Letter 362

To the Same Person. Do not grumble, O man; for grumbling is foreign to a monk, even if it should befall you to be endangered unto death while carrying out what is enjoined upon you by the brotherhood. For "he who hears you," He says, "hears me, and he who has dared to reject you rejects me" [Luke 10:16]. And the Apostle writes: "Do not grumble, as some of the Israelites grumbled, and were destroyed by the destroyer" [1 Corinthians 10:10]. If, then, you wish not to be destroyed, cease from grumblings. Or how will you be able to spread out your hands to the Lord and to pray, according to the tradition of the Apostle, "without anger and disputings" [1 Timothy 2:8]? For to grumble is a wave of anger.

Μὴ γόγγυζε, ἄνθρωπε· ἀλλότριον γὰρ μοναχοῦ τὸ γογγύζειν, κἂν μέχρι θανάτου κινδυνεύειν σε συμβῇ ἐπιτελοῦντα τὸ ἐπιταττόμενον σοι παρὰ τῆς ἀδελφότητος. Ὁ γὰρ ὑμῶν, φησίν, ἀκούων, ἐμοῦ ἀκούει, καὶ ὁ τολμήσας ὑμᾶς ἀθετῆσαι, ἐμὲ ἀθετεῖ. Καὶ ὁ Ἀπόστολος γράφει· Μὴ γογγύζετε, καθὼς τινες τῶν Ἰσραηλιτῶν ἐγόγγυσαν, καὶ ἀπώλοντο ὑπὸ τοῦ ὀλοθρευτοῦ. Εἰ τοίνυν βούλει μὴ ἀπολέσθαι, πέπαυσο τῶν γογγυσμῶν. Ἢ πῶς δυνήσῃ πρὸς Κύριον διαπετάσαι τὰς χεῖρας, καὶ εὔξασθαι, κατὰ τὴν παράδοσιν τοῦ Ἀποστόλου, χωρὶς ὀργῆς, καὶ διαλογισμῶν· Τὸ γὰρ γογγύζειν κῦμα ὑπάρχει ὀργῆς.