Letter 39: To the Catholicos (V)

To the holy in all things, the merciful father, the Catholicos Patriarch. Barak Ishoʿyahb, in the Lord, peace. Until now, O father, the hope of my coming here, and again my own concern about going there, were both suspended, as it were, with the pain of exile from the care of the interior. Now, however, since both of these have ceased their time due to its difficulty, the pain is divided within. While daily sorrows increase. For this reason, therefore, it is necessary now, that in this opportunity of the feast, I should also now be equipped with the letters of the alphabet for the composition of the words of the heart, until the Lord appears and has mercy on us, and the light of his salvation shines through grace. Yet thanks to your fatherhood for these faces of my insignificance. For I am still, by the grace of God, above the equality of sins. While I am able to obtain the bread of the day and a little rest. And the service of the Church of God is completed with an anointed order. That one, as it were, is considered to be opposed to the ruin of the world. Thus, as if even the adversary did not bear the will. But when he was humbled by the poverty of his custom: the mighty and great ones were stirred against me by the disturbances that are with me. And a feast is prepared for you to make. Which resembles in every way the feast of the Lord. In the same day and in the same season and in the same kind. And in the whole service of their actions. Instead of Herod and Pilate: the wicked and rulers of the land. Instead of the teachers of the priests of the Jews and the archons of their people. The heretics and the great ones of the people. Instead of the pains and the soldiers: instead of the scribes and the rods: these are the scribes and the rods. Instead of the cries and the voice: these are the cries and the voices. Instead of Judas the betrayer: a famous and honored head in Kushiyan. He who, while the sanctity is still between his lips, showed a zeal greater than that of Judas.

For it did not remain for me to see, nor to praise and go out to the mountain of the monasteries, as even Judas remained. Nor did it come upon me through a kiss, in the likeness of that one. But through victory and memory, up to this point the likeness of the Passover of the Lord in everything. From this point onward, however, the Passover increased. That one, then, with the Passover of the Lord in everything, with that Passover—the bodily and sacramental one—which was with Peter and his companions, because that Lord sent to the ends of the angelic orders. Those who, then, from the service of their table, all ceased at his word to the rock. Now he has clearly sent for the salvation of your church. And he accomplished wonders, those which for the glory of his power are fitting. These, which are beyond belief, a letter cannot receive as testimony of their magnificence. Moreover, not even for the hour of my lowliness is it possible, by means of a living word, to delineate the pattern of their wondrousness. However, I am hastening to the encounter of the persons and to the confessions of the strangers, if God assists. Before, then, this is accomplished, your fatherhood will rejoice in those things that happen, because they are good and glorious. And give thanks for them to the Lord at all times, because by the abundance of his help his enemies the heretics were confounded, as it is written. And when they were broken by the help of their opinion, by the blow of the Lord, they went to the barbarian rulers, who set up sins for me. And behold, they threaten me with death by every means. That which I showed you is very easy and also profitable. Moreover, there is much fear concerning them, because they are without hope. But the spirit of God, by its accustomed wonder, also gradually inclines the harshness of the barbarians to Christianity towards you. And by it, from them, as if ashamed from Assyria, it is inclined to divine power from the mouth of the apostles, glory that befits him. Therefore, your fatherhood, pray, persuading me.

...that I might find rest in the goodness of grace and obtain mercy before my Lord. And the remainder of my days in a life that is pleasing to the will of God I shall spend. Completed.