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| To a lapsed Monk.
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Letter XLIV.2092
| 2092 To be ranked
with the former letter. |
To a lapsed Monk.2093
| 2093 One
ms. adds, in a later hand,
Alexius. |
1. I do not wish
you joy, for there is no joy for the wicked. Even now I cannot
believe it; my heart cannot conceive iniquity so great as the crime
which you have committed; if, that is, the truth really is what is
generally understood. I am at a loss to think how wisdom so deep
can have been made to disappear; how such exact discipline can have
been undone; whence blindness so profound can have been shed round you;
how with utter inconsiderateness you have wrought such destruction of
souls. If this be true, you have given over your own
soul to the pit, and have slackened the earnestness of all who have
heard of your impiety. You have set at nought the faith; you have
missed the glorious fight. I grieve over you. What
cleric2094
| 2094 ἱερεύς. When first
this word and its correlatives came to be used of the Christian
ministry it was applied generally to the clergy. cf.
Letter of the Council of Illyricum in Theod., Ecc.
Hist. iv. 8, and note on Letter liv. p.
157. | does not
lament as he hears? What ecclesiastic does not beat the
breast? What layman is not downcast? What ascetic is
not sad? Haply, even the sun has grown dark at your fall,
and the powers of heaven have been shaken at your
destruction. Even senseless stones have shed tears at your
madness; even your enemies have wept at the greatness of your
iniquity. Oh hardness of heart! Oh cruelty! You
did not fear God; you did not reverence men; you cared nothing for
your friends; you made shipwreck of all at once; at once you were
stripped of all. Once more I grieve over you, unhappy
man. You were proclaiming to all the power of the kingdom,
and you fell from it. You were making all stand in fear of
your teaching, and there was no fear of God before your
eyes. You were preaching purity, and you are found
polluted. You were priding yourself on your poverty, and you
are convicted of covetousness; you were demonstrating and
explaining the chastisement of God, and you yourself brought
chastisement on your own head. How am I to lament you, how
grieve for you? How is Lucifer that was rising in the
morning fallen and dashed on the ground? Both the ears of
every hearer will tingle. How is the Nazarite, brighter than
gold, become dark above pitch? How has the glorious son of
Sion become an unprofitable vessel! Of him, whose memory of
the sacred Scriptures was in all men’s mouths, the memory
to-day has perished with the sound. The man of quick
intelligence has quickly perished. The man of manifold wit
has wrought manifold iniquity. All who profited by your
teaching have been injured by your fall. All who came to
listen to your conversation have stopped their ears at your
fall. I, sorrowful and downcast, weakened in every way,
eating ashes for bread and with sackcloth on my wound, am thus
recounting your praises; or rather, with none to comfort and none
to cure, am making an inscription for a tomb. For comfort is
hid from my eyes. I have no salve, no oil, no bandage to put
on. My wound is sore, how shall I be healed?
2. If you have any hope of salvation; if you
have the least thought of God, or any desire for good things to come;
if you have any fear of the chastisements reserved for the impenitent,
awake without delay, lift up your eyes to heaven, come to your senses,
cease from your wickedness, shake off the stupor that enwraps you, make
a stand against the foe who has struck you down. Make an effort
to rise from the ground. Remember the good Shepherd who will
follow and rescue you. Though it be but two legs or a lobe of an
ear,2095
spring back
from the beast that has wounded you. Remember the mercies of
God and how He cures with oil and wine. Do not despair of
salvation. Recall your recollection of how it is written in
the Scriptures that he who is falling rises and he who turns away
returns;2096
the wounded is
healed, the prey of beasts escapes; he who owns his sin is not
rejected. The Lord willeth not the death of a sinner but
rather that he should turn and live.2097
Do not despise, like the wicked
in the pit of evil.2098
There is
a time of endurance, a time of long suffering, a time of healing,
a time of correction. Have you stumbled? Arise.
Have you sinned? Cease. Do not stand in the way of
sinners,2099
but spring
away. When you are converted and groan you shall be
saved. Out of labour comes health, out of sweat
salvation. Beware lest, from your wish to keep certain
obligations, you break the obligations to God which you professed
before many witnesses.2100
Pray do
not hesitate to come to me for any earthly considerations.
When I have recovered my dead I shall lament, I shall tend him, I
will weep “because of the spoiling of the daughter of my
people.”2101
All are
ready to welcome you, all will share your efforts. Do not
sink back. Remember the days of old. There is
salvation; there is amendment. Be of good cheer; do not
despair. It is not a law condemning to death without pity,
but mercy remitting punishment and awaiting improvement. The
doors are not yet shut; the bridegroom hears; sin is not the
master. Make another effort, do not hesitate, have pity on
yourself and on all of us in Jesus Christ our Lord, to Whom be
glory and might now and for ever and ever.
Amen.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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