Letter 487

To Ambaïchus the Curator [curator, a financial and administrative official]. Why do you toil, O man, and wear yourself out endlessly? Why do you drive yourself on toward false vanity? Such a frame of mind is something held wretched, not blessed, by the divine Prophet. For he says: "Blessed is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord, and who has not looked upon vanities and false madnesses" [Psalm 39:5 LXX / Psalm 40:4]. For surely we are not the ones who accomplish the affairs of our own life? It is God who administers it; and human diligence, if it does not meet with the help of God, of necessity fails of its end; but the administration of God, even without human cooperation, supplies good things in perfect measure. It is good, therefore, to embrace what is good. And what would this be, except for us, rooted and made strong in firm and unlying faith, to cast every care and anxiety upon the Lord?

Τί μοχθεῖς, ἄνθρωπε, καὶ κάμνεις ἀπέραντα; τί κατελαύνεις σαυτὸν πρὸς τὴν ψευδῆ ματαιότητα; Τεταλανισμένον τοῦτό γε, οὐχὶ μακαριζόμενον ὑπὸ θείου Προφήτου τὸ τοιόνδε φρόνημα. « Μακάριος γάρ, φησὶν, ἀνήρ, οὗ ἐστι τὸ ὄνομα Κυρίου ἐλπὶς αὐ- τοῦ, καὶ οὐκ ἐπέβλεψεν εἰς ματαιότητας, καὶ μανίας ψευδεῖς.» Μὴ γὰρ ἡμεῖς ἐσμεν οἱ τὰ τῆς ζωῆς ἀνύον- τες ἑαυτῶν; Θεός ἐστιν ὁ ταύτην οἰκονομῶν· καὶ ᾗ μὲν ἀνθρωπίνη σπουδή, μὴ τυχούσα τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ βοηθείας, ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἀποτυγχάνει τοῦ τέλους· ἡ δὲ τοῦ θεοῦ οἰκονομία, καὶ δίχα τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης συμ- πράξεως τέλεια παρέχει τὰ ἀγαθά. Καλὸν τοίνυν ἐστὶν ἀσπάζεσθαι τὸ καλόν. Τί δ’ ἂν εἴη τοῦτο, ἢ τῷ πίστει βεβαίᾳ καὶ ἀψευδεῖ ῥιζωθέντας ἡμᾶς; καὶ ἰσχυροποιηθέντας, πᾶσαν ἐπὶ Κύριον ῥίπτειν φροντίδα καὶ μέριμναν;