A the sheep. And the Pharisees went out and took counsel against him, how they might destroy him. "And the Pharisees went out." From where? From the commandment, from the Law, from life. For they who devise death for another are the first to let go of the light of life. "And the Pharisees went out and took counsel." And the writer does not say from whom, stirring up our own mind to inquiry. "And the Pharisees went out and took counsel." From whom? It is clear: from the devil, who was a murderer from the beginning. "And the Pharisees went out and took counsel, how they might destroy him." The "how"—in what manner? By stone? By sword? By fire or water? And their counselor, the devil, recalling the wood from the beginning, through which he killed Adam, flees again to it, and counsels them to crucify Jesus on a piece of wood. He was ignorant that that wood was about to undo the ancient transgression of the wood and to cause life to spring up for men. "And the Pharisees went out and took counsel, how they might destroy him." O most wicked counsel, sown through envy and tested through envy! O vain plan! For they are ignorant that God is not destroyed. They will dissolve the earthen lamp of the body, but they cannot extinguish his unquenchable torch of divinity. And the Pharisees went out and took counsel, how they might destroy him. O marvelous thing, and new mystery! Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost, and these seek to destroy the finder of the lost. For what cause, tell us, Jews, do you counsel such things against him? But they are ashamed to speak; we shall denounce their shame everywhere. For why, he says, does he raise the dead? And why does he heal the infirm? Why does he speak what is good? Why does he do what is good? Why does he teach what is good? For these are all the charges [764] for which they counsel to destroy him. When innocent children go forth taking palm branches, proclaiming his victory through the branches, and saying in his praise, "Hosanna in the highest," they, being pricked by the stings of envy, are pierced; for the praises of the envied are darts for the envious. And they approach Jesus and say to him, "Do you not hear what these are saying?" And they did not know that what was written was being prophetically fulfilled: "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise" (Ps. VIII, 2). When Jezebel was making forged letters against Naboth, you gladly endured it; when Pilate writes good words upon the title, you are indignant, and hinder it from being written. For what do they say? "Write not, that he is the King of the Jews." Write not—instead of, "The truth." Write not—so that no one may be benefited, so that no one may be made whole unto piety. They were surely not so indignant against those who wrote the dramas of the stage-players, nor even now do the many attend to the songs of the demons. And they do not grieve about those things, but about the divine teachings they grieve because they are written. And is there not anything worse than every evil, that the monologues of Philistion are written, but the doxologies of Jesus are not written, through which we are led to heaven? But if there were indeed some novice among the B teachers in speech, yet speaking the things of God, would it not be better that his words be written than the demon-inspired mythologies of the Greeks? For it is profitable for the youth to be educated, chanting in the sayings of the theologians, even if they happen to be simple, possessing a blameless mind, and not being engaged in the teachings of the demons to go raving into lasciviousness. "Write not." Why, "Write not"? For what does it harm you? And of what wealth does the writing of the truth deprive you? Another, by the eagerness of what was written, did not feel pain in his hand, yet they beat their breasts. But if even the Pharisees said these things to Pilate, and hindered him from writing the letters of truth, he, even though he was a Gentile, said to them, "What I have written, I have written" (John XIX, 22). This teaching also is fitting for us, so that when heretics advise us to depart from the faith, we may say to them: "What we have written, we have written." And the Pharisees went out and took counsel, how they might destroy him. But Jesus knew and withdrew from thence. He knew, not having learned from another, but having known from himself; for he was, and is, the Knower of hearts, just as John the evangelist also says: "For he had no need," he says, "that anyone should tell him about a man" (John II, 25). But Jesus knew and withdrew from thence, not fearing death, but awaiting the time of the cross. For it was necessary for him first to raise the dead, to heal the infirm, to fill many who were hungry, to strengthen many in the faith, and then to come to that celebrated death, or rather, bridal chamber. It was necessary for him first to set up the wood of the mystery of the cross, and then with fervent Spirit to run to those lying in Hades. C But Jesus knew and withdrew from thence. Where guile appears not, he flees; where murder is plotted, he withdraws; where love is woven, both the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit dwell. Let us weave, therefore, beloved, the threefold love, not with deceitful tongues, but with manifest hands; so that Emmanuel may be with us, to whom be glory and power unto the ages of ages. Amen.
On the Harlot and the Pharisee
Today the Pharisee called the Master to a banquet, having mingled an insult with the honor; but the harlot entertained him with faith. For when he was in the house of Simon, behold, a harlot woman (Mark XIV, 3). A mad spectacle, a harlot in the city, the war within the walls, the arrow without iron, the birdlime of youth, the sharpening-stone of desire, the arousal of the passions, the trade of the body, the fruitless business, the harmful traffic, which brings death both to the seller and the buyer, the net of youth, the uncovered trap. For the eye of a harlot is a snare of sinners; the inn of lasciviousness, that which sells herself, and leads those who buy her into slavery, the many-headed lioness, the stench of the city, the pestilence that creeps against every sense, the hook of the eyes, the wandering death, the market of destruction, the desire of perdition, the scent of death, the many-trodden gangrene. Behold a woman in the city, the ruin of the inhabitants, the tyranny of marriages, the overthrow of chastity, the war of husbands and wives, the table of wasteful spending, the emptying of purses, the outflow of money, the loss of labors, the winepress of heirs, which those who tread the winepress danced for their own nakedness. Behold a woman in the city, who was a sinner (Luke VII, 37). But that sinner ran to righteousness, and like thorns in fire, she consumed her sins. The thicket became a paradise, the lioness a lamb, the stench myrrh, the destruction treasure, the crow a dove, the harlot a virgin, a sister of Christ, D a bride of the Word. For standing behind Jesus, the disciple of the woman with the issue of blood, she wet his feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair, and kissed the traces with her lips, and anointed them with precious myrrh. All the weapons of sin she offered to the King, begging for peace; and the
for the reward of having called me, and you dishonored me, as you expected. Two debtors were owing a certain lender; and you also, I see, are liable for double the debt, having received both the loan and the principle of the Law, and you have neglected both as a benefactor. The one owed five hundred denarii—this is the Pharisee, who holds more and greater sins of the soul: "For the publicans and harlots go before you into the kingdom of heaven." The other fifty; by this are noted the grievous ways of the harlot. But since they had nothing to repay through good works, having accepted faith, He forgave both, and tearing up the bond, He said: "Tell me, who will love Him more?" Then the Pharisee, "I suppose he to whom He forgave more." And he who was guilty of the fault became his own judge, and found the Master praising him, saying: "You have judged rightly." Hear now. "Do you see this woman, who owed less than you, and brought more gifts and offerings? Do you see this woman, who was to many a destruction; an ensouled sepulcher; a death carried about everywhere? I entered into your house: you did not offer water, common to all and accessible to everyone, for my feet; but she poured forth fountains of tears from her eyes upon my feet. You gave me no kiss; but she has applied her lips to my feet. You did not anoint my head—so that, having obtained mercy from me, you might not be soiled—but she anointed my feet with ointment; she anointed the divinity with faith. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven," so that what was said in the Psalms might be fulfilled: "You have forgiven the iniquities of your people," and that which was preached by John: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." To Him be glory forever. Amen.
On the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ
The artifice of sin has been turned against sin. For the art of sin is the cross, so that the sinless body might be delivered to death; but the cross was a device fixed to the flesh for ascent into heaven: and that which was said concerning sin has been changed. For formerly, as Paul preached, "Sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me"; but now a statement of this kind befits the artifice of justice: for justice, taking opportunity through sin, deceived it and killed it. Stupefied by this, Paul burst forth into that utterance: "Great is the mystery of godliness." For the resurrection is hidden in the cross, and the generation unto immortal life; the King, emerging from the underworld, bestowed immortality upon men. Truly a great mystery. How, therefore, was this mystery known? "It was manifested," he says, "in the flesh." And what was the manifestation? "It was justified in the spirit." What argument of justice? "It appeared to angels." The angels, he says, knew the dignity of Him who appeared; they approached and ministered to Him. Paul, the heralds of justice are indeed worthy of faith, and they celebrate the power of Christ; but show to men also the sign of that fortitude. "It was preached to the Gentiles." The Word traveled about, by which His divinity was preached, even though it was hindered by all; the preaching, though restrained, was spread abroad. What then, if it reached only to the ears, and was held for trifles by the Gentiles who heard the Word? "It was preached," he says, "and believed in the world." Then, after it was believed, every obstacle being overcome, "It was taken up," he says, "in glory." The fortitude of the Church was preached: or rather, the persistence of the whole world. For the humanity taken up today is a help common to human nature: for afterwards the punishments were more moderate. And I would have you consider those punishments formerly inflicted by God upon men, and you will discover the utility of the assumption. Fallen from one sin, Adam was cast out; Cain was condemned to long-lasting trembling of the body; heaven sent down a shower of fire to burn Sodom, the rot of the earth; the woman who had violated the law regarding fleeing was turned into a pillar. But what of the difference among the peoples? Hear Scripture narrating these things as if lamenting: "They tempted," it says, "God, and perished by serpents." "They murmured," it says, "and perished by the exterminator in one day, twenty-three thousand." The Lord, it says, gave death in Israel from morning until the hour of mid-day, and there died seventy thousand men. For what reason? "Thus says the Lord," he says: "Choose for yourself three years of famine upon the earth, or three months during which your enemies will pursue you, or three days of death in your land." Writers of the Greeks also lament the calamities of ancient times, the exuberance of floods, the magnitude of conflagrations, the years of much famine, the broad destruction of earthquakes, the spilling of blood in civil wars, the tempests of frequent wars. There was then no cessation of wars and evils, sent down from heaven and from the earth, no peace either for Greeks, or barbarians, or Jews. For the earth was awaiting a mediator, who might bring peace to heavenly and earthly things. Concerning whom Paul says: "He is our peace, who obstructed enmity in His flesh." How many now are more lascivious than the Sodomites? Yet fire is not poured out upon them as of old. For the earth has received the mediator of peace, who has become more benign toward the human race. How many now are more wicked than those who lived in the age of Noah? Yet heaven does not submerge them with floods. How many more ferocious than Cain? Yet God does not punish them with the punishment of Cain. For when He is irritated by us, looking to the first-fruits of the sharers of His throne, He is reconciled: when He is indignant as men act wickedly, seeing the extended humanity at His right hand, He is appeased: when the flagitious race rouses Him to wrath, our fellow-kindred one sitting with Him mitigates the wrath from above. Explaining this to you, Paul says: "Christ is at the right hand of God, and intercedes for us"; not that He needs the voices of suppliants: for Christ ascended into a kingdom; not that supplication is proper for Him: but Paul fashioned the very assumption of the first-fruits into a supplication that might reconcile us. O spectacle today horrendous to demons! Horrendous it surely was to them to see the nature of man, as it appeared, pervading the air, ascending higher than they, made superior to the heavens. But they indeed were groaning: the angels, however, standing joyfully by the men, were crying out: "This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in the way you saw Him going into heaven." The mystery of the assumption becomes more certain. For the disciples were standing with gaping mouths looking into heaven and intently gazing: but when the flesh gradually permeated higher than their eyes could reach, they were turning toward a thought of doubting: "Nowhere," they say, "does the body appear: was the assumption perhaps only a phantom and a fantasy? Perhaps we were mistaken in our eyes; or if we were not mistaken, perhaps the body was dissolved into the air, and now no longer has a nature visible to earthly beings." When they were thus looking into heaven, doubting, they immediately heard the angels: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?" What does that curious gaze mean, they say? Why are your eyes intent on heaven? In the heavens do you seek Him? A cloud carries off Jesus. Will anyone now see Him in the body? Trust in either matter as certain. Although He has now been taken up into heaven, He will come again, "In the way you saw Him going into heaven." But that the tongue may not be stretched longer, let us put down the wearying lyres, and give place to other lyres. Let the mouths of many applaud the assumption; let the whole human race today sing with a common voice. "Great is the mystery of godliness; He was seen by angels, believed in the world, taken up in glory." To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.