Letters 1 part 45/55

But you, why do you judge your brother, or why also do you despise the physician? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will manifest the counsels of hearts;

and then praise will come to each one from God, or else the opposite.

'All,' he says, 'stretch their foot beyond the proper step, and dare what has not been granted to them, and reach out toward things higher than themselves.'

'You have been caught by your own feathers,' as one of the pagan writers somewhere said, and from this too comes your proposition;

for you, a foot appointed to serve as a head, have been lifted up by self-will, and are impaled upon the other two propositions, O noble sir.

All permit themselves things beyond their capacity, and consider others inferior, and rush unrestrainedly and uninvited into loosing and binding, and all contend with one another to draw everyone to their own feet, and wish that no one else either be, or be reckoned to be, the one who looses, and are envious of those who do such things; and they wish to receive only those whom they themselves have loosed, while turning away from and accusing those who have received correction from others, on the ground that these did not run to them and ask forgiveness from them.

These accusations are fabrications of a demon-inspired mind, and these objections spring from an envious heart;

at which one might reasonably laugh, as at mere childishness, nonsense, and playthings.

'What,' he says, 'is the difference between this heresy and Manichaeism? Have we not contended against the Manichaean heresy both in word and in deed? And the written treatises of those who fought against it make this plain — treatises in which they demonstrated it with irrefutable syllogisms and unshakable proofs — even if now they have forgotten both themselves and their own labors.'

You seem, my friend, to be reasoning illogically, and to be relying on your own private reckonings for the overturning of truth, not knowing that examples, when set beside their prototypes, are not themselves those very archetypes, but possess only so much sameness with one another as, beyond the name they hold in common, sets them apart from other things.

And some things are named properly, while others are not named properly; some are spoken by way of extended usage, while others in accordance with the strict truth;

as, for example, let us take the case of the icon of Christ and of Christ himself: that he indeed both is and is named Christ according to strict truth, whereas the icon is so called by extended usage, that is, by sharing his name.

since indeed the holy apostle Paul also called love of money a second idolatry, on account of its cause and by way of a likening reference to actual idolatry;

from which it does not follow that the covetous should be rebuked as idolaters, since then we would have to go out of the world altogether.

But as things now stand, many covetous men are completely overlooked and never rebuked at all.

What, then, is discordant here as well, if the icon-fighting heresy be compared to the Manichaean, so far as concerns the relation of icon to prototype? For thus also the second holy and ecumenical Synod held at Nicaea, in gently receiving back those who had been caught up in that heresy, healed them not as though they had 'Manichaeized'; and those who composed the treatises about it, having contended against it in both word and deed, have by no means forgotten this.

But you yourself have truly failed to know your own self — which is a charge deserving much accusation and folly.

I wished, then, also to bring forward, alongside those already mentioned, other propositions from your rambling and repetitious document, and to show them altogether refuted by sound reasoning;

but having cast some of them far away, as into the fire of Hephaestus — some as unprofitable and incoherent, others as bearing their own refutation self-evidently, and still others as obscure and opposed to the truth — I will add this at the end of my discourse: that if we ask forgiveness for the things by which we rashly both provoked God to anger, and dishonored the saints, and condemned the confession of faith, and defamed the Church, it would be well;

but if not, then we in our lowliness will lay a hand upon our mouth, without summoning your holiness to a second exchange of letters.

{To Leo the Sakellarios} Being liable for a great debt of thanksgiving and apology, we consider that we are repaying but a small portion of it in the letters that our lowliness inscribes to your all-praised and most beloved excellency;

for even now, concerning our brother Silvanus, what apology shall we make? First, that your God-loving soul received him to see as one of your own familiar acquaintances, conversing and mingling with this lowly man with a gentle disposition and an approachable countenance;

and then, that you so thoroughly inquired together into the matters concerning us sinners — the weakness of both our lowly bodies — and revealed such loving sympathy besides, as even to say this much: that I too, a Studite, am suspected by certain persons ill-disposed toward you, and to pray that a wound might never befall so great a bond of friendly union.

All this astonished us and rooted us more and more firmly in its sincere love, as we say the very same things;

But let our discourse now pass on from here and dwell upon the two matters, in accordance with your instruction.

Now concerning the first matter, as you yourself hold it, our lord, so also we are disposed;

and let the argument be laid out beforehand as follows:

when a murderer is apprehended, he will justly pay to the law the penalty that corresponds to his crime.

But now a civil war lies before us, which, like the other divine visitations — earthquakes and famines, shipwrecks and conflagrations — was kindled by God in righteous judgment for our chastening, destroying as great a number as indeed perished.

Since, then, the Lord, moved with compassion, has stayed the calamity, he does not wish those who remain to perish; otherwise he would surely have wrought utter destruction, as at the Flood;

but what does he wish? That those who have been spared be kept safe, and be found worthy of mercy;

for he says in the Gospels, 'Forgive, and it shall be forgiven you';

and also through the blessed Paul:

'Let no one render evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both toward one another and toward all.'

since indeed Cain too, having murdered his brother, justly received the manifold and much-sung penalty;

Lamech likewise stood self-condemned by his own words; and Absalom, having slain his brother Amnon, was left unpunished by his father, in accordance with the proposal put forward by the woman of Tekoa.

And David himself did not wish Absalom, who had risen up violently against his own father, to be put to death; nor is it written that, after the war had ceased, he commanded that those who had rebelled together with him be killed.

So much, in summary, concerning this matter;

for God, being merciful, wishes — through corrective measures, that is, exiles, imprisonments, and certain other such expedients — that the possibility of repentance be preserved for them through continued life.

But as for the other matter, what indeed shall we say, since your prudent and vigorous mind already knows everything? To this very point belongs the objection raised by Leo, who ruled before, that we should engage in debate with those of contrary belief, he intending — as he supposed — to render a judgment in an adversarial manner.

But the same objection was raised also by the one now reigning, when three years ago he conversed with us face to face — not that he himself claimed to judge the dispute, but rather that this man and that man, among those supposedly of one mind with us, should do so;

but neither we who were present in person, nor our illustrious high priest, would consent to it, as being unlawful and foreign to proper order.

which is indeed true, our most beloved lord;

for the matter at issue is not concerning things civil and carnal, over which the emperor holds authority to judge, that is, the civil tribunal, but concerning divine and heavenly doctrines, which has been entrusted to no others except those to whom God the Word himself says:

'Whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.'

Who, then, are these to whom this charge was given? The apostles, and their successors.

And who, then, are the successors? He who now sits on the first throne, the bishop of the Romans; he who ranks second, the bishop of Constantinople; and those of Alexandria and Antioch, and of Jerusalem.

This is the five-crested authority of the Church; with these lies the tribunal for divine doctrines;

but it belongs to emperors and rulers to lend joint assistance and to set their seal jointly upon what has been decreed, and to reconcile matters that are in dispute according to the flesh.

In matters of divine doctrine, nothing else has either been granted by God, or, should it come to pass, will it stand.

For this reason, that which was in the days of the former Constantine and Leo deliberated in council and babbled forth by imperial power and audacity concerning the doctrine of the divine icons was condemned;

on account of which this Church here was cut off from the other four, being subjected to anathemas sealed forever by the Holy Spirit.

Then, by the mercy of God, the horn of orthodoxy was raised up in the time of the most illustrious Irene, together with her offshoot, under whom what had been divided was reunited, until the time of the next Leo;

under whom this Church here was again cut apart, being anathematized by the former sees in equal measure.

It is therefore impossible, O lord, for the divine tribunal to be measured against a civil tribunal, or for this Church here to be reunited unless the five patriarchs are of one mind

regarding those of heterodox belief among the churches of God, and unless Nicephorus, the holy patriarch, recovers his own throne;

who, having convened in council together with those with whom he contended together (if it be not possible for a representative to be present from the other patriarchs —

which is possible, should the emperor wish the representative from the West to be present, to whom indeed the authority of the ecumenical council is ascribed) — he might then bring to completion the prize of peace and of reunion, evidently through his own synodical letters, sent to the one who holds the first throne.

But if this is not to be accepted by the emperor, and, as he says, Nicephorus the president has, together with us, strayed from the truth, then delegates ought to be sent from each side to the bishop of Rome, and from there let him receive the assurance of the faith.

If one of the patriarchs should stray, he is, as the divine Dionysius says, to receive correction from his equals in rank, not to be judged by emperors, even should all the emperors who have held orthodox belief rise up against him.

And our emperor ought not to be indifferent to this principal matter, but rather to give it his foremost care of all, for it is in this that his blessed reign and his lawful rule as emperor have been granted to him.

We in our lowliness and unworthiness hold no other view, praying above all for your much-desired well-being;

and if anything is wanting in this letter, the one who venerates your honored footsteps and bears this letter will supply the explanation.

{To Theodotus the Patrician} From your honored letter we beheld your all-praised excellency, and from hearing what was signified in it we came to know your good soul;

For to use such honoring words toward us sinners, and to desire to see our humble face, and then also to hear a saving word, is indeed the mark of a man truly inspired by God and of a soul that longs for God.

And how wonderful are the works of the great and only God of us Christians!

For he called you out from an unholy nation into the revered knowledge of his truth, by so remarkable a manner — seeming, indeed, involuntary, yet in the highest degree voluntary — together with the kinsmen who went forth with you, since in no other way had the divine dispensation seen fit to snatch you away from godlessness.

O the praiseworthy redemption!

You were carried from darkness into his wonderful light, having stripped off the old man together with its absurd and pagan thoughts and deeds; you put on Christ, being called a Christian instead of a pagan, a son of light and a son of day instead of a son of darkness and of the night of impiety, worshiping the one God who is adored in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, having fled the impiety of polytheism and of Bulgarian idolatry.

and moreover confessing that the One of the Holy Trinity, the very Son and Word of God, on account of his surpassing mercy for our race, became man, like us in all things, while at the same time remaining the same perfect God.

For the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; one God, not three gods — far be it! — the one on account of the single Godhead, the other on account of the three persons.

This is the true faith of the Christians, abolishing every error and heresy.

Since Christ is twofold, being both perfect God and perfect man — on the one hand begotten of the Father before the ages, as a radiance from the sun, and on the other hand born of his mother in the last of times, indeed in a manner even beyond our own birth (since she who bore him was a virgin both before, during, and after the birth, on account of which she is truly understood and called Theotokos) — for this reason, just as according to the Father he is uncircumscribable, so according to the mother he is circumscribed on a panel; and his circumscription, that is, his icon, is to be venerated, in which we Christians see the form he took, and glorify him as one who became like us in all things except sin, having abolished every idolatrous likeness, in the service of which the human race had for ages upon ages been perishing.

And he who does not venerate his holy icon is proven not to venerate him, even if he professes to venerate him.

For the honor given to his icon passes over to him, just as the denial of it likewise redounds to him as a denial.

Since, then, as I learn, you yourself are thus convinced, and for this reason you keep yourself away from communion with the iconoclasts, I rejoice and rejoice together with you; I give thanks and give thanks together with you, because you see the truth, even though you are a late learner and a newly born son of God.

And do not be surprised that error enters in even among Christians.

For wherever salvation is, there the dragon, the devil, runs to work destruction, and this through one man who holds power.

For this error has only recently been introduced among Christians, since from of old there has been the icon of Christ, and of the Theotokos, and of his saints.

These things I have spoken to you, most honored lord, as one moved by God, even though I am a sinner, for the confirmation of your faith, as a token of my love for you, since you are our brother and not a stranger, as you yourself have said.

But if you are a stranger to the world, that would be well.

For we too, humble as we are, hold the same conviction, and for this reason we have been cast away here on account of the word of God.

And blessed are you, believing rightly in Christ and counting all things secondary for his sake.

But for us to see one another is difficult on account of the authorities, unless God should command it in whatever way he wills to order it.

But we shall not cease to remember you and to love you as our brother.

You whom we once did not know according to flesh and blood, but now we have as a kinsman according to the Holy Spirit, both of us having been born from the same adoptive mother, the font of baptism.

Peace to you, friend and brother and lord; peace also to your household and to all who belong to you, from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

[Catechetical discourse to his own disciples]

Theodore, the least, presbyter and hegoumenos of the Studites, to my beloved brothers and spiritual sons, scattered here and there for the Lord's sake: Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who has granted you the persecution for the sake of his name.

which, even though painful according to the flesh, is nevertheless joy-producing according to the spirit.

for it is the cause of blessings spoken by God and the procurer of eternal crowns.

For this reason I too, lowly as I am, rejoice with joy and exult with exultation, because I have been deemed worthy to see my beloved ones in such progress, at such a degree of the good confession which we confessed before God and men: to venerate Christ as depicted, that is, as portrayed in an image, just as all our holy fathers did.

I only exhort and remind you to conduct yourselves worthily of the Gospel of Christ, keeping your conduct good among the places and persons where you sojourn, your speech seasoned with grace as with salt, your disposition filled with reverence, your food and drink kept within sufficiency, your dress and gait regarded with discretion — so that you may be a light to the laity, and not the contrary; an occasion for divine confession, and not the contrary.

each one administering it among yourselves according to the gift he has received, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God, as it is written.

If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God, and not idle chatter.

If anyone ministers, let him minister as out of the strength that God supplies, and not out of arrogance.

If anyone works, let him work with his own hands so as not to be burdensome, and not be condemned as idle even in his eating.

If anyone in all things acts according to the commandment, as a laborer of God, let him not become a stumbling block to his neighbor, so that God may be glorified in all things, and I, wretched as I am, may be cheered and rejoice when I hear of it.

Watch out for evil companionships; watch out for destructive familiarity; watch out for the gluttony that breeds fornication.

Let no one converse with a woman without necessity; let no one sit apart in isolation; let no one be a lover of money, adding coin to coin and increasing gold, in which sin takes root, and the portion of Judas.

— thereby trading away monastic freedom, by acquiring a slave purchased with silver.

For to this point has the wickedness of some arrived, who, enslaved by attachment, have utterly forfeited the monastic dignity.

Let no one indulge in drunkenness with wine, hearing the Apostle say, "Use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent infirmities" — those infirmities from which the fleshly desires are kindled against the soul, and the house of God, which is our inner man, is set on fire.

But let us be, O brothers, as strangers and sojourners, each of us in this persecution as dying, and behold, we live; as being chastened and not put to death; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet enriching many spiritually; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things, to speak in apostolic terms.

My eyes are continually turned toward you, my beloved ones; my heart burns for you in the Lord; my senses seethe within me whenever I hear an unwelcome report concerning someone, whenever I learn of some God-hated deviation.

My eyes shed tears, my soul is crushed, whenever the one who does not love God walks contrary to the tradition and the ordinance and the manifestation of what has been said above.

You have gone forth, O fathers, from the monastery into a loftier illumination of persecution.

Is it, then, into darkening? We have been separated from one another, moved by the Spirit.

Is it, then, that we should live according to passion? Does not God see? Is not each one's work made known — however you conduct yourselves? You who keep servants, hear these things; you who sit alone, you who act effeminately — lest I say something further — you lovers of money, you lovers of gadding about.

I do not reproach you willingly — forgive me — but I accuse you in pain, since I am appointed to this task.

Fulfill my joy, O children, that you may be of the same mind, that you may walk by the same rule, imprinting good examples and memorials upon the souls of those who see you, unto the glory of God, unto your own unquenchable renown, unto the gladness of me the sinner, unto the praise of your brotherhood in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages.

[To the Hegoumene of the Ignoi] I have accepted your reverence, sister in the Lord, both for the gifts you sent and for the dispositions with which you regard our situation.

For we, who are not even sufficient for ourselves in good things, how could we impart to others a teaching of good form? But may it be granted, according to your faith, that you conduct yourself in a manner befitting God, completing blamelessly the life of virginity, and moreover also fulfilling the office of leadership without reproach.

For know that this task carries a great reward, yet for those who are not attentive it is also perilous — to govern souls that have been made according to the image of God.

As one ruling in the Lord, therefore, lead and guide your flock aright, setting yourself forth as a model of every good thing, so that you may be counted worthy to say, "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me."

For God has entrusted these souls to you through their renunciation, and it is necessary that you present them to him as an acceptable sacrifice.

And in this your reward in heaven will be great.

Teach them, admonish them with the saving commandments — to long only for Christ, and not for flesh and blood; to be without possessions, having nothing of their own; to be free from attachment, and not to show partiality toward their kinsfolk; to work with eagerness, and not to be sluggish toward ascetic labor.

For if it is so, then a little while later the bridegroom Christ will meet them as they carry their lamps, and he will be met with exceeding joy; he will embrace and be embraced in a manner befitting the sacred; he will open to them the heavenly bridal chamber not made with hands; he will give them the kingdom of heaven, the delight of paradise, draughts of immortality, the sweetness of everlasting life; he will clothe them with garments of light, adorn them with the ornaments of incorruption, with bridal diadems; he will fill them with boundless good things unto the ages of ages.

Console yourselves for the burdensomeness of the ascetic labor by taking up divine readings and hymns, while carefully guarding your non-communion with the heresy, even if it should be necessary to suffer something on account of it, even unto death — in no way betraying the faith.

For nothing is more precious than the love of Christ, as the virgins of Christ from ages past even until now have demonstrated, since even now they are being persecuted and driven out of their convents for Christ's sake, rather than partake of the heretical bread.

These things I have written to you, as to one who is a sister and daughter in Christ, and to those under you, so that you may see that the Master of us both is one and the same, and how we desire all to be saved, being one body of Christ, and reckoned from him as brothers of one another.

For in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, but Christ is all and in all — may he preserve both us and you.

[To the Hegoumene Euphrosyne] The memory of the blessed mother — who was mother to you in both respects, but to me only according to the spirit, and, I dare say, to many others as well (since the lady was worthy of reverence) — has prompted me, as though goaded by her, to address a few words to you now too, sister in the Lord.

And what are these words? That you should fight the good fight of asceticism, to which you were called, and for which you confessed the good confession before many witnesses.

But how is it possible to fight this fight? By having the fear of God in one's heart.

For where there is fear, there is the keeping of the commandments.

By meditating on death.

For where there is such meditation, there is estrangement from the passions.

By being anxious about the separation from the body, and the angelic oversight attending it, and the soul's departure toward the heavenly realms — how indeed it might pass by the ruler of this present age, who tries to drag the ascending soul toward himself, should he find it stained with the passions — and then where it would find its resting place until the time of the resurrection, when the paired body shall be united with it by the ineffable power of God.

I mean the coming, a little while hence, of the bridegroom Christ from heaven with the angels of his power, and the catching up into the air of the souls beloved of God, and the gathering together of all creation before the fearful judgment seat, and then the sentence upon each of the two parties standing there — calling the righteous into the kingdom of heaven, but sending the sinners away into the outer fire.

Therefore the soul that considers these things with keen sensitivity trembles, fears, is pierced with compunction, weeps, is purified, is illumined, stepping out of its attachments to things here, being transformed by the good transformation, and running back up to God in spiritual joy and ineffable gladness — so much so that it turns away even from beholding the sun and from the other pleasures of the present life, on account of the surpassing contemplation of the Good that conquers all.

This is how one is to fight the good fight, most honored one; and having fought this very fight, your good mother clung to God and passed, praiseworthily, from this world.

Let us also, therefore, I beseech you, hasten to follow in her footsteps.

And do not become dizzy when called to the height of virtue — first, because by the grace of God you are also being raised up together by good ascents, from which I hear that you are faring well; and second, because where the will is present, there perfection too comes by degrees, God giving power and loving the salvation of the one who so chooses.

Perhaps you consider the leadership of the sisters to be a hindrance to such a resolve, feeling burdened by the task of guiding them.

For nothing is so beloved to God as shepherding and guiding those who follow.

For he says to the great Peter:

'If you love me, feed my sheep.'

'He who brings forth what is worthy from what is unworthy shall be as my mouth.'

'He who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.'

For if anyone rushes forward out of love of power and seizes the shepherd's staff, he is hateful and abhorrent to God, neither saving nor being saved;

but if, having been called, he accepts the leadership out of obedience to God, he will be shown to be both a friend of God and one who saves and is saved.

Lead, then, and prosper, shepherding and bearing the care of the sisterhood.

Do the things that are rumored trouble you, as you say? But you have God as helper, through the cooperation of your mother's prayers, upon whom you may cast your anxiety, and he himself will make your dispositions easier.

You say you have no one to protect you genuinely? But you have as your protector the very Lord whom you have loved, and then also the guardian angel of your life, delivering you from every evil.

Therefore be of good cheer and do not be downcast, be strong and do not fall ill, taking care for the good condition of your body, so that you may serve God sufficiently and govern the sisters.

And the sisters, in turn (for let the word now turn to them), that they may follow reasonably and be shepherded in a manner befitting God, breathing only for you and recognizing you as their true mother, and each other as unfeigned sisters.

For where such oneness of soul is present, there Christ is in the midst, and the blessed life is being perfected;

For they have chosen the blessed life, embracing virginity and having Christ as bridegroom, and not perishable suitors, whose union is painful and whose separation a little later is even more grievous.

But the bridegroom they have, Christ, never dies, but is indeed the life of all, and they shall enter in together with him, keeping the profession of purity, into the heavenly bridal chamber.

And let them eat and drink and be clothed, and let them receive whatever else is necessary, from your discerning love of God;

since indeed the Apostle says:

'Being thus affectionately desirous of you, we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own souls.'

Let them only be of one mind, think alike, having one soul, one will, all things in common, nothing owned privately, nothing at variance in judgment, and the whole of salvation will be accomplished for them, and the short and altogether beautiful course of the cenobitic life will have been completed.

And they shall dance forever and ever with you, their good and God-minded mother;

For thus the good cenobium and the one who shepherds well shall rejoice together with shared gladness, and shall be with the Lord always.

This is our small and utterly insignificant address.

But you, lady, having received these small seeds, add from yourself what is lacking, and be entreated to pray for us sinners;

so that, of the words we teach, we may be seen to be active doers, and be saved together with you in the kingdom of heaven.