Homilies

The Law of the Righteous and the Vanity of Luxury§1

The Deception of Luxury§2

2By misusing the immeasurable wealth of life, not using it, and acting lawlessly against Paul, they fight not with letters but with deeds. For he proclaimed with word what these hold and rule with works. When they appear clothed, they are seen like walls painted by passers-by. Even children stand around them, laughing at one another and pointing to the writing on the garments; and they walk past, not stopping for long.

There are lions and leopards, bears and bulls and dogs; woods and rocks, and men beast-slayers, and all the skill of painting imitating nature. For it was necessary not only their walls, as it seems, and their houses to be decorated, but already also their tunics and the clothes upon them.

As for those who are more pious than the wealthy ones, having reviewed the Gospel history, they handed it over to the weavers; I say the Christ our Lord meeting with the disciples, each miracle as the narrative has it: the wedding in Galilee and the water; the paralytic carrying the bed on his shoulders (Mark 2:1-12); the blind man being healed with mud (Matthew 8:1-4); the woman bleeding being taken by the edge of the garment (Luke 8:43); the sinful woman falling at the feet of Jesus (Luke 7:36-50); Lazarus returning to life from the tomb (John 11:1-44).

And doing these things, they think they are being pious and putting on garments graced by God. But if they accept counsel, let them, having sold those things, honor the living images of Godd. Do not paint Christ; for it is enough for Him the one part of the incarnation, humility, which He freely received through us, but carry the incorporeal Word mentally upon your soul. Do not have the paralytic on your garments, but seek the one lying sick. Do not constantly recount the woman bleeding, but have mercy on the grieving widow. Do not look carefully at the sinful woman prostrating herself before the Lord, but let the tear flow thick, being crushed by his own faults. Do not sketch Lazarus being raised from the dead, but prepare a good defense for your own resurrection. Do not carry the blind man on your clothing, but the living one deprived of sight.

Encourage with acts of goodness. Do not paint the remains of the dead in a flattering way, but nourish those who hunger. Do not carry the water-skins upon the garments, which He filled in Cana of Galilee (John 2:7), but give drink to the thirsty.

Regarding these things, the proud clothing of the richman benefited us, and not only that, but also what follows. For luxury was added to the purple and the fine linen daily and brilliantly; yet, in both respects, it is of one single mind: to be adorned by useless vanity in delicacies, and to serve the palate and the throat with pleasant sensations.

Luxury, therefore, is a thing hostile to a virtuous life, signifying emptiness and dissipation, excessive enjoyment and a slave-like habit. And while the thing appears to be one, when examined in parts and accused, its composition consists of a diverse, greater, and manifold evil. For luxury could not exist unless increased by many materials. But as for accumulating the materials of wealth, one might without sin fail to lose nothing, unless, perhaps, according to the small measure, as with Job (Job 1:10), it should happen to one both to prosper abundantly and to live strictly according to justice.

Therefore, it is necessary for one living in luxury, first, to have a costly house, decorated with votes, stones, and gold according to the patterns, and to have it conveniently suited to the changes of the seasons of the year. For warmth is sought; the winter is wretched and turned away from the midday sun, having risen toward the North, while the summer is warm, so that it may be breathed upon by thin and cold northern breezes. After this, there is the need for costly clothing for the beds, the couches, the mattresses, and the doors that are about to be clothed. For everything, even the inanimate things, is carefully clothed by those, as the wretched are stripped of their belongings.

Add to these also and consider the silver in the vessels, the gold, the expensive purchase of birds from Phasais, and the wine of the Phoenician, which the vines of Tyre pour out much and precious to the rich; and all the preparation of the rest of enjoyment, which those using it have carefully named. For luxury, increasing daily toward the more curious, already pours out the scents from India upon the faces, and more so, the perfumers serve the cooks rather than the physicians.

The Poverty and Misery of Lazarus§3

The true meaning of poverty and the example of Lazarus§4

4The poor man passes by sighing, having learned through his companions the blessed enjoyment of your fellow-sufferer. For you will find a precise judgment-court of the righteous Judge, in which the one who enjoyed pleasure sighs, and the one who lived in luxury is distressed; and each is carried to what is due to him.

And it happened that the poor man died and was carried by the angels into the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16:22). Do you see the ministers of the righteous and the poor, and the servants of the transfer? For angels were bearing him, looking at him calmly and gently, and by their appearance foretelling the healing and relief awaiting him. And he was placed, having been carried to the bosoms of the patriarch, which provides a starting point for the pleasureless to torture the depths of the Scriptures.

For if every dying person were carried to the same place, someone great would be a boundless bosom, capable of containing the multitude of the holy ones. But if this is utterly impossible, for a bosom, having been hollowed out, barely contains one man or with difficulty two, some divine vision receives us by the image of the sensible bosom, guiding us toward some intelligible reality.

What is being said? Abraham receives those who have lived a prosperous life. Tell me then, O law-giver Luke, as if to one present and visible, I will discourse with you: why, being among many righteous ones and elders of Abraham, did you allot this honor to the drunkard, remaining silent about Enoch, Noah, and if anyone else who was not following these during his life? But perhaps I understand you, and what I consider does not cast you out from your purpose.

Since Abraham is a servant of Christ, and this man received the manifestations of Christ differently from men, and the mystery of the Trinity was sufficiently expressed to us in the tent of this old man, when he welcomed the three angels as traveling companions; and simply, from many mystical enigmas, this man has become a familiar man of God, having later clothed himself in flesh and having clearly spoken to men through this human veil, therefore his bosom is like a pleasant harbor and an unshakeable rest.

He says it is the portion of the righteous. For in Christ is the salvation and the hope and the expectation of the coming age of all of us, through him having sprung from the flesh of Abraham according to the human lineage. And it seems to me that the honor concerning the old man has a reference to the Savior, who is also judge and rewarder of virtue, and with the therapeutic voice calling the righteous and saying: 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you' (Matt 25:34).

And the poor man came to die. There is a double significance concerning the poor man: one declaring the need of the necessary things, the other the moderation and the humility of character. Therefore, let him who lacks the things of the material world and labors for silver, being clothed in the garment of pity, claim the praise of virtue, and let him not consider the lack to be sufficient for salvation. For he who labors by necessity is not praised, but he who moderates his will freely is marveled at. Since for those who are destitute, if they have a way of life that is uneducated or uncontrolled, necessity becomes a supply for many and wicked daring acts. And I myself, all the wall-scrapers and men who walk on toes, and moreover looters and thieves and even murderers, if they ever passed by an official judgment, I have seen them as poor, unknown, destitute, and unhospitable.

From this it is evident that the Scripture now blesses that poor man who bears the hardships with a philosophical soul, enduring bravely toward the circumstances of life and doing no evil deed, so that he might be granted the enjoyment of luxury in the flesh. Whom the Lord also describes more clearly in the first of the beatitudes, saying: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit' (Matt 5:3). Therefore, not every poor man is righteous, but he who is like Lazarus; nor is every rich man rejected, but he who lives with such a choice of will as he who was contemporary with Lazarus; and of this, those who are witnesses through the trial of life are evident. For what is wealthier than the divine Job? And yet the extreme poverty did not alienate the man from righteousness, nor can one say it isolated him from virtue. What of the...

The Poverty of Judas and the Fate of the Rich§5

5Was he more wretched than Judas Iscariot? And he gained nothing from his poverty toward salvation, but while dining with the eleven poor ones and with the philosophers, and even with the Lord himself, who through us became voluntarily poor, he was driven there by a bad intention toward the love of money, and from there he contrived the betrayal.

It is also worthy to test the departure of another of the dead. For the poor man, having fallen asleep, had angels as guards and attendants, leading him with good hope to the place of rest; but the rich man, having died, is said to have been buried (Luke 16:22). For there is nothing like using that scriptural word, which through a single word sufficiently interprets the dishonorable dissolution of the rich.

For the sinner finishing his life is truly being buried, the body being earthly and of the soil, and the soul, having drawn its nature toward the flesh's longing for matter, leaving behind no useful memorial of his own life, and being covered shamefully and finishing the death of the pastures. For the body has a tomb, but the soul has Hades; two dark prisons being divided for the punishment of the evil creature.

And who would not reproach the wretched one for his thoughtlessness? Whenever he was upon the earth, boasting, acting great, thinking himself above all the living and of the same nature and...

The Folly of the Flesh-Lovers§6

6Only once does he call those who encounter him ants and worms, fleeting wisdom of temporary glory; but when he is snatched away from life and, like a slave of lashes, is deprived of those things of which through ignorance he thought himself a master, humility is imposed upon him in response to his pride. Like a goat putting forward the wails of a mourning woman, he calls upon the patriarch from afar and ignorantly, saying: 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering in this flame' (Luke 16:24), seeking a mercy which was not given when it was easy for him to do good because he possessed the authority; and demanding that Lazarus arrive to help against the fire, praying to suck the finger of the leper slightly moistened with water. Such are the follies of the flesh-lovers; this is the end of the lovers of wealth and the lovers of pleasure.

And it is fitting for the prudent and the provident of the future, having taken as a parable something like a preventative medicine for a disease, to flee the experience of such evils, regarding compassion and philanthropy as the cause of life.

The Severity of Divine Judgment§7

The Chasm and the Separation of Good and Evil§8

The Steward as Sojourner§9

The Governance of the Senses§10

10Many things please and nourish, but lordship belongs only to God, who possesses life incorruptibly and imperishably. I saw an inn, where a traveler stayed; he took many things from there without owning any: a bed, a table, vessels, a plate, and other various utensils. No one has ever used them for self-sufficiency, but rather someone comes, becomes greedy, acts impetuously, plunders the inn, and seeks what belongs to others as if it were his own.

Such is our life, brothers, and if anything of what has been said is more temporary. I marvel at those who say, 'my place' or 'my house,' so that they in vain claim ownership of what does not belong to them, and they embrace foreign things with three deceptive elements. Just as the masks of those performing wonders belong to no one in particular, but all the actors in the plays wear them, so others clothe themselves with the earth and its materials from others as if they were clothing.

Tell me, is there anything more powerful than a kingdom? Yet search the kingdoms; seek royal robes, and you will find them sufficient, though they have clothed many kings. Likewise, the crowns, the purple robes, and the belts—all are an unstable inheritance, a common use passing from those traveling to those staying.

What of the value of the possessor—the tent, the silver chariot, the golden reed? The possessor does not always have these, nor always the same, except for a short time for each. Just as the bed of the journey receives different bodies at different times, so the symbols of rulers change for those using them.

From this, the apostle cried out many instructive voices regarding this mindset: he presents the form of this world, namely, 'as having nothing and possessing all' (1 Tim 6:7), and 'those using as if not using' (1 Cor 7:31). For all these tend toward one aim: that it was fitting for us to live as sojourners, remembering the covenant of the exodus.

And so that you may learn accurately that you are subject to laws and masterly canons, according to which it is fitting for you to live accurately, first understand from yourself that both your body and your soul are subject everywhere to the commands of virtue, and you are not even master of yourself; rather, it is fitting for you to manage both word and deed and all...

The movement of your life. You received a body from the Creator, composed of many parts and being managed by five senses for the needs of life. But even these are not free and autonomous, but each is a slave to laws.

And first, the eye hears; look at nature and behold what is beautiful to see: the sun, lighting the whole inhabited world; the moon, illuminating the dark and gloomy night; the other stars, which are not many, nor sufficient for us, providing the light from themselves, except for the beauty they reflect. Behold the earth, adorned with all kinds of plants and herbs; the sea lying flat like a level plain, when it is in a pure calm. To these and such things you have been accustomed to seeing; but the other sights, as many as introduce harm to the soul through sight, flee from them and run away, and impose a covering upon yourself so that you may not see. For it is better to darken the sense when it holds the cause of the works of darkness. For this reason, the Lord said to us yesterday through Matthew: 'Every man who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart' (Matthew 5:28); and it is better to cut it off when it looks disordered and with injury.

Hearing also has prohibitive commands against bad listening. For it is necessary that when it hears of certain good things, it should be uplifted and send the sense to the soul through the beneficial words. But if a companion of wickedness, a plague and a corruption, approaches it, it must repel the filth of sin like a venomous beast.

Let the tongue also be temperate with the mouth; let it speak the righteous things; and let it abstain from the forbidden: reviling, slandering, unjust accusation, backbiting against brothers, and blasphemy against God. But let it utter whatever is well-spoken, whatever is pious, whatever has the counsel of good deeds; and let every man say the things of the Psalmist: 'I said: I will guard my ways, lest I sin with my tongue' (Psalm 119:11); and that, 'Their tongues were a stumbling block' (Psalm 57:4); and that, 'What boasts a strong man in wickedness, the power of lawlessness?' (Psalm 73:4). All the day your tongue reckoned injustice; you made a snare like a sharpened razor.

Let the taste be of those things which benefit the stomach. Let the nose also be temperate, not always smelling luxury, nor the vapors of expensive myrrh.

The Folly of Waste and the Stewardship of Death§11

The Stewardship of the Soul§12

12Will they be treasuries? And when he arrives at the allotted place, hearing, 'Render the account of your stewardship; show how you heard the commandments, how you dealt with fellow-slaves, either kindly and philanthropically or, on the contrary, greedily and tyrannically, striking, beating, and depriving them of the grain-measure of alms.'

If he is able to make the master appeased by proving himself a good servant, it would be well for him; but if on the contrary, there are no longer whips and rods there, nor dark mills and iron pedals, but unquenchable fire and eternal darkness never illuminated by light, and the gnashing of teeth, which the gospel has clearly revealed to us (Matt 25:30).

Therefore, if he never casts out from here as if they were strangers, let him waste the world and let pleasure remain unhindered according to every sense. But if these things will be accomplished, even if we do not enjoy them for long, let us fear, brothers, the transfer from this place, and let us live in the time of sojourning as the Lord commanded; let us not be carried away as debtors, but let us walk free, being led by a good conscience, carrying the books of the life's citizenship unsearchably.

That rich man was a bad steward of this life, whose land was fruitful, because regarding the abundance of fruits, man did not counsel anything good, but opening the desire of the stomach and the wide and insatiable bellies of greed, he allotted everything to his own enjoyment, saying, 'I will pull down my barns and build greater, and I will say to my soul: You have many good things laid up, rest, eat, drink, rejoice' (Luke 12:19-20). And while he was speaking, the one taking him arrived. A terrible fellow-slave came to snatch him away from the stewardship; and what is the profit of a love-of-money plan?

And these things were written vividly for our instruction. But what is the experience of life? Not every single day do these things cry out through works; I showed us the one healthy in the middle of the day becoming dead before the onset of evening; and the one strengthening himself in the evening, not grasping the morning ray; and another perishing in the midst of eating and living. Who then is so foolish, as not to realize that every day another comes of this place...

Are we being moved from our stewardship? But the good and faithful steward, having trusted in his own management, has a will such as Paul had. For he, when the Lord was not hurrying, hastened to him and desired the dismissal and was willing to relinquish the stewardship, saying in one way: 'Wretched am I a man, who will rescue me from this body of death?' (Rom 7:24) and again: 'For to me it is good to be dissolved and to be with Christ' (Phil 1:23). But the earthly man, whose mindset is truly kin to the oxen, laments such things helplessly at the transition, like this man in the parable: 'What shall I do, since my lord is taking the stewardship from me? I am not able to dig, and I am ashamed to beg' (Luke 12:48).

His grief is that of the idle and the lover of pleasure. For to wail at the departure is a reproach of having been added to the estate and of lamenting the passionate enjoyments of the flesh, while the inability toward the work of an idle life and a fallen state is an accusation. For if he had had a habit of love for labor, he would not have feared digging.

If we take the parable allegorically toward the spiritual, after this transition, there is neither working nor having time for increase. And because of this, let no one say: 'I am not able to dig.' For even if he is able, no one forgives. This life holds the agriculture of the commandments, while the one coming holds the enjoyment. So if you worked nothing here, the vines remained, and you care excessively about the spade; nor will you benefit yourself by having time.

And of this, a clear pattern is given to us by the foolish virgins; who, being in want of oil, shamelessly asked of the wise, but they gained nothing, but turned away uselessly; the Word showing that no one has used a different oil in the presence of the bridegroom, that is, a different oil to achieve for oneself private enjoyment. For each has wrapped his own conduct like a garment, whether bright and precious or cheap and resembling the rags of a pauper. And it is not possible to strip it off, nor to exchange it and change to another, nor to be beautified and adorned from a loan or use at the time of judgment. But each remains as he is in the truth, whether...

The Purpose of Festivities and the Call to Virtue§13

13Whether poor or rich. And these things are only to this extent.

What could we say regarding the forgiveness of debts Luke 7:41, which the steward of injustice used as a consolation for himself among the evil ones, negotiating with his fellow slaves? For it is not easy to transform the written word into a consistent allegory. But what appeared to me after much observation is this: All people, as many as we negotiate with regarding the remission that is coming to us, by giving or forgiving what is foreign, we find ourselves acquiring profit. But I say 'foreign' refers to the things of the Master. For nothing is our own, but all are the possessions of His lordship.

Therefore, whenever anyone, sensing the end and the transfer from this place, lightens the burden of sins through small acts of kindness, or by forgiving debts to debtors or providing prosperity to the needy, giving the things of the Master, he acquires many friends who are to bear witness to his goodness before the Judge, and through their testimony, he prepares a welcome for his arrival. For those who have suffered well are said to bear witness before the Judge, not with voices as if teaching those who are ignorant, but as those who exclude the sinners from the punishment of the deed done against them. In the same way as the blood of Abel was said to cry out to God Genesis 4:10, so also the good work shall be said to bear witness to the one who has done well in Christ Jesus our Lord; to whom be the glory through the ages of ages. Amen.

Regarding the same man according to greed: Christian men and men who are partakers of a heavenly calling; you, the separated people, and all who have come out of the cities to sit together for the present harmonious feast; for I encompass you all in a general proclamation. Did each of you, having set his mind upon it, realize and understand for whose sake we have been gathered? Instead of being honored as witnesses by the magnificent decorations of houses and by these annual assemblies, and for what purpose we look...

Having seen these things, our fathers established a rule; and did they leave the law strong for those who follow?

Or was this expressed to us with a little more density in the mind, so that through our zeal for piety, these festivities are gathered as a common instruction for souls, so that honoring the witnesses, we might imitate the endurance of the martyrs for piety; so that, placing the ear of those gathered as students, we might learn something useful, which we did not know before, whether the security of a dogma, or the solution of a perplexing Scripture, or some word restoring the state of morals? (3.1.2)

But you seem to me to be abandoning the care of virtue and fleeing from the diligence concerning the soul, to turn all your concern toward the service of Mammon and the busyness of worldly affairs; some mingling with others, and some having run off to foreign things, and some recording those striving at the marketplaces, so that they might slander one another. (3.1.3)

But redirect your desire toward the Church; leave behind the love of silver, the marketplace, and the frenzied woman. Turn away from her as an unseemly companion who has attached herself to the crowd, beautifying herself with foreign materials and the flowers of the apothecary. Love this divine and soberly-sently ordered one, who looks on with dignity and without distraction. (3.1.4)

For thus Solomon says in the book of Proverbs: Do not abandon her, and she will endure for you. Love her and she will keep you. Do not pass by her in contempt, nor consider the things set before us at this table to be worthless, because it is possible for you to acquire possessions easily; but rather desire more, for we do not sit as shopkeepers carrying a yoke or a basket, but we seek one profit: the salvation of the disciple. (3.1.5)

There was read to us from the Acts of Paul a word to Festus and Agrippa, from Paul, the faithful apostle and wise orator. You have certainly seen, O listener, if... (3.2.1)

The Consequences of Greed§14

14You have applied the mind so that it does not surrender the truth out of cowardice, but by winning the difficult criterion through bold speech in the healing of Agrippa, it softens it toward goodness, like beasts watching the handling of the Word.

ariah has prophesied and even now opens the door to us of the great mysteries of the Only-Begotten through the stone, having the sevenfold vision, by means of the golden lampstand, upon which are the seven lamps and the two olive branches (cf. Zech 4). Many of the following Scriptures possess a rich treasure of benefit, to all of which I wished to come and show you the straightness of the spiritual festival.

3.2.3 The promise of the former work hastens me toward the construction of this debt. For having begun to be overwhelmed by many accusations of greed, lest we failed to strip vanity of it, we have set the refutation of the accusation toward the present day. Listen therefore and become discerning judges of the truth, since you judge not by other things, but by your own salvation, and you carry all the condemning votes upon the responsible party, each having driven his own soul away like a house or a city.

d, therefore, is not only to covet silver along with other possessions and to desire to join to what is present that which does not belong, but, to speak more generally, to desire to have more in every matter than what is owed and what is required.

indeed this overflow first suffered the devil, being an archangel and having been appointed over the most excellent life and order, yet conceiving tyranny and rebellion against the Divinity, the fool; then, having been cast down, having fallen into this surrounding air, he became an evil neighbor to our life.

3.3.3 For he did not grasp that which he pursued, the Divinity; and he lost that which he possessed, the archangelhood; an unfaithful slave who, through small acts of audacity, turned into a robber; a dog deprived of the myth and the meat among the Greeks, and having snatched not even the shadow, for how could he grasp an ungraspable thing?

3.3.4 After this, the first man, being enticed by pleasure, lost immortality through forbidden food, just as Esau later lost the firstborn things because of lentil stew (Gen 25:34). And these dialects and the many of the...

A love for more has introduced the voices of men into life. For those having overstepped with human arrogance, expecting to make heaven a path for themselves and making a ridiculous tower upon that vain ascent, they made the same-minded men into foreign-tongued men; and seeking the more which they had, they themselves were continued in this and left the human race to suffer in the hearing of senseless voices and the seeking of interpretations.

What then of Pharaoh? From where did he fall into diverse and varied scourges? Was it not because of greed and the desire to be lord over a foreign people and to not allow anything belonging to that kingdom from anywhere? And because of this, not having released the strangers, he destroyed his own: some in the plague of the firstborn, others in the pursuit by the sea. For I allow rivers to flow into blood, and an immeasurable generation of frogs, and filth of lice, and an outbreak of flies, and the death of the four-footed, and all the evils, by which Egypt was judged because of the greed of the ruler.

But elsewhere again we learned the end of sin: an incurable leprosy poured out upon the greedy one. Remind me also, if anyone is a lover of stories and a friend to the righteous Elisha, how the Syrian Naaman was cleansed of leprosy after washing in the Jordan, but how the disease passed to the child Gehazi, a greedy and unphilosophical youth, having sold the spiritual gift and the free healing of the teacher.

How then did Absalom become a rebel, the son of the gentle father, a flaming and impudent youth? Was it not by seeking the inheritance of the kingdom before the time, leaping upon others as a robber? And Judas, why did he cast out the remnant of the disciples, and instead of an apostle, he made himself a traitor? Was it not first acting as a thief in the treasury, and then the acquisition of dishonorable glory? Why do the Acts lament Ananias and Sapphira among the apostles? Was it not because they became thieves of their own and sacrilegious of the household's devoted things?

Perhaps even today the day will leave off counting the servants of greed. Leaving the old history, let us examine the experience following in life; for greed knows a beast, and whatever it takes, it is always at its peak and not...

The Greed of the Sick and the Weather-Watchers§15

15Wasting away, joining with those who are sinking and going to an end., the lover of bodies, even if it rages through desires for a long time, or even having reached priestly age itself or having grown old having seen what is desired and having cast off its bloom, finds a standing place for the disease. The stomach's lust withdraws, either having filled the belly or having become weak from digestive particles and having ceased the heightened appetite. The glory-seeker destroys himself with many flattering appearances of vanity. The disease of greed is an evil that is inseparable; and just like this ivy, the lush plant and evergreen, it climbs strongly and entwines itself around the trees upon which it intends to cling, and it does not withdraw, neither having suffered nor having dried up, unless someone cuts its coils with iron like a dragon; in this way, it is not easy to free the soul from such a thing, whether the body is being refreshed or having diminished, unless a sober thought comes and like a knife cuts the disease. Hose at home, the greedy man is unpleasant, to servants heavy, to friends useless, to strangers difficult to deal with, to neighbors a nuisance, to a cohabiting wife a burden, to children stingy and a meager provider, a bad overseer of himself, caring only by night, becoming thick during the day, reasoning with himself according to those who have strayed or are deviating; he is always complaining and groaning as if in need, not enjoying those present and seeking those absent, not using what is his own, but coveting what belongs to others. Flock of such a man is a great burden, narrowing the enclosures upon which it is penned, covering the pastures in which it grazes; even if a fleshy sheep appears to be approaching, having left his own flock, he approaches with desire toward the one and the other. The same happens with the oxen, similarly with the horses, and no differently with the earth. Everything narrows the house and nothing is useful in use; for the insatiable one is not even enjoyable, but his house is near a tomb. For behold, even tombs are often filled with silver and gold, but the inhabitants do not possess them. The body is not nourished, no profit is found for the soul; for almsgiving does not prosper from the right hand.

What is the end of toil? Let someone warned by such a disease teach this. I know many, having learned through experience, that even in sickness they love money more than health; if a doctor suggests a way of treatment through some substance, such as celery, thyme, or anise, of which supply is inexhaustible, they obey the advice readily; but if some medicine is required that is varied and complex, and they are commanded to go to the druggist or the perfumer, they are more ready to let go of their soul or to loosen their purse. For being earthly, they consider the prudence of possessing earthly goods to be life itself.

These are greatly distressed by common good fortunes, but circumstances bring them joy. They pray that tax-free decrees may come so that they may increase their silver through interest; they desire to see those distressed by lenders, so that they may acquire the field or the vessel or the animal being cast off easily out of necessity. And they constantly look up toward the sky after the philosophers, those attentive to the things in the air, not seeking a command from a star, nor peering to see if any house belongs to one of the planets, but rather attending to the busy state of the air, if the appearing signs promise a flow of rain or hail. Even if they see something difficult approaching for the many, they rejoice in the misfortune of others.

They gather everything into storerooms, marking it securely and fastening it with two locks; they count haphazardly while measuring. And when the greedy one is occupied with such a hope, and finally dreams of becoming rich in the shadow-sketch of ideas, if a deep cloud occurs, he fears it as being dangerous. If light sprinkles the earth, he begins to tear up; but if even rain occurs sufficient to end the hail, it is a matter of complete mourning.

He therefore wanders about, scrutinizing everything regarding the grain as if a son were in danger, asking what shall heal, what machine is needed, so that for a long time it may suffice for many, so that it may escape the blight of the crops. Even if he feels a heat, as doctors have spread him out to differentiate it, he divides and cools himself, settling his toil, a shelter according to the midday.

The Perils of Inheritance and the Example of Lazarus§16

16He acts like a wise man, stripping away the shadows of night, so that he may be lulled by the night breezes. Poverty stands by this man while he is toiling, seeking from the endangered grain and not giving; or if he does give, he gives grudgingly, and is himself barely covered by a half-measure of grain. Therefore, I urge you, such a person, not to engage in endless toil and hardship.

For both the luxurious covetous man, who limits his life to the stomach and other pleasures, thinking this to be the end of humanity, is worthy of pity. But the small-minded and short-spoken man has no measure of his wretchedness, taking the portion of many and not giving to himself, bringing his haste to nothing.

For who does not know that nothing of the things happening, except virtues, happens by itself, but we do something else in order that we may achieve something else? No one sails more by the act of sailing itself, nor does a farmer live by his labors for the sake of farming alone; but it is evident that both proceed with painful endurance, one to reap the fruitfulness of the earth, the other to carry off the wealth of maritime commerce. And you, say what your end is. Is it to gather things together? And what kind of end is this, to see having heaped up useless matter?

He says, 'The sight even delights me.' Has your own sickness not changed? For it is possible to soothe desire even with the money of others. If the glitter of silver delights you, sitting before the silversmiths, looking at the dense and shining light, or taking pleasure in various vessels, both those that carry food and those that pour; for the sight is easy and unhindered for you.

See also the silver-experts at the tables, constantly feeling and counting the coins; rather, I will advise you: change your mind through something good. For correction is easy, since greed is not a necessity of nature, but an impulse of choice, which is not difficult to change for those choosing what is profitable.

Peer with your thought into the time hereafter, when you will not be, when a little earth will lie over you, your body folded up and senseless; and a few flakes of ash will cover the remains. Where then will the wealth and the gathered treasures be? Who will be the heir of those left behind? For not all...

That person will be the successor you expect. If you leave children, they might happen to stumble, and a greedy person like you might drive them away from the father's house while they are mourning. Even if you are poor and send the inheritance to some friends, do not treat the will as an unshakeable law, as an irrefutable and strong thing. A little haste makes the writing void. Do you not see those constantly struggling in the courts against wills, where lawyers lead various schemes, bringing in legal experts to strike against them, bringing in terrible rhetoricians as helpers, nurturing false witnesses, and corrupting the courts?

For this reason, regarding those things you see happening, instruct those who come after you. If you have wealth justly, use it properly, like the blessed Job; if unjustly, distribute it to those who were plundered, like a prisoner of war; or take what you received along with an addition, like Zacchaeus. If you do not have it, do not acquire it wickedly. For sin will follow you as a bitter provision on a necessary journey, and the enjoyment of what was acquired will be left to those you do not know. Then you will marvel at David saying, 'He stores up, but does not know to whom he will gather it' (Ps 69:8). And you will know the rich man, the opposite of Lazarus, who has been fully read to us from the Gospels, not composed as a myth for astonishment, but handed down as an exact type of what is to come.

The deep has been spread out, the kingdom has passed to another, the luxuries have been abolished; sin from those things has emigrated along with them like a shadow remaining to a walking body. And because of this, after the luxury of banquets and the elegant table, a thin drop of water is sought, departing from a finger thin from disease; and he calls the poor man the healer of punishment, who perhaps does not even have hands when he rushes to the gate; for he would have driven away the dogs that were licking the wounds. And he desires to mingle with Lazarus, who is seen from afar, but is divided by the trench or the chasm; not a pit truly dug or a trench made, as one sees the battle line of war on the plains, but the obstacle, I think, of the...

Greed as the Root of Evil§17

The Fruits of Covetousness§18

The Root of Conflict and Divine Providence§19

The Widow and Elisha§20

20A certain woman is written about, a widow, being greatly weighed down by the misfortune of loneliness. A money-loving and misanthropic creditor was besieging her, taking away her sons, whom the mother had as her only ones instead of all. And when the matter stood for her in helplessness and no one having gold showed mercy, she came to the one possessing philanthropy and faith.

And this Elisha was the prophet, a man of the earthly substances being generous and abounding in the incorporeal possession; a philosopher from plowmen, unhoused, without support, living alone; having inherited recently, and having received the inheritance a widow's jar and an invisible blessing descending from the fiery chariot. He did not by any means send the entreaty unworked, nor did he reject the help because the sought-after thing was not present, nor did he say any base or faithless words, like one of the many: 'And from where to me is silver, so as to dissolve the debt?'

Just as an excellent physician and pharmacist, when not present, found the cure for the disease from extraordinary thoughts, so he says, 'What to you, O woman, upon the house? Remember if there is even a little inside.' For no one is so poor as to be suddenly the master of nothing. And as he said, that it is a jar and a little remnant of oil in it, 'Prepare for me,' he said, 'a multitude of vessels.' And she hurried, and he through it filled them, and to the creditor the debt was dissolved; and the woman departed from helplessness finding a way.

For the very little oil, which was to be with her, she said to the prophet, filled from the extraordinary and all the prepared amphorae; and then the flow stood, when there was no longer a vessel to receive; and to the need the grace was measured. Truly that was oil, which the plant did not bear, but the mercies of God flourished.

Acquire this knowledge, if you are able, kings, rulers, the wealthy, from the sun setting until it rises twice. You, the wise of the worldly wisdom, acquire the gift of the prophet from the plowmen, which was inexhaustible to the one receiving it. For the possessions of your zeal are surrounded by countless dangersrs: robbers breaking through walls, tyrants snatching, and informers attacking, the sea sinking, and the earth being cracked by chasms.

Let there therefore be hope and a storehouse for men, the right hand of God, which led the people of Egypt out and in a desert land provided the abundance of good things; which led the Ambakum to Daniel, and saved Ishmael having been cast off from the mother's embrace, and sufficed to each generation, and lastly multiplied five barley loaves as if infinite agriculture, so that one loaf might fill the stomach of a thousand starving men and be enough for the basket of the remnants. To our God be the glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

The False Celebration§21

The Perils of Festive Debt§22

22We celebrate in this way the appointed days; and for every human matter, talk is considered the leader; but where the cause and the goal are absent, this is mere chatter and vanity.

O, the absurdity! All those who have received wander about, hoping from one another. Those who receive are grieved, and those who have received do not hold on. For the gift passes to others, and the one who receives from the responsible party gives to the one above. The gold of this day is unstable, like a ball in play, being sharply passed by me to the other.

And it is a new manner of gift-bearing and of service, having the contribution as a necessity. For the greater and more glorious one is shamed, the lesser one asks, and all move by steps upon the bosoms of the superior ones. And what happens during the rushing of the waters, this is now to be seen.

For there, a thin stream having flowed out mixes its currents with the one with it and the greater; and that one is covered again by the one more flooding, and many even thinner streams being gathered together become an addition to a neighboring river; this one again passes to another of the greater, and another to another, until the last one establishes the water by depth and breadth like the sea.

This feast is pseudonymous, full of extortion; for both the procession and the inner stay were not undisturbed. For the actors and the wonder-workers of the orchestra, having divided themselves into ranks and systems, wander through each house; and indeed they speak well and applaud, but they remain more conveniently at the gates of the practitioners, until the one inside is cut off.

Silver, being besieged, goes before what it has and what it does not have. Approaching the doors in exchange, they receive one another, and until a late night there is no respite from evil, but one outcry takes hold of another, and one calamity of another.

This is the best feast and becomes the cause of loans for men, and of their offspring; a starting point of poverty, the beginning of misfortunes. If anyone, because of the unreliability of his substance, cannot even find a lender, he is dragged away like one failing to pay royal taxes, weeps like one being taken captive, is consumed like one who has fallen to a robber, is guarded, and is flogged.

If there is even a little in the house for the sustenance of a wife and struggling children, this is sent ahead; but those starving sit amidst the crowd during the bright feast. It is a new law of bad habit, to celebrate boredom and to call a general assembly of men's destitution.

This day teaches even small children to be grasping and simple-minded lovers of silver, and prepares them to plunder from house to house and to bring new gifts, while being bound by silver. But the giving of the double is a repayment, and from here the dishonest and the unrestrained begin to impress those with simple minds among the young.

And what does this day prepare for the holy and best farmers! It works for them a city that is fleeing and unapproachable; and more so are they paying it back than hares pay back the nets. For those found are flogged, are reproached, lose what is in their hands, are fought against in peace, are insulted, and are mocked by words and deeds.

The Folly of Human Riches§23

23Our best prophets, the helpless animals, the simple images of God, and the faithful slaves of our life in freedom are filled with insolence. Thus the perfect, the poor, the children, and the rustic ones are affected. Some toil, some grumble, and some learn what is not good to know.

Let us consider how even unarmed soldiers are harmed by this festival. They suffer financial loss and, for a single lapse, they offer the food-allowance of war. They are harmed in their ways and characters. For they learn lawlessness, the conveniences of tents, and a dissolution and softness of character, and childishness against the laws and the order for which they were set as guards.

For they mock and drag down the greatest authority, ascending like a chariot upon a stage, and ordaining spear-bearers with minds gone astray, and publicly doing things of the outcasts toward ruin. And these are the most solemn things of the procession. And as for the others, how could anyone say?

Does not even the hero, he who is lion-hearted, who after being armed was seen as wonderful by his own people and fearsome to his enemies, also become womanish when having uncovered himself? And he lets the tunic go down to the hips, and wraps the belt around his chest, and uses womanish sandals, and places the fillet upon his head, which is a law for women? And he carries the wool-filled basket and lowers the thread with his right hand, which once used to carry the trophy? And alternating the tone of the soul, does he speak more sharply and womanishly? These are the useful things of the festival; the...

These are the things concerning the public feast today. And those having ascended to the summit of human offices, the much-boasting officials, spend their wealth in vanity, scattering heaps of money toward the unfruitfulness of justice and the fruit of sin; of which the folly is so conspicuous, as high as the throne.

For having entered into many human thrones and having governed the greatest of royal authorities, they take ungraciously the greatest things from everything; some having embezzled the rations of poor soldiers, others many times having sold justice and truth, and others having exhausted the wealth of the royal treasuries without limit and having diligently gathered from everywhere; yet being sparing of no reproach, not being lacking, not being unjust; and provoking God, they sit now, and after a little time dividing the gold to vagabonds, ill-fated ones, and mimes and dancers and androgynes and women who are prostitutes, providing the body to the people; and again to impure and hopeless gladiators and to the beasts themselves. For it is evident, just as gold feeds the beasts, one buying meat for them, another the fodder.

And all these things are prepared with one haste, so that the names of their transactions may be written beforehand. Oh, the madness! Oh, the blindness! God promises to write the names of the nurturers of the poor in living books, the immortal ones, the incorruptible ones, which you do not make vanish and time does not erase; and those letters you will not see, nor will you make any account.

The Vanity of Earthly Riches and Honors§24

24Do you not seek to be written in the memory of God, rather than in the promise of blessedness? For this is the living book.

He speaks much of writing by contract-writers, and of the uneducated speaking crudely and making noise, and of flatterers among the people; a poor judge of what is needed, and a careless examiner of what is useful.

Give to the impoverished man who is struggling, not to the ruined musician; grant to the widow before the prostitute, and to the venerable woman who has been called forth before the public. Labor for the orphan, whom a holy virgin sings to God, and not for a shameless singer who cares only for the sight of the crowd to hunt for followers; satisfy the orphan, release the debt of the poor, and you shall see a glory that endures forever.

Many purses are cast into emptiness for the sake of shameful and disorderly laughter, not knowing how many tears the poor bestow, from which abundance was gathered; how many were bound, how many were flogged, how many came near the yoke and the bridle, so that today those who are indulging may receive. And what is the end? Vanity.

After everything, a small tomb, the body shrinking to a garment of a few obols, oblivion after a little while, and the consuming passion of time covering all that was labored for; judgment upon these is inevitable, from God and the punishment of evil disposition.

Where are the governors? Count those of yesterday and of former times. One was not cut off like the criminals of the head, falling through the continuous movement of a charging multitude; and was he sent off more like a funeral than when he was being carried upon a litter in the pride of his office? Another, having attained honor through the same military strategy, perished badly in the outskirts of Egypt and Libya, fleeing the punishment of the sentence, and finally entreating the sands, since all the land through which he wandered was waterless and uninhabited.

And what shall we say of the one from among the generals and governors, who is now passing through the land of Colchis and is being saved by the philanthropy of the barbarians there?

And that one from the former times, who, as he thought, had a fearless and lion-like mind—what a destruction of life he endured! First, he saw his own son being decapitated; then he himself received the vote for death, and when the rope was already being brought to his mouth, a royal philanthropy restrained the executioner from acting. Having lived a little longer, the old man delayed his end through pains and misfortunes and through the perception of evils, departing from life in disgrace, finding this to be the end of great governorship.

And how he of the past year cared for greater things than the giants, being able to contend with both women and men; fleeing the rods of lords, he desired the rods of governors; he acquired land such that it is not easy even to say, yet he was buried in as much as the one who pitied him bestowed.

Is it not, then, according to the wise Ecclesiastes (Eccl 1:2), that all such things are vanity of vanities, and honors are phantoms of unsubstantial dreams, pleasing for a little while, then passing away, blooming and then withering? We, therefore, standing firm in the Word until then, let us send glory to the Savior.

The Purpose of Marriage and the Women's Question§25

25This is the same homily of Asterius from the Gospel according to Matthew, on the subject: 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?'

A good company of these two days is found for the Christians and the hard-working ones, I say, the Sabbath and the Lord's Day, which the cycle of time revolves around every week. For just as mothers or nurses of the church gather the people and establish the priests as teachers, they also lead the disciples and the teachers into the care of souls. For me, therefore, the word of the Friday still echoes, and the things suffered are settled in the memory.

I see the cross springing from the prophecy of Isaiah, and the garments of the Lord as if stained with blood like those of the lamb, and the Savior carrying the reward at hand on his right hand. And I see Solomon, the scales and the weights being precise for power. And I pity the debtor of the Gospel, not sharing with the fellow-slave of philanthropy, which he received from the master, but renewing his own misfortune from thoughtlessness and hardness of heart.

For these headings, as you all know, we burned with desire during the past session, you who did not place your listening in a secondary matter.

But today again there are many and all good things for us, as many as the Spirit has set upon the table being seen. And I applied my mind to the unhospitable and testing Pharisees, and I pitied them greatly for the exhaustion of their ways, through which they attempted to appear wise by their own questions, seeking the source of wisdom; and they failed to grasp the essence of the Only-begotten Divinity, as their questions were always turning away from it.

Concerning these, it seems to me, Isaiah also, prophesying, was saying: 'They turn the prudent backward and make foolish their counsel, and they weave the words of his child'; and again...

They were acting deceitfully with their tongues; let God judge them; let them fall away from their conspiracies. However, they are even useful, for they have set wisdom in motion toward an answer, so that for us, the servants, a record remains of what is profitable for learning.

For behold, marriage is being regulated, a central matter of human life, and the terms for its joining and its dissolving are being strictly legislated. Let the two ranks listen most earnestly, so that the women's sphere may be instructed in its own matters and the men's sphere may be benefited by the exceptional things.

If it is permitted for a man to divorce his wife for every cause (Matt 19:3)—this is the question posed by the Hebrews. I see the purpose of the question among the others. Because the female race is more easily persuaded and leans more toward the working of wonders and toward the agreement and faith in the divinity of Christ, even so, the multitude of women, who were the last of the man-slayers by drawing the Lord toward the cross by their will, were moved to passion and followed the Savior weeping compassionately, so that they might devise some obstacle and hostility toward Him through the mechanism of women's schemes—they themselves, as they thought, applied the traps and the yokes through words.

But the Lord, seeing the wickedness being constructed by the power of divinity, and also dogmatizing the friends of the cross in their lives, working for them a vain ambush, while assisting the women, puts forward the answer, having sent the Pharisees away empty like wolves, surrounding them with the hollow question. She Creation says, the purpose is demonstrated for union and not for dissolution; and regarding marriage, the Creator was first the wedding-procession leader, having joined the first-formed men in the bond of marriage, giving to them...

The Role and Fidelity of the Wife§26

26After being born, the sequence of living together is necessary, which should be honored as God's law. Those joined to one another are no longer two, but one flesh; so what God has joined, let no man separate (Matthew 19:6). These things were said to the Pharisees then; but now listen, you who easily change markets and wives like garments; who frequently and easily frequent the brothels as if they were festival works; who marry for ease and trade wives; who are easily provoked and immediately write the document of divorce; who leave many widows while still living.

Be persuaded that marriage is cut off only by death and adultery. For it is not like the concubines, where a short number of days disturbs the living together and only hunts pleasure, so it is with those performed according to law and decree; but on the contrary, O man, a single union occurs of both body and soul, just as character is intertwined with character and the flesh is in a certain way bound to the fleshesh.

How then will you cut it off indifferently? How will you easily and without pain withdraw, having taken a share of life, having served for only a few days, the sister and wife? A sister according to the word of formation and creation, for from one cause of the earth and the same matter you came into being; but a wife through the union of the marriage, through the law of marriage.

What then bond will you break, being bound by law and by nature? And how will you set aside the vows which you laid upon the marriage? And who does he think I am to speak to you? Is it perhaps regarding the dowry written here, when with your own hand I mark it in the book while sealing the completed things?

For those are indeed strong and have sufficient security; yet I refer myself to the voice of Adam (Genesis 2:23): 'This is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bones; she shall be called my wife.'

This voice is not preserved as a vain copy, but is a common confession of men, set forth through the one person of this first man for the common multitude of women joining to men by law. And do not marvel if, from those whom another said, another is held accountable. For all things that happened concerning the first-formed in the beginning, these...

A nature of a following kind was produced. If, having taken the book of creation, a wife abandoned her mother and dragged you before the judge, the very same judge and witness, what words would you say? How will you erase your own voice, which you made before God, where the writer became Moses, the servant of God, instead of a mere scribe?

God gave the woman to Adam without fault and without blemish, and for this reason, as a good guardian, He protected the orphan. But now daughters use the rights of the mother strongly against ignorant and faithless men, so that for you, contempt for the wife is impossible from any direction, being bound by the ancient divine laws and the new human ones.

Let the usefulness of the woman for life also restrain you. She is a member, she is a helper; a partner for the enjoyment of life and for the generation of children; a helper in sickness, a consolation in tribulations, a guardian of the hearth, a treasure of possessions; the same when grieving, the same when rejoicing; possessing wealth in common, if it should fail; managing hard poverty, bravely and patiently enduring what is painful through her, toiling in child-rearing because of her dwelling with you.

But if a crisis of circumstances should seize her, she vanishes when baptized; but those considered friends, measuring friendship by the season of prosperity, withdraw in terrible times; slaves flee both the master and the misfortunes together.

Therefore, the wife remains: a member of the part that is sick, a slave to the evils, and the tear that wipes away the healing of the husband; healing the wound if it is struck; following the one being led to prison; and even if one allows her to enter, she shares the pleasure of the confinement; but if even this is forbidden, she remains at the doors of the prison, as a little dog accustomed to her master.

I knew a woman who had cut her hair and put on manly clothing, this flowering garment, so that she would not be separated while the man was fleeing and hiding. She seemed to be a slave, but truly she was a slave to passion; and she lived this life for many years, moving from place to place and from desert to desert. We find such a thing also in the most patient Job.

The Virtues of a Wife vs. the Cruelty of Men§27

27For everyone left her; even the flatterers fled with the wealth, and friends measured their friendship by the season of prosperity. If they did happen to appear, their presence was a reproach rather than a visit; a burden of misfortune, not a consolation. Therefore, all the bad comforters withdrew from him.

But she, who was once distinguished by her toil, stayed with her husband, leaving aside the filth and pulling out the worms of the wounds. Thus, she was a partner of his life, not a companion of his prosperity; an inseparable friend, not a flatterer of pleasures; leaving behind only all kindness, all most-dear qualities, and all kinship.

Therefore, out of extreme and excessive friendship for a man, and toward the sin of blasphemy, she fell, so that the man might not be punished for a long time, nor see him in unmanageable pains, by saying a blasphemous word toward God, advising him and that he might undergo a swift end. For she did not consider her own remaining misfortune, that of widowhood; but she had only one concern, how the man might escape an unlivable life. These things, along with the new trial and the memory of the old, instruct the wedding-insulter.

What then would the one responsible for the accusation say toward these things? And what kind of fair-faced defense of his own ease would he put forward? 'Worthless,' he says, 'and worthy of hatred is the character of the woman, and her tongue is impudent, and her manner is not domestic, and her management is lawless.' Let it be so; let it be granted. I am completely persuaded and I accept, that judges who are not very precise in hearing easily are dragged along by the attacks of the accusers.

But you say: 'While leading the beginning, did you not know that you were connecting with a human? And having heard of a human, does one not immediately see a small sin following? For God's alone is the ungraspable. Do you not yourself sin? And do you not cause grief to the woman by your manner? And are you innocent of all wrongdoing and do you keep the institution of living together without corruption?'

O how much chance of rebuke your wife brought! And how many ready insults and indecent words she endured! And how many of your faults are kept silent, because the woman did not publish them! She endured you even while you were becoming angry and your spirit was boiling; and the free and equal one was silenced.

She was like a slave from a market. She did not reproach you for not providing the necessities for the conduct of life due to poverty or stinginess. Nor did she ever reject you after coming from a banquet, having drunk wine and being out of her mind because she hated drunkenness; rather, she received you with human sympathy, and she led you, who were punishing yourself, and she treated the head with the vapors of the wine being poured out. And she alone, sympathizing, led you to the marriage bed, while the servants were laughing and mocking the excess from the drunkenness.

But you, bypassing the amphorae, sing songs against the woman on cold pretexts, so that you might prepare sympathy for yourself for the imminent division. The mind of such men is hard, beastly and unmerciful, having a birth from oak or stone, according to what is said. For they are cut off indifferently, erasing the memory of all at once.

But who, instead of healing a sick limb, cuts it off, and this not having considered a dangerous disease, but having much hope for an easy cure? A blister occurred on the hand, let us treat it carefully; an inflammation pursued the foot, let us settle the irritation with medicine. And if, being present, we had attended to the physicians' inspection regarding the incision and the iron, and had occupied ourselves with each of those who were suffering, we would not have lost even a small amount of life's time, but would have amputated ourselves for all the limbs.

But not so, O men; let there be some memory of the punishments; let the healings of women make you ashamed. However much you may be provoked, if you withstand the pangs of a single birth against the reproaches, you will find the situation of those who suffer to be conquered.

Let the calculation be referred to the middle, and let the good things be included in the goodwill: the healing of diseases, the sharing of misfortunes, the tears presented to some on behalf of a husband, the leaving of those she gave birth to and the parental table to follow a stranger, the selling of something of her own so that she might drive away the insolence and trouble of the husband. Let all these things instruct toward a disposition and let them become a bond of affection, such as a more modest house awakening and holding together the easily slipping soul. But let mercy prevail, and habit, and living together for a long time, let it not be struck by...

The Bond of Marriage and the Call to Sobriety§28

28It is irrational of animals to be held together without passion. For I saw with passion a bellowing ox, because having wandered from its companions it remained stuck, and a sheep being thrown into a pit and running through the mountains until it could reunite with the flock from which it was separated while grazing. And a goat, experiencing this same thing, even if it runs through many herds of kids, does not stand still until it finds its usual place and its own sharp-edged way.

Therefore, let us not be found more passionless toward friendship than the irrational ones who are rational, nor let us judge the marriage of a companion to be less honorable because of having become friendly in a short time through a small pretext. You see how even on the high road, men having mixed with one another, having gone under the same roof of a building or having shaded themselves at midday in a tree embracing them in the season of summer, make the encounter an occasion for genuine disposition; and even if they come to the road that divides, they do not depart from one another passionlessly, but they stand and weep, looking intently at one another, and each gives tokens of memory to carry; and having advanced a little, they turn back again and call out, and one prays for the other the spiritual things; and does a little time thus sharpen the friendship so acutely, that it becomes unchangeable to them and their departure is established?

But you, toward the one who is a sharer of life, act so contemptuously, as toward a vessel fallen or a cheap garment forgotten on a journey or a rag of the Melitians departing a house? And where is the disposition formed in the beginning? Where is the rest upon the one bed, the joining of the law, the strength of much and long habit, which is even transformed into nature and has a reason, and experience has shown? Having cut off everything more easily than Samson cut the cords of the Philistines (Judges 16).

Even if he is sober and a guardian of his disposition, he does not easily forget the life of the marriage even after it has departed, but he warms the children as a common deposit of the mother and of nature, and in them he seems to see the one who has gone. For one preserves the likeness of the mother's voice, another is drawn to much of the character, another is formed in the state of the character toward the one who bore him; and thus the father preserves many.

Having the living and manifest image of the marriage as an immortal pattern, he imagines the cohabitation toward it and for this reason does not conceive any unseemly thought. Not today, having entered the tomb, after a little time, does he prepare wedding feasts; nor does he hasten to a wedding dance again after the weeping and the groans; nor does he mix the black and mourning garment into a bridal attire; nor does he introduce a second marriage into the warm bed of the one who has departed; nor does he give the heavy name to the children.

He imitates the irrational and natural dignity of the birds. For they say that even that bird, having been separated from its mate, loves the widowship continuously and stands in opposition to the dove, making it easy toward polygamy.

Until this, let the man be cast heavily with accusations, and let the insults of ignorance sting him more densely with veils. If, however, an accusation of adultery is brought forward and such is provided as the defense for the separation, I will immediately shift my sympathy to the wronged one, and having prepared the argument against the adulteress, I will stand as a good ally to the man instead of an enemy, praising the one who fled the aggressor, the one who broke the bond to which he was bound with a shield or an echidna.

For by this, the Creator of all gives forgiveness first, as it is just for one who is suffering and rightly driving away the sickness of the house and the hearth. For marriage consists of these two: disposition and child-rearing, neither of which is saved after adultery. For the disposition is not one that turns away from another of goodwill; and child-rearing is lost when the children are poured out.

But regarding those leading toward this, the sin is stated in another hypothesis proportionately. Let both sides practice sobriety, the unbreakable bond of marriages. For where this is honored, there must always be both peace and longing, without the soul desiring any common and illegitimate passion, casting out the lawful and just affection.

This law of sobriety was established by God not for women only, but also for men. And those paying attention to the law-makers of this life are not without shame.

The Overflowing Grace of the Spirit§29

Exhortation to Moral Renewal§30

The Corruption of the Court and the Appeal to God§31

The Judgment and the Pattern of Holiness§32

32A courtroom, and the truth was not delayed.

Therefore, arise to me, O blessed Daniel, and now by the word as you were awakened, and then by the Spirit; say also that you are innocent of this blood, just as Pilate later did against the raving Hebrews. Analyze the people upon the criterion; give a beginning to the justice that has been badly completed; set the false judges to be judged; let the order of the protectors be changed, and let the woman observe the elders, just as she herself a little while ago was a spectacle of the city.

Let the captive judge the citizens; the stranger the locals; the youth the old. Use a holy mouth for the Spirit; for you do not have unclean lips, as Isaiah says of himself reviling himself; nor do you need one of the Seraphim or the cleansing coal. Depart wisely from the false judges, so that they may not also leap upon your own questions as a woman leaps in paradise.

For how we may clearly learn the beginning of the words of the thrice-blessed child: Having grown old through days of evil, now your sins, which you did formerly, have come to you, condemning the innocent and releasing the guilty. O the wonder and the great liberty of the Spirit! For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

See, for it does not even hold back in the preambles; but, piercing into the depth of the conscience and seeing the souls of the elders as filled with sinst seeks neither witness nor proofs; but is insulted and reviled with insolence, because the prophet has the decision written upon his chest.

And as far as it reached him, he would not even have said anything, but he sent them away unreservedly to the punishment; so that he might convince a foolish people and empty judges of the city, who accuse but do not judge according to the truth, and he brings to them the experience of questioning, separated from the truth and the falsehood of the discourse...

Mindful of the response, he exposes; and having brought forth the judgment, he does not give accountability to humans, but calls angels to be tormentors against them. For the dignity of the saints has grown to such an extent that they have invisible powers serving them.

What then happens to the defiled? Judgment was prepared; and they went away, giving the penalty through death for the old lawlessness and the new sin; and all Babylon had the paradox of what was happening through the mouth, and they blasphemed God with hymns, having made public the knowledge of the hidden deeds. And Hezekiah was refreshed rejoicing over the daughter; Joachim made a triumph for the feast of the wife; and twenty-nine children, legitimate and of temperate offspring, smile with faces surrounding the mother, and the much-teared grief was transformed into joy.

You, however, the people of Christ, most pious and soul-benefiting, having heard these histories, do not let the hearing pass by indifferently, but make the word a training and discipline for your own life. Women, emulate Susanna; thus guard toward men the temperance as she did toward herself; she accepted to suffer and to be in danger rather than to defile her life with adultery. Adultery provokes God, shames a man, destroys house and hearth, and works uncertain children. You elders, hate such old men; you rulers, fear the end of the lawless judges.

You young people, imitate the young man, so that in this way every age may be formed into the pattern of beautiful character, so that the whole fullness of the church may become holy and well-pleasing in Christ Jesus our Savior, to whom belong glory, might, and honor, with the co-ruling Father and with His all-holy and life-giving Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

The Master Defends Himself Against Insulters§33

The Eye as a Masterpiece of Divine Wisdom§34

34While the Hebrews had our Lord and Savior, like a careful and wise physician, who does not employ another method of treatment for a first experience of a disease, he intends to heal a blind man who was found from birth, not having become blind through any fault or suffering, but by a defect of nature produced from the womb into life.

Having seen the man, he stood and was ready for healing, a healing superior to human speech and art. For medical speech imposes upon those diseases a theory—those things which, after nature has completed the animal and leads it toward light, happen in certain circumstances later—but when the disease is joined to the body, healing is not promised of a fault. Yet not even of all the sufferings that come about later.

And the maimed of men are witnesses to this, for no physician has repaired the loss of their limbs. Therefore also the disciples, having seen the suffering and seeing a man who had not tasted the best pleasure of light, were searching for the cause of the harm and were inquiring from the Lord, not very knowing, whether he was brought into life such as this because of his own sin or because of the faults of his parents (cf. John 9:2).

On both sides the question carries a consequence; for the child would not have been judged on account of the fathers, God not punishing one for another; nor indeed did he escape punishment for his own faults, if this one was born blind. For no one is a sinner before birth. Therefore the inquiry is not very proven; but so that we may learn how the truth, our Lord, responded to the question.

For this suffering, he says, 'O disciples, is not a retribution for sins, but a preparation for an upcoming economy, so that the man formerly considered common might act the things above man, and the Creator of all things, after the first creation, might find an occasion now to create, and through the particular might be made to trust the universal, and the hard and difficult people might be persuaded to worship, casting away the stones.'

Let the eyes that do not see be enlightened, so that the sun of righteousness (cf. Malachi 4:2) might shine upon the souls of the unwise.

Let a paradoxical thing be set forth and new sights be created, so that those who are in dispute may learn how the so-called son of Joseph, if he were truly a carpenter's boy, would have been able to mend a split plank, or gather together wood torn from harmony, or see a broken beam, or smooth the roughness of the boards, or do entirely those things which a craftsman father teaches his son according to the skill of the trade.

And a part of man, and the most beautiful part, the eye, which is most lovingly fashioned by nature, no one else could have made, unless he who has the authority of the first principle according to nature. Even if someone wishes to apply his mind closely to human limbs, in this very thing, the form of the body, he will behold the almighty and manifold wisdom of God in a small descriptive representation, such as the zeal of the art has demonstrated. For first, a certain grace is poured out upon it, and it is both most soft and incorporeal, as one might say, having the solid within the tender, and the arranged within the soft, and it is streaked with various colors.

Its center indeed has the description of black, and this is not a single-colored thing throughout, but connected with various circles; its center and middle having the deepest part, while the outer periphery is fading in color toward the more yellow part. Around this, the white has been draped from without, shining and lucid, not having a white that is unmixed, but having been made in a certain crystalline and beaming form. The red lies around the pupil, so that it may mix grace with the white and the black. Upon these things, it is thus lucid and smooth in its density, so that even those nearby make shapes like images, and like an accurate mirror, the characters of those being conversed with are impressed; for this reason also its middle circle, the center, is called a pupil, always showing a human form to the one looking opposite. For just as it is not possible for one looking into a mirror not to immediately shadow his own character upon the material, so it is not possible for the one standing as a representative of man not to engrave the familiar form upon the eye. When, indeed, men look at one another...

The Power of the Siloam Washing§35

35They become mirrors to one another. Therefore, the eye is worthy of wonder among the created things. For this also interprets God to me, accurately perceiving all of creation and, by pointing out the artisan through the working of things, it interprets the invisible to the soul from the visible; through this I have knowledge of the sun and the order of the heavens, and I have studied the beauty of the stars and the substance and nature of the earth, the difference of seeds and the variety of plants and the diverse coloring of hues, the depth of darkness and the shining of light, and all simply as much as God has created.

If an eye had not existed, creation would have been without witness, with no one seeing the wisdom and power of God being preserved within it. Because of this, therefore, this wonderful arrangement of the eyes, the eyes were also created by design, so that we might cast off the lowly ideas approaching us from the flesh concerning the Only-begotten, by the great work of things coming to be, casting out from the soul every lowly and vulgar conceit; let us know, however, that the blessed light and beauty of the divinity received an earthen vessel to serve us, like lamps, the shining light.

The Lord performs the healing himself, and he does not use word alone for the operation, having supported all through his command for the adornment; he healed the paralytic with two words; but he also heals the blindness now with mouth and hands and much other foresight, so that he might instill firm faith through things into the unbelieving.

He stoops upon the ground and works a clot with saliva, using the earth for this purpose toward the healing, so that he might show how from that clay, whence in the beginning the living creature was formed in its entirety, a complete part is being made from the remainder. With saliva he takes this up and joins together what was scattered and unattached, so that he might show us clearly that by the power of his mouth the Word set all things in order. For by the word the heavens were established (Ps 33:5), and by the spirit of his mouth all their power (Job 33:4).

Perhaps also because of this he heals by stooping, so that those about to insult a little later with spittle might be subdued by fear; and yet the insolence of the madmen did not cease, but he was spat upon much by the...

Such things are achieved through a fall. In this first act, the creative power is shown, and by the command to wash in the pool of Siloam, the salvation through water is demonstrated to us, which the one sent (Siloam) granted to all. For then we see well when we are cleansed by the mystical water; then the light of grace surrounds us, when the power of baptism washes away the stain of sins and the spots. And all who obey the command of Siloam see the spiritual light, which enlightens every man coming into the world. Oh, the wonder and the great energy!

The man, blind a moment ago, went out from the pool with his face adorned by the addition to his eyes, seeing accurately toward the solar ray. The matter astonished the neighbors and the acquaintances. The new manner of the healing disturbed his life; the man was surrounded by the city, seeing that the work was becoming known by all, new and paradoxical, by Jesus born in Bethlehem, that little infant who was laid in the manger among the rushes. For these are the things which caused the Jews to disbelieve in the divinity.

Not then, O foolish and hard-hearted ones, apply your reasoning to the men of the age. Beginning from Adam, investigate all the following, if you find what has happened now and has been done upon others, having a life that is a model of such a healing; and again, at the dragging away of my Lord, you bring forward the child of the carpenter, whose brothers you know, whose house you know. Count all the lowly things, contend, and pour out much of our dishonor. But if neither man has done anything of this kind, nor has life had such a story, having recognized your own ignorance, look back toward the truth. Wash also yourselves in the Siloam, so that you do not perish in blindness.

But nothing was as it should be regarding them. Neither a word instructed, nor a deed taught, nor the energy of wonders nourished; but on the contrary, through innate ignorance, they attempted in myriad ways to obscure and to drag away; and malice turned back upon them to the contrary. For as much as they disbelieved, and asking...

The Inheritance of Unbelief§36

36They strove to overturn it, for the truth was being made more certain by so much. And he suffered the same from the beasts as those, having been wounded by something and not yet having received the whole point in the stomach, with a rush and rivalry, concentrating all the iron upon itself.

ddlingness: if this same man, and not another in his place, was shown; this being clearly testified by the man, who cried out and clearly reported the sequence of the healing, that even the mud was used as a medicine for the blindness, and that the washing of the mud in the pool provided sight. These things the neighbors investigated and learned; the Pharisees sought and did not believe.

technique for the invalidation of what had happened was taken up, to try to show that Christ is not the one who worked the healing. Since the man cried out to the Savior and gave back the grace by his confession and his proclamation, and made public the benefactor, they, being prevented in their mouths, reeling in their opinion, having nothing what to do, again to the inquiry of the passion, and whether he was blind from birth; they investigate this and search the parents of the man, becoming precise examiners of each person, not in order to confirm what was done, but in order that they might receive an overturning of the wonder from somewhere and, having constructed some false pretense, might overturn the believing crowd by a rush. Oh, the excess of wickedness!

against the truth and not to worship the one doing these things, but to drag through the dirt the benefactor; not to marvel at the power, but to disparage by trying the matters. Be persuaded even by the parents, O Pharisees, that the man was born with the blindness; and yet again you run back to the blind man, from the second and third, being informed by him of the evil attempts and the plots.

7.8.5 But whenever you fall from the first trial, you move to the second; whenever from the second, to the third; whenever from the third, to the next. As a fox is running through paths, and everywhere you are surrounded by the nets of the truth; but the exit from the wonder is without escape. However, not of all...

You are weaving a web of deceit, making it colorful indeed, but attacking weakly and without permanence. This sickness is your inheritance. You are children like unbelieving fathers. Such were they also in their manner regarding the wonders in Egypt. They were being saved from wars in a new way, yet they disbelieved the one giving salvation even though they were saved by hope. They were being fed with foods surpassing nature, and among those who were starving, they were even more ungrateful; they received manna sent from heaven, and they even craved the stench of the Egyptian leeks and onions. They were shaded during the day by a pillar of cloud so that they would not be afflicted by the heat of the solar ray, and in the night they seized a pillar of fire, having taken another new luminary distinct from the moon, and as if enjoying no divine energy, they thus sought new and celestial gods, profiting from them, so that Moses, having been detained a little on the mountain in the giving of the law, might draw them back to the return.

You truly are heirs of that ignorance, not having loved the law and hating the grace, needing not a rod of carob for supervision, but an iron one. You see a man who has passed into light, yet has remained inactive in his senses until far into his age, being led by alien eyes, sitting daily before the temple, practicing the craft of misfortune so that he might draw many into pity, the city having a witness to the suffering, seeing now and being healed quickly, not by various medicinal compositions, nor by iron cuts, but by clay alone, and this happening through saliva.

And how have you not been placed, not been struck with amazement, not casting down to the earth, worshiping the one who created the eyes from the earth, and respecting the divine energy? Instead, you are bursting with envy and you pursue God as a rival craftsman, as creators pursuing a creator, as those of the same kind pursuing the one of the same kind. And encountering old books, how many were written during the economy of the people, and how many clearly teach the reigns of kings and the history concerning them, receive the things said about each one with obedience, as some consider Moses to be a small god and exult over Elisha and his teacher...

The Poverty of the Speaker vs. the Greatness of the Subject§37

37Praising the Thespian and all the saints of every generation who were activated by God and performed great and unsung deeds, lifting them to the rank of angels. Do not contend regarding the ancients, nor reject the explanation of the fathers, for these things are not easily brought to the faith of hearing for natural men.

What you see now with your eyes, and what it is possible to touch with fingers and perceive accurately by sense, you simultaneously work evil against in unfaithfulness and without judgment, trampling on prophecy and reversing the outcome of foretellings. For what is seen now in the trial is what Isaiah taught of old through his words: 'Behold, our God will render judgment and will render it back; He will come and will save us. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute shall sing' (Isaiah 35:5-6).

These are not the words of Peter and John, nor are the words of any of the new and subordinate persons, so that having understood a gifted euphemism, you might reject the truth, but rather the words of your own prophecy, if you make known the Thespian, the son of Amos, a prophet, a child of a prophet, an Israelite man of the race, the head of the guidance according to the law. Glory to God, power, honor, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

All these customs, performed according to the law of the honors of the martyrs, are holy festivals and enduring monuments of those who showed courage according to God; in which the leaders of the churches, when they arrive to speak, having examined their own powers against the greatness of the matters, immediately flee in preambles toward forgiveness and entreaty and say...

Thus the majesty of the things spoken of is diminished by the smallness of the word.

If those who intend to praise each of the martyrs individually forbid praise, and confess their own weakness with a bright voice, what could I become today, having the teachers of the martyrs set before me for eulogy—the genuine and first disciples of Christ, the fathers of the churches, the only faithful preachers of the gospel, those who spoke with God and received the voice from God with their ears? Not so; since the word is very lofty and the undertaking difficult, let us not love the idle and inactive silence, like the cowards and the sea-fearing, who, fleeing from the mere sight of the sea, neither endure to set a ship upon the beginning nor to sail around small shores for the sake of an attempt; but let us trust in those thrice-blessed ones, and let us attempt to offer the things according to power to the joy of the others, regarding the undertaking as that for which we have been liberated today.

For I know that this will be sought not so much as it is owed to those great and wondrous ones, but as much as can be found by us, the poor. Therefore, I desired that a small part of that grace might be granted to me today, of which each of these saints, having taken hold, either in Jerusalem taught those who were disobedient, or in Athens, having grasped the Arian error, turned back those who were superstitious by showing them Christ and announcing the mystery of true piety. For thus we have demonstrated something of what is set to be accomplished, and have not left behind much of the greatness.

Since the great gifts of the Spirit are great things, and I am unworthy to be enriched by such a grace, I will add poverty to my willingness toward you, just as Elisha added vegetables to the lentils...

The Foundation of the Church§38

38Goodness will certainly not be deprived of honor. No one should think that I, following the praise of brave men heard from you, will follow the laws of the wisdom of the outside. For we do not practice flattery through a composed art, but we strive to present to you, souls desiring virtue, the truth. Therefore, the silence of family lines and the pride of ancestors will not block the wordword. Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God (Romans 8:3). Nor shall we honor the sky-dwellers from the worldly and earth-bound, but rather the opposite: the obscure lives of fathers, the crude arts, and the shadow called poverty shall be remembered in praises.

For the glory of Christians, according to the gospel, is our humility. I am also terribly reproached by the praises of those from without, because they, wishing to ennoble those they win over, say nothing exceptional, but they sit by the graves and disturb those lying there, making the dead into a decoration for the living; through which they call upon the departed, while confessing they have nothing good to say to those being praised by them.

And besides this, if it were true that those descending from illustrious fathers are themselves good and inherit virtue as if by some nature, it would perhaps have been timely to make some mention of the parents; but since the successions of lineage are lied about, there is even more difference in outward affectations; for the philosopher is unrefined and the lover of pleasure is a philosopher, and it is useless to remember the toil of the forefathers; it is necessary to demonstrate, if anyone has achievements of virtue. And to learn that this has such a way, one cannot learn it from meddling elsewhere, but from our own Holy Scripture, having manifold and varied usefulness.

Know certainly the priest, that elder, the nourisher and teacher of the great Samuel; but he himself, being excellent, did not benefit the sons; and having been nourished by him who begot him and learning the laws of the priesthood every day. And from ungodly fathers again, I speak of Timothy, the brave dog of Paul the apostle, and he certainly did not follow as if by some nature of the parents.

Having judged by reason, he hated their impiety toward the holy law of piety, and a sweet fruit appeared from a bitter root. Half-men in communion and sheep in offspring.

Thus Absalom, having been a youth toward a lenient father and so well known for audacity, as much as the father was in kindness; or rather, if it is necessary to speak the truer thing, he exceeded by a great measure in wickedness the virtue of the one who begat him. And entirely, if anyone wishes to understand with the mind this opposition of children toward fathers, he will find myriads of the diligent from the evil and the wicked from the best. And very appropriately. For if nature and not manner were performing virtue or wickedness, the two would not be, but one side would have prevailed alone.

Let Peter be called the son of Jonah; as for whose son this is, it makes no difference to me. For I honor the one who begat through the actions of the son; and starting from below, I send the glory to the things above, just as the lamps of the night light the ceilings from the ground. He says, prophesying Isaiah, that the Father placed the Son as a cornerstone, indicating that the whole composition of the world has its seat and its foundation in Him.

And the Only-begotten again, as he says in the gospels, names Peter the foundation of the church: 'You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.' For truly this one is first like a great and enduring stone cast into the hollow of this world or the pit of lamentation, as David says, so that having supported all Christians remaining in building, he might lift them up to the height, which is the dwelling-place of our hope. Paul also calls Christ the foundation, saying: 'No one can lay a foundation other than the one laid, which is Jesus Christ.'

Our Savior, by the same designation, adorned even his first disciple, naming him a rock of faith. Therefore, through Peter, the foundation of the churches is saved, being unshakeable and unswerving, having become a true and faithful initiate of piety. Through the building of the righteous we have stood rooted, Christians from the setting sun until the rising. And having been moved by many trials since it was reported that the...

Theologian vs. Human Wisdom§39

39The Gospel, wanting to cast down myriads of tyrants and even the devil before them and to bring us down to the ground with their foundations. Indeed the 36 rivers flowed, as the saving word says, like torrents, and fierce winds of devilish spirits struck, and the rains of those persecuting Christians burst through, and nothing stronger was seen of the fortification according to God, because the building of faith was constructed with the holy stones of the first of the apostles.

These things happened because of one word of blessing, naming the evangelist Peter. Let us see, if it seems good, how Peter builds: not with stones and bricks, nor with other earthly materials, but with words and actions made effective by the Spirit.

Therefore, when our God and Savior ascended into the heavens, while the cloud was a vehicle for the apostles to see, this man took up the teaching of the Gospel; and before all those sharing in the episcopate, opening the mouth of those raging against piety, he purified a people, and a wise orator appeared among the nations and Israel; people whose teeth were sharpened and whose minds were filled, if anyone should name Jesus.

So that what was said concerning the Lord by prophecy fits perfectly also with Peter: 'Many dogs have surrounded me, fattened bulls have enclosed me' (Psalm 71:9). But nevertheless, living by the Spirit and not grasping the command but saving what was said to him: 'Feed my lambs' (John 21:15), he cried out to a mixed people from myriads of nations; Jewish men and all those dwelling in Jerusalem.

And so that we may not speak at length, joining all the discourse together, he remembers the sayings of Joel prophesying the outpouring of the Spirit (Joel 2:28); from there he moves to David, setting forth the fifteenth psalm to confirm the resurrection (Psalm 16:10); and concluding the whole word in wisdom of words and witness of the law, he immediately led the listeners on, not ten, nor a hundred, nor three or five times so many, but three thousand men, a fullness of the church, a whole people sufficient to strike the enemies, of whom they burst through in a crowd.

Oh, how persuasive a warm and fiery medicine, having cleansed the souls so sharply! Oh, wisdom!

Theologian, having covered all human wisdom! What do you say, you who crown Demosthenes according to rhetoricians and praise Socrates among philosophers? For Demosthenes, indeed, the great and much-talkative one regarding rhetoric, held himself back so much from those things he intended to persuade by, that he was even exiled from the city by the listeners; but Socrates, for the many discourses toward the Athenians and the wise discussions, found the end in the hemlock, being killed by the chorus of disciples; such was his extent in the power of persuading.

But Peter the fisherman, the craftsman, the unlearned, whom anyone would call whatever they might wish to belittle, having hunted three thousand men with a single thrust of a word, firmly established the church; and these, being discontented and rioting and not forgiving him the dividing of the beginning, split the mouth.

But having come to a sufficient increase and progress of the Christian rank, since he provided a wonderful experience toward logical teachings and exhortations and practical power, having just set the lame man upright from the temple porches, that lame man who had suffered the disease from the stroke of nature in the womb of a mother, all the people rushed to the temple, being led by the fame of the great work toward the sight, and all were looking intently at the man, being struck with amazement at the wonder; the mouths of the enemies of Christ were stopped, and the cross remained a trophy of victory, not a dream.

Again the uneducated one, the worker of the prostitute's craft, begins to speak words a second time toward them, saying: 'O men, if what has happened appears to you worthy of a wonder and of divine energy, worship the healer of the lame, Jesus, whom you despised and lastly, having surpassed him with anger, raised up on the wood. This one is and lives; and just as it was said to you many times, having risen from the dead, he reigns over all things.'

So now, therefore, having taken up the care of those among you who have sinned, come to him and be enlightened, just as your father David says (Psalm 110:4). For if you are sons of the prophets and disciples of Moses, do not dishonor the grace of your ancestors by paying attention to lying words, but having wisely observed those things proclaimed by them, receive with your souls the Savior of your race. For this is he whom...

The greatness of Peter's miracles§40

40And Moses promised that a prophet would rise up for you (Deut 18:15). Having dealt with these and similar matters, he went away, adding others as many as the three thousands.

Such a man was indeed bold in speaking publicly, eager, undaunted, and wise for the guidance into the mysteries of the gospel, making the cowardice of his own and of his opponents a terror.

Because it was not only most diligent for the most excellent teacher of piety to labor for the great number of God's people, but much more to have the disciples live strictly according to the laws given, he saw that Ananias—that one who was a thief of his own fruits and intended to introduce a strange sacrilege and a bad habit of sin to the Christians—and he decisively cut him off from the church; he was not being crude or murderous in his intention, but in view of the purpose of benefit, he thus treated the sin as a physician.

For since the people were new converts and newly pure, having received the evangelical laws from the mixture of Greek and Jewish ways, it is expected that the disciples need not only verbal admonition, but also some practical fear; for men have somewhat habituated themselves so that, in order that they might be regulated in the beginnings of their customs, they might keep the habit until their end.

And because of this, having exposed the sin, he immediately brought death as the punishment, not using a sword, nor handing him over to executioners, but then showing the power of Christ differently in the manner of the removal. For he summoned, and the one summoned, having fallen, expired. How great this is, and how much reverence he worked in the church, we do not need to learn.

For two things were achieved in one: that our Savior be believed to be God, and that the teacher of his laws has angels accompanying him, ready, working according to the will of the apostle. He wished to benefit the lame, and the grace was not slow; he willed to punish the sacrilege, and the punishment occurred.

These things are sufficient to strike even stony souls and to persuade them firmly, that the words spoken by Peter (Acts 5:3-4) were not a deception; but God was with him and the mystery which he announced was holy and true. And it is necessary to attend to this, that the thing on the other hand...

A sign was once provided by the apostle through necessity, in folly and murder, so that those with evil intentions might be shown the power of punishment. However, the performance of benefits and healings occurred daily and continuously, and such ease and grace surrounded him in healing, so that no sick person who approached left deceived of hope, but went home whole and healthy. And every place in Jerusalem where Peter appeared to speak Christ was a place, and the crowd of following sick people had a daily wondrous spectacle from a mixed multitude, some gathered to be freed from the evils of the crowd, others to behold those being healed.

Thus also that wonderful thing concerning the apostle is written, which was not said of any of the others, that the relatives and the households of the sick brought them upon beds publicly, so that even the shadow of Peter, when he came, might overshadow some of them. This indeed is already greater than the Lord's own wonders, and the servant is praised above the Lord. And perhaps in this sign the prophecy is fulfilled, which the Savior made to the disciples: 'Amen, amen I say to you: the one believing in me the works which I do, he will do also, and he will do greater things than these' (John 14:12).

When I say this, I do not compare the servant to the Master. Away! The thought is going mad; but that God, by showing His own power through those healing by His own power, enriched none of the disciples like Peter with his own gifts, but rather set him above all by gifts from above; and just as he became the first disciple according to the order of time, so he was shown greater than the brothers in the experience of things by the power of the Spirit.

He was called first and quickly obeyed; found by the seashores in the turbulent region of the world, always surrounded by waves and the ceaseless sound crying around the winds. He was the first among Christians to think of cosmic things, transcending all those in all things, and he was transferred toward the intelligible and the super-cosmic. And perhaps someone of the poor and obscure says, calling that thrice-blessed one: 'What...'

The Wealth of Faith and the Crossing of the Seas§41

41For what did he set aside? And what did he acquire? Everything that he had, O man; and to each person, what he possesses is great; and that also is wealth, which he holds as a steward. He appears similar before God, both he who laid aside the chariot and he who despised the donkey. For just as a chariot is to the rich man, so a humble basket is to the poor man.

8.9.2 Likewise, a philosopher is he who left behind the silver table adorned with histories, and he who left the wooden one; likewise, he who left the populous village and he who left the small garden; he who left the gold-embroidered garment and he who left the worn-out tunic. For God does not judge the giver by the abundance or the quality of the things given, but He accepts the choice of the one giving.

8.9.3 Therefore, even that widow, the Gospel proclaims her as praiseworthy (Luke 21:2), she who gave the mite, because she did not set aside anything from what she had. And he who, reaching for the cup, took the cold water, receives as a reward for such easy generosity the kingdom; for he served the need of the thirsty with what he had, even if wine of spring-bloom was not present to him because of poverty.

8.9.4 Now I say these things by way of concession, since not always is a fisherman also a poor man. Do you not know that a fisherman is a hunter of pearls? But pearls are the bloom of the sardine and of exalted wealth, with which kings are adorned, and in which women are praised as lovers of wealth and lovers of beauty. A fisherman dyes the many-threaded and consecrated purple; fishermen dye the yellow pigment of the fields by hunting the sub-golden ones.

8.9.5 Therefore, it is not necessary to pay attention to the tools of their craft as if they were luxurious and highly esteemed—the net, I say, and the hooks; for it is not from the cheapness of the tools in each case, but from the completed work that prosperity is perceived; since, according to that same logic, you would find nothing poorer than agriculture, if judging from the hoe and the spade.

That its wealth might be tested. And those mining gold are utterly without resources, lacking the King of wealth. For a single value works for them: a wooden table, which separates the gold of the earth.

Be silent, then, both Gentiles and Hebrews, those insulting Peter for his poverty and attempting to belittle the fisherman by his former state; and having left such things, let them tell me, as I inquire: Which fisherman or which of all men has crossed the sea? Who set foot by a standing lake, as he did by the waves tossing in the winds? For our good God has performed many wonders through His own servants, even regarding the ancient polity of Israel, and even in later times, in which the Philanthropic Economy of our Savior has appeared to the world, no one from the beginning to the end of the saints seems to have accomplished such a deed through his own faith and the grace from above.

Moses was wonderful, having crossed the sea without ships; but he reached a land which was a law to men, from where the water was drawn back to itself. Great also is Jesus, the successor of this, because He crossed the Jordan while the banks were overflowing; but likewise, crossing the Red Sea, He cut the stream and gave the crossing people a dry path for their advance.

But no man ever raised his foot upon the water. For even the law of nature does not allow a liquid substance, flowing and changing, to withstand the solid and pressing. It seems to me that the Lord and Master of all, having been greatly amazed at such a ready willingness of the man, cried out saying: 'Command me to come to you upon the waters,' as a reward for that much love and faith, to give him that new and paradoxical grace, of which Peter alone appeared receptive from those of Adam until the end of men. For truly and exceptionally from God is the...

The Economy of Christ and the Seed of Truth§42

42Such a display of a great work surpasses the lowly nature of creation, just as it seems to David, the best of the prophets. For he also, in one of the psalms, while hymnologizing God and explaining His unsearchable and incomprehensible nature, said with power those things which you know from the usual chanting: 'Your way is in the sea, and your paths are in many waters, and your tracks will not be known' (Ps 77:19).

Therefore, what the Master had for His own in the exceptional knowledge of divinity, He made common to the servant, judging him worthy of such honor. Indeed, the zealous and great John was resting on the Lord's bosom; great was also James, being called the son of thunder; and glorious in honors was Philip, who, having been snatched away by the Spirit, initiated the Ethiopian to the knowledge of the Savior. Nevertheless, let all yield to Peter and confess him to be second, when the comparison of gifts tests who is preferred.

But reviewing all things individually and examining, I find this man leaping ahead of all the other disciples everywhere, both in logical discourses and in practical activities, and standing out, and afterwards leaving behind those running the same stage of life. For the Lord once asked the Twelve, testing how they might have certainty and opinion regarding their assumption of Him, and commanding them to speak clearly what they say He is, while all the others were deliberating in silence, being slow and showing that they were agonizing over the response due to some hesitation; he, opening his mouth quickly, bearing the coal of faith upon his soul which previously purified Isaiah's lips, truly confessed that blessed and wise utterance: 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God' (Mt 16:16).

Who then would marvel at anyone worthy of these words, having become a reliable interpreter of the greatest of the apostles? For see first how the word is concise and brief, expressing the power of myriads of things in a short exclamation. For every such word is excellent, which is appropriate and whose phrasing does not overflow, being concise in its meaning. On the contrary, a multitude of things...

In brief, it signifies according to the likeness of a mustard seed, which is very small when being held and looked at, but if you bring it to the sense of the mouth, the whole animal is drawn from feet to head toward its home by heat.

You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (1 John 5:20). Every word contributing to the knowledge of God and our Savior is viewed and directed toward these two things: one is that of the primordial deity, which is the Word in the beginning, who is always and being with the Father and being God (John 1:1), just as the great John the Theologian initiated us, like a sponge lying against the breast of the Only-begotten and from there drawing out the knowledge of the hidden truth; the other is that of the economy, which the good God accepted for the condescension of our weakness.

It is therefore worthy to observe the response, how in brevity and conciseness he most accurately revealed the mind in a few words, beginning from the lower things and leading the mind upward toward the high things step by step.

You are the Christ. This is a declaration of the economy and an explanation of the incarnate theophany. For this is not the name of the pre-eternal Word, but the message of the graces being used. Therefore also our Lord, having accepted entirely to become man and all the other things that turn toward the flesh, condescends and is called Christ as one anointed for king, not with the oil of the horn like Samuel and David and the men following them (1 Sam 16:13), but by the energy of the Spirit, by which also the Lord is anointed. For thus Jesus was marvelously made known and paradoxically presented to many to commune with, in the womb of the Virgin.

Having confessed Jesus, the man who became for our sake, he did not set this word until this point, but having ascended toward heaven by the intellectual Jacob's ladder (Gen 28:12) and having become in the vision of the God-Word in the beginning, he added to him the exceptional and true dignity, addressing him as Son of the living God. And precisely thus and not otherwise: he himself, having confessed the straight and incorruptible rule of faith and having handed to us all an unshakeable law of piety, did not depart unrewarded or unhonored; but blessed is the name...

The Shepherd's Commission and the Martyrdom of Polycarp§43

43Having been received from the truly blessed one, he is called the rock of faith and the foundation and the substructure of the church according to Christ. He receives the keys through the promise of the kingdom and becomes lord of those gates, so as to open them to whomever he wishes and to close them to whomever is just, but certainly to the unfaithful and the impious who deny that same confession which he was appointed to stand as an exact guardian of the entrances of the kingdom, as a faithful one of the good things.

Oh, the darkness and the cloudiness which has poured out much before the eyes of men, through which the heretics do not see the traces of the fathers, nor are they able even to walk in them, which the feet of the apostles have worn down. For behold, Peter, the genuine disciple of Christ by election, having received everywhere the first vote and the honors and the achievements, that great one who was all, whose fame filled the whole inhabited world, having been commanded to speak so as to glorify our God and Savior, did not begin a wandering from some distance away, nor, surrounding himself with a circle of syllogisms and matters, he answered toward the question as if now the terrible sophists and technicians of faith are accustomed to do, but in simplicity of heart he set forth the truth briefly, not sending the unbegotten to the begotten, nor having reasoned excessively about the similar and the dissimilar, nor having busied himself with differences concerning all substance, nor having measured the immeasurable divinity with syllogisms, like the plays of Arius and the maneuvers of Eunomius.

Let us therefore, O Christians, zealously imitate the knowledge of the fisherman, the unsearching one, the elder from Bethsaida, the first catch of Christ, whose knowledge is not much talk. Let us meditate on saying: 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God' (Matt 16:16), and to leave the more complex things to the word-fighters, whose strife is their work and whose end is destruction. Does the apostle's miracles stand until what has been said? Or do we think that quite the opposite would not even come to pass, if someone were to deviate from the things spoken, remaining beside them? But I, leaving the many things to your own knowledge, for you know Peter and his deeds, even if no one should precede me in praising the man, I wish to speak small things concerning his rest and how...

He escaped from the earth to heaven, so that there he might cease to say 'wherever that life is'.

Our Savior, as He was about to approach the arbitrary death, like an exceptional deposit, entrusts the general and ecumenical church to this man, asking him for the third time, 'Do you love me?' (John 21:15). Since he eagerly set forth the confessions in equal number to the questions, he took the world into his care as one shepherd, having heard, 'Feed my lambs' (John 21:15); and almost instead of himself, the Lord gave to the converts a father, a shepherd, and a teacher.

Having heard this voice, therefore, he did not live his life in idleness, nor did he love the life of danger outside, but he was encircling the whole inhabited world, revealing Christ to those becoming blind, guiding those wandering, strengthening those having tasted salvation, fighting against enemies, exhorting those at home, enduring persecutions, bearing the burden of prisons, and risking the gospel in many ways.

As time passed, having seized the ruling city of men, he ascended from there to the kingdom. For Nero, being thrown into anger, surpassed all other modes of torture, just as once in Palestine when Herod was king and the Magi were announcing Christ, exceeding the others in his ways of punishment, it was decreed that the thrice-blessed one should be crucified on the wood of a cross, so that Peter the Lord's disciple might not only imitate him in walking the sea (Matt 14:29), but also in hanging upon the wood.

However, as a pious and wise man, even knowing the time of struggle, he asked of the enemies just one difference: that they might not bring him in a similar form to the wood, but rather having crucified the head to the lower part of the cross. For it is not worthy, even in equal suffering, for the slave to encounter the same as the Master. He said, and it happened as he willed, and through the cross he departed to the one crucified and risen, himself having put on the crown of martyrdom, leaving to us the causes of these feasts.

These things we also, in our power, O beloved and holy head, have given to you as thanksgivings for many who have been perfected; but now, the word turns toward another combatant, the...

The Transformation of Paul§44

44A participant in your virtue, Tarso, who through a different mode of punishment, but with a single purpose of piety, analyzed himself with you toward Christ. Paul the lawgiver, the loud-voiced trumpet of the gospel, who formerly was a bitter enemy of Christians, but finally a strong advocate for the church, was more recently reached by the apostles through grace; and in time he was second among the disciples of Christ, but equal according to the proven virtue, so that I may say nothing more than to exceed the twelve in redness. He was a zealous follower of Moses, if anyone else was, a wall of the law, a tower of the Old Testament, enduring and unshakeable; and until he held his purpose unchangeable, there was a great danger to those speaking of Christ, and he fled everywhere from our people. Truly, according to the prophecy of Jacob (Gen 49:10), a wolf snatched the Benjamin, tearing the lambs of the New Testament and scattering the flocks.

Because he also performed the drama according to Saint Stephen, and having his hands still stained with blood, he ran toward Damascus, seeking to join persecution to persecution and murder to murder, and to uproot Christianity, the first blooming nature. Our God saw well what he had done, that the strong enemy might become a noble friend; and having suddenly surrounded him with light, He strikes him with astonishment and changes him toward humility, making him stand in the road through fear, and having brought to sobriety the eyes that were looking with fiery and angry temper through the darkness. And He punishes him not in silence, but also added a word to the deed, saying that written thing: 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the pricks' (Acts 26:14). For it was not as if he himself needed a discussion, since the words of the facts were sufficient, but so that he might have an occasion within to ask and to learn that he who was thought to be dead and to be Christ lives, and appears from the heavens, and thus defends those who are grieving from authority. Nothing is more like the words themselves to explain to us the hunt of the Hebrew wolf.

And Saul, still breathing threats and murder, the word describes to me a man whose mind is being shattered by the pressure...

While the mixed nature of the event was still being perceived through the whistling of the stones, seeing a wind and a wild thing as if it were the murderer, the symbols were being saved in the beginning of the patriarch's prophecy. For he, since he was about to die, having surrounded his children from every side, foretold by the Spirit at the bedside.

Thus, while blessing Judah, he was speaking in one way, but allegorically he praised the Christ coming from him. Furthermore, having prophesied to all the things to come, he came last upon Benjamin, who was also more recent in time; and at times he spoke toward the son, but in reality he signified Paul, as we know, descending from that tribe. 'Benjamin is a wolf; in the morning he shall snatch, and in the evening he shall deliver prey' (Gen 49:27).

Let us investigate what is said. Is it certainly this: that after having eaten the first things—that is, having pursued, having murdered, having shed blood, having scattered the church like a flock—he became last a shepherd and a good pastor, having laid aside the persecutor and having put on the apostle, distributing to all as food the Word and having established this holy table for us?

For the power of the Lord is such, disarming the fury and the impious thoughts of those standing in opposition, and approaching gracefully and subduing, working to make sheep by day instead of beasts that tear. Upon this, what does the Scripture say? That having approached the high priest, he requested from him letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that he might bring the Christians to Jerusalem (Acts 9:2).

O what a fight and a difference of letters, those then being sought from Paul and those which he later wrote announcing Christ! Some were binding Christians, while others put on the chains for Christ, causing the persecutor to endure many heavy and difficult things; and there it was written: 'Saul, a Hebrew, a defender of the law, an enemy of the cross, an opponent of the gospel'; but in the later and more temperate letters: 'Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.' Of whom? Add this: of him who was crucified.

O what a wonder! What a moment ago was a dream, now has become a boast, and what was being reviled is remembered today as glory. For no glory-seeker and boastful king has thus sent forth the splendor of the beginning.

The Conversion of Paul§45

45Just as Paul writes himself to be all a prisoner and more polished by iron than women are by the gold used for adornment, suddenly a light from heaven surrounded him. Why does he not appear to him in the form of a man, just as it was for Stephen from heaven, but rather in the appearance of fire or light?

Because Stephen, being perfect and knowing the mystery of the incarnation, and being harmed nothing by our poverty, thus beautifully showed himself and so ascended into heaven; but for Paul, so that he might not be restrained from calling Jesus God, since he had come to us in a body, he does not appear as a man, lest he might confirm the unbelieving opposition, but rather in the idea of a flash and light, so that he might draw him from the law and Moses. For there also the same God, manifesting himself to Moses, burned in fire; and giving the law on Sinai, he was handing the tablets to the Hebrew, shining with fire. Therefore, it surrounds him so that, having cast his mind upon the likeness of those things occurring then and now, and as if having awakened himself from a certain forgetfulness, he might know the theophanies to be one power; and he sends the radiance from heaven, so that Paul, no longer turning his mind around Bethlehem and Galilee, calling Christ the son of David and man and all the other names of the economy, might be clearly taught that being God, he came down from above, which is why he now appears.

Then he adds wisely: 'I am Jesus'; he did not say 'I am God' or 'the Son of God', but 'Jesus'; the name of the condescension, so that he might confirm the faith of the incarnation, at which the Jews were stumbling. 'I am he whom you crucify, whom you imprison, whom you drag and lead now to Caiaphas, and later to Pilate, whom you constantly call the son of the carpenter, whom you count among the dead, laughing greatly...'

To those proclaiming the resurrection. I do not seem to be speaking to them now; being present, I do not see; lighting the soul, I have brought blindness to the eyes. Believe, therefore, that I also appeared to Stephen while saying this to you and he believed. It is, therefore, harsh for you to strike against spikes. 'Spikes' means the nails of the cross. For just as one, being struck by iron, is being split open, does he not destroy that? For how does one destroy the hard? But he wounds himself; even so, the one contending against God seizes destruction upon himself headlong.

Be prudent, therefore, and having lost your sight, now especially through the wonderful flash of light, consider that for this reason I clothed myself with a body and became a man, so that not all the naked ones, approaching the veil of divinity, might be blinded.

These things: and Paul, being led by the hand, was being led as a pitiable sight, but rather as something graceful and worthy of indignation. The wolf was bound, the rapacious man became prudent, the wild man was gentled, the runner walked meekly, the tyrant among the disciples was being led, he whose hands were stained with the blood of Stephen, seeking to drink the blood of the other. And for three days he continued living in blindness. And most appropriately. For he, having justly protested against the Trinity, was condemned to an equal measure of punishment to sin. Thus, indeed, the law-giver was initiated into piety. And since he had tasted the truth and through experience learned that Christ lives and is and reigns over all things, neither was he destroyed by death nor was he stolen away by the disciples, having quickly been transferred from the law to the gospel, he announced God, the Christ, to all, whom yesterday and formerly he mocked with blasphemies, and such a man was an ally just as he was an enemy; for he was strong in both. And entering unannounced and unexpectedly into the synagogues of Damascus, he was expounding the words of the law and the prophets, not holding to the law, but constructing and comparing from it the Christ to those things coming to pass.

Paul's Unwavering Ministry§46

46By these things, casting out law by law through the law. Just as he says about himself in writing to the Romans: 'For I died by law through law'; that is, having been led by the Mosaic writings, he came to know the piety of the gospel. E caused a marvel in Damascus, and all were exclaiming to themselves: 'Come, behold the Tarsian Jew, a zealous student of the ancestral law, a fierce advocate for Jesus, calling Him up and proving from our writings that this is the Savior according to the promise.' Lest the fear not persuade the whole city, might not the whole people be led and turn away from the law? practitioner of the Scripture, and sharp of mind, and the word is rapid, and the method resourceful, and he has possessed much reliability; from which, knowing our writings accurately, he does not seem to wander in ignorance, but has found the truth through testing and judgment. Into this perplexity he cast a great city, a populous people, the first preaching of the brave convert; and then Damascus was more troubled than Jerusalem previously was when Christians were being stoned, when Stephen Paul was stoning. 8.25.5 Just as the wonderful ones of the best men, wherever they are transferred, carry the victory there, so that lawgiver man always made those people great by the momentum he provided.

having proclaimed the gospel in Phoenicia and having cast the first seeds of the apostolate there, where he himself was also enlightened by knowledge, he came to Jerusalem, a stranger to those there and a fine spectacle. For those who had sent him forward and given the bonds to carry against Christians, not knowing what was happening in the midst, first saw him pleasantly and were eager for the hunt, a multitude of Christian prisoners, hoping to see and seeking the work of the many promises. E word was going forth, I found Paul joining Saul, agreeing in his conviction and being a more fervent disciple of Christ and of the other apostles; at first they considered the things said to be childishness and mockery, but having tested him, they found him confessing the conviction with his voice, and they deliberated only on one thing: that the young man should be released, as it was not fitting for the Hebrew religion.

And to serve the living Paul and his speaking. And later time clearly showed this.

For even among the many, although they were already Christians, they were not sufficient to live purely according to the gospel, but were wavering and sometimes even coloring their faith with circumcision, in order that they might appease the wrath of the Hebrews by partially performing what was granted to them; but this man alone, without yielding anything by an unshakeable mindset, taught, but with a pure voice he proclaimed the word without derivation and progressed so far into the freedom of mindset, that once, regarding the Galatians' domestic dullness and the scarcity of those teaching, he wrote a letter to them against the wonderful life of retreating into the law (cf. Galatians 6:12), by which he taught them to worship and practice religion in the novelty of the citizenship according to Christ, no longer paying attention to the writings from the stone tablets.

He remained bound to what was said of him as the foremost of the apostles and was being purified everywhere, and he fought against Peter, as if Peter were attacking the new citizenship by the use of the old and ceased dogmas; and he neither loved the proximity of the elder nor the prestige of the apostleship when he saw the truth in danger. But he stood up fiercely for the Galatians, and he struck the other many times, as he was, having won the opportunity through boldness.

And everywhere he continued speaking and persuading; and if perhaps he encountered evil men and suffered something terrible, or lived in prison, or received lashes, or was thrown with stones, he did not abandon his readiness because of the occurring failure; but after a short interval, he approached the enemies again, and conversing with the same people, and discovering many ways of undertaking, and being very well-adapted to the falling needs, he went on persuading either all or the many.

And often, indeed, having been found after incurable wounds and having been cast out in the outskirts of that city which he was initiating into piety, and being thought dead because of the greatness of the terrors, having seized the next day's market and having stretched out his right hand, he again taught those who were approaching death; thus, nothing cared for his body, but looking toward the goal of the higher calling (cf. Philippians 3:14), he was patient.

The Apostle's Peripatetic Ministry and the Corruption of Priests§47

47He was contending from place to place, city from city, enduring earthly labors, facing the dangers from the sea, speaking wisely to inflammatory crowds, and defending himself before angry judges. He was leading the Hebrews into the knowledge of Christ through the Scriptures honored among them, and shaming the Greeks with external words and the unwritten laws of nature; he was confirming Christians, building up converts, and nourishing them with appropriate instruction, just as gardeners tend the young plants with the measured and accustomed flow of waters. Let us learn what most clearly demonstrates his strength in words.

Athens is a city presiding over Achaia, a hearth of words, as those who speak well of it have said, and an ancient workshop of wise men and of those living in words. Since therefore Paul, having run through Illyricum and scattered the sparks of faith everywhere—which, having received from the Spirit, he kept unquenchable—he came according to the necessity of the period to the wise Athenians. And it was a matter worthy of much concern, how the tentmaker might discourse the words concerning God to those who are worthy of ruling all men together according to education.

But, being uplifted by greatness of nature and the wealth of the heavenly gift, he did not take hold of one of the sheltered buildings, nor, sitting at one workshop, did he perform a dialogue, as the first of the philosophers among them were accustomed to do with those approaching; rather, running up to the Areopagus, where there was a harsh and fearful council judging with deadly trials, he found a great multitude gathered there, and stood there lecturing against the rhetoricians according to their customs, those who contended with them daily.

Taking the beginning from an inscription which was attached to an altar, and from there effectively announcing the unknown God to them and concluding with the whole Word, he abstained so much from arguing like a layman about external wisdom, that he converted Dionysius, the most prominent of the Areopagites, along with his wife, and made slaves for Christ, turning many from one altar and one small inscription into many altars.

Descending...

From there, where the warring demon of the Greeks had most power, he moved to the neighboring city, Corinth, the metropolis of Achaia. Speaking in the synagogues, he drove away the salvation-teaching, not just one of the many or those succeeding, but the chief synagogue leader along with his whole household. Having conquered the law from its peak and exalted the cross as a high trophy, he left that city having bowed to Christ.

As time passed and the word of piety was obstructed, he acted like a general, daily seizing cities, villages, and fields, cutting the sinews of the former tyrant. He moved from Corinth to the land of the Pisidians, then seized Lycaonia and the cities of Phrygia, and having visited Asia from there, then Macedonia. He was a common teacher of the inhabited world, benefiting those seeing him by his tongue, and those far away by letters. Only his knee did not tire from traveling, nor his tongue failing, as he unceasingly explained the mysteries of the gospel to enemies and friends.

But such was his teaching; what of the other philosophy of life? He who always persevered in the word and served the gospel, not even taking bread he consumed for free from anyone, but having the struggle against myriads of enemies by day, and by night the toil and the labor of his craft, so that he might have sustenance there, yet appears to all as an apostle driven forth, an unwearied herald, even sparing the bread of those he was hosting.

Let us hear these words, priests, you who do not merely share in the altars, but enrich yourselves from them and feast, making the sacred property your own private possession, and commanding the subordinates like slaves for the sake of Christ. Priesthood is not lordship, but rather for the one who understands, a service; it is not a claim of princely insolence, but an economy of pious ministry. Did not the law-giving Paul not have the authority to eat and drink from the sacred things, and even a little so...

The Ministry of John and the Impact of the Word§48

48Should he receive the reward of countless labors for the healing of a body being struck daily? But he did not use the authority so that, having taken nothing upon the earth, he might demand all things in the heavens. Therefore, he was even permitted to be superior to man, yet remaining bound to corruptible flesh.

he might also see the earnest of the coming good things and the honors there, he is carried up even unto the third heaven; he sees visions surpassing the lot of those here, and hears unspeakable words, as he himself says (as he himself says in 2 Corinthians 12:2), and while measuring these, he distributes everywhere the greatness and the boasting of one's own advantages. But so that he might only send down the understandings of those growing by small gifts, by necessity a few of his own are stripped bare, and these, having been placed upon another person, he leads far away from the suspicion concerning him.

Thespian, indeed, since in an idea he was carried up to the height by a chariot of fire (as it is written in 1 Kings 18:12), is sung of everywhere and left much wonder by his life; but as far as he reached, no word has interpreted. For, by chance and being raised only a little from the earth by the driving power, he was given to the place where he had the lot to dwell. But the translation of Paul was found more brilliant and glorious, fitting the measure to which he was carried. For he reached as far as the singing of the seven heavens, though a little was lacking for the half-way point.

he Hebrews cast down the understanding against Moses (as it is written in Exodus 19:20), thinking greatly that he alone reached to the summit of Sinai and entered within the ridge and the clouds. For my Paul, instead of a mountain, ascended toward the heavens, and instead of a cloud, wandered beyond the air which is above the cloud. And most fittingly. For it was necessary for the man according to Christ to conquer Moses so much that the Gospel surpasses the Law.

theophanies and the things spoken by God, and how, being bound, he was loosed and, being dejected, was strengthened, and even a dream was his, God making use of him—what is there to say, when he himself did not hide his own grace, but clearly revealed it to all together, saying: 'Do you indeed seek the Christ speaking in me?' For the others, whether prophets or apostles, had timely and chronological activities from above, and at times with them...

It was the divine, and at times it was not present.

This lawgiver was, just as a special temple of God having been completed for Him for habitation, always possessed Christ as a finder of counsel, a teacher of the word, and a partner in all things. And John, the son of Zebedee, seemed great, because among the other disciples he rested boldly upon the Lord's breast (John 13:23); and because of this, he is especially unsung among all.

But this one—how could he not be justly thought to be even above men, he who daily rested not the Jesus in the body, but the Word naked of flesh (John 1:14), having established himself as a very useful and pure vessel for the Creator? And having many and various things to say, as this lawgiver said and did all things, educating the whole world upon earth and sea, in courts, in marketplaces, among the people, and in the courts of kings, intentionally surpassing the multitude.

For I did not set before myself to write a biography of what he achieved, so that nothing might be lacking, but to work a reputation, and this as far as my power reaches. But mentioning only one of the last, I will rest the word.

For since, having circled the whole inhabited world and having placed the great word upon the lamp, he lit the fire of evangelical knowledge, he arrived also at the Romans, as a ruling city, in order to, having initiated and persuaded those holding sway over all men, and having acquired disciples from the surrounding area, speak to the other men. And finding Peter there also, a fellow worker of the same zeal, and having joined a certain holy and inspired company, he educated those under the law in synagogues, and attended to the Gentiles in marketplaces; and he was a diverse teacher of good things, manifesting the pure and unblemished knowledge of God, establishing precise canons of moral virtue, driving away from men debauchery and drunkenness and all unrestrained sensuality, by which especially both the multitude and the one reigning then were held.

Thus, the introduction of the best and most temperate way gripped Nero severely; and he suffered more pain from the destruction of pleasure than if he were being cast out from his own kingship. For he was, if anyone else, a sophist of pleasures.

Learning through Practice and Example§49

49Living in luxury and wasting away, a weakling and a woman's slave, a profligate of lust, he is not a king of men. For how could he have ruled others without first learning to rule himself? He set one care, so that he might cut off from the city the teacher of piety and self-control.

And, jealous of Herod's mindset, he led the apostles into prison, just as that Herod did to John; but having, in similarity, another Herodias, the unrestrained and lustful-minded one, seeking the heads of both Peter and Paul, he raised them both to the crown of martyrdom; having crucified the one on the wood, and having cut off the head of Paul, leaving to us and to the world the occasion for a festival and such a feast of the passion of the saints. These things, O thrice-blessed ones, the annual law has brought to you, proclaiming everywhere that you are athletes of the common habitation, and improving the minds of men through your honor. For virtue, being honored, raises many to zeal; in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom belongs the glory and the power, now and forever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Encomium of Asterius, Bishop of Amaseia, to the holy hieromartyr Phocas. The memory of the great things of the saints is good and profitable to those practicing asceticism. For it does not instruct by word alone those desiring virtue and piety, but it also sets forth the actions of those who have lived rightly as manifest teachers. Therefore also our Lord says, giving the pledges of those who have perfected the best: 'Whoever does and teaches, the same shall be called great' (Matt 5:19); and elsewhere: 'Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in the heavens' (Matt 5:16). For the logical instruction of practical energy is a lesser and weaker teacher; and the more we say that hearing is a more precise vision, the more the practice of the word is judged to hold sway. In this way we learn the skills.

In this way we are trained in skills, first being led by word toward learning, and then grasping the subtle things by hand and by experience. For a geometer, though he does much with the book and has been filled by the hearing of the teacher, will not grasp the power of the various figures unless he learns the points, the lines, and the circles upon the tablet. Nor does the word alone instruct the diligent student desiring the star of law, unless the teacher, having rotated the sphere for him with knowledge, presents the movement of the pole to the eyes. Likewise, a physician who does much according to Hippocrates and the other instructors is an unskilled healer before he has walked among the many sick and learned from them how to heal.

So also we, the disciples of the martyrs, making the actions of patient men our teachers before our own confession, learn to guard piety even unto the most extreme dangers, looking upon their sacred shrines as if they were pillars engraved with letters, clearly declaring the struggle of the testimony. Just as those approaching the oak of Mamre or the fragrant cave, which Ephron the Hittite gave for the burial of Sarah (Genesis 23), where also the patriarch himself lies with the children, immediately renew their imagination through the sight of the places and see with their intellect the faithful patriarch, the firstfruits of piety, and the circumcision in him; and they also consider those who sprang from his root, Isaac and Jacob, and with the memory of the men, the whole history concerning them becomes a spectacle.

In the same way, I today, having grasped the honored tomb of the thrice-blessed Phocas, am filled from the place with the memory of all the narratives told about him; I see the gardener's skill, the unblemished...

Phocas's Hospitality and the Persecution§50

The Glory and Utility of the Martyr§51

The True King and the Vanity of Idols§52

52Not a toil, but those cutting across the Adriatic and carried over the Aegean, and all who sail the ocean toward the west and navigate the western gulfs, they use the usual commands to rest from their voyage's toil, turning to a new hypothesis through the language of bravery; and the thrice-blessed is a tongue to them, because it provides clear experiences of help.

Often, however, at night while awaiting winter, a helmsman was seen dozing upon the rudder, waking him; and at other times, stretching a call and attending to the shield and looking out from the prow for the rocks. A law was established that sailors must travel with Phocaean companions. And since they must have a share in the current incorporeal life helplessly, learn how they carefully reasoned about the impossible. Each day, according to how many are present, they complete their share for the sake of an equal distribution among the eaters, as a testimony.

One of the stewards, driving out the silver, sets it aside, and another the next day, and another at another time; and thus the buyer receives their share each day from the purchase's proceeds. When a harbor receives them and they land upon the earth, the silver is divided among the hungry; and this portion to Phocaeans is a blessing for the needy.

Kings have established this, and they adorn God's palace with the most patient, God-loving, and honor-seeking treasures. But those coming upon them love the young more than the elders. And it is no wonder if the men holding the Roman hegemony, being pious and followers of customs and laws, they act reverently toward the servant of Christ, even when the wonder reached the barbarians; and all the wildest Scythians, who live on the opposite shore of the Euxine Sea, inhabitants of Lake Maeotis and the Tanais river, those who dwell in the Bosporus and stretch even to the Phasis river, all these carry spears for the gardener; and all those standing by us in customs and duties toward the...

Only those of one mind become softened in the harshness of their ways by the truth.

One ruler, therefore, having laid aside the crown of his head, being surrounded by gold and flowers of stone, and having stripped off his war-armor—for his panoply was a substance of boastful wealth and was being shattered by the barbarians—sent both offerings through the martyr to God, establishing the occasions of power and dignity. For it was evident, as the crown of kingship was a gift, and the breastplate was the strength for war.

As for the continuous activities occurring through visions in dreams and through the healings which those who labor enjoy, how could anyone even recount them, since it is impossible to apply words to each individual activity? However, it is possible to say this much to those worshipping the manifold error: that one slave of Christ and fellow-slave of ours fulfills the activities of many whom you consider gods among you.

And let the divinations be silent, just as they were hushed by the prophecies among us, the righteous overcoming. Let the works of medicine be idle, and let Asclepius not be worshiped; and let the Dioscuri not be considered to contend with sailors, for most know the Helper against dangers. Where is the Pythia, a woman of false divination, providing oblique and uncertain answers to those inquiring, so that she might prepare an apology for failure and falsehood through the doubt of the oracles? Where is the spring considered to generate prophetic water? Is it not all nonsense and vanity, which lured the wretched peoples toward error?

Worship God, whose faithful slaves were worthy of such grace, not acting involuntarily, but doing good to fellow-slaves according to the gift given to them. And these things occur after the arrival here and the separation of the body. Recognize from the servants the majesty of the Lord; glorify the God who is truly above all, to whom worship is due, now and forever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

The Martyrs as Teachers of Endurance§53

53It seems that the greatest benefits have come even from the most hostile and unyielding enemies; and this is shown both by the experience of life and by the things being completed perfectly.

For if the devil had not persecuted Christians and waged war against the church, we would not have had martyrs; and if there were no martyrs, our life would have become gloomy and without vigor. For what is comparable to these celebrations? And what is so solemn and beautiful as to see the whole city walking about free from idleness, and occupying a holy place to perform pure mysteries with true piety?

True piety is to worship God and to honor those who, through Him, endured sufferings and arrayed themselves against the final danger of death, of whom those who lead us today are the foremost and leaders; men who became immortal through a beautiful death, living forever through despising life, having exchanged the kingdom of blood and rejected the predatory flesh as a benefit to the soul.

Thus, a good choice, when it acts like a bridle on a man, subdues all impulses and movements and, as a bridle holds the reins, keeping the thoughts attentive, softening sluggishness and restraining immeasurable sharpness, is not able to make the course of life disordered or dangerous.

We have, therefore, the martyrs of Christ not only as teachers of a good way of life, but also as accusers of sin. How could a martyr who accuses come to be? Listen. If he conquered the flame of fire through endurance, how do you not restrain fornication with temperance? If the martyr did not pity the wealth he gave away, why do you not despise a little silver for righteousness? If the martyr did not honor the race of God, but shunned woman, children, and dear ones, how do you not slaughter...

Does he, through accidental familiarity with your person, reason away justice and the fear of God as if they were insignificant? If the martyr surrendered his body through God, how can you himself despise a small tunic as if it were a covering for the naked? These things, when examined against one another, expose our own misfortune.

Therefore, should we respect the saints as teachers, or fear them as accusers? Let us show our own lives to those who punish us by following them; and let us ourselves be persuaded by God, just as the saints were persuaded by the commandments and firmly hoped in the promises. For the hope of spiritual goods is a very good teacher of courage and endurance, which, being inherently reliable and a secure earnest deposited in our thoughts, exhorts us to see every danger unshakeable and to bear it bravely in the trial; and this follows accordingly. For by nature we humans are somewhat prone to be softened and to yield to the winds of toil, but to take hold powerfully against them of those things for which contests and honors are the end.

Therefore, all the martyrs, paying attention with their minds to the evangelical letter, in which the Lord, exhorting the holy athletes and those eager for good, says: 'If anyone confesses me before men, I will confess him before my Father' Matt 10:32, endured iron set against them through irrational thoughts and climbed upon pyres, and providing their bodies to be cast into the mouths of beasts, and each one submitted his back to flogging and the sharp edges of nails, and their sides were scattered, and they endured iron bonds and brought forth dark cries from the dungeons; they were attacked by hunger and thirst and were dried up, and they presented their faces like stones to those striking them, they heard the insolent as if they were deaf, they remained silent toward those insulting and reviling as if they were mute, and they were paraded to the crowds and the theaters.

The Glory of Martyrs vs. the Ignorance of Tyrants§54

54Marketplaces and stalls were set up in the bodies of those who praised, not only men but also women, the most wretched of all. Others were burned by fire, others were struck down by cold; in various ways they shared their excellence among us, so that by falling, they might conquer.

Because of this, having surrounded the pious bodies with reverence—the vessels of election, the instruments of blessed souls, the dwellings of the philosophers—we guard them as highly precious heirlooms for all time, and we protect them as our own treasure; and for the martyrs, the church is fortified like a city with brave soldiers, and all kinds of festivals are celebrated, and we enjoy the joy of the feasts.

But those pressed by hardship or misfortune, as if seeking refuge, rush to the thrice-blessed, making themselves ambassadors of their prayers and requests with great boldness. From here, poverty is relieved, diseases are healed, and the threats of rulers are calmed; and for all the troubles and hardships of life, the shrines of the martyrs are safe harbors.

Thus a father or mother, taking up a sick child and embracing it, runs to seek medicine and doctors, but turns to unskilled help; and coming to one of the martyrs, she presents her petition to the Lord with the same cries used toward the Mediator: 'Intercede through Christ's suffering for those who suffer and are sick. With boldness, use your voice for fellow-servants. Even if you left our life behind, you know the sufferings of humanity; you yourself once pleaded before becoming a martyr. When you sought, you received; now having received, grant. Ask for your own benefit in the form of old age. May we be healed of our infirmity as the world is healed by Christ.'

Another, hastening to a marriage, makes the prayer in the martyr-shrines a prelude to the bridal chambers; and someone rushing to a voyage does not first loosen the moorings of the ship, before he invokes the Lord of the sea through the martyrs; and for the poor and the needy, they have gained a common table and food, the rest of the martyrs; and the martyrs are sung of throughout the earth and the sea. Appropriately and according to their worth. For not as many do the righteousness correctly...

They bore the cross with their own bodies; they did not scatter money, but poured out blood; they did not kill the poor, but did not pity themselves; they did not visit the maltreated in prison, but they themselves wore the chains. Because of this, in exchange for endurance and affliction, they reaped glory and honor.

10.5.1 Thus are the martyrs; but where are those tyrants and murderers, who thought high things and threatened with arrogance, who sit upon lofty thrones and do not know their own ruler? They have leaped over the lions, run over the leopards, fought against the bears, poured out blood against the wolves, and acted wickedly like foxes. More filthy lie the dead donkeys, for oblivion has covered their lives; but they have a tomb that is terrible, a monument of impiety, and a memory of dishonor; they repent in vain, and they groan uselessly.

10.5.2 But the memory of those insulted by them is received by an unceasing remembrance, an ageless praise. For the accounts and the honors, being received by the drunkards from the elders, and grandfathers to grandsons or fathers to children, passing on the healing care for them, make the praise immortal; and just as life preserves these feasts as an inviolable inheritance, or rather something more precious than an inheritance. For indeed, beautiful things of an inheritance are either taken away by a robber, or an enemy takes them as plunder, or a turn of circumstances empties them; but no one shall cut off the feast of holy men from a year, until they are years and time runs and heaven holds the sun and earth grazes its own animals and the sea its exceptional things.

10.5.3 To speak more truly, even when these elements have ceased, though it may seem so to some, the glory of martyrs and righteous ones shall not be extinguished, nor shall that which concerns them be destroyed by the fury of the people; but then they shall blossom even more toward the incorruptible life, once humanity has been re-adorned.

10.6.1 And it is possible for the unbelievers to waver concerning our coming hope, from the things being done in this life, regarding our good expectation of receiving firmly the things laid up. For behold, the whole circle of the inhabited world is filled with the athletes of Christ, and every place holds the memory of the saints; and all times are better than the gifts and growths from the earth, the things of the...

The distinction between honoring martyrs and worshipping idols§55

55Stories are given to those who honor the struggles. As if someone were a devoted friend of the excellent martyrs, and set his care upon celebrating their sufferings, not a single day of the year would pass unobserved.the exploits of brave men possess a glory superior to the solar cycle.

Because the one who opposes the good has attacked the Christian faith fiercely, and sought to destroy all through his schemes and calamities, and to occupy himself vainly with the tasks of the flesh, God, having anointed a multitude of excellent men with commands and trained them for endurance and strength, set them against the shameless and the enemy of humanity.. These, moreover, faced a new kind of struggle. They did not prevail by striking or smashing, but they excelled by suffering and by being slaughtered.

And what kind of power would you say, listener, is this of war? And what kind of success is this: to be twisted and flogged, and to have one's life destroyed through fire or sword or the cruelty of prisons?But learn how the wars for piety are won in a different way than other wars. For some have excellence in killing, but others achieve victory without bloodshed through suffering and falling.ng. And the boldness of the righteous carries out missions against the world.the enemy was caught off guard by the adversaries, whether he fell or intended to. For however many he slaughtered as martyrs, so many helpers of men he prepared.

And in every kind of action, this is found in suffering; therefore, where they think they are obstructing piety, they actually prepare its increase.God stands against the purposes of the fool and the thoughtless. And we find this throughout the events of every time: the exposition of Moses and the conduct of Joseph.. Immediately in the beginning, the second man murdered Abel (Gen 4:8), so that he might cut off the seed of the pious, yet it became fruitful. For from then on, man-slayers are intensely hated, which is why Cain was cursed by God (Gen 4:15). The matter of Christ, that the Satan worked in the Jews so that they might crucify him (Matt 27), is the same. The same thing has happened to the martyrs, whom many despise, trivializing their [life/existence] through their own folly...

A reproach. Is he not a man? Was not the body spent? Is not their memory contained in a few remains and these things? Especially Greeks and Euomians say these things; let us speak to both.

We do not worship martyrs, but honor them as genuine worshippers of God; we do not revere men, but marvel at those who, in the time of trials, have reverently served God well. We place them in beautiful shrines and raise up houses of their rest with magnificent constructions, so that we may emulate the honors of those who well finished their course; and we do not show our zeal for them for pay, but we enjoy their protection toward God.

For our prayer is not sufficient to move God in the time of necessity or misfortune, for our plea is not a persuasion, but a remembrance of sins; therefore we fly to the fellow-servants who are loved by the Lord, so that they might heal our defects through their own achievements. What then is the charge, that while honoring martyrs we ourselves strive to please God? What accusation is there in flying to protectors? Let us examine also these things, if the accuser cleanses the charge. And how can it be said, that you do not honor myriads of dead men, but worship them as gods?

Did you not, through your folly, deify Demeter and Kore, and yet you honor two women with temples and these sacrifices and with all kinds of worships and healings? Are not the mysteries at Eleusis the essence of your religion, and the Attic people and all Greece flowing together to complete a vanity? Is not the dark descent there, and the solemn gatherings of the hierophant toward the altar, only from woman to woman? Do not the torches go out, and the large and countless people think their salvation to be the things done in the darkness by the two?

Do I say that you worship Dionysus the Theban as a god? For I say, know your fatherland, so that you may know the man: a man, a grape-grower and a vintner, a village leader, a people drawing together and acting shamefully through drunkenness, doing those things which incite the dissolute youths to unchastity, while they drink with the old Silenus and the satyrs who love revelry.

The danger of pride and the legacy of the saints§56

56Are you sharing in a life of drunkenness and revelry? You are not the one offering sacrifices to the man Heracles as if he were a god, but to a Roman man, a body who was lucky and brave, and you revere him because he excelled in many things and was surrounded by beasts.

And again, why do you not revere and set aside Asclepius, who was in the porch and surrounded by much iron?you would not deny that you do this. For the temples rising everywhere in the inhabited world—I say the Asclepieia, the Heracleia, and the Dionysia—stand as clear indictments of your vanity.. And so I shall depart innocent of the reproach, for I do not worship idols nor consider them gods; but you are growing, being held by reproaches, and accusing others of these things, just as those with a guilty conscience accuse the innocent. For you show yourself to be worshipping men as gods. These things are few among the many regarding the pagans..

But you Jews of the new stance, what is wonderful that you dishonor Christ, rejecting the likeness to the Father, separating them in your own words, while guarding the places as sacred, in which holy bodies have rested? you, who have not come to an understanding of what is happening, fear, you who are called Christians, and yet hate the martyrs along with the Greeks. Do you not know how Christ, the Arch-martyr, first suffered and left zeal to the servants?

Then after him Stephen, the namesake of the orthodox struggle according to God; all the following disciples and apostles. And you have inspected through a single insult how many you dishonor: John the Baptist, James called the brother of the Lord, Peter, Paul, Thomas; these I name as the leaders of the martyrs, and then the infinite multitude of those who died for life. Is it not a small thing for you to stumble over these? Is the danger of your hatred not small?

Each of these conquered the devil with the company of demons, and was inscribed among the angels and is kept as a well-pleasing athlete by the promise of the resurrection; and he shall stand at the appearance of God and our Savior, opening his mouth with boldness, rejoicing in the sight of the angels and in the glory of God, blessing himself for the lashes, the chains, the tortures, the deformities...

It is a profit of the end, because of the eternal life he has become a guest. But when you hear these things, I know what you think and say: 'I too am acceptable to my peers. If I live according to virtue, I shall be no worse or less honored than those now admired.' Truly, such words are the mark of a proud man, following the great Pharisee (Luke 18:11) and stranger to all humility. It is evident that he who has not previously been humbled will not ascend to height; for a decision is a master.

To ensure that no one forgives you for becoming such a person—tell me, do you not wish to feel shame before those who cut the path of piety for you, the guides of the good, the teachers of virtue, who trained you in endurance and contempt for death? You were taught gratitude from the disciples of this life, that becoming like those who taught and lacking nothing of the art, they nonetheless love the hearts of the teachers, respect them, speak well of them, yield to the first ones, and serve them as a father.

Many also, having ended their lives, holy saints are able, even after departing from life, to do good to men; and witness to these things is Elisha, who long ago, having departed from life and fallen asleep, but having received the grace of God immortal and inseparable, was present in the earth and with the lifeless bones (2 Kings 13:21). For you know, as a lover of the Scriptures and a disciple, that someone dead, being carried out by his own people, perhaps being seized by robbers or enemies, such as it is pleasing to happen in commotion and noise, having been thrown upon the tomb of the thrice-blessed prophet, was immediately revived and rose to the living.

What then shall we say regarding what happened? Did the righteous man have no perception of what was being done? Did he not send up a prayer for the dead as for the child of the woman of Samos? But the truth of things gives us nothing of the sort to conceive. For the righteous man lay there long ago, the body having been dissolved into kindred soil and like dust. But it has become evident that God, always glorifying His own people even after their end, performs wondrous paradoxes concerning their tombs and their resting places, so that the living, always having a more intoxicating hold on the good hope, may hold onto those who have departed.

The Value of the Righteous§57

57They willingly sacrifice their lives for the honor of the best political order.

Likewise, for Elijah, the one who guided this prophet with the flaming horses and the fiery chariot, living in another kind of life and having departed from men to the place he received, he left a symbol sufficient of his own power, even the mantle. Yet what was the value of that thing? For it was nothing other than a dead and trivial skin from old age. However, even the Jordan itself yielded to it, and the water was split and stood divided, just as the old Jordan was before Jesus, who was a type of what was to come (2 Kings 2:11).

The Theban Elisha also was present, and he received the garment of the philosopher as a disciple, making the crossing of the river secure, honoring the philanthropy of God and the garments of the saints as if they were endowed with soul. And so that it might be clearly shown that the miracle concerning the river did not happen because of the cause of the water being struck, but because of the honor of the one inhabited and taken up, Elisha struck the water, and the water flowed normally, nothing new having suffered. And since, having failed, he cried out: 'Where is the God of Elijah?' (2 Kings 2:14), and having cried out a second time, he sat down, immediately the river split the stream, showing the dry land, and the prophet, having trodden, arrived at the other side.

And Joseph, after Jacob had died, not loving him as a father so privately, but honoring him as a common patriarch of the nation, with that much-celebrated service, led the remains out of Egypt, so as to allow Moses, after the writing of the world's genesis and the rest of the history, to give this also as a narrative of life. And Joseph again was present with the Israelite departing from the eyes, as one might say, stolen from Pharaoh, and the body was everywhere present with the people, and he led it with care as a good and evil-averting safeguard for the sixty myriads.

And they had such reverence regarding the ark of the forefather, as regarding the holy ark which bore the law of God. Therefore also David, entreating God to be propitious and favorable to the people, and exhausting him with myriads of supplications, so that having stilled the continuous and recurring plague of misfortunes, he might again govern Jerusalem with good foresight as before, thus says: 'O Shepherd of Israel, pay attention, O Leader of Joseph like a sheep' (Ps 80:2). For he is appeased by the names of the beloved and friends, and most gracefully handles the entreaty of the transgressing multitude of sins, as if concealing and covering them with the titles of the holy fathers.

This is told to our mind by the word concerning the saving of Sodom (Gen 18-19). For Abraham, entreating the Sodomites, when God, after foretelling, brought the punishment upon them as they were displeased, the sparing of the righteous being worthy to save the whole people. For beginning from the fifty toward the ten, he concluded, and God immediately granted the entreaty, as if weighing on some scale and weights, opposing the value of the ten righteous against the myriads of sinners.

In order that it might be shown more abundantly to us all, that even one righteous person is a precious thing and a friend to God, since the tenth failed to be a number and the multitude of the holy was found suffering from the smallness of the sinners, and it was necessary for the law-breakers to receive the penalty of audacity; Lot is violently driven from the condemned places and is saved entirely into the old age of his own righteousness, having received all his household from God (Gen 19). Therefore, a righteous person is a great possession: first, a benefit to himself; second, a lasting treasure to the rest of his race, unknown to sight and always accompanying them, silent and instructing others by his deeds; lying of old and living by his good repute. Good for the children.

The Intercession of the Wise and the Fall of Solomon§58

The Honor of Martyrs and Introduction to Euphemia§59

The Artist's Depiction of the Passion§60

60Danger; but the citizens and sharers in the religion for which she died, having marveled together at her courage and the sacredness of the virgin, having placed the shrine near the temple and laid down the casket, perform honors to her and make the annual feast a common and widespread celebration, a panegyris.

Therefore, the celebrants of the mysteries of God always honor the memory by word and by intention, and they teach the associated people with care how she completed the contest of endurance. And the painter himself, through his art, having engraved with all possible power the whole history upon linen, placed before the shrine a sacred spectacle; and here is the artistic skill.

A judge sits high upon a throne, looking bitterly and with hostility at the virgin; for he is angry whenever the art seeks even with soulless materials. And there are spear-bearers of the ruler and many soldiers; some carrying the tablets of the memoranda and styluses, one of whom, having raised his hand from the wax, looks intensely at the one being judged, turning his whole face, as if rising to intercede, speaking so that she might not write incorrectly or errantly concerning the hearing, being weary.

And the virgin stands in a purple tunic and robe, signifying philosophy, as it seemed to the writer, and her appearance is charming, as it seems to me, the soul having been beautified by virtues. And two soldiers lead her toward the ruler, one pulling her by the face, the other hurrying from behind. The appearance of the virgin is gripped by modesty and severity; for she indeed bows toward the earth as if reddening the faces of the men, but she stands unshakeable, suffering nothing in the cowardly contest.

If I had previously praised other painters, I would have beheld the drama of that woman of Colchis, as she is about to bring to the children the...

A sword divides the face with mercy and anger; one of the eyes manifests wrath, while the other manifests the mother being pitied and trembling. Now I have shifted the wonder of the Scripture from that idea to this one; and I am most ignorant of the artist, because he has rather mixed the bloom of colors, combining shame and courage together, through natural sufferings.

Moving forward into the face of the imitation, certain criminals in small tunics, already naked, were beginning the work; and the one, seizing the head and leaning it toward the back, provided for the other a suitable position for the punishment of the virgin's face; and the assistant was cutting out the pearly teeth; and a hammer and a chisel appear as the instruments of the punishment. My eyes weep from here, and the passion strikes my speech; for the painter has colored the drops of blood so vividly that you might say they are truly flowing from the lips, and you would depart mourning.

After these things, a prison; and again the solemn virgin sits alone in light-colored garments, stretching out her hands toward heaven and calling upon God, the helper of the distressed. While she prays, the sign appears above her head, which indeed the law commands Christians to worship and to inscribe, a symbol I think of the passion which was receiving her.

Immediately, indeed, and after a little while, the painter kindled a fierce fire elsewhere, making the flame by applying red color here and there. He stands her in the middle, having spread her hands toward heaven, showing no pain in her face, but on the contrary rejoicing because she has emigrated to the incorporeal and blessed life.

Up to this point the painter has set his hand and I too my speech; it is time for you, if you wish, to finish the Scripture, so that you may understand accurately, lest we have come much after the explanation.

The Glory of the Disciples§61

61How truly holy and beautiful is the circle of things that gladden us! For a feast succeeds a feast and a festival seizes a festival; and we are called from prayer to prayer, and the honor of the servant seizes the divine manifestations of the Lord.

Even if regarding his birth, one might be indifferent to him who was born yesterday through flesh and is always existing according to divinity, and even regarding his martyrdom, which the brave one underwent today, one will find many diverse things, but one purpose: that we might be taught piety.

Yesterday, therefore, we learned through the cyclical and customary feast that the Savior of the world was born, and the incorporeal clothed himself in flesh, and the bodiless put on a body; then that he also accepted sufferings on our behalf and was lifted up on the wood not for anyone else's sake but for our salvation. Today, however, we see the brave combatant being stoned for that sake, so that by blood he might repay the debt for the sake of the love which is above blood.

Stephen, therefore, the gatherer of this festival, who calls us to the joy we behold, who led the people as one city, a man the firstfruit of the martyrs, a teacher of the sufferings for Christ, a foundation of the good confession. For before Stephen, no one poured out blood for the sake of the Gospel.

But just as that Cain, the brother-slayer, as the history of Moses teaches me regarding brother-slaying (Genesis 4), committed the act—for choosing conflict over natural friendship, he first defiled the earth with murder—so also Stephen, the thrice-blessed, first sanctified the earth with the blood of his own, through the combats of the pious, a man second to the times of the apostles, but first in his courageous deeds.

And do not be indignant with me, Peter; do not be grieved, James; do not be harsh, John, if I do not only compare this man to your philosophy, but if I wish to grant him something even more.

Rather, be ashamed, for you are deficient fathers, and you exult in the achievements of the sons and are pleased to be surpassed by the children in virtue. For if anything is beautiful and great regarding Stephen, this is certainly yours, as those who instructed and initiated him.

For the approval of the athletes becomes the glory of the trainer. Therefore, having asked you for a small concession, I will speak with boldness, as the subject gives to me for the sake of advocating what is best concerning Christ. You are an elder of the disciples, holy Peter, and before all things you proclaimed Jesus Christ. Furthermore, while you were preaching your evangelical word, going from city to city and from land to land without ceasing and laboring in the preaching, this one, having entered the stadium and having snatched the crown from the competitors, having gone into heaven, was glorified while you were still turning about the earth; and the greater glory is of his Father and Son calling him through the wonderful vision. Thus indeed it is with Peter, and what has been said is sufficient. For it is daring to contend with the fathers much more concerning precedence.

Let us also see the others, James, brother of John. You are an evangelist of Christ, a second prize after Peter. And who would not praise your faith? For you were only called and, intending nothing else, you obeyed. You left behind the boat and the father Zebedee; and you followed Christ as a genuine disciple. You suffered willingly for the sake of piety, I confess; for Herod the tyrant used you with the sword (Acts 12:2), but after Stephen, many years later.

And why do I name them one by one, when when the prize of martyrdom was lifted up for all the saints together, first setting oneself against the devil and first conquering, imitating David, even if through a reversal of the matter? David conquered Goliath with stones (1 Samuel 17), and Stephen conquered the devil with stones; but the one with what he threw, and the other with what he was struck by. We, however, the people of Christ, as the...

The Courage of Stephen§62

62Then we cry out with the army of Israel and sing victory songs as if seeing them present, marveling as if they were standing.

For every one who fights for piety is good, even if he becomes second or third to those who competed before; yet he is not worthy of such a marvel as the first. The second, being stirred by zeal for the one who preceded, was thus drawn toward diligence; but he who uses no one as a guide, yet having become a discoverer of the good, appropriately receives the vote of the first.

Great indeed is the man's readiness, therefore great is the honor; and immortal is the memory, which neither oblivion covered nor time dimmed, but generation after generation, inheriting the stories, we priests, people, children, men, and women, celebrate this feast without fail. But the history itself should also be observed, so that, having become acquainted with the facts of the matters, we might more marvel at the man.

First among those who serve according to Christ was Stephen, esteemed by grace, a vessel filled with the Spirit, confirming daily those in the household and those wandering toward the straight path. And because he had a more intense teaching, he more than the other apostles loosed the enemies and, before them, first made the devil hostile. For he sets his eyes like fire and looks fiercely at those who are more steadfast in piety. Thus the race of Alexandrians raised up a sharp-edged system against him for a stand. In any case, you have heard of the men of the city, how they are both fervent and boiling upon everything they might readily rush toward. And when the crowd saw those rushing toward him, it had almost been possible to set the present situation aside; however, he found a resourceful, well-composed, and gentle word. For there is no medicine of such a kind for the healing of temper and agitation, such as a pleasant and well-fitted exhortation.

And 'tell me,' he says, 'the cause of the hatred, instead of why you stretch out your hands and are manifest as if about to strike.' When it was said that 'Since you destroy the ancestral laws and are an introducer of foreign dogmas,' the blessed one stood in the midst; for as an unskilled and impromptu orator, he was saying what he had learned from art, but what was breathed into him by the Spirit: 'Men,' he says, 'brothers and fathers.'

Listen. The introduction is wise, an excellent thing for the people being warmed by it, the beginning of the oration. For the sweetness and the appropriateness of the words, as if participating in some honey or soft oil, diminished the heat of the beasts. Then he rises in memory toward Abraham, so that having begun from ancient times and stretching out a long discourse in much of the middle, he might not be found to have spent his spirit being exhausted. And having worked out that much speech, he shows that even Moses prophesied Christ, so that through the reliability of the lawgiver, skillfully, like a thief, he might introduce the word of faith. And he has said all things knowing, all that was useful for the benefit of those listening.

But when he saw the evil to be unprovable and the opinion unyielding, then he was filled with boldness and, forbidding all the flattering art toward the life here, he unhesitatingly reproved them: stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart, fighting against the law, warring against the Spirit. And what things from here? Many dogs and fattened bulls stood around him as a Master, as the psalmody says, surrounding the righteous man (Psalm 22:2). But he stood alone, surrounded on every side by the people of the murderers. And no one was near at that hour, no friend, no householder, no relative. For it is as if one offers a consolation to those in danger by seeing someone known nearby.

But the high champion of the great struggle, having seen the need for a man to stand by, for he was very brave, shows that he suffered all human things unceasingly; as it seems to him, gazing intently toward heaven (Acts 7:55), he shows also the Son standing at the right hand in the form of humanity (Acts 7:56). O, the philanthropy! O, the goodness! To the athlete, those for which he struggled appeared, and the God of all things did not leave such a voice to him alone. Do not suffer anything ungentle, O Stephen; you have no human ally, no friend stood by you in the time of terrors, but I, with the Beloved, watch over the things being done. Rest is ready, the gates of paradise having been opened. Having endured a little, leave behind a brief life and hasten toward the life which is eternal and perfect. Still finding yourself in the flesh, you see God, a thing of all the world.

The Martyrdom and Prayer of Christ-bearer§63

The Presence of the Spirit in Stephen§64

64Do not allow yourself to die in circumcision; draw through repentance toward your own recognition, and kindle in the hearts the flame of the Spirit. For if they are improved in this way, it is evident that you will not stand against their sin, but having washed in the bath of grace, both your blood and mine, they will become free from the accusations.

These things happened and the drama was completed. And the armies of angels were rejoicing in the contest, marveling greatly and with much retinue leading Stephen into his own inheritance; but the devil was turned away empty, being terribly perplexed, yet trying to imitate a prophetic word about the spirit, saying something more bodily, as one carrying the face of a pot as a vessel and, on the contrary to what he expected, having succeeded in the very things he thought would diminish Christians, instead, he increased the list of the martyrs.

And what also toward Paul is the temple? For he too was one of the murderers, a true Benjamin, a wolf having snatched the lamb. For if he himself did not stone, but kept the garments of those stoning and served the people's crowd. Moreover, I shall see you soon, now trembling and breathing a wild passion like a weak old woman being led toward the Ananias of the truth, having tasted of it.

And I shall laugh very much when I hear you recounting your tribulations for the sake of the gospel and, among the other dangers, saying: 'At last I was stoned.' For it is necessary for you to defend yourself through stones against the stones, and by the same suffering to loose the accusation of sin.

It is also unbearable not to leave the vision of Stephen behind; for the God of all things always, foreseeing what is about to happen to the lives of sinful men, provides the remedy defensively in advance, which indeed He has done even here. For if the theophanies were completed only for the benefit of the combatant, it would have sufficed to become a voice from the heavens, just as at the baptism before, or later at the transfiguration, or even as with this Paul, when he was traveling toward Damascus.

Now, because the evil from Libya is about to lie in wait for the churches of God, and the ill-famed confusion of the hypotheses...

To lead into life, for this reason God, as if cutting ahead in advance and securing the souls of those who are to come later, shows himself to Stephen in a private and self-sufficient glory, and shows the Son in a perfected appearance, and places him at his own right hand, so that through the clarity of the persons he might interpret the underlying realities.

12.13.1 And someone might happen to say: The things concerning the Father and the Son are thus philosophized for you, but where is the Holy Spirit? For if, for the sake of the security according to faith, the Father was appearing from heaven with the Son, it was necessary for the Holy Spirit also to be present, so that some practical initiation might be accomplished for men through the vision. It is therefore necessary to say to the mind bearing this against us: O most wise, the examiner of readers must have both a correct mind and a strengthened memory, so that he may be able thus to run through all the written things together.

12.13.2 For if you also seek the presence of the Spirit, become a little higher than the stones and the marble, and you will find before the vision the Spirit speaking and being present with Stephen and preparing the athlete. For immediately at the beginning of the narrative he pre-announced this voice to us: 'Stephen, full of grace and truth, was doing signs and great wonders among the people' (Acts 6:8). And some rose up from the assembly called the Libertines and the Cyrenians and the Alexandrians and those from Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen, and they were not able to withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking (Acts 6:9-10).

12.13.3 Behold, then, also the person of the Spirit has been made clear to us by the word. If this was written earlier, and the Father and the Son last, the faith is not deprived of anything regarding the order. For it is the custom of the Scripture to do this: sometimes naming the Son alone, sometimes the Spirit with the Son, or sometimes beginning from the Father and concluding in the Spirit; and the repetition of the beginning occurring from the Spirit through the Son, the word leads back to the Father.

12.13.4 And this idiom of custom is seen to be happening most without concealment by the great Paul. And it has been filled among us

Sharing Justice and the Danger of Harsh Judgment§65

65And to Stephen the duty; if one looks toward the magnitude, it is not sufficiently, but if toward the power of the one saying, it is sufficient: that to our God is the glory unto the ages of the ages. Amen.

A Pharisee man, as we recently heard Luke saying (Luke 7:36), invites the Lord to a meal and leads Him to a dining room and sets a common table. But he neither declines the invitation nor flees the man, whether being a disciple or having believed, yet being bound to the letter of the law and not yet having opened the eyes toward the knowledge of the truth, and being made dull toward the promises of the prophets.

What then has Luke written this summary for us (Luke 1:1-4)? Whether so that we may have the knowledge of what Jesus accomplished living in the body, and receive useful knowledge of history? Or that a certain useful and educational thought fills our life, regulating it toward the right and the incorruptible? Thus, I think it is good to have, and it is fitting for you to be persuaded.

For many are those justifying themselves, self-loving and self-sufficient, swollen in presumption through empty wisdom, calling sinners those who approach, and before the true criterion comes, separating themselves like lambs from the shouting ones and looking toward the door of the kingdom as if it were about to fall to them, not being worthy to share with the many in a roof or in bindings, but loathing all those who walk not the extreme, but the middle path of life.

Therefore Luke, the physician of more souls than bodies, wrote the narrative in hand not merely as a word, but as a medicine for those sick with self-will, showing Him, our God and Savior, the incomparably pure and only righteous, most compassionately associating Himself with those who are recognized as sinners and with those who not yet...

Sharing with those who have been purified, not in order to take on their wickedness, but in order to impart one's own righteousness, according to this solar energy which appears, so as to present the providence of the Creator to the creation.

For we know that the sun does not only illuminate the elevated regions, but also as many places as are deeper and lower than the human position. Let us therefore cease if any of us think in such a way as the Word says; but let us imitate the merciful and man-loving nature of the Master by descending to the lowly, not so that we might humble ourselves to those who are lowly, but so that we might lift them up, just as certain swimmers lift up those who are drowning toward this life-giving air.

Since the Gospel letter leads toward a noble thought, let us stretch ourselves toward the intended goal. I wonder greatly at those who are surrounded by this passion and love of flesh, yet are defeated each day by sleep and the stomach—and indeed, not only having an endless supply of other provocations common to all of us who share the same and one nature—how they are such harsh judges of those who sin, while being so forgiving of themselves; they are weak combatants and unnecessary lawmakers, as if to deny hope in the philanthropy of God and to block, as they suppose, the abundant source of mercy and, with much authority, to bar the entrance to the Kingdom from those who wander. This is nothing like divine economy, but brings misunderstanding to souls seeking healing. For the slave who has lost hope in the cure becomes entirely a stranger to the disease and to every promise of our Scriptures; for even to the one examining such things wisely, nothing is granted except by grace and healed by forgiveness. And who is so sarcastic and disobedient to the words of Job, shouting out to everyone that...

The Mercy of the Divine Judge§66

66No one is clean from filth, nor even for one day is his life. And who, being sensible, would think such a thing, as being subject to these same accounts in the court of God, to consider forgiveness superfluous and mercy useless?

If indeed they had run toward the very edge of justice and exactness, having truly trodden according to what is written upon the serpent and the scorpion (Gen 3:1), and having been proclaimed victors and crowned against sin, it was not so that they should regulate life toward their own courage and toward all other things, but rather to confess the grace to the Giver God for their own good-pleasing, that they had also masterfully controlled their nature and had not become handlings of satanic temptations, but to reach out with brotherly love toward those who have grown weak, and to raise them up from the mire and cleanse them from the pollutions.

For those receiving honors would thus have taken double praise, of their both their own manliness and of brotherly and good sympathy. But now, being humans who fall to the ground and living a life not the angelic one and near the incorporeal ones, but such as if anyone were to lead and judge by accounts, they judge strictly and with much of the authority that brings a condemning vote, as if to say of me, often being suffocated by the dust and by arrogance, I would speak the evangelical sayings against them, that not seeing the views of others through the eyes you suppose in your own, you remove the splinters (Matt 7:3-5). And binding the heaviest burdens to others, you bypass, heavy judges and weak burden-bearers, seizing the step of Christ and snatching away the decision of the Judge, contemptible slaves and unnecessary judges of fellow-slaves.

If you zeal for God as having been created according to an image, imitate the archetype yourselves; O Christians, the Philanthropic name, zeal for the love of Christ, and turn toward the wealth of his philanthropy. For, intending to appear to men through a man, he preordained John, the preacher of repentance (Luke 3:3), the introducer of regret, and all before John as teachers of turning, the prophets. Then also he himself, having appeared after a little time, cries with his own voice personally: 'Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest (Matt 11:28).'

How did he respond when persuaded by the call? He gave a remission of sins without cost, and a release from those who grieve that is uncalculated and brief. The Word sanctified, the Spirit sealed; the old man was buried by the water, the new man was born rising by grace.

What follows? A man becomes his own instead of an alien, a son instead of a stranger, a mystic out of the profane, a holy one out of the ungodly. Therefore, having been enriched by such magnificent and unsurpassed gifts, if one, sinning against the ambitious and good benefactor, were not immediately mindful of the word before you difficult and negligent judges, he would certainly be driven to destruction, being cut off from this life and being punished there.

But since another is the Lord of the verdict, who makes mercy into thousands and myriads and does not wish the death of the sinner, but awaits the return, even so those who insulted the former grace were not punished; rather, a second mercy follows the first, and forgiveness is joined with amnesty. A tear falling is equal to the washing, and a groan over toil brings back the grace that had withdrawn a little.

If you do not believe the word, ask Peter, sitting in the house of the high priest, and he will tell you how, bitterly mourning the lapse of his denial, he was cleansed, and he did not dissolve into Simon, but Peter remained the apostle.

I myself think that even Judas Iscariot, if he had quickly become his own executioner, judging his sin unpardonably and falling down to ask mercy, would not have missed the mercies that overflow throughout the inhabited world. The proof of this word is all the Hebrews who, after the cross, believed, washing their souls and their hands together in the washing. If those who crucified were shown mercy, how could the betrayer not have escaped the amnesty?

Paul also once bound Christians, but having later borne the chains for Christ, he released the complaints from his own passion; he sinned while stoning Stephen and consenting to the killers, but having been stoned, he wiped out the multitude. Matthew and Zacchaeus once were tax collectors, but having trodden upon the tax office through contempt for things, the one received Jesus in his house and more in his soul, the other received the works of wonders.

Mercy and the Judgment of God§67

67He was shown to be an evangelist and a writer. The tax collector who was with the Pharisee is necessary for remembrance; likewise the woman who lost the drachma and found it (Luke 18:10; Luke 15:8).

But from beginning to end, if anyone were to consider the men of all life in their respective times, he would find many first entangled in sins, then having been moved by a slight inclination toward the better, having established a purpose. For it is the property of God alone to set everything right without any deficiency. But man, being driven by generation and corruption and being subject to so many things, could never be shown to be blameless through the cutting away of forgiveness.

Look toward David the king of Israel, whom God chose by election, and who adorned himself with praises through testimony, saying: 'I have found a man after my own heart, David the son of Jesse' (Acts 13:22). This man, after that brilliant exaltation of praises, because he was seized by the passion of carnality and fell into those things which we all know, yet after the rebuke of the prophet, he came to a calculation of the evil, and left a written record for those looking toward repentance in the future regarding the toil.

And we behold, as in an image, in the Psalter, the man: now being gripped by sorrow in the body, and then making time for weeping in the night, the common rest from pains; and flowing with tears upon the bed as if from the springs of the eyelids, and again to us having labored out the fiftieth psalm (Psalm 50), a type of one propitiating God. Not was the lamentation produced in vain for him, but the heavy groans drew in mercy, and he received both the authority of the royal power and the boldness of supplication toward God.

Similarly, he who had the lot of ruling Nineveh was accompanied by the multitude of sins toward destruction together with the peoples beginning to perish (Jonah 3), and he proclaimed the rebuke of sin approaching with little time left for the punishment. But since they, having sensibly wronged themselves, fled the trial of the calamity, he was grieved that the prophet of evils did not relent, and he became harshly angry toward the mercy of God.

And he who, everywhere both through words and deeds, makes known to us how much favor he has toward men, nurtures the gourd over the head for the...

The ray of the sun provides a covering for the vegetable that is withering, yet the shadow, failing to provide continuous protection, dries it up. Then, as if struggling to wake up to what is happening, it the person reproaches and blames. If one so passionately grieves over a withered vegetable, would God not be moved by a city approaching such danger? Learn, then, you harsh and unmerciful ones, the goodness of Him who created us, and do not become bitter and heavy-handed judges among fellow slaves, until He who reveals the secrets of hearts arrives to distribute the state of the expected life to each according to their lot by His sovereign authority. Do not issue your decisions in secret, so that you may not be subjected to the same, and walk as if pierced by the words of your own people as if they were sharp. For it seems to me that even the Gospel forewarning of this serves as a safeguard, saying: 'Do not judge, so that you may not be judged' (Matthew 7:1). For it does not cast out judgment and good-knowledge, but names the harshest condemnation 'judgment.' Therefore, if you wish, make the scale light, if you do not want to be dragged down by the condemning tablet and your own deeds when our life is being weighed in the balance of God's judgment.

Being surrounded by a body and living in the flesh, do not ever reject life from medical treatment. For even if you live for a long time in both well-being and health, you will not continue to be without sickness as if there were no need for the care of the healer. And having a soul inclined toward earthly things, whenever it becomes filled with the efforts of the body, do not reject mercy, so that you may not be deprived of forgiveness when you become in need of it. If someone is a priest and has been granted to lead the people, let him see the falls of those under his care with sympathy, knowing that even if the order of life differs from the many, it has not hindered the nature of those being shepherded, and that he, sharing in it, may perhaps one day share in transgression. Moses, knowing these things—for he was a man and knew human nature—commanded the calf to be used by the priest, because he was entirely a sinner and in need of cleansing and many things. What the fleshly calf was then, this is now the bodiless sin.

The Care of the Shepherd§68

68Do not let us boast and vaunt of benefits through repentance and bloodless prayer, knowing that even Aaron, the most tested priest, was drawn toward gods by the people and was caught in the murmuring along with his sister Mary; if the one who murmured had not pleaded, he would not have escaped the punishment.

Another, who is not a priest but one of many, should fear laying on a heavy yoke. For if he who is set to cleansing the people sometimes needs cleansings himself, what will happen to the one who does not even possess the power of ordination?

Let us imitate the pastoral way of the Lord; let us bow to the Gospels and, just as an image is learned in a mirror, let us learn the idea of both care and kindness. For I see there, in parables and in the shaded words, a shepherd of a hundred sheep; who, when one of the flock was torn away and went wandering, did not remain with those in order and those thought to be unerring, but having rushed to the search, pursued many bellies and ravines, and was lifted high by great and lofty obstacles and endured the wildernesses patiently, until he discovered the wanderer.

Having found him, he did not strike him, nor did he drive him back fiercely rushing toward the flock, but having laid hold of the neck and bringing him with mercy to the companions, he restored him, rejoicing more over that one than over the multitude of the others.

Let us then understand the matter that is hidden in riddles. For the sheep is not truly a sheep and the shepherd is altogether something else—not indeed a herder of mute animals—but these things are educational examples for the priests, so that regarding men we neither despair too easily nor become discouraged when they are in danger. Let us seek the one in distress and lead him back into order, and let us rejoice with those returning and mingle with the fullness of those living rightly.

It was fitting for the priest to practice philanthropy instead of excision, so that even if the Lord commands to cut off someone as a useless plant, he must ask as a gardener for mercy and for exceeding hope. For the word presents to us the mind of the unfruitful fig tree, where the farmer, wanting to prune it because of the unfruitfulness, pleads and asks for a regrowth and for exceeding good hopes for it.

The one who cares through his own diligence. Do not strike hastily, since you ought to prevent the one to whom the cutting was entrusted by the Lord, nor judge the uselessness quickly, but work out the diligence. Dig with reproaches, warm with exhortations like dung, water with the flowing of lessons, surround with the protective fences of commands like a trench. Let it be yours to abstain, the judge's to decide.

Let us strive to be called that, which the Lord also is called: for the Father is named Paraclete, appeasing on behalf of the human race; likewise the Spirit of Truth took the name of the zeal for us. For there also he is called Paraclete; and indeed an embassy and an intercession on behalf of the sinners is always striven for, not of the blameless and the unaccused.

Zeal, O priest, for the care of Moses; imitate his concern for those beginning their disposition, who, calling upon God, so that He might not be ill-disposed toward the people having sinned, since he knew a little that grace had passed by, this indeed he entreated: that the people might go forth, so that he might not see the destruction of the one being driven mad.

And nothing is like remembering the word of it: 'I pray, the people have sinned a great sin and have made for themselves golden gods. And now, if you forgive them their sin, let them be; but if not, blot me out from the book which you have written' (Exodus 32:32). Do you see how he sets forth the salvation of the multitude through his own care and seeks to be blotted out, if he does not succeed in obtaining forgiveness for the common people? But those now, being embittered toward the sinners approaching, drive them away, and those falling down, running toward, seeking to be healed, exceeding the limit, do not incline their faces while weeping.

Why then did Luke, and rather the Holy Spirit, write to me about the lost son (Luke 15), who first brought down the one just born, then, having been wasted away by pleasures and drunkenness and becoming a lover of money, emptied all the father's wealth? And since later, having been sufficiently wretched by labors, as if to become a fellow-dweller with hired hands and to share the same food with the pigs, he returned to the father's hearth having become sober, the father did not turn away nor did he shut the doors against him.

The Parable of the Returning Son and the Sinful Woman§69

69After his return, he approached the one drawing near and leaned on his neck, shedding tears compassionately upon the neck; and instead of an athlete's reward, he made him blessed by clothing him in free garments, putting a ring on his hand, celebrating a feast, and preparing a splendid banquet.

All these things are a parabolic word, opening to those repenting that the church is a fatherly home received with goodwill, so that they are not fellow-dwellers with swine or the filthy, but are born again as sons of another, so that by the will of God they may live together as a father's purpose and with the holy men as brothers.

You, however, do not envy the mind of the elder brother, nor grumble at the father's philanthropy, because he even received the prodigal and the insolent one. Rather marvel at the goodness and imitate God's benevolence, and embrace and fall upon those returning from error; for thus you will be a guide to the blind and a teacher of the wanderers.

Regarding those practicing harshness of mind and cutting off mercy before compassion, enough has been said to us and nothing more is needed; but listen also, you who pray for a return, that it might be fitting for you to hover over sins and mourn the falls of the heart. Rather, if it seems good, consider the sinful woman read to us by Luke in our presence. Zeal for her humility and modesty, and take as a rule of repentance, having remained exact.

For coming to the house of the Pharisee, she neither reddened at the crowd of those dining, nor fled the time of the banquet as unseasonable for confession, but being seized by grief and having a fierce mourning for transgressions, she did not release the physician of sins even for a moment. Nor was she coming to entreat face-to-face, but interpreting through her appearance that which was unworthy of herself and outspoken, having grasped the place by her posture and not even standing simply, but falling on her feet, loosening her hair, and making public her mourning soul through her actions, pouring tears to the feet of Jesus with much compassion, she sought mercy; and pouring out so much that she even drenched the feet, and while wringing out her hair, she gathered up all the moisture with humble reverence.

The Fruitlessness of Nominal Repentance§70

70It was being shown. Having gathered the points, the woman exerted repentance through all her senses and through her habits which had sinned;rence that she was mourning her sins publicly and in an obvious way, whereas she used to practice sin privately in her leisure. As for us, our promise announces repentance, but our practice shows nothing additional, but rather we maintain the same state of life which we lived even before the sin.

For brightness is the same, and the same clothing, and a luxurious enjoyment of the table, and long sleep relaxed into indolence, and various distractions and cares producing forgetfulness to the soul through its own self-care. But we are only inscribed with the name of repentance, being both unfruitful and inactive; keeping ourselves away from the mysteries and the communion of the sacred thingst all for a return toward them, but rather despising the enjoyment as if it were easy.

Understand, man, that you are worthy of many things, yet you have been separated from the participation of those. If you were a participant at a royal table, and then, having struck against the honor, you were cast off, how much wealth would you spend to become a friend and table-fellow again? And what doors would you not have pursued, begging, being at a loss, groaning, considering life unlivable, manifesting the pain of the grief in the depths through rank and relation of person, moving every stone, even the stone of the word, until you had overcome the calamity for yourself?

But he who, having been separated from the intimacy toward God and having fallen from truly high honor, what great and meaningful act of humility will a corrupted soul demonstrate? It is not consistent to say that one who is sick is changing to the same life as those who are healthy. For a different diet is for the sick one, and a different life for the healthy one.

See how great is the change of the well-off toward the condition of the ailing; for he, sensing the illness according to its state, lies down in a small room, having withdrawn from all habit, neglecting agriculture, being a very farmer, and abandoning concern for wealth...

The Physician of the Soul§§71–72

71A speculator and a lover of money. He is nourished by water and pulse, even if formerly he was full of luxury and set a Sybaritic table. Separated from his usual marriage-bed, he does not delight children; he understands doctors both by night and by day, and for the sake of beloved profit, he hastens toward health with many wages. Such is the sick man of the body.

But he who is badly disposed regarding the soul, having surrounded the incorporeal soul with physical ailments, and feigning confession and showing weakness, leaves it to be devoured and torn apart by the passion, so that it might be spread out over the whole mass? But be temperate, know yourself: you have grieved God, having insulted your Creator, who has authority over this present life and is Lord and Judge of the life to come. Have you been harmed by luxury? Through fasting, heal the enjoyment. Has intemperance harmed the soul? Let temperance become the medicine for the sickness.

Has greed worked a many-layered fever upon the intellect? Let almsgiving empty the fullness, for it is the distribution of cleansing for those who have been filled. Has the seizing of others' things harmed us? Let the stolen thing return to its own master. Falsehood has brought us near to destruction; for he says, 'You shall perish, those who speak falsehood' (John 8:44); let studied truth stand against the danger.

A broken oath leads to the flying sickle of Zechariah threatening to cut the womb (Zech 9:1); let us put on the whole armor of repentance, so that we might repel the edge of the sickle. Has someone served impiously through heretical dogmas? Let him drive away superstition with the mindset of right belief. This indeed is repentance: a release and an undoing of those things formerly or according to practice being enacted, or according to disposition being thought.

But he who knows the usefulness of the seventy times of repentance, yet is always turning toward the filth of lawlessness, becomes a slave alongside one who knows the wrath of the master, yet in his presence works evil and triples the sin. Let him become sensitive toward the...

72It is containing a disease. Crush yourself as much as you can; seek also the mourning of like-souled brothers to help you toward freedom. Show me your bitter and abundant tear, so that I may mix mine as well; take also the priest, a fellow-mourner of the affliction, as a father.

For who is such a false father or one adamant regarding the soul, as not to journey with the grieving children or to rejoice with them again? A priest is a son of God according to religion; he mourns sin just as Jacob mourned for Joseph's blood-stained tunic (Gen 37:31), as David mourned for Absalom's destruction, as Eli mourned for Hophni and Phinehas falling in the battle line, as Moses mourned for the people who innovated the godless calf-making (Ex 32).

Be emboldened before the One who begot you according to God, before the bodily fathers; show Him unashamedly the hidden things, strip bare the soul's secrets as one showing a hidden disease to a physician; He himself will attend to both decency and the cure; for the shame of parents touches those whom they have suffered. For the glory of those who begot is likewise their shame. The term of life is uncertain, brothers. Let us outpace the departure through care.

for it is absurd that those who plan according to the flesh cleanse themselves from material things before the circumcision of the so-called dog, lest the moisture that causes disease should work rot through excessive heat; but those who need care according to the intellect do not outrun the uncertainty of death and the heat of the testing fire, which burns unbidden and is never quenched.

You had the evangelical drachma and were enriching yourself well with the money, then through laziness you lost it. Light the lamp of repentance (Matt 25:1), bow down with care, seek the treasure hidden to the poor through afflictions (Matt 13:44). Having found it, lift it up and save it, so that we neighbors may rejoice with you in the joy in Christ, to whom glory is due, now and forever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

The Benefits of Fasting for Soul and Body§73

73Man is a composite being, consisting of a visible body and a rational and incorporeal soul.

Of these two previously mentioned things, the nature and the value are not equal; for the one the body was created as an instrument to move according to the economy of the ruling soul, but the other was appointed to rule and to reign as superior to the inferior.

Having received discernment from the intellect and the logos, and finding the difference between the good and the not-such, it the soul recognizes God as Creator and Maker of the things in these senses, and not only these, but also of the invisible things, which the incorporeal mind, through imagination, sees.

Practicing justice and virtue as a friend of God, it the soul pursues philosophy and, obeying its laws and commands, leads itself to something greater than the fleshly desires, and draws near to God with whatever power belongs to the good.

The most important and predominant part of this holy philosophy turns toward what is called self-control; for from this point the mind remains unpolluted, receiving no mixture of the filths from the stomach or of other impurities, and it has unhindered activity and the contemplation of heavenly and kindred things.

Therefore, you who are nourished by philosophy, lovers of the high things, and disciples of the Word, love this present time and the holy forty days; receive it as a teacher of temperance and a mother of virtue, a nourisher of the sons of God, a pedagogue of the unruly, a calm of souls, a stability of life, and a peace that is both a pledge and undisturbed.

For this strict and solemn passion puts to sleep the impulses and the tempers, and it cools and restrains all the turbulence sought by gluttony. And just as in the summer, when the sun...

Just as the north wind benefits the things being warmed by the glowing lamp of the earth, driving away the suffocation with gentle breezes, so also fasting grants benefit, having driven away the burning of the bodies from gluttony.

Doing so much for the soul, it benefits the body no less. For it thins the thicknesses and the bulk of the material elements, it unloads the weight of the body, and it brings down the veins bursting from the abundance of blood and gives a little room to the narrowness, so that they may not suffer the passion of the vessels. For even those, when much and immoderate water is held back beyond the capacity, they burst from the volume being forced in by violence, not containing it.

And it has a gentle head and one stilled in its posture, neither the arteries throbbing nor the brain being darkened by the rising of vapors. And of the stomach, self-control is freedom. For then it is released from the necessary slavery and from boiling like a cauldron, exhausting the entrails. Eyes see clearly and without scrutiny, all the film being removed, which the boy is accustomed to pouring over the eyes, and the base of the feet is firm, and the activity of the hands is unshakeable.

Breath is orderly and moderate, by none of the spirits that crowd from within rushing forth. The word of the faster is clear and well-structured, the mind is pure and then truly possesses the god-like, when as in an incorporeal state it performs its own activity in the flesh, painless and without disturbance. Sleeps are painless and without phantasms; and so that I may say many things by passing over much, fasting is a common peace of soul and body, an undisturbed life, a stable constitution, a life pleasing to God and grieving the enemy.

For just as the enemy, when he sees the opponent alert and sober, arming himself with care and practicing courage, considers his love of battle to be a lesser thing, so also the attacker of our salvation considers all our precision according to virtue as a threat to himself.

The corruption of lineages through appetite§74

74He hates misfortune. And because of this, it comes to pass that the house of the fasting person has angels as guardians, protectors, and attendants, while the one indulging in pleasures during the forty days has demons as household members, and lovers and lustful ones of blood, and attendants of drunkenness. For even regarding the spirits, whether holy or unclean, each one approaches its own kind and friends, just as it can be seen among birds.

For a dove indeed loves the pure places and turns itself toward the clearings, sowing seed for itself and its young; and the berry sits sweetly upon the tree leaves, producing something sweet and thin. But the gluttonous raven sits near the butcher shops, heavy and unpleasant, descending upon those who are slaughtering meat.

Therefore, let us love self-control, so that we may be loved by angels, and let us hate unrestrained luxury, so that we may not cast ourselves into fellowship with demons along with it. No one living in luxury became diligent, nor is one idling in prayers a disciple of virtue, nor is a lover of pleasure a saint, nor is one living fleshly a companion of the kingdom.

Come into your memory toward the beginning of our race and you will find the experience of those of whom we are witnesses. For a law of fasting would not have been set for us if the law of first self-control had not been surpassed; nor would the stomach have been named an intruder, if the pretext of pleasure had not introduced sin.

There was no need for the plow, nor for oxen to plow, nor for the cutting of the furrow, nor indeed for the sowing of seed and the watering, nor for the cycle of seasons, nor for the thickening of winter and the loosening of summer, nor for all this cyclical toil, if we had not decided upon the cycle of labors for the sake of an easy, immediate enjoyment of this life; but we intended a different state of life from the one seen, which we again hope to attain when we put on the impassible life through the resurrection.

For this is the blessing of God's condescension toward us, so that we might restore our worth toward the former state; which, having taken hold of philanthropically, we did not preserve, feeling the grace sensitively. Let us therefore be brightened at the coming fast; an icon of the coming life, a mimic of the incorruptible conduct. There are neither drinking parties nor pleasures...

Leave the first man, and count those after him as well. Why did it make the righteous Noah act shamefully, being stripped of his members which law should cover, and prepare to mock the impious Ham through the drunkenness of his father (Gen 9:20-27), so that two evils might come from one fault? For one drunkenness stripped both the father of the good covering and the son of liberty.

But when I turn again to the children of Eli the priest and to that history (1 Sam 2), I find a cluster of misfortunes connected to one another from a single source, that of the belly and the penis. For they, having made the priesthood of the father a starting point for pleasure and enjoyment, defiled the sacrifices and went toward the belly before God of the priests. And fornication followed, the sister of the sin of luxury, and to all these, the judgment from God brings a strict and sudden sentence.

For an enemy nation marched against Jerusalem because of them. And so that the word might cut short a multitude of gloomy narratives, the unrestrained youths fell in battle, the mother endangered with the sinners, and the ark of God was taken captive by the enemies, and the old priest died at the messages of evils, and so much of our evil was brought upon the city through the pleasure of the throat.

Therefore, let us all fast; especially those who are members of the priests, and more so as having the teaching of self-control and the philosophical commands from the table as a co-dweller. For it is absurd for the children of money-changers to be silver-knowers, and the members of the coppersmiths to be near the fire and the bellows, but for the members of the priests, whether relatives or otherwise, to neglect the object of life which the master and lord of the hearth was permitted to live. He was most harmed through the belly, even the elder son of Isaac (Gen 25). For being a hunter by profession and once, after a great run to the house, returning hungry, he took in the food that was before him, and he gave the firstborns to the lentil-eater (Gen 25:30-34); from there, moreover, he also snatched away the paternal blessing, and thus, being made a stranger little by little, he lost virtue and the patriarchal glory of God.

The Soul and the Body§75

75He lost even Israel through their lifestyle, becoming himself a barbarian and a stranger, and begetting a people like him. This disease led even the people of the old covenant into transgression of the divine and holy laws. For while Moses was occupied with the leisure of the giving of the law, the people, being distracted, turned toward luxury and dancing; the devil dragged them, as they were slipping and trampling the order of life toward impiety. From there, the demon-possessed skill of calf-making, Aaron sharing in the defilement and the corruption of the law, the smashing of the tablets, and Moses' second ascent to the mountain—all these things, which the history mocks with full detail, had their beginning and cause in immoderate eating.

I wish to set before you another account, second in time to what was said before, but equal in practice. King Saul was preparing and leading the war with much care; he forbade the people to take food on that day, sealing the judgment with an oath, and death was the penalty to the one who disobeyed. But while the whole army obediently received the command, only the king's son Jonathan stumbled, being overcome by the honey, and he dared to taste the scepter of sweetness by rushing toward the lords. Danger came near, unless the whole multitude, acting in concert with the impulse of their father and king, decided to turn the threat into action.

Regarding what has been said, it is possible to collect ten thousand such things from the Scriptures to see clearly that self-control is good, and conversely, the unrestrained enjoyment of drink and food is harmful. Fasting is the companion of the saints; fasting is the leader of every good work. And just as craftsmen do not perform their arts without tools, so also the diligent, even when helping with spiritual gifts, have never performed any of the wonders and marvels without self-control. Fasting Elijah raised the dead and gave them life; fasting Moses saw God; fasting Daniel mastered the sorcery and error of the Assyrians; fasting the Lord withstood the temptations of the devil; and fasting the...

The apostles performed prayers for important matters; the Ninevites through fasting overcame the threat of death (Jonah 3:5-10). This prayer is an intercessor toward God, worthy of reverence, and a reliable embassy that quickly covers itself with shame for whatever supplication it brings to God.

Therefore, let every pious man, who loves God more than pleasure, approach the days of self-control with joy and good cheer. For no one who is merely a scavenger is a noble combatant at the beginning of the contests.

Do not become sullen like a child being dragged to school; do not grumble about the purity of the days; do not seek the end of the week like the arrival of spring after a bitter winter; do not long for the Sabbath for the sake of feasting like a Jew (Exodus 16); do not count the days of the forty days like a lazy laborer waiting for the end of his agreed-upon wage; do not grieve because from the first hour your house is not smoking, nor has the cook stood by the fire.

Grant something also to the soul, not everything to the body. The former nourishes by the withholding of food, the latter by the abundance. But since the two are joined to one another, and those which are much separated by nature are seated together by the providence and art of the Creator, let us deliberate so that both might happen, each not being deprived of what is appropriate. You, O man, were composed of the two, and I am entirely silent as to the fact that the soul is much more preferable and it was fitting that it should receive the greater share of favor.

But judge between both as a rational and discerning man. Consider a little, and if you wish, I will make the argument for the soul as if to a faithful woman, providing support regarding those things of which she says she is being treated unjustly and being cast down. This, then, is sacred and incorporeal, immortal and incorruptible, having its kinship not toward earth and these things, but toward God. Being pure, she rejoices with the pure, and having an incorporeal origin, she flees from material substances.

However, since the vessel formed from the earth was commanded to be managed, as an obedient handmaid to the Lord, she sits upon the clay and is subject to the guarding and the providence over it, until the command comes allowing the separation. This abstinence from food, which gives life to the body, is necessary; but for the organ of the earth, the enjoyment of food is necessary. He seeks nothing...

The Virtue of Temperance and the Example of Barbarians§76

76Even more so as a superior. 'Divide to me, he says, the time of the year; give the six months for enjoyment to the one being governed and the remaining to the governor.' The request is just, and no judge is so fond of wisdom, being a heterodox judge, as not to vote in favor of those things being said. But I will even do an excess; I do not hold to equality. I descend with the weakness of the body. I leave ten months to the body and a little more. Let the fortieth be granted to me, unpolluted, so that I might be slightly freed from the filth, the mud, having been cooled by self-control. These things, O Christians, are both just and irrefutable, even if God judges and even if man judges. And you also, O judge, vote in my favor, for the time has arrived when the soul is disputing against the body. Therefore, take away from me, O Christian, the sensuality as if it were childish. You are a man; do not think the things of infants. If he does not receive that of honey, he wails; if you do not crave meat or wine, he falls away, tears himself apart, and knocks down everyone for more, while lamenting. I redden at the descent of the gluttons, so that they might mourn the fasting; they are constantly gaping, they are slightly overcome, they pass away again, they sleep by necessity. In insensibility they strive to pass the days, they are weary of the sun toward the setting as it grows late. They approach the days as longer than the habit. Moreover, they wash their aching stomachs and the tensions of the spirits and the heaviness of the head and the dizziness of the state. Even if these things are of surfeit, they are not the characteristics of fasting. They come to the solemn table joylessly, they grumble about the vegetables, they revile the legumes as if they were an addition added to creation; for the lovers of pleasure become also blowhards against the appearances of self-control. 14.10.5 They draw water without breath as if they had received a tasteless medicine from physicians to drink. And many also act wise regarding wine, persuading their pleasure with illicit concoctions. And others immediately attend to the need for vegetables and become various sophists of enjoyment. But this is very habitual and senseless. 14.10.6 For self-control is a struggle of the self-governing and of the free mind, m—

The text ends abruptly with a fragment: 'μ' (m—).

For a slave-like craft, seeking what is set before it, does not work it as it should, but fashions it in a slavish way. You demand a reward for those things according to which you live by the law of virtue. But a reward is promised to honest workers, not to evildoers.

Do not corrupt the fast, so that you do not suffer the things of the charcoal-burners. For if those, mixing water with wine, are punished, how will you, by introducing your sophisticated pleasures into the strictness of the fast, pass through unpunished? Do not imitate formed weaknesses; do not deceive yourself regarding the forty days as if it were a disease-maker, for on the contrary, it is a maker of health. Do not make pretexts for sins while working with men driven by lust.

Because of bad habit, self-control is considered an enemy to you; it is not, however, naturally offensive. All barbarians are a proof of this word, those who neither plant vines nor drink wine, but instead take for themselves by habit an uncultivated drink, water, and they are known to be brave and excellent in wars and they hold sway over the many, as is fitting, those who are drunk while they are sober.

But bodies to them are light and vigorous, and such people are quick to mount a horse, and are skillful and bold and accurate toward archery. And they are capable of finding safety amidst the tumult and finding a course in destitute places. Therefore, do not accuse water as being an emollient, and do not say that those using it are weak; for experience will expose your slander.

What do I say about wine? The Scythian nomads, those who dwell by the Bosporus and those who are stationed by the Rhine river, are indeed homeless and unstanding. But they live from skins and hides and from the hanging veils, making for themselves a covering.

But they do not know a plow, nor do they turn the soil; therefore they also do not bring bread. For how could those who have not learned agriculture regarding grain and the subsequent seeds be expected to? Nevertheless, living without bread and wine, they are brave and worthy of fighting war against all nations, and they hold sway over and excel the many; and neither bread nor wine being absent from them harmed them, but the ancestral habit became nature to men.

Why then did the word mention these things? In order that...

The Discipline of Self-Control§77

77Let us learn how training and discipline shape a person toward whatever we desire and meditate upon. Habituate yourself to self-control, and in time it will become an unforced, constant companion to you. But if, on the contrary, you have companions and friends for your pleasures and banquets, you will never love fasting; instead, it will appear to you as heavy as a stranger or something unusual.

A self-controlled life is an icon of the coming and incorruptible life. For just as when we stripped off this passion-filled flesh, we shall live freely, having no necessity to serve the stomach and no slavery to other passions, so also if we now cast off the great necessity and matter of ourselves, we shall be near the expected incorruption. To speak briefly: let us flee from love of pleasure toward strength; for it is impossible to be both a lover of pleasure and a lover of God.

For the lover of wisdom will be, by necessity, also a lover of money, and the lover of money will be unjust; and he who has fallen into injustice will easily transgress the laws of piety and trample the rules of the wise, and will easily lay hands on what is forbidden, thereby gathering for himself the materials of pleasure and offering all the spoils of injustice to hedonism as to a mistress.

Do not flee from the hardship of self-control, but set hopes against the present toil, and when the lightness of the reward has passed by, avoid the abstention. Say to yourself words of piety: Fasting is bitter, but paradise is sweet; thirst is heavy, but near is the spring from which the drinker will never thirst for all eternity. The body is frail, but the soul, which is without a body, is stronger. Power is dead, but near is the resurrection.

Say to your approaching stomach and to yourself the word of the Lord: 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God' (Matt 4:4). It is not a famine, but a small temptation; it is not a necessary punishment, but a voluntary abstention; it is not a slavery-like necessity, but a free philosophy. Pray and you will be strong; call upon Him, and the Helper stands ready for you.

Take up in your memory an ancient history and learn how those who, through piety, press down the body, compared to those living in luxury and pouring out much of the unmixed wine, are neither weaker in strength, nor are they more gloomy or having lost their grace.

14.13.2 For that King of the Assyrians, who lived entirely in the flesh and was bound to a luxurious life like a glutton, commanded his cupbearers and cooks and all the simple servants of pleasure to be chosen for their intelligence and to appear graceful, so that not only the mouth and taste, but also his eye might enjoy through what was seen; then indeed the three youths, having been selected from the captivity of Israel according to the roster of the servants, abstaining from the sight of the king...

The Beauty of Fasting and the Example of Samson§78

The Misunderstanding of Types and the Purpose of Fasting§79

79The offspring of Abraham are abortions, slaves of thoughtlessness instead of sons of freedom, ignorant and lawless though supposedly disciples of the law, having lost the hope of the outcome because they did not rationally receive the types of what is to come.

For Moses, in everything he did, prefigured the idols that would come later; whether you speak of the fast, or the feast of tabernacles, or the sounding of the trumpets, likewise the circumcision, the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs. All those things were messages and icons pre-drawn for those being initiated into the mysteries toward the completion.

For I, the Christian, fast well as a slave of the crucified, whether purifying myself toward the hope of the resurrection or clinging as a devoted slave to the sufferings of my Lord. But you, son of the murderers and descendant of those who slaughtered the lamb, having received the inheritance of the shed blood through the voice of the fathers, who thus made vows for themselves and their children, tell me, for what purpose do you fast? If it is as one repenting of the things in which you sinned—I support you in this opinion—and leaving the assembly of those committing adultery, hasten toward the church of the pious. Come to the blood of the lamb and be sprinkled; for from there purification for you shall exist, from which I shall stand away from sin. But if you are still bound to the same things, what do you intend by the abstention from food, or are you imitating the Nile crocodiles, whom they say roar at the heads of the men they ate and weep for the slaughter, not taking repentance for what happened, but rather the fleshless, it seems to me, mourning the head as if it were unfit for eating? Such also is the form regarding the fast.

The fasts are mere dances and plays, middle parts and episodes, things that oppose the outward appearance fasting is understood as a pedagogue of thickening and the restraint of elegance, while the dance interprets the spilled liquid with unbridled and many pleasantries.

For remember here the Mosaic word saying to fast on the tenth of the seventh month. For the seventh month denotes the seventh day, and the tenth denotes the tenth hour, in which the Lord on the cross gave up the ghost.

The Typology of Festivals and the Trumpet§80