On the Man Born Blind · §2 · Severianus of Gabala

The Beauty of the Church and the Power of Faith

Ours. There is one brightness, but coming to us it constitutes many brightnesses: the brightness of almsgiving, the brightness of temperance, the brightness of hospitality, the brightness of familial affection. Toward God there is one brightness; but this, being sent to us, constitutes diverse gleamings through diverse activities: to one, the brightness of prophecy; to another, the brightness of apostleship; to another, the brightness of martyrdom.

There, there is one brightness; but toward us, there are many, according to what has been said: 'With you is the beginning in the day of your power, in the brightnesses of your saints.' Why then does Paul enumerate, and say: 'Are not all apostles? Are not all prophets? Are not all teachers?' (1 Cor 12:29-30). Paul does not divide thus simply, but as he finds souls of fitness; he does not divide according to authority, but according to the confession of the faith; not that he gives according to his own will, nor according to his desire, but that his will is not unmeasured, but according to the gifts of the graces.

For just as the flowery and brightly-colored royal garment receives a solar ray and produces diverse gleamings, and as the beauty is of the dye, so it achieves such splendor; and just as by the present dye it is re-dyed and the beauty of the air is turned into gold, or into purple, or into green, or into some other of the colors, not by the ray being divided, but by the garment, the ray's effect being shaped by the lightuch ways the beauty of the Church always shines with blossoms, having a royal garment and being adorned with a heavenly and variegated array; as also the psalmist says: 'Daughters of kings in your honor; the queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold of various colors' (Ps 45:13).

How is she variegated? By the gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to the voice of Paul: 'God working through signs and wonders and various powers, and the distributions of the Holy Spirit' (1 Cor 12:4-6). But what shall I name the Church of Christ? A bride having been adorned, a queen having been beautified, a paradise tending, a garden flowing with fruitfulness, and if I should say anything else, I speak of less than its worth. Therefore the prophet Isaiah, taking up the voice of the Church from her own person, was saying: 'Let my soul rejoice' (Isa 61:10).

Upon the Lord; for he clothed me with a garment of salvation. And since he was in a pattern, and he was unable to express the whole beauty of the Church, he sets before him a distinction, saying: As a bride he has adorned me with beauty, and as a bridegroom he has placed upon me a crown, and as a land increasing its offspring, and as a garden of vegetables its seed. For the Church of the living God is a garden truly as if enclosed and a paradise; but I say paradise not according to that ancient one, but much higher than that. For there a serpent reigned, but here Christ reigns.

4. Do not pay attention to the reliability of places, but to the power of the reality. For neither is a paradise wonderful if it does not have a God-command being kept; nor are the lowly places insulted if they have God reigning the law. What is better? what is superior? a paradise, or a desert? And yet, because of the transgression, paradise did not benefit Adam; but because of endurance, the desert did not harm Job. Adam is disgraced in paradise because of disobedience, but Job is crowned in the desert because of endurance.

For nowhere does the reliability of places contribute if good judgment is not running together; and the heaven is higher than paradise, but the devil falls from there. The earth is deep, and the heaven is suspended; the devil falls from heaven having transgressed, according to: I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven (Luke 3:9); but the poor are raised from the earth, according to: He raises the poor from the earth, and lifts the needy from the desert (1 Samuel 2:8). Do you see how it is not the difference of places that grants us advantages, but everywhere faith, and endurance, and hope weave the crowns for the worthy?

Nothing is more solemn than a bedchamber, nothing is more naked than a theater; what did adultery in a bedchamber benefit the unruly Egypt? what harmed the first martyr Thecla, to practice nakedness in a theater? She did not sin by being naked, the holy one is not insulted, but is crowned. And she who is in the theater is crowned, but she who is in the bridal chamber is honored. What did the idols benefit, and the worship of non-existents? I say the greatness of temples; but what harmed the martyrs, the poverty of the tombs? Error was not shamed in greatness, and the things of the martyrs were raised in humility; thus the Church of the living God...

Greek

ἡμῶν. Μία ἐστὶν ἡ λαμπρότης, ἀλλ' ἐρχομένη πρὸς ἡμᾶς πολλὰς λαμπρότητας ἀποτελεῖ, λαμπρότητα ἐλεημοσύνης, λαμπρότητα σωφροσύνης, λαμπρότητα φιλοξενίας, λαμπρότητα φιλοστοργίας. Παρὰ μὲν τῷ Θεῷ μία λαμπρότης· αὕτη δὲ εἰς ἡμᾶς πεμπομένη, ταῖς ἐνεργείαις διαφόρους ἀποτελεῖ τὰς 59.544 μαρμαρυγάς· τῷ μὲν χαριζομένη λαμπρότητα προφητείας, ἄλλῳ λαμπρότητα ἀποστολῆς, ἄλλῳ λαμπρότητα μαρτυρίου. Ἐκεῖ μὲν μία λαμπρότης· εἰς ἡμᾶς δὲ πολλαὶ, κατὰ τὸ εἰρημένον· Μετὰ σοῦ ἡ ἀρχὴ ἐν ἡμέρᾳ τῆς δυνάμεώς σου ἐν ταῖς λαμπρότησι τῶν ἁγίων σου. ∆ιὰ τί οὖν Παῦλος ἀπαριθμεῖται, καὶ λέγει· Μὴ πάντες ἀπόστολοι; μὴ πάντες προφῆται; μὴ πάντες διδάσκαλοι; Οὐχ ἁπλῶς οὕτω διαιρεῖ ὁ Παῦλος, ἀλλ' ὡς εὑρίσκει ψυχὰς ἐπιτηδείας, οὐ κατὰ τὴν αὐθεντίαν μερίζει, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὴν ὁμολογίαν τῆς πίστεως· οὐχ ὅτι παρὰ τὸ βούλημα αὐτοῦ δίδωσιν, οὐδὲ παρὰ τὸ θέλημα, ἀλλ' ὅτι τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄκριτον, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὰ χαρίσματα τῶν δωρεῶν. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τὰ ἀνθηρὰ καὶ εὐβαφῆ τῆς βασιλικῆς ἐσθῆτος δέχεται μὲν ἀκτῖνα ἡλιακὴν, διαφόρους δὲ τὰς μαρμαρυγὰς ἀνατέλλει, καὶ οἷον ἂν εἴη τῆς βαφῆς τὸ κάλλος, τοιαύτην τὴν εὔχροιαν ἀπεργάζεται, καὶ ὥσπερ ὑπὸ τῆς προκειμένης βαφῆς μεταβάπτεται καὶ τοῦ ἀέρος τὸ κάλλος εἰς χρυσὸν, ἢ εἰς πορφύραν, ἢ εἰς πράσινον, ἢ εἰς ἄλλο τι τῶν χρωμάτων, οὐ τῆς ἀκτῖνος μεριζομένης, ἀλλὸ τῆς ἐσθῆτος τὴν οἰκονομίαν τῆς ἀκτῖνος σχηματιζομένης τῷ φωτί· τοιούτοις ἀεὶ ἄνθεσι λάμπει τῆς Ἐκκλησίας τὸ κάλλος, βασιλικὴν ἔχουσα τὴν ἐσθῆτα, καὶ ἐστολισμένη οὐράνιον καὶ ποικίλην στολήν· ὡς καὶ ὁ ψαλμῳδὸς λέγει· Θυγατέρες βασιλέων ἐν τῇ τιμῇ σου· πάρεστι ἡ βασίλισσα ἐκ δεξιῶν σου ἐν ἱματισμῷ διαχρύσῳ περιβεβλημένη, πεποικιλμένη. Πῶς πεποίκιλται; Ταῖς τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος δωρεαῖς, κατὰ τὴν Παύλου φωνὴν, Ἐνεργοῦντος τοῦ Θεοῦ σημείοις καὶ τέρασι καὶ ποικίλαις δυνάμεσι, καὶ Πνεύματος ἁγίου μερισμοῖς. Ἀλλὰ τί ὀνομάσω τοῦ Χριστοῦ τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν; Νύμφην ἐστολισμένην, βασιλίδα κεκαλλωπισμένην, παράδεισον κομῶντα, λειμῶνα βρύοντα τὴν εὐκαρπίαν, καὶ εἴ τι ἕτερον ἂν εἴπω, τῆς ἀξίας ἔλαττον φθέγγομαι. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ὁ προφήτης Ἡσαΐας ἐκ προσώπου τῆς Ἐκκλησίας ἀναλαβὼν αὐτῆς τὴν φωνὴν, ἔλεγεν· Ἀγαλλιάσθω ἡ ψυχή μου ἐπὶ τῷ Κυρίῳ· ἐνέδυσε γάρ με ἱμάτιον σωτηρίου. Καὶ ἐπειδὴ ἐν ὑποδείγματι ἦν, καὶ ὅλον τὸ κάλλος τῆς Ἐκκλησίας οὐκ ἠδύνατο φράσαι, διαφορὰν αὐτῷ περιτίθησι, λέγων· Ὡς νύμφην κατεκόσμησέ με κόσμῳ, καὶ ὡς νυμφίῳ περιέθηκέ μοι μίτραν, καὶ ὡς γῆν αὔξουσαν τὰ γεννήματα αὐτῆς, καὶ ὡς κῆπον λαχάνων τὰ σπέρματα αὐτοῦ. Κῆπος γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς κεκλεισμένος καὶ παράδεισος ἡ Ἐκκλησία τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος· παράδεισον δὲ λέγω οὐ κατὰ τὸν ἀρχαῖον ἐκεῖνον, ἀλλὰ πολὺ ἐκείνου ἀνώτερον. Ἐκεῖ μὲν γὰρ ἐβασίλευσεν ὄφις, ἐνταῦθα δὲ βασιλεύει ὁ Χριστός. βʹ. Μὴ τῇ ἀξιοπιστίᾳ πρόσεχε τοῦ ὀνόματος, ἀλλὰ τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ πράγματος. Οὔτε γὰρ παράδεισός ἐστι θαυμαστὸς, ἐὰν μὴ ἔχῃ Θεοῦ ἐντολὴν τηρουμένην· οὔτε τὰ εὐτελῆ τῶν τόπων ὑβρίζεται, ἐὰν ἔχῃ Θεοῦ βασιλεύοντος τὸν νόμον. Τί βέλτιον; τί κρεῖττον; παράδεισος, ἢ κοπρία; Ἀλλ' ὅμως τὸν Ἀδὰμ διὰ τὴν παράβασιν παράδεισος οὐκ ὠφέλησεν· τὸν Ἰὼβ δὲ διὰ τὴν ὑπομονὴν κοπρία οὐκ ἔβλαψεν· ὁ Ἀδὰμ ἐν παραδείσῳ καταισχύνεται διὰ τὴν παρακοὴν, Ἰὼβ δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς κοπρίας στεφανοῦται διὰ τὴν ὑπομονήν. Οὐδαμοῦ γὰρ ἀξιοπιστία τῶν τόπων συμβάλλεται, μὴ συντρεχούσης τῆς ἀγαθῆς γνώμης· καὶ παραδείσου ὑψηλότερος ὁ οὐρανὸς, ἀλλὰ πίπτει ἐκεῖθεν ὁ διάβολος. Ἡ γῆ βαθεῖα, καὶ ὁ οὐρανὸς μετεωρίζεται· πίπτει ἐξ οὐρανοῦ ὁ διάβολος παραβὰς, κατὰ τὸ, Ἐθεώρουν τὸν σατανᾶν ὡς ἀστραπὴν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ πεσόντα· ὑψοῦνται δὲ ἀπὸ γῆς πτωχοὶ, κατὰ τὸ, Ὁ ἐγείρων ἀπὸ γῆς πτωχὸν, καὶ ἀπὸ κοπρίας ἀνυψῶν πένητα. Ὁρᾷς ὡς οὐχ ἡ τῶν τόπων διαφορὰ χαρίζεται ἡμῖν τὰ πλεονεκτήματα, ἀλλὰ πανταχοῦ πίστις, καὶ ὑπομονὴ, καὶ ἐλπὶς τοὺς στεφάνους πλέκει τοῖς ἀξίοις; Οὐδὲν κοιτῶνος σεμνότερον, οὐδὲν θεάτρου γυμνότερον· τί ὠφέλησε τὴν ἀκόλαστον Αἰγυπτίαν ἡ ἐν κοιτῶνι μοιχεία; τί ἔβλαψε τὴν πρωτομάρτυρα Θέκλαν τὸ ἐν θεάτρῳ γυμνὴν παλαίειν; Οὐχ ἡμάρτηκε γυμνουμένη, οὐχ ὑβρίζεται ἡ ἁγία, ἀλλὰ στεφανοῦται. Καὶ ἡ μὲν ἐν τῷ 59.545 θεάτρῳ στεφανοῦται, ἡ δὲ ἐν τῷ νυμφῶνι στηλιτεύεται. Τί ὠφέλησε τὰ εἴδωλα, καὶ ἡ τῶν μὴ ὄντων προσκύνησις; τὰ τῶν ναῶν μεγέθη λέγω· τί δὲ ἔβλαψε τοὺς μάρτυρας ἡ τῶν τάφων εὐτέλεια; οὐ κατῃσχύνθη ἡ πλάνη ἐν μεγέθει, καὶ ὑψώθη τὰ τῶν μαρτύρων ἐν ταπεινώσει; Οὕτως ἡ Ἐκκλησίᾳ Θεοῦ τοῦ