The Tenth Festal Letter, for Easter 338

Although I have traveled all this distance from you, my brothers and sisters, I have not forgotten the custom that holds among you, handed down to us by the fathers, so far as to keep silent and not tell you the time of the yearly holy feast and the day for celebrating it. I have been hindered by the afflictions you have no doubt heard of. Severe trials have been laid on me, and a great distance has separated us. The enemies of the truth have followed our tracks, laying snares to find a letter from us, so that by their accusations they might add to the pain of our wounds. Yet because the Lord strengthens and comforts us in our afflictions, we have not been afraid, even while held fast in the middle of such schemes and conspiracies, to point out and make known to you our saving Easter feast, even from the ends of the earth. When I wrote to the presbyters of Alexandria, I also urged that these letters be sent to you through them, although I knew the fear our adversaries had put on them. Still, I urged them to remember the apostle’s boldness of speech and to say, “Nothing separates us from the love of Christ: neither affliction, nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor danger, nor sword.” So, keeping the feast myself, I wanted you also, my beloved, to keep it. And knowing that an announcement like this is owed by me, I have not put off doing this duty, for fear of being condemned by the apostle’s counsel: “Pay to all what is due to them.” [a]

So while I committed all my affairs to God, I was eager to celebrate the feast with you, not counting the distance between us. For although place separates us, the Lord, the Giver of the feast, who is himself our feast and who is also the Giver of the Spirit, brings us together in mind, in harmony and in the bond of peace. When we are of one mind and think the same things, and offer the same prayers for one another, no place can separate us; the Lord gathers and unites us. For if he promises that “where two or three are gathered together in his name, he is in the midst of them,” it is plain that, being in the midst of those who are gathered together in every place, he unites them. He receives the prayers of all of them as if they were near, and listens to all of them as they cry out the same Amen. Such was the affliction I bore, my brothers and sisters, together with all those trials I mentioned, when I wrote to you. [d]

So that I may not distress you at all, I will now remind you of these things only briefly, because it is not fitting for a man, once he is more at ease, to forget the pains he went through in distress, for fear that, like an ungrateful and forgetful person, he may be shut out of the divine assembly. For at no time should a man praise God more freely than when he has come through afflictions, and at no time should he give thanks more than when he finds rest from toil and temptations. So Hezekiah, when the Assyrians perished, praised the Lord and gave thanks, saying, “The Lord is my salvation, and I will not cease to bless you with the harp all the days of my life, before the house of the Lord.” And those brave and blessed three who were tested in Babylon, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, when they were safe and the fire had become like dew to them, gave thanks, praising and “speaking words of glory to God.” I too, like them, have written with these things in mind, my brothers and sisters. For even in our time God has made possible what is impossible for human beings. What could not be done by man, the Lord has shown to be easy to do, by bringing us to you. For he does not give us up as prey to those who seek to swallow us up. It was not so much us as the church, and the faith and godliness, that they planned to overwhelm with their wickedness. [e]

But God, who is good, multiplied his love for humankind toward us, not only when he granted the common salvation of us all through his Word, but now also, when enemies have persecuted us and tried to seize us. As the blessed Paul says somewhere, when he describes the riches of Christ that are beyond our grasp: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in follies and sins, made us alive with Christ.” For the might of man and of every creature is weak and poor. But the Might that is above man, and uncreated, is rich and beyond our grasp; it has no beginning but is eternal. So he does not have just one way of healing. Being rich, he works in many ways for our salvation through his Word, who is not restricted or hindered in his dealings with us. Since he is rich and manifold, he adapts himself to the capacity of each soul. For he is the Word and the Power and the Wisdom of God, as Solomon testifies about Wisdom, that “being one, it can do all things; remaining in itself, it makes all things new; and passing into holy souls, it fashions friends of God and prophets.” [f]

So to those who have not yet reached the perfect way, he becomes like a sheep giving milk, and Paul gave this out: “I fed you with milk, not with solid food.” To those who have grown past the full stature of childhood but are still weak with regard to perfection, he is their food according to their capacity, and again Paul gives it out: “Let the one who is weak eat vegetables.” But as soon as a man begins to walk in the perfect way, he is no longer fed with the things just mentioned. He has the Word for bread and flesh for food, for it is written, “Solid food is for those who are mature, for those who, because of their capacity, have their senses trained.” Again, when the word is sown, it does not yield a uniform crop in this human life, but one that is varied and rich. It brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty and some thirty, as the Savior teaches, he who is the Sower of grace and the Giver of the Spirit. And this is no doubtful matter, nor one that cannot be confirmed; it is in our power to look at the field he has sown. For in the church the word is manifold and the crop is rich. Such a field is adorned not with virgins alone, nor with monks alone, but also with honorable marriage and the chastity of each person. For in his sowing he did not force the will beyond its strength. Nor is mercy limited to the perfect; it is sent down also among those who hold the middle and the third ranks, so that he might rescue all people alike to salvation. For this purpose he has prepared many rooms with the Father, so that although the dwelling place differs in proportion to each one’s progress in moral life, all of us are within the wall, and all of us enter within the same fence, while the adversary is thrown out and all his host driven away from there.

For apart from light there is darkness, and apart from blessing there is a curse; the devil also is apart from the saints, and sin is far from virtue. That is why the Gospel rebukes Satan, saying, “Get behind me, Satan.” But it calls us to itself, saying, “Enter by the narrow gate,” and again, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.” So also the Spirit cried out long ago in the Psalms, saying, “Enter his gates with psalms.” For through virtue a man goes in to God, as Moses went into the thick cloud where God was. But through vice a man goes out from the presence of the Lord, as Cain, when he had killed his brother, went out from before the face of God, as far as his own will was concerned. And the psalmist goes in, saying, “I will go in to the altar of God, to God who gladdens my youth.” But of the devil the Scripture bears witness that he went out from before God and struck Job with painful sores. For this is the mark of those who go out from before God: to strike and injure the men of God. And this is the mark of those who fall away from the faith: to injure and persecute the faithful. The saints, on the other hand, take such people to themselves and regard them as friends, as the blessed David also says, speaking openly, “My eyes are on the faithful of the earth, that they may dwell with me.” And Paul urges that we should especially take to ourselves those who are weak in the faith. For virtue loves humankind, just as in people of the opposite character sin hates humankind. So Saul, being a sinner, persecuted David, while David, though he had a good opportunity, did not kill Saul. Esau too persecuted Jacob, while Jacob overcame his wickedness by gentleness. And those eleven sold Joseph, but Joseph in his kindness had pity on them.

But why do we need many words? Our Lord and Savior, when he was persecuted by the Pharisees, wept for their destruction. He was injured, but he did not threaten; not when he was afflicted, not even when he was killed. He grieved for those who dared to do such things. He, the Savior, suffered for man, but they despised and threw away life and light and grace. All of these were theirs through that Savior who suffered in our place. And truly he wept for their darkness and blindness. For if they had understood what is written in the Psalms, they would not have been so senselessly daring against the Savior, since the Spirit had said, “Why do the nations rage, and the peoples imagine a vain thing?” And if they had considered the prophecy of Moses, they would not have hanged him who was their Life. And if they had examined with understanding the things that were written, they would not have carefully fulfilled the prophecies that were against themselves, so that their city is now desolate, grace is taken from them, and they themselves are without the law, no longer called children but strangers. For so it was declared beforehand in the Psalms: “The strange children have dealt falsely with me.” And by Isaiah the prophet: “I have begotten and brought up children, and they have rejected me.” They are no longer called the people of God and a holy nation, but rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah. In this they have gone even beyond the wickedness of the people of Sodom, as the prophet also says, “Sodom is justified beside you.” For the people of Sodom raved against angels, but these against the Lord and God and King of all. They dared to kill the Lord of angels, not knowing that Christ, who was killed by them, lives. But those Jews who had conspired against the Lord died, after rejoicing for a very little while in these passing things and falling away from those that are eternal. They did not know this: that the immortal promise looks not to passing enjoyment but to the hope of things everlasting. For through many troubles and labors and sorrows the saint enters the kingdom of heaven. But when he arrives where sorrow and distress and sighing will flee away, from then on he will enjoy rest, like Job, who, after being tested here, was afterward the close friend of the Lord. But the lover of pleasures, after rejoicing for a little while, afterward lives a life of sorrow, like Esau, who had food for the moment but afterward was condemned because of it. [i]

We may take as a type of this difference the departure of the children of Israel and of the Egyptians from Egypt. The Egyptians, after rejoicing for a little while in their injustice against Israel, were all drowned in the deep when they went out. But the people of God, after being struck and injured for a time by the conduct of the taskmasters, passed through the sea unharmed when they came out of Egypt, and walked in the wilderness as in an inhabited place. For although the place was unvisited by human beings and desolate, yet through the gracious gift of the law and through their dealings with angels it was no longer a desert, but far more than an inhabited country. Just as Elisha, when he thought he was alone in the wilderness, was with companies of angels, so in this case, though the people were at first afflicted and in the wilderness, those who stayed faithful afterward entered the land of promise. In the same way, those who suffer passing afflictions here and endure to the end reach comfort at last, while those who persecute here are trampled underfoot and come to no good end. For the rich man too, as the Gospel declares, after enjoying pleasure here for a little while, went hungry there, and after drinking freely here, he was terribly thirsty there. But Lazarus, after being afflicted in the things of this world, found rest in heaven. He had hungered for bread ground from grain, and there he was satisfied with what is better than manna, the Lord himself, who came down and said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven and gives life to humankind.” [l]

Oh, my dearly beloved, if we will gain comfort from afflictions, rest from labors, health after sickness, and immortality from death, it is not right to be distressed by the passing troubles that take hold of humankind. It does not suit us to be shaken by the trials that come on us. It is not right to be afraid if the gang that fought against Christ conspires against godliness. Rather, we should please God all the more through these things, and regard such matters as the testing and training of a virtuous life. For how will endurance be looked for, if there have not first been labors and sorrows? How can courage be tested if there is no attack from enemies? How will greatness of soul be shown, except after insult and injustice? How can patience be proved, unless there has first been the slander of Antichrist? And finally, how can a man see virtue with his own eyes, unless the wickedness of the very wicked has first appeared? So even our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ comes before us when he wants to show people how to suffer. When he was struck, he bore it patiently; when he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten. He gave his back to those who struck him and his cheeks to blows, and did not turn his face away from spitting. And at last he was willingly led to death, so that we might see in him the image of all that is virtuous and immortal, and so that we, conducting ourselves by these examples, might truly tread on serpents and scorpions and on all the power of the enemy. [n]

So too Paul, while he conducted himself by the example of the Lord, urged us, saying, “Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.” In this way he prevailed against all the divisions of the devil, writing, “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ.” For the enemy comes near to us in afflictions and trials and labors, trying every means to ruin us. But the man who is in Christ fights against what opposes him, setting patience against anger, gentleness against insult, and virtue against vice. He wins the victory and cries out, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” and, “In all these things we are conquerors through Christ who loved us.” This is the grace of the Lord, and these are the Lord’s means of restoring the children of men. For he suffered to prepare freedom from suffering for those who suffer in him. He came down so that he might raise us up. He took on himself the trial of being born, so that we might love him who is unbegotten. He went down to corruption, so that corruption might put on immortality. He became weak for us, so that we might rise with power. He went down to death, so that he might give us immortality and give life to the dead. Finally, he became man, so that we who die as men might live again, and that death should no longer reign over us; for the apostle’s word proclaims, “Death will not have dominion over us.” [o]

Now because they did not consider these things in this way, the Ario-maniacs, opponents of Christ and heretics, strike with their tongue him who is their Helper, blaspheme him who set them free, and hold every kind of opinion against the Savior. Because he came down, which was for the sake of man, they have denied that he is God in his very substance. Because he came forth from the Virgin, they doubt that he is truly the Son of God. Because they regard him as having taken flesh in time, they deny his eternity. And because they look on him as having suffered for us, they do not believe in him as the incorruptible Son from the incorruptible Father. Finally, because he endured for our sakes, they deny what belongs to his eternity, which is his by his very substance. Allowing themselves the deed of the ungrateful, they despise the Savior and offer him insult instead of acknowledging his grace. These words may rightly be addressed to them: You ungrateful opponent of Christ, wholly wicked, slayer of your Lord, blind in mind and a Jew in your thinking! If you had understood the Scriptures and listened to the saints, who said, “Make your face shine, and we will be saved,” or again, “Send out your light and your truth,” then you would have known that the Lord did not come down for his own sake but for ours, and for this reason you would have admired his love for humankind all the more. If you had considered what the Father is and what the Son is, you would not have blasphemed the Son as being of a changeable nature. And if you had understood his work of love for humankind toward us, you would not have estranged the Son from the Father, nor looked on him as a stranger, him who reconciled us to his Father. I know these words are painful, not only to those who dispute with Christ but also to the schismatics; for they are joined together as people of like mind. They have learned to tear the seamless tunic of God, and they think it nothing strange to divide the indivisible Son from the Father. [p]

I know indeed that when these things are said, they will gnash their teeth at us, together with the devil who stirs them up, since they are troubled by the declaration of the true glory of the Redeemer. But the Lord, who has always mocked the devil, does the same even now, saying, “I am in the Father, and the Father in me.” This is the Lord, who is revealed in the Father, and in whom the Father also is revealed. Being truly the Son of the Father, he at last took flesh for our sakes, so that he might offer himself to the Father in our place and redeem us through his offering and sacrifice. This is he who once brought the people of old out of Egypt, but who afterward redeemed all of us, or rather the whole human race, from death and brought them up from the grave. This is he who in old times was sacrificed as a lamb, since he was signified in the lamb, but who afterward was killed for us, for “Christ our Passover is sacrificed.” This is he who delivered us from the snare of the hunters, from the opponents of Christ, I mean, and from the schismatics, and rescued us, his church, once more. And because we were then victims of deceit, he has now delivered us by his own self. [s]

What, then, is our duty because of these things, my brothers and sisters, but to praise and give thanks to God, the King of all? And let us first cry out in the words of the Psalms, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us over as prey to their teeth.” Let us keep the feast in the way he has set apart for us for salvation, the holy day of Easter, so that we may celebrate the feast in heaven with the angels. So in ancient times the people of the Jews, when they came out of affliction into a state of ease, kept the feast, raising a song of praise for their victory. So also the people in the time of Esther, because they were delivered from the decree of death, kept a feast to the Lord, counting it a feast, giving thanks to the Lord and praising him for having changed their condition. So let us pay our vows to the Lord, confess our sins, and keep the feast to the Lord in our behavior, our conduct and our way of life, praising our Lord, who has disciplined us a little but has not utterly failed or forsaken us, nor kept wholly silent toward us. He has brought us out of the deceitful and notorious Egypt of the opponents of Christ, and has made us pass through many trials and afflictions, as if in the wilderness, to his holy church, so that from here, according to custom, we can send letters to you as well as receive them from you. For this reason above all I give thanks to God myself, and I urge you to thank him with me and on my behalf. This is the apostolic custom that these opponents of Christ and the schismatics wanted to put an end to and break off. The Lord did not allow it, but both renewed and preserved what he had ordained through the apostle, so that we may keep the feast together and keep the holy day together, according to the tradition and command of the fathers. [t]

We begin the fast of forty days on the 19th of the month Mechir, and the holy Easter fast on the 24th of the month Phamenoth. We end the fast on the 29th of the month Phamenoth, late in the evening of the seventh day. And so we keep the feast on the first day of the week, which dawns on the 30th of the month Phamenoth. From then until Pentecost we keep the holy day through seven weeks, one after the other. For when we have first meditated properly on these things, we will come to be counted worthy of the things that are eternal, through Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom be glory and dominion to the Father forever and ever. Amen. Greet one another with a holy kiss, remembering us in your holy prayers. All the brothers who are with me greet you, and remember you at all times. And I pray that you may be well in the Lord, my beloved brothers and sisters, whom we love above all. Here ends the tenth letter of the holy Athanasius. [u]