104. К Феодоре 73

I rarely write to your modesty, due to the difficulty of finding people to deliver letters, but I remember you not only not rarely, but on the contrary, constantly. One thing depends on us, the other is not on us, we always have the power to remember constantly, but we don’t always send letters. Therefore, we fulfill one thing invariably, and the other to the extent possible. Our previous letters to you contained greetings, and the present one, in addition, contained a request for mercy. What kind of mercy? Of such a kind that it will bring more benefit to you if you give it than to the one who receives it, and it will be more beneficial to the giver than to the receiver. Namely, it has come to our attention that, for insulting your honesty, Eustathius was expelled by you from your house and removed from your sight. How it happened and why he actually fell under such anger, I can’t say, because I don’t know anything. But this is what I must tell you out of ardent concern for your salvation. You know how insignificant real life is, how similar it is to a spring flower, to an empty shadow, to a deceptive dream, and you are sure that real reality, irreducible and unchangeable, is what awaits us after we move from this world. You have heard all this from us many times; Yes, and you yourself always reason the same way. Therefore, without lengthening the letter, I will say directly: if he was expelled unjustly, due to someone’s slander, then, out of respect for justice, correct the matter; and if it is fair, then do the same again out of respect for the laws of humanity, and from this you yourself will benefit more than he. Just as the one who demanded that a slave like himself pay a hundred denarii did not so much harm him as inflict a fatal blow on himself, for the precise exactingness of a slave like himself, depriving him of the forgiveness of a debt of ten thousand talents - so, on the contrary, whoever forgives the sins of his neighbor, through this very thing softens the severity of the account that he himself will have to give in the next century, and the greater the guilt he forgives, the more he will be honored with leniency. But the difference is not only in quantity: in any case, he can only show mercy of the kind that a slave is able to show; and he will receive the reward that only the Lord can give. Don’t tell me now that the one who insulted you is guilty of this and that. The more serious his offenses are, according to your testimony, the more clearly you will prove the need to show him leniency, since the more you can thus earn yourself mercy in your future life. Cast aside your anger; tame your heart with sound thinking; sacrifice it to God. Do this for our pleasure, for our love for you, and show that even our short letter has such great power for you. Do this for your own sake, for the sake of those great benefits that I spoke about, in order to restore peace of mind in this way, to drive out the anxiety that comes from anger from your soul, and then, with complete boldness, ask the man-loving God for entry into the kingdom of heaven. Kindness to one's neighbor is a great cleansing sacrifice for sins: “For,” it is said, “if you forgive men their sins, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you” (“if... you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matthew 6:14). Think about all this and send a letter notifying us how successful our message was. Our business is over; we did everything in our power: we convinced, we asked, we begged as if for mercy, we inspired this in you as if it were a duty. Now all I care about is you. Whether our request is fulfilled or not, we will receive a reward for this admonition, since we can also receive a reward for words. All our zeal is now reverently directed only to ensure that you also receive benefit through the fulfillment of our words in reality, so that through your present deeds your modesty will happily acquire future and immortal benefits for yourself. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” From Kukuz in 404 or 405. You might be interested in: