Conference 22

Chapter 1

About seven days later, once the feast of Pentecost was over, we entered the cell of holy Theonas at the very onset of night—that is, after the evening synaxis—held in suspense by our expectation of the promised discussion. The old man, alert, with a cheerful and gracious look, was the first to address us. “I was amazed,” he said, “that your intense eagerness could put off for these seven days the resolution of the question you had raised, and that you granted so long a delay to your debtor, especially when he was not even pressing you for it. It is only right, then, that since your kindness has freely allowed me so generous a reprieve, I for my part should make no delay in repaying the debt. For this is a welcome sort of business, this lending: as it is repaid it earns even greater increase, and it not only enriches the one who receives but takes nothing from the one who gives. Indeed, a steward of spiritual things gathers a double profit. He gains not only in the progress of the one who listens but also in his own discourse, kindling himself no less toward the desire for perfection while he instructs his hearer. And so your ardor is my progress; your anxious concern is my compunction. For I too would now be sluggish in mind, and would turn over nothing in my heart concerning the things you seek, were it not that your fervor and expectation rouse me, drowsy as I am in a way, to the recollection of spiritual things. And therefore let the question be brought forward, if you like—the one whose resolution we recently chose to postpone because time was short.”

Chapter 2

For this, unless I am mistaken, is what your inquiry took in: why it is that sometimes, when we fast more loosely, we are provoked by the milder stings of this flesh, while at other times, when we abstain more strictly and the body is worn down and exhausted, we are pressed by sharper incitements—so that, as your own admission disclosed, we wake to find ourselves spattered with a discharge of the natural fluids.

Chapter 3

Our elders, then, disclosed a threefold cause for this assault, a cause that breaks in upon the fixed limit of the appointed interval with untimely excesses. For it is either amassed by an excessive surplus of food, or slips out through the mind’s carelessness, or is provoked by the traps of the mocking enemy. The first cause, then—the vice of gastrimargia, that is, of voracity or gluttony—forces out this overflow of foul fluid. For even when it defiles the state of purity during a period of stricter abstinence, it is poured out not from the present fasting, as you suppose, but from the excess of past repletion. Whatever has been concentrated in the marrow through the gorging of voracity must necessarily be discharged—whether through arousal or at any rate through unawareness—even from a body wasted by great fasting. For this reason we must abstain not only from richer fare but restrain ourselves with equal self-control from cheaper foods as well; indeed, even a full measure of bread and water is to be guarded against, so that the bodily purity we have acquired may last long in us and in some way imitate the unblemished chastity of the spirit—though we must admit that sometimes, even without any effort of the mind, whether through the temperament of their bodies or through the maturity of their age, some men are soiled more rarely, or are not defiled at all by the discharge of this flux. But the man who attains this peace through an inert good fortune is of one merit, and the man who earns a triumph by glorious virtues of another. For the power of the latter, which subdues every vice, is worthy of wonder, while the former, whom a natural capacity for good protects in his own indolence, should in my judgment be reckoned as enjoying security rather than praise. The second cause of that unclean flow is this: when the mind, emptied of spiritual pursuits and exercises and untrained in the disciplines of the inner self, has drawn over itself a kind of rust of laziness through the habit of continual torpor; or when, by failing to guard against the defilements of filthy thoughts, it desires that most exalted purity of heart so slackly that it believes the whole sum of perfection and chastity consists in the chastening of the outer self alone. As a consequence of this fault of error and negligence it will happen that not only does a manifold wandering of thoughts break shamelessly and brazenly into the mind’s inner chamber, but the seeds of all one’s former passions persist within it. As long as these lie hidden in its secret places, then however rigorously the body is chastened by fasting, they nonetheless disturb the sleeper with enticing phantasms. By these, before the lawful interval has run its course, the foul fluids are drawn out—no longer from any need of nature, but still from the deceit of the spiritual power of wickedness; and if they cannot be wholly held back (not so much by the emptying of the flesh as by the vigilance and virtue of the mind), they are at least brought, with the help of God’s grace, to that simple quality of a mere discharge. And so, first of all, the roving of the senses must be curbed, lest the mind, once habituated to these excesses, be dragged while dreaming toward the fouler incitements of lust. The third cause is this: when, through an ordered and careful discipline of continence, by contrition of heart and body, we long to acquire a perpetual purity of chastity, yet, while we are providing admirably for the good of flesh and spirit, the envy of that most deceitful enemy assails us in such a way that—seeking to cast down the confidence of our conscience and to humble us as though under some guilt—on precisely those days when, with a greater claim to integrity, we desire to please the divine gaze alone, he defiles us: without any arousal of the flesh, without the mind’s consent, and without the illusion of any phantasm, yet still by the simple discharge of that flux, so as to frighten us away from holy communion. In the case of certain beginners, however, whose bodies have not yet been thinned by a long chastening of fasts, this illusion is believed to come about by the devil’s contrivance for this reason: that when he has learned they are devoting themselves to more intense fasts, he may overturn all their efforts by this stratagem, so that, when they perceive that by their stricter fasting they have not only made no progress toward bodily purity but have even been more grievously defiled, they come to dread the strictness of abstinence—the very teacher of incorruption and nurse of purity—as though it were their rival. We ought therefore to know that we should be cleansed of each vice not only because it seizes our senses with its own disturbances, but because it is not content to rule alone, apart from the company of the others; rather, bringing in the crueler fellowship of every vice, it lays waste with multiplied captivity the mind now subject to it. And so gastrimargia must be conquered not only for its own sake, that it may not corrupt us with burdensome voracity, and not only for this, that it may not set us ablaze with the fire of carnal craving, but also that it may not make us slaves of anger or rage and sadness and all the other passions. For when food and drink are served to us too carelessly or too slowly, if we are weighed down by the tyranny of the belly, it follows that we are also goaded by the stings of anger. And again, we cannot be soothed by pleasurable flavors without the plague of philargyria—the love of money—by whose superfluous provisions extravagance delights to spend lavishly. Philargyria in turn, together with cenodoxia—vainglory—and pride, and the whole multitude of vices, are joined in an inseparable fellowship; and so each single vice, if it only begins to flourish in us, supplies increase to the rest as well.

Chapter 4

Germanus: We believe that by God’s providence this question has been brought forward, so that what we could never learn—because the embarrassment of asking held back our confidence—we may now, prompted by the opportunity of this conference and by the very order of the matter itself, dare to inquire about openly. If, then, at the time when we ought to approach the holy mysteries, we find ourselves defiled by the illusion of a dream, is that holy reception of the saving food to be undertaken, or to be avoided?

Chapter 5

Theonas: With all diligence, as far as it lies in us, we ought to strive to keep the spotless purity of chastity above all at the time when we hope to stand at the venerable altars; and with the most watchful care we must guard against this, that the integrity of the flesh, kept through the preceding days, be not defrauded on the very night when we are preparing ourselves for the communion of the saving banquet. But if that most wicked enemy, in order to withdraw from us the medicine of the heavenly remedy, has deceived the guard of the sleeping mind—yet only in such a way that no blameworthy arousal intervenes and it is defiled by no consent to pleasure, but he has held up before us, as a hindrance to our sanctification, a discharge either driven out by natural necessity or drawn out by the devil’s assault without any sensation of pleasure—then we can and ought to approach the grace of the saving food with confidence. But if this accumulation has been discharged through our own fault, then, examining our conscience, let us dread that word of the Apostle: “Whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man first prove himself, and so eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment upon himself, not discerning the body of the Lord;” 1 Cor. 11:27-29 that is, in no way setting that heavenly food apart from the cheapness of common fare, nor judging it to be such that one may receive it only with a pure mind and body. Then he adds: “For this reason many among you are weak and feeble, and many are asleep,” 1 Cor. 11:30 meaning that spiritual weaknesses and deaths are generated especially from this presumption. For many who receive it by an unlawful usurpation are weak in faith and feeble in mind—wrapped, that is, in the languors of the passions—and they sleep the sleep of sin, never rising from this deadly slumber by any saving concern. Then it follows: “But if we judged ourselves, we would surely not be judged;” 1 Cor. 11:31 that is, if we judged ourselves unworthy of receiving the sacraments whenever we are overtaken by the wound of sin, we would certainly devote effort to approaching them worthily through the amendment of repentance, and we would not be chastened by the Lord, as unworthy, with the most severe scourges of infirmities—so that, stung at least in this way, we might run back to the remedies of our wounds, and not, having been found unworthy of the very brief correction of the present age, be condemned in the age to come together with the sinners of this world. This too is commanded in Leviticus by a plain declaration: “Everyone who is clean shall eat the flesh; but the soul that eats of the flesh of the saving sacrifice which belongs to the Lord, while uncleanness is upon it, shall perish before the Lord.” Lev. 7:19, 20 In Deuteronomy, too, the unclean man is likewise mystically separated from the spiritual camp: “If there is among you a man who has been defiled by a nocturnal dream, he shall go outside the camp, and he shall not return before he has washed with water toward evening; and after the setting of the sun he shall return to the camp.” Deut. 23:10, 11

Chapter 6

But to prove more plainly that this impurity is sometimes drawn out even by the enemy’s contrivance: We knew a brother who, though he continually possessed a chastity of heart and body earned by the utmost vigilance and humility, and was never tempted by nocturnal mockeries, yet, whenever he had prepared himself to receive the Lord’s communion, was fouled in his sleep by an unclean flux. When for a long time he had fearfully kept away from the holy mysteries, he finally brought this question to the elders, trusting that by their healing counsel he would obtain a remedy for his affliction and his grief. But when the teaching of the spiritual physicians examined the first cause of his malady—the one that usually comes down from an abundant indulgence in food—and they found that this was not present in the brother, and it was established that this illusion by no means arose from the fault of satiety (since the brother’s known strictness, together with the peculiar exception of the solemn days on which that pollution occurred, would not let them suppose it), they at once shifted the pursuit of their inquiry to the second cause of this condition, examining whether perhaps by a fault of the soul the flesh, exhausted by fasting, was being pressed by unclean illusions—those by which even the strictest men, once they have grown a little conceited about the purity of their own body, are defiled through the vice of pride, because they have believed that they obtained by human powers the chief gift of God, that is, bodily chastity. When, therefore, he was asked whether he believed his own effort so capable of this virtue that it had no need of divine aid, he detested this impious notion with the utmost horror, and humbly maintained that not even on other days had he been able to keep bodily purity unless he had been helped in all things by divine grace. At once, then, turning to the third cause, they saw through the hidden snares of the devil’s contrivance, and, proving that there was no fault of soul or of flesh, they judged with the fullest confidence that he ought to share in the holy banquet, lest, if he persisted in this abstinence, bound by the cunning snares of the malicious enemy, he should be unable to partake of the sanctification and of the body of Christ, and through this deceit be defrauded forever of the medicine of the saving remedy. When this was done, the whole stage-play of the devil’s contrivance was so exposed that soon, under the protection of the power of the Lord’s body, that former habit of illusion ceased. In this the enemy’s guile plainly appeared, and the judgment of the elders was at once set forth and confirmed—the judgment which taught that this most impure flux is very often driven on not by a fault of the soul but by the factious mockery of the adversary. So then, in order that the deceptive imagining of dreams, the enticer of impure discharge, may be unknown either forever or at least—to speak of a humbler, or common, condition—for certain months at a time, once we have that faith by which it befits us continually to hope for the gift of purity especially from God’s grace, the excess of food and drink must be chastened. For by an overabundance of these, fluids of this kind are inevitably generated more readily; and since, once accumulated, they cannot but be discharged and driven out by the very law of nature, they emerge on the occasion of some arousal or illusion. But once the fullness of food is withdrawn, it follows that those unclean discharges too are generated more slowly; and so it comes about that, just as their flux, so also the illusion troubles sleepers either more rarely or more faintly—because the discharge does not only come from the imagining, but the imagining also comes from the excess of discharge. Therefore, if we wish to be freed from the enticements of these illusions, we must strive with all our power: first, that with the passion of fornication conquered, according to the blessed Apostle, “sin may not reign in our mortal body, so that we obey its desires;” Rom. 6:12 second, that with the very enticing movement of the body wholly stilled and lulled to sleep, we may “in no way present our members to sin as weapons of iniquity;” Rom. 6:13 third, that with our inner self also mortified in every way and to the very marrow from that titillation of lust, we may “present ourselves to God as those alive from the dead,” Rom. 6:13 and thus, arriving through this progress at the perpetual rest of our body, may “present our members no longer as weapons to lust, but to God as weapons of righteousness.” Rom. 6:13 Once we are grounded in this purity of chastity, “sin will no longer have dominion over us. For we are not under the law” Rom. 6:14—which, while it commends the lawful rights of marriage, still nurtures and keeps alive in our marrow that ardor by whose service the work of unlawful fornication is accomplished—but under grace, which, while it instills the incorruption of virginity, does away even with this harmless and simple movement of the body and with the pleasure of lawful intercourse itself. And so, with all the fluids of that most impure filth dried up, having become the excellent and praiseworthy eunuchs who are proclaimed through Isaiah, we shall deserve to possess the blessedness that is promised to them. For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs: “Those who keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that I willed, and hold to my covenant—I will give them a place in my house and within my walls, and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not perish.” Isa. 56:4, 5 Who are these sons and daughters, above whom the eunuchs are so far preferred that they are said to be about to receive both a place and a better name, if not those holy ones who in the Old Testament, remaining within the bond of marriage, deservedly attained through the keeping of the commandments to the adoption of the sons of God? And what is that name which is promised to them as something special, in place of the highest reward, if not this—that we are counted worthy to be called by the name of Christ? Of this name he speaks elsewhere through the prophet: “And I have called my servants by another name, in which whoever is to be blessed upon the earth will be blessed in God, Amen; and whoever swears on the earth will swear by God, Amen.” Isa. 65:15, 16 And again: “A new name will be given you, which the mouth of the Lord has named.” Isa. 62:2 And in return for this purity of heart and body they will also enjoy that special and singular blessedness—to sing continually the song which no other of the saints can sing, except these alone “who follow the Lamb wherever he goes.” Rev. 14:4 “For they are virgins, and they have not defiled themselves with women.” Rev. 14:4 Accordingly, if we wish to attain this most exalted glory of the virgins, let us cultivate with all our power the incorruption of mind and spirit, lest we sink into the number of those foolish virgins Matt. 25:1-12 to whom virginity was not credited, because they kept themselves free only from carnal intercourse; and so they are indeed called virgins, but foolish, because, when the oil of inner purity failed in their vessels, the brightness and splendor of bodily virginity was extinguished. For by the warmth and nourishment of inner purity, chastity must be supplied to the outer self as well, and continually quickened toward perseverance in perpetual incorruption. And therefore those foolish virgins do not deserve to enter the glorious bridal chamber of the bridegroom together with the wise ones—they who did not “keep their whole spirit and soul and body blameless for the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thess. 5:23 For these are the true and uncorrupted virgins of Christ; these are counted the admirable and excellent eunuchs—men marked not by dreading to fornicate but by having no wish for it, not by reining in unchastity but by having overcome even the least titillation of the mind and the faintest incitements of lust, who have so worn down that sense of the flesh (so to speak) that they are touched by no pleasure at its stirring, nor even by the slightest titillation.

Chapter 7

We ought, moreover, to fortify our heart with so strong a guard of humility that we hold this fixed principle with unshaken steadiness of mind: that we can never reach such a merit of purification that, even if by God’s grace we have done all the things I described above, we should still believe ourselves unworthy of the communion of the sacred body. First, because the majesty of that heavenly manna is so great that no one clothed in this clay-like flesh receives its food by his own merit, and not rather by the free bounty of the Lord. Next, because no one can be so watchful in the struggle of this world that at least the rare or slight darts of sins do not strike him; for it is impossible not to sin through ignorance, or negligence, or vanity, or surprise, or a thought, or necessity, or forgetfulness. For even if someone has climbed to so lofty a summit of the virtues that he can cry out, without boasting, that word of the Apostle: “To me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by any human day; indeed, I do not even judge myself, for I am conscious of nothing against myself,” 1 Cor. 4:3 he should nonetheless know that he cannot be without sin. For it was not in vain that the same Teacher added: “But I am not justified by this;” 1 Cor. 4:4 that is, it does not follow that if I have believed myself righteous I shall at once possess true glory; nor, because my conscience pricks me with the reproach of no sin, am I therefore untouched by the contagion of any defilement—for many things lie hidden even from my own conscience which, though unknown and obscure to me, are known and manifest to God. And so he adds: “But he who judges me is the Lord;” 1 Cor. 4:4 that is, by him alone, from whom the secrets of hearts are not hidden, will the true scrutiny of judgment be brought upon me.

Chapter 8

Germanus: It was said above that only the holy ought to be partakers of the heavenly Sacraments; now it is added that it is impossible for a man to be entirely free from fault. If, then, no one is free from guilt, no one is holy; and it follows that a man who lacks holiness cannot be a partaker of the mysteries of Christ, and ought not even to hope for the kingdom of heaven, which the Lord promises to the holy alone.

Chapter 9

Theonas: We cannot deny that there are many who are holy and righteous; but between ‘holy’ and ‘unstained’ there is a great distance. For it is one thing to be holy—that is, consecrated to divine worship; this name is shared, as Scripture attests, not only by men but also by places and by the small vessels of the temple and by its cauldrons. It is another thing to be without sin, which belongs singularly to the majesty of our one Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the Apostle too declares something exceptional and special, saying: “Who committed no sin.” 1 Pet. 2:22 For he would have assigned to Christ, as though it were something incomparable and divine, a praise cheap enough and unworthy of his heralding, if we too were able to pass a life inviolate from every sin. Again the Apostle, to the Hebrews: “For we do not have a high priest who cannot suffer with our weaknesses, but one tempted in all things according to our likeness, yet without sin.” Heb. 4:15 If, then, even our earthly lowliness can share this with that exalted and divine High Priest—that we too are tempted without any offense of sin—why did the Apostle, admiring this in him as something unique and singular, set his merit apart from that of all men by so great a division? By this one exception, then, he is distinguished from all of us: that we, it is agreed, were tempted not without sin, while he was tempted without sin. For what man, however strong and warlike he may be, is not for the most part exposed to the enemy’s darts? Who, as though clothed in impenetrable flesh, enters into so many dangers of battle without danger? But he alone, “beautiful in form beyond the sons of men,” Ps. 44:3 taking upon himself the condition of human death together with the whole frailty of the flesh, was never stained by the touch of any defilement.

Chapter 10

For he was tempted according to our likeness, first with the vice of gastrimargia, so that that crafty serpent, in the same order by which he had earlier seduced Adam, Gen. 3:1-6 tried to deceive him, hungry, through a desire for food: “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Matt. 4:3 But taking no sin from this temptation, though the undoubted power was at his disposal, he rejected the food that the artificer of deception was pressing on him, saying: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Matt. 4:4 He was also tempted with cenodoxia—vainglory—according to our likeness, when it was said to him: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.” Matt. 4:6 But he was not caught by the devil’s sly suggestion, and, refuting that utterly vain seducer by the counter-citation of the Scriptures as well, he said: “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” Matt. 4:7 He was tempted also with the swelling of pride according to our likeness, when all the kingdoms of the world and their glory were promised him by the devil; but the tempter’s wickedness was mocked and rebuked. For he answered him: “Get behind me, Satan; for it is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve.” Matt. 4:10 By these testimonies we are taught that we too should likewise resist the enemy’s deceitful suggestions by the authority of the Scriptures. Again he was tempted with pride according to our likeness, when that same artificer of snares contrived to force upon him, through men, the kingship which he had earlier rejected when the devil himself offered it; but without sin he mocked the snares of the tempter. For “when Jesus had learned that they were going to come and seize him to make him king, he fled again to the mountain by himself alone.” John 6:15 He was tempted according to our likeness when he was beaten with whips, struck with the palms of hands, spattered with the horror of spittle, and at the last endured the exquisite torments of the cross; yet never—I will not say by any insults, but not even by any torments—was he driven to the swelling of even the slightest indignation, for, fixed upon the gibbet, he mercifully cried out: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34

Chapter 11

But how is this too to be understood—that the Apostle records that he came “in the likeness of sinful flesh” Rom. 8:3—if we too can have flesh polluted by no stain of sin? For this too is recorded of him who alone is without sin, as something singular: “God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh;” Rom. 8:3 because, in taking on the true and whole substance of human flesh, he is to be believed to have taken up in it not sin itself but the likeness of sin. For the ‘likeness’ is to be referred not to the reality of the flesh—according to the perverse notion of certain heretics—but to the image of sin. For in him there was indeed true flesh, but without sin: like, that is, to sinful flesh. The one belongs to the reality of human substance; the other refers to vices and conduct. He had the likeness of sinful flesh when, like a man ignorant and anxious about food, he asked: “How many loaves do you have?” Mark 6:38 But just as his flesh was in no way subject to sin, so neither was his soul subject to ignorance. Indeed the evangelist at once adds: “Jesus said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.” John 6:6 He had flesh like sinful flesh when, as though thirsting, he asked the Samaritan woman for a drink; but it was not polluted by the filth of sin, since, on the contrary, the woman was moved to ask for the living water that would never let her thirst, but would “become in her a spring of water leaping up into eternal life.” John 4:14 He had the reality of this flesh when he slept in the boat; but lest those sailing with him be likewise deceived by the likeness of sin, he rose and “commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm.” Matt. 8:26 He seemed subject to sin by the common lot of all, when it was said of him: “If this man were a prophet, he would surely know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner;” Luke 7:39 but he did not have the reality of sin, for, rebuking the Pharisee’s blasphemous thought, he at once forgave the woman’s sins. He was thought to bear sinful flesh like the rest, when, like a man set in the peril of death and struck by the terror of the torments hanging over him, he prayed: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me;” Matt. 26:39 and, “My soul is sorrowful even to the point of death.” Matt. 26:38 But that sadness knew no contagion of sin, for the author of life could not dread death. For he says: “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.” John 10:18

Chapter 12

In this, then, that man who was born of the Virgin is set apart by a great distance from all of us who are produced from the union of the two sexes: for while all of us bear in our flesh not the likeness but the reality of sin, he took on not the reality but the likeness of sin, together with the assumption of true flesh. And so, although the Pharisees were most plainly aware of what was written of him in the prophet Isaiah—that “he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth” Isa. 53:9—yet they were so deceived by the likeness of sinful flesh that they said: “Here is a gluttonous man and a drinker of wine, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Matt. 11:19 And to the man who had been born blind and given sight: “Give glory to God; for we know that this man is a sinner.” John 9:24 And to Pilate: “If this man were not a sinner, we would not have handed him over to you.” John 18:30 Whoever, then, dares to profess himself to be without sin will, by the crime of blasphemy and pride, lay claim for himself to an equality in this matter which belongs to Christ alone as singular and proper to him. For it follows that he is claiming to have the likeness of sinful flesh, and not the reality of sin.

Chapter 13

For the rest, Scripture plainly declares that righteous and holy men are not free from fault, saying: “Seven times a day the righteous man falls and rises again.” Prov. 24:16 For what else is it to fall than to sin? And yet, though he is said to fall seven times, he is nonetheless declared righteous, and the lapse of human frailty does not prejudice his righteousness, because there is a great difference between the fall of a righteous man and that of a sinner. For it is one thing to commit a mortal sin, and another to be caught off guard by a thought that is not free of sin; or to offend through the error of ignorance or forgetfulness, or by the ease of idle speech; or to hesitate for a moment over something in the contemplation of the faith; or to be struck by some subtle titillation of vainglory; or by a necessity of nature to withdraw for a little while from the highest perfection. For these are the seven kinds of fall into which a holy man, though he sometimes falls, nonetheless does not cease to be righteous; and though they may seem light and small, they still make it impossible for him to be without sin. For he has things for which, keeping daily penitence, he must truly ask pardon and pray unceasingly for his own sins, saying: “Forgive us our debts.” Matt. 6:12 And to prove by the clearest examples both that some of the saints have erred and yet have not departed from their righteousness: surely that most blessed Peter, the foremost of the apostles—what else is he to be believed to have been than holy, especially at the time when the Lord said to him: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven; and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed also in heaven.” Matt. 16:17-19 What is more glorious than this praise from the Lord? What can be loftier than this power and blessedness? And yet, a little later, when—not knowing the mystery of the passion—he unwittingly opposed so great a benefit to the human race, saying: “Far be it from you, Lord; this shall not happen to you,” Matt. 16:22 he deserved to hear: “Get behind me, Satan; you are a stumbling block to me, for you do not relish the things that are of God, but the things that are of men.” Matt. 16:23 When Justice itself rebuked him with these words, is he to be believed either not to have fallen at all, or not to have remained in holiness and righteousness? And at that time, too—is it to be plainly denied that he suffered a fall, when, in the imminent fear of his persecutors, he was driven to deny the Lord three times? But at once, with penitence following, washing away the stain of so great a crime with the bitterest tears, he did not lose the merit of holiness and righteousness. Of him, then, and of saints like him, we ought to understand this too, which is sung by David: “By the Lord the steps of a man are directed, and he will delight greatly in his way. When he falls, he will not be dashed to pieces, for the Lord puts his hand beneath him.” Ps. 36:23, 24 For the man whose steps are directed by the Lord—what else can he be than righteous? And yet of this very man it is said: when he falls, he will not be dashed to pieces. What is ‘when he falls,’ if not when he incurs the lapse of some sin? ‘He will not be dashed to pieces,’ it says—that is, he will by no means be long crushed by the onset of sin; but though for the present he may seem struck down, yet, raised up by the divine help he implores, he does not lose the stability of his righteousness, thanks to a swift recovery; or, even if for the present he has committed something through the frailty of the flesh, he will repair it by the placing of the Lord’s hand beneath him. For he does not cease to be holy after a fall who, knowing that he cannot be justified by confidence in his own works, and believing that he must be freed from such great bonds of sins by the grace of the Lord alone, does not cease to cry out with the Apostle: “Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 7:24, 25

Chapter 14

For when the apostle Paul, recognizing that the immeasurable abyss of purity cannot be penetrated by man while the surging tides of thoughts resist, and long tossed as it were through the depths, had first said: “For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil that I hate, this I do;” Rom. 7:19 and again: “But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who work it, but the sin that dwells in me; and I delight in the law of God according to the inner self, but I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind and leading me captive into the law of sin which is in my members;” Rom. 7:20, 22, 23 having surveyed all the frailty, whether his own or of nature itself, and terrified by the vastness of so immense a height, he fled to the safest harbor of divine help; and, as though despairing—through his natural weakness—of the cargo of his little ship weighed down by mortality, he demanded remedies for his shipwreck from him for whom nothing is impossible, crying out with a kind of pitiable wail: “Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death?” Rom. 7:24 And at once the release which he had despaired of from the weakness of nature, he presumed upon from the kindness of God, confidently adding: “The grace of God through Christ our Lord.” Rom. 7:25

Chapter 15

Germanus: Many determine that this saying of the Apostle ought to be understood in such a way that they maintain he said it not in his own person but in the person of sinners—those, namely, who, wishing to hold themselves back from bodily enticements and pleasures, yet bound by their former vices and held captive by the delight of carnal passions, cannot restrain themselves, since, weighed down by the ingrained habit of vices as by some harsh domination of tyranny, they cannot draw breath toward the freedom of chastity. For how could that saying apply to the blessed Apostle, who, it is certain, had reached the very summit of all perfection: “For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil that I hate, this I do”? Rom. 7:19 And this too, which he adds: “But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who work it, but the sin that dwells in me”? Rom. 7:20 And likewise this: “For I delight in the law of God according to the inner self, but I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind and leading me captive into the law of sin which is in my members.” Rom. 7:22, 23 In what way, then, can these words be fitted to the person of the Apostle? For what good is there that he could not fulfill? And on the contrary, what evil is there that, unwilling and hating it, yet compelled by nature, he committed against his will? And into what law of sin could the vessel of election, in whom Christ the Lord was speaking, be led captive? He who had “taken captive every disobedience and every height that exalts itself against God” 2 Cor. 10:5 proclaimed of himself with confidence: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; for the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me on that day.” 2 Tim. 4:7, 8

Chapter 16

Theonas: You are trying to call me back, just as I am entering the safest harbor of silence, once more to the boundless sea of a most profound question; but, having seized the opportunity of a trustworthy anchorage, let us for now—the course of so long a conference completed—cast the anchor of silence here, so that tomorrow, if no force of storm stands in the way, once a breath of favorable wind has been tested, we may spread the sails of discussion.