{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/206/2060024.htm","path":"chr/ecf/206/2060024.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/206/2060024.htm","text":"Letter XIII. To Castorina, His Maternal Aunt.\nAn interesting letter, as throwing some light on Jerome\u2019s family relations. Castorina, his maternal aunt, had, for some reason, become estranged from him, and he now writes to her to effect a reconciliation. Whether he succeeded in doing so, we do not know. The date of the letter is 374 a.d.\nThe apostle and evangelist John rightly says, in his first epistle, that \u201cwhosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.\u201d 168 For, since murder often springs from hate, the hater, even though he has not yet slain his victim, is at heart a murderer. Why, you ask, do I begin in this style? Simply that you and I may both lay aside past ill feeling and cleanse our hearts to be a habitation for God. \u201cBe ye angry,\u201d David says, \u201cand sin not,\u201d or, as the apostle more fully expresses it, \u201clet not the sun go down upon your wrath.\u201d 169 What then shall we do in the day of judgment, upon whose wrath the sun has gone down not one day but many years? The Lord says in the Gospel: \u201cIf thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.\u201d 170 Woe to me, wretch that I am; woe, I had almost said, to you also. This long time past we have either offered no gift at the altar or have offered it whilst cherishing anger \u201cwithout a cause.\u201d How have we been able in our daily prayers to say \u201cForgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,\u201d 171 whilst our feelings have been at variance with our words, and our petition inconsistent with our conduct? Therefore I renew the prayer which I made a year ago in a previous letter, 172 that the Lord\u2019s legacy of peace 173 may be indeed ours, and that my desires and your feelings may find favor in His sight. Soon we shall stand before His judgment seat to receive the reward of harmony restored or to pay the penalty for harmony broken. In case you shall prove unwilling\u2014I hope that it may not be so\u2014to accept my advances, I for my part shall be free. For this letter, when it is read, will insure my acquittal.\nMatt. 5:23, 24.\n13:171 13:172 13:173","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. VI: The Letters of St. Jerome.: Letter XIII","type":"page"}