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giving and acquiring in exchange the things to come. But it took the heart of an animal for faith, being woven around on all sides by the virtues.

QUESTION 95 From the homily 'On Baptism' of St. Gregory the Theologian, a difficulty

of a prophetic saying: "blessed is he who sows upon every water and every soul to be ploughed and watered tomorrow, which today an ox and a donkey trample."

RESPONSE The soul being ploughed through the practice of virtue and the thorns of the passions

being cleansed, but watered through knowledge, the soul, which today an ox and a donkey trampled, calling the Judaic law an ox, and the gentile portion a donkey, that is, that which adheres to the letter 14Α_148 and is oppressed by irrationality today, but tomorrow is transformed through practice and knowledge; blessed is he who sows the seeds of virtue into it.

QUESTION 96 From the same: "blessed is he who, though he be a torrent of rushes, from the house of the Lord

is given to drink."

RESPONSE A torrent of rushes is the flesh, which in the winter of passions carries away the

powers of the soul and, like rushes, strikes with the harshness of sins. But it is given drink from the house of the Lord when from the commandments of the Lord, who took on our flesh, from which, being on the path of life, he drank the passion for our sake and became for us a house of refuge, it is watered.

QUESTION 97 From the same: "yesterday you were being withered, while flourishing with the issue of blood; for you gushed forth the

scarlet sin."

RESPONSE Yesterday, he says, you were withered in virtue, but you flourished in sin; today you have bloomed anew

in virtue, having been withered in sin; "for you touched the hem of Christ's garment"; the hem of Christ's garment are the various ascetic practices, since just as the hems hang from the garment, so the ascetic practices hang from moral philosophy; these practices 14Α_150 when performed with humility are by nature able to stop the flow of the passions.

QUESTION 98 From the same: "yesterday you were thrown on a bed, paralyzed and enfeebled" and the

rest.

RESPONSE He calls the repose of the body a bed, and one paralyzed by pleasures. "And

you did not have," he says, "a man," that is, a manly thought, "so that when the water is troubled, he might put you into the pool," when a thought arises in you that troubles you toward the discernment of the good and the worse, it might cast you into the water of purification. "Today you have found a man who is also God"; for when someone, using teaching, purifies, it is God who is at work, but the instrument he uses for the salvation of the one who is sick is a man. "You were lifted from the pallet, or rather you took up the pallet," that is, through the practice of virtue you carried the body, no longer being dragged down by it.

QUESTION 99 From the same: "I know a fire not of cleansing but of punishment, or of Sodom, which

it rains down on all sinners, mixed with brimstone and tempest, or that which is prepared for the

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διδοῦσαν καὶ ἀντικτωμένην τὰ μέλλοντα. Καρδίαν δὲ ζῴου ἔλαβεν τὴν πίστιν, περιυφαινομένην πάντοθεν διὰ τῶν ἀρετῶν.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 95 Ἐκ τοῦ 'Εἰς τὸ Βάπτισμα' λόγου τοῦ ἁγίου Γρηγορίου τοῦ Θεολόγου ἄπορον

προφητικῆς λέξεως· «μακάριος ὁ σπείρων ἐπὶ πᾶν ὕδωρ καὶ πᾶσαν ψυχὴν αὔριον ἀρουμένην καὶ ἀρδομένην, ἣν σήμερον βοῦς καὶ ὄνος πατεῖ».

ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Τὴν ἀρουμένην μὲν διὰ τῆς πρακτικῆς καὶ τὰς ἀκάνθας τῶν παθῶν

καθαιρομένην, ἀρδομένην δὲ διὰ τῆς γνώσεως ψυχήν, ἣν ἐπάτει σήμερον βοῦς καὶ ὄνος βοῦν τὸν Ἰουδαϊκὸν νόμον λέγων, ὄνον δὲ τὴν ἐθνικὴν μερίδα τουτέστιν τὴν τῷ γράμματι 14Α_148 ἐμμένουσαν καὶ τῇ ἀλογίᾳ πιεζομένην σήμερον, αὔριον δὲ μεταβληθεῖσαν διὰ πράξεως καὶ γνώσεως· εἰς ἣν ὁ σπείρων τὰ τῆς ἀρετῆς σπέρματα μακάριος.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 96 Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ· «μακάριος ὃς κἂν χειμάρρους ᾖ σχοίνων ἐξ οἴκου Κυρίου

ποτίζεται». ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Χειμάρρους σχοίνων ἐστὶν ἡ σὰρξ ἡ τῷ χειμῶνι τῶν παθῶν παρασύρουσα τὰς

τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεις καὶ σχοίνων δίκην τῇ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων τραχύτητι πλήττουσα. Ἐξ οἴκου δὲ Κυρίου ποτίζεται ὅτ᾽ ἂν ἐκ τῶν ἐντολῶν τοῦ Κυρίου, τοῦ τὴν ἡμετέραν σάρκα ἀναλαβόντος, ἐξ ἧς ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ τοῦ βίου γενόμενος ἔπιεν τὸ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν πάθος καὶ γέγονεν ἡμῖν εἰς οἶκον καταφυγῆς, ἀρδεύεται.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 97 Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ· «χθὲς ἐξηραίνου θάλλουσα τῇ αἱμορροίᾳ· ἐπήγαζες γὰρ τὴν

φοινικῆν ἁμαρτίαν». ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Χθές, φησίν, ἐξηραίνου τῇ ἀρετῇ, ἔθαλλες δὲ τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ· σήμερον ἀνέθηλας

τῇ ἀρετῇ, ξηρανθεῖσα τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ· «ἥψω γὰρ τῶν κρασπέδων Χριστοῦ»· κράσπεδά εἰσιν τοῦ Χριστοῦ αἱ διάφοροι ἀσκήσεις, ἐπειδὴ καθάπερ ἐκ τοῦ ἐνδύματος τὰ κράσπεδα, οὕτως αἱ ἀσκήσεις ἐκ τῆς ἠθικῆς ἤρτηνται φιλοσοφίας· αἵτινες 14Α_150 μετὰ ταπεινοφροσύνης γινόμεναι ἱστᾶν πεφύκασιν τὴν τῶν παθῶν ῥύσιν.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 98 Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ· «χθὲς ἐπὶ κλίνης ἔρριψο παρειμένος καὶ λελυμένος» καὶ τὰ

λοιπά. ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Κλίνην τὴν ἀνάπαυσιν λέγει τοῦ σώματος, παρειμένον δὲ ταῖς ἡδοναῖς. «Καὶ

οὐκ εἶχες», φησίν, «ἄνθρωπον», τουτέστιν ἀνδρεῖον λογισμόν, «ἵνα ὅτ᾽ ἂν ταραχθῇ τὸ ὕδωρ, βάλῃ σε εἰς τὴν κολυμβήθραν», ὅτ᾽ ἂν ἐν σοὶ γένηται λογισμὸς ταράσσων πρὸς διάκρισιν τοῦ καλοῦ καὶ τοῦ χείρονος, ἐμβάλῃ σε εἰς τὸ τῆς καθάρσεως ὕδωρ. «Σήμερον ηὗρες ἄνθρωπον τὸν αὐτὸν καὶ Θεόν»· ὅτ᾽ ἂν γάρ τις τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ χρώμενος καθαίρει, Θεὸς μέν ἐστιν ὁ ἐνεργῶν, ἄνθρωπος δὲ ᾥτινι ὀργάνῳ κέχρηται πρὸς σωτηρίαν τοῦ κάμνοντος. «Ἤρθης ἀπὸ κραβάτου, μᾶλλον δὲ ἦρας τὸν κράβατον», τουτέστιν διὰ τῆς πρακτικῆς ἐβάστασας τὸ σῶμα, μηκέτι κατασπασθεὶς ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 99 Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ· «οἶδα πῦρ οὐ καθαρτήριον ἀλλὰ κολαστήριον ἢ Σοδομιτικόν, ὃ

πᾶσιν ἁμαρτωλοῖς ἐπιβρέχει θείῳ καὶ καταιγίδι μιγνύμενον, ἢ τὸ ἡτοιμασμένον τῷ