Homilies 1 part 9/11

But in order that he might show still more to all of us that even one righteous man is a precious thing, dear to God—since the number fell short even of ten, and the populace of sinners was found wanting even that small remnant of holy men, and since the transgressors had to pay the penalty for their insolence—Lot is forcibly driven out from the condemned region and is saved together with his whole household, as the reward of his own righteousness, having received all his kinsfolk as well from God.

—first a benefit to himself, then, for his descendants thereafter, a lasting treasure, unseen to the eye yet ever present, silent yet instructing others through its deeds:

long since laid low, yet still living through his good repute.

A good and inviolable inheritance for one's children, which time does not consume and no robber can take away.

For it is bodiless and immaterial, dwelling as a fellow-citizen among bodiless souls.

Do you see how even the glorious and celebrated Israelites, though stripped of everything and cast out even from their own land, were not deprived nor stripped of the venerable title of being called after their God-loving forefather; but even while enslaved to barbarians, they were set free on account of their fathers' righteousness, and even while living out their days in the wilderness, they were nourished on account of the good repute of those who had begotten them:

and though they sinned continually and often blasphemed, and though judged deserving of utterly destroying punishment, for Abraham's sake they were granted sparing mercy, and for Israel's sake they obtained forgiveness—bold-hearted children, saved through the merits of their fathers.

And you know, lover of learning, that at the very outset, when God called Moses from shepherding to the leadership of the peoples, he immediately says this to his servant:

"I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob."

And going a little further in his speech, he adds this:

"Gather the elders of the sons of Israel and say to them:

'The Lord God of your fathers has appeared to me, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.'"

And thus, at the very outset, God seals their descendants, as it were with a kind of seal, by the name of their righteous fathers:

knowing it good and advantageous for them to be known by descent from those fathers.

So that on behalf of his disciples he might propitiate the Master, the much-toiling tutor takes refuge in the remembrance of the fathers, and puts forward his supplication together with them, speaking thus:

"Be merciful concerning the wickedness of this people, remembering Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, your suppliants, to whom you swore by yourself to multiply their seed like the stars of heaven."

Great was the wrath, and the anger inexorable:

but the wise and resourceful suppliant, putting on, as it were, the masks of the saints, and casting before God, through remembrance, the gray hairs of the elders, quenched the punishment as one quenches a flame, healing the wounds of the raging sons with a father's oil.

Leave behind the book of Moses, and pass over to the books of Kingdoms.

For there too you will see a child deemed worthy of sparing mercy, because he was the offspring of a God-loving father.

This is Solomon, the much-celebrated:

who, since as time went on he was not master of his passions, but rather a slave, an unrestrained devotee of the flesh, and because of the carelessness of his life changed even his paternal piety, fashioning idols that became stumbling-blocks against the law—

"I will surely tear your kingdom away, and will give it to your servant:

nevertheless, in your days I will not do this, for the sake of David your father:

I will take it out of the hand of your son."

These things history teaches us;

and the song of the psalms teaches the same things:

"For I have grown old, and I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread."

But, as it seems, once a soul has grown insolently defiant against the truth, and has chosen astonishing innovation instead of living within order, nothing is sufficient to turn it back to the straight and ordered way:

but having bitten the bit, like some hard-mouthed colt, it is carried toward the abyss, overpowering its rider, the mind, by its impulse toward wickedness—just as indeed one may observe among these Eunomians.

For thus they prefer to be called rather than men of Christ—blaspheming God, dishonoring the men of God, showing as much reverence for the resting-places of the saints as sober-minded people show for pagan altars and for profane and polluted places.

Yet it would have been fitting for the practitioners of that madness—who count insolence toward everything as virtue—to be ashamed, at the very least, before the voices of the demons, who cry out and proclaim aloud the power of the martyrs, calling each by name as one present, and driving out and putting to flight the demons from the men whom they tyrannize.

And whether one wishes to say that it is the spirits of the athletes of piety that act against the unclean spirits, or that it is angels attending at the holy shrines in honor of those who have found their rest—it makes no difference:

for whichever is said, it is the glory of those who suffered for love of Christ.

The benefactions of the martyrs are manifestly evident day by day, different at different times and in various ways, which free the deranged from the workings of Satan.

For those who once howled and were held fast by the indescribable evils of madness are now seen to be of sound mind, and we behold, attested by the very facts themselves, the boldness of access which the intercession of the saints possesses.

And just as unmistakable proofs of the power of our Savior once went about in the midst of the Hebrews—those cleansed of leprosy, and the blind healed in their sight, and any paralytic who, his limbs' joints made strong, walked without hindrance—so also now those who bore the cross for the sake of him who was crucified furnish clear proofs of the grace that comes from the Master, healing in various and diverse ways the faithful among their fellow servants.

And Paul and Peter—the one having driven out the demon of Python, the other having raised up the lame man at the temple gates—by their effective powers turned both Hebrews and Greeks to obedience to the gospel:

...life; nor does he, even at the magnificence of their wonders, show reverence to the martyrs;

They call them common burial-grounds and tombs and 'sleeping-places,' and they abhor the very entrances to them, as though defiled by pollution — not even remembering that divinely inspired saying, sung by every mouth, that:

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones.

Let us, then, pray to God, and entreat the martyrs to importune our common Master, that a spirit of compunction may be given to those who are moved by heretical error, and that, the discord being dissolved like some dividing wall or fence, we may all come together into brotherly union —

in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom belongs the glory unto the ages.

Of Asterius, Bishop of Amasea, an ekphrasis on the holy martyr Euphemia. — Not long ago, gentlemen, I had in hand the formidable Demosthenes, and that passage of Demosthenes where he assails Aeschines with bitter arguments;

and having spent a long time on the discourse and become congested in mind, I felt the need of relaxation and a walk, so that the wearied part of my soul might be relieved a little.

So going out from my chamber and walking a little way with acquaintances toward the marketplace, from there I came to the precinct of God, intending to pray at leisure;

and having obtained this too, I was walking along one of the covered colonnades, when I saw there a certain painting, and the sight utterly captivated me;

you would have said the work was by Euphranor, or by one of those ancients who raised the art of painting to greatness, producing panels all but alive.

Come then, if you wish — for there is now leisure for a narrative — I shall describe the painting to you;

for we, the children of the Muses, by no means possess inferior colors to those of painters.

A certain woman, a holy virgin who had consecrated her unsullied chastity to God — they call her Euphemia — when once a tyrant was persecuting those who practiced true religion, most readily chose the peril of death;

and her fellow citizens, sharers in the religion for which she died, admiring the virgin as at once courageous and holy, built a shrine near the sanctuary, and having laid the coffin to rest there, they render honors to her and make the yearly feast a common and public festival.

Now the revealers of God's mysteries [the clergy] always honor her memory both in word and in disposition, and carefully instruct the assembled peoples how she accomplished the contest of endurance.

And the painter, being himself also devout, having depicted through his art, to the best of his ability, the whole story on a linen cloth, set up a sacred spectacle somewhere near the shrine;

and the work of art is as follows:

A judge sits enthroned on high, looking upon the virgin with a bitter and hostile gaze;

for art, when it wishes, is angry even in lifeless materials.

There are bodyguards of the magistracy and many soldiers, and among them clerks who record the proceedings, carrying tablets and styluses; one of them, having lifted his hand from the wax tablet, looks intently at the woman on trial, turning his whole face toward her, as though bidding her to speak more loudly, lest, straining to hear, he write down mistaken and blameworthy things.

The virgin stands in a grey tunic and cloak, signifying her philosophic way of life — fair in countenance, as it seemed to the painter, but, as it seems to me, adorned in soul with virtues.

Two soldiers are bringing her to the magistrate, the one pulling her forward, the other pressing her from behind;

the virgin's aspect is a blend of modesty and firmness;

yet in the face of the contest she also betrays a certain timidity.

As for me, I used to praise other painters — until I had seen the drama of that Colchian woman, how, as she was about to bring the sword down upon her children, she divided her countenance between pity and rage, one of her eyes revealing anger while the other betrayed the mother sparing and shuddering; but now I have transferred my admiration from that conception to this painting;

and I greatly admire the artist, because he blended the bloom of his colors even more skillfully, mingling together modesty and courage, passions that by nature contend with one another.

As the representation proceeds further, certain executioners, now stripped to short tunics, begin their work;

one of them, seizing her head and bending it back, offers the virgin's face, ready for punishment, to the other;

while the other, standing beside her, was knocking out the pearl-like whiteness of her teeth;

a hammer and a drill appear as the instruments of the punishment.

At this point I weep, and my emotion cuts short my discourse;

for the painter has colored the drops of blood so vividly that you would say they truly flow from her lips, and you would go away weeping.

And again, the virgin, dignified in her grey garments, sits alone, stretching out both hands toward heaven and calling upon God as helper in her sufferings;

and as she prays, there appears above her head the sign which it is the custom for Christians to venerate and to inscribe upon themselves — a symbol, I suppose, of the suffering that awaited her.

Immediately afterward, a little further on, the painter has kindled a fierce fire elsewhere, giving the flame bodily form by means of red pigment shining forth on this side and that.

He places her in the midst of it, her hands spread out toward heaven, showing not the slightest grief on her face, but on the contrary rejoicing, because she was departing to the incorporeal and blessed life.

At this point both the painter stayed his hand, and I my discourse;

and now it is your turn, if you wish, to complete the painting yourself, so that you may see precisely whether we have not fallen far behind in our description.

Of Asterius, Bishop of Amasea, an encomium on the holy Stephen the protomartyr. — How truly sacred and beautiful is the cycle of things that bring us joy!

For feast succeeds feast, and festival follows upon festival;

we are called from one prayer to the next, and the honor of the servant follows close upon the Lord's Theophany.

And whether one looks to the birth of him who was born yesterday according to the flesh, yet exists eternally according to divinity, or to the martyrdom which today the noble servant underwent, one will find many and varied matters, but a single aim: that we should be instructed in piety.

Yesterday, then, we learned through the recurring and customary feast that the Savior of the world was born, and he who was without flesh clothed himself in flesh, and he who was without body put on a body; and next, that he also accepted sufferings on our behalf, and was lifted up on the wood of the cross for no other reason than for our care and salvation.

Today we see the noble contestant being stoned to death on his account, that he might repay in blood the grace bestowed through blood.

Stephen, then, the convener of this festival, who has called us to the joy now witnessed, who has led the city together as one, a man who is the firstfruits of the martyrs, teacher of the labors endured for Christ's sake, foundation of the good confession —

for before Stephen no one had shed blood for the sake of the gospel.

...he wrought it: having taken up strife in place of natural affection, he was first to make the earth new with murder; so also Stephen, thrice-blessed, was first, with his own blood, through his pious contests, to sanctify the earth — a man who in time is second to the apostles, but in deeds of valor is first.

And do not be indignant with me, Peter; do not be grieved, James; do not be displeased, John, if I not only compare this man to your way of life, but even wish to grant him something more;

rather rejoice, for you are fathers free of envy, who exult in the achievements of your sons, and are gladly surpassed by your children in virtue.

For if there is anything good and great in Stephen, this belongs entirely to you, his instructors and initiators into the mysteries.

For the good repute of the athletes becomes the glory of the trainer.

Therefore, having briefly craved your indulgence, I shall speak boldly whatever this theme affords me, in advocacy of this champion in Christ.

You are the elder among the disciples, holy Peter, and before all others you proclaimed Jesus Christ;

yet while you were still preaching the evangelical word, going from city to city and passing from region to region, laboring at the proclamation, this man entered the arena, seized the crown of the contest, and passed on into heaven, glorified, while you were still moving about upon the earth;

and, what is greater, he was glorified by the Father and the Son themselves, who called him through that wondrous vision.

Such, then, is the case with Peter also, and what has been said suffices.

For it is a bold thing to contend at length with the fathers over the first place.

Let us look also at your case, James, brother of John.

You are an evangelist of Christ, the second catch after Peter;

and who would not admire your faith? For you were merely called, and without any hesitation you obeyed;

you left, along with the boat, even your father Zebedee;

and you followed Christ as a true disciple.

You suffered readily for the sake of piety, I confess;

for Herod the tyrant put you to death by the sword — but this was many years after Stephen.

And why do I name each one individually, when he carried off the prize of martyrdom above all the saints together, being the first to array himself against the devil and the first to conquer, imitating David, though by an inverted manner of the deed? With stones David conquered Goliath; with stones Stephen conquered the devil;

but the one conquered by the stones he threw, the other by the stones with which he was struck.

And let us, the people of Christ, like the army of Israel then, cry out and acclaim the songs of triumph, beholding him as though present, admiring him as though standing before us.

For every man who fights on behalf of piety is good, even if he comes second or third after those who contended before him;

yet he is not worthy of the same wonder as the first.

For the second, being drawn on by emulation of the one who went before, was thus led toward this earnest striving in imitation of him;

but he who employed no leader, but became the very discoverer of what is good, deservedly receives the vote for first place.

Great, then, was the man's zeal, and therefore great also is his honor;

Immortal is his memory, which neither forgetfulness has covered nor time has dimmed, but generation succeeding generation in the handing down of the narratives, we celebrate this festival without fail — priests, people, children, men, women.

We must also consider the narrative itself, so that, coming close to the very events, we may admire the man the more.

Stephen was the first of the deacons in Christ, sanctified by grace, a vessel filled with the Spirit, day by day confirming the household of the faith and turning back those who wandered to the straight way.

But since he held to his teaching more vehemently, he grieved the enemies more than the rest of the apostles did, and before them, the first and chief enemy, the devil.

For that one fixes fiery eyes, glaring savagely, upon those who stand most firmly for piety.

He therefore roused against him a faction of the Alexandrian race into a swiftly-surging sedition.

When he saw the multitude streaming together against him, he was at a loss how to deal with the present situation;

nevertheless he found a skillful device — a fitting and gentle speech.

For no remedy is so effective for the healing of anger and agitation as a gentle and well-fitted exhortation.

"And tell me," he said, "the cause of your hatred, and why you raise your hands against me and show yourselves plainly ready to tear me apart."

But when they said, "Because you are destroying the ancestral laws and are an introducer of foreign doctrines," the blessed man, standing in their midst — an untrained and extemporaneous orator, for he spoke not what he had learned by art, but what he was inspired to say by the Spirit — said, "Men, brothers and fathers, listen."

Wise was the exordium; excellent, for an inflamed crowd, was the opening of his public address.

For the mild and gentle words, partaking as it were of some honey, or resembling soft oil, quelled the inflammation of the wild beasts.

Then he ascends in memory to Abraham, so that, beginning from ancient times and extending a long discourse, in the great interval he might imperceptibly let their anger spend itself and be dissolved.

And having elaborated that long discourse, he shows that Moses too prophesied Christ, so that, through the credibility of the lawgiver, he might skillfully — as if by stealth — smuggle in the word of faith.

He spoke everything skillfully, whatever contributed to the benefit of his hearers.

But when he saw their wickedness unyielding and their mind unsoftened, then at last, filled with boldness and having renounced any concern for this present life, and abandoning every flattering art, he addressed them without concealment as "stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart, fighting against the law, warring against the Spirit."

And what followed from this? They surrounded him — just as, according to the psalmody, "many dogs" and "fat bulls" encompassed the righteous one, the Master.

He stood alone, surrounded on every side by the mob of murderers.

No one was near him at that hour — no friend, no relative, no kinsman.

For it brings some comfort to those in danger to see, close at hand, someone of their acquaintance.

But the exalted judge of the great contest, knowing that the man had need of a helper — for even though he was exceedingly brave, he was altogether subject to human feelings — suddenly appears to him as he gazes intently toward heaven, and shows him also the Son standing at his right hand in the form of his incarnation.

They appeared to the athlete for whose sake he was contending, and the God of all all but uttered to him a voice such as this:

"Suffer nothing base, O Stephen;

you have no man as an ally, none of your friends stands by you in this hour of dread, but I, together with the Beloved, watch over what is being done.

Ready is your rest, thrown open are the gates of paradise.

Endure a little while, then leave behind this temporal life and hasten to the life eternal and unending.

While still in the flesh you behold God — a thing greater than all created nature.

You were instructed in the mystery by the elder apostles, that the Father has a genuine, beloved Son.

Behold, I manifest myself to you as much as you are able to bear.

And the Son stands beside me at my right hand, so that from the relation of that place you may know the honor.

It once scandalized many, that God on earth clothed himself with flesh;

but see him now on high with me, heavenly and super-heavenly, bearing the form of man for the confirmation of the economy that has been accomplished.

For his sake, though you are being stoned, do not falter, do not grow faint.

Seeing the judge of the contest, do not fear the contest.

Let go of the body, despising it as an earthly bond, as a decaying house, as a perishable vessel of the potter.

Run up freely to the allotted portion here, for ready for you is the crown of your valor.

Depart from earth to heaven.

Leave the body to the murderers, as food to dogs.

Leave behind the raging mob and come to the choir of angels,

lest he suffer something cowardly and, through the greatness of his fear, let his great zeal be dissolved.

Therefore he sent him neither an angel as helper, as later to the apostles in prison, nor some ministering power that was a fellow-servant, but he manifested himself in person.

For then it was the firstfruits of martyrdom, and the first work had to be brought to perfection, so that the martyrs subsequently built upon it might receive a strong foundation of zeal and not become imitators of cowardice — which is exactly what happens in ordinary wars as well.

For one soldier who fights in the front line, giving the signal for the action, if he wins and shows himself manly, strengthens all his own and strikes terror into the adversaries; but if he suffers some weakness, he immediately breaks down, and fills the souls of his fellow-countrymen with cowardice, and becomes the signal for flight.

For this reason God appeared from heaven.

But he, having been deemed worthy of a great vision such as no other had, did not keep in silence what he saw, but immediately cried out:

"Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

For he thought that by proclaiming the vision he would draw the unbelievers to assent.

But they, taking what was said as an occasion for greater anger and madness, and stopping their ears against the word as blasphemous, immediately set about the murder.

Having dragged the Christ-bearing man outside the city — he bearing his endurance as the Lord bore the cross — they cure evil with evil, and make their defense for murder by murder, and join the stones to the cross.

Having set the thrice-blessed man upon a certain level piece of ground — that tall body, the lofty trophy of the martyrs — and having encircled him round about, the crowd of blood and wrath, and imitating what in wars is called the encircling net, they cast stones at the deacon of the cornerstone, and every Hebrew hand was active in the murder;

and the target of those throwing was the martyr, standing in the middle like the mark for an archer.

But when his body, shattered on every side and bathed in blood, began at last to sink from its upright stance, it was shaken and threatened to fall, like some tall plane-tree worked upon by many woodsmen;

yet he did not suffer his fall unbecomingly, as most do.

For he was not stretched out face down, nor was he brought down sideways, nor did he recline in the posture of one lying on his back, but, placing his knees on the ground, he sank down in the fitting posture of one praying, hastening in his soul, through prayer, the separation of the flesh, and crying out to the Lord whom he beheld:

"Lord Jesus Christ, receive my spirit."

For he hastened as toward a migration, as from a foreign land to his homeland, as into a splendid city from a desolate and parched land.

And to his supplication he added also a prayer on behalf of those stoning him.

For unwillingly they were doing him good, and by stoning him they were saving him, and by murdering him they were giving him life, and by separating him from the clay they were sending him on to the kingdom.

Let us then also consider the word of his prayer, to what aim it tends — "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."

For it is not, as some think who reason wrongly, that he prays for the sin of his enemies to go unpunished and unaccountable.

For this would be plainly to resist the ordinance of God, and to correct the just judgment and legislation that has apportioned to murderers what is fitting for their desert.

But what does he mean? "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" — that is:

"Grant a fear of compunction, lead them to repentance for what they have now dared to do; do not allow them to die in circumcision; draw them through repentance to the knowledge of you; kindle in their hearts the flame of the Spirit."

"For if they are thus made better, it is plain that you will not lay this sin to their charge, but, having washed away both your blood and mine in the bath of grace, they will become free of their guilt."

These things happened, and the drama was accomplished.

And the hosts of angels rejoiced, marveling at the contest, and with much escort led Stephen up to his own allotted portion;

the devil was greatly confounded — but, to speak somewhat more corporeally about that aerial spirit, imitating prophetic language, as one bearing on his face the scorch-mark of a cooking-pot, and having achieved the opposite of what he expected, and by the very means through which he thought to diminish the Christians, through those very means multiplying the roster of the martyrs.

But what shall we say also concerning the holy Paul? For he too was one of the murderers, a true Benjamin, a ravening wolf.

For even if he himself did not cast stones, yet he kept the garments of those who were stoning, and served as attendant to a mob turned executioner.

Yet in a little while I shall see you—you who are now full of vigor and breathing wild fury—led by the hand like some feeble old woman, when you are about to be led to Ananias, having tasted the truth.

And I shall laugh very heartily when I hear you recounting your afflictions endured for the gospel, and saying, among your other perils:

For you must make your defense for the stones by means of stones, and by suffering the same thing dissolve the charge of your sin.

It is fitting, moreover, not to leave unexamined the vision of Stephen;

for God of all things, ever taking forethought for what follows, prepares in advance, as a safeguard, the remedy for the sins that are going to arise afterward in the life of men—which indeed he has done here also.

For if the theophany were accomplished only for the benefit of the contestant, it would have sufficed for a voice alone to come from heaven, as at the baptism earlier, or in later times at the transfiguration, or even as in the case of this Paul, when he was journeying toward Damascus.

But now, because the evil of Sabellius was about to spring up from Libya against the churches of God, and to introduce into life the ill-reputed confusion of the persons, for this reason God, as if forestalling what was to come and safeguarding beforehand the souls of those to come after, shows himself to Stephen in his own and complete glory, and shows also the Son in a perfected person, and sets him at his own right hand, so that by the clear distinction of the persons he might explain the hypostases.

Thus far, then, the matters concerning the Father and the Son have been philosophically expounded to you; but where is the Holy Spirit? For if it was for the sake of security in the faith that the Father appeared from heaven together with the Son, the Holy Spirit too ought to have been present, so that a kind of practical mystagogy might have been accomplished for men through the vision.