Religious History 1 part 13/13

"Lord," he said, "you know all things, you know all things, you know that I love you. That I love you, you both know and testify."

But whether I shall continue loving you, you yourself know more clearly.

For I will say nothing about the things to come, nor will I contend about what I do not know;

I have learned by experience not to contradict my Master.

You are the fountain of truth, you are the abyss of knowledge; I have been taught to abide within your bounds.

Seeing this fear of his, and knowing his affection precisely, the Master dissolves his fear by the prediction of his death, and gives testimony to his love, and confirms Peter's confession, and applies to the wound of denial the remedy of confession.

The prediction of his death, then, both comforted Peter and taught the others that the denial was a matter of dispensation, not of intention.

And this our Savior and Lord himself hinted at, having said to him:

"Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail;"

"but when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren." For, he says, just as I support you when you are shaken, so you too become a support to your brothers who are being shaken, and share the aid you enjoy;

and do not push away those who are slipping, but raise up those who are in danger.

For it is for this very reason that I allow you to stumble, yet do not permit you to fall, contriving through you a firm footing for those who are shaken.

Thus this great pillar supported the shaken inhabited world, and did not allow it to fall entirely, but set it upright and made it stable; and being bidden to shepherd the divine sheep, he endured being outraged on their behalf, and rejoiced when he was maltreated.

And going out from that wicked council together with his companion, he rejoiced that he had been counted worthy to be dishonored for the name of the Master.

And when cast into prisons, he was gladdened and rejoiced.

And when he was condemned by Nero to death by the cross for the sake of the Crucified One, he begged his executioners not to be nailed to the gibbet in the same manner as the Master, but rather the opposite way from him, fearing, as is likely, lest the sameness of the suffering might, in the eyes of the foolish, confer on him an equal honor.

For he had learned to choose the lowest place, not only in honor, but also in dishonor.

And if it had been possible to endure this death ten times or fifty times, he would have accepted it with all pleasure, set on fire by divine longing.

And this the divine Paul also proclaims, saying at one point:

"I die daily — this I affirm by the boast which I have in you in Christ Jesus." And again:

"And I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me." Therefore he who has received the divine love despises all earthly things together, and tramples underfoot all the pleasures of the body;

he looks down upon wealth and glory and the honor that comes from men;

he supposes that the royal purple differs in nothing from spiders' webs;

he likens costly gems to the pebbles along the riverbanks;

he does not consider bodily health a thing to be envied, nor does he call sickness a misfortune, nor does he style poverty an ill fate, nor does he define happiness by wealth and luxury;

but they rightly hold that each of these things resembles trees planted along the banks of a river, past which the currents flow, never coming to rest beside any one of them.

For likewise beauty and poverty and wealth, health and sickness, honor and dishonor, and the other things that run alongside human nature, are not seen always remaining with the same persons, but exchange those who possess them, and continually pass from one to another.

For many fall from prosperity into extreme poverty;

and many rise from being poor into the ranks of the rich.

And sickness and health, so to speak, travel through all bodies alike, both those who hunger and those who live in luxury.

But virtue and philosophy are an enduring good;

for it conquers even the hands of a robber, and the tongue of a false accuser, and storms of war-arrows and spears;

it does not become the prey of fever, nor the byproduct of a storm at sea, nor the loss of a shipwreck.

Time does not take away its power, but rather increases it.

Its substance is the love of God.

For it is impossible for one who has not become an ardent lover of God to attain true philosophy;

or rather, this very thing is called philosophy.

For God both is and is called Wisdom.

For concerning the God of all, the blessed Paul says:

"To the incorruptible, invisible, only, wise God;"

and concerning the Only-begotten he says:

"Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God."

"Wisdom was given to us from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." He, then, who is truly a philosopher would fittingly also be called a lover of God.

The lover of God, disdaining all else and looking only to his Beloved, sets the service of Him before all things together, saying and doing and thinking only those things which please and serve the one he loves, and abhorring everything that He forbids.

Adam, having disdained this love, and having become ungrateful toward his Benefactor, reaped thorns and toils and hardships as the wage of his ingratitude.

Abel, having kept this love steadfast toward the Giver of good things, and having despised the pleasures of the belly, and having chosen instead the service of God, was adorned with unfading crowns, and travels through every generation, reaping good report through remembrance.

Enoch, having acquired this love true and genuine, both sowed well and reaped even better, and received as the wage of his service to God his translation, and immortal life in the meantime, and, throughout all ages, a glorious and celebrated remembrance.

What could one say about the love of God shown by Noah, which not even the torrent of lawless men could refute? But when all had turned aside and chosen the opposite path, he alone journeyed the straight way, setting the Maker of all before everything else;

for which reason he alone, with his children, obtained salvation, and a seed was left for human nature, and a spark was preserved for the race.

Thus Melchizedek, the great high priest, having abhorred the folly of those who chose to worship idols, dedicated his own priesthood to the Maker of all;

for which reason he received that great reward, having become a type and shadow of him who is truly without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life.

But now, proceeding along its path, my discourse has arrived at him who was called the Friend of God, who both precisely kept and taught the laws of friendship.

For who, among those instructed in divine things after this manner, is unaware how the great patriarch Abraham obeyed God when He called, how he left his father's house, and chose a foreign land in place of his own? For once he had come to love the One who had called him, he resolved to set all else second to that friendship, and though he often fell into many difficulties, he did not abandon his Beloved, as though He had not brought His promises to fulfillment;

but even when oppressed by thirst, and prevented from drinking water from the wells he himself had dug, he neither grew indignant against the One who had called him, nor did he take revenge on those who wronged him.

He also endured the assault of famine, and did not extinguish the torch of love;

he was also deprived of his wife, who was radiant in beauty, adorned with chastity, and who in every way made his life pleasant;

and along with his wife, his love for God was not taken away.

But even while God came to his aid, and trained him through long-suffering, and permitted him to receive the assaults of injustice, he remained loving in the same way.

And he became an old man, yet had not become a father; and toward Him who had promised to make him a father, yet had not done so as of that time, he remained disposed in the same way.

But when at last, late, he received the promise, and overcame the barrenness of Sarah's nature, and surpassed the bounds of old age, and was declared father of Isaac, he enjoyed only a short time of the joy that followed;

Now that the child had become a youth, [Abraham] was commanded to offer him up in sacrifice to the One who had given him, to give the gift back to its Bestower, to become priest of the fruit of the promise, to bring forward as a sacrifice the great fountain of the nations, and to redden his hands with the blood of his only-begotten child.

Yet, though the sacrifice involved all these things—and indeed far more besides—the patriarch did not resist, did not put forward the claims of nature, did not bring the promises into the discussion, nor did he call to mind the care of his old age and his burial;

but casting aside all human reasoning, setting desire against desire, and opposing law with law—the divine law against that of nature—he ran to the sacred act, and would have struck the blow without hesitation, had not the bounteous God, swiftly accepting his readiness, restrained the slaughter.

But indeed, I do not know whether any words would suffice to narrate this love.

For he who did not spare even his only-begotten son, since the Beloved had commanded it, what would he not have disdained for His sake? And the great Isaac himself acquired the same love toward the Master.

And his son too, Jacob the patriarch.

The divine Scriptures sing of the God-loving character of both;

and the God of all Himself nowhere separates the branches from the root, but names Himself the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

Of these Joseph too is a pious fruit, who among the young was an elder, and among elders was valiant;

whose love of God neither envy consumed, nor slavery extinguished; the flattery of his mistress did not rob it away, nor did threat and fear wither it;

false accusation, imprisonment, and long time did not wrestle it down;

power, dominion, luxury, and wealth did not cast it out of his mind;

but he remained the same, both beholding the Beloved and fulfilling His laws.

Having acquired this love, Moses despised the manner of life in palaces, and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to have the temporary enjoyment of sin.

And why must I prolong the account and extend the discourse beyond measure? For the whole company of the prophets, having employed divine love and been adorned by it, achieved the most perfect virtue and left behind an ever-memorable renown.

And indeed also the choir of the apostles and the multitudes of the martyrs, having received this fire, despised all things visible, and chose the countless forms of death rather than any sweetest life.

For having fallen in love with the divine beauty, having reckoned upon God's affection for us, and having called to mind His countless benefactions, they considered it shameful either not to long for that ineffable beauty, or to prove ungrateful toward their Benefactor.

For this reason, they kept their covenants with Him even unto death.

Having fallen in love with this beauty, the new athletes of virtue too—whose lives we have written up in brief—leapt into those great contests which surpass human nature.

And the divine Scriptures clearly taught them this.

"O Lord my God, how exceedingly great Thou art become."

"Thou hast put on thanksgiving and majesty, wrapping Thyself in light as with a garment, stretching out the heaven like a curtain of skins;"

and all the other things which teach His wisdom and power.

"The Lord reigns, He has clothed Himself with majesty;"

"the Lord has clothed Himself with strength, and girded Himself;"

"for indeed He has established the world so firmly that it shall not be moved."

And here likewise wisdom, beauty, and power were all proclaimed.

"Fairer in beauty than the sons of men." Here too [Scripture] praises the human beauty of God the Word.

"For grace," it says, "is poured out upon Thy lips." It also indicates His power:

"Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O Mighty One,"

"with Thy comeliness and Thy beauty; bend [Thy bow] and go forth prosperously and reign, for the sake of truth and meekness and righteousness." For these are His wealth, His beauty, and His power.

"Beautiful in His raiment, marching in the greatness of His strength." For not even the human garment concealed the divine beauty;

but even while clothed in it, He sends forth flashes of splendor from His beauty, so as to overwhelm those who behold Him and charm them into love.

This too the holy Bride says to Him, speaking in the Song of Songs:

"Thy name is as ointment poured forth,"

and as though held by the fragrance as by some chain, they cannot bear to break the bond;

for it is sweet, and lies upon them by their own free will.

With these the words of the divinely-inspired Paul also agree:

"We are the fragrance of Christ, among those being saved and among those perishing: to the one a fragrance of death unto death, to the other a fragrance of life unto life." And so, being taught by divine Scripture that He is beautiful, that He possesses ineffable wealth, that He is a fountain of wisdom, that He is able to do as much as He wills, that He exercises boundless love toward mankind, that He pours forth rivers of gentleness, and that in all things He wishes only to benefit men—

and being taught by the God-bearing men the countless kinds of benefactions beyond number, they were wounded by the sweet arrows of love, and, being members of the Bride, cry out with her:

"We are wounded with love." For the great John cries out:

"Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." And the prophet Isaiah, as though things to come had already happened, prophesied beforehand, saying:

"He was wounded for our iniquities, and made infirm because of our sins;"

"the chastisement of our peace was upon Him;"

"by His stripes we were healed," and all the other things it recounts concerning the saving sufferings.

Paul too proclaims, crying out:

"He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?" And again:

"We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you through us;"

"we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God;"

"for He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Finding these things, and all such things, among those who have become ministers of the divine word, they receive from every side the goads of divine love, and, disdaining all things, they picture to themselves the Beloved, and even before the hoped-for incorruption they made their body spiritual.

Let us too receive this same love, and, being enchanted by the beauty of the Bridegroom, longing for the promised blessings, having regard for the abundance of His benefactions, and fearing the reckoning for ingratitude, let us, in love, become keepers of His laws.

For this is the definition of friendship: to love the same things, and to hate the same things;

for this reason he also said to Abraham:

"But to me Thy friends, O God, are exceedingly honored." And again:

"Have I not hated them that hate Thee, O Lord, and pined away because of Thine enemies? I hated them with a perfect hatred; they became enemies to me." And elsewhere:

"I have hated transgressors, but Thy law have I loved." And elsewhere:

"O how I love Thy law, O Lord! It is my meditation all the day." A clear proof, then, of love toward God is the keeping of His divine laws;

"for he who loves me will keep my commandments," said the Lord Christ, with whom, together with the Father, be glory, with the Holy Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages.