Letter 18: When I look at the divine law that calls husband and wife joined in marriage one flesh, I hardly know how to comfort...

To Neoptolemus. When I look at the divine law that calls husband and wife joined in marriage one flesh, I hardly know how to comfort a limb that has been severed — the pain of it is too great. But when I look at the course of nature, and the law the Creator laid down in the words "Dust you are, and to dust you shall return," and at everything that happens daily throughout the world on land and sea — husbands dying before wives, wives before husbands — I find in these reflections many grounds for consolation. Above all, I find them in the hopes our Lord and Savior has given us. The entire purpose of the mystery of the incarnation was that we, having been taught that death is defeated, should no longer grieve beyond measure for those we lose to it, but should await the longed-for fulfillment of the hope of the resurrection. I urge your Excellency to hold these things in mind and to overcome the pain of your grief — all the more so because the children of your shared love are with you and give you every reason to look forward. Let us praise him who governs our lives with wisdom, and not provoke him by excessive lamentation. In his wisdom he knows what is good for us, and in his mercy he gives it.

Letter 18