17

SCHOLIA.

15Β_074 1. That love is given instead of the law and the prophets; and that from this all the words of the commandments are issued, and by this they are uniformly contained.

2. See the movement according to reason and nature, from which man was turned away from the beginning by the counsel of the evil one.

3. The works of blessed love, to join into one around the one who possesses it, both God and all mortals by an ineffable word.

LETTER 3. TO THE SAME, 3. From the same to the same. 15Β_076 the precious letters of your belovedness in the Lord

having received, with the blessing that was sent to the most pious monks, of the holy monastery of the holy and glorious martyr George, I gave thanks to God for such zeal of yours for what is good; because by zealously loosing the bonds of those overcome by poverty, you have freed yourselves from the bonds of sin; and setting yourselves to nourish bodies, you have nourished your own soul with divine grace, and have given me an occasion to pluck the fruit of true contemplation. For having come to myself, I understood for what reason God simply legislated that it is necessary for all men to have mercy on and be shown mercy by one another; because wishing to unite you to one another in nature and in will, and truly pushing all humanity toward this, he philanthropically inscribed for us the saving commandments; but the self-love and cleverness of men, having either rejected or sophistically manipulated one another and the law, has cut the one nature into many parts; and having introduced its now prevailing insensibility, 0409 it has armed nature itself against itself through the will. For this very reason, whoever has been able with sound reasoning and nobility of mind to resolve this irregularity of nature, has shown mercy on himself before others, having fashioned his will according to nature; and has approached God according to his will on account of his nature; and having shown in himself what is the manner of the logos according to the image; and how 15Β_078 God for Himself fittingly in the beginning, established our nature as similar, having created it as a very clear image of His own goodness; it being in every way the same with itself; uncontentious, peaceful, without strife, bound both to God and to itself through love; according to which we hold to God with longing, and to one another with sympathy. And he has also had mercy on those who ought to receive mercy; not only by providing for them, but also by teaching how God, being hidden, is revealed through those who are worthy; so that they too, henceforth, revering the philanthropy of their neighbor toward them, are able to easily lay claim to this grace as being from God. But if someone, being able to do this from what he has, disregards those men who are in need, he will be shown to have cut them off from himself, and to have reasonably cut himself off from God; as one who has ignored nature on account of his will, or rather, through his will has corrupted the good things belonging to his own nature. These things, those who have willfully preferred the harsh instead of the philanthropic, and judging what is kindred and of the same nature as of less value than obols, and with the desire for gold having walled up the entrances of God to themselves, themselves pitiably suffering the fall from what is better at their own hands; but those things, those who wisely strive to unite the fractures of nature, in a way that loves one's fellow, and for the sake of cooperating with God through love, the of other men as much as it is in them according to their will

17

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ.

15Β_074 1. Ὅτι δίδοται ἡ ἀγάπη ἀντί τοῦ νόμου καί τῶν προφητῶν· καί ὅτι ἐκ ταύτης πάντες οἱ λόγοι τῶν ἐντολῶν ἐκδίδονται, καί ὑπό ταύτης μονοειδῶς περιέχονται.

2. Ὅρα τήν κατά λόγον καί φύσιν κίνησιν, ἐξ ἧς ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς ἐτράπη ὁ ἄνθρωπος συμβουλίᾳ τοῦ πονηροῦ.

3. Τά τῆς ἀγάπης ἔργα τῆς μακαρίας, εἰς ἕν συνάπτειν ἀμφί τόν κεκτημένον, Θεόν βροτούς τε πάντας ἀῤῥήτω λόγῳ.

ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗ Γ'. ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΝ Γ´. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ πρός τόν αὐτόν. 15Β_076 Τά τίμια τῆς ὑμετέρας ἐν Κυρίῳ ποθεινότητος γράμματα

δεξάμενος, μετά τῆς πεμφθείσης εὐλογίας τοῖς εὐλαβεστάτοις μοναχοῖς, τοῦ εὐαγοῦς μοναστηρίου τοῦ ἁγίου καί ἐνδόξου μάρτυρος Γεωργίου, ηὐχαρίστησα τῷ Θεῷ ἐπί τῇ τοιαύτῃ ὑμῶν εἰς τό καλόν προθυμίᾳ· ὅτι διά σπουδῆς τῶν πενίᾳ κατειλημμένων τούς δεσμούς λύσαντες, τῶν τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἑαυτούς δεσμῶν ἠλευθερώσατε· καί σώματα τρέφειν προθέμενοι, τήν ἑαυτῶν ψυχήν θείᾳ διεθρέψατε χάριτι, κἀμοί δεδώκατε πρόφασιν θεωρίας ἀληθοῦς δρέψασθαι καρπόν. Ἔγνων γάρ καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν γενόμενος, ὅτου χάριν ὁ Θεός πάντας ἐλεεῖν καί ἐλεεῖσθαι χρῆν ὑπ᾿ ἀλλήλων τούς ἀνθρώπους ἁπλῶς ἐνομοθέτησεν· ὅτι πρός τῇ φύσει καί τῇ γνώμῃ ἀλλήλοις ὑμᾶς ἑνῶσαι βουλόμενος, καί πρός τοῦτο ἅπαν ὠθῶν ὡς ἀληθῶς τό ἀνθρώπινον, τάς σωτηρίους φιλανθρώπως ἡμῖν ἐντολάς διεχάραξεν· ἀλλ᾿ ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων φιλαυτία καί σύνεσις, ἀλλήλους, καί τόν νόμον, ἤ ἀπωσαμένη, ἤ σοφισαμένη, εἰς πολλάς μοίρας τήν μίαν φύσιν κατέτεμε· καί τήν νῦν ἐπικρατοῦσαν αὐτῆς ἀναλγησίαν εἰσηγησαμένη, 0409 αὐτήν καθ᾿ ἑαυτῆς τήν φύσιν διά τῆς γνώμης ἐξώπλισε. ∆ιά τοι τοῦτο, πᾶς ὅστις σώφρονι λογισμῷ, καί φρονήσεως εὐγενείᾳ ταύτην λῦσαι διεδύνηται τῆς φύσεως τήν ἀνωμαλίαν, ἑαυτόν μέν πρό τῶν ἄλλων ἠλέησε, τήν γνώμην κατά τήν φύσιν δημιουργήσας· καί Θεῷ κατά τήν γνώμην διά τήν φύσιν προσχωρήσας· καί δείξας ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτόν, τίς τοῦ κατ᾿ εἰκόνα λόγου ὁ τρόπος· καί πῶς 15Β_078 ἑαυτῷ ὁ Θεός πρεπόντως κατ᾿ ἀρχάς, ὁμοίαν τήν ἡμετέραν φύσιν, καί τῆς ἰδίας ἀγαθότητος ἀρίδηλον ἀπεικόνισμα δημιουργήσας κατέστησεν· αὐτήν ἑαυτῇ κατά πάντα τήν αὐτήν· ἄμαχον, εἰρηνικήν, ἀστασίαστον, πρός τε Θεόν, καί ἑαυτήν δι᾿ ἀγάπης ἐσφιγμένην· καθ᾿ ἥν Θεοῦ μέν ἐφετῶς, ἀλλήλων δέ συμπαθῶς ἀντεχόμεθα. Ἡλέησε δέ καί τούς ἐλεεῖσθαι ὀφείλοντας· οὐ μόνον αὐτοῖς ἐπαρκέσας, ἀλλά καί διδάξας, πῶς κρυπτόμενος ὁ Θεός διά τῶν ἀξιῶν ἐκφαίνεται· ὡς δύνασθαι κἀκείνους λοιπόν, τήν περί αὐτούς αἰδουμένους τοῦ πέλας φιλανθρωπίαν, ῥᾳδίως ταύτης ὡς Θεοῦ μεταποιεῖσθαι τῆς χάριτος. Εἰ δέ τις τοῦτο ποιεῖν ἐκ τοῦ ἔχειν δυνάμενος, τούς χρῄζοντας ἀνθρώπους περιορᾷ, ἑαυτοῦ μέν ἐκείνους, ἑαυτόν δέ Θεοῦ εἰκότως ἀποῤῥήξας δειχθήσεται· ὡς τήν φύσιν διά τήν γνώμην ἀγνοήσας, μᾶλλον δέ ἑαυτοῦ διά τήν γνώμην, τά τῇ φύσει προσόντα ἀγαθά διαφθείρας. Ταῦτα μέν ὅσοι τοῦ φιλανθρώπου, τό ἀπηνές προείλαντο γνωμικῶς, καί τῶν ὀβολῶν τό συγγενές, καί ὁμόφυλον ἀτιμότερον κρίνοντες, καί τῷ περί τόν χρυσόν ἱμέρῳ, τάς πρός ἑαυτούς τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰσόδους ἀποτειχίσαντες, ἐλεεινόν αὐτοί πάσχοντες ὑφ᾿ ἑαυτῶν τῶν κρειττόνων τήν ἔκπτωσιν· ἐκεῖνα δέ ὅσοι τά τῆς φύσεως ῥήγματα ἑνῶσαι σοφῶς σπουδάζουσι, τῷ φιλαλλήλῳ τρόπῳ, καί τοῦ συνεργῆσαι Θεῷ χάριν διά τῆς ἀγάπης, τήν τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων ὅσον τό ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς κατά τήν γνώμην