Praise is safe only after death
Chrysostom opens his encomium by arguing that since Scripture forbids calling anyone blessed before death, Eustathius can now be praised without risk because he has died and reached a secure harbor.
A certain wise man, one who knew how to live virtuously, had studied the nature of human affairs with precision. He recognized their rottenness, and saw that they contain nothing trustworthy or secure. So he offers this counsel to all people alike: do not call anyone blessed before his death. Since the blessed Eustathius has now died, we can at last praise him with complete confidence. For if no one should be called blessed before death, then after death the blessing of those who deserve it is beyond reproach. He has crossed the strait of life's affairs. He has been freed from the turmoil of the waves. He has sailed into the calm, untroubled harbor. He is no longer subject to the uncertainty of the future, nor is he liable to a fall. Instead, as if standing now on some rock or high crag, he laughs at all the waves. So the blessing is secure, and the praise is beyond reproach. It does not fear change; it does not suspect reversal.
We who are still living are like people tossed about in the middle of the open sea. We are subject to many changes. Just as they are now lifted high when the waves crest, and now carried down to the very depths—yet neither the height is secure nor the low point lasting, for both belong to waters that flow and do not stand still—so also in human affairs nothing is firm or fixed. Changes are frequent and swift. One person is lifted to the heights by prosperity; another is carried down to a great depth by misfortune. But let neither one be puffed up, nor the other be humbled. Each will receive change very quickly. But not that man who has departed to heaven, who has gone to the Jesus he longed for, who has come to a place pure of disturbances, where pain and grief and groaning have fled away. There is no image of change there, no shadow of turning. All things are fixed and immovable, all things secure and established, all things incorruptible and immortal, all things undefiled and enduring forever.
This is why he says, “Do not call anyone blessed before his death” (Ecclesiastes). Why? Because the future is uncertain, and human nature is weak. The will is sluggish, sin easily surrounds us, and the snares are many. “Know,” he says, “that you are passing through the midst of snares” (Ecclesiastes). Trials come one after another. The press of affairs is great. The war of the demons is unceasing. The uprisings of the passions are continuous. For these reasons, he says, “Do not call anyone blessed before his death.” So after death it is safe to call the worthy person blessed. Or rather, not simply after death, but after a death of such a kind—when someone has ended his life with a crown, when he has ended it with confession and unfeigned faith. For if someone called blessed those who simply died, how much more those who died in this way?
And who, you ask, called blessed those who simply died? Solomon—that all-wise Solomon. Do not pass over the man lightly. Consider who he was, how he had lived, and with what freedom and ease he lived that soft and effortless life.
Greek
ΕΓΚΩΜΙΟΝ Εἰς τὸν ἐν ἁγίοις πατέρα ἡμῶν Εὐστάθιον ἀρχιεπίσκοπον Ἀντιοχείας τῆς μεγάλης. αʹ. Σοφός τις ἀνὴρ καὶ φιλοσοφεῖν εἰδὼς, τῶν ἀνθρω πίνων πραγμάτων τὴν φύσιν μετὰ ἀκριβείας κατα μαθὼν, καὶ ἐπιγνοὺς αὐτῶν τὴν σαθρότητα, καὶ ὡς οὐδὲν ἔχει πιστὸν, οὐδὲ βέβαιον, παραινεῖ κοινῇ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις πρὸ τελευτῆς μὴ μακαρίζειν μη δένα. Οὐκοῦν ἐπειδὴ τετελεύτηκεν ὁ μακάριος Εὐστάθιος, μετὰ ἀδείας αὐτὸν ἁπάσης ἐγκωμιάσαι λοι πὸν δυνάμεθα· εἰ γὰρ πρὸ τελευτῆς οὐ δεῖ μακαρίζειν οὐδένα, μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν ἀνεύθυνος ἐπὶ τῶν ἀξίων ὁ μακαρισμὸς γένοιτ' ἄν. Καὶ γὰρ παρῆλθε τὸν εὔρι πον τῶν βιωτικῶν πραγμάτων, ἀπηλλάγη τῆς ταρα χῆς τῶν κυμάτων, πρὸς τὸν εὔδιον καὶ ἀτάραχον κατ.40 έπλευσε λιμένα, οὐχ ὑπόκειται τῇ τοῦ μέλλοντος ἀδηλίᾳ, οὐδέ ἐστιν ὑπεύθυνος καταπτώσει, ἀλλὰ καθάπερ ἐπὶ πέτρας τινὸς καὶ ὑψηλοῦ σκοπέλου νῦν ἑστὼς καταγελᾷ τῶν κυμάτων ἁπάντων. Οὐκοῦν ἀσφαλὴς ὁ μακαρισμὸς, ἀνεπίληπτον τὸ ἐγκώμιον· οὐ γὰρ δέδοικε μεταβολὴν, οὐχ ὑποπτεύει μετάπτωσιν. Ἡμεῖς μὲν γὰρ οἱ ἔτι ζῶντες, καθάπερ οἱ ἐν μέσῳ πελάγει σαλεύοντες, πολλαῖς ὑποκείμεθα ταῖς μεταβολαῖς· καὶ καθάπερ ἐκεῖνοι νῦν μὲν εἰς ὕψος αἴρονται τῶν κυμάτων κορυφουμένων, νῦν δὲ πρὸς αὐτὸν καταφέρονται τὸν βυθόν· ἀλλ' οὔτε τὸ ὕψος ἀσφαλὲς, οὔτε ἡ ταπείνωσις μόνιμος· ὑδάτων γάρ ἐστι ῥεόντων καὶ οὐχ ἱσταμένων ταῦτα ἀμφότερα· οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων πραγμάτων οὐδὲν βέβαιον καὶ ἑστὼς, ἀλλὰ πυκναὶ αἱ μεταβολαὶ καὶ ὀξύῤῥοποι. Ὁ μὲν ὑπὸ τῆς εὐημερίας πρὸς τὸ ὕψος ἐπήρθη, ὁ δὲ ὑπὸ δυσπραγίας εἰς πολὺ κατηνέχθη βάθος· ἀλλὰ μήτε ἐκεῖνος φυσάσθω, μήτε οὗτος ταπεινούσθω· ταχίστην γὰρ ἕκαστος δέξεται τὴν μετα βολήν· ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐκεῖνος ὁ πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν μεταστὰς, ὁ πρὸς τὸν ποθούμενον ἀπελθὼν Ἰησοῦν, ὁ πρὸς χω ρίον ἐλθὼν καθαρὸν θορύβων, ἔνθα ἀπέδρα ὀδύνη καὶ λύπη καὶ στεναγμός. Οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκεῖ μεταβολῆς εἰ κὼν, οὐκ ἔστι τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα, πάντα δὲ πεπη γότα καὶ ἀκίνητα, πάντα βέβαια καὶ ἱδρυμένα, πάντα ἄφθαρτα καὶ ἀθάνατα, πάντα ἀκήρατα καὶ εἰς ἀεὶ διαμένοντα. Διὰ τοῦτό φησι, Πρὸ τελευτῆς μὴ μακάριζε μηδένα. Διὰ τί; Ἄδηλον γὰρ τὸ μέλ λον, καὶ ἡ φύσις ἀσθενής· ἡ προαίρεσις ῥᾴθυμος, ἡ ἁμαρτία εὐπερίστατος, πολλαὶ αἱ παγίδες· Ἐπί γνωθι γὰρ, φησὶν, ὅτι ἐν μέσῳ παγίδων διαβαίνεις· ἐπάλληλοι οἱ πειρασμοὶ, πολὺς ὁ τῶν πραγμάτων ὄχλος, καὶ διηνεκὴς τῶν δαιμόνων ὁ πόλεμος, καὶ συνεχεῖς αἱ τῶν παθῶν ἐπαναστάσεις· διὰ ταῦτα, Πρὸ τελευτῆς μὴ μακάριζε μηδένα, φησίν. Οὐκοῦν μετὰ τελευτὴν μακαρίζειν ἀσφαλὲς τὸν ἄξιον· μᾶλλον δὲ οὐχ ἁπλῶς μετὰ τελευτὴν, ἀλλὰ τελευτὴν τοιαύτην, ὅταν μετὰ στεφάνου τὸν βίον ᾖ καταλύσας τις, ὅταν μετὰ ὁμολογίας καὶ πίστεως ἀνυποκρίτου. Εἰ γὰρ τοὺς ἁπλῶς τελευτήσαντας ἐμακάρισέ τις, πόσῳ μᾶλλον τοὺς οὕτω τελευτήσαντας; Καὶ τίς ἐμακάρισε, φησὶ, τοὺς ἁπλῶς τελευτήσαν τας; Ὁ Σολομὼν, Σολομὼν ἐκεῖνος ὁ πάνσοφος· μὴ γὰρ ἁπλῶς παραδράμῃς τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ' ἐννόησον τίς ἦν, καὶ πῶς βεβιωκὼς, καὶ μετὰ πόσης ἀδείας καὶ ἀνέσεως τὸν ὑγρὸν καὶ ἀταλαίπωρον βίον ἔζη.