[431 S. JOANNIS CHRYSOSTOMI ARCHIEP. CONSTANTINOP.]
to open them, He would not have permitted Abel, endowed with every virtue and having become His friend, to suffer what he suffered. But now, in order to demonstrate to us that we are traveling toward another life, and that another world is left for the just, in which they may receive the crowns and rewards stored up for them: He permitted that he who first lived justly here should not receive the rewards of his labors here, but departing hence, should cry out through the things which he suffered here, and say to all: After this life there is a certain reward and remuneration. On this account He also translated Enoch, and snatched away Elijah, by them sketching out the dogma of the resurrection. A Sufficit, therefore, for the abundance of arguments, the power of the Creator alone: but if anyone is weaker, and wishes to obtain another demonstration, and a pledge of the future resurrection, God has given even this to us with great liberality and abundance, namely, the grace of the Spirit. Wherefore, when Paul had made B a discourse worthy of faith concerning the resurrection from the resurrection of Christ, in that God was the author of it, he also brings in this statement: And He gave us an earnest, not of wealth, nor of gold, nor of silver, but an earnest of the Spirit, and makes it valid for the whole. For just as in feasts, he who has received an earnest has faith and is secure regarding all the rest: so also you, when you have received the earnest, I mean the gifts of the Spirit, should no longer doubt regarding the other goods stored up for you. For He who raised the dead, who heals the blind, casts out demons, cleanses lepers, corrects diseases, dissolves death, and can do so many and such great things in a fragile and mortal body, what excuse will you have [432] in doubting the resurrection? For if, when the time of the resurrection has not yet arrived, but while the struggle is still ongoing, God bestows upon you such crowns: consider what great goods He will give you at the time of rewards. But if anyone says, “But we do not see these signs happening now, nor is such power entrusted to us”: I would answer that it makes no difference, whether these were done now or formerly. For the things done previously by the apostles are testified to by the Churches, and peoples, and cities, and nations throughout the whole world, which flocked to the unlearned and fishermen. C For the illiterate, and the needy, and the poor, and the base would not have prevailed over the whole world, unless helped by miracles. Yet you have not become destitute of the grace of the Spirit; but even now many symbols of that donation remain, and much greater and more admirable ones than those which were enumerated. For it is not an equal thing to raise a dead body and to liberate a soul killed by sins from destruction, which comes about through baptism: it is not equal to drive away a disease of the flesh, and to cast off the weight of sins: it is not equal to restore a blinded eye, and to illuminate a soul darkened. For unless there were now also an earnest of the Spirit, baptism would not have been applied, nor would the remission of sins, nor would justification and sanctification have been effected, nor would we have received the adoption as children of God, nor would we have partaken of the mysteries: for the body and the mystical blood are not made without the grace of the Spirit; nor would we have had priests; for it is not possible for these ordinations to occur without such a descent. But we could say many other things concerning the symbols of the grace of the Spirit. Therefore you also have the earnest of the Spirit, and you drive away the death of the soul, and the blindness of thoughts, and you have put off an unclean life. Let us not, therefore, doubt concerning the future, especially since we have received such pledges; but gathering from everywhere a solid discourse concerning the resurrection, let us exhibit a life worthy of such dogmas, that we may also attain here to the immovable goods, which transcend human speech and mind. May it befall us all to attain to these, by the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom, and with whom, be glory to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, for ages of ages. Amen. D
CONCERNING THE HOMILY AGAINST DRUNKARDS, AND CONCERNING THE RESURRECTION
[MONITUM: This discourse was delivered in the same year in which the second one concerning Judas the traitor was given; specifically on the day of the Resurrection of the Lord following that Lent, in which he had delivered the thirty-two prior homilies on Genesis. In that same year, after Pascha, Chrysostom delivered those nine homilies, of which the first five were delivered on the beginning of the Acts [of the Apostles]: but the later four on the Change of Names. Moreover, that this is openly demonstrated in the Monitors to the same discourses, where Chrysostom himself is brought forward as a clear witness. We send the reader there, and also to the Monitor above on the Homilies concerning Judas the traitor: the matter will be further treated in the Homilies on Genesis. Furthermore, Chrysostom recalls this discourse in homily 1 on the beginning of the Acts, which was delivered shortly after the day of the Resurrection, num. 2: “Riches, therefore, are not an evil, but the unlawful use of them is an evil; and just as speaking recently concerning drunkenness, I was not accusing wine, since every creature of God is good, which is received with thanksgiving; but the evil use, etc.” Which words harmonize wonderfully with this discourse.]