Letters 1 part 55/55

And there is exultation for such a one, the fear of God going before in all things;

which, like fire, when it comes to be in the soul, is by nature apt to burn up the incursions of sin.

And how should He not be feared, whom the angels tremble before, at whose glance creation is shaken, before whom we shall all stand naked and laid bare, shortly to receive back the recompenses for the things we have lived? But I, wretched man, finding myself in none of the things I have spoken of, am cast down, asking the help of your holy prayers for the opening of the eyes of my soul, for a taste of the true love.

But along with my soul, my body too is weak, as you know, and I do not know what to do.

For if I appear to force it even a little, I lose even the little that I still retain.

I have found this one comfort (and I ought to lay it before you, my father): having learned, from reading and from inquiry among the Orientals, that those who live in stillness ought, if possible, to partake of the divine communion daily.

I, wretched man, have practiced it this way and have found help, my mind being restrained from passionate movement because of the awe-inspiring reception of the gift.

For indeed, what could be greater for the exultation and illumination of the soul than the divine communion? Setting forth wine in a glass cup set apart [for this purpose], and having prayed the customary [prayers], I, though unworthy, partake of the gift.

And make known to me whether I am doing well in this or not;

Bring it to pass that I may eat of your fruits.

It shall be well with you, having become father to many, and having brought them to such a measure of virtue that now they are all in exile because of the commandment and law of the Lord;

but pray earnestly for them all, that they may finish the course.

{To Basil, the celebrated hegoumenos, together with all the holy fathers of the venerable monastery of Saint Sabas} When the dogmas of piety stand firm, it is a troubling thing for them even to be disturbed; but when they are being contested, as now especially in our church, how is it not necessary to be roused, sparing nothing -- not to speak of a long journey and other hardships, but even to despise death itself? This is the reason for the sending to you, the most holy ones among our spiritual children, of Litoios and Symeon; this is the manner of our confidence, next after God, amid this perilous journey to that place.

But, O holy fathers, how could I clearly recount to you the things dared and done here against the Gospel of Christ? Jeremiah, most given to lamentation, says somewhere in his prophecies:

'The shepherds have become foolish and have not sought out the Lord.'

But here [what has happened is] something more grievous and altogether monstrous;

for those who chose to seek Him out and to cling to His law, they anathematized with anathema as though estranged from Him -- and to whom, indeed, did they refer this anathema, dreadful though it is to say, if not clearly to Him who said:

'He who rejects you rejects me, and he who does not receive you does not receive Him who sent me'? What then? A synod set in opposition to the laws and words of the Lord!

Even though the Lord Himself said, 'What God has joined together, let not man put asunder,' a certain monk-priest, contrary to the Lord's word, joined together in marriage the emperor Constantine -- who had committed adultery by casting out his own wife and taking the adulteress into his household -- crowned them, and by his prayerful invocation contended against Him who had forbidden adultery and had terribly threatened its eternal punishments, as though seeking, unreasonably, to annul that prohibition, and striving, as it were, to become a corrector of His error -- since, indeed, Christ curses the adulterer, yet this man proclaimed aloud, for all to hear, that he should be blessed; and Christ is angered at the unlawful deed, yet this man declared that He was well pleased with it; and Christ, through the prophets and apostles, pronounces the transgressor of His law to be inglorious and without honor, yet this man showed that such a one ought instead to be crowned!

Therefore he also imparted the final seal of that union, the immaculate body and blood of Christ, to the adulterous pair, as though they were pure and unadulterated.

Has, then, so utterly monstrous a drama ever been known from the beginning of the age? Or is it not because this fine fellow directed his invocation not to Christ, the pure Joiner of the pure, but to Satan himself, the co-worker and co-perpetrator of the adultery -- this unholy man calling him god and father, and, through the agency of those who committed adultery by Satan's own will, granting the trophies of victory against Christ our true God to His own rebel? Since this man had thus acted against God -- both before and afterward, until his death, living together with the adulterous pair and imparting to them the divine gifts, even though he was shut out by his predecessor after the breaking-up of the adulterous union -- what is now happening under the new president [patriarch], together with fifteen hierarchs, by the inclination of the ruler? He is again admitted to perform the sacred rites within the catholic Church itself!

And since the Lord did not so utterly abandon our generation that all should bow the knee to Baal, but some were found who held fast to God's laws both at the time of the adultery itself and immediately afterward, once this became known, a general synod was convened by imperial decree against the one who was refusing communion with both parties.

binding [him], with a wooden [stock], by both feet together.

These, O fathers, are the dramatic deeds of the Moechian heresy that has sprung up.

They have therefore decreed that, in the case of emperors, the divine laws neither hold sway nor rule whenever the emperors do not wish it, but that the transgression committed together with them, and the dissolution of the Lord's commandments, should be called 'economy'.

Hence they also say that it is not even lawful to imitate, in the present generation, any of those who, unto the shedding of their blood, spoke with boldness against emperors on behalf of the divine laws;

and for this reason they said that the Forerunner was not the Forerunner because of his rebuke of Herod, thereby diminishing the crowning glory of that saint's virtue -- or rather, I should say, casting it aside as unnecessary; and as for Chrysostom, the luminary of the world, they dared to say openly, and they do say, that he did not act rightly when, having reproved Eudoxia over the widow's field and thereby stirred up trouble in the Church, he was exiled.

They declared that each of the hierarchs should act, in incidental faults, according to what seems good to him, and not necessarily as the canon absolutely prescribes -- even though deposition [would otherwise] be at stake -- considering this to be economy;

for, they say, it is not even possible to keep all the canons.

Why say the rest and prolong the discourse? They have fabricated a many-branched heresy, overturning the sacred Gospel, dissolving the divine canons, striking down the teachings of the God-bearing fathers, and preparing the way beforehand for the apostasy of Antichrist; because of which they do not conform in all things to the Gospel of Christ, nor abide by the apostolic decrees or the paternal precepts, but [act] in one way here and another way there, on account of the wicked and subversive scheme they have devised for themselves -- but this is not economy;

for no economy effects the dissolution of these things, nor indeed of the canons -- except in matters where it is permissible to overlook something small -- but certainly not so as to result in the setting aside of a law, or of a necessary canon, that is, one whose transgression entails deposition;

for this is a sign of apostasy.

Having given ear, then, to these things, holy fathers, may you suffer together with us, the humble ones who are toiling for the common inheritance of the faith, and, so far as you are able, extend a helping hand.

We know your life amid the fire of the trials brought by that nation, and we call blessed your confessing endurance, and we do not hesitate to address you as martyrs of Christ;

but nevertheless, be eager also to become quenchers, O most holy ones, of the fire of false doctrine that has been kindled among us.

Yes, we entreat your fatherly compassion -- you who are the like-zealous offshoots of that divine root of Sabas, together with the others, truly fervent and ardent for the vindication of the faith.

It was known even in earlier generations what great struggles the blessed Sabaites contended for the sake of the truth.

Being yourselves, then, of the same grace and the same Spirit, O most reverend ones, do not refuse to show forth, so far as possible, the same things as those [fathers did], in this present innovation against the faith, so that you may gladden God -- concerning whom this whole discourse is -- and the all-blessed Sabas together with all the saints.

It will be enough for what is sought, if nothing else, that you anathematize the Moechian synod that anathematized the saints; and, second, that you grant us your holy prayers, both for endurance against those who do us harm, and for the concord and peace of the churches of Christ.

To Gregory, my son. Bear this whole matter, beloved brother, as a soldier of Christ, as one imprisoned together with me the sinner for the sake of his gospel — neither being disposed insensibly (for that is most unreasonable) nor again grieving beyond what is fitting (for that is most useless).

I received two letters, one from our father and another from brother Athanasius. Our father indeed touched upon my lowliness, but also broke my wretched soul into sympathy; while brother Athanasius blew so hard against my weakness that, had the Lord not helped me, my soul would have all but dwelt with Hades.

For you know from whom a man hopes to be helped.

He supposes such a person to be like-minded, evenly balanced, of the same zeal — so that whenever, in time of war, he sees from such a one the opposite turn of events [a retreat], he suffers something like a deadly blow.

Such a thing, most longed-for one, has now appeared to me.

The second letter, with message upon grievous message — or rather wicked message — strives to drag down my mind and my wretched soul to Hades, even though, as he says, with restraint.

Both indeed, in effect, saying the same as the second and third [correspondents] especially — that it is not a heresy (for I understand the words and dispositions of both) — and from this suggesting and reminding me to examine what I have written as mistaken, lest, being ashamed to correct it, I fall from the church at the hands of later generations who would find my writings foreign to God: the first branding me as choleric and out of my senses, the second saying that we are worse than Kendouklas, and that none of the brethren keep your words (secretly attacking my answers given through questions), and that they have been split into countless opinions, and that the majority, even of the foremost among them, say these things — even though no one knew that I had written — bringing forward senseless and outlandish arguments, such as that I contradict myself in what I have written, teaching with all his might that this [contrary view] is sound.

'Since,' he says, 'all our friends and pious men, by refusing to call it a heresy but only a transgression of God's commandments, [call them] trampers of the divine canons and unholy — flee their communion altogether' — and rebuking other matters besides what has been said, so that it is not possible to report the letter in full because of its length.

What then did I, the lowly one, do? Shaking off despondency with the help also of brother Euprepianos, and renouncing all flesh in disposition, looking only to God — for whose sake these things have come upon me, and through whom especially help comes to the weak and infirm — I wrote back, duly resolving their difficulties and objections with testimonies from Scripture and the Fathers, in eight and a half quires.

Seeing then that their inability to bear the ruler's wrath arising from calling it a heresy was the cause of the discord — or in some, a narrowness of mind, or perhaps also the smoldering sting of envy — and being at a loss on every side, and fearing our own schism (which would be a joy to the devil and to the heretics), and fearing that to come to agreement with them would be an apostasy from the truth, I came, by counsel of the brother also, to a policy of economy, in imitation of our holy fathers — a policy having, as I think, nothing harmful in it, nor anything contrary to what is fitting against the law of God.

And indeed I set this forth, running as follows:

Since I see that you have given way to such an extent that a rupture has come about between us, it has seemed good to me to think as follows, by way of economy:

If someone cannot bring himself to call it a heresy, from narrowness of mind, this is indeed a weakness — even though the hearer may not wish to reckon it so — yet the expression must nonetheless be conceded for the sake of union, provided the other points are preserved, namely, complete non-communion and refusal of compromise in other respects, just as indeed our friends actually praise you for.

And let it likewise be permitted to me and to those who choose as I do, to call it a heresy, according to what we have believed, in demonstration of the truth; and if those who view the matter otherwise slander us as being at odds, let it be of no concern to either side.

For in this silence, concord is achieved for us in actual practice, as we equally withdraw from communion with them, until God shall fully assure us — knowing this, that schism is no less an evil than heresy, as has been said by Chrysostom.

Your letter to us, most holy among monks and most longed-for father to us, clearly shows the brightness of your soul;

for it is full of great delight and grace, and of spiritual affection toward our insignificance.

In return for which may the Lord grant you the good things of Zion above, and may he become your helper and shield against the bodiless enemies, your champion and supporter;

and may he not appear difficult before you, but may he make smooth and easy all your steps toward him through virtue.

But as for me, though I wrote first to your holiness, I did not write aiming at a return of letters, since I do not judge myself worthy to be written to by such men even across so great a distance; rather, wishing to show how great my own affection is, I did this and continue to do so, thus not unreasonably compelled by spiritual longing.

But you yourself, O divine and revered head to me, ornament and summit of holy monks, deigned in godlike fashion to write back to the unworthy one; and even from the very superscription you showed us the divine height of your humility, to such a degree that it struck our mind with amazement.

For if one so great and so eminent in the brightness of his soul, possessing virtue shining forth in equal measure — as the facts themselves testify — sets himself below me who am nothing, what shall I, utterly careless and sluggish, call myself? And if the very lamp of virtue subscribes himself a sinner, where then shall the sinner appear, as the sacred oracles say, or what shall he answer? Indeed, even if nothing else had been written in your letter, this alone would have sufficed to astound the mind of the recipient and to display, in triumph, the sender's unsurpassable virtue.

But since this is indeed an ancient custom among those who live piously, and pleasing to God, continually to despise and blame themselves — as did the patriarch Abraham, Job the righteous, Moses the seer of God, Jeremiah the divine, David the ancestor of God, the apostles and martyrs, and the whole remaining list of saints from every age — let us cease from wondering [at your humility] and give thanks to the Lord Jesus, who works even until now together with his own Begetter, helping and leading up pious souls to the summit of the virtues, reshaping and altering them with that good Davidic transformation which only the unchanging right hand of the Most High knows how to fashion.

Pray earnestly, I beseech you, most holy father, that we too may be counted worthy of this [transformation], even though what is asked is great and beyond us — or at least, for the present, that we may find release from our transgressions from the God who loves mankind.

May he also become such to you — if indeed it is at all fitting for us, sinners as we are, to pray for the holy — granting you spiritual strength and rich grace in all good things: goodness of character, orderliness of manners, participation in the abiding goods, attainment of imperishable life, the illumination of the divine sun, the partaking of all good things, and the enjoyment of the kingdom of heaven.

To Neophytos. Sweet and longed-for syllables of your most beautiful love in Christ, O good Neophytos, O most beloved thrice-over of friends and brothers, we received with open hands, as the proverb has it; and having received them, we read them; and having read them, we gave thanks to the great providence of God, which most wisely — beyond what any man could say — steers and guides our affairs toward what is beneficial, since we learned that you had come through safely, at ease and in good circumstances, and that you were enjoying perfect health.

For what is sweeter to us, or more gracious, than to receive such good tidings from you and about you, who love us as your very eyes? At the same time, as though through a mirror of your most sweet letter, having beheld with the mind's eyes of our soul your longing for us, more sincere and firm still, we were joined to you all the more and bound together spiritually; and we cling to and are held by your friendly bond and relation even more than ivy clings to the oak, or nails to the flesh, or octopuses to the rocks.

And neither place nor time nor anything else at all will be able to separate us from your love, since we have gained as our helper in this Christ, the lawgiver of love, the cornerstone, the president and father of peace and concord, and the unifying and binding gift and grace of the Spirit.

For in the case of those bound together, so to speak, carnally, to the degree that the sensible causes of union are removed and cut away, so much do their loves grow cold and wither; but in the case of those who love according to Christ, so much the more does fiery longing kindle within the soul, in proportion as material and visible things are consumed, becoming fuel for the whole of that affection and disposition, while the inner chambers of the heart are wholly emptied [of them].

But may God kindle our longing yet more and more into a still more radiant blaze;

and may you not cease at all, in every way, to give rest, delight, and comfort to our sweet, gentle, and gracious master.

But give him rest not by yielding to fleshly or natural bonds, nor as to a brother who shared the same birth-pangs with you — for that belongs to ordinary people, to those inclined only toward earthly and lowly things — but for the sake of God himself, for the sake of the Good itself, and as to a confessor and witness of the truth, and as a champion of piety and a defender of the faith.

May the grace of the Better One, most excellent of brothers, preserve your godly disposition superior to and above every satanic assault and attack.

To certain saints in exile. The more that greater and successive waves of temptation shall rise up and terribly break in upon us, my most divine master, the more they render us more tested, wiser, and more experienced against the fierce onslaughts and counter-blasts of the [evil] spirits.

The more afflictions abound, the more the ever-flowing grace of the Spirit gushes forth abundantly upon us.

As the sufferings of Christ the Savior abound in you, so much the more, to speak with the apostle, is consolation added, being supplied yet more abundantly by him.

As much as this outward man is being destroyed in you by unrelenting afflictions, so much power has the inward man, as he says, to be renewed day by day, as the same apostle again teaches.

As much as this clay statue grows weak, so much is the soul made sinewy and strengthened against its adversaries by the support and cooperation of the Spirit.

As much as your struggles for the good are extended, so many more crowns are woven by the crown-bestowing right hand of the Almighty.

As much as your contests and struggles increase, so much do the prizes and unfading rewards multiply.

Inasmuch as you are driven out from present goods and hard pressed, by so much are you lifted up, straining upward toward God, the truly Good, and, drawing near to the goods to come, you are fully assured and enlarged.

Inasmuch as you trample down the falsely-named glory that itself is trodden underfoot, and count it as nothing, by so much do you draw to yourselves the true, heavenly glory.

Inasmuch as poverty for God's sake and want of necessities wear you down and humble you, by so much shall the treasures in the heavens, and the great and inconceivable storehouses of the things promised, glorify and enrich and satisfy you with rest and delight, and grant you an enjoyment beyond all telling.

Therefore you must be of good cheer, exult, rejoice, dance, leap, be glad, and be poured forth in every way with joy, O marvelous master, because your present circumstances prove to be an outpouring of joy and exultation, of gladness and heart-gladdening delight.

For it procures the heavenly kingdom, the griefless and unending life, and — the greatest, I might say the chief, of God's gifts — to become gods by grace and participation.

For if we suffer with him, says Paul, who speaks in Christ, [it is] that we may also be glorified with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with him together.

And what does John the Great, who thundered forth the unspeakable and heavenly mysteries, say? 'Now, beloved, we are children of God, and it has not yet been made manifest what we shall be.'

'But we know that when he is manifested, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.'

We shall inherit, as regards the future, something ineffable.

For indeed the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us, as we have heard.

'But also,' he says, 'our momentary light affliction is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen.'

For those things are temporary, but these are eternal and unshaken.

Near are the crowns and the rewards, near is the glory, near is the expected rest of the never-ending blessings.

Do not grow weary, nor even lie down and fall asleep for a moment.

For the zeal of our adversary enemies encircles us watchfully on every side, until they should get the upper hand.

For yet a very little while, and he who is coming will come and will not delay.

He will come, and may he most gladly deem you worthy of the just wages of your abundant labors.

He will come, and may he most graciously grant to you the inheritance of the incorruptible goods, which eye has not seen, nor has entered into the heart of man, which he has prepared for those who have loved him with their whole soul.

Endure — for you are servants of Christ — the present hardships.

Yes, I beseech you, remain steadfast, and the presiding assemblies of the patriarchs, the choir of prophets, the thrones of the apostles, the ranks of hierarchs, the army of martyrs, the peoples of the holy, the flocks of ascetics, and all the rest of the list of the righteous from every age will undoubtedly receive you into their own indestructible tabernacles, as those who have suffered the same things as they did, as those who have fought the same contests, as those who have sweated vigorously in the same struggles — because we have learned that salvation belongs to the one who perseveres in the contests to the very end.

It filled us with no small despondency, O most honored head to me, your separation and estrangement from one another, casting into our soul, from this, [thoughts of] the deceitful and cunning [work] of Satan;

for such is indeed the manner and the ambush of that crafty one.

To the bishops and abbots who attacked Peter of Kalos Oros. You ought, O friends, knowing the Spirit-inspired words of the divine Scriptures, not to sharpen your tongue against your Maker;

for 'both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one.'

Since, then, held fast by ignorance or pricked all round by envy, you do not receive Peter, the worthy servant of Christ, through whom Christ now sends forth his divine grace in signs and wonders even as he did through the apostles, but instead parade him about as a charlatan and an impious man, not knowing how to keep silence concerning the blamelessness of his life —

for we, having closely examined both his life and his faith, found him erring nowhere; rather, we found him surpassing many ascetics of our own times.

and those brethren who faithfully receive him are the most exact searchers of the holy liturgies and the evangelical oracles, and are the most sacred communicants of the church of Christ.

But those who do not receive the things enjoined by us, insignificant as we are, do not accept the God-uttered evangelical saying, which most plainly declares, 'He who believes in me will do the works that I do, and he will do greater works than these.'

such men, held fast by a zeal for ignorance and a reasoning of impiety, are subjected to anathema by apostolic decree and patristic canon.