23

they made the Divine their own? The rich man, dissolved in luxury, did not pity the beggar languishing at his gate; for this reason he cuts off mercy from himself, begging to be pitied, and is not heard; not that a single drop would bring loss to the great spring of paradise, but that the drop of mercy is unmixable with harshness. For what communion has light with darkness? For whatever, he says, a man sows, that he will also reap; for he who sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap life 44.1257 eternal. I think the sowing is human choice; and the harvest, the recompense for that choice. The ear of good things is bountiful for those who choose such a sowing; the gathering of thorns is laborious for those who cast thorny seeds into life. For one must surely reap what one has sown, and it cannot be otherwise. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. What human word could traverse the depth of the meanings contained in the saying? For the absolute and indefinite nature of the utterance allows one to investigate something more than what has been said, by not adding who they are towards whom mercy ought to be active; but simply saying, Blessed are the merciful. For perhaps through these words the saying hints at something like this for us, that the disposition of mercy follows blessed mourning. For there too he was blessed who made this life a matter of mourning, and here it seems to me the saying indicates the same teaching. For just as we are disposed toward the misfortunes of others, when some of our acquaintances encounter certain involuntary griefs, either having been cast out of their paternal homes, or having survived a shipwreck naked, or having become subject to pirates or robbers, or slaves from being free, or captives from being prosperous, or having received some other such evil, they who were previously considered to live a life of good fortune. As, therefore, in these cases our fellow-feeling becomes a certain pain to our souls; perhaps it would be much more opportune for such a disposition to be directed toward ourselves, on account of the cast of life unworthy of us. For when we consider what our splendid home is from which we have fallen; how we have come to be under robbers; how, having been sunk into the depth of this life, we were stripped naked; what kind and how many masters we have drawn upon ourselves instead of freedom and an autonomous way of life; how we have interrupted the blessedness of life with death and corruption; is it possible, if we were to grasp these thoughts, for mercy to be occupied with others' misfortunes, and not to dispose the soul itself piteously, considering what it had, and from what it has fallen? For what is more pitiable than this captivity? Instead of the delight in paradise, we have been allotted this sickly and toilsome place in life; instead of that impassibility, we have received in exchange the myriad banes of passions; instead of that sublime way of life, and of life with the angels, we were condemned to dwell with the beasts of the earth; having exchanged the angelic and impassible life for a beastly one, who could easily comprehend in number the bitter tyrants of our life, the raging and savage masters? A bitter master is anger; such is another, envy; hatred, the passion associated with pride, is a certain rabid and 44.1260 savage tyrant; the licentious thought luxuriates as if over purchased slaves, enslaving our nature to its passionate and unclean services; and the tyranny of greed, what excess of bitterness does it not surpass? Having enslaved the wretched soul, it always compels it to fulfill its insatiable desires, always receiving and never being filled; like some many-headed beast, with myriad mouths conveying food to its insatiable belly; for which there is never any satiety of gaining; but what is always being received becomes material and kindling for the desire of more. Who, then, having understood this wretched life, is disposed unpityingly and harshly toward such misfortunes? But the cause is that we do not pity ourselves, in insensibility

23

ἑαυτοῖς τὸ Θεῖον ἐποίησαν; Οὐκ ἠλέησε τὸν τῷ πυλῶνι προσταλαιπωροῦντα πτωχὸν, ὁ ταῖς τρυ φαῖς διακεχυμένος πλούσιος, διὰ τοῦτο ἑαυτῷ ἀπο κόπτει τὸν ἔλεον, ἐλεηθῆναι δεόμενος, καὶ οὐκ ἀκουό μενος· οὐχ ὅτι ζημίαν ἔφερε μία ῥανὶς εἰς τὴν μεγάλην τοῦ παραδείσου πηγὴν, ἀλλ' ὅτι ἡ τῆς ἐλεημοσύνης στα γὼν ἀμίκτως ἔχει πρὸς τὴν ἀπήνειαν. Τίς γὰρ κοινω νία φωτὶ πρὸς σκότος; Οἷα, φησὶν, ἂν σπείρῃ ὁ ἄν θρωπος, τοιαῦτα καὶ θερίσει· ὅτι ὁ σπείρων εἰς τὴν σάρκα, ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς θερίσει φθοράν· ὁ δὲ σπεί ρων εἰς τὸ πνεῦμα ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος θερίσει ζωὴν 44.1257 αἰώνιον. Σπορὰν οἶμαι τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην εἶναι προ αίρεσιν· θέρος δὲ τὴν ἐπὶ τῇ προαιρέσει ἀντίδοσιν. Πολύχους ὁ τῶν ἀγαθῶν στάχυς, τοῖς τοιαύτην ἑλο μένοις σποράν· ἐπίπονος ἡ ἀκανθολογία τοῖς ἀκαν θώδη σπέρματα καταβαλλομένοις τῷ βίῳ. Χρὴ γὰρ πάντως αὐτὸ θερίσαι τινὰ, ὅπερ ἔσπειρεν, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλως. Μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσον. Τίς ἂν διεξέλθοι λόγος ἀνθρώπινος τὸ βάθος τῶν ἐγκειμένων νοημάτων τῷ λόγῳ; Τὸ γὰρ ἀπόλυτόν τε καὶ ἀόριστον τῆς φωνῆς δίδωσί τι καὶ πλέον τῶν εἰρημένων περιεργάζεσθαι, τὸ μὴ προσθεῖναι τίνες εἰσὶν εἰς οὓς ἐνεργὸν εἶναι προσήκει τὸν ἔλεον· ἀλλ' ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν ὅτι Μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες. Τάχα γὰρ ἡμῖν τοιοῦτόν τι διὰ τῶν εἰρημένων ὁ λόγος αἰνίττε, ὡς ἀκολουθεῖν τῷ μακαρίῳ πένθει τὴν τοῦ ἐλέους διάνοιαν. Καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖ μακαριστὸς ἦν, ὁ τὸν τῇδε βίον ἐν πένθει· ποιούμενος, καὶ ἔνθα μοι δοκεῖ τὴν ἴσην ὁ λόγος ὑποσημαίνειν διδασκαλίαν. Ὡς γὰρ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων διατιθέμεθα συμφορῶν, ὅταν τινὲς τῶν ἐπιτηδείων ἡμῖν ἀβουλήτοις τισὶ συνενεχθῶσι λύπαις, ἢ πατρῴας οἰκίας ἐκπεπτωκότες, ἢ ναυα γίου περισωθέντες γυμνοὶ, ἢ πειραταῖς, ἢ λῃσταῖς ὑποχείριοι γεγονότες, ἢ δοῦλοι ἐξ ἐλευθέρων, ἣ αἰχμάλωτοι ἐξ εὐδαιμόνων, ἢ ἄλλο τι τοιοῦτον ἀντι λαβόντες κακὸν, οἱ τέως ἐν εὐκληρίᾳ τινὶ τὸν βίον ἐξεταζόμενοι. Ὡς τοίνυν ἐπὶ τούτων ἀλγεινή τις γίνε ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἡμῶν ἡ συνδιάθεσις· τάχα πολὺ μᾶλ λον ἐφ' ἡμῶν αὐτῶν εὔκαιρον ἂν εἴη τὴν τοιαύτην ἀνακεῖσθαι διάνοιαν ἐπὶ τῇ παρ' ἀξίαν τοῦ βίου βολῇ. Ὅταν γὰρ λογισώμεθα, τίς ἡ λαμπρὰ ἡμῶν οἰκία ἧς ἐκπεπτώκαμεν· πῶς ὑπὸ τοῖς λῃσταῖς γεγόναμεν· πῶς τῷ βυθῷ τοῦ τῇδε βίου καταβυθισθέντες ἀπεγυ μνώθημεν· οἵους καὶ ὅσους δεσπότας ἀντὶ τῆς ἐλευ θερίας τε καὶ αὐτονόμου διαγωγῆς ἐπεσπασάμεθα· πῶς τὸ μακαριστὸν τῆς ζωῆς θανάτῳ καὶ φθορᾷ διεκόψαμεν· ἆρα δυνατὸν, εἰ ταύτας λάβοιμεν ἐννοίας, ἀλλοτρίαις συμφοραῖς προσασχολεῖσθαι τὸν ἔλεον, καὶ οὐκ αὐτὴν ἐλεεινῶς τὴν ψυχὴν διατίθεσθαι, λογιζο μένην ἅ τε εἶχεν, ὧν τε ἐκπέπτωκεν; Τί γὰρ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας ταύτης ἐλεεινότερον; Ἀντὶ τῆς ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ τρυφῆς, τὸ νοσῶδες τοῦτο καὶ ἐπίπονον χωρίον ἐν τῇ ζωῇ κεκληρώμεθα· ἀντὶ τῆς ἀπαθείας ἐκείνης, τὰς μυρίας τῶν παθημάτων ἀντειλήφαμεν κῆρας· ἀντὶ τῆς ὑψηλῆς ἐκείνης διαγωγῆς, καὶ τῆς μετὰ τῶν ἀγγέλων ζωῆς, τοῖς θηρίοις τῆς γῆς συνοι κεῖν κατεκρίθημεν· τοῦ ἀγγελικοῦ τε καὶ ἀπαθοῦς τὸν κτηνώδη βίον ἀνταλλαξάμενοι, τοὺς πικροὺς τῆς ζωῆς ἡμῶν τυράννους, τοὺς λυσσῶντας καὶ ἀγριαίνον τας δεσπότας, τίς ἂν ῥᾳδίως ἀριθμῷ περιλάβοι; Πι κρὸς δεσπότης ὁ θυμός· τοιοῦτος ἄλλος ὁ φθόνος· τὸ μῖσος, τὸ καθ' ὑπερηφανίαν πάθος, λυσσώδης τις καὶ 44.1260 ἄγριος τύραννος· ὡς ἀργυρωνήτων κατατρυφῶν ὁ ἀκόλαστός ἐστι λογισμὸς, ὁ πρὸς τὰς ἐμπαθεῖς τε καὶ ἀκαθάρτους ὑπηρεσίας ἐξανδραποδίζων τὴν φύ σιν· ἡ δὲ τῆς πλεονεξίας τυραννὶς, τίνα οὐ παρέρχε πικρίας ὑπερβολήν; Ἡ τὴν ἀθλίαν δουλωσαμένη ψυχὴν, ἀεὶ τὰς ἀπλήστους αὐτῆς ἐπιθυμίας πληροῦν ἀναγκάζει, πάντοτε δεχομένη καὶ οὐδέποτε πληρου μένη· οἷόν τι πολυκέφαλον θηρίον, μυρίοις στόμασι τῇ ἀπληρώτῳ γαστρὶ τὴν τροφὴν παραπέμπον· ᾗ οὐδείς ποτε τοῦ κερδαίνειν γίνεται κόρος· ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀεὶ λαμβανόμενον, ὕλη καὶ ὑπέκκαυμα τῆς τοῦ πλείο νος ἐπιθυμίας καθίσταται. Τίς τοίνυν τὸν δύστηνον τοῦτον βίον κατανοήσας ἀνηλεῶς καὶ ἀπηνῶς πρὸς τὰς τοιαύτας συμφορὰς διατίθεται; Ἀλλ' αἴτιον τὸ μὴ ἐλεεῖν ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐν ἀναισθησίᾳ