Letters 1.129–1.171

To Pachomius the monk. The kingdom of God is the monastic way of life, which bows to no passion, but sets its mind on things on high and achieves things above the heavens. Holding to it, take care that no offense make you a slave and drag you out of the royal palace; for the recall to it is hard for those who fall away. May God, who opened an effective door and calls himself the door through which is the entrance to salvation, give you a mind free of distraction and speech beyond reproach, seasoned with grace; through these both your present life will be found easy and the age to come gracious and saving. [Another letter] [On fasting, vigil and gluttony.] Surfeit does not know how to keep vigil; pride does not know how to be quiet. Discipline needs wakefulness and gentleness. If, then, you lay claim to it, do away with those; but if you do not master your belly, why do you ruin the place and unnerve those who are contending? [Another letter] [On the dumbness of Zacharias.] Zacharias's dumbness did not come from shock, as you thought, most intelligent man. For the priest was accustomed to divine appearances and angelic visions, serving the mysteries in purity. Rather, by the type of his silence the silence of the law was shown. And that a voice was born from silence, barrenness and old age signifies, I think, that from the written law, grown old and aged and made barren by the disobedience of those who received it, came the prophecies about Christ, and his mother came forth from it.

To the same. [What are the locusts and the wild honey on which John the Baptist fed?] The locusts on which John fed are not animals, as some ignorantly think, not unlike beetles; far from it! They are the tips of herbs or plants. Nor again is the wild honey some plant, but mountain honey made by wild bees, very bitter and hostile to every taste. By these John showed his surpassing hardship, embittering every appetite of the body not only by want but by harshness.

To Strategius the dux. [To governors.] You have a soul fit to rule, hating wickedness from childhood; and now you have also received from the emperor a command that gives you the power your purpose required. Since, then, both gifts are God's, use them in his service as far as you can, so that he may give you even greater authority, if he sees this one administered purely. For he knows how to make a great-souled shepherding into a kingdom of great power.

To Zosimus. [On insensibility.] If the kingdom does not urge you on, nor Gehenna frighten you, we are, without knowing it, singing charms to an untamable beast, wrestling with an evil demon in human form …

To the same. [Similar.] If lust both pulls down and takes away the strength of the body and of the spirit itself, and makes the one it captures an easy object of mockery and laughter, as Samson teaches when he was blinded, why do you draw on yourself a captivity of your own choosing, and do not keep your natural vigor unharmed, but willingly become the work of the passions, grieving God, who has nowhere in your life to lay his head, fighting against us who pray for your salvation, and wronging yourself by refusing the medicines of health? [Another letter] [On the order of the bishop, and of what it bears the type.] As insatiable as you are for learning, so eager am I to explain, if only God grant discovery from above at your prayers. The linen cloth with which the deacons minister in the holy places recalls the humility of the Lord, who washed the disciples' feet and wiped them. The bishop's omophorion, made of wool and not of linen, signifies the fleece of the sheep that the Lord sought when it had strayed and took up on his own shoulders. For the bishop, being in the type of Christ, fulfils his work and shows to all by his dress that he is an imitator of the good and great Shepherd, who was appointed to bear the weaknesses of the flock. And note this carefully: when the true Shepherd himself arrives through the opening of the adorable Gospels, the bishop both rises and lays aside the garment of imitation, showing that the Lord himself is present, the leader of the pastoral office, God and Master.

To Nilus. [On what the Lord said, "But to sit at my right and at my left is not mine to give."] The Lord declined the request of the mother of the sons of Zebedee, not as impossible for him, for he can do what he wills, but he sent it away as improper. "Say," she says, "that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right and one at your left, in your kingdom." The just rewarder corrects the impropriety with a reasonable judgment: It is not mine simply to give to those who ask, but to grant a reward to those who have toiled; for it is not the part of a just judge to overlook sweat and give to the idle. If, then, they love the seat, let them not be ignorant of the contests, for which it has been prepared as the prize for those who compete according to the rules.

To Cytherius the Sabellian. [On "I and the Father are one."] It is not possible, as you wrote, to see the light hidden in Scripture by the means you indicated; rather you are blind to the radiance that flashes from it. For to say that Scripture shows one hypostasis of Father and Son is a mark of great folly, or rather of stupefaction. If you attend carefully to the exactness of what is written, you will find the unerring truth of the mystery. "I and the Father are one" is said; not "I and the Father am one." So "one" shows the one essence; "are" signifies the two hypostases.

To Theon. [On "He did not count equality with God a thing to be seized."] "He did not count equality with God a thing to be seized," the divine Apostle writes to the Philippians, men who were superstitious, champions and guardians of the Greek doctrines, and who, from their schooling in those doctrines, were unreceptive to the preaching of the Gospel. For since, as followers of the Greeks, they had learned that their god, who became supreme, castrated his own father for fear that other sons might exist and share the kingdom, and had learned of seizures of godhead and many quarrels and wars about it, they did not believe that the Son of God had come here and taken flesh, leaving the heavens and not fearing any transfer of power. Correcting this ignorance, or rather folly, of theirs, the divine man and teacher of the outcasts says: "Have this mind among yourselves which is also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be seized, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant"; that is, he did not regard as seized the Godhead and kingship which he had by nature before the ages, nor did he suppose it could be taken from him; but being Master of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, he did not even leave the things above when he came to us; and he also visited Hades, so that, having passed through all, he might save all things from every side: on earth renewing the living and those who will live, and beneath the earth delivering those held by the tyranny of death.

To Zosimus. [To Zosimus, who has grown old and persists in his vices.] Lowly Zosimus, it is the last hour. Why are you careless, as if you were only beginning to live? The harvest is at hand for you; the field is white for cutting. Why are you negligent, as though before sowing? Let your hair teach you the end. Why has the long time not taught you to see the end coming? The judge is coming, fearful; why do you not prepare your works for your defense? Stop carousing; be sober, even if late; do not mock the divine long-suffering, eating and drinking with the drunkards. Your Lord does not delay to come, as you think, but comes when you do not know. You must now at last come to your senses, if only from that fear …

To Adamantius. [To the Jews: on the divine conception.] Tell the Jew who disputed with you about the divine incarnation, and said that it is impossible for human nature to give birth without intercourse and seed: It is nothing strange if you do not know this, along with all the mysteries and doctrines of the law. For you who could not grasp the very opening of the law, plain and clear as it is, how can you see into its hidden depth or peer into it? For it is written: "God cast a trance upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs and filled up flesh in its place; and he built the rib he had taken from Adam into a woman," having first created Adam from the dust. See, then: the man from the earth and the woman from the man, and both without intercourse. Since, then, the woman owed a debt to the man, having come into being from his side without seed, the Mother of the Lord paid it, rendering him incarnate without seed. So it is not impossible to nature; but as it had already happened with the first-formed, so it was accomplished in the Master's dispensation, even if this birth carried off the marvels. Read, then, so that you may know. But if you do not wish to know, do not read, lest you be condemned as ignorant of what you read. [Letter 1.142] [On a slave who offended, that he may receive pardon.] A young man came to the remote place where we live, and meeting the doorkeeper asked to come to me. Since our custom is ready to welcome everyone indoors and to share kindly conversation and rest, he was called in, and at once threw himself face down on the ground, saying nothing before weeping a great deal. When I took him by the hand and promised to help as far as I could, and asked who he was and what he needed, he said he was your servant, and had fallen through ignorance into an offense greater, as he thought, than repentance. The first thing astonished me, for I did not think the Christ-loving Eiron had a slave, since he knows the grace that has set all free. The second grieved me, since we have been commanded by Christ to forgive one another every sin of those who did it, even repeated, and he both taught and did so. He taught: "If you do not forgive men their offenses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your sins"; and he did so in releasing the sinful woman, Matthew the tax collector, the Samaritan woman, the paralytic, and Peter himself, the leader of the company of the disciples, not only from bodily but also from spiritual sins and diseases. If, then, you wish to imitate Christ, forgive great sins to those who offend. For small and common ones most people overlook and pardon when asked; but greater ones only those who have a great conscience toward God and await great rewards from him for brilliant deeds.

To Thalelaeus. You do well and wisely to attend to the reading of divine instruction, having shut out the nausea of that useless and briny reading, and having received Christ's commandments in a manner dear to God. "Do not give what is holy to the dogs": to the Jews, who have often received the divine word and turn back again to their own vomit, or to those who come from heresies to the true word and return to their former malice. And we were commanded not to throw pearls before swine, those mixed up in passions and living a swinish life, lest they trample them under foot in their wicked practices, blaspheming the divine name, and turn and tear you. For to share the mysteries with such people is a tearing, beyond recovery, of those who share them contemptuously.

To Athanasius. Why, having chosen the narrow way and made covenants with God for it, do you travel the broad road that leads to death? For lack of restraint here brings punishment there; but present hardship and the narrowing of the appetites prepare the enjoyment of the good things to come.

To Maron. [That the priesthood is a dreadful thing.] Even if you seized the priesthood by canvassing and the pull of money, escaping the notice of men, who are blind to the truth, do not think you will thus escape the recompense to come. For neither wonders done by some in the name of Christ, nor rebuking of demons, nor the working of many mighty deeds, will be able to rescue from the fearful flame those liable to it. And if someone says, "Why then did God grant miracles to the unworthy?" I would say: because the Lord performed the divine signs for the glory of his own name, both hindering the demons' plots and smoothing an unobstructed road for the Gospel. Both these will bring a greater condemnation on the unfeeling, because, having received so great power from God, they willingly ignored the giver of good things, healing demons and passions by invoking Christ, but convicted by them of ingratitude. For the wicked and most cruel demons proved more obedient than they, fearing the Lord's name and running away with great speed. Hence an inescapable punishment is threatened against them: the workers of lawlessness hear, "Depart from me, I do not know you." [Letter 1.146] To Timothy the reader. [Why the leper was commanded to offer the gift that the law prescribed.] You do well to search the Scriptures, you merchant of precious pearls. I will tell you briefly what you seek. The leper was commanded to offer the gift the law prescribed for this reason: to show the agreement of the two Testaments, and that the one who worked the healing is the same who laid down the law. [Letter 1.147] [On Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.] Provoking to jealousy the ungrateful people of the Jews who spoke against the gospel preaching, the Lord says that many will come from east and west and recline with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, their forefathers, in the kingdom of heaven: building the stones of grace on the foundation of the law, ranking the divine people with the patriarchs, showing the connection of the law with the Gospel, and that those approved in both will win proclamation, while those who pride themselves in the conceit of birth, bereft of virtue but boasting that they are sons of the kingdom, will slide into endless punishment.

To Conon the governor. [What kind of man the bishop should be.] Offices over affairs and nations, the heights of thrones and the severities of tribunals, if yoked to good-loving purposes, are truly offices, imitating the order above; but if they fall into wicked intentions, they are rather tyrannies, ruling the unwilling and contriving quarrels and factions instead of persuasion. Why, then, leaving the first, do you share the misery of the second? For it is not your subjects you harm; you are punishing yourself ahead of them. For the recklessness of the crowds, when it breaks against the ruler, is great and hard to rein in; but divided among a multitude it becomes small and hard to find.

To Tribunianus the bishop. [That the episcopate is very dangerous, and that not only the bishop who leaps into it, but also those who vote for an unworthy man, are liable to inexorable penalties.] A bishop ought to understand his own stewardship from his very name. He must oversee the attacks of the invisible and unseen beasts, the slackness of the church, the negligence of the monks, the abuses of the unjust, the misfortunes of widows, the helplessness of orphans, the suspicions about the altar, the poor condition of the ministers, the misdeeds of the young, the evil counsels of the old; and he must be all eye, seeing everything and overlooking nothing; for if any of these is neglected, not only is he chastised, but often the whole church with him: he because, being such, he dared to serve God as priest, and either received so great a charge unwillingly or bought it in madness; they because they gave the priesthood unworthily to such a man. [Letter 1.150] To the monastery of Pelusium. [On hospitality.] As the movements of the heart are known from words, so the condition of the house is shown by the one in charge. Now some who met me reported that in the middle of a clear day, overcome by heat and thirst, they took refuge in the shade of the porch, and fell upon a dog, or rather a man-hating wolf, the one you have entrusted with hospitality, who drove them off, beating them hard. If some have entertained angels unawares, you, not unawares but knowingly, drive angels away. [Letter 1.151] [That the episcopate needs a great soul, and the office is full of countless dangers.] God's priest, since he draws near to God, ought to be all eye like the many-eyed living creatures, like them ignorant of nothing but seeing everything. Since, then, you are ignorant, learn gently, and do not insult the priesthood full of light, which you outrage, having squandered everything through carelessness and trade. [Letter 1.152] [On Saint John Chrysostom.] You ask about the tragedy concerning the divine John. But I am at a loss to tell it; the magnitude of the matter defeats the mind. Yet learn a few things. Neighboring Egypt has acted lawlessly in its usual way: rejecting Moses, making Pharaoh its own, scourging the lowly, oppressing the laborers, building cities and withholding wages, and practicing these things up to now. For putting forward Theophilus, the stone-mad and gold-worshipping, fortified by four fellow-workers, or rather fellow-apostates, it made war on the God-loving and God-speaking man, having found in its enmity and hostility toward my namesake a base for its own perversity. But the house of David grows strong and the house of Saul weak, as you see, even if the man has passed beyond the storm of life and been transferred to the calm above.

To Heraclides the presbyter. [What is meant by what was said to the apostles, "Do not go on the road of the Gentiles."] Not to go on the road of the Gentiles is not to join them in their way of thinking; and likewise not to enter a city of the Samaritans is not to refrain from living among them, but not to lay hold of their impiety and wickedness.

To the Pelusiotes in the monastery. Hearing many outcries about you, we pour out to you many exhortations every day. "The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it," said the Lord. For they, who had not heard the law, were struck with terror at the prophet's threat; having heard a type and shadow of the Master's burial, they feared at the strangeness of the event. But we, who have seen the one who was prophesied and touched him, remain unfeeling toward him and unyielding to repentance. Let us not, then, brothers, appear less believing even than the Gentiles, and draw upon ourselves the destruction they escaped. [Another letter] [On not making others swear.] If you belong to our flock and are ranked under the good shepherd, renounce the nature and likeness of the beasts, and follow his voice, who commands not to swear at all. Not swearing also means not demanding an oath. For if you do not wish to swear, do not demand an oath from others either, for these two reasons: either the one questioned speaks the truth, or the opposite, he lies. If the man habitually speaks the truth, he certainly speaks the truth before the oath; but if he is a liar, he lies even when he swears. So one must not demand an oath, for both reasons …

To Eustathius. [On the priesthood.] I have sent the book you asked for, and I awaited fruit from it through you, such as it usually yields from everyone. For there is not, there is not a heart which the reading of it has entered and not wounded with divine love, showing the priesthood to be venerable and hard to approach, and teaching how to pursue it blamelessly. For John, the wise interpreter of God's secrets, the eye of the church in Byzantium and of the whole church, examined it so finely and closely that all, both those who serve as priests according to God and those who handle the priestly office carelessly, find in it their own achievements and their own reproaches.

To Pansophius the archdeacon. [To clergy sick with love of money.] If you serve at Christ's altar, carry out your ministry with his laws, showing yourself gentle and lowly in heart. For you are not exercising some civil command, swollen with pride and boasting, but a peaceful and untroubled service. But if unjust wealth gathered up lifts you up, it will soon be vomited out, having a fluid and unstable nature; and you will incur much laughter for attaching yourself to things that run past as if they stood still.

To Priscus the Cappadocian. Some say you are perverse and boastful and surpass the nature of men in baseness. For my part, though many such things are sung about you, I cannot believe them, not knowing you at all; but one thing I take as support for the tragic tales: the strangeness of your homeland. And I fear you may belong to the other kind of Cappadocians, branded with every defect. For there is again another, most excellent, portion of the Cappadocians, from which came those who everywhere have lit up the ends of the earth with the light of their way of life and their admonition. Since, then, a purchase has also put the priesthood on you, fear those God-bearing men, and either imitate their choice of life or do not insult their ministry. For if it should befall you to be convicted by them, neither will condemnation by Christ be wanting.

To Leontius the bishop. [On the priesthood.] Let nothing stand in the way of the Lord's Gospel, let no distraction follow on spiritual teaching, let no commotion intrude upon profitable discourse. For neither did Christ, when sought by his mother and brothers, accept their call while he had begun teaching doctrine and was working salvation for his hearers, showing that spiritual things must be preferred to fleshly ones. So too his disciples declined the care of the tables, necessary as it was for the poor.

To Tarasius the Isaurian. [On the need to be always sober.] Everyone says you are better than your race and [your] homeland, and reports you as good in character, not mastered by the roughness of the mountains, but loving both the way of life and the shrine of Thecla the first woman martyr. And you are blessed in being poor [in spirit]; for this is praiseworthy in the faithful. I pray that you may remain unchanging, since we have nothing more stable, but are blown about by light cries as by winds.

To Thomas the count. You both write brilliantly and send graciously. May you remain cheerful, you who are good to all.

To Hierax, of senatorial rank. [On ascetic discipline.] The food, drink and bedding of John are not enough for the goal of ascetic discipline for those who seek them, excellent man; there is also need of John's mind for perfection. If, then, you praise our simplicity, achieve for us gentleness, which avoids all boasting.

To Cyrus. You are a real sophist, both in writing and in fashioning beautiful phrases. But you must also provide in them occasions of benefit in deeds. For speaking well is like a cymbal; but acting well is akin to the angels, whose fearful and prompt obedience bears witness that they do God's will.

To Martyrius. [On pride.] God opposes the proud, since he opposed their ruler from the beginning. Consider, then, what it means both to have God as your adversary and the ancient rebel as your partner.

To Ausonius. Many exchange one office for others, perhaps lesser for greater, those who direct them well. But some not only exchanged better for worse, but perished miserably besides, having no help or guidance. But you, from the thrones of good government, the heavenly ranks will receive, to whom you have made yourself dear by caring for the God-loving poor and putting everything after justice. [Letter 1.166] The report of wisdom roused the queen of the south to stretch from the ends of the earth to Solomon; but you the Lord, crying out daily, has not persuaded to be sober and look to what is profitable. Take care, then, not to be judged by her, for rumors and words gave her wings, but you neither the sight nor the doing of Christ's works has in any way … [Letter 1.167] What would one fittingly call the man who delights in battles, enjoys commotions, and rather strives to be hated by all, if not a base demon who has changed his nature by his choice? Since, then, Christ torments demons here even before the time, and there has promised them eternal fire with their father, either stop living a quarrelsome life, or know that you are subject to scourges here and will not escape vengeance there.

To Zoilus the presbyter. Since the Lord called himself a vine, offering the sweet preaching that gladdens the heart, divine Scripture necessarily calls the true word of divine knowledge wine. This Wisdom also gives to drink in a mixing bowl, calling the Lord's side a mixing bowl, from which the gladness of life has sprung up for us.

To the same. [On the saying "Your wine-dealers."] When the Lord's apostles received the coming of the divine Spirit, they were thought to be full of new wine, and they brought to all the nations the true and unadulterated drink of the mysteries. So those who counterfeit the divine teaching and muddy the heavenly doctrines with spurious [and] faded precepts, the Manichees, Simons, Montanists, Novatians, Arians, Macedonians, Photinians and those like-minded with them, it rightly calls wine-dealers who mix the wine with water, bringing their own perversities into the pure wisdom of the divine words.

To Chaeremon. [On those who share in the mysteries unworthily.] Some say that you do everything forbidden, and some things even lawless, yet constantly stretch out your hands to the divine mysteries and boldly partake of what you may not touch. And I have come to wonder greatly at your shamelessness, that, sharing to the full at the tables of demons, you are not afraid to partake of the Lord's table also. Beware, then, lest some noose catch you, as it did Judas, who despaired over his own rashness, carried out the betrayal, and demanded communion.

To the sons of Nilus. Why do you deny your nature, or ignore your calling? The one brought you forth from one womb; the other regenerated you through one hope. Either respect, then, your first birth, or fear your second rebirth, and make a truce for concord, whether for nature's sake or for your calling's. [Letter 1.172] To Archontius. [On what Abraham said to the rich man, "Between us and you a great chasm has been fixed."] "A great chasm has been fixed" between himself and the rich man in torment, Abraham answered, showing the difference between the righteous and those who sin. The one was hospitable and a lover of the poor, receiving those who lived far away; the other turned without pity from the man covered with sores before his door. As, then, their purposes were opposite, so their removal is without mixture: the one received rest, the other punishment. [Letter 1.173] To Mark the monk. [To a monk who changes place after place.] The unstable, and those like you, you unsteady man, the Prophet called dust that is blown from the face of the earth. For if, having been planted by the blessed Ammon, watered in a God-loving way, firmly established, and having borne fruit, as we supposed, you wander round many houses, not for instruction but for daintier food, who could lament you as you deserve, ruining yourself and making useless many, whose youth makes them pick up a profitable readiness?