[581]
ON THE PROPHET ELIAS: A SERMON
A ...is proud, and neither accepts a sound defense nor is put to shame by silence. If the accused is silent, he says, "He has been condemned, he does not know how to open his lips"; if he speaks, he says, "He has dared to raise his voice against the Master." Then, another filled with pride, if he is persuaded on behalf of the just man, or a noble man, when he is exhorted to put in a word to the other party and to agree to peace and to cease the malice through love—immediately, carried away by pride, he says: "Am I to go down to him? Oh, the pride!" For where are you standing, that you would "go down"? "Am I to go down to him?" He speaks as if he were treading upon the heavens and the clouds. You tread upon the same earth, you are fed from the same, you return to it, in it you are buried; and to where are you "going down"? Do you not feel shame, are you not put to shame by the passion of the Lord? Are you not ashamed to say to your equal, "Am I to go down to this man?" Are you not ashamed to say these things, reflecting that Jesus descended for your sake?
To such opinions and such pride, one ought always to cry out with Isaiah: "Why does earth and ashes vaunt itself?" But let us return to the matter at hand. "Who will provide a judge between me and you?" B At the end, the just Judge appears, and He appears to him from a storm and clouds. Job is seen from the clouds—He who is about to pour down the rain of blessing. He appears to him from the clouds—He who is about to irrigate the seed that had been treated as dung—and He rouses Job, and merely nods, and disperses the sufferings; He merely nods, and raises the one who had fallen; and He says to him: "Arise, and gird your loins like a man. I will question you, and you answer me." Since you have called me to judgment, and have said, "Who will provide a judge between me and you?", arise, you noble athlete, you who have not fallen by the blow of calamity, arise. For if anyone, having been disciplined, bears the calamity and the discipline nobly, he hears from God the "Arise," as when He says to Jerusalem: "Arise, Jerusalem, you who have drunk the cup of my wrath. Gird your loins like a man. I will question you, and you answer me." He did not say, "I will judge you, and you answer me." For He said, "You did not call me to judgment, but you called me to be compared with you. You asked for a judge between me and you; you be the judge." Do you think that I have dealt with you in any other way than that you should appear just? "Do you think," He says, "that I have brought this calamity for any other reason than that I might reveal you as just?" C And see, attending to the precision of such words. He did not say: "Do you think that I have dealt with you in any other way than that you might become just?" For the calamity did not make him just, but it made him known as just. "Do you think that I have dealt with you in any other way than that you might appear just?" For to Me, He says, you were known even before these contests; but to the world, you are made known through the calamity; to the world, you are proclaimed through the struggle. For this reason I have dealt with you, not that I might harm you, but that I might crown you; not that I might shame you, but that I might glorify you. But since, through your simplicity, you have gone out beyond the measures of nature, I have acknowledged your integrity. For even if someone sins through simplicity, God corrects the results produced by simplicity. Since you have entirely called God to judgment, tell me, possessing what equality with Me did you call Me? Where were you when I was founding the earth? Were you a contemporary of the Creator, that you might call Him to judgment? He existed before the ages, but you after many ages. [582] When I was fashioning the earth, you were not there; when the sea, you were not there; or all such things, you were not there. The whole creation came to be, and you were nowhere. Did you therefore call the One who is older than the ages, the Creator of the creation, to judgment? When I stretched the measuring line upon the earth, when I fastened its pillars, when I brought it forth from the womb of its mother, when the sea was being born, where were you? When I covered it with a cloud, and wrapped it in mist, where were you? D He attacks him as having spoken unworthily, out of simplicity indeed, but nevertheless out of ignorance. And what does He do? He does not rebuke him before all, but corrects him privately as a friend.
So when He had said these things, and those similar to them (for this is not the time to interpret every word piece by piece), Job, having become cognizant of himself (for the just man is corrected of a fault by the first rebuke), says: "Lord, I had heard of you by the hearing of my ear before, but now my eye has seen you; and I have treated myself as vile, and have considered myself earth and ashes." And, "Once I have spoken, but on the second I will add nothing." See how he who has received the blame well recalls his fault. "Once I have spoken," and this out of simplicity, not out of wickedness; "but on the second I will add nothing." For who am I to be judged before the Lord? What Job did not foresee because of simplicity, he learns after the rebuke. Then what does God do? He does not allow him to decline the judgment, but says: "No, but gird your loins like a man. Stand," He says, "as a man. Do not think that for this reason I have struck you with my power, fleeing the just, but I have corrected your simplicity. Nevertheless, I do not decline the judgment; judge me justly, and demand an account of what has happened." You were judged that you might be crowned; you were judged that you might be admired in all that is under heaven. Before the suffering, one corner knew you; after the suffering, all that is under heaven will know you. Your dunghill becomes more brilliant than any royal diadem. Those who wear the diadem desire to see both your contest and the toil of the struggles. I have made your dunghill a paradise; I have cultivated it for piety; I have displayed it as a heavenly plant. You received the heavenly things, receive also the earthly; receive everything in double measure. Learn here, every Christian, your hope, the excellence of your promise. For to Job He promises double, and gives double; but the Savior says to His own disciples: "Whoever has left father, or mother, or sisters for my sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life" (Matt. 19:29).
But observe this precisely, how He corrects the friend privately, but rebukes the friends of Job openly. And God says to them: "Why have you not spoken the truth about my servant Job?" But, O just Judge, we took up the argument on your behalf, we proclaimed your justice, we condemned the man, and we showed your justice to be innocent. Observe here, then, the just judgment of God. For if He does not accept the one who speaks on His behalf against the just man, will He accept those who speak against the just man contrary to justice? He rebukes his friends, then, and says: "And now, if not for my servant Job, I would have destroyed you" (ibid.). At once He both rebukes and saves. He saves because they spoke nothing wicked against God; He rebukes the just man, correcting his integrity; and He honors the friends because of him, and honors the just man because of the struggle, and gives him double, and light shone upon him from darkness, then and now.
But having said one more thing, let us show the superiority. He received the sheep in double measure, the oxen, the camels, the donkeys in double measure; but having lost ten children, he did not receive twenty. Here it must be asked, why the livestock in double measure, but the children in the single? Since the livestock and the possessions at their loss perished completely, but a man who has died is kept for life, and is raised for the resurrection. He does not give him the children in double measure, so as not to cut off the hope of those who have departed, but so as to show him that they also, even if they were snatched away, yet live. And they are all restored to him; but He does not give him more than ten, so that Job might be found not to be passing from life to death, but from house to house. For ten, having finished his life, escorted him to the grave; ten again will receive him on the day of the resurrection from the grave into the kingdom, and they will enjoy those ineffable and eternal goods with one accord: of which may we all be deemed worthy, by the grace and philanthropy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power, now and always, and for ages of ages. Amen.
WARNING ON THE FOLLOWING HOMILY
Severianus, Dupin says, wrote this homily. Although I find the trifles that Severianus utters, I know not what techniques these are, by which he attempts to demonstrate the use of God toward Elias in many ways; whatever kind of orator he is, it is permitted to ascribe it to Severianus. I believe that it is not inept to trust the Latin translation of a Greek text more willingly.