Wherefore a wise man has said, "Pride is the beginning of sin" ( Ecclus. x. 13 ): that is, its root, its source, its mother. By this the first created was banished from that happy abode: by this the devil who deceived him had fallen from that height of dignity; from which that accursed one, knowing that the nature of the sin was sufficient to cast down even from heaven itself, came this way when he labored to bring down Adam from such high honor. For having puffed him up with the promise that he should be as a God, so he broke him down, and cast him down into the very gulfs of hell. [213] Because nothing so alienates men from the lovingkindness of God, and gives them over to the fire of the pit, [214] as the tyranny of pride. For when this is present with us, our whole life becomes impure, even though we fulfill temperance, chastity, fasting, prayer, almsgiving, anything. For, "Every one," saith the wise man, "that is proud in heart is an abomination [215] to the Lord." ( Prov. xvi. 5.) Let us then restrain this swelling of the soul, let us cut up by the roots this lump of pride, if at least we would wish to be clean, and to escape the punishment appointed for the devil. For that the proud must fall under the same punishment as that (wicked) one, hear Paul declare; "Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the judgment, and the snare of the devil." [216] What is "the judgment"? [217] He means, into the same "condemnation," the same punishment. How then does he say, that a man may avoid this dreadful thing? By reflecting upon [218] his own nature, upon the number of his sins, upon the greatness of the torments in that place, upon the transitory nature of the things which seem bright in this world, differing in nothing from grass, and more fading than the flowers of spring. If we continually stir within ourselves these considerations, and keep in mind those who have walked most upright, the devil, though he strive ten thousand ways, will not be able to lift [219] us up, nor even to trip [220] us at all. May the God who is the God of the humble, the good and merciful God, grant both to you and me a broken and humbled heart, so shall we be enabled easily to order the rest aright, to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom and with whom, to the Father and the Holy Ghost, be glory forever and ever. Amen.
[195] al. "the dispensing."
[196] dusanascheton
[197] "lied unto me." LXX.
[198] al. "conversing with."
[199] a no kai kato
[200] a nelittontes, "unrolling."
[201] politeias.
[202] Ellenon.
[203] kedemonias.
[204] parrhesias.
[205] tou Theou G. T.
[206] al. "again."
[207] al. "he does all things that he may empty."
[208] al. "may relax."
[209] ton Ellenikon.
[210] diastrophe.
[211] al. "then."
[212] philosophein.
[213] ha dou.
[214] geennes.
[215] "Unclean," LXX.
[216] 1 Tim. iii. 6, 7 (partially quoted).
[217] krima, "condemnation," E.V.
[218] al. "calculating."
[219] e parai.
[220] hu poskelisai (a gymnastic term like the preceding).
Homily X.
John i. 11
"He came unto His own, and His own received Him not."
[1.] Beloved, God being loving towards man and beneficent, does and contrives all things in order that we may shine in virtue, and as desiring that we be well approved by Him. And to this end He draws no one by force or compulsion: but by persuasion and benefits He draws all that will, and wins them to Himself. Wherefore when He came, some received Him, and others received Him not. For He will have no unwilling, no forced domestic, but all of their own will and choice, and grateful to Him for their service. Men, as needing the ministry of servants, keep many in that state even against their will, by the law of ownership; [221] but God, being without wants, and not standing in need of anything of ours, but doing all only for our salvation makes us absolute [222] in this matter, and therefore lays neither force nor compulsion on any of those who are unwilling. For He looks only to our advantage: and to be drawn unwilling to a service like this is the same as not serving at all.
"Why then," says one, "does He punish those who will not listen [223] to Him, and why hath He threatened hell to those who endure [224] not His commands?" Because, being Good exceedingly, He cares even for those who obey Him not, and withdraws not from them who start back and flee from Him. But when we [225] had rejected the first way of His beneficence, and had refused to come by the path of persuasion and kind treatment, then He brought in upon us the other way, that of correction and punishments; most bitter indeed, but still necessary, when the former is disregarded. [226] Now lawgivers also appoint many and grievous penalties against offenders, and yet we feel no aversion to them for this; we even honor them the more on account of the punishments they have enacted, and because though not needing a single thing that we have, and often not knowing who they should be that should enjoy the help afforded by their written laws, [227] they still took care for the good ordering of our lives, rewarding those who live virtuously, and checking by punishments the intemperate, and those [228] who would mar the repose [229] of others. And if we admire and love these men, ought we not much more to marvel at and love God on account of His so great care? For the difference between their and His forethought regarding us is infinite. Unspeakable of a truth are the riches of the goodness of God, and passing all excess. [230] Consider; "He came to His own," not for His personal need, (for, as I said, the Divinity is without wants,) but to do good unto His own people. Yet not even so did His own receive Him, when He came to His own for their advantage, but repelled Him, and not this only, but they even cast Him out of the vineyard, and slew Him. Yet not for this even did He shut them out from repentance, but granted them, if they had been willing, after such wickedness as this, to wash off all their transgressions by faith in Him, and to be made equal to those who had done no such thing, but are His especial friends. And that I say not this at random, or for persuasion's sake, all the history of the blessed Paul loudly declares. For when he, who after the Cross persecuted Christ, and had stoned His martyr Stephen by those many hands, repented, and condemned his former sins, and ran to Him whom he had persecuted, He immediately enrolled him among His friends, and the chiefest of them, having appointed him a herald and teacher of all the world, who had been "a blasphemer, and persecutor, and injurious." ( 1 Tim. i. 13.) Even as he rejoicing at the lovingkindness of God, has proclaimed aloud, and has not been ashamed, but having recorded in his writings, as on a pillar, the deeds formerly dared by him, has exhibited them to all; thinking it better that his former life should be placarded [231] in sight of all, so that the greatness of the free gift of God might appear, than that he should obscure His ineffable and indescribable lovingkindness by hesitating to parade [232] before all men his own error. Wherefore continually [233] he treats of his persecution, his plottings, his wars against the Church, at one time saying, "I am not meet to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God" ( 1 Cor. xv. 9 ); at another, "Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." ( 1 Tim. i. 15.) And again, "Ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it." ( Gal. i. 13.)
[2.] For making as it were a kind of return to Christ for His longsuffering towards him, by showing who it was, what a hater and enemy that He saved, he declared with much openness the warfare which at the first with all zeal he warred against Christ; and with this he holds forth good hopes to those who despaired of their condition. For he says, that Christ accepted him, in order that in him first He "might show forth all longsuffering" ( 1 Tim. i. 16 ), and the abundant riches of His goodness, "for a pattern to them that should hereafter believe in Him to life everlasting." Because the things which they had dared were too great for any pardon which the Evangelist declaring, said,
"He came to His own, and His own received Him not." Whence came He, who filleth all things, and who is everywhere present? What place did He empty of His presence, who holdeth and graspeth all things in His hand? He exchanged not one place for another; how should He? But by His coming down to us He effected this. For since, though being in the world, He did not seem to be there, because He was not yet known, but afterwards manifested Himself by deigning to take upon Him our flesh, he (St. John) calls this manifestation and descent "a coming." [234] One might wonder at [235] the disciple who is not ashamed of the dishonor of his Teacher, but even records the insolence which was used towards Him: yet this is no small proof of his truth-loving disposition. And besides, he who feels shame should feel it for those who have offered an insult, not for the person outraged. [236] Indeed He by this very thing shone the brighter, as taking, even after the insult, so much care for those who had offered it; while they appeared ungrateful and accursed in the eyes of all men, for having rejected Him who came to bring them so great goods, as hateful to them, and an enemy. And not only in this were they hurt, but also in not obtaining what they obtained who received Him. What did these obtain?
Ver. 12. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God," says the Evangelist. "Why then, O blessed one, dost thou not also tell us the punishment of them who received Him not? Thou hast said that they were His own,' and that when He came to His own, they received Him not'; but what they shall suffer for this, what punishment they shall undergo, thou hast not gone on to add. Yet so thou wouldest the more have terrified them, and have softened the hardness of their insanity by threatening. Wherefore then hast thou been silent?" "And what other punishment," he would say, "can be greater than this, that when power is offered them to become sons of God, they do not become so, but willingly deprive themselves of such nobility and honor as this?" Although their punishment shall not even stop at this point, that they gain no good, but moreover the unquenchable fire shall receive them, as in going on he has more plainly revealed. But for the present he speaks of the unutterable goods of those who received Him, and sets these words in brief before us, [237] saying, "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God." Whether bond or free, whether Greeks or barbarians or Scythians, unlearned or learned, female or male, children or old men, in honor or dishonor, rich or poor, rulers or private persons, all, He saith, are deemed worthy the same privilege; for faith and the grace of the Spirit, removing the inequality caused by worldly things, hath moulded all to one fashion, and stamped them with one impress, the King's. What can equal this lovingkindness? A king, who is framed of the same clay with us, does not deign to enrol among the royal host his fellow-servants, who share the same nature with himself, and in character often are better than he, if they chance to be slaves; but the Only-Begotten Son of God did not disdain to reckon among the company of His children both publicans, sorcerers, and slaves, nay, men of less repute and greater poverty than these, maimed in body, and suffering from ten thousand ills. Such is the power of faith in Him, such the excess of His grace. And as the element of fire, when it meets with ore from the mine, straightway of earth makes it gold, even so and much more Baptism makes those who are washed to be of gold instead of clay; the Spirit at that time falling like fire into our souls, burning up the "image of the earthy" ( 1 Cor. xv. 49 ), and producing "the image of the heavenly," fresh coined, bright and glittering, as from the furnace-mould.