Letter 509: The calling does not change with the circumstances, Isidoros.

To Isidorus. On the text: "Did this man sin, or his parents?" [John 9:2]. The apostles, being disciples of wisdom and lovers of truth, when they saw the Savior gazing intently and attending to the blind man, and all but calling them forth to ask a question, put to him two doctrines that were much talked about and inquired into among men. For since the children of the Greeks said that the soul had fallen and on this account had been sent down into a body to be punished, while the Jews held that the faults of forebears pass over upon their descendants, because it is written, "The sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation" [Exodus 20:5], they said to him, who knew all things before their birth: "Who sinned, this man (as the Greeks say), or his parents (as the Jews say), that he should be born blind?" But the Truth made an answer neither slanting nor sidelong, nor full of riddle, but straight, and more brilliant than all clarity. For he overturned both, saying: "Neither did this man sin (for how could he, before he came to be?), nor his parents"—plainly, that is, so that he should be born blind. For it was to the question that he gave his answer. For it is likely indeed that they had sinned; rather, they had in fact sinned, but they are not on that account the cause of his misfortune. For what reason, then, was he born blind? "That the works of God might be made manifest in him" [John 9:3]—that is, his nature was permitted to fail, so that the Craftsman might be proclaimed. That many things are clear to us, and not easily caught by human reasoning, is plain. And that those things escape us—and this usefully, the things that do not contribute to our salvation—this too is plain. Let us consider, then, what profits us toward blessedness and what does not, and so let us test the things that are said. To say that the heaven is either flat or a hemisphere, and to busy oneself about the swiftest course of the sun, and the diminishings and increasings of the moon, and the position of the stars; and to inquire about the earth, whether it is a cylinder or a winnowing-fan, or the center of the universe, and to know the distances of the one or of the other—what this contributes to the best polity, I for my part do not see. And if anyone should be able to speak of it, he will perhaps speak, but he will not persuade. But to know and to practice justice, and courage, and prudence, and temperance, and whatever is akin to these—this sends those who understand them up to the most surpassing blessedness. We must therefore hold off from the things that profit us nothing, and hold fast to the things that profit.

Εἰς τό· « Οὗτος ἥμαρτεν, ἢ οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ ; » Οἱ ἀπόστολοι, ἅτε σοφίας φοιτηταί, καὶ ἀληθείας ὄντες ἐρασταί, ἀτενῶς ὁρῶντες τὸν Σωτῆρα προσέχοντα τῷ τυφλῷ, καὶ μόνον οὐχὶ εἰς ἐρώτησιν αὐτοὺς ἐκκαλούμενον, δύο θρυλλούμενα δόγματα, καὶ παρὰ ἀνθρώποις ζητούμενα αὐτῷ προσφέρουσιν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ Ἑλλήνων [μὲν] παῖδες ἔφασαν ἐσφάλθαι τὴν ψυχήν, καὶ διὰ τοῦτ’ εἰς σῶμα καταπεπέμφθαι κολασθησομένην (64), Ἰουδαῖοι δ’ ἡγοῦντο τῶν προγόνων πταίσματα εἰς τοὺς ἐγγόνους διαβαίνειν, διὰ τὸ γεγράφθαι· « Ἁμαρτίαι πατέρων ἐπὶ τέκνα ἕως τρίτης καὶ τετάρτης γενεᾶς » ἔφαταν αὐτῷ, ἅτε πάντα εἰδότι πρὶν γενέσεως αὐτῶν· « Τίς ἥμαρτεν, οὗτος (ὥς φασιν Ἕλληνες), ἢ οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ (ὥς φασιν Ἰουδαῖοι), ἵνα τυφλὸς γεννηθῇ; » Ἡ δ’ ἀλήθεια οὐ λοξὴν οὐδὲ πλαγίαν, οὐδ’ αἰνίγματος μεστὴν τὴν ἀπόκρισιν πεποίηται, ἀλλ’ ὀρθήν, καὶ σαφηνείας ἁπάσης λαμπροτέραν. Ἀμφότερα γὰρ ἀνέτρεψε, φήσασα· « Οὔτε οὗτος ἥμαρτε (πῶς γὰρ πρὸ τοῦ γενέσθαι;) οὔτε οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ, » δῆλον ὅτι, ἵνα τυφλὸς γεννηθῇ. Πρὸς γὰρ τὴν ἐρώτησιν ἀπεκρίνατο. Εἰκὸς μὲν γὰρ αὐτοὺς ἡμαρτηκέναι, μᾶλλον δὲ ἡμαρτήκασι μέν, οὐ μὴν τούτῳ αἴτιοι τῆς συμφορᾶς εἰσι. Τίνος οὖν ἕνεκεν τυφλὸς ἐγεννήθη; Ἵνα φανερωθῇ τὰ ἔργα τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ, τουτέστι, συνεχῳρήθη σκάσαι ἡ φύσις, ἵν’ ἀνακηρυχθῇ ὁ τεχνίτης. Ὅτι μὲν πολλὰ δῆλά ἐστιν ἡμῖν, καὶ λογισμῷ οὐκ εὐθήρατα ἀνθρωπίνῳ, δῆλον. Ὅτι δὲ ἐκεῖνα ἡμᾶς διαφεύγει (65), καὶ τοῦτο χρησίμως, τὰ μὴ συντελοῦντα ἡμῖν εἰς σωτηρίαν, καὶ τοῦτο δῆλον. Σκοπήσωμεν οὖν, τί ἡμῖν λυσιτελεῖ εἰς μακαριότητα, τί δ' οὖ, καὶ οὕτως βασανίσωμεν τὰ λεγόμενα. Τὸ λέγειν ἢ τραν εἶναι τὸν οὐρανόν, ἢ ἡμισφαίριον καὶ τὸ πολυπραγμονεῖν, ἡλίου μὲν τὸν ὠκύτατον δρόμον, σελήνης δὲ μειώσεις τε καὶ αὐξήσεις, καὶ τῶν ἄστρων τὴν θέσιν· καὶ τὸ ζητεῖν περὶ γῆς, ἦ κύλινδρός ἐστιν ἢ λιχνοειδής, ἢ κέντρον τοῦ παντός, καὶ τὸ τὰ ἐκείνου ἢ ταύτης διαστήματα εἰδέναι, τί συμβάλλεται εἰς ἀρίστην πολιτείαν, ἐγὼ μὲν οὐ συν-ορώ. Εἰ δέ τις λέγειν ἔχοι, λέξει μὲν ἴσως, οὐ πείσει δέ. Τὸ δὲ δικαιοσύνην, καὶ ἀνδρείαν, καὶ φρόνησιν, καὶ σωφροσύνην, καὶ εἴ τι τούτων συγγενές, εἰδέναι τε καὶ πράττειν, τοὺς εἰς τὴν κορυφαιοτάτην μακαριότητα ἀναπέμπει τοὺς ἐπιστήμονας. Χρὴ οὖν τῶν μὲν μηδὲν ἡμῖν λυσιτελούντων ἀπέχεσθαι, τῶν δὲ λυσιτελούντων ἀντέχεσθαι.