論真福（八福講道） 第 1 章 第 6/6 段

who, being plotted against by his brothers and driven out from their common company, through being sold was shown forth as king over those who had plotted against him—perhaps not having advanced to so great a dignity had not envy, through that plot, paved the way to the kingship.

Just as, therefore, if someone having foreknowledge of the future had foretold to Joseph, 'Having been plotted against, you shall be blessed,' he would not, on the surface, have seemed convincing to the hearer who looked to the immediate grief;

for he would not have thought it possible that a good end could be shown forth from an evil purpose;

so indeed here too, the persecution brought by the tyrants upon the faithful, having much that is painful to the sense-perception, makes hard to accept for the more fleshly the hope of the kingdom set before them through those painful things;

but the Lord, overlooking the frailty of their nature, proclaims beforehand to the weaker ones what the end of the contest is, so that by the hope of the kingdom they may easily wrestle down the temporary sense of the painful things.

since he both heard the promise and saw the hope corresponding to the things that appeared.

Having heard that those persecuted for the Lord's sake become heirs of the heavens, he saw the thing expected in the very thing in which he was being persecuted.

For to him running through his confession, the thing hoped for is shown—heaven opened, the divine glory bending down from the supramundane portion toward the contest of the runner, He Himself being witnessed to in the contests by the athlete.

For the standing of the presiding judge makes manifest, through an enigma, His alliance with the one contending, that through this we might learn that He who both ordains the contests and takes His stand alongside His own contestants against the adversaries is one and the same.

What, then, could be more blessed than the one persecuted for the Lord's sake, to whom it belongs to have the presiding judge as fellow-contestant? For it is not among things easy—indeed perhaps it is altogether impossible—to prefer the good that does not appear over the things that do appear, among the pleasant things of this life, so that one should readily choose either to be banished from his house, or to come to be outside of wife and children, brothers and parents, and comrades, and all the pleasant things of life, unless the Lord Himself works together toward the good with him who has been called according to purpose.

For 'whom He foreknew,' as the Apostle says, 'him also He predestined, and calls, and justifies, and glorifies.'

Since, then, the soul is somehow grown together, through the bodily senses, with the pleasant things of life, and delights through the eyes in the fair colour of matter, and by the hearing inclines toward pleasant sounds, and by smell and taste and touch is disposed in accordance with what is naturally proper to each;

but when the living word, as the Apostle says, active and sharper than any two-edged sword, comes to be within the one who has truly received the faith, and cuts asunder the things that have wrongly grown together, and severs the bonds of habit;

then, as though shaking off from his shoulders the worldly pleasures that had been bound to the soul like some burden, like a runner he traverses the arena of the contests light and unencumbered, using the presiding judge Himself as his guide toward the course.

For he does not look at how much he has left behind, but at how much he is going toward;

nor does he turn his eye back toward the pleasant thing behind, but presses on toward the good set before him;

nor is he grieved at the loss of earthly things, but exults in the gain of the heavenly ones; and on this account he readily receives every kind of instrument of torment as an occasion and a co-working toward the joy set before him:

the fire, as a purifier of matter;

the sword, as that which divides the mind's growing-together with the material and fleshly things;

every device of labours and pains he eagerly receives, as being a counter-remedy against the wicked poison that comes by way of pleasure.

Just as those full of superfluous humours and bile readily draw down the bitter draught, so that through it the disease-causing cause might be washed away;

so he who is persecuted by the enemy and flees toward God receives the onset of the painful things as an extinguisher of the activity that operates by pleasure;

for it is not possible for one who is in pain to take pleasure.

Since, then, sin entered through pleasure, on this account it shall assuredly be driven out by the opposite.

Therefore those who persecute on account of the confession toward the Lord, and who devise the most unbearable of torments, bring a certain healing to the souls through the labours, tending by the assaults of painful things the disease that operates by pleasure.

Thus Paul receives the cross;

the blessed Peter, the crucifixion head-downward;

pits, conflagrations, the freezings of frost, the stripping of flesh from the sides, the encirclings of the heads, the losses of eyes, the cuttings-off of fingers, the tearings of the body on either side by means of the legs, the wastings-away through famine—all these and such-like the saints admitted with gladness as purifications of sin, so that no trace entering into the heart by way of pleasure might be left behind, since this painful and biting sensation wipes away all the impressions arising in the soul by way of pleasure.

Blessed, then, are those who have been persecuted for my sake.

Now this is of such a kind (that we may grasp the second sense as well) that, if one were to grant health a voice, it too would say:

«Blessed are those who have been separated from disease for my sake».

For the estrangement from what is grievous prepares those who were once sick to come to be within me.

Let us thus hear the saying as though Life itself were crying aloud to us such a beatitude:

Blessed are those who have been driven out by death for my sake;

as Light might say, «Blessed are those who have been driven out by darkness for my sake».

And likewise righteousness, and sanctification, and incorruptibility, and goodness, and every notion of the things that are conceived and spoken of as belonging to the better.

Since the Lord is all these—according to how he is understood—let it be reckoned that he speaks to you in each such respect:

namely, that «Blessed is everyone who is driven away from every contrary thing—from corruption, darkness, sin, injustice, greed, and each of the things set in opposition to the words, deeds, and thoughts that accord with virtue».

For to come to be outside of evils is to be established within the good things.

«Whoever commits sin», says the Lord, «is a slave of sin». Therefore he who has departed from that which he served regains his freedom in dignity.

And the highest form of freedom is to become self-determining.

But the dignity of kingship has no tyranny set above itself.

Therefore, if he who is estranged from sin is self-determining,

and if it is proper to kingship to be self-governing and unmastered,

then consistently he who is persecuted away from evil is called blessed, since the persecution from that quarter procures for him the royal dignity.

Let us not, then, be grieved, brethren, at being driven away from earthly things.

For he who removes from here takes up his dwelling in the kingdoms of heaven.

The place of those who have received life through the flesh is the earth;

but heaven is the place of the bodiless.

It is therefore altogether necessary that our life be somewhere: if we are not driven from the earth, we assuredly remain upon the earth;

but if we depart from here, we shall be transferred to heaven.

Do you see to what end the beatitude leads, becoming through what seems grievous the procurer for you of so great a good? Perceiving this, the Apostle too says that «All discipline, for the present, does not seem to be a matter of joy, but of grief;

but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it».

Therefore affliction is the blossom of the fruits that are awaited.

And running, we shall not run in vain, but let our course be toward the prize of our upward calling;

let us so run, that we may lay hold of it.

What is it that is laid hold of? What is the prize? What is the crown? To me it seems to be nothing other than the Lord himself, who is each of the things we hope for.

For he himself is both the judge of the contest for those who strive, and the crown for those who conquer;

he is the one who apportions the inheritance;

he is the one who graciously bestows on you your portion;

he is that wealth which shows you the treasure and himself becomes a treasure for you;

he who leads you into desire for the goodly pearl, and is set before you as the purchase for one who journeys well.

In order, then, that we may acquire that, let us—as at a market—exchange what we have for what we do not have,

he having promised that those who are persecuted for his sake are blessed;

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ;

to whom belong the glory and the might unto the ages of ages.