by St. John Chrysostom

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, There are some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”

Thus, inasmuch as He had discoursed much of dangers and death, and of His own passion, and of the slaughter of the disciples, and had laid on them those severe injunctions; and these were in the present life and at hand, but the good things in hope and expectation:—for example,

“They save their life who lose it;”

“He is coming in the glory of His Father;”

“He renders His rewards:”

—He willing to assure their very sight, and to show what kind of glory that is wherewith He is to come, so far as it was possible for them to learn it; even in their present life He shows and reveals this; that they should not grieve any more, either over their own death, or over that of their Lord, and especially Peter in His sorrow.

And see what He doth. Having discoursed of hell,1 and of the kingdom (for as well by saying,

“He that findeth his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose it for my sake, shall find it;”

as by saying,

“He shall reward every man according to his works,”

He had manifested both of these): having, I say, spoken of both, the kingdom indeed He shows in the vision, but hell not yet.

Why so? Because had they been another kind of people, of a grosser sort, this too would have been necessary; but since they are approved and considerate, He leads them on the gentler way. But not therefore only doth He make this disclosure, but because to Himself also it was far more suitable.

Not however that He passes over this subject either, but in some places He almost brings even before our eyes the very realities of hell; as when He introduces the picture of Lazarus, and mentions him that exacted the hundred pence, and him that was clad in the filthy garments, and others not a few.

2. “And after six days He taketh with Him Peter and James and John.

Now another says, “after eight,” not contradicting this writer, but most fully agreeing with him. For the one expressed both the very day on which He spake, and that on which He led them up; but the other, the days between them only.

But mark thou, I pray thee, the severe goodness of Matthew, not concealing those who were preferred to himself. This John also often doth, recording the peculiar praises of Peter with great sincerity. For the choir of these holy men was everywhere pure from envy and vainglory.

Having taken therefore the leaders,

“He bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was6 white as the light. And there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him.”

Wherefore doth He take with Him these only? Because these were superior to the rest. And Peter indeed showed his superiority by exceedingly loving Him; but John by being exceedingly loved of Him; and James again by his answer which he answered with his brother, saying,

“We are able to drink the cup;”

nor yet by his answer only, but also by his works; both by the rest of them, and by fulfilling, what he said. For so earnest was he, and grievous to the Jews, that Herod himself supposed that he had bestowed herein a very great favor on the Jews, I mean in slaying him.

But wherefore doth He not lead them up straightway? To spare the other disciples any feeling of human weakness: for which cause He omits also the names of them that are to go up. And this, because the rest would have desired exceedingly to have followed, being to see a pattern of that glory; and would have been pained, as overlooked. For though it was somewhat in a corporeal way that He made the disclosure, yet nevertheless the thing had much in it to be desired.

Wherefore then doth He at all foretell it? That they might be readier to seize the high meaning, by His foretelling it; and being filled with the more vehement desire in that that round of days, might so be present with their mind quite awake and full of care.

3. But wherefore doth He also bring forward Moses and Elias? One might mention many reasons. And first of all this: because the multitudes said He was, some Elias, some Jeremias, some one of the old prophets, He brings the leaders of His choir, that they might see the difference even hereby between the servants and the Lord; and that Peter was rightly commended for confessing Him Son of God.

But besides that, one may mention another reason also: that because men were continually accusing Him of transgressing the law, and accounting Him to be a blasphemer, as appropriating to Himself a glory which belonged not to Him, even the Father’s, and were saying,

“This Man is not of God, because He keepeth not the Sabbath day;”

and again,

“For a good work we stone Thee not, but for blasphemy, and because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God:”

that both the charges might be shown to spring from envy, and He be proved not liable to either; and that neither is His conduct a transgression of the law, nor His calling Himself equal to the Father an appropriation of glory not His own; He brings forward them who had shone out in each of these respects: Moses, because he gave the law, and the Jews might infer that he would not have overlooked its being trampled on, as they supposed, nor have shown respect to the transgressor of it, and the enemy of its founder: Elias too for his part was jealous for the glory of God, and were any man an adversary of God, and calling himself God, making himself equal to the Father, while he was not what he said, and had no right to do so; he was not the person to stand by, and hearken unto him.

And one may mention another reason also, with those which have been spoken of. Of what kind then is it? To inform them that He hath power both of death and life, is ruler both above and beneath. For this cause He brings forward both him that had died, and him that never yet suffered this.

But the fifth motive, (for it is a fifth, besides those that have been mentioned), even the evangelist himself hath revealed. Now what was this? To show the glory of the cross, and to console Peter and the others in their dread of the passion, and to raise up their minds. Since having come, they by no means held their peace, but

“spake,” it is said, “of the glory which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem;“

that is, of the passion, and the cross; for so they call it always.

And not thus only did He cheer them, but also by the excellency itself of the men, being such as He was especially requiring from themselves. I mean, that having said,

“If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross, and follow me;”

them that had died ten thousand times for God’s decrees, and the people entrusted to them, these persons He sets before them. Because each of these, having lost his life, found it.

For each of them both spake boldly unto tyrants, the one to the Egyptian, the other to Ahab; and in behalf of heartless and disobedient men; and by the very persons who were saved by them, they were brought into extreme danger; and each of them wishing to withdraw men from idolatry; and each being unlearned; for the one was of a “slow tongue,” and dull of speech, and the other for his part also somewhat of the rudest in his bearing: and of voluntary poverty both were very strict observers; for neither had Moses made any gain, nor had Elias aught more than his sheepskin; and this under the old law, and when they had not received so great a gift of miracles.

For what if Moses clave a sea? yet Peter walked on the water, and was able to remove mountains, and used to work cures of all manner of bodily diseases, and to drive away savage demons, and by the shadow of his body to work those wonderful and great prodigies; and changed the whole world. And if Elias too raised a dead man, yet these raised ten thousand; and this before the spirit was as yet vouchsafed to them.

He brings them forward accordingly for this cause also. For He would have them emulate their winning ways toward the people, and their presence of mind and inflexibility; and that they should be meek like Moses, and jealous for God like Elias, and full of tender care, as they were. For the one endured a famine of three years for the Jewish people; and the other said,

“If thou wilt forgive them their sin, forgive; else blot me too out of the book, which thou hast written.”

Now of all this He was reminding them by the vision.

For He brought those in glory too, not that these should stay where they were, but that they might even surpass their limitary lines. For example, when they said,

“Should we command fire to come down from heaven,”

and made mention of Elias as having done so, He saith,

“Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of;”

training them to forbearance by the superiority in their gift.

And let none suppose us to condemn Elias as imperfect; we say not this; for indeed he was exceedingly perfect, but in his own times, when the mind of men was in some degree childish, and they needed this kind of schooling. Since Moses too was in this respect perfect; nevertheless these have more required of them than he. For

“except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no ease enter into the kingdom of Heaven.”

For not into Egypt did they enter, but into the whole world, worse disposed than the Egyptians; neither were they to speak with Pharaoh, but to fight hand to hand with the devil, the very prince of wickedness. Yea, and their appointed struggle was, both to bind him, and to spoil all his goods; and this they did cleaving not the sea, but an abyss of ungodliness, through the rod of Jesse,—an abyss having waves far more grievous. See at any rate how many things there were to put the men in fear; death, poverty, dishonor, their innumerable sufferings; and at these things they trembled more than the Jews of old at that sea. But nevertheless against all these things He persuaded them boldly to venture, and to pass as along dry ground with all security.

To train them therefore for all this, He brought forward those who shone forth under the old law.

4. What then saith the ardent Peter?

“It is good for us to be here.”

For because he had heard that Christ was to go to Jerusalem and to suffer, being in fear still and trembling for Him, even after His reproof, he durst not indeed approach and say the same thing again,

“Be it far from thee; but from that fear obscurely intimates the same again in other words. That is, when he saw a mountain, and so great retirement and solitude, his thought was, “He hath great security here, even from the place; and not only from the place, but also from His going away no more unto Jerusalem.”

For he would have Him be there continually: wherefore also he speaks of “tabernacles.” For

“if this may be,” saith he, “we shall not go up to Jerusalem; and if we go not up, He will not die, for there He said the scribes would set upon Him.”

But thus indeed he durst not speak; but desiring however to order things so, he said undoubtingly, “It is good for us to be here,” where Moses also is present, and Elias; Elias who brought down fire on the mountain, and Moses who entered into the thick darkness, and talked with God; and no one will even know where we are.”

Seest thou the ardent lover of Christ? For look not now at this, that the manner of his exhortation was not well weighed, but see how ardent he was, how burning his affection to Christ. For in proof that not so much out of fear for himself he said these things, hear what he saith, when Christ was declaring beforehand His future death, and the assault upon Him:

“I will lay down my life for Thy sake. Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee.”

And see how even in the very midst of the actual dangers he counselled amiss for himself. We know that when so great a multitude encompassed them, so far from flying, he even drew the sword, and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant. To such a degree did he disregard his own interest, and fear for his Master. Then because he had spoken as affirming a fact, he checks himself, and thinking, what if he should be again reproved, he saith,

“If Thou wilt, let us make  here three tabernacles, one for Thee and one for Moses, and one for Elias.”

What sayest thou, O Peter? didst thou not a little while since distinguish Him from the servants? Art thou again numbering Him with the servants? Seest thou how exceedingly imperfect they were before the crucifixion? For although the Father had revealed it to him, yet he did not always retain the revelation, but was troubled by his alarm; not this only, which I have mentioned, but another also, arising from that sight. In fact, the other evangelists, to declare this, and to indicate that the confusion of his mind, with which he spake these things, arose from that alarm, said as follows; mark,

“He wist not what to say, for they were sore afraid;”

but Luke after his saying,

“Let us make three tabernacles,” added, “not knowing what he said.”

Then to show that he was holden with great fear, both he and the rest, he saith,

“They were heavy with sleep, and when they were awake they saw His glory;”

meaning by deep sleep here, the deep stupor engendered in them by that vision. For as eyes are darkened by an excessive splendor, so at that time also did they feel. For it was not, I suppose, night, but day; and the exceeding greatness of the light weighed down the infirmity of their eyes.

5. What then? He Himself speaks nothing, nor Moses, nor Elias, but He that is greater than all, and more worthy of belief, the Father, uttereth a voice out of the cloud.

Wherefore out of the cloud? Thus doth God ever appear.

“For a cloud and darkness are round about Him;”

and,

“He sitteth on a light cloud;”

and again,

“Who maketh clouds His chariot;”

and,

“A cloud received Him out of their sight;”

and,

“As the Son of Man coming in the clouds.”

In order then that they might believe that the voice proceeds from God, it comes from thence.

And the cloud was bright. For

“while he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and, behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.”

For as, when He threatens, He shows a dark cloud;—as on Mount Sinai; for

“Moses,” it is said, “entered into the cloud, and into the thick darkness; and as a vapor, so went up the smoke;”

and the prophet said, when speaking of His threatening,

“Dark water in clouds of the air;”

—so here, because it was His desire not to alarm, but to teach, it is a bright cloud.

And whereas Peter had said

“Let us make three tabernacles,”

He showed a tabernacle not made with hands. Wherefore in that case it was smoke, and vapor of a furnace; but in this, light unspeakable and a voice.

Then, to signify that not merely concerning some one of the three was it spoken, but; concerning Christ only; when the voice was uttered, they were taken away. For by no means, had it been spoken merely concerning any one of them, would this man have remained alone, the two being severed from Him.

Why then did not the cloud likewise receive Christ alone, but all of them together? If it had received Christ alone, He would have been thought to have Himself uttered the voice. Wherefore also the evangelist, making sure this same point, saith, that the voice was from the cloud, that is, from God.

And what saith the voice?

“This is my beloved Son.”

Now if He is beloved, fear not thou, O Peter. For thou oughtest indeed to know His power already, and to be fully assured touching His resurrection; but since; thou knowest not, at least from the voice of the Father take courage. For if God be mighty, as surely He is mighty, very evidently the Son is so likewise. Be not afraid then of those fearful things.

But if as yet thou receive it not, consider at least that other fact, that He is both a Son, and is beloved. For

“This,” it is said, “is My beloved Son.”

Now if He is beloved, fear not. For no one gives up one whom he loves. Be not thou therefore confounded; though thou lovest Him beyond measure, thou lovest Him not as much as He that begat Him.

“In whom I am well pleased.”

For not because He begat Him only, doth He love Him, but because He is also equal to Him in all respects, and of one mind with Him. So that the charm of love is twofold, or rather even threefold, because He is the Son, because He is beloved, because in Him He is well pleased.

But what means,

“In whom I am well pleased ?”

As though He had said,” In whom I am refreshed, in whom I take delight;” because He is in all respects perfectly equal with Himself, and there is but one will in Him and in the Father, and though He continue a Son, He is in all respects one with the Father.

“Hear ye Him.”

So that although He choose to be crucified, you are not to oppose Him.

6. “And when they heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.”

How was it that, when they heard these words, they were dismayed? And yet before this also a like voice was uttered at Jordan, and a multitude was present, and no one felt anything of the kind; and afterwards again, when also they said, “It thundered, …. yet neither at that time did they experience anything like this. How then did they fall down in the mount? Because there was solitude, and height. and great quietness, and a transfiguration full of awe, and a pure light, and a cloud stretched out; all which things put them in great alarm. And the amazement came thick on every side, and they fell down both in fear at once and in adoration.

But that the fear abiding so long might not drive out their recollection, presently He puts an end to their alarm, and is seen Himself alone, and commands them to tell no man this, until He is risen from the dead.

For

“as they came down from the mount, He charged them to tell the vision to no man, until He were risen from the dead.”

For the greater the things spoken of Him, the harder to be received by the generality at that time; and the offense also from the cross was the more increased thereby.

Therefore He bids them hold their peace; and not merely so, but He again reminds them of the passion, and all but tells them also the cause, for which indeed He requires them to keep silence. For He did not, you see, command them never to tell any man, but “until He were risen from the dead.” And saying nothing of the painful part, He expresses the good only.

What then? Would they not afterwards be offended? By no means. For the point required was the time before the crucifixion. Since afterwards they both had the spirit vouchsafed them, and the voice that proceeded from the miracles pleading with them, and whatsoever they said was thenceforth easy to be received, the course of events proclaiming His might more clearly than a trumpet, and no offense of that sort interrupting what they were about.

7. Nothing then is more blessed than the apostles, and especially the three, who even in the cloud were counted worthy to be under the same roof with the Lord. But if we will, we also shall behold Christ, not as they then on the mount, but in far greater brightness.

For not thus shall He come hereafter. For whereas then, to spare His disciples, He discovered so much only of His brightness as they were able to bear; hereafter He shall come in the very glory of the Father, not with Moses and Elias only, but with the infinite host of the angels, with the archangels, with the cherubim, with those infinite tribes, not having a cloud over His head, but even heaven itself being folded up. For as it is with the judges; when they judge publicly, the attendants drawing back the curtains show them to all; even so then likewise all men shall see Him sitting, and all the human race shall stand by, and He will make answers to them by Himself; and to some He will say,

“Come, ye blessed of my Father; for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; “

to others,

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things.”

And again passing an opposite sentence, to some He will answer,

“Depart into the everlasting fire, that is prepared for the devil and his angels,”

and to others,

“O thou wicked and slothful servants.”

And some He will

“cut asunder,” and “deliver to the tormentors;”

but others He will command to

“be bound hand and foot, and cast into outer darkness?”

And after the axe the furnace will follow; and all out of the net, that is east away, will fall therein.

“Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun; “

or rather more than the sun. But so much is said, not because their light is to be so much and no more, but since we know no other star brighter than this, He chose by the known example to set forth the future brightness of the saints.

Since on the mount too, when He says, “He did shine as the sun,” for the same cause did He so speak. For that the comparison did not come up to His light, the apostles showed by falling down. For had the brightness not been unalloyed, but comparable to the sun; they would not have fallen, but would easily have borne it.

The righteous therefore will shine as the sun, and more than the sun in that time; but the sinners shall suffer all extremities. Then will there be no need of records, proofs, witnesses. For He who judges is Himself all, both witness, and proof, and judge. For He knows all things exactly;

“For all things are naked and opened unto His eyes.”

No man will there appear rich or poor, mighty or weak, wise or unwise, bond or free; but these masks will be dashed in pieces, and the inquiry will be into their works only. For if in our courts, when any one is tried for usurpation, or murder, whatever he may be, whether governor, or consul, or what you will, all these dignities fleet away, and he that is convicted suffers the utmost penalty; much more will it be so there.

8. Therefore that this may not be so, let us lay aside our filthy garments, let us put on the armor of light, and the glory of God will wrap us around. For what is even grievous in the injunctions? or what is there not easy? Hear, for instance, the prophet speaking, and then thou shalt know the easiness thereof. “Neither though thou bow as a collar thy neck, and strew beneath thee sackcloth and ashes, not even so shalt thou call a fast acceptable; but loose every bond of iniquity, unloose the twisted knots of oppressive bargains.”

See a prophet’s wisdom, how stating first whatever was irksome, and removing it, he exhorts them to obtain salvation by the duties that are easy; signifying, that God needs not toils, but obedience.

Then implying that virtue is easy, but vice grievous and galling, he makes it out by the bare names; “For,” saith he, “vice is a bond,” and “a twisted knot,” but virtue is a disengagement and release from all these.

“Tear in sunder every unjust compact;” thus calling men’s bills about the interest due to them, and the sums they have lent.

“Set at liberty them that are bruised;’ them that are afflicted. For such a being is the debtor; when he sees his creditor, his mind is broken, and he fears him more than a wild beast.

“Bring in the poor that are cast out to thy house; if thou seest one naked, clothe him, and them that belong to thy seed thou shalt not overlook.”

Now in our late discourse which we made unto you when declaring the rewards, we showed the wealth arising from these acts; but now let us see if any of the injunctions be grievous, and transcending our nature. Nay, nothing of the kind shall we discover, but quite the contrary; that while these courses are very easy, those of vice are full of labor. For what is more vexatious than to be lending, and taking thought about usuries and bargains, and demanding sureties, and fearing and trembling about securities, about the principal, about the writings, about the interest, about the bondsmen ?

For such is the nature of worldly things; yea, nothing is so unsound and suspicious as that which is accounted security, and contrived for that purpose; but to show mercy is easy, and delivers from all anxiety.

Let us not then traffic in other men’s calamities, nor make a trade of our benevolence. And I know indeed that many hear these words with displeasure; but what is the profit of silence? For though I should hold my peace, and give no trouble by my words, I could not by this silence deliver you from your punishment; rather it has altogether the opposite result; the penalty is enhanced, and not to you only, but to me also, doth such a silence procure punishment.

What then signify our gracious words, when in our works they help us not, but rather do harm? What is the good of delighting men in word, while we vex them in deed, bringing pleasure to the ears, and punishment to the soul? Wherefore I must needs make you sorry here, that we may not suffer punishment there.

9. For indeed a dreadful disease, beloved, dreadful and needing much attendance, hath fallen on the church. Those, namely, who are enjoined not even by honest labors to lay up treasures, but to open their houses to the needy, make a profit of other men’s poverty, devising a specious robbery, a plausible covetousness.

For tell me not of the laws that are without; since even the publican fulfills the law that is without, but nevertheless is punished: which will be the case with us also, unless we refrain from oppressing the poor, and from using their need and necessity as an occasion for shameless trafficking.

For to this intent thou hast wealth, to relieve poverty, not to make a gain of poverty; but thou with show of relief makest the calamity greater, and sellest benevolence for money. Sell it, I forbid thee not, but for a heavenly kingdom. Receive not a small price for so good a deed, thy monthly one in the hundred,  but that immortal life. Why art thou beggarly, and poor, and mean, selling thy great things for a little, even for goods that perish. when it should be for an everlasting kingdom? Why dost thou leave God, and get human gains? Why dost thou pass by the wealthy one, and trouble him that hath not? and leaving the sure paymaster make thy bargain with the unthankful? The other longs to repay, but this even grudges in the act of repaying.

This hardly repays a hundredth part, but the other

“an hundredfold and eternal life.”

This with insults and revilings, but the other with praises and auspicious words. This stirs up envy against thee, but the other even weaves for thee crowns. This hardly here, but the other both there and here.

Surely then is it not the utmost senselessness, not so much as to know how to gain? How many have lost their very principal for the interest’s sake? How many have fallen into perils for usurious gains. How many have involved both themselves and others in extreme poverty through their unspeakable covetousness !

For tell me not this, that he is pleased to receive, and is thankful for the loan. Why, this is a result of thy cruelty. Since Abraham too,46 contriving how his plan might take with the barbarians, did himself give up his wife to them; not however willingly, but through fear of Pharaoh. So also the poor man, because thou countest him not even worth so. much money, is actually compelled to be thankful for cruelty.

And it seems to me as though, shouldest thou deliver him from dangers, thou wouldest exact of him a payment for this deliverance. “Away,” saith he; “let it not be.” What sayest thou? Delivering him from the greater evil, thou art unwilling to exact money, and for the lesser dost thou display so much inhumanity?

Seest thou not how great a punishment is appointed for the deed? hearest thou not that even in the old law this is forbidden? But what is the plea of the many? “When I have received the interest, I give to the poor;” one tells me.

Speak reverently, O man; God desires not such sacrifices. Deal not subtilly with the law. Better not give to a poor man, than give from that source; for the money that hath been collected by honest labors, thou often makest to become unlawful because of that wicked increase; as if one should compel a fair womb to give birth to scorpions.

And why do I speak of God’s law? Do not even ye call it “filth”? But if ye, the gainers, give your voice so, consider what suffrage God will pass upon you.

And if thou wilt ask the Gentile lawgivers too, thou wilt be told that even by them this thing is deemed a proof of the most utter shamelessness. Those, for example, who are in offices of honor, and belong to the great council, which they call the senate, may not legally disgrace themselves with such gains; there being a law among them which prohibits the same.

How then is it not a horrible thing, if thou ascribe not even so much honor to the polity of Heaven, as the legislators to the council of the Romans; but Heaven is to obtain less than earth, and thou art not ashamed even of the very folly of the thing? For what could be more foolish than this, unless one without! land, rain, or plough, were to insist upon sowing? Tares therefore, to be committed to the fire, do they reap, who have devised this evil husbandry.

Why, are there not many honest trades? in the fields, the flocks, the herds, the breeding of cattle, in handicrafts, in care of property? Why rave and be frantic, cultivating thorns for no good? What if the fruits of the earth are subject to mischance; hail, and blight, and excessive rain? yet not to such an extent as are money dealings. For in whatsoever cases of that sort occur, the damage of course concerns the produce, but the principal remains, I mean, the land. But herein many often have suffered shipwreck in their principal; and before the loss too they are in continual dejection. For never cloth the money-lender enjoy his possessions, nor find pleasure in them; but when the interest is brought, he rejoices not that he hath received gain, but is grieved that the interest hath not yet come up to the principal.

And before this evil offspring is brought forth complete, he compels it also to bring forth, making the interest principal, and forcing it to bring forth its untimely and abortive brood of vipers. For of this nature are the gains of usury; more than those wild creatures do they devour and tear the souls of the wretched.  This “is the bond of iniquity:” this “the twisted knot of oppressive bargains.”

Yea, “I give,” he seems to say, “not for thee to receive, but that thou mayest repay more.” And whereas God commands not even to receive what is given (for “give,” saith He, “to them from whom ye look not to receive”),thou requirest even more than is given, and what thou gavest not, this as a debt, thou constrainest the receiver to pay.

And thou indeed supposest thy substance to be increased hereby, but instead of substance thou art kindling the unquenchable fire.

That this therefore may not be, let us cut out the evil womb of usurious gains, let us deaden these lawless travailings, let us dry up this place of pernicious teeming, and let us pursue the true and great gains only. “But what are these?” Hear Paul saying

“Godliness with contentment is great gain.”

Therefore in this wealth alone let us be rich, that we may both here enjoy security, and attain unto the good things to come, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

© 2010, Preachers Institute. All rights reserved.

1. I did no good as it seems by the prolonged discourse which I lately addressed to you with a view to kindling your zeal for the assemblies here: for again our Church is destitute of her children. Wherefore also I am again compelled to seem vexatious and burdensome, reproving those who are present, and finding fault with those who have been left behind: with them because they have not put away their sloth, and with you because you have not given a helping hand to the salvation of your brethren. I am compelled to seem burdensome and vexatious, not on behalf of myself, or my own possessions, but on your behalf and for your salvation, which is more precious to me than anything else.

Let him who pleases take it in bad part, and call me insolent and impudent, yet will I not cease continually annoying him for the same purpose; for nothing is better for me than this kind of impudence. For it may be, it may be, that this at least if nothing else, will put you to shame, and that to avoid being perpetually importuned concerning the same things, ye will take part in the tender care of your brethren. For what profit is there to me in praise when I do not see you making advances in virtue? and what harm is there from the silence of the hearers when I behold your piety increasing? For the praise of the speaker does not consist in applause, but in the zeal of the hearers for godliness: not in noise made just at the time of hearing, but in lasting earnestness.

As soon as applause has issued from the lips it is dispersed in air and perishes; but the moral improvement of the hearers brings an imperishable and immortal reward both to him who speaks and to them who obey.

The praise of your cheers makes the speaker illustrious here, but the piety of your soul affords the teacher much confidence before the judgment-seat of Christ. Wherefore if any one loves the speaker, let him not desire the applause but the profit of the hearers. To neglect our brethren is no ordinary wrong, but one which brings extreme punishment, and an inexorable penalty. And the case of the man who buried the talent proves this: he was not reproached at least on account of his own life: for as regarded the deposit itself he did not turn out a bad man, since he restored it intact: nevertheless he did turn out a bad man as regarded his management of the deposit.

For he did not double that which was entrusted to him; and so was punished. Whence it is manifest that even if we are earnest and well trained, and have much zeal about hearing the holy scriptures this does not suffice for our salvation. For the deposit must be doubled, and it becomes doubled when together with our own salvation we undertake to make some provision for the good of others. For the man in the parable said “Lo! there thou hast that is thine:” but this did not serve him for a defence: for it was said to him “thou oughtest to have put the money to the exchangers.”

And observe I pray how easy the commands of the Master are: for men indeed make those who lend out capital sums at interest answerable for recalling them; “you have made the deposit,” one says, “you must call it in: I have no concern with the man who has received it.” But God does not act thus; He only commands us to make the deposit, and does not render us liable for the recall. For the speaker has the power of advising, not of persuading. Therefore he says: “I make thee answerable for depositing only, and not for the recall.” What can be easier than this? And yet the servant called the master hard, who was thus gentle and merciful.

For such is the wont of the ungrateful and indolent; they always try to shift the blame of their offences from themselves to their master. And therefore the man was thrust out with torture and bonds into the outer darkness And lest we should suffer this penalty let us deposit our teaching with the brethren, whether they be persuaded by it, or not. For if they be persuaded they will profit both themselves and us: and if they are not, they involve themselves indeed in inevitable punishment, but will not be able to do us the slightest injury. For we have done our part, by giving them advice: but if they do not listen to it no harm will result to us from that. For blame would attach to us not for failing to persuade, but for failing to advise: and after prolonged and continual exhortation and counsel they and not we, have to reckon henceforth with God.

I have been anxious at any rate to know clearly, whether you continue to exhort your brethren, and if they remain all the time in the same condition of indolence: otherwise I would never have given you any trouble: as it is, I have fears that they may remain uncorrected in consequence of your neglect and indifference. For it is impossible that a man who continually has the benefit of exhortation and instruction should not become better and more diligent.

The proverb which I am about to cite is certainly a common one, nevertheless it confirms this very truth. For “a perpetual dropping of water” it says, “wears a rock,” yet what is softer than water? and what is harder than a rock? Nevertheless perpetual action conquers nature: and if it conquers nature much more will it be able to prevail over the human will. Christianity is no child’s play, my beloved: no matter of secondary importance. I am continually saying these things, and yet I effect nothing.

2. How am I distressed, think you, when I call to mind that on the festival days the multitudes assembled resemble the broad expanse of the sea, but now not even the smallest part of that multitude is gathered together here? Where are they now who oppress us with their presence on the feast days? I look for them, and am grieved on their account when I mark what a multitude are perishing of those who are in the way of salvation, how large a loss of brethren I sustain, how few are reached by the things which concern salvation, and how the greater part of the body of the Church is like a dead and motionless carcass. “And what concern is that to us?” you say.

The greatest possible concern if you pay no attention to your brethren, if you do not exhort and advise, if you put no constraint on them, and do not forcibly drag them hither, and lead them away out of their deep indolence. For that one ought not to be useful to himself alone, but also to many others, Christ declared plainly, when He called us salt, and leaven, and light: for these things are useful and profitable to others. For a lamp does not shine for itself, but for those who are sitting in darkness: and thou art a lamp not that thou mayest enjoy the light by thyself, but that thou mayest bring back yonder man who has gone astray.

For what profit is a lamp if it does not give light to him who sits in darkness? and what profit is a Christian when he benefits no one, neither leads any one back to virtue? Again salt is not an astringent to itself but braces up those parts of the body which have decayed, and prevents them from falling to pieces and perishing. Even so do thou, since God has appointed thee to be spiritual salt, bind and brace up the decayed members, that is the indolent and sordid brethren, and having rescued them from their indolence as from some form of corruption, unite them to the rest of the body of the Church.

And this is the reason why He called you leaven: for leaven also does not leaven itself, but, little though it is, it affects the whole lump however big it may be. So also do ye: although ye are few in number, yet be ye many and powerful in faith, and in zeal towards God. As then the leaven is not weak on account of its littleness, but prevails owing to its inherent heat, and the force of its natural quality, so ye also will be able to bring back a far larger number than yourselves, if you will, to the same degree of zeal as your own. Now if they make the summer season their excuse: for I hear of their saying things of this kind, “the present stifling heat is excessive, the scorching sun is intolerable, we cannot bear being trampled and crushed in the crowd, and to be steaming all over with perspiration and oppressed by the heat and confined space:” I am ashamed of them, believe me: for such excuses are womanish: indeed even in their case who have softer bodies, and a weaker nature, such pretexts do not suffice for justification. Nevertheless, even if it seems a disgrace to make a reply to a defense of this kind, yet is it necessary.

For if they put forward such excuses as these and do not blush, much more does it behoove us not to be ashamed of replying to these things. What then am I to say to those who advance these pretexts?

I would remind them of the three children in the furnace and the flame, who when they saw the fire encircling them on all sides, enveloping their mouth and their eyes and even their breath, did not cease singing that sacred and mystical hymn to God, in company with the universe, but standing in the midst of the pyre sent up their song of praise to the common Lord of all with greater cheerfulness than they who abide in some flowery field: and together with these three children I should think it proper to remind them also of the lions which were in Babylon, and of Daniel and the den: and not of this one only but also of another den, and the prophet Jeremiah, and the mire in which he was smothered up to the neck. And emerging from these dens, I would conduct these persons who put forward heat as an excuse into the prison and exhibit Paul to them there, and Silas bound fast in the stocks, covered with bruises and wounds, lacerated all over their body with a mass of stripes, yet singing praises to God at midnight and celebrating their holy vigil.

For is it not a monstrous thing that those holy men, both in the furnace and the fire, and the den, and amongst wild beasts, and mire, and in a prison and the stocks and amidst stripes and jailers, and intolerable sufferings, never complained of any of these things but were continually uttering prayers and sacred songs with much energy and fervent zeal, whilst we who have not undergone any of their innumerable sufferings small or great, neglect our own salvation on account of a scorching sun and a tittle short lived heat and toil, and forsaking the assembly wander away, depraving ourselves by going to meetings which are thoroughly unwholesome? When the dew of the divine oracles is so abundant dost thou make heat thy excuse?

“The water which I will give him,” saith Christ “shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life;”

and again;

“He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”

Tell me; when thou hast spiritual wells and rivers art thou afraid of material heat? Now in the market place where there is so much turmoil and crowding, and scorching wind, how is it that you do not make suffocation and heat an excuse for absenting yourself? For it is impossible for you to say that there you can enjoy a cooler temperature, and that all the heat is concentrated here with us:—the truth is exactly the reverse; here indeed owing to the pavement floor, and to the construction of the building in other respects (for it is carried up to a vast height), the air is lighter and cooler: whereas there the sun is strong in every direction, and there is much crowding, and vapor and dust, and other things which add to discomfort far more than these. Whence it is plain that these senseless excuses are the offspring of indolence and of a supine disposition, destitute of the fire of the Holy Spirit.

3. Now these remarks of mine are not so much directed to them, as to you who do not bring them forward, do not rouse them from their indolence, and draw them to this table of salvation. Household slaves indeed when they have to discharge some service in common, summon their fellow slaves, but you when you are going to meet for this spiritual ministry suffer your fellow servants to be deprived of the advantage by your neglect. “But what if they do not desire it?” you say.

Make them desire it by your continual importunity: for if they see you insisting upon it they certainly will desire it. Nay these things are a mere excuse and pretence. How many fathers at any rate are there here who have not their sons standing with them? Was it so difficult for thee to bring hither some of thy children? Whence it is clear that the absence of all the others who remain outside is due not only to their own indolence, but also to your neglect.

But now at least, if never before, rouse yourselves up, and let each person enter the Church accompanied by a member of his family: let them incite and urge one another to the assembly here, the father his son, the son his father, the husbands their wives and the wives their husbands, the master his slave, brother his brother, friend his friend: or rather let us not summon friends only but also enemies to this common treasury of good things. If thy enemy sees thy care for his welfare, he will undoubtedly relinquish his hatred.

Say to him: “art thou not ashamed and dost thou not blush before the Jews who keep their sabbath with such great strictness, and from the evening of it abstain from all work? And if they see the sun verging towards setting on the day of the Preparation they break off business, and cut short their traffic: and if any one who has been making a purchase from them, before the evening, comes in the evening bringing the price, they do not suffer themselves to take it, or to accept the money.” And why do I speak of the price of market wares and transaction of business? Even if it were possible to receive a treasure they would rather lose the gain than trample on their law.

Are the Jews then so strict, and this when they keep the law out of due season, and cling to an observance of it which does not profit them, but rather does them harm: and wilt thou, who art superior to the shadow, to whom it has been vouchsafed to see the Sun of Righteousness, who art ranked as a citizen of the Heavenly commonwealth, wilt thou not display the same zeal as those who unseasonably cleave to what is wrong, thou who hast been entrusted with the truth, but although thou art summoned here for only a short part of the day, canst thou not endure to spend even this upon the hearing of the divine oracles? and what kind of indulgence, pray, could you obtain? and what answer will you have to make which is reasonable and just? It is utterly impossible that one who is so indifferent and indolent should ever obtain indulgence, even if he should allege the necessities of worldly affairs ten thousand times over as an excuse.

Do you not know that if you come and worship God and take part in the work which goes on here. the business you have on hand is made much easier for you? Have you worldly anxieties? Come here on that account that by the time you spend here you may win for yourself the favor of God, and so depart with a sense of security; that you may have Him for your ally, that you may become invincible to the demons because you are assisted by the heavenly hand. If you have the benefit of prayers uttered by the fathers, if you take part in common prayer, if you listen to the divine oracles, if you win for yourself the aid of God, if, armed with these weapons, you then go forth, not even the devil himself will be able henceforth to look you in the face, much less wicked men who are eager to insult and malign you. But if you go from your house to the market place, and are found destitute of these weapons, you will be easily mastered by all who insult you.

This is the reason why both in public and private affairs, many things occur contrary to our expectation, because we have not been diligent about spiritual things in the first place, and secondarily about the secular, but have inverted the order. For this reason also the proper sequence and right arrangement of things has been upset, and all our affairs are full of much confusion. Can you imagine what distress and grief I suffer when I observe, that if a public holy day and festival is at hand there is a concourse of all the inhabitants of the city, although there is no one to summon them; but when the holy day and festival are past, even if we should crack our voice by continuing to call you al day long there is no one who pays heed? For often when turning these things over in my mind I have groaned heavily, and said to myself: What is the use of exhortation or advice, when you do everything merely by the force of habit, and do not become a whit more zealous in consequence of my teaching? For whereas in the festivals you need no exhortation from me, but, when they are past you profit nothing by my teaching, do you not show that my discourse, so far as you are concerned, is superfluous?

4. Perhaps many of those who hear these things are grieved. But such is not the sentiment of the indolent: else they would put away their carelessness, like ourselves, who are daily anxious about your affairs. And what gain do you make by your secular transactions in proportion to the damage you sustain? It is impossible to depart from any other assembly, or gathering, in the possession of so much gain as you receive from the time spent here, whether it be the law court, or council-chamber, or even the palace itself. For we do not commit the administration of nations or cities nor the command of armies to those who enter here, but another kind of government more dignified than that of the empire itself; or rather we do not ourselves commit it, but the grace of the spirit.

What then is the government, more dignified than that of the empire, which they who enter here receive? They are trained to master untoward passions, to rule wicked lusts, to command anger, to regulate ill-will, to subdue vainglory. The emperor, seated on the imperial throne, and wearing his diadem, is not so dignified as the man who has elevated his own inward right reason to the throne of government over base passions, and by his dominion over them has bound as it were a glorious diadem upon his brow. For what profit is there, pray, in purple, and raiment wrought with gold, and a jewelled crown, when the soul is in captivity to the passions? What gain is there in outward freedom when the ruling element within us is reduced to a state of disgraceful and pitiable servitude.

For just as when a fever penetrates deep, and inflames all the inward parts, there is no benefit to be got from the outward surface of the body, although it is not affected in the same way: even so when our soul is violently carried away by the passion within, no outward government, not even the imperial throne, is of any profit, since reason is deposed from the throne of empire by the violent usurpation of the passions, and bows and trembles beneath their insurrectionary movements. Now to prevent this taking place prophets and apostles concur on all sides in helping us, repressing our passions, and expelling all the ferocity of the irrational element within us, and committing a mode of government to us far more dignified than the empire.

This is why I said that they who deprive themselves of this care receive a blow in the vital parts, sustaining greater damage than can be inflicted from any other quarter inasmuch as they who come here get greater gain than they could derive from any other source: even as Scripture has declared. The law said

“Thou shalt not appear before the Lord empty;”

that is, enter not into the temple without sacrifices. Now if it is not right to go into the house of God without sacrifices, much more ought we to enter the assembly accompanied by our brethren: for this sacrifice and offering is better than that, when thou bringest a soul with thee into the Church. Do you not see doves which have been trained, how they hunt for others when they are let out? Let us also do this. For what kind of excuse shall we have, if irrational creatures are able to hunt for an animal of their own species, while we who have been honored with reason and so much wisdom neglect this kind of pursuit? I exhorted you in my former discourse with these words: “Go, each of you to the houses of your neighbors, wait for them to come out, lay hold of them, and conduct them to their common mother: and imitate those who are mad upon theater going, who diligently arrange to meet each other and so wait at early dawn to see that iniquitous spectacle.” Yet I have not effected anything by this exhortation.

Therefore I speak again and shall not cease speaking, until I have persuaded you. Hearing profits nothing unless it is accompanied by practice. It makes our punishment heavier, if we continually hear the same things and do none of the things which are spoken. That the chastisement will be heavier, hear the statement of Christ.

“If I had not come and spoken to them they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.”

And the Apostle says

“for not the hearers of the law shall be justified.”

These things He says to the hearers; but when He wishes to instruct the speaker also, that even he will not gain anything from his teaching unless his behavior is in close correspondence with his doctrine, and his manner of life is in harmony with his speech, hear how the Apostle and the prophet address themselves to him: for the latter says “but to the sinner said God, why dost thou preach my laws and takest my covenant in thy mouth, whereas thou hast hated instruction?”

And the Apostle, addressing himself to these same again who thought great things of their teaching, speaks on this wise:

“Thou art confident that thou thyself art a leader of the blind, a light of those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes: thou therefore that teachest another teachest thou not thyself?”

Inasmuch then as it could neither profit me the speaker to speak, nor you the hearers to hear, unless we comply with the things which are spoken, but rather would increase our condemnation, let us not limit the display of our zeal to hearing only, but let us observe what is said, in our deeds. For it is indeed a good thing to spend time continually in hearing the divine oracles: but this good thing becomes useless when the benefit to be derived from hearing is not linked with it.

Therefore that you may not assemble here in vain I shall not cease beseeching you with all earnestness, as I have often besought you before, “conduct your brethren to us, exhort the wanderers, counsel them not by word only but also by deed.” This is the more powerful, teaching—that which comes through our manners and behavior—Even if you do not utter a word, but yet, after you have gone out of this assembly, by your mien, and your look, and your voice and all the rest of your demeanor you exhibit to the men who have been left behind the gain which you have brought away with you, this is sufficient for exhortation and advice. For we ought to go out from this place as it were from some sacred shrine, as men who have descended from heaven itself, who have become sedate, and philosophical, who do and say everything in proper measure: and when a wife sees her husband returning from the assembly, and a father his son, and a friend his friend, and an enemy his enemy, let them all receive and they perceive that you have become milder, more philosophical, more devout.

Consider what privileges you enjoy who hast been initiated into the mysteries, with what company thou offerest up that mystic hymn, with what company thou criest aloud the “Ter sanctus.” Teach “them that are without” that thou hast joined the chorus of the Seraphim, that thou art ranked as a citizen of the commonwealth above, that thou hast been enrolled in the choir of Angels, that thou hast conversed with the Lord, that thou hast been in the company of Christ.

If we regulate ourselves in this way we shall not need to say anything, when we go out to those who are left behind: but from our advantage they will perceive their own loss and will hasten hither, so as to enjoy the same benefits themselves. For when, merely by the use of their senses, they see the beauty of your soul shining forth, even if they are the most stupid of men, they will become enamored of your goodly appearance. For if corporeal beauty excites those who behold it, much more will symmetry of soul be able to move the spectator, and stimulate him to equal zeal. Let us then adorn our inward man, and let us be mindful of the things which are said here, when we go out: for there especially is it a proper time to remember them; and just as an athlete displays in the lists the things which he has learned in the training school: even so ought we to display in our transactions in the world without the things which we have heard here.

5. Bear in mind then the things which are said here, that when you have gone out and the devil lays hold of you either by means of anger or vainglory, or any other passion, you may call to remembrance the teaching which you have received here and may be able easily to shake off the grasp of the evil one. Do you not see the wrestling-masters in the practising grounds, who, after countess contests having obtained exemption from wrestling on account of their age, sit outside the lines by the side of the dust and shout to those who are wrestling inside, telling one to grasp a hand, or drag a leg, or seize upon the back, and by many other directions of that kind, saying, “if you do so and so you will easily throw your antagonist,” they are of the greatest service to their pupils?

Even so do thou look to thy training master the blessed Paul, who after countless victories is now sitting outside the boundary, I mean this present life, and cries aloud to us who are wrestling, shouting out by means of his Epistles, when he sees us overcome by wrath and resentment of injuries, and choked by passion;

“if thy enemy hunger feed him, if he thirst give him drink;”

—a beautiful precept full of spiritual wisdom, and serviceable both to the doer and the receiver. But the reminder of the passage causes much perplexity, and does not seem to correspond to the sentiment of him who uttered the former words. And what is the nature of this? the saying that “by so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” For by these words he does a wrong both to the doer and the receiver: to the latter by setting his head on fire, and plating coals upon it; for what good will he get from receiving food and drink in proportion to the evil he will suffer from the heaping of coals on his head? Thus then the recipient of the benefit is wronged, having a greater vengeance inflicted on him, but the benefactor also is injured in another way.

For what can he gain from doing good to his enemies when he acts in the hope of revenge? For he who gives meat and drink to his enemy for the purpose of heaping coals of fire on his head would not become merciful and kind, but cruel and harsh, having inflicted an enormous punishment by means of a small benefit. For what could be more unkind than to feed a person for the purpose of heaping coals of fire on his head? This then is the contradiction: and now it remains that the solution should be added, in order that by those very things which seem to do violence to the letter of the law you may dearly see all the wisdom of the lawgiver. What then is the solution?

That great and noble-minded man was well aware of the fact that to be reconciled quickly with an enemy is a grievous and difficult thing; grievous and difficult, not on account of its own nature, but of our moral indolence. But he commanded us not only to be reconciled with our enemy, but also to feed him; which was far more grievous than the former. For if some are infuriated by the mere sight of those who have annoyed them, how would they be willing to feed them when they were hungry? And why do I speak of the sight infuriating them? If any one makes mention of the persons, and merely introduces their name in sorely, it revives the wound in our imagination, and increases the heat of passion. Paul then being aware of all these things and wishing to make what was hard and difficult of correction smooth and easy, and to persuade one who could not endure to see his enemy, to be ready to confer that benefit already mentioned upon him, added the words about coals of fire, in order that a man prompted by the hope of vengeance might hasten to do this service to one who had annoyed him.

And in order that one of them hastening to its accustomed food may be captured by means of it and easily held fast: even so Paul also wishing to lead on the man who has been wronged to bestow a benefit on the man who has wronged him does not present to him the bare hook of spiritual wisdom, but having covered it as it were with a kind of bait, I mean the “coals of fire,” invites the man who has been insulted, in the hope of inflicting punishment, to confer this benefit on the man who has annoyed him; but when he has come he holds him fast in future, and does not let him make off, the very nature of the deed attaching him to his enemy; and he all but says to him:

“if thou art not willing to feed the man who has wronged thee for piety’s sake: feed him at least from the hope of punishing him.”

For he knows that if the man once sets his hand to the work of conferring this benefit, a starting-point is made and a way of reconciliation is opened for him. For certainly no one would have the heart to regard a man continually as his enemy to whom he has given meat and drink, even if he originally does this in the hope of vengeance. For time as it goes on relaxes the tension of his anger. As then the fisherman, if he presented the bare hook would never allure the fish, but when he has covered it gets it unawares into the mouth of the creature who comes up to it: so also Paul if he had not advanced the expectation of inflicting punishment would never have persuaded those who were wronged to undertake to benefit those who had annoyed them.

Wishing then to persuade those who recoiled in disgust, and were paralyzed by the very sight of their enemies, to confer the greatest benefits upon them, he made mention of the coals of fire, not with a view of thrusting the persons in question into inexorable punishment, but in order that when he had persuaded those who were wronged to benefit their enemies in the expectation of punishing them, he might afterwards in time persuade them to abandon their anger altogether.

6. Thus then did he encourage the man who has been wronged; but observe also how he unites again the man who has done the wrong to him who has been provoked. First of all by the very manner of the benefit: (for there is no one so degraded and unfeeling as to be unwilling, when he receives meat and drink, to become the servant and friend of him who does this for him): and in the second place through the dread of vengeance. For the passage,

“by so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head”

seems indeed to be addressed to the person who gives the food; but it more especially touches him who has caused the annoyance, in order that through fear of this punishment he may be deterred from remaining continually in a state of enmity, and being aware that the reception of food and drink might do him the greatest mischief if he constantly retains his animosity, may suppress his anger. For thus he will be able to quench the coals of fire. Wherefore the proposed punishment and vengeance both induces the one who has been wronged to benefit him who has annoyed him, and it deters and checks him who has given the provocation, and impels him to reconciliation with the man who gives him meat and drink. Paul therefore linked the two persons by a twofold bond, the one depending on a benefit, the other on an act of vengeance.

For the difficulty is to make a beginning and to find an opening for the reconciliation: but when that has once been reared in whatever way it may be, all which follows will be smooth and easy. For even if at first the man who has been annoyed feeds his enemy in the hope of punishing him, yet becoming his friend by the act of giving him food he will be able to expel the desire of vengeance. For when he has become a friend he will no longer feed the man who has been reconciled to him, with an expectation of this kind. Again he who has given the provocation, when he sees the man who has been wronged electing to give him meat and drink, casts out all his animosity, both on account of this deed, and also of his fear of the punishment which is in store for him, even if he be excessively hard and harsh and stony-hearted, being put to shame by the benevolence of him who gives him food, and dreading the punishment reserved for him, if he continues to be an enemy after accepting the food.

For this reason Paul did not stop even here in his exhortation, but when he has emptied each side of wrath he proceeds to correct their disposition, saying, “be not overcome of evil.” “For if,” he says, “you continue to bear resentment and to seek revenge you seem indeed to conquer your enemy, but in reality you are being conquered by evil, that is, by wrath: so that if you wish to conquer, be reconciled, and do not make an attack upon your adversary;” for a brilliant victory is that in which by means of good, that is to say by forbearance, you overcome evil expelling wrath and resentment.

But the injured man, when inflamed with passion would not have borne these words. Therefore when he had satisfied his wrath he proceeded to conduct him to the best reason for reconciliation, and did not permit him to remain permanently animated by the wicked hope of vengeance. Dost thou perceive the wisdom of the lawgiver?

And that you may learn that he introduced this law only on account of the weakness of those who would not otherwise be content to make terms amongst themselves, hear how Christ, when He ordained a law on this same subject did not propose the same reward, as the Apostle; but, having said “Love your enemies do good to them that hate you,” which means give them food and drink, He did not add “for in so doing ye shall heap coals of fire on their heads:” but what did He say?

“that ye may become like your Father who is in Heaven.”

Naturally so, for He was discoursing to Peter, James, and John and the rest of the apostolic band: therefore He proposed that reward. But if you say that even on this understanding the precept is onerous you improve once more the defense which I am making for Paul, but you deprive yourself of every plea of indulgence. For I can prove to you that this which seems to you onerous was accomplished under the Old Dispensation when the manifestation of spiritual wisdom was not so great as it is now. For this reason also Paul did not introduce the law in his own words, but used the very expressions which

were employed by him who originally brought it in, that he might leave no room for excuse to those who do not observe it: for the precept “if thine enemy hunger feed him, if he thirst give him drink” is not the utterance of Paul in the first instance, but of Solomon. For this reason he quoted the words that he might persuade the hearer that for one who has been advanced to such a high standard of wisdom to regard an old law as onerous and grievous which was often fulfilled by the men of old time, is one of the basest things possible. Which of the ancients, you ask, fulfilled it?

There were many, but amongst others David especially did so more abundantly? He did not indeed merely give food or drink to his enemy, but also rescued him several times from death, when he was in jeopardy; and when he had it in his power to slay him he spared him once, twice, yea many times. As for Saul he hated and abhorred him so much after the countless good services which he had done, after his brilliant triumphs, and the salvation which he had wrought in the matter of Goliath, that he could not bear to mention him by his own name, but called him after his father. For once when a festival was at hand, and Saul, having devised some treachery against him, and contrived a cruel plot, did not see him arrive “where,” said he, “is the son of Jesse?”

He called him by his father’s name, both because on account of his hatred he could not endure the recollection of his proper name, and also because he thought to damage the distinguished position of that righteous man by a reference to his low birth;—a miserable and despicable thought: for certainly, even if he had some accusation to bring against the father this could in no wise injure David. For each man is answerable for his own deeds, and by these he can be praised and accused. But as it was, not having any evil deed to mention, he brought forward his low birth, expecting by this means to throw his glory into the shade, which in fact was the height of folly. For what kind of offense is it to be the child of insignificant and humble then, “the son of Jesse,” but when David found him sleeping inside the cave, he did not call him the “son of Kish,” but by his title of honor:

“for I will not lift up my hand,” he said, “against the Lord’s anointed.”

So purely free was he from wrath and resentment of injuries: he calls him the Lord’s anointed who had done him such great wrongs, who countless good services had many times

attempted to destroy him. For he did not consider how Saul deserved to be treated, but he considered what was becoming for himself both to do and to say, which is the greatest stretch of moral wisdom. How so? When thou hast got thy enemy in a prison, made fast by a twofold, or rather by a triple chain, confinement of space, dearth of assistance, and necessity of sleep, dost thou not demand a penalty and punishment of him? “No,” he says; “for I am not now regarding what he deserves to suffer, but what it behoves me to do.” He did not look to the facility for slaying, but to the accurate observance of the moral wisdom which was becoming to him.

And yet which of the existing circumstances was not sufficient to prompt him to the act of slaughter? Was not the fact that his enemy was delivered bound into his hands a sufficient inducement? For you are aware I suppose that we hasten more eagerly to deeds for which facilities abound, and the hope of success increases our desire to act, which was just what happened then in his case.

Well! did the captain who then counselled and urged him to the deed, did the memory of past events induce him to slay? No one of these things moved him: in fact the very facility for slaughter averted him from it: for he bethought him that God had put Saul in his hands for the purpose of furnishing ample ground and opportunity for the exercise of moral wisdom. You then perhaps admire him, because he did not cherish the memory of any of his past evils: but I am much more astonished at him for another reason. And what is this? that the fear of future events did not impel him to lay violent hands on his enemy. For he knew dearly that if Saul escaped his hands, he would again be his adversary; yet he preferred exposing himself to danger by letting go the man who had wronged him, to providing for his own security by laying violent hands upon his foe. What could equal then the great and generous spirit of this man, who, when the law commanded eye to be plucked out for eye, and tooth for tooth, and retaliation on equal terms, not only abstained from doing this, but exhibited a far greater measure of moral wisdom?

At least if he had slain Saul at that time he would have retained credit for moral wisdom unimpaired, not merely because he had acted on the defensive, not being himself the originator of violence, but also because by his great moderation he was superior to the precept “an eye for an eye.” For he would not have inflicted one slaughter in return for one; but, in return for many deaths, which Saul endeavoured to bring on him, having attempted to slay him not once or twice but many times, he would have brought only one death on Saul; and not only this, but if he had proceeded to avenge himself out of fear of the future, even this, combined with the things already mentioned, would procure him the reward of forbearance without any deduction.

For he who is angry on account of the things which have been done to him, and demands satisfaction, would not be able to obtain the praise of forbearance: but when a man dismisses the consideration of all past evils, although they are many and painful, but is compelled to take steps for self-defence from fear of the future, and by way of providing for his own security, no one would deprive him of the rewards of moderation.

7. Nevertheless David did not act even thus, but found a novel and strange form of moral wisdom: and neither the remembrance of things past, nor the fear of things to come, nor the instigation of the captain, nor the solitude of the place, nor the facility for slaying, nor anything else incited him to kill; but he spared the man who was his enemy, and had given him pain just as if he was some benefactor, and had done him much good.

What kind of indulgence then shall we have, if we are mindful of past transgressions, and avenge ourselves on those who have given us pain, whereas that innocent man who had undergone such great sufferings and expected more and worse evils to befall him in consequence of saving his enemy, is seen to spare him, so as to prefer danger himself and to life in fear and trembling, rather than to put to a just death the man who would cause him endless troubles?

His moral wisdom then we may perceive, not only from the fact that he did not slay Saul, when there was so strong a compulsion, but also that he did not utter an irreverent word against him, although he who was insulted would not have heard him. Yet we often speak evil of friends when they are absent, he on the contrary not even of the enemy who had done him such great wrong.

His moral wisdom then we may perceive from these things: but his lovingkindness and tender care from what he did after these things. For when he had cut off the fringe of Saul’s garment, and had taken away the bottle of water he withdrew afar off and stood and shouted, and exhibited these things to him whose life he had by his deeds that he suspected him without a cause as his enemy, and aiming therefore at winning him into friendship. Nevertheless when he had even thus failed to persuade him, and could have laid hands on him, he again chose rather to be an exile from his country and to sojourn in a strange land, and suffer distress every day, in procuring necessary food than to remain at home and vex his adversary. What spirit could be kinder than his? He was indeed justified in saying

“Lord remember David and all his meekness.”

Let us also imitate him, and let us neither say nor do evil to our enemies, but benefit them according to our power: for we shall do more good to ourselves than to them.

“For if ye forgive your enemies,” we are told “ye shall be forgiven.”

Forgive base offenses that thou mayest receive a royal pardon for thy offenses; but if any one has done thee great wrongs, the greater the wrongs you forgive, the greater will be the pardon which you will receive. Therefore we have been instructed to say

“Forgive us, as we forgive,”

that we may learn that the measure of our forgiveness takes its beginning in the first place from ourselves. Wherefore in proportion to the severity of the evil which the enemy does to us is the greatness of the benefit which he bestows. Let us then be earnest and eager to be reconciled with those who have vexed us, whether their wrath be just or unjust. For it thou art reconciled here, thou art delivered from judgment in the other world ; but if in the interval while the hatred is still going on, death interrupting steps in and carries the enmity away with it, it follows of necessity that the trial of the case should be brought forward in the other world.

As then many men when they have a dispute with one another, if they come to a friendly understanding together outside the law court save themselves loss, and alarm, and many risks, the issue of the case turning out in accordance with the sentiment of each party; but if they severally entrust the affair to the judge the only result to them will be loss of money, and in many cases a penalty, and the permanent endurance of their hatred; even so here if we come to terms during our present life we shall relieve ourselves from all punishment; but if while remaining enemies we depart to that terrible tribunal in the other world we shall certainly pay the utmost penalty at the sentence of the judge there, and shall both of us undergo inexorable punishment: he who is unjustly wroth because he is thus unjustly disposed, and he who is justly wroth, because he has, however justly, cherished resentment. For even if we have been unjustly ill-treated, we ought to grant pardon to those who have wronged us. And observe how he urges and incites those who have unjustly given pain to reconciliation with those whom they have wronged.

“If thou offerest thy gift before the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother.”

He did not say, “assemble, and offer thy sacrifice” but “be reconciled and then offer it.” Let it lie there, he says, in order that the necessity of making the offering may constrain him who is justly wroth to come to terms even against his will. See how he again prompts us to go to the man who has provoked us when he says

“Forgive your debtors in order that your Father may also forgive your trespasses.”

For He did not propose a small reward, but one which far exceeds the magnitude of the achievement. Considering all these things then, and counting the recompense which is given in this case and remembering that to wipe away sins does not entail much labor and zeal, let us pardon those who have wronged us. For that which others scarcely accomplish, I mean the blotting out of their own sins by means of fasting and lamentations, and prayers, and sackcloth, and ashes, this it is possible for us easily to effect without sackcloth and ashes and fasting if only we blot out anger from our heart, and with sincerity forgive those who have wronged us.

May the God of peace and love, having banished from our soul all wrath and bitterness, and anger, deign to grant that we being closely knit one to another according to the proper adjustment of the parts, may with one accord, one mouth and one soul continually offer up our hymns of thanksgiving due to Him: for to Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

© 2010, Preachers Institute. All rights reserved.

1 Corinthians 4:17

For this cause have I sent unto you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who shall put you in remembrance of my ways which be in Christ Jesus.

Consider here also, I entreat, the noble soul, the soul more glowing and keener than fire: how he was indeed especially desirous to be present himself with the Corinthians, thus distempered and broken into parties. For he knew well what a help to the disciples his presence was and what a mischief his absence. And the former he declared in the Epistle to the Philippians, saying,

Not as in my presence only, but also now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

The latter he signifies in this Epistle, saying,

Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you; but I will come.

He was urgent, it seems, and desirous to be present himself. But as this was not possible for a time, he corrects them by the promise of his appearance; and not this only, but also by the sending of his disciple. For this, he says, I have sent unto you Timothy. For this cause: how is that? Because I care for you as for children, and as having begotten you. And the message is accompanied with a recommendation of his person: Who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. Now this he said, both to show his love of him, and to prepare them to look on him with respect. And not simply faithful, but, in the Lord; that is, in the things pertaining to the Lord.  Now if in worldly things it is high praise for a man to be faithful, much more in things spiritual.

If then he was his beloved child, consider how great was Paul’s love, in choosing to be separated from him for the Corinthian’s sake, And if faithful also, he will be unexceptionable in his ministering to their affairs.

Who shall put you in remembrance.

He said not, shall teach, lest they should take it ill, as being used to learn from himself. Wherefore also towards the end he says,

For he works the work of the Lord, as I also do. Let no man therefore despise him.

For there was no envy among the Apostles, but they had an eye unto one thing, the edification of the Church. And if he that was employed was their inferior, they did as it were support  him with all earnestness. Wherefore neither was he contented with saying,

He shall put you in remembrance; but purposing to cut out their envy more completely—for Timothy was young—with this view, I say, he adds, my ways; not his, but mine; that is, his methods, his dangers, his customs, his laws, his ordinances, his Apostolical Canons, and all the rest. For since he had said,

We are naked, and are buffered, and have no certain dwelling place: all these things, says he, he will remind you of;

and also of the laws of Christ; for destroying all heresies. Then, carrying his argument higher, he adds,

which be in Christ;

ascribing all, as was his wont, unto the Lord, and on that ground establishing the credibility of what is to follow. Wherefore he subjoins,

Even as I teach every where in every church.

Nothing new have I spoken unto you: of these my proceedings all the other Churches are cognizant as well as you.

Further: he calls them ways in Christ, to show that they have in them nothing human, and that with the aid from that source he does all things well.

2. And having said these things and so soothed them, and being just about to enter on his charge against the unclean person, he again utters words full of anger; not that in himself he felt so but in order to correct them: and giving over the fornicator, he directs his discourse to the rest, as not deeming him worthy even of words from himself; just as we act in regard to our servants when they have given us great offense.

Next, after that he had said, Timothy, lest they should thereupon take things too easily, mark what he says:

1 Corinthians 4:18

Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming unto you.

For there he glances both at them and at certain others, casting down their highmindedness: since the love of preeminence is in fault, when men abuse the absence of their teacher for their own self-will. For when he addresses himself unto the people, observe how he does it by way of appeal to their sense of shame; when unto the originators of the mischief, his manner is more vehement. Thus unto the former he says, We are the offscouring of all: and soothing them he says, Not to shame you I write these things; but to the latter,

Now as though I were not coming to you, some are puffed up;

showing that their self-will argued a childish turn of mind. For so boys in the absence of their master wax more negligent.

This then is one thing here indicated; and another is that his presence was sufficient for their correction. For as the presence of a lion makes all living creatures shrink away, so also does that of Paul the corrupters of the Church.

1 Corinthians 4:19

And therefore he goes on, But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will. Now to say this only would seem to be mere threatening. But to promise himself and demand from them the requisite proof by actions also; this was a course for a truly high spirit. Accordingly he added this too, saying,

And I will know, not the word of them which are puffed up, but the power. For not from any excellencies of their own but from their teacher’s absence, this self-will arose. Which again itself was a mark of a scornful mind towards him. And this is why, having said,

I have sent Timothy,

he did not at once addI will come;

but waited until he had brought his charge against them of being puffed up: after that he says, I will come. Since, had he put it before the charge, it would rather have been an apology for himself as not having been deficient, instead of a threat; nor even so would the statement have been convincing. But as it is, placing it after the accusation, he rendered himself such as they would both believe and fear.

Mark also how solid and secure he makes his ground: for he says not simply, I will come: but, If the Lord will: and he appoints no set time. For since he might perhaps be tardy in coming, by that uncertainty he would fain keep them anxiously engaged. And, lest they should hereupon fall back again, he added, shortly,

3. And I will know, not the word of them that are puffed up, but the power. He said not, I will know not the wisdom, nor the signs, but what? not the word: by the term he employs at the same time depressing the one and exalting the other. And for a while he is setting himself against the generality of them who were countenancing the fornicator. For if he were speaking of him, he would not say, the power; but, the works, the corrupt works which he did.

Now why do you not seek after the word? Not because I am wanting in word but because all our doings are ‘in power.’ As therefore in war success is not for those who talk much but those who effect much; so also in this case, not speakers, but doers have the victory. You, says he, art proud of this fine speaking. Well, if it were a contest and a time for orators, you might reasonably be elated thereat: but if of Apostles preaching truth, and by signs confirming the same, why are you puffed up for a thing superfluous and unreal, and to the present purpose utterly inefficient? For what could a display of words avail towards raising the dead, or expelling evil spirits, or working any other such deed of wonder? But these are what we want now, and by these our cause stands. Whereupon also he adds,

1 Corinthians 4:20

For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.

By signs, says he, not by fine speaking, we have prevailed: and that our teaching is divine and really announces the Kingdom of Heaven we give the greater proof, namely, our signs which we work by the power of the Spirit. If those who are now puffed up desire to be some great ones; as soon as I have come, let them show whether they have any such power. And let me not find them sheltering themselves behind a pomp of words: for that kind of art is nothing to us.

1 Corinthians 4:21

4. What will you? Shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of meekness?

There is much both of terror and of gentleness in this saying. For to say, I will know, was the language of one as yet withholding himself: but to say, What will you? Must I come unto you with a rod? are the words of one thenceforth ascending the teacher’s seat, and from thence holding discourses with them and taking upon him all his authority.

What means, with a rod? With punishment, with vengeance: that is, I will destroy; I will strike with blindness: the kind of thing which Peter did in the case of Sapphira, and himself in the case of Elymas the sorcerer. For henceforth he no longer speaks as bringing himself into a close comparison with the other teachers, but with authority. And in the second too he appears to say the same, when he writes,

Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me.

Shall I come with a rod, or in love?

What then? To come with a rod, was it not an instance of love? Of love it was surely. But because through his great love he shrinks back in punishing, therefore he so expresses himself.

Further; when he spoke about punishment, he said not, in a spirit of meekness, but, [simply,] with a rod: and yet of that too the Spirit was author. For there is a spirit of meekness, and a spirit of severity. He does not, however, choose so to call it, but from its milder aspect. And for a like reason also, God, although avenging Himself, has it often affirmed of Him that He is

gracious and long-suffering, and rich in mercy and pity:

but that He is apt to punish, once perhaps or twice, and sparingly, and that upon some urgent cause.

5. Consider then the wisdom of Paul; holding the authority in his own hands, he leaves both his and that in the power of others, saying, What will you? The matter is at your disposal.

For we too have depending on us both sides of the alternative; both falling into hell, and obtaining the kingdom: since God has so willed it. For,

behold, says he, fire and water: whichever way you will, you may stretch forth your hand Sirach 15:16

And,

If you be willing, and will hearken unto me, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you be not willing, the sword shall devour you.

But perhaps one will say,

I am willing; (and no one is so void of understanding as not to be willing;) but to will is not sufficient for me.

Nay, but it is sufficient, if you be duly willing, and do the deeds of one that is willing. But as it is, you are not greatly willing.

And let us try this in other things, if it seem good. For tell me, he that would marry a wife, is he content with wishing? By no means; but he looks out for women to advance his suit, and request friends to keep watch with him, and gets together money. Again, the merchant is not content with sitting at home and wishing, but he first hires a vessel, then selects sailors and rowers, then takes up money on interest, and is inquisitive about a market and the price of merchandise.

Is it not then strange for men to show themselves so much in earnest about earthly things, but that when they are to make a venture for heaven, they should be content with wishing only? Rather I should say, not even in this do they show themselves properly in earnest. For he that wills a thing as he ought, puts also his hand unto the means which lead to the object of his desire. Thus, when hunger compels you to take nourishment, you wait not for the viands to come unto you of their own accord, but omittest nothing to gather victuals together. So in thirst, and cold and all other such things, you are industrious and duly prepared to take care of the body. Now do this in respect of God’s kingdom also, and surely you shall obtain it.

For to this end God made you a free agent, that you might not afterwards accuse God, as though some necessity had bound you: but you, in regard of those very things wherein you have been honored, murmur.

For in fact I have often heard people say,

But why did He then make my goodness depend on me?

Nay, but how was He to bring you, slumbering and sleeping, and in love with all iniquity, and living delicately, and pampering yourself; how was He to bring you up to heaven? If He had, you would not have abstained from vice. For if now, even in the face of threatening, you do not turn aside from your wickedness; had he added no less than heaven as the end of your race, when would you have ceased waxing more careless and worse by far?

Neither again will you be able to allege, He has showed me indeed what things were good but gave no help, for abundant also is His promise to you of aid.

6. But, say you, Virtue is burdensome and distasteful; while with vice great pleasure is blended; and the one is wide and broad, but the other strait and narrow.

Tell me then, are they respectively such throughout, or only from the beginning? For in fact what you here say, you say, not intending it, in behalf of virtue; so potent a thing is truth. For suppose there were two roads, the one leading to a furnace, and the other to a Paradise; and that the one unto the furnace were broad, the other unto Paradise, narrow; which road would you take in preference? For although you may now gainsay for contradiction’s sake, yet things which are plainly allowed on all hands, however shameless, you will not be able to gainsay. Now that that way is rather to be chosen which has its beginning difficult but not its end, I will endeavor to teach you from what is quite obvious. And, if you please, let us first take in hand the arts.

For these have their beginning full of toil, but the end gainful. But, say you, no one applies himself to an art without some one to compel him; for, you add, so long as the boy is his own master, he will choose rather to take his ease at first, and in the end to endure the evil, how great soever, than to live hardly at the outset, and afterwards reap the fruit of those labors. Well then, to make such a choice comes of a mind left to itself, and of childish idleness: but the contrary choice, of sense and manliness. And so it is with us: were we not children in mind, we should not be like the child aforesaid, forsaken as he is and thoughtless, but like him that has a father.

We must cast out then our own childish mind, and not find fault with the things themselves; and we must set a charioteer over our conscience, who will not allow us to indulge our appetite, but make us run and strive mightily. For what else but absurdity is it to inure our children with pains at first unto pursuits which have laborious beginnings, but their end good and pleasant; while we ourselves in spiritual things take just the contrary turn?

And yet even in those earthly things it is not quite plain that the end will be good and pleasant: since before now untimely death, or poverty, or false accusation, or reverse of fortune, or other such things, of which there are many, have caused men after their long toil to be deprived of all its fruits. What is more, those who have such pursuits, though they succeed, it is no great gain which they will reap. For with the present life all those things are dissolved. But here, not for such fruitless and perishable things is our race, neither have we fears about the end; but greater and more secure is our hope after our departure hence.

What pardon then can there be, what excuse for those who will not strip themselves for the evils to be endured for virtue’s sake?

And do they yet ask, Wherefore is the way narrow? Why, thou dost not deem it right that any fornicator or lewd or drunken person should enter into the courts of earthly kings; and do you claim for men to be let into heaven itself with licentiousness, and luxury, and drunkenness, and covetousness, and all manner of iniquity? And how can these things be pardonable?

7. Nay, you reply, good truth if we be willing, its way is very easy. For whether is easier, tell me; to dig through a wall and take other men’s goods and so be cast into prison; or to be content with what you have and freed from all fear? I have not however said all. For whether is easier, tell me; to steal all men’s goods and revel in few of them for a short time, and then to be racked and scourged eternally; or having lived in righteous poverty for a short time, to live ever after in delights? (For let us not enquire as yet which is the more profitable, but for the present, which is the more easy.) Whether again is it pleasanter, to see a good dream and to be punished in reality; or after having had a disagreeable dream to be really in enjoyment?

Of course the latter.

Tell me then, In what sense do you call virtue harsh? I grant, it is harsh, tried by comparison with our carelessness. However, that it is really easy and smooth, hear what Christ says,

My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.

But if you perceive not the lightness, plainly it is for want of courageous zeal; since where that is, even heavy things are light; and by the same rule where it is not, even light things are heavy. For tell me, what could be sweeter and more easily obtained than the banquet of manna? Yet the Jews were discontented, though enjoying such delightful fare. What more bitter than hunger and all the other hardships which Paul endured? Yet he leaped up, and rejoiced, and said,

Now I rejoice in my sufferings. Colossians 1:24

What then is the cause? The difference of the mind. If then you frame this as it ought to be, you will see the easiness of virtue.

What then, say you, does she only become such through the mind of those who pursue her? She is such, not from their mind alone, but by nature as well. Which I thus prove: If the one had been throughout a thing painful, the other throughout of the contrary sort, then with some plausibility might some fallen persons have said that the latter was easier than the former. But if they have their beginnings, the one in hardship, the other in pleasure, but their respective ends again just opposite to these; and if those ends be both infinite, in the one the pleasure, in the other the burden; tell me, which is the more easy to choose?

Why then do many not choose that which is easy? Because some disbelieve; and others, who believe, have their judgment corrupt, and would prefer pleasure for a season to that which is everlasting. Is not this then easy? Not so: but this comes of a sick soul. And as the reason why persons in a fever long after cool drink is not upon calculation that the momentary luxury is pleasanter than being burned up from beginning to end, but because they cannot restrain their inordinate desire; so also these. Since if one brought them to their punishment at the very moment of their pleasure, assuredly they never would have chosen it. Thus you see in what sense vice is not an easy thing.

8. But if you will, let us try this same point over again by an example in the proper subject matter. Tell me, for instance, which is pleasanter and easier? (only let us not take again the desire of the many for our rule in the matter; since one ought to decide, not by the sick, but by the whole; just as you might show me ten thousand men in a fever, seeking things unwholesome upon choice to suffer for it afterwards; but I should not allow such choice;) which, I repeat, brings more ease, tell me; to desire much wealth, or to be above that desire? For I, for my part, think the latter. If you disbelieve it, let the argument be brought to the facts themselves.

Let us then suppose one man desiring much, another nothing. Which now is the better state, tell me, and which the more respectable? However, let that pass. For this is agreed upon, that the latter is a finer character than the former. And we are making no enquiry about this at present, but which lives the easier and pleasanter life?

Well then: the lover of money will not enjoy even what he has: for that which he loves he cannot choose to spend; but would gladly even carve  himself out, and part with his flesh rather than with his gold. But he that despises wealth, gains this the while, that he enjoys what he has quietly and with great security, and that he values himself more than it. Which then is the pleasanter; to enjoy what one has with freedom, or to live under a master, namely wealth, and not dare to touch a single thing even of one’s own?

Why, it seems to me to be much the same as if any two men, having wives and loving them exceedingly, were not upon the same terms with them; but the one were allowed the presence and intercourse of his wife, the other not even permitted to come near his.

There is another thing which I wish to mention, indicating the pleasure of the one and the discomfort of the other. He that is greedy of gain will never be stayed in that desire, not only because it is impossible, for him to obtain all men’s goods, but also because whatever he may have compassed, he counts himself to have nothing. But the despiser of riches will deem it all superfluous, and will not have to punish his soul with endless desires. I say, punish; for nothing so completely answers the definition of punishment as desire deprived of gratification; a thing too which especially marks his perverse mind.

Look at it in this way. He that lusts after riches and has increased his store, he is the sort of person to feel as if he had nothing. I ask then, what more complicated than this disease? And the strange thing is not this only, but that although having, he thinks he has not the very things which are in his hold, and as though he had them not he bewails himself. If he even get all men’s goods, his pain is but greater. And should he gain an hundred talents, he is vexed that he has not received a thousand: and if he received a thousand; he is stung to the quick that it is not ten thousand: and if he receive ten thousand, he utterly bemoans himself  because it is not ten times as much.

And the acquisition of more to him becomes so much more poverty; for the more he receives so much the more he desires. So then, the more he receives, the more he becomes poor: since whoso desires more, is more truly poor. When then he has an hundred talents, is he not very poor? for he desires a thousand. When he has got a thousand, then he becomes yet poorer. For it is no longer a thousand as before, but ten thousand that he professes himself to want. Now if you say that to wish and not to obtain is pleasure, you seem to me to be very ignorant of the nature of pleasure.

9. To show that this sort of thing is not pleasure but punishment, take another case, and so let us search it out. When we are thirsty, do we not therefore feel pleasure in drinking because we quench our thirst; and is it not therefore a pleasure to drink because it relieves us from a great torment, the desire, I mean, of drinking? Every one, I suppose, can tell. But were we always to remain in such a state of desire, we should be as badly off as the rich man in the parable of Lazarus for the matter of punishment; for his punishment was just this that vehemently desiring one little drop, he obtained it not. And this very thing all covetous persons seem to me continually to suffer, and to resemble him where he begs that he may obtain that drop, and obtains it not. For their soul is more on fire than his.

Well indeed has one said, that all lovers of money are in a sort of dropsy; for as they, bearing much water in their bodies, are the more burnt up: so also the covetous, bearing about with them great wealth, are greedy of more. The reason is that neither do the one keep the water in the parts of the body where it should be, nor the other their desire in the limits of becoming thought.

Let us then flee this strange and craving  disease; let us flee the root of all evils; let us flee that which is present hell; for it is a hell, the desire of these things. Only just lay open the soul of each, of him who despises wealth and of him who does not so; and you will see that the one is like the distracted, choosing neither to hear nor see any thing: the other, like a harbor free from waves: and he is the friend of all, as the other is the enemy.

For whether one take any thing of his, it gives him no annoyance; or if whether, on the contrary, one give him anything, it puffs him not up; but there is a certain freedom about him with entire security. The one is forced to flatter and feign before all; the other, to no man.

If now to be fond of money is to be both poor and timid and a dissembler and a hypocrite and to be full of fears and great penal anguish and chastisement: while he that despises wealth has all the contrary enjoyments: is it not quite plain that virtue is the more pleasant?

Now we might have gone through all the other evils also whereby it is shown that there is no vice which has pleasure in it, had we not spoken before so much at large.

Wherefore knowing these things, let us choose virtue; to the end that we may both enjoy such pleasure as is here, and may attain unto the blessings which are to come, through the grace and loving-kindness.

© 2010, Preachers Institute. All rights reserved.

1 Corinthians 4:10

We are fools for Christ’s sake:

(For it is necessary from this point to resume our discourse:)

but you are wise in Christ: we are weak, but you are strong: you have glory, but we have dishonor.

Having filled his speech with much severity which conveys a sharper blow than any direct charge and having said, “You have reigned without us;” and “God has set forth us last, as men doomed to death” he shows by what comes next how they are “doomed to death;” saying,

We are fools, and weak, and despised, and hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place, and toil, working with our own hands: which were very signs of genuine teachers and apostles. Whereas the others prided themselves on the things which are contrary to these, on wisdom, glory, wealth, consideration.

Desiring therefore to take down their self-conceit and to point out that in respect of these things, so far from taking credit to themselves, they ought rather to be ashamed; he first of all mocks them, saying, “You have reigned without us.” As if he had said, “My sentence is that the present is not a time of honor nor of glory, which kind of things you enjoy, but of persecution and insult, such as we are suffering. If however it be not so; if this rather be the time of remuneration: then as far as I see,” (but this he says in irony,) “ye, the disciples, for your part have become no less than kings: but we the teachers and apostles, and before all entitled to receive the reward, not only have fallen very far behind you, but even, as persons doomed to death, that is, condemned convicts, spend our lives entirely in dishonors, and dangers, and hunger: yea insulted as fools, and driven about, and enduring all intolerable things.”

Now these things he said that he might hereby cause them also to consider, that they should zealously seek the condition of the Apostles; their dangers and their indignities, not their honors and glories. For these, not the other, are what the Gospel requires. But to this effect he speaks not directly, not to show himself disagreeable to them: rather in a way characteristic of himself he takes in hand this rebuke. For if he had introduced his address in a direct manner, he would have spoken thus; “You err, and are beguiled, and have swerved far from the mode of instruction. For every apostle and minister of Christ ought to be esteemed a fool, ought to live in affliction and dishonor; which indeed is our state: whereas you are in the contrary case.”

But thus might his expressions have offended them yet more, as containing but praises of the Apostles; and might have made them fiercer, censured as they were for indolence and vainglory and luxuriousness. Wherefore he conducts not his statement in this way, but in another, more striking but less offensive; and this is why he proceeds with his address as follows, saying ironically,

“But you are strong and “”honorable;” since, if he had not used irony, he would have spoken to this effect; “It is not possible that one man should be esteemed foolish, and another wise; one strong, and another weak; the Gospel requiring both the one and the other. For if it were in the nature of things that one should be this, and another that, perchance there might be some reason in what you say. But now it is not permitted, either to be counted wise, or honorable, or to be free from dangers. If otherwise, it follows of necessity that you are preferred before us in the sight of God; you the disciples before us the teachers, and that after our endless hardships.” If this be too bad for anyone to say, it remains for you to make our condition your object.

2. And “let no one,” says he, “think that I speak only of the past:”

1 Corinthians 4:11

“Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked.”

Do you see that all the life of Christians must be such as this; and not merely a day or two? For though the wrestler who is victorious in a single contest only, be crowned, he is not crowned again if he suffer a fall.

“And hunger;”

against the luxurious.

“And are buffeted;”

against those who are puffed up.

“And have no certain dwelling-place;”

for we are driven about.

“And are naked;”

against the rich.

“And labor;” now against the false apostles who endure neither toil nor peril, while they themselves receive the fruits. “But not so are we,” says he: “but together with our perils from without, we also strain ourselves to the utmost with perpetual labor. And what is still more, no one can say that we fret at these things, for the contrary is our requital to them that so deal with us: this, I say, is the main point, not our suffering evil, for that is common to all, but our suffering without despondency or vexation. But we so far from desponding are full of exultation. And a sure proof of this is our requiting with the contrary those who do us wrong.” 1 Corinthians 4:12-13

Now as to the fact that so they did, hear what follows.

“Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat; we are made as the filth of the world.” This is the meaning of “fools for Christ’s sake.” For whoso suffers wrong and avenges not himself nor is vexed, is reckoned a fool by the heathen; and dishonored and weak. And in order that he might not render his speech too unpalatable by referring the sufferings he was speaking of to their city, what says he? “We are made the filth,” not, “of your city,” but, “of the world.” And again, “the off-scouring of all men;” not of you alone, but of all. As then when he is discoursing of the providential care of Christ, letting pass the earth, the heaven, the whole creation, the Cross is what he brings forward; so also when he desires to attract them to himself hurrying by all his miracles, he speaks of his sufferings on their account. So also it is our method when we be injured by any and despised, whatsoever we have endured for them, to bring the same forward.

“The offscouring of all men, even until now.”

This is a vigorous blow which he gave at the end,

“of all men;” “not of the persecutors only,” says he, “but of those also for whom we suffer these things: Oh greatly am I obliged to them.”

It is the expression of one seriously concerned; not in pain himself, but desiring to make them feel, that he who has innumerable complaints to make should even salute them. And therefore did Christ command us to bear insults meekly that we might both exercise ourselves in a high strain of virtue, and put the other party to the more shame. For that effect one produces not so well by reproach as by silence.

3. Then since he saw that the blow could not well be borne, he speedily heals it; saying,

“I write not these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.”

“For not as abashing you,” says he, “do I speak these things.”

The very thing which by his words he had done, this he says he had not done: rather he allows that he had done it, not however with an evil and spiteful mind. Why, this mode of soothing is the very best, if we should say what we have to say and add the apology from our motive. For not to speak was impossible, since they would have remained uncorrected: on the other hand, after he had spoken, to leave the wound untended, were hard. Wherefore along with his severity he apologizes: for this so far from destroying the effect of the knife, rather makes it sink deeper in, while it moderates the full pain of the wound. Since when a man is told that not in reproach but in love are these things said, he the more readily receives correction.

However, even here also is great severity, and a strong appeal to their sense of shame, in that he said not, “As a master” nor yet “as an apostle,” nor yet “as having you for my disciples;” (which had well suited his claims on them;) but, “as my beloved children I admonish you.” And not simply, children; but, “longed after.” “Forgive me,” says he. “If anything disagreeable has been said, it all proceeds of love.” And he said not, “I rebuke,” but “I admonish.” Now, who would not bear with a father in grief, and in the act of giving good advice? Wherefore he did not say this before, but after he had given the blow.

“What then?” some might say; “Do not other teachers spare us?” “I say not so, but, they carry not their forbearance so far.” This however he spoke not out at once, but by their professions and titles gave indication of it; “Tutor” and “Father” being the terms which he employs.

4. “For though,” says he, “you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers.”

He is not here setting forth his dignity, but the exceeding greatness of his love. Thus neither did he wound the other teachers: since he adds the clause, “in Christ:” but rather soothed them, designating not as parasites but as tutors those among them who were zealous and patient of labor: and also manifested his own anxious care of them. On this account he said not, “Yet not many masters,” but, “not many fathers.” So little was it his object to set down any name of dignity, or to argue that of him they had received the greater benefit: but granting to the others the great pains they had taken for the Corinthians, (for that is the force of the word Tutor,) the superiority in love he reserves for his own portion: for that again is the force of the word Father.

And he says not merely, No one loves you so much; a statement which admitted not of being called in question; but he also brings forward a real fact. What then is this?

“For in Christ Jesus I begot you through the Gospel. In Christ Jesus.”

Not unto myself do I impute this. Again, he strikes at those who gave their own names to their teaching. For

“ye,” says he, “are the seal of mine Apostleship.”

And again, “I planted:” and in this place, “I begot.” He said not, “I preached the word,” but, “I begot;” using the words of natural relationship. For his one care at the moment was, to show forth the love which he had for them. “For they indeed received you from me, and led you on; but that you are believers at all came to pass through me.” Thus, because he had said, “as children;” lest you should suppose that the expression was flattery he produces also the matter of fact.

5. “I beseech you, be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.”

omitted in our version: the Vulgate has it, see 1 Corinthians 11:1 Astonishing! How great is our teacher’s boldness of speech! How highly finished the image, when he can even exhort others hereunto! Not that in self-exaltation he does so, but implying that virtue is an easy thing. As if he had said, “Tell me not, ‘I am not able to imitate you. You are a Teacher, and a great one.’ For the difference between me and you is not so great as between Christ and me: and yet I have imitated Him.”

On the other hand, writing to the Ephesians, he interposes no mention of himself, but leads them all straight to the one point, “Be imitators of God,” is his word. Ephesians 5:1 But in this place, since his discourse was addressed to weak persons, he puts himself in by the way.

And besides, too, he signifies that it is possible even thus to imitate Christ. For he who copies the perfect impression of the seal, copies the original model.

Let us see then in what way he followed Christ: for this imitation needs not time and art, but a steady purpose alone. Thus if we go into the study of a painter, we shall not be able to copy the portrait, though we see it ten thousand times. But to copy him we are enabled by hearing alone. Will ye then that we bring the tablet before you and sketch out for you Paul’s manner of life? Well, let it be produced, that picture far brighter than all the images of Emperors: for its material is not boards glued together, nor canvass stretched out; but the material is the work of God: being as it is a soul and a body: a soul, the work of God, not of men; and a body again in like wise.

Did you utter applause here? Nay, not here is the time for plaudits; but in what follows: for applauding, I say, and for imitating too: for so far we have but the material which is common to all without exception: inasmuch as soul differs not from soul in regard of its being a soul: but the purpose of heart shows the difference. For as one body differs not from another in so far as it is a body, but Paul’s body is like every one’s else, only dangers make one body more brilliant than another: just so is it in the case of the soul also.

6. Suppose then our tablet to be the soul of Paul: this tablet was lately lying covered with soot, full of spider’s webs; (for nothing can be worse than blasphemy;) but when He came who transforms all things, and saw that not through indolence or sluggishness were his lines so drawn but through inexperience and his not having the tints of true piety: for zeal indeed he had, but the colors were not there; for he had not

“the zeal according to knowledge:”

He gives him the tint of the truth, that is, grace: and in a moment he exhibited the imperial image. For having got the colors and learned what he was ignorant of, he waited no time, but immediately appeared a most excellent artist. And first he shows the head of the king, preaching Christ; then also the remainder of the body; the body of a perfect Christian life. Now painters we know shut themselves up and execute all their works with great nicety and in quiet; not opening the doors to any one: but this man, setting forth his tablet in the view of the world, in the midst of universal opposition, clamor, disturbance, did under such circumstances work out this Royal Image, and was not hindered. And therefore he said, “We are made a spectacle unto the world;” in the midst of earth, and sea, and the heaven, and the whole habitable globe, and the world both material and intellectual, he was drawing that portrait of his.

Would you like to see the other parts also thereof from the head downwards? Or will you that from below we carry our description upwards? Contemplate then a statue of gold or rather of something more costly than gold, and such as might stand in heaven; not fixed with lead nor placed in one spot, but hurrying from Jerusalem even unto Illyricum, and setting forth into Spain, and borne as it were on wings over every part of the world. For what could be more “beautiful” than these “feet” which visited the whole earth under the sun? This same “beauty” the prophet also from of old proclaims, saying,

“How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace!” Isaiah 52:7

Have you seen how fair are the feet? Will you see the bosom too? Come, let me show you this also, and you shall behold it far more splendid than these beautiful, yea even than the bosom itself of the ancient lawgiver. For Moses indeed carried tablets of stone: but this man within him had Christ Himself: it was the very image of the King which he bore.

For this cause he was more awful than the Mercy Seat and the Cherubim. For no such voice went out from them as from hence; but from them it talked with men chiefly about things of sense, from the tongue of Paul on the other hand about the things above the heavens. Again, from the Mercy Seat it spoke oracles to the Jews alone; but from hence to the whole world: and there it was by things without life; but here by a soul instinct with virtue.

This Mercy Seat was brighter even than heaven, not shining forth with variety of stars nor with rays from the sun, but the very Sun of righteousness was there, and from hence He sent forth His rays. Again, from time to time in this our heaven, any cloud coursing over at times makes it gloomy; but that bosom never had any such storm sweeping across it. Or rather there did sweep over it many storms and oft: but the light they darkened not; rather in the midst of the temptation and dangers the light shone out. Wherefore also he himself when bound with his chain kept exclaiming,

“The word of God is not bound.” 2 Timothy 2:9

Thus continually by means of that tongue was It sending forth its rays. And no fear, no danger made that bosom gloomy. Perhaps the bosom seems to outdo the feet; however, both they as feet are beautiful, and this as a bosom.

Will you see also the belly with its proper beauty? Hear what he says about it,

“If meat make my brother to stumble, I will eat no flesh while the world stands”:1 Corinthians 8:13

“It is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak”: Romans 14:21

“Meats for the belly and the belly for meats.”1 Corinthians 6:13

What can be more beautiful in its kind than this belly thus instructed to be quiet, and taught all temperance, and knowing how both to hunger and be famished, and also to suffer thirst? For as a well-trained horse with a golden bridle, so also did this walk with measured paces, having vanquished the necessity of nature. For it was Christ walking in it. Now this being so temperate, it is quite plain that the whole body of vice besides was done away.

Would you see the hands too? Those which he now has? Or would you rather behold first their former wickedness? Acts 8:3 “Entering (this very man) into the houses, he haled,” of late, “men and women,” with the hands not of man, but of some fierce wild beast. But as soon as he had received the colors of the Truth and the spiritual experience, no longer were these the hands of a man, but spiritual; day by day being bound with chains. And they never struck any one, but they were stricken times without number. Once even a viper Acts 28:3-5 reverenced those hands: for they were the hands of a human being no longer; and therefore it did not even fasten on them.

And will you see also the back, resembling as it does the other members? Hear what he says about this also.

“Five times I received of the Jews forty stripes save one; thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep.” 2 Corinthians 11:24-25

7. But lest we too should fall into an interminable deep, and be carried away far and wide, going over each of his members severally; come let us quit the body and look at another sort of beauty, that, namely, which proceeds from his garments; to which even devils showed reverence; and therefore both they made off, and diseases took flight. And wheresoever Paul happened to show himself, they all retired and got out of the way, as if the champion of the whole world had appeared. And as they who have been often wounded in war, should they see but some part of the armor of him that wounded them feel a shuddering; much in the same way the devils also, at sight of “handkerchiefs” only were astonied. Where be now the rich, and they that have high thoughts about wealth? Where they who count over their own titles and their costly robes? With these things if they compare themselves, it will be clay in their sight and dirt, all they have of their own. And why speak I of garments and golden ornaments? Why, if one would grant me the whole world in possession, the mere nail of Paul I should esteem more powerful than all that dominion: his poverty than all luxury: his dishonor, than all glory: his nakedness than all riches: no security would I compare with the buffeting of that sacred head: no diadem, with the stones to which he was a mark. This crown let us long for, beloved: and if persecution be not now, let us mean while prepare ourselves. For neither was he of whom we speak glorious by persecutions alone: for he said also,

“I keep under my body;”

now in this one may attain excellence without persecutions. And he exhorted not to

“make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.” Romans 3:14

And again,

“Having food and covering, let us be therewith content.” 1 Timothy 6:8

For to these purposes we have no need of persecutions. And the wealthy too he sought to moderate, saying,

“They that desire to be rich fall into temptation.” 1 Timothy 6:9

If therefore we also thus exercise ourselves, when we enter into the contest we shall be crowned: and though there be no persecution before us, we shall receive for these things many rewards. But if we pamper the body and live the life of a swine, even in peace we shall often sin and bear shame.

Do you see not with whom we wrestle? With the incorporeal powers. How then, being ourselves flesh, are we to get the better of these? For if wrestling with men one have need to be temperate in diet, much more with evil spirits. But when together with fullness of flesh we are also bound down to wealth, whence are we to overcome our antagonists? For wealth is a chain, a grievous chain, to those who know not how to use it; a tyrant savage and inhuman, imposing all his commands by way of outrage on those who serve him. Howbeit, if we will, this bitter tyranny we shall depose from its throne, and make it yield to us, instead of commanding. How then shall this be? By distributing our wealth unto all. For so long as it stands against us, each single handed, like any robber in a wilderness it works all its bad ends: but when we bring it forth among others, it will master us no more, holden as it will be in chains, on all sides, by all men.

And these things I say, not because riches are a sin: the sin is in not distributing them to the poor, and in the wrong use of them. For God made nothing evil but all things very good; so that riches too are good; i.e. if they do not master their owners; if the wants of our neighbors be done away by them. For neither is that light good which instead of dissipating darkness rather makes it intense: nor should I call that wealth, which instead of doing away poverty rather increases it. For the rich man seeks not to take from others but to help others: but he that seeks to receive from others is no longer rich, but is emphatically poor. So that it is not riches that are an evil, but the needy mind which turns wealth into poverty. These are more wretched than those who ask alms in the narrow streets, carrying a wallet and mutilated in body. I say, clothed in rags as they are, not so miserable as those in silks and shining garments. Those who strut in the market-place are more to be pitied than those who haunt the crossings of the streets, and enter into the courts, and cry from their cellars, and ask charity. For these for their part do utter praises to God, and speak words of mercy and a strict morality. And therefore we pity them, and stretch out the hand, and never find fault with them. But those who are rich to bad purpose; cruelty and inhumanity, ravening and satanical lust, are in the words they belch out. And therefore by all are they detested and laughed to scorn. Do but consider; which of the two among all men is reckoned disgraceful, to beg of the rich or the poor. Every one, I suppose, sees it at once:— of the poor. Now this, if you mark it, is what the rich do; for they dared not apply to those who are richer than themselves: whereas those who beg do so of the wealthy: for one beggar asks not alms of another, but of a rich man; but the rich man tears the poor in pieces.

Again tell me, which is the more dignified, to receive from those who are willing and are obliged to you, or when men are unwilling, to compel and tease them? Clearly not to trouble those who are unwilling. But this also the rich do: for the poor receive from willing hands, and such as are obliged to them; but the rich from persons unwilling and repugnant, which is an indication of greater poverty. For if no one would like so much as to go to a meal, unless the inviter were to feel obliged to the guest, how can it be honorable to take one’s share of any property by compulsion? Do we not on this account get out of the way of dogs and fly from their baying, because by their much besetting they fairly force us off? This also our rich men do.

“But, that fear should accompany the gift, is more dignified.” Nay, this is of all most disgraceful. For he who moves heaven and earth about his gains, who can be so laughed to scorn as he? For even unto dogs, not seldom, through fear, we throw whatever we had hold of. Which I ask again, is more disgraceful? That one clothed with rags should beg, or one who wears silk? Thus when a rich man pays court to old and poor persons, so as to get possession of their property, and this when there are children, what pardon can he deserve?

Further: If you will, let us examine the very words; what the rich beggars say, and what the poor. What then says the poor man? That he who gives alms will never have to give by measure ; that he is giving of what is God’s: that God is loving unto men, and recompenses more abundantly; all which are words of high morality, and exhortation, and counsel. For he recommends you to look unto the Lord, and he takes away your fear of the poverty to come. And one may perceive much instruction in the words of those who ask alms: but of what kind are those of the rich? Why, of swine, and dogs, and wolves, and all other wild beasts.

For some of them discourse perpetually on banquets, and dishes, and delicacies, and wine of all sorts, and ointments, and vestures, and all the rest of that extravagance. And others about the interest of money and loans. And making out accounts and increasing the mass of debts to an intolerable amount, as if it had begun in the time of men’s fathers or grandfathers, one they rob of his house, another of his field, and another of his slave, and of all that he has. Why should one speak of their wills, which are written in blood instead of ink? For either by surrounding them with some intolerable danger, or else bewitching them with some paltry promises, whomsoever they may see in possession of some small property, those they persuade to pass by all their relations, and that oftentimes when perishing through poverty, and instead of them to enter their own names. Is there any madness and ferocity of wild beasts of any sort which these things do not throw into the shade?

8. Wherefore I beseech you, all such wealth as this let us flee, disgraceful as it is and in deaths abundant; and let us obtain that which is spiritual, and let us seek after the treasures in the heavens. For whoso possess these, they are the rich, they are the wealthy, both here and there enjoying things; even all things. Since whoso will be poor, according to the word of God, has all men’s houses opened to him. For unto him that for God’s sake has ceased to possess any thing, every one will contribute of his own. But whoso will hold a little with injustice, shuts the doors of all against him. To the end, then, that we may attain both to the good things here and to those which are there, let us choose the wealth which cannot be removed, that immortal abundance: which may God grant us all to obtain, through the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

© 2010, Preachers Institute. All rights reserved.

1 Corinthians 4:6

Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes; that in us you might learn not to think of men above that which is written.

So long as there was need of expressions as harsh as these, he refrained from drawing up the curtain, and went on arguing as if he were himself the person to whom they were addressed; in order that the dignity of the persons censured tending to counteract the censurers, no room might be left for flying out in wrath at the charges. But when the time came for a gentler process, then he strips it off, and removes the mask, and shows the persons concealed by the appellation of Paul and Apollos. And on this account he said,

These things, brethren, I have transferred in a figure unto myself and Apollos.

And as in the case of the sick, when the child being out of health kicks and turns away from the food offered by the physicians, the attendants call the father or the tutor, and bid them take the food from the physician’s hands and bring it, so that out of fear towards them he may take it and be quiet: so also Paul, intending to censure them about certain other persons, of whom some, he thought, were injured, others honored above measure, did not set down the persons themselves, but conducted the argument in his own name and that of Apollos, in order that reverencing these they might receive his mode of cure. But that once received, he presently makes known in whose behalf he was so expressing himself.

Now this was not hypocrisy, but condescension and tact. For if he had said openly,

As for you, the men whom you are judging are saints, and worthy of all admiration;

they might have taken it ill and started back. But now in saying,

But to me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you:

and again,

Who is Paul, and who is Apollos?

he rendered his speech easy of reception.

This, if you mark it, is the reason why he says here, These things have I transferred in a figure unto myself for your sakes, that in us you may learn not to be wise above what is written, signifying that if he had applied his argument in their persons, they would not have learned all that they needed to learn, nor would have admitted the correction, being vexed at what was said. But as it was, revering Paul, they bore the rebuke well.

2. But what is the meaning of,

not to be wise above what is written?

It is written, Matthew 7:3

Why do you behold the mote that is in your brothers’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in your own eye?

and

Judge not, that you be not judged.

For if we are one and are mutually bound together, it behooves us not to rise up against one another. For

he that humbles himself shall be exalted, says he.

And

He that will be first of all, let him be the servant of all.

These are the things which are written.

That no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

Again, having dismissed the teachers, he rebukes the disciples. For it was they who caused the former to be elated.

And besides, the leaders would not quietly receive that kind of speech because of their desire of outward glory: for they were even blinded with that passion. Whereas the disciples, as not reaping themselves the fruits of the glory, but procuring it for others, would both endure the chiding with more temper, and had it more in their power than the leading men to destroy the disease.

It seems then, that this also is a symptom of being puffed up, to be elated on another’s account, even though a man have no such feeling in regard of what is his own. For as he who is proud of another’s wealth, is so out of arrogance; so also in the case of another’s glory.

And he has well called it being puffed up. For when one particular member rises up over the rest, it is nothing else but inflammation and disease; since in no other way does one member become higher than another, except when a swelling takes place. (So in our language proud flesh.) And so in the body of the Church also; whoever is inflamed and puffed up, he must be the diseased one; for he is swollen above the proportion of the rest. For this [disproportion] is what we mean by swelling. And so comes it to pass in the body, when some spurious and evil humor gathers, instead of the wonted nourishment. So also arrogance is born; notions to which we have no right coming over us. And mark with what literal propriety he says, be not puffed up: for that which is puffed up has a certain tumor of spirit, from being filled with corrupt humor.

These things, however, he says, not to preclude all soothing, but such soothing as leads to harm.

Would you wait upon this or that person? I forbid you not: but do it not to the injury of another.

For not that we might array ourselves one against another were teachers given us, but that we might all be mutually united. For so the general to this end is set over the host, that of those who are separate he may make one body. But if he is to break up the army, he stands in the place of an enemy rather than of a general.

1 Corinthians 4:7

3. For who makes you to differ? For what have you which thou did not receive?

From this point, dismissing the governed, he turns to the governors.  What he says comes to this: From whence is evident that you are worthy of being praised? Why, has any judgment taken place? Any inquiry proceeded? Any essay? Any severe testing? Nay, you can not say it: and if men give their votes, their judgment is not upright.

But let us suppose that thou really art worthy of praise and hast indeed the gracious gift, and that the judgment of men is not corrupt: yet not even in this case were it right to be high-minded; for you have nothing of yourself but from God received it. Why then do you pretend to have that which you have not? You will say, you have it: and others have it with you: well then, you have it upon receiving it: not merely this thing or that, but all things whatsoever you have.

For not to you belong these excellencies, but to the grace of God. Whether you name faith, it came of His calling; or whether it be the forgiveness of sins which you speak of, or spiritual gifts, or the word of teaching, or the miracles; you received all from thence. Now what have you, tell me, which you have not received, but hast rather achieved of your own self? You have nothing to say. Well: you have received; and does that make you high-minded? Nay, it ought to make you shrink back into yourself. For it is not yours, what has been given, but the giver’s. What if you received it? You received it of him. And if you received of him, it was not yours which you received, and if you but received what was not your own, why are you exalted as if you had something of your own? Wherefore he added also, good his argument by concession, he indicates that they have their deficiencies; and those not a few: and says,

In the first place, though you had received all things, it were not meet to glory, for nothing is your own; but as the case really stands there are many things of which you are destitute.

And in the beginning he did but hint at this, saying,

I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual:

and,

I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

But here he does it in a way to abash them, saying,

1 Corinthians 4:8

Already you are filled, already you are rich:

that is, you want nothing henceforth; you have become perfect; you have attained the very summit; you stand, as you think, in need of no one, either among Apostles or teachers.

Already you are filled.

And well says he already; pointing out, from the time, the incredibility of their statements and their unreasonable notion of themselves. It was therefore in mockery that he said to them,

So quickly have you come to the end;

which thing was impossible in the time: for all the more perfect things wait long in futurity: but to be full with a little betokens a feeble soul; and from a little to imagine one’s self rich, a sick and miserable one. For piety is an insatiable thing; and it argues a childish mind to imagine from just the beginnings that you have obtained the whole: and for men who are not yet even in the prelude of a matter, to be high-minded as if they had laid hold of the end.

Then also by means of what follows he puts them yet more out of countenance; for having said, Already you are full, he added, you have become rich, you have reigned without us: yea and I would to God you reigned, that we also might reign with you. Full of great austerity is the speech: which is why it comes last, being introduced by him after that abundance of reproof. For then is our admonition respected and easily received, when after our accusations we introduce our humiliating expressions, For this were enough to repress even the shameless soul and strike it more sharply than direct accusation, and correct the bitterness and hardened feeling likely to arise from the charge brought. It being certain that this more than anything else is the admirable quality of those arguments which appeal to our sense of shame, that they possess two contrary advantages. On the one hand, one cuts deeper than by open invective: on the other hand, it causes the person reprimanded to bear that severer stab with more entire patience.

5. You have reigned without us.

Herein there is great force, as concerns both the teachers and the disciples: and their ignorance, too, of themselves is pointed out, and their great inconsideration. For what he says is this:

In labors indeed, says he, all things are common both to us and to you, but in the rewards and the crowns you are first. Not that I say this in vexation:

wherefore he added also,

I would indeed that you did reign:

then, lest there should seem to be some irony, he added, that we also might reign with you; for, says he, we also should be in possession of these blessings. Do you see how he shows in himself all at once his severity and his care over them and his self-denying mind?

Do you see how he takes down their pride?

1 Corinthians 4:9

For I think that God has set forth us the Apostles last of all, as men doomed to death.

There is great depth of meaning and severity implied again in his saying, us: and not even with this was he satisfied, but added also his dignity, hitting them vehemently: us the Apostles; who are enduring such innumerable ills; who are sowing the word of Godliness; who are leading you unto this severe rule of life. These He has set forth last, as doomed to death, that is, as condemned. For since he had said, That we also might reign with you, and by that expression had relaxed his vehemency in order not to dispirit them; he takes it up again with greater gravity, and says,

For I think that God has set forth us the Apostles last, as men doomed to death.

For according to what I see, says he, and from what you say, the most abject of all men and emphatically the condemned, are we who are put forward for continual suffering. But you have already a kingdom and honors and great rewards in your fancy.

And wishing to carry out their reasoning to still greater absurdity, and to exhibit it as incredible in the highest degree, he said not merely, We are ‘last,’ but,

God made us last;

nor was he satisfied with saying, last, but he added also, doomed to death: to the end that even one quite void of understanding might feel the statement to be quite incredible, and his words to be the words of one vexed and vehemently abashing them.

Observe too the good sense of Paul. The topics by which, when it is the proper time, he exalts and shows himself honorable and makes himself great; by these he now puts them to shame, calling himself condemned. Of so great consequence is it to do all things at the befitting season. By doomed to death, in this place he means condemned, and deserving of ten thousand deaths.

6. For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.

What means,

We have become a spectacle unto the world?

Not in a single corner nor yet in a small part of the world suffer we these things, says he; but every where and before all.

But what means, unto angels? It is possible to become a spectacle unto men, but not so unto angels, when the things done are ordinary. But our wrestlings are such as to be worthy even of angelic contemplation. Behold from the things by which he vilifies himself, how again he shows himself great; and from the things about which they are proud, how he displays their meanness. For since to be fools was accounted a meaner thing than to appear wise; to be weak, than to be made strong; and unhonored, than glorious and distinguished; and that he is about to cast on them the one set of epithets, while he himself accepted the other; he signifies that the latter are better than the former; if at least because of them he turned the throng I say not of men only, but also of the very angels unto the contemplation of themselves. For not with men only is our wrestling but also with incorporeal powers. Therefore also a mighty theater is set’

1 Corinthians 4:10

We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ.

Again, this also he spoke in a way to abash them; implying that it is impossible for these contraries to agree, neither can things so distant from one another concur. For how can it be, says he, that you should be wise, but we fools in the things relating to Christ? That is: the one sort beaten and despised and dishonored and esteemed as nothing; the others enjoying honor and looked up to by many as a wise and prudent kind of people; it gives him occasion to speak thus: as if he had said, How can it be that they who preach such things should be looked upon as practically engaged in their contraries?

We are weak, but you are strong.

That is, we are driven about and persecuted; but you enjoy security and are much waited upon; howbeit the nature of the Gospel endures it not.

We are despised, but you are honorable.

Here he sets himself against the noble and those who plumed themselves upon external advantages.

Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place; and we toil, working with our own hands.

That is, It is not an old story that I am telling but just what the very time present bears me witness of: that of human things we take no account nor yet of any outward pomp; but we look unto God only. Which thing we too have need to practice in every place. For not only are angels looking on, but even more than they He that presides over the spectacle.

7. Let us not then desire any others to applaud us. For this is to insult Him; hastening by Him, as if insufficient to admire us, we make the best of our way to our fellow servants. For just as they who contend in a small theatre seek a large one, as if this were insufficient for their display; so also do they, who contending in the sight of God afterwards seek the applause of men; giving up the greater praise and eager for the less, they draw upon themselves severe punishment.

What but this has turned every thing upside down? This puts the whole world into confusion, that we do all things with an eye to men, and even for our good things, we esteem it nothing to have God as an admirer, but seek the approbation which comes from our fellow-servants: and for the contrary things again, despising Him we fear men. And yet surely they shall stand with us before that tribunal, doing us no good. But God whom we despise now shall Himself pass the sentence upon us.

But yet, though we know these things, we still gape after men, which is the first of sins. Thus were a man looking on no one would choose to commit fornication; but even though he be ten thousand times on fire with that plague, the tyranny of the passion is conquered by his reverence for men. But in God’s sight men not only commit adultery and fornication; but other things also much more dreadful many have dared and still dare to do.

This then alone, is it not enough to bring down from above ten thousand thunderbolts? Adulteries, did I say, and fornications? Nay, things even far less than these we fear to do before men: but in God’s sight we fear no longer. From hence, in fact, all the world’s evils have originated; because in things really bad we reverence not God but men.

On this account, you see, both things which are truly good, not accounted such by the generality, become objects of our aversion, we not investigating the nature of the things, but having respect unto the opinion of the many: and again, in the case of evil things, acting on this same principle. Certain things therefore not really good, but seeming fair unto the many, we pursue, as goods, through the same habit. So that on either side we go to destruction.

8. Perhaps many may find this remark somewhat obscure. Wherefore we must express it more clearly. When we commit uncleanness, (for we must begin from the instances alleged,) we fear men more than God. When therefore we have thus subjected ourselves unto them and made them lords over us; there are many other things also which seem unto these our lords to be evil, not being such; these also we flee for our part in like manner. For instance; To live in poverty, many account disgraceful: and we flee poverty, not because it is disgraceful nor because we are so persuaded, but because our masters count it disgraceful; and we fear them. Again, to be unhonored and contemptible, and void of all authority seems likewise unto the most part a matter of great shame and vileness. This again we flee; not condemning the thing itself, but because of the sentence of our masters.

Again on the contrary side also we undergo the same mischief. As wealth is counted a good thing, and pride, and pomp, and to be conspicuous. Accordingly this again we pursue, not either in this case from considering the nature of the things as good, but persuaded by the opinion of our masters. For the people is our master and the great mob; a savage master and a severe tyrant: not so much as a command being needed in order to make us listen to him; it is enough that we just know what he wills, and without a command we submit: so great good will do we bear towards him.

Again, God threatening and admonishing day by day is not heard; but the common people, full of disorder, made up of all manner of dregs, has no occasion for one word of command; enough for it only to signify with what it is well pleased, and in all things we obey immediately.

9. But how, says some one, is a man to flee from these masters?

By getting a mind greater than their’s; by looking into the nature of things; by condemning the voice of the multitude; before all, by training himself in things really disgraceful to fear not men, but the unsleeping Eye; and again, in all good things, to seek the crowns which come from Him. For thus neither in other sort of things shall we be able to tolerate them. For whoso when he does right judges them unworthy to know his good deeds, and contents himself with the suffrage of God; neither will he take account of them in matters of the contrary sort.

And how can this be? you will say. Consider what man is, what God; whom you desert, and unto whom you fly for refuge; and you will soon be right altogether. Man lies under the same sin as yourself, and the same condemnation, and the same punishment.

Man is like to vanity, Psalm 144:4, (LXX)

and has not correct judgment, and needs the correction from above. Man is dust and ashes, and if he bestow praise, he will often bestow it at random, or out of favor, or ill will. And if he calumniate and accuse, this again will he do out of the same kind of purpose. But God does not so: rather irreprovable in His sentence, and pure His judgment. Wherefore we must always flee to Him for refuge; and not for these reasons alone, but because He both made, and more than all spares you, and loves you better than thou dost yourself.

Why then, neglecting to have so admirable an approver, betake we ourselves unto man, who is nothing, all rashness, all at random? Does he call you wicked and polluted when you are not so? So much the more do thou pity him, and weep because he is corrupt; and despise his opinion, because the eyes of his understanding are darkened. For even the Apostles were thus evil reported of; and they laughed to scorn their calumniators. But does he call you good and kind? If such indeed you are, yet be not at all puffed up by the opinion: but if you are not such, despise it the more, and esteem the thing to be mockery.

Would you know the judgments of the greater part of men, how corrupt they are, how useless, and worthy of ridicule; some of them coming only from raving and distracted persons, others from children at the breast? Hear what has been from the beginning. I will tell you of judgments, not of the people only, but also of those who passed for the wisest, of those who were legislators from the earliest period. For who would be counted wiser among the multitude than the person considered worthy of legislating for cities and peoples? But yet to these wise men fornication seems to be nothing evil nor worthy of punishment.

At least, no one of the heathen laws makes its penal or brings men to trial on account of it. And should any one bring another into court for things of that kind, the multitude laughs it to scorn, and the judge will not suffer it. Dice-playing, again, is exempt from all their punishments: nor did any one among them ever incur penalty for it. Drunkenness and gluttony, so far from being a crime, are considered by many even as a fine thing. And in military carousals it is a point of great emulation; and they who most of all need a sober mind and a strong body, these are most of all given over to the tyranny of drunkenness; both utterly weakening the body and darkening the soul. Yet of the lawgivers not one has punished this fault. What can be worse than this madness?

Is then the good word of men so disposed an object of desire to you, and do you not hide yourself in the earth? For even though all such admired you, ought you not to feel ashamed and cover your face, at being applauded by men of such corrupt judgment?

Again, blasphemy by legislators in general is accounted nothing terrible. At any rate, no one for having blasphemed God was ever brought to trial and punishment. But if a man steal another’s garment, or cut his purse, his sides are flayed, and he is often given over unto death: while he that blasphemes God has nothing laid to his charge by the heathen legislators. And if a man seduce a female servant when he has a wife, it seems nothing to the heathen laws nor to men in general.

10. Will you hear besides of some things of another class which show their folly? For as they punish not these things, so there are others which they enforce by law. What then are these? They collect crowds to fill theaters, and there they introduce choirs of harlots and prostituted children, yea such as trample on nature herself; and they make the whole people sit on high, and so they captivate their city; so they crown these mighty kings whom they are perpetually admiring for their trophies and victories.

And yet, what can be more insipid than this honor? What more undelightful than this delight? From among these then do you seek judges to applaud your deeds?

And is it in company with dancers, and effeminate, and buffoons, and harlots, that you are fain to enjoy the sound of compliment?

Answer me.

How can these things be other than proofs of extreme infatuation? For I should like to ask them, is it or is it not, a dreadful thing to subvert the laws of nature, and introduce unlawful intercourse? They will surely say, it is dreadful: at any rate, they make a show of inflicting a penalty on that crime. Why then do you bring on the stage those abused wretches; and not only bring them in, but honor them also with honors innumerable, and gifts not to be told? In other places you punish those who dare such things; but here even as on common benefactors of the city, you spend money upon them and support them at the public expense.

However, you will say, they are  infamous. Why then train them up? Why choose the infamous to pay honor to kings withal? And why ruin our cities ? Or why spend so much upon these persons? Since if they be infamous expulsion is properest for the infamous. For why did you render them infamous?

In praise or in condemnation? Of course in condemnation. Is the next thing to be, that although as after condemnation you make them infamous, yet as if they were honorable you run to see them, and admire and praise and applaud? Why need I speak of the sort of charm which is found in the horse races?

Or in the contests of the wild beasts? For those places too being full of all senseless excitement train the populace to acquire a merciless and savage and inhuman kind of temper, and practise them in seeing men torn in pieces, and blood flowing, and the ferocity of wild beasts confounding all things. Now all these our wise lawgivers from the beginning introduced, being so many plagues! And our cities applaud and admire.

11. But, if you will, dismissing these things which clearly and confessedly are abominable, but seemed not [so] to the heathen legislators, let us proceed to their grave precepts; and you shall see these too corrupted through the opinion of the multitude. Thus marriage is accounted an honorable thing Hebrews 13:4 both by us and by those without: and it is honorable. But when marriages are solemnized, such ridiculous things take place as you shall hear of immediately: because the most part, possessed and beguiled by custom, are not even aware of their absurdity, but need others to teach them. For dancing, and cymbals, and flutes, and shameful words, and songs, and drunkenness, and revellings, and all the Devil’s great heap of garbage is then introduced.

I know indeed that I shall appear ridiculous in finding fault with these things; and shall incur the charge of great folly with the generality, as disturbing the ancient laws: for, as I said before, great is the deceptive power of custom. But nevertheless, I will not cease repeating these things: for there is, there is surely a chance, that although not all, yet some few will receive our saying and will choose to be laughed to scorn with us, rather than we laugh with them such a laughter as deserves tears and overflowing punishment and vengeance.

For how can it be other than worthy of the utmost condemnation that a damsel who has spent her life entirely at home and been schooled in modesty from earliest childhood, should be compelled on a sudden to cast off all shame, and from the very commencement of her marriage be instructed in imprudence; and find herself put forward in the midst of wanton and rude men, and unchaste, and effeminate? What evil will not be implanted in the bride from that day forth?

Immodesty, petulance, insolence, the love of vain glory: since they will naturally go on and desire to have all their days such as these. Hence our women become expensive and profuse; hence are they void of modesty, hence proceed their unnumbered evils.

And tell me not of the custom: for if it be an evil thing, let it not be done even once: but if good, let it be done constantly. For tell me, is not committing fornication evil? Shall we then allow just once this to be done? By no means. Why? Because though it be done only once, it is evil all the same. So also that the bride be entertained in this way, if it be evil, let it not be done even once; but if it be not evil, let it even be done always.

What then, says one, do you find fault with marriage? Tell me. That be far from me. I am not so senseless: but the things which are so unworthily appended to marriage, the painting the face, the coloring the eyebrows, and all the other niceness of that kind. For indeed from that day she will receive many lovers even before her destined consort.

But many will admire the woman for her beauty. And what of that? Even if discreet, she will hardly avoid evil suspicion; but if careless, she will be quickly overtaken, having got that very day a starting point in dissolute behavior.

Yet though the evils are so great, the omission of these proceedings is called an insult, by certain who are no better than brute beasts, and they are indignant that the woman is not exhibited to a multitude, that she is not set forth as a stage spectacle, common to all beholders: whereas most assuredly they should rather count it insult when these things do take place; and a laughing stock, and a farce. For even now I know that men will condemn me of much folly and make me a laughing stock: but the derision I can bear when any gain accrues from it. For I should indeed be worthy of derision, if while I was exhorting to contempt of the opinion of the many, I myself, of all men, were subdued by that feeling.

Behold then what follows from all this. Not in the day only but also in the evening, they provide on purpose men that have well drunk, besotted, and inflamed with luxurious fare, to look upon the beauty of the damsel’s countenance; nor yet in the house only but even through the market-place do they lead her in pomp to make an exhibition; conducting her with torches late in the evening so as that she may be seen of all: by their doings recommending nothing else than that henceforth she put off all modesty. And they do not even stop here; but with shameful words do they conduct her.

And this with the multitude is a law. And runaway slaves and convicts, thousands of them and of desperate character, go on with impunity uttering whatever they please, both against her and against him who is going to take her to his home. Nor is there any thing solemn, but all base and full of indecency. Will it not be a fine lesson in chastity for the bride to see and hear such things?

And there is a sort of diabolical rivalry among these profligates to outdo one another in their zealous use of reproaches and foul words, whereby they put the whole company out of countenance, and those go away victorious who have found the largest store of railings and the greatest indecencies to throw at their neighbors.

Now I know that I am a troublesome, sort of person and disagreeable, and morose, as though I were curtailing life of some of its pleasure. Why, this is the very cause of my mourning that things so displeasing are esteemed a sort of pleasure. For how, I ask, can it be other than displeasing to be insulted and reviled? To be reproached by all, together with your bride? If any one in the market place speak ill of your wife, you make ado without end and countest life not worth living: and can it be that disgracing yourself with your future consort in the presence of the whole city, you are pleased and lookest gay on the matter? Why, what strange madness is this!

But, says one, the thing is customary. Nay, for this very reason we ought most to bewail it, because the devil has hedged in the thing with custom. In fact, since marriage is a solemn thing and that which recruits our race and the cause of numerous blessings; that evil one, inwardly pining and knowing that it was ordained as a barrier against uncleanness, by a new device introduces into it all kinds of uncleanness. At any rate, in such assemblages many virgins have been even corrupted. And if not so in every case, it is because for the time the devil is content with those words and those songs, so flagitious; with making a show of the bride openly, and leading the bridegroom in triumph through the market-place.

Moreover, because all this takes place in the evening, that not even the darkness may be a veil to these evils, many torches are brought in, suffering not the disgraceful scene to be concealed. For what means the vast throng, and what the wassail, and what the pipes? Most clearly to prevent even those who are in their houses and plunged [????????????] in deep sleep from remaining ignorant of these proceedings; that being wakened by the pipe and leaning to look out of the lattices, they may be witnesses of the comedy such as it is.

What can one say of the songs themselves, crammed as they are with all uncleanness, introducing monstrous amours, and unlawful connections, and subversions of houses, and tragic scenes without end; and making continual mention of the titles of friend and lover, mistress and beloved? And, what is still more grievous, that young women are present at these things, having divested themselves of all modesty; in honor of the bride, rather I should say to insult her, exposing even their own salvation , and in the midst of wanton young men acting a shameless part with their disorderly songs, with their foul words, with their devilish harmony. Tell me then: do you still enquire, Whence come adulteries? Whence fornications? Whence violations of marriage?

12. But they are not noble nor decent women, you will say, who do these things.

Why then laugh me to scorn for this remonstrance, having been yourself aware of this law, before I said any thing. I say, if the proceedings are right, allow those well-born women also to enact them. For what if these others live in poverty? Are not they also virgins? Ought not they also to be careful of chastity? But now here is a virgin dancing in a public theatre of licentious youths; and, I ask, seems she not unto you more dishonored than a harlot?

But if you say, Female servants do these things; neither so do I acquit you of my charge: for neither to these ought such things to have been permitted. For hence all these evils have their origin, that of our household we make no account. But it is enough in the way of contempt to say, He is a slave, and, They are handmaids.

And yet, day after day we hear,

In Christ Jesus there is neither bond nor free. Galatians 3:28

Again, were it a horse or an ass, thou dost not overlook it but takest all pains not to have it of an inferior kind; and your slaves who have souls like your own do you neglect? And why do I say slaves, when I might say sons and daughters? What then must follow? It cannot be but grief  must immediately enter in, when all these are going to ruin. And often also very great losses must ensue, valuable golden ornaments being lost in the crowd and the confusion.

13. Then after the marriage if perchance a child is born, in this case again we shall see the same folly and many practices full of absurdity. For when the time has come for giving the infant a name, caring not to call it after the saints as the ancients at first did, they light lamps and give them names, and name the child after that one which continues burning the longest; from thence conjecturing that he will live a long time.

After all, should there be many instances of the child’s untimely death, (and there are many,) great laughter on the devil’s part will ensue, at his having made sport of them as if they were silly children. What shall we say about the amulets and the bells which are hung upon the hand, and the scarlet woof, and the other things full of such extreme folly; when they ought to invest the child with nothing else save the protection of the Cross. But now that is despised which has converted the whole world and given the sore wound to the devil and overthrown all his power: while the thread, and the woof, and the other amulets of that kind are entrusted with the child’s safety.

May I mention another thing yet more ridiculous than this? Only let no one tax us with speaking out of season, should our argument proceed with that instance also. For he that would cleanse an ulcer will not hesitate first to pollute his own hands.

What then is this so very ridiculous custom? It is counted indeed as nothing; (and this is why I grieve;) but it is the beginning of folly and madness in the extreme. The women in the bath, nurses and waiting-maids, take up mud and smearing it with the finger make a mark on the child’s forehead; and if one ask, What means the mud, and the clay? The answer is, It turns away an evil eye, witchcraft and envy.

Astonishing! What power in the mud! What might in the clay! What mighty force is this which it has? It averts all the host of the devil.

Tell me, can you help hiding yourselves for shame? Will you never come to understand the snares of the devil, how from earliest life he gradually brings in the several evils which he has devised? For if the mud has this effect, why do you not yourself also do the same to your own forehead, when you are a man and your character is formed; and you are likelier than the child to have such as envy you? Why do you not as well bemire the whole body? I say, if on the forehead its virtue be so great, why not anoint yourself all over with mud? All this is mirth and stage-play to Satan, not mockery only but hell-fire being the consummation to which these deceived ones are tending.

14. Now that among Greeks such things should be done is no wonder: but among the worshippers of the Cross,  and partakers in unspeakable mysteries, and professors of such high morality, that such unseemliness should prevail, this is especially to be deplored again and again. God has honored you with spiritual anointing; and do you defile your child with mud? God has honored you, and do you dishonor yourself?

And when you should inscribe on his forehead the Cross which affords invincible security; do you forego this, and cast yourself into the madness of Satan?

If any look on these things as trifles, let them know that they are the source of great evils; and that not even unto Paul did it seem right to overlook the lesser things. For, tell me, what can be less than a man’s covering his head? Yet observe how great a matter he makes of this and with how great earnestness he forbids it; saying, among many things,

He dishonors his head. 1 Corinthians 11:4

Now if he that covers himself dishonors his head; he that besmears his child with mud, how can it be less than making it abominable? For how, I want to know, can he bring it to the hands of the priest?

How can you require that on that forehead the seal should be placed by the hand of the presbyter, where you have been smearing the mud? Nay, my brethren, do not these things, but from earliest life encompass them with spiritual armor and instruct them to seal the forehead with the hand: and before they are able to do this with their own hand , do you imprint upon them the Cross.

Why should one speak of the other satanical observances in the case of travail-pangs and childbirths, which the midwives introduce with a mischief on their own heads? Of the outcries which take place at each person’s death, and when he is carried to his burial; the irrational wailings, the folly enacted at the funerals; the zeal about men’s monuments; the importunate and ridiculous swarm of the mourning women ; the observances of days; the days, I mean, of entrance into the world and of departure?

15. Are these then, I beseech you, the persons whose good opinion you follow after? And what can it be but the extreme of folly to seek earnestly the praise of men, so corrupt in their ideas, men whose conduct is all at random? When we ought always to resort to the unsleeping Eye, and look to His sentence in all that we do and speak? For these, even if they approve, will have no power to profit us.

But He, should He accept our doings, will both here make us glorious, and in the future day will impart to us of the unspeakable good things: which may it be the lot of us all to obtain, through the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ; with Whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, power, honor, now and always, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

© 2010, Preachers Institute. All rights reserved.

by St. John Chrysostom

“And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of men, and they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.”

THAT is, to hinder their saying, “wherefore do we abide here continually,” He speaks to them again of the passion; on hearing which they had no wish so much as to see Jerusalem. And it is remarkable how, when both Peter had been rebuked, and Moses and Elias had discoursed concerning it, and had called the thing glory, and the Father had uttered a voice from above, and so many miracles had been done, and the resurrection was at the doors (for He said, He should by no means abide any long time in death, but should be raised the third day); not even so did they endure it, but were sorry; and not merely sorry, but exceeding sorry.

Now this arose from their being ignorant as yet of the force of His sayings. This Mark and Luke indirectly expressing said, the one, “They understood not the saying, and were afraid to ask Him:”the other, “It was hid from them, that they perceived it not, and they feared to ask Him of that saying.”

And yet if they were ignorant, how were they sorry? Because they were not altogether ignorant; that He was to die they knew, continually hearing it, but what this death might be, and that there would be a speedy release from it, and that it would work innumerable blessings, as yet they knew not clearly; nor what this resurrection might be: but they understood it not, wherefore they grieved; for indeed they clung very earnestly to their Master.

“And when they had come to Capernaum, they that received the didrachma came to Peter, and said, Does not your Master pay the didrachma?”

And what is this “didrachma?” When God had slain the firstborn of the Egyptians, then He took the tribe of Levi in their stead. Afterwards, because the number of the tribe was less than of the firstborn among the Jews, for them that are wanting to make up the number, He commanded a shekel to be contributed: and moreover a custom came thereby in force, that the firstborn should pay this tribute.

Because then Christ was a firstborn child, and Peter seemed to be first of the disciples, to him they come: their way being, as I suppose, to exact it in every city; wherefore also in His native place they approached Him; for Capernaum was accounted His native place.

And Him indeed they dared not approach, but Peter; nor him either with much violence, but rather gently.

For not as blaming, but as inquiring, they said, “Does not your Master pay the didrachma?” For the right opinion of Him they had not as yet, but as concerning a man, so did they feel; yet they rendered Him some reverence and honor, because of the signs that went before.

2. What then says Peter?

“He says, Yea:” and to these indeed he said, that He pays, but to Him he said it not, blushing perhaps to speak to Him of these things. Wherefore that gentle one, well knowing as He did all things, prevented him,”saying, What do you think, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own sons, or of strangers;” and when he said “of strangers,” He replied, “Then are the sons free.”

For lest Peter should suppose Him to say so, being told it by the others, He prevents him, partly indicating what has been said, partly giving him leave to speak freely, backward as he was to speak first of these things.

And what He says is like this,

“I am indeed free from paying tribute. For if the kings of the earth take it not of their sons, but of their subjects; much more ought I to be freed from this demand, I who am Son, not of an earthly king, but of the King of Heaven, and myself a King.”

Do you see how He has distinguished the sons from them that are not sons? And if He were not a Son, to no purpose has He brought in the example also of the kings. “Yea,” one may say, “He is a Son, but not truly begotten.” Then is He not a Son; and if not a Son, nor truly begotten, neither does He belong to God, but to some other. But if He belong to another, then neither has the comparison its proper force. For He is discoursing not of the sons generally, but of the genuine sons, men’s very own; of them that share the kingdom with their parents.

Wherefore also in contradistinction He has mentioned the “strangers;” meaning by “strangers,” such as are not born of them, but by “their own,” those whom they have begotten of themselves.

And I would have you mark this also; how the high doctrine, revealed to Peter, He does hereby again confirm. And neither at this did He stop, but by His very condescension declares this self-same truth; an instance of exceeding wisdom.

For after thus speaking, He says, But lest we should offend them, go thou and cast an hook into the sea, and take up the fish that first comes up, and you shall find therein a piece of money; that take, and give unto them for me and you.

See how He neither declines the tribute, nor simply commands to pay it, but having first proved Himself not liable to it, then He gives it: the one to save the people, the other, those around Him, from offense. For He gives it not at all as a debt, but as doing the best for their weakness. Elsewhere, however, He despises the offense, when He was discoursing of meats, Matthew 15:11 teaching us to know at what seasons we ought to consider them that are offended, and at what to disregard them.

And indeed by the very mode of giving He discloses Himself again. For wherefore does He not command him to give of what they have laid up? That, as I have said, herein also He might signify Himself to be God of all, and the sea also to be under His rule. For He had indeed signified this even already, by His rebuke, and by His commanding this same Peter to walk on the waves; but He now again signifies the self-same thing, though in another way, yet so as to cause herein great amazement. For neither was it a small thing, to foretell that the first, who out of those depths should come in his way, would be the fish that would pay the tribute; and having cast forth His commandment like a net into that abyss, to bring up the one that bore the piece of money; but it was of a divine and unutterable power, thus to make even the sea bear gifts, and that its subjection to Him should be shown on all hands, as well when in its madness it was silent,

and when, though fierce, it received its fellow servant; Matthew 14:29 as now again, when it makes payment in His behalf to them that are demanding it.

And give unto them, He says, for me and you.

Do you see the exceeding greatness of the honor? See also the self-command of Peter’s mind. For this point Mark, the follower of this apostle, does not appear to have set down, because it indicated the great honor paid to him; but while of the denial he wrote as well as the rest, the things that make him illustrious he has passed over in silence, his master perhaps entreating him not to mention the great things about himself. And He used the phrase, for me and you, because Peter too was a firstborn child.

Now as you are amazed at Christ’s power, so I bid you admire also the disciple’s faith, that to a thing beyond possibility he so gave ear. For indeed it was very far beyond possibility by nature. Wherefore also in requital for his faith, He joined him to Himself in the payment of the tribute.

3. In that hour came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

The disciples experienced some feeling of human weakness; wherefore the evangelist also adds this note, saying, In that hour; when He had preferred him to all. For of James too, and John, one was a firstborn son, but no such thing as this had He done for them.

Then, being ashamed to avow their feeling, they say not indeed openly,

Wherefore have you preferred Peter to us? or, Is he greater than we are?

for they were ashamed; but indefinitely they ask, Who then is greater? For when they saw the three preferred, they felt nothing of the kind; but now that the honor had come round to one, they were vexed. And not for this only, but there were many other things which they put together to kindle that feeling. For to him He had said, I will give you the keys; Matthew 16:19 to him,

Blessed are you, Simon Barjona;

to him here,

Give unto them for me and you;

and seeing too in general how freely he was allowed to speak, it somewhat fretted them.

And if Mark says, Mark 9:34 that they did not ask, but reasoned in themselves, that is nothing contrary to this. For it is likely that they did both the one and the other, and whereas before, on another occasion, they had had this feeling, both once and twice, that now they did both declare it, and reason among themselves.

But to you I say,

Look not to the charge against them only, but consider this too; first, that they seek none of the things of this world; next, that even this passion they afterwards laid aside, and give up the first place one to another.

But we are not able to attain so much as unto their faults, neither do we seek,

who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven;

but, who is greatest in the earthly kingdom, who is wealthiest, who most powerful.

What then says Christ? He unveils their conscience, and replies to their feeling, not merely to their words. For He called a little child unto Him, says the Scripture, and said, Unless you are converted, and become as this little child, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:2-3 Why, you, He says, inquire who is greatest, and are contentious for first honors; but I pronounce him, that is not become lowest of all, unworthy so much as to enter in there.

And full well does He both allege that pattern, and not allege it only, but also set the child in the midst, by the very sight abashing them, and persuading them to be in like manner lowly and artless. Since both from envy the little child is pure, and from vainglory, and from longing for the first place; and he is possessed of the greatest of virtues, simplicity, and whatever is artless and lowly.

Not courage then only is wanted, nor wisdom, but this virtue also, humility I mean, and simplicity. Yea, and the things that belong to our salvation halt even in the chiefest point, if these be not with us.

The little child, whether it be insulted and beaten, or honored and glorified, neither by the one is it moved to impatience or envy, nor by the other lifted up.

Do you see how again He calls us on to all natural excellencies, indicating that of free choice it is possible to attain them, and so silences the wicked frenzy of the Manichæans? For if nature be an evil thing, wherefore does He draw from hence His patterns of severe goodness?

And the child which He set in the midst I suppose to have been a very young child indeed, free from all these passions. For such a little child is free from pride and the mad desire of glory, and envy, and contentiousness, and all such passions, and having many virtues, simplicity, humility, unworldliness, prides itself upon none of them; which is a twofold severity of goodness; to have these things, and not to be puffed up about them.

Wherefore He brought it in, and set it in the midst; and not at this merely did He conclude His discourse, but carries further this admonition, saying, And whoso shall receive such a little child in my name, receives me.

For know, says He, that not only, if you yourselves become like this, shall you receive a great reward; but also if for my sake ye honor others who are such, even for your honor to them do I appoint unto you a kingdom as your recompence.

Or rather, He sets down what is far greater, saying, he receives me. So exceedingly dear to me is all that is lowly and artless. For by a little child, here, He means the men that are thus simple and lowly, and abject and contemptible in the judgment of the common sort.

4. After this, to obtain yet more acceptance for His saying, He establishes it not by the honor only, but also by the punishment, going on to say,

And whoso shall offend one of these little ones, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

For as they, says He, heaven, or rather an honor greater than the very kingdom; even so they likewise who dishonor them (for this is to offend them), shall suffer the extremity of punishment. And marvel thou not at His calling the affront an offense; for many feeble-minded persons have suffered no ordinary offense from being treated with slight and insult. To heighten therefore and aggravate the blame, He states the mischief arising therefrom.

And He does not go on to express the punishment in the same way, but from the things familiar to us, He indicates how intolerable it is. For when He would touch the grosser sort most sharply, He brings sensible images. Wherefore here also, meaning to indicate the greatness of the punishment they shall undergo, and to strike into the arrogance of those that despise them, He brought forward a kind of sensible punishment, that of the millstone, and of the drowning. Yet surely it were suitable to what had gone before to have said,

He that receives not one of these little ones, receives not me;

a thing bitterer than any punishment; but since the very unfeeling, and exceeding gross, were not so much penetrated by this, terrible as it is, He puts a millstone, and a drowning.

And He said not, A millstone shall be hanged about his neck, but,

It were better for him

to undergo this; implying that another evil, more grievous than this, awaits him; and if this be unbearable, much more that.

Do you see how in both respects He made His threat terrible, first by the comparison with the known image rendering it more distinct, then by the excess on its side presenting it to the fancy as far greater than that visible one. Do you see how He plucks up by the root the spirit of arrogance; how He heals the ulcer of vainglory; how He instructs us in nothing to set our heart on the first honors; how He persuades such as covet them in everything to follow after the lowest place?

5. For nothing is worse than arrogance. This even takes men out of their natural senses, and brings upon them the character of fools; or rather, it really makes them to be utterly like idiots.

For like as, if any one, being three cubits in stature, were to strive to be higher than the mountains, or actually to think it, and draw himself up, as overpassing their summits, we should seek no other proof of his being out of his senses; so also when you see a man arrogant, and thinking himself superior to all, and accounting it a degradation to live with other people, seek not thou after that to see any other proof of that man’s madness. Why, he is much more ridiculous than any natural fool, inasmuch as he absolutely creates this his disease on purpose. And not in this only is he wretched, but because he does without feeling it fall into the very gulf of wickedness.

For when will such an one come to due knowledge of any sin? When will he perceive that he is offending? Nay, rather he is as a vile and captive slave, whom the devil having caught goes off with, and makes him altogether a prey, buffeting him on every side, and encompassing him with ten thousand insults.

For unto such great folly does he lead them in the end, as to get them to be haughty towards their children, and wives, and towards their own forefathers. And others, on the contrary, He causes to be puffed up by the distinction of their ancestors. Now, what can be more foolish than this? When from opposite causes people are alike puffed up, the one sort because they had mean persons for fathers, grandfathers, and ancestors; and the other because theirs were glorious and distinguished? How then may one abate in each case the swelling sore?

By saying to these last, Go farther back than your grandfather, and immediate ancestors, and you will find perchance many cooks, and drivers of asses, and shopkeepers: but to the former, that are puffed up by the meanness of their forefathers, the contrary again; And thou again, if you proceed farther up among your forefathers, wilt find many far more illustrious than you are.

For that nature has this course, come let me prove it to you even from the Scriptures. Solomon was son of a king, and of an illustrious king, but that king’s father was one of the vile and ignoble. And his grandfather on his mother’s side in like manner; for else he would not have given his daughter to a mere soldier. And if you were to go up again higher from these mean persons, you will see the race more illustrious and royal. So in Saul’s case too, so in many others also, one shall come to this result. Let us not then pride ourselves herein. For what is birth? Tell me. Nothing, but a name only without a substance; and this you will know in that day. But because that day is not yet come, let us now even from the things present persuade you, that hence arises no superiority.

For should war overtake us, should famine, should anything else, all these inflated conceits of noble birth are put to the proof: should disease, should pestilence come upon us, it knows not how to distinguish between the rich and the poor, the glorious and inglorious, the high born and him that is not such; neither does death, nor the other reverses of fortune, but they all rise up alike against all; and if I may say something that is even marvellous, against the rich more of the two. For by how much they are less exercised in these things, so much the more do they perish, when overtaken by them.

And the fear too is greater with the rich. For none so tremble at princes as they; and at multitudes, not less than at princes, yea rather much more; many such houses in fact have been subverted alike by the wrath of multitudes and the threatening of princes. But the poor man is exempt from both these kinds of troubled waters.

6. Wherefore let alone this nobility, and if you would show me that you are noble, show the freedom of your soul, such as that blessed man had (and he a poor man), who said to Herod,

It is not lawful for you to have your brother Philip’s wife; Mark 6:18

such as he was possessed of, who before him was like him, and after him shall be so again; who said to Ahab,

I do not trouble Israel, but thou, and your father’s house; 1 Kings 18:18

such as the prophets had, such as all the apostles.

But not like this are the souls of them that are slaves to wealth, but as they that are under ten thousand tutors, and taskmasters, so these dare not so much as lift up their eye, and speak boldly in behalf of virtue. For the love of riches, and that of glory, and that of other things, looking terribly on them, make them slavish flatterers; there being nothing which so takes away liberty, as entanglement in worldly affairs, and the wearing what are accounted marks of distinction. For such an one has not one master, nor two, nor three, but ten thousand.

And if you would fain even number them, let us bring in some one of those that are in honor in kings’ courts, and let him have both very much wealth, and great power, and a birthplace excelling others, and distinction of ancestry, and let him be looked up to by all men. Now then let us see, if this be not the very person to be more in slavery than all; and let us set in comparison with him, not a slave merely, but a slave’s slave, for many though servants have slaves. This slave’s slave then for his part has but one master. And what though that one be not a freeman?

Yet he is but one, and the other looks only to his pleasure. For albeit his master’s master seem to have power over him, yet for the present he obeys one only; and if matters between them two are well, he will abide in security all his life. But our man has not one or two only, but many, and more grievous masters. And first he is in care about the sovereign himself. And it is not the same to have a mean person for a master, as to have a king, whose ears are buzzed into by many, and who becomes a property now to this set and now to that.

Our man, though conscious of nothing, suspects all; both his comrades and his subordinates; both his friends and his enemies.

But the other man too, you may say, fears his master. But how is it the same thing, to have one or many, to make one timorous? Or rather, if a man inquire carefully, he will not find so much as one. How, and in what sense? Whereas that slave has no one that desires to put him out of that service of his, and to introduce himself (whence neither has he any one to plot against him therein); these have not even any other pursuit, but to unsettle him that is more approved and more beloved by their ruler. Wherefore also he must needs flatter all, his superiors, his equals, his friends. For where envy is, and love of glory, there even sincere friendship has no strength. For as those of the same craft cannot love one another with a perfect and genuine love, so is it with rivals in honor also, and with them that long for the same among worldly objects. Whence also great is the war within.

Do you see what a swarm of masters, and of hard masters? Will you that I show you yet another, more grievous than this? They that are behind him, all of them strive to get before him: all that are before him, to hinder him from coming nearer them, and passing them by.

7. But O marvel! I undertook indeed to show you masters, but our discourse, we find, coming on and waxing eager, has performed more than my undertaking, pointing out foes instead of masters; or rather the same persons both as foes and as masters. For while they are courted like masters, they are terrible as foes, and they plot against us as enemies. When then any one has the same persons both as masters, and as enemies, what can be worse than this calamity? The slave indeed, though he be subject to command, yet nevertheless has the advantage of care and good-will on the part of them who give him orders; but these, while they receive commands, are made enemies, and are set one against another; and that so much more grievously than those in battles, in that they both wound secretly, and in the mask of friends they treat men as their enemies would do, and oftentimes make themselves credit of the calamity of others.

But not such are our circumstances; rather should another fare ill, there are many to grieve with him: should he obtain distinction, many to find pleasure with him. Not so again the apostle:

For whether, says he, one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. 1 Corinthians 12:26

And the words of him who gives these admonitions, are at one time,

What is my hope or joy? Are not even ye? 1 Thessalonians 2:19

at another,

Now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord; 1 Thessalonians 3:8

at another,

Out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you; 2 Corinthians 2:4

and,

Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not? 2 Corinthians 11:29

Wherefore then do we still endure the tempest and the billows of the world without, and not run to this calm haven, and leaving the names of good things, go on to the very things themselves? For glory, and dignity, and wealth, and credit, and all such things, are names with them, but with us realities; just as the grievous things, death and dishonor and poverty, and whatever else is like them, are names indeed with us, but realities with them.

And, if you will, let us first bring forward glory, so lovely and desirable with all of them. And I speak not of its being short-lived, and soon put out, but when it is in its bloom, then show it me. Take not away the daubings and colored lines of the harlot, but bring her forward decked out, and exhibit her to us, for me thereupon to expose her deformity. Well then, of course you will tell of her array, and her many lictors, and the heralds’ voice, and the listening of all classes, and the silence kept by the populace, and the blows given to all that come in one’s way, and the universal gazing. Are not these her splendors? Come then, let us examine whether these things be not vain, and a mere unprofitable imagination. For wherein is the person we speak of the better for these things, either in body, or in soul? For this constitutes the man. Will he then be taller hereby, or stronger, or healthier, or swifter, or will he have his senses keener, and more piercing?

Nay, no one could say this. Let us go then to the soul, if haply we may find there any advantage occurring herefrom. What then? Will such a one be more temperate, more gentle, more prudent, through that kind of attendance? By no means, but rather quite the contrary. For not as in the body, so also is the result here. For there the body indeed gains nothing in respect of its proper excellence; but here the mischief is not only the soul’s reaping no good fruit, but also its actually receiving much evil therefrom: hurried as it is by such means into haughtiness, and vainglory, and folly, and wrath, and ten thousand faults like them.

But he rejoices, you will say, and exults in these things, and they brighten him up. The crowning point of his evils lies in that word of yours, and the incurable part of the disease. For he that rejoices in these things, would be unwilling however easily to be released from that which is the ground of his evils; yea, he has blocked up against himself the way of healing by this delight. So that here most of all is the mischief, that he is not even pained, but rather rejoices, when the diseases are growing upon him.

For neither is rejoicing always a good thing; since even thieves rejoice in stealing, and an adulterer in defiling his neighbor’s marriage bed, and the covetous in spoiling by violence, and the manslayer in murdering. Let us not then look whether he rejoice, but whether it be for something profitable, lest perchance we find his joy to be such as that of the adulterer and the thief.

For wherefore, tell me, does he rejoice? For his credit with the multitude, because he can puff himself up, and be gazed upon? Nay, what can be worse than this desire, and this ill-placed fondness? Or if it be no bad thing, you must leave off deriding the vainglorious and aspersing them with continual mockeries: ye must leave off uttering imprecations on the haughty and contemptuous. But ye would not endure it. Well then, they too deserve plenty of censure, though they have plenty of lictors.

And all this I have said of the more tolerable sort of rulers; since the greater part of them we shall find transgressing more grievously than either robbers, or murderers, or adulterers, or spoilers of tombs, from not making a good use of their power. For indeed both their thefts are more shameless, and their butcheries more hardened, and their impurities far more enormous than the others; and they dig through, not one wall, but estates and houses without end, their prerogative making it very easy to them.

And they serve a most grievous servitude, both stooping basely under their passions, and trembling at all their accomplices. For he only is free, and he only a ruler, and more kingly than all kings, who is delivered from his passions.

Knowing then these things, let us follow after the true freedom, and deliver ourselves from the evil slavery, and let us account neither pomp of power nor dominion of wealth, nor any other such thing, to be blessed; but virtue only. For thus shall we both enjoy security here, and attain unto the good things to come, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto ages of ages. Amen.

© 2010, Preachers Institute. All rights reserved.

Matt. 17: 10

And His disciples asked Him, saying, Why then say the Scribes that Elias (Elijah)must first come?

Not then from the Scriptures did they know this, but the Scribes used to explain themselves, and this saying was reported abroad among the ignorant people; as about Christ also.

Wherefore the Samaritan woman also said,

Messiah comes; when He has come, He will tell us all things: John 4:25

and they themselves asked John,

Are you Elias, or the Prophet? John 1:21

For the saying, as I said, prevailed, both that concerning the Christ and that concerning Elias, not however rightly interpreted by them.

For the Scriptures speak of two advents of Christ, both this that is past, and that which is to come; and declaring these Paul said,

The grace of God, that brings salvation, has appeared, teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, and righteously, and godly.

Behold the one, hear how he declares the other also; for having said these things, he added,

Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13

And the prophets too mention both; of the one, however, that is, of the second, they say Elias will be the forerunner. For of the first, John was forerunner; whom Christ called also Elias, not because he was Elias, but because he was fulfilling the ministry of that prophet. For as the one shall be forerunner of the second advent, so was the other too of the first. But the Scribes, confusing these things and perverting the people, made mention of that other only to the people, the second advent, and said,

If this man is the Christ, Elias ought to have come beforehand.

Therefore the disciples too speak as follows,

How then say the Scribes, Elias must first come?

Therefore also the Pharisees sent unto John, and asked him,

Are you Elias? John 1:21

making no mention anywhere of the former advent.

What then is the solution, which Christ alleged?

Elias indeed comes then, before my second advent; and now too is Elias come;

so calling John.

In this sense Elias has come: but if you would seek the Tishbite, he is coming. Wherefore also He said,

Elias truly comes, and shall restore all things.

All what things? Such as the Prophet Malachi spoke of; for

I will send you, says He, Elias the Tishbite, who shall restore the heart of father to son, lest I come and utterly smite the earth.

Do you see the accuracy of prophetical language? How, because Christ called John, Elias, by reasoning of their community of office, lest you should suppose this to be the meaning of the prophet too in this place, He added His country also, saying, the Tishbite; whereas John was not a Tishbite. And herewith He sets down another sign also, saying,

Lest I come and utterly smite the earth,

signifying His second and dreadful advent. For in the first He came not to smite the earth. For,

I came not, says He, to judge the world, but to save the world. John 12:47

To show therefore that the Tishbite comes before that other advent, which has the judgment, He said this. And the reason too of his coming He teaches withal. And what is this reason? That when He has come, he may persuade the Jews to believe in Christ, and that they may not all utterly perish at His coming. Wherefore He too, guiding them on to that remembrance, says,

And he shall restore all things;

that is, shall correct the unbelief of the Jews that are then in being.

Hence the extreme accuracy of his expression; in that he said not He will restore the heart of the son to the father, but of the father to the son.

For the Jews being fathers of the apostles, his meaning is, that he will restore to the doctrines of their sons, that is, of the apostles, the hearts of the fathers, that is, the Jewish people’s mind.

But I say unto you, that Elias has come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them. Then they understood that He spoke to them of John. Matthew 17:12-13

And yet neither the Scribes said this, nor the Scriptures; but because now they were sharper and more attentive to His sayings, they quickly caught His meaning.

And whence did the disciples know this? He had already told them,

He is Elias, which was for to come; Matthew 11:14

but here, that he has come; and again, that Elias comes and will restore all things. But be not thou troubled, nor imagine that His statement wavers, though at one time He said, he will come, at another, he has come. For all these things are true. Since when He says, Elias indeed comes, and will restore all things, He means Elias himself, and the conversion of the Jews which is then to take place; but when He says, Which was for to come, He calls John, Elias, with regard to the manner of his administration. Yea, and so the prophets used to call every one of their approved kings, David; and the Jews,

rulers of Sodom, Isaiah 1:10

and

sons of Ethiopians; Amos 9:7

because of their ways. For as the other shall be forerunner of the second advent, so was this of the first.

2. And not for this only does He call him Elias everywhere, but to signify His perfect agreement with the Old Testament, and that this advent too is according to prophecy.

Wherefore also He adds again,

He came, and they knew him not, but have done unto him all things whatsoever they listed. Matthew 17:12

What means,

call things whatsoever they listed?

They cast him into prison, they used him despitefully, they slew him, they brought his head in a charger.

Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them.

Do you see how again He in due season reminds them of His passion, laying up for them great store of comfort from the passion of John. And not in this way only, but also by presently working great miracles. Yea, and whenever He speaks of His passion, presently He works miracles, both after those sayings and before them; and in many places one may find Him to have kept this rule.

Then, for instance, it says, He began to signify how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and be killed, and suffer many things. Matthew 16:21

Then: when? When He was confessed to be Christ, and the Son of God.

Again on the mountain, when He had shown them the marvellous vision, and the prophets had been discoursing of His glory, He reminded them of His passion. For having spoken of the history concerning John, He added, Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them.

And after a little while again, when He had cast out the devil, which His disciples were not able to cast out; for then too,

As they abode in Galilee, so it says, Jesus said unto them, The Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, and they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall rise again. Matthew 17:23

Now in doing this, He by the greatness of the miracles was abating the excess of their sorrow, and in every way consoling them; even as here also, by the mention of John’s death, He afforded them much consolation.

But should any one say, Wherefore did He not even now raise up Elias and send him, witnessing as He does so great good of his coming? we should reply, that even as it was, while thinking Christ to be Elias, they did not believe Him. For some say, such are the words, that You are Elias, and others, Jeremias. Matthew 16:14 And indeed between John and Elias, there was no difference but the time only.

Then how will they believe at that time?

it may be said. Why, he will restore all things, not simply by being recognized, but also because the glory of Christ will have been growing more intense up to that day, and will be among all clearer than the sun. When therefore, preceded by such an opinion and expectation, he comes making the same proclamation as John, and himself also announcing Jesus, they will more easily receive his sayings. But in saying,

They knew him not,

He is excusing also what was done in His own case.

And not in this way only does He console them, but also by pointing out that John’s sufferings at their hands, whatever they are, are undeserved; and by His throwing into the shade what would annoy them, by means of two signs, the one on the mountain, the other just about to take place.

But when they heard these things, they do not ask Him when Elias comes; being straitened either by grief at His passion, or by fear. For on many occasions, upon seeing Him unwilling to speak a thing clearly, they are silent, and so an end. For instance, when during their abode in Galilee He said,

The Son of Man shall be betrayed, and they shall kill Him; Matthew 17:22-23

it is added by Mark,

That they understood not the saying, and were afraid to ask Him; Mark 9:32

by Luke,

That it was hid from them, that they might not perceive it, and they feared to ask Him of that saying. Luke 9:45

3. And when they had come to the multitude, there came to Him a man, kneeling down to Him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is lunatic, and sore vexed; for ofttimes he falls into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him unto Your disciples, and they could not cure him. Matthew 17:14-16

This man the Scripture signifies to be exceedingly weak in faith; and this is many ways evident; from Christ’s saying,

All things are possible to him that believes; Mark 9:23

from the saying of the man himself that approached,

Help my unbelief: Mark 9:24

from Christ’s commanding the devil to enter no more into him; Mark 9:25 and from the man’s saying again to Christ,

If You can. Mark 9:22

Yet if his unbelief was the cause, it may be said, that the devil went not out, why does He blame the disciples? Signifying, that even without persons to bring the sick in faith, they might in many instances work a cure. For as the faith of the person presenting oftentimes availed for receiving the cure, even from inferior ministers; so the power of the doers oftentimes sufficed, even without belief in those who came to work the miracle.

And both these things are signified in the Scripture. For both they of the company of Cornelius by their faith drew unto themselves the grace of the Spirit; and in the case of Eliseus (Elisha) 2 Kings 13:21 again, when none had believed, a dead man rose again. For as to those that cast him down, not for faith but for cowardice did they cast him, unintentionally and by chance, for fear of the band of robbers, and so they fled: while the person himself that was cast in was dead, yet by the mere virtue of the holy body the dead man arose.

Whence it is clear in this case, that even the disciples were weak; but not all; for the pillars Galatians 2:9 were not present there. And see this man’s want of consideration, from another circumstance again, how before the multitude he pleads to Jesus against His disciples, saying,

I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.

But He, acquitting them of the charges before the people, imputes the greater part to him. For,

O faithless and perverse generation, these are His words, how long shall I be with you? Matthew 17:17

not aiming at his person only, lest He should confound the man, but also at all the Jews. For indeed many of those present might probably be offended, and have undue thoughts of them.

But when He said,

How long shall I be with you,

He indicates again death to be welcome to Him, and the thing an object of desire, and His departure longed for, and that not crucifixion, but being with them, is grievous.

He stopped not however at the accusations; but what says He?

Bring him hither to me. Mark 9:21

And Himself moreover asks him, how long time he is thus; both making a plea for His disciples, and leading the other to a good hope, and that he might believe in his attaining deliverance from the evil.

And He suffers him to be torn, not for display (accordingly, when a crowd began to gather, He proceeded to rebuke him), but for the father’s own sake, that when he should see the evil spirit disturbed at Christ’s mere call, so at least, if in no other way, he might be led to believe the coming miracle.

And because he had said, Of a child, and, If you can help me, Christ says,

To him that believes, all things are possible, Mark 9:23

again giving the complaint a turn against him. And whereas when the leper said,

If You will, You can make me clean, Matthew 8:2

bearing witness to His authority Christ commending him, and confirming His words, said,

I will, be thou clean;

in this man’s case, upon his uttering a speech in no way worthy of His power—If You can, help me,— see how He corrects it, as not rightly spoken. For what says He?

If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes.

What He says is like this: Such abundance of power is with me, that I can even make others work these miracles. So that if you believe as one ought, even you yourself art able, says He, to heal both this one, and many others. And having thus said, He set free the possessed of the devil.

But do thou not only from this observe His providence and His beneficence, but also from that other time, during which He allowed the devil to be in him. Since surely, unless the man had been favored with much providential care even then, he would have perished long ago; for it cast him both into the fire, so it is said, and into the water. And he that dared this would assuredly have destroyed the man too, unless even in so great madness God had put on him His strong curb: as indeed was the case with those naked men that were running in the deserts and cutting themselves with stones.

And if he call him a lunatic, trouble not yourself at all, for it is the father of the possessed who speaks the word. How then says the evangelist also, He healed many that were lunatic? Denominating them according to the impression of the multitude. For the evil spirit, to bring a reproach upon nature, by wine? For the weaker the vessel, the more entire the shipwreck, whether she be free or a slave. For the free woman behaves herself unseemly in the midst of her slaves as spectators, and the slave again in like manner in the midst of the slaves, and they cause the gifts of God to be blasphemously spoken of by foolish men.

For instance, I hear many say, when these excesses happen, Would there were no wine. O folly! O madness! When other men sin, do you find fault with God’s gifts? And what great madness is this? What? Did the wine, O man, produce this evil? Not the wine, but the intemperance of such as take an evil delight in it. Say then, Would there were no drunkenness, no luxury; but if you say, Would there were no wine, you will say, going on by degrees, Would there were no steel, because of the murderers; no night, because of the thieves; no light, because of the informers; no women, because of adulteries; and, in a word, you will destroy all.

But do not so; for this is of a satanical mind; do not find fault with the wine, but with the drunkenness; and when you have found this self-same man sober, sketch out all his unseemliness, and say unto him, Wine was given, that we might be cheerful, not that we might behave ourselves unseemly; that we might laugh, not that we might be a laughingstock; that we might be healthful, not that we might be diseased; that we might correct the weakness of our body, not cast down the might of our soul.

God honored you with the gift, why disgrace yourself with the excess thereof? Hear what Paul says,

Use a little wine for your stomach’s sake, and your frequent infirmities. 1 Timothy 5:23

But if that saint, even when oppressed with disease, and enduring successive sicknesses, partook not of wine, until his Teacher suffered him; what excuse shall we have, who are drunken in health? To him indeed He said,

Use a little wine for your stomach’s sake;

but to each of you who are drunken, He will say, Use little wine, for your fornications, your frequent filthy talking, for the other wicked desires to which drunkenness is wont to give birth. But if you are not willing, for these reasons, to abstain; at least on account of the despondencies which come of it, and the vexations, do ye abstain. For wine was given for gladness, Yea, wine, so it is said, makes glad the heart of man: but you mar even this excellence in it. For what kind of gladness is it to be beside one’s self, and to have innumerable vexations, and to see all things whirling round, and to be oppressed with giddiness, and like those that have a fever, to require some who may drench their heads with oil?

6. These things are not said by me to all: or rather they are said to all, not because all are drunken, God forbid; but because they who do not drink take no thought of the drunken. Therefore even against you do I rather inveigh, that are in health; since the physician too leaves the sick, and addresses his discourse to them that are sitting by them. To you therefore do I direct my speech, entreating you neither to be at any time over-taken by this passion, and to draw up as by cords those who have been so overtaken, that they be not found worse than the brutes.

For they indeed seek nothing more than what is needful, but these have become even more brutish than they, overpassing the boundaries of moderation. For how much better is the ass than these men? How much better the dog! For indeed each of these animals, and of all others, whether it need to eat, or to drink, acknowledges sufficiency for a limit, and goes not on beyond what it needs; and though there are innumerable persons to constrain, it will not endure to go on to excess.

In this respect then we are worse even than the brutes, by the judgment not of them that are in health only, but even by our own. For that you have judged yourselves to be baser than both dogs and asses, revealed to Peter, He does hereby again confirm. And neither at this did He stop, but by His very condescension declares this self-same truth; an instance of exceeding wisdom.

© 2010, Preachers Institute. All rights reserved.

by St. John Chrysostom

The following selected passages are from St John Chrysostom’s final homily on St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” (Romans 16:24)

See how we should begin and end everything? For with this St Paul laid the foundation of his Epistle, and with this he puts on the roof, at once praying for the mother of all good things for the Romans, and calling the whole of his loving-kindness to their mind. For this is the best proof of a generous teacher, to benefit his learners not by word only, but likewise by prayer, which is why it has been said,

“Let us give ourselves continually to prayers, and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4).

Who is there then to pray over us, since Paul has departed?

Those who are the imitators of Paul. Only let us show ourselves worthy of such intercession, that it may not be that we hear Paul’s voice here only, but that hereafter, when we are departed, we may be counted worthy to see that great wrestler of Christ. Or rather, if we hear him here, we shall certainly see him hereafter, if not as standing near him, yet see him we certainly shall, glistening near the Throne of the King.

Where the Cherubim sing the glory, where the Seraphim are flying, there shall we see Paul, with Peter, and as a chief and leader of the choir of the Saints, and shall enjoy his generous love. For if when here he loved men so, that when he had the choice of departing and being with Christ, he chose to be here, much more will he there display a warmer affection.

I love Rome for this, although indeed one has other reasons for praising it, both for its greatness, and its antiquity, and its beauty, and its populousness, and for its power, and its wealth, and for its successes in war. But I let all this pass, and esteem it blessed on this account, that both in his lifetime Paul wrote to the Romans, and loved them so, and talked with them while he was with us, and brought his life to a close there. Wherefore the city is more notable for this reason, than for all other reasons combined. And as a body great and strong, it has as two glistening eyes the bodies of these Saints.

Not so bright is the heaven, when the sun sends forth his rays, as is the city of Rome, sending out these two lights into all parts of the world. From there will Paul be caught up to the heavens, and from there will Peter. Just imagine, and shudder at the thought of what a sight Rome will see, when Paul arises suddenly from the ground, together with Peter, and is lifted up to meet the Lord (1 Thess 4:17). What a rose will Rome send up to Christ! (Isaiah 35:1) What two crowns will the city have about it! What golden chains will she be girded with! What fountains possess!

Therefore I admire the city, not for the much gold, not for the columns, not for the other display there, but for these pillars of the Church (1 Cor 15:38).

Would that it were now given me to throw myself round the body of Paul, and be riveted to the tomb, and to see the dust of that body that filled up that which was lacking after Christ (Col 1:24), that bore the marks of Christ (Gal 6:17), that sowed the Gospel everywhere – yes, the dust of that body in which he ran to and fro everywhere! The dust of that body through which Christ spoke, and the Light shone forth more brilliant than any lightning, and the voice spoke out, more awful than any thunder to the devils! Through which he uttered that blessed voice, saying,

“I could wish that myself were accursed, for my brethren” (Rom 9:3),

through which he spoke before kings, and was not ashamed! (Ps 119:46), through which we come to know not only Paul but also Paul’s Master! Not so awful to us is the thunder, as was that voice to the demons! For if they shuddered at his clothes (Acts 19:12), much more did they at his voice.

This led them away captive, this cleansed out the world, this put a stop to diseases, cast out vice, lifted the truth on high, had Christ riding upon it, and everywhere went about with Him; and what the Cherubim were, this was Paul’s voice, for as He was seated upon those Powers, so was He upon Paul’s tongue. For it had become worthy of receiving Christ, by speaking those things only which were acceptable to Christ, and flying as the Seraphim to height unspeakable! For what is more lofty than that voice which says,

“For I am persuaded that neither Angels, nor Principalities, nor Powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus”? (Rom 8:38-39)

…This is the mouth, the dust of which I so desire to see, through which Christ spoke the great and secret things, and greater than in His own person, …through which the Spirit gave those wondrous sayings to the world! For what good thing did not that mouth effect? It drove out devils, it loosed sins it, it muzzled tyrants, stopped philosophers’ mouths, brought the world over to God, persuaded savages to learn wisdom, altered the whole order of the earth.

…Nor is it that mouth only, but the heart’s dust I also long to see, which a man would not do wrong to call the heart of the world, and a fountain of countless blessings… For the spirit of life was furnished out of it all, and was distributed through the members of Christ, not as being sent forth by arteries, but by a free choice of good deeds. This heart was so large, as to take in entire cities, and peoples, and nations.

“For my heart,” he says, “is enlarged” (2 Cor 6:11).

Yet the love for others that enlarged his heart was at times a source of pain and anguish for it!

For he says,

“I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart” (2 Cor 2:4).

I long to see, even after its dissolution, that heart which burned for each person lost, …which saw God,

(for “the pure in heart,” says the Lord himself, “shall see God”) (Mt 5:8);

which became a Sacrifice,

(for “a contrite heart is a sacrifice to God”) (Ps 51:17);

which was loftier than the heavens, which was wider than the world, which was brighter than the sun’s beam, which was warmer than fire, which was stronger than adamant, which sent forth rivers,

(for Scripture says that “rivers of living water shall flow out of the believer’s belly”) (John 7:38);

in which a fountain sprang up, watering not the face of the earth but the souls of men; from which fountains of tears poured forth day and night. His heart lived the new life, not this life which we now live, for he says,

“I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me” Gal 2:20);

so Paul’s heart was Christ’s heart, and a tablet of the Holy Spirit, and a book of grace.

…I long to see the dust of those hands that were in chains: those hand through which the Holy Spirit was bestowed upon others; through which the divine writings were written.

…I long to see the dust of those eyes which were blinded by glory, which recovered their sight again for the salvation of the world; which even in the body were counted worthy to see Christ, … which saw the things which are not seen, which saw not sleep, which were watchful at midnight.

I long to see as well the dust of those feet, which ran through the world and were not weary; which were bound in the stocks when the prison shook, which went through parts habitable or uninhabited, which walked on so many journeys.

But why speak of individual parts? I long to see the tomb where the armor of righteousness is laid up, the armor of light, the limbs which… were crucified to the world, which were Christ’s members, which were clothed in Christ, a temple of the Spirit, a holy building, bound in the Spirit, riveted to the fear of God, which had the marks of Christ. This body is a wall to that City [of Rome] which is safer than all its towers, and than thousands of battlements.

And with his body is Peter’s own. For he honored Peter while alive, and went up [to Jerusalem] to see him, (Gal 1:18) and therefore even when departed this life, grace deigned to give them both the resting place.

Let us then, taking all this to heart, stand nobly; for Paul was a man, partaking of the same nature with us, and having everything else in common with us. But because he showed such great love toward Christ, he went up above the Heavens, and stood with the Angels. And so if we too would rouse ourselves up a little, and kindle in ourselves that fire, we shall be able to emulate that holy man. For were this impossible, he himself would never have said,

“Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1).

Let us then not only admire him, or be struck with him, but imitate him, that we too, when we depart from here, may be counted worthy to see him, and to share the unutterable glory unutterable, which God grant that we may all attain to by the grace and love toward man of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom, and with Whom, be glory to the Father, with the Holy Ghost, now and evermore. Amen.

Source

© 2010, Preachers Institute. All rights reserved.

This presentation was an address delivered at a Convocation of the Orthodox Inter-Seminary Movement at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, MA on November 10th, 2007, and at the Pan-Orthodox Clergy Synaxis at Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles, CA on November 13th, 2007.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God.

Your Eminence, Metropolitan Gerasimos (GOA), Your Grace, Bishop Joseph (AOC), Your Grace Bishop Ilia (Albanian/Ecumenical Patriarchate), Your Grace Bishop Maxim (SOC), Your Grace, Bishop Benjamin (OCA), my brothers in the sacred priesthood, brothers and sisters in Christ:

It is an honor and a joy to raise my voice together with yours on this great day in the praise of our father among the Saints, John Chrysostom. I am so pleased to accept the invitation of His Eminence to address you this afternoon concerning the life and teachings of Chrysostom.

The Commemoration. The entire Church rejoices this year in the commemoration of the 1600th anniversary of the repose of Saint John. All throughout the world significant synaxi have been held to commemorate the life of Christianity’s greatest homilist and a foremost Father of the Church? Chrysostom – The Golden Mouth, [1] to meditate upon his sacred teachings, and to learn better how he might help us live for Jesus Christ in our own day and age.

Symposia and divine services in honor of Saint Chrysostom have been held in various places in our own land this year. The ROCOR sponsored a conference in September in Saint Louis which convened at a church dedicated to Chrysostom. The Monastery of St John Chrysostomos (GOA), north of Chicago near Kenosha, WI, held a similar September symposium, bringing many theological luminaries from Greece to America to speak about Saint John.

I. The Basic Biography of Saint John Chrysostom

My intention in this lecture is to highlight a number of areas in which I believe Saint John Chrysostom has precious contributions to make to contemporary Christians. I have entitled this lecture, Saint John Chrysostom for the 21st Century. Toward that end, however, I would like to begin by making a brief verbal sketch of St John’s life, then mention some of the areas in which he has been duly influential throughout the history of the Church, and then, upon that foundation, address Chrysostom’s relevance for the practice of contemporary Christianity.

His Birth and Parents. Saint John was born in or around A.D. 349, as best as we can tell, in the city of Antioch. His father, Secundos, was a high-ranking civil servant in the Roman administration, and his mother, Anthusa, was a devout Christian, who has recently been numbered among the saints by the Church of Greece. Her feast day is shared with Saints Nona and Emmelia, the mothers respectively of Saints Gregory the Theologian and Saint Basil the Great. Hence, we commemorate on January 30th the Three Holy Hierarchs, and shortly thereafter, on the Sunday that falls in the Afterfeast of the Great Feast of the Presentation, the holy mothers of the Three Holy Hierarchs.

Student and Ascetic. For the pedagogical purposes of this lecture I would like you to think of the saint’s life as divided into three fundamental portions: his early life as a student and ascetic, his life as priest in Antioch, and his life as bishop in Constantinople. [2] Chrysostom’s father died when he was a young boy, and his mother was but twenty years old. She spent the rest of her life completely devoted to John’s formation as a Christian and a scholar. As a young man he was enrolled amongst the students of the greatest rhetor of the empire, the pagan Libanius. [3] His education under Libanius followed a traditional Greek mode that had not changed much since the 4th century B.C.

It was under Libanius that Chrysostom learned Greek diction and elegance of expression that would serve him so well as a preacher throughout his life. The curriculum was all in Greek, Latin forming no official part of his education, and focused on the classics. Saint John passed through all three stages of the traditional paideia: grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric with outstanding success. Libanius is said to have remarked in light of his approaching death that of all his students it was John who was most accomplished to succeed him, if it had not been that the Christians had stolen him. Indeed they had, and it would not be the last time in God’s providence that he was stolen.

Saint John completed his studies about A.D. 367 and was baptized at the Paschal vigil A.D. 368 by Saint Meletios, who served as the Orthodox bishop of Antioch from approximately A.D. 360 until his death at the 2nd Ecumenical Council in A.D. 381. For three years after his baptism Saint John served in Meletios’ presence in the church, and studied the Scriptures in a small monastic brotherhood gathered around Diodore and Carterios. In A.D. 372, with rumors swirling of an impending ordination, Chrysostom fled to the mountains outside Antioch to struggle against his passions under the tutelage of an elderly Syrian master.

By spiritual insight Chrysostom mastered himself during these years, and then retreated to a cave where for an additional two years he memorized the Holy Scriptures and never laid down to sleep. Chrysostom described this period in his life as a time in which he devoted himself completely to prayer by night and Scripture study by day. [4] Through this extreme asceticism Chrysostom broke his health, and returned to Antioch sometime around A.D. 378.

Saint John’s years as a student and an ascetic would leave a deep impress on his future, and provide the foundation for his powerful ministry as an exegete and preacher of the Holy Scriptures. The inspired content of his preaching ministry was formed in the mountains, and the masterful pedagogical style was formed in his schooling. This combination took the Christian world by storm.

Priest and Preacher in Antioch. After St Meletios’ death he was sent back from Constantinople to Antioch to be buried next to Saint Babylas, and Flavian was elected Bishop of Antioch. In his first year as Bishop of Antioch Flavian ordained Chrysostom a deacon. Saint John was 32 years old, and would serve for five years as a deacon. During this period Chrysostom never preached, but launched his writing career, producing pamphlets, letters and essays on various topics, especially on the ascetical life. Besides his liturgical and literary labors, Saint John served Flavian as his personal assistant and liaison in administering charity to the some 3,000 virgins and widows on the doles of the church. In A.D. 386, when Deacon John was 37 years old, Archbishop Flavian ordained him to the priesthood, and appointed him as the city’s cathedral preacher. [5] Saint John would serve in this capacity for twelve years. Immediately, Chrysostom launched his preaching career, and from this period on most of the works we have from his pen are, in fact, edited versions of his sermons. Typically, during his years as a priest, [6] several stenographers recorded his sermons as he gave them in church, and then delivered them to him for editorial work prior to publication. [7]

Bishop in Constantinople. In late October A.D. 397 Asterios, count of the civil diocese of the East and governor of Antioch, summoned Chrysostom to the great martyrs’ shrine just outside the Romanesian gate [8] for an important message. Chrysostom assumed that he was to be the courier of some important communiqué from the emperor to the bishop and church. Instead, he was seized by imperial officials, placed inside an imperial coach, and taken 1200 km. to Constantinople, never to see his beloved home city of Antioch again. Bishop Nektarios of Constantinople had died, and John was to be consecrated as his successor, the 12th Bishop of Constantinople. In either mid-December A.D. 397 or on Feb. 26th, A.D. 398 he was consecrated at the hands of Archbishop Theophilos of Alexandria and at the direction of the Emperor Arcadios. For the next ten years Saint John would receive into his heart the people of Constantinople and shepherd them as his flock.

Constantinople was exploding. There were between 200,000 and 300,000 persons in the city of Constantine, which had been consecrated in A.D. 330, a mere six years after Emperor Constantine launched his construction project upon the small town of Byzantium. John took up his pastoral responsibilities immediately and continued with an unbroken stream of preaching and Scriptural commentary until the end of his life.

Adjacent to the episcopal chancery was a convent of 250 virgins ruled over by the saintly Deaconess Olympia, who would become Saint John’s spiritual daughter and best friend. Chrysostom entered into a visitation of the diocese and its reform. He began where he lived, in the episcopal palace, which had become, under his predecessor, a center of extravagant hospitality for the new upper class of Constantinople and the clergy. [9] Chrysostom slashed the budget, sold off many precious items stored at the chancery, and used the excess funds to erect at least one hospital. He took most of his meals alone.

He reformed his clergy, immediately defrocking a number of deacons, who were guilty of heinous crimes, rebuked the celibate clergy who were living in so-called “spiritual marriages” with virgins, deposed numerous bishops guilty of obtaining their office by simony, brought regulations to the city’s monastic brotherhoods, demanded accountability from the women who were enrolled on the church’s widows’ list by requiring them to live as devout widows or to get remarried, served as imperial counselor, ruled as proëstamenos of the resident synod of Constantinople, [10] served the divine services and preached several times per week, [11] oversaw charitable institutions, kept abreast of civil activities, sought to influence imperial legislation with the Church’s teaching, and organized missionary activities. Besides all these duties in the city itself, Chrysostom was asked by surrounding dioceses to adjudicate several cases and oversee controversial elections.

The influence of bishop of Constantinople was increasing as the city’s size and importance in the empire was increasing.

Chrysostom was not always well-received in his new position of authority. Some of Constantinople’s wealthier citizens were offended by his bold rebukes and his willingness to call them to account. Unfortunately, though Chrysostom came to Constantinople as the imperial favorite, by the year 401 he had become somewhat alienated from the Empress Eudoxia. It seems that Chrysostom censured her for allocating to herself a widow’s property. Nevertheless Chrysostom baptized the son of the imperial couple, Theodosios II, on Theophany, A.D. 402. In A.D. 403 Chrysostom’s consecrator turned arch-enemy, Archbishop Theophilos of Alexandria, arrived in Constantinople together with 29 of his Egyptian bishops, took up residence in the imperial palace in Chalcedon in the suburb called “The Oak” and held a iniquitous synod against Chrysostom.

This synod, known throughout history as the “Synod of the Oak,” charged Chrysostom with some 29 crimes (many of them beyond the ridiculous), and ended up deposing Chrysostom for not appearing before their illicit assembly. The Synod sent a notice to the emperor of the condemnation and suggested that Chrysostom was treasonous and should be banished. Banished by imperial edict he was, and no sooner had he been exiled than an earthquake struck the city. In fear and trembling the guilty Empress asked her husband, the weak-willed Arcadios, to recall Chrysostom from exile. Chrysostom refused to re-enter the walls of the city until the illegitimacy of the Synod of the Oak had been declared. Peace was re-established, but it was not to hold for long.

Soon the empress decided to have a silver statue of herself placed in the plaza of the Cathedral, had it installed noisily and unveiled during the time while Saint John was celebrating the Divine Liturgy! Discerning the provocation and going along with it, Chrysostom exclaimed in righteous indignation, “Again Herodias dances and demands on a platter the head of John.” On Great Saturday, A.D. 404, Chrysostom was confined to the chancery and soldiers were sent to break up the baptismal ceremonies. Blood ran in the font, and more than 3000 catechumens were scattered. An assassination attempt was made on John’s life by the slave of one of his priests. On the Thursday after Pentecost, June 9th, enemy bishops forced the imperial hand and on June 20th Chrysostom was banished for the final time. He would spend the next three years in exile. Most of this period was spent in Cucusus in Armenia. He carried on from there a voluminous correspondence.

We have over 240 letters extant from this period. From exile he wrote several treatises intended to encourage his Constantinopolitan flock, which was suffering severe persecution from the civil authorities for keeping their allegiance to Saint John. During his exile, Emperor Honorios, brother of Arcadios and Emperor of the West, together with Pope Innocent and leading Bishops of the West, demanded of Arcadios that Chrysostom be restored to his throne. In A.D. 407, after three years of exile in which Saint John’s Armenian place of exile had become a place of pilgrimage for the faithful, Chrysostom was further exiled to Pityus, the very outskirts of the Empire on the eastern shores of the Black Sea. In extreme illness and suffering abuse from the soldiery and barbarians who threatened the expedition, Chrysostom fell asleep in Christ on September 14, A.D. 407 at the age of 58. The company had stopped outside the church of the Holy Martyr Basiliskos.

In the night the Saint appeared to Chrysostom and informed him that they would soon be together. Chrysostom asked to be vested, received the Holy Gifts, made his cross, and prayed his last words, “Glory to God for all things.”

II. Chrysostom’s Continuous Influence.

Since the Saint’s death in A.D. 407 his influence has only increased throughout the entire world much in the way that our Lady’s fame has. Our most pure and ever-virgin Lady Theotokos prophesied under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that “all generations will call me blessed.” A similar wave of adulation has arisen throughout history in the case of Saint John Chrysostom. During his lifetime many of his works were published, translated and studied in the far parts of the Empire. [12]

He was duly famous in all parts of the Christian world. He bore fruit in a multitude of pious disciples such as Saints John Cassian, Proclus, Nilus and Mark the Ascetics, Isidore of Pelusium, and Bishop Palladius (his biographer). Since the title “Golden Mouth” was bestowed upon Chrysostom, each generation of great scholar-preachers of the Church have been awarded the title of “New Chrysostom,” even up until modern times with men such as Ss. Tikhon of Zadonsk and Nicolai of Ži?a. By the 11th century Chrysostom’s fame was so great that he was numbered by the Church as one of the “Three Holy Hierarchs”, the three satellites, the three moons or universal luminaries of the Church. We celebrate Saint John’s life liturgically on November 13th (his primary feast), January 27th (the translation of his relics), and January 30th (the Three Holy Hierarchs). Scholarship has engaged Chrysostom’s work in every era of Church history. And not just Orthodox Christian scholars like Saint Photios the Great, but non-Orthodox as well like the Latin Thomas Aquinas, who considered Chrysostom’s Commentary on Matthew to be virtually inspired, or the Protestant Reformer John Calvin, who held Chrysostom in such high regard as an exegete.

III. Chrysostom’s Special Contributions to the Holy Church over the last 1600 years.

Saint John Chrysostom is not just a great personality, but has left an indelible stamp upon Orthodox Christianity. He made significant contributions to the life of the Church in a number of important areas, such as:

Prayer and Liturgy. Most Orthodox Christians know the name of Saint John Chrysostom not through reading his books, but by praying his liturgy. The liturgy we celebrate on all but ten Sundays of the Church year is that attributed to Saint John. While some portions of the Saint John Chrysostom Liturgy pre-date him and some post-date him, and it remains very difficult to identify the provenance of each portion of the sacred service, yet the Church affirms that Chrysostom was a master liturgist, responsible for at least the basic contours of what we know today as our Orthodox Divine Liturgy.

Besides the Liturgy itself, Saint John has consistently inspired the priesthood with a vision of the glory and necessity of preaching, and that after every Gospel lesson of every liturgy. There was probably never a person in history better qualified to preach prior to becoming a priest, but Chrysostom never did. He saw preaching as a priestly function, as a fruit of apostolic succession. He taught us that preaching changes people and is to be a living word, not dead. In my experience many Orthodox priests have a very unorthodox conception of preaching and could benefit themselves and their people greatly by learning to take the preaching of the Word, as seriously as did the greatest preacher in the history of the Church. Chrysostom handled the preached word, trusting that it conveyed Christ’s all-powerful word, as carefully as he did the Holy Eucharist.

We could mention the prayers ascribed to Chrysostom in the Services of Preparation for and Thanksgiving after Holy Communion, which demonstrate that the Golden Mouth is the theologian of the Eucharist par excellence. His homilies and commentaries have provided spiritual fare for many a preacher to feed to his flock, and his Paschal Homily is read in every Orthodox church temple on Pascha. His devotion to the martyrs, often preaching at their shrines and on their feast days, and his encouragement of the discipline of sacred pilgrimages has helped establish the ethos of our worship.

Priesthood and Pastorate. Every Orthodox seminarian knows the influence of Saint John Chrysostom in the area of priestly formation and pastoral theology. His most famous work is On the Priesthood (in 6 books), and, together with the works of St Gregory the Theologian In Defense of My Flight and Saint Gregory the Dialogist Pastoral Rule, serves as the quintessential patristic teaching on priesthood and pastorate. Chrysostom’s teaching on this subject is of great value today for Orthodox Christians in America, who are tasked with spreading Holy Orthodoxy to many heterodox Christians who do not believe in the sacred priesthood. I have longed required Chrysostom’s On the Priesthood be read by my parish catechumens, knowing that coming to believe in the priesthood will be one of the revolutionary and necessary changes in their lives as they ready themselves for reception into the Holy Church.

Patron of Marriage and Monastic Life Both. No Father of the Church has more to contribute to the Christian understanding of marriage and monastic life, and of their interplay, than does Saint John Chrysostom. Chrysostom was a devoted monastic, and remained philo-monastic his entire life. At the same time he spent most of his adult years pastoring married Christians and guiding the families of his parish and diocese in Christian living. Beautifully, Chrysostom presents a unified and inspiring vision for both of these sanctified ways of life. Many of his early works, when he was focused on his ascetic brotherhood and not yet pastoring, were devoted to the exaltation of virginity. Many of his works written while pastoring and preaching to families provide concrete guidance to Christians on how to make their marriages spiritual, their families monastic, and their homes churchly. [13]

Did Chrysostom change? Some contemporary theologians and clergymen are uncomfortable at best, and embarrassed at worst, with Chrysostom’s ascetical works and his zealous promotion of monastic life in such works as On Virginity, Against the Opponents of the Monastic Life, Letters to Fallen Theodore, or A Comparison between a King and a Monk. Because Chrysostom’s later writings so exalted the married life and held forth such spiritual potential for Christian family life these same critics suggest that Chrysostom changed or matured in his views as he acquired greater pastoral experience.

These same thinkers suggest that we should not make too much of Chrysostom’s earlier works, and assert that they are in contradiction with his later works on the subject of marriage and virginity. I posit that such an interpretation of Chrysostom is erroneous and should be completely rejected. I suggest that such a notion is illogical, contradicted by Chrysostom’s own words, and insulting to the Saint himself, and hence impious. Those who suggest such things actually reveal in so doing more of their own minds and discomforts than those of Chrysostom.

Chrysostom himself never grew uncomfortable with his zealous promotion of the monastic life, nor did he lose his zeal for the virginal life. Chrysostom did change over the course of his life. Every Saint changes from glory to glory. Saint John’s change was not a change from error to truth, or from despising marriage to valuing it. He changed his emphases and tactics due to the variety of circumstances God brought about in his life. For instance, when he was in the midst of ascetics he wrote for ascetics, and when he became a pastor of families he gave himself to exalting married life and parenting. Wherever he was he used his great powers to lift his fellow Christians up to the heavenly kingdom. To suggest even implicitly that one cannot argue that the highest form of Christian life is the monastic life, while at the same time adoring and praising the married life, is illogical. To exalt the better is not to denigrate the good.

This is one of the central tenets of Chrysostom’s early work On Virginity. Our monastics are not allowed to become monastics because they despise marriage, for such is the teaching of heretics according to Saint John. Not only did he defend marriage from heretical criticism when he was a young ascetic, but he continued to exalt virginity when he was living amongst the married and teaching them the glories of family life. For Chrysostom married Christians were always to have their eyes upon the monastics, those living the angelic life.

No where in any of Chrysostom’s corpus does he ever disown, change, retract, or modify his views on the supremacy of virginity and the monastic life. On the contrary, we find just the opposite. We find Chrysostom reaffirming his teaching on this subject without revision at various significant points in his ministry. For instance, his series on 1 Corinthians, delivered as a priest in Antioch, contains a reference to his early ascetical work On Virginity.

When he comes to expound the seventh chapter of this epistle, the single most detailed and clear teaching in the New Testament about the supremacy of the celibate life, rather than give detailed instruction to his flock he refers them to his work On Virginity as the abiding summation of his teaching on the subject. No alterations. No disclaimers. Just reaffirmation. Again, if we examine the last of his works to be published, his Commentary on Hebrews, published posthumously by the priest Constantios, we find there in his commentary on chapter thirteen the clear teaching again on the centrality and supremacy of the monastic life. Chrysostom maintained his consistent teaching throughout his ministry. He did not begin his writing career as a youthful extremist, but as a mature and formed thinker. He was not promoted to such ranks in the church of Antioch while being a detractor of marriage. Nor did he guide Saint Olympias and her nuns, and encourage monastics throughout the world while Bishop of Constantinople having become suspicious of monastic life.

If I were pressed to document any change in Chrysostom on this topic I would refer simply to one aspect of his vision in the relationship between married Christians and monastics, what we might call a policy matter. In his On the Comparison between a King and a Monk Chrysostom argued that parents should have their children educated by monastics, who are best equipped, as the true guardians of Christian society, to form young people. In a later work, and probably with more pastoral realism, Chrysostom posited that his earlier suggestion about monastic tutelage was not always practical, and that parents should simply choose the best tutors possible for their children. [14]

Bible Study in the Christian Life. St John did not just model intense devotion to the study of Holy Scripture, but he labored to inculcate faithful Bible reading in the lives of his parishioners. Chrysostom’s devotion is seen not only in his focused memorization and mediation upon the entirety of the Scriptures, but also in the labor of love he made of exegesis. His commentaries upon all of Saint Paul’s 14 Epistles, as well as upon the Gospels of Matthew and John,and the Acts of the Apostles, show how important he considered every word of Scripture to be in the life of the Christian and of the Church.

And he was not devoted just to the New Testament, but to the Old Testament as well. His homilies on New Testament books include literally thousands of quotations from the Old Testament, from which he drew all the fundamental paradigms for his typological understanding of the New. He also gave himself to extended commentary upon select books of the Old Testament such as multiple homiletical series on the first book of Moses, called Genesis, extended commentary on the Psalter, and upon other wisdom books such as Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. He preached on the life of Saul, David, and Hannah the Prophetess. He expounded the Prophecy of Isaiah. His work was immense. We have no larger corpus in Greek patristic literature than that of Saint John Chrysostom.

He considered ignorance of the Scriptures amongst the laity to be the supreme cause for the weakness of the Church and the eclipse of her witness. He called upon his faithful to read the appointed liturgical lections prior to coming to the Divine Liturgy so that they could understand the text and sermon more adequately. He challenged his people to discuss the readings and the sermon on the way home from services, using the image of twisting a newly-picked flower in one’s fingers so as to examine its beauty from all sides. Christians should discuss the readings and homily around the dinner table on the Lord’s Day, and the father of the home should fulfill his duty to read Holy Scripture to his family every day without fail.

Wealth and Poverty. Another area of Christian ethics in which Chrysostom has been duly famous throughout Church history is that of wealth and poverty. His most famous condensed treatment on the subject is found in a collection of seven sermons he gave on the pericope of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Many passages of Saint John’s Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles are cherished for their poignant teaching about possessions and wealth. Chrysostom did not tire of extolling the communal way of life of the early Jerusalem Church, and continued to encourage his faithful to eat together as a way of saving money and providing for those in need. Extended reference to the Christian approach to riches is found throughout his corpus – it was one of the central themes of his life.

Cut from the same divine cloth as St James the Brother-of-God, Chrysostom considered it his responsibility to speak truthfully to the wealthy about their responsibility to care for the needs of their less fortunate brethren. All the fundamental principles of the Christian ethic involving the use of money are found articulately put forth by Chrysostom. He explains the nature of true wealth as the acquisition of virtue. He explains the cause for financial gain as the blessing of God so one might be able to help the less fortunate. He forever singed into the consciences of his people a repulsion to what he considered to be the most foul four-letter word capable of articulation:the word “Mine.” And he did not speak in mere generalities, but called upon his wealthy parishioners to build churches upon their estates, to provide the salary for a priest and deacon so that the peasants living on and near the estate could go to church regularly and have their spiritual needs attended to.

He criticized extravagant uses of money like gilding roofs with gold, and spending large sums of money on fancy shoes and book bindings. He counseled with regards to architecture and the building of homes, that a good home should be like a good shoe: with a snug fit.

It should not be too large so that it flops around and causes one to stumble, and not to small so that it constricts and causes pain. Each house should be functional, and should have a bedroom set aside with a plaque above the entrance door reading: Jesus’ room. There one should lodge the visitor, the poor, or the sick, in the conviction that as long as said person is in residence Jesus resides in the home. Each family should place a small alms chest near their prayer corner and deposit something prior to beginning prayers in order to open heaven to one’s supplications.

IV. Saint John Chrysostom and 21st Century Christians.

All the above are areas in which Chrysostom has always been appreciated by our forebears, and continues to exercise his influence today. In this last portion of my lecture I would like to focus upon what I perceive to be several areas in which Saint John Chrysostom’s life and teachings may render the 21st century Christian particular assistance. The Church finds Herself in this new millennium faced by unique particularities, which demand an articulate word from the Holy Fathers to guide us through the unique challenges of post-modern life.

The Sanctification of City Life in an Age of Global Urbanization. We live in a historic moment in time. Sometime in the next few months demographers predict that, for the first time in recorded history, more than ½ of the human population will live in cities. The next 25 years are expected to witness a radical increase in what has already been decades of high speed urbanization. This increase will be most acute in developing countries, and much of it will not be a move to mega-cities but to cities of 500,000 persons or less. With such intensive populations relocation and the growing number and importance of the world’s cities comes tremendous sociological, political and economic consequences. This is particularly true if the growth is unplanned growth, such as is taking place in Dhaka, Bangladesh- where 3.4 million of the city’s 13 million people live in slums.

In 1987 I visited Dhaka and witnessed the immense flood damage and human destruction that was the fruit of radical and unplanned urbanization. Health crises, access to water, poverty, all of these are concentrated in cities, and yet these same cities are the way out of such trials for most. Urbanization is one of the central issues of the 21st century. Much attention is now being given to the physical realities of urbanization, but still little to the spiritual realities. Churches, clergy, spiritual and charitable resources, these are all immediate and just as concrete needs of urbanization.

Here is where Saint John Chrysostom’s witness shines so brightly and holds forth such importance for us today. Chrysostom was a city boy. Born and raised in one of the leading cities of the Roman Empire, Antioch, and finished his life in Constantinople. He did not lead a life detached from the surging city crowds. He knew human traffic. He loved it and sought to save it. St. John considered Christians to be saviors of the city, guardians of the city, patrons of the city, and teachers of the city. [15] Besides his own practical experience of the city, from his Hellenic intellectual inheritance Saint John possessed a tremendous appreciation for the ????? as the very center of civilization. [16] No Father of the Church has left us a more articulate vision for the sanctification of the city than Saint John Chrysostom. It is our Christian task to plumb his depths in crafting a responsible vision for Christian ministry in this urban context.

As we do so we should note a number of things. Chrysostom believed that the Church sanctifies all. Cities should be full of churches. Chrysostom built them and served in them, and he believed that there was absolutely no substitute for urban Christians participating regularly in the divine services of the Church. The chaos and buzz of urban life is regulated and sanctified and elevated by participation in the morning and evening prayers offered in God’s temples. Chrysostom expected to see his people in church many times during the week, and many of his famous homilies were not delivered on Lord’s Day gatherings but during week day prayers. Chrysostom also believed that the key to sanctifying the city was to sanctify the home. The quality of home life will determine the quality of city life. All legitimate work should be embraced as true vocation, and it is the duty of the clergy to help the faithful appreciate their employment as a means to serving the Lord God.

City Christians must also, according to the Saint, make regular pilgrimage outside the hubbub of the city to the shrine of the sacred martyrs, and the desert dwellings of the holy monastics. The practice of regular pilgrimage is of great importance for those who live in the dense and pressure filled dwelling of the city. And though we should visit the hermits outside the city, we should also establish within the city a strong monastic presence. To make the city a monastery was Chrysostom’s dream. Though we have just a small number of monasteries in our land, yet even most of them are far outside the city.

Chrysostom experienced something quite different, and just as traditional. Saint John promoted and invested in the perfection of city monasticism.

Where was Saint Olympias’ convent but in the center of Constantinople? Where was Monk Isaac’s monastery but in the center of Constantinople? City monasticism provides both a refreshing reminder of our heavenly ambitions to city dwellers, and a strong force in the concrete and political expression of Christianity in our urban centers. Chrysostom exerted great energy to fight what he deemed a demonic and sensuous city culture and to Christianize it. He was not content to merely observe, let alone participate in, the endless stream of illicit entertainments and spiritual distractions that the great cities in this fallen world inevitably produce. He attacked the pagan forms of wedding celebrations, the sensuous theatre, the public excesses, the race track, and the immodesty of the Roman bath house. [17] Saint John Chrysostom can greatly assist us in our quest to sanctify city life in this age of radical urbanization.

The Supreme Importance of Churchmanship in an Age of Radical Individualism. Saint John taught that the Church is a profound miracle. Whence is the origin of the Church? From where did our sacred community arise, brothers and sisters? It has no mere human foundation. The apostles did not simply gather together and come up with the idea of this organization, with certain goals, members, and dues. Not at all. The Church is the continuation of the miracle of the Nativity of Christ. The Son of God was enfleshed in the womb of the Holy Virgin, and born into the world. The Son of God is progressively enfleshed in the establishment and propagation of the Church in the world. The Church is His very Body, the miraculous expansion of His Incarnation in the world. The supernatural origin of the Church is demonstrated, according to St John Chrysostom, by the miracle that took place on the Precious and Life-Giving Cross.

When our Savior was hanging upon the Cross He was pierced with a spear, and suddenly blood and water poured out from His sacred side. [18] This blood and water is Holy Baptism by which one is incorporated into the Church, and the Holy Eucharist by which one grows in the Church. These holy mysteries came forth from the side of our Savior in the same way that Eve was taken from the side of Adam. The Church is the Bride of Christ, and so was taken from His side while on the Cross as a fruit of His sacred atonement. She is a miracle of new creation.

Our unity in the Church, according to Chrysostom, is a supernatural wonder. In the Church we experience an intimate union with Jesus Christ. This reality of being “in Christ” is the most used image by the great Apostle Paul in describing the Christian life. The Christian life is a Church life, for it is by Holy Baptism that we are incorporated into Christ and His Church. As Christians we possess a unity far greater than that of earthly organizations. We share a common womb, a common mother in the Church, a common Father in God, a common table from which we eat our food of everlasting life, a common language of doxology, a common quest, a common animating spirit, a common ethic, and a common destiny. This unity is expressed each Divine Liturgy according to Saint John Chrysostom in our partaking of the Holy Eucharist in which partaking we are actualized together as the Body of Christ. This is the reason that we celebrate the Holy Liturgy with one single holy chalice. The singular sacred cup bears witness to our unity. Even should we distribute Holy Communion in multiple chalices we do not bless multiple chalices. We consecrate one alone, and then we bring other empty chalices and fill them from the one sacred chalice.

Our experience of Church is transformative. The sacredness of our community is testified to by what actually happens when we gather together around the holy altar. Divine services are the single most powerful agent in personal holiness.

“Nothing contributes to a virtuous and moral way of life as does the time you spend here in church.” [19]

There is grace behind every action of the Holy Liturgy. Chrysostom often waxes eloquent concerning the liturgical movements of the service. When the deacon exclaims “Stand upright,” he is addressing our souls primarily, and not just our bodies. The preaching sanctifies. The Holy Eucharist enlivens and flames leap from our mouths, blood is painted on the doorposts of our bodies and the angel of death passes over us.

Nothing is more precious, more central, more transformative and miraculous, in our human existence than life in the Church.

With the gift of this sacred community come sacred obligations to every Christian. True sacred fellowship is the power of the Church. Listen to the words of Chrysostom,

“Let us prefer the time we spend here in church to any occupation or concern. Tell me this. What profit do you gain which can outweigh the loss you bring on yourself and your whole household when you stay away from the religious services? Suppose you find a whole treasure house full of gold, and this discovery is your reason for staying away. You have lost more than you found, and your loss is as much greater as things of the spirit are better than things we see. Attendance in the divine services greatly encourages your brothers and sisters in the faith and spiritual battle … the Church went from 11 to 120 to three thousand to five thousand to the whole world and the reason for this growth was that they never left their gathering. They were constantly with each other, spending the whole day in the temple, and turning their attention to prayers and sacred readings. This is why they kindled a great fire. We too must imitate them.” [20]

Chrysostom taught that the communal responsibilities of Christian people far exceeded their merely needing to be faithful participants in the divine services. He called upon them to take responsibility for each other, and to function as an authentic family. If a faithful Christian is friends with a lazy Christian, the faithful one should go to the lazy one on Sunday, and literally drag him along to liturgy.

While commenting on Ps. 50 Chrysostom stated that if an immoral Christian was seen by other congregants getting into the communion line the faithful should report this immediately to the priest so he can exclude him from communion. If a faithful Christian hears his brother blaspheme he should strike him in the mouth, and “sanctify his right hand.” The picture of communal responsibility is clear, and in our individualistic live-and-let-live context, appears extreme. But Chrysostom holds membership in the Church very high and assumes that there are many communal responsibilities associated with it designed by a loving God to work for the salvation of the entire community. And the responsibilities do not lie solely with the laity.

The clergy must be serious pastors. They must not leave their sheep diseased or in danger. An example of such serious pastoring can be found in Chrysostom’s own life as a priest at the time of the tax riots in Antioch. Saint John preached a series of 21 sermons during the tense days following the riots. During this series Chrysostom sought to reform his people from the habit of swearing. No less than 15 times did Saint John address the subject in a period of just a few weeks, sermon after sermon. He knew his people were growing very weary of him preaching with the same focus, yet they had not ceased their bad habit and Chrysostom refused to pretend that they had and move on.

Finally, he acknowledged their grievances and assured them that he could move on very quickly if they wished. They only needed to stop swearing and then he would move on. It was completely in their hands. He was a faithful physician, and not a professional or a show-man. He insisted on bettering his patients. The result was that swearing decreased and Chrysostom moved on, but a most important point about life in the Church had been expressed by the Saint. The life we lead in the Church is a life centered on personal change.

Brother and sisters, many of our Orthodox people do not have an authentic experience of what true ecclesial life is. We do not appreciate the miracle of life in the Church, and we content ourselves with an empty and alienating individualism. An evil spirit of “it’s just me and Jesus, baby” has permeated much of American Christianity today to our nation’s detriment. Our faith teaches us that there is no dichotomy between Jesus and the Church. Our Savior is not a floating head to be communed with apart from His sacred Body. Churchmanship is at an astonishing low in our times. Saint John Chrysostom stands at the throne of God ready to illumine us and our people about the miracle of sacred community, and to save us from the death of self-worship. [21] This age of individualism and religious game playing is a time for serious pastoring, revived churchmanship, and sacred obedience to the Church.

The Call to Trust the Lord in an Age of Acute Anxiety. Besides being an age of urbanization and radical individualism, contemporary life is an age of acute anxiety. The 20th century has been dubbed by some intellectuals the “age of anxiety.” That the last 100 years has witnessed a marked increase in anxiety levels and the numerous pathologies, such as depression, which stem from acute anxiety is a matter of scientific fact. In an authoritative and widely distributed article entitled The Age of Anxiety? Birth Cohort Change in Anxiety and Neuroticism, 1952-1993, [22] and published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Case Western Reserve University Psychology Professor, Jean M. Twenge, documents through two meta-analyses of various sociological groups in America the effect of changing cultural times on personality development. Twenge documents the increase in anxiety levels in our culture in the last half-century, and argues that changes in the larger sociocultural environment have been a leading cause: changes such as the increase in violent crime, [23] worries concerning nuclear war, fear of disease such as AIDS, and the entrance of women into higher education and the workplace (a place of great stress). These contributing factors are exacerbated by media coverage, which leads to a greater perception of overall environmental threat.

More people visit doctors for anxiety than for colds. Anxiety is a predisposing factor for major depression and suicide attempts. Another area in which anxiety levels can be measured is in the prevalence of drug treatment for anxiety and depression. The common use of Prozac, so common that in recent times some one-fourth of the adult American population had been treated with it, is a major signal. Depression is an epidemic in our society. We live in an age of melancholy.

Many of our contemporary spiritual elders, such as Elder Paisios the Athonite, have addressed the anxiety of modern man. Elder Paisios taught that modern man is afflicted with three unique pains: divorce, cancer, and mental anxiety and illness. Out of his great love for his fellow man, Father Paisios wished to bear some of the burden. He could not bear the pain of divorce since he was not married, and he did not want to suffer mental anxiety and illness because it would affect his prayer. So he prayed for and received cancer, and taught modern men how to bear it for God. He wrote that cancer, with its typical drawn out process of killing its victim, has led untold numbers to repentance and has populated Paradise.

We have become an anxious people because our sins have increased, and our faith has waned. The 20th century was a century of acute anxiety because it was a century of hideous violence and unbridled licentiousness. Several years ago, in an effort to understand the 20th century better, I read Sir Martin Gilbert’s three-volume History of the 20th Century. His masterful work left me with a profound awareness of the 20th century as the most violent hundred years in the history of mankind. This is a judgment made by the World Wars and atrocities against human rights that filled the century.

When the new abortion holocaust, which has taken the lives of more than 50 million unborn children in the last 34 years, is taken account violence becomes the defining motif of the century. Violence was the particular sin of Noah’s age that provoked the wrath of the Lord God to bring the universal flood upon mankind. [24] Certainly the Almighty cannot be pleased with the last hundred years, a century that many would like to forget.

We Christian believers must address our culture’s worry head-on. We are called by Jesus Christ to witness by our confidence and trust in Him in an anxious age. [25] We must live a life of serene trust in the Lord, the life of faith, and call our fellow man to such a trust. Saint John Chrysostom can be of great assistance to us in this calling. Chrysostom’s life was full of earthly sorrows: the loss of his father as an infant, and of his mother and sister as a young man; physical illnesses; tormenting passions; a turbulent and unstable civil and ecclesiastical ethos; [26] kidnapping and displacement; immense pastoral responsibilities; sustained opposition; false accusation by his brother bishops at the Synod of the Oak; imperial trickery; banishment and death in exile. Yes, it sounds like a Saint’s life does it not? One large cross upon which the Saint resolved to stay.

In the midst of these very sorrows Chrysostom found tremendous joy, and lived through them all by trusting confidently in the will of God. His most precious writings on this subject of faith in time of anxiety are, no doubt, those that were written by him while in exile. Here we have words crafted out of the very heat of the furnace, and we see the triumph of his faith. Two treatises particularly I would like to call to your attention. These two treatises were composed by Chrysostom in exile, not long before his death, in order to comfort his dear friend the Deaconess, Saint Olympias, who was suffering from extreme depression due to her spiritual father’s banishment.

The first is a small work, some fifteen pages, entitled That No One Can Harm the Man Who Does Not Injure Himself. In this beautiful work, Chrysostom teaches that there is only one thing in life to fear, only one thing to be anxious about. That one thing is sin. It is the only thing we should fear, and if we do fear it, then we will never have to fear anything else at all because the good God will see to it that nothing harms him who puts his trust in Him. I commend to each of you the reading of this profound treatise. The second work is longer, perhaps 100 pages (and needing its first English translation), entitled On Providence.

In this more extended treatise, Chrysostom provides numerous justifications from reason and the creation to put one’s complete confidence in the governance of the Lord God, reminds his readers of the security of being a child of the one God, Who is the Father Almighty. God has the heart of a Father for us, and the resources of the Almighty to put a Father’s heart into action.

There is no suffering endured in faith by the believer which will not be redemptive. And lastly, Chrysostom calls upon believers to remain in reverent silence before human outcomes and developments that are beyond our comprehension. Confident silence is the best response to events which we cannot understand. It was with such faith, such serene trust in the Lord God, that Chrysostom came to his end,lay down, received the Holy Gifts, made his Cross, and uttered his final words, with which I will conclude my lecture:

“Glory to God for all things.”

© 2010, Preachers Institute. All rights reserved.

St. John was the Archbishop of Constantinople during the fourth century. He was fearless when denouncing sin in high places, and was a prolific writer, and bold preacher, unafraid to hit the topical issues of the day squarely between the eyes with all the subtlety of a ball peen hammer.

His last words were “Glory to God for all things!”

Acts I. 6-”When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”

When the disciples intend to ask anything, they approach Him together, that by dint of numbers they may abash Him into compliance. They well knew that in what He had said previously,

“Of that day knoweth no man” (Matt. xxiv. 36),

He had merely declined telling them: therefore they again drew near, and put the question.

They would not have put it had they been truly satisfied with that answer. For having heard that they were about to receive the Holy Spirit, they, as being now worthy of instruction, desired to learn. Also they were quite ready for freedom: for they had no mind to address themselves to danger; what they wished was to breathe freely again; for they were no light matters that had happened to them, but the utmost peril had impended over them. And without saying any thing to Him of the Holy Spirit, they put this question:

“Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

They did not ask, when? but whether “at this time.” So eager were they for that day. Indeed, to me it appears that they had not any clear notion of the nature of that kingdom; for the Spirit had not yet instructed them. And they do not say, When shall these things be? but they approach Him with greater honour, saying,

“Wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom,” as being now already fallen. For there they were still affected towards sensible objects, seeing they were not vet become better than those who were before them; here they have henceforth high conceptions concerning Christ. Since then their minds are elevated, He also speaks to them in a higher strain. For He no longer tells them,

“Of that day not even the Son of Man knoweth” (Mark xiii. 32);

but He says, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power (Acts i. 7.) Ye ask things greater than your capacity, He would say. And yet even now they learned things that were much greater than this. And that you may see that this is strictly the case, look how many things I shall enumerate. What, I pray you, was greater than their having learned what they did learn?

Thus, they learned that there is a Son of God, and that God has a Son equal with Himself in dignity (John v. 17-20); they learned that there will be a resurrection (Matt. xvii. 9); that when He ascended He sat on the right hand of God (Luke xxii. 69); and what is still more stupendous, that Flesh is seated in heaven, and adored by Angels, and that He will come again (Mark xvi. 19); they learned what is to take place in the judgment (Matt. xvi. 27); learned that they shall then sit and judge the twelve tribes of Israel (Luke xxi. 27); learned that the Jews would be cast out, and in their stead the Gentiles should come in (Matt. xix. 28). For, tell me, which is greater? to learn that a person will reign, or to learn the time when? (Luke xxi. 24).

Paul learned “things which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Cor. xii. 4); things that were before the world was made, he learned them all. Which is the more difficult, the beginning or the end? Clearly to learn the beginning. This, Moses learned, and the time when, and how long ago: and he enumerates the years. And the wise Solomon saith, “I will make mention of things from the beginning of the world.” And that the time is at hand, they do know: as Paul saith,

“The Lord is at hand, be careful for nothing.” (Phil. iv. 5).

These things they knew not [then], and yet He mentions many signs (Matt. ch. xxiv). But, as He has just said,

“Not many days hence,”

wishing them to be vigilant, and did not openly declare the precise moment, so is it here also. However, it is not about the general Consummation that they now ask Him, but,

“Wilt Thou at this time,” say they, “restore the kingdom to Israel?”

And not even this did He reveal to them. They also asked this [about the end of the world] before: and as on that occasion He answered by leading them away from thinking that their deliverance was near and, on the contrary, cast them into the midst of perils, so likewise on this occasion but more mildly. For, that they may not imagine themselves to be wronged, and these things to be mere pretences, hear what He says: He immediately gives them that at which they rejoiced: for He adds:

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts i. 8.)

Then, that they may make no more enquiries, straightway He was received up. Thus, just as on the former occasion He had darkened their minds by awe, and by saying, “I know not;” here also He does so by being taken up. For great was their eagerness on the subject, and they would not have desisted; and yet it was very necessary that they should not learn this. For tell me, which do the Gentiles most disbelieve? that there will be a consummation of the world, or that God is become man, and issued from the Virgin? But I am ashamed of dwelling on this point, as if it were about some difficult matter. Then again, that the disciples might not say, Why dost thou leave the matter in suspense? He adds,

“Which the Father hath put in His own power.”

And yet He declared the Father’s power and His to be one: as in the saying,

“For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will.” (John v. 21.)

If where need is to work, Thou actest with the same power as the Father; where it behooves to know, dost Thou not know with the same power? Yet certainly to raise up the dead is much greater than to learn the day. If the greater be with power, much more the other.

But just as when we see a child crying, and pertinaciously wishing to get something from us that is not expedient for him, we hide the thing, and show him our empty hands, and say, “See, we have it not:” the like has Christ here done with the Apostles. But as the child, even when we show him [our empty hands], persists with his crying, conscious he has been deceived, and then we leave him, and depart, saying, “Such an one calls me:” and we give him something else instead, in order to divert him from his desire, telling him it is a much liner thing than the other, and then hasten away; in like manner Christ acted. The disciples asked to have something, and He said He had it not. And on the first occasion he frightened them.

Then again they asked to have it now: He said He had it not; and He did not frighten them now, but after having shown [the empty hands], He has done this, and gives them a plausible reason:

“Which the Father,” He says, “hath put in his own power.”

What? Thou not know the things of the Father! Thou knowest Him, and not what belongs to Him! And yet Thou hast said,

“None knoweth the Father but the Son” (Luke x. 25);

and,

“The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Cor. ii. 10);

and Thou not know this! But they feared to ask Him again, test they should hear Him say,

“Are ye also without understanding?” (Matt. xv. 26.)

For they feared Him now much more than before.

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you.”

As in the former instance He had not answered their question (for it is the part of a teacher to teach not what the disciple chooses, but what is expedient for him to learn), so in this, He tells them beforehand, for this reason, what they ought to know, that they may not be troubled. In truth, they were yet weak. But to inspire them with confidence, He raised up their souls, and concealed what was grievous. Since he was about to leave them very shortly, therefore in this discourse He says nothing painful. But how? He extols as great the things which would be painful: all but saying,

” `Fear not’: for ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria.”

For since he had said,

“Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not” (Matt. x. 5),

what there He left unsaid, He here adds

“And to the uttermost part of the earth;”

and having spoken this, which was more fearful than all the rest, then that they may not again question Him, He held His peace. “And having this said, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight” (v. 9). Seest thou that they did preach and fulfil the Gospel? For great was the gift He had bestowed on them. In the very place, He says, where ye are afraid, that is, in Jerusalem, there preach ye first, and afterwards unto the uttermost part of the earth. Then for assurance of what He had said, “While they beheld, He was taken up.” Not “while they beheld” did He rise from the dead, but

“while they beheld, He was taken up.”

Inasmuch, however, as the sight of their eyes even here was not all-sufficient; for in the Resurrection they saw the end, but not the beginning, and in the Ascension they saw the beginning, but not the end: because in the former it had been superfluous to have seen the beginning, the Lord Himself Who spake these things being present, and the sepulchre showing clearly that He is not there; but in the latter, they needed to be informed of the sequel by word of others: inasmuch then as their eyes do not suffice to show them the height above, nor to inform them whether He is actually gone up into heaven, or only seemingly into heaven, see then what follows.

That it was Jesus Himself they knew from the fact that He had been conversing with them (for had they seen only from a distance, they could not have recognized Him by sight), but that He is taken up into Heaven the Angels themselves inform them. Observe how it is ordered, that not all is done by the Spirit, but the eyes also do their part. But why did “a cloud receive Him?” This too was a sure sign that He went up to Heaven. Not fire, as in the case of Elijah, nor fiery chariot but “a cloud received Him;” which was a symbol of Heaven, as the Prophet says;

“Who maketh the clouds His chariot” (Ps. civ. 3);

it is of the Father Himself that this is said. Therefore he says, “on a cloud;” in the symbol, he would say, of the Divine power, for no other Power is seen to appear on a cloud. For hear again what another Prophet says:

“The Lord sitteth upon a light cloud” (Is. xix. 1).

For it was while they were listening with great attention to what He was saying, and this in answer to a very interesting question, and with their minds fully aroused and quite awake, that this thing took place. Also on the mount [Sinai] the cloud was because of Him: since Moses also entered into the darkness, but the cloud there was not because of Moses. And He did not merely say, “I go,” lest they should again grieve, but He said,

“I send the Spirit” John xvi. 5, John xvi. 7);

and that He was going away into heaven they saw with their eyes. O what a sight they were granted! “And while they looked stedfastly,” it is said, “toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is g taken up from you into heaven”-they used the expression “This” demonstratively, saying,

“this Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall thus”-demonstratively, “in this way”-”come in like manner as ye have seen Him going into heaven.” (v. 10, 11.)

Again, the outward appearance is cheering ["in white apparel"]. They were Angels, in the form of men. And they say, “Ye men of Galilee:” they showed themselves to be trusted by the disciples, by saying, “Ye men of Galilee.” For this was the meaning: else, what needed they to be told of their country, who knew it well enough? By their appearance also they attracted their regard, and shewed that they were from heaven.

But wherefore does not Christ Himself tell them these things, instead of the Angels? He had beforehand told them all things;

“What if ye shall see the Son of Man] going up where He was before?” (John vi. 62).

Moreover the Angels did not say, `whom you have seen taken up,’ but, “going into heaven:” ascension is the word, not assumption; the expression “taken up,” belongs to the flesh. For the same reason they say, “He which is taken up from you shall thus come,” not, “shall be sent,” but,

“shall come. He that ascended, the same is he also that descended” (Eph. iv. 10).

So again the expression, “a cloud received Him:” for He Himself mounted upon the cloud. Of the expressions, some are adapted to the conceptions of the disciples, some agreeable with the Divine Majesty. Now, as they behold, their conceptions are elevated: He has given them no slight hint of the nature of His second coming. For this, “Shall thus come,” means, with the body; which thing they desired to hear; and, that he shall come again to judgment “thus” upon a cloud.

“And, behold, two men stood by them.”

Why is it said, “men?” Because they had fashioned themselves completely as such, that the beholders might not be overpowered. “Which also said:” their words moreover were calculated for soothing:

“Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?”

They would not let them any longer wait there for Him. Here again, these tell what is greater, and leave the less unsaid. That “He will thus come,” they say, and that “ye must look for Him from heaven.” For the rest, they called them off from that spectacle to their saying, that they might not, because they could not see Him, imagine that He was not ascended, but even while they are conversing, would be present ere they were aware. For if they said on a former occasion,

“Whither goest Thou?” (John xiii. 36)

much more would they have said it now.

“Wilt Thou at this time,” say they, “restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Recapitulation). They so well knew his mildness, that after His Passion also they ask Him, “Wilt thou restore?” And yet He had before said to them, “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, but the end is not yet,” nor shall Jerusalem be taken.

But now they ask Him about the kingdom, not about the end. And besides, He does not speak at great length with them after the Resurrection. They address then this question, as thinking that they themselves would be in high honor, if this should come to pass. But He (for as touching this restoration, that it was not to be, He did not openly declare; for what needed they to learn this? hence they do not again ask,

“What is the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?”

for they are afraid to say that: but, “Wilt Thou restore the kingdom to Israel?” for they thought there was such a kingdom), but He, I say, both in parables had shown that the time was not near, and here where they asked, and He answered thereto,

“Ye shall receive power,” says He, “when the Holy Spirit is come upon you.”

Is come upon you,” not, “is sent,” [to shew the Spirit's coequal Majesty. How then darest thou, O opponent of the Spirit, to call Him a creature ?]. “And ye shall be witnesses to Me.” He hinted at the Ascension. ["And when he had spoken these things. ] Which they had heard before, and He now reminds them of. ["He was taken up."] Already it has been shown, that He went up into heaven. ["And a cloud, etc."]

“Clouds and darkness are under His feet,” (Ps. xviii. 9; xcvii. 2)

saith the Scripture: for this is declared by the expression, “And a cloud received Him:” the Lord of heaven, it means. For as a king is shown by the royal chariot, so was the royal chariot sent for Him. ["Behold, two men, etc.] That they may vent no sorrowful exclamations, and that it might not be with them as it was with Elisha, (2 Kings ii. 12) who, when his master was taken up, rent his mantle. And what say they? “This Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall thus come.” And,

“Behold, two men stood by them.” (Matt. xviii. 16.)

With good reason: for

“in the mouth of two witnesses shall every word be established” (Deut. xvii. 6):

and these utter the same things. And it is said, that they were “in white apparel.” In the same manner as they had already seen an Angel at the sepulchre, who had even told them their own thoughts; so here also an Angel is the preacher of His Ascension; although indeed the Prophets had frequently foretold it, as well as the Resurrection.

Everywhere it is Angels as at the Nativity,

“for that which is conceived in her,” saith one, “is by the Holy Spirit” (Matt. i. 20):

and again to Mary,

“Fear not, Mary.” (Luke i. 30.)

And at the Resurrection:

“He is not here; He is risen, and goeth before you.” (ib. xxiv. 6.)

“Come, and see!” (Matt. xxviii. 6.)

And at the Second Coming. For that they may not be utterly in amaze, therefore it is added,

“Shall thus come.” (ib. xxv. 31.)

They recover their breath a little; if indeed He shall come again, if also thus come, and not be unapproachable! And that expression also, that it is “from them” He is taken up, is not idly added. And of the Resurrection indeed Christ Himself bears witness (because of all things this is, next to the Nativity, nay even above the Nativity, the most wonderful: His raising Himself to life again): for,

“Destroy,” He says, “this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John ii. 19.)

“Shall thus come,” say they. If any therefore desires to see Christ; if any grieves that he has not seen Him: having this heard, let him show forth an admirable life, and certainly he shall see Him, and shall not be disappointed. For Christ will come with greater glory, though “thus,” in this manner, with a body ; and much more wondrous will it be to see Him descending from heaven. But for what He will come, they do not add.

["Shall thus come," etc.] This is a confirmation of the Resurrection; for if he was taken up with a body, much rather must He have risen again with a body.

Where are those who disbelieve the Resurrection? Who are they, I pray? Are they Gentiles, or Christians? for I am ignorant. But no, I know well: they are Gentiles, who also disbelieve the work of Creation. For the two denials go together: the denial that God creates any thing from nothing, and the denial that He raises up what has been buried. But then, being ashamed to be thought such as

“know not the power of God” (Matt. xxii. 29),

that we may not impute this to them, they allege: We do not say it with this meaning, but because there is no need of the body. Truly it may be seasonably said,

“The fool will speak foolishness.” (Is. xxxii. 6.)

Are you not ashamed not to grant, that God can create from nothing? If he creates from matter already existing, wherein does He differ from men? But whence, you demand, are evils? Though you should not know whence, ought you for that to introduce another evil in the knowledge of evils? Hereupon two absurdities follow. For if you do not grant, that from things which are not, God made the things which are, much more shall you be ignorant whence are evils: and then, again, you introduce another evil, the affirming that Evil (thn kakian) is uncreated. Consider now what a thing it is, when you wish to find the source of evils, to be both ignorant of it, and to add another to it. Search after the origin of evils, and do not blaspheme God. And how do I blaspheme? says he.

When you make out that evils have a power equal to God’s; a power uncreated. For, observe what Paul says;

“For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.” (Rom. i. 20.)

But the devil would have both to be of matter, that there may be nothing left from which we may come to the knowledge of God. For tell me, whether is harder: to take that which is by nature evil (if indeed there be ought such; for I speak upon your principles, since there is no such thing as evil by nature), and make it either good, or even coefficent of good? or, to make of nothing? Whether is easier (I speak of quality); to induce the non-existent quality; or to take the existing quality, and change it into its contrary? where them is no house, to make the house; or where it is utterly destroyed, to make it identically exist again?

Why, as this is impossible, so is that: to make a thing into its opposite. Tell me, whether is harder; to make a perfume, or to make filth have the effect of perfume? Say, whether of these is easier (since we subject God to our reasonings: nay, not we, but ye); to form eyes, or to make a blind man to see continuing blind, and yet more sharp-sighted, than one who does see?

To make blindness into sight, and deafness into hearing? To me the other seems easier. Say then do you grant God that which is harder, and not grant the easier? But souls also they affirm to be of His substance. Do you see what a number of impieties and absurdities are here! In the first place, wishing to show that evils are from God, they bring in another thing more impious than this, that they are equal with Him in majesty, and God prior in existence to none of them, assigning this great prerogative even to them! In the next place, they affirm evil to be indestructible: for if that which is uncreated can be destroyed, ye see the blasphemy! So that it comes to this, either that nothing is of God if not these; or that these are God!

Thirdly, what I have before spoken of, in this point they defeat themselves, and prepare against themselves fresh indignation.

Fourthly, they affirm unordered matter to possess such inherent (epithdeiothta) power.

Fifthly, that evil is the cause of the goodness of God, and that without this the Good had not been good.

Sixthly, they bar against us the ways of attaining unto the knowledge of God. Seventhly, they bring God down into men, yea plants and logs. For if our soul be of the substance of God, but the process of its transmigration into new bodies brings it at last into cucumbers, and melons, and onions, why then the substance of God will pass into cucumbers!

And if we say, that the Holy Spirit fashioned the Temple For our Lord’s body] in the Virgin, they laugh us to scorn: and if, that He dwelt in that spiritual Temple, again they laugh; while they themselves are not ashamed to bring down God’s substance into cucumbers, and melons, and flies, and caterpillars, and asses, thus excogitating a new fashion of idolatry: for let it not be as the Egyptians have it, “The onion is God;” but let it be, “God in the onion”!

Why dost thou shrink from the notion of God’s entering into a body? `It is shocking,’ says he. Why then this is much more shocking. But, forsooth, it is not shocking-how should it be?-this same thing which is so, if it be into us! `But thy notion is indeed shocking.’ Do ye see the filthiness of their impiety?-But why do they not wish the body to be raised? And why do they say the body is evil?

By what then, tell me, dost thou know God? by what hast thou the knowledge of existing things? The philosopher too: by means of what is he a philosopher, if the body does nothing towards it? Deaden the senses, and then learn something of the things one needs to know! What would be more foolish than a soul, if from the first it had the senses deadened? If the deadening of but a single part, I mean of the brain, becomes a marring of it altogether; if all the rest should be deadened, what would it be good for? Show me a soul without a body. Do you not hear physicians say,

The presence of disease sadly enfeebles the soul? How long will ye put off hanging yourselves? Is the body material? tell me. “To be sure, it is.” Then you ought to hate it. Why do you feed, why cherish it?

You ought to get quit of this prison. But besides: “God cannot overcome matter, unless he (sumplakh) implicate himself with it: for he cannot issue orders to it (O feebleness!) until he close with it, and (staqh) take his stand (say you) through the whole of it!” And a king indeed does all by commanding; but God, not by commanding the evil! In short, if it were unparticipant of all good, it could not subsist at all.

For Evil cannot subsist, unless it lay hold upon somewhat of the accidents of Virtue: so that if it had been heretofore all unmixed with virtue, it would have perished long ago: for such is the condition of evils. Let there be a profligate man, let him put upon himself no restraint whatever, will he live ten days? Let there be a robber, and devoid of all conscience in his dealings with every one, let him be such even to his fellow-robbers, will he be able to live? Let there be a thief, void of all shame, who knows not what blushing is, but steals openly in public.

It is not in the nature of evils to subsist, unless they get some small share at least in good. So that hereupon, according to these men, God gave them their subsistence. Let there be a city of wicked men; will it stand? But let them be wicked, not only with regard to the good, but towards each other. Why, it is impossible such a city should stand. Truly,

“professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” (Rom. i. 22.)

If bodily substance be evil, then all things visible exist idly, and in vain, both water and earth, and sun, and air; for air is also body, though not solid. It is in point then to say,

“The wicked have told me foolish things.” (Ps. cxix. 85.)

But let not us endure them, let us block up our ears against them. For there is, yea, there is, a resurrection of bodies. This the sepulchre which is at Jerusalem declares, this the pillar to which He was bound, when He was scourged. For,

“We did eat and drink with Him,”

it is said. Let us then believe in the Resurrection, and do things worthy of it, that we may attain to the good things which are to come, through Christ Jesus our Lord, with Whom to the Father, and the Holy Spirit together, be power, honor, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

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© 2010, Preachers Institute. All rights reserved.