1

De spe

On hope.

60.771 All men are by nature resourceful, because of the naturally discerning and intelligent faculty of reason. For each of these gives himself over to farming and traveling and some craft with a certain hope. For all endure toils and sweats, dangers and afflictions with eagerness because of the expectation of future good things. And the farmer, bending his back with the straining of sinews and limbs, and arming both his hands with goad and plow, eagerly endures the frosts of winter, and the torments from the clod and the thorns lying within, assuaging his labors with the expectation of the future harvest.

And the traveler, having set out on difficult and steep roads, his feet scourged by the resisting solid ground, boiling with copious gushing drops of sweat from head to toe, nobly endures burning heats and thirst for water and lack of food, for the sake of the profit hoped for by him from the journey. And physicians, in the excision of swollen wounds, bear the stench, and receiving by hand the emptyings of stomachs and the effusions of loose 60.772 humors, are not ashamed, for the sake of the health of the sick, and for their own well-being hoped for from those they treat. And the sailors of the deep, leaving the land, and cutting the salty and dark-blue backs of the sea, endure the violence of contrary winds and incurable tempests, the stretching of many-stranded ropes, the fearful creaking of masts and yards, and receiving the roaring sights of savage waves, for the sake of the salvation and well-being hoped for by them from the voyage. All these and more than these endure toils and dangers for the sake of a hope that appears for a short time; how much more the God-loving race of Christians, I mean both men and women—for not only the male serves as a soldier with God, but also the female, not with the strength of the body, but with the courage of the mind—both 60.773 eagerly enduring persecutions and famines, fasting and vigils and sleeping on the ground, and other inexpressible afflictions, for the sake of the undefiled and blessed hope in heaven. Let each one therefore stand firm in his own work, and be strengthened by hope; O farmer of the spiritual field, cast the plow of teaching into the receptive plot of the mind; then, along with the previously sown seeds of the heretics, remove the sprout of Jewish and Greek sophistries, so that, having cleansed the soul, you may sow upon it the holy seeds of faith, the joys of hope, the sweetnesses of love. For not only to Jeremiah did he give authority to dig up the worse things, and to plant the better, but also to you in saying: Behold, I have put my words in your mouth; behold, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to root out and to pull down and to destroy, and to build and to plant. Root out, therefore, the wild stirrings of lust, and plant the holy examples of purity; dig up the planting of the evil one, and plant the commonwealth of Christ; destroy the doctrines that are to be shunned, but set up as a monument the excellent thoughts. O builder, pull down the idols badly built by the contrivance of the devil in the souls of men, and build

1

De spe

Περὶ ἐλπίδος.

60.771 Ἅπαντες μὲν ἄνθρωποι φύσει εὐμήχανοι, διὰ τὸ φύσει τοῦ λογισμοῦ

διακριτικόν τε καὶ νουνεχές. Ἕκαστος γὰρ τούτων πρὸς γεωργίαν καὶ ὁδοιπορίαν καὶ τέχνην τινὰ ἐλπίδι τινὶ ἑαυτὸν παραδίδωσιν. Ἅπαντες γὰρ καμάτους καὶ ἱδρῶτας, κινδύνους τε καὶ θλίψεις προθυμίᾳ ὑποφέρουσι διὰ τὴν τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν προσδοκίαν. Καὶ ὁ μὲν γεωργὸς ἐν τῇ συνολκῇ τῶν νεύρων καὶ μελῶν κυρτώσας τὰ νῶτα, ἄμφω δὲ τὰς χεῖρας ὁπλίσας δόρατι καὶ ἀρότρῳ, τοὺς ἐκ τοῦ χειμῶνος κρυμοὺς, καὶ τοὺς ἐκ τῆς βώλου καὶ τῶν ἐγκειμένων ἀκανθῶν αἰκισμοὺς προθύμως ὑποφέρει, τῇ μελλούσῃ τῶν καρπῶν προσδοκίᾳ τοὺς πόνους παραμυθούμενος.

Ὁ δέ γε ὁδοιπόρος ἐν ταῖς δυσβάτοις καὶ προσάντεσιν ὁδοῖς ἐπιβὰς, ἀντιτυποῦντος τοῦ στερεοῦ ἐδάφους, τοὺς ταρσοὺς μαστιζόμενος, ἱδρώτων πολυχύτους σταγόνας ἐκ κορυφῆς μέχρις ὀνύχων κοχλάδων ἀναζέων, καύσωνάς τε καὶ ὑδάτων λιμοὺς καὶ τροφῶν ἔνδειαν γενναίως ὑπομένει, διὰ τὸ ἐκ τῆς ὁδοιπορίας αὐτῷ ἐλπιζόμενον κέρδος. Ἰατροὶ δὲ ἐν τῇ ἐκτομῇ τῶν οἰδαινόντων τραυμάτων τὴν δυσωδίαν ἐπιφέρουσι, γαστέρων δὲ κενώσεις καὶ χαύνων 60.772 χυμῶν ἐκχύσεις ἐκ χειρὸς δεχόμενοι οὐκ ἀναίνονται διὰ τὴν τῶν ἀσθενούντων ὑγίειαν, καὶ διὰ τὴν οἰκείαν εὐπορίαν τὴν ἐκ τῶν θεραπευομένων αὐτοῖς ἐλπιζομένην. Οἱ δὲ πελάγιοι πλωτῆρες γῆν λείποντες, καὶ τὰ τῆς θαλάττης ἁλμυρὰ καὶ κυάνεα νῶτα τέμνοντες, παλιντρόπων πνευμάτων βίας καὶ ταραχὰς ἀνηκέστους ὑπομένουσι, σχοινίων δὲ πολυπλόκων διατάσεις, ἱστίων δὲ καὶ αὐχένων τρισμοὺς φοβεροὺς, κυμάτων δὲ ἀγρίων ὀρυγμαδώδεις κατόψεσι δεχόμενοι φοβεροὺς διὰ τὴν ἐκ τοῦ πλοὸς αὐτοῖς ἐλπιζομένην σωτηρίαν καὶ εὐπορίαν. Ἅπαντες δὲ οὗτοι καὶ οἱ τούτων πλείονες καμάτους τε καὶ κινδύνους ὑπομένουσι διὰ τὴν πρὸς ὀλίγον φαινομένην ἐλπίδα· πολλῷ μᾶλλον τὸ φιλόθεον γένος τῶν Χριστιανῶν, ἀνδρῶν δὴ λέγω καὶ γυναικῶν οὐ γὰρ μόνον τὸ ἄῤῥεν ἐστράται παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ θῆλυ, οὐ τῇ τοῦ σώματος ῥώμῃ, ἀλλὰ τῇ τῆς φρονήσεως ἀνδρείᾳ διωγμούς τε καὶ λιμοὺς, νηστείαν τε καὶ ἀγρυπνίαν καὶ χαμευνίαν, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἀνεκδιηγήτων θλίψεων ἄμφω 60.773 προθύμως ὑποφέροντες διὰ τὴν ἀκήρατον καὶ μακαρίαν ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἐλπίδα. Ἕκαστος οὖν στηκέτω τῷ ἰδίῳ ἔργῳ, καὶ ἐλπίδι τονούσθω· ὁ γεωργὸς τῆς πνευματικῆς ἀρούρας ἔμβαλε τῆς διδασκαλίας τὸ ἄροτρον εἰς τὸ δεκτὸν τῆς διανοίας χωρίον· εἶτα μετὰ τῶν προκαταβληθέντων τῶν αἱρετικῶν σπερμάτων, τὸ βλάστημα ἔξελε τῶν Ἰουδαϊκῶν καὶ Ἑλληνικῶν σοφισμάτων, ἵνα ἐκκαθάρας τὴν ψυχὴν, ἐπισπείρῃς τὰ τῆς πίστεως ἅγια σπέρματα, τὰ τῆς ἐλπίδος ἀγαλλιάματα, τὰ τῆς ἀγάπης γλυκάσματα Οὐ γὰρ μόνον τῷ Ἱερεμίᾳ ἔδωκεν ἐξουσίαν τοῦ κατασκάπτειν τὰ χείρονα, καὶ καταφυτεύειν τὰ κρείττονα, ἀλλὰ καὶ σοὶ ἐν τῷ λέγειν· Ἰδοὺ δέδωκα τοὺς λόγους μου εἰς τὸ στόμα σου· ἰδοὺ κατέστησά σε σήμερον ἐπὶ ἔθνη καὶ βασιλείας, ἐκριζοῦν καὶ κατασκάπτειν καὶ ἀπολλύειν, καὶ ἀνοικοδομεῖν καὶ καταφυτεύειν. Ἐκρίζου τοίνυν τὰ ἄγρια τῆς λαγνείας κινήματα, καὶ καταφύτευε τὰ ἅγια τῆς ἁγνείας μιμήματα· κατάσκαπτε τοῦ πονηροῦ φυτείαν, καὶ καταφύτευε τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ πολιτείαν· ἀπόλλυε τὰ φευκτὰ τῶν διδαγμάτων, στηλίτευε δὲ τὰ σπουδαῖα τῶν νοημάτων. Ὁ οἰκοδόμος, κατάσπα τὰ κακῶς οἰκοδομηθέντα ὑπὸ τῆς τοῦ διαβόλου μηχανῆς ἐν ταῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ψυχαῖς ἰνδάλματα, καὶ οἰκοδόμει