Homilies on the Gospel of John 40 part 2/2

even as, on the contrary, wretched and thrice wretched, and this ten thousand times over, are those who cast themselves out of that blessedness.

'And what then is it,' one asks, 'that makes us enjoy that life?' Hear the Judge Himself, conversing with a certain young man about these matters.

For when that man asked, 'What shall I do to inherit eternal life?' Christ, having told him the other commandments, ended with the love of one's neighbor.

And perhaps some one of the hearers will say, like that rich man, that 'We too have kept these things;

for we have neither stolen, nor murdered, nor committed adultery.'

But surely you will not be able to say this also — that you loved your neighbor as it was necessary to love him.

For either someone envied another, or spoke evil of him, or did not defend one who was wronged, or did not share of his goods, and so did not love.

But now Christ enjoined not this only, but yet another thing.

What then is this? 'Sell,' He says, 'your possessions, and give to the poor, and come, follow Me;'

calling the imitation through works 'following.'

What, then, do we learn from this? First, that he who does not have all these things cannot attain the first places in that portion.

For after that man had said, 'All these things have I done,' as though some great thing were still lacking for perfect approval, He says:

'If you would be perfect, sell your possessions, and give to the poor, and come, follow Me.'

First, then, this is to be learned;

and secondly, that He convicted that very man of vainly boasting.

For he who lives in such great abundance, and overlooks others in poverty, how could he have loved his neighbor? Therefore neither did he speak that truly.

But let us do both that and these things, and let us be eager to empty out our substance, and to purchase heaven.

For if for the sake of some worldly dignity a man has often given up his whole substance — a dignity destined to remain here,

and not even to abide a long time (for many, even long before their death, have divested themselves of this office, while others have been ruined on account of it, and often their very life as well;

but nevertheless, though they know these things too, they pour out everything for its sake) —

if, then, for the sake of this they do so much, for the sake of that abiding and inalienable dignity, what could be more wretched than we, if we part with not even a little, nor give even these things which, being here yet a little while, we shall leave behind? Of what madness, then, would this not be — that the very things which we are deprived of against our will, these, when it is in our power to give them willingly and to take them with us, we are unwilling to do so? Now if someone were being led to death, and it were then set before him to be released by giving up all his substance, we should even count the matter a favor;

but now, when it is in our power, though being led on the road to Gehenna, to be set free by giving the half, we choose both to be punished and to hold fast in vain to what is not ours, rather than to give up what is ours.

What defense, then, shall we have? What pardon, when so easy a road to life has been cut for us, yet we are borne down the precipices, and walk the fruitless road, and rob ourselves both of the things here and of all the things there, when it is in our power to reap both with security? But if not before, yet at least now let us come to ourselves, and having become our own masters, let us dispose of present things unto what is needful, that we may also receive the things to come with ease, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages.