Letter 882

To Neilos the Monk. "My tears," says the blessed David, "became bread to me day and night" [Psalm 41:4 LXX]. For the man who weeps neither at random nor in vain, but from a disposition fond of toil, and who employs his weeping in a manner pleasing to God, that man is nourished by his own tears as though by bread, not only in the cheerful, agreeable, and gladdening circumstances, which the holy man calls "day," but also in the distressing and grievous ones, which the same holy man names "night" symbolically. For blessed are those who at this very moment mourn and cultivate the saving sorrow, so that in the time to come they may greatly rejoice; for those who have sown their tears in the present life, it is manifest that on that day they will reap the sheaves of an exultation that shall never cease. But upon certain of those who are unwilling to repent of their own faults, the Lord brings afflictions and torment of the body, so that through the chastisement of those people the negligent, and the more sensitive ones, before they undergo gloomy hardships, may come to amendment, and may not persist in any defect.

‘Ἐγενήθη, φησὶν ὁ μακάριος Δαυΐδ, τὰ δάκρυά μου ἐμοὶ ἄρτος ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτός. ’ Ὁ γὰρ μὴ εἰκῇ μηδὲ μάτην δακρύων, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ διαθέσεως φιλοπόνου, καὶ φιλοθέῳ τῷ κλαυθμῷ κεχρημένος, ἐκεῖνος τοῖς οἰκείοις δάκρυσι τρέφεται δίκην ἄρτου, οὐκ ἐν τοῖς ἱλαροῖς μόνον, καὶ χρηστοῖς, καὶ θυμήρεσιν, ἅπερ ἡμέραν καλεῖ ὁ ἅγιος ἄνθρωπος, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τοῖς περιστατικοῖς, καὶ λυπηροῖς, ἅπερ νύκτα συμβολικῶς ὀνομάζει ὁ αὐτὸς ἅγιος. Μακάριοι γὰρ οἱ ἀρτίως πενθοῦντες καὶ γεωργοῦντες τὸ σωτήριον πένθος, ἵνα κατὰ τὸ μέλλον μεγάλως εὐφρανθῶσιν· οἱ γὰρ ἐν τῷ παρόντι βίῳ τὰ δάκρυα σπείραντες, πρόδηλον ὅτι ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ τὰ δράγματα τῆς ἀγαλλιάσεως τῆς μήποτε ληξούσης θεριεῦσι. Τισὶ δὲ τῶν μὴ θελόντων ἐπὶ τοῖς ἰδίοις σφάλμασι μετανοεῖν, ἐπιφέρει ὁ Κύριος θλίψεις, καὶ βασανισμὸν σώματος, ὅπως διὰ τῆς ἐκείνων κολάσεως, οἱ ἀμελεῖς, καὶ εὐαισθητότεροι πρὶν σκυθρωπῶν ὑπομεῖναι, εἰς διόρθωσιν ἔλθωσι, καὶ μὴ ἐγχρονίσωσιν ἔν τινι ἐλαττώματι.