[GREEK COLUMN] : 493 And how shall this come to pass? Listen: if we betake ourselves to the church, if we groan for our transgressions, if we confess our sins, if we show mercy, if we manifest prayers, if we help those who are wronged, if we forgive our enemies their trespasses, if we shed tears for our sins; for all these things are medicines for sins. These things, then, all of them, I beg, let us make ready, day by day washing ourselves and cleansing; and with all these things let us blame ourselves, saying that we are unprofitable servants; for indeed this also is no small way of spending sins, that even when we do right, we should imagine nothing great concerning ourselves, lest we suffer what the Pharisee suffered. If we thus manage our own affairs, we shall be able to obtain mercy and forgiveness on that fearful day, and to be deemed worthy of the promised goods; of which may it be granted that we all partake, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
HOMILY VII. Homily delivered in the church of Saint Anastasia.
1. Small is the present gathering, but great is the desire; therefore the assembly is not small. For we do not seek multitudes of bodies, but a prepared disposition, a mind winged, a hearer becoming higher than all earthly things; and if one be such, he is sufficient for the speaker; since even the Samaritan woman was poor and impure and a foreigner, and yet she was deemed worthy of those long discourses by the Lord of the universe; and [Christ] had passed by Jewish crowds many times, either not conversing, or veiling the discourse; but with a woman who was a barbarian, and who had had five husbands, and who was living illegally with a sixth, he alone conversed, having sent the disciples on purpose into the market, so that he might not startle the prey. So great is the providence for even one soul to the Lord of the universe, if only he find a disposition and zeal adapted for the hearing of what is said; B which she also at that time exhibited. From a harlot, at any rate, she became an evangelist, after those reproofs crying out and saying: "Come, see a man, who told me all that I ever did: is this not the Christ?" He exposed her life, and brought into the midst the transgressions, saying: "For thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast, is not thy husband." But the reproof did not strike her down, but rather drew her to intimacy. For such are noble souls; by those things at which others are scandalized, by these are they corrected. For if she were another of the ungrateful sort, she would have been struck by the reproofs, even if she had fled, even if she had been roused to anger and indignation; but she, after the accusation, is rather made intimate with the Teacher, and questions him concerning greater mysteries; for she said, for "I perceive that thou art a prophet"; and from the knowledge of her own evils having learned, she admires even more and inquires. These were the things of a soul wishing to philosophize. For she does not ask anything concerning a worldly matter, nor about money, nor about health of body, nor about release from poverty, even though living in extreme poverty, but concerning the sacred laws, and concerning the conduct of ancestors, and the worship of fathers, saying: "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and how say ye that in Jerusalem is the place where it is fitting to worship?" And even in the preliminaries C she does the same thing, saying: "How dost thou ask of me to drink, being a Samaritan woman?" So preoccupied a soul had she, and adapted to be saved. For this reason too he who knows the secrets of the mind, having found a fertile soil, cast the seeds with a generous hand, raising her up little by little. These things have all been said by me, that you may learn that our assembly is not small. For if there one woman was a sufficient theater, how much more we, seeing so many men and so many women with such great zeal, have not despaired, but shall use the customary teaching. For if the Lord of the angels, whom the Cherubim dread, did not refuse to converse with a harlot woman alone, what apology could we have, and what forgiveness, if we pass by so great an assembly? Come, then, let us again prepare the customary table for you, and let us set up the mixing-bowl, and pour forth the unmixed wine, making a spiritual banquet. For these meats do not rend the belly, but wall in the mind; this wine does not make the hearer irrational, D but makes even the one who is drunk sober. Such is the nature of this table, which is able to suffice for us instead of a full panoply. For we also have need of weapons, since we are at war every day, not against fellow humans, but against invisible powers, against the phalanxes of the demons, against myriads of barbarian enemies, against an irreconcilable tyrant, and one who wages war against us without a truce, and neither signaling beforehand the time of the war, nor being seen, but striking from the unseen. Describing this war, the blessed Paul, the general of the universe, shouted, saying: "Finally, brethren, be strengthened in the Lord, and in the power of his might"; and again elsewhere: "For our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness of this age."
2. Did you see how he rubs the spirits of the soldiers? How he rouses the mind? How he arms the camp, both cutting off sloth and casting out fear? Since, for these two things especially in wars betray the soldiers, both to betray courage by cowardice, and, having become despondent, to increase sloth, and to give to the enemies to attack them unguarded; for neither would the one who fears immoderately be useful in war, becoming easily handled by the affliction, nor could the one who is entirely freed from fear, again, prevail over the enemies, by rashly trusting in...
his own confidence and security: Paul, therefore, correcting both, renders them ready for the battle, so that they may not slacken, while he describes the phalanx of the enemies; and again, he infuses into them confidence and boldness, so that they may not fall away, bringing into the medium the power of their leader, Christ. A Therefore, just as an excellent commander arranges his phalanx, eliminating the vices that weaken courage from the faithful, and exhibiting his own charity, and joining those who were very far removed from him by the reason of virtue by the name of kinship: for he says: *From now on, my brothers* (Eph. 6:10). For he here exhibits much greater affection towards all than those who were born from the same womb as us, and he carried the whole world in his soul: so great was the amplitude of that charity; nor only in tranquillity, but even in dangers. For when he was in prisons, and awaiting death, and was in the final perils, he was taking care of his disciples, and often wrote letters from the prisons, with his hand wrapped in chains, and his right hand bound; and entering into the judicial tribunal, and about to render an account, and to be led to death, as far as it was in the power of the judges, dismissing all those things—namely, fear, danger, threats, deaths, punishments, tortures, executioners, the anger of princes, the machines of the conspirators, floggings—he was mindful of the faithful even at that very time: so was his soul free from the bonds of the body, so, although dwelling in the flesh, he was clinging to the heavenly vault, and as if translated to that seat, thus he was doing all things while living on the earth. B And that you may learn that these words are not hyperbole, nor adulation, hear him saying this very thing: *As it is just for me to think this of you, because I have you in my heart* (Phil. 1:7). But if this seems great, that which follows is much greater. For after he said, *Because I have you in my heart*, he added, *And in my bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel*. Do you see how he never omitted them from his mind? For if his bonds, tribunals, and chains did not weaken the memory of them, much less did times of tranquillity. *Because*, he says, *I have you in my heart*. Do you see how the discourse is gradually increased? It is indeed great to have [others] in the heart, but it is much greater even [to have them] in chains: it is even greater [to have them] in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel. For here he seems to me to indicate the time when he was being led to the judges, when he was in danger of his final end. And standing there, he says, I was not thinking how I might be snatched from the imminent dangers, nor how I might repel the traps; but taking delight in your charity, and addressing the absent; and neither the length of the journey, nor the tumult of affairs, nor the magnitude of the dangers, nor the fear of princes, nor the insurrection of the peoples, nor death present, nor drawn swords, nor the crowds of executioners, nothing of this kind led me away from your memory. For nothing is more vehement than charity, nothing more sublime: it flies higher than those arrows, and is higher than the nets of the devil, looking down upon all things from the summit of the heavens: and just as a C vehement wind disperses the troublesome dust, so does the power of charity habitually repel the onset of all passions. Which also happened in Paul: he held in all things sufficient consolation—indeed, the salvation of those whom he loved, and their memory. What, however, is *and in the confirmation of the Gospel*? For although it is one voice, yet it contains a boundless ocean of meanings: I will endeavor to explain it and to search it out on every side. For the word of God is a pearl, shining through all things, not in the multitude of words, but in the brevity of words exhibiting much power of meaning. But arise, and you will see how great a treasure the power of that word reveals to us.
D Therefore [it is] the confirmation of the Gospel, and what kind of confirmation of the Gospel he speaks of, and for what cause he mentioned this saying, when he was speaking about tribunals, prisons, and chains? When the preaching of the Gospel was disseminated (for it is necessary to repeat the discourse from higher up, so that the doctrine may be clearer), all things were full of great tumult and much perturbation. For when eleven men alone were directing their battle line against the whole world, shattering ancient custom, dissolving long-standing error, overturning the laws of fathers, grandfathers, and ancestors, shaking and destroying the ancestral customs of cities, and speaking against all men—philosophers, rhetoricians, princes, judges, tyrants, peoples, slaves, the free, farmers, sailors—a most grievous war was set in motion, and, as I already said, all things were full of tumult; everywhere precipices, everywhere cliffs: neither is the sea so raging, and torn apart by contrary winds, as the whole world was then being shaken, with the ancient customs torn up which had been established for so long a time: nor in one or two or three cities, but everywhere in the world; with new dogmas being introduced, which no one had ever heard before. Hence an irreconcilable war was stirred up against them by all: for they were dividing families, they were distracting kinships: for the preaching proceeding in order, and conciliating many to itself, was moving war among those who would not receive the word of godliness: the father disowned the son, the husband despised the wife, and masters were waging war against slaves, subjects against princes, and this war was surpassing every civil war; if indeed it is right to call this a war, and not something else more grievous than war. For in wars there is an equal calculation of the battle line on both sides, and both armies attack and are attacked with weapons: then, however, the matter was not conducted thus: for he was indeed waging war freely, but they were only being attacked; but it was not permitted for them to attack, nor to take vengeance on those laying traps: for thus the leader of the battle line was commanding, saying: *I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves; be therefore wise as serpents, and simple as doves* (Matt. 10:16). And he was not only not commanding them to avenge the trap-layers, but even to furnish the opportunity so that they might rejoice in inflicting injury. For to offer the right cheek, and to send sheep into the midst of wolves, indicates nothing else than that he had assigned to them the lot of suffering, so that the trophy might be more splendid. How? Because being eleven, they conquered the whole world; because they were patient, not insulting;
being pelted and not pelting; being plotted against and not plotting; being scourged and not scourging; being driven and not driving; being persecuted and not persecuting; being slain and not slaying; and because, just as sheep laid out for the slaughter, they changed all the wolves into the gentleness of sheep—those who were raging, those who were breathing murders, those who were becoming fiercer than wild beasts. A Since therefore the Word was running its course and piety was being sown, pyres, enmities, and wars were ignited on all sides, not for the teachers only, but for those being taught. For as soon as someone received the Word, he walked about as a common enemy to all; he was driven from his fatherland, moved to foreign parts, dispossessed of his substance, and endangered not only his freedom, but his very life. And nothing at that time could withstand the tyranny of nature; but, as I said before, children were despised, brothers and kinsmen were in the rank of enemies, and along with the teachers, the disciples suffered incurable evils. And Paul, declaring these very things, said: *Call to mind the former days, in which after you were enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings; partly being made a spectacle both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, becoming partners with those who were so used. For you had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance* (Hebr. 10. 32-34). And again, writing to the Thessalonians, he said: *For you, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which are in Judea; for you have suffered the same things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men* (1 Thess. 2. 14, 15). And writing to the Galatians again, he said: *Have you suffered so many things in vain, if yet it be in vain?* (Gal. 3. 4). And narrating his own sufferings, he said: *In much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in pureness* (2 Cor. 6. 4, 5). And again: *Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness* (2 Cor. 11. 24-26). And again: *That which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches* (2 Cor. 11. 28). And again: *The ethnarch of Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes, desirous to apprehend me: and through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands* (2 Cor. 11. 32, 33). And again elsewhere: *We were accounted as sheep of the slaughter* (Rom. 8. 36). And elsewhere again he said: *The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: but, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me* (2 Tim. 1. 16, 17).
4. What could one say of the false apostles, of the false brethren, of the myriad and manifold wars? For it was not only punishments and torments that were stirred up, but also the cleverness of rhetoricians and the arguments of philosophers. And not by these only, but also many engines were raised against the Church by common men B of the marketplace; hinting at which, he said: *Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words* (2 Tim. 4. 14, 15). Just as, therefore, the sea is never without waves, so also the soul of Paul was filled with myriad temptations, daily dangers, from without, from within, through words, through deeds, through money, through deceits; and no speech will be able to set forth those clouds of missiles, those multitudes of waves. Since, therefore, matters were in this state—not only as has been said, but even in many more—and not only teachers but also disciples were in danger, and not only disciples but also teachers (for if one party had been in temptation and the rest in security, this would have been a consolation to that party; but since both were in the state of being warred upon and struck)—and seeing these things, many of the weaker ones were being dissolved, were becoming numb, and persisted in being irresolute, seeing the good things of the preaching in hopes (the kingdom and the resurrection and incorruption), but the grievous things here in experience and patience—tortures, namely, furnaces, prisons, wars, enmities, hatreds, deaths, dangers, and their own teachers now in prisons, now in transportations, being insulted, being led away; and clouds of evils were on all sides, and they were in a deep night of temptations, which gripped and caused them to be greatly troubled and terrified. See how through one word he lifts up their spirit. He does this indeed from elsewhere, in another epistle saying: *Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees* (Hebr. 12. 12), not speaking of knees and hands, but of thoughts that were limping and being loosened by the multitude of temptations. Then, having exhorted them, he introduces a very great consolation, saying: *For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry* (Hebr. 10. 37). But since this was for the time being in hope, he again encourages them in another way, making them more cheerful not from others, but from their own examples: *Call to mind*, he says, *the former days, in which after you were enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings*. Have shame before yourselves, be abashed at your own good deeds; do not show the end unworthy of the beginning, receive the consolation from your own selves. Having exhorted them therefore in this way and that, he exhorts them also through this saying. How and in what manner? By calling the bonds and the chain a confirmation of the Gospel. For, he says, not only in dead men being raised, not in lepers being cleansed, nor in demons being driven out, but we ourselves being bound also confirm the Gospel. Tell me, how and in what manner? For the things said are novel, and many of them seem like an enigma. Hear then how: If we were preaching without fear, suffering nothing unpleasant or grievous, the preaching would perhaps have seemed suspect to many of those desiring to slander us; but now, being driven, persecuted, cut, burned, cast down from heights, suffering myriad things and not yielding, but becoming more eager thereby, we provide a sufficient proof to those who wish to be very shameless that we are heralds of the truth, and that some divine power is in us, and is making all C these things light.
y, we provide a sufficient proof to those who wish to be very shameless that we are heralds of the truth, and that some divine power is in us, and is making all these things light. A And thus, the chain is a confirmation of the Gospel, not only for those, but also for us who suffer; for it renders us more approved and stronger, and it makes us despise snares. Wherefore he said: "Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, probation; and probation, hope; and hope confoundeth not" (Rom. V, 3, 4, 5).
5. Do you see how tribulation confirms the Gospel? For this reason also, elsewhere, when he prayed to be delivered from temptations, and often approached the Lord for that cause, he heard: "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my power is made perfect in infirmity" (II Cor. XII, 9). By infirmity he here calls persecutions, temptations, dangers, snares, and troubles. But this is what he wishes to signify: I could have hindered this and extinguished the war, and repressed the waves; but I did not do so, that my power might be more manifest. For his power would not have been shown in this way, if these things had not been done; just as when they were indeed done, they could do nothing. For we call that pilot best, not who can steer a ship correctly in a calm sea, but who preserves the passengers amid reefs, and waves, and tempests, and winds; and we call that physician skilled who saves a sick man when a thousand diseases beset him; and a leader of an army who, when enemies are rushing in from every side and attacking, still can erect a trophy; and a good shepherd who, when a thousand wolves and other ambushers are breaking in, keeps the flock in safety. So then also, the thing was rendered wondrous, because, although suffering countless things, they still conquered and overcame those who were afflicting them. B When therefore they cast Peter and John—the son of thunder and the foundation of the faith—into prison, consider how, when they were dismissed, they hesitated. When they had brought them into the middle of the theater, they said: "What shall we do to these men?" (Acts IV, 16). The Jews, who had been reared in the blood of the prophets, a people furious and driven by rage, who had destroyed altars, who had killed the prophets, who had been educated in slaughters, who were more savage than beasts, who were still shedding the drops of the Lord's blood, who had crucified him—these, having apprehended two fishermen, illiterate, uneducated, obscure, and more mute than fish, one of whom had not even withstood the simple threats of a portress—these, I say, having them apprehended in the midst, bound, naked, not instructed by the help of money, not by bodily strength, not by eloquence of speech, not by rhetorical force, not by splendor of lineage, not by the greatness of their country—fishermen sprung from fishermen, laboring in extreme poverty—they hesitate how they are to act with them, and they say, "What shall we do to these men?" C Do you see how great a thing virtue is? How temptations are a confirmation of the Gospel? They say to them: "Did we not strictly command you that you should not speak in this name? And you wish to bring upon us the blood of this man?" (Acts V, 28). If he is only a man, why do you fear? But if he is God, why do you not adore him? Were you not crying out recently, "His blood be upon us and upon our children?" (Matt. XXVII, 25)? Whence do you fear his blood? What has agitated your mind? Did you not bind him? Did you not scourge him? Did you not crucify him? Did you not see him dead, taken down from the cross? Did you not see him buried, and covered with earth? Did you not set seals upon the sepulcher? Did you not buy the soldiers with money? Did you not spread the rumor that his disciples stole him? Why then do you fear? Why do you dread his blood? Do you see the truth shining through all things? Because they saw after those snares the matter being carried forward, and the beginnings were splendid and brighter than the sun itself, and exhibited from the very beginning of its course, and that it was going to comprehend the whole world, that error would be driven to the extremes, and could not withstand its ineffable force; they fear his virtue, they dread the bound, the condemned, the scourged, the surrounded by snares, the two, and those uneducated ones. Therefore Paul calls temptations a confirmation of the Gospel; therefore he also says elsewhere: "But I would have you understand, brethren, that the things which have happened to me have fallen out rather unto the progress of the Gospel; so that many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear" (Phil. I, 12, 14). Who has seen, who has heard, that bonds grant boldness, and chains bestow confidence, not only to the bound one, but also to his disciples? Yet when these things were happening, through things contrary the preaching was exalted, and the disciples, when the master was being opposed, was being assailed by snares, was being bound, trusted more, exulted more, leapt more. Did you praise the things spoken? Then let us imitate the fortitude, let us emulate the virtue; let nothing frighten us, let no temptations disturb us. For these are the incentives of piety, D these are the arts of philosophy; these render us stronger and invincible, these give greater confidence before God, and draw down more of his benevolence, and confirm much grace within us. That we may therefore enjoy all these things, let us bear everything that happens, I pray, glorifying God through all things, because to him belongs glory, honor, power, together with his only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen.
HOMILY VIII
The homily of the same, delivered in the church of Paul, with Goths reading, after a Goth presbyter had preached.1. I wish the Greeks were present today, that they might hear and learn what the power of the Crucified is, what the power of the cross is, what the nobility of the Church is, what the firmness of faith is, what the turpitude of error is, what the mockery of the demons is. For the things of the philosophers, and among those of the same tongue, are destroyed, but ours, and those of [people] of other tongues, have much power, and are broken more easily than a spider's web, but ours are fixed more firmly than adamant.