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| To Eulalius, Bishop of Persian Armenia.
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LXXVII. To Eulalius,
Bishop of Persian Armenia.1725
| 1725 On
the persecution in Persia see page 157. |
I know that Satan has sought to
sift you as wheat,1726
and that the
Lord has allowed him so to do that He may shew the wheat, and prove the
gold, crown the athletes, and proclaim the victors’ names.
Nevertheless I fear and tremble, not indeed distressed for the sake of
you who are noble champions of the truth, but because I know that it
comes to pass that some men are of feebler heart. If among twelve
apostles one was found a traitor, there is no doubt that among a number
many times as great any one might easily discover many falling short of
perfection. Thus reflecting I have been confounded and filled with much
discouragement, for, as says the divine Apostle, “whether one
member suffer all the members suffer with it.”1727
We are members one of another,”1728
and form one body, having the Lord
Christ for head.”1729
Yet one
consolation I have in my anxiety, when I bethink me of your holiness.
For brought up as you have been in the divine oracles, and taught by
the arch-shepherd what are the good shepherd’s marks, there is no
doubt that you will lay down your life for the sheep. For, as the Lord
says, “he that is an hireling” when he sees “the wolf
coming,” “fleeth because he is an hireling, and careth not
for the sheep,” but “the good shepherd giveth his life for
the sheep.”1730
Just so it is
not in peace that the best general shews his inborn valour, but in time
of war, by at once stimulating others and himself exposing himself to
peril for his men. For it would be preposterous that he should enjoy
the dignity of his command, and, in the hour of need, run out of
danger’s way. Thus the thrice blessed prophets ever acted, making
light of the safety of their bodies, and, for the sake of the Jews who
hated and rejected them, underwent all kinds of peril and toil. Of them
the divine apostle says “they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were
tempted, were slain by the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and
goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was
not worthy; they wandered in deserts and mountains, and in dens and
caves of the earth.”1731
Thus the divine
apostles travelled preaching over all the world, without home, bed,
bedding, board, or any of the necessaries of life, but scourged,
racked, imprisoned, and undergoing countless kinds of death. And all
this they underwent, not for the sake of their friends, but voluntarily
facing these perils for the sake of the men who were persecuting them.
A far stronger claim is made on you now to accept the peril at present
assailing you, for the sake of fellow-believers and brothers and
children. This affection is shown even by unreasoning animals, for
sparrows may be seen fighting with all their force in behalf of their
brood, and putting out in their defence all the strength they have;
other kinds of birds moreover undergo danger for their young. But why
do I speak of birds? Bears too, and leopards, wolves, and lions,
voluntarily suffer any pain for the safety of their offspring, for
instead of fleeing from the hunter they will await his attack and do
battle for their young.
I have adduced these instances
not as though anointing your piety for endurance and courage by the
example of brute beasts, but to console myself in my despondency, and
to be assured that you will not leave Christ’s flock without a
shepherd when wolves make their attack, but will invoke the Lord of the
flock to help you and will heartily do battle in its behalf. A crisis
like this proves who is a shepherd and who a hireling; who diligently
feeds the flock and who on the other hand feeds on the milk and thinks
little of the safety of the sheep. “But God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear
it.”1732
But one thing I do beseech your
reverence, and that is to have greater heed of the unsound; and not
only to strengthen the unstable but also to raise the fallen, for
shepherds by no means neglect those of their flock who have fallen
sick, but keep them apart from the rest, and try in every possible way
to restore them, and so must we do. We must make them that are slipping
stand up, and give them a helping hand and a word of encouragement.
When they are bitten we must heal them; we must not give up the attempt
to save them nor leave them in the devil’s maw. Thus ever acted
the divine Apostle Paul; and when the Galatians, after receiving the
baptism of salvation, and the gift of the divine Spirit, fell away into
the sickness of Judaism, and received circumcision, he wailed and
lamented more exceedingly than the most affectionate mother, and tended
them and freed them from that infirmity. We can hear him exclaiming,
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until
Christ be formed in you.”1733
So too
the teacher of the Corinthians, who had committed that abominable
fornication, he both chastised as might a father, and very skilfully
treated, and after cutting him off in the first Epistle, readmitted him
in the second and says, “So that contrariwise ye ought rather to
forgive him and comfort him lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed
up with overmuch sorrow.”1734
And
again, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us for we are not
ignorant of his devices.”1735
In the
same manner too those who partook of things offered to idols he
properly rebuked, suitably exhorted, and freed from their grievous
error.
Wherefore our Lord Jesus Christ
permitted the first of the apostles, whose confession He had fixed as a
kind of groundwork and foundation of the Church, to waver to and fro,
and to deny Him, and then raised Him up again. And thus He gave us two
lessons: not to be confident in our own strength, and to strengthen the
unstable. Reach out, therefore, I beseech you, a hand to them that are
fallen, “draw them out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay,
and set their feet upon a rock,” and “put a new song into
their mouth, even praise unto our God,”1736
that their example of life may become
an example of salvation, that “many shall see it and fear and
shall trust in the Lord.”1737
Let them
be prevented from participating in the holy mysteries, but let them not
be kept from the prayer of the catechumens, nor from hearing the divine
Scriptures and the exhortation of teachers,1738
| 1738 “It is noticeable that with systematic discipline as to the
persons taught, there was no order of teachers. It was part of the
pastoral office to watch over the souls of those who were seeking
admission to the Church, as well as those who were in it, and thus
bishops, priests, deacons, or readers might all of them be found, when
occasion required, doing the work of a Catechist. The Doctor Audientium
of whom Cyprian speaks, was a Lector in the Church of Carthage.
Augustine’s Treatise de Catechizandis Rudibus, was
addressed to Deogratias as a deacon; the Catecheses of Cyril of
Jerusalem were delivered by him partly as a deacon, partly as a
presbyter. The word catechist implies accordingly a function,
not a class.” Dean Plumptre in Dict. Christ. Ant. i.
319. | and let them be prohibited from
partaking of the sacred mysteries, not till death, but during a
given time,
till they recognise their ailment, covet health, and are properly
contrite for having abandoned their true Prince and deserted to a
tyrant, and for having left their benefactor and gone over to their
foe.
The same lessons are given us by
the precepts of the holy and blessed Fathers. I write as I do, not to
teach you piety, but to remind you as a brother might, knowing well
that even the best of pilots in the moment of the storm needs monition
even from his men. So the great and famous Moses, renowned throughout
the world, who did those mighty works of wonder, did not refuse the
counsel of Jethro, a man still sunk in idolatrous error; for he did not
regard his impiety, but acknowledged the soundness of his advice.
Moreover I implore your piety to offer earnest prayer to God in my
behalf that for the remaining days of my life I may live in accordance
with His laws.
Thus have I written by the most
honourable and religious presbyter Stephanus, whom on account of the
goodness of his character I have seen with great pleasure. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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