Послание 4 Григория Нисского

Sins that come from lust and sensuality are divided as follows; one is called adultery, and another is called fornication. Some of the most subtle researchers have chosen to call the sin of fornication adultery, since one is the legal union of a wife with her husband, and a husband with his wife. So, everything illegal is already illegal, and he who takes up what is not his own will obviously take up something else. For man was given from God one helpmate, and one head was placed over the wife. So, if someone has acquired for himself, according to the expression of the divine Paul, his own vessel (1 Thess. 4:4), the natural law provides him with the righteous use of it. But if someone turns to something other than his own, he will, without a doubt, delight someone else. For everyone, something alien is something that is not his own, even if it was not in the mind of the owner appropriating it. Therefore, those who studied this subject more strictly, fornication seemed not far removed from the sin of adultery, for the Divine Scripture also says: do not be too close to strangers (Prov. 5:20). But since the Fathers showed a certain condescension towards the weakest, there is a general difference in this sin: the fulfillment of lust is called fornication, done with someone without offending another, and adultery is slander and insult to someone else’s union. This includes bestiality and sodomy, because these sins are adultery against nature. Because an offense is caused to someone else’s family, and, moreover, contrary to nature. With such a division of species, and of this sin, the general healing is that man, through repentance, may become clean from passionate fury for such carnality. Since for those who have been defiled by fornication, there is no offense associated with this sin, for this reason a special time of repentance is determined for those who have defiled themselves by adultery or other adultery, such as mixing with cattle or being violent towards the male sex. For in these cases, as I have said, the sin becomes more serious: one consists of unauthorized voluptuousness, and the other is an insult to another. Let there be some difference in the image of repentance for sins of voluptuousness. He who has aroused himself to confess his sins, as having already begun the healing of his illness by the very fact that he decided, out of his own impulse, to be an exposer of his secrets, and as having shown a sign of his change for the better, may he be subject to a more lenient penance; was for the communion of the Holy Mysteries. The rule about this is this: let those who have been defiled by fornication be completely removed from church prayer for three years, for three years let them participate only in listening to the Scriptures, for another three years let them pray with those who fall in repentance - and then let them partake of the Holy Mysteries. For those who undergo repentance more zealously, and by their life they show a return to what is good, it is permissible to arrange what is useful in the church’s economy, to shorten the time of hearing and more quickly lead them to conversion; It is also possible to shorten the time of this and allow it to begin sooner, in accordance with the way in which he discovers the condition of the person being treated through his own testing. For just as it is forbidden to cast beads before swine, so it would be inappropriate to deprive a precious bead of one who, through removal from sin and purification, has already become a man. Lawlessness, committed by adultery or other types of uncleanness, as stated above, will be cured by the same court, like prodigal sin, but with the worsening of time. At the same time, let the disposition of the one being healed be observed, just like that of those possessed by the uncleanness of fornication, so that either earlier or later the communion of good will be given to them. (Ap. 48 and 81; Trul. 87, 93; Anchir. 20; Neokes. 8; Basil Vel. 3, 7, 9, 21, 31, 39, 58, 59, 62, 63 and 77). It should be noted that contrary to the custom noted by Saint Basil the Great, and with which he, as if reluctantly, agreed as an existing fact, Saint Gregory in adultery recognizes the equal responsibility of both the sinning husband and the sinning wife. Further, he doubles the penance for adultery, because here “slander and insult are caused to someone else’s union.” You might be interested in: