Offer money, or calves, or goats, or fasting, or vigils; do not say, "I have none, I cannot." But what is light, easy, and at hand—this he has commanded, saying: Remit to your brother his failings, and I will remit yours. You remit small failings, perhaps a few obols, or a hundred denarii; but I remit you thousands of talents. And you, indeed, remit without any additional gift, while I grant both remission and healing, and over and above these, the kingdom. Your gift, however, I admit only when you are reconciled with your enemy, when you have no enmity, when the sun does not set upon your anger, when you keep peace with all and charity: then your prayer is also accepted, your house blessed, and you are blessed. If, indeed, you are not reconciled with your brother, why do you seek pardon from me? You trample upon my words and command remission? I, the Lord, command it, and you pay no heed? And how, servant, do you dare offer prayer to God, or sacrifice, or first-fruits, while you harbor enmity against someone? For just as you turn your face away from your brother, so too does God avert His eyes from your prayer and your gift, because God is charity, and what is done without charity does not please Him. How, then, will God admit the prayer, B or house, or first-fruits, or fruits of a murderer, unless he first performs appropriate repentance? But you will undoubtedly say to me: "I am not a murderer." But I will show you that you are a murderer; nay, rather, John the Theologian will refute you, saying: *He who hates his brother is a murderer* (1 John 3:15). Therefore, my beloved brothers, let us prefer nothing to charity; let us study to possess nothing equivalent to it; let no one have anything against anyone, let no one return evil for evil. *Let not the sun set upon your anger* (Ephes. 4:26), but let us dismiss all the failings of our debtors. What profit is there, O children, if one has everything but does not have saving charity? And if someone prepares a great dinner to invite a king and princes, and prepares all things lavishly so that nothing is missing, but has no salt: will such a dinner be able to be tasted? Not at all; indeed, he has lost all the expense and all the labor; indeed, it will be a reproach to him before the guests. So it happens here: what profit is there to scatter to the winds and to labor? Without charity every work is impure; whether one preserves virginity, or fasts, or keeps vigils, or prays, or distributes to the poor; and even if he seems to offer gifts, or first-fruits, or fruits; or builds a church, or does anything else, without charity all those things are deemed of no account before God, neither are they pleasing to Him. Hear the Apostle saying: He who has enmity against his brother and seems to offer to God is as one who sacrifices a dog, and these shall be reckoned as the wages of a harlot (Cf. Matt. 5:23, 24; Isai. 66:3, and Deut. 23:18). Do not, therefore, ever wish to do anything without charity, because charity covers a multitude of sins. O what a good we despise! O of what great goods we are deprived, of what joy, when we do not have charity! Because Judas did not have this, he went out from the midst of the choir of the apostles, leaving the true light, having his teacher and his brothers as nothing, and went into darkness. Therefore the prince, Peter, said: Judas turned aside, *to go to his own place* (Acts 1:25). And again John the Theologian says: *He who hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knows not whither he goeth, because darkness has blinded his eyes* (1 John 2:11). If you say: "Even if I do not love my brother, yet I love God," John convicts you, saying: If anyone says, "I love God," and does not love his brother, he is a liar. *For he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see?* (1 John 4:20). Therefore, he who loves all his brethren, who has no enmity against anyone, who fulfills the word of the Apostle, *Let not the sun set upon your anger* (Ephes. 4:26)—this man loves God; this man is a disciple of Him who said: *In this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another* (John 13:35). It is evident, therefore, that Christ's disciples are known by this, namely, by true charity. He who harbors hatred against his brother, even if he seems to love Christ, is a liar and deceives himself. For the apostle John says: *This commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God, love also his brother* (1 John 4:21); and again the Lord: *Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself*; and to show the power of charity, he adds: *On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets* (Matt. 22:37, 40). O immense miracle, that he who has unfeigned charity fulfills all the law! *For love is the fulfilling of the law* (Rom. 13:10), as the Apostle says. O power of charity incomprehensible! O power of charity immense! Nothing is more precious than charity, neither in heaven nor on earth. Therefore the apostle Paul, having learned that C nothing is equal to charity, wrote and sent to the ends of the earth, saying: *Owe no man anything, but to love one another* (Rom. 13:8), and to lay down one's soul for others. For this is charity, the head of all virtues, the salt of virtues: charity is the fulfilling of the law, charity is certain salvation. This from the beginning conquered the heart of Abel, this guided Noah, this made David a habitation of the Holy Spirit, this dwelt in the prophets, this strengthened Job; and why do I not say things greater than these? This led the Son of God from the heavens to us. Through charity, the One who is without flesh is incarnate, the One without beginning begins to be, the Son of God is made the son of man. Through charity all things are dispensed for salvation, death is destroyed, the devil is cast down, Adam is recalled, Eve is liberated: through charity one fold is made of angels and of men; through charity the curse is dissolved, paradise is opened, life is manifested, the kingdom of heaven is promised. This, catching the fishermen of fish like a net, made them fishers of men; this helped and strengthened the martyrs in the contest, this made deserts into cities, this made mountains and caves abound in psalmody, this filled them and made angels and men one. But how long shall we pursue the incomprehensible?
IN LAZARUM I
Every divine doctrine is accustomed to gather the usefulness of studious men; especially those feasts which always occur at certain times, and which imitate the streams of waters, which offer water to the thirsty to quench their thirst, and become more desirable to those who drink therefrom. What does this prologue wish to signify? Lazarus, dead for four days, was resurrected in these days of fasting, with Christ already hastening to prepare for salvation through his passion, and performing miracles before other miracles, celebrating another feast before that feast, and exhibiting another work before that work; that when He himself was led to the cross, the disciples would not deny the resurrection of their Master, but would believe that He, submitting to death for the sake of others, could in no way be harmed by death. It would be just, therefore, in favor of the time, and of ourselves and the future solemnity, that we be companions of the joy regarding the resurrection of Lazarus; companions, indeed, not only of tears, but also of the cheer and joy of Mary and the thrifty women who were her associates; and by exploring the history, let us honor Jesus our teacher. For he who honors His friends, refers the gift to Him: for being benign, He is accustomed to reckon honor shown to them as conferred upon Himself. He said in the Gospels: *He who receives you, receives me; and he who receives me, receives Him that sent me* (Matt. 10:40).
A Since he was setting forth the matter, he did not treat the listener with mere words. Look at him speaking: he wrote for Bethany, the village, the miracle, the manner, the women present and not present, what was said, what was done, to whom they ran to meet the Teacher, how he wept, how they pleaded, B how those mourning complained to the Lord that He was not present at the dying of Lazarus, and how He did not close the gates of death with a word, nor did He restrain the waves of destruction—for if the pilot had been present, the ship would have been saved. And he wrote this while sitting in Ephesus, so that because of his lack of possessions and poverty he could not even use his own ink and paper. When John had therefore written, everyone ran to see the tomb—which had lost its dead—kings, private citizens, judges, tribes of barbarians, nations of soldiers. Why do I say tomb? The monument of Lazarus became a church. For everyone rushes there to pray, where Jesus prayed, acquiring the benefit through the communion of the scene. C *Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and Martha* (John 11:1). Let no one despise the place; for God is everywhere, and dwells in the village, and in the city, and in the mountains; He sees all things. For God is everywhere, not attentive to places, but to the minds of the pious. Lazarus was suffering, and was being driven by the disease. Here the faithful women around Mary and Martha did not mourn at the evil, did not despair at the onset of the fever, did not seek drugs, did not call for neighbors, did not call a physician; for it was superfluous, having Jesus, the true physician, to seek another; but they knew from whom it was necessary to be saved, and while their brother was sick, they sent envoys of his future death. And you, therefore, if a child, or mother, or brother, or acquaintance is sick and being dragged by the executioners below, send to Jesus, not using a human intermediary, but using your own prayers, being more powerful than men, and emulate the women around Martha. What do they say? Not, "Be comforted"; not, "Be hastened"; not, "Come," as to grace; but what do they say? *Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick* (John 11:3). Death watched for your departure, and attacks your friend. Stand by Lazarus, who is being stolen, snatched away, fought, hit with many arrows, with fever and pains and a cloud of evils; it is uncertain even if you will find your friend. Jesus heard, and said: *This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified by it* (John 11:4). D What then shall I marvel at? The providence of what was said, the prophecy, the outcome? The superhuman command, the ineffable philanthropy, the gentleness of the words, the honor toward the Father? I find all things of God. He foretold as God, "This sickness is not unto death," and brought about the work not long after. He sent up the glory to the Father, showing the glorification of Father and Son to be one; He consoled the sisters with the saying, having given good hopes to them, by saying: "This sickness is not unto death." Lazarus is not dying. For if he is not given to death, he remains alive. But he is given, and he is not given. For when someone restores what he has received, in truth he does not receive it. Having said these things, Jesus, he says, remained in that place two days. Why did he remain? He spent the time so that death might clearly take Lazarus; so that the wave passing over might sink the ship. For if he had been present, the fever would have fled, and the event would have been attributed to the nature of the disease; if even to Jesus, the miracle would have been lesser. Therefore the common death of men took him, and held him as a prisoner. After these things Jesus, who was not present, who had not touched, who had not seen with his own eyes, says to those who did not know: *Lazarus our friend has fallen asleep; but I go to wake him* (John 11:11). Great is the consolation for men: death was changed into sleep, destruction was carried over into salvation by the word. Therefore, let no one give up on the dead; for all live to God, sleeping when He wishes, and being raised when He wishes. The disciples say to him, having ignored the meaning of the riddle: *Lord, if he sleeps, he will be saved* (John 11:12). For natural sleep is a relief to the sick. Then he says to them openly: *Lazarus is dead, and I rejoice for your sakes.* And who rejoices at a dead man? Who is glad at a deceased friend? It was necessary to be gloomy and to mourn for those who had lost their own. But, "I rejoice for your sakes," because I was not there. For if I had been, the fever would have been extinguished by a word, and the miracle would have been shown as lesser, or the matter would have been deemed a habit; but now I stayed, so that the wolf might snatch the sheep entirely; for death, having gained strength, devoured him, and again God took away every tear from every face of the earth. They came, they were hastened toward Bethany, not running to extinguish the fire, but to see the ashes of the fire; or perhaps, to see if they could find the relics of a shipwreck; for he was already four days dead. For in the case of shipwrecks it is possible to find both a keel, and to collect planks, and to take a yard, and to keep rudders for the use of another ship, and having used much diligence, to save a part of the cargo; but in the case of Lazarus all things were burdensome, and the cessation, and the stench of decay. The mourning was at its peak, and the dead man was held under the stone. And, he says, many of the Jews had come from the city, so that they might console the sisters of the deceased. I have witnesses, he says, of the grace that is to be, so that the work might not be thought a theft, but a security of truth. Jesus came, a pilot after a shipwreck, a physician after death. And why did you come here, O Lord? So that you might be blamed, as having been negligent of your friend, as having overlooked him who was perishing, as not having said farewell to one about to die? Martha heard, and having cared a little for the sorrowful figure, comes running along the road, and begins to complain to the Savior sorrowfully: *Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died* (John 11:21). For while the shepherd is present, how is a sheep lost? While the general is fighting, how were the gates opened? While the sun is shining, how was the gold stolen? *Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.* Faithless is the word, and yet also weak—for while the potter is present, it was possible for the broken vessel to be refashioned. Jesus says to her, *Your brother will rise again.* She to him, *I know that he will rise again in the last day.* But Jesus said, *I am the resurrection* (John 11:23-25). Therefore, what you have, do you seek? Wait a little, and you will see the grace. Martha heard, she believed, and she wakes her sister, and all the mourners are carried together, those consoling the suffering. Again Jesus is in a crowd and in a wedding and in a mourning, everywhere loosening the difficulties for those who believe. But when he saw the mourning and the tears, Jesus says: *Where have you laid him?* (John 11:34). Why do you inquire, O Lord? While absent did you not know of the death, and present do you not know the place, but you say, "Where have you laid him?" Give me, he says, those who buried him, those who bound him, those who swathed the dead man. Let these who have become my witnesses of the things to come acknowledge their own work, so that, when they see him who was buried by them risen, they might not think the work to be a phantom. He came to the monument; he bore the showing of those who knew all; after these things he also wept. And why do you weep, if you speak the truth of what you promised, if you are about to raise him? But he weeps for the man, showing the philanthropy of his intention; perhaps even because of the ignorance of the Jews, because even after this miracle they remained in their unbelief. For some of them said: *Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that this man also should not die?* (John 11:37). He could have. But why do you take up the mockery? Wait, and see the work. Jesus says to them: *Take away the stone.* Paradoxical is the word. He who turns over bronze gates, and breaks iron bars, is saying, "Take away the stone," not of death. Why, with a word, does he not remove the stone, Lord? "Take away," he says, "you, the slanderers, the stone, the faithless, the deceivers; take it away, touch it, be convinced, so that you might not be faithless to yourselves again, secure the view. It is not a shadow that is about to come out, nor a phantom; for these can come out even if stones are walled up." The sister of the deceased, Martha, says to him: *Lord, he already stinks; for he is four days dead.* It was necessary for him as a servant not to be likened to the Master’s gifts. For the Master, according to his own promises, rose on the third day; but he rises on the fourth; for it is one thing for a servant, and another for the Master. They say to him, "Lord, he is four days dead, and he already stinks." These are small things toward God; as yet not dry bones, as yet bereft of flesh and nerves, as once in the case of Ezekiel the camp of the dead lying on the ground, and...
775 SPURIA. A ...must be a servant, not enjoy the Lord’s prerogative. The Lord, as He had promised, rose on the third day; this man, however, rises on the fourth: for the servant is one thing, the Lord is another. They say to Him: "Lord, he has been dead four days, he now stinks." These things are small before God. The bones were not yet dry, not yet stripped of flesh and sinews, as once was the army of the dead lying on the ground before Ezekiel, and, deprived of everything—soul, sense, protection, and vivifying spirit—it stood at the monument, destined now to give a clear example of the future resurrection. Martha was silent, and the stone was removed: all were in suspense of mind, the dead living, and perhaps Death himself B was astonished, since the gates of death had already been undone. And first the Lord Jesus begins with glorification. He lifted up, He says, His eyes to heaven, indicating the manner of His descent, thanking the Father for our sake and saying: "Father, I thank Thee, because Thou hast heard me." Though He possessed the power of life within Himself, He does this because Mary and Martha had said to Him: "We know that whatsoever you shall ask of God, God will give it to thee." Therefore, seeing their weaker mind, He says: "You surely know that whatsoever I shall ask of the Father, He will give to me": approach me, therefore, in mind [as you approach] the Father. And then He says, "I thank Thee, Father, because Thou hast heard me. I knew that Thou hearest me always, but because of those standing by I said it." Do you see how He has no need of prayer, but does this on account of the unbelief of those present? "Thou heardst me," He says, "always." Do not ask when: for however much we investigate, we cannot comprehend. As the Son according to nature, You pray; yet You mentioned the Father, giving honor to Him, so that You might exhibit the concord of the Son and the Father to those who are ignorant. But when He had confirmed faith and made the mind of the listeners more certain, He at last came to the work. "Lazarus, come forth." He did not repeat the command so that a corpse alone might rise, and lest the crowd of the dead should begin an unseemly C rush. I seek one dead man, lest you all come—for that time has not yet arrived when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and they that have heard shall live. Yet let one come forth in the meantime: let one be loosed on account of his friendship with the Only-Begotten, one is what I require to be bound. Let no one in the lower world resist, not the invisible doorkeeper, not the hard jailer, not the infernal key-bearers, who are always devising how to seize. Learn, Hades, first to give. You, however, O hell, be silent, be hushed, suffering nothing harsh, obeying the Lord, attempting nothing, for man is already fleeing from your thresholds. "Lazarus, come forth." By my command, conquer death, conquer death, with hell despoiled. Still bound, though even with you unwilling I am crowned, I remain. Lazarus came out bound and walking; he came out entirely bound, and moving as a whole. For he was shackled from head to foot, according to the custom of the region. He was not yet entirely outside of death and burial. D Again Jesus gives a new command: "Loose him, and let him go." Why is he who escaped death, who subverted the infernal custody, not loosed by Him himself? You loose him, you who recently bound him, so that you may recognize the signs of your own bonds. But when the Pharisees heard these things, they entered into a new council, saying: "What do we, for this man does such signs?" (John 11.47). Great crimes: at the raising of the dead, death is destroyed, and Lazarus rises from the dead: the Jews, however, are strangled in their soul. Do not, therefore, enter into an imperfect council, but add the reason for the crime, saying: "What do we, for after a few days the sun will be darkened above, and the earth will tremble below, not bearing the deeds done; the veil within the temple will be rent; the crowd of the dead will return to life?" Say again: "What do we, for the temple is being dissolved, for the cult is ceasing, for the city is being burned, for we are being cast out, and others are being appointed heirs in our stead?" What do we, for all things are being transformed—prophets, apostles, priesthood, fasting, celebration, cult? and God will admit these. Be anxious about these, enter into council about these. For your words are useless: the sentence remains; for the word which you bring forth does not remain in you. Once, therefore, has God given to those to whom He pleased, that they might always keep a feast, always a celebration, and that the celebration might be renewed each year in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
ON THE FOUR-DAY LAZARUS II
Beloved, just as a mother who loves her offspring is delighted when she offers her breast to the infant, as the son sucks the tender nourishment of milk: but when the curd of milk has solidified into cheese, it blocks the channels of the breast, then the little boy cries, and the mother is tormented, always having the desire to feed, but seeing that the nourishment proposed does not come through: so also were we delighted on the previous day as we moved the breast of the mind toward you, while you were sucking the milk of the word; but when the cloud of forgetfulness came over the mind and cut off the word, then you also were indignant, as being deprived of the sentences of evangelical dogmas; and we took it grievously, while imbued with the zeal of speaking, when we saw your mind overwhelmed by oblivion. But perhaps this happened to us so that we might know that "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, nor of him that pursueth, but of God that showeth mercy" (Rom. 9.16). Come therefore, since God gives grace to those who speak, not because of the dignity of the speaker, but because of the necessity of the listeners, having prayed to Him, let us draw a draught of doctrine according to our power from the reading just now made to you from the Gospel. "There was," He says, "a certain man sickly from Bethany, from the village of Mary and Martha her sister. And Mary was she who anointed the Lord with the ointment, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Jesus therefore said: This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it" (John 11). ...to death, but for the glory of God: it is not a sickness, but a good message; it is not a sickness, but security. O sickness, the medicine of the sick, the guide of faith, the adversary of death, the avenger of the devil, the prince of salvation! O sickness, the foundation of virtue, the teacher of faith, the dispenser of piety, the builder of the Churches of God! O sickness, which puts to flight the fever of the soul, and bedews it with the moisture of baptism, and blankets the soul in splendid garments! O sickness, providing celestial bread, the best lamp of faith, the snare of the devil, and the seal of man! "When He heard," He says, "Jesus then indeed stayed in the same place two days" (John 11.6). Why was it necessary that, having heard this, the Lord should stay there, and why did He not immediately betake Himself to the sick man? But He was waiting altogether for the death of Lazarus, so that upon his death He might give greater faith to those watching by means of miracles. But after these things, Jesus says to the disciples: "Lazarus our friend sleepeth; but I go that I may wake him out of sleep" (ibid. v. 11). For truly the death of men is considered a sleep by the Lord. "I go that I may wake him out of sleep." Why so? Can You not, while staying here, raise the dead? But the Jews would not receive the grace in my absence: for perhaps, with him rising, they would think that Lazarus returned to life by some accident. I therefore will go, so that, with me present, those who have become spectators of my miracles, and receiving grace from me, may obtain firm faith. "Lazarus our friend sleepeth: but I go that I may wake him out of sleep." But the disciples hearing said: "Lord, if he sleep, he shall be saved" (Ibid. v. 12). They spoke not so piously as they spoke like doctors. For excessive sleep harms the lethargic, but fevers indeed resolve it more than sweat. Because therefore the disciples thought the Lord was speaking of sleep, He said...