these delays he was also ill, and indeed labored so gravely that, brought back from the gates of death, he spent more time in recovering his health than the illness he had endured had lasted. Afterward, with the birthday of the apostles now near, we thought it inhuman to dismiss him. And so, to his longer delays, which he had given to the necessities mentioned above, we added this brief delay of our own will, so that, when he had celebrated the apostolic solemnity as the companion of our vow and our yearly journey, he might return as the messenger of this our business to you as well. As for the letters which he has for the blessed man of God, our brother Severus, we composed them at different times, according as the press of our haste allowed, as will be shown by their varied reading; for Victor demanded the briefer of them, as if hurrying and waiting in the very doorway of departure, but the longer ones we wrote when we had begun to feel secure about his long stay, as it were with our mind relaxed and let loose into leisure. Now our brother Severus had written to us that we should send him back, and had so prescribed the time that, sent back, he should arrive by the days of the vintage. Since in this we could not obey him, we have tried at least with this appearance to render obedience: that he may receive Victor as one who will arrive, if not in the same year as he had hoped, yet at the same season at which he had ordered; and if he is unwilling to charge Victor's slowness to the necessities which I have set forth, let him reckon to my own fault the fact that he remained, yet let him owe even the late return of this man to his own prayers, because, when Victor was already utterly given up and gravely sick, I hoped for his recovery from the faith of Severus, which I despaired of from my own merits, by which I saw the innocence of Victor being scourged, so that in him my iniquity was being punished, in whom the divine justice was avenging the fact that it was erring in love of a sinner. For love itself stirred up punishment for me also, so that I might endure, in compassion of bowels and spirit, with anguish, the tribulation which the man of one mind with me was suffering in his body. But concerning that about which you had written to me through him -- seeking sweet and abundant water in a bitter and parched little stream -- I rather pour it back to be unfolded by your grace; for I confess that I have not dared even with a finger to touch the weight of such great names and mysteries. For I have read that wisdom will not enter into a malevolent soul, and therefore, conscious of my own malice, I could not have confidence of divine revelation, since I could not grasp with a dark heart the light of prudence. But you, blessed one, a clean vessel fit for God, if you have received the understanding of that blessing with which the patriarch, enlightened in the prophetic spirit amid the blindness of his body, addressed his sons, expound to me in writing the mysteries of the kingdom and the sacraments laid up from the ages and revealed for the ages in Christ Jesus, in whom the diverse form of all the saints runs together -- He who is prefigured in the patriarchs, speaks in the prophets, works in the apostles, and is fulfilled all in all, because in Him it pleased all fullness to dwell, who is the beginning and the end of all things. But if you have not yet received it -- because perhaps, while you believe it granted to me, your neighbor, as though already prepared in your own storeroom, you have put off asking it especially for yourself from the Lord -- ask, and you will receive according to your faith and your soul, which, the more chaste it is in its members, the more lively in its senses, and the more clean in heart, the more capable of Christ, who is possessed by the humble and is beheld by the clean of heart. But as for you, that you may bear less grievously the poverty I am in, by which you have been deceived in your opinion, hold it thus -- as though you had suffered from me the same thing which the Lord Himself suffered from that fig tree to which He came hungering and, finding it without fruit, struck it with the word of His mouth, so that the tree which had been barren became withered by the Lord's curse. But I beseech your fraternity that, although you may have found me like that unhappy tree, you not strike me with a like utterance, lest I wither utterly and, empty of the fruit I owe, be stripped even of the covering of leaves, that is, of the foliage of grace. But thinking again that the merciful and compassionate Lord wills no one to die in death, nor condemned His own creature in that tree, but rather, by cursing, condemned the fault of the tree as an enemy to His own planting, I beg you rather that you curse my barrenness, that fruit may never be born from it, so that fruit may be born from my very self for God. For the destruction of my barrenness profits me, that in me the fruitfulness of the Lord's planting may revive, and, as the fault dies by which I am made unfruitful, that I may grow green again for my husbandman by the return of good will, so that, hungering for my life, the Lord Himself may find me offering Him upon fruitful branches the fruits I owe. But concerning this same tree Mark added the matter of no small question. For, while agreeing with the other evangelists about the fig tree that was cursed and made dry, he spoke this more deeply, that, when he had said that the Lord found no fruit on that tree, he added what seems to excuse the tree, saying: for it was not the season for it to have fruit. But if this is so, the tree seems to have received the curse without cause, since it was free from the fault of barrenness, if as yet, through a season of the year not its own, it did not have fruit ready -- not unfruitful by fault, but unripe by the time. But what the apostle says of cattle we can borrow for the tree also, so as to say: is God concerned about a tree? It is written certainly for our sake, in whom God always wills to find His food. For He has both a field and a vineyard in us. He winnows us on His threshing-floor, He purges the wheat in us, scatters the chaff, burns the tares. And so in that tree He was hungering for the salvation of man and was seeking from man the fruit owed to Him. But also, when He had come into His own, His own received Him not, and the synagogue of the unbelieving Jews, barren, did not render the due fruit of faith which He had sown in them through the law and the prophets. He came to their tree, seeking from the sons of His planting the sweet food of the awaited shoot; but it, having withdrawn the fruits of piety, gave Him gall for food and offered thorns to Him who asked for grapes, and gave drink with burning vinegar to the very planter of the good vineyard, the very true vine and cluster of sweetness. Whence their table was turned into a snare for them, and their grape was made bitterness, and their wine the incurable wrath of dragons. But you, my brother, pray the Lord that our vine may not proceed from a vine of such kind, since their stock has degenerated from the vine of the Lord of Sabaoth into a vine of the Sodomites. And unless the Lord had left us, in the branches of the apostles from the roots of the patriarchs, a nursery of life, from which the salvation of the nations might sprout and in which the vein of the blessed seed might endure, we would have been like to Sodom and Gomorrah in the whole fullness of malice. But because it is the last hour and the axe is already laid to the roots of the trees and threatens just destruction to the dry and unhappy wood, I ask you to entreat indulgence and a respite of time for me, so that, death being deferred, I may perhaps receive the sap of fruitfulness from the diligence of your love and the cultivation of my own solicitude, so that divine fear may dig at my heart and necessary repentance may enrich my stock with the dung of humility, and then I, roused to the vigilance of solicitude, may stand ready at every hour and be anxious while the Lord is absent, that I may be secure when He comes, so that at every time, every day, Christ may find me fruitful for Himself -- that is, that I may never appear unripe for any work of His will, but, if perchance in a time of anger He should desire His peace from me, my mind may not, through the bitterness of anger, be unready for concord, nor let me wait for the sun to set upon my wrath, lest my life set, if the evening close the day before peace has extinguished the fury. But what I have set down concerning anger, consider it said of every kind of vices. For I think that this is that which the Lord sought fruits before its season on that tree. For neither did He who knows the hidden things of the heart and who perceived the thoughts of men fail to see that which was set before the eyes of men, nor was He inferior even to human sense, so as to be ignorant of the season of the year, which is set even within the knowledge of little children, and truly to demand the fruit of autumn; but the Maker of our salvation, the Creator, whose life and every act on earth was for us a pattern of conduct and of morals, therefore visibly arranged His invisible counsels and expressed in irrational creatures the likeness of His own conformation to the rational soul, in order that He might instruct us, by the marks of His works and words, in all things salutary for us. And this is what He willed to be understood through the evangelist, by indicating to us that He sought fruit from the tree out of its season, that at every season man may know that he owes fruit to God, because the good Lord, who prepares mortal man for immortality, wills even in this world that he put on the likeness of perpetuity, so that he may not receive fruit from the season, but be at every season ripe for Him with whom, or in whom, he is to abide without season.

XXXXIII. SANCTO ET MERITO VENERABILI FRATRI ET DESIDERANTISSIMO DESEDERIO DESIDERIORVM MEORVM PAVLINVS ET THERASIA PECCATORES IN CHRISTO DOMINO SALVTEM. Ad te breuem epistolam iam diu ante fratri Victori dederamus, quam et ipsam perferri ad sanctitatem tuam uolui, 6] Prou. 10, 19. 12] (Iob 42, 8). 1 mihi misero U quo iam scripsi, quoniam u, quonam v 2 pro] et M 3 uel-Z . 4 eandem om. M mea] patrooinu (sic) add. v cum] ut fort . orationes scripsi, orationis FOPU, orationibus LMv 4 ad cumule L, ad cumulum FPU eadem FOPU de] ex M locacitate L mea om. M sarcinam addo M 9 me] in me 0, et me v 10 neque v, aeque 0, ba a quo cet . 11 iniuriam 0 12 beato FLPU loquatibus L, loquacis 0 13 praeceptus 0, praeceptum FLPU, pceptum M 15 multiloquio O1 16 te habere F ipse habes U 17 caritatem] uale add. FPSU. — finit ad florentium 0. FLMOPU . — epistola SCi paulini ejfi ad desiderium • XXXVI. L, incipit ad desiderium ■ XLIII. M, incipit ad desiderium secunda 0, ad ut ipsi perlatori suo testimonium perhiberet non uoluntariae apud nos remorationis. haec enim causa breuitatis eius fuit, quod post modicum aduentus sui tempus Victor a nobis ad uos refestinans tanta se ad iter relegendum obstinatione durauerat, ut uix uel breuium ad te litterarum nobis tribueret facultatem. interea proficiscentem subiti rerum obices retraxerunt, cum hiems nauigationem et itinera metus clauderet, quibus inpeditus atque reuocatus necessitati praestitit longam dilationem qui procrastinationem rogatus negauerat caritati. inter has moras etiam aeger fuit et quidem ita grauiter laborauit, ut a portis mortis reductus plus temporis in reficienda ualitudine consumpserit, quam aegritudine tolerata produxerat. postea iam uicino apostolorum natali dimittere eum inhumanum putauimus. itaque longioribus eius moris, quas supradictis necessitatibus dederat, breuem hanc illi moram de nostra uoluntate adiecimus, ut, cum apostolicam sollemnitatem uoti nostri et itineris annui socius celebrasset, huius quoque ad uos negotii nostri nuntius reuerteretur. Sane epistolas, quas ad benedictum dei hominem, fratrem nostrum Seuerum, habet, diuerso tempore, prout impetus festinationum habebat, fecimus, sicut ipsarum uaria lectione monstrabitur; nam breuiores earum quasi properans et in profectionis ianuis pendens Victor exegit, prolixiores autem cum de longa eius remansione securi esse coepissemus, tamquam remissa atque laxata in otium mente scripsimus. scripserat autem nobis frater noster Seuerus, ut eum remitteremus, desiderium II. P, epistola sancti paulini episcopi ad desiderium episcopum quomodo intelligendum sit, quod in euangelio dicitur de ficu, cui dominus yfis maledixit eo quod fructum non haberet eo tempore quo requirebat U 19 desiderantissimo FLM, desideratissimo cet . 20 thrasia F 21 salutem epistola XXX F 22 per fratrem uictorem LM 23 tuam sanctitatem U 4 religendum 0 6 rerum] remum 0 7 metus itinera U glauderet Ul, clauderent v 9 rogatus procrastinationem M 14 qua 0 18 nft ex un L reuertitur FOPU 21 uaria ipsarum FPU mostrabitur LMO, monstrabatur FPU 22 iam 0 24 tamquam-scripsimus om. FPU 25 scripsimus] curauimus LM 26 eum] uobis illico add. v atque ita praescripserat tempus, ut ad uindemiae dies remissus occurreret. in quo, quia non potuimus ei parere, hac saltem specie oboedientiam praebere temptauimus, ut illum si non eodem anno, quo sperauerat, tamen eodem tempore, quo iusserat, occursurum recipiat; et si tarditatem illius necessitatibus, quas exposui. non uult inputare, meo delicto reputet quod remansit, suis tamen orationibus debeat uel tardum istius reditum, quia, cum iam omnino depositus aegrotaret, de Seueri fide speraui sanitatem eius, quam de meis meritis desperabam, quibus uidebam Victoris innocentiam uerberari, ut in illo mea iniquitas plecteretur, in quo diuina iustitia uindicabat quod in dilectione peccatoris errabat. nam et mihi poenam caritas excitabat, ut tribulationem, quam unanimus mihi homo patiebatur in corpore, cruciatu uiscerum animique conpatiens sustinerem. De quo autem mihi per ipsum scripseras, aquam dulcem et copiosam in amaro et arente riuulo quaerens, tuae potius gratiae explicandum refundo; nam me fateor tantorum nominum et mysteriorum pondera nec digito ausum tangere. legi. enim, quia in maliuolam animam non introibit sapein- . tia, et ideo malitiae meae conscius non potui diuinae reuelationis habere fiduciam, cum prudentiae lucem tenebroso corde non caperem. tu uero benedicte, uas mundum et aptum deo, si accepisti intellectum benedictionis illius, qua filios suos prophetico spiritu patriarcha in caecitate corporis luminatus adloquitur, expone mihi rescripto mysteria regni et sacramenta a saeculis reposita et pro saeculis reuelata in Christo Iesu, in 17] (Iac. 3, 11). 20] Sap. 1, 4. 26] (Gen. 49, 2). 1 ut ad uindemiae v, om. in spat. uac. 0, add. in mg. m. 2; ad uineerto demiae om. cet . die* M (s eras.) 2 ei (illi v) parere 0 v, om. cet . hac] at F, ac 0 3 saltim L 0 4 si in et si corr. M 5 ullius s. I. L 6 non uult] noluerit M meo] suo LM 8 ipsius F redditum P omnino iam U 10 disperabam 0 inncenciam P 12 errauerat peccatoris U 13 caritatis FLMU tribulatione inquam 0 15 sustineret M 17 arente 0, harenti P, arenti cet . 22 prudentia 0 23 uere LM 26 mysteria scripsi, mysterio 0, mysterium cet . 27 pro saeculi 0 quo concurrit diuersa omnium forma sanctorum, qui in patriarchis figuratur, in prophetis loquitur, in apostolis operatur et omnia in omnibus adinpletur, quia in ipso placuit inhabitare omnis plenitudo, qui omnium initium et finis est. quod si necdum accepisti, quia forte, dum proximo tuo mihi donata credis quasi iam in tuo parata promptuario, petere tibi specialiter a domino distulisti, pete et accipies secundum fidem et animam tuam, quae quanto castior membris, tanto uiuacior sensibus et quanto mundior corde, tanto capacior Christi est, qui ab humili possidetur et a mundo corde conspicitur.. Te autem, ut tua opinione deceptum ab inopia mea minus moleste feras, sic habe, tamquam idem de me passus sis, quod ipse dominus ab illa ficu, ad quam esuriens accessit, et sine fructu inuentam percussit uerbo oris sui, ut quae sterilis fuerat benedicto domini fieret arida maledicto. sed obsecro fraternitatem tuam, ne me, licet similem illi arbori infelici inueneris, simili uoce percutias, ne penitus arescam et uacuus debito fructu etiam foliorum amictu id est gratiae fronde despolier. sed iterum cogitans, quia misericors et miserator dominus neminem uult morte morientem neque creaturam suam in illa arbore sed inimicum plantationi suae uitium arboris maledicendo damnauit, oro te potius, ut maledicas sterilitati meae, ne umquam ex illa fructus nascatur, ut possit ex me ipso fructus nasci deo. expedit enim mihi interitus sterilitatis meae, ut in me plantationis dominicae fecunditas reuiuescat et moriente uitio, quo infructuosus efficior, agricolae meo 3] Eph. 1, 23. Col. 1, 19. 2, 9. 4] (Apoc. 1, 8). 10] (Es. 66,2; Matth. 5, 8). 15] (Matth. 21, 19; Marc. 11, 14). 19] (Ezech. 18, 31). 1 quae 0 3 adimpleuit FPU habitare M 6 prumptuario 0, O promptuaria M 7 a domino specialiter M petes FPU 12 nt] in FPU 13 idem om. FPU 14 ipsa FPU 15 sterelis 0 16 domini v, domino w 19 gratia 0 frunde P dispolier FPU 20 dominus om. M 21 morte Ov, mori cet., mortem /orf. 22 inimicam FLPU plantationis FOPU uitio PU, uicio FL 23 orate P, ora LM te om. LMP maledicat LMP 26 fecundita#s (i eras.) 0, om. FPU reuiuiscat Mx U 27 meae L, mee U reuirescam reditu bonae uoluntatis, ut esuriens uitam meam dominus ipse inueniat me feracibus ramis fructus sibi debitos offerentem. Sed in hac eadem arbore non modicae quaestionis argumentum Marcus adiecit. nam aliis euangelistis de maledicta et arefacta ficu consonans, hoc altius est locutus, quod, cum dixisset non inuenisse dominum in arbore illa fructum, id quod arborem excusare uideatur adposuit dicens: non enim erat tempus, ut fructum haberet. quod si ita est, sine causa uidetur arbor excepisse maledictum, quae culpa sterilitatis carebat, si adhuc per anni tempus alienum fructus non habebat paratos, non infecunda de uitio, sed inmatura de tempore. sed quod de pecore apostolus ait, et de ligno possumus usurpare, ut dicamus: numquid de arbore cura est deo? propter nos utique scriptum est, in quibus escam suam deus semper uult inuenire. nam et agrum et uineam in nobis habet. nos in area sua uentilat, in nobis purgat triticum, disicit paleas, urit zizania. itaque in illa arbore salutem hominis esuriebat et ab homine debitum sibi fructum petebat. sed et cum in sua propria uenisset, sui eum non receperunt, et debitam fidei frugem, quam per legem et prophetas in eos seminauerat, sterilis infidelium Iudaeorum synagoga non reddidit. uenit ad arborem eorum quaerens a filiis plantationis suae expectati germinis dulcem cibum; at illa subductis pietatis fructibus dedit in escam illius fel et uuas petenti obtulit spinas et ipsum bonae uineae plantatorem, ipsum ueram uitem et botrum suauitatis aceto urente potauit. unde conuersa est 8] Marc. 11, 13. 14] I Cor. 9, 9. 17] (Matth. 3, 12; Luc. 3,17). 20] Ioh. 1, 11. 23] (Matth. 27, 34; Marc. 15, 36). 26] (Ioh. 15, 1; Luc. 23, 36). 27] Ps. 68, 23. 1 redditu LMU boni 0 2 inueniet me 0, me inueniat F 5 aliis euangelistis 0, alii euangelistae cet . 6 consonantius M, consonant FP9U hic UM quod] qui LMU 8 uideatur excusare U 12 non] ne FP, nec U deugtio 0 innatura P 14 arbore 0, arboribus cet . , est om. FLP, id U 16 agnum LOP1 uineam suam M 17 habet F 8. I . 19 alt . et Ov, om. cet . 22 infidelium om. U 27 butrum 0 potauit urente U ipsis mensa eorum in laqueum, et uua eorum amaritudinis facta est, et ira draconum insanabilis uinum eorum. Tu uero, mi frater, ora dominum, ne ex uinea talium uitis nostra procedat, quia propago eorum ex uinea domini Sabaoth degenerauit in uineam Sodomorum. et nisi dominus in apostolorum palmitibus de patriarcharum radicibus reliquisset nobis seminarium uitae, de quo salus gentium pullularet et in quo seminis benedicti uena duraret, tota malitiae plenitudine Sodomis et Gomorrhae similes fuissemus. uerum quia nouissima hora est et securis iam ad radices arborum posita aridis et infelicibus lignis iustum minatur excidium, quaeso te, ut indulgentiam mihi et laxamentum temporis depreceris, ut morte dilata forsitan sucum feracitatis accipiam de caritatis tuae diligentia et sollicitudinis meae cultu, ut cor meum diuinus timor fodiat et stirpem meam necessaria paenitudo stercore humilitatis inpinguet, deinde ego ad uigilantiam sollicitudinis excitatus omni hora paratus adsistam et domino absente sim trepidus, ut adueniente securus sim, omni tempore omni die me fertilem sibi Christus inueniat, id est ut numquam cuiquam operi uoluntatis illius inmaturus appaream, sed si forte in tempore iracundiae desiderauerit a me pacem suam, non sit mens mea per iracundiae acerbitatem cruda concordiae, nec expectem, ut sol occidat super iram meam, ne occidat uita mea, si ante clauserit uesper diem, quam extinxerit pax furorem. 1] Dent. 32, 32. 4] (Es. 5, 7). 9] Rom. 9, 29; Es. 1, 7. 10] I Ioh. 2, 18. Luc. 3, 9. 15] (Luc. 13, 8). 17] (Luc. 12, 40). 23] (Eph. 4, 26). 1 mensa eorum conuersa est illis iu laqueum M 2 facta facta P 3 tali M 5 sabahot P sogdomorum U 9 sogdomis U gomurre 0, gomorrae cet . 10 ora LO arboris FPU 11 posita est F miratur U 12 indulgentia U 13 ut Ov, in cet . forsitam FLIU feratitatis L, fecunditatis P1 14 meae] in ea FPU 15 effodiat U necessariam U 16 ergo L 18 sim securus U 19 tempore Ov, me l Md tempore cet . me om. FLMPU 21 quod si M forte om. FPU e: 22 mea mens FPU 23 spectum U iram Ov, iracundiam cet . 24 nec U uitam meam 0 25 extincxerit 0 Quod autem de iracundia posui, de omni uitiorum genere dictum puta. hoc enim arbitror esse illud, quod dominus in arbore illa ante tempus suum poma quaesiuit. neque enim ille, qui nouit occulta cordis et qui cogitationes hominum perspiciebat, id quod in hominum oculis erat positum non uidebat aut etiam humano sensu minor erat, ut etiam in paruulorum scientia positum anni tempus ignoraret et autumni fructum uere deposceret; sed artifex salutis nostrae, creator, cuius uita et actus omnis in terris forma nobis conuersationis et morum fuit, ideo uisibiliter inuisibilia sua consilia disposuit et in creaturis inrationabilibus animae rationabili speciem suae conformationis expressit, ut nos ad omnia nobis salutaria scriptis operum suorum atque uerborum insignibus erudiret. et hoc est quod uoluit intellegi per euangelistam nobis indicando non suo tempore fructum ab arbore se petisse, ut omni tempore homo se fructum deo debere cognoscat, quia bonus dominus, qui hominem mortalem inmortalitati praeparat, iam et in hoc saeculo uult eum speciem perpetuitatis induere, ut fructum non accipiat de tempore, sed omni tempore sit maturus illi, cum quo uel in quo mansurus est sine tempore.