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QUESTION 60.

What is the parable of the laborers hired for the vineyard in the Gospel? And what is the inequality?

Response. The judgment of God does not happen according to time and body, because the soul is timeless

and incorporeal, since it does not receive growth and its end according to time, but timelessly makes the movements of its disposition. It is good to clarify what is said with an example. Often there is one who has seventy years in the monastic life; but another, one day. Since the purpose of the profession is, having drawn the soul away from attachment and relation to material things, to transfer it wholly to God; (833) therefore, the one who has seventy years, having not at all cared for such dispassion, has died; but the one who has one day, having drawn away his entire impassioned thought from material things, and having embraced God wholly, was perfected. In the distribution that occurred at the judgment, the one receives his wage worthily, as having brought the purpose of the profession to its end; but the other according to grace, and only for having endured the labor of asceticism.

QUESTION 61.

For what reason did the Spirit descend ten days after the Lord’s ascension. Response. Some of those instructed in divine things say that, because according to

Dionysius the Areopagite there are nine orders of angelic powers, the Lord, ascending according to his humanity (for according to his divinity he fills all things), allotted one day to each order, from the lowest to the highest. For these also needed the Lord’s visitation to them. For in him, according to the Apostle, were summed up not only the things on earth, but also the things in heaven; and after this he appeared to God the Father; and thus the Spirit descends. But it is possible to contemplate the matter at hand in another manner of contemplation. For since the Word of God is hidden in his ten commandments; and he is embodied in us, condescending to us through action; and again he leads us up through knowledge, lifting us up until we ascend to the highest of all the commandments, the one that says, "The Lord your God, the Lord is one;" when therefore our mind, having been released from all things, or rather, having left all things, comes to rest in God himself, then it receives the tongues of fire, becoming God by grace.

QUESTION 62.

What does this mean, "Rarely bring your foot to your friend, lest having his fill of you he hate you?"

Response. Here it calls our body a friend, on account of the natural union and

affection for it. The Word therefore exhorts us, not to make our forethought for the body burdensome, but to exercise this forethought only in the track of the soul; and this

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ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ Ξ΄.

Τίς ἡ παραβολή τῶν ἐν τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ μισθωθέντων ἐργατῶν εἰς τόν ἐμπελῶνα; καί τίς ἡ ἀνισότης;

Ἀπόκρισις. Ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ κρίσις, οὐ κατά χρόνον καί σῶμα γίνεται, διότι καί ἡ ψυχή ἄχρονος

καί ἀσώματος οὖσα, διά τό μή κατά χρόνον τήν αὔξησιν καί τό πέρας δέχεσθαι, ἀχρόνως δέ τάς κινήσεις τῆς διαθέσεως ποιεῖσθαι. Καλόν δέ ἐν ὑποδείγματι διασαφῆσαι τά λεγόμενα. Πολλάκις ἔστι τις ἑβδομήκοντα χρόνους ἔχων ἐν τῷ μονήρει βίῳ· ἄλλος δέ, μίαν ἡμέραν. Ἐπειδή δέ ὁ τοῦ ἐπαγγέλματος σκοπός ἐστιν, ἵνα τῆς πρός τά ὑλικά προσπαθείας καί σχέσεως ἀνασπάσας τήν ψυχήν, ὅλην μετενέγκῃ πρός τόν Θεόν· (833) ὁ οὖν ἑβδομήκοντα ἔτη ἔχων, οὐδ᾿ ὅλως περί τῆς τοιαύτης ἀπαθείας μεριμνήσας ἐτελεύτησεν· ὁ δέ μίαν ἡμέραν ἔχων, πᾶσαν αὐτοῦ τήν πρός τά ὑλικά ἐμπαθῆ διάνοιαν ἀνασπάσας, ὅλην τε τῷ Θεῷ ἐγκολπώσας ἐτελειώθη. Ἐν τῇ γενομένῃ ἐν τῇ κρίσει διανομῇ, ὁ μέν ἀξίως τόν μισθόν λαμβάνειν, ὡς εἰς πέρας τόν σκοπόν τοῦ ἐπαγγέλματος ἀγαγών· ὁ δέ κατά χάριν, καί μόνον ὑπέρ οὗ τόν τῆς ἀσκήσεως ὑπέμεινε κόπον.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΞΑ΄.

Τίνος χάριν μετά δέκα ἡμέρας τῆς ἀναλήψεως τοῦ Κυρίου, τό Πνεῦμα κατῆλθεν. Ἀπόκρισις. Φασί τινες τῶν τά θεῖα πεπαιδευμένων, ὅτι ἐπειδή ἐννέα τάξεις κατά τόν

∆ιονύσιον τόν Ἀρεοπαγίτην αἱ ἀγγελικαί δυνάμεις εἰσίν, ἀνιών κατά τό ἀνθρώπινον ὁ Κύριος (κατά γάρ τό θεῖον πάντα πληροῖ), ἑκάστῳ τάγματι μίαν ἡμέραν ἀπένειμεν, ἀπό τῆς ἐσχάτης ἕως τῆς τελευταίας. Ἐδέοντο γάρ καί αὗται τῆς τοῦ Κυρίου πρός αὐτάς ἐπιδημίας. Ἐν αὐτῷ γάρ, κατά τόν Ἀπόστολον, ἀνακεφαλαιώθη, οὐ μόνον τά ἐπί τῆς γῆς, ἀλλά καί τά ἐν οὐρανῷ· καί μετά τοῦτο ἐνεφανίσθη τῷ Θεῷ καί Πατρί· καί οὕτως τό Πνεῦμα κάτεισι. Ἔστι δέ θεωρῆσαι τό προκείμενον καί κατ᾿ ἄλλον θεωρίας τρόπον. Ἐπειδή γάρ ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, ἐν ταῖς αὐτοῦ δέκα ἐντολαῖς ἐγκέκρυπται· σωματοῦται δέ ἐν ἡμῖν, συγκαταβαίνων ἡμῖν διά τῆς πράξεως· αὖθίς τε ἀνάγει ἡμᾶς διά τῆς γνώσεως, ὑψῶν ἡμᾶς μέχρις ἀνέλθωμεν εἰς τήν πάντων ὑψηλοτέραν τῶν ἐντολῶν, τήν λέγουσαν, Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου, Κύριος εἷς ἐστιν· ὅτε γοῦν ἐκ πάντων ἀφεθείς, μᾶλλον δέ, πάντα ἀφείς ὁ ἡμέτερος νοῦς, εἰς αὐτόν τόν Θεόν καταλήξῃ, τότε τάς πυρίνας γλώσσας δέχεται, Θεός κατά χάριν γινόμενος.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΞΒ΄.

Τί δηλοῖ, "Σπάνιον εἰσάγαγε τόν πόδα πρός τόν σεαυτοῦ φίλον, μήποτε πλησθείς σου μισήσῃ σε;"

Ἀπόκρισις. Φίλον ἐνταῦθα τό σῶμα ἡμῶν λέγει, διά τήν πρός αὐτό φυσικήν ἕνωσίν τε καί

στοργήν. Παραινεῖ οὖν ὁ Λόγος, τήν περί τό σῶμα πρόνοιαν μή πεφορτισμένην ποιεῖσθαι, ἀλλά μόνῳ τῷ τῆς ψυχῆς ἴχνει τήν αὐτοῦ πρόνοιαν ποιεῖσθαι· καί τοῦτο