The thief said to the sycamore in the case of Zacchaeus,1 to signify that the wide and spacious way is intertwined with the mulberry tree, whence the most evil fate is born. The Lord came to the fig tree. This fig tree bore the image of the wide and spacious way; for the plant of the soul is broad-leaved, and sin is itchy, leading through the wide and spacious way to perdition. Most sweet is the fruit of the fig; sweet is pleasure, casting those who approach it into the slip of sin. Flee its taste, O beloved; for it is sweet in the tasting, but bitter after the act. For honey distills from the lips of a harlot, and for a time it lubricates the throat; but afterward you will find it more bitter than bile, and sharper than a two-edged sword. Pleasure is a harlot, speaking sweetly to you at the beginning, surreptitiously inserting into the discourse the bitterness of death. Such was also the serpent, sweet in speech, and bitter in guile; sweet was the food, but bitter the fall. Flee then, beloved, the harlot, who speaks sweetly to you and brings bitter wounds; flee pleasure as Elijah fled Jezebel. The Lord came, therefore, from the heavens; He hungered to find the life of men; He found the wide and spacious way of this life standing; He came upon it, and He finds it flourishing with leaves, that is to say, blooming with the doctrines of sin, but not yet having fruit of death. Why? Because the time was not yet; for the evangelist added this: "He had no fruit," he says, "for it was not the time." For how could it still bear fruit of death, with Jesus present and proclaiming resurrection to the world? Its time to bear fruit of death was no longer; for "death reigned from Adam until Moses," that is, until the Law. For Scripture knows how to call the Law "Moses," as in the Gospel: "They have Moses and the prophets." The Lord said to it, no longer—and "May no fruit come from you forever." That is to say: Before my presence, you bore the fruit of death; behold, I have arrived, this is the resurrection. With me present, "may no fruit come from you forever." And immediately the fig tree was dried up; and that which is written was fulfilled: "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O hades, where is thy victory?" For the evangelist, having said it was winter at that time in which the fig tree was flourishing with leaves, hinted that sin was flourishing, because the devil was a winter hanging over all humanity. For before the presence of the peace-maker, the race of men was labored by diverse spirits, driven toward idolatry and bloodshed and revelry and lust; but having come, our Lord Jesus A B C D
Homily on the Pharisee
As a father who loves his children, being drawn by his own love to converse with his dearest offspring, and because they are infants unable to hear perfect words on account of the childishness of their custom, the father changes his voice, and laying aside the rapid flow of eloquence, begins to lisp to them, leading his dearest ones from speaking and hearing to a greater comprehension of words; in the same way, also, our Lord, through His great love for His own creation, although being God the Word, took on human speech and came to us, in order that from His speaking and dwelling with us, He might show a heavenly revelation and lead us onto the heavenly ladder, that is, of hope. He is, therefore, called to a meal by a Pharisee, as we have just heard the Gospel proclaiming, and He does not turn away the one calling Him; for He did not come to show the dignity of His divinity, but to rescue fallen humanity from the underworld. He is called to a meal by a Pharisee, and He does not refuse, in order that He might instruct the rich not to despise the tables of the needy, and teach the righteous not to spit upon the tables of sinners.
On Lazarus and the Rich Man, Sixth Homily
A for those who seem to themselves to be righteous, and treat the tables of the poor with disdain, and for the rich. For the Lord, desiring that all should be most dear to Him, lovers of brothers, full of love, and humble of heart, is the first to begin the work, so that He may teach us by His own actions. Therefore He says: *Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart* (Matt. 11:29). You, therefore, who are exercised in religion, if you are called by some sinner, do not refuse: even if some one should reproach you and say, "Why do you eat and drink with sinners?" answer him in turn, saying: *They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill* (Matt. 9:12), that I may convert the sinners. The Lord is invited to a meal, and He does not refuse, He who from five loaves fed five thousand to satiety in the desert: who dried up the impassable sea, and led Israel through the sea as if through a meadow green with grass: who rained down manna upon them from heaven, and all day long white snows from the splendor of the manna. The Lord is invited to a meal, and He does not refuse, teaching those who invite Him with the best of teachings in their meals. For He goes to the meal, not that He may be filled with the feasts of the Pharisee, but that the Pharisee may be filled with the Lord's teachings. He is invited to a meal, and enters into the house of the Pharisee, and hides His divinity with humanity, lest perchance, if he had suddenly seen the flashing splendor of His divinity, he who had invited the Lord should flee from his own house. The King of heaven enters into the house of the Pharisee to the captive, and covers His royal majesty with the leathern armor of the flesh, lest, if the captive should behold the King of heaven, he might tremble and hide himself in the recesses of the earth. The Sun of justice enters into the house of the Pharisee, veiling the sparks of His rays, which flash like gold, in the cloud of the body, lest, if man should look upon Him, he might lose his sight. The heavenly Pastor enters into the house of the Pharisee; having left the ninety and nine sheep on the B mountains, He enters to that which had perished (Matt. 18:12): He enters into His own fold, hiding the Pastor with the lamb of His body. He does not carry the staff, he does not brandish the rod to threaten because of the former error, lest the sheep, terrified and alarmed, might leap back again from His fold: but He enters the house of the Pharisee, not as God, not as King, not as the Sun of justice, but as man to man, as lamb to lamb. He eats together with him, is fed with him, sits with him, enters together, reclines with him who had already fallen into sin, so that, while reclining with him, he who had already fallen might be raised up together. And when He had entered, He was not baptized according to the custom of the Pharisees. He did this for two reasons: that He might give the sheep an occasion to address the Pastor, and that He might overturn the Jewish doctrine and establish the spiritual one. For, He says, the Pharisee saw it, and wondered why He had not first been baptized; not praising the Master, but ignorant of what had taken place: not praising, but judging. And it was possible to see, most beloved, the Creator of all living things being judged by the creature, and the potter corrected by the clay. This happened to the Pharisee because he did not behold with the eyes of his heart Him who was inwardly the prince of the angelic orders. For if he had seen Him, he would have prostrated himself at His knees, and washed His feet with tears, and said: *Be merciful to me a sinner* (Luke 18:13). For thus he would have addressed Him: C You have made all things, when they were not, that they might be: by Your word the heavens were confirmed, and by Your spirit all their powers. You gather together as in a bottle the waters of the sea, laying up the depths in storehouses (Ps. 32:6-7): before You the whole world of the earth trembles and flees. But since he had neither thought nor said any of these things, he was judging the Lord. But when the Lord had provided an occasion, as with the Samaritan woman, from the fact that He asked water from her, He gave her a handle to ask for heavenly water from Him (John 4:9). And so the Lord begins to convert the sheep little by little, and to lead him by the hand from error to the truth itself. For now you Pharisees! you cleanse what is on the outside of the cup and the platter; but what is within is full of rapine (Luke 11:39) and wickedness: that is, you indeed now adorn the body, but you deform your souls. In what way, then, will it please the eye, even if it be golden, when it contains a deadly potion within? Are not harlots such as these, who paint their faces with flowery colors, but destroy their souls? For do they not, while they redden their faces with rouge, fashion with their own fingers an image of the flame that is to receive them? When it would behoove them rather to sprinkle their hearts with the blood of Jesus, or rather to tinge them with a rosy color, and to whiten their hearts with the Spirit: so that the flowery species of the soul, shining as if a rose mixed with lilies, might appear. But now they inflame their faces, so that they might kindle the minds of the young to madness. Now you, Pharisees, cleanse what is on the outside of the cup and the platter; but what is within you is full of rapine and iniquity: as if He said: Why do you wash the body indeed with water, but do not cleanse your offenses through the Spirit? For I would dare to say, most beloved, that it will profit a man nothing, even if he cleanses his body, unless he has the Spirit as a helper and almsgiving as a companion. For just as a cup, even if it be cleaned inside and out, if it contains no potion, cannot satisfy the longing of one who is thirsty; in the same way, the platter: so also a man, even if he has been cleaned inside and out, will not please the Lord, unless he has fed his fellow-servant. For this reason the Lord adds, and says: *But yet that which remaineth*, He says, *give alms; and behold, all things are clean unto you* (Luke 11:41). That which remaineth, He says: for He is not so much pleased by the gifts of the opulent, and by the sincere and in no way feigned offering of the simple. Do not lament, you poor man, because you do not have gold, or so many ships laden with silver: cast into the treasury that which you have, even two mites justify. Remember that widow, who was justified beyond the opulent. For God truly knows not how to weigh money, but He tests the conscience. Almsgiving wipes away the stains of souls, and stores up the rewards of good things: almsgiving is the vital provision of the soul, almsgiving whitens souls, almsgiving is the soul's confidence, a renowned warfare. Cast out gold, and receive the Lord: give silver, and receive that which is holy: scatter copper, and together with these the rust of sin will depart: irrigate the furnace, and give garments, that you may receive healings in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ages of ages. Amen.