198

Today, consider that you have left behind the entire world! Today, having left them behind, renounce all together friends, relatives, all vain glory, and the care for the things below, and take up the cross upon your shoulders, and grasp it firmly and until the end bear the pains of temptations, and the pangs of tribulations, and joyfully accept the nails of sorrows as a crown of glory, and being struck every hour by the lances of insults and being stoned vehemently with all dishonors, pouring forth tears instead of blood you shall be a martyr, and bearing mockery and blows with all thanksgiving you shall be a partaker of my divinity and glory. And if you show yourself the last of all, and a slave and a servant, I will later show you to be the first of all of them, just as I promised. (298) If you will love your enemies and all who hate you, and you will pray from your soul for those who mistreat you and you do good to them as much as is possible for you, you have truly become like your most high Father, and having acquired from these a pure heart, in it you will see God, whom no one has ever seen. And if it happens that you are persecuted for righteousness' sake, then leap for joy, because the kingdom of heaven has become yours, and what is greater than this? These things and more than these, which I have commanded, do and teach others, both you and all others who believe in me, if you wish to be saved and to dwell with me for ages of ages. But if you refuse and are displeased, and you consider these things a shame and a dishonor to suffer and to lay down your lives for my commandments, why do you even ask to learn how you must be saved and in what actions to be made my own? Why then do you call me your God at all, why do you think you believe in me without understanding? For I suffered these things for your sake willingly; I was crucified, I died the death of evildoers, and the reproaches against me have become the glory of the world, and life and splendor, and resurrection of the dead, and the boast of all who have believed in me, and the shameful death has been for all the faithful a garment of incorruption and true deification.

198

σήμερον κόσμον ἅπαντα νόμισον καταλεῖψαι! Σήμρον φίλους, συγγενεῖς, δόξαν ματαίαν πᾶσαν ἀφείς ὁμοῦ ἀπάρνησαι καί μέριμναν τῶν κάτω καί ἐπί ὤμων τόν σταυρόν ἆρον, σφοδρῶς τε σφίγξον καί μέχρι τέλους βάστασον τῶν πειρασμῶν τούς πόνους, ὀδύνας τε τῶν θλίψεων καί λυπηρῶν τούς ἥλους περιχαρῶς κατάδεξαι, ὥσπερ στέφανον δόξης, τῶν ὕβρεων ταῖς λόγχαις δέ βαλλόμενος καθ᾿ ὥραν καί λιθαζόμενος σφοδρῶς ἁπάσαις ἀτιμίαις δάκρυα ἀντί αἵματος προχέων ἔσῃ μάρτυς, καί ἐμπαιγμούς καί ῥαπισμούς φέρων παντευχαρίστως τῆς ἐμῆς ἔσῃ κοινωνός θεότητος καί δόξης. Ἐάν δέ πάντων ἔσχατον σεαυτόν ἀποδείξῃς καί δοῦλον καί διάκονον, πρῶτον ἐκείνων πάντων ὕστερον ἀποδείξω σε, καθάπερ ὑπεσχόμην. (298) Εἰ ἀγαπήσεις τούς ἐχθρούς καί πάντας τούς μισοῦντας, τῶν ἐπηρεαζόντων τε ἐκ ψυχῆς ὑπερεύξῃ καί ἀγαθοποιήσειας τούτους κατά τό δυνατόν σοι, ὅμοιος ὄν τως γέγονας τοῦ ὑψίστου πατρός σου καί τήν καρδίαν καθαράν κτησάμενος ἐκ τούτων ἐν ταύτῃ ὄψει τόν Θεόν, ὅν οὐδείς ποτε εἶδεν. Εἰ δέ καί διωχθῆναί σε ὑπέρ δικαιοσύνης γένηται, τότε σκίρτησον, ὅτι ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν σή γέγονε, καί ποῖον τούτου μεῖζον; Ταῦτα καί τούτων πλείονα, ἅπερ ἐνετειλάμην, πρᾶξον καί ἄλλους δίδαξον, καί σύ καί πάντες ἄλλοι οἱ εἰς ἐμέ πιστεύοντες, εἰ βούλοισθε σωθῆναι καί σύν ἐμοί αὐλίζεσθαι εἰς αἰῶνας αἰώνων. Εἰ δέ γε ἀπαναίνεσθε καί δυσανασχετεῖτε, αἰσχύνην τε λογίζεσθε ταῦτα καί ἀτιμίαν παθεῖν καί θεῖναι τάς ψυχάς ὑπέρ τῶν ἐντολῶν μου, τί καί αἰτεῖσθε τοῦ μαθεῖν πῶς δεῖ ὑμᾶς σωθῆναι ἐν ποίαις τε ταῖς πράξεσιν ἐμοί οἰκειωθῆναι; Τί δέ με καί Θεόν ὑμῶν ὀνομάζετε ὅλως, τί καί πιστεύειν οἴεσθε εἰς ἐμέ ἀσυνέτως; Ἐγώ γάρ ταῦτα δι᾿ ὑμᾶς ἔπαθον ἑκουσίως˙ ἐσταυρώθην, ἀπέθανον θάνατον τῶν κακούργων, καί δόξα κόσμου γέγονε, ζωή τε καί λαμπρότης, καί νεκρῶν ἐξανάστασις καί καύχημα ἁπάντων τῶν πιστευσάντων εἰς ἐμέ τά εἰς ἐμέ ὀνείδη, καί ὁ ἀσχήμων θάνατος ἔνδυμα ἀφθαρσίας καί ἀληθοῦς θεώσεως πᾶσι πιστοῖς ὑπῆρξε.