De paenitentia

A Discourse on Repentance, on his return from the country. Homily 1. 1. Did you remember us when we were separated from you during this intervening time? For I was never able to forget you, but even when I left the city, I did not leave behind the memory of you; but just as those who are in love with beautiful bodies, wherever they may go, carry with them the beloved image, so too we, having fallen in love with the beauty of your souls, always carry with us the loveliness of your minds. And just as painters, mixing various colors, produce images of bodies, so too we, having mixed like various colors of virtue your zeal in the assemblies, your eagerness for hearing, your goodwill toward the speaker, and all your other good qualities, and having sketched the portrait of your soul and placed it before the eyes of our mind, received through this imagination sufficient consolation for our absence. And these things, both sitting at home and rising up, and traveling and resting, and entering and going out, we kept turning over continually, dreaming of your love; and not only by day, but also by night we delighted in these imaginings. And what Solomon said, "I sleep and my heart keeps watch," this too we then experienced. For the necessity of sleep closed our eyelids, but the tyranny of love for you kept awake the eyes of our mind; and often I seemed to be conversing with you in a dream.

For the soul naturally imagines at night whatever it reasons upon during the day; and this is exactly what happened in our case then. Though I did not see you with the eyes of the flesh, I saw you with the eyes of love; and though absent from you in body, I was present with you in disposition, and your cry was always sounding in my ears. For this reason, when the weakness of my body compelled me to stay there longer, and the benefit of the air urged me to enjoy the health of the flesh, the force of your love did not endure this, but cried out against it, and did not cease troubling me until it persuaded me to rise even before the proper time, and advised me to regard your company as health and delight and every good thing. Persuaded by this, we chose rather to return while still having the remnants of my illness, than, having cleanly laid aside the body's weakness, to grieve your love any longer. For while I was staying there I heard your accusations, and continual letters conveyed these things to me; for I paid attention to those who accused no less than to those who praised. Those reproofs were the reproofs of a soul that knew how to love. And for these reasons I rose and ran; for these reasons I was never able to cast you out of my mind. And what is wonderful if I, while staying in the country and enjoying leisure, remembered your love, when even Paul, bound in chains and dwelling in a prison and seeing countless dangers hanging over him, living as it were in a meadow in the prison, thus remembered the brethren, and writing said:

Just as it is right for me to think this about you, because I have you in my heart, both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel? From without there was a chain from enemies, and from within a chain of affection for the disciples; but the outer one was forged from iron, while the inner one was made of love. The former he often even laid aside, but the latter he never broke off. Rather, just as women who have experienced the pangs of labor and become mothers are perpetually bound to the children they have borne, wherever they may be, so too Paul—or rather far more vehemently than they—was always fastened to his own disciples, and all the more so inasmuch as the births of the spirit are warmer than natural births. For he also labored in travail over the same people not once but twice, and cried out saying: My little children, for whom I am again in travail. And yet a woman would never suffer this, nor would she undergo the same pangs again; but Paul endured this, which cannot be seen in nature—to take up again those once born and to undergo sharp pangs on their behalf. For this reason, wishing to shame them, he said, "For whom I am again in travail," almost saying: Spare me; no son has stretched his mother's womb with pangs a second time—which you are forcing me to suffer. And yet those pangs are drawn out in a single turn of time, and once the child has slipped from the womb, they depart together with it; but these are not so, rather they remain for whole months. For Paul often labored in travail for a whole year and did not give birth to those he was carrying.

And there the pain is of the flesh, but here the pains do not stretch the belly, but tear apart the very strength of the soul. And so that you may learn that these birth-pangs are more fervent, who ever prayed to endure Gehenna on behalf of the children born? But this man not only chooses to endure Gehenna, but also prays to be anathema from Christ, so as to be able to bring forth the Jews, whom he was always and continually in travail with, and since this did not happen, he was in pain, saying: Great is my sorrow, and unceasing pain in my heart. And here again: My little children, with whom I am again in travail, until Christ be formed in you. What could be more blessed than that womb, which was able to bear such children as to have Christ in themselves? What more fruitful, than she who gave birth to the whole inhabited world? What more powerful, than she who was able to take up again and reshape from above those who had been born and grown and fallen into miscarriage? For this is impossible in the case of natural births. But why did he not say: My little children, whom I again beget, but I am in travail? Although elsewhere he says beget: For in Christ Jesus I begot you. There, then, he wished only to make clear the kinship; but here he was eager also to set forth the pain. But how does he call children those not yet born? For if he is in travail, he has not yet given birth; how then does he call them children? So that you may learn that he is not in travail with these first birth-pangs, which was enough to put them to shame. For I became, he says, a father once, and I endured the birth-pang owed on your behalf, and you also became children once; how then do you cast me again into second birth-pangs?

The pains of that first childbirth are sufficient; why do you stretch me again with birth-pangs? For the falls of those who had not yet believed caused him no less pain than those of the faithful. Indeed, it was unbearable to see those who, after communion in such mysteries, deserted to impiety. Therefore he cried out most sharply and more passionately than any woman, saying: My little children, for whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you. He said this wishing both to encourage and to frighten them: for by showing that Christ was not yet formed in them, he instilled anguish and fear; but by making clear that it was possible for him to be formed, he again prepared them to take courage. For the words "until he is formed" indicate both things: that he has not yet been formed, and that it is possible for him to be formed again. For if it were not possible, he would have spoken to them in vain, "until Christ is formed in you," and would have fed them with empty hopes. Knowing these things, then, let us neither despair nor be simply negligent; for both of these are destructive. For despair does not allow the fallen to rise, while negligence makes the one who stands to fall; the former is accustomed to deprive of goods already acquired, the latter does not allow one to be freed from evils that press upon him; and contempt casts one down even from the heavens themselves, while despair drags one down into the very abyss of wickedness, just as not despairing makes one quickly run back up from there as well. Consider the strength of both: the devil was good before this; but having grown negligent and despaired, he fell into such great wickedness as not even to rise thereafter.

For hear what he says, since he was good: I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. The comparison to lightning shows both the brightness of his former way of life and the swiftness of his fall. Paul was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and insolent; but because he was earnest and did not despair, he rose and became equal to the angels. Judas was an apostle, but through laziness he became a traitor. The robber again, after so great a wickedness, because he did not despair, entered paradise before all others. The Pharisee, confident because of his own virtue, was brought down from his height; the tax collector, not despairing, was so restored as even to surpass that man. Do you want me to show you a whole city that did this? The city of the Ninevites was thus saved entirely; and yet the sentence cast them into despair; for he did not say, If they repent, they will be saved, but simply, Yet three days, and Nineveh will be destroyed. But nevertheless, while God threatened, and the prophet cried out, and the sentence had no delay or limitation, they did not fall back, nor did they betray their good hopes. For this reason he did not add a limitation, nor say, But if they repent, they will be saved, so that we too, when we hear a sentence of God being brought without limitation, might not even so despair, nor give up, looking to that example. And it is not only through this that one can see the love of God for humanity—that he did not add a limitation to the sentence, yet was reconciled to them when they repented—but also from the very fact that he brought forth the sentence in completed form.

For he wished to increase their fear and to censure their great negligence, and this he did; and the very time of repentance shows his ineffable love for humanity. For what did three days accomplish so great as to destroy so great a wickedness? Do you see how from this too the providence of God is shown? For this contributed more to the salvation of the city. Knowing these things, then, let us never despair; for no weapon is so strong for the devil as despair. This is why we do not gladden him so much by sinning as by despairing. Hear, at any rate, in the case of the man who committed fornication, how Paul feared the despair of the sin more than the sin itself. For writing to the Corinthians he said thus: It is altogether heard that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even named among the Gentiles. And he did not say, "which is not even dared among the Gentiles," but, "not even named"; for what was unbearable to them even as a designation, this you have dared to do in deed. And are you puffed up? And he did not say, "And that man is puffed up," but, passing over the one who had sinned, he addresses those who were healthy, just as physicians do: passing over the sick, they use more words with those who are close to them. And besides, these men were the cause of all his recklessness, by not rebuking or reproving him. He shared the charge, then, so that the healing of the wound might become easy. For to sin is terrible, but far harder is to be proud over one's sins.

For if boasting over righteousness is an emptying of righteousness, much more will this, happening in the case of sins, bring us the utmost harm, and the accusation will be greater than the sins themselves. Therefore he says: "When you have done all things, say: We are unprofitable servants." But if those who do all things ought to be humble, much more is the one who has sinned worthy both to mourn and to count himself among the last. This, then, is what he was showing when he said: "And did you not rather mourn?" What are you saying? Another has sinned, and shall I mourn? Yes, he says; for we are bound to one another like a body and its members; and in the case of the body, even if the foot receives a wound, we see the head bowing down. And yet what is more honorable than it? But it does not look to its dignity in the time of calamity; so do you also. Therefore Paul also exhorts: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep." Therefore he also says to the Corinthians: "And did you not rather mourn, so that the one who did this deed might be removed from among you?" He did not say, "And did you not rather be zealous," but what? "Did you not rather mourn," as though a common disease and plague had seized the city; almost saying: There is need of prayer and confession and supplication, so that the sickness may be driven away from the whole city. Do you see how great a fear he hung over them? For since they thought the evil stood only up to that point, he sets them in anxious struggle, saying: "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" And what he says is of this sort: The evil, advancing on its way, will also touch the remaining members; therefore, as deliberating over common evils, so must they take thought.

Do not say to me that he alone sinned, but consider this: the terrible thing is a kind of putrefaction, and it spreads over the whole body. And just as when a house is burning, even those who have not yet received the harm are no less urgent than those in the disaster and contribute everything, so that the fire, rushing on, may not come to their own doors as well—so Paul rouses these too, saying: It is a fire; let us forestall the danger; let us quench the conflagration before it seizes the Church. But if you despise the sin as having occurred in another's body, in the first place even so it is bad; for that man is a member of the whole body. Nevertheless, consider this: if you are slack and overlook it, it will one day overtake you too. So even if not for your brother's sake, at least for your own sake be roused, and check the plague, and forestall the putrefaction, and cut off the contagion. Having said these things, then, and more than these, and having commanded that he be delivered to Satan, he says later, when he had changed and become better: Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the many; so confirm your love toward him. For since he had made him a common enemy and adversary to all and cast him out of the flock and cut him off from the body, see with what earnestness he strives to glue and join him back again. For he did not say, Love him, simply, but, Confirm love toward him—that is, show your friendship as firm and immovable; bring in a warm and boiling and fiery goodwill, a counterweight to the former enmity. What has happened? Tell me.

Did you not hand him over to Satan? Yes, he says, but not so that he might remain in Satan's hands, but so that he might quickly be freed from his tyranny. But, as I was saying, consider how Paul feared despair, as a great weapon of the devil; for having said, Confirm your love toward him, he adds the reason: Lest such a one be swallowed up by excessive sorrow. The sheep, he says, is in the wolf's throat; let us therefore hasten. Let us snatch it away before he devours and destroys our member. The ship is now in the swell; let us strive to save it before the shipwreck. For just as when the sea is raised and the waves surge up from every side, the vessel is submerged, so too a soul, when despondency surrounds it on every side, is quickly drowned, unless it has someone extending a hand, and the saving sorrow for sins becomes destructive through lack of measure. And see how precisely he spoke; for he did not say, Lest the devil destroy him, but what? Lest we be taken advantage of by Satan; and taking advantage is desiring what belongs to others. Showing, therefore, that he has now become a stranger to him, and has made himself a member of Christ's flock through repentance, he says: Lest we be taken advantage of by Satan. For if he now seizes him, he snatches away our member, he takes the sheep of the flock; for he has put away sin through repentance. Knowing, therefore, Paul, what the devil did in the case of Judas, feared lest the same thing happen here also. And what did he do in the case of Judas? Judas repented; for he says, I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood;

The devil heard these words; he recognized one who was beginning the road toward the better and walking toward salvation, and he feared the change. He has, he says, a humane master; when he was about to betray him, he wept over him and entreated him countless times; will he not much more welcome him when he repents? He drew him in and called him while he was still uncorrected; will he not much more draw him to himself when he has been corrected and has recognized his sin? For it was for this that he came to be crucified. What then did he do? He threw him into confusion; he darkened him by the excess of his despondency, he pursued him, he drove him, he led him all the way to the noose, and removed him from the present life, and deprived him of the zeal that belongs to repentance. For that, had he lived, he too would have been saved, is clear from those who crucified him; for if he saved those who raised him up onto the cross, and while on the cross itself entreated the Father and asked forgiveness for them for their daring, it is very clear that he would also have received the one who betrayed him with every kindness, if he had shown repentance in the manner that is proper; but that man did not endure to remain with the remedy, swallowed up as he was by his excessive grief. Fearing this, then, Paul also urges the Corinthians to snatch the man from the devil's throat. And why need one speak of the Corinthians? Peter, after the communion of the mysteries, denied three times, and by weeping he wiped it all away; Paul, who was a persecutor and a blasphemer and an insulter, and persecuted not only the one who was crucified but also all those who belonged to him, repented and became an apostle. For God seeks only a brief pretext from us, and grants us forgiveness of many sins.

Let me also tell you a parable that guarantees this very thing for you. There were two brothers; and after dividing their father's property between them, one of them remained in the house, while the other, having devoured everything that had been given to him, moved to a foreign land, unable to bear the shame that comes from poverty. I was moved to tell this parable so that you may learn that there is forgiveness even for sins committed after baptism, if we are attentive; and I say this not to cast you into carelessness, but to lead you away from despair; for despair produces worse evils in us than carelessness. This son, then, bears the image of those who fall after the washing. And that he signifies those who fall away after baptism is clear from this: he is called a son, and no one could be called a son apart from baptism. And he dwelt in his father's house and divided all his father's goods; but before baptism it is not possible to receive the father's goods, nor to receive an inheritance; so that through all these things he hints to us the rank of the faithful. And he was the brother of the one who was approved; and one could not become a brother without spiritual regeneration. This man, then, having fallen into the utmost wickedness, what does he say? I will return to my father; for this is why his father also let him go and did not prevent him from departing to a foreign land, so that through experience he might learn well how great a benefit he enjoyed while staying at home. For often God, when he is not obeyed in what he says, leaves the teaching to experience through actual events; which indeed he also said to the Jews. For since countless

Having spent his words through the prophets and not persuaded or drawn them, he left them to be disciplined through punishment, saying to them: "Your apostasy will discipline you, and your wickedness will convict you." For it was fitting that he be trustworthy even before the outcome of events; but since they were so senselessly disposed as to disbelieve his exhortations and counsels, forestalling their wickedness so that they would not be persuaded, he permits them to be disciplined through events, so that in this way he might recover them again. Since, then, the prodigal had gone away into a foreign land and through his own deeds had learned how great an evil it is to fall from the father's house, and had returned, the father did not bear a grudge, but received him with open arms. Why ever so? Because he was a father, not a judge. And there were dances and festivities and celebrations thereafter, and the whole house was bright and full of joy. What do you say? Are these the rewards of wickedness? Not of wickedness, O man, but of the return; not of sin, but of repentance; not of evil, but of the change for the better. And what is greater, the elder son was indignant at these things; but he gently persuaded even him, saying, "Because you were always with me, but this one was lost and has been found; he was dead and has come to life." But when it is necessary to save the lost, he says, it is not the time for courts or exact scrutiny, but only for loving-kindness and forgiveness. No physician, having set aside applying medicine to the sick man, demands an accounting from him for his disorder and punishment. But even if he had altogether needed to give an account, he gave sufficient account in his stay in the foreign land.

For so great a time, then, he was separated from our company, and he continued wrestling with famine and dishonor and the most extreme evils. For this reason he says, "He was lost, and has been found; he was dead, and has come back to life." Do not look at what is present, he says, but consider the greatness of his former calamity. You see a brother, not a stranger. He has returned to his father, who is able to remember nothing of what came before—or rather, to remember only those things that can lead to compassion and mercy and affection and the sparing care that befits those who have begotten him. For this reason he did not speak of what he had done, but of what he had suffered; he did not mention that he had squandered his substance, but that he had fallen into countless evils. So earnestly did he seek the sheep—or rather, with even greater earnestness. For here the son himself returned; there the shepherd himself went out, and having found it he brought it back, and rejoiced over it more than over all those who had been saved. And observe how he brought it back: he did not scourge it, but carrying and bearing it on his shoulders, he restored it again to the flock. Knowing these things, then—that he not only does not turn away those who return, but receives them no less than those who have succeeded; that he not only does not exact punishment, but even comes in search of those who have gone astray, and rejoices more over the saved because of their being found—let us neither despair when we are in evil circumstances, nor be confident when we are in good ones; but even when we are doing right, let us fear, so that we may not fall through confidence, and when we sin, let us repent.

For what I said at the beginning, this I say now also: that both of these things betray our salvation—both being confident when standing, and despairing when fallen. Therefore, securing those who stand, Paul said: "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." And again: "I fear, lest perhaps after preaching to others, I myself should become disqualified." But raising up those who have fallen and stirring them to greater eagerness, he testified when writing to the Corinthians thus: "Lest perhaps I should mourn for many of those who have sinned before and have not repented"—showing that those who sin are not so worthy of lamentation as those who do not repent of their sins. And the prophet also says to them: "Does not the one who falls rise again, or the one who turns away turn back?" For this reason David also exhorts these very people, saying: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the provocation." As long then as "today" is spoken, let us not despair, but having good hopes toward the Master, and considering the sea of his love for humanity, having shaken off every evil from our conscience, with great eagerness and hope let us lay hold of virtue, and let us display repentance with all excess, so that having laid aside all sins here, we may be able with boldness to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and to obtain the kingdom of heaven; may it come to pass that we all obtain it by the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, power, honor, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ON REPENTANCE, Also on the Gloom of King Ahab, and on Jonah the Prophet. Homily 2. 1. Did you see last Lord's day the battle and the victory—the battle of the devil, and the victory of Christ? Did you see how repentance was praised, and the devil did not bear the blow, but feared and shuddered? Why do you fear, O devil, when repentance is praised? Why do you grieve, why do you shudder? "Yes," he says, "I grieve and am distressed justly; this repentance has snatched great vessels from me." What are these? The harlot, the tax collector, the robber, the blasphemer. For truly repentance has snatched many vessels from him, and has cast down his very citadel, and he has a fatal wound from repentance. You will know this, beloved, from what experience showed recently. For what reason, then, do we not enjoy such a homily, and come to church each time, embracing repentance? Even if you are a sinner, come into the church, so that you may speak your sins; even if you are righteous, come in, so that you may not fall from righteousness; for the church is a harbor for both. Are you a sinner? Do not despair, but come in, putting repentance forward. Have you sinned? Say to God, "I have sinned." What toil is this? What circuit? What distress? What constraint is it to say the word, "I have sinned"? For if you do not call yourself a sinner, do you not have the devil as your accuser? Anticipate him, and seize his office; for his office is to accuse. Why then do you not anticipate him, and speak your sin, and blot out your transgression, knowing that you have such an accuser who cannot be silenced? Have you sinned?

Enter the church, say to God, "I have sinned." I demand nothing else of you than this alone. For the divine Scripture says: "Be the first to tell your lawless deeds, that you may be justified"; tell your sin, that you may loose your sin. In this there is no toil, nor circuit of words, nor expenditure of money, nor anything else of the kind; say the word, be honest about the sin, and say, "I have sinned." And from where, he says, is it that if I am the first to tell my sin, I loose my sin? I have in the Scripture both the one who spoke and loosed, and the one who did not speak and was condemned. Cain killed his brother Abel, possessed by envy, so that murder followed upon envy; for taking him into the field he slew him. And what does God say to him? "Where is Abel your brother?" He who knows all things asks, not in ignorance, but drawing the murderer to repentance. For that he was not asking in ignorance, he showed: "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" Let it be, you are not a keeper; why then also a slayer? You were not keeping him; why then did you also kill him? Nevertheless, do you confess these things? You are responsible also for the keeping. What then does God say to him? The voice of your brother's blood

cries out to me from the earth. He immediately convicted him and brought the punishment upon him, not so much because of the murder as because of the shamelessness; for God does not hate the one who sins as much as the one who is shameless. Indeed, he does not accept Cain when he comes to repentance, since he did not first tell his sin. For what does he say? "My sin is greater than that I should be forgiven"—instead of, "I have sinned greatly; I am not worthy to live." What then does God say to him? "You shall be groaning and trembling on the earth"; and he pronounced upon him a dreadful and harsh punishment. "I do not destroy you," he says, "so that the truth may not be delivered to forgetfulness, but I make you a law read by all, so that your calamity may become the mother of philosophy." And Cain went about, a living law, a moving pillar, silent, yet sending forth a voice brighter than a trumpet. "Let no one do such things," he says, "so that he may not suffer such things." He received the punishment because of his shamelessness, and though he had not spoken, yet being convicted he was condemned because of his sin. For if he had confessed to himself, he would have at least been the first to wipe out his sin. 2. But so that you may learn that these things are so, learn how another, by speaking first, dissolved his sin. Let us come to David, the prophet and king—or rather I gladly call him by his prophecy; for his kingdom was in Palestine, but his prophecy reaches to the ends of the world; and his kingdom was dissolved in a little time, but his prophecy bears words that are immortal. It is preferable that the sun be extinguished than that the words of David be delivered to forgetfulness. He fell into adultery and murder; for he saw, it says, a beautiful woman bathing, and he desired her.

Then he carried out what seemed good to him. And the prophet was in adultery, the pearl in the mire. But he did not yet know that he had sinned; so thoroughly had he been stupefied by the passion. For when the charioteer is drunk, the chariot too is borne along in disorder; and what the charioteer and chariot are, that the soul and body are: if the soul is darkened, the body also rolls in the mire. For as long as the charioteer stands firm, the chariot also is driven well; but when he himself grows weak and cannot get a grip on the reins, then the chariot itself is seen in even worse straits. So it is also with man: as long as the soul is sober and watchful, the body itself is in purity; but when the soul is darkened, the body itself rolls in mire and pleasure. What then of David? He committed adultery; but he did not know it, nor was he convicted by anyone, and this in extreme old age, so that you may learn that, if you are careless, old age does not profit you, nor again, if you are earnest, can youth harm you. For the manner is not of age, but the right achievement is of the will; since Daniel too was twelve years old, and he judged; while the elders, old in days, committed a drama of adultery, and neither did old age profit them, nor did youth harm him. And that you may learn that the affairs of chastity are judged not in age but in the will, David, being in that very old age, and then falling into adultery, wrought murder, and was so disposed as not to know that he had sinned; for the charioteer—the mind—had been made drunk by incontinence. What then does God do? He sends to him Nathan the prophet; the prophet comes to the prophet; for so it also happens with physicians.

When a physician falls ill, he has need of another physician. The same is true here also: the one who had sinned was a prophet, and the one who brought the medicines was a prophet. So Nathan comes to him, and he does not immediately from the door rebuke him and say: "Lawless and utterly accursed man, adulterer and murderer, you received such great honors from God, and you trampled on his commandments?" Nathan said nothing of the sort, so as not to make him more shameless; for sins made public provoke the sinner to shamelessness. So he comes to him and weaves a drama of judgment; and what does he say? "King, I have a case against you. There was a rich man and there was a poor man; the rich man had herds and many flocks; and the poor man had one ewe lamb, which drank from his cup and ate from his table and slept in his bosom—here he shows the man's genuine affection for his wife; and when a certain stranger came, the rich man spared his own and took the poor man's ewe lamb and slaughtered it." Do you see how here he weaves the drama, keeping the iron hidden under the sponge? What then does the king do? Thinking he was pronouncing judgment against another, he brought down a most sharp sentence. For such are men: against others they gladly make their sentences and deliver them sharply and abruptly. And what does David say? "As the Lord lives, such a man is worthy of death, and he shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold." What then does Nathan do? He did not soften the blow over many hours, but at once reveals it and brought down a most sharp incision, so that he might not steal away the sensation of pain. "You are the man, king.

What then does the king say? "I have sinned against the Lord." He did not say, "Who are you that reproves me? Who sent you to speak boldly? With what daring have you done this?" He said nothing of the kind, but acknowledged his sin. And what does he say? "I have sinned against the Lord." What then does Nathan say to him? "And the Lord has forgiven your sin. You condemned yourself; I remit your condemnation. You confessed with good judgment; you have loosed your sin. You drew condemnation upon yourself; I have dissolved the sentence." Do you see how what is written was fulfilled: "Be the first to tell your lawless deeds, that you may be justified"? What toil is this, to be the first to speak one's sin? 3. You have also another way of repentance. What is it? To mourn one's sin. Have you sinned? Mourn, and you loose your sin. What toil is this? I demand nothing more of you than to mourn your sin. I do not tell you to cut through seas, nor to bring your ship into harbors, nor to journey, nor to go off on an endless road, nor to pay out money, nor to make a passage through wild waves—but what? Mourn for your sin. And how is it, he says, that if I mourn, I loose my sin? You have proof of this also from the divine Scripture. There was a certain king Ahab; he is testified to be righteous; but he reigned in evil under Jezebel his wife. He desired the vineyard of a certain Naboth the Jezreelite, and sent to him saying, "Give me your vineyard which I have desired, and either take silver from me, or an exchange for the place." But he said, "May it not be that I should sell to you the inheritance of my fathers." And Ahab desired the vineyard.

But he did not wish to force him, so that as a result he might not fall into calamity. Jezebel came in to him—a shameless and abominable woman, unclean and utterly accursed—and said: "Why are you grieved, and why do you not eat? Rise, eat; I will make you inherit the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite." And taking a letter, she wrote in the king's name to the elders, saying: "Proclaim a fast, and set false men against Naboth, that he blessed God and the king"—that is, he blasphemed. O fast filled with exceeding lawlessness! They proclaimed a fast, that they might commit murder. What then happened? Naboth was stoned, and he died. And Jezebel, learning of it, says to Ahab: "Rise, let us inherit the vineyard, for Naboth is dead." And he, grieved for the moment, nevertheless went in and inherited the vineyard. God sends Elijah the prophet to him: "Go," he says, "and say to Ahab: Because you have killed and inherited, so shall your blood be poured out, and the dogs shall lick your blood, and the harlots shall bathe in your blood." God-sent is the wrath, complete the sentence, fulfilled the condemnation. And see where he sends him: to the vineyard. Where the lawlessness was, there also the punishment. And what does he say? Ahab, seeing him, says: "You have found me, my enemy"—that is, "You have caught me guilty, because

I have sinned; now you have an opportunity to trample on me. You have found me, my enemy." Since Elijah was always reproving Ahab, Ahab, knowing that he had sinned, says: "You were always reproving me, but now you trample on me at an opportune moment"—for he knew that he had sinned. He reads out the sentence to him: "Thus says the Lord," he says: "Because you have murdered and taken possession, and have shed the blood of a righteous man, so shall your blood be shed, and the dogs shall lick it, and the harlots shall bathe in your blood." When Ahab heard these things, he was sullen and mourned over his sin; he acknowledged the injustice, and God annulled the verdict against him. But first God defended himself to Elijah, so that he might not appear as a liar and suffer what Jonah suffered; for Jonah underwent the same kind of thing. God says to him: "Go, proclaim to the city of Nineveh, in which dwell twelve myriads of people, apart from women and children: 'Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed.'" Jonah did not wish to go, knowing the philanthropy of God; but what does he do? He turns to flight; for he says: "I go away to proclaim; you, being philanthropic, will relent, and I shall be put to death as a false prophet." Nevertheless the sea, having received him, did not hide him, but gave him back to the land, and preserved him again for Nineveh, like a most excellent fellow-servant preserving a fellow-servant. For, it says, Jonah went down to flee, and found a ship going to Tarshish, and gave his fare, and went up into it. Where are you fleeing, Jonah? Are you going away to another land? But the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. But to the sea? Do you not know that the sea is his, and he made it?

But to heaven? Have you not heard David saying, "I shall look upon the heavens, the works of your fingers"? Yet he too, held by fear, fled in appearance; for it is truly impossible to flee from God. Nevertheless, when the sea restored him and he came to Nineveh, he preached, saying, "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed." And so that you may learn that it was with this in mind that he gave himself over to flight—because God, being a lover of humanity, repents of the evil which he spoke concerning them, and he was going to be as a false prophet—he shows this to himself. For after preaching in Nineveh, he went out of the city and watched to see what would happen; and when he saw three days passed and nothing of the threatened things happening anywhere, then he stirs up his first thought and says: "Are these not my words which I spoke, that God is merciful and long-suffering and repents of the evils of men?" So that Elijah might not suffer something of this sort, such as Jonah also suffered, God states the reason for which he forgave Ahab. And what does God say to Elijah? "You saw how Ahab went mourning and with a gloomy face before me? I will surely not do according to his wickedness." Alas, the Master becomes an advocate for the servant, and God makes a defense for a man on behalf of a man: "Do not think," he says, "that I forgave him simply; he changed his manner, and I turned back my wrath and released it. And so that you may not be thought to be a false prophet—for you truly spoke; if he had not changed his manner, he would have had to endure the things of the sentence—but he changed his manner, and I released my wrath." And God says to Elijah:

Do you see how Ahab went about mourning and with a sullen face? "I will not do according to my anger." Do you see that mourning blots out sins? 4. You have also a third way of repentance. I have spoken of many ways of repentance, so that by the variety of the ways I might make salvation easy for you. What, then, is this third way? Humility. Be humble, and you have loosed the chains of sins. And you have proof of this too from the divine Scripture, from the reading concerning the tax collector and the Pharisee. "The Pharisee and the tax collector," it says, "went up into the temple to pray," and the Pharisee began to enumerate his virtues. "I am not," he says, "a sinner like all the world, nor like this tax collector." Wretched and miserable soul, you condemned the whole inhabited world—why did you also oppress your neighbor? Was the world not enough for you, unless you also condemned the tax collector? From this you slandered everyone, and you did not spare even one man. "I am not like all the world, nor like this tax collector; I fast twice in the week, I tithe my possessions to the poor." He uttered words of boastfulness. Wretched man, granted, you condemned the world—why did you also rebuke your neighbor the tax collector? Were you not satisfied with the accusation of the world, unless you also condemned the man with you? What then did the tax collector do? Having heard these things, he did not say: "Who are you to say such things to me? How do I know your life? You did not associate with me; you did not stay with me, you did not spend time with me. Why are you so proud? For who testifies to your good deeds? Why do you praise yourself? Why do you gratify yourself?

But the tax collector said none of these things; rather, he bowed down and worshipped and said: "God, be merciful to me, the sinner." And the tax collector, having humbled his mind, became righteous. But the Pharisee went down from the temple having lost his righteousness, and the tax collector went down having gained righteousness; and words conquered deeds. For the one by his deeds lost righteousness, but the other by a word of humility gained righteousness. And yet that was not even humility; for humility is this: when a man who is great humbles himself. But this was not humility in the case of the tax collector, but truth; for his words were true, for he was a sinner. 5. For what is worse than a tax collector, tell me? He is a trafficker in others' misfortunes, a sharer in others' labors; and he does not look upon the toil, but shares in the profit; so that the sin of the tax collector is the utmost. For a tax collector is nothing other than brazen violence, lawless sin, fair-faced greed. For what is worse than a tax collector who sits by the road and harvests the fruits of others' labors, and when there are toils has no concern for them, but when there is profit, takes his share from what he did not labor for? So if the tax collector, being a sinner, obtained so great a gift by humbling his mind, how much more the man who is virtuous and humbles his mind? So if you confess your sins and humble your mind, you become righteous. But do you wish to learn who is humble-minded?

Look at Paul, the truly humble-minded, Paul the teacher of the world, the spiritual orator, the vessel of election, the harbor unshaken by waves, the tower unmoved, the one who in a small body encircled the world and ran around it as if on wings; look at that man being humble-minded, the unlettered and the philosopher, the poor and the rich. I call that man truly humble-minded, the one who drew upon countless labors, who displayed countless trophies against the devil, who preached and said, "His grace toward me was not in vain, but I labored more than all"; the one who endured prisons and scourges; the one who caught the world in his net through his Epistles; the one called by a heavenly voice, that man is humble-minded, saying: "For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle." Did you see the greatness of humility, did you see Paul being humble-minded, calling himself the least? "For I am," he says, "the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle." For this is truly humility, to be humble in all things and to call oneself the least. Consider who it was who spoke these words: Paul the citizen of heaven, the one who simply wore the body, the pillar of the Churches, the earthly angel, the heavenly man.

For from now on I gladly linger over the man, contemplating the beauty of his virtue. The sun, when it has risen and sends forth its bright rays, does not so gladden my eyes as the face of Paul illumines my mind; for the sun gives light to the eyes, but Paul lifts the arches of the heavens before them; for he makes the soul higher than the sun and loftier than the moon; for such is the power of virtue: it makes a man an angel, it lifts the soul up to heaven. This virtue Paul teaches us; let us strive to become zealous imitators of his virtue. But we must not depart from what lies before us; for the aim was to show that the third way of repentance is humility, that the tax collector did not humble himself, but spoke the truth, laying bare his own sins, and became righteous, not by paying out money, nor by cutting across seas, nor by walking a long road on foot, nor by crossing countless seas, nor by petitioning friends, nor by consuming much time, but through humility he acquired righteousness, being counted worthy of the kingdom of heaven; may it be granted to us all to attain it, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of ages. Amen.

A discourse of the same author On almsgiving, and on the Ten Virgins. Homily 3. 1. Do you know where our discourse began the other day, or where it left off, or from what theme it proceeded and to what it came in the words of the previous homily? I think you have forgotten where our discourse stopped; but I know, and I do not blame you for this, nor do I accuse you. For each of you has a wife, and clings to his children, and cares for all the affairs of the household; some are occupied with military service, others are craftsmen; and each of you is busy with different needs. But we are engaged in these things, and we practice these things, and we spend our time in these things; so that you are not to be blamed in this, but praised for your zeal, because you do not abandon even a single Lord's Day, but despising all things you come to church. For this is the greatest praise of our city—not that it has markets and suburbs, nor gold-roofed houses and dining rooms, but that it has a zealous and awakened people. For we know the nobility of a tree not from its leaves but from its fruits. For this reason we have been honored above irrational animals in having reason, and in partaking of reason, and in loving reason; for a man who does not love reason is much more irrational than the beasts, not knowing why he was honored, and from where he has his honor. And the prophet spoke well: Man, being in honor, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless beasts, and became like them. You are a rational man, and you do not love reason? Tell me, what forgiveness will you have?

So you are more necessary to me than all others, you who are stirred up toward the word of virtue and who place all things second to the divine words. Come then, let us also take up the subject and speak what follows the things said the other day; for I owe you a debt, and I gladly pay it; for it does not bring me poverty but gathers wealth. For in the case of worldly affairs, debtors flee their creditors so as not to repay, but I pursue them in order to repay, and very reasonably so; for in worldly affairs repayment produces poverty, but in the case of the word, repayment begets wealth. What I mean is this: I owe someone money; if I pay it, it cannot be both with him and with me, but it has departed from me and attached itself to him; but if I pay a word, it is both with me and all of you have it. If I hold back the word and do not share it, then I am poor; but when I pay it, then I become richer. If I do not pay the word, then I alone am rich; but if I pay it, I carry off the fruit together with all of you. Come then, let us pay the debt. And what was this? The other day we were exercising the word concerning repentance and were saying that the ways of repentance are many and varied, so that salvation might become easy for us. For if God had given us one way of repentance, we would have deferred, saying: We cannot pursue this one; we cannot be saved. But now, cutting off this pretext of yours, he has given you not only one way, nor a second, nor a third, but many and different ways, so that by their abundance he might make your ascent to heaven easy for you.

And we were saying that repentance is easy, and there is no burden in it. Are you a sinner? Enter the church, say that you have sinned, and you have loosed the sin. For we also brought David into the midst, who sinned and loosed the sin; then we set down a second way, to mourn over sin, and we were saying, what toil is this? It is not necessary to throw down money, nor to walk a long road on foot, nor anything else of the sort, but only to mourn over sin; and we brought this from the Scripture, that God relented concerning Ahab, because he mourned and was of a gloomy countenance; and he himself said to Elijah: Did you see how Ahab walked before me mourning and of a gloomy countenance? I will not do according to my wrath. Then we also gave a third way of repentance, and we brought the Pharisee and the tax collector from the Scripture into the midst, that the Pharisee, boasting arrogantly, fell away from righteousness; but the tax collector, having humbled his mind, came down fruitful in righteousness, and having spent not even one toil, became righteous; he cast words and received deeds. Come then, let us proceed to what follows, and let us bring forward a fourth way of repentance. And what is this? I mean indeed almsgiving, the queen of the virtues, which quickly leads men up to the vaults of the heavens, the best advocate. A great thing is almsgiving; for this reason Solomon also cried out: Great is a man, and honorable is a merciful man. Great are the wings of almsgiving: it cuts through the air, passes by the moon, surpasses the rays of the sun, ascends to the very vaults of the heavens.

But it does not stop there; it passes through heaven itself, runs past the companies of angels and the choirs of archangels and all the powers above, and stands before the royal throne itself. And learn this from Scripture itself, which says: Cornelius, your prayers and your alms have gone up before God. And to be before God means this: even if you have many sins, if almsgiving is your advocate, do not fear; for none of the powers above opposes it. It demands a debt; it carries its own bond in its hands. For it is the voice of the Master himself: Whatever you did for one of these least ones, you did for me. So then, however many other sins you have, your almsgiving outweighs them all. 2. Or do you not know the example of the ten virgins in the Gospel—how those who had no almsgiving, though they practiced virginity, remained outside the bridal chamber? For, it says, there were ten virgins, five foolish and five wise; and the wise had oil, but the foolish had no oil, and their lamps were going out. And the foolish came to the wise and said: Give us oil from your vessels. I am ashamed and blush and weep when I hear of a foolish virgin; hearing this name I blush—after such virtue, after the practice of virginity, after the body has been raised to heaven

to take wing, after having the contest against the powers above, and to endure the scorching heat, after trampling on the furnace of pleasure; then the foolish ones heard, and rightly were they foolish, because after doing the great thing, they were defeated by the small. And the foolish ones came, it says, and said to the wise: Give us oil from your vessels. But they said: We cannot give you, lest it not suffice for us and for you; they did this not out of lack of compassion, nor out of malice, but because of the narrowness of the time; for the bridegroom was about to come. They too had lamps; but those had oil, while these did not. For the fire is virginity, and the oil is almsgiving. Just as fire, if it does not have oil dripping on it, is extinguished, so too virginity, if it does not have almsgiving, is quenched. Give us oil from your vessels. But they said to them: We cannot give you. But this word was not of malice but of fear: Lest it not suffice for both us and you; lest, as we seek to enter all together, we all remain outside. But go and buy from those who sell. And who are the merchants of this oil? The poor, those who sit for almsgiving before the church. And for how much? For as much as you wish; I do not set a price, so that poverty may not be an excuse. Buy for as much as you have; do you have an obol? Buy heaven; not because heaven is cheap, but because the Master is loving toward humanity. Do you not have an obol? Give a cup of cold water; Whoever gives a cup of cold water to one of these least ones for my sake, he will certainly not lose his reward.

Heaven is a marketplace and a business, and we are negligent. Give bread, and receive Paradise; give small things, and receive great things; give mortal things, and receive immortal things; give corruptible things, and receive incorruptible things. If there were a festival, having both cheapness and abundance of provisions, and many things sold for little, would you not have sold off your possessions and set everything else second, and become masters of that business? And where things are corruptible, you show such eagerness; but where the business is immortal, are you so slack and laid back? Give to the poor, so that even if you are silent, ten thousand mouths may speak in your defense, almsgiving standing by and advocating for you; almsgiving is the ransom of the soul. For this reason, just as basins full of water stand before the doors of the church, so that you may wash your hands, in the same way the poor sit outside the church, so that you may wash the hands of your soul. Have you washed your perceptible hands with water? Wash the hands of your soul with almsgiving. Do not put forward poverty as an excuse; the widow in the extremity of poverty gave hospitality to Elijah, and poverty was no hindrance, but she received him with great joy; therefore she also received worthy fruits, and reaped the ear of grain of almsgiving. But perhaps the hearer says, "Give me Elijah." Why do you seek Elijah? I give you the Master of Elijah, and you do not feed him. If you found Elijah, how would you have given him hospitality? It is the declaration of Christ, the Master of all things: "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me." If a king invited someone to a banquet, and with his servants standing by said to them—

Give thanks to him many times on my behalf; he fed me when I was in poverty and showed me hospitality; he provided me with many benefits in a time of distress. How would not each person have spent all his money on that man, with whom the king was pleased? How would he not have made his defense? How would not each person have been eager to entrust himself to him and become his friend? 3. Did you see the power of the word? If indeed in the case of a human king the matter has such honor, consider Christ on that day calling before angels and all the power, and saying: "This man showed me hospitality on the earth; this man did me countless benefits; this man gathered me in when I was a stranger." Consider from now on the boldness before the angels, the boasting before the assemblies above. For whom Christ testifies, how would he not have boldness beyond the angels? Great, then, is the matter of almsgiving, brothers; let us embrace it, than which nothing is equal. It is able even to wipe out other sins and to drive away judgment; while you are silent, it stands and pleads on your behalf; or rather, while you are silent, countless mouths give thanks on your behalf. So many good things come from almsgiving, and we are negligent and have fallen back. Give bread according to your ability; you do not have bread? Give an obol; you do not have an obol? Give a cup of cold water; you do not have this? Mourn with the afflicted, and you have a reward. For the reward is not of necessity but of free choice. But while we are still discussing this, the matter of the virgins has come up for us; come then, let us return to the subject at hand. "Give us," she says, "oil from your vessels." "We cannot give you, lest it not be enough for us and for you.

But go away and buy from those who sell. And while they were going away to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who had bright lamps entered in with him, and the door of the bridal chamber was shut. And the five foolish women also came, and they were knocking on the door of the bridal chamber, crying out: Open to us; and a voice from within from the bridegroom to them: Depart from me, I do not know you. And after so many labors, what did they hear? I do not know you. This is what I was saying, that they acquired the great possession of virginity in vain and to no purpose. Consider: after so many labors they were cast out, when they had given rein to incontinence, when they had their contest against the powers above, when they laughed at the affairs of life, when they endured the great heat, when they surpassed the hurdles, when they were winged from earth to heaven, when they did not dissolve the seal of the body, when they acquired the great form of virginity, when they had their contest against the angels, when they trampled on the necessities of the body, when they forgot nature, when in a body they accomplished the incorporeal things, when they acquired the great and invincible possession of virginity—then they heard: Depart from me, I do not know you. For do not suppose that the greatness of virginity is a small thing in my eyes; such is virginity, that no one of the ancients was able to keep it. For this is why the grace is great, that the things which were fearful among the prophets and among the ancients have now become easy to despise. For what were the most burdensome and necessary things? Virginity, and contempt for death; but now even worthless girls despise these.

For the possession of virginity was so difficult that none of the ancients was able to practice it. Noah was righteous and was testified to by God, but he had relations with a woman; likewise Abraham and Isaac, his fellow heirs of the promise, had relations with a woman. Joseph the temperate refused the great drama of adultery; but even he had relations with a woman; for the profession of virginity was difficult. From that time virginity became strong, from the time the flower of virginity sprouted. Therefore none of the ancients was able to practice virginity; for it is a great thing to bridle the body. Paint in words the form of virginity, and learn the greatness of its virtue; it still has war every day that can never be quieted; this war is worse than barbarian war. For the war of barbarians has some time of truce in treaties, and sometimes they engage and sometimes not, and there are ranks and times; but in the war against virginity there is no truce; for the one who wages war is the devil, who does not know how to watch for a time of attack, nor await an arrangement for the clash, but stands always seeking to find the virgin naked, so that he may inflict a fatal blow; and the virgin can never cease from this war, but in her

It drives the warrior too into confusion. And the condemned, even if they see the governor for a time, are not so storm-tossed; but the virgin, wherever she goes, carries the judge around with her and bears the enemy about with her, and the enemy gives her no respite in the evening, not in the night, not at dawn, not at midday; but he wages war at all times, suggesting pleasure, hinting at marriage, so as to drive virtue out of her and to beget vice in her; so as to expel her chastity and sow fornication in her; at every hour the furnace of pleasure is set ablaze, softly kindled beneath. Consider how great is the toil of the achievement. But those women after all these things heard, Depart from me, I do not know you. See how great a thing virginity is: when it has its sister, almsgiving, none of the terrors prevails over it, but it is higher than all. For this reason those women did not enter in, because along with virginity they did not have almsgiving. The saying is worthy of great shame: having wrestled down pleasure, you did not despise money; but a virgin who has renounced the world and been crucified, you are in love with money. Would that you had desired a man, and the charge would not have been so great; for you would have desired matter of the same substance; but now the accusation is greater, because you have desired matter that is not your own. Granted, those women who are under a husband wickedly display inhumanity, on the pretext of their children; and if you say to them, Give me almsgiving, she says, I have children, and I cannot. God gave you children, you received the fruit of the womb, so that you might become humane, not so that you might become inhuman.

Do not take the very ground of loving-kindness as an occasion for inhumanity. Do you wish to leave a good inheritance to your children? Leave almsgiving, so that all may praise you, and you may leave behind a memory much spoken of. But you who have no children, but are crucified to the world, why do you gather money? 4. But our discourse is living, both concerning the way of repentance and concerning almsgiving. We were saying that almsgiving is a great possession; from there the sea of virginity succeeded us. You have, then, as the first and great repentance, almsgiving, which is able to redeem from the chain of sins; but you have also another way of repentance, very easy again, through which you are able to be delivered from sins. Pray every hour, and do not grow weary in praying, nor ask the loving-kindness of God carelessly, and he will not turn away from one who persists, but will forgive you your sins and give you your requests. When you pray, if you are heard, remain giving thanks in prayer; but if you are not heard, persist in praying, so that you may be heard. And do not say, "I prayed many times and was not heard"; for this too often happens for your benefit. For he knows that you are careless and slack, and if you obtain your need, you withdraw, no longer praying; and by reason of the need he defers you, so that you may converse with God more frequently and devote yourself to prayer. For if, being in such necessity and having need, you are careless and do not persist in prayer, what if you needed none of these things? So that he himself does this for your benefit, wishing you not to fall away from prayer.

Remain, then, in prayer, and do not be slack; for prayer can accomplish many things, beloved, and do not approach prayer as though it were a small thing. And that prayer forgives sins, learn this from the divine Gospels. For what does it say? The kingdom of heaven was likened to a man who shut his door and reclined with his children; and someone came in the evening wishing to receive bread from him, and he knocks, saying: Open to me, for I have need of bread. And he said to him: I cannot give you now; for we have reclined, both we and our children. But he persisted knocking at the door. And he says again to him: I cannot give you; for we have reclined, both we and our children. But he, even after hearing these things, persisted knocking, and did not withdraw, until the master of the house said: Rise, give him, and let him go. He teaches you, then, to pray always, and not to grow weary always, but even if you do not receive, to remain until you receive. And you will find many other ways of repentance in the Scripture. This repentance was proclaimed even before the coming of Christ through Jeremiah, who says: Does not the one who falls rise again, or the one who turns away return? and again, After these things I said to her, After you have played the harlot, come, return to me. And for this reason he gave us many other different ways, so that he might cut off every pretext for our slackness. For if we had only one way, we would not have been able to enter through it. This sword the devil always flees. You have sinned? Enter the church, and wipe away your sin. As often as you fall into the marketplace, so often you rise;

Thus, as often as you sin, repent of your sin; do not despair of yourself. And if you sin a second time, repent a second time; do not through carelessness fall completely away from the hope of the good things set before you. And even if you are in extreme old age and sin, enter in, repent; for here it is a physician's clinic, not a courtroom, not demanding an accounting of sins, but granting forgiveness of sins. Tell your sin to God alone: "Against you only have I sinned, and done evil before you"; and your sin is forgiven you. You have also another way of repentance, not difficult, but indeed altogether very easy. And what is this? Weep over your sin, and learn this from the divine Gospels—that Peter, the chief of the apostles, the first in the Church, the friend of Christ, who did not receive the revelation from men but from the Father, as the Master himself testifies of him, saying: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father who is in heaven"—this Peter. And when I say Peter, I mean the unbroken rock, the unshakable foundation, the great apostle, the first of the disciples, the first called, and the first to obey. He did no small thing, but something exceedingly great—to deny the Master himself. I say this not accusing the righteous man, but giving you a basis for repentance: he denied the very Master of the world, the guardian, the Savior of all. And to state the matter from the beginning, in the tradition the Savior saw certain ones withdrawing, and he says to Peter: "Do you also wish to withdraw?

But Peter said, "Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you." What are you saying, Peter? God has declared it, and you contend against him? Nevertheless his will showed what was his own, and the weakness of nature was exposed. But when was this? In the night in which Christ was betrayed; then, it says, Peter was standing by the charcoal fire warming himself, and a certain girl came to him and said, "Yesterday you also were with this man." But he said, "I do not know this man." Then also a second and a third time; and the declaration was fulfilled. Then Christ looked at Peter, sending a voice through his gaze; for he did not speak to him through his mouth, so as not to convict him before the Jews and put his own disciple to shame, but through his gaze he sent the voice—that is, "Peter, what I said has come to pass." At any rate, Peter too, perceiving it then, began to weep, and he did not simply weep, but bitterly, making a second baptism from his eyes through tears. But having wept so bitterly, he wiped away the sin; and after this he is entrusted with the keys of the heavens. But if Peter's weeping wiped away so great a sin, if you weep, how will you not wipe away your sin? For it was no small charge to deny one's own Master, but great and strong; yet nevertheless the

Tears wiped away the sin. Weep therefore you also over your sin; but not casually, nor with mere appearance, but weep bitterly, as Peter did; bring the springs of tears from the very depth, so that the Master, moved with compassion, may forgive you your transgression; for he is a lover of humanity; for he himself said: I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he turn back, and repent, and live. He wants a little labor from you, and he himself provides the great things; he seeks a pretext from you, in order to give you a treasure of salvation. Offer tears, and he gives you forgiveness; offer repentance, and he provides remission of sins; bring a small pretext, so that you may have a fair-spoken defense; for some things are from him, and some from us; if we bring what is from us, he in turn also provides what is from himself. Indeed, he himself has already provided what is from himself: the sun, the moon, the varied chorus of stars he established, he poured out the air, he spread out the earth, he walled in the sea, he gave mountains, glens, hills, springs, pools, rivers, the countless kinds of plants, paradises, and all the rest; you in turn contribute a little, so that he may thus also grant you the things above. Let us not therefore neglect ourselves, nor fall away from our own salvation, having so great a sea of love for humanity from the Master of all, and of him who repents over our sins. A kingdom of heaven is set before us, and a paradise, and the good things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not ascended upon the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him.

And ought we not to do everything, so that we may contribute something, in order that we may not fall away from these things? Or do you not know what Paul says—he who labored much, and set up countless trophies against the devil, who traveled the inhabited world on foot in his body, who ran around land and sea and air, who went about the inhabited world as though winged, who was stoned, who was killed, who was beaten, who suffered all things for the name of God, who was called from above by a heavenly voice? See what this man says, what voice he uttered: "We received grace," he says, "from God, but I also labored and contributed; and his grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than them all and contributed." We know, he says, we know the greatness of the grace which we received, but it did not find me idle; the things contributed by me are evident. So then let us also teach our hands to give alms, so that we may contribute a little something; let us weep over sin, let us lament over lawlessness, so that we may seem to contribute a little something, since the things that are about to be given to us are great and surpass our power; for it is Paradise, and the kingdom of heaven; may all of us obtain it, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, power, honor, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

CONCERNING REPENTANCE AND PRAYER. Homily 4. 1. Shepherds, wherever they see the grass is deeper, lead their sheep there continually, and they do not rouse them from that place until the flocks have cropped it all down. Imitating these also, we now for the fourth day feed this little flock in the manner of repentance, and not even today are we preparing to make it rise up; for we see that there is still great abundance of pasture, and great delight together with great benefit. For not even so do the leaves of trees, which become a shelter for the sheep, give the sheep rest at midday, providing a shade both longed for and beneficial, and lulling them to sleep with great pleasure, as the reading of the divine Scriptures restores and refreshes souls that are in pain and held fast by despondency, wiping away the vehement and burning heat of the pain, and providing the comfort of a shade sweeter and more delightful than any shade. For not only in losses of money, nor in the loss of children, nor in other such things, but also in the assaults of sins, it itself provides us with great comfort.

For when a man has been caught by sin and tripped up and has fallen, and then his conscience devours him, continually reminding him of his sin, and he suffocates himself by the excess of his despondency, and is set on fire every day, and though ten thousand people encourage him, he does not accept the encouragement—when he enters the church and hears that many of the saints fell and rose again and returned once more to their former good repute, he receives the consolation unawares and departs. And with men, though we have often sinned, we do not even endure to disclose the offense, out of shame and blushing; and even if we do disclose it, we shall gain nothing so great. But when God encourages us and touches the heart, all satanic grief will quickly be put to flight. For this reason the falls of the righteous are also recorded for us, so that both those who succeed and those who sin may gain the greatest benefit from these accounts. For the one who sins does not come to despair and hopelessness when he sees another who fell and was again able to rise; and the one who practices righteousness will be more zealous and more secure. For when he sees many who were far better than himself fallen down, disciplined by the fear of their fall, he will be always on his guard and will show great carefulness concerning himself; and thus the one who succeeds in virtue, and the one who sins, having been freed from despair—the one will stand securely, and the other will quickly return to the place from which he fell. For when a man encourages us in our grief, and we seem for a little while to be consoled, we fall back again into the same despondency.

But when God exhorts us through others who have sinned and repented and been saved, he makes his own goodness clear to us, so that we may not waver concerning our own salvation, receiving the encouragement as acknowledged and sure. Just as, then, in the circumstances of sins, so too in the onslaughts of dangers, the ancient histories of the Scriptures provide a sufficient remedy for the despondent, for all who wish to pay attention. And whether it be confiscation of property, or the assaults of sycophants, or prisons, or scourges, or whatever other of the terrible things may overtake us, by looking to the righteous who suffered and endured the same things, we shall be able quickly to come to ourselves. For in the case of the afflictions of the body, looking to those who suffer intensifies the sickness of the invalid, and often even produces one that is not there; for example, some, on seeing eyes that were suffering, contracted the disease from the sight alone. But in the case of the soul it is not so; rather the opposite happens, and the constant contemplation of those who have suffered such things makes our despondency over our own troubles lighter. For this reason Paul also exhorts the faithful in this way, bringing into the midst not only the living saints but also the dead. For when he speaks to the Hebrews, who were about to be tripped up and fall, he brings the holy men into the midst—Daniel, the three children, Elijah, Elisha—speaking thus:

They stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the mouths of the sword, were stoned, they experienced mockings and scourgings, and moreover bonds and imprisonment; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, of whom the world was not worthy. And the sharing of sufferings provides consolation to those in pain; and just as to suffer something terrible alone has the evil of it without consolation, so to find another who has fallen into the same evils makes the blow lighter. 2. In order, then, that we may not collapse in all the things that seem to trouble us, let us attend carefully to the histories of the Scriptures; for from there we shall receive a starting point for great endurance, being consoled not only by the fellowship of those who have suffered the same things, but also by learning the manner of release from the evils brought upon us, and by remaining again in the same state after the relief, and neither falling into laziness nor being lifted up into recklessness. For that those who are doing badly should be brought low and humbled and display great caution is nothing wonderful; for this is the nature of trials, and it compels even those who have a heart of stone to do this—to grieve. But it belongs to a cautious soul, one that keeps God continually before its eyes, never to fall into forgetfulness even after the release from trials; which is exactly what the Jews continually suffered. Therefore the prophet also, mocking them, said: When he killed them, then they sought him, and they turned back, and they rose early to God. And Moses also, being aware of this very thing about them, kept exhorting them, saying:

When you have eaten and drunk and are filled, take heed to yourself, lest you forget the Lord your God. And so this indeed happened: for Jacob ate, it says, and grew fat, and became thick, and the beloved one kicked. Therefore it is not for this reason that one should marvel at the saints, that when the affliction itself was at its height, they were thus devout and philosophical, but that even when the winter had passed and calm had come, they remained in the same equanimity and zeal. And that horse especially one should marvel at, the one able to walk in good rhythm without a bridle; but if, when a muzzle and bridle hold it back, it keeps order, that is no wonder; for one should reckon its good order not to the noble nature of the animal, but to the compulsion of the bridle. This one can say also about the soul: that when fear is pressing, to be calm is no wonder; but when the trials have passed, and someone removes the bridle of fear, then show me the philosophy of the soul, and all its good order. But I fear lest, wishing to accuse the Jews, I accuse our own manner of life; since we too, when we were being shaken by famine and plague and hail and drought and conflagrations and the uprising of enemies, was not the church each day cramped by the multitude of those gathered? And great was our philosophy and contempt for the things of life, and neither desire for money, nor lust for glory, nor appetite and love of licentiousness, nor any other evil thought then troubled us, but you all gave yourselves over to godliness, with supplication and tears.

And the fornicator was sobered then, and the resentful man turned to reconciliation, the covetous man was bent toward almsgiving, the irascible and reckless man was changed into humility and gentleness; and when God had scattered that wrath, and brought the storm to an end, and made a calm out of so many waves, we returned again to our former presumptions. And yet I did not cease at that very time of the temptations to foretell these things and to testify beforehand; but nevertheless nothing more came of it for us, but like a dream and a passing shadow, you cast all those things out of your mind. For this reason I am afraid now more than then, and what I said then, I now fear more greatly, lest we draw upon ourselves evils worse than the former, and then receive from God an incurable blow. For when a man who sins continually obtains forgiveness from God, and then gains nothing from this forbearance of his for the removal of his wickedness, God thereafter prepares him so that even against his will he brings upon himself the very capstone of evils, and utterly destroys him, and no longer gives him any appointed time for repentance, which also happened in the case of Pharaoh. For since at the first, and second, and third, and fourth, and the plagues after those, he enjoyed great longsuffering from God, and nothing became useful to him, he was thereafter utterly destroyed and completely vanished with his city. This the Jews also suffered. Therefore Christ also, when about to destroy them and bring upon them an incurable desolation, spoke thus:

How often I wanted to gather your children, and you were not willing. Behold, your house is left desolate. I fear, then, that we too may suffer the same things, since we are corrected neither by the misfortunes of others nor by our own. And I say these things not only to you who are present now, but also to those who have broken away from daily diligence and have forgotten their former afflictions—those to whom I never ceased breaking in upon, saying that even if the trials have passed, the memory of the trials should remain in our souls, so that by continually remembering the benefaction, we may ceaselessly give thanks to God who provided it. 3. These things I said then, and now I say to you, and through you to those others: let us imitate the saints, who were neither swallowed up by afflictions nor made more slack by relief—which is what many people suffer now, like light boats that are swamped and sunk by waves from every circumstance. For poverty often came upon us and sank us and made us submerged, and wealth, when it came, again puffed us up and cast us into the utmost contempt. Therefore I urge you, setting aside all things, let each of us order our own souls toward salvation; for when this is well disposed, whatever of evils may fall upon us—whether famine, or disease, or slander, or the plundering of possessions, or whatever else—it will be bearable and light, because of the Master's commandment and the hope in him.

Again, when the soul is not right with God, even if wealth flows in, even if children are present, even if there is the enjoyment of countless possessions, such a person will draw upon himself many despondencies and anxieties. Let us not, then, seek wealth, nor flee poverty, but before all things let each of us take care of his own soul, and make it fit both for the management of the present life and for the journey from here to there. For in a little while, the testing of each of us will come, when we all stand before the fearful judgment seat of Christ, clothed with our own deeds, and seeing with our own eyes—on the one hand the tears of orphans, on the other the shameful lewdnesses in which we defiled our own souls, on the one hand the groans of widows, on the other the beatings of the poor, the plunderings of the destitute; and not only these things and those like them, but also whatever improper thing we have done even in thought; for he is the judge of deliberations and the examiner of thoughts; and again: He tests hearts and kidneys, and, He renders to each according to his work. And this word of mine is not only to those who are examined in the world, but also to those who have pitched their huts on the mountains for the sake of the monastic life, because such people ought to guard not only their bodies from the defilement of fornication, but also their soul from all satanic greed. For the apostle Paul does not speak only to women, but also to men and to the whole Church, saying that the soul that lives in virginity must be holy both in body and in spirit.

And again, Present your bodies as a chaste virgin. But how is she chaste? As one having neither spot nor wrinkle. Since even those virgins who had their lamps extinguished were virgins in body, but not chaste in heart; for even if no man had corrupted them, the love of money corrupted them. Their body was pure, but their soul was filled with much adultery, since evil thoughts found entrance into them—love of money, and mercilessness, and anger, and envy, and idleness, and forgetfulness, and pride—all of these ravaging the dignity of their virginity. Therefore Paul also said: That she may be holy both in body and in spirit; and again, To present a chaste virgin to Christ. For just as the body is corrupted by adulteries, so also the soul is defiled by satanic thoughts, by corrupted doctrines, by absurd notions. For he who says, I am a virgin in body, but in soul envies his brother, this man is not a virgin; for the mixture of envy has corrupted his virginity. Again, the vainglorious man is not a virgin; for the love of jealousy has corrupted his virginity; for the passion, having entered in, has dissolved the virginity of his soul. And he who hates his brother, this man is a murderer rather than a virgin; and simply put, each person, in whatever evil passion he is mastered by, in that passion corrupts his virginity. For this reason Paul banished all these evil mixtures, and commands us to be virgins in such a way as to willingly admit no thought contrary to the soul.

4. What then shall we say to these things? How shall we obtain mercy? How shall we be saved? I say: let us always take up prayer in the heart, and its fruits—I mean humility and meekness. For he says, Learn from me, that I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; and again David: A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; a broken and humbled heart God will not despise. For nothing does God so accept and love as a meek and humble and grateful soul. See to it, then, you also, brother, whenever you see any of the unexpected things falling upon you and troubling you, do not flee to men, nor look to mortal help, but running past them all, run back in your mind to the physician of souls. For he alone can heal the heart, who alone formed our hearts, and understands all our works; he can enter into our conscience, and touch the mind, and comfort the soul. But if he does not comfort our hearts, the things that come from men are superfluous and unprofitable; just as again, when God comforts and consoles, even if countless men trouble us, they will not be able to harm us in the least; for when he establishes the heart, no one can shake it. Knowing these things, then, beloved, let us always flee to God, who both wills and is able to loose our calamities. For when we must appeal to men, we are first compelled to meet with doorkeepers, and to beg parasites and flatterers, and to travel a long road;

But with God there is nothing of this sort; rather, he is entreated without a mediator, without money, without expense he nods assent to the petition; it is enough only to cry out with the heart and to bring tears, and straightway entering in you will draw him to yourself. And when we entreat a man, we often fear lest one of our enemies be present, or a friend, or one of our adversaries hear the matter, and another make known what was said, and corrupt the justice of it; but with God there is no room to suspect any of these things. For when you wish, he says, to entreat me, come to me alone with no one present—that is, cry out with the heart, not moving the lips. For enter, he says, into your inner chamber; shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. See the excess of honor: when you entreat me, he says, let no one see; but when I honor you, I bring the whole inhabited world as witness of the benefaction. Let us therefore be persuaded, and let us not pray for display, nor against our enemies, nor let us teach him the manner of the help. For if, when we speak our affairs before outside judges to men who plead and speak for us, we only state the matters and leave the manner of the assistance to them, that they may arrange our affairs as they wish, much more ought we to do this with God. Have you told him your case, have you told him what you have suffered? Say no more also how to help; for he himself knows accurately what is expedient for you. But there are many who recite countless lines for the sake of prayer, saying:

Lord, give me health of body, double my possessions, ward off my enemy—this is filled with great irrationality. Therefore it is necessary to set all these things aside and to supplicate and entreat only like the tax collector who says: O God, be merciful to me, a sinner; and he himself knows thereafter how to come to your aid. For, he says, seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you. So then, beloved, let us philosophize with labor and humility, striking our breasts like that man, and we shall obtain what we ask for; but if we pray filled with anger and wrath, we are found abominable and hateful before God. Let us therefore crush our mind and humble our souls, and let us pray both for ourselves and for those who have grieved us. For if you wish to draw the judge to the aid of your soul and to make him your portion, never approach him against the one who has grieved you. For such is the manner of the judge: he especially nods assent and grants the petitions to those who pray for their enemies, to those who do not bear grudges, to those who are not lifted up against their enemies. And to the extent that these do this, to that extent God proceeds against those others, unless they be changed to repentance.

5. See then, brothers, that whenever any dishonor is brought upon us by someone, we do not immediately be indignant and lose heart, but let us give thanks, playing the philosopher, and awaiting the help of the Lord. For was God not able to give us good things before our asking? Was he not able to grant us a life free from pain and separated from all affliction? But he does both out of love. For why does he permit us to be afflicted and not quickly bring relief? Why? So that we may attend upon him, clinging to the help that comes from him, and flee to him, and call upon him continually for our assistance. For this reason, then, there are pains of the body; for this reason, failures of crops; for this reason, famines—so that through these afflictions we may always hang upon him, and so through temporary afflictions inherit eternal life. So then we ought to give thanks to God also for these things, to him who by many methods heals and saves our souls. For if human beings perhaps ever do us a kindness, and then we unwillingly grieve them a little, they immediately reproach us with the kindness, bringing it forward, so that many curse themselves because they were ever benefited by them at all; but God does not do so, but after his kindnesses, when he is despised and insulted, he even still defends himself and gives an account to those who insult him, saying thus: My people, what have I done to you? They themselves did not wish to call him God, and he did not cease to name them his people; they themselves refused his lordship, but he did not disown them, but made them his own, and drew them to himself, saying: My people, what have I done to you?

Was I burdensome to you," he says, "or heavy and oppressive?" But you cannot say even this; for even if this were so, not even thus should you have run away. For who is a son whom a father does not discipline? But nevertheless you cannot say even this. And again elsewhere: What fault did your fathers find in me? Great and wonderful is what is said; for what he says is of this sort: "What did I sin?" he says. God says to men, "What did I sin?"—a thing that not even slaves endure to utter to their master. And he does not say, "What did I sin against you?" but "against your fathers." But not even this, he says, can you say, that you keep a father's enmity against me; for I never allowed your forefathers to be accused by my providence, overlooking them in small or great matters. And he did not say simply, "What did your fathers have?" but "What did they find?" Having sought many things, having gone around many things, having been under my rule for so many years, they found no fault in me. For all these reasons let us continually flee to him, and in all discouragement let us seek his consolation, in every calamity his deliverance, his mercy, in every trial his help; for whatever dread thing there may be, whatever the magnitude of the calamity, he is able both to loose and to remove all things; and not only this, but his goodness will also provide us every security and power and good repute, and health of body, and philosophy of soul, and good hopes, and the not sinning quickly.

Let us not, then, murmur like ungrateful servants, nor accuse the Master, but in all things give thanks, and consider only one thing to be terrible—sinning against him. And if we are so disposed toward God, neither sickness, nor poverty, nor dishonor, nor barrenness of crops, nor any other of the things that seem grievous will overtake us, but enjoying pure and chaste pleasure continually, we shall also attain the good things to come, through the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. A homily of the same author on fasting, and on the prophet Jonah, and Daniel, and the three youths. It was delivered at the entrance of the holy fasts. Homily 5. 1. Bright today is our festival, and more splendid than usual is the assembly. What, then, is the reason? This is the achievement of fasting; I know it too—of fasting not present, but expected. For that has gathered us to the paternal house; that has also brought back today to the mother's hands those who before this were more slack. And if, merely being expected, it has produced so much zeal in us, when it appears and arrives, how great a devotion will it work in us? Thus also a city, when a fearsome ruler is about to enter, sets aside all slackness and is established in greater zeal. But do not be alarmed at hearing that fasting is a fearsome ruler; for it is not fearsome to us, but to the nature of the demons.

If someone is moonstruck, show him the face of fasting, and he remains more motionless than the very stones, frozen by fear and held fast as if by some bond, especially when he sees prayer, the sister and yoke-fellow of fasting, joined with fasting. For this reason Christ also says: This kind does not come out except by prayer and fasting. When, then, fasting drives out the enemies of our salvation in this way, and is so fearsome to the enemies of our life, we ought to love and embrace it, not fear it; for if drunkenness and gluttony are to be feared, fasting is not to be feared. For the former, having bound our hands behind our backs, hands us over as slaves and captives to the tyranny of the passions, as to some harsh mistress; but fasting, finding us enslaved and bound, releases us from our bonds, frees us from the tyranny, and leads us back to our former freedom. When, then, it wages war on our enemies, frees us from slavery, and leads us back to freedom, what other greater proof do you seek of its friendship toward our race? For the greatest proof of friendship is reckoned to be loving and hating the same things. Do you wish to learn how great a world fasting is for men, how great a guard and security? Consider for me the blessed and wondrous race of the monks. For they, having fled the tumults in their midst and run up to the peaks of the mountains, and having pitched their huts in the quiet of the desert as in some calm harbor, took fasting as their companion and partaker of their whole life.

Therefore he made them angels out of men, and not those alone, but also in the cities, as many as he finds welcoming it, he leads up to the very height of philosophy. For indeed Moses and Elijah, the towers of the prophets in the Old Testament, although they were illustrious and great from other things too, and had much boldness, whenever they wished to approach God and converse with him, as was possible for a man, they fled to this, and through its hands they offered themselves to him. For this reason God also, when he made man from the beginning, immediately brought him and entrusted him to the hands of fasting, as to a loving mother and the best teacher, handing over his salvation to it. For the words, From every tree of the paradise you shall surely eat, but from the tree of knowing good and evil you shall not eat, are a form of fasting. And if fasting was necessary in paradise, much more outside paradise; if the medicine was useful before the wound, much more after the wound; if the weapon was suitable for us when the war of desires had not yet arisen, much more after so great a battle, the battle from desires, the battle from demons, is the alliance from fasting necessary. If Adam had listened to this voice, he would not have heard the second one saying, You are earth, and to earth you shall return; but since he disobeyed this, for this reason there is death and cares and toils and despondencies and a life heavier than all death; for this reason thorns and thistles, for this reason toils and birth-pangs and a life of much labor. Do you see how God is angered when fasting is insulted?

Learn also how he rejoices when fasting is honored. For just as, when it was insulted, he imposed death as the penalty on the one who insulted it, so again, when it was honored, he recalled death. For wishing to show you the power of the matter, he gave it authority after the sentence, after the leading away, to snatch those being led away to death from the middle of the road and to transfer them to life; and this he did not do for two, or three, or twenty men, but even for a whole people, the great and wondrous city of the Ninevites, lying on its knees, having bowed its head at the very pit, and about to receive the blow borne from above, as if some power swooping down from above snatched it even from the very gates of death and brought it back to life. But if it seems good, let us also listen to the history itself. And the word of the Lord came, it says, to Jonah, saying: Arise and go to Nineveh, the great city. Immediately he wishes to shame him by the greatness of the city, foreseeing the prophet's coming flight. But let us also hear the preaching: Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And for what reason do you foretell the terrible things you are about to do? So that I may not do what I foretell. For this reason he also threatened Gehenna, so that he might not lead them away into Gehenna. Let the words, it says, frighten you, and let not the deeds grieve you. And for what reason does he also narrow the appointed time to so short a span? So that also the

you may learn the virtue of barbarians—I mean the barbarians of the Ninevites, who in three days were able to dissolve so great a wrath of sins, and you may marvel at the philanthropy of God, who was satisfied by the repentance of three days for so many transgressions—and you yourself should not fall into despair, even if you have sinned ten thousand times. For just as the sluggish and careless soul, even if it receives a long time for repentance, accomplishes nothing great, nor reconciles God to himself through laziness, so the awakened soul, burning with eagerness, and displaying repentance with much zeal, will be able even in a brief turn of time to obliterate the transgressions of much time. Did Peter not deny three times? Did he not deny the third time with an oath? Did he not fear the words of some worthless maidservant? What then? Did he need many years for repentance? By no means; but in that very night he both slipped and rose, and received the blow and the remedy, and was sick, and returned to health. How and in what manner? By weeping and lamenting; or rather, not simply weeping, but with much zeal and disposition; and for this reason the evangelist did not say that he wept simply, but, "He wept bitterly." And of what sort was the power of those tears, no word is able to set forth; but the outcome of events shows it clearly. For after that grievous fall—for nothing is equal to denial in evil—yet nevertheless after so great an evil he again brought him back to his former honor, and entrusted to him the oversight of the worldwide Church.

And what is greater than all, he showed us that he had a greater love for the Master than all the apostles. For he says, Peter, do you love me more than these? And nothing could be equal to this in point of virtue. For so that you may not say that he reasonably forgave the Ninevites, barbarous and foolish men—for the servant, he says, who did not know his lord's will and did not do it will be beaten with few blows—therefore, so that you may not say this, he brought Peter forward into the midst, a servant who especially knew the Lord's will. But nevertheless, though this man also sinned and committed the ultimate sin, see to what height of boldness he ascended. Do not then fall down yourself over sins; for the harder thing than sinning is to remain in sin, and the more terrible thing than the fall is to lie in the fall. Paul also laments and bewails this, and says it is worthy of mourning. For lest, he says, when I come to you, God should humble me, and I should mourn for many, not simply of those who have sinned, but of those who have not repented of the licentiousness, uncleanness, and fornication which they practiced. And what season could be more suitable for repentance than the season of fasting?

3. But let us return to the story. For when the prophet heard these words, he went down to Joppa to flee to Tarshish from the face of the Lord. Where are you fleeing, man? Have you not heard the prophet saying: Where shall I go from your Spirit, and from your face where shall I flee? To the earth? But the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. But to Hades? Even if I go down, he says, to Hades, you are there. To heaven? But if I ascend to heaven, you are there. But to the sea? And there, he says, your right hand shall hold me. And indeed this also happened in his case. But such is sin: it casts our soul into great folly. For just as those possessed by drunkenness and intoxication are carried about simply and at random, and fall down unguarded whether it be a pit, or a precipice, or whatever lies beneath; so also those who slip toward sin, held as it were by a kind of drunkenness of the desire for the deed, do not know what they are doing; they foresee neither things present nor things to come. The Master

Are you fleeing? Tell me. Wait a little, and you will learn from the events themselves that you will not be able to escape the hands even of the sea, that slave-girl. For as soon as he boarded the ship, that sea also stirred up the waves and was raised to a great height; and just as a well-disposed maidservant, having found a fellow slave who was a runaway and had stolen something from their master's possessions, does not desist until, after causing the ones who received him countless troubles, she takes him and departs—so too the sea, having found and recognized her own fellow slave, causes the sailors countless troubles, disturbing them, crying out, not dragging them into a courtroom, but threatening to sink the vessel with all aboard, unless they give back to her the fellow slave. What then did the sailors do when these things happened? They made, it says, a casting out of the cargo in the ship; but the ship was not lightened; for the whole cargo remained inside still—the body of the prophet, the heavy cargo, not by the nature of the body, but by the weight of sin; for nothing is so heavy and hard to throw off as sin and disobedience. For this reason Zechariah also depicted it in the vision of lead; and David, describing its nature, said: My transgressions rose above my head, like a heavy burden they weighed heavily upon me. And Christ cried out to those who had lived in many sins: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. This, then, both weighed down the ship at that time and was about to sink it; but Jonah was sleeping and snoring. The sleep was heavy, not from pleasure, but from grief; not from laziness, but from despondency.

For the servants who are well-disposed quickly perceive their sins—which is exactly what that man also experienced. For after the deed of sin, he then recognized the dreadfulness of sin; for such is sin: after it is born, it then stirs up full birth-pangs in the soul that gave it birth, contrary to the law of our own birth. For we, as soon as we are born, are released from birth-pangs, but that sin, as soon as it is born, tears apart with pains the thoughts that gave it birth. What then does the helmsman do? He came, it says, to him and says: Arise, and call upon the Lord your God. He learned thereafter from experience that the storm was not ordinary, but the blow was God-sent, and the surge was greater than human skill, and that there was no benefit from the helmsman's hands; for what was happening needed another, greater helmsman, the one who steers the whole world, and it needed help from above. For this reason those men too let go of oars and sails and ropes and everything, and withdrew their hands from rowing, and stretched them out toward heaven, and were calling upon God. But when not even so did anything more come of it, They cast lots, it says; and thereafter the lot delivered the guilty man to the vote. Yet not even so did they take him and sink him, but with such great uproar and confusion pressing upon them, as though enjoying great calm, thus setting up a court in the ship, they gave him a hearing and deemed him worthy to make his defense, and were examining everything with precision, as though they were about to render an account to someone for whatever they might vote. Listen, then, to them examining everything as in a court of law: What is your work? And where do you come from?

And where are you going? And from what country, and from what people are you? And yet the sea accused him, crying out, and the lot convicted him and testified against him; but nevertheless, neither with the sea crying out nor the lot testifying did they bring the verdict yet, but just as in a court of law, with accusers present and witnesses standing by and proofs being produced, the judges do not bring the verdict until the condemned man himself becomes the accuser of his own sin—so indeed the sailors here, barbarous and senseless men, imitated the good order of the courts; and yet with so much fear, so great a surge, so much confusion surrounding them, and the sea not even allowing them to breathe—so violently did it disturb and hurry them on, raging and crying out and raising up the waves in unbroken succession. From where, then, did such great providence for the prophet come, beloved? From the dispensation of God. For God was arranging these things to happen, training the prophet through them to be humane and gentle, and all but crying out to him and saying: Imitate the sailors, senseless men; if indeed they do not despise even a single soul, nor spare even one body—yours—but you handed over an entire city having so many tens of thousands, as far as it lay in your power; and they, having found the cause of the evils that had come upon them, not even so rush to the condemning verdict; but you, having nothing to charge against the Ninevites, have sunk them and destroyed them.

And you, when I commanded you to depart and to call them back to salvation through your preaching, did not obey; but these men, having heard nothing, do everything and take pains, so that you, who have become liable to punishment, might be called back. For even after the accusation from the sea, after the proof through the lot, when he accused himself and confessed his flight, not even so did they rush upon the destruction of the prophet, but they held back and constrained themselves and did everything, so as not to deliver him up to the violent onset of the sea even after so great a proof. But not even so did the sea permit it; or rather God did not allow it, wishing to discipline him through the sailors as also through the sea-monster. For after hearing, Take me up and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall calm down for you, they tried to force their way to land, but the waves did not permit it. 4. But you, just as you saw the prophet fleeing, hear him also confessing from below, from the belly of the monster; for that he suffered as a man, but this he showed as a prophet. The sea, then, having received him, placed him as it were in a prison in the belly of the sea-monster, keeping the fugitive safe for the Master; and neither did the wild waves seize him and drown him, nor did the sea-monster, wilder than the waves, receive him into its belly and destroy him, but it preserved him and brought him back to the city; and both the sea and the sea-monster obeyed contrary to nature, so that through all things the prophet might be disciplined.

So then he came into the city and read the sentence, like a royal letter carrying punishment, and he cried out, saying: “Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” They heard these things, and did not disbelieve, nor did they despise them, but immediately there was one running of all to the fast—men, women, slaves, masters, rulers, subjects, little children, elders; nor was the nature of the irrational beasts incomplete in this service; everywhere sackcloth, everywhere ashes, everywhere lamentation and wailing. For indeed the very one wearing the diadem, coming down from the royal throne, spread sackcloth beneath himself, sprinkled ashes on himself, and thus snatched the city from its dangers; and it was a strange thing to see, purple surpassed by sackcloth. For what the purple robe could not do, the sackcloth did; what the diadem did not accomplish, the ashes set right. Do you see how I did not speak in vain when I said that one must fear not fasting, but drunkenness and gluttony? For drunkenness and gluttony shook the city when it was standing, and were about to cast it down; but fasting set it upright when it was being shaken and was about to fall. With this Daniel also, entering the lions’ den, came out as if he had been among gentle sheep. For though they were boiling with rage and looking murderous, with the table set before them they did not touch it, even though their very nature was stirring them up—for nothing is fiercer than those beasts—and of hunger; for seven

They did not partake of food for days, as if some executioner were sitting inside them and crying out that they should not touch the prophetic loins, and they were ashamed of food. With this, the three children also, having entered the Babylonian furnace and conversed with the fire for a long time, with their bodies brighter than the fire itself, then came out of the furnace. And yet, if that was truly fire, why did it not do the things of fire? If those were truly bodies, why did they not suffer the things of bodies? How? Ask fasting, and it will answer you, and it will itself solve your riddle; for it was truly a riddle: the nature of bodies fought against the nature of fire, and the victory belonged to the bodies. Did you see the strange battle? Did you see the stranger victory? Marvel at fasting, and receive it with hands outstretched; for when it aids even in a furnace, and guards in a lions' pit, and drives out demons, and dissolves God's sentence, and checks the madness of passions, and leads us back to freedom, and makes great calm in our thoughts, how would it not be the utmost folly to flee and fear it, which has so many good things in its hands? For it wears down our body toward weakness, he says. But to the extent that our outer man is corrupted, to that extent the inner man is renewed day by day; or rather, if you wished to examine the matter precisely, you will find that it is a mother of good health.

And if you do not believe my words, ask the servants of physicians about these things, and they themselves will state these things more clearly, who call fasting the mother of health, and say that gout and headaches and strokes and consumption and dropsy and inflammations and swellings, and the winter torrents of ten thousand other diseases, come from luxury and gluttony, as evil streams from some most evil spring, and they injure both the good condition of the body and the chastity of the soul. 5. Let us not, then, fear fasting, which delivers us from so many evils. For I do not advise you this without reason; but since I see many people, as if about to be handed over to some savage woman, thus hesitating and shrinking back, and destroying themselves today with drunkenness and gluttony—for this reason I advise you not to destroy beforehand the benefit that will come from fasting by gluttony and drunkenness. For those with a bad appetite, when they are about to drink bitter medicines, if they fill themselves with much food and so take the medicines, they have endured the bitterness but have fallen from the benefit, making the struggle of the medicine against the wickedness of the corrupted humors more difficult. For this reason the servants of physicians order them to sleep without having dined, so that the medicine may bring its full power immediately from the first upon the disease-causing humors of the superfluities. So also with fasting.

If you fill yourself with much drunkenness today, and tomorrow you receive the remedy that comes from it, you have made it useless and unprofitable, and you have endured the pain but have not reaped the benefit of the matter, since it expends all its power on the recent harm that arises from drunkenness. But if you prepare the body to be light for it and receive the remedy with a sober mind, you will be able to wash away many of your old sins. Let us not, then, come to the fast through drunkenness, nor again dissolve from the fast into drunkenness, so that the same thing does not happen as if someone, kicking more violently at a body that is sick and about to rise up, should throw it down again. This also happens to our soul, when on both sides—both at the beginning and at the end of the fast—we overshadow with the cloud of drunkenness the sobriety that comes to us from abstinence. For just as those who are about to box with wild beasts, having fenced off the vital parts of their limbs with many weapons and protections, undertake the fight against them; so also now there are many people who, about to box, as it were, with the fast as with a wild beast, thus arm themselves with gluttony, and having torn themselves apart and darkened themselves, with great madness they receive the calm and gentle eye of the fast. And if I ask you, For what reason do you run to the bathhouse today? you will say, So that I may receive the fast with a clean body. But if I ask, For what reason are you drunk? you will say again, Because I am about to enter upon the fast.

And how is it not absurd to welcome this most beautiful feast with a body clean but a soul unclean and drunk? It was possible, indeed, to say more than this, but for those who are sober-minded even these things are sufficient for correction. Therefore it is necessary to bring the discourse to a close; for I long to hear the voice of my father. For we, like shepherd children, pipe on a slender reed, sitting as it were beneath some oak or white poplar, in the shade of these sacred things; but he, like some finest musician who has fitted together a golden lyre, by the harmony of his strokes raises up a whole theater; so indeed also this man, not by the harmony of strokes, but by the harmony of words and deeds, implants in us great benefit. Christ seeks such teachers as these; for he says, Whoever does and teaches, this one shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Such is this man; therefore he is also great in the kingdom of heaven. May it come to pass that we, by his prayers and those of all his fellow councilors, be deemed worthy of the kingdom of heaven, by the grace and love of humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be the glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

A Homily Delivered Concerning Fasting, on the Sixth Week of Holy Lent. Homily 10. 1. How delightful to us are the waves of this spiritual sea, and more delightful than those in the deep itself. For those are stirred up by the disorder of winds, but these by the desire of hearing; and those, when they rise to a crest, give the pilot great anxiety, but these, when they appear, instill great confidence in the speaker. For those are tokens of a storm-tossed sea, but these are signs of a rejoicing soul; and those, dashing against the rocks, send forth an indistinct sound, but these, breaking against the word of teaching, send forth a gentle voice. Thus also the breaths of the west wind, when they fall upon the grainfields and make the heads of the ears of corn bend and sway, imitate the waves of the sea upon the dry land. But even than those grainfields these are more delightful; for it is not the breaths of the west wind, but the grace of the Spirit that has stirred up and warmed your souls, and that fire which Christ once spoke of, saying, I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what do I wish, if it has already been kindled? — this I see cast down and burning in your souls. Since, then, the fear of Christ has kindled so many torches for us, come, let us drip upon them from here the oil of teaching, so that the light may become more lasting for us. For the season of fasting now hastens toward its end; for having reached the middle of the course, we have now come to the end. For just as one who is beginning has set out, so one who has come to the middle has already laid hold of the end.

The time, then, is pressing toward its end, and the ship already looks toward the harbor; but what is sought is not merely to reach the harbor, but not to draw the ship in empty of its cargo. I beg and entreat all of you: let each one reckon within his own conscience the business of the fast, and if he finds that much profit has been made, let him add to the business; but if nothing has been gathered, let him use the remaining time for trade. While the festival stands, let us trade a great profit and depart, so that we do not depart with empty hands, so that we do not, after enduring the toil of the fast, lose the reward of the fast. For it is possible both to endure the toil of the fast and not to receive the reward of the fast. How? When we abstain from foods but do not abstain from sins; when we do not eat meats but devour the houses of the poor; when we are not drunk with wine but are drunk with evil desire; when we spend the whole day without food but spend the whole day in licentious spectacles. Behold, there is both the toil of the fast, and the reward of the fast nowhere, when we go up to the theaters of lawlessness. The word is not addressed to you; for I know that you are clean of the accusation, but it is the custom of those in pain, when they cannot find the guilty, to let their anger fall upon those present. What profit is it, while fasting, to go up to the theaters of lawlessness, to enter the common school of lewdness, the public gymnasium of debauchery, to sit upon the seat of the pestilent?

For one might not err in calling the theater a seat of pestilence, a gymnasium of licentiousness, a school of shamelessness, and full of all the most shameful things—that most wicked place, teeming with diseases of every kind, the Babylonian furnace. For just as the devil, casting the city into the theater as into a furnace, so kindles it from beneath, not setting beneath it vine-branches, as that barbarian did then, nor naphtha, nor tow, nor pitch, but things far more grievous than these: pornographic sights, shameful words, languid limbs, songs full of every wickedness. That furnace, then, barbarian hands kindled, but this furnace thoughts more senseless than barbarians set ablaze; this is more grievous than that, since the fire too is more grievous; for it does not burn the nature of bodies, but corrupts the well-being of the soul; and the more grievous thing is that those who are burned do not even perceive it; for if they perceived it, they would not let out broad laughter at what has happened; which is indeed the most grievous thing, when one who is sick does not even know this very thing, that he is sick, and though burning miserably and wretchedly, does not perceive the conflagrations. What is the profit of fasting, when you have restrained the body from the customary food, but bring unlawful food to the soul? when you have spent the whole day sitting there, watching our common nature behaving shamefully and being made a public example, women fornicating, men there playing the adulterer, those who collect the evils of each household? For one can see fornication and adultery, and hear blasphemy, so that through both eyes and hearing the disease may enter the soul.

They imitate the misfortunes of others, whence the very name of shame is attached to them. What, then, is the gain of fasting, when the soul feeds on such things? With what eyes will you look upon your wife after those spectacles? With what eyes will you look upon your son, with what upon your servant, with what upon your friend? For one must either speak of what happened there and be disgraced, or be silent and sink down in shame. But you do not depart from there in such a state; rather, you will have it in your power at home with great confidence to recount all that was said, to set before them prophetic voices, apostolic doctrines, the Master's laws, the whole table of virtue, and you make your wife more temperate by the tales from there, and you make your son more prudent, and your servant more loyal, and your friend more friendly, and you even persuade your enemy himself to put an end to his enmity. 2. Do you see how these doctrines are everywhere salutary, but those things heard there are everywhere useless? What, then, is the benefit of fasting, tell me, when you fast with your body but commit adultery through your eyes? For adultery is not only intercourse, nor bodily association, but also an unchaste look. What is the benefit when you come here and also go there? I instruct, that one corrupts; I apply remedies to the disease, that one adds fuel to the disease; I quench the flame of nature, that one kindles the flame of desire. What is the benefit, tell me? One builds and one tears down—what have they accomplished more than labors? Let us therefore spend our time not here and there, but here only, so that we may be useful here, so that we may not be here in vain, so that we may not be here to no purpose, nor to condemnation.

One building and one tearing down—what did they gain more than labors? And yet even if those who build are many, but the one tearing down is one, the ease of destruction conquers the many hands of the builders. Truly it is a great shame for both the young and the aged to rush into such eagerness. But would that the evil were only as far as shame; and yet not even this is bearable for a free man, but it is the utmost loss for one who has understanding, and condemnation and shame; but the penalty does not stop at shame, but great punishment and retribution also lie upon it. For it is necessary that those who sit in that place be all caught in the sin of adultery, not because they entwine with the women there, but because they look at them with licentious eyes. For that these too must be caught in adultery, I will not tell you my own word, lest you despise it, but I will read to you the divine law; for there it is no longer possible to despise. What then does the divine law say? You have heard that it was said to the ancients, You shall not commit adultery; but I say to you, that everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Did you see the completed adulterer? Did you see the sin fulfilled? And the worse thing, the adulterer caught in adultery not in a human but in a divine court becoming liable for adultery, where the punishments are immortal. Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. He destroys not the disease but also the root of the disease; for the root of adultery is licentious desire.

Therefore it punishes not only adultery but also desire, the mother of adultery. So too do physicians act: they do not stand against diseases only, but against the causes themselves; and if they see the eyes diseased, they check the evil flux from above, from the temples. So also Christ does. Adultery is a grievous ophthalmia; it is a disease of the eyes—not of the body's eyes, but first of the soul's. For this reason he checked the flux of licentiousness from that source, by the fear of the law; for this reason he punished not only adultery but also exacted penalty for desire. Already he has committed adultery with her in his heart; and when the heart is corrupted, what further benefit is there for the rest of the body? For just as in the case of plants and trees, when we see the heart rotted through, we reject the remaining part; so also in the case of man, when that is destroyed, the health of the body thereafter is in vain. The charioteer is lost, corrupted and cast down; in vain do the horses run thereafter. The law is toilsome and has much that is burdensome, just as it also has a great crown. For such things as are toilsome have great rewards. Do not attend to the toil, but consider the reward; for so it is also in the affairs of life. If you look at the toil of good deeds, it is heavy and burdensome; if you look at the reward, what lies before you is light and most easy. So too a helmsman, if he looks only at the waves, never draws the ship out of the harbor; but seeing the trade before the waves, thus he dares even the boundless sea.

So too a soldier, if he looks at the wounds and the slaughters, will never put on his breastplate; but if he looks at the trophies and the victories before the wounds, he will run to the battle-line as to a meadow. For things that are naturally heavy become light in this way, when we do not reckon up the labors but also look at their recompenses. Do you wish to learn how things naturally heavy become light? Hear Paul saying: For the momentary lightness of our affliction works out for us, beyond measure unto excess, an eternal weight of glory. What is said is a riddle: if it is affliction, how is it light? If it is light, how is it of affliction? For these things are contrary. But he solved the riddle by the addition, showing it to be light: how? While we look not at the things which are seen. He set forth the crown, and made the contest light; he showed the prize, and consoled the sweats. And so you too, whenever you see a woman shining from her appearance, radiant from her dress, whenever you see desire tickling, whenever you see the soul longing for the sight, look up to the crown laid up for you above, so that you may run past such a sight. Did you see a fellow servant? Think on the Master, and you will certainly put an end to the sickness. For if children following a tutor do not turn around, do not gape, are not fluttered, much more will you, if you see Christ present in your thoughts, suffer nothing of the kind. He who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. I read the letters of the law with pleasure and more continuously.

Would that it were possible to say this to you through the whole day—or rather, not to you, but to those who are liable for their sins; or rather, also to you. For you too will be safer, and those who are in sickness will quickly return to health. Whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. It is enough that these words alone, read aloud, cleanse all the corruption of sin. But forgive us: we are cleansing wounds, and one who cleanses wounds must necessarily apply bitter medicines as well. The more you endure the words, the more thoroughly the poison is purged out. For just as the nature of fire, the more it is brought into contact with the nature of gold, the more it consumes the poison, so too the fear of these words, the more it resounds in your mind, the more thoroughly it will purge away all the sin of licentiousness. Let us burn it here by the word of teaching, so that we may not be compelled to burn it there by the fire of Gehenna. For the soul that departs from here clean, that fire will not harm at all; but the soul that departs from here with sins, that fire will receive. For, he says, the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. Let us test ourselves now without pain, so that we may not be tested then with pain. Whatever you say, he says, the law is burdensome. What then? Does God command us things that are impossible? I say not. Be silent; do not accuse the Master. For that is not a manner of defense, but an addition of sin more grievous than the former. And that it is a habit among many of those who sin to cast the blame upon the Master, hear this.

That one who had been entrusted with the five talents came forward and brought another five; the one entrusted with the two talents came forward and brought another two; the one entrusted with the one talent came forward, and since he had no other talent to bring, he brought an accusation instead of a talent. How does he speak? "I knew that you are a harsh man." O the senselessness of the servant! He is not content with his sin, but he even brings an accusation against his master: "Reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter." So also in the present life, all who do no good work make the accusation against the Master an addition to their own evils. Do not, then, accuse the Master; he did not command impossible things. Do you wish to learn that he did not command impossible things? Many transgress the commandments—and they would not have transgressed them by their own free choice if they had been impossible. He did not command virginity, and yet many achieve it; he did not command poverty, and yet many cast away their own possessions, bearing witness by their deeds to the great ease of the laws of the commandment; for they would not have transgressed them if the things commanded had not been easy. He did not command virginity; for the one who commands virginity brings even the unwilling under the necessity of the law, but the one who advises leaves the choice to the hearer as master. For this reason Paul also says, "Concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give my judgment." Do you see, not a commandment, but a counsel? Do you see, not an order, but an exhortation? And the difference is great; for the one belongs to necessity, the other to free choice. I do not command, he says, so that I may not burden; I exhort and counsel, so that I may lead you on. So also Christ—

He did not say, "Let all of you be virgins." For if he had commanded all to be virgins and had made the precept a law, then the one who succeeded would not have enjoyed much honor, as much as he does now, and the one who disobeyed would have paid the ultimate penalty. Do you see how our lawgiver spares us? How he cares for our salvation? For was he not able also to make this a command, and to say, "Let those who are virgins be honored, and let those who are not virgins be punished"? But that would burden nature; he spares our nature. He left virginity outside the contests, he left it above the struggles, so that those who succeed may display their own magnanimity, and those who do not succeed may enjoy the Master's forgiveness. Thus also in the matter of poverty he did not make the thing a command. For he did not say simply, "Sell your possessions," but, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions." Let it lie in your own will; be master of your decision. I do not compel, nor do I burden, but the one who succeeds I crown, and the one who does not succeed I do not punish. For things done by command and by obligation do not have so great a reward; but things done by choice and by one's own generosity have bright crowns. And of these I produce Paul as a witness: "If I preach the gospel," he says, "it is no boast for me. Why? For necessity is laid upon me. But woe to me if I do not preach the gospel." Do you see that in the case of laws the one who succeeds has no great reward, for it is by necessity; but the one who does not succeed is liable to punishment and penalty. "For woe to me," he says, "if I do not preach the gospel.

But with the others it is not so—with those who act by free choice. But what? What then is my reward? That when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of God without charge, so as not to abuse my authority. There it was a law, and for this reason it did not have a great reward; but this was a matter of free choice, and therefore it had a great reward. 4. All these things have been said by me not without purpose, but on account of the divine law, in order to show that it is not burdensome, not oppressive, not laborious nor impossible. Come then, let us make this very thing clear from the words of Christ himself: Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Christ himself also perceived this very thing, that many were going to accuse the law of harshness; for this reason he did not introduce it naked, nor bare, nor by itself, but he also calls to mind the old law, demonstrating from the comparison both its ease and his own love for humanity. But how, pay attention. For he did not say simply, Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart—here pay attention with precision—but first he recalled the old law, saying thus: You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery; but I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Did you see the two laws, the old and the new—the one Moses gave, and the one he himself introduces? Or rather, he himself gave this one too; for it was through Moses that he himself spoke. And from where

It is clear that he himself established that as well? I will not provide the testimony from John, nor from the apostles; for my contest now is with the Jews; but from the prophets, whom they seem to believe, from them I will demonstrate that both the Old and the New have one lawgiver. What then does Jeremiah say? I will make with you a new covenant. Did you see also the name of the New in the Old? Did you see the title shining forth so many ages beforehand? I will make with you a new covenant. But from where is it clear that he himself also gave the Old? Having said, I will make with you a new covenant, he added, Not according to the covenant which I made with your fathers. Yes; but we have not yet demonstrated the matter; for it is necessary to bring forward all the objections into the middle and make them clear, so that from every side our argument may be purified, and not even to the shameless may a pretext be left. I will make with you a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with your fathers. He made a covenant with Noah, when the flood came, wishing to free us from fears, so that seeing a flood and always seeing rain, we should not expect that utter destruction to happen; for this reason, he says, I will make a covenant with you, and with all flesh. Again he made a covenant with Abraham, the covenant of circumcision; he made a covenant through Moses, the one known to all. Jeremiah said: I will make with you a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with your fathers. Tell me, with which fathers? For Noah was a father, and Abraham was a father; with which fathers, then, does he say?

For the indefiniteness of the person produces confusion. Pay attention here: "Not according to the covenant which I made with your fathers." For so that you would not say that he means the covenant with Noah, so that you would not say that he means the covenant with Abraham, he has now mentioned the time of the covenants themselves in this way: for having said, "I will make a covenant with you, not according to the covenant which I made with your fathers," he added also the time: "In the day when I took hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt." Do you see how much clarity the specification of the time produced? No longer, then, does even a Jew contradict. Remember the time, and receive the legislation: "In the day when I took hold of their hand." And why does he also mention the manner of the exodus? "When I took hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt." So that he might show fatherly affection: he did not lead them out as slaves, but as a father taking a child, so he released them, not commanding them to walk behind like a household servant, but as a noble and free son, taking them by the right hand, so he led them out. Do you see one lawgiver of two covenants? Therefore, then, since we have been released from the contests, I will show you this also from the New, so that you may know the harmony of the covenants. Do you see the prophecy through the words? Learn the prophecy also through the types, even if for this reason it is again unclear what exactly is prophecy through a type, and what exactly is prophecy through word. Therefore in brief I will make this also clear. The prophecy through the type is prophecy through things, while the other prophecy, the one through the words, is prophecy.

For he persuaded the more intelligent by words, but the more insensitive he fully convinced by the sight of deeds. For since a great thing was about to come to pass, and God was about to take up flesh; since the earth was about to become heaven, and our nature was about to be raised to the nobility of the angels; since the word of the good things about to come to pass surpassed hope and expectation, so that the new and paradoxical thing, appearing suddenly, might not disturb those who then saw and heard, from the beginning he prefigured it through deeds and accustomed our hearing and our sight through words, preparing for what was about to come to pass. And this was what we were saying: what is prophecy through a type, and what is prophecy through a word—the one through deeds, the other through words. Shall I tell you of prophecy through a deed and through a word concerning him? "As a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer." This is prophecy through a word. For when Abraham offered up Isaac, then, seeing a sheep hanging from the horns, he led it to the sacrifice in deed, as in a type proclaiming beforehand to us the saving passion. 5. What then I was saying—do you wish me to show you these two covenants through deeds? Just as you saw the sheep in the word, learn it also in the deed. Tell me, you who wish to be under the law. Well said: "wish to be"—for they were not; for if they had been under the law, they would not have been under the law. Perhaps what is said is a riddle. For the law sent those who paid attention on to Christ; he who dishonors the teacher does not know the pedagogue either.

Therefore, he says, Tell me, you who wish to be under the law, do you not hear the law, that Abraham had two sons, one from the slave girl and one from the free woman, which things are spoken allegorically. Do you see prophecy through the event? For having wives is not a word but an event; and I showed you slave and free woman through the words, that there is one lawgiver of two covenants; learn this same thing also through the types. Abraham had two wives; these are two covenants, and one lawgiver; just as there a sheep and a sheep, the one in word and the other in event, and great is the harmony of both deeds and words; so also here there are two covenants, and Jeremiah foretold these through a word, while Abraham prefigured them through events in having two wives. For just as one man and two women, so one lawgiver and two covenants. But what I was saying, and for which all these things have been set in motion—for one must not fall away from the subject: Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Yes; but for what reason, for the sake of which we set all these things in motion, does he read the old law to them? For he says to them: You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery. He saw that the commandment is difficult, not by its own nature, but by the laziness of the hearers. For many things that are easy by nature become hard to accomplish when we are lazy; just as, then, things that are difficult become light and very easy when we are earnest. For the difficulty is not in the nature of the things, but in the disposition of those who pursue them. And that this is true is clear from this:

Honey has a sweet and most pleasant nature, but to the sick it is both bitter and unpleasant—not because of its own nature, but because of their illness. So too the law, even if it seems burdensome, is not so because of its own nature, but because of our laziness. It does not take much effort on my part to show that it is easy for it to be fulfilled; for what made it difficult was the other thing that could have been said. For now it says, Flee the sight of a woman, withdraw from licentiousness; but the hard thing would have been to say the opposite: Study women closely, pry into the beauties of others, and thus master your desire. That indeed was difficult; but to say to him, Flee the furnace, withdraw from the fire, do not come near the flame, so that you may remain unharmed, has great ease; for the command is according to nature. You have heard that it was said to the ancients, You shall not commit adultery. For what reason, then, does he remind us of the old law, when he is about to introduce another? So that from the comparison you may learn that there is no conflict between this and that; for when there is a comparison, then the judgment becomes clearer. For since some were going to object that he says these things in opposition to the law, Behold, he says, I set both laws side by side; examine and learn their agreement—and not only for this reason, but also to show that it is easy and that it is introduced at the right time. Therefore he says, You have heard that it was said to the ancients, You shall not commit adultery; for so long a time you have studied the old law. Just as a teacher

Speaking to a lazy child who wanted to linger still over his earlier lessons, and wishing to lead him up to higher things, one says: Consider how long a time you have spent on this subject. So too Christ, reminding them that they had studied for a long time and had held fast to the old law, and that it was now time to ascend to what is higher, brought them back to the legislation once given to their fathers, saying: You have heard that it was said to the ancients, You shall not commit adultery. That was said to the ancients; but I say to you. For if he had spoken to the ancients, you would reasonably have been vexed, since your nature was then in a more imperfect state; but since nature has advanced, since it has become more perfect, the time for more perfect teaching has now come. For this reason, even at the beginning of his legislation, so that no one, seeing the intensification of the philosophy, might hesitate and shrink back, he says: Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Do you demand more toil of me? Why? Am I not a partaker of the same nature as they? Am I not a man just as they were? So that they might not say these things, for what reason did he intensify our labors? For what reason did he set greater marks? He removed the objection beforehand by mentioning the kingdom of heaven. Greater, he says, are the prizes I bring; having mentioned the labors, having mentioned the contests, having mentioned the intensification of the legislation, he also made mention of the prizes. For I have not given you Palestine, he says, nor the land flowing with milk and honey, but I bring you heaven itself.

But it is not only in the reward of good deeds that we have the advantage, but also in transgressing we undergo a greater punishment for our sins. For just as those before the law give a gentler penalty than those under the law—For as many, he says, as sinned without the law shall also perish without the law, that is, they do not have the law as accuser, but I will bring the verdict from nature itself, he says, with their thoughts accusing or even defending them—so those who sin under grace will undergo a more intolerable punishment than those who stumbled under the law. And Paul showed the difference between these when he said, Anyone who has rejected the law of Moses dies without mercy on two or three witnesses; of how much worse punishment do you think he will be deemed worthy who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded the blood of the covenant as common, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? Do you see that under grace the punishment is greater, just as the prizes are also greater? But since I have reminded you of the most awe-inspiring and spiritual mysteries, I exhort and entreat and beg and urge with all earnestness that, having laid aside every sin, you thus approach this awe-inspiring table. For, he says, pursue peace with all, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. And he who is not worthy to see the Lord is not worthy of communion in the Master's body either. Therefore Paul says, Let each one examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. He did not uncover the wound, he did not bring the accusation into a public theater, he did not set witnesses around the offenses.

Within, in your conscience, with no one present except God who sees all things, hold your judgment and the examination of your sins, and reckoning up your whole life, bring your sins under the scrutiny of your mind; correct your faults, and so with a pure conscience approach the sacred table and partake of the holy sacrifice. Keeping these things in mind, and remembering what we have said about licentiousness, and how great a punishment awaits those who look at women's faces carelessly and licentiously, and keeping the fear of God and love before your eyes before Gehenna, cleansing ourselves from every side, let us thus also draw near to the holy mysteries, so that not for judgment and condemnation, but for salvation and health of soul, we may receive this salvation with unceasing boldness, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the power, unto the ages of ages. Amen. A Discourse on Repentance and Compunction, and that God is swift to save and slow to punish; in which also is the strange story of Rahab.

Homily 7. 1. Always indeed does the divine Apostle employ a divine and heavenly tongue, and with great knowledge does he weave the gospel word, speaking not simply from his own opinion, but setting forth the doctrines from his own royal authority; but especially does he employ this knowledge when he introduces the word of repentance to those who sin. And concerning this very heading I will remind you all. You have heard, then, so that I may touch in part upon what was said, how just now, discoursing to the Corinthians, that noble and wonderful man said: Lest, when I come, I mourn for many of those who have sinned before and have not repented. By nature this great teacher was a man, but in purpose a servant of God; therefore, just as he employs a heavenly tongue and speaks as if from the very heavens, so also he threatens those who sin and promises propitiation to those who repent. But when I say these things, I do not ascribe the authority to Paul's tongue, but refer the whole to the grace of God, concerning whom he himself now said: If you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me? He sets before those who sin, then, the medicine of beneficence, and repentance unto salvation. And today there has run together with the apostolic reading also the gospel authority of the Savior, granting forgiveness of sins abundantly. For the Savior, healing the paralytic, said, as you have just heard: Child, your many sins are forgiven you. And forgiveness of sins is a fountain of salvation and the prize of repentance; for repentance is a remedy that destroys sin.

It is a heavenly gift, a wondrous power, a grace that overcomes the sequence of the laws. For this reason it does not cast away the fornicator, does not drive off the adulterer, does not turn away from the drunkard, does not loathe the idolater, does not expel the slanderer, does not chase away the blasphemer, does not reject the boaster, but it transforms all; for repentance is the smelting furnace of sin. But it is necessary first to make known the purpose of God, not by imposing on this contemplation from our own thoughts, but by demonstrating the truth as attested from the divine Scriptures themselves. The purpose of God in being long-suffering toward sinners is twofold for salvation and propitiation: wooing for them the salvation that comes from repentance, and storing up the beneficence for their descendants who are going to advance in virtue. And to take up the argument again, God is long-suffering so that the sinner may repent, and so that he may not shut out salvation from those born from him. For even if the sinner himself stumbles without repentance, he often spares the root, in order to preserve the fruits; often indeed he even changes the root itself, as I said before; but when that root falls into utter wickedness, God postpones the punishment usefully, awaiting the salvation of those who repent; and how, listen. Tharra, the father Abraham, was a worshipper of idols, but he did not pay the penalty for his impiety here; and rightly so. For if God had cut off the root beforehand, from where would such great fruit of faith have been produced? What is more wretched than Esau? Consider for me also another instance of his love for mankind. What is more shameless than that wickedness? It does not

a fornicator and profane, as the Apostle says? Not a mother-defiler and father-defiler? Not, as far as intent goes, a murderer of his brother? Not one hated by God? The Scripture bears witness, saying: I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau. If, then, he is a fornicator and a brother-killer and profane and hated, why is he not destroyed? Why is he not cut off? Why does he not receive the fitting punishment at once? Why? It is truly good to state the reason as well. If he had been cut off, the world would have lost the greatest fruit of righteousness; and of what sort, hear. Esau begot Raguel, Raguel begot Zara, Zara begot Job. Do you see what a great flower of endurance was being destroyed, if God had anticipated and exacted the penalty from the root? 2. Understand this principle, then, in the case of all things. For this reason he is long-suffering toward the Egyptians who blaspheme unbearably, because of the Churches now flourishing in Egypt, because of the monasteries and those who have taken up the angelic life. For, as those experienced in the common laws say, and as the laws of the Romans enjoin, a pregnant woman, if she should ever fall into an offense bringing the penalty of death, is not to be put to death before she gives birth to what she carries; and quite reasonably—for those who established the laws well did not deem it just that the innocent be destroyed together with the guilty woman. But if human laws spare those who have sinned in nothing, will not God much more reasonably preserve the root, storing up for the fruits the benefit that comes from repentance? Henceforth, then, take for me the benefit of repentance in the case of the sinners themselves as well; for in their case too the same account of love for humanity is rendered.

If judgment had anticipated correction, the world would have been utterly destroyed and corrupted; if God had been swift to punish, the Church would not have gained Paul, would not have received such and so great a man. For this reason, then, he deferred the blasphemer, in order to show him repenting. The longsuffering of God made the persecutor a herald; the longsuffering of God changed the wolf into a shepherd; the longsuffering of God made the tax collector an evangelist; the longsuffering of God had mercy on us all, changed us all, turned us all around. If you see the one who was once a drunkard now fasting, if you see the one who was once a blasphemer now a theologian, if you see the one who once defiled his mouth with shameful songs now cleansing his soul with divine hymns, marvel at the longsuffering of God, and praise repentance, and from the change say, taking it up: This is the change of the right hand of the Most High. God is good to all, but especially he demonstrates his own longsuffering toward those who sin. And if you wish to hear a strange word—strange as regards custom, but true as regards piety—listen. God appears everywhere severe to the righteous, but kind to sinners, and swift to lovingkindness: he raises up the one who sins and falls, and says to him: Does not the one who falls rise again? Or does the one who turns away not turn back? And: Why has the foolish daughter of Judah turned away with a shameless turning? And again: Turn to me, and I will turn to you. And elsewhere he confirms by an oath the salvation that comes from repentance, because of his great lovingkindness. For as I live, says the Lord:

I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he turn back and live. But to the righteous he says: If a man practice all righteousness and all truth, and turning away sin, I will not remember his righteousness, but in his sin he shall die. O great severity toward the righteous! O great abundance toward the sinner! Thus in manifold and various ways he contrives, not changing himself, but usefully distributing the economies of his goodness; and how, listen. The sinner who remains in his sins, if you frighten him, you bring him to despair and the renunciation of hope; but the righteous man, if you bless him, you relax the tension of his virtue, and as one already blessed, you dispose him to neglect his zeal. Therefore he has mercy on the sinner, but frightens the righteous; for he is terrible upon all those round about him; and, The Lord is kind to all. He is terrible, he says, upon all those round about him; and who might these be, but the saints? For God, says David, who is glorified in the council of the saints, is great and terrible upon all those round about him. If he sees one fallen, he extends a hand of loving-kindness; if he sees one standing, he brings on fear; and this is of righteousness and righteous judgment. For the righteous he establishes by fear, but the sinner he stirs up by loving-kindness. And do you wish to know his timely goodness and his useful and fitting severity toward us? Pay close attention, lest the greatness of the vision escape you.

That sinful woman, testified against for every sin and lawlessness, who sinned so greatly and was entangled in so many works of sin, thirsting for the salvation that comes from repentance, slipped into the banquet of the saints; and I call it a banquet of saints because the Holy of Holies was present. For when the Savior was reclining at table in the house of Simon the Pharisee, that sinful woman slipped in, and touched the feet of the Savior, and washed his feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair; and the lover of mankind raises up her who was buried under so many sins, saying: Her sins are forgiven. For it is not my purpose now to examine the whole account, but only to bring forward the testimony. Observe, then, the abundance: For this reason I say to you, her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much. So the sinful woman received amnesty for so many sins. And Mary, the sister of Moses, for a small murmuring is condemned to leprosy. To those who sin he says: Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and he changes darkness into light by the change of repentance, and dissolves such an abundance of evils by the voice of his goodness; but to the one walking in righteousness he says: Whoever says to his brother, Fool, is liable to the Gehenna of fire. By one word he imposed such strictness, and to so many sins he measures out such abundance. And consider another marvel with me. Since sins are recorded as debts, to sinners he forgives even the principal when they repent; but from the righteous he demands even the interest.

He came to him as a debtor of many talents, and when by his repentance and great supplication he had appeased justice, he said: Lord, be patient with me, and I will pay everything. The lover of mankind did not wait for the payment, but made the confession a release from the debt; to the debtor of ten thousand talents he forgave everything, even the principal itself. But from the righteous he promises to demand even interest: For why did you not give my money to the bankers, and I, coming, would have demanded it with interest? I say this, not as though God were hostilely disposed toward the righteous—for nothing is more desired by God than the righteous man—but, as I said before, he comforts the sinner in order to stir him up; he frightens even the righteous man in order to strengthen him; and to the former he forgives many transgressions as to enemies and people puffed up, while from the latter he exacts an account even of ordinary things, wishing nothing to be lacking in them for perfection. For what a rich man is in this world, that a righteous man is to God; and what a poor man is in this world, that a sinner is to God; nothing is poorer than the one who sins, and nothing richer than the one who does righteousness. Therefore concerning those living in piety and prosperity Paul says: I thank God that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge. But concerning the impious the blessed Jeremiah says: Perhaps they are poor, therefore