Letter 311: How to provide assurance to the synod If you could personally take the time to join them in deliberating at Ephesus,...

To Didymus, on the saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed": The Lord likens the heavenly kingdom to a grain of mustard seed for many reasons: on account of the lowliness of the poverty in his own condescension, from which came to us the shade and refreshment from all the pains of life; on account of the smallness of the flock at the beginning of the Gospel; on account of the innate sharpness of the grain, which the traveler of the narrow way also needs, so as not to be cut off but to preserve an undivided substance. For he who has been united to God and fitted together into one perfect man ought to maintain an undivided and uncut bond with him, severed by no suffering, but wholly ordered toward him. God says: My altar is covered with the tears of the wronged, the plundered, the slandered. For this reason he sets these things forth in reproach, declaring them to be the causes of the calamities that befell. For the tears of repentance are not only beyond accusation but are pleasing to God, like incense. The garments bound upon the altar and covering it reveal their contemptuous disposition toward the divine. For though the law ordained the adornment of the divine temple from clean and precious materials, they bound filthy and unclean garments around the Holy of Holies, profaning the sanctuary -- not merely failing to distinguish between clean and unclean, but failing to distinguish between God and unclean things, which opened for them the wellsprings of such great evils. Since our understanding cannot encompass the subject of the encomiums of the most excellent Bishop Hermogenes, nor can our judgment contain the abundance of his achievements, do not refuse to grant me pardon. For where it is not easy to do justice even to a part, how is it possible to traverse the whole? To Martinianus, Zosimus, Maron, and Eustathius: Know that a man who always champions truth and turns away from slander -- whom no one could disqualify -- was recently lampooning your depravity, saying that wickedness bore you in labor pains, and that wicked and untamed men nursed you.

How to provide assurance to the synod If you could personally take the time to join them in deliberating at Ephesus, I am sure that there will be no censure of you on their part. If you leave the voting to the crowd’s antipathies, who would free the synod from all of the mockery? You would also remedy the situation, if you would stop your servants from dogmatizing, since they stand uncertainly between a great chasm of serving the emperor and quarreling with God, for fear that they make waves for the empire, dashing against the rock of the Church the contrivances of their bad faith. That Church has been set up, and cannot be lorded over by the gates of Hell, as God announced when He was creating it.

Ρ.Θ. – ΔΙΔΥΜΩ. Εἰς τὸ εἰρημένον, « Ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν κόκκῳ σινάπεως. » Κόκκῳ σινάπεως τὴν οὐράνιον βασιλείαν ἀπεικά- ζει ὁ Κύριος, πλείστων ἕνεκα τρόπων· διὰ τὴν εὐτέλειαν τῆς ἐν τῇ οἰκείᾳ συγκαταβάσει πτωχείας, ἀφ᾿ ἧς ἡμῖν ἡ σκιὰ καὶ ἀνάψυξις ἀπὸ πασῶν τῶν ἐν τῷ βίῳ γέγονεν ὀδυνῶν· διὰ τὴν ἐν ἀρχῇ τοῦ Εὐαγ- γελίου τοῦ ποιμνίου σμικρότητα· διὰ τὴν ἔμφυτον τοῦ κόκκου δριμύτητα, ἧς καὶ χρήζει ὁ τῆς στε- νῆς ἔμπορος ὁδοῦ, διὰ τὸ μὴ διακόπτεσθαι, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀδιαίρετον σώζειν ὑπόστασιν. Ὁ γὰρ θεῷ ἑνωθεὶς, καὶ εἰς ἕνα τέλειον ἄνθρωπον συναρμολο- γηθεὶς, ἀδιαίρετον ἔχειν καὶ ἅτμητον τὴν πρὸς αὐτὸν ὀφείλει συνάφειαν, οὐδεὶς (92) πάθει χωριζομένην, ἀλλ᾽ ὅλην αὐτῷ συντεταγμένην. Α μου, φησὶν ὁ Θεὸς, δάκρυσιν ἀδικουμένων, ἁρπα- ζομένων, συκοφαντουμένων. Τούτου χάριν καὶ ἐπ' ἐλέγχου τίθησι ταῦτα μεμφόμενος, καὶ τῶν συμ- βάντων ἀπηχῶν ταῦτα τυγχάνειν ἀποφηνάμενος αἴτια. Τὰ γὰρ τῆς μεταγνώσεως δάκρυα, οὐ μόνον ἀκατηγόρητα, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡδέα (93) ἐστὶ τῷ θεῷ, ὡς θυμίαμα - Τὰ δὲ ἱμάτια τὰ δεσμούμενα, καὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον καταπετάζοντα, τὴν καταφρονητι- κὴν αὐτῶν περὶ τὸ θεῖον ἐμφαίνει διάθεσιν. Τοῦ γὰρ νόμου ἐκ καθαρῶν καὶ τιμίων ὑλῶν τὴν περὶ τὸν θεῖον νεὼν τάσσοντος διακόσμησιν, αὐτοὶ ῥυπών σας καὶ ἀκαθάρτους ἐσθῆτας περὶ τὸ ἅγιον τῶν ἁγίων δεσμοῦντες, καθύβριζον τὰ ἀνάκτορα μήκ μόνον μεταξύ καθαροῦ καὶ ἀκαθάρτου μὴ διαστέλ- λοντες, ἀλλὰ ἀνὰ μέσον Θεοῦ καὶ ἀκαθάρτων μὴ διακρίνοντες, ἅπερ αὐτοῖς καὶ τῶν τρσαὐτῶν κακῶν τὰς πηγὰς ἀνεστόμωσε. ΛΒ΄. – ΤΟ ΑΥΤΟ. Ἐπειδὴ ἡ ἡμετέρα διάνοια τὴν ὑπόθεσιν τῶν ἐγκωμίων τοῦ παναρίστου Ερμογένους τοῦ ἐπι· C σκόπου οὐ δύναται δέξασθαι, οὐδὲ τὴν τῶν κατορ θωμάτων περιουσίαν ἡ γνώμη χωρεῖ, συγγνώμην μοι νεῖμαι μὴ παραιτήσῃ. Ἡ γὰρ μηδὲ πρὸς μέρος ἐπαρκέσαι ῥᾴδιον, πῶς πᾶσιν ἐπεξελθεῖν δυνατόν· ΜΑΡΤΙΝΙΑΝΩ, ΖΩΣΙΜΩ, ΜΑΡΩΝΙ, ΕΥΣΤΑΘΙΩ. Ἴσθε, ὡς ἄνθρωπος ἀλήθειαν μὲν ἀεὶ πρεσβεύων, κακηγορίαν δὲ ἀποστρεφόμενος, ὃν οὐδὲ παραγρά- ψασθαί τις δυνηθείη, τὴν ὑμετέραν πρώην ἐξεκω μῴδει (90) φαυλότητα, λέγων· ὅτι ἐκείνους κακία μὲν ὧδινε, πονηροὶ δὲ καὶ ἀτίθασσοι ἐτιθηνήσαντο