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On the Lord’s Prayer

St Gregory of Nyssa, tr. Graef, 1954

8. The Beatitudes: Sermon 8

Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven

Following the order of the sublime teaching of doctrine, the present interpretation of the words is led on to the eighth step. But I think it opportune that we should first consider in our sermon what is the mystery of the number eight, which the prophet mentions in two Psalms,¹ and what is the meaning of the purification and the legislation concerning circumcision, which, according to the Law, were both to be observed on the eighth day. Perhaps this number has some affinity with the eighth Beatitude, which, being as it were the summit of all the Beatitudes, is placed at the top of the glorious ascent. For in the Psalms the prophet signifies the Day of the Resurrection through the mystery of the number eight; the purification indicates man’s return from defilement to his natural purity; the circumcision means the casting off of the dead skins² which we put on when we had been stripped of the supernatural life after the transgression; and here the eighth Beatitude contains the re-instatement in heaven of those who had fallen into servitude, and who are now from their slavery recalled to the Kingdom.

Blessed, He says, are those who suffer persecution for my sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Here is the goal of the battles fought for God, here the reward of the labours, the prize of our sweat, which is to be held worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. No longer do we go astray, pinning our hope on what is unstable and subject to change. For earth is the place of variation and flux; but in the things that appear moving in heaven we observe nothing like that, because they do not behave in such a way; but all heavenly things move in their own courses in series of orderly sequence. Do you then see how excellent is the gift? For its magnificence is not made up of variable things, so that no fear of change should trouble our fair hopes; but by saying Kingdom of Heaven He shows the absolute immutability of the gift that is held out to our expectation.

But some difficulty has come into my mind about what has been said. It is this. First: to both, those who are poor in spirit and those who are persecuted for His sake, He promises as a reward to bring them to the same goal. Now if their prize is to be the same, surely their struggles, too, must be equal. Secondly: why, in the passage where He calls men to the Kingdom of Heaven and separates the ones on the right from those on the left,³ does He give other reasons for such an honour? For there He demands compassion, mutual assistance, and love; but nowhere does He mention spiritual poverty or persecution for His sake; yet, considered superficially, these things seem greatly to differ from each other. For what has poverty to do with persecution? Or again, what connection have these with the charitable deeds of compassion? Someone has fed the needy or clothed the naked, he has received the stranger under his roof or has brought the sick and the prisoners what help he could—but what has this to do with being oneself poor and persecuted, according to the passage we are considering? This man helps others in their misfortunes, on the other hand both the poor and the persecuted need themselves help—yet the goal is in every respect the same. For He brings to Heaven the poor in spirit and the one who is persecuted for His sake, as well as those who show compassion for their neighbour. How then do we explain this? It all hangs together, for they all converge on precisely the same goal. Poverty is easily transferred, and the love of the poor is not far removed from poverty itself. But I think it best first to examine the present passage, and then to look closer into the meaning and agreement of the words we have been considering.

Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice’ sake. Why and by whom are they persecuted? The answer that comes first into our mind clearly presents to us the arena of the martyrs and the race-course of the faith. For the pursuit shows up not only the runner’s intense concern for speed, but it also makes clear the victory that lies in running, since the runner cannot gain it otherwise but by leaving behind the person that runs with him. Hence both the man who runs for the prize of the supernal vocation, and the one who is persecuted by the enemy on account of this prize, have someone behind them, the one the person contending with him, the other the persecutor. Now these are the men who accomplish the course of martyrdom and who are pursued, but not caught, in the contests of piety. It seems that in the last words He holds out to them the highest Beatitude like a crown. For it is truly blessed to suffer persecution for the sake of the Lord. And why? Because being chased by evil becomes the cause of attaining to the good, since separation from the wicked one is made the occasion for drawing near to the Good, that Good that is above every good, the Lord Himself, to whom runs the man who is persecuted. Therefore he is truly blessed, because he uses the enemy to help him attain the Good. Human life lies between the boundaries of good and evil; and as a man who has abandoned the transcendent Good of our hope has sunk into the pit, so he who becomes an utter stranger to the corruption of sin approaches incorruptible Justice.

Hence the immediate aspect of the persecution which tyrants unleash against the martyrs is indeed painful to the senses; but the outcome of it exceeds all beatitude. Perhaps we may better grasp the sense of the passage by giving examples. Everyone knows how hard it is to bear if people, instead of loving us, scheme against us. Yet there are many for whom that which had seemed harmful becomes the cause of happiness even in this life. This is shown by the story of Joseph. His brothers plotted against him and drove him away from their company. But through being sold he became the king of those who had planned evil against him, and he would perhaps not have attained to such great dignity, had not their envy paved the way for the kingdom by this very plot. Now if someone who knew the future had foretold Joseph: You will be blessed because a plot has been devised against you, this would not have seemed immediately credible to the hearer, who would see only the present distress; for he would not have thought it possible that the evil purpose could come to a good end. So also in the present instance, the fact that the persecution the tyrants inflict on the faithful brings much sensible pain, makes it difficult for the more carnally-minded to accept the hope of the Kingdom that is to be realized through these pains. But the Lord, who looks down upon the infirmity of our nature, tells the weak beforehand what is to be the goal of the struggle, so that they may more easily overcome the transitory feelings of pain.

Therefore the great Stephen rejoices when he is stoned from all sides. His body eagerly receives the showers of fast-falling stones like a pleasant dew, and he repays his murderers with blessings, praying that the sin may not be imputed to them. He, too, has heard the promise and has seen the hope that corresponds to the things that happen in the world of sense. For he first heard that those who suffer persecution for the sake of the Lord will be in the Kingdom of Heaven, and then he saw the object of his expectation at the moment of persecution. While he was running the race of confessing the faith, he was shown what he hoped for, the heavens opened and the Divine Glory looking down from the transcendent realm on the struggle of the runner, that is to say, the Lord Himself to whom the struggle of His martyr bears witness. Now the standing posture of the Judge of the struggle is an image revealing the help He gives to the fighter, by which we should learn that the same Person who ordains the contest also assists His own fighters against their opponents. Who, therefore, could be more blessed than the man who is persecuted for the sake of the Lord, and who is privileged to have as his helper the Judge Himself, who presides at the contest?

For it is not easy, in fact, perhaps quite impossible, to prefer the invisible Good to the visible pleasant things of this life, so as easily to choose things like being driven from one’s home or separated from wife and children, brothers, parents and friends, and all the happiness of life, unless the Lord Himself helps him to attain to this Good, because he has been called according to His purpose. For, as the Apostle says, whom He foreknows, him He also predestinates, and calls, and justifies, and glorifies.⁴ Now the soul is in some way attached to the pleasant things of life through the senses of the body. Through the eyes it delights in material beauty, through the ears it inclines to melodious sounds, and so it is also affected by smell, taste, and touch, as nature has disposed to be proper to each. Hence, as it is attached to the pleasant things of life through the sensible faculty as if by a nail, it is hard to turn away from them. It has grown up together with these attachments much in the same way as the shellfish and snails are bound to their covering of clay; and so it is slow to make such movements, since it drags along the whole burden of a lifetime. As such is its condition, the soul is easily captured by its persecutors with the threat of confiscation of property or loss of some other things that are coveted in this life; and so it gives in easily, and yields to the power of its persecutor.

But when the living Word which, as the Apostle says, is effectual and more piercing than any two-edged sword,⁵ penetrates into a man who has truly received the faith, it cuts through the things that have badly grown together, and disrupts the fetters of habit. Then he will throw off the worldly pleasures bound to his soul, like a runner casts a burden from his shoulders, and will run light and nimble through the fighting ring, since he is guided in his course by the President of the contest Himself. For he looks not to the things he has left behind, but to those that come hereafter, and so he does not turn back his eyes to the pleasures that are past, but he goes forward to the Good that lies before him. He is not pained by the loss of earthly things, but gladdened by the gain of heavenly ones. Therefore he will readily accept every form of torture as a means that will help him to attain to the joy before him: the fire, as a purification from matter; the sword, as disrupting the union of the mind with what is material and carnal. Every device for inflicting pain he will receive eagerly as an antidote against the dangerous poison of pleasure. The bilious and those suffering from superfluous humours readily drink the bitter medicine by which the cause of the disease might be removed. In the same way a man who, persecuted by the enemy, turns to God, accepts the onrush of sufferings as a means of destroying the power of pleasure.

For a man who suffers cannot enjoy pleasure. Hence, as sin entered through pleasure, it is exterminated by the opposite. So if men persecute others for confessing the Lord and invent the most intolerable tortures, they bring, through these sufferings, a remedy to souls, for by applying pain they heal the disease caused by pleasure. Thus Paul receives the cross, James the sword; Stephen the stones, the blessed Peter is crucified head downwards.⁶ All the later fighters for the faith suffer many forms of torture, being thrown to the beasts and into pits, being burned with fire or frozen with cold, having their sides flayed and their heads transfixed by nails; or their eyes are put out, their fingers cut off, their bodies are rent in two by their legs being pulled apart, or they suffer starvation. All these and other things like them the Saints have embraced with joy as a purification from sin. And so pleasure has left no trace impressed on the heart, for the piercing sensation of pain effaced all the imprints it had stamped on the soul. Therefore, Blessed are those who suffer persecution for my sake.

Now let us also proffer another consideration. It is the same as if someone, speaking in the person of health, were to say: Blessed are those that are separated from disease for my sake. They are without pains, and so it happens that those who were once sick are now resting in me. Therefore let us give heed to the Voice, since Life itself is announcing this Beatitude to us. Blessed are those who are persecuted by death for my sake. It is as if light said: Blessed are those who are persecuted by darkness for my sake. The same may be said of justice and sanctity, of incorruption and goodness, in fact, of any concept of those things that thought associates with the Good. We can imagine the Lord speaking to you somewhat like this: Blessed is the man who is driven away from all that is hostile, from corruption, darkness, and sin, from injustice and covetousness, in short, from anything that is not virtuous, whether in words, deeds, or thoughts. For to be separated from evil means being confirmed in goodness. Whosoever committeth sin, says the Lord, is the servant of sin.⁷ Hence, if a man leaves what he used to serve, he attains to the dignity of a freeman. For the highest form of freedom is to be master of oneself. Now the dignity of kingship has no dictator above it. If, therefore, a man who is a stranger to sin is free, and if, on the other hand, the property of kingship is to be self-governing and without a master; it follows that a man who is persecuted by evils is blessed, because persecution from that quarter procures for him the royal dignity.

Let us therefore not be depressed, my brethren, if we are deprived of earthly things. For if a man is released from these, he lives in the palaces of Heaven. The rational nature has been allotted two elements of the created universe—earth and Heaven—for its life. The place of those who have received life in the flesh is the earth, whereas Heaven is the abode of the immaterial beings. Now our life must necessarily be lived somewhere. If we are not chased away from the earth, we surely remain on earth. But when we depart from here, we shall be translated to Heaven. Do you see where this Beatitude brings you, since it helps you to achieve so great a good by means of apparent suffering? The Apostle also had perceived this when he says: All chastisement for the present indeed seemeth not to bring with it joy, but sorrow; but afterwards it will yield to them that are exercised by it the peaceable fruit of justice.⁸

Therefore affliction is the flower that will yield the hoped-for fruits. Hence let us pick the flower for the sake of the fruit. Let us be persecuted so that we may run, but if we run, let us not run in vain. Let us race towards the prize of our supernal vocation; so let us run that we may obtain.⁹ What is it that we shall obtain? What is the prize, what the crown? It seems to me that what we hope is nothing else but the Lord Himself. For He Himself is the Judge of those who fight, and the crown of those who win. He it is who distributes the inheritance, He Himself is the goodly inheritance. He is the portion and the giver of the portion, He makes rich and is Himself the riches. He shows you the treasure and is Himself your treasure. He draws you to desire the beautiful pearl; He offers it to you as it were for sale, if you will trade fairly. In order to gain it, therefore, as if in the market, let us compare the things we have not with those we have. Let us not be sorrowful, then, if we are persecuted, but rather let us rejoice, because by being chased away from earthly honours, we are driven towards the heavenly Good. For this He has promised, that those who have been persecuted for His sake shall be blessed, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven, by the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

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