Letter 225: Theodore Studite, Letter 225; Greek heading: Τῷ αὐτῷ.

Beyond expectation I saw your letter, beloved child, and the brothers; for, as I had written beforehand, you did not hold back until September. Yet all the same I welcomed your eagerness, the unendurable force of your love, the ardor of your longing, your devotion to God in all things, and I would add your devotion to your homeland as well. You are my joy and my consolation; you, in the Lord, in all dangers and afflictions, are my firm foundation and my crown of boasting, together with all your fellow contestants and, before all, our brothers in Christ Jesus and our children. Therefore I rejoice also, blessing the God of my father, that you are in health of soul and body, since you have been so disposed by God to be released from bonds, that you might anoint those who are in bonds and, binding together those who have been set free, give them support; which indeed you do by the grace of Christ, exhorting, admonishing, consoling each one, as a true steward of God [oikonomos, the dispenser of God's household]. I beg you, then, this very thing: not to grow weary in laboring for the glory of Christ, for the securing of your salvation, for a boast to me who am at a loss in every good thing. Yet, brother, it is not in vain that we ran and run, both long ago and now, nor in vain that we toil; for it is for Christ and on account of Christ, for whom to suffer is Passover [Pascha, the Passover/Easter], for whom to be afflicted is joy. "If indeed we suffer together," he says, "that we may also be glorified together"; for I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. And rightly so; for the affliction here, of whatever kind, is shadowy and dreamlike, while the recompense there is endless life with eternal glory. Let us not, then, be ashamed, O child, of the present martyrdom; for it is the Lord's. Many out of love of Christ desired to see this, but did not attain it, whereas we have been counted worthy. What is this? To suffer for him, to be persecuted, to be taken captive, to be imprisoned, to be confined in exile from place to place, or perhaps even to be beaten, to become a spectacle both to angels and to men. And if they have even cast out our name as evil, anathematizing us privately and publicly along with the saints, is there not joy? Is there not cause to leap for gladness? You know, child, the Lord's beatitude; in these things you too be glad, rejoice together with all the children. For you are the body of Christ and members in part; and if one member suffers, all the members suffer together, if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice together. Seek out, he says, the things that are lacking: the spittings, the buffetings, and at the end the cross, the sweet nails of my Christ. Oh, who might be counted worthy to be crucified together, to be pierced by the lance together, a slave with his master, a man to mingle blood with the blood of the living God? With such a disposition the saints, advancing, rejoiced as they were cut to pieces, and sang as their limbs were severed. Our own joy too, therefore, has arrived; in part we have made trial of it (if indeed we should make trial of it to the end) by the grace and loving-kindness of Jesus Christ our Lord; for by grace may the victory be in anything whatever, so that no one may boast of having something of his own. So then we draw down the mercy of God in Christ Jesus through humility and active confidence. If, therefore, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of faith, if any tender mercies and compassions, fulfill my joy, that I, the wretched one, may say with the Apostle: be of the same mind, having the same love, of one soul, minded toward the one thing, doing nothing through rivalry or vainglory, opposing and setting yourselves against one another; for it is natural that even in the very contests for piety the love of being first and the love of strife should creep in. But you, as ministers of God (for in your person I include also those who are over you, who may also read this letter), give no offense in anything, lest your ministry be blamed; so be it. Concerning those of whom you wrote to me that they have come to repentance, turning to the members of our body--even if we are unworthy, yet we are physicians. The penance, therefore, which we imposed upon Orestes when he came here, through the voice of the brothers (for we did not even judge it good to be seen together with him, for many reasons), let the rest also have this: to be without share in the holy things and in the other observances. You ask, until when? Until the clear sky of orthodoxy shines forth again. If, he says, death should chance to come? Let them commune; we believe that the sin has been forgiven them. And since you have written that you dispute with one another about this and that, settle your problems and be at peace among yourselves. These men are not to be received as those who turn back from heresy (if indeed even there an observance of difference, no ordinary one, holds between this case and that), but as those who have denied the name of the Lord, that is, who upon their denial of him have communed with the fighters against Christ [the iconoclasts] through fear or some other reversal of fortune; for upon their denial of him they communed with men manifestly denying his holy icon [eikon, the sacred image]. For the denial of the icon ascends to the prototype, as he who cries out cries, and it is not otherwise, even if some should wish to minimize the denial. If, then, not being orthodox formerly, nor initiated into the truth, they leaped over to us, illumined as to the truth by divine providence, the case stood otherwise; and those too are not to be received in just any way, but only through the agreement of very many orthodox, as the divine Basil [Basil of Caesarea] indicated to those confined from Egypt in Mesopotamia, reproaching them for receiving men without due caution. Or are you ignorant of what the same father says in another letter? "I do not recognize as a bishop, nor would I number among bishops, the man advanced to a presidency by profane hands for the overthrow of the faith"--such as those now are who, not through ignorance but through love of rule, leap upon the thrones, having willingly given up the truth and taken in exchange the presidency of impiety. "If after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus," says the Apostle, "what does it profit me?" I too say: if, according to you, after the denial, that is, after communion with the fighters against Christ, such men are at once to be received and left unpunished, why do I needlessly endure danger every day, and why do I not, having deserted to the adversaries, again through repentance be ranked without penalty among the orthodox? Be not deceived: evil companionships corrupt good morals. Become sober in the Lord. What fellowship has light with darkness, that our affairs should be kept on a par with those of the fighters against Christ? As though, he says, they themselves receive with joy and without penalty those who come over to them from orthodoxy (alas!), it would then be fitting that we too should crown us, the deniers of Christ, and celebrate solemnly, as those men do certain of theirs. Brothers, I beg you, do not be children in your minds, but be perfected through the true knowledge. Concerning those outside our brotherhood, who am I to render an account? But if anyone should compel me, since love, being the fulfillment of the law, has also persuasiveness, I say this, which also applies to our own people; for those too are our own kind. A presbyter who has either signed [the iconoclast confession] or communed out of fear, not bearing the ill-treatment, let him be barred from communion; for having communed against Christ, how could he commune with Christ? For the release from the suspension of priestly ministry rests with synodal examination. He who has seemed to wrestle his way back after his defeat, let him withdraw from the place in which he sat before; since how shall the denial he underwent be known both to himself and to others? I cannot permit it, especially when his wrestling-back did not take place by some conspicuous act, such as in the case of the man of Laodicea; for not even to that man would I, for my part, counsel to perform priestly ministry, or even merely to commune, because of the conspicuous case. So it is in the case of any monk whatever, so in the case of a layman: barring from communion, together with the other worthy fruits of repentance, and awaiting the season of orthodoxy. Yet since it is admissible for the one imposing penance to make both reduction and addition--I mean with respect to communion--as the times of the heresy are prolonged according to the unsearchable judgments of the just wrath of God, it is possible even before a synod to release in the Lord, according as the person has fallen into a heavier or lighter case, and according to the repentance which he again shows; and as for both our own people and those outside, it is not to be forbidden to eat together with them, though not so that they should also bless until their release. Such are the views that have appeared to me concerning these matters, in the fear of God and in truth. But if anything more recent comes from you or from others, let me be taught; for I confess that, as one who sins much, I admit that I am also ignorant of much. Greet your brothers and my children, the abba Peter and Ignatios and Tithoios, longed for by me in the Lord and my fellow workers; greet those of your holy company who are dear to me; greet the keepers of the mysteries, my beloved bowels of affection; greet the woman who labors in the Lord, from whom I am parted and yet abound in good things; greet all the brothers in Christ, even if they be laymen, among whom is Sergios the pious and surety. The brothers who are with me greet you and the others. The Lord Jesus Christ be with you, ever-longed-for brothers; remember my lowliness.