543 SPURIA. [...] the burning of perjury consumes soul and body in Gehenna. If I say, "Do not offer insult," you object to me your anger; if I say, "Give money to the poor," you offer as a pretext your poverty and the maintenance of your children. Not swearing and not lying do not require money taken from a purse. Why do we not practice that justice A without expense? The purple and the diadem do not befit a king as much as not lying befits a Christian. Therefore his kinsmen, friends, neighbors, and business associates respect him; for this reason demons fear him, angels love him, and they themselves, rejoicing, open the gates of the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
NOTICE
Cotelerius published this homily as a genuine product of Chrysostom in the year 1661, to which he also added three others as "unedited"; this one was at the head of the group regarding Psalm VI, followed by another on Psalm L, another again on the same Psalm L, and a fourth finally on Psalm XCIV. Cotelerius presented them all as "genuine" works, which is indeed true of the second, whose beginning is *Eldete tē proterā kyriakē*, but that had been published by Savile among the Homilies on Repentance, and also by Fronto Ducaeus, who relegated it to the end of the fifth volume. We, however, placed it in the second volume, the second on Repentance, p. 287. What induced Cotelerius to publish it anew is the diversity of readings occurring here and there. But everything confirms that it is a genuine production of Chrysostom. However, no one who has even touched the style of Chrysostom with his fingertips would say this one on Psalm VI is genuine. The speech is utterly relaxed, supported by no sinews, smells of a foreigner, and bears the marks of a clumsy, paltry Greek attempt. Everything teems with solecisms and unusual forms of expression. For who could tolerate that, *oude aposōpō tōn pollōn mou hamartiōn peri sou poiēsasthai, Despota*? Or who, *ton arrabōna ebiōsa*? Moreover, that *ean gar mē sy phthasēs, tis hina phthasē*, completely smacks of an unskilled Greek of a more recent age. In a word, you could hardly run through two or three periods without such unusual modes of expression or solecisms: so that all these can by no means be attributed to the ignorance of scribes. Yet I will not hide that regarding the end there is BOUR HOLY FATHER JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, PSALM OF DAVID ON THE OCTAVE. ON PSALM VI.
1. The Scripture calls "the octave" that life and manner of conduct which follows the seventh, that is, the present age, which that circumcision of the eighth day foretold. The wise Solomon also warns about the octave, saying, "Give a portion to seven, and also to eight" (Eccl. 11:2), as if to say: In this age, think of the seventh millennium, and of the good part, that is, the eighth, the future and permanent one, eternal life. But let us look also at the beginning of the Psalm itself.
2. "O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger." Staring with the eyes of the mind at the awesome tribunal, the prophet, as if already naked and with bowed neck, asks the judge nothing else but just this: "O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger." I know, O Lord, that a tremendous and terrible tribunal awaits me, before the angels and every creature; where you preside upon a formidible and high throne to judge, and you bring about the manifestation and revelation of all the sins that have been committed; and I do not dare, because of the multitude of my many sins, to make confession before you, O Master. Because my sin is greater than that it can be forgiven, because I have sinned against you more than other men, because I have provoked your name beyond measure, because I have lived prodigally beyond the prodigal, because I have become a debtor to you more than that debtor of the ten thousand talents. Above the tax-collector, a hostile tax-collector has exacted tribute from me; above the robber, a murderous robber has wretchedly slain me. More than the harlot, I have committed fornication; more than Nineveh, I have sinned unrepentantly; more than the Canaanite woman, I have sinned. My sins have been heavy upon me like a heavy burden; and I have been bowed down even to the end. I have provoked your holy name, I have not obeyed your commandments, I have wickedly dissipated your riches, I have consumed your treasure poorly; the pledge which you had given me, I have consumed with your enemies; I have not kept the voice of your commandment; I have soiled the tunic with which you had clothed me; I have extinguished the lamp which you had prepared for me, by falling asleep; I have disgraced with sins my face which you had made joyful; my eyes, which you had enlightened, I have again wickedly blinded; my lips, which you had sanctified, I have again defiled. And I know that you are surely going to call my deeds to account, and therefore there is nowhere for me to flee; but I must necessarily be rebuked. O Lord, not in your anger C
rebuke me. Do not make these things public, do not reveal them to all angels and men to my own disgrace. O Lord, not in your anger rebuke me. For if no one can bear the anger of a mortal king, how much more shall all creation not be able to sustain the anger of God? B Nor in your wrath discipline me. I do not say, Do not discipline me; for discipline is the seed of all instruction and correction. But, while disciplining, do not in your wrath discipline me. I know the thief who asked and received forgiveness from you. I know the harlot who approached with her whole soul and was forgiven. I know the tax collector who sighed from the depth of his heart and was justified. But I am not like them. For I have no fervent tears, I have no true confession, I have no sighing from the depth of my heart, I have no pure soul, I have no sincere fasting, I have no love for my brother, I have no spiritual poverty, I have no compassion that I might be compassionated, I have no forgiveness that I might be forgiven, I have no self-control in the flesh, I have no purity of thoughts, I have no God-befitting intent. With what countenance, then, or with what boldness shall I ask for forgiveness? Many times, Master, have I resolved to repent, and I have become a liar before you regarding that resolution. Many times I fall down before you in church, and as soon as I go out, I fall into lawlessness. Many times you have had mercy on me, and I have rejected it. How often have you been long-suffering, and I have not turned back? How often have you raised me up, and I have fallen again? How many things have you arranged, and I have been ungrateful to you? How often have you listened to me, and I have ignored you? How many things have you felt with me, and I have not served you in any way? How many times have you honored me, and I have dishonored you? How often, when I sinned, have you exhorted me as a father, kissed me as a son, and called me as a child, spreading out your arms? C When I fell, you said, "Awake, you who sleep [Eph. 5:14]. Come, I do not pursue you, I do not destroy you, I do not reproach you, I do not loathe my own creation, I do not cast away, I do not harden my heart against my own child." For I do not wish to hate my own image when it turns back to me, nor to turn away the man whom I fashioned with my own hand, whom I created, whom I carried, for whom I humbled myself, for whom I poured out my own blood. How, then, shall I not receive him who turns and falls before me? Therefore, Master, as having the abyss of philanthropy and the ocean of long-suffering as innate and inseparable, do not in your anger rebuke me, nor in your wrath discipline me, but again and yet again be long-suffering toward me. Do not hasten to reap me from the field of life, nor hasten to cut me down like the barren fig tree; but as a good and philanthropic Master, grant me, along with all others, this year for repentance, and do not be weary of bearing my sloth, and do not snatch me away while I am unprepared. Do not take me having no wedding garment; do not present my naked soul as a public exhibit at your judgment seat. Do not take me while I have nothing to offer you, but be long-suffering toward me, be philanthropic, be compassionate to me, the poor, the deep-slumbering, the neglectful, the wretched, the destitute, the fornicator, the filthy, the prodigal, the ungrateful, the heartless, the callous, the nameless and shameless, the buried, the hidden, and the inexcusable, the unworthy of all philanthropy, the unworthy of heaven, the worthy of all punishment and Gehenna and torment. But, O Lord, not in your anger rebuke me, nor in your wrath discipline me. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak. For my conscience is weak, my mind is weak. My days have vanished in vanity, and the end of the race approaches. But open 555 to me, Master, unworthy and knocking as I am, D and do not lock the door of your mercy, but open the door to me and extend your hand to one storm-tossed in the abyss of pleasures, and do not close it against me. For if you do not come first, who is there to come first? If you do not hasten, who is there to help us?
Truly, no one; but you, who are by nature philanthropic, grant to us a time of life, and give to us a time of return. Conquer my callousness for me, and bring about my amendment. Grant me yet a little time, and you yourself make for me a way of salvation. For if you do not act, whatever I attempt is useless and senseless. Therefore, do not delay, Master, but come to your creature. For you said, "Without me you can do nothing." Take up the return of my soul and the time of my life. For I am tyrannized by nature, and even more I am tyrannized by my evil habit. Therefore, "Have mercy on me, for I am weak." For my enemy has enfeebled me, and my enemies have trampled me underfoot, and they have made me weak and crushed. But the weak and crushed man cannot heal himself; the weak man cannot raise himself, cannot help, cannot bind himself. Therefore: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak. Heal me, O Lord, for my bones have been troubled." All the seven [faculties] of my soul have been troubled and crushed. But he who is crushed in his bones cannot rise to seek a physician, cannot run and be rescued from his enemies. Therefore, you seek me, Master, you who came to seek the lost. You again overtake and forestall the one who fell among thieves. For you have made him not half-dead, but altogether dead. Therefore, "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be saved." Heal me, O Lord, for the evil serpent has made me altogether weak and decaying. But the weak and decaying man lies altogether on the ground, cast down altogether, a useless corpse, except that with his voice he calls the physician, except that he cries out and seeks the deliverer, except that he lifts up his eyes and looks around: when will he come, when will he visit him who binds up the crushed, and saves the desperate, and raises up the broken? "Heal me, O Lord, for my bones have been troubled, and my soul has been troubled exceedingly." Bodily and psychically, he says, O Master, a disturbance has overtaken me, I have fallen into the passions of the flesh, having made my flesh and soul a plaything for the demons. "Heal me, O Lord, for my bones have been troubled"—those things which bind and raise up my inner man. What are these? Faith, prudence, hope, love, self-control, piety, gentleness, humility. These bones, then, have been crushed within me. "Heal me, O Lord, for my bones have been troubled, and my soul has been troubled exceedingly." I see already the hour of my soul having progressed, the end drawing near, my old age having reached its peak, my harvest inclining toward the cutting; I see my harvester hastening, showing the sickle, carrying the axe, signaling the cutting down, having the unfruitfulness, and casting me into the fire. "And my soul has been troubled exceedingly." I see the thief now approaching, and hastening to snatch me from life. "And my soul has been troubled exceedingly." I see the hard and long road from this life to those things there, and I have no provisions. "And my soul has been troubled exceedingly." I see the creditor approaching, and he has plundered me. "And my soul has been troubled exceedingly." I see the examiner shaking my parchment at me, and the prisoners gnashing their teeth. "And my soul has been troubled exceedingly." I see many accusing, and no one to defend me. "And my soul has been troubled exceedingly." I am shaken and anxious, I shudder and am struck with terror, and I do not know what to do. 554 Shall I ask for a time of life? But I am afraid that I will again make an addition of sins. And with what countenance shall I gaze upon the Judge? I am in despair, because I see my affairs in the extremity of evils. The wicked one who harasses me does not cease, the civil war of the flesh that disturbs me does not spare, my enemies do not desist from warring, my evil thoughts never find rest.
B Furthermore, Lord, how long? Did He not say: "Why do I stand?" And He did not say: "But" the agitation and terrible and bold C thoughts, he said, before God, held himself back, and this also was "But I, Lord, how long?" You see, O Master, that for me all things are hopeless and miserable. If you see the distress D I am in, the attack of my enemy, the furnace of the passions, the war of thoughts, the lapse of time, and the weakness of my powers, how long, Lord, will you not have compassion? How long will you not avenge? How long will you not look upon me? If I am worthy of being abandoned by all, but I will beg for remission through your mercy. Therefore, the prophet, because of such soul-dejection, held himself back, and so that he might not appear to be fighting, he transfers therefore from these things to entreaty before God, and says: "Turn, O Lord, and deliver my soul; save me for the sake of your mercy" (Ps. VI, 5). Not for the sake of my works, for they are evil; not for the sake of my labors, for I am weak; but "Save me for the sake of your mercy." But if you wish to contend with me in judgment, O Master, I pronounce the verdict against myself, and I acknowledge that I am worthy of death; therefore, "Save me for the sake of your mercy." I take refuge in your mercy, because I have nothing that I can offer you. I seek compassion: do not demand from me the price of it. No one sells mercy, but gives it as a gift. Therefore, "Save me for the sake of your mercy." Remember your words, which you have uttered in your holy Scriptures. Remember, O Master, that "The imagination of man is intensely and diligently inclined to evil from his youth" (Gen. VIII, 21). Remember, O Master, that you fashioned me as clay, fiery and bloody. Remember, O Master, that "Man is become like to vanity" (Ps. CXLIII, 4). Remember, O Master, that "Every living being shall not be justified in your sight" (Ps. CXLII, 2). Remember, O Master, that "If you take notice of iniquities, no one shall endure" (Ps. CXXIX, 3). Remember, O Master, that "No one is clean from filth, not even if his life be but one day upon the earth" (Job XIV, 5). Remember, O Master, that "I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother conceived me" (Ps. L, 7). Remember, O Master, that not even the heaven itself, nor even the companies of angels, are pure in your sight; since even some of them fell from heaven because of their sin. Therefore "Save me for the sake of your mercy," me, who am in need of your mercy. For if you will have mercy on him who is worthy, it is nothing strange; if you will have mercy on the just, it is nothing new; for he is worthy. And if you crown the upright, it is nothing great; that too is just. But rather, show your marvelous mercies upon me, the unworthy, that your kindness may be extolled in me with praises. For both an upright doctor is then praised and celebrated and proclaimed when he cures incurable and desperate diseases; and a good king then attains glory when he grants life to the undeserving. For you know the weakness of the nature, for you are its framer; and you know it, as you who have clothed yourself in it and saved it. Therefore even now "Save me for the sake of your mercy," and let not my wickedness win over your gentleness, and let not my sloth overcome your ineffable human kindness. For how many benefits can I confess to your ineffable goodness? When I did not exist, you made me to be; you gave growth, you expanded me, and you subjected all things under my feet (Ps. VIII, 8); then when I had been deceived and was affected by death, you redeemed me with your blood; you covered me when I was naked; you made me wealthy when I was made humble; you have made me a son and a brother and an heir and a co-heir. And I find nothing to answer for my defense against these things. Therefore "Enter not into judgment with your servant" (Ps. CXLII, 2), do not weigh your threat against my offenses, but "Turn your face away from my sins" (Ps. L, 11); and do not set the balance with an equal scale, but be merciful, and "incline from this to this" (Ps. LXXIV, 9), from my burden to your mercy, and voluntarily bypass the weight of my iniquities, and pass over the multitude of my transgressions, and "Save me for the sake of your mercy," through which all who have been saved have obtained salvation. For even if I mention Moses, yet not even he was without sin, as the Scripture witnesses; even if I think of Aaron, even if of Peter himself, the chief and great one, not even he is faultless and blameless. Therefore I seek to be saved by faith, and not by works, so that you too may say to me kindly: Your faith has saved you; go in peace (Luke VII, 50). For to whichever ones you have granted forgiveness, Lord, you did not say: Your works have saved you, because all the justice of man before you is as the rag of a menstruous woman. Therefore I say again: "Save me for the sake of your mercy" (Ps. VI, 5). And: "Your mercy shall follow me all the days of my life" (Ps. XXII, 6). Your mercy shall pursue me as one fleeing and always running towards sin. Your mercy shall pursue me and hinder me, and with a bit and bridle shall lead me, who do not approach you. For you are God, "Who does wonderful things alone" (Ps. LXXI, 18). Wherefore also "Make your mercies wonderful upon me," you who save those who hope in you (Ps. XVI, 7). You who do those things of which we have hope, will you not do those for which we ask mercy? A debtor of ten thousand talents approached you, O Master, asking for another short time; but you, as a kind one, gave him a complete remission of the ten thousand talents, had he not afterwards wrongfully been angry with his brother (Matt. XVIII, 24 sqq.). The prodigal at last returned, earnestly praying to become one of your hirelings: you, however, made him a son and heir. The thief asked only that you would remember him in your kingdom: you, however, gifted him the whole of paradise. A sinful woman approached you only weeping, asking for nothing: and she received more than she had hoped and asked (Luke VII, 37 sqq.). Peter wept, asking for pardon (Matt. XXVI, 75): you, however, made him the key-bearer of the heavenly kingdom and of the Church (Matt. XVI, 19). Such is your will toward those who are utterly lamented, toward those who are destitute of all hope, toward those who have reached that which is deepest in the hells of sin. Upon these you show the magnitude of your clemency. Because of this I say again and I will not cease to say: "Save me for the sake of your mercy." 6. "For there is no one in death who is mindful of you: and in hell who shall confess to you?" (Ps. VI, 6). Therefore I hasten, therefore I tremble, therefore I am anxious. For I truly know that when the end of my life reaches me, I shall never in hell confess to God. For there is no repentance in hell, there is no pardon for death: in the grave no one can obtain remission. For our life is a marketplace: here, wherever one may be sent away, it is not permitted to trade any further. After the contest is dissolved, no one struggles, no one receives the crown. After night arrives, the marketplace and profit do not appear. Hear what the Scripture says concerning any man who has finished his life: "Death is a rest to a man, whose way is hidden; for God has closed him in" (Job III, 23). But where there is the closing of God, what kind of repentance for sin is there from then on? This life is one of labors; that one, of crowns: this life, of clemency; that one, of the true and just judgment of God. Wherefore "Save me for the sake of your mercy." "For there is no one in death who is mindful of you: and in hell who shall confess to you?" Who? No one. While the prophet was always remembering that terrible hour and day, he was receiving ceaseless fear, and dwelling perpetually in compunction, he was mourning, and in fear he was passing the night. And therefore he adds these words: 7. "I have labored in my groaning, I will wash every night my bed, I will water my couch with my tears" (Ps. VI, 7). He knew for certain that those who sow a drop flowing from their eyes, will reap in exultation the herb that comes from heaven. "Going they went and wept, casting their seeds. But coming they shall come with exultation, in resurrection, carrying their sheaves" (Ps. CXXV, 6). For just as we are [baptized] by water and Spirit, so by the water of tears and the Spirit and the fire of fervent compunction we are rebaptized; we are purged. For neither is baptism, nor true compunction of tears, ever given without the Holy Spirit. 8. "My eye is troubled by fury: I have grown old among all my enemies" (Ps. VI, 8): that is, I have become filthy, my eye is dimmed. For because of the multitude of my iniquities, and for the fact that I am weighed down by the burden of my sins, I have been made old, and I am weak. [alt-version omitted]