On Repentance

ON REPENTANCE, HAVING RETURNED FROM THE COUNTRY

^A HOMILY I. 1. The affection and solicitude of Chrysostom for the people. He emulates Paul, who was again in labor for his children. — Were you mindful of us, while we were separated from you during this intervening time? For my part, I was never able to forget you; and although I left the city, I did not leave behind the memory of you. But just as those who are in love with beautiful bodies, wherever they depart, carry with them a vision dearly longed for, so also we, having fallen in love with the beauty of your soul, always carry with us the comeliness of your mind. And just as painters, blending various colors, fashion images of bodies, so also we, mingling your zeal in the assemblies, your readiness in listening, your benevolence toward the speaker, and all other successes—like diverse colors of virtue—and sketching the character of your soul, and placing it before the eyes of our mind, we received sufficient consolation for our absence through this fantasy. And this we did, seated at home and rising, walking and resting, entering and exiting, constantly turning [these things] over, dreaming of your love; and not by day only, but even at night we luxuriated in these fantasies. And that which Solomon said, *I sleep and my heart keeps watch* (Cant. 5:2), this we also experienced then. For the necessity of sleep would close our eyelids, but the tyranny of my love for you would awaken the eyes of our mind; and often I seemed to be conversing with you in a dream. For the soul is naturally disposed to imagine at night whatever it contemplates by day; which was precisely what happened to us then. And not seeing you with the eyes of the flesh, I saw you with the eyes of love, and not being present with you in body, I was present in [my] disposition, and my ears were constantly resounded by your cry. Therefore, when even the infirmity of my body compelled me to linger there longer, and the benefit of the air to enjoy health of flesh, the violence of my love for you would not endure this, but cried out, and did not cease troubling [me] until it persuaded me to arise even before the proper time, and counseled me to consider your fellowship health, delight, and every good thing whatsoever. Persuaded by this, we chose rather to return while still having remnants of the infirmity, than by purely setting aside the weakness of the body, to grieve your love for any longer. For indeed, while staying there, I heard of your grievances, and continuous letters were bringing these to me; for indeed, I paid attention to those who accused [you] no less than to those who praised [you]; for those complaints were of a soul that knows how to love. And for this reason, having arisen, I ran; ^B for this reason I was never able to cast you out of my mind. And what is wonderful if I, while lingering in the country and enjoying leisure, was mindful of your love, where Paul, encumbered with chains and inhabiting a prison, and seeing ten thousand dangers hanging over him, passing his time in the prison as if in a meadow, was thus mindful of the brethren, and writing said: *As it is right for me to think this about you, because I have you in my heart, both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel* (Phil. 1:7)? Outside, there was a chain from [his] enemies, and inside, a chain from the affection of his disciples; but the one outside was forged from iron, the other inside was begotten from love; and that one he often even put aside, but this one he never broke; but just as women who have experienced labor and have become mothers are constantly bound to the children they have brought forth, wherever they may be, so also Paul, or rather much more vehemently than them, was always nailed to his disciples, and [is so] by so much the more, as the births of the Spirit are warmer than natural births. For indeed, he also was in labor not once, but even twice for the same [people], and he cried out, saying: *My little children, whom I am again in labor with* (Gal. 4:19). And yet, a woman would never suffer this, nor would she endure the same labor pains again; but Paul endured this, which it is not possible to see in nature: to regain those once born, and to endure again the sharp labor pains on their behalf. For this reason, also, wishing to put them to shame, he said, *Whom I am again in labor with*; as if to say: "Spare me; no son has ever stretched the maternal womb with labor pains for a second time, which you compel me to suffer." And yet those labor pains stretch [the womb] in one moment of time, and with the child having slipped out of the womb, they depart along with it; but these [spiritual pains] not so, but they remain even for whole months; for Paul was often in labor for a whole year, and did not bring forth those being conceived. And there [in nature] is the pain of the flesh, but here, the pangs do not stretch the womb, but they shred the very strength of the soul. And so that you might learn that these labor pains are hotter: who has ever wished to endure hell on behalf of children brought forth? But this [man] not only chooses to endure hell, but even ^D prays to be anathema from Christ (Rom. 9:3) in order to be able to bring forth the Jews, whom he was always and continuously in labor with, and because this did not happen, he was pained, saying, *I have great sorrow and continuous pain in my heart* (Rom. 9:2). And here again: *My little children, whom I am again in labor with, until Christ is formed in you* (Gal. 4:19). What could be more blessed than that womb, which was able to bring forth such children, so as to have Christ in themselves; or what more fertile, than that which brought forth the whole world; or what more powerful, which, [when the children] had fallen into abortion after being born and having grown, was able to regain them again and fashion them anew?

^A

Homily I. Chapter 1. The love and solicitude of Chrysostom for his people. He emulates Paul, who travails in birth for his children again.

For it is impossible in the case of physical births. But why did he not say: "My little children, whom I bear again," but rather: "of whom I am in travail"? For elsewhere he says that he begets them: "For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you" (1 Cor. IV, 15). There, therefore, he wished to show only his kinship, but here he endeavored also to set his pain before them. For how does he call those children whom he has not yet brought forth? If he is in travail, he has not yet brought forth: how, then, does he call them children? That you might learn that he was not then tormented by the first birth-pains—which was enough to make them blush. For, he says, having once been a father, and having endured the labor due for your birth, and you having once become children: why are you sending me again into a second travail? The labor pains one experiences in the beginning are enough; why do you torment me a second time with pains? For the falls of the faithful brought him no less labor than those who had not yet believed. For it was intolerable, after the communion of such ^B mysteries, to see some deliberately declining toward impiety. Wherefore, he groaned very bitterly and more piteously than any woman, saying: "My little children, of whom I am in travail again, until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. IV, 19). He was saying this, however, so that he might instill into them both confidence and fear simultaneously. For when he shows that Christ is not formed in them, he strikes them with fear and agony; when he demonstrates that He can be formed, he instills confidence again. For when it is said, "until He be formed," both are shown: that He is not yet formed, and that He can be formed again. For if it were impossible, he would have spoken to them in vain—saying, "Until Christ be formed in you"—and would have fed them with vain hope.

Knowing these things, therefore, let us never despair, but let us not be lazy either; for both of these things are destructive. Despair does not allow the fallen to rise, while laziness makes even the one standing to fall. The former is wont to deprive us of the goods we have already attained, while the latter does not allow us to be delivered from the evils by which we are pressed. And neglect, indeed, thrusts us down from our very path, but despair leads us into the very abyss of malice, just as if we do not despair, ^C we are quickly led back from there. But consider the power of both: the devil was once good; but being lazy, and despairing, he fell, and was overwhelmed by so much malice that he will not rise again in the future. For that he was good, hear what is said: "I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven" (Luke X, 18). For the likeness of lightning shows both the brightness of his former behavior and the speed of his fall. Paul was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and proud; but because he labored and did not fall from hope, he rose again and became equal to the angels. Judas was an apostle, but because he was lazy, he became a traitor. A thief, again, after so much malice, because he did not fall from hope, enters paradise before the others. The Pharisee, trusting in the very pinnacle of virtue, fell into the depths; the publican, because he did not despair, was so raised up that he surpassed him. Do you want me to show you that a whole city did this? The city of the Ninevites was ^D saved exactly in this way; yet the proclamation that had already gone forth had driven them from hope. For it did not say, "If they repent, they shall be saved," but only: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown" (Jon. III, 4). But nevertheless, with God threatening and the prophet crying out, and the sentence admitting no delay, nor any distinction, they did not fall in their souls, nor did they lose hope. For this reason He did not append a distinction, nor did He say, "If they repent, they will be saved," so that they, hearing God's absolute sentence without distinction, might not fall from hope, but, looking to that example, might not despair. Nor in that alone is it possible to see God's clemency—in that, with no distinction applied to the sentence, He was nevertheless reconciled to the penitents—but even from the fact that it was issued absolutely. For wishing to increase fear and to touch their enormous laziness, He brought this about, and by the very timing of the repentance He revealed His ineffable clemency. For how could three days have sufficed for such great malice to be wiped away? Do you see how the providence of God appears even from that? For this contributed all the more to the salvation of that city.

Despair is the devil's weapon.

Knowing these things, therefore, let us never fall from hope. For there is no weapon of the devil so powerful as despair; therefore, we do not make him glad so much by sinning as by despairing. Hear, in the case of the fornicator, that Paul feared despair more than the sin. For writing to the Corinthians, he speaks thus: "It is absolutely reported that there is fornication among you, and such as is not even named among the Gentiles" (1 Cor. V, 1). He did not say, "Which they do not even dare to name among the Gentiles," but "not even named": that which is intolerable for them even by name, you have dared in deed. "And you are puffed up?" (Ibid., v. 2). And he did not say, "He is puffed up," but, dismissing the one who had sinned, he addresses the healthy—just as physicians do, who, dismissing the sick, have more discourse with their relatives. Otherwise, these were the authors of all his arrogance, because they did not correct him nor terrify him. He therefore made the crime communal, so that the healing of the wound might be easy. It is a grave sin indeed, but it is much graver to be puffed up in sin. For if to be puffed up about righteousness is an evacuation of righteousness, much more, if this happens in sins, will it bring us the greatest loss, and be a crime greater than the sins themselves. Therefore he says: "When you have done all the things that are commanded you, say that we are unprofitable servants" (Luke XVII, 10). For if those who do everything ought to cast themselves down, much more does it behoove the sinner to mourn and to consider himself the lowest of all. Showing this, he then said: "And have you not rather mourned?" (1 Cor. V, 2). What are you saying? Another has sinned, and I shall weep? Yes, he says; we are joined together like body and limbs; but in a body, even if the foot receives a wound, we see the head inclined to the ground. And what is more honorable than that? But yet it does not know its own dignity in a time of calamity; do the same yourself. Therefore, Paul also advises: "Rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep."

^A For if you do not weep for the one who has done this deed, perhaps you are not yet sufficiently grieving for the common disease and plague that has seized the city? As if he were saying: "There is need of prayer and confession and supplication, so that the malady may be driven from the entire city." Do you see how much fear he hangs over them? Because they thought the evil had stopped at that point alone, he makes them anxious by saying: "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" (1 Cor. 5.6). What he says is like this: "The evil, moving along its path, will also touch the other members; therefore, as those who are deliberating over common evils, so must you be solicitous." Do not say to me this, that he alone sinned, but consider this, that the evil is a kind of putrefaction, and it grazes upon the entire remaining body. And just as when a house is burning, those who have not yet received the evil are no less urgent than those who are in the calamity, and they contribute everything, so that the fire, spreading, may not come to their own doors; so also Paul excites these people, saying: "It is a fire, let us forestall the evil; let us extinguish the conflagration before it invades the Church; but if you have disregard for the sin as one that has occurred in a foreign body, then indeed it is the same ^B even if you think so mistakenly; for he is a member of the whole body."

3. Verily, consider this, that if you are slothful and look past it, at some time it will also seize you. So, if not for the sake of your brother, then at least for your own sake, be roused and stay the plague and forestall the putrefaction and cut off the spread. Having said these things, and more than these, and having commanded that he be delivered to Satan, he says afterward—since he had changed and become better—"Sufficient to such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the many; so that you ought to confirm your love toward him" (2 Cor. 2.8). Since he had made him a common enemy and foe to all, and cast him out of the flock and cut him off from the body, see how much zeal he uses, so that he might glue and join him back again. For he did not say, "Love him simply," but, "Confirm your love toward him," that is, display your friendship as firm and immovable, ^C introduce a goodwill, warm and boiling and burning, balanced against the former hostility. What has happened, tell me? Did you not deliver him to Satan? "Yes," he says, "but not that he should remain in the hands of Satan, but that he might quickly be delivered from his tyranny." But as I was saying, see how Paul fears despair, as a great weapon of the devil; for having said, "Confirm your love toward him," he also adds the reason: "Lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up by overmuch sorrow." He is in the throat of the wolf, he says; let us therefore make haste, let us snatch him away beforehand, before he swallows and destroys our member. The ship is now in a tempest; let us be eager to rescue it before the shipwreck. For just as when the sea is stirred up and waves are rising on all sides, the hull becomes submerged, so also a soul, hemmed in on all sides by despondency, is quickly choked, unless it has someone reaching out a hand; and the godly sorrow for sins becomes destructive through [inmoderation]. And see how he spoke precisely; for he did not say, "Lest the devil destroy him," but what? ^D "Lest we be taken advantage of by Satan" (2 Cor. 2.11); for "pleonexia" (taking advantage) is to covet the things of others. Showing therefore that he has become a stranger to him by now, and has made himself own to that of Christ’s flock through repentance, he says: "Lest we be taken advantage of by Satan." For if he keeps hold of him now, he is snatching our members, he is taking the sheep of the flock; for he had put away his sin through repentance. Therefore, Paul, knowing what the devil did in the case of Judas, feared lest the same thing happen here. And what did he do in the case of Judas? Judas repented; "I have sinned," he said, "in betraying innocent blood" (Math. 27.4). The devil heard these words; he knew he was beginning the journey to the better way and was entering upon the path, and he forestalled the change. "He has a man-loving Master," he said; "when he was about to betray Him, He wept for him and exhorted him with myriad words; will He not much more receive him now that he is repenting?" He had drawn to Himself and called the one who was uncorrected; will He not much more draw to Himself the one who has corrected himself and recognized his sin? For it was for this that He came even to be crucified. What therefore did he do? He troubled him; he darkened him with the excess of his despondency, he pursued him, he drove him until he led him to the noose, and he removed him from the present life and deprived him of the zeal for repentance. For that, if he had lived, he too would have been saved, is evident from those who crucified Him; for if He saved those who raised Him upon the cross, and on the very cross He exhorted the Father, and granted forgiveness to them for their daring, it is manifest that even the one who betrayed Him, if he had shown repentance by the appropriate law, He would have received with all kindness; but he did not have the strength to remain in the medicine, being swallowed up by overmuch sorrow. This, therefore, Paul also fearing, urges the Corinthians to snatch the man from the throat of the devil. And what need is there to speak of the Corinthians? Peter, after the communion of the mysteries, denied Him thrice, and by weeping wiped away everything. Paul, being a persecutor and a blasphemer and an abuser, and persecuting not only the Crucified, but all who were His, having repented, became an apostle. For God seeks from us only a slight pretext, and He grants us the forgiveness of many sins. I will tell you a parable that guarantees this very thing.

4. There were two brothers; and having divided the paternal substance between them, each one, one of them remained at the house; but the other, having devoured all that was given to him, moved off to a foreign land, [bearing the shame] from one's poverty. I was led to speak this parable so that you might learn that there is also forgiveness for sins after baptism, if we pay attention; I speak, not that I may cast you into sloth, but that I may lead you away from despair; for despair works for us evils worse than sloth. This son, therefore, bears the image of those who have fallen after the bath. That it indicates those who have fallen after baptism is clear from this: for he is called a son; and no one could be called a son without baptism. And "the house" indicates the paternal [inheritance], and "the patrimony" [which they had divided].

^A Since he has fallen into the deepest malice, he says: I will return to my father (Luke 15:18). For this very reason, the father had let him go, and had not prevented him from departing into a strange land, so that he might learn by experience how great a benefit he had enjoyed while remaining at home. For often, when God does not persuade with words, He allows instruction to come through the experience of events. This is what He also said to the Jews; for since He had expended infinite words through the prophets and did not persuade or entice them, He allows them to be corrected by scourges, saying to them: Your apostasy shall correct you and your malice shall reprove you (Jer. 2:19). It would have been necessary for Him to be deemed worthy of faith even before the event of the things themselves; but because they were so senseless as to not believe at the moment when He was counseling them, having first restrained them from obeying malice, He allowed them to be corrected by the event of things, so that by this means He might recover them. ^B Therefore, after the prodigal son, having departed, had learned through the events themselves what a misfortune it is to fall away from a father’s house, and returned, the father was not mindful of the injury, but received him with open arms. Why so? Because he was a father, and not a judge. And there followed dances, and banquets, and festive assemblies, and the whole house was filled with joy. What are you saying? Are these the rewards of malice? Not of malice, O man, but of a return; not of sin, but of repentance; not of wickedness, but of a change for the better. And what is greater, the elder son was indignant at these things; but he—the father—gently assuaged even him, saying: "Because you are always with me, but this one was lost and is found; he was dead and has come to life again" (Luke 15:31-32). For when it is necessary to save the lost, he says, it is not the time for judgment, nor for a more rigorous examination, but only for mercy and forgiveness. For no physician, having ceased the use of medicines, would exact punishment from the patient for his intemperance. But if it were necessary for him to pay a penalty, he paid enough while he was living in a strange land. ^C For being separated from us for so much time, and struggling with hunger, disgrace, and supreme evils, he suffered deeply; therefore he says, "He was lost and is found; he was dead and has come to life again." For he says: do not look at the present, but consider the magnitude of his former calamity. You see a brother, not a stranger; he has returned to a Father who cannot even remember the least of his former faults, but who rather remembers only those things which can move one to compassion, mercy, clemency, and indulgence appropriate to parents. Therefore, he did not mention what he had done, but what he had suffered: he did not remember that he had squandered his substance, but that he had been struggling with countless evils. Thus also he sought the sheep with such eagerness, or even greater; for here the son himself returned, but there the shepherd himself went away, and finding it, brought it back, and rejoiced over it more than over the others that were safe. See, moreover, how he brought it back: he did not scourge it, but carrying it on his shoulders, he returned it to the flock (Luke 15:5). ^D You see that God is not turned away by sins, but receives those who return with no less joy than those who have acted rightly; and not only does He not demand penalties, but He sets out on an inquiry for those who have wandered, and rejoices more over those who have been found than over the others who persevere in a safe place. Let us, therefore, neither despair when we are weighed down by sins, nor be confident when we abound in good works; but even when we have acted rightly, let us be fearful, lest we fall through overconfidence, and when we have fallen, let us perform penance. For what I said at the beginning, I say also now: these two things—for the one who stands to be arrogant, and for the one who has fallen to despair—are the betrayal of our salvation. Wherefore, making those who stand more cautious, Paul says: "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." And again: "I fear lest perhaps, while preaching to others, I myself should become a castaway" (1 Cor. 10:12; 9:27). But raising up those who have fallen, and exciting them to greater zeal, he testified when writing to the Corinthians thus: "Lest perhaps I should have to mourn many of those who have sinned before and have not done penance" (2 Cor. 12:21), showing that not so much those who sin, as those who do not do penance, are worthy of tears. And the prophet says to them: "Does he who falls not rise again, or does he who has turned away not return?" (Jer. 8:4). Wherefore also exhorting them, David says: "Today if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the provocation" (Ps. 94:8). As long, therefore, as it is called "today," let us not be discouraged; but having good hope in the Lord, and reflecting upon the ocean of His clemency, and casting out every evil consciousness, let us with great hope and purpose adhere to virtue, and show penance in a greater manner, so that, by putting aside all our sins here, we might be able to stand with great confidence before the judgment seat of Christ, and obtain the kingdom of heaven. May we all happen to be partakers of this, by the grace and clemency of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, and honor, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ON REPENTANCE, AND ON THE SORROW OF KING AHAB, AND ON THE PROPHET JONAH. HOMILY II.

a'. Do you see the past war and victory, a war of the devil, but a victory of Christ? Do you see how repentance was praised, and the devil could not bear the blow, but feared and trembled? Why do you fear, O devil, while repentance is praised? Why do you groan? Why do you tremble? "I groan and am afflicted," he says, "and with good reason: this repentance has snatched from me great vessels." Which ones, finally? The harlot, the publican, the robber, the blasphemer. For truly, his vessels were without doubt...

^A His vessels repentance has snatched away, and it has overthrown his very citadel; and he carries the mortal wound given by repentance. You will understand this, beloved, from what experience has recently shown. Why, then, do we not enjoy such discourse, and why do we not meet in the church every day, embracing repentance? Even if you are a sinner, enter the church, that you may speak your sins; even if you are righteous, enter, that you may not fall from righteousness; for the Church is a harbor for both. Are you a sinner? Do not despair, but enter, setting repentance before you. Have you sinned? Say to God, "I have sinned." What labor is this? What going about? What fatigue? What distress is it to say the word, "I have sinned"? For if you do not say that you are a sinner yourself, do you not have the devil as your accuser? Anticipate him, and seize his dignity; for it is his dignity to accuse. Why, then, do you not anticipate him, and speak the sin, and blot out the transgression, knowing that you have such an accuser who cannot keep silent? Have you sinned? Enter the church, say to God, "I have sinned." I require nothing else of you but this alone. For Holy Scripture says: "Be the first to tell your transgressions, that you may be justified"; speak the sin, that you may destroy the sin. There is no labor in this, nor circuit of words, nor expense of money, nor anything else of that kind; speak the word, ^B be grateful for the sin, and say, "I have sinned." And whence, he says, is this, that if I speak the sin first, I destroy the sin? I have in Scripture both the one who spoke and destroyed it, and the one who did not speak and was condemned. Cain killed his brother Abel, being seized by envy, so that murder followed upon the envy; and having taken him into the field, he slew him. And what does God say to him? "Where is Abel your brother?" He who knows all things asks, not out of ignorance, but drawing the murderer to repentance. For that He asked not out of ignorance, He showed: "Where is Abel your brother?" But he said, "I know not; am I my brother's keeper?" Granted, you are not his keeper; why were you also his slayer? You did not keep him; why did you also kill him? Yet do you acknowledge these things? You are the cause of the custody. What, then, does God say to him? "The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the earth." He rebuked him immediately and brought punishment upon him, not so much for the murder as for the impudence; for God does not so much hate him who sins ^C as him who behaves shamelessly. Indeed, He does not receive Cain coming to repentance, because he did not say his sin first. For what does he say? "My sin is greater than that it may be forgiven"; that is, I have sinned greatly; I am not worthy to live. What, then, does God say to him? "You shall be groaning and trembling upon the earth"; and He declared a terrible and grievous punishment for him. "I do not kill you," He says, "so that the truth may not be hidden in oblivion, but I make you a law to be read by all, that your calamity may be the mother of philosophy." And Cain went about, a living law, a moving, silent pillar, and sending forth a voice more brilliant than a trumpet. "Let no one do such things," it says, "that he may not suffer such things." He received the punishment for his impudence, and having not said it, but having been convicted, he was condemned for the sin. For if he had confessed it to himself, he might have been one who blotted out the sin first. ^D 2. But that you may learn that these things have it in this way, learn how another man who spoke first destroyed his sin. Let us come to David, the prophet and king; or rather, I willingly call him by his prophecy: for the kingdom reached to Palestine, but the prophecy to the ends of the inhabited world; and the kingdom was small and destroyed by time, but the prophecy carries immortal words. It is more desirable for the sun to be extinguished than for the words of David to be consigned to oblivion. He fell into adultery and murder; for he saw, he says, a beautiful woman bathing, and he lusted after her; then he brought what seemed good to him into action. And the prophet was in adultery, the pearl in the mire. But he did not yet know that he had sinned; thus was he intoxicated by the passion. For when the charioteer is drunk, the chariot also is carried along in disorder; and what the charioteer and chariot are, this the soul and body are: if the soul is darkened, the body also rolls in the mire; for as long as the charioteer stands, the chariot also is driven well; whenever, however, he is weak, and is not able to be in control of the reins, the chariot itself is seen in more terrible straits. So it is also with man; as long as the soul is sober and watchful, the body itself is in purity; as soon as the soul is darkened, the body itself rolls in mire and pleasure. What then of David? He committed adultery; but he did not know it, nor was he rebuked by anyone, and this in his extreme old age, that you may learn that, if you are slothful, neither old age benefits you, nor, on the other hand, if you are diligent, can youth harm you. For it is not the habit of the age, but the achievement of the judgment; since Daniel also was twelve years old, and he used to judge; but the elders, ancient in days, carried out the drama of adultery, and neither did old age benefit them, nor did youth harm him. And that you might learn that things of temperance are judged not by age, but by judgment, David, being in his very old age, and then having fallen into adultery, committed murder, and was disposed in such a way as not to know that he had sinned; for the charioteer, the mind, was drunk from incontinence. What then does God do? He sends to him Nathan the prophet: the prophet comes to the prophet: for so it happens also with physicians; when a physician is sick, he is in need of another physician. The same also here: the prophet was the one who had sinned, and a prophet was the one bringing the medicines. Nathan therefore comes to him, and does not rebuke him straightway from the doors...

^A Nathan did not immediately rebuke him from the very threshold, nor did he say: "You wicked and detestable man, you adulterer and murderer; you have been showered with so many honors by God, and yet you have violated His commandments!" Nathan said nothing of the sort, lest he render him more shameless; for when sins are publicly proclaimed, the person who has sinned is provoked to even greater impudence. He comes, therefore, to him and weaves a fictitious story about a lawsuit, saying: "I have a dispute with you, O king! There was a certain rich man and a certain poor man; the rich man had many flocks and herds, but the poor man had only one ewe-lamb, which drank from his cup, ate from his table, and slept in his bosom." In this place, he signifies the man's affection for his wife. "When a certain stranger had arrived, the rich man, sparing his own, slaughtered the poor man's lamb." ^B Do you see how he weaves the story here, holding the steel concealed under a sponge? What then, O king? Thinking he was passing judgment against another, he pronounced sentence as quickly as possible. For this is how men usually act: they readily and severely pass and pronounce judgments against others. And what says David? "The Lord lives, the man is worthy of death, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold." What then, Nathan? He did not soften the blow after an interval of many hours, but immediately laid it bare and applied the sudden incision, lest he remove the sense of pain. "You are the man, O king." What then does the king say? "I have sinned against the Lord," he says. He did not say: "Who are you to rebuke me? Who sent you to speak so freely? By what boldness were you prompted to do this?" He said nothing of the kind, but acknowledged the sin, and what does he say? "I have sinned against the Lord." What then does Nathan say to him? "The Lord also has put away your sin. You condemned yourself; I accord you the penalty: you have confessed the sin in good faith, you have blotted out the sin. You brought the punishment upon yourself; I have rescinded my sentence." Do you see how that which is written was fulfilled: "Declare your iniquities first, that you may be justified"? What labor is it to declare sins first?

On the second tears of repentance: the example of Ahab is brought forward.

You have another way of repentance: what then is that? To weep for sin. Have you sinned? Weep, and you wash away the sin. What labor is this? I require nothing more of you than that you weep for the sin: I do not tell you to cross the seas, or to take refuge in harbors, or to undertake a journey, or to set out on a very long pilgrimage, or to count out money, or to commit yourself to savage waves; but what? Weep for the sin committed. But how, he asks, does it happen that if I weep, I solve the sin? You have the demonstration of this even from the Scripture. There was a certain king, Ahab; this man is said to have been righteous. ^C Nevertheless, because of Jezebel his wife, he ruled unjustly. He coveted the vineyard of a certain Naboth the Jezreelite, and sent to him, saying: "Give me your vineyard, which I have coveted; and either take money from me, or exchange it for another place." But he said: "Be it far from me that I should sell you the inheritance of my fathers!" Ahab, however, was desiring the vineyard, but he was unwilling to use force, so that he even fell into illness because of it. Jezebel, however, entering to him—an impudent, desperate, unclean, and detestable woman—said: "Why are you sad, and why do you not eat? Rise and eat; I will cause you to possess the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite." And taking [authority], she wrote a letter in the king's name to the elders, saying: "Proclaim a fast, and set up lying men against Naboth, because he has blessed God and the king"—that is, he has blasphemed. O fast filled with the highest iniquity! They proclaimed a fast, to commit murder. What then happened? Naboth was stoned, and he died. When Jezebel learned this, she said to Ahab: "Rise, let us possess the vineyard; for Naboth is dead." But he, though saddened at the time, nevertheless entered in and possessed the vineyard. God sends the prophet Elijah to him. "Go," He says, "say to Ahab: 'Because you have killed and taken possession, thus shall your blood be poured out; and dogs shall lick your blood, and harlots shall wash in your blood.'" ^D The anger was sent forth from God, the sentence was absolute, the punishment was fulfilled. And see where He sends him: into the vineyard. Where there is iniquity, there also is punishment. And what does he say? When he caught sight of him, Ahab said: "You have found me, my enemy," as if to say: "You have caught me as a guilty man, because I have sinned; now the opportunity has been given to you to insult me. You have found me, my enemy." Because Elijah was always rebuking Ahab, Ahab, knowing he had sinned, said: "You were always rebuking me; now, however, you insult me at the opportune time." For he knew he had sinned. In return, he recites the sentence to him: "Thus says the Lord: 'Because you have killed and taken possession, and have poured out the blood of a righteous man, thus shall your blood be poured out, and dogs shall lick it, and harlots shall wash in your blood.'" When Ahab had heard these things, he was saddened, and he wept for his sin. He acknowledged the iniquity, and God revoked the sentence that had been laid upon him. But God first excused Himself to Elijah, lest He perchance appear a liar, and that should happen to him which happened to Jonah; for Jonah suffered something similar. God said to him: "Go, preach in the city of Nineveh, in which dwell one hundred and twenty thousand people besides women and children: Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Jonah was unwilling to go, as he was aware of God's mercy; but what does he do? He turns to flight; for he says, "I shall go to preach: but since You are merciful, You will change Your sentence; and I, as a false prophet, shall be put to death." Nevertheless, the encompassing sea did not hide him, but returned him to the land, and kept him safe and unharmed in Nineveh, and like an excellent conservator, it kept his fellow-servant. For, it says, Jonah went down to flee, and found a ship going to Tarshish, and gave its fare, and went up into it.

^A And the Lord is the earth and the fullness thereof. But to the sea? Do you not know that the sea is His, and He made it? But to heaven? Have you not heard David saying: I shall see the heavens, the works of your fingers? Yet nevertheless, he, seized by fear, fled in appearance; for to flee from God in truth is impossible. Nevertheless, when the sea restored him and he came to Nineveh, he preached, saying: Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. But in order that you may learn that he gave himself to flight with this in mind—that since God is merciful, He repents of the evil He spoke concerning them, and he himself was about to be a false prophet—he shows it himself. For after preaching in Nineveh, he went outside the city and watched to see what would happen. But when he saw that three days had passed and nothing of what had been threatened had occurred, then he stirred his first thought and said: Are these not my words which I said, that God is merciful and long-suffering and repents of the evils of men? ^B In order, then, that Elijah might not suffer such a thing as Jonah did, God sets forth the reason for which He spared Ahab. And what does God say to Elijah? Have you seen how Ahab walked, weeping and downcast before me? I shall not do according to his evil. Amazing! The Master becomes the advocate of the servant, and God apologizes to man on behalf of man. Do not imagine, He says, that I spared him simply; he changed his manner, and I changed My wrath and revoked it. And so that you might not be considered a false prophet—for you spoke truly; if he had not changed his manner, he would have had to endure the consequences of the sentence—this one changed his manner, and I revoked My wrath. And God says to Elijah: Have you seen how Ahab walked, weeping and downcast? I shall not do according to My wrath. Do you see that weeping wipes away sins?

5. What is the condition of publicans? ^C For what, I ask, is worse than a publican? He is a dealer in the calamities of others, a sharer in the labors of others; and while he does not look at the toil, he shares in the profit. So that the publican’s sin is extreme. For a publican is nothing else than blatant violence, legal sin, and specious greed. For what is worse than a publican who sits by the road and reaps the fruits of others’ labors, and while he has no care when the toils occur, yet when the profit comes, he takes his share from things he did not labor for? ^D Therefore, if the publican, being a sinner, attained such a great gift by being humble, how much more so should he who is virtuous and humble? Therefore, if you confess your sins and are humble, you become righteous. Do you wish to learn who is humble? Look at Paul, the truly humble one, Paul, the teacher of the world, the spiritual orator, the vessel of election, the calm harbor, the unshakeable tower, the man who, while in a small body, encompassed the world, and ran around it as if he were winged. Look at him being humble, the layman and philosopher, the poor man and the rich man. I call him truly humble, who drained countless labors, who displayed thousands of trophies against the devil, who preached and said: His grace in me was not in vain, but I labored more than all. He who endured imprisonments, and blows, and scourges; he who ensnared the world by his epistles; he who was called by a heavenly voice—that man is humble, saying: For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle. Do you see the magnitude of humility? Do you see Paul being humble, calling himself the least? For I am, he says, the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle. For this is truly humility, to be abased in all things, and to call oneself the least. Consider who it was that said these words: Paul the citizen of heaven, he who in his body simply

^A surrounded, a column of Churches, an earthly angel, a heavenly man. For I delight to dwell on the mention of this man, while I gaze upon the beauty of his virtue. The sun as it rises, when it sends forth its brilliant rays, does not gladden my eyes as the virtue of Paul illuminates my mind. For the sun indeed illuminates the eyes, but Paul lifts us up even to the very vaults of heaven; for he makes the soul higher than the sun and more lofty than the moon. Such, indeed, is the power of virtue, that it converts man into an angel and makes the soul, as if gifted with wings, to tend toward heaven. Paul teaches us this virtue; let us strive to become imitators of his virtue. But we must not diverge from the proposed subject. For this was the mark of our discourse, that we might demonstrate that the third way of repentance is humility, that the publican did not depress himself beyond measure, but confessed the truth when he uncovered his own sins, and that he was made just, not when he had counted out money, nor when he had traversed the seas, nor when he had finished a long journey on foot, nor when he had traveled over the fathomless deep, nor when he had besought friends, nor when he had spent much time, but that by deeds of humility he had acquired righteousness for himself, and was gifted with the kingdom of heaven: of which may it come to pass that we all be made partakers, by the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

OF THE SAME: A DISCOURSE ON ALMSGIVING, AND ON THE TEN VIRGINS. HOMILY III.

^A Do you know, brethren, whence our sermon lately began, or where it concluded, or from what argument it proceeded into the words of the previous homily? But I think you have forgotten the place where that discourse was finished by us; I, however, know, and I neither accuse you nor rebuke you. For each of you has a wife and is busy with little children, and takes care of all things that are at home; others follow the military life, others are craftsmen, and each of you toils at different works. We, however, are occupied in these things, we think on these, and in these we wear away our time. Therefore, you are not to be blamed in this matter, but are rather to be praised for your zeal, because you do not abandon our observance on the Lord's Day, but, having neglected everything else, you come to the church. For this is the greatest accumulation of praise for our city—not to have tumults and suburbs, not houses with gilded beams and dining rooms, but to have a diligent and awakened people. For we do not recognize a noble tree by its leaves, but by its fruits. ^B Idly, therefore, have we been preferred to brute animals, because we have speech, because we talk with one another by speech, because we love speech. For a man who abhors speech is less rational than the beasts, not knowing by whose grace he is honored, and whence he received honor. Wherefore the prophet well said: "Man, when he was in honor, did not understand, he was compared unto the foolish beasts, and was made like unto them" (Ps. 48:13). Behold, man, to whom it is proper to speak, you do not love speech, and by what indulgence shall you be deemed worthy? Therefore, you are more necessary to me than all others, as many as have flown to the discourse of virtue, and have deemed all things secondary to the divine word. Let us, therefore, set to work, and let us connect the following things to those which we have lately spoken. For I owe it to you, and I myself gladly pay the debt to you with a cheerful mind; for it does not bring me poverty, but gathers riches. In external ^C affairs, debtors flee from creditors so that they might not repay; I, however, pursue, so that I may pay: and rightly so. For in external things, restitution brings poverty, but this very distribution of speech bestows riches. For example, I owe money to someone: if I pay it, it can no longer be at his place and also at mine, but departing from me, it has cleaved to him; but if I pay out a discourse, it is both with me, and you all have it; if I keep the discourse and do not share it, then I am poor; if I pay it out, then I become richer; if I do not pay out the speech, I alone grow rich; if I pay it out, I bring back the fruit with all of you.

Many are the ways of repentance. Examples are proposed.

Eia, therefore, let us pay the debt. What is this? We lately instituted a discourse on repentance and said that there are many and varied ways of repentance, by which our ^D salvation might be made easy. For if God had given us only one way of repentance, we would have rejected it, saying: We are unable to enter upon this, we cannot be saved. Now, however, cutting off this very objection of yours, He has given you not one, nor a second, nor a third, but more and diverse ways, so that by their multitude, an easy ascent to heaven might be made for you. And we were saying that repentance is easy, and that there is no burden in it. Are you a sinner? Enter the church: say, "I have sinned," and you have absolved the sin. For we brought forward David, the sinner, and as one who absolved his sin. From this, we appended the second way, to weep over the sin; and we said: What labor is this? There is no need to pour out money, not to go on long journeys, nor to do anything else, but only to bear the sin. We introduced this from the Scripture, that in the case of Achaab God changed His counsel, because he wept, because he was sad; and this he himself said to Elias: "Hast thou seen how Achaab hath gone before me weeping, and hath been saddened? I will not do it according to my wrath" (3 Reg. 21.29).

^A Then we set forth a third path of repentance, and we brought into the middle, from the Scriptures, both the Pharisee and the publican; for one—the Pharisee—boasting haughtily, fell from justice; but the other—the publican—thinking humbly, gained the fruit of justice, and became righteous without having expended any labor: he uttered words, and received results. Come, then, let us proceed to the sequence, and let us bring forward a fourth path of repentance. And what is this? I speak of almsgiving, the queen of virtues, which quickly leads men up to the vaults of the heavens, the best advocate. Almsgiving is a great thing; for this reason also Solomon cried out, "A great man, and an honorable one, is a merciful man" (Prov. 20.6). Great are the wings of almsgiving; it cuts through the air, passes the moon, exceeds the rays of the sun, and ascends to the very vaults of the heavens. But it does not cease even there; it also passes beyond the heaven, and runs past the crowds of angels, and the choirs of archangels, and all the higher powers, and stands beside the royal throne itself. And of this you may be taught by the Scripture itself, which says, "Cornelius, thy prayers and thy almsgivings have ascended before God" (Acts 10.4). But this, "before God," means: Even if thou hast many sins, if almsgiving be thy advocate, do not fear; for no one of the powers above opposes her; she demands a debt, carrying her own bond in her hands. For it is the voice of the Master himself, that "Whatsoever ye have done unto one of these least, ye have done unto me" (Matt. 25.40). So, then, however many other sins thou hast, almsgiving weighs down for all of them.

2. ^B Or dost thou not know the example in the Gospel of the ten virgins, how those who did not have almsgiving, although they had practiced virginity, remained outside the bridal chamber? "For there were," he says, "ten virgins, five foolish and five wise; and the wise had oil, but the foolish had no oil, and their lamps were going out. And the foolish came up to the wise ^C and said, 'Give us some of your oil from your vessels'" (Matt. 25.2, 8). I am ashamed, and I blush, and I weep whenever I hear of a foolish virgin; I blush when I hear this name, that after such virtue, after the practice of virginity, after having winged the body up to heaven, after having the struggle against the powers above, and having endured the heat, after having trampled upon the furnace of pleasure—then they were called foolish, and justly foolish, because having done the great thing, they were defeated by the small. And they came, he says, the foolish ^D and said to the wise: "Give us some of your oil from your vessels." But they said, "We cannot give [it] to you, lest it not be enough for us and for you": not doing this out of cruelty, nor out of malice, but because of the narrowness of the time; for the bridegroom was about to come. They also had lamps; but those had oil, while they had none. For fire is virginity, but oil is almsgiving. Just as, therefore, fire, if it does not have oil dripping into it, vanishes; so also virginity, if it does not have almsgiving, is extinguished. "Give us oil from your vessels." And they to them: "We cannot give [it] to you." But this word is not one of malice, but of fear: "Lest it be not enough for us and for you; lest, as we seek to enter together, we might all remain behind." "But go and buy from them that sell." And who are the merchants of this oil? The poor, who sit before the church for the sake of almsgiving. And for how much? For as much as thou wishest; I do not set a price, lest thou plead poverty. As much as thou hast, for that much buy; hast thou an obol? Buy heaven; not that heaven is for sale, but because the Master is a lover of mankind. Hast thou no obol? Give a cup of cold water; "Whoever shall give a cup of cold water to one of these least in my name, shall not lose his reward" (Matt. 10.42). Heaven is commerce and trade, and we neglect it. Give bread, and receive paradise; give small things, and receive great ones; give corruptible things, and receive incorruptible. If there were a market, and it had cheapness and an abundance of food, and many things were sold for a little, would you not sell your possessions and, casting everything aside, become masters of that trade? And where there are corruptible things, you display such diligence; but where the trade is immortal, you are so slothful and have fallen back? Give to the poor, so that even if thou art silent, ten thousand mouths may speak for thee, with almsgiving standing by and advocating; almsgiving is the ransom of the soul. For this reason, just as basins of water are filled before the doors of the church, so that thou mayest wash thy hands, so the poor sit outside the church, so that thou mayest wash the hands of thy soul. Hast thou washed thy physical hands with water? Wash the hands of thy soul with almsgiving. Do not plead poverty; the widow in the extremity of poverty entertained Elias, and poverty was no hindrance, but she welcomed him with much joy; wherefore she also received worthy fruits, and reaped the stalk of almsgiving. But perhaps the hearer says, "Give me Elias." Why dost thou seek Elias? I give thee the Master of Elias, and thou dost not feed him. If thou hadst found Elias, how wouldst thou have entertained him? It is the decision of Christ, the Master of all: "Whatsoever ye have done unto one of these least, ye have done unto me." If a king called one person to a banquet, thou wouldst not be able to; not as much as he wishes, but as much as thou art able. Thou pleadest that thou cannot; but as much as thou art able—not as much as he wishes, but as much as thou art able—plead. Of as many obols as thou hast, buy heaven. Hast thou no gold to give? Give silver, give an obol, give a cup of cold water. For God does not define the much and the little by the measure of what is given, but by the power of the substance of the giver.

^A If, then, in the presence of a human king, the thing yields so much honor, consider Christ in that day calling out before the angels and all the Virtues, saying: "This person received me in the earth with hospitality, this person conferred countless benefits upon me, this person received me when I was a stranger." Consider from then on the confidence among the angels, the joy among the heavenly choirs. Therefore, will he to whom Christ bears witness not have confidence above the angels? ^B Great, then, is the matter of almsgiving, brothers. Let us embrace it, for nothing is equal to it: for it is powerful to wash away other sins, and to turn aside judgment; standing while you are silent, it intercedes; or rather, even while you are silent, countless mouths render thanks on your behalf. So many good things proceed from almsgiving, and yet we are lazy and falter. Give bread for your means; you do not have bread? Give an obol; you do not have an obol? Give even a cup of cold water; and you do not have that? Sympathize with the one who is afflicted, and you have the attached reward. For the reward is not of necessity, but of intention. ^C But behold, while we discourse on these things, the care of the virgins has slipped from us; come, therefore, let us return to the proposal. "Give us some of your oil. We cannot give it to you, lest it should not be sufficient for us and for you, but go rather to them that sell." And while they were going, the bridegroom came, and they that had the lamps ready entered in with him, and the door was shut (Matt. 25.10). ^D And the five foolish ones approaching knocked at the door of the bridal chamber, crying: "Open to us" (Ib. v. 11). But the voice of the bridegroom from within to them: "Depart from me, I know you not" (Ibid. v. 12). And after such labors what did they hear? "I know you not." This is what I said: in vain and for nothing they possessed the great possession of virginity.

Chapter 2. Oil is the almsgiving that the five foolish virgins lacked.

Chapter 3. The fruits of almsgiving.

Chapter 4. The various ways of penance: prayers, tears.

^A But our discourse is still alive, and is about the way of repentance, and about almsgiving. We were saying that almsgiving is a great possession; thence the sea of virginity succeeded for us. You have, therefore, a first and great repentance, almsgiving, which has the power to loosen the chain of sins; but you also have another way of repentance, very easy again, through which you can be released from sins. Pray at every hour, and do not grow weary in praying, nor ^B ask for God’s loving-kindness negligently; and He will not turn away if you persevere, but will forgive you your sins, and will grant your requests. If you are heard while praying, remain giving thanks in your prayer; but if you are not heard, persevere in praying, that you may be heard. And do not say: "I prayed many times and was not heard," for this also often happens for your own benefit. He knows, indeed, that you are slothful and have relaxed, and if you obtain your need, you depart, praying no longer; and under the pretext of your need He delays you, so that you may converse with God more frequently, and devote yourself to prayer. For if, in such necessity, you are slothful and do not persevere in prayer when you are in need, what if you were in need of none of these things? ^C So He Himself, out of concern for your benefit, wishing you not to be separated from prayer, does this. Remain, therefore, praying and do not grow slothful; for prayer is able to accomplish much, beloved, and do not approach prayer as if it were a small matter. That prayer lets go of sins, learn this from the divine Gospels. For what does He say? "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who shut his door, and sat down with his children; but someone came in the evening wishing to receive loaves from him, and knocks, saying: 'Open to me, because I have need of bread.' But he said to him: 'I cannot give to you now; for we have sat down, both I and my children.' But he persisted in knocking at the door." And He says again to him: "I cannot give to you; for we have sat down, both I and my children." ^D But he, having heard these things, persisted in knocking, and not departing until the master of the house said: "Arise, give to him and let him depart." It teaches you, therefore, to pray always, and not to grow despondent always, but even if you do not receive, to persevere until you should receive. And you will find many other ways of repentance in the Scripture. This repentance was preached even before the coming of Christ through Jeremiah saying: "Does one who falls not rise, or does one who turns away not turn back?" (Jer. 8: 4). And again: "After these things I said to her, 'After you have played the harlot, come, return to me'" (Jer. 3: 7). And for this reason He gave us many other different ways, so that He might cut off every excuse of ours for slothfulness. For if we had but one way, we would not have been able to enter through it. The devil always flees from this sword. Have you sinned? Enter into the church, and blot out your sin. As many times as you fall in the marketplace, just so many times arise; so as many times as you sin, repent for the sin; do not despair of yourself. Even if you sin a second time, repent a second time, do not through slothfulness fall completely from the hope of the good things set before you; even if you are in extreme old age and you sin, enter, repent; for there is a clinic here, not a courtroom, not requiring an accounting of sins, but providing forgiveness of sins. Tell your sin to God alone: "Against You only have I sinned, and done this evil before You" (Ps. 50: 6), and your sin is forgiven. You have also another way of repentance, not difficult, but even very easy. What is this? Weep for your sin, and learn this from the divine Gospels. That Peter, the pinnacle of the apostles, the first in the Church, the friend of Christ, who received the revelation not from men, but from the Father, to whom the Master testifies, saying: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father in heaven" (Matt. 16: 17)—this Peter—when I say Peter, I mean the immovable rock, the unshakable foundation, the great apostle, the first of the disciples, the first to be called, and the first to obey—he did not do a small thing, but also something very great, so as to deny the Master Himself. I say this, not accusing the just man, but giving you an occasion for repentance; he denied the Master of the world Himself, the guardian, the Savior of all. But that we might say the story from the beginning, at the betrayal the Savior saw some departing, and says to Peter: "Do you also wish to depart?" But Peter said: "Even if it be necessary for me to die with You, I will not deny You" (Matt. 26: 35). What are you saying, Peter? God [is the one] Who has spoken, and do you contradict? But nevertheless, the intention showed its own, yet the weakness of nature was exposed. And these things when? In the night in which Christ was betrayed. Then, therefore, he says, Peter was standing by the charcoal fire warming himself, and a certain maiden approached, and says to him: "Yesterday you also were with this man" (Matt. 26: 69). But he: "I do not know this man" (Mark 14: 68). Then a second and a third time; and the pronouncement was fulfilled. Then Christ looked at Peter, sending forth a voice through His gaze; for He did not speak to him through His mouth, so that He might not expose him before the Jews and shame His own disciple, but through His gaze He sent forth the voice—that is to say, "Peter, what I said has happened." Certainly, therefore, Peter also, perceiving it then, began to weep, but he did not weep simply, but bitterly, making a second baptism through tears from his eyes. But having wept so bitterly, he blotted out the sin; and after this he is entrusted with the keys of the heavens. If Peter’s weeping blotted out such a great sin, if you weep, how would you not blot out your sin? For it was not a small crime to deny one’s own Master, but great and heavy; yet the tears blotted out the sin. Weep, therefore, you also for your sin; but not simply, nor with a show, but weep bitterly, as Peter; from the very depth bring forth the fountains of tears, so that the Master, being moved to compassion, might forgive you the transgression; for He is loving to mankind; for He Himself said: "I do not desire the death of the sinner, as that he should return, and repent, and live" (Ezech. 18: 23). He requires from you a little labor and He Himself provides the great things; He seeks an occasion from you, so that He may give you the treasure of salvation. Present tears and He Himself gives you forgiveness; present repentance,

and he himself grants you the remission of sins; bring forward a small occasion, so that you may have a specious excuse. For some things are from him, and some are from us: if we have brought forward what is from us, he in return will likewise provide what is from him. Now therefore, he has already provided what is from himself; he has founded the sun, the moon, the varied choir of stars, he has diffused the air, spread out the earth, walled in the sea, he has given mountains, forests, hills, springs, lakes, rivers, countless kinds of plants, gardens, and everything else; do you in return bring forward something small, so that he may thus bestow on you the heavenly things. Let us not, therefore, neglect ourselves, nor desist from procuring our salvation, since so vast a sea of the benignity of the Lord of all lies open to us, who is led by repentance on account of our sins. ^B The kingdom of heaven and paradise are set before us, and those good things which neither eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor have they ascended into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor. 2:9); and ought we not to employ every effort to bring forward something, so that we may not fall from these? Or are you ignorant of what Paul says? He who exantlated many labors and carried away countless triumphs over the devil, who in ^C the body traveled throughout the world, who ran through the earth, the sea, and the air, who traveled around the world like one borne on wings, who was stoned, struck, beaten, who bore everything for the name of God, who was called from above by a heavenly voice—see what this man says, and what kind of voice he uttered: "We have received," he says, "grace from God, but I also labored, and I contributed together. And his grace which is in me was not empty, but I labored and contributed ^D more than them all" (1 Cor. 15:10). We know, he says, we know the magnitude of the grace which we have received, but it did not find me idle: manifest are the things which were contributed by me. Thus let us also teach our hands towards almsgiving, that we may bring forward some little thing: let us weep over sin, let us groan over iniquity, so that we may appear to bring forward even a little something, since great things are stored up for us in the future which exceed our power; for it is paradise, and the kingdom of heaven: of which may we all be partakers, by the grace and clemency of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, and honor, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

CONCERNING REPENTANCE AND PRAYER. HOMILY IV.

^A The shepherds, when they see that the sheep have the grass deeper, lead them continuously, and do not drive them away from there before the flock has grazed it all. We also, following these, are feeding this flock upon this manner of repentance for the fourth day now, nor are we preparing to depart even today; for we see that there is still much fodder, much joy and utility.

Repentance brings forth consolation of every kind. For not the foliage of trees, which serve in lieu of a roof for the sheep during the meridian hours, so recreates them, nor provides such desirable and useful shade, and draws them to sleep with great pleasure, as the reading of the divine Scriptures recreates and cools souls that are mourning and held by anguish of spirit, while ^B it softens the vehemence and heat of grief, and imparts consolation more sweet and agreeable than any shade. For it brings us great consolation not only in the loss of wealth, or in the loss of children, or in other similar things, but even in the calamities of sins. For when a man has been intercepted and surrounded by sin and has fallen, and afterward is bitten by his conscience, and, being mindful of his sin continually, overwhelms himself with the magnitude of his grief, and is inflamed through every day; and when countless people are consoling him, if he has not admitted the consolation, upon entering into the church, after he heard that many of the saints fell and rose again, ^C and returned to their former dignity, he departs filled with much consolation. And we, who for the most part sin against men, do not even dare to reveal the sin, held back by shame and blushing; for if we reveal it, we attain nothing so great; but when God exhorts and touches our heart, all such sadness is at once put to flight. Therefore the falls of the just are written for us: so that both those who live rightly and those who live wickedly may derive the greatest profit from this. For the sinner does not go into despair when he sees another who fell and was able to rise; but he who cultivates justice will be more diligent and firmer. For when ^D he sees many and better men who have fallen, having been made more cautious by their fall, he will always be solicitous, and will fortify himself with much caution. Thus, therefore, he who cultivates virtue will persevere; but the sinner will be delivered from despair; the former will stand firmly, the latter will hasten to return to his former state from which he fell. For when any man consoles us in our sadness, even if we seem to receive some consolation for a little time, nevertheless we slip back into the same sadness again; but when God exhorts through others, who repenting after sin attain salvation, he makes his own goodness manifest to us, so that we might not doubt about our own salvation, having acquired firm and certain consolation. Just as therefore in cases of sins, so even in the dangers that befall us, the histories of the old Scriptures provide the remedy appropriate for those who are mourning to those who are willing to apply their mind: and whether the confiscation of property, or the annoyance of sycophants, or prisons, or scourges, or any other kind of evil intercepts us, looking to the just, because they suffered and endured the same things, we will be able to return to ourselves at once. For in bodily diseases, if a sick person looks at other sick people, he increases his own disease, and sometimes even acquires an infirmity he did not have: for example, when some, seeing others with eyes

troubled by the same things, experience a lighter despondency regarding their own evils. For this reason, Paul also encourages believers in this way, bringing forward not only living saints, but also the dead. ^A For when he was speaking to the Hebrews, who were about to stumble and fall, he brought into their midst holy men—Daniel, the three children, Elijah, Elisha—saying thus: "They stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edges of the sword, were stoned, endured mockery and scourges, and also bonds and imprisonment. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy" (Heb. 11.34 et seqq.).

The communion of troubles surely provides comfort to the afflicted. For just as suffering something terrible alone makes the evil without consolation, so finding another who has fallen into the same evils renders the wound lighter.

2. In order, therefore, that we may not fall in all things that seem to trouble us, let us attend with diligence to the histories of the Scriptures; for we shall derive the occasion for much patience from this, not only being comforted by the fellowship of those who have suffered the same things, but also by learning the manner of release from the troubles brought upon us, and how to remain again in the same state after the relief, and neither fall into sloth nor be lifted up by arrogance. For that those who are faring poorly should be constrained, and humbled, and exhibit great piety is nothing wonderful; for this is the nature of temptations, compelling even those who have hearts of stone to do this—to grieve. ^B But it is characteristic of a pious soul, and one that has God constantly before its eyes, not to fall into forgetfulness even after release from temptations; which the Jews were constantly suffering. Therefore, the prophet mocking them said: "When he was killing them, then they sought him, and they returned and rose early to God" (Ps. 77.34). And Moses, knowing this same thing about them, exhorted them constantly, saying: "Having eaten and drunk and been satisfied, take heed to yourself, that you do not forget the Lord your God" (Deut. 6.12, 15). This, then, also happened: "For Jacob ate," he says, "and grew fat, and became thick, and the beloved kicked" (Deut. 32.15). For this reason, it is not for this that one should admire the saints—that, while the affliction itself was at its height, they were thus pious and philosophical—but because, even when the winter had passed and calm had come, they remained in the same moderation and zeal. ^C And one should especially admire that horse which is able to walk smoothly without a bridle; but if it behaves well when a muzzle and bridle are holding it, it is no wonder; for one must account its good order not to the nobility of the animal, but to the necessity of the bridle. One can say the same of the soul: that it is no wonder if it is tranquil when fear is pressing upon it; but when temptations have passed and one has removed the bridle of fear, then show me the philosophy of the soul, and all its good order. But I fear that, wishing to accuse the Jews, I may accuse our own way of life; for when we were being shaken by famine, and plague, and hail, and drought, and fires, and the uprising of enemies, was not the church crowded daily by the multitude of those gathering? And great was our philosophy and contempt for worldly things, and neither desire for money, nor appetite for glory, nor longing and love for lust, nor any other evil thought troubled us then, but you all gave yourselves over to the fear of God, with prayer and tears; and the fornicator was then chaste, and the spiteful man turned to reconciliation, the covetous man was bent toward almsgiving, the angry and bold man was changed into humbleness and gentleness. And when God dispersed that anger, and moved away the winter, and made a calm after such waves, we returned again to our former preconceptions. ^D Yet I did not fail even at that time, during the very season of temptations, to foretell these things and to testify beforehand; yet nothing more came of it for us, but rather, as if it were a dream and a passing shadow, you cast all those things out of your mind. For this very reason I fear now more than then, and what I said then, I fear more greatly now, lest we suffer evils more grievous than the former, and then receive an incurable blow from God. For when someone sinning constantly obtains forgiveness from God, and then the man profits nothing from this forbearance toward shaking off the wickedness, the consequence is that it prepares Him to bring upon him, even if he does not wish it, the culmination of evils, and to destroy him utterly, and no longer to give any opportunity for repentance, as happened in the case of Pharaoh. For because he enjoyed much longsuffering from God through the first, and second, and third, and fourth, and subsequent plagues, and nothing became useful to him, he was finally destroyed and perished with his city completely. This also the Jews have suffered. Therefore, Christ, when he was about to destroy them and bring upon them irreparable desolation, said thus: "How often have I willed to gather your children, and you would not? Behold your house is left desolate" (Luc. 13.34). I fear, therefore, lest we too suffer the same things, because we are not sobered by the evils of others, nor by our own. I do not say these things only to you who are present now, but also to those who have broken away from the daily zeal and have forgotten the former afflictions; to whom I did not cease always to cry out, saying that even if the temptations have passed, let the memory of the temptations remain in our souls, so that, by constantly remembering the benefit, we may continually give thanks to the God who granted it.

3. These things I said then, and now I say to you, and through you to them: let us imitate the saints, who were neither swallowed up by afflictions, nor became more flaccid by the relief, which many of us humans now possess, just like the light ships that are swamped because they are being filled with waves from every side. For poverty often coming upon us has sunk us and made us submersed, and when wealth was added, it puffed us up again, and cast us into extreme neglect. Wherefore I exhort, having left everything, let us each of us adjust our own souls unto salvation.

Let us prepare it to be suitable both for the administration of the present life and for our departure hence to the future. For it is but a little while, and the trial of each one of us shall take place, when we shall all stand before that dread tribunal of Christ, encompassed by our own deeds, and seeing with our own eyes: here [A] the tears of the orphans, there the shameful lewdness with which we have polluted our own souls, there the groanings of widows, the buffetings of the poor, the plunderings of the destitute. And not only these and things like these, but even if we have committed any evil thing in our mind; for He is himself the "discerner of the thoughts and intents" [Heb. 4:12], and "rendering to each according to his works" [Matt. 16:27].

This discourse, furthermore, concerns not only them who live in the world, but also those who have built themselves huts in the mountains

True Virginity

Chapter 4

the Lord knows exactly what is beneficial for you. There are many who recite thousands of lines in the name of prayer, saying: “Lord, give me health of body, double my possessions, take vengeance on my enemy”; this is filled with great senselessness. Therefore, we must leave all these things aside and entreat and beseech only as the publican ^A who said: “God, be merciful to me a sinner”; he himself knows thereafter how to care for you. For, he says, “Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.” Thus, then, beloved, let us philosophize with toil and humility, beating our own breasts, just like that man, and we shall obtain what we ask for; but if we pray filled with anger and wrath, we are found abominable and hateful before God. Let us therefore crush our mind, and humble our souls, and pray both for ourselves and for those who have grieved us. For if you wish to draw the Judge to the aid of your soul, and make Him on your side, never encounter Him against ^B the one who has grieved you. For such is the way of the Judge: He inclines most to those and grants the requests to those who pray for their enemies, who do not harbor grudges, who do not raise themselves up against their enemies. And as much as these do this, so much does God turn against those, unless they be changed unto repentance.

5. See then, brothers, when some dishonor is brought upon us by someone, let us not immediately be downcast and disheartened, but let us give thanks, philosophizing, and awaiting the help of the Lord. For could God not have given us good things before our request? Could He not have granted us a life painless and separated from all affliction? But He does both out of ^C love. Why, then, does He allow us to be afflicted, and why does He not quickly bring about deliverance? Why? That we might reside with Him, holding fast to the help from Him, and flee for refuge to Him, and continually call Him to our assistance. This, then, is the reason for pains of the body, this is the reason for failures of crops, this is the reason for famines: that from these afflictions we might always hang upon Him, and thus through temporal afflictions inherit eternal life. So therefore we must give thanks even for these to God, who through many strategies heals and saves our souls. For as for men, if they happen to bestow a benefit upon us at some time, and then we unwillingly ^D grieve them even a little, they immediately reproach the benefit, citing how many [506] they have benefited, so that they often curse themselves for having benefited them at all. But God is not so; but rather, after His benefits, when He is treated with contempt and insulted, He still even pleads, and gives an account to those who insult Him, saying thus: “My people, what have I done to thee?” They did not want to call Him God, and He did not cease to call them His people; they renounced His lordship, and He did not deny them, but claimed them as His own, and drew them to Himself, saying: “My people, what have I done to thee?” Was I, He says, burdensome to you, or heavy and irksome? But you cannot say even this; for even if this were so, you should not have broken away even then. For what son is there, whom a father does not discipline? But yet you cannot say even this. And again elsewhere: “What fault did your fathers find in Me?” Great and wondrous is what is said; for what He says is of this kind: “What have I sinned,” He says. God says to men: “What have I sinned?”—which not even slaves endure to utter toward their master. And He does not say, “What have I sinned against you,” but, “against your fathers.” But not even this, He says, can you say, that you preserve a paternal enmity toward Me; for I never abandoned your ancestors to be excluded from My providence, having overlooked them in little or great. And He did not say simply, “What did your fathers possess,” but, “What did they find?” Having sought much, having gone around much in so many years being under My rule, they found no fault in Me. For the sake of all these things, let us continually flee for refuge to Him, and in every despondency let us seek His consolation, in every calamity His solution, His mercy, in every temptation His help; for whatever there is that is terrible, whatever the magnitude of the calamity, He is able both to solve it and to cause it to pass. And not only this, but also every security and power and good glory, and health of body, and philosophy of soul, and good hopes, and the not quickly sinning, His goodness shall provide for us. Let us not then grumble like ungrateful slaves, nor accuse the Master, but in all things let us give thanks, and deem only one thing to be terrible: the sinning against Him. And if we be thus disposed toward God, no disease, no poverty, no dishonor, no failure of crops, no other thing of those which seem to be painful shall overtake us; but reaping pure and holy pleasure throughout, we shall attain the future good things, through the grace and philanthropy of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father is the glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Homily of the same, concerning the fast and concerning the prophet Jonah, and Daniel, and the three children. It was delivered at the entrance of the holy fasts. Homily IV.

1. Bright for us today is the celebration, and more brilliant than usual the assembly. What, then, is the cause? The achievement of the fast: I know even I, with the fast not yet present, but expected. For that [fast] gathered us to the ancestral house; that also brought back today to [our] mother’s hands those who were previously more sluggish. But if, being only expected, it caused such eagerness in us, when it has appeared and is present, how much piety will it work in us? Thus also a city, when a fearsome ruler is about to enter, casts off every sloth, and puts on the maternal hands. But if what is expected alone, has brought such eagerness to us, when it has appeared and is present, how much piety will it effect in us? Thus both the city and the prince, when a fearsome [ruler] is about to enter,

^A cast away every sloth and are excited to greater zeal.

But the demons fear the fasting of Christians. Do not fear a fearsome ruler when you hear of fasting; for it is not you who should fear, but the nature of the demons. For if there is a lunatic, show him the face of fasting, and he remains more immovable than stones, constricted by fear and held fast as if by a certain chain; and this is especially the case when he sees the sister and companion of fasting, which is prayer, joined to fasting. Therefore Christ says: *This kind is not cast out except by prayer and fasting* (Matt. xvii, 20). Since therefore it so pursues the enemies of our salvation and is so fearsome to the enemies of our life, it must be loved and cherished, not feared; for if anything is to be feared, it is drunkenness and gluttony, not fasting. For the former, binding our hands behind our backs, renders us servants and captives to the tyranny of vices, as if to a certain wicked mistress; but fasting, finding us as servants and bound, loosens the chains and frees us from tyranny, and leads us back to our former liberty. When, therefore, it overcomes our enemies, and frees us from servitude, and leads us back to our former liberty, what other greater proof of its friendship toward our race do you seek? For it seems to be the greatest indication of love if one loves and hates what we ourselves love and hate.

The praise of the monks.

^B

God rejoices in fasting. Fervent repentance, though brief, blots out many sins.

^A he says, do you love me more than these? Now there could be nothing equal to this for the sake of virtue. For so that you might not say that He had just cause to pardon the Ninevites, as they were barbarian and foolish men—for: The servant, he says, who does not know the will of his master, and who has not done it, shall be beaten with few stripes (Luke 12. 47)—so that you might not say this, He brought forward Peter into the middle for you, a servant who knew the will of his Master perfectly well. But even so, this man—even having sinned, and committed the ultimate sin—consider to what a height of boldness he ascended. Therefore, do not you yourself collapse because of sins: for what is more burdensome than sin is to remain in sin, and what is more terrible than the fall itself is to lie in the fall. Paul laments and ^B bewails this also, and says that this is worthy of mourning. For I fear, he says, that when I come to you, God may humble me, and I shall mourn many of those who have not only sinned, but who have not repented of the licentiousness, and impurity, and fornication, which they have committed (2 Cor. 12. 21). And what time could be more fitting for repentance than the season of fasting?

3. But let us return to the history. For hearing these words, the prophet went down to Joppa to flee from the presence of the Lord (Jon. 1. 3). Where are you fleeing, man? Have you not heard the prophet saying: ^C Whither shall I go from thy spirit, and from thy presence whither shall I flee? To the land? But, The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof (Ps. 23. 1). But to Hades? If I go down, he says, to Hades, thou art there. To heaven? But if I ascend into heaven, thou art there. But to the sea? And even there, he says, thy right hand shall hold me (Ps. 138. 8-10). That which indeed happened in this case. But such is sin: it casts our soul into great folly. For just as those who are overcome by heaviness of head and drunkenness are carried about simply and at random, and even if a pit or a precipice or anything whatsoever lies before them, they fall down carelessly; so also those who slip into sin, as if overcome by a certain drunkenness of the desire for the action, do not know what they are doing; they foresee nothing, neither the present nor the future. ^D Are you fleeing the Master, tell me? Therefore wait a little, and through the very events you shall learn that you will not be able to escape the hands even of the servant sea. For no sooner had he boarded the ship than it stirred up the waves and rose to a great height; and just as a grateful maidservant finding a fellow servant who is a fugitive, and who has stolen some of the master’s possessions, does not stop before causing ten thousand problems for those who have taken him in, until she has captured him and departs; so also the sea, having found its fellow servant and recognized him, caused ten thousand problems for the sailors, tossing and roaring—not dragging him into a courtroom, but threatening the very sinking of the vessel, if they did not surrender to it the fellow servant. What then did the sailors do in the face of these events? They made, he says, a casting away of the goods that were in the ship; but the ship was not lightened; for the whole cargo still remained inside, the body of the prophet, that heavy load—not by the nature of the body, but by the burden of sin; for nothing is so heavy and insupportable as sin and disobedience. Therefore Zechariah also depicted it under the appearance of lead (Zach. 5. 7); the one who describes its nature said: My iniquities have gone over my head, as a heavy burden they are weighed upon me (Ps. 37. 5). And Christ cried out to those who had lived in many sins: Come to me all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Matt. 11. 28). This, then, also lightened the load then and was about to submerge it; but Jonah slept and snored. The sleep was heavy, not of pleasure, but of grief; not of sloth, but of despondency. For grateful servants quickly perceive their sins, which he also experienced. For after the commission of the sin, he knew then the terribleness of the sin; for such is sin: after it is birthed, it then raises up full pains for the soul that gave birth to it, contrary to the law of our generation. For we, as soon as we are born, loose the pains, but that [sin], as soon as it is born, tears apart the thoughts that gave birth to it. What then does the shipmaster do? He came to him, he says, and says to him: Arise, and call upon thy God (Jon. 1. 6). He knew by now from experience that the storm was not customary, but that the calamity was sent by God, and the agitation was greater than human art, and that of the governor’s hands there was no utility; for the things happening required a greater governor, the one who governs this whole world, and who possessed the power from on high. Therefore they too, leaving oars and sails and ropes and all things, and taking their hands off the rowing, stretched them out toward heaven, and were calling upon the divine. And when not even thus did anything further happen, Cast lots, he says; and at last the lot delivered the one responsible to the vote. But not even thus did they take him and cast him into the deep, but with such a tumult and such a storm pressing upon them, as though enjoying great calm, they established a courtroom in the ship, and granted him speech, and deemed him worthy of a defense, and examined everything with accuracy, as if about to provide an account to someone of whatever they voted. Hear then of them, as if examining everything in a courtroom. What is your profession? And whence do you come? And whither are you going? And of what country and of what people are you? Yet the sea had accused him, crying out against him, and the lot had convicted him and bore testimony against him; but nevertheless, although the sea was still roaring and crying out and the lot had testified, the judges did not first impose the judgment—just as when accusers are present in a court, and witnesses are standing by, and proofs are being produced, the judges do not impose the sentence before the condemned man himself becomes the accuser of his own sin; thus also these sailors, men barbarian and foolish, were mimicking the orderly procedure of courts; and this, although so much fear, so much storm, so much confusion were surrounding them, and the sea was not even allowing them to breathe; it was causing tumult and was pressing them, raging and crying out and inciting continuous waves. Whence then did this providence come to pass, beloved, regarding the prophet? Through the dispensation of God. For God dispensed for these things to occur, through these things training the prophet to be humane and gentle, and all but crying out to him and saying: Imitate the sailors, men foolish...

^A and unlearned: if they indeed do not despise one soul, nor do they spare your one body; but you, having a whole city containing so many myriads, you have exposed them to the extent of your power: and they indeed, having discovered the cause of their evils, do not rush with haste to the judgment of condemnation; but you, having nothing whereby to accuse the Ninevites, have submerged them and destroyed them. You, when I commanded you to recall them to salvation by your preaching, you did not obey; but they, having heard from no one, do nothing that they do not perform, and exert themselves, so that they might recall you who are guilty from punishment. Even after the very accusation of the sea, after the proof involving the lot, when he himself confessed and admitted his flight, not even so did they rush to the slaughter of the prophet, but they strove and did everything so that they might not expose him to the violence of the sea, not even after his most manifest culpability. But the sea did not permit it, or rather God did not, wishing, just as He did through the sailors, to reduce him to a sound mind also through the whale. For after it was heard, "Take me, and cast me into the sea; and the sea shall be calm unto you" [Jon. 1:12], they strove with their strength to reach the dry land, but the waves did not permit it.

4. But you, when you see the prophet fleeing, hear him also confessing from below out of the belly of the beast. That indeed he suffered as a human, but this he exhibited as a prophet. The sea, therefore, taking him, deposited him as if in a certain prison in the belly of a whale, saving the fugitive for the Lord: neither did the fierce waves receiving him suffocate him, nor did the whale, fiercer than the waves themselves, crush him in its belly, but it preserved him, and brought him back to the city; and both the sea and the whale ^B obeyed against nature, so that through all things the prophet might be instructed. Coming, therefore, to the city, he read the sentence, just as a royal epistle bearing penalties indicted by a king, and he cried out saying: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown" [Jon. 3:4].

The power of penance and fasting is great; abstinence is the mother of health. ^C Those men heard these things, and they did not disbelieve, nor did they neglect them, but immediately the race of all was one toward fasting, of men and women, of servants, of masters, of rulers, of subjects, of the young, of the old, of children; nor was the nature of the irrational creatures immune from that duty: everywhere sackcloth, everywhere ashes, everywhere wailing and lamentation. For he himself also, adorned on his head with a diadem, descending from the royal throne, spread sackcloth under himself, sprinkled ashes, and so snatched the city from dangers: and it was possible to see an altogether new spectacle, purple yielding to sackcloth. For what the purple could not do, that the sackcloth was able to accomplish: what the diadem was not strong enough to finish, this the ashes achieved. See how I did not say in vain that not fasting, but drunkenness and gluttony were to be feared? For drunkenness and gluttony shook the city that stood, and compelled it to totter to its fall: fasting confirmed that which was tottering and about to fall. With this also Daniel, having entered the pit of lions, acting as if he were among gentle sheep, came out. For though they were seething with rage, having a fierce and deadly look, they did not touch the meal set before them, but because nature itself was urging them (for nothing is more ferocious than those beasts), and because of hunger (for they had not received food for seven days), as if some executioner was urging them on from within, and clamoring that they should rend the entrails of the prophet, they revered the food. With this, three children entered into the Babylonian furnace, and having spent even a long time in the fire, came out having bodies brighter than the fire itself; although if it were truly fire, that fire, how did it not consume the things that are parts of fire? If those were bodies, how did they not suffer the things that are accustomed to befall bodies? How? Ask fasting, and it will answer you, and it will solve the enigma for you: for in truth it was an enigma. For the nature of the bodies struggled with the nature of the fire, and the victory of the bodies came to pass. Do you see a combat worthy of admiration? Do you see a more admirable victory? Therefore, admire fasting, and receive it with open hands: for when it provides aid even in the furnace, and guards in the pit of lions, and puts demons to flight, and revokes the sentence of God, and suppresses the fury of the passions, and leads us back to liberty itself, and insinnuates most tranquility into our thoughts; how would it not be of extreme insanity to flee and fear that which has so many and such great goods in its hands? It macerates, you say, our body, and renders it infirm. But "though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day" [2 Cor. 4:16]: nay, if you wish to consider the matter more diligently, you will find it to be itself the mother of health and good condition. And if you deny credence to my words, ask physicians about these things, and they themselves will explain the same things to you more clearly, who call abstinence the mother of health: but pains of the feet, and heaviness of the head, and apoplexy, and abscess, and dropsy, and inflammations and swellings, and a thousand torrents of other diseases, they say proceed from delicate foods and gluttony, as if they were foul rivulets from a certain most evil fountain, harming the good condition of the body and the sound mind of the soul.

5. Do not, therefore, fear fasting, which delivers us from so many evils. For I do not advise this to you simply, but because I see many men lazy and drawing back as if they were about to be put into the hands of a horrible woman, today corrupting themselves with drunkenness and gluttony, therefore I advise that no one ruin the future utility from fasting by the gluttony of the throat and drunkenness. For people who loathe foods because of a vice of the stomach, when they are about to receive harsh medicines, if they fill themselves with too much food, and thus receive the medicine, they have indeed endured that bitterness, but they have failed of the utility, making the fight against corrupt humors more difficult than the remedy. For this reason physicians order them to sleep having not supped, so that the power of the whole medicine may immediately meet the morbid humors. Thus it also happens with fasting: if you shall overwhelm yourself today with much drunkenness, but tomorrow shall receive that medicine, you will surely ^D make it vain and useless.

you wasted that also, and made it useless, and though you endured the labor, you did not reap the profit of the matter, because you expend all your strength on the evil that is recently induced by drunkenness. But if you provide your body with lightness and receive the medicine with a sober mind, you will be able to cleanse many old sins. Therefore, let us not go into the fast through drunkenness, nor again break the fast with drunkenness, so that the same thing may not happen as when someone should cast a stone at a body that is ill and about to rise up, and cast it down all the more severely. And this happens to our own soul, whenever from both sides—both at the beginning and at the end of the fast—we overshadow the sobriety that has come to us from fasting with the cloud of drunkenness. For just as those who are about to box with wild beasts, having fenced in the vital parts of their limbs with many weapons and safeguards, undertake the fight against them, so also are many men now, who, being about to box with the fast as if with a wild beast, arm themselves with gluttony, and having torn themselves apart and darkened their minds with much madness, they receive the serene and gentle eye of the fast. And if I ask you, "For what reason are you running to the baths today?" you will say, "So that I may receive the fast with a clean body." But if I ask, "For what reason are you indulging in luxury?" "Because I am about to enter into the fast," you will say again. And how is it not absurd to receive this most beautiful feast with a body that is clean in name, but unclean with drunkenness? It was possible indeed to say more, but even these things are sufficient for those who are sensible for their correction. Wherefore, it is necessary to bring the discourse to a close; for I long to hear the voice of the father. For the one, like shepherd boys, we pipe with a thin reed, as if sitting under some oak or poplar tree, in the shade of these holy things; but this man is like a certain excellent musician who, having tuned a golden lyre, with the symphony of his striking, raised up the whole theater; so also this man, not by the symphony of striking, but by the symphony of words and deeds, brought us much benefits. Such teachers Christ also seeks; for "Whoever," he says, "has done and taught, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Such a man is this one; therefore he is also great in the kingdom of heaven. May it be that we, through his prayers and those of all the elders, may be enabled to be accounted worthy of the kingdom of heaven, by the grace and philanthropy of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the holy Spirit, be glory, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

HOMILY SPOKEN CONCERNING FASTING ON THE SIXTH WEEK OF THE HOLY LENT. HOMILY VI.

^A 1. How delightful are the waves of this spiritual sea to us, and more delightful even than those in the open ocean. For those are stirred up by the turbulence of winds, but these by the desire for hearing; and those, indeed, 317 rising to a peak, provide much anxiety for the helmsman, but these, appearing, provide much confidence for the speaker. For those are proofs of a stormy sea, but these are signs of a joyful soul; and those, crashing against the rocks, emit an indistinct sound, but these, striking against the word of instruction, emit a gentle voice. Thus also, when the breaths of the zephyr fall into the cornfields, and bend the heads of the ears of corn and raise them up, they imitate the waves of the sea on dry land. But these are more delightful than even those cornfields; for not the breaths of the zephyr, but the grace of the Spirit has raised up and warmed your souls, and that fire which Christ formerly spoke of, saying, "I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what do I wish if it be already kindled?" (Luke 12:49)—this I see cast down and burning in your souls. Since, therefore, the fear of Christ has kindled so many lamps for us, come, let us hence pour in the oil of instruction, so that the light may become more lasting for us.

For the time of the fast now hurries to its end; for having reached the middle of the stadium, we have now arrived at the end. For as one who begins begins, so one who has reached the middle has taken hold of the end. The time, therefore, hurries ^B toward the end, and the boat looks to the harbor, but the thing sought is not merely to have reached the harbor, but not to have dragged the boat empty of merchandise. I beseech you all and entreat you, let each one weigh in his own conscience the business of the fast; and if he finds much profit gained, let him add to the business; but if nothing has been gathered, let him make use of the remaining time for the commerce. The market stands open; let us depart having traded greatly, so that we may not depart empty-handed, so that we may not, having endured the labor of fasting, lose the reward of fasting. For it is possible both to endure the labor of fasting and not to receive the reward of fasting. How? When we abstain from food, but do not abstain from sins; when we do not eat meat, but devour the houses of the poor; when we are not drunk with wine, but drunk with evil desire; when we spend the whole day engaged in prayer, but the whole day we are passing in wanton acts. Behold both the labor of fasting, and the reward is nowhere, when we descend into the theaters of lawlessness. My discourse is not toward you; for I know that you are far from this accusation, but it is a custom for those in pain, if they do not catch the culprits, to release their anger upon those present. What profit is there in fasting to ascend into the theaters of lawlessness, to enter into the common school of licentiousness, into the public gymnasium of wantonness, to sit upon the seat of the pestilent? For anyone who calls ^C the seat of the pestilent, and the gymnasium of wantonness, and the school of licentiousness, and all the rest of such things an orchestra, would not be wrong...

^A that place most filled with all kinds of diseases—the Babylonian furnace. For just as the devil, driving the city into the theater as into some furnace, kindles it from below, not now casting in fiery darts, as that barbarian once did, nor naphtha, nor tow, nor pitch; but things far worse than these: wanton gazes, shameful words, limbs softly flexed, and songs filled with every malice. ^B Those barbaric hands then ignited that furnace; but thoughts, more senseless than barbarians, ignite this furnace. This one is worse than that, since the fire is more destructive—not that which consumes the nature of the body, but that which ravages the good state of the soul—and, what is more harmful, the ones being burned themselves do not feel it. For if they felt it, they would no longer let out that laughter poured forth there. Therefore, this is the worst evil of all: when someone is sick and does not even know that he is sick, and while wretchedly burning, he is unaware of the conflagration. ^C What is the utility of fasting, tell me, when the body abstains from legitimate nourishment, but you introduce forbidden nourishment to the soul? When you spend the day sitting there, beholding the common nature being defiled and held up to mockery, and harlotrous women, and those representing adulteries there, and those who collect the vices of every household? For it is possible to see acts of fornication and to hear blasphemies, so that through the eyes and through the hearing the disease creeps into the soul itself; they imitate the calamities of others, whence the very name of shame is imposed upon them. What profit, therefore, does the soul have from fasting when it is nourished by such things? With what eyes will you behold your wife after those spectacles? With what eyes will you see your son? With what eyes your servant? With what eyes your friend? It is necessary, however, to be filled with shame while recounting or hearing about the shameful deeds committed there. But you do not depart from there thus: it will be possible at home to relate everything with great confidence, the prophetic voices, the apostolic dogmas, the Lord’s laws, to set forth the entire table of virtue, and to render your wife more chaste through such narrations, your son more prudent, your servant more benevolent, your friend more friendly, and you will even persuade your enemy to put aside his hatred. ^D Are those things everywhere salutary dogmas, but these lectures everywhere useless? What, then, is the utility of fasting, I ask, when you fast with the body, but commit adultery with your eyes? For adultery is not only the actual joining or copulation of the body, but also the impudent gaze. What utility is there when you go from there to here? I correct, he corrupts; I apply medicines to the disease, he provides the cause of the disease; I extinguish the flame of nature, he kindles the flame of lust. What utility, tell me? One builds and one destroys: what have they gained beyond labors? (Ecclus. 34:28). Therefore let us not live here and there, but here alone, so that it may be fruitful, so that it may not be in vain here, so that it may not be useless, nor for condemnation: “One building and one destroying, what have they gained beyond labors?” And even if there were many building, and one destroying, the multitude of those building is overcome by the ease of the subversion. It is an act of great shame for both young and old to hasten to such a pursuit. ^A But would that the evil reached only unto shame! Although this seems perhaps intolerable to a free man, and a great loss of heart, if he is marked by shame and ignominy; yet the punishment does not proceed only to ignominy: a vast vengeance and torment is imminent. It is necessary that all who sit there be held by the sin of adultery, not because they are joined with women there, but because they gaze upon them with impudent eyes. And that you may understand that these also are necessarily held by adultery, I will not tell you my own words, lest perchance you despise them, but I will explain the divine law, where there is by no means any place for contempt. What, therefore, does the divine law say? ^B “You have heard that it was said to the ancients: You shall not commit adultery” (Exod. 20:14); “but I say unto you, that whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:27-28). Have you seen the adultery consummated? Have you seen the sin completed? And what is worse, that the adulterer, caught in adultery, is guilty of adultery not under human, but under divine judgment, where the punishments are immortal. For “whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” It removes not only the disease, but also the root of the disease; for the root of adultery is impudent concupiscence; wherefore it punishes not only adultery, but also concupiscence, the mother of adultery. ^C Thus also do physicians move, not only to correct diseases but also to remove their causes; and if they see a sick eye, they repress the corrupt humor from the temples above. ^D So also does Christ. Adultery is a wretched blindness; it is a disease of the eyes, not of the body alone, but of the soul first; therefore, He suppresses from there the humor of unchastity through the fear of the law; wherefore He punishes not only adultery, but also chastises concupiscence. “He has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” But if the heart is corrupted, what utility is there thereafter in the remaining body? Just as in plants and trees, when we see the heart eaten away, we despise the remaining part from then on; so also in man, when that is perishing, the rest of the body’s health is in vain. The charioteer is lost, he is cast down; the horses thereafter run in vain; the law is laborious and has much of a burden; so therefore it has a great crown. For such are laborious things; they have great rewards. But you do not look at the labor, but consider the reward: so also it happens in the affairs of life. If you shall look at the labor of good works alone, it is heavy and burdensome; if, however, you think of the reward, the task that lies before you is light and easy. ^A So also the helmsman: if he sees only the waves, he will never depart with his vessel from the harbor, but if he looks toward the gain before the waves, then he dares to approach the immense sea. So also the soldier: if he sees wounds and slaughter, he will never put on his breastplate; but if he sees triumphs and victories before the wounds, he runs to the battle as if to a meadow. For things that are by nature heavy, thus become light when we do not consider the labors, but contemplate the fruits of the labors themselves. Do you wish to learn how things that are by nature heavy become light? Listen to Paul saying:

^A *For the present light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory* (2 Cor. 4. 17). This is a riddle: if it is an affliction, how is it light? If it is light, how is it an affliction? For these are opposites. But he solved the riddle by the subjoined phrase, showing it to be light: how? *While we look not at the things which are seen.* He set forth the crown, and made the struggle light; he showed the prize, and comforted the sweat. Do you, therefore, when you see a woman radiant in appearance, bright in her attire, when you see lust tickling you, and you see your soul desiring such a spectacle: look up to the crown that is laid up for you above, that you may pass by such a sight. Have you seen a fellow-servant? Consider the Master, and you will wholly cease from the malady. For if children, when they follow their tutor, do not turn aside, do not gape, are not frightened, much more will you, if you see Christ present to your thoughts, suffer nothing of the kind. *He who has looked upon a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart* (Matt. 5. 28). I read the letters of the Law gladly and frequently; would that I might speak this to you all day long, or rather not to you, but to those who are liable to these sins; or rather to you as well; for you will be more secure, and those who are in the malady will quickly return to health. *He who has looked upon a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart.*

^B 3. These words recited are sufficient to purge the entire gangrene of sin. But forgive me: we are cleansing wounds, and it is necessary to apply bitter medicines to those who are cleansing wounds; the more you bear these words, the more the poison is purged out. For just as the nature of fire, the more it associates with the nature of gold, the more it consumes the rust: so also the fear of these words, the more it is resounded in your understanding, the more it will purge away all the sin of impurity. Let us burn it here with the word of doctrine, so that we may not be compelled to have it burned there by the fire of Gehenna. For the soul that has departed from here pure, that fire shall not injure; but the soul that has departed from here with sins, that fire shall receive. *For every man’s work, he says, the fire shall try* (1 Cor. 3. 13). Let us try ourselves now without pain, so that we may not be tried then with pain.

What then? you say, is the Law laborious? No, I say; be silent, and do not accuse the Master: for there is no mode of excuse here, but a greater addition of sin than before. But that it is the custom of very many who sin to cast the accusations on the Master, hear. That man came who was entrusted with the five talents, and brought other five; the one entrusted with two talents came, and brought other two; the one entrusted with one talent came, and since he had not another ^C talent to bring, he brought an accusation instead of a talent. How, he says? *I knew that you are a hard man.* Oh, the ingratitude of the servant! He is not satisfied with his sin, but he also introduces an accusation against the Master: *reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered* (Matt. 25. 24). O wicked servant! Thus, in the present life, where they labor no good, they make their accusations against the Master an addition to their evils. Therefore, do not accuse the Master; he did not command impossibilities. Do you wish to learn that he did not command impossibilities? Many transcend the commandments; but they would not have transcended them, if they were impossibilities, out of their own free choice. He did not command virginity, and many attain it; he did not command poverty, and many cast away their own possessions, through their deeds witnessing to the great ease of the laws of the commandment; for they would not have surpassed them, if the things commanded were not easy. He did not command virginity; for he who commands virginity brings under the necessity of the law even him who does not wish it; but he who advises leaves the hearer master of his own choice. For this reason Paul also says: *Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give my judgment* (1 Cor. 7. 25). Do you see not a commandment, but advice? Do you see not a precept, but an exhortation? But there is a great difference; for the former is of necessity, the latter of free choice. I do not command, he says, so that I may not burden you; I advise and suggest, so that I may bring [you on]. Thus also Christ; he did not say: Do all of you observe virginity. For if he had commanded all to be virgins and had made the commandment a law, neither would the one who attained it have enjoyed as much honor as now, ^D and he who disobeyed would have paid the extreme penalty. Do you see how our Lawgiver spares us? How he cares for our salvation? Could he not have made this a command, and said that those who remain virgins shall be honored, and those who do not remain virgins shall be punished? But that would have burdened nature; he spares our nature. He left virginity outside the stadiums, he left it above the struggles, so that both those who attain it may demonstrate their own magnanimity, and those who do not attain it may enjoy the indulgence of the Master. Thus also regarding poverty, he did not make the matter a command. For he did not simply say: Sell your possessions, but: *If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions* (Matt. 19. 21). Let it be set in your will, be master of your own judgment; I do not constrain, I do not burden, but I crown the one who attains, and I do not punish the one who does not attain. For things that come from a command and from debt do not have so much reward; but those from free choice and from honest ambition have brilliant crowns. And of these I bring Paul as a witness: *If I preach the Gospel, he says, I have no glory.* Why? *For necessity is laid upon me. Woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel* (1 Cor. 9. 16). Do you see, in laws, the one who attains has not much reward; for it is a necessity; but the one who does not attain is liable to punishment and penalty. For *Woe is unto me*, he says, *if I preach not the Gospel.* But in the case of others it is not so, in the case of those from free choice, but what? What then is my reward? *That in preaching the Gospel I may make the Gospel of God without charge, that I abuse not my power*

^A. There is a law, and because of this I did not have a large reward; but this was a matter of choice, therefore I have a large reward.

^B 4. All these things are not said simply, but by way of the divine law, that I might show it is not heavy, not burdensome, not laborious, and not impossible. Come then, let us demonstrate this fact from the very words of Christ. *He who looks upon a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart* (Matt. 5:28). Observe, and this very thing Christ did, because many were about to accuse the law of difficulty; wherefore he did not bring it in naked, nor simple, nor by itself, but recalled the memory of the ancient law, and by comparison showed its ease and his own kindness. But how, attend. For he did not say simply, *He who looks upon a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart* (here attend with diligence), but he first reminds them of the ancient law, saying: *You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery* (Exod. 20:14); *but I say to you, Every one who looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart* (Matt. 5:28). Do you see the two laws, the old and the new, which Moses set, and which he himself introduced? nay, he even set the former; for he himself spoke through Moses. And from where is it clear that he set that one too? I shall not present testimony from John, nor from any of the apostles; for my conflict now is with the Jews; but from the prophets whom they seem to believe, I will show from them that both the Old and the New have one legislator. What then does Jeremiah ^C say? *I will establish with you a new covenant* (Jer. 31:31). Do you see the name of the New even in the Old? Do you see the designation itself shining forth so many years before? *I will establish with you a new covenant*. But from where do we see that he himself also gave the Old? When he had said, *I will establish with you a new covenant*, he added, *Not according to the covenant which I established with your fathers* (Ibid. v. 32). Yes; but we have not yet demonstrated the matter; for it is necessary to bring into the middle all things that are opposing, and to clarify them, so that the argument may be pure for us on all sides, and we may leave no opening for the shameless. *I will establish with you a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I established with your fathers.* He established a covenant with Noah, when there was a flood, wishing to free us from fear, lest by thinking of the flood, and constantly seeing the rain, we should fear that common destruction; therefore, he says: *I will establish a covenant with you, and with all flesh* (Gen. 9:9). Again, he established the covenant of circumcision with Abraham; he also established a covenant through Moses, known to all. Jeremiah said: *I will establish with you a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I established with your fathers.* Tell me, with which fathers? For Noah was a father, and Abraham was a father; with which fathers then? For the indeterminacy of persons breeds confusion. Attend here: *Not according to the covenant which I established with your fathers.* Therefore, lest you should say that it was given in the times of Noah, or understand it as given in the times of Abraham, he mentions the time of the covenants; for when he had said, *I will establish with you a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I established with your fathers*, he subjoined the time also: *In the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.* Do you see how much clarity the determination of time has brought? Now not even the Jew contradicts any longer: remember the time, and accept the legislation: *In the day that I took them by the hand.* But why does he also state the manner of the exodus? *When I took their hand to lead them out of Egypt.* In order to show paternal love, he did not lead them out as slaves, but as a father taking his little son by the hand, so he set him free: he did not command them to follow behind like a slave, but as taking a noble and free son by the hand, so he led him out. Do you see the single legislator of the two covenants? Since, therefore, we have been freed from the struggle, I will show this to you from the New, so that you may know the consonance of the covenants. Do you see the prophecy that is through words? learn also that which consists of figures, even if it is not therefore clear what prophecy through figure is, and what prophecy through word is: we shall make this manifest, therefore, in a few points. Prophecy through figure is that which is wont to come to pass through things; but the other is that which comes to be through words; for he persuaded those who were more prudent through words, but he encouraged the ruder ones through the vision of things. For since a great thing was about to come to light, and God was about to take on flesh, since the earth was about to become heaven, and our nature to ascend to the nobility of angels, because the account of future goods surpassed hope itself and anticipation, lest that new and unheard-of thing, appearing suddenly, should trouble those who were then seeing and hearing, he prefigured it of old through things, and by words accustoming both our hearing and our vision, and preparing that which was about to come to light. This, then, was what we said, what prophecy through figure is, and what prophecy through word is: the one of things, the other of words. Shall I tell you the prophecy of things and of words concerning the same matter? *As a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer* (Isa. 53:7). This is the prophecy through word. For when Abraham took Isaac, then seeing a ram caught by its horns, he led it to the sacrifice in deed, as if proclaiming to us through a figure the saving passion. I said, do you wish me to show you these two covenants through works? Just as you have seen the sheep in the word, learn also in the deed. Tell me, *you who desire to be under the law* (Gal. 4:21). He well said, *desire*, for they were not under the law; for if they had been under the law, they would not have been under the law. Perhaps what is said is an enigma; for the law handed over its listeners to Christ; he who slights the master, is ignorant also of the pedagogue. Why, he says, *Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman, and one by the free woman; which things are spoken by allegory* (Ibid. v. 22-23). Did you see ^D through the deed

the prophecy? For the having of women is not a word, but a deed; and I showed you through the words that the slave and the free woman signify that there is one lawgiver of both testaments. Learn, then, through the types, this same thing. Abraham had two wives; these are the two testaments, and one lawgiver. Just as there was a sheep and a sheep, the one in a figure, the other in the deed, and great is the concord of both the deeds and the words; so also here are two testaments, and these Jeremiah foretold by word ^B, while Abraham typified them by deeds in having two wives. For just as there is one husband and two wives, so there is one lawgiver and two testaments. But as I was saying, and for the sake of which all these things have been set in motion—for one must not fall away from the subject—"He who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matt. 5:28). True. But for the sake of which we moved all these things, why does He read the old law to them? For He says to them: "You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery." He perceived that the commandment is difficult, not against our own nature, but against the sloth of those who hear. For many things that are naturally easy become difficult to accomplish when we are slothful; just as there are things that are difficult, but become light and very easy when we apply ourselves. For the difficulty does not lie in the nature of the things, but in the purpose of those who engage in them. And that this is true is clear from the following: Honey has a nature that is sweet and most pleasant, yet to those who are sick it is both bitter and disagreeable, not because of its own nature, but because of their infirmity; so also the law, if it seems burdensome, is not so because of its own nature, but because of our own sloth. It is not much labor for me to show that it is easy, so that it may be accomplished; for it would have been the other part that would have made it difficult. For now He says, "Flee the sight of the woman, depart from lewdness"; but the difficult thing would have been to say the opposite: "Study the women, scrutinize the beauty of others, and thus master your desire." This indeed would have been difficult; but for Him to say, "Flee the furnace, depart from the fire, do not approach the flame so that you may remain unharmed," this holds much ease; for the commandment is according to nature. "You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery" (Ibid.). Why, then, does He remind us of the old law when He is about to introduce another? So that from the comparison you may learn that there is no conflict between this and that; for when there is a comparison, then the judgment becomes ^C clearer. For since some were going to accuse Him that He says these things while acting as a lawgiver against the law, "Behold," He says, "I set the laws parallel; test and learn the harmony"; and not only this, but to show also that it is easy and introduced at an opportune time. For this reason He says, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery; for so long a time have you practiced the old law." As a teacher, speaking to a slow-witted child who is unwilling to dwell any longer on his studies, wishing to lead him toward higher things, says, "Consider how long a time you have held this lesson"; so also Christ, reminding them that they had practiced for a long time and held to the old law, and that it was high time to ascend to the higher one, led them to the legislation of the fathers, saying, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery." That was said to those of old, "But I say to you." For if He said it to those of old, you would rightly complain, when your nature was disposed more imperfectly; but since nature has advanced, since it has become more perfect, the time is now for more perfect teachings. For this reason also, beginning the legislation, so that no one, seeing the tension of the philosophy, might be slothful and draw back, He says: "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:20). Do you demand from me more strenuous efforts? Why? Do I not share the same nature as them? Am I not a man just as they are? So that they do not say these things, why did He intensify the labors for us? Why did He set the stakes higher? He anticipated the objection by saying "the kingdom of heaven"; "I bring," He says, "greater rewards"; having spoken of the labors, having spoken of the struggles, having spoken of the tension of the legislation, He also made mention of the rewards. For I have not given you Palestine, He says, nor the land flowing with milk and honey, but I bring you the heaven itself. And we do not only fare better in the wage of the accomplishments, but we also endure greater punishment in the transgression of sins. For just as those before the law give a lighter penalty than those under the law—"For as many," He says, "as have sinned without law, will also perish without law" (Rom. 2:12), that is, they do not have the law as an accuser, but I will bring the verdict from nature itself ^D, "between thoughts accusing or even excusing" (Ibid. v. 15); so those who sin under the law, those who sin under grace will undergo a more severe punishment. And Paul showed the difference of these by saying: "Anyone who has despised Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses; of how much worse punishment do you suppose, think you, will he be thought worthy, who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, and counted the blood of the covenant a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?" (Hebr. 10:28-29). Do you see on the side of grace a greater punishment, just as also the rewards are greater? But since I have reminded you of the most awesome and spiritual mysteries, I exhort and entreat and pray and ask with all diligence, that having put off every sin, you may thus approach this awesome table. "Follow peace with all men," He says, "and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord" (Hebr. 12:14). But he who is not worthy to see the Lord is also not worthy of the communion of the Master’s body. For this reason Paul says, "But let each one examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup" (1 Cor. 11:28). He did not reveal the sore, he did not drag the accusation into a common theater, he did not set up witnesses of the transgressions; within in the conscience, with no one present except God who sees all things, make the judgment and the examination of the sins, and analyzing the whole life, bring the sins under the judgment of the mind; correct the transgressions, and so with a pure conscience approach the sacred table, and partake of the holy sacrifice. These things

and become partakers of the holy sacrifice. Keeping these things in mind, and remembering all that we have said concerning debauchery, and how great a punishment is laid upon those who look upon the faces of women incontinently and with unchaste eyes, and having the fear of God and His love before our eyes, let us cleanse ourselves on every side and so approach the holy mysteries, that they may not become our judgment and condemnation, but may lead to salvation and the health of the soul, and that we may receive the constant assurance of this salvation: in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and empire, to the ages of ages. Amen.

SERMON ON REPENTANCE AND COMPUNCTION, AND THAT GOD IS PROMPT TO SAVE AND SLOW TO PUNISH: IN WHICH IS ALSO THE WONDERFUL HISTORY OF RAHAB. HOMILY VII

Homily VII.

1. The divine Apostle always uses a divine and heavenly tongue, and with much skill weaves the evangelical word; not speaking rashly from his own opinion, but bringing forth dogmas with kingly authority. He uses this skill most especially when he urges the word of repentance upon those who sin; concerning which I am now about to admonish you. You have heard, therefore—to touch upon the things said one by one—how that noble and admirable man, when addressing the Corinthians, spoke: "Lest, when I come, I should bewail many of them that have sinned before, and have not repented" (2 Cor. 12:21). Though an intelligent man, he was a great teacher by nature, but a minister of God’s purpose; therefore, he uses a tongue as if it were heavenly, and because he speaks as if from the very heavens, he thus threatens sinners and promises propitiation to those who repent. 327 But when I say these things, I do not ascribe the authority to Paul’s tongue, but refer all to the grace of God, of whom he himself said: "Do you seek the proof of Christ who speaks in me?" (2 Cor. 13:3). Therefore, for those who sin, He provides the medicine of benefit, and repentance unto salvation. Today, the authority of the Savior coincides with the apostolic reading, which abundantly bestows the remission of sins. For when He was healing the paralytic, the Savior said, as you just heard: "Son, thy sins are forgiven thee" (Mark 2:5); for the remission of sins is the fountain of salvation and the reward of repentance. Repentance is indeed a remedy that destroys sin; it is a heavenly gift, an admirable virtue, a grace that surpasses the course of the laws. Wherefore He does not reject the fornicator, He does not drive away the adulterer, He does not turn away the drunkard, He does not detest the idolater, He does not repel the slanderer, He does not persecute the blasphemer, nor the arrogant; but He changes everyone, for repentance is the furnace of sin. Further, it is worthwhile first to know God's aim, not approaching such speculation from our own thoughts, but demonstrating the truth as attested by the divine Scriptures themselves.

The virtue of parents benefits their descendants. God’s aim, while He acts with long-suffering, is twofold: He procures salvation for the penitent themselves, and reserves a benefit for their descendants who are about to make progress in virtue. And to repeat the discourse again, God acts with long-suffering so that the sinner may repent, and that He may not close the way of salvation to his descendants. For even if a sinner persists in his lapses, He often spares the root so that He may preserve the fruits; many a time He even changes the root itself, as I said before. But where it has fallen into utter wickedness, God usefully delays the punishment, waiting for the salvation of the penitent; and how this is so, hear. Terah, the father of Abraham, was a worshiper of idols; but he did not give punishment for his impiety, and rightly so. For if God had cut off the root, from whence would such a fruit of faith have blossomed? What was more wicked than Esau? Behold for me another proof of His kindness. What is more impudent than that wickedness? Was he not a fornicator and a profane person, as the apostle says (Heb. 12:16)? Was he not a parricide and matricide? Was he not a fratricide in his intentions? Was he not hated by God, as the Scripture testifies, saying: "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated" (Rom. 9:13)? If, therefore, he was a fornicator, a fratricide, profane, and hated, why was he not taken from the midst? Why was he not cut off? Why was he not immediately visited with deserved punishment? Why? It is indeed a fine thing to state the cause. If he had been cut off, the world would have lost a great fruit of justice; and what kind, hear: Esau begat Raguel, Raguel begat Zerah, Zerah begat Job (Gen. 36). Do you see how great a flower of patience would have been destroyed if God, acting beforehand, had exacted the punishment from the root? Admit it. Therefore, He acts with long-suffering toward the Egyptians who utter intolerable blasphemies, on account of the churches, indeed, that now flourish in Egypt, on account of the monasteries and those who have embraced the 328 angelic life. For indeed, as those skilled in public law and as Roman laws prescribe, if a pregnant woman falls into a crime worthy of death, she is not ordered to be killed before she has given birth: and this is rightfully so, for the lawmakers did not judge it just that the innocent be destroyed along with the guilty. But if human laws spare nothing for those who sin, will God not much rather preserve the root, reserving the benefit of the fruits of repentance? Take from the rest the benefit of repentance upon those who have sinned; for even in those

^A the same account of loving-kindness is given back. If justice had laid hold of correction, the world would have entirely perished and been destroyed; if God had been quick to inflict punishment, the Church would not have gained Paul, nor would it have received one so great and of such a kind. For this reason, then, He deferred the blasphemer, so that He might show him repenting. The long-suffering of God made the persecutor a herald; the long-suffering of God changed the wolf into a shepherd; the long-suffering of God made the tax collector an evangelist; the long-suffering of God had mercy on us all, changed us all, and converted us all.

If you see one who was once a drunkard, now abstinent; if you see one who was once a blasphemer, now a theologian; if you see one who once defiled his mouth with shameful songs, now purifying his soul with divine hymns, marvel at the long-suffering of God, and praise repentance, and from the change say, taking it up: *This is the change of the right hand of the Most High* (Ps. 76:11). God is good to all, but He manifests His long-suffering especially toward those who sin. ^B And if you wish to hear a strange word — a word strange as far as custom goes, but true as far as piety goes — listen. God appears severe everywhere to the just, but kind to sinners, and swift to loving-kindness; He raises up the one who sins and falls, and says to him: *Does he who falls not rise again? Or he who turns away not turn back?* (Jer. 8:4). And, *Why has the unreasoning daughter of Judah turned herself away with such shamelessness?* (Jer. 8:5). And again, *Turn back to me, and I will turn back to you* (Zech. 1:3). And elsewhere, He confirms salvation from repentance with an oath, out of great loving-kindness: *As I live, says the Lord, I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live* (Ezech. 33:11). But to the just man He says: *If a man does all righteousness and all truth, and then turns and sins, I will not remember his righteousness, but in his sin he will die* (Ezech. 18:24). O the great strictness toward the just! O the great abundance toward the one who sins!

Thus He devises things in many and various ways, not by changing Himself, but by profitably distributing the economies of His goodness. And how, listen. If He were to frighten the sinner who persists in sins, He would lead him to despair and to an abandonment of hope; ^C but if He were only to bless the just man, He would slacken the intensity of his virtue, and as though he were already blessed, He would prepare him to neglect his diligence. For this reason, He shows mercy to the sinner, but strikes fear into the just man; *For He is terrible over all who are round about Him* (Ps. 88:8), and, *The Lord is kind to all* (Ps. 144:9). *Terrible*, He says, *is He over all who are round about Him*; and who could these be, if not the saints? For God, says David, *is glorified in the counsel of the saints, great and terrible over all who are round about Him* (Ps. 88:8). If He sees one fallen, He extends a hand of loving-kindness; if He sees one standing, He brings in fear; and this belongs to justice and righteous judgment. For He establishes the just man with fear, and rouses the sinner with loving-kindness.

And do you wish to know His timely goodness and the useful and fitting severity for us? Pay close attention, that the magnitude of this contemplation may not escape you. That sinful woman, witnessed to for every sin and lawlessness, she who had sinned so much, and was entangled in so many works of sin, having thirsted for salvation from repentance, ^D came into the feast of the saints; I call it a feast, since the Holy One of the holy ones was present. For while the Savior was reclining in the house of Simon the Pharisee, that sinful woman came in, and she touched the feet of the Savior, and with her tears washed his feet, and was wiping them with her hair; and the lover of mankind raises her up, though she was buried in so many sins, saying: *Her sins are forgiven her* (Luke 7:47). For it is not my purpose now to examine the whole history, but only to bring forth the testimony. See then the abundance—what grace I tell you—*Her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much* (Ibid.). The sinful woman obtained an amnesty for so many sins. But Miriam, the sister of Moses, is condemned to leprosy for a small murmur (Num. 12:10). To those who sin He says: *If your sins be as crimson, I will make them white as snow* (Isa. 1:18). And He changes darkness into light by the change of repentance, and dissolves such a great abundance of evils by the voice of goodness; but to him who walks in righteousness He says: *Whoever says to his brother, "Fool," shall be liable to the fire of hell* (Matt. 5:22). Upon one word He imposed such strictness, and toward such sins He measures out this abundance.

And observe another wonderful thing for me. Since sins are recorded as debts, He forgives both the principal to those sinners who repent; but from the just, He even demands interest. A debtor of many talents approached Him, and as he caused the Judge to relent by repentance and much supplication, and said: *Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay everything* (Matt. 18:26). The lover of mankind did not wait for the payment, but made the request itself the release of the debt; to the debtor of ten thousand talents He forgave everything, even the principal itself. But from the just He promises even to demand interest: *Why, therefore, did you not give my money to the bankers, and I, having come, would have demanded it with interest?* (Luke 19:23; Matt. 25:27). I say these things not as though God is disposed with enmity toward the just—for nothing is more desirable to God than the just man—but, as I have already said, He consoles the sinner, so that He may rouse him; He frightens the just man, so that He may establish him; and to the former He forgives many transgressions as to those who are enemies and puffed up, while for the latter He is precise even about ordinary things, wishing that nothing be lacking in them toward perfection. For that which is wealthy in this world, that is just to God; and that which is poor in this world, that is sinful to God—nothing is poorer than the one who sins, and nothing is wealthier than the one who acts justly. For this reason, regarding those who live in piety and prosperity, Paul says: *I give thanks to God, because you were enriched in everything in Him, in every word and every knowledge* (1 Cor. 1:4-5). Regarding those who act impiously, the blessed Jeremiah says: *Perhaps they are poor, for this reason they could not hear the word of the Lord* (Jer. 5:4). Do you see how he calls those who are separated from the...

faith poor? It is in this way too that he has pity on sinners as if they were poor, and requires of the righteous as if they were rich, bestowing gifts upon the former because of their poverty, but demanding an account from the latter with great precision because of their riches of piety. And what he does with the righteous and the sinners, he does also with the rich and the poor; and just as he raises up the sinner through philanthropy, so he terrifies the righteous through severity. Thus, also, he orders his own arrangement in worldly affairs. ^A If he sees those who shine in dignities—kings, princes, and all who abound in wealth—he addresses them with terror, and usefully instills fear into their power: *And now, O kings, understand; be instructed, all you who judge the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in him with trembling* (Ps. 2:10-11); *for he is the King of kings and Lord of lords* (1 Tim. 6:15). Where there is the authority of power, there he imposes the terror of his kingdom; but where there is the humility of lowliness, there he proffers the remedy of his own philanthropy. For this God is a great King of kings and Lord of lords. ^B Again, descending from his own dignity, he is found, according to holy Scripture, to be *a father of the fatherless and a judge of widows* (Ps. 67:6), the King of kings, the Prince of princes, the Lord of lords. Do you see the great abundance of philanthropy? Do you see the useful fear of piety and power? For where he saw that power was sufficient for consolation, there he imposed fear for utility; but where he saw that orphanhood was weakened by lowliness, and poverty by the feebleness of widowhood, he applied philanthropy for consolation. *I am the father of the fatherless.* He does two things and shows his philanthropy, yet punishes power. He calls himself the father of the fatherless, so that he may both console those who are set in calamity and terrify the powerful, lest they be troublesome to orphans and widows; since death deprived the one of his father and the other of her husband, and those whom natural law corrupted, the decree of philanthropy restores. And this same grace gave the former a judge, but to the orphan a father, the King of the saints. ^C Therefore, he says, O unjust man, if you injure a widow, you provoke the protector of widows; if you wrong an orphan, you wrong the sons of God. *I am the father of the fatherless and the judge of widows.* But who is so bold in impiety as to injure the sons of God and cause trouble to widows who are set under the protection of God? Do you see how usefully he prepares the remedies of piety, and terrifies the former but has pity on the latter, not being divided himself, but accommodating himself to the judgment of men? Let us, therefore, apply repentance to ourselves as a remedy for salvation; or rather, let us receive from God the repentance that heals us. For we do not offer it to him, but he has ministered it to us. Do you see his severity in the Law? Do you see his philanthropy in grace? But when I say severity in the Law, I do not disparage the judgment, but I preach the philanthropy of evangelical grace: for the Law punished sinners without remission, but grace with much long-suffering defers the punishment, so that it may induce amendment. Let us take up repentance, therefore, brothers, as a medicine for salvation; let us take up the medicine that deletes our sins. ^D Repentance, however, is not what is preached by word, but what is confirmed by deeds; repentance is that which deletes the stain of impiety from the heart itself. For, *Wash yourselves*, he says, *be clean; remove your iniquities from your hearts from before my eyes* (Is. 1:16). What does this redundancy of diction signify? For that phrase, *Remove your iniquities from your hearts*, was it not enough to indicate the whole? Why did he add, *from before my eyes*? Because the eyes of men see one way, but the eye of God another: *For man looks at the face, but God looks at the heart* (1 Kings 16:7). Do not, he says, adulterate repentance with pretense, but show the fruits of repentance before my eyes, which scrutinize hidden things.

It is necessary to have sins before one's eyes. For although God by his philanthropy pardons sin, you, for the security of your soul, have the sin before your eyes: for the memory of past things is a hindrance to future ones; and he who is pricked by prior things shows a more cautious mind toward subsequent ones. And therefore David says, *And my sin is always before me* (Ps. 50:5), so that by having past things before his eyes, he may not fall into future ones. But that God requires this state from us, hear him saying: *I am he who deletes your sins, and I will not remember them: but do you remember, and let us be judged, says the Lord* (cf. Is. 43:25-26): do you speak your sins first, that you may be justified. You have spoken your sin, you are justified: you have practiced repentance, you have obtained mercy. It is not time that excuses, but the manners of the penitent extinguish the sin. It is possible for one who has waited a long time not to obtain salvation, and for one who has sincerely confessed in a short time to cast off sin. Samuel spent much time praying for Saul, and passed many sleepless nights for the salvation of the sinner; but God, not attending to time, because the supplication of the prophet did not coincide with the repentance of the sinner, said to his prophet: *How long do you mourn for Saul, and I have rejected him?* (1 Kings 16:1). That "how long" declares the time and the perseverance of him who prays: and God rejected the time of the prophet's intercession: for the repentance of a sinner did not concur with the intercession of the just man. But to the blessed David, who had received the rebuke of the holy prophet Nathan, and immediately after the rebuke had shown true conversion, and had said, *I have sinned against the Lord* (2 Kings 12:13); immediately in one moment of time a word sincerely uttered brought entire repentance to salvation: for immediately amendment followed the sentence. Nathan therefore says to him: *And the Lord has dismissed your sin* (Ibid.). God is slow to punishment, quick to salvation. — Look to me at God, slow to punishment and quick to salvation. And first consider for me how, long after the time, he brought correction as a gentle one. David sinned, the woman conceived, and no correction followed the sin; but after the birth of the infant born from the sin, the physician of sin is sent. Why, however, did he not correct the sinner immediately? Because he saw in the sinners themselves

CHAPTER 4

^A that the soul was blinded in the heat of their sins, because the ears of those immersed in the depth of sin had become deaf. He therefore defers bringing help to the inflamed passion, ^B and the rebuke comes only after such a long time; and in one moment of time come repentance and forgiveness. And the Lord took away thy sin. O the dispensation of him who threatened! Do you see that he is swift toward salvation? He does the same with others, delaying toward destruction, but hastening toward protection. What do I mean? Among us humans, structures are built over a long time, and we build a house over much time; ^C and for building the time is long, but for destruction it is short. But with God it is the opposite: when he builds, he builds quickly; when he destroys, he destroys slowly. God is swift to build, slow to destroy; because both are fitting to God: for the one is of power, and the other of goodness; by a superabundance of power he is swift, by much goodness he is slow; and the proof of words is the experience of the things themselves. In six days God made heaven and earth, the magnitudes of the mountains, the plains, the ravines, the dales, the woods, the plants, the springs, the rivers, paradise, all the visible variety, this great and spacious sea, the islands, the maritime regions, and the inland ones; all this visible world, and the beauty in it, God made in six days; the rational and the irrational animals in it, and all the visible adornment he makes in six days. This one, then, who is swift to build, when he resolved ^D to destroy one city, was found slow because of his goodness. He wishes to destroy Jericho, and he says to Israel: Compass it for seven days; and on the seventh day the wall shall fall. You construct the whole world in six days, and you loosen one city in seven days? For what hinders your power? Why do you not destroy it at once? Does not the prophet cry out about you saying, If thou shouldst open the heaven, trembling shall seize the mountains from thee, and they shall melt like wax before the face of fire (Isai. 64. 1, 2)? Do not the works of your power, as David says, cry out, We shall not fear when the earth is troubled, and the mountains are transferred into the hearts of the seas (Ps. 45. 3)? You can move mountains and cast them into the sea, and you do not wish to destroy one city that opposes, but give seven days to its destruction? Why? Not that power, he says, is weak, but philanthropy is long-suffering. I give seven days, as I gave three days to Nineveh; perhaps it will accept the proclamation of repentance, and be saved. And who is it preaching repentance to them? Enemies have surrounded the city: the general was circling the walls; great is the fear, great is the tumult; what path of repentance then did you open to them? For did you send a prophet? Did you send an evangelist, or was there anyone suggesting to them what was profitable? Yes, he says, they had within them a teacher of repentance, that wonderful Rahab, whom I saved through repentance. She was of the same mass; but because this was not of the same frame of mind, she who did not partake in the unbelief did not partake in the sin.

Chapter 5. The proclamation of philanthropy, and Rahab as a figure of the Church

And examine for me the strange proclamation of philanthropy. He who says in the law, Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not commit fornication, changing the word through philanthropy, cries out through blessed Jesus: Let Rahab the harlot live. That Jesus, the son of Nave, who says, Let the harlot live, was an image of the Lord Jesus who says, Harlots and publicans shall go before you into the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 21. 31). If she ought to live, why is she a harlot? If she is a harlot, why should she live? I speak, he says, of the former state, that you may admire the second state. And what did Rahab do, he says, to be a harbinger of salvation? Because she received the spies with peace? Even a hostess does this. But she reaps salvation not from the word alone, but primarily from faith and from her disposition toward God. And that you may learn the excess of faith in her, listen to the Scripture itself narrating the deeds witnessed in her. She was in a brothel, like a pearl mired in mud, gold cast in dirt, a flower of piety choked by thorns, a pious soul closed up in a place of impiety. And give heed to my mind accurately. She received the spies, and what Israel betrayed in the desert, this Rahab proclaimed in the brothel. What do I mean, Israel in the desert? When the mountain was filled with cloud, and darkness, and trumpets, and lightnings, and the other fearful things, it heard from God from the midst of the fire: Hear, O Israel: The Lord thy God, is one Lord; there shall be no other gods to thee; I am in heaven above, and in the earth below, and apart from me there is no God (Deut. 6. 4; 4. 59). Hearing these things, Israel cast a calf, and disregarded God; he ignored the Master, he rejected the benefactor, and says to Aaron: Make us gods. If they are gods, why say "make"? How are things made gods? Thus wickedness, being blinded, fights against itself and destroys itself. One calf was made, and the ungrateful Israel cries out: These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up from the land of Egypt (Exod. 32. 4). These are thy gods—beholding one calf, one made idol, why then "these are thy gods"? To show that he does not worship only what he sees, but imagines a plurality of gods; he interprets his own mind, not judging what is visible. But that we may return again to the matter at hand: the things which Israel heard, encompassed by such wonders, and led by such a law, and yet denied them, these things Rahab, locked in the brothel, proclaims; for she says to the spies: We have known all that thy God did to the Egyptians. The Jew says: These are thy gods which brought thee up from the land of Egypt, and the harlot ascribes salvation not to gods, but to God. We have known all that thy God did to the Egyptians in the desert, and we heard, and our heart melted, and there is no strength in us. We have known all that thy God did. Do you see how through faith she takes up the word of the Lawgiver? And I know that thy God is in heaven above, and in the earth below, and apart from him there is no God. Rahab is a figure of the Church, of her once mired in the fornication of the demons, but now receiving the spies of Christ—not those from Jesus the son of Nave, but the apostles sent from Jesus, the true Savior. I have known, she says, that thy God is in heaven above, and in the earth below, and apart from him there is no God. These things the Jews received, and did not keep; these things the Church heard, and kept.

^A Rahab is not worthy of every praise, but she is an image of the Church. Therefore the noble Paul, having learned of the dignity of her faith, and not deeming her unworthy because of her former condition, but acceptable because of her divine change, numbers her among all the saints; and after saying, "By faith Abel offered a sacrifice, by faith Abraham did this and that, by faith Noah built the ark, by faith Moses performed these and those noble deeds," and having mentioned many saints thereafter, he finally added: "By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish with the disobedient, when she had received the spies and sent them out another way" (Heb. 11.31). And see how with great wisdom she tempered her kindness. For when those sent by the king were looking for the spies and said to her, "Have the men entered in to you?" she answered them: "Yes, they have entered in." First she establishes the truth, and thus she introduces the lie. For a lie is never believed in and of itself unless it has first occupied the ground by showing the truth. Therefore, those who are intent on persuading others lie by first saying true things, and things which are acknowledged by all, and then they introduce lies and doubtful matters. "Have the spies entered in to you?" She answers: "Yes." For if she had said "No" from the beginning, she would have incited those who had come to a search. But, "They did enter," she says, "and they have gone out this way; pursue, and you will overtake them." O beautiful lie! O beautiful deceit, not betraying divine things, but guarding piety! If, therefore, Rahab was made worthy of salvation by repentance, and she is preached through the mouths of the saints, with Jesus Nave crying out in the desert, "Long live Rahab the harlot," and Paul saying, "By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish with the disobedient"—how much more shall we, if we show repentance, obtain salvation? The time for repentance is now; for a great fear of impending sins hangs over us, unless repentance forestalls the punishment. "Let us forestall his face with confession" (Ps. 94.2). Let us extinguish the pyre of our sins, not with much water, but with small tears. The fire of sin is great, and yet it is extinguished by modest tears; for tears extinguish the pyre of sins and wash away the stench of sin. The blessed David bears witness, saying and showing how great is the power of tears: "I will wash," he says, "every night my bed, and with my tears I will water my couch" (Ps. 6.7). And yet, if he had wished to show the abundance of his tears, it would have been enough to say: "I will water my couch with my tears." Why then did he prefix that, "I will wash"? To show that tears are a bath and a cleansing for sins.

^B 6.

Sins are the cause of all evils.

^C

Eleemosyna Deum placat.

^A a multiplied negotiation? Such markets, therefore, God has proposed to us: buy justice for a little, by a meager fragment of bread, by a meager morsel, by a cup of cold water. *Whoever shall give to drink a cup of cold water,* says the teacher of spiritual trade, *amen I say to you, he shall not lose his reward* (Matt. 10. 42). Is a cup of cold water worthy of a reward, and are garments and money given for the sake of charity not worthy of a reward? On the contrary, they are worthy of much more. Why, then, did He mention a cup of cold water? He called it almsgiving without expense; for with cold water you expend neither wood nor anything else. But if, where the gift is without expense, the grace of the charity is so great, where there is an abundance of garments, a supply of money, and a superabundance of other goods, how great a reward ought we to expect from the just Judge? Since, therefore, virtues are proposed for sale at a small price, let us take them, let us seize them, let us buy them from the bountiful Giver. *You who thirst,* He says, *go to the water, and as many as have no money, go, buy* (Isai. 55. 1). As long as the fair is open, let us buy alms, or rather, through almsgiving, let us buy salvation. You clothe Christ when you clothe a poor man. You say: I know these things well and accurately; I have learned these things beforehand, you are not the first to teach them; we have not heard this from you first; you are not preaching strange things, but things which many of those present have often taught us. I myself also know! I know that you have often learned these things and things like them; but would that, having learned them often, we also practiced the good even a little. *He who has pity on the poor lends to God* (Prov. 19. 17). Let us lend our almsgiving to God, that we may receive from Him a return of philanthropy. But oh, for that most wise expression! *He who has pity on the poor lends to God.* Why, then, did He not say: "He who has pity on the poor gives to God," but *lends*? Scripture knows our greed; it noticed that our covetousness, looking toward gain, seeks a surplus. And for this reason, it did not say simply: "He who has pity on the poor gives to God," so that you might not think the recompense was simple; but: *He who has pity on the poor lends to God.* If God borrows from us, then He is our debtor. What, then, do you wish to have Him as, a judge or a debtor? A debtor feels shame before the one who lends; a judge is not abashed by the one who lends to him.

^C 7. But it is necessary to see in another way why God said that he who gives to the poor lends to Me. Since He saw our greed inclining toward surplus, as I said before, and that nowhere does one who possesses money wish to lend without security—for the lender demands either a mortgage, or pledges, or a guarantor, and through these three securities he trusts his own money—since God saw that apart from these no one lends, and does not look toward kindness, but looks only to profit, while the poor man is destitute of all these, having no mortgage—for he possesses nothing—bringing no pledges—for he is stripped—offering no guarantor—for he is not trusted on account of his poverty—as, therefore, He saw him in danger through his lack, and the one who has money in danger through his inhumanity, He placed Himself in the middle, a surety for the poor man, and a pledge to the lender. "You do not trust him," He says, "on account of his poverty; trust Me on account of My abundance." He saw the poor man, and took pity; He saw the poor man, and did not pass him by, but gave Himself as a pledge to the one who has nothing, and stood by the destitute because of His great goodness, as the blessed David confirms with this philanthropy, saying: *Because He stood at the right hand of the poor* (Ps. 108. 31). *He who has pity on the poor lends to God.* "Take courage," He says, "you are lending to Me." And what great gain do I make from you by lending? In truth, it is the most lawless thing to demand interest from God; nevertheless, that I may condescend to your lawlessness, and dissolve your harshness with philanthropy, we shall weigh these things against each other. What do you gain by lending to others? Or do you seek gain from them? Is not a hundredth part sufficient if you should seek the legal return? ^D If, however, you increase your disbelief, you reap a double and triple injustice. But I surpass your greed; I transcend the whole measure of your covetousness; I cover your immoderation with My abundance. You seek a hundredth part, but I give you a hundredfold. Then you lend, Lord; and you lend to Me here the almsgiving given to the poor, so that when will you pay me back these things? I demand the agreements, wishing to confirm the contract. Give me the time of the return; define the deadline for receiving it back. In truth, this is superfluous. *For the Lord is faithful in all His words* (Ps. 144. 13). Since, however, it is the custom and purpose of one lending in good faith to measure times and define days, listen to when and where He who borrowed through the poor man repays your debt. When *the Son of man shall sit on the throne of His glory, and shall set the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left,* and He shall say to those on the right: here attend to how the debtor is grateful toward the one who lent, how the Borrowing One repays with great grace: *Come, you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world* (Matt. 25. 34 sqq.). For what reasons? *Because I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink; I was naked, and you covered Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was a stranger, and you took Me in.* Then those who served well in time, looking to their own weakness, and to the dignity of the One who borrowed, say: *Lord, when did we see You hungry, and fed You? or thirsty, and gave You to drink?* (ibid. 14. 15). In whom the eyes of all hope, and You give them food in abundance? Oh, for the great goodness! He hides the dignity because of philanthropy. *For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat.* Oh, for the good goodness, oh, for the immeasurable kindness! He who gives food to all flesh, and opens His hands, and fills every living thing with good pleasure, *I was hungry,* He says, *and you gave Me to eat*—not that the dignity is lessened, but that the philanthropy serves as a guarantor for the poor. *I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink.* Who is the One saying these things? He who pours the nature of waters into lakes and rivers and springs, who says through the Gospels: *He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, rivers of living water shall flow out of his belly* (John 7. 38); He who said, *If any man thirst, let him come to Me, and drink* (ibid. 37). But, *I was naked,*

I was naked, he says, and you clothed me. We clothed Him who clothes the heaven in clouds, who clothes the whole Church and the inhabited world. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27). "I was in prison." You call yourself in prison, you who release the bound? Interpret what you say, for your dignity makes your words lack credibility. When did we see you in such need? When did we do these things? Inasmuch, He says, as you did it to one of these least, you did it to me (Matt. 25:40). Is the word not true: "He who has pity on the poor, lends to the Lord" (Prov. 19:17)? And see the wonderful thing: He mentioned no other work of virtue apart from that. Yet He could have said: Come, you blessed, because you were continent, because you were virgins, because you undertook the angelic life; but He is silent about these, not because they are unworthy of mention, but because they are second to kindness. But just as He showed the kingdom bestowed upon those on His right hand because of their kindness, so too did He threaten punishment to those on the left because of their barrenness: "Depart, you cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41). Why? For what cause? "Because I was hungry, and you gave me no food." He did not say: "Because you fornicated, because you were adulterers, because you stole, because you bore false witness, because you swore falsely." These are indeed manifestly evil, but they are inferior to hardness and inhumanity. Why, O Lord, do you make no mention of other paths? "I do not judge," He says, "sin, but inhumanity; I do not judge sinners, but those who have not repented; I condemn you for your harshness, because possessing such and so great a medicine for salvation, namely almsgiving, by which all sins are erased, you despised this benefit." Therefore, I reproach the harshness as the root of wickedness and all impiety, while I praise kindness as the root of all good things; and to the former I threaten eternal fire, but to the latter, I promise the kingdom of heaven. Your promises, O Master, are beautiful, and Your kingdom that is awaited is beautiful, and so too is the hell that You threaten—the one lures, the other deters. ^B It lures beautifully to the kingdom, it deters usefully to hell. For God threatens hell not in order to cast us into hell, but in order to deliver us from hell. For if He wished to punish, He would not have threatened beforehand, so that we might cautiously avoid the things threatened. He threatens punishment, that we might flee from the experience of punishment: He terrifies with the word, that He might not punish with the deed. Let us therefore lend kindness to God. Let us lend, so that we might find Him a debtor, as I said before, and not a judge; for the debtor feels reverence for the one he has borrowed from, he feels reverence and shame before him. If a lender comes to a debtor's door, if the latter is poor, he flees; but if he is wealthy, he receives him with confidence. See for me another miracle of the just Judge, proposed from human affairs. If you have lent to someone living in poverty, and then the one who received the loan comes to a prosperous fortune and is able to repay you, he hides it from many and makes repayment, so that he might not be ashamed of his previous state: and he gives thanks indeed, but because of the shame of his former poverty, he hides the benefit. Yet God does not do this, but He receives the loan in secret, and returns the loan openly and freely. For when He receives, He receives in secret through almsgiving; but when He makes repayment, He makes repayment in the eyes of all creation. But perhaps someone might say: Why, then, as He gave to me, the rich, did He not give in like manner to the poor? He could indeed have given to you similarly, as He gave to the poor; but He did not desire it, nor did He wish your wealth to be fruitless, nor that man's poverty to be without reward. He allowed you, the rich, to be rich through almsgiving, and to scatter in justice: "He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever" (Ps. 111:9). Do you see that the rich man stores up eternal righteousness through almsgiving? Behold again the poor man; because he does not possess wealth with which to work righteousness, he possesses poverty, by which he earns patience for eternity. For "The patience of the poor shall not perish forever" (Ps. 9:18): in Christ our Lord, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

ON REPENTANCE.

Homily VIII.

If I was absent from you yesterday, it was not willingly, but compelled by necessity: I was absent in body, not in purpose; in the absence of flesh, not in the affection of the mind. For to the extent of my strength, I embraced you, and carried you all in my mind. Again, brethren, having put aside this temporary malady, I have contended with fervent zeal to behold your face: for while the remnants of the sickness still remain, I have hastened to your love. For those who are sick—having been relieved of sickness—seek out springs and baths; I, however, deemed it worth the labor to see your desired face, and to fulfill that debt of yours regarding the desire to hear, this great sea—having nothing of saltiness, a sea empty of waves. I have come to look upon your cleared field. For who is such a harbor as the Church? Who is such a paradise as your assembly? There is no serpent here lying in wait, but Christ as the instructor: not Eve the supplanter, but the Church the restorer: there are not leaves of trees here, but fruits of the spirit: there is not a hedge of thorns, but a fruitful vine. For if I find any thorn, I change it into an olive: for here the poverty of nature does not prevail, but the freedom of choice is honored. If I find a wolf, I make him a sheep, not by changing his nature, but by transferring his purpose.

Church is compared to the ark of Noah. Therefore, no one would err if he said that the Church is more excellent than the ark. For the ark received animals and preserved animals, but the Church receives animals and changes them. For example, a hawk enters there, and a hawk exits; a wolf enters, and a wolf exits: but a hawk enters here, and a dove exits; a wolf enters...

and a wolf exits: the nature is not changed, but the wickedness is driven out. For this reason, I frequently stir up the discourse concerning repentance. For repentance is terrible and fearful to the sinner, it is the medicine of transgressions, the consumption of iniquities, ^A the putting away of tears, boldness before God, a weapon against the devil, a sword cutting off his head, the hope of salvation, the destruction of despair. It opens heaven, it brings one into paradise, it overcomes the devil (and for this reason I frequently stir up the discourse concerning it), just as to lose heart causes one to be tripped up. ^B Are you a sinner? Do not despair; I do not cease to be constantly applying these medicines; for I know what an armory against the devil it is for you not to despair. If you have sins, do not despair; I do not cease to say these things constantly; and even if you sin daily, repent daily; and just as we do in ancient houses, when they become rotten, we remove the rotted parts, and we repair them with new ones, and we never forget the constant care, so let us do this also within ourselves. If you have grown old in sin today, renovate yourself through repentance. ^C And is it possible, you say, to be saved after repenting? It is quite possible. I have spent my whole life in sins, and if I repent, shall I be saved? Quite so. Whence is this evident? From the philanthropy of your Master. Do you trust in your own repentance? Or does your repentance have the power to wipe away so many evils? If it were repentance alone, you would rightly be afraid; but since the philanthropy of God is mingled with repentance, take heart; for there is no measure to the philanthropy of God, nor can His goodness be explained in words. For your wickedness has a measure, but the medicine has no measure; your wickedness, whatever it might be, is human wickedness; but the philanthropy of God is ineffable; so take heart, because it overcomes your wickedness. Consider a spark fallen into the ocean: can it stand or appear? As much as a spark is compared to the ocean, so much is wickedness compared to the philanthropy of God; or rather, not even so much, but much more. For the ocean, even if it is great, has a measure; but the philanthropy of God is limitless. I say these things not to make you more slothful, but to make you more diligent. I have exhorted you many times not to go up into the theater; you heard, yet were not persuaded; you went up into the theater, you disregarded my word; do not be ashamed to enter again and to hear. "I heard, and did not keep it, how can I enter again?" For the time being, you know this very fact, that you did not keep it; for the time being, you are ashamed; for the time being, you blush; for the time being, through no one reproving you, you carry about the bridle; for the time being, you have my word rooted within you; for the time being, while it is not manifested, my teaching is cleansing you. You did not keep it, have you condemned yourself? You kept half of it; even if you do not keep it, say, "I did not keep it"; for he who condemns himself for not keeping it, hastens toward keeping it. ^D Did you watch? Did you work iniquity? Did you become a captive of the harlot? Did you go down from the theater? Did you remember again? Were you ashamed? Come forward. Were you grieved? Beseech God; you have risen at least to this point. "Woe to us," one says, "I heard, and did not keep it; how shall I enter the church? How shall I hear again?" Enter all the more, because you did not keep it, so that, having heard again, you may keep it. If a physician applies a medicine to you, and it does not cleanse you, does he not apply it again another day? Is there some woodcutter who wants to cut down an oak? He takes an axe; he strikes at the root; if he gives one blow, and the fruitless tree does not fall, does he not give another blow, and the fourth, and the fifth, and the tenth? So do you also; the harlot is an oak, a fruitless tree, bearing acorns—food for irrational animals; in a long time it was rooted in your mind, in the surrounding trees it cast down your conscience; my word is an axe. You heard for one day; how in one day does that which has been rooted for so much time fall? For if you do it twice, if you do it three times, if a hundred times, if ten thousand times, it is not a matter for wonder; cut down the evil and strong thing, the evil habit. The Jews were eating manna, and they were seeking the leeks that were in Egypt: "It was well with us in Egypt"; such a shameful and wretched thing is habit. And if you succeed in ten days, or if in twenty, or if in thirty, I am not satisfied, I do not have gratitude, I do not embrace you; only do not grow weary, but be ashamed and condemn yourself.

2. Again I have discoursed concerning love; you heard, you went away and plundered; did you not demonstrate the word through your deeds? Do not be ashamed to enter the church again; be ashamed when you are sinning, do not be ashamed when you are repenting. Pay attention to what the devil persuades you. These two things exist: sin and repentance; sin is a wound, repentance is medicine. Just as in the body there are wounds and medicine, so also in the soul there are sins and repentance; but sin carries shame, while repentance possesses boldness. Pay attention to me with accuracy, I beseech you, so that by confusing the order you do not lose the benefit. There is a wound and medicine, sin and repentance; the wound is sin, the medicine is repentance; in the wound there is putrefaction, in the medicine there is cleansing of the putrefaction; in sin there is putrefaction, in sin there is reproach, in sin there is laughter; in repentance there is boldness, in repentance there is freedom, in repentance there is cleansing of sin. Pay attention with accuracy. Shame follows sin, boldness follows repentance. Did you pay attention to what I am saying? Satan has inverted the order, and he gave boldness to sin, and shame to repentance. I do not depart until evening, until I solve this; I must fulfill the promise; it is impossible for me to depart. There is a wound and medicine; the wound carries the putrefaction, the medicine possesses the cleansing of the putrefaction. Is there putrefaction in the medicine? Is there healing in the wound? Do these not hold their own order, and those theirs? Can this be changed to that, or that to this? By no means. Let us come, then, to the soul's sins. Sin carries shame, sin carries reproach, and has dishonor joined to it; repentance possesses boldness, repentance has fasting

^B Repentance obtains justice: "Declare your iniquities first, that you may be justified" (Is. XLIII, 25, 26); and, "The just man is the first accuser of himself" (Prov. XVIII, 17). Seeing, therefore, that sin has shame, the devil—a thing capable of deterring the sinner—tries to deflect him. Repentance, however, has boldness, a thing capable of alluring the penitent. He inverts the order and gave to repentance shame, and to sin boldness.

Whence is this evident? I will say. A man is seized by the burning concupiscence of a common prostitute; he follows the prostitute like a captive, he enters the brothel; he has intercourse with the prostitute without any shame, without any blushing; he commits the sin, and after the sin is finished, he departs from there. And for doing penance, he blushes. Wretched man, when you were consorting with the prostitute, you did not blush; but when you come to penance, you blush then? Is he ashamed, tell me? Why was he not affected with shame when he was committing fornication? He commits a crime and is not affected with shame, yet is ashamed of a word? This is the devil's cunning. In sin, he does not allow him to blush, but allows him to be known publicly; for he knows that if he were affected with shame, he would flee sin. In repentance, however, he causes him to blush; for he knows that through shame he will not do penance. He does two evils: he lures to sin and keeps one from repentance. Why are you ashamed now? When you were committing fornication, you did not blush; when you apply the remedy, are you suffused with shame? When you free yourself from sin, are you ashamed? Then you ought to have been ashamed, ^C then it was fitting to be put to shame, when you were sinning. When you were becoming a sinner, you did not blush; when you are being made just, do you blush? "Declare your iniquities first, that you may be justified" (Is. XLIII, 25, 26). He did not say, "so that you may not be punished," but, "that you may be justified." Was it not sufficient for him that you do not punish him, but you also make him just? Assuredly. But apply your mind to the careful discourse. I make him just. And where did He do this? In the thief, to say this only to his companion: "Neither do you fear God? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due rewards of our deeds" (Luc. XXIII, 40, 41). The Savior also says: "Today you will be with me in paradise" (Ibid. 43). He did not say, "I exempt you from punishment and vengeance," but He introduces the one who is just into paradise.

^D Confession makes one just. Have you seen the just man made so through confession? God is exceedingly kind; He did not spare His Son, that He might spare the servant: He delivered up the Only-Begotten, that He might redeem ungrateful servants: He deposited the blood of His Son as the price. O the kindness of the Lord! Do not tell me again: "I have sinned much; how shall I be able to attain salvation?" You cannot, but your Lord can; and He can so do it that He may blot out your sins. Attend diligently: He so blots out sins that not even a vestige of them remains.

In bodies it is not so; for even if a physician applies study and remedies a thousand times, he indeed takes the wound out of the midst, but mostly for him who has received a strike on the face, he treats the wound, but the scar remains, and he carries about the deformity of the face as proof of the wound; and the physician strives in a thousand ways to remove the scar, but he cannot; for the weakness of nature opposes, and not less the weakness of art and remedies. But on the contrary, when God blots out sins, He neither leaves a scar nor allows a vestige to remain, and with health He bestows the beauty of form, with immunity from punishment He gives justice, and He makes him who has sinned equal to him who has not sinned. For He removes the sin and makes it so that it neither is nor had been done; so completely, in fact, does He blot it out: no scar remains, no vestige, no proof, no sign.

^A ...what Moses bore witness to. Behold, you have been cast out of the promise, O Jews! Behold, you have abandoned God! How shall I call you, Moses? For you have died and reached your end. How shall I call Aaron? He, too, has been surrendered to death. Do you not have a way to call a man? Call the elements. For this very reason, even I, while I was alive—not just Aaron, and this one, and that one—bore witness, since they were about to die; but I also bear witness to you by the elements that remain, both heaven and earth. Isaiah therefore says: *Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth* (Isai. I, 2). For Moses commanded you to call them today. He calls the elements not for this reason alone, but because He has discoursed with the Jews. Hear, O heaven, for you brought down the manna! Give ear, O earth, for you gave the quail! Hear, O heaven, hear; for you brought down the manna, you displayed something beyond nature; you were above, and you imitated the threshing floor. Give ear, O earth; for you were below, and you fashioned an impromptu table. Nature was at rest, and grace was at work; there was no labor of oxen, and the grain was prepared; there were no hands of cooks, no mandate, but the manna was everything, a sanctified fountain; nature forgot its own weakness. How were their garments not worn out? How were their sandals not aged? Everything came into being for their service. Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth. After those reminders and those benefits, the Master is insulted. With whom shall I meet? Or with you? I have no man who listens. Behold, I came, and there was no man; I spoke, and there was no one to hear. I discourse with the irrational ^B because the rational have been brought down to the worthlessness of the irrational. For this reason, another prophet also sees the king acting violently, the idol being worshipped, God being insulted, and everyone else cowering, and says: *Hear, O altar, hear me* (3 Reg. XIII, 2). Do you discourse with a stone? Yes; for the king is more unfeeling than stone. *Hear me, O altar, hear; thus says the Lord*. And immediately the altar was rent; and the stone listened, the stone was split, and poured out the sacrifice. How did the man not listen? He stretched forth 346 his hand to seize the prophet; and what does God do? He withered his hand. See what He did, see the philanthropy of the Master and the sin of the servant. Why did He not wither his hand from the beginning? So that he might become more sober through the suffering of the stone. For if the stone had not been split, I would have spared you; but since the stone was split, and you were not corrected, I bring the wrath upon you. He stretched forth his hand to seize the prophet, and the hand was withered. The trophy stood there; so many guards and generals and much support, and they could not cause his hand to contract; but the hand stood there, emitting a voice, marking the defeat of impiety, and the trophy of impiety, the philanthropy of God, and that man's madness. And they could not contract it.

^C 4. But so that, weaving argument from argument, we do not forget the subject, come then, let us show what we promised. What did I promise? That if someone has ten thousand wounds, but repents and does what is good, God so blots them out that neither a scar, nor a trace, nor a sign of the former sins appears; having promised these things, I shall try to demonstrate them. *Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, that the Lord has spoken* (Isai. I, 2). Tell me, what has He spoken? *I have begotten and exalted sons, but they have rejected me. The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's manger; but Israel has not known me, and my people have not understood*. Woe to the sinful nation. Why, he says, is there no hope of salvation? Woe, why do you say that, tell me? Because I find no healing. Woe, why do you say that? Because I have applied medicines, and the ulcer has not yielded; for this reason I have turned away. What then have I to do? I will not even heal ^D and drink. Woe. He imitates a woman lamenting; and he does well. I entreat you, attend to me with accuracy. Woe, why? Because the same thing happens in the case of bodies. For when the physician sees the sick person having no hope of salvation, he weeps, and the relatives and kin lamenting groan; but there, it is in vain and to no purpose. For when the dying person is about to die, even if the whole world laments, it will not raise him; so the lament is for mourning, not for correction. But in the case of the soul, this is not so, but if you lament, you often raise the dead man by the soul. Why? Because the body, having died, is not raised by human power, but the soul having died is raised by correction. Look at the fornicator, and lament; and you will often raise him. For this reason, Paul also did not only write, nor did he only advise, but he also lamented with tears, admonishing each one. Since you are admonishing, why do you also weep? So that if the admonition does not prevail, the tears may help 347. Thus also does the prophet lament. Our Master, seeing Jerusalem fallen, says: Jerusalem, that kills the prophets and stones those sent to it. He calls back the fallen city, and imitates a man lamenting. And the prophet: *Woe, sinful nation, a people full of sins*; it does not have the body sound. Did you see them ulcerated? *Evil seed, lawless sons*. Why do you lament, tell me? *You have abandoned the Lord, and provoked the Holy One of Israel*. Why should you be struck any more? What have I to strike you with? Famine or pestilence? Every punishment has come, and your wickedness has not been abandoned. *Adding transgressions*. Every head is in pain, and every heart in sorrow. There is no wound, no bruise (Isai. I, 5). New things are these. Just a little before you were saying: *Evil seed, lawless sons, you have abandoned the Lord, and provoked the Holy One of Israel*; and, *Woe, sinful nation*! You lament, you beat your breast, you bemoan, you list the wounds, and turning back you say, neither wound, nor bruise? Attend: a wound occurs when one part of the body is sound, and part of the body remains insensitive; but here he says that it is all a wound. There is no wound, nor bruise, nor inflamed sore, but from the feet to the head there is no soothing to apply, neither oil, nor bandages. Your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, strangers devour your land (Isai. I, 7). All these things He did, and you were not corrected; all things of the art I have done, but the sick man remains dead. *Come, hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom and Gomorrah*. What is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? What then? Is he speaking to Sodomites? No, but he calls the Jews Sodomites.

643 ^A (Isai. 1, 10). What then? Does He address the Sodomites? By no means, but He calls the Jews Sodomites. For because they were imitating their manners, He imposes their name upon them. *Come, hear the word of the Lord, you princes of Sodom and of Gomorrha. What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and I desire the fat of lambs. If you offer me fine flour, it is in vain: incense is abomination unto me: your new moons and sabbaths my soul hateth: I cannot bear your fasting and great day. When you stretch forth your hands unto me, I will turn mine eyes from you* (Ibid., 13-15). Is there any wrath equal to this? The prophet calls down heaven, he laments, he wails, he weeps, and says to Him: *There is no wound, there is no scar.* God is angry, He does not accept the victim, nor the new moon, nor the sabbath, nor the fine flour, nor prayer, nor the stretching forth of hands. Have you seen the ulcer? Have you seen the incurable disease, not of one, not of two, not of ten, but of many thousands? ^B What then thereafter? *Wash yourselves, be clean* (Ibid., 16). Is there any sin for which one should despair? The Lord Himself, who says, "I do not hear you," also says, "Wash yourselves." Why do you say these things? Why these? Both are useful: the former to strike fear, the latter to attract. If you do not hear them, they have no hope of salvation; if they have no hope of salvation, why say, "Wash yourselves"? But He is a Father who loves His children, the only good One, more inclined to compassion than any father. And that you may learn that He is indeed a Father, He says to them, "What shall I do, Judah?" Do you not know what you are about to do? I know clearly, but I am unwilling; the nature of sins demands it, but the magnitude of My clemency holds it back. What shall I do to you? Shall I spare you? But you will become more slothful. Shall I take vengeance upon you? But My clemency does not suffer it. What shall I do to you? Whether to place you as Sodom, or to overturn you as Gomorrha? *My heart is turned.* ^C Although He is devoid of passion, He imitates a man endowed with passion; or rather, a mother who loves her child. *My heart is turned*; as if a woman were to say of her child, "My heart is turned" with a mother's affection. But He was not content with having said those former things, but, *I am troubled in my repentance* (Osee 11, 8). Is God troubled? Far be it. The divine nature is free from agitation; but, as I have already said, He imitates our way of speaking. *My heart is turned; wash yourselves, be clean.* What have I promised you? That if sinners, even those burdened with six hundred sins and full of ulcers, do penance, God will receive and cure them in such a way that He will leave not a trace, not a scar, not even an indication of their sins. *Wash yourselves, be clean, take away your iniquities from your souls: learn to do well* (Isai. 1, 16, 17). ^D And what good do You command? *Judge for the fatherless, and justify the widow.* These are not heavy commandments, but ones toward which nature itself is inclined; for mercy is becoming to a woman. *And come, let us reason together* (Ibid., 18). The Lord says, Do something small, and I will add what is remaining: give Me some small thing, and I will grant the whole. Come. Whither shall we go? To Me, whom you have provoked, whom you have irritated; to Me who say, "I do not hear you," so that, terrified by the threat, you may appease My anger. Come to the One who does not hear, so that He may hear. And what will you do? I will leave no trace, no indication, no scar. *Come, and let us reason together*, says the Lord; and He adds, *If your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow* (Ibid., 18). Is there anywhere a scar? Is there anywhere a wrinkle, even with the color of expiation? *And if they be as scarlet, I will make them white as wool.* Is there any black color? Any stain? And by what means do these things happen? Are there other promises? For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things. You have seen not only the magnitude of the promises, but also the dignity of the Giver. For all things are possible to God, who can make clean from that which is defiled. Having heard these things, therefore, and knowing the medicine of repentance, let us send up glory to Him; because His is the glory and the power for ever. Amen.

ON REPENTANCE, AND ON THOSE WHO ABSENT THEMSELVES FROM THE ASSEMBLIES, AND ALSO ON THE SACRED TABLE AND ON JUDGMENT. HOMILY IX.

Just as it profits those who sow nothing if they cast their seeds by the wayside, so too it will not profit us anything if we are called Christians, unless we perform works that are suitable to our calling. For that matter, if it pleases you, I will produce a witness worthy of belief, the brother of God, James, who says: *Faith without works is dead* (James 2, 17). Therefore, there is a need everywhere for the performance of the commandments; for when that is absent, neither will the title of being a Christian be able to profit us. And do not marvel. For what, tell me, has a soldier of profit when he is in the army, unless he is worthy of his service, and fights for the king by whom he is nourished? Perhaps, indeed, even though it is a terrible thing to say, it were better for him not to serve, than to neglect the care and honor of the king in his service. For how can it be that he who is nourished by the king, yet does not struggle for the king, should not be punished? But why do I say "for the king"? Would that we were manifesting at least some care for our own souls! And how, you say, is it possible to be saved while living in the world and in the midst of the crowd? What are you saying, man? Do you wish that I demonstrate briefly that it is not the place that saves, but habits and the will? Adam in paradise, as in a harbor, suffered shipwreck (Gen. 3); Lot, in Sodom, was saved as if in the open sea (Gen. 19); Job was justified on a dunghill (Job 2); Saul, while dwelling in the royal treasuries, fell from both his present and future kingdom (1 Kings). It is no defense, what you say, "I cannot live in the world and be saved in the midst of affairs." But from whence do these difficult things occur? Because others in divine prayers...

who also desire to receive honors from an earthly king, how they attend! How they incite others to intercession, so that they may not miss what they seek! These things have been said to those who abandon divine assemblies, and to those who in the hour of the fearful and mystical table are occupied with conversations and vain babbling. What are you doing, man? Did you not promise the priest when he said, "Let us lift up our minds and hearts," and you said, "We have them toward the Lord"? Are you not afraid, do you not blush, in that very fearful hour to be found a liar? Oh, the wonder! With the mystical table prepared, the Lamb of God being sacrificed for you, the priest struggling on your behalf, spiritual fire gushing forth from the immaculate table, the Cherubim standing by, the Seraphim flying, the six-winged ones covering their faces, all the incorporeal powers interceding with the priest on your behalf, the spiritual ^A fire descending, the blood in the chalice poured out for your purification—are you not afraid, do you not blush, and in this fearful hour be found a liar? Since the week has one hundred and sixty-eight hours, God has set apart for Himself one hour alone; and do you squander that on worldly affairs, on laughter, and on conversations? With what confidence then do you approach the mysteries? With what kind of defiled conscience? If you were holding dung in your hands, would you dare touch the hem of an earthly king's garment? Not at all. Do not look upon it as bread; do not think it is wine; for it does not go into the belly like other foods. Far from it! Do not think this. But just as wax, when it meets fire, neither leaves anything behind nor does anything remain, so consider that here the mysteries are consumed by the substance ^B of the body. Therefore, when you approach, do not think that you are receiving the divine body from a man, but consider that you are receiving the divine body as if from the very tongs of fire of the Seraphim, which Isaiah saw, and as if you were touching the divine and immaculate side with your lips, so let us partake of the saving blood.

Therefore, brothers, let us not be absent from the churches, nor again occupy ourselves with conversations within them. Let us stand fearful and trembling, casting our eyes downward but our souls upward, sighing without a voice, crying out in our hearts. Do you not see those who stand before this earthly, corruptible, and temporal and sensible king, how they are motionless, speechless, not shaking, not casting their eyes hither and thither, but somber, dejected, and fearful? From them, ^C O men, take the check, and so, I pray, stand before God, just as you happen to do when you enter before an earthly king; much more is it necessary to stand before the heavenly King with fear. I will not cease saying these things until I see you corrected. When we enter the church, let us enter as it befits God, not holding grudges in our souls, lest when we pray, we pray against ourselves, saying: "Forgive us, as we also forgive our debtors." It is a fearful thing that is said, and almost, so to speak, one who says this shouts the following to God: "I have forgiven, Master; do you forgive. I have released; do you release. I have pardoned; do you pardon. If I have held, do you hold. If I have not loosed the neighbor, do not you loose my sins; in the measure that I have measured, let it be measured back to me." Knowing these things, and remembering that fearful day, and taking into your mind that fire and those fearful tribunals, let us at last turn back from our strayed path. For the hour will come when the theater of this world will be dissolved; and then it is no longer possible to struggle; it is not possible after the ending of life to conduct business, it is not possible after the dismissal of the theater to be crowned. This is the time of repentance, that of judgment; this is the time of struggle, that of crowns; this is of labor, that of rest; this of toil, that of recompense. Be awakened, I pray, be ^D awakened, and let us listen to what is said. We have lived for the flesh; let us live hereafter also for the Spirit. We have lived for pleasures; let us live hereafter also for virtues. We have lived in carelessness; let us live also in repentance. Why does the earth and dust become proud? Why are you puffed up, O man? Why do you boast so much? Why do you hope from the glory of this world and from its wealth? Let us go out to the tombs, I pray, and let us see the mysteries there; let us see nature disordered, bones eaten away, bodies rotted. If you are wise, consider; if prudent, tell me, who is the king and who is the private citizen, who is the noble and who is the slave, who is the wise and who is the unwise? Where is that beauty of youth? Where is the joyful face, where are the fair eyes? Where is the shapely nose? Where are those smiling lips? Where is the beauty of the cheeks; where is the shining forehead? Is not all dust? Is not all ashes? Is not all worm and stench? Is not all filth? Considering these things, brothers, and remembering that last day, while we have time, let us turn back from our strayed path. We were bought with precious blood. For this reason God was seen on earth; for this reason, O man, God was seen on earth, having nowhere to lay his head. Oh, the wonder! The judge comes to the tribunal for the sake of the judged; life tastes of death; the Creator is struck by the creature; he who is with the Seraphim...