Habit, accountability, and a ten-day cure for oaths
Chrysostom is still addressing the catechumens about oaths, answering the objection that great saints sinned and prescribing practical steps to break the habit of swearing.
He commanded, you say, and you should have obeyed, not use so-and-so as an excuse or busy yourself with other people's sins. The great David committed a serious sin. Does that make sinning safe for us? Tell me. For this very reason we must be on our guard and emulate only the successes of the saints. Wherever there is carelessness and transgression of the law, we must flee from it with all diligence. Our account is not with our fellow servants but with the Master, and to him we will give account for everything we have done in life. Let us prepare for that tribunal. Even if the one who breaks this law is a thousand times admirable and great, he will certainly pay the punishment laid down for the transgression, for God is no respecter of persons.
How then, and in what way, can we escape this sin? It is not enough to show that the charge is serious; I must also advise you how to be freed from it. Do you have a wife, a servant, children, a friend, a relative, a neighbor? Entrust the guarding of this matter to all of them. Habit is a hard thing, terrible at tripping us up, hard to guard against, and it often throws us in against our will and without our knowing it. So the more you know the power of habit, the more eagerly you should free yourself from the evil habit and move yourself over to the other one, the most useful one. Just as now, even when you are eager and on guard and anxious and careful, that habit has often managed to trip you up, so if you move yourself over to the good habit of not swearing oaths, you will never be able to fall into the pitfalls of oaths, even unwillingly or carelessly. Habit is truly a great thing and has the power of nature.
So that we do not labor constantly, let us move ourselves over to another habit, and ask this favor of each person who associates with you and spends time with you: that they counsel and urge you to flee from oaths, and convict you when you are caught. For the guard they keep over you is also counsel and exhortation for them toward this success. The one who accuses another about oaths will not easily fall into this pit himself. For frequent swearing is no ordinary pit—not only when it happens about the smallest matters, but also when it happens about the greatest. But we, buying vegetables and quarreling over two obols, angry with servants and threatening them, call on God as witness everywhere. You would not dare to call a free man, one who holds some empty honor, as witness in the marketplace over such matters; if you tried, you would pay the penalty for insult. But the King of the heavens, the Lord of the angels—when you are talking about purchases and money and ordinary things, you drag him in as witness. How can this be endured?
How then can we be freed from this evil habit? By stationing around ourselves the guards I mentioned, setting a fixed time for correction, and imposing a penalty on ourselves if we have not succeeded when the time has passed. How much time will be enough for this? I do not think that those who are very sober and awake and keeping watch over their own salvation will need more than ten days to be completely freed from the evil habit of oaths.
Greek
Ἐπέταξε, φησὶν, ἔδει πεισθῆναι, καὶ μὴ τὸν δεῖνα προβάλλεσθαι, μηδὲ ἀλλότρια περιεργάζεσθαι κακά. Ἐπεὶ ὁ μέγας Δαυῒδ ἥμαρτεν ἁμαρτίαν χαλεπήν· ἆρα οὖν ἀκίνδυνον ἡμῖν διὰ τοῦτο τὸ ἁμαρτάνειν, εἰπέ μοι; Διὰ τοῦτο μὲν οὖν τοῦτο ἀσφαλίζεσθαι χρὴ, καὶ τὰ κατορθώματα τῶν ἁγίων μόνον ζηλοῦν· εἰ δέ που ῥᾳθυμία καὶ νόμου παράβασις, μετὰ πολλῆς ἀποφεύγειν χρὴ τῆς σπουδῆς. Οὐ γὰρ πρὸς τοὺς συνδούλους ἡμῖν, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὸν Δεσπότην ὁ λόγος ἐστὶ, καὶ τούτῳ τὰς εὐθύνας δώσομεν τῶν βεβιωμένων ἁπάντων. Πρὸς ἐκεῖνο τοίνυν παρασκευαζώμεθα τὸ δικαστήριον· κἂν γὰρ μυριάκις θαυμαστὸς ᾖ καὶ μέγας ὁ τὸν νόμον παραβαίνων τοῦτον, δώσει πάντως τὴν ἐπὶ τῇ παραβάσει κειμένην τιμωρίαν· οὐ γάρ ἐστι προσωπολήπτης ὁ Θεός. Πῶς οὖν ἔστι καὶ τίνι τρόπῳ φυγεῖν τὸ ἁμάρτημα; οὐ γὰρ δὴ μόνον τὸ ἔγκλημα χαλεπὸν χρὴ δεῖξαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅπως ἂν ἀπαλλαγείημεν συμβουλεῦσαι. Ἔχεις γυναῖκα, ἔχεις οἰκέτην, ἔχεις παιδία, καὶ φίλον, καὶ συγγενῆ, καὶ γείτονα; πᾶσι τούτοις τὴν ἐπὶ τούτων ἐπίτρεψον φυλακήν. Χαλεπὸν ἡ συνήθεια, καὶ δεινὸν ὑποσκελίσαι, καὶ δυσφύλακτον, καὶ ἄκοντας ἡμᾶς πολλάκις καὶ οὐκ εἰδότας ἐμβάλλει; Οὐκοῦν ὅσῳ τῆς συνηθείας οἶδας τὴν δύναμιν, τοσούτῳ τῆς μὲν πονηρᾶς συνηθείας ἀπαλλαγῆναι σπούδασον, πρὸς δὲ τὴν ἑτέραν τὴν χρησιμωτάτην σεαυτὸν μετάστησον. Ὥσπερ γὰρ νῦν σπουδάζοντά σε καὶ φυλαττόμενον καὶ μεριμνῶντα καὶ φροντίζοντα ἴσχυσε πολλάκις ὑποσκελίσαι ἐκείνη, οὕτως ἂν εἰς τὴν ἀγαθὴν σαυτὸν συνήθειαν μεταστήσῃς τὴν τοῦ μὴ ὀμνύναι, οὐδὲ ἄκων, οὐδὲ ῥᾳθυμῶν ἐμπεσεῖν δυνήσῃ ποτὲ πρὸς τὰ τῶν ὅρκων πτώματα· μέγα γὰρ ὄντως συνήθεια, καὶ φύσεως ἔχει δύναμιν. Ἵν' οὖν μὴ πονῶμεν συνεχῶς, ἑαυτοὺς εἰς συνήθειαν μεταστήσωμεν ἑτέραν, καὶ ἕκαστον τῶν σοι συγγινομένων καὶ συνόντων ταύτην αἴτησαι τὴν χάριν, ἵνα συμβουλεύῃ καὶ παραινῇ φεύγειν τοὺς ὅρκους, καὶ ἁλισκόμενον ἐλέγχῃ. Ἡ γὰρ παρ' αὐτῶν εἰς σὲ γινομένη φυλακὴ καὶ αὐτοῖς ἐστι συμβουλὴ καὶ παραίνεσις τοῦ κατορθώματος. Ὁ γὰρ ἐγκαλῶν ἑτέρῳ περὶ ὅρκων, οὐ ῥᾳδίως αὐτὸς εἰς τὸ βάραθρον ἐμπεσεῖται τοῦτο· βάραθρον γὰρ οὐ τὸ τυχὸν ἡ πολυορκία, οὐχ ὅταν περὶ τῶν ἐλαχίστων μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅταν περὶ μεγίστων γίνηται πραγμάτων. Ἡμεῖς δὲ καὶ λάχανα ὠνούμενοι καὶ ὑπὲρ ὀβολῶν δύο φιλονεικοῦντες, καὶ πρὸς οἰκέτας ὀργιζόμενοι καὶ ἀπειλοῦντες, τὸν Θεὸν πανταχοῦ καλοῦμεν μάρτυρα· καὶ ἄνθρωπον μὲν ἐλεύθερον, ἀξίας τινὸς μετασχόντα ψιλῆς οὐκ ἂν ἐτόλμησας ὑπὲρ τοιούτων καλέσαι μάρτυρα ἐπ' ἀγορᾶς, ἀλλὰ κἂν ἐπιχειρήσῃς, δίκην δώσεις τῆς ὕβρεως· τὸν δὲ τῶν οὐρανῶν βασιλέα, τὸν τῶν ἀγγέλων Δεσπότην. καὶ περὶ ὠνίων, καὶ περὶ χρημάτων, καὶ περὶ τῶν τυχόντων διαλεγόμενος, ἕλκεις εἰς μαρτυρίαν· καὶ πῶς ταῦτα ἀνεκτά; Πόθεν οὖν ἀπαλλαγείημεν ἐκ τῆς πονηρᾶς ταύτης συνηθείας; Τοὺς φύλακας οὓς εἶπον περιστήσαντες, χρόνον ῥητὸν ὁρίσαντες ἑαυτοῖς πρὸς διόρθωσιν, καὶ καταδίκην ἐπιθέντες, εἰ τοῦ χρόνου παρελθόντος μὴ κατορθώσαιμεν τοῦτο. Πόσος οὖν ἡμῖν χρόνος ἀρκέσει πρὸς τοῦτο; Οὐκ οἶμαι τοὺς σφόδρα νήφοντας καὶ διεγηγερμένους καὶ ὑπὲρ τῆς ἑαυτῶν ἀγρυπνοῦντας σωτηρίας πλέον ἡμερῶν δέκα δεηθήσεσθαι, ὥστε παντελῶς ἀπαλλαγῆναι τῆς πονηρᾶς τῶν ὅρκων συνηθείας.