The brevity of life and the purpose of suffering

It should be learned that God led his people through the wilderness for three days, so that they would not return hastily to Egypt. Understand that the communion with the body should not be seen as a burden or a secret matter through economy, as the extreme purity is not yet complete.

And this is for a reason; neither we nor God are to be blamed. 'You have guarded all my works' (Ps 32:8). The blessed one knows what was said by David, who was holy, that God does not observe all the iniquities of the birds, but trains them again, and this is why they suffer—that is, through struggle. The one who spoke before said that God, having guarded all his works, leads him to the 90, so that from this they might understand that the greatness of so many leadings is not due to sin, but to struggle and the goal of manliness.

The 'you have guarded' here is not instead of 'you kept,' but 'you will have observed.' And if he speaks of his own 'sins of youth' and presents 'you have guarded all my works' as having sinned, it is not to be wondered at; for all the saints, for the sake of moderation and good-mindedness, offer such voices, just as the men in the furnace and the blessed David said: 'Do not remember the sins of my youth and my ignorances' (Ps 103:3). 'You have reached to the roots of my feet.' This means 'you have made all that concerns me as exact as the roots, that is, both the reasons and the beginnings of my practical progressions, to observe so that you might lead me to punishment.' And this again he says based on their assumption.

That which grows old is like an ascetic or a garment of coarse linen. ''Of those,' he says, 'you remembered the sins that have grown old like an ascetic.' But an ascetic who has grown old is inactive for the need for which he was prepared; for he does not hold the liquids being poured in. So also the sins of youth have grown old and, like a garment of coarse linen, no longer serve the purpose. But sins grow old when they are worn away by virtue; for when being practiced they are always made young, even if the one practicing them is long-lived, he himself being called newer from the character of the one making things new. But a mortal, born of woman, is short-lived and full of wrath. He wills for them...

He presents the cause of his suffering by joining together the weight of the temptation and human life; for having examined that 'you have laid the sins of my youth upon me' (Ps 38:5) and 'all my works you have guarded' (Ps 38:5), as if you had sent so many to me, he brings forward as a supporting argument for the matter not being so, 'but man born of woman is short-lived and full of wrath' (Ps 88:5). Because of the hardship of life, he would not have brought such punishment upon the short-lived and full of wrath, unless he had encountered it for the sake of a struggle. For if the goodness of God and the brevity of men's lives had coincided, these things would not still have been reckoned as having happened because of sin.

But consider, lest he also have such a mind; the one who has not become God through virtue, but remains in the human condition, he is in wrath and is short-lived in a certain way, 'in this life alone, hoping.' But the one believing in the Savior so as to become God, he is not subject to punishment through wrath, even if he is afflicted, the affliction being called wrath in another way. He says therefore, 'if I also lived according to man, observe, so that from this you may judge, that I fell through wrath.' Or, just as a flower bloomed and fell away, and a shadow that will not stand. These things are to be joined with those before them.

That for the passing man, like a flower and a shadow, such evils were brought upon him, it is not according to the present context because of sins. 'For if he observes iniquities, Lord, Lord, who shall stand? But with you is the atonement' (Ps 143:2). So it was to be understood by the friends, that not because of mistakes, but as is foretold, because he was set before the goal of manliness, these things happened to him. And these things, first, according to a first thought.

But according to a second, it would be said thus: as a flower falls, 'he who walks according to the flesh' (Gal 5:25), and as a shadow, resembling an accompaniment and doing nothing previously. For since the shadow is received instead of the unsubstantial, it is shown by 'my days pass away like a shadow' (Ps 144:4). Will I not also make a point of this, and that you made this to enter into judgment before you? In agreement with the former response, someone might be, joining these things thus: 'if even the one born of woman is short-lived and filled with toil, so as to resemble one fallen like a flower and a shadow that flees quickly,'