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Homilies on the Gospels

St Gregory the Dialogist, tr. Burke, 1960; selections

9. The Supper

But he said to him: A certain man made a great supper and invited many. And he sent his servant at the hour of supper to say to them that were invited, that they should come; for now all things are ready. And they began all at once to make excuse. The first said to him: I have bought a farm and I must needs go out and see it. I pray thee, hold me excused. And another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to try them. I pray thee, hold me excused. And another said: I have married a wife; and therefore I cannot come. And the servant, returning, told these things to his lord. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant: Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city; and bring in hither the poor and the feeble and the blind and the lame. And the servant said: Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded; and yet there is room. And the Lord said to the servant: Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. But I say unto you that none of those men that were invited shall taste of my supper.
Lk. xiv, 16-24.

Homilia XXXVI in Evangelia.

There is a great difference, dearly beloved brethren, between corporal and spiritual delights in that the former, when we are without them, enkindle in the soul a strong desire to possess them, but once they are attained, they quickly satiate us. Spiritual pleasures, on the contrary, when unattained, produce a certain aversion; but once we taste them, the taste awakens desire, and our hunger for them increases the more we taste them. In the former, desires please us but their realisation satiates us: in the latter, the desire is weak but the enjoyment becomes more and more pleasant. In the first, craving is followed by satiety and then aversion: but in the second, appetite is satisfied with a satisfaction which produces desire. For spiritual delights, according as they satisfy us, increase the yearnings of our soul: for the more we taste them the fuller becomes our knowledge of them and the more we love them. So we see that, if we do not taste these delights, we cannot desire them, because their flavour is unknown to us. For who can love what he does not know? So that the psalmist says: “Taste, and see that the Lord is sweet”.¹ As if to say: “You do not know his sweetness, and that is why you do not taste. Open your hearts to the food of life that, tasting its sweetness, you may learn to love it.” Man lost these delights when he sinned in paradise: he lost them when he shut his mouth to the everlasting food. So that we, born in the distress of this our pilgrimage, come to the world already squeamish. We do not know what we should desire, and our repugnance is increased the further our souls stray from that true nourishment. It does not seek interior delights, because it has long lost the habit of tasting them. So we waste away and our loathing wears us out by the long abstinence it imposes on us. God’s mercy, however, does not abandon us even when we abandon him.

For he recalls to our memory those spiritual joys, and offers them to us: he shakes our sloth with generous promises and entices us to cast off this nausea. For he tells us: “A certain man made a great supper and invited many.” Is this not the man of whom the prophet speaks when he says: “And he is a man, and who has known him?”² who prepared a great supper when he prepared for us a feast of everlasting relish? This man called many and few came: because sometimes those who are his subjects by faith, turn their backs upon that heavenly banquet by the wickedness of their lives.

The Gospel continues: “And he sent his servant at the hour of supper to say to them that were invited, that they should come.” The hour of the supper is the end of the world, which the apostle Paul tells us is very near: “We . . . upon whom the ends of the world are come”.³ Since we see, then, that we are called at the very hour of supper, that is, when the world is nearing its end, we must not excuse ourselves from attending God’s banquet. Since we believe also that everything in this world is merely transitory, let us take care that this time of grace should not pass to no avail. This feast to which God invites us is called supper and not dinner, because supper is the last meal of the day. Since God’s eternal banquet is our consummation, it is rightly compared to that final meal. Furthermore, we must see that the servant sent with invitations by the master of the household represents the preachers of the church. Being one of them, although unworthy and oppressed by the weight of my sins, nevertheless when I speak for your instruction, I also am a servant of that master. When I exhort you to despise this world, I come to invite you to God’s feast. Let no one despise me, then, for my personal defects: for although I am unworthy, the joys I promise are immense. It often happens, brethren, that a powerful person has a contemptible servant, and when he sends a message by him, to relations or to strangers, the person of the servant is not despised, for the sake of the master who sent him. Those who hear him do not think of the person who speaks, but only of the message he brings and the person whose message it is. So you, brethren, must do the same; and if perhaps you consider us preachers unworthy, nevertheless venerate God who calls you through us. Be willing guests at the table of the master of the house. Rid yourselves of that fatal lack of appetite, for all things are prepared to cure you of it. But if you are still carnally-minded, it may be that you look for carnal feasts. Do you not recall that flesh, for your sake, has become spiritual nourishment? To rid our heart of that aversion, the Lamb was immolated for you at the Lord’s supper.

But what do we do when we see so many act as those of whom the Gospel says: “And they began all at once to make excuse”? God offers freely what should be implored of him; he wishes to give unasked that for which we should scarcely dare to hope, and his offer is despised. He tells them that the delights of the everlasting feast are now ready, and yet they all at once begin to make excuse. Let us consider a lesser example, so that we may fully understand the lesson. If a rich and powerful man were to invite a poor one to dine, I ask you brethren, what would the latter do? Would he not rejoice at the very honour of the invitation, accepting with humility? Would he not change his clothes, and hurry to see to it that he should be the first at the feast? When a rich man sends an invitation, the poor man loses no time in presenting himself: but we seek excuses, when it is God who invites us. But already I foresee what you answer in your inmost thoughts, in your hearts: “We do not seek excuses. We are very glad to be called, and to be there at the eternal supper.”

Your heart speaks the truth, if it is true that you do not prefer the things of earth to those of heaven: provided that you long for the riches of heaven, and not those of earth. The Gospel tells us the reason why each guest wishes to be excused: “The first said to him: I have bought a farm and I must needs go out and see it. I pray thee, hold me excused.” Does not the farm signify worldly possessions? That man goes to see his farm, who thinks only of material things and the wealth they bring him. “And another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to try them. I pray thee, hold me excused.” What are we to understand by the five oxen, if not the five senses of the body? Indeed rightly are they called a yoke, because they go in pairs, in both sexes. The corporal senses, unable to understand spiritual things, knowing only what is material and external, devote themselves to what is tangible: they can be taken as a symbol of curiosity. For the senses, while they wish to know of other people’s lives, know nothing of the soul. The vice of curiosity is a dangerous one, for it inclines its victim to discover the conduct of his neighbour, while he is ignorant of his own inner self; so that, knowing others’ business, he will not know his own; and examining another’s virtues he will ignore the measure of his own. That is why we are told the man replied: “I go to try them. I pray thee, hold me excused.” It is noteworthy that the very words of his excuse reveal the vice which has taken control of him, because he says: “I go to try them”. Sometimes a trial is merely to satisfy curiosity. But we should notice that the man who excuses himself because of the farm he has bought, as well as the man who uses his oxen as an excuse, does so in words of humility; both say: “I pray thee, hold me excused.” But when they say: “I pray thee”, and at the same time refuse to assist, they show humility in their speech but pride in their actions. Notice that every wicked man condemns this course of action when it is pointed out to him: nevertheless he does no otherwise himself. When we say to a sinner: “Repent; seek only God; leave this world”, do we not invite him to God’s banquet? But when he answers “Pray for me because I am a sinner, and unable to do as you say”, does he not seek indulgence at the same time as he makes excuse? With these words: I am a sinner, he makes a show of humility, but on adding: I cannot repent, he shows obvious pride. He, then, uses a prayer as an excuse, whose words are humble but whose actions are proud.

And another said: “I have married a wife; and therefore I cannot come.” Does not the wife in this parable signify the pleasures of the flesh? For although matrimony is good and has been instituted by God for the propagation of the race, there are some who desire it, not for this end, but for the satisfaction of their own passions; and therefore there is nothing objectionable in representing something illicit by something quite licit. The great Father of all, then, invites you to the supper of eternal life: but, one is given over to avarice, another to curiosity, another to the pleasures of the flesh: unanimously they make their excuse. While one busies himself with worldly dealings, another racks his brain with the concerns of others and the third smears his mind with carnal pleasures: none makes any effort to hurry to the banquet of everlasting bliss.

“And the servant, returning, told these things to his lord. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant: Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city; and bring in hither the poor and the feeble and the blind and the lame.” Thus he who devotes himself excessively to earthly matters refuses to attend; he who enquires curiously into his neighbour’s life has no hunger for that spiritual nourishment; he who surrenders himself to the lusts of the flesh rejects the delicacies of the spiritual banquet. Since, then, the proud refuse to come, the poor are chosen. And why is this? Because, as Paul tells us: “The weak things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the strong”.⁴ We should note the description of those who are summoned to the feast and who attend: “the poor and the feeble”. They are called poor and feeble who, according to their own estimation, are weak. For those who are proud in their poverty are truly poor although they may appear strong. They are blind who lack the light of understanding; they are lame who are not upright in their actions. But while these vices of character can be represented by infirmities of the limbs, it is apparent that just as those who refused to attend when called were sinners, so also are they sinners who are called and who do, in fact, attend. But the proud sinners are rejected while the humble are chosen.

God chooses those whom the world despises, because it often happens that the very contempt of which they are the object brings self-knowledge. Thus he who left his father and home and wasted the inheritance he had received, did not come to his senses until he felt the pangs of hunger, and thought: “How many hired servants in my father’s house abound with bread”.⁵ He had wandered far from self-knowledge when he sinned, and if he had not experienced such misery, he would never have attained it. Only when he was in need of temporal goods did he think of spiritual goods. Thus the poor, the feeble, the blind and the lame are called and they attend, for the weak and those whom this world despises hear God’s voice more swiftly because they find nothing to delight them in this world. All this is well signified in that young Egyptian, servant of the Amalecite,⁶ who, while they made their raids and robberies, lay sick upon the roadside, starved and parched with thirst. When David found him he gave him food and drink, so that when his health returned he became David’s guide. Surprising the Amalecites at their feasting, this young Egyptian helped to overthrow those who had abandoned him when he was ill. The Amalecites are called a licking race. What can this indicate if not the condition of the worldly minded? For it is as if they licked those worldly things which are the sole satisfaction of their ambition. And, like the Amalecites, they too are robbers: desirous of earthly good which they heap up at others’ expense. But, like the young Egyptian whom his master abandoned sick on the road, every sinner, once he grows sick in worldly prosperity, soon earns the contempt of the worldly minded. But when David found the youth, he gave him food and drink, because God who is strong does not despise those whom the world rejects. He often converts them to grace and to his love. He gives the food and drink of his divine word to those who fail to keep up with the world and remain, as it were, by the wayside. He chooses them as his guides in this life, and makes them his preachers. When they bring Christ to the heart of sinners, they lead David, as it were, to the conquest of his enemies. With him they strike the feasting Amalecites off guard: because by the grace of God they bring low those proud men who in this world had despised them. The young Egyptian slays the Amalecites: because often those preachers sway the outlook of the worldly minded with whom they could not keep pace before in the race for worldly honour.

But let us hear the servant’s words now that he has led the poor into the feast: “Lord it is done as thou hast commanded; and yet there is room”. Many of the Jews were gathered for the Lord’s supper, but the numbers of that people which believed in Jesus Christ did not fill the hall of the eternal supper. Many Jews entered but still there was room left in the kingdom to be filled by many of the Gentiles.

So the lord says to his servant: “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled”. When our Lord invites to his feast those whom his servants find in the streets and lanes of the city, he is referring to people who kept his law while going about their business in the cities: but when he orders them to be called from the highways and the hedges, he is indicating a rustic people, that is, the Gentiles. This is how we understand the psalmist’s phrase: “then shall all the trees of the woods rejoice before the face of the Lord, because he cometh”.⁷ The Gentiles were called the trees of the wood because in their infidelity they were always twisted and without fruit. So that those who were converted from that rustic state came to the eternal supper as if from the hedges.

We should notice too that, in this third invitation, the servant is not told to invite, but to compel. Some are called and will not come; others are called and come; finally, there are others of whom we may say that they are not called, but compelled, to come. Those are called but refuse to come, who receive the gift of understanding, but fail to act according to its dictates. Those are called and come, who by their good works perfect the intellectual grace which they receive. There are some who are called in such a way that they have no option, but to attend: as there are some who understand perfectly the good they should do, but do not do it; they see the proper course of action, but they do not want to follow it. As we said before, it is most frequently these men who are forestalled in their temporal ambitions by the adversities of this world. They seek earthly glory and fail to achieve it, and while they try to navigate the high seas in pursuit of important affairs, they are continually driven back by contrary currents towards the shores of humiliation. Seeing themselves thwarted in all their desires, then they remember all they owe to their Maker: very much ashamed, they return to him whom, in the blindness of their vanity, they had once abandoned. We see also that some, who are anxious to attain the summit of temporal success, either fall victims to a long illness, or are afflicted with serious trials. Worn out by serious injuries, this world’s pain teaches them not to trust in its delights and, rebuking themselves for their former yearnings, they turn their heart to the Lord. God, indeed, has said of them through his prophet: “I will hedge up thy way with thorns and I will stop it up with a wall: and she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers and shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them and shall not find. And she shall say: I will go and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then, than now”.⁸ The husband of every faithful soul is God, because it is united with him by faith. But the soul “shall follow after her lovers” when it professes its belief in God, yet, by its deeds, prostrates itself before unclean spirits, seeking this world’s glory: when it enjoys carnal pleasures and feeds on voluptuous delights. But God often takes pity on such a soul, and mingles bitterness with its satisfactions. So, it is said: “I will hedge up thy way with thorns”. Our way is hedged with thorns when we feel the painful pricking of sadness in that very thing we wickedly desired. “And I will stop it up with a wall: and she shall not find her paths”. Our ways are blocked when serious difficulties oppose our earthly ambitions; we cannot find our paths because we are prevented from attaining our evil desires. “And she shall follow after her lovers and shall not overtake them”, as the soul cannot reach those unclean spirits to which, in order to achieve her ends, she subjected herself. However, the usefulness and the spiritual advantage which result from this adversity are seen when the passage continues: “And she shall say: I will go and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then, than now”. When she finds her way hedged in with thorns, when she fails to find her lovers, then she returns to the love of her first husband: as often, when we cannot obtain what we desire, when we are exhausted by the impossibility of realising our earthly wishes, we turn our mind to God. What displeased us formerly, now gives us pleasure; suddenly he, whose precepts were so bitter to us once, becomes sweet to contemplate; and the soul, which had tried to be an adulteress but had failed because of external obstacles, determines to be faithful. Can we not say, then, that those who, wounded by this world’s afflictions, return to the love of God and renounce their vices, are compelled, so to speak, to enter?

Truly terrible is the condemnation uttered by our Lord against those who were called and would not come. Listen to it attentively, brethren and masters: brethren those who are sinners, and masters those who are just. Try to listen carefully so that, by feeling more fear here, you may feel less at the judgment. He says: “I say unto you that none of those men that were invited shall taste of my supper”. See how he invites through himself, through his angels, through the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles and the pastors of the church, and he invites also through us. He invites sometimes through miracles, again through punishments; sometimes through worldly prosperity and again through adversities. If anyone despises this summons, if anyone excuses himself when he is invited, he may not be allowed to enter when he knocks. Hear what Wisdom says through Solomon: “Then shall they call upon me, and I will not hear: they shall rise in the morning and shall not find me”.⁹ This is why the foolish virgins, coming late, cry out and say: “Lord, Lord, open to us”. But the answer given to those who wish to enter is: “Amen, I say to you, I know you not”.¹⁰ With this terrible sentence before our eyes, must we not abandon all the things of this world, make little of its worries and aspire to heaven only? But this is a privilege which is granted only to few.

I desire, but I do not dare, to advise you to leave all earthly goods. But, if you cannot abandon everything, at least possess what you have in such a way that you are free of it: so that your temporal wealth is possessed, and does not possess you. Preserve your mastery over it, rather than allow your heart to be swayed and dominated by things of lesser value than itself. Let these earthly things be of use to us, while our desires speed towards what is eternal. The former are of value while we are on our way, but we desire the latter at our journey’s end. So we should regard with detachment, as it were with indifference, all that happens in this world. The eyes of the soul must look straight ahead, fixed upon the end of our journey. Our vices, once uprooted, must find soil no longer, either in our actions or in our hearts. Neither the pleasures of the flesh, nor curiosity, nor the heat of ambition must ever be allowed to impede our entry to that supper of the Lord. We must treat with a holy indifference, even our good actions here, so that those earthly things which please the body can in no way harm the soul. I do not dare to tell you to leave all you possess; but if you really are desirous of doing so, you can leave it at the same time as you retain it: that is, if you so administer your temporal riches that your soul is wholly bent on those which last for ever.

So the apostle Paul tells us: “The time is short. It remaineth that they also who have wives be as if they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as if they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as if they used it not. For the fashion of this world passeth away”.¹¹ He has a wife as if he had none who can pay the marriage debt in such fashion as to preserve himself from bondage to this world’s pleasure. Elsewhere the same illustrious teacher tells us: “He that is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world; how he may please his wife”.¹² It is evident that the man, who seeks to please his wife in a way which does not displease his Maker, has indeed a wife, but is as if he had none. He weeps, but as if he did not weep, who is afflicted by temporal loss, but whose soul finds consolation in the thought of eternal gain. That man rejoices, but as if he did not, who so enjoys earthly benefits as never to forget the eternal torments, always moderating the exaltation of his spirits with a salutary fear. He buys as if he did not possess, who provides himself with all outward necessaries, but does not forget that soon he must leave them behind him. He uses this world as if he had no use for it, who provides himself with what is necessary to live, but nevertheless does not allow those things to conquer his heart; so that what is of service to him externally does not deflect the course of his soul which aspires to higher things. Those who act in this way do not possess things merely to satisfy their desires, but rather to put them to use; they use whatever they need, but they have no sinful avarice. And even through those very possessions, they are rewarded, for they take greater pleasure in works of mercy than in their store of wealth.

Lest this seem difficult to some of you, I am going to tell you an incident which concerns a certain person known to many of you. I have the witness of trustworthy inhabitants of the city of Civitavechia that this really happened, about three years ago. About this time Count Theophanius lived there: a man devoted to deeds of kindness, and hospitable above measure. Busied with the affairs of his estates, he dealt with temporal and mundane matters: it became known after his death that this was more from a sense of duty than from preference. When he was dying, a dreadful storm made it clear that it would be impossible to carry him to the sepulchre. His wife, in tears, complained: “What shall I do? How can I bring you to burial, when this tempest prevents me from crossing the threshold?” Theophanius replied: “Do not weep, woman, for as soon as I am dead, the tempest will be stilled”. As soon as he had said this he died, and at the same moment there was a lull in the storm. His hands and feet were swollen and ulcerated by gout, and were issuing pus. But, when they uncovered the body to wash it, as is the custom, his hands and feet were seen to be as clean as if they had never known a trace of any wound. Four days after burial, his wife thought it better to change the marble slab which had been placed over the tomb. When it was removed, such a fragrance came from his body as if, from that putrefying flesh, there issued heavenly perfumes instead of worms. I have told you this, so that you may see from such a recent example that there are people in secular and worldly dress, who have not a worldly mind. Those who find that necessity obliges them to remain in the world, so that they cannot leave it altogether, should so esteem those worldly matters as not to subject their minds to them. Meditate on this, and since you cannot abandon them, fulfil your exterior obligations as best you can, while inwardly you hasten towards that which lasts for ever. Nothing should delay this desire of your soul: let no delight of this world enmesh you. If you love good, love what is better, that is, what is of heaven. If you fear evil, reflect upon everlasting evils, so that, looking at what is most to be loved and what is most to be feared, we may not be attached to things present. In order to do this, we have the mediator between God and men, through whom we shall obtain all things if we burn with ardent love for him who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Ghost, God for ever and ever. Amen.

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