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.
HOMILIA X
The same homily, delivered in the church of the Apostles, after the bishop had preached a few words, on the text: "The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the laborers are few" (Matt. 9:37). ...youth. Have you seen the same man both old and young; old in body, young in mind? Have you seen gray hair flourishing and old age flourishing in strength? Such, indeed, are our affairs, contrary to what they are among the outsiders. For among the outsiders, old age is useless; as a soldier who having come to that age, cannot draw a bow, or shoot an arrow, or wield a spear, or mount a horse, or assault walls, or …do anything of the kind. And the navigator, when old age has relaxed the tension of his flesh, will be unable to tighten the ropes, or unfurl the sails, or handle the oar, or shift the rudders, or fight with the waves, or do anything of the sort. Again, the husbandman at this time of life will be unable to yoke oxen, or drag the plow, or break up and furrow the earth, or tend a tree, or join himself to the chorus of reapers, or be able to do any such thing; but each of these sits at home, having the inability that comes from his age, and shackled by that great and unavoidable necessity, which is old age. A But it is not so with the teacher of the Church; rather, at that time he will contend most of all, and will apply himself to his discourse, and will propose teachings, and will attempt to regulate the behavior of the people. For old age, while useless in other conditions, is most useful in the Church and in the labors of virtue. For even blessed Abraham took up the greatest struggle precisely when he was at that age; for then, yes, then he dissolved the tyranny of nature, and slew his son; he slew him, if not by the deed, yet by his resolve; if not in the end, yet in his intent; if not in the work, yet in his mind; then he became a priest of his own bowels, and having moved himself almost out of nature itself, and having shifted his anchor toward heaven, he accomplished that wonderful and paradoxical deed. And Paul, the teacher of the inhabited world, in deepest old age was girding himself for those wondrous struggles, and bore bonds and chains and prisons in his aged body with great vigor; and, declaring this, he himself said: “As Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner in Christ Jesus” (Philem. 9). And I say these things not to dishonor youth; for the children who trampled the furnace were very young and mere lads, and Jeremiah was very young who received the prophecy; and Daniel, when he bridled the lions, and because of his unspeakable boldness brought into the midst those secret dreams of the king and made them plain to him who had seen them, was very young; and youth was no obstacle to the virtue of the man. For in external matters, as I said before, both untimely old age and untimely youth would be the greatest impediments; but in the contests of virtue, it is not so, but there is need only of resolve and a prepared soul; and neither is youth useless, nor is old age unfit, but in either age it is ripe if only one has, as I said before, a soul that is sober and knows how to love wisdom, and through great virtue draws to itself the favor of God. Therefore, let no one take either youth or old age as an excuse for sloth; since even now many youths among us fill this spiritual theater, while those who have aged behave unseemly in the hippodromes; and again, other old men are adorned by their greying hair and by their listening, while young men make their youth more irrational through the spectacles there. For even if many of those present are with us, I have no satiation; for I did not want only many to be present, but all of them, and for no one to be absent from the Church; so that, for as long as even one appears to be straying, I am racked and torn with pains. For B that shepherd, having left the ninety and nine sheep, hastened after the one that had strayed, and did not desist before he had brought it back to the flock, and he exerted great effort for its sake; for the number of one hundred was limping until he received the one, and then the hundred became a hundred, because this one also was saved. Do not tell me that it is only one brother who is lost; but consider that he is a brother, the creature most studied by God, for whom so many things were brought to pass, for whom the precious blood was shed and such high price paid, for whom the sky was stretched out, and the sun was kindled, and the moon runs, and the variegated chorus of the stars shines, and the air was spread out and the sea was poured forth, and the earth was founded, and springs bubble, and rivers flow, and mountains stand firm: for whom there are meadows and paradises, for whom there are seeds and plants, for whom there are the variegated kinds of plants, for whom there are those on the mountains, those in the deserts, in the cities, in the plains, in the glens, in the hills: for whom there are the ten thousand tribes of fish, for whom there are the varied kinds of quadrupeds, for whom there are the manifold tribes of birds, for whom there is the Law, for whom there are the prophets, for whom there are apostles, for whom ten thousand miracles were wrought; what need is there to say much? C For whom the only-begotten Son of God became man, and having become man, was slain.
2. Consider how great is the care of God for the salvation of men, and despise no person, but when this spiritual theater has been dissolved, search for him who remained away, and do not desist before you bring him and join him to his mother, and turn him away from his wicked habit, and save the captive, and draw up him who has been drowned, and deliver him who has been seized by the wild beasts from the fierce beasts. For what excuse could you find, what apology? We come to the shrines of the apostles; we see their wounds and stigmata, the blood flowing more precious than gold, the chains, the scourges, the daily deaths which they suffered for the Church; we see Paul’s disciple running everywhere with Paul, and yoked with his master, and the calf being compared with the bull; the brother of the first of the apostles, the fisherman who cast his net and fished for men instead of fish, the herald of the Gospel; and we delight in their accomplishments as in a meadow. But those who have abandoned us sit as spectators of irrational horses, washing each other with reproaches and insults, kindling anger and fighting without cause, rejoicing in a joy more wretched than sorrow, for charioteers winning, for horses being driven; what could be more irrational than this? For why do you rejoice, tell me? Why do you leap and jump and descend from there cheerful? And you, for what reason are you pained and do you wrap your head and look down and grieve your own soul, because such-and-such won, and the other was defeated? And what are these things to you? What reason could this sorrow, or this pleasure, have? And who of you would not be worthy of punishment, when you take no account of your own soul being dragged along every day by the passions, but rejoice or grieve for irrational animals and other irrational men? But so that we do not consume the time by spending this whole discourse on these matters again, entrusting the correction of those people to your love, let us touch upon what was read today, and into D (a)
(a) Whether for the sake of the meaning, or as it were by way of illustration.
there are diverse flowers, and all of them B attract the eyes of the spectator in lovely succession, so it is to be seen in the divine Scriptures. For the blessed David draws our mind to himself, and the apostolic utterance concerning Timothy; and furthermore that bold Isaiah, philosophizing about human nature, and the Lord of them all, Jesus, speaking to the disciples and saying: "The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the laborers are few" (Matt. IX, 37). Come then, if you please, by bringing this saying into our midst, let us unfold its thoughts; for even if the saying is brief, it offers us a sea of meanings. Therefore let us approach it with much eagerness. For since He saw, He says, the multitude dispersed, He says to the disciples: "The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the laborers are few." What harvest, tell me, and for what reason did you name this teaching thus? And yet, the harvest is the end of the C matter. When the seed has been cast into the depths of the earth, and has enjoyed moisture, then having become wet and swollen, it has occupied the surrounding earth, and having spread out into many divisions and sent its roots down into the depths, it first breaks through the surface, and nurtured by the small sun, rain, and air, it grows by the power of the earth, and at first it becomes a grassy plant and puts forth tender leaves, then it brings forth an immature ear, and when spring arrives, becoming mature little by little with straw and awns, it returns the full fruit. Then, finally, the farmer, having sharpened his sickle, gathers the harvesters and stores up the collected fruit in his house. The harvest is, therefore, the end of all labor and agriculture. How, then, I ask, does He call it a harvest, while the things were still in their beginnings? For impiety held sway everywhere in the world, and altars were burning, and idols were being worshipped, and Jesus was being dishonored, and deep night held everything, and it was a harsh winter, with the sea surging and the wild winds disrupting human life, D with all passions playing the tyrant and causing people to be submerged. For everywhere there was fornication and adultery and licentiousness; everywhere greed, rapine, wars; blood upon the land, blood upon the sea, blood of those who had been submerged, and those who had introduced the slaughter, wars constant and battles, and civil slaughters, and slaughters more detestable than all others; for children were even being sacrificed to idols, and nature was being ignored, and kinship was being overturned; everywhere there were precipices and rocks and hidden reefs, and there was no human pilot; or rather, the pilots were few in the Jewish nation; but there was no one to hear, with the sailors disputing with one another, and cutting one another to pieces and casting one another into the sea. For the Scythians and Thracians and Moors and Indians and Persians and Sarmatians, and those who inhabited Greece and Epirus, and almost every land that is under the sun, were worshipping demons, and by those avenging spirits everything was being destroyed—region and city and wilderness, land and sea, barbarian and Hellene, mountains and glens and hills. The Jewish nation alone, which seemed to be pursuing piety, had the prophets and small seeds of the knowledge of God; but even these had been buried by the lapse of time, and the teachers of that A nation had become bitter accusers of the sinners among them; and so far from instructing others and leading them by the hand to piety, even they were at that time causes of scandal to others. And the prophet was saying, declaring this: "My name is blasphemed among the nations because of you" (Isai. LII, 5).
G'. How, with so many things holding sway over the habitable world, and with the seeds not yet cast (for everywhere were thorns and briars and noxious herbs), the earth not yet cleared, nor the plow drawn, nor a furrow made—how does He speak of the harvest and say, "The harvest is plentiful"? And why does He call the Gospel thus? Why? Because the matters were so disposed, and He was about to send them through the whole world; but it was B likely that they would have been disturbed, and would have reflected within themselves and said: "And how can it possibly be that we are eleven (for one has been snatched away by the devil), unlearned men, illiterate, poor, obscure, naked, possessing one tunic, barefoot, carrying neither belt, nor staff, nor a coin, so that we might be able to traverse the whole world that is so disposed, and to pull it away from its ancient custom, and to introduce to them the dogmas of the new [Testament], and to instill a certain strange teaching? When shall we pull up the thorns? When shall we sow the seeds? When shall we cultivate their mind like a field? When shall the seed be returned? Who will not snatch us away? Who will not cast us down precipices? How shall we be able even to open our mouths, to stand, to C argue, to appear before so many thousands of men? How shall we suppress the fury of tyrants, the insurrections of the people, the arguments of philosophers, the eloquence of rhetoricians, the tyranny of a prejudiced mind, the strength of ancient custom, the snares of the demons, souls possessed by a thousand diseases? We, therefore, being eleven, how shall we correct everyone who is in the world, the unlearned correcting the wise, the naked the armed, the subjects the rulers, we who hold to one language disputing against innumerable languages, and against barbarian nations? Who will put up with us, whose language they cannot even understand?" Lest, reflecting on these things, they be troubled, He called the Gospel a harvest, as if to say: "Everything is prepared, everything is D ordered; I am sending you to the prepared collection of fruits; on the very same day you will be able to sow and to reap." Just as, therefore, a farmer going out to the harvest rejoices and exults, not considering the toils and hardships, but hastening as if to a prepared profit, and running to the annual fruits, and there is for him no impediment or obstacle, no uncertainty of the future, no rains, no hailstorms, no droughts, and not that evil army of locusts—for he who attends to the harvest suspects nothing of the sort; therefore, they go on their way dancing, exulting, and applying themselves to their labors: so too it is necessary for you, nay, with even greater pleasure, to go out into the world. For the matter is indeed a harvest—a harvest having much ease, a harvest showing you the stalks [alt-version omitted] prepared.
A For He himself was the one who made difficult things easy; and, as the prophet B said: *I will go before you, and will level the mountains* (Is. 45:2). These things happened to the Apostles in a sensible way; for Christ was clearing the road for them and making the journey easy. This is what the most eloquent Isaiah declared when he said: *Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low* (Is. 40:4)—not speaking of mountains and hills (for this did not happen), but calling the arrogant, the puffed-up, and the high-minded by the name of mountains. Yet Christ humbled everyone with a humility full of height, and made the mountains into plains. He calls them arrogant not because of the height of their mind, but because of the fruitlessness of their arrogance, the barrenness of their soul, and the insensibility of their words. For just as a mountain cannot bear fruit, so too arrogance—or rather, not just so, but even more grievously. For the mountain might not bear fruit, but arrogance not only does not give any fruit, but it also withers the one that is there and dries up the one that has sprouted; just as humility not only warms the one that is there, but is accustomed to beget even that which is not.
4. C Great examples of what has been said are the Pharisee and the tax collector. For the former, having come up with arrogance, not only did not beget any fruit, but also lost what he had. But the tax collector, being desolate and having nothing good, makes an achievement for himself; for because he merely sighed and, bowing himself down, lamented his own state, he went down teeming with much righteousness, and in this regard outstripped the Pharisee. And that you might see it from the very facts, and learn from specific persons where Christ humbled the mountain and the hill, let the discourse bring Paul before us again. For this tentmaker (for I willingly play upon his trade, so that you may learn that the trade is not a reproach, but idleness is a charge and a crime)—this Paul, then, having come to Salamis, encountered a certain proconsul and a sorcerer with him. Double was the precipice: both the arrogance from his authority and the teaching from the sorcerer. And when he saw that small and shameless beast hindering the proconsul and cutting off his teaching, hear what he says, being filled with the Holy Spirit: *O you, full of all deceit and all craftiness, you son of the devil* (Acts 13:9-10). For to insult is not everywhere an evil, but to insult without cause; for to this even Christ has assigned punishment. But the one who does this at the proper time imitates a physician who cuts at the proper time and by the incision expels the putrefaction. Paul does this very thing: *Will you not stop making crooked the straight ways of the Lord?* D Yet you do not endure your words, O Paul; bring in some apostolic syllogism, turn back the tongue, shut his mouth, stop the wicked streams. What, then, does he do? Showing that the war is not against men for him, he says: *And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you* (Acts 13:11). For He who said, *I am with you all the days even unto the consummation of the age* (Matt. 28:20), was present also to Paul then, and, having this promise, he calls Him and asks Him to be the avenger, to join in the work at hand, and to pull up the obstacles. *And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you.* How great is Christ’s condescension! How great is Paul’s boldness! How he brings about the blow in a verdict, and Christ immediately assents to what is said! What is the hand of the Lord? A power that opposes and strikes. For He was present to them everywhere, readily obeying and making the matter a harvest, not letting them labor or suffer hardship, but contributing the things from Himself. *And he stood blind, not seeing until a time.* Do you see the punishment combined with philanthropy? For the verdict is a warning, not a punishment; a correction, not a destruction. Therefore, he did not wither his hand, did not cut off the tongue that was uttering wicked words, did not maim his legs, but his very eyes. Since he himself learned from this both of the wandering path and of the paths that were harmful, he applies the same medicine to this man as well, as if saying: "I too was running wickedly, and I was seeing things that were lethal; therefore I was rightly blinded, so that I might see better. I am applying this medicine to you as well: I am blinding the outward eyes, so that I may open the eyes within." Then the proconsul, seeing what had happened, believed. Do you see the mountain become a plain, and the hill humbled, and the harvest completed, and the reaping prepared, and the ripe fruit gathered, and Paul having labored not at all nor suffered hardship, but with a mere word having caught the proconsul? Therefore he calls the Gospel a harvest, because of the speed and the ease which he provided to them.
5. The history of the eunuch of Candace—the barbarian and foreigner, who was established in great power—showed how he was caught, not even there was any time or labor spent. For both as soon as he stepped into the chariot he began to be catechized; or rather, before the entry, marvel at this: how the barbarian and foreigner and one swelling with power (for he handled no small office) called the poor man, the beggar, the stranger, who had never come to his sight or to his company, then first appearing, and not only called him but lifted him up and seated him with himself. Who worked these things? He who said, *I am with you all the days even unto the consummation of the age* (Matt. 28:20). He made the approach more gentle, and prepared a barbarian to philosophize, and humbled the mountain, and made the stranger more intimate than any acquaintance. Do not pass over this simply, nor think the matter a bare history, but consider the magnitude of the achievement. For if the rulers of today, being believers and taught to be humble and having nothing barbaric about them, would not choose, I do not say a stranger and an alien, to seat one of their acquaintances quickly with them in the marketplace: how did he [the eunuch] do this to the stranger? For I will not cease saying these things: the stranger, the one who had never appeared, the one of low estate, the one contemptible to the sight—he lifted this man up and seated him, and entrusted his own salvation to the tongue of that man, and consented to become a student, and begs and asks and entreats, [394] saying, *I pray you, of whom does the prophet say this?* (Acts 8:34), and with much attention he hears what is said. And not only this, but having received it, he did not neglect it, he did not postpone it. He did not say, "I will return to my own country, for the sake of friends, relatives, and kin," which many Christians say now when called to baptism: "I will return..."
"I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this?" (Acts 8:34), and he receives the words with great attention. And not only this, but having received them, he did not procrastinate, he did not delay, he did not say, "I shall return to my homeland; I shall see my philosophers, my relatives, and my kinsmen." This is what many Christians say now when called to baptism: "I shall return home, I shall see my wife, I shall see my children and my relatives; with them present and celebrating the feast with me, so shall I enjoy baptism, so shall I be a partaker of grace." But that barbarian did not say these things then, even though he was a Jew A, and had been trained in much observance and worship of places, since it had been dinned into him repeatedly that he must observe that location, and for this reason he had undertaken a great pilgrimage so that he might worship in the place where God had commanded. But immediately casting aside such a custom, and withdrawing from such an observance, when the discourse was finished and he saw a spring near the road, he said, "See, here is water; what hinders me to be baptized?" (Acts 8:36). Do you see the harvest gathered in again? Do you see how no time was wasted, but the earth, as soon as it received the seed, sent forth the waving stalk and the ripe grape? "See, here is water," he said. He did not seek walls, nor a golden roof, nor an array of garments, nor shoes; but because he had a prepared soul and was burning and kindled with desire and eagerness, he ran at once to grace and urged the teacher to lead him to baptism and bestow on him those immortal and fearful mysteries. Therefore he also agreed immediately, approving his zeal, and baptized him. B For this reason the Gospel calls it a harvest, because of the ease it provided them. For it says elsewhere also that they were attending to what was said by Paul; for the Lord opened their hearts to attend to the things spoken by him. But when you hear that he humbles mountains, makes a harvest, returns ripe fruit, and prepares much ease, do not deprive those who believe of the greatest works; for he was not applying force to freedom, nor was he overturning free will, but he was cooperating, helping, and reaching out a hand. For if it were entirely his, nothing would prevent all from being saved; but as it is, part was his, part was theirs who approached—namely, that those who approached should will, and choose, and show much zeal and generous faith; and part was God's, in that he provided the good things and made the sermon manifest and the doctrine clear, and cast the seeds, and helped the hearing toward the maturity of the fruit. Thinking of these things, therefore, let us accept him as an assistant to the labor of virtue, contributing what is ours. For if he finished so difficult a matter so easily—not in one or two or twenty cities, but throughout the whole world, that is, the preaching and the doctrine, and these things being sown throughout the whole earth on which the sun looks, C brings forth this most beautiful fruit—it is manifest that he will bring us aid to bear the toils of virtue, provided only that we are not sluggish or lazy, but if we contribute our share together—namely, zeal, care, intention, thought, vigils, solicitude, if we withdraw ourselves from worldly affairs, if we seek the things that are to come, if we desire them daily. For if we exhibit these things with accuracy, the things that are his will also follow; and with him bringing aid, we shall attain to the heavenly good things, which may we all attain, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power, for ever and ever. Amen.
HOMILY XI
Homily by the same, delivered after another very old man had preached: on Eleazar and the seven boys.
1. How beautiful is this spiritual olive! Though its boughs have aged, it has nevertheless brought us ripe fruit. For the plants of the earth are not such as the trees of the Church; for those, when they have reached old age, then lose the most of their leaves and bring forth even immature fruit. But these, when they have come to old age, then especially bear fruit abundantly. And this is certainly to be seen in him who spoke today; and therefore it seemed best to me to be silent; for when so many old men were present who knew how to speak, it was fitting for the younger to be quiet. So do the divine Scriptures instruct us; for when they address the younger, they say: "Speak, young man, in your own cause, if you should be asked twice; speak little in many words" (Eccl. 32:10, 14). But to the elder, they do not speak with such a distinction, but allow him to run without these limits; and admiring the pleasure of his words, if he speaks with prudence, they said thus: "Speak, elder, for it is fitting for you, in accurate knowledge; and you will obstruct the music" (Eccl. 32:4, 5). What is the meaning of, "And you will obstruct the music"? The flute, the cithara, and the pipes are not so sweet to the hearers as the doctrine of an elder brought forth with accurate knowledge. For the Scripture, comparing pleasure with pleasure, says that this exercises a far greater force than that; that this conquers, and that yields to it. Therefore it says, "You will obstruct the music"; that is, you will not allow them to appear, you will darken them, you will overshadow them. D Therefore it was our duty also to be silent and listen, and for him to speak and teach; but, as I have often said, I shall say this now too: I can bear neither your tyranny nor the necessity of these others; therefore I am preparing myself again for the accustomed courses, handling a difficult task—namely, speaking—with much ease, not because of my own faculties, but because of your eagerness as listeners. For even lately the discourse was carried to such a depth...