Homilies on Hebrews 20

For if we sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fiery zeal which is about to devour the adversaries.

As for those trees which, though planted and enjoying the hands of the husbandman and all other care, yield no return for the labors, they are torn up by the roots and delivered to the fire;

and something of the same sort happens also in the case of enlightenment.

For when Christ has planted us, and we have enjoyed the spiritual watering, and then display an unfruitful life, the fire of hell awaits us, and the unquenchable flame.

Paul, then, having exhorted them to love and to the bearing of good works, and having urged them on from the more pleasant considerations (of what kind are these? that we have an entrance into the holies, which He has consecrated for us, a way newly made), does this same thing again from the more sober considerations, speaking thus:

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching (for this too is sufficient for exhortation);

For if we sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth

There is need, he says, of good works, and much need.

For if we sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

And what he means is this:

You were cleansed, you were rid of your charges, you became a son.

If, then, you turn back to your former vomit, there again awaits you cutting-off and fire, and all such things;

for there is no second sacrifice.

Here again there fasten upon us those who do away with repentance, and those who shrink from coming to baptism;

the former saying that it is not safe for them to come to baptism, if indeed there is no second remission;

and the latter asserting that it is not safe to impart the mysteries to those who have sinned, if indeed there is no second remission.

What, then, shall we say to both? That it is not with such an aim that he here says this, nor does he do away with repentance, or with the propitiation that comes through repentance, nor does he thrust down and cast away by despair the one who has stumbled;

he is not so great an enemy of our salvation;

but what? He does away with the second washing.

It is not, There is no longer repentance, nor, There is no longer remission, but, There is no longer a sacrifice—that is, there is no longer a second cross.

For by one sacrifice, he says, He has perfected forever those who are sanctified;

not like the Jewish sacrifices, nor many times over.

For this reason he discoursed so much, up and down, concerning the sacrifice—that it is one and one only—not wishing to show this alone, that in this it differs from the Jewish sacrifices, but also to make them more secure, so that they should no longer look, according to the Jewish law, for another sacrifice.

For if we sin willfully, he says.

Do you see how full of consideration he is? Willfully, he says, if we sin.

So that for those who sin unwillingly there is pardon.

After the recognition of the truth—

That is, either of Christ, he means, or of all the doctrines.

There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

But what then? 'A certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a jealousy of fire which shall devour the adversaries.'

By 'adversaries' he means not only the unbelievers, but also those who act contrary to virtue;

or he means that the same fire which shall take hold of the adversaries shall take hold also of his own household.

Then, to show its devouring nature, he as it were gives it life when he says, 'a jealousy of fire which shall devour the adversaries.'

For just as a wild beast, provoked and greatly enraged and made savage, would not cease until it had seized and devoured something,

so also that fire, like one goaded by jealousy,

does not let go of whatever it lays hold of, but gnaws and tears it apart.

Then he adds also the reason for the threat: that it is fitting, that it is just;

which contributes to faith, when we show that it comes to pass justly.

'For anyone who has set aside the law of Moses,' he says, 'dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.'

So that there is no pardon, no mercy there;

and yet it is the law of Moses;

for most of its ordinances he himself appointed.

What does 'on two or three' mean? If two and three bear witness, he says, they at once paid the penalty.

If therefore under the Old Covenant, where the law of Moses is set aside, there was so great a punishment,

how much more here? Wherefore he also speaks thus:

'Of how much worse punishment, do you think, shall he be counted worthy, who has trodden underfoot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant a common thing, and has done despite to the Spirit of grace?' [Section 2]

And how does one tread underfoot the Son of God? When he who partakes of Him in the mysteries works sin—tell me, has he not trodden Him underfoot? Has he not despised Him? For just as we take no account of things trodden underfoot,

so also those who sin took no account of Christ, and therefore they thus sinned.

You have become a body of Christ, and do you give yourself over to the devil, so as to be trodden underfoot? 'And,' he says, 'counting the blood a common thing.'

What is 'common'? That which is unclean, or that which has nothing more than the rest.

'And has done despite to the Spirit of grace.'

For he who does not accept the benefit has insulted the benefactor.

But you wish to become a slave? He came to make His dwelling with you;

and do you bring in upon yourself wicked thoughts? Christ willed to be established with you;

and do you tread Him underfoot through revelry, through drunkenness? Let us hear, we who partake unworthily of the mysteries; let us hear, we who approach that Table unworthily.

'Do not give the holy things to the dogs,' He says, 'lest they trample them under their feet';

that is, lest they somehow despise them, lest they spit them out.

But he did not say this, but rather that which was more fearful than this;

for by means of what is fearful he braces up their souls;

for this too is sufficient to turn them back, no less than encouragement.

And at the same time he shows the difference, and sets over them the chastisement and the judgment, inasmuch as the matter is manifest.

'Of how much worse punishment, do you think,' he says, 'shall he be counted worthy?' Here he seems to me to be hinting also concerning the mysteries.

Then he brings forward also a testimony, saying:

'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.'

'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord';

and again, 'The Lord shall judge His people.'

'We shall fall,' he says, 'into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men.'

But if you do not repent, you shall fall into the hands of God;

this—to fall into the hands of men—is nothing.

'When we see someone being punished here,' he says, 'let us not be afraid on account of present things, but let us shudder at things to come.'

'For according to His mercy, so also is His wrath, and upon sinners shall His anger rest.'

At the same time he hints also at something else here, by saying:

'Vengeance is mine, I will repay.'

This is said concerning enemies who do evil, not concerning those who suffer evil.

Here he also consoles them, all but saying:

God abides forever and lives;

so that even if they do not receive their recompense now, they shall receive it hereafter.

It is those who ought to groan, not we;

for we indeed shall fall into their hands, but they into the hands of God.

For it is not the one who suffers that fares ill, but the one who does the wrong;

neither is it the one who receives the benefit that is benefited, but the one who confers it.

Knowing these things, then, let us be long-suffering in regard to suffering evil, and ready in regard to doing good.

And this will be, if we despise wealth and glory;

he who has stripped off these passions is freer than all men, and richer than the very one who wears the purple.

Do you not see how many evils come about because of wealth? I do not speak of those that come through covetousness, but in the very attachment to these things.

If someone loses his wealth, he lives a life harder than any death.

Why do you grieve, O man? Why do you weep? Because God has released you from your superfluous guard-duty? Because you no longer sit

trembling and in dread? Now if someone were to bind you to a treasure, commanding you to sit there continually and to keep sleepless watch over things not your own, you would grieve and be vexed;

yet you, having bound yourself with the most grievous of chains, when you are set free from that slavery, do you grieve? Truly, our sorrows and our joys are matters of preconception;

for we keep these things as though they belonged to another.

Now my discourse is to the women.

A certain woman often had a garment woven of gold, and she shakes it out, wraps it in linen cloths, keeps it with great care, trembles for it, and does not enjoy it;

for either she died or was widowed;

or, even if none of these things happen, she fears lest by continual use she should wear it out and so deprive herself of it;

and though no one else deprives her of it, she deprives herself of it by her stinginess.

But does she yield it to another? No, not even this is clear;

But even if he should yield, she in turn will treat it in like manner to him.

And if anyone should examine the things within houses, he will find the most precious of the garments and the other things surpassing in greater value being tended, as though they were living masters;

for she does not use them continually, but is afraid and trembles, driving off moths and the other things that are wont to devour, and placing most of them among myrrh and spices, not even permitting all to be counted worthy of the sight of them, but she herself often, together with her husband, carefully arranges these things.

Was it not with good reason, tell me, that Paul called covetousness idolatry? For as great an honour as those men display toward their idols, so great also do these show toward garments, toward pieces of gold.

How long shall we stir up the mire? How long shall we be nailed to the clay and the brick-making? For just as those men laboured for the king of the Egyptians, so also do we labour for the devil, and are scourged with far more grievous scourges.

And do not condemn the saying as any exaggeration;

for by how much the soul is better than the body, by so much are we scourged with greater care for bruises each day, we live in dread, in anxiety, in trembling.

But if we are willing to groan, if we are willing to look up toward God, He sends us not a Moses, nor an Aaron, but His own Word and compunction.

This one, then, having come and taken hold of our souls, will set us free from the bitter bondage, will lead us out of Egypt—out of the profitless and vainly toilsome zeal, out of the servitude that has no gain whatever.

Those men, then, at least went out having taken pieces of gold, the wage for their building;

but now we too receive not pieces of gold, but the evils of Egypt—sins and chastisements and punishments.

Let us learn, then, to be benefited; let us learn to be wronged;

let us despise the golden garments, let us despise riches, that we may not despise our own salvation;

let us despise riches, and not despise the soul;

for this is what is chastised, this is what is punished;

those things remain here, but this departs yonder.

For what reason, tell me, for what reason do you cut yourself to pieces, and do not perceive it? These things I say to the covetous.

But it is well also to speak to those who are the victims of covetousness: bear nobly the acts of greed against you;

it is themselves those men destroy, not you.

You indeed they deprive of riches, but themselves they strip bare of God's goodwill and help;

and he who is stripped of that, even though he should wrap around himself all the wealth of the inhabited world, is poorer than all men;

just as, on the other hand, he who is poorer than all men, if he possess this, is more abounding in resources than all.

For 'the Lord,' it says, 'shepherds me, and I shall lack nothing.'

Tell me, then, if you had some great and admirable man, who loved you greatly and cared for you, and then you knew that he would live forever, and you would not die before him, and would supply you with all his own things in security, so that you might enjoy them as your own;

would you have wished to acquire anything? Would you not, even if you were stripped of all things, have considered yourself the richer on this account? Why then do you mourn? Because you have no money? Nay, consider that you have been deprived of the occasion for sins.

But because you have been deprived of substance? Nay, you have acquired the goodwill of God.

And how have I acquired it, one says? He said, 'Why do you not rather suffer wrong?' He said that—

he said that 'Blessed are the poor in spirit.'

Consider, then, how great a goodwill you will enjoy, having shown these things forth through your deeds.

For one thing only is sought from us: to give thanks to God in all things, and we have all things in abundance.

You have lost countless pounds of gold—give thanks at once to God, and you have acquired ten myriads through that word and that thanksgiving.

For tell me, when do you count Job blessed? When he had so many camels and flocks and herds of oxen, or when he uttered that word, 'The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away'? For indeed the devil harms us for this reason, not that he may take away riches only;

for he knows that it is nothing;

but that through these things he may compel us to speak something blasphemous.

So also in the case of the blessed Job he was eager for this: not only to make him poor, but to render him a blasphemer.

When, at any rate, he had stripped him of all things, see what he says to him through his wife:

'Speak some word against the Lord, and die.'

And yet, O foul one, you had stripped him of all things.

But this was not what I was striving for, he says;

for that for the sake of which I did all things, I have not yet accomplished;

for I strove to strip him of the help of God;

for this reason I also stripped him of his riches.

If this be not added for me, not only has he been in no way wronged, but he has even been benefited.

Do you see that even that wicked demon knows how great the loss of the matter is? For this reason you also see him, through the wife, stitching together his plot.

Hear this, as many of you men as have wives that love riches and compel you to blaspheme God;

But let us behold his great forbearance, if you please, and how he stopped her mouth.

'Why,' he says, 'have you spoken thus, like one of the foolish women?' Truly, 'evil communications corrupt good morals;'

they corrupt always, indeed, but most of all in times of calamities;

then those who counsel base things have strength.

For if of itself the soul is ready for despondency, how much more when there is also one advising it? Is it not thrust even toward the pit? A woman is a great good, just as she is also a great evil.

And see from where he attempted to dig through the strong wall.

For since the removal of riches did not take him, nor did the loss of these accomplish anything great, but he was even convicted in vain of having said—

'Surely he will bless You to Your face'—for this reason he armed the wife against him.

Do you see where he directed his blast? But nothing further came to him even from this contrivance.

If, therefore, we too bear things thankfully, we shall receive these things back; and even if we do not receive them back, the reward for us will be greater.

So also it came to pass in the case of that adamant;

for when he had contended nobly, then He also restored these things to him;

when he showed the devil that it was not for the sake of these that he served Him, then He also gave these very things to him.

For such is God;

whenever He sees us not nailed to the things of this life, then He gives them to us;

whenever He sees us preferring spiritual things, then He also supplies the things of the flesh;

but He does not give them before, lest we be torn away from spiritual things.

Sparing us, then, He does not give the things of the flesh, that even against our will He may withdraw us from them.

But, one says, if I receive, I am filled, and I give thanks the more.

for then most of all will you be slothful.

Why then, one says, does He give to many? And whence is it clear that He Himself gives? But who else, one says, gives it? Their covetousness, their rapine.

How then does He permit these things to happen? Just as also murders and thefts and acts of violence.

What then will you say, one asks, concerning those who inherit an estate from their fathers, who are laden with countless evils? How, he says, does God permit them to enjoy these things? Just as, then, He also lets go thieves, and murderers, and the rest of the evildoers;

for now is not the time of judgment, but of the best manner of life.

But what I have also said already, this I say now as well:

For they shall pay a greater penalty, when, having enjoyed every good thing, they do not even so become any better.

For not all shall be punished alike; but those who remained wicked even after receiving benefits shall be more severely chastised;

while those who so remained amid poverty shall not be punished thus.

And that this is true,

hear what He says to David:

'Did I not give you all that belonged to your lord?' Whenever, then, you see a young man who, without toil, has received his father's inheritance and yet has remained wicked, be well assured that his punishment is being increased, and the measure of his retribution intensified.

Let us not, then, envy such men; but if anyone has succeeded to virtue, if anyone has acquired spiritual wealth, let us envy him.

For 'Woe,' He says, 'to those who trust in their riches';

'Blessed are those who fear the Lord.'

Of which company do you wish to be, tell me? Surely of those who are pronounced blessed.

Envy these, then, not those, that you also may attain the good things laid up for them;

which may it be granted us all to attain, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, might, and honour, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.