Four Epistles of St Symeon the New Theologian (Part 1)

Epistle 1. By our father among the saints, Symeon the New Theologian, a word on confession, written to a certain child of his, and concerning those who have received power to bind and loose sins

 

 

You laid a charge upon our nothingness, father and brother, to answer you whether it is permitted to declare one’s sins to certain monastics who do not have the priesthood, adding also this: “We hear that to priests is given the power to bind and loose” (cf. Matt. 16:19). Such are the words and soul-profiting questions of your God-loving soul, of a fiery desire and of fear. For our part we have approved your inclination toward the good, for you are striving to learn of divine and sacred things; yet being unable to reason or write of such matters, we wished to keep silence, because “to compare spiritual things with spiritual” (cf. 1 Cor. 2:13) belongs to men dispassionate and holy, from whom we stand at the utmost remove in life, in reason, and in virtue. Nevertheless, since “the Lord is nigh,” as it is written, “unto all them that call upon him in truth” (cf. Ps. 144:18), I too, unworthy as I am, having called upon Him in truth, will say this to you not in my own words, but from the divine and God-breathed Scripture itself — not teaching, but bringing you testimonies from it concerning what you have asked of me — that by the grace of God I may keep both myself and my hearers from the two abysses: that of him who hid his talent (cf. Matt. 25:25), and that of him who sets forth the divine teachings unworthily and vaingloriously, or rather, in a darkened mind.

From whence, then, shall I begin my word? From the beginningless Beginning of all things? So it is better, that the words may be firm (cf. Heb. 2:2), for it was not angels who made us, nor did we learn it of men (cf. Gal. 1:12), but from “the wisdom that is from above” (Jas. 3:17) — that is, we have been mystically taught by grace through the Spirit, and are ever, hour by hour, being taught still. And now, having called upon her, let us speak thus, first explaining the manner and the power of confession.

Confession is nothing other than the acknowledgment of debts — that is, repentance for one’s transgressions and the condemnation of one’s own folly — as the Lord said in the Gospel parable: “There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both” (Luke 7:41-42). Every believer, then, is a debtor to his Master and God, and what he has received of Him will be required of him at His fearful and most dread judgment, when all of us — kings and beggars together — shall stand “naked and opened” (Heb. 4:13). But hear what He has given us. There are many other gifts which no man could number; but the best and most perfect of them are these: freedom from condemnation, sanctification from defilement, the passage from darkness into unspeakable light, to become His children and sons and heirs through divine Baptism, to put on God Himself (cf. Rom. 13:14; Gal. 3:27), to become members of Him (cf. 1 Cor. 12:27), and to receive the Holy Spirit dwelling within us (cf. Rom. 8:11), who is the royal seal with which the Lord seals His own sheep (cf. John 10:3). And why should I speak at greater length? To be made like unto Him, brothers and joint-heirs of His — all this, and much more besides, is given to the newly baptized immediately upon divine Baptism. And the divine apostle calls this the divine riches and inheritance (cf. Eph. 1:18; Col. 2:3).

The Master’s commandments, meanwhile, are given as guardians of these unspeakable gifts and graces, which, like a wall surrounding the faithful man on every side and keeping unsullied the treasure hidden in the soul, render him unassailable to every enemy and thief. But we suppose that it is we ourselves who keep the commandments of God, and we are burdened by this, not knowing that it is they who keep us — for he who keeps the commandments of God keeps and guards not them, but himself, from enemies visible and invisible, which are innumerable and terrible, as Paul indicates, saying: “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12) — those who, plainly, are secretly arrayed against us in the air at all times. He, then, who keeps the commandments is kept by them, and does not squander the riches entrusted to him by God. But he who despises them is found naked before his enemies, and having squandered all his riches, becomes a debtor to the King and Master for all that we have spoken of — a debt no man can repay, since these gifts are heavenly, and where shall those who received and then lost them ever find them again? Truly, nowhere — just as neither Adam nor any of his sons could have restored himself or his kindred, had not our God and Lord Jesus Christ, who is above nature, come and, becoming his son according to the flesh, raised him and us up from the fall by divine power.

But he who supposes that he keeps not all the commandments, but observes some while betraying others, let him know that even if he neglects but one, he thereby loses the whole of his riches. Imagine that the commandments are twelve armed men guarding you, standing naked in their midst; and imagine also other, hostile soldiers surrounding you on every side, attacking, seeking to seize and slay you at once. If one of the twelve should fall away of his own will, forsake his post, and yield his place to the enemy like an open door, what good would the remaining eleven men be, when one enemy passes through their midst and cuts you down without mercy — since they cannot even turn to help you? For even should they wish to turn, they themselves would be overrun by the enemy. Just so will it be with you, if you do not keep the commandments: if you are wounded by one enemy and fall, all the commandments fly from you, and little by little your strength fails. Or, put another way: as from a vessel filled with wine or oil, if it is not whole on every side but has even a single hole on one side, all its contents will slowly drain away — so he who neglects one commandment falls away, little by little, from all the rest, as Christ says: “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he thinketh he hath” (a conflation of Matt. 25:29, Luke 8:18, and Luke 19:26); and again: “Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19). And Paul says: “Of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage” (2 Pet. 2:19). And again: “The sting of death is sin” (1 Cor. 15:56). He did not say “this or that sin,” but whatever sin it may be, it is itself the sting of death. He calls sin the sting of death because those who are stung by it die. Every sin, then, is “unto death” (1 John 5:16), for he who has once sinned, as Paul says, has already died, having become liable for the debt (cf. Rom. 5:12; 7:9-11; or 6:10), and, wounded, is left by the robbers lying by the roadside (cf. Luke 10:30).

What else, then, does the dead man desire but to rise again? And the debtor who has nothing wherewith to pay — what does he desire but the forgiveness of his debt, and not to be cast into prison until he has paid what is owed (cf. Matt. 18:23-35) — since, having nothing, he could never come forth from that eternal prison, that is, the darkness? So too the man beaten by robbers seeks above all that a compassionate and tender-hearted physician should come to him, for he has not within himself that burning fear of God which would send him hastening to the physician on his own; but rather, through negligence, he lies there with his soul’s strength grown slack — a spectacle inspiring dread and pity to those who see the soul’s transgressions well, or rather, spiritually.

So then, having become through sin a slave of the devil — for the apostle says, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are… whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness” (a conflation of Rom. 6:16 and 6:19) — trampled by his enemies, stripped of the royal purple, having become, instead of a child of God, a child of the devil: what is he to do, to regain possession of that from which he has fallen? Plainly, he will seek a mediator and friend of God, able to restore him to his former state and reconcile him with God the Father. For if a man who has clung to Christ by grace, become a member of Him (cf. 1 Cor. 12:27), and been adopted by Him (cf. Eph. 1:5), afterward forsakes Him and “turns like the dog to his own vomit again” (2 Pet. 2:22), and clings to a harlot, or is joined to another body — as one who has dishonored and insulted Christ, he is judged together with unbelievers, since, according to the divine apostle, “we are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Cor. 12:27), and he who clings to a harlot “maketh the members of Christ the members of an harlot” (1 Cor. 6:15). One who has done this, and thereby angered his Master and God, cannot be reconciled to God except through a holy man, a friend of Christ, and through flight from evil.

Therefore let us above all flee sin. But if we are even wounded by its arrow, let us not delay, savoring its poison as though it were honey, nor, like a wounded bear, enlarge the wound by our own doing — but let us run at once to the spiritual physician, and vomit out the poison of sin through confession; and having spat out this venom, let us eagerly receive from him, as an antidote, the penances he gives, and strive to fulfill them with fear of God and burning faith. For all those who have wholly squandered the riches entrusted to them, and wasted their father’s substance with harlots and publicans, whose conscience, bowed down through great shame, cannot lift itself up, having no boldness — these rightly seek a man of God who will take their debts upon himself, that through him they may approach God. For it has never been heard, nor is it written in the God-breathed Scriptures, that anyone has taken upon himself the sins of another and answered for them, unless the sinner first undergo labors suited to the kind of sin, and show forth fruits worthy of repentance. For the voice of the Forerunner of the Word says: “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father” (a conflation of Luke 3:8 and Matt. 3:8-9). For our Lord Himself said this of the unwise: “Verily I say unto you, though Moses and Daniel should stand up to deliver their sons and their daughters, they should not deliver them” (echoing Jer. 15:1 and Ezek. 14:14-20).

What, then, are we to do, we who desire to repent — what means shall we devise for the release of our debt and our turning back from the fall? God will grant it — listen. Seek out a mediator, a physician, and a good counselor: that as a good counselor he may propose to you, in keeping with your own case, methods of repentance by good advice; that as a physician he may give you the medicine suited to each wound; and that as a mediator he may propitiate the Godhead for you by prayer and petition, standing before Him “face to face” (echoing 1 Cor. 13:12; cf. Deut. 34:10). Only do not seek out a flattering counselor, or one enslaved to his belly, as your ally, lest, indulging your own wish, he teach you what is agreeable to you instead of what is pleasing to God, and you remain, once again, in truth an irreconcilable enemy of God. Nor seek an inexperienced physician, lest by excessive severity and untimely surgery and cauterization he drive you to the depths of despair; or, on the contrary, lest by excessive leniency he leave you, thinking yourself well, still sick — and, most terrible of all, hand you over to that eternal punishment which is no part of your hope, but to which this present sickness of the soul, dying together with us, in fact leads. I do not think it so simple a thing to find “a mediator between God and men” (1 Tim. 2:5), for “they are not all Israel, which are of Israel” (Rom. 9:6), but those who, in accordance with the name, clearly know the very meaning of the name, and are a mind that sees God; nor are all who are called by the name of Christ, in truth, Christians: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father”, says Christ (Matt. 7:21), as He also says: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not cast out devils in thy name?… And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me” (Matt. 7:22-23).

Therefore all of us, brothers — both those who serve as mediators for the sinful, and those who themselves desire reconciliation with God — must take heed, that the mediators not draw down upon themselves wrath instead of reward, and that those who have stumbled and seek reconciliation not fall upon an enemy, a murderer, and an evil counselor instead of a mediator. For such men will hear, with great threatening: “Who made thee a ruler and a judge” over My people? (echoing Acts 7:27 / Exod. 2:14). And again: “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” (Matt. 7:5) — the beam being some single passion, or a certain lust, that darkens the eye of the soul. And again: “Physician, heal thyself” (Luke 4:23). And again: “But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee” (Ps. 49:16-17). And Paul says: “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. God is able to make him stand” (Rom. 14:4).

It is on account of all this that I tremble and shudder, my brothers and fathers, and I beg all of you — strengthening both you and myself through this exhortation — not to treat with contempt these divine mysteries, terrible to all; not to play with what is not to be played with; not to act against our own souls out of vainglory, love of fame, gain, or insensibility — for it does happen that men take upon themselves the thoughts of others merely so as to be called “rabbi” or “father”. I beg you: let us not so shamelessly and recklessly seize the apostolic dignity, but let us take our lesson from an earthly example. If someone should dare to impersonate a representative of an earthly king, and be caught having secretly or openly appropriated what was entrusted to that representative, he himself, and his accomplices, will be subjected to the harshest punishments, as a warning to others. What, then, will those who unworthily seize the apostolic dignity suffer in the age to come? Do not wish to become mediators for others before you are filled with the Holy Spirit, and know the universal King by the sense of your own soul, and become His friends. For not all who are acquainted with an earthly king can act as mediators before him on behalf of others — very few can do this: those who, by virtue and by the sweat, that is, the labor, of their own efforts, have gained boldness before him, and no longer need a mediator, but speak with the king face to face.

Shall we, then, fathers and brothers, fail to keep this order in relation to God as well? Shall we not honor the heavenly King at least as much as an earthly one, but rather appropriate to ourselves a seat at His right hand and His left, seizing it in advance, before we have asked for it and received it? O, what boldness! What shame will overtake us! Even if we are accused of nothing else, for this alone, as men who have shown contempt, we shall be deprived of that seat of honor with disgrace, and cast into “everlasting fire” (Mark 9:43). But this is enough for the instruction of those who wish to attend to themselves, since it was for this reason that we turned aside in our discourse from the subject at hand. Now let us speak of what you, child, wished to learn.

That it is permitted us to confess to a monk who does not have the priesthood, you will find to have been the case with everyone, from the time the penitential garb and habit were granted by God to His inheritance, and monks received their name — as is written in the God-breathed writings of the Fathers, in which, if you look into them, you will find that what is said is true. Before the monks, the bishops alone received, as though by succession from the divine apostles, the power to bind and to loose. But as time went on, when the bishops became unworthy, this fearsome commission passed to the priests, who possessed a blameless life and had been made worthy of divine grace. Then, when they too — priests together with bishops, all mingled together — became like the rest of the people, and many, as now, began to fall under the power of deceiving spirits and vain babblings, and to perish, it passed, as has been said, to the chosen people of Christ — I mean the monks. It was not taken away from the priests or the bishops; rather, they themselves made themselves strangers to it. “For every priest,” as Paul says, “is a mediator between God and men, and is appointed to minister unto God, and must offer sacrifice both for the people and for himself” (echoing Heb. 5:1,3; 1 Tim. 2:5). But let us begin our account from an earlier point, and see whence, and how, and to whom this power to perform the sacred rites, to bind and to loose, was first given, so that gradually the answer to what you have asked may become clear — not to you alone, but to all other people as well.

When our Lord and God and Savior said to the man with the withered hand, “Thy sins are forgiven thee,” the Jews, on hearing it, said, “This man blasphemeth. Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Luke 5:21 / Mark 2:7). Thus the forgiveness of sins had not yet been given to prophets, nor to priests, nor to any of the patriarchs of that time. This is why the scribes were indignant, as though some new doctrine and unheard-of thing were being proclaimed. But the Lord did not reprove them for this; rather, He taught them what they did not know, showing Himself to be the giver of the remission of sins as God, and not as man — for He says to them: “That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins” (cf. Matt. 9:6). He says to the man with the withered hand: “Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out, and it was restored whole as the other” (Matt. 12:10,13) — thereby, through a visible miracle, giving assurance of a greater, invisible one. So it was with Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10); so with the harlot (cf. Luke 7:37-50); so with Matthew at the tax office (Matt. 9:9); so with Peter, who denied Him three times; so with the paralytic, whom, having healed him and afterward finding him, He said, “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (cf. John 5:14). In saying this, He showed that the man had fallen into that sickness because of sin, and that in being freed from it, he received also the forgiveness of his sins. None of them had need of a long time, of fasting, of sleeping on the ground — but only of conversion, unwavering faith, the cutting off of vice, sincere repentance, and many tears, as with the harlot (Luke 7:38) and with Peter, “who wept bitterly” (cf. Luke 22:62).

Here, then, is the beginning of this great gift, belonging to God alone, who alone possessed it — and who then, being about to ascend into heaven, leaves this gift to His disciples in His own place. Let us learn how He conveyed to them this dignity and this power, and who they were, and how many: the eleven chosen ones, when “the doors were shut” (cf. John 20:19) and they were gathered together within — for, entering and “standing in the midst of them” (cf. Luke 24:36), He breathed on them and said: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained” (cf. John 20:22-23) — and then He commands them nothing at all concerning penances, since they were to learn this from the Holy Spirit.

So, as has been said, the holy apostles handed down this power by succession to those who inherited their throne, since “none of the rest durst” (cf. Acts 5:13) even conceive of such a thing. Thus the Lord’s disciples kept, with exactness, the right to this power. But, as we have said, with the passing of time the unworthy became mixed and merged with the worthy, and one man began to strive to outdo another. From that point the holders of the apostolic thrones proved to be carnal, pleasure-loving, vainglorious, and given to heresies; and divine grace forsook them, and this power was taken away from such men. And since they had also abandoned everything else that those who perform the sacred rites ought to have, only one thing is required of them: that they hold to orthodoxy — though I think that even this they do not have. For he is not orthodox who merely introduces no new dogma into the Church of God, but he who has acquired a life in accord with right doctrine. Yet such a man, or one like him, the patriarchs and metropolitans of that time either sought and did not find, or, having found him, preferred an unworthy man instead, requiring of him only one thing — that he set down the creed in writing — and being satisfied with this alone: that he was neither a zealot for the good nor a fighter against evil. In this way they supposedly preserve the peace of the Church, which is worse than any hostility, and is the cause of great disorder.

For this reason the priests have become worthless, and have become like the people, according to the word of the Lord — for, instead of reproving, restraining, and driving out sin, but rather excusing and concealing one another’s passions, they have themselves become worse than the people, and the people worse than they; while some of the people have turned out far better than the priests, glowing like embers amid the priests’ unrelieved darkness. For if the priests, according to the Lord’s word, shone with their life like stars, or like the sun, the glow of the embers, eclipsed by that brighter light, would not be seen. But since only the outward form and vesture of the priesthood remained in men, the gift of the Spirit passed over to the monks, and through signs made it understood that they were following the active, apostolic life. But there too the devil once again did what is proper to him: seeing that they had again been proclaimed in the world as, so to speak, new disciples of Christ, and had shone forth with life and with wonders, he mixed in among them false brethren — his own instruments — so that, having multiplied little by little, the monks, as you see, have themselves become worthless and altogether un-monastic. Therefore it is not given by God, simply on account of ordination alone and its dignity, to monks in outward appearance, nor to those ordained and enrolled in the priestly rank, nor to those honored with the episcopal dignity — that is, patriarchs, metropolitans, and bishops — to remit sins. God forbid! To them is granted only the performance of the sacred rites — and even this, I think, not to most of them, lest, being straw, they be burned up on account of it — but only to those priests, bishops, and monks who, by their blamelessness, can be numbered among the disciples of Christ.

How, then, will those who are themselves numbered among the ones just spoken of, and those who seek them, recognize such men with precision? By what the Lord taught, saying thus: “And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues” (this being the God-breathed teaching of the Word) “they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them” (Mark 16:17-18); and again, “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27); and again, “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matt. 7:16). By what fruits? Listing many of them, Paul speaks thus: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal. 5:22-23) — and together with these, mercy, brotherly love, almsgiving, and what follows from them; and besides these, the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the gifts of healing, and many others, all of which “worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will” (1 Cor. 12:11). Those, then, who partake of these gifts — whether all of them, or in part, insofar as it profits them — are numbered among the rank of the apostles, and those who become such even now are enrolled in that same rank. Such men are recognized not only by these gifts, but also by their manner of life. Thus both those who seek him, and each man more precisely with regard to himself, will know: whether they have counted it, without shame, in likeness to our Lord Jesus Christ — or rather, as the greatest glory — to be brought low and to be humbled; whether they have shown, as He did, unfeigned obedience to their fathers and superiors, and to those who give spiritual direction; whether they have loved from the soul dishonor, insult, reproach, and blame, and have received those who inflict these things upon them as bestowers of great goods, and prayed for them from the soul with tears; whether they have counted all the glory of the world as nothing, and everything in it as refuse (cf. Phil. 3:8). And why should I lengthen the discourse with many words? If anyone attains equally both to the whole of the virtue read of in the Holy Scriptures and to every kind of good work, and recognizes that he has gradually made progress in each of them, and has ascended to the summit of divine glory — then he himself will know of himself that he has become a partaker of God and of His gifts, and he will be recognized not only by those who see well, but even by those who see poorly.

For all such men have kept the commandments of God even unto death, have sold their possessions and given to the poor, have followed Christ in the endurance of temptations, have destroyed their souls for the love of God in this world and have gained them for eternal life; and having gained their souls, they found them in the intelligible light, and so, in that light, beheld “the light which no man can approach unto” (1 Tim. 6:16), God Himself, according to what is written: “In thy light shall we see light” (Ps. 36:9). But as to how one may find the soul one already has — attend. The soul of each of us is a drachma (cf. Luke 15:8-9), which was lost not by God, but by each of us, by plunging ourselves into the darkness of sin; and Christ, the true Light, having come and met those who seek Him, has granted them — as He alone knows how — to see Himself. This is what it means to find one’s own soul: to behold God, and to stand in His light above all visible creation, and to have God as shepherd and teacher, from whom, if he wishes, he will learn how to bind and to loose, and, having learned it with precision, will worship the Giver, and will be able to pass this on to those in need.

I know, child, that to such men it is given to bind and to loose by God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit — to those who, by adoption, are sons and holy servants of His. And I myself was a disciple of such a father — one who had not received ordination from men, but who enrolled me among his disciples by the hand of God, that is, by the Spirit, and who commanded me to receive ordination from men properly, in the customary manner. Let us pray, brothers, that we too may become such men, that we may become partakers of His grace and receive the power to bind and loose sins, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom belongs all glory, honor, and worship, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

[Here the manuscript tradition diverges — what follows is preserved as a separate, variant continuation rather than a straightforward sequel:]

…moved for a long time by the Holy Spirit with a strong desire for this. Therefore let us first pray to become such men, fathers and brothers, and so let us speak with others about deliverance from the passions and the reception of [the disclosure of] their thoughts. Let us seek out such a confessor — or rather, such earnest men, true disciples of Christ — and with labor of heart and many tears, for days on end, entreat God to open the eyes of our hearts, to know whether such a man may be found anywhere in this crooked generation; so that, having found him, we may receive through him the forgiveness of our sins, obeying his commands and precepts with our whole soul — just as that man, having heard the commandments of Christ, became a partaker of His grace and gifts, and received from Him the power to bind and loose sins, being set aflame by the Holy Spirit, to whom belongs all glory, honor, and worship, with the Father and the Only-begotten Son, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

(To be continued...)