LETTER Cl
LETTER Cl
simplicity,' who convenes synods at Ancyra, and in no way ceases to plot against us.
LETTER CI ConsoLarory 2 Ir were worthy of prayer that in sending our first letter to you we might have had a more cheerful subject about which to write.
If that had been so, everything would have been as we wished, for we desire that the whole life of all who choose to live in true religion should prosper well. But since the Lord who dispenses our lives has surely arranged these things according to His ineffable wisdom for the good of our souls, and so has made your life a life of sorrow, and has brought us, who are joined to you by the love of God, to feel sympathy for your plight, on hearing from our brothers in what troubles you were, it seemed that we must send you all possible consolation.
Now if it had been possible to cross over to where your Nobility happens to live, I should have considered it of the greatest importance to do so.
But since our bodily weakness and the manifold duties which occupy us caused even this journey which we had in mind to involve great harm to the churches under our care, we were eager to 1 As the Benedictine edition points out, this opposition was due not to want of affection but to want of tact.
For a similar display of lack of tact on the part of Gregory of Nyssa, cf. Letter LVIII.
2 Written in 372.
Editions anterior to the Benedictine add to the title τῇ ὁμοζύγῳ ᾿Αρινθαίον, ''to the wife of Arinthaeus," but no manuscript known to us contains it.
COLLECTED LETTERS OF SAINT BASIL
ἐπισκέψασθαί σου τὴν σεμνότητα προεθυμήθημεν, ὑπομιμνήσκοντες, ὅτι αἱ θλίψεις αὗται οὐκ ἀργῶς τοῖς δούλοις τοῦ Θεοῦ παρὰ τοῦ ἐπισκοποῦντος ἡμᾶς Κυρίου γίνονται, ἀλλὰ ἐπὶ δοκιμασίᾳ τῆς ἀληθινῆς πρὸς τὸν κτίσαντα ἡμᾶς Θεὸν ἀγάπης. ὡς γὰρ τοὺς ἀθλητὰς οἱ τῶν ἀγώνων κάματοι τοῖς στεφάνοις προσάγουσιν, οὕτω καὶ τοὺς Χριστιανοὺς ἡ ἐν τοῖς * πειρασμοῖς δοκιμασία πρὸς τὴν τελείωσιν ἄγει, ἐὰν μετὰ τῆς πρεπούσης ὑπομονῆς ἐν εὐχαριστίᾳ πάσῃ τὰ οἰκονομούμενα παρὰ τοῦ
᾿Αγαθότητι Δεσπότου διοικεῖται τὰ πάντα. οὐδὲν τῶν συμβαινόντων ἡμῖν ὡς λυπηρὸν ὑποδέχεσθαι χρή, κἂν "πρὸς τὸ παρὸν ἅπτηται τῆς ἀσθενείας ἡμῶν. εἰ γὰρ. καὶ τοὺς λόγους ἀγνοοῦμεν, καθ᾽ ods ἕκαστον τῶν γινομένων ὃ ὡς καλὸν παρὰ τοῦ Δεσπότου ἡμῖν ἐπάγεται, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκεῖνο πεπεῖσθαι ὀφείλομεν, OTL πάντως συμφέρει τὸ γινόμενον ἢ ἡμῖν διὰ τὸν τῆς ὑπομονῆς μισθὸν ἢ τῇ παραληφθείσῃ ψυχῇ, ἵνα μή, ἐπὶ πλέον τῇ ζωῇ ταύτῃ ἐπιβρα ύνασα τῆς ἐμπολιτευομένης τῷ βίῳ κακία ᾿ἀναπλησθῇ. εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἐν τῇ ζωῇ ταύτῃ ἡ τῶν Χριστιανῶν ἐλπὶς περιώριστο, εἰκότως χαλεπὸν ἂν ἐνομίσθη τὸ θᾶττον διαξευχθῆναι τοῦ σώματος" εἰ δὲ a ἀρχὴ τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ βίου τοῖς κατὰ Θεὸν ζῶσίν ἐστι τὸ τῶν δεσμῶν τούτων τῶν σωματικῶν τὴν ψυχὴν ἐκλυθῆναι, τί λυπούμεθα, ὡς καὶ 3 οἱ μὴ ἔχοντες ἐλπίδα ; παρακλήθητι οὖν μὴ ὑποπεσεῖν τοῖς meaty. ἀλλὰ δεῖξαι ὅτι ὑπέρκεισαι καὶ ὑπερῆρας.
1 αὐτοῖς add, editi antiqi.
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visit your August Reverence by letter, and to remind you that these afflictions do not come in vain to God's servants from the Lord who watches over us, but as a test of their genuine love for the God who created us.
For as the toils of their contests bring athletes their crowns, so the test which comes to Christians through their tribulations leads them on to perfection, if with fitting patience in all thanksgiving we accept the Lord's dispensations.
By the goodness of God are all things disposed.
Nothing that happens to us should be accepted as grievous, even if for the present it touches our weakness.
For even if we are ignorant of the words according to which everything that happens is brought to us as a blessing from God, yet we should at least be convinced of this—that assuredly whatever happens is good, either for us through the reward won by our patience or for the soul which we have received, lest by tarrying longer in this world the soul be contaminated by the wickedness which inheres in human life.
For if the hope of Christians were limited to this life, the early separation from the body would reasonably be thought hard; but if for those who live according to God the beginning of the true life is the release of the soul from these bodily bonds, why then are we sorrowful even as those who have no hope?!
Therefore, I beg of you, do not succumb to your woes, but show that you stand above them and have transcended them.
1 Cf. 1 Thess. 4, 12: οὐ θέλω δὲ ὑμᾶς ἀγνοεῖν, ἀδελφοί, περὶ τῶν κεκοιμημένων, ἵνα μὴ λυπῆσθε, καθὼς καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ of μὴ ἔχοντες ἐλπίδα.
""Απᾶ we will not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, that you be not sorrowful, even as others who have no hope."
COLLECTED LETTERS OF SAINT BASIL
CII Σαταλεῦσι πολίταις ᾿Βγὼ τάς τε ἰδίας ὑμῶν παρακλήσεις καὶ τὰς τοῦ λαοῦ παντὸς δυσωπηθείς, καὶ ἐδεξάμην 1 τὴν φροντίδα τῆς καθ᾽ ὑμᾶς ἐκκλησίας, καὶ ὑπεσχόμην ὑμῖν ἐνώπιον Κυρίου μηδὲν ἐλλείψειν τῶν εἰς δύναμιν ἐμὴν ἡκόντων. διὸ ἠναγκάσθην, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον, ἢ οἷον τῆς κόρης τοῦ ἐμοῦ ὀφθαλμοῦ ἅψασθαι. οὕτως τὸ ὑπέρβαλλον τῆς καθ᾽ ὑμᾶς τιμῆς οὐδενός μοι συνεχώρησεν εἰς μνήμην ἐλθεῖν, οὐ συγγενείας, οὐ τῆς ἐκ παιδὸς συνηθείας τῆς ὑπαρχούσης μοι πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα, πρὸ τῶν παρ᾽ ὑμῶν αἰτηθέντων" ἀλλὰ πάντων μὲν τῶν ἰδίᾳ μοι ὑπαρχόντων πρὸς αὐτὸν εἰς οἰκειότητος λόγον ἐπιλαθόμενος, μὴ ὑπολογισάμενος δὲ μηδὲ τοῦ στεναγμοῦ τὸ πλῆθος, ὃ καταστενάξει μου ὁ λαὸς ὁ τὴν προστασίαν αὐτοῦ ζημιωθείς, μὴ πάσης αὐτοῦ τῆς συγγενείας τὸ δάκρυον, μὴ μητρὸς αὐτοῦ γηραιᾶς καὶ ἐπὶ μόνῃ τῇ παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ θεραπείᾳ σαλευούσης τὴν θλίψιν εἰς καρδίαν λαβών: πάντων ὁμοῦ τοιούτων ὄντων ὃ καὶ τοσούτων ἀλογήσας, ἑνὸς ἐγενόμην, τοῦ τὴν ὑμετέραν ἐκκλησίαν κατακοσμῆσαι μὲν τῇ τοῦ "τηλικούτου ἀνδρὸς προστασίᾳ, βοηθῆσαι δὲ αὐτῇ ἐκ τῆς χρονίας ἀπροστασίας εἰς γόνυ λοιπὸν κλιθείσῃ,
1 Placed by the Benedictine edition in 372, but by Loofs (20 1.) in 373.
This letter concerns the appointment of a