Letter 92: Severus tells John and John that his silence was not displeasure and that their actions are very pleasing.

Severus tells John and John that his praise for them is not a matter of effort or literary exercise. It comes from abundance of heart. Whenever he thinks of their actions, he finds it hard to turn away from them. They are like stars giving light in a dark time, and their scarcity makes them more precious. The opening is lavish, but it is not empty. Severus needs them to understand that their work has become a real consolation in exile. He calls them salt: sharp, preserving, and instructive. He does not want them to become proud, but he does want them to keep acting. In one striking line, he says he wants their deeds, not merely their presence. They should remain in the flesh and continue serving, because the church needs the kind of courage and discretion they show. Their ascetic reputation matters only if it turns into visible help for the orthodox. The letter also touches the mission at Ascalon. Severus explains that his earlier silence should not be read as displeasure. Constant anxieties interrupted him, but he rejoices that they have begun planting a good plantation of faith there too. Even if opponents mock them as people coming out of hiding, Severus answers with the courage of Jonathan: if the Lord has delivered the enemy into Israel's hand, smallness and concealment do not decide the outcome. The pastoral value of the letter lies in its reassurance. John and John are not to interpret every silence from Severus as correction, nor every delay as doubt. He wants them to keep moving without needing constant approval. Everything done by them in this cause, he says, is pleasing and very pleasing. That trust is itself a commission: keep planting, keep shining, and keep giving the church examples of disciplined zeal. Severus also turns their courage into a rule for communication. His delays are not rejection, and their hidden labor is not wasted because it lacks constant praise. Ascalon matters because small beginnings can become a plantation of faith. The two Johns should not wait for perfect conditions or public strength before acting. If their work is orthodox, careful, and generous, it already gives light. Their task is to keep making faith visible in places where opponents assume that fear has silenced everyone. This is also a letter about trust between separated co-workers. Severus knows that distance can turn silence into suspicion, especially when every delay happens inside controversy and exile. He therefore names the misunderstanding and removes it. His affection has not cooled, their work has not been forgotten, and Ascalon's new growth should be treated as evidence that God can make hidden labor fruitful before it becomes publicly impressive.

Truly I say, and you ought certainly to believe me when I say, that it is not as the result of effort or of cogitation that I proceed to utter praises of you when- ever I write an epistle to you, but out of the abund- ance of my heart according to the Lord's saying that does not lie my mouth is opened to speak. ^ Where- fore, as soon as I reflect upon your actions, I find it hard to draw myself away from them and I continue to think of them, and I cannot bear to keep silence. I am in the same state as men who happen upon the 1 Job vii. II. '^ Id. xix. 4. ^ Id. vi. 24. ^ Id. xxxix. 34, 35. ^ Lu. vi. 45. sight of a lovely body, and then, before they have sated themselves with the beauty or sufficiently gazed at it, are separated from it by force by someone. In order to explain to you the astringent and in- structive character of the salt that is in you, I will say this much only. You are honoured men and capable after the manner of ogreat stars that shine and give light, such as were our Peter and Isaiah^ the renowned men, seeing that you do not remain hid, but with them give forth rays that are like theirs, or else in a small degree inferior, and give light to " them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death " " as it is written: but now the scarceness and lack of such men makes you more honoured and causes you to be more highly reputed than they. Do not therefore behave haughtily to us in our hunger. It is your actions that we want, not you. Remain in the flesh. In fact not only when writing an epistle, but also when engaged in any ordinary conversation, if I ever do converse with any- one, I bring forward the mention of you like some pleasant odour, and I please both myself and those that hear. Do not therefore think that the words written are as you say the words of a scribe who has scattered "things old and things new,"^ but the words of love and of need only: since neither am I among those who praise at random, nor are you among those who delight in praises, and the subject * of the letter itself is not concerned with praises. ^ Cf. Land, Anec. Syr. iii. 346 ff.; Zach. Rh. v. 9, vi. 3. 2 Lu. i. 79. ^ Mt. xiii. 52. ^ V7rd^eo-is. I incurred a ggreat debt of gratitude to our God and Saviour Christ when I learned that you the saintly- presbyter had been restored to health after the deadly sickness, and that you are in tangible reality officiating in the rational sacrifices. I am much surprised that you say that you were in doubt about the letter that was written by the saintly bishops who are settled here/ It was in fact free from all misunderstanding: especially in the matter of givino- authority to the believers there and in particular to the solitary order to recgive or not recgive those who wish truly to repent: and, what is very important, that the forgiveness should await the assent of everyone, so that it should also require the unanimous opinion of the bishops who are absent. When all these things are put together, they both make those who made answer to the question blameless, and, when the precepts contained in the letter have been carried out, the reconciliation of all remains to be accomplished. I do not mention that the authors of the epistle followed the regulations of Timothy^ of holy memory in all points. I do not say these things as if I had myself given counsel upon the matter. No man has known our place of abode at all or where we are, except only those whom we informed for the sake of the necessary requirements of our life. However the devout pres- byter Thomas, having been invited by the bishops, in order that he might not be thought to be a haughty 1 Cf. -• Cf. pp. 320, 326. and unsociable man, heard and answered them, and in proportion to the power that is in him often sowed the seed of caution in those that were willing-. As to the sign that was seen in the sky, it was seen here also in the same way and for many days. Among wise men outside an appearance of this kind consisting in the rising of an unusual star is called a dokias or krinthiya: ^ and, as thought even by those who have attained knowledge in such things, it betokens a change in affairs. In accordance with the purport of the divine words, the aforesaid star presented the shape of a rod: thus leading us, so to speak, to remember Him who says, "If they profane my statutes and keep not my commandments, I will visit their lawlessnesses with a rod, and their iniquities with stripes." Pray therefore that the other statement may be also added and applied upon our repentance, " But my grace will I not remove from them, nor will I do iniquity in my truth." ^ Let your sanctities know that there was also an earthquake here on the fourteenth of October: a thing which in general rarely happens in the regions of Egypt; and no ordinary earthquake, but violent enough to shake buildings and cause them to tremble - for a long space of time, passing over the small ones only, while everyone so to speak felt it. In certain cities of Egypt, especially in Athrib, a pestilence and plague has also been reported to have occurred. The books that were sent me by the presbyter ^ Corruption of KptvtTT^s (?). - Ps. Ixxxviii. 32-34. Stephen of God-loving- memory I have not been able to look through, by reason of the shifting of the places in which necessity causes me to be. Indeed, as soon as I read some part, and think that I have collected some part towards the dissertation against the heretics at which I am working, often some report reaches me and makes me remove elsewhere, and what has been collected is annihilated. I am in the same state as Israel, when it was once under the hand of Midian: and as soon as they had sown warriors used to come up against them and encamp against them, as is written, and destroy the produce of the earth. ^ There- fore it is necessary for me like Gideon to collect a few grains of wheat now and a few later, and pound these because I do not dare to thresh, since I flee from before the face of Midian; for this also I will add from the same scripture.^ As to what you say has happened in the city of Cyrrhus, this news has come to us too; indeed the minute ^ has also been sent in which he who in a Jewish spirit holds the presidency of that city * made a confession to the effect that Diodorus and Theodore and the detestable gang of Nestorius differ in no way from the Chalcedonian synod, which like a seed is justly and truly traced to those who sowed tares upon 1 Judg. vi. 3, 4. 2 xbid. II. 3 7rp5^is. 4 Sergius (Mansi ix. 349, 364, 365). If the reference is to Hypatius' inquiry, it follows that this letter as well as v. 8, in which also the letter of the bishops in Egypt is mentioned, was written in 520. 3. the eood seed. And this the minister of falsehood rightly confessed. Whereas, when you wrote before about Ascalon, I did not write any reply, being interrupted by constant anxieties, do not think to yourselves that any action taken by you is displeasing to me: for I am glad that there also you have again begun to plant a good plantation of faith. Even though the Philis- tines when they see us say, "Behold! the Hebrews come forth out of their holes where they hid them- selves," we like Jonathan will say, " Come up because the Lord hath delivered them into the hands of Israel." ^ If therefore it shall at any time happen that we remain silent upon receiving anything written by you, do not think that it is because it is displeasing to us that we have remained silent. All things done by you are pleasing, and very pleasing.