Letter 878

To Philemon the Bishop. To grow slack at the time of the enemy's assaults, and to be dissipated, and not with an austere mind to remember the fearful judgments of the Lord, but to give in to the pleasures and to be carried down toward the will of the flesh - this would be to fall from the lattice, and to suffer a most grievous disease of the soul, far more painful than bodily sickness. For it says: "Uzziah the king fell from the lattice and fell sick with a deadly sickness" [conflating King Ozias/Uzziah, struck down in 2 Chronicles 26, with the fall through the lattice of 4 Kingdoms (2 Kings) 1:2] - that is to say, the most kingly mind has fallen into the intelligible sickness of practical sin.

Τὸ ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῶν προσβολῶν τοῦ ἐχθροῦ χαυνοῦσθαι, καὶ διαχεῖσθαι, καὶ μὴ αὐστηρῷ φρονήματι μνημονεύειν τῶν φοβερῶν κριμάτων τοῦ Κυρίου, ἀλλ᾽ ἐνδιδόναι ταῖς ἡδοναῖς, καὶ πρὸς τὸ θέλημα τῆς σαρκὸς καταφέρεσθαι, τοῦτο ἂν εἴη τὸ πεσεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ δικτυωτοῦ, καὶ νοσεῖν νόσον χαλεπωτάτην ψυχῆς, πολὺ τῆς σωματικῆς ἀῤῥωστίας ἀργαλετωτέραν. « Ἔπεσε γὰρ, φησίν, Ὀζίας ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ δικτυωτοῦ καὶ ἡῤῥώστησεν ἀῤῥωστίαν θανατηφόρον, τοῦ βασιλικωτάτου νοὸς δηλαδὴ πεπτωκότος εἰς τὴν νοητὴν τῆς πρακτικῆς ἁμαρτίας.