Послание 12. К Фоме-консулу

What greeting or what word of consolation can we, the humble, find for your eminence in the unfortunate circumstances that have befallen you, sir? You are removed from the city in which you were born and raised, deprived of the greatest home, deprived of a brilliant rank (and, I add, property), excommunicated from friends, acquaintances, your dearest children, sent into exile. Exile is characterized by everything that leads to exhaustion of your body, which is not accustomed to it: lack of food, drink, ablution, lack of interlocutors, many insulting and upsetting people. For those who were once well disposed may now have turned away from you; friends and acquaintances, whether close or far away, have turned their faces away, do not recognize or love you, do not care about you. You have to take care of the remaining servants, slaves, and, above all, of beautiful children, but there is no opportunity for this. And you sit in front of the city, as Israel once was led to the Assyrians - by the rivers of Babylon: “there,” he says, “they sat and wept when they remembered Zion” (Ps. 137:1). Yes, your circumstances are worthy of sighing, sorrow and tears. But since you have the grace of knowledge and the gift of prudence, we think that you will not lose heart completely, knowing that “temptation is the life of a person,” according to the expression of the ever-memorable Job (Job 7:1). Your vast experience well knows how much he endured, as well as all the inconstancy of the course of our present life, changing almost every day and hour. Truly, it is like the ebb and flow of the tide, flowers and dreams, and everything that is transitory, according to the divine sayings of the saints. Let your venerable soul remember how many changes have occurred since your exile, how some fell, others rose, others died, some achieved happiness, others suffered misfortune. There is no constancy in the changing and fast flow of our lives. On the other hand, it is also true that all of us - people - are in exile, since through the primordial we are expelled from paradise, as it is said, and we live in this deadly country until we sing: “bring my soul out of prison to confess to Your name” (Ps. 142:8), until we finally move from wandering to freedom. Therefore, to be more precise, people cannot send people like themselves into exile while they themselves are in exile: for we are all strangers and strangers. If this can serve as medicine and consolation for you, a means of calm, then we ask and urge you to generously endure the unfortunate event with gratitude, which, as we are sure, you have already achieved, for how else will we endure the misfortune? Moreover, through this we will acquire great benefits: through adversity - greater prosperity, through poverty - indestructible wealth, through disgrace - imperishable glory. And the rulers themselves, our pious Emperors, may finally be inclined to return you home and give you your due, for we know their philanthropy and the condescension that they show especially in such matters. But while you are here, may the Lord God comfort you with the consolation of patience and gratitude, and may he inspire the rulers to act with you in the above manner and return you, longed for, to those who love you! You might be interested in: