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Since God has disposed you well to command me to write and send to you what I had noted down of the chapters which I found perplexing, I have placed first what seemed to me more necessary.

14Β_056 A (1). CONCERNING GRIEF AND PLEASURE AND DESIRE AND FEAR. 1. QUESTION I. Are the passions evil in and of themselves or evil by their use? I mean pleasure and

grief, desire and fear, and the things that follow these. Answer. These passions, just as the rest, were not primarily in the nature of men

co-created, since they would have also contributed to the definition of nature. But I say, having learned from Gregory the Great of Nyssa, that through the fall from perfection these were introduced, having been attached to the more irrational part of nature; through which, instead of the divine and blessed image, immediately with the transgression the likeness of irrational animals became transparent and manifest in man. For it was necessary, the worthiness of reason having been covered over, that the nature of men be justly punished by the marks of irrationality which he had willfully drawn upon himself, as God wisely provided for man to come to an awareness of his rational greatness.

However, the passions also become good in the zealous, whenever, wisely turning them away from bodily things, they use them for the acquisition of heavenly things; for example, they will make desire into an appetitive movement of the intellectual yearning for divine things, and pleasure into the harmless gladness of the mind's enchanting energy for divine gifts, and fear into a precautionary care against the future punishment for offenses, and grief into a corrective repentance for a present evil, and, 14Β_058 to speak briefly, like the wise physicians who remove the existing or intended injury from the body of a destructive beast, the viper, using these passions for the removal of present or expected evil, and for the acquisition and protection of virtue and knowledge. Therefore, as I said, these things become good through their use in those who take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

But if any of these things is said in Scripture of God or of the saints, in the case of God, it is for our sake, as He suitably to us, through our own passions, reveals the saving and beneficent progressions of His providence for us, but in the case of the saints, as they are not otherwise able to bring forth through bodily voice their intellectual states and dispositions concerning God, without the passions known to nature.

SCHOLIA. 1. That the various ways of providence concerning us by passions known to us

Scripture shapes. 2. That a certain disposition of the saints concerning God by these very names the

Scripture signifies. B (2). CONCERNING WHAT "MY FATHER IS WORKING UNTIL NOW" MEANS. 2. QUESTION II. If all the species that complete the world in the six days the

the Creator made, what does the Father work after these things? For the Savior says: My Father is working until now, and I am working. Could it be perhaps that He means the preservation of the species that were once made?

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Ἐπειδὴ ἠγάθυνέ σε ὁ Θεὸς κελεῦσαί μοι ἅπερ εἶχον σεσημειωμένα τῶν ἀπορουμένων μοι κεφαλαίων γράψαι καὶ πέμψαι σοι, τὰ ἀναγκαιότερά μοι φανέντα προέταξα.

14Β_056 Α (1). ΠΕΡΙ ΛΥΠΗΣ ΚΑΙ Η∆ΟΝΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΠΙΘΥΜΙΑΣ ΤΕ ΚΑΙ ΦΟΒΟΥ. 1. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ Α' Τὰ πάθη αὐτὰ καθ᾽ αὑτὰ κακὰ ἢ παρὰ τὴν χρῆσιν κακά; Λέγω δὲ ἡδονὴν καὶ

λύπην, ἐπιθυμίαν καὶ φόβον, καὶ τὰ τούτοις ἑπόμενα. Ἀπόκρισις. Τὰ πάθη ταῦτα, ὥσπερ καὶ τὰ λοιπά, τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων προηγουμένως

οὐ συνεκτίσθη, ἐπεὶ καὶ εἰς τὸν ὅρον ἂν συνετέλουν τῆς φύσεως. Λέγω δέ, παρὰ τοῦ Νυσσαέως μεγάλου Γρηγορίου μαθών, ὅτι διὰ τὴν τῆς τελειότητος ἔκπτωσιν ἐπεισήχθη ταῦτα, τῷ ἀλογωτέρῳ μέρει προσφυέντα τῆς φύσεως· δι᾽ ὧν, ἀντὶ τῆς θείας καὶ μακαρίας εἰκόνος, εὐθὺς ἅμα τῇ παραβάσει διαφανὴς καὶ ἐπίδηλος ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ γέγονεν ἡ τῶν ἀλόγων ζῴων ὁμοίωσις. Ἔδει γάρ, τῆς ἀξίας τοῦ λόγου καλυφθείσης, ὑφ᾽ ὧν γνωμικῶς ἐπεσπάσατο τῆς ἀλογίας γνωρισμάτων ἐνδίκως τὴν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων κολάζεσθαι, σοφῶς εἰς συναίσθησιν τῆς λογικῆς μεγαλονοίας ἐλθεῖν οἰκονομοῦντος τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν ἄνθρωπον.

Πλὴν καλὰ γίνεται καὶ τὰ πάθη ἐν τοῖς σπουδαίοις, ὁπηνίκα σοφῶς αὐτὰ τῶν σωματικῶν ἀποστήσαντες, πρὸς τὴν τῶν οὐρανίων μεταχειρίζονται κτῆσιν· οἷον, τὴν μὲν ἐπιθυμίαν τῆς νοερᾶς τῶν θείων ἐφέσεως ὀρεκτικὴν ἐργάσονται κίνησιν, τὴν ἡδονὴν δὲ τῆς ἐπὶ τοῖς θείοις χαρίσμασι τοῦ νοῦ θελκτικῆς ἐνεργείας εὐφροσύνην ἀπήμονα, τὸν δὲ φόβον τῆς μελλούσης ἐπὶ πλημμελήμασι τιμωρίας προφυλακτικὴν ἐπιμέλειαν, τὴν δὲ λύπην διορθωτικὴν ἐπὶ παρόντι κακῷ μεταμέλειαν, καὶ συντόμως 14Β_058 εἰπεῖν, κατὰ τοὺς σοφοὺς τῶν ἰατρῶν, σώματι φθαρτικοῦ θηρὸς τῆς ἐχίδνης τὴν οὖσαν ἢ μελετωμένην ἀφαιρουμένους λώβωσιν, τοῖς πάθεσι τούτοις πρὸς ἀναίρεσιν χρώμενοι παρούσης κακίας ἢ προσδοκωμένης, καὶ κτῆσιν καὶ φυλακὴν ἀρετῆς τε καὶ γνώσεως. Καλὰ οὖν, ὡς ἔφην, ταῦτα τυγχάνει διὰ τὴν χρῆσιν ἐν τοῖς πᾶν νόημα αἰχμαλωτίζουσιν εἰς τὴν ὑπακοὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ.

Εἰ δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ Θεοῦ τι τούτων εἴρηται τῇ Γραφῇ ἢ ἐπὶ ἁγίων, ἐπὶ μὲν Θεοῦ, δι᾽ ἡμᾶς, ὡς ἡμῖν προσφυῶς διὰ τῶν ἡμετέρων παθῶν τὰς σωστικὰς ἡμῶν καὶ ἀγαθουργοὺς τῆς προνοίας προόδους ἐκφαίνοντος, ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν ἁγίων, ὡς οὐκ ἄλλως δυναμένων τὰς περὶ Θεὸν νοερὰς αὐτῶν σχέσεις τε καὶ διαθέσεις διὰ φωνῆς προενέγκαι σωματικῆς, χωρὶς τῶν ἐγνωσμένων τῇ φύσει παθῶν.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ. 1. Ὅτι τούς δαφόρους περί ἡμᾶς τῆς προνοίας τρόπους τοῖς ἡμῖν ἐγνωσμένοις

πάθεσιν ἡ Γραφή διαπλάττεται. 2. Ὅτι τήν περί Θεόν ποιάν σχέσιν τῶν ἁγίων τοῖς ὀνόμασι τούτοις τούτοις ἡ

Γραφή διασημαίνει. Β (2). ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΤΙ ΣΗΜΑΙΝΕΙ "Ο ΠΑΤΗΡ ΜΟΥ ΕΩΣ ΑΡΤΙ ΕΡΓΑΖΕΤΑΙ". 2. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ Β' Εἰ πάντα τὰ εἴδη τὰ συμπληροῦντα τὸν κόσμον ἐν ταῖς ἓξ ἡμέραις ὁ

δημιουργὸς ἐποίησεν, τί μετὰ ταῦτα ὁ Πατὴρ ἐργάζεται; Λέγει γὰρ ὁ Σωτὴρ ὁ Πατήρ μου ἕως ἄρτι ἐργάζεται, κἀγὼ ἐργάζομαι. Μή τι ἆρα τὴν τῶν ἅπαξ γεγονότων εἰδῶν συντήρησιν λέγει;