Preface to the Second Book of the Blessings

As we see from his preface to the former book, Rufinus thought it unsatisfactory to explain the blessing on Judah apart from the blessings on his brothers. So Paulinus, taking the opportunity of their common friend Cerealis’s journey to Rome, sends the following letter to persuade Rufinus to explain the remaining blessings. Paulinus to his brother Rufinus, all good wishes.

Our son Cerealis told me it was uncertain whether, returning as he now is to Saint Peter, he would be able to visit you. Yet it seems to me that I would be to blame, and you would be annoyed, if I did not write to you by him, since you have a share in him as well as I. I would rather lose some letter paper through his not visiting you than lose credit with you, as I think I would if he visited you without a letter. So I have entrusted this letter, I will not say to chance, but to faith. For I believe that the Lord will direct to you the way both of our son and of my letter, since for those who long for good, everything turns to good. And indeed he longs for you as you ought to be longed for by one who understands the good he may gain from your company. I believe that this longing of his for a good thing will not be lost, in keeping with his faith and devotion. And so I am confident that he will reach you and stay with you, and that I will see the saving help of the Lord doubled toward you. For in him you will gain a good son, pupil and assistant; and he will find in you a father and a teacher of all good things, given to him by the Lord, who will add the strength of spiritual grace to the effectiveness and power of his prayers. [b]

As for me, though I am sure that when you go back to the East you will not want to leave without visiting me, my sins make me fear that the daughter of Babylon may turn you away from me. So I pray to the Lord with earnest longing that he would give me not what I deserve but what I desire, and would direct your course to me in the way of peace. For those who do not walk in that way are rejected and condemned, and unable truly to long for your presence.

But now for the business part of my letter. With the persistence I usually show in knocking at your door even in the middle of the night, driven by fear of a refusal into the humble posture of one who begs, I charge you to show me kindness once more and to explain the blessings on the twelve patriarchs. You have already made a beginning with the prophecy about Judah, and, as the precept directs, you have given it a threefold interpretation. I now beg you to explain the prophecy as it relates to each of the sons of Judah. In this way I may come to possess the truth through you, and also gain through your help the favor and praise that will come to me. For I will then be able to answer those who have seen fit to consult me about the difficulties of this passage of Scripture, not with foolish words drawn from my own understanding, but with divine truth flowing from your inspiration. [d]

Rufinus was busy at this time with his larger works, the translations of Pamphilus’s defense of Origen and of Origen’s On First Principles, and he was about to set out for Rome. Even so, he lost no time in writing the work Paulinus asked for, and sent it to him with the following letter. Rufinus to his brother Paulinus, the man of God, with all good wishes.

Though our common son Cerealis did not visit me, he knew what pain he would cause me if he delayed my receiving your letter, and he sent it on to me. As I read it, I felt, as usual, my longing for you grow steadily. But toward its close I found a request from which I have often begged you to excuse me: I mean your request that I write something in answer to your questions about the interpretation of passages of Scripture. I thought the writings I have sent you again and again, which have shown my ignorance and the roughness of my speech, would lead you to give up these questions. But since you are still not tired of commanding me, I have at once, as well as I could, added comments on the remaining eleven patriarchs to what I had written at your wish on the blessing of Judah. I acted like the man in the parable of the two sons. I thought I would best do the father’s will in this way: when he told me to go into the vineyard I had said, “I will not go,” yet after a while I went. If, as I grant, there is some rashness in our attempting so great a task with so little ability, I would say, with all respect to you, that the blame must most justly be laid on you. For your excessive love for me keeps you from seeing that my measure of knowledge, as of the other virtues, is only slight.

I wrote this work in the days of Lent, while I was staying at the monastery of Pinetum, and I wrote it for you. But I found it impossible to hide this poor work from the brothers who were there. They reasoned that something you had honored with your approval must be of great importance, and they pressed me until I let them copy it for themselves. So, while you ask me for food for yourself, you give refreshment to others too. Farewell, and be at peace, my most loving brother, most true worshiper of God, and an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. I beg you, who are so full of the grace of God, to keep me still in remembrance.