0:03
Extracts from the letter to Diogneto, written between 130 AD and the end of the second century. The Epistle of Diogneto is a remarkable example of the primitive Christian apologetics against the false accusations of the pagans and at the same time a reminder for contemporary Catholics that our stay in this world is temporary.
0:31
Christians do not distinguish themselves from other men, neither by the place where they live, nor by their language, nor by their customs.
0:38
They, in fact, do not have their own cities, nor do they use an unusual language, nor do they have a different life genre. Their doctrinal system has not been invented thanks to the talent and speculation of studious men, nor do they profess, like others, a teaching based on authority of men. Christians live in Greek and barbaric cities, as they are lucky.
1:02
They follow the customs of the inhabitants of the country, both in clothing and in all their lifestyle, and yet they give proof of an admirable tenor of life, and to everyone's judgment, incredible. They inhabit their own homeland, but as foreigners. They take part in everything as citizens, but they support everything as foreigners. All foreign land is homeland for them, but they are in all homeland as in foreign land.
1:28
"Like all, they marry and bear children, but they do not disobey the children they conceive. They have the table in common, but not the bed. They live in the flesh, but not according to the flesh. They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, and with their way of living they overcome these laws. They love all, and all pursue them. They are condemned without knowing them. They are given death, and with it they receive life.
1:58
They are poor and enrich many, they lack everything and abound in everything. They suffer dishonor and it serves them in glory. They suffer detriment in their fame and it witnesses their justice. They are cursed and blessed. They are treated with ignominy and they, instead, return honor.
2:19
They do good and are punished as evildoers, and being punished to death, they rejoice as if they were given life. The Jews fight them as strangers, and the Gentiles pursue them, and yet those who abhor them do not know how to explain the reason for their enmity.
2:40
To put it in a few words, Christians are in the world what the soul is in the body. The soul, in effect, is scattered by all the members of the body. So too, Christians are scattered throughout the cities of the world. The soul inhabits the body, but does not come from the body. Christians live in the world, but are not from the world.
3:01
The invisible soul is locked in the prison of the visible body. Christians live visibly in the world, but their religion is invisible. The flesh abhor and fights the soul, without having received any harm from it, just because it prevents it from enjoying pleasures. Also the world abhor Christians, without having received any harm from them, because they oppose their pleasures.
3:26
The soul loves the body and its members, even though it abhor it. Also Christians love those who hate them. The soul is locked in the body, but it is it that keeps the body together. Also Christians have held themselves in the world like in a prison, but they are the ones who keep the world in a jam. The immortal soul lives in a mortal tent.
3:51
Also Christians live as pilgrims in corruptible moradas while they wait for the celestial incorruption. The soul is perfected with mortification in eating and drinking. Also Christians, constantly mortified, multiply more and more. So important is the position that God has assigned them that it is not lawful to desert.
