To Gregory of Nyssa

^B II. Are these things, then, sufficient, and has the discourse depicted the man for you with moderation? Or must we, like diligent painters, apply the colors time and again, so that we may present to you a more perfect portrait in our discourse? And indeed, we shall draw him for you both more perfectly and more clearly. Who is the most illustrious of legislators? Moses. Who is the most holy of priests? Aaron: brothers no less in piety than in body; or rather, the one was God to Pharaoh, and the leader and legislator of Israel, entering into the cloud, both spectator and initiator of divine mysteries, and craftsman of that true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man; yet both were equally priests. For he says, "Moses and Aaron are among his priests." The one is the prince of princes and the priest of priests, using Aaron for a tongue, and himself in turn laboring for him in matters pertaining to God: the other is immediately second to him, yet far preceding all others in dignity and proximity to God. Both harassing Egypt, dividing the sea, leading Israel through, drowning the enemies, drawing bread from above, bringing forth water in the desert that defied human belief, here pouring it out, there sweetening it; both warring against Amalek by the holy extension of their hands, in the figure of a greater mystery; both presenting themselves as guides and hurrying toward the promised land. Does anything more familiar or more manifest exist in an image? Has not the painter-discourse clearly delineated for you the man who is my namesake and of one soul with me?

^C III. One of these anointed us and brought us forth from our hiding place: though I know not what befell him, or how he was moved, unworthily of the Spirit that is in him—for even if the discourse be somewhat harsh, it shall be spoken nonetheless, since friendship will bear all things, both in suffering and in hearing—but the other has come to exhort us, to confirm us, and to render us mild through the Spirit. And indeed, although I consider his coming even now to be of the greatest importance (nor is it any wonder, since I have always set you before all others in my life), yet this is troublesome, that he arrived later than the situation required. In what manner, O best of friends and allies, do reinforcements arrive after the defeat and the hostile onslaught? In what manner does the governor arrive after the storm, and the medicine after the wound? Whether as a brother-lover do you feel ashamed of the tyranny? Or were you yourself, as a ruler, indignant at the disobedience? Which of the brothers do you accuse, or which do you excuse from blame? I shall say something ^D to you later.

^A regarding the words of Job, even I who am suffering, and speaking to a friend, even if it is not such a one, nor under the same afflictions. To which side do you incline? Or whom are you about to help? Is it not the one who has great strength 91? Is it not the one who has great wisdom and knowledge? For I see many of the present judges suffering from this, who would more readily concede the greatest things to the high-born than the smallest to the lowly. But this, of course, you yourself would know; for it is not right for me to pronounce anything concerning you that is not good, since I set you up as a standard and rule of every good thing. And at the same time, I have been admonished 92 by Scripture 93—which is to be brought to mind 94—not to be quick to judge. I, for my part, am ready to render an account of my speech, to you, and to anyone who wishes 95, for the sake of friendship, whether for my disobedience, as some might call it, or for my foresight, as I persuade myself, and for my caution, as you might perceive, being a friend who does not act 96 in an entirely absurd and ignorant manner; but one who is also able to discern some things better than the many, and who is confident where it is worth being confident, but fears where there is reason for fear, and [fears] those things which even those who have understanding fear, or rather, things that are even more to be feared.

IV. What then is pleasing, and what is more expedient?

^A they receive from us, as well as that which is stored up in the heavens, whose memorials and small tokens are the things that are seen. Let us join battle against the principalities and powers, against those invisible persecutors and tyrants, against the world-rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, and concerning heavenly things, against the war within and among ourselves, which is situated in the disturbances of the soul, and against the daily assaults of those things which befall us from without.

V. ^B Let us restrain anger as if it were a wild beast, and the tongue as a keen sword, and let us extinguish pleasure as if it were fire. Let us place doors upon our ears, to be opened and shut in due time; and let us discipline the eye; let us school our raving sense of touch, and our stinging sense of taste, lest death climb up through our windows—for this is the name by which I believe the senses are called—and let us laugh to scorn the immoderation of laughter. Let us not bend the knee to Baal out of necessity, nor let us worship the golden image out of fear. Let us fear this one thing only: to fear anything more than God, and to bring insult upon the divine image through a base manner of life. In all things let us take up the shield of faith, and let us escape all the darts of the wicked one. And this too is a terrible war, and this is a great battle-line, and this is a great trophy. If we have assembled thus, ^C or if we are thus competing, then in truth the festival is according to Christ, in truth we have honored the martyrs, or will honor them, in truth we are dancing a victory dance. But if we have assembled to indulge in the pleasures of the belly, and to enjoy fleeting and soon-to-perish delicacies, and to bring in what is destined for the waste-heap, and if these are places of gluttony and not of temperance, and we judge these times to be times of business and affairs, and not of ascent or of divinization—if I may be so bold as to say it—of which the martyrs are the mediators, then first of all, I do not acknowledge that this is appropriate to the occasion. For what has the chaff to do with the wheat? And what has ^D the pampering of the flesh to do with the struggles of the martyrs? Those things belong to the theaters, these to my assemblies; those belong to the profligate, these to the temperate; those belong to the flesh-lovers, these to those who are being loosed from the body. Next, I wish to say something even bolder, but I refrain from blasphemy out of reverence for the day; yet these are not the things they demand of you.

^A VI. Let us endeavor, brothers, not to celebrate holy things unholily, nor sublime things basely, nor things worthy of honor shamefully, and, to sum it up in a word, not to celebrate spiritual things in a worldly way. For the Jew, too, keeps feast days, but according to the letter; and the Gentile also celebrates, but only in a way that pleases the demons. But for us, inasmuch as all things are spiritual—action, movement, will, speech, and even our gait and dress, and even the nod of our eyes, with reason extending to all things and composing and moderating the man who is according to God—so too should be our manner of celebrating feasts and finding joy. For I do not forbid relaxation, but I restrain excess. If we gather in this way and celebrate the feasts, it would be a great thing to affirm that we shall attain the same rewards and inherit the same glory; for the things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor human intellect ^B ever shaped—when creating blessedness by its own power and whim—we judge that these await those who have been purified by blood and have set before themselves the sacrifice of Christ to imitate; yet that, certainly, will come to pass for us: that we shall behold the splendor of the holy martyrs—which, in my opinion, should not be considered a light thing—and we shall enter into the joy of the same Lord, and shall be illuminated more clearly and purely by the light of the blessed and sovereign Trinity, in whom we have believed, whom we worship, and whom we confess before God and men, fearing nothing, dreading no one, neither external enemies, nor those false Christians who act among us, who are the enemies of the Holy Spirit. And may we confess until our last breath, with great boldness, that noble deposit of the holy Fathers, who were nearer to Christ and to the first faith—that confession which we drank in together with our milk, which we first uttered, and with which may we at the last depart from life, carrying off from hence, if nothing else, our piety.

^C VII. Now the God of peace, who reconciled us to Himself through the cross, when we had previously become His enemies through sin; He who preached peace to those who were near and to those who were far off, to those under the law and to those outside the law,

the Father of love, who is Love itself—for He delights in being called by these names above all others, that He might legislate ^A brotherly love, He who gave the new commandment to love one another even as we have been loved; He who grants us to rule well, and to be ruled, for the sake of fear, and to shrink back with reason [(29)], and in turn to take heart through reason; He who also equips the great flocks, and makes the small ones great through grace—may He Himself, according to the multitude of His goodness, console us with much consolation, and lead us forward [(30)], shepherding and preserving the flock with me; and may He equip you for every good work, and persuade you to celebrate the martyrs in a spiritual manner, and count you worthy of the delight from thence, where [(31)] is the dwelling place of all who rejoice, and having appeared in righteousness, may He sate them with His glory, He having appeared in Christ Jesus [(32)] our Lord, to whom be glory and power, honor and worship, for ever and ever. Amen. ^B

NOTICE ON ORATION XII

I. "He had bowed his neck to the hands of those inaugurating him, but not his soul," says Gregory (33). Accordingly, after he was ordained bishop, just as he had previously done after the order of priesthood was conferred upon him, he took to flight, which he had meditated doing almost at the very moment of the imposition of hands. Not only a love of solitude, but also a fear of contentions, persuaded him to this flight. For a great dissension had already broken out between Basil and Anthimus, one of whom was the prelate of Caesarea, the other of Tyana. Since Cappadocia had recently been divided into two provinces, or into First and Second Cappadocia, it came to pass that spiritual power was also divided into two metropolises. Basil presided over First Cappadocia, and Anthimus over the second. Hence the origin of the dissensions. For "very many" things "were being attached to the new metropolis from the former one (34)." The two prelates were disputing especially over Sasima. Therefore, our Theologian was created bishop of Sasima by Basil. But since the man of peace feared that he might appear to be waging war for the sake of the Sasimensian see, "he fled quickly to the mountain, that he might enjoy the delights of dear solitude, and give himself entirely to philosophy (35)," that is, to the exercise of the solitary and monastic life.

II. But Gregory, "constant in other things," as he himself testifies (36), "was sluggish in this, that he could not bear his father's anger." He yielded, therefore, to his parent and quickly returned from his flight. Then, his father began to exhort his son again and again, and more vehemently, to take up the governance of the Sasimensian Church. But he, persevering constantly in his purpose, refused altogether. Then at last his father, by prayers, by threats, by authority, and by arguments, obtained that his son, fellow-working with him, should take care of the Nazianzene Church, and like some great eagle flying very high, his offspring should not uselessly fly constantly around him nearby (37); yet on this condition, that he should not be unwillingly bound to this Church, and that, the parent being dead, he should have the free faculty of leaving and going wherever he wished.

III. On this occasion, therefore, and at this very time, namely at the end of the year 372, he delivered this twelfth oration. In it, he attributes due praises to Gregory his father, who, although "more powerful and more fervent" than any other (n. 3), sought a helper for himself, nor did he [seek] men's judgment