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Discourse 18. (243) Brother, if you have been established as a leader of the people and the flock, examine well and

question yourself with what thought and in what manner you came to such an office. If then you find yourself having considered, even with a bare thought, that you ran after this for the sake of honor from men or for the sake of presidency or for glory, or as one who would not deign to be ruled by another brother because you think no other is more pious or more learned than you, or in order to have bodily necessities more than all the others and service and rest, or to benefit some of your own kin and relatives and to acquire friends who walk according to the flesh, or to become renowned from the abbacy and (244) and known to the kings and rulers of the world, or even out of envy, so that not because you wanted it, but lest so-and-so the brother become abbot, you strove to become so yourself, or because of shame before men, lest all hear or some arriving see that another was preferred over you and condemn you as not being virtuous, know for a certainty that your appointment was not according to God. And that I may make this clearer to you, from those things which the evil one suggests to each of those dwelling in a cenobium, from this point hear the plots and suspicions of Satan.

The enemy begins to suggest, when the shepherd departs to the Lord, and the brotherhood must elect another, and to say to each according to his own passion, according to his own will, according to his own condition. If, then, there are in that flock some of the more pious ones, he suggests these things to each of them and says: "If you became shepherd and abbot here, you would have surely benefited and saved and imparted to them of your virtues, since brother so-and-so or so-and-so does not do this in practice." But if he is also known to those in the world, he suggests to him that: "You would have been able to draw many to the monastic life and lead them out of the world, and you would have become the mouth of Christ; for he who brings forth, He says, the precious from the worthless will be as My mouth. Such ones would have brought great renunciations and given their substance to the monastery, and the monastery would have been enlarged and become like that of the great Euthymius and Sabas and Pachomius, the saints. But besides these things, you yourself would have acquired greater humility, so that the brothers would have seen and imitated you, (245) for you would have lived in the monastery as the last of all and would have borne the burdens of all, the faults of all. And so not only would you have benefited the many, but you yourself would have been benefited more in soul and would have found great rest in body."

These things, therefore, he suggests to those supposedly struggling in the holy place. So each of them begins to reveal his own thought to a brother he trusts and supposedly as if joking and being modest, so that he might not be condemned as ambitious, he says: "Now, master so-and-so, if the brothers were wise, would they not have made me abbot? ". And he perhaps answers and says: "Believe me, father, you, I know that you are being modest, since I have been thinking this for a long time, but I was hesitant to speak to you about it, lest you should blame me for speaking things against your will." Then he in turn says: "You have spoken well, brother. Believe me, I do not need to become abbot, but lest some indifferent person should be appointed and destroy the monastery and grieve the brothers, if the brothers wanted me to be appointed, I would certainly have made you steward, so-and-so and so-and-so cellarer and storekeeper, and I would have devoted myself entirely to spiritual matters alone and I would have been free from practical affairs." Hears

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Λόγος ΙΗ΄. (243) Ἀδελφέ, εἰ λαοῦ καί ποίμνης ἡγούμενος κατεστάθης, σκόπησον καλῶς καί

ἀνάκρινον σεαυτόν ποίῳ λογισμῷ καί ἐκ ποίου τρόπου εἰς τήν τοιαύτην κατέστης ἀρχήν. Εἰ μέν οὖν εὑρήσεις σεαυτόν κἄν ψιλῷ λογισμῷ ἐνθυμηθέντα, ὅτι διά τήν τῶν ἀνθρώπων τιμήν ταύτῃ ἐπέδραμες ἤ διά προεδρίαν ἤ διά δόξαν, εἴτε ὡς μή καταδεξαμένου σου παρ᾿ ἑτέρου ἄρχεσθαι ἀδελφοῦ διά τό οἴεσθαι μή εἶναί σου εὐλαβέστερον ἤ λογιώτερον ἕτερον, ἤ διά τό ἔχειν τάς σωματικάς χρείας περισσότερον τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων καί τήν δουλείαν καί τήν ἀνάπαυσιν, ἤ διά τό τινάς τῶν ἰδίων καί συγγενῶν εὐεργετῆσαι καί φίλους κτήσασθαι τούς κατά σάρκα περιπατοῦντας, ἤ διά τό ὀνομαστόν σε ἐκ τῆς ἡγουμενίας γενέσθαι καί (244) καί τῆς τοῦ κόσμου βασιλεῦσι καί ἄρχουσι γνώριμον, εἴτε καί κατά φθόνον ὡς ὅτι οὐκ ἤθελες, ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα μή γένηται ὁ δεῖνα ὁ ἀδελφός ἐσπούδασας τοῦ γενέσθαι σύ, ἤ καί διά τήν τῶν ἀνθρώπων αἰσχύνην, ἵνα μή ἀκούσωσι πάντες ἤ καί παραγενόμενοί τινες ἴδωσιν ὅτι ἄλλος ὑπέρ σέ προεκρίθη καί καταγνώσωσί σου ὡς μή ἐναρέτου, γινώσκων γίνωσκε ὅτι οὐ κατά Θεόν ἐγένετό σου ἡ πρόβλησις. Καί ἵνα σοι, ἐξ ὧν ὑποτίθεται ὁ πονηρός ἑκάστῳ τῶν ἐν κοινοβίῳ καθεζομένων, σαφέστερον τοῦτο ποιήσωμαι, ἐντεῦθεν ἄκουε τάς ἐπιβουλάς καί ὑπονοίας τοῦ Σατανᾶ.

Ὑποβάλλειν ἄρχεται ὁ ἐχθρός, ὅταν ὁ ποιμήν πρός Κύριον ἐκδημήσῃ, ἕτερον δέ ὀφείλει ἐκλέξασθαι ἡ ἀδελφότης, καί λέγειν ἑκάστῳ κατά τό ἴδιον πάθος, κατά τό ἴδιον θέλημα, κατά τήν ἰδίαν κατάστασιν. Ἐάν οὖν ὦσιν ἐν τῇ ποίμνῃ ἐκείνῃ τῶν εὐλαβεστέρων τινές, ταῦτα ἑκάστῳ αὐτῶν ὑποτίθεται καί φησίν· "Εἰ ἐγένου σύ ἐνταῦθα ποιμήν καί ἡγούμενος, εἶχες ἄν πάντως ὠφελῆσαι καί σῶσαι καί τῶν σῶν αὐτοῖς ἀρετῶν μεταδοῦναι, ἐπεί ὁ δεῖνα ἤ ὁ δεῖνα ἀδελφός ἐν τῷ πράγματι τοῦτο οὐ ποιεῖ". Εἰ δέ καί γνώριμος τοῖς κατά κόσμον ἐστίν, ὑποβάλλει αὐτῷ ὅτι· "Καί πολλούς ἄν ἑλκύσαι εἶχες πρός τήν μοναχικήν πολιτείαν καί ἐξαγαγεῖν αὐτούς ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου, καί στόμα ἄν ἐγένου Χριστοῦ· ὁ γάρ ἐξάγων, φησί, τίμιον ἐξ ἀναξίου ὡς στόμα μου ἔσται. Εἶχον δέ προσαγαγεῖν οἱ τοιοῦτοι καί ἀποταγάς μεγάλας καί τάς ὑποστάσεις αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ μονῇ ἐπιδοῦναι, καί προστεθῆναι εἶοχε τό μοναστήριον καί οἷον τοῦ μεγάλου Εὐθυμίου καί Σάβα καί Παχωμίου τῶν ἁγίων γενέσθαι. Ἀλλά γάρ πρός τούτοις καί αὐτός περισσοτέραν ταπείνωσιν εἶχες κτήσασθαι, ἵνα ἔβλεπον καί ἐμιμοῦντό σε οἱ ἀδελφοί, (245) ὡς γάρ ἔσχατον πάντων ἄν διῆγες ἐν τῇ μονῇ καί βαστάζειν εἶχες πάντων τά βάρη, πάντων τά ἐλαττώματα. Καί οὕτως οὐ μόνον ὠφελήσας τούς πολλούς, ἀλλά καί αὐτός σύ ὠφελήθης μᾶλλον ψυχικῶς καί σωματικῶς εὗρες μεγάλην ἀνάπαυσιν".

Ταῦτα τοίνυν ὑποβάλλει τοῖς δῆθεν ἀγωνιζομένοις ἐν τῷ σεμνείῳ. Ἄρχεται οὖν ἕκαστος αὐτῶν ἀποκαλύπτειν τόν ἴδιον λογισμόν πρός ὅν ἄν θαρρεῖ ἀδελφόν καί δῆθεν ὡς ἀστειαζόμενος καί μετριάζων, ἵνα μή καταγνωσθῇ ὡς φιλόδοξος, φησί· "Ἄρτι, κῦρι ὁ δεῖνα, ἐάν ἐφρονοῦσαν οἱ ἀδελφοί, οὐ μή εἶχον ποιῆσαί με ἡγούμενον; ". Ὁ δέ ἴσως ἀποκρίνεται καί λέγει· "Πίστευσόν μοι, πάτερ, σύ μέν, οἶδα ὅτι μετριάζεις, ἐπεί πρό πολλοῦ τοῦτο χρόνου ἐνεθυμούμην ἐγώ, ἀλλ᾿ εὐλαβούμην εἰπεῖν σοι περί τούτου, ἵνα μήπως ὡς τά παρά γνώμην σου λαλοῦντά μοι μέμψῃ". Εἶτα πάλιν ἐκεῖνός φησι· "Καλῶς εἶπας, ἀδελφέ. Πίστευσον, οὐ χρήζω γενέσθαι, ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα μή ἀδιάφορός τις γένηται καί τό μοναστήριον καταστρέψῃ καί τούς ἀδελφούς λυπήσῃ, ἐάν ἤθελον οἱ ἀδελφοί ἵνα ἐγενόμην, καί πάντως ποιῆσαι εἶχον σέ οἰκονόμον, τόν δεῖνα καί δεῖνα κελλαρίτην καί ἀποθηκάριον, ἐγώ δέ ἐσχόλαζον πάντως εἰς μόνα τά ψυχικά καί ἵνα ἤμην ἀπό τῶν πραγμάτων ἐλεύθερος". Ἀκούει