601 SPURIA.
ADMONITION TO THE FOLLOWING HOMILY
[The text begins with a fragment, but since this is the first page of the sequence, I commence from the translation of the first full thought:]
...deep is his heart above all things, and he is human, and who shall know him? Him I desire, him I beseech. A Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. I hear Amos saying: Behold a man standing on a wall of adamant, and in his hand is adamant. Him I seek, let him come, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. And as a woman who loves her husband, when the husband is away, peers through the windows and looks about for him, and keeps him in view, both by land and by sea, and even if she sees a ship approaching, there she imagines her own husband; and if she sees travelers coming from far off, there she reckons her own husband to be; for often, having met them, she inquires about her own husband: Tell me, where have you left him, in what city or village, what saying, or what doing, or when is he coming?
3. In this same way also the most holy Church, held fast by holy love and affection, B inquires of all the prophets, saying: Have you seen him? Is he perhaps coming? Is he not coming? Is he in heaven? Does he perhaps shepherd the ninety-nine unswerving sheep in heaven, and is he not coming to the sheep that has wandered? Tell me, where does he shepherd, where does he rest, whom my soul has loved? (Cant. 1. 6). Being questioned, the prophets speak with one voice through Isaiah, and say: We have seen him; but if you are expecting him, we have seen him, and he had neither form nor beauty, but his form was dishonored and failing among the sons of men. The most holy bride, the Church, answers: He is the one, him I desire, him I seek, I beseech him, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Isaiah answers her: If it is he, he comes, and he comes with great power. The Lord, the Lord comes, and his arm with authority. Behold his reward, and his work before him; and in his hand he will gather the lambs, and he will comfort those that are with young (Is. 40. 10. 11). She hears that Isaiah describes him exactly C and calls him a shepherd: As a shepherd he shall shepherd his flock, and in his hand he will gather the lambs, and he will comfort those that are with young; and she says to him: Where does he shepherd, where does he rest, whom my soul has loved? Isaiah sends her to John, and John says to her: A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths (John 1. 23). She goes away into the desert to John, she holds him and asks: Tell me, are you the Christ? John answers: I am not the Christ. And she says to him again: If you are not the Christ, why do you baptize? He answered again: I am not the Christ; he comes behind me, he is mightier than I, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose (Ibid. v. 25. 26). And as he still delayed, she said to him: Woe is me, I am smitten with love (Cant. 2. 5). John says to her again: Do not groan, be silent, just wait a little. John sees the Lord approaching and says to her: Be silent, no longer groan. He points from afar, extending his finger, D and says: Lo, the one whom you seek; lo, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1. 29). Having heard from John of a lamb, and from Isaiah of a shepherd, she doubts, saying to herself: Whom, then, shall I believe? Shall I believe this one, or Isaiah? The Lord sees that she doubted, he cries out and says: I am the good shepherd; he resolves her doubt by the word. She approaches the bridegroom, embraces him, and kisses him. And that which is written in David is fulfilled: Mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other (Ps. 84. 11). But that we may learn more fully that the bride was joined to the bridegroom, and the marriage took place spiritually, and the bridal chamber, John sings of him and says: He who has the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears his voice, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3. 29. 30). There was need, as in a marriage, for gifts to be written for the bride; there was need for paper to be sought, and a writer, and a pen. The paper is found through Isaiah. The Holy Spirit commands the writer, and says: Take me a new scroll, great, and write on it with the pen of a man (Is. 8. 1). The pen was sought, it was found with David. For he says concerning it: My tongue is the pen of a ready writer, beautiful in form beyond the sons of men (Ps. 44. 2. 3). This Church David clothes as a bride; he himself adorns her, he himself admonishes her, and teaches her like a groomsman, or, as it is customary for men to say, a best man. He commands the bride: Look, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people; and the king shall desire your beauty (Ps. 44. 11. 12). Do not think that you are equal to him. Look, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people; and the king shall desire your beauty; because he is your Lord and the daughters of Tyre shall worship him with gifts (Ps. 44. 13). If you hear me, daughter, the rich of the people of the land shall entreat your face (Ps. 44. 13). It was necessary then to write down also the gifts given by each of them, servants and handmaids; from Christ, servants; from the bride, handmaids; Christ gives the servants; Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, arrive; they also demand the handmaids from the bride. David dictates: The virgins shall be brought to the king after her, her companions shall be brought to you (Ps. 44. 15). The marriage occurs; the Lord comes mystically in Cana of Galilee. Cana is interpreted as the creation of God; and the whole world is the creation of God. Here he celebrates spiritual marriages; he comes in Cana of Galilee, and there the whole choir of the saints is present; they offer gifts to the bridegroom, each according to his own ability, as in a marriage: Abraham the calf, his wife Sarah the cakes, Isaac the wood, Jacob the kids, Joseph gives wheat, Moses holds the lamp, Isaiah sings, and David dances. And since it was necessary that holy women also be present at such a marriage, and that they too should sing, Esther comes, Judith is adorned, is beautified; and Mary the sister of Moses takes the timbrel, and says: Let us sing to the Lord; for he has been glorified gloriously (Exod. 15. 1). And since it was necessary that in such a marriage praises should be inscribed, Paul, praising the marriage, says: Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled (Heb. 13. 4). That he speaks of Christ and the Church, let him interpret himself. For what, he says, is written? For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This mystery is great: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church (Eph. 5. 31. 32; Gen. 2. 24). What, therefore, he interprets, let us not doubt, in Christ Jesus our Lord: to whom be glory and power, with the Father without beginning, and with his all-holy and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.
ADMONITION TO THE FOLLOWING HOMILY
This homily was placed by Savile among the disputed, or doubtful works. But I consider them entirely spurious. For that writer is altogether meager and perplexed. A disrupted series that differs entirely from Chrysostom's style. Malesius in the notes of Savile, p. 751, thinks that it is the same writer of this homily who issued another spurious one concerning the seven seals. But that one is of Severian, as will be told in its own place; whose diction is clearer, and not...