In evangelii dictum et de virginitate

10. By the same author, on the saying of the Gospel, and on virginity, and an exhortation to those who have fallen. The divine word has handed down no riddle without purpose, nor one foreign to our salvation. Hence, where I might spread my mind, it has urged me to investigate the density of the thought, and to see what indeed the saying in the Gospel from the Lord means. For to many he spoke many things through parable, clarifying difficult matters for some, revealing to us things that are clear for others, making his discourse concerning salvation; as a good and philanthropic one, he handed down a clear and unconfused experience of the riddles: at one time enabling those who can go through the meaning from everyday matters, at another time also enabling the perception to be received from the very thought of what is said. The Lord said that narrow and compressed is the road that leads to life, and few are those who find it; but broad and spacious is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. The word is astonishing, the manner is one of ignorance: "What," he says, "broad is the road of destruction?" Christ does not know this road; for it did not come into being through him. Therefore, it is a word of compassion, a riddle of healing. Oh, the philanthropic goodwill! Oh, the Lord's care! He sets forth both victory and defeat together, both pity and condemnation together. "I know," he says, "how slippery the race of humans is, how lowly, how eye-bent, how easily slipped, how easily conquered, how cowardly, how easily captured, unless it is supported by faith." He heard "broad road," and rushed as a bird into a trap.

he heard “narrow” and flees salvation, not having examined the usefulness of both. For he asks for the struggle, yet flees the arena. And especially having heard that “many are the afflictions of the righteous, and from all of them the Lord will deliver them,” he did not run to the helper, but flees in flight, not knowing that the good flees and clings to the lesser. O the folly! Having heard “many are the afflictions of the righteous,” did you flinch, O man? And having heard “many are the scourges of the sinner,” did you not tremble? Rather, you trembled at the scourge, but you did not extinguish the passion of sin. Why is the road of perdition broad and spacious? Here he calls life a road, since the broad road seems pleasant to the deceived. But what is more wretched than this to the right-minded? For the road considered narrow leads to the heavens, while the road that seems broad drags those who follow it down to Hades. Do not think that road is truly broad, beloved, or good, because the Master used such a word.

For just as Solomon says, honey drips from the lips of a harlot woman, but this saying is contrary to nature; for how is it possible for honey ever to drip from a woman’s lips? Rather, the sweetness of deception and the deceit of vain pleasure the word called honey. So also here, the breadth of the road signifies the various passions of pleasures and all the enjoyment of life. Hear me, you who have bowed your neck and received the good, light, and blessed yoke, monastics and virgins; hear me, you who have consecrated yourselves and given your bodies to the Lord; hear me, you crowns of the heavenly bridegroom; hear me, you more radiant than the sun; hear me, you entrances to the kingdom; hear me, you friends of God; hear me, you dancers of David; hear me, you descendants of Elizabeth; hear me, you companions of John; hear me, you heirs of God; hear me, you who carry within the arena both the victory and the judge of the contest; hear me, you sisters of Mary; hear me, you mothers and brides and handmaids of Christ. But do not hear me, I beg you, but rather the Apostle who says, “I exhort you therefore, present your bodies as a living, holy, and acceptable sacrifice to God.” The one who exhorts is trustworthy, and do not refuse the gift. See who it is who exhorts you, and tremble at the request: he who ascended to the third heaven, he who was deemed worthy of the voice of God, he who heard unspeakable words, exhorts, “Present your bodies pure to God.” What do you exhort, Paul? For what concern have you about virgins?

Did you not say, "I have no command from the Lord concerning virgins"? Did you not say, "Marriage is honorable"? Did you not say, "Do not deprive one another of intercourse"? Why then do you now preach chastity? And then, what concern is it of yours any longer about virgins? You snatched Thecla from a fleshly marriage and corruption, and saved her; what concern is it of yours any longer about the remaining virgins? Yes, he says, I am very much concerned about a chaste and passionless marriage. For if I mediated a human marriage, much more will I mediate the marriage of Christ with great zeal; I am a bridesmaid of Christ; my Master is not satisfied with one maiden, he does not want one marriage; his dowry is great, his inheritance is great. Therefore he sent me to gather many for him; whence he said, "I have betrothed you to one husband, to present a pure virgin to Christ." See how much precision the Apostle spoke, so that you might not think the marriage is fleshly. Oh, the blindness! Oh, the folly! Who would not desire the incorruptible and untiring marriage? The pure bed, the unsullied bridal chamber? The undefiled childbearing? The immortal union? The passionless procreation? The griefless love of husband? The dower without loss? The eternal enjoyment? The carefree life? The cohabitation with Christ? The association with angels? The delight of divine hymns? The all-virtuous fragrance? The all-luminous lampstand? The universal freedom? The journey to God? The dance with angels? The strength of the body? The purity of the soul? For she who is joined in marriage to a man worries how to please a perishable flesh; she has not yet given birth, and she laments the grief.

Lament often for the husband, lament about barrenness and childlessness, lament about having many children when they die, lament about children behaving disorderly. But the Lord’s virgin cares how to please the Lord. Listen carefully to the Apostle crying out, “I betrothed you to one husband to present a pure virgin to Christ.” And he did not say, “You,” but “You all,” so that you might not think he is speaking about a fleshly marriage. “Therefore I exhort you,” he says, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God.” The command is common, but it especially applies to those practicing holiness. For those who wish to approach the holy in a holy manner, if they succeed here, they obtain great and splendid crowns; but those who set out but did not complete it suffer an extraordinary fall. For it is terrible to fall from a height, and the facts bear witness, whether from a low place. If a poor man lives in poverty to the end, he bears the reproach more lightly; but for a rich man driven into poverty, the condition becomes worse than death. Thus I think the tears and mourning are more bitter and more lamentable than the loss of virginity, than that of those who daily wallow in the mire like pigs and sin, because for them the habit of sin has become a skill of ease; but for those who have corrupted the temple of God, I think it is fitting to mourn and lament, to beat one’s breast and tear one’s hair, when such and so great a treasure has been suddenly dug up.

What is it with you, O virgin? When or what warlike appearance deceived you? What swords? What spears? What shields? What tumult of soldiers compelled you so quickly to abandon your safety? You were both city and temple of Christ, and wall and guard of the city and of the gate. But alas for the lament! How did you allow the enemy to open this without necessity? How, enticed in a brief hour, did you betray that which Christ sealed as he went forth? O the evil of war! You have breached the wall, you have destroyed your holy temple, you have broken the marriage covenants, you have erased the writings, you have annulled the dowry, you have insulted the bed of Christ; and moreover you have lost the pledge. Do you not see the laws here, what punishments await the adulteress? And what will you do, you who have insulted not the bed of a fellow servant, but that of our Master Jesus Christ, who lives forever, having entangled yourself with perishing clay and foulness? How I shall mourn you I do not know; for you are wounded though no one fought, you are cut off without a sword. What I shall judge you I do not know: as heartless, or as without conscience, or as soul-destroying, or as self-murdering.

Such was the appearance of that madness, finding no reproach worthy of its grief. Did you not remember the covenants of Christ? Did you not remember the chastity in which Christ daily, invisibly and mystically, leaps and rejoices at your side and breast? And why? Because you were also Mary as long as you preserved your virginity. What wax of wickedness then melted your eyes? What darkness blinded you, so that you made the members of Christ members of fornication? O the grief! Did you prefer the foul stench of prostitution to the fragrant scent of virginity? Did you exchange the mire of pleasure for myrrh? Did you not remember that deeply moving hour, full of compunction, when angels and men together, rejoicing, bearing torches, escorted you into the bridal chamber of Christ, singing Davidic hymns, and all proclaimed the poor and needy bride of Christ a queen? O who would not mourn the queen who abandoned her king, joining herself to the rottenness of worms, and who despised the one with whom she was to live and reign together, and longed for the one whom the king was about to cast into the fire of Gehenna? Why did you dig such a pit for yourself? But the breadth of the road deceived you. What breadth, I ask? What did the guide of destruction, the procurer of Gehenna, promise you? What enjoyment of life did the murderer of men promise? Did you not hear, O virgin, the Lord saying in the Gospels, "If you gain the whole world but lose your soul, what have you gained?" But O the blindness! O the folly! O the darkness! Consider, O virgin, the ruin.

Consider what you prefer and what you reject, and what is granted you by the deceiver: a moment of pleasure mingled with mud, a drop of filth mixed in a virgin’s womb by sin, and it leads to a hell of fire and an endless worm. Shudder at that shame. For can this be called pleasure, an enjoyment of life? Is this luxury, this breadth? What is this consent of madness? But be sober in all things and say: for we are not ignorant of its thoughts. Rejoice always, as it is written: Let your gentleness be known to all men; let the fear of God flash in your heart. Do not become a soldier who throws away his shield, do not be a cowardly and lazy worker, do not flee the crown. Life is short, but judgment is long. Looking to this, brother, exhort your heart together with the saint, and say: Be brave, and let your heart be strengthened, and endure the Lord; imitate David, and with one stone cast strike down the enemy. Angels stand as spectators of your life; for it is said, we have become a theater for the world and for angels and men. If they see you victorious, they rejoice at the achievement; if you are defeated, they depart gloomy, while the demons laugh at you.

Draw, then, the fear of God instead of a sword; for the fear of God is like a double-edged sword, cutting down every evil desire. Always take up the fear of God, constantly mindful of the last day, when the heavens will be dissolved in fire, when the stars will fall like leaves, and the sun and moon will be darkened and give no light; when the Son of Man will be revealed and descend from the heavens to the earth, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; when there will be the rushing of angels, the voices of approaching trumpets, fire burning before him and rushing to flood the inhabited world, around him a violent storm, terrible earthquakes and thunderbolts such as never occurred nor occur until that day, so that even the powers of the heavens themselves will be seized with great trembling. Therefore, must we not be rivers, my brothers? What fear and what terror will seize us? Consider Israel in the desert, when they could not endure the darkness and the gloom and the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, but hastened not to add a word to them. For they did not truly bear the command, even though he came down not with wrath, nor spoke to them with anger, but assured them with exhortation that he was with them.

Listen, then, my brother, if we were not strong enough to bear his coming with entreaty, when neither the heavens were dissolved in fire, nor the trumpeters sounded as that trumpet will shout and awaken those who have slept for ages, nor fire flooding the world, nor any of the fearful things that are to come had happened; what shall we do when he descends with wrath and irresistible fury, and sits upon his throne of glory, and they summon the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting, and from all the ends of the earth, to judge his people and render to each according to his works? Woe! what sort must we be, when we stand naked and with necks exposed, about to be led into the dread tribunal? Woe, woe! where then is the boastfulness? where then is the courage of the flesh? where then the false and useless beauty? where then the sweet-voicedness of men? where then the shameless and impudent boldness, where then the adornment of garments? where then the pleasure of sin, unclean and truly foul? where then those who consider the dung of males to be pleasure? where then those who drink wine with drums and music? where then the contempt of those living in fearlessness? where then luxury and dissipation? For all have passed away and have been dissolved like empty air. Where then is love of money and love of possessions, and the heartlessness that comes from them? where then is inhuman pride, which loathes everything and considers itself to be something? where then is the new and vain human advancement and glory? where then is power and tyranny?

Where then is the king, where the ruler, where the governor? Where are those in authority, those who boast in their abundance of wealth and despise God? Then, seeing thus, they marvelled; terror seized them; there, pangs as of a woman in childbirth, in a violent wind, they will be crushed. Where then is the wisdom of the wise? Where their vain contrivances? Woe to them; they were troubled, they were shaken like a drunkard, and all their wisdom was swallowed up. Where then is the wise man? Where then the scribe? Where the disputant of this vain age? My brother, consider what sort we must be, giving an account of what we have done, whether great or small; for we give an account even of an idle word to the righteous judge. What sort, then, must we be in that hour, if we find favour before him? And what joy will receive us when we are set apart at the right hand of the king? What sort must we be, when all the saints greet us? There Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, Job, David greet you.

And the holy prophets and apostles and martyrs and all the righteous who pleased God in the life of their flesh, and all whom you hear of and admire for their life, and whom you would wish to see now, they themselves come to you there, and embracing you, they seize you, rejoicing at your salvation. What manner of men, then, must we be at that time? What manner of joy, indeed, that ineffable joy, when the King says to those on the right with cheerfulness, "Come, the blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world"? Then, my brother, you will receive the kingdom of comeliness and the crown of beauty from the hand of the Lord, and thereafter you will reign with Christ; then you will inherit those goods which God has prepared for those who love him; then you will be free from care, no longer fearing any terror. Consider, my brother, what it is to reign in heaven. For as we said before, you will receive the crown from the hand of the Lord, and you will reign henceforth with Christ. Consider, my brother, what it is to see the face of God continually, what it is to have him as a light. For then the sun will not be for you the light of day, as Isaiah says, "Nor will the rising of the moon light the night for you, but the Lord will be your eternal light, and God your glory." Behold, my brother, what joy is stored up for those who fear the Lord and for those who keep his commandments.

Consider also after this the destruction of sinners, when they are brought before the fearful tribunal, what shame will seize them before the righteous judge, having no word of defense; what disgrace will seize them as they are set apart on the left of the King; what darkness will fall upon them, when He speaks to them in His anger, and in His wrath He will trouble them, saying: "Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Woe, woe! What affliction and anguish their spirit will have, when there is a cry of all saying: "Let the sinners be turned back into Hades, all the nations that forget God!" Woe! What a place is that where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, called Tartarus, which even Satan himself shudders at! Woe! What is the Gehenna of unquenchable fire! Woe! What is the sleepless and venomous worm! Woe! What are the angels over the punishments, pitiless and merciless! For they reproach and rebuke terribly. Then those being punished will cry out to the Lord, and He will not hear them; then they will know that all the things of life have turned out vain for them, and what they thought here to be sweet has been found more bitter than gall and venom. Where then is the falsely-named pleasure of sin? For there is no other pleasure except to fear the Lord. Truly this is pleasure, except to fear the Lord. Truly this fills the soul. Then they will condemn themselves and the deeds they have done.

Then they will confess, saying, "The judgment of God is just. For we heard these things, and we did not wish to turn back from our evil deeds." And then they will raise up these words, saying: "Woe to the one caught in countless sins! I have sinned more than the grains of sand of the sea, and I am bent down by them as if by many iron chains; for I have no confidence to gaze up at the height of heaven. To whom then shall I flee, if not to you, O Lover of Mankind, if not to you, O Forgetter of Ills? Have mercy on me, O God, according to your great mercy, and according to the multitude of your compassions, blot out my lawlessness. Wash me yet more from my lawlessness, and cleanse me from my sin; for I know my lawlessness, and my sin is before me continually. I have sinned against you alone, and I have done evil before you. I flee to you because of your great goodness and compassion; I have provoked you, and I flee to you because of your great forgetfulness of ill; I have rejected you, and I flee to you

I flee to you because of your great goodness and philanthropy, and crying out I beseech: Turn your face away from my sins, and blot out all my lawless deeds. Create a pure heart in me, O God, and renew a righteous spirit in my inward parts, for your name’s sake, and for that alone. For I have nothing to offer you, no good deed, no pure heart, but trusting in your mercies I cast myself upon you, that you may create compunction in me, so that I may no longer easily fall into sin, but from now on serve you in holiness and righteousness all the days of my life, for yours is the kingdom and the power for ever. Amen. I therefore exhort you, my brothers, expecting these things, to be zealous to be found spotless and blameless before him in peace. When an evil thought comes upon you, draw this sword, that is, consider the fear of God, and you will cut down all the power of the enemy. And instead of a trumpet, have the divine Scriptures; for just as a trumpet sounding gathers the soldiers, so the divine Scriptures sounding to us gather our thoughts into the fear of God. For our thoughts are like soldiers fighting against the enemies of the king. Again, just as a trumpet sounding in time of war rouses the eagerness of the young and the combatants against the adversaries, so the divine Scriptures rouse your eagerness for the good, and make you manly against the passions.

Therefore, my brother, as much as you are able, compel yourself to engage with them more frequently, so that they may gather together your thoughts, which the enemy scatters by his evil contrivance, either by bringing evil thoughts, or often by bringing afflictions, or by providing much prosperity and ease. For these things he accomplishes by his cunning and deceit, in order to alienate man from God. For when often he is unable to injure and cast down through thoughts, then he brings afflictions upon him, so as to darken his mind, and then he finds opportunity to sow what he wishes. And then he begins to suggest such thoughts to man, and to say with oaths, "Since I have been doing good, I have seen bad days; let us therefore do evil, so that good may come." Then if someone is not found to be sober, he swallows him up, like Hades, alive. But if even in these things he is unable to injure him, then he brings ease upon him, and exalts him, and provides him with great deception, which is more terrible and worse than all the passions.

This is what makes a person proud and fearless; this drags the mind into the abyss of pleasures; this causes a person not to know God, nor to know his own weakness, nor to consider the day of death and judgment; for this is the path of all evils. The one who loves to walk this path of spaciousness and ease is found arriving at the chambers of death; this is the path of which the Lord said: "Broad and spacious is the path that leads to destruction.