Friday, November 10, 2023

 

The Good and the Bad

Augustine, Sermons 38.2 (Patrologia Latina, vol. 38, col. 236; tr. Edmund Hill):
The good and bad things which are mixed together in the brew of this age do not fall to the lot only of the good or only of the bad. Anything you may call good in this world, well the good person has it and the bad one has it. For example, both good and bad enjoy bodily health. You will find riches in the possession of both good people and bad. We observe progeny and children to be a gift common to the good and the bad alike. Or take a long life; some good people live a long time, some bad people live a long time. And anything else you want to count among the good things of this age, you will find it indiscriminately among the good and the bad.

Again, all kinds of harsh and grievous conditions are suffered by both good and bad: hunger, disease, sorrows, losses, oppression, bereavements. All this is common matter for tears for everybody. So it's easy to see that both the goods of the world are enjoyed by good and bad people alike, and that the ills of the world are borne by good and bad alike.

Bona et mala quae versantur et miscentur in saeculo, nec boni soli habent, nec soli mali. Quicquid boni in hoc mundo dixeris, habet bonus, habet et malus. Veluti salutem ipsam corporis et boni habent et mali. Divitias et apud bonos et apud malos invenies. Successum filiorum, et bonorum et malorum donum videmus esse commune. Vitam longam diu vivunt boni quidam diu vivunt mali quidam. Et quaecumque alia numerare volueris in hoc saeculo bona, permixte invenis apud bonos et malos.

Rursum quaecumque aspera, quaecumque tristia, et boni patiuntur et mali: famem, morbum, dolores, damna, oppressiones, orbitates. Communis haec est omnium materies lacrimarum. Facile est ergo hoc videre, et bona saeculi apud bonos et malos esse, et mala saeculi bonos malosque perferre.



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