Epistola Consolatoria Ad Arcadium

The Consolatory Letter of Antoninus Honoratus, Bishop of Constantina, to Arcadius, Who Was Driven into Exile by Genseric, King of the Vandals. (Max. Biblioth. Bign. tom. VIII.) Go forth, faithful soul, go forth; and, confessor of unity, rejoice, because you have merited to suffer contumely for the name of Christ, just as the apostles did when they were scourged. Behold, now that serpent lies beneath your feet; he was able to contend, but he has fallen, because he could not crush you. I beg you, press upon his head; let him not rise in this contest of martyrdom; let no one disturb you. Behold, Christ rejoices and looks upon you; the angels rejoice and aid you; the throng of demons watches your heel; do not falter, so that the demons, who now mourn, may not rejoice. With you is the whole chorus of martyrs, your predecessors; the martyrs await you and defend you, and they extend a crown. I beg you, hold what you hold, lest another receive your crown (Apoc. XXXI). How short is the time in which you will be fighting! and how long will be the time in which you will live eternally! You have already begun; finish: today it appears why you suffer; the Lord is hidden from nothing; let not the devil deceive you in the matter, when he casts a fog before you; this he wishes, that you not suffer for the Beloved. Truly, brother, you have a contest; this confession is whole: If you die, be certain, you will be a martyr.

Job did not heed his wife, and therefore he conquered; he did not heed hunger, wealth, friends, and he rightly prevailed. Adam loved his wife too much, and therefore he fell so lamentably. Thus says the Lord: He who has not left father, or mother, or wife, or sons, or daughters for my sake is not my disciple (Mark). What if, by the condition of the journey, you had died, could your wife or family have called you back? For hold fast to Him whom you have held, cling to Him; hold Him strongly, do not let go, do not look back to your wife or family. Lift up your heart, you have begun a perfect struggle. The very archangel who fell fights; he wrestles with you; but with you are the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. See that you do not fear; He helps you that He may crown you. The mother of the seven Maccabees sent her sons to death for Christ. Before her they were tortured, and she urged them all the more to die; and she herself, after her sons were slain, behold, now rejoices crowned with her sons. Consider that in your mother’s womb God made you; He Himself gave you breath and soul, He Himself adorned you with reason and wisdom. He Himself made heaven and earth, and all that is in them. Thus He wishes to receive you dying for the faith, that He may show you His full majesty. Look at the world: it is destined to perish. Look at the sun and moon and stars: they too are to be dissolved. Fight bravely for your soul, which either lives forever or perishes forever.

Behold, your sins are forgiven you; and God will blot out all your iniquities for this struggle, as many as you could have committed up to this day. Hear the prophet Ezekiel speaking on this matter: On whatever day the wicked man turns from his wickedness and does justice, I will remember none of his iniquities, says the Lord (Ezek. m). Your justice, your faith (because the just man lives by faith [Rom. i, Hebr. x]), tribulation, spoliation, exile, have brought you remission of sins; death, moreover, opens the kingdoms of heaven for you. What will you be like when you see yourself with Saint Stephen? What will you be like when you have Peter and Paul, whom you used to ask as patrons, as friends? Soon your soul will see Christ; and your body will be in the refreshment of the resurrection, so that even the flesh itself may see what your soul will soon see when it departs. The devil rages, Christ rejoices. Pray, weep, beg for help; and soon you will receive comfort in your mind. Fear the eternal punishments, where there is always burning, where both body and soul are always tormented in darkness, where soul and body are burned forever with the devil. Dread the Gehennas, and hold fast to Christ now. Now is the time for you either to live or to perish. No one will recover you if you fail in this struggle. And what good does it do you, if you consent to the devil, and soon lose your body? Or do you not know that the life of your body is in the power of your God, who can immediately take away your flesh if you abandon the faith?

A certain Christian, while being tortured on the rack for the faith, reported that an angel with a radiant face had stood by him, holding a linen cloth soaked with water, who sprinkled water on his face and wiped it with the cloth. As long as he was tortured, the angel did not withdraw, comforting him and cooling him. But the confessor of Christ did not feel the punishments he was enduring at all. Torments are felt less when one fights for Christ, because the strength of the mind overcomes the pains of the world; and when the divinity has been invoked, the harshness of the torments is mitigated. Behold, you have been seized for the sake of a man; and though afflicted, do not lose faith, even if you lose your flesh. Offer God this perseverance, and do not fear the punishment too much; for either it will be great, and will end quickly; or it will be light, and the soul will not be greatly tormented. Yet you must pray, because you have begun to struggle and have not failed; you have begun a martyrdom, guard your soul. I adjure you by the unity of the Trinity, for which you suffer death, keep your heart, and strengthen yourself through the Holy Spirit, whom you wished to breathe into yourself, and whom you have honored in yourself. Fight bravely through the purity of baptism, which you refused to despise. Be secure about the crown; fight securely, until the Lord wishes to end your victory for you. God is now testing your soul; the eye of God is there: it watches you from hour to hour, what you do, what you think, how you fight, how you stand. If it sees you firm, it rejoices and helps; if weak, it comes to your aid and lifts you up.

Be certain, then, for the truth even unto death; and you will be a source of salvation not only for yourself, but also for others. Otherwise, God will demand from you both your own soul and those of others. You are a standard-bearer of Christ; you walk in the front line of battle: if you fall, you will not be free from the death of others. Fear this: for if you conquer, you fight for the salvation of many, and you have received a manifold crown. God is one; God cannot be lesser; God cannot be changed. You know these things; hold firmly to the truth. But hear briefly what I have set forth. God is one: Father and Son and Holy Spirit, and yet the flesh pertains to Christ alone. Surely the soul is one thing, reason another: and yet the soul is reason. And the soul is one; but the soul does one thing, reason another: the soul lives, reason knows. Life pertains to the soul; wisdom pertains to reason: and yet neither is the soul without reason, nor reason without the soul; and although they are one, the soul alone has received life, reason alone has received wisdom. Thus the Father and the Son, although they are one, and there is one God, yet the flesh pertains to Christ alone, just as wisdom pertains to reason alone, although it does not depart from the soul. Behold, therefore, in the sun, heat and light are in one ray, but heat dries, light illuminates: heat receives one thing, light receives another, although heat and light cannot be separated from each other. Therefore light has received illumination, not heat; heat has received heat, not illumination.

Therefore, each acts individually, and yet they do not depart from one another. Thus also the Son alone took on flesh, and yet he did not abandon the Father, nor did he separate himself from the Father. The Son, therefore, took on flesh in his own person, and yet both the Father and the Holy Spirit were not absent in majesty. In divinity there is equality, in the flesh of the Son there is a personal property; yet the divinity of the Father or of the Holy Spirit did not withdraw from him. Christ took on flesh—did he ever withdraw from the Father or the Holy Spirit? Therefore, the unity is true. Moreover, both the Father and the Holy Spirit filled the flesh of Christ, but in majesty, not by assumption. Do you wish to know that the Father was in him? Christ says, “I am not alone, but the Father is with me” (John 16). Hear concerning the Holy Spirit, that he was with him, as the evangelist reports: “Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned to the Jordan” (Luke 4). Behold, Christ alone took on flesh, and yet the Father and the Holy Spirit were not absent in majesty. If they fill heaven and earth, they could not abandon the flesh of Christ, when they remained in the unity of divinity.

Consider the cithara: to produce a sweet musical sound, three things must be present together: art, hand, and string. Art dictates, the hand touches, the string resounds. Three things act, but only the string resounds with what is heard. Neither art nor hand produce the sound, but they work together with the string. Thus neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit take on flesh, but they work together with the Son. The sound is received by the string alone; the flesh was taken up by Christ alone. The operation consists in three, but just as the production of sound pertains to the string alone, so the assumption of human flesh pertains to Christ alone. These things I have set forth, though I am in great sorrow, so that whatever has been said could scarcely come to my mind. This is the straight rule of faith. If anything happens to you for this, you have achieved martyrdom. Christ received slaps, Christ endured the spittle of others, Christ was given gall and vinegar to drink, Christ was crowned with thorns, Christ was crucified, and the just man was counted among wicked thieves; Christ was pierced with a lance. Christ suffered these things for your guilt; how much more firmly must you stand for your own soul, so that no one may take away your crown. You are already in the stadium; tread boldly, do not be afraid; fear nothing, dread nothing at all, because the whole Church prays for you to conquer. The Catholic Church awaits you, her martyr, to honor you as she honors her Stephen. See that you do not shame us in this world. See that you do not humble us in the sight of our adversaries.

The Lord Christ supports you, the Church supports you. Be most secure about the crown; do not fear at all any past sins you may have committed.