238

But, woe to us, priests, monks, bishops and servants of the seventh age, because we trample upon the laws of God and Savior as worthy of nothing. And if somewhere one appears who is small among men, but great to God as being known by Him, not condescending to our passions, immediately he is driven out as one of the evildoers and is persecuted by us from our midst and is cast out of the synagogue, just as of old our Christ by the high priests and terrible Jews of that time, as He Himself said and always says this with the brilliant voice of His majesties: but there is a God, who will exalt him and will receive him as in this life, so in the one to come and will glorify him together with all the saints, whom he longed for. But what does the Word also say to us, who seem to be the zealous ones of the monastics? Form the inside with piety and the outside will certainly be clean for me, for the one part of you will be for the benefit also of those who see your good works, but the other is desirable to me the creator of all and to my new and divine orders. But if you adorn the outer statue (420) only with the decorum of its morals and seem to those who see you to be friends through the external exercise of labors, but of my beloved image you take no account at all for its purification and adornment with zeal and tears and labors, through which you are clearly seen by me and by all as men both rational and divine, you are truly like rotting tombs to me, just as the Pharisees once were, as I said, reproving their folly. Brilliant on the outside, full of rot within, filled with dead bones of the evil remembrance of a corrupt heart, of words, passions, thoughts, and deceitful meditation. For which of you sought these things, I mean fasting, hardship, labors, unkempt hair, being fixed with irons, a hair shirt, a multitude of calluses on the knees, sleeping on the ground, grass for a bed's mattress and every other hardship of life? These things are good, if they are performed well

238

Ἀλλ᾿, οὐαί ἡμῖν, τοῦ ἑβδόμου αἰῶνος θύταις, μοναχοῖς, ἐπισκόπους καί λάτραις, ὅτι τούς νόμους τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Σωτῆρος καταπατοῦμεν ὡς μηδενός ἀξίους. Καί εἴ που φανῇ μικρός εἷς ἐν ἀνθρώποις, Θεῷ δέ μέγας ὡς αὐτοῦ ἐγνωσμένος, μή τοῖς πάθεσιν ἡμῶν συγκαταβαίνων, εὐθύς ἀπελαύνεται ὡς εἷς κακούργων καί διώκεται παρ᾿ ἡμῶν ἐκ τοῦ μέσου καί ἀποσυνάγωγος γίνεται, καθά πάλαι ὁ Χριστός ἡμῶν παρά τῶν τηνικαῦτα ἀρχιερέων καί δεινῶν Ἰουδαίων, ὡς αὐτός ἔφη καί ἀεί τοῦτο λέγει τῇ λαμπρᾷ φωνῇ τῶν τούτου μεγαλείων˙ ἀλλ᾿ ἔστι Θεός, ὅς αὐτόν ἀνυψώσει καί προσλάβεται ὡς ἐν τῷ βίῳ, οὕτως ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι καί συνδοξάσει πᾶσιν ἁγίοις, οὕς ἐπόθησεν οὗτος. Ἀλλά τί φησι καί πρός ἡμᾶς ὁ Λόγος, τῶν μοναζόντων οἱ δοκοῦντες σπουδαῖοι; Τό ἐντός μορφώσατε τῇ εὐσεβείᾳ καί τό ἐκτός μοι καθαρόν πάντως ἔσται, τό μέν γάρ ὑμῶν εἰς ὠφέλειαν ἔσται κκαί τῶν ὁρώντων τά καλά ὑμῶν ἔργα, τό δέ ποθεινόν ἐμοί τῷ κτίστῃ πάντων καί ταῖς νεοραῖς τάξεσί μου καί θείαις. Εἰ δέ τόν ἐκτός κοσμεῖτε ἀνδριάντα (420) τῇ καταστολῇ τῶν ἠθῶν τούτου μόνῃ καί τοῖς ὁρῶσιν ὑμᾶς δοκεῖτε φίλοι διά τῆς ἐκτός γυμνασίας τῶν πόνων, φίλης ἐμῆς δέ τῆς εἰκόνος οὐδ᾿ ὅλως ποιεῖσθε λόγον εἰς κάθαρσιν καί κόσμον αὐτῆς ἐν σπουδῇ καί δάκρυσι καί πόνοις, δι᾿ ἧς ἐμοί τε καί πᾶσι καθορᾶσθε ἄνθρωποι τρανῶς λογικοί τε καί θεῖοι, ἐοίκατέ μι ὄντως μυδῶσι τάφοις, καθάπερ ποτέ Φαρισαῖοι, ὡς ἔφην εἰπών ἐλέγχων τήν ἀφροσύνην τούτων. Ἔξωθεν λαμπροί, μυδῶντες πλήρεις ἔσω, νεκροῖς ὀστέοις μεμεστωμένοι φαύλων καρδίας σαπρᾶς ἐνθυμήσεως, λόγων, παθῶν, ἐννοιῶν καί μελέτης δολίας. Τίς γάρ ἐξ ὑμῶν ἐξεζήτησε ταῦτα, νηστείαν λέγω, σκληραγωγίαν, πόνους, κόμην αὐχμηράν, σιδήρων καθηλώσεις, τρίχινον ἔσθος, τύλων πλῆθος γονάτων, ξηροκοιτίαν, χόρτον εἰς στρῶσιν κοίτης καί πᾶσαν ἄλλην κακοπάθειαν βίου; Καλά γε ταῦτα, εἰ καλῶς ἐκτελεῖται