Prepared for the Crown

Cyprian to the people living at Thibaris: greetings.

Dear brothers, I had truly meant to come to you myself, and prayed that I might — if the state of things and the condition of the times allowed it, and since you have asked for it so often — and, once I was with you, to strengthen the brotherhood with what modest power of encouragement I have. But I am held here by business so pressing that I have no way to travel far from this place or to be long absent from the people God’s mercy has set me over. So for the moment I have written this letter, to stand with you in my place. [d]

The Lord, in his regard for me, keeps teaching me, and I am prompted and warned again and again; so I owe it to your consciences as well to bring you the weight of that warning. You ought to know, and to believe, and to hold it for certain, that the day of trouble has begun to hang over our heads, that the setting of the world and the time of Antichrist are drawing near, and that we must all stand ready for the battle. Think of nothing but the glory of everlasting life and the crown that comes of confessing the Lord, and do not take what is coming to be anything like what has gone by. A harder and fiercer fight is threatening now, and the soldiers of Christ ought to make themselves ready for it with an undamaged faith and a stout courage, remembering that they drink the cup of Christ’s blood every day, so that they may themselves be able to shed their blood for Christ.

This is what it means to want to be found with Christ: to copy what Christ both taught and did. As the apostle John said: “Whoever says he remains in Christ ought himself also to walk as he walked.” And the blessed apostle Paul urges and teaches: “We are God’s children; and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, provided that we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”

All of this we have to weigh now, so that no one may want anything from a world that is dying, but may follow Christ instead, who both lives forever and gives life to his servants, the ones who stand settled in faith in his name. For the time is coming, dear brothers, that our Lord foretold long ago and taught us was near, when he said: “The time is coming when whoever kills you will think he is doing God a service. And they will do these things to you because they have not known the Father or me. But I have told you these things so that when the time comes you may remember that I told you of them.” [h]

And let no one be surprised that we are worn down by constant persecutions and tried again and again by mounting troubles, when the Lord said beforehand that these things would happen in the last times, and has trained us for the war by teaching us and urging us on in his own words. Peter too, his apostle, taught that persecutions happen so that we may be tested, and that we as well, following the example of the righteous men who went before us, should be joined to the love of God by death and by suffering. He wrote in his letter: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come to test you, and do not fall away as if something strange were happening to you. Rather, as often as you share in Christ’s sufferings, rejoice in everything, so that when his glory is revealed you may be glad with overflowing joy as well. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the name of the Lord’s majesty and power rests on you — a name that on their side is spoken against, but on our side is glorified.”

Now what the apostles taught us they had themselves learned from the Lord’s instructions and the commands of heaven, with the Lord himself strengthening us in these words: “There is no one who has left house or land or parents or brothers or sisters or wife or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive seven times as much in this present time, and in the age to come everlasting life.” And again he says: “Blessed are you when men hate you, and cut you off from their company, and throw you out, and denounce your name as evil for the sake of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy; for look, your reward is great in heaven.”

The Lord wanted us to rejoice and leap for joy in persecutions, because when persecutions come, that is when the crowns of faith are handed out, that is when the soldiers of God are tested, that is when heaven is opened to martyrs. We did not enlist for war on terms that let us think only about peace, and pull back from the fighting and refuse it — not when the Lord walked ahead of us in this very war, the teacher of humility and endurance and suffering, so that what he taught us to do he did first himself, and what he urges us to suffer he suffered for us first. [j]

Keep this in front of your eyes, dear brothers: the one who alone received all judgment from the Father, and who will come to judge, has already announced the sentence he means to pass and the recognition he means to give. He foretold it and testified to it: he will acknowledge before his Father those who acknowledge him, and he will deny those who deny him. If we could get out of dying, we would have good reason to fear death. But since a mortal man has to die in any case, we should take hold of the opportunity that comes by God’s promise and God’s regard, and finish the ending that death provides with the reward of never dying. We should not be afraid of being killed, when we are certain that in being killed we are crowned.

And when anyone sees our people driven off and scattered by the fear of persecution, dear brothers, let him not be shaken that he does not see the brotherhood gathered together or hear the overseers preaching. They cannot all be in one place together — men who are not permitted to kill, but must be killed. [k]

Wherever, in these days, one of the brothers is separated from the flock for a time by the pressure of the season — in body, not in spirit — let him not be moved by the terror of that flight; and if he withdraws and goes into hiding, let him not be frightened by the loneliness of a deserted place. He is not alone, if Christ is his companion in flight. He is not alone who keeps God’s temple wherever he is, and so is never without God.

And if a robber falls on you while you are a fugitive in some lonely place or in the mountains; if a wild animal attacks you; if hunger or thirst or cold wears you down; if the gale and the storm swallow you as you hurry on a fast voyage across the sea — Christ is watching his soldier fight, everywhere, and to the man who dies for the sake of persecution and for the honor of his name he gives a reward, as he has promised to give it at the resurrection. The glory of martyrdom is no less because a man did not die in public and in front of a crowd, since what makes the dying is that it is dying for Christ. The Witness who tests martyrs and crowns them is testimony enough that the man was a martyr.

Let us copy righteous Abel, dear brothers, who opened the way of martyrdom, the first man killed for doing what is right. Let us copy Abraham, the friend of God, who did not hold back from offering his own son as a victim with his own hands, obeying God with a faith that was all devotion. Let us copy the three young men Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, who were neither frightened by their youth nor broken by captivity: with Judea beaten and Jerusalem taken, they defeated the king by the strength of their faith inside his own kingdom. When they were told to worship the image King Nebuchadnezzar had made, they stood up stronger than the king’s threats and stronger than the flames, calling out and testifying to their faith in these words: “King Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. Our God whom we serve is able to rescue us from the furnace of burning fire, and he will rescue us out of your hand, king. But if not, let it be known to you that we do not serve your gods, and we do not worship the golden image you have set up.” [n]

They believed that their faith might get them out alive; but they added “but if not,” so that the king would know they were also able to die for the God they worshiped. This is what courage and faith amount to: to believe and to know that God can rescue a man from the death standing in front of him, and yet not to fear that death or give way — so that faith may be proved all the more powerfully.

The undamaged and unbeaten strength of the Holy Spirit broke out through their mouths, so that the words the Lord spoke in his Gospel are shown to be true: “When they seize you, do not worry about what you are to say, for it will be given you in that hour what to say. For it is not you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking in you.” He said that what we are able to say and to answer is given to us from heaven in that hour, and supplied to us; and that it is not then we who speak, but the Spirit of God our Father, who, since he neither leaves those who confess him nor is separated from them, both speaks in us and is crowned in us.

So Daniel too, when he was ordered to worship the idol Bel, which the people and the king worshiped at that time, spoke out with full faith and freedom in defense of the honor of his God: “I worship nothing but the Lord my God, who made heaven and earth.”

What are we to say about the cruel tortures of the blessed martyrs in Maccabees, and the many kinds of suffering the seven brothers went through, and the mother comforting her sons in their agony and dying along with her children? Are they not the proof of great courage and faith, and do they not urge us on by their sufferings toward the triumphs of martyrdom? What of the prophets, whom the Holy Spirit brought to life so that they knew beforehand what was coming? What of the apostles, whom the Lord chose? Since these righteous men were killed for doing what is right, have they not taught us to die as well? [p]

Christ’s birth saw the martyrdom of infants at the same moment: children two years old and under were killed for the sake of his name. An age not yet fit for the battle turned out to be fit for the crown. So that it might be plain that those killed for Christ’s sake are innocent, innocent infancy was put to death for his name. It shows that no one is out of reach of the danger of persecution, when even these carried a martyrdom through.

But how serious is a Christian’s case if he, a servant, is unwilling to suffer when his Master suffered first — and if we are unwilling to suffer for our own sins, when he who had no sin of his own suffered for us! The Son of God suffered in order to make us sons of God, and the son of man will not suffer in order to go on being a son of God! If we suffer from the world’s hatred, Christ bore the world’s hatred first. If we suffer insults in this world, or exile, or torture, the Maker and Lord of the world went through harder things than these. And he warns us: “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me before you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, that is why the world hates you. Remember the word I said to you: a servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you too.” Whatever our Lord and God taught, he also did, so that a disciple would have no excuse if he learns it and does not do it.

And let none of you be so terrified, dear brothers, by fear of the persecution ahead, or by the coming of Antichrist and his threats, that you are not found armed for everything by the encouragements and instructions of the good news and by the warnings of heaven. Antichrist is coming — but Christ is coming above him. The enemy prowls about and rages, but the Lord follows him at once to avenge our sufferings and our wounds. The adversary is furious and makes his threats, but there is One who can pull us out of his hands. [r]

The one to be feared is the one whose anger nobody can escape, as he himself warns us: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Fear instead the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” And again: “The one who loves his life will lose it; and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for life everlasting.” And in the Revelation he instructs us and warns us: “If anyone worships the beast and its image, and receives its mark on his forehead or on his hand, he too will drink of the wine of God’s anger, mixed in the cup of his indignation, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torments will rise up forever and ever, and they will have no rest day or night — those who worship the beast and its image.”

For a contest in the world men train and prepare themselves, and they count it a great glory to their honor if it should fall to them to be crowned in the sight of the crowd and in the emperor’s presence. Look now at a contest that is high and great, and glorious as well with the reward of a crown from heaven: God is looking at us as we struggle, and, spreading his gaze over those he has thought worthy to make his sons, he enjoys the spectacle of our contest. God looks at us in the war, fighting in the encounter of faith; his angels look at us; Christ looks at us. How great the dignity is, and how great the happiness of the glory, to fight in the presence of God and to be crowned with Christ for a judge! [s]

Let us be armed with our whole strength, dear brothers, and let us be made ready for the struggle with an undamaged mind, a sound faith, a devoted courage. Let the camp of God march out to the field appointed for us. Let those who stood firm be armed, so that a man who stood may not lose the advantage of having lately stood; and let the lapsed be armed too, so that even the lapsed may win back what he has lost. Let honor call out the ones who stood; let grief call the lapsed man out to the battle.

The apostle Paul teaches us to be armed and made ready: “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against powers, and against the rulers of this world and of this darkness, against spirits of wickedness in the high places. So put on the whole armor, so that you may be able to hold your ground on the most evil day; so that when you have done everything you may stand — with your waist belted with truth, and wearing the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet fitted with the readiness of the good news of peace; taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to put out all the flaming arrows of the evil one; and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Let us take up these weapons; let us fortify ourselves with these safeguards of the Spirit and of heaven, so that on the most evil day we may be able to hold our ground and stand against the devil’s threats. Let us put on the breastplate of righteousness, so that the chest is fortified and safe against the enemy’s arrows. Let our feet be shod with the teaching of the good news and armed, so that when the serpent begins to be trodden down and crushed by us, he cannot bite us and trip us up. Let us carry the shield of faith bravely, and under its cover whatever the enemy throws at us will be put out. [u]

Let us take the helmet of salvation as well, to protect the head: so that our ears are guarded against hearing the deadly edicts; so that our eyes are fortified and do not look at the hateful images; so that our forehead is fortified and keeps God’s sign safe; so that our mouth is fortified and the tongue that wins the day confesses Christ its Lord. Let us arm the right hand too with the sword of the Spirit, so that it bravely refuses the deadly sacrifices — so that, remembering the thanksgiving, the hand that has received the Lord’s body may take hold of the Lord himself, and afterward receive from the Lord the reward of the crowns of heaven.

Oh, what a day that will be when it comes, dear brothers, and how great — the day when the Lord begins to count up his people and to recognize what each one deserves, by the searching of his own divine knowledge; to send the guilty to Gehenna and to set our persecutors on fire with the endless burning of a punishing flame, but to pay us the reward of our faith and our devotion! [w]

What glory it will be, and how great the joy — to be let in to see God; to be so honored that you receive, together with Christ your Lord and God, the joy of everlasting salvation and light; to greet Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the patriarchs and prophets and apostles and martyrs; to be glad with the righteous and with the friends of God in the kingdom of heaven, with the delight of immortality given to us; to receive there what no eye has seen and no ear has heard, and what has never entered the human heart!

For the apostle announces that we will receive greater things than anything we either do or suffer here: “The sufferings of this present time are not worth weighing against the glory to come, which will be revealed in us.” When that revealing comes, when that glory of God shines out on us, we will be as happy and glad, honored by God’s regard, as they will stay guilty and wretched — those who, as deserters from God or rebels against him, have done the devil’s will, so that they must be tormented along with the devil himself in unquenchable fire.

Let these things take hold of our hearts, dear brothers. Let this be how we prepare our weapons; let this be what we turn over by day and by night — to keep in front of our eyes, and to go over constantly in our thoughts and our feelings, the punishments of the wicked, and the rewards of the righteous and what they deserve: what the Lord threatens by way of punishment against those who deny him, and what on the other hand he promises by way of glory to those who confess him. If, while we are thinking and meditating on these things, a day of persecution comes to us, the soldier of Christ who has been trained by his instructions and his warnings is not afraid of the battle but ready for the crown. [y]

I wish you always well, dearest brothers. Farewell.