Letter to Amun

All things made by God are beautiful and pure, for the Word of God has made nothing useless or impure. For “we are a sweet fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved,” as the apostle says. But the devil’s darts are many and subtle. He contrives to trouble those who are of simpler mind, and tries to hinder the brothers in their usual exercises, secretly scattering among them thoughts of uncleanness and defilement. So come, let us briefly dispel the error of the evil one by the grace of the Savior, and strengthen the mind of the simple. For “to the pure all things are pure,” but both the conscience and everything that belongs to the unclean are defiled. I also marvel at the cunning of the devil. Though he is corruption and mischief itself, he suggests thoughts under a show of purity; but the result is a snare rather than a test. For, as I said before, his aim is to distract ascetics from their usual and healthy meditation, and to seem to overcome them. So he stirs up buzzing thoughts of this kind, which are of no use in life: empty questions and trifles that one ought to set aside. For tell me, beloved and most devout friend, what sin or uncleanness is there in any natural secretion? It is as though a man were set on making a guilty matter of what is cleared from the nose or spat from the mouth. And we may add also the discharges of the belly, which are a physical necessity of animal life. Moreover, if we believe that man is, as the divine Scriptures say, a work of God’s hands, how could any defiled work come from a pure Power? And if, according to the divine Acts of the Apostles, “we are God’s offspring,” we have nothing unclean in ourselves. For we incur defilement only when we commit sin, that foulest of things. But when any bodily discharge happens apart from the will, then we experience this, like other things, by a necessity of nature. But there are those whose only pleasure is to contradict what is rightly said, or rather what God has made. They twist even a saying in the Gospels, claiming that “not what goes in defiles a man, but what goes out.” So we are obliged to show how unreasonable this is; for I cannot call it a real question. First of all, like unstable people, they twist the Scriptures to suit their own ignorance. Now the sense of the divine saying is this. Certain people, like these today, were in doubt about foods. The Lord himself, to dispel their ignorance, or perhaps to expose their deceitfulness, lays down that it is not what goes in that defiles the man, but what goes out. Then he adds exactly where these things come out from, namely from the heart. For there, as he knows, are the evil treasures of unholy thoughts and other sins. The apostle teaches the same thing more briefly, saying, “But food will not bring us before God.” And one might reasonably say that no natural secretion will bring us before him for punishment. Perhaps physicians, too, will support us on this point, to put these people to shame even at the hands of outsiders. They will tell us that the animal body has been given certain necessary passages, to carry off the excess of what is secreted in its various parts: for example, the excess of the head, the hair and the watery discharges from the head; the purgings of the belly; and, again, that excess of the channels of the seed. What sin is there then, in God’s name, elder most beloved of God, if the Master who made the body willed and made these parts to have such passages? But we must grapple with the objections of evil people. They may say, “If the organs have each been fashioned by the Creator, then there is no sin in their real use.” Let us stop them by asking this question: What do you mean by use? Do you mean the lawful use that God permitted when he said, “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth,” and which the apostle approves in the words, “Marriage is honorable, and the bed undefiled”? Or do you mean that use which is public, yet carried on in secret and in the manner of adultery? For in other matters too that make up our life, we will find differences according to circumstances. For example, it is not right to kill; yet in war it is lawful and praiseworthy to destroy the enemy. So not only are those who have distinguished themselves in the field held worthy of great honors, but monuments are set up proclaiming their achievements. So the same act is unlawful at one time and in some circumstances, while in others, and at the right time, it is lawful and permitted. The same reasoning applies to the relation of the sexes. Blessed is the man who, freely yoked in marriage in his youth, has children by nature. But if he uses nature in a licentious way, the punishment the apostle writes of will await the sexually immoral and adulterers. [a]

For there are two ways in life in these matters. The one is the more moderate and ordinary, I mean marriage; the other is angelic and unsurpassed, namely virginity. Now if a man chooses the way of the world, namely marriage, he is not to blame; yet he will not receive such great gifts as the other. For he will receive, since he too bears fruit, namely thirtyfold. But if a man embraces the holy and unearthly way, then even though, compared with the former, it is rugged and hard to carry out, it has the more wonderful gifts: for it grows the perfect fruit, namely a hundredfold. So their unclean and evil objections had their proper answer long ago in the divine Scriptures. Strengthen, then, father, the flocks under you. Encourage them from the apostolic writings, guide them from the Gospels, counsel them from the Psalms, saying, “Give me life according to your word.” By “your word” is meant that we should serve him with a pure heart. For knowing this, the prophet says, as if explaining himself, “Make me a clean heart, O God,” so that filthy thoughts may not trouble me. And David again: “And establish me with your free spirit,” so that even if thoughts ever disturb me, some strong power from you may establish me, acting as a support. Giving this and similar advice, say of those who are slow to obey the truth, “I will teach your ways to the wicked”; and, trusting in the Lord that you will persuade them to give up such wickedness, sing, “and sinners will be turned back to you.” And may it be granted that those who raise malicious questions may stop such empty labor, and that those who doubt in their simplicity may be strengthened with a “free spirit”; while as many of you as surely know the truth, hold it unbroken and unshaken in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom be glory and might to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen. [f]