On the Christian Profession

PART III. ASCETICA AND MISCELLANEA. BY THE SAME GREGORY: ON WHAT THE NAME OR PROFESSION OF CHRISTIANS SIGNIFIES, TO HARMONIUS.

Just as those who are subject to daily taxes do, in the presence of the authorities and those in power—if their debt has been left unpaid for several days, they pay off the debt in a lump sum of the individual arrears whenever they happen to obtain the means—so I too shall do with your excellence. ^A For being in your debt—since for Christians, their profession is a debt—by this continuous correspondence, I wish now to make whole the omission of letters in the time past, which I have done against my will; extending the measure of this letter so much that, if it were divided into the usual measure of letters, it might be considered as many. But so that I may not chatter in vain with the length of the letter, I think it well to imitate, through this epistolary voice, the face-to-face communion we have had. For you remember, I am sure, that the occasions of our discourse with one another have always been exercises in virtue and ^B training in piety, with you...

in the manner of a teacher and master, always throwing out objections to what was said and allowing nothing to be admitted without close scrutiny and examination; while I, preceding you in age, ^A resolved as the sequence of the argument required those questions that arose from time to time. If, then, it were now possible for this to happen, that an occasion for discourse might be provided by your prudence for every subject, nothing could be better or more preeminent than that. For twofold would be the profit for both of us: both from seeing one another (what is sweeter than this to me in life?) and from the fact that, like a plectrum, my aging lyre might be stirred up by your prudence. But since the necessity of life makes us separated in body, even if we are always joined in soul, it will be necessary, should any contradiction ever seem to arise for us against the discourse, to assume your person to follow the logical sequence. It would be well, moreover, to set forth some useful subject as the goal of our writings, and then to apply the discourse to the matter proposed. Therefore, let the question proposed by us ^B be: What is the profession of a Christian?

For perhaps the consideration of this matter will not be useless. For if that which is declared by this name is fully and accurately discovered, we shall have gained great help toward passing our life in virtue, if we strive to truly be in our life — through a sublime way of living — what we are called. For just as if someone desired to be called a physician, or orator, or geometer, he would not accept being censured for ignorance if, when put to the test, he were not found to be what he is named, but he who truly wishes to be called by the name of any of these professions would gain credibility for the title through study and exercise itself, so that the name would not be convicted of being falsely assumed; in the same way, we also, if by searching we find the true scope of the ^C Christian profession, would be unwilling for it not to be the case that we are what that name promises on our behalf, lest there should fit us also that which is commonly told by outsiders and unbelievers about an ape. For they say that a certain itinerant performer and magician in the city of Alexandria trained a monkey to compose itself with a certain agility into the form and habit of a dancing girl, and placed upon it a dancer’s mask and a garment suitable for the exercise; and when he had provided it with a chorus, it pleased everyone, and was celebrated in the talk of men, and was held in high regard because of the ape, which would bend and twist itself to the modes and rhythm of the song and, through everything it did and appeared to do, would hide its nature. But when the spectators were captivated by the novelty of the thing, they say that someone ^D more cunning than the rest, who was there, wishing to show those who were gaping at the spectacle that it was an ape, threw onto the stage some of those sweetmeats that entice the gluttony of such animals. For while everyone was shouting and applauding the contortions of the ape, as it rhythmically moved and circled in time to the song and the melody, he threw down—they say—right into the middle of the orchestra those delicacies; and the creature did not hesitate, but as soon as it saw the almonds scattered before the chorus, it forgot the dancing and the

clapping and the ornaments of its dress, and ran to them, and gathered what it found with the palms of its hands. And so that the mask might not be a hindrance to its mouth, it quickly pulled the artificial visage off its face with its claws, tearing and mangling it, so that instead of praise and wonder, it moved the spectators to laughter in abundance, ^A revealing itself as something ugly and ridiculous from the remnants of the mask. Just as, therefore, it was not enough for that creature that the artificial and simulated appearance it had assumed was sufficient to make it thought a human being, once its nature was betrayed by its greed for treats; so too will those who have not truly fashioned their own nature by faith be easily exposed in the devil’s gluttonies as being something other than what they profess to be. For instead of dried figs or almonds or something of that sort, vainglory, pride, the love of money, and the love of pleasure—and whatever other such evils the devil’s malicious market offers to the greedy souls of men as treats—easily bring to light those apelike spirits who, through a feigned imitation, pretend to be Christians, mask-like removing from themselves in the time of trial the mask of temperance or gentleness or some other virtue. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the profession of Christianity; ^B perhaps we might become that which the name intends, so that we do not, by mere profession and the pretense of the name alone, look like one thing while being another, being shown to Him who beholds the secrets.

Let us first examine what Christianity is understood to be from its very name. It is certainly ^C possible that a greater and more sublime meaning might be found by the wiser, one proportionate to the loftiness of the name. Yet what we are able to grasp and understand regarding this name, these are the points: the name of Christ, if it were translated into a clearer and more familiar word, signifies "king," since holy Scripture shows forth the royal dignity using this term in a peculiar way. But because, as Scripture says, the Divine is ineffable and incomprehensible, ^D surpassing all grasp of thought, of necessity the prophets and apostles, who were borne along by the Holy Spirit by divine inspiration, lead us by the hand toward the understanding of the incorruptible Nature through many names and concepts, directing us from one divine-fitting thought to another, so that the authority over all things is signified by the name of "kingship," while that which is entirely untainted and free from every passion and every evil is designated by the names of virtues, each being understood and spoken of in relation to the better; so that the same thing is righteousness, and wisdom, and power, and truth, and goodness, and life, and salvation, and incorruptibility, and that which is unchangeable and unalterable, and everything that is—

^A sublime which is declared by these names, all these are nothing other than Christ, and are so said to be. If, therefore,

The sublime sense revealed through these names

If, therefore, anyone takes to himself the name of Christ, but does not express or represent in his life those things which are considered together with this name, such a person belies the name, according to the likeness we proposed, as one putting a lifeless mask, formed in the shape of a human figure, upon an ape. For it is impossible that Christ should not be righteousness, ^C and purity, and truth, and the avoidance of all evil; nor can there be a Christian (that is, one who is truly a Christian) who does not show in himself the communion and fellowship of those names as well. Therefore, as one might define the meaning of Christianity, we shall say that Christianity is an imitation of the divine nature. And let no one decry this definition as immoderate and exceeding the humility of our nature; for the definition has not exceeded nature. For if anyone considers the first condition and state of man, he will discover through the teachings of Scripture that the definition has not gone beyond the measures of our nature. For the first construction of man was ^D according to the imitation of the likeness of God (as Moses philosophized regarding man, where he says, "God created man; according to the image of God He created him"), and the profession of Christianity is that man should be led back to his pristine and ancient felicity. If, therefore, man was of old the likeness of God, perhaps we have not made a definition absurd or foreign to our purpose by declaring that Christianity is an imitation of the divine nature. The confession of the name

is so great. But it would not be out of place or ill-timed now to examine whether there is any danger for one who claims this name, if his life is not in accordance with it. The matter we are seeking will be made clear and evident to us by means of an illustration. Let us suppose there is someone who professes the art of painting, and he receives an order from a magistrate to paint the likeness of the king for those who live far away. If, then, he paints some ugly and deformed figure on the panel and calls this unsightly shape the image of the king, is it not likely that the authority would be indignant that the beauty of the archetype is slandered among those who are ignorant because of that poor painting? For whatever appearance is shown in the image, the archetype is necessarily thought to be of that same form. ^B Therefore, if the definition says that Christianity is an imitation of God, the person who has not yet received the doctrine of the mystery, whenever he sees our life, which is believed to be conducted according to the imitation of God, will think that our God is of the same sort. Thus, if he sees patterns of every good, he will believe that the God whom we worship is good; but if someone is subject to passions and bestial, and is transformed from one passion to another matching the shapes of beasts in his character (for one can clearly see beasts shaped by the perversions of our nature), and such a person calls himself a Christian—since it is manifest to everyone that the profession of the name promises an imitation of God—he will cause the God whom we believe in to be maligned among the unbelievers through his own life. For this reason, Scripture also denounces ^C somewhat sharper and more terrible threats to such people, saying: "Woe to those through whom my name is blasphemed among the nations!" And it seems to me that the Lord, leading us particularly toward this understanding, spoke this to those who were able to hear: "Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." For he who has named the Father of those who have believed, the true Father, wills that those who are begotten through him should be likewise in the perfection of the good which is seen in Him. You will say to me, then: "And how could human lowliness be extended toward the blessedness which is seen in God, as if there were a perplexity and difficulty appearing in the very command regarding a task that is impossible? For how could it be possible for the earthly to be made like Him who is in heaven, when the very difference in nature shows that the imitation is unattainable? For it is equally impossible ^D either to equal the heavenly magnitude and the beauty that is in it with one’s eyes, or for man, who is from the earth, to be made like the heavenly God." But the account regarding this is clear: that the Gospel does not command human nature to be compared with the divine nature, but that we imitate in our life the good acts, as far as it is possible. What, then, are the actions on our part that correspond to the actions of God? To be alienated from all wickedness, as far as is possible, by being pure in deed and word and thought from the defilements that come from it; this is truly an imitation of the divine perfection and of the perfection regarding the heavenly God.

^A For it does not seem to me that the Gospel, in commanding us to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect, speaks of the element of the heavens as if it were some sort of separate dwelling-place of God; since the divine nature is equally in all things and passes through and pervades all creation in the same way, and nothing that is separated from the Being could remain in existence, but the divine nature touches each of the things that are with equal honor, containing and holding everything within itself by its comprehensive power. Just as the Prophet also teaches this by saying that if I am in heaven in my thought, or if, descending with my reason, I search into the things beneath the earth, or if I extend the thinking power of my soul to the ends of the universe, I see that all things are held fast by Thy right hand. The passage indeed has it in this manner: "If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there; if I descend into hell, Thou art present. If I take up my wings in the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Thy hand shall lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me." Therefore, from these things it is possible to learn that the heavenly habitation is not peculiarly separated and destined for God. But because the nature above is accustomed to be pure from vice and malice (a fact which Holy Scripture often indicates to us through allegories and veils), and because by this lower life, which is fashioned from coarser matter, those evils are designated which exist from vice—since here the snake, the inventor of vice, creeps and rolls around the earthly life, as the Word says about him in an enigma, that he goes upon his chest and belly and eats earth forever—this ^B figure both interprets for us the mode of movement and the kind of food: that this is an earthly and low-lying life, which admits onto itself the creeping of manifold vice and becomes the food of the beast that creeps into it. Therefore, He who commands us to imitate the heavenly Father commands us to be pure from earthly passions, the departure from which is accomplished not through a change of place, but through the resolve of the will alone. If, therefore, it is natural that we be alienated from evil by the mere movement of the mind and appetite, the evangelical word prescribes nothing laborious for us. For labor is not linked to the affection and ardor of the mind, but it is permitted to us to approach through our thoughts wherever we wish without any effort. Therefore, it is easy for one who is willing to have the heavenly manner of life even on earth, if, just as the Gospel prescribes, we savor the things that are above, if we are affected by heavenly things, and if we deposit the riches of virtue in heavenly treasures. For He says: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, but store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal." ^D By these words it is shown that no power capable of destroying blessedness resides in the life above. For he who, for the ruin of the life here, in many ways [deploys] his manifold vice against human life...

either is born in the mind like a moth, rendering useless whichever part he has attached himself to; or, by a corrosive and destructive power—unless he is quickly shaken off from the part he has invaded—crawling forward to the parts nearest him, imprints the trace of corruption upon whatever he touches in his movement; or, if the inner parts are secure and safe, he plots through external circumstances. For he either burgles the treasure of the heart through pleasure, ^B or through another passion makes the receptacle of the soul empty of virtue, stealing away the reason with anger or sorrow or some other such passion. Since, therefore, the Lord says that in the treasures above neither moth nor rust is produced, nor is there the evil that teaches the art of theft—which are the things we have been pondering—it is there that our commerce must be transferred, where that which is stored remains not only inviolable and undiminished forever, but also, like seeds, produces its increase many times over. For it is altogether necessary that the repayment be magnified according to the nature of the one receiving the deposit. Just as we, acting according to our own nature, offer poor gifts because we are by nature such as we are; so it is likely that He who is rich in all things, as He is by nature, will ^C render back to those who have given their own gifts beforehand. Let no one, therefore, be discouraged while contributing to the divine treasures what he can according to his own power, as if he were to receive only in proportion to the measure of what he has given; rather, let him hope for that which is according to the promise of Him who said that He would exchange great things for small, swapping heavenly things for earthly, and everlasting things for those that pass away quickly. These things are by nature such that it is possible neither for the mind to grasp them nor for speech to interpret them, concerning which the divinely inspired ^D Scripture teaches: «What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man, are the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.»

These things, O valued head, we have not only made up for the omissions in the previous text, but we have also examined in advance the things that follow thereafter. May you live in the Lord according to the desire of your heart. And may this always be a desire to you, which is both pleasing to God and a joy to us.