brothers, about our affliction that happened to us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure, beyond our strength; but we ourselves within ourselves had the sentence of death.” A And he adds: “so that we might not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a danger.” “We despaired,” he says, “and did not expect that we should live, but we thought that we should die; for this is what it means: ‘We ourselves within ourselves had the sentence of death.’ The events themselves answered us, telling us that we would surely perish.” Why did God allow us to come into so many and so great dangers? “So that we might not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead”; that is, that we might not be high-minded, that we might not be puffed up because of our good works. Which he declares still more clearly, writing again in this way. For after he had said that he had been caught up into heaven and had entered into paradise, and had heard those unspeakable words, he added: B “And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me.” Here he indicates those who were vexing him, who were causing him trouble, and were casting him into prison; for he calls each one of them Satan. “It was permitted,” he says, “for me to endure temptations, so that my arrogance might be repressed, and that I might learn to act with modesty.” C And therefore, when I had asked God, I did not obtain that which I sought; but I remained continually exposed to treachery, having my tribulations as a remedy for humility. And the life which he had led earlier, even before his conversion, was sufficient to bring him back to a sound mind. For he who had sat at the feet of Gamaliel, who lived accurately according to the law of his fathers, who was a zealot for his ancestral traditions, who pored over the prophets every day, who had been educated in the law: this man did not admit Christ, who had arrived and was working miracles, who was saying such things and putting forward and interpreting the words of Scripture; but even D after He had been crucified and had risen, he persecuted Him, and with a thousand hands he pelted His disciple with stones, and waged war against the Churches, and was more ferocious than any wolf. And until the light shone from above, and the voice reached him drawing him toward the truth, he could not know what he ought to do. And therefore he himself frequently in his epistles bows his head and dwells upon these things, blushing with shame for the things which he had done earlier. And writing to Timothy he said: “I give thanks to Him who strengthened me, Christ, because He accounted me faithful, putting me into his ministry, who before was a blasphemer and a persecutor and insolent; but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Tim. 1:12-13). And again: “Therefore I obtained mercy, that in me first God might show all patience, for the information of those who are about to believe in Him unto eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:16). And writing to the Corinthians he said: “I who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church” (1 Cor. 15:9).
6. That the prefects of the Churches ought to be prone to granting pardon.
All these things happened, and God left them stripped of His grace, so that after they had learned their own infirmity, and how a man can do nothing without help from above, when they ascended to the judicial throne, and were constituted as prefects and rulers, they might show much humanity and condescension, and be prone to granting pardon to their subjects. A And therefore writing to the Galatians he said: “Brothers, if a man be overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual, instruct such a one, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted” (Gal. 6:1). Knowing these things, therefore, let us draw in the perverse and contumacious, and let us be prone to granting pardon to those who sin, and let us show much kindness together with the divine laws, so that we ourselves may obtain much pardon for our sins, by the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Homily 2
When the Empress had come in the middle of the night to the great church, and had thence taken the relics of the martyrs, and had followed them through the middle of the forum as far as Drypia, although the martyrium was nine miles distant from the city, the homily was spoken in the martyrium, she herself being present with the whole city and the magistrates.
1. What shall I say? What shall I speak? I exult and am mad, but with a madness that is better than wisdom itself; dancing and leading dances, I am carried aloft, drunk already, from this spiritual pleasure. What shall I say? What shall I speak?