more diligent, by the grace and philanthropy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has ordered all things for our salvation at the appointed time, and is calling us to His eternal kingdom A His, with the prayers of the saints which we have mentioned, to whom be glory and power, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Sunday of Tyrophagus on Repentance and Almsgiving. Sermon II
The soldiers of an earthly king are prepared by sounding trumpets; but the reading of the divine Scriptures stirs the soldiers of the heavenly King, Jesus Christ, to give glory to God and to fear Him. But the former are gathered for the battle against sensible enemies and wars that fall under the senses, while we are gathered against invisible enemies and demons, as Paul says: "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6: 12). B See, brethren, with what enemies we fight. For they are malignant, as you see, and shameless, dragging us by force toward every sin. If they fail in their goal in one thing, they move to another; if they fail in that, they pass to yet another; and, to speak briefly, they do not cease to invade from one thing to another until they attain what they desire. They incite one to fornication, another to adultery, some to seize the property of others, some to theft, some to insatiable greed, one to envy and malice, another to murder or to cause injury, another to slander and the slaughter of brethren, another to gluttony and the corruption of children, another to the despoiling of temples and shamelessness, one to seek the favor of men and vain glory, another to mercilessness and inhumanity, another to apostasy and swearing, another to insult and infamy, another to wrath and fury, another to usury, emulation, and contention, and another to blasphemy and impurity. And some they persuade not to take pity on the poor, others to remove their neighbors' boundaries, others to deprive laborers of their wages—for what could be more miserable than this?—others they persuade to strip orphans, others to oppress widows, others not to enter the church; they precipitate others into a thousand vices, the number of which is beyond count, and if I were to relate them, the time of life would fail me. C See, brethren, into how many evils we fall daily, and we do not pay attention. But, woe is me, what will become of me if I relate these things? Believe me, brethren, as I write these things, I am held by fear and trembling, horror falls upon me, I am stunned, and I am moved to tears while I think how we are ensnared by so many base and diabolical vices. Why, therefore, do we neglect? Why do we procrastinate? What time are we expecting? Why do we despise our salvation? Why do we not care for our end? Why do we neglect, why do we flee? How long shall we lose heart? How long with delights, how long with drunkenness, how long with pleasures, how long with enticements, how long with insatiability, how long with robbery, how long with injustice? How long with attacks on the poor? How long with plunder taken from the needy? How long with riches, how long with money, how long with gold? How long with avarice, the snare of souls? How long with envy, how long with lies, how long with slander, how long with reviling, how long with shameful and wanton desires? Why do we err? Why do we wait? Why do we labor inopportunely? Why do we mock ourselves? Why do we torment ourselves in vain? Why do we invade the property of others? Why are we troubled? Why are we exhausted? Why do we gather temporal things? Let us finally repent; let us wake up, let us keep watch, I beseech you, brethren; let us shake off the heavy sleep of sin. D "Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord" (Ps. 33: 11). Come, listen, and hear spiritual and salutary things; come, learn the salutary counsel that is pleasing to God; come, know how we shall make confession to God our Savior; come, before the fellowship of life is dissolved; come, before the doors of life are shut; come, before death arrives and finds you unprepared; come, before the sun sets and the light is darkened. Come, listen, all you nations, give ear, all you who inhabit the world; come, "You sons of men, both low and high, rich and poor together" (Ps. 48: 2); come, nobles and glorious, servants and free; come, every race, every age, men and women together, little and great, young and old; come, priests of the Lord, and all the fullness of the Church from the ends to the ends of the earth. Come, "Young men and maidens, old men with the younger" (Ps. 148: 12); come, kings of the earth, whether wise or simple; come, "let us fall down before the Lord who made us, for He is the Lord our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand" (Ps. 94: 6-7). Come, brethren, and know that the ends of the earth will profit us nothing; come, see that we entered naked, and naked we shall depart; come, let us confess to the Lord with tears, groans, alms, and mercies for the poor; and He will teach us how we may attain salvation. Let us also say to Him: Lord, we have sinned against heaven and before you; receive our conversion and repentance, receive our groaning and tears, receive the repentance of our sins, receive the groaning and weeping until death; receive us wretches, who have lived shamefully; receive us, O Benign One, who have provoked you much to wrath; receive us, Lord, who have passed our whole life in luxury and all iniquity and impurity; receive, Lord God, those who have transgressed your commandments; receive us, Lord, your unworthy servants, and do not render to us according to the works of our hands. We confess, Lord, that we are not even worthy of life because of our sins; we confess, Lord, that we are not even worthy to behold the sun, because there is no sin, no kind of evil, that we wretches have not committed. But receive us, Lord, as the prodigal son, as the robber, as the harlot and the publican. Lord, convert us; Lord, grant us prudence, and do not be angry, but be propitious to our sins. You are our God, and besides you we know no other. Lord, deliver us from our enemies, and do not enter into judgment with your servants; Lord, you are God, and we are your people. For we have sinned, we have acted wickedly, we have committed iniquity and evil, we have sinned in all things, and we have not obeyed your commandments; therefore we have wandered far from you. But have pity, Lord, on the works of your hands; have pity, Lord, on those who were cast out of paradise by the serpent's deceit; have pity on us, and clothe us in the tunic of joy, the garment of salvation; have pity on us, whom the devil stripped by your help. O Merciful One, have pity on those who have abandoned you and served him; have pity on the erring, have pity on those who have not observed your commandments and have ministered to the malignities of demons; have pity on those who have been contaminated by sins; have pity on those who have been under the tyranny of the devil; have pity on those who have been soiled by luxury; have pity, O Merciful One, have pity, O Benign One, have pity, O Long-suffering One, because our hands have practiced every evil, every impurity, avarice, and iniquity. For we have polluted the soul which you made in your image; we have polluted the body and the senses. Our tongue has been a sharp sword against our neighbor; our eyes look upon fire; our hands are full of blood; our feet are swift to do evil; our mouth has been defiled with revilings, and, to speak briefly, we have contaminated the earth and the air. For our iniquities have reached unto
heaven, our sins are beyond forgiveness, our failings have no consolation, our undoing is without remedy, and behold, the earth cannot bear our evils. Therefore, O Lord, we stand in need of thy mercy. Thou knowest the weakness of our nature: have mercy, O Lord, on the work of thy hands. For we call upon thy compassion; do not deprive us of thy help; send thy mercy unto us, the unworthy; grant thy succor to us, the sinners; and make thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. By saying and doing these things, my brethren, let us flee all malice and all uncleanness; let us flee all injustice and greed; let us flee vainglory, drunkenness, and all insatiability; let us flee gluttony, the parent of all evils; let us flee the love of money, the beginning and root of every sin; let us flee hatred of our brothers and lack of compassion; let us flee slander and cursing; let us flee fornication, adultery, and every blasphemy; let us flee theft and robbery; let us flee ambition, the showing of partiality, strife, jealousy, and the rest of the deception of this fleeting life, that our Lord Jesus Christ may not come and find us indifferent and divide us asunder, and pronounce against us, saying: "Bind their hands and feet, take them, and cast them into the outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 22. 13). Oh, how much we shall then weep, my brethren, and lament, and wail, and tear ourselves, while no longer profiting at all! Woe to us in that fearful hour if we are found so impenitent; it would be good for us not to have been born if we are to be found in such a state. Let us weep bitterly while we may, my brethren, so that we may not be punished there unto eternity; let us show mercy so that we may obtain mercy and be forgiven; let us distribute our wealth (ourselves, that is) so that others, after our death, do not eat and drink and spend the fruit of our labor, singing: "The wealthy man stores up, and knows not for whom he shall gather these things" (Ps. 38. 7); and again, "Behold the man who did not set God as his helper" (Ps. 51. 9). For what profit is there, my brethren, when we toil and others enjoy our labor? Let us send it on ahead there, so that we may find it. For what a man sows, that he shall also reap. Let no one B make an excuse, saying: "I have a wife and children, and I cannot for their sake distribute my wealth, lest I die and leave them poor."
2. No, my brethren, no; I beseech you all, let us not be anxious about this. For there is a God in heaven, the compassionate one, who cares for and sustains the wife and children, he who also created them. Let us only be anxious for ourselves, let us weep for ourselves, let us make ourselves ready, let us secure ourselves for the judgments and tribunals there. For in that hour neither children nor wife, nor father, nor mother, nor brother, nor kinsman—nay, not even Abraham himself, or Noah, or Daniel, or Peter, or Paul—will be able to deliver us from those incomprehensible torments, if our works do not. He comes from heaven to judge the living and the dead; he comes who searches hearts and reins; he comes, and who then shall escape his hands? He comes seated upon the throne of the Cherubim, and looking upon the abysses; he comes, the God of gods and Lord of lords; he comes, the Prince of princes, and Judge of judges; he comes, the King of kings, and Magistrate of magistrates; he comes, the one who brings to light and convicts every base and hidden mystery; he comes, the one who openly does and reveals the faults of things concealed; he comes, the one who triumphantly displays every premeditation and action and word and every thought before all; he comes, the true and never-sleeping eye, the impartial judge, the incorruptible examiner, the one who burns up every filthy action and shameful pleasure, and sends it into Gehenna; he comes, the one who loves peace, and hates every wicked word and every act of robbery and every sin, and eternally punishes those who cause scandal; he comes, from whose face the earth flees, the sea is dried up; the heaven is rolled up like a scroll, the stars fall, the air is shaken, the sun is darkened, the moon shall not give its light, the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, the Cherubim tremble, the Seraphim are astonished, the angels shudder, C the archangels tremble, the things above and the things below are shaken, all things are stirred; he comes, the one who does not respect the person of man, and has no mercy on the poor in judgment; he comes, the one who renders to each according to his works, the one who convicts and brands the thoughts and inclinations of every soul; he comes, the one who has mercy on the merciful, and condemns the uncompassionate—he is "terrible in his counsels above the sons of men" (Ps. 65. 5); he comes, to whom every knee bends of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth; he comes, whose throne is a flame of fire, and his wheels are burning fire; he comes to save and glorify the just, and to punish the sinners; he comes to bless those who thirst, and to denounce those who are full; he comes to honor those who struggle and watch in prayers and psalms, in thanksgiving and supplication and patience, and he will send the slack and the negligent into torments and punishments; he comes, to sinners indeed terrible and harsh, and with much threatening he will punish; but to the just, mild and cheerful and gentle. And what does he say to them? "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matt. 25. 34); not because you acquired much wealth on earth, nor because you had many menservants and maidservants, nor because you were noble and famous; not because you inherited many fields and vineyards, nor because you built granaries and grand houses, nor because you were well-supplied with many yokes of oxen and flocks of sheep, nor because you enjoyed a rich and abundant table, nor because you wore splendid garments, nor because you were anointed with myrrh and perfumes, nor because you were honored by all; not because you were glorified and raised up and magnified, nor because you fasted or watched; nor because you kept your virginity, or because you endured hardship; but "Because I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; you saw me a stranger, and you gathered me into your houses, and comforted me greatly; you saw me naked, and you clothed me; you saw me lying in sickness, and you visited me, and deemed me worthy of much care; you saw me in prison, and with much eagerness you came to me." And the just say to him: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty, and give you drink? Or a stranger, and gather you in? Or naked, and clothe you? Or sick or in prison, and ministered to you?" And the Judge says to them: "Amen, amen I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of these my brethren, the least of these—to the poor, the abandoned, the strangers, the humble, the despised, the maimed, those in distress, those in need, those in affliction, those in hunger, those in thirst, those wounded, those oppressed, those sick, those maltreated—inasmuch as you did it to one of all these, you did it to me; you warmed my members, you ministered to me, you gave rest to my soul. Therefore, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Come first, you who have kept the faith stainless and undefiled; come, you who for my sake have become poor with spiritual poverty; come, you who for my name’s sake have dwelt in wildernesses and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth with the wild beasts; come, you who mourn and are afflicted; come, you who for my sake have hungered and thirsted; come, you who are persecuted for righteousness' sake; come, you who have been reproached and hated for my name's sake; come, you who are pure in heart; come, you who are merciful; come, you who are generous; come, you who are compassionate; come, you who feed the orphans; come, you who welcome strangers; come, you who are the protectors of widows; come, you who give succor to the weak; come, you who are the comforters of the sick; come, you who visit those in prison; come, you who are the payers of debts; come, you who have filled the souls of the hungry and thirsty for my sake; come, you who are the warmest protectors of those unjustly enslaved and in danger; come, you who are the compassionate liberators of those in exile and bitter bondage; come, you who have lived the calm and quiet life for my sake; come, you who have fought in virginity and asceticism and a holy manner of life unto death; come, you who in temperance and purity have kept body and soul stainless and undefiled; come, you who have finished your whole life in fastings and vigils and psalms; come, you who each night and
day pass your time in the church; come, you who adorn and care for my altars; come, you who have despised earthly things, take hold of the heavenly; come, you who for my sake have left fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, houses, fields and kinsfolk, and receive the goods of the heavenly Jerusalem: come and see my glory, rejoice and exult, for your reward is great in heaven; come and see what kind of servants of the Lord you are, rejoice and exult, for the kingdom of heaven is yours. Enter into the joy of your Lord, receive those goods which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man: enter into the treasuries of my Father, into which the angels desire to look, receive the prizes and crowns and the reward of your struggles. You have borne the burden and the heat of the day; receive the kingdom of heaven; you have endured hunger and thirst, sleeping on the ground and dry food; enjoy therefore an ineffable glory and inexpressible joy, which I have prepared for you, my friends; rest finally in the courtyards of paradise, in the splendid mansions, in the delights and joy without end, in the conspicuous and glorious tabernacles: enter into the bright places, and rest from your labors, which you have endured for my sake; rest with my holy angels, with the apostles, with the prophets and the saints who have pleased me from the ages; enter into my palace, where there is no labor, nor sadness, nor groaning, nor weeping, but eternal and immortal life. Such are the gifts I bestow upon those who have kept my word; thus do I honor those who have honored me, thus do I glorify those who have glorified me: this rest I give to those who have cherished my members, the poor and the needy; thus I bless those who have cared for my churches; thus I repay generously and a hundredfold, eternal life. You gave me a fragment of bread, receive the heavenly kingdom: you gave me silver, receive the paradise of delight; you gave me an old garment, I clothe you in light that is never taken off: you gave me a cup of water, receive the living water of that rest: you brought me under a roof, behold I grant you to be with the angels: you gave me corruptible things, receive incorruptible; you gave me temporal things, receive eternal: you deemed me worthy of your table, receive eternal delights; you released me from prison, you visited me in my infirmity, you took away my hunger and thirst, you washed my feet, you warmed me who was shivering; behold, I grant you the bosom of Abraham. I received clay, I give pearls; I received hay, I give gold; for all that is yours, compared to my gifts, is hay and clay; for your things are earthly, mine are heavenly; all yours wither, mine are light, life, joy, and rest. I know what you have done for me, I know how much you have taken from your own mouths to satisfy my soul: I know, nor have I forgotten how often you have welcomed me as a guest, and for all these things, the good things which are in heaven and on earth, I grant to you, my friends, for ever and ever. A You have known, brethren, the gain of almsgiving, you have known its power and understood its utility. Then the Lord says to those who are on the left, those unmerciful ones who have lived their lives basely: "For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty and you did not give me to drink," etc. (Matt. XXV, 42). How often I came to your door seeking a commandment, and you turned me away empty-handed? How often I came into your houses, and saw table replete with every good thing, feeding harlots, dancers, and flatterers; and you deemed me not even worthy of a crust of bread? Was it your wealth that I was seeking? Or did you not give me even from what was mine to eat? How often I came to your houses under the pressure of severe winter, naked, shoeless, unable even to speak from the cold; and you with contempt left me outside, and did not count me even as one of your little dogs? Therefore depart from me, you cursed, into the outer fire, where the worm never sleeps and the gnashing of teeth: because you not only did not have mercy on me, but you even hindered those who wished to have mercy on me, saying: The poor are thieves, why have mercy on them? You feed dogs, B you care for lapdogs, beasts of burden, asses, pigs, sheep: of these, I say, you take care; but my members, the poor and the needy, you have never pitied: thus neither will you obtain mercy. Do you not know, O miserable ones, that every man attains salvation through the poor? Have you not read that I have called them my own brothers? Have you not heard the Scripture saying, "He who pities the poor, lends to God" (Prov. XIX, 17)? Have you not learned that, "Judgment is without mercy to him who has not shown mercy" (James II, 13)? Oh, how the poor, my brothers, have cried out, lamenting, weeping, mourning! What cry did they not employ, to bend your hard heart? "Have mercy," they said, "help us," saying, "give, O benefactors, give, O merciful ones, give, O friends of God, give, O gentle ones," and they employed six hundred other words and ways, which could have softened even stones, and turned wild beasts into gentleness: but you hardened your hearts, and not only did you not have mercy nor console them, but you even persecuted them from place to place; so that many perished from hunger and cold. O how many orphans you have unjustly harmed! How many widows you have oppressed! How many needy you have ground down! How many afflicted, naked, and captive you have made! How many wages of hirelings have you withheld, for which cause you will be tormented forever! Have you not learned from the five foolish virgins that every virtue without almsgiving is of no use? Whether you speak of virginity, or fasting, or prayer, or vigils, or dry food, hunger, thirst, whatever you offer without almsgiving, it is nothing. What finally shall I say against your inhuman custom? Therefore "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire" (Matt. XXV, 41). For into my palace the unmerciful does not enter, the heavenly mansions do not deem the inhuman worthy, into my paradise the profligate, the blasphemer and the deceitful do not enter: from my bridal chamber the fornicator, the adulterer, and the sodomite will be excluded; at my table the inhuman and the ungenerous will not recline: in the supernal mansions the rapacious and the covetous will not walk: to my royal court the thief and the reviler will not approach: at the supernal altar the liar, the slanderer, and the drunkard will not enter: in my house the covetous and the extortioner will not rest: in the heavenly veil the impure, the licentious, and the profane do not pass: into the eternal rest the slothful, C the sleepy and the murderer will not pass: at my supper the irascible, the murmurer, and he who remembers injuries, will not approach: in my bridal chamber the garrulous, the storyteller, and the buffoon will not dwell; in the eternal tabernacles the shameless or the envious will have no inheritance. Let no one be deceived, no unjust person or one akin to him will be admitted into the kingdom of heaven; but these alone shall enter: the givers, the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who are clean in heart, the peacemakers: these will enter into the kingdom of heaven, and will rejoice and exult, because their reward is great in heaven. But you, inhuman and unmerciful, go into the outer fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for as you have not had mercy, neither will you obtain mercy. Finally depart from me, you workers of iniquity, go into the everlasting darkness, cursed and detested, where the worm is sleepless, and the fire that is not extinguished: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. "And these will go into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Matt. XXV, 46). Having learned these things, then, brethren, come, and let us turn from our evil way: let us do penance, let us groan, let us strike our breasts, let us wake who were sleeping, let us bestir ourselves, let us mourn our sins: and if we have attacked anyone by calumny, if we have robbed, let us restore it, lest we be condemned. Let us show mercy, that we may find mercy: and if we have anything against anyone, whether poor or rich, let us forgive everything from our whole heart, as Christ commanded, lest we be condemned also at the day of judgment, like those unmerciful ones and haters of men. Let us be human one to another, placid, meek, friendly, modest, patient, bringing help to others, bearing with others, forgiving others, amending one another, admonishing, bearing one another's burdens: that we may escape the above-mentioned torments. D
the demons rejoice when they see sin; the angels of God exult when they behold repentance. For, according to the Lord’s voice, the angels of God exult over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7). Do not strip yourself bare, O man; do not cast aside the full armor of the Holy Spirit, that you may not become easily captured by your enemies. Grasp the shield of repentance, and shake off the darts of desire. Fornication is sweet, but it is harmful; temperance is difficult, but it is useful. Fornication has the nature of the body cooperating with it; temperance has the grace of the Spirit working with it. Where, therefore, there is fornication, there the devil dwells; but where there is temperance, there our Lord Jesus Christ reposes. For this reason the blessed Paul says: If any man defiles the temple of God, God shall destroy him (1 Cor. 3:17); and again he says: Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? God forbid! (1 Cor. 6:15). Let us, therefore, halt the rush of sin with the anchor of repentance, that the recurring gusts of our desires may not cause us to suffer shipwreck. But while sailors suffer shipwreck in the waters, sinners are submerged like lead into the river of fire that flows before the judgment seat of Christ, not with chariots and horses, but with the thoughts and intent of their hearts. Let us return to the kindness of Christ and His sufferings, so that we may not render His wounds in vain, in pursuit of shameful pleasure instead of glorious pleasure, and preferring a command of the enemy to the command of the Lord; for we would not be repaying Him for what He has done, but rather we would be taking His own members and making them members of a harlot—we, who are the members of Christ.