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Homilies

St Photius the Great, tr. Mango, 1958

5. Good Friday

II

Of the Same Most-Blessed Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, The New Rome, Second Homily Delivered on Good Friday from the Ambo of St. Irene¹

After the perusal of the catechetical passages, to which you have listened attentively, showing the contrition of your souls, I too see myself prompted to address you at this moment. For, though you have often heard the former, and yet, once again now, you have assembled with willing intent to listen to the same things, and the fact that you have often heard them has not restrained your eagerness to listen; so also I do not think it fitting for me to keep silent, even if some who went before me possessed exceptional zeal in exhorting and teaching² the flock—nay, quite on the contrary, I shall look up to the choir of those blessed men as to an example, and raising myself to imitate them, to the extent of the rhetorical power that has been granted me, I shall perform my duty in exhorting you to what is needful, and inciting you to those deeds which are believed to keep our pact with God inviolate, which bring about victory over the Evil one, and yield the fruit of salvation in time of need. But it is necessary that you too should not confine what is said to the hearing only, but should also transmit it inward to your souls, so that by studying the things that are conducive to virtue, your improvement in good deeds should thereby progress. For in the study of virtue lies the root of good action; and the action, as it continues, is the more easily supported by habit and more readily attracts other such actions as help-mates, and becomes productive of the like when it is regulated by speech—since speech is wont, like a skilled husbandman, to sow and help increase the virtues in one and the same sacred plot of the soul, not letting them be torn apart from each other and scattered. In this wise must you be listeners of the words about to be delivered, so as to show yourselves the husbandmen of such deeds, and be seen as reapers of similar fruit. For he who, while admitting the exhortations into his ears, rejects them from his mind, and neither shows the benefit in his deeds, nor makes the fruit the evidence for his toils, is like unto them whose bodies are sore diseased, and who listen readily to the physician’s words and promises of health, but are yet unwilling to comply with them;³ for neither do the latter achieve health by merely hearing the words, nor do the former enjoy spiritual benefit, when the words of exhortation are not through their ears sown in their hearts, and do not produce an abundant crop of good works. But you who have come together with eager intent, try to comply with me yet more eagerly. Hearken to my call for your own salvation and for the benefit of your soul. For even if I live my own life in negligence, yet I make it my especial concern and prayer to see you conducting yourselves well, and worthily of your high calling,⁴ and I derive therefrom all manner of gladness and joy; for verily the good progress of the flock is the cause of much rejoicing to the shepherd, and the abundant produce of the land fills the husbandman’s soul with pleasure no less than it fills the threshing-floor with sheaves. So indeed it is with this great rational flock:⁵ the harvest of virtue and the rectitude of creed are enough to gladden and exalt the leader who has been appointed to tend it, even though in his own life he is not of equal virtue.⁶

Attend, therefore, brethren, and comprehend how paltry our life is, how quickly it withers, that it is compared to a shadow, and likened to dreams,⁷ and is found to be no more stable than any of those. For our life here passes by while it seems to be present, and once it has passed, does not return, but measured out and flowing away with the current of time, it combines the stationary with the passing, existence with non-existence, corruption with generation. Let us consider who we are, and no matter how long we may live here, whither we shall go hereafter, and how, unavoidably, we shall pay the penalties for our deeds in this life, and let us not attach ourselves to this present life only, but let us also be mindful of the life to come. For, “remember thy end,” saith the prophet, “and thou wilt never sin.”⁸ Let us consider the time of death, that ultimate hour, when many of our relatives and friends stand by weeping, yet unable to shed us a single drop of benefit, or to provide the hope of any assistance, and while they lament for us compassionately, they do not diminish the pains that grip us. They wail in sympathy, but do not soothe the turmoil in our soul, nor do they lighten the upheaval and that trial which is not to be assuaged—nay, they rather increase with their tears and lamentations the awaited terrors, they frighten us all the more, they disturb and confuse us. For the wailing of friends over friends both confirms the expectation of evils, and presents them as inescapable and inexorable. Who would be able to describe the distress and conflict of the soul at that moment? How could words without tears represent the suffering? For a man is lying gasping miserably, all dripping with abundant cold sweat, seeing that his natural warmth is disappearing and the controlling force is no longer able to retain the nourishing, as it were, and sustaining moisture (for the rational soul which holds together and rules the body is being, so to speak, drawn away from the body and being snatched up for that unavoidable migration), that moisture by means of which the natural heat, channelled throughout the body, achieved the compactness of the flesh, and warmed it all round.⁹ Now the earth begins to sink down to the earth, and hastens to shed at once the soldering-together, as it were, and coalescing of the bodily structure. There may be seen a spectacle filled with much distress and sadness. The reclining man breathes faintly, looks pitiably, sighs painfully, moves a tongue that is silent or, even if whispering, is nevertheless imperceptible; his hearing is useless, his hands paralysed. His friends cry out, they bring round his children, or set his wife before him, or else they call by name the dearest of his acquaintances, pressing him to speak to them a little or to gaze at them. However, he does not respond, being either unable or unwilling, but from time to time he lets forth a deep sigh, at another time he looks up, but with a troubled and mournful gaze, or else he remains completely motionless when spoken to. For he has those within him who are on other business and demanding other accounts, and effecting the separation of the soul from the body, severing their junction with death as with a sword.

It is fitting, beloved ones, that we should consider ourselves in that condition of life, and to see in the deaths of our neighbours our own death as in a mirror, and to use the demise of others for our own correction. Nor let us await others to be corrected at the sight of us, but let us correct ourselves by what we have seen and shared in suffering, and let us study death before death,¹⁰ so that we may live after death, having slept, according to the Psalmist, a sleep “precious in the sight of the Lord.”¹¹ As long as the market is open, let us contend zealously, that we may be provided with supplies for the voyage. The journey is at our doorstep, and the time of the end is nigh, and great¹² is the need of supplies, and the transaction whereby they can be acquired is not difficult: it does not require great toils, nor a long journey abroad, with robbers lying in ambush or obstructed by bitter cold or the unbearable scorch of the sun beating down on the head; nor is it necessary to sail across a vast expanse of sea, made difficult¹³ by a multitude of drownings, shipwrecks and pirates, and apt to beget much hesitation. And yet to the traders of this life, these dangers, standing before their very eyes, do not restrain the eagerness of their will or bate their readiness, but the hopes of expected gain in the future prompt them to disdain the obvious dangers at hand. For us, however, who wish to take up spiritual trading, there is none of those obstacles, there is nothing to make us afraid, nothing adverse. The profits of the transaction are with us: we possess the fountain of tears, that most excellent and most beneficial thing, which drips down the cheeks yet washes splendidly the soul, which wells out of the eyes yet drowns the Pharaoh, our foe; which flows out of our eyelids and runs on to heaven, and waters Paradise to bear fruit for us. The face is refreshed thereby even as the soul is sprinkled with hyssop and made whiter than snow,¹⁴ and is presented to Christ, an acceptable offering. Thus we are easily able to purchase through it benefits of all kinds. The knowledge of sin¹⁵ and contrition of the heart gush with this gift; for, penetrating into the soul, they somehow hew away those thoughts which result in a hardening, they open up the veins of moisture in it, and pour forth their stream, and make it the source of many graces. It is not gathered from elsewhere, but is begotten within ourselves, being the currency of the soul-benefiting trade, and serving as a purgative for sins and passions that are hard to cleanse. It washes off thoughts of fornication, it blots out the stains of perjury and abnegation of God, and blunts the stings of death.¹⁶ Let Hezekiah be to thee the witness of our argument,¹⁷ and the harlot, and Peter, the first of the disciples and the keybearer of heaven, after his tears. If thou wilt, it breaks away Lazarus on the fourth day from the deepest hollows of Hades, where corpses dwell, and undoes¹⁸ the loosening of his limbs, and tightens up his joints, and places him with the living, and constitutes the prelude to the wondrous miracle; for Mary and Martha wept at the feet of Jesus,¹⁹ and He took pity of them, and wept with them, and the dead man rose up and stepped over to life, and became known as the never-silent herald of the common resurrection. Seest thou the usefulness of tears? Seest thou their strength? Seest thou their benefit? Let us weep here, that we may be comforted from above; since “blessed,” it says, “are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”²⁰ Let us weep from the depth of our soul, that we may wipe away the filth in it, that we may wash off the mire of the passions, that we may blot out the stains, and raise up Lazarus, made dead by our sins. Let us call in the truly faithful and genuine sisters of the deceased, I mean recognition of transgressions and confession. For, “be not ashamed to confess thy sins;”²¹ and “when thou shalt turn and sigh,” Scripture assures thee, “then thou shalt be saved.”²² And again it cries out through the same prophet, “I am the Lord of all, that blots out thy sins; but do thou remember and do thou first confess thy transgressions, that thou mayest be justified.”²³ Such is the power of the outspokenness of confession and conversion for salvation! Wherefore let us invite these sisters to shed tears at the feet of Jesus. He is present even now, He that is close to all that call upon Him in truth, and hearkens to their voice, and suffers with the mourners, and offers them compassion, and stands by the grave, and endures the stench, and speaks to the dead one, and raises up our corpse. While yet that corpse has been but four days dead, let us weep and implore, lest he be further dissolved, and the bones of reason be scattered along the Hades of despair, and the firmness, as it were, and steadfastness towards piety be dispersed, and he melt away completely from the hope and desire of the future, and his source of tears be dried up, and he be deprived²⁴ of repentance, and be dragged down to the abyss of utter ruin. Let us weep in time, that we may not mourn endlessly. Let us weep for our sins, that we may not lament without avail at our punishments, that we may not wail forever, condemned to the gnashing of teeth,²⁵ to worms and fire²⁶ and darkness.

Great is the remedy of tears. It has been given the power²⁷ to heal putrefaction of long standing; it tends the grave wounds of fornication, and removing²⁸ the resultant stench from our soul, suffuses it with a sweet fragrance, and blotting out the stains and scars wherewith it is bespattered, all but smoothes it out. If mercy be also added to it, the effect becomes keener, it serves as the remedy against diseases of all kind, it is seen to be a purge from every defilement. Nay, what do I say? It extinguishes the unquenchable fire²⁹ of that terrifying and awful hell, and wins the dew of paradise; since “blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy,”³⁰ and “the merciful shall be treated mercifully,” and, as holy Scripture attests, “mercy glorieth against judgment,”³¹ and the throngs of the faithful embrace mercy without hesitation and are sustained thereby. Pity thy fellow-slave, that thou mayest make the common Lord indebted to thee. For it is He that says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”³² Do not pass the poor by, and let not his tattered rags incite thee to contempt, but let them rather move thee to pity thy fellow-creature. For he is also a man, a creature of God, clothed in flesh like thyself, and perchance in his spiritual virtue mirroring the common Creator more than thou dost. Nature has not made him indigent in this way, but it is the tyranny of his neighbours that has reduced either him or his parents to indigence, while our lack of pity and compassion has maintained or even aggravated his poverty. Give thanks that thou hast not been caught thyself by the same ills they suffer by making the unfortunate share in thy ease,³³ for the greatest thanks to God is compassion towards our fellow-slaves. Acquire for thyself a sure prosperity by removing the misfortune of the poor. Preserve thy good condition by visiting the sick. If thou art ill, regain thy health by alleviating in those who are ailing the hardship caused by indigence. If thou seest one whose body is withered, bruised, wounded and cast down on the ground (Oh, for our pitilessness!) do not turn away, but pay heed to it, safeguarding thyself against the uncertainty of misfortune. Tend the sick, so that thou too mayest not need the like charity in diseases like theirs. It is a great boon for thee not to need it; but thy guilt is equally great if thou dost not help those who do. For the measure of thy joy at having overcome thine own troubles will be the same as of thy guilt, if thou refusest aid to those whom thou seest in distress. Take pity on the poor, and push him not aside when he begs, nor make him through the pitilessness of thy manner into a Lazarus down here, that he may not show thee from over there to be the rich man. Consider the rich man’s unquenchable fire,³⁴ and extinguish in thyself the flame of avarice; withdraw not thy hand from the poor, that thou mayest not be refused when begging for the finger that refreshes. Have the poor man share thy goods, that thou mayest not hear, “Thou receivedst thy good things in thy lifetime.”³⁵ Take pity on human nature, beware of the judgment, look to the recompense,³⁶ reverence the adoption.³⁷ Give little things here, that thou mayest receive great things over there. Shed here drops of sympathy, that thou mayest draw for thyself streams of mercy. Do not hold human nature cheap, that thou mayest escape condemnation; propitiate the Judge, that thou mayest receive the recompense, or even be deemed worthy of the adoption. What is more valuable or more painless than this transaction? And what is more wretched than to disregard these things? If therefore thy hand is prosperous, give money to him that begs. If, however, thou hast kept thyself in a middling estate, and entrenched thyself in self-sufficiency in such wise that nothing superfluous or unnecessary is stored away in thy chests, then wherefrom thou farest daintily give also food to the poor, or rather, wherefrom thou nourishest thyself nourish also the poor. Cast a garment about him that shivers; receive the roofless in thy house; show thyself hospitable to strangers, remembering Abraham’s hospitality,³⁸ while entertaining and cherishing the hope of the blessing that was repaid to him by God. But if even these things thou lackest, then give a cup of cold water.³⁹ Christ receives that from thee no less than the luxurious gifts of the rich; for He accepts the willingness, weighing not the bulk of the gift, but the manner of the intention. Thus far does He extend the bounds of charity! Or rather, He does not stop them even here. But if thou lackest even these things, and whereas thy inclination moves thee to compassion, indigence keeps thy willingness in check, then go to the sick, visit the prisoner, sympathise heartily with thy fellow-sufferer, sigh from thy very soul at the misfortune that has befallen him, shed a tear to refresh the victim: for a neighbour’s sincere sympathy is a great consolation for the sufferer. If thou too hast at one time been overtaken by the same ills, then lighten his misfortune by thy personal story; for even the mere conversation of those who have suffered the same is found to be comforting to those in distress. God does not turn away from any of these things: He accepts everything, everything He repays with mercy, on everything He pours compassion, by every means He calls us together to the kingdom of heaven. Seest thou how the Lord of all has set this common gift before everyone, rich, middling, poor, indigent? How He has not forbidden anyone to draw from the springs of pity? But just as He has afforded the light of the sun and the splendour of the moon equally to all, and has compounded the temperance of the air for everyone to breathe alike, and has wisely devised the orderly succession of the seasons, and poured out the timely showers of fructifying rain, making the enjoyment thereof common, so also He has spread out evenly the boon of charity and mercy to all men, thereby both granting a useful wealth to the rich, and affording poverty to the poor not as an obstacle, but indeed as a helper to salvation.

What then? If the poor to the best of their strength have drawn and stored away the oil beforehand, while those who rely on wealth and are cramped by its bulk do not purchase any oil, except what is sufficient for their wounds, is there any license to answer⁴⁰ left to them, or rather, will not the gates of paradise be rightly shut in their face? Yet for the poor and indigent the very rejection by the rich is sufficient to draw upon them mercy from above; for just as the hardness of heart of the prosperous and their indifference towards their fellow-slaves shuts to them⁴¹ the gates of the Lord’s compassion, so unmercifulness and disregard of the unfortunate opens to the latter some access to divine acceptance. Let us not therefore open wide the heavenly gates for others and close them for ourselves, nor let us feast others splendidly on our own inconsolable misfortunes and gladden them with our mourning. For those who have not pitied their distraught⁴² and needy fellow-men, but showed themselves unfeeling towards them, make the Lord’s compassion gush more abundantly for the latter, while diverting it from themselves. Nor let us imitate the foolish virgins, but let us emulate the wise ones. For they were truly foolish who, having quenched the hot coals of the passions and kindled the flame of virginity—a big task requiring great intentness—did not take along the oil, a thing so easy to accomplish, and so simple to procure. Let us not liken ourselves to the senseless virgins, lest, by making the hour of the Kingdom an hour of trafficking, we be sent away from the bridal chamber, lest we hear, “I know you not.”⁴³ For if we feed not the poor, nor admit the homeless under our roof, if we do not clothe the shivering, nor receive the stranger in our house, if we do not give even some cold water⁴⁴ for the thirsty to drink, if we do not visit the sick or the prisoner, nor join in sympathy for their sufferings, then the Judge shall come upon the throne of glory,⁴⁵ and He shall speak (but may none of us, O Lord, hear that distressing and harsh voice!) saying, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.”⁴⁶ Let us not place ourselves in this miserable condition, beloved ones, so as not to be submitted to such terrible threats. For even if we answer saying (Oh, Oh, with how many tears and sighs!), “Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?”, then shall He answer them (but not us, O Lord, not us!), “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”⁴⁷

Hearest thou, O man, that terrible and inexorable threat, and dost thou not yet aid those that beg? Thou lendest to Christ by making them a loan—and dost thou not do this with great eager-ness? Thou seest unmercifulness to be the fuel of the curse, of darkness and of perpetual punishment, and mercy, on the other hand, to be the price for the kingdom of heaven—and dost thou disregard the latter, while turning to the former? Do this not if thou believest me, or rather if thou obeyest the commands and injunctions of God our Saviour; for He saith, “The King shall say unto them on the right, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”⁴⁸ Seest thou His kindness? Seest thou His mercy? How He takes upon Himself the plight of the poor? How He transfers the charity unto Himself? How so? That He may alleviate their great shame and distress, and render thee more willing to do them good, and offer thee manifold and more abundant recompense for having done a service not only to a fellow-slave,⁴⁹ but through him, to the common Lord also. Seest thou His condescension? Seest thou the Lord’s compassion? He is not ashamed to assume the rank and name of thy fellow-slaves and brethren, that He may prove thee to be a companion of the angels. He is not ashamed to acknowledge thee His nourisher and provider, He that fills every living thing with pleasure,⁵⁰ that He may make thee a citizen of paradise. “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat,”⁵¹ and “inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me,”⁵² He cries out expressly. “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.”⁵³ Hearest thou His call? Rise up, prepare thyself, and “do not postpone from day to day,” as Scripture counsels thee, “for the Lord’s wrath shall come suddenly, and thou shalt be destroyed in a time of vengeance.”⁵⁴

Wherefore, let us make haste, brethren; let us prepare ourselves. Let us call together the poor, and buy the oil from them, that we may keep our lamps unextinguished, and hearken to that blessed voice, and be deemed worthy of the blessing. Do good to the poor, even if it is not for the inborn compassion due to thy fellow-creature, but that thou mayest receive the recompense, or if not for that, then, that thou mayest escape hell and be delivered from that fire. What is more profitable or easier than to pity the poor man, and through him make Christ thy debtor? What is more blessed than to take him as thy table-companion, and to dine with Christ, and be judged worthy of the bridal chamber? Who is this senseless and wretched man,⁵⁵ that when he is so easily and readily thought fit for such company at table, and is shown to share in the endless glory and salvation, yet passes these things by, swept away by the tide of pitilessness, and is borne down into the snare of hell,⁵⁶ as the saying goes? Is he not wretched who does not understand that all ephemeral things must be dismissed on account of the lasting⁵⁷ happiness hereafter, lest he be driven away ignominiously from the portion of the saved?⁵⁸ When, moreover, the ephemeral things required of us are so small—food and drink, a garment, a roof, a movement of the limbs, sharing pain with sufferers, that we may receive in return the kingdom of heaven, yet we do not choose so—does this leave room for greater folly or wretchedness? Do we not rather vote for our own condemnation, and bring into court⁵⁹ a deed that renders ourselves undeserving of all sympathy?

Why hoardest thou thy wealth, O man, and buriest it in the ground,⁶⁰ and liest awake with cares, and administerest what is not thine, and whereof thy will is not master, picturing in thy imagination the enlargement of houses, the multiplication of money, advancement in dignity, and submitting thyself to a twofold evil, on the one hand, being oppressed and torn asunder by everyday cares, and awaiting, on the other, the condemnation of the judgment to come for thy acquisitiveness and vain fancies, and being worn and wasted away by that thought? Why clingest thou to the earth and what flows into the earth, fixing thy heart, as the Lord’s saying goes, where thy treasure lies buried?⁶¹ Why dost thou store away for thyself the purchase price of hell, and kindlest all the more that fire which is fanned by a pitiless mind, is fed and increased for thy⁶² destruction by thy merciless way? Why, when others are wasted away by hunger, dost thou live luxuriously, and hamperest nature, and crampest thy stomach, and fattenest thy flesh, and thickenest thy body, to be, alas,⁶³ shortly laid out for worms to devour, and to be ground into dust? Why raisest thou thy eyebrows, and puffest up thy cheeks, and lookest lordly, forgetting or disregarding that “dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return,”⁶⁴ and that “man is like to vanity: his days pass as a shadow.”⁶⁵ Why disregardest thou the hungry, and abominatest the poor—because thou livest more daintily than they, or rather, because thou hast wasted their necessary food on thy dissolute wantonness, and deprived them of drink by intoxicating thyself to excess, or because thou hast made the misfortunes of others thy own pleasures? Do these things make thee disdain thy neighbour? Do these move thee to be arrogant to thy fellow-men? Do these, contrary to all reason, incite thee to overbearing and contempt for moderation? Dost thou swagger arrogantly on account of those very things over which thou oughtst to groan, to look downcast, to lament and to repent, and dost thou puff out thy inflated vainglory, even perchance in the face of a famished man, when it is considered even by the most boastful that seeking to lord it over such a one is a degradation of their dignity?

Knowest thou not that the books contain the records of all these things?⁶⁶ Dost thou not know that thou hast angels closely observing and writing down thy actions? Do ye not know that we have abjured in their presence the acts of the Evil one, and have parted with him, but have made a covenant with God to live according to His commandments? How then dost thou set the covenant at nought, but what thou hast spat upon thou shrinkest not from doing again? How dost thou shun the merciful Lord, and take refuge with the tyrant? The latter, if he takes thee under his sway, will give thee darkness, worms and gnashing of teeth, and he is pleased thereat, that he may not be alone in suffering hell. While the King of glory and Guardian of the universe apportions thee paradise, and grants thee most splendid light, and enrols thee in the choir of the angels. Dost thou, however, disdain these, yet pressest on readily to those? Dost thou neglect the latter and desire the former? Dost thou not even move a limb for those things which are rich in reward for thee, but contract for and wretchedly pursue those which are followed by hell and condemnation? Seest thou into what evils we are tossed, and what things we exchange for what? Not gold for brass, as the Homeric students would say,⁶⁷ but the incorruptible we let go for the corruptible, and the eternal for the perishable. Yea indeed, we abandon for the painful pleasures and foul passions things that are truly fair, good and blessed, when we take no thought of the beggars, nor care for the poor, nor succour the indigent; if we do not support the weak,⁶⁸ or are arrogant to our fellow-slaves, if we glut ourselves beyond need, but do not bend down to those who ask for food.

Let us look at the table of agreements which has been read out to us, and each man setting up his own conscience as his judge and examiner, let us consider which of our pledges we have kept, and which we have neglected. And those we have kept—if, in fact, we have kept any—let us multiply, while those we have betrayed let us retrieve. Nor let us be proud in case we have done well in anything, but let us be ashamed of our errors, and let us hasten to fulfil what we have left out. Nay, a righteous deed is not an acquittal for our sins, but our righteous deed itself is spoilt by our sins, or rather, we are condemned by our righteous deeds for our sins. For the observance of like commandments renders the transgression of the rest voluntary and inexcusable. Thus, if even he who does not pay back his debt with interest⁶⁹ is not guiltless, then surely he who has not even restored the principal in full must be guilty: for if he who failed to multiply the talent⁷⁰ is to be judged, how shall he who did not even make good the debt escape condemnation? And if he who prays and gives thanks that he has not done anything of what the many do is guilty of boastfulness⁷¹, then he who takes pride in things he ought to be ashamed of, is he not worthy of the worst punishment? Nay, if he who has no wedding garment is cast out of the bridal chamber,⁷² is he not banished whose very soul and body are full of stains? Let us, therefore, seek diligently which of the agreements have been disregarded⁷³ by us and have escaped us, and let us readily take them upon ourselves. Let us not appear beliers of our profession, nor put it off from day to day,⁷⁴ for thou knowest not what the next day will bring forth. And it is said, “Watch, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come,”⁷⁵ and, “if the evil servant shall say in his breast, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”⁷⁶ Who fears not the threat? Who can resist the wrath? Who does not shudder at so great a punishment? Who does not tremble at the harshness of the cutting asunder? For that servant is severed asunder who does not watch, but treats his fellow-slaves offensively, and he is condemned with the hypocrites, and is given over to the gnashing of teeth and inconsolable weeping.

He then reaps such fruit from such seed, but what sayest thou? Do not even these things tear thee away from drunkenness and gluttony? Do not even these make thee sober and awake? Do not even these choke thy brother-hating, haughty thoughts, and guide thee on to fellow-love and equity? Thou seest thy like severed asunder, and dost thou not expect, while committing the same iniquities, to undergo the same condemnation, thou who art liable to pay even more? For thou, didst thou but wish it, hadst him as an incitement to correction and as a moderator of thy life, while he was tripped up before thy time, and without thy example in sight was induced to do deeds for which he was condemned to suffer what he was fit to suffer. There will not come another judge, but the same will judge thee who has already shown His judgment on him. He indicates the judgment beforehand, not that He may inflict it, but that He may deliver thee from it, if thou art but willing thyself; and He puts forth the threat not that He may plunge thee in despair, but that He may save thee through repentance. He makes Himself the implanter of the threat that thou mayest reap repentance, and He sows the condemnation so that with the fear of hell as with a scythe thou mayest cut away the very roots of hell, and harvest the crop of joy. If then He both shows and does everything⁷⁷ that He may save thee in divers ways, and yet thou art not converted by any of these⁷⁸—nay, even turnest up, as they say, every stone to appear neglectful of them all—thou severest thyself asunder, usherest in disaster, and renewest the pain of punishment.

Let us not too, therefore, beloved ones, cause a future so bitter and terrible to come upon us, nor let us make the time of reward⁷⁹ a time of condemnation, nor prepare the day of resurrection as a day of downfall. For God has appointed the day to come to be a day of resurrection and joy, not of sorrow and sentence.⁸⁰ Those, however, who prefer the transgression of the commandments to their observance, and whose love for God has been quenched by mutual hate, those have made for themselves the time of enjoyment into a time of torment, and find the resurrection not a resurrection but an ultimate fall. To such evils are submitted the disdainers of the Lord’s commands, and the furtherers of their own wishes, who have fallen into forgetfulness of good works, while keeping the memory of transgressions fresh through practice, whose manner and deeds we ought to avoid with every effort, and not to envy their conduct, even though the prosperity of life may smile at some of them. Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious of them that do iniquity: for they shall soon be withered like grass, and shall soon fall away as the green herbs.⁸¹ Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, for the same David, God’s ancestor, cries out, “I saw the ungodly highly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon. Yet I passed by, and lo! he was not: and I sought him, and his place was not found.”⁸²

Let us not, therefore, envy those men in anything. Let us rather avoid greed, through which injustice thrives and justice is banished, brotherly love is spat on and hatred of mankind is embraced. Let us avoid drunkenness and gluttony, which are the parents of fornication and wantonness: for excess of every kind is the cause of insolence, and outflow is the begotten child of plenitude, from which fornication and wantonness are hatched. Let us avoid strife, division, seditions, whereof plots are born and murders begotten; for from evil seed grow evil crops. Let us avoid foul speech, whereby those who are accustomed to it slip easily into the pit of evil deeds. For what one is not ashamed to say, one will not be ashamed to do either; and what one enjoys hearing one will be drawn into committing.⁸³ Let us abominate these things and spit upon them, but let us love the Lord’s commandments and adorn ourselves with them. Let us honour virginity, let us attain gentle-ness, let us preserve brotherly love, let us give lodging to hospitality, let us cling to fortitude, let us cleanse ourselves with prayers and repentance, let us welcome humbleness that we may draw nigh to Christ. For the Lord is near to them that are of a contrite heart, and He will save the lowly in spirit.⁸⁴ Let us embrace moderation; let us practise the judgment and distinction of the good from the bad. Let the soul be undaunted by the evils of life, especially if they are inflicted on us on account of Christ and His commandments, for we know that justice will follow, and it is thanks to them that we are easily carried up to heaven.

Let us consider in our mind, if nothing else, at least the mystery of this day: how the Lord and Creator of the universe, the unbounded and uncircumscribable, who holds the earth aloft by His word alone, and moves the sky with His nod, and grasps the world in His palm—let us consider how, having come forth for us,⁸⁵ incarnate from a virgin’s blood, He is hanging on the cross, and surrenders His hands to the nails, and His feet are transfixed, and His side is pierced, and He is spat on and smitten—He at whom the Cherubim tremble, and by whose providence the universe is governed. Why does He suffer these things? That He may pour forth salvation for thee, that He may deliver thee from the bondage of the devil,⁸⁶ that He may snatch thee away from the ancient domination. He, then, suffers these things that He may redeem us that have once been sold through sin, yet do we try by such foul and unseemly pleasures and negligence to sell ourselves back again? He is lashed that He may remove⁸⁷ from us the lashes of our sins, and do we submit to them⁸⁸ again as to good masters? He surrenders His body to death that He may vivify our soul, and do we, by goading our own body with unnatural deeds, allow it to wage war and breathe death against the soul? He is tasting death that He may give us immortality, and do we strive to strangle ourselves with the noose of our passions? The earth quakes, the sun is darkened, the veil of the temple is rent,⁸⁹ because they see the Lord crucified for us, and do we not even grieve for our sins? The elements are altered, and dost thou not change for the better even so, do not even these things call thee to repentance, do they not soften the hardness of thy soul?

Let us take thought of these matters, beloved ones, and taking thought, let us strive to show that the foregoing are not reproaches and accusations directed against us, but that they fulfil the function of exhortation and incitement to what even we cannot achieve without toil. For the judges of the games too, as they watch those that race eagerly for a prize, do indeed take pride in the contest, but do not tire of exhorting and urging on the contestants, until they have won their wreaths. You also I behold by the grace of Christ filled with contrition, gushing tears, and showing supplication on your faces. May I be assured that they remain with you! May I rejoice in your righteous deeds and take pride in your godly ways! Would that the expressions of compassion and contrition which I see now be confirmed in very deeds, and that your souls be kept in this condition and state, that I too through you and together with you may be made worthy of the heavenly kingdom⁹⁰ in Jesus Christ our Lord, by whose help emperors reign and tyrants rule the earth;⁹¹ let Him also, who has brought to light our Christ-loving and pious emperor to be provident for the Roman race, and anointed him with the imperial unction, adorn him all the more with virtues, and make him walk unswervingly and unhesitatingly in the way of truth, showing him invincible to all the enemies, merciful to subjects, and worthy of his empire, through the intercessions of our most-holy Lady, the Mother of God, and of all the saints who from the beginning of time have pleased God, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

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