Eclogae ex diversis homiliis

Let us therefore do all things according to what is pleasing to God, so that we may live to the glory of God and be counted worthy of the good things promised to those who love him, by the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of ages. Amen. Homily 47: On not approaching the divine mysteries unworthily. Since we have made mention of this sacrifice, I wish to say a few things to you who have been initiated—few in measure, but possessing great power and benefit; for what is said is not ours, but the Holy Spirit's. What then is it? Many partake of this sacrifice once in the present year, others twice, others many times. So our word is useful to all, and even to those who sit in the desert; for they partake once a year, and often even every two years. What then? Whom shall we approve? Neither those who partake once, nor those who partake many times, but those who come with a pure conscience, with a pure heart, with an undefiled life. Let such as these come always; but those who are not such, not even once. For the one who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself, as the Apostle says. These things are given to the saints; this the deacon also proclaims, calling the saints with that awe-inspiring voice. For since it is not possible for a man to know the things of his neighbor, except the spirit that is in him, he dismisses that very voice: The holy things to the holy. If anyone is not holy, let him not come. He does not say simply, clean from sins, but, holy.

For it is not only freedom from sins that makes a person holy, but also the presence of the Spirit and the wealth of good works. And what is the sin? Not to approach with trembling, but instead beating the breast, shouting, and the rest. I have said these things often, and in saying them I will not cease. Do you not see at the Olympic games, when the president of the contests, wearing the crown on his head, how orderly the herald is as he cries for silence? How is it not absurd that where the devil parades in pomp, there is great silence, but where Christ calls us to himself, there is great uproar? Rather, there should be calm in the sea and waves in the harbor. Why are you making a disturbance, tell me? The necessity of business calls you, of course. Do you really know that you have business at that hour? Do you at all remember that you are on earth? And how is this not the mark of a stone-like mind, to think that at that moment you are on earth and not dancing with the angels, with whom you also sent up to God that mystic song, a song of victory, Holy, holy, holy? This is why Christ called us eagles when he said, Where the body is, there also are the eagles, so that we might walk the heavens, so that we might fly on high, lightened by the wings of the Spirit; but we drag ourselves on the ground like snakes and eat the earth. Do you want me to say where the uproar comes from? Because we do not keep the doors closed to you at all times, but allow you to depart before the final thanksgiving; this is a matter of great contempt. What are you doing, man? With Christ present, with the angels standing by, with the table set before you, do you yourself abandon it and depart?

And when invited to a dinner, do you not dare to withdraw before your friends? Do you wish me to tell you whose deed they perform who withdraw before the eucharist? When Judas partook of the last supper on that final night, while all the others were reclining at table, he himself sprang up and went out. Such people imitate him. For if he had not gone out, he would not have become a traitor, he would not have perished; if he had not separated himself from the shepherd, he would not have become the prey of wild beasts. Do you see that the final prayer after the sacrifice takes place after that pattern? For he went out with the Jews, but these, after singing hymns with the Master, went out. I say these things, not so that you may be disturbed and cry out, but so that with much silence and good order we may approach this sacred sacrifice, in order that we may both cleanse our soul and obtain the eternal good things. Do not pay attention to the fact that it is plain bread and wine; for it is body and blood according to the Master's declaration. Do not judge the matter by taste, but be fully assured by faith without hesitation. And when you approach, not with hands stretched out, but make the left hand a throne for the right, and hollowing the palm, as one about to receive a king,

Receive the body of Christ with great fear, lest some pearl fall from your hand and you be deprived of one of your members. Approach the holy blood likewise, not stretching out your hands while saying the Amen. And while the moisture is still on your lips, let us touch our eyes and forehead with our hands; and the rest of the senses are sanctified; and give thanks to God who has deemed you worthy of so great a mystery. And how, he says, is it possible to be saved in the midst of the world? What are you saying? Do you wish me to show briefly that it is not the place that saves, but the manner and the disposition toward God? Adam, being in paradise as in a harbor, suffered shipwreck; but Lot in Sodom, as in the open sea, was saved. Job was justified on the dunghill; but Saul, being in the treasuries of the kingdom, fell from the glory and honor of this world and of the world to come. This is no defense, but we suffer these things because we do not devote ourselves to prayers and divine assemblies. Or do you not see those who wish to receive offices from the earthly king, how they sit in attendance, and move others to intercession, so that they may not fall short of what they seek? These things have been said by me to those who absent themselves from the holy assemblies, and to those who at the fearful hour of the mysteries occupy themselves with conversation and idle talk. What are you doing, man? Did you not promise the priest when he said, Lift up your mind and your hearts, and you said, We have them toward the Lord? Are you not ashamed and do you not blush, being found a liar in these words and at this hour?

Alas, with the royal table set before us, with the Lamb of God slain for you, with the priest struggling on your behalf, with the Seraphim standing by, with the six-winged ones covering their faces, with all the incorporeal powers joining the priest in interceding for you, with the spiritual fire descending, with the blood being poured out into the cup from the immaculate side—does not even your conscience condemn you, O man? The week has one hundred and sixty-eight hours; God set apart one single hour. And if you spend even that one on worldly affairs and conversations and jesting, with what boldness, then, do you approach the divine mysteries, with what conscience? Tell me, if you had dung on your hands, would you dare to come near the hem of the king's garment? By no means. Do not look at it merely as bread, nor merely as wine; for it does not pass into the latrine as the other common foods do—far be it!—think no such thing. Therefore, as we approach, let us understand that we receive the divine body not as from men, but as from the Seraphim themselves with the tongs of fire which Isaiah saw. I beg and entreat you, let us not forsake the churches; and when we assemble, let us not busy ourselves with conversations in the church, but let us stand in fear and trembling, casting our eyes downward, having our soul on high, groaning in our heart. Or do you not see those who stand before the mortal and temporary king—how unmoved they are, uttering nothing, not turning their eyes here and there, but grim and downcast and fearful?

Take the reproof from yourself, O man, and approach both the earthly king and the heavenly God. I say these things often, and saying them I will not cease. When we enter the churches, let us enter as is fitting for God, not holding resentment in the soul, lest, while saying, "Forgive us, as we also forgive," we be condemned. For the saying is fearful, and the one who says it cries out, so to speak, to God himself: "I have forgiven, O Master; forgive. I have pardoned; pardon." Knowing these things, then, and that fire, and the fearful judgment seat, let us turn back from the error of our way. For a day will come when the theater of life is dissolved, and no one any longer contends. This is the time of repentance, that of judgment; this of struggles, that of crowns. Awake, I beseech you, and hear willingly what is said. We have lived for the flesh; let us live henceforth also for the spirit. We have lived in negligence; let us live henceforth in repentance. Why do you puff yourself up, earth and ashes, O man? Why are you proud? Why

Do you boast great things? What do you hope for from the glory and wealth of the world? Let us go out to the tombs, I beseech you; let us see the mysteries, let us see nature scattered abroad, bones eaten away, bodies rotted; consider, whether you are wise or prudent, tell me, there who is the king and who the commoner, who the noble and who the slave, who the wise and who the commoner. Where is the beauty of youth there, where the radiant face, where the comely eyes, where the gleaming countenance? Is not everything dust? Is not everything ash? Is not everything cinder? Is not everything darkness? Is not everything stench and foul odor? Pondering these things, and calling to mind the last day, since we have time, let us work what is good, that we may be delivered from the coming unending Gehenna, and be deemed worthy of the kingdom of the heavens, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. Homily 49. A collection in the form of a homily gathered from Chrysostom by Theodore: what a Christian must do to inherit eternal life. To love God with all his soul and strength, and to keep his commandments, and to love his neighbor as himself, according to the voice of the Lord who said: If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; and again, By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. He who humbles his soul before God, and never exalts himself over his neighbor; for a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise.

The one who is crushed by the sin of his neighbor, and mourns his own sins, and rejoices in his neighbor's gladness, and is not consumed by envy at his prosperity; the one who receives in gentleness and instructs those who set themselves against him, and always longs and thirsts to work the righteousness of God; for this man will also preserve the purity of his own soul; the one who is bent by mercy toward those who need mercy, and gives himself wholly for the peace that is according to God, and strives to be called a son of God, and through this labor, and further also being insulted and accused and persecuted, and dying for the sake of the righteousness of God and the confession of Christ, because this is eternal life; the one who turns away from every heretical blasphemy, and rightly confesses the confession of the Holy Trinity; the one who meditates truth in his heart, and does not deceive his tongue with a lie, and does no evil to his neighbor, according to what is written; the one who does not accuse, does not revile, nor does anything else of the forbidden things, but carefully keeps all the commandments of Christ and does them; who stretches out his hands to almsgiving, being robbed and not resisting, giving to the one who has no tunic, being reviled and blessing, being compelled and adding more, carrying no shameful or blasphemous word in his mouth, nor uttering an oath, but knowing one boundary, the truth, and always meditating on it, night and day, and not saying to anyone in his defenses more than yes and no, according to the ordinance of the Lord;

Moving his tongue to hymnody, his knees and hands together with his mind to supplication, pouring out a tear for compunction before God; ever mindful of his own death, and the coming judgment, and the defense of his works, always reckoning up the sins he has committed, and offering praises to God on their account; diligently performing good deeds, and not bringing them forward, or displaying them to anyone, or boasting in them like the Pharisee, but leaving the knowledge of them to God who knows, who will render to each according to his works; fleeing drunkenness, fleeing perjury, gluttony, untimely speech, envy, strife, malice, covetousness, the second idolatry, wrath, anger, fornication, adultery, and every defilement of the body; not practicing sorcery, or divination, or any incantation, but sanctifying himself night and day so as to partake blamelessly of the precious body and blood of Christ; standing as protector of orphans, and likewise of widows and strangers; not turning away from the one who asks, or the one who wishes to borrow, but also tearing up every unjust contract; and if he possesses a just one, not bringing it forward or displaying it to anyone, being wholly God's and having what he has from God, if indeed he has anything justly from him, and providing his own to him, and seeking from God what is lacking, and glorifying those who glorify God, and honoring his servants; pitying the enemies of the faith because of their blindness, and trying with all his power to convert them, but turning away from those who persist, and hating with a perfect hatred those who hate the Lord;

Conducting himself in all goodness, in all piety, in all chastity, as one who has God wholly within himself and is wholly God's, always moved and shaken by the memory of him and his commandments, both lying down and rising up, and eating and drinking and spending the day, according to what is written: I set the Lord before me continually, because he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken; and, Let all the earth fear, and let all the inhabitants of the world be shaken at him; not bearing grudges, because the ways of the grudge-bearers lead to death, and he who forgives his neighbor his sin is forgiven his sins by God. For if we do not remember the sins that others have sinned against us, neither does God remember ours, which we have sinned against him. And to judge justly in the fear of God. For judgment belongs to God; not to condemn others in their sins, that is, to despise and abhor them, and to watch for the evils of one's neighbor, and to justify oneself, and, not seeing one's own beams, but the specks of one's neighbor, that is, to bring forward the small failings of our brothers; which greatly provokes God; for it is not just to judge another's servant; for every man belongs to God. But to judge and correct in love, and to rescue the wronged from the hand of the one who wrongs him, and to become a father of the powerless, and a single eye of the blind, and a foot of the lame, according to what is said, is pious and just when done with the fitting admonition and exhortation; as the blessed Apostle says:

For three years, night and day, I did not cease with tears to admonish each one of you: that the Christian should flee shameful gain, and be rather devout and holy, and attend to reading and exhortation and admonition and teaching, according to what is said: Teaching and admonishing yourselves with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord; honoring also those who gave us birth, that we may become long-lived upon the earth, and not speaking evil of father or mother, but providing also for one's own, and especially for those of the household of the faith. And he who does not forsake the assemblies of the church, that is, the common gatherings and prayers, but also publicly before all the people gives his prayers to God, and does not despise wise counsels or God-fearing teachings; nor judges the wonders and works of God to be incredible or impossible, wrought throughout every generation, not reckoning this. A man acting thus, and thus having God in his heart, in prudence, will inherit the kingdom prepared for the saints from the foundation of the world, which never has an end; may it come to pass that we all obtain it, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.