THAT THE ASCETIC MUST NOT BE GIVEN TO WITTICISMS
A The most holy exhortations of the blessed Paul command us to work out our own salvation with fear. For he who does not practice the exercise of virtue with fear and great diligence undergoes many deviations into evil, and, as if wandering from the straight and royal road, falls into paths of thorns and briers, and into rugged and pathless places. Hence, unceasing prayers to God become guides to what is good, saying, "Guide me in your truth," and, "Establish my steps in your paths." Goodness, then, is a good thing, and love is the crown of good things, but great cheerfulness and laughter that exceeds the measure, and the witticism that brings down one’s gravity, follow upon these. It is a dreadful thing to be dissipated by witticism. For laughter relaxes the bond of temperance, laughter drives away gravity, laughter does not remember the fear of God, laughter does not fear the threat of hell, laughter is a guide to fornication, witticism is a test of the licentious man, playfulness causes one to be borne down into sloth, playfulness is an excuse for contempt. For this reason the blessed Apostle forbids it, saying, "Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not proper; but rather giving of thanks"; saying this, that you should not make cheerfulness an excuse for sloth, but an occasion for thanksgiving to the One who has given it. For this reason Job testifies on his own behalf, saying, "If I have walked with mockers." And Solomon rebukes the lover of laughter in this way: "Anger is better than laughter, because by the sadness of the countenance the heart is 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 as for the unbecoming and shameful nature of the rebukes aimed at laughter, he says: "As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools." But why is it fitting for one who is very cheerful and merry to be quiet and grave in his perception? And because of the fear and anxiety of appearing before God, one should remove excessive mirth. For those who are dissipated by immoderate cheerfulness and jests seem to be ignorant of their own state, burdened as they are by a certain forgetfulness in their soul, and not even awaiting the coming of the Master. B O man, you do not yet have the Master’s favor, you do not yet have secure deliverance from evils; you do not know what will be a little while from now, what you yourself will be, or what will befall you; yet you laugh heedlessly, and you jest, and you conduct yourself without fear, when you ought to be intent upon prayers to God, and anxious on account of things to come, and trembling for fear of falling from virtue, and concerned and afraid about the things that will happen, lest things more grievous and beyond your strength should come upon you, encompassed as you are in the midst of so many and so great wars? May your soul be in a struggle! Demons fight secretly, men fight openly; the passions within the soul fight, the pleasures that arise through the body, and the calamities from without concerning the body. For you do not sympathize with your neighbor, you do not grow weak with those who are weak, you do not weep with those who weep, you do not fear for those who are not firmly disposed toward the faith, lest they be moved and fall; you do not mourn for those who have fallen, you do not stretch out a hand to those who are prostrate, you do not seize the one laughing from within with sighs, since you have become lethargic toward the prepared punishment; the consideration of the shortened time does not turn you away from your untimely excess, nor the memory of the coming day of terror! But you have imitated those who drank wine with harp and lyre, to whom the prophet threatened woe instead of joy. For "I," he says, 802 "have proclaimed weeping and lamentation and shaving of the head and girding with sackcloth; but they have made mirth and gladness, saying, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'" And these things are laid bare in the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, that this sin will not be forgiven them until they die. When you hear these things, fear and groan; do not imitate those who ate and drank and rose up to play; and to say it more bitterly, these sacrifices and foods and games have caused the fear of God to grow lethargic, and have dragged men toward idolatry. Fear lest the Master be angry while you are laughing, He who pronounced blessed those who weep, and pronounced a curse upon those who laugh, lest the devil, finding your playfulness and your spilled-out laughter to be a lack of fear regarding God and a forgetting of what is profitable, should be knit to your soul and sow his own tares. There was a time when the circumstances allowed for relaxation more fittingly; but even then, among the saints, there was much more sorrow than exuberant joy. And the Psalmist says: "I went about mourning all the day long," and, "I will wash my bed every night, and with my tears I will wet my couch." The prophet Jeremiah sits weeping, becoming downcast at sins and lamenting over calamities, and over the calamities of Jerusalem. And so, you too, do not give yourself over to heaviness of head and drunkenness and jests and witticism. For this reason, your lyre has been taken away, and you have no drum in your hands; and Paul taught to sing with the heart rather than with the tongue, he who from every side constrains man from every relaxation and dissipation. Father Isaac played with his own wife; but for you, even things toward a woman have been prescribed as more grave, because "the time is shortened, so that those who have wives should be as though they had none, and those who rejoice as though they reached not, and those who buy as though they possessed not, and those who use this world as though they did not misuse it; for the fashion of this world passes away." But you do not wish to be constrained, although all things are being constrained, but even before women you pour out tears indifferently, and multiply games, and put forth jests, and break yourself into pieces by uttering filthy language. For not bearing the burning in your licentious body, you henceforth bring the filth outside and make yourself manifest; such as you are in words, such you will surely be, and much worse in the inner man. Why do you mix with women without fear, why do you run into the trap yourself? Why do you cast yourself into danger? Why do you grow cheerful toward women, and dare to spend time with them? For this reason, people devise fasts, for this reason, prayers, for this reason, a diet of dry food, for this reason, manifold ascetic practices; for this reason, they pursue the deserts; and some are not even satisfied with bread or water, for no other reason than to flee those scandals, so that by falling into the hands of women, they might not suffer a shameful fall. But you, having passed by all these things, and neither having recognized the danger after the trap, by which the first-formed man fell from such great blessedness, do you not recognize the weapon of the devil, by which the ancient one was wounded and cast down? And whereas the Master even forbade looking at a woman, describing fornication, you have been driven to such a point of madness that you apply fake names to the appellation of love, and under the pretext of kindness your...
A housemate has drawn you in, as Eve did the serpent. By loosening the fire in your bosom and placing a torch in the weeds, you will have danger from both; for either falling into the very plunge of the pit you have endangered your chastity, or if you do not suffer this, you will clothe yourself in a shameful reputation, you who are commanded to provide good things, not only before God, but also before men.
Therefore, having ecclesiastical exhortation, you ought to guard all that is honorable; and not only this, but also all that is well-spoken of. Measure kindness with honor; set fear as a guardian of temperance. Why do you defile the good name of Christianity? Why do you ensnare the souls of others by drawing in a housemate? For not only B will you give an account for the defense of your own soul, but also for those who were scandalized because of you. Cast the serpent out of your bosom, cast the danger away from yourself; if you desire to be served by women, why did you not observe the ancient law and join yourself in lawful marriage? Marriage has no punishment, but adultery has an inescapable punishment; for living with a woman is fornication, and a great fornication at that. Examine your conscience, whether you have never been harmed, whether you have not received a wound by night or by day. But I will lay open your heart, even if you are about to be offended. But I do not care; for I am deeply pained when I see an ascetic who has brought in a woman-cohabitant; and I say to you that at every hour you are wounded, and at every hour you become prey to the beasts; for you grow flaccid in the bond of chastity, the brave warrior is broken, and you are revealed as a captive instead of a victor. For are you a stone? You are a man, C subject to the common failings of nature; you have fire in your bosom, and you do not burn? And how does that make sense? Place a torch in the weeds, and then see if you can tell me that the weeds are not burning. But if you deny that the weeds are burning, do not tell me, but tell the One D who knows the secrets, who comes to gather up the thoughts; for He is a critic of musings and thoughts, and discerns the intents of hearts; for He says: He who has looked at a woman to desire her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart. See to it that adultery is not found in you at every hour. You will surely say: By fastings and rigors and by an austere diet I wall myself in, so that I do not fall into what is proposed. Therefore your asceticism is for nothing else but for the sake of your housemate; therefore you are no longer laying up righteousness; for she has undermined that asceticism of yours.
Cast away, therefore, from yourself the one who causes you to lose many good things, lest she cast you out of paradise, lest she make you a laughingstock to the devil; do not place her beside yourself, lest having destroyed you, she be led down with you into Gehenna. Fear the fearful Judge; make a covenant with yourself never to look steadily at a woman; when elders are present, show respect for gray hair, and like one fearing fathers, spare idle talk and jests and laughter. Do not treat a young person lightly, nor show a way of slackness, being yourself the initiator of this, and causing far greater contempt; and respect a woman even to the point of gazing back at her. Let your life be a model to them; show yourself in such a way that they respect you, and be a model and a beginning of respect for them, because a man is more sovereign than a woman, and do not add to your own ease, an ease already natural to the female temperament. Let a woman be ashamed distinctly in proportion to the fact that immodesty is a far more grievous reproach for a woman. If even to speak boldly to men is a very terrible and daring thing, when fear is added for a woman toward her own husband, it is better than speaking boldly. For the woman, he says, is to fear her husband; if, therefore, such is the law set before the one who has a husband, what is it for you, the one who does not have a husband?
had put on. A It is the flowering garment of a sluggish and slothful soul, and fine in its workmanship; but a great-souled person, perceiving the truly real world, casts off every soft garment, longing for that which is higher, that which is simple, and more becoming, and most solemn, having preferred purity above all things. Rest content, therefore, with the reminder through the things that have been said, and guard your solemnity, not to carry rigor to excess—like bitterness—which becomes sweeter than honey and the honeycomb both to him who hears and to those who draw near. For spiritual joy converses with the soul in a solemn and magnificent manner, and it fills those who encounter it with sweetness. B But do not take occasion from my words—because you have been prevented from living in cheerfulness—to begin to be gloomy and harsh toward the brothers who come to you, nor be an unyielding, inaccessible, and inhuman person instead of a useful and loving one; nor be gloomy in your greetings to the brothers who approach, nor unsociable in your answer and speech. For "rejoice always" is an apostolic command, as are "encourage one another" and "be kind to one another," and "Love," he says, "is kind." The apostles’ friendliness is present in their writings, as they show affection to those who hear them as children, and encourage those who pay attention as brothers; and there is much to learn from the holy C Scriptures concerning the sacred kindness that is according to love. Nor is there a need to shift toward immoderate cheerfulness, nor to spoil with buffoonery the kindness that is an imitation of God, but to stand between, in perfect cheerfulness, and neither to grieve those who encounter you, nor to cause them to grow slack and slothful, nor to upbraid them harshly, nor to flatter them deceitfully, but to convert them helpfully and encourage them kindly. "He who refrains," he says, "from uttering a harsh word is wise; but good words are honeycombs, and their sweetness is the healing of the soul." There are those who, when they speak, wound like swords, but the tongues of the wise heal. And it is also good to take D part in divine hymns with moderation; for such cheerfulness sanctifies the soul, according to the Apostle: "Be filled," he says, "with the Spirit, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord." It is good, therefore, to approach with diligence such joy, and not, because of some bitter and harsh manner, to be reluctant toward the divine hymn, as if not deigning to offer a voice to the melody of God. For one must be cheerfully disposed toward such a divine spirit and toward the sacred discourse; not loosening oneself into mellifluence, nor behaving like the Bacchantes toward the divine hymns, nor inflecting them melodically, and looking about this way and that to see if you are being praised, but rejoicing in God, and striving to please Him alone—and here, indeed, most of all, so that there may be found a blending of the solemn and the cheerful: the fear of God providing us with the solemnity, and the divine hymn leading us into cheerfulness and producing an imitation of the eternal joy, in which those who have comported themselves well will live with the Lord, to whom is the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.
BY THE SAME: A DISCOURSE ON FASTING AND ALMSGIVING.
Fasting is good, and the reading of the Scriptures is good; but it is good when the action taken from them follows, for if you read, but do not act, the reading becomes a judgment and a provision for punishment for you. "For not the hearers of the law," he says, "are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified." And again Christ says: "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin." But blessed is he who speaks into the ears of those who hear, especially when they lay down the interest; for interest is obedience and the working of the commands of God, just as the Lord says: "And I, coming, would have demanded my own with interest." What then have you gathered, brother, from your fasting? For a farmer sows for this reason, that he may reap; and a merchant undertakes journeys for this reason, that he may gather wealth; and a helmsman crosses many seas for this reason, that he may fill his ship with cargo. Do not tell me, "I fasted for so many days, I did not eat such and such, I did not drink wine, I endured the lack of salt," but show me if, having been irascible, you became gentle, and if, having been cruel, you became humane. For if you are drunk with anger, why do you afflict your flesh? If envy and greed are within, what is the benefit of drinking only water? I do not ask now what kind of table you have, but if there has been a change of evil intent. If the mistress—I mean the soul—is committing fornication, why do you scourge the handmaid, I mean the belly? If the soul is led astray, why do you waste away the body?
I say these things not to accuse you, but for the sake of the slothful. For as much as I see you flying, I still wish for you to fly higher; for such is the tyranny of love. And as the greedy, the more gold they gather, the more they seek; so we too crave more for your progress. If, therefore, you wish to be accepted by God, fast like the Ninevites, brother; they did not receive the law. Concerning whom Paul says: "For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things of the law, these, who do not have the law, are a law unto themselves." Do not, therefore, show an idle fast; for fasting does not ascend alone to heaven if it does not have its sister, almsgiving; for it is its yoke-fellow, and not only a sister and yoke-fellow, but also a chariot. And whence is this? The angel said to Cornelius: "Your prayers and your alms have ascended for a memorial before God." For almsgiving is a wing of prayer; if, therefore, you do not make a wing for your prayer, it does not fly; but when your soul is winged, it flies into heaven. How long will there be greed and the desire for possessions? These things all, brother, are destroyed with the present life. But you will surely say to me: "Say these things to yourself." And I say them to myself, brother, and to you; for the counsel is common. I, hearing these things and being corrected, receive grace from you; and even if the one speaking is a servant, I accept the counsel, and if he is free, I listen readily. Nor