CXXV. TO CYRIACUS THE BISHOP IN EXILE
(Cucusus, year 404.)
Come, let me again calm the ulcer of your sadness and scatter the thoughts that have gathered this cloud. For why are you grieving and why are you troubled? Is it because the winter is harsh and the shipwreck that has overtaken the Church is bitter? I know this too, and no one can deny it; nay, if you wish, I will fashion for you an image of the things happening. We see a sea churned up from the very abyss, the sailors having clasped their hands to their knees in place of oars and tillers, and, at a loss due to the magnitude of the storm, they see neither sky, nor sea, nor land, but lie on the mattresses, lamenting and weeping. And this is wont to happen at sea; but now, in our own sea, the turmoil is worse and the waves are more grievous. But do you implore our Master Christ, who does not overcome a storm by skill, but dissolves the tempest by a mere nod. Even if you have often implored and have not been heard, do not lose heart; for such is the custom of the benevolent God. A For could He not have delivered those three youths from danger, so that they might not fall into the furnace of fire? But when they had been taken captive, when they had been cast into a barbarian B land, and had fallen away from their ancestral inheritance, and were given up for lost by all, and no manner of evil remained for them, then Christ, our true God, performed the miracle and dissipated the fire. For the fire, not bearing the virtue of the righteous, leaped out and scorched the Chaldeans whom it found around the furnace (Dan. 3). And then the furnace became a church for them, and they called upon the whole of creation, both the visible and the invisible, angels and powers, and thus, encompassing all things, they said: Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord (Dan. 3:57). C Do you see how the patience of the righteous turned the fire into dew, and put the tyrant to shame, and sent letters throughout the whole world? Great, he says, is the God of Sedrach, Misach, and Abdenago. And behold what severity He established, that if anyone should speak a word against them, his house should be plundered and his possessions confiscated (Dan. 3:96). Do not, therefore, lose heart, nor be discouraged. For I too, when I was being driven out from the city, was not concerned about any of these things, but I said to myself: If the king—