Letter 957

To the Same Person. "Remember," it says, "you who are far from the Lord, and let Jerusalem come up into their heart" [cf. Isaiah, Septuagint]. By Jerusalem I mean the peaceful condition of the soul. For you who were formerly estranged from the Lord through baseness of judgment, now cleave to Him through good hope, and faith, and prayer. "I remembered the Lord," it says, "and was glad" [Psalm 76:4, Septuagint]. For God, when He is called to mind in a time of distress and of the soul's deep despair, not only extinguishes our sorrows but also produces gladness, consoling with an inexpressible consolation the heart that has been engulfed by the weight of temptations and has grown faint at the magnitude of its afflictions. Good, therefore, is the saying, "Remember"; for there is no one who remembers Jesus Christ in the death of perdition.

Μνήσθητε, φησίν, οἱ μακρόθεν τοῦ Κυρίου, καὶ Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἀναβέτω εἰς τὴν καρδίαν αὐτῶν. Ἱερουσαλὴμ δὲ λέγω τὴν εἰρηνικὴν κατάστασιν τῆς ψυχῆς. Οἱ γὰρ πρώην μακρυνθέντες τοῦ Κυρίου διὰ φαυλότητα γνώμης, νῦν κολλήθητε αὐτῷ δι᾽ ἀγαθῆς ἐλπίδος, καὶ πίστεως, καὶ εὐχῆς. Ἐμνήσθην τοῦ Κυρίου, φησίν, καὶ εὐφράνθην. Θεὸς γὰρ μνημονευθεὶς ἐν καιρῷ στενοχωρίας, καὶ βαθείας τῶν ψυχῶν ἀπογνώσεως, οὐ μόνον τὰς λύπας σβέννυσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ εὐφροσύνην ἐργάζεται, παρηγορῶν ἀρρήτῳ παρηγορίᾳ τὴν περιχυθεῖσαν τῷ ὄγκῳ τῶν πειρασμῶν, καὶ ὀλιγοψυχοῦσαν τῷ μεγέθει τῶν θλίψεων καρδίαν. Καλὸν τοίνυν τὸ εἰρημένον, Μνήσθητε· οὐκ ἔστι γὰρ ὁ μνημονεύων ἐν τῷ θανάτῳ τῆς ἀπωλείας Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.