Letter 248: Augustine tells Sebastianus that grief over evil can be a holy sorrow.

To my holy and desirable lord Sebastianus, sweetest brother in the honor of Christ: Augustine sends greetings in the Lord. Although the sweet bond of charity does not allow you to be separated from our mind in any way, and although we remember without ceasing your holy character and conversations, you still did well, and we thank you, by sending us written news even of your bodily health and greatly cheering us. I sensed in your letter that weariness had seized you because of sinners who forsake God's law. You are living by that spirit in which it was said, "I saw the senseless, and I wasted away." This sorrow is pious and, if it can be said, a blessed misery: to be troubled by another person's vices, not entangled in them; to grieve, not to cling; to be drawn tight by pain, not attracted by love. This is the persecution suffered by all who wish to live piously in Christ, according to the apostle's biting and truthful sentence. For what persecutes the life of the good more here than the life of the wicked? Not when it forces them to imitate what displeases them, but when it forces them to grieve over what they see. When someone lives impiously before a pious person, even if he does not bind the one who refuses consent, he torments the one who feels it. Often and for a long time, secular powers and all kinds of injuries spare the bodies of the impious; but the hearts of the pious are never spared by people's evil ways until the end of this age. In this way, then, what I recalled the apostle saying is more fully carried out: "All who wish to live piously in Christ will suffer persecution." The more inward the persecution, the more bitter it is, until the flood passes and the ark holds both raven and dove. But cling, brother, to the one from whom you heard, "The one who perseveres to the end will be saved." Join yourself to the Lord, so that your life may grow in its last things. I know that refreshment of heart from good brothers is not lacking. Add to this the faithful, great, certain, everlasting promises of God, and the unshaken, unspeakable reward of that very endurance. Then see how truly you sing to the Lord: "According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, your consolations have gladdened my soul." Send our letter to brother Firmus. Your Holiness, and the household of God governed by your ministry, are greeted in return in the Lord by the brothers and sisters who are with us here. In another hand: Pray for us while you are well, dearly loved and holy brothers. I, Alypius, greet Your Sincerity with the greatest warmth, and all who are joined to you in the Lord. I ask you to count this letter as mine too. Even if I could have sent another of my own, I preferred to sign this one, so that one page too might bear witness to our oneness of mind.

EPISTOLA 248 Scripta post a. 395. A. Sebastiano de pia tristitia quam boni ferunt ex malorum impietate (n. 1), quam tolerant Deo adhaerendo aeternaeque mercedis expectatione (n. 2). Huic ep. subscripsit Alypius. DOMINO SANCTO DESIDERABILI, ET IN CHRISTI HONORE SUAVISSIMO FRATRI SEBASTIANO AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM. Pia tristitia, vitiis alienis tribulari, non implicari. 1. Quamvis ab animo nostro nullo modo te separatum esse permittat dulce vinculum caritatis, et indesinenter tuos sanctos mores atque colloquia recolamus; tamen bene fecisti, et gratias agimus quod nobis etiam corporalis salutis tuae nuntios apices mittendo, nos plurimum exhilarasti. Sensi autem in epistola tua quod taedium te detinuerit a peccatoribus relinquentibus legem Dei 1: illo enim spiritu vivis, quo dictum est: Vidi insensatos, et tabescebam 2. Pia est ista tristitia, et, si dici potest, beata miseria, vitiis alienis tribulari, non implicari; moerere, non haerere; dolore contrahi, non amore attrahi. Haec est persecutio quam patiuntur omnes qui volunt in Christo pie vivere, secundum apostolicam mordacem veracemque sententiam 3. Quid enim hic magis persequitur vitam bonorum, quam vita iniquorum; non cum cogit imitari quod displicet, sed cum cogit dolere quod videt? Quoniam coram pio vivens impie, etsi non obligat consentientem, cruciat sentientem. Nam saepe et diu impiorum corporibus a saecularibus potestatibus, et quorumlibet vexationibus parcitur; piorum autem cordibus a malis hominum moribus numquam usque ad huius saeculi finem. Sic ergo potius impletur quod commemoravi dixisse Apostolum: Quia omnes qui volunt in Christo pie vivere, persecutionem patientur 4; et tanto amarius quanto interius, donec diluvium transeat, ubi arca continet corvum et columbam 5. Quid Christianum soletur inter malos viventem. 2. Sed inhaere, frater, illi a quo audisti: Qui perseveraverit usque in finem, hic salvus erit 6. Coniungere Domino, ut crescat in novissimis vita tua 7. Scio enim non deesse recreationem cordis de fratribus bonis. Huc adiunge promissiones Dei fideles, magnas, certas, sempiternas, ipsiusque tolerantiae imperturbabilem ineffabilemque mercedem: et vide quam verum Domino cantes: Secundum multitudinem dolorum meorum in corde meo, consolationes tuae iucundaverunt animam meam 8. Mitte fratri Firmo litteras nostras. Sanctitatem tuam et familiam Dei, quae tuo ministerio gubernatur, fratres et sorores quae apud nos sunt nobiscum, in Domino resalutant. (Et alia manu): Incolumes pro nobis oretis, dilectissimi et sancti fratres. Ego Alypius impensissime saluto Sinceritatem tuam, omnesque tibi in Domino coniunctos; atque ut hanc tamquam meam epistolam deputes, peto: etsi enim aliam propriam mittere potuissem, tamen malui huic subscribere, ut unanimitatem nostram una etiam pagina testaretur.