Greek original · 149 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 1:1585–1:1733 (3280 verses in all)
Here, therefore, we have been commanded to ask and to seek and to knock in repentance and tears; and to those who do so the Master promised to give it.
If, then, we shall not be willing to do this and to obey the Master Christ—so that, while still in this life, we may hasten to receive the kingdom within us—shall we not, having departed thither, justly hear Him say to us:
Was it not that, though I much exhorted you to labour and to receive it from Me, you would not, but despised it and preferred the enjoyment of corruptible and earthly things?
By what works, then, or words shall you now be able to find it?' Therefore, fathers and brethren, I exhort you: with all diligence let us keep the commandments of our God, that we may attain both life and eternal kingdom, and may not now hear:
'Depart from Me; I do not know you, whence you are.' Rather may we give ear to that blessed voice which says: 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you; for you fed Me—when I hungered for your salvation—through the working of My commandments, you gave Me drink, you clothed Me, you gathered Me in and came to Me, having cleansed your hearts from every stain and defilement of sin;'
And a profitable account, by way of introduction, concerning a certain disciple who received the Holy Spirit through the prayers of his spiritual father.
Being the disciple of a father honourable and equal in standing to the great and lofty saints, and hearing from him often of the divine illuminations that come from heaven upon those who strive, and of the abundance of light and of God's converse with men through him, I marvelled.
And I had—he says—so great a desire and longing for such a good, that by the very thought of it I forgot all things earthly and heavenly, and not only these, but even all food and drink and every bodily ease.
Now this saint, holy among the saints, being great and adorned with the gift of foresight, and seeing me unhesitatingly performing only those things enjoined upon me by him, and neither eating nor drinking, but wholly absorbed in thought and, as it were, consumed by some poison, having acquired boundless compassion, would command me with a penalty [for disobedience]; and unwilling though I was, I ate;
So the more I partook of food, the more I was inflamed, and could not bear the constraint, so that I poured out my tears like a river and thus often rose from the table.
For I, insensible one, thought that he was hindering my purpose, not knowing what inward pain I bore; and being thus, I, wretched man, was ignorant that he also knew the hidden reasonings of my heart.
So after we had spent the whole day among them—for he benefited many even by merely appearing—and had come in the evening to the cell, and, as from much toil and heat, had grown very hungry and thirsty (for he was nowhere accustomed to take sleep, though it was the summer season and he himself an old man, having reached about sixty years of age), we sat down to partake of bread; but I did not eat.
Now the saint, seeing me and reckoning up the toil I had toiled with him, and knowing the cause—being, as has been said, adorned with the gift of discernment—for which I was enduring these things, was moved to great compassion and said to me with a penalty:
God does not delight in vigils, nor in bodily labour, nor in any other of the right practices, nor does He manifest Himself, except to a lowly soul and heart alone that is unmeddling and good.
So then, when I had heard these things and marvelled at the word and exhortation of the saint, and being inflamed exceedingly, and bringing to my remembrance in a flash, by the sharpness of my mind, all my sins, I was flooded round about with tears; and falling at his holy feet and taking hold of them, I said:
'Pray for me,' I said, 'O saint of God, that through you I may find mercy; for of those good things you have spoken, not even one is found in me, but only many sins, which you yourself also know.'
'I take courage in God, who has richly bestowed His grace upon me, that He will bestow it doubly upon you also, for the sake of the faith alone which you have both toward Him and toward my lowliness.'
So then, receiving this word as if from God Himself, and calling to mind what had happened from Elijah to Elisha, and believing that, even though I am unworthy, yet God is a lover of mankind and swiftly does the will of those who fear Him, I once again made a prostration and asked for his prayer, and departed to my cell, having received from him a command to do only the Trisagion and to go to sleep.
() So then, entering the place where I was accustomed to pray, and beginning the 'Holy God,' and calling to mind the words of the saint, I was straightway moved to tears and to a divine longing to such a degree that I am unable in words to set forth the joy and delight that then came upon me.
But indeed, straightway falling prostrate upon the earth, I beheld, and lo, a great light shone upon me spiritually, and took hold of my whole mind together with my soul unto itself, so that at the suddenness of the wonder I was astounded and became as it were in ecstasy.
Nay more, I even forgot both the place in which I stood, and who I was and where, only crying out 'Lord, have mercy,' even as, when I came to my senses, I recognized that I was saying this.
For whether in the body or out of the body I held converse with this light, the light itself knows—that light which also drove away whatever was murky in my soul, and every earthly mind-set, which expelled from me all matter that was gross, and the heaviness of the body that had wrought sluggishness and numbness in my members.
For thus it strengthened—O dread wonder!—and invigorated the slackness of my joints and sinews, which at that time had come upon me from my great toil, so that it seemed and appeared to me that I had put off a garment of corruption.
And not only so, but it also straightway instilled ineffably into my soul a great joy, a spiritual perception, and a sweetness surpassing every taste of things visible; and moreover it graciously granted me and made known to me freedom and forgetfulness of all the thoughts belonging to this life, and the very manner of departure from the present life, in a marvellous way.
But when—he says—that boundless light which had appeared to me (for I have no other fitting and suitable name of its own to call it) had gently in some way subsided and, as it were, contracted itself, I came to my senses; and knowing what things its power had suddenly wrought in me, and reflecting upon its withdrawal, and considering how it had again left me alone in this life, I was seized with grief and with a heavy sorrow so great that I am at a loss worthily to express the magnitude of the manifold and most vehement sorrow that was kindled like fire in my heart.
It flashes like the sun, and I perceive the whole creation contained within it; it shows me all things that are in it, and commands me to keep my own measures.
For this, being united to my love for mankind, blots out both the former and the present faults. So then, when I had heard these things from him, fathers and brothers, I well nigh went out of myself and became wholly trembling, considering at once to what height of contemplation and knowledge he had straightway ascended, from love and faith alone toward his spiritual father, and of what good things he had been counted worthy from the very outset to see and to enjoy, as having already cast off human weakness and become an angel out of a man.
Therefore I exhort you, brothers in Christ: let us cast far away from ourselves every attachment and every care of the present life; let us hate the pleasures of the flesh, the delicate ease of the body, indulgence and idleness, through which the worse prevails against the better;
come, let us take up sincere faith toward God and toward our fathers and teachers who are according to God; let us acquire a contrite heart, a humbled disposition of soul, and a heart made clean through tears and repentance from every stain and defilement of sin, () so that we too may be counted worthy one day to press swiftly into such measures, and to see and to enjoy the ineffable good things of the divine light even from here, if not perfectly, yet in part and as much as we have room, according to the proportion of our purification.
For thus we shall both unite ourselves to God, and God shall be united to us, and we shall be to those who draw near light and salt, and shall be for great profit in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory unto the ages.
For when I had once made a beginning in them, having a little roused myself from the depth of evils and of darkness, I was held fast by fear, being constrained by my evils, yet love truly, and the yearning for the good, turned me for the most part toward it.
One thing only amid these was troubling me: the habit of former inclinations, and the evil and pleasure-loving disposition, which is done away by the persevering exercise of prayer, and by the meditation of the divine oracles, and by becoming settled in the good things.
For just as, when the sun rises little by little, the darkness withdraws and vanishes, () so also, when virtue shines forth, wickedness is driven away like darkness and is shown to be without substance; and then we abide continually good, even as formerly we were wicked.
Therefore through a little patience and the least resolve—or rather, to speak truly, by the help of the living God—we are re-fashioned and renewed, being purified in soul and body and understanding, and we become what, in our ignorance, we already are, being covered over by the passions, and we receive what we are not worthy of.
Of these things I too received, I who am of all men the most worthless and useless—for it is good gratefully to proclaim the benefactions of God who loves mankind—by the grace of my Saviour Jesus Christ.
And I received grace for grace, and benefaction for benefaction, and fire for fire, and flame for flame; and to ascents were added for me further ascents, and at the end of the ascent light, and to the light a yet clearer light.
And in the midst of this again a bright sun shone forth, and from it appeared a ray, and this filled all things, while that which was thereby made known was incomprehensible; amid which I remained, weeping most sweetly and marvelling at the ineffable things.
'You, the undefiled, the invisible, and to all men unapproachable—how are You approachable to me, and sweet, and shown most beautiful through Your flashing glory and grace?'
These things I heard mystically and answered paradoxically; but that which was beyond nature astounded me, and the fearfulness compelled me to withdraw.
The ineffable beauty of Him who appeared wounded my heart and drew me to a boundless love; and the love made me not turn back toward the things below, but, as one who had already become perfectly and outside the bonds of the flesh, I rejoiced; and yet again I was wholly a man.
I rejoice that Christ, in whom I have believed, has bestowed upon me an eternal and unshakeable kingdom; and, as being unworthy of the things there, I weep continually, and weeping I shall not cease.
I dare not open my mouth and ask forgiveness for the things done by me; yet out of love I speak with boldness on behalf of others, and—that I may speak foolishly—I am heard.
I think I have attained the very summit of good things, and yet, lying below in the abyss of my sins, I am held fast and sunk in despair; and when I become lowest of all, then I am borne up above the heavens and am again united through love to Christ our God, to whom also I hope, once I have been stripped of this earthly and heavy flesh, to stand nearer, and moreover to be initiated more clearly into the eternal gladness and exultation of the love that is there.
These things, then, my brothers, I have desired to write, not as one wishing to hunt after glory—for such a man is foolish and estranged from the glory above—but that, knowing the measureless love of God for mankind, you may know what manner of thing is the burden of the commandments, most light, of our Saviour Christ and God Himself, and how great is the recompense of His gift; which things, when you learn them, either long to attain to His love, or fear and shudder at failing of it as at an eternal death; and besides these you shall be taught both the height of humility and the token of perfect love, and moreover you shall come to know the merchandise of God's condescension, and shall learn the gift of His great and inexhaustible self-emptying toward us, and shall comprehend the awesome manner of the re-fashioning of the man of dust—how they live who have willed to believe in the crucified Christ, that is, those who have imitated His () obedience and humility and have willed to incline from the worse toward the better, and how they are transformed who, for the love of Him who loved us, leave all things behind, yet are deprived of nothing whether present or to come; how paradoxically the dark become light, having drawn near to the great Light—who also, even of things below, as Moses once did, are restored as gods, being united to the things above, and being together with all men are in no way defiled by association with others;
and, benefiting those who draw near, they suffer no loss of the good, but, imparting to others also, they receive mercy more than they give, the rather in being made lovingly like unto the Lover of mankind, inasmuch as they ascend the more in being humbled, and are exalted the more in being humbled, being in want of all necessities through humility yet lacking nothing, being nourished by the eternal life of holy love.
Behold, then, I have unveiled to you, my friends and brothers, the mysteries hidden within me—for I see the end of my life drawing near, well nigh at hand—that you may know both the modes of repentance, and the ascents and advances of the beginning and of the middle, and the measures of perfection, and may be zealous to imitate, if no other, at least him who altogether begot you and loved you from the soul, and nourished you with milk by the word of God, and fed you with the bread that gives life, and showed you how to walk in the way of the saving commandments of God—to whom befits all glory now and ever and unto the ages of ages.
Concerning the methods of the evil one, which he insinuates to the more frivolous and to those who love pre-eminence, whenever the shepherd departs from among men.
() Brother, if you have been appointed as leader of a people and a flock, consider well and examine yourself, by what reasoning and in what manner you came to be in such a rule.
If, then, you shall find yourself to have entertained, even in a bare thought, that you ran after this for the sake of honour from men, or for the sake of the presidency, or for glory; or as not brooking to be ruled by another brother, because of supposing that no other is more reverent or more learned than you; or in order to have your bodily needs more abundantly than all the rest, both the service and the repose; or in order to benefit certain of your own kin and relatives and to gain as friends those who walk according to the flesh; or in order that you might become renowned from the abbacy and () known also to the kings and rulers of the world; or even out of envy, as though you did not wish it, but were zealous that you yourself should become it, lest so-and-so the brother should become it; or even because of shame before men, lest all should hear, or lest certain, being present, should see, that another was preferred above you, and should condemn you as not being virtuous—know assuredly that your advancement was not according to God.
And that I may make this more clear to you from the things which the evil one suggests to each of those settled in a coenobium, hear henceforth the plots and the machinations of Satan.
The enemy begins to make his suggestions when the shepherd departs to the Lord, and the brotherhood ought to choose another, and he speaks to each according to his own passion, according to his own will, according to his own condition.
If you were to become a shepherd and superior here, you would surely be able to profit and to save others, and to impart to them your own virtues, since such-and-such a brother does not do this in the matter.
Such men would also be able to bring great renunciations and to bestow their possessions upon the monastery, and the monastery would grow and become like that of the great and holy Euthymius and Sabas and Pachomius.
But moreover, in addition to these things, you yourself would be able to acquire greater humility, so that the brethren might see you and imitate you; for you would pass your time in the monastery as the last of all, and you would be able to bear the burdens of all, the shortcomings of all.
Each of them therefore begins to disclose his own thought to whichever brother he trusts, and, as though jesting and belittling himself, so as not to be condemned as ambitious for glory, he says:
Believe me, father, as for you, I know that you are belittling yourself, since long ago I too was pondering this, but I was hesitant to speak to you about it, lest you should reproach me as one speaking to you against your own inclination.
Believe me, I have no need to become it; but only lest some indifferent person become it and overthrow the monastery and grieve the brethren. If the brethren wished that I should become it, I would certainly appoint you as steward, and so-and-so and so-and-so as cellarer and storekeeper, while I would devote myself entirely to spiritual matters alone, that I might be free from affairs.
So the brother thinks that this man is going to make him steward, and going off, he confidently tells these things to the brethren whom he said he would make his ministers.
but to those who are more carnal and negligent concerning their own salvation, the enemy suggests and proposes these things: luxury, glory, and honour from all.
for he loves so-and-so exceedingly, and if that one becomes superior, having honoured him above you, he will seat him ahead of you; and how will you bear the shame before the brethren?
Furthermore, perhaps he will even tonsure men from among the notable and distinguished, and they will honour that one as superior, and he in turn will honour them as dignitaries and as ones tonsured by himself, and will seat them above you, and will dismiss you to divorcement, or will altogether compel you to stand and to serve.
for they love to indulge in luxury, to play and to make merry, and to go out of the monastery continually and to spend their time in whatever they wish.
So he goes about the monastery continually, and simply entreating each one privately and making compacts to fulfil the heart's desires of all, he exists in great anxiety and trembling, in fear of failing his purpose.
From these things, then, and from many others, many schisms, dissensions, and strifes arise in the monastery: the more devout being eager to profit both themselves and others, the more carnal seeking only their own glory, temporary gain, and the pleasures of the body, while the rest of the multitude seeks a leader according to their own desires and runs to whoever is like themselves.
If you are settled in a coenobium of brethren, never desire to rise up against the father who tonsured you, even if you see him committing fornication, even drunken, and, as it seems to you, mismanaging the affairs of the monastery badly, even if you are beaten and dishonoured by him and subjected to many other afflictions.
but whatever unseemly and evil things you see him doing or saying, ascribe these to yourself and reckon them as your own sins, and repent with tears, holding him as holy and calling upon his prayer.
But if death should befall him, and the brethren wish to set forward another as superior, take heed: if your conscience knows that some brother of the monastery is your equal, or even greater in word and work and in good deeds, and is on that account preferred by the brethren for superior,
do not desire to become an antichrist, that is, one opposing the counsel of God and of the brethren, opposing him who is good and kind, speaking words or contriving deeds in any way of scandal and suspicion, so as to turn away some of the brethren from their love and faith toward that one; but with all joy and humility accept it, and cooperate purely with the will of the brethren.
Sir brother, by the grace of God you are devout and spiritual, and as you know, we ought to do all things unto the glory of God and unto the salvation of our souls.