Answer: As love is above all virtues, so it is heavier than all sins to hate one's brother; for if you hate your brother, you are a murderer, as the Apostle said (1 John 3:15). Whoever hates his brother hates God Himself. Thou shalt hate thy brother, for he is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and he hath no tidings, where he goeth, for darkness hath blinded his eyes (1 John 2:11). This is how many evils hatred is the cause of. And love covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8). Envy is incurable, and it is completely incurable. Any unrepentant sin is a sin unto death; moreover, homosexuals, sorcerers, poisoners, prophets, and anyone who withholds the wages of a hireling, and who hates his brother, is severely condemned on a par with murderers.

On the Remembrance of Death, on Virtue, and on Riches

I must obey him who says, "Comfort one another, and build up" (1 Thess. 5:11). I must not because I am able to teach and I can do it with my diligence. On the contrary, I know (the truth from) him who said: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. Comfort us in all our afflictions, that we may be able to comfort those who are in all afflictions, the consolation whereby we ourselves are comforted by God (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). Wherefore I thought it necessary to write to you about all that I have learned from the Divine Scriptures, in which I have been instructed by pious men, and in which I have learned by my own experience, so that I may not resemble those envious artists who, through ill-will, conceal much in art from their students. I believe him who said: "For God is at work in us, and willeth and works for good will" (Phil. 2:13).

Virtue is not diminished if many take it up and many succeed in it, as one of the saints said. The acquisition of virtue is such that even if all were to enter into the share, its wealth would not be exhausted. It is not like earthly acquisitiveness, in which those who divide into shares add as much to one part as they subtract in another, and the excess of one is an impoverishment for the other partner. It is because of this, out of hatred of belittlement, that people quarrel for more. But whoever acquires virtue does not arouse envy by increasing his acquisition, but he who admires virtue more will not do any harm to him who desires to have acceptability (less), but is only filled with good desire; but the riches of virtue are not exhausted by those who have warned (intended) to prevail over it.

And so, let us begin (the narration) which we have assumed, with the help of the grace of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Negligence for the sober is the cause of many evils, little by little distracting them from the spiritual life, cooling the fervor of faith and accustoming them to serve pleasures as masters, for they do not allow themselves to think of future recompenses after their departure from this life. The negligent one, even if he hears the Scriptures announcing future punishments after death, accepts them without any feeling that the punishments are assigned to someone else, and he himself is not subject to accusation.

As much as negligence is harmful, so useful is sobriety, which supplies us with all that is good. A sober person always has the remembrance of God on his mind. And where the remembrance of God is rooted, there all activity of the evil one ceases. By constantly renewing in us the insatiable desire for future blessings, it shortens our course (shortens the path to virtue).

Just as for bodily podvig you need healthy limbs and sharpness of vision, so for spiritual podvig you need a purified soul. The body is exhausted and weakened by the excessiveness of the ailment. But nothing harms a sober soul, just as the courageous Job was not harmed by the anxiety of suffering, and by the fact that he sat on a festering ground in the open air. Piety is strongest of all, but most miserable and unfortunate is a life given over to passions. The more pleasant the temporary, the more it increases the calamity. As the thrifty, having lost one or two drachmas, lament, stung by covetousness; and the rich man, not receiving for his share a small vineyard and a small plot suitable for cultivating the land, laments, not bearing the loss, — so the rich are also haunted by sorrow, which reminds them of separation from wealth. Especially if anyone sees himself approaching old age, he weeps for himself, as if he were bound with iron fetters, or imprisoned, not finding any means to avert old age, although he thinks to put aside the remembrance of death by pipes and tympanums, and other musical instruments. But the more he tries to weaken this remembrance, the more he strengthens it, because, without any doubt, he will finally be deprived of all joy. Applause, games and the most pleasant sound of pipes will stop. Sorrow does not cease to burn his interior and devour his womb. And even the most tragic spectacles in their fables (narratives about them) and wars constantly repeat about death and extermination. And if he had remembered death, then the fear of waiting, of course, would have changed his temper and turned him to good work. Of which of the unbelievers and the wicked will it be said that he remembered death?

Do not let this seem terrible to you, because the thought of death is inseparable from every person. But unbelievers make good use of it, complaining only about separation from the pleasures of life. Believers, on the other hand, use it as an aid and cure for shameful passions. Thus, we are all sure that believers and unbelievers will die, but not all believe that there is a Judgment after death. The righteous, always having it before their eyes, according to the words of Him who said: "And as it is for man alone to die, then the Judgment" (Hebrews 9:27), — day and night they send up prayers and petitions to God, in order to be delivered from Gehenna of fire and other torments, and to be vouchsafed rejoicing with the holy Angels. But the wicked and sinners have only one simple remembrance of death. They do not care about what will happen after death; they complain only about the loss of the pleasures of life and about separation from them. And if any of them thinks of death, which troubles the righteous, then the first sorrow will give way to the second, for such a person will not be of one mind with those who reason: "Let us eat and drink, for we will die in the morning" (1 Cor. 15:32). He will not consent to lay up treasures for useless things, and to labor for barren things, or, rather, to prepare for himself torments. On the contrary, as a wise man, he will be occupied with the care of the best, or with the desire for the most perfect, the care of which the wicked shun.

And for those who love earthly things, their whole life is spent in vain hope. And the greater the abundance of wealth, the more it increases the fear of death, for the remembrance of death, living within them, causes sorrow, depending on the sensitivity of each. But (they grieve) not for the perfection of their chastity and prudence, truthfulness and courage, not for the arousal of thoughts about hell and about the justice of God — no, they, not knowing how to help themselves, weep for their wealth and say: "Who will possess such an estate after our death? For it is also pleasant for kings to know who will rule the kingdom after them!

But when all that is desired for him has come to an end, the contentment of fruits, the abundance of income, the fertility of cattle, the rank of nobility, and valiant deeds in war with enemies, then the revived thought of death will disturb the heart. And if the members are bent by extreme old age and can no longer serve indecent and forbidden pleasures, then life itself becomes repugnant to him.

But if someone is cruel, fierce and arrogant, and in the abundance of peace and prosperity considers himself very far from the thought of death, then through this he does not become out of mortal danger, for he is like a sick man who pretends to be healthy and eats the opposite of his illness, thinking thereby to overcome the disease. But this does not alleviate the suffering, because the disease, having intensified in the limbs, and against his will, will assure him that suffering is beyond his strength. As soon as he sees that one of his fellow tribesmen has suddenly been snatched away by death from various fits, then he will involuntarily become convinced that a death sentence will come upon him.

But if one is young or has recently married, then even in this case the thought of death (even) will mix sorrow with the most pleasant sensations. As soon as he sees the beloved face of his wife, the fear of separation will certainly come into him, and if he hears the sweetest voice, he will imagine that he will no longer hear it. And when he could rejoice in the sight of beauty, then he would begin to tremble most at the expected weeping, thinking that this beauty would be lost, and instead of what was seen, there would now remain hideous bones, no longer having any trace, no reminder, no remnant of true beauty. And if he imagines all these and similar things in his mind, will he live in joy? Will he rely (hope) on the present as something useful and permanent? Is it not obvious that he will lose his disposition and confidence in life as in dreamy seductions, looking at the visible as something alien? The negligent and careless, being darkened by sinful deception, with the increasing number of days of their lives, still think that they are far from the hour of death, not caring in the least about their departure. On the contrary, they assign themselves many years and a long life. But they are like travelers walking in the dark at night, who think that they are far from the rapids and abyss ahead, until, falling, they solve their doubts by actual experience.