[LATIN COLUMN] 707 ...ours: we have been bought with a price (1 Cor. 6.20). Who sold us, who bought us? The devil sold us through sin; Christ bought us through justice. How did He buy us? With gold or silver? By no means; but with His own blood, which is above gold and much precious stone; for He bought all our sins: which are certainly many, and in various and diverse ways stand against our salvation. Which sins? Of the Law: but the law is not sin, far from it; but because without the law I would not have known sin. Because, therefore, the law made me, as a transgressor, liable to the curse, for this reason Christ Jesus, coming, redeemed me from the curse of the law, having become for 708 us a curse (Gal. 3.13). Let us not, therefore, prefer the devil’s popular providence to the economy of Christ: let us not, for the sake of sin, pass over the beauty of repentance. If you fear threats, take refuge in the commandment: if you wish to escape future condemnation, *Turn away from evil, and do good* (Ps. 33.15); that is, lay aside sin and perform repentance; so that He, who does not wish for the death of the sinner, but that he should be converted and live, embracing the desire of your soul, may grant you the remission of sins. And let us, for the things said above, return praise and glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ADMONITION ON THE FOLLOWING ORATION
That this cannot be Chrysostom’s, any person of refined taste will pronounce immediately, even at a first glance, but [that it is the work] of some little Greek who dared to ascribe his own little work to so great a doctor; of which kind were many Greeks, who brought upon us such a farrago of adulterated writings. We have corrected this from the Roman Codex, which presents it in a shorter form.DE ELEEMOSYNA
Fields are adorned with various and diverse flowers, some of which are suited for the delight of the eyes, others for the scent of the nostrils, and others for the exercising of the care of men, and each one is fit for men: so also the Church has the reading of the divine Scriptures, evangelical, apostolic, and prophetic, and the other divine books: but each one is referred to Christ. But in common fields the rising sun dries up the flowers, and their beautiful appearance is taken away: but in this field the Sun of justice rises, who makes one temperate, justifies another, and has mercy on another. For He has risen for us today through the Gospel, saying: *Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me* (Matt. 25.40). Again the mention of the poor, again the reproach of the rich. I do not reproach status, far from it, but an intemperate mind; I do not vituperate riches, but those who use them badly: for riches are good to those who administer them rightly: poverty also is good to those who tolerate it patiently. For Abraham also was rich, and he was not haughty against anyone; and Lazarus was poor, and he never bore it impatiently, even though he was placed in such necessity. But why have I brought here two witnesses? Come, let the blessed Job approach, who had experience of both; who, when he was rich, said, *My door was opened to every man*; who, when he was poor, said, *The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so is it done* (Job 1.21). And how much the devil labored, and yet he did not break the just man! He emptied his quiver of arrows, and did not wound the soldier; he brought up engines, and did not shake the tower; he shook the tree, and did not pluck off the fruit; he broke the branches, and did not tear up the root; he bored through the wall, and did not plunder the treasure. I mean a treasure, not of gold and silver, but of his unshaken faith; for this was his treasure that the devil wanted to plunder. Have you seen the fruit multiplied? Have you seen faith firm as a rock? Have you seen the tower unshaken? Have you seen the soldier standing in battle line? The devil cast out? Have you seen God rewarding prizes? Have you seen the devil suffused with shame? By what name I should call that just man, I do not know. Shall I call him an athlete? But he endured many contests. Shall I call him a soldier? But he is firmer and stronger in heart than a soldier. Shall I call him a tower? But he is more sublime in sense. A rock? But the rock is firmer. A tree? But he is more beautiful. A treasure? But he is more opulent. By what name I should call that just man I do not know. Let the rich hear, let the poor hear, how this rich man dispensed his wealth in prosperous circumstances, and how much temptation he sustained in poverty; and the hope, which he had in God, was not cast down. Do you see how good wealth is to those who dispense it rightly, and how good poverty is to those who tolerate it rightly? Do not tell me, I fear poverty. You fear poverty, and you do not fear God? You fear need, and you do not fear sin? Do not fear poverty, but transgression, the mother of punishment. If you have a king as a friend, he will make you rich: and if you love Christ and the poor, He will make you rich. He makes rich and poor, He humbles and exalts: He raises the needy from the earth, and lifts the poor from the dunghill. The Lord asks for a commandment, and do you not give? For when you hear Him saying, *Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these least of mine, ye have done it unto me*, you see that, if you give to the poor, you give to God. If you do not give to him, how will you ask of Him in that day, that He might have mercy on you? Will He not accuse you thus: You saw me hungry, and did not feed me; thirsty, and did not give me drink; naked, and did not clothe me? What, therefore, will you answer Him? What pardon will you obtain? You are clothed in garments of silk, of hare-skin, and of goat-hair; and the poor man has no rag: you eat pheasants, chickens, and geese and similar things; and the poor man cannot fill his belly with bread and herbs: you have gilded walls, varied Laconian marbles, columns and golden capitals of columns; and the poor man has no hut. Sometimes, indeed, you own a house from robbery, and afterwards you die, and depart having nothing, and your house remains a perpetual accuser, which reproves your deeds. For everyone passing by is going to say: This house is that of the robber, the avaricious man: how many widows he oppressed! How many orphans he hurt! How many goods he robbed! How many poor he despoiled! Do not tell me, I am a prefect; I do not know status, nor do I accuse it; but only the wicked, who use goods badly. It is good to be rich; that which God made, all things are very good. You see a poor man, and are haughty, and you do not think that both you and the poor man are human; human, a creature whom God cares for greatly; human, for whom the sky was stretched out; human, for whom the sun completes its courses; human, for whom the moon knows no setting; human, for whom the stars give their splendor, for whom the sea was poured out, the earth was founded upon the waters; for whom the mountains, the forests, the hills; for whom the groves, the woods, the valleys, the plains; for whom the fountains, the rivers, the lakes; for whom the earth brought forth the herb of hay, and the waters send forth living souls; for whom the beasts,reptiles, and birds; for whom the times, years, months, days, hours, and nights; for whom the angels and archangels, principalities and powers, thrones, lordships, the Cherubim and Seraphim. Why say more? For whom the Master shed His own blood. Is man redeemed by precious blood, and do you overlook him? Is he not a man, just as you are, because he is poor? Is it for this that you are arrogant toward him? Has not God chosen the poor? Or did He choose the rich? Peter, the leader of the apostles, the foundation of the Church, who was truly Peter both by name and by deed, was he not poor? Was he not pitiful and downcast? Was he not lowly and despised? Was he not a fisherman? Likewise, were not James and John poor and fishermen? And as Jesus was passing by,1 A He saw them and their father Zebedee mending torn nets. Such was the extremity of their poverty that they were so poor they could not even buy nets for their fishing catch, but were mending the old ones, and by their craft they sustained their craft—the mending with the fishing. Similarly, was not Matthew a tax collector? And as Jesus was passing by, He saw him sitting at the custom house and said to him: Arise, and follow me. And he arose and followed Him (Matt. 9.9). He did not think that he was being summoned by a regal word, but he realized that the King of kings was calling; and he who once seized others' possessions had now made himself a stranger to his own; he who was once a wolf was now a sheep. Peter threw down his nets and received the keys of the heavens. Matthew left his tax booth and received the Gospel. Likewise, was not Paul a craftsman? Did he not hold a cutting tool and cut leather? Did he not receive letters from the synagogue leaders, so that he might go and make the saints captive? And Jesus appeared to him on the road, and a light shone around him, and He said: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? But he turned and said: Who are You, Lord? And He said: I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting (Acts 9.4, 5). And falling on his face, he was struck blind. Why did He add, "of Nazareth"? So that he would not think that Jesus was one person, B and the One calling him from heaven was another. For this is what the Jews said, that Jesus was not taken up, but that His disciples had stolen Him. For this reason He said, Jesus of Nazareth, so that he might know that it is the very same One who was then and is now. So Paul entered Damascus being led by the hand, and he went to Ananias, and he laid his hands on the eyes of Paul and healed him. Great is the story, but I wish to recount it to you briefly. Having regained his sight, he immediately began to teach in the name of Jesus. But the Jews, hearing that Paul was teaching in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, sought to seize him. But the disciples of Paul, seeing this, put him into a basket and let him down through the wall, and thus he escaped and ascended to Jerusalem. O the blessedness of that basket, which sent such a provision to the inhabited world! Likewise, did not the blessed John inhabit the desert, and after this, did he not become a citizen of heaven? Did he not eat locusts and wild honey? Were not all the prophets and apostles poor, and was it not through these poor men that He prepared the salvation of men? How many kings, how many tyrants, or how many consuls, how many rulers, how many governors from the beginning of time have died, and all have been given over to oblivion? And these pitiful, downcast, lowly, and despised men were not given over to oblivion. But this king, who wears the purple, and has the diadem, glory, golden helmets, and bodyguarded soldiers, goes to the tomb of the fisherman, the poor man, the pitiful man, the despised man, and embraces him, and weeps, and prays to him who glorified him. Who persuades the king to do these things? Who? I tell you. Focus yourselves with me, I beg, pay attention to the things said. C He who said to them, Going, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and I will be with you all the days of your life, even unto the consummation of the age (Matt. 28.19, 20)—he it is who has granted them such power. Do you see how much the poor avail? Not only this, but even those possessed by demons go to their tombs, and [the demons] are questioned. Do you see that the dead are more powerful than the living? No longer cast aside the poor. A poor man enters your courtyard seeking alms, and he spends two hours receiving nothing, and sometimes you order your slave to cast him out. Do you not know that if you cast the poor man out, you have driven away Christ? For He Himself said, that As long as you did it to one of these least, you did it to me (Matt. 25.40). Do you see that if you insult the poor man, you dishonor Christ? For whatever you do to the poor man, it recoils upon Christ, just as He Himself said. I say these things, and I will not cease saying them. To me the speaking is not burdensome, but to you it is safe. I will not cease teaching you until you become better; for it is written: Blessed is he who speaks into the ears of those who listen. Disobedience works death (cf. Rom. 5.19). Do you see a poor man and have no mercy? How do you go to the church and pray? How do you open your mouth, D and call upon God? Do you not blush? Do you not tremble? Do you not shudder? Do you enter the church of God to pray? Give alms, so that your alms and your prayer may be inscribed. Sometimes certain people present a petition to the earthly king, and they spend two hundred gold pieces, and often nothing comes of it for them, but they hold onto it like a scrap of paper. And you—do you not wish to sign your petition with two obols? Here the earthly king writes, and often the subscription is contrary; but if the King of kings signs, it is ratified and confirmed. Have you seen a petition signed for two obols? For this reason there are two washbasins before the gates of the church: one of water, in which you wash your hands, and one, the hand of the poor man, in which you cleanse your soul. Enter the church and wash your hands; bestow an obol into the hand of the poor man, and cleanse your soul. But if you enter and wash and pray, yet bestow nothing upon the poor man, what is the profit? You have wealth and you hide it in the earth, where thieves come by night and dig through and steal your treasure, and arising in the morning you see it plundered. Do you wish it not to be plundered? What I say to you, do this, and it will never be plundered for eternity. Do you have a treasure? Bury it in the womb of the poor, and be strengthened; for it can never be plundered. But if you bury it in the earth, you will lose it; and even if you do not lose it, but it is guarded, after your death others will be enriched by your things. What is it to you, the profit, that you labor and toil, and others enter into your possessions, from which you will receive no reward, and they revel in them? Have you not heard the prophet saying, The rich man stores up, and does not know for whom he will gather them (Ps. 38.7)? And again elsewhere the same man says, Ageless and foolish will perish, and they will leave their wealth to strangers (Ps. 48.11); and: Be not afraid when a man is enriched, or when the glory of his house is multiplied. For at his death he will not take everything, nor will his glory go down with him (Ps. 48.17, 18). And in the Gospels, the Lord says to the foolish rich man: Fool, this night they require your soul from you; what you have prepared, whose will it be (Luke 12.20)? Do you see how much those suffer who store up for themselves on earth? But store up in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and it remains unplundered. O wretched and miserable man, you trust in the earth, and you do not trust in God, who says, "What you did to one of these least, you did to Me"? Do you not know that there are some of these tillers who are poor, pitiful, providing their daily bread from their own labors, and in the time of sowing they have nothing from which to sow? And he takes the tunic of himself or of his wife, and often the very vessel in which he works the land, and sets it as a pledge, and borrows a bushel or two or three, or as many as his field can accommodate, and having borrowed, he scatters it into the earth, and he trusts in the earth, and awaits a clear time until the fruit comes to be in the earth; and he, having borrowed, trusted in the earth, and you do not trust in God? He trusted a fellow slave, and you do not trust the Master? What excuse, tell me, do you have? I say these things not because I condemn your great inhumanity—far from it—but because I am priming you to be ready for the