HOMILY IX. On the fact that one must not attend the circus or the theaters. And because he had caused them distress, then in the meeting following that Sunday, when he had yielded the platform to a certain bishop who had come from Galatia, and he himself had kept silence, and in this too had offended them, he delivered this homily in the Great Church, on: "My Father is working until now, and I am working" (John 5:17).
A I stung you severely when speaking recently about the theaters and the horse races; and for this reason I rejoice and exult, according to the apostolic voice saying: "And who is he who makes me glad, except he who is grieved by me?" (2 Cor. 2:2). For I see much fruit originating from this grief. For medicines that cure ulcers bite the wounds first, and only then [do they] release [them] from the suppuration; so too, the discourse that pricks the hearer makes a beginning of correction. For just as in our bodies, the flesh that has once died feels neither the incision, nor medicines, nor cauterization; and therefore, even if countless things are applied, it cannot return to health, having lost the beginning and foundation of the cure; but that which feels both the iron and fire and medicines, quickly returns to health: so too in souls that are callous, they are not easily changed; but those that know how to feel ashamed and to blush and to be pained by rebukes, provide for us the greatest proof that they will quickly be rid of wickedness. Therefore, blessed Paul, since he knew these things, greatly approved of those who were grieved and rejoiced because of them; but he despaired of those not so affected, saying: "Who, having lost sensitivity, have given themselves up to lasciviousness, for the practice of all uncleanness in greediness" (Eph. 4:19). For he who does not know how to grieve, how shall he ever be corrected, if he has not first learned this? Since, therefore, this was rightly done by you, we greatly trust for your charity: for if one address so stung you, and cast you into such anxiety that you fainted in spirit and were troubled; it is manifest that the second and third [ones] added will free you from every disease. And that you may learn that I do not say these things to flatter you, by those things which you recently showed, you have testified to the truth of our words. For those of you who had been so rebuked that you grieved and fainted in spirit, B on the next Sunday you showed us a more splendid theater, a more numerous assembly, and greater alacrity; and you all were suspended, as swallows' chicks hanging from the nest, and gasping for our tongue. Then, because we yielded the place to our brother who had come from Galatia—whom we honored both because of the very law of the Church bidding us to receive strangers in this way, and because of his venerable gray hair—so that he might preach, you departed shouting, taking it grievously, as if you were already famishing for a long while and longing for our tongue that thus cuts [to the quick], I mean the one that rebukes, that pricks, that brings pain, doing the very same thing as if a little child, beaten and rebuked, would not even so desist from its mother, but would follow her weeping, clinging to the mother’s garments from the side, and dragging itself after her with lamentations. Therefore I exult and am thrilled with pleasure, and I proclaim myself to be blessed, preaching among so many lovers, having you so suspended from my tongue. This is sweeter to me than the solar ray, this is more pleasing than light; this is certainly life, to have such grateful hearers, who not only wish to applaud, but also to be corrected, who when rebuked do not recoil, but flee to the one rebuking. C Therefore I also am going to address you with greater alacrity, and today I shall render the residue of the things spoken recently; now setting aside rebuke, lest by again accusing the slothful we bring loss to the zealous, while we spend the whole colloquy on reproving them. For even if nothing were said by us, that which happened yesterday would be enough to avert those who were at the hippodrome and are driven by rabies from this untimely concupiscence. For the slaughter committed yesterday in the hippodrome filled the whole city with tragedy, drew around it choruses of women, and filled the forum with many laments, while he who had been so miserably cut and torn by the chariots was carried through the midst of the people. And this man, as I know, was to light the nuptial torches the following day, when the marriage chambers were prepared, and everything was arranged for the wedding; under the Prætor’s order, having a place in the stadium, while he was running below, with the charioteers pressing and contending with one another, he was intercepted in the middle, and underwent that violent and miserable death, with his head and extremities severed. D You say, why [do you address] us, who are sitting above? To you most of all: for if you had not stirred up the zeal for running together, those things would not have happened below. But lest I again make the sermon more burdensome and rub the wound raw, leaving these things to your conscience, I shall endeavor to give the rest of the things spoken recently. What therefore were we saying recently? I was saying that Christ is called the foundation, that he might carry, sustain and bear all things: this I wish now to demonstrate from another apostolic saying: for he who said those things, interpreting that saying, says: "Who being the brightness of [his] glory and the express image of his substance, upholding all things by the word of his power, having by himself made a purgation [of sins], sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. 1:3). What is, "upholding"? Governing, managing, dispensing, sustaining, hold-
holding. For he not only brought all things out of non-existence into being, but he also exercises providence over those that have come into being, just like the Father who begat him. Therefore, declaring this, he said: "My Father is working until now, and I am working" (John 5:17). Hence the Jews sought all the more to kill him, not only because he was breaking the Sabbath, but because he even called his own Father God, making himself equal to God. B Where are now the children of the heretics, who are raging against their own salvation and are separating him from the equality with the Father? Let them hear the voice of the evangelist—and when I say the evangelist, I mean Christ, who moves his soul—let them hear, and feel ashamed, and cease from such raving. For indeed, the Jews were persecuting him for this reason, that he claimed to be equal; and these men are choked for this reason, that we report to him this praise, having been taught it by him. But, he says, this judgment was not his, nor the evangelist's, but the Jews'. Truly, if it were even the Jews', this would be your greatest indictment and ultimate accusation, that you do not see for yourself what the irrational Jews perceived being prepared by his words. For he did not introduce these things from his own mind, but rather reasoned with them from what Christ was saying. And so that you may learn that this expression is not the Jews', but the evangelist's own judgment and meaning—and when I say the evangelist's, I mean Christ, who moves his understanding—examine the words themselves. "My Father." Is it not plain to everyone, even to the most foolish, that he said, "My Father," in order to declare him as his own? And the adding again, "is working, and I am working," does this not establish equality? For he did not say, "He works, and I minister"; "He works, and I am subordinate"; but, "He works, and I work." Do you see how the statement was not a notion of the Jews, but a demonstration from his own words? For if it were some mistaken suspicion and judgment of the Jews that he was making himself equal to God, and he himself did not wish for this to be suspected, and the Jews suspected it against his will—conceiving things other than what he himself wished to establish—the evangelist would not have left it thus uncorrected, but would have noted it and stated it clearly. For it is their custom to do this, both to them and to Jesus; and I will try to make this clear to you by one or two examples, that whenever Christ says something, and he himself says it one way, but the Jews suspect it another way, the evangelist provides a correction. And so that you may learn this clearly, hear John himself making this very thing plain. For when he entered the temple of God, and cast out the money-changers, having made a whip, and was saying, "Do not make my Father's house a house of merchandise" (John 2:16), the Scribes and Pharisees, coming up, were saying, "What sign do you show us, that you do these things?" What then does he say? "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," speaking about his own body. But they did not discern this, but what do they say? "Forty-six years this temple was built, and will you raise it up in three days?"—speaking about the Jewish temple built with stones; for that one was built in forty-six years after the return from Babylon, the builders being hindered by the barbarian plot, and much time having passed, this temple was completed. Since, therefore, Jesus was speaking about his own body, indicating the cross and the resurrection—for this is what, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," means—they suspected it concerned the Jewish temple; whence they were saying, "Forty-six years this temple was built, and will you raise it up in three days?" C See how the evangelist did not pass over it, but added the correction, saying, "But he was speaking about the temple of his body" (John 2:21). For he did not say, "Destroy this body," but, "The temple," in order to point out the God dwelling in it, and to show the temple which was far better than the Jewish one. For the one held the law, but the other [the body] held the Lawgiver; the one held the letter that kills, but the other held the Spirit that gives life; the one held the rod of Aaron, but the other held the rod of Jesse.
3. Elsewhere, after performing the miracle of the loaves, he departed with them, crossing over to the other side, and was saying to the disciples, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees" (Mark 8:14; Matt. 16:6). But they, hearing "leaven," suspected it concerned loaves; yet he was not speaking about loaves, but about the teaching of the Pharisees. Since, therefore, he said it one way, but those men suspected it another way, see how he corrects it, saying, "Are you still without understanding? Do you not remember the five loaves and how many baskets you took up, and the seven loaves and how many hampers you took up? Why do you not understand that I did not speak to you about loaves, but about the teaching of the Pharisees, so that you should beware?" (Matt. 16:9). Do you see how, both in the case of the temple and here, the evangelist corrects the suspicion of those who are mistaken? So, then, in the case of his making himself equal to God, if he were not making himself equal to God, but the Jews were merely suspecting it from what was said, the evangelist would have corrected this suspicion and said that the Jews thought he was making himself equal to God, but he himself was not doing so, nor was he establishing it. But in order that you may learn from the words themselves that he especially wished to fix this in the minds of men, let us take the discourse higher and learn what it was he was accused of when he was making this apology. What, then, was he accused of? That he was doing works on the Sabbath. "For this reason," he says, "the Jews were persecuting him, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath" (John 5:16). What, then, were these things? That he healed the paralytic, and ordered him to take up his bed and depart to his house. Hence, also, questioning him, they were saying, who was it who ordered him to do these things on the Sabbath; and he said, "He who made me whole, he said to me, Take up your bed, and walk to your house." Being vexed at these things, they were persecuting him, because he ordered these things on the Sabbath, which appeared to be a transgression and breaking of the law. What, then, does Christ say in his defense? "My Father is working until now, and I am working" (Ibid. v. 17). And yet, it was possible to say many other things, if he wished merely to apologize, and not to show his equality. For often the Sabbath was broken, and first indeed in the case of the city of the people of Jericho. For when they were assaulting the walls, they were commanded for seven days to go around the walls carrying trumpets, and thus they were brought down.
HOMILIA X
to bring the servants into the midst, David and the priests; but when it is about himself, the Father? If at times he uses other defenses, as when he says: "If a man receives circumcision, are you indignant at me because I have made a whole man whole on the Sabbath?" (John 7:23); and again, "Who is there among you who does not loose his sheep and his ox?" (Luke 13:15); it is nothing strange; for he does not always speak as God, but sometimes also as man, because he was both God and man. Here, however, he speaks according to his dignity, saying: "My Father is working until now, and I am working." Therefore the evangelist says, "The Jews were persecuting him, not only because he was breaking the Sabbath, but because he was calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God." I, for my part, would gladly ask the heretic this also: Was he calling God his own Father, or was he not? Was this an opinion of the Jews, or a pronouncement of Christ? Even if he acts with complete impudence, he is convicted by the truth. He was saying, "My Father is working until now, and I am working": was he breaking the Sabbath, or was he not? It is manifest that he was breaking it: "I work," he says, "and he works." Therefore, neither of these was from a Jewish opinion, but from the declaration and pronouncement of Christ, both that he was breaking the Sabbath and that he was calling God his own Father. How then, when you say these things are from the pronouncement of Christ, do you say that that other is from the suspicion of the Jews, when it is nonetheless a consequence and strictly joined to this, and is announced in a similar way by the evangelist? For all these things are the narration of the evangelist, explaining those things which were spoken by Christ. And therefore, when the Jews were accusing him, he said that they were persecuting him, not only because he was breaking the Sabbath, but also because he was calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God. But this confutation of the heretics has here a suitable and appropriate end: and if you also wish to learn what that operation is by which the Father works, and the Son also, I would say it is providence toward all things, their preservation and care. For the things that are seen were all made in the space of six days, "And God rested on the seventh day" (Gen. 2:2); but his providence for them did not rest. This providence, therefore, Christ calls "operation," saying: "My Father is working, and I am working," which is to say, providing, caring, preserving, containing, suffering nothing to fall apart. Therefore, let us add an accurate mode of life that is congruent with the dogmas, having received the demonstration of true dogmas from what has been said; since the mere knowledge of true dogmas is not sufficient for us unto salvation, but we also have need of an excellent life, so that by rendering glory to God in all things, we may attain the promised good things: to whom be glory and empire unto the ages of ages. Amen.