Fate, poverty, and God's testing
Octavius is answering Caecilius's charge that Christians are poor and miserable, explaining that fate is God's decree, poverty is no disgrace, and hardships are God's testing of his own.
No one should seek comfort or excuse for his conduct in fate. Let a person's lot be whatever fortune wills, but the mind remains free, and so it is a man's action that is judged, not his station.
For what else is fate than what God has spoken concerning each one of us? Since he can know the material beforehand, he determines our fates according to the merits and qualities of each individual. Thus it is not our birth that is punished in us, but the nature of our character. And enough about fate, even if briefly for the present; we will discuss it more fully and completely another time.
As for the fact that most of us are called poor, that is not our disgrace but our glory. The mind is loosened by luxury, just as it is strengthened by frugality. And yet who can be poor if he lacks nothing, does not gape after another's goods, and is rich in God? That man is poorer who, though he has much, desires more.
I will tell you what I think: no one can be as poor as he was when he was born. Birds live without an inheritance and are fed day by day; and all these things were made for us, and if we do not covet them, we possess them.
Therefore, just as a man who travels a road is happier the lighter he walks, so in this journey of life the man is more blessed who lifts himself up by poverty and does not sigh under the burden of riches.
And yet if we thought wealth useful, we would ask it from God. Surely he to whom the whole belongs could grant us some portion. But we prefer to despise riches rather than to grasp them; we desire innocence more, we more urgently seek patience; we prefer to be good rather than extravagant.
And the human weaknesses of the body that we feel and suffer are not punishment; it is service as soldiers. For courage is strengthened in infirmities, and calamity is often the training ground of virtue. In fact, the powers of both mind and body grow sluggish without the exercise of labor. All your brave men, whom you praise as examples, flourished and became famous through their hardships.
So God both can help us and does not despise us, since he is the ruler of all things and the lover of his own. But in adversity he tests and examines each one; he weighs the character of individuals through dangers; he inquires into a man's will even to his final death, certain that nothing of his can perish. Therefore, as gold is proved by fire, so we are proved by critical moments.
Latin
Nec de fato quisquam aut solacium captet aut excuseteuentum: sit sors fortunae, mens tamen libera est, et ideo actus hominis, non dignitas iudicatur.
quid enim aliud est fatum quam quod de unoquoque nostrum Deus fatus est ? qui cum possit praescire materiam, pro meritis et qualitatibus singulorum etiam fata determinat. ita in nobis non genitura plectitur, sed ingenii natura punitur. ac de fato satis, uel si pauca pro tempore, disputaturi alias et uberius et plenius.
ceterum quod plerique pauperes dicimur, non est infamia nostra, sed gloria: animus enim ut luxu soluitur, ita frugalitate firmatur.
et tamen qui potest pauper esse qui non eget, qui non inhiat alieno, qui Deo diues est? magis pauper ille est, qui cum multa habeat, plura desiderat.
dicam tamen quemadmodum sentio: nemo tam pauper potest esse quam natus est. aues sine patrimonio uiuunt et in diem pascuntur: et haec nobis tamen nata sunt, quae omnia, si non concupiscimus, possidemus.
igitur ut qui uiam terit, eo felicior quo leuior incedit, ita beatior in hoc itinere uiuendi, qui paupertate se subleuat, non sub diuitiarum onere suspirat.
et tamen facultates, si utiles putaremus, a Deo posceremus: utique indulgere posset aliquantum ■ cuius est totum. sed nos contemnere malumus opes quam contingere, innocentiam magis cupimus, magis patientiam flagitamus, malumus nos bonos esse quam prodigos, et quod corporis humana uitia sentimus et patimur, non est poena, militia est.
fortitudo enim in infirmitatibus roboratur et calamitas saepius disciplina uirtutis est. uires denique et mentis et corporis sine laboris exercitatione torpescunt: omnes adeo uestri uiri fortes, quos in exemplum praedicatis, aerumnis suis inclyti floruerunt.
itaque et nobis Deus nec non potest subuenire nec despicit, cum sit et omnium rector et amator suorum, sed in aduersis unumquemque explorat et examinat, ingenium singulorum periculis pensitat, usque ad extremam mortem uoluntatem hominis sciscitatur, nihil sibi posse perire securus. itaque ut aurum ignibus, sic nos discriminibus arguimur.