John Xiphilinus, Patriarch of Constantinople

and his teachings, and his miracles, the Lord begins from the lower things and proceeds to the greater, and as if by certain steps, ascends from the simpler to the loftier, ^A and little by little leads the human race unto the glory and knowledge and contemplation of his divinity. And these things can indeed be found everywhere and elsewhere, especially, however, in the subject proposed to us. For first, in a desperate and grievous sickness, the Lord demonstrates and signals the power of the resurrection, having rebuked the fever that was violently burning Peter’s mother-in-law, and bringing about such a reversal of the illness that she was able to serve those present, although she had already reached the point of death. Then he adds something to this power, and the merciful Lord proceeds to a greater miracle. For ^B towards the centurion’s boy, who was sick unto death and given up, and breathing his last, and already approaching the gates of Hades, the Lord is called; and desiring to be present with him by providence, yet because of the prayers and faith of the centurion, who said to him, “Lord, say the word, and my boy shall be healed,” he raised him up by his command alone, even though he was already believed to be as good as dead, neither drawing near to the place at all, but sending health from afar to the sufferer in that very hour in which the command was given; and the servant was freed from the sickness, and returned to a prior and better health and state. O the power of a command! Truly, the voice of the Lord is a voice of power, as the holy ^C David says: “Behold, he will give his voice a voice of power” (Ps. LXVII, 34). For as soon as the Lord said to the centurion, “Go, and as you have believed, so let it be for you,” the sickness immediately departed from the boy.

The Resurrection at Nain

crowd of the city was with her. And Jesus, moved by pity for her, said to her: Do not weep. And going up ^A he touched the bier, and they who were carrying him stood still. And he said: Young man, I say to you, arise, and he who was dead sat up and began to speak and he gave him to his mother. ‹ Our great-working God and Lord and Master Jesus Christ performs a great miracle, and Life gives life, and the Resurrection raises up, and he wakens a dead man who was being carried out to burial, and by this miracle he confirms and provides assurance of the expected common resurrection and universal rising of the dead, and manifests his own life-bringing and divine resurrection, and intimates the redemption, freedom, salvation, and eternal life that is ours through it. For as he drew near, he says, to the gate of the city, behold a dead man was being carried out, an only son to his mother. Christ our God, the gate of life and immortality, drew near to the gate of the city of Nain, and the Giver of Life ordered the lamentation to cease. For the Master, having met the bier of the dead man, stopped it, and said to the mother of him who was lying there: ^B Do not weep, O woman, but grant quiet to your grief. For I am the resurrection and the life. Cease, therefore, from your wailing, cease from your lamentations, and stay your tears; for the cause of your tears shall be loosed, and your grief shall be changed into joy. And drawing near, he touched the bier, and those who were carrying it stood still, struck with awe and wondering, Who is this, and for what purpose did he touch the bier? And as they waited in great fear, and were expecting to see what would happen, Christ called to the dead man and said: I say to you, young man, arise; and thus by word and touch he raised the dead man, and he was speaking before all. But though Christ was able to perform the miracle by word alone, nevertheless he touches the bier ^C in order that we might learn that the body of Christ our God is a body of life and immortality, and that he is the one who from the beginning fashioned man with undefiled hands by divine art, and animated and enlivened him with the divine and intellectual breath; and that he himself is the one who later, through the trumpet, is to raise up human nature, and to awaken it and render to each according to his works. For he is the Judge of the living and the dead, and he himself is the way and the truth, and they who follow him shall not need a guide. And if he is the truth, there is nothing false in what has been said by him, and blessed are those who believe this; and if he is also life, even if they die, those who fulfill his holy commandments shall live, just as he says again elsewhere: He who believes ^D in me, though he die, shall live. And, if anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death. God's word is truly received in the ears of both demons and wicked men; but our salvation does not lie merely in passing hearing, nor is life found in doctrine alone, but also in the observance and fulfillment of the hearers. Death, therefore...

^A shall not be seen for eternity by the steadfast keeper of the divine commandments and precepts of Christ. The Lord says these things, not by altogether taking away death from the flesh, but by deeming death to be death no longer, as God. For it is not only easy for God to vivify that which is dead and corrupt, as is the way of things, but even to bring into generation that which is not. And for this reason He says, "Young man, I say to you, and command you, arise." To you, the dead, I speak; I do not introduce another soul for one, nor do I inspire one, but I command the same one to return by my power and authority. "Come to life and arise," the Master commanded, and the servant obeyed the Master's mandate; and having become animated and having received motion, he sat up and began to speak before all the people, so that no one might suspect that an evil spirit had entered and moved his body, and that the affair had happened through deception and guile. ^B For this reason the dead man sat up and spoke, to create faith in the common and universal resurrection of the dead. For these are firm and secure signs of the resurrection. For a body without a soul can neither truly speak nor sit up. Hence He gave him to his mother for still greater persuasion and faith.

After this great miracle ^C brought all who were present into fear and astonishment, they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited His people." For they did not yet have the understanding that Christ is God the Savior. Nevertheless, it was no small thing to believe the Lord to be a great prophet and greater than the rest of the prophets, and even the lawgiver Moses himself, and by degrees, proceeding on the way, to be led into a more exalted opinion, and to believe Him to be the true God. And the report of this miracle went out into all Judea and into all the surrounding region. ^D For this reason He employed many witnesses to this event, so that the envious Jews, desiring to slander and conceal the miracles, might not be able to prevail. For the report of the resurrection of this dead man was spread so far, even beyond the entire region of Judea, that it reached the ears of John the Baptist, who was residing in the desert. There were three resurrections performed by the prophets before the coming of Christ, and four by Christ Himself. And the first resurrection was that of the son of the woman of Sarepta, whom Elijah raised; the second was that of the son of the Shunammite woman, which Elisha worked; the third was that which the dead body of Elisha performed. For Elisha obtained double the grace, after Elijah was taken up. Therefore, even dead, he raised the dead man who was placed upon his body. The fourth resurrection is that of the present young man, which is the first performed by Christ.

But Christ did not raise this dead man by prayer and petition, as Elias or Elisæus did, but by his own authority. ^A The fifth resurrection is that of the daughter of Jairus; the sixth is that of Lazarus, who had been dead four days; the seventh is that which took place during the Passion of Christ: many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep arose; which was followed by the eighth, the resurrection of the Lord Himself. Those seven were indeed swallowed up again by death, but the eighth remained superior to death. For the resurrection of the dead which is to take place in the eighth age will no longer be interrupted by death, but will be indissoluble and eternal. Let us therefore endeavor, brethren, to quicken and raise up our own souls, already dead and slain by sins. Let us approach, I beseech you, the Lord who gives life to the dead, and let us fall down ^B before Him and shed tears. For now there is need of confession; now there is need of prayers, now is the time for tears and sobs and mourning; and let us crush our hearts while invoking the Lord. For He is the liberation from our sadness, and joy and freedom and resurrection. Let us glorify Him, my brethren, not with mouth and lips only, but with a pure heart and free from all passion, and by a blameless life and conduct, because in this way God is glorified. “That they may see,” He says, “our good works, and glorify our Father who is in heaven.” Let us perform all things for the glory of God, and with a contrite and humble heart let us cry out to Him, saying each one of us: “Deliver, O Lord, my soul from the sword, and my only one from the hand of the dog.” And God will hearken, and He who is long-suffering ^C will not delay His help from us, but will deliver us from all anger and danger and distress and affliction, and will redeem us from the tyranny and assault and harm of our visible and invisible enemies, and will take us away from the deadly death of sin, and make us partakers of His heavenly kingdom, for He Himself is the resurrection and the life, Christ our God; to Him let us render thanks, together with His Father who is without beginning, and the most holy and good and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

THE TWELFTH SUNDAY OF MATTHEW.

Nothing ^D so disrupts, brethren, and clouds human understanding, as—

to be wholly occupied with present things and to be possessed by the desire for riches. From this, indeed, ^A numberless evils are generated: hatred toward one's neighbor, evil faith toward friends, deceit toward enemies, forgetfulness of one's own nature, six hundred cares, despairs, and, finally, the soul's destruction and the loss of the kingdom of heaven. For no one of those who fully embrace the delights and pleasures of this life and serve riches will ever be able to receive the heavenly goods legitimately and attain their splendor; rather, it is necessary that he who has pursued present, fleeting, and corruptible things should fall away from those that are stable and eternal. "For you cannot," he says, "serve God and mammon," that is, you cannot serve God and injustice. For whoever has loved one master will altogether hate the other; and whoever has clung to one will despise the other. This experience itself of events cries out. For those who are not overcome by the desire for riches are those who have loved God ^B above all; but those who have become enslaved to them, these are they who have a more indolent disposition toward God. For a soul once mastered by the love of money will not refuse to do and say things that provoke God; for it becomes the slave of another master, namely mammon, who commands everything in a manner exactly contrary to God. For God commands all men to love and cherish one another, but mammon commands those who are attached to him to become enemies to all. Mammon fastens those who love him to mud and mire (for this is what gold is); he does not even allow them to rest during the night. But God commands them to let go of excessive and useless worry and to be liberated, and he wishes them to gather treasures in heaven, not from injustice toward others, but from their own justice.

And since these things are so, brethren, let us renounce the desire for riches. For whoever is mastered by it, it separates them from all others ^C and makes them its own slaves. It is this that showed Giezi as a leper instead of a disciple and prophet; this delivered Ananias and Sapphira to death; this made Judas a traitor and established him as the heir of destruction; this corrupted the leaders of the Jews and showed them to be partners of thieves. It is this that brought countless wars into the world, filling the roads with gore and the cities with lamentations and groans. It is this that prevented that young man who had approached ^D Christ, and who wished to carry out all the commandments of the law, from emulating the perfection of the evangelical life and following Christ, as today’s Gospel reading shows, which runs thus: "At that time a young man approached Christ, falling down and saying: Good Master,"

^A what good shall I do that I may have eternal life?" Some slander this young man who approached Christ, as if he were deceitful, wicked, and testing Christ. But the truth is not so; rather, one might rightly call him a lover of money and a slave to riches, but by no means deceitful or wicked and a tempter. For indeed, Christ reproved him for being a lover of money. The evangelist Luke says he was a ruler of the Jews; and the evangelist Mark says that Jesus, having looked upon him, loved him. It is therefore evident from this that the young man was otherwise good, and desired eternal life, but the thorn of avarice had corrupted the fertile soil of his soul. "But he said to him: Why callest thou me good? None is good, except one, God." By nature, God alone is good; but by free choice, only he who imitates God becomes good. No one—neither material nor immaterial—is essentially good, except God alone. For to Him belongs goodness by nature, and for this reason it is most immutable; but to all others, both visible and invisible, it belongs by moral choice, and for this reason it is changeable. And since this young man supposed Christ to be merely a man, he called Him good—not as God, but as a man and one of the Hebrew teachers; consequently, Christ, in response to such an assumption, conversed with him as a man. "Why," He says, "callest thou me good?"—being, according to thy assumption, a man. For as a man, I am not good; but as God, I have an infinite sea of goodness; for God alone is truly good. By saying this, Christ did not deprive men of goodness, but taught them about what is truly good. At the same time, He also repelled flattery and taught us not to yield to praise. "But if thou wishest to enter into life, keep the commandments," He says to him. "Which?" he asked. The young man did not say "which" as if testing Him, but he thought that there were other commandments, besides the legal commandments, that brought one into eternal life. But Jesus said: "Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The young man says to him: "All these have I kept from my youth." Christ wisely proposes the more essential commandments of the Law to the young man, at once honoring them, lest He seem contrary to the Law, and at the same time, that He might show that he who thinks himself perfect in the Law is ^B lacking at the very threshold of the evangelical Law. For He knew, as the all-foreknowing God, that he would respond that he had performed and kept the commandments from his youth. Therefore, by advancing one of the evangelical laws, the Lord opportunely convicted this young man of being a lover of money, and clearly showed that avarice pollutes all virtues, and is therefore to be fled from and repelled such as ^{C D}

^A he had determined. For just as the young man said, if he kept the commandments of the law, he indeed achieved great things. But how was he able to achieve loving his neighbor as himself, if he himself was rich, and his neighbor poor? For no one who loves his neighbor as himself wishes to be richer than his neighbor; for every man is called a neighbor. And if the young man had loved his neighbor, he would have shared what he possessed with those who had little or nothing at all. What, then, is it to say that the young man both achieved this commandment and the others, as he was able to achieve them then? For indeed he loved his neighbor as himself, but in such a way as to do him no harm, not in such a way as to make him a participant in his own riches; for that is something sublime and great, and higher than the Jewish lowliness of mind.

Let us also see, my brothers, we disciples of the Gospel ^B, if we love our neighbors as ourselves, and if we make them participants of the good things we have received from God. But few, I think, are those who today fulfill this commandment. But when we do not even perform this commandment, but instead snatch away the goods of our neighbors, and commit injustice and covet, and slander and oppress them, of what judgment and punishment are we not worthy? "What lack I yet?" says the young man. By saying this, he signified and showed that he desired and craved a greater virtue. "Jesus said to him: If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have a treasure in heaven, and come, follow me." Since goods—wealth, that is—were a hindrance to following Him, Christ commands the young man to sell these and give to the ^C poor, and thus set free, to follow Him. "You shall have a treasure," the Lord said to the young man, consoling his love of money, and promising that he would store up again, and not this alone, but better treasures. For "in heaven," He said, "you shall have a treasure." He showed also by these words that the reward for good actions is always prepared for those who deserve it. "Come, follow me" is said for "walk in the footsteps of my life, and obey my commandments." For this is what you lack, having achieved the commandments of the law. "But after the young man heard this word, he went away sad; for he had many possessions." As much as the young man possessed, by so much was he a slave to them; for the increase of wealth makes an increase of avarice. ^D Therefore the cause of this sadness and distrust was the great possession of riches. Since he could not follow, he went away sad. "Jesus, however, said to his disciples: Amen I say..."

to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven." But if the rich man enters with difficulty, the greedy man does not enter at all; for if he who does not give of his own is condemned, much more is he who steals the goods of others. "And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Having said that the thing was difficult, Christ then says that it is also impossible—and not simply impossible, but rather more impossible than the impossible. For it is impossible for the camel, the animal, to pass through the hole of a needle, but more impossible than this is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Some, however, say that the camel ^A is the thick rope of a ship, with which sailors fasten the anchors. By saying these things, Christ does not disparage wealth, but being enslaved to wealth. The example is excellent and wonderful. For just as the eye of a needle does not admit the camel because of its great narrowness and because of the great bulk of the camel, so too the road that leads to eternal life does not admit the rich man, both because of its own narrowness and because of the great bulk of the rich man. It is fitting, therefore, my brethren, to put off every bulk ^B according to the divine Apostle, and to become thin through voluntary poverty, so that we may be able to enter through the narrow road into the kingdom of heaven. For "narrow and straight is the road that leads to life, and few are they that find it." When his disciples heard this, they were astonished exceedingly, saying, "Who then can be saved?" They were astonished, that is, they were troubled. Yet not on their own account (for they were poor), but on account of the rich; for the apostles began to take on bowels of mercy and to grieve over the destruction of men, saying: "Who then can be saved?" ^C But Jesus looking on them said to them: "With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." First, by a gentle, look, Christ comforted the trembling and troubled mind of the disciples; then he said that among rich men this, namely, to be saved, is impossible, for they are bound strongly by the chains of avarice and are unable of themselves alone ^D to be freed from such a tyranny. But God is able not only to save, but is able to do every other thing. God will save the rich, if they, contributing their own diligence, call also upon Him as a helper and co-worker of their freedom, emptying their wealth to the poor and extinguishing the fire of the desire for money. Behold, we have been taught and we have learned, my brethren, that it is impossible for a lover of money to be saved, unless he contributes his own diligence and has God as a helper, who may free him from such desire. They say, however: "If all things are possible with God, then it is possible for Him also to do evil." But to them we answer that evil is not a matter of power, but of infirmity. Therefore David called sins infirmities, saying: "Their infirmities have been multiplied." And the divine Paul says: "When we were weak," that is, sinners, "Christ died for the ungodly." And elsewhere

^A furthermore, according to the divine Gregory, "The beginning of evil is the neglect of the good; for a state of fixity in the good becomes the beginning of wickedness." But how shall Goodness neglect the good? For God can indeed do all things, but He wills what is best and good.

Therefore, my brethren, since we are weak, let us draw near to God who can do all things, for the sake of obtaining power, and let us fall down with a contrite heart before Him who provides aid to those in need, and let us beseech Him to deliver us from the riches that arise from sins, so that, having been made destitute of faults and enriched with the wealth of virtues, we may place our treasures into the hands of God, laying them out by the hands of the poor and storing up for ourselves treasures in heaven. Then shall we truly be found rich, fearing no one who might plot against ^B wealth that is inexhaustible and abiding, and we shall have from this good treasury delights and enjoyment that are abiding and never-flowing away, in Christ Jesus our Lord; to whom belongs glory and power, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF LUKE. After the Exaltation.

Good indeed are all the divine oracles and profitable ^C to those who pay attention, but those are more marvelous and more beneficial than the others, which regulate the souls' customs and excite the desire and longing for virtue, and propose the rejection and avoidance of evil. Therefore, the Lord does not cease to exhort us always to the good and to show us both those things which lead to salvation and those which lead to destruction; and He moves us toward virtue, but dissuades us from vice, and in both ways He provides for our salvation. For that we might not be able to say that He taught us the good things but remained silent about the evil ones, and that on this account we fell into evils as if being ignorant, for this reason He revealed both the things of virtue and the things of vice, placing the opposites side by side ^D with one another. That these things are so, the Gospel lesson proposed today will clearly show, teaching both the rich and the poor what is appropriate, and admonishing the rich to hate luxury and the other deceits of life and inhumanity, but to embrace modesty and humanity; and teaching the needy and the poor not to lose heart on account of the incurable cases of poverty, but to bear them generously and with

^A thanksgiving, having as their consolation the most excellent hope of future good things. The subject matter recounts the diverse way of life of a rich man and a poor man—the one immersed in luxury, the other notable for his 58 poverty and destitution—and shows each of them receiving a reward worthy of his way of life, as the evangelical words themselves declare, being thus: "The Lord spoke this parable: There was a certain man 59 who was rich, and who was clothed in purple and fine linen, feasting sumptuously every day. And a certain poor man named Lazarus lay at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table." Wishing to make us communicative, brotherly, and generous toward one another, and ^B to teach the unmerciful what things will befall them, and to teach those who suffer misfortune again what comforts they will have in exchange for what they endure here—the Lord has depicted for us in a parable, most wisely, the rich man, because of his lack of compassion and great inhumanity, and the poor man, because of his destitution and great patience, as types of virtue and vice. He introduced the rich man anonymously, as being unworthy even to be named by God, just as He says through the Prophet: "I will not 60 be mindful of their names through my lips, and his memory 61 has perished with a sound." But He mentions the name of the poor man, because the names of the righteous are written in the book of life. The Hebrew tradition also holds that there was a certain Lazarus in Jerusalem at the time of the incarnation of the Lord, living in extreme ^C poverty, whom the Lord also mentions 62 as having been thankful, patient, and long-suffering, working out all righteousness and virtue. For He says, "Blessed are those who fear the Lord, and their memory abides forever; and the memory of the righteous is with praises, and the righteous will be in eternal 63 remembrance 64." The rich man, then, was clothed in purple and fine linen, while many others were naked and shivering and freezing from the cold and frost, and this same poor Lazarus lay at the gate of this unjust, evil-minded, unmerciful, and heartless man, oppressed and naked. And this rich man was splendid every day, feasting and enjoying himself dissolutely and luxuriously on the revenues of land and sea, ^D growing wealthy and living in excess. For the entire concern of the rich man was about these things: the magnificence of clothing, and tables, and revelries. But Lazarus, worn away by poverty and disease,

was cast down at his gate, and he endured everything—not only the things of poverty, but also those of illness. And he desired to be filled with the crumbs falling from the table of the rich man; but there was no one to provide for him, rather he lay abounding in many sores, and receiving sympathy from nowhere, nor was he deemed worthy of any word from anyone. He was held captive by disease and worn away by hunger.

But the rich man lived in luxury every day ^A and busied himself in dissipations and drunkenness. For such was the cruelty of the rich man; for not even by his prosperity did he become better, but he remained brutalized, or rather, even more savage than any wild beast. ^B ‘But the dogs also came and licked his sores.’ The dogs appear more compassionate and more humane than the rich man. For the dogs licked the sores and wounds of the poor man, doing no harm and not biting, but rather, as if commiserating, they healed the painful parts with their tongues, wiped away the discharge of the wounds, and gently alleviated the pains. But the rich man was unsympathetic and implacable; he did not grant the poor man even a cheerful look, he did not share a word with him, he did not throw him a rag, he did not give him an obol or a small morsel of bread, but threw everything into his own belly, as into an inn, through the channel of his throat.

But the poor man Lazarus, enduring such things and existing in such terrors, did not blaspheme, nor did he use abusive language, nor did he become indignant, nor did he murmur; he did not reproach the rich man for his wealth, nor did he condemn anyone at all, nor did he find fault with the providence of God, but with great philosophy he endured. For this reason, also, when he died, the angels received him. For if he had been a murmurer and a blasphemer, he would not have been deemed worthy of such honor, and of the escort of the angels. ^C ‘For it came to pass,’ it says, ‘that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into the bosom of Abraham.’ With difficulty, at last, the poor man Lazarus, having been delivered from the great storm of poverty and disease, arrived at a peaceful harbor. For to those who place their hopes in God, the departure from these lands is the end of pains and calamities, just as Solomon also teaches, saying, ‘They seemed in the eyes of the foolish to have died, and their passing was reckoned an affliction, and their path away from us a destruction; but they are in peace. For even if they suffered torments before men, their hope is full of immortality.’ For there is given to them, equivalent to their pains, a measure of consolation, or rather, rewards even greater than their adversities. For Christ says, ^D ‘A measure pressed down and full they shall give into your bosom.’ Moreover, Lazarus was also carried by the holy angels into the bosom of Abraham. But those among the poor who murmur, and are blasphemous, and become indignant, and bear poverty impatiently, they shall not only fall from such glory and fail in their hopes, but they shall also be delivered to eternal punishments and torments. Let us listen, we who are miserable and unhappy, and let us not be indignant if we are poor and afflicted. For through many tribulations and

^A temptations we must enter into the kingdom of heaven; but the rich man who lives in luxury will enter into it with difficulty. For unless the rich also taste of the dangers and tribulations of this life, they cannot become participants in that divine life. But blessed are even the rich who fall into dangers and temptations, and who endure the misfortunes that befall them, and who hunger, and thirst, and are afflicted, and are constrained, and give thanks in all things. ^B We are not yet diligent investigators of events, nor do we penetrate the judgments of God, but we ought to know only this, that all things are ordered by Him for our benefit. If, however, we are unable to bear poverty and are therefore indignant, let us listen to our Lord saying: "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them." For our Savior and benefactor knows that we have need of all things, and He gives according to what is beneficial for the soul.

"And the rich man also died," he says, "and was buried." No one goes before the rich man, no one accompanies him, as they did Lazarus. For since in this life the rich man had many who attended him and served him, when he reached the end, he became naked and bereft of all things, or rather, even after that brief respite—for the whole of the present life is short when compared to the life to come—he arrived at eternal punishment. ^C Observe, moreover, how the burial of the rich man is described, just as David says: "And their tombs are their houses forever." For death, to inhuman and most cruel rich men, is the departing from the body; for they depart from luxury into punishment, from glory into dishonor, from light into darkness. That is why he said that he was buried, showing that his soul had obtained the lowest and most shadowy place. But even when the rich man was alive, he had his own soul as if buried in a tomb, carrying his body about as a sepulcher. Therefore the blessed David also says: "Do not fear when a man becomes rich, and when the glory of his house is increased; ^D for when he dies he will not take everything, nor will his glory descend with him." For here he leaves everything, and departs from there naked, and is delivered to torment. "And the rich man also died and was buried." The beggar, indeed, is said to have departed, his time of exile having been fulfilled, having exchanged the life according to the flesh for the spiritual life; but the rich man is deadened and destroyed by unbelief. "And in Hades, lifting up his eyes, being in torments, he sees Abraham from afar, and Lazarus in his bosom; and he himself, calling out, said: Father Abraham, have mercy on me,

and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame." Lazarus had reached the highest height, while the rich man had reached the deepest abyss. Lazarus did not see the rich man; for those who are in the light do not see those who stand in darkness. But the rich man sees Lazarus in ^A Abraham’s bosom, so that he may be tormented all the more. Being in a certain perplexity, and being terribly roasted, the rich man raises a supplication to Abraham, saying, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame." These words are sufficient to draw Abraham toward compassion and pity, but even so he found no relief; for the entreaty was untimely—on the one hand, because of the chasm that lies between, and on the other, because of the pain. ^B And crying out, he said, "Have mercy on me, Father Abraham, and send Lazarus, that poor man whom I previously loathed and would not even permit to partake of the crumbs from my table—him I now need." Behold, how punishment humbled him, how affliction brought him to a saner mind, how he once passed by his neighbor and now calls to him from afar, and him whom he did not notice as he often went in and out, he now looks at with intensity from a distance. "Have mercy on me, and send Lazarus." Do you now seek mercy, when it is no longer the time for mercy? Have you not heard the Lord saying, "Judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy"? ^C You repent now, when there is no time for repentance. There is no confession in Hades, there is no compassion; for in Hades, it says, who will confess? The rich man is punished in his tongue, through which he received his delicacies. He asks for a drop of water, since he did not give even a cup of cold water to the thirsty. This is the fitting retribution: that fire and that punishment in Hades—a tongue parched, desiring a small drop for comfort; in place of the flute-player and musical instruments, lamentation; in place of immoderate drunkenness, the desire for a single drop; in place of lewd spectacles, deep darkness; in place of sleepless pleasure, the sleepless worm. ^D "But Abraham said: Son, remember that you received your good things in your life, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is comforted, and you are tormented." Let us consider the goodness of the patriarch; he did not say to him, "You inhuman and cruel man, do you not blush? Are you not ashamed? Do you now remember humanity, and compassion, and consolation?" The righteous Abraham uttered nothing of the sort, but calls him "son"; for a humbled soul does not...

^A rage, says the Wise One. His punishment is sufficient for him; for this reason he himself also says, "Child, remember that you received your good things in your life, and Lazarus in like manner the bad things." He did not say "your good things," but "the good things for you," that is, the things considered good by you. For he confined the "good things" to the pleasures of this life, just as many even now say, "We have had many good things." "And Lazarus likewise the bad things." He did not say "his bad things," as he said there "your good things," but simply "the bad things." He did not say "you took," but "you received back," that is, if you did any good thing and a reward is owed to you, you received it all in that world; and Lazarus, if he did any bad thing, he received it all, being afflicted in poverty and famine and extreme evils. And behold, you both have come hither; Lazarus indeed without sins, and you without righteousness. "For this reason this one is comforted, but you are tormented." It is therefore impossible for one who has once been condemned ^B to be deemed worthy of any small consolation and relaxation. "And besides all these, between us and you a great gulf is fixed, so that those who wish to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass over to us." Touching all these things which I have mentioned, he says that it follows that each received an end: for you, O rich man, tribulation and anguish, but for Lazarus, rest and the enjoyment of good things. The thing that hinders is great; for he did not say simply, "there is a gulf between us and you," but "a great one." For just as the distance between vice and virtue is great, and the dispositions ^C of those who achieve virtue and of those who embrace vice are completely separated, so too the abodes have a great distance, with each receiving what is appropriate to his life and his choice. And the separation from one another is unmixed. "For a great gulf," he says, "is fixed between us and you," that is, clearly between the virtuous and the wicked; the former being allotted rest and the blessed portion, the latter being condemned to punishment; and the gulf is so great that neither can any one standing here pass over to you, nor can any one from there pass over to us. For uniform was the life of men in the beginning, that is, contemplated in the good alone, and unmixed with evil. And the first commandment of God also testifies to this, which, regarding every tree that is in the [paradise]... ^D [Where are the Origenists, who teach that the punishments from there are not eternal, and that there is an end to these things, and who hold the doctrine of a restoration at some time, not only of humans, but even of the demons? Those who say that when the punishment has an end, there will be a time when the sinners will be united with the righteous and with God, and thus God will be all in all. For behold, we hear Abraham saying: "So that those who wish to pass from here to you, or from there to us, may not be able." As it is impossible, then, for anyone to pass from the portion of the righteous to the place of the sinners, so it is impossible, as Abraham teaches us, to pass from the place of punishment to the place of the righteous. But Abraham is surely more trustworthy than Origen, or rather, God is. For He answers the same things through Abraham, and Abraham did not speak from his own understanding, but read divine laws, and had no power to gainsay.]

^A permitting that Adam eat in Paradise, while also forbidding him (89), whom a nature of contraries was joined, of evil mixed with good, He threatened death as the penalty to him who transgressed. Since man voluntarily preferred life composed of contraries to that which is unmixed with the worse (90), God did not leave him uncorrected. Rather, since death followed the transgressor, He divided life in two: into this carnal life and into the one to come, not by an equal measure of duration, but by defining the present one in a very brief time, and extending the one to come into eternity (91). Therefore, out of His love for mankind, God gave power to those who wish it, in what each of these chooses (92)—the good and the evil—to have them either in this brief and temporal life or in that endless and eternal one. It is by the same name that both good and evil are spoken of (93), and each of these is divided between the intelligible and the sensible. Some prefer sensible goods and joys, while others believe that only the intelligible are truly good and merit being named so. Now, those whose mind is unintelligent and not a seeker of the better, these, through gluttony, consume in this carnal life the portion of the good owed to their nature, ^B storing up nothing for the life that follows. But those who order their lives with a discerning judgment, being afflicted by those things that grieve the senses, store up the good for the coming age, so that for them the better lot might extend into eternal life. This, then (95), is that chasm which is not produced by the earth splitting open, but by a judgment throughout life that has split according to contrary choices. For he who once, during this life, chose the pleasurable, and did not heal his foolishness through repentance, renders inaccessible to himself thereafter the realm of the angels, having dug for himself this impassable crossing, like a chasm that is both vast and impenetrable. «And he said: I beseech you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house: for I have five brothers; that he may testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham said to him: They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said: No, father ^C Abraham; but if one went to them from the dead, they will repent. And he said to him: If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, if one rise again from the dead.» See, my brothers, how the rich man came to contrition from out of his punishment, and he who formerly despised Lazarus lying before his gate and perishing of hunger, is now anxious for others who are absent, and asks that Lazarus be sent from the dead into his father’s house. And not simply one of the dead, but Lazarus; so that those who had seen him in disgrace and infirmity, and who were witnesses to his poverty, ^D might see him crowned and in glory and health.

and those who had been witnesses of his poverty might themselves become spectators of his glory. ^A What then is Abraham’s response? "They have Moses and the prophets." By "Moses and the prophets," he means the Mosaic and prophetic writings and teachings. "You, O rich man," he says, "do not care for your brothers as much as God, who made them, does; for He has set over them ten thousand teachers." But the rich man says, "No, Father Abraham." Because he himself, while hearing the Scriptures, had been faithless and had believed the things being said were mere fables, he assumed that his brothers were the same. Judging them by himself, he said that they would not listen to the Scriptures, just as he himself had not listened. "But if one rises from the dead, they will believe."

There are those even now who say, "Who has seen what is in Hades? ^B Who has come from there to tell us?" But let them listen to Abraham: if we do not listen to the Scriptures, we will not believe even those who come from Hades. The Jews proved this as well; since they did not listen to the Scriptures, they did not believe even when they saw the dead rising, but actually attempted to kill Lazarus. And although many dead rose at the time of the Crucifixion, they still persecuted the apostles with even greater bloodthirsty zeal. If it were truly helpful to our faith, the Lord would often do this; but in fact, nothing helps us as much as the accurate investigation and examination of the Scriptures. The devil would have craftily raised up the dead, ^C and through them he would have led the senseless into error, sowing dogmas worthy of his own malice regarding what is in Hades. But if the Scriptures are examined rightly, nothing of that sort can be attempted craftily. For they are a lamp and a light, and when this shines, the thief is revealed and discovered. Let us therefore flee, my brothers, from imitating the rich man, and let us hate his inhumanity; let us instead emulate the philosophy and endurance of Lazarus. For this reason have these things been foretold, that we might not suffer the same things as the rich man. For if He wanted to punish, He would not have foretold these things; but since He does not want this, He foretells them so that, having been made wise by the prediction, we might avoid the actual experience. Let us come to our senses, therefore, beloved, ^D and while there is time for repentance, let us wash away our sins, and let us not prefer the broad and wide road of wickedness over the narrow and constricted path of the virtues. For even if the path of wickedness is broad and relaxed, it leads to a narrow end, leading to the destruction of the soul and summoning it to the divine tribunal.

Conversely, the narrow path of virtue leads to and ends in a wide place, offering much relief thereafter. Let us not, then, be deceived by the beginnings. For what is the benefit, tell me, after having walked the broad path for a little while, to be cast down into the precipice of destruction, and—so to speak—to have enjoyed oneself in a dream only to be tormented forever? (For as a dream is to reality, so is the present life to the life that is to come.) Rather, looking toward the end of each, let us embrace virtue; and even if it should be necessary for us to fall into misfortunes on its account, let us not grow weary, but let us bear everything nobly, ^A fortified by the hope of future goods, and holding it as a certainty that God permits us to fall into temptations so that, being purified here and casting off all wickedness, we may receive a pure and unmixed reward for our good deeds. If, therefore, we wish to obtain that, let us choose a laborious and severe life, and let us not be distressed or impatient in our trials, so that we may also draw down help against them, and rest in the bosom of Abraham, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

THIRD SUNDAY OF MATTHEW

There is nothing more baneful, and there is nothing more terrible, than avarice and the love of money; for it has destroyed whole houses, and stirred up great wars, ^B and overturned cities from their very foundations, and driven brothers into fury against one another, and incited fathers against their children, and transformed the mildest nature of men into a savage one, and wrought ten thousand other evils. The great Paul called avarice the root of all evils, and termed it a second idolatry, inasmuch as it persuades men to trust in riches rather than to place their hope in God. And just as idolaters venerate created things and not God, so too the avaricious person obeys gold and not Christ. But let us strive, beloved, to excise this sort of disease—as the root of all evils—entirely from our souls, so that in the present life we may escape all the terrible things that spring from it, and avoid the punishment ^C and torment of the age to come. Wishing to deliver us from this avarice and from all the evils that arise from it, Christ sets forth these words before us. The Lord said: "The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; ^D but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in you...

is darkness, how great is the darkness? ^A Wishing to deliver us from the passion of avarice, or rather from injustice and all the vices arising from it, the Lord discourses on poverty and leads the faithful to obedience and persuasion by many examples. ^B And He said first, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven," and He shows that the heavenly treasures are incorruptible, inexhaustible, and everlasting, while earthly treasures are corruptible and vanish in a little time. Then He brings another example, saying, "The lamp of the body is the eye." For what the eye is in the body, that the mind is in the soul; and just as the eye, when it is sound, illuminates the body, but when it is diseased, darkens it, so too the mind, if it is pure and looks only to divine and just things and is always vigilant for them, the soul receives light from it and is illuminated and purified. But if it turns to evil and is overcome and subdued by the desire for riches or the heat of the passions, it becomes blind and dark. ^C But when the mind is darkened, the soul also becomes darkness, and the body much more so. For he who has extinguished the mind through the inclination toward material things, and has darkened it with the desire of the passions, has extinguished and obscured all his actions in the present life, and has henceforth made vain the motives of his salvation. Therefore Christ says, "If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?" That is to say, if the mind, which illuminates your soul and body, becomes darkness, blinded by the care for riches and the desire for base passions, how much more darkened will the soul and body be! For when the lamp of the soul and body is extinguished, that is, the mind, what hope of salvation will then remain? ^D As light and a pure mind, those who are appointed to spiritual and worldly dignities and authorities in the world ought to be, so as to illuminate men toward good and saving things, and to guard and preserve them from all harm, plots, and wickedness. But if these people rejoice in injustices, serve robberies and greed, and are disposed carelessly and sluggishly toward what they are bound to do, what will become of the remaining people subject to them, who come to the good with difficulty even under the guidance of their superiors and the good and right governance of the authority of pastors and teachers? For in this way the holy and divine apostles were established as eyes and light of the whole world. Therefore, the Lord also said, admonishing them: If you persist and do not turn, since you are the light of the body, behold the whole body of the world is illuminated; but if you, who are salt, become foolish, and you who are light are darkened, how great will be the darkness which is the world! The great theologian Gregory, our divine Father, says these things to those consecrated to God: "I say first of all to you who ascend the chair..."

not to be darkened eyes, nor leaders filled with ^A darkness, nor let us appear as evildoers. For if the light is such, how great is the darkness!" No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will cling to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

^B No one can serve two masters who command opposing things; but, clinging to one and fulfilling his will, he will necessarily despise the other, and will certainly love the one and hate the other. But it is not even possible to serve God and riches, because the love of riches not only drags us away from God, but also subjects us to mammon: for mammon is injustice, since riches arise for the most part from injustice. Therefore it is impossible to serve God and injustice. For injustice wishes to snatch away what belongs to others, it pursues fornication, adultery, licentiousness, and pleasures; it desires to embrace the present and to admire what is fleeting. But God commands us to give to the needy what is ours and what is proper to us, and ordains that we be wise and tame our belly, and that we despise and execrate all present things. Therefore it is impossible that we, overcome by desires and subjected to the works of the wicked devil, should be loved by God; but as long as we wish to serve the desires of injustice, avarice, and dishonor, we become loathsome and enemies to God. Let us shake off, then, I pray, the weight of greed and injustice and avarice, and let us not indulge our passions. Let us distribute our wealth as much as we can, and give to the poor, that our righteousness may endure forever. He called mammon 'Lord,' not because of its own nature, but because of the obedience of those who are subject to it and serve it. And He calls the belly 'God,' not because it has a lordly dignity, but because the gluttonous are subject to it and serve it. For wherever desire drags a man, and to whatever thing a person's heart is bound, that is his God. "Therefore I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, what you shall eat and what you shall drink, nor for your body, what you shall put on." Because we are separated from God by riches, the Lord commands us not to be anxious, nor to be stained by the love of riches or by passions. The soul, however, does not eat, ^C but He speaks according to common custom. For the body is strengthened by food, ^D

^A in which the soul is contained. For the soul seems unwilling to be in the body if the flesh is not nourished. "Be not anxious for your life, what you shall eat and what you shall drink." It is evident that man cannot be nourished without the soul. For the dead body is only clothed, not nourished; it pertains to the living to be nourished. But we ought to despise not only riches and all the pleasures of the world, but not even to be anxious about necessary food. He does not cast us out, nor prevent us from working; for "He who does not labor, let him not eat," says the divine Apostle; but He forbids us to give ourselves over entirely to anxiety and to be negligent of God. This He forbids; since 26 we ought to plow and work according to our strength, but also to provide for the salvation of our own souls with all zeal and fervor, and to look only to God, who gives food to the hungry, and fills our life with good things. "Is not the soul more than food, and the body more than clothing?" That is to say: He who gave the greater thing, namely, He who gave the soul and fashioned the body, will He not give food and clothing? "Look at the birds of the air, for they do not sow, nor do they reap, nor do they gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" The Lord mentions the birds, to show that we are more irrational even than they, and to put us to shame, and so that what the birds have by nature, namely, not to be anxious, we might acquire by free choice; for He who cares for vile sparrows will much more take care of valuable humans. For this reason, the Lord brings to our memory that ancient way of life, when the Lord fed Adam in Paradise not sowing, the earth providing him with what was necessary for food. But God feeds the birds, having implanted in them a natural instinct to gather food through His government of them. "Which of you, by being anxious, can add one cubit unto his stature?" ^C He shows, Christ, that the body that seems to grow, does not grow from food, but by His providence and grace. For neither can anyone add stature to the body, nor provide for food, unless God, in those things we seem to do, accomplishes everything as He wills. For no one can increase or diminish the limits set by God; for overeating does not grow the body ^D but rather makes it even weaker. If caring for one day is heavy and harmful, how would an excess of anxiety not be intolerable? Therefore, the present day is full of evil, and pain, and labor, and poverty, and suffering; so that even if you are anxious, O man, and even if you take thought, you do nothing if God does not will it. Why then do you labor in vain?

^A and wear yourself out fruitlessly, and consume your life in impossibilities and pointless things? « And concerning clothing, why are you anxious? » For He who gave beauty and stature to the body, He also provides for the clothing. « Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they do not labor, nor do they spin. I tell you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these. »

Not only from the birds does the Lord exhort us, but also from the lilies that wither. For if God adorned those, when there was no need ^B, how much more will He not fulfill the need for our clothing, even if we are much anxious, my brethren, that we might be able to be adorned like the lilies? For Solomon, the wiser 29 and more luxurious by means of all his royal dignity, could not be arrayed like one of these. « But if the grass of the field, which exists today and tomorrow is cast into the oven 30, God so clothes, will He not much more you, O you of little faith? » From this we learn that it is not fitting for us to concern ourselves with adornment; for this is of those flowers that are for a time; so that everyone who is adorned is grass. Therefore all humanity 31 is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass withered, and the flower fell. But us, He said, whom He fashioned as rational, with soul and body, not to be adorned carnally, but to be beautified spiritually. For those who are adorned according to ^C the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but those according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. All those who are anxious are of little faith. For if they had perfect faith in God, they would not have been anxious so unyieldingly. « Be not therefore anxious, saying: What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or with what shall we be clothed? For all these things the nations seek after. » It is true that the Lord does not forbid us to eat, and to drink, and to be clothed; but to speak of these things and to be anxious, this the Lord forbids, which the rich often say 33: What shall we eat tomorrow? So He forbids luxury and arrogance and the anxiety and care because of them. « For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek you first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. » The kingdom of God ^D is the enjoyment of good things; this, however, comes through righteousness. Whoever therefore seeks the things of heaven and the things that are higher through all the kingdom, he is not able to be arrayed in such a way. He has placed Solomon as one who is a lover of beauty and wise to conceive of adornments. The oven is the roasting place of the bread.

^A Migne calls the fatigue of the day an affliction which we humans have, and the distress which comes to us from these sad things. It is enough for us to be fatigued about the present day! But if we are also anxious about the morrow, we shall in some way be lacking toward God, serving Him in that way, always anxious about bodily things. But let us be roused, my brethren, and let us struggle and hasten toward the fulfillment of the commandments of Christ, and let us take care for the salvation of our souls. Let us abstain from hateful and evil works, and let us rouse ourselves toward the work of good deeds, so that we may obtain the good things promised in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

SIXTH SUNDAY OF MATTHEW

Those ^B who piously imitate the diligence and industriousness of bees, just as those bees while flying over meadows gather the most useful things from all plants and every kind of flower; so too these [people], refreshing their souls with the sweetness of the divine oracles, pluck from all things the things that are profitable and most beneficial. And from some indeed they gather the flower of temperance, from others the [flower] of righteousness; from others, of prudence; from others, of fortitude; from elsewhere, the [flower] of sympathy and of philanthropy toward fellow servants; from elsewhere, the [flower] of meekness and of gentleness; from another side, the flower of patience and of endurance in adverse circumstances; and, to say it in one word, they gather all things that tend toward the salvation of the soul, and depositing these things in the hive of the heart, they produce and make that which is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, the honey of virtue. ^C Let us, therefore, my brethren, also imitate them, and when we approach that divine and most beautiful meadow, the Church, let us not make our coming here for the sake of conversation with one another, but let us search into the divine Scriptures that are read aloud for our own salvation, and let us diligently seek the spiritual profit from them with a concerned mind and a probing disposition. For thus, at one time being admonished concerning this virtue, and at another time being taught concerning that one, [we shall progress] ^D and we shall be roused toward another, and shall continuously be instructed and exercised in these things, so that we ourselves may be able to fulfill [the requirements of] virtue, and [offer] to God the sweetness and light generated therein within our souls, as honey and honeycomb. For divine Scripture always teaches and proposes things that are pleasing and salutary to God, and there is nothing in it which does not [lead] toward the spiritual.

benefit of the soul. Since, therefore, these things are so, let us learn today from the evangelical words how great an evil sin is, and that it severely harms the soul, and that it is also, for the most part, the cause of bodily diseases.

Oration V

Do not sin any more." But it is not so here. But rather He first healed his soul, saying, "Your sins are forgiven you," and then He rectified the paralysis of the body. And in the case of this paralytic, the Scribes and Pharisees were silent; but in that former case, they pressed upon Him, persecuting, murmuring, and accusing. Therefore, this paralytic is one person, and that other is someone else, as is clearly and plainly demonstrated from all these things. "And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic."

Truly the faith of those who had approached with the paralytic toward the good physician and our Savior, who looks upon our hearts, ^B became acceptable. But some say that the Lord saw the faith of those who had carried him, and not that of the paralytic himself. For there is a time when one is healed by the faith of others, as is the case in the baptism given to infants. For the faith of the parents who bring them acts; as also in the case of the Canaanite woman: for because she believed, her daughter was healed. And as the centurion also believed, his servant was raised up. Thus, therefore, they say that here too the paralytic was healed on account of the faith of those who brought him; but this is not so. For He says, "Seeing their faith," not only that of those who brought him, but also that of the paralytic. For one person is not saved ^C by the faith of another, except on account of an immature age, as in the case of children, as we have said, or on account of an overwhelming infirmity, when those who are held by the disease have lost their reason and therefore are unable to have faith, as was the case with the daughter of the Canaanite woman. "My daughter," that woman said, "is badly possessed by a demon, and sometimes she falls into the water, and sometimes into the fire." But she who is possessed by a demon, and is at no time able to be in control of herself, how could she have been able to have faith? Similarly also in the case of the centurion. His servant lay at home, and he did not even know who Christ was, whoever He might be. How then was he to believe in ^D one whom he did not know? In the case of such people, therefore, one is saved by the faith of another; but here it is not possible to say this. Rather, the paralytic also believed without doubting, and this is clear from many things. Consider how great a thing it is for someone who is sick to suffer and endure so many things. We know, at any rate, that those who are sick are so faint-hearted and irritable that even while lying on their bed they drive away treatments and weep, and often consider it better to bear the pains of diseases than to undergo the necessity and the vexation of some sort of aid. But this paralytic both endured being carried out of his home and...

remained steadfast while being borne through the midst of the market-place, nor did he decline to display himself to all. And so, the sick have this habitual custom, that they do not want anyone to be a witness of their disease; and many have preferred to die in their infirmities rather than to expose their own misfortunes. But this paralytic was not like that, nor did he even say grumblingly to those carrying him: "What is this? Why are you creating an uproar? Why are you in such a hurry? Let us wait and dally until the multitude has departed, and then let us approach the physician in private, and let us converse about this terrible infirmity of mine. For what will it profit me to set my misfortunes in the midst for all to see?" He said none of these things, but considered it an ornament and a decoration to have so many witnesses of his disease and of his healing. Nor is it possible to see the faith of the paralytic from these things alone, but also from the very words of Christ himself. For after he had been brought, and Christ said to him, "Child, your sins are forgiven," he did not grow indignant, nor was he in the least bit vexed, nor did he say to that good Physician: "What is this, Lord? I came to be healed of one disease, and You are healing another. These are riddles and pretexts, and a veil for Your own ^B inability. You are forgiving sins which are not seen." He neither said nor thought anything of the sort. But he waited perseveringly for the healing and health of the good Physician. The Lord, however, showing that He has the authority to take away sins, addressed the paralytic: "Take heart, child, your sins are forgiven." For He did not immediately proceed to the healing of the paralysis, but first He healed what was hidden—that is to say, the soul—by forgiving sins, the very thing which saved the paralytic, though it brought little glory to Him. For He did not wish to do anything for the sake of ostentation and vanity; and so He first forgives the sick man his sins, and then heals the body, teaching that most diseases spring from sins, and that it is necessary first for the cause of them to be healed, and showing that He is God and does all things with authority as He wills. For healing bodily diseases belongs to God alone. For this reason, He also said thus to the paralytic who was at the pool: "Behold, you have been healed; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you." ^C For sin has been established as the fountain and root and mother of all evils. This dissolves our bodies, this brings on diseases; and showing this, the Lord was saying to this paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven," whereas to him who had been lying down for thirty-eight years He was saying, "Behold, you have been healed; sin no more." And a little later, disease from sins fell upon the body of Cain. ^D

For after the fratricide, his body was paralyzed, and he was groaning and trembling upon the earth. And trembling is nothing else but paralysis. For when the faculty that governs the animal ^A weakens, and is no longer able to support all the members, it leaves them destitute of its own providence; and thus, having fallen into disrepair, they tremble and are tossed about. The divine Paul also declared this, reproaching the Corinthians for certain sins and saying: "For this reason, many among you are weak and ill, and many are asleep." And for this reason, Christ said, "Your sins are forgiven you," so that we might learn that, silently and imperceptibly, God oversees human affairs and observes the path of each one’s life. For it is written that "the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and He observes all his paths." But God, being good and wishing for all to be saved, often allows people to fall into illnesses, ^B so that He may wipe away and cleanse of sins those who are held fast by diseases. For thus He also says through the voice of Jeremiah: "With pain and scourge shall Jerusalem be chastised." And the writer of Proverbs says: "My son, do not despise the discipline of the Lord, nor grow weary when you are reproved by Him. For whom the Lord loves, He disciplines; and He scourges every son whom He receives." Therefore, Christ first cuts out the root of the affliction—that is to say, the sin. For when this is removed, the disease must also be removed along with it. And as soon as He said, "Son, your sins are forgiven you," He lifts up the paralytic’s courage and awakens his dejected soul. For the word became a deed, and having entered into his conscience, it touched his very ^C soul and cast out all agony. For nothing causes as much cowardice and fear as the conscience of sins; and again, nothing provides as much joy and prepares one to have confidence as having nothing of which to accuse oneself. The Lord calls the paralytic "son" either according to the principle of creation, or as one who believed, or because He was about to grant him the forgiveness of his sins. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also adoption as sons. Thus, then, we too, my brothers, cannot call upon God before we wash away our sins in the font of baptism. For when we come up from there, having laid aside that evil burden, then we say, "Our Father, who art in heaven." "And behold, certain of the Scribes said among themselves, 'This man blasphemes.'" ^D The Scribes were scandalized and troubled, being consumed by envy and malice; for they had often seen Christ with authority putting [next page begins: to flight diseases and casting out demons and…]

^A to rebuke the winds and the sea, and casting out demons, and doing all these things beyond the manner of a human being. But those faithless and ungrateful men, tortured by their own passions, thought that God, too, was subject to the same. And plotting against the benefits of others, they are troubled, and indignant, and murmur, and accuse the Savior and Lord of blasphemy. "And Jesus, seeing their thoughts, said, 'Why do you think evil in your hearts?'" Behold here another sign, one that is indubitable and manifest, which Christ shows of his own divinity and of his equality with the Father. For to know the thoughts of hearts belongs only to God, and likewise to forgive sins. For it is written, "You alone know the hearts," and again, "God searches hearts and reins," and elsewhere, "Man shall look ^B upon the face, but God shall look into the heart." Since, therefore, the Scribes did not accept the forgiveness of sins, as it seemed impossible to them, Christ says what follows as if it were beyond doubt: "Why do you think evil in your hearts?" By this he confirms the former point, and in a way says to the Scribes that no one can forgive sins save for the One who alone sees the thoughts of men. "For what is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise and walk'?" Since, he says, O Scribes, I seem to you a blasphemer, as one who forgives sins and makes myself equal to God, answer me: which is easier and more feasible to perform, this—to say, "Your sins are forgiven you"—or to say, "Arise and walk"? But both of these things about which he asked them were possible to God, but impossible to man. For indeed, to forgive sins is of God ^C alone, and likewise by one's own power to raise and cure the paralytic; for it is the master's prerogative to chastise a sinning servant; but it is of the one who chastises, and especially of God, to incline again toward mercy and to release the chastisement. When the chastisement has been removed, the sin is entirely forgiven, from which the affliction had arisen. But if the Lord heals, he undoubtedly also punished; and if he punishes, it is manifest that he has the power to release the punishment; and if the penalty, then the very sin from which the penalty arose is removed. "But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins." That you may know, he says, that he who seems to you a man has power as God, look and understand the hidden and unseen from that which is manifest. For being God the Word, I have become man by providence, and I dwell and walk upon the earth, and ^D I grant the remission of sins to those who believe in me. Therefore he said, "on earth," so as to show that he who is seen on earth is God by nature, and that we may learn that sins are forgiven upon the earth. For as long as we are on the earth, we can wash away our sins, my brothers. But after we have departed from there...

we can no longer confess for ourselves; for the door is closed. ^A Then he says to the paralytic: "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." And he arose and departed to his house. Since the forgiveness of sins was invisible and lacked proof, but the raising of the paralytic by authority required an evident proof, Christ makes this manifest as a testimony and sign of the invisible. And through this manifest demonstration, He persuades [them] regarding the former as well—that He who was able to do the one, is able to do the other. To confirm and convince [them] that the body of the paralytic had been restrained, He commanded him to take up his bed, lest what had been done might appear to be some kind of illusion. The Lord sends the paralytic away to his own house, ^B first of all, that his presence and sight might not bring praise upon Him; and secondly, that he might have irrefutable witnesses of his healing, namely, those very people who had let him down and were witnesses of the disease, and that this might become an incitement of faith for them. But the crowds, seeing it, marveled and glorified God who had given such power to men.

The crowds marveled that He had performed a miracle as God; yet they presumed Him to be a man, possessing power beyond a human. And we, my brothers, being paralytics and having the powers of the soul inactive, can be healed and raised up if only we choose and desire it. For even now Christ is in His own city, Capernaum, that is, in the house of consolation, which is the Church; for the Church is the house of the Comforter. ^C We, too, are paralytics, having dejected souls, lacking any power or movement toward the good. But if, through repentance and confession, we arise and are led to the Lord, then we shall hear His sweet voice, which is able to do all things, saying to us: "Children, your sins are forgiven." For we become children of God when we return to Him through pure repentance and confession. Then we shall be healed, and we shall take up our bed, that is, our body, moving it toward the fulfillment of the commandments. For it is not enough for us merely to arise from sin or to reflect that we have sinned, but it is necessary that we also take up our bed—that is, the body—and move it ^D toward the operation of the good and virtue. Then, moreover, our minds, seeing and contemplating spiritually the many and great things the Creator and Master has wrought for us, and reaching this contemplation, will glorify God, who works wonders, for to Him is the glory to the ages of ages. Amen.

OF JOHN XIPHILINUS, ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE: ORATION FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY OF THE HOLY FASTS, AND FOR THE ADORATION OF THE CROSS.

^A Long ago, the rod of Moses, with the Israelite people going before, divided the sea in two and revealed an impassable way as rideable. And after that division of it into two parts, it caused the flowing nature of the waters to stand firm and to remain like a wall on either side, and after the passage of the Hebrews, it gathered them again into one as they had been before. And it submerged the haughty Pharaoh, together with his chariots and captains and his whole army, in the deep; and it tamed the wild and desolate wilderness for all Israel, sweetening the bitter streams of Marrah, and not only changing that into drinkable water, but also miraculously causing other water to rain forth from the rock, and bringing forth a pregnant spring of a river. But before this, it punished disobedient and stubborn Egypt, having changed the water into blood. And it changed the blood back again into water, and performed those six hundred prodigies.

^B But if that rod, which was only a type and a shadow, was the producer of such and so many miracles, what shall that very Cross of the Master not perform, when it is not shadowed forth through symbols and riddles, but is seen face to face and is adored by us? Will it not involve the spiritual Pharaoh in that ten-fold plague, and finally submerge and overwhelm him along with his army? Will it not allow us to cross on dry feet the sea, fertile with disturbances and depraved affections? Will it not most easily cultivate the solitude of good things, namely the present life? Will it not make the bitterness of Marrah—I mean of calamities and temptations—sweet and drinkable? Will it not make water from the rock, which is Christ, flow for us,

and not only drive away the thirst arising from the flame of passion and pleasure, but even make it sweeter than honey and oil, gladden, and sanctify our hearts, ^A and no longer suffer us to thirst? For he who drinks from it shall not thirst forever.

But what need is there to recount all the good things that come to us through the Cross? Time would fail one describing them in detail. Since our most divine Fathers knew that this is the unashamed protector of the pious, they decreed that it be set forth in the middle week of the fasts, and be worshipped and honored by the faithful, so that it might preserve and maintain what has already been accomplished by those contending against intemperance, and might urge and assist them ^B toward the future. Therefore, let us too, having invoked the Lord’s Cross as our helper, hasten to complete the contest set before us, crucifying and mortifying the movements of the flesh, and hasten to follow its commandments, as the evangelical exhortation to be read today instructs us.

The Lord said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."

When the Lord and God and Savior of us, Jesus Christ, was foretelling to His own disciples that it was necessary for Him at all costs to endure the insults and rages of the Jews, and to be crucified and killed by them, the chief of the apostles, ^C being ignorant of the mystery of the Cross, and thinking because of this that it was better for Christ not to die, rebuked Him, saying, "Propitius esto tibi, Domine, non erit tibi hoc" (Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You). So the Lord, correcting him, and showing that it is not His suffering that is unseemly, but rather His not suffering, rebuked him, saying, "Vade post me, Satana, quia non sapis ea quae Dei sunt, sed quae hominum" (Get behind me, Satan, for you do not set your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men). And correcting him, He says, "Is it unseemly for Me to suffer? But you judge this with a carnal mind; for if, enlightened by God, you had heard My word, you would have laid aside carnal thought and would have known that this is most becoming to Me. You, indeed, think that the passion ^D is unworthy of Me; but I say to you that for Me not to suffer is of the devil’s counsel." For the Lord did not call Peter "Satan" insultingly, but because the Lord's deprivations became our advantages; for instance, His death has become for us life; His shame, glory for us. The Apostle, being ignorant of this, was opposing himself, out of ignorance, to the will of God. And ignorance is that of the adversary; therefore He says, "Get behind me, Satan," instead of "Follow me in My counsel, and do not be an adversary to My goal."

The name "Satan" signifies "adversary." He explains the time and occasion, then, here: when Peter said, "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You," and he heard, "Get behind me, Satan." After the rebuke, the Lord, not content with this, but more fully demonstrating

the absurdity of the things spoken by Peter, and the profit of the passion, says: "You tell me, 'This shall not happen to You'; but I tell you that not only is it harmful and destructive for you to hinder me and to be displeased with my passion, but you yourself will not even be able to be saved unless you too are always prepared to suffer." For in order that they might not think the passion was unworthy of Him, He teaches the profit of the matter not only through what preceded, but also through what followed. Through John, indeed, He says: "Unless a grain of wheat dies in the ground, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." But here, He speaks more extensively, and adapts the discourse on the necessity of death not only to Himself, but also to them. For so great, He says, is the profit of the matter, that in our case as well, the desire not to die is evil, while being prepared for it is good.

^B Now, as for the mysterious meanings that the cross also contains, through which the mystery of the passion of the Lord for our sake is brought to completion, who could easily explain them in discourse? For were there not countless ways leading to death, through which the economy of death on our behalf could have been fulfilled? But out of all of them, this one was chosen by Him who determined the passion for Himself by His own authority. For He did not say, "The Son of Man shall suffer such and such things" (in which way one could have simply and absolutely foretold death), but, "The Son of Man must be crucified," determining ^C that the passion must not be accomplished in any other way than through the cross. What, then, shall we say about this? It belongs to the great Paul alone to clarify it, who in the Epistle to the Ephesians hinted at the hidden mystery of the cross, saying: "That you may be empowered to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, to know also the surpassing love of the knowledge of Christ." For that divine eye of his did not idly denote this figure, divided into four projections from the intersection in the center, signifying the providence and power that pervades all things through the one who appeared in it; and for this reason, he names each projection with distinctive terms, calling depth that which extends from the center downward, and height that which is above; and breadth and length that which extends from the intersection ^D on either side, calling it length. Through these things, he seems to me to clearly signify in his discourse that there is nothing among existing things that is not entirely held and preserved by the divine power and nature, whether it be in heaven, or under heaven, or under the earth, or extending to the ends of the world on every side from the intersection. For by the height he signifies the things above, by the depth the things below, and by the length and breadth the intermediate ends or regions, which are likewise contained by the power that preserves all things. Moreover, [he means to signify] from our own thoughts about God

the demonstration of the things mentioned. ^A For look up to heaven and consider the depths below with your thought. Stretch out your mind to the sides and the extremities of the constitution of the whole, and consider what power it is that holds these together, and what bond of the whole it becomes; and you will see how the figure of Christ is automatically imprinted on your mind, extending crosswise from the highest to the lowest, and to the ends of the extremities. This figure has the divine David also celebrated in song, saying: "Whither shall I go from thy spirit, and whither shall I flee from thy face? If I ascend into heaven" (this is the height), "if I descend into hell" (this is the depth), "if I take my wings in the morning" (which is the sunrise, this is the breadth). "And I shall dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea," as he names the west (this is the length). See how he draws the figure of the cross through what is said. You are, he says, the one who always embraces the extremities of the universe in your mind. ^B Therefore, the great Apostle also teaches that, when all things have been filled with faith and knowledge, the name which is above every name will be adored by those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, with the adoration of Christ distinguished according to the shape of the cross. For the heavenly beings adore the Lord at the upper part of the cross, the earthly in the middle, and the subterranean at the lower. He did not, therefore, die for the earth, but ascended into the air by the cross, so that from there also he might pursue and defeat the ruler of the authority of the air; for while hanging upon the cross, he purified the air by the extension of his hands, and the earth by the blood and water poured from his side.

But let us see also the evangelical words literally: "If anyone wishes to come after me." See how he makes the word avoid any constraint. For he did not say, "Whether you wish or do not wish, you must suffer this," but how? "If anyone wishes," as if to say: "I do not use force, I do not compel, but I make each one the master of his own resolve." For this reason he also says: "If anyone wishes." For I call you to good things, not to evil and burdensome things; not to punishment and torment, that it should even be necessary to use force; ^C since the very nature of the thing is enough to attract. By these words he entices them more vehemently. For he who compels often turns away those whom he compels; but he who allows the listener to be his own master attracts him more. Therefore he also said: "If anyone wishes." For great, he says, are the good things that I offer you, and such that they allow you to be willing and glad to turn yourselves. For neither, if anyone were offering gold and proposing a wealthy treasure, would they call someone by force. But if for those things there is no force, much more so for the goods in heaven. For if you do not run to them excited by the nature of the thing, you are not worthy to receive them; nor, if you were to receive them, would you properly recognize what has been received. For this reason Christ does not compel, but exhorts, as if to say: If you do not consider that my word is the cause of infinite good things for you, ^D I do not use force, I do not compel; but if anyone wishes to come, I call him.

^A So far from inciting the affections, He does not propose harsh things only to the disciples, but to the whole world: If anyone wants, He says, whether man or woman, poor or rich, ruler or subject, let him enter this way. Where, then, are those who attempt to overthrow free will and introduce fate? Behold, for from this they are clearly proven to be babbling: If anyone wants. For the devil, because he has nothing true in him, steps upon axes and mattocks and breaks down the doors of those who do not receive him; but the Savior is so gentle as to teach: If anyone wants to come after me; and, Whoever wants to be my disciple. Coming to each one, He does not force, but rather knocks, and says: "Open to me, my sister, my bride." And if they open, He enters; but if they hesitate and do not want to, He withdraws, and through Isaiah He says: If you are willing and hear me. For it is necessary to will first, and then to hear, so that what depends on us may be unforced. But in the failure to will, the failure to hear consists. Thus all beatitude, and the conduct in punishment and in painful things, has been brought about from what is in our power. Following, then, signifies believing in Him; but the phrase "after me" indicates the performance of the commandments. For this is to follow in truth, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him, and to attend to other virtue. That the Savior, however, has set forth His own life as a most excellent pattern of conduct for those willing to obey Him, hear Him teaching this explicitly: If anyone, He says, serves me, let him follow me, not indeed in body—which no one could do, since we know the Lord is now in the heavens—but by the most accurate imitation of life and morals possible.

^C Let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. He seems to say one thing, yet there are three things being said, namely: Let him deny himself, Let him take up his cross, and Let him follow me. And the first two are joined together, but the third is set apart. Let us learn, therefore, first what it is to deny oneself; namely, to expose oneself liberally to dangers and to throw oneself into struggles, and to have nothing in common with oneself, but to be disposed just as if someone else were suffering. For just as if one denies another, even if he sees him being whipped, ^D or tortured, or led away to death, he does not stand by, he does not help, he is not softened, he does not suffer anything for him, having been once alienated from him; so also He wants us to be disposed toward ourselves when we suffer, that even if we are whipped, even if we are driven, even if we are burned, or if we suffer anything whatsoever, we should not spare ourselves. For then we most spare ourselves, when we do not spare ourselves for Christ. For fathers also then spare their children when, handing them over to teachers, they command that they not be spared. Yet He did not say, Let him not spare himself; but more vehemently, Let him deny, that is, let him have nothing in common...

^A with himself, but rather let him yield to struggles and dangers, and let him be disposed as though another were suffering. But in order to make the intensity greater, He did not say, Let him deny, but, Let him utterly deny (ἀπαρνησάσθω), indicating by this small addition a great excess; for indeed this is more than that. Denial of self, however, is a complete forgetting of the past, and a withdrawal of one’s own will, and a desire to die in Christ, and a mortification of the members which are upon the earth, and a being prepared to face every danger for Christ, and having an indifference toward the present life—this is what it means to take up one’s cross. But perfection comes in achieving this state of indifference, and being disposed toward living and toward the sentence of death in like manner; so that one does not trust in oneself.

The beginning, however, is derived from external alienation, such as ^B of possessions, of vain glory, or of the desire for useless things entirely: just as the holy disciples of the Lord have taught us, James and John, having left their father, and the very boat, and all their means of livelihood. Matthew, moreover, rising up from the tax booth itself, and following Christ, left not only his profits, but also disregarded the dangers which were imminent from the authorities because he had abandoned the incomplete accounts of the tax office. To Paul, the whole world had also been crucified, and he himself to the world. A man denies himself in another way, when he obliterates his own life, formerly lived wrongly and viciously, through a worthy transformation. For instance, he who formerly was intemperate denies that he is intemperate, by practicing temperance; and he who was formerly unjust denies that he is unjust, if he strives for justice. And in sum, the flight from every sin is a denial of self, leading one to follow after Christ. ^C But so that no one might think that one ought to deny oneself only to the point of insults, and blows, and reproaches, He added, And let him take up his cross, indicating the extent to which one must deny oneself, namely, even unto death, and that, the most disgraceful death. For this reason He added, Let him take up his cross. For no other death was so wondrous and so disgraceful as the death by the cross. For He does not say merely to despise pleasure and glory, but also to resist unto blood, and to bear all things courageously even unto the most disgraceful death, and to rejoice in this all the more.

Consider, then, how He did not say the cross absolutely, but *his* cross, that is, the death which he owes, which he is obligated to satisfy each day according to Him who says: I die daily. Or in another way, He commands us to bear ^D the cross, which is to be continuously vigilant in mind, and to stand at a height in virtues, so as not to descend from the cross; that is to say, to abstain from the passions until one cuts them off and arises thereafter unconquered. For the cross is the abolition of all sin. Therefore, crucify yourself to the secular [affairs...]

so as not to touch them. For although a cross or shameful death may not be imminent, the mortification of the passions is imminent, as well as the war being waged against the invisible enemy and foe, whom it is absolutely necessary to conquer, so that each one of us may be able to say: "The world is crucified to me, and I to the world." By "world" here we must understand worldly desires, which, according to the great Paul, he crucifies—that is, kills—and renders sluggish, so that they are not able to defeat him and drive sin from his actions. Moreover, he himself is dead to them, meaning he is not moved toward their desire. And it seems that the phrase, "The world is crucified to me," signifies freedom from the action of sin; while "and I to the world," signifies ^B the impassibility of the mind.

Since, however, it is possible for someone to suffer and yet not follow Him—as when one does not suffer for His sake; for even evildoers, those who plunder tombs, and sorcerers often suffer many terrible things—lest one should think that the suffering of terrible things is sufficient, He adds "Let him follow me," showing that it is for His sake that one must endure all terrible things, and that not only is it necessary to demonstrate courage in the midst of hardships, but also to pursue temperance, equity, and every other philosophy. This is what is meant by "Let him follow me," that he should also be concerned with the other virtues. He denies himself who has scattered the present goods, of which he is master, and has renounced all carnal thoughts and ^C senses, then taken up the cross and become entirely of the world above, and is not at all burdened by the things here. Thirdly, one also follows Christ who does these things for the love of the good and the noble, and not for the sake of glory or any other human pretext. For such a one truly follows Christ, and he himself travels the same way of life as Him. For the path that follows in His footsteps preserves this same road and following, and procures the crown for the follower; but that which deviates and turns aside to the right or to the left, even if it seems to follow in Christ’s footsteps, in reality, it deceives and wastes all its effort. Having said these things to the disciples, because the ^D instructions seemed severe to them, the Savior consoles them with the following words and adds the rewards, which surpass their labors by far. For He adds: "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his own life for my sake and the Gospel's will save it." These words intimate the war about to be waged against the Church by persecutors, and the persecutions which those who believed in Christ were about to undergo in every city and region.

If anyone, therefore, He says, spares his own soul (for this is what "to save" means), he will lose it in the age to come; that is, he will cast himself into eternal punishment. For the perdition of the soul is not

^A a dissolution into nothingness, but a perpetual and never-ending punishment. By these words, he shows that he does not command these things out of severity, but rather out of great leniency toward them. For he who spares his son destroys him, but he who does not spare him, saves him. As a certain wise man also said: If you strike your son with a rod, he will not die, but you shall deliver his soul from death. And again: He who pampers his son, that is, who pities him, shall bind up his wounds. This also happens in an army. For if a general, sparing his soldiers, commands them to remain inside the camp at all times, he destroys those who are outside along with them. Therefore, so that this may not happen to us, he says, "You must be prepared for continuous death." For he who, out of love for this temporal life, withdraws his own soul from the perils to be endured for my sake, and from death, and strives to preserve it, he undoubtedly loses it in that perdition which is the unquenchable fire, the undying worm, and which brings about the outer darkness. Just as, on the contrary, he who exposes it to dangers and death, ^B and thus loses it in a truly desirable perdition—for he calls the separation of the soul from the body through the grace of Christ a perdition of the soul—necessarily preserves it, and leads it to a better life. For just as in sensible and external wars, he who is prepared for slaughter is both more celebrated, and can be less harmed, and strikes greater fear into the enemy, although his king, for whom he met death, cannot later resurrect him: so too, he who for the sake of Christ exposes his soul to death, for his part, the hope of resurrection will preserve it. We must, therefore, rise above every temptation and draw near to martyrdom, not that we might meet the end of life as others do, but that we might perform the perfect duty of charity toward God, knowing that those who have emulated the deeds of the martyrs will be companions and participants in their glory. For he who scorns the chains of death does not lose his own soul, ^C but rather preserves it; but he who wishes to preserve it without danger and death brings upon it eternal perdition.

But after he had said, "Whoever shall lose his own soul," because many people in many ways and by many methods often lose their soul—either by thieving, or by committing murder, or by grave-robbing, or by performing some other unlawful act—for this reason he added: "For my sake and the Gospel's." For he who does not lose his own soul for the sake of Christ and the Gospel does not save it. If, therefore, to save the soul is something blessed, provided it is referred to salvation in God, there must also be a good perdition of the soul, and one for the sake of Christ. It seems to me, therefore, that these two things can be compared: to deny oneself in the aforementioned manner, and that it is necessary for every one to lose his own soul. Let a person lose his sinning soul, so that, having lost the one that sins, ^D he may receive that other one to be saved through righteous deeds. In another way, too, he would truly be blessed, who with all his faculties

^A dies in a praiseworthy manner: regarding sensible things, by the laying aside of the operation of the senses; and regarding intelligible things, by the drawing away of the movement of the senses. For the death of the mind, which is praiseworthy, is a knowing departure from all existing things, after which it is natural for it to receive the divine life in grace, having apprehended the Cause of beings instead of beings themselves. Since the Lord said that whoever wishes to save his soul will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it, and since He has set forth both salvation and perdition there, and salvation and perdition here, he did so in order that no one might think that this perdition is equal to that one, or that this salvation is equal to that one, but that he might clearly learn that the distance between that salvation and this is as great as the distance between perdition and salvation. For this reason He adds: ^B "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" You see how the salvation of the soul that is concerned with the interior is worse than perdition, inasmuch as it is incurable, since there is nothing left to redeem it. For when someone, looking toward the pleasant things of this present life, refuses to suffer and strives to live in splendor, even if he has riches and an abundance of money, what advantage comes to him from this, when his soul is lost? For "the fashion of this world passes away," and like shadows, pleasant things decline, and the wealth of those who possess it flies away. "For treasures will not profit the ungodly, but righteousness delivers from death." The whole world is most full of such vain men (so that it is not necessary to inject such a thought into them), who are as it were intoxicated by temptations and flow away into useless pleasures. Whence, for those who resolve to live rightly, the enticements of the flesh are superfluous, and to dwell on things that are in the world results in their straying, as if from a doorway, away from useful and necessary things; if indeed it is true that "the mind of the flesh is enmity toward God," and he who minds the things of the world is established as an enemy of God. ^C It is, therefore, truly superfluous to mind the things that are in the world. For this reason He says: "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" "Do not," He says, "tell me that he has saved his soul by escaping so many and such great dangers." For if, together with his soul, one were to gain the entire world as well, what advantage will he gain from this when his soul is lost, to which not even the whole world is equal? For it is not possible to exchange salvation for money. As if it were the case that he who had gained the world and lost his soul would have given money at that time while being fried in the flame and been delivered. But this is not possible, it is not possible. For just as, if servants are living in luxury and dissipation while their master is in the most extreme evils, they gain nothing at all from being the servants of such a master; so also, if the belly lives delicately and is enriched, but the soul awaits future perdition, there is no advantage to it; and most especially because there is no way to give any exchange for it. For let no one, ^D

^A even if he be king of the inhabited world and lord of all the wealth upon the earth, be able to purchase one soul, even if he should offer all the wealth of the world as its price; nor will all the luxury and splendor in this world be able to afford the soul any small consolation, when it is punished eternally.

Observe also how he did not say: "Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" but "What will he give?" For then he will not have anything to give, but now he gives repentance, confession, groans, tears, maceration of the body, and a more laborious way of life. Knowing this, our deceitful enemy always strokes us with the pleasures of life, and steals away our time by small delays, saying: "Give me the present day, and give God tomorrow; give me the present time, and give God the future"; so that by thus delaying repentance and amendment, death may come and snatch us away, while there is no one to redeem or save us.

Man, therefore, has nothing to give as an exchange for his own soul; but God, for the sake of our salvation, has given one exchange: the precious blood of His Son. Wherefore I exhort you, leaving all other things aside, let us expend all our zeal upon the soul. For the soul is more precious than anything within us. And from this point, therefore, let us stop the mouths of those who follow Origen in saying that there will be a restitution of souls after they have been punished in proportion to their sins. ^B Let them hear that there is no possibility there of giving an exchange for the soul. And thus, those who sin cannot even be punished as much as they deserve.

Wishing to make us ^C more ready to undergo dangers for His sake, the Lord clearly sets forth the reward for these things through what He adds: "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." Having spoken the things concerning the need for all to become His imitators, and not to flee death, but to be ^D unsparing even of their own soul and life for the sake of the hope placed in Him, He aptly subjoins the mysteries concerning His second manifestation. For to those, He says, who are ashamed of Me and My words in the present life, and [to those who] have confessed Me without shame before men, I will by all means render back the equivalent—or rather, indeed, something much greater. "I also will be ashamed of them"—that is, I will feel shame [for them]—"when I come in the glory of My Father."

But what could be a source of greater comfort than this? For when the Judge feels shame [for] certain persons, as if they were those to whom He owed the reward for their obedience, and the prizes for their love toward Him, and the crown of His favor, can it not beyond any doubt be said that they will surely be in everlasting honor and glory? For such as these will be praised when Christ says: "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

^A He called the generation of those people an adulterous one, as if it had abandoned the true bridegroom, Christ, and had given itself over to others, receiving within itself the seeds of impiety. For this same reason He also called it a sinful one. Or rather, He calls the generation of the Hebrews adulterous and sinful. Therefore, He even adds the demonstrative pronoun, "this," insofar as it has shown itself to be impious toward God, having bestowed the honor due to Him upon the idol Beelphegor, and having worshipped Astarte and Chamos, which is the abomination of the Sidonians.

And, not content with faith of the mind alone (but also demanding confession of the mouth, and encouraging everyone toward boldness and a greater love and affection), after He had said, "Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words," He added, "in this adulterous and sinful generation," so that, clearly, we might confess Him before all without shame. For, He says, since man is twofold, let his sanctification also be twofold: let the soul be sanctified through faith, and the mouth through confession. For he who has learned this will not only teach freely, but will also bear all things readily, and will confess Christ with both heart and mouth.

^B Some, then, interpreted the "being ashamed" in a good sense, as I said before; others in the contrary sense, and they explained the words in this way: that whoever is ashamed of Christ, considering it a disgrace to believe in Him, and saying, "How shall I believe in the crucified one?" and is ashamed of His words, mocking the simple style of the Gospel and the humble mode of expression—Him, the Lord in turn is ashamed to call His own servant at His second coming. ^C For just as if any master of a house had a wicked slave, he would be ashamed to call him his own servant; so too, He says, I shall be ashamed to call him My servant who denies Me. Therefore, those who deny My lordship and are covered with shame regarding My words shall pay the penalty worthy of their impiety, hearing at that second and terrible coming: "I do not know you."

He also infuses terror into them by saying that He descended from heaven not in the lowly and abject sort of humility that we have, as at the first, but in the glory of the Father, accompanied by angels. And note how He said, "In the glory," in which the Father also is, so that you might not suspect any difference, but so that He might indicate identity as accurately as possible; ^D He came, He says, in that same glory; so that you might understand the glory of the Father and the Son to be one and the same. For, as the Son of God, He is about to judge all things. Therefore, He said: "When He comes in the glory of His Father, with the holy angels." Furthermore, He calls Himself the Son of Man because of the supreme union of His divinity and humanity. When He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels, a great and wonderful thing is promised. In the glory of the divinity, the Son of Man; in the surpassing...

excellence, He who was born of a woman according to the flesh. He has His own angels, who became in our likeness. But when He said "with the angels," He added "holy," to distinguish them from the detestable demons. For these also are called angels, as they are often messengers of things to men; but they are not holy at all, but rather detestable and impure and altogether profane. ^A And that these things will undoubtedly come to pass, and that the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels, and that He will acknowledge those who have acknowledged Him as friends and victors and noble soldiers, but will disown those others whom I mentioned: this He shows not only by words, keeping the disciples suspended in long expectation, but He also promises to bring the matter before their very eyes for greater certainty, even now while they are still in this present life.

For He adds: "Amen, I say to you, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God coming in power." ^B After Christ had said who it is that wishes to follow Him well and not swerve from the straight path, and had promised the immortal kingdom to those who unashamedly confess Him as God, and had asserted that He would also disown those who disown Him—since the hardships in this present life were present and at hand, but the good things were in hope and expectation, such as that the soul of him who loses it is saved, and that He Himself will come in the glory of the Father and give the rewards—it was therefore likely that the disciples, not yet having received power from on high, might perhaps fall into human weakness and, by thinking such things to themselves, say: "Who will deny himself? Or who will save his soul by losing it? And what will be the equal reward for those who undergo this?" Therefore, to turn them away from such thoughts and, as it were, to fashion and conform them to fortitude, He promises that He will also satisfy their eyes and show them what that glory is with which He is to come, so that they might easily grasp it even in this life and henceforth bear with difficulty neither their own death nor that of the Master. ^C For this reason He says: "Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God coming in power." ^D What He says is of this sort: "Not far off in time will I show you the sure glory in which the righteous are to be. And making the discourse more certain, He added the customary confirmation: 'Amen, I say to you,' which is to say, 'Truly I say to you, that there are some...' Who are these? Peter and James and John. For these were taken along and went up with Him to the mountain in the transfiguration of the Lord, which He also calls the kingdom of God, because the divinity shone forth most clearly at that time.

^A And He himself will be seen at that time, when He shall shine forth upon those on earth. For He shall come in the glory of God and of the Father, and not with the insignificance that characterizes us. He does not only call the Transfiguration the kingdom of God for this reason, but also because it is a type of the future glory of which those who have conducted themselves worthily here will be deemed worthy. For just as Jesus shone forth miraculously on this occasion, so proportionally shall the righteous shine then. He did not mention their names for this reason, but spoke indefinitely, saying: "There are some," so that the other disciples might not suffer anything human. For the others would also have desired intensely to follow, in order to see the prototype of that future glory, and they would have grieved as if they had been slighted. For even if what was shown to the disciples on the mountain was more tangible, the thing itself nevertheless possessed a great desirability. But why does He foretell it? In order that, being inflamed with a more intense desire in the meantime, they might attend with an undivided mind. "There are some, therefore," He says, "Peter and James and John, who shall not taste death before they see in what kind of glory they shall be who confess me; and let them see this at the time of the Transfiguration." He says that He will come "in power," meaning, not in an enigma, nor in shadows and types, signified through angels or archangels, but in the Word, to whom there is equal power with the Father; or, "in power," that is, as much as their capacity allows. Or because it was truly of the greatest power to show such glory and splendor to those clothed in body and flesh; for this reason He said, "in power." Or also, because He was about to demonstrate this by His own power and not another’s, and authoritatively, not by participation; for this sake He added "in power."

^C In order, therefore, to confirm that the things said by Him are not idle boastings, but truth, and that they will be sharers in such glory, receiving the promise from Him, He made them spectators from that moment. "Let them see," He said, and not "let them participate," indicating that only a vision is granted here, and not a participation. But the enjoyment of this will be given at the second coming of Christ. He rightly said "of those standing here," alluding to Judas. For Judas did not stand firm; and perhaps he referred to him also when he said: "They shall not taste of death." For that man tasted the death of the soul. Consider also this: how, having said that "whoever wishes to save his soul shall lose it, but whosoever shall have lost it, he shall save it," and by these words having indicated the kingdom of heaven and Gehenna, he revealed the kingdom of heaven through the vision, but not so the Gehenna. For what reason? Because some of the others were ruder; this was necessary. Since, however, they were upright and good—for this reason, indeed, He took only the three, as being more perfect than the others—He leads them on rather by what is more beneficial, through kindness and the hope of rewards, than by severity and fear.

Neither did He demonstrate ^A His kingdom for this reason alone, but also because this itself was more becoming.

And these things, more simply, are referred to the ascent six days later of the three disciples into the mountain with Jesus alone. For, having seen Jesus transfigured and Moses and Elias as attendants, they saw Christ in kingdom and glory. And they held a type: Moses, indeed, of the law, and Elias of the prophets, but the three disciples of the evangelical preaching and the faith in the Trinity. But if some deeper word must be spoken on the occasion of the Lord's Transfiguration after six days, it is not in vain that the whole world was made in the perfect number of six days. He who surpasses all the things of the world and gazes only upon those things which are standing and eternal, is signified as being taken by Jesus after six days. For he who has transcended these things sees Jesus, who is not transfigured for any of those below, transfigured before him. For the Word appears ^B to have different forms according to the capacity of each; and to some He appears without form, but to others He is beautiful in comeliness. For to those who do not ascend through the works that have been ascended—and by them upon the high mountain of wisdom—He is understood more simply, and is known according to the flesh; but to the perfect, He is theologized, and is contemplated in the form of God according to their knowledge. And His face shines also as the sun, being revealed as the sun of righteousness to the children of light and day. But also His garments to those led up by Him into the high mountain appear white as the light—which are the words, and the letters of the Gospels with which He clothed Himself; and I think also those things from the Scripture declared by the apostles. ^C When, therefore, you see someone accurately treating the theology concerning John and clarifying the word of the Gospels to all, do not hesitate to say to such a one that the garments of the Lord have become white as the light. And to one who has thus seen Jesus, Moses the law and Elias the prophetic word might be seen conversing with Jesus in a more anagogical sense. And concerning the matter before us, we say that those who have firmly fixed the foundations of the soul "stand" beside the Word; as Moses hearing from God, "But you stand here with me" (Deut. v, 31); and those who say, "Our feet were standing in your courts, O Jerusalem" (Ps. cxxi, 2). And since there is a difference among those who stand, those who stand better will see the divine glory of the Word who has sojourned among men, and His dignity—who not only shall not be filled with death, ^D but shall not even taste it with the very tips of their lips, eating the bread of life, I mean the flesh of the Lord, and drinking His blood. But those who sin moderately taste of death; and those who engage in every kind of wickedness are filled with it and are as if satiated, and for this reason they fall away completely from the divine life, and to the [depths of hades...]

^A Greater, however, than the evil of seeing death is the evil of tasting it; greater than the evil of tasting it is to have death following after one; but the worst of all is to be devoured by death.

If we wish to speak of this matter mystically, Christ is life, and the devil is death. Just as it is possible to taste death, so it is possible to see death, to hear death, to smell death, and to touch it. For if the hands of the apostles touched Life, then the hands of the pseudo-apostles and of deceitful workers have touched death. And if the sheep of Christ hear His voice, those sheep that are His hear the voice of death, to whom He says: "You are not of my sheep." Regarding the sense of smell, we have reflected on that apostolic saying: "We are the good odor of Christ to God, in every place, among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: to the one, an odor of death unto death; to the other, an odor of life unto life." For the people who are in Christ are in every place the good odor of Christ. Concerning the sight of death, we bring forward as a testimony that which the Lord said: "If anyone keeps my word, he shall not see death forever." For we say that our Lord Jesus Christ is life, ^B while death is the enemy of these things, wicked and cruel; concerning whom it is written: "The last enemy to be destroyed is death."

Knowing these things, therefore, beloved, let us also deny ourselves for the Lord’s sake. Let us count nothing as more precious than Him—neither riches, nor luxury, nor glory, nor bodily pleasure, nor life itself; but let us not spare even life itself for His sake. Let us follow our Master, bearing His cross upon our shoulders, mortifying our bodily movements and passions, ^C and let us be conformed to His death, so that we too may be able, according to the divine Paul, to say: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." And may it be far from us to glory in anything else, save in the cross of the Lord. Let us not be ashamed of His words, nor of Him in this present life; and let us promptly perform all His commandments. We too have a most bitter persecutor, an invisible enemy and foe, who daily urges us to the denial of Christ and presses us to commit those things which separate us from Him. Let us not, therefore, become effeminate, ^D nor let us yield to his skirmishes, but let us resist him generously and with a manly spirit, and let us gird ourselves, so that we may also attain the unending glory in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

SUNDAY OF ALL SAINTS

I think it is not inappropriate to discuss with you, briefly, about the loathsome heresy of the Massalians; since we are celebrating today the casting out and the public renunciation of these people. Our most Christ-loving and most pious emperor has exposed and condemned them, having been hidden for a long time and escaping the notice of the more simple-minded; and he has condemned their leader and teacher of wickedness to the fire that is just; and he has caused their evil teaching to be anathematized by the Church of God. Know, therefore, that such as these, while putting on the mask of monks, disguise themselves as such, and hold out the garment as a lure, the wretched men hiding the wolf under the sheepskin; hence they are accepted by the more simple-minded as though they were devout, and with fine speech they spit out the poison of their wickedness, and mix the venom with honey. In the beginning, they teach that one should believe simply in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and to acknowledge that Christ has been incarnate, and they propose that one should keep the evangelical commandments, and they instruct one to pray and to fast and to be pure from all uncleanness. But as time goes on, they sow weeds among the wheat, and when they have made the wretched ones tractable, and have taken their prey within their nets, then indeed they pour out the mixture, blaspheming openly and initiating others into the doctrines and teachings of the devil. What and how many these are, it is not the time to say now; it is a mixture of almost every most shameful heresy. This, however, you must know: that even if at first they teach such things as aforesaid, yet they agree with us only in names, but in their deeds they have altogether departed; and being darkness like their father, they pretend to be the light. At once, while professing by mouth to honor the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, they glorify a Trinity other than the life-giving, holy Trinity which we worship; and they impiously fashion a certain transcendent power, ^B sitting above the seven heavens—this in the myths they tell of, as being the highest in what they describe as the highest of all—and they teach that this power is anthropomorphic. They strive to feign a virginity contrary to ours; for we embrace it because it is more honorable and higher than marriage, and is a perfect attainment, but they do so because they abhor marriage, which the Lord has in every way blessed, saying: "Marriage is honorable, and the bed is undefiled." They also teach continence, but not as a taming of the passions; rather, they loathe foods, as if they were the products of the evil creator. They pretend to love stillness ^C and seclude themselves in desert places, fleeing the company of men and avoiding reproaches. However, they began to be rebuked by Flavian, Bishop of Antioch. He, having gathered together many monks from everywhere, all of whom one by one abjured the heresy, addressed each of them in turn who had been summoned before him in this way: "You, who are already older, know human nature better and know your enemies as those stirred up by the evil demon; furthermore, you have experienced grace. On the other hand, these young men..." ^D