Letter 468: The demands of the priestly life are real, Athanasios — I will not pretend otherwise.

He did not say "He handed them over to be filled," but rather that "He let them go already filled" -- just as if a good shepherd were to drive sheep seized by a pestilent disease out of the flock and in a way hand them over to the wolves, not by casting them into the jaws of wolves, but by stripping them of his own care and protection. The phrase "He gave," then, has this meaning. And the "spirit of compunction" means astonishment and piercing. For to prick is to wound and to strike, as in "They pierced the side of Christ with a spear." Since, then, to prick is to strike, the words "to be pierced" and "to be stung with compunction" are rightly used. Then, interpreting the word "He struck with compunction" as meaning "He astounded," he said: "Eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear." For this is what usually happens to those who are struck with astonishment. For when the mind is thrown into confusion, the senses refuse their proper functions. And that this is what is meant, hear Scripture saying: "Blessed is he who is not pierced with the grief of sin." And indeed godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation not to be regretted. What then does this mean? If we should say, as some suppose, that the one who has never sinned at all is blessed here, perhaps no one would enjoy this blessing. For we are all under reproof. For who shall boast of having a pure heart? Or who shall claim to be clean from sin? But if we should say that he blesses not the one who has not grieved, but the one who has not been overwhelmed by grief and has not betrayed his own salvation -- as happened to Judas, who killed himself by hanging (and the inspired Paul, fearing that the fornicator among the Corinthians might suffer the same, said he should be received back after repenting, lest such a one be swallowed up by excessive grief) -- then perhaps we shall touch upon the truth of the passage. And if compunction occurs also in a good sense, let no one marvel; for there too it interprets being wounded by beautiful things, as the soul in love with divine love cried out: "I am wounded with love." One must know that the same words or phrases do not always convey the same meaning. For David also said: "That my glory may sing to you and not be pierced with compunction" -- which, I think, means "not be silenced."