Letter 44: To Mar Gabriel the Metropolitan

To the one honored in all things, my holy father, Mar Gabriel the Metropolitan. Ishoʿyahb, by the grace of God, salutes. Concerning the matter of the serpent’s nest, the opportunity of his sins has come to dwell, O father, where in every salvation the hearts of the excommunicated are filled, and the destroyers find a way to lead the lives of all believers to destruction. It is fitting that you yourself, from now, as is clear to everyone, should act. For when the disturbance and the turmoil of the world are able, as from the mixture of the evil of the air, they are strengthened and empowered, and quickly they hasten to strike the weak believers—these alone you have to anticipate and to warn those who, according to the word of God to the prophet, are among scorpions or like the nest of the excommunicated, as you said. The opportunity for dwelling has come to them. Therefore, on account of the evil news of the commotion of the wicked, as from a place near at hand, it is necessary that it be proclaimed at a distance, so that everyone’s caution for his life, according to the capacity of his strength, may be stirred to act. It has arrived, then, upon the world, O father, that the end of the end is hot, as you know. And it has come from now and has taken hold of everything—that rebelliousness which was earlier spoken of by the spirit of God: that with the manifestation of the serpent it is necessary that it be, or it is near to you, or rather it has begun from now to take effect in deed—that which the son of man has not yet found, nor can faith be found on earth. And to leave aside the multitude of other things—those which I, because of the weakness of my soul, weakly pass over—this alone, on account of which I was compelled to write, I make known a little to your holiness. These are the wicked and blasphemers concerning whom the word is.

The foot of their wickedness has taken hold, with demonic hope and sacrifice they found success for their machinations, through the pretext of revelations. One, first: the madness of the obedience of the rulers of the present to those who are in bronze vessels of silver, and with golden persuasions they draw near to them. The second, however, is the multitude of evil helpers, those who from the beginning were with their heresy; now, however, they are with the thought that they themselves are rulers. Third, again, the acceptance and success of the sons of the Targrite before the heads and rulers there. And fourth, with these is the work of Satan, who strives in sons who are not to be pacified, those who do not tremble in the love of truth in which they live. And in deceit they went as they went, and they approached as they are accustomed. And when they spoke no word of wisdom, nor offered a persuasion of prudence, nor again did they show a sign of the household of my Lord; nor indeed were they able to accomplish even one of those things that are fitting for an encounter before eloquent rulers. They took the completion of their desire and began to disturb. They found, however, also the authority of the time, which fully aided them. And they went out beneath the dung-heap before the gate of the city, as if they themselves were the dung-heap of the Church. And they made for themselves a house of mockery and folly in the name of the Church, for the near future of all those who, for the purification of the nature, are compelled to go there as if by custom. And from here also they stir up a pretext for disturbance daily, and especially with the bitter blasphemies that they utter daily against the Church of God through reckless mouths. And those who are honored by you, the ancient offspring of their heresy, are worthy of them. And they themselves are from the nature and from the will of desire. And that which from all of them is thus considered to be the head.

And also the sacrifice succeeded sufficiently for him. He who was with the father, with the Christodochos, and with the mother, with the Christodochea Hērētika; and he began with the mother, and drove a little against the father, and was led again after that also against the manifest blasphemy of the heretics. And after that again, with the shaken blasphemy, the communion of the heretics. And when, with worldly shame, as with the blow of a door that is shut, he turned a little toward the church of God, until, with the fear of death and the sword of the rulers, he was compelled. Now again, like a dog, he returns to the root of the bitternesses of his mother, which he left through his mother. He turned in the haste of madness and the snares of wickedness, being the foundation of the hope and the fulfillment of those who are ashamed. And because of this, they are exalted and boast, and it is difficult to perceive that they are as it is written: "Have you not seen the wicked who boast, and are exalted like the trees of the forest?" But the people of the just are humbled by force and are in need of wealth. And with authority and knowledge of the world, they are fully stripped. However, there was among them, by the help of God, the guardian of the true faith. And they are well instructed and are refined from the evil sight that came as a flood: that placed a stumbling block at the gate of their city. The sacrifices, however, are many and are also stirred up by the haste of error, to rush upon the sword of death, by those who are against the sacrifice. But it seemed to me that it was helpful: that for the people who love the faith, from the haste of their agitation, by the bitterness of custom, it is eased; and that my coming to stand before the rulers of the sacrifice was hindered. While I was afflicted with a bodily illness, which is not much less than the pain and distress of the soul.

And behold, by the help of God, the persecution began, while he was persuading that in the midst of the trial, as if in the theater of the wicked, I have to stand. Apart from the fact that the beloved is found in the middle, but also many of those who were with him: to my own voice and the helpers of the wicked, but it has reached the hands of God, as it is written: all the grace that abounds in his works. And indeed, the will, because on account of the inequality of my weakness, they abandoned the truth that was proclaimed in the word that was under the persecution of his persecutors. Nor is it so that I am not more than a sinner: a small labor on behalf of the word of his truth. And grace for his mercy upon me in everything. And I show that which is better to be done: and I give to the truth of his faith the glory that befits it at this time: that he is the pillar of the forgiveness of the world. Now then, by the peace of many, I increase thanksgiving to the glory of his name at all times. If therefore you are the wisdom of your fatherhood, or my honored father, or rather the zeal of that people who love Christ, that which was raised on the foundations of the grace of God, the edifice of his faith, some help of rational thoughts, or rather the discipline of bodily labor, or all those things that are necessary for this contest that stands, do with diligence as is fitting for your excellence above all, in all those things that are for the beauty of Christians in the glory that befits the successful. And I show that with those things that are like these, I labor: I have delayed for you the time in opposition to him: you have been worthy on my behalf in the Church of God especially, and you pray for me with the depth of heart: that God may open for you the door of the word, to manifest the truth of his faith, the glory that is fitting.

And may you return in peace to the ministry of your village, without hesitation and without the persecution of the wicked, so that you may know what is with you and what they have determined to do. Behold, I have sent to you our honored brother Mar Ḥenanishoʿ, the head of the monastery. Receive him, then, in the Lord, as is fitting for you, and send him forth in peace and quickly, so that soon a sign may come, wherever God the merciful wills in his grace to make known to you. And the peace of my lowliness shall be given through your fatherly hands to all the sons of your fatherhood, my beloved brothers and those of the community. And pray for me, that the remainder of my days may be spent in a life that is pleasing to the will of God. Completed.