MONITUM
Photius, in his *Bibliotheca* (chap. 25), mentions seventeen homilies of Chrysostom on Pentecost, among the number of which these three, which we place in the category of spurious works, perhaps belonged. Savile placed them among the doubtful works (ἀμφιβαλλόμενα); Fronto Ducaeus published only the former, though he considered it spurious: a view with which I also concur. Most scholars similarly agree; for the style differs remarkably from Chrysostom’s manner of speaking. Someone thought it to be the work of Severian, bishop of Gabala; this was said by conjecture. It could have been pronounced by Severian, or it could have been concocted by another under Chrysostom’s name; this is what I would more willingly believe. The final words of the homily are most worthy of observation: it is said that the Emperor then reigning was of immature age, and was both the son of Theodosius and the father of a Theodosius. Therefore it was Arcadius, yet how could he be of immature age if he was already a father? Truly, Chrysostom could not have said this; for when he was co-opted as bishop of Constantinople, Arcadius was 21 years of age, as Tillemont nicely observes, who thinks these words crept into the text from the margin. But the ancient Interpreter [includes] these...
IN PENTECOSTEN. SERMO I.
Today, heaven has become earth for us—not by stars descending from heaven to earth, but by apostles ascending above the heavens, because the grace of the Holy Spirit has been poured out. It has made the inhabited world a heaven, not by changing its nature, but by amending the will. It found a tax collector and made him an evangelist; it found a blasphemer and made him an apostle; it found a robber and led him into paradise; it found a harlot and rendered her more chaste than a virgin; it found magi and changed them into evangelists. It cast out malice, introduced virtue, and brought the grace of God. Earth has become heaven. In what way are the stars to be compared to the apostles? The stars are A in heaven; the apostles are above the heaven. *Set your minds on things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God* (Col. 3:1). The stars are from a sensible fire; the apostles from a spiritual fire. The stars shine at night, they are hidden by day; the apostles shine with their rays both by night and by day. The stars are hidden when the sun rises; the apostles shine with their own splendor when the Sun of Justice rises. The stars will fall like leaves at the resurrection; the apostles will be caught up in the clouds at the resurrection. And among the stars, indeed, one is Hesperus, another is Lucifer; but among the apostles there is no Hesperus, but all are Lucifers. Therefore, the apostles are more splendid than the stars themselves; nor would one err if one were to call them the luminaries of the world, not only while they lived, but even now after they have migrated from life. For the grace given to the saints is not cut off by death, is not obscured by departure, is not dissolved into the earth: the facts themselves testify to this. They were fishermen, and fishermen they died; but their nets are always working—that which the multitude of those who daily achieve salvation testifies. B If then they were catching fish unto death, now they catch men unto salvation; making the lame run, the blind see, the lepers clean, putting demons to flight. A little later in that old version it is read: For they were vinedressers and fishermen, and towers, and columns, and physicians, and leaders, and teachers, and harbors, and pilots, and shepherds, and athletes, and wearers of crowns. The Greek text in many places seems either maimed or corrupted. Below, too, in the old Latin version, certain things are included which are not in the Greek. They were vinedressers, and after they departed, the vine is adorned with leaves and laden with fruit. Truly, they were vinedressers and fishermen, and columns and physicians, and leaders and teachers. Columns, because they sustained the roof of the faith; harbors, because they repressed the waves of impiety; pilots, because they led the world from earth to heaven by hand; shepherds, because they warded off wolves and saved the sheep; vinedressers, because they pulled up the thorns and scattered the seeds of piety; physicians, because they cured our wounds. And so that you may learn that these things are not idly boasted, I bring forward Paul, who performed all these things. Do you wish to see him as a sower? *I planted, Apollos watered* (1 Cor. 3:6). Do you wish to see an architect? *As a wise architect, I laid the foundation* (1 Cor. 3:10). Do you wish to see a pugilist? *So I fight, not as one beating the air... our struggle is not against flesh and blood* (Eph. 6:12). Do you wish to see a runner? *So that from Jerusalem even to Illyricum I have fulfilled the gospel of God* (Rom. 15:19). C Do you wish to see a leader? *Putting on the breastplate of faith* (Eph. 6:14). Do you wish to see a contestant? *I have fought the good fight* (2 Tim. 4:7). Do you wish to see one crowned? *For the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice* (Ibid. v. 8). Being one, he became all things, imitating his Lord. For our Lord, although He was one in substance, transformed Himself into all forms. For what reason into all forms? For the sake of our salvation. You were a branch; He was the root: for *I am the vine, you are the branches* (John 15:5). You wished to journey; He became the way for you: *If by me anyone enters and departs, he shall find pasture* (John 10:9). You became a sheep: He became a shepherd for you: *For I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his soul for his sheep* (Ibid.). [He became the Lamb] of God, who takes away the sin of the world (Ibid. 1:29). You wished to eat; He became a table for you. You wished to drink: He became a cup for you: *He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, abides in me, and I in him* (Ibid. 6:57). You wished to be clothed; He became... D
a garment for you: *For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ* (Gal. 3:27). You wished to be a bride: He became a bridegroom for you: *He that has the bride is the bridegroom* (John 3:29). You wished to marry: He became a husband to you: *For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ* (2 Cor. 11:2). You were a harlot, and you have become a virgin. O new and paradoxical things! Among those outside, marriage dissolves virginity, but in spiritual matters, He took a harlot and made her more honorable than a virgin. Interpret this, O heretic: how is a harlot a virgin? I cannot inquire too curiously; but I am held by faith. All these things the grace of the Spirit A has wrought. Grace was poured out, *And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire* (Acts 2:3); not fire, but *like as of fire*. If it were fire, why were they not burned? the Jew asks. Or rather, I ask the Jew: how did the fire not burn the bush, which was but woody timber? What is fiercer than fire? What is more common than a bush? Yet neither was the wood burned, nor was the fire extinguished. And again, how did it not consume the bodies of the three children, but the furnace was changed into dew, and they thought the coals were a rose-garden? There was a conflict of fire and bodies, and the victory was of the bodies; for being softer than wax, they became firmer than iron. Interpret for me the things of the ancients; but those things had preceded, that the truth might be believed.
Why was the Holy Spirit in fire? Because of the swiftness of the mind of those who receive Him. And not for this cause only, but because just as fire consumes thorns, so the Spirit consumes sins. The saint was cast into the pit, and He muzzled the lions. The fishermen went round the world, taking it while it was sick, and they led it back to health; taking it while it was in rebellion, they guided it to good order, not wielding spears, not hurling bows, not dispatching arrows, not possessing an abundance of wealth, not using rhetorical speeches; but they were naked of garments, and clothed in Christ; poor and yet rich, deprived of money, yet possessing the kingdom alone—and not alone, they were alone among men, but they possessed their own Master. *For I am*, He says, *with you always, even unto the end of the world* (Matt. 28:20). They went round the whole world, the sheep among the wolves. Who has seen, who has heard, what He says: *Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves* (Matt. 10:16). What shepherd sends sheep into the midst of wolves? But when the shepherd sees the wolf, he drives the sheep away; but Christ did the opposite: He sent the sheep to the wolves, and the sheep did not become prey, but the wolves changed into the gentleness of the sheep. And that they might not say, "We are sheep, and You send us as fodder for the wolves and as a banquet for the beasts," He cleared their thought with one word. He did not say, "Go away," nor did He send them by their own power; but, *Behold I send you*. You are weak; but He who sends you is powerful. Who are You? I am He who fixed the heavens, who founded the earth, who laid out the sea, who nailed the handwriting against you to the cross, who overturned the old law, who brought you back to your ancient homeland, who unbinds the strong and invigorates the paralyzed.
What is stronger than the sea? Yet the small sand holds back that unbearable violence. *Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves*. The beasts become a wall for the sheep, so that they might not even find salvation by flight. O the power of the Sender! The sheep in the midst, and the wolves in a circle; but they were changed, and became sheep. For they were not wolves by nature, but by choice. *Behold I send you*. What then do you command? *Be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves* (Matt. 10:16). What do you say, "Wise as serpents"? If the serpent receives ten thousand wounds, yet saves its head, it is whole. Even so with you; even if the adversary wants to take money, give it; even if possessions, even life itself; only keep your faith. B Be wise. That remaining, all things are easy and light. *Naked you came out of your mother's womb, and naked you shall return* (Job 1:21). But is someone banishing you? *The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof* (Ps. 23:1). But are you dying? But death to you is a departure. Only do not lose the faith, the inexhaustible treasure, the unspendable faith. These martyrs are witnesses to these things; because they did not lose the faith, even after death they are more powerful than the living. For this cause I became man, for this cause I took on flesh, that I might work the Church of the world. For the Church is very much an object of concern to God, not secured by walls, but fenced about by faith. For the sake of the Church heavens were established, and the sea poured forth, 790 and air spread out, and earth founded, paradise planted, law given, prophets sent, miracles performed, the sea split and stitched back together, the rock rent and again joined, manna brought down, and a table prepared on the spot. For the sake of the Church, prophets; for the sake of the Church, apostles; and why do I say much? For the sake of the Church the only-begotten Son of God became man, as Paul says: *Who spared not his own Son* (Rom. 8:32). He did not spare the Son, that He might spare the Church; He poured out the blood of the Son for the Church. This blood waters it; because of this, the plants cannot wither, nor do they shed their leaves. It is not subject to the necessities of the seasons, nor does it serve times, blossoming in leaves in summer, and being stripped in winter. For it is not the necessity of seasons, but the grace of the Spirit that cultivates it; for this reason it is not uprooted. But it is not wonderful that it is not uprooted, but that even with many warring against it, it is not uprooted. How many from the beginning have warred against the Church? When it was a new plant, many things were moved against it. For now, through the grace of God and the power of the Spirit, both pious emperors and generals and all the world are filled with the faith; but in the beginning and at its outset, emperors were given to impiety, generals were impious, edicts of rulers [were issued], altars lit, smoke and savor everywhere. The air was polluted, the earth was defiled, demons were reveling, the devil was dancing, father killed son, son dishonored father; nature was being torn asunder, but piety was not divided. Where now are they who dared to draw up battle lines against the Church? When it was a new plant, it was not harmed: when it has touched the heavens, do you expect to prevail over it? When there were eleven apostles, no one mastered them, but the eleven hauled in so many myriads; now when the sea, and the world, and the desert land, and cities, and all the ends are filled with piety, do you then hope to master it? But you cannot; for Christ has declared: *The gates of hell shall not prevail against it* (Matt. 16:18). It is easier for the heaven to disappear, and the earth to perish, than for the Church to suffer anything. Christ Himself says: *Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away* (Matt. 24:35). And rightly so; for the word of God is more powerful than heaven itself; for heaven is the work of the Word. God said, *Let there be a heaven*; and the word became a work. Nature ran, and there was nothing hindering it. For He was the Master of nature, both to make it such, and to change it such. I built it, who set up the heavens; but I would not have taken a body above the heavens, that you might learn that the Church is more honorable than both heaven and angels and all creation. For this reason *Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away*. Let the Jew be present, let the Greek be present. If the words are a boast, let him prove it; if the things said are truth, let him worship the power. Christ said: *Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away*. What then are His words? Let us set them in the midst, let us see if they have fallen. I do not speak doubting, but silencing the heretic. For this reason, *Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away*. Which words? *You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it* (Matt. 16:18). *Upon this rock*. He did not say, "Upon Peter"; for He built His Church not upon the man, but upon his faith. But what was the faith? *You are the Christ*, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16). He called the Church a rock, which the floods of waves strike, but it is not shaken. For the Church is tested, but it is not conquered. What is this, "Upon the rock"? Upon the confession of His word. What, do you say, "Upon these stones? Upon these rocks? Upon this lime? Upon this iron?" By no means, He says; for such a structure as this, which is built anywhere, is dissolved by time—
fession, not even demons can overcome. Of this, the martyrs are witnesses, whose sides were flayed, yet they did not lose their faith. O wondrous things! The wall is dug through, yet the treasure is not carried off; the flesh is consumed, yet the faith is not forfeited: such, indeed, is the power of the martyrs. For "Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Observe the accuracy of the words: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Why, they ask, does He not prevent the temptations from attacking the Church? He does not prevent them, so that He may show His power. If no one were to attack her, they could say: "If she were attacked, she would surely be conquered." Therefore He allows her to be attacked, that the victory may not be ascribed to the weakness of the attackers. And "the gates of hell"—He does not say, "shall not hit her," but "shall not prevail against her." She shall be attacked, but not conquered. The Church is tempest-tossed, but not submerged; she is battered by waves, but not overwhelmed; she receives arrows, but is not wounded; she is beset by machines, but the tower is not shaken. And why do I speak of the Church? The fisherman uttered one word, and she stands like an immovable tower. How many tyrants have tried to destroy this word, and have not been able? For it was founded upon the rock. Fix your mind on this: tyrants, Emperors, crowns, sharp swords, the teeth of wild beasts, the threatened terrors of death, frying pans, furnaces: the devil has indeed emptied his own quiver, but he has not devoured the Church. Why? "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." How many impugners of the Church from the beginning? Where are they now? They have been given over to silence and oblivion, while the Church flourishes. Where is Claudius? Where is Augustus? Where is Nero? Where is Tiberius? They are mere names; no one remembers them. Because they fought against the Church, there is no mention of them; but the Church shines more brightly than the sun. Wherever you go—to the Indians, to the Moors, to the Britons—to the whole world, you will find it: "In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:1). Formerly, places were filled with impiety; but now even the desert is full of piety. Previously, queens used to dance—for in the birthday of Herod, the daughter of Herodias danced (Matt. 14:6)—today, not even a handmaid deems it worthy to do so. In the past, the Persians would marry their own mothers; today, they cherish virginity. In the past, the Goths would kill their fathers; today, they do not hesitate to pour out their own blood for the sake of true religion. Heretofore, even private citizens were impious; today, Emperors and peoples are pious. The Emperor of our day, having laid aside his diadem and taken up the cross, while still of tender age, shows a wisdom worthy of gray hairs, not recognizing imperial office within the church. Outside, there is a bodyguard, but here, divine mysteries; outside, shields, but here, the initiations of the sacred rites: the son of Theodosius and the father of Theodosius. For all these things, let us give thanks to God, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
ON HOLY PENTECOST · SERMON II
The grace of the Spirit has arrived; for He who promised the gift of the Holy Spirit is truthful. The Paraclete has arrived, proclaimed by the Lord Christ; for He who foretold His coming to us cannot lie. It is not a servant who predicts the arrival of a master, but the Lord was the messenger of Him who possesses equal honor with the Master; and the good teacher yields place to the good teacher, or rather, He is nearby even when present, and ascends with the Ascending One, and comes with the Descending One. For the grace of the Trinity is indivisible; and neither did He who ascended depart, nor was He who came ever absent. But the Word of God ascended as man, yet He is present; the Paraclete descended, yet He did not leave the heavens, but reigns with the Father and illuminates the earth. He fulfilled the dispensation, and sent the tongues of all languages to the apostles. A great voice was heard on a sudden; a sound of a vehement wind was produced; the arrival of the Holy Spirit imitated the roar of thunder, for He was coming upon the sons of thunder. "And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire" (Acts 2:3). And that which appeared was terrible, yet that which was happening was desirable: a flame encroaching, yet not burning; a fire settling, yet not consuming; a fire that imparted heavenly wisdom, a fire that was divided into countless languages, a fire divided into the forms of words; a flame that taught the fishermen how to argue, and made the leather-worker a rhetorician. Indeed, the sophists are not to be compared to these. For the former were teachers of one nation only, while these were tutors of the entire world. A Galilean spoke in the language of the Medes; he knew the Parthian; he was not ignorant of the Elamite. He carried the images of all dialects in his mouth. None of the listeners thought him a barbarian, nor did they recoil from hearing words like those of a stranger; but he was heard by every nation as a fellow-tribesman, because he carried the language of the whole world around with him, and we have received the first fruit of piety. For in the construction of the tower, the kinds of voices were divided, and men grew ignorant of one another's languages. And since it was necessary that the concord of the God-opposing purpose be dissipated by ignorance of words, and that those who were working together and badly be separated by the change of tongues, and that they hear of their absurd attempts from [confused] words—so that he who spoke said nothing, and he who heard understood nothing, lest time be spent in vain. What gain is there for you in arrogance? What is the end of such a work? Why do you strive to apprehend Him who cannot be apprehended? Why do you contend to seize heaven itself, when you are not even worthy to enjoy the earth? Why speak of sublime things, when you do not even understand the voice of your neighbor? I divide your voice and language, and I dissolve the work; not that I fear your ascent, nor that I fear for my kingdom, but because I am solicitous for you who labor and grow weary in vain. For not the structure of stones, nor a tower built by many hands, can lead into heaven, but the chariot of divine knowledge, the horses of righteousness, a life purer than light, and the wings of virtue lead on that path. Those people, the divided tongues deterred from their daring, God having thus wisely and mercifully dispensed things. But what He took away from them as being wicked, this He bestowed upon the apostles as being righteous; and He who through language had punished the wicked, through language honored the holy ones; and the ministers of His Word receive forms, not using the gift for display, but receiving the gift for use. It was necessary for the teachers of the world to know the languages of the world. A teacher is surely weak who is not understood by his disciples. But they, as those to whom such great mysteries had been entrusted, necessarily received the knowledge of languages first. For no one can teach anyone mysteries unless he has previously believed; nor can anyone believe unless he grasps what is being said. Hence the grace of the Spirit began, and therefore He issued the miracles of sounds first. "Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth." He was about to...