In illud Messis quidem multa

Homily 10. A homily by the same [author], delivered in the church of the Apostle, the bishop having spoken a few preliminary words, on the text: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." 1. Have you seen the old man and the young man—old in body, but young in spirit? Have you seen gray hair in its prime and the vigor of old age bursting with strength? Such are the things among us, contrary to those outside. For in external matters, old age is useless. For example, a soldier who has reached this age cannot draw a bow, shoot an arrow, brandish a spear, mount a horse, assault walls, or do anything else of the sort. And a helmsman, when old age relaxes the tension of his flesh, cannot stretch ropes, unfurl sails, handle an oar, shift the tiller, struggle against waves, or do any such thing. Again, a farmer at this age cannot yoke oxen, pull a plow, break and cut furrows, tend a tree, join a band of reapers, or do anything else of the kind. Each of these sits at home, having the disability that comes with age, shackled by the great and unavoidable necessity of old age. But not so the teacher of the Church. On the contrary, it is then especially that he will strive, take up discourses, set forth teaching, and attempt to order the people. For old age, useless in other things, is most useful in the Church and in the labors of virtue. Indeed, the blessed Abraham took up his greatest contest when he was at this age.

For then, then he overthrew the tyranny of nature and slaughtered his child—for he slaughtered him, if not in actual experience, then in intention; if not in the outcome, then in purpose; if not in deed, then in thought. Then he became a priest of his own flesh, and having almost transplanted himself from nature itself and set sail for heaven, he accomplished that marvelous and extraordinary deed. And Paul, the teacher of the world, in deepest old age stripped for those marvelous contests, and bore chains and fetters and prisons in his aged body with great vigor; and he himself said, making this clear: "As Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner in Christ Jesus." And I say these things not to disparage youth, for even those youths who trampled the furnace were very young, mere lads, and Jeremiah who received the prophecy, and Daniel when he curbed the lions and, because of his ineffable boldness, brought those secret dreams of the king into the open and made them known to the beholder, was very young; and youth was no obstacle to the man's virtue. For in external matters, as I said earlier, both extreme old age and untimely youth would be the greatest hindrances.

But in the contests of virtue, it is no longer so; rather, one thing is needed: only purpose and a prepared soul. Neither is youth useless, nor old age unsuitable; but in each age one would see the fruit ripening and bursting forth, provided—as I said before—that one has a sober soul, skilled in philosophy, and drawing down the goodwill of God through abundant virtue. Therefore, let no one plead either youth or old age as an excuse for indolence; for even now many among us, young men, fill this spiritual theater, while those who have grown old disgrace themselves in horse races. And again, others, old men, with their gray hair, adorn themselves with listening, while young men, through their contemplation of that place, render their youth more irrational. For even if many are present with us, I have no satiety; for I do not wish only that many be present, but that all be present, and that no one be absent from the church. So, as long as even one person appears to be led astray, I am torn apart and cut through with grief. For that shepherd too, leaving the ninety-nine sheep, hastened after the one that had strayed, and did not desist until he brought it back to the flock, and made great effort on its behalf; for the number of one hundred was lame until it recovered the one, and the one hundred then became one hundred when this one too was saved. Do not tell me, then, that the lost brother is only one.

But consider that a brother—this creature so precious to God, for whom so much has come to be, for whom that precious blood was poured out and such honor was laid down, for whom heaven was stretched, and the sun was kindled, and the moon runs, and the manifold chorus of stars shines, and air was spread, and sea was poured forth, and earth was founded, and springs gush, and rivers flow, and mountains stand fixed; for whom meadows and gardens, for whom seeds and plants, for whom the various kinds of plants, for whom the things in mountains, in deserts, in cities, in plains, in glens, on hills; for whom the countless multitudes of fish, for whom the various kinds of quadrupeds, for whom the all-various tribes of birds, for whom law, for whom prophets, for whom apostles, for whom the countless wonders have happened—what need to say many things? for whom the only-begotten Son of God became man, and having become, was slain. 2. Consider how great is God's enterprise for the salvation of men, and despise no man, but when this spiritual theater is dissolved, seek out the one left behind, and do not desist until you bring him back, and join him to the mother, and lead him away from evil habit, and rescue the captive, and draw up the one who has been drowned, and free the one caught by beasts from the savage beasts.

What forgiveness, what defense could you have? We come to the tombs of the apostles; we see their wounds and their marks, their blood flowing, more precious than gold, their chains, their scourges, their daily deaths, which they suffered for the Church: Paul's disciple running everywhere with Paul and being equal to the teacher, the calf matched with the bull; the brother of the first of the apostles, the fisherman who cast his net and caught men instead of fish, the herald of the Gospel; and we delight in their achievements as in a meadow. But they, having left us, sit as spectators of irrational horses, washing each other with abuse and insults, kindling anger and a fight without pretext, rejoicing in a joy more wretched than grief, over victorious charioteers, over broken horses—what could be more irrational than this? For why do you rejoice, tell me? Why do you leap and jump and come down from there cheerful? And why do you grieve and cover yourself and bow down and pain your own soul, because so-and-so prevailed and the other was defeated? And what is this to you? What reason would this grief or this pleasure have? And of what punishment would each of you not be worthy, making no account of your own soul being swept away daily by passions, but rejoicing or grieving over irrational animals and other irrational men? But so that we do not consume the entire discourse on these matters and waste the time, entrusting the correction of those to your love, of today's

After the readings, let us take hold and attempt to lead you into the meadow of the divine Scriptures; for what is there resembles a meadow. Just as in a meadow the flowers are various, but all in succession are very beautiful, each drawing the eye of the beholder to itself, so too can one see in the divine Scriptures. For the blessed David draws our mind to himself, and the apostolic saying spoken concerning Timothy, and also the bold Isaiah philosophizing about human nature, and the Master of these, Jesus, conversing with his disciples and saying: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." Come then, if you please, let us bring this saying into the midst and unfold its meanings; for even if it is brief in measure, it shows us a vast sea of thoughts. Therefore, let us proceed to it with great eagerness. For when he saw, it says, the multitudes distressed, he says to the disciples: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

What harvest is this, tell me, and why did he name this teaching in such a way? Yet harvest is the end of the matter. For when the seed, cast into the furrows of the earth, enjoys moisture, then becomes soaked and aerated, seizes hold of the surrounding earth, and, unfolding into many fibers, sends its roots down into the depth, it first emerges from the surface, then little by little, nourished by sun, rain, and air, it grows by the natural power of the earth, and becomes first a kind of green plant and puts forth tender leaves, then brings forth an unripe ear of grain, and when spring arrives, again little by little, ripening into stalk and beard, it yields the full fruit. Then at last the farmer, having sharpened his sickle, gathers reapers, and having collected the fruit, stores it at home. Hence indeed harvest is the end of all labor and of farming. How then, tell me, does he call it a harvest, when things are still in their beginnings? For impiety prevailed everywhere throughout the inhabited world, altars were kindled, idols were worshipped, Jesus was dishonored, deep night covered everything, and there was a fierce storm, with the sea surging, wild winds disrupting human life, passions tyrannizing, and all being submerged. For everywhere there were fornication, adultery, and licentiousness; everywhere greed, plunder, and wars.

and bloodshed on land, bloodshed on sea, as pirates introduced murders even there, and constant wars and battles and civil slaughters and murders more abominable than all murders; for children were sacrificed to idols; nature was ignored, kinship was overturned, and everywhere there were precipices and crags and hidden rocks and harsh reefs, and no human helmsman; rather, there were few helmsmen among the Jewish nation, but no one listened, as the sailors were in dissension among themselves, cutting each other down and drowning each other. For Scythians and Thracians and Moors and Indians and Persians and Sauromatians, and those inhabiting Greece and those inhabiting Epirus, and, so to speak, the entire world under the sun was subject to the demons, and was driven into frenzy by those avenging spirits—both land and city and desert, both earth and sea, both barbarian and Greek, both mountains and glens and hills; only the Jewish nation, which seemed to practice piety, had prophets and small seeds of knowledge of God; but even these were buried over time, and the teachers of that nation became bitter accusers of the sins committed among them; and they were so far from educating others and leading them toward piety that they even became causes of scandal to others at that time; and the prophet, indicating this, said: "Because of you my name is blasphemed among the nations.

3. How then, when so many evils held the inhabited world, and the seeds had not yet been sown (for everywhere there were thorns and tribulus and evil plants), when the land had not yet been cleared, nor the plow drawn, nor the furrow cut, does He speak about harvest and say: "The harvest is great"? And why does He call the Gospel thus? Why? Because matters were in this state, and He was about to send them everywhere throughout the inhabited world, and it was likely that they would be disturbed and troubled, and would reason among themselves and say: How could it be possible for eleven men (for one had been taken by a wild beast), uneducated, illiterate, poor, obscure, naked, wearing only a single tunic, barefoot, carrying neither belt nor staff nor obol, to traverse the entire inhabited world in such a state, and to tear them away from old custom, and to introduce them to the doctrines of the new, and to sound a strange teaching in their ears? When shall we pull up the thorns? When shall we sow the seeds? When shall we cultivate their minds? When shall the seed sprout? Who will not tear us apart? Who will not hurl us down a precipice? How shall we even be able to open our mouths, to stand, to speak, to appear before so many thousands? How shall we overthrow the wrath of tyrants, the uprisings of mobs, the arguments of philosophers, the cleverness of rhetors, the tyranny of preconception, the strength of old custom, the plots of demons, souls already seized by countless diseases?

We, the eleven, how shall we correct all those in the inhabited world—private individuals correcting the wise, the unarmed correcting the armed, the ruled correcting the rulers, we who possess one tongue speaking to myriad voices, and barbarian and foreign-speaking nations? And who of us will be endured, when they cannot even hear our voice? Lest they be troubled by these considerations, he called the Gospel a harvest, all but saying: Everything is prepared, everything is ready; I send you to an already prepared gathering of the fruits; on the same day you will be able both to sow and to reap. Just as the farmer going out to the harvest rejoices and is cheerful and exults, not reckoning the labors nor any difficulty, but hastening as to a ready income, running to the annual fruits, and with no hindrance anywhere, no obstacle, no uncertainty of the future—rains, hailstorms, droughts, and the wicked army of locusts; for he who sets about reaping suspects nothing of the sort; for this reason they even dance and leap as they begin their labors—so too must you, and much more, go out into the inhabited world with great pleasure. For the matter is a harvest, a harvest with great ease, a harvest providing you with prepared crops; you need only speak, not labor. Lend me your tongue, he says, and you will see the fruit ripe and brought into the royal granaries.

For this reason, then, and after this, sending them, he said: "Behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age." For he himself was the one who made difficult things easy, and what the prophet said: "I go before you and I will level mountains"—these things happened perceptibly in the case of the apostles; for Christ paved the way for them and made the road easy. This also the most loud-voiced Isaiah indicated, saying: "Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be humbled"—not speaking about mountains and hills; for this did not happen—but calling by the name of mountains those who were desperate and puffed up and high-minded. But Christ humbled all, with a humility full of height, and made the mountains plains. And he calls them "desperate" not because of the height of their thought, but because of the fruitlessness of their desperation, and the barrenness of their soul, and the insensibility of their words. For just as a mountain cannot bear fruit, so too desperation cannot; rather, it is not so, but much worse. For a mountain

It would not bear fruit, but folly not only gives no fruit, but also withers the existing one and dries up the one that has sprouted. Just as humility, then, not only nurtures the existing one, but also is accustomed to give birth to the one that does not exist. 4. And the greatest examples of what has been said are the Pharisee and the publican. For the one, having gone up with folly, not only did not produce any fruit, but also lost the one that existed. The publican, being destitute and having no good thing, creates a success for himself. For when he merely sighed and, bowing down, lamented himself, he came down abounding in righteousness and surpassed the Pharisee in this respect. And so that you may see from the facts themselves and learn from specific persons where Christ leveled a mountain and a hill, let the word bring Paul before us again. For this tentmaker (I gladly turn over his trade, so that you may learn that the trade is not a reproach, but idleness is an accusation and a charge)—this Paul, then, having come to Salamis, met with a certain proconsul and a magician with him. The precipice is twofold: the folly from the office and the teaching from the magician. And when he saw that vile and shameless beast hindering the proconsul and interrupting his teaching, hear what he says, filled with the Holy Spirit: "O you full of every deceit and every villainy, son of the devil." For it is not everywhere an evil to insult, but to insult in vain; for this, Christ also established punishment.

Just as he who does this at the proper time imitates a physician who cuts at the proper time and expels the decay by the incision. This is precisely what Paul does: "Will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?" But you do not endure your words, O Paul; bring on some apostolic syllogism, turn your tongue, stop up his mouth, halt the evil streams. What then does he do? Showing that his war is not against men, he says: "And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you." For the one who said, "I am with you all the days," was present also with Paul then, and having this promise, he calls him and deems him worthy to become an avenger, and to join in the matters at hand, and to remove the obstacles. "And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you." How great is the condescension of Christ; how great is the boldness of Paul; how he inflicts the blow with a verdict, and Christ immediately assents to what is said. What is "the hand of the Lord"? A contrary, striking power. For he was present with them everywhere, readily obeying, making the matter a harvest, not allowing them to toil or suffer, but contributing his own part. And the blind man stood, not seeing until the time. Do you see the punishment also with philanthropy? For the verdict is admonition, not punishment, correction, not annihilation. For this reason he did not wither the hand, nor cut out the tongue uttering evil words, nor cripple the legs, but the eyes themselves. For since he himself was healed from this and was freed from the wandering path and the harmful courses, he applies the same remedy to this man, all but saying:

I too was running badly, and I saw deadly things; therefore I was questioned well, so that I might see better. This same remedy I apply to you, and I blind the external eyes so that I may open the inner eyes. Then the proconsul, seeing what had happened, hastened. Did you see the mountain become level, and the hill humbled, and the harvest completed, and the reaping prepared, and the ripe fruit gathered, and Paul having done nothing and suffered no hardship, but with a mere word having netted the proconsul? For this reason he calls the Gospel a harvest, because of the speed and the ease which it provided them. So too that eunuch, a barbarian and a foreigner and placed in great power, was netted, and there too no time or labor was spent; for as soon as he mounted the chariot, he began to instruct; or rather, before the mounting, admire this: how the barbarian and foreigner, inflamed with power (for he was handling no small office), called and brought up and seated beside himself this poor man, this beggar, this unknown person, who had never before come into his sight or company, who then appeared for the first time. Who accomplished these things? That one who said, "I am with you all the days until the end of the age"; that one made the approach gentler, and prepared a barbarian to philosophize, and humbled the mountain, and made the unknown person more familiar than any acquaintance. Do not simply pass over this, nor consider the matter a mere story, but reflect on the magnitude of the achievement.

If then the present rulers, being faithful and trained to be humble and having nothing barbaric about them, would not choose—I do not say an unknown and foreign man, but even one of their acquaintances—to seat him quickly with themselves in the marketplace, how could that man have done so with a foreigner? For I will not cease saying this: the foreigner, the one who had never appeared, the lowly, the contemptible in appearance—this man he both brought up and seated. And he entrusted his own salvation to that man's tongue, and he endured becoming a disciple, and he entreats and begs and supplicates, saying, "I beg you, about whom does the prophet say this?" And he receives what is said with great attention. And not only this, but having received it, he did not neglect it, he did not put it off. He did not say, "Let me return to my own homeland, let me see my friends, my household and relatives," which many Christians now say when called to baptism: "Let me return to my homeland, let me see my wife, let me see my children together with my relatives; with them present and celebrating with me, thus I will enjoy the baptism, thus I will partake of the grace." But that barbarian then did not speak these words, and this although he was a Jew and had been trained to make careful observation of places, and especially since it was continually impressed upon him that one must keep the observance of place, and for this reason he had undertaken a long journey, so that he might worship in the place which God commanded; but suddenly casting out all that custom and abandoning such observance, when the discourse was completed and he saw a spring by the road, he says, "Behold water, what prevents me from being baptized?

Do you see the harvest again being completed? Do you see that no time was wasted, but that the earth simultaneously received, put forth the ear of grain flourishing, and the cluster of grapes became ripe? "Behold water," he says. He did not seek walls, nor a golden roof, nor the preparation of garments, nor sandals; but since he had a prepared disposition and was boiling with desire and was kindled with eagerness, he immediately ran to the grace, and urges the teacher to lead him by the hand to the initiation, and to impart those immortal and awe-inspiring mysteries. Therefore that one also immediately assented, approving the eagerness, and baptized him. For this reason the Gospel calls it a harvest, because of the ease which it provided them. For elsewhere too it says that they were attending to the things spoken by Paul; for the Lord opened their heart to attend to the things spoken by him. But when you hear that he humbles mountains, and works a harvest, and makes the fruit ripe, and provides much ease, do not deprive the believers of the greatest achievements; for he did not compel the freedom of disposition, nor did he damage free will, but he cooperated and helped and extended a hand. For if everything were his, nothing would prevent all from being saved; but now part was his, and part belonged to those who approach.

of those approaching, the will and choice, and to display great eagerness and noble faith, and of him to provide the gifts, and to make the word clear and the teaching plain, and to sow the seeds, and to assist toward the ripeness of the hearing. Considering all these things, then, let us take him as ally and helper in the labor for virtue, contributing everything from ourselves. For if a matter having such difficulty was so easily accomplished, not in one or two or twenty cities, but everywhere throughout the inhabited world—I mean the proclamation and the teaching—and this entire land, as far as the sun beholds, has been sown and teems with this most excellent fruit, it is evident that he will also join with us in the sweats for virtue, only if we are not supine and prostrate, but contribute from ourselves eagerness, zeal, will, purpose, vigilance, care, freedom from worldly affairs, seeking the future, and loving them each day. For if we provide these with precision, all things from him will follow; and when those things come to pass, we will obtain the heavenly goods. May it be that we all attain them, by the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.