Letters 42–45

To Chilo, his disciple. 1. I shall become the cause of a saving thing for you, my true brother, if you gladly take our advice about what you should do, especially on the matters about which you yourself asked us to advise you. To begin the solitary life has perhaps been ventured by many; but to complete it worthily has perhaps been achieved by few. And the end certainly does not lie in the intention alone, but the gain of what has been labored for lies in the end. So there is no profit in the life of monks for those who do not press on to the end of their aim but stop at the beginning only; rather, they leave their own purpose a laughingstock, being charged by outsiders with cowardice and lack of resolve. For the Lord too says of such people: “Which of you, wishing to build a house, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Lest, when he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, those passing by begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man laid a foundation and was not able to finish.’” Let the beginning, then, have eager progress toward its accomplishment. For the most noble athlete Paul, wishing us not to rest content with good things already lived, but to advance daily forward, says, “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call.” For such is the whole life of men: not content with what is past, nor nourished by what is past but rather by what is to come. For what does yesterday's fullness of the belly profit a man, when today his natural hunger does not find its proper comfort in food? So also there is no gain for the soul from yesterday's good deed if today's right doing is lacking. For “as I find you,” it says, “so I will judge you.” 2. So the righteous man's labor is vain and the sinner's way blameless, when a change comes over the one from better to worse and over the other from worse to better. This can be heard from Ezekiel too, laying it down as from the person of the Lord: “If the righteous man turns aside and transgresses, I will not remember the righteous deeds he did before, but in his sin he shall die.” And he says the same of the sinner: “If he turns and does righteousness, he shall surely live in it.” For where were all the labors of Moses the servant, when the gainsaying of a moment cancelled his entry into the land of promise? Where Gehazi's companionship with Elisha, when he drew leprosy on himself through love of money? And what profit was the abundance of wisdom to Solomon, and his former great understanding toward God, when afterward through his madness for women he fell into idolatry? Not even blessed David did his distraction leave blameless, because of his offense regarding Uriah. And the fall of Judas from better to worse should be enough for the safety of one who lives according to God: after being a disciple of Christ for so long, he afterward sold his teacher for a small gain and procured a noose for himself. Let this, then, be known to you, brother: not the one who begins well is perfect, but the one who finishes well is approved before God. So give no sleep to your eyes, brother, nor slumber to your eyelids, that you may be saved like a gazelle from the snares and like a bird from the trap. For see that you are walking in the midst of traps and on top of a high wall, from which a fall is not without danger to the one who falls. Do not, then, stretch yourself at once to the height of discipline; above all, do not trust yourself, lest through inexperience you fall from the height of discipline. Progress little by little is better. Withdraw, then, little by little from the pleasures of life, gradually doing away with every habit of yours, lest by provoking all pleasures at once you bring a crowd of temptations upon yourself. When you have mastered one passion of pleasure by force, take the field against another, and so you will in due time master all the pleasures. For pleasure is one name, but its forms are many. So, brother, be first of all patient under every temptation. And by what sort of temptations is the believer tested? By worldly losses, accusations, lies, disobedience, slanders, persecutions. By these and the like the believer is tested. Then be quiet: not rash in speech, not quarrelsome, not contentious, not vainglorious, not eager to expound but eager in faith; not much in speech, but always ready, not to teach, but to learn. Do not busy yourself with worldly lives, from which no profit will come to you. For it says, “that my mouth may not speak the works of men.” For one who gladly speaks of the deeds of sinners readily awakens the pleasures against himself. Rather inquire into the life of the righteous; for so you will find profit for yourself. Do not be a lover of display, going round villages or houses; flee these as snares for souls. And if someone out of great devotion urges you to his house on many pretexts, let such a person learn to follow the faith of the centurion, who, when Jesus was hastening to him to heal, declined, saying, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.” And when Jesus said to him, “Go; as you have believed, let it be done for you,” the servant was healed from that hour. Let this be known to you, brother: that not the presence of Christ but the faith of the one asking freed the sick man. So now too, when you pray in whatever place, and the sick man believes that he will be helped by your prayers, everything will turn out for him as he wishes. 3. Do not love your relatives more than the Lord. For he says, “Whoever loves father or mother or brothers more than me is not worthy of me.” And what does the Lord's commandment mean? “If anyone does not take up his cross and follow me,” he says, “he cannot be my disciple.” If you died with Christ to your relatives according to the flesh, why do you wish to live among them again? And if you are building up again for the sake of your relatives what you tore down for Christ's sake, you make yourself a transgressor. Do not, then, leave your place on account of your relatives; for if you leave your place, perhaps you will also leave your way of life. Do not be a lover of crowds, nor a lover of places, nor a lover of cities, but a lover of the desert, always remaining by yourself without distraction, counting prayer and psalmody your work. Do not neglect the readings, especially of the New Testament, because harm often comes from the Old Testament; not because harmful things were written, but because the mind of those who are harmed is weak. For all bread is nourishing, but harmful to the sick. So all Scripture is divinely inspired and profitable, and nothing in it is unclean, except that to one who considers it unclean, to him it is unclean. “Test all things; hold fast what is good; abstain from every form of evil.” “For all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.” Be, then, toward those you meet in all things without guile, cheerful, loving the brothers, pleasant, humble-minded, not falling short of the aim of hospitality through costly food, but content with what you have; take from no one anything more than the daily need of the solitary life; and above all flee gold as a plotter against the soul, the father of sin, and the servant of the devil. Do not, on the pretext of serving the poor, make yourself liable to love of money. If someone brings you money for the poor, and you know some who are in want, advise the one who owns the money to take it himself to the brothers in need, lest the receiving of money defile your conscience. 4. Flee pleasures, pursue self-control; train the body with labors, accustom the soul to temptations. Counting the separation of body and soul a release from every evil, await the enjoyment of the eternal goods, in which all the saints have become sharers. And you, weighing ceaselessly as on a balance, set the godly reasoning against the devilish thought, especially when, as the pan of the scale gives way to it, the evil thought rises up and says: “What is the profit to you of living in this place? What is the gain of your withdrawal from the society of men? Do you not know that the bishops appointed by God over God's churches usually live with men and continually hold spiritual festivals, at which, surely, great benefit comes to those present? For there are the revelations of the riddles of the Proverbs, the solutions of the apostolic teachings, the exposition of the meanings of the gospels, the hearing of theology, the meetings of spiritual brothers, who give great benefit to those who meet them by the very sight of their face. But you, having made yourself a stranger to such great goods, sit here, perhaps grown savage with the beasts. For you see here much desolation, no little inhumanity, a lack of teaching, estrangement from the brothers, and a spirit much idle about God's commandment.” When, then, the evil thought rises up with such and so many plausible pretexts and seeks to break you down, set against it, through the godly reasoning, the experience of the matter, saying: “Since you tell me that the things in the world are good, therefore I have moved here, judging myself unworthy of the world's goods. For evils are mixed with the world's goods, and the evils rather prevail. For once when I was at the spiritual festivals, I barely met one brother, who seemed to fear the Lord but was held by the devil, and I heard from him clever words and fables made up to deceive those who met him. After him I met many thieves, robbers, tyrants. I saw the unseemly figure of drunkards, the blood of the oppressed. I saw also the beauty of women, which tormented my chastity. I escaped the deed of fornication; but I defiled my virginity in the thought of my heart. I heard many words profitable to the soul; but in none of the teachers did I find virtue worthy of his words. After that again I heard countless tragedies set to effeminate songs. Again I heard the sweet sound of the lyre, the clapping of dancers, the voice of buffoons, much folly and jesting, the shouting of an untold crowd. I saw the tears of the robbed, the pains of those led away by tyranny, the groaning of the tortured. And I looked, and behold, it was not a spiritual festival but a sea tossed by winds and troubled, eager to cover all alike with its waves. Tell me, evil thought, and you, demon of passing luxury and vainglory, what is the profit to me of seeing and hearing these things, when I am able to help none of the wronged, am not permitted either to defend the powerless or to correct those who go astray, and perhaps am about to destroy myself as well? For just as a little clean water is lost under a great storm of wind and dust, so what we think we do well in life is covered by the multitude of evils. For the tragedies are fixed like stakes, with cheerfulness and joy, in the hearts of those who live in the world, so as to darken the purity of psalmody; and the groaning and lamentation of men wronged by their own kind are brought in so that the endurance of the poor may be shown. 5. What, then, is the profit to me, or rather is it not the harm of the soul? For this reason I migrate to the mountains like a sparrow. For like a sparrow I have been delivered from the snare of the hunters. For in this desert, evil thought, I live, in which the Lord lived. Here is the oak of Mamre; here the ladder reaching to heaven, and the camps of the angels that appeared to Jacob; here the desert in which the people, having been purified, received the law, and so, entering the land of promise, saw God. Here is Mount Carmel, on which Elijah, dwelling, pleased God. Here is the plain in which Ezra, having withdrawn, by God's command uttered all the divinely inspired books. Here is the desert in which blessed John, eating locusts, preached repentance to men. Here is the Mount of Olives, which Christ ascended to pray, teaching us to pray. Here is Christ, the friend of the desert; for he says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst.” Here is the narrow and afflicted way that leads to life. Here are the teachers and prophets who wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth. Here are apostles and evangelists, and the desert-dwelling life of monks. These things, then, I have willingly accepted, that I may receive what has been promised to the martyrs of Christ and to all the other saints, that I may say without falsehood, “Because of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways.” For I knew that Abraham, the friend of God, obeying the voice of God, moved into the desert; Isaac was oppressed; Jacob the patriarch was a sojourner; Joseph the chaste was sold; the three youths, discoverers of self-control, fought with fire; Daniel was thrown a second time into the lions' den; Jeremiah, who spoke boldly, was condemned to the pit of mire; Isaiah, the beholder of hidden things, was sawn in two; Israel was led captive; John, the reprover of adultery, was beheaded; Christ's martyrs were put to death. And why should I speak at length? When even the Savior himself was crucified for us, that by his own death he might give us life and anoint and draw us all to endurance. To him I hasten, and to the Father and the Holy Spirit. I strive to be found genuine, judging myself unworthy of the world's goods. Yet I am not for the sake of the world, but the world for my sake.” Reasoning these things within yourself, and carrying them out diligently, as has been said to you, contend for the truth to the death. For Christ too became obedient to the point of death. And the Apostle says, “Take care lest there be in any of you an evil heart, leading you to fall away from the living God; but exhort one another, and build one another up, as long as it is called ‘today.’” For “today” means the whole time of our life. Living thus, brother, you will both save yourself, gladden us, and glorify God for ever and ever. Amen.

Admonition to the young. Listen, you … and faithful man, worker of godliness, and be taught the gospel way of life: the bringing of the body into subjection, a humble mind, purity of thought, the doing away of anger. When you are compelled to go a mile, add another for the Lord's sake; when you are robbed, do not go to law; when you are hated, love; when you are persecuted, endure; when you are slandered, entreat. Die to sin; be crucified to God; cast all your care on the Lord, so that you may be found where there are myriads of angels, assemblies of the firstborn, thrones of apostles, seats of honor of prophets, scepters of patriarchs, crowns of martyrs, praises of the righteous. Long to be numbered with those righteous ones in Christ Jesus our Lord. To him be the glory for ever. Amen.

To a lapsed monk. 1. We do not say “greeting,” because there is no greeting for the ungodly. For unbelief still holds me, and so great an outrage and the great deed you have done do not enter my heart, if indeed it is as it now appears to all. For I wonder how so much wisdom was swallowed up, how so much exactness was dissolved; whence such blindness poured over you; how, considering nothing at all, you have worked such and so great a destruction of souls. For if this is true, you have both handed your own soul over to the abyss and slackened the vigor of all who hear of this impiety. You have set aside the faith; you have missed the mark of the good fight. So I grieve over you. For what priest hears it and does not lament? What churchman does not beat his breast? What layman is not downcast? What ascetic does not mourn? Perhaps even the sun was darkened at your fall, and the powers of the heavens were shaken at your destruction. Even the senseless stones wept at your madness; even your enemies wept for the excess of your lawlessness. O great hardness! O terrible cruelty! You did not fear God, you did not respect men, you did not regard your friends; but you made shipwreck of everything at once, you were robbed of everything at once. So again I grieve over you, wretched man. You who proclaimed to all the strength of the kingdom have fallen from the kingdom. You who implanted fear in all by your teaching did not have the fear of God before your eyes. You who preached holiness are found accursed. You who prided yourself on poverty are found greedy for money. You who displayed the punishment of God by your instruction have procured punishment for yourself. How shall I lament you? How shall I grieve over you? How has the morning star fallen, that rose at dawn, and been crushed upon the earth? Both ears of everyone who hears will ring. How has the Nazirite, who shone above gold, become darker than soot? The precious son of Zion, how has he become a useless vessel? He whose memory of the divine Scriptures was spoken of by all, today his memory has perished with a crash. The sharp-witted has quickly perished. The man of many thoughts has worked a manifold sin. For those who were helped by your teaching have been harmed by your destruction. Those who lent their ears to your preaching have stopped their ears at your destruction. And I, lamenting and downcast, weakened on every side, eating ashes like bread, and throwing sackcloth upon my wound, go through such praises of you, or rather, composing funeral speeches, I remain uncomforted and uncured; for comfort is hidden from my eyes, and there is no salve to apply, neither oil nor bandages. For my wound is painful; whence shall I be healed? 2. If, then, there is still any hope of salvation left to you, any slight remembrance of God, any longing for the good things to come, any fear of the punishments stored up for the unrepentant, come to your senses quickly; lift up your eyes to heaven; come to awareness; cease from your wickedness; shake off the drunkenness that has poured over you; rise up against the one who threw you down. Be strong enough to rise from the earth. Remember the good shepherd, that he will pursue and rescue you. Even if it is two legs or the tip of an ear, leap away from the one who wounded you. Remember the compassion of God, that he heals with oil and wine. Do not despair of salvation. Recall to mind what is written: that the one who falls rises, and the one who turns away turns back; the one who is struck is healed; the one caught by beasts survives; the one who confesses is not cast away. “For the Lord does not desire the death of the sinner, so much as that he turn and live.” Do not, as one fallen into a depth of evils, despise it. It is a time of forbearance, a time of long-suffering, a time of healing, a time of correction. Have you slipped? Rise up. Have you sinned? Be still. Do not stand in the way of sinners, but leap away. For when you turn and groan, then you will be saved. For health comes from labors, and salvation from sweat. Take care, then, lest, wishing to keep agreements with certain people, you transgress the agreements with God which you confessed before many witnesses. So do not, because of any human reasonings, hesitate to come to me. For I will take up my dead and lament him, I will tend him, I will weep bitterly over the ruin of the daughter of my people. All receive you; all will labor with you. Do not lose heart; remember the days of old. There is salvation, there is correction. Take courage; do not despair. There is no law condemning to death without mercy, but grace that postpones punishment and awaits correction. The doors have not yet been shut; the bridegroom hears; sin does not rule. Wrestle again; do not hesitate; and have pity on yourself and on all of us in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the power now and always and for ever and ever. Amen.

To a monk who had fallen. 1. A double fear has fallen into the depths of my mind from your case. Either some unsympathetic way of acting, if I begin with it, throws me into the charge of hating my fellow men; or again, if I am willing to sympathize and grow soft toward your passions, it turns me in the wrong direction. So, when about to write this letter of mine, I braced my hand, numbed by these reasonings, but I could not change my face, perplexed by dejection over you, so much shame has been poured over me on your account that the closing of my mouth at once gives way and my lips turn to weeping. Alas, what shall I write, or what shall I think, caught at a crossroads? If I come to remember your former vain way of life, when wealth flowed around you and paltry little glory, I shudder; when a crowd of flatterers followed you, and the passing enjoyment of luxury, with plain danger and unjust gains; when at times fears of the magistrates blew away your thought of salvation, and at times the tumults of public affairs shook your hearth, and the press of evils drove your mind away from him who could help you; when little by little you learned to look to the Savior, who brings fears for our good, but rescues and shelters you, though you mocked him in your security; when you trained yourself for a change to a reverent way of life, counting as dung your perilous wealth, and renouncing the care of a household and the company of a wife; and, wholly raised aloft, like a stranger and wanderer, passing from fields to cities, you ran down to Jerusalem, where I too, staying with you, called you blessed for your athletic labors, when, fasting through weekly cycles, you devoted yourself to God, and at the same time fled the society of men as in a rout, and, fitting quiet and solitude to yourself, you shunned the tumults of the city. Pricking your body with rough sackcloth and girding your loins tightly with a hard belt, you patiently crushed your bones. Hollowing your flanks with want, you emptied them as far as the parts of the spine; you refused the use of a soft bandage, and, drawing in your belly from within like a cupping glass, you forced it to cling to the region of the kidneys; emptying out all the fat of the flesh, you nobly dried up the channels of the lower belly, and, contracting the stomach itself by fasting, you made the ribs overshadow the parts about the navel like the eaves of a roof; and with your whole frame drawn in, confessing to God through the night hours, you smoothed your beard drenched with streams of tears. And why must I list each thing? Remember how many mouths of saints you greeted with a kiss, how many holy bodies you embraced, how many held your hands as undefiled, how many servants of God, like worshipers, ran to you and clasped your knees. 2. And what is the end of all this? The slander of a report of adultery, flying swifter than an arrow, wounds our ears, piercing our heart with a keener sting. What great and skillful cunning of the sorcerer led you round into so ruinous a trip? What tangled nets of the devil, binding you tight, proved the workings of virtue powerless? Where have the stories of your labors gone? Ought we, then, to disbelieve it? And how shall we not accept as credible even what is still hidden, from what is plain, if you bound souls who had fled to God with dreadful oaths, when it has been carefully observed that what is more than “yes” and “no” has been assigned to the devil? So you have at once become the guarantor of ruinous perjury, and, bringing the character of the ascetic life into disrepute, you have sent the shame up as far as the apostles and the Lord himself. You have disgraced the boast of purity; you have brought blame on the profession of chastity; we have become a tragedy of captives; our affairs are made into a play for Jews and Greeks. You have cut the spirit of the monks; you have brought the stricter to fear and cowardice, as they still marvel at the power of the devil; you have moved the careless to zeal for licentiousness. You have undone, as far as lies with you, the boast of Christ, who says, “Take courage, I have overcome the world” and its ruler. You have mixed for your homeland a bowl of ill repute; you have truly fulfilled the saying of Proverbs: “like a stag shot through the liver.” But what now? The tower of strength has not fallen, brother; the remedies of conversion have not been blamed; the city of refuge has not been shut. Do not remain in the depth of evils; do not lend yourself to the man-slayer. The Lord knows how to raise up those who are broken down. Do not flee far, but run back to us. Take up again the labors of your youth, undoing the base and slimy pleasure by second achievements. Look up to the day of the end, which has come so near to life …, and learn how the children of Jews and Greeks are now being driven together into godliness; and do not utterly deny the Savior of the world, lest that most dreadful sentence overtake you: “I do not know you, who you are.”