ON THE HOLY HIEROMARTYR PHOCAS, AND AGAINST THE HERETICS, And on the Psalm CXVII, "With my voice I cried unto the Lord; with my voice I made my supplication unto God" (Ps. CXLI, 1).
A Yesterday was for us a bright and illustrious day; not because it had columns, but because it had a martyr proceeding in procession, who arrived to us from Pontus. He saw your hospitality, and filled you with his blessing; he praised the alacrity of your spirit, and blessed those who had arrived. I pronounced those who gathered blessed, and those who participated in his fragrance, and I called those who were absent unhappy. Yet, so that their loss might not become irreparable, we proclaim him again today, so that even those who were absent through laziness may double their blessing through diligence, by the intercession of the martyr. For what I have said many times, this also I will not cease to say: I do not exact punishments for sins, but I prepare medicines for the sick. Did you stay away yesterday? Be present at least today, so that you may see him being led to his own place. Did you see him being led through the forum? Now behold him sailing through the sea, so that both elements may be filled with his blessing.
Let no one be absent from this holy festival; let not the virgin stay at home; let not the woman keep to her house; let us empty the city, and let us gather at the martyr's tomb, for even the Emperors join us in our dancing. What excuse, then, does a private citizen deserve, when the Emperors leave their royal palaces and sit by the martyr's tomb? Such, indeed, is the power of the martyrs, that it encompasses not only private citizens, but also those who wear crowns; this is the shame of the Greeks, this is the disgrace of their error, this is the destruction of the demons, this is our nobility, and the crown of the Church. I dance with the martyrs, and I leap for joy while I behold their trophy in place of the meadows, because they shed blood instead of springs; their bones have been consumed, but their memory becomes fresher day by day. For as it is impossible for the sun to be extinguished, so neither can the memory of the martyrs perish; for Christ himself declared: B "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Matt. XXIV, 35). But let us await the due time for the martyr’s praises; for enough has been said regarding them, because of the zeal of those who were required to gather and make the feast day illustrious. For what I said yesterday, I say again today: the martyr gains no glory from the presence of the many, but you will earn a blessing from the fact that you approach the martyr. For just as he who turns his eyes toward the sun does not make the star itself brighter, but illuminates his own eyes; so also he who pays honor to the martyr does not make him more brilliant, but he himself draws from him the blessing of light.
Let us again turn the sea into a church, going out there with lamps, and making the water abound with fire, and filling the sea with light; let no one fear the deep; the martyr did not fear death, and do you fear the water? But regarding this we have already said enough; come now, let us place before you the accustomed table from what has been recited today. For although your bodies are constrained, allow your mind to be raised on wings; for I do not look at your constraint, but at the alacrity of your spirit. Truly, to the navigator, the sea tossed with waves is pleasant, and to the teacher, the church overflowing with crowds; for in these waters there is no salt, no cliff, no wild beast, but a sea and a deep overflowing with sweet fragrance; here there are ships, which do not journey from land to land, but from earth to heaven; ships that carry not money, nor gold, nor silver, but faith, and love, and zeal, and wisdom, which never perishes and never suffers shipwreck. But attend diligently to what is said; for the psalm today leads us into battle against the heretics, not that we may strike down those who are standing, but that we may raise up those who have fallen.
A For such is our war: it does not create the dead from the living, but from the dead it prepares the living, being full of kindness and great forbearance. I do not drive by deed, but I pursue with the word; I do not hate the heretic, but the heresy, I do not turn away from the human being, but I hate the error and wish to draw him in. I have no war against the substance, for substance is the work of God; but I wish to correct the intent, which the devil corrupted. So too, a physician, when healing a sick person, does not fight against the body, but removes the vice of the body. So I, therefore, if I war against heretics, I do not war against the people themselves, but I wish to cast out the error and cleanse the rot. It is my custom to be persecuted and not to persecute, to be driven and not to drive. Thus, B also, Christ prevailed—not by crucifying, but by being crucified; not by striking, but by being struck. "If I spoke evil," he says, "testify to the evil; but if well, why do you strike me?" (John 18:23). The Master of the world makes his defense to the servant of the high priest, even while struck upon the mouth—whence the word came forth, and he bridled the sea, and raised Lazarus of four days from the dead; whence wickedness fled, whence diseases and sins were being loosened: this is the miracle of the One who was crucified. For though he was able to launch a thunderbolt, and shake the earth, and wither the hand of the servant, he did none of these things, but he even defends himself, and prevails by meekness, teaching you, being human, never to be indignant; even if you are crucified, and receive a blow, to say the same things as your Master: "If I spoke evil, testify to the evil; but if well, why do you strike me?" C And behold his philanthropy, how he vindicates the things of his servants, but overlooks his own. There was once a prophet, and he was rebuking a king who was acting impiously, and coming he says: "Altar, altar, hear!" (3 Kings 13:2). Since king Jeroboam stood offering sacrifice to the idols, the prophet comes and speaks to the altar. What are you doing, O prophet? You left the man, and you speak to the altar? Yes, he says. Why? Because the man had become more senseless than a stone; I release him and speak to this one, so that you might learn that the stone hears, and the man does not hear. "Hear, altar, hear!" And immediately the altar split. The king stretched out his hand, wishing to seize the prophet, and was not able to draw it back. Do you see that the altar listened more than the king? Do you see that he left the rational and speaks to the irrational, so that through the obedience of the latter he might correct the insensibility and wickedness of the former? The altar split, and the wickedness of the king did not split. But behold what happened: D the king stretched out his hand to take the prophet, and immediately his hand withered. Since he did not become better by the punishment of the altar, he is taught the obedience of God by his own chastisement. "For I, sparing you, wished to vent my anger upon a stone; but since the stone did not become a teacher to you, take you the punishment." And he stretched out his hand, and immediately it withered. The trophy of the prophet stood thereafter, and the king was unable to draw it back. Where is the diadem? Where are the purples? Where are the breastplates? Where the shields? Where the camp? Where the spears? God gave the command, and all those things perished; the satraps were standing by, not able to help, but having become only spectators of the blow. And the king stretched out his hand, and it withered; when it became dry, then it brought forth fruit. Look at the example for me in the wood which was in paradise, and the wood which was on the cross. For just as that wood, being green, gave birth to death, but the wood of the cross, being dry, gave birth to life: so also it happened regarding the hand of the king; when it was green, then it gave birth to impiety; when it became dry, then it brought forth the obedience of God’s miraculous things.
But what I was saying, that he himself was being struck, and did no harm to the one striking him; but when the servant was about to be insulted, he punished the king, teaching you to vindicate the things of God, but to overlook your own. For just as I overlook my own, but vindicate yours; so also you, vindicate mine, but overlook your own. But stretch out your hearing to me (for where there is a time for contests, there is need of hearers having their hearing stretched), so that you may know with accuracy how I bind, how I loosen the sins of my opponents, how I wrestle, how I strike. For if those who sit in the theater lean over the two who are wrestling, extending their sight and their stature, so that they may see wrestlings full of shame, so that they may see wrestlings which it is a shame to imitate, much more ought we to attend to the hearing of divine Scriptures. For if you praise the athlete, why do you not become an athlete? And if you are ashamed to become an athlete, why do you imitate their praise? But there are no such wrestlings here, but they are common to all and beneficial both to those who speak and those who hear. For I wrestle with the heretic, so that I may make you too athletes, so that not only by chanting, but also by conversing, you may sew shut their tongues. What, then, says the prophet? "With my voice I cried to the Lord; with my voice I made supplication to the God" (Ps. 141:1). Attend: does the stated thing seem to have a pretext for wrestlings? See how I weave the crown and the subject of the contests. "With my voice I cried to the Lord; with my voice I made supplication to the God." Call the heretic to me here, whether he be present or not. For whether he be present, let him be taught by our voice; or if he be not present, let him learn through your hearing. But what I said, I do not drive him when present, but I receive him when being driven—not by us, but by his own conscience, according to him who says: "The wicked flees when no one is pursuing" (Prov. 28:1). The Church is the mother of her own children, and she is both receiving these, and spreading out her bosom to strangers. Noah's ark was a common theater, but the Church is even better than that. For that one received irrational animals, and kept them irrational; but this one receives irrational ones, and transforms them. What, then, do I say? If a heretic fox enters here, I make him a sheep; if a wolf enters, I make him a lamb, on my part; but if he should not wish it, there is nothing on my side, but it is on account of the...
it does not happen through my own fault, but because of their own wickedness, just as Christ also had twelve disciples, and one became a betrayer—not because of Christ, but because of his own corrupted resolve; just as Elisha also had a greedy disciple, but not because of the weakness of the master, but because of the carelessness of the disciple. I throw the seeds; if you are a fertile soil receiving the seeds, you return the harvest; but if you are barren rock, A it is not through any fault of mine. Whether you listen or do not listen, I shall not cease to sing a spiritual song to you, to pour balm on the wounds, so that on that day I might not hear, "Wicked servant, you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers" (Matt. 25:27). "With my voice I cried out to the Lord; with my voice I prayed to God" (Ps. 141:1).
(Caput 3: Contra Anomœos agit; a Scripturis petunt erroris ansam hæretici)
What do you say, heretic? Of whom does the prophet speak these words, and whom does he call Lord and God? For the speech is made about one person. For they, adulterating the Scriptures against their own heads, and always searching for arguments against their own salvation, do not realize that they are casting themselves into the pit of destruction. For the one who praises the Son of God does not make him more glorious, nor does the one who harms him with blasphemies injure him; for a bodiless nature does not need our praise. But just as one who calls the sun "bright" does not add light to it, and one who calls it "dark" does not diminish its substance, but rather brings forth a judgment that is an index of his own blindness, so too, he who does not call the Son of God "Son," but a creature, exposes the proof of his own madness; but he who acknowledges his substance shows his own uprightness—and neither does the latter enrich him with benefits, nor does the former harm him in any way, but the one contends for his own salvation, while the other contends against his own salvation. But, as I was saying, they adulterate the Scriptures, passing over some things and seeking if they might find anywhere an argument that seems to support and favor their own disease. And do not say to me that the Scripture is the cause; it is not the Scripture, but their own wickedness that is the cause; B for even honey is sweet, but he who is sick thinks it bitter; yet the fault is not the honey's, but the crime is of the infirmity. Thus, those who are mad do not see what is seen; but the fault is not of the things seen, but of the corrupted judgment of the mad man. God created the heaven so that we might contemplate the work and adore the Creator, but the Greeks made the work into God; but it is not the work, but their own wickedness that is the cause. And just as a wicked person is aided by no one, so a righteous person is aided even by himself. What is equal to Christ? Yet Judas was not aided by him. What is more wicked than the devil? Yet Job was crowned; and neither did Christ aid Judas, because he was wicked, nor did the devil harm Job, because he was righteous. I say these things so that no one may accuse the Scriptures, but rather the wickedness of those who interpret badly the things that have been rightly said. For the devil also disputed with Christ from the Scriptures. C Do you interpret badly the things that were rightly said?
For while they want to show that the Son is less than the Father, they go about searching curiously for unfamiliar names, and about those words (God and Lord) they say that God is the Father, and the Son is Lord, and they divide the names: they attribute the word "God" to the Father, and the word "Lord" to the Son, as those who are distributors of the deity and, as it were, dividers of an inheritance. Does Scripture say "Lord" to the Son? Do you say, "Does it say this?" Have you not heard the psalm today speaking to one person: "With my voice I cried out to the Lord; with my voice I prayed to God" (Ps. 141:1)? Therefore, he calls him both Lord and God. Do you wish the Son to be God, or the Father? Clearly, you will say that these names indicate the Father. Therefore, the Son is God and the Father is Lord. Why then do you divide the names, and add this one here, and divide that one there? And indeed Paul says (if only you would listen to Paul, and be blessed): "To us, however, there is one God the Father, from whom all things are; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are" (1 Cor. 8:6). Did he call one Son "God"? D What then? "Lord." Why then, I ask, is the name "God" more splendid than "Lord," or "Lord" less than "God"? Attend, I implore you, carefully. If, therefore, I show that these—Lord and God—are one, what will you say? Do you say that the name "God" is greater, and "Lord," however, is less? Listen to the prophet saying: "This is the Lord, who made the heaven: this is God, who established the earth" (Is. 45:18). Lord the heaven, and God the earth. Here, in the same person, he placed both the name "Lord" and the name "God." And again: "Hear, Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord" (Deut. 6:4). Twice "Lord," and once "God"; and first "Lord," and then "God," and again "Lord." But if this were inferior, and that were greater, he would not have placed the lesser noun first, not about a great substance, but he would have been content with the greater expression and attributed the lesser afterwards. Have you understood the things I have said? I teach again: for this is not a spectacle for display, but instruction for compunction, not so that you might depart unarmed, but so that you might depart armed. Do you say, heretic, that the name "God" is greater, and the name "Lord" is less? I show you the prophet saying: "The Lord who made the heaven, God who established the earth." I show you Moses again saying: "Hear, Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord." How one, if there are two names, this one of a lesser, and that one of a greater substance? For the substance is not, by any means, greater and lesser than itself, but equal and connected. "The Lord your God is one Lord." Behold, I show you the name "Lord" is the same as "God": in sum, however, if "Lord" is less, and "God" is greater, what should his name have been? "Lord" less, or "God" greater? If he should say: "What is my name?" what do you say, heretic? Is the name "Lord" the Son's, and the name "God" the Father's, as being more proper? If I show that the name "Lord," which is less, denotes him, what will you do? "Let them know that the name of you is Lord" (Ps. 82:19), says the prophet. Did he not say "God"? Although why, if "God" is greater, did the prophet not say, "Let them know that the name of you is God"? For if this—God—is his proper and peculiar name, that one indeed...
is small, inferior, and lesser in dignity, and he does not speak that great and sublime name which is worthy of his substance? And so that you might learn that this is not small, nor inferior, but possesses the same power: "Let them know that your name is Lord; you alone are Most High over all the earth."
D 4. But you do not yet withdraw from the battle, but say again that "God" is greater, and "Lord" is lesser. If, then, I show that the Son is called by the greater name, what do you say? Do you end the contention? Do you withdraw from the argument? Do you recognize your salvation? Do you depart from this madness? Did you understand what I said? Since they cast the name "Lord" upon the Son, and "God" upon the Father, as being greater. If, therefore, I show you that the Son is called by the greater name, "God," the battle is ended; for I conquer you with your own weapons, and prevail over you with your own wings. You said that "God" is greater, and "Lord" is lesser; I wish to demonstrate that the lesser was not suitable for the Father, if he were greater, and the greater was not suitable for the Son, if the Son were lesser. Listen to the prophet as he says: "This is our God; no other shall be accounted to him; he has searched out all the way of knowledge; after this he appeared on earth, and conversed with men." What do you say to this? Do you speak against these steps? But you cannot; for the truth remains, emitting its own radiance, and blinding the eyes of the heretics who do not wish to believe in it. Even if the wrestling is deep, and the heat is great, the word is greater and prevails over the difficulty of the listeners, and consoles the heat with the dew of instruction; and even if we gather once or twice in the week, the hearer must not be slothful. For if you go out from here, and someone says to you, "What did the teacher speak about?" and you say, "About the heretics," and if he says to you, "What did he speak?" and you do not find [an answer], it is a great shame to you; but if you speak, you prick him, and even if he is a heretic, you correct him; and if he is a slothful friend, you draw him in; and if she is an unchaste woman, you make her more sober; for you are also responsible for the woman; "For let the women," he says, "keep silence in the church; but if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands." If you enter your house, and your wife asks you, "What did you bring me from the church?" say to her, "Not meat, nor wine, nor gold, nor ornaments that beautify the body, but a word that makes the mind wise." When you enter to your wife, set out the spiritual table; say first, as the memory is resonant: "Let us enjoy the spiritual things, and then let us enjoy the sensory table"; for if we manage our affairs in this way, we shall have God in our midst, both blessing the table and crowning us. For all these things, let us give thanks to him, to the Father with the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
AD HOMILY ON THE HOLY MARTYRS
A That of the all: Perhaps as in the Latin Church first the festival of all the martyrs was celebrated by the prescription of Boniface IV, and then of All Saints in the time of Gregory IV: so also in the Greek [Church] a few days after Pentecost it was once the festival dedicated to the memory of all the martyrs, which was then consecrated by the solemnity of All Saints. Moreover, they attribute this sermon to Chrysostom, besides the codex of the Royal Library, the Medicean manuscript, the catalog of the genuine orations of the author, which is kept in the Augustana, and another sent to us from Italy, the index of the *book of pearls*, under this title: *Eulogy for all the saints*.
The Latin translation is by the same Fronton du Duc.
LAUDATION
OF ALL THOSE WHO HAVE SUFFERED MARTYRDOM IN THE WHOLE WORLD.1. Since we have completed the sacred festival of Pentecost, the number of seven days has not yet passed, and again the chorus of martyrs has overtaken us, or rather the camp and array of martyrs, in no way inferior to that camp of angels which the patriarch Jacob saw, but rivalling it and equal. For martyrs and angels differ only in their names, but they are joined in their deeds; angels inhabit heaven, but so also do the martyrs.