Письмо XXVII. Кубикуларию Иоанну

Those who have united themselves in bonds of love throughout the world need to preserve it in the bodily presence of each other, because oblivion naturally exhausts every desire relating only to bodies, and with it the memory of those in whom such mutual disposition exists tends to fade. It also happens: what seems to be supposed to maintain a mutual connection throughout the world is destroyed by the oncoming satiety, which destroys all the previous disposition. And the disappearance of any of the reasons causing it, or some insignificant reason [360] lead to the rapid conversion of such love into hatred. Those who have bound themselves inextricably with the bonds of love according to God, both being together and being apart from each other, only strengthen these bonds, because they have love within themselves according to God, who Himself is love (1 John 4:16), and gives those worthy the power to love - which, it seems to me, is completely natural. After all, along with things that are fluid by nature, the mutual disposition based on them tends to flow away, and along with the stable and eternally unchanging things, the completely motionless and unshakable love of those whose mutual disposition is based on them usually abides; it so boundlessly arouses the desire for each other, to the extent that the originator of such a connection, God, naturally draws to Himself those united with each other in spirit. In this very way, loving you, much beloved, in my soul I constantly keep you inseparably present and imprinted in the depths of my spirit and, even though a long period of time and a great distance separate us, I never cease to see and embrace you with my mind. Believing that we love you equally, if not more, I do not refuse to write without delay what is needed, knowing that spiritually our soul has become one. I also know that you will not consider what you heard as an insult, thinking about the terrible condescension of God towards people who surpass mind and understanding. So accept favorably the one who delivers you this insignificant letter, and become for him everything that He commanded, Who gave people the law to share each other’s troubles and consider their neighbor so much their own that, by the mutual disposition that pours people into each other, he does not even seem like another person. Not only “rejoice with those who rejoice,” but also “weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15), and to love your neighbor not simply, but as yourself (Matthew 19:19), the word of God commands, not to mention the new commandment, punishing for the sake of love even the very souls, when the time of struggle comes, to lay down [361] for each other, which the Lord Himself actually fulfilled, not failing to lay down His soul for us ( John 10:15) and giving us an example of perfect pleasing, by which the law of self-love is gradually exhausted, which initially, through pleasure, insidiously alienated us from God and each other, and instead of believing in one God, he inspired us to believe that there are many gods or there are none at all, and he cast down all the power of our mind to the flesh, and cut the one nature into many parts, and aroused in us brutal anger against each other for the sake of pleasure. So, as I said, become all things to the person who needs your protection, so that God, who out of love for mankind deigned to become all things to all, may also become all things to you. You might be interested in: