Spiritual Homilies 1 part 21/36

But if you look only at his paradoxical acts, saying, "If he wishes to save me, even while I am in slackness and lie back at ease and follow my own wills, he is able, being God"—

for I can do nothing of my own will, but by his grace—

thinking you can obtain the kingdom and the gift of God without effort—God will not accept you, nor will he rejoice over you, as over one who has not denied himself and given himself wholly and entirely—body, mind, purpose, and will—to the service and pleasing of him, and who considers himself to be doing nothing worthy of the grace that is to be given and of eternal life, so that, remaining ever in want with respect to virtue, you may never think yourself to have full assurance, as one who has not yet even begun to please God, even though you may be engaged in much zeal and struggle.

For God rejoices and delights in such a purpose as this: one that has labor and much zeal for all good things and for every virtue, and that is always in a state of want, as though not yet having begun to run or to do anything good, but as one about to begin, this very day, the contest and the race.

For the faithful and reverent soul, believing in the eternal good things laid up for the righteous and in the benefit of the divine grace that is about to come upon it, considers itself, and its zeal and labor and toil, unworthy in comparison with the ineffable promises, as the blessed Paul says:

The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.

This is the one who is poor in spirit; this is the one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness; this is the one who has a broken heart.

Those who have such a purpose, and zeal, and labor, and longing for virtue, and who remain steadfast to the end, will truly be able to obtain eternal life and salvation.

Let none of the brothers, then, exalt himself over another, and advance into conceit, thinking, "I have the grace of God, but that one does not possess it." For it is not permitted for Christians to think in this way.

For you do not know what God will do tomorrow.

And you do not know what the end will be for that one whom you consider as nothing, nor what yours will be.

But let each attend to himself, and examine himself always, testing his own work—what zeal his mind has, and what love toward God—and, looking toward the perfect measure of the grace of the Spirit, let him run unceasingly and without slackness, forgetting what lies behind and stretching forward to what lies ahead, gaining daily progress in the grace of God, and looking to his judgments, and always testing and examining himself, whether, just as God has acted according to the measure of each one's calling and knowledge and benefit, we too are fulfilling the corresponding measure of it—lest, when the Master takes account with us, we, having fallen short in the recompense of good things owed from our own purpose and will, be dishonored and deprived and cast out from life.

So that, thus always striving and laboring, and by zeal ever advancing toward the good, working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, we may be able, in the end, being found in good things, to obtain eternal salvation, and together with all the saints to inherit the kingdom of heaven.

For since the will of man lives in his nature, and he has the capacity to turn by his own will, therefore they require from him the recompense of the benefits and the perception of the grace, which is complete love toward the Lord arising from free choice, and a condition of every virtue.

For, it says, to whom they give much, they will require more of him.

Desiring this, and he himself does not reject us—far be it!—but is patient, testing our endurance;

only let us, to the end, be found unwearied at the door, knocking with insatiable persistence and eagerly, in all patience; and he truly does, whenever he wills, accomplish the redemption and the removal of the veil, of his holy and heavenly light, working the illumination and purity of the heart.

For to some the Master comes in the evening, to some at midnight, to some at cockcrow, to some in the morning, just as he himself said:

Only let one have unceasing expectation and watchfulness and readiness, lest, having despaired or disbelieved or grown careless—thinking that the Master is not coming—he fall asleep or withdraw, and the Lord, when he comes, not find him ready, as he himself said:

Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning, and so forth.

But if we received quickly and were counted worthy of his grace, let us give thanks, and let us show forth zeal for good deeds and fruits of virtue worthy of it, and let us perceive his benefit and support and help that came to us so quickly, though we had not labored.

And let us hasten, correspondingly, to hang our whole selves upon the Lord, being united with his grace, and thus showing forth the zeal of our own free purpose out of will, having also the help from the Lord for the alleviation of our labors, and always advancing toward good progress; and, in nothing having insulted the gift of God, and being found to the end in such zeal, may we become worthy of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever.

Do all bodies, then, rise in the resurrection? Answer:

With God all things are easy, and thus he has promised; but to human weakness and reasoning this appears impossible.

For just as, having taken a little from dust and earth, he fashioned another kind of nature altogether—that of the body—which does not resemble earth, and made many kinds of substances such as hair and skin and bones and sinews, so again he will raise up all things from the earth.

And just as a needle, when thrown into fire, changes its color and becomes fire—yet the nature of the iron is not dissolved, but continues to subsist—so also in the resurrection all the members rise, and not a hair is lost, as it is written, and all becomes luminous, all is immersed in fire and light and transformed;

but it is not, as some say, dissolved and made merely fire, so that the nature no longer subsists.

For Peter is Peter, and Paul is Paul, and Philip is Philip, each remaining in his own individual substance, yet filled with the Spirit.

But you speak wrongly when you say that the nature is dissolved, so that there is no longer Paul or Peter, but all things and everywhere only God, and that neither those who go away into Gehenna perceive the punishment, nor those who go into the kingdom perceive the benefit.

For just as, suppose there were a paradise having all kinds of fruit-bearing trees, and there were a pear tree or an apple tree, and a vine having its fruit and leaves, and it should happen that the paradise and all the trees and the leaves are changed and altered into another nature and all become luminous—so also men are changed in the resurrection, and their members become holy and luminous.

Therefore the people of God ought to prepare themselves for contest and struggle.

For such is the way of Christianity.

For where the Holy Spirit and the truth are, there persecution and struggle follow.

You see how the prophets were persecuted by their own countrymen, because the Spirit was at work in them.

You see how the Lord, who is the way and the truth, was persecuted and crucified not by another nation, but by his own tribe of Israel; and likewise the apostles too.

For from the time the cross came, and the Comforter Spirit passed into the Christians, no Jew was persecuted any longer, but Christians were martyred.

Therefore some ought not to be astonished;

for it is necessary that the truth be persecuted.

Some say that evil comes in from outside, and if a man wills it, he does not receive it, but sends it away.

And just as the serpent, having spoken to Eve from outside, entered within through her obedience, so now too, through obedience, sin, though it is outside, enters in.

Sin has license, freedom, and power to enter into the heart;

for this has been permitted according to the dispensation.

For where are your thoughts—outside you, or inside you? For the apostle says:

I desire that the men pray, without anger and disputing.

There are, then, reasonings that come out of the heart, according to the gospel.

Go to prayer, and examine your heart and your mind, and desire to offer up your prayer purely to God;

See whether there is nothing there to hinder, and whether pure prayer comes about there, because your mind is occupied with the Lord, in the way that the farmer's mind is occupied with farming, the husband's with his wife, the merchant's with his trade.

Again, you bend your knees in prayer, and others snatch away your thoughts.

But you say that the Lord, having come through the cross, condemned sin, and it is no longer within.

Just as if there were a soldier who put his shield inside the house, and whenever he wishes has license to go in and out, so also sin has freedom to reason within the heart.

Satan entered into the heart of Judas.

But if you say that through the coming of the Lord sin was condemned, and after baptism evil no longer has license to reason within the heart, then consider, from the presence of the Lord until now, all who have been baptized:

have they no longer reasoned wicked things? Have they not turned to vainglory, or fornication, or gluttony? Or do all the worldly people who share in communion with the Church have a heart blameless and pure? Or do we find that even after baptism many sins occur and many people sin? The robber, then, has license even after baptism to enter in and do as he pleases.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.

Examine yourself, whether you love God with all your heart.

But you say, 'I love him, and I have the Holy Spirit.' Do you have the remembrance and the longing and the burning love toward the Lord? Do you eat and drink his commandments? Are you bound there night and day? If indeed you have such love, are you pure? But if you do not have it, seek it; and then, when the heavenly thoughts of God come and work in the soul with every perception, they draw it away and separate it from earthly things, and from shameful and wicked reasonings, and lead the whole soul into love and longing for God.

For the thoughts of darkness drag the mind down to earthly and corruptible things; they do not let one love God or remember the Lord.

And often the simple man goes to prayer and bends his knee, and his mind enters into rest; and the more he digs and goes deep, the wall of evil that resists him is broken through, and he enters into visions and wisdom, where the mighty, or the wise, or the orators cannot reach, and he comes to know the subtlety of his own mind, because it is occupied with divine mysteries.

...to set a value upon it, since it is infinite.

Christians, then, abhor the glorious things of the earth and regard them as refuse, in comparison with that majesty which works within them.

Can a man who has a divine gift fall? Answer:

Since the enemies are never idle, you too ought not to cease from seeking after God.

For great loss comes to you if you are negligent, even if you are being tested in the very mystery of grace.

Does grace remain after falling? Answer:

God greatly desires to bring man to life, and urges man on again to weep and repent.

It still remains, then, so that it may make you a secure workman, repenting of the things in which you formerly went astray.

Does war or affliction still lie upon the perfect, or are they altogether free of care? Answer:

The war ceases against no one.

For Satan is without compassion and hates mankind, and he always wages war, but not in the same measure.

For prefects and counts also pay taxes to the king; but such a one, trusting in his wealth and his gold and silver, makes his payments out of his abundance, not counting it a loss, but scatters even more than this in almsgiving, and it does not trouble him;

for he regards these things as a mere incidental matter.

And there is another, a poor man in want, who has only one field.

This man is scourged and tormented, being unable to pay off that tax of his.

There is one who is scraped and grievously tormented and does not die... and there is another who perishes from a single blow.

So it is also with Christians;

there are those who are strongly warred against, scraped by sin, and yet in the midst of the battles they are made firm and grow wise, despising the opposing power.

Such people are in no danger in this respect, because they are unfallen and secure concerning their own salvation, on account of having been trained many times in the war of evil and having become experienced, having God working within them and giving them rest.

But others, beginners not yet trained, if a single affliction meets them and a battle is stirred up, immediately fall into ruin and destruction.

Those who travel through a city, wishing to go in to their beloved ones, meet many people in the marketplaces and are not hindered by them; for they have their purpose set on meeting their friends, and when someone knocks on their door from outside and calls, those beloved ones within rejoice.

But if he lingers in the city and is mocked, or rather is detained by those he meets, the door is shut and no one opens to him. So too, those who are hastening to reach our Master Christ, the truly beloved one, ought to disregard and look down upon all other things.

Again, counts or prefects who go in to the palace, to the king, are under great fear as to how they will give their answers, lest they stumble in their defense in what they say and be subjected to punishment;

but the country-folk and common people, who have never seen a ruler, live free of care; and this world, from king to poor man, has its care confined under heaven, and does not remember the day of judgment.

But those who go in before the throne of the judgment-seat of Christ, being in his very presence, are always in fear and trembling.

When the rich of the earth have brought many fruits into their storehouses, they must again work every day, so that they may prosper further.

But if, trusting in the wealth stored up in their barns, they grow negligent, they come to poverty and misery;

wherefore, in gaining revenue and bringing it in, they must labor and toil.

This is Christianity: for one to taste of the grace of God.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

an active power of the Spirit, ministering in the heart with full assurance.

For as many as are sons of the light and of the kingdom, and ministers of the new covenant which is in the Spirit, these do not learn from men;

for they ought not to be assured only by the scriptures written in ink, but the grace of God has inscribed the laws of the Spirit and the heavenly mysteries upon the tablets of the heart.

For the heart governs and rules the whole instrument, and when grace takes hold of the pastures of the heart, it reigns over all the thoughts and the members; for the mind and all the thoughts of the soul are there, and it passes through into all the members. So likewise, as many as are sons of darkness, sin reigns over the heart and passes through into all the members; for out of the heart come forth wicked reasonings, and thus, overflowing, it darkens the man.

But let those who do not admit that evil is reared together with, and grows together with, man take care not to be anxious about tomorrow, nor to desire anything.

For there was a time when desire ceased in someone, such that he could affirm with an oath, 'This passion no longer rises up against me.' But after a short time he was inflamed with desire, so that he was found, in addition to this, to be a perjurer as well.

Just as water passes through a channel, so sin passes through the heart and the thoughts.

For as many as deny this, sin itself mocks them, not wishing to be exposed and triumphed over;

for evil is eager to lie hidden and to conceal itself within the mind.

If, then, someone loves God, He too mingles his own love with him.

If you believe in him, he adds to you heavenly faith, and the man becomes twofold.

For whatever you offer to him from your own members, he too, from his own, mingles corresponding members into your soul, so that you may do all things purely, and love, and pray.

For man is of great dignity.

See how great the heaven and the earth and the sun and the moon are, yet the Lord was not well pleased in them, but rests only in man alone.

He is therefore more precious than all created things, and perhaps I shall even dare to say, more precious than the invisible and ministering spirits.

For it was not concerning Gabriel or Michael the archangels that he said,

"Let us make according to our image and likeness," but concerning the intelligent essence of man, the immortal soul; and it is written, "The camps of angels are round about them that fear him."

For visible created things are bound to a certain unchangeable nature.

The heaven was once stretched out, and the earth, the sun and the moon likewise, and they cannot be changed into anything other than what they were created to be, nor do they have a will.

But you are for this reason in the image and likeness of God: because just as God is self-determining and does whatever he wills according to his authority, and could send the unrighteous into Gehenna and sinners into the kingdom—

—yet he does not choose this, nor does he consent to it;

for the Lord is a righteous judge. So also you are self-determining, of a changeable nature.

If you wish to blaspheme, or to make potions and kill someone, no one is preventing you.

But if someone is willing, he submits to God, and walks the way of righteousness, and masters his desires.

For this mind is an adversary, able with vigorous reasoning to overcome the impulses of evil and shameful desires.

For if in a great house, where there are golden and silver vessels, and clothing and gold, young men and young women desire all these things because of the sin dwelling within them, yet because of human fear of their masters restrain their own mind and check the impulses of their desires, how much more, where the fear of God is present, are they able to fight against and resist the evil that dwells within.

For God has commanded you only what is possible for you.

The nature of irrational animals is bound.

The nature of the serpent is bitter and venomous;

all serpents are of this kind.

All wolves are of the same nature.

All lambs are of the same nature.

The dove is guileless and innocent;

all doves are of the same nature.

But man is not so.

One is like a wolf, seizing prey, and another is like a lamb, being seized as prey.

Yet both are made up of the same race of humanity.

There is one who is not content with his own wife, but commits fornication, and there is another who does not even allow desire to enter his heart.

There is one who plunders his neighbor's goods, and there is another who, out of godliness, gives away even what is his own.

You see how mutable this very nature of good and evil is.

Both divine grace and the opposing power exhort, but neither compels.

For formerly, while Adam himself was in purity, he reigned over his own thoughts; but from the time he transgressed the commandment, mountains hard to bear have lain upon his mind, and the reasonings of evil, having been mingled in, all became as his own, and not even one of them is truly his own, since he is held captive by evil.

Therefore you must seek a lamp, that it may be kindled and you may find the pure and natural thoughts.

Those who were raised by the sea have learned to swim, and when billows and waves rise up, they are not alarmed;

but those unaccustomed to it, if even a small squall should come upon them, become fearful and are drowned.

So it is also with Christians.

Just as the mind of a three-year-old child cannot contain or comprehend the mind of an accomplished sophist, since there is a great gulf between them, so Christians, like infant babes, come to understand the world by looking to the measure of grace.

For they are strangers to this age.

For their city and their rest are elsewhere.

Christians have the consolation of grace, tears and mourning, and these very tears are a delight to them.

They also have fear amid joy and exultation, and thus they are like men carrying their own blood in their hands, not trusting in themselves nor thinking themselves to be anything, but being despised and rejected by all men.

It is as if there were a king who entrusted his treasure to some poor man;

he who received it to keep does not regard it as his own, but always confesses his poverty, not daring to squander anything from the treasure.

"The king entrusted it to me, and whenever he wills, he takes it from me." So too those who have the grace of God ought to regard themselves, to be humble-minded and to confess their poverty and to say, "What has been given to me is not my own."

"A king entrusted the treasure to me, and whenever he wills, he takes it from me."

But many, even though grace is present within them, being robbed by sin, do not perceive it.

It is as if there were a young maidservant in a certain house, and a young manservant; then, if she is flattered and consents, she commits adultery and is cast out.

So also the terrible serpent is present with the soul, tickling and inciting it, and if it consents, the incorporeal soul has communion with the incorporeal nature of the serpent (that is, spirit communes with spirit), and it commits adultery in the heart.

This, then, is the measure of your struggle: that you not commit adultery in your thoughts, but that you resist with your mind and wage war and struggle within, and that you neither obey nor consent to evil in your thoughts.

And if the Lord finds this readiness of heart in you, on the last day he will receive you into the kingdom.

For there are certain things which the Lord arranges so that he may not leave himself without witness of divine grace and consolation;

and there are certain other things which he arranges in this way by permission, so that man may be tested and trained, so that he may demonstrate man's free will.

For those who are in afflictions and temptations, if they endure, do not fail to obtain the kingdom of heaven.

—to take delight in poverty instead of wealth, in fasting instead of luxury, in dishonor and disrepute instead of glory.

But again, if they fall into glorious and luxurious things as in this life, which incite them toward fleshly ease, or wealth, or glory, or luxury, one ought to be repelled by them and to flee as from fire.

As it appears, if a very small nation rises up against the king for war, he himself does not exert himself, but sends generals.

But if a very great nation, capable of waging war against his kingdom, rises up, the king himself is compelled, together with his court and his army, to go forth and engage in the battle.

See, then, your own dignity: that God set out with his own army—I mean the angels and the holy spirits—coming in person on an embassy for you, in order to redeem you from death.

Secure yourself, therefore, by considering what kind of providence has been made on your behalf.

We have made use of an example from ordinary life, as one does in life.

It is as if there were a king who found someone destitute and afflicted with maladies, and was not ashamed of him, but healed his wounds with medicinal remedies, and brought him into the palace, and gave him the purple and the diadem, and made him a partaker of his own table;

so the heavenly king Christ, coming to man who had these afflictions, healed him and made him a partaker of the royal table, and this not by forcing his will, but by inviting him to such a feast.

For indeed it is written in the Gospel that the Lord sent his own servants, calling those who were willing, saying that the banquet was ready; but those who were called excused themselves, saying, one, "I have bought a yoke of oxen," another, "I have married a wife."

You see, the one who invited was ready, but those who were invited refused.

They themselves, therefore, are to blame.

So great, then, is the dignity of Christians, that the Lord has prepared a kingdom and calls them to enter, and yet they are unwilling.

In view of the gift which they are about to inherit, even if each person had striven from the time Adam was created until the consummation of the age, and had waged war against Satan and endured afflictions, he would have accomplished nothing great in comparison with the glory which he is about to inherit.

For he will reign together with Christ throughout the endless ages; and glory be to him who so loved this soul, that he gave himself and his own nature, and entrusted it to her.

According to visible things, behold, all of us people sitting here have one image, and we bear one face, that of Adam.

Is it then also true, in the hidden things and in the innermost matters, that all have one purpose and one heart? Are we all good and godly? Or is it rather that some of us commune with Christ and his angels, while others commune with Satan and the demons, even though outwardly we all sit together, all bearing the one face of Adam? You see how the intelligent essence, the inner man, is something different from the outer man, in that we all appear to be one, and yet some are with Christ and the angels, while others are with Satan and the unclean spirits.

The heart, then, has a certain boundless depth.

There are dining halls, and bedchambers, and inner rooms, doors and vestibules, many chambers of service, and exits.

There is the workshop of righteousness and unrighteousness.

There is death, and there also is life.

There is good commerce.

Just as if there were a very great palace, and it were laid waste and filled with every kind of stench and many dead bodies, so also the heart is the palace of the Lord;

it is full of all uncleanness and crowds of evil spirits

the storerooms and the chambers and the banquet halls and the vestibules of the heart must be rebuilt, reconstructed, and made ready

for do not simply regard the heart as a small and contemptible vessel

for there Christ the King comes, together with the angels and the holy spirits, to rest, to dwell, to walk about, and to establish his own kingdom

Just as if there were a ship equipped with much gear and carrying passengers, and the pilot then governs and manages them all, rebuking some and guiding others, so also the heart has the mind as its pilot, and the conscience reproving, and the thoughts accusing and defending—the thoughts accusing and defending one another among themselves.