Letter 71: Severus answers Zacharias' question about whether an impure gift can become pure.

Zacharias has asked how an impure gift can become pure. Severus answers by turning the question back on the giver's spirit. If a person is the first to accuse himself, even when no one else blames him, that humility is already pleasing to God. The one who begins by naming his own fault can, step by step, be led to abandon the injustice behind the gift. Severus therefore praises Zacharias for giving and for giving with a conscience awake enough to question itself. But praise is not the end of the matter. Severus says Zacharias would be still more admirable if he joined his generosity to orthodox communion. A person should not think that worshiping in impressive prayer-houses makes communion safe when the faith itself is unsound. Stone, marble, and splendid buildings do not make the church rich if spiritual gifts have been stripped away. The visible church can be decorated while the true church is left bare. The letter is a compact theology of gifts and communion. Offerings matter, repentance matters, and self-accusation matters. Yet none of them can be used to avoid the question of shared prayer and shared faith. Severus wants Zacharias to let the very discomfort of his question lead him further: from giving, to repentance, to separation from unsound communion, and finally to a form of worship where the beauty is not just in the building but in the truth confessed there. His answer is severe, but not dismissive. Severus does not tell Zacharias that the gift is worthless. He treats the question as evidence that conscience is still active and can be educated. That is why the letter moves from praise to correction: the good beginning must be followed through until the giver's worship, not only his offering, becomes pure.

You say, " What can be made pure by that which is impure? " But I say that this expression, inasmuch 1 Mk. V. 33, 34. - TtVAos. IV. I. as it was uttered in the right spirit, makes your offering pure, although it was by nature impure and a thing acquired by iniquity (we will refrain from mentioning this in words). For there is nothing that makes God so glad as for a man to be the first to blame himself, even though he be a man who is free from all blame. He who has been the first to blame himself, progressing by degrees, will certainly give up the iniquity also. Wherefore He cries through the prophet, " Tell thou thy sins first, that thou mayest be justified."^ So also that Canaanite woman, when she was compared to a dog and accepted the insult as true, heard the high and loud testimony, " O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee as thou wilt."" You deserve admiration for giving, and giving in such a spirit: but you would certainly have deserved greater admiration, if while doing this you communi- cated with us the orthodox. Do not think to yourself that, because you communicate with those who have prayer-house buildings, and for this reason say that you communicate with the church, that you say anything sound. This argument is childish and ridiculous: for a church is a collection of pious men which is joined in one union by right belief As a witness of this, take Gregory the Theologian. In the discourse against the Arians he said, " These have the houses, we the indweller: these the temples, we God, and the privilege of becoming temples of the ^ Is. xliii. 26. 2 Mt. XV. 28. living God and living ones, soul-possessing oblations, rational whole burnt-offerings, perfect sacrifices to God through the adored Trinity: these a people, we angels: these presumption, we faith: these the power of threatening, we of praying: these the power of throwino", we of endurino-: these s"old and silver, we the pure word. You have made for yourselves houses of two stories and three stories (know the words of Scripture: " A cooling chamber divided by windows "): but these are not yet higher than my faith and heaven to which I am going. Small is my flock, but it does not go towards the rock. Narrow is my fold, yet it cannot be leaped over by wolves: yet it is not such as to admit a robber, or to be captured by thieves and strano-ers."^ So far he. And we mig-ht have further quoted many other testimonies of the God- clad fathers, which say this same thing. But, not to extend the discussion to a great length, I leave the rest on one side, but will cite for you a passage from a certain presbyter (Isidore, I mean, a native of your city of Pelusium, who was wise in learning and in piety) which is sufficient for this present purpose. In writing to a certain bishop named Theodosius he speaks thus: " Let Eusebius who presides over the people that have their habitation in Pelusium learn what a church is. For it is most shameful and grievous that, when he does not know even this same thing, he should think to perform priestly functions. ^ Or. xxxiii. 15. IV. I. For that the gathering of holy men gathered from right faith and illustrious character is a church, is well-known to those who have tasted wisdom. And that he, not knowing this, is pulling down that which is really the church by giving offence to many, while raising up the church-building, and spoiling the former by driving out the earnest men, while em- bellishing the latter with fine marble, this also is well- known to everyone. But, if he were to gain any distinct knowledge that a church is one thino- and a church-building another (for the former is made up of spotless souls, while the latter is built of stones and beams) I think he will give up pulling down the former, and embellishing the latter beyond what is needful. For it was not for walls, but for souls that the King of Heaven came here. But, if he pretends not to know the fact stated, although it is abundantly clear even to those who are very deficient, I will try to explain this by examples. For, as a sacrifice-building is one thing and a sacrifice another, and an incense-building one thing and incense another, and a council-buildingf one thinof and a council another (for the former means the place in which they assemble, and the latter the men who deliberate, on whom the issues both of danger and of safety rest), so also with a church-building and a church. But, if he shall say that even so he has not understood, let him learn that in the apostles' days, when the church abounded in spiritual gifts, and a glorious mode of life was practised, there were no church-buildings: but in our clays the church-buildings are embellished beyond what is right: while the church (but I do not wish to say anything harsh) is jeered at. For my part, if the choice had been laid before me, I would have chosen to be in those times, in which church- buildings embellished in this way did not exist, but the church was crowned with heavenly and divine gifts, rather than in these, in which the church- building's are embellished with all kinds of marbles, but the church is stripped and bare of those spiritual gifts." ^