Letter 951

To Araxius. When we hear divine Scripture saying, "Loose your sandal" [Exodus 3:5; Joshua 5:15], we ought to know that we are being commanded to push away our former habit and bad condition, and to lay them aside and cast them off. Pleasure is the hook of the devil, dragging toward destruction. Pleasure becomes the procurer of eternal fire. Pleasure is the nurse of the sleepless worm [cf. Mark 9:48]. Pleasure is the death of the immortal soul. Pleasure for a little while fattens the gullet of the foolish, but afterward it produces eruptions more bitter than wormwood. Pleasure hotly and madly, and so to speak violently, urges a person on to enjoy the foul-smelling, soul-snatching uncleanness; but after the defilement has been completed, it bestows reproaches, and pains of the heart, and griefs, and disturbances, and fears upon the one who has been baited and deceived through that shameful and accursed sweetness.

Ὅταν ἀκούωμεν τῆς θείας λεγούσης Γραφῆς· « Λῦσον τὸ ὑπόδημά σου, » εἰδέναι ὀφείλομεν, ὅτι κελευόμεθα τὴν προτέραν συνήθειαν καὶ καχεξίαν διωθεῖσθαι, ἀποτίθεσθαί τε καὶ ἀποβάλλειν. Ηδονὴ ἄγκιστρόν ἐστι τοῦ διαβόλου πρὸς ἀπ- ώλειαν ἕλκον. Ἡδονὴ πρόξενος γίνεται αἰωνίου πυρός. Ἡδονὴ τροφὸς ὑπάρχει σκώληκος ἀκοιμήτου. Ἡδονὴ θάνατός ἐστι τῆς ἀθανάτου ψυχῆς. Ἡδονὴ πρὸς ὀλί- γον πιαίνει τῶν ἀφρόνων τὴν φάρυγγα, ὕστερον μέν- τοι πικροτέρας ἀψίνθου τὰς ἀναδόσεις ποιεῖται. Ἡδονὴ θερμῶς μὲν καὶ ἐμμανῶς, καὶ ὡς εἰπεῖν, βιαίως προτρέπεται τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἀπολαῦσαι τῆς δυσώδους καὶ ψυχολαβοῦς ἀκαθαρσίας· μετὰ δὲ τὸ τελεσθῆναι τὸ μίασμα, μέμψεις καὶ ὀδύνας καρ- διακάς, καὶ λύπας, καὶ ταραχάς, καὶ φόβους χαρί- ζεται τῷ δελεασθέντι καὶ ἐξαπατηθέντι διὰ τῆς ἐπ- ονειδίστου καὶ κατηραμένης γλυκασίας.