Augustine, Saint, In Evangelium Joannis Tractatus CXXIV

ii. Quid ergo facturus es? dic inibi. Implere legem ex omni parte, ila ut in nullo offendas, difficile est : reatus ergo certus est; remedio uti non vis? Ecce, fratres mti, quale remedium posuit Dominus contra ægritudines animæ. Quod ergo? Cum caput tibi dolet, laudamus si Evangelium ad caput tibi posueris, et non ad ligaturam cucurreris. Ad hoc enim perducta est infirmitas hominum, et ita plangendi sunt homines qui currunt ad ligaturas, ut gaudeamus quando videmus hominem in lecto suo constitutum, jactari febribus et doloribus, nee alicubi spem posuisse, nisi ut silii Evai gclium ad caput poneret : non quia ad hoc factum est, sed quia prælatum est Evangelium ligaturis. Si ergo ad caput ponitur ut quiescat dolor capiiis, ad cor non ponitur ut sanctur a peccatis ? Fiat cIro. Quid fiat ? Ponatur ad cor, sanetur cor. Bo' num est, bonum, ut de salute corporis non satagas, nisi ut a Deo illam petas. Si scit libi prodesse, dabit illam : si non tibi dederit, non proderat habere illam. Qnam multi aegrotant in lecto innocentes; et si sani rucrint, procedunt ad scelera committenda? Quam multis obest sanitas ? Latro qui procedit ad faucem occidere hominem, quanto illi melius erat ut ægrotarot? Qui noctu surgit ad fodiendum parietem alienum, quanto illi mclius si febribus jactaretur? Innocentius ægrotaret, scelerate sanus est. Novit ergo Deus quid nobis expediat : id agamus tantum, ut cor nostrum sanum sit a peccatis; et quando forte flagellamur in corpore, ipsum deprecemur. Rogavit eum Paulus apostolus, ut auferret stimulum carnis, ct noluit auferre. Numquid perturbatus est? numquid contristatus dixit se dcsertum ? Magis se dixit non desertum , quia non ablatum est quod volebat auferri, ut illa infirmitas sanaretur. Hoc enim invenit in voce medici: Sufficit tibi gratia mea; nam virtus in infirmitate perficitur (II Cor. XII. 8,9). Unde ergo scis quod non vult te sanare Deus? Adhuc tibi expedit flagellari. Unde scis quam putre est quod secat medicus, agens ferram per putria? Nonne novit modum, quid faciat, quo usque faciat? Numquid ululatus ejus qui secatur, retrahit manus medici artificiose secantis? Ille clamat; ille secat. Crudelis qui non audit clamantem, an potius misericors qui vulnus persequitur ut sanet ægrotum? Ilac, fratres mei, ideo dixi, ne quis quærat aliquid præter auxilium Dui, quando forte in aliqua correptione Domini smnus. Vidcte ne percatis, vidcte ne ab Agno rccedalis, (t a leone devoremini.

12. What then will you do? Tell me. To fulfil the law in every part, so that you offend in nothing, is difficult: guilt then is certain; do you not want to use the remedy? See, my brothers, what kind of remedy the Lord has set against the sicknesses of the soul. What then? When your head aches, we praise [you] if you have put the Gospel at your head and have not run to a tied-on amulet. For to this point has the weakness of men been brought, and so much are those men to be lamented who run to amulets, that we rejoice when we see a man laid in his bed, tossed by fevers and pains, who has placed his hope nowhere except in putting the Gospel at his head: not because it was made for this, but because the Gospel has been preferred to amulets. If then it is put at the head so that the pain of the head may rest, is it not put at the heart so that it may be healed of sins? Let it be done, then. What is to be done? Let it be put at the heart, let the heart be healed. It is good, good, that you should not busy yourself about the health of the body, except to ask it from God. If he knows it profits you, he will give it; if he does not give it to you, it would not have profited you to have it. How many lie sick in bed innocent, and if they were healthy, would go out to commit crimes? To how many is health harmful? The robber who goes out to the pass to kill a man, how much better for him would it have been to be sick? He who gets up at night to dig through another man's wall, how much better for him if he were tossed by fevers? He would be sick more innocently; he is healthy wickedly. God therefore knows what is expedient for us: let us do only this, that our heart be healthy from sins; and when perhaps we are scourged in the body, let us pray to him. The apostle Paul asked him to take away the goad of the flesh, and he would not take it away. Was he upset? Did he, saddened, say he was deserted? Rather, he said he was not deserted, because what he wanted taken away was not taken away, so that that weakness might be healed. For he found this in the voice of the physician: My grace is sufficient for you; for power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:8, 9). How then do you know that God does not want to heal you? It is still expedient for you to be scourged. How do you know how rotten is what the physician cuts, driving the steel through the rotten parts? Does he not know the measure, what to do, how far to do it? Does the howling of the man being cut draw back the hands of the physician who cuts with skill? The one cries out; the other cuts. Is he cruel who does not listen to the one crying out, or rather merciful, who pursues the wound so as to heal the sick man? I have said these things, my brothers, so that no one may seek anything besides the help of God when perhaps we are under some chastisement of the Lord. See that you do not perish, see that you do not withdraw from the Lamb and be devoured by the lion.