[LATIN COLUMN]
to the body, even if some disease happens to invade it, both to call physicians, and to expend money, and to show endurance, and not to cease doing everything until we have removed that which afflicts us; yet when the soul is pricked, cast down, and in every way ruins itself daily, we do not have even a brief word to say? For it is not the one who merely has a festering sore who ought to be lamented, but the one who lies there carelessly, and does not obtain the physician’s hands. But the one who is cut and cauterized, we would say he is the one who is most of all moving toward health, not looking at the pain that arises from the cutting, but at the health that follows the pain. Thus, regarding the soul, we ought to be affected: it is not those who pay the penalty who should be mourned and bewailed—for they are being dragged toward health—but those who sin with impunity. For he who expects good and is confident about the things to come has already tasted the kingdom; for nothing is accustomed to refresh the soul and make it more excellent as the hope of good things to come. For those who exhaust all their zeal on the adornment of their own homes, while being rich in exterior things, neglect the interior, and despise their own soul, desolate, squalid, and full of spiderwebs. But if, having neglected exterior things, they were to expend all their diligence upon the mind, adorning it on all sides with accuracy, the soul of such men would be a dwelling place for Christ. And what could be more blessed than the one who has Christ as an inhabitant? What defense, then, shall we have, or what pardon, when we take such great care of a sickly body, where money must be spent, and physicians must be summoned, and great pain must be endured—but we neglect the soul, especially when we are not about to spend money, nor to cause trouble for others, nor to undergo pains, but are able to correct ourselves entirely by choice and will alone, knowing accurately that if we do not do this, we are about to pay the ultimate penalty and suffer inexorable punishments and torments? And just as those who inhabit a prison are always in anxiety and pain, but most of all on that day when they are to be brought out and led to the very doors of the judge; and standing before the railings, and hearing the voice of the judge within, they tremble and are in no better condition than the dead: so also is the soul, for it is indeed especially afflicted and pressed at the very time of transgression, but much more so when, having been torn from this place, it is to be led away to render accounts there and to that terrible judgment. Therefore it often recoils and draws back, it fears and shudders, when it is about to depart from the flesh. For then, whether one has stolen, or seized the goods of others, or harassed others, or has been the unjust enemy of anyone, or has committed any other evil, the whole chorus 488 of sins is renewed, and stands before one's eyes, and the bitter accuser of conscience stands there. And for this reason we have obtained an immortal soul, and the body itself will be immortal, so that we may enjoy infinite blessings. But if you are fixed to the earth, when heavenly things are proposed, consider how great an insult arises from this against the One who bestows them, when He indeed offers you heavenly things, but you, not holding them in high regard, exchange heaven for the earth. May we all attain these things, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
HOMILY IX. On not neglecting the Church of God and the holy mysteries.
Very few are present with us today. What is the cause? We are celebrating the memory of the martyrs, and no one rushes to us. But the length of the road has cast them into sluggishness? Rather, it was not the length of the road, but sluggishness that hindered them. For just as nothing can restrain one who is zealous and endowed with an excited spirit, so all things can delay the sluggish and the slothful. The martyrs poured out their own blood for the truth, and can you not count even the length of a short road as nothing? They laid down their heads because of Christ: you, however, do not wish to rush even a small distance because of the Lord? The Lord died for your sake, and do you hesitate for His sake? The memory of the martyrs is being celebrated, and you lie there sluggish and supine? It is just that you should be present and see the devil being defeated, and the martyr being victorious, and God being glorified, and the Church being crowned. "But I am a sinner," some one will say, "and I cannot attend." Since you are a sinner, run back, so that you may become righteous. Who, indeed, among men is without sin, tell me? Do you not know that even those who sit at the altar are beset by sins? For they are clothed in flesh and implicated in a body: as we ourselves also, who sit upon the throne and teach, are implicated in sins; but we do not despair of divine loving-kindness, nor do we attribute cruelty to God. For this very reason God provided that even the priests themselves should be subject to passions, so that from the things which they themselves suffer, they might learn to forgive others also. Therefore, of how great madness and absurdity would it not be that, when we indeed run zealously when a harpist, or a dancer, or some other such person invites us, and we render thanks to him...
for the invitation, and spend half of the whole day giving heed to him alone; yet when God speaks to us through prophets and apostles, we yawn, we scratch ourselves, and we feel dizzy? And in the horse races, with no roof overhead to keep off the rain, and even when many downpours are descending and the wind is blowing the water into our faces, the majority stand there like madmen, and they despise the cold and the rain and the length of the journey, and nothing keeps them at home, nor prevents them from going there; but for us, in order to go to church, the rain and the mud become an impediment. And if they are asked who is Amos or Obadiah, or what is the number of the prophets or the apostles, they cannot even open their mouths, but they construct defenses more cleverly than those for horses and charioteers, for sophists and for orators. And how is this tolerable, tell me? I have exhorted you often not to go up to the theatre. You heard, you were not persuaded; you went up to the theatre, you disregarded my word; do not be ashamed to enter again and listen. You say, "I listened, and I did not observe it; how can I enter and listen?" So far you know this very thing, that you did not observe it, so far you are ashamed, so far you blush, so far you apply the bridle even though no one is convicting you, so far you keep my word rooted in you, so far, even though I am not appearing, my teaching is correcting you. You did not observe it? Enter all the more, so that having listened again you might observe it. If a medicine is applied to you, and it does not cleanse you, do you not apply it again on the next day? Let there be a woodcutter, O man, and let him wish to cut down wood; he takes an axe, then he strikes the root; if he gives one blow, and the tree does not fall, does he not give another blow, and a fourth, and a fifth, and a tenth? Do you do likewise. I say these things, not that I may render you more slothful, but that I may make you more zealous. You have entered into the church, O man, you have been deemed worthy of the fellowship of Christ; if you are not dismissed, do not depart. For if you leave before the dismissal, you are held accountable like a runaway slave. Do you spend the whole day on bodily matters, and do you not have time for two hours on spiritual things? You often go to the theatre, and you do not leave until the dismissal; and do you enter into the church, and leave before the divine mysteries? Fear Him who said: *He that depises a thing, shall be despised by it* (Prov. 13: 13). B Indeed, you do not dare to smile at all when standing before a king; but when standing before the Lord of all, do you not stand with fear and trembling, but instead often laugh when He is angry? Do you not understand that by this you provoke Him more greatly on account of your sins? For God is not accustomed to turn away from those who sin as much as from those who do not show humility after the sin. What are you doing, O man? Standing in church, are you intently gazing at the beauty of women, and do you not shudder at thus insulting the temple of God? Does the church seem to you to be a brothel and more dishonorable than the marketplace? For in the marketplace you fear and are ashamed to be seen ogling a woman; but in the temple of God, at the very time when He is speaking to you and threatening you about these things, at the very moment when you hear not to do these things, do you not shudder, nor are you distraught, while making your heart and your eyes a workshop of lawlessness? It would be better for such men to be blind than to use their eyes for these things. Consider whose neighbor you are standing, in the holy and fearful mystery, O man; with whom you are about to call upon God: with the Cherubim, with the Seraphim, and with the other heavenly powers. Reflect upon who your fellow-dancers are; this is sufficient for your sobriety, when you consider that, clothed in a body and entangled C with flesh, you have been deemed worthy to hymn the common Lord of all with the bodiless powers. Do not, therefore, participate in those holy and mystical hymns with a relaxed spirit; do not have worldly thoughts at that time; but having banished all earthly things from your mind and having moved your whole self toward heaven, as if standing near the throne of glory itself, and flying with the Seraphim, thus bring the all-holy hymn to God. For on account of this we are commanded to stand well at the time of the divine mystery, so that we may straighten the thoughts that are being dragged along the ground, so that having cast out the slackness resulting from our worldly affairs, we might be able to raise our soul upright before God. For He is not speaking of the hands and knees of the body; nor is He discoursing to runners or wrestlers; but He exhorts us to raise up the strength of our inner thoughts, having been cast down by temptations. For at the time of the divine gathering, brothers, not only do men shout that most fearful cry, but even angels fall down before the Lord, and archangels plead; for they have the time as their ally, and the offering as their help. And just as men having cut down branches of olive trees shake them before kings, reminding them through the plant of mercy and philanthropy; so also the angels then, instead of olive branches, tendering the very body of the Lord, beseech the Lord on behalf of human nature, D saying almost exactly that we make these entreaties on behalf of those whom You Yourself deemed worthy to love so much that You gave Your own soul; on behalf of these we pour out entreaties, on behalf of whom You poured out Your blood; on behalf of these we plead, on behalf of whom You sacrificed this body. Let each one therefore reflect with himself what fault he has corrected, what good work he has acquired, what sin he has washed away, in what he has become better; and if he finds that something more has come to him from the fasting for this noble trade, and perceives that he has taken much care of his wounds, let him approach; but if he has remained neglected, having only fasting to show, and having accomplished none of the others, let him remain outside, and then let him enter, when he has cleansed all his sins. For it is reasonable that he who does not fast might obtain pardon, by pleading bodily weakness; but it is impossible for the one who has not corrected his own transgressions to obtain an excuse. For if God shall demand an account of the slothfulness in the assemblies, what shall we do? For you know indeed this, that often when He is speaking to us all through the prophet, we carry on many and long conversations with those near us about matters that are of no concern to us. If, therefore, passing over all other things, He should wish to demand of us the penalty for this sin, what hope of salvation shall there be for us? For surely it is not a small...
sin that you should think to slight. If you wish to perceive its magnitude, examine this very thing in the case of men, and then you will see the greatness of the absurdity. If a prince—or indeed even a friend who is somewhat more august—were speaking to you, would you dare to leave him and converse with a slave of yours? And then you will see what a crime you dare to commit, doing this before God. For if that one is someone of the more illustrious, he can even exact penalties from you for the indignity offered; but God, who is affected by so many and much greater injuries every single day, and that not by one or two or three men, but by almost all of us, endures and bears it patiently. And when you wish to appease the wrath of an earthly king, you all run together with your children and wives, and frequently you snatch the condemned criminal from the king’s wrath; yet when you are about to render the heavenly King propitious, and to deliver from His wrath not one, nor two, nor three, nor a hundred, but all the sinners in the world, you sit idle, and do not all run together in a common cause, so that God, reverencing your harmony, might remit both the punishment to them and grant to you forgiveness of sins? For if you were in the forum at that time, or at home, or engaged in unavoidable business, would you not, more vehemently than any lion, having broken all bonds, flee to the common supplication? and what hope of salvation will you have? For what could be more powerful than the Church of God? A Do not speak to me of walls and arms; walls grow old with time, but the Church never grows old: barbarians destroy walls, but not even demons overcome the Church. And that these things are not said for empty show, the facts themselves attest. How many have fought against the Church! and they themselves indeed who fought have perished, but it has ascended above the heavens. The Church is endowed with such magnitude: when it is fought against, it wins; when it is plotted against, it overcomes; when it is afflicted with injury, it becomes more splendid. You know that day when arms were moved against us, and military fury was more cruel than a fire, and we were being led away to the royal palaces, and we were made a spectacle for the whole world? But through divine grace, nothing of those things rendered us astonished and dismayed. Why? Because there is no evil in present things. For what is grave? Is it death? But this is no evil: we are immediately setting out for the harbor. Is it the confiscation of goods? I went out naked, and naked I shall return (Job I, 21). Is it exile? The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof (Ps. XXIII, 1). Is it calumny? Rejoice when they shall speak any evil word against you, because your reward is great in the heavens (Matt. V, 12). For even if I were led away, that matter was not a reproach to me: for only sin is a reproach; even if the whole world defames you, but you have not defamed yourself, you are not defamed. Only the betrayal of conscience is a scandal; do not let your conscience betray you, and no one will betray you. I was being led back, and I was watching the works, or rather my words becoming works; and that what I spoke with you in words, was being proclaimed by works in the forum.
I would wish, therefore, to know where those spend their time who have neglected the communion, and who abstain from this holy table. B But truly I know well: they are either conversing about absurd and ridiculous things, or they are fixed to the cares of this life; yet the pursuit of both lacks excuse and deserves extreme punishment. And regarding the former, there is no need for words or demonstration; but that neither can those obtain pardon who pretend to us the necessity arising from household and unbearable matters; because they do not value spiritual things more than earthly, is manifest to anyone. For what slave, I ask, will ever take care of his domestic business, before he has fulfilled his master’s service? How, therefore, is it not absurd, among men indeed, where the position of master is a bare title, to show such reverence and obedience to masters; but to Him who is Lord not only of us, but also of the heavenly Powers, not to show the service that we deign to show even to our fellow-slaves? I wish it were possible that I could show you their soul with your eyes, and that you might see it filthy, squalid, ruined, dejected, and faithless. For just as bodies which do not enjoy baths are full of much squalor and filth, so the soul also, which does not enjoy spiritual doctrine, has many stains clinging to it from sins. C I wish it were possible that we could open the hearts of those who abstain from the communion! I wish you could penetrate into their conscience! Then indeed you would see with how many wounds they are filled, how many thorns they have. For just as the ground, unless it is cultivated by the hands of farmers, becomes horrible and overgrown with woods: so the soul also, deprived of spiritual doctrine, produces thorns and thistles. For if we, who are daily partakers of the hearing of the prophets and apostles, and sing constant songs from the divine Scriptures to our affections, still with difficulty restrain our boiling spirit, with difficulty curb our anger, with difficulty cast out the venom of envy, with difficulty calm our concupiscence, with difficulty restrain our shameless beasts: what hope of salvation will those have who never attain this medicine, and do not listen to divine doctrine? For just as one who has exited the harbor wanders everywhere; and one who lacks light strikes against many things: so also, one who falls into forgetfulness of the fear of God is given over continually to solicitudes and cares and pains. And as when God protects us and is with us, sad things are removed from the midst: so when He departs, and commits us to oblivion, both the soul is torn apart, and the heart is tortured with pain, and the ones causing sorrow insult; so that the slothful, while they are bitten by all, might return with greater zeal to where they have fallen from. For your apostasy will correct you, He says, and your wickedness will rebuke you (Jer. II, 19). Therefore, even the dereliction is a kind of divine providence. For when He who provides and foresees is contemned, He lets go a little and abandons, so that then, having cast off sloth, those who were negligent may become more diligent. D I suppose that many of those who have long ago deserted us, and have fled to the spectacles of iniquity, are present today; and I would have wished to know them for certain, so that I might cast them out of the holy thresholds, not so that they remain outside continually,
but so that they might be corrected and return again. For shepherds do this too; they separate the sheep full of mange from the healthy ones, so that, having put off the sickness, they might again return with safety to the healthy ones, and not, by being sick, fill the whole flock with that sickness. B For this reason, we also wished to know them; but even if we cannot distinguish them with our eyes, the word will surely recognize them, and, by taking hold of their conscience, will easily persuade them of their own free will to withdraw; teaching that he alone is within who provides a mind worthy of the conversation here. For he who participates in this holy assembly with a corrupted life, even if he brings his body here, has been cast out, and is driven away further than those who are locked out and are unable to participate in the holy table. For those who are cast out according to the laws of God and remain outside have, meanwhile, good hopes, and if they will to correct their transgressions, they will be able to return again with a pure conscience through the Church from which they fell; but those who have defiled themselves, and have been commanded not to enter before they have cleansed the stain from their sins, then act shamelessly, they make their wound more grievous; for sinning is not so grievous as the shamelessness after the sin. Many participate in the mysteries once a year, others twice, others often. Whom, then, of these shall we accept—those once, or those often, or those C rarely? Neither those once, nor those often, nor those rarely, but those with a pure conscience, those with a pure heart, those with a life beyond reproach. Such people should always approach; but those who are not such, not even once; for they receive judgment and condemnation upon themselves. For just as food, being nutritional by nature, if it falls upon one with a bad stomach, destroys and corrupts everything, and becomes a cause of sickness, so too do the awesome mysteries. You enjoy a spiritual table, a royal table, and again you defile your body with mud? You anoint it with myrrh, and again you fill it with a stench? Do you think that after a year of participation it suffices you for the cleansing of the sins of the whole time, and again, after a week has passed, you surrender yourself to the same things as before? Tell me, then: if, having been healed from a long sickness for forty days, you again surrender yourself to those illness-causing things, have you not also wasted your former labor? If, then, physical things are changed, much more so are those of the moral choice. And if your mouth smells, you do not even partake of common food; but such a stench being in the soul, you dare to participate in the mysteries, tell me? And what forgiveness will you obtain? For the divine Apostle says: *He who eats and drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself*; that is, he will pay the same penalty as the punishment that those who crucified Christ will endure. Just as those slayers became guilty of the blood, so too these who participate unworthily in the mysteries. For just as if someone tears the royal purple, or stains it with mud, he has similarly insulted the king who put it on; so too here, both those who destroyed the Lord’s body and those who receive it with an unclean mind, similarly commit outrage against the royal garment. The Jews, therefore, tore it by the cross, but he who receives it with an unclean soul also defiles it. D So that even if the transgressions are different, the outrages are equal. This touched many, this troubled many, it bit the conscience of the hearers, or rather, not only of the hearers, but of me who was speaking, before you. For common is the teaching, common the wounds; therefore, common are the remedies that I apply. This was done as a work of God’s love for mankind, so that both the speaker and the hearers are subject to the same laws, participate in the same nature, and are each in the same way liable if they transgress. Why? So that the rebuke might be made with moderation; so that he might be compassionate toward those who sin; so that, remembering his own weakness, he might not make the rebuke unbearable. If, therefore, you see one of those mingling with you committing fornication, and approaching the mysteries, tell the one who is administering their distribution. "So-and-so is unworthy of the mysteries; withhold the profane from the holy." For if such a one is not worthy to declare the ordinances of God, consider what the things of punishment will be for him, when he also touches the holy table; not for him alone, but also for you who are covering for him. For it did not say, "And you were committing adultery," but, *With the adulterer you were placing your portion* (Ps. 49:18). Oh, how great an evil it is to cloak the corruptions of others! For he says you are a partner in the punishment for the offense; and rightly so. For the one can say he has the passion, even if the excuse is unpardonable; but you do not even have this. Why, then, not enjoying the pleasure, do you become a partner and participant in the punishment? Do not speak to me that saying, full of much insensibility: "What is it to me? I care for my own affairs." For then you will most truly care for your own affairs, when you seek your own in the neighbor’s advantage; just as Paul also was saying, *Let no man seek his own, so that he may find his own* (1 Cor. 10:24). For when he who has sinned sees everyone turning away from him, he will consider he has done something great and evil; but if he sees them not only not indignant nor distressed, but also bearing it gently and assisting, he also corrupts the tribunal of the conscience, the vote of the many cooperating with his corrupted mind. Many, not bearing the weight of the rebukes spoken to you, after the departure approached and were distressed, and were indignant, saying, "You are leading us away from the holy table, and are driving us away from the communion?" But for this reason I was compelled to say these things, so that you might learn that I do not lead away, but rather gather; nor do I drive away, nor do I prevent, but I draw [you] more by the rebukes. For the fear of punishment, just as fire falling upon wax, so falling into the conscience of those who sin, both dissolves and melts our transgressions by being seated there continuously, and, rendering the mind pure and glistening, adds to us greater confidence. And just as he who gives bitter medicines to those with a bad stomach, and by cleansing the evil humors, stirs up the fallen appetite, and prepares them to partake of the accustomed food with more eagerness: so too he who says bitter words, and is cleaning out the evil thoughts of the mind, and the weight of the...