De siccitate

On the Drought. Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? Let the most compassionate of the prophets bestow upon me the proem of his speech. But he lamented the desolation of one city, Jerusalem; I, however, seeing the scourge that has come upon this entire region, am moved to laments and tears. For the heaven has been closed because of our sins, and the clouds have been shriveled up like parched grain by the sun; the springs of waters have dried up, and the streams of ever-flowing rivers have failed; and the earth, baked by the scorching heat, refuses to yield its customary fruits. Alas for our evils! For even the irrational animals are endangered because of our sins. The earth and its grass have dried up—rather, it has not sprouted—and they are destroyed by pestilence! And the ox lows piteously, as if in its death throes; and the flocks bleat with a mournful bleating, seeing the drinking of water set before them like a fiery crater, and the crops withering before their time; so that the prophecy of Joel is now fulfilled among us: "The herds of cattle wept, because there was no pasture for them; and the flocks of sheep were destroyed, because the outpourings of waters had dried up." So greatly have our transgressions provoked the gracious and gentle nature of God to righteous wrath. And since we do not cease each day kindling the fire of our sins, we are justly punished with drought and scorching heat. Perhaps the prophet also cries out to us: "Go by the light of your fire, and by the flame which you have kindled.

Now to the Israelites, through the prophet, God had promised: if they kept his commandments, "I will send you early and late rain, and your threshing floors will be filled with grain, and your wine vats with wine." But for us this promise has been turned to the opposite; rather, the curse of Jeremiah has overtaken us: "Let the heaven above your head be bronze," he says, signifying by the threat of the word the complete drought and failure of waters. Or has this not been fulfilled for us just now? The earth, fissured by drought and as if petrified, has nullified the toil of the farmers, neither admitting the plowing nor the digging. The crops, having sprouted a little and given fair hopes, withered and perished before the ear could become gravid. Only the leafing of the vines and plants remains, and this too perhaps hints at the withering that will soon occur.

Such is the fruit of sins, such are the mysteries of wickedness, because we did not walk in his ways, that is, the ways of God, but we enslaved ourselves to evil deeds, envying one another, trampling upon those of lesser station, desiring to be sated with the possessions of others, rejoicing in the misfortune of our neighbor, devouring one another with slander, being led captive by base desires, having become horses mad for females, as Scripture says, and rapacious wolves, and bearing grudges like camels, not pitying the poor, not sympathizing with those who stumble, neglecting the assemblies in the Church, despising the saints, not revering their memories, fleeing confession, like those who are in a frenzy flee their attendants. The priests have become a bad example to the people, insulting, bearing grudges, being hostile, plotting, looking to persons, not reproving and correcting those who stumble, but by their silence sharing in the injustice, as the

That ancient man from Elis: the laity, abandoning their own affairs, each one busies himself with prying into the affairs of the priests, and is an inexorable judge. Do I not speak the truth? Is our city not full of these evils? Do I not testify to these things every day? Have I not wearied myself crying out, to abstain from oaths? Did I not foretell that the Lord would not overlook the holy Gospel being so despised, and being shamelessly and unblushingly seized by grasping hands? So then, bring forth the fruits of the field that were acquired for you through greed, for it will not even yield the seeds that were sown; nor will you harvest the vineyard that you seized by greed. For what God long ago threatened the Jews through Micah, these things he has now fulfilled among us: You sow, but you shall not reap; you press the olive, but you shall not anoint yourself with oil; and you shall not drink wine. What then, someone might perhaps say, surely not all are greedy, nor all perjurers; how then, when a few sin, has the wormwood of God's wrath been mixed for all in common? For it would have been necessary for the punishment to be inflicted only on the wicked. But as with one body, if a flux occurs in one part, the whole body requires cleansing; so also with us, since we are one body and all members of Christ, when one part is diseased, we all become sharers in the pain. Thus once, when the child of Saul sinned, the whole army was scourged, and when David numbered the people contrary to what seemed good to God, destruction came upon all in common. And even secular learning says this, that often a whole city suffers from the wickedness of one man.

Therefore, the cup of God's wrath has been mixed for us undiluted. For it says, "A cup in the hand of the Lord, full of a mixture of undiluted wine." Do you see how the nature of this cup has been altered? For if it is undiluted, how is it full of a mixture? For that which is mixed is not undiluted. But here both are spoken of: it is undiluted, as unmixed with divine mercies for those who err incorrigibly, because of the justice of the judgment; and it is mixed, as composed of various scourges and punishments with which God is accustomed to chastise those who have not fallen into hopeless evils. For just as those who check the diseases of bodies and have practiced the ability to heal, cleanse the more sensitive wounds with hot water and sharp drugs, and by the aids of their art they peel away the affliction of the inherent impurity itself; so also the all-knowing God, for those who are insensible, with blows which it would be better to avoid before experiencing their onset. What then should we say to what has been set forth? The judgment of God is just, or rather, the compassionate Master has lightened the punishment far beyond just anger, not so that we experience what we deserve, but so that we perceive what we have done wrong. For consider the forbearance of God: we have sinned, and the elements are punished; we err, and the earth is chastised; we live a wicked life, and inanimate things are scourged; we insult the Creator by our shameful deeds, and those who have committed no sin receive the blow—just as if, when a child has stumbled, one were to inflict torture upon the slave.

We have such a good Master, who admonishes us in this way, leading us back to correction. He draws the bow of threat but holds back the arrow of wrath. For he does not desire our spiritual death, but awaits our return and repentance. Let us therefore, brothers, become aware of what is fitting; let us propitiate the compassionate Lord, lest we appear worse than the Ninevites. They, being pagans and unbelievers, when they learned from the prophet about the destruction of the city, displayed such repentance that they compelled even infants and livestock to fast, and put on sackcloth and ashes, and thus were delivered from the just wrath of God. Let us therefore weep as well; let each of us confess our own faults; let us take as intercessors before God the saints, both others and especially the most pure Lady, the swift and invincible protection. Let us fall before her, beseeching with tears: "Lady Mistress, who bore the Word of God in your womb, who deified our nature through your childbearing, who mediated between God and men through your childbearing, have mercy on your people and your inheritance; be compassionate toward this city of yours, which boasts in your name; intercede for us, your unworthy servants; entreat your only-begotten Son to be patient with our faults, and to dissolve this just wrath against us, and to command the clouds to pour down rain as usual, to end the drought, and to cool the burning heat of the earth.

Yes, O Lady, O Lady, the support of the world, have mercy, give suck to the infants, to the aged who are worn out, to the poor who are parched; do not allow us to perish by our sins. We have sinned, we have transgressed, we have defiled the pure garment of baptism, we have rejected the Lord's commandments. But even if we slip, we have not stretched out our hands to a foreign God, but to your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages.