Festal Letters 1-12

Festal Letter Twelve

216 FESTAL LETTER TWELVE A.D. 424 HE LAW HAS a shadow of the good things to come,”1 and outlines the bright form of the truth, by figures and symbols, giving us a glimpse of the mystery of the things revealed through Christ. it bids the sons of israel accordingly , “Blow the trumpet at the new moon, on the glorious day of your feast.”2 But let us, in leaving the figures as far behind us as we may, and ridding our present situation of the ancient forms, consider more important our education in the divine and evangelical precepts. And since the luminous and most glorious feast has shone upon us once again, bringing with it, as something in season, the struggles to achieve order in our lives,3 allow then, allow the one who follows the voices of the saints to cry out to us as though from a spiritual trumpet: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths!”4 For to strive to live in friendship with God, and to be in the habit of priding oneself on the honors that come from one’s virtue, is, i think—especially in the present time—what it means to prepare the way of the Lord and to receive the joy that befits those who keep festival with a good conscience. “For the impious cannot rejoice, says the Lord.”5 For how or whence does that suit them, when the penalty assigned them as their punishment looms over them? For to live in spiritual enjoyments and to feast upon rich hopes belong in justice to them who have lived as rightly as possible, and who have declared that the divine law was like a norm for their own life. 1. Heb 10.1. 2. Ps 81.3. 3. See the discussion of asceticism in the introduction. 4. Lk 3.4; cf. is 40.3–5. 5. Cf. is 57.21. “ FESTAL LETTER TWELVE 217 “Therefore, holy brothers, who share in a heavenly call,”6 “let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,”7 as is written, remembering the one who says, “iron sharpens iron, and a man seasons his friend’s face.”8 For it is like those who rise up against barbarian attacks and want to resist them as strongly as possible: they urge each other to be bold and strive to encourage a show of strength and skill, convinced that the right moment for war has come; and thus, made fearsome and irresistible, they fall upon their foes now that they are above hesitation and fright and have mastered the gravest dangers, whatever they may be. in the same way i hold that those who love holiness , whoever they may be, must accustom themselves to oppose the devil’s wiles without the slightest hesitation, and to put up such a stout resistance that they can then speak these very words in truth: “Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation , or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”9 For there is nothing at all that can make us cowardly, if, in following closely the virtue of the saints, we have the same attitude as they when they act manfully and say, “The Lord is my light and my Savior; whom shall i fear? The Lord is the defender of my life; of whom shall i be afraid?”10 “Come, therefore, let us exult in the Lord,” as is written, “let us make a joyful noise to God our Savior.”11 For it is just the present moment that calls us to the thrice-longed-for feast. For if death, hateful to all, has been abolished by Christ’s power, and the ageold corruption, fearful and invincible, has been destroyed through his Resurrection, then come, let us send forth loudly everywhere the resounding proclamation in the words, “The Lord reigns, let the earth exult!”12 And in what way may those exult who have chosen to do so in Christ? The most fitting way is to abandon as soon as possible that pleasure which is earthly and base, and, in a word, all carnal desire, to choose rather the things that are of the better sort, and, in attending to what is superior to the former things, 6. Heb 3.1. 7. Heb 10.24. 8. Prv 27.17. 9. Rom 8.35. 10. Ps 27.1. 11. Ps 95.1. 12...