He who has no desire toward any of the things that are seen—over what, then, shall he grieve or rejoice; and how shall he mourn, seeing that he rejoices daily in the kingdom of heaven, since He said that those who mourn receive comfort?
The faithful man, who ever attends with exactness to the commandments of God, when he has done all that pertains to the divine commandments and has entered upon their height—that is, upon the blameless conduct and purity—then, searching out his own measure, will find himself weak and unable to attain to that height of the commandments, and moreover exceedingly poor, that is, unworthy for the reception of God and for thanksgiving and glory, as one who has not yet acquired any good of his own;
and he who reckons these things concerning himself in the perception of his soul will assuredly mourn a mourning that is truly most blessed, which both receives comfort and renders the soul gentle.
for as it grows and is multiplied in the souls of those who strive, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold, it bears fruit unto God, the holy fruit of the gifts of the Spirit.
and where there are the illuminations of the Spirit, there is the outpouring of the light of God, and God in wisdom and in the knowledge of His mysteries.
And where these things are, there is the kingdom of heaven, and the full knowledge of the kingdom, and the hidden treasures of the knowledge of God, in which is also the manifestation of the poverty that is spiritual.
Through these things, therefore, the soul lifts up its face, and recognizing its own Master, begins diligently to bear the remaining virtues as fruit for itself and for Christ.
For being ever watered and made fruitful by tears, and wholly quenching its own irascibility, it becomes gentle and utterly immovable toward anger, and it desires and reaches out, hungering and at the same time thirsting to learn the ordinances of God.
In these things it also becomes merciful and compassionate, so that from all these its heart is rendered pure, and it comes to be in the vision of God and sees His glory purely, according to the promise.
Those, therefore, who have acquired such souls are truly peacemakers, and are named sons of the Most High, who purely recognize their own Father and Master and love Him with their whole soul, enduring, that is, every toil and every affliction for His sake—being insulted, reviled, straitened for the sake of His righteous commandment, which He also charged us to keep—being reproached and persecuted, and enduring with joy every evil word falsely spoken against them for His name's sake, exulting that they have been counted worthy at all to be dishonored by men for the sake of His love.
There is truly one seal, the illumination of the Spirit, even though the forms of its operations are many and the tokens of its virtues are many; of which the first and most necessary is humility, as the beginning and foundation—'For upon whom,' He says, 'shall I look, but upon him that is meek and quiet and trembles at my words'—and the second is mourning and the fountain of tears, concerning which I wish to say much and yet am at a loss for words by which to express what I have purposed concerning these things;
for it is an unspeakable wonder that tears, flowing through the sensible eyes, spiritually wash the soul clean of the mire of sins, and, falling upon the ground, scorch and cast down the demons, and set the soul free from the invisible bonds of sin.
And where there is the radiance of light, there is the supply of all good things, and the seal of the Holy Spirit implanted in the heart, from which come also all the fruits of life;
hence gentleness bears fruit unto Christ, peace, mercifulness, compassion, kindness, goodness, faith, self-control; hence comes the loving of one's enemies and praying for them, the rejoicing in temptations, the boasting in afflictions, the reckoning of others' faults as one's own and weeping over them, the laying down of one's soul readily unto death for the brethren.
But if we have not yet received Christ or His seal, and do not recognize the aforesaid signs in ourselves, but on the contrary the deceitful world rather lives in us and we wretchedly live in it, counting transient things to be something great, and we fall down under afflictions and are stung at our losses and take delight in luxury and wealth—alas for the loss, alas for the ignorance and the darkening, alas for our misery and insensibility, by which we are held fast and by which we are dragged down to earthly things!
Truly we are pitiable and utterly wretched, and are strangers to eternal life itself and to the kingdom of heaven, no longer having acquired Christ within ourselves, but rather having the world living within us, since we live in it and are minded on earthly things.
1:208
ὉδέοὕτωςἔχωνἐχθρόςἐστινἄντικρυςτοῦΘεοῦ·
然而,凡這樣行的人,顯然就是神的仇敵;
But he who is thus disposed is plainly an enemy of God;
for attachment to the world is enmity against God, as the divine Apostle says: Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; for no one is able both to serve God and to live according to man, since all the things of the world are hindrances to the love of God and to well-pleasing Him.
And he who bends toward the passions of the flesh and wallows in the mire of pleasures—when, then, will he ever become pure in heart, or when and how shall he see God who created him?
For everyone who, by transgressing the commandments, sets himself against God and wars against him — even if he should bring all men to be at peace with one another — is an enemy of God; for he does not even bring about that very peace among those whom he reconciles to one another in a manner pleasing to God.
For one who is disposed with enmity toward another can by no means rightly counsel to others the things that seem good and pleasing to that enemy, nor teach them to do that one's will; since this very thing — living apart from him — produces ignorance of what is dear to that one. Moreover, because he is passionately and hatefully disposed toward him, and keeps up an unceasing effort to walk contrary to that one's wishes, he acquires a certain habit such that, even if at some time he should wish to speak to others of the things that make for that one's service, he cannot do so easily.
For a soul unillumined, held fast by the passions and especially by envy, and practised in envying someone, will not even endure to hear another speak in defence of the one it envies, much less do anything for that person's service, or say anything at all.
It contemplates the light within the soul and is transported out of itself; and being in ecstasy it beholds that light afar off, but turning back it finds itself again in the midst of the light.
But if we have need even of more than these, he will surely provide it for us — for us who hope in him and believe — he who has bestowed the greater things and who fills every living thing with his good pleasure.
Let us then long from the soul for those things which God bids us embrace: spiritual poverty — which the word calls humility — unceasing mourning night and day, from which springs the joy of the soul and comfort at every hour for those who love God.
For from this, in all who truly struggle, meekness also is perfected — in those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and ever seek the kingdom of God, which surpasses all human understanding.
And not only so, but also that a man become merciful, pure in heart, full of peace and a peacemaker, and courageous in temptations — this too comes from mourning day by day.
Hence there arises in us the hatred of evils; hence divine zeal is kindled in the soul, which does not permit it to be at rest at all, nor to turn aside together with the wicked toward evils, but fills it with courage and power to endure hardships steadfastly to the end.
1:232
Φύγωμενοὖντόνκόσμονκαίτάἐνκόσμῳ, ἀγαπητοίἀδελφοί
所以,親愛的弟兄們,讓我們逃離這世界和世上的事物。
Let us then flee the world and the things in the world, beloved brethren.
1:233
Τίγάρἡμῖνκαίτῷκόσμῳκαίτοῖςἐνκόσμῳἀνθρώποις;
因為我們與這世界、與世上的人有甚麼相干呢?
For what have we to do with the world and with the men who are in the world?
What then, of the things that are seen, can profit us in the hour of the necessity of death, when we depart hence to that rest of the age to come, while they are left behind us?
For from the time the soul leaves its own body, it can neither see through it nor be seen by another, but from then on it is turned toward the invisible things alone, and it has no care whatever concerning the things here — since it has thenceforth a twofold life and struggle: either the kingdom of heaven and eternal glory, or again gehenna and the punishment of fire.
Let us be eager to find him who is present everywhere; and having found him, let us hold him fast, falling before his feet, and embrace them with fervour of soul.
As many, then, as have shown by your works your faith in him to be unbroken and firm, having accurately and rightly discerned the things spoken by us above, take heed lest you deceive yourselves in seeming to have Christ within you while having nothing, and depart this life with empty hands, and hear — which I pray may not be — that dreadful voice:
But may it never be that those of us who have renounced the whole world and the things in the world and have run to Christ should hear that voice and suffer such a thing; rather, having kept the commandments of God, may our hearts be cleansed through tears and repentance, that from here we may see the divine light — Christ himself — and possess him abiding in us, nourishing and giving life to our souls through his All-Holy Spirit, and giving us a foretaste of the delightful sweetness of those good things of his kingdom, of which may all of us be counted worthy in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages.
'Judge not, and you shall not be judged'; do not busy yourselves at all with the lives of others; but whatever the priests rather tell us to do, do; yet do not according to their works, as you have heard.
Wherefore be persuaded by me — the unworthy — as servants of Christ; and leaving aside my faintheartedness and slackness, take care, I beg you, for your souls, and hasten unhesitatingly to do the commandments of God;
'At midnight I rose to give thanks to you for the judgements of your righteousness' — give thanks rather to God and to him who has wakened you for his glorification, and rejoice and leap for joy, that with the holy angels you have been counted worthy to praise God.
For he who is vexed at the customary assembly, and is displeased and broken down at the length of the hymns sent up, this man truly does not know how sweet are the words of God in the throat of those who love him, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb in the mouth of those who know him; but being wholly flesh, and having a fleshly mind and a still more fleshly perception, he cannot spiritually taste the things given to us by God for our benefit, but all the things of God appear bitter to him, and he does not know the meaning of 'Taste and see that the Lord is good.'
And he who is without a taste of these things and estranged from them — woe is me, mine is the misfortune, for I am charged to make the things of others my own — is an enemy of God and a stranger to the kingdom of heaven;
and he who even gainsays and groans and curses those who rouse him to divine hymnody and the glorification of God — what defence shall he find on the day of judgement, having become a stumbling-block of destruction both to himself and to others?
Believe me, my spiritual fathers and brethren, whenever I hear these things, or see any one of you sorely afflicted on account of them, I am gripped by such distress and stung in my heart, that I seem to be handed over to that very punishment; and I am aware of no other joy of the world, but even renounce life itself;
and I weep and lament, as one already condemned; and yet, though I entreat you, I am not heard; when I rebuke I am dismissed; when I reprove I am hated; when I discipline I am disciplined in return and driven off as an enemy; and doing these things I cannot find rest.
I resolve to cease and to consider only my own evils; but whenever I wish to stop this, then my heart is kindled like a flame, and again I, the lowly one, am caught up in these same things and am pained; and each one grieves at your wounds no less than at his own bruises, and for you I am set aflame, and I count life as not worth living, and it comes upon me to wonder how we have descended into such a darkening, and do all things against our own souls, and slaughtering ourselves we kick out as though alive, and binding ourselves with sins we rejoice, and devour those who take away such bonds.
If we are hindered by anyone from carrying out anything against our own souls, we bark like mad dogs and blame him, and do not cease until we accomplish the deed and destroy our souls.
We agreed to hunger and thirst and suffer hardship, yet over a single piece of bread we are not ashamed to wrangle and blaspheme — and that perhaps when it is demanded by us before the appointed time for food.
We came to renounce all who are in the world — parents, I mean, and brothers and friends — and yet we do not cease rather to feed them from the loaves of the monastery.
Tell me, I ask you, brother — believing that there is a judgement and a resurrection and a recompense of the things done in life — did you come to the monastery confessing that there is a God who will render to each according to his deeds, or did you lay up none of these things in your heart?
Did you come to keep the covenants which you covenanted and agreed with Christ before many witnesses, or did you feign this deceitfully as a bond of brotherhood, snatching at becoming a member of the Church, while your whole design had been carefully framed in your mind, that you might receive without stint the provisions for gorging and gluttony, and live a life free from care and toil?
If then you have come to become a servant of Christ and our brother, keep, I beg you, his commandments also, and be eager to serve him fervently, that you may be shown a true Christian by your works and be called our brother who loves God, being made like us in all things;
But if you came in every way merely making a show of being tonsured and becoming a monk, while all you cared for was to eat and drink with them, finding everything ready, forsooth, as if of itself — listen, and I too will tell you what things are about to meet you.
First, and this the greatest thing, know that you have not been reconciled to God nor drawn near to him, but have been reckoned his enemy and a plotter against him;
'Take no thought for the morrow, what you shall eat or what you shall drink or what you shall put on' — he expressly commands all men; yet you for this cause have yourself tonsured, only that you may be a brother and a partner of possessions and goods over which, perhaps, when you were in the world you had no lordship.
And in all things that make for bodily pleasure and comfort you wish to be a brother of all, sharing without innovation, and you further demand equality with those who labour at the work of the Lord;
But if, in fasting or vigil or the wearing-down of the body, and further in mourning or unceasing prayer, in all-night standings and psalmody and spiritual hymns, you see certain of the brethren eagerly training themselves and running with their whole soul and purpose, you say that you are a stranger to such things and that you are unable to do them.
And what is graver still: if even a trace of temptations appears before you, or if the superior, to test you a little, causes you some small grief, you at once renounce the very habit — as I have heard many say:
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Οὐκἦλθεςκατάτῶνἀοράτωνἐχθρῶνἀγωνίσασθαι;
你豈不是來與那看不見的仇敵爭戰的嗎?
Did you not come to contend against the invisible enemies?
1:286
Οὐκἐλήλυθαςἀναλαβέσθαιτόνκατάτῶνπαθῶνπόλεμον;
你豈不是來擔起與情慾爭戰的仗嗎?
Have you not come to take up the war against the passions?
If you reckon thus, woe to you in the day of judgment, when Christ shall come to render to each according to his deeds, when He shall require of the monks — who covenanted with Him before many witnesses — the agreements which they undertook to keep and to guard before the holy altar and His holy angels:
It behoves you, therefore, to hunger and thirst and shiver with cold, to be dishonoured and spat upon, to be struck and mocked, and to endure all things grievous that are for God's sake.
Do we not promise to suffer and endure all things, and do we not utter 'Yes, honoured father' at every question concerning the sufferings of endurance?
Do we not, before God and the angels, confess that we will keep self-control and vigil and prayer and obedience even unto death, toward the superior and toward all the brotherhood?
And now, as though there were no one who will ever require of us these covenants which we made, so are we disposed — living in fearlessness of God and in contempt of His commandments, exalting ourselves not only over all the rest of the brotherhood, but also over our superiors, murmuring, gainsaying, cursing, being slothful, and doing all that God hates and all that destroys our souls unto the Gehenna of fire.
1:300
Ποῦτοιοῦτονἀπότοῦαἰῶνοςἠκούσθημηχανῆςἔργον;
自古以來,何曾聽過這樣詭計的作為呢?
Where, from the beginning of the age, was such a work of contrivance ever heard of?
For the whole war of the demons is waged against us for this purpose: that they may estrange from the glory of God and from the grace of the Holy Spirit those who yield to them.
But we, as I see, have deprived ourselves of such a gift even before their combat, having forsaken the commandments of God and never being eager to seek Him with our whole soul.
But as it is, we are so held fast by the passions, and we find ourselves in such darkness and ignorance, that we neither perceive the state we are in, nor do we know that we are doing evil.
For this very reason, even if we are reminded by someone concerning some sin, we answer, as though we had never heard the Scriptures of the Christians, thus:
The monks — who have made a second confession and covenant with God, who wear the habit as though it were virtue and the name in place of holiness, who have covenanted with Christ to cast away the world and the things in the world, who have professed to their parents and friends that they renounce them, who have covenanted to be subject to their spiritual father as to God, who have promised exactitude and ascetic discipline down to a glance and an idle word — do not judge it to be sin to envy or to revile or to murmur or to gainsay or to lie, to follow their own will and to swear, or secretly to pilfer something of the monastery or to give it to another without the counsel of the superior.
Besides these, neither do they consider it to be sin at all to mismanage the affairs entrusted to them — such as to do anything therein with passionate attachment, or with passion, or deceitfully, or enviously, or without conscience and for the sake of gain.
Thus know assuredly, O man, that he too who is mastered by the desire of money is judged covetous, even if he possesses nothing else at all; and he who craves costly and abundant food is a glutton, even if through poverty he is nourished on bread and water alone; and he is a fornicator who long consorts with the thoughts and is defiled by them, even if he should never once behold the face of a human being.
1:331
Οὕτωκαίὁλέγωνἐντῇκαρδίᾳαὐτοῦ·
照樣,那在心裡說:
So too he who says in his heart:
1:332
Κακῶςἐπράχθητοῦτοκαίπαραλόγωςἐκεῖνογέγονεκαί·
「這件事作得不對,那件事出於無理」,又說:
This was done wrongly, and that came about unreasonably; and:
and why did that not come to pass? — let him not be deceived: he will be a slanderer, and as one who condemns he shall be judged, even if he utters no word from his mouth, and no one hears his voice.
Do not be deceived, my brethren: God is loving toward mankind, and merciful and compassionate; and I too, bearing witness, confess and trust in His compassion to be saved.
Yet know that those who do not repent, and who do not keep His commandments with all exactitude and much fear, He will in no way profit, but will punish them even worse than the faithless and unbaptized nations.
Do not be deceived, O brethren, and let none of the sins appear small to you, nor let them be despised by us as though they inflicted no such great harm upon our souls.
For the well-disposed servants do not know a distinction between a small and a great sin; but even if they stumble so much as in a glance or a thought or a word, they consider themselves as having fallen from the love of God — which I am also persuaded to be true.