[511] 'All' hos semeion mallon auto (autos B.) diegeitai kai euangelizetai: "he speaks not in the form of command or promise, but of narration: he relates it, Evangelist-like, as a fact."
[512] Ora pos diakathairetai ta pragmata (omitted in E. D. F. Edd.): i.e. how the Gospel has purged away all excess of mourning, and all noisy demonstrations of grief. St. Chrys. frequently inveighs against the heathenish customs of mourning for the dead, which were still practised--such as the hiring of heathen mourning-women: Hom. in Matt. xxxi. p. 207. A. "I confess to you, I am ashamed when I see the troops of women tearing their hair, gashing their flesh, as they move through the market--and this under the very eyes of the heathen." Conc. in Laz. v. t. i. p. 765 D. where the Christian mode of interment is described; viz. the procession of clergy with psalms and hymns of praise, lighted tapers, etc. comp. Hom. iv. in Heb. (ii. 15.)
[513] Entha gar dakrua, mallon de entha thaumata, ou dei dakrua pareinai; entha toiouton musterion teleitai. It seems, he was going to say, "Where tears are, it is no fit time for miracles," but corrects himself, for put in that way the proposition was not true. The innovator weakly substitutes, "For where tears are, such a mystery ought not to be performed: or rather, where miracles are, there tears ought not to be."
[514] The rest of the Hom. is given in the Florilegium or Eclogæ, in t. xii. ecl. xlv.--the only instance in which these Homilies have been employed in that compilation. Its author used the old text: it does not appear that any of his various readings were derived from the modern text.
[515] epi ton eudokimon: i.e. those who are certainly not reprobates (ouk adokimon). In the next sentence, E. Edd. kai ti pros se, anthrope; su gar oude epi ton eudok. touto poieis. Ben. Et quid hoc ad te, o homo? tu enim erga probos hoc non agis. Erasm. tu enim neque apud probatissimos hoc agis. The other mss. and Ecl. ti oun...hoti.
[516] Otan de anakaloumenos rh& 208;mata leges kai sunetheian kai prostasian, so mss. and Edd. but Ecl. anakaloumenou, which we adopt. To the same purport, but more fully, Hom. xii. in 1 Cor. p. 392. (and Ecl. xlv.) "If when some (friend) were taken into the palace and crowned, thou shouldest bewail and lament, I should not call thee the friend of him that is crowned, but very much his hater and enemy. But now, say you, I do not bewail him, but myself.' But neither is this the part of a friend, that for thine own sake thou wouldest have him still in the contest, etc. But I know not where he is gone.' How knowest thou not, answer me? For whether he lived rightly or otherwise, it is plain where he will go. Why, this is the very reason why I do bewail--because he departed a sinner.' This is mere pretence. If this were the reason of thy lamenting him that is gone, thou oughtest while he was alive to have amended him, and formed his manners," etc.
[517] Ei gar Paulos heteron ele& 219;se, kai di allous allon (Ecl. allon) epheisato, pollo mallon hemas touto dei poiein. But E. Edd. Ei dia Paulon heterous diesose, kai di allous allon pheidetai, pos ouchi kai di hemas to auto touto ergasetai; "If (God) for Paul's sake saved others, and for some men's sake spares other men, how shall He not for our sakes do this same thing?" In Hom. xli. in 1 Cor. p. 393. B. Chrys. uses for illustration Job's sacrifice for his sons, and adds, "For God is wont to grant favors to others in behalf of others, heterois huper heteron charizesthai. And this Paul showed, saying, Ina en pollo prosopo, k. t. l. 2 Cor. i. 11." But here the reference seems to be to 2 Cor. ii. 10, "To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also; for if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes' forgave I it in the person of Christ."--St. Chrysostom constantly teaches, as here, that the souls of the departed are aided by the prayers, alms, and Eucharistic oblations of the living, Hom. xli. in 1 Cor. u. s. "Even if he did depart a sinner,...we ought to succor him, in such sort as may be (hos an hoi& 231;n te e), not by tears, but by prayers and supplications, and alms and oblations. For not idly have these things been devised, nor to no purpose do we make mention of the departed in the Divine Mysteries, and for them draw near, beseeching the Lamb Which lieth there, Which taketh away the sins of the world, but in order that some consolation may thence come to them. Nor in vain does he that stands beside the altar, while the dread Mysteries are celebrating, cry out, For all that sleep in Christ, and for them that make the memorials for them.'" See also Hom. iii. ad Phil. p. 217, 218. Comp. St. Cyrill. Hier. Catech. Mystag. v. §9, St. Augustin, Serm. 172.
[518] eulabe gunaika kai thugatrion agagesthai semnon. A. B. C. In the Edd. kai thug. semnon, is transposed after me ploutounta hui& 232;n katalipein all' eulabe: and so in the Ecl. which however retains ag, between thug. and semnon. In the old text, wife and daughter are mentioned first, as the persons most apt to perform these offices of religion: in agagesthai there is a zeugma; "to take to wife, and to have wife and daughter, etc."
[519] Hom.iii. in Phil. ad fin. Ouk eike tauta enomothetethe huto ton apostolon k. t. l. "Not idly were these things enacted by the Apostles, that in the dread mysteries there is mention made of the departed: they know that to them great is the gain which accrues, great the benefit. For when the whole congregation stands there, all lifting up their hands, the sacerdotal body (pleroma hieratikon), and the dread sacrifice is laid out, how shall we fail to prevail with God, in supplicating for these?"
[520] Ti oiei to huper marturon prospheresthai, to klethenai en ekeine te hora kan martures osi, kan (kai A. huper marturon; There is no reason to suppose (as Neander, Der Heilige Johannes Chrysostomus, t. ii. p. 162) that the words kan martures k. t. l. are part of the Liturgy: the meaning is, Think what a great thing it is to be mentioned in that Prayer of Oblation; to be mentioned as the martyrs are mentioned, for of them also, martyrs though they be, the same form of expression is used, huper marturon.--In the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom the words are, Eti prospheromen soi ten logiken tauten latreian huper ton en pistei anapauomenon propatoron, pateron, patriarchon, propheton, apostolon, kerukon, euangeliston, marturon k. t. l. See St. Augustin, Hom. on St John, p. 842, note a.
[521] i.e. not to intercede on their behalf, but for commemoration of Christ's victory over death, achieved in Himself and in them. The Eucharist is, so to say, Christ's epinikia, in which the Martyrs are eulogized as sharers of His triumph (and this is our commemoration of truth), and the prisoners are set at liberty (and in this sense we name our dead).