Letter V.32    Placed about 358.

To Nectarius.33    cf. Letter 290.  The identification of the two Nectarii is conjectural.  “Tillemont is inclined to identify Basil’s correspondent with the future bishop of Constantinople, but without sufficient grounds.”  D.C.B. see.

1.  I heard of your unendurable loss, and was much distressed.  Three or four days went by, and I was still in some doubt because my informant was not able to give me any clear details of the melancholy event.  While I was incredulous about what was noised abroad, because I prayed that it might not be true, I received a letter from the Bishop fully confirming the unhappy tidings.  I need not tell you how I sighed and wept.  Who could be so stony-hearted, so truly inhuman, as to be insensible to what has occurred, or be affected by merely moderate grief?  He is gone; heir of a noble house, prop of a family, a father’s hope, offspring of pious parents, nursed with innumerable prayers, in the very bloom of manhood, torn from his father’s hands.  These things are enough to break a heart of adamant and make it feel.  It is only natural then that I am deeply touched at this trouble; I who have been intimately connected with you from the beginning and have made your joys and sorrows mine.  But yesterday it seemed that you had only little to trouble you, and that your life’s stream was flowing prosperously on.  In a moment, by a demon’s malice,34    cf. Luke xiii. 16 and 2 Cor. xii. 7. all the happiness of the house, all the brightness of life, is destroyed, and our lives are made a doleful story.  If we wish to lament and weep over what has happened, a lifetime will not be enough and if all mankind mourns with us they will be powerless to make their lamentation match our loss.  Yes, if all the streams run tears35    cf. Lam. ii. 18. they will not adequately weep our woe.

2.  But we mean,—do we not?—to bring out the gift which God has stored in our hearts; I mean that sober reason which in our happy days is wont to draw lines of limitation round our souls, and when troubles come about us to recall to our minds that we are but men, and to suggest to us, what indeed we have seen and heard, that life is full of similar misfortunes, and that the examples of human sufferings are not a few.  Above all, this will tell us that it is God’s command that we who trust in Christ should not grieve over them who are fallen asleep, because we hope in the resurrection; and that in reward for great patience great crowns of glory are kept in store by the Master of life’s course.  Only let us allow our wiser thoughts to speak to us in this strain of music, and we may peradventure discover some slight alleviation of our trouble.  Play the man, then, I implore you; the blow is a heavy one, but stand firm; do not fall under the weight of your grief; do not lose heart.  Be perfectly assured of this, that though the reasons for what is ordained by God are beyond us, yet always what is arranged for us by Him Who is wise and Who loves us is to be accepted, be it ever so grievous to endure.  He Himself knows how He is appointing what is best for each and why the terms of life that He fixes for us are unequal.  There exists some reason incomprehensible to man why some are sooner carried far away from us, and some are left a longer while behind to bear the burdens of this painful life.  So we ought always to adore His loving kindness, and not to repine, remembering those great and famous words of the great athlete Job, when he had seen ten children at one table, in one short moment, crushed to death, “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.”36    Job i. 21.  As the Lord thought good so it came to pass.  Let us adopt those marvellous words.  At the hands of the righteous Judge, they who show like good deeds shall receive a like reward.  We have not lost the lad; we have restored him to the Lender.  His life is not destroyed; it is changed for the better.  He whom we love is not hidden in the ground; he is received into heaven.  Let us wait a little while, and we shall be once more with him.  The time of our separation is not long, for in this life we are all like travellers on a journey, hastening on to the same shelter.  While one has reached his rest another arrives, another hurries on, but one and the same end awaits them all.  He has outstripped us on the way, but we shall all travel the same road, and the same hostelry awaits us all.  God only grant that we through goodness may be likened to his purity, to the end that for the sake of our guilelessness of life we may attain the rest which is granted to them that are children in Christ.

ΠΡΟΣ ΝΕΚΤΑΡΙΟΝ ΠΑΡΑΜΥΘΗΤΙΚΗ

[1] Οὔπω εἶχον τρίτην ἢ τετάρτην ἡμέραν πληγεὶς ἐπὶ τῇ ἀκοῇ τοῦ ἀφορήτου πάθους, καὶ ἔτι ἀμφίβολος ὤν, διὰ τὸ μηδὲ σαφῶς δυνηθῆναι ἡμῖν τὸν μηνυτὴν τῶν ἀνιαρῶν τὸ συμβὰν διηγήσασθαι καὶ τὸ ἀπεύχεσθαι ἀληθῆ εἶναι, δυσπαραδέκτως ἔχων πρὸς τὰ θρυλούμενα, ἐδεξάμην γράμμα τοῦ ἐπισκόπου ἀκριβῶς σημαῖνον τὴν ἀπευκτὴν ἀγγελίαν. Ἐφ' ᾧ ὅσον μὲν ἐστέναξα καὶ ὅσον ἀφῆκα δάκρυον τί χρὴ καὶ λέγειν; Καὶ γὰρ τίς οὕτω λίθινος τὴν καρδίαν, ἢ ἔξω παντελῶς τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως, ὥστε ἀπαθῶς ἐνεγκεῖν τὸ συμβάν, ἢ μετρίῳ πάθει τὴν ψυχὴν καταληφθῆναι; Οἴκου λαμπροῦ διαδοχή, ἔρεισμα γένους, πατρίδος ἐλπίς, γονέων εὐσεβῶν βλάστημα ὑπὸ μυρίαις εὐχαῖς ἐντραφέν, ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ ἄνθει τῆς ἡλικίας ὤν, ἐκ μέσου τῶν πατρικῶν χειρῶν ἀναρπασθεὶς οἴχεται. Ταῦτα ποίαν ἀδάμαντος φύσιν οὐχ ἱκανὰ ἐκλῦσαι καὶ εἰς συμπάθειαν ἀγαγεῖν; Ὥστε οὐδὲν μέγα, εἰ καὶ ἡμῶν διὰ βάθους ἥψατο τὸ κακόν, ὁλοκλήρως ἐξ ἀρχῆς προσπεφυκότων ὑμῖν καὶ τάς τε εὐφροσύνας ὑμῶν καὶ τὰς λύπας ἰδίας ἑαυτῶν ποιουμένων. Καίτοιγε ἐδόκει τὰ μέχρι τοῦ παρόντος χρόνου ὀλίγα θεῖναι τὰ λυποῦντα ὑμᾶς, ἐν τοῖς πλείστοις δὲ κατὰ ῥοῦν ὑμῖν τὰ πράγματα φέρεσθαι: ἀλλ' ἀθρόως, βασκανίᾳ δαίμονος, πᾶσα τοῦ οἴκου ἐκείνου ἡ εὐθηνία καὶ ἡ φαιδρότης ἠφάνισται, καὶ ἐγενόμεθα τῷ βίῳ διήγημα σκυθρωπόν. Ἐὰν μὲν οὖν ποτνιᾶσθαι ἐπὶ τοῖς συμβᾶσι καὶ δακρύειν βουλώμεθα, οὐκ ἐξαρκέσει ἡμῖν ὁ χρόνος τοῦ βίου, πάντες δὲ ἄνθρωποι, μεθ' ἡμῶν στένοντες, παρισῶσαι τῷ πάθει τὸν ὀδυρμὸν οὐ δυνήσονται: ἀλλὰ κἂν τὸ τῶν ποταμῶν ῥεῦμα δάκρυον γένηται, ἐκπληρῶσαι τῶν συμβάντων τὸν θρῆνον οὐκ ἐξαρκέσει.

[2] Ἐὰν μέντοι θελήσωμεν τὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ δῶρον ὃ ἐναπέθετο ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν προενεγκεῖν νῦν, τὸν λογισμὸν λέγω τὸν σώφρονα, ὃς καὶ ἐν ταῖς εὐημερίαις μέτρα οἶδε ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἡμῶν ὁρίζειν, καὶ ἐν ταῖς κατηφεστέραις περιστάσεσιν εἰς ὑπόμνησιν ἄγειν τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων, καὶ ὑποβάλλειν ἡμῖν ἅ τε εἴδομεν, ἅ τε ἠκούσαμεν, ὅτι γέμει ὁ βίος τῶν τοιούτων παθῶν καὶ πολλὰ τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων συμφορῶν ἐστι τὰ ὑποδείγματα, καί, ἐπὶ πᾶσιν, ὅτι πρόσταγμα Θεοῦ ἐστι τὸ μὴ λυπεῖσθαι ἐπὶ τοῖς κεκοιμημένοις τοὺς εἰς Χριστὸν πεπιστευκότας, διὰ τὴν ἐλπίδα τῆς ἀναστάσεως, καὶ ὅτι τῆς μεγάλης ὑπομονῆς μεγάλοι παρὰ τῷ Ἀθλοθέτῃ οἱ στέφανοι τῆς δόξης ἀπόκεινται: ἐὰν ἐπιτρέψωμεν τῷ λογισμῷ ταῦτα ἡμῖν κατεπᾴδειν, τάχα ἂν εὕροιμέν τινα μετρίαν τοῦ κακοῦ λύσιν. Διὸ παρακαλῶ σε, ὡς γενναῖον ἀγωνιστήν, στῆναι πρὸς τὸ μέγεθος τῆς πληγῆς καὶ μὴ ὑποπεσεῖν τῷ βάρει τῆς λύπης, μηδὲ καταποθῆναι τὴν ψυχήν, ἐκεῖνο πεπεισμένον ὅτι, κἂν οἱ λόγοι τῶν παρὰ Θεοῦ οἰκονομουμένων διαφεύγωσιν ἡμᾶς, ἀλλὰ πάντως γε τὸ παρὰ τοῦ σοφοῦ καὶ ἀγαπῶντος ἡμᾶς οἰκονομηθὲν ἀπόδεκτόν ἐστι, κἂν ἐπίπονον ᾖ. Αὐτὸς γὰρ οἶδε πῶς ἑκάστῳ διατίθησι τὸ συμφέρον καὶ διὰ τί ἄνισα ἡμῖν τοῦ βίου τὰ πέρατα. Ἔστι γάρ τις αἰτία ἀνθρώποις ἀκατάληπτος, δι' ἣν οἳ μὲν θᾶττον ἐντεῦθεν ἀπάγονται, οἳ δὲ ἐπὶ πλεῖον προσταλαιπωρεῖν τῷ ὀδυνηρῷ τούτῳ βίῳ καταλιμπάνονται. Ὥστε ἐπὶ πᾶσι προσκυνεῖν αὐτοῦ τὴν φιλανθρωπίαν ὀφείλομεν καὶ μὴ δυσχεραίνειν, μεμνημένοι τῆς μεγάλης ἐκείνης καὶ ἀοιδίμου φωνῆς ἣν ὁ μέγας ἀθλητὴς Ἰὼβ ἀνεφθέγξατο, ἐπὶ μιᾶς τραπέζης ἰδὼν δέκα παῖδας ἐν βραχείᾳ καιροῦ ῥοπῇ συντριβέντας: «Ὁ Κύριος ἔδωκεν, ὁ Κύριος ἀφείλετο: ὡς τῷ Κυρίῳ ἔδοξεν, οὕτω καὶ ἐγένετο.» Ἡμέτερον ποιησώμεθα τὸ θαῦμα τοῦτο: ἴσος ὁ μισθὸς παρὰ τοῦ δικαίου Κριτοῦ τοῖς τὰ ἴσα ἐπιδεικνυμένοις ἀνδραγαθήματα. Οὐκ ἀπεστερήθημεν τοῦ παιδός, ἀλλ' ἀπεδώκαμεν τῷ χρήσαντι: οὐδὲ ἠφανίσθη αὐτοῦ ἡ ζωή, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τὸ βέλτιον διημείφθη: οὐ γῆ κατέκρυψε τὸν ἀγαπητὸν ἡμῶν, ἀλλ' οὐρανὸς ὑπεδέξατο. Μικρὸν ἀναμείνωμεν καὶ συνεσόμεθα τῷ ποθουμένῳ. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ θᾶττον τὴν ὁδὸν προκατέλυσεν, ἀλλὰ πάντες ταύτην αὐτὴν πορευσόμεθα καὶ πάντας τὸ αὐτὸ ἀναμένει κατάλυμα. Μόνον γένοιτο ἡμᾶς δι' ἀρετῆς τῇ καθαρότητι ἐκείνου ὁμοιωθῆναι, ἵνα διὰ τὸ ἄδολον τοῦ ἤθους τῆς αὐτῆς τοῖς ἐν Χριστῷ νηπίοις ἀναπαύσεως τύχωμεν.