As then it is not meet that any one of the uninitiated be present, so neither is it that one of them that are initiated, and yet at the same time defiled. Tell me, suppose any one were invited to a feast, and were to wash his hands, and sit down, and be all ready at the table, and after all refuse to partake; is he not insulting the man who invited him? were it not better for such an one never to have come at all? Now it is just in the same way that thou hast come here. Thou hast sung the Hymn [214] with the rest: thou hast declared thyself to be of the number of them that are Worthy, by not departing with them that are unworthy. Why stay, and yet not partake of the table? I am unworthy, thou wilt say. Then art thou also unworthy of that communion thou hast had in prayers. For it is not by means of the offerings only, but also by means of those canticles that the Spirit descendeth all around. Do we not see our own servants, first scouring the table with a sponge, and cleaning the house, and then setting out the entertainment? This is what is done by the prayers, by the cry of the herald. We scour the Church, as it were, with a sponge, that all things may be set out in a pure church, that there may be "neither spot nor wrinkle." (Eph. v. 27.) Unworthy, indeed, both our eyes of these sights, and unworthy are our ears! "And if even a beast," it is said, "touch the mountain, it shall be stoned." (Ex. xix. 13.) Thus then they were not worthy so much as to set foot on it, and yet afterwards they both came near, and beheld where God had stood. And thou mayest, afterwards, come near, and behold: when, however, He is present, depart. Thou art no more allowed to be here than the Catechumen is. For it is not at all the same thing never to have reached the mysteries, and when thou hast reached them, to stumble at them and despise them, and to make thyself unworthy of this thing. One might enter upon more points, and those more awful still; not however to burden your understanding, these will suffice. They who are not brought to their right senses with these, certainly will not be with more.
That I may not then be the means of increasing your condemnation, I entreat you, not to forbear coming, but to render yourselves worthy both of being present, and of approaching. Tell me, were any king to give command and to say, "If any man does this, let him partake of my table;" say, would ye not do all ye could to be admitted? He hath invited us to heaven, to the table of the great and wonderful King, and do we shrink and hesitate, instead of hastening and running to it? And what then is our hope of salvation? We cannot lay the blame on our weakness; we cannot on our nature. It is indolence and nothing else that renders us unworthy.
So far have I spoken of myself. But may He that pricketh the heart, He that giveth the Spirit of compunction, pierce your hearts, and plant the seeds in the depth of them, that so through His fear ye may conceive, and bring forth the spirit of salvation, and come near with boldness. For, "thy children," it is said, "are like olive plants round about thy table." (Ps. cxxviii. 3.) O, then, let there be nothing old, nothing wild, nothing harsh. For of such sort are the young plants that are fit for fruit, for the beautiful fruit, fruit I mean of the olive-tree. And thriving they are, so as all to be round about the table, and come together here, not in vain or by chance, but with fear and reverence. For thus shall ye behold with boldness even Christ Himself in heaven, and shall be counted worthy of that heavenly kingdom, which may God grant we may all attain, in Jesus Christ, our Lord with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, honor, now and ever, and for ages of ages. Amen.
[197] [Rom. i. 9; 1 Cor. i. 4; Philip. i. 3, 4; Col. i. 3; 1 Thes. i. 2.--G.A.]
[198] ["On the contrary this wherefore,' dia touto, refers to what precedes ver. 13, 14, because this is the case that ye too are in Christ and have been sealed with the Spirit.' So Theophylact."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[199] [The word love,' agapen, which gets into the Auth. Ver. from some inferior mss., is omitted by Aleph. A. B. W. and H. Rev. Vers. cf. Col. i. 4.--G.A.]
[200] [Chrysostom's hasty and superficial treatment of this great passage would seem to justify the language of Dr. Newman in his preface to the Oxford translation of these homilies on Ephesians. There are "imperfections in their composition which in the opinion of some critics argued the absence of that comparative leisure which he enjoyed at Antioch." Schaff also says: "His life in Constantinople was too much disturbed to leave him quiet leisure for preparation." This, however, in referring to his Homilies on Acts. Prolegomena p. 19.--G.A.
[201] [Compare Mat. xxvii. 46; John xx. 17; Rev. iii. 12.--G.A.]
[202] ["The words, in the knowledge of Him,' enepi gnhosei autou, are not to be joined with the words having your heart enlightened,' as Chrysostom here, which entirely destroys the paralellism and symmetry of the sentence, but with the words, may give you a spirit of wisdom, etc., (in the knowledge of Him)."--Meyer and Ellicott.--G.A.]
[203] ["That ye may know what a great and glorious hope is given to the man whom God has called to the Kingdom of the Messiah; and that ye may know what is the object of that hope, namely, the riches of the glory of the inheritance which He gives; and that ye may know that by which this hope is to be realized, namely, the infinite power of God as shown in the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[204] 'Echontas.
[205] Dia ton enoikounta Theon Logon. The inhabitation' of the Word in our flesh, was a favorite form of speech with the Nestorians, who thereby insinuated that the Word dwelt in a' man, or denied Christ's unity of person. Yet the phrase is strictly orthodox, as being derived from John i. 14, and is especially maintained by Cyril, the antagonist of Nestorius, in order to denote that God was in human nature,' vid. Cyril in Schol. 25. Theodor. Eran. ii. Ephræm. Antioch. apud Phot. 229.
[206] Imation. Thus Cyril Alex. speaks of Christ as clothed about' with our nature. In Success. 2 p. 142. Vid. also Epiph. Ancor. §. 95. Augustine in Psalm 130. 10. This, as well as other theological terms, was abused by heretical disputants; as if it implied either that the manhood of Christ might be put off from His divine nature, or that it was a mere accidental and unsubstantial medium of manifesting it.
[207] Thuomenou.
[208] This was the great festival of the Greek Church, being in remembrance of our Lord's Baptism, and, as it would appear, of His birth inclusively. The festival of Christmas, which had been in use in the West from an earlier date, was introduced at Antioch A.D. 376, with much opposition. Chrysostom, A.D. 387, urges its due celebration in his Hom. de Beato Philogon, and Serm. in Diem Natal. J. C.
[209] [On Chrysostom's view of the eucharistic sacrifice, see Prolegomena, p. 21, note.--G.A.]
[210] i.e. the Deacon, Athanasios prostaxas diakono keruxai euchen k. t. l. Socr. Hist. ii. 11. id qu. anaginoskein, Athan. de fug 24.
[211] Vid. Bingh. Antiqu. xiii. 2. and xiv. 5. [The text here seems to be corrupt, Field's text is, "as many as are in penitence, all pray," (deethete pantes) which is evidently inconsistent with the context. The text should probably be, "As many as are in penitence, depart; as many as are not in penitence, pray all." So Field suggests in a note saying, Locus corruptus videtur, sic fortasse redintegrandus: hosoi en metanoi& 139; apelthete, hosoime en metanoia deethete pantes.--G.A.]
[212] Vid. Bingh. Antiqu. xv. 2.
[213] amphithura, curtains before the choir or altar, vid. Chrysost. in Matt. Hom. 84. fin. where, however, it has not the ecclesiastical sense, Epiphan. Epist. 51. 9. apud Hieron, ed. Vallars. where the curtain had a figure of Christ or some Saint, (to which Epiphanius objects) vid. also Evagr. Hist. vi. 21.
[214] The Angelic Hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy, vid. Chrysost. in 2 Cor. Hom. 18. Cyril. Hieros. Myst. v. 6.