Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 34

But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the other.

For verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.

Having spoken those fearful and dread things—things able even to shatter adamant—the things that were to befall them after the cross and the resurrection and the ascension, He leads His discourse back again to gentler matters, granting the athletes room to breathe, and affording them much relief.

For He did not bid them, when persecuted, to close with their foes, but to flee.

Since it was yet the beginning and the first stage, He used His words in a more condescending manner.

For it is not concerning the persecutions that were to come afterward that He speaks, but concerning those before the cross and the passion.

For ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.

What then, if when persecuted we flee, and they overtake us there again and drive us out? To do away with this fear He says—

Ye shall not have finished going round Palestine, before I straightway come upon you.

And observe how even here He does not dissolve the perils, but stands by them amid the dangers.

For He did not say, I will snatch you away and put an end to the persecutions;

but what? Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.

For indeed the mere sight of Him was enough for their consolation.

But consider with me how He does not everywhere commit all things to grace, but bids something also to be contributed on their part.

For if ye are afraid, He says, flee;

for this He signified when He said, Flee, and, Fear not.

And He did not bid them be the first to flee, but to withdraw when driven forth;

and neither does He grant a long interval, but only so much as to go round the cities of Israel.

Then again He anoints them for another part of the higher life.

First, by casting out the care for food;

secondly, the fear of dangers;

and now, the fear of evil-speaking.

For from the first care He freed them, saying, The workman is worthy of his hire, and showing that many would receive them;

and from the agony on account of dangers, by saying, Take no thought how or what ye shall speak, and that, He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.

But since together with these things it was likely that they would also acquire an evil reputation—which seems to many the most grievous of all—see from whence He comforts them here also, drawing His consolation from Himself and from all that had been said about Him, than which nothing was equal.

For as He said there, Ye shall be hated of all men;

and added, For My name's sake;

so also He comforts it in another way, setting down another thing along with that.

What sort of thing then is this? The disciple, He says, is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.

It is enough for the disciple that he become as his master;

and the servant, as his lord;

if they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore.

See how He reveals Himself to be Master and God and Creator of all.

What then? The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.

So long as one is a disciple and a servant, he is not on a par according to the nature of the honor.

For do not cite to me the rare exceptions here, but receive the saying from the more general case.

And He does not say, How much more the servants, but, them of His household, showing much intimacy toward them.

I no longer call you servants; ye are My friends.

And He did not say, If they insulted and accused the master of the house;

but He sets down the very form of the insult, namely, that they called Him Beelzebul.

Then He gives yet another consolation, no less than this;

and since for those not yet trained in the higher life there was need also of another kind, one especially able to restore them, He sets down this also;

and the form of what is said seems to have a universal declaration;

yet it is spoken not concerning all matters, but concerning the things at hand only.

For what does He say? There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed;

neither hid, that shall not be known.

And what He means is of this sort: It is enough for your consolation that I too, your Teacher and Master, share in the same reproach with you.

But if ye still grieve at hearing these things, consider this also, that of this too ye shall a little later be delivered.

For on what account do ye grieve? Because they call you sorcerers and deceivers? But wait a little, and all men will proclaim you saviors and benefactors of the world.

For time reveals all things that are veiled, and will expose their calumny, and will make manifest your virtue.

For when through your deeds ye appear as saviors and benefactors, displaying every virtue, men will not attend to their words, but to the truth of the facts;

and they indeed shall be shown to be slanderers and liars and revilers, while ye shall appear brighter than the sun, as the long course of time uncovers you and proclaims you aloud, sending forth a voice more clear than any trumpet, and making all men witnesses of your virtue.

Let not then the things now said cast you down, but let the hope of the good things to come raise you up.

For it is impossible that your affairs should be hidden.

Then, when He had freed them from all agony and fears and care, and had made them superior to reproaches, at that point He proceeds at the fitting moment to discourse to them also concerning boldness in the preaching.

For what I tell you, He says, in darkness, that speak ye in the light;

and what ye have heard in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.

And yet it was not dark when He said these things, nor did He speak to them in the ear.

but He uses the expression with a certain hyperbole.

For since He was discoursing to them alone, and in a small corner of Palestine, on this account He said, In darkness, and, In the ear, in contrast to the boldness that was to be thereafter;

which He was about to give them, distinguishing the manner of that discourse from this.

For not to one and two and three cities, but to the whole world shall ye preach, He says, going over land and sea, both the inhabited world and the uninhabited;

and to tyrants and peoples, and to philosophers and orators, speaking all things with uncovered head and with all boldness.

For this reason He said, Upon the housetops, and, In the light, without any concealment, and with all freedom.

And why did He not merely say, Preach ye upon the housetops, and, Speak ye in the light, but added also, What I tell you in darkness, and, What ye hear in the ear? It was to elevate their minds.

For as when He said, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do;

so also here, showing that He would work the whole through them, and more than through Himself, He set down this.

For the beginning, He says, I have given, and the first stages;

but the greater part I will to accomplish through you.

And this is the mark not only of one who commands, but also of one who foretells the future, and encourages by His words, and shows that they shall prevail over all, and quietly undermines once more the agony concerning evil-speaking.

For just as this preaching, though for a while hidden, shall come upon all, so also the wicked supposition of the Jews shall speedily perish.

Then, since He had raised them up and exalted them, He again foretells the dangers as well, rousing their mind and making them loftier than all men.

For what does He say? 'Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.'

Do you see how He set them above all things—not only above anxiety and evil-speaking, nor only above dangers and plots, but persuading them to despise even death itself, which seems the most terrible of all things, and not merely death, but even a violent one? And He did not say, 'You shall be slain,' but with the magnificence that befits Him He intimated it, saying, 'Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul';

'but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell';

which He always does, turning His argument to the very opposite.

For what? You fear death, He says, and on this account you shrink from preaching? Nay, for this very reason preach, since you fear death.

For this shall deliver you from the death that is truly death.

For even though they are about to slay you, yet they shall not prevail over the better part, though they contend ten thousand times over.

For this reason He did not say, 'that kill not the soul,' but, 'that are not able to kill it.'

For even should they wish, they shall not prevail.

You dread punishment: dread rather that punishment which is far more grievous.

Do you see how again He does not promise them deliverance from death, but permits them to die, granting a greater gift than if He had not allowed them to suffer this? For to persuade men to despise death is far greater than to deliver from death.

He therefore does not cast them into dangers, but makes them superior to dangers, and in a brief word implants in them the doctrines concerning the immortality of the soul;

and having planted a saving doctrine in two or three phrases, He also comforts them by other considerations.

For lest, being slain and slaughtered, they should think they suffer this as though forsaken, He again introduces the discourse concerning the providence of God, saying thus:

'Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall into a snare without your Father who is in heaven.'

'But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.'

For what is meaner than those creatures?

yet not even those are taken while God is unaware. For He does not say this, that it falls by His acting;

but that not even it escapes His notice among the things that come to pass.

If, then, He is ignorant of nothing that befalls, and loves you more truly than a father, and so loves you as even to have numbered your hairs, you ought not to fear.

Now He said this, not that God numbers the hairs, but that He might show forth the exact knowledge and the great providence He has concerning them.

If, then, He both knows all that comes to pass, and is able to save you, and is willing, whatsoever you may suffer, think not that you suffer as being forsaken.

For He does not wish to deliver you from your terrors, but to persuade you to despise your terrors;

since this most of all is deliverance from the terrors.

'You are of more value than many sparrows.'

Do you see now that He has mastered their fear? For indeed He knew the secret things of their mind;

for this reason He added, 'Fear not them, therefore.'

For even should they prevail, they will prevail over the inferior part, I mean the body;

which, even if these men do not kill it, nature will assuredly take and bear away in any case.

So that not even of this have they become lords, but they have it from nature.

But if you dread this, much more ought you to dread the greater thing, and to fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

And He does not now say openly that He Himself is the One able to destroy both soul and body;

but by the things whereby He before declared Himself to be judge, He made it plain.

But now the contrary happens: for Him who is able to destroy the soul, that is, to punish it, we do not fear;

but those who slay the body we have shuddered at.

And yet the One punishes the body together with the soul;

but the others are able to punish neither the soul, nor even the body, though they punish it ten thousand times over;

nay, rather they thus make it more glorious.

Do you see how He shows the conflicts to be easy? For indeed death had greatly shaken their soul, breathing terror for a while, because it had not yet been rendered easy to vanquish, nor had those who were to despise it yet enjoyed the grace of the Spirit.

Having therefore cast out the fear and the agony that shook their soul, He by what follows again encourages them, casting out fear by fear, and not by fear only, but also by the hope of great rewards;

and He threatens with much authority, urging them from both sides toward boldness on behalf of the truth, and He goes on to say:

'Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father who is in heaven;

but whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father who is in heaven.'

For not from the good things only, but also from the contrary, He urges them, and ends with the things that are grievous.

He did not say 'Me,' but 'in Me,' showing that not by his own power, but being helped by the grace from above, does the confessor confess.

But concerning him who denies, He did not say 'in Me,' but 'Me';

for having become destitute of the gift, thus he denies.

Wherefore then, one may say, is he blamed, if being forsaken he denies? Because the being forsaken comes to pass through his own doing.

And wherefore is He not content with the faith that is in the mind, but requires also the confession that is by the mouth? To train us unto boldness, and greater love and disposition, and to make us lofty.

Therefore He discourses to all.

And He does not employ the person of the disciples only;

for He is now rendering noble not them alone, but their disciples also.

For he who has learned this will not only teach with boldness, but will also endure all things easily and with readiness.

This at any rate brought many to the apostles—the believing of this saying.

For indeed both in the punishment the retribution is greater, and in the good things the recompense is greater.

For since he that does right has the advantage in respect of time, and the sinner thinks to gain by the deferring of his punishment, He introduced a counterbalance—nay rather, a far greater advantage—the addition to the recompenses.

You gained an advantage, He says, in confessing Me first here on earth? I too will gain an advantage over you, He says, by giving you greater things, and unspeakably greater;

Do you see how there both the good things and the evil things are laid up in store? Why then do you hasten and press on? Why do you seek the recompenses here, having been saved by hope? For this reason, even if you do something good, and receive not the recompense of it here, be not troubled;

for with an addition the recompense of these things awaits you in the time to come.

And if you do something wicked, and pay not the penalty here, be not careless;

for there the punishment will await you, unless you change and become better.

But if you disbelieve, conjecture concerning the things to come from the things that are here.

For if in the time of the conflicts those who confess are so illustrious, consider what they shall be in the time of the crowns. If the enemies here applaud, how shall not He who is more tenderly loving than all fathers admire you and proclaim you aloud?

For then are both the gifts of the good things ours, and the punishments of the evil things.

So that they who deny shall be injured both here and there;

here, living with an evil conscience, and though they should never die, yet they shall assuredly die;

and there enduring the uttermost penalty;

but the others shall gain both here and there, both here trafficking in death and thereby becoming more illustrious than the living, and there enjoying the unspeakable good things.

For God is ready not for punishment only, but also to do good; and indeed for the latter far more than for the former.

and for the one much more than for the other.

But wherefore does He set down the one but once, and the other twice? Because He knows that men are brought to sober-mindedness rather by this.

Therefore, having said, 'Fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell,' He says again, 'I also will deny him.'

Thus also does Paul, continually making mention of hell.

Having therefore anointed His hearer by every means (for He opened the heavens to him, and set before him that dread tribunal, and showed him the theatre of the angels, and the proclamation of the crowns therein, thereby preparing a broad and easy way for the word of godliness), lest, if they should become cowardly, the preaching should be hindered, He commands them henceforth to prepare themselves even for slaughter itself.

that they might learn that those who remain in error shall also pay the penalty for their plots against these men.

Let us therefore despise death, even when the season that demands it is not present; for we shall be removed into a far better life.

for indeed we shall be translated into a far better life.

But the body is corrupted? Nay, for this very reason above all we ought to rejoice, because death is being destroyed and mortality is being done away, not the substance of the body.

For neither, if you should see a statue being recast, would you call what is happening destruction, but rather the fashioning of something better.

Reckon this then also concerning the body, and lament not.

For then indeed one ought to lament, if it were to remain in its punishment.

But it was necessary, one says, that this should come to pass without the bodies being corrupted, and that they should remain whole.

And what would this have profited either the living or the departed? How long shall you be lovers of the body? How long, nailed to the earth, shall you gape after shadows? For what would this have profited? Nay rather, what harm would it not have wrought? For if the bodies were not corrupted, first of all the greatest of all evils, vanity, would have remained among many.

For even now, when this comes to pass and worms well up, many have contended to be gods.

what would not have come to pass, had this remained? Secondly, it would not have been believed that man is from the earth.

For if, when the end bears witness to it, some still dispute, what would they not have suspected, had they not seen this? Thirdly, the bodies would have been exceedingly loved, and the greater part of men would have become more carnal and more gross.

But if even now some cling to the tombs and coffins, when those bodies have vanished, what would they not have done, had they retained the image preserved? Fourthly, they would not have greatly longed for the things to come.

Fifthly, those who say that the world is immortal would have been the more confirmed, and would have denied that God is Creator.

Sixthly, they would not have known the virtue of the soul, nor how great a thing the soul is while present with the body.

Seventhly, many of those who had lost their own kindred would have forsaken the cities and dwelt in the sepulchres, becoming distraught, continually conversing with their own dead.

For if even now men, fashioning images, since they cannot lay hold of the body (for it is not possible, but even against their will it flows away and slips off), are nailed fast to the boards, what strange thing would they not then have devised? To me it seems that the multitude would even have built temples to such bodies, and those skilled in such sorceries would have persuaded demons to utter oracles through them, seeing that even now those who dare necromancies attempt many things far stranger than these.

And how many idolatries would not have arisen from this? For even after the dust and the ashes, men still strive to do these things.

God therefore, doing away with all these absurdities, and training us to withdraw from all things earthly, causes the bodies to vanish before our very eyes.

For indeed the lover of the body, smitten with passion for a beautiful maiden, if he be unwilling to learn by word the loathsomeness of that substance, will come to know it by the very sight thereof.

For indeed many who were of like age with the beloved, and often even more radiant, having died, after one and a second day gave forth a stench, and gore, and rottenness of worms.

Consider then what manner of beauty you love, and after what kind of comeliness you are all aflutter.

But if the bodies were not corrupted, this would not have been rightly known;

but just as the demons run about the tombs, so also would many of the lovers, sitting continually by the sepulchres, have received demons into their soul, and would quickly have perished in this grievous madness.

But as it is, together with all the other benefits, this also comforts the soul—that the image is no longer seen—and casts the passion into forgetfulness.

But if this were not so, there would be no tombs, but you would see the cities holding corpses instead of statues, each man desiring to behold his own.

And great confusion would have arisen from this, and none of the multitude would have taken thought for the soul, nor would he have allowed the doctrine concerning immortality to enter in;

and many other things far more absurd than these would have come to pass, which it is not seemly even to mention.

For this cause it rots at once, that you may see the beauty of the soul stripped bare.

For if that soul is the author of so great a beauty and of so great a life, much more would it itself be better;

if it holds together that which is so loathsome and ill-favoured, much more does it hold together itself.

For it is not the body that is beautiful, but the fashioning, and the bloom which is imparted to the substance by the soul.

Love then that soul which makes even that other thing appear such as it is.

And why do I speak of death? For even in life itself I will show you how all its beauties are the soul's.

For if it be pleased, it strews roses over the cheeks;

and if it grieve, taking away that beauty, it clothes the whole in a dark garb.

And if it be continually glad, the body becomes of good habit;

but if it grieve, it makes it leaner and weaker than a spider's web;

if it be angered, again it has made it horrible and hideous;

if it show a serene eye, it has bestowed much beauty;

if it be envious, it has poured forth much pallor and wasting;

if it love, it has bestowed much comeliness.

Thus at any rate many who were not comely in appearance received much grace from the soul;

others again, resplendent in their bloom, since they had a graceless soul.

Consider how it reddens a face that is white, and by the variety of colour works much delight, when one must feel shame and blush;

just as, on the other hand, if it be shameless, it makes the countenance more unpleasant than that of any wild beast.

For nothing is more beautiful than a fair soul, nothing sweeter.

For in the case of bodies, the longing is attended with pain;

but in the case of souls, the pleasure is pure and without turmoil.

Why then, leaving the king, are you all aflutter after the herald? Why, forsaking the philosopher, do you gape after the interpreter? Have you seen a beautiful eye? Understand well the one within;

and if that one be not beautiful, despise this one also.

For neither, if you saw a woman ugly of face wearing a beautiful mask, would you feel anything toward her;

just as, again, you would not have endured a shapely and beautiful woman to be hidden by the mask, but taking it off, you would have desired to see the bloom bare.

This then do also in the case of the soul, and learn to know it first;

for in the place of a mask this soul is clothed about with the body;

wherefore it also remains such as it is;

but that soul, even if it be unshapely, can quickly become beautiful.

And though it have an eye ill-favoured and harsh and hard, it can become beautiful, gentle, serene, mild, and kindly.

This comeliness therefore let us seek, this countenance let us beautify, that God also, having desired our beauty, may impart to us the eternal good things, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might unto the ages of ages. Amen.