Letter 44

From: Braulio of Zaragoza, bishop To: [Recipient unknown] Date: ~643 AD Context: Letter 44 of Braulio of Zaragoza, the final letter in the collection; Braulio reflects on his faith, the state of the church, and his readiness for death. To my beloved brother in Christ, This may be among the last letters I write — not because anything specific is wrong, but because I am aware that the years remaining to me are fewer than those behind me, and I have begun to think of each letter as possibly a final word to the person who receives it. What I want to say to you, at the end of things, is simpler than most of what I have written in my life. The faith is true. I do not say this as a formula; I say it as the conclusion of a lifetime of reading, thinking, arguing, doubting, and returning to what I know. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and the life of the resurrection — which looks so implausible from where we stand — is the shape of the world's future. The whole structure of the church, its sacraments and its discipline and its scholarship, exists to make that reality present and available to people who could not otherwise grasp it. Everything else — the disputes about jurisdiction, the politics of the councils, the arguments about liturgical practice, the management of property, the negotiations with kings — all of it is important in the right proportion and none of it matters ultimately. What matters ultimately is whether people are held by this faith in a way that carries them through life and death. I believe they can be. I have seen it. Go well. Pray for me. Braulio, bishop of Zaragoza