Letter 222

222. To the Chalcidians.

The letter of your Reverence, appearing in a time of affliction, became to us such as often comes to contending horses, when in the steady noonday, gasping with violent breath as they draw in the dust in the midst of the course, water is poured upon their mouths. For we drew breath again from the continuance of the trials, and at once we were strengthened by your words, and by the memory of your contests we became more vigorous for bearing without yielding the contest that is set before us. For the conflagration, which has fed upon much of the East, is now creeping over ours as well, and, having burned all around, strives contentiously to lay hold even of the churches in Cappadocia, which until now the smoke from the neighborhood moved to tears. Henceforth, then, it hastens to lay hold even of us — which may the Lord turn back by the breath of His mouth, and cut through the flame of this wicked fire. For who is so cowardly and unmanly, or so untrained for the labors of the athlete, as not to be strengthened for the contest by your cheering cries, and to pray to be proclaimed a wearer of the crown along with you? For you stripped first in the arena of piety, and beat off many trials of heretical wrestlings, and endured the great burning heat of the trials — both you who are the chief men of the church, to whom the service of the altar has been entrusted, and the individuals of the people, and the more powerful. For this above all is admirable in you and worthy of all acceptance, that you are all one in the Lord, some leading toward the good, others following with one accord. Therefore you are also stronger than the assault of the adversaries, giving from no member any handle to those who contend against you.

For this reason we pray night and day to the King of the Ages, that He guard the people in the soundness of the faith, and guard for him the clergy, like a head set unimpaired upon the height, and furnishing of itself forethought to the members of the body beneath. For when the eyes do their proper work, the labors of the hands are skilled, the movements of the feet are without stumbling, and no part of the body is deprived of the fitting providence. Wherefore we beg you, what you do and will do, to hold fast to one another, and that you who have been entrusted with the care of souls should hold together the individuals, and cherish them as beloved children, while the people preserve toward you the reverence and honor owed to fathers, so that in the good order of the church both your strength may be preserved, and the firmness of the faith in Christ, and the name of God may be glorified, and the beauty of love may abound and multiply. And may we, hearing of it, rejoice at your advancement according to God; and if we are still bidden to sojourn in this world through the flesh, may we see you at some time in the peace of God; but if we are bidden henceforth to depart from this life, may we see you in the splendor of the saints, crowned among those who are of good repute through endurance and every display of good works.