Homilia dicta in Lacisis

Homily Delivered in Lacisae. The enemy contends, striving to drown out our discourse with the external uproar; but we, not being ignorant of his designs, let us turn our ears and minds to what is said here, pitying those who are left behind from the hearing, not going along with those outside in our thoughts; but where we are in body, let us be also in heart. Recall to me the memories of the spiritual oracles read to you from early morning, soul-beneficial teachings, healings of souls. Remember the teachings of the Psalms; gather for me the proverbial admonitions; examine the beauty of the histories; add to these the apostolic exhortations. Above all, as a crown, place the memory of the evangelical sayings, so that having taken some gain from all, you may return, each one, to what he happens to be favorably disposed, taking from this the benefit from the Spirit. Surely thus in a church of many faces, as many as are the differences of faces, so many are also the opinions; as many as are the ages, so many are also the sins. But the devil's devices are manifold and various; he leads each one differently; to whatever he sees one more prone, to that he uses his own baits. Does someone stand here having his soul corrupted by envy? Would that there were none; and this is a fitting prayer for me. But since it is difficult in human nature not to have some passion, small or great, let each one choose the benefit from what has been said. Are you envious? Take the remedy. Are you irascible? The cure lies before you. For it speaks about all these things.

And, if possible, we will say a few things, culling from each of the things that have been said. Are you covetous? Here is the remedy. Are you arrogant? Here you will tame your arrogance; here you will punish the haughtiness of your soul, if you wish. Drawing all good things from the spiritual words as from a flowing spring, having drawn abundantly for yourself, depart. The first saying in Proverbs has been spoken, in the proverbial form, for the exercise of our mind, with obscurity added, that "He who looks upon smooth things will be pitied." Have you immediately grasped the meaning of the saying, or do you, the diligent listener, seek how he who looks upon smooth things will be praised? For things are praiseworthy according to choice. But we humans see not as we wish, but as the nature of the things seen is. So if something is rough in its surface, it is seen as it exists in nature; if we cast our eyes upon smooth things, whence the praise for the one seeing smooth things? Smooth things are those which have a level surface; rough is that which is unevenly composed at first sight. Since, then, the nature of things seen is uneven, how does Scripture praise the one who sees smooth things over the one who sees rough things? And it condemns the one who sees mountains, and crags, and ravines, and dense forest, and a continuous growth that roughens the surface, or a sea often roughened by winds, or earth split by a plow and cut into rough furrows instead of smoothness. Will the one who sees these things be condemned? And where is the justice of God, if we are condemned for things we suffer involuntarily?

If I see the nature of the earth uneven (since it is seen as it was created), am I condemned for these things? But think loftily for me: “He who looks upon smooth things.” Differences of brothers stand before you: one is poor, another rich; one is a stranger, another a kinsman, either being judged by you as you sit in judgment, or in need as you give. If you sit judging, do not look unevenly, not at the rich as high and the poor as low. If one seeking to have his need rectified stands at your door, do not look unevenly even thus. Do not say: This one is a friend, this one a relative, this one a benefactor; that one is a stranger, an alien, unknown. Looking unevenly, you will not be pitied; look smoothly. There is one nature, this one and that one are both human. There is one need, the same lack in both. Give to the brother and to the stranger. Do not turn away the brother, and make the stranger a brother and a kinsman. So you must look smoothly. Do not prefer the friend over the alien who is rectifying his own need. He wishes you to be a comforter of those in need, not a respecter of persons, not giving to the relative while thrusting away the stranger. All are relatives, all are brothers, all are offspring of one father. If you seek the spiritual father, he is the heavenly one; if you seek earthly things, the earth is mother, and we are all fashioned from the same clay. So nature is sister according to the flesh, birth is sister according to the spirit. The same blood as you carries from the first human; the same grace as you received from the Master. Look therefore smoothly, that you may be pitied. Do not say: This one is rich and worthy of honor; that one is poor, and I despise the poor.

do not distribute honors unevenly according to these preeminences. For the rich man is a liar, the rich man is a plunderer, the rich man is a fornicator, the poor man is just. Do not, therefore, attend to the external appearance, but entering into the hidden place, there distribute the differences. Honor the one who possesses honorable things. What is more honorable, virtue or wealth? Why do you judge from external things, not investigating the hidden things? You see that Bel had bronze on the outside, but clay on the inside, concealed by the flashing bronze. If you see those who are conspicuous in life, know that bronze shines around them, but on the inside they are clay, the bronze supporting the rottenness. Many have gold within, but a potsherd placed around them on the outside. This is the treasure hidden in an earthen vessel. This one is temperate, that one fornicates. Who is richer, the one who has temperance, or the one who has wealth gathered from injustice? The memorial of this one is inalienable; the wealth of that one is temporary. A thief does not dig through this one; that one flourishes today, but withers tomorrow. So look upon smooth things, equally according to the same; but do not abolish the distinction of honorable things, so that you may be pitied. "And do not lodge with a wrathful man." But say: There is among us a lover of glory, and not a wrathful man. Are you a lover of glory? You do not look upon smooth things. Are you wrathful? "And do not lodge with a wrathful man." You see how in brevity the correction of errors is given, unless indeed we are struck on the ears by the voice, but do not convey the meaning of the words to the heart. But examine: where was my passage read? Recognize the things about the wrathful, you who are wrathful. Say:

This is my passion; I recognize my infirmity; take the remedy. If you stand before the physician and see the costliness of the remedies stored in many-folded tablets, look about for what is proper to your own passion. He who has stumbled his foot does not seek the cure for the eye, but he who has his eye afflicted seeks the help proper to the passion. Therefore, let each one take from Scripture what is akin to his own passion. Are you prone to anger? Restrain your anger. "For a man prone to anger," it says, "is not seemly." Learn from Scripture. Let Scripture be a mirror of your face. Learn there. Since the impious thought, having darkened you, does not allow you to consider how great a sin anger is, Scripture says to you: "A man prone to anger is not seemly." How does the angry man become unseemly? He puts off the human form, he takes on the form of a beast. Consider the angry man. His anger has boiled up, and his eyes have changed; they are not the same eyes, he sees fire, his blood has rushed up, it has seethed around his heart, it has run around the tunics of his eyes, he has become bloodshot, yielding to the passion, he has altered his eyes. "A man prone to anger is not seemly." If you see the angry man sharpening his teeth, consider that such a one resembles a boar, revealing the inner anger through the grinding of his teeth. If you see the angry man foaming at the mouth; if you see him uttering inarticulate sounds in his heart; if you see the angry man forgetting his father and ignoring his child, proceeding recklessly through all things to satisfy his impulse, you see the unseemliness of the matter.

In another evil, treat yourself, lest you also take on his unseemliness. "A wrathful man is not seemly." And, "Do not live together with a wrathful man." It is a bad thing to be tied to a dog and to enjoy constant barking. A wrathful man is not seemly. Flee from spending time with him; for it is necessary that you learn something of his ways. If he says something insulting, he stirs up also the wrath in you. Just as the barking of a dog provokes the uproar of another dog, so his voice rouses the wrath in you, which was previously sleeping and quiet, and you have become each other's mutual barkers, then standing against each other, you let fly, like slings, the words of unseemliness. If he said something insulting, you gave back with greater excess, imitating the one who began. Having received the counter-gift of the insulting word, he is not in control of his impulse, but turned and crowned his own sin. He wished to become greater by saying something harsher. And you, receiving it again, were raised up; and there arose a rivalry of evils. And the one who wins in the contests of evils is the more wretched. "A wrathful man is not seemly;" and, "Do not live together with a wrathful man." "Do not even dine with an envious man." Another passion dwelling in the life of men, and always attached to our souls, and consuming the heart more than rust consumes iron, is envy, in which there are many evils, but one useful thing, that it is an evil to the one who possesses it. For the envious man harms the one he envies little, but consumes himself with grief and groaning at the good fortune of his neighbor.

He did not diminish his neighbor's land, but consumed himself with envy. "Do not move eternal boundaries. Do not enter into the property of orphans." Do not enter into the property of orphans, that you may enter into your own property. Your own property is the prepared kingdom of heaven. Do not disturb the boundaries of your fathers. Do not covet your neighbor's land. Do not, by adding furrow to furrow, little by little increase your own. For as much as you widen your land by addition from another's, so much longer do you make your sin. And the land remains here, gradually added to you, and through greed becoming no longer yours, but that of those after you, and you leave an injustice to your successor in life: "The land stands forever," but sin will follow you, like a shadow accompanying the soul. For just as the shadow follows the body, so sin is joined to the soul. Do not multiply sin for yourself. For the disease of greed stops nowhere, but is like the nature of fire. For fire, when it catches something combustible, hastens to consume all the material, and no one can stop it until the material gives out. But what can restrain the greedy man? He is more dangerous than fire, devouring everything through continuity. He took what belonged to his neighbor; another neighbor appeared; and he appropriated that one's property as well. He does not look to what is behind, that it is much, but to what is lacking, that he has neighbors. What has been acquired does not delight him, but what is left grieves him; he does not attend to the enjoyment of what has been gathered, but consumes himself with the desire for the neighbor's

of greater possession. Then come sleepless nights from this, the anxieties, the cares. As wealth increases, so does the worry of life. A judge is expected, and the greedy man looks around lest he be dragged into court; lest an orphan make public his own tear in court. He plans by night what bitter advocates he will prepare, so that he may hire false testimonies; how he will besiege the man in the wilderness, and will oppress him, and having stolen the truth in court; he will destroy both, having deceived the judge and taken advantage of the child. These anxieties consume the soul of the greedy man. A dog barks, and the rich man thinks it is a thief. A mouse makes a sound, and the rich man's heart leaps; he suspects his slave, he holds everything in suspicion; he sees his growing sons as conspirators, because their age presses for succession. The greedy also have another disease. He counts his life on his fingers; he makes one part public, and keeps the other buried, storing it for uncertain hopes; hopes that are not hopes. For if the storing were for hopes, the preparation would be for the eternal hope. But now he hides his hidden wealth under his bed, thinking to avert the impending loss. But whether the need will ever come is uncertain; yet a time will come when he will repent for not having managed his wealth. This is clear, and I am the one who guarantees it. For it is necessary to speak about all the passions, reminding you.

you, paying attention, to receive the benefit from the words, so that each one, having shed sin like a snake's old skin, might return stripped and with righteousness blooming upon him, having become another from another. For this is a synod. For this reason our fathers recognized these assemblies, so that what we are unable to learn each day due to the lack of teachers and reminders, we might receive these things when we come together annually in a common festival; then we might store up provisions for the subsequent time, and having the particulars fresh in our memory, we might flee from sin and pursue the work of righteousness. "Do not move eternal boundaries. Do not enter into the property of orphans." Do not use your children as a pretext, you greedy man. Are they children? Store up for them an eternal treasure. The treasure is piety, not money. Leave to your children a good memory rather than great wealth. Make all men fathers of your child through beneficence. You must at some time depart from life; then you will leave your child in his youth, in need of protectors. For if you are good and noble, each one will rear your offspring as if his own; for he will remember that you also became a father to orphans. But if you have lived in wickedness, and have grieved many, and have become more savage than any wild beast to those you meet, and then you depart from life, you have left your offspring a common enemy of the living. For just as one who sees the offspring of a scorpion fears that when it comes of age it might imitate its father,

Thus your offspring, being heirs of paternal wickedness, will be plotted against by all before they come of age. Why, then, do you gather many plotters and enemies for your own children? Yet, even if you had lived all your life, you ought rather to have the goodwill of the many as an ally. Since your own end is uncertain, leave behind through good works many who will stand by them; lest, when you have departed, and the wealth you amass cannot be turned to benefit, each one should shake his head and say: How was it that things wrongly acquired were not transmitted to descendants and children? I say these things to you from human reasoning; but what the Lord will say to you through the Gospel, you know. Do not use your children as a pretext. What fair-seeming excuse for sin do you put forward? He who made the child also made you. He who provided the means for you will also provide the means of life for the child. Each one will give an account of his own life to the Lord. How do you know for whom you are hoarding? "He hoards, and does not know for whom he is gathering them." Often the child is the pretext for the hoarding. But what you have gathered becomes either a plunder for a robber, or a spoil for a sycophant, or booty for enemies, or a prey for a plague that has struck. For there are many ways of life's destruction. Tell me: when you asked God for children, when you wished to become a father of offspring, what did you add to your prayer? Give me children, so that, having become a covetous man, I may be handed over to Gehenna on the pretext of my children? Give me children, so that I may not keep the commandments? Give me children, so that I may despise the Gospel?

These were not the things you said then, but you were seeking children as fellow workers in life. You have received fellow workers, partners in life; teach them both with good words and with virtuous examples, what sort they ought to be toward God, what sort you have often seen. For this is wealth more precious than many possessions. This is a good inheritance, transmitted from father to children. "Do not enter into the property of orphans." And, "Do not dine with a spiteful man." It has been spoken also concerning spite. Let it be added for greater protection against evil, that spite is a particular passion of the devil. For the devil was not created a devil from the beginning, but having received the authority of an angel, he was perverted into the nature of a demon. And he became an evil demon, characterized by this wickedness, and alienated from his kinship with God, having turned instead to the side of apostasy, because he saw man, a small creature, yet more honorable than all creation. Being older than man, he saw that all swimming creatures were created by the Word. "Let the waters bring forth," it says, "creeping things of living souls." By the Word he made the whales that dwell in the Atlantic sea.

By a word He made the land animals. By a command of God they were brought into being. By a command came the great sizes of elephants, of camels; horses, and oxen, and all animals distinguished by size and strength were created in herds by a single command. And what is even more marvelous, by a command the heaven, by a command the sun, by a command the herb, by a command the nature of waters, both that spread above the heaven and the earth and that poured out in hollows, all by a command. But man was fashioned by hands. He saw the honor concerning man; the devil became envious. He saw that man is more honored than the sun. For the sun came into being by a command, but man was fashioned by the hands of God. And the sun was created for the sake of man, but man for the sake of God; man, that God might be glorified; the sun, that it might serve men. He learned the honor concerning man. He saw that creation is first, but man is last, that He prepared for him as for a master of a house a house filled with everything. For He did not first make man, that he might not be created poor, but He made heaven, creating a natural shelter, He spread out the earth beneath, preparing a firm foundation for the feet of man beforehand. He made it flourish with plants and with all kinds of produce. Everything was made ready for man; the beasts of burden were prepared in herds; creation was made. Some were prepared as domestic, others wild for the exercise of the body. Some are to be acquired by labor, that they might become beloved; others are readily present, that they might serve creation from the start. He saw that the earth spontaneously prepared its fruit for them.

All creation awaited those who would enjoy it, and man was brought forth to the feast. He saw that the benevolent God was not satisfied with the enjoyment of the earth; but desiring a special dwelling, his own ornament, man, for himself, he placed him there in paradise. The devil grew malicious, seeing great enjoyment flowing around man, angels attending him as tutors, God becoming of one speech with men, conversing with his own voice, the infant child being educated from all sides so that he might ascend to the likeness of God. Since he had thoroughly observed man, since he saw that the Lord was summoning this small animal to equality with the angels, leading him up through virtue and through self-control in the affairs of life toward the perfection of the soul. For as long as man was alone, the devil had no hold; but when woman was created, a tender animal, the Creator necessarily instilled natural tenderness in her, so that infants might be easily nurtured by the benevolent one. For if woman were harsh, she would not embrace the wailing infant at her breast; she would not neglect her own nourishment but would hold her breast to the benefit of the nursing child. As it is, however, the compassion of mothers often drives sleep from their eyes whenever the infant is slightly disturbed. So that an infant might be nurtured, the tender female nature was brought forth, tender and benevolent. The devil, then, attending to this tenderness and pliability, turned the ease toward virtue into ease toward vice. This, therefore, is the devil's own evil: envy.

Envy that cannot be spoken, that admits no remedy. The one who suffers a headache tells the physician of the headache; the one who suffers envy, what shall he say? The good things of my brother grieve me. This is the truth; but each is ashamed of the words. Why do you groan? For your own evil, or another's good? For we tame dogs by feeding them; but by benefiting the envious we make him more savage. For he does not rejoice in whatever kindness he may receive; but he is grieved by your prosperity, because you have the means from which you will supply his need. Do not, therefore, fall into the deception of the devil. He envied you, he envied; he exiled you from paradise. Because of him there are thorns, because of him there is sweat, because of him the place of exile; having fallen into which, do not forget your ancient fatherland. Remember your own nobility; remember the fatherland from which you were exiled. Remember the one who caused you such great loss; do not make peace with him, nor ever consent to converse with him. For he has done two wrongs: he cast you out from the beginning, and now he cuts off your return. He envied you your first goods through a woman, and again by schemes concerning the woman he hinders your restoration. He devised fornication, so that you might not enter paradise. The first loss, that he overthrew you, was not enough for him; but he devises a second stratagem, blocking our path. He steals through falsehood, since falsehood is a wall for those journeying to paradise. His devices are countless. His offshoots are cruelty, harshness, greed, abuse; everything that the word of truth hates, these belong to the devil.

A misanthrope, because also a fighter against God. He hated first, he rebelled against the all-powerful God, he despised the Master, he became alienated from God. Because he saw man made in the image and likeness of God, and being unable to turn against God, he emptied his own wickedness upon the image of God; just as if a man, angered, were to stone the image, because he cannot attack the king, striking the wood that bears the likeness. I have seen the most misanthropic of animals in the stadia many times—either I have seen, or I have heard; for let the account be reliable. Yet these leopards have some natural hostility toward man, and are especially prone to spring at the eyes of men. Therefore, those who mock the beast’s madness display beforehand an image on paper as if it were a man. And the beast, driven by excessive impulse, not reasoning, tears the paper as if it were a man, and there shows its misanthropy. So also the devil showed his hatred of God in the image, because he could not lay hold of God. Thus the war against us gives proof that the evil one is a fighter against God, and

He first made war on the Master. That one brought man down from Jerusalem to Jericho, from the heights to the hollows. Jerusalem is on the mountain; Jericho lies below by the salt sea. If any of you know the place, you know the truth of what is said, that Jericho occupies the hollows of Palestine, while Jerusalem is set on the summit, holding the peak of the mountain that rises through that entire region. So man came from the heights to the low places, in order to fall among robbers; he left the safety of Jerusalem, so that he might become easy prey for the robbers in the wilderness, who inflicted blows and stripped him. First blows, then stripping. A blow to the soul is sin; stripping of the soul is the laying aside of the garment of incorruption. Sin destroys the grace given to us through the bath of regeneration. Fornication is a blow, adultery another blow, envy is a blow, each of these is a blow, a blow that strikes at the vitals, a blow inflicted by robbers, by demons who cooperate with us in sins. After the blows, the one who was beaten was stripped. If the saying were about the body, they would have stripped him first, sparing the garment, and then inflicted blows. Or they would have stripped him and then inflicted blows, so that the garment might be saved and the one beaten might be struck. But here blows precede the stripping, so that you may learn that sin precedes the laying aside of the gift given to you through the Lord’s love for humanity. Glory to him for ever and ever. Amen.