復活節講道集 第 1 章 第 10/28 段

And indeed, one might rightly and very justly agree that something like this has been said even by the poets among the Greeks - though against others, whom they call scornful and buffoonish, and by other such names; in this they seem to me to think most excellently.

And I have already heard someone among them saying plainly that he counts on equal footing with the gates of Hades those who hide one thing in their mind,

while uttering another through the tongue.

For deceit and guile are truly a most unholy thing, easily convicted by themselves, and they proclaim a baseness beyond all others.

For why do you think it necessary to keep silent? And why do you hide in darkness what you honor in your mind? Would you not, by this very eagerness to remain hidden, confess the shame attaching to these things? For a man hides, my good friend, the things for which one might justly reproach him, and things that have no brightness to show from open speech - not, assuredly, that which deserves to be admired.

If, then, you know that you hold opinions worthy of admiration, why are you not known to all to be such as you truly are by nature? But if you blush at what is hidden within, and, as a veil for the more obscure things, fashion around yourself a discourse unlike them, seeking through it a reputation more venerable than what is truly and rightly believed, why do you not bid those things farewell too, and be found wholly resplendent - speaking things akin to what is within, and persuaded to think in keeping with your words?

For such a man is sincere, and full of the highest praise.

And I think that from this very point the contentious spirit will be cast down, even for one who has chosen to rise up against our arguments on this matter.

For as to what is confessed everywhere concerning Christ, who would hesitate to think it is not so, and would not shrink from being charged with talking nonsense? But since I suppose it right and good also to confirm such things from the God-inspired Scripture itself, come, let us set before you the divine oracles, which give clear proof that this doctrine is altogether not out of harmony with the truth;

For some of the Israelites were sick with this disease already in past times, and pretended to honor the legal commandment extravagantly, and, having the Lawgiver constantly on their tongue, up and down, they nevertheless resolved in mind to think other things, and each, by his own private judgment, was eager to establish as blameless whatever seemed right to himself alone.

What then did God say concerning them through the voice of the prophet? 'This people draws near to me, honoring me with their lips;'

'but their heart is far away from me.'

'For in vain do they worship me.' For shall we not grant that they worship in vain - drawing near to God with a merely feigned and spurious honor - those who in fact hold other beliefs, worshipping the creation instead of him, yet speak only the language of Christians and, with cleverly polished little phrases, feign reverence toward God? Is there, then, anyone who would agree with such people?

If, then, anyone supposes that he will not pay the penalty for his deceit, and does not expect to undergo the bitter punishment for lying to God, let him go on honoring his double-mindedness, and let him consider the one who counsels better things to be raving mad.

But if a most terrible punishment hangs over those so disposed, and penalty and justice and every kind of torment, and the untamable fire will receive them, even against their will;

how would I not myself regard as raving all the more the man who prefers what has taken hold of his own soul out of unlawful pleasure? For the passion of polytheism is love of pleasure, and nothing else.

And indeed, it is good, it seems, to say how perilous a thing this is.

For one might ward off the plot of a man like ourselves, or even of one slightly our superior, either by matching against it one's own strength, only a little inferior to his, or by contending, though with unequal resources and beyond one's power;

or, that is, being saved by some other means.

But tell me, in what way could anyone flee from God when he is angry? Or where could he run and escape notice? And yet let us, if you like, grant him such splendor in life that nothing greater could be seen to surpass it,

and let him also be surrounded with abundance of wealth, with which not even the famous and unrivaled riches of Croesus could vie.

Will there, then, be any enjoyment from this? Or will you keep the avenger away from these things, even against his will? Far from it indeed.

For the divine Scripture, in what it says, will in no way indulge in false mythmaking:

'Treasures will not profit the lawless.' Therefore it is not the stumbling itself that is dreadful;

Come, let us again show that God considers the one who has chosen to waver between two minds to be unholy;

and as arrogant and insolent, he treats the fickle, double-dealing man with contempt.

For he said somewhere to Jeremiah, thus laying the charge of madness against the Israelites:

'Have you seen what the house of Israel did to me? They went up onto every high mountain, and under every leafy tree, and there they played the harlot' - having set down 'played the harlot' in place of 'they were initiated to demons';

for it is the custom of divine Scripture to speak in this way.

For occupying the well-wooded summits of the mountains, under the tall and thickly-grown trees they set up sacred precincts and altars, and sometimes with even a small stone raised libations and sacrifices to the demons of the groves and, perhaps, to the wild nymphs, or even to the one named among them Baal - for what shameful thing did those aliens not perform? What, then, followed from this? Their audacious deeds grieved God.

For though instructed by the law among them toward the apprehension of the truth, they went over to the devil instead, rather flattering their own pleasures, and driving the chastening commandment out of their own heart.

Since they had sinned in this way, he commands the prophet to shear his hair;

For in the manner that hair, cut off by the hand of the one shearing it, is estranged from the body it belonged to, so those who have slipped into the deceits of the demons, being reaped away from their kinship with God through divine wrath, will pass into nothingness, no longer counted worthy of any care from above.

And indeed, if anyone wishes also to examine, so far as one may, the divine wrath at these things, let him look closely again at what follows:

For although he is accustomed to consider the prayer of the saints worthy of every regard, in their case alone he does not accept it.

'And you, do not pray for this people, and do not ask that they be shown mercy, in supplication and prayer, for I will not listen.' Since this greatly grieved the Spirit-bearer, and the matter seemed bitter to the prophet - namely, that his prayer should be rejected, I mean, and be unable to profit anything - God defends himself in a certain manner, and teaches, crying out, that he would not have consented even if certain still greater and more ancient men had come before him:

'Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before my face, my soul would not turn toward them.' But perhaps someone among those who have dared such things will say to this:

'What then, my good man? Some, doing the very same thing openly, were caught without concealment, and were inciting others in plain sight, and by this also gave grief;'

but as for behaving impiously in secret, tell me, what sensible person would say that it is not rightly and justly classed among unholy deeds, and that there is nothing dreadful in it, seeing that it grieves God, the overseer of hidden things, just as much? Away with such folly, O man!

And yet, one might perhaps escape the eyes of a man, but no one will escape the notice of God, who is over all that exists;

for he holds all things naked and laid bare before his eyes, according to the word of Paul.

Therefore it is idle, in his case, to speak of 'secretly' or 'openly.'

But if you wish to learn how great and of what sort the wrath is that hangs over those who have chosen to be impious in secret, I will bring forward something set down in the divine Scripture:

Now receive this again into your mind:

Some of the ancients, then, were led astray, even though they acknowledged the God over all things, and were guided by many writings toward the apprehension of the truth;

and indeed, having fashioned a multiform swarm of idols, they set them up in dark and lightless places.

And the sickness, gradually creeping toward the worse, preyed even upon those entrusted with the priesthood;

and the matter was grievous, and unbearable, to God.

Since, then, he intended to punish those who outrageously insulted him by worshiping other gods, he further explains their audacious deeds to the prophet, or rather, clearly shows them:

'Hear, then,' he says, 'Ezekiel,'

'And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the fifth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, that the hand of the Lord Adonai came upon me, and I looked, and behold, the likeness of a man - from his loins downward was fire;'

'and from his loins upward the appearance was like the vision of amber.'

'And he stretched out the likeness of a hand, and took hold of me by the crown of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me to Jerusalem in a vision of God.' And immediately, again, after other things:

'And he brought me,' it says, 'to the entrance of the court, and I looked;'

'and behold, a single hole in the wall; and he said to me:'

'Son of man, dig now into the wall;'

'and I dug into the wall, and behold, a single door.'

'Go in, and see the wicked, lawless deeds that these men are doing here today.'

'and behold, every likeness of creeping thing and beast, vain abominations; and I saw all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon it all around;'

'and seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and Jechonias son of Saphethem, stood in their midst before them;'

'and each held his censer in his hand, and the vapor of the incense went up.' Do you hear how they thought they could escape notice, refusing God the honor due him and offering it instead to demons, while God laid it all bare to the prophet? For after showing their audacious deeds, he again speaks thus:

'The Lord has forsaken the land, the Lord does not see.' For each of those who do not cease to insult him by clinging to the demons does not even confess that he is the overseer of what concerns us;

For 'the fool has said in his heart:'

'There is no God' - or, as the Psalmist likewise says somewhere else:

'The Lord will not see, nor will the God of Jacob understand.' But he immediately mocks them, saying:

'Understand now, you fools among the people, and you foolish ones, be wise at last.'

'He who planted the ear, does he not hear? And he who formed the eyes, does he not perceive?' For it would be among the most absurd things, and I would say it would not lack the utmost folly, to suppose that God is unable, so to speak, to see or to hear - he who implanted the knowledge that comes through the senses in us ourselves, and indeed in all other creatures besides.

Since, then, God makes plain to the prophet both the audacious deeds of these insolent men and what was done in the secret chamber of hidden things, he immediately also showed the unfailing punishment that was about to follow upon them.

'And he cried out in my ears with a loud voice, saying:'

'The vengeance of the city has drawn near;'

'and each one had the instruments of destruction in his hand;'

'and behold, six men were coming from the way of the gate that faces north, each with his axe in his hand; and one man in their midst was clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, with a girdle of sapphire on his loins.'

'And he spoke while I was listening:'

'Go after him into the city, and strike, and let your eyes not spare;'

'and have no mercy on old man or young man, or virgin, or infants; and kill the women, for utter destruction;'

'but do not go near any upon whom is the mark.' Do you hear how he decrees an unmixed and merciless punishment even upon those who have chosen to be impious in secret? For God closely observes and searches out the heart of each one;

and he casts off, root and branch, the insolent man, and the one liable to the charge of double-mindedness;

but he seals with grace from above the one who is wholly devoted to him and who knows him alone as God.

But let this suffice for the present concerning these matters.

Come, then, let us next speak of how we ought fittingly to be devoted to God.

I say, then, that there must be fixed within our souls, before all else, a sincere faith - a true understanding, failing in no point, concerning the one God who alone exists according to nature.

And the most wise Paul will lead us by the hand to this faith, speaking excellently as follows:

'One Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.' For God and Father reigns and rules over all things, and administers them, continually giving life to all things and holding them together in being, through the Son in the Spirit - not as through some instrument merely taken up for service;

for seated together with him and enthroned together with him is God the Word, begotten of him, and reigning together with him is his own Spirit.

And since the Son is the power and wisdom of the Father, working all things in the Spirit, God and Father, as by his own power and wisdom, holds all things together in being and rules over all things.

And it would be most fitting for us to do those things through which we shall become resplendent, that is, every kind of virtue, and the right actions that come from a God-loving disposition.

For just as faith without works is dead, so also works, when faith does not first exist in us, can in no way profit our souls;

for no one is crowned unless he competes lawfully, according to what is written.

For a man not thoroughly practiced in the skills of the wrestling-ground, even if believed to surpass others in strength, will by no means find it possible to take pride in the honors of the crowns, unless he has first entered the contests for glory, and obtained the president of the stadium as witness of his own achievements.

Let us therefore contend as in the sight of God, honoring his divine law, and directing our own life toward what is pleasing to him through submission in all things; and let us display a fervent and unconquerable desire for all that is best, presenting ourselves as a sweet-smelling fragrance to God, the judge of the contests of the saints.

And let us put unclean pleasure as far as possible from our own soul, and let us reject desires for the most shameful things as a stain hard to wash out, and consider them a defilement difficult to cleanse.

And in addition to this, let us keep in mind what has been said by God:

You shall be holy, for I am holy. For thus, as though living from the dead, shall we present ourselves to God;

thus will the pure One receive us as pure; thus, coming to partake of the mystical blessing, shall each of us fill his own soul with every good thing.

'No stranger shall eat of it;'

'a sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat of it; but every man's servant, and every one bought with money—when you have circumcised him, then he shall eat of it.' Do you hear in what way, and by what manner, we shall be with the Lord purely and blamelessly? For it excludes the stranger, and sends away as unholy both the sojourner and the hired servant,

And you will understand the 'stranger' to be one who is still wholly alien to faith in Christ;

and the 'sojourner,' one who cannot believe steadfastly, but rather withdraws, as it were, and turns back to his own city or country—that is, to unbelief—one whom we are accustomed to call an apostate;

for this reason he has also been allotted a place neighboring the stranger.

For the one who denies the faith is close to the one who has not believed at all.

And why do I say this? For he is in a far worse condition, as the disciple of Christ will testify, saying:

'For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of truth, than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.' Again, he says that man is a hireling—

concerning whom we have already spent much lengthy discourse addressed to you.

For they say that some go to partake of the divine mysteries, not moved by a disposition toward God, nor even restrained by reverence for the faith, but rather flattering the goodwill of those who observe them, and eager to accomplish some matter of their own private affairs.

For as though it were some wage for a love toward God that has been reduced to mere trade, they snatch up the goodwill flowing from those who love purely, in order to gain something worldly.

The hireling, then, is indeed a hypocrite and a wretched man, and rightly numbered among those who are justly cast out.

As for the household servants, however, or those bought with money, he will not send them away as wholly unholy, but having commanded that they first be circumcised, he bids them draw near.

And what does this mean? Christ purchased us, who were servants of the wicked demons—that is, of our own passions—and showed us to be bought with a price, giving his own blood as the ransom for the life of all, and having borne flesh for our sake.

...that we may thus be conformed in disposition, and so cleave to Christ who has bought us;

for we owe him our very life.

And Paul is witness to this, saying:

'For one died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised.' Let us consider that the Word, though he had a fervent love for us, and though he was God, and had the whole creation, both sensible and intelligible, beneath his feet, and was in every way equal to his own Begetter, and dwelt in unapproachable light together with him, having surpassed the very summit of all glory and splendor, humbled himself for our sake, taking the form of a servant, becoming in likeness such as we are, that he might rescue all from death and corruption, having nailed to his own cross the handwriting that was against us, and having triumphed over it—over the principalities and powers, and the world-rulers of this darkness, according to what is written—that he might stop the mouth of all iniquity, and, having shown us pure through faith, might restore us to the honor of adoption as sons.

For he endured the cross and the death of the flesh, when the unholy Jews raged insolently against him.

But it was not possible for him to be held by death, according to what is written.

For being Life by nature, he rose on the third day, having despoiled Hades, having flung open to those below the gates that had forever been shut, and having said to those in bonds:

'Come out'; and to those in darkness:

'Be revealed,' according to the word of the prophet.

Having preached, then, also to the spirits in prison the word of faith, he rose on the third day, and appeared to his own disciples, and having commanded them to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, he ascended again into the heavens, bringing us up into them together with himself, whence we look for him to come again as judge, in the glory of the Father, with the holy angels.

As, then, we are about to give an account of our own life, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

For then shall we fast purely, beginning the holy Forty Days on the twenty-seventh of the month Mechir, and the week of the saving Passover on the second of the month Pharmouthi, ending the fasts on the seventh of that same month Pharmouthi, on the evening of the Sabbath, as the gospel proclamation declares;

and keeping festival on the following Lord's Day at dawn, the eighth of that same month, joining thereafter also the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost.

For thus shall we inherit the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom and through whom, to the Father without beginning, together with the co-eternal Spirit, be glory unto the ages of ages.

Since, then, we consider it necessary again to follow the words of the saints;

and, striving to follow, as it were, in the footsteps of their custom, all but extending to you, as to brothers and children alike, a hand of mutual love, uttering this solemn greeting:

'Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,' who has again revealed to us this thrice-longed-for and most desired season of the holy feast, which the great and illustrious choir of the holy prophets themselves proclaimed beforehand, being illumined through the mystagogy of the Holy Spirit, and being taught in advance the things that would come to be for us through Christ.

And the manner of the hymns is seen to be as follows:

'Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;'

'let the fields exult, and all that is in them, before the face of the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth, to judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his truth.' But he who was long ago proclaimed beforehand—as he was to arrive, and would render a right and blameless verdict in matters concerning us—no longer leaves our joy merely in hopes,

but has manifested it to us in the very facts themselves;

for he has sojourned among us in the last times of the age, according to the faith of the sacred and divine Scriptures;

'He judged the world in righteousness,' according to the word of the Psalmist.

But how did he judge? By condemning, then, the one who had gone astray? Or by subjecting to penalties those who long ago disregarded the divine laws?

Then how, after all, does he still speak truly when he cries out concerning himself:

'For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him'? And yet, I think, every right-minded person would confess that to inflict some part of the punishment due sinners, and to pronounce a sentence of condemnation, is not the work of one who saves, but rather of one who wishes to do harm, and who, granting no pardon at all, demands a reckoning from those who have already stumbled.

How then did he not come to judge the world, but to save the world, if he pronounced a bitter sentence upon it? But no one, I think, would fall into such folly as to suppose that the Truth could in any way tell false tales.

How then did he judge the earth? For this is what the word of the Psalmist has proclaimed to us.

'For I will be like the Most High,' he dared to say.

But since it was not possible to act against the decrees from above, and he had no other way to grieve the holy Chastiser, he turned to wage war against us.

And he at once removed man from the straight path, diverting him somewhere toward what seemed good to himself alone, and having carried him away from the true knowledge of God, he made the one who had been made according to the image of God to be, henceforth, his own worshipper and servant;

having conceived in travail an unjust envy against us, and setting upon his own head a glory equal to God's;

for he was overcome by that ancient passion;

and, being sicker still, more savagely afflicted with the very things for which he had been caught and punished, he now contrived to accomplish openly dominion over all.

And as though he had seized the whole world under his hand, since God had utterly abandoned his own creatures and no longer deigned to take any account of our life, the barbarian, lifting his brow on high, arrogantly triumphed over human weakness, saying:

'I will seize the whole world in my hand as a nest, and I will take it up as eggs that have been left behind;'

'and there is none who will escape me, or speak against me.' And while he was saying this, he heard in reply from God who rules over all:

'As a garment stained with blood shall not be clean, so neither shall you be clean, because you have destroyed my land and slain my people.'

'You shall by no means remain forever.'

God, then, who had threatened him with the utter destruction of his tyranny, when he became man for our sake, since the appointed time was now at hand, in which the arrogant and murderous one must be made to pay bitter penalties, judged the world in righteousness. For he passed judgment concerning both him and us;

and having found him unjust and covetous, having bound him in chains of gloom, according to what is written, he delivered him to be kept for the judgment of the great day, to be punished;

but those throughout the whole world he released from the bonds of sin, having justified them by faith, and having restored them again to their original sanctification.

For that he must be called to account for the wrongs he has committed against us—we appear to have been demanding this for a long time; and you will well understand it if you attend closely to the words of the Psalmist, when he introduces, as it were, the common person of humanity, falling down before God and saying:

'... my God and my Lord, unto my judgment.' And that, again, the Savior condemned the tyranny of the devil, and, having declared us free, acquired us for himself—how could this not be plain to everyone, since it is proclaimed in the writings of the Gospel:

'Now is the judgment of this world;'

'now shall the ruler of this world be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself'? He who had just said that he had not come to us for this reason—that is, had not been sent by God the Father in order to judge the world—now says that this is the judgment of the world? It is therefore quite evident, and in no way open to dispute, that he has justified us, but has condemned the murderous beast to destruction.

For he has been cast out—that is, into utter uselessness—and also from his dominion over wrongdoers.

For Emmanuel, having been crucified on behalf of all and because of all, purchased the life of all with his own blood, and through himself joined to God the Father the race that had bolted away from its original kinship with him.

For he is the mediator of God and man, according to what is written, having blended together, in some ineffable union, that which is conceived of him, being at once both man and God;

and for this reason, being naturally united to the essence of him who begot him, yet also, as man, united to us;

For it was not otherwise possible for that which was by nature subject to corruption ever to be saved, and for that which had been shaken to rise up to a firm desire for virtue, unless the very radiance of the substance of God the Father—that is, the Son, who is superior to all corruption and change, or rather whose nature is altogether inaccessible to such things—had come down into communion with it.

Upon all these things, then, are grounded the watchwords of our feast;

and the heavens rejoice, and the fields exult, according to the word of the Psalmist,

for the heavenly ranks rejoice together with those on earth.

And indeed we shall find the holy angels saying, when Christ was born:

nor did he blush at the poverty of the form of a servant, so that we too, through faith in him and through holy baptism, having come to share in the Spirit, being transformed into his citizenship and life, might shine forth with the image of him who made us.

For that true and unadulterated faith remolds us in a certain manner toward God, and that the character of the divine nature is impressed upon our souls through the way of life in Christ, you will learn from Paul speaking to those who had reverted to the legal commandment after the divine and heavenly baptism:

'My little children, for whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.' For Christ is formed in you in no other way except through blameless faith and an evangelical way of life;

for it is not in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the Spirit, that it is necessary to walk for those who go forward toward God.

This, I think, would also be well accomplished in our own case, whenever, with desire for every good thing whatsoever, having as it were strengthened our own mind, we receive this most holy fast as a mother that will bring about for us all purity, being soberly content with meager food, and keeping our partaking of foods free from elaborate curiosity, so that we may also refine the eye of our understanding.