Letter 340: Theodore Studite, Letter 340; Greek heading: Θαλελαίῳ τέκνῳ.

You did well to write to me, beloved child; for in this you have shown your faith and your love. But why do you sing praises of me, of which I am wholly destitute? Do you not know that I am a sinner and untrained in speech? But love is the most thievish of things, attaching qualities that do not exist to those who deserve no reward, on the part of those who love them. So, leaving off praising, pray rather, child, that I may be strengthened in the Lord and saved in every way from the evil one. May your bodily infirmity be turned to thanksgiving toward God, and do not grieve over the manner from which it came. The Lord knows how to assign what is profitable to each, though I do not know whence it came upon you. Let the blasphemy be despised and it will depart the more quickly; but when it is feared, it comes upon you all the more. May you be delivered from it by the strengthening of God. Even if there is much affliction from the persecutors, yet the prize is heavenly. If therefore we suffer together, let us also be glorified together [echoing Romans 8:17]; for this is not a time for ease, but for martyrdom. As for the question concerning the presbyter who seems to be orthodox but eats together with a bishop, as you have said: if he should cease from such common dining, with a penance of suspension from the priestly service for a certain time, so that he may no longer fall into the same lapse, he has a cure for serving God as a priest. But if he is indifferent, let not a man's own wealth become his ransom, so as to escape by a gift both from heretical communion [koinonia, sharing in the sacraments and fellowship of heretics] and from any other sinful deed; he must not, in the exchange, give what is good and receive what is worse, as it were to give light and receive darkness. Not even if someone should offer all the wealth of the world and yet hold communion with the heresy [hairesis, the iconoclast error] does he become a friend of God, but an enemy. And why do I speak of communion? Even if he sits down with the heretics in food and drink and friendship, he is liable; this is the verdict of Chrysostom [John Chrysostom], since it is also that of every saint. But how can it be involuntary, and not a deed, for one who seems to be of right mind and yet has communion with the heresy? It is involuntary when someone forcibly pries open the mouth of an orthodox person and pours in the heretical communion, which the heretics of old did and which, as I have learned, those who now fight against Christ are doing; but to partake of one's own accord is voluntary. And if it be out of fear (for this is the matter in question), not even thus will he have a defense; for we hear, "Do not fear those who kill the body, but God, who consigns both together to the gehenna [Gehenna, the hell of fire] of eternal fire" [Matthew 10:28]. Truly the whole world is not of equal worth as a single soul that keeps itself unshared both in heretical communion and in every evil; but those who partake of both are of equal value with grass, with wood, with straw [echoing 1 Corinthians 3:12]. These the testing fire of the judgment will burn up, but it will preserve those who practiced them, kept ever in flames and not consumed.

Καλῶς ἐποίησας ἐπιστείλας μοι, τέκνον ἠγαπημένον· ἔδειξας γὰρ ἐν τούτῳ τὴν πίστιν καὶ ἀγάπην σου. ἀλλὰ τί μοι ἐπαίνους ᾄδεις, ὧν ἀμοιρῶ κατὰ πάντα; οὐκ οἶδας ὅτι ἁμαρτωλὸς ἐγὼ καὶ ἰδιώτης τῷ λόγῳ; ἀλλ' ἡ ἀγάπη κλεπτίστατος, τὰ μὴ ὄντα τοῖς ἀγεράστοις παρὰ τῶν φιλούντων προσάπτουσα. ἀφέμενος οὖν τὸ ἐπαινεῖν προσεύχου μᾶλλον, τέκνον, στηρίζεσθαί με ἐν Κυρίῳ καὶ σῴζεσθαι ἐν παντὶ τρόπῳ ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ. ἡ σωματική σου ἀσθένεια ἐν εὐχαριστίᾳ εἴη πρὸς θεὸν καὶ μὴ λυποῦ τὸν τρόπον ἐξ οὗ ἦλθεν. οἶδεν Κύριος τὰ συμφέροντα ἑκάστῳ τιθέναι, πλὴν ἀγνοῶ ὅθεν σοι ἧκεν· ἡ βλασφημία καταφρονείσθω καὶ οἰχήσεται θᾶττον, φοβοῦσα δὲ μᾶλλον παραγίνεται. ἧς ῥυσθείης θεοῦ ἐπιρρώσει. εἰ καὶ καταπόνησις πολλὴ παρὰ τῶν διωκτῶν, ἀλλὰ τὸ βραβεῖον οὐράνιον. εἴπερ οὖν συμπάσχομεν, καὶ συνδοξασθῶμεν· οὐ γὰρ εὐπαθείας ὁ καιρός, ἀλλὰ μαρτυρίου. Τὸ πρόβλημα περὶ τοῦ πρεσβυτέρου τοῦ ὀρθοδοξεῖν δοκοῦντος, συνεσθίοντος δὲ ἐπισκόπῳ, καθὰ εἴρηκας, εἰ μὲν παύσοιτο τῆς τοιαύτης συνεστιάσεως μετ' ἐπιτιμίου ἀπείρξεως τῆς ἱερουργίας ἕως τινὸς χρόνου μηκέτι εἰς τὸν αὐτὸν ὄλισθον ὑποπίπτειν, ἔχει ἴασιν τοῦ ἱερουργεῖν θεῷ· εἰ δὲ ἀδιαφοροίη, μὴ γένοιτο λύτρον ἀνδρὸς ὁ ἴδιος πλοῦτος τοῦ φυγεῖν τῇ δόσει καὶ αἱρετικῆς κοινωνίας καὶ ἁμαρτητικῆς ἄλλης πράξεως, οὐ μὴν τῇ ἀνταλλαγῇ δοῦναι τὸ καλὸν καὶ λαβεῖν τὸ χεῖρον, οἷον δοῦναι φῶς καὶ λαβεῖν σκότος. οὐδ' ἂν τὰ ὅλα χρήματα τοῦ κόσμου παρέξει τις καὶ κοινωνοίη τῇ αἱρέσει, φίλος θεοῦ καθίσταται, ἀλλ' ἐχθρός. καὶ τί λέγω κοινωνίας; κἂν ἐν βρώματι καὶ πόματι καὶ φιλίᾳ συγκάτεισι τοῖς αἱρετικοῖς, ὑπεύθυνος· τοῦ Χρυσοστόμου ἡ ἀπόφασις, ἐπεὶ καὶ παντὸς ἁγίου. πῶς δὲ ἀκούσιον καὶ οὐκ ἔργον τῷ δοκοῦντι ὀρθοφρονεῖν, κοινωνοῦντι δὲ ὅμως τῇ αἱρέσει; ἀκούσιόν ἐστιν, ὅταν τὸ στόμα τις ὀρθοδόξου βιαίως ἀναχάνας ἐγχέῃ τὴν αἱρετικὴν κοινωνίαν, ὅπερ ἐποίησαν οἱ πάλαι αἱρετικοὶ καὶ ποιοῦσιν, ὡς ἔμαθον, οἱ νυνὶ χριστομάχοι· τὸ δὲ ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ μετασχεῖν ἑκούσιον. εἰ δὲ ὅτι δέει (τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι τὸ ζητούμενον), οὐδὲ οὕτως ἕξει ἀπολογίαν· μὴ φοβεῖσθε γὰρ ἀπὸ τῶν ἀποκτενόντων τὸ σῶμα, ἀλλὰ θεόν, τὸν τὸ συναμφότερον γεέννῃ αἰωνίου πυρὸς παραπέμποντα, ἀκούομεν. ἀληθῶς ὁ κόσμος ὅλος ἀντάξιος μιᾶς ψυχῆς οὐκ ἔστιν, τῆς φυλαττούσης ἑαυτὴν ἀμέτοχον καὶ αἱρετικῆς κοινωνίας καὶ παντὸς κακοῦ· οἱ δὲ ἀμφοτέρων μέτοχοι χόρτῳ ἰσότιμοι, ξύλοις, καλάμῃ. ἃ κατακαύσειεν τὸ δοκιμαστικὸν πῦρ τῆς κρίσεως, τοὺς δ' αὐτῶν πράκτορας συντηρήσει ἀιδίως φλογιζομένους καὶ μὴ χωνευομένους.