Letter CCVIII. To the Same

(A.D. 1139.)

The King had desired to see him; he sends some of his brethren in his place.

If you ask for me, here am I, and my children which God has given to me. For my humility is said to have found favour with the King's majesty, so that he seeks to see me. And who am I that I should go against the good pleasure of the King? I hasten and say to him who sought me: Lo! here I am, not in the weak bodily presence which Herod mocked in the Lord (S. Luke xxiii. ii), but in my children. For who shall separate me from them? I will follow them wherever they go; even if they dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, they shall not be without me. You have, O King, the light of my eyes, you have my heart and my soul. What if my meanest part is absent? I mean my worthless body, that vile possession, which necessity retains, though the will would gladly give it up. It is not able to follow the will, since it is weak, and almost the only thing awaiting it is the tomb. But why need this be a care? My soul shall dwell among the good, when my seed shall inherit the earth. My seed, my good seed shall spring up, that is if it falls into good soil. My soul shall rejoice and delight herself in fatness, because, I trust, there shall be given to her of the fruit of her hands. This hope of mine is laid up in my heart, so that I can patiently bear to be separated from them in body. Do not wonder, O King. I would rather have been absent from the body, than to send them away, if the cause had not been God's alone. Receive them as strangers and pilgrims, as fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God; nay, not citizens, they are kings. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven by the right and merit of poverty. It is not fitting that they should have been summoned from afar to no purpose, and wander as exiles from their home in a useless pilgrimage. Do you suppose they will be able to sing the Lord's song in a strange land? But perhaps I am wrong in calling it a strange land, for it has opened its heart of its own accord to receive the good seed, and has taken in the precious deposit to be piously fostered in its kindly bosom. It has fallen, I see, the good seed has fallen into a good, nay, an excellent, soil; I hope in the Lord that it will take root, spring up, multiply, and bring forth fruit with patience (S. Luke viii. 15). Then will I share this with the King, and each one shall receive according to his labour (1 Cor. iii. 8).