Miscellaneous Homilies

^A "They divided my garments among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots." But by the voice of Isaiah, "I gave my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to the blows, and I did not turn away my face from the shame of spittings." He was not, therefore, ignorant that he would suffer. Furthermore, although it was possible for him to avoid the snares, he willingly yielded his own body to death for a short time, so that, having been raised from the dead, he might destroy the power of death, that he might overthrow the envy of the devil, through which death had gained entry into human nature, and finally that he might renew us unto immortal and unending life. "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive." He has therefore risen on the third day, having despoiled Hades, and having returned to Heaven, he sits as a co-assessor with his own Father. And he shall come in the fullness of time, that he may judge the living and the dead.

5. Since, therefore, we are about to render an account to the Judge, casting off all sloth, and having run far beyond every sin, and having—one might say—bidden farewell to the distractions of the present life, let us accomplish righteousness, temperance, love, and love for the poor; let us visit those who are in bonds, let us restore those burdened with bodily infirmities, let us assist orphans, let us have compassion for the tears of widows, and let us love one another fervently. ^B For by living in this way, we shall celebrate the holy and all-pure festival, beginning the holy Quadragesima on the sixth day of the month of Phamenoth [March]; and the week of the holy and saving Pascha, from the eleventh day of the month of Pharmouthi [April]; and breaking the fasts on the sixteenth day of the same month of Pharmouthi, in the late evening, on the Sabbath day, according to the evangelical proclamation; celebrating the feast on the following day, the dawning Lord’s Day, the seventeenth of the same month of Pharmouthi, ^C adding thereafter also the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost, so that, considering the season of the resurrection as a kind of image of the rest of the saints in Heaven, we may be deemed worthy of their communion in Christ Jesus our Lord; through whom and with whom, glory to the Father with the holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

EJUSDEM CYRILLI HOMILIAE DIVERSAE

HOMILIA I

Delivered at Ephesus, very beautiful.

^D Those who attend to the sacred Scriptures have a heart that is wise, and knowledgeable in good works, and adorned with the light of true faith.

^A. And the longing for true knowledge has life as its end. And the Savior Himself confirms this to us regarding the Father and God in heaven, saying thus: "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Therefore, the knowledge of the Son is conjoined with the knowledge of the Father; and thus the matter is life-giving. But whenever the one is separated from the other, knowledge is altogether crippled; so also our Lord Jesus Christ addressed the crowds of the Jews, saying: "You know neither me nor my Father. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also." And again, the Jews thought that their own fathers had seen the Son by nature and truth, and God, on the mountain, when He descended ^B in the form of fire upon Mount Sinai. For they thought they had in truth heard His voice. For this reason they admired Moses, the instructor of sacred things; but despising our Lord Jesus Christ because of His human nature, they impiously said: "We know that God has spoken to Moses; but as for this fellow, we do not know where he is from." What then does Christ say to these things? "Amen, amen, I say to you, you have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape, and you do not have his word abiding in you; for you do not believe in him whom he sent." And the Truth speaks what is entirely true. For it was not the nature of God that was seen on Mount Sinai, but rather fire. There were also the sounds of trumpets; and smoke was kindled; and the types of the truth were prefiguring the truth; for the God of all descended in the form of fire upon Mount Sinai. And for what reason in the form of fire? Because since He was about to define the law for them, He appeared to have descended in the form of fire then most ^C usefully; so that the transgressors might know that they have to do with fire. Thus also the blessed Moses, making those who sinned more sober through fear, was accustomed to shout repeatedly: "Our God is a consuming fire." And there arose smokes and darkness; through the darkness, the incomprehensibility of the knowledge concerning God was aptly intimated to us; but through the smoke, it was enigmatically taught that for those who desire to despise the divine laws, tears will altogether and by all means follow; for it is necessary for the eye of the body to shed tears in smoke. Therefore, the Jews did not behold the form of the Father; but we have beheld it ^D in Christ. For He Himself is the most exact and purest beauty of Him who begat Him, the character and the splendor. For although the Word, being God, assumed flesh and blood, and was called Son of man—having accepted a body not devoid of soul or mind, as the demented and heretical Apollinarius affirms—He remained nevertheless God even so. And in this way He once revealed His mystery to the holy Fathers; just as from the many oracles of the holy prophets it may very easily

can be shown. But since some things must be examined in detail, come, let us show from the book of Genesis that the Son was seen in the form of a man and was called God. ^A Accordingly, the blessed Jacob, having left Mesopotamia, was hastening to return to his father’s house: “And having taken the two daughters of Laban along with the children he had begotten by them, he led them across the torrent named Jabbok.” But as the divinely inspired Scripture relates, after the children and the wives had been led across, “Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until morning. And when he saw that he could not overcome him, he touched the broad part of his thigh, and the broad part of Jacob’s thigh became numb as he wrestled with him. And the man who was wrestling with him said, ‘Let me go; for the dawn is ascending.’ But he answered, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of that place, The Sight of God; for, he says, I have seen God face to face, and my soul has been saved.” O wisdom worthy of the saints! He sees a man wrestling with him, and the patriarch says: “I have seen God face to face, and my soul has been saved.” For he understood immediately the mystery of the incarnation, the Holy Spirit revealing it to him. But observe this: he had wrestled with him all night; but as day was dawning, he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is ascending.” What, then, does this enigma mean? ^C Christ wrestles and fights with those who live as if in darkness and night, and who have the mist of ignorance in their mind and heart (for he counts them as enemies); but when the spiritual Morning Star rises for them in their mind, when the light of true knowledge of God shines upon them like day, then he ends the battle. For he wrestles and fights with those who are in night and darkness, who possess a misty and darkened heart, but he does not fight with those who are in the light, who have the spiritual dawn in their mind. Therefore, O man, embrace the spiritual dawn; let the light of truth shine upon you; cease fighting against Christ. He does not know how to be defeated; he conquers always, and in every way. For even though the only-begotten Word of God became the Son of Man, he did not for that reason cease to be God by nature; being immutable and unchangeable. The same, then, is both from the Father as Word, and from a woman as man according to the flesh. For there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things; and one Holy Spirit, ^D in whom are all things. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY II.

The glory and celebration of the saints, indeed, no...

^A speech can fully attain: for they are the lights of the world, holding forth the word of life, as it is written. But when they speak of divine mysteries, it is fitting for all to say to them: "It is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." For they have proclaimed to us Jesus, that true light and eternal life; to whom we also say, according to the voice of the blessed David: "Let all the earth worship thee, and sing unto thee; let them sing to thy name, O Most High." ^B For indeed, when the law promulgated through Moses was still in force, and the evangelical preaching had not yet been brought in, "God was known in Judea, His name was great in Israel." For Moses was of a weak voice and a slow tongue; and therefore the law was heard only in Judea. But when that true light shone upon us, and God the Word, truly sharing in flesh and blood as one of us, became known, all things became full of Him: everywhere there are temples, everywhere altars, everywhere choirs of those who rejoice, everywhere true worshippers, and good shepherds, and the flocks of rational sheep, which by their multitude make the sacred ^C folds too narrow. For before the advent of our Savior, our mortal race wandered upon the earth; they served the creature rather than the Creator: for they worshipped the works of their own hands; and for each of the wanderers, that which pleased his own mind was God. But, as I was saying, there appeared to us the only-begotten Word of God, that good shepherd and true lamb, whom the holy Theotokos and undefiled Mary brought forth for us from her virgin womb, the life-giving sprout, God become man, free in the form of a servant, like us for our sake, and the same above every creature for His own sake; the same in lowliness according to us, ^D and in divine glory conspicuous; He who humbled Himself, and is a partaker of the same throne with the Father; He who emptied Himself, and distributed the goods of His own fullness to those who are worthy; He who, as man, worships with us as one of us, but as God, is worshipped not only on earth, but also in the heavens. "For when," He says, "He bringeth the first-begotten into the world, He saith: And let all the angels of God worship Him." Who, I pray, is He who has entered the world? And in what way has He been brought into it? Unfold this mystery, O Evangelist: speak even now, O blessed John, who wast called the Son of Thunder, who didst shake the whole world with a great and glorious sound; who hast immortal voices, to which oblivion and time yield. Behold, so great a gathering of shepherds has come to thee; roll away the stone for us, as the blessed Jacob did for the shepherds; open up the well of life; grant that we may draw now also from the fountains of salvation; nay rather, set thy own fountain before us. Let us hear him saying: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; this was..."

in the beginning with God.” But that we have believed the only-begotten Word of God to have an ineffable existence from the Father, add therefore, O evangelist, what remains. Hear then again the one saying: “And the Word became flesh.” It did not become in man, but became flesh, that is to say, man; and the only-begotten Word of God became man, not having cast aside the being God, but in the assumption of flesh remaining what He was. For the nature of the Word is unchangeable and unalterable, and knows not to suffer the shadow of turning. ^B This the blessed evangelist taught us to hold; and he is truly the great and most conspicuous star, a most useful star, not for those who traverse this sensible sea, but for those who trade in piety, for the lovers of truth, for those who desire to have a right and unerring faith. If anyone, therefore, desires to sail in this manner, let him take to heart, as a star, the utterances of the God-speaking theologian; thus shall he leap across the bitter waves of the heresies. Thus shall he arrive at a calm harbor; and he shall attain to the Truth itself, that is, Christ; with whom to the Father is glory and power, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY III. Concerning Paul, Bishop of Emesa, who had discoursed before, and concerning the Incarnation of the Lord.

The blessed prophet Isaiah, proclaiming beforehand the ^C eloquence of the teachers in Christ, said: “Draw water with joy from the fountains of salvation.” Behold, then, we have drawn for you water from a holy fountain, that of the teacher, I say, who has discoursed before us; who, enlightened by the light of the Holy Spirit, has expounded to us that great and venerable mystery of our Savior, through whom we, believing in Him, have been saved, and have unburdened ourselves of the heavy and unbearable load of sin; and furthermore, having broken the bonds of death, we say that prophetic word: “O death, where is thy victory? O Hades, where is thy sting?” Therefore the God-Word, who was in the beginning, who was in the bosom of the Father, He through whom are all things and in whom are all things, of His own accord emptied Himself for our sake, and became flesh, that is, man. ^D “He humbled Himself for our sake,” and took the name of son of man, in order that we, in turn, might be made rich in God the Father through Him. For we have been taught to say in prayers: “Our Father who art in heaven.” Therefore, for this cause the Only-Begotten became the first-born, so that we, as I have said, might be made rich in His blessings. “He endured the cross, despising the shame,” and gave His own body willingly to death, not that He might remain dead with us who are subject to death, but that, having trampled down the empire of death, He might raise us up together with Himself.

and having trampled down the power of death. Let us therefore give thanks to the Word who became man for our sake, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

HOMILY IV.

Delivered at Ephesus against Nestorius, when the seven went down to Saint Mary.

^A I behold a radiant assembly of saints, all having flocked hither with ready spirit, summoned by the holy and Theotokos Mary, the ever-virgin. But the presence of the holy Fathers has changed my sorrow, in which I was spending much time, into joy. Now is the sweet word of the hymnographer David fulfilled among us: "Behold, what is good, or what is pleasant, but for brethren to dwell together in unity?" ^B Hail, therefore, from us, holy, mystical Trinity, who hast called us all together into this church of the Theotokos Mary. Hail from us, Mary Theotokos, the venerable treasure of the whole world, the unquenchable lamp, the crown of virginity, the scepter of orthodoxy, the indestructible temple, and the place of Him who cannot be contained, Mother and Virgin; through whom He is named Blessed in the holy Gospels, who comes in the name of the Lord; hail, thou who didst contain the Immense and Incomprehensible in thy holy virginal womb; through whom the holy Trinity ^C is glorified and worshiped; through whom the precious cross is celebrated and adored in the whole world; through whom heaven exults, through whom angels and archangels rejoice, through whom demons are put to flight, through whom the tempting devil fell from heaven, through whom the fallen creature is taken up into the heavens; through whom the whole creation, held fast by the madness of idols, has come to a knowledge of the truth; through whom holy baptism comes to those who believe; through whom is the oil of gladness; through whom Churches have been founded throughout the whole world; through whom the nations are led to repentance; and what more need I say? Through whom the only-begotten Son of God, light, has shone upon those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death; through whom the prophets announced beforehand; through whom the apostles preach salvation to the Gentiles; through whom the dead are raised; through whom kings reign, by the holy Trinity. And who among men is able to speak worthily of the much-praised Mary? The virginal womb—O the wonder! The miracle strikes me with amazement. Who ever heard of a builder being forbidden to dwell in his own temple which he himself had built? Who is held liable to ignominy for calling his own handmaid to be his mother? See, therefore, all things rejoice: the sea, recognizing its fellow servants, submitted itself, and for the passage of the saints changed its fierce and raging waves into tranquility; for the servant water remembered, although swollen and surging, the voice of the Savior saying: "Peace, be still." The earth, moreover, which was once traveled by robbers, the journey of the Fathers changed into peace; for how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good tidings; what peace? Jesus, our Lord,

whom Mary brought forth, as He Himself willed. For what does it profit me to inquire too curiously about Scripture, and not rather to receive it humanely, and to feel toward it with friendship? But will you recall to ^A me the denial of the Jews? The prophets revealed their temperaments from the beginning, namely that, driven by the goads of their own malice, they would contrive the death of Christ: and this crime they already marked then with the name of denial. Or perhaps that foul disease of Arius? He labored under the pestilential desire for an episcopal chair. Or finally, that obscure and impious sentiment of Gentile licentiousness? That practice was born of ignorance. And what need is there to speak further? Every nation walking in lawless revelry has surpassed these in wickedness; for nations, because they are often ignorant of Scripture, blaspheme God ^B unwittingly; but this man, holding all of Scripture—and I dare say, perhaps even having studied the illusions of magic—has not looked genuinely toward the God-inspired Scripture, but has looked toward silver and gold. Blinded and made a fool by the madness regarding the business of blasphemy, wishing to alienate yourself from the throne, you have erased yourself from the catalogue of the brethren, not recognizing the One who granted to you the lot of the episcopate. For were you not persuaded by Paul, saying: "Even if an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to what we have preached, let him be anathema"? Paul did not ^C quiet your empty-headedness; but Isaiah said: "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated, God with us." Does not even this persuade you? For you have acquired a mind of terrible evil-thinking; listen if you will to the demons saying: "What have we to do with Thee, Son of God? Hast Thou come to torment us before the time?" And who, I ask, counseled you to preach this base opinion? Who assisted you in this untimely disease? Were you not ashamed ^D to liken God to a Persian kingdom? Were you not ashamed, wishing to annul the traditions of the Fathers, and of the evangelists, and of the prophets? And having presumed to rule over all the Churches, did you not remember the One who brought you up from the dung-heap to the heavenly height? And attending to created things, did you not recognize the Creator, desiring to set the inhabited world in an uproar with deceitful reasonings, insulting the temple of God, and wishing to divide Him who was born of the Virgin Mary, stirring up in the world a wicked dogma and a frenzy that is neither dissolved nor made manifest. But not being sought out, imitating Belial before the time, you thought that by the chains of your own lawless thoughts you would persuade an emperor who is a lover of orthodoxy, and a worshiper of the consubstantial Trinity, through whom he reigns continuously, through whom he crushes hostile nations, through whom a host of virgins always reigns, through whom he establishes the world in peace; you thought that this man would become a deserter because of your deceitful words; and you desired to lay waste to a God-loving people; and you have torn apart a multitude of Fathers, who were reaching for a breath; you were not satisfied to destroy yourself, having blasphemed God, but you have also disturbed the entire inhabited world. But behold, it is fulfilled also in you.

^A “In the works of his own hands the sinner is ensnared.” You cast out the holy clergy of presbyters and deacons who rebuked your importunate madness and admonished you not to think as Arius does. And now, indeed, I do not cast down him who has fallen, nor do I sink him who is wavering; rather, I break the vain sycophancy of wicked counsels. Who has seen a ship stationed in a clear and tranquil harbor suffer shipwreck? Who, I ask, has not seen an athlete who has fallen at the place of contest being raised up? But since you were falling concerning the faith and making shipwreck, did we not stretch out a hand to you? Take as a witness the honorable and holy archbishop of great Rome, Celestine, who continually warned you by letter to abstain from this vain and useless, and in no way consistent, dogma, which relies on no logic. In like manner, take as a witness our own lowliness, which urged you by brief letters to listen to us as we speak about God; but you, clothed in a certain hardness and folly, paid no heed to us, boasting in malice as though you were powerful, and devising unjust things. And you have become a razor sharpened against yourself, hatching deceit. Therefore, God also, against whom you have used your cavils, has cast you down and rooted out your root from the land of the living, because you have had no regard for God. And let these things said by us against him be sufficient. ^B “God is judge, and will render to each according to his works.” May it be our lot to revere and worship the union, to obey our most pious emperor, and to be subject to the rulers and powers, and to tremble before and worship the indivisible Trinity; praising the ever-virgin Mary—the holy temple of God, as it were—and her Son, and immaculate spouse. For to Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY V.

It would have been proper to be content with the instruction of those teachers who spoke before us and to honor this fullness, being already filled with the sacred streams. But because I perceive that you are kindled with an insatiable desire for hearing, come, let us also bring forward a few things consistent with what has already been said. ^D There is, therefore, no doubt that this illustrious chorus of saints takes honor and ornament from the praises of Christ, and glories in the name that it sincerely loves Him. And thus the blessed prophet Isaiah says somewhere to Him: “Lord my God, I will glorify Thee; I will praise Thy name, for Thou hast done wonderful things.

^A The blessed prophet David, for his part, says: “My tongue shall meditate upon thy righteousness, all the day thy praise.” This, then, is the goal for the saints; but the wicked and the impious, knowing not the great, venerable, and profound mystery of the incarnation of the Only-begotten, blaspheme unguardedly, opening an unrestrained and unbridled mouth. Let them therefore listen to the prophet Isaiah saying to them, “But draw near hither, ye lawless children, offspring of adulterers and of a harlot; in what have ye taken your pleasure, and against whom have ye opened your mouth? Are ye not children of destruction, a lawless offspring?” For they are truly children of destruction and a lawless offspring, who have denied the Lord that bought them. “For we were bought with a price, and not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, but with the precious blood, as of a lamb blameless and unspotted, of Christ.” But how could the blood of a common man, and one of those like us, be equivalent to the world? And how, too, did one die for all, in order that he might save all? How have we become his, we who profess the true and natural God? How do we worship him, we who refuse to pay homage to the creature rather than the Creator? But, as I said just now, some are ungrateful for the gentleness of our Savior; they deny the Lord and throw off the yoke of servitude, so that Christ says even concerning them through the voice of the prophet: “Woe to them, for they have departed from me; they are wretched, for they have acted impiously against me, yet I redeemed them, and they have spoken lies against me.” ^B For they lie against the glory and excellence of our Savior, they who are imitators of the perversity and impiety of the Pharisees; who put on, indeed, the mask of a Christian, but at the same time possess a Judaizing mind; who have practiced a bitter and venomous tongue; so that Christ says to it also, through the voice of Jeremiah: “Behold, I am against thee, O thou that art full of insult, saith the Lord.” The ancient Jews, indeed, used to attack Christ, our common Savior; they sprang upon him like wild beasts; like stones, they hurled [insults] at the One who was doing good and saving them. Then the Savior said to them: “Many good works have I shown you from my Father; for which of them do you stone me?” And they said to him: “For a good work we do not stone thee, but for blasphemy, because thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” ^C Such were the accusations of the ancient Jews against our Savior. And those who are jealous of that same madness and impiety of theirs accuse him again, saying: “Why dost thou, being a man, make thyself God?” O foolish and most detestable one, you have not understood the mystery; for he did not, being a man, make himself God, but being God by nature, he became man, immutably and inconfusedly; he who possesses from God ^D

^A an ineffable generation, underwent a generation according to the flesh, that from a woman, and has been named Son of Man, that he might save us. He became what you are, for your sake, and remained what he was, for his own sake. Recognize, therefore, the Only-begotten as having come to be in the flesh; confess him to be God who for our sake became man. He presents himself to you, saying, "I who speak, am here." For he who spoke to the ancients the law through Moses, has himself come in the flesh. Accept the holy prophets as witnesses. What does Baruch say, while almost pointing with his finger to Emmanuel? "This is our God, and no other shall be reckoned alongside him. He discovered every path of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved; after these things he was seen on earth, and conversed with men." ^B And blessed David also chants regarding him: "Our God shall come manifestly." Do you wish that the heralds of the New Testament should also bear witness to this truth? Listen to John the Baptist saying, "Prepare the ways of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God." Do you wish to receive yet another fuller testimony beyond these? God promised to blessed David that he would cause one of the fruit of his loins to sit upon his throne; and he, although rejoicing greatly at this, nevertheless diligently inquired about the manner of this generation. One may, therefore, hear him saying, "If I go up to the bed of my couch, if I give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids, or rest to my temples, until you find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob." You search anxiously for the place, blessed David: I approve of the readiness of your mind, I praise your patience; but if you have learned anything further, announce this also to us. Where will his birth occur, and in what land will he be born? Listen to him speaking clearly: "Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah, we found it in the fields of the wood." ^C When he names Ephratah, he signifies Bethlehem. And God will testify to this, saying through one of the holy prophets: "And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephratah, thou art little, so as to be among the thousands of Judah; for out of you shall come forth for me one to be a ruler in Israel; and his goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity." Do you hear how he maintains that this Bethlehemite, insofar as he has become man, has his goings forth "from the days of eternity"? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." ^D But you say, "I am ashamed to confess as God him who was born of a woman." Do you then rebuke, tell me, the divine counsels? Do you reject the dispensation? Do you find fault with the plans of the Lord? Thus he willed to save the inhabited world. Are you wiser than Wisdom? O paradoxical event; a lamp contends with the sun. The Lord of all knows the way of his own works. Accept either the birth, or the manner.

[the way of the economy; honor the mystery with faith; do not be over-curious about things above your mind; do not be overly inquisitive about things above reason; believe with us. "But if you remain disobedient, he remains faithful; for he cannot deny himself." ^A To him be glory and power, with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages. Amen.

HOMILY VI

We have been taught by divine Scripture what the power of love in Christ is; nevertheless, the Savior himself also instructed us, saying: "He that loves me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall my minister be." ^B For it behooves us always to be with him, and to love to follow our Savior of all, Christ, and in no way to be separated from him; and this we shall preserve through willing the things that are his. This honorable and great chorus of priests has fulfilled, concerning whom one might very justly say what is set forth by the voice of the prophet: "There hinds have met, and seen one another’s faces; they passed by in number, and one of them was not lost; one did not seek another, because the Lord commanded them, and his spirit gathered them." For it was not for any common matter, or perhaps a worldly one, that the gathering ^C of the spiritual hinds occurred here; but because, just as in a beautiful and most flowery garden—I mean in the Church of our Savior—a terrible and most grievous dragon has appeared, having not one, but many heads on one body, this gathering and presence of the spiritual hinds became most useful and necessary, so that it might deliver the Lord’s field from the malice of the venomous beasts. Therefore, the Spirit of God gathered them, and the Lord commanded them. And what did he command? "Where I am, there also shall my minister be." Therefore—for my discourse is now directed at you, who lift your brow ^D high against all, you who have come from the eastern regions—if we are all ministers of the Savior Christ, and have been entrusted with the ministry of his proclamations, why are we not all ministers with him by willing to think his thoughts? The many-headed dragon has raised, as you see, its unholy and profane head, spitting its own wickedness upon the children of the Church. I come against it, having unsheathed the sword of the Spirit, I fight for Christ against the beast. Why do you not labor together with him who wishes to act rightly? Why do you not also stand with him? Let it be struck down by the hand of all. Let us consider this a common struggle, so that, having conquered together, we may offer thanks to the Savior, saying: "You have humbled

as one wounded, the proud one; you have smashed the heads of the dragon." But as for us, the genuine ministers of the Savior and stewards of His mysteries, we consider those who speak against His glory as the most hostile enemies; you, however, do not. How so? For the very facts prove that you do not approach with sincerity. You see us, as it were, sprinkled with dust in battle, still dripping with the sweat of the conflict, and in need of spiritual courage and consolation; or rather, that we have already conquered. Yet you, in the meantime, who have been enrolled among the brothers, who are inscribed with the name of Christ the Lord, when you ought to have put on armor with us, are you moving your weapons against the dogmas of the truth? O, an unimagined thing! You did not touch the battle; you did not contend ^B alongside those who suffered; you avoided the time of the war by the lateness of your arrival. You stood from afar, watching those who showed courage. You saw the enemy prostrate, you sensed the blasphemous tongue repressed and punished; yet you were grieved. Tell me, I ask, for what reason? Is it because Christ has conquered? Because He has mastered those who opposed Him? Because the mouth that spoke great things has fallen silent? Because the disease that was attacking the children of the Church has ceased? But it would have been better to act courageously with us, and to say that which was uttered by the voice of David: "Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and do I not waste away over your enemies? I hated them with a perfect hatred; they became enemies to me," and the rest. But you have taken no account of these things at all; on the contrary, you attack with javelins those who have conquered, and you attempt to wound with the arrows of envy those whom you ought rather to have admired. But although ^C you attack us ferociously, we say, being not at all terrified: "Their wounds became as the arrows of children; and their tongues were weakened against them." Even if, surrounding yourself with external arms, you attempt to wage war against the assembly of the Lord, our weapons are not of the flesh, but are powerful in God, as it is written; powerful for the destruction of strongholds. You will find the soldiers of Christ much more noble than those who are with you. "They have the shield of faith, and the armor of good will, which is Christ; they have the breastplate of justice, they have the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit." Therefore, although you may rise up terrible and bold, and attack with much pride, and swell with barbarian furies and insolences like the boastful Goliath, yet Christ will conquer: and He will conquer through His own shield-bearers. How did David conquer? By having five stones in his bag. ^D Now those stones were smooth, and this was a type of Christ. For what is the bag of Christ? It is the Church on earth, which contains many precious and select stones, of which the prophet also says: "Precious and holy stones are rolled upon the earth." Through these holy stones Christ will conquer. But the stones were, as I said, smooth; and this smoothness of the stones indicates

Christ; for as I have said, the stones were smooth, ^A and the smoothness of the stones signifies a thing that cannot be grasped; for that which is smooth always eludes the grasp in some way; but the manner of life of the saints is always beyond reach of reproach. Therefore Christ will conquer; and even if you have the power to crucify, even so He has conquered; and even if you do wrong through craftiness, you have crowned Him against your will. ^B "For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake" (Phil. 1, 29). For he who believes in Him is not judged; but he who does not believe is judged already (Joann. 3, 18). For to Him belongs glory, power, honor, and adoration, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

HOMILY VII

The blessed prophet David shows those who have set their hope in God to be most courageous, saying: "Be of good courage, and let your heart be strengthened, all ye that hope in the Lord" (Ps. 30, 25). For indeed, the plants in gardens grow and flourish through the most abundant streams of water, and are lifted to great height; but the soul of a man is strengthened toward piety by the consolations of the Holy Spirit; it is established in faith; it receives an unbroken patience, which the blessed Paul admires above all other virtues, speaking thus: "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, probation; and probation, hope: and hope confoundeth not" (Rom. 5, 3-5). Patience, therefore, is to us the author of every good thing, ^C and a herald, a way to approval, and a nurse of hope for the life that is to come. And by what means we might perfect patience, the divine Scripture teaches us, saying: "My son, if thou come to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation; set thy heart right, and be constant" (Eccli. 2, 1). But perhaps someone will say: Could not a man arrive at an approved life in any other way? Could he not attain to the good without toil? By no means, he says. And for what reason? For very many are they who plot against the saints, and the war against them is terrible. For this reason the Savior Himself also said: "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (Joann. 16, 33). Since, therefore, ^D the war of the saints is great from all sides, it is necessary for them to resist the onsets of temptations with youthful vigor, and always to keep in memory the saying of the disciple: "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him" (Jac. 1, 12). I desire, however, to recount some of the more ancient deeds, so that you may learn the end of spiritual courage. The tyrants of the Babylonians, and those who managed the kingdom among that people...

were ever, in some measure, prone to cruelty, arrogance, and pride ^A. Wherefore, overstepping the boundaries of human condition, they did not hesitate to snatch for themselves the dignity that is due to God on high alone. Accordingly, that detestable Nebuchadnezzar erected a golden statue; and when this was being celebrated with the clangor of sonorous instruments, he commanded the subject peoples to bow down and adore it. They, indeed—since it was their custom to worship the creature rather than the Creator God—rushed to this most readily, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man. But after the Babylonians had brought forth the sons of the Hebrews into the midst—Ananias, that is, and Azarias and Misael—they ordered them to adore the golden statue, and were compelling ^B that most noble and God-beloved race to slip into the same impiety by which they themselves were held, namely, the adoration of the golden statue. But they achieved nothing; and, vanquished and overcome by their devotion to God, they inflicted upon them the torment of fire. The crime, however, which was violently laid against those thus besieged, was steadfastness in the faith, constancy in piety, a detestation of the cult of man, and, in short, a refusal to hold views that offered injury to the divine nature. But after they were cast into the furnace of fire, then indeed, then occurred a great demonstration of ineffable power. For the force of the element was transformed into that which was contrary to its nature; the fire yielded to the nod of the Creator, and the flame was changed into a whistling wind of dew. When those youths perceived the presence of heavenly aid, they were singing psalms in the furnace of fire, and with divine praises were calming the heat of the flames. That furnace was a figure of the Church, having the saints dancing in choruses, and not merely men, but also angels. You have marveled at the virtue of these men; you have praised their patience, the magnitude of their devotion to God: let us now observe where our own affairs ^C are situated. For they truly lived under barbarian tyrants; but we live under the scepters of a pious empire, having those who hold the rule over all things most piously disposed; how, then, shall we yield to the enemy? For even if they kindle a furnace of treachery, and stir up flames of perversity, bringing upon us the cult of a man: nevertheless we have God in heaven; Him we shall worship, and to Him shall we bow down. For since God is God by nature, He became man like unto us; not indeed laying aside His divinity, but lifting up human nature with honor; and He is powerful to deliver us. For we, following the faith of our most pious emperors, and relying upon their innate gentleness, will not endure the wickedness of our adversaries, and will confess that Emmanuel is God by nature. And saying this, and being so disposed, we shall earn the greatest reward; and what ^D is this? He Himself will teach us, saying: "Everyone therefore who shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father, who is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, I will also deny him..."

in the heavens. "Whoever shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven." ^A He confesses Him who calls Him the true God, and reproves those who do not believe; but he denies Him again who does not say He is the true God, and who even fights against those who do confess it. Therefore, He will deny those, but our common Savior will confess us, through whom and with whom to God and the Father with the Holy Spirit be glory and power, for ages of ages. Amen.

HOMILY VIII

Delivered at Ephesus in the great church which is called Mary's.

(...) to him every knee bows, and every tongue confesses that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father. To Him be dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

HOMILY IX

On the Transfiguration of our Lord, and God, and Savior Jesus Christ.

^B Those who know well how to contend are delighted by the applause of the spectators, and by the hope of prizes are spurred on toward the victory that befits them. But those who desire to attain to divine gifts, and who thirst for participation in the hope prepared for the saints, gladly welcome the struggles undertaken for piety toward Christ. They perform a commendable life, not preferring sloth, which gains no reward, nor loving cowardly timidity; but rather, bracing themselves against every temptation, they count the onset of persecutions worthy of little account, and consider it great riches to suffer for the Lord. For they remember the blessed Paul, who writes that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared ^C with the glory that is to be revealed in us. See, therefore, with what most beautiful providence our Lord Jesus Christ now uses, for the benefit and edification of the holy apostles. For He said to them: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever would save his soul will lose it; but whoever shall lose his soul for my sake will find it." And the precept is indeed salutary, and fitting for saints, and productive of the highest glory, and conducive to the ultimate state of joy. For to choose to suffer for Christ is not without reward; rather, it procures participation in eternal life and glory. But since the disciples had not yet received the power from on high, ^D it was reasonable that they might perhaps have fallen into human weaknesses, and, thinking such a thing to themselves, have said: "How shall a man deny himself? Or how shall he who has lost his own soul find it again? What..."

^A compensation will be equal to it? Or of what gifts shall he be a partaker?" In order, therefore, to remove such thoughts and words from them, and so to speak to recast them toward manliness by implanting in them a desire for the glory that is to be given to them, He says: "I tell you, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God." Is the measure of their life, he asks, to be extended for them until that time, in order that they might arrive at those days after which, at the consummation of the ages, He will descend from heaven and restore to the saints the kingdom prepared for them? But He was indeed able to perform this. For He can do all things, and nothing is impossible or unaccomplished by His most powerful will. By kingdom, however, He denotes the very spectacle of glory, in which He Himself also shall be seen at that time when He shall shine forth upon those on earth. For He will come in the glory of God the Father, and not in the humility and abjection that is in us. How, then, did He make those who had received the promise spectators of the miracle? He ascends the mountain having from them the three elect; then He is transformed into a certain excellent and divine splendor, so much so that His garment seemed to shine like light. Then Moses and Elias stood around ^B Jesus and spoke to one another of His departure which He was about to fulfill in Jerusalem—that is to say, the mystery of the economy with the flesh, and the saving passion, which, I say, was to take place on the cross. For it is true that the law of Moses and the word of the holy prophets previously showed forth the mystery of Christ; the former, the law, describing it as if on a tablet, almost in figures and shadows, whereas the latter, the prophets, predicting it in many ways and by many means, that He would be seen in His own time in our form, and that for the salvation and life of all, He would not refuse to suffer death on the wood. Now, that Moses and Elias were present and conversing together was done with this intent: that it might be shown that the law and the prophets were as the attendants of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that He who was shown by them might be recognized as Lord through the things that they signified, which were in agreement with one another. For those things which are spoken through the prophets do not dissent from the law. And this is, as I think, what Moses, the most holy, and the best of the prophets—and this was Elias—were speaking about to one another. But ^C another thing also may be considered. Since the crowds were saying, some that He was Elias, others Jeremias, others one of the prophets, He takes their leaders, that even from this they might see what the difference is between the master and the servant. Yet after this another consideration can also be stated. For since they were assiduously accusing Him of transgressing the law, and considered Him to be a blasphemer, as one who claimed for Himself a glory that did not befit Him—namely, the glory of the Father—and were saying: "This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath," and again: "For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, and because, ^D

^A being a man, you make yourself God." ^A And so, to show that both accusations proceeded from envy, and that He was innocent of both—and that what was being done was neither a transgression of the Law nor an arrogation of glory not belonging to Him—He brings forward those who had shone in each of these respects. For Moses gave the Law, and the Jews could have reasoned that He would not have stood by and watched the Law being trampled upon, as they supposed; nor would He have honored him who was transgressing it and was an enemy to the one who had enacted it. ^B And Elijah also was zealous for the glory of God. And had He been an opponent of God, and had He been calling Himself God equal to the Father while not being what He claimed, nor doing so appropriately, Elijah would not have stood by him and obeyed him.

There is also another reason to state alongside those already mentioned. What is this? That they might know that He has authority over both life and death, and that He rules both things above and things below. For this reason He brings forward both him who was alive and him who had died. For they, as they appeared, were not silent, but were speaking of the glory which He was about to fulfill in Jerusalem; that is to say, both the passion and the cross, and in these things also the resurrection. But the blessed disciples were somewhat overcome by sleep, as Christ was occupied in prayer. For the human elements were being fulfilled according to the dispensation. Then, having fully awakened, they became spectators of such a venerable and wondrous transformation. ^C The blessed Peter, thinking perhaps that the time of the kingdom of God had already arrived, is pleased to remain on the mountain; he says that three tabernacles should be made, not knowing what he was saying. For it was not the time for the consummation of the age, nor is the present time when the saints are to receive the participation of the hope promised to them. For Paul says: "Who will transform the body of our humility, so that it may be made conformable to the body of His glory," ^D that is, of Christ. Since, therefore, the dispensation was still in its beginnings, and not yet at an end, how was it reasonable for Christ—who had come into the world on account of love—to cease to will to suffer for its sake? For He saved that nature which is under heaven, having even undergone death according to the flesh, and having abolished it through His resurrection from the dead. Peter, therefore, did not know what he was saying; nevertheless, besides the wonderful and ineffable spectacle of the glory of Christ, there was also something else done, useful and necessary for confirming the faith in Him, not only for the disciples, but also for us ourselves. For from a cloud from above, from God and the Father, a voice was given, saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found pleasure; hear him." And as the voice came to pass, it says, Jesus was found alone. What does the stiff-necked Jew say to these things, the one who is hard to lead, and disobedient, and has a heart that receives no admonition? Behold, with Moses present, the Father commands the holy apostles to hear Him. But if He had wished them to follow the commands of Moses, He would have said: "Obey Moses, keep the

[...], having said: "Because you believe in Moses, keep the law." But now God and the Father does not even say this; rather, while Moses and his prophet Elias stood there, He commands them to listen to Him instead. ^A And so that the truth might not be slandered by some saying that the Father had commanded them to listen to Moses rather than to our common Savior, Christ, the evangelist necessarily noted it, saying that when that voice came, Jesus alone was found. Therefore, when God and the Father from the clouds above instructed the holy apostles, saying: "Listen to Him," Moses was absent, and Elias was not present, but Christ alone was there. Therefore, He commanded that they must listen to Him; for He is the end of the law and the prophets. For this reason, He also addressed the crowds of the Jews, saying: "If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me." Since they have persisted in despising the commandment given through the most wise Moses, and in considering as nothing the things spoken through the holy ^B prophets, they have been justly alienated and cast out from the good things promised to their fathers. "For obedience is better than sacrifice, and hearkening than the fat of lambs," as it is written. And such, then, is the state of the affairs of the Jews; but for us who have acknowledged His manifestation, all good things will surely come through Him and in Him, Christ, through whom and with whom, to God and the Father, be glory and power, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY X. On the mystic supper and the washing of the feet, on Holy Thursday.

What could be more delightful or pleasant to those who love God and are truly desirous of life, than to enjoy God perpetually and to rest in His divine meditations? For if those who are filled with food and drink, and who pamper their own uncertain pleasures, keep their little bodies vigorous and lively, how much more will those whose concern is the soul, and who are fed by the water of refreshment—that is, the divine preaching—shine in golden-woven raiment, wrapped about and adorned, as the Prophet bears witness? ^C They shall take up wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not hunger. Since, therefore, we have arrived at the pinnacle of the life-giving mysteries from the spiritual stadium, and the gifts beyond expression from the Master are set before us as provision for immortality, come, as many of you as pursue the delights of these mysteries ^D, and as participants of the heavenly calling, [clothed] with sincere faith as with a nuptial robe...

let us run together to the mystical supper. Christ feasts us today, Christ ministers to us today, Christ the lover of mankind gives us rest. ^A Tremendous is what is spoken, formidable is what is performed: the fatted calf is sacrificed, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is slaughtered. The Father rejoices, and the Son is willingly offered in priestly sacrifice, not today by the God-opposing ones, but by Himself, that He might show His salvific passion to be voluntary. Do you wish that I designate for you the greatest proof of these things that are spoken? Give heed, not to our brevity, nor to our worthlessness, but to the nobility of those who proclaimed these things beforehand, and to the authority of those who testify to them. For it was not some common, worthless, or clownish fellows gathered from the street corners by the rabble who proclaimed these things in the crossroads, but that great Solomon, the herald of the King of kings, who was sent in advance; he who ruled over exalted thrones proclaimed the mysteries of the Most High; he who was arrayed in purple and crowned on his head with a diadem made aloud the proclamation of God, who appoints and changes kings. Do you see how great is the dignity of the herald? See and consider, moreover, the power of those things which were foretold to you by him. "Wisdom," he says, "built a house for herself, and raised up seven pillars; she killed her sacrifices, she mixed her wine in a bowl, and ^B prepared her table. She sent out her servants, calling with a loud proclamation to the bowl, saying: 'Whoever is foolish, let him turn aside to me.' And to those lacking sense, she said: 'Come, eat of my bread, and drink the wine which I have mixed for you; abandon foolishness, and you shall live; and seek prudence, that you may live, and establish understanding in knowledge.'" These are for you, beloved, the symbols of the things now being fulfilled. These are for you the delights of the banquet that takes place here; the Generous Giver is ready, the divine gifts are set forth. The mystical table is prepared, the life-giving bowl is mixed; the King of glory calls, the Son of God receives, the incarnate God the Word invites; He who built for Himself a temple not made by hands, the subsistent Wisdom of God the Father, distributes His own body as bread, and dispenses His life-giving blood as wine. O tremendous mystery! O ineffable divine plan! O incomprehensible condescension! O unsearchable compassion! The Creator offers Himself to His creation for their enjoyment; the Life Itself bestows Himself upon mortals for food and drink. "Come, eat of my bread," He exhorts, "and drink the wine which I have mixed for you." I have prepared Myself as food, I have mixed Myself for those who desire Me. I willingly became flesh, though I am Life; I voluntarily partook of blood and flesh, being the Word and the hypostatic character of the Father, that I might save you. "Taste and see, for I the Lord am sweet." You have tasted the fruit of disobedience,

and have known that the food of an evil counselor is bitter. Taste now the fruit of obedience, which wards off evil, and you shall know that it is better and more profitable to obey God. You tasted at an unseasonable time, and you died. Eat now at a seasonable time, and you shall live. You chose to learn by experience the outcome of disobedience; learn by experience the benefit of obedience. "Taste, and see that I the Lord am sweet." Compensate for the experience by an experience; by a perception of evil, you have received the knowledge of disobedience; by a perception of good, learn to discern obedience. "Taste, and see that I the Lord am sweet." ^B Adam stretched out his hand in an evil manner, not honoring with reverence my saving commandment; unwilling to know the ordinance of the Master and the submission of the servant, unwilling in faith to flee the sentence resulting from unbelief, he stretched out his hand and joined himself to the evil, he sold off the blessed life he held in his hands, and exchanged it for a voluntary and pitiable death. He became the creator of the death foretold, and though it did not exist, he became the substance of that which had no subsistence. He exchanged the immortality he was to have by grace for a self-willed corruption; he became of his own accord liable to the sentence, and in his condemnation, he came to know the distinction between the Master’s commandment and the suggestion of the tempter. And having wrongly interpreted the most certain command of God, out of unbelief he created his own ruin, and became like vanity. For these reasons, I once again offer the fruit of obedience toward me to those who have died through disobedience. Taste, and see that I, the Lord, am most true in all things. ^C Truth cannot beget a lie, nor can the flower of death spring from life, for opposites cannot coalesce into one. Eat me, the life, and you shall live; for this is what I desire. Eat the life that does not fail; for this reason I have come, that you may have life, and have it more abundantly. Eat my bread; for I am the life-giving grain of wheat, and I am the bread of life. Drink the wine which I have mixed for you; for I am the cup of immortality. Abandon the madness of impiety, and you shall live. Learn again by experience what is good and prosperous; acquire through obedience those things the loss of which was caused by the disobedience of the first parent. He was cast out of paradise because of unbelief; do you enter in through faith. Cast off his impiety, and in its place accept ^D piety toward me, the Creator. Seek wisdom that you may live, and perfect your understanding in the knowledge of me. If anyone is most foolish, let him turn to me, and you shall know the light of the truth. I am God, the first, and I am after, and besides me there is no God begotten of God the Father. "I am in the Father, and the Father in me," and: "I and the Father are one," and: "He who has seen me, has seen

^A my Father." "I am the life, and the resurrection." "I am the bread of life which came down from heaven, and giving life to men." Receive me as leaven into your dough, that you may partake of the immortal life which is in me. "I am the true vine." Drink my joy, the wine which I have mixed for you. For my cup is an intoxicating one, a most potent intoxicating antidote, causing the sorrow which sprouted in Adam to blossom into joy. "Behold, I have prepared for you a table against those who afflict you." Opposite Eden, I settled Adam, who had violated the celebrated place, so that by the very sight of the pleasure no longer granted to him, he might perpetually receive the smarting pain. But I, against those who oppress you, have given you a table that is a creator of life and joy, and produces for those who hate you a pain incredible to tell. Eat the bread that renews your nature. Drink the exquisite delight of the wine of immortality. Eat the bread that is a purgative for ancient bitterness, and drink the wine that constricts the pain of the wound. This is the medicine of nature, this is the punishment of the one who inflicted the wounds. I have become for your sake as you are, and my own nature was not changed, in order that you might become partakers of the divine nature through me. Therefore, be changed by a noble change, so that you may be transformed beautifully from the world to God, and from flesh to Spirit. I have become a true vine in your race, so that you in me may bring forth fruits that smell sweet. Suck the richness of my ambrosia, and you shall grow fat. I am the Lord who gives food to all flesh, but in a special way to those who fear me, just as ^C David foretold, saying: "The Lord is merciful and compassionate; he has given food to those who fear him." I once rained down manna upon Israel, and I sent down bread from heaven without labor; but the beloved one rejected the miracle and kicked against it, "and Israel did not know me, and my people did not understand me." But not as they, who ate the manna in the desert and died, so do I offer you my body. "For he who eats this bread shall live forever."

Have you understood these things, beloved? Has the mystery of the unspeakable things of this most holy day been clearly demonstrated to you by the Lord's word? Or do you wish to behold the glorious things of this day more fittingly? For we shall most eagerly unfold and place into the open for those who are friends of truth those things into which angels desire to look, ^D not as if overturning or misreasoning the things divinely predicted, but as if declaring those things with which they have an affinity from an earlier primordial origin. And certainly, I beseech you, pray for me, O good children, as I am weary in life, and bent, and walking with a faltering step, that the Lord may grant me, according to the dignity of the things that are to be said

^A to think and to contemplate them worthily; and taking me up, O beloved, just as the children of Israel did Him who was born among us of old, let us both go to the most glorious Sion, and let us see with our mind into that citadel, how He who holds the ends of the earth was being prepared for the mystical supper, how He who sits upon the Cherubim was reclining at supper, how He who was typically eaten in Egypt ^B there voluntarily sacrifices Himself, and having eaten the type, as the fulfiller of typical things, He revealed the truth, straightway proposing Himself as the bread of life, so that by joining the end of the things ordained by Him to the beginning, He might grant the divine gifts of His philanthropy to all mankind in a common state, those things which flow forth forever. Concerning these, receive, I beseech you, the narration of the divine Gospels in this manner: "As they were eating," He says, "Jesus took bread and broke it, and gave it to His disciples and said: Take, eat: this is my body. And taking the cup, and giving thanks, He gave it to them, saying: Drink from it all of you: for this is my blood of the new Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." ^C O the miracle! O that sacred mystery! O that divine initiation! He led through the letter, He perfected through the Spirit; He instituted through figures, He bestowed grace through works. In Sion He fulfilled the law of the letter. From Sion He proclaimed the law of grace. Let us see next what things were done in the midst of the supper, of what kind they were and how great. "He rises," he says, "from supper, and lays aside His garments; and having taken a towel, He girded Himself. Then He pours water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded." What is more admirable than this? What is more fearful? He who is clothed with light as with a garment is girded with a towel; He who encloses water in the clouds, and seals the abyss with His own fearful name, is tightened with a belt; He who gathers the waters of the sea as in a bottle, pours water into a basin; He who confirms His upper chambers in the waters, washed the feet of the disciples in water; He who measured the heaven with His span, and holds the earth with His fist, wiped the footprints of His servants with His undefiled palms; He to whom every knee bows, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, ^D bowed His neck to His servants. The angels saw, and were astonished; heaven beheld, and shuddered; creation paid attention, and trembled. He comes, therefore, to Simon Peter, and he says to Him: "Lord, do You wash my feet?" Did I not formerly declare my unworthiness, when I said: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord"? And now who am I, that I should dare this? Will not my miserable nature perish in horror and stupor if I permit this?

^A Will not all creation chide me for my boldness, if I should grow so rash as to accept this? Do not burden your servant, Master; let not the sun see the forwardness of Peter, or it will grow dark upon me. Spare your servant, O Lord Peter; I am not worthy to be called your slave. You shall not wash my feet for all eternity. I shudder as I behold, I am distraught as I consider: God ministers to man, the King obeys the subject, the Master submits to the slave. Spare me, I implore you; let not the world beneath the heavens learn of Peter’s lack of reverence.

But what does the wise steward of your mysteries say to this? "What I do, you do not understand now, O Peter, but you shall know hereafter." Allow me, therefore, to fulfill this holy service upon you; otherwise, you have no part with me. ^B Having heard this, the coryphaeus was altered at these words, and he hesitated as to how to respond. "Alas, O Lord," he said, "I am hemmed in by distress on all sides. To resist is grave, to contradict is harmful, to argue is injurious, but to consent is most difficult. Nevertheless, let the command of God prevail, and not the stubbornness of the servant; let the wisdom of God prevail, and not the contradiction of the servant. I have indeed begged pardon for the fault of my boldness; yet you command me to endure and admit this sacred act. Do what you please, Master; do what comes into your mind, O Lord; and that I may obtain that inheritance of yours, wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head. ^C I now pray as a suppliant, I now beseech you: let me enjoy the divine washing, that I may not lack the divine grace. May I be enabled to attain your adorable will, that I may not lose your joy. I will double my steps, I will stretch out my hands, I will bow my head; only let me not be torn away from the participation of my Lord. That I may not lose a happiness greater than all prayer, I will not be obstinate by resisting God. Let all creation know that today I am buying the kingdom of heaven with a basin."

When the divine washing was completed, the Lord reclined and said to them: "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Master and Lord, and you speak well, for so I am. If, therefore, I, the Master and Lord, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you also should do to one another." ^D Imitate me, therefore, your Lord, that through this lovely work you may become partakers of the divine nature. This most excellent way of exaltation I prescribe for you. Long ago I bowed down to the earth, when I provided the beginning of existence and well-being to your race, and taking clay from the earth I fashioned man, and...

^A I whispered in pride; delete that pride of his through mutual humility among yourselves. Pursue this with all your strength. I, the Lord, give grace to the humble, but I abhor pride. "Every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Therefore, I command you to love one another: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." Again I say, see, beloved, how great is the dignity of this most celebrated day to which you are invited—the feast itself, the presence of God, the sacrifice of the tremendous victim, the gift of immortality, and the pledges of eternal life.

Wherefore, my beloved, and partakers of the heavenly calling, let us imitate, as much as possible, the leader and perfecter of our salvation, Jesus. Let us desire lofty humility, love that unites us to God, and sincere faith toward the divine mysteries. Flee from division, avoid discord, cast aside all profane novelties of words, and especially those which the ministers of Satan, who are light and seducers of souls, have devised. I refer to those who are clothed in a hermit-like but not-quiet tunic of new wisdom, against whom the Lord has strictly commanded us to be on our guard, since the skin of their habit easily deceives us: those who have armed themselves against our spiritual fraternity and our beloved peace, and have not ^C minimally troubled our city, preserved by the power of God. The one who stilled the sea with a word will shatter their impious barking, for they have held evil opinions concerning Christ, our true God, and have attempted to destroy the hope of our salvation which we have in Christ—I mean the resurrection. For where are they now, those who deny God, and those solitary wolves, who, while clothed in the garment of piety, deny its power, those impious pseudo-Christians, and those who deny the consubstantiality of Christ with the Father because of the incarnation? Let those wordy men, the most absurd of all, therefore tell us whose body the sheep of the Church are fed with, or by what streams the nurslings of the Church are refreshed. For if it is the body of God that is delivered, then Christ the Lord is true God here, and not a mere man, or an angel, as they would have it, a minister and one of the bodiless powers. And if it is the blood of God that is the cup, then the one who is the Son of God, of the adorable Trinity, is not at all a God "naked" [abstracted], but the Word of God made man. If, however, the body of Christ is food, and the blood of Christ [is]

God, but God the Word made man. If Christ’s body is food and Christ’s blood is drink, and if according to them He is a mere man, how is He proclaimed as eternal life to those who approach the holy table? And how does He dwell both here and everywhere, yet without being diminished? For a mere body in no way imparts life to those who partake of it. Or do they call us false witnesses of God before the God who loves the truth, ^A when we openly proclaim the truth and teach the divinely delivered mysteries? But may divine grace be propitious to us as we mention the holy things in this most holy assembly. Therefore, let us partake of the body of Life itself, which for our sake dwelt in our body, as the inspired John says: "For the life was manifested." And again: "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," who is Christ the Son of the living God, ^B the one of the holy Trinity. And let us drink His holy blood for the remission of our sins, and for participation in the immortality that is in Him, believing at the same time that He Himself remains priest and sacrifice, He who offers and is offered, who receives and is delivered, not dividing into two persons that divine and indivisible, and moreover unconfused unity of the most honorable Trinity, to whom be glory and adoration, with the Father and the holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

HOMILY XI

Brilliant is our discourse, and filled with grace, since the assembly of the holy Fathers is also illustrious. For when my soul was being tormented with intense grief on account of the impious blasphemy of Nestorius, I stirred up this resounding, beautiful, angelic, and heavenly theater. These are the teachers of piety, the pillars and roofs of the faith, those unshaken towers, the joyful harbors, the faithful and prudent stewards, the wise architects, who live a heavenly navigation ^D and an angelic life upon earth, the tent-mates of the prophets, the colleagues of the apostles, and the presidents of the holy Churches, the avengers of impious blasphemy, the wise defenders of our poverty—or rather, of our reputation. These who occupy the beautiful and godlike throne of the high priesthood, who distill honey-flowing streams, who are spiritual heralds of divine intelligence, who have traversed the four-part world with tireless journeying, whom neither heat, nor the storms of the sea, nor the indomitable fury of insane waves, nor tempests

^A have cast into sluggishness; but leaping with faithful steps, they have arrived here, having abandoned all sloth out of longing, or rather out of fear of the Lord; and having taken up the cross, as wise champions of the Theotokos Mary, they have arrived here. Therefore, also emboldened by their holy prayers, let us offer a few words of greeting to this city, and thus turn my discourse to the praises of the Theotokos.

Homily XI

And hail to you, thrice-blessed John, apostle and evangelist, ornament of virginity, teacher of chastity, destroyer of the deception of demons, subverter of the temple of Artemis, harbor and bulwark of the city of the Ephesians, nourisher of the poor, refuge of the afflicted, rest and refreshment for neighbors and foreigners alike. Hail, most pure vessel filled with temperance. For to you, our Lord Jesus Christ, while being carried upon the cross, entrusted that Mother of God, who is also ever-virgin, as to a virgin.

Hail to you also, Mary Theotokos, Virgin-Mother, Light-Bearer, vessel undefiled. Hail, Virgin Mary, mother and handmaid: Virgin indeed, because of Him who was born of you as of a virgin; mother, because of Him whom you carried in your arms and nourished with your milk; handmaid, because of Him who took the form of a servant. For the King entered into your city, or rather into your womb, and went forth again as He Himself willed, and your gate remained shut. For you conceived without seed, and brought forth in a manner worthy of God. Hail, Mary, the indissoluble temple, or rather, the holy one, just as the prophet David cries out, saying: "Thy holy temple is wonderful in righteousness." Hail, Mary, the treasure of the world; hail, Mary, the incorrupt dove; hail, Mary, the unquenchable lamp; for from you the Sun of righteousness has been born. Hail, Mary, place of Him who cannot be contained by place, you who held the only-begotten God the Word, you who brought forth the unfading ear of corn without plow or seed. Hail, Mary Theotokos, for whom the prophets cry out, for whom the shepherds sing praises to God, saying with the angels that awesome hymn: "Glory in the highest."

to God, and on earth peace, good will among men." ^A Hail, Mary Theotokos, for whom the angels dance, and archangels leap for joy, sending forth most awesome hymns. Hail, Mary Theotokos, for whom the Magi offer worship, guided by a lamp-bearing star. Hail, Mary Theotokos, for whom the twelve-fold beauty of the apostles has been chosen. Hail, Mary Theotokos, for whom John, while yet in his mother’s womb, leaped and the lamp worshipped the Light that never sets. Hail, Mary Theotokos, through whom the ineffable grace has come forth, about which the Apostle cried out, saying: "The saving grace of God has appeared to all men." Hail, Mary Theotokos, through whom the true Light, our Lord Jesus Christ, has come forth, who says in the Gospels: "I am the light of the world." Hail, Mary Theotokos, through whom light has shone upon those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. For it says: "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." What light, then, if not our Lord Jesus Christ, the true light that enlightens every man coming into the world? Hail, Mary Theotokos, for whom it is proclaimed in the Gospels: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord"; for whom, also, in cities and villages and on islands, churches of the orthodox have been founded. ^B Hail, Mary Theotokos, through whom the victor over death and the destroyer of Hades has come forth. Hail, Mary Theotokos, through whom the Creator of the first-formed man has come forth, and the corrector of his transgression, and the guide to the kingdom in heaven. Hail, Mary Theotokos, through whom the beauty of the resurrection has blossomed and shone forth. Hail, Mary Theotokos, through whom the awesome baptism of holiness and the Jordanic [baptism] has appeared. Hail, Mary Theotokos, through whom John and the Jordan are sanctified, and the devil is shamed. Hail, Mary Theotokos, through whom every soul that believes is saved. Hail, Mary Theotokos; for through you the waves of the sea, having become calm and tranquil, have carried our fellow-servants and co-ministers with joy and gentleness. For the land, once occupied by robbers, has been changed into peace by the arrival of the holy Fathers. For it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of peace!" What peace? Our Lord Jesus Christ, the herald of peace, who says in the holy Gospels: "My peace I give to you." What peace? The peace that the blasphemer Nestorius did not accept, saying that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Word, was not born of the Virgin Mary, ^C neither acknowledging the inviolable birth of her virginity, nor believing the voice of the archangel that says: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you." For, assimilated to the Persian kingdom, and attempting to strip the only-begotten Son of God of his divinity, he concocted these things for the ruin of many and the blasphemy of souls.

^A But since on the previous day I spoke at length about this gallinaceous bird who blasphemed so wickedly, when I introduced to you the partridge which the prophet Jeremiah proclaimed, saying, "The partridge cried; it gathered what it did not lay," ^B and since that foul and blasphemous one, seeing the counts defending him, was emboldened by their confidence—or rather, while he hoped to strike terror into us, he stirred us up all the more—come, let us say with sighs and tears as is our custom: "It is good to trust in the Lord, rather than to trust in princes." For this man, this accursed man, having exhausted his golden quiver, stirred up for us consuls and counts, and a choir of masters and queens. But let us use that prophetic saying: "These in chariots, and these in horses; but we in the name of the Lord our God." For if I should need to speak about anything before the powers of the world, or even to the most pious emperor himself, I shall not be confounded nor shall I tremble, as I have the prophet David constantly encouraging me and saying: "I was speaking before kings, and I was not ashamed." ^C Who has heard of such horrible and terrible things? Christ and God the Word, proclaimed to us by the prophets and apostles, now being transformed into a man, and the Theotokos being called a "man-bearer"! Let no one now set before me the stubborn audacity of the ungrateful and wretched Jews, which those senseless ones dared to use against Christ at that time. For who has given such boldness now? It is he who has assailed the oracle of God with blasphemous voices, saying, "You crucified a man." ^D Yet he has also surpassed the error of the Gentiles, and the impious stenches and unlawful sacrifices offered to stones, but also this practice of wickedness, nor did he stop at the bitter disease of Arius, and the most foul blasphemy of the Manichaeans, and the pestilential practice of Sabellius, Porphyry, and the evil-minded Photinus, whom this man also follows by blaspheming; alas! finally, the wickedness of this man has surpassed them all, and in him has been fulfilled the head and sum of that proud man who says: "I will tear down my barns, and I will build larger ones." To whom it was said: "Fool, this night the angels are demanding your soul from you; and what you have prepared, whose will it be?" For as much as you were lifted up to a height, being a pollution and of base origin, by so much have you in turn been cast down into the abyss of blasphemy: you whom the apostle Paul, that vessel of election, did not persuade, the cricket of the Church, the evangelical and heavenly incense, the fragrant fountain, that carrier of the Epistles and

scribbler, who was blinded on the road and recovered his sight entirely toward the height of heaven by the knowledge of God, whom a vision of Christ cast upon his face, and the knowledge of God led again to faith, who established the inhabited world to believe in the consubstantial Trinity, in one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Father, one Son, one Holy Spirit, an indivisible essence, most simple, incomprehensible divinity, God from God ^B the Lord, light from light, brightness of glory, born of the Virgin Mary, according to the voice of the archangel who said: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you." And again the same: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, that which is born holy will be called the Son of the living God." But we hear this not only through the archangel Gabriel, but also through the blessed David, singing daily in the churches and saying: "The Lord said to me, You are my Son; today I have begotten you." And that most wise Isaiah, son of Amos the prophet, a prophet from a prophet, preached, saying: "Behold, the Virgin shall have in her womb, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us." But do you not believe the prophets and apostles, and the evangelists and the archangel Gabriel? Then imitate your fellow demons, who shuddered at his power and cried out: "What have we to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here before the time to torment us?" For even if at that time the truth was spoken by the demon: "before the time," yet now it has arrived even for you. The Antichrist was indeed to come; but instead of him, you have arrived quickly. Nor did you believe the devil who deceives you, saying: "If you are the Son of God, speak that these stones may become bread." O fearful thing, and filled with astonishment! The demons together with their father, the devil, call him who was born of Mary the Son of God, and this man transfers the Son of God into a mere man, and having discovered a certain reversion and evil madness, he sought to destabilize the most pious emperor, who is a friend and servant of the orthodox faith, and also a choir of holy queens shining in the faith; but he was unable to proceed to the end. For by distributing the wealth of the poor to those who are greedy for gold, he thought he could conquer the truth through them, and through a most all-evil love of money ^C he fell into a most terrible shipwreck: while in port, he suffered shipwreck, having abandoned the rudder of faith. And therefore he was submerged by evils, and became a theater of tragedy for the whole world. For he hoped with his malignant and most bitter intellect to persuade the worshipers of piety, since his darkened mind could not grasp the doctrine of the Fathers, and the voices of the apostles, and evangelists, and archangels; and surrounded by insanity and foolish evil discoveries, and by impiety, he attempted to establish a pestilential and impious religion for the whole world. But he did not find us unprepared to face the adversary.

For we do not trust in military ^A arms, nor in gold and conspicuous guards, but we make our responses to him through the holy and divinely inspired Scriptures. For our weapons are not carnal, nor earthly, but spiritual and heavenly, as the blessed Paul proclaimed. But let no one, when we say these things, think that we rejoice in your fall, O most miserable one! For when you had fallen into the pit of this blasphemy, we stretched out a hand to you through letters, and you despised our mediocracy, and thus incurred the danger of contumacy. For that these things are plainly so, let us bring forward a wealthy witness: the most holy Celestine, archbishop of the whole world, and father and patriarch of the great city of Rome, who himself also exhorted you through letters to desist from that insane blasphemy of yours. But you did not obey even him, and you boasted in the vanity of your folly; having become a razor to the whole world, you disturbed the four quarters of the earth, and with much labor and fear, you forced all the saints to this place. ^B For you wrote wickedness, and not goodness at all. On this account God shall eventually remove you from the priesthood, and will cast you out from the wisdom of the Fathers, casting you down first from the royal city, and then from the throne of the high priesthood, which you attained unworthily. "Therefore the righteous shall see and shall fear, and shall laugh at you, and shall say: Behold the man who did not make God his helper, but trusted in the multitude of his riches, and prevailed in his vanity." But we all, as many as follow the truth of the Gospel, shall be, according to that prophetic word, "like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God," glorifying God the Father Almighty, and His only-begotten Son, who was born of Mary, and the Holy Spirit, the life-giving one who provides life to all, being subject to the most faithful emperors, and honoring the holy queens who shine in virginity; and for those wedded we shall pray that they may see a son born to them, and that the God-loving, faithful, and orthodox royal line may persist in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. ^C

Homily XII. On the Meeting of our Lord Jesus Christ.

A very numerous assembly, and eager hearers (for we see the church full), but poor in...

^A The guide, however—for He who gives man a mouth and a tongue will again furnish us with good thoughts. He Himself says somewhere: "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it" (Ps. LXXX, 11). And since you have all come together eagerly, gathered by the splendor of the Lord's festival with bright lamps, let us celebrate this feast joyfully, and let us grasp the contemplation of the things that have been fulfilled today in a manner worthy of God, gathering from every side what pertains to the confirmation of our faith and piety. We saw just a short while ago the infant Emmanuel lying in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes after the human manner, but hymned divinely by the host of holy angels; these heralded His birth to the shepherds. For God the Father bestowed it as a preeminent honor that the inhabitants of heaven should be the first to preach the things concerning Him. ^B We have seen Him today, also, subject to the laws of Moses—or rather, we have seen God, the Lawgiver Himself, as a man, subject to His own decrees. And for what reason? The most wise Paul teaches us, saying: "When we were children, we were enslaved under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law" (Gal. IV, 3-4). Christ, therefore, redeemed from the curse of the law those who were under the law, though not those who had kept it. How did He redeem them? By fulfilling it Himself; and in another way, that He might resolve the offenses of the transgression in Adam, presenting Himself as obedient and submissive to God and the Father in all things on our behalf. For it is written that "as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Rom. V, 19). ^C He therefore bowed His neck to the law along with us, doing this by way of divine dispensation; for it was fitting for Him to fulfill all righteousness. For since He altogether took the form of a servant, for this reason, as one enrolled into the number of subjects because of His humanity, He paid the didrachma to the tax collectors along with others, although He was free by nature and, as the Son, not subject to toll (Matt. XVII, 23-26). When, therefore, you see Him keeping the law, do not be scandalized, nor rank the Free One among the servants, but rather consider the depth of the dispensation. When the eighth day arrived, on which it was customary for the circumcision of the flesh to be performed according to the prescription of the law, He receives the name, that is, Jesus (Luc. II, 21). ^D This is interpreted as "Salvation of the people." For thus did God and the Father will that His own Son, born according to the flesh from a woman, should be named. For at that time, salvation for the people was truly accomplished—and not for one alone, but for many, or rather for every nation and all that is under the heavens. Therefore, at the same time, He was circumcised and received the name. What this implies, or what mysteries are signified by what is being performed, let us consider once again.

^A

Blessed Paul said: "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing." But to this perhaps some might say: "Did God, the Lord of all, therefore ordain that nothing should be observed through the most wise Moses, and impose a penalty upon those who transgress it?" Nay, I would say. For as far as the nature of the thing is concerned, that is, what is fulfilled in the flesh, it is nothing at all; but it gives birth to a not inept type of a mystery, or rather, it possesses a hidden indication of the truth. For on the eighth day Christ was raised from the dead, and He gave us circumcision in the Spirit. For God commanded the holy apostles: "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." ^B We say that this spiritual circumcision is especially fulfilled at the time of holy baptism, when Christ makes us partakers of the Holy Spirit. And of this, in turn, that ancient Jesus, the leader who was the successor of Moses, was a type. For he led the Israelites across the Jordan, and then, having settled them, he immediately circumcised them with knives of stone. Therefore, when we have crossed the Jordan, then Christ circumcises us by the power of the Holy Spirit, not cutting away the flesh, but rather washing away the stains in our souls. On the eighth day, therefore, Christ is circumcised, and receives His name, as I have said. For then, even then, we were saved through Him. They brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. ^C O great and admirable dispensation of the divine counsel! "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!" He who is in the bosom of the Father, who sits as His assessor and is the co-eternal Son, He through whom all things are divinely produced, undergoes the condition of humanity, and He who is honored with the adoration of all and is glorified together with His own Father, offers a sacrifice. And what did He offer as the firstborn and male? A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons, as is prescribed in the law. But come, let us consider what the turtledove signifies, and what the other, namely the pigeon. Those are the most garrulous among the birds of the field, while this is mild and placid. Such is the Savior of all towards us, endowed with most perfect mildness, and like the turtledove soothing the earth, and with the sweetness of His discourse filling His own vine, that is, us who believe in Him. ^D For it is written in the Song of Songs that the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. For He has spoken to us the divine and evangelical preaching of salvation. Turtledoves, therefore, and pigeons were offered when He presented Himself to the Lord, and it was possible to see at one and the same time both the truth and the types. Christ therefore offered Himself as a sweet-smelling fragrance, that He might offer us through Himself and in Himself to God and the Father, and He proclaimed the aversion which happened to us because of that transgression in Adam, and the sin which oppressed us all by its power. For He...

was the One we were formerly crying out to: "Look upon me, and have mercy on me." And what could be found equal in joy, to learn that God has saved the world under the heavens, through the Son acting as mediator, by becoming like us? For it is written: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for us." For He willingly stooped to our poverty, in order that He might make us rich, if we ^A should possess Him for our gain. See Him, therefore, as one of us, being offered to the Father, and following the shadows of the Law, and still sacrificing according to custom, even though these things were being done through His mother. Was He, then, unknown to all in Jerusalem, and recognized by no one who lived there? Yet how could that be true? For God the Father was proclaiming through the prophets from of old that the Son would eventually appear, that He might save those who were perishing and enlighten those who sat in darkness. He said, therefore, through one of the prophets: "My righteousness draws near quickly, and my mercy to be revealed; and my salvation shall burn like a lamp." Now, Christ is both mercy and righteousness. For we have ^B received mercy through Him, and we have been justified, having washed away the stains of our wickedness, clearly through faith in Him. And that which serves as a lamp to those in night and darkness, this Christ has become for those established in spiritual gloom and darkness, placing the divine light within them. Accordingly, the blessed prophets prayed to become partakers of such grace, saying: "Show us, O Lord, Thy mercy, and grant us Thy salvation." Therefore, Christ was brought into the temple, being yet an infant and a suckling; but the blessed Simeon, endowed with prophetic grace, receives Him into his arms; and filled with the highest joy, he blessed God, saying: "Now dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word in peace, because my eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: a light for the revelation of the gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel." For the mystery of Christ was prepared even before the foundation of the world; but it has been manifested in the last times of the age, and has become a light to those in darkness, and to those who had been led astray, and had fallen under the devil's hand. ^C But these were the ones who were worshipping the creation instead of the Creator, and were adoring the author of evil, the dragon, and were attributing the glory of God to the impure multitude of demons; but they have been called by God the Father to the knowledge of the Son, who is the true light. He said, therefore, through the voice of Isaiah: "I will indicate them to them, and I will receive them, because I will redeem them; and they shall be multiplied, just as they were many who were deceived, but called through Christ." But there are many again, just as before, who have been received and redeemed, having received from God and the Father the sign of peace, ^D that is to say, friendship and grace through faith in Christ. Meanwhile, the divine disciples were dispersed among the nations. What then comes from this? Those who were far from

which is through faith in Christ. The divine disciples were dispersed among the peoples. And what is the result of this? Those who were far from God have, by their disposition, become near; to these the divine Paul also writes, saying, “But now you who were once far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ.” And having become near, they make Christ their boast. For God and the Father said concerning them again, “And I will strengthen them in the Lord their God, and in His name they shall glory, says the Lord.” This the blessed Psalmist also teaches, speaking as if to the Savior of all: “O Lord, in the light of Your countenance they shall walk, and in Your name they shall exult all the day, and in Your righteousness they shall be exalted, because You are the glory of their strength.” We find also the prophet Jeremiah crying out to God: “O Lord, my strength and my help, and my refuge in the day of my troubles. To You shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, ‘Our fathers have fabricated false idols, and there is no profit in them.’” Christ has therefore become a light for the revelation of the nations, but also for the glory of Israel. For even if some from that nation have become abusive and disobedient, and having a mind full of ignorance, yet the remnant has been saved and glorified through Christ. The ^B firstfruits of these became the divine disciples, whose glory illuminates the whole world under heaven; and there is glory also in another way for Israel, because He came forth from them according to the flesh, although He is God over all, and blessed forever. Amen. Simeon also blesses the holy Virgin, as one who complied with the divine will and served the birth, and did not undergo the laws of humanity. For being a Virgin she gave birth, and not from a man, but with the Holy Spirit having come upon her. But what, then, does the prophet Simeon say about Christ? “Behold, this one is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against.” For He was set by God and the Father as Emmanuel in the foundations of Zion, being a chosen stone, a cornerstone, precious. But those who believed in Him were not put to shame; while as many as were unbelieving and ignorant, and could not see the mystery concerning Him, falling, they were crushed. For God ^C and the Father said somewhere again, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, and he who believes in Him shall not be put to shame; but upon whomever He shall fall, He will crush him.” But the prophet was confirming the Israelites, saying, “And sanctify Him, and He shall be your light: and if you have trusted in Him, He will be to you for sanctification, and you will not meet Him as a stone of stumbling, nor as a rock of ruin.” Since, therefore, Israel did not sanctify Emmanuel, although He is God and Lord, nor did they wish to believe in Him, they strike in a way against the stone because of their unbelief, and have been crushed and have fallen; but many have risen, that is, those who have accepted faith in Him. For they have been transplanted from legal worship to spiritual.

will crush him.” But the prophet ^A protected those from Israel, saying: “And sanctify him, and he himself shall be your light; and if you place your trust in him, he will be your sanctification, and you will not encounter him as a stone of stumbling, nor as a rock of falling.” Since, therefore, Israel did not sanctify Emmanuel, who is Lord and God, nor did they wish to place their trust in him, they are falling as if against a stone because of their unbelief; they have been shattered and have fallen. But many have risen, that is, those who have accepted faith in him. For they have been transplanted from legal worship to spiritual worship, and from having a spirit of slavery within them, they have become rich in that which sets them free, that is, the Holy Spirit. They have become partakers of the divine nature, ^B they have been deemed worthy of adoption as sons, and they are in hope of possessing the city above, that is, the kingdom of the heavens. He calls the precious cross a “sign that is opposed,” just as the most wise Paul also writes: “To the Jews indeed a stumbling block, but to the nations folly.” And again: “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God unto salvation.” The sign is therefore opposed: to those who are perishing, it is thought to be folly, but to those who have come to know its power, it is salvation and life. Simeon said, then, to the holy Virgin: “And a sword will pierce through your own soul,” ^C referring perhaps by “sword” to the grief she felt for Christ, seeing him whom she had borne being crucified, and not knowing entirely that he would be greater than death and would rise from the dead. And do not marvel if the Virgin did not know this, since we will find even the holy apostles themselves having little faith regarding this. For instance, the blessed Thomas would not have believed, had he not put his hands into his side after the resurrection and touched the places of the nails, although the other disciples were telling him that Christ had risen and had shown himself to them. Therefore, the most wise evangelist benefits us by teaching everything that the Son, having become flesh, ^D endured for us and on our behalf, and not disdaining to take upon himself our poverty, so that we may glorify him as Redeemer, as Lord, as Savior, and God; for to him, and with him to the God and Father, is the glory and the power, with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Homily XIII. On the holy feast of the Palms, and on the colt of an ass.

Celebrating today, O faithful, the royal advent, let us meet the King in a manner befitting God. It is time, therefore, that we do not sleep; let us lift up our minds toward God, let us not quench the spirit, let us light our lamps brightly, let us change the tunic of our soul, let us carry the palms as victors, and with the people

let us shout the things of the people; with the children, as children let us sing: "Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." For behold he has come, behold he has appeared, behold the King is present. ^A Again he enters Jerusalem, again the cross is prepared, again the handwriting against Adam is torn; again paradise is opened, again the robber is brought in, again the Church exults, again the wicked Synagogue is widowed, again the demons are confounded, again the Jews rage, again the faithful are saved. Everything shares in the feast, everything sings the praises of the Master. The heavens rejoice, the mountains exult. Rivers, clap your hands, draw near, shout aloud, seeing our words have now become deeds; hills, resound; infants, sing hymns; disciples, preach; priests, speak; theologians, give glory; inhabitants of Zion, go to meet him; nations, gather together, celestial, terrestrial, and infernal beings, every rank and age. For he comes, beneficent towards all, he has appeared to show mercy to all, he who imparts joy to all; being God, he became man, and was seen on earth, and has lived among men; with the servants, the Master; with the debtors, the payer; with the lost, salvation; with the condemned, the liberator; with the despairing, hope; with the dead, the resurrection; ^B with the inhuman, the merciful; with the fugitives, the just; with the guilty, the innocent; with sinners, the blameless; with the ungrateful, he who is bountiful beyond measure.

Do you see, beloved, the mystery of this feast? Do you see the miracles of this present day? Yesterday Bethany kept the feast, today the whole Church enjoys his divine presence; yesterday he bestowed life upon another, today he himself comes to death; yesterday he who had been dead four days was raised, today he who has been dead three days is present. He raised Lazarus, who had been dead four days, that he might confirm by a preliminary proof the common resurrection of our nature, composed of four elements. But there Martha is distracted with cares, bearing the type of legal worship; here Mary sits at the feet of the Master, bearing the image of the Church, of his inward affection for him and of her assiduity. And he who six days before the Passover, through the five senses of the body, having bestowed the one brother upon the two sisters, ^C commands that his bonds be loosened, he himself now comes to be bound. And he comes, not with a crowd, nor with a tumult, nor invisibly accompanied by virtues, and principalities, and powers, not sitting upon some high and lifted-up throne, nor covered with certain wings and fiery wheels and many-eyed creatures, not making all things resound with trumpets and prodigies; but hidden in human nature. For this is an advent of kindness, not of justice; of indulgence, not of vengeance; not in the glory of the Father, but in the humility of a mother does he appear. Which advent long ago for us the admirable Za-

-^Acharias announced, and summoning creation to joy, he cried out in the person of the Church, as it were, to Jerusalem, saying: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion." This voice Gabriel also used to the Virgin, saying: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee." This same thing too the Savior himself, when he had risen from the dead, cried out to the women, saying: "Hail"—in order that you might learn that because of the ancient voice which Eve heard, "In pain shalt thou bring forth children," for this reason he shouted "Hail" to the women, just as Zechariah also preached, saying: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; preach, O daughter of Jerusalem." What is the proclamation? Declare it openly, O prophet! "Get thee up into the high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion; lift up thy voice." What is he saying to Sion? "Behold thy King cometh unto thee." How? You have spoken of the advent, speak also of the manner; is it upon chariots and vehicles? Is it with power and armies, and horsemen, and the rest of the display of kings? No, he says; but how? "Sitting upon an ass and a young colt." What are you saying? A King arrives upon a colt, and undergoes this indignity? Yes, he says. For he does not come with the same haughtiness as others. But what? In the form of a servant, as a bridegroom, so gently, and as a meek lamb; and as a drop falling quietly upon the fleece, and as a sheep for the slaughter, and as an innocent lamb led to be sacrificed, so he arrives, bearing the irrational nature of men, and sitting upon a brute, teaching men not to be puffed up, casting down the mighty from their thrones, and exalting the humble, filling the hungry with good things, and sending the rich away empty; having twelve, and these destitute ones, in his company, through whom he calls the nations together. This is that branch that sprouted from the root of Jesse; whom the children of the Hebrews, meeting him today, extend branches of olives to him as to one full of mercy, and with palms they joyfully receive him as the victor of death, and say: "Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." For what does the evangelist say? "And it came to pass when Jesus drew nigh unto Bethphage and Bethania, unto the mount called of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying: Go into the village over against you; and entering into it ye shall find an ass and a young colt, upon which no man ever sat; loose them and bring them unto me. And if any man say aught unto you, ye shall say: The Lord hath need of them." Then they put the word of the Word into action, and brought the ass and the colt, and laid their garments upon them, and Jesus sat.^B

The village over against us is surely a type of the present life. For it was opposite, and not near to God. When, therefore, he drew near to this village, when God having become incarnate was with us, then at last he sends the two disciples, that is to say, the two Testaments, to bring to him the two peoples, the old and aging Syna-

Synagogue, and the young and untrained people of the nations. ^A Now, by saying "opposite," he signifies that he sent to release from the penalty and to call back the man who had been settled opposite the delights of paradise. When the ancient prophets, apostles, and holy heralds see him finally being saved, and see the One who humbled himself from the mountain above for the sake of his voluntary passion in Sion, they encounter him in a holy manner, and raise up their divinely inspired voices, like living branches of olive trees, singing with auspicious words: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest."

What are you saying? You see him sitting on a wretched foal, and you shout, "Hosanna in the highest"? You behold the form of a servant, and you name him Lord God in the name of the Lord? Yes, he says, he is seated on a foal, and he is not separated from the Father’s bosom; he is hymned by children, and on high he is proclaimed as God by the Seraphim; he enters Jerusalem, but he has not abandoned the Jerusalem above. ^B And John sees him at the same time, and meets him and shouts: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" And another: "Behold our God; behold, the Lord himself will come and will save us." Therefore, the eyes of the blind are opened this day. One cries out to the Lord toward the parts of the east: "Behold the man, Orient is his name"; another commands toward the west: "Make straight the path for him who ascends from the west; Lord is his name." One says, "Arise, O north," and the other shouts, "Come, O south." But David, summoning the heralds from the east, the west, the north, and the sea, calls them together as if into one all-encompassing, cross-revealing enclosure. ^C Jeremiah, as if pointing to the Coming One with his finger, sings to the nations, saying: "This is our God; no other shall be reckoned alongside him. He has discovered every path of knowledge. After this, behold, he appeared on the earth and associated with men." One says to Jerusalem: "Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Sion." Another commands the children: "Praise the Lord, O children." The children reply: "Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." The Psalmist, having heard these things, shouts to the Lord: "Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise." The Lord commands the crowds: "Suffer the children to come to me." The children rightly followed the voice of Elizabeth; for when she had said to the Virgin and Theotokos, ^D "Blessed is the fruit of your womb," they themselves said to her Son who was born of her: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, God is the Lord." What is meant by, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord"? He who comes: from where? From heaven, or from the Virgin? He who comes, and proceeds. He who comes: to where? To the passion in the name of the Lord, that is, the Father, just as Christ himself was saying: "I came out from the Father, and I go to my Father."

^A Behold a theological dogma from unlearned children! The children recognized the Master of creation from nature itself, but their fathers acted ungratefully. These praised him as God, while those crucified him as an enemy. These sing "Hosanna," while those shout "Let him be crucified!" A new and untaught age shows wisdom, while those who claim to be wise are darkened. The children spread their own garments, while the fathers divided his garments among themselves. These strip off their own tunics, foreshadowing the nakedness of the Synagogue and at the same time showing that we too must strip off the old man and show ourselves subject to Christ. The children welcome Christ with palm branches, but their fathers come with swords. These bless, while those blaspheme; these received the shepherd like sheep, while those slaughtered the lamb like wolves. What a strange and supernatural sight it was to see nursing infants in their mothers' arms, with one hand holding the breast, and with the other extending palm branches to the God who was born, and pouring forth from their mouths both mother's milk and the Master's doctrine, and as the first word and fruit of their lips uttering to the Word of God, crying out and saying: "Hosanna," which is to say, "Save us, you who are in the highest." Who taught you, o children? Who gave you wisdom? Who instructed you in speech before you could speak? ^C You see the theological dogma from unlearned children!

Let the ungrateful Jew approach; let the adulterous Synagogue be present. Tell me, O Jew, did not all the prophets announce to us that he would come? "Yes," he says. But that which causes doubt is this: has he come, or not yet? "Not yet," he says. Very well. Let us look then at the dignity of the one who comes, and then we shall know whether he has come or not yet. Do you say that it is God who comes, or a mere man? "A man," he says, "like David." Or David himself, as David? O, you master of malice! O, you senseless in heart! How then does David himself say that the Lord comes from the Lord, just as you heard yours children singing a little while ago: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; God is the Lord, and he has appeared to us"? And again: "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." And again: "God has reigned over the nations"; and "Say among the nations that the Lord has reigned." But who is this King? Listen to Isaiah speaking about you: "And they shall desire if they had been burnt with fire." Why so, O prophet? "Because a child was born to us, a son was given to us, whose government was upon his shoulder, and his name is called Angel of the great counsel, wonderful, counselor, God strong, mighty, prince of peace, father of the world to come." What do you say, O Jew?

^A Behold, the prophets clearly proclaimed that God was coming.

The heretic seizes upon this word; the Manichaean immediately insults us, and says: "Well then, since you have clearly confessed that he who took flesh from the Virgin is God, how do you not confess that the same God suffered and was crucified, if you say that He who is begotten, who appeared, and who suffered is one and the same?" O foolish and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Hear, and be persuaded, and be ashamed. ^B The substantial Word of the Father, having been united to the earthly substance of the mother, desiring to renew the image that was long since buried by sin, became man, preserving the height of His divinity in the lowly condition of humanity, not changing into passion the impassibility of the Godhead, and not assuming sin from the nature that had sinned, lest that which is our salvation should become for Him a cause of dishonor, and our exaltation should be found to be His fall. He is not suffering in His divinity—whatever the Manichaean, the Arian, and Marcion may rave (for what would have been the need for incarnation?)—nor is He crucified in a sublime body—whatever trouble Paul of Samosata may stir up—lest we believe in the blood of a mere man. "For cursed," says the Scripture, "is everyone who hangs on a tree," and everyone who has his hope in a mere man. A man could not save us. Indeed, neither Moses nor any one of the prophets could have died for us, but all were subject to sin; therefore we had need of an impeccable God, who would be incarnated and would undertake death for us in the flesh. ^C And therefore, He who is without flesh is incarnated, so that what He possesses impossibly through His divinity, He might possess possi- bly through His humanity. He suffers, and He does not suffer: the first, compute thus to the Word; as for the second, do not separate the flesh from the Word. For I do not separate, but I make known what is proper to each substance. I say that the Word abides, but does not suffer along; that He hangs together with it, but did not receive nails into His own nature; that He is buried together, but did not die together; that He is enclosed, but not circumscribed; that the soul was separated from the body, but neither was abandoned by the Word. Whence hell was indeed despoiled, when the divine soul had descended thither. For He went and preached to the spirits in hell; but the divine body did not see corruption in the sepulcher. For at no time could the Word be separated from His own flesh, leaving it naked and alone, or void of God, or having happened to it as if it were one body similar to ours; but since our rational nature was united to the Word according to hypostasis, it is not yet adequate to Him. ^D For how will that which was recently brought forth be equaled to Him who is before the ages? Or how will that which has a beginning be like to Him who is without beginning? Therefore, you see Him sitting on a foal today, but as a man. For there is a twofold...

nature; for He also grew and took milk, and wept and was in agony according to the law of our nature. For God the Word, having become incarnate, did not refuse the blameless passions of our nature; for otherwise He would have refused it even before these things. It is not God the Word who sleeps in the boat; for "He shall not slumber nor sleep who guards Israel," but it is our flesh that sleeps, which God the Word put on. The divine nature will not hunger, nor will it weary from the journey, as Isaiah says: "The great and strong God will not hunger nor weary." How, then, does He hunger? By the flesh that is from us. How does He suffer? By the flesh that He put on. How does He weep? By the flesh that is from us. How was He put to death? In the flesh, but He is made alive by the Spirit. How does He shake the earth? By the divinity from the Father. How does He trample hell? By the divinity which He does not have from us. How does He say: "I and the Father are one"? By that upper generation before the ages. How, "The ^B Father is greater than I"? By the lower generation from the Virgin. How, "He who has seen me, has seen the Father"? By the uncreated nature of the Word. How, "I can do nothing of myself"? What then, is the Word powerless compared to the Father? Far be that Arian madness! What is it that says: "Glorify me, Father"? The body of the Word. Who is it that says: "I in the Father, and the Father in me"? The Word who is in the body. How, "My Father, and your Father"? The Father, indeed, is not the Father of the flesh, but of God the Word who is from Him. "My God, and your God"? He is God, not of the Word (for how shall He be God of His own equal God?), but He is God of that form of a servant which is in the Word. "Before Abraham was, I am"? It is God the Word who is in the flesh. "The Lord said to me: You are my Son, this day have I begotten ^C you"? By the recent incarnation of the Word. For it was not one who was begotten of the Father before the daystar, and another who was incarnate of a mother in Bethlehem. For even if Paul of Samosata raves in these things, yet Paul of Tarsus does not teach these things; but when he signifies the form of God in the form of a servant, he cries out: "Who being the brightness of glory." But when, again, he signifies the difference of the flesh united to the Word, he says: "And God raised up the Lord," so that the Apostle Paul might demonstrate the distinction of both forms that are in the body, and strike down Manes the phantasm-fighter and Paul the man-worshipper. But you, what do you say? What do you ordain, O new Manichaean, and pure and unadulterated defender of his madness? Do you not allow that flesh be called a nature? But there you tremble with fear, where there was no fear, nor do you revere the Lord saying in the time of the passion: "The spirit indeed is willing, ^D but the flesh is weak." If He is willing, how is it weak? What kind of form of Christ? What kind of flesh is weak? Surely that of Adam, who was weakened. How then...

and bending the knees, does He pray? ^A Does the Word pray? And how, being God, does He need God? If, therefore, He is equal to the Father, just as He is equal, He does not pray in his divinity, but as man. For how does He say: "I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again"? [John 10:18] He who has power, how does He need the help of another? He who says, "Destroy this temple" (meaning, of course, His own flesh), "and in three days I will raise it up" [John 2:19]—how, O enemy of God, are you destroyed together with the temple, when raising up your own temple? For if He Himself is destroyed, it certainly does not need such a one to raise it. For you indeed are afraid, as it seems, lest in hearing that the body of God has suffered, you might worship a mere creature. But I am afraid of this, that I might say that the Divinity has suffered and died, and bring the whole mystery of the Trinity into ignominy. For if the Word suffered, but the Father is by nature impassible, the essence of the Word will be entirely different from that of the Father. And why then should we contend with the Arians for this reason? But if the essence of the Father, and of the Word, and of the Holy Spirit is one, and the Word of God suffered in the flesh, then the Father and the Holy Spirit are also of a passible and mortal substance. For if the Word suffered along with the flesh, surely He also died along with it; and if He died along with it, how did He despoil Hades? How did He resurrect the dead? And He will be found, even after He has died, to be entirely separated from the living Father. And if this is so, there is no longer a Trinity in heaven, at the time of the passion, but a duality, waiting for the Word to be raised by the Father and to return to the heavens. O nefarious audacity! What kind of serpent, hissing with his own voice, has deceived the enemies of God, so that they would assert that the impassible is passible, they who make the Creator weaker than the creatures! Are you not ashamed, O heretic, when speaking of the sun being in a tree—and the tree indeed being cut, but the sun not being separated, nor cut at the same time—to say that the Sun of Justice was passible, coming to be in His own body? Nor have you seen a murderer or some criminal, O ruined man, beheaded or having his hands cut off, whose soul does not die together with his body because of the death? But these men received a lethal wound by this argument, and the impious one fell. Again the assailant of Christ breathed, again the Jew attacks impudently. With what words? "See," he says, "that we have killed not God, but a man." To whom it is immediately worth the effort to say: "Be silent, become mute; place a bridle upon your mouth. ^D Be it so; you have despised the Law, you have killed the prophets; do you not fear David speaking about Christ: 'Out of the womb before the morning star I have begotten you, the Father on high'? [Ps. 109:3] And again: 'The Lord said to me, You are my Son, today I have begotten you.' [Ps. 2:7] One and only Christ has two births: one from the Father timelessly, and another from a mother without seed. Therefore when He says, 'I gave my back to stripes, and my cheeks to blows,' [Isa. 50:6] He received these from Mary, who was of the tribe of Judah, and what he

took from Judah, these He gave to the Jews to slap and scourge. But those things which He has as God by nature, man will not behold and live. ^A But the Jew instates again: "How then does the prophet say concerning the Crucified: 'And we saw Him, and He had no form or beauty' [Isa. 53:2]?" But you see again, O stubborn one, that it is written concerning Him: "Fair in beauty beyond the sons of men" [Ps. 44:3]. And if you ask: "What God can be recent?" I in turn will ask you: "Whose name remains before the sun, and before the moon, for generations of generations? And 'He shall descend like rain upon a fleece, and like a drop trickling upon the earth'" [Ps. 71:6]. Again, perhaps you will ask: "What God is sold for thirty pieces of silver?" But I will ask you in turn: "Whose blood redeemed and sanctified the whole world?" ^B And if it offends you, O ignorant one, that you see Him today sitting upon a colt, how do you not also mention that which the children, instructed by no one, learned and at once cried out: "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord" [Matt. 21:9]? But that He who sits as man upon a colt is Lord and God, may my David—not your David—be present for me, who recounts about your children and may he say who this is whom they follow with hymns and whom they preach as God: that David, I say, who stands as if opposite the colt and cries out in this manner: "You, who sit upon the highest throne and upon the lowly colt, 'O Lord, our Lord, how ^C wonderful is Your name in all the earth, for Your magnificence is exalted above the heavens! Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings You have perfected praise, because of Your enemies, that You might destroy the enemy and the avenger' [Ps. 8:2-3]," namely, the devil. "You who sit upon the colt as man, You are true God; 'We shall see the heavens, the works of Your fingers' [Ps. 8:4]. You who sit upon the colt, established the moon and the stars; You made man a little less than the angels, and bearing man, You lifted him up above all rule and authority, and 'crowned him with glory and honor' [Ps. 8:6]. You who are seen upon the colt, 'Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever, and the staff of rectitude is ^D the staff of Your kingdom. You have loved justice, and alone have hated iniquity; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You' [Ps. 44:7-8], because You took upon Yourself the form of a servant. He anointed You, not with the chrism of oil, but with the Holy Spirit; for He is the oil of gladness. Therefore the Virgin who brought You forth said: 'My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior' [Luke 1:47], when the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. But consider for me, O faithful listener, how the all-holy Virgin called her Son God. 'My God,' she says, according to His divine essence; 'My Son,' according to the substance He took from me for Himself; for I did not bring forth a mere man for the world, but God incarnate. And a sufficient witness is the seal of my virginity."

^A O man, do not shame the garment which God took from me; do not bring reproach upon Him who is clothed in it. Do not defile the tabernacle, since it was in truth woven without hands for Him who dwelt within it. Do not separate the light from my carnal lamp, lest you wickedly extinguish the Sun that has shone upon the world and became man without a man. For I did not know a man, even though I knew God who became man within me.

^B You have, most faithful and holy flock, the encomium of this feast: exult. You have the divine and blameless doctrine of the Church: take delight. You have the spiritual weapons: fight against the wolves of the flock, teach them not to blaspheme, teach them to struggle for the truth; demonstrate that the field of our Church and of Christ is pure from all tares. If you are like a certain Lazarus, bound by the chains of transgressions or of contrary doctrines, today hear the Word calling out to you, "Come forth," and "Be unbound," and "Arise." But if you are a disciple, and fit to take up the teaching, go with a ready spirit, and lead away the colt and the colts unbound for Christ, and many who are bound in error and opposed to the true faith and to the village [of the Church]. And if any object, and in their malice try to prevent the unbound from being released, saying, "Why are you untying the colt?" just as they rebuked the blind that they might not cry out, say you also, "Because the Lord has need of them." For the Lord releases the bound, the Lord makes the blind wise, just as you heard from the Gospel today. For when they recognized that the Sun of Justice had arrived, they rightly cried out to Him, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David." ^C O strange and wondrous miracles! The blind see, and the seeing Jews are blinded; the former confess the Lord, and the latter ask, "Who is this?" For the evangelist says: "But the crowds that went before and that followed were shouting, saying: Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. And when He had entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken, saying: Who is this?" Behold the strange mystery of the King. Sitting upon a colt He shakes the city, and nailed to the cross He shakes the world, that you may learn that He came to shake and overturn the erroneous worship of idols. Consider the hidden and recondite mystery of that dispensation which was accomplished in Him. When He Himself struck the prison of that place in the underworld, and the heavenly powers cried out to the powers below: "Lift up your gates, O princes," that He might enter who says, "I am the door," the opposing powers—astonished—replied, "Who is this King of glory?" Those who inhabit the earthly Jerusalem ask, "Who is this King of glory?" Then to the heavenly Jerusalem

^A he ascends, and the intellectual powers, who had never seen him before because of his incorporeal nature, beholding him in the body, were astonished at this unusual mode of ascent and were in doubt among themselves, saying, "Who is this who comes into the incorporeal realms in a body?" But it is worth wondering how the royal powers—who at his birth below had cried out and sung together, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men"—could ask, "Who is this who comes?" For the theological children of the Hebrews were well instructed by them today when they said, "Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; peace in heaven and glory in the highest." For thus has Luke spoken. And it was possible to see in Sion the heavenly and the earthly as if responding to and greeting one another in turn. Those above say, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace"; those below answer, "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest." The angels said, "On earth peace"; humans cried out, "Peace in heaven." For what reason? Because he is present who cries to all, "Peace be to you," concerning whom the prophet prayed, saying, "O Lord our God, give us peace," that is, "Send your only-begotten Son, that through him you may be reconciled to us, seeing our nature united to you through him." Seeing this peace, the choirs of celestial beings cried out, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace," ^B or rather, a perfect reconciliation of God with his enemies, which the children, having also learned, cried out: "Hosanna, peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." For things that were once hostile have now become brotherly, offering to Christ, who is both celestial and terrestrial, one confession of divinity and one adoration. Whence the beings above urge those below to offer him the confession of divinity: "Let all the families of the nations adore him." The beings below respond to those above: "Let all the angels of God adore him." David cries out to both: "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth exult." The children were answering: "Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." With whom let us also sing and keep the feast today, not in a display of pomp, but divinely; not only with the hand, but also with the soul, holding branches of palm, and having whitened it more than snow, let us put off from it all the deadness of the old and skin-clad ^C tunic, casting away all vanity and pride. For this reason, the King of the incorporeal ones does not arrive on chariots and with armies, but comes sitting upon a wretched and small colt, teaching you not to be puffed up with horses and mules, which have no understanding. Therefore, let us also cultivate mediocrity with Christ, that we may also ascend; let us sing hymns with the angels, let us glorify with the children, let us cry out with the crowd the things of the crowd; let us exult with Bethany, let us rise from dead works with Lazarus, let us lead choirs with the inhabitants of Sion; let us cry out with the blind to whom sight was restored; let us praise with the children and the aged; with

let us preach to the disciples; let us rightly spread branches of olives, by way of mercy, on the journey of life, after the example of the children, and let us cut away the mass of our corrupt nature, and let us spread ourselves in mercy on the way, which says: ^A "I am the way" (John 14:6), so that we too may find mercy through it and be with it in the Jerusalem above. Let us enter together into that great temple, both those who go before and those who follow; those who go before, indeed, at the third hour, and those who follow, around the eleventh. And those who go before through deeds, and those who follow through intent, all the same ones, following with Christ and having followed, reigning with him and enjoying eternal goods, may they breathe forth glory and majesty together with the Father, and with the most holy and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

HOMILY XIV. On the departure of the soul, and on the second coming.

I fear death, because it is bitter to me. I fear hell, because it is eternal. I fear Tartarus, because it possesses no heat. I fear the darkness, because it possesses no light. I fear the venomous worm, because it is eternal. I fear the angels who are to be set over the judgment, because they are merciless. I fear, when I think of the terrible and incorruptible council of that day, the dreadful tribunal, the impartial judge. I fear the river of fire flowing before that tribunal, boiling with most vehement flame, and the sharpened swords. ^C I fear the most severe punishments. I fear the torment that has no end. I fear that pitch-black gloom. I fear the deep shadows. I fear the unbreakable bonds, the gnashing of teeth, the inconsolable weeping. I fear the inevitable reproofs. For that Judge needs no accusers, nor witnesses, nor proofs, nor refutations. But whatever we have done, said, or determined, He brings into the midst before the eyes of the guilty. Then there is no one who is present, and who can snatch one from the punishments: not father, not mother, not son, not daughter, no other one of the relatives, no neighbor, no friend, no advocate, no giving of money, no abundance of riches, no pride of power; but all these things vanish like ash into dust, and the guilty one, alone, according to his deeds, awaits the verdict that acquits or condemns. Woe is me! Woe is me, whom conscience convicts, and the Scriptures crying out instruct! O soul, by whom so many wicked and foul deeds have been committed! Woe unto me, who have corrupted the temple of the body and have grieved Thy holy Spirit! O God, ^D true are Thy works, and just is Thy judgment, and righteous are Thy ways, and Thy counsels are most obscure! Because of a brief enjoyment of sin, I am tormented eternally. Because of the pleasure of the body, I am delivered to the fire. Just is the judgment of God: I was called, and I did not obey; I was taught,

and I did not pay attention; they testified against me, but I laughed. I read and I acknowledged; I did not lack faith, but in negligence, and sloth, and despondency, and in distractions, and in turmoils, and in the surging waves of luxury and extravagance, and leaping with joy, and indulging in pleasures, I consumed my years, and my months, and my days in transitory, and corruptible, and earthly things, laboring and toiling and struggling; never taking to heart, or considering, what fear and trembling, and struggle, and necessity the soul has to behold when it is separated from the body. For there come upon us heavenly armies and powers; and of the opposing powers, the princes of darkness, the world-rulers of wickedness, the toll-collectors, and auditors, and tax-gatherers of the air. And with them is the manslaying devil, the potentate in malice, whose tongue is like a sharpened razor; concerning whom the prophet says: “The arrows of the mighty are sharpened, with the coals of the waste.” And he lies in wait as a lion in his lair, the great dragon, the apostate, the abyss, the one who opens his mouth, the prince of the authority of darkness, he who has the power of death, and in a way, the judgment, seizing the soul, bringing forward and calculating all things I have committed in deed and in word, those done in knowledge and in ignorance, transgressions and sins, from youth until the day of the end in which I was overtaken, searching them out henceforth. ^B What fear and trembling do you suppose the soul has in that day, beholding those terrible, and wild, and fierce, and unmerciful, and untamed demons, standing by like dark Ethiopians, whose very appearance alone is more grievous than any punishment—upon seeing whom the soul is stirred, trembles, is pained, is disturbed, and shrinks back, fleeing to the angels of God? The soul, therefore, is held by the holy angels, passing through the air and being raised up, and it finds toll-houses guarding the ascent, and gripping, and hindering the souls that are ascending. ^C Each toll-house brings forward its own sins: one, that of slander, whatever was done through mouth and tongue by lying, and swearing, and perjury, and idle talk, and foolish talk, and vain talk, and gluttonous excesses, and dissolute drinking, and excessive laughter, and unseemly things, and indecent and improper kisses, and wanton songs. But the holy angels who are leading the soul present, in their turn, whatever good we spoke through mouth and tongue: prayers, thanksgivings, psalms, odes, hymns, and spiritual songs, readings of the Scriptures, and whatever good things we sent ahead to God through mouth and tongue.

The second toll-house is the sight of the eyes, and whatever is committed through unseemly gazing, and curious and unbridled looking, and deceitful nods. The third toll-house is that of hearing, and whatever impure spirits receive through this sense. The fourth is the toll-house of smell, and of sweet-smelling ointments, and of the pleasure of smell, which for women...

who are actors and harlots is appropriate. ^A The fifth toll-house is that of whatever wicked and harsh things have been done by the sense of touch of the hands; and the remaining toll-houses of vice: of envy and jealousy, of vainglory and pride, of bitterness and wrath, of quick-temperedness and fury, of fornication and adultery and effeminacy, of murder and sorcery, and of the rest of the God-hated and wicked deeds, which it is not possible to recount in detail at the present hour, but let them be reserved for another occasion. In brief, in the same manner, each and every disease of the soul and sin has its own publicans and tax-collectors following in order. The soul, therefore, which sees these things and greater and more numerous things besides, what fear, and trembling, and quaking do you think it possesses, until the sentence is passed and its liberty arrives? That is the hour full of pain, of peril, and of groaning, and inconsolable, until it sees what is to be the outcome. For both the divine powers and the countenances of the impure spirits stand by: of which the latter bring forward the wicked deeds, the former the righteous ones, whether anything was done in word, or in deed, or in thought and mind: while meanwhile the soul standing in the middle examines these things tremblingly and fearfully, until from its own actions, and deeds, and words, it is either condemned and bound, or justified and set free (for each one is bound by the chains of his own sins). And if it is found worthy, having lived piously and having lived in a way pleasing to God, the angels take it; and thenceforth it proceeds without care, having the holy powers as fellow-travelers, according to that which is written: "The dwelling of all those who are happy is in thee." ^B Then that which is said is fulfilled: "Pain, sorrow, and sighing have fled away." Then, having been delivered from those wicked and corrupt and terrible spirits, it proceeds into that ineffable joy.

But if it is found to have lived in negligence and licentiousness, it hears that most terrible voice: "Let the ungodly man be taken away, so that he may not see the glory of the Lord." Then days of wrath, and of affliction, and of distress, and of anguish seize it, a day of darkness and of gloom; then the holy angels of God, having abandoned it, those Ethiopian demons seize it, and beating it mercilessly, they drag it down to the earth, and having torn it apart, they cast it down, bound with unbreakable chains, ^C into a dark and gloomy land, to the lower parts, into the subterranean dungeons and prisons of Hades; where the souls of the sinners who have long ago fallen asleep are shut up, as Job says: into a land dark and gloomy, into a land of eternal darkness without light, nor is there the life of mortals, but eternal pain, and unending sorrow, and ceaseless weeping, and unceasing gnashing of teeth, and wakeful groanings; there is woe, woe continually, there "alas, alas!" they cry out, and there is no one who helps; they cry out, and there is no one who delivers; it is not possible to describe that distress of things: it is not possible for a tongue to express the pains of the souls lying there. No mouth of man could declare that fear and terror: no lips of man have sufficient power to tell of their state and their wailing. They groan continually

and without ceasing, but there is no one to have mercy. They cry from the depths, but there is no one to listen. They lament, but there is no one to deliver. They call out and beat their breasts, but there is no one to be moved with compassion. Where, then, is the jactance of this world? Where is empty glory? Where is luxury? Where is enjoyment? Where is squandering? Where is vanity? Where is repose? Where is the world? Where is wealth? Where is nobility? Where, then, is delight? Where is the vigor of the flesh? Where is that false and useless beauty of women? Where, then, is that impudent and shameless boldness? Where, then, is the adornment of garments? Where is the impure and filthy pleasure of sin? Where is he who considers the abominable couch of men to be a pleasure? Where are those who anoint themselves with perfumes and ointments and are perfumed? Where are those who drink wine with timbrels and harps? Where, then, is the contempt of those living without fear? Where is greed, and the love of money, and the unmercifulness born from them? Where, then, is that inhuman pride which disdains all things and considers itself to be something? Where, then, is the empty and vain glory of men? Where is lust and wickedness? Where is power and tyranny? Where, then, is the king? Where the ruler? Where the governor? Where those in authority? Where are those who boast in an abundance of wealth, and do not have mercy on the poor, and despise God? Where ^B are the theaters and the spectacles? Where, then, are those who are puffed up, and those who are moderate, and those who live without care? Where are soft garments, and soft and delicate beds? Where are the high buildings and the breadth of the porticos? Where are those who lived without fear? Then, seeing, they will wonder and shudder, and, struck with amazement, they will wail; having been disturbed, they will totter. Tremor shall seize them, and pains as of a woman in labor, and by a forceful spirit they will be crushed and brought to nothing. Where, then, is the wisdom of the wise? Where is the eloquence of the orators and their vain wiles? Woe, woe! They have been disturbed, they have tottered like a drunkard, and all their wisdom has been swallowed up. Where is the wise man? Where the scribe? Where the debater of this age?

O brethren, consider what manner of persons we ought to be when we render an account one by one for what we have done, whether great things or small; for we shall give an account to the just Judge ^C even for an idle word. What manner of persons ought we to be in that hour? And if we find favor before God, what joy will receive us when we are set apart at the right hand of the King! What manner of persons ought we to be in that unutterable joy, when the King of kings says with gladness to those on his right hand: « Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. » Then we shall enter into the possession of those good things, « which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him. » Thenceforth we shall be free from care, no longer trembling with any fear. Let us consider both these things and the everlasting torment of the guilty;

^A for when they are brought before that fearful tribunal, what shame will seize them before the just Judge, having no word of defense! What confusion will seize them when they are set apart on the left hand of the King! What darkness will fall upon them when he speaks to them in his anger, and in his wrath terrifies them! When he says to them: «Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.» Woe! Woe! What affliction, and pain, and distress, and fear, and trembling will seize their souls, when there is a cry from all the heavenly powers, saying: «Let the sinners be turned into hell!» Woe, woe! What a song will they utter, lamenting, weeping, wailing, and mourning, as they are led away cruelly to be tormented for endless ages! Woe, woe! What is that place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, which is called Tartarus, at which even the devil himself shudders! Woe, woe! What is that Gehenna of unquenchable fire, ^B burning and not giving light! Woe, woe! What is that sleepless and venomous worm! Woe, woe! How dismal is that outer darkness, and remaining forever! Woe, woe is me! What are those angels who are over the torments, cruel and merciless! For they reproach them and upbraid them severely. Then those who are tormented cry out intensely, and there is no one to save them; for they shall cry out to the Lord, and he will not hear them. Then they shall know that all things of this life were vain to them; and what here seemed to be good and full of joy will be found to be more bitter than gall and bitter poison. Woe to the sinners! When the righteous stand at the right hand, and they are afflicted; when the sinners weep, and the righteous rejoice; when the righteous hold festival, and the sinners lament; when the righteous are in calm, and the sinners in storm and calamity. Woe to the sinners! ^C When the righteous are glorified, and they are condemned; woe to the sinners! When the righteous are filled with every good, and the sinners, being in need, groan. Woe to the sinners! When the righteous are glorified, and they are reproached. The righteous are in sanctification, but the sinners are in burning; the righteous are praised, but the sinners are bewailed; the righteous are in the mansions of the saints, but the sinners are in eternal exile; the righteous shall hear: «Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.» But the sinners shall hear the: «Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.» The righteous into paradise, ^D the sinners into the unquenchable fire; the righteous enjoy luxury, the sinners are consumed. The righteous dance, but the sinners are bound. The righteous sing, the sinners lament. The righteous the Trisagion, the sinners the thrice-wretched. The righteous the song, the sinners the chasm. The righteous into the bosom of Abraham, the sinners into the torrents of Belial. The righteous into rest, the sinners into punishment. The righteous are sprinkled with dew, the sinners with flame. The righteous shall be delighted, the sinners shall grow old in sorrow. The righteous shall be exalted, the sinners shall melt away. The righteous shall be carried up, the sinners shall be weighed down. The righteous shall be cherished, the sinners shall be blackened. The righteous shall be satisfied with good things, the sinners shall be harassed.

^A The sight of God shall nourish the righteous, the sight of fire shall grieve the sinners. The righteous are vessels of election, the sinners are vessels of Gehenna. The righteous are gold refined in fire, and tested silver, and precious stones; the sinners are wood, stubble, hay, the fuel for the fire. The righteous are the wheat of the kingdom, the sinners are the chaff of destruction. The righteous are chosen seed, the sinners are the tares of the fire. The righteous are divine salt, the sinners are rot and stench. The righteous are undefiled temples of God; the sinners are temples polluted by demons. The righteous are in the bridal chamber, the sinners are in an infinite chaos. The righteous are in the appearances of light, the sinners are in the darkness of a storm. The righteous are with the angels, the sinners are with the demons. The righteous dance with the angels, the sinners lament with the demons. The righteous shall possess the midst of light, the sinners the midst of darkness. ^B The righteous shall be comforted by the Comforter, the sinners shall be punished with the demons. The righteous stand by the Lord’s throne, the sinners stand in the punishing darkness. The righteous behold the face of Christ always, the sinners always stand before the face of the devil. The righteous are initiated by angels, the sinners are initiated by demons. The righteous offer intercession, the sinners offer incessant lamentation. The righteous are above, and the sinners are below. The righteous are in heaven, and the sinners are in the abyss. The righteous are for eternal life, the sinners for the death of destruction. The righteous are in the hand of God, the sinners in the place of the devil. The righteous are with God, the sinners are with Satan. Woe to the sinners when they are separated from the righteous! Woe to the sinners when their deeds are stripped bare and the counsels of their hearts are made manifest! Woe to the sinners when the secret combinations of the mind are exposed, and the assents to evil thoughts are weighed in the balance, and the intention is scrutinized! Woe to the sinners when they are hated by the holy angels and held in abomination by the holy martyrs! Woe to the sinners when they are cast out from the bridal chamber! Woe to the repentance of that time! Woe to the affliction of that time! Woe to the distress of that time! Woe to the tempest of that time! It is terrible to be separated from the saints; it is more grievous to be separated from God; it is shameful to be bound hand and foot and cast into the fire; it is miserable to be sent into the outer, murky darkness, to gnash the teeth and to waste away; it is heavy to be punished without end. It is evil to have the tongue inflamed; it is heartless to ask for a drop of water and not to receive it. It is bitter to be in the fire, and to cry out, and not to be helped. Insuperable are those jaws, immense is that vortex, where he who is enclosed and detained can neither escape nor flee; the wall of custody is insuperable, the guards are cruel, the prison is dark, the bonds are unbroken, the chains are unshaken; the ministers of that flame are dire and fierce; the scourges applied for punishment are heavy; the claws are firm and unbroken; the sinews are hard; the pitch is murky and torrent-like; the sulphur is foul-smelling; those fiery chambers are there; the pyre is unquenchable; the worm is putrid and venomous; the judgment is inexorable; the judge is unconquered by grace; the defense is inexcusable; the faces of the great are pierced with awareness; the nobles are faded; the kings are beggars; the wise are unskilled; the orators are foolish and rejected; the rich are demented; the false flatteries of writers are not heard; the craftiness of the malicious is manifest; the guile of the fraudsters is transparent; there is a foul odor of the avaricious; the hypocrisy of persons is open; they are whipped; they are impostors: all things are naked and revealed before them. Woe to the wicked: profane, criminal, and impure are they in the sight of God ^D

^A How defiled are their souls! How their bodies do stink from lust and debauchery! How they have defiled their bodies and stained their souls, not having preserved the garment of holy baptism! How shamelessly and brazenly, through dissipation and drunkenness, they have served the vinegar-vessel of the belly, the wineskin of the stomach—not following self-sufficiency and temperance, but committing their very wealth to it, wallowing in pleasures like swine in the mire, they have consumed their days and years being tossed about in filthy reasonings, in vile thoughts, in idle talk, and in theatrical songs! How they have altered their heart through hardness, not taking into their mind the compact with Christ and the renunciation of the devil! How they have strayed from the straight path, walking in the darkness of ignorance, and yielding themselves to the sleep of sloth, have plunged themselves into the gulf of Gehenna! How they have been alienated from the light of the virtues, loving the darkness of sin, through walking in the broad and wide path of the ^B trodden path of wickedness! How they have forgotten the coming of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and his many and inscrutable benefits, having been cleansed by the water of divine baptism and the Holy Spirit, and adorned with the oil of gladness! But for the sake of a small, hateful, and frivolous pleasure, they have made void such and so great gifts, and have been enslaved to the spirit of fornication and adultery. Woe to those who have abandoned the adoption, and followed the pleasures of the world! Woe to those who follow the associations of the world! Woe to those who love the darkness of sin! Woe to those who leave the light of truth! Woe to those who walk in the night of sin! Woe to those who abandon the day of the knowledge of God! Woe to those filled with the evil habit of laughter! ^C Woe to those who adorn themselves in order to wound souls for the sake of companionship and lust, and—the hook of the devil being the reality, not the adornment—it is to be held in hatred by those desiring, striving, and wishing to be saved. Woe to those who slander one another. Woe to the contumacious, the contentious, and the turbulent. Woe to those who swear for the sake of pleasure. Woe to the perjurers; woe to the gluttons, whose god is the belly. Woe to the drunkards! Blessed, however, is he who here despises and humbles himself for God’s sake, and condemns and judges himself; for he is exalted by the supreme God and praised by the angels, nor shall he stand among those on the left in the judgment. Blessed is the man who perseveres in supplications, endures in fastings, rejoices in vigils, struggling against sleep and warding it off, ^D bending his knees to proclaim the praises of God, beating his breast, striking his face, lifting his hands into the air, raising his gaze to heaven toward the Lord, thinking of Him who sits on the throne of glory, and who searches the hearts and examines the reins. For this man enjoys eternal goods, and becomes a son and brother and friend and heir of God. His face will shine like the sun in the day of judgment, in which the heavenly kingdom shall be revealed. He who loves the truth is found to be a friend of God; but he who perpetuates lies is a friend of demons. He who hates deceit is delivered from misery. He who endures adverse circumstances is crowned as a confessor before the throne of Christ. He who murmurs, and bears adverse events with resentment, and who, through the weariness of troublesome things, utters curses, he errs,

and has deaf senses. He who is mild, humane, and modest, is praised by God, declared blessed by angels, and celebrated by men. He, however, who is bitter, irascible, and prone to bile, is detestable to God; his food is a cluster of bitterness of the demons, his wine is the venom of dragons, and his drink is the irremediable poison of asps. Those who are pure in heart shall see the glory of God; but those who are of soiled mind shall look upon the devil. Those who do vicious things, and think wicked thoughts, and plot evils against others, exclude themselves from divine communion. Those who moisten their faces with rouge, and streak their cheeks with white lead, and whiten themselves, and adorn themselves before a mirror in order to incite and entangle men in wickedness and base desires and satanic loves—they shall not be found godly in the day of judgment, but shall be tormented as contemners of the commandments of God. Those who assume a beauty not their own shall be deprived of the beauty of paradise. Those who delight in the fall of others cast themselves down. Those who covet the things of others betray and lose their own. The vainglorious, the proud, and those who study to please men shall be condemned with the devil. Hypocrites shall be punished with Satan. Those who nourish the body beyond measure kill the soul with hunger. Those who sin knowingly, and without any force being applied, and do not return to health, shall be tormented with the unfaithful. Those who say, "Let us sin in our youth, and in old age we shall return to a saner mind," are deluded and mocked by the demons; and because they sin willingly, it is not granted them to return to health, but they are cut down in their youth by the scythe of death: as Ammon the king of the Israelites, who even provoked God with his wicked attempts and profane thoughts. For those who say, "Let us sin today, we shall do better things tomorrow," have ^C vanished in their thoughts, and their foolish heart is darkened [*], while they both corrupt and defile the body, and contaminate the soul, and wrap the mind in darkness, and make the reason turbid, and infect their conscience with mud; and that which they had today, they have lost, and they have squandered the morrow. For those who neither weep on account of a fall into fornication, nor mourn because of the mud of adultery, nor lament the sink of male intercourse, nor wail for effeminacy—they can neither perform penance for past sins with their whole heart, nor correct the future. For those who do not seek what they have lost do not even retain what remains. Those who neglect to have the interest perish for themselves lose even the principal. Those who do not labor prudently, and are not sober in their supplications, are overcome by wicked thoughts; being overcome, they serve a wicked habit, unwilling and resisting. Those who do not keep watch soberly to celebrate God are carried away. Those who do not keep watch to hear the divine scriptures, but have given themselves over to the sleep of sloth, they shall be excluded with the five foolish virgins. Those who cast away the weapons of sobriety are supplanted by lechery, and are destroyed by the adulterous lust of sin. Those who have not kept the commandments of God are [tormented] by the de...

with Satan. Those who have surrendered and defiled their body, and ^B polluted their soul, and darkened their mind, and clouded their intellect, and befouled their conscience, have been robbed of the morrow. For those who do not weep for the fall of sexual immorality, and do not grieve for the mire of adultery, and do not mourn for the stumbling-block of sodomy, and do not wail for effeminacy, cannot repent with their whole soul for their past sins, nor correct those for the future. For those who do not seek what they have lost, have not even regained what is being saved. Those who do not reckon the mixing of the dough are also deprived of the main portions. Those who do not labor prudently and keep sober in their prayers are taken captive by shameful thoughts; and those who are taken captive, serve evil habit against their will and desire. Those who do not wakefully keep vigil in the psalmody are robbed. Those who do not watch in the hearing of the divine Scriptures, but give themselves up to the sleep of sloth, shall be shut out with the five foolish virgins. Those who cast away the weapons of fasting are tripped up by gluttony and killed by the sins of the adulterer; those who have not kept the commandments of God are wounded by demons and condemned to the hell of fire. Those who distance themselves from the Church and from communion become enemies of God and friends of demons. Let every sect of the godless heretics be put to shame, let the race of the unbelievers be covered in confusion, let the synagogue of the Jews perish, let the impure mouths of the God-denying Hebrews be stopped, when He who tests the hearts and probes the kidneys, and is sharper than any two-edged sword—piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of meditations and thoughts—takes his seat to judge. Then, indeed, then He will not look upon just a few out of many, but will behold all revealed, nor will a sheep’s skin be able to cover a wolf, nor will the whitewash of works be able to hide the inner thought; for there is no creature invisible to the Judge, but all things are naked and laid bare to His eyes.

Wherefore, let us not fight against the commandments of God with human ^C affections, but let us subdue spirits of empty vainglory; let us rise against the devil for battle, let us clarify our intellect for sobriety, let us put the thoughts of sin to sleep; let us acquire undistracted prayer, a sober mind, an upright intellect, a clean conscience, perpetual continence, unfeigned fasting, love without partiality, uncorrupted purity, undefiled temperance, guileless humility, unceasing psalmody, reading free from vainglory, pride-free bending of the knee, assiduous supplication, a pure life, true prayer, hospitality without murmuring, grateful endurance, and non-boastful beneficence. Let us banish irascibility, let us drive away anger, let us abolish sloth, let us kill fury, let us destroy sadness, let us remove avarice. Let us not fear this common reaper of the human race, death, but ^D that destroyer of men; for death, in the proper sense, is not that which separates the soul from the body, but that which separates the soul

from God. God is life; but he who is separated from ^A life is dead, having lost his former boldness just as he has lost life. And because death, the devil, the father of death, stands as a strong adversary arming himself, in order that he may wrestle us down and break us during these holy days, and may say: "I have conquered the soldiers of Christ," by showing the beauty of women and hanging them by their ears, and having plunged them into vainglory and gluttony, I have seized them by the hair of their virtues, and having tripped them with desires, and tickled them with wine-drinking, I have pushed and cast them into the pit of fornication;—let us not, then, bring joy to the unclean demons, since our God is the salvation of all and the destroyer of demons. Since, therefore, we too are entangled in bodies, and are subject to death, let us compete bravely so that we may overcome the unclean demons. For if we have fear in our heart, and carry the remembrance of death in our soul, all the demons arm themselves against us; but they will find us stronger than a wall, as if battering us with rams, because our Lord is with ^B us; for to Him belongs glory, honor, and power, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

*The following homilies or fragments of homilies of Cyril were first published by Cardinal Angelo Mai in the* Bibliotheca nova Patrum, *tomes II and III. Rome, 1844-45, in-4°.*

HOMILY XV. On the Incarnation of the Word of God.

1. Deep and great and truly admirable is the mystery of ^C religion, and most desired even by the holy angels themselves; for the disciple of the Savior says somewhere, concerning those things which were spoken by the holy prophets about Christ, the Savior of us all: "Which things are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into" (1 Pet. 1, 12). And indeed, as many as have looked into and understood the great mystery of religion, when Christ was born in the flesh, giving thanks on our behalf, said: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2, 14). For why should they not be filled with joy, ^D when they saw the Savior and Redeemer of the world born of the holy Virgin, who indeed even keep feast over one repentant sinner, as the Savior says (Luke 15, 10)? The multitude of the holy spirits therefore exults on our account. And what is the cause of this thing? The incarnation of the Only-begotten, the birth in the flesh, the abundance of kindness toward us, the magnitude of incomparable mercy. The blessed Isaias indeed says: "Death has swallowed up..."

^A, having prevailed; and again, God has taken away every tear from every face." But in what manner He removed the tear from every face, or how, by rendering that ancient curse ineffectual, He destroyed the unbearable power of death, the most wise Paul will teach us again: "For since the children have participated in blood and flesh, He Himself likewise shared in the same, so that through death He might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who, through fear of death, were subject to slavery for their whole life."

2. What then is this, "He shared in the same," if not this certainly, that He became like us from the holy and Theotokos Mary, in blood and flesh? For the Word of God the Father, being by nature the true God, consubstantial and coeternal with the Father, and shining in the heights of His own dignity, ^B and "in the form and equality of His Progenitor, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, born from the holy Mary in the likeness of men, and being found in habit as a man, He humbled Himself unto death, even death on a cross." Therefore, He who gives to all from His own fullness willingly descended to humiliation. He descended for our sake, not being compelled by anyone, but choosing of His own will to take the form of a servant for us, He who is by His own nature free; He who is above all creation became among us; He who gives life to all became subject to death. "For He Himself is the living bread, and He gives life to the world." He came to be with us under the law, He who is above the law and its Lawgiver, as God; He came to be among those who have an origin and a beginning of being, He who was before every age and time, or rather, the Creator and Maker of the ages.

3. How then has He come to be like us? By taking a body, of course, from the holy Virgin; a body, I say, not soulless as it seemed to some of the heretics, but informed by a rational soul. Thus He proceeded as a perfect man from a woman, without sin; truly, and not in appearance and fantasy; not having disregarded His being God, nor having cast off ^C what He always was, and is, and shall be—God. And in this way we call the holy Virgin Theotokos. For as the blessed Paul says: "One God and Father, from whom all things, and one Jesus Christ, through whom all things." For we do not divide the one God and our Savior, the Word of God who became man and took flesh, into two sons; nor, as some of the heretics and senseless ones imagine, do we speak of a commingling of the Godhead and the manhood, as if one into the other, that is, the Word of God passing over into the nature of flesh, or the flesh being changed into the nature of the Godhead. For the Word of God is utterly unchangeable and immutable; but because He truly united to Himself, out of the holy Virgin, flesh animated by a rational soul.

^A

4. It suffices, therefore, for the right and irreprehensible confession of our faith, to say and confess the holy Virgin to be Theotokos; for to add that she is also Anthropotokos is neither necessary nor useful. For we have been taught to confess and believe in one God, and after the incarnation, as Paul says, "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men" 68. For we say that the Word of God became man immutably. And as far as the nature of the flesh is concerned, the holy Virgin brought forth a body consubstantial to herself and to us; nevertheless, while we say "Theotokos," the meaning of this matter is also included; for the holy Virgin did not bring forth an empty divinity, but the Word of God united to flesh. And Theotokos could not be understood in any other way ^B than in this very manner; so that the confession of the incarnation always takes precedence. And thus it will subsequently be true that the holy Virgin became Theotokos, having miraculously brought forth one Christ, who, similarly to us, partook of flesh and blood, and is consubstantial both to her and to us according to the humanity, so that the flesh existed from the Theotokos Mary. For it is not "of similar substance" [homoousion], as it seemed to some of the heretics, but "consubstantial" [homoousion], that is to say, consisting of our own substance. For it says: "He takes hold of the seed of Abraham" 69. But "similar substance" signifies not a true man, but a likeness of the Son of man, as Daniel says 70. But the Apostle did not teach us about a likeness, but says, "The man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all" 71, ^C and the same one is consubstantial to God the Father divinely, just as our fathers confessed, calling Him consubstantial to the Father, and not saying "of similar substance."

5. It is superfluous, therefore, and unnecessary that, while we call her Theotokos, we should add Anthropotokos; for the first term suffices, as I have said, containing the confession of our whole mystery, and providing no opportunity for sophistry to those who wish to slander the truth. For it is the custom of heretics to pervert what has been rightly said into a counterfeit sense. We are in no way surprised, considering that they are accustomed to err even in interpreting the divine Scriptures. It befits us, therefore, to put forward words that have a suitable and correct meaning. ^D If they understand them wrongly, it is no concern of ours. Let them hear the prophet saying, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil!" 72 But there is no communion of light with darkness, nor agreement of Christ with Belial 73. Let us walk straight and without any stumbling.

via, semita, I say—a royal road, and not crooked. For so we shall attain to the prize of the upward calling, in Christ Jesus, through whom and with whom be glory to God the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

HOMILY XVI

Those who are nourished in true religion, and possess an accurate and refined knowledge of divine doctrines, are termed a "desirable land" by the prophet, who says: "And you shall be a desirable land, says the Lord Almighty, and all nations shall call you blessed." He calls that "desirable land" the one which is most fertile and fruitful, and the mother and nurse of cultivated fruits. Such is every soul that is pleasing to God and holy, having received as a kind of husbandman and sower of every good thing Christ, the Savior of all, who also illuminates the knowledge of sacred doctrines for us. But the enemy of all, that is, Satan, from time to time rouses those who sow evil tares among the wheat. Nevertheless, even if they bloom, they are cut down, and thus the field is purified. The impious Nestorius, truly the bitter tare of the devil, has therefore been cast out ^B of the whole Church, and henceforth the most pious bishops throughout the whole world agree, confessing the right and one faith. Therefore, the Eastern Churches have been joined to our Churches, or rather to the whole world; for the most religious bishops of those regions have professed the right and undefiled faith. What the most religious and devout bishop of Antioch, John, wrote to me, and what I in turn wrote back to him, you shall hear, God willing.

HOMILY XVII

You have heard, beloved, the evangelical parable of the Lord: hear now also its explanation, which we shall set forth according to our ability. The householder of the great house, that is ^D