Homily on the Twelve Apostles

491 SPURIA.

[The preceding translation continues from the previous page, translating the content starting on column 491:]

...he says, "Behold the rider of the donkey, and the rider of the camel" (Isai. 21.7). By the rider of the donkey, he means Christ, because He entered Jerusalem seated upon a donkey; but by the rider of the camel, he means him who, in the last of days, by the working of the devil, is to come into the world, the Antichrist. John, however, had his garment of camel's hair. For when he had already by the preaching of piety converted to himself the Gentiles, who were covering the devil like a fleece of hair, and when he had stripped him [the devil] naked and built up the Church, having woven together the body of the same Church through the unity of the faith, he had fashioned for himself a garment of salvation. He had also a leather girdle about his loins. The Scripture makes mention of the loins and the leather girdle, so that by the girdle made of dead skins, girding him from without, it might show that every passion of lust in him had been subdued and mortified by the pursuit of chastity. For this is the least deceitful proof of the virginity that was hidden within. "He was fed," it says, "on locusts and wild honey." Here he denotes the Jews who were recoiling from the Law and the commandments, as the Scripture says elsewhere: "Your mixed multitude was leaping like a locust; or like a locust in a hedge, in a day of hoarfrost. The sun has risen, and it leaped away; and it did not know its place anymore" (Nahum 3.17), because they had made the sweetness of the Law bitter by the transgression of the commandments. Then, it says, Jesus comes to him at the Jordan, that He might be baptized by him; but he was hindering Him, saying: "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" But Jesus answering said to him: "Suffer it now" (Matt. 3. 13-15); "you must be a witness of the voice which shall presently be sent forth concerning me: for thus it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness." I must teach that unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven (John 3. 5). It is right, therefore, that I should do [it] first, and then teach, lest the Jews have an occasion to reproach me with this: "You who teach others, do you not teach yourself?" (Rom. 2. 21); for the saying of the suffering Job must be sustained: "No one is clean from filth, even if his life be but one day" (Job 14. 4). [I have] no sin of the body: I must renew the soul with the Spirit, and the body with water. "Suffer it now": I must open the womb of water and Spirit, that I may become the firstborn among many brethren (Rom. 8. 29). For from that womb those who had wandered, the prophet convicts while accusing the Jews, when he says: "The sinners were alienated from the womb" (Ps. 57. 4). Then He dismissed him. But when Jesus had descended into the Jordan, beloved, it was a great miracle to see: the fountain washed in the river, and the river baptized in the river. For Christ is the Fountain, as He Himself says: "They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water" (Jer. 2. 15). And the bride, which is the Church, to Him: "A garden enclosed, a fountain sealed" (Cant. 4. 12), sending forth. He is also the river, as the prophet says: "The river of God is filled with water" (Ps. 64. 10). He came into the waters, and they were sanctified, and He healed them. If any one of you, beloved, has not been initiated by baptism, let him come and see how the Father cries from heaven: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear Him" (Matt. 3. 17; Luke 9. 35). The Jordan cries out, the Spirit cleanses the air, the Father calls the Son, the Son purifies the heaven, the Spirit adorns the earth and illuminates the air. Now is fulfilled what was spoken of old by the prophet: "Day to day utters speech" (Ps. 18. 2). The Day is the Father, the Day is the Son; the Father utters the Word to the Son, just as Paul says: "Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Ephes. 6. 17). By which word indeed He will establish us all in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power unto ages of ages. Amen.

MONITUM IN SEQUENTES DUAS ORATIONES

ENCOMIASTIC ORATION, ON THE PRINCES OF THE APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL, AND THEIR MOST GLORIOUS MARTYRDOM

^A It is right to celebrate this solemn memory of the apostles. For the hosts of the heavenly powers also praise with honorable voices the doctrine mixed with their labor: inasmuch as the mystery of the dispensation was made known to them by their works; as Paul exclaims: "In order that the multiform wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places" (Ephes. 3. 10); and in the inhabited world, men, by adorning the princes of the apostles, strive with all their strength and power to offer a worthy tribute of praise, as those who have obtained salvation through them. For what is greater than Peter, what is equal to Paul? Who in deed and in word surpassed all created nature, both heavenly and earthly; and though entangled in the mire of the body, they proved themselves better than the angels themselves. What, therefore, shall we say about the teachers of each nature? For I find no worthy speech with which I might balance the praises with which they have so greatly honored our race, they who traveled around the whole earth and sea, rooted out the causes of vices, and planted the seeds of piety in the hearts of the unfaithful. Peter, the leader of the apostles; Paul, the teacher of the world, and companion of the supernal virtues: Peter, the bridle of the ungrateful Jews; Paul, the exhortation ^B of the Gentiles. Behold for me the sublime wisdom of the Lord, by which He chose Peter from among the fishermen, but Paul from among the tentmakers (Matt. 18 and 20). For the glory of the Jews was being cast down. On account of this, the Lord rightly trusts this one as a fisherman, when He said: "Go to the sea, and cast a hook; and take the fish that first comes up, and having opened its mouth, you will find a stater" (Matt. 17. 26): calling the unstable mind of the wicked Jews the sea, the hook the artful word of doctrine, the fish the Law signified; to open [its mouth] is to interpret; and that he found a stater in it signifies that he himself judges it spiritually. But He entrusted all the Gentiles to Paul as a tailor: that he might clothe with scarlet raiment both those who were naked from the Law and those who were naked from grace, the Lord's...

^A great interpreter of the Church, the necessary counselor of Christians, the treasure of the powers above, the apostle honored by the Master. Paul, the great herald of the truth, the boast of the world, the man in the heavens and the angel upon earth, the glory of the Church, the eagle flying in the heights, the lyre of the Spirit, the swallow and the cicada, the Master’s instrument, the watchful servant of Christ. Paul and Peter, the yoked oxen of the Church, who traveled a fine trade for the world; who took up the cross instead of a yoke, and for a driver the Savior, and for reins the testaments of the Scriptures, and for a goad the grace of the Holy Spirit. Paul and Peter, who brighten the Church day by day, the Master’s treasuries, the inns of the world, the vessels of the Spirit, the interpreters of the holy Trinity, the teachers of the economy of the divine Word. Peter, my spiritual love; Paul, the vessel of election, my walking-stick. Peter, the temple of God; Paul, the mouth of Christ, the lyre of the Spirit, the three-cubit man who touched the heavens; who is circumscribed in place but circumscribes the whole world for the Master; who from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum filled up the Gospel of Christ; the swift runner, the eagle soaring into heaven, filled with divine grace, ^B who was testified to by the Lord to bear His name before all the world; who passed through the three-storied heaven and entered paradise and ascended as far as the Master’s incomprehensible throne, and heard ineffable mysteries, which it is not permitted for a man to utter. And what shall we say to Peter? The sweet sight of the Church, the splendor of the world, the chaste dove, the instructor of the apostles, the fervent apostle, the one boiling with the Spirit, the angel and man, filled with grace, the solid rock of the faith, the aged wisdom of the Church, he who by reason of his purity was called "son of a dove" by the Master's mouth, who received the keys of the kingdom of heaven from the Lord Himself. You plundered the ranks of the angels. And why say much? The Lord Himself praises you, saying: "You are the light of the world": more affluent than kings, more powerful than the rich, stronger than soldiers, wiser than the wise and the philosophers, more eloquent than orators, having nothing, and possessing all things (2 Cor. 6:10). You are the patience of the martyrs, the orthodoxy of the patriarchs, the exercise of the monks, the crown-bearers of the virgins, the peacemakers of the married, the bridles of the rapacious rich, the disciplinarians of the profligate, the shelter of kings, the walls of the Christians, the adversaries of the barbarians, you who placed a muzzle on the heretics, who mortified the irrational passions of the bodies, who drove off the legions of the demons, who tore down the altars of the Greeks, you who inherited the things above and the things below; having received the keys of the things above, and having the authority to loose and bind sins of the things below. O the miracle of the unlearned! O the wisdom of the illiterate! Peter, who in his shadow binds paralytics and looses death; Paul, who in his garments drives away diseases and puts demons to flight; you who hold the Mother of the Lord in your midst, and are greater than a righteous spirit; Paul, the restless swallow of the Church; Peter, who unceasingly, like a nightingale, harps to the world; the pillars of the Church, the great luminaries of the world, greater than each other, and superior to the whole of creation together. Rejoice, Peter, the rock of the faith; rejoice, Paul, the boast of the Church; rejoice, Peter, the foundation of orthodoxy; rejoice, Paul, the concern of the churches; rejoice, Peter, the ornament of the world; rejoice, Paul, the entrance to paradise; ^C rejoice, Peter, the guide to the kingdom of heaven; rejoice, Paul, the calm harbor for those in the storm; rejoice, Peter, the one deemed worthy of many praises by the Lord; rejoice, Paul, who are a steward of many charisms; rejoice, Peter, who are fervent and boiling with the Holy Spirit; rejoice, Paul, the vigorous runner; you who have illuminated the entire world with the holy preaching, who endured ten thousand terrible things for the sake of the Church, being shut up in prisons, loathed by Jews, dragged by barbarians, tortured by kings, who were not permitted to breathe easily, and did not endure to cease from teaching; who could not move a limb of your body because of the weight of the chains, and yet through letters loosed the whole world bound in sin. You routed the phalanxes of the demons; by you the grace of the Holy Spirit has been spread out into the world; you suppressed the mist of error; you cast down the insolence of the demons; you destroyed the altars of the Greeks; you turned every false-named worship into ash; you gathered the tares from the wheat and cast them away; and your daily teaching showed the fruit of the Church to be pure.

2. What thanks, therefore, shall we render to you who have labored so much for us? I remember you, Peter, and I am struck with wonder; I recall you, Paul, and, beside myself, I am overcome with tears. For I do not know what I should say or what I should speak, contemplating your afflictions. How many prisons did you sanctify? How many dungeons did you enlighten? How many cities did you fill with your teachings? How many chains did you brighten? How many torments did you endure? How many places did you sanctify with your footsteps? How many insults did you overlook? How did you carry Christ? How did you brighten the churches with your preaching? Blessed is the instrument of your tongue; your limbs happen to be befouled with blood for the sake of the Church; you imitated Christ unceasingly in all things. "For into all the earth has gone your sound, and your words into the ends of the world" (Ps. XVIII, 5). Christ will preserve infrangible the Church wedded by you. No one before you, nor after you, appeared as such. For who, holding the teaching office, has dared to say anything without your tradition? You rendered all teachers, you produced all theologians, you illuminated all who were in darkness. Your patience overcame our blindness; you who prayed to be anathema yourselves, that you might win the world (Rom. IX, 3). What, therefore, shall we render to you for all the goods that you have rendered to us? Today are the memorials of your contest; today is the festival of your testimony concerning Christ; today all of us, rejoicing, honor your holy relics. Rejoice, Peter, who enjoyed the wood of the cross, and because of the likeness to the Teacher, were unwilling to be crucified in an upright posture, as was our Master; but rather head-downwards, as one making his journey on earth toward heaven. O blessed nails, which pierced those holy limbs of yours, which to me are desirable, and are better than heavenly glory. O you who with boldness handed over your soul into the hands of the Master, who served the Lord without distraction, and the Church wedded to Him with all eagerness, the lover of the Master and well-serving to the Lord, the one boiling with the Spirit, the faithful apostle of the Master of all. ^D And Paul, the thrice-blessed, was beheaded with a sword, the inexpressible man. What sword pierced that throat of his, the Master’s instrument, which was admired by heaven and is still shuddered at by earth? What place received your blood, seen as milky upon the tunic of the one who beheaded you? Which prepared his barbarian soul to become sweeter than honey, faithful along with his companions. Would that that sword might be for me instead of a crown. He served the Lord with all eagerness for thirty-five years; and having finished the course for the sake of piety, he rested at the age of about sixty-eight. We answer back...

own. He served the Lord with all eagerness for thirty-five years; and having finished the course for the sake of piety, he rested at the age of about sixty-eight. We answer back by returning to you your blessed voices. Rejoice in the Lord always (Philip. 4:4): pray without ceasing for us (1 Thess. 5:17): fulfill your promises. For you cry out, blessed Peter, saying: I will strive to make a memorial of you after my departure (2 Peter 1:15). ^A Therefore, where the blessed Peter, the apostle of Christ, is from Bethsaida of Galilee, where our Lord Jesus Christ wrought most of His miracles—whence also Philip came—and the blessed Paul is from the Cilician city of Tarsus: both fell asleep in the great ancient city of Rome, on the twenty-ninth day of the month of June, having been taken from the midst under the most wicked Emperor Nero, and having departed unto the Lord and Master of all, having performed most glorious deeds. ^B Therefore, let us apply all zeal, dearly beloved, praying to the King of all, Christ our God, that He may render us worthy for the sake of His love for the human race; that we might be able to persistently remain in their traditions and doctrines, so that we may obtain mercy before His tribunal: through whom, and with whom, to God and the Father be glory, together with the most holy and good and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

SERMON ON THE HOLY TWELVE APOSTLES

Rightly today, at the coming of the Holy Spirit, this net of the fishermen has been filled, while we ourselves, endowed with reason, throw ourselves into it. For the Word, instructing the illiterate by words, and strengthening the slow-of-tongue with tongues of fire, transformed their craft into something more divine, ^C when it said: Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men (Matt. 4:19). He said: Come after me, and all things were immediately changed for the better. Twelve athletes had been chosen, and not one of them remained uncrowned. For one grace contended and ran together with all of them, which rendered the victory of each one more illustrious. One unfortunate man, Judas, tore himself away from such an anchor, betraying the sheep to the wolves with a kiss, and selling the Lord for thirty pieces of silver: but the blood of Him who was sold redeemed the world. But, O that blessed and glorious society of yours, O apostles, in which you became all things to all for the sake of grace; it was not with a reed, but with the word of men that you have wisely caught the flocks. ^D For you are the immovable columns of the orthodox faith, the rock of the Church, the scepter of the kingdom, and the vigilant protectors of this flock in particular, gratuitous physicians of human infirmity, and sympathetic guarantors of our repentance toward God. For like certain animate anvils, while you were being struck, you fashioned those who were striking you into intelligence.

The distribution of the Apostles.—Petrus from here instructs Rome: Paul thence announces the Gospel to the world: Andrew corrects the wise men of Greece: Simon teaches God to the barbarians: Thomas whitens the Ethiopians with baptism: Judea honors the chair of James: Alexandria embraces the throne of Mark by the Nile: Luke and Matthew compose the Gospels: John, however, handling the divine mysteries, even after death looks after Ephesus as if alive: Bartholomew instructs the Lycaonians in temperance: Philip protects Hierapolis with miracles. All everywhere do not cease to confer benefits upon all; they left immortal dust in their sepulchers, now indeed honored by the faithful, and not long hence to sit as exalted judges of the world. When the lame had clung to this one, he departed with straight feet: the paralytic falling upon that one was ordered to carry his bed: another was calling the dead, and had them immediately obeying him: the mere shadow of another repelled diseases: demons shuddered at the invocation of another, and their handkerchiefs distilled healing. For they were the disciples of Him, the hem of whose garment, seized by a furtive touch, dried up the red sea of blood for her who was suffering from the flow of blood. But now I turn the sermon to the princes of the apostles. Behold, mindful of that prophetic voice: How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity (Ps. 132:1)! Let Peter, therefore, lead with prayer, in that he was indeed the first conducted into the vineyard of the Lord: Peter, the first-born sheep of the good Shepherd's flock, who ascended from the pool into heaven, dismissed the sailors, and was deemed worthy to converse with the angels: who left the ship, and assumed the governance of the Church: who was called the key-bearer of the kingdom of heaven, and received the power of binding and loosing on earth: quick to the call, and unambiguous in faith, and in all things the fervent co-worker of the Master: who said: You are Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16), and went in even to the atrium of Caiaphas, together with the bound Redeemer: who even by denying was worthy of pardon, and as a penitent is to be admired. For he is not to be reprehended so much for the fact that he denied, as he is to be proclaimed blessed because he repented. For to us even the straying brother was useful, because he quickly washed away his offense with the flood of weeping, and fluctuating for a moment, he was found to be the everlasting foundation of the faithful. For if you consider, O beloved, the opportune fear of that time, you will certainly not find Peter liable to great reproach. For when the sun was fleeing, the sky was being hidden, the earth was shaking, rocks were being rent, as if they were unable to bear such an insult to the Creator: then Peter lapsed, then the Coryphaeus denied, and found a herald of the day devoid of reason, immediately refuting the aforesaid denial. Before the cock crows, you will deny me thrice (Matt. 26:34). But when he had denied first, he was the first to run to the sepulcher, the first to see the Giver of life resurrected from the dead: taught this by Mary, which the angel sitting upon the stone had not dared to tell him.

Moreover, let Paul come forward into the midst after him, the most wise orator of the whole world: who from a wolf was made a lamb, from thorns a grape, from weeds wheat, from an enemy a friend, remaining a Hebrew from the Hebrews: who among them was Saul breathing threats and slaughter, but among us is called the apostle of Jesus Christ, from a blasphemer a theologian, from a persecutor a preacher of the gospel, from a pirate a captain, from a traitor a soldier: who obtained a tomb in Rome together with Peter: neither of whom, however, despised this Shechem: who in the reckoning of Benjamin, were Joseph's brother, and in the reckoning of Thecla, were the father and teacher of children: who before Damascus were blind, and in every city the eye of preaching; called from heaven, and caught up into heaven: who, before he departed hence, contemplated paradise, and while still contending received the crown of victory, and affirms it is owed to him. For what does he say? Which the Lord will render to me in that day (2 Tim. 4:8). He was a perfected man, a gentle persecutor, and while he suffered persecutions, sweet: who became a Roman and a Pharisee, and all things to all for the sake of the faith. For Christ, who said to Peter: It is necessary for you to suffer (Acts 9:16): also said of Paul, how many things he ought to suffer for His name: so that the one being affixed to the cross, and the other truly being beheaded, with one faith propagated, and one course also finished, they might be the true witnesses of His resurrection.

and was buried, and rose again, as he knows; and has reached the bosom of the Father, which he never left. To whom the Lord himself speaks prophetically: *Compass this new Sion, and embrace her* (Ps. XLVII, 13); that is: guard her, wall her about, fortify her with prayers, so that when I am justly angry, and shake the whole world, seeing your immortal sepulchre, and the stigmata which for my sake you willingly bear, I may overcome my wrath with mercy, and anticipate your intercession for this very cause. For when I see the priesthood and the kingdom weeping, I am immediately bent toward pity, like one who sympathizes, and I remember that voice of mine: *I will protect this city for David my servant, and for Aaron my holy one* (4 Reg. 19, 34). Who, being of like mind with you in faith, voluntarily covering their dignity with humility, and showing by their very garb the humility of their soul, brought thousands upon thousands of disciples to me, bearing me, and asking of me propitiation for the world. For I said: *Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find* (Matth. 7, 7). To him be glory and power, now and always, forever and ever. Amen.

TO THE ORATION ON SAINT THOMAS.

It is certainly the unanimous opinion of all learned men that this discourse is completely unworthy of Chrysostom. Tillemont, however, who supports the opinion of the opuscule’s content more than the others, believes this homily was delivered in the year 402 at Edessa in Mesopotamia. He says it seems this oration was delivered at the tomb of St. Thomas, that is, at Edessa in Mesopotamia. Here, God is said to have cast down the tower and head of Arianism, and to have freed Thrace from the tyrant. He also prays that the West might be rescued from the fury of the Arians, that that barbarian [Gainas] might be conquered and routed, that Arius [the heresy] be struck down, and that the victorious Emperor remain. These things, moreover, seem to refer to the year 402, that is, the year elapsed since Thrace was freed from the tyranny of Gainas, when Alaric was formidable to Italy. For both belonged to the Arian sect. Here the orator interrogates the Arians, asking whence they received their blasphemous words; or as if he had touched the wounds of Christ with Thomas: By what hand, he asks, or by what have you snatched these precious vessels? From whom did you plunder the apostles? From whom did you seize barbarous spoils? What wages of iniquity have you held? What blood-stained vessels have you forged? These things can certainly be referred to the plundering by the Arian Gainas, who surely spared no churches. Yet something more singular seems to be indicated. For since it is nowhere reported that Gainas plundered any famous church of the apostles, we believe that Arcadius himself removed the precious vessels of the Church of the Apostles in Constantinople, when, under the pressure of the barbarian and the urgency of necessity, he could not otherwise raise such a quantity of gold as he required for himself and for his soldiers. These words, "wages of iniquity you have held," favor this particular view.

These things are indeed, if not entirely proven, very probable. That this discourse was delivered before the tomb of St. Thomas, however, seems plain and asserted by these words toward the end of the homily: Receive the city beseeching thee for its dust, for I have sent them to undertake the office for all time: old men and youths are prostrate at the tomb.

SERMON ON SAINT THOMAS THE APOSTLE, AND AGAINST THE ARIANS, AND ON HIM WHO OCCUPIED THE TYRANNY IN THRACE AND WAS REMOVED, BEING HIMSELF AN ARIAN.

Obeying the law of the Church, I have approached, as I could, this tribunal; but, overcome by the magnitude of the subject, I am dizzy, and constrained on all sides, as to how to respond to the matter, and what path I might find for my discourse. Shall I proclaim Thomas as living? But the tomb proclaims death. Shall I recount him as dead? But I am refuted by the facts. He is both dead and immortal; he has died as a man, and he traverses the world as an angel; he accepted passion, and struggles against passions; and he lies below, and rejoices above. For nothing could hide him, no place caused him to vanish; he illuminated the whole world. He received a tomb, but he rises from everywhere like the sun; the relics of the righteous one have conquered the earth, and he appeared wider than the whole creation; grace sowed him into the whole world. Every corner has a part of Thomas, he has filled all the world.