Hear what precept Christ gave to the Jews, creeping as they did upon the earth: "If thou see," saith He, "thine enemy's beast of burden falling down, do not hasten by, but raise it." [658] And thou must see that to separate and reconcile men that are fighting is a much lighter thing than to lift up the fallen beast. And if we ought to help in raising our enemies' ass, much more our friends' souls: and most when the fall is more grievous; for not into mire do these fall, but into the fire of hell, not bearing the burden of their wrath. And thou, when thou seest thy brother lying under the load, and the devil standing by, and kindling the pile, thou runnest by, cruelly and unmercifully; a kind of thing not safe to do, even where brutes are concerned.
And whereas the Samaritan, seeing a wounded man, unknown, and not at all appertaining to him, both staid, and set him on a beast, and brought him home to the inn, and hired a physician, and gave some money, and promised more: thou, seeing one fallen not among thieves, but amongst a band of demons, and beset by anger; and this not in a wilderness, but in the midst of the forum; not having to lay out money, nor to hire a beast, nor to bring him on a long way, but only to say some words:--art thou slow to do it? and holdest back, and hurriest by cruelly and unmercifully? And how thinkest thou, calling upon God, ever to find Him propitious?
15. But let me speak also to you, who publicly disgrace yourselves: to him who is acting despitefully, and doing wrong. Art thou inflicting blows? tell me; and kicking, and biting? art thou become a wild boar, and a wild ass? and art thou not ashamed? dost thou not blush at thus being changed into a wild beast, and betraying thine own nobleness? For though thou be poor, thou art free; though thou be a working man, thou art a Christian.
Nay, for this very reason, that thou art poor, thou shouldest be quiet. For fightings belong to the rich, not to the poor; to the rich, who have many causes to force them to war. But thou, not having the pleasure of wealth, goest about gathering to thyself the evils of wealth, enmities, and strifes, and fightings; and takest thy brother by the throat, and goest about to strangle him, and throwest him down publicly in the sight of all men: and dost thou not think that thou art thyself rather disgraced, imitating the violent passions of the brutes; nay rather, becoming even worse than they? For they have all things in common; they herd one with another, and go about together: but we have nothing in common, but all in confusion: fightings, strifes, revilings, and enmities, and insults. And we neither reverence the heaven, unto which we are called all of us in common; nor the earth, which He hath left free to us all in common; nor our very nature; but wrath and the love of money sweeps all away.
Hast thou not seen him who owed the ten thousand talents, and then, after he was forgiven that debt, took his fellow-servant by the throat for an hundred pence, what great evils he underwent, and how he was delivered over to an endless punishment? Hast thou not trembled at the example? Hast thou no fear, lest thou too incur the same? For we likewise owe to our Lord many and great debts: nevertheless, He forbears, and suffers long, and neither urges us, as we do our fellow-servants, nor chokes and takes us by the throat; yet surely had he been minded to exact of us but the least part thereof, we had long ago perished.
16. Let us then, beloved, bearing these things in mind, be humbled, and feel thankful to those who are in debt to us. For they become to us, if we command ourselves, an occasion of obtaining most abundant pardon; and giving a little, we shall receive much. Why then exact with violence, it being meet, though the other were minded to pay, for thee of thine accord to excuse him, that thou mayest receive the whole of God? But now thou doest all things, and art violent, and contentious, [659] to have none of thy debts forgiven thee; and whilst thou art thinking to do despite unto thy neighbor, thou art thrusting the sword into thyself, so increasing thy punishment in hell: whereas if thou wilt show a little self-command here, thou makest thine own accounts easy. For indeed God therefore wills us to take the lead in that kind of bounty, that He may take occasion to repay us with increase.
As many therefore as stand indebted to thee, either for money, or for trespasses, let them all go free, and require of God the recompense of such thy magnanimity. For so long as they continue indebted to thee, thou canst not have God thy debtor. But if thou let them go free, thou wilt be able to detain thy God, and to require of Him the recompense of so great self-restraint in bountiful measure. For suppose a man had come up and seeing thee arresting thy debtor, had called upon thee to let him go free, and transfer to himself thy account with the other: he would not choose to be unfair [660] after such remission, seeing he had passed the whole demand to himself: how then shall God fail to repay us manifold, yea, ten thousand fold, when for His commandment's sake, if any be indebted to us, we urge no complaint against them, great or small, but let them go exempt from all liability? Let us not then think of the temporary pleasure that springs up in us by exacting of our debtors, but of the loss, rather, how great! which we shall thereby sustain hereafter, grievously injuring ourselves in the things which are eternal. Rising accordingly above all, let us forgive those who must give account to us, both their debts and their offenses; that we may make our own accounts prove indulgent, and that what we could not reach by all virtue besides, this we may obtain by not bearing malice against our neighbors; and thus enjoy the eternal blessings, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might now and always, even forever and ever. Amen.
[581] tn n ms thorbon.
[582] [athron, "all at once."--R.]
[583] demde.
[584] chmai suromnon, al. erchomnon.
[585] Luke vi. 20. "And He lifted up His eyes on His disciples, and said." And ver. 27, "I say unto you which hear."
[586] Matt. xxviii. 20.
[587] Matt. v. 3.
[588] tapeinn, LXX.
[589] Isa. lxvi. 2, LXX.
[590] Ps. li. 17, LXX.
[591] Dan. iii. 39, LXX.; or Song of the Three Holy Children, ver. 16.
[592] 1 Tim. iii. 6.
[593] exetrachelsthe.
[594] Gen. iii. 22.
[595] politeumeno.
[596] Luke xviii. 14.
[597] [idite.]
[598] Matt. v. 4.
[599] 2 Cor. vii. 10. [R.V., "a repentance which bringeth no regret," in the margin, "unto a salvation which bringeth no regret."--R.]
[600] Or, "the land."
[601] So St. Aug. de Serm. Dom. in Monte, lib. i. c. 4; St. Jerome in loc.; Op. Imperf. in loc.; St. Hilar. in loc.; Orig. in Levit., Hom. XV. 2, et alibi.
[602] noetn.
[603] Eph. vi. 2.
[604] Luke xxiii. 43.
[605] Matt. v. 25.
[606] Matt. v. 25.
[607] Matt. v. 22.
[608] 1 Cor. vii. 26, 28, 32.
[609] Ps. xxxvii. 11.
[610] Matt. vi. 33.
[611] Matt. xix. 29. See also Mark x. 29, 30; and Luke xviii. 29, 30.
[612] Matt. v. 6.
[613] See Aristot. Eth. Nic. v. 2.
[614] Not that St. Chrysostom limited this or any of the Gospel promises to a temporal sense. See below, sec. 7.
[615] Matt. v. 7.
[616] Matt. v. 8.
[617] Heb. xii. 14.
[618] [philotima. The term in later Greek means "munificence," and is so rendered below, in sec. 13.--R.]
[619] 2 Cor. viii. 5.
[620] Matt. v. 9.
[621] Matt. v. 10.
[622] prostasa.
[623] Matt. v. 11, 12.
[624] 1 Thess. ii. 14, 15.
[625] See Luke vi. 23, 26.
[626] Luke vi. 22, 23.
[627] alephesthki.
[628] [Literally, "then was disturbed, then was troubled, that noble and great man."--R.]
[629] 2 Sam. xvi. 11, 12.
[630] Heb. x. 32, 33. [R.V., "in which, after ye were enlightened, ye endured a great conflict of sufferings; partly, being made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions." The text of the Homily omits "both."--R.]
[631] Matt. v. 13.
[632] morai?eisan.
[633] nearteti.
[634] [epistphonte, used of astringents.--R.]
[635] Matt. v. 13.
[636] sunupokrinomnou, cf. Gal. ii. 13.
[637] chanou.
[638] Matt. v. 14.
[639] [pleon.]
[640] katestummnon .
[641] Matt. v. 14, 15. [R.V., "lamp."--R.]
[642] ["as a lamp in a house, giving light (phauon) on the lampstand."--R.]
[643] Lumine conserit arva, Lucr.
[644] [Or, "is spoken of manifesting His power."--R.]
[645] Matt. v. 15, 16. [R.V., "Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house. Even so let your light shine," etc.--R.]
[646] 1 Cor. x. 32.
[647] 1 Cor. ii. 16.
[648] apodeman.
[649] [gn potemnmeno. There is no reference to the Old Testament phrase in the original, which simply means "cutting off land for one's self," i.e., to appropriate it wrongfully.--R.]
[650] [Comp. Luke vi. 34.]
[651] prottupo, archetypal: the word seems to imply the symbolical use to be made of all visible things and their relations: as here, the relation of debtor and creditor is a sort of token of God's mercy, in binding Himself to do us good.
[652] Prov. xix. 17.
[653] at perthe.
[654] tamieetai .
[655] Job xxx. 25.
[656] Eph. iv. 25.
[657] okotrbon.
[658] Exod. xxiii. 5; Deut. xxii. 4. [The citation is made very freely from the LXX. The former passage was probably in the mind of the preacher.--R.]
[659] [hoste.]
[660] agnomonen.