Letter 203

203. To the Bishops of the Seaboard.

I have often had a strong impulse to meet with you, but always some hindrance has arisen to stand in the way of my eagerness. For either the weakness of my body has held me back — and you cannot be wholly ignorant how great a measure of it has been with me from my earliest years down to this old age, having grown up alongside me and disciplined me, according to the just judgment of God who orders all things in wisdom — or else the cares of the churches, or the struggles against those who rise up against the word of truth. And so up to the present I pass my days in much affliction and grief, conscious that what I owe toward you has been left undone. For I have heard from God — who for this very reason consented to His sojourn in the flesh, that by examples of what we ought to do He might give rule to our life, and by His own voice announce to us the gospel of the kingdom — that "By this shall all know that you are My disciples, if you love one another"; and I have heard that, as a parting gift to His own disciples, when He was about to complete His dispensation in the flesh, the Lord left them His own peace, saying, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you." I cannot persuade myself that, without love for one another, and without being at peace with all so far as it lies in me, I can be counted worthy to be called a servant of Jesus Christ. For I waited a long time, in case some visitation might come to us even from your charity. For you are not unaware that, set out in public before all, like the rocks that stand forth into the sea, we receive the fury of the heretical waves, and as they break around us they do not flood what lies behind us. When I say "we," I refer not to human strength, but to the grace of God, who shows His own power in the weakness of men, as the prophet says, speaking in the person of the Lord: "Will you not fear Me, who set the sand as a boundary to the sea?" For by the weakest of all things and the most contemptible, by the sand, the Mighty One bound fast the great and heavy sea. Since, then, our case too is something of this kind, it was fitting that from your charity some of your genuine brethren should constantly be sent to visit us in our distress, and that letters of love should come to us more frequently, both to strengthen our resolve and to set us right wherever we go astray. For we do not deny that we are subject to countless errors, being men and living in the flesh.

But since in the time before this, either because you did not perceive what was fitting, you left undone what was owed to us, most honored brethren, or because you were prepossessed by certain persons into the slanders against us, you did not think us worthy of a loving visitation — behold, now we ourselves take the lead in writing, and we declare that we are ready to strip ourselves bare before you of the charges brought against us; only let those who insult you consent to stand face to face with us before your Reverence. For if we too are convicted, we shall acknowledge our sin; and you, after the proofs, will find pardon with the Lord for withdrawing yourselves from communion with us sinners; and those who have proved the charge will have their reward for having brought to light our hidden wickedness. But if you condemn us before the proofs, we for our part shall have suffered no wrong, except the loss of that possession most precious of all to us, your love; while you, having no power to make us suffer even this, will also be seen to fight against the gospel which says:

"Does our law judge a man unless it first hears him and knows what he does?" But he who pours out his abuse upon us, and yet brings no proof of what he says, will be shown to have fastened an evil name upon himself by the unfitting use of his words. For how else ought we to call the slanderer than by giving him the very name his own conduct earns? Let not, then, the one who reviles us be a "devil" but an accuser; or rather, let him not even receive the name of accuser, but let him be a brother admonishing us in love, and bringing his proof for the sake of correction. And do not you become listeners to abuse, but examiners of proofs; nor let us be left without remedy, our sin remaining unrevealed to us.

For do not let this reasoning take hold of you — that those who dwell on the seaboard are outside the common affliction, and need no help from others; so what need have we of fellowship with others? For the Lord has separated the islands from the mainland by the sea, but He has bound the islanders to the men of the mainland by love. Nothing separates us from one another, brethren, unless of our own choice we submit to separation. We have one Lord, one faith, the same hope. Whether you reckon yourselves the head of the Church universal, the head cannot say to the feet, "I have no need of you"; or whether you rank yourselves in some other order of the Church's members, you cannot say to us who are set in the same body, "We have no need of you." For the hands need one another, the feet support one another, and the eyes have the clearness of their perception only in concert. We, for our part, confess our own weakness and seek your fellowship of spirit. For we know that, even though you are not present in the body, by the help of your prayers you will furnish us great benefit in the most pressing seasons. But for you to use such words — words that not even the nations who do not know God have used — is neither seemly among men nor pleasing to God. Indeed, we hear that those nations, even when they occupy a land sufficient for all their needs, nevertheless, on account of the uncertainty of the future, welcome alliance with one another and pursue intercourse as a thing that holds some gain. But we, who are of those fathers who laid down by law that through small tokens the symbols of communion should be carried about from the ends of the earth to its ends, and that all should be fellow citizens and members of one household with all — we now cut ourselves off from the inhabited world, and are neither ashamed of our isolation, nor count the rending of concord to be a loss; nor do we shudder that the fearful prophecy of our Lord reaches even to us, who said, "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of the many shall grow cold."

Not this, most honored brethren — do not endure this; but for what has passed, encourage us with peaceful letters and loving greetings, soothing as it were by some gentle touch the wound of our heart, which by your past neglect you have made in us. And whether you wish to come to us yourselves and search out our infirmities in person — whether they are really such as you hear, or whether by the additions of falsehood our faults are reported to you as heavier than they are — let this be done; we are ready with open hands to receive your coming, and to set ourselves forth for an exact testing; only let love govern all that is done. Or whether you wish to appoint among yourselves some place where we may come and both pay you the debt of visitation that is owed, and offer to you what trial of ourselves is possible, so as both to heal what has gone before and to leave henceforth no room for slanders — let this too be done. For assuredly, even if we carry about a weak flesh, yet so long as we draw breath we are bound to leave nothing undone of what builds up the churches of Christ.

Do not, then, set at naught this our entreaty; do not bring us to the necessity of declaring our grief even to others. For up to now, you know, brethren, we hide our sorrow within ourselves, ashamed to announce to our fellows who are far from us your estrangement toward us, lest we should grieve them too and bring joy to those who hate us. These things I have written alone for now; but I have sent them with the consent of all the brethren in Cappadocia, who also urged me not to employ any chance person as bearer of the letter, but a man who could supply, by his own understanding which he has from the grace of God, all that we have passed over in the letter, fearing lest we should let our discourse run on into great excess. I mean our most beloved and most reverend brother Peter, my fellow presbyter, whom receive in love and send forward to us in peace, that he may be to us a messenger of good things.