Letters, 1-91

Letters to Priests

LETTERS TO PRIESTS 45. Ambrose to Horontianus1 (c. 387) IIHE PROPHETS foretold the gathering of the Gentiles and the future rearing of the Church, yet in the Church there is not only the continual progress of courageous souls, but also the failure of the weak and their conversion anew. Therefore, we can conclude from the prophetic books that the fair and strong soul proceeds without stumbling, but the weak one falls and recovers from her falls and amends her way. As we read in the Canticle of Canticles of the continual progress of the blessed soul, so let us consider in Micheas the conversion of the fallen soul of which we began to speak. Not without good reason have the Prophet's words, 'And thou, Bethlehem, house of Ephrata,' 2 disturbed you. How can Christ's birthplace be a house of wrath? Though the name of the place expresses this, certain mysterious operations are being illustrated. I For the letters to Horontianus, a priest of Milan, prohabl\' Syrian in origin, and those to lrenaeus, a layman, the sequence gi\'en by J, I'alanque, 'Deux correspondents de S. Ambroise: ReVile des c/wies iatines II (1933) 152-163 has been followed. He groups all the letters to Horontianlls around the year 3H7. 2 Mich, 5.2. 231 232 SAINT AMBROSE Let us first consider what meaning Micheas has in Latin. It means 'Who is from God,' or, as we find elsewhere: 'Who is he, the son of the Morasthite,'3 in other words [son of] the heir.4 Who is the heir but the Son of God who says: 'All things have been delivered to me by my Father,'5 who, being the heir, wished us to be co-heirs? It is well [to ask]: 'Who is he?' for He is not one of the people, but one chosen to receive the grace of God, in whom speaks the Holy Spirit, who began to prophesy in the days of Joathan, Achaz, and Ezekias, kings of Juda.'6 By this order is signified the progress of the vision, for it goes from the times of evil kings to those of the good king. Since the afflicted soul was first oppressed under evil kings, it seems best to consider what progress in conversion she experienced. In her weakness she was overthrown, and all her fences became a path for passers-by and for the inroads of passion. Spent with luxury and pleasure, she was trodden down and banished from the presence of the Lord: 'Her tower was decayed,'7 that tower which, as we read in the song of Isaias, was placed in the midst of a choice vineyard.8 For the tower is desolate when the vine withers and her flock wanders, but when the verdure of the vine returns or the sheep come back, it grows bright, for nothing is more desolate than iniquity, nothing more bright than justice. To this tower the sheep is recalled when the soul is recalled from her downfall, and in that sheep returns the reign of Christ which is the beginning, for He is the beginning and the end, and the beginning of salvation.9 The soul is first 3 Mich. 1.1. 4 Ambrose here agrees with the interpretation of Jerome (Prol. ill Mich., PL 25.1151-1154) that Micheas means hllmiiis, and Morasthi means coheres... 5 Matt. 11.27. 6 Mich. 1.1. 7 Mich. 4.8. 8 Cf. Isa. 5.2. 9 Cf. Apoe. 1.8. LETTERS TO PRIESTS 233 rebuked for having grievously transgressed, and she is asked: 'Why hast thou known evil? Hast thou no king in thee?'lO In other words, you had a king to rule and guard you; you should not have strayed from the path of justice, or left the ways of the Lord, for He imparted to you sense and reason. Where were your thoughts and counsels with which you could have by your own power guarded against unrighteousness and warded off iniquity? 'Why have your sorrows overwhelmed you like a woman that is in labor,'ll that you might bring forth iniquity and conceive injustice? There is no greater sorrow than to have a man wound his conscience with the sword of sin; there is no heavier burden than the load of sin and the weight of transgression. It bows down the soul, it bends it to the ground, so that...