Письмо VIII. Тому же

Carnal love is such that it weakens over time, moving away along with the spatial divergence of the people connected by it with each other. For its structure is sensory and cannot in any way perceive what is not present. Spiritual love always keeps together in the mind those united by it, even if they are physically separated, and does not accept limitations either in time or in space. After all, its existence is intelligent, and the mind is by no means divided or limited following the mutual spatial separation of bodies. Having been honored from the very beginning to have such love for you, the most holy ones, I constantly seem to see and feel you present next to me and converse with you, and neither time nor distance can tear me away from the remembrance of you, which always spiritually reveals you to be present and drives out all my fetid thoughts, which are unbearable for the abundant fragrance of God’s grace in you, and I am convinced that memory does not in vain imagine you, most holy, and truly perceives your presence, and I consider what is happening to be the most accurate confirmation of your coming to me. After all, the active power that, by the grace of God, dwells in you, simultaneously with the memory, drives out the demons that bother me, presenting the clearest proof of your presence. And it is not surprising that the God of signs and wonders makes those who are absent physically spiritually present - and how, He Himself knows, but those to whom it is given from Him to perform such things in a godlike manner; and present to a greater extent than bodies are co-present with each other. And if by mere recollection, most respected fathers, you inflict such punishment on my shameful thoughts, appearing invisibly in the spirit, then how much more effective would it be if you were visibly present, and sanctified my hearing with the living utterance of Divine speeches, and magnificently taught virtue with your own good morals? Therefore, I walk, grieving and [249] lamenting, yearning for you, good shepherd and teacher, who knows how to make me, a lost sheep, dwell in green pastures (Ps. 22:2), - I’m talking about skill, doing virtues, driving away the heat of passions, and who can nourish me on still waters ( Ps. 22:2) - I mean the grace of knowledge, watering the mind with contemplation; You turn my soul from vice to virtue with Divine speeches and examples and lead me along the paths of righteousness, you show the saving goodness of piety and wisely motivate both with a vine and a rod, that is, with a reminder of eternal punishment, as if with a kind of vine, you drive away the one led from vice and with the promise of future benefits, as if with a rod, you strengthen the one who walks in virtue through hope; which our Lord and Savior, it seems to me, symbolically mentioned when he poured wine and oil on the wounds of one who had fallen into the hands of thieves (Luke 10:34). After all, the desire for the Heavenly Kingdom, with an admixture of fear of the eternal fire of Gehenna, keeps the soul intact, closely binding it with love for the Creator, which is washed away by the harshness of life from any passionate thought. So, finally, honest father, fill your pipe with the teachings of the Divine Spirit and, as a humane shepherd, call upon him who wanders without a shepherd through the mountains of ignorance and the hills of vice, and accept him under your right hand, and compassionately bind him who has been tormented by many fierce bites of Arabian wolves, that is, Western ones - after all, the name “Arabia”, as they say, is translated in Greek means "west". After all, according to the reasoning of spiritual interpretation, I mean - and, probably, not mistakenly - by “Arabia” our flesh, which lawlessly oppresses the laws of the spirit in people like me and feeds many with truly arrogant and ferocious wolves; Thanks to sin, it became the true West 180, and it is correctly called that; ascended upon it (Ps. 67:5), for he is good and a lover of mankind, the good shepherd (John 10:11), the God and Word of God who shepherds Israel, who sits on cherubim (Ps. 79:2) - it is clear that while watching carefully, he saw the danger threatening us, which is why he appeared and aroused His power (τὴν οἰκείαν ἐξεγείρας δυναστείαν ), and came in the flesh to save the lost [250] and to kill the vile beasts that had grown up in it, and to make it a land of peace and a pasture for verbal sheep, led by work to God; I have not yet passed the law of the flesh without damage by spiritual contemplation, like Israel did not pass Mount Seir, and I have not passed dispassionately through its desires with knowledgeable action, as under the leadership of Moses the descendants of Jacob through the borders of their brothers, the sons of Esau, who lived in Arabia (Deut. 1:2, 2:4), but I still live in Arabia like the sons of Esau - I’m talking about the west of the flesh - and after this life I do not inherit another because of carnal pleasures. But every true Israelite who sees God does not agree to dwell in it, hastening through virtue to move out of the flesh (2 Cor. 5:6) and striving to dwell in the Lord through knowledge, Who in a secret way (μυστικῶς) is truly, and is called the land of promise of unspeakable blessings, milk and honey ( Ex. 3:17 ). After all, the Lord is the nourisher of those who for His sake become like infants, and the joy of those who become husbands for His sake; With virtues, like milk, He nourishes through the work of those who fear Him, and with secret knowledge, like honey, He delights through spiritual contemplation of those who love Him. So do not cease, honest father, with the word of truth to compassionately shepherd me, tormented by wild beasts, and do not tire of delivering me from the passions of the flesh and the spirits of evil that excite them - vices, after all, devour and exhaust the inner man in me - and call me to you, and place me under the shadow of your wings, if in fact there is no fear of the sensual barbarians, because of whom I, loving life, and sailed such a distance on the sea; What I beg of you, most holy ones, after the most welcome notification of your excellent health, with God’s help, is to tell me in the most accurate way and depict in a letter the entire state of affairs that has now prevailed there, as it is. After all, I - weak in mind and very frail, even in peacetime barely able to maintain sobriety of mind and out of fear with difficulty concentrating my many scattered thoughts - want to make a safe voyage, because I am imperfect in mind and unable [251] to comprehend the ways of the wisely arranging Providence; otherwise, as if out of ignorance, I would not lose my mind from adversity, not succumb to weakness of patience in the struggle and not lose the crowns following it, not having fulfilled what was due in the test and fleeing from the battlefield. I say goodbye in writing to you, most holy ones, and to everyone who is with you, as if you were nearby, and I ask your holy and God-pleasing prayers to entrust me to Christ, the God and Savior of all. West, fall, sunset. – Approx. lane You might be interested in: