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truly hates evil things, but to make it active and strong, winged by its own virtues and reaching the one who is able to grant forgiveness for sins.
Whether, therefore, it is made active by the righteous man who makes the supplication, or by the one who asks the righteous man for this to happen, the supplication of the righteous man has great power. For when it is made active by the righteous man, it gives him boldness before the one who is able to grant the requests of the righteous; and when it is made active by the one who asks the righteous man for it, it makes him desist from his former wickedness, changing his disposition toward virtue.
58 (58). CONCERNING "IN WHICH YOU REJOICE, THOUGH NOW FOR A LITTLE WHILE, IF IT IS NECESSARY
TO BE GRIEVED". (14C_142> 58. QUESTION 58. In which you rejoice, though now for a little while, if it is necessary for us to be grieved in various
trials. How can someone who is grieving in trials rejoice in that which causes him grief? Answer. The word of truth knows a twofold grief: the one invisibly according to the soul,
the other manifestly established according to the senses; the one encompassing the whole depth of the soul, which is tortured by the scourge of conscience, the other circumscribing all sensation, which is constricted from its natural expansiveness by the weight of painful things; and the one being the end of sensory pleasure, the other of gladness in the soul; or rather, the one being a consequence of willed sensory things, the other of involuntary passions related to it.
For grief is, in my opinion, a disposition deprived of pleasures; and the deprivation of pleasures constitutes the introduction of pains; and pain is clearly a lack or retreat of the natural state; and the lack of the natural state is an affection of the power that by nature underlies the state; and an affection of the power that by nature underlies the state is the mode related to the misuse of the natural energy; and the misuse of the mode of energy constitutes the movement of the power toward that which is not naturally constituted or subsistent.
(14C_144> And just as the word knows a twofold grief, as I have said, so also do I understand a twofold mode of temptations: the one willed, the other unwilled; and the one a creator of voluntary pleasures, the other a bringer of involuntary pains. For the willed temptation clearly establishes voluntary pleasures according to choice, while the unwilled one manifestly brings on involuntary pains against choice; and the one has been established as the cause of grief of the soul, the other of grief of the senses.
Whence I think that the Lord and God, teaching his own disciples how they ought to pray, tells them to pray to be delivered from the willed kind of temptations, saying: *And lead us not into temptation*—that is, teaching his own disciples to pray not to be abandoned to the experience of temptations that are pleasurable, willed, and voluntary; but that the great James, the one called the brother of the Lord, teaching not to shrink from the kind of involuntary temptations, says: *Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials*—that is, into temptations that are involuntary, unwilled, and productive of pains. And they make this clear: there the Lord adds, *but deliver us from the evil one*; while here the great James adds, *knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.* He is perfect who to the
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ἀληθῶς τοῖς πονηροῖς ἀπεχθάνεται, ἀλλ᾽ ἐνεργὸν ποιεῖν καὶ ἰσχυράν, ταῖς οἰκείαις ἀρεταῖς πτερουμένην καὶ φθάνουσαν τὸν συγχώρησιν διδόναι τῶν πλημμεληθέντων δυνάμενον.
Εἴτε οὖν ἐκ τοῦ ποιουμένου τὴν δέησιν δικαίου, εἴτε ἐκ τοῦ γίνεσθαι ταύτην αἰτουμένου τὸν δίκαιον ἐνεργουμένη, πολὺ ἰσχύει τοῦ δικαίου ἡ δέησις· ὑπὸ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ δικαίου ἐνεργουμένη δίδωσιν αὐτῷ παρρησίαν πρὸς τὸν δοῦναι δυνάμενον τὰ τῶν δικαίων αἰτήματα, ὑπὸ δὲ τοῦ ταύτην αἰτουμένου τὸν δίκαιον τῆς προτέρας αὐτὸν μοχθηρίας ἀφίστησιν, μεταβάλλουσα πρὸς ἀρετὴν αὐτῷ τὴν διάθεσιν.
ΝΗ (58). ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ "ΕΝ Ω ΑΓΑΛΛΙΑΣΘΕ ΟΛΙΓΟΝ ΑΡΤΙ. ΕΙ ∆ΕΟΝ ΕΣΤΙ
ΛΥΠΗΘΕΝΤΑΣ". (14Γ_142> 58. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΝΗ' Ἐν ᾧ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε, ὀλίγον ἄρτι εἰ δέον ἐστὶ λυπηθέντας ἡμᾶς ἐν ποικίλοις
πειρασμοῖς. Πῶς τις λυπούμενος ἐν πειρασμοῖς δύναται ἀγαλλιᾶσθαι ἐν ᾧ λυπεῖται; Ἀπόκρισις. Τὴν λύπην διττὴν οἶδε τῆς ἀληθείας ὁ λόγος· τὴν μὲν κατὰ ψυχὴν ἀφανῶς,
τὴν δὲ κατ᾽ αἴσθησιν φανερῶς συνισταμένην, καὶ τὴν μὲν ὅλον τῆς ψυχῆς τὸ βάθος περιλαμβάνουσαν, τῇ μάστιγι τῆς συνειδήσεως αἰκιζόμενον, τὴν δὲ πᾶσαν τὴν αἴσθησιν περιγράφουσαν, τῷ βάρει τῶν ἀλγεινῶν συστελλομένην τῆς φυσικῆς διαχύσεως, καὶ τὴν μὲν τῆς κατ᾽ αἴσθησιν ἡδονῆς, τὴν δὲ τῆς κατὰ ψυχὴν εὐφροσύνης τέλος ὑπάρχουσαν· μᾶλλον δέ, τὴν μὲν τῶν κατ᾽ αἴσθησιν γνωμικῶν, τὴν δὲ τῶν κατ᾽ αὐτὴν συμπέρασμα παρὰ γνώμην παθῶν τυγχάνουσαν.
Λύπη γάρ ἐστιν, κατ᾽ ἐμὲ φάναι, διάθεσις ἡδονῶν ἐστερημένη· στέρησις δὲ καθέστηκεν ἡδονῶν πόνων ἐπαγωγή· πόνος δὲ σαφῶς ἐστι φυσικῆς ἕξεως ἔλλειψις ἢ ὑποχώρησις· ἔλλειψις δὲ φυσικῆς ἐστιν ἕξεως πάθος τῆς κατὰ φύσιν ὑποκειμένης τῇ ἕξει δυνάμεως· πάθος δὲ τῆς κατὰ φύσιν ὑποκειμένης τῇ ἕξει δυνάμεώς ἐστιν ὁ κατὰ τὴν παράχρησιν τῆς φυσικῆς ἐνεργείας τρόπος· παράχρησις δὲ τοῦ κατ᾽ ἐνέργειαν τρόπου καθέστηκεν ἡ πρὸς τὸ μὴ πεφυκὸς κατὰ φύσιν καὶ ὑφιστάμενον τῆς δυνάμεως κίνησις.
(14Γ_144> Ὥσπερ δὲ τὴν λύπην διττήν, ὡς ἔφην, οἶδεν ὁ λόγος, οὕτως καὶ τῶν πειρασμῶν διττὸν ἐπίσταμαι τὸν τρόπον· τὸν μὲν κατὰ γνώμην, τὸν δὲ παρὰ γνώμην, καὶ τὸν μὲν ἑκουσίων ἡδονῶν δημιουργόν, τὸν δὲ ἀκουσίων ὀδυνῶν ἐπακτικόν. Ὁ γὰρ κατὰ γνώμην πειρασμὸς τὰς κατὰ προαίρεσιν ἑκουσίους σαφῶς συνίστησιν ἡδονάς, ὁ δὲ παρὰ γνώμην προδήλως τοὺς ἀκουσίους παρὰ προαίρεσιν ἐφίστησι πόνους, καὶ ὁ μὲν τῆς κατὰ ψυχήν, ὁ δὲ τῆς κατ᾽ αἴσθησιν λύπης καθέστηκεν αἴτιος.
Ὅθεν οἶμαι τὸν μὲν Κύριον καὶ Θεόν, πῶς δεῖ προσεύχεσθαι τοὺς οἰκείους διδάσκοντα μαθητάς, τὸ κατὰ γνώμην εἶδος τῶν πειρασμῶν ἀπεύχεσθαι φάσκειν· καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, τῶν ἡδονικῶν δηλονότι καὶ γνωμικῶν καὶ ἑκουσίων πειρασμῶν μὴ ἐγκαταλειφθῆναι πεῖραν λαβεῖν εὔχεσθαι τοὺς οἰκείους διδάσκοντα μαθητάς, τὸν δὲ μέγαν Ἰάκωβον, τὸν τοῦ Κυρίου λεγόμενον ἀδελφόν, πρὸς τὸ τῶν ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν εἶδος διδάσκοντα μὴ συστέλλεσθαι τοὺς ὑπὲρ ἀληθείας ἀγωνιζομένους φάναι· πᾶσαν χαρὰν ἡγήσασθε, ἀδελφοί μου, ὅταν πειρασμοῖς περιπέσητε ποικίλοις, δηλονότι τοῖς ἀκουσίοις καὶ παρὰ γνώμην καὶ πόνων ποιητικοῖς πειρασμοῖς. Καὶ δηλοῦσι σαφῶς, ἐκεῖ μὲν ἐπάγων ὁ Κύριος· ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ, ἐνταῦθα δὲ ὁ μέγας Ἰάκωβος· γινώσκοντες ὅτι τὸ δοκίμιον ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως κατεργάζεται ὑπομονήν· ἡ δὲ ὑπομονὴ ἔργον τέλειον ἐχέτω, ἵνα ἦτε τέλειοι καὶ ὁλόκληροι, ἐν μηδενὶ λειπόμενοι. Τέλειός ἐστιν ὁ τοῖς