De caeco et Zacchaeo

On the blind man whom Christ healed and on Zacchaeus, and concerning judgment and almsgiving, a homily. Many and varied are the teachings of the holy scriptures, but one grace shines upon all, and one source of teaching is the spirit of truth. And whatever it declares, and whatever they teach, whatever they proclaim, whatever piety dictates, comes from one flourishing and fruitful source, as it were, the Holy Spirit. And it is not possible to say anything noble, nor to conceive anything right, nor to do anything wondrous, without the Holy Spirit confirming what is said, what is thought, and what is done. For even if someone boasts in human wisdom and has a soul fortified by human reasonings, but rejects the word of God, he is nothing and will be accounted as nothing. Therefore the prophet says: "They rejected the word of the Lord. What wisdom is there in them?" For us, then, the scriptures of piety are flowers of truth. And many are the flowers, but one is the meadow that nourishes the flowers; many are the lamps of teaching, but one is the true light; many are the stars, but one is the heaven that bears the stars; many are the branches, but one is the root; many are the fingers, but one is the hand that writes through the fingers; many are the strings, but one is the cithara of the spirit; many are the teachings, but one is the source of piety. But I marvel how this blind man, having read no law, having gone through no prophets, having encountered no gospels, having been confirmed by no apostles, called upon the savior of the world, saying, "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

Where did you learn to call these things, not having learned what you invoke? You have not read books, being deprived of sight; you have not devoted yourself to teachings, having one purpose in life, begging—or rather, begging for alms. Whence, then, did you know the luminary of the world, whom you have beheld neither in the heavens nor on earth, being deprived of sight? But truly in this case was fulfilled what was said by David: 'The Lord makes the blind wise.' There was a great crowd around Jesus, and the blind man did not know the luminary of truth, but he perceived its activity; he seized by disposition what his sight had not received. 'What does the crowd want?' they say to him: 'Jesus the Nazarene is passing by.' O the wonder! He is taught one thing and proclaims another; he hears 'Jesus the Nazarene,' but he does not call him 'Jesus the Nazarene,' but 'Jesus, son of David.' Those who saw spoke from conjecture, but the blind man proclaimed from truth. 'Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.' Therefore, let each one, appropriating the cry, break forth from the heart in confession, and let each one say this cry for himself: 'Son of David, have mercy on me.' And just as, brothers, when many go to a mourning, and see a bier laid out and wept over by its own, all weep—some sharing in the grief, others examining their own affairs—and often a woman weeps and laments, but not for the one laid out (for he is a stranger), but for her own who has departed before, and the alien circumstance becomes a reminder of her own evils; so, brothers, each of you, when learning what is proclaimed by the saints, let him appropriate the word, speaking for his own wounds.

Son of David, have mercy on me. And let each one now, roused by his own evils, say: one, that he is blind in mind; another, that his soul is deaf; another, that his reasoning is lame; another, that his judgment is leprous. For the afflictions which Christ healed in bodies also occur in souls and require help from above. There is a blind soul, needing to see again; a blind soul that does not see the wonders of the law; a blind soul that does not behold the coming age; a blind soul that sees the body of Christ but does not recognize the divinity. That the soul ignorant of matters concerning God is blind is witnessed by Isaiah, saying: "And the servants of God were blinded." How were they blinded? "For you saw," he says, "many times, and did not take heed; your ears were open, and you did not hear." And who is blind but my children? And who is deaf but those who rule over them? And the Savior, wishing to show blindness of mind, convicts the Pharisees as being blind to the truth, saying: "Leave them; they are blind guides of the blind; and if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit." The soul is deaf that does not obey the law, that disregards the Lord's voice—deaf not by nature but by choice. For this reason the Savior said: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Not that some of those present lacked ears—for how could they attend to teaching without the organ of hearing?—but he clearly shows that the visible ear is fashioned for hearing, while the soul's perception is not attuned to hearing the divine law.

There is therefore no benefit from outward hearing when the inner understanding is deafened. Someone is leprous in soul—not the one whose body is dimmed, but the one whose soul is darkened. For what is leprosy in the body but a double color? What is leprosy in the soul? A double-minded reasoning. Woe to the sinner who walks on two paths. When someone sometimes believes and sometimes disbelieves, and sometimes inclines toward almsgiving and sometimes toward inhumanity, he is leprous in soul, not having a healthy complexion, but dividing his mind; and just as leprosy divides the body, so an evil reasoning divides the mind. Let each one therefore cry out over his own wounds and call upon Jesus, the physician of souls and bodies, just as the blind man cried out: Son of David, have mercy on me. And those who were leading the way rebuked him; but the boldness is not hindered by those who try to prevent it. Faith knows how to fight against all things and to conquer all things. Men rebuked him, and the faithful man does not shrink back, but follows the Master, knowing that shamelessness on behalf of piety is good.

If many are shameless for the sake of money, is it not most noble to put on a good shamelessness for the sake of the soul’s salvation? Jesus orders him to be brought. The voice of the one who called upon him with faith halted the Lord Jesus; he ordered that the one who had already approached him in faith be brought to him, and then draw near in body. He ordered him to be brought, and says: What do you wish me to do for you? He does not ask idly; for he could have sent healing even while he was seated, but the Jews, who slander the truth, could have said, as in the case of the man blind from birth: This is not the same man, but someone like him. So he calls the beneficiary into the midst of the ungrateful as a spectacle, so that first he might show the natural defect, and then make known the authority of the grace. What do you wish me to do for you? He asks that man, but he teaches those present. The other says: Lord, that I may see again. See how many pledges he receives from the one receiving the cure, so as to shut out the slander of the malicious. Then he says: Go, your faith has saved you. Do you see how what we said earlier is shown through the very deeds? And that the benefits are not for sale, but are sold for faith? Jesus does not give benefits for money, but sells them for faith. If you do not pay down faith, you do not receive the benefit; grace is spread out, but faith comes forward. And just as there is one spring, but people draw from the spring, some with small vessels, others with larger ones, and one draws a little water, another much—not because the spring apportions the measures, but because each draws according to his own vessel—

Thus grace is spread like a spring, and the intention of the one approaching becomes the vessel and container of grace. If, then, you bring little faith as a small vessel, you draw little grace; but if you bring a great mind, you draw a great benefit. For this reason the Savior says: Do you believe that I can do this? And he says: Yes, Lord. And the Savior: According to your faith, so let it be for you. From this the Apostle exhorts the Corinthians, saying: Expand yourselves, to show that grace enters more widely into the mind that is widened; and the prophet: Open your mouth, and I will fill it. The hindrance is not on the part of the benefit, but on our own negligence. Jesus, the light of righteousness, has risen, the ray of the intelligible sun is spread everywhere; and one enjoys less grace, another more, not because grace divides, but because the measure of the mind determines it. For just as one sun shines on the whole earth, with one ray and one radiance, yet not all the world is equally illuminated, but one has bright light, another less, another more, and one narrow, another broader—not because the sun gives more to this house and less to that, but because the ray finds room according to the windows that the builders have opened, and thus pours in; so, since the windows of our soul are our thoughts, when you open your thoughts more widely, you receive a broader benefit; when you narrow your mind, you narrow grace. Uncover your thought, so that you may receive the radiance. For this reason Paul says about himself:

But all of us, with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord, being transformed from glory to glory. One blind man was healed through the narrative, and the eyes of many are opened through the teaching. Let it be for you according to your faith. The blind man, it is said, followed, glorifying God; and Jesus does not prevent him. Here it is necessary to observe: when he healed the demoniac, he was entreated by the one who received the benefit to follow Jesus; for he, it is said, wished to follow. But the Saviour prevents him and says: Go to your house, and proclaim all that God has done for you. For what reason does he prevent the one who wished to follow, but does not prevent the other? Why does he permit this one to follow, but not permit that one? Both for that one’s benefit and for this one’s advantage. He did not allow that one to follow for another reason, because he was a demoniac; and the demoniac’s speech and tongue were distorted. So he sends him as a herald, so that from his condition he might proclaim the benefactor. For it was a strange sight to see the one once not in his right mind proclaiming words in a right mind. So he makes the very instrument of the one benefited a herald of the one who saved him. And see the wonder, see the humility of the Saviour, see the gratitude of the demoniac. The Saviour says: Go, and proclaim all that God has done for you. He does not say: All that I have done for you, but, humbly, he ascribes it to the name of God. And the demoniac went about proclaiming all that the God Jesus had done for him.

He sends one to preach, so that from the situation he might show the magnitude of the benefaction; the blind man he allows to follow. Why? Because he was going up to Jerusalem to accomplish the great mystery and to undertake the economy for the world, and the cross was to follow, and insult, and all the innovations wrought by the God-fighters; for this reason he makes the blind man follow, so that they might have the memory of the miracle fresh, so that the memory of the healing might support the mind of those who were about to slip. He makes the blind man follow, so that no one might deny the miracle-working, since the mind of the apostles was about to be shaken as in a storm, and the condition of those watching was about to be storm-tossed, as they saw the only-begotten of God on the cross. So that, looking at the passion, they might not falter, he allows the blind man to follow, so that, having the memory of the benefaction fresh, they might have the reasoning of the truth unshaken. For Christ does many such things, since he came to undertake the economy for men. And so that no one might suppose that he suffers because of weakness and not endure because of love for humanity, before he enters Jerusalem, he sees a fig tree. And he went, it says, seeking fruit from it, and did not find it. And when he did not find it, he rebuked it, saying: May fruit never come from you for eternity. What did the fig tree sin? For does it have fruit-bearing by rational authority? Does not the creator, whenever he wishes, provide energy to fruit-bearing? Moreover, it was not even the season for figs; for the Gospel bears witness to this.

Who among ordinary people, let alone God, demands fruit at an untimely season? Did you not, the Creator, establish the seasons? Did you not give seasons and times for fruit-bearing? Why then do you demand fruit contrary to the season you ordained? And if it were the season for figs, but the fig tree bore no fruit, would that be an indictment of its nature? Does it not offer fruit when it wishes, not when it is commanded to bring forth its produce? For what reason, then, does he rebuke the fig tree? Because he was about to undergo the Passion, so that they might not think he suffered from weakness; he demonstrates his power on the inanimate object, to show that he could have dried up all who opposed him, annihilated all who fought against God. But since he did not come to judge the world, but to save it, as he himself said, he displays his power on the inanimate, while he reserves his love for humanity for people. So too here he allowed the blind man to follow, so that the fresh memory might dispel the scandal, so that they might have the miracle shining before them. But one miracle followed another; for after the blind man regained his sight, another blind man in soul regained his sight. Who is this? The chief tax collector, blind in matters of money, who had his soul blinded by greed; for nothing so blinds the soul as money. That is why Moses says: "For bribes blind the eyes of men and corrupt just words." The chief tax collector came, and Jesus passed by, he who dissolves every sin, who annihilates every vice, who transforms darkness into light and leads crooked things to the straight path. Zacchaeus was short in stature, but extended in desire; short in body, but great in spirit.

For he desired to see Jesus, but was unable because of his short stature; and anticipating this, he devised a means to supply what his age lacked: he climbed up into a sycamore tree and saw Jesus as he passed by. But our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom Paul says, "He who knows how to do more than we ask or think," gave him not merely what he longed for, but beyond what he expected. For the one longed only to see, but the other deemed him worthy of welcome as well. And he who perceived his mind—for before he climbed the fig tree, he knew his mind—says to him: "Zacchaeus, come down quickly." The Savior is a skilled fowler, bringing down a soul from a tree. "Zacchaeus, come down quickly." He extended to him the reed of his word, placed the lime of love upon it, caught him from the wings of his mind, and gathers him under his own church. And see what he does. Lest you think that the word alone is what compelled him, but that the word of God is like a fowler, the blessed Zechariah says: "And the Lord showed me a fowler's pot, and said to me: I will not pass by my people until, he says, I have limed him." Thus truth is attested, that the word of God is lime, entwining souls with love as with birdlime; and just as that glue can no longer separate what is held from what holds, so also souls united to the Savior are stuck as if with the fowler's glue. Therefore the one caught, a fine nestling, David said: "My soul clings behind you"; and again the apostle: "He who clings to the Lord is one spirit.

He spots Zacchaeus, and brings him down from the tree, and ushers himself into his tent, which once he himself had darkened with his sins, but today the light of piety has illumined. So when the Savior entered, the tax collector received him joyfully. O the great goodness of the Master: the sinless one with sinners, the spring of justice with the stuff of injustice—for the stuff of injustice is greed. He entered the house of the tax collector, not insulted by the gloom of greed, but obliterating greed with the radiance of justice. And see the marvel: Immediately Zacchaeus, standing before the doorway, says, "Lord, I give half of my possessions to the poor." Have you not yet been taught, and you obey? Have you not yet learned, and you kept it? The Savior said nothing, taught nothing, gave no instruction about almsgiving, dictated no love of the poor at that time, but was silent and gently shone; and just as the sun, pouring through its rays into a house, does not illuminate by word, but shines by its very activity, so the Savior, upon entering, drove out the course of injustice with the rays of justice. For the light shines in the darkness, as the evangelist says. "Lord, I give half of my possessions to the poor." He divides greed well, he cuts injustice. "Half of my possessions." Anything whole is strong, but when cut it becomes weak. "Half of my possessions." O the beautiful voice, conquering nature, or rather conquering habit—for habit is second nature. He drove out insatiability, he recognized the truth.

I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have wronged or falsely accused anyone of anything, I repay fourfold. Here one must pay close attention, because Zacchaeus’s wealth came not only from injustice but also from his paternal inheritance; for if it came only from injustice, how could he have been able to repay four times what he took? Why does he say, “If I have wronged anyone of anything, I repay fourfold”? Even though he lived in lawlessness, he also knew the law; for the law commands that a thief repay the theft fourfold. “If someone,” it says, “steals a sheep and is found out, let him repay four sheep.” God multiplies the penalty—or rather, the loss—by four, so that even if the law does not frighten, the loss may shame; for many people often, though not respecting the law, do respect a loss. So he condemns himself, not awaiting the verdict of the law, but becoming a law unto himself; for a just man has no law imposed on him. The Savior, upon hearing this declaration, says, “Today salvation has come to this house.” He justified himself, not simply because he saw Christ, but because he obeyed Christ’s laws. “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham.” Before he performed the works of Abraham, he does not call him a son of Abraham, but calls him Zacchaeus by his bare name; when, however, he fulfilled the works of the patriarch, having promised love of the poor and alienation from injustice, then he says, “And this man too is a son of Abraham.

And we, therefore, brothers, even if we are and are called Christians, nothing shows us to be Christians so much as the work of truth. Let us not, therefore, dishonor the name by our deeds, but let us adorn the faith by our deeds. We were called sons of Abraham through faith; let us be called sons of Abraham through good works. For, as I said earlier, it is not nobility of body that is sought, but the consistency of character. For this reason Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the patriarchs denied the synagogue, because they did not inherit the faith of the fathers. Abraham denied his own relatives, because they did not follow the faith; Isaac, Jacob, and all the patriarchs also denied them; for one who denies God is also denied by nature. And what testimony will the word bear, that Abraham denied the Jews, so that we may not seem to be bold as against enemies, but to rebuke them as sinners? The blessed Jeremiah says on behalf of the people: "Lord, have mercy on us; the mountain and the city, which our fathers blessed, have been burned with fire; you, Lord, have mercy on us, for Abraham did not know us, and Israel did not recognize us; you, Lord, spare us." For, he says, those in whom we took pride have become estranged from us and have denied our race; you, who surpass all in love for humanity, have mercy on us. Have mercy on us, for Abraham did not know us. For if he had claimed our affairs as his own, he would not have interceded for his own children. He interceded for the Sodomites and was heard; and when interceding for his own, was he not heard? Abraham did not know us.

Abraham disowns those who are alien in their ways, but he claims as his own, as I said, those who are alien in lineage but kindred in piety. For this reason, Scripture, wishing to show the Jews that a person receives the name of those whose ways he chooses, says: "Your father is an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite, your sister a Sodomite." See how it constructs kinship from ways. Because he thought the thoughts of the Sodomites, he was called a sister of Sodom, he was called a daughter of the Canaanites; and thus it was shown that it was not the lineage that was being justified, but the character that was being honored. I, however, think that the Canaanite and the Amorite deny the kinship; and when they see those who fight against God and those alien to piety coming over to him, the Canaanite denies and does not accept being called the father of the impious. Why does he deny? If you press a Canaanite and say that your father is a Canaanite, he will say: "Is this one, who has denied the faith of his fathers, my son? I am not faithless, even if I am a Canaanite." For the Canaanite woman will bear witness to my faith, crying out: "Son of David, have mercy on me." Let them not be called sons of Canaanites, for they did not keep the faith of the Canaanite woman; let them be called sons of stones and wood, those who say to the stone, "You are my father," and to the wood, "You gave birth to me." I, however, think that even the stones deny, and the wood renounces the kinship of the faithless. A stone can also deny and say: "This one is not my child, the son of impiety; this one is not my child, the son of injustice; for I, even if I am a stone, have heard Scripture saying:

God can raise up children for Abraham even from these stones. Then, yes, someone says, he personifies, speaking from the stone’s perspective—does a stone speak? Listen to the prophet saying that a stone will speak from a wall, and a beetle will speak from wood. Even if you fall silent, the stones will cry out. What, then, shall the race of the unbelievers be called, if they are neither sons of Abraham, nor Canaanites because of the Canaanite woman—for the light of the Canaanite woman’s faith blunted their unbelief—nor sons of the stones? For even the stones disown kinship. What name for the unbelievers? Jeremiah gave them a name: call them rejected silver, because the Lord has rejected them. Let us also fear, then, brothers. Does the nobility of Christ exalt you? Let the righteous judgment of Christ terrify you. Yesterday a sermon was preached about almsgiving, that everything must be set second to almsgiving, that one must prefer the soul above all. I marveled at another ingratitude: how those who have no children take on adopted sons; and one is made a father, another a brother. Do you adopt a stranger as a son and flee from the master? Adopt the one who pays you back the reward; let Christ become a son to you. The saying is fearful, he says. Watch what you say: do not, on the pretext of the word, be led astray from the Word, do not be carried down into unreason. Do you call Christ the son of a man? But I call him not only son, but also brother, not from myself, but following his own words. They once said to him: Your mother and your brothers are looking for you. The Savior says: Who is my mother, or who are my brothers?

Whoever does the will of my father, that one is my brother and sister and mother. But if she is his mother, then the one who honored righteousness with the title is the son of the mother. Let every soul, therefore, become a mother of Christ in disposition. How a mother of Christ? Every soul gives birth to Christ within herself; but if it is not transformed by piety, it cannot be called mother of Christ. When you receive the word of Christ and shape it in your mind, and as if in a womb transform it by reasoning, you are called his mother. And so that you may learn that Christ is formed in each one, and the soul of each of us becomes mother of Christ—I mean of the word of Christ—Paul says: My children, whom I am again bringing to birth, until Christ is formed in you. Have you worked righteousness? You have formed Christ in your soul. Have you given alms? You have formed the character of truth. Not that Christ is formed in each individual case; for he calls Christ the word of piety, through which we take up the character of truth. Have you given alms? You have formed Christ. Have you done righteousness? The character of truth has been formed. It is necessary, therefore, to pay attention to how one should make Christ a brother. Take him as a partner in your affairs. Do you not wish to give him everything? At least give him half, as Zacchaeus did. For it says that Zacchaeus gave to him, not to the poor. But listen: he who pities a poor person lends to God. By giving to the poor, you have given to Christ. Do you not know that he takes what is given into himself? Do you not know what a fearful judgment he has inscribed for you, saying:

When the Son of Man comes, in the regeneration, he will place the sheep on the right and the goats on the left; and he will say to those on the right, “Come, the blessed ones of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you, because I was hungry and you gave me food to eat.” See how the one who borrows through the poor acknowledges the debt. “I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was naked and you clothed me.” Therefore, in outward appearance you clothe a naked man, but in truth you clothe Christ. Clothe Christ, so that he may clothe you on the day of judgment; shelter him, so that he may shelter you on the day of wrath. Listen to David saying, “He sheltered me in the hidden place of his tent.” There is need of shelter; that terrible fire overtakes, that inexorable Gehenna; and unless the hand of Christ shelters you, the alien fire will claim you. It knows how to seize strangers, it knows how to honor saints, it respects piety, it seizes impiety. There, neither wealth nor money persuades, nor authority, nor power; all stand on equal footing before the tribunal of Christ. For even if there are differences among men, yet before the master all are of equal worth, even if they have great difference. How great is the difference between an angel and a man? Great and not ordinary. How great is the difference between the sun, the moon, and the stars? But they are all called together to the law of worship. How great is the difference between a plant, angels, and animals? Some are immortal, others mortal; but each in the yoke of servitude acknowledges the lordship. Therefore David also joins what is divided by rank into harmony, saying:

Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the highest, praise him, all his angels, all his powers, sun and moon. For even if it has descended in rank, it is united in servitude. And just as, brothers, the dignities in the world are divided among themselves, yet united under the yoke of servitude. For all bow down to the king, all tremble before the authority. And the difference lies in the dignities, but the harmony is among the servants. So too there all men are equal, only those who excel are unequal, those who shine in piety. Therefore Daniel spoke well: "I was watching in the vision of the night," and "Behold, one like an aged man was seated." Here pay close attention, I beg you, to how he describes the judge of truth as if in a bodily image. For since God is incorporeal by nature, he depicts the intelligible things as if in an image through perceptible things. So he says "Aged of days," not aged by time, but honored by antiquity: "His garment is white as snow, the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne is a flame of fire, his wheels are blazing fire. A river of fire is drawn before him; a thousand thousands stood by him, and ten thousand myriads serve him." Oh, what a fearful judgment! Oh, what a memory sufficient to frighten the ungrateful. If what is heard is so fearful, how much more fearful when seen? And I was watching in the vision of the night, and behold, books were opened, and thrones were set. Thrones, of whom? It is clear that they are of the holy apostles, to whom the Savior said:

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, you also will sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Books were opened. Books in which the evil deeds are written, books in which the good deeds are written, books in which the life of each one is recorded. He calls it a book, not because there is hide and letters with God, but because for you the book is an instrument of memory, and he describes the memory of God as if in a book; for God has no need of a book; for God, memory is a book. It is not because we humans, when reading prophets, apostles, gospels, do not carry memory in our heart without a book, that God needs a book; the source of memory has no need of a book. There the virtuous deeds are written, there the evil deeds are written. Do not fear the prejudgment; even if your evil deeds are recorded, they can be erased through good deeds; just as again, if someone’s name is written for piety, but he denies it by his ways, the writing does not create a prejudgment. For it is erased. And so that you may learn that he who was written for piety is erased and expelled through negligence, David says concerning the Jews who were once written and later erased: Let them be erased from the book of the living, and let them not be written with the righteous. Just as the faithless are erased, so the faithful are written. Listen to Paul saying: Greet the brothers beloved by us, and the spouse with Clement and the other fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. Let us fear that book; fear that your sins may be recorded.

Consider how you feel before a judge, if the records against you are opened before a magistrate, exposing your injustice, branding your madness. Consider how great the fear, how great the trembling, how your limbs shake, how all your insides seethe, when a human judges. But if there is such fear before a human judge, who will be able to describe that fear when the master of all is about to judge the world? We say these things not to frighten, but to bring you to your senses. Let not money be preferred to Christ; let not injustice and greed be preferred to God. You have heard what was said earlier, that good fortune lasts only until the tomb. These matters were discussed with us yesterday. Why do you wait for the tomb to become the end of your life? Wait for the tomb to become the end of your life, so that through the present you may be ferried across to the future. Love the works of justice. The tomb is where we are dissolved, the tomb where the earthly vessel is obliterated. Let us flee the coming judgment, brothers, I beg you. Those who suffer must say these things, and those who suffer must hear them. Let us take up a desire for justice. See how the prophet cries: "Woe is me for the day of the Lord, for the day of the Lord is near." If a prophet trembles remembering the day, shall we, who are liable for countless sins, remember it without fear? Let us appease the judge through repentance, let us erase our sins, let us fear that terrible voice which says: "Whoever denies me before men—not the one who denies in word, but the one who denies in his ways denies me—I will also deny him before my father.

Whoever would confess me, I will confess him in turn before my Father. If words under examination are fearful, are not deeds seen in person even more fearful? Consider, brother, the judge of the universe seated, angels standing by, archangels attending as bodyguards, the cherubim glorifying, the supracosmic powers, the supercelestial hosts, and among all these patriarchs, prophets, apostles, evangelists, martyrs, and the kings of the world, rulers, judges, potentates, the rich, the poor, commoners, the wise—all these standing before the tribunal—and before so many witnesses, both heavenly and earthly, the judge speaking and denying the alienated before the Father: "For I will deny him," he says, "who denies me, before my Father." Consider him saying: "Father, this one spurned my faith, this one persecuted my own, this one insulted my church, this one pilloried my own, this one spat upon my word, this one trampled my proclamation." He says these things not teaching the Father, who is not ignorant, but denouncing the enemy through the accusation. Consider the judge speaking, when he summons the glorious ones of the earth bound in handcuffs—"For to bind," he says, "their rulers in fetters, and their glorious ones in iron handcuffs"—the judged standing in fear, the potentates, and the Savior saying: "These spat upon my word of truth, these annulled my law, these invalidated my decree, these punished the apostles, these tortured the martyrs.

He says these things, and consider. When a king speaks, how the attending angels nod fearfully, threaten terrifyingly, with their gaze already consuming the sinner; consider the angels indignant, the archangels stirred, the powers shaken, the Father indignant, the Holy Spirit angry, that one cast out with great shame, cast out not only from salvation but also exiled to condemnation. But indeed it is not only fearful not to be saved, nor to reign, but also to be consigned to the fire. Whoever would confess in me, I will confess in him. Consider how great the glory, how great the boast, how great the crown, when the judge says: This one kept my word, this one proclaimed my faith, this one confirmed my word, this one did not overlook my poor, this one trampled greed and preferred justice, this one laughed at the world as if it were nothing and loved the world to come, this one ferried my kingdom across, this one honored my word; honor him, Father. But when we say these things by way of personification, we do not divide the dignity nor dissolve the authority, but by the form of accusation the indignation of the judge is shown; and all these things happen for the salvation of those who confess, for the condemnation of those who disbelieve. But the most fearful thing of all is when you consider Michael and Gabriel standing, and all the angelic hosts, but the sons of Zebedee seated, Paul and Peter seated, those from among men, while angels stand in fear and men sit with boldness.

Consider angels standing by, and fishermen and tax collectors seated, and let us also say with them: How great is the multitude of your kindness, Lord. Zacchaeus sits, Paul and Peter sit, and Michael stands. We do not speak strange names, but we follow what is written; for we have not learned the names of angels, but we adhere to what is written. There is no envy, no jealousy; for these are not earthly matters. Angels are not grieved because they themselves stand while men sit; for they share in the glory of the saints. Hear the Lord saying: Truly I say to you, that there is joy before all the angels over a single repentant sinner. Let us therefore love the glory of Christ, and let us spurn the passing glory as a dream. For it was said to you also yesterday, how the prophet called the glory of the world a dream. For it will be, he says, the wealth of the impious like a dream. For the present state differs nothing from phantoms. He who yesterday was in health, today is in sickness; he who yesterday was in authority, today is in humiliation; he who yesterday was in wealth, today is in poverty; he who yesterday was in pride, today is in contempt. Everything is shaken, everything changes; and I do not speak only of human things, but even the heaven, he says, and the earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Therefore blessed are Christians, who are humble even in office. Did you practice humility in office? Humility does you no harm; for it finds you such as you ought to become.

If you humble yourself beforehand, before humiliation comes, then humiliation will bring nothing strange against you, but having prepared your mind, you equip yourself for the battle. So David said well: I prepared myself, and I was not disturbed. Let us flee from arrogance, then, let us flee from vainglory, let us love Christ, and for Christ’s sake the poor, so that the one who enriches all, the one who pities all, may grant abundance to the church, that we may flourish in piety, that we may have the farmer of righteousness, the one who was left behind yesterday for another economy, but is with us through spiritual oversight. For the people were not Jewish, that I might say the people were like sheep without a shepherd; but they were apostolic, having an evangelical shepherd who says: Even if I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing and beholding the firmament of faith in Christ; to whom is the glory and the power, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.