Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 50

'And having dismissed the multitudes, He went up into the mountain apart.' [Matthew 14:23]

Do not, therefore, say, 'It makes no difference this way, and no difference that way';

for this, this very thing, has ruined everything.

For it were fitting to train them even from these small matters, and from the things that seem to be trifling to make them dignified, magnanimous, and superior to outward appearances;

for thus we shall find them approved in great matters as well.

For what is meaner than the learning of the letters of the alphabet? Yet nevertheless from these come rhetoricians, and sophists, and philosophers;

and if they are ignorant of these, they will never come to know those higher things either.

These things have been said by us not to the young only, but also to women and to maidens.

For they too are liable to such charges, and much more so, inasmuch as decorum is especially suited to a virgin.

Consider, therefore, the things that have been said to those others as spoken to you also, that we may not take up the same matters again.

For it is now time at last to close the discourse with prayer.

All of you, then, pray together with us, that the young men of the Church especially may be enabled to live decently, and to come to an old age befitting them.

Since for those who do not so live, it is not even good to reach old age;

but for those who have grown old even in their youth, I pray that they may come even to the deepest gray hairs, and become fathers of approved children, and give joy to those who begot them, and above all to God who made them, and may drive out every disease—not that which is in the shoes, nor that which is in the garments only, but every other disease as well.

For just as land left untilled, such also is youth left uncared for, bringing forth many thorns from every side.

Let us therefore set to work the fire of the Spirit, and burn up these wicked desires, and break up our fallow fields anew, and make them ready to receive the seed, and let us show that the young men among us are more temperate than the aged of other places.

For this is indeed the marvellous thing, when temperance shines forth in youth; since one who is chaste in old age would not have any great reward, having in his very age a sure and exact safeguard.

But the astonishing thing is to enjoy calm amid the waves, not to be consumed in the furnace, and not to give oneself over to wantonness in youth.

Reflecting therefore on these things, let us emulate that blessed Joseph, who shone in all these virtues, that we too may attain the same.

Which may it be granted to us all to attain, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.