A of the oracles of the Spirit, and in the reception of saving precepts, and in all the dogmas that correct our souls. From that inner fast of the mind, however, let us beware, against which the prophet also prays, saying: *The Lord will not kill the souls of the just with hunger* (Prov. X, 3). And again: *I have not seen the just man abandoned, nor his seed seeking bread* (Ps. XXXVI, 25). For he who knew that the children of our patriarch Jacob went down into Egypt for the sake of bread would not speak of sensible bread; rather, he speaks of that spiritual nourishment by which our inner man is perfected. May that fast which God threatens to the Jews not come upon us also: *Behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I will bring upon this land a famine, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord* (Amos VIII, 11). The just judge brought this B about because He saw their mind being starved by the lack of true dogmas, while their outer man was growing excessively fat and fleshy. Therefore, through all the days that follow, the Holy Spirit will feast you with morning and evening delights. Let no one voluntarily deprive himself of this spiritual banquet. Let us all be participants of the sober chalice, which Wisdom herself has mixed and set before us equally, so that each one may draw as much as he is capable of holding. For *she has mixed her wine, and she has sacrificed her victims* (Prov. IX, 2); that is, the food of the perfect, *who by reason of use have their senses exercised to the discerning of both good and evil* (Heb. V, 14). Being fully satisfied with these, may we be found worthy also of that joy which will be exhibited in the bridal chamber, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power forever. Amen.
HOMILY ON THE WORDS, ATTEND TO THYSELF
1. The God who created us has given us the use of speech, so that we may reveal the counsels of our hearts C to one another, and, because of the fellowship of nature, each may share them with his neighbor, drawing them forth from the hidden recesses of the heart as if from certain storehouses. For if we existed as naked souls, we would surely commune with one another immediately by the aid of our thoughts; but because our soul is covered by the covering of the flesh, it produces thoughts and has need of words and names so that it may bring into the open that which lies hidden in the deeper retreat of the mind. When, therefore, our intellect once takes hold of a meaningful voice, and as if by a certain ferry with language... D
it is carried through the air, it passes from the speaker to the listener. And if it finds deep stillness and silence, the discourse is moored into the ears of the learners as into calm and stormless harbors; but if a rough disturbance, like some tempest, is stirred up by the listeners and blows back against it, it is dissolved in mid-air and suffers shipwreck. Grant, therefore, stillness to the discourse through silence. For perhaps something might appear therein that is useful to possess among your acquisitions. B The discourse of truth is difficult to capture, easily able to escape 8 those who are not attentive, for so the Spirit has ordained it to be concise and brief, so that it may signify many things in few words, and on account of its brevity may be easily retained by the memory. 9 For it is the natural function of discourse neither to hide what is signified by obscurity, nor to be superfluous and vain, flowing pointlessly over matters. Such, therefore, is the discourse that was just read to us from the books of Moses, which you who are studious surely remember, unless by chance it slipped past your ears on account of its brevity. The text reads thus: "Take heed to thyself, lest at any time there be a hidden word in thy heart, an iniquity." We human beings are prone to sins of the thoughts. Therefore, He who fashioned our hearts individually, C knowing that the greatest part of sin is completed in the impulse of the intention, ordained for us as the priority the purity in the governing part of the soul. For that in which we most readily sin, this He deemed worthy of greater watchfulness and care. For just as the more provident of physicians protect the physically weaker bodies well in advance with certain precautionary instructions, in the same way the common guardian and true physician of souls, knowing which part of us is most prone to sin, has secured it with stronger fortifications. For actions through the body require time, opportunity, labor, assistants, and the rest of the supplies; but the movements of the mind are accomplished without time, performed without labor, brought to pass without exertion, and every time is suitable for them. And somewhere, some man may often be found who is arrogant and prides himself on his gravity and chastity, and who, while wearing the mask of temperance externally and sitting D among those who congratulate him for his virtue, nevertheless runs in his mind to the place of sin in the invisible movement of the heart. He sees in his imagination the things he desires, he frames for himself some unseemly conversation, and altogether in the hidden workshop of the heart, painting the pleasure clearly within himself, he commits the sin within, unwitnessed by all, until He comes who reveals the hidden things of darkness and makes manifest the counsels of the hearts. Be on your guard, therefore, lest there be a hidden word in your heart, an iniquity. For he who has looked upon a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
For though the actions of the body are intercepted by many, he who sins by intention has his sin completed with the speed of his thoughts. Therefore, where the fall is sudden, a sudden capacity for caution has been given to us. For it protests, "Lest there be a hidden word in your heart, an iniquity." But let us rather return to the beginning of the discourse itself.
2. "Attend," he says, "to yourself." For the God who established all things has, from within, given to every living thing the impulses for the preservation of its own being. And you would find, if you were to learn diligently, that most of the brute animals possess, untaught, an aversion toward that which harms them; and, conversely, they are impelled by a certain natural attraction toward the enjoyment of what is beneficial. Therefore, God, who instructs us, has given us this great commandment, so that what those animals possess by nature may, for us, be attained through the help of reason, and that what is achieved by the brutes without understanding might be performed by us through attention and the constant concentration 11 of our thoughts; and that we might be careful guardians of the impulses given to us by God, fleeing from sin just as brute animals flee from poisonous foods, and pursuing justice just as they pursue the nourishing herb 12.
Attend, therefore, to yourself, so that you may be able to distinguish the harmful from the saving. Since, however, attendance is twofold—the one, gazing with bodily eyes upon visible things; the other, applying the intellectual faculty of the soul to the contemplation of incorporeal things—if we were to say that this command lies in the action of the eyes, we should immediately show it to be impossible. For how could one encompass one’s entire self with the eye? For the eye itself does not use its vision upon itself 13; it does not reach the top of the head, and it knows neither the back, nor the face, nor the disposition within the depth of the bowels. It is impious, therefore, to say that the commandments of the Spirit are impossible 14. It remains, therefore, to understand the command as referring to the act of the mind.
"Attend, therefore, to yourself"; that is, look around yourself from every side. Keep the eye of your soul sleepless for your own guard. You pass in the midst of snares. Hidden traps have been planted by the enemy on all sides. Watch around you, therefore, "That you may be saved as a gazelle from the snares, and as a bird from the trap." For the gazelle is uncapturable by snares because of the sharpness of its vision; hence it even bears that name for its own sharpness of sight; but the bird, if only it attends to itself, is raised up by a light wing higher than the schemes of the fowlers.
B Beware, therefore, lest thou seem worse than irrational creatures in guarding thyself, lest, being caught in the snares, thou become prey to the devil, taken captive by him to do his will.
3. Give heed, therefore, to thyself: that is, not to thy possessions, nor to those things which are around thee, but to thyself alone. For we ourselves are one thing, our possessions are another, and those things which are about us are yet another. We ourselves are the soul and the mind, in so far as we have been made in the image of the Creator; our body and the senses through it are ours; but our possessions, crafts, and the rest of the preparation for life are around us. What, then, does the Scripture say? Do not give heed to the flesh, nor in any way pursue its goods—health, beauty, the enjoyment of pleasures, and long life; nor wonder at wealth, glory, and power; nor deem those things that fill the service of thy temporal life to be so great or excellent that, in the pursuit of them, thou neglectest thy primary life; but give heed to thyself, that is, to thy soul. Adorn it, and take care of it, so that all the filth arising from wickedness that attaches to it may be removed by the attention of the mind, and every turpitude of vices may be cleansed away, and that, on the contrary, it may be decorated and illuminated with every adornment of virtue. Scrutinize thyself: who thou art, and come to know thine own nature—to wit, that thy body is mortal, but the soul is immortal; and that our life is in a way twofold: the one proper to the flesh, passing quickly away; the other akin to the soul, admitting of no limits. C Give attention, therefore, to thyself, that thou mayst neither cling to things that are to perish as if they were eternal, nor despise eternal things as if they were fleeting. Despise the flesh, since it passes away; take care of the soul, which is an immortal thing. With all diligence give heed to thyself, that thou mayst know how to distribute to each what is beneficial: to the flesh, indeed, nourishment and coverings; but to the soul, the dogmas of piety, refined instruction, the exercise of virtue, and the correction of passions. Nor, indeed, make the body fatter than is meet, nor be solicitous about an abundance of meats. For since *the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other*, beware lest, by being addicted to the flesh, thou grantest much power to the inferior. For just as in the moments of a balance, if thou weightest down one scale, it is altogether necessary that thou makest the opposite one lighter; so also in regard to body and soul, when the one abounds, the other is necessarily diminished. For when the body is in a good state and burdened with much flesh, it is a consequence that the mind is D weak and debilitated for its own proper actions; but, conversely, when the soul is in a good state and, through the meditation of good things, extends itself to its proper magnitude.
it follows that the condition of the body should wither and languish.
A 4. Now, this same precept is useful to the infirm and most appropriate for those who are in good health. For in cases of sickness, physicians advise the patients to attend to themselves and to neglect nothing that pertains to their cure. In the same way, the Word, which is the physician of our souls, heals the soul that has been corrupted by sin through this small remedy. B Attend, therefore, to yourself, so that you may receive aid for your cure in proportion to your fault. If the sin is great and grievous, you have need of much confession, bitter tears, intense watchfulness, and unceasing fasting. If the fault is light and tolerable, let your repentance be measured accordingly. Only attend to yourself, so that you may recognize the health and the disease of your soul. For there are many who, through excessive inattention, are suffering from great and incurable diseases, and do not even know that they are sick.
But this command also brings great benefit to those who are healthy in their actions, so that it C heals the sick and brings those who are healthy to a more perfect state. For each one of us who are numbered among the disciples of the Word is a minister of some one of those duties which have been prescribed to us according to the Gospel. For in this great house, the Church, there are not only vessels of every kind—gold and silver, and wooden and earthen—but there are also every kind of craft. For the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, has hunters, travelers, D architects, builders, husbandmen, pastors, athletes, soldiers. This brief saying is applicable to all of these, producing in each one both the integrity of his work and the diligence of his resolve.
Are you a hunter sent by the Lord, who says: "Behold, I am sending many hunters, and they shall hunt them upon every mountain"? Attend, therefore, diligently, lest the prey escape you, so that, having been caught by the word of truth, you may bring those who have been made wild by vice to the Savior. Are you a traveler like the one who prayed, "Direct my steps"? Attend to yourself, that you may not be turned aside from the way, that you may not turn to the right or to the left, but walk in the royal road. Let the architect lay down firmly the foundation of faith, which is Jesus Christ. Let the builder see how he builds: not wood, not hay, not stubble, but gold, silver, precious stones. Are you a pastor? Attend lest anything that pertains to the pastoral office escape you.
What are these things? Bring back the one that has strayed, bind up the one that is broken, heal the one that is sick. If you are a farmer, dig around the barren fig tree and apply the things that aid fertility. If you are a soldier, suffer hardship with the Gospel 29; fight the good fight against the spirits of wickedness, against the passions of the flesh; take up the whole armor of God 92, that you may not be entangled in the affairs of life, so that you may please Him who has enlisted you. Are you an athlete? Pay attention to yourself, lest you transgress any of the laws of the games. For no one is crowned unless he competes according to the rules 94. Imitate Paul, who was running, and wrestling, and boxing 95; and he himself, as a good pugilist, keeps the eye of his soul unwandering. Cover the vital parts B by the projection of your hands; let your eye be fixed upon your opponent. Strain forward in the races to what lies ahead 96. Run in such a way that you may take hold 97. In wrestling, contend against the invisible adversaries. The Word desires you to be of this sort throughout your life: not disheartened, nor sleeping, but soberly and watchfully presiding over yourself 31.
5. The day will fail me if I proceed to recount the endeavors of those who labor for the Gospel of Christ, and the power of the commandment—namely, how it is suitable for everyone. Pay attention to yourself; be sober, use counsel, be a guardian of the present and a provider for the future. Do not let slip what is already present through sloth, nor imagine that you possess things C that are neither present nor perhaps ever will be, as if they were already in your hands. Is not this sickness naturally inherent in young people, to think, due to the lightness of their minds, that they already have what they hope for? For whenever they obtain leisure or nocturnal quiet, they fashion for themselves unsubstantial images of things, being carried away by the ease of their minds toward everything; they propose to themselves the splendors of life, illustrious marriages, fair children, a full old age, and the receiving of honors from all. Then, being unable to rest their hopes in anything, they are carried away by an excessive swelling of the spirit toward the greatest things among men. They acquire houses that are beautiful and large; having filled these with precious and all kinds of furnishings, they surround themselves with as much land D as the vanity of their thoughts has cut off from the whole circle of the earth. Again, they enclose the revenues coming from thence into the storehouses of vanity. To these they add herds, a multitude of servants exceeding number, civil magistracies, leadership of nations, military commands, wars, trophies, and at last a kingdom. Having reached all these things by the fantasies of their minds, they are…
B considered, through excessive folly, to enjoy their hoped-for things as if they were already present and placed before their very feet. This is the peculiar malady of an idle and slothful soul, to see dreams while the body is awake. Therefore, the Word, repressing this slackness of the mind and this inflammation of thoughts, and reining in as it were with a bridle the instability of the mind, proclaims this great and wise commandment: "Attend," it says, "to yourself," not proposing to yourself things that do not exist, but ordering those that are present for your own benefit.
I think, moreover, that the Lawgiver, in taking away this passion from human custom, had recourse to this exhortation. For since it is easy for each of us to be busy about the affairs of others, rather than to examine those that are one’s own, in order that we might not suffer this, "Cease," it says, "from curiously prying into the evils of another; do not give scope to your thoughts to inquire into the malady of another, but attend to yourself." That is, turn the eye of your soul toward your own examination. For many, according to the word of the Lord, notice the speck in their brother’s eye, but do not look at the beam in their own eye. Do not cease, then, from examining yourself, whether your life proceeds in accordance with the commandment; C but do not look around at things outside, to see if you might find a blemish in someone, imitating that heavy and arrogant Pharisee who stood justifying himself and despising the tax collector. Rather, do not fail to examine yourself—whether you have sinned in your thoughts, whether your tongue has slipped, running ahead of your mind, or whether anything imprudent has been done in the works of your hands. And if you find many sins in your own life (and you will certainly find them, being human), speak the words of the tax collector: "God, be merciful to me a sinner."
Attend, therefore, to yourself. This word will stand by you usefully, both when you are shining with success and when your whole life is flowing along with a favorable current, bringing to mind the reminder of a good counselor regarding D human affairs. And furthermore, even if you are pressed by circumstances, it can serve as a charm for your heart, so that you are neither puffed up by pride toward the vice of arrogance, nor fallen into base despondency through despair. Are you boastful because of wealth? Do you pride yourself on the nobility of your ancestors, on your country, on the beauty of your body, and on the honors bestowed by all? Attend to yourself, that you are mortal, that "you are earth, and to earth you shall return." Look around for those who lived before you in similar splendors. Where are those who held civil magistracies?
Where are those who kept public assemblies? Where are the illustrious breeders of horses, the commanders of armies, the satraps, the tyrants? Is not all things dust? Is not all things a fable? Is not the memory of their lives preserved in a few bones? Look upon their tombs; can you distinguish the slave from the master, the poor man from the rich? Distinguish, if you can in any way, the prisoner from the king, the strong from the weak, the beautiful from the deformed. Therefore, if you remember your nature, you will never exalt yourself; for you will be mindful of yourself if you pay attention to yourself.
6. Again, are you an obscure man and of no glory, a poor man sprung from the poor, without a hearth, without a city, infirm, in need of daily sustenance, fearing the powerful, shrinking from everyone because of the lowliness of your life? B For a poor man, it says, does not endure a threat. Do not therefore lose heart, nor on that account, because you lack nothing of those things which are usually desired, cast away all good hope: but rather raise your soul, both to those goods which have already been bestowed upon you by God, and to those which, by His promise, are laid up for you in the future. First, indeed, you are a human being, the only one among all living things fashioned by God. Does not that fact, if you judge it properly, suffice for supreme joy, that you were fashioned by the very hands of God, who created all things? And then, because, having been made in the image of your Creator, you are able through a life well-instituted to attain to a dignity equal to the angels? You have obtained an intellectual soul, by means of which you perceive God, you investigate the nature of things through reason, and you pluck the most sweet fruit of wisdom. All terrestrial animals, whether tame or wild, and all those dwelling in the waters, and those which fly through this air, are C your servants and subject to your command. Have you not discovered arts, and built cities, and devised both those things necessary for life and those which pertain to pleasure and luxury? Have not the seas become passable for you, with reason as your guide? Do not the air and the sky and the choirs of stars display their own order for you? Why then are you faint-hearted, because you do not have a horse adorned with a silver bridle? But you have the sun, which, with a most swift course throughout the whole day, holds out its light to you like a torch. You lack the glitter of silver and gold: but you have the moon, which illuminates you with its own immense splendor. You do not ascend gilded chariots: but you have your feet as your own proper vehicle, and one innate to you. Why then do you declare those blessed who possess a full purse, and who require the feet of others for their movement? You do not sleep on an ivory bed, but you possess the earth, which is D more precious than many elephants, and sweet upon
it is the rest you take, and you indulge in a sleep that is swift and free from care. You do not lie beneath a golden ceiling, but you have the heaven A shining around you with the ineffable beauty of the stars. These things, then, are human; but those which follow are greater and more excellent. For you, God has dwelt among men; there is the distribution of the Holy Spirit, the destruction of death, the hope of the resurrection, divine commands that make your life perfect, a journey toward God through the commandments, and the kingdom of heaven prepared for him who does not shun the labors for the sake of virtue, and crowns of righteousness B.
7. If you pay attention to yourself, you will discover even more points than these; and you will enjoy the present things, nor will you be faint-hearted regarding what is lacking. The command, if it is kept before your eyes everywhere, will provide you with great assistance. For instance, have your reasonings been overcome by anger, and are you carried away by passion toward unbecoming words and cruel, beastly deeds? If you pay attention to yourself, you will restrain your anger like an unruly and stubborn colt, chastizing it with the blow of reason as if with a lash. You will also control your tongue, and you will not lay hands upon the one who has provoked you. Again, do evil desires and lusts, like a gadfly, harass your soul, and cast you into incontinent and licentious impulses? If, therefore, you pay attention to yourself, and remember that this immediate pleasure of yours will arrive at a bitter end, and that the tickling which now arises in our body from pleasure will generate C that poisonous, undying worm which will torment us in Gehenna, and that the burning of the flesh will become the mother of eternal fire, then immediately your lusts will depart and flee, and a certain wonderful tranquility and quiet will arise within the soul, just as the tumult of wanton serving-maids is quieted by the presence of a chaste mistress. Pay attention, therefore, to yourself, and know that one part of the soul is rational and intelligent, while the other is affected by passions and is irrational. And it is the nature of the former to rule, and for the others to obey and be persuaded by reason. Never, therefore, allow the mind to be enslaved and become a servant to the passions, nor, on the other hand, permit the passions to rise up against reason and transfer the authority of the soul to themselves. In general, an accurate understanding of yourself will provide you with sufficient guidance D even for the contemplation of God. For if you pay attention to yourself, you will have no need to search for the Creator from the construction of the universe, but in yourself,
A as in a small microcosm, you will behold the great wisdom of the Creator. Conceive of God as incorporeal, based on the incorporeal soul that exists within you, and not circumscribed by place; for not even your mind dwells primarily in a place, but comes to be in a place through its connection to the body. Believe that God is invisible, having reflected upon your own soul, since it too is incomprehensible to bodily eyes. For it is neither colored, nor shaped, nor enclosed by any bodily character, but is known only through its operations. Therefore, do not seek in God that knowledge which is acquired through the aid of the eyes, but by entrusting faith to the intellect, have an intelligible apprehension concerning Him. Admire the Craftsman, how He has bound the power of your soul to the body, so that, reaching even to its farthest extremities, it brings limbs that are widely separated from one another into one breathing-together and fellowship. Consider what power is imparted from the soul to the body; what fellowship of affections and senses returns from the body to the soul; how the body receives life from the soul, while the soul receives pains from the body; what storehouses it has for learning; why the addition of subsequent things does not cast any shadow of darkness on the knowledge of things previously known, but rather memories are preserved distinctly, without any confusion, as if inscribed upon a certain bronze column in the commanding part of the soul. Note how, by yielding to the vicious affections of the flesh, it loses its own beauty; and how, again, when purged of the foulness of vice, it runs back through virtue towards the B likeness of the Creator.
8. Since you have contemplated the soul, attend also, if it seems good to you, to the structure of the body, and admire how the supreme Artificer has fashioned it as a suitable and becoming dwelling-place for the rational soul. He fashioned man alone of all animals with an erect countenance, so that from this very figure you might know that your life originates from a heavenly lineage. For the whole race of four-footed animals looks toward the earth, and is inclined toward the belly; but to man, the upward glance toward heaven is ready, so that he may not be given over to the belly, nor to the passions below the belly, but may direct his whole impulse toward the upward journey. Furthermore, having placed the head in the highest position, He established therein the principal senses. Here, sight, hearing, C taste, and smell—all have their seats not far from one another. And although they are cooped up in so small a space, none obstructs the operation of its neighbor. Indeed, the eyes have occupied the highest watchtower, so that no part of the body might cast shadows upon them, but dwelling beneath a slight projection of the eyebrows, and from a superior and more eminent D position...