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Ascetam facetiis uti non debere

THAT THE ASCETIC OUGHT NOT TO JEST

48.1055 All-holy are the exhortations of the blessed Paul, commanding us to work out our own salvation with fear. For he who does not work at the discipline of virtue with fear and great care, undergoes many deviations into evil, and wanders as if from a straight and royal road into sideways paths and trackless places through thorns and stakes; wherefore also unceasing prayers to God become guides to the good, saying, Guide me in your truth; and, Establish my steps in your paths. Goodness, then, is a good thing, and love is the chief of good things; but these are followed by much cheerfulness, and laughter exceeding measure, and jesting which humbles solemnity. It is a terrible thing, indeed, to be dissolved in jesting. For laughter loosens the bond of self-control, laughter thrusts away solemnity, laughter does not remember the fear of God, laughter does not fear the threat of Gehenna, laughter is a guide to fornication, jesting is the proof of an intemperate man, buffoonery causes one to be carried down into sloth, buffoonery is a pretext for contempt. For this reason the blessed Apostle forbids it, saying: Foolish talk or jesting, which are not fitting, let them not proceed out of your mouth, but rather thanksgiving; saying this, that you should not make cheerfulness a pretext for sloth, but a cause for thanksgiving to the Giver. For this reason Job testifies on his own behalf, saying: Or if I have walked with mockers. And Solomon rebukes the laughter-loving way: Anger, he says, is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart will be made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. And rebuking the unseemly and dishonorable nature of those given to laughter, he says: As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools. But consider to what extent extreme cheerfulness and hilarity are fitting for the wise, quiet, and solemn person. And through fear and anxiety of being seen by God, to take away excessive hilarity. For those who are dissolved in immoderate and ridiculous cheerfulness seem to be ignorant of their own state, with their soul weighed down by a certain forgetfulness, and not even expecting the presence of the Master. You do not yet have the Master's goodwill, O man, you do not yet have sure deliverance from evils; you do not know what will be a little later, what you yourself will be, or what will happen to you; then you laugh carelessly, and you jest, and you conduct yourself fearlessly, when you ought to be intent on supplications to God, and to be in agony over the future, and to tremble for yourself lest you ever be turned from virtue, and to be anxious and fearful concerning the things that will meet you, lest things more difficult and greater than your strength should come upon you, you who are caught in the midst of so many and so great wars? Let your soul have a struggle; demons war invisibly, men war openly, the inner passions of the soul war, the pleasures aroused through the body, and the external misfortunes concerning the body.

For you do not suffer with your neighbors, you are not weak with those who are weak, you do not weep with those who weep, you are not afraid for those who are not firm in the faith, lest they be moved and fall; you do not mourn the fallen, you do not stretch out a hand 48.1056 to those who are lying down, you do not seize the one laughing with inward groans, because he has forgotten the prepared punishment; the thought of the shortened time does not overturn your untimely luxury, nor of the coming dreadful day

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Ascetam facetiis uti non debere

ΟΤΙ ΟΥ ΧΡΗ ΕΥΤΡΑΠΕΛΙΖΕΙΝ ΤΟΝ ΑΣΚΗΤΗΝ

48.1055 Πανάγιαι αἱ παραινέσεις τοῦ μακαρίου Παύλου, μετὰ φόβου κελεύουσαι τὴν

ἑαυτῶν σωτηρίαν κατεργάζεσθαι. Ὁ γὰρ μὴ μετὰ φόβου καὶ πολλῆς ἐπιμελείας τὴν ἄσκησιν τῆς ἀρετῆς ἐργαζόμενος, πολλὰς ὑφίσταται τὰς εἰς τὸ κακὸν ἐκτροπὰς, καὶ ὥσπερ ἐξ εὐθείας καὶ βασιλικῆς ὁδοῦ πλανώμενος εἰς τὰς δι' ἀκανθῶν καὶ σκολόπων πλαγίας καὶ ἀνοδίας· διὸ καὶ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν εὐχαὶ ἀδιάλειπτοι ὁδηγοὶ εἰς τὸ ἀγαθὸν γίνονται, Ὁδήγησόν με, λεγόντων, ἐπὶ τὴν ἀλήθειάν σου· καὶ, Κατάρτισον τὰ διαβήματά μου ἐν ταῖς τρίβοις σου. Ἀγαθὸν οὖν ἡ χρηστότης, καὶ ἡ ἀγάπη κεφάλαιόν ἐστι τῶν ἀγαθῶν· τούτοις δὲ ἀκολουθεῖ φαιδρότης πολλὴ, καὶ γέλως ὑπερβάλλων τὸ μέτρον, καὶ ἡ τὴν σεμνότητα ταπεινοῦσα εὐτραπελία. ∆εινὸν δὴ τὸ διαχυθῆναι τῇ εὐτραπελίᾳ. Ὁ γὰρ γέλως χαυνοῖ τὸν δεσμὸν τῆς σωφροσύνης, γέλως ἀπωθεῖ σεμνότητα, γέλως οὐ μιμνήσκεται φόβου Θεοῦ, γέλως οὐ φοβεῖται ἀπειλὴν γεέννης, γέλως πορνείας ὁδηγὸς, εὐτραπελία ἔλεγχός ἐστι τοῦ ἀκολάστου ἀνθρώπου, γελωτοποιία εἰς ῥᾳθυμίαν κατενεχθῆναι ποιεῖ, γελωτοποιία καταφρονήσεως πρόφασις. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ὁ μακάριος Ἀπόστολος ἀπαγορεύει λέγων· Μωρολογία ἢ εὐτραπελία, τὰ οὐκ ἀνήκοντα, ἐκ τοῦ στόματος ὑμῶν μὴ ἐκπορευέσθω, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον εὐχαριστία· τοῦτο λέγων, ὅτι τὴν εὐθυμίαν μὴ πρόφασιν κτήσησθε ῥᾳθυμίας, ἀλλὰ εὐχαριστίας ὑπόθεσιν πρὸς τὸν δεδωκότα. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο μαρτυρεῖ μὲν Ἰὼβ ὑπὲρ ἑαυτοῦ λέγων· Εἰ δὲ καὶ ἤμην πεπορευμένος μετὰ γελοιαστῶν. Ἐπιπλήττει δὲ τῷ φιλογέλωτι τρόπῳ Σολομών· Ἀγαθὸν, φησὶ, θυμὸς ὑπὲρ γέλωτα, ὅτι ἐν κακίᾳ προσώπου ἀγαθυνθήσεται καρδία. Καρδία σοφῶν ἐν οἴκῳ πένθους, καρδία δὲ ἀφρόνων ἐν οἴκῳ εὐφροσύνης. Ἀγαθὸν τὸ ἀκοῦσαι ἐπιτίμησιν σοφῶν ὑπὲρ ἄνδρα ἀκούοντα ᾆσμα ἀφρόνων. Τὸ δὲ ἀπρεπὲς καὶ ἄτιμον τῶν εἰς γέλωτα ἐγκειμένων ἐλέγχων, φησί· Φωνὴ ἀκανθῶν ὑπὸ τὸν λέβητα, οὕτως ὁ γέλως τῶν ἀφρόνων. Πρὸς τί δὲ προσήκει τὸ πάνυ φαιδρὸν καὶ ἱλαρὸν εἰς τὸ σοφὸν ἡσύχιον καὶ σεμνὸν αἰσθήτι. Καὶ διὰ φόβου καὶ μερίμνης τοῦ ὀφθῆναι Θεῷ περιαιρεῖν τὸ ἄγαν ἱλαρόν. Οἱ γὰρ φαιδρότησιν ἀμέτροις καὶ γελοίοις διαχεόμενοι ἐοίκασιν ἀγνοεῖν τὰ καθ' ἑαυτοὺς, λήθῃ τινὶ βεβαρημένοι τὴν ψυχὴν, καὶ μηδὲ τοῦ ∆εσπότου τὴν παρουσίαν προσδοκῶντες. Οὔπω τοῦ ∆εσπότου τὴν εὐμένειαν, ὦ ἄνθρωπε, οὔπω τῶν κακῶν βεβαίως ἔχεις τὴν ἀπαλλαγήν· οὐ γινώσκεις τὸ μικρὸν ὕστερον ἐσόμενον, ὅ τι μὲν αὐτὸς ἔσῃ, τί δέ σοι συμβήσεται· εἶτα γελᾷς ἀφροντίστως, καὶ εὐτραπελίζεις, καὶ ἄγεις σεαυτὸν ἀφόβως, δέον ἐγκεῖσθαι ταῖς πρὸς Θεὸν ἱκεσίαις, ἀγωνιᾷν δὲ ὑπὲρ τῶν μελλόντων, καὶ τρέμειν μὲν ὑπὲρ αὑτοῦ μή ποτε τῆς ἀρετῆς ἐκτραπῇς, φροντίζειν δὲ καὶ δεδοικέναι περὶ τῶν ἀπαντησομένων μὴ χαλεπώτερα καὶ μείζονα τῆς σῆς δυνάμεως ἐπέλθοι, τοσούτων καὶ τηλικούτων ἐν μέσῳ πολέμων ἀπειλημμένος; Ἀγῶνα ἐχέτω ἡ ψυχή σου· πολεμοῦσιν ἀοράτως δαίμονες, πολεμοῦσι προφανῶς ἄνθρωποι, πολεμεῖ τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς ἔνδον πάθη, αἱ διὰ σώματος ἐγειρόμεναι ἡδοναὶ, καὶ αἱ περὶ τὸ σῶμα ἔξωθεν συμφοραί.

Τοῖς γὰρ πλησίον οὐ συναλγεῖς, οὐκ ἀσθενεῖς μετὰ τῶν ἀσθενούντων, οὐ κλαίεις μετὰ τῶν κλαιόντων, οὐ δέδοικας περὶ τῶν μὴ βεβαίως περὶ τὴν πίστιν διακειμένων, μὴ μετακινηθῶσι καὶ πέσωσιν· οὐ θρηνεῖς τοὺς πεπτωκότας, οὐ χεῖρα ὀρέ 48.1056 γεις τοῖς κειμένοις, οὐκ ἐπιλαμβάνῃ τοῦ γελῶντος ἔνδοθεν στεναγμοῖς, ἐπειδὴ ἐληθάργησε τὴν ἡτοιμασμένην κόλασιν· οὐκ ἀνατρέπει σου τὴν ἄκαιρον τρυφὴν ὁ τοῦ συνεσταλμένου καιροῦ λογισμὸς, οὐχὶ τῆς μελλούσης φοβερᾶς ἡμέρας