Homilies on the Statues

^4. Collecting then all these reasons, let us raise ourselves from the dejection which oppresses us. For I have laid these histories before you, not that you may applaud what is spoken, but that you may imitate the virtue and the patience of such noble men; that you may learn from the very facts, that there is nothing of human ills to be dreaded, save sin only; neither poverty, nor disease, nor insult, nor malicious treatment, nor ignominy, nor death, which is accounted the worst of all evils. To those who love spiritual wisdom, such things are only the names of calamities; names which have no substantial reality. But the true calamity consists in offending God, and in doing anything which is displeasing to Him. For tell me, what is there in death which is terrible? Is it because it transports you more quickly to the peaceful haven, and to that life which is free from tumult? Although man should not put you to death, will not the very law of nature, at length stealing upon you, separate the body from the soul; and if this event which we fear does not happen now, it will happen shortly.