The Eleventh Festal Letter, for Easter 339

The blessed Paul was clothed with every virtue and was called faithful by the Lord, for he was aware of nothing in himself but what was virtue and praise, or what was in harmony with love and godliness. He held to these things more and more, and was even carried up to the heavenly places and borne to Paradise, so that, as he surpassed the way of life of men, he might be lifted up above men. And when he came down, he preached to everyone, “We know in part, and we prophesy in part. Here I know in part, but then I will know even as I am known.” For in truth he was known to the saints who are in heaven, as their fellow citizen. In relation to everything that is to come and is perfect, the things he knew here were partial. But with respect to the things the Lord had committed and entrusted to him, he was perfect, as he said, “Let those of us who are perfect be of this mind.” For as the gospel of Christ is the fulfillment and completion of the ministry supplied by the law of Israel, so the things to come will be the completion of the things that now exist. The gospel will then be fulfilled, and the faithful will receive the things which they do not see now and yet hope for, as Paul says, “For why does a man still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, then we wait for it with patience.” Since that blessed man was of such a character, and apostolic grace had been committed to him, he wrote, wishing “that all men were as he was.” For virtue loves humankind, and great is the company of the kingdom of heaven, for thousands of thousands and tens of thousands of tens of thousands serve the Lord there. And though a person enters it by a narrow and confined way, once he has entered he sees an immeasurable space, a place greater than any other, as those declare who were eyewitnesses and heirs of these things. “You laid afflictions before us,” they say. But afterward, having told of their afflictions, they say, “You brought us out into a wide place,” and again, “In affliction you have enlarged us.” For truly, my brothers and sisters, the course of the saints here is hard pressed. Either they toil painfully out of longing for the things to come, like the one who said, “Woe is me, that my pilgrimage is prolonged,” or they are distressed and spent for the salvation of other people, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “Lest, when I come to you, God should humble me, and I should mourn over many who have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and sexual immorality and debauchery which they have committed.” In the same way Samuel mourned the ruin of Saul, and Jeremiah wept for the captivity of the people. But after this affliction and sorrow and sighing, when they depart from this world, a divine gladness and pleasure and exultation receives them, from which misery and sorrow and sighing flee away. [a]

Since this is our situation, my brothers and sisters, let us never loiter on the path of virtue, for this is what he urges on us, saying, “Be followers of me, as I also am of Christ.” He did not give this advice to the Corinthians only, since he was not their apostle only. Being “a teacher of the nations in faith and truth,” he admonished all of us through them; and in short, the things he wrote to each one in particular are commands common to everyone. That is why, in writing to different people, he urged some on, as in the letters to the Romans, the Ephesians and Philemon. Some he rebuked and was indignant with, as with the Corinthians and the Galatians. To some he gave advice, as to the Colossians and the Thessalonians. The Philippians he approved of and rejoiced in. The Hebrews he taught that the law was a shadow to them. And to his chosen sons, Timothy and Titus, he gave instruction when they were near, and reminders when they were far away. For he was all things to all men, and, being himself a perfect man, he fitted his teaching to the need of each one, so that by all means he might rescue some of them. So his word was not without fruit, but in every place it is planted and bears fruit to this very day. [d]

And why was this, my beloved? For it is right that we should search into the apostle’s mind. Not only at the beginning of his letters, but toward their close and in the middle of them, he used persuasion and admonition. I hope, then, that through your prayers I will in no way misrepresent the plan of that holy man. Since he was well skilled in these divine matters and knew the power of the divine teaching, he thought it necessary first to make known the word about Christ and the mystery concerning him, and only afterward to point to the correction of habits, so that, once they had learned to know the Lord, they might earnestly desire to do the things he commanded. For when the guide to the laws is unknown, a person does not readily go on to keep them. Faithful Moses, the servant of God, followed this method. When he made known the words of the law that God was laying down, he first proclaimed the things that concern the knowledge of God: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord.” Afterward, having sketched him for the people, and taught them of him in whom they ought to believe, and informed their minds of him who is truly God, he goes on to lay down the law about the things by which a person may be well pleasing to him, saying, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal,” together with the other commandments. For according to the apostle’s teaching too, “he who draws near to God must believe that he is, and that he rewards those who seek him.” Now he is sought by means of virtuous deeds, as the prophet says, “Seek the Lord, and when you have found him, call upon him. When he is near you, let the wicked forsake his ways, and the lawless man his thoughts.” [e]

It will be well, too, if no one takes offense at the witness of the Shepherd, who says at the beginning of his book, “First of all, believe that there is one God, who created and established all these things, and called them from nonexistence into being.” Further, the blessed evangelists, who recorded the words of the Lord, wrote the things concerning our Savior at the beginning of the Gospels, so that, having first made known the Lord, the Creator, they might be believed when they told of the events that took place. For how could they have been believed when they wrote about the man who was blind from his mother’s womb, and those other blind men who recovered their sight, and those who rose from the dead, and the changing of water into wine, and those lepers who were cleansed, if they had not taught about him as the Creator, writing, “In the beginning was the Word”? Or, as Matthew has it, that he who was born of the seed of David was Emmanuel, and the Son of the living God? He is the one from whom the Jews, along with the Arians, turn their faces away, but whom we acknowledge and worship. So the apostle, as was fitting, sent to different people, but his own son he especially reminded “that he should not despise the things in which he had been instructed by him,” and charged him, “Remember Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my gospel.” And speaking of these things as handed down to him, to be always kept in remembrance, he writes to him at once, saying, “Meditate on these things; be occupied with them.” For constant meditation and the remembrance of the divine words strengthen godliness toward God, and produce a love for him that is inseparable and not merely formal. Being of this mind, he speaks about himself and others like-minded, and says boldly, “Who will separate us from the love of God?” For such people, being confirmed in the Lord and having an unshaken disposition toward him, and being one in spirit (for “he who is joined to the Spirit is one spirit”), are as sure “as Mount Zion.” Though ten thousand trials rage against them, they are founded on a rock, which is Christ. The careless take no delight in him. Having no steady purpose of good, they are soiled by the attacks of the moment and value nothing more highly than present things, being unstable and deserving reproof as regards the faith. For “either the care of this world or the deceitfulness of riches chokes them.” Or, as Jesus said in the parable that referred to them, since they have not established the faith that was preached to them, but last only for a time, at once, in time of persecution, or when affliction arises because of the word, they stumble. Now those who meditate evil, we say, think not truth but falsehood, not righteousness but iniquity, for their tongue learns to speak lies. They have done evil and have not stopped, so that they might repent. For, persisting with delight in wicked deeds, they hurry toward them without turning back. They even trample underfoot the commandment about their neighbors, and instead of loving them, they plot evil against them, as the saint testifies, saying, “And those who seek evil against me have spoken vanity, and devised deceit all day long.” But the divine proverb has already declared that the cause of such meditation is nothing other than a lack of instruction: “The son who forsakes the commandment of his father meditates evil words.” Because such meditation is evil, the Holy Spirit blames it in these words, and rebukes it also in other terms, saying, “Your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with sins; your lips have spoken lawlessness, and your tongue devises iniquity. No one speaks what is right, nor is there true judgment.” And what the end of such perverse devising is, he declares at once, saying, “They trust in vanities and speak falsehood, for they conceive mischief and bring forth lawlessness. They have hatched the eggs of an asp and woven a spider’s web; and whoever is ready to eat their eggs, when he breaks them, finds gall and a basilisk inside.” Again, he has already announced what the hope of such people is: “Because righteousness does not overtake them, when they waited for light, they had darkness; when they waited for brightness, they walked in thick cloud. They will grope for the wall like the blind, and like those who have no eyes they will grope. They will fall at noonday as at midnight; when dead, they will groan. They will roar together like a bear, or like a dove.” This is the fruit of wickedness; these are the rewards given to its companions, for perverseness does not rescue its own. In truth it sets itself against them; it tears them first, and on them above all it summons ruin. Woe to those against whom these things are brought, for “it is sharper than a two-edged sword,” killing beforehand and very swiftly those who would lay hold of it. For their tongue, as the psalmist testifies, is “a sharp sword, and their teeth spears and arrows.” But the wonderful thing is that, while the one against whom people plot harm often suffers nothing, they are pierced by their own spears. For even in themselves, before they reach others, they carry anger, wrath, malice, deceit, hatred and bitterness. Even if they cannot bring these upon others, these at once turn back on themselves and against themselves, as he prays, saying, “Let their sword enter into their own heart.” There is also a proverb like this: “The wicked is held fast by the chain of his sins.” [f]

The Jews, in their plotting and in agreeing together to act unjustly against the Lord, forgot that they were bringing wrath on themselves. That is why the Word laments over them, saying, “Why do the peoples exalt themselves, and the nations devise vain things?” For vain indeed was the plotting of the Jews, as they meditated death against the Life and devised unreasonable things against the “Word of the Father.” For who that looks on their dispersion and the desolation of their city may not fitly say, “Woe to them, for they have devised an evil plan, saying against their own soul, ‘Let us bind the righteous man, because he is not pleasing to us’”? And it is entirely just, my brothers and sisters. For when they went astray about the Scriptures, they did not know that “he who digs a pit for his neighbor falls into it, and whoever breaks through a hedge, a serpent will bite him.” And if they had not turned their faces from the Lord, they would have feared what was written beforehand in the divine Psalms: “The nations are caught in the pit they made; in the snare they hid their own foot is taken. The Lord is known when he executes judgments; by the works of his hands the sinner is taken.” Let them take note of this, and how “the snare they do not know will come upon them, and the net they hid will catch them.” But they did not understand these things, for if they had, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” [k]

Therefore the righteous and faithful servants of the Lord, who “are made disciples for the kingdom of heaven, and bring out of it things new and old,” and who “meditate on the words of the Lord when sitting in the house, when lying down or rising up, and when walking by the way,” are of good hope because of the promise of the Spirit, which said, “Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of corrupters; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.” Grounded in faith, rejoicing in hope, fervent in spirit, they have the boldness to say, “My mouth will speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart will be of understanding.” And again, “I have meditated on all your works, and on the work of your hands has been my meditation.” And, “If I have remembered you on my bed, and in the morning have meditated on you.” Afterward, growing in boldness, they say, “The meditation of my heart is before you at all times.” And what is the end of such a person? He tells it at once: “The Lord is my helper and my redeemer.” For to those who examine themselves in this way and conform their hearts to the Lord, nothing harmful will happen, since their heart is strengthened by confidence in the Lord, as it is written, “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion; he who dwells in Jerusalem will never be moved.” For if at any time the crafty one grows presumptuously bold against them, chiefly to break the ranks of the saints and cause division among brothers, even then the Lord is with them, not only as their avenger, but also, when they have already been beaten, as their deliverer. For this is the divine promise: “The Lord will fight for you.” From then on, though afflictions and trials from outside overtake them, they are shaped after the apostle’s words: they are “steadfast in tribulations and persevering in prayers,” and in meditation on the law. So they stand firm against what befalls them, are well pleasing to God, and speak the words that are written, “Afflictions and distresses have come upon me, but your commandments are my meditation.” [m]

And since people are moved to deeds of virtue not only in action but also in the thoughts of the mind, he adds afterward, “My eyes go before the dawn, that I might meditate on your words.” For it is fitting that the spiritual meditations of those who are whole should come before their bodily actions. And does not our Savior, when he means to teach this very thing, begin with the thoughts of the mind, saying, “Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery,” and, “Whoever is angry with his brother is guilty of murder”? For where there is no anger, murder is prevented; and where lust is removed first, there can be no charge of adultery. So meditation on the law is necessary, my beloved, and unbroken companionship with virtue, “that the saint may lack nothing, but be perfect for every good work.” For by these things comes the promise of eternal life, as Paul wrote to Timothy, calling constant meditation exercise, and saying, “Exercise yourself in godliness; for bodily exercise profits little, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it has the promise of the present life and of that which is eternal.” [n]

The virtue of that man deserves admiration, my brothers and sisters! For through Timothy he charges everyone to have regard for nothing more than godliness, and above everything to give the first place to faith in God. For what grace has the unrighteous man, even if he pretends to keep the commandments? No, the unrighteous man cannot keep even a part of the law, for as his mind is, so of necessity must his actions be. As the Spirit says in rebuke of such people, “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God.” After this the Word, showing that actions match thoughts, says, “They are corrupt; they are profane in their schemes.” So the unrighteous man corrupts his body in every way: stealing, committing adultery, cursing, getting drunk, and doing things like these. So too Jeremiah the prophet convicts Israel of these things, crying out, “Oh, that I had a lodging place far off in the wilderness! Then I would leave my people and go away from them, for they are all adulterers, an assembly of oppressors, who draw their tongue like a bow. Lies and not truth have prevailed on the earth, and they go on from iniquities to iniquities; but me they have not known.” So for wickedness and falsehood, and for deeds in which they go on from iniquity to iniquity, he rebukes their practices; but because they did not know the Lord and were faithless, he charges them with unrighteousness. [o]

For faith and godliness are allied to each other; they are sisters. He who believes in him is godly, and he who is godly believes all the more. So he who is in a state of wickedness certainly wanders from the faith as well, and he who falls from godliness falls from the true faith. Paul, for instance, bearing witness to the same point, advises his disciple, saying, “Avoid profane talk, for it leads on to more ungodliness, and their word takes hold like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus.” He declares what their wickedness consisted in, saying, “who have strayed from the faith, saying that the resurrection is already past.” But again, wishing to show that faith is yoked with godliness, the apostle says, “And all who will live godly in Jesus Christ will suffer persecution.” Then, so that no one should renounce godliness because of persecution, he counsels them to keep the faith, adding, “You, then, continue in the things you have learned and have been assured of.” And as brothers become like a wall to each other when brother is helped by brother, so faith and godliness, growing alike, hold together, and he who is practiced in the one is of necessity strengthened by the other. So, wishing the disciple to be exercised in godliness to the end and to contend for the faith, he counsels them, saying, “Fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life.” For if a person first puts away the wickedness of idols and rightly confesses him who is truly God, he next fights by faith against those who make war on him. [p]

For of these two things we speak of, faith and godliness, the hope is the same, namely eternal life. For he says, “Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life,” and, “Exercise yourself in godliness, for it has the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” For this reason the Ario-maniacs, who have now gone out from the church as opponents of Christ, have dug a pit of unbelief into which they themselves have been thrown. Since they have advanced in ungodliness, they “overthrow the faith of the simple,” blaspheming the Son of God and saying that he is a creature and has his being from things that are not. But as he did then against the followers of Philetus and Hymenaeus, so now the apostle forewarns everyone against ungodliness like theirs, saying, “The foundation of God stands sure, having this seal: The Lord knows those who are his; and, Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” For it is good for a person to depart from wickedness and deeds of iniquity, so that he may be able to keep the feast properly; for one who is defiled with the pollutions of the wicked cannot sacrifice the Passover to the Lord our God. That is why the people who were then in Egypt said, “We cannot sacrifice the Passover to the Lord our God in Egypt.” For God, who is over all, willed that they should go far away from the servants of Pharaoh and from the furnace of iron, so that, set free from wickedness and having carefully put away from themselves all strange notions, they might receive the knowledge of God and of virtuous actions. For he says, “Go far from them; depart from among them, and do not touch the unclean things.” For a person will not otherwise depart from sin and lay hold of virtuous deeds than by meditating on his actions. And when he has been trained by exercise in godliness, he will lay hold of the confession of faith, which Paul too possessed after he had fought the fight, namely the crown of righteousness that was laid up, which the righteous Judge will give, not to him alone, but to all who are like him. [q]

Such meditation and exercise in godliness, which has always been the habit of the saints, presses on us at this present time, when the divine word wants us to keep the feast with them, if we are of this disposition. For what else is the feast but the constant worship of God, the acknowledgment of godliness, and unceasing prayers from the whole heart, in agreement? So Paul, wishing us to be always of this disposition, commands, saying, “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks.” Not separately, then, but united and all together, let us all keep the feast, as the prophet urges, saying, “O come, let us rejoice in the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to God our Savior.” Who, then, is so negligent, or so disobedient to the divine voice, as not to leave everything and run to the general and common assembly of the feast? It is not in one place only, for not one place alone keeps the feast, but “their song has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” And the sacrifice is not offered in one place, but “in every nation incense and a pure sacrifice are offered to God.” So when in the same way praise and prayer rise from all people in every place to the gracious and good Father, when the whole catholic church in every place celebrates together the same worship to God with gladness and rejoicing, when all people together send up a song of praise and say Amen, how blessed it will be, my brothers and sisters! Who will not, at that time, be engaged in praying rightly? For when the walls of every opposing power, and especially of Jericho, fall down, and the gift of the Holy Spirit is then richly poured out on all people, everyone who perceives the coming of the Spirit will say, “We are all filled in the morning with your favor, and we rejoice and are glad in our days.” [r]

Since this is so, let us make a joyful noise with the saints, and let none of us fail in his duty in these things. Let us count as nothing the affliction and the trials which, especially at this time, have been aimed at us out of envy by the party of Eusebius. Even now they want to harm us, and by their accusations to bring about our death, because of that godliness whose helper is the Lord. But as faithful servants of God, we know that he is our salvation in the time of trouble. For our Lord promised beforehand, saying, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be very glad, for your reward is great in heaven.” Again, it is the Redeemer’s own word that affliction will not come to every person in this world, but only to those who have a holy fear of him. For this reason, the more our enemies hem us in, the freer let us be; though they revile us, let us come together; and the more they would turn us aside from godliness, the more boldly let us preach it, saying, “All these things have come upon us, yet we have not forgotten you,” and we have not done evil with the Ario-maniacs, who say that you have your existence from things that do not exist. The Word, who is eternally with the Father, is also from him. [s]

Let us therefore keep the feast, my brothers and sisters, celebrating it not at all as an occasion of distress and mourning; and let us not mix with heretics because of the trials of this present time that godliness brings upon us. But if anything should come our way that would promote joy and gladness, let us attend to it, so that our heart may not be downcast like Cain’s, but that, like faithful and good servants of the Lord, we may hear the words, “Enter into the joy of your Lord.” For we do not set up days of mourning and sorrow, as some may consider these days of Easter to be; we keep the feast, filled with joy and gladness. We keep it, then, not regarding it after the deceitful error of the Jews, nor according to the teaching of the Arians, which takes the Son away from the Godhead and numbers him among creatures; but we look to the correct doctrine we receive from the Lord. For the deceit of the Jews and the boundless ungodliness of the Arians cause nothing but sad thoughts. The former killed the Lord at the beginning; but the latter take from him his standing as the one who conquered the death to which the Jews brought him, since they say that he is not the Creator but a creature. For if he were a creature, he would have been held by death; but if he was not held by death, as the Scriptures say, then he is not a creature, but the Lord of creatures, and the subject of this immortal feast. [t]

For the Lord of death would abolish death, and since he was Lord, what he willed was accomplished; for we have all passed from death to life. But the plotting of the Jews, and of those like them, was vain, since the outcome was not what they intended but turned out against themselves; and “he who sits in heaven will laugh at both of them; the Lord will hold them in derision.” That is why, when our Savior was led to death, he held back the women who followed him weeping, saying, “Do not weep for me.” He meant to show that the Lord’s death is an occasion not of sorrow but of joy, and that he who dies for us is alive. For he does not take his being from things that are not, but from the Father. It is truly a cause of joy that we can see the signs of victory over death, our own incorruptibility, through the body of the Lord. For since he rose gloriously, it is clear that the resurrection of all of us will take place; and since his body remained without corruption, there can be no doubt about our incorruption. For as through one man, as Paul says (and it is the truth), sin passed upon all men, so by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ we will all rise. “For,” he says, “this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” Now this came about at the time of the Passion, in which our Lord died for us, for “Christ our Passover is sacrificed.” Therefore, because he was sacrificed, let each of us feed on him, and with eagerness and diligence partake of his nourishment; for he is given to all without grudging, and is in everyone “a well of water flowing to everlasting life.” [u]

We begin the fast of forty days on the 9th of the month Phamenoth, that is, the 5th of March. Having served the Lord in these days with abstinence, and first purified ourselves, we also begin holy Easter on the 14th of the month Pharmuthi, the 9th of April. Then, extending the fast to the seventh day, the 19th of the month, let us rest late in the evening. And when the light of the Lord has first dawned on us, and the holy Sunday on which our Lord rose shines on us, we should rejoice and be glad with the joy that comes from good works during the seven weeks that remain until Pentecost, giving glory to the Father and saying, “This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it,” through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, through whom be glory and dominion to him and to his Father forever and ever. Amen. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the brothers who are with me greet you. I pray that you may have health in the Lord, beloved brothers and sisters. Here ends the eleventh letter of holy Athanasius. [v]