Letter 96

To the Same Person. Why do you marvel if the well-disposed household servants of Christ attain to meats that are eternal and in no way subject to corruption, contending and training themselves in the fear of God, in faith, and in righteous deeds? For they will also have an abundance of divine wine, just as the righteous Noah became a husbandman and devoted himself to what is good, planting the vine. For, having passed beyond the flood of unbelief, they have drunk the sober wine and have become drunk, as David says: "The cup of God makes me most mightily drunk." And having become drunk, they have been stripped naked with a nakedness that brings no shame; for it is good to be stripped naked of wickedness and of folly.

Τί θαυμάζεις, εἰ κρεῶν τυγχάνουσιν ἀϊδίων, καὶ μηδαμῶς φθειρομένων οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ οἰκέται εὐνοϊκοί, ἀγωνίζοντες ἑαυτοὺς τῷ φόβῳ Θεοῦ, καὶ τῇ πίστει, καὶ τοῖς κατορθώμασι; Καὶ οἵνου γὰρ εὐπορήσουσι θείου, καθάπερ ὁ δίκαιος Νῶε γεωργὸς γέγονε, καὶ ἐφιλοκάλησε, φυτεύσας τὴν ἄμπελον. Ὑπερβάντες γὰρ τὸν κατακλυσμὸν τῆς ἀπιστίας, πεπώκασι τὸν νηφάλιον οἶνον, καὶ ἐμεθύσθησαν, καθὼς ὁ Δαυῒδ λέγει· «Τὸ ποτήριον τοῦ Θεοῦ μεθύσκει με κράτιστα»· καὶ μεθυσθέντες γεγύμνωνται ἀνεπαίσχυντον γύμνωσιν· καλὸν γὰρ γυμνοῦσθαι τῆς πονηρίας καὶ τῆς ἀνοησίας.