has come to sorrow; to see the house deserted is an occasion for sadness. There is Christ, here is Satan; there is joy, here is care; there is pleasure, here is pain; there is expense, here is nothing of the kind; there is dishonor and shame, here is modesty; there is envy, here there is no envy at all; there is drunkenness, here is sobriety; here is salvation, here B is temperance. Thinking upon all these things, let us halt the evil thus far, that we may please God, and be deemed worthy to attain the good things which are promised to those who love Him, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, dominion, and honor, now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen.
MONITION TO THE HOMILIES OF ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM ON THE EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS
These homilies of Chrysostom on the Epistles to the Thessalonians also appear to have been delivered at Constantinople, as the preacher himself intimates when he says in the eighth homily on the first Epistle, near the end: "But I am liable to render an account for this prefecture; so that I of all men most especially cannot escape." Indeed, the fourth homily on the second Epistle to the Thessalonians clearly declares the same thing in these words: "The devil is arming himself more vehemently against us: for in wars the adversary tries to strike down the leader of the war before all others." C Therefore, he touches upon the vices of the Constantinopolitans here and there, and inveighs most against those who gave themselves to incantations, bindings, and divination. He proscribes theatrical spectacles; and certainly not without reason: for such amusements always result in the ruin of both youths and men; especially indeed at Constantinople, where naked women used to appear on the stage. That he might remove this plague, the holy prelate does everything in the fifth homily and in others that preceded it. He also rebukes those who followed the deceased with excessive mourning: and above all those who believed there would be no resurrection. These he also attacks elsewhere, wherever the occasion arises. For it is likely that many of the Constantinopolitans thought that the soul itself was extinguished with the body: which opinion once conceived, the door is opened to any crime whatsoever, even the greatest.
He recounts certain singular things concerning the lake of Sodom, which they call Asphaltites, and the fruits which are seen around it, and speaks of all things as if they were most certain and explored.
Moreover, the fourth homily on the second Epistle says that Nero was a type of the Antichrist, and thinks that the overturning of the Roman empire was predicted by Paul.
The fifth homily on the second Epistle says that he preached only once or twice a month, and sometimes not even once. What we said concerning the Homilies on the Epistle to the Colossians, namely that the style is broken and obscure, we observe also in these discourses. For at the pressing of such a mass of business as it was fitting for a bishop and prefect of the Constantinopolitan Church to experience, the orator was compelled to bring forward many things at short notice and without selection.
We have corrected the Latin translation of Gentian Hervet in many places.
OF OUR HOLY FATHER JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS
HOMILY I.
A “Chapter 1, Verse 1. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, 3. without ceasing remembering the work of your faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before God and our Father.”
1. Why, when writing to the Ephesians, and having Timothy with him, did he not associate him with himself, although he was known to them and admired by them? (For you know his excellence, and how he served with me as a son with a father) and again, B “I have no one like-minded, who will naturally care for your state.”
A Does he here rank him with himself? It seems to me that he was about to send him immediately, and it would have been superfluous to send a letter to Him who was just about to arrive; for he says, “Him I hope to send presently.” But here it is not so, but he had returned, so that it was natural that he should send the letter; for he says, “Since Timothy has just come to us from you.” But why does he place Silvanus before him, although he bears witness to innumerable good qualities in him, and prefers him to all others? Perhaps he did this at his request, out of great humility, and by his entreaty. For since he saw his teacher behaving with such humility as to rank his disciple with himself, he would have been all the more likely to seek this. For Paul, he says, and Silvanus and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians. He puts nothing here regarding himself, neither "apostle," nor "servant." It seems to me that, because the men were newly instructed, and had not yet tested him, he does not set forth his rank; and besides, it was still the beginning of the preaching to them. "To the Church," he says, "of the Thessalonians." Well said. Since it was likely that they were few and not yet established, for this reason he encourages them by the name of the Church; for where much time had passed, and the body of the Church was large, he does not set this down. But since the name of the Church is a name of a multitude, as is generally the case, and of a body already knit together, for this reason he so calls them. "In God," he says, "the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." To the Church, he says, of the Thessalonians, which is in God. Behold again the "God" applied to the Father and to the Son. And the "in God," he says, because there were many churches, both Jewish and Greek. Great is the dignity, and there is nothing equal to it, if it is in God. May it be, therefore, that this Church also be so called; but I fear lest it be far from this title. For if anyone is a slave to sin, he cannot be said to be in God. "Grace to you and peace." Do you see how from the very beginning of the epistle he starts with praise? B "We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers." For to give thanks to God on their behalf is a sign of witnessing to them great progress, when not only are they praised, but God is also thanked, as He Himself having wrought the whole work. He teaches them also to be moderate, saying as it were, that the whole is of the power of God. He places the thanksgiving on account of their achievements; but the remembering them in his prayers, on account of his love for them. Then, showing that he remembers them not only in his prayers, but also apart from prayers, which he often does, "Without ceasing," he says, "remembering your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before God and our Father." What is meant by "Without ceasing remembering"? Either remembering before God and the Father, or the "Without ceasing remembering," but of you. Then again, that you may not think that even the "of you" was said simply, he added, "Before God and our Father." Because no one of men praised what was being done, no one paid a reward, he also adds this, saying in effect, Be of good courage, you labor before God. What is, "The work of faith"? That nothing turned you aside from your steadfastness; for this is the work of faith. If you believe, suffer all things; but if you do not suffer, you do not believe. For are not the things promised such that the believer would choose to suffer ten thousand deaths? The kingdom of the heavens is set forth, and immortality, and life eternal. He, therefore, who believes, will suffer all things. Thus faith is shown through works. Naturally, therefore, he spoke thus, showing that not simply, but through works you demonstrated it, through steadfastness, through zeal. C And "the labor of love." For what labor is there in simply loving? None; but to love genuinely is much labor. For when, tell me, ten thousand things are set in motion wanting to draw us away from love, and we resist against everything, is it not labor? For what did these men not suffer, so as not to depart from love? Did not those who were warring against the preaching come upon the host of Paul, and not finding him, drag Jason before the politarchs? Is this a small labor, tell me, when the seeds were not yet firmly planted, to bear such a storm, such temptations? And they demanded sufficient bail from him. And having given sufficient, he says, he sent Paul away. Is this a small thing, tell me? Did he not also put himself in place of him into the danger? This he calls the labor of love, that they were so attached. D 2. And notice: he mentions their achievements first, and then his own, so that he may not seem to be boasting, nor to love them out of a preconceived notion. "And of patience," he says. For that persecution did not happen for one time, but constantly; and they were not warring against the teacher Paul alone, but also against those who were being taught. For if they were so disposed toward those who were working wonders, those who were venerable, what do you think they were toward those who lived among them, and were their fellow-citizens, and had suddenly separated themselves? Which thing he also witnesses to them, saying, "You became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea." "And of the hope," he says, "of our Lord Jesus Christ, before God and our Father." Well did he speak thus; for all these things come from faith and hope. So that the things which took place did not only reveal their bravery, but that they also believed with full assurance in the rewards laid up for them. For because of this, God allowed persecutions to happen immediately, so that no one might say that it was simply and through flattery that the preaching was established, and so that their fervor might be shown, and that it was not human persuasion, but the power of God that was persuading the souls of those who believed, so as to be prepared even for ten thousand deaths; which would not have been the case if the preaching had not immediately taken root and stood firm and unshaken. "Knowing, beloved brothers, your election of God, because our Gospel was not made unto you in word only."
A And in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance; as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake." What does he mean by "Know what manner of men we were among you?" Here he also touches upon what he himself achieved rightly, though covertly and obscurely; for he wishes first to pursue their praises. But what he says is of this kind: "We know that you are of the strong and great men, and that you are of the elect; therefore we also endure all things for your sake." For that expression, "What manner of men we were among you," signifies this: that with great readiness of mind and much vehemence we were prepared to give our souls for your sake; and for this, gratitude is not to be had by us, but by you, because you are elect. Therefore he also says elsewhere: "And these things I endure for the elect's sake" (2 Tim. 2:10). For what would one not endure for those beloved of God? And having said what was his own, he says, as it were, "If you are both beloved and elect, we justly endure all things." For he was not only confirming them and adding courage to them by praising them, but also by recalling to their memory that they themselves had shown a virtue and courage corresponding to their readiness of mind. He says, therefore: B "And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit." Papae! What an encomium! The disciples suddenly became teachers; they not only heard the word, but also arrived at the same summit to which Paul had attained. But this is nothing; for see how he afterwards extols them: "You became followers of the Lord." How? "Having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit." Not only with tribulation and affliction, but with "much." And this one may learn from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 17), how they stirred up a persecution against them: "They disturbed," he says, "the magistrates of the city, and excited the city against them." Nor can it be said, "You were afflicted, indeed, and you believed, but grieving"; no, rather rejoicing. Which the apostles themselves used to do: "Rejoicing," he says, "that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Christ" (Acts 5:41). For this is what is admirable; even if that other, of enduring afflictions in some way, is not a small thing; but this is now for those who surpass human nature and possess a body as if it were impassible. How, then, were they followers of Christ? Because He Himself also endured many sufferings, and did not grieve, but rejoiced; C for He came to it willingly and of His own accord. For our sake He emptied Himself, about to suffer spittle and buffeting, to be led to the cross; and He so rejoiced in suffering these things that He said to the Father: "Glorify me" (John 17:1). "With joy," he says, "of the Holy Spirit." Lest anyone should say, "How do you speak of 'in affliction'? How in 'joy'? How can both agree?" he subjoined, "With joy of the Holy Spirit." Affliction is in corporal things, and joy in spiritual things. How? The things which happen are indeed troublesome; but those which spring from them, not at all; for the Spirit does not permit it. Wherefore it is possible for one who is suffering not to rejoice when he suffers for sins; and he who is scourged with lashes to rejoice when he suffers for Christ. D For what seem to be grievous and troublesome, He draws forth joy. "They afflicted you," he says, "they persecuted you"; but the Spirit did not desert you even in those trials. Just as in the fire the three children were sprinkled with dew (Dan. 3), so you too were in afflictions. But just as there it is not of the nature of fire to sprinkle with dew, but of the hissing Spirit; so this also is not of the nature of affliction to produce joy, but of the passion for Christ, and of the Spirit who sprinkles with dew and establishes one in peace and recreation throughout the furnace of temptations. "With joy," he says; not simple, but "much": for this is of the Holy Spirit. A Among all those who believe in Macedonia and Achaia. And yet he came to them later; but, he says, you shone forth so effectively that you became teachers of those who had gone before. And this is apostolic. For he does not say, "That you might become a form unto believing," but "to those who already believed you became a form": that is, "You taught how one ought to believe in God, you who from the beginning descended into the contests." And "in Achaia," he says; that is, in Hellas. Do you see what a great thing readiness of mind is? It needs no time, nor hesitation, nor delay; but it suffices for itself to offer [itself], and all things are accomplished. Thus, therefore, even though these men had come later to the preaching, they were instructors and teachers of the former. Let no one, therefore, despond; even if, having spent much time, he has accomplished nothing, it is permitted to him even in a short time to accomplish as much as one in the former time. For if he who had not yet believed shone so much at the beginning, much more those who have already believed. B Vigilance, how necessary. Let no one, again, thinking this, be lazy and sluggish, as one who has learned that it is permitted to provide everything in a short time; for the future is uncertain, and "the day of the Lord as a thief" (1 Thess. 5:2) "cometh suddenly," invading us as we sleep; but if we do not sleep, not as a thief will it invade us, nor will it carry us off unprepared. For if we watch and be sober, it will no longer invade us as a thief, but as a King's messenger calling us to the good things prepared for us; but if we sleep, it approaches as a thief. Let no one, therefore, sleep; let no one be lazy toward virtue; for this is sleep. Do you not know, when we sleep, how our affairs are not in safety, how easily snares are prepared for them? When, however, we watch, there is no need of such guarding for us. When we sleep, we often perish even with much guarding; there are both doors and bars and guards and watchmen; and nevertheless the thief enters. Why do I say these things? Because if we watch, we shall not need the aid of others; but if we sleep, the aid of others does not profit us, but we perish even with it. It is good to enjoy the prayers of the saints, but [only] when we ourselves have also been intent upon the work. And what need have I, he says, of others' prayers, when I have been intent upon the work, nor have reduced myself to the point of having need? Neither do I wish this; but we always have need, if we are wise. Paul did not say, "What need have I of prayer?" although he were one of those worthy, or rather, not even so did he say: "What need have I of prayer?" Peter did not say: "What need have I of prayer?" For there was prayer, he says, offered by the Church to God.
for him; and you say: "What need have I of prayer?" For this very reason you have need of it, because you think you have no need of it. Even if you were as Paul, you have need of prayer. Do not exalt yourself, lest you be humbled.
But as I said, if we are active ourselves, the prayers offered on your behalf also accomplish much. Hear Paul saying: "For I know," he says, "that this will turn out for my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1. 19); and again: "That the gift bestowed upon us by means of many persons may be thanksgiven for by many on our behalf" (2 Cor. 1. 11). And you say: "What need have I of prayer?" But if we are slothful, no one praying can help us. What did Jeremiah profit the Jews? Did he not come to God a third time, and a third time hear: "Do not pray nor intercede for this people, for I will not listen to you" (Jer. 7. 16)? What did Samuel profit Saul? Did he not mourn for him until the last day, and not simply pray? What did he profit the Israelites? Did he not say: "Far be it from me to sin by ceasing to pray for you" (1 Reg. 12. 23)? And did they not all perish? Do prayers, then, profit nothing, you say? They do profit, and greatly, but when we also do something. For prayers indeed cooperate and help; but someone indeed cooperates and helps one who is also working himself. But if you remain idle, you will profit nothing great. A
4. For if prayers were able to bring us into the kingdom while we are idle, why do not all Greeks become Christians? Do we not pray for the whole world? Did not Paul do this also? Do we not wish for all to be converted? For tell me, why do the wicked not become good? Is it not plain that it is because they themselves can offer nothing? Prayers, therefore, profit greatly when we also bring what we have to offer. Do you wish to know how much prayers have profited? Consider for me Cornelius, Tabitha (Acts 10. 3; 9. 36); hear also Jacob saying to Laban: "Unless the fear of my father had been with me, now even empty you would have sent me away" (Gen. 31. 42); hear also God again saying: "I will shield this city for my sake, and for the sake of David my servant" (Gen. 31. 42; 4 Reg. 19. 34). But when? When Hezekiah was righteous. Since if prayers were powerful even in the case of the very wicked, why, when Nebuchadnezzar came, did God not say this, but handed over the city? Because wickedness prevailed more. Again, this same Samuel prayed for the Israelites, and he succeeded; but when? When they themselves were also well-pleasing, then he defeated their enemies.
And what need, he asks, is there of the prayer of another when I am well-pleasing? Never say this, O man. There is need, and great need, of prayer; for hear God saying concerning the friends of Job: "And he will pray," He says, "for you, and your sin will be forgiven you" (Job 42. 8); because they had sinned, but not a great sin. But this same righteous man, who saved his friends then by prayer, was not able during the Jewish time to save the Jews who were perishing. And that you may learn, hear God saying through the prophet: "If Noah, and Job, and Daniel were to stand, they shall not deliver their sons and their daughters" (Ezech. 14. 16); because wickedness had prevailed; and again, "If Moses and Samuel were to stand" (Jer. 15. 1). And see how this is said to the two prophets, because both interceded for them, and did not achieve it.
For indeed Ezekiel, when he said: "Alas, O Lord! Will you destroy the remnant of Israel?" (Ezech. 9. 8). God, signifying B that He does this justly, and that it is not out of disregard for him that He does not accept the entreaty on their behalf, shows him their sins, all but saying: "These things are enough indeed to persuade you that it is not out of disregard for you, but because of their many sins that I do not accept the supplication." But nevertheless, He adds also this: "If Noah, and Job, and Daniel were to stand." And reasonably does He say these things more to him, because he is the one who suffered much. "You told me," he says, "to eat on dung, and I ate; you told me, and I shaved; you told me, and I slept on one side; you told me to go out through a hole while being carried, and I went out; you took my wife, and told me not to mourn, and I did not mourn, but I bore it bravely; I have done myriads of other things for their sake; and I ask you on their behalf, and you are not persuaded?"
God, therefore, showing that He is not doing this out of disregard for him, says: "Even if Noah, and even if Job, and even if Daniel were to present a request on behalf of sons and daughters, I am not persuaded." And to Jeremiah again, who was suffering less from the commands of God, but more from their own wickedness, what does He say? "Do you not see what these are doing?" (Jer. 7. 17). C But he says, "They are doing it; but for my sake do it." For this reason He says to him: "If Moses and Samuel were to stand." Moses, the first lawgiver, who often delivered them from dangers, who said: "If you forgive them their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out" (Exod. 31. 32). If, therefore, he were now, and were saying these things, he would not have succeeded; and if Samuel again, who himself also delivered them, who was admired from earliest youth. For to the former I said that as if friend to friend, so I discoursed, and not in riddles; but to this one I said that in early youth I appeared to him, and being moved to reverence by him I opened a prophecy previously closed. "For there was a precious word," he says, "and there was no vision revealing" (1 Reg. 3. 1). If these, therefore, were to stand, they would avail nothing. And concerning Noah also He says: "Just, perfect in his generation was Noah" (Gen. 6. 9); and concerning Job: "Blameless, just, true, God-fearing" (Job 1. 1). D These then standing, and Daniel, even if the Chaldeans thought him a god, He says they would not be able to deliver their sons and daughters.
Knowing these things, therefore, let us neither hold in contempt the prayers of the saints, nor cast everything upon them—the latter, so that we may not be slothful and live in vain; the former, so that we may not fall away from much gain—but let us also invite them to pray for us and reach out a hand, and let us ourselves take hold of virtue, so that we may be able to attain the promised blessings to those who love Him, by the grace and philanthropy of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, might, honor, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Homily 2
A "For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. For they themselves report concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come."
Just as ointment does not keep its fragrance confined to itself, but sends it forth from afar, and filling the air with the scent, thus also transmits it into the senses of those nearby, so too do noble and admirable men not keep their virtue confined to themselves, but benefit many through their reputation and make them better. Which is what happened then. Therefore he said: "So that you became an example to all who believe in Achaia and Macedonia. For from you," he says, "the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth." By instruction, therefore, you filled all your neighbors, but by the miracle the inhabited world; for this is what "in every place" means. And he did not say, "Your faith has been scattered," but, "sounded forth." Surely, just as when a trumpet is sounding clearly the whole surrounding place is filled, so your fame of virtue, like that sounding instrument, suffices to fill the inhabited world and to reach with B equal sound to all everywhere. For great deeds, where they are actually performed, are sung more clearly; they are indeed sung from afar, but not as loudly. With you, however, it is not so, but a clear sound has gone forth through the whole earth. And let no one think these words are hyperbolic; for this nation of the Macedonians, before the coming of Christ, was illustrious and was sung of everywhere even more than the Romans; and the Romans are to be admired because they subjugated them.
(Concerning Alexander the Great.) For the things which the king of the Macedonians accomplished surpassed all power of speech, in that, having set out from a small city, he occupied the whole inhabited world. Therefore the prophet even sees him as a winged leopard, signifying speed, vehemence, and ardor, and that he suddenly overran the whole world with trophies and victory. They say, moreover, that when he had heard a certain philosopher saying that there are infinite worlds, he wept vehemently that, although there were infinite ones, he had not conquered even one; to such a degree was he of great and exalted mind, and was sung of everywhere. Together with the fame of the king, the glory of the nation also ascended; for he was called "Alexander the Macedonian." Therefore, with his fame flying about, the things that were done there were deservedly sung everywhere; for nothing illustrious can be hidden. The affairs of the Macedonians were therefore no less illustrious than those of the Romans. C "Your faith," he says, "toward God has gone forth." See how, as though speaking of a living thing, he used the expression "has gone forth"; this arises from their vehemence. Then, declaring that they showed their faith to be vehement and efficacious, he subjoins, "So that we have no need to say anything. For they themselves report concerning us what manner of entry we had to you." They do not wait to hear about you, but those who were present and saw the things famously accomplished by you preoccupy those who were not present and did not see; so universally had the matter been published. Wherefore it is not necessary for us, by narrating, to bring them to equal zeal and emulation; for the things that they ought to have heard from us, they themselves say first. Although in such matters envy often intervenes, but this too was conquered by excellence, and they themselves are the heralds of your contests. Although they are inferior, not even then are they silent, but they anticipate. But to us, since they are such, it is not permitted to deny the faith. What is that, "What manner of entry we had to you"? That it was full of dangers, that it was accompanied by countless miracles, that none of these things disturbed you; but as if nothing had happened, you cleaved to us; as though you had suffered no evil, but had attained countless good things, so you received us afterwards. For this was the second entry. They went to Beroea; they suffered persecution; and afterwards when they came, they received them in such a way that they were honored by them, and they laid down their own souls for them. That statement, therefore, "What manner of entry we had to you," is a commendation combined of both these things and of their own; D but he himself turns it into a praise of them. "And how," he says, "you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God." That is, easily, and with great vehemence, nor did you have need of much labor to serve the living and true God. Here he also brought in an exhortation, which is the mark of a less burdensome discourse. "And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come." "And to wait," he says, "for His Son from heaven," who was put upon the cross, who was buried; and therefore, declaring these things, he subjoins, "Whom He raised from the dead." Have you seen all things together, the resurrection, the ascension, the second coming, the judgment, the recompense of the righteous, the punishment of the wicked? "Jesus," he says, "who delivers us from the wrath to come." And this is for them a solace, a consolation, and an exhortation. For if He raised Him from the dead, and He is in heaven, and is to come from there (and you believed; for if you had not believed those things, you would not have suffered so many things), these are also a sufficient consolation. "These," he says, "will pay the penalty" (which indeed he says also in the second epistle). And you will have for yourselves a consolation not small. "And to wait," he says, "for His Son from heaven," showing that things which are grave and harsh are at hand, but the good things are in expectation, when Christ shall come from heaven. See how much hope is needed, that Christ, having been put upon the cross, was raised and assumed into heaven; that He is to come to judge the living and the dead. (Chapter 2.) 1. "For you yourselves know, brethren, our entry to you, that it was not in vain; 2. but having suffered many things before, and having been treated with contumely, as you know, at Philippi, we had confidence in
our God to speak to you the Gospel of God in much struggle. A
2. Great, indeed, are your own achievements; nevertheless, we did not use human speech. But what he says above, this he says also here, that from both sides is demonstrated what the preaching is—from the signs, from the resolve of those who preach, and from the fervor and zeal of those who receive it. For you yourselves know, he says, our entry to you, that it was not in vain; that is, that it was not human, nor of the common sort. For being from great dangers and deaths and blows, we immediately fell into dangers. But having suffered before, he says, and having been treated with contumely, as you know, at Philippi, we had confidence in our God. Do you see how again he refers everything to God? To speak to you the Gospel of God in much struggle. It is not possible, he says, to say that we were in danger there, but here not so; for you yourselves know what this danger was, and with how much struggle we came to you. Which he also says writing to the Corinthians, that *In weakness and in fear and in much trembling I was among you* (1 Cor. 2. 3). 3. For our exhortation was not out of error, nor out of impurity, nor in guile; but as we were approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. Do you see that, as I was saying, from their very instance he makes a proof that the preaching is divine? For if it were not this, if it were deceit, we would not have endured so many dangers, nor would they have let us breathe. What then is it? If something of the things to come did not arouse us, if we were not persuaded that there is a good hope, we would not have been more willing to suffer. For who would choose to endure so many things for the sake of things here, and to live a life full of contest, and laden with dangers? For whom would they persuade? For are not these very things enough to disturb the disciples, when they see their teachers in dangers? But you have not suffered this; For our exhortation, that is, our teaching, is not out of error. There is no guile, he says, in the affair, nor deceit, that we should give way; it is not for base things, like magicians and sorcerers; for this is what he means by *Out of impurity; nor in guile, nor in any pretension*, such as Theudas did; *But as we were approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God*. Do you see that it is not vainglory? But to God, he says, B who tests our hearts. We do nothing for the sake of pleasing men, he says; for what cause would we have done these things? Then, having praised them by saying, *Not as wishing to please men, nor seeking honors from men*, he added, *But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel*. As if he were saying: If He did not see us stripped of every worldly concern, He would not have chosen us; as He approved us, such we also remain. We have been approved, he says, by God; that is, He tested us and entrusted us with the Gospel. As therefore we appeared approved to God, so we remain. The proof of this virtue is the being entrusted with the Gospel; for if there were anything base in us, God would not have approved us. But "approved," here, is instead of "He found us approved and entrusted us," it is not "He searched"; for we perform works after testing, but He without testing. Thus, therefore, we speak, as it is fitting for those tested by God and trusted to be worthy of the Gospel; and, *we speak, not as pleasing men*; that is, we do not do all these things for your sake. Since he had previously praised them, so as not to bring the discourse into suspicion, he says: *For neither at any time were we in speech of flattery, as you know, nor in a pretext of greed, God is witness, nor seeking glory from men, nor from you, nor from others, being able to be in a burden as Christ’s apostles*. *For neither at any time were we in speech of flattery*, he says; that is, We did not flatter, which is the mark of deceivers, of those C wanting to detain and hold fast. It is not possible to say that we flattered in order to hold fast, nor that we have come to this for the sake of money. Consequently, of that which was evident, he calls them witnesses; If we flattered, you know it, he says; but that which was uncertain, whether it was through greed, he calls God as witness. *Nor seeking glory from men, nor from you, nor from others, being able to be in a burden as Christ’s apostles*; that is, neither craving honors, and boasting, and being escorted by bodyguards. And yet, if we had done this, we would have done nothing alien; for if those being sent by kings are yet in honor, much more us. And he did not say, that "We were dishonored," nor that "We did not enjoy honor," which would have been reproaching them; but, *We did not seek*. Those, then, who could have sought, but did not seek, and with the preaching itself demanding this, how could we do anything for the sake of glory? And yet, if we had even sought it, not even so would it have been a crime; for it is fitting that those sent to men by God, as if coming now from heaven as ambassadors, should enjoy much honor. But out of superabundance we do none of these things, that we may block the mouths of the adversaries.
3. And it is not possible to say that towards you it is so, but towards others not so; for thus also writing to the Corinthians he was saying: *For you endure, if someone enslaves you, if someone devours you, if someone takes, if someone exalts himself, if someone strikes your face* (2 Cor. 11. 20); and again, *The presence of the body is weak, and the speech despised* (2 Cor. 10. 10 and 12. 13); and again, *Grant me this wrong*. For he shows there too, that he was very humble from having suffered so many things. And here he says also about money: *Being able to be in a burden as Christ's apostles. But we became gentle in your midst, as a nurse cherishes her own children, so yearning for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you, not only the Gospel of God, but also our own souls, because you became beloved to us*. *But we became*, he says, *gentle*; that is, D Nothing
burdensome, nor troublesome, nor heavy, nor having any pretension have we demonstrated. And this, *As a nurse*, he says, *cherishes her own children*. This is A what it is, as one might say, the one who from among you is not speaking from above, but speaking down to your level.
As a nurse, he says, cherishes her own children. Thus it behooves the teacher to be. Does a nurse flatter so that she may obtain glory? Does she ask for money from the small children? Is she heavy and burdensome to them? Are they not kinder and gentler than mothers? Here he shows love and benevolence. *Being affectionately desirous of you*, he says; that is, longing for you; thus we are bound to you, and not only do we take nothing, but if it should be necessary even to impart our very souls, we shall not refuse. This, tell me, I pray, is it the act of a human mind? And who is so foolish as to say this? We were well-pleased, he says, to impart to you, not only the Gospel of God, but also our own souls. Wherefore this is greater than that. And what is the profit? From the Gospel, indeed, there is profit; but to give one’s soul, as regards difficulty, is greater than that. For it is not the same thing to preach and to give one’s soul; for the former is more honorable, but the latter is of greater difficulty. We were willing, he says, if it were possible, even to pour out our souls for you. B Since, therefore, he praised and does praise, for this reason he says, *Not seeking money, not flattering you, not desiring glory* do we do this. For see: if they had accomplished many struggles, and it was necessary that they be praised and held in admiration, so that they might become stronger, the praise would have had suspicion. For this reason, he says all these things, removing suspicion; he speaks of dangers. And again, lest he be thought to speak of dangers as if laboring for them, and as if he ought to be honored by them; therefore, after he had mentioned the dangers, he added: *Because you have become beloved to us*; and for this reason we would have gladly given you our souls, because we are very much bound to you. And the Gospel, indeed, because God commanded it, we proclaim; but we love you so much that if it were possible, we would have even given our souls. Thus it behooves the one who loves to love, so that if a soul is asked of him, and it is possible, he does not withhold it. I do not say if it is asked only, but even that he himself should hasten towards this gift. For nothing, nothing will have been sweeter than such love, nothing troublesome will befall there. Truly a faithful friend is a medicine of life; a faithful friend is a strong covering.
Who is a true friend. An example of Christian friendship.
What indeed would a true and genuine friend not do? What pleasure would he not bring? What utility? What security? Even if you should speak of countless treasures, nothing can be compared to a true and genuine friend. First, then, let us speak of how much pleasure friendship has: he rejoices with joy when seeing his friend, and is poured forth; he is joined with him by a certain union, which has an ineffable pleasure in the mind; and if he only remembers him, he rises up in his mind and is lifted on high. I am speaking of genuine friends, who are of one mind, who have chosen to die for their friends, who love ardently. Do not, by thinking of those who love lightly, and are companions of the table, and C are friends in name only, consider that you are refuting what is said. If anyone has a friend such as I describe, he will recognize the words; and if he should see him every day, he is not satisfied: he wishes and prays for the same things for him as he does for himself. I know someone who, for the sake of a friend, would ask holy men that they might pray first for him, and then for himself. So great a thing is a good friend, that both places and times are loved for their sake. For just as a flower emanates from bodies of splendor into the neighboring places, so also do friends, to the places to which they go, emit their own grace: and often when we have been in those places without friends, we weep, remembering the days in which we spent time with them, and we groan. It cannot be explained in words how much pleasure and joy the presence of friends brings; those who experience it only know. And it is permitted to ask for a favor, and to receive a favor from a friend without suspicion. When they command us, then we are grateful to them; when they hesitate and are fearful, then we are affected with sadness. We have nothing that is not theirs. Scorning everything that is here, we often do not wish to emigrate from here because of them; and to that light itself, they are more desirable.
And truly it is the case that a friend is more desirable than that light—I speak of the sincere and genuine one. And do not marvel; for it is better that the sun be extinguished for us, than that we be deprived of friends; it is better to spend time in darkness than to be deprived of friends; and how, I will say. Many who see D the sun are in darkness; but those who are instructed by friends are never occupied in calamities: I speak of spiritual friends, who prefer nothing to friendship. Such was Paul, who would have gladly given his soul, nor, even if asked, would he have gladly gone into hell; so ardently must one be loved with affection. I wish to give an example of friendship: friends surpass fathers and sons; friends, I say, according to Christ. For do not tell me of today’s friends; for with others this good also has receded; but think of what happened in the time of the apostles—I do not speak of the leaders and princes, but of those who believed: *Of all*, he says, *was one soul and one heart, and no one said that any of those things which he possessed was his own, and it was distributed to each one as he had need* (Acts 4:32, 35). There was no "mine and thine" back then. This was friendship, that no one should consider what was his own to be his own, but rather what belonged to his neighbor; and that what was his own, to be something alien; and that he should spare the soul of that other equally as his own, and that he, likewise, should show the same disposition of mind. And somewhere, he says, is it possible that such a one can be found? Yes; but because we do not wish it, it is not possible to be; for it could easily be done, if we wished. For if it could not be done, Christ would not have commanded it, nor would He have said so many things about charity. A great thing is friendship, and how great it is, neither can anyone learn, nor can any discourse explain, except for experience itself. This brought about heresies, this makes those who are Greeks still be Greeks. He who loves does not wish to command, nor to hold an office, but he has greater thanks if he obeys and executes orders: he wishes to gratify rather than to receive a favor; for he loves, and as if his desire were not satisfied, so is he affected. He does not take as much joy in receiving a benefit as he does in bestowing one; for he prefers that the other be obliged to him, rather than that he should owe him; nay, he prefers both to owe him, and to have him as a debtor; and he wishes to gratify and does not wish to seem to gratify, but rather to be a debtor. I think many of you perhaps do not know what was said; therefore it is necessary that I repeat it. He wishes to be the first to bestow a benefit, and not…
[405] A render to him before, but to repay; for this, too, God has done among men. He was about to grant His own Son for us, but that He might not seem to be granting us a gift, but to be a debtor to us, He commanded Abraham to offer his son, so that by doing a great thing, He might not appear to be doing anything great. For when there is no friendship, we reproach our benefits and praise even small ones; but when there is friendship, we hide them, and we wish to show even great things as small, so that we may not appear to have the friend as a debtor, but to be debtors to him ourselves by having him as a debtor. I know that many do not understand that which is said; but the cause is that I am discussing a matter that dwells in heaven now. Just as, therefore, if I were speaking about some plant growing in India, of which no one has had experience, the argument could not make it plain, even if I said a myriad things; so also now, whatever I say, I say in vain: for no one will be able to know. In heaven this plant is planted, having branches weighted not with pearls, but with a life virtuous and far sweeter than these. What kind of pleasure do you wish to speak of? The shameful? The noble? But the pleasure of friendship surpasses them all, even if you speak of that of honey. For this becomes cloying; but a friend [406] never does, so long as he is a friend, but rather the desire increases, and such pleasure never receives satiety. And the friend is more pleasant than the present life itself: many, indeed, after the death of their friends, have not wished to live any longer. With a friend, one would gladly bear even exile, but without a friend, one would not even choose to dwell in one's own house; with a friend, even poverty is bearable, but without this, even health and wealth are unbearable. Such a one has another self. I am choked because I cannot speak by way of example; for I would have recognized that what has been said is far less than what is required. And these things are so here; but from God the reward for friendship is so great that it cannot even be told. He gives us a reward so that we may love one another: Love, He says, and receive a reward, for which thing we owe a reward; Pray, He says, and receive a reward, for which we owe a reward, because we ask for good things; For that which you ask, He says, receive a reward; Fast, and receive a reward; Become virtuous, and receive a reward, although you owe Him a reward; but just as fathers, when they have made their children virtuous, then give them a reward, too—for they are debtors because they set them in pleasure—so also God says: Receive a reward if you become virtuous; for you gladden the Father, and for this I owe you a reward; but if you are evil, no longer; for you provoke Him who begat you. Let us not, then, provoke God, but gladden Him, that we may attain the kingdom of the heavens in Christ Jesus our Lord, etc.
HOMILY III
B Chap. 2. v. 9. For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil: working night and day so as not to burden any of you, we preached to you the Gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God, how holily and justly and without complaint we were toward you who believe, as you know, how we dealt with each one of you, as a father with his own children, exhorting you and comforting you and testifying, that you might walk worthy of God who has called you into His own kingdom and glory.
1. A teacher ought not to think anything burdensome that contributes to the salvation of his disciples. For if blessed Jacob was broken with toil night and day for the custody of the flocks, much more ought he who has been entrusted with souls—even if the work is laborious, even if it seems menial—to do everything, looking only to one thing, the salvation of those being discipled, and the glory that arises to God from thence. See, then, how Paul, too, being a herald and apostle of the world, and held in such honor, worked with his hands so as not to burden those who were being discipled. For you remember, he says, brethren, our labor and toil. He had said before that, though we could have been a burden, as apostles of Christ; which he also says in the letter to the Corinthians: Do you not know that those who perform the sacred rites eat of the temple? So also Christ has ordained that those who announce the Gospel live from the Gospel. But I, he says, did not wish it, but I labored. And he did not simply work, but with much diligence. And what does he say? For you remember: he did not say, the benefits from me, but, Our labor and toil. Working night and day so as not to burden any of you, thus we preached to you the Gospel of God. To the Corinthians, however, he says something different: I robbed other Churches, having received a wage for your ministry. And yet he was working there, too; but he did not remind them of this, but set another thing, even more striking, as if he were to say that I was fed by others while serving you. But here it is not so, but what? Working night and day. And there he says: And when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone, and, I received a wage for your ministry; but here he shows those men to have been in poverty; there, not so. For this reason he constantly brings them forward as witnesses: For you, he says, are witnesses, and God; [440] making his argument trustworthy, and setting down that which most convinced them; for that former thing was unknown to those who were ignorant, but this was henceforth beyond doubt to all. And do not wonder; for he did not see that it was Paul who was saying these things, but he wishes to convince them out of a great abundance of proof. For this reason he says: You are witnesses, and God, how holily and justly and without complaint we were toward you who believe. He had to praise them again; for this reason he sets these things forward, which were sufficient to persuade them. For he reasons that he who was placed in need there and did not take anything, much more [would he not take anything] now. How holily and justly and without complaint we were toward you who believe, as you know, how we dealt with each one of you, as a father with his own children, exhorting you and comforting you. Above, having spoken of his conduct, here...
A he explains how he brought this in with great comforting effect; and he repeatedly dwells on this, and one might find it in almost all his epistles, examining accurately how he always brings in Christ within temptations in various ways. See, then, how he even here accuses the Jews, bringing them to the memory of the Master and the Lord’s own sufferings. Thus he knows the matter to have the greatest consolation. Those who killed the Lord, he says. But perhaps when they were ignorant? Nay, they knew full well. And what then? Did they not also kill their own prophets, and stone them, whose books they even carry about? And they did these things not for the truth. There is, therefore, not only consolation in temptations, but also a warning, so that we may not think they commit these things for the sake of the truth and be troubled on that account. And us, he says, they persecuted. And we, he says, have suffered untold evils. And they do not please God, and are contrary to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they might be saved. They are contrary, he says, to all men. How? For if it is necessary to speak to the whole world, and these men forbid it, they are common enemies of the world. They killed Christ, they insult God, they are common enemies of the world, they drive us out when we come for their salvation: what is the wonder if they acted in such a way toward you too, since they did this even in Judea? Hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they might be saved. It is therefore envy, to hinder the salvation of all. That they may fill up their sins always. For the wrath of God has come upon them even to the end. These are no longer such as they were before; there is no longer a return, there is no longer an end; but the wrath stands near. Whence is this evident? From what Christ foretold. For this does not only have consolation—that they acquired companions in affliction—but also that they heard that those who were afflicting them had been punished. If, however, the delay causes distress, let one be comforted that they no longer look upward. Indeed, he has even tightened the delay by saying, "wrath," again showing that it is owed, and that it has been predetermined and predicted.
Homily III
B 17. But we, brethren, being bereaved of you for a short time, in face, not in heart, have hastened the more abundantly to see your face with much desire. He did not say, "Separated," but that which was greater. Above, he spoke of adulation, showing that he did not flatter nor seek glory; here he speaks of love. Since he said above, "As a father with his children," and "As a nurse," here he says something else: "Bereaved," which is the state of children seeking their fathers. And what of it, were they bereaved? Not so, he says, but we. For if one were to examine the yearning: like small children, of whom no one takes care, undergoing a premature bereavement, they are in great desire for their parents, not only because of nature itself, but also because of their solitude; so too are we. Hence also he shows the sickness of his soul, in which he was because of the separation. And this, he says, ought not to be said, that we waited a long time, but, "For a time," and that, "In face, not in heart": for we always have you in our mind. See how great the love is: although he had them perpetually in his heart, he yet sought their presence in face. Let no one call this philosophy for me to be superfluous: this is clearly of an ardent love, to see and to hear and to speak, and this contributed much. "We hastened," he says, "more abundantly." What is, "more abundantly"? Either this means that we esteemed you highly; or, as is likely, although we had been away for an hour, we strove to see your face. See blessed Paul, when he could not fulfill his own desire by himself, doing this through others: just as he sends Timothy to the Philippians, and again him...
to the Corinthians, being present with them through others when he could not be through himself. For he was a man of a frantic, ungovernable, and impatient love for friendship. A *Therefore we desired to come unto you.* This is the mark of love. And yet he says here that he had no other need, but only to see you. "I, Paul, both once and twice; and Satan hindered us."
3. What do you say? Does Satan hinder? Yes, for this was not the work of God. For regarding the Romans, he says that God hindered [Rom. 15. 22]; and elsewhere Luke says that the Spirit forbade them to come into Asia [Acts 16. 6]; but to the Corinthians, he says it is the work of the Spirit; and here, of Satan alone. But what does he mean by the hindrance of Satan? Unexpected and vehement temptations. For, he says, when a plot was formed against him by the Jews, he was detained in Greece for three months [Acts 20. 3]. It is one thing to remain by necessity of dispensation and willingly, and another to be hindered. For there he says, "Having no more place in these regions," and, "spare you, I came not as yet to Corinth" [2 Cor. 1. 23]; but here there is nothing of the sort, but what? "That Satan hindered us." I, he says, Paul, both once and twice. See how he glories and prides himself, wishing to show that he loved them most of all. The words, "I, Paul," are as if he said: Even if others did not, I did. For they indeed only wished, but I even made the attempt. B *For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even you before our Lord Jesus Christ in His presence?* Are the Macedonians, tell me, your hope, O blessed Paul? Not these alone, he says; for this reason he added, "Or are not even you?" For who, he says, is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Do you recognize the words as being those of a woman whose bowels are deeply stirred, and who is speaking to little children? "And a crown," he says, "of rejoicing." For the name of crown was not enough to show the splendor, but he added also, "of rejoicing." What fervor is this! A mother, or a father, even if they had come together and mingled their own desire, could never have shown their own desire to be equal to Paul's. C Joy, he says, and crown; that is, I rejoice more over you, he says, than over a crown. For consider how great a thing it is to have an entire Church present, planted and rooted by Paul. Who would not rejoice over such numerous and goodly offspring? So that this is not flattery either. For he did not say, "You," simply, but, "And you," along with others: "For you are our glory and our joy." *Therefore, being no longer able to bear it, we thought it good to be left* in Athens *alone.* He said this in place of, "We chose." *And we sent Timothy, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellow-worker in the Gospel of Christ.* And he says this not to exalt Timothy, but to honor them, because he sent to them the fellow-worker and minister of the Gospel; as if he said: We have taken him away from his tasks and sent to you the minister of God and our fellow-worker in the Gospel of Christ. Then also the reason: *To establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith, that no one should be moved by these afflictions.* What does he say here? Since the temptations of teachers disturb the disciples, and he was at that time falling into many temptations, as he himself says, "Satan hindered us," he speaks thus to recover them. What he says is this: Both once and twice I desired to come, and I was not able; for it was of great violence. And it is likely this disturbed them. For disciples are not disturbed as much by their own temptations as by those of their teachers; just as a soldier is not disturbed so much by his own trials as when he sees his commander struck down. D "To establish you," he says. Therefore he sent him so that they might not be disturbed, not as if they lacked anything of faith, or as if they had something to learn. "And to comfort you concerning your faith, that no one be moved by these afflictions, for you yourselves know that we are appointed for this." And indeed when we were with you, we told you before that we were to be afflicted, as it came to pass, and you know. It is not right to be disturbed, he says; for nothing strange, nothing contrary to expectation is happening; which was enough to rouse them. Do you see that for this reason Christ also foretold it to the disciples? For hear Him saying: "Now I have told you before it came to pass, that, when it is come to pass, you might believe" [John 14. 29]. For it is a great, a truly great thing for the consolation of others, to hear the things that come to pass from the teachers. For just as a sick man, if he should hear from the physician that this and that are going to happen, is not greatly disturbed; but if it happens unexpectedly, as if he were at a loss, and the disease had become greater than the art, he is anxious and disturbed: so it is here too. Which things Paul, foreknowing, told them: "That we are to be afflicted; as," he says, "it came to pass, and you know." He does not just say that this came to pass, but that many other things he foretold, and they came to pass. "For this we are appointed." So that it is not right to be disturbed and troubled not only about the past—for this is to be moved—but not even about the future, if something of the sort should happen. For "for this we are appointed."
4. Let us listen, all who have ears to hear; for this is the state of the Christian. The words "For this we are appointed" he says regarding all believers. For this we are appointed; yet we, as if appointed for comfort and repose, feel as if strange things have befallen us. Or rather, for what reason do we feel this? For it is not a time of affliction, nor has temptation overtaken us, except what is human. It is timely to say to you, "You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin" [Heb. 12. 4]. Or rather, it is not timely to say this to you, but what is? You have not yet despised riches. For to those who had lost all their own things, these were rightly said; but to those who have them, they are struck—whose money is being snatched away for Christ? Who is struck? Who is subjected to insult? Even to words, I say. Whence is the glory? Whence can you have confidence? Christ suffered so much for us who were enemies: what can we show that we have suffered for His sake? As for what we have suffered, we have nothing; but there are innumerable good things from Him. Whence shall we have this confidence? Do you not know that when a soldier shows a thousand scars and wounds, he can then be illustrious before the king? But when he can show nothing
A that has been done properly and bravely, even if he has offended no one, he will be ranked among the last. But you say, "It is not a time of war." For if it were, tell me, I pray, who would have fought? Who would have leaped to the battle? Who would have routed the phalanx? Perhaps none; for when I see that you do not despise wealth for the sake of Christ, how can I believe that it will happen that you despise wounds? Tell me, do you bear bravely those who heap reproaches and insults upon you, and do you bless them? You do not do this, and you do not obey. You do not do what carries no peril, and tell me, I pray, will you bear wounds, in which there is much sadness and pain? Do you not know that in peace one must exercise for war? Do you not see those soldiers who, even when no war urges, and even in deepest peace, after cleaning their arms, go out daily, for the most part, into open and broad fields with their masters who teach them how to array the battle-line and arrange their ranks, and exercise the military art most accurately? Who of the spiritual soldiers does this? No one. Therefore, in wars we are soft and cowardly, and are easily captured and overcome by all. How dull of mind, however, it is to think that the present time is not one of war, when Paul cries out: "All who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" (2 Tim. 3:12); and Christ says, "In the world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33); and he says, "Our wrestling is not against blood and flesh" (Eph. 6:12); and again, "Stand, therefore, having girded your loins in truth" (Eph. 6:14). And no one at that time said, "Why do you arm us, pray, when there is no war? Why do you rashly provide business for us? You put breastplates on the soldiers when it is possible to rest and be refreshed." But if someone had said these things, the answer would have been to him: "Greatly, indeed, even if there were no war, one would have to take care and be solicitous about the war." For he who is solicitous about the battle in time of peace will be terrible in the time of battle; but he who is unskilled in military matters will be more disturbed even in peace. Why? Because he will weep for the things he possesses, and will be affected with sadness because he cannot fight for them. For the timid and the unskilled and those ignorant of battle are the goods and possessions of all the brave and of those who know how to fight. Therefore, for this reason I arm you first. But then, also, the whole time of our life is a time of war. How and in what manner? The devil is always threatening. Hear what he says about him: "He wanders about roaring like a lion" (1 Pet. 5:8), wishing to seize. Innumerable affections of the body invade us, which it is necessary to recount, lest we deceive ourselves in vain. For what, tell me, I pray, does not wage war with us? Riches, beauty, delicacies, power, envy, glory, arrogance. For not only does our own glory wage war, preventing us from lowering ourselves to humility, but the glory of others also draws us to envy. But what of the contrary things: poverty, ignominy, to be despised, to be cast away, to have no power? These things indeed are in us; but what comes from men: wickedness, snares, deceits, calumnies, a thousand circumventings. Similarly, those things which are from demons: principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness. Some of us are rejoicing, others are grieving: B both are a declension. But health, but infirmity. Whence, then, will a man not sin? Do you wish that I should begin from Adam himself, and tell you straight from the beginning? What took and conquered the protoplast? Pleasure, and foods, and the desire to rule. What of his son who followed him? Envy and malice. What of those who were in the time of Noah? The pleasures of the body, and the evils which are born from them. What of his son? Petulance and excessive license. What of the Sodomites? Lust and salacity and the satiety of bread. Often, however, poverty also does this: therefore, a certain wise man said: "Give me neither riches nor poverty" (Prov. 30:8). Nay, indeed, it is not riches or poverty, but the free will which cannot use both of these. "Acknowledge," he says, "that you walk in the midst of snares" (Ecclesiasticus 9:18). We are placed in this. He did not say only, "We are tempted," but, "In this we are placed"; as if to say, "In this we are born." This is our task and duty, this is our life, and you seek rest? The executioner does not stand by tearing the side and forcing one to sacrifice; but an intense love of money and avarice stands by, digging out our eyes. No soldier lights a pyre for us, nor puts us on a gridiron; but the inflammation of the bodies burns the soul more than that. The king is not present, promising innumerable good things and bringing shame; but an insane love of glory is present, which titillates and entices more than he. It is a great war indeed, and truly great if we are wise and sober: the present time also has crowns: hear Paul saying: "As for the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the just Judge will render to me; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his coming." Your son, nurtured in great wealth, and who was raising up a good hope for himself, and who was to be your only heir—do not weep, but give thanks to God, and glorify Him who took him; and in this you will be nothing inferior to Abraham. For just as he gave to God who had commanded, so you, when He Himself had taken, did not lament.
Incantations and charms used for curing diseases. Diviners. Did you fall into a grievous disease; and many are present who compel, some indeed with incantations, others truly with charms, others by certain other means to settle the evil? But you, because of the fear of God, bore it with a brave and great and immovable mind, and preferred to suffer anything rather than to endure to do something of those things which pertain to the worship of idols? This brings you the crown of martyrdom; and do not doubt it. How or in what manner? I say: because just as he with a great and brave mind bears the pains of torments, so as not to worship a simulacrum; so you also bear the pains of disease, so that you have no need of those things which he offers, nor do you do what he commands. But are those pains more vehement? But these are longer: wherefore their ends are equal. C Often, however, they are even more vehement. For what, tell me, I pray, when a burning fever vexes and burns you from within, and you cast off the incantation of others persuading you, are you not crowned with the crown of martyrdom? Again, has someone lost money? There are many who persuade one to go to diviners: you have preferred D
448 to forgo receiving the money, since it is forbidden, rather than to disobey God? You have a reward equal to him who has given it to the poor; if, having lost it, you give thanks, and being able to go to diviners, you endure not to receive it that way, you have an equal reward with him who has emptied himself of these things for the sake of God. For just as that man, for the sake of the fear of God, emptied himself [of his wealth] for those in need, so you, for the sake of the fear of God, when they had been snatched away, did not seek to recover them. It is in our power both to be injured and not to be; and no one else’s. And, if you wish, let us demonstrate the matter on the theft itself. The thief broke through the wall, leaped into the bedchamber, carried off gold and precious stones, in short, he made away with the entire treasure, and was not caught. What has happened is grievous, and the matter appears to be a loss, but it is not yet so, but it lies with you to make it a loss or a gain. “And how,” one says, “could this be a gain?” I shall try to demonstrate how. If you are willing, it will be a great gain; but if not willing, a loss more grievous than what has occurred. For just as with craftsmen, when the material is laid out, the one experienced in the craft uses it to good purpose, while the inexperienced one ruins it and causes a loss to himself: so also with regard to these things. How then will it be a gain? If you give thanks to God, if you do not wail shrilly, if you speak the words of Job: *The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked also shall I return* (Job 1.21). What do you say, “The Lord has taken away”? The thief took it away, and how, he says, can I say, “The Lord has taken away”? Do not marvel; for Job himself, whatever the devil took away, this he said, *The Lord has taken away*. If then that man so confidently said it, why will you not say of what the thief took, that the Lord took it away? Whom do you marvel at, tell me: him who emptied his own possessions among the poor, or Job at these words? Is the one who did not give then less rewarded than the one who gave alms? Do not say, “I have no grace, the matter was not of my own choosing; the robber took it without my knowing or willing it; what reward will there be for me?” Without Job’s knowledge or will, he took those things; how could it be otherwise? Yet he wrestled. It is possible for you to receive as much reward as if you had willingly thrown them away. And reasonably we marvel more at this man who bears insult thankfully than at him who gives willingly. Why so? Because that man is nurtured by praises, and by his conscience, and has good hopes; and having previously borne the loss of his money nobly, he had then thrown it away; but this man, while still clinging to his own, was forcibly deprived of it. Yet it is not equal, having previously been persuaded to abandon money, thus to empty oneself, and to be deprived while still holding fast to it. If you say these words, you will receive much 449 more, and greater than Job. For he received double here; but to you Christ has promised a hundredfold. Have you not blasphemed because of the fear of God, have you used diviners, have you given thanks having suffered? You are like the one who has scorned; for even these things do not happen unless you have scorned beforehand. Yet it is not equal to practice over a long time to learn to scorn money, and to bear a loss that has occurred suddenly. Thus it becomes a gain or a loss, and you will not be harmed at all, but will even be benefited by the devil.
6. But how does it also become a grievous loss? When you are deprived of your soul. For tell me, has the thief deprived you of money? Why do you deprive yourself of salvation? Why, grieving over the things you have suffered wrongfully from others, do you wrap yourself in greater evils? He perhaps wrapped you in poverty, but you are the one who harms yourself most critically and wickedly in essential matters; he has deprived you of things outside you, which would later have slipped away even against your will; but you deprive yourself of eternal wealth. Has the devil grieved you by taking away your money? Grieve him also yourself by giving thanks, and do not gratify him. If you go to diviners, you have gratified him; if you give thanks to God, you have dealt him a mortal blow. And see what happens: you will not find them even by going to the diviners; for it is not in them to know; and if by chance they even say something and hit the mark, you have destroyed your soul besides, and you will be laughed at by your brethren, and you will effectively lose them again. For the demon, knowing that you do not bear the loss, but because of these things you even deny your God, gives money again, so that he may have an occasion to deceive you again. But if the diviners say anything, do not marvel; the demon is incorporeal, he goes about everywhere; he himself arms the robbers; for these things do not happen without a demon. If therefore he arms them, and knows also where they are deposited; he is not ignorant of his own ministers. But this is not to be marveled at; if he sees you grieving at the loss, he inflicts another; if he sees you mocking and scorning, he will depart from this path. For just as we move our enemies in those things in which we harass them; but if we see that they do not grieve, we desist thereafter, as not having the means to bite them; so also the devil. What do you say? Do you not see those who sail on the sea, how they do not care for money when a storm occurs, but even throw away what they have? And no one says, “What are you doing, man? Are you colluding with the storm and the shipwreck? Before the wave takes the wealth from you, are you doing this with your own hands? Why do you bring about a shipwreck before the shipwreck?” But these things might be said by an uncultivated man, and one inexperienced in the trials of the sea; the sailor, however, who knows exactly what produces a calm and what produces a storm, will even laugh at the one who says these things: “For this reason I cast it away,” he says, “so that there may not be surging.” Thus also the man experienced in the affairs of life and its trials, when he sees the storm rising, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness wishing to work a shipwreck, he casts away the remains of his money. A theft has occurred to you; perform an act of alms, and you lighten the ship. Have robbers snatched it?
even if it is small, it is sufficient to hide and obscure any bodily damage. As long as you have something to give to Christ, you are rich. Tell me, I pray, if a king should approach you, now stripped of your wealth, and reach out his hand, asking you to give him something, would you not think yourself the richest of all, since even after such great poverty you do not feel ashamed before the king? Do not be carried away; overcome yourself alone, and you will overcome the snares of the devil. It is permitted to you to gain much. Let us despise riches, so that we may not despise the soul. But how can one despise them? Do you not see splendid bodies, and those who are captive to the love of them? As long as they are in sight, a fire is kindled, a bright flame arises; but after someone has taken them far away, all is extinguished and calmed. So also in the case of wealth, let no one accumulate gold for himself, no one precious stones, no one necklaces and ornaments; while these are seen, they entice the eyes. If you wish to be rich like the ancients, do not grow rich in gold, but in necessary things, so that you may have what is ready to be distributed to others; do not be delighted by such ornaments. Such riches are exposed to the plots of thieves, and they provide us with anxieties. Do not possess gold and silver vessels; let them be storehouses of grain, wine, and oil—not to be sold again to make money, but to be dispensed to the needy. If we distance ourselves from those superfluous things, we shall attain to heavenly goods, which may it be given to us all to obtain in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, power, and honor, now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen.
HOMILY IV
A [chap]5.[/chap] Wherefore, I also, no longer enduring, sent to know your faith, lest by any means the tempter have tempted you, and our labor be in vain. 6. But now that Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that you have good remembrance of us always, desiring to see us, as we also to see you: 7. Therefore we were comforted, brethren, in you, in all our necessity and tribulation, by your faith: 8. For now we live, if you stand in the Lord.
A question is proposed today, sought for by many, and gathered from every quarter. What is this question? "Wherefore," he says, "no longer enduring, I sent Timotheus to know your faith." What do you say? One who knows so many things, who has heard secret words, who has ascended even to the third heaven, does he not know, and this while he is at Athens? Although there is no great distance between them, nor has it been long since he was separated from them? "For being taken from you for a short time of an hour" (1 Thess. 2:17). Does then such a man not know the affairs of the Thessalonians, but is it necessary for him to send Timotheus to know their faith: "Lest by any means the tempter have tempted you, and our labor be in vain"? What then would one say? That the saints do not know all things? You may learn this from many instances, indeed both from the first and from those which followed after: just as Elisha was ignorant concerning the woman (2 Kings 4:27), or as Elijah was saying to God, "I am left alone, and they seek my life" (1 Kings 19:10-14). Wherefore he heard from God, "I have left me seven thousand men." Just as Samuel again, when he was sent to anoint David, the B Lord said to him, "Look not on his countenance, nor on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for God seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7). This, moreover, happens through the great care and providence of God. How and by what reasoning? Both for the sake of the saints themselves, and for the sake of those who believe them. For just as He permits persecutions to happen, so also He permits them to be ignorant of many things, so that they might be reduced to a certain state. Therefore, Paul also said: "There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me" (2 Cor. 12:7), lest I should be exalted above measure; and again, so that others might not imagine great things about them. For if they thought them to be gods on account of signs (Acts 14:11), much more would they have done so if they had remained always knowing everything. And he himself says again: "That no man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me" (2 Cor. 12:6). Again, hear Peter C saying, when he healed the lame man: "Why look you on us, as though by our power or piety we had made this man to walk?" (Acts 3:12). If, however, with them saying and doing these things, evil suspicions arose even from small things, much more would they have arisen from great things. Moreover, these things were permitted for another reason also. For so that no one could say that they performed such great deeds because they were not men, and thus everyone would become lazy and idle, for this reason He shows their weakness, so that against their will He might cut off every occasion for impudence. Therefore he is ignorant; therefore also, though he had often proposed to come, he did not come, so that they might learn that he does not know many things. From this, therefore, much gain was derived. Otherwise, even thus there were still those who would say that this one was a great power of God, and others that he was this or that. If these things had not happened, what would they not have supposed? This seems to be a certain reproach of them; but if one considers it attentively, it indicates much more that they are admirable, and the superabundance of the temptations is shown. How, attend. For if you said to them previously, "In this we are placed," and, "Let no one be disturbed," why do you send Timotheus again, fearing lest anything might happen of those things which you do not wish? This he does indeed out of great affection: for those who love, even things which are small, they hold suspicious out of great fervor; he does it also on account of many temptations. For I did indeed say, "In this we are placed"; but the magnitude of the evils terrified me. Wherefore he did not say, "I send as one condemning you"; but, "No longer enduring," which was more of a friendship. What is, "Lest by any means the tempter have tempted you"? You see that to fall in temptations is diabolical, and has originated from diabolical seduction? For when he could not [overcome] us ourselves, in another way through us he shakes the weaker ones: which indeed is of the greatest weakness, and has no excuse: just as he did in the case of Job, having incited his wife: "Say," he says, "some word against the Lord, and die." D
See how he tempted her. But why did he not say, "He caused to stumble," but, "He tempted"? Because, he says, I only suspected it so far as that you might be tempted; for he does not call his attempt a staggering; for he who receives his approach has been made to stagger. Alas! How great is the affection of Paul; he did not care about his own afflictions nor the plots against him. For I think he remained there at that time; just as Luke says, that he remained in Hellas for three months, when a plot had been formed against him by the Jews (Acts 20:3).
2. Therefore he did not care about the dangers, but about those who were being discipled. Do you see that he had surpassed every natural father? For we, in afflictions and dangers, cast out the memory of all things; but he was so afraid and trembled for his children, that he even had his only consolation, Timothy, both partner and fellow-worker, to send him in these very dangers to them. "And that our labor might be in vain," he says. Why? For if they were even subverted, it was not through your fault, nor through your slothfulness. But nevertheless, even such things being, I think my labor has been made void out of deep brotherly love. "Lest somehow the tempter has tempted you." But he tempts, not knowing if he will strike down. Then he indeed approaches even as one who does not know; but we, knowing that we will surely prevail over him, do we not keep watch? That he attacks us not knowing, he showed in the case of Job. For that wicked demon was saying to God: "Did you not hedge his inner and outer parts? Take away his possessions; surely he will bless you to your face" (Job 1:10, 11). He tempts. If he sees anything weak, he makes an attempt; if strong, he departs. "And that our labor," he says, "might be in vain." Let us all hear how Paul labored. He did not say, "work," but, "the labor"; he did not say, "and you will perish," but, "our labor." So that if even something had happened, it was likely; B but since it did not happen, the miracle is great. These things we expected, he says, but the opposite resulted: for not only did we receive no addition of affliction from you, but even consolation. "But Timothy having just come," he says, "to us from you, and having announced to us your faith and your love." "And having announced," he says. Do you see Paul's overflowing joy? He did not say, "having reported," but, "having evangelized": so great a good he considered their confirmation and their love. For there is a necessity, when that remains firm, for this also to be established. And he rejoiced at their love, because it was a sign of faith. "And that you have," he says, "a good memory of us always, longing to see us, just as we also you." That is, with praises. Not when we were present, not when we were performing miracles, but even now, when we are far off, and being scourged, and suffering ten thousand terrible things, you have a good memory of us. Hear how disciples who have a good memory of their teachers are admired, how they are blessed. Let us imitate them; for we benefit ourselves, not those who are loved. "Longing," he says, "to see us, just as we also you." And this too comforted them. For to learn from the one who loves, that the one who is loved knows that he is loved, is a great consolation and encouragement. "For this reason we were comforted, brethren, concerning you in all our affliction and necessity through your faith; because now we live, if you stand firm in the Lord." What could be equal to Paul, who considered the salvation of neighbors to be his own, being so disposed toward all as to limbs of the body? Who will be able now to utter this call? Or rather, who will be able to think so at any time? He did not deem them to owe him thanks for the temptations suffered on their behalf, but he gave thanks to them, because they were not made to stagger because of his temptations; C as if he were saying, that you were harmed by the temptations more than we; you were tempted more than we, you who suffered nothing, of us who suffered. Since these things, he says, Timothy announced to us, we perceive none of the grievous things, but, "We were comforted in all our affliction"; and not only in this, but also in our necessity, he says; and rightly so. For nothing any longer should touch a good teacher, so long as the affairs of the disciples proceed according to his will. "Through you," he says, "we were comforted"; that is, you established us. And yet the contrary was the case; for not to give in while suffering, but to stand nobly, is enough to support the disciples. But he does the whole contrary, and turns the encomium onto them; you have anointed us, he says; you have allowed us to breathe; you have not allowed us to perceive the temptations. And he did not say, "We have breathed again," nor, "We have been comforted," but what? "Now we live"; showing that he counts neither temptation nor death as anything else but their stumbling-block, whereas he counts their progress as life. How could someone else have expressed either the grief over the weakness of the disciples, or the joy? He did not say, "We rejoice," but, "We live," calling the future [life] life.
3. So that without this, we do not even count the living to be living. Thus teachers must be disposed, thus disciples, and nothing will ever be out of place. Then, further adding to it, see what he says: "For what thanksgiving are we able to return to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice because of you before our God, night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and supply what is lacking in your faith?" You have not, he says, become causes of life to us only, but also of great gladness, and of so much, as not to be able to thank God worthily. The success of you, he says, we consider to be a gift of God: such things us D
A to establish your hearts blameless in holiness before God even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. He shows that love brings gain to them, not to those who are beloved. I want, he says, for this love to abound, so that there may be no blame. He did not say, to establish you, but, your hearts; for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts (Matt. 15. 19). For it is possible for one who does no outward act to be evil; as if he harbours envy, unbelief, or deceit, or rejoices in evils, or is not inclined to love, or holds perverse doctrines—these all belong to the heart. And this is holiness, to be pure from these things. For properly indeed, holiness is called temperance in an eminent degree, since uncleanness is fornication and adultery; but in general, all sin is uncleanness, and every virtue is purity and cleanness. For blessed, he says, are the pure in heart (Matt. 5. 8). He calls those pure who are pure on every side, and in soul. For since vice pollutes the soul, hear the prophet saying: Wash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem (Jer. 4. 14); and again, Wash yourselves, be clean, put away the wickednesses from your souls (Isa. 1. 16). He did not say, fornications, wherefore not only fornication, but other things also pollute the soul. To establish, he says, your hearts blameless in holiness before God even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. The Judge then will be Christ; but we stand not before Him only, but also before the Father, while we are judged. Or he says this, that it is necessary to be free from any reproach before God—which indeed I always say, before God (for this virtue is pure and sincere), not before men. B Love therefore makes one free from any reproach, and renders one truly blameless. When I was once telling someone and saying that love renders one free from any reproach, and does not allow whatever friendship exists with a neighbour to let any sin creep in, and was recounting all other things and pursuing them with words, a certain one of my familiars replying, said: What then of fornication? Is it not permitted both to love and to fornicate? And this indeed happens from friendship. Certainly avarice indeed, and adultery and envy and plots, are of this kind, and can avert one from the love of neighbours; but fornication, he says, how? I however said, that this also love can repress and hinder. For if one loves a woman who is a prostitute, he will attempt to draw her away from other men, nor will he himself admit her to sin. Wherefore he who fornicates greatly hates the prostitute; but he who loves her exceedingly will draw her away from that abominable action. There is not, there is not any sin which the power of love and affection does not consume like fire. For a vile shoot resists a great pyre of fire more easily than the nature of sin can the power of love. Let us therefore plant this in our own souls, so that we may stand with all the saints; for all those were well-pleasing and acceptable because of the love of their neighbour. Whence came it that Abel was killed, and did not kill? From the fact that he loved his brother exceedingly; nor did he endure that such a thought as that should even come into his mind. Whence did Cain receive the ruin of envy? For I would not call him the brother of Abel from that point on. Because the foundations of love had not been laid firmly enough in him. Whence were the sons of Noah esteemed good and upright? Was it not because they loved their father, and did not endure to see his nakedness? Whence also did the other suffer a dire curse? Was it not because he did not love? Abraham, meanwhile, from whence did he obtain praise and esteem? Was it not from love, as one who cared for the things of his brother's son? He announced their faith and love, and is so full of gladness, that you cannot even, as is right, give thanks to God—how do you say here that there are lacks in their faith? Are those words of adulation? By no means, far be it. For previously he testified that they had endured many labours, and were not less affected than the Church in Judea. What then is it? They had not received the whole doctrine, nor had they learned whatever it was necessary to learn: and this is what he signifies in the end. Perhaps they were being questioned by them concerning the resurrection; and there were many who were troubling them—no longer with temptations or perils, but pretending to be teachers and masters. Therefore he says this, The lacks of faith. And he did not say, That we may establish, but, That we may complete. For where he had feared for the faith itself, he says, I sent Timothy to establish you; here, however, to complete the lacks, or those things which are wanting: which belongs more to doctrine than to confirmation; just as he says elsewhere, That you may be perfect unto every good work (1 Cor. 1. 10). Perfection, however, is that to which little is lacking: for this is being made perfect. C 11. Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you. 12. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all, even as we also do toward you. This is a sign of supreme love, not only to desire it for oneself, but also to insert it into the prayer of the epistle: this belongs to a fervent soul, and one which simply cannot be restrained; this is also an indication of the prayers which had been made there, and at the same time an excuse and defense that they were not absent willingly, nor out of sloth. As if he were to say, May God himself cut off the temptations which pull us in every direction, so that I may come to you rightly. And the Lord make you to increase and abound. You see the fervour of love which cannot be restrained, which is also shown in words? He says, Increase and abound: for that which is, augment. As if you should say, he desires in some way from superabundance to be loved by them. As we also, he says, toward you. That is, already indeed it is ours, but we wish for it to be yours. You see how much he wishes love to be extended? Not among us only, but also everywhere. For this is plainly the love according to God, to embrace all: but if you love this one, but that one by no means, it is friendship according to man. But ours is not of this kind. As we also toward you: 13. to establish your hearts blameless in holiness before God and our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.
A from the love of one's neighbor. Whence was Abel removed, yet did not remove [his brother]? Entirely from his exceedingly loving his brother; he could not even admit such a thought. Whence did Cain receive the destruction of envy? For I would no longer call him a brother of Abel, because the foundations of love were not securely fixed in him. Whence did the sons of Noah win approval? Was it not because they loved their father exceedingly, and could not bear to see his nakedness? And the other, whence was he cursed? Was it not from his lack of love? And Abraham, whence did he win approval? Was it not from love, having acted on behalf of his nephew, and acted on behalf of the supplication for the Sodomites? For the saints were exceedingly, exceedingly full of natural affection and sympathetic. For consider for me how one like Paul—who is also emboldened against fire, the adamantine, the unbending, the unwavering, the always composed, the fastened by the fear of God, the unyielding—is moved by love. For who, he says, shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (Rom. 8. 35). He, then, who is emboldened against all these things, against both earth and sea, who mocks the adamantine gates of Hades, to whom nothing stood in the way at all; when this man saw the tears of some beloved people, the adamant was so shattered and crushed that he could not even hide the passion, but said immediately: What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? (Act. 21. 13). What are you saying, I ask? Did a tear have the strength to crush that adamantine soul? Yes, he says; for I withstand all things, except love; this overcomes me and gains the mastery. This pleases God. The abyss of waters did not crush him, and a few tears crushed him. What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For great is its strength. Do you wish to see him weeping again? Hear him saying elsewhere: For three years, night and day, he says, I ceased not to admonish every one of you with tears (Act. 20. 31). From great love he feared lest some corruption might enter. And again: For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears (2 Cor. 2. 4). And what of Joseph, tell me, the unbending, who stood against such great tyranny, who appeared so noble against such a pyre of lust, who so contested and wrestled down the madness of his mistress? For what did not charm him then? A comely appearance, the display of rank, the luxury of garments, the fragrance of perfumes (for these things too know how to soften a soul), words softer than all? B 5. For you know that a woman in love, and so vehemently, will refuse to say nothing base, having taken on the figure of a suppliant. For so was the woman dressed in gold, and being in royal rank, shattered, that she perhaps threw herself at the feet of the captive boy, and perhaps also besought him, weeping and touching his knees, and having managed this not once, not twice, but often. It was possible to see an eye then most gleaming; for it is not likely that she was adorned simply, but with much curiosity, as one wishing to catch the lamb of Christ in many nets. Add to me here also many enchantments. But nevertheless, this unbending, solid, petrified man, when he saw the brothers who sold him, who threw him into a pit, who sold him, who even wished to kill him, who were the causes of both the prison and the honor; when he heard from them what they had done to their father: For let us say, he says, that the one has been eaten by beasts (Gen. 37. 20); he was shattered, he was softened, he was crushed, and he wept; and not enduring the passion, having entered, he C restrained himself, that is, he wiped away [his tears]. What is this? Do you weep, O Joseph? And indeed the present circumstances are not worthy of tears, but of anger and wrath and indignation, of great punishment and retribution; you hold in your hands the enemies, the brotherslayers, you are able to satisfy your wrath. Yet not even this is injustice; for you do not initiate unjust hands, but defend those who have been wronged. For do not look to the rank; it came not from their intent, but from God who poured forth grace upon you. Why do you weep? But he would have said: Let it not be for me, having won approval in all things, to dissolve all those things through this rancor; it is truly a time for tears; I am not more wild than the beasts; they are propitiated toward their own kind, whatever terrible thing they suffer. I weep, he says, because they made me suffer such things at all. Let us also imitate this, and let us mourn those who have wronged us; let us not be angry toward them; for they are truly worthy of tears, for the punishment and condemnation to which they make themselves liable. I know how you weep now, how you rejoice, and admire Paul, and are struck with wonder at Joseph, and call them blessed. But if anyone has an enemy, let him take him into memory now, let him cast him into his mind; so that, while the heart is still alive in the memory of the saints, it may be able to loosen the frozen state of rancor, and to soften that which is rough and hardened. I know that after the departure from here, after I have ceased speaking, even if some of the warmth and heat remains, it is not as much as now in the hearing. If anyone, therefore, if anyone has been chilled, let him loosen the frost; for rancor is truly frost and cold. But let us call upon the sun of righteousness, let us entreat him to shed his rays, and there will no longer be thick frost, but drinkable water. If the fire of the sun of righteousness touches our soul, it will allow nothing frozen, nothing hard, nothing caustic, nothing unfruitful to remain; all things ripe, all things sweet, all things full of great pleasure, it will show. If we love one another, that ray also will come. Give me, I beseech you, to say these things with readiness; make me hear that we have accomplished something from these words; that one, having gone away with an enemy, immediately wrapped both arms about him, embraced him, was poured out [upon him], kissed him, wept. Even if he be a beast, even if a stone, even if anything at all, he will be tamed by the same kindness. For why is he your enemy? Did he insult you? Yet he did not wrong you at all. But will you overlook the brother who is acting as an enemy because of money? Let us not, I beseech you. Let us resolve all things. The time is ours; let us use it for what is needed. Let us cut the ropes of sins; before departing to the judgment seat, let us judge one another. The sun, he says, let it not set upon your wrath (Eph. 4. 26). Let no one delay; delays beget procrastinations. If you postpone today, you will blush the more; and if you add tomorrow, the shame is greater; and if the third day, yet more. Let us not, therefore, put ourselves to shame, but let us forgive, that He may forgive us. And if it is forgiven, we shall attain all the goods in the heavens in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit [be] glory, power, honor, now and always, and for the ages of ages. Amen. D
HOMILY V
A "De cætero ergo, fratres, rogamus vos et obsecramus in Domino Jesu, ut quemadmodum accepistis a nobis, quomodo oporteat vos ambulare et placere Deo, sic et ambuletis, ut abundetis magis." When he is about to proceed to urgent and present matters, and is then to enter upon those which are lasting, he prefaces this word, "De cætero." This means: We are always, indeed, and perpetually beseeching and entreating you in the Lord. Alas! He says he is not even worthy to be trusted for the beseeching—yet who was ever so worthy of trust?—but he takes Christ as his witness. "By God," he says, "we beseech and entreat you": this is what "in the Lord" here signifies. Which he also said to the Corinthians: "God," he says, "beseeches you through us" (2 Cor. 5:20). "As you have received from us." That "received" refers not only to words, but also to deeds. The phrase "how you ought to walk" indicates his entire way of life. And "to please God, that you may abound more"; this is to say, "that you may, through greater abundance, not stop at the commandments, but exceed them"—for that is what "that you may abound" signifies. For in what went before, he has a pleasant and acceptable admiration for the solidity of their faith; here, however, he composes their life. For this is progress, to exceed even the commandments and precepts; for the whole is no longer done from the necessity of teaching, but from the choice of free will. For just as it is not enough for the land merely to bear the sown seeds, so also the soul must not stop only at those things which have been scattered, but must even exceed them. Do you see how he deservedly said "to exceed"? For virtue is divided into these two parts, namely, to decline from evil, and to do good. For withdrawal from evil is not enough to gain virtue, but it is indeed a way and a beginning leading to it; but we also have need of great alacrity of mind. B Those things which are to be shunned he speaks of to them as commands, and deservedly so: for these things, if done, bring punishment; and if not done, they bring no praise. But those things which pertain to virtue, such as giving away wealth and whatever are of this sort, he says are not to be set down in the rank of precepts; but what? "He who can receive it, let him receive it" (Matt. 19:12). It is therefore likely that he instructed them with much fear and trembling, and through these letters recalled that piety to their memory. Wherefore he does not set them down, but recalls them to their memory. "For you know," he says, "what precepts I have given you through our Lord Jesus Christ. 3. This is indeed the will of God, your sanctification." And see how he speaks of no other thing so vehemently, obscurely, and enigmatically as of this matter: just as also writing somewhere he says: "Pursue peace with all, and sanctification, without which no one shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14). And why do you wonder if he writes about this everywhere to the disciples, when writing to Timothy he said: "Keep yourself chaste" (1 Tim. 5:22)? And writing to the Corinthians, he said: "In much patience, in fastings, and in chastity" (2 Cor. 6:5-6). And in many places you will find this, both in the Epistle to the Romans, and everywhere, and in all the epistles. For this evil truly brings destruction upon all: and like a swine full of mud, wherever it enters, it fills everything with a stench, and fills the senses with filth; so also is fornication; for it is an evil that can with difficulty be washed away. C But when those who have wives also do this, how great is the deformity? "3. This is indeed," he says, "the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from all fornication." For there are many kinds of intemperance, and manifold, varied pleasures of lasciviousness and lust, which it is not even tolerable to name. But when he had said, "from all fornication," he leaves the rest to those who know: "4. That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor: 5. Not in the passion of desire, as also the nations who know not God." "That," he says, "every one of you should know how to possess his vessel." It is, therefore, a matter of discipline, and indeed great, not to be lascivious. We therefore possess it when it remains pure and is in sanctification; when it is impure, sin possesses it—and deservedly. For it no longer does what we wish, but what it commands. "Not in the passion," he says, "of desire." Here he shows also the manner by which one ought to be temperate, so that the motion of desire may be cut off. For delights and riches, negligence, sloth, leisure, and all these things lead us to an absurd and depraved desire. "Just as," he says, "the nations who know not God." For they are such, expecting to pay the penalty in the future. 6. "And that no one may transgress or circumvent his brother in the matter." God granted a wife, and established laws for nature, namely, to have intercourse with one. Wherefore, if there is intercourse with another, it is transgression, and D robbery, and fraud; nay rather, it is even graver than robbery. For we are not so grieved if our money is taken away as we are if our matrimonial bed is violated. Do you call him brother, and through avarice do you inflict damage, even in those things in which you ought not? Here he speaks of adultery; but above he spoke of all fornication or uncleanness. For since he was about to say that a brother should not be transgressed against, nor damaged through avarice, he prefaces it thus: "Do not think," he says, "that I am saying these things only of a brother; but neither is it fitting to have the wives of others, nor those who are without husbands, nor common ones. You ought to abstain from all fornication: therefore he says: "Because the Lord is the avenger of all these things." He asked them first, and struck them with shame, saying, "As also the nations": then he showed by arguments what a base and absurd thing it is, that a brother should be damaged through avarice. Next, he adds that which is the head and sum of the matter: "Because the Lord is the avenger of all these things, as we have foretold to you and testified."
7. *For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto sanctification.* Since he had said, "The brother," and had added that God is the avenger, showing that even if he who did this goes unpunished by men, he will be punished by Him, he says: He does not avenge you, but himself; because you have insulted Him: He called you, and you have insulted Him who called. Therefore he added: 8. *He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God who has also given his holy Spirit unto us.* Wherefore, even if you corrupt a queen, he says, or your own maidservant who is married, the charge is the same. Why? Because He is not avenging the persons who are wronged, but Himself; for you have been equally defiled, you have equally insulted God. For this and that alike are adultery, since this and that alike are marriage. Even if you do not commit adultery, but fornicate—although a harlot has no husband—nevertheless God avenges, because He is avenges Himself. For you do not do this because you despise her, so much as because you despise God; and this is plain from what follows. For you do this while hiding from her, but you do not pretend that you are hiding from God, who sees. Tell me, if someone, having been deemed worthy of the purple by the Emperor, and of ten thousand other honors, and having been commanded to live worthily of that honor, were to go off and defile himself with some woman, whom has he insulted? Her, or the Emperor who gave it? She is insulted, indeed, but not in the same way. Wherefore, I beseech you, let us guard against this sin. For just as we punish our wives when they partake of others while living with us, so also are we punished, even if not by the laws of the Romans, yet by God. For this, too, is adultery. For adultery is not only to commit adultery with a woman joined to another, but also even when one is himself bound to a wife. Attend accurately to what I say; for if it is burdensome to many to hear it, yet it is necessary to speak it so that we may be corrected for the future. This is not the only case of adultery, when we corrupt a woman joined to a man, but even if she be divorced and separated, while we ourselves are bound to a wife, the thing is adultery. For what if the woman being committed with is not bound? But you are bound; you have transgressed the law, you have injured your own flesh. For why, tell me, do you punish your wife if she fornicates with a man who is divorced and has no wife? Because it is adultery. And yet he who fornicated with her has no wife, but she is bound to a husband. Therefore you, too, are bound to a wife. So likewise that is adultery too. *For he that putteth away his wife,* he says, *except for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery; and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.* If he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery, does not he who, while with his own wife, defiles himself with one who is divorced, do this much more? It is clear to everyone. But these things have been said enough to you husbands; for Christ also says concerning such: *Their worm shall not die, and the fire shall not be quenched* (Mark IX, 44). But it is necessary for the sake of the young men to speak to you, or rather not so much for their sake as for yours; for these things are fitting not only for them, but also for you, and I shall now say how. He who has not learned to fornicate will not know how to commit adultery; but he who is wallowing in harlots will quickly come to this; even if not with married women, he will be defiled with women who are free.
What, then, do I advise? That you cut out the roots; all you who have young sons, and who intend to lead them to the worldly life, quickly draw them under the yoke of marriage. For since the desires trouble them while they are still young, keep them during the time before marriage with admonitions, threats, fears, promises, and ten thousand other things; but at the time of marriage, let no one delay (behold, I speak the words of a matchmaker) to fit the young people together. But I am not ashamed to say these things; since neither was Paul ashamed to say, *Defraud ye not one another* (1 Cor. VII, 5), which seems more shameful than this; but he was not ashamed. For he did not look at the words, but at the deeds which were accomplished by the words. Therefore, when the son is grown, before his military service, before the rest of his life, take thought regarding marriage. And if he sees that you are quickly bringing him a bride, and that the time in between is short, he will be able to endure the flame; but if he thinks that you are sluggish and delaying and waiting, then he will acquire wealth, and then you will have his wedding, having despaired of the long time, he will quickly slip into fornication. But alas! The root of evils is here too, avarice. Since no one cares how the son might become temperate, how he might become decent, but all are mad after gold, for this reason no one makes this effort. Wherefore I beseech you, first of all to order their souls. For if he approaches a chaste bride, if he looks only at her body, both the longing will be intense, and the fear of God greater, and the marriage truly honorable, receiving pure and undefiled bodies, and the offspring will be full of much blessing, and they will yield to each other, both the bridegroom and the bride; for being each of them inexperienced in others' characters, they will be subject to each other. But a younger man beginning to play the lecher, and having garnered experience of harlot-like characters, will indeed praise his own wife until the first and second evening; but after this he will quickly slip away to that lewdness, to the loose and disorderly laughter, seeking those gestures full of much ill-breeding, those broken postures, and all the rest of the indecency which it is not tolerable for us to name. But the free woman does not endure to provide these things, nor to defile herself. For she was betrothed to her husband for the sharing of life and the procreation of children, not for indecency and laughter; that she might keep the house, that she might instruct him also to be reverent, not that she might provide him with the fuel of fornication. But do the gestures of a harlot seem pleasant to you? I know it, too; for the Scripture says this: *Honey drops from the lips of a harlot woman* (Prov. V, 3). For this cause I do all these things, so that you might not take experience of that honey; for it turns straightway into gall. And the Scripture says this itself: *Which for a time lubricates your throat, but afterwards you will find it sharper than gall, and keener than a two-edged sword.*
⟫ A What are you saying? Bear with me if I speak of something unclean, and if I conduct myself shamelessly and without reserve; for I do not suffer these things willingly, but I am forced to utter the words for the sake of those who are not ashamed of the things themselves. We see many such things in the Scriptures. For Ezekiel also, in rebuking Jerusalem, says many such things and is not ashamed; and rightly so: for he was not saying these things out of his own affectation of mind, but out of care and providence. For even if the words appear indecorous, the aim is not indecorous, but is actually very fitting for one who wishes to expel the B uncleanness of the soul; for unless the shameless soul hears these very words, it is not suffused with shame. For a doctor, too, desiring to expel putrefaction, first inserts his fingers into the wound, and unless he first soils the hands that are healing, he will not be able to heal. So I, too, unless I first soil the mouth that heals your passions, will not be able to heal you. Nay, but even this is not soiled, nor are those hands. Why? Because the uncleanness is not natural, nor is it from our own body—just as, in that case, it is not from the hands of the doctor, but from the alien body. But if, where the body is alien, he does not refuse to stain his own hands, where it is our own, tell me, I pray you, why should we refuse? For you are our body—weak, indeed, and unclean, but nonetheless our own.
C What then, I say, is the reason for which I have made such an exhortation? That if you would never bring yourself to wear a garment your slave wears, abhorring it because of its filth, but would prefer to be naked than to use it, will you then abuse and not abhor a body that is unclean and filthy—and one that is in use not only for your slave, but for countless others? Are you filled with shame at hearing this? But be filled with shame at your deeds, not at words. I omit everything else: the perverse and impure habits, the servile and ignoble way of conducting one’s life. Tell me, do you and your slave have the same? And would that it were only your slave, and not also the public executioner. And you would not bear to hold the hands of the executioner; yet that which has become one body with him, you embrace and kiss, and you do not shudder, D you do not fear, you do not feel shame, you do not blush, you are not distressed and troubled? I have already spoken to your parents to lead you quickly to marriage; but yet, neither are you yourselves free from punishment. For if there were not many other young men living modestly and chastely, both long ago and now, you would perhaps have some excuse and defense; but if there are, how will you be able to say that you could not restrain the flame of desire? Those who were able, because they are partakers of the same nature, accuse you. Listen to Paul saying: *Pursue peace and the sanctification, without which no one will see the Lord.* A You see others living chastely and honestly at all times; and do you not behave courageously even during the time of your youth? You see others who have wrestled a thousand times with pleasure, and you do not sustain it even for once? If you wish, I will tell you the cause. For the cause is not youth—otherwise all young men would be licentious and incontinent—but we throw ourselves onto the pyre.
When you go up to the theater and sit there, feeding your eyes upon the naked limbs of women, you are pleased for a time; but afterwards, you gather a great fever from it. When you see women appearing as if in a manifestation of their body, and spectacles, and songs that have nothing in them but illicit loves—namely, "so-and-so," he says, "loved this woman, and did not obtain her, and he strangled himself," and that they have devolved into mothers of illicit loves—when you hear these things with your ears, and through women, and through gestures, costumes, and B figures, and now, indeed, even through old men (for many act as women there, wearing masks set upon themselves): how will you be able then to be modest and temperate, when those spectacles and those auditions occupy and hold your mind, and afterwards, such dreams take over? For it is implanted by nature that the mind seizes many things of such a kind in vision as it wishes and desires during the day. When, therefore, you see obscene things there, and hear more obscene words, and receive the wounds, yet do not apply the remedies: how can it be that the putrefaction is not increased, and the disease is not intensified to a much greater degree than in our own bodies? For it is easier, if we wish, for the free will to undergo correction than bodies. C For there, indeed, there is need of medicines, and doctors, and time; but here, it suffices if you wish to be both good and bad. Wherefore you have received the disease all the more. When, therefore, we gather those things that destroy, but take no account of those that help, when will there be any health? For this reason Paul also said: *As the Gentiles who do not know God.* Let us be suffused with shame, let us be struck with terror, if Gentiles who do not know God are often modest and temperate; let us blush when we have proved ourselves worse than them.
It is easy to behave ourselves rightly in modesty and temperance, if we wish, if we remove ourselves from those things that harm; otherwise, it is not easy even to flee fornication if we do not wish. For what is easier than going to the market? But owing to our sloth and effeminacy, it becomes difficult, not only for women, but even for men. What is easier than to sleep? But we have made even this difficult. Many, at any rate, of the rich are turned about for the whole night, on the ground that they do not await the need for sleep, and then sleep. And in sum, nothing is difficult if we wish; nothing is easy if we do not wish: for all things are in our power. Therefore the Scripture also says: *If you are willing, and hear me,* it says. Therefore, it is situated in that which is willing and not willing; for this reason, we are both punished and praised. D May God grant that, when we have become among those who are praised, we attain the promised goods, through grace and kindness, etc.
...and
Homily VI
Chapter 4, v. 9. Concerning brotherly love, however, we have no need to write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. 10. And indeed you do this to all the brothers in all Macedonia. A
1. For what reason, when he had discoursed so vehemently with them about temperance and purity, and was about to discourse on the duty of working, and on not grieving for those who have departed—that which is the head of all good things, namely love—does he place this by way of omission, saying: "We have no need to write to you"? And this he does out of much prudence and spiritual instruction. For he indicates two things here: one, that the matter is so necessary that it does not even require instruction; for things that are highly important are clear to all. Second, he puts them to shame more than if he had exhorted them by saying this. For by appearing to think that they have achieved it, and therefore not exhorting them, even if they had not achieved it, he would have led them the more. And observe: he does not say "love for all," but "of the brothers." "We have no need to write to you." It was necessary, then, to be silent, and to say nothing, if there was no need. But now, by saying, "there is no need," he has done more than if he had said: "For you yourselves are taught by God." And see with how much praise he appoints God as their teacher in this. "You do not need," he says, "to learn from a man." Which is also what the prophet says: "And all will be taught by God." "For you yourselves," he says, "are taught by God to love one another." "For indeed you do this to all the brothers who are in all Macedonia": and to all the others, he says. These things are exceedingly conducive to their doing it. And I do not say this simply, that you are taught by God, but I know it from what you do. And he bore much witness to them regarding this. "We exhort you, however, brothers, to abound more," that is, to increase, "and to be ambitious to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk honestly toward those outside, and may have need of nothing." B Here he shows how many evils idleness is the cause of, and how many good things work is; and he makes it clear from what is among us, which he frequently does, and this prudently: for the majority are led by these things more than by spiritual things. For it is of love toward the neighbor, not to receive from them, but to provide for them. And behold the prudence: being about to exhort and admonish, he places the achievement in the middle, so that they might take a breath both from the former admonition and from the threat, when he said: "Therefore whoever despiseth, despiseth not man, but God"; and so that they might not break away from this. And this comes from working, so as neither to receive nor to be idle, but working to provide for others. "For it is blessed," he says, "to give rather than to receive." And "to work," he says, "with your own hands." Where, then, are those who seek the spiritual work? Do you see how he removed every excuse from them by saying, "With your own hands"? Does one work fasting with one's hands? But vigils? But sleeping on the ground? No one would say this; but he speaks of a spiritual work; for it is truly spiritual to provide for others from one's own labors, and there is nothing equal to this. "In order that you may walk," he says, "honestly." Do you see where he strikes them? He did not say, "that you may not act dishonestly by begging," but he hinted at the same thing, while putting it more mildly, so as both to strike and not to burden them too much. For if those among us are scandalized by these things, much more do those outside find ten thousand accusations and handholds, when they see a man who is healthy, and able to suffice for himself, begging and needing others. Therefore they call us "Christ-merchants": "Because of this name," he says, "the name of God is blasphemed." But he did not set forth any of these, but that which most had the strength to convict them, that of dishonesty. "We do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, that you may not grieve, just as even the others who have no hope" (Rom. 2. 24). C
2. These two things mostly destroyed them, poverty and sadness of soul, which affect all men. See then how he heals them. Poverty they had because their possessions had been carried off. If he commands those whose money was carried off for Christ's sake to be supported by working, much more the others. That it was carried off is clear from his saying: "You became imitators of the Churches which are in Judea." How? Because writing to them he said: "And you accepted the carrying off of your goods with joy" (Hebr. 10. 34). Here, then, he moves to the discourse about the resurrection. And what? Had he not discoursed to them about this? But here he hints at another mystery. What is this? That we the living who remain, he says, unto the advent of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep (v. 14). For the discourse of the resurrection is indeed sufficient to console one in pain, and what is currently being said is sufficient to make the resurrection worthy of belief. But first let us say that which he himself said: "I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, that you may not grieve, just as even the others who have no hope." See how gently he proceeds even here. He did not say, "You are so senseless, as to the Corinthians, so foolish, that knowing a resurrection, you grieve as those who do not believe"; but very gently, "I do not wish you," he said, reverencing their other virtue. And he did not say, "concerning the dead," immediately casting the consolation from the very introduction. "That you may not grieve," he says, "as even the others who have no hope." So to be cut to the quick over those who have departed is the mark of those who have no hope; and reasonably so. For a soul knowing nothing about a resurrection, but thinking this death to be death, reasonably tears itself and laments and mourns insufferably as if for those who have perished; but you, who expect a resurrection, for what reason do you lament? Therefore it is the mark of those who do not have hope to lament. Hear, you women who are fond of lamentation, you who are borne insufferably toward mourning, that you are doing the things of the Gentiles. But if to be in pain over those who have departed is the mark of the Gentiles, to be cut to the quick and...
lacerate one's cheeks, whose mark is this, pray tell me? Why do you lament, if you believe that he is to be resurrected? If you believe that he has not perished, that the matter is sleep and rest? She says this is for the sake of custom, and protection, and the care of affairs, and every other such service. When, therefore, you have lost a child at an immature age, who is not yet able to do anything, why do you lament? What do you seek? "He had displayed," she says, "good hope, and I was expecting that he would take care of me. Therefore I seek a husband, therefore a son, therefore I beat my breast and lament," not because I do not believe in the resurrection, but because I am destitute of help, and have lost my curator and defender, who lived with me, who was a partner in all things, who comforted me—these things I mourn. I know that he will rise again, but I cannot bear the intervening separation; a great crowd of matters presses upon me, I am exposed to the injury of all who desire to do wrong; those servants who previously feared now despise and insult; if he did a kindness to anyone, that person has forgotten his benefits; if anyone was ill-treated by him, he remembers the injury and turns his anger upon me. These things do not allow me to bear the widowhood, nor to mourn peacefully; therefore I beat my breast, therefore I lament. How then shall we comfort them? What shall we say? How shall we repel their grief? First, I shall try to convince them that these words are not those of lamentation, but of an irrational perturbation of mind. For if you mourn these things, it would be necessary to mourn the departed one eternally; but if, when a year has passed, you forget just as if nothing had happened, you are not lamenting the departed, nor his protection and defense. But you cannot bear the separation and the interruption of the habit? What would those women say who have fled to second marriages? For they do not seek out and desire the former. But let us not direct our speech to them, but to those who maintain their benevolence toward those who have departed: why do you mourn for an infant? Why for a husband? Because to enjoy the one was not granted; but I expected to enjoy the other more. But what a great amount of infidelity is this, to think that either a husband or an infant puts you in safety, but not God? How do you not think that you are provoking Him? For He often takes them away so that you may not be so attached to them as to lead your hope away from them. For God is a jealous God, and He wishes to be loved by us above all things; and this is because He loves us greatly. For you know that this is the custom of those who are seized by insane love; for they are very jealous, and would rather forfeit their soul than be surpassed in estimation by any of their rivals. On account of these things God took him; on account of A these things, I say.
Homily VI
For for what reason, tell me, did the ancients not have widowhoods, nor immature orphans? Why did He allow Abraham and Isaac to live a long time? Surely because, even while he was alive, Abraham preferred God. He said indeed, "Sacrifice," and he sacrificed. Why did He lead Sarah to such an old age? Because even while she was alive, she listened to God more than to himself. Therefore God said to him: "Listen to Sarah your wife" (Gen. 21:12). Neither for the love of a husband, nor for that of a wife, nor for the care of an infant, did anyone provoke God to anger. But now, because we tend downward and slide, and wives love husbands more than God, and husbands prefer wives to God; therefore He draws us, even against our will, to a longing for Him. Do not love a husband more than God, and you will never feel widowhood; nay, indeed, even if it happens, you will not grasp any sense of it. Why? Because you have an immortal defender who loves you more. If you love God more, do not mourn: for He who is loved more is immortal; nor does He allow the sense of the one who is loved less to be received. I will make this clear to you by an example. Tell me: if you have a husband doing everything according to the intent of your mind, who is in good estimation, who renders you clear everywhere, and not to be despised, who is famous among all, prudent, wise, who loves you and because of him you are considered blessed, and with him you were to bear a son; then, before he arrives at a mature age, he departs, will you feel grief? By no means; for the one who is loved more obscures and hides that one. And now, if you love God more than a husband, perhaps He will not take him so quickly; but if He does take him, you will not feel so much grief. Therefore the blessed Job suffered nothing so grave when he heard of the sudden and simultaneously inflicted death of his children: because he loved God more than them. While He who was loved was living, those things were not going to affect him with any pain. What do you say, O woman? A husband and son were defending you, and were taking care of you; but God does not spare you? Who gave that very one to you? Was it not He? But you, who made you? Was it not He? Who brought you from nothing to the state of being, and breathed in your soul, and implanted your mind, and deemed you worthy to be granted the knowledge of Himself, and for your sake did not spare His only-begotten Son: does He not spare you, but a fellow-servant spares you? How do these words not stir up anger? What such thing have you had from a husband? You could say nothing. For even if he affected you with any benefit, but he did it, when you had begun first: but concerning God, no one could say such a thing. For God did not do us good, having been benefited first; but since He is in need of nothing, out of goodness alone He benefits the race of men. He has promised a kingdom to you, He gave immortal life, glory, fraternity, the adoption of sons, He made you a co-heir of the Only-Begotten: and you, after so many and such great goods, still remember a husband? What did he give of such a sort? He made his sun to rise, He gave rain, He feeds with annual nourishment. Woe to us for such an ungrateful spirit! Therefore He takes your husband, that you may not seek him: you, however, still follow after the one who has departed, but you dismiss God, when it was necessary to give thanks, when it was necessary to throw your whole self upon Him? For what is it that you received from a husband? Pains of childbirth, labors and insults, and often curses, reprimands, indignations. Are not all these from husbands? But there are still, she says, other good things. What are these? He adorned me with splendid and precious garments, he placed gold on my face, he made me to be B by all. But if you will, the King [of heaven] will clothe you with garments, He will arrange D a garment of cloth-of-gold upon you
And did He not make you such that you would not be held in contempt by men? And let this be as a great thing; but widowhood certainly does not allow you to be held in contempt by demons. You once held power over your servants, if you held it at all; but now, instead of servants, you hold power over the incorporeal powers, the principalities, the authorities, the ruler of this world. And you do not speak of the painful things in which you shared with him, whether at some time there was a fear of magistrates, or whether at some time there was a desire for greater esteem than your neighbors. You are delivered from all these things now, from fear and terror. But you worry, you say, who will feed the children left behind? The Father of the orphans. For who gave them to you, tell me? Do you not hear Christ saying in the Gospels: "Is not the soul more than meat, and the body than raiment?" D
4. Do you see that the lamentation arises not from habit, but from unbelief? "But the children are not equally brilliant and distinguished when the father has passed away." Why? Does he not have God as his Father, and is he not brilliant? How many shall I point out to you who have been raised by widows and have become approved, and how many who were under fathers and have perished? For if you raise them from their first infancy as one ought to raise them, they will enjoy the benefit of the paternal protection all the more. For that this is the vocation of widows—I mean, to raise children—hear Paul saying: "If she has brought up children"; and again, "But she shall be saved through the bearing of children" (he did not say, "through the husband"), "if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety" (1 Tim. 2: 15). Implant in them the fear of God from their earliest infancy, and He will preserve them more than any father; this will be a wall that cannot be broken. For when the guard is sitting within, we have no need of any external devices; but when that one is not there, all things on the outside are in vain. This will be for them both wealth and glory and seemliness; this will make them brilliant, not upon the earth, but also in the heavens. B
For do not look for me at those who are girded with golden belts, nor those carried on horses, nor those who shine in the palaces because of their fathers, nor those who have followers and pedagogues. For these things perhaps cause the widows to lament over the orphans, thinking that "This child of mine, if his father were still alive, would have enjoyed such great blessedness; but now he is in dejection and dishonor, and is worth no consideration." Do not, O woman, think these things, but throw open the gates of heaven to your reasoning, examine the kingdom there, see the King who sits there, consider whether these men upon the earth can be more brilliant there than your child, and then groan; but if there are some who are approved upon the earth, this is worth no consideration. It is possible, if you will, for him to enlist in the heavenly [army], to be enrolled in that list of soldiers. C For those who are enrolled there are not carried on horses, but in clouds; they do not walk upon the earth, but are caught up into heaven; they do not have children as those who lead them, but the angels themselves; they do not stand before a mortal king, but before the Immortal, before the King of kings, and Lord of lords; they do not have a leather girdle about their loins, but that unspeakable glory, through which they become more brilliant than kings and than those who have ever been approved. For in those royal halls, not wealth, not nobility, not any other thing, but virtue alone is sought; and this being present, nothing is lacking to attain to the first places. Nothing is difficult for us, if we wish to philosophize. D Look up to heaven, and behold by how much this [child] is more brilliant than the roof of the palaces. But if the floor of the palaces above is so much more dignified than those below, so that this [earthly one] is considered dirt compared to that; if anyone should be deemed worthy to see the palaces accurately, of what blessedness will he not be worthy? "But she who is truly a widow," he says, "and desolate, has set her hope on God." To whom is this said? To those who have children, that they might be more approved, and have a greater pretext to please God; because all binds are released for them; there is no one who holds them, no one who forces them to drag those [marital] chains. You have been separated from your husband, but you have been united to God; you do not have a fellow-servant as a companion, but you have the Master. When you pray, do you not converse with God, tell me? When you read, hear Him conversing with you. And what does He converse with you? Words much more desirable than a husband's. For the husband, even if he flatters, the honor is not great; for he is a fellow-servant; but when the Master flatters the handmaiden, then there is great care and attention. How then does He care for us? Hear through how many things He does this. "Come," He says, "unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11: 28). And again He cries out through the prophet, saying: "Shall a woman forget to have compassion on the fruits of her womb? But even if a woman should forget, yet I will not forget, says the Lord" (Isai. 49: 15). How much affection is in these words! And again, "Turn to me"; and again elsewhere, "Return to me, and you shall be saved" (Isai. 45: 22 et 44: 22). And if any should wish to extract [verses] even from the Canticles, he shall hear, taking them in a more mystical sense: "My fair one, my dove," the Lord conversing with every soul as is fitting for it. What is sweeter than these words? Do you see the conversation of God with men? But what, tell me? Do you not see how many children of those blessed women have departed, and are in tombs? How many have suffered harder things, and along with their husbands have lost their sons? Let us attend to these, let us contemplate these; and nothing will be painful to us, but we shall pass the whole time living with spiritual joy, and shall enjoy the eternal goods; which may it be granted that we all attain, by the grace and loving-kindness, and so forth.
HOMILY VII
"Nolo autem vos ignorare, fratres, de dormientibus, ut non contristemini, sicut et cæteri qui spem non habent."
A Many of the things we do not know cause us grief; but if we learn them rightly, we shall ward off our pain. This, therefore, Paul also signifying, said: "I would not have you ignorant, that you may not grieve, even as others who have no hope." What is it that you do not wish them to be ignorant of? The doctrine, he says, concerning the resurrection. Why do you not speak of the punishment that is reserved and prepared for those who are ignorant of the word of the resurrection? Because this is manifest from that, and is acknowledged; while in the meantime there is not a little profit to be gained from it. For since they did indeed have faith in the resurrection, but still were lamenting, for this reason he speaks thus. He speaks in one way with those who do not believe, and in another way with these; for it is plain that those who were asking about the times and seasons knew this.
“If indeed we believe,” he says, “that Jesus died and rose again and lived, so also will God bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.” Where are those who disparage the flesh and reject it? For if He did not take on flesh, He did not die; if He did not die, He did not rise again. How then does He exhort us to faith from these things? Is He not, according to their view, rather a trifler and a deceiver? For if death is of sin, and Christ did not sin, how does He now exhort us? Why also does He say, "As the rest who have no hope"? As if saying: Whom are you mourning, O men? B For whom are you affected with grief? For sinners, or for those who simply die? Those others, then, whom do they mourn? Certainly, for them all things are empty. "The firstborn," he says, "from the dead" (Col. 1:18). See, moreover, how he here constructs nothing by arguments, since they were gentle and yielding; but writing to the Corinthians, he agitated many things with arguments, and then subjoined: "Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened," when he argues with the faithful; but among outsiders, what force had this? So also, "God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus." Again, "Those who have fallen asleep": he nowhere says, "those who have died." But in the case of Christ, indeed, he placed, "He died," since he said He rose again; here, however, "Those who have fallen asleep through Jesus." He means either this, that they died in the faith of Jesus; or that through Jesus He will bring those who have fallen asleep, that is, the faithful. Here the heretics say that those who are baptized are signified. But that, "So," how does it stand? For Jesus did not fall asleep through baptism. Why then does he say, "Those who have fallen asleep"? Therefore he is speaking not of a general, but of a specific or particular resurrection. "He will bring those," he says, "who have fallen asleep through Jesus": and in many places he speaks thus.
14. "For this we say to you in the word of the Lord, that we who live, who remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep." Speaking of the faithful, he says, "Those who have fallen asleep"; and again, "The dead shall rise." Then he treats not only of the resurrection, but also of the resurrection and the honor in glory. And the resurrection, indeed, all shall enjoy, he says; but not all shall be in glory, but, "Those who are in Christ." Since, therefore, he wishes to console them, he consoles them not from this alone, but also from the great honor and the swiftness, since they knew that. For that he wishes to console them with honor, he says, proceeding: "And we shall always be with the Lord," and, "We shall be caught up in the clouds" (v. 16). How, however, do the faithful fall asleep through Jesus? This is, having Christ in themselves. But that, "He shall bring with Him," shows that they are brought from many places. "For this," he says, "we say to you in the word of the Lord." He was about to say something new and unheard of; therefore he makes it worthy of belief. "In the word," he says, "of the Lord." This is: We do not speak from ourselves, but taught by Christ. "That we who live, who remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep." Which indeed he says in the Epistle to the Corinthians: "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" (1 Cor. 15:52). Here he makes the resurrection worthy of belief from the mode as well. C As it is easy that those who live should be taken up, so also that those who have departed should be. But that, "We," he does not say of himself: for he was not going to remain until the resurrection; but he is speaking of the faithful. Therefore he adds, "Who remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep." As if saying: Do not think that there is any difficulty in the matter, when you hear that those who live then shall not precede those who are dissolved, who are putrefied, who have been dead for more than ten thousand years: it is God who does it. But as it is easy to bring those who are whole and complete, so also those who are dissolved. But there are some who do not believe the thing, because they do not know God. For tell me, I pray, what is easier, to bring from nothing to the state of being, or to raise and restore things dissolved?
— Argument of some who did not believe the resurrection. The metempsychosis of the Greeks. But what do they say? That man suffered shipwreck, and when he fell, many fish caught him; and each fish ate a member. Then from these very things, one was caught in this bay, and another in that, and devoured by another. And these, in turn, died in other places, and they themselves perhaps were eaten by beasts, who had eaten the fish that had devoured the man. With such great confusion and dispersion having occurred, how will that man rise again? Who shall bring back the dust? Why do you say this, O man, and weave a chain of trifles, and set it forth as a matter completely inexplicable? For, tell me, if he had not fallen into the sea, if a fish had not eaten him, nor again had a fish been devoured by numbers of men, but the man had been placed by just deeds in an urn, and neither worms nor anything else had been troublesome to him, how will that which was dissolved rise again? How will dust and ashes be glued together?
Others, again, say that it is consumed by fire, and that there is a resurrection of garments and shoes, and they are not mocked; others introduce atoms. But with those we have no argument; yet to the faithful—if indeed those who ask ought to be called faithful—we will say that apostolic word: that all life is born from corruption, all plants, all seeds. Do you not see the fig tree, how large a trunk it has, how large its stems? And how many leaves, branches, tendrils, and roots covering and entwining such a space? This tree, so large and of such a kind, comes from that grain which was cast down, and which itself first perished; and if it were not to rot and be dissolved, none of these things would exist. Tell me, whence does this come to pass? And the vine, too, so beautiful to look upon and to enjoy, comes from that unsightly seed. What then, tell me, is it not that one water that is carried down from above? And how is it transformed into so many things? For this is more wonderful than the resurrection. In that case, the same seed and the same plant underlie it, and the kinship is great; but here, tell me, how, having one quality and one nature, is it turned into so many things? In the vine there is wine, not only wine, but also leaves and sap; for not only the cluster, but also the rest of the vine is nourished by it; again, in the olive tree there is oil, and other things which cannot even be told. And the wonderful thing is that it is moist here, dry there, sweet here, sharp there, astringent there, bitter elsewhere. How, tell me, is it turned into so many things? Tell me the reason; but you would not be able to. And in your own self, tell me (for it is nearer), how is this seed which is cast down ordered and formed into eyes, into ears, into hands, into a heart, into so many things? Are there not myriad differences in the body—of forms, magnitudes, qualities, positions, powers, rhythms? How are the nerves, the veins, the flesh, the bones, the membranes, the arteries, the joints, the cartilages, and all the other things—more than these—which the children of physicians treat with precision, which hold our nature together, fashioned from one seed? Does it not seem to you to be far more puzzling than those things, how the moist and soft is fixed into the hard and cold, the bone; how it is united into the hot and moist, the blood; how into the cold and soft, the nerve; how into the cold and moist, the artery? Whence are these things, tell me? Do you not ponder these things? Do you not see death and resurrection happening every day in the ages of human life? Whither has youth departed? Whence has old age come? How does he who has grown old not have the power to make himself young, yet begets another child who is very young, and what he cannot provide for himself, he provides for another? B
3. It is possible to see this in trees and in animals. Although he who provides for another ought to have provided for himself first. But human reasoning demands these things; yet when God is the Creator, let all things yield. If these things are so puzzling, and puzzling to excess, there have now entered my mind thoughts of those who are mad, and who curiously inquire into the immaterial generation of the Son. The things that happen every day, and are subject to our hands, and have been searched out a myriad of times, no one has yet been able to find out; how then do they curiously inquire into that ineffable and unspeakable generation, tell me? Has not our understanding grown weary of treading on air in such matters? Has it not been turned into myriad dizzy spells? Has it not become void? And yet, not even so are they chaste. Being able to say nothing about grapes and vines, they curiously inquire about God. For tell me, how is that grape-seed resolved into leaves and stems? How was it not in it before, and not seen? But it is not the seed, he says, but the all of the earth. And how without this does it bring forth nothing of itself? But let us not be foolish; what is born is neither of the earth, nor of the grain, but of the Lord of both the earth and the seeds. For this reason He made these things to happen both without these and with these, partly showing His power when He said, "Let the earth bring forth the grass of hay" (Gen. 1:11); partly, while showing His power, also teaching us to be diligent and industrious. Why, then, have these things been said to us? Not simply, but that we might also believe in the resurrection; and if ever we are not able to grasp things again by reasonings, let us not be distressed nor indignant, but returning with a good mind, and checking our reasoning, let us flee to the power of God and His ingenious skill. Knowing these things, then, let us put a bridle on our reasonings; let us not go beyond the boundaries and the measures given to us for knowledge. For "if anyone," he says, "thinks that he knows anything, he has not yet known anything as he ought to know" (1 Cor. 8:2). I do not speak about God only, but about every matter. For what do you wish to learn about the earth? What do you know, tell me? How great is its measure? What is its size? What is its position? What is its substance? What is its place? Where does it stand, and on what? But you would not be able to say any of these things. But that it is cold and dry and black, these you could say, but nothing further. But about the sea? But you would fall into helplessness in the same way, not knowing where it begins, where it ends, upon what it is carried, what supports its foundation, what its place is, and whether there is land after it, or whether it ends in water and air. But what do you know of the things within it? But shall I speak of the air? Or of the elements? But you will say nothing. I leave these things aside. Do you wish us to choose the smallest of the plants? The grass that bears no fruit, which we all know, tell me how it is born? Is it not water that underlies it, and earth and dung? What is it that makes it appear so beautiful, and have a wonderful color? Whence does that beauty so wither away? It is not the work of water, nor is it the work of earth. Do you see that everywhere there is a need for faith? How does the earth give birth? How does it travail, tell me? But you would not be able to say any of these things. Be instructed, O man, in the things below and in the things here, and do not be meddlesome, and do not curiously inquire into heaven—and would that it were only heaven—and do not curiously inquire into the Master of heaven. You do not know the earth, tell me, from which you were born, in which you were reared, which you inhabit, which you tread upon, without which you cannot even breathe, and yet you curiously inquire into things so far removed? Man is truly vanity. And if someone bids you to descend into the abyss, and to track down the things on the floor of the sea, you will not endure the command; yet with no one compelling, do you yourself wish to grasp the unsearchable abyss? Do not, I beseech you; but sail upward. C
learn. Let yourself be instructed, O man, in those things which are below and in those things which are here; do not curiously investigate the heavens—and would that you investigated only the heavens, and not the Lord of the heavens. You do not know the earth, tell me, from which you were born, in which you are nourished, in which you dwell, which you tread upon, without which you cannot even breathe; and are you curious about things so remote? Truly, man is vanity. And if someone should command you to descend into the abyss and investigate the things in the depths of the sea, you would not endure the command: yet, with no one compelling you, do you yourself wish to comprehend the abyss which cannot be investigated? Do not do this, I pray you. But let us sail upon the surface, let us not swim with reasonings; for we shall quickly be D exhausted and overwhelmed by the waves. But using the divine Scriptures as if they were a ship, let us spread the sails of faith. If we sail by these, the word of God will be our helmsman; if, however, we swim in human reasonings, it will not. For who of those who swim thus has a helmsman present? Wherefore there is a double danger: that [there is] no ship, and that the helmsman is absent. For if even a boat is in danger without a helmsman, when both are missing, what hope of safety is there? Let us not cast ourselves into manifest danger, but let us move forward safely, suspending ourselves from the holy anchor. For thus shall we sail into a tranquil harbor with much merchandise and great security, and we shall attain the good things stored up for those who love Him, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, etc.
HOMILY VIII
A Hoc enim vobis dicimus in verbo Domini, quod nos qui vivimus, qui residui sumus in adventum Domini, non præveniemus eos qui dormierunt. Quoniam ipse Dominus in jussu, et in voce archangeli, et in tuba Dei descendet de cœlo: et qui mortui in Christo sunt, resurgent primi. Deinde nos qui vivimus, qui relinquimur, simul rapiemur cum illis in nubibus obviam Domino in aera, et sic semper cum Domino erimus [1 Thess. iv. 15-17].
a'. The prophets, when they wished to show the trustworthiness of what was said, before all else said this: "The vision which Isaiah saw" [Isa. i. 1]; and again, "The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah" [Jer. i. 2]; and again, "Thus saith the Lord," and similar things. Many also saw God Himself sitting, as far as it was possible for them to see. But Paul, since he did not see Him sitting, but had Christ speaking within himself, would say instead of, "Thus saith the Lord," "Do you seek a proof of Christ, who speaks in me?" [2 Cor. xiii. 3]; and again, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ," showing that nothing was his own; for an apostle speaks the things of Him who sent him. And again, "I think that I also have the Spirit of God" [1 Cor. vii. 40]. And those things indeed he spoke all by the Spirit; but this which he now says, he heard in express words from God; just as also that which he said when discoursing with the elders of the Ephesians, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" [Acts xx. 35], he had heard in secret. Let us see, therefore, what he says now as well. "For we say this to you in the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself, with a command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the last trumpet, shall descend from heaven." Which Christ also said then, "The powers of the heavens shall be shaken" [Matt. xxiv. 29]. And why with a trumpet? For we see this at Mount Sinai, and there too there were angels. And what does the voice of the archangel mean? Just as He said concerning the virgins, "Arise, the bridegroom comes" [Matt. xxv. 6]. He says this, either because, as happens in the case of a king, so it will be then, with angels ministering at the resurrection. For He says, "Let the dead arise," and the work is done—not that the angels have the power for this, but by His word; just as if a king should command and say, "Let those who are imprisoned go out," and the servants bring them forth: they do not do this by their own power, but by that voice. Christ says this elsewhere also: "He shall send His angels with a great trumpet, and they shall gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the heavens" [Matt. xxiv. 31]. Therefore, I consider the archangel to be the one who presides and calls this out to those who have been sent: "See that everyone is ready, for the Judge is at hand." What is "in the last trumpet"? Here he shows that there are many trumpets, and that the Judge will descend at the last one. "And the dead who are in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord." "Therefore comfort one another with these words." If He is to descend, why shall we be caught up? For the sake of honor. For when a king enters a city, those who are in honor go out to meet him; but those who are guilty and condemned await the judge within. And when a benevolent father arrives, the children, and those who are worthy to be children, are brought out on a carriage so that they may see and kiss him; but the servants who have offended await him within. "We are carried in a vehicle"—for the Father Himself received Him in the clouds, and we shall be caught up in the clouds. Do you see how great the honor is? And we go out to meet Him as He descends, and, what is most blessed of all, we shall thus be with Him. "Who shall speak the mighty acts of the Lord, and make all His praises heard?" [Ps. cv. 2]. With how many good things has He deemed the human race worthy? They who have departed rise first, and thus the meeting takes place together. Abel, who departed before all, shall at that time go together to meet Him with everyone. Therefore, in this, they will be in no respect superior to the others; but he who died, who was in the earth for so many years, shall go to meet Him with them, and all the others. For if they had awaited us so that we might be crowned—as he says elsewhere in his writing, "God providing something better for us, that they should not be made perfect without us" [Heb. xi. 40]—much more shall we [await] them also. Or rather, they indeed might await, but we would not; for in a moment B
A of time they are gathered, that is, they rise again everywhere at once, but they are gathered together by the angels. And this being raised is by the power of God, commanding the earth to surrender the deposit, not by any being serving [the task]: just as then He cried to Lazarus, "Lazarus, come forth" [John xi. 43], without needing those who bring him. But if the angels gather and disperse them, how are they themselves caught up? They are caught up after they have descended, after they have been gathered: for no one knows how this shall be at once. For when you see the earth moved, dust mingled, bodies stirred from the ground in all directions, with no one serving this, but the command alone being sufficient to empty the earth, filled as it is—think how great it is for all those from Adam until His coming to stand there then with wives and children. When they see such a tumult upon the earth, then they shall know. Just as, therefore, in the dispensation according to the flesh they foresaw nothing, so also [will it be] then.
2. When, therefore, these things have come to pass, then there shall also be the voice of the archangel commanding the angels and shouting, and the trumpets, or rather the sound of the trumpets. What trembling then shall possess, what fear, those who remain on the earth? For one is caught up, and one is left behind; and one is taken, and one is left [Matt. xxiv. 40, 41; Luke xvii. 34, 35]. What shall be the soul of those who see some being taken, while they themselves are left behind? Would not these things be able to shake them more terribly than any Gehenna? Let us suppose, therefore, that this is already present in our discourse. For if sudden death, B and the quaking of cities, and threats thus affect our souls, when we see the earth being rent and filled with all those, when we hear the trumpets, when [we hear] the voice of the archangel, which is clearer than every trumpet, when we see the heaven being folded up, when we see the King of all, God Himself, arriving, what then shall be our soul? Let us shudder, I beseech you, and fear, as though these things were already happening; let us not comfort ourselves with delay; for when it must absolutely come to pass, delay profits nothing. How great is the trembling? How great the fear then? Have you ever seen those who are led away to death? What do you think is their state of mind, as they walk the path as far as the gate? Is it not worse than many deaths? What would they not choose to do and to suffer, so as to be released from that gloom of the cloud? I have heard many of those who, through royal clemency, were recalled after their leading away, saying that they did not even see the people as human beings, their soul being so disturbed and stunned and beside itself. If, therefore, bodily death thus C frightens us, when the eternal one arrives, what shall we suffer? And what do I say about those led away? A crowd surrounds them then, the majority not even knowing them. If anyone were to scrutinize the souls of those [led away], no one is so cruel, no one so bold, no one so brave, who does not have his soul cast down, broken by fear and despair. And if, when others are put to death, those who are not involved are so affected—this death that differs not at all from sleep—when we ourselves fall into the greater [events], what then shall be the state of affairs? It is not possible, it is not possible, believe me, to represent the suffering in words. "Yes," someone says, "but God is merciful, and none of these things shall come to pass." Then it is written in vain. "Not so," he says, "but it
is A a token of the magnitude of the fire, or a warning of things to come." And do not let these be mere sounds of words. To me, even the former things are not incredible, but in the same way as those that are seen, the unseen things are also credible. But to the unbeliever, these things at least are sufficient to provide proof. If anyone does not believe in hell, let him consider Sodom, let him think of Gomorrah—the punishment that happened and still remains. This is proof that the torment is eternal. These are serious, but those are not serious? When you say there is no hell, but that God merely threatened it? When you slacken the hands of the people? It is you who force me to speak these things, who do not believe. If you had believed in the words of Christ, I would not have had the necessity to produce proof from facts; but since you have avoided those, willy-nilly you will be persuaded by these. For what do you have to say about the Sodomites? Do you wish to know also the cause for which these things happened then? It was one sin, heavy indeed and detestable, but yet one—they were seized by an insane love for boys, those who were then; and because of this they paid that penalty. But now, countless and equal and even heavier sins than these are committed. If, therefore, for B one sin He poured out such great wrath, and neither regarded the prayer of Abraham, nor spared Lot, the sojourner, who, for the sake of the honor he had for his servants, permitted his own daughters to be subjected to outrage—if, when there are so many sins, will He spare? These things are plainly ridiculous, trifles, and a diabolical deception. Do you wish me to add another case? You hear of Pharaoh, the king of the Egyptians; therefore you know also what penalties he paid: how he was drowned with chariots and horses, and the whole army, in the Red Sea. Do you wish to learn also of other things? He perhaps was ungodly—nay, not perhaps, but in truth he was ungodly. Do you wish to see even those who believed in God and followed Him, yet whose conduct of life was not right, punished? Hear Paul saying: "Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and fell in one day twenty-three thousand; C neither let us murmur as some of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer; neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents" (1 Cor. 10:8-10). If fornication and murmuring had such power, what will not our sins do? But if He does not take vengeance now, do not marvel: for they did not know of hell, therefore they were straightway afflicted with punishment; but you, whatever you sin, even if you pay no penalty here, you will pay for all things there. If He so gravely punished those who were more childlike, and who had not committed so many sins, will He spare us? It is not reasonable. For even if we commit the same sins that they did, we deserve greater punishment. Why? Because we have attained greater grace. And when we commit greater and more numerous sins than they did, what punishment shall we not pay? They (and let no one think that I am admiring them or excusing them in saying this; God forbid—for when God punishes, whoever holds the contrary opinion does so with a diabolical mind; D I do not say this to praise them, nor to excuse them, but to point out our own vice)—they, I say, even if they murmured, yet they were traveling into the desert; but we, though we possess a fatherland and are in our own homes, murmur. They, even if they committed fornication, they did so having just departed from Egyptian customs, and not having heard this law; but we, having accepted saving decrees from our ancestors, deserve greater punishment. Do you wish to hear also what they suffered in Palestine: famines, pestilences, wars, captivity—both among the Babylonians and the Assyrians, the evils they suffered from the Macedonians, under Hadrian and Vespasian? I want to tell you, my beloved, but do not recoil; rather, I will say something else before this. There was once a famine, and the king was walking upon the wall; then a woman approaching spoke these words to him: "This woman said to me, 'Let us eat your son today, and we will eat mine tomorrow'; and we roasted him, and we ate him; but she has not yet given hers" (4 Kings 6:26-29). What is more grievous than this calamity? Again, elsewhere the prophet says: "The hands of the compassionate women have cooked their own children" (Lam. 4:10). The Jews indeed paid such penalties; and shall we not pay greater than these? Examine Josephus, and you will learn that whole tragedy; and from these things shall we not persuade you that there is a hell? For consider: if they were punished, why are we not punished? Or how is it consistent that we are not punished, who transgress more heavily than they? Is it not, clearly, because punishment is laid up for us? But if you wish, I will also speak in the case of any individual person how they were punished. Cain killed his brother. A grievous sin, indeed; who would deny it? But he paid a penalty, and a grave one, to be compared to a thousand deaths; for he would have preferred to die a thousand times: hear him saying, "If you cast me out from the earth, and I shall be hidden from your face, and it shall be that everyone who finds me shall kill me" (Gen. 4:14). Tell me, therefore, do not many now do the same things as he? For when you kill not a carnal, but a spiritual brother, have you not done the same thing? For if you kill him by the sword, or in another way, you are able to loosen the famine, the pestilence? What then? No one even punished him for his brother; no one even punished the danger; but here we have given the penalty. But they shall pay. If, then, he who had not heard the written laws, nor the prophets, nor seen great signs, pays such great punishment, what [alt-version omitted for footnote] shall the other pay who has seen these things, and yet does not correct himself by such examples? He shall be without excuse; and where is the goodness? Again, "He who gathered wood on the Sabbath was put to death," even though it was a small
[PG 62, 445] to kill your brother, did you not do the same thing? How is it then, when you can soothe his hunger, you neglect him? What then? Is there no one who envies a brother now? Does no one cast him into dangers? And yet he has not paid the penalty. But they will pay it. Moreover, he who has not even heard the written law, nor the prophets, nor beheld signs, has undergone such punishment, while he who did the same things, and yet is chastened by many examples, shall he drink with impunity? Where then is the justice of God? Where is his impartiality? A Again, some man gathered wood on the Sabbath (Num. 15:32) and was stoned: yet if the command is light, and lesser than circumcision, the wood-gatherer was stoned; but those who have committed innumerable sins against the laws, do they go off unpunished? If, therefore, there is no hell, where is justice? Where is the statement that God is no respecter of persons? And yet He also brings many such charges against them, that they do not keep the Sabbath. Again, another, Achar the son of Charmi, having stolen an anathema, was stoned with his whole family. What then? Has no one since that time been a sacrilegious person? Saul again, having spared [the enemy] against the will of God, endured such a punishment; has no one then since that time spared [them]? Would that this were indeed the case; and would that we did not rather devour one another more than wild beasts in opposition to the will of God, and yet no one has fallen in war. Again, the sons of Eli, because they ate before the incense, paid a most grievous penalty along with their father. Did no father, then, since that time become negligent concerning his children? Or were there no wicked children? But no one has paid the penalty. When, then, will they pay it, if there is no hell? Again, one could recount ten thousand other things. What of Ananias and Sapphira; were they not punished immediately because they stole from what they had dedicated? Has no one then since that time done these things? How then did they not pay the same penalty? Are we persuading you that there is a hell, or do you need more examples? B Therefore let us proceed also to the unwritten things, those which are now happening in this life; for it is necessary for us to gather this conviction from every source, so that in vainly indulging ourselves, we do not harm ourselves. Do you not see many in bodily calamities, maimed and mutilated, suffering ten thousand terrible things, while others flourish and are in good repute; why do some pay the penalties for murders, and others not? Hear Paul saying: *Some men’s sins are evident, going before unto judgment; and some they follow after* (1 Tim. 5:24). How many murderers have escaped? How many grave-robbers? But let these be passed over. How many do you not see being punished with a grievous punishment? Some have been surrendered to long disease, others to continuous tortures, others to ten thousand other terrible things. When, therefore, you see those who have dared the same things as them, or even much greater, and yet not paying the penalty, will you not, even against your will, acknowledge hell? C Recount these who have been punished grievously here before you; think that God is no respecter of persons, and that having done ten thousand evils, you have suffered nothing of the sort, and you will have the conception of hell. For so did God implant it in us, that no one should ever be ignorant of it. For poets and philosophers and writers of fables, and all men simply, have philosophized concerning the retribution there, and have said that the multitude are punished in Hades. And if those are fables, yet those which are among us are not. These things I have said, not simply wishing to frighten [you], nor to weigh down your souls, but to make them sober and lighter. I myself also wished that there were no punishment, and I most of all. Why so? Because each of you fears for your own soul; but I shall also render an account for this stewardship; so that, most of all, it is impossible for me to escape. But it is not possible that there should not be punishment and hell. What am I to suffer? Again they are at a loss and say: Where then is the kindness of God? It is everywhere. But I shall rather discuss this at another time, so that we may not confuse the arguments concerning hell. Meanwhile, let not that which we have gained from what has been said slip away; for it is no small gain to be persuaded concerning hell. D For the memory of such words, like some bitter medicine, will be able to wipe away all wickedness, constantly abiding in your mind. Let us therefore use it, so that having a pure heart from this, we may thus be deemed worthy to see what *eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man*; which may it be granted to us all to attain, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father together with the holy Spirit be glory, power, honor, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
HOMILY IX
*Chapter 5, v. 1. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. For you yourselves know accurately that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.* 1. Nothing, as it seems, is so curious and greedy for the learning of invisible and hidden things as the nature of men. And this is wont to happen to it when it has a mind not yet perfect and mature. For the simpler ones among children never cease to wear out their nurturers and pedagogues and parents with the frequency of their questions, in which there is nothing else but, "When is this?" and "When is that?" This happens both from being spoiled, and from having nothing to do. Our mind, therefore, is eager to learn and grasp many things already, but especially the time concerning the consummation. And what is to be wondered at, if we suffer this? For even those holy apostles themselves have suffered it most of all, and before the passion they came to Christ and say: *Tell us, when shall these things be, and what is the sign of thy coming and of the consummation of the age?* (Matt. 24:3). But after the passion and the resurrection from the dead, they were saying to Him: *Tell us, if at this time thou art restoring the kingdom to Israel* (Acts 1:6)? And they asked Him nothing before this. But not so after these things. For when they were deemed worthy of the holy Spirit, not only did they not ask, nor were they distressed at their ignorance, but they even curb those who are sick with this untimely curiosity. Hear then what the blessed Paul now says: *But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.* Why did he not say that no one knows? Why did he not say that it has not been revealed, but, *You have no need that I write unto you?* Because in that way he would rather have distressed them; but in this way he comforted them by saying it. For by saying, *You have no need*, he did not allow them to seek [it], both as something superfluous and as something unprofitable. For what, tell me, is the gain? Let us suppose the consummation [486] is in twenty years, in thirty, in a hundred; what is this to us? is it nota fact that for each individual the consummation is the end of his own life? Why are you anxiously concerned, like a woman in labor, about the common end? But we treat this matter just as we do other affairs. Just as in other things, neglecting our own concerns, we take care of common ones, saying, "This one is a fornicator, that one is an adulterer, this one has stolen, another has committed an injury," yet no one takes account of his own affairs, but is more concerned with all things than with his own; so here too, neglecting to care for each one’s own end, we wish to know the common dissolution. For what is the common end to you? If you have rightly prepared for this end, nothing grievous will befall you from that other end. Whether it be far off, or near, this is nothing to us. For this reason Christ did not say [when it would be], because it was not expedient. How was it not expedient, you ask? He who hid it knows why it was not expedient. For hear Him saying to the apostles: "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power" (Acts 1:7). What are you anxiously scrutinizing? This Peter heard, the prince and coryphaeus of the apostles, with the others; for they were desiring things greater than was fitting for them. "But," you say, "it was necessary to stop the mouths of the Greeks." How, I ask? "Because they say this world is a god; but if we knew the time of the dissolution, we would stop their mouths." Indeed! Is this how you stop their mouths—by learning that it will someday be dissolved or when it will be dissolved? If you wish to stop their mouths, tell them it will have an end; if they do not believe this, neither will they believe that. Hear Paul saying: "For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night" (1 Thess. 5:2). Not the common day only, but also that which is peculiar to each individual; for this one imitates the former, because it is related to it. For what the former does collectively and at once, this one does individually. The time of the consummation received its beginning from Adam; and the end of each one of us is an image of the consummation, and one would not be wrong to call the end a consummation. For since countless people die each day and await that day, while no one rises before it, is this not its work? If, however, you wish to learn why it is hidden, and why it comes as a thief in the night, I will tell you, as I think it is right to understand it. No one would ever have taken care of virtue his whole life if that day were known and not hidden; but knowing his final day, after having committed a thousand crimes, he would then come to the laver, and thus depart from here. For if now, when the fear of an uncertain day shakes the souls of all, everyone—their life having been previously consumed in wickedness—gives himself to baptism at his final breath, if they had been fully persuaded that it was their final hour, who would ever have taken care of virtue? Many have departed without illumination—that is, without baptism—and not even this fear taught them to take care of things that please God; if even this fear were taken away, who would ever be modest? Who would be good and just? No one. Again, the fear of death and the love of life now restrain and repress another; but if each person knew that he would die tomorrow, he would refuse to do nothing before that day; he would even kill whom he wanted, and would commit a thousand crimes to avenge himself on his enemies. For a man who is impure and wicked, having abandoned the hope of this life, has not even any regard for the one who is clothed in purple. So he who is persuaded that he will certainly depart will both take vengeance on his enemy and, having satisfied his own soul, will thus accept death. Let me say something else, thirdly: those who are lovers of life, and greatly desire the things that are here, would perish from heartache and pain. For if any young man knew that he would reach his final day before old age, he would be affected like the weakest and most languid animals, which, after they have been captured, fail all the more, expecting the end. Neither would the brave have had any reward. For if they knew that they must certainly depart after three years, and could do nothing before those years, what reward would they have if they dared to attack grave and harsh matters? For someone might say to them, "Because you are in good and confident spirits for three years, you encounter dangers, knowing that you cannot die beforehand." For he who expects that he might die from any danger, and knows that he will indeed live if he does not take a rash and reckless stand, yet will die if he attacks these things recklessly and boldly, has brought forward the greatest proof of the alacrity of his soul and that he despises this life. But I will make this clear to you by an example. If the patriarch Abraham, foreknowing that he would not kill his son, had led him up, would he have had any reward? What, furthermore, if Paul, having foreknown that he would not die, had disregarded dangers, in what way would he have been admirable? For thus even the most cowardly would leap into fire if he had some credible sponsor that he would be safe. But the three youths are not of this sort; truly, what are they? Hear them saying: "There is a God in heaven who will deliver us from your hands, and from this furnace. But if not, be it known to you that we will not serve your gods, nor will we worship the golden statue which you have set up" (Dan. 3:17-18). See how many gains there are, and more than these, from the fact that the departure is ignored B. In the meantime, however, it suffices to have learned these things. For this reason he comes as a thief in the night, so that we may not give ourselves over to vice, nor to sloth, so that our rewards may not be cut off. "For you yourselves," he says, "know exactly and accurately." Why then do you anxiously scrutinize, if you are persuaded of this? But that the future is uncertain, learn from the things Christ said; for hear what He says, that he spoke this for this reason: "Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour the thief comes" (Matt. 24:42). For when they shall say, "Peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as pain to a woman in childbearing, and they shall not escape. Here he indicated this, that even among themselves note: the Latin text appears to miss a line here, as the Greek text at this point mentions 'those then saying' C, which is reflected in the following context: for those who say, "Peace and security," destruction will come upon them suddenly, even as labor to a woman with child, and they shall not escape. D
Homily IX
A For how can it be, if the Antichrist is coming, and Elias is coming, that when they say "Peace and security," then sudden destruction comes upon them? For these things do not allow one to be ignorant of the day, as they are sure pledges of its arrival. But [the Apostle] does not intimate this time—I mean of the Antichrist—nor does he say that that day will be a sign of Christ’s presence; rather, he means that Christ will not have a sign, but will come suddenly and unexpectedly. And yet, he says, to the woman with child it does not come unperceived; for she knows that after nine months the birth will take place. Indeed, it is very far from unperceived; for some give birth in the seventh month, others in the ninth; and besides, the day and hour of the birth are also uncertain. B Therefore, Paul speaks these things to this point. And the illustration is accurate; for there are not many signs of the throes of labor; at any rate, many have given birth in the streets and outside the house, not having foreseen it. But he did not intimate only the uncertainty here, but also the bitterness of the pain. For just as she, playing, laughing, foreseeing nothing at all, is suddenly seized by unspeakable pains and torn by the throes of labor; so also will those souls be, when that day comes upon them. "And they shall not escape." Then, showing that he does not speak these things about them, he added: "But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief."
3. Here he speaks of the dark and unclean life. For just as the vile and wicked among men do all things in the night, eluding everyone and shutting themselves up in darkness. For tell me, does not the adulterer watch for the evening? And does not the thief watch for the night? Does not the tomb-robber perform all his work by night? What then? Does it not overtake them as a thief? Does it not come upon them unperceived? But [they] foresee it. How then does he say, "You have no need that I should write to you"? Here he does not speak of the uncertainty, but of the calamity; that is, it will not come for their ill. C For it will come unperceived even to them, yet it will not wrap them in any painful thing. "That the day," he says, "should overtake you as a thief." For if those who are awake and in the light, even if an entry occurs by a robber, he will not be able to do any harm; so also with those who live rightly; but he departs having stripped of all things those who are sleeping, those who put their trust in earthly things.
Then another argument in their favor; for he adds: "For you are all," he says, "sons of light and sons of the day." And how can one, he says, be sons of the day? Just as one is "sons of perdition," as one is "sons of hell." For this reason Christ also said to the Pharisees: "Woe to you, for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, you make him twofold more a son of hell" (Matt. 23:15); and Paul: "For which things' sake the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience" (Col. 3:6), that is, those who do the things of hell, those who do the things of disobedience. Just as, therefore, those are sons of God who do the things that please God, so also are sons of the day and sons of light those who do the works of light. "We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober." For they who sleep, sleep in the night; and they who are drunk, are drunk in the night; D we however, being of the day, let us be sober. He shows here that being in the day is ours. And here, indeed, I speak of this day and night; it is not ours, but the night comes even against our will, and sleep comes upon us when we do not wish it; but in the case of that night and of that sleep, it is no longer so; rather, it is possible to be awake all the time, it is possible to pass the day all the time. For to close the eyes of the soul and to induce sleep from wickedness is not of nature, but of choice. "But let us watch," he says, "and be sober." For it is possible to be awake and [yet] sleeping, by doing nothing good; for this reason he added, "And let us be sober." For even if one is awake in the day, if he is not sober, he will fall into ten thousand evils. So that soberness is the intensity of being awake. "They that sleep," he says, "sleep in the night, and they that are drunken are drunken in the night." He calls drunkenness here not only that from wine, but also that from all evils. For indeed, the drunkenness of the soul is wealth, and the desire for money, and the love of bodies, and whatever else you might say, is the drunkenness of the soul.
And why did he call wickedness sleep? Because, first, such a person is inactive toward virtue; furthermore, because he imagines everything, and sees nothing true, but is full of dreams, and often of absurd things; and if he sees any good thing, he has nothing firm nor fixed. Such is the present life: it is full of dreams and fantasy. Wealth is a dream, glory is a dream, all such things. He who is asleep sees not the things that are and truly subsist, but imagines things that are not as if they were. Such is wickedness, and the life in wickedness; it does not see the things that are, that is, the spiritual, the heavenly, the abiding things, but the things that flow and fly away and quickly leap away from us.
It is not enough, however, to be awake and sober, but one must also be armed. For even if one is awake and sober, if he does not have weapons, the robbers quickly destroy him. When therefore it is necessary to be awake and to be sober and to be armed, and we are unarmed and naked and asleep, who shall prevent the other from fixing the dagger? Therefore, also signifying this, that we have need of armor, he added: "But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation." "Of faith and love," he says. Here he intimates life along with right dogmas. See how he clarified what it is to be awake and sober: to have, he says, the breastplate of faith and love. He does not speak of just any faith, but that which is fervent, that which is sincere, that which makes those who have put it on unassailable. Just as one could not quickly cut through a breastplate, but it is an invisible wall to the chest; so do you also gird faith and love around the soul, and none of the fiery darts of the devil will be able to be fixed there. For where the power of the soul was previously preoccupied with the weapon of love, those who plot [against it] contrive everything in vain and to no purpose. For neither malice, nor enmity, nor envy, nor flattery, nor hypocrisy, nor anything else will be able to reach such a soul. He did not simply say love, but said to put it on as a strong breastplate. Then thus he introduces...
A the armor, and shows whence faith and hope and love become stronger weapons, adding and saying: "For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10. who died for us."
4. "So that he did not call us to this in order to destroy us, but to save us. And that he desires this, from whence is it clear? He gave his own Son for us, he says; he so desires that we be saved that he gave his own Son, and not only gave him, but gave him to death. From these B reflections and considerations, hope is born. Do not despair of yourself, O man, when you come to God, who for your sake did not spare even his Son; do not lose heart C because of present evils. He who gave his Only-Begotten in order to save you and rescue you from hell, whom will he spared henceforth for your salvation? Wherefore, it is necessary to hope for all good things. For if we were going to a judge who was about to judge us, after he had shown such love for us as to sacrifice his own Son, we would not fear. Let us hope, therefore, for good and great things; for we have received D the head and the sum of it, if we believe. For we have seen the example; let us love: for it would be the extreme of madness not to love him who is so disposed. "So that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him." 11. "Therefore console one another, and build each other up, just as you are doing." And elsewhere again, "Whether we are awake or asleep" (v. 6). But he says one thing there, and another here; for here he calls it bodily death, whereas there
A it is of this life that he speaks. Because we have little concern for it, it brings great loss; for if anyone is overturned, he immediately falls headlong and dies: so we must not be careless or sluggish. We are entering upon a narrow path, surrounded on all sides by precipices, which does not allow two people to walk abreast. Do you see what great care is needed by us? Do you not see those who walk between precipices, that they not only watch their feet, but even their eyes? For if one looks elsewhere, even if his foot rests on steady ground, his darkened eye casts his whole body down. He must attend to his path; therefore he says: "Turn neither to the right nor to the left." A great depth of vice, great precipices, great darkness, a narrow way: let us attend with fear, let us walk with trembling. No one who enters upon a path of this kind is full of laughter, nor is he weighed down by drunkenness, but walks in sobriety and fasting; no one walking this path brings anything superfluous; for it is desirable, being lightly equipped, to be able to finish the course; no one fetters his own feet, but leaves them free and unencumbered. B
5. But we bind ourselves with countless cares, and carry about countless burdens belonging to this life, gaping and poured out, how do we expect to walk the narrow path? He did not say simply that it is narrow, but with exclamation: "How narrow is the way" (Matt. 7. 14)—that is, very narrow. This is what we also do in the case of things that are greatly wondered at. And again, he says, "The way which leads to life is compressed" (Ibid.). And he rightly said narrow. For when we are obliged to render an account of words and thoughts and actions and everything, it is truly narrow. But we make it narrower, widening and distending ourselves and spreading out our feet. For the narrow way is difficult for everyone, but especially for the one who grows fat, as one who mortifies himself will not even perceive the narrowness; so he who has practiced being afflicted will not grow weary at being pressed. Let no one therefore expect to see heaven with ease; for it is not possible. Let no one expect to walk the narrow way with luxury; for it is not possible. Let no one walking the broad way expect life. When therefore you see some one revelling in baths, in luxurious tables, or in ease, do not congratulate yourself for not partaking in these things, but lament for him, because he is walking the way that leads to destruction. For what is the benefit of this way, when it ends in affliction? Or what is the harm of that narrowness, when it comes to rest? Tell me, if someone being called to the palace were to walk through C distressing and precipitous narrow passages, while another, being led to death, were dragged through the middle of the marketplace, whom should we deem blessed, whom shall we lament? Not the one walking through the broad way? So too now, let us not congratulate those who live in luxury, but those who do not; these are hastening to heaven, those to hell. And perhaps many of them will even laugh at what is said by us; but I mourn and lament for this very reason, that they do not even know what they ought to laugh at, and for what they ought above all to mourn; but they confuse and disturb and trouble everything. For these reasons I mourn for them. What do you say, O man? Being about to rise again, and to render an account of the things you have done, and to undergo the final judgment—of these things you make no account, but you practice gluttony and drunkenness, and besides these things you laugh? But I lament for you, knowing the evils that await you, the punishment that will receive you; and for this reason I lament the more, because you laugh. Mourn with me, lament your evils along with me. Tell me, if one of your kin were to die, would you not turn away from those who laugh at his passing, and consider them enemies, and love those who weep and mourn along with you? Then, while your D wife is lying dead, you turn away from the one who laughs, but when your own soul is dead, do you turn away from the one who weeps, and yet you yourself laugh? Do you see how the devil has disposed us, to be enemies and foes to ourselves? Let us sober up at last, let us look clearly, let us be awake, let us take hold of eternal life, let us shake off the deep sleep. There is judgment, there is punishment, there is resurrection, there is an examination of what has been done: the Lord comes in the clouds, "Fire shall burn before him, and round about him a mighty storm," he says; a river of fire is drawn before him, the undying worm, the unquenchable fire, the outer darkness, the gnashing of teeth. Even if you are ten thousand times annoyed at these things, I will not cease speaking. For if the prophets, when being stoned, did not keep silent, much more must we endure hatred, and not speak to please you, lest, having deceived you, we ourselves be cut in two. There is immortality of punishment there, without consolation, and no one there to intercede. "Who will pity the charmer that is bitten by a serpent?" (Eccl. 12. 13). When we do not pity ourselves, who, tell me, will pity us? If you see someone driving a sword through himself, will you be able to spare him at any time? By no means; much more, when it is possible to achieve right action, and we do not, who will spare us? No one. Let us pity ourselves; let us pray to God saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord," let us say to ourselves, and let us pity ourselves. We are masters of having God pity us; He himself granted us this. If we do things worthy of mercy, if we do things worthy of the kindness from Him, God will pity us; but if we do not pity ourselves, who will spare us? Pity your neighbor, and you will be pitied by God himself. How many come forth every day saying, "Have mercy on me," and you do not even turn around? How many are naked, how many are disabled, and we are not softened, but pass by their supplications? How then do you think to obtain mercy, doing nothing worthy of mercy? Let us become compassionate, let us become merciful; that we may thus please God, and attain the goods promised to those who love Him, by the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, power, honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
HOMILY X
"We beseech you, brethren, to know them that labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to have them in greater abundance in charity for their work’s sake; be at peace with them."
A 1. There is a great necessity for one who rules to meet with small-mindedness; and just as physicians must often be a burden to the sick, preparing foods and medicines which, though they provide no pleasure, bring great utility; and just as fathers are frequently annoying to their children, so too are teachers, and much more so. For the physician, even if he should be hated by the sick, is nevertheless received calmly by their relatives and acquaintances, and often by the patient himself; and a father also, relying both on nature and on external laws, uses his authority over his children with great ease; and if he punishes or rebukes them even against their will, there is no one to forbid him, nor will the child himself dare to look at him defiantly. With a priest, however, there is great difficulty. And first of all, he must rule and preside over those who are willing, who feel gratitude toward him because he rules; but it is impossible for this to happen quickly. For whoever is rebuked and reproved, whoever he may be, casting away gratitude, is hostile; and he will act similarly to whom one gives counsel, whom one admonishes and entreats. If, therefore, I say, "Pour out your wealth upon the needy," I have said something grave and burdensome. If I say, "Settle your anger, extinguish the fury of your spirit, suppress your wicked lust, cut away a portion of your luxuries," all these things are grave and burdensome. And if I punish the slothful and lazy, or remove him from the church, or forbid him from the common prayers, he grieves, not because he is deprived of these things, but because of the common disgrace and shame. B For this also is an increase of the disease: that when we are forbidden from spiritual things, we do not grieve on account of the deprivation of such great blessings, but on account of the shame before those who see us. We do not abhor the thing itself, nor do we fear it. Therefore, Paul discusses these things at length in many places. And Christ indeed subjected them to such necessity that He said, "The scribes and the Pharisees have sat on the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe, observe them: but according to their works do not ye" (Matt. 23:2). And again, when He healed the leper, He said, "Go, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded them for a testimony" (Ibid. 8:4). Yet you say, "You make him a child of hell twofold more than yourselves." Therefore, He said, "What they do, do not ye." He therefore excluded every excuse and pretext for him who is subject to authority. Writing to Timothy, he also said, "Let the priests that rule well be esteemed worthy of double honor" (1 Tim 5:17). Writing to the Hebrews, he also said, "Obey your prelates and be subject to them" (Heb 13:17); and here again, "We beseech you, brethren, to know them that labor among you, and are over you in the Lord." Since he had said, "Edify one another," lest they might think that he had raised them to the dignity of a teacher, he subjoined this, as if to say, "But see that I have permitted you to edify one another: for it is impossible for a teacher to say everything." "Them that labor," he says, "among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you." How then, he says, is it not absurd? C What do you say? If a person undertakes a defense and defends you before a man, you do everything and feel every gratitude toward him; yet here he undertakes your defense before God and defends you, and you have no gratitude toward him? And how, he says, does he defend me? Because he prays for you, and administers the gift that is given to you through baptism, visits, exhorts, and admonishes, and if you call him at midnight, he comes; he himself indeed does nothing else than remain perpetually at your mouth, and endures the insults you heap upon him. What necessity pressured him? Did he do it well or badly? You have a wife, and you satisfy yourself with luxuries, and you pursue a life devoted to commerce: but the priest has concentrated his own business on this; he has no other life than to be occupied in the Church. "That you may have them," he says, "in greater abundance in charity for their work's sake; and be at peace with them." Do you see how he recognizes the dissensions that arise? Not only, he says, "Love," but "in greater abundance," as children do their fathers. For through them you were begotten by an eternal generation; through them you have attained the kingdom; through their hands all things are done; through them the gates of heaven are opened to you. Let no one stir up sedition, let no one contend. Whoever loves Christ, whoever the priest may be, he will love him, because through him he has attained the venerable sacraments. Tell me, if you wished to see a palace shining with much gold and glittering with the brilliance of jewels, and you were to find the one who has the keys, and he, upon being asked, immediately opened it and let you in: would you not prefer him to everyone, would you not love him as much as your own eyes, would you not kiss him? He has opened heaven to you, and you do not kiss him, you do not embrace him? If you have a wife, do you not love most of all the one who brought her to you? Thus, if you love Christ, if you love the kingdom of heaven, recognize through whom you have it. Therefore, he says, "For their work's sake: be at peace with them."
14. "We beseech you, brethren, admonish the unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all." D "Admonish," he says, "the unruly"; that is, "Rebuke them," he says, "not from authority, nor from arrogance; with equity, with meekness. Comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all." For whoever is harshly rebuked becomes desperate of himself, and becomes bolder in his scorn: therefore it is necessary to make the medicine sweet with admonition. But who are the unruly? They clearly are those who act contrary to what God sees. For the order of the Church is itself more combined and convenient than military order. Wherefore, both the slanderer is unruly, and the drunkard is unruly, and the covetous man, and all who sin; for they do not walk according to the rules in the
A battle, but go astray; and therefore they are overturned. But there is also another kind of evil, not such as this, but it is yet vice. What is this? It is littleness of soul; for this too like slothfulness destroys. He who does not bear insult is little-souled; he who does not bear temptation is little-souled; this is he who is sown upon the rock. B There is also another kind, that of weakness. "Support," he says, "the weak," meaning those weak in faith; for there is weakness regarding this too. But see how he does not leave them to be cast aside. And writing elsewhere he said, "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye." For even in our own bodies we do not suffer the weak part to perish. "Be longsuffering," he says, "toward all." What then? Even toward the unruly? Yes, and exceedingly; for there is no medicine equal to this for a teacher, nothing so suitable for those under authority; it is entirely able to make them turn, entirely able to make them feel shame, and the wildest and most shameless of all. "See that none render evil for evil unto any man." If one ought not to render evil for evil, much more is it wrong to render evil for good, and much more to render evil when no evil has preceded. But, one says, C so-and-so is wicked, and he angered me, and did me many injuries. Do you wish to avenge yourself on him? Do not retaliate; leave him unpunished. Is it only to this point? By no means. "But ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all." This is the greater philosophy, not only not to avenge evils with evils, but with goods; for this is indeed vengeance that has harm for him, and benefit for you; or rather, even to him great benefit, if he will. And that you may not think that this has been said concerning the faithful only, for this reason he said, "Both among yourselves, and to all." "Rejoice evermore." This is concerning the temptations that cause affliction. Hear, as many of you as have fallen into poverty, as many as have fallen into sorrowful things; for from these a certain joy is born. For when we have such a soul, that we avenge ourselves on no one, but do good to all, whence, tell me, will the sting of sorrow be able to enter? D For he who so rejoices in being treated ill, as even to repay with benefits him who has done the evil, whence will he be able to be grieved henceforth? And how is it possible for this to be, he says? If we will, it is possible. Then he also showed the way: "Pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God." To give thanks always, this is of a philosophical soul. Have you suffered some evil? But if you will, it is not evil; give thanks to God, and the evil is turned into good; say you also like Job: "Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever." For what, tell me, have you suffered so great? Has disease fallen upon you? But it is nothing strange; for our body is mortal and passible. But has poverty regarding wealth met you? But these things are both to be acquired and to be lost, and remain here. But are there plots and slanders from enemies? But we have not been injured by these, but they who have done them; for "the soul," he says, "that sinneth, it shall die." But it was not the one who suffered evil that sinned, but the one who did the evil. Therefore, one ought not to avenge the one who is dead, but to pray for him, so that he may be delivered from death. Do you not see the bee, that it dies on the sting of hitting? Through that animal God educates us not to grieve our neighbors; for we receive A the death first. For by hitting those, we perhaps grieved them for a little while, but we ourselves shall no longer live, just as that animal does not. And yet the Scripture praises it, saying: "She is a worker; whose work kings and private persons apply to their health; but nothing protects her that she should not die, but she must entirely perish." And if the rest of covetousness does not exempt her, while she is doing evil, much more us.
3. It is, in truth, an act of the most savage beasts, to exercise injustice on those who are doing you no harm; or rather, not even of beasts. For those, if you allow them to roam in the desert, and do not press them into necessity, will never commit outrage, nor will they approach, nor will they bite, but will go their own way; but you, being a man endowed with reason, honored with such authority and honor and glory, do not even imitate the beasts toward your peers, but injure and devour B your brother? And whence will you be able to make a defense, do you not hear Paul saying: "Why not rather take wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren." Do you see that to suffer evil is in the doing of evil, and to receive good is in the suffering of evil? For tell me: if anyone were to revile rulers, if anyone were to insult those who have power, whom does he injure? Himself, or them? It is clear that himself. Then, if he who insults a ruler, does not insult him, but himself, does not he who insults a man, through him, insult Christ? By no means, he says. What do you say? And he who throws stones at the king's images, whom does he stone? Does he not stone himself? Then if he who throws stones at the image of an earthly king, stones himself, does not he who insults the image of Christ (for man is the image of God), injure himself? Until when shall we love money? C For I will not cease crying out against it; for these are the causes of all our evils. Until when shall we take the fill of this insatiable desire? What good has gold? I am struck with amazement at the matter; it is indeed a kind of sorcery, this thing, that gold and silver should be so highly valued by us. As for our souls, then, there is no account to us, but for inanimate images there is much care. Whence did this disease enter the world? Who will be able to extirpate it? What word can cut away this savage beast, and destroy the ruin? This desire is sown in the minds of men, and of those who seem to be in piety. Let us be ashamed at the evangelical precepts; the steps [of them] lie in the Scripture only, but they are shown nowhere in deeds. But what is the fine-sounding word of the many? I have children, he says, and I myself fear lest D I should be reduced to necessity of famine and want, lest I should need others; I am ashamed to beg. For this reason, therefore, do you make others beg? I cannot, he says, be hungry. For this reason, therefore, do you involve others in famine? Do you know what a terrible thing it is to beg? How much to be destroyed by famine? Spare also your own brothers. You are ashamed to be hungry, tell me, but are you not ashamed to plunder? You fear to be destroyed by famine, but do you not fear to destroy others? And yet, hunger indeed has neither shame, nor crime; but to involve others in
this is the cause not only of shame, but also of the ultimate punishment. All these things are pretexts, words, and trifles. For that you do not do these things for the sake of your children, those who do not have children and will not have them give evidence; they are troubled and wretched in the same way, and they embrace as many riches as if they were to leave them to a thousand children. It is not the solicitude for children that renders one greedy for money, but a sickness of the soul. Therefore, many who have no children labor with an insane love of money; while others, even having a numerous offspring, despise the wealth they do have. Those men will accuse you on that day. For if the necessity of children already born forced you to gather money, it would be necessary for them to have the same desire and the same passion. But if we do not have them and yet are mad, it is not because of the multitude of children, but because of avarice and the love of money. And who are these, you say, who despise money when they have children? Many, and often. If you wish, I will speak even of the men of old. Did not Jacob have twelve children? Did he not live the life of a hireling? Was he not treated unjustly by his father-in-law? Did the great number of his children force him to take counsel to do what he ought not? And what of Abraham? Did he not, along with Isaac, have many other children as well? What then? Did he not hold what he possessed for foreigners? You see that he not only did not do any injury, but even yielded his own goods; not only doing good, but even suffering injury of his own will from his nephew. For to bear, for God’s sake, the fact that your own possessions are being plundered is much greater than doing good. Why? Because the latter is a fruit of the soul and of free will—whence it also becomes easy—but the former is something of an assault and violence. It is easier for someone to squander ten thousand talents of his own free will, and think he has suffered nothing grievous, than for him to bear it calmly if three obols were stolen from him against his will. Therefore, this is more a philosophy of the soul. We see this happened in the case of Abraham: "For he saw," it says, "that the region around the Jordan was watered like the paradise of God," and he chose it (Gen. XIII, 10, 11). Yet he [Lot] did not contradict him. You see that he not only did no injury, but even suffered injury? Why do you accuse your children, O man? God did not give us children so that we might plunder the property of others. Take care lest, by saying this, you anger God. For if you say that they are the authors and causes of your rapacity and avarice, I fear lest you be deprived of them, as ones who injure and plot against you. God gave you children so that they might care for you in your old age, so that they might learn virtue from you.
For this reason, the human race was meant to be established in such a way, preparing two greatest things: one, indeed, by appointing fathers as masters and teachers; and other, by engendering great affection. For if men were born casually, no one would have any regard for another. For if now, even when there are parents and children and grandchildren, many do not care for many, much more would that be the case then. Therefore, God gave you children; do not, therefore, accuse the children. But if those who have children have no defense or excuse, what can they say, those who have none and yet are tormented in the gathering of riches? But they too say something that lacks any defense. What is this? "That we may have riches as a memorial for our children," they say. Clearly, it is a very ridiculous thing. "For the children," he says, "the house will be an immortal memory of my glory." Not of your glory, O man, but of your avarice will it be a memory. Do you not see how now many, passing by splendid houses, say among themselves: "How much did this man acquire by nefariously circumventing others; how much did he plunder to build this house?" And now, he has turned to dust and ashes, and the house has fallen into the hands of others by hereditary lot. You leave behind, therefore, the memory not of your glory, but of your avarice. And your body is buried in the ground; but the memory of your avarice, which could have been hidden by the lapse of time, you do not allow to rest, but you cause it to be unearthed and brought to light through the house. For as long as it stands, having its designation from you, and is called your own, it is clearly necessary that all mouths be opened against you. Do you see that it is better to have nothing than to endure such an accusation? And these things are here; but there, tell me, I pray, what shall we do—having attained the mastery of so many things here, but having imparted nothing, or very little, of what we have? How shall we shed what has been acquired unjustly and through avarice? For whoever wishes to discard gains acquired through avarice does not give a little out of much, but gives many times more than what he plundered, and ceases from plundering.
Against those who plunder the goods of others.
Hear what Zacchaeus says: "And of everything I have plundered, I pay back fourfold" (Luc. XIX, 8). But you, plundering ten thousand talents, if you have given even a few drachmas with difficulty, you think you have paid back everything, and you feel as though you have given more. Yet it is necessary both to pay back those things themselves, and to add other things from what you have at home. For just as a thief does not defend himself by paying back only what he stole, but often adds his soul, and often settles by paying far more, so too the avaricious man. For the avaricious person is a thief and a robber, much fiercer and more inhuman than the latter, in that he approaches the nature of a tyrant. For the thief, because he attacks secretly and by night, abates much of the boldness of his crime, as one who also blushes and fears to sin. But this man, casting off all shame, with head uncovered in the midst of the forum, plunders the goods of all, as one who is at once a thief and a tyrant; he does not dig through walls, nor extinguish a lamp, nor open a chest, nor break seals; but what does he do? He does things that are more youthful than these: with those who are being injured looking on, he casts them out through the door, he brazenly opens everything, he forces these very people to expose their own things; so vehement and excessive is his violence. This man is far more impure and wicked than those, in that he is more shameless and more tyrannical. For he who has suffered something through deceit, indeed feels pain, but has no small consolation, because the one who inflicts the injury is also afraid; [alt-version omitted] but this man, who has suffered evil, is even held in contempt—he cannot endure the violence, and he groans; to be mocked is worse. Tell me, if someone has violated your wife while you were unaware, and another has done this with the husband looking on, who would cause more pain, and who would be more able to endure the violence; yet that one mocks. Tell me, if a woman has been violated, and another has done this with her husband looking on, who would be more pained, and who has the strength to bear it? Surely, this cannot be. But the one who has done evil and spat on someone, and the other who, having done nothing, has shown that he does not fear the one who is injured. Thus also with riches: the one who takes secretly has thus paid a penalty, but the one who takes openly and publicly brings upon himself both loss and shame. Let us cease, therefore, from plundering others, both the poor and the rich; for this word is not only for the rich, but also for the poor. For they too plunder their own...the poorer, and the craftsmen who are the more well-to-do and powerful exploit those who are more destitute and poorer; the huckster exploits the huckster, and all those in the market. So I wish to eliminate injustice from every side. For the injustice does not lie in the measure of what is seized and stolen, but in the purpose of the one stealing. And that these are greater thieves and swindlers, who do not even disdain small things, I know and remember having said to you, if you remember it as well. But let us not be pedantic; let them be on the same footing as the rich. Let us henceforth train D our minds not to desire greater things, not to crave more. And in the heavens, let the desire for more never have a limit, but let each person always crave more; but upon the earth, let each person be content with necessity and self-sufficiency, and let him seek nothing more, so that in this way we may be able to attain to what are truly good things, by grace and loving-kindness, etc.
HOMILY XI
5. v. 19. *Quench not the Spirit. 20. Despise not prophesyings. 21. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 22. Abstain from all appearance of evil.*
1. A certain thick mist and darkness and cloud has been poured over the whole earth; and the Apostle was signifying this when he said: *For ye were sometimes darkness* (Eph. 5. 8); and again: *Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief* (1 Thess. 5. 4). Since, therefore, it is night, so to speak, A moonless, and we are walking in this night, God has given us a bright lamp, having kindled in our souls the grace of the Holy Spirit. But some who received this light made it more brilliant and radiant, as Paul did, and Peter, and all those saints; others, however, even extinguished it, like the five virgins, like those who made shipwreck of their faith, like the one who committed fornication in Corinth, like the Galatians who were led astray. For this reason Paul now says, *Quench not the Spirit*; that is, the charism; for it was his custom to call the charism of the Spirit by this name. An impure life extinguishes it. For just as with this lamp-light, if one has poured water or dirt upon it, he has extinguished the light, and if not any of these, yet at least by taking away the oil—so too with the charism; for if you have poured upon it the cares of earth and of transient things, you have extinguished the Spirit; and if you yourself do B nothing of the sort, but a temptation coming from elsewhere attacks you violently, like a wind, and the flame is not strong, or [is not] holding much oil, or you do not block the opening, or you do not close the door, everything is lost. What is the opening? Just as with the lamp, so too with us, the opening is the eye and the ear. Do not let a violent spirit of wickedness fall upon these, since it would extinguish the lamp, but block it with the fear of God. The door is the mouth; lock it, keep it closed, so that it may provide the light and beat back the assault from outside. For example, did someone insult you? Did he revile you? You close the mouth; for if you open it, you have fanned the wind. Do you not see in houses, when two doors stand opposite and in a straight line, and there is a violent wind, how, if you close one and there is no counter-blast, the wind has no power, but the greater part of its strength is cut off? So too now, there are two doors, your own mouth, and that of the one who is insulting you and behaving wantonly; if you lock your own and do not give a counter-blast, you have [not] extinguished the whole spirit; but if you open it, it becomes uncontainable. Let us not, therefore, quench it. And often C the flame is extinguished even without anything attacking it; whenever the oil runs out, whenever we do not do alms, the Spirit is extinguished. For the Spirit also came to you from the [source of the] mercy of God; it flies away from you; for it does not remain with an unmerciful soul. Then it sees that this fruit is not present in you, and [it leaves]. When the Spirit is extinguished, the rest you know, as you walk in that night. But if the path that leads to heaven is difficult to walk in the night, how is it safe? Do you not know how many demons are in this space, how many beasts, how many spiritual hosts of wickedness? If, therefore, we have that light, they will be unable to harm us in any way; but if we extinguish it, they quickly catch us, they quickly carry off all that is ours; since even thieves first extinguish the lamp, then they plunder. For they see those things in this darkness, since they do the works of darkness; we, however, are unaccustomed to that light. Let us not, therefore, extinguish it. Every evil action leads this light away, and slander, and whatever you might say. For just as with fire, whatever is alien to it is destructive of it, but those things kindle it which are related to it—like if something is fiery, it kindles the flame of the spirit—so too with this light, if anything is dry, if anything is hot, if anything is ignitable, it kindles the flame of the Spirit. Let us not, therefore, bring anything cold, anything wet; for these are destructive of it. There is also another explanation. Many among them, some were prophesying truly, and others were lying. Paul says this also in the epistle to the Corinthians, that for this reason he gave D *discerning of spirits*. For if the devil had wished, through this charism, to overturn the whole of the Church. Since both were predicting things about the future, both the demon and the Spirit, but the one was lying and the other was speaking the truth, and there was no evidence to take from either, but both were speaking without accountability, as Jeremiah and Ezekiel [did]; but when the time came they were put to the test, he also gave discernings of spirits. Since, therefore, even then among the Thessalonians many were prophesying, whom he hints at elsewhere saying, *Be not troubled neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of the Lord is at hand*; having said, *Quench not the Spirit*, he added opportunely, and the rest, saying, *Despise not prophesyings*. Therefore, he who here...
A wishes to declare this, means: Since there are some false prophets among you, do not for their sake prohibit or turn away from these as well; do not quench them—that is, do not despise prophesyings.
Since, however, he said, *Despise not prophesyings*, lest you might think he had opened the platform to everyone, he says, *Prove all things; hold fast that which is good*—that is, those which are truly prophesies. *Abstain from all appearance of evil*: not from this or that one, but *from all*. Both from the true and the false, so that with examination you may discern them, and abstain from the latter, but hold fast to the former. For thus will the hatred of those be intense, and the love of these established, when we have done all things not lightly or without examination, but exactly and accurately.
23. *And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.* Observe the benevolence of the teacher: after the admonition he adds prayers too, not just in speech, but also in his letter—for there is need both of counsel and of prayers. Therefore we too, first counseling, then offer up prayers on your behalf; and those who have been initiated into sacred mysteries know this. Yet Paul indeed did this worthily, having great confidence and freedom of speech before God; we, however, are suffused with shame and have no such confidence. But since we have been appointed and ordained to this, we do it, even though we are unworthy to stand here or to hold the place of even the least of his disciples; because, however, grace works even through the unworthy, not for their own sake but for the sake of those who are to benefit, we offer what we have. *Sanctify you*, he says, *wholly, and your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.* B What does he call the *spirit* here? A charism, or a gift of grace. For if we depart having our lamps bright, we shall enter into the bridal chamber; but if they are quenched, by no means. Therefore he says, *Your whole spirit*—for while that remains entire, the other remains also. *And soul*, he says, *and body.* For neither does it receive anything evil, nor does the other.
24. *Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.* Observe his humility: for after he has prayed, he says, Do not imagine that this happens because of my prayers, but because of the purpose by which He called you. For if He called you to salvation, and He is true, He will surely grant salvation when He wills. But he indeed said this out of humility; we, however, say it not out of humility but out of a desire for great utility, wishing to receive some great gain from you: *Pray also for us.* For although you do not receive any great or admirable utility from us, yet because of the very honor, because of the very title. Someone once had children, and although he himself did not help them, yet because he was their father, he perhaps reproaches them, saying: For one day I have not been called father by you. Therefore we too say, *Pray also for us*; not saying this rashly, but greatly C desiring your prayers. For if I am accountable for the care of you all, and am to render an account, much more ought I to secure your prayers. For your sake I am the more accountable for yielding an account, and therefore you owe me the greater help.
26. *Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.* What fervor! What a mind and a soul! Since, being absent, he could not greet them with a kiss, he greets them through others. So we do, whenever we say: Kiss him for me. So you too hold to the fire of charity; for it does not endure the intervals of places, but extends itself even through the middle paths, and is present everywhere. 27. *I adjure you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.* This too is a matter of great desire, not so much of doctrine—that he might, he says, address them too. 28. *The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.* He did not command it lightly, but adjuring, and this also out of a fervent spirit, so that even if they despised him, because of the adjuration they might do what was commanded. They had a great fear of that matter; now, however, this too is trampled underfoot. And it often happens that a boy is beaten with scourges and adjures by God and Christ, and says, "So may you die a Christian," and no one pays heed, no one notices or cares; but if he adjures by his own son, straightway, even against his will and grinding his teeth, he lets go his anger. D Another again while being dragged and led away in the middle of the market, with Greeks and Jews standing by, adjures him who is leading him away by the most horrendous oaths, and no one pays heed. What will the Greeks not say, when a believer adjures a believer and a Christian, and no account is taken of it, but we even despise it? Shall I narrate what I myself heard? For I do not say this by inventing the matter, but having heard it from a man worthy of belief. A certain maid was joined to a man who was wicked and impure and a fugitive; she, when her husband had sinned much and was to be sold by his mistress—for his sins were greater than could be pardoned; and the woman was a widow, and could not punish him without losing her household; but she had resolved to sell him—then, deeming it wicked to separate the husband from the wife, the mistress preferred to sell that woman, even though she was thrifty and useful, along with him, rather than that separation. The girl, therefore, seeing herself reduced to great perplexity of mind, came to a person of reverence, a friend of her mistress, who also told me, and taking hold of her knees, and weeping much and wailing, she begged that she might plead her mistress's case on her behalf, and having brought forward the most horrendous oath—this was the oath: "So may you see Christ on the day of judgment, as you do not ignore my petition"—and having said these things, she went away. The mistress, having been entreated, with some worldly concern falling upon her, such as happens in households, forgot it. Then suddenly at midday she recalled the oath, and was moved vehemently, and went and with great diligence accomplished the matter. And during that night she suddenly saw the heavens opened, and Christ Himself—she saw Him, as far as it is possible for a woman to see. For since she had entirely
concerned herself with the swearing of the oath, because she was afraid, she was deemed worthy of this vision. I have said these things so that we might not despise oaths, especially when some people entreat us for the sake of good things, for the sake of alms, for the sake of charity. A And now, poor men, with their feet cut off, sit there, watching you pass by; and since they cannot follow you with their feet, they expect, as if with a hook, to hold you fast through the fear of the oath, and stretching out their hands, they conjure you, so that you might give one obol, or two at most; yet you pass by, having conjured your own Master. B And if one should conjure you by your eyes, or by your husband who is abroad, or by your little son, or by your daughter, you yield immediately, and your mind leaps and you grow warm; but if he conjures you by the Lord, you pass by. And I know many who pass by Christ when they hear His name, but when they are praised for their beauty by those approaching, they are dissolved, they are softened, and they stretch out their hand. Thus they have brought these wretched poor into this state, to become buffoons. For because their vehement steps and bitter words do not touch the soul, they come to this way, by which they especially give pleasure; and our great wickedness has forced even those who are in calamity and being choked by hunger to speak praises of beauty, these beggars. C And would that this were the only thing, but there is also another kind of this even more grievous: it has forced the poor to be performers, and to use offensive language, and to be buffoons. For when they thread bowls and ivy-cups and drinking vessels on their fingers, and while putting them on, make music with cymbals, D and having a pipe, they sing through it obscene songs full of lust, and shout with their voices; then many stand around, and some provide a piece of bread, others an obol, others something else, and they keep them for a long time, and both men and women take pleasure—what is more grievous than this? Are these things not worthy of much lamentation? They are small things, and are thought to be small, but they bring forth great sins in our characters. For when something obscene is said and a sweet melody ensues, it softens the mind, and corrupts that very soul itself. And the poor man who calls upon God, and prays for ten thousand blessings for you, is not even considered worthy of a word from you; but the other, who introduces the novelties, is admired.
What has now come into my mind to say to you, I will say. What is this? When you are afflicted with poverty and sickness, if from nowhere else, at least learn from the beggars who pass through the lanes to give thanks to the Master. For these, spending their whole life in begging, do not blaspheme, do not grow indignant, nor do they complain, but they make the whole account of their begging a thanksgiving, rendering God great and philanthropic. One who is wasting away with hunger calls Him philanthropic; but you who live in abundance, if you do not receive everything, you call Him cruel. How much better is he than you? How will he condemn us then? God has left the poor to us as common teachers of our calamities and as a consolation throughout the world. Have you suffered something involuntary? But it is nothing like what he has suffered. Have you had your eye cut out? But he has had two. Have you suffered a long illness? But he has an incurable one. Have you lost your children? But he has lost even the health of his own body. Have you suffered a great loss? But you have not yet been brought to the point of needing others. Therefore, give thanks to God. B You see them in the furnace of poverty, begging from all, yet receiving from few. When you are weary of praying and do not receive, consider how many times you heard a poor man calling to you, and you did not listen, and he did not grow indignant, nor did he insult you. Although you do this out of cruelty, God sometimes acts out of philanthropy in not listening. If, therefore, you do not expect to be blamed for not listening to your fellow-servant out of cruelty, do you blame the Master of the servant for not listening out of philanthropy? Do you see how great is the inequality? How great the injustice? 4. Let us think of these things constantly, of those who are lower, those who are in greater calamities, and thus we shall be able to give thanks to God. The life of many is full of such examples; and he who is sober and wishes to pay heed has no small instruction even from the houses of prayer. For this reason they sit in front of the porches in the churches and in the shrines of the martyrs, so that we may receive great benefit from the sight of them. C For consider that when we enter into the palaces on earth, there is nothing like this to be seen; but men who are august, and brilliant, and wealthy, and sagacious, run about everywhere; but into the true palaces—I mean the church, and the houses of prayer of the martyrs—demon-possessed, crippled, and poor come, old men, blind, and those with distorted limbs. Why is this? So that you may be instructed by the sight of them, first, so that if you enter dragging some pride from outside, having looked at them, and having put aside that arrogance, and having contrited your heart, you may enter and hear what is said (for it is not possible to be heard while praying with pride); so that, when you see an old man, you may not pride yourself on your youth; for these old men were also young; so that, when you boast greatly of military service and royal power, you may recall that those who have become brilliant in the royal courts are also from these; so that, when you are confident in the health of your body, by attending to these, you may curb your mind. D For by entering here constantly, the one who is healthy will not pride himself on the health of his body; and the one who is suffering will receive no small consolation. And they do not sit here only for this reason, but to make you merciful, that you may be moved to pity, that you may admire the philanthropy of God. For if God is not ashamed of them, but has set them in his own porches, much more should you not be; so that you might not pride yourself on the palaces that are on earth. Do not, therefore, be ashamed to be called by a poor man, and if he approaches, and if he holds your knees, do not shake him off; for these are certain wonderful dogs of the royal courts. For I did not call them dogs to dishonor them—God forbid—but even highly praising them; they guard the royal court. Feed them, therefore; for the honor ascends to the King. There is all pride in the palaces—I mean those on earth—here there is all humility. That human things are nothing, you learn from these very porches; that God does not delight in wealth, you are taught by those themselves who sit before them. For the sitting and the gathering of these is, as it were, an exhortation, sending forth a brilliant voice to the nature of all men, and saying that human affairs are nothing, that they are a shadow and smoke. If wealth were a good thing, He would not have set the poor in front of them.
to the nature of all men, and saying that human affairs are nothing, that they are a shadow and smoke. If wealth were a good thing, He would not have set the poor in front of them.A But if He admits the rich as well, do not wonder; for He does not admit them so that they might remain rich, but so that they might depart from pride and haughtiness of mind; for hear what Christ says to them: "You cannot serve God and mammon." And again: "A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven"; and again: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matth. 19. 24). And so, let them hear these words, so that they may desire eternal riches, so that they may covet those things which are in the heavens. And why do you wonder if He does not disdain that such persons should sit in His vestibules? For He does not disdain to call them to a spiritual table, and to make them partakers of that banquet. But even the lame and the maimed, the old man covered in rags, filthy and full of phlegm, together with the beautiful youth, and he who clothes himself in purple, and he whose head is encircled with a diadem, comes to be a participant in the table, and is considered worthy of the spiritual banquet, and both enjoy the same things, and there is no difference.
B If indeed Christ does not disdain to call them to the table with the King, for both are called together; do you perhaps disdain to be seen giving to the poor, or even speaking to them? O the arrogance! How great the haughtiness! See that the same things do not happen to us as to the rich man. He disdained even to look upon Lazarus, and did not deem him worthy even of the shelter of his house, but he was cast out in the vestibule; nor did he deem him worthy even of words. But see how, when he had need of his help, he did not attain it. For if we are ashamed of those of whom Christ is not ashamed, we are ashamed of Christ, while we are ashamed of His friends. Let your table be filled with the lame, the maimed, and the mutilated: through them Christ arrives, not through the rich. Perhaps you laugh as you hear this. Do not therefore think it is my word, but hear Christ Himself speaking, so that you may not laugh, but that you may shudder. "When," He says, "you make a dinner or a supper, do not call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor your rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and a recompense be made to you; but when you make a banquet, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they have nothing with which to recompense you: for it will be recompensed to you in the resurrection of the just" (Luc. 14. 12-14). C But there is also greater glory here, if indeed you love it. For from those others there is envy, accusations, and curses, and much fear that something may be done contrary to what is becoming, and so you stand by as a servant to a master, and if greater men have been invited, you fear their complaints and censure; but in these there is nothing of this kind, but whatever you may offer them, they receive gladly; and there is great applause from it, more splendid glory, greater admiration. Not all who hear applaud them as they do these. But if you do not believe it, make the trial, you rich man who call leaders and princes; call the poor, and fill the table with them, to see if you are not applauded by all, if you are not loved by all, if all will not hold you as a father. For there is no profit from those former suppers; but for these, heaven is stored up, and the goods which are in the heavens. May it be granted to us all to attain to all these things, by the grace and benignity of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, along with the Holy Spirit, be glory, empire, honor, now and always, and for ages of ages. Amen.
THE COMMENTARY OF OUR HOLY FATHER JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONICENSES. ARGUMENT. HOMILY I
"And to see you; and, We do not endure, but we were left alone at Athens; and, I sent Timothy" (1 Thess. 3. 1) being said in the former epistle, that we desire night and day to see you, and that we do not endure, but we were left alone at Athens, and that I sent Timothy—this reveals all the longing he had, so that he might come to them. Since, therefore, perhaps he had not yet been able to attain that he should go to them, and to remedy the deficiencies of their faith, for this reason he adds the second epistle, so that the defi-