Homilies on Acts, Homily 4

“And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all of one mind in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven.” Do you see the type? What is this Pentecost? It was the time when the sickle was to be put to the harvest and the crop was gathered in. Now see the reality, when the time had come to put in the sickle of the word: for here the Spirit came down like a sharp-edged sickle. Listen to Christ's words: “Lift up your eyes,” He said, “and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.” (John iv. 35.) And again, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few.” (Matt. ix. 38.) But He Himself took [our nature] as the first-fruits of this harvest and carried it up on high. He Himself was the first to put in the sickle. That is also why He calls the Word the Seed. (Luke viii. 5, 11.) “When,” it says, “the day of Pentecost had fully come”: that is, at Pentecost, right at the feast itself, so to speak. For it was essential that these events too should take place during the feast, so that those who had witnessed Christ's crucifixion might also see these. “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven.” (v. 2.) Why did this not happen without signs perceptible to the senses? For this reason: if, even when things happened this way, people said, “They are full of new wine,” what wouldn't they have said if it had been otherwise? And it doesn't just say “there came a sound,” but “from heaven.” The suddenness also startled them and brought everyone together to the spot. “As of a rushing mighty wind”: this indicates the overwhelming force of the Spirit. “And it filled the whole house”: so that those present both believed and (Edd. τούτους) in this way were shown to be worthy. And that is not all; there is something more awe-inspiring still: “And there appeared to them,” it says, “cloven tongues as of fire.” (v. 3.) Notice how it always says “as”; and rightly, so that you will not form any crude, sensory ideas of the Spirit. Also, “as of a blast”: so it was not a wind. “As of fire.” For when the Spirit was to be made known to John, it came upon the head of Christ in the form of a dove; but now, when a whole multitude was to be converted, it is “as of fire. And it sat upon each of them.” This means that it remained and rested on them. For sitting signifies settledness and permanence. Was it on the twelve that it came? No, but on the hundred and twenty. For Peter would not have pointlessly quoted the prophet's testimony, saying, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says the Lord God, I will pour out of My spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” (Joel ii. 28.) “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” (v. 4.) So that the effect would not merely be to frighten them, it is both “with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Matt. iii. 11.) They receive no other sign but this first one; for it was new to them, and there was no need for any other sign. “And it sat upon each of them,” says the writer. Notice now that the one who was not chosen, as Matthias was, no longer has any reason to grieve. “And they were all filled,” he says; they did not merely receive the grace of the Spirit, but “were filled. And they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” It would not have said “all,” with the Apostles also present there, unless the rest also shared in it. For if that were not so, having earlier mentioned the Apostles separately and by name, he would not now have lumped them all together with the rest. For if, where he only had to mention that they were present, he mentions the Apostles separately, how much more would he have done so in the case supposed here. Notice that it is when someone is persevering in prayer, when someone is living in love, that the Spirit draws near. It also reminded them of another vision: for He appeared as fire in the bush too. “As the Spirit gave them utterance,” ἀποφθέγγεσθαι (Exod. iii. 2.) For the things they spoke were ἀποφθέγματα, profound utterances. “And,” it says, “there were Jews living at Jerusalem, devout men.” (v. 5.) The fact that they lived there was a sign of piety: that, coming from so many nations, they had left country, home, and relatives and were staying there. For it says, “There were Jews living at Jerusalem, devout men, from every nation under heaven. Now when this became known, the multitude came together and were bewildered.” (v. 6.) Since the event had taken place in a house, they naturally came together from outside. The multitude was bewildered: it was in total commotion. They marveled, “Because each one heard them speak in his own language. And they were amazed,” it says, “and marveled, saying to one another, Look, are not all these who are speaking Galileans?” (v. 7–13.) They immediately turned their eyes to the Apostles. “And how” (it continues) “do we each hear in our own tongue, the one in which we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and those who live in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya around Cyrene”: notice how they run from east to west: “and visitors from Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them speaking in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.” What utter folly! What utter malice! Why, it wasn't even the season for that; for it was Pentecost. This is what made it worse: that while those people were confessing—men who were Jews, who were Romans, who were proselytes, yes, perhaps men who had crucified Him—these others, after such great signs, still say, “They are full of new wine!” But let us look again at what has been said from the beginning. (Recapitulation.) “And when the day of Pentecost,” etc. “It filled,” he says, “the house.” That wind πνοὴ was nothing less than a pool of water. This indicated abundance, as the fire indicated intensity. This never happened in the case of the Prophets: for to sober souls such visitations do not come with much turmoil; but “when they have drunk freely,” then indeed it is as it is here; with the Prophets, though, it is otherwise. (Ez. iii. 3.) He is given the scroll of a book, and Ezekiel ate what he was about to speak. “And it became in his mouth,” it says, “as sweet as honey.” (And again, the hand of God touches the tongue of another Prophet; but here it is the Holy Spirit Himself: (Jer. i. 9) so equal is He in honor with the Father and the Son.) And again, on the other hand, Ezekiel calls it “Lamentations, and mourning, and woe.” (Ez. ii. 10.) For them it was fitting that it should come in the form of a book, since they still needed figures. They had to deal with only one nation, their own people; but these men had to deal with the whole world, and with people they had never known. Elisha also receives the grace by means of a mantle (2 Kings xiii.); another by oil, as David did (1 Sam. xvi. 13); and Moses by fire, as we read about him at the bush. (Exod. iii. 2.) But in the present case it is not so; for the fire itself sat on them. (But why did the fire not appear in such a way as to fill the house? Because they would have been terrified.) But the story shows that it is the same here as there. For you are not to stop at the fact that “there appeared to them cloven tongues,” but notice that they were “of fire.” A fire like this can kindle endless fuel. Also, it is well said, Cloven, for they came from one root; so that you may learn that it was an operation sent from the Comforter. But notice how those men too were first shown to be worthy, and then received the Spirit as worthy. Take David, for instance: what he did among the sheepfolds he did just the same after his victory and trophy, so that it might be shown how simple and absolute his faith was. Again, look at Moses despising royalty and leaving everything behind, and after forty years taking the lead of the people (Exod. ii. 11); and Samuel occupied there in the temple (1 Sam. iii. 3); Elisha leaving everything (1 Kings xix. 21); Ezekiel again, shown for what he was by what happened afterward. In this way, you see, these men also left everything they had. They also learned what human weakness is from what they suffered; they learned that they had not done these good works in vain. (1 Sam. ix. and xi. 6.) Even Saul first obtained testimony that he was good, and afterward received the Spirit. But none of them received it in the way it was received here. Moses, for instance, was the greatest of the Prophets, yet when others were to receive the Spirit, he himself was diminished. But here it is not so; rather, just as fire kindles as many flames as it wants, so here the abundance of the Spirit was shown, in that each one received a fountain of the Spirit; as indeed He Himself had foretold, that those who believe in Him would have “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John iv. 14.) And with good reason. For they did not go out to argue with Pharaoh, but to wrestle with the devil. But the remarkable thing is that when they were sent, they raised no objections; they did not say they were “weak in voice and of a slow tongue.” (Exod. iv. 10.) For Moses had taught them better. They did not say they were too young. (Jer. i. 6.) Jeremiah had made them wise. And yet they had heard of many fearful things, much greater than those faced by the men of old; but they were afraid to object.—And because they were angels of light, and ministers of things above [“Suddenly there came from heaven,” etc.] To those of old, no one appears “from heaven,” while they are still pursuing a calling on earth; but now that Man has gone up on high, the Spirit also comes down mightily from on high. “As of a rushing mighty wind”; showing by this that nothing will be able to withstand them, but they will blow all their opponents away like a heap of dust. “And it filled the whole house.” The house too was a symbol of the world. “And it sat upon each of them,” [etc.] and “the multitude came together and were bewildered.” Notice their piety: they make no hasty judgment, but are perplexed; whereas those reckless people judge at once, saying, “These men are full of new wine.” Now it was so that they could, in keeping with the Law, appear three times a year in the Temple, that they lived there, these “devout men from all nations.” Notice here that the writer has no intention of flattering them. For he does not say that they expressed any opinion; but what does he say? “Now when this became known, the multitude came together and were bewildered.” And well they might be; for they supposed the matter was now coming to a head against them because of the outrage committed against Christ. Their conscience also agitated their souls, since the blood was still on their hands, and everything alarmed them. “Look, are not all these who are speaking Galileans?” For indeed this was acknowledged. [“And how hear we”] so much did the sound alarm them. [“Every man in our own tongue,” etc.] for it found most of the world gathered there. [“Parthians and Medes,” etc.] This gave the Apostles courage: for they did not know what it was to speak in the Parthian tongue, but now learned it from what those people said. Here nations hostile to them are mentioned, Cretans, Arabians, Egyptians, Persians: and it was made clear here that they would conquer them all. As for their being in those countries, many of them were there in captivity; or else the doctrines of the Law had spread [among] the Gentiles in those countries. So the testimony comes from all quarters: from citizens, from foreigners, from proselytes. “We hear them speaking in our tongues the wonderful works of God.” For it was not only that they spoke (in their tongues), but that the things they spoke were wonderful. Well, then, might they be perplexed: for nothing like this had ever happened. Notice how candid these men are. They were amazed and perplexed, saying, “What does this mean?” But “others mocking said, ‘These men are full of new wine’” (John viii. 48), and so they mocked. What effrontery! But why is that surprising? For even of the Lord Himself, when He was casting out demons, they said that He had a demon! That is how it is: wherever brazen impudence exists, it has only one aim, to speak at any cost, without caring what it says; not that the person should say something true and relevant to the subject under discussion, but that he should say something, no matter what. [“They are full of new wine.”] Quite natural, isn't it, that men in the midst of such dangers, dreading the worst, and so dejected, should have the nerve to say such things! And notice: since this was unlikely, because they would not have been drinking much [at that early hour], they put the whole thing down to the quality (of the wine), and say, “They are full” of it. “But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them.” Earlier you saw his provident care; here you see his manly courage. For if they were astonished and amazed, wasn't it just as remarkable that he, an unlettered and ignorant man, should be able to find words in the midst of such a crowd? If a person gets flustered speaking among friends, how much more might he be flustered among enemies and bloodthirsty men. He shows immediately, by his very voice, that they are not drunk, that they are not out of their minds like the soothsayers; and this too, that they were not constrained by some compelling force. What is meant by “with the eleven”? They expressed themselves through one common voice, and he was the mouth of all. The eleven stood by as witnesses to what he said. “He raised his voice,” it says. That is, he spoke with great confidence, so that they might perceive the grace of the Spirit. He who had not stood up to the questioning of a poor servant girl now, in the midst of the people, all breathing murder, speaks with such confidence that this very fact becomes an unquestionable proof of the Resurrection: in the midst of men who could ridicule and make a joke of things like these! What effrontery do you think that takes! what impiety, what shamelessness! For wherever the Holy Spirit is present, He makes men of gold out of men of clay. Look, I ask you, at Peter now: examine closely that timid man, lacking understanding; as Christ said, “Are you also still without understanding?” (Matt. xv. 16) the man who after that marvelous confession was called “Satan.” (Ib. xvi. 23.) Consider also the unanimity of the Apostles. They themselves gave him the task of speaking; for it was not necessary for all of them to speak. “And he raised his voice,” and spoke out to them with great boldness. That is what it means to be a spiritual person! Only let us also put ourselves in a condition fit for the grace from above, and everything becomes easy. For a man made of fire, falling into the middle of straw, would suffer no harm but would harm others: he could not be harmed, but they, by attacking him, would destroy themselves. For the situation here was just as if someone carrying hay attacked someone bearing fire: that is how the Apostles faced these opponents of theirs, with great boldness. For what harm did it do them, though they were such a great multitude? Did they not spend all their rage? Did they not turn the distress back on themselves? Of all mankind, were any ever so possessed by both rage and terror as those men became? Were they not in agony, dismayed, and trembling? Listen to what they say: “Do you want to bring this man’s blood upon us?” (Acts v. 28.) Did they (the Apostles) not fight against poverty and hunger, against disgrace and infamy (for they were regarded as deceivers)? Did they not fight against ridicule and anger and mockery?—for in their case opposites came together: some laughed at them, others punished them;—were they not made the target of both the anger and the amusement of whole cities? exposed to factions and conspiracies, to fire, sword, and wild beasts? Did not war beset them from every side, in countless forms? And were they any more affected in their minds by all these things than they would have been at seeing them in a dream or in a picture? With bare bodies they took the field against all those who were armed, though all men had unchecked power against them [against them, were]: terrors of rulers, force of arms, in cities and strong walls: without experience, without skill in speaking, and in the condition of quite ordinary men, pitted against magicians and conjurers, against impostors, against the whole crowd of sophists, of rhetoricians, of philosophers grown moldy in the Academy and the walks of the Peripatetics; against all these they fought the battle to the end. And the man whose work had been on lakes mastered them as if it cost him less trouble than even a contest with dumb fish: for he got the better of them as easily as if the opponents he had to outwit were in fact more mute than fish! And Plato, who talked a great deal of nonsense in his day, is silent now, while this man makes his voice heard everywhere; not only among his own countrymen, but also among Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and in India, and in every part of the earth, and to the ends of the world. Where now is Greece, with her grand pretensions? Where is the name of Athens? Where are the ravings of the philosophers? The man from Galilee, the man from Bethsaida, the uncouth peasant, has overcome them all. Aren't you ashamed—admit it—at the very name of the country of the man who has defeated you? But if you hear his own name too, and learn that he was called Cephas, you will hide your faces even more. This, this is what has ruined you completely: that you regard this as a reproach, and count fluency of speech as praise and lack of fluency as a disgrace. You have not taken the road you should have chosen, but leaving the royal road, so easy, so smooth, you have traveled one that is rough, steep, and laborious. And that is why you have not reached the kingdom of heaven. Why then, someone asks, did Christ not exert His influence on Plato and on Pythagoras? Because Peter's mind was much more philosophical than theirs. They were really children, tossed about on every side by the craving for empty praise; but this man was a philosopher, one ready to receive grace. If you laugh at these words, it is no wonder; for those people back then laughed and said the men were full of new wine. But afterward, when they suffered those bitter calamities, more miserable than anyone else; when they saw their city falling in ruins, and the fire blazing, and the walls thrown to the ground, and those many frenzied horrors that no one can find words to describe, they did not laugh then. And you will laugh then, if you feel like laughing, when the time of hell is close at hand, when the fire is kindled for your souls. But why do I speak of the future? Shall I show you what Peter is, and what Plato the philosopher is? For now, let us examine their respective ways of life; let us see what each one pursued. The one wasted his time on a set of idle and useless doctrines, and “philosophical” ones, as he says, so that we may learn that the soul of our philosopher becomes a fly. Very true, a fly! Not that it was changed into one, but a fly must have taken possession of the soul that lived in Plato; for what but a fly is worthy of such ideas! The man was full of irony and of jealousy toward everyone else, as if he made it his ambition to introduce nothing useful, either from his own head or from other people's. So he borrowed metempsychosis from someone else, and from himself produced the Republic, in which he enacted those laws full of gross depravity. Let the women, he says, be held in common, and let the virgins go naked, and let them wrestle before the eyes of their lovers, and let there also be common fathers, and let the children born be common. But with us, it is not nature that makes common fathers; the philosophy of Peter does this; as for that other philosophy, it did away with all fatherhood. For Plato's system only tended to make the real father all but unknown, while a false one was brought in. It plunged the soul into a kind of drunkenness and filthy wallowing. Let everyone, he says, have intercourse with the women without fear. The reason I do not examine the maxims of the poets is so that I will not be accused of picking apart fables. And yet the fables I am speaking of are far more ridiculous even than those. Where have the poets devised anything so monstrous as this? But (not to go into his other maxims), what do you say to these—when he equips the women with weapons, helmets, and greaves, and says that the human race has no need to differ from the canine! Since dogs, he says, female and male, do exactly the same things in common, so let the women do the same work as the men, and let everything be turned upside down. For the devil has always tried by means of them to show that our race is no more honorable than that of the brutes; and in fact some have gone to such a pitch of (κενοδοξίας) absurdity as to claim that irrational creatures are endowed with reason. And see in how many different ways he has run riot in the minds of those men! For while their leading men claimed that our soul passes into flies, and dogs, and brute creatures, those who came after them, ashamed of this, fell into another kind of depravity, credited the brute creatures with all rational knowledge, and made out that the creatures—which were brought into existence for our sake—are in every respect more honorable than we are! They even attribute to them foreknowledge and piety. The crow, they say, knows God, and the raven likewise, and they have gifts of prophecy and foretell the future; there is justice among them, and civic order, and laws. Perhaps you do not believe the things I am telling you. And well you may not, raised as you have been on sound doctrine; since also, if a person were fed on this fare, he would never believe that there is a human being who takes pleasure in eating dung. The dog among them is also jealous, according to Plato. But when we tell them that these things are fables and full of absurdity, ‘You do not grasp (ἐνοήσατε) the higher meaning,’ they say. No, we do not grasp this extraordinary nonsense of yours, and may we never do so: for it takes (of course!) an exceedingly profound mind to tell me what all this impiety and confusion is getting at. Are you talking, you senseless men, in the language of crows, as children do (in play)? For you really are children, just like them. But Peter never thought of saying any of these things: he uttered a voice like a great light shining out in the dark, a voice that scattered the mist and darkness of the whole world. Again, his conduct—how gentle it was, how considerate (ἐπιεικὲς); how far above all craving for empty praise; how he looked toward heaven without any self-exaltation, and this even when raising the dead! But if it had come within the power of any of those senseless people (in mere fantasy, of course) to do anything like it, wouldn't he immediately have expected an altar and a temple to be built to him, and wanted to be equal with the gods? since in fact, even when no such sign is forthcoming, they are forever indulging such fantastic conceits. And what, I ask you, is that Minerva of theirs, and Apollo, and Juno? They are different kinds of demons among them. And there is a king of theirs who sees fit to die simply in order to be thought equal with the gods. But not so the men here: no, just the opposite. Listen to how they speak on the occasion of the lame man's healing. “Men of Israel, why do you stare so intently at us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made him walk? (ch. iii. 12.) We too are men with the same passions as you.” (Ibid. xiv. 14.) But with those others, the self-exaltation is great, the bragging is great; all for the sake of human honors, nothing for the pure love of truth and virtue. (φιλοσοφίας ἔνεκεν.) For where an action is done for glory, everything is worthless. For though a person possesses everything, yet if he does not master this (lust), he forfeits all claim to true philosophy; he is enslaved to the more tyrannical and shameful passion. Contempt of glory: this is what is enough to teach everything good and to banish every destructive passion from the soul. I urge you therefore to make every effort to pull this passion out by the very roots; by no other means can you be well thought of by God and draw upon yourselves the kindly regard of that Eye which never sleeps. Therefore, let us do everything we can to obtain the enjoyment of that heavenly influence, and so both escape the trial of present evils and attain the future blessings, through the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, power, honor, now and always, and to all ages. Amen.