Письмо XVI. Тому же

My soul, deeply wounded by grief because of what happened to the noble guardian of virtue, Mr. George, at the slander of people who do not fear the Lord, was consoled by the arrival of your divine letter, holy father, bringing the joyful news of your health, desired by all, and revealing the firmness of the good confession of the Lord Jesus Christ, our true God. Strengthened by the test of passions, it turned into steadfastness in you, who put into nothing the adversities of real life, which you once despised happiness, you transferred all the desires of your soul to what you expected, for which you are marked by faith and a clear conscience; one preserves a pious mind, not at all defiled by false teaching, while the other creates a godly life by fulfilling the commandments. Both of these things—I’m talking about reason and way of life—are necessary for a person who wants to prefer communication with wisdom over everything, so that we piously proclaim the mystery of the self-humiliation of the God of all who took place for us in the flesh without change, confessing Christ truly as God and at the same time as man: That which was without cause and from the beginning, who then became this for our sake. He did not set aside what he was because of what he became, for he is unchangeable. He did not reject what he became because of what he was, for he loved mankind. After all, for Him, the only truly existing one, due to the excess of power, it was possible, without change and fusion, to become something that was not, and to completely remain both what it was and what it became, [335] due to the utmost uniqueness of its own hypostasis, not accepting division and preserving in Himself after the union the difference of the natures from which it was composed, since, having united in hypostasis with intelligently animated flesh, He showed Himself by miracles to remain invariably what He was, but through suffering He revealed Himself as preserving without change what He had become, both of them - I’m talking about miracles and suffering - He granted us the destruction of sin and the grace of deification. And we would honor the call of grace with a change of life, illuminated by the observance of the commandments, not in the least shaken by any pleasure or any kind of suffering, and in everything that we do and suffer, we would strive only for God, who gave Himself as a compensation and ransom for us (1 Tim. 2:6), and entrusted to Him our whole life, both present and future, - for we exist from Him according to the logos of creation, and by Him in the image control, and let us rest in Him through the gracious mystery of the anticipated deification (Rom. 11:36) - and for the apparent present misfortunes we received eternal happiness, having shown in what we endure our secret desire for God, which no sorrows that befall us can change. Therefore, let us not lose heart in tribulations (Eph. 3:13), venerable father, knowing that tribulation creates patience, and patience creates experience, experience creates hope, and hope does not disgrace (Rom. 5:35), indestructibly possessing the taste of eternal blessings for what we endure, but let us courageously bear what happens to us, looking to the leader of our salvation (Heb. 2:10 ), Jesus, who, being the true God, for our sake was willing to accept death, so that, while suffering, we would rejoice and, having become like Him through death (Rom. 6:5), were leavened for the resurrection with the leaven of invincible life. Since the Divine law wants us to suffer unjustly, doing good as disciples of Christ for the sake of condemning sin, introduced through deception by the clever serpent, who seduced [336] man to transgress the Divine commandment and prefer the temporal to the eternal; and we have received the power to trample upon it (Luke 19:19), preserving the preserving grace by keeping the commandments - and this, according to sound reasoning, is fulfilled only by voluntary and involuntary torment of the flesh among those who love the Lord, in whom, having confirmed all your desires, you do not feel misfortunes, holy father, for in you real grief is overcome by the joy of the desired blessings, which may we all be worthy of, and may the great one give us from them Our God and Savior Christ (Titus 2:13), as He knows, to each according to his dignity, through the intercession of His most pure and all-holy Mother, the Ever-Virgin, and all the saints. Amen. You might be interested in: