A rising again. Therefore, let us on the day of resurrection receive the grace of the resurrection. Wherefore the Church calls her foster-children from afar with a loud proclamation, so that those whom she brought forth long ago, she may then finally deliver, and, having weaned them from the milk of the instruction of the word, may offer them the solid food of doctrines to taste. John preached a baptism of repentance, and all Judea went out to him; the Lord preaches a baptism of the adoption of sons; and who of those who have placed their hope in Him will not obey? That baptism was introductory; this is perfecting. That was a withdrawal from sin; this is a union with God. The preaching of John was the work of one man, and he drew all men to repentance; but you, who are taught through the prophets: "Wash yourselves, become clean" (Isa. I, 16); who are admonished through the psalms: "Approach Him, and be enlightened" (Ps. XXXIII, 6); who hear the blessed news through the apostles: "Repent, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive B the promise of the Holy Spirit" (Acts II, 38)—you, invited by the Lord Himself, saying: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matt. XI, 28) (for all these things have converged today into the reading)—do you hesitate, and deliberate, and delay? You who have been instructed in the word from childhood, have you not yet assented to the truth? Always learning, have you not yet arrived at the knowledge? You make trial throughout your whole life, you explore until old age; when will you finally become a Christian? When shall we recognize you as one of our own? Last year you were waiting for this present time, now you are again awaiting the time to come. See that you are not found making promises longer than your life. You do not know what the coming day will bring forth; do not promise yourself things that are not yours. We call you to life, O man; why do you flee the call? To the participation of good things; why do you pass over the gift? The kingdom of heaven is open; He who calls is truthful; the way is easy, there is no need of time, of expense, of business; why do you delay? Why do you waver? Why do you fear the yoke, like some heifer that has never been under the yoke? It is gentle, it is light; it does not chafe the neck, but adorns it. For the wood that hangs from the yoke is not bound around the neck, but seeks one who C draws it willingly and freely. Do you see that Ephraim is accused (Ose. IV, 16), as a heifer urged by a gadfly, because it wanders in disorder, despising the yoke of the law? Place your untamed neck under it; become a beast of burden for Christ, so that you may not, left loose from the yoke and living your life in license, be easily caught by wild beasts.
2. Taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps. XXXIII, 9). How shall I declare the sweetness of honey to those who do not know it? "Taste and see." The sense of the word altogether...
A is more evident by experience. The Jew does not delay circumcision on account of that commandment: "Every soul that is not circumcised on the eighth day shall be cut off from its people" (Gen. XVII, 14); but you delay the circumcision not made by hand, which is perfected through baptism in the stripping off of the flesh (Col. II, 11), after you have heard the Lord Himself: "Amen, amen I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of God" (John III, 5). And there, indeed, there is pain and a wound; but here is the dew of the soul and the remedy for a wounded heart. Do you worship Him who died for you? Then allow yourself to be buried with Him through baptism. If you are not grafted into the likeness of His death, how will you be a partner in His resurrection? That Israel was baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Cor. X, 2), B handing down the types to you and marking out the truth that was to be shown in the last times, providing it as a sign and an impressed character for you to recognize; but you flee from baptism, which is not foreshadowed in a sea, but is fulfilled in truth; not in a cloud, but in the Spirit; not into Moses, a fellow-servant, but into Christ, the Creator. If Israel had not crossed the sea, they would not have been separated from Pharaoh; and you, unless you pass through the water, will not be separated from the bitter tyranny of the devil. He would not have drunk from the spiritual rock if he had not been baptized symbolically; nor will anyone give you the true drink unless you are truly baptized. He ate the bread of angels (Ps. LXXVII, 25) after baptism; but how will you eat the living bread unless you have first C received baptism? He entered the land of promise because of his baptism; but how will you return to paradise unless you are sealed by baptism? Or do you not know that a flaming sword has been set to guard the way to the tree of life, to the unbelieving indeed dreadful and flaming, but to the believers easily accessible and pleasantly shining? Indeed, the Lord has made it versatile; for when it sees a believer, it turns its back, but when it sees someone not sealed, it turns its blade toward him.
3. Elias did not fear the chariot of fire and the coming fiery horses; but, desiring to set out for the things above, he dared the dreadful things, and with great joy, while he still lived in the flesh, he ascended the flaming chariots. But you, who are not about to mount fiery chariots, but are to ascend to heaven through water and the Spirit, do you not hasten to the calling? Elias showed the power of baptism on the altar of burnt offerings, D consuming the whole victim not with fire, but with water, even though the nature of fire is otherwise contrary to water. For after the water had then been poured three times mystically upon the altar,
A a beginning occurred for the fire, and it kindled the flame like oil. "Take for me," he says, "water-jars, and pour them over the burnt offering and over the wood." And he said: "Do it a second time," and they did it a second time; "Do it a third time," and they did it a third time (III Reg. xviii, 34). By this the discourse shows that through baptism the one who is brought is reconciled to God, and that pure and heavenly light shines forth in the souls of those who approach through faith in the Trinity.
If I were distributing gold in the church, you would not say to me: "I will come tomorrow, and you will give it tomorrow"; but you would demand the distribution at once, urging it on, and you would be vexed at the delay. B But since the generous Giver does not offer you a beautifully colored material, but rather the purity of the soul, you invent excuses and enumerate causes and impediments—when you ought to be running toward the gift. Oh, the miracle! You are renewed, and not smelted; you are reshaped, and not broken; you are healed, and you feel no pain; and yet you do not account this a benefit. If you were a slave of men, and liberty were proposed to slaves, would you not have arrived on the appointed day, hiring advocates and begging judges, so that by every machine you might be secured for freedom? Indeed, would you not even endure a slap—the final punishment of slaves—in order to be free and immune from scourgings thereafter? C But since the herald calls you, being a slave not of men but of sin, to liberty—so that he may release you from captivity, make you a fellow-citizen with the angels, demonstrate that you are a son of God adopted through grace, and an heir of the goods of Christ—you say that it is not yet time for you to receive the things being given. Oh, wicked impediments! Oh, shameful and idle preoccupation! How long, pleasures? How long, delicacies? We have lived a long time for the world; let us live the remainder for ourselves. What is equivalent to the soul? What is comparable to the kingdom of heaven? Who is a more trustworthy counselor to you than God? Who is wiser than the Wise? Or who is D more useful than the Good? Who is more intimate than the Creator? Not even Eve profited by believing the serpent’s counsel more than the Lord’s. Oh, inept words! "I have no leisure to be healed; do not yet show me the light; do not yet unite me with the King." Do you not say these things openly? Or rather, things even more absurd than these. For if you were liable for public taxes, and a cancellation of debts were announced to the debtors from anywhere, and then someone were to attempt through injury to deprive you of this pardon, you would surely be angry and cry out, feeling that you were being despoiled of the portion of the common benefit that belonged to you. But since not only is there a forgiveness of past things, but gifts of future things have also been proclaimed, are you, by injuring yourself in a way that not even any enemy would have injured you, thinking that you have consulted for your own benefit,
A For you do not accept the forgiveness, but you die in your debts. And this, even though you know that the debtor of the ten thousand talents would have received the forgiveness, had he not himself renewed the exaction against his fellow-servant through his own inhumanity. We must take heed lest this same thing happen to us: when we have received grace, may we not refuse to forgive our debtors, that the gift may remain firm and stable in us.
4. Enter the inner chamber of your soul, revolve the memory of your past deeds. If your sins are many, do not despair because of their multitude. For "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Rom. v, 20), provided that you accept the grace. For to him who owes much, much shall be forgiven, that he may love more. But if your sins are small and trivial, and not unto death, why are you anxious about the future, you who have endured the past not ignobly, and that, too, while not yet instructed by the Law? Now, imagine your soul standing as if on a balance, pulled from this side by angels, and from that side by demons. To which, I ask, will you give the bias of your heart? What will prevail within you? The pleasure of the flesh, or the sanctification of the soul? The enjoyment of the present, or the desire for things future? Will the angels take you up, or will those who now hold you detain you? B In battle, commanders distribute a password to those serving under them, so that friends may easily call out to one another, and so that, if they are mingled with the enemy during the combat, the separation may be clearly made without confusion. No one will recognize you—whether you belong to us or to the enemy—unless you show the relationship and affinity through the mystic signs, unless the light of the Lord’s countenance be marked upon you. How will the angel claim you? How will he rescue you from the enemy if he does not recognize the seal? How will you say, "I am God’s," if you do not display the marks and signs? Or are you ignorant that the destroyer passed over the marked houses, but in those that were not marked, he slew the firstborn? (Exod. xii, 23). An unsealed treasure is easily plundered by thieves; an unmarked sheep is plotted against without danger.
5. Are you young? Bridle your youth with the bridle of baptism. Has the flower of your age passed by? Take care not to neglect your provisions, take care not to lose the protection, take care not to think of the eleventh hour as if it were the first (Matt. xx, 12); D seeing that it is fitting for even him who is just beginning life to have death before his eyes. If any physician promised you that by certain arts and devices he would make you young from old age,
A would you not desire that day to be present, in which you would see yourself returned to the vigor of your youth? But since baptism promises and gives its word that it will make your soul, which you have worn out with age and rendered wrinkled and spotted by iniquities, return to its pristine bloom, you spurn the benefactor and do not run to the promise. Do you not desire to see what the great miracle of the pledge is? How is a man regenerated without a mother? How does he who is aging and being corrupted according to the desires of deceit grow strong again, and bloom anew, and return to the true flower of youth? Baptism is a ransom for captives, a forgiveness of debts, a death of sin, a regeneration of the soul, a shining garment, an inviolable seal, a vehicle to heaven, a mediator of the kingdom, a gift of adoption. Of so many and such great goods, O wretch, do you judge pleasure to be more valuable? For I know your procrastination, even though you cover it with words; the things themselves cry out, even if you are silent in voice. "Allow me," you say, "to use my body for the enjoyment of shameful things, to wallow in the mire of pleasures, to bloody my hands, to plunder the property of others, to walk deceitfully, to perjure myself, to lie; and then, B when I have finally ceased from evils, I will receive baptism." If, then, sin is good and honorable, keep it to the end; but if it is harmful to the one who does it, why do you persist in destructive things? No one, wishing to vomit bile, gathers much more of it to himself from an evil and licentious diet. It is proper to cleanse the body of those things that trouble it, not, however, to prepare a disease greater than [the body's] strength. A ship remains as long as it sustains the burden of the cargo imposed upon it, but if anything beyond this is added, it sinks. Fear lest you also suffer the same things, and having committed sins greater than the forgiveness, you suffer shipwreck before the hoped-for harbors. Does God not see what is happening? Does He not perceive your thoughts? Or does He cooperate with you in iniquities? "You suspected iniquity," He says, "that I shall be like you." But you, when you are seeking the friendship of a mortal man, win him over with benefits, saying and doing those things by which you perceive him to be pleased; yet, when desiring to be joined to God, and hoping to be received into the rank of a son, you [practice] those things hostile to God.
A Do you hope for intimacy with Him from those very things by which you most offend Him? See that you do not, in the hope of redemption, heap up for yourself a multitude of sins, and so gather up the crime while failing to gain the pardon. God is not mocked. Do not make merchandise of grace. Do not say: "The law is indeed good, but sin is more pleasant." Pleasure is a hook of the devil, dragging one to perdition. Pleasure is the mother of sin; sin is the sting of death. Pleasure is the nurse of the eternal worm, which for a time indeed soothes the one who enjoys it, but afterwards produces fruit more bitter than gall. Procrastination cries out nothing other than this: "Let sin reign in me first, then later the Lord shall reign also." [I will] offer my members as weapons of unrighteousness unto iniquity; then later I will offer them as weapons of righteousness unto God. Just so did Cain also B offer sacrifices—the first fruits for his own use and advantage, the second to God his Creator and Benefactor. When you are capable of working, you consume your youth in sins. When your organs have grown weak, then you offer them to God, when you can no longer use them for anything, but it is necessary for them to lie idle on account of the wasting away of time and the dissolution of their vigor. Continence in old age is not continence, but an incapacity for lasciviousness. The dead person is not crowned; no one is just merely because he has no opportunity to do evil. As long as you have strength and power, see that you conquer sin with reason. For this is virtue: to turn away from evil and to do good. C For to cease from evil is in itself worthy of neither praise nor punishment. If you cease from sinning because of age, it is a benefit of infirmity. We praise those who are good by their own resolution of mind, not those who are restrained from evil by some necessity. But who has fixed for you the limit of your life? Who has defined for you the certain term of old age? Who is so trustworthy a guarantor for the future in your sight? Do you not see infants snatched away, do you not see those who are in the prime of life carried off and removed from the midst? Life has no fixed time. Why do you wait to receive baptism as a gift from a fever, D when you will not be able to utter the saving words, and perhaps will not even be permitted to hear them clearly, with the disease occupying your very head—not to lift hands to heaven, not to rise upon your feet, not to bend the knee for adoration, not to be instructed profitably, not to confess diligently, not to make a covenant with God, not to renounce the enemy, and perhaps not even clearly to follow along as one being initiated, since you are uncertain as to the things present, and whether you truly perceive?
But when you receive the grace with understanding, then you possess the talent, but you do not bring forth the profit.
6. Remember the eunuch. He found one to teach him the first elements of the faith, and he did not disdain the instruction, but the rich man took the poor man up into his chariot, the magnificent and sumptuous man took the unlearned and contemptible one; and having been taught the Gospel of the kingdom, he received the faith in his heart, and he did not delay the seal of the Spirit. For when they had come to the water, "Behold," he says, "water." It is a cry of great joy: "Behold what is sought, what prevents me from being baptized?" Where the purpose is ready, there is nothing to prevent it. For He who calls is kind, the minister is ready, the grace is abundant; let there be zeal and readiness, and there will be no obstacle. There is one who hinders, namely, he who blocks for us the paths to salvation, whom let us overcome by prudence. He is the author to us of hesitation and delay; let us rise up to do the work. He deceives our hearts with empty promises; let us not be ignorant of his thoughts. For does he not suggest that we commit sin today, but persuade us to reserve righteousness for tomorrow? Therefore the Lord, overturning his wicked counsels, says: "Today, if you will hear my voice." He says: "Today for me, and tomorrow for God." The Lord cries out in opposition: "Today hear my voice." Consider the enemy; he does not dare to advise you to depart from God entirely (he knows that this is a grievous thing for Christians to hear), but he approaches the undertaking with deceitful arts. He is wise in doing evil. He perceives that we men live only in the present time, and that every action is performed in the present time. Therefore, having fraudulently stolen the present day from us, he leaves us hope for the morrow. Then, when the morrow comes, our evil divider comes again, demanding the present for himself and the morrow for the Lord, and thus he always subtracts the present through pleasure, and proposing the future to our hopes, he leads us, imprudent and incautious, away from life.
7. I have seen such a craftiness in a certain bird. For since its brood was easy to capture because of its tenderness, the bird would present itself as an easy prey, and fluttering before the hands of the hunters, it could neither be easily caught by the hunters, nor did it take away from them the hope of capturing the prize. But in the meantime, while
A it detained them in various ways with hopes, and was occupied with itself, it provided for its chicks the opportunity and security for escape, and finally itself flew away as well. Fear lest you also suffer similar things, by abandoning the manifest for the sake of hopes regarding the uncertain. B Come then, transfer your whole self to the Lord; give your name; be enrolled in the Church. The soldier is registered in a list: the athlete who has inscribed his name competes: the citizen who has been given civil rights is numbered among the tribesmen. You are subject to all these [requirements], as a soldier of Christ, as an athlete of piety, as one having his commonwealth in the heavens. Be enrolled in this book, so that you may be enrolled in the one above. Learn, be taught the evangelical way of life, the exact control of the eyes, the restraint of the tongue, the subjugation of the body, a humble state of mind, purity of thought, the extinction of anger. If you are compelled [to go one mile], add another; if you are despoiled, do not litigate; if you are hated, love; if you are persecuted, endure; if you are insulted, speak kindly. See that you die to sin: be crucified with Christ: transfer all your love C to the Lord. But these things are difficult and burdensome. What, I ask, of good things is easy? Who has set up a trophy while sleeping? Who, while living in luxury and amidst the sound of flutes, has been adorned with the crowns of fortitude? No one, unless they have run, has carried off the prize. Labors beget glory, crowns are secured by exhaustion. *Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of heaven*, I also say; but the blessedness that is to be enjoyed in the kingdom of heaven awaits these tribulations, while the grueling pain and gloom of Gehenna await the labors of sin. Indeed, even if one watches carefully, not even the works of the devil are performed by the workers of iniquity D without labor. What are the sweats of chastity? But the fornicator is bathed in sweat, as pleasure consumes him. Does continence take away as much from the body as detestable and rabid incontinence destroys? Those who spend the night in prayers pass sleepless nights: but those who are awake for iniquity pass them far more painfully. For both the fear of being caught, and the goad of pleasures, drive away all rest completely. But if, fleeing the narrow path that leads to salvation, you pursue the broad and wide path of sin, I fear that, having traveled the broad path to the end, you may find an inn consistent with the path. But the treasure is difficult to keep. And so, stay awake, brother. You have helpers, if you wish: prayer that keeps watch by night, fasting that guards the house, psalmody that refreshes the soul. Take these as your companions. Let these spend the night with you to guard your precious things. Why, tell me, is it not better for those becoming rich to suffer anxiety for the custody of precious furnishings, than to...
have nothing at the start that we might guard? No one rejects good things for fear of being deprived of them; for if we did, nothing in human life would persist if we were to ponder potential failures in every single endeavor we undertake. For sterility accompanies agriculture, shipwrecks commerce, widowhood marriage, and the loss of children child-rearing. Yet we still undertake these tasks, leaning upon better hopes, while committing the outcome of the things hoped for to God, who governs our affairs. But you, while magnifying holiness in word, in your deeds you spend your time among the condemned. A See to it that you never regret your evil plans, when regret will be of no use to you. Let the example of the virgins render you prudent. They, having no oil in their vessels, when it was necessary for them to enter in with the bridegroom, then realized they were destitute of what was necessary. For this reason the Scripture even calls them foolish, because, having squandered the time when they should have used the oil in going about and acquiring it, they unwittingly excluded themselves from the joy of the bridal chamber. Take heed, lest you too, putting off year after year, month after month, and day after day, and not receiving the oil—the nourishment of the light—might fall one day into a day you do not expect, when the means of living will at last fail you. Then there will be distress from every side, and affliction devoid of any consolation, when the doctors have given up, and your kin have given up; when you are seized by quick and dry gasping, and a fierce fever is burning and smoldering within, you will groan from the bottom of your heart, B but you will find no one to sympathize. You will indeed speak something faint and weak, but there will be no one to listen, and everything said by you will be despised as delirium. Who will provide baptism then? Who will admonish one who is lethargic from his malady? Your relatives will be despondent, outsiders will despise the disease, your friend will refrain from admonition as it causes agitation, or perhaps even the physician will deceive you, and you will not despair of yourself because of a natural love of life. It is night, and there are none to help; the one to baptize is not present. Death has arrived at your side; those who bear you away are pressing. Who will deliver you? God, who was despised? But He will hear you then—for you are, in fact, not hearing Him now. Will He grant an extension? Truly, you have used the given time well.
8. For sudden destruction will come upon you, and catastrophe will arrive just like a storm. D A mournful angel will come, removing...
A violently and dragging your soul bound in its sins, turning it frequently toward the things present, and groaning without a voice, the organ of cries and lamentations now being closed. O how you will tear yourself apart! How you will groan! You will repent in vain of your decisions, when you see the brightness of the righteous, rejoicing in the glorious distribution of the gifts, and the gloom of the sinners, who will lie in the deepest darkness. What will you say then in the pain of your heart? Woe is me, that I did not cast off this heavy burden of sin, when it was so easy to lay it aside, but rather dragged along this heap of evils! Woe is me, that I did not wash away my stains and filth, but remained defiled with sins! Now I would be with the angels; now I would be enjoying the delights of heavenly goods. O evil counsels! For the sake of the temporary enjoyment of sin, I am punished eternally; for the sake of the pleasure of the flesh, I am delivered to the fire. Just is the judgment of God. I was called, and I did not obey; I was taught, and I did not pay attention; they testified to me, and I ridiculed them. These things and others of this same kind you will say, bewailing yourself, if you are snatched away from here before baptism. O man, either fear hell, or strive to obtain the kingdom. Do not reject the calling. Beware of saying: "Have me excused," for this reason or that. No excuse is sufficient for refusal. It occurs to me to weep when I consider within myself that you prefer works of shame to the great glory of God, and because, clinging most firmly to sin on account of the pleasure of lust, you exclude yourself from the promised goods, so that you are not permitted to see the goods of the heavenly Jerusalem. C There are myriads of angels, the assemblies of the first-born, the thrones of the apostles, the seats of the prophets, the sceptres of the patriarchs, the crowns of the martyrs, the praises of the righteous. Long to be numbered with them, having been washed and sanctified according to the gift of Christ. For to Him be the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Homily XIV. Against Drunkards.
1. D The evening spectacles do indeed move me to speak; but on the other hand, the uselessness of my former labors holds back my impulse and dulls my zeal. For even a farmer, if his first seeds have not sprouted, is slower and more reluctant to sow other seed again in the same fields. For if, after so many exhortations, in which both in the past time we have unceasingly exhorted you, and afterwards, throughout these seven weeks of the fast, by night and by day, we have not ceased to testify to you the Gospel of the grace of God, nothing has happened...