57

to reverse the argument, not relatives but the household of the faith, whom, as is likely, you do not know, and deceitfully you sow among us kinship according to the flesh, endeavoring to lead us down into their friendship and attachment.

Therefore, when we perceive the deceit and come to knowledge, either from ourselves or from others who guide or journey with us on the way of the Lord, what again does he whisper to us in the unseen movement of the heart? "You," he says, "from now on have attained to other measures and to another progress, (154) which none of the brothers with you knows; you have acquired both detachment and complete dispassion. Therefore, if you wish, you look down upon and despise your relatives, and you are not at all concerned about them." Suggesting these things in secret, he perhaps presents that very relative either in thought or even physically before him, and he suggests such things, saying to him: "How will you allow God's creature to be destroyed, to be made like the beasts and through ignorance to fall into the rank of irrational creatures? Will you not stretch out a hand, will you not open his mind, will you not make him know God who made him? And what defense will you have, or what will you say?" he makes him in prayer both shed tears of compassion, as it were, and as it were offer him before God as an acceptable gift, while saying within himself: "He who brings out the precious from the worthless shall be as my mouth," and: "Inasmuch again as you have done it to one of the least of these, you have done it to me," and again: "Who has become a father to orphans" and so on. But all these things are a clear error and a deceit of the evil one.

But when someone is not persuaded by all these things, but still puts it off and speaks against the evil one: "Surely," he says, "what I ought to do for my relative, this I will do for a stranger, who is my relative according to God rather than according to the flesh," the deceitful enemy answers and says to him: "And surely God thus cares for all, and thus are all brought to the knowledge and faith of him; you, on the one hand, through your relatives or even strangers, (155) and he, on the other hand, through you, and others through him. But who now in these days is like you? Or where will you let him go, that he may not immediately become food for a wolf and he destroy his soul, which you yourself will forfeit, if you abandon him completely?". Then indeed, at that moment, the brother, being deceived, stands and reasonably accepts, being bound by Satan, no longer speaks against him, having obeyed his words.

And behold for me the cunning of this terrible and soul-destroying robber! Therefore, having bound him by attachment, he no longer walks with him on the way, nor does he bother him about this, for the time being, so that his plot may not be known. But what? As if taking the end of the rope and having gone far off, he hides himself from him in the darkness, he who is truly the ruler of darkness, having left to him the care and anxiety for his relative. For he knows that that, in his stead, continually bothers and prods him. This therefore having happened, whenever he proceeds to any anxiety whatever for the sake of his relative, he deviates from the royal and straight way which he had begun; and as much as he deviates, the enemy withdraws somewhere into the depth of his own malice and entering more deeply hides himself, holding in his hands the supposed rope of attachment and holding it securely and endeavoring that it not be known to him at all.

The brother therefore, having fallen from the way, pay attention to what he begins to say to himself: "He who saves a soul is as he who creates it." And so he persuades himself that he has undertaken to accomplish a Christ-imitating work. And if he is an acquaintance of some worldly people, (156) he goes to them and at one time flatters and praises them beyond their worth, and at another time he attempts to rebuke them sharply. At another time he shows himself to be a glutton and indifferent and speaks certain words in order to move everyone to laughter. And simply, he comports himself with each one according to his will, so that the person, accepting him, might give him some money. But if

57

ἀντιστρέψαι τόν λόγον, οὐχ οἱ συγγενεῖς ἀλλ᾿ οἱ οἰκεῖοί εἰσι τῆς πίστεως, οὕς, ὡς εἰκός, ἀγνοεῖς καί δολίως ὑποσπείρεις ἡμῖν τήν κατά σάρκα συγγένειαν, σπουδάζων κατάγειν ἡμᾶς εἰς τήν φιλίαν αὐτῶν καί προσπάθειαν.

Τοιγαροῦν καί ὅτε τῆς ἀπάτης αἰσθανθῶμεν καί ἐν γνώσει γενώμεθα, εἴτε ἀφ᾿ ἡμῶν αὐτῶν εἴτε ἀπ᾿ ἄλλων τῶν ὁδηγούντων ἤ συμπορευομένων ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῖν, τί πάλιν πρός ἡμᾶς ἐν τῷ ἀφανεῖ κινήματι τῆς καρδίας ὑποψιθυρίζει; "Σύ, φησίν, ἀπό γε τοῦ παρόντος εἰς ἄλλα μέτρα καί εἰς ἄλλην ἔφθασας προκοπήν, (154) ἥν οὐδείς τῶν συνόντων σοι ἐπίσταται ἀδελφῶν, ἀπροσπάθειάν τε ἐκτήσω καί ἀπάθειαν παντελῆ. ∆ιό καί εἰ θέλεις, ὑπερορᾷς καί καταφρονεῖς τῶν συγγενῶν σου, καί οὐδέν σοι ὅλως μέλλει περί αὐτῶν". Ταῦτα ὑποτιθέμενος ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ, παριστᾷ ἴσως καί αὐτόν ἐκεῖνον τόν συγγενῆ ἤ κατά διάνοιαν ἤ καί σωματικῶς ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, καί τοιαῦτα ὑποβάλλει λέγων αὐτῷ· "Πῶς τό τοῦ Θεοῦ πλάσμα ἀπολέσθαι ἐάσεις, ἵνα παρομοιωθῇ τοῖς κτήνεσι καί ὑπό ἀγνωσίας εἰς τήν τῶν ἀλόγων τάξιν καταπέσῃ; Οὐκ ὀρέξεις χεῖρα, οὐ διανοίξεις αὐτοῦ τόν νοῦν, οὐ ποιήσεις αὐτόν τόν πεποιηκότα γνωρίσαι Θεόν; Καί ποίαν ἄρα τήν ἀπολογίαν ἕξεις ἤ τί ἐρεῖς ποιεῖ τοῦτον ἐν τῇ εὐχῇ καί ὡσανεί συμπαθείας δάκρυα χέειν καί οἱονεί ἐνώπιον τοῦ Θεοῦ προσφέρειν αὐτόν ὡς δῶρον εὐπρόσδεκτον ἐν τῷ λέγειν ἐν ἑαυτῷ· Ὁ ἐξάγων ἄξιον ἐξ ἀναξίου ὡς στόμα μου ἔσται", καί· "Ἐφ᾿ ὅσον πάλιν ἐποιήσατε ἑνί τούτων τῶν ἐλαχίστων, ἐμοί ἐποιήσατε", καί πάλιν· "Ὅς ἐγένετο πατήρ ὀρφανῶν" καί τά ἑξῆς. Ταῦτα δέ πάντα πλάνη σαφής καί ἀπάτη τοῦ πονηροῦ.

Ὅτε δέ καί ἐπί πᾶσι τούτοις μή πεισθῇ τις, ἀλλ᾿ ἔτι δή ἀναβάλλεται καί τῷ πονηρῷ ἀντιλέγει· "Πάντως, φησίν, ὅ ὀφείλω ποιῆσαι τῷ συγγενεῖ μου, τοῦτο ποιήσω εἰς ξένον, τόν κατά Θεόν μᾶλλον συγγενῆ μου ὄντα ἤ κατά σάρκα", ἀποκρίνεται ὁ δόλιος ἐχθρός καί λέγει αὐτῷ· "Καί πάντως οὕτω φροντίζει τῶν πάντων ὁ Θεός καί οὕτως οἱ πάντες εἰς γνῶσιν καί πίστιν αὐτοῦ ἐνάγονται· σύ μέν διά τῶν σῶν συγγενῶν εἴτε καί ἀλλοτρίων, (155) αὐτός δέ πάλιν διά σοῦ καί δι᾿ αὐτοῦ ἕτεροι. Τίς δέ ἄρτι ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ταύταις ὡς σύ; Ἤ καί ποῦ ἐάσεις αὐτόν ἀπελθεῖν, ἵνα μή εὐθύς λύκου κατάβρωμα γένηται καί ἀπολέσει αὐτοῦ τήν ψυχήν, ἥν αὐτός ζημιωθήσει, ἐάν καταλείψῃς πάντως αὐτόν; ". Τότε δή τότε καί ὁ ἀδελφός ἀπατηθείς ἵσταται καί εὐλόγως καταδέχεται δεσμευθείς παρά τοῦ Σατανᾶ οὐκέτι ἀντιλέγει, πειθαρχήσας τοῖς λόγοις αὐτοῦ.

Καί ὅρα μοι πανουργίαν τοῦ δεινοῦ τούτου καί ψυχοφθόρου ληστοῦ! ∆εσμέυσας οὖν αὐτόν τῇ προσπαθείᾳ οὐκέτι ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ συμπεριπατεῖ μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ, οὐδέ ὀχλεῖ, τό γε νῦν ἔχον, περί τούτου αὐτόν, ὡς ἄν μή γνωσθῇ αὐτοῦ ἡ ἐπιβουλή. Ἀλλά τί; Τό ἄκρον οἱονεί τοῦ σχοινίου λαβόμενος καί μακράν γεγονώς, ἀποκρύπτεται ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ σκότει, ὁ τοῦ σκότους ἀληθῶς ἀρχηγός, ἀφείς αὐτῷ τήν περί τοῦ συγγενοῦς φροντίδα καί μέριμναν. Οἶδε γάρ ὅτι ἐκεῖνος ἀντ᾿ αὐτοῦ διηνεκῶς ὀχλεῖ καί νύσσει αὐτόν. Τούτου οὖν γενομένου, ἐπάν πρός μέριμναν τήν οἱανοῦν χωρήσῃ τοῦ συγγενοῦς ἕνεκα, ἐκκλίνει τῆς βασιλικῆς καί εὐθείας ὁδοῦ ἧς ἀπήρξατο· καί ὅσον ἐκκλίνει, ὁ ἐχθρός εἰς βάθος που τῆς αὐτοῦ σκαιωρίας μεθίσταται καί ἐνδότερον ὑπεισερχόμενος κρύπτεται, ἔχων ἐν ταῖς αὐτοῦ χερσί τό δῆθεν σχοινίον τῆς προσπαθείας καί κρατῶν αὐτό ἀσφαλῶς καί σπουδάζων ὅλως μή γνωσθῆναι αὐτῷ.

Τῆς οὖν ὁδοῦ ὁ ἀδελφός ἐκπεσών, πρόσεχε τί ἄρχεται λέγειν ἐν ἑαυτῷ· "Ψυχήν ὁ σώσας, ὡς ὁ κτήσας". Καί οὕτω πείθει ἑαυτόν ὅτι χριστομίμητον ἔργον ἐπεχείρησε ἐπιτελέσαι. Καί εἰ μέν ἐστι γνώριμος τῶν κατά κόσμον τισίν, (156) ἀπέρχεται πρός αὐτούς καί ποτέ μέν παρ᾿ ἀξίαν αὐτούς κολακεύει καί ἐπαινεῖ, ποτέ δέ ἀποτόμως ἐπιπλήττειν ἐπιχειρεῖ. Ἄλλοτε γαστρίμαργον ἑαυτόν ἀποδείκνυσι καί ἀδιάφορον καί τινας λόγους λαλεῖ, ἵνα εἰς γέλωτας πάντας κινήσῃ. Καί ἁπλῶς ἑνί ἑκάστῳ συμπεριφέρεται κατά τό θέλημα αὐτοῦ, ἵνα ἀποδεξάμενος δόσῃ χρῆμά τι. Ἐάν δέ