Letter 848

To the same. Concerning the matters you have written to me about, having examined the book of the blessed Isaiah, I will offer you a brief consolation. For he cries out: "Pangs have seized me as a woman in labor." [Isaiah 21:3] Do you see the distress of a heart in pain and affliction? Then he says next: "I did wrong, so as not to hear; I made haste, so as not to see" [Isaiah 21:3-4]; for, confounded by unbearable trials, instead of the light I embrace the darkness, my heart wanders, and lawlessness scourges me, and my soul stands fast in fear; for I am now in danger of perishing from before the face of the Lord, "and of being made like to those who are brought down into Hades," since "there is no longer with me the light of my eyes" [Isaiah 38:10, alluded to], that is, the light of the eyes of the mind.

Περὶ ὧν μοι γεγράφηκας, τὴν τοῦ μακαρίου Ἡσαΐου δέλτον σκοπήσας, βραχετὰν σοι προσάξω παρηγορίαν. Κέκραγε γὰρ, ὅτι « Ὠδῖνες ἔλαβόν με ὡς τίκτουσαν. » Βλέπεις ἀνάγκην ὀδυνωμένης καὶ θλιβομένης καρδίας ; Εἶθ᾿ ἑξῆς φησιν « Ἠδίκησα τοῦ μὴ ἀκούειν, ἔσπευσα τοῦ μὴ βλέπειν » συγχυθεὶς γὰρ πειρασμοῖς ἀφορήτοις, ἀντὶ τοῦ φωτὸς τὸ σκότος ἀσπάζομαι, ἡ καρδία μου πλανᾶται, καὶ ἡ ἀνομία με μαστίζει, καὶ ἡ ψυχή μου ἐφέστηκεν εἰς φόβον κινδυνεύω γὰρ λοιπὸν ἀπολέσθαι ἐκ προσώπου Κυρίου, « καὶ προσομοιωθῆναι τοῖς εἰς ᾅδην καταβιβαζομένοις, » ἐπειδὴ « οὐκ ἔστι μετ᾿ ἐμοῦ λοιπὸν τὸ φῶς τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν μου » τῶν νοερῶν.