The Thirteenth Festal Letter, for Easter 341

Once again, my beloved brothers and sisters, I am ready to give you notice of the saving feast, which will take place according to our yearly custom. For although the opponents of Christ have oppressed you along with us with afflictions and sorrows, God has comforted us by our shared faith, and see, I am writing to you even from Rome. Though I keep the feast here with the brothers, I still keep it with you too, in will and in spirit, for we send up prayers in common to God, “who has granted us not only to believe in him, but also now to suffer for his sake.” For troubled as we are at being so far from you, he moves us to write, so that by a letter we may comfort ourselves and spur one another on to good. For indeed many afflictions and bitter persecutions aimed at the church have come upon us. Heretics, corrupt in mind, untested in the faith, rising up against the truth, violently persecute the church. Of the brothers, some are flogged and others torn with lashes, and, hardest of all, their insults reach even to the bishops. Nevertheless, it is not fitting that we should neglect the feast on this account. Rather, we should especially remember it, and never forget to commemorate it from season to season. Now unbelievers do not think there is a season for feasts, because they spend their whole lives in reveling and follies, and the feasts they keep are an occasion of grief rather than of joy. But for us, in this present life, they are above all an unbroken passage to heaven; it is indeed our season. For such things as these serve for exercise and testing, so that, having proved ourselves eager and chosen servants of Christ, we may be fellow heirs with the saints. For so Job says, “The whole world is a place of testing for people on the earth.” Nevertheless, they are tested in this world by afflictions, labors and sorrows, so that each one may receive from God the reward fitting for him, as he says through the prophet, “I am the Lord, who tests the hearts and searches the inmost parts, to give to each one according to his ways.” [a]

Not that he first comes to know a person’s affairs when that person is tested, for he knows them all before they happen. But because he is good and loves humankind, he gives each the reward due to his actions, so that everyone may cry out, “The judgment of God is righteous!” As the prophet says again, “The Lord tests the righteous and discerns the inmost parts.” Again, he tests each of us for this reason: either so that virtue may be shown, through those who are tested, to those who do not know it, as was said about Job, “Do you think that I was revealed to you for any other reason than that you should be seen to be righteous?”; or so that, when people come to a sense of their deeds, they may know what kind of people they are, and so may either repent of their wickedness or stand firm in the faith. Now the blessed Paul, when he was troubled by afflictions and persecutions and hunger and thirst, “in everything was a conqueror through Jesus Christ, who loved us.” Through suffering he was weak in body, yet, believing and hoping, he was made strong in spirit, and his strength was made perfect in weakness. [e]

The other saints also, who had a like confidence in God, accepted a like testing with gladness, as Job said, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” And the psalmist said, “Search me, O Lord, and test me; prove my inmost parts and my heart.” For since strength, when it is tested, proves the foolish wrong, the saints, seeing the cleansing and the benefit that come from the divine fire, were not discouraged in trials like these, but rather delighted in them. They suffered no harm at all from what happened to them, but were seen to shine more brightly, like gold from the fire. So said the one who was tested in such a school of discipline as this: “You have tested my heart, you have visited me in the night; you have proved me, and have found no wrongdoing in me, so that my mouth will not speak of the works of men.” But those whose actions are not restrained by law, who know of nothing beyond eating and drinking and dying, count trials as danger. They soon stumble at them, so that, being untested in the faith, they are given over to a debased mind, and do the things that are not fitting. That is why the blessed Paul, urging us to such exercises as these, and having first measured himself by them, says, “That is why I take pleasure in afflictions, in weaknesses.” And again, “Train yourself for godliness.” For since he knew the persecutions that befell those who chose to live godly lives, he wanted his disciples to think beforehand about the hardships that go with godliness, so that when trials came and affliction arose, they might bear them easily, as people trained in these things. For in the things a person has dwelt on in his mind he usually finds a hidden joy. In this way the blessed martyrs, growing used to hardships first, were quickly made perfect in Christ. They counted the harm done to the body as nothing, while they looked to the rest they expected. [f]

But all those who “call their lands by their own names,” and have wood, hay and straw in their thoughts, are strangers to hardships, and so they become strangers to the kingdom of heaven. Yet had they known that “trouble perfects endurance, and endurance proven character, and proven character hope, and hope does not put us to shame,” they would have trained themselves after the example of Paul, who said, “I discipline my body and bring it under control, so that after preaching to others I myself should not be disqualified.” They would easily have borne the afflictions brought on them from time to time to test them, if they had listened to the prophet’s warning: “It is good for a man to take up your yoke in his youth. He will sit alone and be silent, because he has taken your yoke upon him. He will give his cheek to the one who strikes him; he will be filled with insults. For the Lord does not cast off forever; for when he humbles, he is gracious, according to the abundance of his tender mercies.” For though all these things should come from the enemies, lashes, insults and reproaches, they will still count for nothing against the abundance of God’s tender mercies. We will soon recover from them, since they are only temporary, but God is always gracious, pouring out his tender mercies on those who please him. So, my beloved brothers and sisters, we should not look at these temporary things, but fix our attention on the things that are eternal. Though affliction may come, it will have an end; though insult and persecution come, they are nothing compared with the hope set before us. For all present things are trifling beside those to come, since the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the hope that is to come. For what can be compared with the kingdom? Or what is there to set beside eternal life? Or what is all we could give here, beside what we will inherit there? For we are “heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.” So it is not right, my beloved, to dwell on afflictions and persecutions, but on the hopes that are laid up for us because of persecutions. [g]

Now the example of the patriarch Issachar may persuade us of this, as the Scripture says: “Issachar desires what is good, resting between the inheritances. And when he saw that the rest was good, and the land fertile, he bowed his shoulder to labor, and became a farmer.” Consumed by divine love, like the bride in the Song of Songs, he gathered abundance from the Holy Scriptures, for his mind was captivated not by the old inheritance alone, but by both. And so, as if spreading his wings, he saw far off “the rest” which is in heaven, and he saw how much more truly, since this “land” is made up of such beautiful works, the heavenly country must be made up of them too. For that one is always new and never grows old. This “land” passes away, as the Lord said, but the one that is ready to receive the saints is immortal. Now when the patriarch Issachar saw these things, he joyfully boasted of afflictions and toils, bowing his shoulders so that he might labor. He did not quarrel with those who struck him, nor was he disturbed by insults. Like a strong man, he triumphed all the more through these things, and tilling his land all the more earnestly, he gained profit from it. The Word scattered the seed, but he cultivated it watchfully, so that it bore fruit, even a hundredfold. [h]

Now what does this mean, my beloved, except that we too, when the enemies are drawn up against us, should boast in afflictions? And that when we are persecuted we should not be discouraged, but should rather press on toward the crown of the high calling in Christ Jesus our Lord? And that when we are insulted we should not be disturbed, but should give our cheek to the one who strikes us, and bow the shoulder? For the lovers of pleasure and the lovers of hostility are tested, as the blessed apostle James says, “when they are drawn away by their own cravings and enticed.” But let us, knowing that we suffer for the truth, and that it is those who deny the Lord who strike and persecute us, “count it all joy, my brothers,” in the words of James, “when we fall into trials of various temptations, knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance.” Let us rejoice as we keep the feast, my brothers and sisters, knowing that our salvation is ordered in the time of affliction. For our Savior did not redeem us by doing nothing; by suffering for us he abolished death. And about this he told us beforehand, saying, “In the world you will have distress.” But he did not say this to everyone, but to those who serve him diligently and faithfully, knowing beforehand that those who would live godly lives toward him would be persecuted. [k]

“But evildoers and sorcerers will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” So if these ignorant men, like those interpreters of dreams and false prophets who claimed to give signs, drunk not with wine but with their own wickedness, lay claim to the priesthood and boast in their threats, do not believe them. But since we are being tested, let us humble ourselves, and not be drawn away by them. For so God warned his people through Moses, saying, “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams rises up among you and gives signs and wonders, and the sign or the wonder that he spoke of to you comes to pass, and he says, ‘Let us go and serve strange gods, which you have not known,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you will love the Lord your God with all your heart.” So we, when we are tested by these things, will not separate ourselves from the love of God. But now let us keep the feast, my beloved, not as bringing in a day of suffering, but a day of joy in Christ, by whom we are fed every day. Let us remember him who was sacrificed in the days of the Passover; for we celebrate this because Christ the Passover was sacrificed. He who once brought his people out of Egypt, and has now abolished death, and the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil, will likewise now put him to shame, and will again give help to those who are troubled and cry to God day and night. [l]

We begin the fast of forty days on the 13th of Phamenoth, the 9th of March, and the holy week of Easter on the 18th of Pharmuthi, the 13th of April. Resting on the seventh day, which is the 23rd of Pharmuthi, the 18th of April, and with the first day of the great week dawning on the 24th of the same month Pharmuthi, the 19th of April, let us count from it until Pentecost. And at all times let us sing praises, calling on Christ, being delivered from our enemies by Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom be glory and dominion to the Father forever and ever. Amen. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All who are here with me greet you. I pray, my beloved brothers and sisters, that you may have health in the Lord. He wrote this one also from Rome. Here ends the thirteenth letter. [m]