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Exhortation to Martyrdom

Origen, tr. O’Meara, 1954

3. Part 3: Admonition to Persevere

Bearing Witness to God

As to how the measure of bearing witness is filled up, or is not filled up but falls short, the following reflections may show. If during all the time of trial and test we give no place to the devil¹ in our hearts, when he would defile us with evil thoughts of denial, as indecision or some inducement draws us away from martyrdom and perfection; if in addition we do not defile ourselves with any word that is incompatible with bearing witness; if we endure all the taunts of our adversaries, their insults, mockery, obloquy, and their pretended pity when they treat us as fools and madmen and say that we are mere dupes; and if besides we do not permit ourselves to be seduced either by love for our children or their mother or any one of those regarded as dearest to us in life, nor to be lured away to their possession and this kind of life; but if turning from all of these we give ourselves entirely to God and to life with Him and near Him with a view to sharing union with His Only-Begotten Son and those who have a share in Him:² then we can say that we have filled up the measure of bearing witness. But if we are wanting in as little as one of these points, we have not filled up, but rather defiled, the measure of bearing witness, and have mixed with it some foreign element; and we shall therefore be in need of the same as they who have built on a foundation of wood or hay or stubble.³

The Following of Christ

This we must know also that we have received the so-called covenants from God in virtue of agreements we made when we accepted the Christian way of life. Amongst these agreements which we made with God was the observance of the entire pattern of living set out in the Gospel, which says: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For he that will save his life shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake shall save it. And often we have been filled with enthusiasm when we heard these words: For what doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels: and then will He render to every man according to his works.⁴

But not only Matthew, whose words we have quoted, but also Luke and Mark tell us that we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. Listen, for example, to what Luke says: And He said to all: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake shall save it. For what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and lose himself and cast away himself?⁵ And Mark: And calling the multitude together with His disciples, He said to them: If any man will follow me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life for the sake of the gospel shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?⁶

It is a long time, then, since we contracted the obligation to deny ourselves and say, I live, now not I;⁷ and now let it appear whether we have taken up our cross and follow Jesus,—which is the case if Christ liveth in us.⁸ If we wish to save our soul so as to receive it back better than a soul, let us lose it in martyrdom. For if we lose it for Christ’s sake, laying it before Him in dying for Him, we shall achieve for it its true salvation. If we do the opposite, we shall be told that it profits nothing to gain the whole material universe at the price of our own destruction or loss. Once a man has lost his soul or forfeited it, even if he gain the whole world, he cannot give that world in exchange for his soul that is lost. For that soul, created to the image of God,⁹ is more precious than all material things. One alone can redeem our soul if it is lost—He who purchased us with His precious blood.¹⁰

Isaias has some profound words on this when he says: I have given Egypt for thy ransom and Ethiopia and Syene for thee. Since then thou becamest precious in my eyes.¹¹ If you are eager to study in Christ the exact meaning of this and the other texts; if, in wishing to pass beyond that knowledge which we have through a glass and in a dark manner, you hasten after Him who summons you—you will understand all as never before, face to face,¹² as being friends of the heavenly Father and Teacher. For His friends see things as they are, and not in a dark manner or through mere book knowledge of words and expressions, symbols and types. They discover the nature of intelligibles and the beauty of truth.

If you believe that Paul was caught up to the third heaven and that he was caught up into paradise and heard secret words which it is not granted to man to utter,¹³ you must logically conclude that you yourselves will as a matter of course know secrets both more and greater than the ineffable words then revealed to Paul. For he descended from the third heaven, when he had heard them; but you, having heard them, will not descend. You will have taken up your cross and followed Jesus¹⁴ in whom we have a great high priest that hath passed into the heavens.¹⁵

If you remain united with His followers, you, too, will pass into the heavens, passing beyond not only the earth and its mysteries but the heavens and all that concerns them. For in God as in a treasury are stored up wonders much greater than those mentioned, which cannot be grasped by a nature joined to a body until it has put off all that is of the body. I am convinced that God keeps stored in reserve in Himself far sublimer things than those that have been seen by sun, moon, and the chorus of stars and even the holy angels whom God has made spirits and burning fire.¹⁶ He will reveal these wonders when every creature . . . shall be delivered from the servitude of the Enemy into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.¹⁷

The Martyr’s Reward

And to these sublime things some outstanding martyr in the future, one of those who have a greater zeal for learning in Christ than many other martyrs, will ascend more quickly. You can see for yourself, my pious friend Ambrose, in contemplating closely a text in the Gospels, that probably no one of those who ever lived, or, at any rate, only a very few will receive that certain special and greater fulness of beatitude. You, too, will be of this number if you come through the combat without faltering. The text is as follows: Peter once said to the Saviour: Behold, we have left all things and have followed Thee: what therefore shall we have? And Jesus said to them (clearly, to the apostles): Amen, I say to you that you, who have followed me, in the regeneration when God shall sit on the seat of His majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath left . . . brethren or sisters or parents or children or lands or houses for my name’s sake, shall receive many times more and shall possess life everlasting.¹⁸ In view of these words I myself would like to possess all the earthly goods that you possess or even more, and be a martyr to God in Christ so as to receive many times more, or, as Mark says,¹⁹ a hundredfold more, which indeed is much more than the little—even if it were multiplied by a hundred—that we shall give up if we are called to martyrdom.

For this reward I would, if I were a martyr, wish to leave behind children and lands and houses that I might, in the presence of God the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named,²⁰ be called father of many more and more holy children, or, to be precise, of a hundred times more children. If they are fathers of whom it was said to Abraham: And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, living to a ripe old age,²¹ perhaps one might say (I do not know if it be true): Perhaps these fathers are such in having once upon a time borne witness and left their children behind them. In exchange for these, they have become fathers of the fathers of the patriarch Abraham and other patriarchs. For it is obvious that martyrs who leave their children behind them and bear witness, become fathers, not of children, but of fathers.

Someone, zealous, as it were, for the better gifts²² and considering fortunate the rich martyrs and the martyrs who are fathers and are rich in that they beget a hundred times more children and receive a hundred times more lands and houses, may not be able to understand how it can be fair that these should possess in the spiritual world much greater riches than martyrs who were poor in the goods of this life. We should answer him that as they who have endured tortures and pain gave more illustrious evidence of virtue in martyrdom than those who have not endured such trials, so they that have cut and torn not only the bonds of love for life and body, but also these other great worldly bonds, have shown a great love for God and have truly taken up the word of God that is living and effectual and more piercing than any two-edged sword.²³ Having cut so great bonds, they have made for themselves wings like those of an eagle, and can fly up to the house of him who is their Lord.²⁴ Just as they who have not gone through the trial of tortures and pain give pride of place to those who have proved their constancy on the rack, through diverse tortures and fire, so we too who are poor, even if we be martyrs, are urged by reason to yield first prize to you, if for the love of God in Christ²⁵ you trod underfoot reputation, deceitful and sought for by the masses, your great possessions, and the affection of a father for his children.

Here note also an illustration of the sublime character of Scripture in promising a return many times over or a hundredfold—of brothers and children and parents and lands and houses: but with these no mention is made of a wife. It is not said: “Every one that hath left brethren or sisters or parents or children or lands or houses or a wife for my name’s sake, shall receive them many times over.” For in the resurrection of the dead they shall neither marry nor be married, but shall be as the angels of God in heaven.²⁶

Our Promises to God

What Josue said to the people when he was settling them in the holy land could equally well be said to us now by Scripture: Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him with a perfect and most sincere heart.²⁷ And when they would seduce us to idolatry, it will tell us what to do, as follows: Put away the strange gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.²⁸

At the beginning when you were about to be instructed,²⁹ you might well have been told: But if it does not please you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you would serve, whether the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorrhites, in whose land you dwell.³⁰ And the instructor told you: But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, for He is holy.³¹ Now, however, it is out of place to speak to you in that way. For you have declared: God forbid we should leave the Lord and serve strange gods. The Lord our God is the God who brought us and our fathers out of Egypt and preserved us in all the way by which we journeyed.³² In the promises you once made concerning the worship of God, you gave this reply to those who instructed you: We too will serve the Lord, for He is our God.³³ If, then, the man who breaks his agreements with men receives no further credit and is denied security, what are we to say of those who by their denial break the promises they have made to God, and return to Satan whom they renounced at their baptism?³⁴ Of such an act we must say what Heli said to his sons: If a man sinning shall sin against another, men will intercede for him. But if a man shall sin against God, who shall intercede for him?³⁵

A Spectacle Before All

A great multitude is assembled to watch you when you combat and are called to martyrdom. It is as if we said that thousands upon thousands gather to watch a contest in which contestants of outstanding reputation are engaged. When you will be engaged in the conflict you can say with Paul: We are made a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men.³⁶ The whole world, therefore, all the angels on the right and on the left, all men, both those on the side of God³⁷ and the others—all will hear us fighting the fight for Christianity. Either the angels in heaven will rejoice over us, and the rivers shall clap their hands, the mountains shall rejoice together, and all the trees of the plain shall clap their branches³⁸—or—and God forbid that it should happen—the powers of the lower world will gloat over our crime and will be glad.

It will certainly not be out of place for us to see what according to the written word of Isaias will be said by the denizens of hell to them that are overcome and fall from a martyrdom rewarded with heaven. We shall then tremble even ⟨more⟩ at the impiousness of denial. What will be said to one who has denied his faith is, I think, something like this: Hell below was in an uproar to meet thee at thy coming. All the giants who rule the earth were stirred up for thee. They roused from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All shall answer and say to thee. . . .³⁹ And what will the powers that were overcome say to them that are overcome? They that are already taken by the devil to them that are taken in their denial? What indeed will they say? Thou also art taken as we are. Thou art become one of us.⁴⁰ And if a man who has a great and glorious hope in God, permits himself in God to be overcome by fear or sufferings with which he is threatened in court, he will hear this: Thy pride, thy great confidence, is brought down to hell. Under thee shall they strew corruption, and worms shall be thy covering.⁴¹ And if a man has shone in the churches, resplendent often as the morning star in the glory of his good works before men,⁴² and if afterwards, fighting the great fight, he has lost the crown of such high estate, he shall have to hear: How Lucifer has fallen from heaven, Lucifer who did rise in the morning! How he has been dashed to the earth!⁴³ And because through his denial he has become like the devil, this will also be said to him: Thou wilt be cast out in the mountains as a rotten carcass with many dead that have been pierced by the sword and that go down to hell. As a garment soaked with blood will be impure, so shalt thou be impure.⁴⁴ How could he be pure if he has sullied himself with bloody murder, the abominable crime of apostasy, and immersed himself in so great an evil?

Let us now show that we have heeded the words, He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.⁴⁵ Let us take care that we never show hesitation about denial or bearing witness, that the words of Elias may not be addressed to us: How long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord be God, follow Him.⁴⁶

It is probable that we shall be insulted by our neighbours, and certain people we associate with will turn up their noses and shake their heads at us as though we were mad.⁴⁷ When this happens, let us say to God: Thou hast made us a reproach to our neighbours, a scoff and derision to them that are around us. Thou hast made us a byword among the Gentiles, a shaking of the head among the people. All the day long my shame is before me, and the confusion of my face hath covered me, at the voice of him that reproacheth and detracteth me, at the face of the enemy and persecutor.⁴⁸ But in the face of all this befalling us there is also bliss in addressing to God the confident words of the Prophet: All these things have come upon us, yet we have not forgotten Thee, and we have not done wickedly in Thy covenant. And our heart hath not turned back.⁴⁹

Let us remember while we are in this life and reflecting on the ways that are not of this life, to say to God, Thou hast turned aside our footsteps from Thy way.⁵⁰ Now is the time to recall that this place of our humiliation is a place of affliction for the soul; and so we can pray, saying: Thou hast humbled us in the place of affliction, and the shadow of death hath covered us.⁵¹ And we shall take courage and say: If we have forgotten the name of our God, and if we have spread forth our hands to a strange god: shall not God search out these things?⁵²

Let us fight so as to bear our witness perfectly not only in public, but also in secret, so as to be able to declare with the Apostle: For our glory is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God . . . we have conversed in this world.⁵³ Let us add the words of the Prophet to those of the Apostle, He knoweth the secrets of our hearts⁵⁴—and especially is this true when we are driven to death, and say to God what martyrs alone say to Him: For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.⁵⁵ And if ever the wisdom of the flesh⁵⁶ should make us fear the judges that threaten us with death, then let us say to them these words from Proverbs: My son, honour the Lord and thou shalt be strong. Fear no man apart from Him.⁵⁷

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