Letter to George, Prefect of Africa 1 part 2/14

of which, once it has passed, no trace is to be found, nor the path of its keel amid the waves;

or as when a bird flies through the air, no evidence of its passage is found.

All those things have passed away, leaving us this fire as an inheritance, abiding unto all ages;

for saying the same things, we shall henceforth never cease;

we were being called, and we would not obey;

we were being admonished, and we paid no heed.

Concerning these terrors we were taught every day, and we despised what was said.

The words concerning these things did not grieve us then, not even a little;

but now the realities themselves grieve us so exceedingly;

What now besets our life we considered mere nonsense, though it was then repeatedly chanted to us.

O wicked counsels!

O evil dealings!

O the wonder of God's just sentence concerning us in these matters!

How he has given back to us, for each kind of our sins, a fitting torment!

We have been condemned to dwell in this gloom and dreadful darkness, since we loved all shameful things — sights, and things heard, and words;

and above all the divine goods together, we preferred horse-races and theaters and hunting-spectacles;

in which throngs of demons danced, and from which all divine oversight and knowledge through angels was absent;

where the dignity of temperance was outraged in many ways;

while the evil and loathsome vice of licentiousness was openly extolled as though venerable.

but we defiled our eyes and ears and tongue;

or rather, through these we corrupted the soul that had been made according to the image of God, by all the sights and sounds and words hated by God, and by our envious ill-will against one another.

We have been cast down into Tartarus, terribly worn away at once by both icy congealment and the depth;

since we preferred pride over the lofty humility that is the procurer of lofty and divine things;

and we thrust away the firmness and rigor of virtue, on account of the excessive softness and dissoluteness of the flesh.

Where now is our pride, and the boastful disposition toward all that came from it, and the sluggish and easily-dissolving softness of the flesh?

Instead of unrestrained laughter, and the licentious noise of our cheeks, this heavy gnashing of teeth is now ours.

Having refused to practice the learning of divine and saving words, but having preferred the immoderation of drunkenness to divine praise expressed through word, we are now terribly punished, our tongue being consumed by a fearful thirst.

And we reap, as a fitting fruit of our hatred toward our brothers, and of envy and deceit and hypocrisy — out of which and through which comes murder — and of slander and false accusation, and of the harboring of grudges and falsehood and perjury, this sleepless worm, which insatiably devours the depth of our soul.

Since we perverted the straightness of love and made our heart crooked, and corrupted the passionlessness of truth and warped it;

having, through voluntary hatred, fashioned for ourselves an involuntary evil worm, and having, through falsehood, dug out a more wicked crookedness, on account of which we were not united to the God who is straight and upright.

We receive, therefore, things worthy of what we have done; or rather, we are given wages worthy of our own disposition according to our intention;

for the fire of pleasure, the fire of Gehenna;

and for the darkness of ignorance and of temporary deceit, eternal darkness;

and for the worm that, through hatred and falsehood, made the heart crooked and warped, a punishing and sleepless worm;

and for the licentious noise and eruption of our cheeks, noise and gnashing of teeth;

and for the height of vain pride and dissoluteness, a fall and a yawning, immeasurable depth, and the gloominess of terror-stricken cowering.

And, simply put, for each of our voluntary evils, we justly receive in return the involuntary punishment fitting to each.

What kept us wretches from quenching the fire of the flesh through fasting and vigil and the study of divine words — good and easy means of extinguishing that fire — so that we might not now be roasted by this fire?

Why did we not accustom our eyes and ears and tongue to good things, so that we might not now have this gloom, and this most oppressive silence;

but that we too might enjoy the light and the Word and the wisdom of God together with the saints, having become beholders and hearers and hymn-singers of the divine glory.

If, through love, we had put to death the voluntary worm of hatred, and through truth had made falsehood vanish, we would now be free of this burning worm, and of the rest of the terrors that now beset our life.

We do not find what we did not seek.

The door of the kingdom of heaven is not opened to us, because we did not knock upon the door of the virtues through practice;

We do not receive the enjoyment of eternal goods, because we did not ask, through prayer, for the grace of knowledge.

For we had no love at all for divine things, but having bound our mind to earthly things, we corrupted our whole life together with them.

And all those things, vanishing like smoke, have passed away, but the account of the judgment concerning them remains forever, never passing away.

And these things, perhaps, those souls will say to one another, relearning from what they suffer the power of divine justice, so as to grasp it, as it were, in summary form;

But who shall I, wretched one, become?

Relying on what deeds shall I hope to be delivered from the fearful condemnation, being destitute of all virtue and knowledge?

seeing that I have voluntarily bound the practical powers of the soul with the passions, and have hindered the steps of the soul from the divine course of the evangelical way of life;

Woe is me for the fearful shame, which will never have an end, unless, having changed, I become free of my many evils;

Woe is me for the weeping, and the bitter tears, and the gnashing of teeth, unless, becoming sober even late at last, I shake off the deep sleep of negligence, and strip off the filthy garment of sin;

then, instead of ease, punishment and anguish will altogether receive me.

And what indeed is most pitiable of all—or, to speak more truly, more grievous—a thing which pains me even to say alone;

how much more, actually to suffer it—be propitious, O Christ, and save us from this anguish—the separation from God and His holy powers;

and the kinship with the devil and the evil demons, remaining forever;

and having no prospect of deliverance from these terrors.

For with whomever, in this present age, through our evil practices, we have willingly and deliberately chosen to associate, with these same we shall fittingly, of necessity, be condemned to be in the age to come, even against our will.

And it is more punishing and more terrible than every punishment, to be forever together with those who hate and are hated, even apart from torments, let alone together with them;

but to be separated from him who loves and is loved.

For God, judging justly, is hated by those being judged, though He is by nature both love and is called love;

yet He does not hate those being judged;

for He is altogether by nature free from passion.

Believing that these things will truly and without falsehood come to pass, O beloved, let us not neglect ourselves;

but with all diligence, with our whole strength, while we have opportunity, let us flee the deceiving world and the ruler of this world.

For it passes away, and all things in it wither.

For truly there will be, there will be a time, when a fearful trumpet will sound, uttering a strange voice, and this whole [world] will be dissolved, falling away from the order now seen in it;

And the visible world will pass away, receiving its own end;

but the world of intelligible things, now hidden, will appear, bringing mysteries entirely strange to eyes, ears, and minds;

all at once, and suddenly it will raise up myriads of human bodies, as if from a sleep, out of death, leading them to examination;

and God will render to each just recompenses worthy of what he did through the body, whether good or bad, giving to all beings a great, fearful, and final closure.

But may it be granted to all of us to have both the saving fear of Gehenna and the honorable longing for the kingdom of heaven [and indeed it is proper to say the same thing concerning both, since God becomes and is called all things to all;

according as each one has a quality of vice or of virtue]—to have these unceasingly before our eyes;

the fear, on the one hand, producing in us complete abstention from evils and cessation from them;

and the longing, on the other hand, exhorting us abundantly and cheerfully toward deeds of good.

Let these things from me, the small and poor one, O blessed one, be tokens of my love toward you, for the guarding and security of the good qualities present in you;

which I suppose you to need, even though you are so greatly adorned in every respect with virtues.

For I am not able to repay you justly for your many kindnesses toward me, in any other way than by disposing myself in this manner.

And together with me, sincerely and with one accord, all the honored Fathers who dwell in this region on your account send greetings, unceasingly beseeching God night and day with tears, to restore to us in health our George, who is truly sweet both to behold and to name;

so that together with him we may pass through this present life unharmed, and may enjoy the grace to come from God, who loves mankind and is the Giver of good things;

Observe, concerning the origin of man:

what one must seek and desire;

and what one must yield to God.

That ruling and being ruled, and being rich and being poor, belong neither to nature nor to intention, but to the Providence that guides all things.

Definition of what is in our power, that is, of free self-determination.

Definition of what is not in our power, that is, of what is not subject to free self-determination.

He calls generation and corruption the extremes, and that which is generated is the mean between generation and corruption;

in which case corruption often anticipates generation;

entering in together with generation upon the thing coming into being, and corrupting its constitution even before it has come to be.

Those who have their soul fastened to the attachment of the senses are not saved, he says, even if they cease from the passions that delight the senses, unless they completely remove the soul from its attachment to the senses;

just as even blessed Lot, had he not gone out from Sodom, even though he did not do the deeds of the Sodomites, would not have escaped the descent of the fire.

By the same [author], to John the Cubicularius, concerning love.

it is said, so that you may also possess this divine [quality], namely, that which is uncircumscribed and unbounded according to virtue;

namely, not only to do good to those who are present, but also to be eager to do good to those who are absent, even those separated by a great distance of place;

and learning each time of its increase in extent through those who arrive here, and not only so but also through your honored letters, as though picturing to myself, as through a mirror, the form of divine grace that becomingly shines in you, I fittingly rejoice and am glad;

and giving thanks on your behalf to God, the Giver of good things, I do not cease crying out together with the holy Apostle;

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places;"

being especially persuaded, and knowing that your holy soul is indissolubly bound in spirit through love to my wretched [soul], having the law of grace as a friendly bond, according to which, invisibly joining me to yourselves, you brighten me together with yourselves, effacing my shame from sin by the juxtaposition of your own good qualities;

For truly nothing is more God-like than divine love, nor more mysterious, nor loftier for human beings toward deification;

because, having comprehended all things within itself, it possesses all the good things, as many as the word of truth expounds under the form of virtue;

and it is utterly estranged from all things comprehended under the form of vice, as being the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets;

which the mystery of love succeeds, the mystery which makes us gods from men, and which condenses the particular commandments to the universal principle of the commandments, by which all are contained uniformly according to good pleasure, and from which they are issued forth in manifold ways according to economy.

For what form of good things does love not possess?

Does it not possess faith, the first foundation of matters pertaining to piety, which fully assures the one who has it that God exists, and of divine things;

and more than the eye, touching upon the surfaces of sensible things, provides to those who see the opinion concerning them?

Does it not possess hope, which makes the good that truly subsists to subsist for itself, and holds it more firmly than the hand grasps the thickest matter that falls under touch?

Does it not give the enjoyment of the things believed and hoped for, having through itself, according to disposition, the things to come as though present?

Does it not possess humility, the first foundation of the virtues, by which one becomes acquainted with oneself, and is able [variant: we are able] to cast down the vain swelling of pride?

Does it not possess gentleness, through which we buffet away both blame and praise, and thrust away the disturbance of those diametrically opposed evils, I mean glory and disgrace?

Does it not possess gentle forbearance in suffering, by which, even when suffering wrong, we remain unchanged toward those who do evil, being disposed toward them with no hostility whatsoever?

Does it not possess mercy, by which we willingly make the misfortunes of others our own;

and we do not permit our kinship and common nature [with them] to go unrecognized?

Does it not possess self-control, and endurance, and long-suffering, and goodness, and peace and joy, by which we easily calm anger and desire, and their burning fervor and inflammation?

And simply, to speak concisely, love is the end of all good things, leading and bringing those who walk in it toward God—the highest of goods with respect to Him, and the cause of every good—being itself faithful, unfailing, and abiding.

For faith is the foundation of what comes after it — I mean hope and love — firmly establishing the truth.

Hope is the strength of the two extremes — I mean love and faith — manifesting through itself both the trustworthiness [of faith] and, for both, that which is beloved, and teaching [the soul] to make its course toward that goal through itself.

Love is the fulfillment of these, embracing wholly, as a whole, the ultimate object of desire, and providing to them [faith and hope] a rest from the motion toward it, introducing in their place — instead of believing that it is and hoping that it will be present — the enjoyment of it as [already] present, through itself.

It presents him, [as] being a man, wisely subjecting to reason that which is within our power;

yet without bending reason to this [i.e., to what is in our power];

and persuading the intention (γνώμη) to walk according to nature, in no way rebelling against the principle of nature;

according to which [principle] we are all able to have, just as one nature, so also one intention and one will toward God and toward one another, having no separation from God and from one another, whenever we choose to conform to the law of grace, through which we renew, according to intention, the law of nature.

For it is impossible for those who have not first been joined to God in concord to be able to agree with one another in intention.

For since, at the beginning, the devil who deceived man — having deceived [him] by a deceit maliciously contrived through self-love, through the assault of pleasure — separated us from God and from one another in intention, having perverted what was upright, and having in this manner divided nature, cut it up into many opinions and fantasies, and established over time, as a law, the method and invention for each evil, making common use of our own faculties toward this [end], and implanting in all a wicked support for the persistence of evil — namely, incompatibility according to intention;

from which [point] he once persuaded man to turn away from the motion according to nature, and to move his desire from what was permitted toward what was forbidden, and [persuaded him] to establish for himself three greatest and primal evils, generative — simply put — of all vice:

namely, ignorance, I say, and self-love, [and] tyranny — [these three being] dependent on one another and constituted through one another.

For from ignorance concerning God comes self-love;

and from this [self-love] comes tyranny toward one's kin;

and no argument will contradict this —

since these [evils] have constituted themselves through the misuse of [our] own faculties, namely reason, desire, and spiritedness;

whereas it was fitting that reason, instead of ignorance, be moved solely toward God through knowledge, in seeking [Him];

and that, through desire, [one], pure of the passion of self-love, be driven by longing toward God alone;

and that, with spiritedness separated from tyranny, one strive to obtain God alone;

and that [these faculties] fashion the divine and blessed love that arises from them and for whose sake they exist — the love that joins [us] to God, and renders the God-loving [man] to be God.

Since these things came about badly concerning man, according to man's own will, yet through the deceit of the devil, God — who both made [our] nature and wisely heals it now that it has been weakened by evil — on account of His love toward us, emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, uniting this [nature] to Himself hypostatically, without change, becoming wholly like us, from us, for our sake, so [fully] man that to the unbelieving He was reckoned not to be God;

although He was God to the very degree that the ineffable and true doctrine of piety lays down for the faithful — in order that He might destroy the works of the devil, and, restoring to nature its faculties undefiled, might renew again the power of love, [the power] opposed to self-love, [directed] toward union with Him and toward one another among men;

— [self-love, which] is and is known to be the mother of the first sin, and the first offspring of the devil, and [mother] of the passions that followed it;

which [self-love], having through love annihilated it, He who showed Himself worthy of God annihilated together with it also the whole throng of vice, which had no other foundation or cause for existing after this [self-love was destroyed].

For such a one no longer knows pride, the mark of god-opposing self-conceit, that composite and monstrous evil;

he is ignorant of vainglory, which falls, and casts down with itself those who are puffed up on account of it;

he withers envy, which first justly withers those who possess it, by making his kinsmen his own through voluntary goodwill;

and he strips away together wrath, and bloodshed, and anger, and guile, and hypocrisy, and irony, and rancor, and greed, and all [the passions] by which the one man has been fragmented.

— since, if this [self-love] does not exist, no form or trace of vice whatsoever can subsist at all;

but all the forms of virtue are introduced in its place, which fulfill the power of love — [love] that gathers together what has been divided, and again fashions man according to one principle and one mode, and equalizes and levels all the inequality and difference in intention that exists in all;

and rightly advances them toward that praiseworthy inequality, [namely] each one obviously drawing his neighbor toward himself in purpose, and preferring him to himself, to the very degree that he was formerly eager to repel him and to surpass him;

and voluntarily releasing himself from himself for its sake, by the separation from the principles and properties conceived particularly about him according to [his own] intention;

and being gathered together into one simplicity and identity, according to which no one is in any way whatsoever separated from what is common, but each is one with each, and all with all, and rather with God than with one another — they are constituted as one, having manifest in themselves the one principle of being, wholly single both by nature and by intention;

and [manifest] the God who is contemplated in this [principle];

with whom [that principle] is naturally contemplated together, and toward whom, as cause and maker, it is raised up — namely, the principle of the being of beings — which by nature is preserved pure and undefiled through our complete attentiveness, and is purified, through prudent zeal by means of the virtues and the labors that accompany them, from the passions that rebel against it.

This, perhaps, that great Abraham accomplished, having restored himself to the principle of the being of nature — or [having restored] that principle to himself — and, through this, having been rendered to God, and having received God back;

let both be said, since the truth is contemplated in both;

as [he] was deemed worthy to see God as a man, and to receive [Him] as a fellow-sojourner, through the perfect principle according to nature, by [His] love for mankind;

toward whom he was raised up, having relinquished the particularity of divided and dividing things, no longer regarding any other man as different from himself, but knowing the one as all, and all as one;

not, of course, [knowing] the [principle] of intention, around which there is dissension and division, so long as it remains incompatible with nature;

but rather considering the sole principle of nature, around which invariableness stands firm, in which we know that God is altogether co-manifested, and through which He, being good, deigns to be made manifest, appropriating [as] His own [His] creatures;

since creation cannot, of itself, know Him — God — as He is.

For it was not fitting, according to what is reasonable, for one who had not become identical with himself and simple, but was still divided into many parts according to intention, contrary to nature, to be gathered to the simple and identical [God] — unless he had first, through love for his fellow man, joined his intention to nature, and shown over both one peaceful and undissentious principle, moved primarily toward nothing else whatsoever among the things after God;

according to which principle nature remains uncut and undivided in those who have received this gift,

not being cut apart together with the varied differences of intention found among the many.

For no longer, becoming different [persons] toward this one and that one, do they divide nature; rather, they remain the same toward the same, not looking to what is peculiar to each according to intention — whereby divided things have been divided — but to what is common and undivided in all according to nature, whereby divided things are gathered together;

bringing with itself none of the things that divide, and through which [common nature] God is made manifest to those who possess it, being formed, through love for mankind, according to the particular virtue of each, and deigning to be named from it.

For the most perfect work of love, and the culmination of the activity proper to it, is — through a relational exchange — to bring about that the properties and the appellations of those joined together by it become fittingly [shared] with one another;

And this, perhaps, is what was said in the person of God:

"By the hands of the prophets I was likened" —

[namely,] God's self-conformation to each [prophet], out of the virtue existing in each according to practice, on account of [His] great love for mankind.

For the hand of every righteous person is his practice according to virtue,

in which, and through which, God receives likeness to men.

Love, therefore, is a great good, and the first and preeminent good among goods, since through itself it joins together God and men who are occupied with it, and makes it possible for the Maker of men to appear as a man, on account of the invariable likeness — as far as attainable for man — of the one being deified toward God according to the good;

which [love], I take it, is enacted in loving the Lord God with all [one's] heart and soul and strength, and [in loving] one's neighbor as oneself.

which is, if I may sum it up as in a definition, the wholly inward disposition toward the first good, together with providential care for the whole of the entire race according to nature;

after which it is impossible for the God-loving man to be raised up to anything higher, all the modes of piety having been traversed by him.

This love we both know and name — not attributing one [love] to God and another, dividedly, to the neighbor, but one and the same, whole [love] —

owed to God, yet joining men to one another.

For the activity, and the clear proof, of perfect love toward God is the genuine disposition toward the neighbor through voluntary goodwill.

For "he who does not love his brother whom he has seen," says the divine apostle John, "cannot love God whom he has not seen."

This is the way of truth, which the Word of God, having named Himself, presents — those who journey upon it, having become pure of all passions — to God the Father.

This is the door, through which he who enters becomes [one] of the saints within the Holy [of Holies], and is rendered worthy to become a beholder of the inaccessible beauty of the holy and royal Trinity.

This is the true vine, in which he who has firmly rooted himself is deemed worthy to become a partaker of the divine quality.

— having honored the creature, for the sake of the beloved Creator, to the very degree that befits the Creator, and as the principle of nature demands, legislating equal honor, and cutting away all the inequality that appears around each [person] according to prejudgment, [an inequality foreign] to nature —

and enclosing all within himself according to a single power of identity.

Truly an awesome thing, both in deed and in report!

He clothes Himself with our nature, having united it to Himself hypostatically, without change, in order that He might halt it from being carried astray, and gather it — differentiated in itself according to intention — to Himself;

and that He might make manifest the all-glorious way of love, truly divine and deifying, and leading toward God —

and let it also be said [that this way] is God Himself existing, which the thorns of self-love had, from the beginning, covered over;

and, having prefigured in Himself the sufferings on our behalf, that He might grant it, free of all hindrances, to all.

having cast away the stones that were in it through his own disciples, just as he himself proclaimed beforehand among the prophets, saying, "And cast the stones out of the way";

and may fittingly persuade us to hold fast both to himself and to one another to the very degree that he himself first demonstrated in his own person, having endured to suffer on our behalf.

This is the true and blameless divine wisdom of the faithful, whose end is the good and the truth;

the tokens of love;

as it joins human beings to God and to one another, and for this reason possesses the unfailing continuance of good things.

As the most genuine lovers of this divine and blessed way, you too, having become blessed, strive the good contest to reach its end, firmly holding fast to those things by which the passage to its completion comes about;

I mean love of humanity, love of the brethren, hospitality, love of the poor, compassion, almsgiving, humility, gentleness, gentle suffering, patience, freedom from anger, longsuffering, endurance, kindness, forbearance, goodwill, peace toward all;

from which, or through which, the grace of love, having been wrought, leads to God the man who fashioned it, once he has been deified.

For love, says the divine Apostle — or rather, Christ, who spoke these things through him — is patient, is kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not puffed up, does not behave unseemly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not reckon evil, does not rejoice at unrighteousness, but rejoices together with the truth;

Love never falls, since it has as its own God, the only one unfailing and unchangeable;

and it makes the man who lives according to it to be such a one, so that, having accepted you also, he may say through Jeremiah the prophet:

I say to you, this is the way of my commandments, and the law that exists forever.

All who hold fast to it — let us come to life;

but those who forsake it will die.

Take hold of it, my servant, and journey toward the radiance, in the presence of its light;

Do not give your glory to another, nor what is profitable to you to a foreign nation;

Blessed are you, because the things pleasing to God are known to you, and you have learned where prudence is, where strength is, where length of days and life are;

where the light of the eyes and peace are; and you have set foot upon the way, and I appeared to you from afar;

and you shall go forth with an assembly of those who rejoice, because you have stood upon the ways;