673 S. JOANNIS CHRYSOSTOMI ARCHIEP. CONSTANTINOP. you will demonstrate the cause for being forgiven, because by this means a much greater matter of humanity and mercy will be stored up for you in the future. Therefore, loose your anger; and even if it is just, tame your wrath with philosophical reasoning, and offer this as a sacrifice to God; grant this also to us who love you, and show how even from a brief letter we have such power. Grant also to yourself these great things which I have mentioned: tranquility, the removal of turmoil from your soul, and the ability—with great confidence—to ask the merciful God for entry into the kingdom. For friendliness toward one’s neighbor is a great cleansing of sins. For if you forgive men, He says, their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Therefore, having considered all these things, send us a letter indicating what our letters have accomplished. For our part is finished, and we have done that which was within our power; we exhorted, we pleaded, we asked for favor, we advised what was right. All further effort is now up to you. For the reward for this exhortation will be laid up for us, whether anything further comes of it or not; for even words can have their reward. And our entire labor through this work is to gain your ladyship as well, and that you might harvest the future and immortal goods from your present virtuous deeds with great ease. C
CXVIII. To the bishops and priests who are in prison.
You inhabit a prison, and are bound by chains, and are shut up with those who are filthy and squalid; and what could be more blessed than you because of these things? For what is a crown of gold placed upon the head like a chain wrapped around the right hand for the sake of God? What are brilliant and great houses like a prison full of darkness, filth, much unpleasantness, and tribulation for the same cause? Because of these things, leap, exult, be crowned, dance, because the things that have happened are a subject of great trade for you. This is a seed proclaiming an unspeakable harvest, this is a struggle having victory and prizes, this is a voyage providing great merchandise. Therefore, having considered all these things, my most honored and most pious lords, rejoice and be glad, do not cease glorifying God in all things, and dealing timely blows to the devil, and storing up for yourselves a great reward in the heavens. D For the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed to you. And write to us continually. For we desire very much to receive letters from men bound for the sake of God, reporting your sufferings; and from this, even while dwelling in a foreign land, we shall harvest much consolation.
CXIX. To Theophilus the priest.
Since I have opened to you the door of writing, I will show that it was not laziness that caused the previous silence, but waiting to receive from us the confidence to write; and send us snowfalls of letters, reporting to us your success; for you know how we hold fast to it. Do not let the tyranny of despondency force you into silence, but having broken it more easily than any spider web, appear bright upon the battlefield, and with great confidence and freedom confound the opponents. For now is the season for success and great profit. For a merchant sitting in the harbor cannot gather goods, but rather by crossing vast seas, and daring the waves, and struggling with hunger and the monsters in the deep, and enduring many other difficulties. Therefore, having considered these things yourself, that this season of distress is a season of trade, and of great success, and of unspeakable rewards, bestir the wing of your mind, and having shaken off the dust of despondency, with great ease run through the whole phalanx, organizing, training, stirring up all, bracing them, making them more zealous. And reveal these things to us through your letters, suspecting nothing—as if you were reporting your own achievements—but as fulfilling our command, grant us this joy, so that even being far away, we may harvest great pleasure hearing these things from your piety, which we desire to learn.
CXX. To Theodora.
We have been consumed, we have been spent, we have died ten thousand deaths; and those who hand over the letters know how to report these things more accurately, and that they were with us for a brief moment; to whom we were not even able to speak a little, being struck down by continuous fevers, which I was forced to carry while traveling by night and by day, being besieged by heat, and corrupted by insomnia, and perishing for lack of necessities, and for lack of those to assist. For we have suffered and are suffering things more grievous than those who work the mines and inhabit the prisons. But at last, with difficulty, I reached Caesarea, as if coming from a storm into a calm and a harbor. But this harbor was not able to recover the evils from the swelling sea; so thoroughly had the previous time worn us out. But nevertheless, having come to Caesarea, I recovered a little, because I drank clean water, because I partook of bread that was neither foul-smelling nor hardened, because I was no longer washing in the fragments of storage jars, but found a bath such as it was, because I have been permitted for a time to be fixed to a bed. It was possible to say more than these things, but so that I do not distress your learning, I stop the discourse at this point, adding this: that you should not cease…