Homilies on Hebrews 9

Wherefore, leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us press on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

And this we will do, if indeed God permits.

You have heard how many things Paul charged against the Hebrews, who wished always to be learning about the same matters; and with good reason.

For, when by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, you again have need that someone teach you what are the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles of God.

And I fear lest to you also it may now be seasonable to say these things—that, when by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, you do not hold even the rank of learners, but, ever hearing the same things and about the same things, you are so disposed as though you heard nothing;

and if anyone should ask you, none will be able to answer, save a very few and easily numbered.

For oftentimes, when the teacher wishes to advance further, and to lay hold of more mystical and loftier discourses, the inattention of the disciples does not permit it.

For just as with schoolmasters, if the child, ever hearing his letters, does not master them, there will always be need for the teacher to sound the same things into the child's ears, and he will not cease teaching until the child is able to learn them accurately;

for it is the height of folly, when the earlier things have not been well implanted, to lead him on to others;

so likewise in the church, if, though we ever say the same things, you learn nothing further, we shall never cease saying the same things.

For if our discourse were for display and vainglory,

we should have to be ever skipping and shifting about, taking no thought for your sakes, but only for the applause that comes from you;

but since we have not set our zeal upon this, but all our toil is for your benefit, we shall not cease discoursing to you about the same things, until you set them right.

For it were possible to say many things also concerning the Greeks' superstition, and concerning the Manichaeans, and concerning the Marcionites, and to smite them mightily by the grace of God;

but the discourse has no opportunity for it.

For to those who do not yet accurately know their own affairs, to those who have not yet learned that to be covetous is an evil—who would speak such discourses to such persons, and lead them on to other matters before the season? We, therefore, shall not cease saying the same things, whether you are persuaded or not;

but we fear lest, by continually saying the same things, if you do not listen, we should work a greater condemnation for those who disregard them.

Yet these things I must not say to all;

for I know that many are being benefited by their coming in here, who might justly cry out against those others as ensnaring them by their own ignorance and inattention.

Nevertheless, not even so will they be ensnared;

for to hear the same things continually is profitable even to those who know them;

for that which we know, when we have heard it many times, pierces us the more.

We know that humility is good, and that Christ discoursed concerning it many times;

but whenever we hear the very words themselves, and the reflections upon them, we are the more affected, even if we should hear them ten thousand times.

It is seasonable, then, for us also now to say to you:

Wherefore, leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us press on unto perfection.

And what the beginning of the word is, he himself in what follows interprets, saying:

Not laying again, he says, the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

But if this be the beginning, what else is our doctrine than to repent of dead works, and through the Spirit to receive the faith unto the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment? And what is the beginning? Nothing else; he calls this the beginning, when there is not present an exact manner of life.

For just as one who enters upon the learning of letters must first hear the elements;

so also the Christian must first accurately know these things, and doubt nothing concerning them.

But if he should again stand in need of teaching, he does not yet possess the foundation.

For it is fitting that what is set firm should be fixed fast and stand, and not be moved.

But if anyone, after having been catechized and baptized, must ten years later hear again about the faith, and that one must believe in the resurrection of the dead,

he does not yet possess the foundation; he is again seeking the beginning of Christianity.

For that faith is the foundation and the rest is the building, hear him saying:

'I have laid a foundation, and another builds upon it.'

'If anyone builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble.'

'Not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works.'

But what does this mean, 'Let us be borne on to perfection'? He says: Let us now advance to the roof itself;

that is, let us have an excellent life.

For just as, in the case of the elements, the letter Alpha holds together the whole, and the foundation the whole building,

so also the full assurance concerning the faith holds together the purity of life.

Without this it is not possible to be a Christian;

just as it is impossible to have a building without foundations, or to be skilled in letters apart from the elements.

But just as, if someone is forever occupied with the elements, or if someone keeps turning about the foundation and does not go up to the building, he will never have anything more;

for if we always remain at the beginning of the faith, we shall never ascend to its perfection.

But do not suppose that the faith is diminished because it is called an element;

for all the power lies in this very thing.

'For everyone who partakes of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness;'

'for he is a babe.' He does not call this faith milk;

but the still being in doubt about these matters—this is the mark of a feeble understanding that requires many words.

For these are the sound doctrines;

for we call that man perfect who, together with the

faith, has an upright life.

But if anyone has faith yet does wicked things, and doubts concerning this very faith, and insults the teaching,

we shall rightly call him a babe, since he has run back to the beginning.

So that even if we should be ten thousand years in the faith, yet not be steadfast in it, we are babes—when we display a life not corresponding to it, when we are still laying a foundation.

And along with their life, he calls them by yet another name, as men shaken loose and needing to lay a foundation of repentance from dead works.

For the man who is transferred from one thing to another, forsaking the one and choosing the other, must first condemn it and withdraw from it in disposition, and only then come over to the other;

but if he is again to cling to the former, how will he lay hold of the latter? What then, one says, about the Law? We condemned it, and yet run back to it again.

This is not a transferring;

for even here we have a law.

'Do we then,' he says, 'make the Law void through faith? God forbid; nay, we establish the Law.'

But I was speaking of wicked deeds.

For the man who is about to pass over to virtue ought first to condemn vice, and then to pass over from it;

for repentance had not the power to show them pure.

For this reason they were immediately baptized, so that what they were unable to accomplish by themselves might come to pass through the grace of Christ.

Neither, therefore, does repentance suffice for cleansing, but one must receive baptism as well.

One must, at any rate, come to baptism having first condemned one's sins and passed sentence upon them.

But what is meant by 'the doctrine of baptisms'? Not as though there were many baptisms, but one.

Why then did he speak of it in the plural? Because of his saying, 'Not laying again a foundation of repentance.'

For if he had baptized them again, and catechized them from the beginning, and they, baptized once more from the start, were being taught what to do and what not to do, they would forever remain uncorrected.

For in this way they received the Spirit.

For when Paul had laid his hands upon them, it says, the Holy Spirit came.

For this takes place in baptism and is confirmed in the confession.

But why does he say these things? Because it was likely that they, having already believed, were either being shaken loose, or living badly and carelessly.

Leading them away, therefore, from such carelessness, and making them more attentive, he sets this argument in motion.

For it is not possible to say, 'If we now live carelessly, we shall be baptized again, we shall be catechized again, and we shall receive the Spirit again;'

or, 'If we now fall from the faith, we shall again be able, by being baptized, to wash away our sins and obtain the very same things as before.'

'You are deceived,' he says, 'in supposing these things.'

'For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to renew them again unto repentance, since they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to open shame.'

And observe how, in a manner both reproving and prohibiting, he begins;

that is: No longer expect what is impossible.

For he did not say, 'It is not fitting,' nor 'It is not profitable,' nor 'It is not permitted,' but 'It is impossible;'

so as to cast into despair, if you were altogether once enlightened.

Then he adds, 'And have tasted of the heavenly gift;'

'And were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God.'

By this he here means the teaching.

'And the powers of the age to come.'

What powers do you mean? Either the working of miracles, or the earnest of the Spirit.

'And having fallen away, to renew them again unto repentance, since they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to open shame.'

'To renew,' he says, 'unto repentance;'

what then? Has repentance been cast out? Not repentance—God forbid—but the renewal again through the laver.

For he did not say, 'It is impossible to be renewed unto repentance,' and then keep silent;

but having said 'It is impossible,' he added, 'crucifying afresh.'

For to make men new belongs to the laver alone;

'For your youth shall be renewed,' it says, 'like the eagle's.'

But it belongs to repentance, when men who have become new, and then have grown old through their sins, are freed from that oldness and made new;

yet to bring them to that former splendor is not possible;

for there the whole was grace.

'Crucifying to themselves afresh,' he says, 'the Son of God, and putting Him to open shame.'

Baptism is a cross.

For our old man was crucified together with Him.

We have become conformed to the likeness of His death.

We were therefore buried together with Him through baptism into death.

As, then, it is not possible for Christ to be crucified a second time,

for this is to put Him to open shame,

For if death shall no longer have dominion over Him, since He is risen, having by the resurrection become mightier than death; if through death He has overthrown death in wrestling, and then He is crucified again,

then all those things are a fable and a mockery.

He, therefore, who baptizes himself a second time, crucifies Him again.

But what is the meaning of 'crucifying afresh'? Crucifying anew, over again.

For as Christ died on the cross, so do we in baptism—not in respect of the flesh, but in respect of sin.

Behold two kinds of death:

He died in the flesh, but we in respect of sin.

Through our baptism the old man was buried, and the new man arose, being conformed to the likeness of His death.

If, then, it were necessary to be baptized again, it would be necessary for this man to die again;

for baptism is nothing else than the putting to death of the one baptized, and his being raised up.

And he spoke well when he said, 'crucifying afresh to themselves';

for he who does this, as one who has forgotten the former grace and who orders his own life carelessly, as though there were another baptism, conducts all his affairs in such a manner.

Wherefore it behoves us to take heed and to make ourselves secure.

What is the meaning of 'having tasted of the heavenly gift'? That is, of the remission of sins;

for this belongs to God alone to bestow, and grace is grace once for all.

Why then should we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.

But if we are always to be saved by grace, we shall never become good.

For where there is but one grace, even so we are careless;

if we knew that it were possible to wash away our sins again, should we ever cease from sinning? I for one do not think so.

He points out many gifts here:

'Thou wast counted worthy,' he says, 'of so great a remission—thou who wast sitting in darkness, the enemy, the foe, the alienated one, the hater of God, the perishing one;'

such a one, then, being suddenly enlightened, counted worthy of the Spirit, of the heavenly gift, of adoption, of the kingdom of heaven, of the other good things, of the unspeakable mysteries—and not even thus becoming better, but being worthy indeed of destruction, yet obtaining salvation and honour, as though he had accomplished great things: how could he be baptized again? In two ways, therefore, he declared the thing to be impossible, and he set the stronger reason last;

the one, that he who has been counted worthy of such things, and has betrayed all that was bestowed on him, is not worthy to be renewed again;

and the second, that it is not possible for Him to be crucified afresh;

for this is to put Him to open shame.

There is not, then, a second washing—there is not;

but if there were, there would also be a third, and a fourth, and the first would ever be annulled by the later, and this again by another, and so on to infinity.

And having said, 'and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come,' he does not reveal it, but hints at it, and all but says this:

that to live as the angels, to need nothing of the things here below, to know that our adoption becomes to us the pledge of the enjoyment of the ages to come, to look forward to entering into those inmost sanctuaries—these things it is possible to learn through the Spirit.

What is the meaning of 'and the powers of the age to come'? Life eternal, the angelic manner of living.

Of these we have already received the earnest through faith from the Spirit.

Tell me, then: if thou wert brought into a palace, and entrusted with all that is there, and then didst betray it all, wouldst thou

be entrusted with the things there again?

What then? Is there no repentance, he says? There is repentance, but a second baptism there is not.

But repentance there is, which has great power, and which is able, if one will, to deliver even him who has been deeply immersed in sins from the burden of his sins, and to set the one in peril in safety, even though he has come to the very bottom of wickedness.

And this it is possible to prove from many quarters.

'For he that falleth,' he says, 'doth he not rise again? or he that turneth away, doth he not return?' It is possible, if we will, for Christ to be formed in us again;

for hear Paul saying, 'My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you;'

only let us lay hold of repentance.

For behold the loving-kindness of God:

we ought from the beginning to have been punished in every way, because though we received the natural law and enjoyed countless good things, we knew not the Master and lived an unclean life;

yet He not only did not punish us, but even imparted to us countless good things, as though we had accomplished great things.

Again we fell away, and not even so does He punish, but He gave the medicine of repentance, sufficient to blot out and wipe away all our sins, if only we know what kind of medicine it is, and how we ought to apply it.

What, then, is the medicine of repentance, and how is it compounded? First, from the condemnation of one's own sins, and from confession.

'For I acknowledged mine iniquity,' he says, 'and my sin I hid not;'

and, 'I said, I will confess my transgression against myself unto the Lord, and Thou forgavest the ungodliness of my heart;'

'Declare thou thy sins first, that thou mayest be justified;'

and, 'The righteous man is his own accuser in the first statement.'

Secondly, from great humility of mind;

for it is like a certain golden chain: if it takes a beginning, all the rest follows.

For if thou confessest thy sin as one ought to confess it, the soul is humbled;

for the conscience, wringing it, causes it to be brought low.

But there must also be other things joined to humility of mind, that it may be such as the blessed David prayed for, saying:

'Create in me a clean heart, O God;'

'A broken and a contrite heart God will not despise.'

For that which is crushed does not rise up, does not strike, but is ready to suffer ill, while it itself does not rise up.

Such is contrition of heart;

even if it be insulted, even if it suffer ill, it keeps quiet, and does not rush to avenge itself.

But after humility of mind, there is need of earnest prayers, of many tears, both by day and by night;

'For I will wash,' he says, 'my bed every night;'

'I will water my couch with my tears;'

'I am weary with my groaning;'

'For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping.'

And after prayer so intense as this, there is need of much almsgiving.

For this is precisely what makes the medicine of repentance most powerful.

And just as among the remedies of medicine there is a compound that takes up many herbs, yet one that is chief of all,

so too in repentance this herb is the more sovereign, and by itself it may accomplish the whole.

For hear what the divine Scripture says:

'Give alms, and all things shall be clean unto you.'

'By almsdeeds and by acts of faith sins are purged away.'

'Water shall quench a flaming fire, and almsgiving shall lay to rest great sins.'

Then, not to be angry, nor to bear a grudge, but to forgive all men their trespasses;

for 'Man cherishes anger against man,' it says, 'and does he seek healing from the Lord?'

And to turn back the brethren from their error;

for 'Go,' it says, 'and turn back your brethren, that your sins may be forgiven you.'

and to be on close terms with the priests;

'for even if a man have committed sins,' it says, 'it shall be forgiven him;'

to stand up for those who are wronged, to harbor no anger, to bear all things with gentleness.

Now then, before you learned that it is possible through repentance to wash away your sins, were you not in anguish, knowing that there is no other laver, and did you not despair of yourselves? But now that you have learned by how many means repentance and forgiveness are achieved, and that

we shall be able to escape everything, if we are willing to use it as we ought—then what pardon could we obtain, if we do not so much as call our own sins to mind? For if this were the case, all would have been accomplished.

For just as the man who has entered the door is within,

so too is the man who reckons up his own evils.

For if he takes account of them one by one, he will most certainly come also to the healing of them;

but if he says, 'I am a sinner,' yet does not reckon them up by kind, nor say, 'In this and in that I have sinned,'

he will never leave off—forever confessing, yet never giving thought to amendment.

For if he but make a beginning, the rest will surely follow, once he has shown the way in;

for everywhere the beginning and the first steps are hard.

Let us therefore lay these foundations, and all will be easy and most simple.

Let us then begin, I beseech you—one by intensifying his prayers, another by weeping continually, another by walking in dejection;

for not even this, small as it is, is without profit.

'For I saw,' it says, 'that he was grieved and went about downcast, and I healed his ways.'

But let us all, by almsgiving and by forgiving our neighbors their sins, and by not bearing grudges nor taking revenge, humble our own souls.

If we ceaselessly bring to mind our sins, none of outward things will be able to lift us up—not wealth, not power, not office, not honor; but even were we to be seated in the very imperial chariot, we shall groan bitterly.

Since even blessed David was a king, and yet said:

'Every night I wash my bed with tears;'

and he suffered no harm from the purple robe and the diadem, nor was he puffed up;

for he knew himself to be a man;

and because he had a broken and contrite heart, he mourned.

For what are the affairs of men? Ashes and dust, and as fine chaff before the face of the wind; smoke and a shadow, a leaf whirled about, and a flower; a dream and a tale, and a fable; wind and empty air simply flowing away; a feather that will not stay, a stream running past—and whatever is even more insubstantial than these.

For tell me, what do you count great? What sort of thing do you deem a high dignity? That of the consul? For the many hold that there is no dignity greater than this office.

Well then, the man who is not a consul has nothing less than the man who has attained such splendor and been greatly admired;

this one and that one are in the very same rank of dignity;

alike, after a little while, both of them are no more.

When did it come to be, and for how long a time, tell me? Two days? This happens even in dreams.

And what of this? Is not that which happens by day itself a dream? Tell me, why do we not rather call these things a dream? For just as dreams, when the day overtakes them, are shown to be nothing,

so too these things, when the night overtakes them, are shown to be nothing;

for night and day took an equal share of time, and divided all time between them in equal portions.

Just as, therefore, in the daytime no one takes delight in the things that came to pass by night,

so neither is it possible in the night to enjoy the things of the day.

'But you are in the day, while I am in the night.'

And what of that? Not even so do you have anything more than I—unless perhaps it be to be called 'So-and-so the consul,' and that the pleasure arising from the words makes you seem to have more;

I mean something like this—for I will say it more plainly—if I should say:

'So-and-so is consul'—and let me grant the word—was it not spoken and gone in the same instant? So too are the affairs themselves;

no sooner did he appear as consul than he is no more.

But let us suppose it to be a year, and two years, and three, and four;

where then are those who became consuls ten times over? Nowhere.

For he was indeed illustrious throughout his whole life—not for one day, nor two, nor ten, nor twenty, nor thirty, nor for ten years, nor twenty, nor thirty;

but from the time he died, the four-hundredth year has by now gone by, and even now he is more illustrious still, and far more illustrious than when he lived.

But the splendor of the saints in the heavens—what discourse could set it forth? Wherefore, I beseech you, let us seek this splendor, let us pursue this, that we may attain to it;

for this is the splendor that is real indeed.

Let us henceforth withdraw from the things of this life, that we may find grace and mercy in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom, to the Father, together with the Holy

Spirit, be glory, might, honor, and worship, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.