Letter 34
Our God loves mercy and judgment, as David has said [Psalm 33:5 LXX], so that neither may mercy make us slack, nor judgment alone work despair. For if you, He says, should mark iniquities, O God, who shall stand? [Psalm 129:3 LXX]. The Judge wishes to have mercy on you and to impart His own compassion, if He finds you humbled after the sin, and your soul, which is enslaved to God, laboring together toward the healing of its sinfulness; if the Lord beholds you become pitiable, He will furnish you His own mercy ungrudgingly. But if He sees a heart that is proud, and unbelieving, and unrepentant, and in no way fearing the judgment to come, then indeed, then God loves judgment, just as a physician with fomentations and gentle plasters wishes to reduce the swelling. But when he sees the tumor resisting unyieldingly and harshly, casting aside the oil and the soft regimen, he chooses thereafter the use of the iron [the surgeon's knife]. The Lord, therefore, loves mercy and judgment: mercy upon those who repent, but judgment upon the hard and unyielding.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν ἀγαπᾷ ἐλεημοσύνην καὶ κρίσιν, καθὼς εἴρηκε Δαυΐδ· ἵνα μήτε ὁ ἔλεος χαυνώσῃ ἡμᾶς, μήτε μόνη ἡ κρίσις ἀπόγνωσιν ἐνεργήσηται. Ἐὰν γάρ, φησὶ, παρατηρήσῃ ἀνομίας ὁ Θεός, τίς ὑποστήσεται; βούλεται σε ὁ κριτὴς ἐλεῆσαι, καὶ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ οἰκτειρμὸν μεταδοῦναι, ἐὰν εὕρῃ σε μετὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τεταπεινωμένον, καὶ τὴν δουλεύουσαν τῷ Θεῷ πρὸς τὸ συγκαμεῖν τοῦ ἰαθῆναι τὴν ἁμαρτωλῶν ψυχήν σου, ἐὰν θεάσηταί σε ὁ Κύριος ἐλεεινὸν γενόμενον, ἐπιχορηγήσει σοι ἄφθονον τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἐλεημοσύνην. Ἐὰν δὲ καρδίαν ὑπερήφανον, καὶ ἄπιστον, καὶ ἀμετανόητον θεωρήσῃ, καὶ μηδαμῶς φοδουμένην τὸ μέλλον κριτήριον, τότε δὴ, τότε ἀγαπᾷ ὁ Θεὸς τὴν κρίσιν, ὥσπερ ἰατρὸς καταντλήσμασι, καὶ περιπλάσμασιν ἁπαλοῖς βούλεται καταστεῖλαι τὸ οἴδημα. Ἐπὰν δὲ ἴδῃ ἀνενδότως, καὶ σκληρῶς ἀντιτυποῦντα τὸν ὄγκον, ῥίψας τὸ ἔλαιον, καὶ τὴν μαλακὴν ἀγωγήν, αἱρεῖται λοιπὸν τὴν τοῦ σιδήρου χρῆσιν. Ἀγαπᾷ τοίνυν ἐλεημοσύνην καὶ κρίσιν ὁ Κύριος· ἐλεημοσύνην μὲν ἐπὶ τῶν μετανοούντων, κρίσιν δὲ ἐπὶ τῶν σκληρῶν καὶ ἀνενδότων.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern nilus ancyra workflow v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: project source import
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