Homilies on Ecclesiastes 1 part 8/8

for those who, under the guise of friendship and goodwill, drag down to the ruin of sin the one who is persuaded — these are the ones who lie in ambush along the roads: the praisers of pleasure, those who lead by the hand toward the theaters, those who point out the ease of evil, and, by what they themselves do, call others to the imitation of the same things, naming themselves brothers and friends unto the destruction of those who perish.

Concerning whom it is written: "Every brother will assuredly trip by the heel, and every friend will walk in deceit."

If, then, we have understood the ambushes, the company of slingers and archers and javelin-throwers should also be clear.

For the insolent and the wrathful and the reviling, by taking the lead in insults, shoot and sling and hurl provocative words in place of arrows or stones, and wound in the very heart those who pass by unarmored and unguarded.

One would not be wrong to transfer the passion of conceit and arrogance to the prancing of horses.

For there are indeed, quite simply, horses that are high-necked and high-headed,

trampling down the moderate with the swollen words of their conceit, as though with certain hollow hoofs:

concerning whom Scripture says, "Let not the foot of pride come upon me."

As for the siege-engines by which the coherence of the wall is broken up, one might rightly name love of money.

For nothing in the enemy's arsenal is so heavy and so hard to withstand as the engine of avarice.

...they wall themselves about with a certain compound defense for their souls, nonetheless the engine often makes its way in even through such things as well.

For it is possible to see love of money making its way in even through temperance, and through faith, and through exactness in the mysteries, and through self-control, and through humility, and through all such things — this grievous and unassailable assault of evil coming to be present within them — so that some who are self-controlled and temperate, and fervent concerning the faith, and restrained in manner, and moderate through their conduct, are unable to withstand this disease alone.

If, then, we have understood the host of the enemy, it would now be time to make war.

But no one could take courage against the battle-line of the adversaries without having fenced himself about with the full armor of the apostle.

Certainly no one is unaware of the manner of that divine armament, by which it renders unwounded by the arrows of the adversaries the one who stands against the phalanx of the enemy.

For the apostle, having divided the virtues into their kinds, has made each species of virtue the particular weapon for each of the vital parts within us.

For having intertwined and woven together righteousness with faith, through these he fashions the breastplate for the hoplite, well and securely arming the soldier with both.

For neither the one, separated from the other, can by itself become a secure weapon for the one who wields it.

For neither is faith, apart from the works of righteousness, sufficient to save completely, nor again is the righteousness of one's life, separated by itself from faith, secure unto salvation.

For this reason, having intertwined faith and righteousness as, so to speak, the materials for this weapon, he secures the part of the hoplite around the heart:

for by the breastplate the heart is understood.

And he secures the head of the champion with hope, signifying that it is fitting for the good soldier's hope of the things on high, like a crest, to incline upward.

The shield, the protective weapon, is unbroken faith, whose keen point of the arrowheads cannot penetrate.

Let us understand the arrowheads shot forth by the enemy as, assuredly, the manifold assaults of the passions.

The offensive weapon, which arms the right hand of the one who fights valiantly against the enemies, is the Holy Spirit — fearful to the adversary, but salutary to the one who wields it.

And the whole teaching of the gospel provides security for the feet, so that no part of the body may be found bare and exposed to a blow.

If, then, we have learned both with whom we must make war and how to take up the battle, it is fitting also to learn the other part — with whom the word bears witness that we ought to be at peace and in a covenant of truce.

Who then is the good army to which I should attach myself through peace? And who is the king of such an army? Surely it is clear, from what we have heard from the divinely inspired Scripture, that the array of angels is the array of the heavenly host.

"For there came to be," it says, "a multitude of the heavenly host praising God."

And the prophets bear witness to this same thing, naming the Lord of all "Lord of hosts" and "Lord of powers."

And to Joshua the son of Nun, the mighty one in war says, "I am the commander-in-chief of the host."

If, then, we have understood who this good alliance is, and who is the leader of these allies, let us make a treaty with him; let us run to his power; let us become friends of him who possesses so great a might.

And the manner of becoming intimate with him is taught by the great apostle, the one who has brought about this friendship, in the words where he says:

"We are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating through us:"

We beg on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

For as long as we were by nature children of wrath in doing the things not befitting us, we were arrayed with those who resist the right hand of the Most High;

but having put away impiety and worldly desires, by living holily and justly and piously through this peace we shall be joined to the true peace.

This statement is the end and the sum of all things that come to pass in their season.

For we have been taught to do all things in season, that we might accomplish for ourselves this: to have peace with God through being disposed in hostility toward the adversary.

And altogether, even if one should call the virtues the army of peace, toward which we must be kindly disposed, he would not lead the discourse outside the understanding already given, because every name and concept of virtue is referred back to the Lord of the virtues.

And why should one prolong the discourse on such matters, since what has already been said is sufficient to disclose the understanding lying within the words? But since through these things he has somewhat lifted up the soul of the one previously instructed in these lofty teachings, he again leads the soul of the one who follows the discourse up to a certain lofty condition, and says:

"What advantage has the doer in the things in which he himself toils?" — which is equivalent to saying:

what more does a man gain from his labors, from which there is nothing more? He farms, he goes to sea, he suffers hardship in the toils of war, he trades, he acquires, he suffers loss, he gains, he goes to law, he fights;

he departs defeated, or he carries off the winning verdict;

he remains at his own hearth, or he wanders among strangers;

all the things we see in life, in the various pursuits, one thing here and another there — what more does this eager striving over them bring to the one who spends his own life through such things? Does he not, the very moment he ceases to live, have everything at once covered over by forgetfulness?

and stripped bare of all he was so zealous for, he departs naked, carrying with him none of the affairs of this world except the conscience alone concerning his deeds; from which, in a certain manner, this voice afterward comes to the man who was led astray in life through such preoccupations, saying:

"What advantage has come to you from those many labors in which you toiled? Where are the splendid houses? Where the buried purses? Where the bronze statues and the voices of those who acclaimed you? Behold, fire and scourges, and the incorruptible judgment, and the unerring scrutiny of the life that was lived."

"What advantage has the doer in the things in which he himself toils?" And after this: "I saw," he says, "the distraction which God has given to the sons of men, to be distracted by it —"

"the all things which he made beautiful in their season, and moreover he gave the age into their heart, so that man might not find out the work which God made from beginning to end."

What does this mean? "I came to know," he says, whence human nature was distracted from life, having taken its occasions from the divine benefactions.

For he made all things for the good, and gave to those who share in the things that are a reasoning capable of discerning the better, through which, once the timeliness of each thing's use is recognized, the perception of the good is granted to those who use it;

but since reason, having been turned aside by evil counsel from its settled state, was deprived of right judgment concerning the things that are, the alteration of the season turned the usefulness of each thing into the opposite experience.

Just as if someone, having set out upon a table the whole preparation for a feast, should also lay beside it certain vessels suitably fashioned to assist in eating — such as are made by those skilled in such crafts — either fine knives, by which the guests might cut for themselves something of what is set before them, or silver forks, whose hollow part, joined on the other end, has been made fit for the pottage;

then, if one of those invited to the feast, having perverted the proper use of what was set out, should use each thing for what is not fitting, and with the knife should wound either himself or one of those reclining beside him, and with the fork should pierce the eye either of his neighbor or his own —

one might say that so-and-so misused the host's preparation to an evil end, since the one who prepared it did not beforehand provide the cause of what would result, but rather it was the evil use of the things set out that led the one who used what lay before him without forethought into this misfortune;

... use would come about; yet the deviation of right judgment concerning the things that are turned good things around into an occasion for evils.

What do I mean, for instance? What is sweeter than the activity of the eyes? But when sight becomes, for such persons, the servant of passion, that which came about for benefit is said to have become the cause of evil;

which is nothing other than this: that someone, having made bad use of a good thing, has turned the use itself into a passion.

So too all the other things which our nature has from God lie in the choice of those who use them, to become the material either of good or of evil.

"The all things which he made beautiful in their season, and moreover he gave the age into their heart" —

and the age, being a certain concept of extension, signifies through itself the whole of creation that has come to be within it.

Therefore the statement shows, from that which contains, everything that is contained within it.

All things, then, that came to be in the age, God gave to the human heart for good, so that from the greatness and beauty of the creatures man might, through them, contemplate the Maker;

but they, through the very things by which they were benefited, were harmed by these same things, because they did not make use of each in the way that was fitting and to what is truly profitable.

"So that man might not find out the work which God made" — this signifies that on this account deceit prevailed over the human soul, so that it might not recognize the good work which God made with a view to benefit, in all the things that have come to be from the beginning of creation up to the completion of the whole — since nothing among the things that are is evil;

for it is not in the nature of things for anything evil to spring from what is good.

But if the cause of all things is good, then altogether good are all the things that have their subsistence from what is good.

Then: "I knew," he says, "that there is no good in them, except to rejoice and to do good in one's life."

In this statement what has been said is summed up.

For if the timely use of the divine works defines what is good for human life, then the one good thing would be the continual gladness in good things, which is begotten from good works;

and what eating and drinking are to the body, by which nature is sustained, this is, for the soul, the looking toward the good;

and this — to gaze intently upon God — is truly a gift of God.

For this is the meaning that is interpreted in the words that follow next.

"And indeed every man who eats and drinks and sees good in all his toil, this is a gift of God."

For as the man of flesh, he says, has his strength in eating and drinking, so the one who looks upon the good — and the true good would be he alone who is good — has, as a gift of God in all his toil, this very thing: to look always toward the good, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of ages.