Homilies on the Gospel of John 9

'He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.'

If you keep in remembrance the former thoughts, we shall build upon them the things that follow with greater eagerness, doing this as toward a great gain.

For thus the discourse will be more easily learned by you, who remember the things already spoken, and we shall not need much toil, since you are able, through your great love of learning, to look more keenly into the rest.

For he who is ever losing what is given will ever be in need of one to teach him, and will never know anything.

but he who guards whatever he may receive, and thus takes in addition the rest, will quickly become a teacher instead of a disciple, and useful not to himself

alone, but useful also to all the others.

Which I especially expect this congregation to prove, judging from this great love of hearing.

Come then, let us deposit the Lord's silver in your souls as in a safe treasury, and let us unfold the things set before us today, as the grace of the Spirit may supply.

He said that 'The world knew Him not,' speaking concerning the ages above.

He now descends in his discourse also to the times of the preaching, and says:

'He came unto His own, and His own received Him not';

meaning now by 'His own' the Jews, as a people for His special possession, or even all men, as having been made by Him.

And just as above, being perplexed at the folly of the many, and being ashamed on behalf of the common nature, he said that the world, made through Him, did not recognize its Maker;

so here again, being indignant at the unfeeling ingratitude of the Jews and of the many, he sets forth the accusation more strikingly, saying that 'His own received Him not,' and that too when He had come to them.

And not he alone, but the prophets also, marvelling, spoke this very thing;

and Paul too, afterward, being astonished at the same things.

And the prophets on the one hand thus cried aloud, speaking in the person of Christ:

'A people whom I knew not served me; at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me;

strange sons lied to me, strange sons waxed old, and halted from their paths.'

'They to whom it was not announced concerning Him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand';

and, 'I was found by those who sought me not;

I became manifest to those who inquired not after me.'

And Paul, writing to the Romans, said:

'What then? That which Israel sought after, this it did not obtain';

'What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, laid hold of righteousness';

But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to a law of righteousness.

For it is indeed worthy of astonishment, how those who were reared upon the prophetic books, and who heard Moses read every single day telling ten thousand things concerning the coming of Christ, and concerning the prophets who came after him besides; who moreover beheld Christ himself working wonders among them daily, and conversing with them alone, and who neither permitted his disciples to go off into the way of the Gentiles or to enter into a city of the Samaritans, nor did this himself, but said again and again that he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel—

yet though they enjoyed the signs, and heard the prophets daily, and had him continually reminding them, they so utterly blinded and deafened themselves that they could not by any of these things be led on to gain strength for faith in Christ.

But those of the Gentiles, who had enjoyed none of these things, who had never heard the divine oracles, not even so much as in a dream, but were forever tossed about in the fables of madmen (for such is the philosophy of those outside), and unrolled the trifling tales of the poets, and were nailed fast to sticks and stones, and knew nothing wholesome or sound either in doctrine or in manner of life—for indeed their life was more unclean and abominable than their doctrines—

And how could it be otherwise? Seeing that they beheld their gods rejoicing in every wickedness, and being served with shameful words and yet more shameful deeds, and reckoning this a festival and an honor;

nay more, being honored even with unclean murders and slayings of children, while they emulated those gods in these very things—

yet nevertheless, though they had fallen down even to the very bottom of wickedness, they suddenly, as if by some device from above and from the very summit of the heavens, shone forth to us in radiance.

How then did this come about, and from what source? Hear Paul as he tells:

For that blessed man, inquiring diligently into these things, did not desist until he found the cause, and made it plain to all others as well.

What then is this cause? and whence came so great a hardening upon them? Hear him who was entrusted with this dispensation as he says these things:

resolving this perplexity of the many: For being ignorant, he says, of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God.

And again, explaining this same thing in another way, he says:

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;

but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to a law of righteousness.

Tell me also why? Because it was not of faith;

for they stumbled at the stone of stumbling.

But what he means is this:

Their unbelief became to them the cause of their evils;

and this unbelief was begotten of their arrogant folly.

For since before this they had the advantage over the Greeks, in that they had received the Law and knew God, and the other things which Paul mentions, yet after the coming of Christ they saw both those Gentiles and themselves called from faith with the same equal honor, and the man of the circumcision having no advantage over the man of the Gentiles after faith;

they were stung, and coming to envy through their arrogant folly, and could not bear the Master's ineffable and surpassing love for mankind.

And this came upon them from no other source whatever, but from boasting and wickedness and hatred of mankind.

For what harm, O you most senseless of all men, were you suffering from the care that was being shown to others? and how were your good things diminished by having others share in the very same? But wickedness is truly blind, and can quickly discern nothing of what it ought. Being stung, therefore, at the prospect of having others share the same boldness of access, they thrust the sword against themselves, casting themselves out of the love of God for mankind.

For 'Friend,' he says, 'I do you no wrong;'

'but I will give unto these also, even as unto you.'

Or rather, these are not even worthy of these words.

For that man, even if he was displeased, yet at least had something to say—the toils of a whole day, and the hardships, and the heat, and the sweat;

but these—what would they have to say? Nothing of the kind whatever;

only sloth and profligacy, and the ten thousand evils of which all the prophets continually accused them, and because of which they too, like the Gentiles, had given offense to God.

And Paul, making this plain, said:

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek;

for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace.

And this whole point he treats usefully and very shrewdly throughout that epistle.

And higher up he shows them to be worthy even of a greater punishment.

For as many as have sinned in the Law, he says, shall be judged by the Law;

that is, more grievously, having in addition to nature the Law also as an accuser.

And not by this alone, but also because through them it came about that God was blasphemed among the Gentiles;

for 'My name,' he says, 'is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.'

Since therefore this was above all what was stinging them;

for indeed to those who had believed from among the circumcision also the matter seemed astonishing;

wherefore also they found fault with Peter when he returned to them from Caesarea, because he went in to men who had uncircumcision and ate with them;

and even after learning the dispensation of God, still even so they marveled how the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out also upon the Gentiles, showing by their amazement that they had never expected this marvel;

since therefore he knew that this above all touched them to the quick, he does everything to empty out their conceit, and to loosen their arrogance which was so greatly swollen.

Having discoursed concerning the affairs of the Greeks, and having shown them to have no defense from any quarter, nor any hope of salvation, and having accurately accused both the perversion of their doctrines and the uncleanness of their manner of life, he transfers his discourse to the Jews;

and having recounted all the things from the Prophet, by which that one said that they were certain defiled and deceitful and treacherous men, and that all together had become unprofitable, and that there was none among them that sought after God, but that all had turned aside, and whatever else of the kind, he added:

Now we know that whatsoever things the Law says, it speaks to those who are within the Law, that every

mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become subject to judgment before God.

For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.

Why then do you exalt yourself, O Jew? why are you high-minded? For your mouth too has been stopped, and your boldness taken away, and together with all the world you also have become subject to judgment, and, like the rest, you stand in need of being justified freely.

It behooved you indeed, even had you succeeded and had great boldness before God, not even so to envy those who were about to obtain mercy and salvation through his love for mankind.

For it is the mark of extreme wickedness to pine away at the good things of others, and most of all when this was not going to happen with any loss to yourself.

For if the salvation of others were ravaging your own good things, there might be some reason for grieving;

and yet not even this would befit one who had learned to live wisely.

But if, when the one is punished, your rewards are not increased, nor, when he fares well, diminished, for what reason do you rend yourself over the things whereby another is saved freely? It behooved you indeed, as I said, not even if you were among the well-approved, to be stung at the salvation coming by grace to the Gentiles;

but when, being yourself responsible for the same things before the Master, and having yourself given offense, you are vexed at the good things of others, and are high-minded, as though you alone ought to partake of grace, then you would be liable not only to envy and arrogant folly, but also to the utmost senselessness, and to all the most grievous torments;

for you have planted within yourself the root of all evils—pride.

Wherefore also a certain wise man said:

Pride is the beginning of sin;

that is, its root and fountain and mother.

Thus also the first-formed man fell from that blessed manner of life;

thus also the devil who deceived him was cast down from that height of dignity.

Whence the abominable one, knowing that the nature of this sin was sufficient to cast men down even from the very heavens, went by this road when he was eager to bring Adam down from so great an honor.

For having puffed him up with the promise of equality with God, he thus shattered him and cast him down into the very pits of Hades.

For nothing so estranges from the love of God for mankind, and delivers over to the fire of Gehenna, as the tyranny of pride.

For when this is present with us, our whole life becomes unclean, even though we practice chastity, though virginity, though fasting, though prayers, though almsgiving, though whatever it be.

For 'unclean,' he says, 'before the Lord is everyone that is high-hearted.'

Let us then repress this swelling of the soul, and beat down this tumor, if indeed we would be clean, and be delivered from the punishment laid up for the devil.

For that the arrogant man must of necessity suffer the same things as that one, hear Paul saying:

Not a novice, lest being puffed up he fall into the judgment and the snare of the devil.

What is 'the judgment'? Into the same, he says, condemnation, into the same punishment.

How then, one asks, might a man escape this dreadful fate? Only if he takes account of his own nature, and of the multitude of his sins, and of the greatness of the torments in that world, and of the fleeting character of the splendors here esteemed brilliant — splendors that differ in nothing from grass, and that fade even more swiftly than the flowers of spring.

If we continually stir up these reflections within ourselves, and keep in remembrance those who achieved the greatest deeds of virtue, the devil will not easily be able to lift us up in pride, however endlessly he contends, nor even to trip us up at the very outset.

And may God, the God of the lowly, the kind and gentle One, Himself grant both to you and to us a heart contrite and humbled.

For thus shall we be able also to accomplish all else with ease, unto the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.