Homilies

HOMILIES OF OUR HOLY FATHER ASTERIUS, BISHOP OF AMASIA

HOMILY I

Homily on the passage of the Gospel according to Luke, concerning the rich man and Lazarus.

^A God and our Savior does not instruct men to hate vice and love virtue merely by prohibitive and dogmatic decrees; rather, he also provides the lessons of a good life through vivid examples, urging us toward the attainment of a good and God-loving life both by deeds and by words. Thus it is that, having often spoken to us beforehand—both through the mouths of the prophets and the evangelists, and indeed through his own voice—declaring that he hates arrogant and haughty wealth, and loves a philanthropic mind and poverty joined with justice, he now confirms his word ^B with practical examples, so as to make his counsel concerning what is good more certain. He writes into his narrative both the rich man and the poor man; he shows us the self-indulgent luxury of the one, and the afflicted and wretched life of the other, together with the end to which the life of each arrived; so that, by contemplating the truth in the habits of others, we may become sober judges of our own lives.

"There was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen." By these two brief expressions, the Word ^C mocks and ridicules the soft and immoderate extravagance of those who live in ill-gotten wealth. For the dye of the purple is both expensive and superfluous, and the use of fine linen is not at all necessary. But for those who choose a well-ordered and simple life, the...

^A proper and familiar course is to measure the use of things by necessity, and to shun the refuse of vain glory and the life of soft luxury as the mother of vice. And that we may more clearly understand the power of this very thing being said, let the primary use of clothing be examined—how widely it extends and what limits and boundaries temperance has prescribed for it. What then does the law of justice say? "God created the sheep with a thick fleece and well-provided with wool." Take this, shear it, and entrust the material to the weaver's art; fashion a tunic and a mantle for yourself, so that you may escape the hardship of winter and the harm of the burning ray. But if you also need a lighter garment during the summer season, God has granted the use of linen for a more abundant enjoyment, from which it is very easy for you to obtain a decent covering that both protects and cools by its lightness. And enjoying these, give thanks to the Creator, because He not only created us, but also provided for the protection and defense of our life. ^B But if, abandoning the sheep and the wool and the necessary provision of the Creator of all, you live on vain imaginings and frenzied desires in luxury, and seek fine linen and gather the threads of Persian worms, from which—to speak in such a way—a spider's airy web is woven; and if, in addition, you hire a dyer for a huge fee, so that, having hunted the snail from the sea, he may stain your garment with the blood of the animal, this is the act of a man who is immoderately lascivious, who abuses his possessions, and has no idea upon what uses he might pour out his overflowing riches. And for this reason such a person is chastised, being accused by the Gospel as a weakling and a womanish man, decked out with the adornments of wretched young girls.

Others again, lovers of a similar vanity—or rather, having practiced vice even more—have not stopped the boundaries of their foolish invention even at what has been said; ^C but having devised a certain empty and curious weaving, which, by the subtle joining of warp and woof, imitates the power of painting and marks out the forms of all kinds of animals upon the garments, they craftily make flowery apparel, variegated with six hundred figures, both for themselves, for their wives, and for their children; playing, therefore, and not doing anything serious. Being an excess of wealth, they abuse the age and do not use it; and they legislate contrary to Paul, and struggle against the divinely inspired voices—not with letters, but with deeds. For what he proclaimed in word, these retain and ratify in their deeds. When, therefore, they appear dressed in such things, they are seen by those who meet them as painted walls. And sometimes even children stand around them, smiling at one another and pointing with their fingers at the figures on the garments, and following behind them, they depart only with difficulty, and allow themselves to be torn away from them. ^D

^A There you may see lions, panthers, bears, bulls, dogs, woods, rocks, hunters, and everything that the industry of painters occupies itself with, in imitation of nature. It was clearly necessary, it seems, that not only their walls and houses should be adorned with paintings, but also their tunics and the cloaks cast over them.

But if any, whether men or women, of those who abound in riches seem more religious, they gather themes from the evangelical history and provide them to the weavers; I mean our Christ Himself with all His disciples, and each of the miracles even as the narrative relates it. You will see the marriage at Cana of Galilee, and the water-jars; the paralytic carrying his bed upon his shoulders; the blind man healed with ^B spittle; the woman with an issue of blood grasping the hem; the sinner falling at the feet of Jesus; Lazarus returning from the sepulcher to life. When they do these things, they think they are acting piously, and that it is pleasing to God to wear such a kind of garment. But if they would listen to me, they would sell these things and honor the living images of God. Do not paint Christ (3); (for the one humiliation of His incarnation, which He voluntarily undertook for our sake, is enough for Him). Rather, bear the incorporeal Word within your soul, holding Him in a spiritual manner. Do not have the paralytic on your garments, but seek out the sick man lying in bed. Do not look constantly upon the woman with the issue of blood; but have mercy on the afflicted widow. Do not gaze intently upon the ^C sinner falling at the knees of the Lord; but, crushed by the memory of your own sins, shed abundant tears. Do not paint Lazarus rising from the dead; but prepare a good defense for your own resurrection. Do not carry the blind man about on your clothing; but comfort a living blind man with your good deeds. Do not paint the baskets of leftovers; but feed those who are hungry. Do not carry on your garments the water-jars which He filled (4) in Cana of Galilee; but give drink to the thirsty.

Thus far the proud garment of the rich man has profited us; but the things that follow must not be neglected. For to the luxury of his garments, to his purple and fine linen, he added the delights of sumptuous daily banqueting. For both of these ^D are equal and arise from the same spirit: to be lasciviously adorned with the useless and vain ambition of clothing, while indulgently serving the belly and the throat. Voluptuousness, therefore, and luxury are hostile to the pursuit of virtue; they are things that enslave the soul to softness and dissipation, to immoderate enjoyment, and to slavish habit.

And yet, the matter seems to be a single thing; but when examined part by part and brought to account, its constitution is found to consist of a varied, manifold, and hydra-headed wickedness. For luxury could not exist unless it were nourished by many materials. And to accumulate the materials of wealth without sin is impossible—except, perhaps, for someone in whom it might rarely happen, as it did for Job, to be both exceedingly rich and to live in strict accordance with justice.

The man who lives in luxury, therefore, first requires a costly house, decorated with mosaic, stone, and gold, like a bride adorned for her wedding; and one that is well-suited for the shifting seasons of the year. For he seeks a house that is warm and cozy in winter, turned toward the rays of the midday sun, but open to the north in summer, so that the thin, cool breezes blowing from the north may breathe through it. ^B After this, he needs costly clothing for the embellishment of his floors, his beds, his couches, and his doors. For in their houses, everything is carefully dressed, even inanimate objects, while in the meantime the poor are miserably stripped of their own clothing. Add next to these, and consider, the silver and gold plate, the expensive purchase of birds brought from the Phasis, and wine from Phoenicia, which the vines of Tyre pour out in such abundance and at such a price for the wealthy; and consider all the other apparatus of indulgence, which is difficult even for those who use it to name with care. For as luxury increases daily toward a more inquisitive excess, he now even pours Indian spices into his food; and apothecaries are employed by cooks more than they are by physicians.

From this, consider the retinue that guards the table: the banquet organizers, the wine-pourers, the stewards, and those who oversee these—the musicians, the female singers, the dancing girls, the flute players, the buffoons, the sycophants, the parasites, and all the rest of the mob that follows in the train of vanity. ^C How many poor are wronged so that these things may be acquired! How many orphans are cuffed! How many widows weep! How many, suffering under such brutal tearing away of their livelihoods, hasten toward the noose!

The soul of such a person, having tasted of some Lethean water, altogether forgets itself—who it is, to what it is joined, and that one day this union will be dissolved, and it will once again inhabit a body that has been rebuilt and restored to life. But when the time appointed arrives, and the inexorable decree pulls the soul away from its communion with the body, a reflection on its past life enters in, and a useless repentance, coming too late to satisfy the need. For repentance is beneficial ^D only when the one who changes his mind has the power to set things right; when the ability to act and perform good works is removed, grief is useless and contrition is vain.

*Erat autem quidam mendicus nomine Lazarus.* Scripture does not describe the pauper simply as one who is destitute of the necessary use of things and suffering from penury; but...

^A he adds also that he was constrained by a painful ailment, his body consumed and flowing away, homeless, without a hearth, without care, and cast down at the gate of the rich man. With great care and in a tone almost of tragic buskin, he narrates the miseries of the pauper, so as to mark and stigmatize the hardness of the one who would not have pity. For he who is not touched by the hunger and sickness of another with compassion is truly a brute beast devoid of reason, wrongly clothed in the form of a man, deceiving nature by his own will; and he is even more cruel than the wild beasts themselves. Indeed, when swine are slaughtered, the other swine are drawn to a certain painful feeling, and they utter a mournful sound over the freshly shed blood; oxen stand around the slaughter of a bull, ^B signifying their grief with a pathetic lowing. Flocks of cranes, too, when one of their companions happens to fall into a snare, fly around the one captured, fill the air with a certain lamentable clamor, and seek their companion and peer. Yet man, a rational and gentle animal, taught goodness in the image of God—how little he cares for his kinsmen in the painful circumstances of their calamities!

There lay, therefore, that long-suffering and grateful pauper, deprived of the use of his feet (for otherwise he would have avoided that most wicked and proud man; he would have chosen another place instead of that gate—that slayer of guests and path closed to the poor); ^C deprived also of his hands, unable to stretch out even a palm for begging; having the very organs of his voice obstructed, and emitting from his breast a shrill and harsh sound; being entirely mutilated and maimed in all his limbs, a remnant of a foul disease, a miserable example of human frailty. And yet, such a multitude of miseries did not move the stiff-necked man toward an inspection. He would pass the man by as if he were a stone, binding himself in a wickedness for which there was absolutely no veil or pretext. For he could not bring forward those common and specious excuses to clear himself: "I did not know," "I was unaware," "The beggar's crying escaped me"—seeing that he lay before the doors, a spectacle to one coming in and going out, which rendered the ^D condemnation of the proud man inexorable. He desired even the crumbs from the table, and not even these did he obtain; but while the one was bursting with satiety, the other was wasting away from hunger and want.

It would therefore seem right and equitable that that Canaanite woman, the Phoenician, should be brought in as a teacher to the rich man who hated his fellow man, inculcating those things which are written: "Even the dogs, O most wicked and proud of men, eat of the crumbs which fall from the table of their masters; but you have not deemed your brother and tribesman worthy even of this gift?" For the dogs were indeed nourished with care; the mastiffs separately, and the hunting dogs separately, they rejoiced equally in roof and in bedding; and they had servants specifically assigned to them with haste; while meanwhile, neglected and trampled upon, there lay the image of God upon the ground, that image which the most excellent artificer and creator of all things fashioned with His own hand; if to anyone

Moses, a suitable and trustworthy writer, appears to have recorded the creation of man.

But if the narrative of Lazarus had ended here, and the nature of things were such that the course of human life were defined by such a diverse and unequal lot, I would indeed have uttered loud lamentations, crying out that we, who were created with equal honor, should live among our fellow-creatures in such unequal ways. But since the things that remain to be heard are glorious, you, O poor man, who have sighed over the former things, be of good cheer from now on, learning of the blessed enjoyment of your fellow-sufferer. For you shall find a precise tribunal of a just judge, under which the man who lived in luxury shall groan and weep, and the man who labored shall thrive; and each shall receive the reward he deserves.

^B “And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.” Do you see the attendants of the just and poor man, and the ministers of the transition? For angels escorted him, looking upon him in a gentle and mild manner, and by their very demeanor showing him in advance the relief and rest that awaited him. Being carried, he was placed in the bosom of the patriarch; and this provides a starting point for questioning to those who gladly examine the depths of the Scriptures. For if every just person who dies is carried to the same place, this bosom would have to be very vast and extended to infinite spaces if it were to be capable of containing the whole multitude of the saints.

But since this is altogether impossible (for a bosom, however hollow and capacious, can with difficulty hold even one man, and scarcely two infants), a certain mystical understanding meets us, leading us by the image of the physical bosom to a spiritual reality. For what is meant by what is said? It is undoubtedly that Abraham receives those who have lived a life of good citizenship. Come then, O divine Luke (for I will address you as if you were present and before my eyes); why is it that, among the many just men and those older than Abraham, you have assigned this honor to a man of a later age, passing over Enoch, Noah, and anyone else who followed them in their way of life? Yet I think I perceive your meaning, and my reasoning does not fall wide of the mark. For because Abraham was a servant of Christ, and he, more than other mortals, welcomed the manifestation of Christ, and the mystery of the Trinity was sufficiently typified for us in the tent of this old man when he entertained the three angels as wayfaring men; and in short, through many mystical enigmas, this man became a kinsman of God, who in later times would clothe Himself in flesh and through this human veil would clearly ^D converse with men; for this reason, you have designated his bosom as a kind of haven and undisturbed resting place.

^A For within Christ is the salvation of us all, and the expectation of the age to come, since He sprouted from the flesh of Abraham according to human lineage. And it seems to me that the honor and glory attributed to this old man should be referred to the Savior, who is the judge and rewarder of virtue, and who calls the righteous with that gentle and soothing voice, saying: "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you." ^B *It came to pass that the poor man died.* There is a two-fold meaning concerning the poor man: one which denotes the need for necessary provisions, and another which denotes modesty and the humility of character. Therefore, let not him who is destitute of material goods and lacking in money, while clothed in a wretched cloak, claim for himself the praise of virtue, nor let him believe that poverty suffices for salvation. For he who is poor by necessity is not praised; rather, he who chooses modesty by his own judgment is to be admired. Since for those who are indifferently in need, but whose manner of life is unguided or uncorrected, poverty born of necessity becomes a provision for many evil and daring acts. For I have seen all the housebreakers and man-stealers—furthermore, the footpads and thieves, and even the murderers themselves, if ever I happened upon them at a ruler’s tribunal—as poor, unknown, homeless, and without hearth. As a result of this, it is clear ^C that the Scripture now blesses that poor man who bears his labors with a philosophical soul, and who endures the circumstances of life nobly, committing no evil wickedness in order to indulge the flesh with the pleasures of enjoyment. Him the Lord describes more clearly in the first of the beatitudes, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Therefore, not every poor man is righteous, but only he who is like Lazarus in his ways; nor is every rich man reprobate, but only he who conducts his life as the one who was the contemporary of Lazarus; and of this, those who bear witness through the experience of life are clear. For what was more opulent than the divine Job? Yet that excessive abundance and plenty of things did not estrange the man from justice, nor, to speak concisely, did it banish him from virtue. What was poorer than the Iscariot? ^D Yet his destitution did not profit him in the slightest for his salvation; but while he was associated in company with the eleven and the philosophers, and even with the Lord Himself, who for our sake voluntarily became poor, he was carried away by the depravity of his mind into avarice, and from there he contrived the betrayal.

It will also be worth our while to prudently examine the passing of each of the deceased. For the poor man, when he had fallen asleep, had the angels themselves as his escort and attendants, who led him with a good hope into the place of rest; but the rich man having died, he says, was buried.

^A For there is nothing like making use of the Scripture's own expression, which in a single word adequately explains the shameful end of the rich man. For the sinner, when he dies, is truly buried, being subterranean in body and earthly in soul as well; and having brought down the natural dignity of that soul through the sympathy of the flesh toward material filth, leaving behind no useful monument of his own life, and being covered over by an ignoble oblivion, he finishes his death like that of the beasts. For the tomb holds the body, but Hades holds the soul—two dark prisons, dividing the punishment of the wicked. And who would not censure the wretched man for his senselessness? When he was above the earth, he was boastful, arrogant, despising all who lived with him and were of his own tribe, and all but calling those who encountered him ants and worms, while he was puffed up with the empty conceit of short-lived glory. But when he was torn away from life, and as a slave under the lash he was stripped of the goods of others, of which he had imagined himself the master through his folly, he is brought down to a humility that balances his pride; and, wailing like an old woman, he invokes the patriarch with a long and useless string of words, saying: ^B "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame" (Luke XVI, 24). He seeks mercy, which he did not give when he had the easy power to do good; and he asks that Lazarus come to assist him against the fire, praying to suckle from the leper’s finger, lightly moistened with water. Such is the senselessness of those who love the body; such is the end of those who love wealth and pleasure. And it behooves the sensible man, who provides for the future, to consider this parable as a medicine for health and, by avoiding the taste of similar evils, to practice sympathy and philanthropy as the cause of the life to come. For the text has dramatically set forth the admonition for us by means of definite characters, so that, having been instructed in a lively and illustrative way in the law of a good life, we may never despise the commands of Scripture, as if they were merely frightening in word alone and did not carry the threat through to punishment. For I know that most people, being enticed by such assumptions, grant themselves unbridled license to sin. But we are taught the exact opposite by the Scripture before us: that no indulgence lightens the punishment of the judgment there, nor does philanthropy lessen the determined penalty, if we must certify the argument with the words of the patriarch. For having been implored much by the rich man, and ^C having heard his pleas, he was neither moved by his wailing, nor did he rescue the one so bitterly scourged from his pain; but with a severe mind, he confirmed the just judgment, stating that to each is awarded according to their worth in Hades.

had supplicated the man, and he had heard his countless pitiful cries, he could not be swayed by any lamentations, nor did he truly release him from his terrible pains; but with a sterner mind he confirmed the justly passed sentence, saying that God distributes to each according to their merits; "As for you, indeed," he says, "you who lived your life delighting in the calamities of others, you pay the penalty for your sin in the present; but to this man, who lived a wretched and bitter life in the flesh, while all trampled upon him, there has been allotted in its turn a glad and pleasing condition." Furthermore, he says, a vast and ^A immense chasm prevents any mutual intercourse between them, and separates those who are being punished from those who are honored, so that both may clearly pass their time apart from one another, having an unconfused enjoyment of good things and of bad. I think, however, that this sensory parable is an enigma of intelligible contemplation. For we surely should not think that a trench or a ditch was actually dug there by the angels—such as is created in military camps to keep out enemies—but rather that Luke, while striving to sketch the disagreement and separation between those who have lived their lives through virtue and those who have lived otherwise, set forth this likeness and image of a chasm. Isaiah supports this insight of ours abundantly, saying: *Is the hand of the Lord not strong enough to save, or has He made His ear heavy so that He cannot hear? But your sins separate between ^B you and God* (Isa. LIX, 1, 2).

II. Homily on the passage from the Gospel according to Luke, concerning the steward of iniquity.

I have often said to you while discoursing, that a certain feigned and false notion, having entered into the minds of men, both multiplies sins and hinders the good works which each of us ought to practice according to the rule of our own conduct. This notion is the belief that all things which we possess in the usage of life, we possess as lords and masters. And because of this assumption, we contend vehemently for them, we fight, we struggle, and we are occupied with them to the extreme, as if they were exceptional possessions. But the truth is not so; rather, it is quite the contrary. For none of the things we have received is ours; nor have we been ^C brought into this life and age as if into our own home by full right of lordship; but rather as tenants and strangers, and we are swept off as exiles to where we do not wish, and at a time we did not expect; and we are stripped of the possession of our goods when it seems right to the Lord. Wherefore, this mortal life is a thing easily changed; and he who is glorious and illustrious today, is tomorrow pitiable and in need of help; he who is currently affluent and thriving in the materials of wealth, becomes poor after a little while, not even having the bread from his own house to offer for his sustenance. And to this ^D King of all your creation, Lord of [all] wealth and possessions...

^A because He is always the same, remains in the same state, and possesses life, glory, and power that cannot be taken away, God surpasses us mortals.

Whence, then, I came to this beginning of my discourse, those who have understanding and are learned in letters will perhaps already know. Luke has just now read to us a constructed parable, in which he depicts the steward of another’s property as being distressed and afflicted, since he heard, as one suffering and a great spendthrift, from the Lord of the wealth and possessions: "Give an account of your stewardship, and depart; for I will not endure you to revel in my things as if they were your own." This, however, is not a narrative of an event that actually occurred, but a parable, a fabrication which, through a shadowed discourse, teaches us moral virtue. Know, therefore, each one of you, that you are a steward of things not your own; and having cast from your soul the pride of authority, take up the humility and piety of one who is accountable and a steward, always awaiting your Lord, and with fear writing down the account of your reckoning. For you are a sojourner, having received the permission for a short-lived and transient use. If you are in doubt regarding what is familiar, observe what happens, and be instructed by that teacher who cannot lie: experience.

^B You possess an estate, having received it from your forefathers, or having become the master of it through some contract. Reflect, therefore, in your memory, and number all those—if you are able—who possessed it before you; and bend your mind also to the coming time, and consider how many will rule over it after you. Tell me, then, whose is the ownership, and how does it specifically differ for those who have held it, those who have it, or those who are about to have it? For if someone were to gather all of them together as if from a machine, there would be found more possessors than clods of earth.

Nay, if you wish to see clearly what our life is similar to, remember if it ever happened that while traveling during the summer season, you caught sight of a leafy tree, extending to a great width and height, sufficient to fulfill the need of a house with its shade. Delighted by this, you went up to it, and for as long as it was possible, you lingered there. But because it was necessary to set out again, and as you were intending to depart, another traveler appeared. And you, on your part, took up your baggage; but he laid down his own, and all at once received everything that was yours: the sleeping mat, the fire, the shade of the tree, the flowing water. ^C And he held fast to the place of rest, while you moved on. He too was delighted, then he left; and the one

tree was, in the space of a single day, perhaps a brief lodging for ten strangers. And that which became a resource for everyone belonged solely to its true master. In the same way, the wealth and resources of this life, while they may delight and nourish many, belong in their dominion only to God, who possesses an immortal and deathless life. You have also seen a public inn, where you certainly happened to stop while on a journey; you received many things there, though you brought nothing with you: a bed, a table, cups, plates, and various other utensils. And just when you had not yet used them as much as seemed sufficient, another person arrived, panting and covered in dust, urging you on and forcing you to leave the inn, and seeking to claim the belongings of others as if they were his own.

^B Such, brothers, is our life, or if there is anything more transitory and fleeting than what has been mentioned. Wherefore, when I hear some saying, "My land," or "My house," I cannot wonder enough how they claim for themselves what is not theirs with an empty syllable, and with three deceptive letters try to grasp what belongs to another. For just as no one particularly and properly possesses the masks of actors, but each performer puts one on according to the role and the plot; so, too, do men put on and change the earth and earthly possessions as if they were garments, one after another. Tell me, I pray, is there anything more powerful than a kingdom? And yet, examine the palaces; search for the royal robes; you will surely find them to be things that have clothed the bodies of many kings. Likewise also the crowns, the clasps, and the girdles: all of them are an unstable inheritance, a common usage passing from those who are journeying to those who remain. ^C And what of all that stage-play which those in office possess? The silver carriage, I say, and the golden rod? Does a magistrate not always have these? Yet never the same man, but each only for the use of a brief time? For as a bier or a funeral litter receives one corpse after another, so the signs of authority change those who use them. Hence also the Apostle shouts to us with many voices to instruct us in this understanding: "For the form of this world is passing away"; and the saying, "As having nothing, and yet possessing all things"; and likewise, "Those who use this world, as though they did not use it to the full." For all these things tend toward one goal, that we should live here as ephemeral beings, and always await the signal and the watchword of our departure. ^D

^A And that you may learn accurately that you are subject to Dominical laws and canons, by which you ought to be strictly corrected, consider first within yourself that both your body and your soul are subject on all sides to the commandments of virtue, and that you are not even master of yourself; but it is necessary for you to manage both word and deed, and every movement of your life. You received a body from the Creator, composed of many parts, and equipped with five senses for the uses and convenience of life. But even these are not free and autonomous; rather, each one is a slave to laws. And first, the eye is subject to instruction: ^B Contemplate nature, and observe what it is good to behold: the sun, illuminating all the inhabited world; the moon, lighting up the solemn and dark face of the night; the other stars, not providing us with enough light from themselves, yet emitting the beauty that they have received. Observe the earth, heavy with plants of every kind and herbs; the sea, spread out like a level plain when it is settled into a pure calm. In these and similar things, use your faculty of sight; but as for other sights, which bring harm into the soul through the eyes, flee and run past them, and put a covering over yourself, so that you do not see. For it is better to darken the sense when it provides a cause for the works of darkness. For this reason, the Lord said to us yesterday through Matthew: "Everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart"; ^C and it is better to cut it out when it looks at things in a disorderly and harmful way. And the ear has commands that prohibit all [evil] listening. For it ought to be open when it hears something good, and through itself transmit the sense of profitable words into the soul. But if any comrade of vice, a pestilence and a destroyer, approaches it and is about to pour in the mire of sin, it must be avoided, just like a venomous serpent. Let the mouth and tongue also be disciplined; let them speak just things; and let them abstain from things forbidden: from insults, from slander, from unjust accusation, from speaking evil against one's brothers, from blasphemy against God. ^D Let it utter only what is edifying, what is pious, whatever acts as a counsel for good deeds; and let every man say the words of the Holy Psalmist: "I said, I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue"; and, "With their tongues they have practiced deceit"; and, "Why do you boast in malice, you who are powerful in iniquity? Your tongue intended injustice all the day; like a sharpened razor you have wrought deceit." Let the mouth taste things that are profitable. And let moderation be applied also to the nose and the sense of smell, so that they may not be too given to pleasure, and may not draw up the sweet-smelling vapors of costly ointments [onto the head].

Homily II. On the Unjust Steward

commandments, so that it may not touch everything without restraint. Let it be stretched out for almsgiving, not for rapine; let it keep its own, not gather up what belongs to others; let it touch bodies that are weak and suffering, for the sake of charitable visitation, not those that are blooming and always idle in acts of lewdness.

I think it is now established that we are not even masters of ourselves, but only stewards and dispensers. For whatever is bound by laws and precepts is recognized as a servant and subject to the Lawgiver. If, therefore, not even the parts and members of our own body are free or their own masters, but are ordered in their functions by the will of the Master, what shall we say to those who persuade themselves that their possession of gold and silver, of land, and of other things, is subject to no accounting? Nothing, O man, is yours. You are a servant, and all your things are the Master’s: for a servant has no private property of his own. ^B For you were brought naked into this light; whatever you have, you have received according to the law of your Master—whether by paternal inheritance, because God has so ordained (for "parents," He says, "shall divide spoils to their children"), or by having acquired wealth through marriage (and marriage and what pertains to it have been ordained by God), or by trade, and agriculture, and other means, with God acting and assisting so that you might become rich.

Now, therefore, it is proven that you have received what is not yours; let us see next what has been prescribed for you, and what manner of stewardship there should be regarding these things. Give to the hungry; clothe the naked; heal the one who is suffering; ^C do not neglect the needy one thrown out in the crossroads; do not be anxious about yourself, how you will act on the morrow. And if you do these things, he says, you will be honored by the Lawgiver; but if you have transgressed the commandment, you will be punished severely. These things, in truth, do not seem to me to be of one who is his own master, and to whom there is free power to do whatever he wishes; but quite the contrary, the multitude of precepts proves to me a man strongly enslaved to an empire, subject to the Lord’s laws, from whom a prescribed manner of life is demanded as a debt of sorts. But we, how do we lead our life so foolishly and senselessly, that we despise the wretched and the poor, and allow them to die in their miseries; ^D while meanwhile we ambitiously spend large sums on vain things; we feed a crowd of gluttonous flatterers, and drag along troupes of wretched parasites in an inseparable retinue; and again, we scatter our wealth upon gladiators and beasts, and in horse-breeding we spare none of our possessions.

And we suffer from a hollow state of things, indeed close to madness. For where expenditure brings back a profit beyond numbering and an immortal salvation, we tightly clutch our silver, so that not even a few ^A obols can fall from our hand; but where the disbursement turns out to be for sins and brings ten thousand torments, and even the penalty of the fire itself, we hasten to it of our own accord. Ambition anticipates the request; and by throwing wide all the doors, we allow our wealth to stream out to those who are outside. Yet this frame of mind does not belong to servants awaiting their master, but to young spendthrifts, revelers, and debauchees.

But if you wish, O listener, to see the fear of a steward ^B who manages what has been entrusted to him with wise reverence, open the book of David; search out those words where the man says to God, while examining the deadline for his own end: "Make known to me, O Lord, my end, and what is the number of my days, that I may know what I am lacking" (Ps. XXXVIII, 5). Do you see how, as in an image, the disposition of the one who prays is observed in his words—that he is fearful, and foresees the future, and awaits the judgment, and searches out the deadline, lest the signal of his departure should catch him unprepared? And he looks into himself, ^C calculating what is lacking for his sojourn, so that he may hasten to fulfill it before the one who is to lead him away arrives. For in truth the death of each one of us is an image of a steward, if we examine what happens to each one of us: what he who is dying suffers, and what he who is being cast out of his stewardship endures.

For in the same way the one who is dying hands over the administration to others, just as the steward hands over the keys; the latter is cast out of his field, the former is compelled to depart from the whole world as if it were a single field. Full of sorrow, the steward ^D withdraws from his own labors—from the vines, the gardens, and the houses. What, then, do you suppose the one who is dying suffers? Does he not lament his possessions? Does he not look around at his house with a pitiable gaze, being torn away against his will after so much effort, far from his treasures and his storehouses? And when he has arrived at his allotted place, hearing the words: "Render an account of your stewardship; show how you have heard my commandments, how you have behaved toward your fellow-servants, whether kindly and humanely, or on the contrary, burdensomely and tyrannically, striking them, buffeting them, defrauding them of the bread of alms?" And if he can manage to make the Master propitious, proving himself a good servant, it would be well for him; but if it is the contrary, there are no longer lashes of rods, nor a dark mill, nor iron fetters; but rather the unquenchable fire, and the darkness of eter-

-^Anal, divided by no intermission of light; but the gnashing of teeth, which the Gospel has clearly shown to us long ago by its testimony. But if you never cast off these earthly goods as if they were alien, go ahead, enjoy the world, and with the full liberty of all the senses, indulge your pleasure; but if these things must be brought to an end, and if their enjoyment will last for us only for a short time: let us fear, brethren, that day of migration, and during the time of our sojourn, let us live as the Lord commanded; may we not be dragged away as captives under debt, but rather let us journey forth free, and bringing with us a conscience that can speak with boldness, carrying the ledgers of our life’s conduct beyond the reach of blame.

^B That rich man, whose land had yielded bounteous fruits, was a wicked steward of this life; for in that great abundance of crops, he formed no plan that was good or had any humanity in it; but having opened wide the desire of his belly, and the broad and capacious depths of his greed, he assigned everything to his own utility and pleasure, saying, "I will tear down my barns, and will build larger ones, and I will say to my soul: You have many goods laid up for you; rest, eat, drink, make merry." And while he was saying these things, he who was to take him away stood by. A fellow-servant of terrible appearance drew near, to seize him and snatch him away from his stewardship. And now, what does a life of pleasure avail? And these things indeed have been written vividly and graphically for our admonition. But how great is the experience of these things in this life? Does not the very exhibition of events daily cry out such things? ^C whilst it shows us one who is firm and healthy at midday, dead before the rising of the evening; and another who is sound and unhurt in the evening, extinguished before the morning sun has even unfolded its rays; and another, finally, deprived of life amidst revelry and food? Who is so foolish as not to see how, day by day, we are being removed from the stewardship of this life in one way or another? But the good and faithful servant, relying on the conscience of a well-administered state of affairs, is so disposed in his mind as Paul once was. For he, when the Lord was not even urging him, was pining for Him and longed to be released, and of his own accord begged for the end of his stewardship, saying in one place: "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?" And again: "But for me it is good to be released and to be with Christ." ^D But he who is earthly in his mindset, and truly a kinsman of the soil, laments thus in his anxiety over the migration, like that man proposed in the parable: "What shall I do, because my lord is taking the stewardship away from me? To dig I have not the strength, to beg I am ashamed." This is the sorrow and complaint of a slothful and pleasure-loving man. For that weeping and wailing of the one departing accuses a man who is overly addicted to the depths of the earth, and who mourns for the vicious pleasures of the flesh. But weakness and the flight from labors is a sign and a crime of a life led through sluggishness and sloth. For if he had been accustomed to work and labor, he would not loathe digging. But if we consider the parable allegorically regarding things which fall under the intellect [not for long.

when we have departed from here, there is no longer time for begging. Therefore, let no one say, "I am not able to dig." Even if you were able, no one will permit it. This life contains the cultivation of the commandments; the life to come, the enjoyment of them. So if you did nothing here, the vines remained empty, and you are concerned about the mattock to no purpose; nor will you benefit yourself at all by begging. A clear example of this has been handed down to us: that of the foolish virgins who, when they found themselves in need of oil, shamelessly asked for it from the wise; yet they gained nothing, but were turned away empty-handed. The account shows us that no one can use another's oil at the arrival of the bridegroom—that is, another's merits for one's own enjoyment and fruit. For each person has put on his own manner of life like a garment, whether it is brilliant and precious, or whether it is common and like a beggar's cloak. It is not possible to take it off, or to change it and exchange it for another, or to adorn and decorate oneself at the time of judgment with what is borrowed or lent. Each remains as he truly is, whether he is destitute of goods or rich and abundant. And so much for these matters.

What, then, shall we say about the forgiveness and remission of debts which the steward of iniquity devised, procuring for himself some solace and help in his evils from his fellow servants? For it is not easy to transform what is written into a harmonious allegory. Yet I will say what, after much reflection, has come to mind. All of us who are striving to prepare future rest for ourselves make the giving or the forgiving of others' things our own gain. I call "others' things" that which belongs to the Master. For nothing is ours at all; rather, all things are possessions of His lordship. When, therefore, someone, perceiving that he is about to die and depart from here, lightens the burden of his sins with acts of kindness—either by forgiving debts to those who owe him, or by distributing abundance to the needy—by giving what is the Master's, he makes many friends for himself. These shall be able to testify before the Judge to his goodness, and by their testimony, prepare an abode of refreshment. Those who have been treated well are called witnesses before the Judge, not as those who teach Him with their voices, as if He were ignorant, but because the act performed for them delivers its authors from the punishment of their sins. For in the same way as the blood of Abel was said to cry out to God, so too shall the good work be said to bear witness to the one who has accomplished it in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

III. Homily Against Avarice

life, O you country folk and all who have issued from the cities, you who have gathered together in agreement for this present festival (for I embrace you all with one call of my voice): has each one of you cast into his mind a care, and perceived and understood for what reason we have gathered together? And why are the martyrs honored with the construction of magnificent edifices and these annual assemblies? And with what purpose in mind did our fathers ordain these things which we see, and establish that strong law for their descendants? Is it not plain, even to him who has braced his mind but a little, that these things were ordained for us out of a zeal for piety, and that the festivals are gathered as common schools for the souls, so that we, honoring the martyrs, might imitate the steadfastness of the martyrs in the cause of piety? ^A And so that, by offering our ear to the teachers who have assembled, we might learn something profitable which we did not know a little while ago, or the certainty of dogma, or the resolution of an obscure passage of Scripture, or some discourse for the correction of one’s conduct? ^B But you seem to me to have abandoned the pursuit of virtue and, forgetting the concern for the soul, to have transferred all your anxiety to the offscouring of mammon and the business of the markets—some of you trading yourselves, others gaping after what belongs to others, and scrutinizing those who are contending over their wares, so that they may make the goods of others cheap and diminish them in price. But come, transfer this zeal of yours to the Church; abandon avarice, that market-haunting, maddened woman. Turn away from her as you would from a shameful harlot, smiling at the crowd, adorned with others' finery, and painted by the colors of the perfumer. On the contrary, love that divine and honest and chaste one, clothed in grace, looking with a grave and steadfast countenance. ^C For so says Solomon in the book of Proverbs: "Do not forsake her, and she will hold fast to you; love her, and she will guard you." Do not pass her by in contempt, nor deem the things we set before you on this table to be despicable because you can obtain them gratis. Rather, let them be more welcome and more to be sought after because we do not sit like hucksters with scales and balance; we seek one profit alone: the salvation of the hearer and disciple.

A passage from the Acts of the Apostles was read to us, being Paul’s speech to Festus and Agrippa—the speech of Paul, that faithful apostle and wise orator. You saw plainly, O auditor, if you indeed applied your mind, how he neither betrayed the truth out of fear, nor, by tempering his courtesy toward Agrippa with freedom of speech, softened the harsh tribunal, ^D and inclined it to lenity—no differently than if you were soothing some wild beasts by the handling of your speech. And today Zechariah has also prophesied, opening for us the door to the great mysteries of the Only-begotten.

^A opening the door of the elements, with the figure of the stone having seven eyes’ cast and glances, and the golden lampstand upon which seven lamps and two olive stems were placed. Many are the Scriptures that follow, containing rich treasures of usefulness, all of which I was wishing to go through and to show you the abundance of this spiritual festival. But the promise of the previous day urges me toward the paying of the debt. For having begun with many accusations to attack greed, since we did not finish revealing its vanity, we deferred the censure of this charge until the present day. Hear then, and be fair judges of the truth. For you are passing judgment not on others, but on your own salvation, and each of you is casting all the condemnatory votes against the guilty party, driving it out from your own soul as if from a house or a city. ^B Greed, therefore, is not only to be mad for silver and other possessions, and to wish to add to what is present those things one does not have, but, to speak more generally, it is to wish to have more than what is owed and appropriate in any matter whatsoever. And indeed, the devil was the first to suffer this transgression, being an archangel and set in the most beautiful life and order, but the foolish one contemplated tyranny and rebellion against the Godhead; then, stripped of his status and having fallen into this air surrounding the earth, he was chosen as an evil neighbor to our life. ^C Thus, he neither attained that which he sought, the Godhead, and he lost what he possessed, the archangelic status; he became an unfaithful slave, who through small dares gradually turned into a robber; he is like the dog in the fable of the Greeks, both deprived of the meat and failing to grasp the shadow—for how could he? It is an elusive thing. After him, the first man, enticed into self-indulgence, lost immortality through the consumption of the forbidden food, just as Esau later did his birthright for a pottage of lentils. And excessive desire also brought this multitude of tongues and idioms into this life. For those who were wanton in human abundance, having expected that the heaven would be accessible to them, labored in vain on a ridiculous tower for the ascent to it, and they made the human race speak in different tongues instead of a single consensus of speech; and seeking to have something more than what they were allowed, they themselves were both checked and restrained, and they left a torment for the human race in the hearing of obscure voices and the labor of seeking interpretation. What of Pharaoh? Whence did he fall into such great and varied scourges? Was it not because of greed, and the ^D desire for having more?

^A And for this reason, having not let the strangers go, he destroyed his own: some in the slaughter of the firstborn, others in the pursuit by the sea. I pass over the rivers turning to blood, the limitless generation of frogs, the ruin caused by the locust, the eruption of blisters and pustules, the death of the four-footed beasts, and every calamity to which Egypt was condemned because of the greed of its ruler. ^B Elsewhere, moreover, I have learned of the end of sin, with leprosy suddenly covering the greedy man. And recount with me, whoever loves history and gladly listens to the glorious deeds of Elisha, how the Syrian Naaman was cleansed of leprosy after washing in the Jordan, and how the malady passed to the lad Gehazi, a greedy and mindless youth, who had put up for sale a spiritual grace and the doctor's free healing. What drove Absalom, the fierce and daring son of a most gentle father, to parricide? Was it not his untimely desire for the royal succession and his seizing of what belonged to others, like a plunderer? And Judas again, what cast him out from the catalog of the disciples and made him a traitor instead of an apostle? Was it not the treasury, first managed dishonestly, and then the gain of a shameful price, and the infamous commission of a few coins? ^C And whence comes the sad and tragic end of Ananias and Sapphira in the Acts of the Apostles? Was it not because they had stained themselves by theft of their own possessions and by the sacrilege of their own offerings? The day will fail me if I go on counting the ministers and slaves of greed. Leaving aside ancient history, therefore, let us examine the daily experience of life; what kind of beast greed is, and how difficult it is for those whom it has once seized to escape it; how it is always lively and vigorous, never weakened or failing, but grows old alongside those whom it has subjugated, and remains to the end.

^D The lecher and lover of bodies, even if he has raged for a long time goaded by the sting of pleasures, when he himself reaches old age, or sees the object of his passion withered and stripped of its bloom, finds at last a cessation and an end to his disease. The glutton also eventually departs from the pleasures of the belly, either when satiety has taken hold, or when the stomach and the parts charged with the power and function of digestion have become weaker, and have quieted that intense appetite. The ambitious man, having boasted in many splendors, eventually ceases to desire to be seen and to puff himself up with empty glories. But the disease of greed is an evil of such a kind that you can hardly ever be freed from it. And just as the ivy, that flourishing and evergreen plant, creeping upon the trees that grow nearby, wraps itself firmly around the boughs, whatever it may grasp, and does not abandon them even when they have suffered or dried up, unless someone cuts its curves and snake-like coils with iron: so too is it not easy to liberate the soul of a greedy man, whether he be young or aged, unless some sober mind, coming upon him, cuts through the disease like a sword.

^A To his own kin, the greedy man is unpleasant; to his servants, a burden; to his friends, useless; to strangers, difficult of approach; to his neighbors, a nuisance; to his wife, a disagreeable partner; to his children, a stingy and sordid tutor; a poor steward of his own self. By night he is anxious, and by day he is preoccupied; he talks to himself just like those who have lost their senses or are delirious; he is distressed by the prosperity of all, and groans as though he were in need, not enjoying what is present, but seeking what is absent. He makes no use of his own, and casts an envious eye upon the property of others. The flock of such a man is large, crowding the pens in which it is confined, covering the plains where it grazes. And if he spies a well-fed sheep belonging to a neighbor, he leaves his own herd and is carried away by his desire for that one, alien sheep. The same is true regarding his oxen, and likewise his horses; it is no different regarding his land. All things crush his house, and none are in actual use. For it is not possible for the insatiable man to enjoy anything; indeed, his house is like a tomb. For just as tombs are often full of gold and silver, but those who might use them are not there, so too is his house. ^B His body is not nourished, and no profit is found for his soul. For alms do not overflow from his right hand. What, then, is the end of this labor? Let one of those who were previously taken captive by this disease instruct me—and I know many, having recognized them by experience, who love and value money even more than their own health. If a physician happens to prescribe a way of healing by means of some inexpensive material—such as celery, or thyme, or dill, the abundance of which is costless—they obey the advice readily. But if mention is made of any medicine that is diverse and composed of many ingredients, and they are ordered to go to the apothecary or the perfumery, they would rather give up their soul than loosen their purse-strings. For being earthly in their mindset, they deem the possession of earthly materials to be their life. ^C Such men are tormented to an extreme degree by common public prosperity, yet they rejoice in calamities. They pray for oppressive and intolerable tax assessments to be visited upon others, so that they may increase their money through interest. They desire to see poor wretches strangled by moneylenders, so that they might acquire their field, or tool, or beast, sold cheaply out of necessity. Constantly they look up toward heaven, like the philosophers who study the phenomena of the heights—not seeking the instruction of a star, nor inquiring which house one of the planets occupies, but scrutinizing the state of the air to see if the visible signs herald a downpour of rain or a drought. And if they see some hardship expected by the many, they rejoice in the misfortune of others. They gather everything from everywhere into their storehouses, marking them securely, and they secure them with double bolts, measuring them out and calculating them without ceasing. But while the greedy man is busy with such a hope, and is, for the time being, enriched in a dream by the shadow-painting of his thoughts, if a dark cloud appears, he becomes terrified as if he were in danger. If a fine mist sprinkles the earth, he begins to weep; and if a rain shower supervenes,

becomes terrified, and the drought ^A causes him total mourning. He scouts about henceforth surveying everything concerning his grain as if it were a son in danger, looking for what remedy or what device there might be, so that it may suffice for a long time and escape the plague of the worms. And if he perceives heat, he acts like doctors with those who are wasting away: he spreads it out, divides it, and cools it; he sits by it, laboring and devising a covering against the midday sun, and at night he uncovers it, so that it may be breathed upon by the night breezes.

In these labors and troubles, a poor man stands by, asking for some of the grain that is in danger, but he does not give it; or if he does, he bestows it very sparingly and as if half-dead, ^B so exceedingly attached is he to his grain. I beseech you, therefore, you who are possessed by such a disposition, do not wish to labor and torment yourself forever in this way. Indeed, even that miser who does not shrink from delights is worthy of pity—he who defines life by the pleasure of the belly and other such things, and believes that to be the end of man. Yet by far and immeasurably more wretched is he who is illiberal and sordid; who occupies for himself alone what belongs to many, and nonetheless defrauds his own nature, with no yield or end to such exact diligence. For who ^C is ignorant that nothing is done for its own sake, except for virtue, but that we do one thing in order to accomplish another? No one sets sail upon the sea for the sake of sailing itself, nor does anyone spend his life in labor for the sake of farming itself; but it is clear that both endure these troubles for the sake of the harvest—the one, in order to reap the fruits and a rich crop; the other, to bring back the wealth of nautical commerce. But tell me, I pray you, what is it that you look for, to hoard in this way? What is the goal you have proposed for yourself, that you thus strive to pile up useless wealth? "But," you say, "the very sight delights me." Well then, indulge your malady in another way; for you can satisfy this desire even with the goods ^D of others. If the glitter of silver captures and exhilarates you, sitting by the silversmiths you may contemplate the dense and shining luster; or by frequenting the marketplaces and the stalls of merchants, where plates, basins, ewers, and every type of vessel are displayed, you may delight your mind. This is a free and unhindered spectacle. You may also watch the money-changers, who constantly handle and count coins on their tables. But truly, by submitting to better counsels, you will cast off this depraved appetite and change your mind. For correction is easy, since greed is not some natural necessity, but an impulse and a certain voluntary affection, which it is not difficult for those to cast off who consider and know how to conclude what is useful.

Look forward in your mind to the time to come, when you will no longer exist; when a little earth will hold your body, stretched out and devoid of all feeling; and a slab of a few spans will cover your remains. Where then will be your wealth and the hoarded treasures? Who will be the heir of the things that have been left behind

^A For it is by no means certain that he will be the successor whom you expect. If you leave children behind, they may perhaps be buffeted; and a miser like yourself will drive them, mourning, from their father’s house. Even if you are childless and bequeath your estate to some friend, do not put your trust in your testament as if it were an unalterable law, as a thing indisputable and powerful. A little effort can render a document void. Do you not see those who are constantly litigating in the courts over wills, how they evade them by various artifices, employing jurists as advocates, calling in eloquent orators as assistants, bribing false witnesses, and corrupting the courts? Therefore, from what you see happening while you are alive, draw your conclusions about what will become of things after you are gone. If you possess wealth justly and legitimately, make good use of it, as did the blessed Job; if unjustly, resolve it back to those from whom it was taken by force, as you would captives taken in war—either as you received it, or even with interest and increase, as Zacchaeus did. If you have nothing, do **not** acquire it through evil arts. For otherwise, a bitter attendant, sin, will follow you as you travel the necessary path, while the enjoyment of what you have acquired will be left behind for those you do not even know. And then you will admire David, when he says: "He stores up, and does not know for whom he will gather them." You will also recognize that rich man who was the opposite of Lazarus, who has just been read to us from the Gospels, not as a fable composed to strike terror, but as an exact pattern handed down of what is to come. ^C The fine linen has rotted away, the kingdom has passed to another, the luxuries have been abolished; but the sin that proceeded from those things has accompanied him, remaining like a shadow to a walking body. And for this reason, after the magnificence of the banquets and the delicate table, he asks for a drop of water dripping from the finger of a leper; and he calls upon the beggar as one who might mitigate his punishment—the one who perhaps did not even have hands when he was cast at the gate, for otherwise he would have driven away the dogs that were licking his sores. He desires to be joined to Lazarus, whom he sees across from him, yet he is kept at a distance by the intervening pit or chasm—not that there is any hole dug or trench made, such as one sees in military camps to block an enemy, but it is, I think, the barrier of sins that is indicated, which has walled off the condemned and reprobate from access and passage to the just man. And my interpretation is confirmed by the prophet Isaiah, who, chiding a foolish people, speaks severely and says: "Is the Lord’s hand unable to save? Or has He dulled His ear so that He cannot hear? But your sins separate between you and God." If, then, sin is known to separate men from God, there could be no sin more sinful than avarice, which is called idolatry by that herald of truth, Paul, and is the root and mother of all evils. ^D

^A For what else ^B dragged those who once gave their name to Christ and were partakers of the sacraments to the worship of demons? Was it not the desire to possess much and to become masters of others' fortunes? For having received promises from the godless and impious regarding either high-ranking life or possessions from the imperial treasuries, they quickly changed their religion like a garment. And while the examples of earlier times have been preserved and taught to us by the memory and tradition of our own lives, there are also facts that our present age has provided by experience. For when that emperor—he who suddenly cast off the mask of the Christian, and stripped buck the comic scenes which he had been acting out for a long time, and himself shamelessly sacrificed to demons, and offered many rewards to those who wished to do the same—how many left the Church and ran to the altars? How many, having taken the bait of honors, swallowed along with it the hook of transgression? And now they wander through the cities branded, hated and mocked by all, held as betrayers of Christ the Lord for a tiny bit of silver; struck from the roll of Christians, like Judas from the apostles; known by the name of 'transgressor' just as horses are known by their marks; having been dragged merely to the most terrible goading of all sins, and immediately following the leader of that profane and filthy impiety.

So, therefore, according to the Apostle, avarice becomes idolatry and is the root of all evils, breeding from itself countless iniquities. For just as those ^C who search for gold in the bosom and bowels of the earth recount that golden soil is found accumulated at the very beginning and primary place of its generation, and that from there, like veins, it extends far and wide and is cut in various ways, just as the roots of trees spread out widely from the trunk; in the same way I see here many sprouts and many shoots joined to one and the same root of avarice. And truly, it is not unfitting ^D that this discourse against avarice finds its example and image in gold. Hence I see the parricide looming over his father's head, neither revering the venerable grey hair nor the paternal authority, but chafing at the old man's longer life. For seeing all abundance available in the house, and not holding mastery over the things that meet his eyes, and desiring to become lord of them and of his comforts, he finds himself straitened by paternal rule. And at first, indeed, he keeps silence, and holds the sickness hidden deep within.

^A Then, as it grows by time and his soul is already swollen, the evil suddenly bursts forth, not otherwise than the force of water from pipes and conduits. Then he becomes intolerable to the miserable old man, and, as if driving him, forces him on toward the grave while he is still healthy and walking. If he mounts a horse with agility, he wonders and is astonished at it in an extraordinary way; if he takes food more heartily and as a healthy man should, he takes it ill and murmurs to himself; if he rouses the servants to their tasks and duties in the morning, he groans and grieves at the wakefulness and vigor of the old man. But if he gives away any of his heirlooms or frees a slave from bondage, then, surely then, he is called a madman and a dotard, one who has exceeded the limits of life, a spendthrift and waster of what belongs to others; and he is torn apart by all sorts of reproaches and curses, being accused as guilty of this crime, that he has not departed this life more quickly.

These are your fruits, cursed Avarice. Provoked by your goads, a son becomes an enemy to his parent. You fill the earth with robbers and assassins, the sea with pirates, cities with riots and tumults, the courts with false witnesses, slanderers, traitors, advocates, and judges inclining whither you drag them. Avarice is the mother of inequality; unmerciful, inhuman, most cruel. Through this, the life of mortals is entirely uneven and unequal; ^B and some, indeed, are so nauseated by the satiety of superfluous wealth as if they were vomiting up the food with which they have overindulged themselves; others, pressed by hunger and need, are in danger of almost reaching the extreme point of peril. Some recline under gilded roofs and dwell in houses like small cities, with baths and various rooms, and porticoes stretching to a great length, and everything decorated with magnificent luxury; others, on the other hand, do not have even two beams by which they might be covered; and when they cannot endure living in the open air, they either flee to the furnaces of the baths, or, if they fall in with inhospitable bath-attendants, they provide themselves necessary warmth by digging in the dung in a manner not unlike pigs. And yet the animal of equal honor, man, has such a difference in his way of life compared to his fellow creature, and this disorder and inequality is brought in by nothing else than covetousness. One goes about naked, his limbs deformed; ^C another, so that he may have innumerable suits of clothing, covers his walls with panels of purple. The poor man lacks even bread to break upon a wooden table; and the luxurious man, having spread out a silver table to a broad width, finds delight in the luster of the material. And how much more just would it have been, while he feasted sumptuously and enjoyed other delights to satiety, for the price of that table to be converted into delights for the poor? Another is worn out by age and, unable to walk, or limping from some infirmity, does not even possess a donkey, the necessary vehicle for his needs; while another, because of their multitude, does not even know his own herds of horses. One lacks oil to light his lamp; another can be deemed rich from his very lights and candelabra. The one is cast upon the bare ground; the other, who is rich to no purpose, is surrounded by the adornment of his bed, having silver spheres and chains instead of ropes. Such are the things of insatiable ^D

avarice. For had it not introduced inequality into the world, those heights and depths of unevenness would not exist, nor would various disasters render our life unpleasant and tear-filled.

Henceforth, men have cast aside their natural mutual friendship; they sharpen iron, draw up battle lines, and engage with one another with the great savagery of beasts. And who could recount the consequences of these things? Strong and lofty walls are shaken down by siege engines, cities are stormed, wives are led away, and children are enslaved; the land is cut and shorn, and trees are warred upon as though they were men who had committed an injustice; there is great slaughter of those in their prime, and streams of blood flow and roll from the wretched corpses; finally, the possessions and fortunes of the defeated pass to the victors. What follows? ^B The lamentations of widows, the weeping of orphans, and those who mourn for their parents and for the liberty they have lost. He who but two days ago possessed much wealth now begs for a morsel of bread with outstretched hand; and he who had many slave weavers and houses filled with clothing, now clothed in tattered rags, serves in slavery, carrying water for necessary uses, scraping dung from the stables, and being subjected to such filthy tasks; and ten thousand other evils which it is impossible to summarize in a speech.

Of all these things, the origin, the cause, and the root is the desire for more, the unjust love of another’s property. And if anyone were to excise this passion from the souls of men, nothing would prevent us from living in deep peace and tranquility, and all war and turmoil would be banished from human life. ^C For this reason, our Lord also diligently treats this disease with His teachings: at one time declaring, "You cannot serve God and Mammon" (Luc. xvi, 13); at another time pronouncing that rich man wretched who, about to die on the morrow, was planning for himself long-lasting delights (Luc. xii, 20); and elsewhere teaching that he is perfect who, having distributed all that he has to the needy, hastens toward the penniless philosophy, the mother and companion of virtue.

But here, I seem to hear even in silence those voices accustomed to ring out against the teachers: "How," they say, "shall we sustain life if there is no concern for material wealth? How shall we be able to procure necessities? How will a debt be paid, or a loan given to one who asks, if all of us, obeying your advice, have embraced poverty?" This is the word of an unbeliever, the voice of one without understanding, of one who does not know that we have God as our Lord, the governor and dispenser of our life, ^D who provides to the creatures made by Him the necessities, supplying both food and the need for clothing. For the providence of God fosters and

^A guards His works; nor has the distress of poverty ever overcome one who is rich in faith. But having brought forward one example from Scripture to prove the matter at hand, I believe I shall have rendered it sufficiently attested.

In the history of the Kings a certain widow is described, greatly afflicted by the calamity of her solitude. ^B A greedy and inhuman creditor was dunning her, intending to take away even her children in pledge, whom alone the mother had instead of all else. But when the matter had brought her to an impasse, and none of those having gold showed pity, she came to one who possessed humanity and faith. This was Elisha the prophet, a man possessing no earthly goods, but abundantly furnished with incorporeal and heavenly wealth; a philosopher from the plow, without home or hearth; using one simple garment; recently enriched by an inheritance, yet an inheritance of only a cheap sheepskin mantle, and an invisible blessing that had fallen from the fiery chariot. Yet he did not send the suppliant away empty-handed, nor did he despair of help just because what was sought was not at hand; nor did he utter any low and faithless words, such as one of the masses might: "And whence is there money for me, that I might discharge the debt?" But just as a most skilled physician, even when medicines were not at hand, found a remedy for the disease through ^C clever ingenuity, and said, "What have you, O woman, in your house? Remember, if anything even small happens to be within." For no one is so poor as to be completely master of nothing. And when she said that it was an earthen jar, and a little remainder of oil in it, he said, "Prepare for me a multitude of vessels." And she indeed prepared them; but he, through her, filled them, and the debt to the creditor was discharged; and the woman departed, finding a way out of desperate straits. For that very little oil, which she said was with her, sprang forth at the prophet’s word beyond expectation, and filled all the vessels that had been provided; and it ceased flowing then, when there was no longer a vessel to receive it; and grace was measured out according to the need. Truly that oil was something which no tree produced, but the mercies ^D of God cultivated. Purchase this knowledge, if you are able, you who are from the rising to the setting of the sun, kings, potentates, wealthy men. You wise in worldly wisdom, acquire from the prophet from the plow the gift which endured, inseparable from him who received it. For the possessions of your pursuit have countless dangers of destruction lying in wait for them: thieves breaking through walls; tyrants plundering; and sycophants plotting; the sea sinking them, and the earth splitting open in chasms. Let our hope and storehouse, therefore, be the right hand of God, which led the people out of Egypt, and in the desert provided the abundance of good things; which brought the Habakkuk to Daniel.

and which saved Ishmael when he was cast out from his mother’s arms ^A, and which in every generation has been sufficient for them; and finally, which multiplied the five barley loaves like an infinite harvest, so that the single loaf might fill the stomachs of a thousand hungry men, and provide, moreover, baskets of fragments. To our God be glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

IV. Sermon against the feast of the Kalends.

^B Two days, yesterday and today, have brought together feasts that have nothing in common or consonant with each other, but are entirely different, clearly opposite, and contrary to one another. For the one belongs to external filth, collecting much money of mammon, and dragging along a different, sordid, and vile kind of commerce; the other belongs to holy and true religion, teaching the appropriation of the soul to God and the virtue of a purified life. But because many, preferring the delights and pursuits of empty observance, have been absent from the holy assembly and sermon in the church, come, let us by the power of our speech cast out that foolish and harmful pleasure from our souls, which, like a frenzy, brings death—even amidst laughter and play. ^C In this, I believe I can opportunely imitate the manner of speaking of Solomon. For indeed that teacher, counseling young men to keep themselves safely from the snares of intemperance—so that his discourse might possess more strength and vigor—imparts the person of intemperance to a woman of ruined and condemned life; and by exposing all her wickedness, and engraving it as it were upon marble, he shows to those who are ensnared by her enticements that she is worthy to be followed with hatred ^D. Therefore, I too, placing before your eyes the vanity of this human and profane feast by my discourse, will endeavor to deter and recall its enthusiasts and lovers from this misguided zeal.

^A This, then, is the law and rule of a public festival: first, that the purpose of the celebration be clear; next, that it be a common joy for all, and not that some should take pleasure while the rest spend their time in sorrow and gloom. For this is more characteristic of war than of a festival, since it is inevitable that the victors should parade in their victory, while the defeated lament their misfortune. But as for these days, first of all, the reason for which the festival is held is obscure. For many myths are told, which easily refute one another, and there is nothing true in them. Next, I see few who are joyful, but many who are distressed, even if they cloak their sorrow with a fair show of outward cheer; everything is full of clamor and tumult, and the crowd jostles itself blindly.

^B It is a commemoration and a joy of the year. What joy, good man? First, when I consider the nature of the encounter, what it is, and how suspicious it is, and not at all friendly! A greeting comes forth from the lips in a weak and thin voice; then follows a kiss, the prelude to the gift; and the mouth is kissed, but the coin is loved; it is the form of kindness, and the work of greed. Where there is pure and guileless friendship, courtesies are unpaid and selfless. Gold is carried around everywhere and given; yet there is no just or fair pretext for the gift, nor is there any, nor can one be named. It is not a wedding, that one should call it the display of a proud bridegroom. I cannot call the expense alms, for no poor person is delivered from misfortune. One could not call the transaction an exchange, for the crowd does not trade anything with one another. To call it a gift is not even remotely just, where necessity is linked to the giving. What, then, shall we call either the festival or the expenses incurred in it? I, for one, cannot find a name. But you who have busied yourselves with it, speak out; give a reason, as we do for the true festivals celebrated according to God. We celebrate the Birthday, because at this time God in the flesh revealed Himself to us. We hold the festival of Lights, because through the remission of sins, as if from the dark prison of our former life, we are led up to a luminous and blameless one. Again, we adorn ourselves and joyfully celebrate the day of the Resurrection; for it signifies to us immortality and our transformation to a better state. Thus we celebrate these festivals, and thus those that follow; and reason guides every human endeavor; but where cause and purpose are absent, this is nonsense and idle talk. ^C O, the absurdity! All wander about with mouths agape, expecting things from one another. Those who have given are pained; those who have received do not keep them. For the gift passes on to others; and the one who has received from a subordinate gives it to a superior. The gold of this day is unstable, like a ball in the hands of those playing, ^D and because the vanity of this human feast through my discourse, will attempt to turn its lovers away from this misguided zeal. Deeming her worthy of hatred in the eyes of those being lured.

A new manner of gift-giving and service, having the exaction of tribute as an unavoidable necessity. For the greater and more glorious man compels; the lesser man asks; and all, by degrees, are drawn into the bosoms of those superior to them. And what happens in the confluence of waters, this you may see at the present time. For there, a thin and smaller stream flows into another larger one, and that one is in turn covered by one even more overflowing; and many smaller streams, gathered together, become an addition to a neighboring river; and this one again to another, a larger one, and so one to another, until the last one brings its water to anchor in the depth and breadth of the sea. ^B This is a falsely named festival, full of grievousness. For the going out is grievous, and the staying indoors is not free from trouble. For base men from the common people, peddlers and stage-jugglers, dividing themselves into bands and groups, harass every house; and while they pretend to speak fair words and clap their hands, they remain at the doors of the busy with greater persistence, until the man who is besieged inside, exhausted by the weariness and annoyance, gives up the money that he has, and that which he does not have. And coming in turns to the doors, they succeed one another, and until late evening there is no relief from the evil; but band takes the place of band, clamor follows clamor, and loss follows loss.

^C This is an excellent festival, and it becomes a cause of debt for men, and of interest upon it; an occasion of poverty, the beginning of misfortunes. If anyone, due to the thinness of his resources, has no credit, and finding no one to lend to him, is dragged along and vexed, as if he were one who, abandoning the market-place, had deserted the royal treasury and taxes; he weeps as if proscribed of his goods; he laments as if he had fallen into the hands of brigands; he is held in custody, he is beaten. If there is anything small stored at home for the sustenance of a wife and wretched children, this is surrendered; and he sits hungry with his whole household during this glorious festival. A new law of evil custom: to celebrate misery, and to call the scarcity of men a public festival.

^D This day instills the desire for silver and the pursuit of avarice even in young, innocent, and simple children, and prepares them to go from house to house, and to offer new gifts, fruits fastened with silver. And for these, double is returned, and thus the tender minds begin to be trained in bartering and illiberal gain. And as for our holy and excellent farmers, how many evils does this day afflict upon them! It forces them to avoid the public square and to flee the villages and streets of the city, more than hares flee from nets. For if any are found, they are beaten, insulted, and if they have anything in their hands, they lose it; in peace they are attacked like enemies, they are mocked with words, and insulted by deeds; our best prophets are afflicted with every injury—those creatures void of all malice, the simple images of God, the faithful servants in freedom of our life. For thus then it...

is with those in high office, thus with the poor, thus with children, thus with the country-folk. For some toil, others murmur, and others learn things that it would be better not to know. ^B

Let us look at how even the armed soldiers are benefited by this festival. They suffer loss of money, and for the sake of one day’s dissipation they offer up the wages meant for the rations of war. They are harmed in their manners and their discipline. For they learn base habits, the shameful arts and pursuits of stage-players, a dissolution and softening of character, and pastimes contrary to the laws and to the authority of which they were appointed guardians. For they mock and disparage the highest authority, mounting a chariot as if on stage, appointing feigned attendants, and publicly performing the deeds of those who are shorn for the sake of a blow. And these are the more respectable parts of the procession. But as for the rest, how could one even tell it? Is it not the case that the champion, lion-like in his spirit, wondrous to behold by his own kin after his arming, and terrifying to his enemies, stripped and reduced, fashions his countenance and attire into that of a harlot and a woman; lowers his tunic to his ankles, wraps his girdle round his breast, uses women’s footwear, and places a knot—as is the custom for women—upon his head; and carries a distaff full of wool, drawing the thread with the right hand—the same hand that once carried off the trophy—and changing the tension of his soul, makes his voice thinner and more womanish? These are the fine things of the festival; these are the benefits of the public holiday today. ^C

And those who have ascended to the peak of human dignities, the renowned consuls, squander their wealth in vanity, scattering heaps of money to produce no fruit of justice, but rather the fruit of sin; whose folly is as manifest as their throne is high. For having attained many human thrones and administered the greatest powers of the empire, they receive most things greedily from every source—some by misappropriating the rations of poor soldiers, others by often selling justice and truth, and others by draining the unspeakable wealth of the royal treasuries and gathering it all up eagerly from every side. Sparing no profit—neither unseemly nor unjust—and provoking God in the process, they sit in presiding office now, and shortly after they distribute the gold to charioteers, to wretched flute-players, to mimes, to dancers, to eunuchs, and to harlot women who offer their bodies to the common crowd for a price; and again to vile, desperate gladiators, and even to the beasts themselves. For it is evident that gold also sustains the beasts, buying flesh for some and barley-meal for others. ^D They throw away all these things—

^A for a single whim, so that their names may be written into contracts and official documents. O folly! O blindness! God promises to have the names of those who feed the poor inscribed in living books, immortal and incorruptible, which no line can erase and no time can destroy—yet you do not desire these records? You pay no regard to the blessed promise, nor do you seek to be inscribed in the memory of God? For this is the living book. Yet you greatly exert yourself to be set down in writing by public notaries, to be talked about by those who purchase slaves, and to be applauded by sycophant citizens, being a poor judge of the utility of things, a foolish evaluator of what is beneficial. Give to the crippled beggar, and not to the dissolute musician; bestow upon the widow what you give to the harlot; give to the woman living in modest seclusion before the public woman. Seek out where a holy virgin is singing psalms to God, and hate the shameless psalm-singer who hunts the licentious with her voice before they have even seen her face. Provide the necessities of life to the orphan, free the poor man from another’s debt, and you will behold everlasting glory. But you turn your eyes toward shameful games and unseemly, disorganized laughter; nor do you consider how many tears of the poor you are wasting, through which those riches of yours were gathered; how many have been cast into chains; how many have been beaten; how many, finally, have come to the brink of the halter and the noose, so that they might dance today. And what is the end? Vanity. After all this, a small tomb; a garment bought for a few obols covering the little body; and not long after, forgetfulness—the necessary evil of time—shrouding all those things for which you labored. Add to these, finally, the divine judgment, and the inescapable punishment for an evil will.

^B Where are the consuls and the fasces? Count and reconsider those who were here yesterday or the day before. Was not one of them, like some criminal, beheaded by a sudden uprising of the armed multitude, and paraded after his death with greater pomp than when he sat on his chariot, exulting in his office and dignity? Another indeed, with the office of praetor, having attained that same honor, perished most miserably in the farthest reaches of Egypt and Libya, in sandy places deprived of all moisture and human culture, fleeing the punishment for his condemnation, and then dying in the sands, since the whole region through which he was fleeing was waterless and uninhabited. And what shall we say of him who, himself a former consul and former praetor, is now living in the land of Colchis, and owes his life and breath to the humanity of the barbarians there? And as for that former prefect, that man who was thought to be invincible and of lion-like heart, what a catastrophe of life took hold of him! For first he saw his own son beheaded; then he himself received the sentence of death, and when led to the rope

damned, and with the noose already pressed to his throat, was snatched from the executioner’s hands by the prince's clemency, so that he, an old man, might end his life in pain and calamity, sensible of his woes, and full of shame and disgrace, meeting such an exit from his great consulship. And he, who in the previous year had ventured on utterly titanic crimes—and even greater—whose gender was called into doubt, and who, fleeing the lash of his masters, aspired to the consulship, and possessed as much land as is not even easy to name; he who is now buried in a small bit of earth, and how little did the pity of one moved with compassion allow him? Is it not therefore true, according to that wise Ecclesiastes, if any such things exist, that it is "Vanity of vanities," and that the most encompassing dignities are but empty visions and apparitions of dreams, which, after pleasing one for a brief time, soon pass away; and when they have flourished for a while, suddenly wither? We, therefore, making an end of our discourse here, let us render glory to the Savior. ^B

V. Homily on the passage of the Gospel according to Matthew, "Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife (31) for every cause? (Matt. xix, 3)"

A fine pair is the meeting and gathering of these two days for Christians and those who are diligent: I mean the Sabbath and the Lord's Day, which the revolving cycle of time brings around every week. For like mothers and nurses of the Church, they both gather the people together and seat the priests to teach them; and they urge both the disciples and the teachers toward the care of souls. For my part, the discourse of yesterday still rings in my ears, and the things discussed [then] remain in my memory. I see the cross fixed in place through the prophecy of Isaiah, and the garments of the Lord, as those of a treader of the winepress, dyed in blood; and finally, the Savior holding forth a reward ready on his right hand. And I behold Solomon weighing the scales for us as best he can. And I pity the debtor in the Gospel, who did not apply toward his fellow servant the kindness and clemency he had received from the Master; but through his folly and hardness of heart, became the author of the calamity and misery re-established upon himself. For we were occupied with these matters last time—as you all know, if you attend not with careless hearing.

Today, again, the Spirit has set before us many and noble things on the table which you see. I have turned my mind to those garrulous and tempting Pharisees; and I pity them greatly for their wickedness, that they dared to attempt to outwit the very fountain of wisdom with their little questions, ^D although the deity of the Only-Begotten always turns their questions to the contrary.

Concerning whom, it seems to me, Isaiah also prophesied when he said: “Turning the wise backward, and making their counsel foolish, and establishing the words of his servant.” And again David: “They dealt deceitfully with their tongues; judge them, O God; let them fall from their counsels.” But thanks be to them, even though they are adversaries, because they provoked Wisdom to answer, so that for our benefit, who are His servants, these things might be handed down in writing and to memory. For behold, matrimony, that is, the greatest matter of human life, is here directed as by a rule, and certain laws are delivered for both its contracting and its dissolving. To which let both orders and sexes diligently attend, so that both women and men may learn what is proper for each.

“Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?” Such, indeed, is the problem of the Jews. I, however, see that this interrogation is prompted from another quarter. For because the female sex is more prone to faith, and seemed more inclined to the magnificent miracles of Christ, and to believe and admit His divinity (for so indeed, even at the end, when they were dragging the Lord to the place of punishment with the intention of murderers, many women were lamenting the Passion and were following the Savior with miserable weeping), they sought to bring upon Him offense and hatred among this very group of women by this deceitful interrogation, and they fashioned these words as it were a net. But He, perceiving the snare prepared for Him by the power of His divinity, while at the same time establishing more lenient and kindly things for the world and eluding their snares, gave an answer favorable to women, dismissing the Pharisees like empty wolves, bereft of their prey, gaping in vain at the question. ^C The very creation of the union, He says, shows the purpose, and not the purpose of divorce; and the first sponsor and conciliator of nuptials is the Architect of the universe Himself, who, having joined together the first humans He fashioned with the bond of marriage, delivered to those who would come after an indispensable order of living together and cohabiting, which they were to hold as a law of God, holy and inviolable. But those who are joined by such a close bond are no longer two, but one flesh: what therefore God has joined, let not man separate.

^D These things were, to be sure, spoken to the Pharisees at that time; but now listen also, you traffickers in these things, who, as if changing garments, repeatedly trade wives; who build bridal chambers as often and as easily as market stalls; who marry for dowry and goods, and hold wives for gain and trade; who, upon a slight offense, immediately write a bill of divorce; who, while alive up to this point, leave behind multiple widows. Have this as settled and fully persuaded: except for death and adultery, for no other cause

^A does the union break. Not, indeed, as with harlots where the count of a few days proves the cohabitation and hunts only for pleasure, does the matter stand in those things which are performed according to law and decree; but, on the contrary, O man, a certain single union of both body and soul takes place, so that character is mingled with character, and flesh is in a way bound to flesh. How, then, are you severed without passion? How do you depart easily and without pain ^B or grief, you who have taken a companion in life, not a slave-girl for a short time, but a sister and a wife? A sister, indeed, according to the account of the formation and the creation (for from one cause, of the earth and of the same matter, you came into being); a wife, however, through the union of the marriage bond and through the law of wedlock. What bond, then, will you tear apart, being bound both by law and by nature? And how will you dissolve the agreements you made at the marriage? And what sort of agreements do you think I mean? Is it the dowry contract ^C written here, when you yourself marked it with your own hand upon the document, sealing what was performed? Those are indeed strong and possess sufficient security. Nevertheless, I refer myself to the voice of Adam: "This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called my wife." This voice is not preserved in writing in vain, but is a common confession of men, uttered through the person of the first man for this common multitude of women, who are joined to men by law. And do not marvel if, from the words one man spoke, another is bound. For all things that happened concerning those first-formed ones in the beginning, these became the nature of the succeeding race.

If, then, the woman who has been rashly dismissed—having taken the book of Genesis—drags you ^D to the Judge (the same one who is Judge is also witness), tell me, what will you say? How will you erase your own voice, which you uttered before God, and of which not some base scribe, but Moses, the servant of God, became the writer? God delivered the woman, bereft of the consolation of father and mother, to Adam; and for this reason, as a guardian, He provided for the orphan. But daughters now use the rights of the mother powerfully against ungrateful and faithless husbands; so that on all sides, disdain for your spouse is impossible for you, who are bound by both ancient divine laws and new human ones. Let also the usefulness of a wife toward life bring you to shame. She is a member, she is a helper; a co-worker for the conduct of life, for the generation of children: a healer of sickness, a comfort in afflictions, a guardian of the hearth, a treasure of possessions; grieving in the same things, rejoicing in the same; possessing wealth in common—if it should be present—managing wretched poverty, cleverly and steadfastly resisting the painful things that come from it, enduring the laborious rearing of children for the sake of the life lived with you. If, however, some reversal of affairs should befall you, he who is submerged is overwhelmed; but the so-called friends, measuring friendship by the time of prosperity, withdraw in times of hardship; slaves flee both their master and his misfortunes. There remains, then, the wife,

^A a member of the suffering body, serving as a slave and minister in adversity, devoted to her husband’s service, wiping away his tears, and treating his wounds and stripes, if any have been inflicted upon him. If he is led to prison, she accompanies him as a constant companion; and if anyone grants her free entry, she is gladly shut up along with him; but if this is forbidden, she sits at the prison door, just as a house-dog accustomed to its master.

I have known a woman who cut her hair, put on a man’s garment—a floral one at that—so that she might not be separated from her husband as he fled and went into hiding. While she appears to be performing the service of a slave, she truly serves her affection; and she spent many years in that kind of life, changing from place to place, and from solitude to solitude. We find such a wife even in the case of the most patient Job. For all men abandoned him, and with his wealth, his flatterers also flowed away, and his friends measured their friendship by the time of prosperity. And if they did ever approach, their presence was more akin to an insult than a duty, serving more to increase his misery than to provide consolation. Hence, even those who had come as comforters in his evils were all thoroughly indignant at him ^B, and complained with loud voices. Yet she alone, who was once illustrious and renowned, sat by her husband on the dung-heap, wiping away the sanies and the corruption, and drawing out worms from his wounds. Thus, she was a partner in his life, not a companion of his good fortune; a cultivator of indivisible friendship, not a flatterer and seeker of pleasures; in short, the one good thing remaining to her husband from such great fortune and from the whole company of his dearest ones and kinsmen. Wherefore, out of excessive love for her spouse, she fell into the sin of blasphemy, so that, in truth, she might not see him struggling for so long, and herself seeing him in perpetual pains, she counseled him to speak some word of blasphemy against God and to hasten his death ^C. For, being unconcerned about her own widowhood and solitude, she thought of only one thing: how her husband might depart from a life that was no life at all. Such things as these, along with recent experience, old memory brings against those who are injurious and unjust toward their wives.

What, then, does the person accused of this crime answer in his own defense? What plausible excuse for his own levity might he put forth? He says, "The woman’s character is evil and hateful, her tongue reckless and hasty; she is a stranger to the home and domestic affairs, and is herself neither a good nor thrifty manager of household matters." Let these things be so, indeed; I allow myself to be persuaded for the moment, and I accept these statements, just as one of those judges who has ears that are not well-tested, and who is easily swayed ^D by the railings of accusers. But you, I pray you, tell me: When you first took her, did you not know that you were being joined to a human being? And when anyone hears the word "human," does he not immediately see that sin follows it? For only that which is of God is blameless. But do you then not sin? Do you not provide sorrows

to your wife through your own character and disposition? ^A Are you entirely pure and free of fault, and do you keep the law of marriage inviolable? How many times perhaps has your wife suffered abuse from you when you were drunk! How many gross and immediate injuries, and unspeakable words has she endured! And how many of your failings are kept silent, because she has not published them abroad! She endured you even when you were angry for no reason and boiling over with rage; and being free and your equal in status, she remained silent like a slave bought in the marketplace. When you did not provide the necessities of life and of subsistence—whether from poverty or from stinginess—she did not reproach you, even while pained; nor, when you once arrived from a drinking party, intoxicated and out of your mind, did she cast you off, although she hated the drunkenness; rather, she received you with human kindness, and led you who were punishing yourself, and tended to your head, which was spinning with the fumes of wine; she led you to the marriage bed, ^B she alone feeling sympathy, while the servants were laughing and mocking the madness brought on by your intoxication. But you wander through the crossroads and the streets, tragically and shamefully slandering your wife for cold reasons, so that you may prepare for yourself the excuse and the path for a ready divorce. Hard is the judgment of such men, beastly and relentless, bearing their birth, as the saying goes, from an oak or a rock. For having wiped away the memory of all things at once, they part ways without emotion. But who, instead of healing a diseased limb, cuts it off, and that too when no dangerous malady has beset it, but there is still much and easy hope for recovery? An abscess has appeared on the hand; let us carefully treat it. An inflammation has troubled the foot; let us suppress the swelling with a remedy. But if, passing over the inspection of physicians, we should busy ourselves with the knife and the iron for every single thing that causes us pain, we would, in a very short time, have mutilated ourselves in all our limbs. But not so, O men! Let there be some memory of the limbs; let the kindnesses and services of wives put you to shame. ^C However much you may be seething with anger, contrast the pangs of a single birth with those things for which you reproach them, and you will find the occasion for your grievance overcome by many things.

Let reflection also bring into the middle the good things of her affection: how she has cared for you in sickness, how she has shared in your calamities, the tears she has shed for her husband on several occasions; how she left those who gave her birth, and her parents' home, to follow a stranger; how she sold some of her own possessions, so that she might redeem the injury and trouble caused by her husband. Let all these things serve as a tutor toward a proper disposition, and let them become a bond of affection, like something strengthening and holding together an otherwise rickety house for a slippery soul. And let mercy prevail, and habit, and let not the coexistence of a long time be trampled, which even ^D [these things]...

For you are not born from the fabled oak, nor from a rock. You yourselves know; for not from an oak, according to the poetic saying, or from a rock.

^A For I have seen with emotion an ox lowing because it had strayed from its herd-mates and was left alone; and a sheep in a glen bleating and running across the mountains, until it rejoined the flock from which it had become separated while grazing. And the goat, having suffered this same thing, even if it runs across many herds of goats and reaches them, it does not stop until it finds the one it is accustomed to, and its own goatherd. It makes the irrational animals ^B hold fast to one another. Let us who are endowed with reason not be found less capable of affection than the brute animals; nor let us judge a wife to be of less honor than some fellow-traveler, or one known to us briefly for some slight and sudden cause. Do you see how even people who have met one another on the public road, and who have retreated under the same roof or inn, or under a leafy tree that provided shade at midday in the heat of summer, turn that chance encounter into an occasion of genuine affection? And when they come to the crossroads which separates them, they do not part from one another without pain; but they stand and shed tears, looking intently at one another, and each gives the other tokens of remembrance to carry; and after having gone forward a little way, they turn back again, and call out to one another; and one prays for favorable things for the other; and a short time thus churns up a friendship so very swift that their departure becomes difficult and forced? Yet you hold your life's companion in such contempt, as if she were a lost vessel, or a cheap garment rendered useless by the journey, ^C or a little Melitean dog that has secretly withdrawn from the house? Where is the affection that was fashioned at the beginning? Where is the repose on the single bed, the union of the law, the power of long and great intimacy, which both reason claims and experience has demonstrated to be transformed into nature? You have cut through all these things more easily than Samson the ropes of the foreigners. ^D And yet, a man who is upright and constant in affection does not easily lay aside the very memory of his wife, even when she has departed from life; but he cherishes their children, as a joint deposit of mother and nature, and in them he seems to behold the one who has departed. For one of the children preserves the similarity of the mother's voice, another draws much from her features, another has had the state of its character fashioned after the one who bore it. And so the father, having many living and vivid images of his wife, forms in his own mind the appearance of perpetual companionship and marriage; and thus he admits no thought of pleasure thereafter; he who today has built the tomb for the departed does not a little while later decorate the marriage chamber; nor after tears and lamentations does he hasten again to the marriage dance; nor does he exchange black and mourning clothes for a bridal robe; nor does he bring in a second wife into the bed still warm from the previous marriage; nor does he provide the children with a stepmother, that hateful name. But he imitates the irrational and natural dignity of the turtledoves. For even that bird...

they say, once it is separated from its mate, maintains perpetual widowhood, and is contrary to the dove, which is easy-going toward polygamy. Up to this point, let the husband be struck with frequent censures, and let the charges of thanklessness wound him more thickly than falling snowflakes. ^A

But if by chance he puts forward a charge of adultery and offers this as a defense for their separation, I will immediately shift my advocacy to the one who has been wronged, and having prepared my argument against the adulteress, I will take my stand as a good shield-bearer for the husband, rather than an adversary, praising him who has fled from the one who laid snares for him, who has broken the bond by which he was tied to an asp or a viper. For the Creator of all is the first to grant pardon to such a one, as one who is justly pained and as one who appropriately drives out the plague and ruin of his house from his hearth. For marriages are established for the sake of these two things: affection and the procreation of children; but neither of these is preserved in the case of adultery. For affection does not exist when the favor of the heart has inclined to another, and the benefit of procreation is destroyed since the children are confounded. But the points leading to this sin have been discussed proportionately in another treatise. ^B Let both sides practice chastity for me, which is the unbreakable bond of marriages. For where this is honored, it is necessary that both peace and desire be present; since no public and illegitimate desire provokes the soul or casts out legitimate and righteous love.

This law of chastity has been ordained by God not for women only, but also for men. Those who attend to the legislators of this life leave the power to commit fornication for men without accountability; they are harsh judges and teachers of a woman’s modesty, ^C but they themselves, raging shamelessly against many bodies, are "physicians of others," according to the proverb, while teeming with myriad sores themselves. And if anyone should rebuke them for these transgressions, they bring forward a sophisticated and mocking defense. For men, they say, even if they have relations with very many women, do nothing to harm the household; whereas women, from whom they sin, introduce alien heirs into the houses and lineages. But let those clever inventors of this foolish opinion hear, and learn that they themselves also overturn the houses and homes of others. For the women with whom they associate are in every case either the daughters or the wives of some men; and in every way, one will find either a marriage being plotted against, or a father being wronged—he who begat her, and reared her, and hoped to lead a virgin to the bridal chamber. ^D When, however, the evil happens to be true, no one will rescue the woman from the hands of the one who has been wronged; but having the laws to aid him, having brought her who was dearest to him of all into court, he has slaughtered her; but the husband escapes the punishment of the laws, being kept for the vote of the one above and of God.

been despoiled of all hope and expectation by these ^A robbers of chastity. But if it is a father who perpetrates these shameful acts, let him consider and reflect what the sentiment of a father is when he is thus deceived; if it is a husband, let him assess the injury inflicted upon his own person. For in this way, surely, things turn out well and clearly, when each man judges regarding the affairs of others as he would wish another to judge concerning himself. But if some, paying heed to the laws of the Romans, think that fornication is permitted and free from crime, they are suffering a terrible delusion, not knowing that God legislates in one way, and men decree in another. Hear Moses, proclaiming the will of God and uttering bitter judgments against fornicators. Hear Paul, saying: Fornicators and adulterers God will judge (Heb. xiii, 4). Those others will not suffice for your salvation in the time of retribution; but trembling and sweating, they will melt away. Plato, that architect of laws, will appear to you unwise and unlearned; and that heavy tone of his, which took away authority from all lawgivers, will become humble, when they see those whom they wickedly allowed to exercise authority being dragged off to punishment. For, in any case, those who did not prevent others have turned the sin back upon themselves first, and will be found guilty of a double charge: that which they themselves committed, and that which they allowed others to commit in their licentiousness. Those, therefore, who intend to live with their wives in as much commonality as possible, should themselves make their own character the teacher of those they live with, so that they may have from their own hearth the zeal that is good. ^B

Homily VI A Sermon of Asterius, Bishop of Amasea, on the Prophet Daniel and on Susanna.

The grace of the Spirit, having the wealth of its gift overflowing, never ceases to exhibit its power, when and for whom it wishes. For just like a river filled with waters gushing into life (cf. John iv, 14), it possesses the outpourings of energy that are supplied in a sense contrary to these things that are seen and irrigate the earth. For it does not, ^C as [D alt-version omitted]

^A it does not, as those others do, admit of increases and decreases, nor does it, in their manner, favor now one part or another; rather, it always abounds and suffices for all. Even while flowing out to those who partake of its fullness, it nevertheless remains full; and thus possessing an abundant grace, it does not know how to be distributed or divided according to age. For things that are immense cannot be measured by the scale of bodily size, but by the nobility and purity of the soul, they are joined and made manifest. And for this reason, now it associates with the suckling Samuel, ^B now it takes David from his very flocks of sheep and prefers him to his brothers, by whom he was held in contempt due to the immaturity of his age. From the plow it takes another and initiates him into the anointing; and after them, it creates for us—now proposed as the subject of our argument—the blessed and truly wise Daniel, still tender and very young, yet at once a judge of elders and a prophet. For although he was a casualty of that grievous captivity and regarded Babylon as his fatherland, he seemed all the more despised for his immature age, and devoid of confidence due to being beset by so many evils; yet, because he possessed virtue from the start and had been schooled in philosophy in the bloom of his youth, and because he was strong and steadfast in resolve, even in the very flower of his age he was shown to be a refutation and judge of those elderly and perfected men. But let us, if you please, leading our discourse back to the beginning, see how it makes one who is a friend of God sublime and blessed.

^C After the city of Jerusalem had been completely captured and overcome in war by the Assyrians, the people of the Hebrews were led away to Babylon. Among the throngs of captive youths, the blessed Daniel was one, and he lived in the land of the enemy as a despised boy, a small and negligible appendage of an afflicted people, having no cause to be famous among men of his own race, nor appearing as a worthy prize of war to the enemy; obscure, without glory due to his age and his calamity; seen and discerned only by that all-seeing eye. ^D For God alone saw the pure soul of the youth, like a pearl tethered within sea-shells, or like gold hidden in the folds of the earth; like a comely bride, covered by the veils of the inner chamber. But when the appropriate time arrived, and it was necessary for that which was hidden to be revealed, for the obscure to become known, for the despised to become conspicuous, and, in a word, for him who had been hidden in the darkness of calamity to receive radiance, a slight descent of the Spirit occurred, and the humble one became more sublime than all; the wise one, who had not yet opened his mouth; the refutation of hidden things; the judge of judges, the uneducated man; sitting on a high throne, he who had never even been a servant of the courts; a youth avenging chastity attacked by calumny, turning back a wandering people, and recalling the ill-wrought verdict of an entire city. For you have just heard the

^A lesson recited ^B, and your souls are altogether seized by the miracle of the event. And I, for my part, leaving aside the contents of other books—whatever the psalms have profitably sung to us with delight, whatever the Apostle has suggested by way of counsel, whatever the Lord has legislated with authority in the Gospels—have inclined my attention especially to this narrative. For I see two forms of youth being commended: one in delivering judgment, and another in being judged; Daniel being applauded for his righteous verdict, and Susanna being crowned for the victory of her chastity. Come, therefore, if you are lovers of noble things and of virtue, let us renew that ancient judgment in our memory; with ancient chastity let us excise the incontinence of the present day, exposing an old age that acts like a youth, and admiring a youth that is as venerable as old age. O wicked old men and princes of the people, needing countless tutors for your correction, you who lay snares for wedlock joined by legitimate covenant, malicious hunters of chastity, subtle instructors in deceit, ready inventors of calumny! You condemn fornication with your lips, and adorn adultery; physicians to others, while being yourselves filled with the disease; whitened sepulchres, full of inward impurity, yet adorning your outward appearance. You are the exalted ones, sitting upon the seats of judges, and yet, when you chose to practice wantonness, you went crawling among the thickets of plants and the bushes. The author of transgressions and counselor of evils laughed when he saw you, how you who were at the summit of the people, the notable and chosen men, were being dragged along the ground like housebreakers or thieves, so that you might witness a wanton spectacle; and you concealed yourselves in the bushes like the foxes, which from out of the thick and shady places lie in wait for the domestic birds, and jump upon them when they are grazing incautiously. O for the similar malice which that bane of human souls ^C plots from the beginning to the end! In a garden the first lofty human fell; and now, in a garden, old men, moved by the serpent, fall from that first and principal glory; and they who were judges become condemned by prejudice, estranged from life, and workers of sin. Yet in this contest, though he conquered the men, he granted the palm of victory to the woman, and he did not find in the maiden of Babylon that lightness of the first human. And one might well say that Babylon is not a "confusion" ^D because of Susanna, but an observance of the commandments of God, a guard of chastity, a city of a manly woman, a place for a victory feast.

I, setting aside the intervening times, compare this woman with chaste Joseph by the similarity of their virtue. I place the virtuous woman beside the chaste man, the woman dear to God beside the son of Israel. I bestow one and the same crown upon both for their chastity, and I cast before the feet of the victors those they have overcome: for Joseph, the wanton Egyptian woman, the mistress of the free servant; and for Susanna, the infamous old men.

^A I set these up as tutors of temperance: the one for the female sex, the other for the youth of men; as beacons of the world, blossoms of the resurrection, judges of adulterers, guardians of lawful marriages. But for now, let us direct our speech to the holy woman alone; for the chaste Joseph is, at this moment, an episode and a parenthesis of temperance.

For since the elders, as they supposed, held their prey within their nets, and leaped forth from their ambush as if to make a capture, they did not find the timid hind to be the best, but rather resisting both them and the dragon, the author of what was taking place (now the hind is an animal that slays serpents; and well did the discourse find the image of the animal). They entreated, and were not heard; they threatened, and did not terrify. The victims of evil desire are thenceforth at a loss, ^B and are held by two things, the greatest of evils: failure of their desire, and fear of exposure. They weave a false accusation, these wicked heads, and they devise another evil as a solution to their evil, and prepare murder as a shroud for their adultery. For a sinner, when he falls into the primary offenses, draws after him the consequent iniquities as if with a rope. And it is the case that good things tend to beget what is good, while things that are base tend to beget their like. Wherefore, even now, murder, the fruit of adultery, sprouts forth; and a council sits with haste, as if for some great crime committed by the woman; and the multitude is led like a rabble, having a spectacle in the woman being judged. The accusers and the judges were the very same; and hoary age, constructing calumny, was trusted; while youth, suffering under the calumny, was condemned by the prevailing opinion. The people, stirred up and suffering from the impetuous madness that a mob is wont to suffer, were indignant in their error, and were carried along ^C by the rush of the old men. The parents of the woman being judged lamented; her husband mourned the sad event; children were wailing on this side and that, clinging to the mother who was endangered; the entire family was covered in shame. But those fine judges, those champions of temperance, ordered her who was modestly covered by a cloak (for not even in the confusion of evils did she forget herself, maintaining the habit of decency) to be stripped of her seemly covering, that in the court of adultery they might work their own adultery, resting their base desire upon the sight of the one being judged. And they also laid their hands upon her head (which was a symbol of her condemnation), the lewd men polluting with their touch the pure body, and acting as leaders of the truth, they spoke lies against her before the assembly.

But when the people had been led on, ^D and the vote had been carried, and the punishment was near, then she who was being falsely accused looked up to the judge of the judges; she carried the appeal of the case from men to God; she called upon that tribunal which cannot be deceived; and the truth did not delay. Rise up for me, therefore, O blessed Daniel, and now, by the discourse, even as you were then awakened by the Spirit; say also to me: "I am innocent of the blood of this woman, as..."

^A Pilate later said against the raging Hebrews. Convene the people to the judgment seat; initiate the trial that was badly concluded; place the falsely named judges in the place of the accused; let the order of the presiding officers be changed, and let the woman behold the old men, just as she herself was a spectacle to the city a little while before. O captive, judge the citizens; O guest, judge the natives; O youth, judge the elders. Lend your holy mouth to the Spirit; for you do not have unclean lips, as Isaiah says, disparaging himself [*]; nor do you stand in need of one of the seraphim or of the purgative coal. Wisely separate the false judges, so that they may not, by collusion, leap upon you in your questioning as they did to the woman in the garden. For let us also understand carefully how the thrice-blessed boy began his discourse with this sequence of words: "O you who are grown old in evil days, now your sins which you committed in the past have come upon you, condemning the innocent and acquitting the guilty." O the miracle, and the great freedom of the Spirit! For where the Spirit was, there was freedom [*]. For you see how he does not falter even at the beginning; but, gazing into the depths of their conscience, and seeing the souls of the old men as storehouses of sins, he does not seek witnesses and proofs; rather, he calls them out with severe reproach, since the prophet has the sentence written upon his own breast. And as far as he himself was concerned, he would not have said anything, but would have sent them off to punishment without delay; but in order to persuade the foolish people and the fickle judges, who had rendered judgment based on the actions of the actors rather than on the truth, he applies the ^B examination to them separately, and proves the lie by their discordant answers; and having issued the judgment, he does not hand the guilty over to the executioners, but calls upon the avenging angels against them. For to such a point had the dignity of the saints increased, that invisible powers were present to serve them.

What followed for the wicked elders? The judgment was reversed; and they departed, paying the penalty through death for both their old iniquities and their recent sin. And all of Babylon had the miracle of what had occurred on their lips, and they praised God with hymns, who had made the knowledge of hidden deeds public. And Hilkiah was renewed in spirit upon receiving his daughter; ^C Joakim sang a victory feast for his wife; and the children, the true and chaste pledges of hers, with faces sweetly composed for laughter, frolicked around their mother, and that tearful mourning was entirely transformed into joy. But you, O people of Christ, having heard a most pious and soul-benefiting story, do not pass by what you have heard indifferently; but make this discourse an argument for the doctrine and discipline of your life. You women, emulate Susanna; preserve chastity for your husbands as she preserved it for hers; and choose rather to suffer and to encounter dangers, than by adultery to provoke God, to bring shame upon a husband, and to ^D ruin homes and hearths.

to destroy families, to produce questionable offspring. You elders, hate those who are such; you magistrates, fear the end of iniquitous judges; you young men, imitate the young man who is your contemporary, so that in this way every age, once formed into the pattern of good things, may become a holy and approved assembly of the Church in Christ our Savior, to whom is due glory, power, and honor, with the co-eternal Father, and the most holy and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

VII. On the man blind from birth.

We have just heard from the son of thunder, John, or rather from the Holy Spirit, who made him, a fisherman and a manual laborer, a writer and an orator, ^B truly divine and lofty subjects. For they explained to us a great and long discourse of the Lord, by which He was instructing the disobedient and hard-of-hearing people in the knowledge of God the Father and the Son, leading their thoughts away from the monarchical view of the Hebrews, opening to them the gate of grace from the legal tradition, and gently leading them from the Old Testament to the New, as if from the desert to that land which is formerly rich and fruitful. However, while He was showing in various ways His own existence, how He exists as pre-eternal and always joined to the Father, ^C and was crying out explicitly to those deaf men, "Before Abraham came to be, I am," they, having learned neither the power of the Word, nor having refuted by any knowledgeable contradiction that which they did not accept, were moving toward stones instead of words; and long before the cross, they were exercising their murderous hands for slaughter. But He who had decided in every way to be long-suffering toward the insulting and blasphemous people turned aside their anger and tumult, not cowardly fleeing, but divinely; as He was standing in their midst, and—being touched—was not seen, and while moving through those burning with rage, was not beheld; but they stood speechless, ^D intending in their purpose to commit murder, yet not finding the way by which they might fulfill their anger; being in no way unlike unskilled hunters, who, whenever they startle the game before the right time and it moves away, the stag having fled into some thicket and stolen away secretly, they wander aimlessly through the glen, carrying their nets as a burdensome encumbrance, and dragging their hounds in vain.

But I, even if I am a bad servant in other respects, have not yet forgotten this, that I am a servant, and that I am...

bound to rise up on behalf of the Master against the abusive. Wherefore I will also cry out to the Hebrews as if they were present today, and acting under the influence of madness: Do you, O wretches, seek to stone the Benefactor? ^A For who gave you drink from the rock? Do you stone the one who, by the tablets of stone, gave your life its rule? Do you stone the elect and precious stone, whom Isaiah foretold to you? Do you stone the intelligible stone, the one hewn without human hands from the sheer rock, as the inspired Daniel taught you? Do you stone with rocks the cornerstone, the one who joins the two walls of the New and the Old Testament? Even if you do not believe, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham; that is, to gather for Christ a chosen people, from the Gentiles and the uncircumcised, in whom even Abraham received the promise, God saying to him: In you shall all the nations be blessed. ^B For God, foreseeing the future with secret knowledge, assigned to the Prince of the faith all those who would in the future believe, into the rank of sons. For from that time He watched the sedition of the Hebrew people, and saw the stones, and counted the falsely-named sons among the outcast. But since, by proclaiming the truth in discourse, He did not persuade them to piety, though present He was hidden; and while appearing, He was not seen, so that by such a miracle He might compel them to admit that He was indeed Christ, and God, older than Abraham. Hear then, He says, O truly blind and senseless ones: Who is this, who is both present ^C with you and yet is not seen? Or perhaps it is He who spoke to Moses, and was not seen, yet appeared? For then, too, fire and a bush were seen, both speechless; yet a voice was heard, and a word educated, and the future was surely foretold; and it behooves men of intellect to perceive the person from the affinity of the events.

But as the Hebrews were behaving thus irrationally and foolishly, our Lord and Savior, like some diligent and ^D wise physician, when the disease does not yield to the first treatment, proceeds to another mode of healing. He determines to heal those who are blind in mind by means of one who was blind, and who happened to be met with—not one who had suffered the blindness from some accidental injury, but from a defect of nature, thus clearly brought into life from the womb. Having espied the man, He stood still, and was ready for the healing; a healing greater than human reason and art. For medical art, and the theory according to it, applies its consideration to those diseases which, after the body has been perfected by nature and brought into the light, befall it later by some chance; but of a defect born with the body, it promises no healing at all, nor indeed of all the maladies that subsequently occur; of which fact the mutilated are abundant witnesses.

^A For this reason, also, the disciples pitying the ailment, and seeing a man who had not even once tasted of the sweetest pleasure of light, and curiously inquiring into the cause of the affliction, asked the Lord—not very knowingly—whether it was on account of his own sin, or because of the transgressions of his parents, that he was brought into the world in such a state. On both sides, however, the question incurs reproach; for neither would the son, being himself guilty of nothing, have been condemned for his parents, since God does not punish one for another; nor could he have paid the penalty for his own transgressions, he who had not yet entered into life, if he was truly born blind in this way. For no one is a sinner before birth. This inquiry, then, is not very commendable. ^B But let us learn how the Truth, our Lord, answered those who asked this. This ailment, He says, O disciples, is by no means a retribution for sins, but a preparation for the future dispensation, so that he who is considered a common man might perform works beyond man, and that the Creator of all, after the first creation, might now also find grounds for creating, and from the particular might confirm the universal; and that the hard and refractory people might be persuaded to worship, having cast away their stones. Let the eyes that see not be enlightened, so that the Sun of justice may illuminate the souls of the ignorant. Let a wondrous thing come to pass, and may eyes be created, so that the seditious ones may learn that He who is called the son of Joseph, if He were truly the son of a carpenter, might indeed have been able to repair a broken cart, or join together woods disconnected at the joint, or prop up a fractured beam, ^C or smooth the roughness of planks, or perform all those things which a father, as an artisan, teaches his son according to the art and custom of his trade; yet to create a part of a man, and that the most beautiful part, namely the eye, which is especially elaborated by nature with great pains, no one else could have done except He who has authority over nature from the beginning.

If anyone should wish to apply his mind attentively to the human members, in this part of the body above all he will perceive the omnipotent and varied wisdom of God, having exhibited such magnificence of art within the small circumference of a member. ^D For, first, a certain grace is poured over it; and it is most tender and without flesh, if I may say so, in its delicate substance.

^A And it is stretched out within the soft, and is adorned with various colors. Its center, therefore, has an outline of black; and this, not entirely uniform, but bound together by certain various circles, with the center and mid-point having a deeper [and blacker] hue, while the outer circumference gradually fades into a yellower tint. Outside of this, the white is cast around, shining and translucent—not bearing the highest degree of whiteness, but made in a certain crystal-like and translucent form. The red color is placed around the fountain, that it may blend its grace with the white and the black. In addition to these, it is so translucent and smooth in its density that it produces the images of those approaching, and, as if it were an accurate mirror, stamps upon itself the features of those with whom we converse. ^B For this reason, the very central point of its circle has been called the "pupil" (the maiden), always showing the human form to one looking directly at it. For just as it is impossible for one looking into a mirror not to immediately outline his own feature upon the material, so too it is impossible for one standing face-to-face with another not to imprint his own form upon the eye. Thus, men looking at one another become mirrors to each other.

The eye, therefore, is worthy of being admired among created things. For it also interprets God to me, for it accurately observes the whole of creation, and from the operation shows the craftsman. This, from visible things, explains the invisible to the soul. ^C Through it I have knowledge of the sun, I have learned the adornment of the heaven, and I have observed the beauty of the stars, and the foundation of the earth, and the nature of the sea, the difference of seeds, and the variety of plants, and the various dyeing of colors; the mournful face of darkness, and the radiance of light, and simply all things whatsoever that God, upon creating, praised. So that, if the eye did not exist, creation would have grown old without a witness; there would be no one to behold the wisdom and power of God shining forth in it.

On account of this, then, this wondrous structure of the sights—the eyes—were also now fashioned spontaneously, so that we might put away the low-minded thoughts that grow in us from the flesh concerning the Only-Begotten, ^D and by the magnificence of the deeds performed, cast out from our soul every base and groveling opinion; and that we might know that the blessed light and beauty of the Godhead assumed an earthen vessel, which provides the radiance to us like a lamp. The Lord himself provides the healing entirely by himself; and he who had brought forth the whole adornment of things by a command, and who had healed the paralyzed man with two short words, does not use speech alone for the operation; but also with his mouth, and with his hands, and with all other providence he heals the blindness, that he might produce firm faith in the unbelievers through the reality of the events. He spits on the ground, and makes clay with the spittle, with the earth...

^A from which originally the whole animal was fashioned, he now also fashions the remaining member. The spittle repairs it, and holds together the scattered dust which lacks moisture, that he might clearly show us that by the power of his mouth the Word accomplished all things. For By the word of the Lord were the heavens established, and all the power of them by the spirit of his mouth.

Perhaps he also heals by spitting for this reason, that he might prick with fear those who would shortly after insult him with spittle; and yet the daring of those madmen was not abashed, but he was spat upon many times—he who accomplished such things through spittle. This first order of events reveals his creative power, and by ordering him to wash in the pool of Siloam, he indicates to us the salvation through water which the Sent One, Siloam, bestowed upon all. For then we see well, when we are cleansed by the mystical water; then the light of grace shines upon us, when the power of baptism washes away the filth ^B of sins and the stains. And all who enjoy the commandment of Siloam see the spiritual light, which lightens every man that cometh into the world. O the miracle, and the great efficacy! He who was but a little before blind departed from the pool, his face adorned with the supplement of eyes, seeing precisely the solar ray. The matter amazed the neighbors and acquaintances. The new manner of the cure therefore threw them into confusion; the man went about the city seeing, that he might be seen by all as a work new and paradoxical brought to pass by [Jesus] born in Bethlehem; by that little infant, wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger. For these are the things which caused the Jews to disbelieve in his divinity.

Therefore, O foolish and dull-hearted men, apply your reasoning to all the men ^C of the ages. Beginning from Adam, investigate all who have come after; if you find that what has now been done has been done by others, if any life occurs that provides an example of such a cure; and again, for the deriding of my Lord, you bring forward the Son of the carpenter, whose brothers you know, whose house you know. You recount all the lowly things, you contend, you pour out your great unbelief. But if no man ever performed such a thing, nor has any age heard such a tale recounted, condemning your own ignorance, henceforth look up toward the truth. Wash yourselves also in Siloam, that you may not die in your blindness.

But nothing, it seems, touched them. Speech did not instruct, action did not teach, the power of miracles did not bend them: but on the contrary, through their wicked arrogance, they attempted in six hundred ways to obscure everything and to mock. ^D Yet their craftiness turned back upon them to the opposite result. For the more they were unbelieving, and to others

^A they attempted to overthrow it by questioning, the more was the truth confirmed. And they suffered the same fate as those wild beasts which, being wounded side by side by someone, and not having yet received the whole spearhead into their bellies, in their rush and contentiousness toward the man drive the whole iron through themselves.

The first bit of meddlesomeness: Was this truly the blind man, and not someone else in his place? ^B This the man clearly testified, and he recounted the sequence of the healing—that clay had been smeared on as the remedy for blindness, and that the pool, by washing away the clay, provided sight. The neighbors investigated these things and learned of them; the Pharisees questioned them, and they were also persuaded.

The second artifice employed to invalidate what had occurred was to try to demonstrate that it was not Christ who had performed the healing. But because the man shouted out the Savior, and through his confession and preaching rendered thanks, and made the Benefactor known, they stopped their ears, and being perplexed in their minds, not knowing what they ought to do, they returned again to the inquiry into his affliction. They searched diligently as to whether he was blind from birth, and they consulted the parents of the man, and demanded every detail more accurately—not so as to confirm the event, but so that they might seize upon any pretext to undermine the miracle, and by constructing some false conspiracy, might turn back the believing multitude from his influence. O, the depth of malice! To fight against the truth, and not to worship Him who makes all things, but to disparage the Benefactor; not to wonder at the power, but to try to diminish the deeds. Be persuaded even by the parents, O Pharisees, that the man was born blind; and again run back to the blind man, a second and a third time, to have your evil attempts and plots refuted by him. But whenever you fall short of the first attempt, proceed to the second; when the second, to the third; when the third, to the next in order. You pursue the shifts of a clever fox; and indeed, on every side, the nets of truth surround you; and it is impossible that you should find an exit from the miracle. Truly, you leave out no trick, weaving a spider’s web—variously, indeed, but with a weak and futile endeavor, planning your snares. ^C

This disease of yours is derived from your fathers. The unbelieving sons of unbelieving parents. The same way those men behaved with regard to the miracles in Egypt. They were saved from wars in new and unexpected ways, and yet they were unbelieving toward the Giver of their salvation. They were fed on food more noble than what the usage of nature provides, and they were more ungrateful than those who were starving. They received manna sent from heaven, and they longed for the foul odor of Egyptian garlic and onions. During the day, they were shaded by a pillar of cloud, so that the heat of the sun’s rays might not cause them distress; and through the night, they were illuminated by a pillar of fire, having obtained another, new luminaries, beyond the moon and stars, and as if they had received no divine power. ^D

^A They sought new and ethereal gods, exacting them, so that while Moses was detained for a little while on the mountain for the giving of the law, they might prolong his return. You are truly the heirs of their ingratitude, you who have neither loved the law nor embraced grace. You who require not the shepherd’s rod of almond-wood 58, but one of iron to rule you.

You see a man who passed into the light, having spent his whole life up to that point in darkness with useless eyes, following others as his guides; sitting daily before the doors of the temple, advertising his misery so that he might draw many to pity, a man of whom the whole city was a witness to his ailment, but who now sees and has been healed swiftly—not by the composition of various medicines, nor by the cutting of iron, but by clay alone, and that fashioned by the injection of saliva. ^B And by what reasoning are you not fixed in wonder, are you not struck with amazement; do you not cast yourselves upon the ground to worship him who formed the eyes from the earth, and do you not revere this divine activity? Are you not bursting with envy, and do you not emulate God as a rival artisan, as craftsmen mocking the Craftsman, as fellow-creatures treating the One equal in honor as your peer?

And we have long been ^C reading the books which were written concerning the dispensation of the people, and those which teach the reigns of the kings, and the history regarding them; you pliantly accept what is said about each, so that you almost think Moses to be God, and you marvel exceedingly at Elisha, and you hymn his teacher, the Thesbite; and all the saints in every generation, those who received the capacity for action from God and accomplished great and celebrated deeds, you raise with honors to be like the angels; you do not struggle against any of the ancients, nor do you reject the interpretation of the fathers, and this even though the nature of men is such that they are not very easily brought to the faith of what they hear. ^D But what you saw with your own eyes, and what you are able to touch with your fingers, and to perceive accurately by hearing, these things you maliciously and unbelievingly corrupt, trampling upon the prophecies and overturning the outcome of the things foretold. For the things now seen by experience, Isaiah taught long ago through his words: "Behold, our God will render judgment, and will render; he himself will come and will save us. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the stammerer shall be plain." These are not the words of Peter and John, nor the sayings of any of the young and suspect persons, so that, suspecting them of flattery, you might reject the truth; but they are the words of your own prophecy, if indeed you know the Thecuite, the son of Amos, the prophet of the prophet.

born; a man of the Israelite race, the head of the legal institution. Glory, power, and honor be to God, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen. ^A

VIII. On the holy princes of the apostles, Peter and Paul

All these customary and lawful honors of the martyrs, performed according to the law, are festivals, and monuments that cause the godly deeds of those who have acquitted themselves well to live on forever. In these, when the presidents of the churches arrive to speak, weighing their own powers against the magnitude of the matters proposed for the subject of their discourse, they immediately take refuge in the introduction in seeking pardon and exemption; and they say that the magnificence of the events is diminished by the smallness of their speech. But if those who are about to praise each of the ^B martyrs individually lose heart, as it were, and acknowledge that the laudation is something greater than their ability, and clearly confess their own weakness, what shall become of me today, to whom it has been proposed to pursue with celebrated praise the instructors of the martyrs? Those true, I say, and first disciples of Christ, the Fathers of the churches, the only approved and faithful heralds of the Gospel; who were held worthy to converse with God, and to receive with their own ears the divine voice. Yet, because the theme is exceedingly lofty and the undertaking difficult, we should not for this reason choose idle and useless silence, like cowards and those unacquainted with the sea, who cast away their spirit at the very sight of the sea, and neither endure to set foot on the ship at the beginning, nor ^C to skirt the shores a little for the sake of experience. Rather, entrusting the undertaking to those thrice-blessed men, ^D for whose sake we have gathered today,

Encomium on the holy chief apostles Peter and Paul

All these customary and lawful honors of the martyrs, performed according to the law, are festivals, and monuments that cause the godly deeds of those who have acquitted themselves well to live on forever. In these, when the presidents of the churches arrive to speak, weighing their own powers against the magnitude of the matters proposed for the subject of their discourse, they immediately take refuge in the introduction in seeking pardon and exemption; and they say that the magnificence of the events is diminished by the smallness of their speech. But if those who are about to praise each of the martyrs individually lose heart, as it were, and acknowledge that the laudation is something greater than their ability, and clearly confess their own weakness, what shall become of me today, to whom it has been proposed to pursue with celebrated praise the instructors of the martyrs? Those true, I say, and first disciples of Christ, the Fathers of the churches, the only approved and faithful heralds of the Gospel; who were held worthy to converse with God, and to receive with their own ears the divine voice. Yet, because the theme is exceedingly lofty and the undertaking difficult, we should not for this reason choose idle and useless silence, like cowards and those unacquainted with the sea, who cast away their spirit at the very sight of the sea, and neither endure to set foot on the ship at the beginning, nor to skirt the shores a little for the sake of experience. Rather, entrusting the undertaking to those thrice-blessed men, for whose sake we have gathered today,

let us endeavor to provide as much as we are able toward the joy of others. For I know that as much will not be required as is owed to those great and wondrous men, but only as much as can be found among us poor men. I did indeed wish that a small portion of that grace might be granted to me today, of which both these holy men partook; the one, who in Jerusalem taught the disobedient; the other, who having arrived at the Areopagus in Athens, turned those who were superstitious away from their godless error, pointing out Christ to them and proclaiming the mystery of true piety. For thus might we show that we are accomplishing something of what lies before us, and not falling far short of that great magnitude.

^B Since, however, the great gifts of the Spirit belong to the great, and I am unworthy to be enriched with such graces, I will offer you my poverty with my eagerness, just as Elisha offered the herbs with the flour, not being deprived of the praise of at least having set forth the good. And let none of you who hear me imagine, when I have chosen to praise noble men, that I will follow the laws of outside wisdom. For we do not practice flattery composed by art, but we seek to present to you with truth the virtue of those who love God. Therefore, lineage will be silenced, and the glory of parents will not burden the discourse. For flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God. Nor shall we honor the citizens of heaven by earthly and worldly standards; but quite the contrary: the obscure life of parents, menial crafts, and the reproach known as poverty—these will be mentioned in our praises. For the glory of Christians, according to our Gospel, is humility. ^C And I also look with deep censure upon the eulogies of those outside; because, wishing to glorify whomever they choose, as if they had nothing exceptional to say that was good, they flee in vain to tombs, and disturb those who rest in vain, and make the dead an ornament of the living, by which they invoke those who have passed away, confessing that there is nothing good or noble in those whom they celebrate with praises. Furthermore, if it were acknowledged and altogether the case that those who descend from illustrious parents are themselves always upright, and that they receive virtue like some kind of nature by hereditary succession, it would perhaps be appropriate to make some mention of their parents. Since, however, the difference in one's pursuits often falsifies the succession of lineage (for a philosopher's son becomes a profligate, and a philosopher is born of a voluptuary and a libidinous man), it is a vain labor to recall ancestors and forefathers, when one ought to demonstrate, if one has them, the right actions of virtue. ^D And that this is the case, it is not possible to learn by investigating elsewhere, but from our own sacred Scripture, which has manifold and varied utility.

We know indeed that priest, that old man who was both the educator and teacher ^A of the great Samuel; yet he profited his sons nothing, even though he himself was excellent: and this despite them having been reared by the parent himself, and daily hearing the rites and laws of the priesthood. Again, Timothy was born of impious parents—that apostle, I say, the noble scout of Paul; yet he did not follow the memory of his parents, as if by some nature. But having rationally loathed their impiety, he deserted to the holy ordinance of godliness, and a sweet fruit appeared from a bitter root. The mating of mules, and the offspring of sheep. Thus Absalom ^B, the raging youth of a modest and sober father, was as notable for boldness as his father was for goodness; or rather, if we must speak the truth, exceeding the virtuousness of his father to a much greater degree by his wickedness. And if anyone should wish to direct their attention to such contrary habits of children toward their parents, they will find countless virtuous offspring born of wicked ones, and wicked ones born ^C of the best of parents. And this is entirely reasonable. For if nature, and not moral choice, produced vice or virtue, there would not be two; rather, the one would uniformly prevail.

Let Peter, then, be called the son of Jonah; whose son he is, however, matters nothing to me. For I, from the acts of the son, honor the one who begot him; starting thus from below, I send the praise upward, just as lamps at night illuminate the ceilings from the floor. Isaiah, indeed, says in prophecy ^D that the Father placed the Son as a cornerstone, indicating that the entire constitution of the world has its seat and foundation in Him. And again the Only-Begotten, as it is written in the books of the Gospel, calls Peter the foundation of the Church: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church." For he was truly the first, like some great and hard stone cast down into the hollow of this world, or into the valley of wailing, as David says, so that, bearing all Christians built upon him, he might raise them up to the height, which is the dwelling-place of our hope. "For no one can lay another foundation besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." By a similar title also, our Savior deemed it fitting to honor his own first disciple, calling him the rock of faith. Through Peter, therefore, who was made a true and faithful teacher of piety, the stable and unbending firmness of the Churches subsists. Moreover, we stand rooted in the edification of the righteous, we who are Christians from the rising of the sun even to its setting. Since the time of the preaching of the Gospel, many temptations have increased, and countless tyrants—and before them, the devil—have attempted to destroy us utterly and overturn us from the foundations. Rivers have run, as the saving Word says, like torrents; vehement blasts of diabolic spirits have rushed in; plentiful and

^A immeasurable downpours of those persecuting the Christians have poured forth; yet nothing has been seen more powerful than the divine fortification, inasmuch as the structure of faith was built by the holy hands of the first of the apostles. I had to say these things, on account of that one word of blessing from Him, who called the evangelist and holy herald the rock. Let us see, if you please, in what manner Peter built; not with stones and bricks, nor with other earthly materials, but with words and actions, which the Spirit exercised by His prompting.

When, therefore, God and our Savior had ascended into heaven, while the apostles were looking on and the cloud became His vehicle, this man took up the teaching of the Gospel; and, before all his fellow-sharers in the episcopacy, opening his mouth, he took courage against the crowds raging against piety, and appeared as a wise orator in the midst of the nations and of Israel; of nations that were sharpening their teeth and filling themselves with rage, if any one should name Jesus. So that what was said by the Prophet in the person of the Lord, ^B fits Peter also very well: *Dogs have surrounded me, fat bulls have beset me.* Yet he, fervent in the Spirit, and keeping in deep remembrance that very command of the Lord, which said: *Feed my lambs*; standing in a mixed multitude from countless nations, cried out: *Ye men of Judea, and all that dwell in Jerusalem.* And that we may not be wordy, by connecting the whole discourse, he calls to mind the oracles of Joel, prophesying also the coming of the Spirit: then he passes to David, and, expounding the fifteenth psalm, confirms the resurrection; and, bringing the whole discourse to a conclusion with wisdom of words and the testimony of the law, he immediately drew the hearers after him; not ten, nor a hundred; nor even three or five times as many; but three thousand men, a fullness of the Church, an entire people capable of striking down the ^C enemies, by whom they were suddenly cut off by so great a change. O warm and burning medicine of persuasion, deeply and penetratingly touching the souls! O divine wisdom, obscuring all human wisdom! What do you say to these things, you who bestow the laurel on Demosthenes over rhetoricians, and praise Socrates among philosophers? For so far is that great and most celebrated man from having persuaded his hearers of the things he wished, regarding his oratorical faculty, that he was even banished from the city by those same hearers; Socrates, indeed, at the end of his many discourses to the Athenians and his wisdom-filled arguments, found the hemlock, killed by the chorus of his disciples; so much did he lack that power of persuasion. But Peter, ^D that fisherman, that laborer with his hands, that unlearned man, whatever one might wish to call him in contempt, in one cast of speech hunting three thousand men, firmly moved them; and this, when they were indignant and tumultuous, and would not even permit him at the beginning to open his mouth.

^A Once the order and assembly of the Christians had increased sufficiently, and since, in addition to logical discourses and exhortations, he had provided a wonderful proof of virtue and efficacious power—having raised up, on sound feet from the temple vestibule, that lame man, the one lame from his mother's womb, who suffered from the malady by a defect of nature—the whole people flowed together to the temple, drawn to the sight by the fame of the miracle. And as all were looking intently at the man, standing stupified by the miracle, the mouths of Christ's enemies were stopped, and the cross was from then on a trophy of victory, not a disgrace.

Again, that unlearned man, that worker in a menial craft, begins a second discourse, saying to them: "O men, if you deem what has happened to be worthy of wonder and the fruit of divine power, worship the healer of the lame man, Jesus, whom you struck, and whom at last, in a surge of overwhelming rage, you exalted on the wood. He Himself is, and He lives, and as has been told to you many times, having risen from the dead, He is Lord of all. Wherefore, now at least, as you take up repentance for the things in which you have sinned, 'Approach Him, and be enlightened,' as your father David says. ^B For if you are sons of the prophets and disciples of Moses, do not spurn the grace of your ancestors by lending your minds to those who speak falsely; but, considering with prudent judgment the things that were once foretold by them, receive into your souls the Savior of your race. For He is the one whom Moses also promised that God would raise up as a prophet for you."

Speaking these and such things to the people, Peter departed, having brought in as many others again to add to the three thousand. Such, then, was Peter, in public discourse, speaking boldly on behalf of the Gospel's initiation, eager, unterrified, prudent, the confidence of his own, and the terror of his adversaries. ^C

But because this excellent teacher of piety was not striving for this alone—that he might increase the people of God by a numerous multitude—but far more that the disciples should order their life accurately according to the rule of the laws handed down, he saw that Ananias, that thief of his own fruits and novel sacrilegist, was on the point of introducing an evil custom of sin among the Christians, and he severed him sternly from the Church; not as one with a cruel mind and murderous, but having kept in view what was advantageous, healing the sin with such medicine. For since the people were recently converted and assembled, having just received the evangelical laws after a neglect of morals derived from Gentile and Jewish indifference, he rightly judged that the disciples needed not only correction by words, but also a certain secondary fear. ^D For it is so constituted in morals that, by the way in which the first pursuits are regulated, they continue to the end as the habit takes root. For this reason, when he proved the sin, he immediately brought death as the punishment; not using a sword, nor delivering the accused to executioners, but at that very moment of time, by the manner of the destruction...

^A he set forth a clear proof of the power of Christ. For how great this is, and how much reverence and fear it instilled in the Church, we have no need to learn. For two things were accomplished in one: that our Savior should be believed to be God, and that the teacher of His laws should have angels accompanying him, acting readily according to the will of the apostle. He willed to bestow a benefit upon the lame man, and grace did not delay; he willed to punish the sacrilegious man, and the punishment was immediately at hand.

These things are sufficient to strike through hearts of stone and to persuade with certainty that the words spoken by Peter were not of deception; but that God was truly with him, and that the mystery which he preached was holy and true. And this also is necessary to observe: that the sign for punishment and death took place only once by the apostle because of the need—so that he might provide a proof of his chastising power ^B to those who were disposed toward evil; but the benefits and the healings he performed daily and continuously; and such was the ease and grace of healing that he possessed, that no sick person who approached him departed frustrated in his hope, but returned home whole and healthy. Every place in Jerusalem where Peter appeared spoke of Christ, and he had a multitude of sick people following him, and a marvelous spectacle each day from the mixed crowd; some gathering to be delivered from the evils that afflicted them, others to be spectators of those being healed. ^C Thus, too, that wondrous thing is recorded concerning the apostle, which was said of no other: that the relatives and kin of those who were ill carried them out publicly on beds, so that as Peter passed by, his shadow might overshadow any one of them. This, then, is greater even than the miracles of the Lord; and the servant is celebrated above the Master. And perhaps in this sign the prophecy is fulfilled which the Savior spoke to the disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he also will do, and greater than these will he do” (John xiv, 12). ^D When I say this, I am by no means comparing the servant to the Master. Away! Such is the thought of a madman. But I mean that God, showing forth His own power through His servants, enriched no one of the disciples as he did Peter with His own gifts; nay, he even placed him above all, raising him up with heavenly gifts; and just as he was shown to be the first disciple and greater than his brothers by the evidence of events, so too was he shown by the power of the Spirit. He was first called, and he obeyed quickly; when he was found on the shores in the turbulent place of the world, he whom the waves of human storm were always buffeting, he kept his prayer ceaselessly crying out along the coast. He was the first among Christians to despise worldly wealth, and having looked down upon all things which are at [men's] feet, he transferred his striving and his mind to spiritual and heavenly things.

^A Perhaps one of those who are accustomed to call that thrice-blessed man poor and obscure will say: "For what did he abandon? What did he acquire?" Everything he had, O man! But to each person, that which he possesses is great; and that which the poor and needy man has is wealth. He appears similar in the sight of God, both he who lays aside his chariot and he who despises his donkey. For what the four-horse chariot is to the rich man, this the lowly pack-saddle is to the poor man. And he is a philosopher in the same way, both he who leaves behind a silver table, patterned and adorned with stories, and he who leaves behind a wooden one of little value; likewise also he who leaves behind a crowded town, and he who leaves behind a small garden; he who leaves behind a garment woven with gold, and he who leaves behind an old and worn-out tunic. For God does not judge the offering and the humanity by the multitude or the quality of the things that are given, but He accepts and approves the will of the giver. For this reason the Gospel also proclaims that widow as virtuous, who gave her mite; for she held back nothing of what she had. And he who offered a cup of cold water also receives the reward of the truly easy hospitality: the Kingdom. For he ministered to the need of the thirsty man with what he had, even if there was no fragrant and noble wine available to him on account of his poverty. ^B I say these things by way of concession, since it is not necessarily the case that if one is a fisherman, that one is also poor. Do you not know that a fisherman is a hunter of pearls? And pearls are the flower of proud and lofty wealth, with which kings are adorned, and in which women, lovers of both wealth and adornment, delight. A fisherman dyes the purple, that renowned color, which is dedicated to royalty; fishermen dye wools gold-colored, hunting for the yellow pinna-shell. Therefore one must not look at the tools of their craft as if they were cheap and contemptible—the net, I mean, and the hooks; but rather from the work accomplished, their wealth is to be recognized; for according to that logic, you would find nothing poorer than agriculture, if its wealth were judged by the mattock and the spade. And those who dig for gold, the king of wealth, are completely destitute. For a single axe serves them, and a wooden trough, which separates the gold from the earth. Therefore let the Gentiles and the Hebrews be silent, who reproach Peter with poverty and attempt to disparage that great man by the fisherman's craft; and having ceased to boast of such things, let them say, I ask, to me, who am inquiring: "What fisherman, or person in general, has walked on foot upon the sea? Who fixed a standing foot upon a lake, as he did upon waves shaken by the winds?" For although our good God performed many ^C miracles through His own servants, both long ago in the commonwealth of Israel and in the later times, in which the benevolent Incarnation of our Savior appeared to the world, yet no one of those saints, who have been renowned from the beginning to the end, is known to have accomplished such a deed through his own faith and the grace from above.

^A Wonderful indeed was Moses, who crossed the sea without a ship; but he stepped upon dry land, as is natural for men, the water having retreated to either side for him. Great, too, was Jesus, his successor, for he crossed over the Jordan while it was overflowing its banks; yet he, too, like the Red Sea, parted the waters and checked the flow, providing the people crossing with bare dry ground upon which to walk. But no man has ever set foot upon the water and held his ground. For the law of nature does not permit a humid and flowing substance to support a solid and heavy body. But it seems to me that the Lord and Master of all, being at that moment greatly moved by the man’s fervent desire, from the impulse of which he had cried out, saying, "Command me to come to you upon the water," granted him, as a reward for his great love and faith, that new and miraculous grace, of which Peter alone, of all men from Adam down to the very end, seemed capable. For a true and unique display of such a miracle by God, which surpasses the humility of created nature, is as the best of the prophets, David, also thought. For he, when praising God in one of his psalms and explaining His ineffable and incomprehensible power, said these things, which you know by singing them according to custom: "Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths in the many waters, and thy footsteps shall not be known." What, therefore, the Master possessed as belonging to the unique properties of His divinity, He made common with His servant, counting him worthy of such honor.

^C Blessed indeed is great John, who rested upon the Lord’s breast; great also is James, since he was named a son of thunder; glorious, too, in his honors is Philip, as one caught up by the Spirit when he initiated the Ethiopian into the knowledge of the Savior; yet let all of them yield to Peter and confess themselves second, whenever a comparison of graces discerns who is to be preferred. Contemplating and considering all things in detail, I find this man, both in reasonings of discourse and in the performance of works, everywhere leaping ahead and jumping beyond the rest of the choir of disciples, and leaving behind those who are running the same stadium of life.

^D For when the Lord once asked the twelve, and put them to the test, so that they might have assurance and understanding concerning the opinion of Him, and ordered them to say clearly who they said He was; when all the rest wished to be silent and hesitated, and seemed to be laboring in their minds with some meditative thought as to what they should answer, he who bore within his soul the live coal of faith—by which even the lips of Isaiah had been purified—immediately opening his mouth, proclaimed that blessed and truly clear confession: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." What could anyone, according to the worthiness of these words,

^A admire of these things, having become a trustworthy interpreter of the greatest of the apostles? See first how the discourse is simple and brief, setting forth in a short exclamation the power of countless and great matters. For every such discourse is excellent, when it is appropriate, and the expression does not wander into a poor and meager meaning; but on the contrary, it signifies a multitude of things in brevity, after the likeness of the mustard seed; which is indeed very small when held in the hands and looked at; but if you bring it to the sense of the mouth and taste it, it draws the whole animal from feet to head to its own heat. "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." This single discourse, contributing to the knowledge of God and our Savior, is both considered and turns upon these two points: one, indeed, which looks to the first generation of the Godhead, namely the Word who is always in the beginning, and is with the Father, and is God, just as the great theologian John taught us, lying like a certain sponge upon the breast of the Only-Begotten, and drawing from thence the knowledge of the hidden wisdom; the other, however, which is of the dispensation, which the good God accepted for the condescension of our weakness. It is worth while, therefore, to contemplate the answer, how in brevity and few words, he accurately made clear the understanding of all things in a few, having commenced from the lower things, and having by degrees led the mind upward to the high things.

^B "You are the Christ." This is a declaration of the dispensation, and an explanation of the manifestation of God in the flesh. For [Christ] is not a name of him who is before the ages, but an indication of the grace of those who are anointed. Wherefore also our Lord, since he altogether undertook to become man, and all other things relating to the flesh, also undertakes to be called Christ, as if anointed into a king, not with the oil of the horn, as Samuel and David, and the men who followed, but by the operation of the Spirit, by which also the Dominical ^C man (for so it is pleasing to many to call Jesus) was wondrously and paradoxically conceived in the womb of the Virgin. And having confessed Jesus, who became man for our sake, he did not end the discourse there; but ascending through the spiritual ladder of Jacob to heaven, and having contemplated the Word of God who was in the beginning, he adds to Him the exceptional and true dignity, calling Him Son of the living God. And this man, and no other, is accurate; and he, having himself confessed the straight and unperverted rule of faith, and having handed down to us all the discourse of piety as an inviolable law, did not depart unrewarded and without a prize: nay, rather, having been called ^D blessed by Him who is truly blessed, he is called the rock of faith, and the foundation and base of the Church according to God. And he receives through the promise the keys of the kingdom, and becomes the lord of its gates, so as to open them to whom he wishes, and to shut them to those for whom they must rightly be shut; truly, to the polluted and profane, and those denying that confession,

[281B] ^A for which he—as the precise guardian of the good of the Churches—was ordained to preside over the entrances of the kingdom. Oh, how great a thick darkness and mist is poured out before human eyes, by which the heretics are prevented from seeing the footsteps of the Fathers, or from walking in that path which the feet of the apostles trod! For behold, Peter, the disciple of Christ genuine by election, who everywhere received the primary vote both for his honors and for his achievements, that great and all-surpassing man, whose glory filled the whole inhabited world, when commanded to speak how he holds his belief concerning God and our Savior, did not begin from some distant cleverness, nor, encompassed by a circle of syllogisms and arguments, did he respond to the questioning, [281C] as the clever sophists and technicians of the faith are now wont to do; but in simplicity of heart, he set forth the truth briefly; not distinguishing the unbegotten from the begotten, not disputing contentiously about matters of like and unlike, nor curiously investigating the difference between substances which exceed all things, nor measuring the immense divinity with syllogisms, such as the mockeries of Arius and the perverse attempts of Eunomius. Let us therefore emulate, O Christians (whose faith is marked by its character, not by a flow of words), that fisherman, that simple man, that native of Bethsaida, the first catch of Christ. Let us learn to say: *You are the Christ the Son of the living God*; and leave the rest of these things to the word-warriors, whose work is contention, and whose end is destruction.

[281D] ^B Does the wonder of the apostle then stop at the things already said? Or is it the exact opposite—that we do not seem to have even begun, if one were to compare what remains with what has been said? Yet, leaving the many things to your own knowledge (for you know Peter and his deeds, even if no one may have taken it upon himself to praise the man), I wish to say a few things about his rest, and how he migrated from earth to heaven, that I may finish my speaking where he finished his life. ^C When, therefore, our Savior was about to sanctify the human race by his voluntary death, he entrusted to this man, as a sort of special deposit, the universal and ecumenical Church, asking him a third time, *Do you love me?* And since he had offered confessions with great eagerness equal to the questions, he received the care of the world; as one flock, one shepherd, having heard: *Feed my lambs*; ^D and our Lord gave the most faithful disciple in his own place, to the proselytes as father, and shepherd, and teacher. Having therefore heard this voice, he did not live his life in sloth, nor did he love a life free from dangers; but traversing the entire inhabited world, he revealed Christ to those who were blind, leading those who were wandering, and confirming those who had tasted of piety—contending against the enemies,

comforting those at home, enduring persecutions, bearing the distress of prisons, and in many ways facing dangers for the sake of the Gospel. ^A

In the process of time, making for the royal city, he journeyed thence to the kingdom. For Nero, sparked into rage, as once Herod had been in Palestine when the Magi announced Christ as King, rejecting other kinds of punishments, decreed by a full sentence that the thrice-blessed Apostle should be fixed to a cross, so that not only might Peter imitate the Lord by walking on the sea, but also by being suspended on wood. Being nonetheless humble and wise, even in the very time of the struggle and the contest with the terror of death, having a clear understanding of what the difference was between the Lord and the servant, he asked one favor of the enemies: not, indeed, that they should offer him up on the wood in the same shape as the Lord, but that they should fix him with his head toward the lower part of the cross. For it was not fitting that even in death the servant should have an equal portion with the Lord. He spoke, and he succeeded in his wish, and through the cross he departed to Him who was crucified and rose again: he himself having been crowned with the wreath of martyrdom, but leaving to us the causes of these festivals. ^B

We too, according to our ability, O dear and sacred head, have had these thanksgiving offerings to render for your many good deeds. But it is now time to turn our discourse to another champion, a companion, I say, of your virtue, that man from Tarsus: him, I say, who, though by a different kind of punishment, yet arrived at the same goal of piety, journeying with you to Christ.

That admirable Paul, that resonant trumpet of the Gospel, formerly a bitter foe of Christians, but in the end a most valiant defender of the Church—later indeed among the apostles as received by grace, and in time second to the disciples of Christ, yet equal in the proof of his virtue, that I may say nothing more, and so that I might put the hoary heads of those twelve to shame—an equal of Moses, a fervent emulator, if any other was, a bulwark of the Law, a firm and unshaken tower of the Old Testament; so long as he kept his mind unchanged, he was a great danger to those who spoke of Christ, and everywhere he terrified our people and drove them to flight, truly according to the prediction of Jacob: *Benjamin is a ravenous wolf* (Gen. XLIX, 27), tearing and scattering the best of the flocks of the New Testament. ^C

But because he had acted out the drama concerning the holy Stephen, and with his hands still stained with blood was hurrying toward Damascus, wishing to link persecution to persecution and slaughter to slaughter, and to pluck out Christianity root and branch, which was then first budding into flower; God looked well upon what he had made, seeing that a sharp and powerful enemy would become a noble friend; and suddenly shining upon him with light, He strikes him down and changes him to humility, restraining him from his course by the fear He struck into him; ^D

^A casting eyes that were breathing wrath and fury down into darkness. He punishes him, however, not with silence, but adds action to the word, saying to him what is written: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads," not as though He had need of dialogue (for what was the need of words when the facts were sufficient?), but in order to provide an opportunity for seeking and learning that Christ, whom he supposed to be dead and buried, is alive and appears from heaven. And there is nothing like setting forth the very words themselves, which explain to us the trapping of the Hebrew wolf.

"But Saul, still breathing threats and murder." The discourse delineates for me a man shattering himself with rage from the preceding slaughter, still panting after the casting of the stones, with blood-shot and savage eyes—such a man, inevitably, as the murderer, preserving in the beginning ^B the symbols of the patriarch's prophecy. For that man, when he was about to die, having caused his sons to stand around his bed on all sides, prophesied in the Spirit. Thus, therefore, blessing Judah, he was speaking to him, but allegorically he praised Christ, who would come from him. And having predicted future things to all of them in succession, he came at last to Benjamin, as being also younger in age; he was speaking ostensibly to his son, but in reality he was designating Paul, whom we know to be descended from that tribe. "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he shall eat, and in the evening he shall distribute food." Let us search out what this means. It is surely this: that having eaten in the morning (that is, having persecuted, murdered, shed blood, and scattered the Church like a flock), at the last he became a good shepherd and pastor, putting off the persecutor and putting on the apostle; ^C and as food for all, he distributed the Law and established for us this holy table. For the power of the Lord is such that it strips the seditious of their anger and impious thoughts as if they were arms, and leads them on skillfully and tames them, and makes them gentle sheep instead of biting beasts.

Concerning these things, what does the Scripture say? That "approaching the high priest, he asked of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, so that he might lead the Christians into Jerusalem." O conflict and difference between the letters demanded by Paul then, and those he wrote later while proclaiming Christ! The former were binding Christians, while the latter placed upon the persecutor many, heavy, and grievous chains to be borne for the sake of Christ; ^D and in those it was written: "Paul, a Hebrew, a defender of the Law, an enemy of the cross, a foe of the Gospel"; but in the subsequent Epistles: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ." Of whom? I ask. Surely, of the Crucified. O miracle! What a little while ago was a disgrace has now become a boast; and what was held in contempt is today remembered as a title of glory. For no king, greedy for fame and proud, has ever so vaunted or exalted himself in the splendors of his empire as Paul has in the cross and the nails.

^A And suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. Why does He not appear to him in human form, as He appeared to Stephen from heaven, but rather in the form of fire or light? It is because, to Stephen—as to one perfect and well-acquainted with the mystery of the Incarnation, and who would receive no harm from the lowliness of our condition—He rightly manifested Himself in that very form in which He had ascended into heaven. But to Paul—as to one who would not deign to call Jesus God, precisely because He had come to us in a body—He does not appear as a man, so as not to increase the stumbling-block for an unbeliever, but rather in the form of lightning and fire, so that he might draw him toward Himself from out of the Law and Moses. For even there, this same God, appearing to Moses, spoke in fire; and when giving the Law on Mount Sinai, illuminating the Hebrew with fire, He placed the tablets into his hands. Therefore, He floods him with light, so that, by applying his mind to the similarity of the events of that time and the present, and rousing himself as if from a certain forgetfulness, he might recognize the divine apparitions as being of the same power. He sends forth the radiance from heaven so that Paul, no longer turning his mind toward Bethlehem and Galilee, might cease to call Christ the son of David and a mere man, and all the other names that pertain to the dispensation; but that he might be clearly taught that, being God from above, He came to us—the place from whence He now appears. ^B Then He adds clearly: *I am Jesus*—the name of His condescension, that He might confirm the faith of the Incarnation, at which the Jews were scandalized. I am that One whom you were striking with palms, whom you were scourging, whom you were dragging and leading—now indeed to Caiaphas, later to Pilate; whom you constantly called the carpenter’s son; whom you counted among the dead, laughing loudly at and driving away those who preached the resurrection. That One now speaks, yet I do not appear; I am present, yet I am not seen: illuminating the soul, while casting darkness upon the eyes. Believe, therefore, that I also appeared to Stephen, when he was not at all believed by you as he told you this. *It is hard for you to kick against the goads.* By "goads," He means the nails of the cross. For just as one who strikes against sharp iron does not harm the iron—for how could he harm that which is hard and resistant?—but wounds himself instead, so also he who contends with God brings destruction upon himself of his own accord. ^C Be wise, therefore, from now on, and having lost your sight through that wondrous radiance, understand now above all else that for this reason I clothed Myself in a body and became man: that all might not be blinded, who would approach the Godhead stripped of its veil.

These things having been done and said, behold, Paul was being led by the hand—a miserable spectacle, or rather, a delightful one, and one worthy of joy. The wolf was bound, the plunderer was chastened, the savage was tamed; he who had been swift to run now walked gently; the tyrant of the disciples was being led away as a disciple; he was being led to drink of the other’s ^D

^A blood, he who had defiled his hands with the blood of Stephen. He remained blind for three days. And with good reason: for he who had sinned against the Trinity was justly condemned to a punishment corresponding in number to the days [of his blindness].

Thus, then, was this wonderful man initiated into piety. But when he had tasted of the truth, and had learned by experience that Christ is alive, and exists, and rules over all, and that He was neither corrupted by death nor stolen by the disciples, he passed quickly from the Law to the Gospel, and proclaimed to all that Christ is God—He whom only yesterday and the day before he had been attacking with blasphemies. And he was as powerful an ally as he had been an enemy; for he was mighty in both. Suddenly and unexpectedly, entering the synagogues of Damascus, he preached the words of the Law and the Prophets—not, however, to strengthen the Law, but to proclaim Christ from it, comparing the teachings of the disciples with the events [of their time], and by means of the Law casting out the Law. Just as he himself says regarding this, writing to the Romans: "For I, through the Law, died to the Law"—meaning, having been led by the Mosaic writings, I recognized the piety of the Gospel. ^B Stupor, therefore, seized Damascus, and everyone was exclaiming to one another: "Come, see that Hebrew from Tarsus, that fervent student of the ancestral law, that fierce advocate of Jesus, who now calls Him God, and proves from our own Scriptures that this is the Savior who was promised." There was a fear, then, that he might persuade the whole city, and that he might take the entire populace with him and turn them away from the Law. For he is one who is trained in the Scriptures, keen of mind, swift of speech, resourceful in his conduct, and possessing great credibility; from which it is assumed that since he is accurately acquainted with our own, he does not appear to be deceived through ignorance, but to have found the truth through testing and judgment. ^C By this dilemma he threw the great city, a populous nation, into confusion upon the first preaching of this noble proselyte; and Damascus was more troubled then than the Christians in Jerusalem had been when Paul was stoning Stephen. For just as the most wonderful of great men, wherever they transfer their allegiance, bring victory with them, so too did this divine man invariably make those great to whom he lent his own support.

So then, having preached the Gospel in Phoenicia and cast the first seeds of the apostolate there, where he himself had also been enlightened by knowledge, he came to Jerusalem, a strange and fine spectacle to those who were there. For those who had sent him on his way, and had given him the bonds by which he was to bind the Christians—not knowing what things had intervened in the meantime—saw him at first with pleasure; and expecting their booty, they hoped to see a bound multitude of Christians, and were demanding the fulfillment of his many promises. But ^D

^A when they had tested him and found his mind in agreement with his speech, they thought that the only plan left for them was to kill the young man, as if it were impossible, while Paul lived and spoke, for the religion of the Hebrews to remain safe. And the whole subsequent time clearly proved this.

For since many up to this point, even though they were Christians, could not live purely according to the norm of the Gospel, but were half-hearted ^B and sometimes even made use of circumcision, in order that by granting some things acceptable to the Hebrews, they might appease their anger: he alone, with unshakeable mind, taught nothing remiss or imprecise; but with a clear voice and eloquently, he preached the word from the beginning. And he carried the feeling of liberty forward to such an extent that when, at one time, the Galatians—due both to their own fickleness and the negligence of their teachers—had returned to a life of observing the Law, he wrote to them a marvelous epistle, through which he taught them to worship and practice piety in the newness of the life in Christ, no longer attending to the letters written on stone tablets. He became involved, because of these matters, with the very prince of the apostles, and everywhere he persisted in rebuking and skirmishing with Peter, as one who, by the use of old and abolished dogmas, was troubling the new institution of the Christians; ^C nor did he respect the old age of the elder, nor the prerogative of the apostolate, when he saw that the truth was in danger. Indeed, he resisted the Galatians most sharply; but he frequently argued with Peter, tempering his liberty as much as possible with propriety and modesty. And everywhere he applied himself to preaching and persuading; but if ever he chanced upon corrupt morals and wicked men and suffered something severe—either being thrown into prison, or affected by stripes, or attacked with stones—he did not at all lose his alacrity because of the misfortune; but withdrawing slightly, he would again approach the enemies, and by turning their own words and discovering the modes of their attacks, and adapting himself with great resourcefulness to the emerging needs, he would depart having persuaded ^D either everyone or the majority. For often, having been found with incurable wounds, and thrown into the outskirts of that city which he was initiating into piety, and having even been thought dead due to the magnitude of his hardships, on the following day he would reach the marketplace, and stretching out his right hand, he would teach again those who brought him to the very jaws of death. Thus, he cared nothing for his body, but looking toward the goal of the high calling, he fought steadfastly, changing country after country, city after city, laboring and struggling on land, girding himself for the perils of the sea, speaking clearly and eloquently to raging crowds, making defense to angry judges, leading the Hebrews to the acknowledgment of Christ by the Scriptures which they held in value; CHAPTER 292

^A turning from external and profane doctrines, and confirming Christians with nature's unwritten laws; building up proselytes and those who had approached the faith, and nourishing them with fitting doctrines, as gardeners foster and refresh young plants with an appropriate and measured flow of water. Let us learn, however, what most especially reveals his power of speech.

Athens is a city pre-eminent in Achaia, a seat of learning, as praised by the mouths of those who celebrated it of old, an ancient workshop of wise men and of those who cultivate the study of letters. Since, therefore, Paul had traversed all of Illyricum, and everywhere scattered the sparks of faith—which the Spirit, having received them, fanned into flame and kept from being extinguished—he came, in accordance with the necessity of his travel, also to the wise Athenians. ^B It was a matter worthy of much care: how the tentmaker would speak about God to those who, in their own estimation, claimed to rule over all men at once in terms of learning. But he, lifted up by the greatness of his nature and the wealth of the gift from above, did not take hold of one of the covered houses, nor did he sit in some workshop to begin a discourse, as was the custom for the chief among their philosophers when they were together with those who approached them. Instead, running up to the Areopagus, where there was a stern and formidable council that judged capital cases, and having found a large crowd gathered there, he stood and spoke with greater eloquence than the habitual orators who competed among them every day. ^C Taking his beginning from an inscription that was incised upon an altar, and from there opportunely proclaiming to them the unknown God, and bringing the whole discourse to a conclusion, he was so far from failing in anything regarding his speech—like an unlearned man as far as external wisdom is concerned—that he converted the leader of the Areopagites, Dionysius, along with his wife, who followed his words, and made him a servant of Christ, turning him away from the religion of many altars by means of one altar and a small inscription.

Having returned as a victor from there, where the warlike demon of the Hellenes held very great power, ^D and having moved from there to the neighboring city, Corinth, which is the metropolis of Achaia, and having spoken the saving doctrine in the synagogues, he departed leading a proselyte—not one of the many, nor one of the common people, but the very chief of the synagogue himself, along with the entire multitude of his house. And having emerged victorious from the very summit of the Law, and having exalted the cross like a magnificently raised trophy, he left that city also bowing down to Christ. As time went on and the word of piety made progress, he continued like a certain general, winning over cities, towns, and fields to the King day by day, cutting the tendons and the strength of the tyrant who had previously held sway.

He then departed from Corinth towards the region of the Pisidians, then the Lycaonians and the cities of Phrygia, seeking...

Asiatic provinces, and afterwards Macedonia, he was a teacher common to the whole world; helping those present with his speech, and converting those absent by his Epistles. He alone is the one whose knees were never weary, although he was always on a journey, and whose tongue never grew sluggish, telling without ceasing the mysteries of the Gospel to enemies and friends alike. And such indeed was Paul as regards doctrine; but as for the rest of his life’s philosophy, what kind of man was he? Always and incessantly devoted to the word, and serving the Gospel, he would not even accept bread from anyone for free; but by day he had the struggle against countless enemies, while by night he plied his chisel, his hides, and his craftsmanship, that from thence he might procure his provisions and the means of life, so that he might show himself a burdensome apostle to no one, a preacher without charge, and sparing his hosts even the cost of bread. ^B

Let us, O priests, hear these words—we who not only partake of the altars, but even grow rich from them and live in luxury, and who make sacred resources our own private property, and command those subject to us for Christ’s sake as if they were slaves, and in a heavy-handed manner. Priesthood is not dominion, but rather, to one who understands, service; it is not the dignity of a magistrate judging with authority, but a ministry of modest and disciplined stewardship. Did not the divine Paul have the authority to eat and drink from the sacred things, and to receive at least a small reward for his countless labors, for the comfort and care of the body that was beaten every day? Yet he did not use his authority, so that, receiving nothing on earth, he might store up everything in the heavens. Wherefore, even while he was still bound to corruptible flesh, he was graced with gifts greater than human reason allows, and to serve as an earnest and pledge of the good things to come, and the honors stored up in that age, he is taken up even to the third heaven; he sees visions that surpass the lot of mortals, and hears secret words, as he himself says, ^C although he acts with modesty regarding this, and under necessity, avoiding everywhere boasting and exalting himself by his own excellent gifts. Yet, in order to restrain their sentiments and bring to modesty those who are puffed up over meager gifts, he covers over a few of his own as if compelled, himself banishing every suspicion from himself.

Indeed, that Elias the Thesbite, in that he was carried on high in the appearance of a fiery chariot, is celebrated everywhere and left behind much wonder for the age. But to what point he arrived, no speech has explained. For perhaps he was raised but a little from the earth by the power that moved him, and returned to the place which he was allotted to inhabit. But the translation of Paul was far more illustrious and glorious, with the measure added to which he was taken up. For since seven heavens are celebrated, he arrived at little short of the middle point. Now let the Hebrews cast down my opinion, ^D boasting greatly of Moses, that he alone reached the top

^A of Sinai, and entered within the darkness and the clouds. But my Paul, instead of a mountain, ascended to heaven; and instead of a cloud, he drove on beyond the air that is above the cloud. And very reasonably too. For it was fitting that the man of Christ should surpass Moses as much as the Gospel surpasses the Law.

In divine apparitions and in the words spoken to him by God, and in how he—when bound—was loosed, and when sorrowful and faint-hearted was strengthened, with God answering him both while he was waking and in his sleep—what need is there even to speak, since he himself did not keep that grace of his secret, but revealed it clearly to all at once, saying: "Do you seek proof of Christ who speaks in me?" For while others, whether prophets or apostles, had their divine energies determined by certain times and moments, and sometimes the Divine Presence was with them, and at other times it was absent, this admirable man, ^B as if he were once and for all a distinct temple of God, specifically selected and destined for His indwelling, in this way always had Christ as the inventor of his counsel, the teacher of his words, and finally the helper of his deeds. And John, the son of Zebedee, seemed great because, with more confidence than the other disciples, he rested upon the breast of the Lord; and for this reason especially he is renowned among all. But how should this man not also be justly considered beyond a human being, who, every day, entertained not Jesus in the body, but the Word naked of flesh, offering himself as a useful and clean vessel to the Creator?

Since there is much and every kind of thing to say regarding what this divine man said and did for the instruction of the whole world—on land and sea, in law courts, in marketplaces, in assemblies, in councils, in the palaces of kings—I willingly pass over the great multitude of them ^C for the sake of the story. For I did not undertake to produce a written account of the things accomplished by him such that nothing is missing, but rather to construct a eulogy, and this only to the extent that my ability reaches. Having mentioned one last thing, I shall put an end to my discourse.

For after he had traversed the whole world, and having set the word upon the lampstand, had kindled a great flame of evangelical knowledge and learning, he went to Rome, the queen of cities, so that by instructing and persuading the masters of all men, and gaining them as disciples, he might thereafter have an abundance with which to deal with other men. Finding Peter there also, working at the same labor, and joining a certain holy and divine team, he instructed those under the Law in the synagogues, and gained the Gentiles in the marketplaces; ^D and he was a varied teacher of good things, declaring the pure and unadulterated knowledge of God, legislating accurate rules of moral virtue, and driving far away from men dances and drunkenness, and all lewd dissipation, to which both the common people and the one who held power at that time were especially addicted. For he sharply rebuked Nero, the [one who controlled] the best and...

that subtle introduction of a virtuous and chaste way of life ^A vexed Nero, as he was more deeply afflicted by the loss of pleasure than if he had actually been driven from his empire. For he was, if anyone ever was, a sophist of pleasures, indulging in luxury and living among pipes and lyres, a lazy and effeminate man, a master of harlots, not a king of men. For how could he rule over others who did not know how to rule himself? One concern solely occupied him and kept him anxious: how he might uproot from the city that teacher of piety and temperance. And, emulating the mind of Herod, he delivers the apostles to prison, like that man did with John; and possessing, in place of another Herodias, a shameless and lustful intention that sought the head of Peter and Paul, he crowned both with the crown of martyrdom, nailing one to the wood and cutting off the head of Paul, leaving to us and to the world the passion of the holy ones, a festival and the occasion for such a celebration.

^B These things, O thrice-blessed ones, the annual law has brought us, proclaiming you everywhere as the common athletes of the world, and improving the minds of men through your honor. For the honor of virtue provokes many to zeal, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

IX.

On the Holy Martyr Phocas

Beautiful and useful to those who practice what is noble is the memory of the saints. For it does not teach only by ^C word those who desire virtue and piety, but also by the deeds of those who have lived…

[index: entries preserved]

^A rightly, it puts forward evident teachers. Therefore, our Lord also, providing the proofs of the most excellent achievements, says: "Whoever does and teaches, he shall be called great" (Math. V, 19). And elsewhere: "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (ibid. 16). For instruction that consists of words is an inferior and weaker teacher than the active performance of a deed; and in proportion as we say that sight is more accurate than hearing, so far is it agreed that action holds superiority over words. In this way we learn sciences, and in this way we are educated in the arts—being led first toward learning by words, and then by hand and experience confirming what is obscure. And the geometer, though he has labored much over his book and has had his ears filled by the teacher, will not otherwise lay hold of the power of various figures, unless he studies the centers, the lines, and the circles on the tablet. Nor, indeed, would words alone educate one who desires astronomy, unless the instructor, having skillfully turned the sphere for him, presents the motion of the pole to his ^B eyes. And the physician, too, though he has labored much with Hippocrates and other masters, is an unskilled healer until he goes among the many sick and learns from the patients themselves how to heal. Thus, indeed, we also, the disciples of the martyrs, by making the deeds of those steadfast men our teachers before the time of our own confession, learn to guard piety until the final dangers, looking upon their very sacred tombs as if they were stelai, carved with letters, and accurately declaring the struggle of their martyrdom.

Just as those who approach the oak of Mamre, or the cave that was bought, which Ephron the Hittite sold as a burial place for Sarah, where the patriarch also lies with his children—immediately upon seeing these sites, they renew the image in their minds, and contemplate in their intellect the faithful patriarch, the firstfruits of piety, the circumcision that was in him; and they reflect also upon those who ^C germinated from that root, the branches; indeed,

Homily IX. On Saint Phocas.

^D ...with their devotion, heightened by the frequent miracles wrought by them; miracles which Asterius records in his [homily] on Phocas, and the gardener—and even if Phocas the bishop was in reality the governor, it is evident that [the miracles] should be referred rather to the gardener Phocas of the same name. We know that sailors, who are most devout to Nicholas of Myra, or Peter Gonzales (also called Telmo, of our Order of Preachers), or similar true and most present protectors in the perils of the sea, have nothing in common with the nautical arts, unless we wish to maintain that they have a spiritual and mental [connection]. The Greeks also attribute to the bishop Phocas the miracles usually shown to sailors during the office of his feast; to these, which the younger [Greeks] attribute—and which sometimes, contrary to historical truth, err in their ecclesiastical books—I would not willingly give greater credence than to Asterius, who attributes them to Phocas the gardener. I suspect that simple sailors did not distinguish between them, and, because of the fame of his miracles, began to invoke the martyr Phocas of Sinope in the perils of the sea, as is their custom; and that later, their religion having increased on account of these miracles, whether God intended to honor both most illustrious martyrs, Phocas the bishop or the gardener, as patrons of the same city. And perhaps the same thing happened in Sinope as in the neighboring city of Cæsarea, where it came to pass that, just as there, after Eupsychius the elder, a celebrated martyr, another, more celebrated Eupsychius, shone forth after having completed his martyrdom during the final persecution under Julian; so also in Sinope, after the ancient bishop Phocas, another Phocas suffered martyrdom, whom God, although he was a simple layman and a gardener, illustrated by reason of the merit of his life and passion with such great miracles as those which Asterius ascribes to him—which the later Greeks preferred to ascribe to Phocas the bishop, [preferring him] to the gardener who was more celebrated among the ancients, as these statements of Asterius indicate.

^A Isaac, and Jacob; and with the remembrance of these men, they become spectators of their entire history. Thus I too today, approaching the venerable shrine of the thrice-blessed Phocas, am filled from the very character of the place with the memory of all the stories recounted concerning him. I see a gardener by profession, simple in spirit, hospitable, an outstanding ornament to the coastal region, a benefactor to the interior, the saint of saints, and one who, compared to those who have attained glory for Christ's sake, has been increased with a superior glory.

^A For the entire catalogue of brave martyrs is holy and divine, rendering in return the due grace for their passion, and discharging in blood the debt of recompense for blood to the Savior of all. Nevertheless, among these very ones, the glory of all is not the same, nor have equal rewards been allotted to all by one measure; rather, even the catalogue of the saints does not escape the first and the second. The cause of this, I think, is the fact that the Judge is most precise and impartial. For He looks upon the magnitude of the punishments, the endurance of the sufferings, and the contests of the torments, and distributes rewards to the athletes according to the measure of their merits. And it is not at all strange if righteousness is thus honored by God, since even among us, generals and arbiters of contests do not treat all brave men or contestants equally; rather, they decree corresponding gifts to each according to the measure of his achievement.

^C I have set forth these things in order to show that he who has provided us today with the cause for our gathering is more illustrious than his companions and fellow-contestants. For the others are not all known to everyone, nor do they possess a virtue celebrated in the speech of men; but there is no one who does not know Phocas. But just as a ray of the sun is spread out to the eyes of all, so too the fame of this martyr has resounded in every ear. And to state it briefly, as many as have known the Lord Christ, they have also known his faithful servant. But in truth, if it seems good, I will set aside the praises he shares in common with the others and will recount the extraordinary deeds of this martyr to you who are lovers of the martyrs.

^D This holy man, therefore, that great benefit to the Christians, was brought forth by nearby Sinope, an ancient and well-known city, fertile in brave and philosophical men. For let no one think me to be considering at present the difference in religion, but only whether she proved to be a nurse and parent of men eager for virtue. The pursuit of his life was the cultivation and care of a garden, which, possessing it somewhere before the city gate at the mouth of the Isthmus, he tilled diligently so that it might be a solace of life for himself and for the needy. And he also opened his small and humble dwelling to guests with a ready and eager mind. Since he lived on the public road, he shared what he had with those who arrived; and he was a kind of Lot, not of the Sodomites, but of the Sinopeans. As time passed...

however, he did not find this duty without its reward. For the occasion of his life-giving death arose from his hospitality. Whence, and in what manner, hear, as I take it up briefly.

^A When the word of our piety was proclaimed, and the divine preaching went forth to every ear, making known Christ and His mysteries, the nations raged, as the Psalmist says, and the kings and rulers gathered together against the same, and the peoples of error were angered as Jesus reigned. Every Christian was sought out as a criminal; he who was near was punished, and he who was far away was tracked down. Therefore, neither his lowly trade nor the condition of being a gardener hid Phocas; but he too, as a most genuine disciple of Christ, was denounced. And indeed, there came to him those ^B who had been ordered to lead him away, without trial and without defense, from this wretched and fleeting life. For the accusation was such that the noble man confessed it with a clear voice, and even with no one asking, he showed it by his deeds; and when someone asked, he cried it out with great joy.

Coming, then, the executioners of his punishment, and the authors of our festival, they lodged with the very man who was being sought, neither knowing him nor being known by him. For the time being, they kept secret the reason for their visit, so that, having first learned from those outside the city who Phocas was and where he lived, they might suddenly descend and seize him, ^C as the Jews once did with Judas in the garden to seize the Lord. They did not know that they had the prey already within their nets; the dogs had the sheep, the wolves the lamb, the birds of prey and crooked-talons the dove. But as the prophet Isaiah says: The kid lay down with the leopards, and the lamb fed with the wolves, and the lions enjoyed a common meal with the calf. When, then, as is the custom, the table and the habit of sharing had created mutual confidence, the martyr asked them who they were and for what reason they had come to his city. They, however, respecting the man’s ready welcome and hospitality, and having charged him not to tell anyone what he was about ^D to hear, revealed their secret to him and explained the plot, namely, that they were seeking to arrest Phocas for punishment. Therefore, in addition to this hospitality, they asked him to grant them this further favor: to help them in the capture of the man they were seeking.

The servant of the Lord heard this, and with an unperturbed soul receiving the news, he neither suffered nor uttered anything base or cowardly; nor, terrified by the danger, did he contemplate flight—and this, even though he had great and ample opportunity to escape—because

it was not yet known to those who were seeking him that he was the one they sought. On the contrary, he did everything the opposite, determined rather to show manliness and not to flee. Indeed, he yielded to their request: "I too," he said, "will assist you in the task at hand. For I know the man, and after making a quick search, I will find him; and it will not be long before I show him to you—but for now, only rest yourselves at this humble lodging." Having thus pledged to them a sure promise, he divided himself into two tasks: the first, treating his murderers with all humanity; the second, preparing the grave. And after he had made ready the trench ^A and the things necessary for the burial, approaching them on the following day, he said: "I have diligently searched for Phocas for you, and the prey is now ready, so if you wish, let him be taken." And when they answered with great joy, "Where is the man?" he said, "Not far off, but with you; I am he myself. Do your work, then, and fulfill the purpose of your journey and your toil." The men were struck to the soul, and they stood frozen at his words, respecting the salt and the table, and the man who, though in poverty, was so generous a host. But he even went on to encourage them to the daring act of execution, and urged them not to hesitate even for a moment, saying that the slaughter would not be the work of their hands, but the deed of those who had ordered it. He spoke, he persuaded, he suffered, and being beheaded, he was offered as a sacrifice pleasing to God.

From that time to this, O men, we have him as a column and ^B support ^C of the divine Churches throughout the world; he is the most glorious of martyrs, occupying the first rank among the best. He draws everyone in a great multitude to his own resting place, and the public roads are full of those hurrying toward the place of prayer from every country. And indeed, that magnificent temple which was granted the keeping of the martyr's holy body is a relief for the afflicted, a medical clinic for those suffering from diseases, and a table for the hungry. For Phocas, now that he has died, feeds people more abundantly than Joseph did formerly in Egypt. For that man exchanged grain for money; but this one bestows it upon those in need for free. Thus, crowds of beggars and wanderers flock to the isthmus of Sinope as if to a common storehouse. But that is how it is there. If, however, somewhere else, through the distribution of a few small relics, the martyr makes a place for himself ^D like a colony of the metropolis as a lodging for those celebrating,

^A for "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (Ps. cxv, 15), and in many places the relics, though divided, preserve the fame of the thrice-blessed man complete everywhere.

Thus, therefore, even in the royal city, the capital of Italy and queen of the world, there is for the martyr a public escort and honor, and a magnificent house, adorned with beauty. The Romans revere Phocas no less than Peter and Paul. Wherefore, as the story teaches, they eagerly obtained the martyr's head, choosing a disposition contrary to that of the wicked Herodias. For she, thirsting for blood, sought the precious head of the just man for an insult; but they, for the sake of honor and their own benefit, worthily acquired the martyr's head for themselves.

Sailors and seafarers everywhere—not only those who sail the Euxine Sea, but also those who cut through the Adriatic, and those who are carried over the Aegean, and as many as sail the Western Ocean and navigate the Eastern gulfs—have changed their customary shanties, with which they relieve the labor of navigation, into a new hymn for the martyr; and Phocas is entirely sung by them with the tongue, ^B since he provides clear signs of his assistance. For often he has been seen, sometimes at night, when the sea was swelling with a storm, ^C rousing the helmsman at the tiller.

By the rays of your miracles, Father, you illuminate the whole world; daily you assist those at sea; you drive away diseases, you put an end to the infirmities of soul and body, having received the grace from the Lord, O martyr Phocas, thrice-blessed.

The grace of the Spirit dwelling in you, O Phocas, revealed you to be a rich fountain flowing with many graces; wherefore you also assist sailors daily, O Father, who seek your help with faith; along with them, grant us also propitiation, O divinely wise.

^A And managing the sails and looking out for rocks from the prow. Hence, it became a custom for sailors to have Phocas as a fellow diner. And since it is impossible for him who is now incorporeal to be a fellow diner and partaker of the table, learn how a pious mind devised the impossible. For every day, they set aside a portion of the dishes for the martyr, equal to that of the diners. One of the guests then buys this portion by depositing the money; the next day another does so, and on another day someone else; ^B and the sea of deceit, swollen by the storm of polytheism, you ran past by divine guidance, O glorious one, having become a most tranquil harbor for all who sail. You dried up the sea of ungodliness, O all-wise one, gushing forth a fountain of life and holy teachings; and now with showers of miracles you wash away all the filth of passions. O summit of hierarchs and glory of victors, Phocas, who are a great protector for those who sail, preserve from dangers those who praise you, O blessed one.

Of the holy hieromartyr Phocas the wonderworker.

Memory of the holy Phocas the gardener.

purchasing all, he provides the buyer for the portion every day. And when the harbor has received them, and they have arrived on land, the money collected is distributed to the hungry: this is the portion of Phocas, a ^A beneficence to the poor.

Kings, too, marvel at him, who proved himself most courageous and God-loving, and they adorn the sacred house of the venerable poor man with illustrious and magnificent gifts. Those who come later strive to surpass the ancients. Nor is it any longer a marvel if, being pious men of the Roman empire, whose life is governed by customs and laws, they hold the servant of Christ in such reverence, since the admiration has reached even to the barbarians; and all the most savage Scythians, as many, I say, as inhabit the continent opposite the Euxine Sea; dwellers near the Maeotian Lake and the Tanais river, and as many as dwell in the Bosphorus, and extend as far as the Phasis river—all these, I say, pay homage to the gardener; and though they differ from us in all customs and pursuits, in this one thing alone they agree with us, their savage ways being softened by the truth. One ruler, at least, and king from that region, laying aside the crown from his head, shining brilliantly with gold and clusters of jewels, and divesting himself of his military breastplate—for the armor of the barbarians is proud and ostentatious—sent both as votive offerings, consecrating the tokens of his power and rank to God through the martyr. For it is clear that he sent the crown to give thanks for his kingdom, and the breastplate for his martial prowess. ^B

Yet how could anyone narrate the benefits that continuously befall people after this through visions in dreams, and through the healings which the sick enjoy, since speech is unable to reach the individual instances? We, therefore, ending here, let us offer glory to the Savior, whose faithful servants were deemed worthy of such grace, that for every need and circumstance, according to the gift bestowed upon them, they benefit their fellow-servants; and this even after their departure from here and their separation from the body; whose memory, ever active, travels daily through cities and villages, everywhere proclaiming the Lord as Benefactor: to whom is due all glory, and honor, and power, and majesty, now and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Encomium on the Holy Martyrs

^C It is, as it seems, even by those very hostile and ^D extremely opposed [to us], at the beginning of the Calends of November, the feast of All Saints: but in truth it was spoken upon certain martyrs, and as if they were the guardians of the city in which Asterius was then acting; whom he indicates as chief among the martyrs, when he calls them [guardians] and patrons from the very beginning. Perhaps the proper names of those martyrs have been lost, at whose feast-day Asterius was praying; or even they were noted by him who reserved the treatise for himself and his Church for the feast day of all the martyrs.

^A And the rest of the experience of life proves that it is possible to derive the greatest benefit even from implacable enemies; and this the events just recently celebrated also demonstrate. For if the devil had not persecuted the Christians, and had not raised up war against the Church, we would have no martyrs; and if there were no martyrs, our life would be sorrowful and without feast. For what is equivalent to these solemn assemblies? And what is so venerable and noble, as to see the whole city pouring out from its walls, and proceeding to a sacred place to celebrate the pure mysteries of the most sincere piety there? For true piety is to follow with veneration and honors those who have endured torments for the Lord with a brave spirit, and have contended against the supreme crisis of death; of whom those who have led us in our assembly today are the leaders and champions: men ^B immortal by the title of a glorious death; living forever by their contempt of life; and who have exchanged their blood for the kingdom, and have turned the snares of the flesh into a benefit for the soul. Thus plainly, when good will like a charioteer presides over a man; and has brought all his appetites and agitations into subjection to itself, and like reins has directed the thoughts of the mind attentively and soberly, spurring on sloth, and restraining excessive impulse, it is impossible that the course of life should be disordered or liable to danger.

Therefore we have the martyrs, who are not only teachers of a life well-conducted, but also accusers of sin. But in what way the martyr accuses and calls one to account, hear: If he was the victor over the flame of fire by his constancy, why do you not tame lust by chastity? If the martyr took no account of the riches and money which he was casting away, why do you not despise a few coins for the sake of justice? If the martyr did not prefer his race and family to God, but was separated from his wife, his children, and his most beloved; why do you not chasten your affection, but rather, because of persons who perhaps have a connection of intimacy with you, trample upon justice and disregard the fear of God? If the martyr has stripped himself of his body for the sake of God, why do you not despise even a small tunic with which you might cover one who is naked? These things, compared against each other, ^D prove our perversity of morals. Let us therefore either revere the saints as teachers, or fear them as accusers; and let us show forth in our own life conduct that is agreeable to those whom we honor: and let us obey God in that same manner in which they obeyed the commandments and firmly hoped for the promises.

For the hope of spiritual goods is a very ready teacher of fortitude and endurance; which, surely like a suitable pledge and a certain deposit residing in the mind, commands it to look upon every danger fearlessly, and to bear it in experience bravely; and this happens consistently. For nature has provided that we men are generally [end of page]

^A sluggish and irresolute regarding those things for which no reward is proposed, but we become lively and eager when we approach those who have prizes and honors as their end. For this reason, all the martyrs, applying their minds to the evangelical Scripture in which the Lord exhorts the sacred athletes and lovers of God, saying: *If anyone confesses me before men, I will confess him before my Father*, for the sake of this confession, with unshaken minds, they endured sharpened iron, ascended pyres, delivered their bodies to be devoured by the jaws of wild beasts, and each one subjected their backs to lashes; their sides were torn by the sharp points of nails, they endured chains of iron, and bore the dark dungeons of prisons as their dwellings; they were pressed by hunger, and dried up by thirst; they presented their faces like stones to those who smote them; they heard insults as if they were deaf; like mutes, they remained silent toward those who reproached and mocked them. They were paraded in the midst of the people and theaters; they were led around the marketplace and the streets with their bodies entirely naked; not only men, but women also—a thing most grievous. Others were consumed by fire; others were frozen by the cold of winter; in varied ways they portioned out their noble deeds to us, so that by falling they might conquer.

Therefore, we reverently shroud the pious bodies, those vessels of election, the organs of blessed souls, the houses of those who were guests of philosophy, and we guard them as most precious heirlooms for all time. We are fortified by them as our chief gifts, and the Church is walled about by the company of the martyrs, no ^C otherwise than a city is protected by a band of armed men. Whole crowds of people gather in honor of them, and we partake of and are refreshed by the joy of the festivals. Those who are oppressed by the adversities and calamities of human life hasten as if to an asylum and a refuge, to the resting places of the thrice-blessed. We employ them as intercessors for our prayers and petitions because of the preeminent confidence they possess. By such safeguards, the hardships of poverty are lifted, diseases are cured, the threats of rulers are calmed; for the holy shrines of the martyrs exist as tranquil harbors from all the turmoils and tempests of life.

In this manner, a father or a mother, taking up an infirm ^D child and holding it in their arms, passes by the medical dispensaries and physicians, and flees to the aid that is without art; and coming to one of the martyrs, they offer their petition to the Master through him, using such words as these to address the mediator whom they have called upon: "You who suffered for Christ, intercede for my suffering and disease. You who possess confidence, grant a word to your fellow servants. Even if you have departed from our life, you know full well what the sufferings and diseases of the human race are. You yourself once entreated the martyrs before you became a martyr. You received then when you were seeking; now that you have, bestow. From the abundance of your reward, ask for that which may turn to our benefit. May we be healed by your bruise, just as the world is by the bruise of Christ." Another, hastening toward marriage, makes the beginning of his bridal chamber those things that are in the martyrs' [shrines].

And someone who is hurrying to set sail does not loose the cables of his ship before he has called upon the Master of the sea through the martyrs. Tribes of beggars and swarms of the poor have a common hearth in the resting-places of the martyrs; and the martyrs are sung of everywhere on land and sea. With good reason, and as is fitting. For they did not perform righteous deeds as many do: they bore the cross on their own bodies; they did not scatter money, but shed blood; they did not have mercy on the poor, but they did not have mercy on themselves; they did not visit someone afflicted in prison, but they themselves wore the chains. Therefore, they reaped glory and honor in proportion to their endurance and their suffering.

The martyrs, then, are such; but what of their tyrants and murderers, who set their minds on high things and uttered proud threats, who sat upon lofty thrones and failed to recognize their own Prince? ^B They roared like lions, ran swifter than leopards, tore to pieces more fiercely than bears, shed blood after the manner of wolves, and practiced villainy like foxes. They lie there, more detestable than the dead themselves; they have covered their lives with oblivion, they have Hades as their tomb, impiety as their epitaph, and infamy as their memorial; they repent to no avail, they groan in vain. But those whom they once disgraced have been received by everlasting memory and praise that knows no old age. For when narrations of deeds and honors are received by the younger from their elders, and a grandfather hands down to his grandson, or a father to his son, the veneration due to them, they make their praise immortal; and as a kind of inviolable inheritance, the life of man preserves these celebrations through the successions, or rather, as an asset more precious than any inheritance. For the goods of an inheritance, either a thief steals them, ^C or an enemy takes them as spoils, or the vicissitudes of affairs deplete them; but no year shall cut off the festive light of the memory of holy men, as long as there are years, and time runs on, and the heaven holds the sun, and the earth feeds its own living creatures, and the sea its own. But, to speak the truth, even if these elements should cease, as some suppose, the glory of the martyrs and the righteous shall not be extinguished, nor shall the things pertaining to them die along with the creation; but then they shall flourish all the more, when humanity has been transformed into an incorruptible life.

It is possible, however, for the unbelieving, and for those who doubt regarding our future hope, to receive from the things happening in this life certain pledges of our good expectation. For behold, the circle of the athletes of Christ has filled the inhabited world, and there is no ^D place that does not hold the memory of the saints; and all times bestow upon those celebrating the feast the deeds of the contestants, which are better than the gifts and fruits of the earth. Therefore, as one might be a zealous lover of the martyrs, and

^A should desire to offer sacrifice by the celebration of their feasts, he would not let a single day of the year pass without a feast. For the deeds of these noble men have a glory brighter than the solar orb itself. For since he who is opposed to the good set himself with great violence against the mystery of the Christians, and strove to overwhelm all men, scattering them with his chaff, and to bury them in his own sentiments, and to occupy them in vain with the works of mud, God, having anointed a multitude of excellent men with His precepts and trained them for endurance and strength, set them up against that shameless and treacherous enemy of the human race. They fought a new and not a customary battle. For they did not conquer by striking or breaking, but they won distinction by suffering and being slain.

And what, O auditor, you will ask, is the victory of this war? What is this success, to be tortured and scourged, and in addition to end one's life by fire, or the sword, or the wasting away of a prison? But learn that the wars fought for piety are waged differently from others. For other wars have a display of strength in the slaughter and carnage of enemies, but these wars produce victory through the passion and death of those who contend. Furthermore, the saints, by the confidence they possess, become intercessors for the world, and the enemy, unknowingly, falls into results contrary to those he intended. For as many as he slew of those who testified, so many helpers did he prepare for mankind. And in every action, he is found to suffer this; thereby, where he thinks to hinder piety, he produces the growth of piety. For in the case of the foolish and senseless one, the wise God turns his plans to the opposite. And this we find to be the case when we follow the events of every age, such as the exposure of Moses or the sale of Joseph. Straightway at the beginning, he slew the second human being, Abel, ^B so that he might cut off the seed of the pious, but exactly the opposite happened. For from the time that Cain was cursed by God, murderers have been held in fierce hatred. This is what happened in Christ, whom Satan prompted to be nailed to the cross by the souls of the Jews. He suffered the very same thing in the case of the martyrs, whose subterranean memorials many despise, cheapening their dignity. "Is he not a man?" they say. "Has not the body been consumed? Is not his memory placed in a few small, buried remains?" These are the things clearly objected by the Gentiles and the Eunomians; let us speak, however, to both.

We do not worship the martyrs, but we honor them as true worshipers of God. We do not revere human beings, but we admire those who, in the time of temptations, were gloriously dedicated to God. We place them in fair coffins and ^C we raise up houses of rest, magnificent in their construction, so that we may emulate the honors of those who died well. Nor do we show interest in them without a reward, but we enjoy their protection toward God.

^A For since our own prayer is not sufficient to influence God in a time of need and distress (for our prayer is not an appeal, but a reminder of sins), for this reason we have recourse to fellow servants who are beloved by the Master, so that they may heal our transgressions by their own virtuous attainments. What crime is it, then, that while honoring the martyrs, we ourselves also strive to please God? What accusation is there in seeking help from our patrons? Let us examine your own case, then, and see if you, the accuser, are clear of the crime. And how could you be, you who worship not just one, but countless deceased men as gods? ^B Did you not, in your own folly, deify Ceres and Proserpina? Did you not build two temples to these women, and do you not honor them with sacrifices and worship them with every kind of rite? Is not the head and sum of your religion the mysteries at Eleusis, to which the Attic people and all of Hellas gather together to celebrate vanity? Is there not the dark descent, and the secret meetings of the hierophant with the priestess, alone with her alone? Are the torches not extinguished, and does not the vast and numberless crowd believe that their own salvation is found in those deeds done by the two in the darkness? Are you not the one who worships the Theban Dionysus as a god (I mention his homeland, so that you might recognize the man), a man who was a vine-dresser, fond of wine, a drunken reveller, leading the people in shameful, licentious processions, doing those things that mark out dissolute gluttons, getting drunk with the old man Silenus, living among the dancing Satyrs—a man who is a tale of wine and debauchery for the world? Do you not offer sacrifices to Heracles, who was a man, as if he were a god—a robust man, possessing a strong and brave body—and do you worship him because he excelled in many things and overcame wild beasts? And again, do you not worship and stand in awe of that Asclepius who roamed through much of the world with his staff and his iron case? You would not deny that you do this. For temples existing in every part of the world—the Asclepieia, I say, the Heracleia, and the Dionysia—stand as proofs of your vanity; and thus I shall depart free and absolved of the crime (for I do not worship martyrs, nor do I consider them to be gods), but you have proven yourself to be entangled in these crimes, even while accusing others—just like those who, due to an evil conscience, are the first to bring accusations against the innocent. For you have been shown to worship men, not gods. These are a few things out of many against the gentile. ^C But you Jews of the new faction, why is it a wonder that you dishonor the martyrs, when you reject Christ and in your own teachings separate Him from equality with the Father, and shun the places where those holy bodies have rested as if they were profane and unclean? Yet, you who do not consider what is worthwhile, fear the name "Christian," when you harbor hatred for the martyrs together with the Gentiles. Do you not know that Christ is the chief martyr, first

to suffer, and that He bequeathed this zeal to His servants? Then, after Him, Stephen, a champion who lived up to his name for his glory in God; then all the succeeding disciples and apostles. Consider, moreover, how many you insult in a single act of contempt: John the Baptist, James, the man called the brother of the Lord, Peter, Paul, Thomas—I name these as the leaders of the martyrs—and after them, the infinite multitude of those who have died for the sake of Life. Is it a small thing for you to offend such as these? Is the danger of such hostility slight? Each of these overcame the devil together with his band of demons; they were enrolled among the angels, and are reserved as seasoned athletes for the proclamation of the resurrection. They will stand at ^A the manifestation of our God and Savior, opening their mouths with confidence, rejoicing in the sight of the angels, and blessing themselves for the glory of God, for the lashes, the bonds, the tortures, and the gainful death, because it became the agent of an endless life for them.

^B But when you hear these things, I know what you think, and you say: "I, too, am capable of the same things. If I live according to virtue, I shall be no worse and no less honored than those now admired." These, indeed, are words of an arrogant spirit, setting himself up like that boastful Pharisee, and foreign to all sense of humility. It is manifest, however, that he who has not first humbled himself does not climb to the heights; for this is the Lord’s decision. But that someone might guarantee that you will become such a person, I ask you: are you unwilling to show reverence to those who initiated you into the way of piety, who were the guides of what is good, the teachers of virtue, those who instructed you in endurance and the contempt of death? Learn from the disciples of this world noble and grateful habits, so that, although they become like their teachers and lack nothing in the skill they have been taught, they nevertheless kiss the hearts of their masters, revere them, honor them with praise, yield to them in standing, and attend to them as fathers. ^C Holy men are powerful even after they have finished their lives, and when they have departed from this life, they still bestow benefits upon men. The prophet Elisha is a witness of what I say, who, though he had departed from this life and fallen asleep long before, yet having received the immortal and inseparable grace of God, retained it, residing even with his lifeless bones in the tomb. For you know, as a diligent student of the Scriptures, that when someone, carried out for burial by his kin, was suddenly overtaken by robbers or enemies—as is wont to happen in such distress and confusion—and was cast into the tomb of the three-times-blessed prophet, he was suddenly brought to life and returned to the living. What, then, shall we say concerning that which happened? Did the just man have perception of what was being done? Did he offer up prayer, as for the son of the Sunamitess? But the truth of things ^D allows us to suppose nothing of the sort. For the just man had been lying there for many years, his body having been dissolved into his kindred earth and dust of the same nature. Yet it has been made clear that God, always glorifying His own people even after their end,

^A works miracles and wonders at their tombs and the places where they rest, so that those who are ever living, and even those of a later age, having a pledge of that most excellent manner of life, may finish their own course of life. In like manner also, Elijah, the guide of this prophet, after the fiery horses and the chariot of fire, began to live in another life, and departing from among men to the place he had attained, he left behind as a sufficient token of his power his mantle. Yet how much was that thing worth? For it was nothing else than dead skin, useless from long wear and age. Nevertheless, even the Jordan ^B recoiled from it, and the water was divided and stood distinct, just as in the olden time under Jesus, who was a type of the one to come. Though being absent, the Thesbite was present, and the philosopher’s garment caressed the disciple, as the mercy of God granted a safe crossing of the river, honoring the clothes of the saints as if they were alive. And so that it might be clearly manifest that the miracle at the river did not come to pass because of the merit of the one striking the water, but for the honor of him who had departed and been taken up, when Elisha struck the water, it flowed according to its custom, and nothing new happened to it. But when, after the failed attempt, he cried out, "Where is the God of Elijah?" and having shouted, he struck it a second time, immediately the river divided its stream, showed the dry land bare, and the prophet, having moved on foot, arrived at the other side.

Joseph, meanwhile, honoring the patriarch of the nation and the head of the race, not so much loving his deceased father with a particular affection ^C as honoring him, brought his remains out of Egypt with such celebrated devotion that Moses, along with the story of the creation of the world and the rest of history, thought this narrative also should be delivered to the world and committed to the monuments of literature. But Pharaoh, on the very eve of the departure, as one might say, lost Joseph when he was spirited away from the eyes of Israel. Yet the body was everywhere present as a companion to the people, and it was carried with much care as a good and protective charm, a safe defense for the six hundred thousand. And they held as much reverence for the urn of their forefather as they did for the holy ark which carried the law of God. Therefore, David also, when ^D praying in a certain place for God to be propitious and favorable to the people, and beseeching Him with myriad supplications to halt the continuous and overlapping blows of calamities, and to govern Jerusalem with good providence once again as it was governed before, says: "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou who leadest Joseph like a sheep." For he seeks to turn God by bringing forward the names of those who are most beloved and are His friends, and he handles the petition quite skillfully, as if hiding and covering the sins of the irreverent multitude with the invocations of the holy Fathers.

^A The discourse concerning those saved at Sodom suggests the same understanding to us. For Abraham, interceding for the Sodomites at the time when God, being indignant with them, was bringing the punishment He had foretold, requested that the entire population be saved through his regard for the righteous. Beginning from fifty, he concluded at ten; and God at once assented to his petition, as if balancing on a scale and weighing against the myriads of sinners that group of ten righteous men.

And in order to demonstrate to us all even more clearly that even a single righteous man is a precious thing and dear to God, when that tenth count failed—and the multitude of sinners was found to be lacking even this small number of holy people, and it was necessary for those who had transgressed to pay the penalty for their insolence—Lot alone is snatched with violence from the places condemned to the curse, and is saved with his whole family, having received from God a reward for his righteousness, namely the salvation of all his household.

Great, then, is the value of a righteous man: first, as he benefits himself, then because he exists as an inexhaustible treasure for the whole race in succession—unknown in appearance, yet nevertheless always present and instructing others by his deeds; he is long dead, yet lives through the fame of his glorious acts. He is a good and inviolable inheritance for his children, which time cannot consume nor a thief steal; for it is incorporeal and immaterial, dwelling in ^B incorporeal souls.

Do you see how even those glorious and renowned Israelites, although despoiled of everything and having lost their very native land, were not stripped of that noble calling, nor were they divested of being called after their God-loving progenitor? But even while enslaved to barbarians, they were liberated through the righteousness of their fathers; and living in the desert, they were nourished on account of the excellence of those who begat them. And though they sinned continually, and often opened their mouths in blasphemy, and were judged worthy of the destructive punishment, they were nonetheless counted worthy of mercy for the sake of Abraham, and obtained forgiveness on account of Israel; the stubborn-hearted children were saved by the merits of their fathers.

And you surely know, O lover of learning, how in the beginning, when God was calling Moses from the tending of sheep to the leadership ^C of the nations, He immediately says this to His servant: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And proceeding a little further in His discourse, He adds this: "Gather the elders of the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: The Lord God of your fathers has appeared to me, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Thus, from the outset, God marks the descendants with the names of their righteous fathers as if with a seal, knowing well that it is good and beneficial for them to be recognized by those who came before.

But as time went on, when the people rushed into insult against their benefactor and into scorn for the Savior, and stumbled by the fashioning of the calf, and worshipped a soulless skull—the animate and rational sense

^A lost. Not having Moses at that time to appease the Master on behalf of the disciples, that much-toiling pedagogue took refuge in the remembrance of the fathers, and together with them presented his petition. For he says thus: "Be appeased regarding the wickedness of the people, remembering Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, thy servants, to whom thou hast sworn by thyself, that their seed should be multiplied as the stars of heaven." Great was the wrath, and the rage inexorable; but the wise and resourceful intercessor, putting on the personas of the holy ones, and having brought before God the many intercessions of those elders through his remembrance ^B extinguished the punishment like a flame, healing the wounds of the maddened sons with the oil of the fathers.

Having left the Mosaic book, pass on to the scrolls of Kings. For there, too, you will see a son obtaining indulgence, because he was the offspring of a God-loving and pious father. This is that renowned Solomon; for since, as time went on, he was not the master of his passions, but rather their slave, and, through neglect of life, became most incontinent in luxury, he exchanged also his paternal piety and religion, fashioning idols—the stumbling-blocks of the law. God said to him: "Tearing, I will tear thy kingdom, and I will give it to thy servant; yet in thy days I will not do these things, for the sake of David thy father; from the hand of thy son I will take it away." ^C This the history teaches us; but the song of the Psalms also teaches the same things: "I was younger, and indeed I have grown old; and I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread."

But, as it seems, when a soul has once presumed to act boldly against the truth, and exists in such a state that, in place of life, it insanely thinks to scheme something new, there is nothing capable of turning it back to the straight and orderly path; but, biting the bit, like some ill-tempered colt, it rushes toward the abyss, having overcome the rider—the mind—with the impulse toward wickedness; just as one can also see these Eunomians. For so they prefer to be called rather than "Christ's men"; blaspheming God, dishonoring God's men, and ^D more averse to the places where the saints rest than sober men are to altars, and profane, and polluted places of demons. Yet it was fitting that those zealots of such madness, who reckon audacity against all things as virtue, should at least have felt shame at the voices of the demons, who loudly and clearly proclaim the power of the martyrs, and call each one by name, as though he were present, driving away and putting to flight [the demons] from those oppressed by them. Whether one wishes to attribute these accomplishments against unclean spirits to the armies of the athletes of piety, or to the angels who sit by the holy shrines in honor of those who have been granted rest, it makes no difference; for whichever way it is said, it is to the glory of those who have died for the sake of the love of Christ. Furthermore, the benefactions of the martyrs are shown to be manifest day by day, and others still [too numerous to mention] ...

and different ^A are the benefits of the martyrs, by which those who are evilly vexed by Satan are liberated. For those who recently barked like dogs, and were once held by inexplicable maladies of fury, are now seen to be sober and sane, and by their very actions they provide to all beholders a tested confidence and power in the intercession of the martyrs. For even as the indubitable proofs of the power of our Savior used to walk about in the midst of the people of the Hebrews, when those who had been cleansed of leprosy, and those whose eyes the blind had been healed, and if any paralytic with strengthened physical cohesion walked without impediment; so also now, those who have carried the cross on behalf of the Crucified Savior provide clear proofs of the grace which they have received from the Lord, healing the ailments of their fellow servants in varied and different ways. And indeed Paul and Peter—the former having cast out the spirit of Python, and the latter having raised up that lame man lying ^B in the vestibule of the temple—by the power of such miracles converted Hebrews and Gentiles to the obedience of the Gospel: but the wicked array of heretics, who are currently troubling our life evilly, does not even revere the martyrs because of the excellence of these things and these miracles; rather, they call their cemeteries, with a hollow and profane voice, “common sepulchers,” and they detest the very vestibules as though they were polluted and infected, nor do they remember that divine oracle celebrated by the mouth of all: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” Let us therefore pray to God; but let us also beseech the martyrs to entreat our common Lord, that a spirit of compunction may be given to those who are driven by heretical error, and that, ^C with discord dissolved like some partition wall or hedge, we may all come together in brotherly unity, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom befits glory unto the ages. Amen.

Enarratio in the martyrdom of the most renowned martyr Euphemia

XI.

Recently, O men, I had in my hands Demosthenes, that excellent orator, and that oration of Demosthenes in which he attacks Aeschines with bitter enthymemes. Since I had spent a long time at the discourse and my mind was congested, I had need of relaxation and a walk, so that the soul’s suffering might be relieved a little. Having gone out from the house, and having walked a little with friends in the market-place, I arrived ^D thence at the enclosure of God to pray at my leisure. And as…

I had achieved this, while I was walking along the covered colonnades, I saw there a certain painting, and the sight took hold of me completely. You would have said it was the artifice of Euphranor, or of one of those ancients who raised the art of painting to a great height, producing images that lacked almost nothing of being alive. Come now, if you wish (for I have leisure now for the story), I will describe the painting to you. For the children of the Muses have no worse pigments than do the painters.

A certain holy woman, an inviolate virgin, dedicated her chastity to God; they call her Euphemia. When a tyrant was once persecuting pious men and Christians, she most gladly chose the hazard of death. The citizens, and her companions in the religion for which she died, admiring the virgin as being both courageous and holy, built a tomb near the temple and, having deposited the coffin, pay her public honors, making the annual day of her contest a joyful celebration for the whole gathered people. Now the interpreters of the sacred mysteries of God honor her memory with constant discourse, and diligently teach the gathered crowds how she completed the contest of her endurance. But the painter, also being a pious man, himself studying through his art to the best of his ability, has depicted the whole history on a linen cloth, and has hung the sacred image there for a spectacle near the tomb. This is how the exquisite work appears:

The judge sits on a high throne, looking upon the virgin ^C with an acerbic and hostile countenance. For art indeed feels anger in inanimate matter too, when it so pleases. Moreover, there are present magistrates, satellites, and many soldiers. Some, the court officials, carry tablets and styluses; one of these, withdrawing his hand from the wax, looks intensely at the virgin standing in court, turning his whole face, as if ordering her to speak more clearly, so that as he listens, he may not, due to difficulty, record errors and things worthy of reprehension. But the virgin stands in a dark-colored tunic and a cloak, signifying philosophy; in the view of the painter, she is lovely in countenance, but as I think, having a soul adorned with virtues. Two soldiers lead her to the governor; one indeed pulling her from the front, and the other urging her from behind. Furthermore, the virgin's demeanor shines with a mixture of modesty ^D and constancy. She indeed bows her head and casts down her eyes, as if blushing at the gaze of men.

steeped in blush, yet she stands undaunted, suffering nothing fearful in the face of the struggle. ^A For as I was lately praising other painters—when I beheld the drama of that Colchian woman, how, as she was about to bring the sword upon her children, she divided her face between pity and rage, and one eye revealed anger while the other declared the mother, sparing and shuddering—so now, wonder of wonders, I have turned my thought away from that depiction to this one. And I truly admire the craftsman, for he has mingled character even more than colors, blending together both modesty and fortitude—affections naturally contrary to one another—and tempering them most excellently.

As the imitation progresses, certain executioners, naked in light tunics, were already intent upon the work; and one, having seized her head and bent it backward, offered the virgin’s face to the other, exposed for punishment; while the other, standing by, was knocking out her teeth. A hammer and a drill appear as the tools of the torture. At this point, I am dissolved in tears, and emotion cuts short my speech. For the painter has dabbed the drops of blood so vividly that you would say they are truly flowing from her lips, and you would depart lamenting. Then there is the prison, and again the chaste virgin, sitting alone in dark garments, stretching both her hands toward heaven, and calling upon God as a helper in her afflictions. ^B And as she prays, the sign appears above her head—the very one which Christians are accustomed to adore and to depict—a symbol, I think, of the passion which awaited her. Straightway, then, and after a little, the painter has kindled a fierce fire in another place, thickening the flame with a glowing crimson color on this side and that. And he places the virgin in the midst, her hands indeed spread toward heaven, yet her countenance manifesting no sadness, but rather rejoicing, as if migrating to an incorporeal and blessed life. Until this point the painter stayed his hand, and I my speech. But it is time for you, if you wish, to complete the painting yourself, so that you may fully perceive whether we have been far unequal to the task of describing it.

XII. Laudation of holy Protomartyr Stephen.

How truly holy and beautiful is this cycle of things that gladden us! For one feast succeeds another, ^D and we are called from prayer to prayer, and the Lord’s Theophany is followed by the...

^A honor of the servant. Whether one looks to the birth of Him who was born yesterday in the flesh, yet who exists forever according to His divinity, or to that martyrdom which the noble servant endured today, one will find many and various things, but all directed to one goal: that we may learn piety. Yesterday, indeed, as the customary annual festival returned, we learned that the Savior of the world was born, and that He who is without flesh clothed Himself in flesh, and He who is incorporeal put on a body; then, that for our sake He accepted sufferings and was exalted upon the tree, for no other reason than to provide for our salvation. But today we see the noble athlete being stoned for His sake, so that with his blood he might repay the debt of gratitude for the blood ^B shed for him.

Stephen, therefore, the gatherer of this joyful assembly, himself summoned us to the commerce of this present gladness, and drew us here; he it is who gathered together the whole city as one assembly, and compelled it: he, the firstfruits of the martyrs, the tutor and teacher of labors for Christ, the foundation of the good confession, and the very first beginnings. For before Stephen, no one had poured out blood for the Gospel. But just as that fratricide Cain, as the history of Moses teaches me 7, committed fratricide (for, taking up strife in place of natural friendship, he was the first to pollute the earth with murder), so too Stephen, the thrice-blessed, was the first ^C to make the earth holy with his own blood through his pious contests; a man second in the time of the apostles, but first in noble deeds. And do not be angry with me, Peter; do not be vexed, James; do not take it amiss, John, if I not only compare the man with your philosophy, but even seem to attribute something greater to him: rather, rejoice and take it gladly. For you are fathers, whom no gall of envy can incite, and you rejoice in the glorious deeds of your sons, and it is a delight to you to be surpassed in virtue by your children. For if anything good and noble has been done by Stephen, it is altogether yours, who instructed him ^D and initiated him into the sacred disciplines. For the integrity of athletes redounds to the glorious fame of the trainers. Therefore, having begged a little indulgence from you, I will speak freely, so far as the subject provides me with grounds, of the pious contest of the man who struggled for the sake of Christ.

You are older than the other disciples, holy Peter, and you were the first of all to announce Jesus Christ. But even while you yourself were preaching the evangelical word, and moving from city to city, and from province to province,

^A you entered the stadium and seized the crown of the contests, passed into heaven and were glorified; while he to whom you belonged was still moving upon the earth; and—what is greater—while the Father and the Son themselves were calling you through that wonderful vision. Thus, too, with Peter; and let what has been said suffice. For it is presumptuous to contend with the Fathers for precedence, and to begrudge them the prerogative of honor. But let us look also at your deeds, O James, brother of John. You exist as a herald of Christ, a second catch after Peter. And who would not admire your faith? For you were only called, and without any delay you obeyed. Together with the boat, you left behind even your father Zebedee, and followed Christ as a true and genuine disciple. You suffered for piety with a ready mind, I confess; for Herod the tyrant did away with you by the sword, yet many years after the death of Stephen. But why do I name each of them individually, when he took away the prize of martyrdom from all the saints together, being the first to draw up battle lines against the devil, and the first to win, imitating David, even if through a reversal of the deed? David conquered Goliath with stones, and Stephen conquered the devil also with stones; but the former, with those he cast; the latter, with those by which he was cast at. But we, the people of Christ, as the army of Israel did then, let us lift up our voice and celebrate the victory, as if seeing him present, and admiring him as he stands before us.

^B For every champion of piety is indeed worthy of praise, even if he comes second or third to those who have struggled beforehand; yet not with such admiration or such praise as the first. For the second is moved to imitation by the zeal of the one who preceded him, and is thus stirred to apply his soul to the struggle; but the other used no prior guide, and being himself the inventor of the good, he deservedly holds the place of precedence. Great, therefore, is the alacrity of this man; great, therefore, is also the honor, and the immortal memory, which neither forgetfulness has covered nor time has darkened; but rather, generation after generation has received the stories by succession. This feast we celebrate without fail: priests, peoples, children, men, and women. But we must also examine the history itself, so that, being brought to the very marrow of the events, we may admire the man even more.

^D Stephen was the first of the deacons under Christ, sanctified by grace, a vessel filled with the Spirit, strengthening the household every day and turning back those who were wandering to the straight path. But since he held to the teaching more intensely than the rest of the apostles, he caused greater annoyance to the enemies; and before them, to the devil, who is the first enemy. For he fixes fiery eyes upon them, and with a savage gaze, upon those who have more [devoted themselves to piety]. Therefore, he stirred up a certain [host] against him.

namely, the Alexandrian race—toward every sudden sedition. Indeed, you have heard how the citizens of that city rush headlong and boil over with the keen ardor of audacity, wherever their spirit rashly carries them. But when he saw the crowd flowing toward him, being placed in a tight spot, he was in doubt as to what he ought to do then; nevertheless, he devised a clever artifice: a sweet and gentle speech. For nothing is more effective for calming the motions of anger than a mild and harmonious admonition. "Tell me, I pray," he says, "the cause of your hatred, and on whose account you stretch out your hands, and are clearly seen as if about to tear me to pieces." But as they replied that he was overthrowing the ancestral laws and was a teacher of strange doctrines, standing in the middle, the blessed man, an unstudied and extemporaneous orator (for he did not speak what he had learned by the method of art, but what he was inspired to speak by the Spirit), said:

"Men, brothers, and fathers, hear." A wise preamble, the best beginning for an orator speaking to a people boiling with rage. For smooth and mild words, as though filled with some honey or sprinkled with soft oil, were restraining those burning, beastly impulses. Then he brings Abraham to mind, so that, beginning from ancient times and extending his speech for a long while, by that great interval of digression, he ^B might secretly and gradually exhaust that agitated and poured-out fury. But when that long circuit of his discourse was finished, he shows that Moses also foretold Christ, so that, through the authority of the lawgiver himself, as if creeping in, he might covertly insinuate the word of faith. And he spoke all those things skillfully which contributed to the profit of his hearers. But when he saw their malice unyielding and their resolve unsoftened, then at length, filled with boldness and having renounced this present life, and having abandoned every artifice that could gently soothe and conciliate minds, with no circumlocution of words, he openly called them stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart, opponents of the law, who resisted the Holy Spirit, and addressed them with other such names. And immediately, not unlike the Lord, many dogs and fat bulls, as is sung in the Psalms, surrounded the just man. ^C But he stood alone, surrounded on every side by the crowd of murderers. And there was no one at that hour near him, neither friend, nor acquaintance, nor kinsman. For it is a certain consolation and relief for those placed in danger to see some of their acquaintances standing by from nearby.

But the most high arbiter and judge of that great struggle, perceiving a helper was necessary for Stephen (for although he was most courageous, he was nevertheless affected by human feelings), immediately appears to him; and to him gazing intently toward heaven, he shows the Son standing at the right hand of God ^D

^A O the philanthropy! O the goodness! He appeared to the athlete for whom he was struggling; and the God of all things spoke to him in a voice almost like this: "Do not suffer any ignoble thought, O Stephen. You have no human ally, and none of your friends is present with you in this time of distress; but I, with the Beloved, look upon what is happening. Rest is ready, the gates of paradise are flung open. Endure a little while, leave this fleeting life, and hasten toward the life that is eternal and without end. While still abiding in the flesh, you see God—a thing surpassing the powers of all worldly nature. You were instructed by the elder apostles that the Father has a true and beloved Son. Behold, I myself now reveal Him to you, as much as you are able to bear. And the Son stands by me at the right hand, so that from the position itself you may recognize the honor. ^B It was a scandal to many in the past if God were to be clothed in flesh and walk upon the earth; but see Him now on high with me, heavenly and higher than the heavens, bearing the form of man in confirmation of the dispensation that has been accomplished. Because of this, as you are being stoned, do not be troubled, do not grow faint. Gazing upon the Arbiter of the contest, do not fear the struggle. Dismiss the body, despising it as an earthly bond, as a crumbling house, as a potter's vessel that is easily broken. Hasten as one free to the inheritance here; for the crown of noble conduct is ready for you. Depart from the earth to heaven. Leave the body to the murderers, as food for dogs. Leave the raging mob, and come to the choir of angels."

With this resolve, God appeared to the steadfast man so that he might not suffer any cowardly thought and have his great zeal dissolved by the magnitude of fear. ^C For this reason, He did not send an angel to assist him, as He did for the apostles in the prison, nor any ministering power or fellow-servant; but He manifested Himself. For these were the first fruits of martyrdom, and it was necessary that the first work be completed so that the martyrs of future times, who were to be built up afterward, might receive a strong foundation for their zeal and not become imitators of cowardice—which is exactly what happens in common wars. For one soldier, acting as the front-line champion, provides the inspiration for the work; if he is victorious and acts manfully, he emboldens and strengthens all his own men, and terrifies and casts down his adversaries. But if he is weak and, having suffered some harm, immediately breaks and gives way to fear, he fills the souls of his comrades with dismay ^D and becomes a signal for flight. For these reasons, God appeared from heaven.

Stephen, deemed worthy of this great vision, the likes of which no other has received, did not keep silent about what he had seen but immediately cried out, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

^A He thought that, by declaring the vision, he would draw the unbelievers to agreement. But they, taking what was said as an incitement to greater wrath and rage, and stopping their ears against his words as if they were blasphemous, immediately girded themselves for the slaughter. They dragged the Christ-bearing man outside the city—he who bore his patience just as the Lord bore/his cross—and they treat evil with evil, attempting to drive away the crime of murder with another murder, adding stones to the cross. After they had stood the thrice-blessed man in a level place—that tall body, that lofty trophy of the martyrs—and the crowd, bloodthirsty and wrathful, had surrounded him on all sides, imitating what is called in battle an encirclement/aggression, they assailed with stones the deacon of the cornerstone. Every Hebrew hand was working for the slaughter, and the martyr was the target of those throwing, standing in the midst like a target for an archer.

When the body, bruised ^B and battered on every side and bloodied, was eventually failing, so that it could no longer stand upright on its feet; and was shaking and threatening to fall, just like a lofty plane tree which many woodcutters have struck—yet, unlike the many, he did not fall in a disgraceful tumble. For he was not stretched out prone, nor did he fall onto his side, nor did he collapse into a supine position; but, placing his knees in the decorous attitude of one praying, he departed from life; urging and insisting by his prayer that his soul be separated from the flesh as quickly as possible, and crying out to the Lord he beheld: "Lord Jesus Christ, receive my spirit." For he was hastening as if to a certain colony, as if from a foreign land to his fatherland; as if he were journeying to a brilliant city from ^C an arid and desert land, covered in horrible squalor. To his supplication he added also a prayer for his persecutors. For they were bestowing grace against their will; as they pelted him with stones they were authors of salvation, and as they killed him they were procuring life: and, separating him from the mud, they were sending him forth to the kingdom.

Let us, therefore, also contemplate this expression of the prayer, to what goal it truly aims: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." He does not pray, as some who reason perversely imagine, that the sin of his enemies should go unpunished and unaccountable, and liable to no reason or penalty. For clearly that would be to struggle against the divine ordinance ^D and to amend the judgment and law of the Just One, which prescribes the merited penalties for murderers. But what does he say? "Lord, do not hold this sin against them"; that is to say: Infuse in them the fear of compunction; bring them to repentance for what they have rashly dared; do not, I beseech you, permit them to die in their circumcision; draw them, through repentance, to the knowledge of you.

^A Kindle in their hearts the flame of the Spirit. For if they should thus be improved, it is clear that then you will not lay this sin to their charge; but, washed by the laver of grace and by my blood, they shall be free and immune from their crimes. This was the event, and thus the drama reached its conclusion. The armies of the angels were rejoicing, admiring the struggle, and with a great retinue conveying Stephen to his own inheritance; while the devil departed empty-handed, dreadfully perplexed. But—that I may say something even more physical regarding that aerial spirit—imitating the prophetic manner of speaking, with a blackened face, as a scorched pot, he turned away his path: both because the matter had unexpectedly turned out for the better, and because by the very arts with which he thought he would diminish the Christians, he had increased the list of the martyrs. ^B

What, then, shall I also say regarding the holy Paul? For he too was one of the slayers, a true Benjamin, a ravening wolf. For even if he himself was not casting stones, he was guarding the garments of those who were, and acted as a minister to the public executioner. Nevertheless, I shall see you shortly—you who are now swelling and breathing savage anger—like some weak, frail old woman being led by the hand, when you are about to be conducted toward Ananias, having tasted the truth. And I shall laugh with great joy when I hear you yourself recounting your afflictions for the sake of the Gospel, and among other dangers saying: "Once I was stoned." For it is fitting that you should offer a defense for the stones by means of stones, and by the same suffering wash away the crime of sin. ^C

It is worthwhile, moreover, to leave neither the vision of Stephen unexamined. For the God of all, always taking thought for what follows, prepares the remedy prophylactically for human sins that are about to occur; and this is what he has done here. For if the divine apparition were done solely for the benefit of the athlete, a voice from the heavens would have sufficed, just as it did beforehand at the baptism, or at a later time at the Transfiguration, or even as it happened to this Paul when he was traveling the road to Damascus. But now, for other reasons as well as because of the evil from Libya, Sabellius, who was destined to infest the Churches of God and bring the heterodox confusion of the hypostases into the world: for this reason God, as if forestalling the future and securing beforehand the souls of those who would come after, reveals himself to Stephen in his own proper and perfect glory; he also reveals the Son in a fully formed person, and stations him at his own right hand, so that by the clear distinction of the persons he might explain the hypostases. ^D

And perhaps someone will say: "The things regarding the Father and the Son have been philosophized by you in this way; but where is the Holy Spirit?" For if, for the sake of the security of the faith...

should be understood that the Father appeared from heaven with the Son, and it also seemed appropriate that the Holy Spirit should be present with them, so that a certain practical mystagogy might be accomplished for humanity ^A through the vision. It is necessary, therefore, to state our opinion in response to the one who raises this objection against us, that—oh, most wise one—he who examines and sifts through recorded works must possess a mind that is at once sound and a memory that is vigorous, so that he may be able to grasp together all that has been written. For if you seek the presence of the Holy Spirit, recall what was said a little earlier, before the discussion of the stones and the murder, and you will find the Holy Spirit speaking before the vision itself, present with Stephen, and preparing and equipping the athlete. For immediately at the beginning of the narrative, it proclaimed this voice to us: "Stephen, full of grace ^B and truth, and power, performed signs and great wonders among the people. And there arose some from the synagogue which was called the Freedmen’s, and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen; and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke." Do you see, therefore, how the Holy Scripture has set before us the person of the Holy Spirit distinctly and clearly? But although it described the Holy Spirit first, and then the Father and the Son, the inversion of the order does not harm the faith. For this is the custom of the Holy Scripture. Sometimes it is accustomed to name only the Son; ^C sometimes the Spirit with the Son; and at other times to begin from the Father and end in the Spirit; and conversely, having made a beginning from the Spirit, to lead the discourse through the Son to the Father. And this characteristic of expression is permitted to be seen observed without any distinction, especially in the great Paul. As for our duty, we have fulfilled what we owed to Stephen—not, indeed, according to his merit, if the magnitude of the subject is considered, but according to the faculty of speech, abundantly. To our God be glory, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

XIII. Exhortation to Penitence

A Pharisee, as we have just heard from the writing of Luke, invites the Lord to a banquet, leads Him into his house, and sets common food before Him. The Lord, however, being invited, does not disdain to come, nor does He reject him who invites Him, even though he is neither a disciple nor a believer, but is bound to the letter of the Law, has never yet opened his eyes to the knowledge of the truth, and is heavily clouded regarding the promises of the prophets. Why, then, did Luke record this chapter for us? Was it for the reason that we might know those things which Christ did while He dwelt in the body; and that, from the knowledge of this history filled with useful instruction, these writings might school us to order our life rightly and firmly? Thus I, indeed,

^A know it to be, and it is fitting that you should be persuaded. For many are they who justify themselves, self-loving and self-complacent, swollen and puffed up by empty conceit, calling those who draw near to them sinners; and before the true judgment comes, they separate themselves as sheep from the goats, and, looking upon the gates of the kingdom as opened for them, they do not deign to share with the multitude either a roof or food; and they loathe all who walk not the highest, but the middle path of life.

Luke, therefore—a physician of souls more than of bodies—wrote the narrative now before us; it is not merely a discourse, but a medicine for those sick with pride, showing forth our very God and Savior, who is incomparably pure and alone just, consorting most ^B compassionately with the condemned, and dwelling with those who are not yet purified: not that He might contract any of their wickedness, but that He might impart His own righteousness, according to this solar energy that is visible to us (as far as one can, from a creature, present the providence of the Creator). For we know, indeed, that the sun illuminates not only the plains, but also those regions that are deeper and situated in caves and caverns. Let us, then, put aside pride, if there be any of us such as he whom this discourse describes; and let us imitate the mercy and philanthropy of the Lord, so embracing the humble and the afflicted, not that we might be brought low by lying there with them, but that we might lift them up; as certain skilled divers, pulling those who are submerged up toward this vital air.

^C Since the Gospel writing guides us toward the best understanding, come, let us direct our mind’s eye toward the goal that has presented itself. I marvel greatly at those who, while encompassed by this flesh that is subject to passions and lovers of pleasure, and overcome daily by sleep and the belly—nor are they devoid of other irritations, of all those things familiar to us all who share in one and the same nature—are nevertheless harsh judges of the sinning and lenient toward themselves. They are weak contestants and inexorable lawgivers; so much so that they destroy the hope of God's philanthropy, and, as they think, block the ^D abundant fountain of mercy, and with great authority shut out the entrance to the kingdom from the erring. This is nothing else than to cause despair to souls seeking healing. For he who has despaired of his cure becomes a slave to the disease once and for all; and he is alienated from the promise of all our Scriptures—for it is not to be found there that, for one who examines with understanding, grace is not given or forgiveness does not heal. And who is so unmindful and deaf to the words of Job, who expressly declares

^A to all, that "No one is clean from filth, not even one day is his life upon the earth"? And who, being of a sound mind, would judge himself so highly that, being subject to accounts and those before the judgment seat of God, he would consider forgiveness useless and mercy unnecessary?

But even if they had attained the highest pinnacle of justice and precision, and had truly trodden, according to what is written, upon serpents and scorpions, and had been proclaimed victors and crowned as conquerors over sin, not even then should they regulate and examine the life of all others by the rule of their own fortitude. Rather, they should acknowledge the grace to the God who gave it, for it is He who guided their nature ^B towards leadership, and because they did not become inferior to the temptations of Satan; they should instead reach out the right hand of philanthropy to those who have become weak, and raise them up from the mire, and cleanse them from their pollutions. For thus they would have earned a two-fold praise, receiving the rewards of their own virtuous deeds simultaneously with those of brotherly and kind sympathy.

But now, being men who grovel upon the ground, and living a life not like the angelic and incorporeal spirits, but one such as might be brought under judgment and criticized, they render themselves severe and bitter judges, and with a knit brow deliver sentence and condemn; so that I, often choked by their pride and arrogance, am compelled to address to them the words of the Gospel, saying ^C that, since you do not see the beams in your own eyes, you blow the specks from the eyes of others. Binding heavy burdens for others to carry, you walk about as harsh judges and weak burden-bearers, forestalling the judgment seat of Christ, and snatching away the sentence of the Judge; you are rebellious servants, and unforgiving judges of your fellow servants.

If you desire to imitate God, as those who have been created in His image, imitate your archetype. You, O Christians, who profess humanity in your very name, imitate the charity of Christ. Consider the riches of His kindness, who, being about to appear to men through man, sent forth John as a herald of penance and a leader, and before John, all the prophets, as teachers of repentance to men. Then, having appeared a little later Himself, He cries out personally with His own voice: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you." And how did He welcome ^D those who were persuaded by His call? He granted an easy remission of sins, a swift and rapid deliverance from the things that afflicted them. The Word sanctified, the Spirit sealed; the old man was buried, the new was born, flourishing by grace. What follows thereafter? The man is made kin instead of a stranger, a son instead of an alien, a mystic instead of one profane, holy instead of unholy.

^A If, then, he who has been enriched with such magnificent and insurmountable gifts sins against the generous and good benefactor, he would, by you—severe and implacable judges—be instantly condemned without a hearing, led to his destruction, cut off from the life of the present, and punished in the one to come. But since the Lord of the judgment is different—He who shows mercy to thousands and tens of thousands, and who does not desire the death of the sinner, but waits for his repentance—those who have previously insulted grace are not punished in such a manner. Rather, a second mercy follows the first; oblivion is united with forgiveness; a shed tear is equivalent to the font; and a laborious sigh brings back the grace that had departed for a short while. If you do not believe this word, ask Peter, sitting in the house of the high priest, and he will tell you how, by bitterly weeping over the fault of his denial, he was cleansed. And he did not dissolve back into Simon, but Peter remained the apostle.

^B I believe, moreover, that even Judas Iscariot, if he had not quickly become his own executioner, regarding his sin as too grave to be forgiven, but had instead fallen down as a suppliant and asked for mercy, would not have failed to obtain that mercy which was poured out over the whole world. Evidence for this claim is provided by all the Hebrews who believed after the cross and cleansed their souls and hands alike with the washing. But if those who crucified Christ attained mercy, how would he who betrayed Him not have enjoyed amnesty? Paul once bound Christians; yet, having later borne chains for Christ, he dissolved his crimes through this same suffering. He sinned by stoning Stephen and consenting to his murderers, yet, being stoned himself, he wiped away the transgression. Matthew and Zacchaeus were once tax collectors, but, having trampled upon their tax-gathering through their contempt for ^C money, the one welcomed Jesus into his house—and even more so into his soul—while the other proved himself an evangelist and writer of wondrous deeds. One ought to keep in mind both the tax collector and the Pharisee, and the woman who lost the drachma and found it.

^D If one were to consider all the people of every age from the beginning to the end, he would find that the many were first entangled in sins, then later shifted their intent toward what is better. For it is proper to God alone, and exclusively His, to do all things rightly without any transgression. But man, being subject to birth and decay, and prone to so many passions, could never avoid being accused and condemned if the hope of forgiveness were taken away. Look at David the king of Israel, whom God chose by election and adorned with the praises of His testimony, saying: "I have found a man according to my heart, David the son of Jesse."

^A This man, after the brilliant testimony, since he was ensnared by the passion of intemperance and fell into those things which we all know, he came after the rebuke of the prophet to a reconsideration of his evil, and left written for those who would be in the future the toil of repentance. And we see, as in an image, in the Psalter, that toil: now wearing away the body with grief, again making the night a time for lamentation—the common rest of those who labor—and pouring forth tears from his eyelids as if from fountains, he irrigates his bed, and for us he elaborates the fiftieth psalm, in which the example of appeasing God through repentance is fashioned. Nor was his lamentation in vain; but his heavy groans pulled down mercy, and he recovered both the authority of royal dignity and the boldness of prayer toward God. In like manner also that king of the Ninevites who happened to reign, by the multitude of his sins was being driven toward destruction, together with the peoples over whom he ruled, and the rebuke of sin heralded that the term for punishment was drawing near ^B in a little while. But since they wisely afflicted themselves, they fled from the experience of the calamity, and the prophet was grieved because the things he had predicted did not come to pass, and he bore the compassion of God with an inequitable mind. But He, who everywhere indicates by both words and deeds how much benevolence He embraces mankind with, caused a gourd to spring up over his head, a shelter for the prophet from the vexing ray, but as he slept under the shade, He suddenly withered it. Then, as he felt ill-tempered after waking up regarding what had happened, he is rebuked and censured. If he was so emotionally distressed at the withered plant, would God not have been broken with compassion for a danger that had come so near to such a great city?

You, therefore, who are hard and implacable, imitate the kindness and clemency of Him who created us. Do not show yourselves to be bitter and heavy judges toward your fellow servants until He comes who will reveal the secrets of the hearts and who, by His masterly authority, will assign to each the condition of the life we await. Do not issue harsh sentences against others, lest you be subjected to the same sentences, and be pierced ^C by the words of your own mouths as by the sharpest teeth. For it seems to me that the evangelical prediction also happens to be a preventive of this transgression, saying: "Judge not, that you be not judged." For it does not cast out judgment and true discernment, but calls "judgment" the harsher condemnation. Make, therefore, if it pleases you, the weight light, if you wish not for your deeds to be weighed down toward the condemning scale, when our life shall be balanced in the scale of God's judgment. You who are clothed with a body and living in the flesh, beware lest you reject and despise the cure of the medical art; for although you may enjoy convenient health, you will not always be so free from every future disease that you will never be in need of the work of a physician. You have a soul inclined toward earthly and perishable things, so long as, having forgotten itself, it is filled with the body’s ^D

^A affections. Therefore, do not deny mercy, so that you yourself may not fail to find pardon when you desire it. If someone is a priest and has been allotted the duty of governing the people, let him be compassionate toward the falls of his subjects, knowing that even if the order of his life possesses a difference from the many, according to the nature of those he tends he is in no way different; and being a sharer in that same nature, perhaps he too may one day be a sharer in a transgression.

Seeing this, even Moses (for he was a man and understood the nature of man) ordained that a calf be sacrificed on behalf of the priest, as he too had certainly sinned and was in need of expiations, and indeed of many. But what the fleshly calf was then, that is what incorporeal repentance and the bloodless intercession are now; ^B and let us not, being puffed up and boasting of this, undermine the benefit, knowing that even Aaron, that most proven priest, was carried away by the people asking for gods, and along with his sister Mary was overcome by murmuring; and had the one against whom they murmured not prayed, he would not have escaped punishment. Another is not a priest but one of the many—let him fear imposing a heavy yoke. For if he who is appointed to purify the people is sometimes in need of purification, what would happen to him who does not even hold the power of ordination?

Let us imitate the pastoral care of the Master; let us gaze into the Gospels, and as in a mirror let us learn the form of his diligence and kindness. ^C For I see there, in parables and in veiled words, a man who is the shepherd of a hundred sheep; he, when one of his flock had separated from the fold and was wandering, did not remain with those who were grazing in order and without straying; but having rushed into the search, he traversed many valleys and ravines, was carried over great and high crags, and labored steadfastly in the wilderness until he found it. And having found it, he did not strike it, nor did he drive it fiercely, hurrying it toward the flock; but having placed it upon his shoulders and carried it with gentleness, he restored it to its fellow-pasturers, rejoicing more over that one than over the multitude of the others. ^D Let us, then, understand the matter hidden in these enigmas; for the sheep is not actually a sheep, and the shepherd is certainly something else—not a shepherd of irrational animals—but these are pedagogical indicators for priests, so that we may neither rashly despair of people nor be negligent when they are in danger. Let us seek out the one burdened by passion, and bring him back into order, and let us rejoice over those who turn back, and mingle them with the multitude of those living rightly.

To such a degree is it fitting for the priest to practice philanthropy instead of severity, that even if the Master commands that someone be cut down as a useless plant, he, like an orchard-keeper, must sue for mercy and a delay. For the mind presents this to us

as a reason for hope in his own diligence. Do not, therefore, perform the cutting down so readily, you who ought to be checking the amputation being ordered by the Lord, nor judge uselessness too hastily; but rather exert your diligence. Dig about the roots with rebukes; warm them like manure with exhortations; water them with the flow of teachings; fence them in with the protective injunctions as with a rampart. It is your role to appease the judge’s mind. Let us strive to be called by the same name as the Lord: for He is called the Comforter ^A while He renders the Father propitious to the human race. By this name, indeed, the Spirit of truth is also called, because of His zeal and benevolence toward us. These gifts of intercession and consolation, however, are undertaken entirely for sinners, not for those who are innocent and liable to no crimes. Priest, imitate the care and solicitude of Moses. Imitate his affection of soul toward the people: he, beseeching God that He might not be angered at the people who had sinned, and perceiving when the matter was being drawn out and what he was asking for was being refused, he begged that he might at least be allowed to depart first, so that he might not witness the destruction of those whom he had pastured and governed. But it is worth the effort to bring his very words to light: "I pray," he said, "the people have sinned a great sin, and they have made for themselves golden gods. And now, if You will forgive them their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out of the book which You have written." You see how he prefers the salvation of the multitude to his own, and asks to be blotted out if he does not succeed in obtaining forgiveness for the community? But those today who act more bitterly toward those who sin, drive away those who approach; they flee from those falling as suppliants; they turn their eyes away from those weeping, and keep themselves entirely turned away.

^B Why then did Luke, or rather the Holy Spirit, describe for me the prodigal son, who by his first departure brought ignominy upon his father, then, given over to pleasures and drunkenness and captivated by the love of women, squandered and exhausted all his paternal wealth? Yet after much time, when he had been sufficiently afflicted by toil, to the point of becoming a hired swineherd and sharing in the same food as the pigs, he returned at last to the paternal home having come to his senses; the father did not turn away, nor did he bar the doors against the returning son. But quite the contrary, he ran to meet him as he approached, and fell upon his neck, and shed tears with compassion on his collar; and he made him blessed again instead of wretched, clothing him in a noble garment, placing a ring on his hand, observing the day as a feast, and preparing a magnificent and splendid banquet. All these things take the form of a parable, reopening the Church as a paternal home, and receiving them kindly, so that they may not be companions at table with the pigs, that is, with the demons, but may become sons once again instead of strangers; so that

they may live according to the will of God as if by a father's judgment, and enjoy the company of holy men as brothers. Do not follow the judgment of the elder brother, nor be indignant at the father's kindness in receiving the most wicked son, who was a disgrace to the family. Rather, admire the goodness and clemency of God, and embrace and cherish those who are returning from error. For in this way you will be a guide to the blind and will show the way to those who are wandering. ^B

Sufficient has been said to those who are of a harsher temper and who practice severity rather than kindness and mercy, and there is no need for more. Now, however, attend to me, you who must return to the way and repent. If you wish to learn how you ought to grieve for your sins and groan for your errors, consider the sinful woman described for us by Luke at the present time. Emulate her humility and prudence, and set before yourselves a finished example of repentance in her. For when she had entered the house of the Pharisee, she was not ashamed before the multitude of the diners, nor did she consider the time of the banquet to be inopportune for fleeing to confession; but, gripped by sorrow and feeling a violent grief for the transgressions she had committed, she did not think that even the shortest moment of time should be delayed before she reached the physician of sins. Nor, however, did she supplicate when she came into his presence, but, thinking herself unworthy to address him by her manner, she occupied the space behind his back, and not standing simply, but having taken hold from behind the feet, and having loosened her hair, she revealed her mourning soul by her actions, and pouring her tears upon the feet of Jesus, she asked for mercy with great sympathy. And she poured out so much, that she even washed his feet and again wiped the moisture with her hair, showing all humble reverence. ^C And to speak briefly, the woman exercised repentance with all the senses and limbs with which she had sinned. Now, as to how much she detested her sins afterward at her leisure, those who consider how openly and publicly she mourned for them are able to infer. As for us, we promise repentance in words, but in deeds we show no zeal or labor; rather, we use the same manner of living that we used before we confessed and detested our sins. There is the same cheerfulness in our faces, the same splendor in our bodily adornment and way of life. We indulge in sleep to the point of satiety; by business and occupations we cast the forgetfulness of diligence upon the soul; we retain the name of repentance as merely empty and expressed by no deeds. We cut ourselves off from the mysteries and the communion of the secret sacraments, yet we exert no zeal or diligence to return to enjoy them; but we despise them as if they were cheap and could be redeemed at a small price. Consider, man, with what dignity you were already adorned, and of which you are now deprived. If you were a participant of a royal table, and then, having offended, you were cast out from that honor, for how much money would you buy back the ability to become a friend and com

companion of the King? Whose doors, imploring, hesitating, grieving, would you not frequent? You would surely consider life itself bitter to you, and would display your sorrow of soul through squalor, mourning, and the dejection of your countenance: in short, you would move every stone, as they say, so that you might free yourself from that calamity. But now, he who is separated from the friendship of God, and has fallen from that truly sublime dignity, what great and noteworthy thing does he perform to show the humility of an afflicted soul? It is not consistent for one who says he is sick to follow the same way of life as those who are healthy. For the diet of the sick person is one thing, and the life of the healthy person is another. ^A Do you see how great is the change in the healthy person, [perceived] from the change in the sick one, [as he is] aware of his condition? He lies in a small room, having departed from every habitual concern; he neglects farming, even though he was very interested in it before; he lets go of the care for wealth, the tradesman and merchant [that he is]. He is fed with water and a crust of bread, even if he previously was filled with luxury and used to be served a Sybaritic table; he does not take pleasure in his children as usual, having been separated from his wife; he spends his time with physicians night and day, and for many rewards he hastens toward the desired gain of health. These things are for the one who is sick in body. But you, whose soul is sick, while you travel around the incorporeal [healer], to the Physician, confessing and showing your illness, do you leave it to feed and fester, so that it may be spread to the whole bulk? But be sober, know thyself. You have offended God; you have angered your Creator, who has authority over the present life, and is Lord and Judge of the future one. Have you become sick from luxury? Heal the indulgence with fasting. Has licentiousness harmed the soul? Let temperance become the medicine for the ailment. Has covetousness produced a soul-consuming fever? Let it be dispelled by liberality and almsgiving. For truly the giving of what is filled is the purification of the mind. Has the seizing of others' ^B property harmed us? Let the plunder return to its own masters. Has a lie led us near to destruction (For you will destroy, he says, all those who speak a lie); let the danger be avoided by a zeal for truth. Has the violation of an oath raised the sublime sickle of the son of Zacharias flying through the air and threatening slaughter? Let us put on all the armor of repentance, so that we may ward off the edge of the sickle. Has anyone been impiously infected by the opinions of heretics? Let him purify himself through the correct decrees of the Church, and cast away the superstition. For what else is repentance, if not the dissolution and overturning of past things, which were committed either in action or in thought? He, however, who acknowledges the usefulness of repentance, but still wallows in the mire of lawlessness and impiety, is similar to that servant who, knowing his master is angry with him, [is] in his

of the master, while behaving wickedly before his eyes, and tripling the sin. ^A Be sensitive to the disease that surrounds you. Crush yourself as much as you can; seek also the mourning of like-minded brothers, who will assist you toward your freedom; show me your bitter and abundant tears, so that I may mingle mine with them; take the priest as a sharer in your affliction, as a father. For who is a father so falsely named, or of such hard and adamantine soul, that he would not grieve with his children who are in sorrow, or, on the other hand, rejoice with them when they are merry? A priest so grieves over the sin of one who is his spiritual son, just as Jacob mourned for Joseph in his bloodied robe; just as David grieved for the destruction of Absalom; just as Eli mourned for Hophni and Phinehas falling in the ranks of battle; just as Moses mourned for the people who had innovated the godless making of the calf. Before your physical fathers, ^B be warmed toward him who has begotten you in God; show him without shame what is hidden; uncover the unconquered depths of your soul, as one showing a hidden wound to a physician; he himself will take care of both the decency and the cure; for the shame of those who suffer touches their parents more deeply. For their glory belongs to those who have begotten them, and their shame likewise. Uncertain, brothers, is the limit of life. Let us forestall our departure with care. For it is absurd that those who, with calculation, take thought for the body, cleansing themselves of fluids before the rising of the so-called Dog Star, lest the fluid, having putrefied from the excessive ^C heat, should produce health-destroying corruption—that those who need care for their minds do not forestall the uncertainty of death and the heat of that punishing fire, which burns unceasingly and is never cooled. You possessed the evangelical drachma, and you were becoming rich with that currency; then, through sloth, you lost it. Light the lamp of repentance; stoop down carefully; seek the treasure that is hidden by earthly passions. Having found it, take it and save it, so that we, your neighbors, may rejoice with you with the joy that is in Christ. To whom belongs glory now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Homily XIV. On the Beginning of the Fasts

^D 14. An oration on the beginning of the fasts (61). Man is a composite animal, having all that he is from a visible body and a rational and incorporeal soul. But of these two things which we have just mentioned, their nature and dignity are not equal; but the one was created as an instrument, accustomed to be moved at the command of the governing soul; but the soul was destined to command, as the more excellent over the inferior. By the faculty of discernment received from the mind and reason, and having discovered the difference between the honorable and the contrary, it recognizes God as the creator and maker both of those things which are before our eyes and feet and are grasped by the senses,

^A as well as those inascertainable things which the mind, free from the body, forms and contemplates through thought. Furthermore, as it practices justice and virtue, things pleasing to God, it desires sacred instruction; and, obeying its laws and warnings, it removes itself as far as possible from carnal desires. It strives, moreover, to be conformed to that supreme Good, God, as much as is possible. This sacred philosophy itself is also occupied, for the most part and primarily, with that which they call temperance or continence; for since the mind here dwells without any perturbation, and suffers no admixture of filth that might come from the belly or elsewhere, it is free to devote itself to its own operation and the contemplation of heavenly things akin to itself.

Therefore, as many of you as are students of philosophy and lovers and disciples of the high word, love the present season and receive the holy Quadragesima with joy, as a mistress of temperance, a mother of virtue, a nurse of the children of God, an instructress of those living in disorder, a tranquility of souls, a constancy or good disposition of life, and a peace inviolate and imperturbable. ^B For its severity and gravity lull base desires, extinguish anger and commotions, and cool and restrain every storm that boils up from excessive eating. And just as in summer time, when the excessive heat of the sun presses upon the earth, the north wind, refreshing all things with gentle breezes, prevents them from being suffocated; so too does fasting dispel from our bodies the inflammation arising from superfluous food and drink.

And these are the benefits that fasting bestows upon the soul, nor are its merits for the body any less. It thins the coarseness of matter, destroys the bodily bulk, and relaxes the veins, which are in danger of bursting from a superabundance of blood, granting some space to the narrowness, lest there befall them what happens to conduits—into which, if more water is poured than they can hold, they are shattered because they cannot in any way bear that violent impulse. ^C The head has a peaceful and tranquil constitution, neither with throbbing arteries nor with the brain darkened by ascending vapors: the stomach now has its freedom through continence. For then it is liberated from its compulsory servitude, lest it boil like a cauldron, laboring under its digestions. The eyes see clearly and without any darkness, with all the mist that satiety usually casts over the eyes being removed; the movement of the feet and the operation of the hands are also both stable and without trembling. The breathing is ordered and reduced to moderation, since it is not being pressed from within by a turbulent spirit. ^D The speech of the fasting person is clear and distinct, his mind is pleasant; and then it truly approaches the divine likeness, when, as if in an incorporeal body, it performs its actions without any sadness or tumult. Sleep is pleasant and free from dreams and specters, and to pass over many things and speak briefly: fasting is a common peace for soul and body, a life without perturbation, a constant way of acting and conversing, a life that gladdens God, but sours the enemy. For just as the enemy, when he sees his opponent watch

^Afully and soberly, armed with care, and conducting himself sturdily and bravely, interprets this zeal and diligence as his own ruin; so too does the subverter of our salvation loathe every exercise of virtue as his own personal calamity.

Know, therefore, O man, that the house of the person who fasts has angels as guardians and constant attendants. But the house of him who, during the Forty Days, revels in pleasures, has demons as attendants—friends familiar with the scent of savory food, lovers of blood, and companions in drunkenness. For it is the way of spirits, whether holy or unclean, to attach themselves to their own friends and acquaintances, just as one may observe in the case of birds. For the dove frequents clean places and hovers over fields to gather seeds for itself and its chicks; and the turtledove sits pleasantly among the branches of trees, trilling something sweet and clear. But the raven, gluttonous ^Bby nature, perches near the butcher shops, croaking something burdensome and unpleasant at those who sell meat. Let us therefore love temperance, so that we may be loved by the angels; and let us hate wanton pleasure, so that we may not, along with it, be dragged into fellowship with demons. No one given to luxury has ever become diligent, nor has one who spends his time in feasting become a disciple of virtue; nor has a lover of pleasure become a saint, nor has one living according to the flesh ever become a partaker in the kingdom of heaven.

Retrace your memory to the origins of our race, and you will find that experience testifies to what we are criticizing. For the law of fasting would not have been given to us if the law of the first temperance had not been violated. Nor would the belly have been called a subverter if, under the pretext of pleasure, it had not introduced sin. There would have been no need for the plough, nor for oxen to plough, nor for the furrow being cut, nor for seeds, nor for water to irrigate, nor for the cycle of the seasons, nor for winter that constricts and condenses, nor for summer that loosens, nor for all this ^Ccyclical misery, had we not been condemned to this period of toil because of our first parent's premature pleasure. Rather, we would have enjoyed a different way of life, one far removed from this present one—a state we hope to attain once more, when we have shed this life, subject as it is to base affections, through the resurrection. For this is the benefit of God’s condescension toward us, that we might be restored to our ancient dignity; for having been made partakers of this grace through His philanthropy, we did not guard it carefully. Fasting is an image of the life to come, an imitation of the incorruptible state. There, there are neither heavy drinking bouts nor gluttonous feasts.

Leave the first man aside, and proceed onward to enumerate those who came after him. What brought ignominy upon the righteous Noah, when he was rendered naked in those members which nature commands to be covered? What caused the rash Ham ^Dto laugh at his father’s drunkenness, so that he prepared two evils through one transgression...

For a single drunkenness stripped both the father of his fitting covering and the son of his liberty. ^A Moreover, when I again turn my eyes toward Heli the priest, and fix my mind upon the history of his actions, I find a complete chain of calamities linked one to another, which took their origin from a single principle: namely, the belly and satiety. For the sons of Heli, seizing upon their father’s priesthood as an occasion for lust and luxury, profaned the sacrifices, and offered the first-fruits of the victims to their own bellies before they offered them to God. Fornication followed, the sister of luxury. But over all these things came the divine judgment, which brought with it a very severe and inexorable sentence; for on their account an enemy nation fought against Jerusalem. And ^B to shorten the account of these sorrowful narratives, those wanton youths fell in the battle-line; the fatherland was endangered together with the guilty, the Ark of God was taken and carried off by the enemies, and the old priest, worn out by the news of these evils, died. So great a swarm of evils was brought upon the city on account of the pleasure of gluttony. Let us all, therefore, fast. But those who are of the households of priests, and especially those who have an instructor in temperance dwelling with them and whose home it is, ought to hear its precepts; for it is absurd that the sons of money-changers should possess the skill of assaying silver, and the servants of blacksmiths should occupy themselves about the fire ^C and the anvil, while those who live with priests—whether they be kinsmen or in some other way adopted into the family—should stray from the goal to which the master and lord of the household must conform his own life.

Esau, the elder son of Isaac, was also harmed most grievously on account of the desire of the belly. For since his profession was that of a hunter, and once, after much fatigue, he returned home and was drawn by an insufferable hunger to the food set before him, he sold his birthright to his brother for red pottage. From this it also happened that he later was robbed of the paternal blessing, and thus, having been gradually alienated from virtue and from God, he lost the patriarchal glory. And being separated from intimacy with Israel, he became both a barbarian and a foreigner, ^D and produced from himself such a people.

This same disease also led the people of the Old Testament into the transgression of the divine laws. For when Moses was occupied in receiving and bringing down the law, they, having broken through all restraints, turned themselves to luxury and dancing; the devil, finding them so unsteady and trampling upon the honorable way of life, gradually drew them toward impiety. Hence then came the fashioning of the calf, the devilish cult, Aaron’s association in the sin, the corruption of the law, the breaking of the tablets, the second ascent of Moses onto the mountain, and all these things which the sacred history laments so tearfully: they took their beginning and cause from immoderate eating.

^A I wish also to set before you another narrative, later in time than the one previously mentioned, but equivalent in its action. King Saul was in the camp, and was managing the war with great anxiety. He forbade the people to partake of food on that day, sealing his judgment with an oath, and death was the penalty for anyone who disobeyed. When the whole army had obediently received the command, only Jonathan, the king’s son, coming upon a beehive and overcome by the sweetness of the honey, dipped his scepter into the honeycombs and tasted the sweetness. He came near to danger, had not the whole multitude by common consent withstood the impulse of the father and king, who was resolved to carry out his threatened punishment.

^B Besides these, it is possible to collect ten thousand such examples from the Scriptures, by which it may be clearly seen how great a good is temperance, and conversely, how grave an evil is the unrestrained enjoyment of drinks and foods. Fasting is the companion of the saints; fasting is the leader of every good work. And just as craftsmen do not perform their arts without tools, so even those who are diligent and assisted by spiritual graces have never performed any of the miracles and wonders without temperance. Fasting, Elisha raised the dead and restored him to life; fasting, Moses saw God; fasting, Daniel overcame the sorcery and deceit of the Assyrians; fasting, also, the Lord withstood the temptations of the devil; fasting, the apostles performed their prayers for important matters; fasting, the Ninevites escaped the threat of death. And, to speak generally, it is an intercessor before God; it is worthy of respect, and a reliable envoy, quickly persuading God on behalf of those for whom it offers the supplication. Therefore, every pious man, and whoever is a lover of God rather than a lover of pleasure, let him approach the days of temperance in good spirits and with joy. For no one who is sullen at the beginning of the contests is a noble athlete. Do not become sullen, like a child being dragged to school; do not complain about the purity of these days; do not seek the end of the week, as if waiting for the arrival of spring after a bitter winter; do not desire the Sabbath for the sake of drunkenness, like a Jew; do not count the days of Great Lent, like a lazy hireling awaiting the end of the term of his wages; do not be vexed that your house is not filled with smoke from the first hour, nor that the cook is standing by the fire.

^C Grant something also to the soul, and not everything to the body. Abstinence from food nourishes the former, but gluttony [nourishes] the latter. But since these two are yoked together, although they are far separated by nature, yet connected by the providence and art of the Creator, we ought to consider how both may fare, with neither—as far as its needs are concerned—being deprived of what is appropriate. You are composed of two parts, O man, and I will be silent for now about the fact that the soul is much more precious, and that it is proper to bestow upon it the greater share of favor. Judge between both, as a reasonable

^A and impartial judge. Wait a little while, and I, if you please, will set up a defense for the soul as for a faithful wife, regarding those things in which she justly complains that she is injured and outraged. The soul is therefore sacred and incorporeal, immortal and ignorant of destruction; it does not have its kinship with the earth and earthly things, but with God. Being pure, it delights in pure things, and since its origin lacks matter, it flees from things immersed in matter. However, after it was ordained by God that it should fashion and administer the vessel formed from earth, it, as an obedient servant, sits by the clay and keeps watch and maintains the providence ^B over it, until the command comes that allows for the separation. Therefore, for this soul, which gives life to the body, abstinence from food is beneficial, while for the earthly instrument, the enjoyment of food is necessary. It [the soul] asks for nothing more, as it is the superior. "Divide for me," it says, "the time of the year; give the six months to that which is being governed, and the remaining ones to the governor." A just petition; and there is no judge so addicted to the body and biased in the other direction as not to assent to these words.

But I will even use hyperbole, for I am not content with an equal division. I will condescend to the weakness of the body. Let the body have ten months and a little more. Let it grant me Lent, and truly the whole of it, that I may be freed for a little while from the mire, with the clay cooled through temperance. These, O Christians, are just demands, whether man or God judges. And you, O judge, for you have arrived at the right time, bear witness for the soul as it disputes against the body. Therefore, O Christian, slay the enticements of pleasures as being a childish thing. You are a man; do not think those things which are of infants. For those, if they do not receive honey, weep; if you do not offer them meat and wine, they fall down and gasp, as if about to exhale their soul. And by as much as they weep more, by so much the more ^C they afflict everyone with weariness. I blush when I behold the sadness of the gluttonous, and how they howl at the sight of abstinence; they yawn perpetually; they lie down for a little while; they stand up, and are forced to sleep again. They strive to pass the day without awareness; they are oppressed by the sun lingering towards setting. They call the days longer than usual. Moreover, they feign pains of the stomach, and tensions of the spirits, and heaviness of the head, and the overturning of their physical constitution. Yet these are signs of satiety, not of fasting. They approach the austere table with disdain, they murmur against the greens, they rail against the legumes as if they had been created in vain; for lovers of pleasure even philosophize against the foodstuffs that temperance provides. ^D They drain the water in one breath, as if it were a bitter potion provided by physicians. And many also ingeniously imitate wine, consoling their desire with certain artificial drinks. And others, therefore, seek delicacies in vegetables, and become wonderful builders and artificers of dainties. This I consider to be very foolish and senseless; for fasting is a proof of a voluntary and free mind, not a servile kind of perversity, which does not do what must be done, but in a slave-like manner

^A You ask for a reward because you live according to the law of virtue. But a reward and wages are promised to sincere and honest laborers, not to those who are dishonest and malignant.

Do not adulterate the fast, lest you suffer the same fate as the wine-merchants. For if those who mix water with wine are punished, how will you escape punishment, you who introduce sophistic pleasures into the austerity of the fast? Do not bring forward feigned infirmities to me. Do not falsely accuse the Forty Days as if they were productive of disease; for, on the contrary, it is productive of health. Do not seek excuses for sins, together with people who practice the love of pleasure. ^B Because of a bad habit, temperance seems hostile to you; yet it is not naturally burdensome. The proof of the matter is all those barbarians who neither plant vines nor drink wine, but draw up water, a drink that springs up of its own accord without cultivation, and they are known to be noble and valiant in wars, and they prevail over those who drink much wine, as is natural, for the sober prevail over the drunk. Their bodies are light and active, and such men are quick to mount a horse, and are talented and bold, and accurate at hurling spears. They are secure in their confidence, and capable of finding what must be done in difficult circumstances. Do not, therefore, slander water as being sickly, as if it made those who use it feeble and weak; for experience refutes your slander.

What need I say about wine? ^C The nomadic Scythians, who dwell near the Bosphorus, and those who live by the river Rhine, are without houses and hearths. These tent-dwellers live on the wool and hides of sheep, and clothe themselves with whatever covering they happen to find; they do not sustain themselves with bread, nor do they know the plow, nor do they turn up the earth: for how could they, having never learned agriculture, which deals with wheat and the seeds of the earth? Yet, living without bread and wine, they are manly, and powerful enough in war to engage whole nations, and they overcome the many; and the absence of bread and wine causes them no harm at all. But their ancestral custom to these men has become a second nature.

For the sake of what does the discourse mention this? ^D That we may learn that upbringing and training form a person according to that which we desire and in which we practice ourselves. Accustom yourself to temperance, and in time it will dwell with you without difficulty. But if, on the contrary, you keep pleasures and feasting as your companions and friends, you will never love fasting; but it will appear burdensome to you, as something strange and unfamiliar. A temperate life is an image of the future and incorruptible life. For just as then, having put off this passible flesh, we shall live freely, having no need to serve the belly and the other passions; so also now, if we set ourselves somewhat free from this necessary servitude and from the density of matter, we shall be close to the awaited incorruption. And to express it briefly, let us flee the

^A love of pleasure with all our might; for it is impossible for the same person to be a lover of pleasure and a lover of God. For he who loves the body will necessarily also be a lover of money, and he who is a lover of money is unjust. He who has fallen into the toils of injustice will easily transgress the ordinances of piety and will trample upon the laws of the wise. He will easily attempt forbidden things, gathering for himself from there the material for pleasure, and offering all the spoils of injustice to pleasure as if to a mistress.

Do not flee the hardships and difficulties that are inherent in temperance. Instead, set hope against the present toil, and you will bear the abstinence from food lightly. Inculcate in yourself these or other admonitions of piety: Fasting is bitter, but paradise is sweet; thirst is burdensome, but the fountain is near, from which he who drinks shall never thirst. The body is troublesome, but the soul, which is incorporeal, is stronger. The strength is dead, but the resurrection is near. Say to the belly, when it presses and urges, that saying of the Lord: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." It is not famine, but a short delay; it is not a penalty which cannot be avoided, but a free abstinence; it is not a servile necessity, but a free philosophy. Pray, and you will be strengthened; call upon Him, and the Helper will stand by you in readiness.

Recall the ancient history to mind, and you will understand ^C how those who chastened their bodies for the sake of piety were neither inferior in strength nor worse in appearance, as if they had withered away, having lost their beauty, compared to those who lived delicately and drained much unmixed wine without measure. For that king of the Assyrians, he who lived entirely for the flesh and was bound to a life of luxury as to a manger, since he ordered his cup-bearers and cooks, and all the servants of pleasure generally, to be selected for their comeliness of body and to be seen as graceful, so that not only his mouth and taste, but also his eyes might be delighted by the sight of beauty—at that time, those three young men from the captivity of Israel, having been enrolled in the list of royal servants, but abstaining from the food of the royal table as if it were defiled by the mixture of things sacrificed to idols, fed only on herbs. Wine also had to be avoided because of the libation, and all meat because of the aforementioned cause. But when they were being forced by the prefect to eat what was set before them, lest perhaps through abstinence they might lose the beauty of their countenances, and he himself might fall into danger of death on account of the poorly tended ^D youths: "Allow," they said, "and permit us; we shall not appear to the king in a worse form than those who live in delicacies, nor will the elegance of our faces perish. And do not torment yourself, as if you were to bring deformed servants to the king: for He who fashioned and formed us will give grace, and you will learn by experience that temperance is the conciliator of our beauty and grace." And so it happened: for those youths were in comeliness and

far surpassed all others, even those who ate meat.

What then of Samson? Was he not taught to fast from the breast? For the Angel instructed his mother to keep the infant far from wine and from every pleasure and to raise him so. And who was stronger than he? Who was so celebrated a victor over his enemies? Alone he dared to engage with an entire hostile army and to make a powerful attack upon countless multitudes; once, stripped of sword or spear, he snatched up the jawbone of an ass and laid low a thousand fighting men, using that bone alone.

So then, you too be of good hope, and you will grow strong; be eager, and you will be empowered; give your ears to the learning of hidden things, and you will forget food. As the crowd followed Jesus, who taught by word and deed, let us be ashamed, we who are intemperate and pleasure-loving, of the Greeks—that is, the Gentiles—and the Jews who fast, albeit in vain and to no profit; for they punish and macerate themselves without purpose, yet they observe the fast as a thing worthy and befitting ^B serious and grave men. To Christians, the accurate observance of their own way of life and the gravity of their holy institution are fitting, since they have the true and pure method of worship. Those who toil at moral exercise without this seem to me like those who build a house without a foundation, or those who construct a ship while forgetting the keel. Such are the indocile Hebrews.

And I cannot hold back my laughter when I see them walking through the crossroads unshod and dressed in white cloaks; the reproach of Moses, the disgrace of the prophets, the offspring of Abraham that are but miscarriages; servants of folly who were sons of freedom; unlearned and lawless, they who were supposed to be disciples of the Law, having lost the hope of release, since they did not intelligently receive the types of what was to come. For in everything he did, Moses prefigured images of things to come; whether you look at the feast of Tabernacles, or the memorial of trumpets, or likewise the circumcision, the unleavened bread, or the bitter herbs. All those things were tokens of the life in Christ, images ^C sketched out beforehand for those who were being initiated toward perfection by gradual instruction.

For I, a Christian and a servant of the Crucified, fast well, whether I am purifying myself for the hope of the resurrection, or whether, as a servant who loves his Master, I am grieving with the sufferings of my Lord. But you, O son of murderers and descendant of those who slaughtered the Lamb, who have received from your fathers the inheritance of the blood that was shed, which they called down upon themselves and their children—for whose sake do you fast? Tell me. If you fast as one repenting for what you have committed, I applaud your intention; therefore, having abandoned ^D the synagogue of the malignant, hasten to the Church of the pious. If you...

Come to the blood of the Lamb and be sprinkled: for from thence will come your expiation, from the same place where you contracted sin. But if even now you are still bound to the same things, what is the meaning of your abstinence from food? Or are you imitating the crocodiles of the Nile, which they say wail over the heads of the men they have devoured, and accompany the slaughter with tears, not that they are touched by any sense of repentance (for how could irrational, aquatic beasts be affected by a sense of repentance?), but because they lament the head, since it lacks flesh and is unfit for eating? ^A Something similar appears concerning [their] manner of fasting. Dances and festivities, as intermediaries of abstinence, appear in appearance to be adversaries; for abstinence is the teacher of a more restrained life and of decorum, whereas the dance is an index of a mind dissipated by many immoderate pleasures.

Remember here that Mosaic decree which says that on the tenth of the seventh month one must fast. For the seventh month signifies the seventh day, and the tenth day [signifies] the tenth hour, in which Christ upon the cross gave up the spirit. And for each thing there are special signs perceptible to the senses, from which the invisible affection and disposition of the soul is known. But why do you try to mix things that cannot be mixed, and combine into one things that are separate? They have other solemnities, one of which they call Scenopegia, or the feast of Tabernacles; of the other I hear the remembrance or commemoration of Trumpets; ^B and the wretches do not understand that they are celebrating Christian feasts, because the construction of tabernacles is an express figure of the Church which God the Word raised up. For this reason, they adorn the tabernacle with leaves, and decorate the proscenium or vestibule with fronds and fruits, so that it may be signified that this new and fruitful Church has succeeded [and, as it were, grown up after] the Law. But the feast of Trumpets stirs souls to the preparation for the resurrection; for as Paul the Apostle says: "The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise." The Lord and Savior himself teaches the same in the Gospels, saying: "He shall send his angels with a trumpet and a great voice, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the heavens even to the ends of them."

Hearing these words, perhaps they will offer us this rebuttal: that in remembrance of the miracles of old, they offer these things as thanksgiving for the benefits received at Mount Sinai, and for the trumpet that sounded ^D during the giving of the Law. But the foolish-minded do not know that even then the trumpet was used typically when the Law was being given. For since he who receives the Law as a rule for living rightly and decorously ought to fear the punishment that comes from transgression, therefore God, in sending forth the precepts of life written on stone tablets to men, straightway added the voice of the trumpet, as a symbol of the resurrection from the dead, so that the disciples of the commandments might, through the resurrection, bring to mind the judgment that follows

so that, anticipating, they may keep the dogmas of the divine legislation inviolate. Therefore, both fasting and the feast of tabernacles and trumpets are mysteries of our piety, formerly shadowed forth, but receiving their fulfillment at the fitting time, when the theophany of our Savior in the flesh was accomplished; to whom be glory and power, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

XV. Discourse I on Psalm V

^A *Verba mea auribus percipe, Domine, intellige clamorem meum, et quae sequuntur.* ^B You who await the blessed end of life and desire to become heirs of God, come, let us investigate together the rights of the inheritance, as in a testament, in the psalmody set before us. For the psalm presented to us is inscribed *To the end, for her who inherits* (ὑπὲρ τῆς κληρονομούσης). And who is she? The Church. And why did he not say "For the heir" (ὑπὲρ τῆς κληρονόμου)? Because she is always inheriting. And she inherits many things as a queen: the souls of the faithful, patriarchs, prophets, Christ, heaven. But to speak *for her* (ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς) belongs either to an advocate or to one praying. For just as in legal documents, marriage contracts, and testaments, the entire narrative is written at the top, but at the end of the document, the lord of the matter himself signs, and the whole sheet and the document are of no value if the lord of the matter does not sign at the end; so, since the testament of Christ was being drafted as if by notaries—that is, the prophets (and he himself is a witness when he says: *Take a volume of a scroll*), and since Christ bequeathed many gifts to the Church from the Gentiles, as to an heir, he ^C confirmed the testament at the end of his death. And because he dictated the testament, he says: *I have disposed a testament for my elect.*

And through Hosea he said to her: *I will betroth you to myself forever.* When? When Paul [said]: *I have espoused you to one man, a chaste virgin.* By Zechariah: *Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; behold I come, and will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord, and many nations shall flee to the Lord.* When? At the end. By Isaiah: *The wealth of the nations of the sea.* When? At the end. And by Ezekiel: *I have given all the elect of Lebanon to her.* When? At the end. All these written gifts remained invalid until the Lord himself at the end signed and confirmed the promises. ^B

Wherefore, that Christ might arrive into the world, and he himself might, through the Gospel, sign and impose completion upon the promises which had been made to the heir through the prophets, the prophets prayed: *At the end, for her who acquires the inheritance.* For *I did not come to abolish the law or the prophets, but to fulfill.* Christ is the fulfillment of the law unto righteousness. Indeed, many, upon receiving an epistle, cast their eyes upon the end of the subscription before [anything else]. The subscription *At the end*—on whose behalf? On behalf of her who acquires the inheritance. Whence, because it was necessary to sign at the end, when he was about to suffer, he takes into his right hand a reed, a symbol of signing; and he put on purple 67, so that he might show to the heir that he who signs is a King, and not a private person; and the title was placed upon the cross instead of a scroll; and with the thief, he speaks to the Church—which had been plundered—as to an heir: "Do you wish, O Church, that I read the subscription to you? Amen I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise." For today I am dying, and you are entering into the pastures of the inheritance. Just as he showed the cross, which was an ignominy, to be glory—*The hour has come that the Son of man should be glorified*—so he wrote the rest with the reed, [namely] the remission and the decree: *At the end, for her who acquires the inheritance, a psalm of David.* It is a prophecy of the action which was accomplished in the death of Christ, when Christ, in dying, left us the cross as a shield and a crown. Wherefore he said at the end of the psalm: *O Lord, as with a shield of good will you have crowned us,* having bestowed the seal of the

^A cross upon the forehead. For the cross is both a weapon and a crown: a weapon for those who are fighting; a crown for those who are victorious; a weapon for those who suffer alongside him like soldiers; a crown for those who reign alongside him. Since, therefore, the inheritance is beautiful—for it was the kingdom of the heavens—she who succeeds to the inheritance is also beautiful; for the Church comes from the nations. *You are all beautiful, my neighbor, and there is no blemish in you.* For this reason he says: *Give ear to my words, O Lord.*

But the Jew ^B claims for himself the psalm concerning the one who inherits, saying: *God has set testaments for me.* For is the one who makes a testament a slave to his own testament? If a man is ungrateful regarding his own heirs, he changes his testament and invalidates the heirs. And that he changed the first testament and wrote another new one because he found the Jews ungrateful, he says through Jeremiah the prophet: *Behold, I will make a new testament with the house of Israel; but not all who are of Israel are Israelites: not according to the testament which I made with their fathers when they came out of Egypt.* And he adds: *Because they did not remain in my testament, and I neglected them, says the Lord.* If you are among the neglected, you are not an heir. Let us see, therefore, whom the testator speaks of regarding the heir: I desire and I command ^C this one who has been well-pleasing to me to be my heir, even if he were a stranger. But if he has sons who have grieved him, he... [index: entries preserved]

sets forth in writing the causes which he assigns against them, and disinherits them. Let the testament be brought forward, O Jew. You received this not as your own testament, but as a deposit; for never does an heir receive the testament while the testator is living. For if he should receive it, he renders the testament suspect, and it is challenged by the disinherited. Since, therefore, you have received the testament as a chartophylax or registrar, bring it forward, that we may see what the testator says concerning you before witnesses. ^B "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have begotten and exalted sons; but they have rejected me." And lest you think these things are said of another, he adds: "The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib; but Israel has not known me, and the people have not understood me." Are you the heir? But regarding the nations, what thanks does he write? "A people whom I have not known has served me; at the hearing of the ear it has obeyed me." Concerning you he says: "Because of you my name is blasphemed among the nations." But regarding the nations: "For from the rising of the sun even to the setting, my name has been glorified among the nations." But regarding the people and the synagogue he says: "Cast out the slave woman and her son. For the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman." "I have abandoned my house, I have dismissed my inheritance." ^C And why have you dismissed your inheritance? "Because my inheritance has become to me as a lion in the forest." For what did he do? To those who are greater, God will reward him; but since I do not wish even the small tokens of friendship from us to be lacking, I desire for it to be given to him. Item: To Elaphius the notary, being a man of good character, and who comforted us well for the time that he served, I desire it to be given. Item: He who wishes to overturn five or seven testimonies in testaments is rejected by consent when the truth sits in judgment; "my inheritance." "I abandoned my land, they abandoned my inheritance; I abandoned," or "I have abandoned." Thus also our Lord Jesus Christ assuages the sorrow of the hearts of the saints; for he knew, he knew, as being true God, that the revelation of himself would be most burdensome to them, although he was always with them through the Spirit. From "abandonment," on account of the assumed abandonment: "What then, O finder and artificer of all wickedness, will you still speak haughty things to the height, and will you boast magnificently that you will stretch out your hands, and carry away the whole inhabited world as eggs that have been abandoned? The whole inhabited world I shall seize with my hand as a nest, and as eggs that have been abandoned shall I carry off." ^D

HOMILY XV. ON PSALM V.

"He delivered His voice against me." What did she say? "Take Him away, take Him away," ^A "crucify Him." But concerning the nations: "You have given an inheritance to those who fear Your name." For this reason, once he had taken up the book of Isaiah, he read it as a testament. For he himself took the scroll, and having read it, he subscribed: "Today this scripture is fulfilled." Tell me, O Jew, did it say, "In the beginning," for her who inherits; did it not rather say, "In the end"? Let us see: have you obtained the inheritance in the end? Were you not cast out of the city? Did you not lose the temple? Were you not scattered everywhere? Do you not serve the Romans? Ever since you stretched out your hands against the Heir, have you not been cast out of the inheritance? In the beginning, you received a foreign land as an inheritance: "To Him who struck down mighty kings, and gave their land as an inheritance, an inheritance to Israel His servant." The nations have obtained the kingdom of heaven as an inheritance in the end. "Come, you blessed of My Father, ^B inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." You, daughter of Babylon, have heard: "O miserable daughter of Babylon." And the gentile [woman], in place of you, has become daughter of God: "Hearken, daughter, and see; incline your ear."

"Give ear to my words, O Lord." My words—the pure and unclouded, the guileless and true and holy, tasted not by blasphemy and devoid of babbling, worthy of Your loving-kindness. My words—those surpassing all human reason, higher than all the tongue of angels, stronger than every intercession of saints, more precious than any prayer of the righteous, brighter than the sun, more pleasing than incense, sweeter than honey to the faithful. "Give ear to my words, O Lord." And why did He not say, "my discourse," but "my words"? Because a discourse contains many words under it, ^C but words are parts of the discourse, which consists of a gathering and synopsis of many words.

"Hearken, O daughter, and see." Hearken so diligently, that you may contemplate the realities even with the eyes of knowledge. Hearken to me also as I unfold these things beforehand, and to Gabriel who is about to announce the same things to you. ^D [alt-version omitted]

^A is of the sermon, acting as members of a body; and the sermon is a collection and summary of many words, but the words are drops and tastes of the sermon. And just as many drops make up the rain, but the rain is no longer compared to a drop, so too do the many words maintain the sermon, while the sermon is divided into names and words; and words are also called "sermon," but the sermon is not "words." The prophet, therefore, inciting God to accede to a detailed examination of his words—and to read every word of his accurately, and to grant what is asked in accordance with what is read—did not say, "Give ear to my sermon," but, "Give ear to my words, O Lord"—meaning, "Read accurately every single word of my prayer." Do not look at the paper at a single glance. For my prayer does not contain one petition. And since each word has its own entreaty (for rich and powerful is He whom I ask), "Give ear to my words, O Lord."

And just as we, when we offer a formal petition to a judge, if many points are contained on the paper, we beseech him: "Take this trouble, master; read the paper word by word; there are many things requested, do not consider the document as a single narrative"—so too the Prophet, entreating God to accede to the particular examination of the things he sought, says: "Give ear to my words, O Lord, understand my cry." Oh, the benignity of God! "Understand," that is, "Perceive." "Understand, O ye fools among the people; and, ye fools, at some time be wise." And we, when speaking to a wise man, do not dare say, "Perceive what I say," lest he be considered careless or slow of mind. But to God, who even beforehand knows our very thoughts, the prophet said, "Understand, perceive." But just as in saying, "Give ear," he did not know God to have sensible ears, so too in saying to God, "Understand," he was not speaking as if to one who needed to be taught and was ignorant, but as to One who in an ineffable manner and more swiftly than thought knows our requests before anyone asks. Or, also, because the just man was speaking to God in his thought, and his intense prayer was a cry to Him, and he spoke while not speaking, and cried out without a voice; and no human being understands the ineffable cry of the soul, except God alone; for this reason, to the only One who hears those who do not speak, he said, "Understand my cry." For Thou alone, he says, knowest the hearts of men, ^D...

as Solomon said. ^A "Understand," that is, "be pleased to know my state." He adds to this, saying, "Attend to the voice of my prayer." And yet, God does not attend to a voice. But a voice, when it is uttered without writing, stands in need of hearing; but when the voice is written on a scroll and offered to a king, then, as it speaks through the letters, it has need of eyes. For often a magistrate reads without speaking, and looks upon the scroll as a suppliant, and upon the written voices as piteous supplications; and those words which he was going to bring into the mind through the portal of the hearing, these he brings in through the more noble portals, namely, the eyes. "Attend to the voice of my prayer." As you see, you hear; and as you hear, you perceive; ^B for the Divine is without organs, and is simple and partless. And because he had made mention of prayer—and no magistrate receives a written petition except for the king alone—for this reason he confesses the dignity of Him whom he entreats: "My King." For You reign both over the suppliant and over that for which I pray. By calling Him King, that he might not be thought to be invoking the help of a man, he confesses the power and the substance of the King. He anticipates Thomas in the confession of the truth. For just as he said, "My Lord and my God," and he was not content to say merely, "My Lord," since a man also was deemed worthy of this title—for thus did Sarah speak about Abraham, "My lord is old," ^C and in like manner Jacob said to the profane Esau, "My lord knows that the children are more tender"—but no one of the holy ones said, "My God." Since, then, "My Lord" was spoken even to men, not only to holy ones but also to the profane, yet no man ever heard from any of the holy ones the address "God," it was that Thomas might show that he did not name Christ Lord as a man, but confessed Him to be God, that he did not say simply, "My Lord," but, "My Lord and my God"—as One who had redeemed me with His own blood, having been sold to sin. "My God," as One who has granted me the remission of sins; for no one can forgive sins ^D except God alone. "My Lord and my God," as if to say, "My Master and my Creator." For to be a master pertains to many, but to create belongs to God alone. This, therefore, the prophet had confessed before Thomas. For when he had called Him whom he was entreating "King,"

so that he might not be thought to be currying favor with a man, but might be believed to be supplicating God, therefore he says: *My King and my God.* Sin does not reign in me. *My King.* I do not have my belly as my god, but your dignity. *And my God.* Not just now, nor for a short time, nor only in time of need, but always and even without necessity I shall approach you. ^A *For to thee I will pray, O Lord.* He did not say, "Before thee I will pray," but, *To thee*, so that he might show the closeness to God. *In the morning thou shalt hear my voice.* What are you saying, prophet? Does He not hear at midday? And how in other places did you say: *Evening and morning and at noon I will relate and I will announce, and He shall hear my voice*? But whenever, he says, I offer prayers for myself or for those who are with me, then at every hour I supplicate God. *For I will bless the Lord at all times.* Since, however, I am now interceding on behalf of the Church of the Gentiles, which is attaining its inheritance; and since she will be brought into the inheritance when the Heir of the Father rises in the morning and declares her a co-heir; on account of this, seeking the promise which was made to the Church in the morning, I say: *In the morning thou shalt hear my voice.* When also Mary, in the figure of the Church, having gone early to the sepulcher as to a bridal chamber, was seeking the Bridegroom. But in the morning it is also possible to receive the swift and most prompt help of God. *For we shall press on to know the Lord; as the dawn we shall find Him ready; and He shall come to us as the early and the latter rain to the earth.* For to Him is glory and power, now and always and unto the unending ages of ages. Amen.

Homily XVI

Not so does the morning star, running with tender leaps in the heavens, happily announce to the world that the night is passing and the day is arriving like a bride, and the sun as a bridegroom comes forth from his chamber; as the intelligible morning star, the Holy Spirit, brings the good news to the Church, the bride and heiress, that this age passes away like the night; *For the fashion of this world passes away*; the day ^B is...

...as John Damascene says, lived a most ascetic life, even if they had wandered astray concerning the faith by ignorance, and were of a soul so tractable and grateful that, had they seen and heard, they would have been ready and prepared to believe—those, believe me, did not perish, and He did not permit their immense labors to go for naught. For the compassionate One did not endure, by His nature, that their labors should have been in vain.

^A And the day of the inheritance of eternal goods arrives, and the bridegroom Christ comes with the inheritance. Whence, *For the one attaining the inheritance*, he inscribed the psalm. 4. *In the end, for the one attaining the inheritance.* And the witness is Isaiah: *Behold, the Lord comes in strength; behold, His reward is with Him, and the work of each one is before Him.* But that the inheritance is called a reward, David says to the sons of the Church: *Behold the inheritance of the Lord, sons*; for, as though saying to sons and children: *The reward is the fruit of the womb.* For to those heirs and sons who have labored, the inheritance is a reward; but to those who have not labored, the inheritance is a gift. And because the end of the life here is the beginning of the inheritance and conduct there; so that the heir may receive the pastures, the heavenly mansions, for this reason, *In the end, for the one attaining the inheritance*, he gave the title to the psalm. *In the end, for the one attaining the inheritance.* So that the soul, after having completed its life in piety and good conversation, may enjoy the inheritance. *In the end, for the one attaining the inheritance.* And who is the one attaining the inheritance? The Church, and every pious soul, which as a bride and virgin has been joined to Christ. *For I espoused you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.* And what is the inheritance? The kingdom of heaven. Christ says: *Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.* And why is the kingdom of heaven called an inheritance? ^B So that those who wish to enjoy it may become genuine sons and friends of God. For no one appoints enemies and strangers as heirs. Whence also each of those who make a will in writing gives thanks to the heir. "So-and-so," he says, "shall be my heir, who has always served me genuinely, who has refreshed me in all things, who has always been pleasing to me." If a man appoints a virtuous son or friend as his heir, how much more so does God, as a just judge? This is also what Christ did in His own testament: *Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.* Then the act of thanksgiving: *For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat*; and the rest. ^C *Insofar as you did it to one of these, you did it to me.* Like heirs you have nurtured; enjoy the inheritance. And who are the heirs? Read the testament of Christ, and you will find the persons of the heirs, so that you may learn if your own person is contained in the testament. And what is Christ's testament? The Gospel. And that Christ calls the Gospel a testament: *As the Father has appointed unto me a testament, I also appoint unto you*; ^D so that as heirs you may always eat and drink.

^A Since the psalm regarding the soul that attains an inheritance is written as a testament, read it carefully, and therein you will find what kind of person the inheriting soul ought to be. And again, *Behold I will make a new testament with the house of Israel; not according to the testament that I made with your fathers.* When Christ made the old testament, he did not die, and the Jew did not attain the inheritance. Having made the new, he died, and the Church obtained the inheritance. For if you hear, brother, that some person who has died has made a testament in your favor and appointed you as heir, you immediately run, mixing tumult with joy and agitation with lightheartedness; and you inquire diligently, you interrogate the public recorders, you spend money, you purchase documents, and you ask for copies of the testament, so that you may inherit corruptible wealth. ^B

Here, however, where Christ in dying has appointed you as heir—where the riches are such that they cannot be stolen, where the inheritance is heavenly, and the testament is not liable to loss—namely, this psalm: how much more ought you, as if writing a testament on pure paper, to inscribe it upon your soul, that you may know whether this inheritance pertains to you or not! For the inheritance is not left utterly without restriction, but under a certain condition. Hear the prophet, as a notary reading aloud unto God in this proposed psalm, and speaking concerning the disinherited: *For thou art not a God that wills iniquity. Neither shall the malignant dwell near thee; nor shall the unjust remain before thy eyes. Thou hast hated all that work iniquity; thou wilt destroy all that speak lying.* You have made the Jews, as hateful ones, disinherited—the murderers of the Lord—because they bought false witnesses against you. Behold, you have described the disinherited; now declare who they are that obtain the inheritance. Who are they? The fellow-initiates of the inheritance. And who are these? All the disciples who hope in God. *And all they that hope in thee shall be glad: they shall rejoice for ever, and thou shalt dwell in them.* ^C For since in you are all the treasures of knowledge and of wisdom, and you dwell in them, they shall rejoice continually, as those who in you possess great treasures by way of inheritance.

*Unto the end, for her that obtains the inheritance.* And who are the heirs? The meek. Christ says in his testament: *Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.* If the meek are heirs, then those who are prone to wrath and indignation, the strikers, are aliens from the inheritance. *For her that obtains the inheritance.* And what is the inheriting soul? That which has fed the poor, and through the poor, Christ. He himself says: *Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.* For what did we do for you, that we should be heirs? *I was hungry, and you gave me to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink;* and the rest. *As long as you did it to one of these my least ones, you did it to me.* ^D It behooves a mind that loves God to be placed outside every tumult, and the fierce motions of anger; and, as if throwing back a certain violent onset of waves, to reject those things which occur through anguish of mind, and to be delighted with meek thoughts, as if with a quiet serenity.

^A You have done to us, oh heirs! "I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink," and so on. "Insofar as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me." As heirs, you have nurtured me; enjoy the inheritance.

Concerning her who inherits. Who is the inheriting soul? She who ran the way of the commandments of Christ, she who says: "I ran the way of your commandments; I have inherited your testimonies." — Concerning her who inherits. Who is she who inherits? The Church, she who is persecuted and suffers with Christ. "Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." How? "If indeed we suffer together, so that we may also be glorified together." — Concerning her who inherits. Who is the inheriting soul? She who has cast away the things of the world to the world, and has longed for the things of heaven.

The Christ says: "Everyone who has left house, or brothers," and so on, "shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life." Speak also of this: the disinherited. Paul says: "For every fornicator, or unclean person, or covetous man, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." And when is the inheritance? At the end. So that until the end we may give thanks to God, the giver of the inheritance; so that, having begun to please Him, we do not become deserters and be cast out. For "he who has endured to the end, this one shall be saved."

^B Psalm to David. Every good action [is assigned] to every one capable in hand. For "He who has begun in you a good work will finish it until the day of Christ Jesus." Have you not observed how many people, for the sake of an inheritance of money, seek out rich old men, and nurse the sick, and endure the failings of old age—the coughing, the rattling of the chest, the running nose, the gout, the shouting, by night and by day—and consume their youth in caring for the aged, and often become heirs before the goods [themselves]? And after all these things, the hope of what was expected is uncertain. For either the young man died first, or the old man repented and bequeathed it to another, or some tyrant’s decree ^C of the name David; which is interpreted as "capable hand," or "sufficient hand," or "strong hand," or "strong in action." The Lord David was a crude man, unmanly, unworthy of his name. David is interpreted as "scorn" and "capable of vision." David is interpreted as "scorn," and it is interpreted as "capable hand." ^D The prophet is sent, and girded with invincible readiness of purpose, he goes forth to perform the things to be done. It is thought that something is missing. Furthermore, these things concerning those seeking inheritance, as well as several other Asterian points, would be worth comparing with the interpretations of Chrysostom.

^A breathing out tyranny, he overturned the testament. But here, where the inheritance is firm and unchangeable, where Christ is the testator and the Gospel the testament, and the apostles are witnesses; where heaven is present, and the good things therein which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him"—how much more ought we to strive to inherit it? Concerning her who is inheriting: the choir of the prophets pleads on her behalf, saying: "Give ear to my words, O Lord." The rebel above has become the adversary of your bride below ^B, as it is written: "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." But since this adversary from the beginning made many to be disinherited, I intercede with you on behalf of her who is inheriting. "Give ear to my words, O Lord." The heir of Noah was Ham, as a son; but because he caused him to mock the nakedness of his father, he rendered him naked of the father's inheritance, and stripping him of liberty, he clothed him in servitude, and turned his blessing into a curse. "Cursed be Chanaan; a servant shall he be unto his brethren." Since, therefore, he even now wishes your bride to be stripped naked, that seeing you naked in the passion, like Noah, he may mock you—that he may make you an heir to nothing, saying: "Depart from me, ye cursed. I was naked, and ye clothed me not"—that therefore the adversary, the devil, may be put to shame, and the bride be found within the inheritance, teach her, Lord Christ, not to mock your nakedness, but rather let her learn that your nakedness clothed the world; that just as, though you were rich, for our sake you became poor that we might become rich, so you, who clothe heaven and earth, were made naked that you might clothe the world. "Give ear to my words, O Lord." He made Ismael, along with his Egyptian mother, a disinherited laughing-stock to all. For Sarah, seeing the son of Agar the Egyptian mocking with Isaac her son, ^C said to Abraham: "Cast out the bondwoman..."

^D (Concerning the soul that has changed, simply conceived some absurdity, yet has not gone further to complete the deed in action; in the region and house of the soul the sin has already occurred. But if it is extended to think upon something wicked, and is so stretched as to proceed to action, the iniquity is poured out even into external things. Wherefore he curses Chanaan, because he brought the change of the soul out-of-doors: that is, he extended it even to external things and carried it through to effect, adding to the evil intent the evil completion through works. Just as a servant, therefore, even if an expert, does not do the task, so neither do the free, for it would have been blessed, but only servants—or rather, not servants. [index: entries preserved])

^A And he said to Abraham: "Cast out this slave woman with my son Isaac." For the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with my son Isaac. Since, therefore, the disinherited Synagogue of the Jews now mocks the Church, cast her out and bring this one in. "Give ear to my words, O Lord." By fornication, Esau profaned himself and caused himself to lose the inheritance of the birthright, and he made the son a servant to his brother; and again, [he was] a fornicator or profane, like Esau. In order, then, that the children of the bride might not imitate Esau by the fornication of the body and the gluttony of heretical words, "Give ear to my words, O Lord." ^B He caused Naboth to be murdered because of the inheritance of the vineyard; but Naboth also cried out to Ahab: "I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers." For behold Naboth being murdered for the sake of the inheritance, that you may see Christ being crucified for the sake of the Church. And he says, "He gave himself up for her, that he might present to himself a glorious Church." For her whom you handed yourself over for, O Master, for her I offer up this prayer to you: "Give ear to my words, O Lord." Whence also the Apostle, a imitator of Christ, suffering hardships for the sake of the Church, and saying, "Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty," and the rest; as if he were asked, "For whose sake, Paul, do you endure such and so many evils?" he answers, "For the sake of the one who obtains the inheritance." And that he suffered everything for the salvation of his kinsmen, he himself is a witness, when he says: "I myself was wishing to be anathema for my brothers." — "For the sake of the one who obtains the inheritance." And what are the words of the prophet? Not those which are uttered by speech, but those which are recognized through ^C noble deeds. "Understand my cry." The cry of the just is not a voice that strikes the air, but the heavenly-minded conduct of the soul. "Give heed to the voice of my supplication." By "voice," he does not mean a sound like a trumpet, but the deepest groaning of the heart. For so it is written: "And the children of Israel groaned because of their works, and God heard their voice."

^A Indeed, this sound of groaning is hidden from men, but manifest to God. "Understand my cry." What are you saying, O prophet? Are you imposing a commandment upon God? He is the treasury of wisdom and the wealth of understanding, as it is written: "With Him is wisdom and understanding," and yet you say to Him, "Understand, perceive"? Now if you were to say to a man of note, "Perceive," he would be angered, as if you had spoken to him as one uneducated and unobservant; and do you say to God, "Understand"? But he is not commanding the Master; God forbid! Nor does the mortal urge the Immortal to understand, nor does the sober man chatter such things as belong to the drunkard; but what he says is this: Many of those who approach judges to plead regarding great and necessary matters do not know how to explain the things at issue, nor are they able to declare their own intent clearly and perspicuously; then, because the judge is more adept at understanding the business than the petitioner, and knows what sort of answer he ought to render, the supplicant prays that he might not look to the unworthy words, but render his verdict according to his own wisdom and the matter at hand. ^B So too the prophet, since he was a man speaking to God, and being cast into an ecstasy, was tossed about like a pilot in the open sea, he beseeches God: "Understand my cry"; that is to say, Do not look to the unworthiness of my words, nor to the poverty of my speech, but read my mind: what is lacking in my words, supply in your decrees. Therefore, the "Understand" is used in place of, "Behold my heart, read the justifications I carry in the depths of my soul, which I am unable to declare in words."

"Attend to the voice of my prayer." Rise upon me like the sun, and immediately you shall have dispelled the winter of my disasters. For if the sensible sun, the eye of the heavens, when it rises in winter, dissolves the ice—and the snow, not bearing the gaze of the sun, is melted—how much more do You, O Lord, having risen upon me as the Sun of Justice, dissolve my temptations like frost and winter! As for how, when he says to God, "Attend," he does not beseech Him to look with the senses, but rather in a manner befitting God; ^C so too he speaks of his "voice," meaning the wordless speech in the soul, of which God alone is the listener. For He alone knows the hidden things of the heart. Then, that he might show the great and immense dignity of the Master—that he called Him Lord, not as one of many, but as the Master and Creator of all—he adds: "My King and my God." "My King," because when You chose me as a soldier, You sealed me with Your Name. "My God," because when I did not exist before, You brought me into the nature of things. "My King," because You freed me from the tyranny of sin, as if I were a captive. "My God," because You changed my nature, and ^D while bearing my corruptible clay, You made it incorruptible. "My King,"

you have done. My King: because as king you have clothed me with purple, namely with grace. My God: because for me you have opened the heavens as God, and have made me partaker of your heavenly goods. And to you belongs glory and power, together with the holy and life-giving Spirit, now and unto the unending ages of ages. Amen. ^B

XVII.

On the same fifth psalm, otherwise. Oratio III.

Just as with us, when the more illustrious bridegrooms arise from the marriage chamber and bed, they show their brides the wealth and the paternal inheritance: so the only-begotten Bridegroom Christ, and heir of the Father, after death and burial rising from the dead, shows to his bride, the Church, the wealth and the inheritance, that is to say, the Gospel and the kingdom. Since, therefore, at the end, upon the death of the bridegroom, the bride takes the inheritance: for this reason, ^C *In the end, for her who inherits*, David inscribed the psalmody. For when the end and the death of Christ in the flesh was accomplished, then was this bride called into the pastures of the inheritance. For what reason, he says, was Christ crucified or delivered up? *He did not commit sin, nor was guile found in his mouth*. — *For her who inherits*. — *Just as also Christ loved the Church, and gave himself up for her*. But since her rival, the Synagogue, was contending for the inheritance, having received a bill of divorce, and was litigating against the Church as if she were the heir: the prophet came as an advocate; he reads the deed of divorce against the Synagogue. He found ^D the hand of God containing these words: *And she is not my wife, and I am not her husband*; and, *I gave her a bill of divorce into her hands*. He reads also the dowry of the Church; he found the bridegroom and the bride: *He who has the bride is the bridegroom*. Since, then, as if the bridegroom himself were dead, the Synagogue was litigating with the Church concerning the inheritance, Christ, the heir of the Father, rose again; and for the bride who inherits, prayers were immediately offered to him. For it says: *In the end, for her who inherits*, to the heir. Who is she who inherits? The Church out of the nations. Paul says that the nations are co-heirs and fellow-bodies. *Heirs of God, but co-heirs of Christ*. What is the inheritance? The kingdom of the heavens. *Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you*. Which is she who is abdicated? The Synagogue and her people. *Cast out the slave woman and her son. For the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman*. The Jew is like a record-keeper or a chari-

charioteer who has guarded the testaments, but the Christian has inherited them like a son. To the former, the Law gave a sealed letter, but to me, grace has bestowed what was inscribed.

^B Since, therefore, the bridegroom, Christ, because he formerly had the Synagogue of the Jews as his wife, instituted it as his heir and led it into the pastures of the inheritance—to this the prophet bears witness, saying: *To him who struck down great kings and slew mighty kings, and gave their land as an inheritance to Israel his people*.

But the wretched one, having received the good things of the inheritance from the bridegroom, followed after the rival adulterer, and offered the things that belonged to the bridegroom to the demon. The bridegroom Christ himself says through Hosea: *And I gave her the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and I multiplied silver and gold for her; but she made them silver and gold for Baal*. Since, therefore, she bestowed the things of her husband upon the adulterer, and following the lover, she slew the husband; and as if vindicating Barabbas in a figure, she crucified the bridegroom. The Synagogue thought that, after the death of Christ, she would be the heir, inasmuch as she knew that she possessed the goods, but she was ignorant that the bridegroom, in his death, had written a New Testament, in which he instituted the Church of the Gentiles as heir, and he endorsed the Testament, saying to the Jews: *The inheritance shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation producing its fruits*.

^C As, therefore, the bridegroom died, and the disinherited Synagogue occupied the inheritance, upon his rising from the dead, the choir of the prophets intercedes for the Church of the Gentiles. *Unto the end, for her who obtains the inheritance*. She who slew the bridegroom thought to inherit [the goods] of the one slain; but she who did not slay, but rather believed, was written down as heir. She wished to slay the heir of the Father and to inherit, she who read the sentence pronounced against Ahab concerning the vineyard of Naboth: *You have killed, and taken possession of the inheritance*. He killed and received the inheritance, but you killed and did not obtain the inheritance; you killed and lost the inheritance.

^D You killed and did not inherit; you killed, and you lost the inheritance; you killed the life, and...

you killed the Life; you killed, and you knew whom you killed—for you recognized Him when you said, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him." But if He is the heir, O wicked Jew, hand over the holding to the heir, restore the dominion to the Master; offer Him intercession, so that you may cast off your sorrows. Two debtors were brought to Him; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty; but since they had nothing to pay, He forgave both, considering their correct intention to be the payment of the principal. But you for many years held onto the property of the heir, and you offered nothing to Him. He sent slaves seeking—not demanding—the fruits; they sought them as friends, but were killed as enemies. The heir Himself came, not angry, but acting with goodness; not taking vengeance on those who killed, but exhorting the killers to salvation; not as a judge taking vengeance, but as a priest admonishing. He Himself said: "I did not come to judge the world, but that I might save the world." But since you also killed the heir Himself, and thought you would inherit, learn that the heir has risen, and has transferred the inheritance to the Church from the Gentiles. ^A

To the end, for she who inherits.

^A For David, not reaching the end of Christ, pre-chants a funeral psalm. This he does to expose the calumny of the Christ-killing Jews and their false testimony against Christ: "For there is no truth in their mouth; their heart is vain." They scattered silver so that they might slander the resurrection. "Their heart is vain." They sealed the tomb, and they did not hold captive the One who is free among the dead. They hold the seal, but they do not have the treasure. "Their heart is vain." "Their throat is an open sepulcher." Why, O David, did you call the throat of those who killed the Lord a sepulcher? He answers: "Ask my son Solomon. My son, let not ungodly men entice you, nor be willing. If they call you, saying: 'Come with us, partake of blood, let us kill a just man; let us swallow him down as Hades does one who is living.'" ^B Since, therefore, they swallowed down the Life-giver as Hades swallows one who is living, "Their throat is an open sepulcher."

Since, then, this funeral psalm was written "For her that receives the inheritance," for the end and the death of Christ, whence He also signified His resurrection as God the Word, saying: "4. For I will pray to Thee, O Lord; in the morning Thou wilt hear my voice. In the morning I will stand before Thee, and Thou wilt behold me." "For I will pray to Thee." For Thou art God, who rises from the dead; and to Thee through the night the chorus ^C of prophets cried out: "Arise, O God, judge the earth." If a man was buried, how did God rise? A sepulcher does not know how to constitute God; a sepulcher can inflict loss, but it cannot bestow increase. Angels and soldiers remained at the tomb, and was he who was buried a private citizen? Soldiers were guarding the tomb; for He who was buried was a King. Just as soldiers do not guard the sepulcher of a private citizen, so angels do not sit by the sepulcher of a mere human. "In the morning Thou Thou wilt hear my voice." Because in the morning, rising, Thou wilt say to the blessed women: "Rejoice." Rejoice, *you*; for the guard is troubled. Rejoice, *you*; for those who guard the tomb, not having the deposit, are weeping. Since, therefore, "For her that receives the inheritance" is the psalm, it contains both the passion and the sepulcher and the morning of the resurrection; for that reason, "To the end." ^D "2. Give ear to my words, O Lord." Thou who sustains all things by the word of Thy power. "Give ear to my words, O Lord." Whose word is a sword: "And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Behold, brother, in what manner you speak to God: "Give ear to my words, O Lord." And then: "Understand my cry." "3. Attend to the voice of my prayer." For first the Lord searches your words, which you speak in the universe, whether they are words of foul speech, or of blasphemy, or of perjury; whether they are words of cursing, and detraction, and calumny; whether they are words of drowning, which through calumny to drown

the one who is slandered. *Thou hast loved words of submersion, a deceitful tongue* (Ps. LI, 6). If there be words of iniquity. My words. This is to say, the iniquity of his own mouth. For if we are required to give an account for every idle word—as He says: *Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account* (Matth. XII, 36)—how much more, when you utter harmful words, do these things occur for the injury and destruction of your own soul? Then God tests your outcry: to see if you have not cried out unjustly against someone, if you have not sounded a trumpet of unjust anger in your outcry, if you have not cried out in the manner of a passionate person to strike down an innocent one, if you have not cried out as those did who stoned Stephen. *And having cried out with a loud voice, they stopped their ears, and rushed with one accord upon him* (Act. VII, 57). And the outcry became a vehicle for murder.

First of all, then, God tests your words. *For by thy words thou shalt be justified* (Matth. XII, 37). And He tests them, not to learn at that moment, but to judge at that moment. Then He investigates your outcry, and thus God countersigns your prayer. Since, therefore, God weighs words in the balance, I exhort that we do not insult the beauty of the feast with revilings or shameful speech; but rather that we make it fragrant with psalms and hymns and spiritual odes; not running to the taverns, but hastening to the church; ^A not immersed in drunkenness, but adorned with sobriety; ^B not skipping about like the Jews, but glorifying God like the apostles; not playing in the marketplaces, but singing psalms in our houses. No one who is dancing enters into the royal palace; no one who is drunk stands before the King. And if there is such caution on earth, the heavenly state—and the kingdom which consists therein—is far more secure; to which kingdom may we be accounted worthy, joyful and glad, by the grace and kindness of the Lord. ^{C D}

of our Lord Jesus Christ; to whom be glory and dominion, now and ^A unto the infinite ages of ages. Amen.

Homily XVIII

On the same fifth psalm, in another manner. Fourth discourse.

2. *My words perceive with thine ears, O Lord.* What words, O Prophet? For God knows them even before you have thought of them. Teach us, therefore, what kind of words you brought to God for propitiation, so that we too may use the same. What kind of words? Hear what is contained in the psalm before us, which, by saying them to God, I both steady myself, and sway Him, and admonish the listeners. I said below: *Since thou art not a God who wills iniquity.* Why did you say so? Because *I hated and abominated iniquity* ^B. For he did not pronounce the words simply, as most do; but first he exhibited them in the deed itself; and thus he confidently said to God: *My words perceive with thine ears, O Lord.* I said: *He shall not dwell with thee, the wicked one.* Why? Because *I was seen to be good in the sight of the Lord*; wherefore, as evil turned aside from me, I did not know it. I said: *The unjust shall not remain before thy eyes.* And for what reason did you dare to say this? Because *I hated the unjust and loved thy law* ^C. He, however, who hates those doing unjustly, will never cooperate with injustices. I said: *Thou hatest all who work iniquity.* What then, did you yourself not act unjustly? But having done unjustly, I made petition: *Wash me more from my iniquity.* I said: *Thou shalt destroy all who speak a lie.* Moreover, he who knew that the liar perishes, did not stain his tongue with a lie, nor, by lying, make it a path of destruction. He said: *The Lord abominates the man of blood and the deceitful one.* And he called the ^D deceitful man a man of blood. For what cause? Because the deceitful one kills as many as he deceives. For the deceitful one, while appearing as one thing and existing as another, lies with his mouth. But a mouth that lies, kills the soul.

Since, therefore, he was speaking such words as were sufficient both to make him just, and to placate God, and to instruct those who hear, for this reason he said: *My words perceive with thine ears, O Lord; understand my cry.* For why, pray, was there a crowd and tumult around God, and did He have need of the Prophet’s cry? For those who approach governors here, because they know that on this side those in the streets are making a din, and on another side the lictors are making a clamor, and in front the heralds are crying out, and the governor himself is on a high vehicle and has his mind divided among many things; and because of all these things, the suppliant is forced to make his approach with a cry. But if there is nothing of the kind concerning God, by what logic did the Prophet speak while crying out? Truly, he who said elsewhere: *For He himself knows the hidden things of the heart* [alt-version omitted]; and: *My unformed substance thine eyes have seen*; he knew that God does not need...

^A a sensible cry. But the cry of the just man is his confidence before God; the cry of the just man is every praiseworthy work, which those who marvel at it cry out to him. Since, therefore, the Prophet bore every good action as a single virtue, and was manifesting this to God who foreknows all things, he said: *Understand my cry.* ^B Because he knew there were many and various cries of just men and sinners, so that he might claim his own cry as that of a just man, a friend, and a son, he sought that He might recognize his own cry among the many. If, indeed, in great and teeming herds, every animal recognizes the cry of its own offspring; and though a thousand calves should low, each cow knows the lowing of its own calf; and though ten thousand lambs (9) should bleat, the mother runs to the voice of each, and is not deceived; how much more, when ten thousand sinners are crying out, does God know the cry of the just man, and recognize it as the pure voice of His own child? *Understand my cry.* The true pearl (10) and the coin are viewed differently by the inexperienced man, and differently by the skilled merchant; and the words and voices of the just and sinners are accepted differently by the world, and are tested differently by the hearing of God. Have you not seen someone in a public square crying out? He commits an injustice, and cries out, and deceives many; but the one who is wronged keeps silent, and is thought to be the unjust one. In order, therefore, that David might not be thought such a one, he called God the tester of his cry. *Understand ^C my cry.*

3. *Attend to the voice of my supplication.* And what is the supplication of the just man, and what is its voice? What is a supplication? A supplication is the need and the deficiency of that which each person lacks. For *deein* signifies "to lack." Whence we also call that man "needy" to whom necessary food is lacking. In order, therefore, that the Prophet might show his own most profound poverty and lack of spirit—for *Blessed are the poor in spirit*—and being such as this, he said in another place: *I am needy and poor; O God, help me*—proffering this beautiful poverty, and lack, and need, as a virtue calling out, he said: *Attend ^D to the voice of my supplication.* As if to say: "I am so poor and humble in spirit that this need and poverty of mine, as if it were a petition for good works, cries out through letters." Humility and piety are like a clean scroll; the virtues and noble deeds are the letters. Therefore, just as prayers and the writings of petitions are not offered to the emperor without a scroll; so to God, all the virtues together, apart from humility

do not appear. ^A And the Pharisee and the publican are a witness [to this]. The Pharisee claimed to have achievements: "God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers. I fast twice in the week, I tithe all that I get." [Luc. xviii, 11, 12.] The words are beautiful, but piety is nowhere; the achievements are good, but humility is nowhere. The publican struck his breast, and as a sinner he fell down, and he displayed humility; and just as one conquers an adversary, he vanquished the proud Pharisee. For "this man went down justified."

"My king." Why did David call God his king? In order to show that, even if he reigned over men, he served God as a soldier; even if he ruled over his own peers, he was ruled by the King from above; even if he wore royal dignity, he was not enslaved to the kingdom of sin. "My king." For to me, royal dignity is a superadded garment. For first You made me a man, and thus You bestowed upon me the kingdom. But to You, royal power is connatural, co-elevated, and co-existent. ^B "My king."

And because humans reign over humans, he added what is exceptional: "And my God." Who as God created me, and as King cares for me. But why did I say, "And my God"? "Because I will pray to You, O Lord." For prayer is not offered to man, not to a general, nor to a leader, nor to a ruler, nor to a king, but to God alone. Wherefore I have confessed You not only as my king, but also as God. Why? "Because I will pray to You, O Lord." And pay attention to the coherence. Since he said, "Attend to the voice of my supplication," because of the supplication he called Him king: "My king." Because he proposed to pray, he confessed Him God: "And my God." As to a king, he offered his supplication; as to God, he offered his prayer. ^C "In the morning You will hear my voice." The prophets said concerning the inheriting Church: "God will help her in the morning," [Ps. XLV, 6.] that is, early in the morning, the only-begotten God rising from the dead. That morning help I also invoke. "In the morning You will hear my voice." 5. "In the morning I will stand before You." So that, having seen You as a bridegroom rising from the bridal chamber of the tomb, in order that You might exhibit to Yourself a glorious Church, [Ephes. v, 27.] I might say with the angels and acclaim: "The queen stood at Your right hand." [Ps. XLIV, 10.] In order, therefore, that I may see this, "In the morning I will stand before You," and You will see me, or "I will see." For both are set down. If indeed "You will see," this is: You saw me shepherding, You will see me reigning; You saw me chanting, You will see me prophesying; ^D You saw when I killed the lion and the bear, You will see when I strike Goliath and the aliens; you saw when in

you glory with the prophets, you shall see where in the future age I will sing with the angels, then when also in the sight of the angels I shall sing to you. But if, "I shall see": I have beheld, he says, the temporal troubles, as many vexations as you have shown me, truly many and evil; I shall see eternal goods. I believe that I shall see the goods of the Lord. I have seen the prophets, I shall see the evangelists; I have seen the one descending from heaven, I shall see the one ascending; concerning the descent I said: "He shall descend like rain upon the fleece"; concerning the ascent: "God ascended in jubilation, the Lord in the voice of the trumpet." To Him be glory and power, now and unto the unending ages of ages. Amen.

h 19. On the interpretation of the fifth psalm, fifth discourse, in which there is also [a discourse] on Joseph. It was delivered on Great Monday. ^B

Let the heir, the Church, rejoice even now; for her bridegroom, Christ, having suffered, has risen. She lamented over the one suffering; let her rejoice over the one rising. Let the heir rejoice; for she who was disinherited is confounded because she killed the heir and lost the inheritance. The bridegroom has risen, and the adversary of the bride, the Jew, is confounded. And why is the Jew confounded? Because he calumniated the resurrection of Christ, saying: "The disciples stole the Lord." If they stole Him from the tomb, how did the apostles raise the lame man in the name of a dead man? A dead man does not raise the lame, a dead man does not grant feet, a dead man does not teach to walk: what he does not know himself, he does not teach another. The bridegroom has risen, and, like advocates before a judge, the holy prophets and apostles approach Him on behalf of the Church entering into her inheritance. Rejoice, O bride Church; for the resurrection of the bridegroom has raised you up, who were lying on the ground and being trampled upon. No longer do the altars of demons tear your children apart, but the temples of Christ embrace the newly baptized. No longer do idols exercise tyranny, but the altars of Christ reign. No longer do pipes compel you to adore the golden image, but psalms teach you to adore God. No longer do the feet of a harlot dance at the death of John, but the feet of the Church trample upon death. ^C

^D [alt-version omitted]

^A Apostasies ^B ceased, and genuflections flourished; tragedies fell silent, and psalms bloomed. Smoke from the burning of sacrifices no longer ascends, but rather the incense of prayers. Let my prayer be set forth as incense in thy sight. The slaughter of brute animals has no power; for the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world has been slaughtered.

O miracle! Hell swallowed the Lord Christ and could not digest Him. The lion devoured the Lamb, and was forced to disgorge Him. Death swallowed Life, and, nauseated, vomited up even those whom it had previously swallowed. The giant was unable to carry the dying Christ; for the Dead One became terrible to the giant, he wrestled with the Living One, and, defeated by the Dead One, he fell. If the devil had been defeated by the Living One, he could have had the excuse: "I could not struggle against God." But he wrestled with the Living One and succumbed to the Dying One, and lost every excuse. One grain was sown, and the whole world was fed. As a man He was slaughtered, and as God He was brought to life, and He brought the world to life. As a shell-fish He was trodden underfoot, and as a pearl He adorned the Church. As a sheep He was sacrificed, and as a shepherd He drove away the flock of demons with the staff of the Cross. As a lamp upon a lampstand He was extinguished on the Cross, and as the sun He rose from the tomb. It was possible to see a double spectacle: as Christ was crucified, the day was obscured by darkness; and as He rose, the night was illuminated like the day. Why was the day obscured by darkness? Because it is written concerning Him: "He made darkness His hiding-place." And why was the night illuminated like the day? Because the prophet said to Him: "For darkness shall not be obscured from thee, and night shall be illuminated as the day." ^C O night brighter than the day! O night more brilliant than the sun! O night whiter than snow! O night more luminous than torches! O night more delightful than paradise! O night freed from darkness! O night that chases away sleep! O night that teaches us to keep vigil with the angels! O night terrible to the demons! O night, the desire of the year! O night, the bridesmaid of the Church! O night, the mother of the newly-illumined! O night in which the devil, while slumbering, has been stripped bare! O night in which the Heir has introduced the heir into ^D the inheritance! For the end, concerning her who inherits.

^A For since the synagogue plotted against Christ, just as the Egyptian woman plotted against Joseph, and being joined to the law as to a chief cook—one who smokes it with sacrifices (the chief cook being the Jewish law, as it delights in savory juices)—it wished to join itself to Christ by the law, apart from the Gospel, and wished to shut out the virgin Asseneth, that is, the Church, so that, having robbed the bridegroom of his wealth and beauty, it might make the bride an disinherited one. For this reason, when Christ came forth from the tomb, as Joseph from the prison, and sat upon his royal chariot above the cherubim: *The chariot of God is tens of thousands, thousands of those who abound* ^B (Ps. LXVII, 18); at that time the saints prayed for her who was receiving the inheritance. And let it not strike you as strange that Joseph bore the image of Christ. For the facts themselves shall teach you. Concerning Joseph it is written: *But Jacob loved Joseph more than all his sons* (Gen. XXXVII, 3). Concerning Christ: *The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand* (Joan. III, 35). To Joseph the father made a coat of many colors. And Christ: *My soul shall exult in the Lord; for He hath clothed me with the garment of salvation, and with the coat of gladness* ^C (Isa. LXI, 10), *He hath put a mitre about me as upon a bridegroom* (v. 10). Concerning Joseph it is written: *And Joseph was fair in appearance, and very beautiful in face* (Gen. XXXIX, 6). And the Prophet says of Christ: *Thou art beautiful in form above the sons of men* (Ps. XLIV, 3). The brothers brought a false accusation against Joseph; and the Jews, reviling the Lord, said:

"We were not born of fornication" (John VIII, 41), meaning instead: "You are the son of the unwed maiden." Joseph was sent to his brothers like a physician visiting them, but was found to be an enemy plotted against; and Christ was sent like a merciful shepherd, but appeared to be crucified like a thief. ^B Joseph was sold for twenty pieces of gold, and Christ for thirty pieces of silver. One of the twelve brothers sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites, he who said: "Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites" (Gen. XXXVII, 27); and one of the twelve disciples sold Christ to the Israelites. There, Judas consented, and here, Judas was selling. Joseph was in the cistern, and Christ in the sepulcher. The calumny of the Egyptian woman cast Joseph into prison; and the false testimony of the Synagogue delivered Christ, bound, to Pilate. The former stood by two eunuchs, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker; and Christ was crucified with two thieves, one on the right and one on the left. Joseph sent one of the two eunuchs into the royal palace; and Christ brought one of the two thieves into the kingdom: "Today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke XXIII, 43). Joseph, being seized by the Egyptian woman, left his garments with her and went out; and Christ, being seized by death, went out, and left in the sepulcher the linen cloths that he had been wearing. The Egyptian woman had the garments, but did not hold Joseph; the sepulcher had the linen cloths, but did not hold the Lord, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Consequently, I exhort you, as many as are hearers of Joseph, let us become imitators of his chastity. Joseph was sold by his brothers and liberated by God; and you, O newly-baptized one, were once sold by sin, and were liberated by the grace of Christ, with the freedom with which Chri^Cst has freed us.

^A Joseph was in the desert wandering, and was being led by God to become a king; but He who led Joseph as a sheep, found you also as a wandering sheep, and carried you as a shepherd, and offered you as a gift to the Father in the heavenly kingdom. Imitate the chaste one. Joseph was sold to a cook, and he turned away from the Egyptian woman as one turns away from smoke. The chaste man suffered from the smoke in his eyes, and the harlot had her mind filled with smoke by her passion. She grasped his garment, yet she did not steal his chastity; she struggled with his clothes, but she did not despoil the athlete; in her madness she bit his garments, but she did not make the young man partake of her rabies. Take note: When a rabid dog tears at someone, that person quickly strips off and casts away his garments, lest the poison traveling through them should become a seed of death for the one wearing them. Thus Joseph, when the Egyptian woman in her madness touched his garments, cast off the garments, and fled from the deadly poison ^B of adultery. But if his own mistress did not enslave him—though he was enslaved—to sin, let the harlot not enslave you, O newly-baptized one, nor let the harlot, who is a slave, become a bedfellow to you, the free man. For a concubine is a domestic servant who enslaves the free man. O the contradiction! The mistress did not make Joseph, who was a slave, a slave to sin; yet a free master becomes a slave to a female slave because of a sickness of the soul.

But Joseph will contend with such a one on the day of judgment, and will say: "I, having been sold in a foreign land, was not sold to sin; nor did I make myself a stranger to God; and this, though I had not received the Law, had not learned from the prophets, had not read the Gospels. Yet, even before those writings, I wrote myself elegantly upon the book of life through temperance; but you, O newly-baptized one, after the Law, after the prophets, after the Gospels, after instruction ^C and catechesis, after the athletic anointing, after the bridal bath, after the spiritual chrism, after the splendid garment, have become a slave to a female slave, enslaved by passion. Flee the slavery of sin, and receive the inheritance of adoption." *In the end for the inheriting one.* The laws of the Romans do not admit a slave to an inheritance.

they do not admit the redeemer, and the laws of God cast out the slave of sin from the inheritance. You have the door of the Law; flee the false gate of iniquity. He who does not enter through the door, but climbs in from elsewhere, is a thief and a robber: a thief, as one who secretly commits fornication; a robber, as one who undermines another's marriage. But he who enters through the door of legitimate marriage is a shepherd of the sheep, and a father of true children; while living in this lower world he has heirs, but above he is constituted an heir in the kingdom of heaven: which may we all attain, by the grace and humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and empire, now and for the ages of ages. Amen.

XX. Homily on the Sixth Psalm.

^B The apology of a soldier who has transgressed becomes a propitiation for the king who has been offended, and the supplication of a servant who has sinned softens the master who has been moved to anger. Since, therefore, David had sinned, and as a soldier had provoked God the King to anger, and as a servant had caused his Master to be inflamed, for this reason, entreating as a suppliant, he besought God the Master as a servant: "O Lord, do not rebuke me in your indignation, nor discipline me in your wrath." You were moved to anger against me because I sinned; be reconciled for I have repented. You were angered because I wandered; be propitious because I have returned. Your oath, O Master, I bring to you for a propitiation. You said: "By myself I have sworn, that I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live." I beseech you, do what you have said. For truly, after my error I have turned, and after my sin I have done penance, but not as Cain did I behave with impudence. He, when asked, "Where is Abel your brother?" replied, "I do not know." I said, "For I acknowledge my iniquity." O Lord, do not rebuke me in your indignation. That, having obtained mercy, I may also become a way of repentance for others, so that I may teach the wicked your ways, and the ungodly shall turn back to you.

^C Why then was the psalm inscribed "For the Octave"? For "At the end, in hymns, a psalm of David for the octave." The Old Testament indeed knows the octave as circumcision; but the New knows it as the resurrection from the dead, in which death is circumcised. The one before this was inscribed, "For that which inherits," meaning either the Church or the soul. And concerning the heirs it said, "All who hope in you shall rejoice; they shall exult forever." But concerning those who are disinherited, "The evil man shall not dwell with you." When David learned that "The Lord abhors the man of blood and the deceitful one," and he himself had slain Uriah by deceit, and that "every fornicator or unclean person has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and [of God]..."

^A for fear he might be disinherited because of the pollution, ^B he invoked [God], chanting the psalm for the octave and the resurrection of the dead. Since adultery and murder cast me out of the inheritance, "O Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury, nor discipline me in your wrath." Do not be angry with me on account of Uriah, do not be enraged at me on account of Bathsheba. And why was the circumcision on the eighth day? Because for the first seven days the infant wore swaddling clothes, but on the eighth, being loosed from them, he received circumcision—a sign of the seal, of the faith of Abraham—so that we too, even if we have worn the week of life, the swaddling clothes of vices, bound by the chains of our own sins, might break them at the end of life, and as if on the eighth day, in the resurrection, circumcising death, we might embrace the angelic life. For "in the resurrection they neither marry." ^B And that is why circumcision was given upon the genital parts. So that Christians also might learn thereafter to seal their newborn infants, after the swaddling clothes of the womb, and even before the perceptible swaddling clothes, with baptism, in the circumcision of Christ; of which Paul speaks: "In whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands, in the burying of yourselves with Him in baptism in the circumcision of Christ."

If, therefore, the circumcision of the Jew is early and quick, and was given to the infant immediately after the swaddling clothes, how much more should the circumcision of Christ, which is carried out through baptism, be given to the infant more quickly for its safety; partly so that, clothed in Christ as in a breastplate, it may not fear the hostile demons; and partly so that it may not be betrayed into heresy and become a captive. Understand what I am saying. You know what occurs. This is also so that, even if it should die, it may not depart without the seal. And because, on account of a father or mother of a different belief, the infant is baptized and yet not baptized, but is dipped into heresy; it has not yet sailed through life, and already it has suffered shipwreck. Before the perceptible garment, clothe the infant in the royal garment of Christ, so that you may boast that your child is like a king born into purple. ^C

...as for that word "pollution," it is the "pain" [of adultery]. ...of the wretched and foul stories of those who fill their life with them, and of most unseemly little fables, which perhaps nurses might say when they are striving to soothe the fretful [babies]... at what time will you say those words to Christ, being buried with Him, when you are about to depart? ...But you must speak the word first: "I renounce you, Satan, and your pomp, and your service, and I join myself to you, Christ." Remember those words and the covenant. When [the infant] neither recognizes those present, nor hears a voice, nor is able to respond those words, through which it will pledge the blessed covenant to our common Master of all. ^D "Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy," which is every heresy.

^A He who was not circumcised on the eighth day was cursed; he who is not baptized in grace is a stranger and an alien to the kingdom of heaven. For He who said in the Law, "Cursed is every male who is not circumcised on the eighth day; that soul shall be cut off from his people," the same One declared with an oath in grace: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

"For the End, concerning the eighth." For the End, why? Because at the beginning he said: "O Lord, rebuke me not in your fury." As some might say: "Was he heard? Where can we find that he was heard after the prayers?" He answers: "For the End." Read the end of the psalm, and you will find it saying: "Depart from me, all you who work iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping; the Lord has given ear to my supplication." When? "For the End."

^B "For the End, concerning the eighth." Why did the Lord rise on the eighth day? Because the first group of eight people, in the time of Noah, after the destruction of the old world, raised up a new world in our race. For when the world, having burned with the fever of fornication, died in sin and was buried in the waters of the flood, then the group of eight humans who had been kept in the ark raised up the world through the procreation of children. And that procreation is called resurrection, hear the words of the mother Eve when she gave birth to Seth: "For God has raised up for me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain killed." And the Law says: "If someone," it says, "dies without children, his brother shall take his wife and raise up seed to his brother." And this raising up was a renewal of the extinct and dead race. Since, therefore, the first resurrection of the race after the flood took place through eight humans, for this reason the Lord, as the firstborn, begins the resurrection of the dead on the eighth day; when, like Noah, He remained as if in an ark in the tomb, and put an end to the flood of impiety, and bestowed the baptism of regeneration, so that, having been buried with Him in baptism, we might become partners of His resurrection. Therefore, since the eighth day clearly proclaimed in the Law the resurrection of the dead and the retribution for each person's deeds, for this reason David, who had sinned with the wife of Uriah, prayed ^C for the eighth day and for the resurrection unto his own forgiveness, and said: "O Lord, rebuke me not in your fury, nor instruct me in your wrath." Here I repent and confess, O Master: "For there is no one in death who remembers you; and in Hades who will confess to you?"

"For the End, concerning the eighth, a psalm of David in hymns." And rightly did the eighth son of Jesse, and the father of Christ who arose on the eighth day, pray for the eighth. "For the End:" both of this life and of the crushing of the world. "The firstfruits is Christ; then those who are Christ's, at His coming."

^A *In finem pro octava*, both for His resurrection in glory and for the rising again of those who have sinned and repented. *In canticles or hymns*. That the laments of those who have sinned and repented may be turned into hymns. For just as the feasts of sinners are turned into mourning and their songs into lamentation—as God said, "I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation"—so, conversely, the laments of the penitent are transformed into hymns. *In finem in hymnis*, a psalm for David. A good work, the fruit of repentance, both for the prophet and for everyone sufficient in his own hand. For "bring forth fruits worthy of repentance." So that each one having repented and having brought forth fruit to God and to the poor, may say: "O Lord, do not rebuke me in Thy fury, nor chasten me in Thy wrath." Tell me, David: do you altogether beg off from rebuke and chastening? As it appears, you are fleeing from blessedness. For that the rebuke of God is the cause of blessedness is written in the book of Job: "Blessed is the man whom the Lord rebukes on earth." That to be chastened by the Lord is also a blessed thing, you yourself have said: "Blessed is the man whom Thou shalt chasten, O Lord." I do not flee from the rebuke, but from the rebuke with fury; nor do I refuse to be chastened, but I fear being chastened with wrath. I know that "whom the Lord loves, He chastens." Take away the fury from the rebuke and the wrath from the chastening; rebuke me as a friend and chasten me as a son. ^B "O Lord, do not rebuke me in Thy fury, nor chasten me in Thy wrath." If the fury rebukes me as a judge, immediately the wrath, as a right hand and neighbor to that fury, chastens me. For just as in a courtroom the one rebuked by the judge is scourged by the official, so in the divine judgment the one rebuked by the fury is chastened by the wrath. ^C This is the demonstration of extreme wrath, and of celestial victory, and of the equivalent punishment inflicted upon those who have raved against Him. Vain, too, are the learned men who attempt to cast out the word by force from the place it so aptly occupies; this is demonstrated, for instance, in the *Life of Basil the Younger*, 11 March: Which I explain thus: Constantine Ducas, having become more confident, and taking his own people with him, headed for the royal city. When he had entered it, with the sun already risen and being celebrated with immense praise by his escort, he went off to the palace, with an unhappy omen having been foreseen at his entrance, which presaged the future slaughter. For the sun, then most brilliant, as if in just retribution, let drip the purple of blood upon the earth. You will even find a spot almost impossible to heal in the *Chronicle of Hippolytus of Thebes*, Volume III of the collection of Henricus Canisius: and one must attend to the word, that God in His wisdom founded the world in seven ages.

^A Just as smoke, having tested the weakness of the eye, causes it to be stung by tears, and the acrimony becomes a torture to the eye; so when the fierce anger of God is kindled, it smokes with reproof and scourges with wrath. But the wrath and anger of God are not passions of God, but the just judgment and vengeance of God. For you heap up treasure for yourself in the day of wrath. It is not God who is heaping up for you, but you for yourself. Speak, O David; are you instructing God? Do you prescribe a sentence for the laws and decrees? Do you rein in the limits of the tongue of the Creator? He answers: I am not speaking as one giving orders, but as one wishing to enjoy His mercy. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak. ^B O the piety! The King utters the words of a scourged servant. Because he prayed not to be reproved in fury, nor to be corrected in anger, being dunned as a debtor and one liable for a deposit, and for the interest on his soul and body, and not having the wherewithal to return the capital intact, he pleaded: Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak. For he calls "weakness" now not the infirmity of the body, but the voluntary slackness of faith. But that there is a weakness of faith, the Apostle teaches: Him who is weak in faith, welcome. And elsewhere, concerning Abraham: And he was not weakened in faith, nor did he observe his own body as dead, in regard to the late conception of offspring.

In seven days He wrought the creation. Because He caused Cain to pay seven penalties. And to Lamech He gave the beginning. He translated Enoch, being the seventh, as one pleasing to God. He showed Abraham to be the father of many nations from the creation of the world. But even the Lord Himself is numbered as the seventy-seventh from Adam. And the fiftieth year of the jubilee, which is interpreted as remission, was honored for this reason. And the priestly ministry was performed in the seventh month. For the fiftieth day, being subtracted, the first day is worked. ^C Therefore, since David had been feverish with desire, he became sick in deed, because after the fever he sweated tears; for to him, feverish, the tears became sweat; and with the sweat of tears he watered his bed, as if he were a sick man lying in bed: I will wash my bed through every night; with my tears I will water my mat. Then, being dunned for the deposits of the soul and body, he put forward the weakness of his thoughts in order that he might be pitied, saying: Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak. Secure, O friend, the deposit and the debt of the soul and body. Strive to return that which you have received. Either return better things than you received, or at least the same as you received. You received gold and silver, soul and body, as a deposit. For if you, while lending gold out at interest, expect to receive the principal with interest and additions; but if the principal be brought to you without interest, you are vexed, ^D you are angry, and you are annoyed [alt-version omitted].

^A If, however, you are even lessened in the capital, you cast the debtor into courts and torture chambers; what then will God do, the usurer of soul and body? If indeed you offer him the two talents of soul and body with interest and increases, saying: "Lord, you delivered two talents unto me, the body and the soul; look, I have gained two other talents, by saving another man, soul and body." But if you offer him only the capital itself, saying: "Look, you have what is yours," he is indignant and angry. But if you do not even offer back whole what you received, then he delivers you to the tormentors, until you pay back all that is owed. ^B If, falling down, you worship in repentance and say: "Lord, be patient with me, and I will pay you back," then he reckons your confession and repentance as a payment of the capital. For if the debtor of ten thousand talents, by invoking the patience of God, made the bond void; and if he who is required to give an account of ten thousand souls, as a high priest or teacher, obtained the mercy of God through supplication, and the Lord, being moved with compassion, released him from all that was owed, how much more will each of us turn God to mercy by repenting of those things in which we have sinned, and by praying, and by confessing, and by saying: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak. ^C I am weak and languid, O Lord; do not deliver me to the tormenting angels, but hide the creditor and show the physician, and in your mercy take up me who have grown weak. Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled." He besought him who had disciplined and scourged him for sin to become his physician through repentance. And that God did discipline him, the psalmist himself is witness, saying: "The Lord has chastened me sorely, and he has not given me over unto death." And why does God discipline man through sickness? Because of disobedience and sins. For no one among men is without sin; wherefore no one is without sickness. That it is God who for each of the people through... ^D [No work in this portion: index/apparatus entries preserved] [In the left column text:] ...no work imperfect provides confidence to him who has performed it; rather it causes him to blush, as if he had not been able to reach the end of those things which he undertook. And some works indeed of craftsmen have a boundary and an end, towards which the goal of those beginning looks, and each of these is accomplished in no long time, being worked in materials, and having a fixed end, and waiting for the one who cuts them away. But virtue has a long distance.

^A God, who brings diseases upon one who has sinned, He Himself said through Moses to Israel: "If you diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and keep His commandments, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases which I brought upon the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you." By saying, "If you diligently listen, I will not bring a disease upon you," He showed that God brings diseases on account of disobedience and sins. For the Egyptians, because they disobeyed God and did not release Israel, were therefore sick and disciplined. And David, when he had heard the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder," ^B disobeyed, and because he was disciplined for this, he became infirm. "My wounds have grown foul and festered," he says, "because of my foolishness." Since, therefore, one who is disciplined by men can be healed by God, but one who is disciplined by God cannot be healed by man or angel, but by God alone, he is healed and cured: "For if a man sins against a man, they shall pray for him to the Lord; if a judge passes a sentence of death, a king rescinds the sentence; if a king has decreed, no one can rescind it." David urges the Lord, who had scourged him, to become his physician. "Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled." By bones he means not those of the body, but the strong powers of the thoughts, which had been troubled like waves, agitated by the spirit of fornication. For just as on the sea there is a beginning and as it were a meditation of shipwrecks in the churning of the waves; so in the soul, the beginning of adultery, fornication, and sin is the filthy churning of the thought of the mind.

For first the soul is stained by shameful desires as if with mud, and thus it falls into the shipwreck of fornication. ^C From one side it beholds the delights of the passions, from the other the threats of God. But just as sailors and pilots, when they see the sea beginning to be troubled by opposing winds, quickly and without delay steer toward the harbors and escape the danger, but if they remain outside, they are in peril; so you, whenever you are troubled by thoughts through the winds of pleasure, run at once to the harbor of the Church. There you will hear about temperance and chastity from the Scriptures and the teachers: "For God will judge fornicators and adulterers"; "that marriage is honorable"; that the Apostle says to the unmarried and the widows: "It is good for them if they remain even as I"; that "the virgins shall be led to the King"; ^D that "there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven." And before the fornication, confess your desire to God and say: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak," wrapped in the weakness of nature. "Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled": the thoughts of the soul, which take me captive to licentiousness and sins; "For the thought of man shall confess to You." But that he does not speak of the bones of the body, the following words show. For he subjoins: "And my soul is greatly troubled."