Letter 995

To Anthimus the Monk. Just as the students of physicians, when they read the books of the doctors, do not examine the names of the sick but the kinds of diseases and the powers of the remedies, so too do the God-loving men, when they read the divine Scripture, select out of the divine Scripture not the faults of the brethren but the diseases of their own passions, and the kinds of healing, and the medicines of the virtues. But you, dearest one, searching out of the divine Scripture not the faults of others but the diseases of your own passions, be earnest to recover the health of your soul. Farewell, most honored one. [The following fragment is appended to the letter:] ...to us concerning how it might be possible to attain the height of virtue, and that one must look toward that and not toward the lower things, and that the divine Scripture is the teacher of all, and that one must not lose heart if we do not immediately acquire perfection.

Ὥσπερ οἱ τῶν ἰατρῶν παῖδες, τὰ τῶν ἰατρικῶν βιβλίων ἀναγινώσκοντες, οὐχὶ τὰ τῶν νοσούντων ὀνόματα, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν νοσημάτων εἴδη, καὶ τὰς τῶν ἰαμάτων δυνάμεις ἐξετάζουσιν, οὕτω καὶ οἱ φιλόθεοι ἄνδρες, τὰ τῆς θείας γραφῆς ἀναγινώσκοντες, οὐχὶ τὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἐλαττώματα, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἰδίων παθῶν νοσήματα, καὶ τὰ τῆς ἰατρείας εἴδη, καὶ τὰ τῶν ἀρετῶν φάρμακα, ἐκ τῆς θείας γραφῆς ἐκλέγουσιν. Σὺ δὲ, ὦ φίλτατε, οὐχὶ τὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἐλαττώματα, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν σῶν παθῶν νοσήματα, ἐκ τῆς θείας γραφῆς ἐρευνῶν, τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ὑγίειαν ἀπολαβεῖν σπούδασον. Ἔρρωσο, τιμιώτατε. ἡμῖν περὶ τοῦ πῶς ἂν εἴη δυνατὸν τὸ ἀρετῆς ὕψος φθάσαι, καὶ ὅτι πρὸς ἐκεῖνο χρὴ βλέπειν, ἀλλὰ μὴ πρὸς τὰ κατώτερα, καὶ ὅτι ἡ θεία γραφὴ πάντων ἐστὶ διδάσκαλος, καὶ ὡς οὐ χρὴ ἀθυμεῖν, εἰ μὴ εὐθὺς τὴν τελειότητα κτησώμεθα.