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after three days a cloud of rain comes and rains upon it and it lives again, no longer being ever-eating. And from this I think the ancient philosophers, being prompted, called the gluttonous "gourmands." But one who knows can piously apply himself to existing things, and interpret what has been said according to spiritual contemplation. For every passion is by nature born from corruption, and once it is born, it does not cease eating the heart that gave it substance until through the ascetic state it comes to light; and having come, it dies by the three powers of the soul, and thus the grace of the Holy Spirit, appearing as through a cloud of teaching, gives drops of knowledge and gives life, not according to the former passionate life, but according to the virtuous life that is proper to God.

QUESTION 127 What is the parable of the laborers hired for the vineyard in the Gospel and what is the seeming inequality? 14A_190 RESPONSE The judgment of God is not according to time and body, because the soul,

being timeless and bodiless, since it does not receive its growth and end according to time, also makes the movements of its disposition timelessly. But it is good to clarify what is said with an example; often there is someone who has seventy years in the monastic life, and another one day; but since the purpose of the profession is that, having torn the soul away from passion for and relation to material things, one should transfer the whole soul to God, the one who had seventy years died without having cared at all for such dispassion, but the one who had one day, having torn away all his passionate thought towards material things, was perfected having entrusted his whole self to God; therefore in the distribution that happens at the judgment, the one receives his wage worthily as having brought the purpose of his profession to completion, but the other receives it by grace and only for the labor of asceticism that he endured.

QUESTION 128 Was grief then unacceptable to Job in the things that happened to him? RESPONSE We say that Job had become unaccepting of grief; for one who has once piously made an examination of existing things

and has confirmed in himself hatred for passing things and love for things that do not pass, how could he be grieved when transient things suffer a change of manner, which they are accustomed to suffer by nature?

QUESTION 129 Why then did none of the saints accept grief and how is it said of 14A_192 many

saints that they had grief, just as Paul also says that "I have unceasing grief" and the rest?

RESPONSE The one who is engaged in practical matters, as long as his conscience pricks and strikes him because of the phantasies that arise from memory, is certainly grieved with the praiseworthy grief; but he who has reached the measure of perfection, is also beyond this; for he who is enlightened through knowledge, having extended the intellective part of the soul undividedly to God according to the equal identity of its movement, and having acquired unspeakable joy in the continual delight of the divine beauty, how could he accept its opposite, grief?

But the saints are sometimes said to be grieved in imitation of their Master; for both grief and joy are spoken of in God's case according to providence, grief over those who are perishing, but joy over those who are being saved. The definition of grief is therefore one, but it admits many modes of disposition. The grief spoken of in the case of the saints is therefore mercy and

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μετὰ τρεῖς ἡμέρας ἔρχεται νέφος βροχῆς καὶ βρέχει ἐπάνω αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀναζῇ, μηκέτι ἀειφάγον ὄν. Καὶ ἐκ τούτου οἶμαι τοὺς ἀρχαίους φιλοσόφους ὁρμηθέντας τοὺς πολυφάγους γαστριμάργους ἀποκαλέσαι. ∆ύναται δέ τις εὐσεβῶς τοῖς οὖσιν ἐπιβάλλειν εἰδώς, καὶ κατὰ πνευματικὴν θεωρίαν ἐκλαβεῖν τὰ εἰρημένα. Πᾶν γὰρ πάθος ἀπὸ σήψεως γεννᾶσθαι πέφυκεν καὶ ἐπειδὰν γεννηθῇ οὐ παύεται ἐσθίον τὴν ὑποστήσασαν αὐτὸ καρδίαν ἕως ἂν διὰ τῆς ἀγωνιστικῆς ἕξεως εἰς φανέρωσιν ἔλθῃ· καὶ ἐλθὸν θνῄσκει ταῖς τρισὶ δυνάμεσι τῆς ψυχῆς, καὶ οὕτως ἡ χάρις τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος, ὡς διὰ νέφους τῆς διδασκαλίας ἐπιφανεῖσα, σταλαγμοὺς δίδωσιν γνώσεως καὶ ζωοποιεῖ, οὐ κατὰ τὴν προτέραν ἐμπαθῆ ζωήν, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὴν ἐνάρετον καὶ τῷ Θεῷ οἰκείαν.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 127 Τίς ἡ παραβολὴ τῶν ἐν τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ μισθωθέντων ἐργατῶν εἰς τὸν

ἀμπελῶνα καὶ τίς ἡ δοκοῦσα ἀνισότης; 14Α_190 ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ κρίσις οὐ κατὰ χρόνον καὶ σῶμα γίνεται, διότι καὶ ἡ ψυχή,

ἄχρονος καὶ ἀσώματος οὖσα, διὰ τὸ μὴ κατὰ χρόνον τὴν αὔξησιν καὶ τὸ πέρας δέχεσθαι, ἀχρόνως καὶ τὰς κινήσεις τῆς διαθέσεως ποιεῖται. Καλὸν δὲ ἐν ὑποδείγματι διασαφῆσαι τὰ λεγόμενα· πολλάκις ἐστίν τις ἑβδομήκοντα χρόνους ἔχων ἐν τῷ μονήρει βίῳ, ἄλλος δὲ μίαν ἡμέραν· ἐπειδὴ δὲ ὁ τοῦ ἐπαγγέλματος σκοπός ἐστιν ἵνα τῆς πρὸς τὰ ὑλικὰ προσπαθείας καὶ σχέσεως ἀνασπάσας, τὴν ψυχὴν ὅλην μετενέγκῃ πρὸς Θεόν, ὁ οὖν ἑβδομήκοντα ἔτη ἔχων οὐδόλως περὶ τῆς τοιαύτης ἀπαθείας μεριμνήσας ἐτελεύτησεν, ὁ δὲ μίαν ἡμέραν ἔχων, πᾶσαν αὐτοῦ τὴν πρὸς τὰ ὑλικὰ ἐμπαθῆ διάνοιαν ἀνασπάσας, ὅλην τῷ Θεῷ ἐγκολπώσας ἐτελειώθη· ἐν τῇ οὖν γινομένῃ κατὰ τὴν κρίσιν διανομῇ, ὁ μὲν ἀξίως τὸν μισθὸν λαμβάνει ὡς εἰς πέρας τὸν σκοπὸν τοῦ ἐπαγγέλματος ἀγαγών, ὁ δὲ κατὰ χάριν καὶ μόνον ὑπὲρ οὗ τὸν τῆς ἀσκήσεως ὑπέμεινεν κόπον.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 128 Εἰ ἄρα τῷ Ἰὼβ ἀπαράδεκτος γέγονεν ἡ λύπη ἐν τοῖς συμβεβηκόσιν αὐτῷ; ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ἀπαράδεκτον λύπης γεγενῆσθαι λέγομεν τὸν Ἰώβ· ὁ γὰρ ἅπαξ εὐσεβῶς τὴν

διάσκεψιν τῶν ὄντων ποιησάμενος καὶ βεβαιώσας ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὸ πρὸς τὰ παροδεύοντα μῖσος καὶ τὴν πρὸς τὰ ἀπαρόδευτα ἀγάπην, πῶς παθοῦσιν τοῖς παροδικοῖς διὰ τῆς ἐναλλαγῆς τοῦ τρόπου, ὅπερ φυσικῶς πάσχειν εἰώθασιν, λυπεῖσθαι ἠδύνατο;

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 129 Τί οὖν οὐδεὶς τῶν ἁγίων ἐδέξατο λύπην καὶ πῶς περὶ 14Α_192 πολλῶν

ἁγίων λέγεται λύπην ἐσχηκέναι, καθὰ καὶ Παῦλος λέγει ὅτι "λύπη μοί ἐστιν ἀδιάλειπτος" καὶ τὰ λοιπά;

ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ὁ μὲν περὶ τὰ πρακτὰ καταγινόμενος, ἕως ἂν ἡ συνείδησις αὐτὸν διὰ τὰς

κατὰ μνήμην φαντασίας κεντᾷ πλήττουσα, λυπεῖται πάντως τὴν ἐπαινετὴν λύπην· ὁ δὲ εἰς τὸ τῆς τελειότητος μέτρον ἐφθακώς, καὶ ὑπὲρ ταύτην γίνεται· ὁ γὰρ διὰ γνώσεως πεφωτισμένος, τὸ νοερὸν τῆς ψυχῆς Θεῷ ἀδιαιρέτως ἐξαπλώσας κατὰ τὴν ἴσην τῆς κινήσεως ταυτότητα, καὶ τὴν ἀνεκλάλητον χαρὰν ἐν τῇ διηνεκεῖ τοῦ θείου κάλλους τρυφῇ κτησάμενος, πῶς τὴν ταύτης ἀντικειμένην λύπην δέξηται;

Ποτὲ λυπεῖσθαι δὲ λέγονται οἱ ἅγιοι κατὰ μίμησιν τοῦ αὐτῶν ∆εσπότου· λέγεται γὰρ ἐπὶ Θεοῦ καὶ λύπη καὶ χαρὰ κατὰ τὴν πρόνοιαν, λύπη μὲν ἐπὶ τῶν ἀπολλυμένων, χαρὰ δὲ ἐπὶ τῶν σῳζομένων. Εἷς οὖν ὁ λόγος τῆς λύπης, πολλοὺς ἐπιδέχεται τρόπους διαθέσεων. Ἡ οὖν λεγομένη ἐπὶ τῶν ἁγίων λύπη ἔλεός ἐστιν καὶ