Letter 1567: A teacher must live what he teaches.

To Timotheus the Reader [an anagnostes, the lector of a church]. That to bear insults and injustices both wins glory here and will carry off the greatest renown there [in the world to come], I know with complete certainty. But that to be grateful to the one who wrongs and insults you, as to one who drives you on toward a greater philosophy [a higher spiritual discipline] - and especially when, by doing this often, he even prides himself on it (not to mention that I refuse to have our crowns woven out of other people's misfortunes) - this is a very great thing, and greater than my own power, which is able to bear being insulted and wronged, but has not yet succeeded in being grateful to those who do wrong, and in praying purely for those who keep on injuring us; and most of all when they are not even willing to repent, but actually laugh at those who pray for them. Learn this from me; but if you yourself have succeeded even in this, I praise and applaud you greatly. For I (since I would not conceal my own failing) have often prayed purely on behalf of those who became enemies through some circumstance, but when I wished to pour out the same prayer also for those who are enemies by deliberate effort and intent, I was caught doing it with my mouth alone. Yet I do not disbelieve those who have risen to so high a degree of virtue; rather I rejoice and rejoice with them, and would pray to reach this measure myself. For may I not suffer the affliction of the many, who, whenever they cannot lay hold of some virtue, do something absurd. For either they disbelieve those who have achieved it, passing judgment about others from what they themselves do (for nearly everyone is naturally inclined to cast his votes about his neighbors on the basis of his own conduct); or, ashamed of being caught in small-mindedness, they pride themselves as though they had succeeded - and especially when the matter under discussion concerns some arduous achievement; or they take refuge in contemplation, running away from the deed, so that they may seem to have failed not out of laziness but from a sound judgment. This is exactly what I know certain people have suffered, among those who could not even succeed in keeping no more than two tunics. For they ought not to have said that one must contemplate, but rather to have admired those who succeeded, and to have confessed that they themselves had fallen short of this contest. For I above all proclaim those who have accomplished what up to now I myself have not been able to accomplish.

Ὅτι μὲν τὸ τὰς ὕβρεις καὶ τὰς ἀδικίας φέρειν, κἀνταῦθα μὲν φέρει δόξαν, κἀκεῖσε δὲ κλέος οἴσει μέγιστον, μάλα ἀκριβῶς οἶδα· ὅτι δὲ τὸ εἰδέναι χάριν τῷ ἀδικοῦντι καὶ ὑβρίζοντι, ὡς εἰς μείζονα φιλοσοφίαν συνελαύνοντι, καὶ μάλιστα ὅταν πολλάκις τοῦτο ποιῶν καὶ ἐναβρύνετο (ἵνα μὴ λέγω, ὅτι τοὺς ἡμετέρους στεφάνους βούλομαι ἐκ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων ὑφαίνεσθαι συμφορῶν), μέγιστόν ἐστι, καὶ τῆς ἐμῆς δυνάμεως μεῖζον, τῆς φέρειν μὲν τὸ ὑβρίζεσθαι καὶ ἀδικεῖσθαι δυναμένης, μηδέπω δὲ κατορθωσάσης τὸ χάριν εἰδέναι τοῖς ἀδικοῦσι, καὶ ὑπερεύχεσθαι καθαρῶς τῶν διὰ παντὸς ἐπηρεαζόντων· καὶ μάλιστα ὅταν μηδὲ μεταγινώσκειν ἐθέλωσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν εὐχομένους γελῶσι. Τοῦτο παρ’ ἐμοῦ μάνθανε· εἰ δὲ αὐτὸς καὶ τοῦτο κατώρθωσας, λίαν σε ἐπαινῶ καὶ κροτῶ. Ἐγὼ γὰρ (οὐ γὰρ ἀποκρυψαίμην ἐμαυτοῦ τὸ ἐλάττωμα) πολλάκις καθαρῶς εὐξάμενος ὑπὲρ τῶν κατὰ περίστασιν τινα γεγονότων ἐχθρῶν, θελήσας δὲ ἐξάσθαι καὶ ὑπὲρ τῶν κατὰ μελέτην καὶ σπουδήν, διὰ τοῦ στόματος μόνου τοῦτο πεποιηκὼς ἑάλων. Οὐ μὴν ἀπιστῶ τοῖς ἐς τοσοῦτον ἀρετῆς ἀναβεβηκόσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ χαίρω καὶ συγχαίρω, καὶ εὐξαίμην εἰς τοῦτο φθάσαι τὸ μέτρον. Οὐ γὰρ πάθοιμι τὸ πολλῶν πάθος, οἱ ὅταν τινὸς μὴ δυνηθῶσιν ἐπιλαβέσθαι ἀρετῆς, ἀτοπόν τι δρῶσιν· ἡ γὰρ ἀπιστοῦσι τοῖς κατωρθωκόσιν, ἐξ ὧν πράττουσι καὶ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων ψηφιζόμενοι (πεφύκασι γὰρ σχεδὸν ἅπαντες ἐκ τῶν καθ’ ἑαυτοὺς καὶ τὰς περὶ τῶν πέλας φέρειν ψήφους)· ἢ αἰσχυνόμενοι τὸ ἐπὶ μικροψυχίᾳ ἁλῶναι, ἐναβρύνονται ὡς κατορθώσαντες· καὶ μάλιστα ὅταν περὶ ἀθλου πράγματος ὁ λόγος ᾖ· ἢ εἰς θεωρίας καταφεύγουσιν, τὸ πρᾶγμα ἀποδιδράσκοντες, ἵνα δόξωσιν μὴ ἐκ ῥαθυμίας, ἀλλ’ ἀπὸ κρίσεως ὑγιοῦς μὴ κατωρθωκέναι. Ὅπερ τινὰς οἶδα παθόντας ἐκ τῶν μὴ δυναθέντων κατορθῶσαι, μηδὲ δύο χιτῶνας. Ἐχρῆν γὰρ μὴ εἰπεῖν, ὅτι θεωρηθῆναι χρή, ἀλλὰ θαυμάσαι μὲν τοὺς κατορθώσαντας, ὁμολογῆσαι δὲ τοῦτου τοῦ ἄθλου ἀπολελεῖφθαι. Ἐγὼ γὰρ ἐκείνους μάλιστα ἀνακηρύττω, τοὺς ἀνύσαντας ἅπερ τέως ἀνῦσαι οὐκ ἠδυνήθην.