they confessed that He was the Son of God, and indeed when He died they confessed it; yet they denied Him in the case of the blind man, saying, "We are Moses’ disciples; as for this man, we do not know where He comes from" (John 9:28-29). The blind man received his sight, and the mindless crowd was darkened. They confessed Him Son of God upon the cross, when, bowing His head, He gave up the spirit, and with a lance they pierced His renowned side, and a multitude of blood and water came forth; and the children of the Jews cried out with a loud voice and said, "Truly this was the Son of God." John, the living one, the herald of the knowledge of God, he who received the grace of the Holy Spirit, the orator of the Church, the luminary of piety, the eye of Asia, destroyed the demon Artemis, and loudly proclaimed the Word of God to the whole world: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Let us ask the catcher of fish and writer of the holy gospels: who taught him this? What father advised him to speak this, into what book did he look to find and utter it? But no one taught him, nor did he look into any book to find and utter it; rather, he reclined upon the Master’s breast, and, his mind enlightened in the depth of wisdom and knowledge, he cried out, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." What more than what is written have I to say? Did you hear? That "In the beginning was," that is, in the Father and with the Father, and He was God, born of God and the Father ineffably and impassibly before the ages. To Him be the glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.
On the Transfiguration
AThe sun, rising, spreads its own rays over the whole world, and the natal rising of the Master Christ according to the flesh sent forth its own disciples, like certain rays, over the entire inhabited world. Therefore, today, like luminaries, Peter and James and John brighten this holy assembly—the captors of the unbelievers and fishers of those formerly wandering into the knowledge of God; who, instead of a reed, used the cross, and instead of a rope, by means of a triple confession, drew the rational fish up from the depth of wickedness, participants with the Master in ineffable mysteries, and become eyewitnesses and earwitnesses of unspeakable and invisible things. Peter, who was called the rock because of his faith, and who holds upon himself the building of the Church. "For you are," he says, "Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matth. 16:18-19). But let us see, if it pleases, for what reason and what cause the chief of the apostles attained this prize. The Savior once asked the disciples what opinion they held concerning Him. When the others were silent for a time, this brave one leapt forward and said, not: "You became, you were created," but: "You are," according to the prophet who says, "But you are the same, and your years shall not fail" (Ps. 101:28); and on account of this confession he receives the keys of the heavens. For "Whatever you bind upon earth," he says, "shall be bound in the heavens; and whatever you loose upon earth shall be loosed in the heavens" (Matth. 16:19). O dignity B amazing and surpassing nature! Walking upon earth, he sent laws to the heavenly powers, and they kept them. And while he dictated below what seemed good, God from above confirmed the decree of what was said. That Joseph was once blessed, having been entrusted with the grain-stores of Pharaoh. How is Peter not to be envied and thrice-blessed, entrusted with the treasures of the very heavens? But I do not bless him so much because he received the authority to bind, nor am I amazed that the shadows of his garments, as they appeared, drove away diseases, nor that he raised Tabitha from the dead; for these are mostly the gifts of the acting Spirit; but I bless that Peter because of his true confession, having stepped forward first of all: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And the appearing confesses it. "You are the Christ"—this is the message of the co-existence with the Father. Let us see also, if it pleases, the C peculiar advantages of the thrice-blessed John; not from those things in which he shared the divine poverty with Peter—for he was with the one who said, "Silver and gold I have none" (Acts 3:6), and by his silence signified his assent—but because, having fallen upon the Master’s breast, he forged from there that holy and loud-sounding trumpet, by which he alone, with a bold and faithful tongue, revealed what heaven did not say, what angels did not conceive, what none of the other evangelists grasped: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." For what reason, then, and for what cause, being earlier than the other evangelists, did he write his gospel last? It is necessary to enquire into this, too. Matthew composed the evangeli- D cal miracles in the Hebrew tongue. Mark, having become a disciple of Peter, wrote of the things that happened through the Master Christ, I mean the birth without mixture, the blameless life, the paradoxical signs, the Jewish envy, the saving passion, the life-giving death for us, the resurrection in incorruption, the ascension to the paternal bosom. Likewise also Luke, being a disciple of Paul, walked the same path as those before him. John, therefore, alone, as if a fisherman sitting in a high place, and becoming a spectator of others fishing, as he saw the substance of knowledge omitted for him, takes up the fishing-rod of the Gospel, and from it hunts the sought-after fish, and sells it openly to the faithful, crying out, "In the beginning was the Word." Not from when Mary, he says, the supposed mother, had her beginning, did Christ take origin; not from when Joseph was called his father, does he have his existence; nor from when Moses, nor from when Abraham, the father of all before the law; but "In the beginning was the Word." But there is nothing more ancient than the beginning, nothing older than the beginning; every creature begins, and is under a beginning; but the beginning of all things is the Son, and as Creator He is the beginning of all things. Everything comprehended in the beginning is newer; but the beginning alone holds the prizes of eternity. But let us look at James the Just; for even if the other James obtained the distinctive title of the "Just," he will not envy this honor for his fellow apostle. The son of Zebedee, then, is wealthy in many of the Gospel's achievements; but it suffices for the present toward a speech of praise that he was gladly beheaded for the love of the Master. For Herod, as Luke narrates in the Acts, puts him to death (Acts 12:2). These are the athletes of piety, these are the deacons of the evangelical proclamations. But cities and peoples gather to see one winner returning from Olympic games, and these crowned with laurel leaves; but we have beheld—having approached us—not one, but three combatants, for the Trinity, for the Trinity as having contended and been crowned, a gathering indeed. And although every tongue attempts to recount the praises of one of these, and the intellect is dizzy, forcing itself to measure a sea of virtues with a hollow of the hand; yet we have attempted, showing our gratitude to the fathers, the fruit. Two days ago the birthday festival of the Master Christ was completed; reasonably, therefore, these brilliant contests were performed in honor of the Master’s birth by the pentathletes of the struggle. This is also accustomed to happen among things outside; for rulers in cities honor royal birthdays; but there the victor harvested the pleasure of a shadow and transitory joy; here, however, prizes are immortal for the crowned ones, the crowns are everlasting, the joy is with the angels, the brilliance with the saints in the resurrection.
transitory joy; here, however, prizes are immortal for the crowned ones, the crowns are everlasting, the joy is with the angels, the brilliance with the saints in the resurrection. These are the rewards of the struggles laid up for the victorious: by whose prayers may we also be preserved, and may this good pastor be kept for us for many decades of years in Christ, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
On Drought
A Who will give to my head water, and to my eyes a fountain of tears? (Jer. 9:1). May the most merciful of all the prophets grant me an introduction abundantly. Yet he was lamenting the desolation of one city, Jerusalem; I, however, seeing the calamity encroaching upon the whole of this region, break out into tears and weeping. For the heaven is closed because of our sins, and the clouds have withered away because of the solar heat, as in a furnace (Ps. 101:4). The springs of waters have dried up, and the beds of the perennial rivers have failed; the earth indeed, burning with heat, refuses to yield its customary fruits. Woe for our evils! Even the brute animals themselves are endangered because of our sins. The earth is dried up and its hay; nay rather, it has not sprouted, and it is corrupted by this plague. The ox bellows miserably, and as if with a lethal voice; the sheepfolds send forth a mournful bleating, while they see the watering of the waters like a burning crater, and the pastures dried up before the time; so that the prophecy of Joel is now fulfilled among us: The herds of cattle have wept, because there was no pasture for them, and the sheep-folds are destroyed, because the exits of the rivers have dried up (Joel 1:18, 20). So greatly have our transgressions moved the propitious nature of God into just anger. And because we do not cease daily to kindle the fire of sins, we are justly chastised by drought and heat. And perhaps the prophet cries to us: Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled (Isai. 50:11). Certainly, God had promised through the prophet to the Israelites, if they kept his precepts: I will send upon you the early and the latter rain; and your threshing floors will be filled with corn, and your vats with wine (Joel 2:23-24). The promise, however, has been turned to the opposite for us; nay rather, the curse of Jeremiah has overtaken us: Let the heaven over your head be brass, he says (Deut. 28:23): the prophet indicating by this commination an utter drought and shortage of water. Is this not already being fulfilled in us? The earth, broken by heat, and turned as it were into stone, renders the labor of the farmers vain, and admits neither plow nor hoe: the crops, as they sprouted a little and gave good hope, before they can conceive the ear, wither away and perish; and only the sprouting of vines and trees is left, which perhaps will soon wither. Such is the fruit of sins, such are the orgies of wickedness, because we have not walked in the ways of God; but we have been subject to evil works, envying others, extolling ourselves above the lesser, desiring to be satisfied with the goods of others, rejoicing in the calamity of a neighbor, devouring one another with slanders, subject to absurd desires, becoming wanton horses (Jer. 5:8), as the Scripture says, and rapacious wolves; keeping the memory of injuries like camels, not showing mercy to the poor, not empathizing with those who have fallen, neglecting the gatherings of the Church, despising the saints, not venerating their memories, fleeing from confession, acting as if in a frenzy toward the servants of God. The priests are a bad example to the peoples, bringing insult, keeping the memory of injuries, given to enmities and treacheries, looking at faces, not reproving or amending those who have fallen, but by their silence are participants in the injustice, like that ancient Eli. The laity, abandoning their own affairs, curiously scrutinize the business of the priests, and they are inexorable judges: Do I not speak the truth? Is not our charity full of these evils? Do I not testify to this daily? Have I not labored crying out that one should abstain from oaths? Have I not foretold: God will not overlook it, seeing the holy Gospel so neglected, and handled so irreverently by avaricious hands? Therefore, bring the fruits from the field which you have usurped out of avarice, that field which will not produce even the seeds cast into it. But you will not even reap the vintage which you have avariciously seized. For what God once threatened the Jews through Micah, these things he has now fulfilled in us: You shall sow, and you shall not reap; you shall press the oil, and you shall not be anointed with oil: and you shall not drink wine (Micah 6:15). What then? Someone might say: but not all are avaricious, not all are perjurers. How then, when few are sinning, is the wormwood of God's anger mixed for all? For it is fitting that punishment be brought only upon the wicked. But just as in one body, if it fester in one part, the whole body requires purgation: so also among us, because we are one body, and all members of Christ, with one part ailing, we all are participants in the pain. So once, when the son of Saul sinned, the whole army was stricken; and when David numbered the people against the pleasure of God, a common destruction was brought upon them. This is reported in every external discipline, namely, that the whole state was stricken by the sin of one man. Therefore, the cup of God's anger is mixed for us and pure. For he says: The cup in the hand of the Lord is full of a mixture of pure wine (Ps. 74:9). Do you see how the nature of this cup is changed? If it is pure and unmixed, how is it full of mixture? For what is mixed is not pure. Here, however, it is called both: it is indeed a pure cup, inasmuch as it is not mixed with divine mercy toward those who, having fallen, do not amend, and that is according to justice; but it is mixed with diverse punishments and corrections, with which God is accustomed to punish those who have not despaired in their evils. Just as those who cure bodily diseases, and have attained the skill of healing, are accustomed to purge more difficult wounds with hot waters and sharp remedies, and assuage the gore and the sickness by the art; so God, who knows all things, handles those who do not feel the blows, to whom it would have been better to avert the punishment before it was sent. What then shall we say now? The judgment of God is just: nay, the benevolent Lord is justly angry, and has brought a punishment far less than the proportion of the crimes; not as much as they deserved, but as much as was enough so that we might come to a sense of our sins. For consider the patience of God: we have sinned, and the elements are punished; we have fallen, and the earth is stricken; we lead an evil life, and inanimate things are whipped; we offer insult to the Creator with shameful deeds, and those things which have sinned not receive the blow: just as if someone, when a son was sinning, were to punish a slave. Such a Lord, and so good, do we have: thus he warns us, leading us to amendment; and he stretches the bow of threats, but holds back the arrow of anger. For he does not desire the death of the soul, but expects conversion and repentance. Let us therefore, brothers, be affected as is fitting: let us appease God the merciful, lest we seem worse than the Ninevites. They, although they were gentiles and unbelievers, because they had learned from the prophet the future subversion of the city, showed such repentance as even to compel infants and beasts of burden to fast, and to cover themselves with ashes and sackcloth, and so were rescued from the just anger of God. Let us therefore also weep, let us each confess our sins, let us employ the saints as intercessors before God; then especially the most holy Lady, that ready and inexpugnable protection: let us prostrate ourselves before her praying with tears: Lady, who held God the Word in your womb, who through your birth made our nature divine, who through your birth were the mediatrix between God and men; have mercy on your people and your inheritance, have mercy on this city of yours, which glories in your name; intercede for us your unworthy servants, beseech your only-begotten Son, that He may propitiously bear our sins, and may this anger sent against us B