St. Maximos the Confessor: On Difficulties in Sacred Scripture: The Responses to Thalassios
And this is true, even if the envious Jewish people—those ungrateful, graceless misanthropes, who are hostile to all philanthropy, and who are thus pained by the salvation of mankind, and so dare to fight against the goodness of God—grind their teeth, renounce life, and make the salvation of the Gentiles in Christ a cause for mourning [p. 508].
Source. ORTHODOXY IN DIALOGUE – Translated by Fr. Maximos Constas. St. Maximos the Confessor: On Difficulties in Sacred Scripture: The Responses to Thalassios. Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2018.
Maximos the Confessor, Letter 8 (end) (On the forced conversion of Jews and Samaritans)
… So you might know about the novel event which just occurred here, honored fathers, I shall tell you concisely in short order. The blessed one enslaved to God, the entirely praiseworthy eparch of those here, coming forth from the queen of cities, has made Christians of all the Jews and Samaritans throughout all Africa, both natives and foreigners, according to the command of our most pious emperors; with their wives and children and servants, adding up to many myriads of souls, they were led forth to all-holy baptism on the day of Pentecost of the present fifth indiction.
I hear that this has occurred throughout the Roman empire; I have been seized with fear and dread about this, and I shudder at it. For I fear first lest this great and truly divine mystery was insulted when it was given to those who have not beforehand demonstrated an attitude agreeable to the faith. Second I also consider the danger to the soul of those same ones [i.e., the baptized], lest somehow—as they persist in holding on to the bitter root of their ancestral faithlessness deep down and as they cut themselves off from the light of grace—they have engendered exponential condemnation, increased by the darkness of faithlessness. And third: I suspect the apostasy awaited according to the holy apostle, lest it somehow get its start from their mixing in among the faithful peoples; that through this [mixing], unsuspected among the more artless, they might be able to create the evil seed of scandals against our holy faith; and that this might be found to be the clear and unambiguous sign of the contentious consummation of all, according to which some—preparing themselves through prayers, and pleas, and many tears, and ways sought toward righteousness—await the great temptations and struggles on behalf of truth.
But if you have something to add about this, according to the God-moved power of knowledge granted to you, find it worthwhile to clarify it to me, one enslaved to you and your disciple, having more fear and trembling than ever. Through the letter, as if present, I embrace you, most holy ones, and all those with you….
Source. Andrew Jacobs – Translated by Andrew S. Jacobs. Maximos the Confessor, Letter 8 (end) (On the forced conversion of Jews and Samaritans).
Epistle 14
We especially ought to do this now [pray and turn to God]; for even without the commandment, nature becomes our teacher to flee to God when we take the circumstances as our counselor. For what could be more oppressive than the evils now gripping the inhabited world? What could be more terrible to those who perceive what is happening? What could be more pitiable or frightening to those who suffer?
To see a desert-dwelling and barbarian nation roaming through foreign land as if it were their own; and like wild and untamed beasts—who possess only the bare outward form of human appearance—devastating the civilized state;
And the Jewish people, who from ancient times have rejoiced in human bloodshed, and who know only the murder of [God’s] creature as the sole way to please God; and because of this they rage even more madly, to become more conspicuous in the abundance of wickedness than all who are notorious for evil; and who think they serve God by [doing] what God hates;
The most faithless of all peoples on earth; and therefore most suited to receive the opposing power [the Antichrist];
Leading the way, in every manner and disposition, for the indwelling of the Evil One; and through what they do, announcing the coming of the Antichrist, since they failed to recognize the true Savior;
The hostile and lawless people, hating both mankind and God, and because of this hating mankind even more because they hate God, and permitted to revel in outrages against the saints;
Since vengeance is near, that they may be punished more justly, their tyranny and rebellion against God having been fully revealed through their deeds;
The people who are the champion of falsehood, the author of bloodshed, and the enemy of truth; the bitter persecutor of my faith, through which polytheistic error was destroyed and the legions of demons were driven away; through which faith ‘all the nations clapped their hands,’ according to the prophecy, ‘and rejoiced to God with a voice of exultation, for the Lord most high is terrible, a great King over all the earth.’ [Psalm 47:1-2]
The Only-begotten Son was known to them mystically, having come in the flesh…
What could be more frightening to Christian eyes and ears than these things, as I said? To see a fierce and strange nation permitted to raise its hands against the divine inheritance. But the multitude of our sins has caused these things to happen. For we have not lived worthily of the Gospel of Christ. We have all sinned, we have all acted lawlessly, we have all abandoned the way of the commandments…
But the senseless people is not ashamed even by this, and does not cease persecuting faith and virtue. Which things he clearly persecutes through envy; since he has fallen from both and does not know that he has fallen, limping on both knees, and completely unable—or rather, to speak more fittingly, unwilling—to rise from the fall of impiety; since he is always betraying faith and virtue for the sake of pride and pleasure, as a deserter people and foolish, and an undisciplined nation.
To these [pride and pleasure] the deserter, full of lawlessness, has divided his life: the one [pride] he makes the mother of apostasy from God, the other [pleasure] the creator of misanthropy; so that both God and creation are insulted by him: God by being despised, and creation by being corrupted by the pollutions of his practices.
Source. Patrologia Graeca – Translated by Claude AI. Maximos the Confessor, Epistle 14, Migne, PG 91.539-542. 1866.