Paschal Homilies 1 part 16/28

But to confess with the tongue that he is God of all, while not yet having withdrawn with the whole foot from the error of the demons — how, in all likelihood, would this be anything other than what I just said: to feign goodwill in word, while holding a mind that is barbarous? But one may say that he who is crowned with the most exalted glory would justly make this rebuke against them: 'O soldier, armed with my weapons, do you think the thoughts of the barbarians? You love only to be seen as mine, while being wholly another's.'

And God too, I think, would say concerning those not firmly established in the faith:

'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me.

1:2756 -> "'This people honors me with their lips,"; 1:2757 -> "but their heart is far away from me.'"; 1:2758 -> "'In vain do they worship me, keeping as teachings the commandments of men.' The occasion recasts the wording to suit what is fitting."

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' The occasion recasts the wording to suit what is fitting.

For some among those numbered with us have advanced to such a degree of foulness as to give heed to spirits of deception, and to surrender their minds to the idle, lying prattle of certain oracle-mongers.

who fancy that they know the things beyond heaven, and the things beneath the earth;

but these wretches, unaware, are deceiving their own minds, and are destroying others together with their own heads.

And indeed, gathering together swarms of pitiful old women, they whisper whatever seems fit, as though they themselves were the deity.

And these women return home again, foolishly beguiled by certain lying speeches, and robbed of the silver they had scarcely managed to gather.

For their art is a procuress of cold and unholy gains;

and they make the writing on the accursed tablet, as it were, a shop for selling falsehood.

This certain men of Israel used to do, having shown no regard for piety toward God, and having neglected the pursuit of what is fitting.

But what does the prophet Ezekiel say? 'And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:'

'Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart: prophesy, and say to them,

Hear the word of the Lord.'

Thus says the Lord Adonai:

Because your words are false, and your divinations are vain,

therefore, behold, I am against you, says the Lord Adonai;

and I will stretch out my hand against the prophets who see false visions, and who utter vain things.' And since certain most abominable little women also feigned knowledge of things to come, God spoke again to the prophet:

'And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own heart; prophesy against them, and say,

Thus says the Lord Adonai:

'Woe to the women who sew magic bands upon every wrist, and make veils for the heads of persons of every age, to lead souls astray!

The souls of my people were led astray, and they kept souls alive for their own gain, and profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread, putting to death souls that ought not to die, and keeping alive souls that ought not to live,

while you speak to a people who listen to you empty utterances.' For the truth stands as follows:

For it is not by calling upon God from some source that they convey to others, according to the true law of prophecy, things beyond human understanding;

but having themselves composed words suited to each of those accustomed to be curious inquirers, they send them forth from the workshops of their deceit.

And though claiming to be skilled and wise, and to have advanced to such a degree of art and precision, and supposing that they could understand the affairs of others without toil and without error, yet having gone astray concerning their own affairs, they would be caught out to such an extent that one might say of those who have stumbled that they had never expected to undergo the very experience that in fact befell them.

And yet, since it is possible for one who foreknows a thing to guard against it easily, and since it is possible to escape what has been foreknown as to how and when it will come, why do they not themselves outrun others in avoiding calamities, though they believe their art to have attained excellence? Vain, then, and mere deception are their inventions, as is proven to us by the very facts themselves.

'But,' they say, 'some of what we have said has turned out to be true.'

And indeed, good sirs, this is what Scripture says:

and the things for which it would be fitting that you be called to account.

Then, tell me, will a man who is fleeing and pursued turn his own accusations into a defense? For it is not because some of what has been said turned out to be true that we are speaking idly, pouring out here our condemnation of things that are not blameless.

But the fact that not everything looks to the truth would become a clear proof of the foulness inherent in you, and would moreover show your practice to be still guilty of falsehood, your art full of nonsense, and your teaching already a laughingstock — although the things that come from God could never prove false. For whatever the divine and undefiled mind knows will come to pass, altogether and in every way, should it choose to speak these things to certain persons, and they in turn to others, the account is not a lying one.

But the inventions of human notions will bear the reputation of conjecture rather than of truth.

Is this not madness, and, as it were, a certain outrage inflicted upon the art itself? But whatever might happen to befall him, it is easier to discern afterward.

For to one who shoots arrows repeatedly, it will happen that he naturally misses the mark most of the time.

But nothing at all prevents at least some arrows, however barely, from going straight to the mark.

He will then pride himself on the one that hit, and will ward off the ridicule directed at the others that missed.

But he who is sound of judgment will not, on account of the one arrow that ran true, raise his brow and think great things of himself — far, indeed, from it.

He would rather be ashamed at the failures of the rest, if he cared to be praised by us, and if his art did not lapse into unseemliness.

Let them, then, either confess that they compose their words out of a blind understanding, and on that basis beg for applause;

for since he was, after all, experienced in sight, he will not for long incur the ridicule that comes through error;

and the fulfillment of the command in any single instance might come about not by skill, but by mere chance.

Or, if they will claim to see, and shall firmly assert that they know the truth clearly, they will find their failure entirely without excuse, and the manner of their divination to be a cold effusion of the mind.

Holy prophets have arisen among us, who were not accustomed to measure the movement of the stars, nor to busy themselves curiously with the workings of the elements, nor to force human nature into things not fitting for it, nor to place confidence in stale deceptions;

but who, by revelation of the divine Spirit, discerned beforehand the things to come, and declared them to us long ago, out of ages far distant.

But according to the changing times of human affairs, our nature creeps ever closer back to what lies very near at hand—

or rather, follows exactly in the footsteps of what has already been foretold,

the silver-mongering delusion of astrology;

for I say that it must be so, even though names have been glibly contrived by art;

'Learn not the ways of the nations, and do not be afraid of the signs of heaven, for the nations fear them with their faces downcast, because the thoughts—'

'—of the nations are vain.' Now the stars that adorn this heaven with their manifold arrangement and crown it with symmetrical brilliance, came into being for light and for seasons,

but they yield, for their part, to the laws of their Maker, and signal the changes of the seasons to those on earth, one star rising and another setting at different times.

We must therefore give heed, not to their scurrilous buffoonery, but to the voices of those who speak of God, and we shall grant that the glory surpassing all things belongs to God—we shall not bestow that grace upon the nature of the stars.

For is it not indeed a dignity befitting God, and a preeminence, to be rich in the knowledge of things to come? And how could this be disputed? For just as it belongs to him alone, and to no other being, to have had the power to bring things that exist, easily, out of non-being into being, so too, I think, does the knowledge of everything already come to pass, and now present, and yet to come, belong to him alone.

That devotion to the love of stale, false divinations does not go unpunished, the blessed Moses declares—or rather, God who is over all, through Moses, saying:

'When you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations.'

'There shall not be found among you one who makes his son or his daughter pass through fire, practicing divination, using omens and augury, a sorcerer, an enchanter, a medium, a diviner of portents, or one who consults the dead.'

'For everyone who does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.' And in addition to this he says:

'You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.'

'For these nations whom you are dispossessing listen to those who practice augury and divination,'

'but as for you, the Lord your God has not allotted you to be so.' Therefore false divination, and giving heed to omens, is the most shameful of charges.

And here indeed is the paradox: for God sometimes permits even such men to speak something true, setting this matter as a kind of test of the firmness of faith for his own worshippers.

'If there arises among you a prophet, or one who dreams a dream, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass which he spoke to you, saying,'

'Let us go and serve other gods, whom you have not known,' you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or of that dreamer of dreams, because the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Since, then, the beauty of the straight path to God is thus falsely counterfeited, even if one should suppose that men so shamefully hired out are calling upon God, and even though it happens that they say something true, we shall not surrender ourselves to their impostures.

But as for them, let them go their own way, deceiving and being deceived, according to what is written:

but we shall follow the sacred words, remembering him who wrote:

'Make straight paths for your feet, and direct your ways.' A straight and undeviating path is to be carried directly toward everything good, and to bid farewell to fleeting false divinations, and simply to know who is, by nature and in truth, God and Lord.

For that we ought to hold this conviction, the law given of old through Moses likewise prefigured, saying:

'You shall worship the Lord your God,' it says, 'and him alone shall you serve.'

For to us there is one God the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things;

for the Word was in the beginning, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;

and all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made. Yet we do not at all mean, when we say that 'through him all things were made,' according to the Scriptures, that he holds some subordinate and instrumental rank, as though bringing some service of his own to the Father who creates all things,

but rather, since he himself is the Wisdom and the Power of God the Father, it is through him that all things are called into existence, and, having been called, they are preserved and sustained in their well-being.

For God did not make death, nor does he take delight in the destruction of the living; for it is written thus:

'nor is there a kingdom of Hades upon the earth;'

'for he created all things that they might exist, and the generative powers of the world are wholesome unto salvation;'

'but through the envy of the devil death entered into the world.' For human nature slipped and fell, having disregarded reverence toward God, and was swept down into sin;

and together with the charges incurred by sin there entered in, as it were, the necessity of dying, and the admission of the dominion of corruption,

'You are earth, and to earth you shall return.' Yet, since he is good, to him who...

For this reason, then, the Only-begotten Word of God became man:

and he put on the form that belongs to us, yet he retains, unforfeited, his being God.

For the nature that is beyond all understanding, and utterly transcendent, knows no change.

He remained, then, what he was, even together with flesh; and having lowered himself into the dispensation of self-emptying, according to what is written, 'he appeared on earth and lived among men,' transforming men unto sanctification, justifying by faith the one who draws near, throwing open the gate of the kingdom of heaven, introducing what is beneficial, and demonstrating the truth.

And sending forth the divine light, and by the greatness of the deeds accomplished, making it plain even to those of contrary mind that he is God by nature, although he has become flesh.

'If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me;'

'but if I do, even if you do not believe me, believe the works.' For his word had, indeed, the power to draw men toward obedience;

and the working of divine signs was more than sufficient for a clear demonstration that he is God by nature.

But he was not judged by those of Israel to hold right opinions;

for indeed, insulting the Savior and Redeemer of all with their utter disobedience, they persisted so for long ages, and in the end crucified him, repaying him evil for good, according to what is written:

and running without hesitation after the promptings of the devil.

Did he, then, remain among the dead, and, having endured the human death together with us, become entangled in the snares of that intruding corruption? By no means!

For he was Life by nature, and he came to life again on the third day, becoming in this too the beginning, the door, and the way for human nature.

And when he had risen again, having despoiled Hades, he ascended to the Father and God who is in the heavens;

and in due time, as we believe, he will come again with the holy angels, and he will sit upon the throne of his glory, and will render to each according to his work.

Let us therefore celebrate the feast, now that death has been done away with, and corruption abolished, and sin already rendered powerless through faith, and the kingdom of heaven set before us,

and a bright hope thus awaited.

But since we shall stand before the Judge, to render an account of our own life, let us take care to practice equity.

Let us cultivate righteousness, love, brotherly affection, meekness, self-control, and, in a word, every virtue.

Let us visit widows, show mercy to orphans, help restore to health, by whatever remedies are available, those afflicted with bodily illness, and let us visit those in bonds.

For thus, and only thus, casting off every stain and shining forth in right faith, let us keep the feast in purity,

beginning the holy Forty Days on the fifth of the month Phamenoth, and the week of the saving Passover on the tenth of the month Pharmouthi, and ending the fasts on the fifteenth of that same month Pharmouthi, at the deep evening of the Sabbath, according to the gospel proclamation;

and celebrating the feast on the following dawning Lord's Day, the sixteenth of the same month, and joining to it thereafter the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost.

For thus, and only thus, shall we take delight in the divine words, in Christ Jesus our Lord,

to whose Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory and dominion, unto the ages.

and, one might almost say, gracefully joining our voices with the lyre of the Psalmist, crying out together:

'Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will grant you all the requests of your heart.' And we shall carry out what has been commanded, not fattening the belly with the seasonings of the cook's art, nor yet clouding the mind with frequent cups, drunk beyond measure;

but rather luxuriating in sacred and divine words, and widening the eye of the mind toward a yet better sobriety, ever more excellent than what we presently possess, and directing it, finally, toward those very lofty heights of the vision of God.

For thus it will follow, God graciously assenting out of his generosity, both that we shall have the strength to prevail over our adversaries, and that we shall be seen to be superior to the most loathsome passions.

And that a discourse encouraging us toward the desire for that admirable way of life in Christ would be fitting—and most reasonably so—for those who thus celebrate the feast so splendidly, the divine Psalmist, I think, will suffice to bear witness for us when he says:

'Blow the trumpet at the new moon, on the glorious day of your feast.' And for the clearest proof I shall also bring forward, on this matter, an ancient oracle.

For indeed, to the most holy Moses it says: 'If you go out to war in your land against the adversaries who oppose you, and you sound the trumpets, you will be remembered before the Lord, and you will be saved from your enemies.'

'And on the days of your gladness, and at your feasts, and at your new moons, you shall sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your altars, and it shall be for you a memorial before your God.'

'I am the Lord your God.' Now the law has not delivered these oracles to us in vain,

but rather leads us, as it were through type and enigma, proportionately toward the truth; and, setting before us, as it were, a tangible image in things that occur as if visibly before us, it fixes the keen eye of the mind above the level of sense-perception.

And you will understand what it means, if you apply a most keen-sighted attention to what has just now been said by us.

For to those of old, the war was against blood and flesh.

For the Moabites and the Midianites, and besides these countless other most warlike nations dwelling near the land of the Jews, made frequent and undeclared raids;

against whom it was always necessary for those who held it a matter of no small concern to be esteemed in battle, for their own sake and for the sake of their children and wives, to rise up in turn and march out against them.

Let us then take it that the sound made by trumpets was devised by the ancients for the need of war, not without contributing usefully to their benefit.

But for us, who through faith in Christ are accustomed to seek esteem, the war is not against blood and flesh, nor is the matter a display of bodily strength.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, according to the word of Paul:

but a sacred and holy war is now raised against those very powers that once held sway, and against every passion that exists within us.

Let then the intelligible trumpet give the signal — that is, the piercing proclamation of the holy and God-inspired Scripture;

and let it sharpen unto exceeding strength the man of good nature and skilled in war;

and let it proclaim that he ought to depart from cowardice.

For thus, clearly, God says somewhere through the voice of the prophet:

'Proclaim these things among the nations;'

'sanctify a war, rouse up the warriors;'

'draw near and come up, all you men of war;'

'beat your plowshares into swords, and your sickles into spears.'

'Let the weak say, I am strong.' Do you hear how he called the battle holy, and does not permit the man of ill repute and cowardice to remain sick, knowing that the charges of cowardice are, for those who bear them, hard to wash away? But what again would the prophetic word mean to signify to us, in so earnestly enjoining that plowshares must be beaten into swords, and sickles into spears? Come, let us examine this.

For plowshares and sickles, and swords and spears — the former would be the most useful implements for farming, while the latter are fitting for the very needs of war.

Shall we then say this, that the law removes us from a peaceful life and industrious labor, and commands us to choose instead a savage and war-loving life over the reverent one spoken of here? Yet how is it not discordant to think this? For the matter, I think, is Scripture, and the account is truthful, not nonsense.

For the law of God trains us toward every one of the things that are admired, but it would by no means lead us to choose to do what is wrong.

Let us then, if it please, consider carefully what it means for the plow to be transformed into a sword, and the sickle into a spear.

It seems, then, that the law elegantly intimates to us that it is now time for those who are justified in Christ and sanctified in the Spirit, and who have taken up the war against passions and sin, no longer to be persuaded to linger in attachment to earthly pursuits and to delay, so as to appear slow in fulfilling what is more fitting and better;

but rather to transform, as it were, the sweat expended on those pursuits toward the achievement of virtue, and, if it must be won through battle, to strive with youthful vigor against the passions within themselves, to love to appear superior to sluggishness, and to be clad in full spiritual armor.

Thus also the most wise Paul equips for us the most excellent and most valiant warrior, saying:

'Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;'

'above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Evil One, and receive the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of Christ.' The most excellent warrior, then, takes pride in the need to be splendidly equipped, and will carry off glory worthy of the contest, having chosen to think and to act in ways by which he might appear valiant, and being most readily inclined toward every one of the best things.

Wise, sound of mind, and delighting in and readily obedient to the divine laws.

But who would those be who practice a life contrary to what I have said, and are for this reason thrust out from the sacred multitude of the saints? Again the God of all made this clear to us, speaking to Moses the mediator:

'Command the sons of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one with an issue, and every one defiled because of a soul; both male and female shall you put out, outside the camp;'

'so that they may not defile their camps, in the midst of which I dwell among them.' Do you hear how he said that the one with an issue, and the leper, and the one defiled by a dead body, must be sent away from the camp, and he says that the matter of defilement would become a cause of pollution even to the others, unless it were swiftly removed from among the warriors? And yet, why on earth would this be so? I myself would say, and with very good reason:

or rather, I think, anyone at all might well be perplexed, and would reckon it a punishment, wondering for what reason God ordained that the sick man must be borne away.

For would it not be better, being a lord of holiness and righteousness, to deem worthy of gentleness those overtaken by involuntary misfortunes, and, since they have fared wretchedly, to show them mercy equally with those who lie prostrate, and to permit no one at all to reproach them for their affliction? For leprosy, and losses of the natural seed, and involuntary discharges, befall human bodies;

but one would not suppose these to be the faults of those who suffer them.

For no one, I think, falls ill willingly;

yet men admired for their wealth would surrender the whole of their substance at once to those who promise to rid them of it.

How then could it be a matter for Scripture, and a condemnation of the sick, that they should have fallen into such terrible evils? For thoroughly wicked habits, and a will that unrestrainedly inclines, sick with a bent toward baser things, and that has chosen to disdain what is better, might justly be punished.

But things that are not so by nature, but befall those who suffer them against their wishes, would be far removed, I think, from deserving to be mocked, and reproach arising from the law would not be a holy thing.

What then shall we say to this? Has the law wronged lepers, or hung a harsh penalty upon them, having neglected the pursuit of what is fitting? By no means, far from it.

'For the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.' But how should we understand these things, if someone should ask, we say this:

The beauty of truth was shown to the ancients through Moses, by way of type and shadow, in the commandment, and the force of the things hidden within the mind was figured brightly, as it were, in bodily infirmities.

For the letter of the law likens to lepers those who, as far as concerns their character, are of many forms and many opinions, and are variegated with countless evils, having a mind that belongs only to themselves.

By the one with an issue, he means the man uncontrolled in love of the flesh, and unceasingly overcome by excessive shamefulness, so that he seems, as it were, to suffer the very affliction of an involuntary flux.

And besides these, he abhors the one defiled because of a soul, that is, the one who has chosen to mourn over the dead, and to grieve exceedingly.

Therefore, going as it were backward, and, so to speak, drawing back the rein on our discourse, we say this, following the nature of the contemplations, and looking to the innermost sense of what is written: that if any should so choose, they fall sick with a manifold inclination toward baseness, being feeble for battle and in no way fit to be seen superior to their passions.

For this is leprosy, and the affliction that corresponds to it.

But neither would those who are unbridled and incontinent toward outlandish pleasures be enrolled in the ranks of the saints.

And besides these, cast out are those who grieve excessively over the dead, as though they had utterly perished.

For this is an insult against God, who has clearly cried out through the voice of the saints:

'The dead shall rise, and those in the tombs shall be raised.' Let us therefore act like men, I say, so that we may be seen superior to our passions.

For thus, indeed, one will be enrolled among those accustomed to be held in esteem;

and, being numbered among those chosen for excellence, he will truly carry off the much-desired glory.

Let him not be terrified by toils, even if reaching the praiseworthy life should appear harsh;

even if the path of virtue set before him should be hard to traverse and steep, and sweats should appear beforehand as the price of good repute.

For it is not, it is not possible for those who expend but very few labors to be able to grow rich in the choicest achievements;

but always in proportion to the sweats do the fruits of them arise and appear.

With such words the divinely-inspired Paul also sharpens us toward the pursuit of virtue,

For he loves to set up, as it were, a pattern, prescribing Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. But in what manner, and for what reasons, he endured the cross on our behalf, having lowered himself into emptying — though being God by nature, the Word — come, let us speak of this, raising the account a little on high, and then usefully bringing it down to what is called voluntary self-emptying.

For the Son, who is in him and from him by nature, has been begotten of God the Father ineffably and beyond understanding.

Let us again say 'has been begotten' — but let the mind rise above the realm of bodies;

and, letting the meanness of the imagination concerning bodies remain below, let it conceive the Divine as incomparably better than according to the nature of body;

and let it be well disposed to hold that he possesses a glory supreme above every created thing and beyond all comparison.

For not having subsisted at some time appears, as it were, prior to the passage into being.

But this is sheer nonsense, and a clear demonstration of folly carried to its utmost extreme.

For if the discourse should happen to be a careful inquiry concerning bodies, that is, bodies such as ours, there would be nothing unreasonable in attributing to them the properties of bodies, even though these might appear to occur naturally to things subject to generation and corruption.

For it is admittedly the case that not existing at all precedes the road into existence.

And besides these, it will also undergo divisions from the begetter, for the individual allotment of the one begotten.

But in the case of the substance that is highest of all, that which is beyond every created thing, how is it not utterly senseless to admit divisions and cuttings-off, and to seek the begetting within time?

Away with such ill counsel, O man!

By applying your mind, made as subtle as possible, to these contemplations, you will know the truth.