Homilies on John, Homily 1

[1.] When spectators at the pagan games hear that a distinguished athlete who has won crowns has arrived from somewhere, they all run together to watch his wrestling and all his skill and strength. You can see the entire theater, with its many tens of thousands of people, straining the eyes of both their bodies and their minds so that nothing that happens escapes them. In the same way, if an excellent musician comes among them, these same people leave everything they were doing, often necessary and urgent business, climb the steps, and sit listening very carefully to the words and the accompaniment, judging how well the two agree. This is what most people do. Those skilled in rhetoric do exactly the same with the sophists. They too have their theaters and audiences, applause and noise, and the closest scrutiny of what is said. If people sit watching rhetoricians, musicians, and athletes, in one case looking on and in another both watching and listening with such close attention, how much enthusiasm and care should you reasonably show now? No musician or debater is coming forward to display his skill. A man is speaking from heaven, with a voice clearer than thunder. His sound has spread throughout the whole earth and taken possession of it and filled it, through the grace of God moving his tongue rather than through the loudness of his cry. What is wonderful is that this sound, great as it is, is neither harsh nor unpleasant. It is sweeter and more delightful than any musical harmony and has greater power to soothe. Beyond all this, it is supremely holy and awe-inspiring, filled with such great mysteries and bringing such great blessings that, if people received and kept them carefully and eagerly, they could no longer be mere human beings or remain on earth. They would rise above everything in this life, adapt themselves to the condition of angels, and live on earth as though it were heaven. [2.] The son of thunder, Christ’s beloved, the pillar of the Churches throughout the world, who holds the keys of heaven, who drank Christ’s cup and was baptized with His baptism, who rested against his Master’s chest with great confidence, now comes forward to us. He comes without an actor’s mask covering his head, since he has a different kind of words to speak, without climbing a platform or stamping his foot on the stage or dressing in gold clothing. Instead, he enters wearing a robe of unimaginable beauty. He will appear before us having “put on Christ” ( Rom. xiii. 14; Gal. iii. 27 ), with his beautiful “feet fitted with the readiness of the Gospel of peace” ( Eph. vi. 15 ). He wears a belt around his loins rather than his waist, woven and made from truth itself instead of scarlet leather coated with gold. He will appear before us without acting a part, since there is nothing counterfeit, fictional, or mythical about him. With his head uncovered, he proclaims the truth uncovered. He does not make his audience believe he is someone else through his movements, expression, or voice. He needs no musical instrument, harp, lyre, or anything similar, to deliver his message. He accomplishes everything with his tongue, speaking with a voice sweeter and more beneficial than any harpist or music. All heaven is his stage; the inhabited world is his theater. His audience is all the angels and all people who are already angels or want to become so. Only these can hear that harmony properly and express it in their actions. All the rest are like little children who hear but do not understand because they are preoccupied with sweets and childish toys. In the same way, these people devote themselves to pleasure and luxury, living only for wealth, power, and sensual pleasure. They do sometimes hear what is said, but their actions show nothing great or noble because they have fastened themselves permanently to the clay of brickmaking. The heavenly powers stand beside this Apostle, marveling at the beauty of his soul and understanding and at the flowering of the virtue through which he drew Christ Himself to him and received the grace of the Spirit. He has prepared his soul like a beautifully made, jeweled lyre with golden strings and offered it to the Spirit to express something great and sublime. [3.] Since the one playing this lyre is no longer the fisherman, Zebedee’s son, but the Holy Spirit, who knows “the deep things of God” ( 1 Cor. ii. 10 ), let us listen accordingly. He will say nothing to us on merely human authority. What he says will come from the depths of the Spirit, from those secrets that even the Angels did not know before they happened. They too have learned what we know through John’s voice, along with us and through us. Another Apostle has declared this: “So that the many-sided wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and powers through the Church.” ( Eph. iii. 10.) If principalities, powers, Cherubim, and Seraphim learned these things through the Church, they clearly listened to this teaching with the greatest attention. Even in this we have received great honor: the Angels learned previously unknown things along with us. For now, I am leaving aside the fact that they also learned through us. So let us remain very quiet and behave in an orderly way, today, on the days when we listen, and throughout our lives, since it is good to hear Him at all times. We long to know what is happening in the palace: what the king has said or done, for example, and what plans he is discussing for his subjects, even though these matters usually have nothing to do with us. How much more should we want to hear what God has said, especially when it all concerns us! This man will tell us all of it accurately, because he is a friend of the King Himself. More than that, the King speaks within him, and from Him he hears everything that He hears from the Father. “I have called you friends,” He says, “because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from My Father.” ( John xv. 15.) [4.] If we saw someone from above suddenly lean down from the heights of heaven and promise to describe everything there accurately, we would all run together. Let us respond that way now. This man speaks to us from there. He does not belong to this world, as Christ Himself declares: “You do not belong to the world” ( John xv. 19 ). The Comforter speaks within him, the One present everywhere, who knows the things of God as accurately as a human soul knows its own affairs. He is the Spirit of holiness, the righteous Spirit, the guiding Spirit, who leads people by the hand to heaven, gives them other eyes, and enables them to see the future as though it were present and to look into heavenly things even while in the flesh. So let us give ourselves to Him with great calm throughout our lives. No one dull, sleepy, or filthy should come in and stay here. Let us move to heaven, because there He speaks these things to its citizens. If we remain on earth, we will gain nothing great from there. John’s words mean nothing to those who do not want freedom from this piglike life, just as the things of this world mean nothing to him. Thunder startles our souls with sound that has no meaning, but this man’s voice troubles none of the faithful. Instead, it frees them from trouble and confusion. It startles only the demons and their slaves. To learn how it startles them, let us keep a deep silence, both outwardly and in our minds, especially in our minds. What good is a quiet mouth if the soul is disturbed and tossed about? I am looking for calm in the mind and soul, because it is the soul’s listening that I require. Let no desire for riches trouble us, no craving for glory, no tyranny of anger, or the crowd of other passions besides these. Unless the ear is cleansed, it cannot properly perceive the greatness of what is said or rightly understand the awe-inspiring, inexpressible nature of these mysteries and all the other excellence in these divine words. If someone cannot learn a melody well on a pipe or harp without giving it their full attention, how can someone listening to mystical sounds hear them with a careless soul? [5.] This is why Christ Himself urged us, “Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs.” ( Matt. vii. 6.) He called these words “pearls,” although they are actually far more valuable, because we have no material more valuable than pearls. For the same reason He often compares their sweetness to honey, because nothing among us is sweeter, rather than because that comparison measures the full extent of their sweetness. To see how far they surpass the nature of precious stones and the sweetness of any honey, listen to the prophet describing them and declaring their superiority: “They are more desirable than gold and much precious stone; they are sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.” ( Ps. xix. 10.) But this is true only for those in good health. That is why he adds, “For Your servant keeps them.” Elsewhere, when calling them sweet again, he adds, “to my throat.” He says, “How sweet Your words are to my throat.” ( Ps. cxix. 103.) Again he stresses their superiority: “More than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth.” He was in very sound health. Let us too approach these words when we have healed our soul, instead of approaching while sick, and then receive the food offered to us. This is why, after such a long introduction, I have not yet tried to explore these expressions (of St. John). Everyone must set aside every kind of weakness and enter here pure, as though entering heaven itself, free from anger, the cares and anxieties of this life, and every other passion. No one can gain anything great here without first cleansing their soul again in this way. Let no one say that there is little time until our next gathering. It is possible to change the entire course of one’s life in a single moment, without even needing five days. Tell me, what is worse than a robber and a murderer? Isn’t this the most extreme wickedness? Yet such a person went straight to the height of excellence and entered Paradise itself. He needed neither days nor half a day, just one brief moment. So a person can change suddenly, becoming gold instead of clay. Since virtue and vice do not belong to us by nature, the change is easy, free from any necessity. “If you are willing and obedient,” He says, “you shall eat the good of the land.” ( Isa. i. 19.) Do you see that only the will is needed? I mean an earnest will, rather than the ordinary wishing of the crowd. I know that everyone wishes to fly up to heaven right now, but we must show that desire through our actions. A merchant wants to become rich too, but he does not let his desire stop at the thought. He equips a ship, gathers sailors, hires a pilot, supplies the vessel with everything else it needs, borrows money, crosses the sea, goes away to a foreign land, and endures many dangers and all the rest that seafarers know. We too must show our willingness this way, because we too are making a voyage, from earth to heaven rather than from one land to another. Let us arrange our reason to steer our upward course, make our sailors obedient to it, and make our vessel strong. Then it will neither be swamped by this life’s setbacks and discouragements nor lifted up by gusts of empty self-glory, but will be a swift, easily handled vessel. If we arrange our ship, pilot, and crew this way, we will sail with a favorable wind and draw down to ourselves the Son of God, the true Pilot. He will not let our boat be engulfed. Even if ten thousand winds blow, He will rebuke the winds and the sea and turn the raging waves into a great calm. [6.] So prepare yourselves this way and come to our next assembly, if you really want to hear something beneficial and store what is said in your souls. Let none of you be the “roadside,” the “stony ground,” or the ground “full of thorns.” ( Matt. xiii. 4, 5, 7.) Let us make ourselves fields ready for cultivation. Then we (the preachers) will sow the seed gladly when we see clear land. But if it is stony or rough, forgive us if we are unwilling to work for nothing. If we have to stop sowing and start cutting out thorns, it would certainly be utter foolishness to scatter seed on uncultivated ground. Someone who benefits from listening to this should not share the table of demons. “For what partnership does righteousness have with unrighteousness?” ( 2 Cor. vi. 14.) You stand listening to John and learning from him about the Spirit. Will you then leave to listen to prostitutes saying vile things and doing still viler things, and to effeminate men hitting one another? How can you be thoroughly cleansed if you wallow in such mud? Why should I list all the indecency there in detail? Everything there is laughter, shame, disgrace, insults, mockery, abandonment, and destruction. Look, I am warning and instructing all of you beforehand. None of those who enjoy the blessings of this table should destroy their own soul with those harmful spectacles. Everything said and done there is Satan’s pageant. Those of you who have been initiated know what pledges you made to us, or rather to Christ when He led you into His mysteries. You know what you said to Him and what you told Him about Satan’s pageant: along with Satan and his angels you renounced that too and promised not even to glance in its direction. There is serious reason to fear that, through carelessness about such promises, someone might make themselves unworthy of these mysteries. [7.] Don’t you see how, in royal palaces, it is those honored with distinction who are invited to receive special favor and counted among the king’s friends, rather than those who have offended? A messenger has come to us from heaven, sent by God Himself to speak with us about some necessary matters. Yet you stop listening to His will and His message to you and sit listening to actors. What thunder and bolts from heaven such conduct deserves! Just as it is wrong to share the table of demons, it is also wrong to listen to demons or to come in filthy clothing to that glorious Table, loaded with so many good things, which God Himself has provided. Its power is so great that it can lift us straight to heaven, if only we approach it with a sober mind. Someone constantly influenced by God’s words cannot remain in this present low condition. They must soon take wing, fly away to the land above, and land among its boundless treasures of good things. May we all obtain them through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom may glory be given to the Father and the All-holy Spirit, now and always, forever and ever. Amen.