9. К Касту, Валерию, Диофанту и Кириаку, пресвитерам антиохийским 13

I’m not surprised that you called our long letter short. This is the property of those who love: they do not know satiety, they do not feel excess; but the more they receive from their loved ones, the more they ask. Therefore, if now a letter came to you ten times larger than the previous one, then it would not escape the reproach of brevity and would also be called small, or better, not only named, but would actually seem small to you. Likewise, we ourselves, no matter what degree you reach in your affection for us, do not feel complete satisfaction, but we always wish to strengthen your affection and constantly ask you to return to us the debt of our love for you. “Do not owe anything to anyone,” says the apostle, “except mutual love” (“Be indebted to no one, only to love one another”) (Rom. 13:8); the debt, however, is always paid, but in proportion to this it is always released again, so that, receiving a generous payment for it from you, we think that we will never receive a full payment. Always pay us this wonderful debt that brings mutual joy. In fact, both those who pay and those who receive it gain equal pleasure, since both of them gain equally. In monetary transactions, this, of course, cannot be the case: there, in proportion to the payment, the one who pays becomes poorer, and the one who receives, richer. But this is not how it usually happens in a contract of love. Here, the one who paid does not lose what he paid with, just as he loses money after it passes to the recipient; but as he pays, he becomes even richer. So, knowing this, my most honorable and reverent gentlemen, never cease to show us your lively affection. Although you have no need at all for such admonition from us, but since we really thirst for your love, we remind those who do not need reminders about this and ask you to constantly write to us and notify us about your health. True, you do not need to be reminded in this last respect; but we will never stop repeating this request of ours, also because its fulfillment is very desirable to us. We know to what extent this is difficult at the present time, when due to the time of year and the inconvenience of communication there are few travelers who could serve you for this purpose: with all this, we ask you to write as often as possible and convenient under such obstacles, and we hope to receive this joy from your love. To my lord, the most reverent presbyter Roman, we have now sent, by your order, a special letter, bringing you great gratitude for this. We see new proof of your great love and extreme affection for us in the fact that you, both through correspondence and personally, with unremitting zeal, are trying to bring us closer to such worthy people. Having thus received our letter to him, take the trouble to give it back as it belongs, and in addition to the letter, personally convey to him greetings from us. For a long time, from the very beginning, we were his ardent friends; tell him that to this day we maintain the same love for him, finding our greatest pleasure in it, and if we have not written to him for a long time, it is not out of negligence, but because we hoped to receive a letter from his reverence. And since he wanted us to write to him first, we do this too and earnestly ask him to write to us constantly. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: