馬太福音講道集 第 8 章

'And entering into the house, they saw the young child with Mary His mother;'

'and falling down, they worshipped Him;'

'and opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.'

How then does Luke say that He was lying in the manger? Because, having given Him birth, she at once laid Him down there;

for since many were coming together on account of the census, it was not possible to find a house;

which indeed Luke also indicates, saying that, because there was no room, she laid Him down.

But after these things she took Him up, and held Him upon her knees.

For as soon as she had set foot in Bethlehem, she was loosed from her birth-pangs;

that from this too you may learn the whole dispensation, and that these things did not happen simply nor by chance,

but were all being fulfilled according to a certain divine providence and in the sequence of prophecy.

But what was it that persuaded them to worship? For neither was the Virgin conspicuous, nor the house distinguished, nor was any other of the things seen sufficient to astonish and attract.

Yet these men not only worship, but also, opening their treasures, offer gifts—and gifts not as to a man, but as to God.

For the frankincense and the myrrh were a symbol of this.

What, then, was it that persuaded them? That which prepared them to rise up from their home and to come so great a journey;

and this was both the star, and the illumination given by God to their understanding, guiding them little by little to the more perfect knowledge.

For had this not been so, since all the things that appeared were mean, they would not have shown so great an honour.

For this reason there was nothing great there among the things perceptible to sense, but a manger, and a hut, and a poor mother;

that you may see the wisdom of the Magi laid bare, and may learn that they approached Him not as to a mere man, but as to God and Benefactor.

Therefore they were offended by none of the things outwardly seen, but both worshipped and offered gifts—gifts freed from Jewish grossness;

for they did not sacrifice sheep and calves;

and gifts near to the wisdom of the Church;

for they offered Him recognition and obedience and love.

'And being warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed into their own country by another way.'

Behold from this too their faith, how they were not offended, but are docile and grateful, and are not troubled, nor reason within themselves, saying:

'And yet, if this child is great and has some power, what need is there of flight and of a secret withdrawal? and why in the world does the angel send us out of the city like runaways and fugitives, us who came openly and with boldness, and who stood before so great a people and before a king's madness?' But none of these things did they either say or think.

For this is what most belongs to faith: not to seek an accounting for what is commanded, but only to obey the things enjoined.

'And when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream, saying:'

'Arise, take the young child and His mother, and flee into Egypt.'

It is worth being perplexed here both concerning the Magi and concerning the child.

For even if those men were not troubled but received all things with faith, it is worth our inquiring why it is that these men and the child are saved not by remaining, but the one party flees to Persia, and the child into Egypt with the mother. But why? Ought He to have fallen into the hands of Herod, and, having fallen, not to be cut down? But then He would not have been believed to have taken flesh;

the greatness of the dispensation would not have been believed.

For if, when these things happened, and many things were dispensed after a human manner, some dared to say that the assumption of flesh was a myth, into what depths of impiety would they not have fallen, had He done all things in a manner befitting God and according to His own power? But He sends the Magi away quickly, at once sending them as teachers to the land of the Persians, and at once cutting off the tyrant's madness, that he might learn that he is attempting things that cannot be accomplished, and might quench his wrath, and withdraw himself from this vain toil.

For not only to prevail over one's enemies openly, but also to deceive them with ease, is worthy of His power.

Thus indeed He also deceived the Egyptians on behalf of the Jews; and though able openly to transfer the wealth of those men into the hands of the Hebrews, He commands them to do this secretly and by stratagem—which made Him no less fearful than the other signs in the eyes of the adversaries.

The Ashkelonites, at any rate, and all the rest, when they had taken the ark, and being smitten thereafter, exhorted their own people not to make war nor to stand in opposition, brought forward this too into their midst, along with the other marvels, saying:

'Why do you harden your hearts, as Egypt and Pharaoh hardened theirs? Was it not when He had made sport of them, that then He sent forth His people, and they departed?' These things they said, esteeming this also to be no

less than the other signs that were manifestly wrought, as a demonstration of His power and majesty.

Which indeed also came to pass here, being sufficient to astonish the tyrant.

Consider what Herod was likely to suffer, and how he must have choked with rage at being deceived by the Magi and thus made a laughing-stock.

For what if he did not become the better for it? This is no charge against Him who thus ordered these things, but rather the excess of that man's madness, since he yielded not even to those who could have consoled him and turned him from his wickedness, but pressed on yet further, that he might receive a still heavier penalty for such folly.

And why, one asks, is the young Child sent into Egypt? Chiefly indeed the Evangelist himself has stated the reason:

'That it might be fulfilled,' he says, 'Out of Egypt have I called my Son.'

But at the same time, the first tokens of goodly hopes were now being proclaimed beforehand to the whole world.

For since Babylon and Egypt above all the earth had been set ablaze with the flame of impiety, by these first tokens He showed that He would set both aright and make them better, and by these things He persuaded men to look for good things concerning the whole world also: to the one He sent the Magi, and into the other He Himself went down with His mother.

But besides what has been said, we are here taught yet another thing, which contributes not a little to our practice of true wisdom.

And what is this? To look for trials and plots from the very outset.

See, at any rate, how this comes to pass straightway from the very swaddling-clothes.

For no sooner is He born than a tyrant rages, and there is flight and removal to a foreign land, and His mother, though she had done no wrong, is driven as a fugitive into the country of the barbarians;

so that you, hearing these things, when you are counted worthy to minister in some spiritual matter, and then see yourself suffering things past cure and enduring countless dangers, may not be troubled, nor say:

'What in the world is this? Surely I ought to be crowned and heralded, and be splendid and renowned, since I am fulfilling my Master's command';

but that, having this example, you may bear all things nobly, knowing that this above all is the way of spiritual things—to have trials allotted everywhere as a companion lot.

See then how this comes to pass not only in the case of the mother and the young Child, but also in that of those barbarians.

For they too withdraw secretly, in the manner of fugitives;

and she again, who had never gone beyond her own home, is bidden to endure so long a journey of hardship, on account of this wondrous birth and these spiritual travail-pangs.

And behold again the marvel:

Palestine plots against Him, while Egypt receives and preserves the One plotted against.

For it was not only in the case of the patriarch's sons that types came to pass, but also in the case of the Master Himself.

Indeed, many of the things done by Him at that time proclaimed beforehand the things that were afterwards to come to pass;

which very thing came to pass also in the case of the ass and of the colt.

The angel, then, when he appeared, speaks not to Mary, but to Joseph;

and what does he say? 'Arise, and take the young Child and His mother.'

Here he no longer says, 'thy wife,' but 'His mother.'

For since the birth had taken place, and the suspicion was dissolved, and the husband was assured, the angel henceforth speaks with all freedom, calling Him neither Joseph's child nor Mary his wife;

but, 'Take the young Child and His mother';

and he states the reason for the flight:

'For Herod,' he says, 'is about to seek the young Child's life.'

Joseph, when he heard these things, was not offended, nor did he say:

'Didst thou not say before that He would save His people? And now He does not even save Himself, but we have need of flight, and of exile, and of a long removal;

what happens is contrary to the promise.'

Neither does he curiously inquire about the time of the return, and that though the angel had left it undefined for him:

'For be there,' he says, 'until I tell thee.'

But nevertheless, not even at this did he grow faint-hearted, but he obeys and complies, enduring all the trials with joy.

For the God who loveth mankind mingled pleasant things also with these toilsome ones;

which indeed He does in the case of all the saints, appointing neither the dangers nor the

seasons of respite continuous, but weaving the life of the righteous out of both the one and the other.

This very thing He has done here also:

Joseph saw the Virgin with child;

this cast him into trouble and the utmost turmoil;

for he suspected the maiden of adultery;

but straightway the angel stood by, both dissolving the suspicion and taking away this fear;

and seeing the young Child born, he reaped the greatest joy.

Again, no small danger succeeds this joy, as the city is troubled, and the king rages and seeks after the newborn.

But this turmoil in turn another joy succeeded:

the star, and the adoration of the Magi.

Again, after this pleasure, fear and danger:

'For Herod,' he says, 'seeks the young Child's life';

and one must flee and remove after the manner of men.

For it was not fitting as yet to work miracles.

For if from His earliest age He had displayed miracles, He would not even have been thought to be a man.

For this reason not even a temple is simply framed for Him, but there is conception too, and a nine-months' space, and travail-pangs, and a birth, and nursing at the breast, and quietness throughout all the time; and He awaits the age befitting men,

that through all these things the mystery of the dispensation might become easy to receive.

For what purpose, then, one asks, were these signs also wrought from the beginning? For the sake of the mother, for the sake of Joseph, for the sake of Simeon who was about presently to depart, for the sake of the shepherds, for the sake of the Magi, for the sake of the Jews.

For if they had been willing to attend with exactness to the things that were done, they would have reaped no small benefit hence also toward the things to come.

But if the Prophets do not speak of the things concerning the Magi, be not troubled;

for neither did they foretell all things, nor did they pass over all in silence.

For just as to see the events coming to pass when one had heard nothing beforehand produced much amazement and confusion,

so also to have learned all things beforehand would have disposed the hearer to slumber, and would have left the Evangelists nothing more to tell.

But if the Jews should dispute concerning the prophecy, saying that the words 'Out of Egypt have I called my Son' were spoken of themselves,

we would say to them that this too is a law of prophecy—that many things are oftentimes spoken of certain persons, but are fulfilled in others; as is the case with what was said concerning Simeon and Levi:

'For I will divide them,' he says, 'in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.'

And yet this came to pass not in their own case, but in that of their descendants;

and what was spoken by Noah concerning Canaan came out upon the Gibeonites, the descendants of Canaan.

And in the case of Jacob too one may see it thus falling out;

for those blessings which say, 'Be lord over thy brother, and let thy father's sons bow down before thee,' had not their accomplishment in his own person—(how could they, seeing that he feared and trembled and did obeisance to Esau a thousand times over?)—but in the case of his descendants.

This very thing one might say in the present case also.

For who might more truly be called the Son of God—he that worshipped the calf, and was initiated to Baal-peor, and sacrificed his sons to the demons, or He who is Son by nature and honours Him that begat Him? So that, unless this One had come, the prophecy would not have received its fitting accomplishment.

See then how the Evangelist too hints at this, saying, 'That it might be fulfilled,' thereby showing that it would not have been fulfilled, had He not come.

And not by chance does this also make the Virgin illustrious and renowned.

For what the whole people possessed by way of a claim to honour, this she too was thenceforth able to possess.

For since they took great pride in having come up out of Egypt, and made their boast of it,

This is what the Prophet also hinted at when he said:

'Did I not bring up the foreigners out of Cappadocia, and the Assyrians out of the pit?' This same distinction He confers upon the Virgin also.

Or rather, both the people and the patriarch, having gone down thither and come up again from thence, fulfilled the type of this coming-up.

For those men, fleeing the death that came from famine, went down;

and this One, the death that came from a plot against Him.

But those men, having gone down, were then delivered from the famine;

whereas this One, having come down, sanctified the whole land by His entrance.

Consider, then, how amid these lowly circumstances the tokens of His divinity are disclosed.

For indeed the angel, when he said, 'Flee into Egypt,' did not promise

to journey together with them, either as they went down or as they came up, thereby intimating that they had a great fellow-traveller, the new-born Child;

who, by His mere appearing, changed all things at once, and prepared His very enemies to render much service to this dispensation.

For indeed magi and barbarians, forsaking the superstition of their fathers, come to worship Him;

and Augustus ministers to the birth at Bethlehem, through the decree of the census;

Egypt receives and preserves Him as He flees and is plotted against, and gains thereby some occasion of being brought into close relation with Him;

so that when she should come to hear Him proclaimed by the Apostles, she might glory in this also, as having been the first to receive Him.

And indeed this distinction belonged to Palestine alone;

yet she has become more fervent than the other.

And now, if you go into the desert of Egypt, you will see this desert become better than any paradise, and countless choirs of angels in human form, and companies of martyrs, and assemblies of virgins;

and all the tyranny of the devil brought to nothing, while the kingdom of Christ shines resplendent.

And that land which was the mother of poets and sages and magicians, which devised every kind of sorcery and imparted it to others—her you will now see glorying in fishermen, despising all those men, and everywhere carrying about the tax-collector and the tent-maker, and holding forth the cross.

And these good things are found not in the cities only, but even more in the deserts than in the cities.

For everywhere in that country one may behold the encampment of Christ, and the royal flock, and the polity of the powers above;

and this one may find prevailing not among men only, but even in the female nature.

For they too pursue the philosophic life no less than the men, not by taking up the shield and mounting the horse, as the venerable lawgivers and philosophers of the Greeks enjoin, but by undertaking another and far more grievous battle.

For common to them and to the men is the war against the devil and the principalities;

and nowhere does the softness of their nature become a hindrance in such encounters;

for these contests are decided not by the nature of bodies, but by the purpose of the soul.

Wherefore women too have often striven more than men, and set up more brilliant trophies.

Not so bright is the heaven with the varied choir of its stars as is the desert of Egypt, showing us on every side the tents of the monks.

If anyone knows that ancient Egypt, the God-fighting and raving one, the slave of cats, the one that dreaded and trembled at onions, he will well understand the might of Christ.

Or rather, we have no need of ancient narratives;

for even now the remnants of that folly remain, as a proof of the former madness.

Yet nevertheless these men, who of old were all broken off into such great madness, now discourse concerning heaven and the things above the heavens, laugh at the customs of their fathers, count their ancestors wretched, and make no account of the philosophers.

For they have learned by the very facts that the doctrines of those men are the inventions of drunken old women, but that the true philosophy, and the one worthy of the heavens, is this which was proclaimed to them by the fishermen.

For this reason, together with such exactness of doctrine, they also display great earnestness in their manner of life.

For having stripped themselves of all their possessions, and having been crucified to all the world, they press yet further onward, employing the labour of the body for the nourishment of the needy.

For neither, because they fast and keep vigil, do they think fit to be idle by day;

but they spend the nights in sacred hymns and all-night services, and the days in prayers together with the labour of their hands, imitating the apostolic zeal.

For if that one, while the whole world was looking to him, in order that he might feed the needy, took up a workshop and plied a craft, and did not even sleep at night while doing this;

much more, he says, is it right for us who have taken to the desert, and have nothing in common with the tumults in the cities, to employ the leisure of our quiet for spiritual labour.

Let us therefore all be ashamed, both the rich and the poor, when those men, having absolutely nothing at all but a body only and hands, force themselves and strive to find from thence a revenue for the needy;

while we, with countless things stored up within, do not so much as touch even our superfluities for these purposes.

What defence, then, shall we have, tell me? and what pardon? And yet consider how of old these very men were both lovers of money and gluttons, along with their other vices.

For there were the flesh-pots, which the Jews called to mind;

there was the great tyranny of the belly;

yet nevertheless, when once they so willed, they were transformed, and having received the fire of Christ, they were straightway transferred toward heaven;

and being more fervent than others, and more impetuous both toward anger and toward the pleasures of the body, they now imitate the bodiless powers in their gentleness and in the rest of that passionless state which belongs to true philosophy.

And whoever has been in that country knows the things I speak of.

But if anyone has never set foot in those tents, let him call to mind the man who is even now on all men's lips, whom, after the Apostles, Egypt brought forth—the blessed and great Antony—and let him consider that this man too lived in that same country in which Pharaoh also lived;

yet nevertheless he suffered no harm at all, but was even counted worthy of a divine vision, and displayed such a life as the laws of Christ require.

And this a man will learn with exactness by meeting with the book that contains the history of that man's life, in which he will also behold much prophecy.

For concerning those sick with the doctrines of Arius he both foretold and declared the harm that was to come from them, God showing it to him then, and portraying before his eyes all the things to come;

which indeed, together with the other things, is above all a proof of the truth—that none of the heresies without has ever had such a man.

But that you may not hear these things from us, bend over the writings of the book, and you will learn all with exactness, and will be much instructed in true philosophy from thence.

And this I exhort, not that we should merely go over the things written, but that we should also emulate them, and should put forward neither country, nor upbringing, nor the wickedness of our ancestors as a pretext.

For if we are willing to give heed to ourselves, none of these things will be a hindrance to us.

Since Abraham too had an impious father, but did not inherit his lawlessness;

and Hezekiah had Ahaz, yet nevertheless he became a friend of God;

and Joseph, in the very midst of Egypt at that time, bound upon himself the crowns of self-control;

and the three children, in the very midst of Babylon, and in the very midst of a house, with a Sybaritic table set before them, displayed the highest philosophy;

and Moses in Egypt, and Paul in the whole world;

and to none of these did any of these things become a hindrance to the race of virtue.

Bearing all these things, then, in mind, let us also put away these superfluous excuses and pretexts, and lay hold of the sweat of toil that is for virtue's sake.

For thus shall we both draw God unto greater goodwill, and shall persuade Him to take part with us in our contests, and shall enjoy the eternal good things;

which may it be granted us all to attain, by the grace and love toward man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of ages. Amen.