Letter 37

From: Ambrose, Bishop of Milan To: The Church at Milan Date: ~387 AD Context: A moral exhortation drawn from the book of Tobit [a deuterocanonical book about a righteous Jewish exile who maintained his faith and charity through severe trials], emphasizing almsgiving and the duty to the poor. Ambrose, Bishop, to the faithful. Tobit was a righteous man living in exile, and his story teaches us what righteousness looks like under pressure. He buried the dead when it was illegal to do so (Tobit 1:17-18). He fed the hungry from his own table. He maintained his faith in a foreign land surrounded by those who had abandoned theirs. For all this, he was punished — he lost his sight, his property, and very nearly his hope. Tobit's story would be unbearable without its ending. But the ending changes everything: the angel Raphael was sent, the son was preserved, the wife was delivered from her curse, and Tobit's sight was restored. God did not forget his servant; he was testing him, and the test had a purpose. I draw two lessons for us. First: the duty of almsgiving is not optional. It is not a generous addition to the Christian life — it is the foundation. "Almsgiving delivers from death and purges all sin" (Tobit 12:9). When you give to the poor, you lend to God, and God's interest rate exceeds anything the moneylenders of Milan can offer. Second: suffering does not mean God has abandoned you. Tobit was righteous and he suffered. Job was righteous and he suffered. Christ was sinless and he suffered most of all. The equation "suffering equals divine punishment" is a lie that comforts the comfortable and crushes the afflicted. Reject it. Give generously, live honestly, maintain your faith when circumstances argue against it, and trust that the God who sent Raphael to Tobit has not forgotten you. Farewell.

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