Homilies on Second Corinthians 5

'Now when I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, and a door was opened unto me in the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother.'

These words seem unworthy of Paul, if for the absence of a brother he let slip so great a salvation;

and it seems, too, to hang loose from the sequence of thought.

What then? Do you wish that we first show that it hangs together with the sequence, or that he has said nothing unworthy of himself? To me the latter seems best;

for thus the other point too will become easier and clearer for us.

How, then, does this hang together with what precedes? Let us recall those very things, and thus we shall understand this.

What, then, were the preceding things? The very things he was saying at the beginning:

'I would not have you ignorant, brethren,' he says, 'concerning the affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our strength.'

And having shown how he was delivered, and having interposed the matters that lay between, he necessarily teaches again that he was afflicted in yet another way.

How and in what manner? By not finding Titus.

For it is a grievous thing, and sufficient to cast down a soul, even to endure temptations;

but when there is also no one to console, and able to help bear the burden, the storm becomes yet greater.

And this Titus is the very one who, as he says further on, came to him from them, and concerning whom he goes through many great praises, and whom he said he had sent.

Wishing, then, to show that in this respect too he was afflicted for their sake, he has said these things.

That the words spoken hang together with what precedes is clear from these considerations;

but that they are also not unworthy of Paul, this too I shall try to show.

For he does not say that the absence of Titus hindered the salvation of those who were about to come to the faith, nor that on this account he neglected those who had believed, but that he had no rest—that is, he was afflicted, was in anguish because of the brother's absence—showing how great a thing a brother's absence is;

and for this reason he departed from thence.

But what is the meaning of 'Now when I came to Troas for the gospel'? 'I did not,' he says, 'merely sojourn there, but so as to preach.'

Yet nevertheless, though I came for this, and found a very great work—

'For a door was opened unto me in the Lord, I had no rest,' he says—

yet not on this account did he hinder the work.

How then does he say, 'Taking my leave of them, I went forth'? That is: I did not tarry a longer time, being straitened, being in anguish.

And perhaps the work was even hindered by his being absent.

But this is no small consolation to these also.

For if, though a door was opened there, and though he had come for this very purpose, yet, because he did not find the brother, he sprang away quickly, much more, he says, ought you to sympathize with the necessities of affairs, which lead and drive us about everywhere, and do not permit us, as we would wish, either to journey abroad or to linger among those with whom we might wish to spend a longer time.

Wherefore he adds once more, ascribing his journeyings here to God, just as above he ascribed them to the Spirit, and saying:

Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and makes manifest through us the savor of the knowledge of Him in every place.

For lest he should seem to be bewailing and lamenting these things as one in mourning, he sends up thanksgiving to God.

Everywhere affliction, everywhere distress;

I came into Asia, I was weighed down beyond my strength;

I came to Troas, I found not my brother;

and this too wrought in me no small despondency, but even a very great one, both because many among you had sinned, and because on this account I saw you not.

For to spare you, he says, I came no more unto Corinth.

Therefore, that he might not seem to be lamenting in saying these things, he adds that: Not only do we not grieve amid these afflictions, but we even rejoice;

and what is greater, not for the sake of the rewards to come alone, but for the sake of these present things themselves;

for even here we are made illustrious and conspicuous by these very things.

So far, then, are we from lamenting, that we even call the matter a triumph, and glory in the things that befall us.

Wherefore also he said: Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph;

that is, who makes us conspicuous unto all.

For that which seems to be a mark of dishonor, namely to be driven from every quarter, this appears to us to be of the greatest honor.

Therefore he said not, who makes us manifest, but, who leads us in triumph;

showing that these persecutions set up continual trophies against the devil in every part of the earth.

Then, having set forth along with the triumph its ground as well, he thereby also rouses up the hearer.

For we are led in triumph not by God only, but also in Christ;

that is, on account of Christ and the preaching.

For when a triumph must be held, it is altogether necessary that we too who bear the trophy should be conspicuous, since we carry Him.

For this cause we are looked upon by all and conspicuous.

And who makes manifest through us the savor of the knowledge of Him in every place.

Above he said, always leading in triumph; here he says, in every place;

showing that every place and every season is filled with the apostolic contests.

And again he employs another metaphor, that of the sweet fragrance.

For just as men bearing perfume, so are we made manifest to all, he says;

calling the knowledge a precious ointment.

And he said not, the knowledge, but, the savor of the knowledge.

For such is our present knowledge: not exceedingly clear, nor uncovered.

Wherefore also in the former Epistle he said, For now we see through a glass, darkly; and here he calls such a thing the savor of ointment.

But he that perceives the savor knows indeed that some ointment lies somewhere, yet what it is in its essence he knows no longer, unless he happen to have known it beforehand.

So too we: that God is, we know; but what He is in His essence, we know no longer.

As then we are a royal censer, breathing forth, wherever we go, the heavenly ointment and the spiritual fragrance.

And these things he said, showing at once the might of the preaching also, that by the very means through which they are plotted against, by these they shine forth more than their persecutors, and cause all the world to know both their trophies and their sweet savor; and comforting them concerning their afflictions and temptations, so that they might bear all things nobly, seeing that even before the recompense they reap an unspeakable renown.

For we are a sweet savor of Christ unto God, in them that are being saved and in them that are perishing.

For whether one be saved, he says, or whether one perish, the Gospel abides having its own proper virtue.

Light, though it darken the weak, is light, even while it darkens;

and honey, though it be bitter to the sick, is by nature sweet;

so too the Gospel is fragrant, even though some perish through unbelief.

For their destruction is not its work, but the fruit of their own perversity.

And by this very thing its sweet savor is most made manifest, in that the corrupt and wicked perish.

So that its virtue is shown not only from the salvation of the good, but also from the destruction of the wicked.

Since the sun also, precisely because it is exceedingly bright, on this very account most of all strikes the eyes of the sickly;

and the Saviour is set for the falling and rising of many, yet nonetheless He remains being a Saviour, even though ten thousand fall;

and His coming punished the more grievously them that would not be persuaded, yet nonetheless it remains being salutary.

For this cause he too says, that we are a sweet savor unto God;

that is, Even though some perish, we remain being this which we are.

And he said not simply, a sweet savor, but, unto God.

But when we are a sweet savor unto God, and He reckons these things so, who shall thenceforth gainsay? And the phrase, a sweet savor of Christ, seems to me to admit of a twofold interpretation.

For either he means this, that they offered themselves as a sacrifice in dying; or that we are a sweet savor of the slaying of Christ;

as one might say, This incense is the sweet savor of such and such a victim.

Either then it is this that the name of the sweet savor signifies;

or, as I said before, that they are slain daily for Christ's sake.

Do you see whither he has exalted the temptations, calling them a triumph, and a sweet savor, and a sacrifice offered unto God? Then, since he had said, We are a sweet savor even in them that are perishing, lest you should suppose that those too are well-pleasing, he added:

To the one indeed a savor of death unto death, but to the other a savor of life unto life.

For this sweet savor some so receive as to be saved, but others so as to perish.

So that even if one perish, the cause is from himself;

since ointment too is said to choke swine, and light, as I said before, to darken the weak.

And such is the nature of good things;

they not only set right the things akin to them, but also destroy the things contrary;

and by this most of all is their power displayed.

For fire also, not only when it gives light, nor when it purifies gold, but even when it consumes thorns, most of all displays its proper strength, and thereby appears as fire;

and Christ too by this shows forth His majesty, when He shall consume the antichrist with the breath of His mouth, and bring him to nought by the manifestation of His coming.

And who is sufficient for these things? For since he had uttered great things, that We are a sacrifice of Christ and a sweet savor, and that we are led in triumph everywhere, again he speaks with moderation, ascribing all to God;

wherefore he also says, And who is sufficient for these things? For the whole, he says, is of Christ.

Do you see him speaking contrariwise to the false apostles? For they boast as though contributing something of their own unto the preaching; but this man says that he boasts for this very reason, because he says that nothing is his own;

For our glorying is this, the testimony of our conscience, that not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world.

And that whereof those men thought the possession to be a ground of boasting, I mean the wisdom which is from without, this man makes the doing away with it a ground of boasting;

wherefore also here he says, And who is sufficient for these things? But if we are not sufficient, then that which comes to pass is of grace.

For we are not, like so many others, peddlers of the word of God.

For even though we utter great things, yet we have said that no achievement is our own, but that all belongs to Christ.

For neither shall we imitate the false apostles, who claim that much is their own.

For this is to play the huckster: when one adulterates the wine, when one sells for money that which he ought to have given freely.

For here he seems to me both to jeer at them concerning money, and again to hint at what I have said, namely, that they mingle their own things with the things of God.

This too Isaiah reproached them for, saying, 'Your hucksters mix the wine with water.'

For even though this was said concerning wine, one would not err in applying it also to teaching.

'But we,' he says, 'are not so';

'rather, such as we were entrusted with, such do we dispense, mingling the wine unmixed.'

But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

'We do not preach thus by deceiving you,' he says, 'as though granting you a favour, or bringing in and mingling something of our own, but as of God';

that is, 'We do not say that we bestow anything of our own, but that God has given all things';

for this is the meaning of 'of God':

to boast of nothing as though possessing it as one's own, but to refer all things to Him.

being inspired in nothing by our own wisdom, but by the power that comes from Him.

But those who boast are not so, but as though contributing something of their own.

Wherefore also elsewhere he ridicules them, saying, 'For what do you have that you did not receive? But if you also received it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?' This is the greatest virtue: to ascribe all things to God, to consider nothing as one's own, to do nothing for the glory of men, but for that which is pleasing to God;

for it is He who demands the reckoning.

But now the order has been reversed;

and Him who shall sit upon the tribunal and demand the reckoning we do not greatly fear, while those who stand together with us and are being judged we tremble at.

Whence then comes this disease? Whence has it fallen upon our souls? From not continually reckoning upon the things there, but from being nailed to the things present.

Hence also we easily fall into wicked deeds;

and even if we do some good thing, we do it for display, so that from this too loss comes to us.

At all events, someone has often looked upon another with unchaste eyes, and escaped notice both of her who was seen and of those walking with him;

but he did not escape the sleepless Eye.

For He, even before the sin was committed, beheld the unchaste soul, and the madness within, and the thoughts tossed about in tempest and surge.

For He who knows all things has no need of witnesses and proofs.

Therefore look not to your fellow-servants;

for even if a man praise you, it is of no profit, when God does not approve;

and even if a man condemn you, it is no harm, when God does not condemn.

Do not then in this way provoke the Judge, making much account of your fellow-servants, while not fearing and trembling at Him when He is displeased.

Let us then despise the praise that comes from men.

How long shall we be worthless and grovelling on the ground? How long, while God lifts us up toward heaven, shall we ourselves be eager to be dragged along the ground? The brothers of Joseph, had they held the fear of God before their eyes as they ought, would not have taken their brother in the wilderness and slain him.

Cain again, had he feared that verdict of His as he ought to have feared, would not have said, 'Come, and let us go out into the plain.'

For why, O coward and wretched one, do you separate him from him that begot him and lead him out into the wilderness? Does not God then behold the daring deed even in the plain? Were you not taught by the things that happened to your father, that He knows all things, and is present to all that come to pass? And for what reason did God not say this to him when he denied it:

'Do you hide from Me, who am present everywhere, and who know the secret things?' Because that man did not yet know how to reason wisely on these matters.

But what does He say? 'The voice of your brother's blood cries to Me';

not as though the blood had a voice, but as we say that the deed cries out, in the case of things manifest and plain.

Wherefore indeed we ought to hold the verdict of God before our eyes, and all terrible things are quenched.

Thus also in prayers can we be sober, if we consider with whom we are conversing, if we reckon that we are offering a sacrifice, and have a knife in our hands, and fire and wood; if by our reasoning we throw open the gates of heaven, if we remove thither, and taking the sword of the Spirit thrust it into the throat of the victim, and sacrifice to Him sobriety, and pour out to Him tears.

For such is the blood of this victim;

with such a slaughter is that altar reddened.

Suffer then nothing of human reasonings to hold your soul in possession at that time.

Consider that Abraham too, when offering the sacrifice, allowed neither wife, nor servant, nor any other to be present.

Do not you then either allow any of the servile and ignoble passions to be present with you;

but go up alone into the mountain, where

he went up, where it was lawful for no other to go up.

And if any of such thoughts attempt to go up with you, command them with authority, and say, 'Sit here, but I and the lad, when we have worshipped, will return';

and leave the ass and the servants below, and whatever is irrational and senseless;

and whatever is rational, take that and go up, as he took Isaac.

And build the altar so as he did, as one having nothing human, but being outside of nature;

since he too, had he not been outside of nature, would not have slain his son.

And let nothing disturb you then, but become higher than the very heavens;

groan bitterly, sacrifice confession;

'For declare you your iniquities first,' He says, 'that you may be justified';

sacrifice contrition of heart.

These victims end not in ashes, nor are they dissolved into smoke, nor do they need wood and fire, but only a compunctious mind;

this is the wood, this is the fire that burns them, yet does not consume them.

For he who prays with fervour is burned, yet is not consumed, but like gold tried in the fire, becomes brighter.

Together with these, guard also this: to say nothing when praying of the things that provoke your Master, nor to approach Him against your enemies.

For if to have enemies is a reproach, consider how great an evil it is to imprecate against them.

For when you ought to give account why you have enemies, you even slander them.

And what pardon shall you obtain, both slandering and at such a time, when you have need of much mercy? For indeed you came near beseeching on behalf of your own sins;

do not then make mention of the sins of others, lest you call to remembrance your own.

For if you say, 'Smite my enemy,' you have stopped up your own mouth;

for you have no longer given boldness to your tongue;

first, because you have provoked the Judge straightway from the very outset;

secondly, because you ask things contrary to the very form of prayer.

For if you pray for the forgiveness of sins, how do you discourse about punishment? On the contrary, you ought to do the opposite, and to entreat on their behalf, that we might for our own selves also with boldness beseech this.

But now you have anticipated the Judge's verdict through your own, deeming that sinners should be punished;

which also strips a man of all excuse.

But if you pray on their behalf, even though you say nothing concerning your own affairs, you have accomplished the whole.

Consider how many sacrifices there are in the Law:

the sacrifice of praise, the sacrifice of confession, the sacrifice of the peace-offering, the sacrifice of purifications, and countless others; and not one of them is against enemies, but each is offered for one's own sins, or even for one's good deeds.

For are you drawing near to some other God? You are drawing near to Him who said, 'Pray for your enemies.'

How then do you cry out against them? How do you entreat God to break His own law? This is not the posture of a suppliant;

no one supplicates that another may perish, but that he himself may be saved.

Why then do you wear the guise of a suppliant, yet have the words of an accuser? And whenever we pray for ourselves, we yawn and scratch and fall into ten thousand distracting thoughts;

but whenever we pray against enemies, we do this wide awake.

For since the devil knows that we are thrusting the sword against ourselves, he neither draws us away nor distracts us then, that he may harm us the more grievously.

'But I have been wronged,' he says, 'and I am afflicted.'

Then pray against the devil, who of all beings wrongs us most.

This too you were commanded to say: 'Deliver us from the evil one.'

He is the irreconcilable enemy;

but a man, whatever he may do, is a friend and a brother.

Against him therefore let us all be angry; against him let us entreat God, saying, 'Bruise Satan under our feet.'

For this is he who begets even our enemies.

But if you pray against enemies, you are praying the very prayer that he desires;

just as, if you pray for enemies, you pray against him.

Why then, letting go the true enemy, do you bite your own members, becoming in this more savage than wild beasts? 'But he has insulted me,' he says, 'and defrauded me of my money.'

And which ought one to lament, the one who has suffered evil, or the one who has done evil? For he who gained the money cast himself out of the goodwill of God, and lost more than he received;

so that it is he who has been wronged.

Therefore we ought not to pray against him, but rather to pray for him,

that God may become merciful to him.

See how much the three children suffered, having done nothing dreadful:

they were driven from their homeland, from freedom; they were led into captivity and became slaves; and being carried away into a foreign and barbarous land, they were about to be slaughtered for a dream, rashly and without cause.

What then, when they had gone in with Daniel, did they pray? What did they say? 'Dash down Nebuchadnezzar;

tear away his diadem;

cast him down from his throne'? Nothing of the sort;

but they besought compassions from God.

And when they were in the furnace, likewise.

But not so you; rather, suffering far less than they, and often justly, you do not cease from calling down ten thousand curses;

and one says, 'Cast down the enemy, as You sank the chariot of Pharaoh';

another, 'Smite his flesh';

yet another, 'Requite it upon his children.'

Do you not recognize these words? Whence then this laughter of yours? Do you see how ridiculous they are, when they are spoken apart from passion? And every sin too is then shown to be shameful, when you strip it bare of the disposition of the one who dares it. If you remind the man who has been angered of the words he spoke in his wrath, he will sink into the ground and laugh at himself, and will wish to have suffered ten thousand things rather than that those words should be his;

and if you bring the licentious man, after his intercourse, to the harlot he has consorted with, he too will turn away from her as loathsome.

So you also, who are not now in the passion, laugh;

for ridiculous indeed are these words, the words of drunken old crones and of womanish faint-heartedness.

And Joseph too, when he had been sold and made a slave and had dwelt in prison, not even so did he utter a bitter word against those who had grieved him;

but what does he say? 'I was indeed stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews';

and he does not add by whom;

for he is more ashamed of his brothers' evils than are those very men who committed them.

Thus ought we also to be disposed, grieving for those who insult us more than they themselves grieve;

for the harm passes over onto them.

As therefore those who kick against the goads and think highly of it are worthy of pity and lamentation because of this madness;

so those who wrong men that have done them no evil, inasmuch as they are smiting their own souls, are worthy of many wailings and lamentations, not of curses.

For nothing is more polluted than a soul that curses, nor more unclean than a tongue that offers such sacrifices.

You are a man; do not vomit up the venom of asps;

you are a man; do not become a wild beast.

For this purpose was a mouth given you, not that you should bite, but that you should heal the wounds of others.

'Remember what I exhorted you,' says God;

'yet you even call upon Me to become a partner in the overturning of My own commandments, and you devour your brother, and stain your tongue with blood, just as madmen do with their teeth upon their own limbs.'

How do you think the devil delights and laughs when he hears such a prayer? How does God grow provoked and turn away and hate, when you make such entreaties? Than which what could be more grievous? For if a man must not draw near to the Mysteries while he has enemies;

then the man who not merely has an enemy, but even curses him, how should he not be shut out from the very precincts? Considering these things then, and knowing the ground of the sacrifice, that it was offered on behalf of enemies, let us have no enemy; and if we have one, let us pray for him;

that we too, having received forgiveness of the things we have sinned, may stand with boldness before the judgment-seat of Christ;

to whom be glory, might, and honour, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.