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ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA
ON PILGRIMAGES
[Translated by the Rev. William Moore, M.A., Rector of Appleton, Late
Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.]
Since, my friend, you ask me a question in your letter, I think that it
is incumbent upon me to answer you in their proper order upon all the
points connected with it. It is, then, my opinion that it is a good thing
for those who have dedicated themselves once for all to the higher life to
fix their attention continually upon the utterances in the Gospel, and,
just as those who correct their work in any given material by a rule, and
by means of the straightness of that rule bring the crookedness which their
hands detect to straightness, so it is right that we should apply to these
questions a strict and flawless measure as it were,--I mean, of course, the
Gospel rule of life(2),--and in accordance with that, direct ourselves in
the sight of God. Now there are some amongst those who have entered upon
the monastic and hermit life, who have made it a part of their devotion to
behold those spots at Jerusalem where the memorials of our Lord's life in
the flesh are on view; it would be well, then, to look to this Rule, and if
the finger of its precepts points to the observance of such things, to
perform the work, as the actual injunction of our Lord; but if they lie
quite outside the commandment of the Master, I do not see what there is to
command any one who has become a law of duty to himself to be zealous in
performing any of them. When the Lord invites the blest to their
inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, He does not include a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem amongst their good deeds; when He announces the Beatitudes, He
does not name amongst them that sort of devotion. But as to that which
neither makes us blessed nor sets us in the path to the kingdom, for what
reason it should be run after, let him that is wise consider. Even if there
were some profit in what they do, yet even so, those who are perfect would
do best not to be eager in practising it; but since this matter, when
closely looked into, is found to inflict upon those who have begun to lead
the stricter life a moral mischief, it is so far from being worth an
earnest pursuit, that it actually requires the greatest caution to prevent
him who has devoted himself to God from being penetrated by any of its
hurtful influences. What is it, then, that is hurtful in it? The Holy Life
is open to all, men and women alike. Of that contemplative Life the
peculiar mark is Modesty(3). But Modesty is preserved in societies that
live distinct and separate, so that there should be no meeting and mixing
up of persons of opposite sex; men are not to rush to keep the rules of
Modesty in the company of women, nor women to do so in the company of men.
But the necessities of a journey are continually apt to reduce this
scrupulousness to a very indifferent observance of such rules. For
instance, it is impossible for a woman to accomplish so long a journey
without a conductor; on account of her natural weakness she has to be put
upon her horse and to be lifted down again; she has to be supported(4) in
difficult situations. Whichever we suppose, that she has an acquaintance to
do this yeoman's service, or a hired attendant to perform it, either way
the proceeding cannot escape being reprehensible; whether she leans on the
help of a stranger, or on that of her own servant, she fails to keep the
law of correct conduct; and as the inns and hostelries and cities of the
East present many examples of licence and of indifference to vice, how will
it be possible for one passing through such smoke to escape without
smarting eyes? Where the ear and the eye is defiled, and the heart too, by
receiving all those foulnesses through eye and ear, how will it be possible
to thread without infection such seats of contagion? What advantage,
moreover, is reaped by him who reaches those celebrated spots themselves?
He cannot imagine that our Lord is living, in the body, there at the
present day, but has gone away from us foreigners; or that the Holy Spirit
is in abundance at Jerusalem, but unable to travel as far as us. Whereas,
if it is really possible to infer God's presence from visible symbols, one
might more justly consider that He dwelt in the Cappadocian nation than in
any of the spots outside it. For how many Altars s there are there, on
which the name of our Lord is glorified! One could hardly count so many in
all the rest of the world. Again, if the Divine grace was more abundant
about Jerusalem than elsewhere, sin would not be so much the fashion
amongst those that live there; but as it is, there is no form of
uncleanness(6) that is not perpetrated amongst them; rascality, adultery,
theft, idolatry, poisoning, quarrelling, murder, are rife; and the last
kind of evil is so excessively prevalent, that nowhere in the world are
people so ready to kill each other as there; where kinsmen attack each
other like wild beasts, and spill each other's blood, merely for the sake
of lifeless plunder. Well, in a place where such things go on, what proof,
I ask, have you of the abundance of Divine grace? But I know what many will
retort to all that I have said; they will say, "Why did you not lay down
this rule for yourself as well? If there is no gain for the godly pilgrim
in return for having been there, for what reason did you undergo the toil
of so long a journey?" Let them hear from me my plea for this. By the
necessities of that office in which I have been placed by the Dispenser of
my life to live, it was my duty, for the purpose of the correction which
the Holy Council had resolved upon, to visit the places where the Church in
Arabia is; secondly, as Arabia is on the confines of the Jerusalem
district, I had promised that I would confer also with the Heads of the
Holy Jerusalem Churches, because matters with them were in confusion, and
needed an arbiter; thirdly, our most religious Emperor had granted us
facilities for the journey, by postal conveyance, so that we had to endure
none of those inconveniences which in the case of others we have noticed;
our waggon was, in fact, as good as a church or monastery to us, for all of
us were singing psalms and fasting in the Lord during the whole journey.
Let our own case therefore cause difficulty to none; rather let our advice
be all the more listened to, because we are giving it upon matters which
came actually before our eyes. We confessed that the Christ Who was
manifested is very God, as much before as after our sojourn at Jerusalem;
our faith in Him was not increased afterwards any more than it was
diminished. Before we saw Bethlehem we knew His being made man by means of
the Virgin; before we saw His Grave we believed in His Resurrection from
the dead; apart from seeing the Mount of Olives, we confessed that His
Ascension into heaven was real. We derived only thus much of profit from
our travelling thither, namely that we came to know by being able to
compare them, that our own places are far holier than those abroad.
Wherefore, O ye who fear the Lord, praise Him in the places where ye now
are. Change of place does not effect any drawing nearer unto God, but
wherever thou mayest be, God will come to thee, if the chambers of thy soul
be found of such a sort that He can dwell in thee and walk in thee. But if
thou keepest thine inner man full of wicked thoughts, even if thou wast on
Golgotha, even if thou wast on the Mount of Olives, even if thou stoodest
on the memorial-rock of the Resurrection, thou wilt be as far away from
receiving Christ into thyself, as one who has not even begun to confess
Him. Therefore, my beloved friend, counsel the brethren to be absent from
the body to go to our Lord, rather than to be absent from Cappadocia to go
to Palestine; and if any one should adduce the command spoken by our Lord
to His disciples that they should not quit Jerusalem, let him be made to
understand its true meaning. Inasmuch as the gift and the distribution of
the Holy Spirit had not yet passed upon the Apostles, our Lord commanded
them to remain in the same place, until they should have been endued with
power from on high. Now, if that which happened at the beginning, when the
Holy Spirit was dispensing each of His gifts under the appearance of a
flame, continued until now, it would be right for all to remain in that
place where that dispensing took place; but if the Spirit "bloweth" where
He "listeth," those, too, who have become believers here are made partakers
of that gift; and that according to the proportion of their faith, not in
consequence of their pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (LNPF II/V, Schaff and Wace). The digital version is by The
Electronic
Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.
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