Letter 479

To Helena the Illustris [Helena of the senatorial rank illustris]. You seem to be a believer, yet you strive to contend with the Greeks [the pagans] and to make yourself like the unbelievers. For if you believe beyond all doubt that there will be a resurrection of all who have died after the consummation of the present age, why do you mourn and lacerate yourself without ceasing and without consolation? For although your most excellent son Nicaretus has fallen asleep, your only-begotten son, yet he will appear on that day more beautiful than the sun, standing before the royal throne with unspeakable glory and exultation, and offering up his supplications on your behalf to Christ, the most loving King of the ages. And then indeed you will count yourself blessed, beholding the son begotten from your womb dwelling in the heavenly palace, and speaking freely before God who created all things, delivered from the world and from the intricate sin that is practiced in it, and enjoying for ever a life that is undefiled and without stumbling, free from care and incorruptible. Cease, therefore, from this blameworthy faintheartedness and from these unspeakable lamentations, and take up blessed joy and good expectations and good hopes, lest by your grief you provoke the son who has gone well from this life, and lest you make the Master, who has lovingly received him to himself, become angry against you. Remember the holy Apostle, who writes: "I do not want you to grieve concerning those who have fallen asleep, as the Greeks [the pagans] grieve who have no hope." "Rejoice always, therefore; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God." "The world passes away, and its desire," says John, whom Jesus loved on account of the purity and the gentleness and the mildness of his character. If, then, desire passes away, that is, ceases and perishes, how do you yourself teach that, after certain pleasure-loving people have died, they desire again, after death, the pleasant things of the transient world?

Πιστὴ μὲν δοκεῖς ὑπάρχειν, τοῖς δ' Ἕλλησιν ἀμι- λᾶσθαι, καὶ τοῖς ἀπίστοις ἐξομοιοῦσθαι σπουδάζεις. Εἰ γὰρ πιστεύεις ἀναμφιβόλως ἀνάστασιν ἔσεσθαι πάντων τῶν τεθνηκότων μετὰ τὴν συντέλειαν τοῦ πα- ρόντος αἰῶνος, τί πενθεῖς καὶ κατακόπτεις σαυτὴν ἀπαύστως καὶ ἀπαρηγορήτως; Κλᾀν γὰρ κεκοίμηται ὁ βέλτιστος υἱός σου Νικάρετος, μονογενὴς σοι ὑπάρ- χων, ἀλλ' οὖν γε δᾔη τοῦτον ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ εὐ- πρεπέστερον ἡλίου, μετὰ δόξης ἀρρήτου καὶ ἀγαλ- λιάσεως τῷ βασιλικῷ παριστάμενον θρόνῳ, καὶ τὰς ὑπὲρ σοῦ ἱκεσίας προσφέροντα Χριστῷ τῷ φιλαν- θρωποτάτῳ Βασιλεῖ τῶν αἰώνων. Καὶ τότε δὴ σεαυ- τὴν μακαρίσεις, θεωροῦσα τὸν ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας σου γεγεννημένον υἱὸν εἰς τὸ ἐπουράνιον παλάτιον τὴν διαγωγὴν ἔχοντα, καὶ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν τὸν πάντα δεδη- μιουργηκότα παρρησιαζόμενος, ῥυσθέντα μὲν τοῦ κόσμου καὶ τῆς πολυπλόκου ἁμαρτίας τῆς ἐν τούτῳ πολιτευομένης, ἀχράντου δὲ καὶ ἀπταίστου, ἀμερί- μνου τε καὶ ἀφθάρτου εἰς αἰῶνα ζωῆς ἀπολαύοντα. Παῦσαι τοίνυν ταύτης τῆς ψεχτῆς μικροψυχίας, καὶ τῶν ἀφάτων θρήνων, χαρὰν δὲ μακαρίαν ἀνάλαβε, καὶ χρηστὰς προσδοκίας, καὶ ἀγαθὰς ἐλπίδας, ἵνα μὴ καὶ τὸν καλῶς ἀπελθόντα υἱὸν σω τῷ πένθει παρ- οργίσῃς, καὶ τὸν προσλαβόμενον αὐτὸν φιλοστόργως Δεσπότην ἀγανατῆσαι κατὰ σοῦ παρασκευάσῃς. Μνημόνευε δὲ τοῦ ἁγίου Ἀποστόλου γράφοντος· «Οὐ θέλω ὑμᾶς λυπεῖσθαι περὶ τῶν κοιμωμένων, ὥσπερ λυποῦνται Ἕλληνες μὴ ἔχοντες ἐλπίδα.» «Πάντοτε οὖν χαίρετε, ἀδιαλείπτως προσεύχεσθε, ἐν παντὶ εὐχαριστεῖτε· τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι τὸ θέλημα τοῦ Θεοῦ.» — Ο κόσμος παράγεται καὶ ἡ ἐπιθυμία, » φησὶν Ἰωάννης, ὃν ἐφίλει ὁ Ἰησοῦς διὰ τὴν καθαρότητα καὶ τὸ πρᾶον καὶ ἥμερον τοῦ ἤθους. Εἰ τοίνυν παρ- άγεται ἡ ἐπιθυμία, τουτέστι παύεται καὶ ἀπόλλυ- ται, πῶς αὐτὸς διδάσκεις, μετὰ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν τινας ἀνθρώπους φιληδόνους, πάλιν μετὰ θάνατον ἐπιθυ- μεῖν τῶν τοῦ προσκαίρου κόσμου ἡδέων;