Letter 873: True humility is not the absence of accomplishment but the refusal to boast about it.

"What shall we do with these men?" For the truly wonderful and paradoxical thing, surpassing all astonishment, was this: that even while they held them in custody, and bound them, and beat them, they were at a loss and were themselves defeated. The apostles had been arrested, imprisoned, and flogged, and yet their captors were more imprisoned than they — imprisoned by their own fear, their own confusion, their own inability to understand the power they confronted. The chains that bound the apostles' bodies could not bind the truth they proclaimed; the walls that confined their persons could not confine the gospel they preached; the blows that bruised their flesh could not bruise their spirit. And so the Sanhedrin sat in perplexity, saying to one another, "What shall we do?" — a question that reveals the utter bankruptcy of persecution as a strategy against truth. You can silence a man, but you cannot silence an idea; you can kill a prophet, but you cannot kill a prophecy; you can imprison a body, but you cannot imprison the Holy Spirit. This is the lesson that every tyrant must eventually learn, and that every persecuted saint already knows: truth is stronger than violence, faith is mightier than force, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church of the living God.

• Τί ποιήσομεν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τούτοις; · τὸ γὰρ δὴ θαυμαστὸν καὶ παράδοξον, καὶ πᾶσαν έκπληξιν ὑπερ- βαῖνον, τοῦτο ἦν, ὅτι ἔχοντες αὐτοὺς, καὶ δεσμοῦν- τες, καὶ τύπτοντες ἐν ἀμηχανίᾳ ἦσαν, καὶ ἡττημέ- νων ἀφίεσαν φωνάς, διὰ τούτων ἡττώμενοι, δι' ὧν ἐδόκουν κρατεῖν. "Απερ γὰρ εἰς ἀδοξίαν αὐτῶν ἑμη- χανῶντο, ταῦτα ὑπὲρ τῆς εὐκλείας αὐτῶν ἐθεῶντο γινόμενα. Ὄντως οὖν ἡ δύναμις τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν τῇ ἀσθε νείᾳ τῶν ἀποστόλων πλέον διέλαμπεν. Οὐ γὰρ πράγ- ματα ὑπομένοντες, καὶ ἀντιστρατευόμενοι, οὐδ᾽ ὅπλα χαλκεύοντες, καὶ στρατιώτας συλλέγοντες, ἀλλὰ τὴν γνώμην παρασκευάζοντες εἰς τὸ κακῶς παθεῖν μό- νον, οὕτω τὰ τρόπαια πανταχοῦ ἤγειρον. ΡΟΓ. – ΠΑΥΛΟ. "Ὅτι τοῦ ἀργεῖν καὶ ῥαθυμεῖν ἄμεινον τὸ κὰν τὰ ἑτέροις πονηθέντα ἐπὶ στόματος φέρειν. Ἕοικας, ὡς φασί τινες, ἀλλοτρίοις ἐναγλαΐζεσθαι πόνοις, τοὺς ἑτέρων ἰδρῶτας καρπούμενος. Πλὴν ἀλλ᾽ ἐκεῖνοι μὲν αἰτιῶνται, ἐγὼ δὲ ἡρέμα ἀποδέχο- μαι· τοῦ γὰρ ἀργεῖν, καὶ ῥαθυμεῖν, καὶ φλυαρεῖν, πολλῷ ἄμεινον τὸ κᾶν τὰ τῶν ἄλλων συγγράμματα ἐπὶ στόματος ἔχειν. μαγκούτσης ΡΠΔ΄. – ΕΥΛΟΓΙΟ. Εἰς τὸ γεγραμμένον, « Τις ἐστιν υἱὸς, ὃν οὐ παι- δεύει πατήρ ; · καὶ ὅτι δραστικώτερα τῶν ἀπο- φαντικῶν τὰ κατ' ἐρώτησιν προσαγόμενα. Ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος τὸ ἀποφαίνεσθαι πολλάκις παρεὶς, κατ' ἐρώτησιν προάγει, τὴν ἀπόδειξιν ἡμε- ρωτέραν καὶ δραστικώτέραν ταύτῃ γίνεσθαι οἰόμε- νος. Ἔφασκε γὰρ τοῖς ἐν πειρασμοῖς οὖσι καὶ δυσχε- ραίνουσι· « Τίς γὰρυἱὸς, ὃν οὐ παιδεύει πατήρ;» ἵνα ἐμφαντικωτέραν τῇ ἐρωτήσει τὴν ἀπόδειξιν ἀπο- φαίνῃ (19). Θὕτω καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ· « Πρέπον ἐστὶ γυ- ναῖκα ἀκατακάλυπτον τῷ θεῷ προσεύχεσθαι;» τῇ ἐρωτήσει τὴν ἀτοπίαν σαφεστέραν δείξαι πειρώμε νος. Ταῖς μὲν γὰρ ἀποφάσεσι πολλοὶ καὶ ἀντιλέγειν τολμῶσι · τὰ δὲ κατὰ ἐπερώτησιν προσαγόμενα, καὶ πείθει καὶ ἐπιστομίζει, καὶ πραότητος δόξαν τῷ λέ- γοντι περιτίθησι. ΡΠΕ. – ΘΕΟΔΟΣΙΟ ΣΧΟΛΑΣΤΙΚΟ. Ἐγὼ τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα, ὧν οὐκ ἔστι τὸ τέλος βιωφε- D λὲς, οὐδὲ τέχνας εἶναι ὁρίζομαι, ἀλλὰ ματαιοτεχνίας ἢ κακοτεχνίας. Τεχνικὸν γὰρ ἐστι τὸ πρὸς τὸ χρήσιμου καὶ κοινωφελὲς βλέπειν. ```