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For the nature of water does not wash away the stains of the body as well as the virtue of almsgiving wipes away the filth of the soul. Therefore, just as you do not dare to offer prayers with unwashed hands—although that is the lesser offense—so you must never approach prayer without almsgiving. And yet, even when we have perfectly clean hands, we do not lift them up in prayer unless we have first washed them: such is the power of custom. Let us do this, then, with almsgiving. Even if we are not conscious of any great sin, let us still wash away our conscience with the alms that we provide. You have gathered many evils from the marketplace: an enemy has provoked you, a judge has forced you to perform tasks that were improper; absurd words have often escaped your lips, a friend has persuaded you to do something joined with sin; many other things have clung to you, as is likely for a human being while moving through the marketplace, while sitting in judgment, while conducting the business of the city. Before you approach God to ask for pardon and offer a defense for all these things, cast your money into the hands of the poor and wash away those stains, so that you may thus call with confidence upon Him who is able to forgive these sins of yours. If you accustom yourself never to enter these sacred vestibules without almsgiving, you will at no time, whether deliberately or inadvertently, cease from this good work; for such is the force of custom. And just as you do not dare to pray with unwashed hands, no matter what happens, once that has become a custom for you, so too with almsgiving: if you impose this law upon yourself, you will observe it each day, both knowingly and unknowingly, impelled by custom.
Prayer is fire, especially when it is offered by a soul that is vigilant and attentive; yet this fire also needs oil, so that it may reach the very vaults of heaven, and the oil of this fire is nothing other than almsgiving. Pour in the oil, therefore, liberally, so that, perceiving the joy that comes from a deed rightly done, you may perform your prayers with greater confidence and more ardent zeal of soul. For just as those who are conscious of no good work cannot offer prayers with confidence, so those who have performed some excellent deed, and who turn to prayer after that righteousness, exhilarated by the remembrance of that excellent deed, offer their prayers with greater zeal of soul. That our prayer may be rendered more valid by this method, therefore, with our mind aroused and awakened in supplications by the memory of our good works, let us approach prayer with almsgiving, and let us diligently remember all that has been said—above all, let us keep in perpetual memory that likeness of the poor standing before the doors of the churches, who provide for us for the cultivation of the soul what a fountain provides for the use of the body. For if we are perpetually mindful of this, and by doing so constantly wash our mind, we shall be able to offer pure prayers, and to gain for ourselves great confidence and favor before God, and to attain the kingdom of heaven, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
WARNING
Various beginnings of this homily are found in manuscript codes. For some begin thus: *Great and marvelous things yesterday...*, while the more numerous copies have: *I thought that I had said great and marvelous things yesterday.* One, as will soon be seen, has: *I think...* Fronton du Duc had first considered it a genuine work of Chrysostom, but afterwards noticed that it was a centone, regarding which matter he himself should be heard. We have not trusted merely to the Royal and Medicean manuscript codes asserting that this treatise belongs to Chrysostom, but also to certain Italian ones, which include a volume under the title of *The Book of Pearls*; for among those it is numbered as the forty-fourth homily, *On the text, "We shall all stand before the tribunal of Christ"; beginning: I thought that I had said great and marvelous things.* However, since the treatise was already printed while we were going through these notes, we discovered that we had been deceived by the librarians, when they stitched a new beginning onto the moral exhortation of the twenty-fifth homily on the Epistle to the Romans and the thirty-first, as if two bodies were joined to one head: a thing which imposed upon many, who think that most of the homilies to the people of Antioch were delivered separately, and do not perceive that they are nothing other than centones, compiled from the moral exhortations of other Sermons or Commentaries.
ON THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND ON THAT TEXT, "WE SHALL ALL STAND BEFORE THE TRIBUNAL OF CHRIST, AND EACH ONE SHALL RENDER AN ACCOUNT TO GOD" (Rom. 14.10, 12).
I thought that I had said great and marvelous things to you yesterday; and indeed they were great by their own nature, and exceeded every capacity of speech; nevertheless, what has been read today surpasses them as much as ours are surpassed by them. Although I did not think that anything could exceed those [former] words, yet when those things that were read today were added, they appeared far more splendid. And what indeed has been read today? "We shall all stand before the tribunal of Christ: for it is written, I live, says the Lord, for every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God" (Is. 45.23-24). So then each one of us shall render an account for himself to God. See, he did not say simply, "Each will bow in worship," but also, "Each will confess," that is, he will be asked for an account of the things he has done. Always, therefore, be anxious, O man, to behold the common Lord sitting upon the tribunal...
A and to give an account to God.
What then shall we do, we who willingly give ourselves over to sin? What relief shall we have? What consolation? How shall we appease the terrible Judge? With what shame shall we be filled, seeing our impieties before our eyes? Nevertheless, if we are willing now to be stirred toward things pleasing to God, we shall be able both to wash away all our sins and to escape those terrible tribunals. This will happen if we remember constantly the departure of our body from here: "Remember," it says, "your last things, and you will not sin for eternity" (Eccl. 7: 40); then we should contemplate the terrible tribunal of Christ, in which all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, those in word, in deed, in thought; then the river of fire, the indissoluble bond, the lightless darkness, the gnashing of teeth, the venomous worm, that day which is painful to sinners but bright and sweet to those who have performed works of righteousness.
2. But there are some among men filled with such madness as to deem the divinely inspired Scriptures false and to allegorize the justice of God. For I have heard some who are slaves to sin and held by much love of pleasure saying things such as this, that, they say, "God threatened these things for fear of men"; for may it never be that God, being merciful, would punish anyone, especially those who have known him. Hear then, you men who have lost your hearts, you who are persuaded by the suggestion B of the hater of good who rejoices in your destruction. For so that we might not, out of fear, transform ourselves into a virtuous life and flee the torments of punishment, he has led us into this lack of fear; so that, being careless here, we might cast ourselves into the very bottom of hell. Tell me then, you who declare God a liar, who reckon the holy Scriptures mere words and not truth, what do you think, O senseless ones? Does not that rich man suffer punishment, who overlooked Lazarus (Luc. 16: 20)? Are not the foolish virgins cast out of the bridal chamber? Do not they who have not fed Christ go away into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matth. 25: 12, 41)? Is not he who was clothed in filthy garments, having been bound hand and foot, cast into the fire? Is not he who demanded the hundred denarii delivered to the tormentors (Id. 22: 11, 18)? Is what has been said about adulterers not the truth, that "their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched" (Isai. 66: 24)? Or are these just threats? "Yes," he says. And from where, tell me, you wretches, do you dare to assert such a thing, even bringing forth this unjust judgment from your own minds? I, however, shall try to prove the contrary, both from what Christ has said and from what He has done. For if we do not believe regarding future punishments, let us believe from those that have already occurred; for those that have come to pass and reached their fulfillment are not just threats and words. Who, then, flooded the entire world in the time of Noah and brought upon it that sad shipwreck, and caused the total annihilation of our entire race? Who, again, after this, sent those lightnings and those fiery blasts upon the land of Sodom? Who submerged all of Egypt? Who laid low the six hundred thousand in the desert? Who burned up the congregation of Abiron? Who commanded the earth to open its mouth and swallow those around Kore and Dathan (Ps. 105: 17)? Who brought down seventy thousand in a single moment of time under David (2 Reg. 24: 15)? Who destroyed one hundred eighty-five thousand in one night under the prophecy of Isaiah (Isai. 37: 36)? Shall I mention also those who were punished privately, Cain who was delivered to perpetual punishment, Charmin C (a) (Jos. 7: 1), who was stoned with his whole clan, the one who suffered the same for gathering wood on the Sabbath (Num. 15: 32)? The forty-two children in the time of Elisha who were consumed by the wild beasts, and did not obtain pardon even because of their age (4 Reg. 2: 24)? But if you wish to see such things even after grace, consider what the Jews suffered, how their women ate their own children, some roasting them, others consuming them in other ways; how they were delivered to incurable famine and varied and terrible wars, so that they hid all previous tragedies by the excess of their own calamities. For that Christ brought these things upon them, hear Him predicting them, both through parables and clearly and openly; through parables, as when He says: "As for those who did not want me to reign over them, bring them and slaughter them" (Luc. 19: 27); likewise through the vineyard and the wedding; but clearly and explicitly, as when He says, threatening that "they will fall by the edge of the sword, and there will be distress on the earth of the nations, in despair from the roaring sea and the surging, men fainting from fear," and "there will be tribulation such as has not happened hitherto, nor ever shall be" (Id. 21: 24, 25). And Ananias and Sapphira, for a theft of a little silver, what punishment they paid, you all know. Do you not see daily the many calamities we bear, we who commit sins? Or have these not occurred? Do you not see those held by elephantiasis and bodily infirmity, those living in perpetual poverty, and now those wasting away with famine, those suffering ten thousand incurable and sorrowful things? How then could it be reasonable for some to be punished and others not? For if God is not unjust—as indeed He is not—you will certainly pay the penalty if you sin. But if, because God is philanthropic, He does not punish, then neither should these have been punished. Now, however, because of these cold words of yours, God punishes many even here, so that, when you do not believe the threat of the judgment, you might at least believe the reality of the punishment; and since the ancient matters... D
do not inspire as much fear in you, He is accustomed to correct those who live in the same times, and who are acting negligently, by the things that happen in every generation. Does He not punish everyone here? Someone might say, so that He may give space for repentance. Why, however, does He not punish everyone there? So that many might not disbelieve in His providence. How many robbers, for instance, are condemned, while others depart without suffering any punishment? Where, then, is the kindness of God and His just judgment? For it is my place to question you. For if absolutely no one were being punished, they could indeed flee to this, but when some pay the penalties and others do not, even though they commit worse sins, how would it be just that, when the offenses were not the same, the punishments should nevertheless be the same? Would it not seem that injustice was being done to those who were punished? Why then, He says, are all punished here? Listen to the Lord Himself satisfying you on this matter. For because certain people had died when a tower fell, He was saying to those who brought forward a doubt about these things: Do you think that these were sinners above all? No, I say to you; but if you do not repent, you will all perish in the same way (Luke 13: 2-3). We see this now, since, when others are giving satisfaction, we ourselves do not, B even though we have committed many offenses; for unless we repent, we will certainly pay. But how is it, someone will say, that we are punished forever, since we have sinned here for a short time? Just as, indeed, a man here, in a short moment of time, having committed one murder, is condemned to the perpetual miseries of the mines. But God does not act in this way, he says. How, then, did He keep the paralytic thirty-eight years in such suffering? And, that we might know he was punished by Him because of his sins, listen to what He says: Behold, you have been made well; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you (John 5:14). Yet he received an end, he says. But things there are not like this. For that you may know that those things will never receive an end, listen to Him saying: Their worm will not die, and their fire will not be extinguished (Isa. 66:24); and, These shall go into eternal life, and those into eternal punishment (Mark 9:44; Matt. 25:46). If, therefore, life is eternal, so too is the punishment. Do you not see how much He threatened the Jews? Did what He threatened come to pass, or were they only words that He spoke? And again: There will not remain a stone upon a stone. Did it remain? And what of that which He said: There will be tribulation, such as has never been (Matt. 24:21)? Was it not so? Read the history of Joseph, and you will not even be able to breathe when you hear how much they suffered in reality. For he says that all tragic accidents were surpassed by those evils, and that no such war had ever invaded any nation. These things are said to you, not to inflict pain upon you, but to make you safe, and not to result in your suffering much graver things by flattering you in vain. For why, I ask, do you not judge it to be worthy that, when you sin, you should be punished? Did He not predict everything to you? Did He not threaten? Did He not strike terror? Did He not provide countless C things for the sake of your salvation? Did He not bestow the laver of regeneration and remit all former things? Did He not grant to the one sinning again, after this remission, both the laver and help from repentance? Did He not make the way of the remission of sins easy even thereafter? Listen, therefore, to what He has commanded. If you forgive your neighbor, I also forgive you (Matt. 6:14), He says. What difficulty does this have? Judge for the orphan, and justify the widow; come, and let us dispute, He says, and if your sins are as scarlet, I will make them white as snow (Isa. 1:17-18). What is the labor in this? Speak your sins first, He says, so that you may be justified (Isa. 43:26). What is the difficulty in this? Redeem your sins with alms (Dan. 4:24). Who would consider this burdensome? The publican said, Be merciful to me, a sinner (Luke 18:13), and he went down justified. What labor is it to imitate the publican? But not even after so many demonstrations are you willing to believe that there is punishment and retribution? Nor, therefore, can you say that the devil is punished. Depart, He says, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). For if there is no Gehenna, then neither is he punished; but if he is punished, it is clear that we also are punished, who perform his works; for we also have not been obedient, even if not in the same deeds. How is it, however, that you do not fear, O man, while you speak so boldly, when you say: He is benign and does not punish? But if He does punish, according to you, He is no longer found to be benign. Do you see to what words the devil is driving you?
The austere life of the monks
— What of those monks, those who occupied the mountains, who exercised themselves a thousand times in the labors of the religious life in the mountains, in dens and caves of the earth, will they depart not gifted with a crown? For if the evil are not punished, and there is no retribution for anything, someone will say again, neither are the good crowned. By no means, he says: but it is fitting for God that there should be only a kingdom with Him, and no Gehenna. Thus, will the fornicator and the adulterer and he who has committed six hundred crimes enjoy the same things as he who has shown temperance, holiness, continence, and every angelic conversation? But if there is no Gehenna, and yet the resurrection is clearly to come, the evil will also obtain the same good things as the just. Who would dare to say this, even from those whose mind is utterly deranged? Or rather, what demon has ever said this? Certainly, even the demons themselves confess that there is a Gehenna; therefore they were crying out, saying: Have you come here before the time to torment us? (Matt. 8:29). How, therefore, do you not fear and shudder, O man, to deny it, while the demons confess it? How do you not notice the teacher of such evil dogmas? For he who deceived the prince of our race, man, and cast him out of the good things that were at hand by proposing a greater hope, he is the one who now suggests these things to be said or thought; and for this reason he persuades some to suspect that there is no Gehenna, so that he may cast them into Gehenna. D For God threatens Gehenna from the opposite side, and has prepared Gehenna, so that when we know this, we may live so piously that we do not fall into Gehenna. Although, if there were a Gehenna, would the devil persuade you of these things—how would the demons have confessed it, if there were not, they who are most concerned that we suspect nothing of the sort, so that we might become more negligent in our security and fall with them into that fire? How is it, however, someone will say, that the demons confessed it? Because they could not bear the necessity weighing upon them. All of which, those who are thinking over these things should cease both to deceive themselves and others, who say these things. For God, the prophet says, will come visibly, our God, and will not be silent (Ps. 49:3). Fire will blaze in His presence, and round about Him a great tempest. ... And round about Him His enemies (Ps. 96:3). For who, moreover, are the enemies of God, if not fornicators, adulterers, those who lie with males, the effeminate, idolaters, the greedy, the drunkards, the perjurers, the murmurers, the irascible, those who remember injuries, the proud, the haughty, those disobedient to parents, the unmerciful? To all these, on the dreadful day of the common resurrection, the Judge gives command, saying: Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). ...moreover, they will be punished much more before that formidable tribunal for these words, who laugh at the tremendous and venerable commandments of Christ, and the zeal of many...A for you the opposite consequences. For just as the Ninevites, fearing the words, did not wait to undergo the trial from the events themselves; so you, having despised the threat from the words, will suffer the punishment from the events. Do you not see what Christ accomplished here? How, having taken two robbers, he did not deem them worthy of the same things, but brought one into the kingdom, and sent the other to Gehenna? And why do I mention a robber and a murderer? He did not spare even his own disciple, since he became a traitor; but even when seeing him rushing to the noose, and strangling, and bursting asunder in the middle (for he burst open in the middle, and all his bowels gushed out [Acts 1:18])—yet he allowed him to suffer all these things, persuading you from present things concerning all those matters there. Do not, therefore, deceive yourselves, O men, by obeying the devil; for these are that one's notions. B For if judges and masters and teachers, and even barbarians, honor well-doers and punish the wicked, how could it be reasonable for the opposite to happen with God, for the good and the wicked to be deemed worthy of the same things? And when will the wicked cease from their wickedness? For when they are expecting punishment now, and yet have such fear from the judges and the laws, and do not depart from their wickedness—when they have departed there and have put off this fear, and not only fail to fall into Gehenna but even attain to the kingdom, when will they stop acting wickedly? Is this humanity, tell me, to increase wickedness? To place a prize upon evil? To deem worthy of the same things the temperate and the intemperate, the faithful and the impious, the merciful and the inhuman? For if God did not care at all whether we were sinning or doing well, perhaps saying that there is no punishment would have some logic; but if God takes such great care that we should not even sin, and manages so many things that we might achieve the commandments, it is manifest that he also punishes those who sin, and crowns those who achieve. C But observe for me the inconsistency of the many. For here they accuse God because he is often longsuffering, and overlooks many who are profane, licentious, and grasping, who do not pay the penalty; there, again, if he threatens to punish them, they are vehement and severe in their accusations; and yet, if that brings grief, they ought to accept and admire the former. But O the folly! O the irrational and shameless opinion! O the soul that is fond of sin and fond of pleasure, and inclining toward evil! For all these doctrines are born from much love of pleasure; so that if those who say such things were willing to take hold of virtue, they would quickly be persuaded concerning Gehenna, and would not hesitate.
And where, he says, and in what place will this Gehenna be? Why does it matter to you concerning this? For the thing sought is to show that it exists; but where it is stored up, and in what place, do not seek. For some, telling tales, say that Gehenna is in the valley of Josaphat, which was spoken of concerning a certain bygone war. D For in the valley of Josaphat, he punished the adversaries with righteous judgment and destroyed them utterly, whose weapons sufficed for seven years for burning for those dwelling in Jerusalem. And now they drag this into Gehenna; but the Scripture does not say this. And in what place, he says, will it be? Somewhere outside, as I believe, of this whole world. For just as the prisons and mines of kings are located far away, so Gehenna is somewhere outside this inhabited world. Let us not seek, therefore, where it is, but how we might flee it, and let us not, because God does not punish everyone here, for that reason disbelieve the things to come; for he is philanthropic and longsuffering; and for this reason he threatens for the time being, and does not punish immediately: *For I do not desire*, he says, *the death of the sinner, but that he should repent and live*. But if there is no death of a sinner, the thing spoken is superfluous.
5. And I know indeed that there is nothing more unpleasant to you than these words; but to me there is nothing more pleasant than these. A Would that it were possible for us to speak about Gehenna always and at all times, while preparing lunch, and dining, and bathing! For we would not have been grieved by the terrible things here, nor would we have been captivated by the good things. For what terrible thing, tell me, can you name? Poverty, disease, captivity, bodily mutilation? But all these things are a joke compared to the punishment there. Even if you speak of those being tortured by famine throughout, or even those mutilated from infancy and begging—these are luxury compared to those evils. Continually, therefore, beloved, let us turn the words concerning these matters, both in our mind and upon our tongue; for remembering Gehenna does not allow one to fall into Gehenna. B Do you not hear Paul saying, *Those who will pay eternal penalty from the face of the Lord*? Do you not hear what kind of person Nero was, whom Paul even calls the mystery of the Antichrist? *For the mystery*, he says, *of lawlessness is already working*. What then? Will Nero, who punished Peter and Paul, suffer nothing? Will the Antichrist suffer nothing, will the devil suffer nothing? Therefore, the Antichrist and the devil will never cease from wickedness, if they are not punished. "Yes," he says; "but that there is punishment and Gehenna is clear to everyone; but only the unfaithful will fall into it." For what reason, tell me? "Because," he says, "the faithful have known their own Master." And what of this? For when life is impure, they will give even greater punishment than the unfaithful; *for as many*, he says, *as sinned without law will also perish without law; and as many as sinned in the law will be judged through the law; and, the slave who knew the will of his master, and did not do it, will be beaten with many stripes*. C But if it is not possible to give an account of one's life, and these things have been spoken simply, then not even the devil will be punished. For he knows God, and much more than men, and even the demons all know him, and tremble, and confess him as judge. If, therefore, it is not possible to give an account of one's life, nor of wicked deeds, then these too will escape. These things are not so, they are not so; do not deceive yourselves, beloved. For if there is no Gehenna, how will the apostles judge the twelve tribes of Israel? How does Paul say, *Do you not know that we shall judge angels? how much more, the things of this life?* How again did Christ say, *The men of Nineveh shall rise in the judgment, and shall condemn this generation*, and, *It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment*? D Why, therefore, do you play with things that are not for playing? Why do you deceive yourself and argue against your own soul, O man? And why do you contend against the philanthropy of God? For it is for this reason that he prepared Gehenna, and threatened, so that we might not fall into it, by becoming better through fear. So that he who destroys the doctrine concerning these matters is revealed doing nothing other than pushing himself into Gehenna itself, and throwing himself in through this deception. Therefore do not make slack the hands of those laboring for virtue, nor increase the laziness of those who are asleep. For if the many were persuaded that there is no Gehenna, when will they cease from evil? And where will justice appear? I do not speak of sinners and righteous, but of sinners and sinners. For this reason one was punished here, and another was not punished while sinning the same things, or even much worse. If there is no Gehenna, he will be able to offer no defense for these things to those who accuse him. Wherefore I exhort all of you, having ceased from this satanic laughter, to muzzle those who speak against you concerning these matters. For even of the smallest things, in sins and in right actions, the examination will be accurate. A For we shall give an account for intemperate eyes, and an idle word, and disorderly laughter, and plain reviling, and evil thought, and drunkenness; as again, in good things, we shall receive a reward for a cup of cold water, and a good word, and only a sigh. *Give*, he says, *the sign upon the face of those sighing and deeply pained*. How, therefore, do you dare to say that God, examining our things with such accuracy, threatened Gehenna simply and in vain? Do not, I beseech you, do not, I beg you, do not destroy yourselves and those who are persuaded by you with these empty hopes. For if you do not believe our words, examine the Jews,
627 SPURIA. [...] one man was punished, while another was not, even though he had committed the same sins or even much graver ones. For if there is no hell, he will be able to offer no defense before those who accuse him. Therefore, I exhort you all to abstain from this satanic laughter and lock the mouths of those who contradict you on these matters. For of everything, even the smallest things, when it comes to sins or good deeds, a strict inquiry will be made: just as we shall render an account for wanton eyes, for an idle word, for immoderate laughter, for reckless insult, for a wicked thought, and for drunkenness; just as, conversely, among good things, we shall receive the reward for a cup of cold water, for a good word, and for a mere sigh. For "Give," he says, "a sign upon the foreheads of those who sigh and lament" (Ezech. 9:4). How, then, do you dare to say that God, who investigates our affairs with such diligence, 628 has threatened hell rashly and inconsiderately? Do not, I beg and implore you, do not go to perdition through such vain hope, deceiving yourselves and those who believe you. For if you do not have faith in our words, ask the Jews, the Gentiles, and all the heretics, and they will all answer as if with one mouth that there is to be a judgment and a retribution. But are humans not enough? Ask the demons themselves, and you will hear them saying, "Why have you come here before the time to torment us?" (Matt. 8:29). And having gathered all these things, persuade yourselves not to speak rashly, so that you do not come to know hell by experience, but, having become wiser from this, may be able to escape those torments and obtain the future goods, by the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and empire, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.