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of my heart, saying thus within myself: (60) "Were they truly so disposed concerning this matter, and having reckoned from the soul that this is impossible, did they say what they said? Or, having reckoned it a rather small achievement to weep only at the time of communion, did they laugh at the saying?". For certainly, if one does not make it his work to weep before Christ God each day and night, not even when he wishes to partake of the divine mysteries will he be able in any way to mourn or weep according to God and to bring down drops of tears; for how, unless it should rarely come upon someone by some ineffable dispensation or happenstance from some cause? Which does not seem marvelous to me, since many have both wailed and wept even at the very departure of their souls (though I think not many, but very few and easy to count). But if they reckon this also to be entirely impossible, to partake of the dread mysteries with tears each time, alas for their ignorance, woe for their insensibility, oh my for the folly of those who say these things and for their negligence and hardness of heart. For if they judged themselves, they would not be judged by their own words; if they cared for repentance, they would never have declared this to be impossible; if they practiced fruitful action, they would not be altogether without a taste of such a good, of such a gift of God; if they had acquired the fear of God in their heart, they would have testified that it is possible to mourn and weep not only at the time of partaking of the divine mysteries, but at every hour if possible.

Therefore, wishing to inform your love about this, as if addressing my words to those very people who spoke thus, I have chosen to ask: (61) "Tell me, O best of brothers, why is this impossible? ""Because," he says, "some are disposed easily and readily to compunction, while others are hard-hearted and stony-hearted, and are not pricked even when struck. How then can those who are so disposed weep and mourn and always commune with tears? But also the priests themselves, while celebrating the divine and unbloody liturgy, how can they weep?""This very thing, then, of being hard, as you say, and difficult to move to compunction, whence did it come to them, tell me if you know? But if you do not know, shamelessly lowering your highness a little and inclining your hearing with good will, do not disdain to learn from me, the last of all. For it is written: "But if a revelation is made to the last, let the first be silent."

"Whence then," he says, "is one hard, and another easily moved to compunction?" Listen. From choice, the one good, the other wicked; and from thoughts, the one evil, the other of the same kind; and from actions, the one contrary, the other God-loving. And if you please, examine and you will find all those from eternity through these three things alone, that many from good became evil and from evil, good. For from where—that I might enumerate them from the beginning—did Lucifer fall? Was it not by choice and by consenting to an evil thought? From where did Cain become a fratricide? Was it not by evil choice, preferring himself to the Creator, and by following evil thoughts, he was given over to envy and committed the murder? And from where did Saul seek to seize and kill David, whom he had formerly honored as himself and loved exceedingly as a benefactor? (62) from nature or from evil choice? It is clear that it was from evil choice; for by nature no one was made evil, since God is not a maker of evil works, but of exceedingly good ones, being very good indeed, and this not by position and choice, but by nature and in truth. In addition to these, from where did the one thief, who was crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ, say: "If you are the Son of God, save yourself and us," while the other retorted to him: "Do you not even fear God? For we indeed justly, for we have received what is worthy of what we have done, but this one has done nothing amiss"? From where, tell me, did the one utter these things, and the other those things? And the one was justified, the

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καρδίας μου λέγων οὕτως ἐν ἐμαυτῷ· (60) "Ἆρα γε οὕτω περί τοῦ πράγματος ἀληθῶς διακείμενοι καί ὡς ἀδύνατον εἶναι τοῦτο ἀπό ψυχῆς λογισάμενοι, εἶπον ἅ εἶπον; ἤ ὡς μικρόν τι μᾶλλον κατόρθωμα λογισάμενοι τό κατά τόν καιρόν τῆς κοινωνίας κλαῦσαι μόνον, τοῦ ῥήματος κατεγέλασαν; ". Πάντως γάρ εἰ μή καθ᾿ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν καί νύκτα ἔργον ἔχει τό κλαίειν τις ἐνώπιον Χριστοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ, οὐδέ ὅτε τῶν θείων μυστηρίων μεταλαβεῖν βουληθῇ, κἄν ὁπωσοῦν πενθῆσαι ἤ κλαῦσαι ἰσχύσει κατά Θεόν καί δακρύων κατενεγκεῖν σταλαγμούς· πῶς γάρ, ἐάν μή κατ᾿ οἰκονομίαν τινά ἄρρητον ἤ σύμβασιν ἐξ αἰτίας τινός σπανίως ἐπέλθῃ τινί; ὅ οὐδέ θαυμαστόν μοι δοκεῖ, ὅπου γε πολλοί καί ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ἐξόδῳ τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτῶν ἔκλαυσαν ὁμοῦ καί ἐδάκρυσαν (οἶμαι δέ οὐ πολλοί, ἀλλά λίαν ὀλίγοι καί εὐαρίθμητοι). Εἰ δέ καί τοῦτο ἀδύνατον πάντῃ λογίζονται, τό μετά δακρύων καθ᾿ ἑκάστην μετέχειν τῶν φρικτῶν μυστηρίων, φεῦ τῆς ἀγνοίας αὐτῶν, βαβαί τῆς ἀναλγησίας, οἴμοι τῆς ἀνοίας τῶν ταῦτα λεγόντων καί ἀμελείας καί τῆς πωρώσεως. Εἰ γάρ ἑαυτούς ἔκρινον, οὐκ ἄν ὑπό τῶν ἰδίων λόγων ἐκρίνοντο· εἰ μετανοίας ἐπεμελοῦντο, οὐκ ἄν ἀδύνατον εἶναί ποτε τοῦτο ἀπηρεύξαντο· εἰ πρᾶξιν μετήρχοντο ἔγκαρπον, οὐκ ἄν ἄγευστοι τοῦ τοιούτου καλοῦ τῆς τοιαύτης δωρεᾶς τοῦ Θεοῦ ὅλως ἐτύγχανον· εἰ φόβον Θεοῦ ἐν καρδίᾳ ἐκτήσαντο, οὐ μόνον ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς μεταλήψεως τῶν θείων μυστηρίων δυνατόν εἶναι τό πενθεῖν καί κλαίειν διεμαρτύραντο, ἀλλά καί ἐν πάσῃ ὥρᾳ εἰ οἷόν τε.

∆ιό καί τήν ὑμετέραν ἀγάπην περί τούτου πληροφορῆσαι βουλόμενος, ὡς πρός ἐκείνους αὐτούς τούς οὕτως εἰπόντας τόν λόγον ποιούμενος, διερωτῆσαι προῄρημαι· (61) "Εἴπατέ μοι, ὦ βέλτιστοι ἀδελφοί, διά τί τοῦτο ἀδύνατον; ""Ἐπειδή, φησίν, οἱ μέν εὐχερῶς καί ἐξ ἑτοίμου πρός κατάνυξιν ἔχουσιν, οἱ δέ σκληροκάρδιοί τινες καί λιθοκάρδιοι ὄντες, οὐδέ τυπτόμενοι κατανύσσονται. Οἱ οὖν οὕτως ἔχοντες, πῶς κλαίειν καί πενθεῖν δύνανται καί μετά δακρύων ἀεί κοινωνεῖν; Ἀλλά καί οἱ ἱερεῖς αὐτοί τήν θείαν καί ἀναίμακτον λειτουργίαν ἐπιτελοῦντες, πῶς δύνανται κλαίειν;""Αὐτό οὖν τοῦτο τό εἶναι σκληρούς, ὥς φατε, καί πρός κατάνυξιν δυσκινήτους, πόθεν αὐτοῖς, εἴπατε εἰ ἐπίστασθε, προσεγένετο; Εἰ δ᾿ ἀγνοεῖτε, μικρόν τι τοῦ ὕψους ὑμῶν ἀνεπαισχύντες ὑφέντες καί τήν ἀκοήν εὐμενῶς ὑποκλίναντες, μή ἀπαξιώσητε μαθεῖν ἐξ ἐμοῦ τοῦ ἐσχάτου. Γέγραπται γάρ· "Ἐάν δέ τῷ ἐσχάτῳ ἀποκαλυφθῇ, ὁ πρῶτος σιγάτω ".

"Πόθεν οὖν, φησίν, ὁ μέν σκληρός, ὁ δέ εὐκατάνυκτος;" Ἄκουσον. Ἐκ προαιρέσεως ὁ μέν ἀγαθῆς, ὁ δέ φαύλης· καί ἐξ ἐννοιῶν ὁ μέν πονηρῶν, ὁ δέ τοιούτων· καί ἐκ πράξεων ὁ μέν ἐναντίων, ὁ δέ φιλοθέων. Καί εἰ δοκεῖ, σκόπησον καί εὑρήσεις ἅπαντας τούς ἐξ αἰῶνος διά μόνων τῶν τριῶν τούτων, ὅτι πολλοί ἐξ ἀγαθῶν ἐγένοντο πονηροί καί ἐκ πονηρῶν ἀγαθοί. Πόθεν γάρ ἵνα ἄνωθεν αὐτούς ἐπαριθμήσωμαι , ὁ Ἑωσφόρος ἐξέπεσεν; οὐχί προαιρέσει καί λογισμῷ συγκαταθέμενος πονηρῷ; Πόθεν ὁ Κάϊν ἀδελφοκτόνος ἐγένετο; οὐχί τῇ πονηρᾷ προαιρέσει ἑαυτόν τοῦ Ποιητοῦ προτιμήσας καί λογισμοῖς πονηροῖς ἐξακολουθήσας, τῷ φθόνῳ ἔκδοτος γέγονε καί τόν φόνον εἰργάσατο; Πόθεν δέ ὁ Σαούλ ἐζήτει κρατῆσαι καί ἀποκτεῖναι τόν ∆αυίδ, ὅν ὡς ἑαυτόν ἐτίμα τό πρότερον καί ὑπερηγάπα ὡς εὐεργέτην; (62) ἐκ φύσεως ἤ ἐκ πονηρᾶς προαιρέσεως; εὔδηλον ὅτι ἐκ πονηρᾶς προαιρέσεως· ἐκ φύσεως γάρ οὐδείς ἐγένετο πονηρός, ἐπειδή οὐδέ πονηρῶν ἔργων ποιητής ὁ Θεός, ἀλλά λίαν καλῶν, μάλα δή ἀγαθός ὤν καί τοῦτο οὐ θέσει καί προαιρέσει, ἀλλά φύσσει καί ἀληθείᾳ. Πρός τούτοις πόθεν ὁ μέν εἷς ληστής, ὁ συσταυρωθείς τῷ ∆εσπότῃ Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ, ἔλεγεν· "Εἰ Υἱός εἶ τοῦ Θεοῦ, σῶσον σεαυτόν καί ἡμᾶς", ὁ δέ ἕτερος αὐτῷ ἀνθυπέφερεν· "Οὐδέ φοβῇ σύ τόν Θεόν; ὅτι ἡμεῖς μέν δικαίως, ἄξια γάρ ὧν ἐπράξαμεν ἀπελάβομεν, οὗτος δέ οὐδέν ἄτοπον ἔπραξε"; Πόθεν, εἰπέ μοι, ὁ μέν ταῦτα, ὁ δέ ἐκεῖνα ἐφθέγξατο; καί ὁ μέν ἐδικαιώθη, ὁ