Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 4 part 2/2

But shall I call you a demon? Yet a demon is neither enslaved to the tyranny of the belly, nor is it enamored of money.

Since then you have more vices than both beasts and demons, how shall we call you a man, tell me? And if you cannot be called a man, how shall we address you as one of the faithful? And what is yet more grievous is this: that being in so evil a condition, we do not even consider the deformity of our soul, nor do we perceive its unsightliness.

But while sitting in the barber's shop and having your hair cut, you take the mirror and examine with all exactness the arrangement of your hair, and you ask those standing by, and the very man who cut it, whether he has well composed the locks about your forehead;

and though often an old man, you are not ashamed to rave over youthful fancies;

yet of our soul, which has become not only deformed, but even beast-shaped, and, according to the outside fable, a very Scylla or Chimaera, we perceive not even a little.

And yet here too there is a spiritual mirror, and one far better and more useful than that other;

for it does not merely show the deformity, but also transforms it into unspeakable beauty, if we are willing.

And this mirror is the remembrance of good men, and the record of their blessed life, the reading of the Scriptures, the laws given by God.

And if you are willing but once only to look upon the images of those holy men, you will see the unsightliness of your own mind; and having seen it, you will thenceforth need nothing else to be delivered from this foulness.

For to this end also the mirror is useful to us, and it makes the transformation easy.

Let no one, therefore, remain in the form of the irrational creatures.

For if the servant does not enter into his father's house, when you yourself have become also a beast, how shall you be able to set foot upon those forecourts? And why do I speak of a beast? Such a one is more grievous than any beast.

For those creatures, though wild by nature, having enjoyed man's skill, often become tame;

but you, who have changed their natural savagery into a tameness contrary to their nature, what defense will you have, when you have led out your own natural gentleness into a savagery contrary to your nature? and while showing what is wild by nature to be tame, you set up yourself, who are gentle by nature, as wild contrary to nature? and while you tame the lion and make it manageable, you render your own wrath fiercer than a lion? And yet in that case there are two hindrances: that the beast is deprived of reason, and that it is the most passionate of all creatures;

but nevertheless, by the abundance of the wisdom given you by God, you master even nature.

You, then, who in the case of beasts overcome even nature, how is it that in your own case you betray, along with nature, also the nobility of your free choice? And if I had bidden another man to make himself gentle, not even so would I have seemed to enjoin things impossible;

yet in that case you might have put forward the plea that you are not master of another's will, nor does the whole matter lie in your own power.

But now it is your own beast, and one of which you are entirely master.

What defense, then, have you, and what specious pretext will you be able to put forward, when you make a lion into a man, yet overlook yourself becoming from a man a lion? and while you bestow on it things above its nature, yet do not keep for yourself even the things according to nature? but strive to bring up wild beasts to our nobility, while you overthrow yourself from the throne of royalty and thrust yourself out into their madness? For suppose, if you will, that wrath too is a beast;

and as much zeal as others show about lions, so much show about yourself, and make such a reasoning tame and gentle.

For this too has grievous teeth and claws, and unless you tame it, it will destroy everything.

For not even a lion and a viper are able so to tear the vitals asunder, as wrath, doing this continually with its iron claws.

For it not only injures the body, but corrupts also the very health of the soul, devouring, tearing to pieces,

shredding all its power, and rendering it useless for everything.

For if one, nourishing worms in his entrails, will not even be able to breathe, all his inward parts being consumed by them, how, when we have so great a serpent as this gnawing away all that is within, namely wrath, shall we be able to bring forth anything noble? How then shall we be delivered from this ruin? If we drink a draught able to deaden the worms and serpents within.

And what, one asks, might be the draught that has this power? The precious blood of Christ, if it be received with boldness of confidence;

for this will be able to quench every disease, and along with this the diligent hearing of the divine Scriptures, and almsgiving added to the hearing;

for through all these things the passions that injure our soul will be able to be put to death.

For as things now are, we are disposed no better than the dead;

since it is not possible, while those passions live, for us also to live, but we must needs perish.

And unless we make haste to slay them here, they will assuredly slay us there;

or rather, even before that death, they will demand of us here too the uttermost penalty.

For each of such passions, being both savage and tyrannical and insatiable, and devouring us every day, never comes to a stand.

For their teeth are the teeth of a lion;

or rather, even far more grievous.

For the lion, as soon as it is glutted, also withdraws from the body that has fallen in its way;

but these passions neither are filled full, nor withdraw, until they have set the captured man near the devil.

For so great is their power, that the very servitude which Paul displayed toward Christ, despising for His sake both hell and the kingdom, this same they exact even from those they have captured.

For whether one fall into the love of bodies, or of money, or of glory, he thenceforth even laughs hell to scorn, and despises the kingdom, that he may accomplish the will of these passions.

Let us not, therefore, disbelieve Paul when he says that he so loved Christ.

For when some are found so enslaved to their passions, how shall that any longer seem incredible? For it is on this account that our longing for Christ is weaker, because all our power is consumed upon this lust, and we snatch, and are covetous, and are enslaved to empty glory;

than which what could be more worthless? For though you become renowned ten thousand times over, you shall be no better than the dishonored, but for this very reason all the more dishonored.

For when those who wish to glorify you and to make you illustrious laugh at you for this very thing, that you desire the glory that comes from them, how shall not the fruits of such zeal be turned into their opposite for you?

For the matter belongs to things that are censured.

For just as one who praises and flatters him that desires to commit adultery or fornication, by this very thing becomes rather an accuser than a praiser of him that desires such things;

so also him that desires glory, when we all praise him, we are rather accusers than praisers of those who wish to be glorified.

Why then do you draw to yourself the thing from which the opposite is wont to befall you? For if you wish to be glorified, despise glory, and you shall be more illustrious than all.

Why do you suffer the very thing that Nebuchadnezzar suffered? For he too set up an image, thinking to procure for himself, from the wood and the senseless form, an addition of good report, and the living one wished to appear more illustrious than the lifeless.

Did you see the excess of his madness? For while seeming to honor himself, he rather insulted himself.

For when he appears to trust in the lifeless thing rather than in himself and in the living soul within him, and on this account brings the wood to so high a place of precedence, how should he not be worthy of laughter, hastening to adorn himself not from his character, but from planks of wood? Just as if one, on account of the bench in his house and on account of the ladder that is beautiful, should think fit to pride himself rather on these than on his being a man.

This man many now imitate even among us.

For just as he from the image, so others from garments, and others from a house, and others from mules and carriages, and from the columns in their houses, deem it fit to be admired;

having lost the being of men, they go about gathering to themselves from elsewhere a glory laden with much laughter.

But the noble and great servants of God shone forth not from these things, but from the very things whence they least should have been expected to shine.

For being captives and slaves, young and strangers, and destitute of everything belonging to their own homeland, they then appeared far more august than he who was clothed with all these splendors.

And for Nebuchadnezzar neither so great an image, nor satraps, nor generals, nor countless armies, nor a multitude of gold, nor any other display sufficed for his desire and to prove himself great;

but for these men, stripped of all such things, philosophy alone sufficed, and it showed those who possessed none of these to be more resplendent than he who wore the diadem and the purple and was clothed with such things, by as much as the sun is brighter than a pearl.

For they were led into the midst of the whole world, being young and captives and slaves; and as soon as they appeared, the king straightway darted fire from his eyes, and generals and prefects and governors and the devil's whole theater stood round about, and the sound of pipes and trumpets and every kind of music, borne up toward heaven, resounded in their ears; and the furnace was kindled to an immense height, and its flame reached the very clouds, and all was filled with terror and amazement.

But none of these things dismayed them;

rather, laughing them to scorn as at children at play, they displayed their manliness and their calm forbearance, and, sending forth a voice more resplendent than those trumpets, they said:

"Be it known unto thee, O king."

For they did not wish to insult the tyrant even so much as by a word, but only to display their piety.

Wherefore they did not stretch out long speeches, but in brief they set forth all;

for "There is," he says, "a God in heaven able to deliver us."

Why dost thou show me the multitude? Why the furnace? Why the whetted swords? Why the fearsome spearmen? Higher than all these is our Master, and mightier.

Then, considering that it might come to pass that God should will and permit them to be burned, lest, if this should happen, they should seem to have spoken falsely, they add this also, saying: "But if it be not so, be it known unto thee that we do not serve thy gods."

For if they had said that on account of their sins He does not rescue them, then even should He not rescue them, they would have been disbelieved.

For this reason, here they keep silence about this;

but they speak of it at the furnace, putting forward their sins up and down.

But before the king, nothing of the kind; only that even if they were about to be burned, they would not betray their piety.

For they did what they did not for reward or recompense, but out of love alone;

and this though they were even in captivity and in bondage, and had enjoyed nothing of good.

For indeed they had fallen away from fatherland and freedom and all that they possessed.

Do not, I pray, speak to me of the honors they had in the royal courts.

For being holy and righteous, they would ten thousand times rather have begged at home, and enjoyed the good things in the temple.

For "I have chosen," he says, "to be cast aside in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners;"

and, "Better is one day in Thy courts than thousands."

Ten thousand times, therefore, would they have chosen to be cast aside at home, rather than to reign in Babylon.

And this is plain from the very things they declare even in the furnace, being burdened by their sojourn there.

For even if they themselves enjoyed much honor, when they beheld the calamities of the others they were exceedingly stung;

which is above all the peculiar mark of the saints:

to prefer neither glory, nor honor, nor anything else, above the salvation of one's neighbor.

See, then, how, being in the furnace, they made supplication on behalf of the whole people.

But we, not even when at ease, make mention of our brethren.

And when they sought out the dreams, they had regard not to their own concern, but to that of the many;

for that they despised death, they afterward showed by many proofs.

And everywhere they put themselves forward, wishing to entreat God.

Then, since they deemed even themselves insufficient, they take refuge in the fathers;

yet they said that they themselves brought nothing more than a contrite spirit.

These, then, let us also emulate.

For even now there stands a golden image, the tyranny of mammon.

But let us give no heed to the timbrels, nor to the flutes, nor to the harps, nor to the rest of wealth's display;

rather, even if it be needful to fall into the furnace of poverty, let us choose it, so as not to worship that image, and there shall be a dew whistling in the midst.

Let us not, therefore, shudder when we hear of the furnace of poverty.

For at that time also those who fell into the furnace were shown to be more resplendent, while those who worshiped were destroyed.

But then all these things happened together;

whereas now some things will be here, and others there, and others both here and in the day to come.

For those who, in order not to worship mammon, have chosen poverty, will be more resplendent both here and hereafter;

but those who grow rich here unjustly will then pay the uttermost penalty.

From this furnace also Lazarus came forth, no less resplendent than those youths;

while the rich man, in the rank of those who worshiped the image, was condemned in hell.

For indeed the things spoken of are a type of those.

As, then, in that case those who fell in suffered nothing, while those who sat outside were snatched away with great violence;

so the saints, walking through the river of fire, will suffer nothing distressing, but will even appear radiant;

but those who worshiped the image will see the fire leaping upon them, fiercer than any wild beast, and dragging them within.

So that if anyone disbelieves in hell, let him, beholding this furnace, believe from things present in things to come, and let him not fear the furnace of poverty, but the furnace of sin.

For the one is flame and anguish, but the other is dew and refreshment;

and by that furnace stands the devil, but by this one, angels shaking off the flame.

Let the rich hear these things, they who kindle the furnace of poverty.

For they will in no way harm those men, since the dew comes to them;

but they render themselves an easy prey to the flame which they have kindled with their own hands.

At that time, then, an angel descended together with those youths;

but now let us go down together with those who are in the furnace of poverty, and through almsgiving let us make a dew, and shake off the flame, that we too may become partakers of their crowns;

that the voice of Christ may also scatter the flame of hell, the voice which says:

"I saw thee hungry, and ye fed Me."

For this voice will then stand by us in place of dew, whistling through the midst of the flame.

Let us go down, therefore, with almsgiving into the furnace of poverty;

let us behold those who love wisdom walking in it, and treading on the coals;

let us behold the new and marvelous wonder, a man singing psalms in a furnace, a man giving thanks in the fire, bound fast to utmost poverty, and bearing much praise to Christ.

For those who bear poverty with thanksgiving become equal to those youths.

For poverty is more fearful than fire, and is wont to consume more fiercely.

But it did not consume those youths; rather, since they confessed their thanks to the Master, their bonds also were straightway loosed for them.

So also now, if having fallen into poverty thou give thanks, both thy bonds are loosed and the flame is quenched;

And even if it is not quenched, what is far more marvelous, instead of a flame it becomes a fountain;

and in the midst of the furnace they enjoyed a pure dew.

For the fire did not quench its own burning, yet it was prevented from consuming those who had been cast into it.

This same thing one may also observe in the case of those who practice true wisdom;

for even in poverty they are disposed more free from fear than the rich.

Let us not, then, sit outside the furnace, being merciless toward the poor, lest we suffer the very thing which those men suffered at that time.

For if you go down to them and stand together with the children, the fire will no longer do you any harm;

but if, sitting up above, you overlook them in the flame of poverty, the flame will burn you up.

Go down, therefore, into the fire, that you may not be burned up by the fire;

do not sit outside the fire, lest the flame snatch you away.

For if it sees you among the poor, it will withdraw from you;

but if it sees you estranged from them, it will run swiftly upon you and snatch you away.

Do not, therefore, stand apart from them when they are cast in;

but when the devil commands that those who have not worshipped the gold be cast into the furnace of poverty, become not one of those who cast in, but one of those who are cast in, that you may be among those who are saved, and not among those who are burned.

For this too is a mighty dew: not to be held fast by the desire of wealth, and to keep company with the poor.

These are more abundantly supplied than all others, they who have trampled underfoot the desire of wealth.

Since those men too, when they then despised the king, became more resplendent than the king.

You too, therefore, if you disdain the affairs that are in the world, will be more precious than the whole world, after the example of those saints, of whom the world was not worthy.

In order, then, that you may become worthy of the heavenly things, laugh to scorn the things that are present.

For thus you will be both more resplendent here, and will enjoy the good things to come, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might unto the ages of ages.