Works 1 part 5/7

Before he know the distinction and kinship of figure and truth, that he may be able to discern more diligently from what he ought to withdraw and what he ought to hold fast—since the truth holds fast and the shadow passes away—and that he may be able wholly to escape from the oldness of the letter and to serve in the newness of the spirit, and entirely to pass over from the law to grace, which is fulfilled spiritually in the destruction of the body? Before he run through all the appellations and powers of Christ by works and knowledge, whether of those which are highest, or of those which for our sake are lower and lowest of Him?

That is, to know that He is God and that He is the Son of God; to know also how He is the image, how He is the Word, the Wisdom, the Truth, the Light, the Life, the Power, the Vapour, the Effluence, the Brightness; that He is Creator, that He is King, that He is Head, that He is Law, that He is Way, that He is Door, that He is Foundation, that He is Rock, that He is Pearl, that He is Peace, that He is Righteousness, that He is Sanctification, that He is Redemption, that He is Man, that He is Servant, that He is Shepherd, that He is Lamb, that He is Priest, that He is Sacrifice, that He is the Firstborn of every creature, that He is the Firstborn from the dead, that He is the Resurrection.

Who would dare, before he become a partaker in very fact and deed of all these names, before he have fellowship with Christ in each of these singly by fulfilling them in himself and become a partaker of Him in each of these singly; before he have leisure and learn to speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery; before, being made a man, he destroy the things of a little child and be numbered now in the number of Israel and in the army of God; before he can take up the cross of Christ and follow Him and lose his own soul for His sake, that he may find it in life eternal and be made into the fullness of Christ—how can anyone dare to approach the rank of teaching and to teach the things which he does not yet feel fulfilled in himself? 100. I said within myself:

Let others sail, and in the hope of huge gains undergo the perils of the sea; to me it is more pleasing, standing upon the solid earth, to seek the blade of grain in the furrows of a tiny sod, and to lead a slender life amid scanty things, than to seek foreign riches in the perils of the waves. 101. For the stronger and more powerful, indeed, it is a loss not to administer greater offices nor to exercise virtue toward very many, but to be confined to small and modest matters—as if someone should illuminate the space of a tiny chamber with a huge lamp of light, or should wish to insert powerful and manly arms upon a slight body and childish limbs;

but for the small it is safer to lift a small burden and not one beyond their strength, lest they both become a laughing-stock and at the same time incur danger—just as it is not fitting for anyone to build a tower except for him for whom the expenses also of completing it are at hand. 102. 103. This is the apology and excuse for my flight, and these are the causes which had separated or withdrawn me from you, O brethren and most dear friends; for such thoughts then pressed upon me to withdraw farther off. But what recalled me was, first indeed, the longing for you, and rather that I was longed for than that I myself longed; for nothing is so strong for love as when affection holds firm from both sides.

And in the second place, my greatest care and chief solicitude—the venerable grey hairs of my holy parents, who laboured for me more than for their own old age: the honour of this Abrahamic head and the appearance like that of an angel, and the due reverence owed to my mother Sarah, who also begot us spiritually in the faith of the Gospel—for whom it was necessary that I should be a staff of their old age. By the contemplation of these, and that I might discharge to them the due offices of filial piety, I even despised the studies of philosophy, which I accounted precious and dear to me above all faculties and affections. Wherein, to speak more truly, I philosophized in this very thing—that I might not seem to philosophize.

I did not therefore endure that all these things should be poured out for me and abolished on the pretext of a single occasion, nor that the paternal blessings should be taken from me, which one of the ancient saints is recorded even by art to have stolen, deceiving his parent by foods and hairy skins. These indeed are the two causes by which chiefly I yielded, and which were able as much as possible to soften my purpose. And I think that neither of these seems unworthy, to which that swelling of my thoughts ought to have yielded—since indeed there is a time to be overcome, as there is a time for everything. And perhaps it is sometimes expedient to be well overcome rather than to conquer ill. 104. 105. But the third is what most of all and above all things subdued and subjected me. When I have set it forth, I shall now be silent concerning the rest.

I remembered the days of old, and in matters so great, so difficult, and so arduous, I did not dare to trust sufficiently to my own counsels, but I sought the judgment of how to act from the authority of holy men, and I set the examples of the ancients as a rule for present circumstances. For not in vain have these things been written for us, nor that we should, after the manner of the Greeks, be instructed by them or take delight in words—as is wont to be done in their fables or histories, that the sweetness of the composed verse and the very pleasantness of the narration may entice the minds and delight the hearing;

our Scriptures, in which not one iota or tittle is idle, set forth all the things which they either relate as done or command as to be done, as the institutes and rules of our life, so that, if ever the necessity of deliberating finds us in doubtful matters, returning to the examples of our forefathers we may learn thence what is to be chosen by us, what is to be avoided. 106. Of what history, then, did I make remembrance, and whence arose for me the occasion of this counsel? I shall tell it briefly, and do you patiently hear. Jonah once fled from the face of God—or rather, he thought he fled. But he was apprehended by the pursuit of the sea, by the tempest, by the lot, by the belly of the whale and the three days' and nights' burial that presaged the form of the mystery to come.

And he indeed fled, lest he should either become a minister of a sad message to the Ninevites, or afterward be found a liar, if through repentance the city should be saved; for he did not envy their salvation, but he shunned the ministry of a falsehood, deferring in all things to the dignity of prophecy, which he saw, as it were, deformed in himself if it should be defamed with the stain of falsity, while the ignorant and unskilled crowd cannot understand and foresee the deep knowledge of the future dispensation. 107-109.

But I heard a certain most wise man expounding concerning these things and rendering the reason of this history, which seems as it were absurd, in such a way that he would not even put down this cause of the flight of blessed Jonah—that he went down to Joppa and fled from Joppa to Tarshish—as though, he said, Jonah believed that God did not know what he was doing, or that this was to flee from the face of God, to commit himself to the sea and the waves. I would not say this of prophetic knowledge, to which even the deep things become known and obscure things are illuminated; but I do not think it belongs even to any man, however ignorant and unskilled—nay rather, on the contrary, whoever has entered the sea, then most of all does he say that he has committed his own safety into the hands of God.

Jonah therefore did not fail to know that the most mighty hand of God was present both in the sea and everywhere—the very hand which he was sent to proclaim to others—nor did he presume that he could anywhere escape the power of the Godhead—this is not to be believed—but because he foresaw that this was being prefigured by the Spirit through his ministry: namely, that his own people Israel being spurned and cast off, the gift of prophetic grace would be transferred to the nations; therefore he shunned the office of preaching, lest he should furnish the sad service of his fatherland's nation being cast off.

Thence, in fine, having forsaken that place which is "the contemplation of joy"—for so the Hebrew tongue interprets Joppa—having therefore forsaken the "contemplation of joy," that is, of that ancient magnificence and dignity, he gave himself into the sea of mourning and sadness. Thence the tempest, thence the sleep, thence the shipwreck; thence he is roused and is cast into the lot and confesses his flight and is hurled down and is received by the whale and is not consumed, but there he invokes God and, for Christ before Christ, after the third day rises again in Christ. But let our discourse await these things a little while, that afterward, if God grant it, they may be more fully and diligently explained. 110.

But now let us pursue that to which our discourse had been directed; since indeed for him perhaps there was even pardon, on account of this cause which we have mentioned, for deferring the prophetic office; but for me what excuse will suffice, what cause will come to aid, what place will be left for giving satisfaction to one who resists further? And I know not whether I should call grievous or light the yoke of the priesthood, however imposed, for one too stubbornly refusing it. 111. For if this, which alone among all our excuses we hold as the stronger, be granted to us—that we are far too inferior to be sufficient for discharging the priesthood—yet what shall we do in that, on the other hand, we incur the more pernicious crime of disobedience?

And perhaps the danger arising from contempt will be more grievous for us than we suppose it to be from rashness, since indeed for one who offends in this direction there remains no further place for amending or correcting. 112. Set therefore in the middle between these two fears—of ascending and of descending—and weighing my own self this way and that in an even balance, and now leaning toward this side, now toward that, as though driven by winds, at last I gave way to that fear which carried the greater weight, the fear of disobedience; and this fear, having driven out the other, as being the stronger and more vehement, claimed and held the whole of me for itself.

Consider therefore whether we balance ourselves rightly and justly between these middle fears, in that we neither take to ourselves unpermitted honours nor refuse those that have been conferred upon us; for in the one impudence is condemned, in the other disobedience, while both are vices of ignorance. We desire therefore to walk as men in the middle between the over-fearful and the over-rash, so that we may be more modest than those who strive after undeserved honours with shameful ambition, and a little more confident than those who, through dread of the judgement to come, flee from all things even from good deeds. 113.

Thus then, deliberating in such matters and weighing each thing in its own scales, I added this also to the confidence of my soul: that the faith of obedience may merit some reward from God, and that what is lacking may be supplied, so long as that which exists is wholeheartedly believed—so that faith may render perfect him whom fear had held imperfect. For we read it written, that he who fears is not perfect in love; but perfect love casts out fear. On the contrary, however, I saw that for the peril of disobedience and unbelief no helps come to the rescue. Nor do I find anything that might grant confidence to one who distrusts; nay rather I am afraid, lest even on behalf of those who have been entrusted to us it should be necessary to hear that word: I will require their soul at your hands; and:

As you have despised me, that you should not be leaders and chiefs of my people, so I also will despise you, that none of you shall be made king; and: As you did not hearken to my voice, but turned a stubborn back and proved disobedient, so it shall be when you call upon me—I will not regard your prayer nor hearken to you. May it not befall us to hear such answers from the just Judge, nor come to us that voice from him to whom, although we sing of mercy, yet we shall sing of judgement also at the same time. 114. But again we turn back to the histories of the ancients and the deeds of the noble men of old.

From these we see that some, when they were chosen to govern peoples or were called by the grace of God to the prophetic office, most readily yielded when invited, while others for a while put off the grace of him who invited them. Yet we see neither of these reproved, nor blamed—neither in the former the prompt swiftness of obedience, nor in the latter the circumspect hesitation of fear—since indeed the former revered the greatness of the ministry, while to the latter faith gave confidence, sure that all things are possible to him who believes.

Aaron was ready, but Moses had greatly resisted; Isaiah promptly obeyed, but Jeremiah dreaded his youthful age and did not undertake the ministry of prophecy until he received from God a promise of strength and steadfastness. 115. By these reflections I was once more restored, and by counsels of this sort, through constant wrestling, I was softened; and, like iron set upon the anvil, by certain blows of hammers I was softened and subdued. No less did time itself, which moderates and mellows all things, contribute to the ripeness of my resolve. But above all that which is written: Your justifications are my counsels—to which I have entrusted my whole life.

Wherefore I do not resist nor gainsay, says my Lord, who was not called to the headship of the people, but as a sheep was led to the slaughter. I therefore prostrate and fall down and submit myself to the most mighty hand of God, and I beg pardon for the leisure and delay of the time past, if perchance any charge arises against me from this. I was silent, but I will not be silent forever. I withdrew for a little while, that I might examine and visit myself, and that some consolation for my sorrow might be born. But now I have come to exalt the Lord in the churches and to praise him together in the seat of the elders. If that had blame, this deserves pardon. 116. But what further need is there of more lengthy words? You already have us, O shepherds and fellow-shepherds;

you hold us, O most holy and most worthy flock of Christ; you hold us, father, in all things vanquished and yielding in all things, more subject to you by the laws of Christ than by those of nature. Behold, you already have our subjection; render your blessing in return. Direct us by your prayers, instruct us by the word, confirm us by the Spirit; for the blessing of a father confirms the houses of his children. And may I be confirmed, both I and this spiritual house, in which is my rest forever and ever, in which I shall dwell, for I have chosen it; that from this church and from this house we may alike be counted worthy to be transferred to the church of the firstborn, which is enrolled in the heavens. 117. This indeed is our satisfaction before you, and this the closing word of our discourse.

But may the God of peace, who made both one and restored us to one another, who makes the mighty to sit in seats and who raises the needy from the earth and lifts up the poor from the dunghill; who chose David his servant and took him from the flocks of sheep, though he was the last and youngest among the sons of Jesse; who gives the word to those who proclaim the gospel with much power unto the perfecting of his preaching—holding our right hand—direct us in his will and take us up with glory. May he himself govern those who govern, may he himself direct those who direct, that we may be able to feed his flock with discipline and not in the vessels of an unskilful shepherd;

may he himself supply power and strength to his people, and may he himself present to himself a clean and pure flock, and in all things unspotted, and worthy of the heavenly folds, where is the dwelling of those who rejoice in the splendours of the saints; that in his temple we may all declare his glory, flock and shepherds together, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. HERE BEGINS THE APOLOGETIC BOOK OF SAINT GREGORY THE BISHOP. HERE BEGINS THE SAME AUTHOR'S WORK ON THE EPIPHANIES, OR ON THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD. HERE ENDS THE APOLOGETIC OF SAINT GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS. HERE BEGINS ON THE THEOPHANIES, OR ON THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD. (H = codex Reginensis 141, of the century)

(of the 9th–10th century. O = codex Oxoniensis Laud. Misc. 276, of the 9th century. A = codex Atrebatensis 621, of the 10th century. C = codex Augiensis CXVIII, of the 9th–10th century. V = codex Vindobonensis 759, of the 11th century. v = the editio princeps of Strasbourg, 1508.) VII. ON THE RECONCILIATION AND UNITY OF THE MONKS. 1. Eagerness loosens our tongue, and we hold men's law in contempt for the sake of the law of the Holy Spirit, nor do we yield to anyone, but now we utter words of peace. Before this, while the members were striving against one another, while the holy and venerable body of Christ was being divided and rent into parts, when our bones were almost scattered beside hell, and

and as the thick clods of earth, broken up by a worst plough, were rent into deeper furrows—when the enemy, by rending and tearing the indivisible and unsuturable tunic of Christ, which had been woven from above throughout, had prevailed to do to us, his ministers, that which he could not do through those who had crucified Christ: when, I say, things were thus, then I set a guard upon my mouth and put silence upon my lips, since indeed I saw that it was fitting that the mind should first be purged by the work of philosophy, and only so at last open the mouth and draw in the Spirit and pour forth the good word and speak the wisdom of God perfectly among the perfect; for this seems to me to be the spiritual order of discourse.

For indeed, according to the saying of the most wise Solomon, there is a time for everything. This sacrifice above all God requires of us: purity, and a contrite heart—for a contrite heart is a sacrifice to God—and the sacrifice of praise. For he wills us to be a new creation in Christ, and a new man, and whatever else of this kind the divine Scripture relates. This therefore is the first wisdom: to look down upon and despise that wisdom which consists in words and constructions, or in cleverness of speech, or which relies on captious syllogisms and empty contradictions.

But I, for my part, would rather speak five words in the church with my understanding, that I may instruct others also, than many thousands of words in a tongue and in such a voice of a trumpet as gives no clear sound to prepare my soldier for spiritual warfare. This wisdom therefore I praise and this I embrace, through which the ignoble were made glorious and through which the cast-off came to honour, and in which fishermen enclosed the whole circle of the earth in the nets of the gospel, surpassing wisdom by a word made complete and shortened—the wisdom which is brought to nought.

For he who is wise in word does not seem wise to me, nor he who utters a polished and voluble tongue while his soul remains unlearned—like those tombs which appear to men whitened and adorned on the outside, but within are full of uncleanness and stench. But that man seems wise to me who admonishes and speaks but few things about virtue of soul, yet shows more in his own deeds and works, and confirms the faith of his word by the witness of his works; for no one can love the beauty of form set in a painting as one loves it set in a body, nor are riches that are seen in dreams as useful as those held in the hands.

So too that wisdom is illustrious, not which flies about in words, but which stands firm in virtues. So indeed the Scripture also says, that good understanding is to all who do it, not to those who speak and preach it. The firmer tokens of this wisdom time declares, which truly in the aged is a crown of glorying.

For if a man ought not to be called blessed before death, as it seems to Solomon and to me—because it is uncertain what the coming time may bring forth, seeing that the life of men is very changeable, while this lowly body is always turned and changed this way and that—how should not he who has already passed the greater part of this life blamelessly, and, escaping the uncertain sea of our sojourning, hopes now to behold the harbour and at this very moment to enter it, be far safer and more blessed than he to whom much of the perilous sea still remains? 4. Do not therefore close that tongue which has taught many good things, whose fruits are many and infinite are its offspring of righteousness, how many are its sons and how great its treasures—lift up your eyes round about and see.

All this people is the one whom you have begotten in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Do not therefore now begrudge the grace of a good word, even if it be brief. You know how to utter many things briefly. And if not, at least proclaim those things with a spiritual voice, which even while Moses was silent God heard him saying, when he said to him: Why do you cry out to me?—namely when he was entreating him in the spirit. Compose and prepare the people for me—for your sheep and nursling, and after this also for its shepherd, but now also for the high priest together with you. Teach me too somewhat of the pastoral discipline, and instruct this people concerning obedience; concerning this present plague and devastation at least, philosophise something for us:

concerning the most just judgements of God, whether we comprehend or whether we are ignorant of the great abyss—how even his mercy is a balance, according to holy Isaiah. For neither is his goodness without judgement, although to those who had laboured in the vineyard the whole day it did not seem fair that they were made equal with the latecomers. But his wrath also, according to the measure of sins, is called a cup in the hand of the Lord; and the cup of ruin, when it is drunk, seems to carry away and make one vomit forth somewhat of the crimes of those who drink; and again, pure wrath is tempered with clemency.

For it inclines from that which is unmixed and vehement to that which is gentler and more moderate—namely toward those who are amended by fear, and who from small tribulations conceive and bring forth conversion, and beget a spirit of salvation full and entire. Yet it reserves the dregs of it, which are the utmost and the very last of wrath, that it may pour out the whole of it upon those who, by warnings and chastisements, are unwilling to be healed—nay rather are hardened the more by gentleness, after the manner of the most stubborn Pharaoh, who was reserved for the impious as an example of the power of God. 5. Tell us therefore: whence come such plagues as these, and whence these scourges, and what is the reason of them?

Is the motion of the universe itself stirred up at random and by chance and without any helms, and do these things happen as it were by accident with no ruler, as it seems to those who are foolishly wise? Or is the world even now moved and governed by some reason and order, and, just as from the beginning all things were made and composed and distinguished, so He alone knows it who moves it and steers it with the eternal reins of providence? Whence then comes barrenness? Whence the corruption of the air? Whence hailstorms, and this present plague and devastation and chastisement of ours? Whence pestilences and diseases? Whence earthquakes, and terrors of the sea and from heaven? Or how is it that the earth, which was formed by the Creator for the service of men,

whose good things we ought all to enjoy alike, is turned to the punishments of the impious—so that, in the very things wherein we proved ungrateful for what was granted and bestowed upon us, in those very things we pay the penalty, and recognize the worth of those things through torments, whose grace we did not acknowledge from their benefits? How is it that to some sins are repaid doubly from the hand of the Lord and a twofold measure of malice is requited, while to others, when they are chastised, sevenfold is said to be poured into their bosom as a punishment of sins? Or what is that, that the measure of the Amorites is recorded as not yet filled up in their crimes?

How then is it that either the sinner is left alone and the just man is punished, or again the sinner is punished and the just man is left alone and preserved—and now indeed the remedy is applied here already, but now again the whole is reserved for there? What then are these plagues, or whence? Are they proofs of virtue, or the penalty of malice?

And whether it is expedient to be humbled as though set among punishments, or to disregard and neglect them as though brought on for the sake of probation—teach us this, admonish us concerning these things, that we may neither bear this present plague too grievously, nor again, sinking into a depth of evils, hold them in contempt—for this vice too is found among men—but that we may be humbled under the chastisement of the Lord, lest, while we neglect and despise it in this matter, we provoke a greater wrath of God against ourselves. 6. Grievous is the barrenness of the earth, grievous the devastation of the crops—for who denies it?—especially when the joy of them was in hope, and when the grain itself was already near the very barns.

It is grievous that the unripe harvest has been carried off, and the weeping farmers look down upon their prostrate crops, and sit beside them as beside the corpses of their dear ones who have died—crops which a gentle rain had increased, but a turbulent and merciless storm cut down. From these the reaper has not filled his hand, nor he who gathers the sheaves his bosom, nor have passers-by said to the reapers: The blessing of the Lord be upon you. A pitiable spectacle has befallen: the land itself lies defiled, with those locks torn and rent in which it once rejoiced, and made foul out of its very adornment. The blessed Joel too mourns this, who bewails the calamity of famine with mighty tragedies.

But another prophet too, comparing the latest devastation with the former fruitfulness, and discoursing of the wrath of God that lays the land waste, says: The things that are before it are a paradise of delights, and the things that come after it are a field of extermination. Grievous, I say, are these things and exceedingly grievous, while we consider only these present things and do not yet conceive a dread of more grievous ones; since indeed, in bodily pains too, that which presses at the present always seems more grievous than all that has not its present torment. Far more vehement and grievous are the things which the treasuries of God's wrath hold in reserve—of which God forbid that we should make trial.

And we shall not make trial of it, if we hasten to the mercy of God and, by our tears, incline toward us him who wills mercy rather than death, so that we may turn away what remains of God's wrath through our conversion; since this is still the gentleness and clemency of God, and a mild chastisement, and certain beginnings of punishments, as it were brought upon little ones still nursing at the breast. This is still as it were a smoke of wrath and the first signs of penalties, not yet a consuming fire, not yet a devouring flame, nor kindled coals.