A He who is renowned in the heavens, Samuel, came to be, surpassing man even—a zealot for the angels; for it was necessary, I believe, that the wheat of prayer should appear in such a form, excelling others in goodness and in the virtues of his way of life, and surpassing those before him as much as those who prosper in grain excel the rest in the fields. With this, David repelled so many and such great wars, not wielding arms, nor brandishing a spear, nor drawing a sword, but being walled about by prayers; with this, Hezekiah quickly put the multitude of the Persians to flight. And while they brought engines of war to the wall, he walled the wall with prayers; and the war was brought to an end without weapons—through prayer, with the trumpet not sounding, the army remaining quiet, weapons not being moved, the earth not being stained with blood—with prayer being sufficient for the terror of the adversaries. Prayer also saved the Ninevites, and quickly repelled the wrath being brought from heaven, and quickly corrected a life that had been corrupted among men.
B For it has such strength and power that, although the Ninevites had lived their whole lives shamefully and wickedly, when prayer entered the city, it quickly changed everything and brought with it temperance, justice, friendship, concord, provision for the poor, and all good things. For just as when a queen enters a city, all wealth must necessarily follow, so too when prayer enters a soul, every virtue enters with it. For what a foundation is in a house, that is prayer in the soul. And it is necessary that, having fixed this first as a foundation and a certain root in the soul, everyone should diligently build upon it temperance, and gentleness, and justice, and provision for the poor, and all the laws of Christ, so that, having subsequently lived according to them, we may attain the good things in the heavens, by the grace and philanthropy of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
SPURIA
MONITUM
Although this homily is not altogether inelegant, it nevertheless displays quite a few signs of spuriousness, namely the very frequent antitheses and other ornaments of diction foreign to Chrysostom. On this account, it has been rightly cast among the Spuria by Henry Savile and Fronto Ducæus, the latter of whom speaks as follows concerning this same discourse: "Two homilies attributed to Chrysostom have been published by Aloysius Lipomanus, and are found in Surius, vol. III, in the lives of the Saints, concerning this subject: the style of this one is more similar to those than to the character of his other works. One begins, 'Festi celebrandi,' p. 795; the other, 'Benedictus Deus,' p. 799. In the former there is a passage from which, by collation with this one, one may suspect something is missing: 'an aerial traveler, a runner in human form,' perhaps inserting 'a winged creature or bird,' as if it called the angel 'a winged creature in human form,' just as it said there, p. 794, 'a man...'"Homily on the Oracle concerning Zechariah, and on the Conception of Elisabeth.
Nothing is insubordinate to the Master’s decrees; for all things yield and serve the divine command. For He says, "He set a command, and it shall not pass away"; for He who established the whole at the beginning by His Word, is also able to transform his creations again by His Word. He once spoke for the waterless rock to become flowing; and it immediately erupts with rivers of water: "For He struck the rock, and waters flowed, and rivers were flooded"; and the rock, dry and previously untasted of water, became a fountain of rivers and a mother of waters; for nothing is barren to which God commands fruitfulness. C He, then, who once changed the barren rock into a pool, also commanded the sterile Elisabeth now to be revealed as the mother of a child, and showed the fruitless to be fruitful, and her who was weighed down by old age as a young, newly-wed bride. When she was hastening toward the grave, then she was being adorned for childbirth; when old age had withered the body, then God renewed the womb; and that which it had lost on account of time, it recovered through the Creator; and that which youth had lost, old age sought after; when she had become a neighbor to death, then she was named a mother of a child, and, surpassing the years of a grandmother, she fell into maternal care, and was carrying an infant in her arms, she who needed a staff for walking due to old age; and the old woman felt the firstborn child, and the barren one miraculously gave birth, so that a virgin giving birth beyond nature might be believed. Both are new and paradoxical; for a barren woman and a virgin are unexpected mothers. But the herald of this paradoxical birth was sent to the elderly Zechariah, the archangel Gabriel; and standing on the right of the altar, he appeared to him: "And Zechariah was troubled," it says, "seeing, and fear fell upon him." For he saw what he had never seen: D fire speaking, an incorporeal man, an intangible form, an incomparable spectacle, a vision unmatched, an aerial traveler, a runner, a winged creature in human form; and seeing, he was troubled. But seeing him troubled, the angel banished the fear with auspicious promises: "Do not fear, Zechariah, because your supplication has been heard, and your wife Elisabeth will bear a son to you, and you shall call his name John; and there shall be joy to you and gladness; and many will rejoice at his birth." Do not fear, Zechariah; I have not come brandishing fear, but I have arrived as a herald of joy to you. What joy? "Your wife Elisabeth will bear to you a son, and you shall call his name John"; he, as the morning star, will shine upon the world and will drive away the darkness of ignorance, calling upon the Sun of justice. "For he who comes after me has become before me, of whom I am not worthy to loosen the strap of the sandal." And he himself will go forward in the spirit and power of Elijah. The spirit of Elijah dwelt also in John; for the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; and in almost everything we find John similar to Elijah. The one resided in the mountains, and this one spent his time in the desert; the one was fed by ravens.
787 SPURIA. were fed, this one ate the tips of herbs: that one wore a sheepskin, this one camel's hair: that one was austere and apt to reprove, and this one likewise: that one rebuked Ahab, the king of the Jews, and Jezebel his wife: "You are the one," he said, "who subverts Israel and the house of your father" (3 Kings 18:18): so too John Herode and Herodias: "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife" (Mark 6:18). "And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children" (Luke 1:17). What is it, "To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children?" The fathers of the Jews, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs, and all the just, when they saw the people prone to sins and easily fornicated with strange gods, they turned away from them as being such. But from the time that John preached the baptism of repentance, many were turned to God. When, therefore, they perceived that their own fathers were turning to God, they too turned their own hearts to them, and this is it, "To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, to make ready a perfect people for the Lord" (Ibid.), acceptable; of which David the prophet foretold, saying, "This is the generation of them that seek the face of the God of Jacob" (Ps. 23:6). B Zacharias, the old man, is still astonished at the conception of the wonderful boy: he still hears of that unusual birth with indignation; neither does he wisely consider within himself that the potter and creator of the womb can renew a worn-out one: and because of this he has fallen into the precipice of unbelief. For when the angel said: "Behold, Elisabet your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name John," Zacharias resists the words and says: "Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in her days." Whence, he says, shall I be certain and sure? What kind of proof for this promise can you finally offer me? Show me now also the rod which, as in the time of Aaron the high priest, has blossomed: then indeed I will believe you that old age can also produce the fruit of a little child. "For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in her days" (Luke 1:18). Your words are indeed good and pleasing, but the promise is hard to believe. You promise me a son as if you were a matchmaker, hope after hope, to be sure; the flower of my age has passed: I have consumed all the time of my youth without bringing forth any fruit: when I have become 788 as a dry log, do you then compel me to bring forth fruit? I walk through the market with a bent body, and I can no longer look up to the sky: old age drags me to the earth that is related to me; for I am earth, and to earth I shall return: I am barely able to advance the step of my feet, and two feet do not suffice for me to walk; I carry a staff as a substitute for a third foot: for no son has been given to me up to this point, by whom I might be led by the hand; I am a movable tomb and a walking corpse. How then, from this time, will a son call me father? "For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in her days." When old age leads me to the grave, am I then to ascend the bridal chamber and beget a son, when the sun of my youth has set for me? And I am worn out with many years, and the womb of Elisabet is withered and dead. Whence, therefore, shall I know this? "For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in her days." And the angel answering said to him: "I am Gabriel who stand before God: and I am sent to speak to you, and to evangelize these things to you; and behold you shall be silent, and shall not be able to speak until the day in which these things shall come to pass, because you have not believed my words, which shall be fulfilled in their time." "And behold you shall be silent, and shall not be able to speak" (Ibid. v. 19, 20). I wish to do something, and you inquire, how? I have determined to produce a miracle, and you seek the reason and method? But you curiously examine the beginning of my works. Is any word impossible with God? Tell me, whence was Isaac born? Did not his father Abraham, an old man, beget him, and call Sarah, an old woman, his mother (Gen. 18)? You, being called to the same expectation, why did you not receive my words as he did? Wherefore, "You shall be silent, and shall not be able to speak, because you have not believed my words": I shall bind your tongue, which moved itself to an immoderate response: in the organ and member with which you committed sin, in that you shall also be punished: "For by what things a man sins, by the same also he is tormented" (Wisd. 11:17). Therefore, "You shall be silent, and shall not be able to speak, because you have not believed my words": being able to speak, you did not believe my sayings; being silent, await my words, "Which shall be fulfilled in their time" (Luke 1:21). For things which are impossible among men are possible with God. To Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen. C
IN THE PRAISE OF THE CONCEPTION OF SAINT JOHN THE PROPHET, PRECURSOR, AND BAPTIST
Moses the great, that servant of God, the head of the prophets, the traveler of the sea, the charioteer of the air, the dispenser of the manna, the lawgiver of God, who was cast out by his mother, and saved by the enemy, this man, such and so great, built a tabernacle for the people of Israel according to the likeness which he had been taught by God on the mountain. And indeed he had made all those holy and sacred things which were contained within the inner partition; but what was the innermost was inaccessible and impassable to them, called the Holy of Holies. To this pattern of the tabernacle Solomon also built a temple; which not only in the value of the material and the variety of the art, but even in the very appearance of its structure, eclipsed all temples that are seen on the earth: so that they might never burn with a desire for those things which were among the Egyptians. And indeed that temple builds a likeness of the whole of this universe, both of that which falls under the senses and of that which is understood by the mind. For just as here are the earth and the heavens, and the intermediate space, this firmament: so also God ordered it to be made: and when He had divided this temple into two parts, and had spread the veil in the middle, it permitted that which was outside the veil to be approached by all: but that which was within, it was inaccessible to all, and to be seen by no one except the high priest alone, as had been commanded by the angel, with Moses speaking, so that...