Catechetical Lectures 6 part 2/2

The physicians withdrew, and with them withdrew the life of the boy;

the impiety of the man was refuted.

And so the philosopher, as he was, was a prisoner, cast into prison—not because he had refuted the king concerning the truth;

not because he had overthrown the idols, but because he had promised to save, and had lied;

or rather, if the truth must be told, because he had committed murder.

For the one who could have been saved by careful medical attention, this man, by sending away the physicians, murdered, putting him to death by neglect.

And while I am telling of his very many evils, remember first the blasphemy;

not that servitude is a shame, but that for one who is a slave to fabricate freedom is an evil;

third, the falsehood of the promise;

and fourth, the murder of the boy;

and fifth, the shame of imprisonment.

And there was not only the shame of imprisonment, but also the flight out of prison.

For he who called himself the Paraclete and a champion of the truth—he fled.

He was no successor of Jesus, who readily went to the cross;

but this man was the contrary—a fugitive.

Then the king of the Persians commanded that the prison-keepers be led away.

Manes was the cause, through his arrogance, of death to the boy, and the cause of death to the prison-keepers through his flight.

He then who was the cause of death—ought such a one to be worshiped? Ought he not to have imitated Jesus and said, "If you seek Me, let these go their way"? Ought he not, like Jonah, to have said, "Take me up and cast me into the sea;"

"for this tempest is on my account"? He flees out of prison, and comes into Mesopotamia;

but there meets him a weapon of righteousness, Archelaus the bishop.

And refuting him before philosophers as judges, having gathered a Greek audience, lest the judges should seem to show favor if Christians were judging—

"Say," says Archelaus to Manes, "what you proclaim."

And he, having his mouth as an open grave, began first with blasphemy of the Maker of all things, declaring:

"The God of the Old Testament is the inventor of evils, saying concerning Himself, 'I am a God, a consuming fire.'"

But the wise Archelaus undid the blasphemy, saying:

"If the God of the Old Testament, according to your statement, calls Himself fire, whose Son is He who says, 'I came to cast fire upon the earth'? If you blame Him who says, 'The Lord kills and makes alive,'

why do you honor Peter, who raised up Tabitha but put Sapphira to death? But if you also blame Him because He prepared fire,

why do you not blame Him who says, 'Depart [from Me] into the everlasting fire'? If you blame Him who says, 'I am God, who makes peace and creates evils,'

explain how Jesus says, 'I came not to cast peace, but a sword.'

For since both say the like things, one of two things follows:

either both are good because of the sameness of expression;

or if Jesus is blameless in saying these things, why do you find fault with Him who says the like in the Old Testament?" Then Manes says to him:

"And what sort of God blinds? For it is Paul who says:

'In whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the illumination of the gospel should not dawn upon them.'"

But Archelaus, parrying well, says, "Read on a little before."

"But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing."

Do you see that it is veiled among those who are perishing? For one must not give the holy things to dogs.

Then again, was it only the God of the Old Testament who blinded the minds of the unbelieving? Did not Jesus Himself say, 'For this reason I speak to them in parables, that seeing they may not see'? Did He, hating them, wish that they should not see? Or was it on account of their unworthiness, since they had closed their eyes? For where there is self-chosen wickedness, there is also withholding of grace.

"and from him who has not, even that which he seems [to have shall be taken away]."

But if it is necessary, as some also explain, to say this:

even if He blinded the minds of the unbelieving, He blinded them for a good end, that they might look up to good things.

For He did not say, 'He blinded their soul';

but rather, 'the minds of the unbelieving.'

And what is meant is something like this:

blind the lewd thoughts of the fornicator, and the man is saved.

Blind the rapacious and thievish disposition of the robber, and the man is saved.

But you are not willing to understand it thus.

The sun too blinds those of weak sight;

and those with diseased eyes are blinded, being harmed by the light;

not because the sun is blinding, but because the substance of their eyes does not see.

So also the unbelievers, being diseased in their hearts, cannot gaze upon the rays of the Godhead.

And He did not say, 'He blinded their minds so that they should not hear the gospel';

but, 'that the illumination of the glory of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ should not dawn upon them.'

For to hear the gospel is permitted to all;

but the glory of the gospel is set apart for the genuine ones of Christ alone.

The Lord spoke in parables to those who were not able to hear;

but to His disciples He privately expounded the parables.

For the radiance of the glory is, to those who are enlightened, illumination; to the unbelieving, blinding.

These mysteries, which the Church now expounds to you who are being changed over from among the catechumens, it is not the custom to expound to the heathen.

For we do not expound to a heathen the mysteries concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, nor do we speak plainly about the mysteries before catechumens;

but we often say [many things] in a veiled way, that the faithful who know may understand, and those who do not know may not be harmed.

By these and many more arguments the dragon was overthrown;

by such grapplings Archelaus wrestled down Manes.

Again from here too he flees, he who had fled from prison;

and slipping away from his adversary, he comes to a most insignificant village, like the serpent in paradise who left Adam and approached Eve.

But the good shepherd Archelaus, taking forethought for the sheep, when he heard of the flight, immediately hastened at a run in pursuit of the wolf.

And Manes, suddenly seeing his opponent, leaped up and fled;

and he fled his last flight.

For the bodyguards of the king of the Persians, searching everywhere, seized the fugitive;

and the sentence which he should have received before Archelaus, this the king's bodyguards brought upon him.

Manes, whom his own disciples worship, is seized and led before the king.

The king upbraided him with the lie and the flight;

he avenged the murder of the boy;

he condemned him also on account of the murder of the prison-keepers.

He ordered Manes to be flayed according to the Persian custom.

And the rest of the body was given over to beasts for food;

but the skin, the receptacle of that most wicked mind, was hung up like a sack before the gates.

He who called himself the Paraclete, and professed to know things to come, knew not his own flight and capture.

Of this man there were three disciples: Thomas, and Baddas, and Hermas.

Let no one read the Gospel according to Thomas;

for it is not of one of the twelve apostles, but of one of the three wicked disciples of Manes.

Let no one consort with the soul-destroying Manichaeans, who counterfeit the gloom of fasting with waters of chaff;

who slander the Maker of foods, yet gluttonously devour the choicest of foods;

who teach that he who plucks up this herb is changed into it.

For if he who cuts down herbs or any of the vegetables is changed into it, into how many things shall farmers and gardeners' children be changed? Against how many things has the gardener brought the pruning-hook, as we see;

into what then is he changed? Truly their teachings are full of laughter and condemnation and shame.

The same man, being a shepherd of sheep, has both slain a sheep and killed a wolf;

into what then is he changed? Many men have netted fishes and snared birds;

into what then are those who plunder changed? Offspring of idleness are the Manichaeans, who do not work but devour the goods of those who work;

who receive with smiling faces those who bring them food, and in return for blessings render curses.

For whenever some foolish person brings them [something], the Manichaean says, "Stand a little outside, and I will bless you."

Then, taking the bread into his hands (as those of them who have repented have confessed), the Manichaean says to the bread, "I did not make you;"

and he sends curses up to the Most High, and curses Him who made it, and so eats what was made.

If you hate the foods, why did you look with a smiling face on the one who brought it? If you are grateful to him who brought it, why do you send blasphemy up to God who prepared and created it? And again, he says, "I did not sow you;"

"I did not reap you with sickles."

Fine returns indeed for grace!

Great evils are these too, but still small compared with the others.

I do not dare, in the presence of men and women, to describe their washing.

I do not dare to tell into what they dip the fig-cake before giving it to the wretches.

Let it be indicated only by hints.

For let men consider the things that occur in nocturnal emissions, and women the things in their menstruation.

We truly defile even our mouth in saying these things.

Are the Greeks more abominable than these? Are the Samaritans more godless than these? Are the Jews more impious than these? Are fornicators more unclean than these? For the fornicator, by reason of lust, completes the act for one hour;

and condemning the act, knowing that he has been defiled, he knows that he needs washing, and recognizes the abominableness of the act.

But the Manichaean, in the midst of what he regards as an altar, places these things, and defiles both his mouth and his tongue.

From such a mouth, O man, do you receive teaching? Do you, on merely meeting this man, greet him with a kiss? Apart from the rest of the impiety, do you not flee the defiled, and those worse than the licentious, more abominable than every prostitute that plies her trade? The Church gives this warning and teaches it, and touches the mire, that you may not be befouled.

It tells of the wounds, that you may not be wounded.

It is enough for you only to know;

but refrain from taking it up by experience.

God thunders, and we all tremble;

God flashes lightning, and we all bow down to the ground;

yet those men keep their blasphemous tongues directed against heaven.

Jesus says concerning [His] Father, "Who makes His sun to rise on the just and the unjust, and sends rain on the good and the evil."

But those men say that the rains come from an amorous madness.

And they dare to say that there is a certain virgin in heaven, beautiful, together with a beautiful young man;

and that, like camels or wolves in their season, they have their seasons of shameful lust;

and that in the season of storms he madly runs after the virgin, and she flees, they say, while he runs after her;

and that from his sweat comes the rain.

These things are written in the books of the Manichaeans.

These things we have read, disbelieving those who tell them.

For on behalf of your safety we have inquired curiously into their ruin.

But may the Lord deliver us from such error.

And may there be given to you enmity against the dragon;

that, just as they watch the heel, so you also may trample their head.

Remember the things that are spoken;

what concord have your things with theirs? What has light to do with darkness, what has the venerableness of the Church to do with the abomination of the Manichaeans? Here is order, here is knowledge, here is reverence, here is purity;

here even to look upon a woman with lust is condemned.

Here marriage is held in honor, here is the endurance of self-control, here is the dignity of virginity, equal to that of angels;

here is the partaking of foods with thanksgiving;

here is gratitude toward the Maker of all things.

Here the Father of Christ is worshiped;

here fear and trembling toward Him who sends the rain is taught;

here we send up glorification to Him who thunders and lightens.

Herd together with the sheep;

and hate even those who were once suspected of such things;

and unless in time you ascertain their repentance, do not rashly entrust yourself to them.

The truth of the monarchy has been delivered to you.

Learn to recognize the herbs of the doctrines;

become an approved money-changer, holding fast that which is good, abstaining from every form of evil.

But if you ever became such a one, hate the error when you recognize it.

For there is a way of salvation, if you vomit up the vomit;

if you depart from them, not with the lips only, but also with the soul;

if you worship the Father of Christ, the God of the Law and the Prophets;

if you acknowledge that the Good and the Just are one and the same God.

May He preserve you all, keeping you unfallen, unoffended, steadfast in the faith, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory unto the ages of the ages.