Ad Gregorium Nyssenum

Oration 11. By the same author, on Gregory of Nyssa, the brother of the great Basil, upon his arrival after his ordination. 1. There is no exchange for a faithful friend among all that exists, nor any measure of his beauty. A faithful friend is a strong shelter and a fortified palace. A faithful friend is a living treasure. A faithful friend is beyond gold and many a precious stone. A faithful friend is a closed garden, a sealed spring, opened and shared at the proper time. A faithful friend is a haven of refreshment. If he also excels in understanding, how great is that? If he is also at the height of learning, and of every kind of learning—I mean both our own and that which was once ours—how much more splendid is that? If he is also a son of light, or a man of God, or one approaching God, or a man of the better desires, or worthy of being called any of those names with which Scripture honors those who are inspired, lofty, and of the higher portion—this is already a gift of God, and clearly beyond our worth. But if he also comes to us from a friend, and that friend is of equal virtue and of our own friendship, it is even more delightful and graceful, and more fragrant than the myrrh that adorns a priest’s beard and a royal robe. 2. Are these things sufficient, then, and has the discourse described the man for you adequately? Or must we, like careful painters, apply the colors many times, so that we may present to you a more perfect picture in words? And indeed we shall paint for you more perfectly and clearly. Who is the most illustrious of lawgivers? Moses. Who is the holiest of priests? Aaron. They were no less brothers in piety than in body.

rather, one is the God of Pharaoh, and the protector and lawgiver of Israel, entering within the cloud, and the overseer and initiator into divine mysteries, and the craftsman of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not a man; but both are priests alike. For Moses, it is said, and Aaron are among his priests: one is the ruler of rulers, and priest of priests, using Aaron as his tongue, while himself becoming for him the means to God; the other is immediately after him, but far before the rest in rank and in closeness to God. Both scourge Egypt, cut through the sea, lead Israel across, baptize the enemies, draw bread from above, and in the desert produce water from disbelief, one giving it forth, the other sweetening it; both war against Amalek with the holy stretching forth of hands, and with a type of a greater mystery; both guide and hasten toward the promised land. Is the image not more recognizable? Has not the painterly word clearly depicted for you the one who shares my name and my soul?

Of these, one anointed us and brought us hidden into the midst. I know not what he suffered, or how he was moved, unworthily of the spirit within him. For even if the word is harsh, it will be spoken nonetheless; friendship will bear all, both suffering and hearing. The other has come to summon, to reconcile, and to make peace with the Spirit. Great it is, that even now, for me (and how not greatest? For I set you before the whole of life); but I blame him, that he came after the need. How after defeat and assault comes alliance, O best of friends and allies? And after the storm, the helmsman, and after the wound, the remedy? Did you, as a brother-lover, feel shame at the tyranny? Or did you yourself, as a ruler, resent the disobedience? Which of the brothers do you accuse, and which do you release from blame? I will utter to you something of the words of Job, myself grieving, and to a friend, even if not such a one, nor over like sufferings. To which do you incline? Or whom do you intend to help? Is it not the one with great strength? Is it not the one with great wisdom and knowledge? For I see many of the present judges suffering this, who would more readily concede the greatest things to the lofty than the least to the lowly. This you yourself would know; for it is not lawful for me to declare anything not good concerning you, whom I set as the limit and canon of every good; and I have been admonished by Scripture not to be hasty in judgment.

I am ready to render account, both to you and to anyone who wishes through friendship, of my—whether disobedience, as some might call it, or foresight, as I persuade myself, and security, as you would know that you are not dealing with a wholly inept and ignorant friend. But there are things which one who is able to perceive them better than the many may see, and which one may be confident in where confidence is due, and fear where fear is due, and which it is more fearful for the sensible not to fear. 4. What then seems best, and what is better? Shall we now render account to you, since you command this and do not reject the occasion? (Which is a festival, not a court.) Or shall we put this off to another time and gathering? For the discourse is longer than suits the present occasion. And what shall we utter to you worthy of the festival, so that we do not dismiss you hungry, we who are the hosts? Let us purify ourselves, brothers, by the martyrs; or rather, by that through which they too were purified by blood and truth. Let us be freed from every defilement of flesh and spirit; let us wash, let us become clean; let us also present our bodies and souls, a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God, this rational worship and intercession of ours. For nothing is so precious to the pure as purity or cleansing. Let us contend for the athletes; let us conquer for the victors; let us bear witness to the truth for the martyrs.

Let us grant this to their contests: that they themselves become crown-wearers and heirs of the same glory—the glory that exists among us and the glory stored up in heaven, of which visible things are small reminders and tokens. Let us contend against the principalities, against the powers, against the invisible persecutors and tyrants, against the world-rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, and, concerning the heavenly things, against the war within and within ourselves, the war in the passions, against the daily uprisings of external events. Let us bring anger as a beast, and tongue as a sharp sword, and quench pleasure as fire. Let us set doors upon our ears, opening and closing them well; and let us discipline the eye; let us educate raging touch and tearing taste, lest death ascend through our windows—for so I suppose the sense-organs are called; and let us laugh at immoderate laughter. Let us not bend the knee to Baal for the sake of need, nor worship the golden image out of fear. Let us fear only one thing: to fear something more than God, and to insult the image through vice. In all things let us take up the shield of faith, and let us escape all the arrows of the evil one. This is the terrible war, and this the great battle-array, and this the great trophy. If we have come together in this way, or are running together, truly the festival is according to Christ, truly we have honored or will honor the martyrs, truly we dance victory songs.

If, however, we indulge the pleasures of the belly, enjoy temporary luxury, and bring in what is emptied out, and these are places of drunkenness, not of temperance, and we take them as occasions for business and material concerns, and not for ascent or deification—if I may dare to speak thus—which the martyrs mediate, first, I do not even recognize the occasion. For what is chaff compared to grain? What is bodily softness compared to the struggles of martyrs? Those belong to theaters, these to my gatherings; those to the licentious, these to the temperate; those to the flesh-lovers, these to those who are loosed from the body. Next, I wish to say something even bolder, but I refrain from blasphemy out of reverence for the day; yet the martyrs do not demand these things from us—to put it more moderately. Let us not, therefore, brothers, celebrate the holy things unworthily, nor the high things in a lowly manner, nor the precious things dishonorably, nor, to sum it up, the things of the spirit in a worldly way. The Jew also holds a festival, but according to the letter; the Greek also celebrates, but as pleases the demons. For us, since everything is spiritual—action, movement, intention, speech, even down to walking and dress, even down to a nod, with reason reaching and regulating everything in the man according to God—so also are celebrating and rejoicing. For I do not forbid relaxation, but I chastise excess. If we understand this and celebrate in this way, it is a great thing that we too will obtain the same contests, to say, and will inherit the same glory.

For what neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor any human mind ever conceived, fashioning blessedness at will, these we believe are laid up for those purified through blood, and who have imitated the sacrifice of Christ. But we shall behold the splendor of the holy martyrs—for this too is no small thing, as my argument holds—and we shall enter into the joy of the same Lord, and we shall be illumined, I know well, more clearly and purely by the light of the blessed and archetypal Trinity, in which we have believed, and which we serve, and which we confess before God and men, fearing nothing, ashamed of nothing, neither external enemies nor the false Christs and enemies of the Spirit among ourselves. And may we confess, until our last breath, with great frankness, the good deposit of the holy Fathers, who are nearer to Christ and to the first faith, the confession that has been our companion from childhood, which we first uttered and with which we might finally depart, bearing this, if nothing else, from here: piety. 7. But the God of peace, who reconciled us to himself through the cross, when we had been made enemies through sin; who proclaimed peace to those near and far, to those under law and outside law; the father of love, love itself—for he delights in being called these before other names, in order to legislate brotherly love even through names—who gave the new commandment to love one another as much as we have been loved; who gave both to rule well and to be ruled through fear, and to shrink back with reason, and again to take courage through reason.

He who both orders the great flocks and magnifies the small through grace, may he, by the abundance of his own goodness, exhort us with much exhortation, and lead us forward, co-shepherding and preserving the flock; may he perfect you for every good work, and persuade you to celebrate spiritually with the martyrs, and deem you worthy of the delight there, where the dwelling of all who rejoice is, and having been seen in righteousness, may he satiate you with his own glory, which is beheld in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom are glory and power, honor and adoration, for ever and ever. Amen.