Edition Masquer
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXIX: Quid familia Christi respondere debeat infidelibus, cum exprobrant, quod eam a furore hostium non liberauerit Christus.

Habet itaque omnis familia summi et ueri dei consolationem suam, non fallacem nec in spe rerum nutantium uel labentium constitutam, uitamque etiam ipsam temporalem minime paenitendam, in qua eruditur ad aeternam, bonisque terrenis tamquam peregrina utitur nec capitur, malis autem aut probatur aut emendatur. illi uero, qui probitati eius insultant eique dicunt, cum forte in aliqua temporalia mala deuenerit: ubi est deus tuus? ipsi dicant, ubi sint di eorum, cum talia patiuntur, pro quibus euitandis eos uel colunt uel colendos esse contendunt. nam ista respondet: deus meus ubique praesens, ubique totus, nusquam inclusus, qui possit adesse secretus, abesse non motus; ille cum me aduersis rebus exagitat, aut merita examinat aut peccata castigat mercedemque mihi aeternam pro toleratis pie malis temporalibus seruat; uos autem qui estis, cum quibus loqui dignum sit saltem de dis uestris, quanto minus de deo meo, qui terribilis est super omnes deos, quoniam di gentium daemonia, dominus autem caelos fecit.

Traduction Masquer
The City of God

Chapter 29.--What the Servants of Christ Should Say in Reply to the Unbelievers Who Cast in Their Teeth that Christ Did Not Rescue Them from the Fury of Their Enemies.

The whole family of God, most high and most true, has therefore a consolation of its own,--a consolation which cannot deceive, and which has in it a surer hope than the tottering and falling affairs of earth can afford. They will not refuse the discipline of this temporal life, in which they are schooled for life eternal; nor will they lament their experience of it, for the good things of earth they use as pilgrims who are not detained by them, and its ills either prove or improve them. As for those who insult over them in their trials, and when ills befall them say, "Where is thy God?" ¹ we may ask them where their gods are when they suffer the very calamities for the sake of avoiding which they worship their gods, or maintain they ought to be worshipped; for the family of Christ is furnished with its reply: our God is everywhere present, wholly everywhere; not confined to any place. He can be present unperceived, and be absent without moving; when He exposes us to adversities, it is either to prove our perfections or correct our imperfections; and in return for our patient endurance of the sufferings of time, He reserves for us an everlasting reward. But who are you, that we should deign to speak with you even about your own gods, much less about our God, who is "to be feared above all gods? For all the gods of the nations are idols; but the Lord made the heavens." ²