Homily IV: On the Sinful Woman

^A did He refresh us. For when He is entertained by Zacchaeus, and reclines together with men, and enjoys our drink and table, all things are transferred into joyous discourse. For who, seeing the Creator of heaven and earth entering the house of the publicans and harlots—or of those who had committed unspeakable deeds—or seeing Him who provides the fruits of the earth receiving human bread with His hands; or the Giver of the grape-clusters blessing the wine-presses in the communion of the drink [(57)]—who would not rightly judge such an occurrence a festival and a holiday? This is truly a festival; this is truly a joy of angelic hospitality, to see the Master with His servants, God with men, the Judge with the liable, all enjoying a common table. For He came to earth for this reason, not leaving heaven desolate, and became man without divesting Himself of being God, that even while sailing the sea, He might rescue from the abyss of sin those who are tossed by the storm of this worldly sea; and by going around villages and cities, and running to and fro through the narrow lanes and byways, He might bring back those wandering at the crossroads like sheep without a shepherd to His own flock. For He Himself is the one seeking the lost sheep, having left the ninety-nine and come to search for the one. Indeed, He sought the one; not despising the many, nor preferring the one to the multitude. Nevertheless, He left the ninety-nine; for it was right that they should safely abide in the fold; but He went forth seeking the one, so that it might not become ^B prey for the devil. For a sheep without a shepherd is a meal ready and prepared for wild beasts; and a soul without a seal is easily plotted against by demons. Whence, recently, He snatched Zacchaeus like a sheep from the mouth of a wolf, and joined him to the fold, and deemed him worthy of a seal [(60)]; for just as a shepherd, contemplating the capture of a straying sheep, allows the tamed animal, so that it might draw back ^C to the free pasture... ^D

ORATION ON THE SINFUL WOMAN

^A desiring to save, allows the tamed animal to roam, so that, being fully at pasture, he may draw in the prey that has leaped away. Thus also the Word of God left the flesh which He took from the Virgin, like a sheep in the pasture, at the table of Zacchaeus, in order that, by the common law of the banquet, having drawn it for fellowship with Himself, he might secretly join it to His own flock.

^B But the Pharisees, not understanding this, murmured, seeing Him eating with tax collectors. But let those men be torn like old wineskins; for they cannot receive the new word of doctrine. Let us, however, follow in the footsteps of the lover of mankind, the Shepherd; for He who joined Zacchaeus the tax collector to the rational flock of the apostles, He Himself also, having drawn the sinful harlot, who was a worker of a myriad evils, out of the throat of the devil like a little lamb, restored her to the inviolable fold. And that you may know both the love of Christ for mankind, and the senselessness of the Pharisees, and the repentance of the sinful woman (61), I shall set before you those very evangelical sayings; for if you attend to the flow of the reading, you will easily grasp the sense of the interpretation.

"He asked," it says, "one of the Pharisees for Jesus, that He might eat with him; and having entered into the house of the Pharisee, He reclined." O ineffable grace! O unspeakable love for mankind! He both feasts with Pharisees, and does not cast off tax collectors; and He receives harlots, and speaks with the Samaritan woman; and He deems the Canaanite woman worthy of a word; and He permits the woman with the flow of blood to touch the hem of His garment, and is not ashamed. For He is a Physician, handling all diseases, that He may benefit all, the evil and the good, the ungrateful and the grateful. Whence also now, having been invited by the Pharisee, He enters into a house indeed full of evils. For where a Pharisee is, there is a dwelling-place of wickedness, a lodging-house of sin, a receptacle of arrogance. But even with the house being in such a state, the Lord does not disdain to arrive. And rightly; for just as the sun is not harmed by casting its own rays upon the mire, but on the contrary, it even purifies the inherent stench, itself suffering no insult; so also Christ, as the Sun of righteousness, occupies every polluted and profane place, and consumes the foul-smelling sin with the rays of His goodness, suffering no insult, nor diminution, nor defilement, according to the nature of His divinity (62).

^C Whence He immediately gave consent to the calling Pharisee, being calm, silent, leaving his manner of life unrebuked. First, indeed, that He might sanctify those who were called—the one who called Him, the arrangements of the house, the affairs of the manner of life.

Furthermore, since the harlot was about to approach, and to display that heated and burning manner of repentance, for this reason He quickly nods assent to the Pharisee who invites Him, so that before the eyes of the Scribes and Pharisees, while they mournfully lament their own sins, He might teach ^B them how sinners, grieving over their sins, ought to propitiate God. For behold, He says, a woman in the city, who was a sinner (*Luke 7:37*). A "woman"—that fragile nature, the first net of the devil, the introduction of error, the teacher of transgression; she who was made for help, but was revealed as an enemy; she who was by nature good, but by the choice of the will was shown to be bad; she who displayed the beauty of the tree, and lost paradise. And behold, He says, a woman in the city, who was a sinner, bearing the burdens of Eve, weighted down by many evils. I shall speak of the abundance of her former ways, so that you may know the magnificence of her repentance.

IV. God, having taken a bone from Adam’s side [*Gen. 2:21*], and having fleshed it out, made Eve, whom, having named also "woman," He gave as a helper to Adam. But after the sin [*Gen. 3:6*], and the transgression of the law, and the being cast out of paradise, and the receiving of death as the penalty; so that the human race might not, consumed by death, perish utterly, marriage campaigns against death: so that the one might sow, and the other reap; that the one might prune, and the other might sprout. And that it was after being subjected to death that the grace of marriage was given, is evident from the fact that Adam, after the departure from paradise, was coupled with Eve. For it is written that, after the going out from paradise, then Adam knew his wife [*Gen. 4:1*]. Before the sin, therefore, there was virginity, keeping the tunic of nature without stain. But after the transgression, after the sentence of death, marriage was introduced in its place, so that it might conquer by overflowing the fountain of death, and overcome by yielding harvest the harvester of nature. Since, therefore, the law of marriage was given for the preservation of the race and the increase of nature, God embedded pleasure in the male; but the female He endowed, as if with a certain artful enticement and love-charm; not for enticements to intercourse in the manner of a harlot, but so that they might be lawfully joined in matrimony. Whence the lawful union of marriage is honorable before God. But that which is performed for the sake of pleasures is subject to death. For it is honorable

in all, and the marriage bed is undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Those women, therefore, who join themselves lawfully to men for the sake of procreating offspring are without blame; as were Sarah, and Rebecca, and Rachel, and whoever else follows them. But those who, by the argument of pleasure, provoke young men to lust, being such as violate the temple of God, are delivered over to destruction. For "if any man," he says, "defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy" ^A; among whom was also she whom we have here before us, the sinful woman. For, like one exposing her nature for sale in a shameful way, and reddening her cheeks with external dyes, and striving by art to appear beautiful, she incautiously led young men astray, and thrust them into the abyss of fornication, dragging them into debauchery.

V. ON THE REPENTANT WOMAN

V. I say these things, not to lampoon her for what she did before, but praising her, so that one may see how she has suddenly become what she is. For I say who she was formerly, that I may show who she has become now; I speak of the transgressions of her sin itself, that I may show the fruits of her repentance. But she, who did not use her body blamelessly before—trapping some with her curls, ensnaring others with her tears, bewitching others with her guile, and calling all from every side into the abyss of debauchery—changes her shameful and voluptuous love into a divine and heavenly philter. For as she saw Jesus—at one time freely conversing with the Samaritan woman, at another receiving the Canaanite, elsewhere proclaiming the theft of the woman with the issue of blood, and here eating with publicans, there entering the houses of the Pharisees—she reasoned with herself: "If He receives harlots and sinners and publicans, how long shall I, driven by an unruly ^B frenzy, continue to draw from the sea of sin? My youth does not remain, my beauty does not remain; for all things pass away, all things wither, and flowers, and lilies, and the beauty of faces. What, then, shall I suffer for what I have done? For already I contemplate the fire of Gehenna, already repentance lays hold of my soul, because, in my zeal to appear beautiful for the ruin of young men, I used to run through the streets of the city, through the marketplaces, through the crossroads, having my feet as a net, and my tongue as a dragnet. Oh, how many young men have I charmed, casting around a gaze full of shamelessness! For, adorning myself for the destruction of the spectators, at one time I built up my head with intricate braids, at another I let wandering locks of hair fall from my crown onto my forehead. At other times I would redden my cheeks, and line my eyes with stibium. And at other times I would shed floods of tears, acting as a flatterer to drive the soul to ruin. What, then, shall I be after these things? What physician shall I find ^C for these countless passions? If I speak to men of my own affairs, my words are useless to me...

^A But shall I hide my evils? Yet I cannot escape notice. For whom could I escape, not being able to escape God? Where, then, shall I flee, finding the Judge everywhere? Him who is invisible, but who everywhere convicts me of my evils. One hope of salvation remains for me, one provision for life lies before me: to know Jesus, and to run to Him. For He who welcomes publicans will not reject a harlot; He who eats at the common table with the Pharisees will not repel the tears of a sinner. Since, therefore, I knew that He was staying with Simon the Pharisee, I shall approach Him. But what shall I ask when I approach? The health of my eyes? But that grace is temporary. To be freed from disease? Truly, that is a small achievement, for eternal death is more grievous than the present. I shall let go all things of the body; ^B I shall seek the healing of the soul. For I shall find one relief from the evils hanging over me, if I see the Judge, if I anticipate the time of punishment. I shall emulate Rahab the harlot; I shall follow the virtuous manner of that woman; for God requires nothing else from us but a change of purpose (68).

VI.

^A but she also portrayed the beauty of repentance through her bearing. She wept, as one who had laughed much, washing away her evil laughter with noble tears; and with the drops from her eyes, she was washing away the filth from her cheeks, so that in the things in which she had sinned, in those same things she might also find her defense; and in those things in which she had acted wickedly, in those same things she might propitiate the Lawgiver. For just as David washed away with tears the bed which he had defiled in an unlawful embrace—"For I will wash," he says, "each night my bed; with my tears I will wet my couch"—so too did she. Using the very eyes with which she had dragged many among the youth into dissipation, she released fountains of tears, washing away the stain of sin that is difficult to wash, providing for herself the tears as a laver of repentance. For she offered these tears as if they were water, while invisibly she received ^B remission from Christ.

Moreover, not only imitating but even surpassing Abraham, she washed the feet of Christ. For he, having placed a basin, washed them with water and wiped them with a linen cloth; but she, not having drawn water, but having released fountains of tears, washed the feet of Jesus. And taking care lest she do an injury to those chaste feet with her sinful tears, she let down her braided hair as if it were a linen cloth and wiped the feet. And it was possible to see the little woman, completely and in every way, bending toward the care of Jesus. For her eyes from above, like fountains, were sending forth streams of tears; but her soul, as if a basin placed beneath, was receiving the drops distilling from the feet; her hair was wiping them away, fulfilling the form of a linen cloth; her hands, pouring out the ointment of the alabaster jar, were anointing the divine feet, honoring ointment ^C with ointment; for "ointment," he says, "poured out—thy name."

VII. Did you see how the sinful woman, who was devoid of divine laws, overcame the ungrateful mind of the Jews? They indeed sought to attack him with stones; but she refreshed him with sweet-smelling ointments. But the Jews, as ungrateful, as foolish, and as mindless, repaid evil for good, treating with hostility the cornerstone with stoning; but she anointed with ointment the feet of him who was about to stand for her sake all ^D the day upon the scaffold of the Cross. And why do I say that she overcame the ungrateful people of the Jews, when she has surpassed the whole choir of the saints? For she received a grace which kings did not receive, which potentates did not attain. "For the kings of Tharsis and the isles shall bring gifts, and all the kings of the earth shall worship him." And indeed, according to the prophet, they both gave gifts and worshipped from afar; but not one of them kissed the feet of Jesus. For how could they? The Magi came, having taken the star as a companion of their supplication; but they brought their gifts from afar, not being ignorant of the measure of their own station; "for," [he says], "heaven is my seat, but the earth…"

^A is my footstool." Therefore, let the woman be praised, as one who has received the honor of the whole earth; as one who has touched the immaculate feet, whose dust the nations and the tribes shall lick, according to that which is said: "And his enemies shall lick the dust." She touched the immaculate feet; she shared the body of Christ with John. For he, indeed, reclined upon his breast, for he was about to draw divine doctrine thence; but she anointed the feet that walked for our sake. Furthermore, Christ, who does not judge sin, but praises repentance; who does not punish things past, but proves future things, having committed to oblivion the evils of her past life, honors the woman and praises her repentance; He justifies her tears, and crowns her purpose.

VIII.

^A then, O Pharisee, dost thou accuse the Master who loves mankind, who weighs the balance of goodness equally for all? And why, as you strain out the gnat of the woman, do you swallow the camel of your own evils? And how is it that you wish God to be long-suffering toward you, but stern toward her? Why do you provoke the Judge in the crimes of others, while asking for pardon in your own? Why did you and Judas conspire to tempt the Lord? For you, indeed, as if pure from filth, by slandering the man for his sins, judge God to be ignorant; but he, as if a lover of the poor, is indignant, saying: "To what purpose is this waste of the ointment? For it might have been sold for much, and given to the poor." O, the ungrateful mind! O, the ungrateful ways! Do you call the reverence of Christ a waste, O Judas? And do you call an empty expense that which proceeds to the honor of God? ^B

IX. How much have we given of what we have received? Let us calculate, from the time the world was created, how many rivers of mercy flow from His nature, and God does not reckon abundance as a loss. How many fragrances does the earth put forth? The rose, and the lily, and storax, nard, and myrrh, and the others from which good ointment is prepared; and God does not consider these a waste. And do you murmur that a small alabaster jar of ointment was poured out upon the feet of Christ? Did He receive it for free, that you murmur? He received the ointment, and showed a way of repentance. He received tears, and stopped the spring of sins. What "waste" is there, then, if the woman was saved, for whom paradise was closed? ^C But this grieves you, Judas? With good reason; for her salvation also grieved the devil. For he knew that from then on the human race would turn to repentance; and he is bitten and pained, no longer having a net with which to hunt men. Whence he incited even you to murmur. "To what purpose," he says, "is this waste? For it could have been sold for much." You are already trading, Judas; you are already meditating betrayal; the beginning of evil enigmas. But Jesus does not rebuke his disease; He does not expose his avarice, so that He might not drive away the coming betrayal; but He says to all: "Why do you trouble the woman? Why do you reproach the woman for past evils?" ^D

^A Let no one hinder the salvation of the woman; let no one trouble her who with ointment has washed the feet that walked upon the earth for her sake. For you always have the poor with you. Receive Me also with the poor. For your sake, though I was rich, I became poor, so that you might become rich by My poverty. You kill Me, and I do not accuse; she gives Me over to burial, and do you murmur? For in pouring this ointment upon My body, she has done it for My burial. Are you not ashamed, therefore, Judas, that she, being a sinner, honors Me with ointments; while you, being an apostle, insult Me by selling Me? And the woman indeed prepares things for the tomb, but the disciple delivers Him to death. The woman is a sinner, I know; but she had nothing else to offer Me but a fountain of tears; making the fountain benevolent to the fountain. ^B But you also analyze, O wretched one, the ointment, saying it is worth three hundred denarii; you analyze it, not so that you might praise her magnanimity—in that she consumed all the wealth garnered from evils upon the price of the ointment—but so that by murmuring you might show into what a dire evil you have fallen, having suffered such a loss. But it would be no great matter if you were distressed at the loss of three hundred denarii, since, having received thirty, you betrayed Me, the Lord. "For what," he says, "are you willing to give me, and I will deliver Him to you?" Wretched man! Does a slave sell his Master? The order is inverted; and I indeed redeem you from sin with My own blood, and do you sell Me for thirty obols? And then does a man sell God? If it be granted that he sells Him, who is the buyer? And for how much will one purchase God? And why do you make the transaction so cheap? Does one sell God in the form of a man for thirty pieces of silver, as if He were a slave, as if a barbarian? If you had discernment, distinguish how much you make the indwelling God worth, and how much the visible man. "What," he says, "are you willing to give me?" What do you wish to receive? For they have nothing to give that is worthy of God. And they weighed out to him, it says, thirty pieces of silver. Does one sell a physician who heals for free for thirty obols? A physician, I say, who gives sight to the blind and raises the lame to run. I say these things, so that I might instruct your mind, that you cause trouble to the woman; that she honored Him who is free among the dead, even before His death, as if He were dead; that through the ointment, she foreshadowed the grace of the burial and the resurrection. But the memory of this woman, wherever the Gospel shall be preached, is indelible. He spoke, and the deed so came to pass. ^D For the ointment of Aaron and that of Eleazar has ceased, and the horn has gone silent. But the alabaster jar of this woman extends to the whole age, having the fragrance of memory that never runs dry.

X. And thus indeed to Judas; but to the Pharisee who was murmuring, Christ spoke in this wise: Simon,

^A I have something to say to you. O ineffable grace! O inexplicable kindness! God and man converse together, and He sets forth a problem, a rule of loving-kindness, dissolving his malice. For, He says, "Simon, I have something to say to you; which I said to none of the ancients, not to a patriarch, not to a prophet, not to a lawgiver. For then indeed, they sought 'an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,' demanding what is just; but since you cannot bear what is just, I introduce grace in place of the law, and I will tell you an ineffable mystery." But he says: "Teacher, speak." "Two debtors were owing to one man." See the wisdom of God. He keeps silent about the woman, so that he may not handle the response deceitfully. "One," He says, "owed five hundred denarii; and the other, fifty." The character of the narrative is fearsome. Our life is a ledger, invisibly writing down both thoughts, and actions, and the wandering glances of the eyes, and the movements of the soul; but the kind Creditor solves the fear, He who tears up the bonds of sin: and not merely tearing them up, but also smoothing them away ^B with the waters of baptism, so that not a trace of a letter or syllable remains to become a monument of past evils. Since they had nothing, He says, to pay back, He forgave both. Have you seen a kind creditor? How He lends, but does not take back? How, though ungratefully treated, He does not grow sluggish; but His hand is stretched out to those who ask? "Since they had nothing," He says, "to pay back, He forgave both." He released them because they did not have, not because they did not wish. For it is one thing not to have, and another not to wish. What do I mean? God seeks nothing from us but repentance. Hence He desires that we should always rejoice and run to repentance. If, while we desire to repent, the multitude of our sins renders our repentance weak and ineffective, we do not pay the debt not because we do not wish, but because we do not have. Therefore He says, "Since they did not have": in order to show that, seeing them wishing to pay the debt through repentance, but unable to do so because of the multitude of their sins, He, as a kind Lord, forgave them—not from the act, but from the intent, to free the debtor from the obligation. "Since they had nothing, therefore, to pay back": ^C without scourging, without insulting, without torturing, He forgave them both.

XI. Who, therefore, ought to love Him more? Simon answered and said: "I suppose it is he to whom He forgave the more." Behold the craftiness of the Pharisee. As he saw himself already cornered by the argument of truth, he inserted "I suppose," fearing to give an absolute answer. Furthermore ^D

the Lord did not examine his intention, but snatching at his answer, He says to him: "You have judged rightly." And turning to the woman, He said to Simon: "Do you see this woman? She is a sinner, to you indeed forbidden, but to Me made whole? I entered into your house." For the house is yours, and not Mine; a house that is full of reproach. "You gave Me no water for My feet": for My feet, I say, dirtied for your sake; feet tired by labor, so that I might free those who labor and are burdened from toils and distress. You offered half-honor: for you admired the things that are above, but did not care for the things below. But you, indeed, gave no water for My feet; but she, sending forth fountains of tears from her eyes, wiped away the stain of her own sin. "You gave Me no kiss"; and would that even Judas had not, he who wrought betrayal with a kiss. "But she, from the time she entered, has not ceased to kiss My feet." "You did not anoint My head with oil; for the oil of the sinner shall not fatten My head." For how could he have honor for the head, who had neglected the feet? "But she has even anointed My feet with ointment." For it says: "Your name is ointment poured out." Poured out, not spilled. For because the vessel of the Jewish mind was rotten, for that reason the ointment was poured out of your alabaster jar onto My feet, that through Me the fragrance of grace might be channeled to the Gentiles. For which cause I say to you: "Her many sins are forgiven; for you, although you received Me under your roof, neither honored Me with a kiss, nor cared for Me with ointment; but she, many of her evils having been consigned to oblivion, has honored Me, as if with a double cup tempered from tears and ointment."

XII. Let us therefore call the woman blessed, she who covers over the evils of Eve: that sinner, that harlot, that reconciler of good things, to whom the judge Himself became an advocate; she who with tears overcame the mourning of judgment. As many as are present, emulate what you have heard; and do not imitate the pleasure of the harlot, but her lamentation. For pleasure was the parent of lamentation and grief; but grief procured an exit from evils. Therefore, wash your body not with water, but with tears; anoint your members, not with ointments, but with chastity,

^A so that you may attain the same glory; sending up glory to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world; to whom be glory, and honor, and worship, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and for the ages of ages. Amen.

ORATION V

On the Day of Holy Saturday

I. We celebrate today the sepulchral feast of our Savior. And He, indeed, among the dead below, is dissolving the bonds of death, filling Hades with light, and awakening those who have fallen asleep; but we leap for joy upon the earth, setting the resurrection of Him before our eyes in our meditation, and we no longer fear corruption, ^B lest it should prevail over incorruptibility. "For you will not allow," it says, "your holy one to see corruption" (Ps. xv, 10). And perhaps the Jews and Greeks mock our philosophy; the former expecting another Christ, while the latter shutting up their hopes in tombs, concerning whom the prophet aptly says: "Their graves are their houses forever" (Ps. xlix, 12). But those who now mock shall lament (for they will lament later, looking upon Him whom they pierced and insulted) (Zach. xii, 10); but we, weeping, will temper this passion with joy. Did death snatch the Lord Christ? But it will not keep Life with itself. Did it devour Him? It devoured Him in ignorance, but it vomited forth many with Him. Willing now He is detained; but on the morrow, having despoiled Hades, He will rise. Yesterday, being crucified, He darkened the sun, ^C and at midday night supervened; today death is paralyzed, having received a strange corpse; yesterday creation mourned, seeing the madness of the Jews, and put on darkness as a garment of grief; today the people sitting in darkness have seen a great light (Isa. ix, 2). Yesterday the earth was shaken, and took counsel about flight, and threatened to gape open for the inhabitants; the mountains were rent, the rocks were split, and the temple, as if alive, was laid bare, having rent its garment, showing through the things that happened to it that the holy things had been violated. Inanimate things perceived the outrage, but those who dared these things possessed souls devoid of perception. The elements were indignant, and nearly abandoned their order, and would have brought about the confusion of the universe, had they not perceived the will of the Creator, that He suffered not against His will.

^D II. O new and unexpected things! He who stretched out the heaven by His word is stretched out on wood; He who bound the sea with sand is bound with bonds; He who bestowed fountains of honey is given vinegar to drink; He who crowned the earth with flowers is crowned with thorns; and He whose head is struck with a reed is He who once punished Egypt with ten plagues—