Ascetam facetiis uti non debere

That the ascetic ought not to use jesting. All the exhortations of the blessed Paul are holy, commanding that one work out one's own salvation with fear. For he who does not practice the exercise of virtue with fear and great diligence suffers many deviations toward evil, and as if straying from the straight and royal road into the side-paths and trackless ways through thorns and brambles. Therefore, unceasing prayers to God become guides to the good, as they say, "Lead me to your truth," and, "Set my steps in your paths." Goodness, then, is good, and love is the chief of goods; but these are followed by much cheerfulness, and laughter that exceeds due measure, and the jesting that lowers dignity. It is indeed terrible to be dissolved in jesting. For laughter loosens the bond of temperance, laughter repels dignity, laughter does not remember the fear of God, laughter does not fear the threat of Gehenna, laughter is a guide to fornication, jesting is a proof of the licentious man, buffoonery causes one to be carried down into indolence, buffoonery is a pretext for contempt. Therefore the blessed Apostle forbids it, saying, "Foolish talk or jesting, things that are not fitting, let them not issue from your mouth, but rather thanksgiving," saying this, that you may not acquire cheerfulness as a pretext for indolence, but as a basis for thanksgiving to the giver. Therefore Job bears witness concerning himself, saying, "And if I had gone about with jesters." And Solomon rebukes the laughter-loving character.

It is good, he says, anger over laughter, because the heart will be made good in the badness of the face. The heart of the wise is in a house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in a house of merriment. It is good to hear the rebuke of the wise rather than a man hearing the song of fools. And the unseemly and dishonorable character of those who are bent on laughter he exposes, saying: The voice of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools. But to what end does the very cheerful and joyous pertain? Perceive it in the wise stillness and dignity. And through fear and concern to be seen by God, remove excessive cheerfulness. For those who are dissipated with immoderate gaiety and laughter seem to be ignorant of their own condition, their soul weighed down by some forgetfulness, and not even expecting the presence of the Master. Not yet the Master’s favor, O man, not yet do you have a secure release from evils; you do not know what will happen a little later, what you yourself will be, nor what will befall you; and then you laugh heedlessly, and jest, and conduct yourself without fear, when you ought to be engaged in supplications to God, to be in anguish over the future, and to tremble for yourself lest you ever deviate from virtue, and to be anxious and afraid concerning what will be encountered, lest more grievous and greater things than your strength can bear come upon you, hemmed in as you are by so many and such great wars? Let your soul have a contest; demons war invisibly, men war openly, the passions within the soul war, the pleasures roused through the body, and the misfortunes from without concerning the body.

For you do not sympathize with those near you, you do not suffer with those who are suffering, you do not weep with those who are weeping, you do not fear for those who are not firmly established in the faith, lest they be shaken and fall; you do not lament those who have fallen, you do not reach out a hand to those who are prostrate, you do not restrain the one who laughs with inward groans, because he has forgotten the punishment prepared for him; the thought of the constrained time does not overturn your untimely luxury, nor the presence of the fearful coming day. But you have imitated those who drink wine with cithara and psaltery, to whom instead of gladness the prophet threatened woe. For I, he says, proclaimed weeping and beating of the breast and shaving of the head, and girding with sackcloth; but they made gladness and joy, saying, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die; and these things are uncovered in the ears of the Lord Sabaoth, that this sin will not be forgiven them until they die. Hearing these things, fear and groan; do not imitate those who ate and drank, and rose up to play; and to speak more bitterly, sacrifices and feasts and games made them forget the fear of God, and drew them toward idolatry. Fear lest while you laugh the Master be angry, he who blessed those who weep and declared those who laugh wretched, lest the devil, finding your play and your unrestrained laughter to be fearlessness concerning God and forgetfulness of what is beneficial, mount your soul and sow his own tares. There was a time when the seasons were more suitable for relaxation.

Yet even then, among the saints, the somber prevailed over the cheerful. And the Psalmist says: "All the day long I went about with a gloomy face," and, "I will drench my bed each night, and wet my couch with my tears," becoming downcast over sins and lamenting the calamities. And the prophet Jeremiah sits weeping over the calamities of Jerusalem. Therefore, you too should not give yourself over to headache, drunkenness, jokes, and levity. For this reason your lyre has been taken away, and you hold neither a timbrel in your hands. Paul taught you to sing with your heart rather than your mouth, restraining the man from every dissipation and distraction on all sides. Isaac the patriarch played with his wife, but for you even matters concerning your wife are arranged more solemnly, because the time is contracted, so that those who have wives may be as if they do not, those who rejoice as if they do not, those who buy as if they do not possess, and those who use this world as if they do not abuse it, for the form of this world passes away. But you are unwilling to be restrained, though all things are restrained. Even in the presence of women you pour out tears indiscriminately, and multiply games, and offer jokes, and utter shameful words to provoke laughter. For, unable to bear the burning in your licentious body, you then bring forth the filth outside and make yourself manifest. As you are through words, so you will surely be, and much worse in your inner man. Why do you mingle fearlessly with women? Why do you run yourself into the trap?

Why do you cast yourself into danger? Why do you brighten up in the presence of women and dare to live with them? It is for this reason that there are fasts, for this reason prayers, for this reason a diet of dry food, for this reason men devise manifold ascetic practices, for this reason they pursue the deserts; some are not even satisfied with bread or water, for no other reason than to flee those snares, so as not, by falling among women, to become a shameful ruin. But you, having passed over all these things, and having given no thought to the danger after the trap through which the first-formed man fell from such great blessedness, do you not consider the weapon of the devil by which the ancient one, wounded, has been cast down? And while the Lord forbade even looking at a woman, proscribing fornication, you have gone so mad as to apply fabricated names to the appellation of love, and under the pretext of kindness have drawn a housemate to yourself, as Eve drew the serpent. Having tied fire in your bosom and placed a lamp in hay, you will have danger from both: for either you will fall into the very pit of the abyss concerning chastity, or, if you do not suffer this, you will attach a shameful reputation to yourself, you who are commanded to take thought for what is good not only before God but also before men. Therefore, having an ecclesiastical exhortation, you ought to guard all that is seemly, and not only this, but also all that is of good repute.

Measure the gentle with the grave; set fear as a chastener. Why do you defile the fair name of Christianity? Why do you also entrap the souls of others by bringing in a live-in companion? For you will give account not only for the defense of your own soul, but also for those who were scandalized because of you. Cast the serpent from your bosom, cast the danger from yourself. If you long to be served by women, why did you not keep the ancient law and join yourself in lawful marriage? Marriage has no penalty; adultery has an inexorable penalty. For cohabitation with women is adultery, and great adultery. Examine your conscience, whether you were never harmed, whether you received no wound by night or by day. But I will lay open your heart, even if you are about to be vexed. Yet I care not; for I am greatly pained whenever I see an ascetic bringing in a live-in companion. And I tell you that every hour you are wounded, and every hour you are taken captive by the beast. For the bond of chastity is loosened, the noble warrior is unstrung, and you show yourself a captive instead of a victor. For are you stone? You are a human being, subject to the common accidents of nature. You have fire in your bosom, and are you not burned? And how is that reasonable? Place a lamp in hay, and then see if you can tell me that the hay is not burned. But if you deny that the hay is burned, do not tell me, but tell the one who knows the hidden things, who comes to gather the thoughts; for he is a judge of intentions and thoughts, and understands the notions of hearts. For he says: He who looked at a woman with desire has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

See that not every hour adultery is found in you. You will surely say: "With fasts and ascetic practices and a dry diet I fortify myself, so that I may not fall from my purpose." Therefore your asceticism is for nothing else than for your live-in companion; therefore you no longer store up righteousness; for she has drawn off your asceticism. Cast out from yourself, then, the one who is costing you many goods, lest she cast you out of paradise, lest she make you a plaything for the devil; do not set her beside yourself, lest she, having overturned you, be carried down with you into Gehenna. Fear the fearful judge; make a covenant with yourself not even to gaze at a woman; in the presence of elders, revere their gray hair, and, as if revering fathers, refrain from foolish talk and jesting and laughter. Do not play with a younger man, nor show him a path of laxity, yourself beginning this, and instilling much greater contempt; and revere a woman even to the point of not looking back at her. Let your life be a pattern for those women; show yourself such that they revere you, and that you become for them a pattern and beginning of reverence, because a man is more authoritative than a woman, and do not add your own ease to the already easier nature of the female. Let a woman be especially reverent, inasmuch as a woman's shamelessness is a more grievous reproach. Even if speaking freely with men is very terrible and bold, fear is added for a woman toward her own husband rather than speaking freely. For the woman, it is said, is to fear the man; if then for the one who has a husband such a law is laid down, what remains for you, the one who does not have a husband?

This, then, is fitting for you: not to approach a man at all, if possible, nor should a man even see your face. For you are a bride of Christ; go forth thus, as a bride adorned, your face covered with a veil, so that you may not, by wounding someone through sight, receive in return the recompense of his ruin. And we say these things according to the ineffable teachings of the Scriptures; but many women, having taken neither the fear of God to heart, nor feared their own easy fall, nor foreseen the punishment laid up for them, have conducted themselves indifferently and have come, by their own choice, to serve men, not equally according to the rule of a woman who is married and has a husband. But you do not keep even this rule; for you do not associate with fear, but with great license and contempt, and you eat together, and drink together, and converse together, and laugh together without restraint; and for all this, you wish to be called a virgin, but I will no longer call you a virgin, you who have so thrown yourself away and not even feared the danger. I will dare to say the prophetic word: Let heaven stand aghast at this, and let creation shudder, at how great shamelessness we have reached, even beyond the prostitutes in the brothels. For just as those women, made bold by the laughter of mimes... of men, become more brazen for shameless acts, so also these women, having gained approval, live with men. God is indignant, men mock, and they, imitating the unjust judge, fear neither God nor feel shame before man; but for all this, they are even more bold than women who dwell modestly with men in marriage.

These women rather treat those with whom they live in a haughty manner, and they disturb them, and insult them in return, and wish to be mistress of his entire property; and if at times he wishes to extend his hand in charity, she prevents him, and so she has become no longer a handmaid but a mistress. Withdraw, then, from living with strangers, O virgin, and I say not only from cohabitation, but also from conversing or laughing together, take heed. For if a prudent man is barely permitted to smile quietly, a wise woman is barely commanded even this. For even smiling is heavy and dangerous for a woman professing piety; for a woman is considered much better in gravity than in cheerfulness and brightness. And indeed, the one who wrote the Song of Songs, transferring praises from the woman to the spiritual bride, admiring her silence, praises the austerity of her appearance, calling it awe; for this becomes the very dignified and striking thing to beholders. For her gravity must be fearful to prying eyes and deterrent to meddlesome shamelessness; for this reason he also removed her adornment of gold and braiding of hair and costly garment, so that she might not glitter with the ornaments she wears and brighten the eye of beholders and invite scandal; for this reason the virgin ought to have fasts, and abstinences, and ascetic practices, and a pale and somber appearance, and a more humble garment, because of the slipperiness of nature.

For this reason also Paul, writing to his genuine child Timothy, safeguards his respectful kindness toward women with the security of chastity, saying: "Honor younger widows as sisters in all chastity." If the divine writings remove from a woman the adornment of the body, how much more does it befit a man to be entirely unadorned, and to have clothing only to the point of necessity, so that it is a covering and not an ornament, just as Paul named it: "Having sustenance and coverings, we will be content with these." For garments for adornment are to be considered more womanly than manly; for the law says: "A man shall not wear a woman's garment." Therefore let a man not be effeminate, where not even a woman is strongly suited to be effeminate before God. John wore a garment of camel hair, and a leather belt about his loins; and earlier Elijah, whose spirit John bore, was clothed only in a sheepskin. It is of a sluggish and indolent soul to admire a blooming garment and one fine in workmanship; but a magnanimous soul, perceiving the true beauty of the real world, spurns every soft garment, longing for that which is higher than itself—the unpretentious, the more seemly, the most dignified—having preferred chastity above all. Be content, therefore, with the reminder through what has been said, and preserve dignity, not carrying strictness beyond measure as if it were harsh, which becomes sweeter than honey and honeycomb both to the hearer himself and to those who approach. For spiritual joy, with dignity and magnificence, moors the soul in the unity of God, and fills with sweetness even those who encounter it.

But do not, taking pretext from my words because you have been prevented from living in cheerfulness, begin to be sullen and harsh toward the brothers who come to you, nor be someone disagreeable, difficult of access, and inhuman instead of useful and loving, nor be sullen in your greetings to approaching brothers, and unsociable in response and speech. For to rejoice always is an apostolic commandment, and so is "Exhort one another, and be kind to one another"; and "Love," it says, "is kind"; and the affability of the apostles is present in their letters, as they affectionately treat their hearers like children, as they exhort those who pay attention like brothers; and much about the sacred kindness in accordance with love can be learned from the holy Scriptures. Nor should one lead to immoderate cheerfulness, nor corrupt the imitation of God's kindness with buffoonery, but stand between perfect cheerfulness, and neither grieve those who meet with you, nor render them lax and indifferent, nor rebuke harshly, nor flatter deceptively, but both turn them with profit and exhort with kindness. "He who spares," it says, "to utter a harsh word is prudent; honeycombs of honey are beautiful words, and their sweetness is a healing of the soul; there are those who, speaking, wound like swords, but tongues of the wise heal." It is also good to devote oneself moderately to divine hymns; for such brightness sanctifies the soul, according to the Apostle: "Be filled," he says, "with the Spirit, singing and chanting in your hearts to the Lord.

It is good, therefore, to approach with zeal for such cheerfulness, and not, through some bitter and harsh disposition, to be reluctant toward divine song, as if deeming it unworthy to contribute a voice to the melody of God. For toward such a divine spirit and toward sacred converse one must be cheerful, not dissolving into mere sweetness of voice, nor being vulgarly disposed toward the divine odes, nor melodically twisting and looking about here and there in order to be praised, but rejoicing in God, striving to please Him alone, and especially here, so that the cheerful may be found blended with the dignified, the dignity being provided to us by fear of God, and the divine ode leading to brightness and instilling an imitation of eternal joy, in which those who have lived well in this life will live the future life with the Lord; to whom is the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.