tery, you were not ashamed; and when you repent and want to be saved, then you are ashamed? Because you were seizing the things of others, because you were oppressing widows and despisers of the poor, you were not ashamed, and now you are ashamed? Because you were swearing by the tremendous name of God, because you were testifying falsely, because you were perjuring yourself, because you were committing every evil and all the wicked deeds that God hates, you were not ashamed, and now you are ashamed? O what a Lord, good man, we have, whom we neglect, and we are not converted! Christ advises: Do not steal, do not fornicate, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not testify falsely; honor your father and your mother, love your neighbor as yourself; be meek, good, merciful, patient, be without strife; be peaceful, that you may be worthy of the kingdom of heaven; and there is no one who understands, no one who obeys, no one who pays attention. The devil suggests the contrary, saying: Be an adulterer, kill, perjure, steal, be inhuman, blasphemous, unmerciful, harsh, a corrupter; be greedy, a hater of men, nay, even a hater of God; be deceitful, unjust, desirous of riches; be rapacious, slanderous, a reviler, a brawler, a perjurer: and we know how many there are who do all these things, obeying him because, as servants bound by hands and feet, so we run and are subject by nature. Lo, we have spent our whole youth with demons: lo, we have grown old, and have become accustomed to sins. We cannot do good to obtain the kingdom of heaven: but the devil offers fire and eternal punishment, and we run to him. What shall we do for you, O man? What do you want? What do you desire? Whether to be with Christ, or to be with demons? Do you want to be with Christ? Finally put an end to delights and pleasures, and also to fornication, theft, drunkenness: make an end of seizing the things of others, make an end of mocking, of lying, of exalting yourself. Let no one deceive you; for no one of those who are such will enter into the kingdom of heaven. But if you desire to be with demons, if you wish to enter into the gehenna of fire, do as you wish, whatever life you desire to mention, no one will prevent you; choose for yourself the world, its shameful concupiscences, fornication, adultery, drunkenness, intemperance, every diabolical pleasure, no one hinders. For the gospels do not persuade you, the law does not render you more temperate, the prophets do not instruct you, the apostles do not bring you to shame, the admonitions of the fathers do not help you, the fellowship of the brethren does not avert you: you have become altogether shameless, the face of a harlot has become yours. Finally, receive your good things in your life: but there look for neither salvation nor inheritance in the future day of Christ. For the hour fails you, when naked and deserted you will stand before the tribunal of Christ, made a spectacle to angels and men. There you will appear as you are: there all your iniquity will be refuted: God is not mocked: and then you will hear that sad voice: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. xxii, 13). Who, finally, will not flee from such a man? Who will not deplore him who for a temporary pleasure will be tormented eternally? Do not err, God is not mocked; it is written: Neither fornicators, nor revilers, nor the greedy, nor the drunkards, nor the unjust, nor the effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor idolaters, nor the blasphemous, nor lovers of money, nor any such person has an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven (I Cor. vi, 9, 10). Thinking on all these things, brethren, let us abstain from such evil deeds, and let us not delay to do penance with our whole soul, that we may escape from the future wrath, and attain to heavenly and eternal goods: which may it be granted to us all to attain, by the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom is glory to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
I CAME TO SEND FIRE UPON THE EARTH (Luke xii, 49); AND, I CAME NOT TO SEND PEACE, BUT A SWORD (Matt. x, 34).
Mothers who love their offspring, until infants arrive at a greater age, open to them the fountains of milk which they may suck, and soothe them with this perennial nourishment; but when they have arrived at a greater age and sense, so that they can chew more delicate foods with their teeth, first they introduce into their mouth bread that is harder and crushed, and tender like marrow. Such are the teachers of the Church. For those who are as infants in sense, they do not pose difficult sentences, but like mothers, letting down the breast of understanding, they bring forth simple words, which they may suck; then when they are endowed with greater intelligence, they reveal to them greater mysteries of sentences. Paul also used to do this: for to those who were still infants, he said: I gave you milk to drink, not food (I Cor. iii, 2). In the same way also today our Lord carries Himself: for tempering the evangelical senses according to the capacity of the hearers, in past days, as to infants, He brought forth to us the tender and easily grasped food of the word; but now seeing us increased in sense, He grants us to enjoy a stronger doctrine. For what does He say? I came to send fire upon the earth; and, I came not to send peace, but a sword. But those who are infants in mind think that the Lord came to consume all things with fire, and to slaughter all with the sword. But come, let us also, who have thought the same as the infants, talk with the Lord with the very words of the Lord, so that we may deliver the sayings of the Lord to the infants. I came to send fire upon the earth. Have You come to send fire upon the earth, Lord, and have You not come to send peace, but a sword? Sin besieged us, death ruled over us, You threatened us with gehenna; the army of wicked demons was waging war against us, and we were awaiting You as our helper, warned by the prophets; and after You came, You say, I came to send fire upon the earth, and, I came not to send peace, but a sword? The trophy of faith was not present for us, we were not able to repel the line of the devil: for the shield of faith was not present for us: by the breastplate of our justice the devil had stripped Adam in paradise; therefore we, each of us, stripped of aid, were crying out to You: Judge, O Lord, those who injure me, fight against those who attack me: take hold of weapons and shield, and arise in my help: pour out the sword, and close against those who pursue me: say to my soul, I am your salvation (Ps. xxxiv, 1-3). You say, I came to send fire upon the earth, and, I came not to send peace, but a sword? And where is the supplication of the saints, sent forth to You for peace: namely, O Lord our God, give us peace? For You gave us all things. We sought peace, we needed tranquility, we did not want war, we shuddered at it; and You, coming, say, I came not to send peace, but a sword? He armed a heavy army of wicked demons against us; slaughtering us all with the double-edged sword of sin, he was casting us into hell. Therefore we ask mercy from You, the whole chorus of saints was calling upon You saying: You who rule Israel, give ear, You who lead Joseph like a sheep, You who sit upon the Cherubim, manifest Yourself: stir up Your power, and come, to save us (Ps. lxxix, 2, 3). You say, I came not to send peace, but a sword? And where is Your promise by which You said: Behold, I will incline toward them like a river of peace, and like a torrent...
and by the warfare of the devil, and that having crushed the war, he might award peace to the world, as one of them A giving thanks said: *Blessed be the Lord who teacheth my hands to battle, and my fingers to war* (Ps. CXLIII, 1). And these having been defeated, have turned their backs, crying out to You, calling upon You as their helper, saying: *Lord, bow Thy heavens, and come down* (Ps. CXLIII, 5). And having bowed the heavens, and come down to save the race of men in peace, You say: *I am not come to send peace, but a sword* (Matt. X, 34). Why then do You call the peacemakers blessed, *for they shall be called the children of God* (Matt. V, 9)? Why then, You who teach others to make peace, why do You say concerning Yourself, *I am not come to send peace, but a sword*? Because of our sins the Lord has become our enemy; we had need of a mediator who would dissolve the enmity between us, and award sweet peace. And our father Job prayed concerning the mediator, saying: *I would that there were a mediator between us to reprove*. And having come to mediate and to dissolve the enmity, You say the contrary, *I am not come to send peace, but a sword*. And in what then shall we expect the hope of peace? But also, *I am come to send fire upon the earth* (Luke XII, 49), which is trampled beneath your feet. Since the devil has sown thorns and thistles of sins in the hearts of men, *I am come to send fire upon the earth*, for the consumption of the thorns. For this reason *I am come to send fire upon the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled*, to cleanse My earth? I must consume by fire the bitter-bearing and harmful shoots of the devil, that I may sow the heavenly seed in a clean soul. For this reason *I am come to send fire upon the earth*. Having fashioned man from the beginning out of the earth, I placed a divine spark of fire in the midst of his heart, that by fire he might be held by the love of God. Since therefore it was impossible for him to extinguish this divine spark of fire and this heat, that they might have the bright kindling of the Holy Spirit (for the devil had deadened the souls of men with the frost of impiety), I must cast fire upon the earth; that having loosened and slackened the winter of unbelief brought upon the souls by the devil, and having established their mind as calm and serene, I may cause it to put forth and flourish. He enters therefore into His fold, concealing the shepherd in the lamb of the body, not bearing a staff, not a rod threatening the former error, lest the sheep, having become cowardly and terrified, should flee again from its own shepherd. But He enters into the house of the Pharisee, not as God, not as King, not as the Sun of justice, but as B man to man, as lamb to lamb, He dwells with him, feeds with him, flourishes with him, enters, sits down with him who had already fallen under sin, that in sitting down with him, He might raise up with Himself him who had already fallen. And having entered, He was not baptized according to the custom of the Pharisees. And this He did in two ways, that He might give the sheep an occasion to speak to the shepherd, and further also to dissolve a Jewish dogma, and to confirm a spiritual one. For, he says, the Pharisee saw, and marveled, that He was not first baptized. He marveled, not praising the Master, but wondering at what was happening; not praising, but judging. And it was possible to see, beloved, the Life-shaper being judged by the creature, and the potter being corrected by the clay. And the Pharisee said this, not seeing with the hidden eyes of the heart the one who is within the commander of the angels and of the Seraphim and Cherubim. For if you had seen this One, you would have fallen at His knees, and with your tears you would have washed His feet, and said: *Be propitious to me, a sinner*; for you would have said: You are He who brought all things from nothing into being; by Your word the heavens were established, and by the spirit of Your mouth all their power; gathering the waters of the sea as in a bottle; You put the abysses in the treasuries; from You all the earth fears, from You all the whole world is shaken. But having neither understood nor said any of these things, he judged the Master. But the Lord, having given an occasion, just as also to that Samaritan woman by asking water of her, He gave her a time to ask of Him the living water; the Lord begins therefore gently to turn the sheep, and to lead it by the hand from error to the truth. *Now do you Pharisees wash the outside of the cup and the platter; but the inside is full of extortion and iniquity* (Luke XI, 39). That is, you now adorn the body, but you make the souls wretched. And how will it please, even if the cup be golden, when it holds a deadly draught within? Are not harlots such? Making their faces bloom with colors, they bring their souls to nothing. For do they not, while reddening their faces with rouge, work with their own fingers an image of the flame that is to receive them, whereas they ought to be sprinkling their hearts with the blood of Jesus, and whitening their souls with the Spirit, that the flower of the soul might be shining, just as in a lily mingled with it? Now, however, they are wiping away their faces, that they might drag the hearts of the young into madness. Now you, O Pharisees, wash the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inside is full of 815 extortion and wickedness. John was saying: Why do you wash the body with water, but do not wash your transgressions with the Spirit? For I dare to say, beloved, that a man will be helped in nothing, even if he wash the body and the spirit, if he does not have almsgiving as a fellow-worker and attendant companion. And just as a cup washed outside and inside, but not having drink, will not heal the thirst of one who is thirsty, and likewise a platter washed inside and outside will not feed one who is hungry, unless it have food inside; so also a man, even if he be washed inside and outside, will not feed the Lord, unless he feeds his fellow-servant. Therefore the Lord adds and says: *But yet that which remains give alms; and behold, all things are clean unto you* (Luke XI, 41). *That which remains*, He says. For He is not so pleased by the contribution of the very rich, as by the guileless and unhypocritical offering. Do not therefore, O poor man, cry out that you do not have much gold and silver; cast into the treasury what you have; and two mites justify; remember that widow, for she was justified above the very rich. God does not know how to weigh money, but He tests the conscience. Almsgiving wipes away the stains of adulterers, and stores up good rewards; almsgiving whitens the souls, and weaves their tenderness. Almsgiving is life-giving for souls, a provision for the soul, a good generalship. Cast away gold, and receive Christ; give silver, and receive the Holy Spirit; scatter bronze, and the son of sin will depart together with it; bedew the oil, and extinguish the furnace; and give garments, that you may receive healings, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.