We already knew that. But in today's Office of Readings, there's one more proof.
Have you ever thought it would be easier to be holy and/or happy living in some simpler, bygone era?
Fuggeddaboudit, says the Bishop of Hippo:
Is there any affliction now endured by mankind that was not endured by our fathers before us? What sufferings of ours even bears comparison with what we know of their sufferings? And yet you hear people complaining about this present day and age because things were so much better in former times. I wonder what would happen if they could be taken back to the days of their ancestors--would we not still hear them complaining? You may think past ages were good, but it is only because you are not living in them...
From the time of Adam to the time of his descendants today, mans lot has been labor and sweat, thorns and thistles. Have we forgotten the flood and the calamitous times of famine and war whose history has been recorded precisely in order to keep us from complaining to God on account of our own times? Just think what those past ages were like! Is there one of us who does not shudder to hear or read of them? Far from justifying complaints about our own time, they teach us how much we have to be thankful for.
Have you ever thought it would be easier to be holy and/or happy living in some simpler, bygone era?
Fuggeddaboudit, says the Bishop of Hippo:
Is there any affliction now endured by mankind that was not endured by our fathers before us? What sufferings of ours even bears comparison with what we know of their sufferings? And yet you hear people complaining about this present day and age because things were so much better in former times. I wonder what would happen if they could be taken back to the days of their ancestors--would we not still hear them complaining? You may think past ages were good, but it is only because you are not living in them...
From the time of Adam to the time of his descendants today, mans lot has been labor and sweat, thorns and thistles. Have we forgotten the flood and the calamitous times of famine and war whose history has been recorded precisely in order to keep us from complaining to God on account of our own times? Just think what those past ages were like! Is there one of us who does not shudder to hear or read of them? Far from justifying complaints about our own time, they teach us how much we have to be thankful for.
