Homilies on the Statues, Homily 14

1. The devil greatly disturbed our city yesterday, but God has also greatly comforted us again, so that each of us can fittingly take up that prophetic saying: “Among the many sorrows I had in my heart, Your comforts have refreshed my soul.” God has shown His tender care for us not only by comforting us, but even by allowing us to be troubled. For today I will repeat what I have never stopped saying: both our deliverance from evils and His allowing them come from God's benevolence. When He sees us slipping into indifference, breaking away from communion with Him, and paying no attention to spiritual things, He leaves us for a while, so that, brought back to our senses in this way, we may return to Him more earnestly. And why should we be surprised that He does this to us, indifferent as we are, when even Paul declares that this was the reason for the trials he and his disciples faced? Writing his second Epistle to the Corinthians, he says: “Brothers, we do not want you to be unaware of the trouble that came upon us in Asia. We were burdened beyond measure, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; but we had the sentence of death within ourselves.” It is as though he were saying, “Such great dangers hung over us that we gave ourselves up for lost. We no longer hoped for any change for the better, but fully expected death.” That is what the clause “We had the sentence of death within ourselves” means. Yet after such despair, God scattered the storm, removed the cloud, and snatched us from the very gates of death. Then, to show that even His allowing him to fall into this danger came from His great and tender care for him, he mentions the benefit that came from these trials: that he might continually look to Him and be neither proud nor self-confident. So after saying, “We had the sentence of death within ourselves,” he adds the reason: “So that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.” For trials naturally awaken us when we are dozing or falling, stir us up, and make us more devout. So, beloved, when you see a trial extinguished at one time and kindled again at another, do not lose heart! Do not despair, but hold on to hope for good, reasoning with yourself that God does not hand us over to our enemies because He hates or abandons us, but because He wants to make us more earnest and bring us closer to Himself. 2. Let us not lose heart, then, or despair of a change for the better. Let us hope that calm will come soon. And, entrusting the outcome of all the disturbances surrounding us to God, let us return to our customary subjects and once again take up our usual instruction. For I want to speak to you further about the same subject, so that we may root the wicked practice of oaths completely out of your souls. So I must once again make the same appeal I made before. Recently I begged each of you to take John's head, freshly cut off, with warm blood still dripping from it, and go home with it in this way: imagine seeing it before your eyes as it speaks and says, “Hate my murderer, the oath!” What a rebuke did not accomplish, an oath accomplished; what a tyrant's anger could not do, the obligation to keep an oath brought about! When the tyrant was publicly rebuked in everyone's hearing, he bore the criticism nobly. But when he had trapped himself in the fatal obligation created by oaths, he cut off that blessed head. So I make this same appeal, and never stop making it: wherever we go, let us carry this head and show it to everyone as it cries out and denounces oaths. For however indifferent and careless we might be, if we saw the eyes of that head glaring terrifyingly at us and threatening us if we swear, this terror would restrain us more powerfully than any bridle. We would easily be able to hold back our tongue and turn it away from its inclination to swear oaths. 3. An oath has this great evil: it punishes those guilty of it both when it is broken and when it is kept, something we do not see with any other sin. But another equally great evil comes with it. What is that? Often it is utterly impossible for people to keep their oath, even when they want to and make a point of doing so. First, someone who is constantly swearing—willingly or unwillingly, knowingly or unknowingly, jokingly or seriously—will certainly commit perjury, since anger and many other things frequently carry him away. No one can deny this. It is so obvious and so generally acknowledged that someone who swears frequently must also be a perjurer. Second, I maintain that even if passion never carried him away, and he never fell into perjury unwillingly and unknowingly, the very circumstances would certainly force him to commit perjury knowingly and willingly. For example, we are often eating at home when a servant does something wrong. The wife swears that he will be flogged, and then the husband swears the opposite, resisting and refusing to allow it. In this case, whatever they do, perjury must result. However much they want and try to keep their oaths, it is no longer possible. Whatever happens, one or the other will be caught in perjury—or rather, both will, in any case. 4. I will explain how, for this is the paradox. Someone who has sworn to flog a male or female servant, but is then prevented from doing so, has committed perjury by failing to do what he swore to do. And he has also implicated the person who forbids it and prevents the oath from being kept in the crime of perjury. For not only those who swear falsely, but also those who force others into doing so, are liable to the same charge. We can see this happening not only in homes but also in the marketplace, especially in fights, when people exchanging blows swear contradictory things. One swears that he will beat the other; the other swears that he will not be beaten. One swears that he will carry off the cloak; the other, that he will not allow it. One, that he will collect the money; the other, that he will not pay it. Quarrelsome people swear to do many other contradictory things like these. The same thing can commonly be seen in workshops and schools. A craftsman has often sworn that he will not let his apprentice eat or drink until he has finished his entire assigned task. A tutor has often acted the same way toward a boy, and a mistress toward her female servant. When evening comes and the work remains unfinished, either those who have not completed their task must die of hunger, or those who swore must break their oaths outright. For that malicious demon, always lying in wait against our blessings, is present and hears the obligation imposed by the oaths. He drives those responsible for the task into carelessness, or creates some other difficulty, so that, with the task unfinished, beatings, insults, perjuries, and a thousand other evils may follow. Think of children pulling a long, rotten cord in opposite directions with all their strength. If the cord snaps in the middle, they all fall flat on their backs, some striking their heads and others another part of their body. In the same way, when people each swear to do contradictory things, and circumstances force the oath to be broken, both parties fall into the same gulf of perjury: some by actually committing perjury, and the others by causing them to do so. 5. To make this clear not only from what happens every day in private homes and public gathering places, but also from the Scriptures themselves, I will tell you an ancient story that bears on what I have said. Once, when enemies had invaded the Jews, Jonathan (he was Saul's son) slaughtered some of them and put the rest to flight. His father Saul wanted to spur the army on more effectively against those who remained and keep them from stopping until he had subdued them all. But he did the exact opposite of what he intended by swearing that no one should eat any food until evening and until he had taken vengeance on his enemies. What, I ask, could have been more senseless? He needed to refresh those who were tired and exhausted and send them against their enemies with renewed strength. Instead, he treated them far worse than he had treated their enemies, forcing them by an oath to suffer extreme hunger. It is dangerous enough for anyone to swear about something concerning himself, since urgent circumstances force us to do many things. But it is much more dangerous to bind other people's decisions by the obligation of one's own oath, especially when someone swears concerning not one, two, or three people, but an unlimited multitude. That is what Saul then did without thinking. He did not consider that among so many people at least one would probably violate the oath, or that soldiers—and soldiers on campaign at that—are very far from moral wisdom and know nothing about controlling their appetites, especially when they are very tired. Overlooking all these things, he relied on his entire army as though he were merely swearing about a single servant whom he could easily control. In doing so, he opened such a door for the devil that in a short time the devil fashioned not two, three, or four, but many more acts of perjury from this oath. For just as we shut off every entrance to him when we do not swear at all, so, if we utter even a single oath, we give him great freedom to construct endless acts of perjury. People twisting skeins can work the whole cord precisely if someone holds the end for them. Without someone to do that, they cannot even begin. In the same way, when the devil is about to twist the skein of our sins, he could not begin his work unless he got its beginning from our tongues. But if we only make a start, holding the oath with our tongue as though with a hand, he then has complete freedom to display his malicious skill in the rest of the work, constructing and weaving a thousand acts of perjury from a single oath. 6. This is just what he now did in Saul's case. Notice the snare immediately set for this oath: “The army passed through a forest that contained a bees' nest, and the nest was in front of the people, and the people came upon the nest and went along talking.” Do you see the pitfall here? A table already spread, so that its easy access, the sweetness of the food, and the hope of going unnoticed might entice them to break the oath. Hunger, fatigue, and the hour all urged them toward the violation (for “all the land,” it says, “was dining”). The sight of the honeycombs also invited them from outside to relax their resolve. The sweetness, the table ready at hand, and the difficulty of detecting the theft were enough to ensnare even their greatest wisdom. If it had been meat that needed boiling or roasting, their minds would not have been so enchanted. For while they spent time cooking it and preparing it to eat, they could expect to be discovered. But here there was nothing of the kind. There was only honey, which required no such work. Dipping the tip of a finger was enough to share in the feast, and to do so secretly. Yet these people restrained their appetite. They did not say to themselves, “What does this have to do with us? Did any one of us swear this? Let him pay the penalty for his thoughtless oath. Why did he swear?” They thought nothing of the kind, but passed on devoutly. Despite so many temptations, they behaved wisely. “The people went on talking.” What does this word “talking” mean? It means that they talked with one another to soothe their pain with words. 7. What then? Did nothing further happen, since all the people had acted so wisely? Was the oath actually kept? Even then it was not kept. On the contrary, it was broken! How, and in what way? You will hear at once, so that you can fully recognize the devil's whole scheme. For Jonathan, who had not heard his father swear the oath, “held out the end of the rod in his hand, dipped it in the honeycomb, and his eyes saw clearly.” Notice whom he drove to break the oath: not one of the soldiers, but the very son of the man who had sworn it. For he wanted not only to bring about perjury, but was also plotting a son's slaughter and preparing for it beforehand. He was eager to turn nature against herself. He hoped to accomplish again what he had done before in Jephthah's case. For Jephthah too, after promising to sacrifice the first thing that met him after a victorious battle, fell into the snare of murdering his own child. His daughter met him first, and he sacrificed her, and God did not forbid it. I know that many unbelievers accuse us of cruelty and inhumanity because of this sacrifice. But I would say that allowing this sacrifice was a striking example of providence and mercy, and that He did not prevent it out of care for our race. For if He had forbidden the sacrifice after that vow and promise, many people after Jephthah, expecting that God would not accept their vows, would have multiplied such vows and, continuing on their way, would have fallen into murdering their children. But by allowing this vow actually to be fulfilled, He put a stop to all such cases in the future. To show that this is true, after Jephthah's daughter was killed, a law was established among the Jews that virgins should gather at the same time of year and mourn the sacrifice for forty days, so that the disaster would always be remembered and her fate would not be forgotten. By renewing its memory through lamentation, they were to make everyone wiser for the future and teach them that this deed was not God's will. Otherwise, He would not have allowed the virgins to mourn and lament her. Events proved that what I have said is no conjecture, for after this sacrifice no one made such a vow to God. So He did not forbid this sacrifice, but in Isaac's case He directly prohibited what He had expressly commanded. Through both cases He clearly showed that He takes no pleasure in such sacrifices. 8. But now the malicious demon was working hard to produce another tragedy like this. That is why he drove Jonathan to the offense. If one of the soldiers had broken the law, it seemed to him that no great evil would have been done. But now, insatiable for human suffering and never able to get his fill of our calamities, he thought that bringing about a simple murder would be no great achievement. Unless he could also stain the king's right hand with the murder of his child, he considered that he had accomplished little. And why do I speak of child-murder? The wicked one thought that by this means he could bring about a slaughter even more accursed than that. If Jonathan had sinned knowingly and been sacrificed, it would have been only child-murder. But since he sinned unknowingly (for he had not heard of the oath), if he had been killed, he would have doubled his father's anguish. His father would have had to sacrifice his son, and a son who had done no wrong at that. But let us continue with the rest of the story. “When he had eaten,” it says, “His eyes saw clearly.” Here it condemns the king for great foolishness, showing that hunger had almost blinded the whole army and spread deep darkness over their eyes. Then one of the soldiers, noticing what he had done, says, “Your father put all the people under an oath, saying, ‘Cursed is the man who eats any food today.’ And the people were faint. And Jonathan said, ‘My father has destroyed the land.’” What does he mean by “destroyed”? He means that he had ruined or destroyed them all. So when the oath was broken, everyone kept silent, and no one dared to bring the offender forward. This later became a serious ground for blame, since not only those who break an oath, but also those who know about it and conceal it, share in the crime. 9. But let us see what follows: “And Saul said, ‘Let us go down after the foreigners and plunder them.’ And the priest said, ‘Let us approach God here.’” For in ancient times God led the people out to battle, and no one dared to fight without His consent. War was a religious matter for them. Whenever they were defeated, it was because of their sins, not physical weakness; and whenever they prevailed, it was through favor from above, not strength and courage. Victory and defeat also served to train them and teach them virtue. And not only them, but their opponents as well. For their opponents too were shown clearly that the outcome of battle against the Jews was decided by the warriors' lives and good works, rather than the kind of weapons they carried. The Midianites, at least, understood this. They knew that this people was invincible, that attacking them with weapons and engines of war would be fruitless, and that they could be conquered only through sin. So they adorned beautiful virgins and deployed them as a battle strategy, arousing the soldiers to lust and trying through sexual immorality to deprive them of God's help. And that is what happened. Once they fell into sin, they became easy prey for everyone. Those whom weapons, horses, soldiers, and so many engines of war could not capture were handed over bound to their enemies by the very nature of sin. Shields, spears, and darts all proved equally useless, but beautiful faces and lustful souls overpowered these brave men. 10. That is why someone gives this warning: “Do not gaze at the beauty of a woman who is not yours, and do not meet a woman who engages in sexual immorality. For honey drips from a prostitute's lips, which may seem smooth to your throat at the time, but afterward you will find it more bitter than gall and sharper than a two-edged sword.” For a prostitute does not know how to love, but only how to ensnare. Her kiss contains poison, and her mouth a deadly drug. If this is not immediately apparent, that makes it all the more necessary to avoid her, because she veils that destruction, keeps that death hidden, and does not let it become apparent at first. So if anyone seeks pleasure and a life full of gladness, let him avoid the company of women who engage in sexual immorality. Through their words and everything they do, they fill their lovers' minds with a thousand conflicts and disturbances, constantly stirring up strife and quarrels against them. Like the bitterest enemies, they act and scheme to plunge their lovers into shame, poverty, and the worst hardships. Hunters spread their nets and try to drive wild animals into them so they can kill them. These women do the same. Once they have spread the wings of lust on every side through their eyes, clothing, and language, they drive their lovers in and bind them. They do not stop until they have drunk up their blood, finally insulting them, mocking their foolishness, and pouring a flood of ridicule over them. Indeed, such a man no longer deserves compassion, but deserves to be mocked and jeered at, since he proves more irrational than a woman, and a prostitute at that. So the Wise Man again gives this exhortation: “Drink water from your own cistern, and from the spring of your own well.” And again: “Let the doe of your friendship and the foal of your favors keep company with you.” He says these things about a wife joined to her husband by the law of marriage. Why do you leave the woman who is your helper and run to one who plots against you? Why do you turn away from the woman who shares your life and pursue one who would destroy your life? One is your own member and body; the other is a sharp sword. So, beloved, flee sexual immorality, both because of its present evils and because of its future punishment. 11. Perhaps we seem to have strayed from the subject, but saying this much is no departure from it. For we do not want to read you histories merely for their own sake, but to help you correct each of the passions that trouble you. That is also why we make these frequent appeals, shaping our teaching for you in every variety of style. In so large an assembly there are likely to be many different ailments, and our task is to heal many different wounds, not just one. So the medicine of instruction must also be varied. But let us return to the point where we began this digression: “And the Priest said, ‘Let us approach God.’ And Saul asked God for counsel: ‘Shall I go down after the foreigners? Will You deliver them into my hands?’ But that day the Lord did not answer him.” Notice the kindness and gentleness of God, who loves humanity. He did not hurl a thunderbolt or shake the earth. Instead, the Lord treated His servant as friends treat friends who have treated them with contempt. He simply received him in silence, speaking through His silence and expressing all His anger through it. Saul understood this and said, as it is recorded, “Bring all the tribes of the people here, and find out and see who has committed this sin today. For as the Lord lives, Who has saved Israel, even if the answer points to my son Jonathan, he will surely die.” Do you see his rashness? Even when he realizes that his first oath has been broken, he does not learn self-control, but adds a second. Consider the devil's malice too. He knew that a son, when discovered and publicly accused, can often make his father relent at the very sight of him and might soften the king's anger. So he bound him with a second oath before he passed sentence, holding him in a kind of double bond. He did not let him control his own decision, but forced him on every side toward that wicked murder. Before the offender had even been brought forward, he had passed judgment; without knowing who the offender was, he had pronounced sentence. The father became the executioner and announced his verdict of condemnation before the inquiry! What could be more irrational than this behavior? 12. After Saul made this declaration, the people were more afraid than before, and everyone trembled in great terror. But the devil rejoiced at having made them all so anxious. We are told that not one of all the people answered. “And Saul said, ‘You will be in bondage, and I and my son Jonathan will be in bondage.’” What he means is this: “You are doing nothing but handing yourselves over to your enemies and becoming slaves instead of free people, since you provoke God against you by refusing to hand over the guilty person.” Notice another contradiction produced by the oath. If he wanted to find the person responsible for this offense, he should neither have made such a threat nor bound himself by an oath to take vengeance. Then they would have been less afraid and more ready to reveal the offender. But under the influence of anger, great madness, and his earlier irrationality, he again does the exact opposite of what he wants. Why say more? He submits the matter to a decision by lot, and the lot falls on Saul and Jonathan. “And Saul said, ‘Cast the lot between me and Jonathan.’ And they cast the lot, and Jonathan was chosen. And Saul said to Jonathan, ‘Tell me, what have you done?’ And Jonathan told him, saying, ‘I only tasted a little honey on the tip of the rod in my hand, and now I must die.’” Who would not have been moved to pity by these words? Consider the storm Saul endured then, his insides torn with anguish and the deepest precipice appearing on either side! Yet he did not learn self-control. What does he say? “May God do so to me, and more besides, for you will surely die today.” Look again at the third oath, and not merely a third, but one with a very tight deadline. He does not simply say, “You will die,” but “today.” For the devil was hurrying, hurrying him on, compelling him and driving him toward this godless murder. That is why he did not let him set any future day for carrying out the sentence, in case delay should allow the evil to be corrected. And the people said to Saul, “May God do so to us, and more besides, if the man who has brought about this great deliverance in Israel is put to death. As the Lord lives, not a hair of his head will fall to the ground, because he has done a merciful deed from God today.” See how the people, in turn, also swore, and swore the opposite of the king. 13. Now remember, please, the cord the children pulled until it broke and threw those pulling it onto their backs. Saul swore not once or twice, but several times. The people swore the opposite and pulled in the other direction. It necessarily followed that the oath had to be broken somehow, since it was impossible for all of them to keep their oaths. Now do not tell me how this affair turned out. Consider how many evils were springing from it, and how the devil was using it to prepare the tragedy and usurpation of Absalom. If the king had chosen to resist and carry out his oath, the people would have taken up arms against him, and a terrible rebellion would have begun. And again, if the son, looking to his own safety, had chosen to place himself in the army's hands, he would immediately have become his father's murderer. Do you not see that rebellion, child-murder, the murder of a father, battle, civil war, slaughter, blood, and countless dead bodies are the consequences of one oath? If war had broken out, Saul might have been killed, perhaps Jonathan too, and many soldiers would have been cut to pieces. Even after all that, the oath would have been no closer to being kept. So you must not focus on the fact that these events did not happen, but notice this: the circumstances themselves made such things necessary. The people prevailed, however. Come, then, let us count the acts of perjury that followed. Saul's oath was first broken by his son. Then Saul himself broke a second and a third oath concerning the killing of his son. The people seemed to have kept their oath. Yet if anyone examines the matter closely, they too all became liable to the charge of perjury. For by refusing to hand the son over to his father, they forced Jonathan's father to commit perjury. Do you see how many people one oath made liable to perjury, willingly and unwillingly; how many evils it brought about; how many deaths it caused? 14. At the beginning of this discourse, I promised to show that contradictory oaths would inevitably result in perjury. But the course of the story has actually proved more than I set out to establish. It has shown not one, two, or three individuals, but a whole people, and not one, two, or three oaths, but many more being broken. I could also mention another example and show from it how one oath caused an even greater and more terrible disaster. For one oath brought upon all the Jews the capture of their cities, wives, and children; the devastation of fire; invasion by barbarians; the defilement of sacred things; and ten thousand other evils still more distressing. But I see that this discourse is becoming very long. So, leaving that story here, I beg you to tell one another not only about John's beheading, but also about Jonathan's murder and the general destruction of a whole people (which did not actually happen, but which the obligation of the oaths entailed). At home and in public, with your wives, friends, neighbors, and everyone in general, make this matter a serious concern. Do not think that appealing to habit is an adequate excuse. 15. I will try to convince you from what has already happened that this excuse is merely a pretext, and that the fault comes from indifference rather than habit. The Emperor has closed the city's baths and ordered that no one bathe. No one has dared to break the law, complain about what has happened, or appeal to habit. Men and women, children and old men, even those who may be in poor health, and many women only recently relieved of the pains of childbirth—all of whom need this as a necessary medicine—bear the order willingly or unwillingly. They plead neither physical weakness nor the tyranny of habit, nor that they are being punished when others committed the offense, nor anything else of the kind. Instead, they accept this punishment contentedly because they expected greater evils, and they pray daily that the Emperor's anger will go no further. Do you see how easily fear loosens the bond of habit, even when it is very long established and answers a great need? Being denied the use of the bath is certainly a serious hardship. However devoted we may be to philosophy, the body cannot gain any benefit for its own health from the soul's philosophy. But refraining from swearing is extremely easy and causes no injury at all, either to body or mind. On the contrary, it brings great gain, much safety, and abundant wealth. How can it be anything but absurd to submit to the greatest hardships when an Emperor orders it, but when God commands something neither burdensome nor difficult, something very bearable and easy, to despise or ridicule it and offer habit as an excuse? I beg you, let us not treat our own safety with such contempt, but let us fear God as we fear a human being. I know you shudder to hear this. But what deserves a shudder is that you do not show God even that much respect: while you carefully observe the Emperor's decrees, you trample underfoot the divine decrees that have come down from heaven and consider careful attention to them a secondary concern. What excuse will remain for us, and what forgiveness, if after so much warning we persist in the same practices? I began this warning at the very beginning of the calamity that has gripped the city. That calamity is now about to end, yet we have still not thoroughly put even one commandment into practice. How, then, can we ask for the removal of the evils that still surround us when we have not managed to fulfill a single commandment? How can we expect a change for the better? How will we pray? With what tongue will we call on God? If we fulfill the law, we will enjoy great pleasure when the Emperor is reconciled to the city. But if we continue in disobedience, shame and reproach will surround us, since even after God has freed us from danger, we have continued in the same indifference. 16. Oh, if only I could strip bare the souls of those who swear frequently and expose the wounds and bruises they receive daily from oaths! Then we would need neither warnings nor advice. The sight of these wounds would do more than anything that could be said to turn even those most addicted to this wicked practice away from their wickedness. Still, if we cannot display the shameful condition of their soul before their eyes, we may be able to expose it to their minds and show its decay and corruption. For it says, “Just as a servant who is constantly beaten will never be free of bruises, so someone who continually swears and names God will not be cleansed of his sin.” It is impossible, utterly impossible, for a mouth accustomed to swearing not to commit perjury frequently. So I beg all of you to win another crown by giving up this dreadful, wicked habit. Everywhere our city is celebrated as the first of all the world's cities to bind the name of Christians on her brow. So let everyone also be able to say that Antioch alone, of all the cities throughout the world, has driven all oaths beyond her borders. Indeed, if this happens, she will not be crowned alone, but will carry others with her to the same height of zeal. Just as the name of Christians originated here and overflowed the whole world as though from a fountain, so this good work, taking root and beginning here, will make everyone who lives on earth your disciples. In this way you may receive a double and triple reward, both for your own good works and for the instruction you give others. This will be your brightest crown! This will make your city a mother city, not on earth, but in the heavens! This will stand beside us on That Day and bring us the crown of righteousness. May God grant that we all obtain it through the grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, now and always, forever and ever. Amen.