did the slaughter of the young children that took place in Bethlehem before the one preceding Herod not suffice, when the wailing of fathers and mothers in harmony was sharper than the cries of the slaughtered? When drops of copious tears gushing from the bowels overcame the fountains? When the breasts of fathers were beaten, and continuous sobs were sent forth from the heart with labor through the nostrils? When mothers mourned the tender shoots of their own loins withered out of season? When breasts flowing with milk whitened the earth, as the infants who were suckling were suddenly slaughtered? When the arms of fathers became empty of their own children, and the breasts of mothers longed for the irritating nips of tender teeth? For what beast did not then weep, seeing the innocent infants murdered unjustly, possessing guileless souls? Their souls were just as guileless as their limbs happened to be tender, being those of infants. For did those not even rebuke the Herod before you, who possessed neither distinct speech nor teeth in their mouths, so as to shape the tongue and send forth a word through the lips? The cruelty of those was not sufficient. And you, having imitated his heartlessness, beheaded John, of whom you were not worthy of even one hair. That one slaughtered the offspring of Rachel, and you beheaded John, the instructor of the Church. By what of these things shall I be merciful to you, says the Lord. O city of blood, in which Herod reigned, and his descendant of the same name and in the same way, these became leaders of disorder! Woe is me, that those who seem to be the rulers of such people, the Jews, have stoked the murder themselves, have killed Jeremiah, have fixed Naboth, having been taught for Christ-slaying they were driven on, they stoned Isaiah, they murdered Zachariah, they crucified Christ. But leaving behind for them the mourning for these evils, let us run up to the radiance of the sacred mystery in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
MONITION
Everything proclaims that this oration too is spurious, as it is ineptly redundant in flowery language, exclamations, and questions. There are also not a few words in such a short little work that are unusual for Chrysostom. That recent writer also attributed this homily to Severianus, and that only out of conjecture. I do not recognize Severianus here. But I think this and the two following are by the same writer, both because of the similarity of style and because, as is stated in the title, the first was delivered on Holy and Great Tuesday.ON THE FOLLOWING SERMON
The Latin interpretation is by Fronton du Duc.ON THE GOSPEL, "THE JEWS GATHERED A COUNCIL, AND WERE SAYING: WHAT ARE WE TO DO?" (John 11:47).
On Holy and Great Tuesday. The dearest children of the Church are like infants suckling at the breast, who draw the food of milk from the maternal teat every day and seek it at all times. We also resemble a mother in poverty, constrained by hunger in the sources of her milk. And just as when one sees a devoted mother devoid of milk, and being made to weep by her own child, putting the nipple to it—not in order to feed the child, but in order to stop the wailing—so we must look upon ourselves as suffering the same things and doing the same. For we, seeing this new gathering of the children of the Church standing around on all sides, and waiting for the rational milk of the word, we let down the nipple of our understanding; not in order to feed them (for we ourselves happen to be inexperienced and poor in the word), but in order to stop the longing and the heat. But come, beloved, let us run to the herald of the sun, that we may see the treacherous ambush being enacted by the Jews against the Lord. For it says, "the Jews gathered a council, and were saying: What are we to do?" These things the evangelist John was just now speaking to us. For even if he does not speak to us now with his mouth, yet with the Spirit he was crying out to the ears of those standing by. "They gathered," he says, "the council, and were saying: What are we to do?" Good is the "gathered," but evil is the "council"—not calling them to love, but to battle; not calling to peace, but inciting to war. They gathered the council, not that they might glorify God, but that they might dishonor Christ. They gathered the council, not that they might build up faith, but that they might cast away the cornerstone. They gathered the council, not that they might fold the strayed sheep, but that, having murdered the Shepherd, they might scatter the flock. They gathered the council, not that they might receive the snow-bright pearl with faith, but that they might darken the bright stone, as they thought, with unbelief. They gathered the council, not that they might gratefully receive the treasure hidden in the field, but that they might ungratefully dissolve the temple of God. They gathered the council, not that they might harvest the honey-dropping clusters of the vine, but that, having stretched the true vine onto the tree of the cross, they might make themselves tendrils of perdition, but make us tendrils of salvation. O council gathered by the devil against Christ; O deliberative body filled with malice; O council, rather of bloodthirsty wolves than of God-bearing men. But what do I say, of untamed wolves? But indeed they are even worse than untamed lions. For the lions in the time of Daniel, having seen no sign, yet having looked upon the man and honored his piety, bridled their own untamable mouths. But the Jews, having been spectators of such and so many signs, were more intensely armed by envy for murder, and were saying: "What are we to do?" O careful search for malice; O sighing and mourning born of envy; O lamentation and beating of the breast born of evils. Not even Rachel weeping for her children so groaned. "What are we to do?" Instead of which the wretches should have rejoiced, instead of which they should have celebrated a public day of gladness, because the dead have come to life, because Life has appeared, because death has been dissolved, because the devil has been put to shame, because the troop of demons has been rendered idle, because humanity has been liberated, because the resurrection of the dead has been proclaimed to all; but now, over such goods they do not rejoice, but they lament, and they plot to consume the cause of so many goods. And what do they say? "What are we to do?" There was nothing else to say than that we should repent and turn, and falling before Him, believe. For what else could they have to say while repenting, than this? "What are we to do," because we have transgressed the commandment of God, because we have not kept the law that was given to us, which says to us, that "The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet from among your brothers, like me; you will listen to Him" in all things, "whatever He commands you." But now they do not say, "What are we to do?" in order to repent, but, "What are we to do?"—how may we kill the righteous one? As the Israelite frenzied.
[LATIN COLUMN] A you shall not kill the innocent and righteous (Exod. 23:7; Dan. 13:53)? Is not the ancient blood of the prophets already shed sufficient for you? For even until this time it cries out to God and expects vengeance from Him. But that you might add to that blood even now, you condemn innocent and righteous blood, and say, "What are we doing?" O demented mind and ill-advised counsel! The man four days dead among them has risen, the bonds of sins have been broken: and they arm themselves for an insidious slaughter against him. They ought rather, with changed words, to have said: "What are we doing? Because we have heaped insults upon the Holy One? Because we have not believed in the Son of God? B What are we doing? He has wiped away the tubercula of lepers like dust with a word, and we have not believed him. What are we doing? We know those born blind who were given sight by him, and we have not believed him. What are we doing? We know that from five loaves five thousand were fed to satisfaction by him in the desert, and we have not believed him. What are we doing? He has dried up the sources of blood with the fringe of his garments, and we have not believed him. What are we doing? He has raised up the paralytic lying on a bed, who for thirty-eight years had been feeding the sickness of his life, with a word, and we have not even then believed him. What are we doing? We have watched him walking on the sea as if on dry land, and we know that he restrained the impulses and untamable whirlwinds of the surging waves with a mere gesture of his hand, yet we did not believe him. But they said, "What are we doing?"—not that they might repent, but that they might gratify their malice. Their own region was producing dead men living like white and ripe harvests, with no labor of their own, and they were groaning. Have you not reaped, O Jews, what you sowed? Was any one of you harmed having received the Lord? In what matter were you affected and burdened by some loss? In what were you injured by God? Why, moved by envy, do you bar the dead from life? Why do you wish to break the channels of the perennial honey-flowing fount, from which those who drink will not thirst any more? Why do you kill your own fields while you wish to remove their physician from the midst? But the cause of all these things is most pernicious envy. C O envy, mother of death, invention of the devil, author of mortality! O envy, which neither wishes those whom you envy to live, and torments those who foster you even more vehemently! O envy, devil's companion! O envy, enemy of friendship, foe of peace, adversary of charity, offspring of the devil, a flower of dark color, those who possess you devise the death of Christ! You envied Adam even from the beginning in paradise, and having tasted the sweet pleasure, you delivered him to most bitter death: for there would not be death in the world, had not you, O envy, brought it forth. The authority of the divine books testifies to this in these words: God did not make death, nor does He exult in the destruction of men. But by the envy of the devil death entered into the world (Wisd. 1:13; 2:24). You also stripped Cain of the shining garment of fraternal love, and armed him with the sword of insidious slaughter: you taught him to kill, and immediately to tremble, the wretch. You, sitting in the mind of Pharaoh, withered the newborn infants of the Hebrews like grass. You, O envy, having been benefited, are moved more vehemently against those who benefited you; just as Saul, helped by David and then corrupted by you, was carried off more ardently to slaughter. Driven by you, the sons of Jacob sent the handsome and splendid Joseph into dark Egypt, and sold the free man as a slave; and not even dreams frightened them: for a divine vision indicated that he was a figure of Christ; for he was adored by eleven stars in a vision; after which also the traitor Judas, moved by envy, ended his life with a noose. But let us, fleeing from envy, the parent of death, rising up, celebrate with praises God, whom we adore in the Trinity, since to Him pertains power, honor, glory, and magnificence, now and always, and for ages of ages. Amen.
ON THE PARABLE OF THE TEN VIRGINS, AND ON ALMSGIVING (Matt. 25:1). On the Holy and Great Tuesday.
D When I consider the end of life, and the circling, vacillating wheel of the passing year, and the life of men exposed to many troubles, and human accidents, the fleeting age, the shadow of affairs, the flux of glory, the fragility of power, the image of prosperity, and the dream of riches; when I subsequently consider that extreme day, and the inevitability of that speed of consummation, the time for rendering an account, and the Judge unyielding to any blandishments, and the horrendous constitution of the judgment; how the Judge arrives flashing from the heavens, how the moved celestial virtues precede [him], in what manner the formidable throne is prepared, the heaven is rolled up like a book, the elements are dissolved and inflamed by fear, the ground shakes receiving the Judge's approach, what a horrendous clamor the trumpets give forth, the monuments are opened, the tombs are shaken out, the dead leap up awakened from sleep, the dust in the twinkling of an eye returns to its own disposition, how souls return to their own bodies, the righteous proceed to the encounter; how the bridegroom stands at midnight, and the righteous are deemed worthy of entry, how the doors of the bridal chamber are shut against the negligent: when I have revolved all these things in my mind, I reckon as blessed those prudent virgins whom the book of the Gospels proposed to us a little while ago; because both they fought against the infirmity of sleep, and having observed the mutable condition of the passing time, reflecting on divine and immortal life and the fleeting age, they watched for the hour of the arrival, and stirred up their spirit with fear of the encounter with the incorruptible bridegroom, and because when they had explored the nocturnal darkness, they took accurate care of the lamps. But nothing prevents us from going through the very words divine. *It is made like*, he says, *the kingdom of heaven to ten virgins, who having taken their lamps, went forth to meet the bridegroom* (Matt. 25:1). But when, I ask, did they go forth? Perhaps when the set day of life grasped them? When the command arrived, when the sentence of death was brought, when the urgent angels were sent, then they went forth to meet the bridegroom? By no means. But when finally did they go forth? When they sent word to secular distractions, when they decided to walk through the narrow and strait path, when they fell in love with voluntary harsh education, when they did not bind themselves to the laws of marriage, when they neglected the pleasures of life, when they chose the better part of incorruption, when they became enamored of the ways of true joy, when they detested the filth of sin, when they entered into the covenant of temperance, when they burned with the love of the holy Bridegroom, when they desired the beauty of the kingdom, when they cast off all care of the secular life: then they went forth to meet the bridegroom. *There were, however*, he says, *five prudent, and five foolish* (Ibid. v. 2). From whence are the prudent distinguished? From this namely, that they coupled almsgiving with continence, they adorned virginity with beneficence, they understood that faith without works is dead, they judged one praiseworthy thing not to be sufficient for salvation; for an eagle does not lift itself to the heights with one wing. They remembered the voice of that Bridegroom saying, *I desire mercy, and not sacrifice* (Hos. 6:6); and again, *Mercy exults over judgment* (Jas. 2:13). These things correctly pondering with themselves they had filled their vessels with oil. What vessels, however? Namely, those of the hunger-stricken...