A We observe signs and predict rains; we apply reason to the things that grow from the earth and examine the natures of herbs, declaring one to be healing for the wounded, another suitable for sleep for one who cannot sleep, another for liver-ailments, and another for suppressing the swellings of the spleen. I pass over the sciences; I leave aside the necessary arts, and the varied circle of pursuits that subserve all nourishment. But such an animal, wise, practical, active, having a good memory, one that looks at things here and elsewhere, because it is dragged around by varied pleasures and diverse passions, suffers a lack of one thing: a true B rationale of life and of its own salvation. And you, who foresee the changes of the air, do you not see the resurrection? You who know the changes of the seasons, do you not behold the change of life? You who demand an accounting from your own servant for what he does, do you disregard the power of your judge and Lord?
These things are not of one endowed with reason, but of one who turns reason into folly. You do not practice justice, you do not learn virtue, you neglect prayer. And yesterday’s day made this evident. With what eyes, then, do you look at the Lord’s Day, you who have dishonored the Sabbath? Or do you not know that these days are sisters? And if you do violence to the one, do you not strike against the other? Having mind and reason, do you not foresee what is fitting and profitable, nor carry out with care the concern for your own immortality, nor examine your own nature, C what you are and what you are capable of becoming? Instead, by your belly, by lust, by idleness, and by sleep, you betray the gift of God and your benefactor, so that it becomes useless, unprofitable, and vain for you. This is most shameful, the mark of a childish mind, and worthy of heavy accusation. It would be a lesser evil if, not understanding from within ourselves and from our own selves what is expedient, we were at least to believe another who points out what is useful. But it is not so; rather, we are even greatly annoyed at our teachers, and we bear their admonition with difficulty, and we are burdened by their counsels. We feel nausea at the discipline of noble things, just as sickly D patients feel toward the food that physicians offer them. Even if a rebuke occurs, we grow angry; if we hear a somewhat harsh word, we are indignant; and if the doors of the church are closed to us by exclusion, we blaspheme. This is not the way of those learning, nor is it the obedience of disciples, but an ambition of seditious people and those who love to fight. For a student ought to occupy the place of a child, one who desires any art or science from the outside; but one who is practicing piety ought to be an infant with even greater addition, since the Lord also honored that age as being prone to obedience with His own praises. Therefore, the child does not break into the characters and lines that a teacher records upon the wax, nor does he innovate elements, acting with unrestrained license regarding the letters; but first he trains his hand to the teacher’s forms with the stylus; and he does not impose other names upon the elements.
than those he has heard, but in every way, by word and by deed, he imitates the teacher’s instruction. And if at any time, having grown negligent, he is punished with the rod, he does not grow bold on account of the blow, nor, having broken his tablets, does he run away from the teacher; but after shedding bitter tears for a short time due to the pain, he clings to his lessons, and becomes more intent upon his study, not more negligent. At other times, again, if as a young boy he is careless, he is ordered to remain without food, and is condemned to hunger for his sluggishness. Yet he remains in the schoolroom even alone, while the other boys have gone off to lunch, observing the command with great reverence. But the Christian is not so, he who has heard, "Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven," but B when he sees the priest correcting his fault somewhat harshly in manner and voice, he openly contradicts him, and grumbles between his teeth, and going about the forum and the streets, he showers abuse. And if he be excluded from the church, he holds prayer in contempt, withdrawing himself from the people and the mysteries without any pretense; or perhaps, even if not sentenced to this punishment, he removes himself from the church, moved by anger against the bishop, and turning his back on God and the Lord. Such a man must be told what was said to Paul, when he was still Saul: "It is hard for you, O man, to kick against the goads." Whether you have dismissed God from yourself, consider that he who is separated from the sun spends his life in darkness and gloom; or if you have been debarred from prayers as unworthy, recall your former state through repentance.
No falsehood or lie is written in the Gospels, nor does Christ’s prediction have a fallacious outcome. Through Peter, He gave the bishops the key C of the heavenly honors; know that if you are loosed, you are loosed, and if bound, you are held fast by invisible bonds. If you had eyes with which to perceive the substance of the soul, I would show you, who have been driven away from communion, the form of one condemned, his neck pressed down by most heavy bonds, having no member free or at liberty. And would that the punishment were ended with this life! But now, if some human fate befalls, and death suddenly approaches like a thief in the night, know that the things that are there are closed to you. The doorkeepers of that kingdom are diligent and do not play; they see the soul bearing the marks of excommunication. As if marked by the stench and filth of a prison house, they drive it from the path which leads to good things. They do not allow it to see D the ranks of the righteous, and the angelic joy; but then the wretched soul, vehemently accusing itself for its own foolishness, wailing and lamenting, and groaning, will remain for eternity in a certain sad place, as if cast into a corner, paying the penalty for an unending and uncomforted mourning. "Do not," He says, "become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding; whose jaws must be held
A in bit and bridle." The Psalm, softening the hard and stubborn of heart, says these things, and as it were, soothes them with the oil of exhortation. Bend your neck, therefore, and submit to the commandments as if they were a yoke. That which is hard is broken, but that which yields and bends is made straight; experience with plants teaches you this as well. Do not, by biting the bit, rush into a precipice or a chasm, but, having turned your neck to the hand of the rider, be guided toward the saving path; when you receive a rebuke, say from a pious soul that Davidic verse: "It is good for me that You have humbled me, that I may learn Your statutes." Do not think that excommunication B proceeds from episcopal arrogance; the law is paternal, an ancient regulation of the Church which drew its origin from the Law and was strengthened in grace. Behold holy Paul sending forth by his Epistles the decrees of excommunication against those liable, and healing with such a medicine the Corinthian youth who, urged on by satanic madness, had mixed with his stepmother: "For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives." For the roots of training are not sweet, but bitter; yet they bring forth fruit hereafter sweeter than honeycombs. And for this reason, there is need for the one C who is being trained to toil, and for the one who trains, both of the lash and of severity. And while in the Mosaic Law the four tens of stripes remain in force, this is not so in the gospel life, since the discourse is of all these things: mercy and a rod, exhortation and a blow. For we do not strike you as a slave, but we discipline you as one who is free; for your lineage is from Sarah the free woman, not from Hagar the slave. We respect you as the son of the free woman, we do not dishonor you D as the offspring of the bondwoman; for this reason we afflict you with free rebukes when you fall into sin, not pricking the body, but tormenting the soul. But if we were to refrain from this, by what method would we discipline you? The manner of teaching is difficult in its treatment, and the training of virtue requires a varied administration of governance, adapting itself to the characters as they present themselves. Is there someone who is obedient and easily led in his intention? For him, a gentle and mild discourse is appropriate. Is there another who is hard and unteachable? He stands in need of lashes. What, then, shall we do, since we do not employ rods? Shall we leave him without care? Not so. But we shall adapt the same discourse to another form appropriate to the existing need; and just as food is changed into opposite qualities by the small addition of seasonings, being transformed from the astringent to the sweet, and from the sweet to the astringent, so also does our discourse transform itself through the addition of figures for various uses, so that what is appropriate for the education of each may be understood. Do not, therefore, speak against me in the corners, calling the way of teaching harsh, nor, by making the companions of your sins the partners of your complaints against me, sit in judgment of a bishop with a gathering of vanity
A I, for my part, will not be inwardly troubled as if I were suffering something new, if the more stubborn of my disciples are indignant. For this is a certain peculiar human passion which accompanies life from beginning to end; and he who rules others, to those who are altogether unruly, is burdensome and heavy, and indeed is even hateful to the wicked and the unjust: for whoever forbids sin, produces pain. And this, aside from matters that occur externally, ecclesiastical history sufficiently teaches me.
Who was a more excellent shepherd than Moses? Who was a ruler so moderate and gentle, who became everything for the people: nourisher, commander, priest, a true father, saving them in war, providing in the desert goods neither sown nor tilled by plow, judging fittingly, an unerring guide of the way; and yet, for all this, he was agitated by seditions as if he were an oppressor, attacked with abuse as if he were harming them, murmured against as if he were a thief and a plunderer, slandered as an unskilled commander and a bad leader, and he even risked B being expelled from the very office of the priesthood, when Dathan and Abiron and the sons of Core, taking a seditious crowd of the people with them, profane as they were, struggled with great effort to be priests of the holy things, and took up the censers, and as soon as they touched the holy things, the mystic fire, which consumed those offering incense before the incense itself, burned them up.
And so prone to offense is the leadership of the people and the task of teaching, that not even the brothers of Moses spared him: but even Mary spoke against him, and Aaron reviled him, and the heavy burden of power provoked their natural C goodwill, and made even those most intimate to the hardworking man rise up against him. But this was nothing to him: for he was Moses, and he became nothing worse than himself; but from those who had sinned against the leader, God exacted the punishments, which they paid.
What of those who were after him? Was not Isaiah, while teaching piety, sawn asunder? Was not Jeremiah, while crying out against the worship of idols, shouted down, and did not pits and the torments of waterfalls receive him? Was not Zacharias, between the temple and the altar, attacked in conflict and slain? Does not our Lord Himself, the Shepherd, D suffer slaughter on behalf of the sheep? Was He not, having been hated for the sake of those whom He was instructing, nailed to the cross? What severed the head of Paul? What lifted Peter to the cross? What handed over each of the disciples to various torments? Was it not that they forbade sin and taught justice? For the lovers and teachers of the truth are always hateful to the disciples whom they reprove. But we have not yet been struck on the cheek for the sake of the truth, nor have we yet undergone danger to the body. And what great thing is it for us to murmur, who are the ministers of the Crucified? As a father or mother, I embrace your insolence and exacerbations.