Homilies on the Statues, Homily 3

1. When I look at that throne, deserted and deprived of our teacher, I rejoice and weep at the same time. I weep because I do not see our father with us! But I rejoice that he has set out on a journey to save us, that he has gone to rescue so great a multitude from the Emperor’s anger! This is both an ornament for you and a crown for him! An ornament for you, because such a father has been given to you; a crown for him, because he loves his children so deeply and has confirmed by his actions what Christ said. For when he learned that “the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,” he set out, risking his own life for us all, although many things stood in the way of his leaving and pressed him to stay. First, his age, since he is already extremely old; next, his bodily weakness and the season of the year, as well as the need for his presence at the holy festival; and besides all these reasons, his only sister, even now at her last breath! Yet he has disregarded the ties of family, old age, weakness, the harshness of the season, and the hardships of the journey. Putting you and your safety above everything, he has broken through all these restraints. And now the old man hurries along like a young man, carried on the wings of zeal! For if Christ, he says, gave Himself for us, what excuse or forgiveness would we deserve if, after taking charge of so many people, we were not ready to do and endure anything for the safety of those entrusted to us? For if, he continues, the patriarch Jacob, while caring for flocks and feeding irrational sheep, and having to give an account to a man, spent sleepless nights and endured heat and cold and every harsh turn of the weather so that not one of those animals would perish, how much less should we neglect anything or shrink from anything that might benefit the flock? We care for sheep who are spiritual rather than irrational, and we will give an account of this charge to God rather than to a man. Besides, the more this flock surpasses that one, human beings surpass animals, and God surpasses human beings, the greater and more intense our concern and diligence must be. He knows well that his concern now is for the whole East, as well as for one city. For our city is the head and mother of all the cities to the east. For this reason he was ready to face every danger, and nothing could keep him here. 2. For this reason I trust that we have good grounds for hope. God will not refuse to look on such earnestness and zeal, nor will He allow his servant to return without success. I know that as soon as he sees our devout Emperor and the Emperor sees him, his very face will immediately be able to calm the Emperor’s anger. For the saints’ very faces, as well as their words, are full of grace. He is also a man of great wisdom, thoroughly familiar with the divine laws, and he will say to him what Moses said to God: “Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—and if not, kill me along with them.” For the saints have such tender hearts that they consider death with their children sweeter than life without them. He will also enlist this special season as his advocate and take shelter behind the sacred festival of Passover. He will remind the Emperor of the season when Christ forgave the sins of the whole world. He will urge him to imitate his Lord. He will also remind him of that parable of the ten thousand talents and the hundred denarii. I know our father’s boldness: he will not hesitate to use the parable to alarm him and say, “Be careful that you too do not hear these words on that day: ‘You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you asked me; you too should forgive your fellow servants!’ You benefit yourself more than you benefit them, since by pardoning these few offenses you gain a pardon for greater ones.” To this appeal he will add the prayer that those who initiated the Emperor into the sacred mystery taught him to offer: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” 3. He will also explain to him that the offense was not shared by the whole city, but was the work of certain strangers and adventurers, men who act without any deliberate plan, but with every kind of recklessness and lawlessness. He will explain that it would be unjust to wipe out so great a city for the disorderly conduct of a few and to punish those who have done no wrong. Even if all had been guilty, they have already suffered enough punishment, consumed by fear for so many days, expecting death every day, living as exiles and fugitives. They live more miserably than condemned criminals, carrying their lives in their hands, with no assurance of escape! “Let this punishment be enough,” he will say. “Do not carry your resentment any further! Make the Judge above merciful to you by treating your fellow servants humanely! Think of the city’s greatness, and remember that the question now concerns not one, two, three, or ten souls, but a vast multitude too numerous to count! It is a question that affects the capital of the whole world. This is the city where Christians were first called by that name. Honor Christ. Respect the city that first proclaimed that name, so lovely and sweet to everyone! This city has been the tabernacle of Apostles, the dwelling place of the righteous! And this is its first and only rebellion against its rulers; its entire past will testify favorably to the city’s conduct. For if the people had continually been prone to rebellion, it might have been necessary to make an example of such wickedness. But if this has happened only once in all its history, the offense clearly did not arise from the city’s habitual behavior. It was the wrongdoing of people who happened to arrive there by sheer chance at an evil hour.” 4. The priest will say these things and more, with even greater boldness, and the Emperor will listen. One is humane and the other faithful, so we have grounds for hope on both sides. But we rely much more on God’s mercy than on our Teacher’s faithfulness and the Emperor’s compassion. For while the Emperor receives the appeal and the priest makes it, He Himself will intervene, softening the Emperor’s heart and stirring the priest’s tongue, helping him speak, and preparing the other’s mind to receive what is said and generously grant the requests. For our city is dearer to Christ than all others, both because of our ancestors’ virtue and because of your own. And just as Peter was the first among the apostles to preach Christ, so, as I said before, this city was the first of cities to adorn itself with the Christian name, like a magnificent crown. But if God promised to save everyone living in a place where only ten righteous people were found, why should we not expect a favorable outcome and be confident that all our lives will be saved? Here there are not merely ten or twenty or twice that number, but far more people who serve God with the utmost devotion. 5. I have heard many people saying, “A king’s threats are like a lion’s anger,” full of despair and lamentation. What should we say to them? That He who said, “The wolves and the lambs will feed together; and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the lion will eat straw like the ox,” will be able to turn the lion into a gentle lamb. So let us plead with Him; let us send a delegation to Him, and He will surely calm the Emperor’s anger and deliver us from the approaching distress. Our Father has gone there on this mission. Let us go from here on a mission to the Majesty of heaven! Let us help him with our prayers! The united Church can accomplish much if we offer our prayers with sorrowful souls and contrite spirits! We do not need to cross the ocean or undertake a long journey. Let every man and woman among us, whether gathered at church or staying at home, call on God with great earnestness, and He will surely grant these requests. How do we know this? Because He deeply desires that we always take refuge in Him, bring our requests to Him in everything, and do nothing and say nothing without Him. When we repeatedly trouble people about our affairs, they become reluctant and evasive and treat us unpleasantly. But with God it is exactly the reverse. He is especially displeased when we fail to come to him about our affairs, rather than when we come continually. Just listen to what He reproaches the Jews for when He says, “You have taken counsel, but not from Me, and made treaties, but not by My Spirit.” For this is how people who love behave: they want everything that concerns their loved ones to be accomplished through them, and they want their loved ones to do nothing and say nothing without them. For this reason God used the same language of rebuke elsewhere as well as on that occasion: “They have reigned, but not by Me; they have ruled, and they did not make it known to Me.” So let us be quick to take refuge in Him continually. Whatever the trouble may be, it will certainly find the remedy it needs. 6. Does someone frighten you? Hurry to the Lord above, and you will suffer no harm. This is how people in ancient times were delivered from their calamities, women as well as men. There was a certain Hebrew woman named Esther. By this very means, Esther rescued the entire Jewish people when they were about to be handed over to destruction. For when the Persian king ordered all the Jews to be utterly destroyed, and no one could stand in the way of his anger, this woman took off her splendid robe, put on sackcloth, sprinkled herself with ashes, and pleaded with the merciful God to go into the king’s presence with her. As she offered her prayer to Him, these were her words: “O Lord, make my words acceptable, and put eloquent speech in my mouth.” Let this be the prayer we offer to God for our Teacher. For if a woman pleading on behalf of the Jews succeeded in calming a barbarian’s anger, how much more will our Teacher, pleading on behalf of so great a city and together with so great a Church, be able to persuade this most gentle and merciful Emperor. For if he has received authority to loose sins committed against God, he will be all the more able to remove and blot out those committed against a man. He himself is also a ruler, and a ruler of greater dignity than the other. For the sacred laws place even the royal head beneath his hands. And when some good thing from above is needed, the Emperor is accustomed to hurry to the priest, while the priest does not hurry to the Emperor. He too has his breastplate, that of righteousness. He too has his belt, that of truth, and sandals of much greater dignity, those of the Gospel of peace. He too has a sword, of the Spirit rather than iron; he too has a crown resting on his head. This full armor is more splendid. The weapons are more magnificent, the freedom to speak is greater, and the strength is mightier. So, because of the weight of his authority and his own greatness of soul, and above all because of his hope in God, he will address the Emperor with great freedom and great discretion. 7. So let us not despair of our safety. Let us pray; let us call on God; let us plead; let us go with many tears on a mission to the King above! We also have this fast as an ally and a helper in this worthy intercession. When winter is over and summer approaches, the sailor takes his ship out into deep water; the soldier polishes his weapons and prepares his horse for battle; the farmer sharpens his sickle; the traveler boldly sets out on a long journey; and the wrestler strips and bares himself for the contest. In the same way, when the fast arrives like a spiritual summer, let us polish our weapons like soldiers; sharpen our sickle like farmers; prepare our thoughts to face the waves of excessive desires like sailors; set out on the journey toward heaven like travelers; and strip for the contest like wrestlers. For the believer is at once a farmer, a sailor, a soldier, a wrestler, and a traveler. That is why St. Paul says, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers. So put on the whole armor of God.” Have you noticed the wrestler? Have you noticed the soldier? If you are a wrestler, you must enter the struggle naked. If you are a soldier, you must stand in the battle line fully armed. How, then, can both be possible: to be naked and yet not naked, clothed and yet not clothed? How? I will tell you. Set aside worldly business, and you have become a wrestler. Put on the spiritual armor, and you have become a soldier. Strip yourself of worldly cares, for this is a season of wrestling. Clothe yourself in spiritual armor, for we have a hard war to wage against demons. That is why we must be naked, giving the devil nothing to grab as he wrestles with us, and fully armed on every side, so that we receive no deadly blow from any direction. Cultivate your soul. Cut away the thorns. Sow the word of godliness. Multiply and carefully tend the beautiful plants of divine wisdom, and you have become a farmer. And Paul will say to you, “The farmer who works must be the first to share in the fruits.” He himself also practiced this art. That is why he wrote to the Corinthians, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” Sharpen your sickle, which you have dulled through gluttony—sharpen it through fasting. Take the path that leads toward heaven; rugged and narrow as it is, take it and travel on. And how can you do these things? By subduing your body and bringing it under control. For when the path grows narrow, the bulk that comes from gluttony is a great obstacle. Keep down the waves of excessive desires. Drive back the storm of evil thoughts. Protect the ship; show great skill, and you have become a pilot. In all these things, the fast will be our foundation and instructor. 8. I am speaking of true fasting, rather than the kind of fast most people keep: abstaining from sins as well as from food. For fasting by itself cannot deliver those who practice it unless it is done according to the proper rule. For it says, “The wrestler is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.” So, to avoid forfeiting the crown of fasting after all the labor of fasting, we must understand how to practice it and what it requires. That Pharisee also fasted, but afterward went home empty, without the fruit of fasting. The tax collector did not fast, yet he was accepted in preference to the man who had fasted. This teaches you that fasting is useless unless all the other duties accompany it. The Ninevites fasted and won God’s favor. The Jews fasted too and gained nothing; indeed, they went away condemned. Since fasting is so dangerous for those who do not know how they should fast, we must learn the rules of this exercise, so that we do not “run without a clear aim,” or “beat the air,” or fight a shadow while we struggle. Fasting is a medicine. But however beneficial a medicine may be, it often becomes useless because the person using it lacks skill. We also need to know when to apply it, how much to use, what bodily constitution can tolerate it, the nature of the country, the season of the year, the diet that should accompany it, and various other details. If someone overlooks any one of these, he will spoil all the others that have been mentioned. Now, if such precision is required of us when the body needs healing, how much more should we examine and investigate every detail with the greatest care when we are caring for the soul and seeking to heal the mind’s illnesses? 9. Let us see, then, how the Ninevites fasted and how they were delivered from that anger. “Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything,” says (the prophet). What are you saying? Tell me—must even irrational creatures fast, and must the horses and mules be covered with sackcloth? “Yes,” he replies. For when a rich man dies, his relatives clothe not only the male and female servants but also the horses in sackcloth, and order the grooms to lead them in the procession to the tomb. In this way they show the greatness of the calamity and call on everyone to pity them. In just the same way, when that city was about to be destroyed, even the irrational creatures were wrapped in sackcloth and subjected to the yoke of fasting. “Irrational creatures cannot learn of God’s anger through reason,” he says. “Let them learn through fasting that this blow comes from God. For if the city is overthrown, it will become a common tomb not only for us who live in it, but for them as well. Since they would share in the punishment, let them also share in the fast.” But they had another aim in doing this, something the prophets also customarily do. When the prophets see some terrible punishment coming from heaven, and those about to be punished have nothing to say in their defense, weighed down with shame and undeserving of the slightest pardon or excuse, they do not know what to do or where to find an advocate for the condemned. So they turn to irrational creatures. By describing their deaths in tragic terms, they intercede through them, making their pitiful and mournful destruction a plea for mercy. Thus, when famine once seized the Jews, a severe drought oppressed their country, and everything was being consumed, one of the prophets spoke this way: “The young heifers leaped in their stalls; the herds of oxen wept because there was no pasture; all the cattle of the field looked up to You because the streams of water had dried up.” Another prophet, lamenting the evils of drought, speaks in this way: “The deer gave birth in the fields and abandoned their young because there was no grass. The wild donkeys stood in the forests; they gasped for air like a dragon; their eyesight failed because there was no grass.” Moreover, today you heard Joel say, “Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her private room—the infants nursing at the breast.” Why, I ask, does he call children so young to plead with God? Is it not clearly for the very same reason? Since everyone who has reached adulthood has inflamed and provoked God’s anger, let those whose age is free from transgressions, he says, plead with Him who has been provoked. 10. But, as I said before, let us see what it was that dispelled such unyielding anger. Was it really just fasting and sackcloth? We say it was not; it was the change in their whole lives. How do we know? From the prophet’s own words. The same prophet who spoke of God’s anger and their fasting also tells us about the reconciliation and teaches us its cause, saying, “And God saw their works.” What kind of works? That they had fasted? That they had put on sackcloth? Nothing of the kind. Passing over all these things in silence, he adds, “That every one of them turned from their evil ways, and the Lord repented of the evil He had said He would do to them.” Do you see that fasting did not rescue them from this danger? It was their changed lives that made God favorable and kind toward these barbarians. 11. I have said these things so that we may honor fasting, rather than belittle it. For the honor of fasting lies in giving up sinful practices, rather than merely abstaining from food. The person who limits his fasting to abstaining from food especially belittles it. Do you fast? Prove it to me by your works! Do you ask what kind of works? If you see a poor man, have pity on him! If you see an enemy, be reconciled to him! If you see a friend receiving honor, do not envy him! If you see a beautiful woman, pass her by! Let the eyes, the ears, the feet, the hands, and every part of our bodies fast along with the mouth. Let the hands fast by remaining free from robbery and greed. Let the feet fast by no longer running to forbidden public shows. Let the eyes fast by learning never to stare shamelessly at beautiful faces or occupy themselves with the beauty of others. For looking is the eyes’ food. If what they look at is unlawful or forbidden, it spoils the fast and completely undermines the soul’s safety; but if it is lawful and safe, it adorns fasting. It would be utterly absurd to abstain from lawful food because of the fast, while touching even forbidden things with our eyes. Do you abstain from eating flesh? Do not feed on lust through your eyes. Let the ears fast too. The ears fast by refusing to listen to malicious talk and slander. “You must not accept a false report,” it says. 12. Let the mouth also fast from disgraceful speech and insults. For what do we gain by abstaining from birds and fish if we bite and devour our brothers? The person who speaks evil eats his brother’s flesh and bites his neighbor’s body. That is why Paul gives this frightening warning: “If you bite and devour one another, be careful that you are not consumed by one another.” You have not sunk your teeth into his flesh, but you have driven slander into his soul and inflicted the wound of evil suspicion. You have harmed yourself, him, and many others in a thousand ways. For by slandering a neighbor, you have made the person who listens worse. If he is wicked, he grows more careless when he finds a partner in his wickedness. If he is righteous, he becomes arrogant and puffed up, led by another person’s sin to think highly of himself. Besides, you have struck at the Church’s common welfare. Everyone who hears the slander accuses not only the supposed sinner; the reproach also attaches to the Christian community. You do not hear unbelievers saying, “That person is sexually immoral or debauched.” Instead of accusing the individual who sinned, they accuse all Christians. In addition, you have caused God’s glory to be blasphemed. Just as His Name is glorified when we have a good reputation, so it is blasphemed and insulted when we sin! 13. A fourth reason is that you have disgraced the person spoken against and made him more shameless than before by putting him in a position of hostility and enmity. Fifth, you have made yourself liable to punishment and vengeance by involving yourself in matters that did not concern you at all. Let no one answer me, “I am speaking evil when I say something false, but if I say what is true, I am no longer doing so.” Even if what you say against someone is true, this too is a crime. For that Pharisee spoke truly when he spoke evil of the tax collector, yet this did him no good. Was the other man not, I ask, a tax collector and a sinner? It is clear to everyone that he was a tax collector. Yet because the Pharisee spoke ill of him, he left the temple having lost every benefit. Do you want to correct a brother? Weep; pray to God; take him aside, warn him, counsel him, plead with him! Paul did the same, expressing his concern “that when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I will mourn over many who sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, sexual immorality, and lustful behavior they have practiced.” Show your love for the sinner. Convince him that you are reminding him of his sin out of care and concern for his welfare, rather than a desire to expose him. Take hold of his feet; embrace him; do not be ashamed if you truly want to heal him. Doctors often do things like this too when their patients are hard to please. Through embraces and appeals, they finally persuade them to take a beneficial medicine. Do the same yourself. Show the wound to the priest; that is what someone does who cares for him, looks after him, and is concerned about him. 14. I am warning not only those who speak evil. I also urge those who hear others being spoken against to stop their ears and imitate the prophet who says, “Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, I will punish him.” Say to your neighbor, “Do you have someone to praise or highly commend? I open my ears to receive the fragrant oil. But if you have anything evil to say, I block the entrance to your words, for I must not let in dung and dirt. What do I gain by learning that someone is a bad man? In fact, it causes the greatest injury and the worst loss!” Say to him, “Let us concern ourselves with our own faults and how we will give an account of our own transgressions. Let us direct this curiosity and meddlesome energy toward our own lives. What excuse or forgiveness will we find when we never even consider our own affairs, but pry so inquisitively into other people’s?” Just as it is petty and deeply disgraceful to peer into a house as you pass and inspect what is inside, so investigating another person’s life is the height of small-mindedness. But what is even more ridiculous is that people who live this way and neglect their own affairs, after mentioning one of these secrets, beg the listener and solemnly charge him not to mention it to anyone else. They make it clear that they have done something deserving blame. For if you beg him not to tell anyone else, you had even more reason not to tell him in the first place. The matter was safe in your keeping; now, after betraying it, you have grown anxious about its safety. If you do not want it passed on to someone else, do not tell it yourself. But once you have handed the secret over to someone else, it is pointless and useless to demand that he keep what you have said safe and make him swear to do so. 15. “But slandering is pleasant.” No, it is pleasant to refrain from speaking evil. For the person who has spoken evil is afterward caught up in conflict. He is suspicious and afraid, full of regret, gnawing his own tongue. He is timid and trembling, afraid that what he said may reach others and bring great danger and pointless, needless hostility on the speaker. But the person who keeps the matter to himself will spend his days safely and with much pleasure. “You have heard a word,” we read. “Let it die with you; take courage, it will not burst you.” What does “let it die with you” mean? Extinguish it; bury it; do not allow it to come out or even stir at all. But the best course is to take care not to tolerate other people’s evil speaking. And if you happen to be affected by something you hear, bury it, destroy what has been said, put it out of your memory, so that you may become like those who have not heard it and spend this present life in great peace and safety. If slanderers learn that we detest them more than the people they accuse do, they will abandon this evil habit and correct their sin. Afterward they will applaud us and proclaim us their saviors and benefactors. For just as speaking well of others and praising them is the beginning of friendship, so speaking ill of them and slandering them has been the beginning and foundation of hostility, hatred, and a thousand quarrels. Nothing has caused us to neglect our own affairs more than the habit of prying and meddling in other people’s concerns. For someone devoted to speaking evil and occupying himself with other people’s lives can never attend to his own. Since all his attention goes into meddling with other people’s affairs, his own must inevitably be left to chance and neglected. For even someone who spends all his free time carefully considering his own sins and the judgment they deserve does well if he makes any progress. But when you are always busy with other people’s affairs, when will you pay any attention to your own evils? 16. Let us flee, then, beloved, let us flee slander! We know that it is Satan’s very abyss, the place where he lurks with his snares. The devil leads us into this habit so that we will neglect our own condition and make the account we must give more severe. But there is more: we will not only have to give an account in the life to come of what we have said, serious as that is; through this behavior we will also make our own offenses heavier, depriving ourselves of every excuse. For someone who bitterly scrutinizes other people’s conduct can never obtain pardon for his own sins. God will determine the sentence both from the nature of our transgressions and from the judgment you have passed on others. That is why He warned us, “Do not judge, so that you will not be judged.” For there, a sin of any kind will no longer appear simply as it was when it was committed. The judgment you passed on your fellow servants will add a great and unpardonable weight to it. Just as someone who is humane, merciful, and forgiving cuts away the greater part of his sins, so someone who is bitter, cruel, and unforgiving greatly increases the magnitude of his own offenses. So let us drive all slander from our mouths, knowing that if we do not abstain from it, even eating ashes would do us no good. “For what defiles a person is what comes out of the mouth, rather than what goes into it.” If someone stirred up a cesspool as you were passing, tell me, would you not reproach and scold him? Do the same with a slanderer. For a stirred-up cesspool does not offend the noses of those who smell its stench as deeply as stirring up other people’s sins and exposing an impure life offends and disturbs the souls of those who hear it. So let us abstain from evil speaking, foul language, and blasphemy. Let us speak ill neither of our neighbor nor of God! 17. For many of those among us who speak evil have gone so mad that they turn their tongues from their fellow servants against their Master. You can learn how great an evil this is from the situation we are now in. A man is insulted, and look! We are all afraid and trembling, both those guilty of the insult and those who know they have done nothing of the kind! But God is insulted every day! Why do I say every day? Every hour, rather—by the rich, the poor, those living at ease, the afflicted, those who slander, and those who are slandered. Yet no one ever hears a word about it! That is why He has allowed our fellow servant to be insulted: so that, from the danger caused by this insult, you may learn the Lord’s kindness! Even though this is our first and only offense, we do not expect that to win us an excuse or pardon. But we provoke God every day and show no signs of returning to Him, yet He bears it all with patience! Do you see how great the Lord’s kindness is? In this present outrage, those who did wrong were arrested, thrown into prison, and punished. Yet we are still afraid, because the person who was insulted has not yet heard what happened or pronounced sentence, and we are all trembling. But God hears every day of the insults offered Him, and no one pays attention, even though God is so merciful and loving toward humanity. With Him, simply acknowledging the sin is enough to cancel the accusation. With human beings, it is exactly the reverse. When those who have sinned confess, they are punished all the more, as has happened in the present case. Some have died by the sword, some by fire, and some have been handed over to wild beasts—children as well as men. Neither their young age, nor the people’s turmoil, nor the fact that demons had driven them into a frenzy when they committed these deeds, nor the fact that the tax was considered unbearable, nor poverty, nor having committed the offense along with everyone else, nor promises that they would never dare repeat such deeds, nor anything else could rescue them at all. They were led away to the pit without reprieve, with armed soldiers escorting and guarding them on either side so that no one could carry off the condemned. Mothers followed at a distance, seeing their children beheaded but not daring to mourn their calamity, for terror conquered grief and fear overcame nature! People watching a shipwreck from the shore are deeply distressed, but cannot approach and rescue those who are drowning. In the same way, these mothers, held back by fear of the soldiers as if by so many waves, not only did not dare approach their children and rescue them from condemnation, but were afraid even to shed tears! 18. Surely you can see from this how indescribable God’s mercy is, how boundless, how far beyond all description! Here, the person insulted shares the same nature as those who insulted him. He has experienced this only once in his whole life, and it was not done to his face or while he was there to see or hear it. Yet none of those who committed these deeds obtained pardon. With God, none of these things can be said. The distance between human beings and God is so great that no language can express it at all. He is insulted throughout every day, although He is present and sees and hears it. Yet He does not send out lightning or order the sea to overflow the land and drown everyone. Nor does He command the earth to split apart and swallow all those who insult Him. Instead, He restrains Himself, bears with them patiently, and still offers to pardon those who have insulted Him if they will only repent and promise never to do these things again! Now truly is the time to proclaim, “Who can tell of the Lord’s mighty acts? Who can declare all His praise?” How many people have not only thrown down God’s images, but trampled them underfoot! For when you throttle a debtor, strip him, or drag him away, you trample God’s image underfoot. Listen to Paul’s clear statement: “A man should not cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God.” And again, listen to God Himself saying, “Let us make man in Our Image, after Our likeness.” But if you say that a human being is not of the same substance as God, what difference does that make? The bronze statue was not of the same substance as the Emperor either, yet those who defied it paid the penalty. The same is true of humanity: although human beings are not of the same substance as God (as indeed they are not), they have still been called His image, and they should receive honor because of that designation. But for the sake of a little gold, you trample them underfoot, throttle them, and drag them away, and to this day you have paid no penalty at all! 19. May a favorable and merciful change come soon! But this I certainly foretell and testify: even if this cloud passes away, if we remain just as apathetic, we will again suffer far heavier evils than those we now dread. For I fear your apathy more than the Emperor’s anger. Pleading with God for two or three days is certainly not enough to excuse us. We must change our whole lives and, while abstaining from wickedness, continually persevere in virtue. Sick people gain nothing by following a strict regimen for two or three days unless they keep it up consistently. In the same way, those living in sin will gain nothing from two or three days of improvement unless they practice self-control at all times. For, as it is said, someone who washes and then gets filthy in the mud again has gained nothing. So someone who repents for three days and then returns to his former condition has accomplished nothing. Let us therefore stop doing what we have always done until now. Many times, when earthquakes, famine, or drought suddenly struck us, we became more restrained and gentle for three or four days, only to return to our former ways. That is why our present troubles have come. Even if we have not done so before, at least now let us all persevere in the same devotion. Let us preserve the same gentleness so that we do not need another blow. Could God not have prevented what has happened? Yet He allowed it so that fear of a fellow servant might bring those who despised Him to their senses! 20. But let no one say that many guilty people escaped and many innocent people were punished. I hear many people saying this repeatedly, not only about the present rebellion but also about many other circumstances of this kind. What should I say in reply? That if the person arrested was innocent of the present rebellion, he had committed some other, still graver transgression before it. Because he did not afterward repent, he has paid the penalty now. For this is how God customarily deals with us. When we sin, He does not immediately punish the transgression, but lets it pass, giving us time to repent so that we may reform and turn back. But if, because we have not paid the penalty, we suppose that the offense has also been wiped away and take it lightly, then afterward we are sure to be punished somewhere we do not expect it. This happens so that when we sin and are not punished, we will not feel secure unless we reform, knowing that punishment will certainly overtake us where we do not expect it. So if you sin, beloved, and are not punished, do not grow presumptuous. Be all the more alarmed for this very reason, knowing that God can easily exact repayment whenever he pleases. He has left you unpunished for this reason: to give you time to repent. So let us not say that one person was punished while innocent and another escaped while guilty. The person who was punished, though innocent of this offense, as I said, paid the penalty for other transgressions. And the person who escapes now, if he does not repent, will be caught in another snare. If we think this way, we will never forget our own sins. Always afraid and trembling that we may have to pay the penalty, we will readily remember them. For nothing brings sin to mind so effectively as punishment and corrective discipline. Joseph’s brothers show this. Thirteen years after they had sold that righteous man, when they suspected that punishment had caught up with them and feared for their lives, they remembered their sin and said to one another, “We are truly guilty concerning our brother Joseph.” Do you see how fear brought their guilt back to mind? While they were sinning, they did not recognize it, but when they feared punishment, then they remembered it. Knowing all these things, let us change and reform our lives. Let us think about devotion to God and virtue before we think about deliverance from the approaching distress. 21. Meanwhile, I want to impress three instructions on your minds so that you may carry them out for me during the fast: speak ill of no one, regard no one as an enemy, and completely drive the evil habit of oaths from your mouths. When we hear that a monetary tax has been imposed, each person goes home, calls together his wife, children, and servants, and considers and discusses with them how to pay it. Let us do the same with these spiritual instructions. When each of you returns home, call your wife and children together and say that a spiritual tribute was imposed today—a tribute that will bring some deliverance and relief from these evils, a tribute that makes those who pay it richer rather than poorer. It is this: have no enemy, speak evil of no one, and swear no oaths at all. Let us consider; let us think; let us resolve how to carry out these instructions. Let us make every effort. Let us warn one another. Let us correct one another, so that we do not go to the next world as debtors and then, needing to borrow from others, suffer the fate of the foolish virgins and lose immortal salvation. If we put our lives in order this way, I assure you and promise that it will bring deliverance from the present calamity and remove these dreadful evils. Greater than all this, it will bring us the enjoyment of the good things to come. It would indeed be fitting for me to entrust the whole practice of virtue to you, but I think the best way to correct ourselves is to take the laws a few at a time, put them into practice, and then proceed to others. A farmer digs up a field piece by piece and gradually reaches the end of his task. In the same way, if we make it our rule to put these three instructions faithfully into practice during this Lent and entrust them to the safekeeping of good habits, we will move on more easily to the rest. In this way, reaching the summit of spiritual wisdom, we will both reap the fruit of a favorable hope in this present life and, in the life to come, stand before Christ with great confidence and enjoy those indescribable blessings. May God grant that we may all be found worthy of them, through the grace and loving kindness of Jesus Christ our Lord, with Whom be glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.