In my lengthening life in this world, I have never seen so many good and righteous people as frightened and troubled as they are by the recent election and it’s possible consequences. They fear the death of goodness and compassion and justice, the loss of their faith and beliefs.

It is not for me, sitting on my beautiful farm, to say if they are right or wrong. Time and historians will have to decide, and I may not be here for the final judgment.

I know many other people who believe goodness and justice have been saved.

For now, I am more fascinated than alarmed, I am drawn to the spiritual implications of all this, and when I read and hear about it, I can’t help but go far back in time. I am a devoted reader of the Christian theologian St. Augustine, and his book City of God has always been an important book for me, a non-Christian and a non-believer.

It has comforted and guided me at almost every difficult point in my life.

I am closer to early Christian theology and it’s notion of mercy and compassion than any other theology, except for the Kabbalah. These works keep me close to spirituality, and my own idea of a compassionate and just God. There are important lessons for the righteous who are suffering today, as there always have been in human history.

In 410, the Visigoths sacked Rome, a nation that had not been sacked in the seven hundred years of its existence.

The destruction of Rome was a disaster, the Classical and Imperial Roman consciousness was utterly unprepared. The Christians had long predicted the end of the world, the pagans believed, and by refusing to offer sacrifices to the ancient Roman pagan gods, the Christians were blamed for turning the gods against Rome.

The Christians struggled as well. Why were the righteous suffering? Where was the Kingdom of God on earth that had been promised, and was expected? Why had justice and compassion not prevailed?

I can’t help but think of the shock and suffering that swept progressives in November, people of a particular social conscious. They were expecting their own Kingdom of God, a new era that brought comfort to the poor, social justice for the downtrodden, rights for the persecuted, equality in pay and work.

Like the ancient Romans, this socially liberal consciousness was utterly unprepared for a stunning and very painful sacking, a sacking of sacred values and expectations.

St. Augustine wrote City of God to respond to the fall of Rome and comfort agonized Christians. His writing was an answer to what he called the inevitable suffering of the righteous. His writing was successful, it gave the righteous comfort and inspiration. It helped to heal their wounds.

The perfect government, the perfect life, the perfect world could not happen on this earth, Augustine said, it was hubris to demand it, and the righteous could not expect it. Their very faith and righteousness came from suffering and despair and challenge, not victory or perfection. The perfect world could only exist in another, and spiritual realm. And in a perfect world, there was no need of the righteous, they would vanish.

In fact, he wrote, it was the lot of the righteous to be defeated, and be reborn,  and defeated again.

Their  fight was eternal, not temporal, mortal armies and emperors and politicians could not defeat them, any more than they could make the world pure and just in their lifetimes. A spiritual life, a righteous life, a  moral life, could not be measured by the successes or failures of Rome, (or by extension, a presidential election).

The decay or prosperity of a single nation meant nothing in comparison to the happiness that awaited them in heaven or another world, or in their own hearts and souls.

Augustine wrote that faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of faith is to come to see what you believe.

This is the very perfection of man, he wrote, to find and face his own imperfections. If you aspire to great things, begin with little things. The world is a book, and those who cannot travel can only read a page.

I aspire to great things, I have begun with small things – my photos, my therapy work with Red, my work with frightened refugee children. The rest of it is beyond me, I will not spend the remainder of life in complaint and argument.

St. Augustine’s writings brought great comfort to the world after the fall of Rome. I was touched by his idea of humility, which called on us to keep our expectations low and our faith and good works high.

His warnings to the greedy and powerful were as true then as they are today. It was pride, he said, that changed angels into devils, it is humility that makes men angels. We do not need to personally defeat all evil, their pride will turn them into devils and the will be consumed in their own fire.

“He that is kind is free, thought he is a slave,” wrote Augustine, “he that is evil is a slave, though he be King.”  I know there was great comfort in Augustine’s works more than 1,000 years ago, I believe there is comfort in them now. The righteous do not have a patent on happiness or success, quite the opposite, grace comes from struggle, not a perfect life.

I cannot change the imperfections of the world, or wave any magic want to create it in my own image. I am no God. But humility teaches me that patience is the child of wisdom.  It is not for me to judge, the people who challenge and defeat me are just as holy as I am.

St. Augustine urged the righteous to “love, and do what you like,” my own version of that thought is “do the best you can for as long as  you can.”

He also wrote that the purpose of all war is peace, the purpose of all defeat is victory, the purpose of a shattered dream is hope.

Righteousness is born from suffering and disappointment,  just as life is about death and light is about darkness. It is all one, really, all connected to the same thing. Augustine urged his battered and bewildered Christian followers to be generous in their disappointment and judgments.

“Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again.”