to be standing Tokens of this World's Frailty. 421 12. 20. over the people, and give you so much wholesome advice, do 1 Cor. not more truly discourse than he doth, who sits before the doors of the church, by his silence and his countenance. For we too sound these things in your ears every day, saying," Be not high-minded, O man; human nature is a thing that soon declines, and is ready to fall away; our youth hastens on to old age, our beauty to deformity, our strength to weakness, our honour to contempt, our health falls away to sickness, our glory to meanness, our riches to poverty; our concerns are like a violent current that never will stand still, but keeps hastening down the steep." The same advice do they also give, and more than this, by (5.) their appearance, and by their experience itself too, which is a yet plainer kind of advice. How many, for instance, of those who now sit without, were in the bloom of youth, and did great things? How many of these loathsome looking persons surpassed many, both in vigour of body, and in beauty of countenance? Nay, disbelieve it not, nor deride. For surely, life is full of ten thousand such examples. For if from mean and humble persons many have oftentimes become kings, what marvel is it, if from being great and glorious, some have been made humble and mean? Since the former is much the more extraordinary: but the latter, of perpetual occurrence. So that one ought not to be incredulous, that any of them ever flourished in arts, and arms, and abundance of wealth, but rather to pity them with great compassion, and to fear for ourselves, lest we too should sometime suffer the same things. For we too are men, and are subject to this speedy change. [8.] But perchance some one of the thoughtless, and of those who are accustomed to scoff, will jeer at this too which hath been said, and will altogether deride us, saying, “How long wilt thou not cease continually introducing poor men and beggars in thy discourses, and prophesying to us of misfortunes, and denouncing poverty to come, and desiring to make us beggars?" Not from a desire to make beggars of you, O man, do I say these things, but hastening to open unto you the riches of heaven. Since he too, who to the healthy man makes mention of the sick, and relates their anguish, saith it not to make him diseased, but to preserve him in health, by 422 Dread of Poverty, a great Snare of the Devil. HOMIL. the fear of their calamities cutting off his remissness. Poverty XXX. seems to you to be a fearful thing, and to be dreaded, παγ κρατι αστήν. even to the mere name of it. Yea, and therefore are we poor, because we are afraid of poverty; though we have ten thousand talents. For not he who hath nothing, is poor, but he who shudders at poverty. Since in men's calamities also it is not those who suffer great evils whom we lament and account wretched, but those who know not how to bear them, even though they be small. Whereas he that knows how to bear them, is, as all know, worthy of praises and crowns. And to prove that this is so, whom do we applaud in the games? Those who are much beaten, and do not vex themselves, but hold their head on high; or those who fly after the first strokes? Are not those even crowned by us, as manly and noble; while we laugh at these, as unmanly and cowards? So then let us do in the affairs of life. Him that bears all easily let us crown, as we do that noble champion1; but weep over him that shrinks and trembles at his dangers, and who before he receives the blow is dead with fear. For so in the games; if any, before he raised his hands, at the mere sight of his adversary extending his right hand, should fly, though he receive no wound, he will be laughed to scorn, as feeble, and effeminate, and unversed in such struggles. Now this is like what happens to these who fear poverty, and cannot so much as endure the expectation of it. Evidently then, it is not we that make you wretched, but ye yourselves. For how can it be, that the devil should not henceforth make sport of thee, seeing thee even before the stroke afraid, and trembling at the menace? Or rather, when thou dost but esteem this a threat, he will have no need so much as to strike thee any more, but leaving thee to keep thy wealth, by the expectation of its being taken away he will render thee softer than any wax. And because it is our nature, (so to speak,) not to consider the objects of our dread so fearful after suffering, as before, and while yet untried: therefore, to prevent thee from acquiring even this virtue, he detains thee in the very height of fear; by the fear of poverty, before all experience of it, melting thee down as wax in the fire. Yea, and such a man is softer than any wax, and lives a life more wretched than Cain himself. For the things which he hath Misery of the Rich Man who fears Want. 12. 20. 423 in excess, he is in fear: for those which he hath not, in 1 COR. grief: and again, concerning what he hath he trembles, keeping his wealth within as a wilful runaway slave, and beset by I know not what various and unaccountable passions. For unaccountable desire, and manifold fear and anxiety, and trembling on every side, agitate them. And they are like a vessel driven by contrary winds from every quarter, and enduring many heavy seas. And how much better for such a man to depart, than to be enduring a continual storm? Since for Cain also it were more tolerable to have died, than to be for ever trembling1. Lest we then for our part suffer these things, let us laugh to scorn the device of the devil, let us burst his cords asunder, let us sever the point of his terrible spear, and fortify every approach. For if thou laugh at money, he hath not where to strike, he hath not where he may lay hold. Then hast thou rooted up the root of evils; and when the root is no more, neither will any evil fruit grow. 1 Gen.4. 12; vid. Hom. vii. 9. 3. 13. [9.] Well: these things we must be always saying, and never leave off saying them: but whether our sayings do any good, the day will declare, even that day, which is revealed by fire, which trieth every man's work, which sheweth what lamps 1 Cor. are bright, and what are not so. Then shall he who hath oil, and he who hath it not, be manifest. But may none then be found destitute of this comfort; rather may all, bringing in with them abundance of mercy, and having their lamps bright, enter in together with the bridegroom. 25. 12. Since nothing is more fearful and full of anguish than that voice, which they who departed without abundant almsgiving shall then hear the Bridegroom utter, I know you not3. But S. Mat. may we never hear this voice, but rather that most pleasant and desirable one, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For thus shall we live the happy life, and enjoy all 4 S. Mat. the good things which even pass man's understanding: unto which may we all attain, through the grace and mercy, &c. 25.34. HOMILY XXXI. And the 1 COR. xii. 21. eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the hand to the feet, I have no need of you. HAVING checked the envy of those in lower rank, and having taken off the dejection, which it was likely that they would feel from greater gifts having been vouchsafed to others, he humbles also the pride of these latter, who had received the greater gifts. He had done the same indeed in his discourse also with the former. For the statement, that it was a gift and not an achievement, was intended to declare this. But now he doth it again even more vehemently, dwelling on the same image. For from the body, in what follows, and from the unity thence arising, he proceeds to the actual comparison of the members, a thing on which they were especially seeking to be instructed. Since there was not so much power to console them in the circumstance of their being all one body, as in the conviction that in the very things wherewith they were endowed, they were not left greatly behind. And he saith, The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. For though the gift be less, yet is it necessary: and as when the one is absent, many functions are impeded, so also without the other there is a maim in the fulness of the Church. And he said not, will not say, but cannot say. So that even though it have a will, though it should actually say so, it is out of the question, nor is the thing consistent with nature. For this cause having taken the two extremes, he makes trial of his argument in them, first in respect of the hand and the Rule of Compensation in the Limbs of the Body. 425 eye, and secondly, in respect of the head and the feet, adding 1 COR. force to the example. For what is meaner than the foot? Or what more honourable and more necessary than the head? For this, the head, more than any thing, is the man. Nevertheless it is not of itself sufficient, nor could it alone perform all things; since if this were so, our feet would have been a superfluous addition. [2.] And neither did he stop here, but seeks also another amplification, a kind of thing which he is always doing, contending not only to be on equal terms, but even advancing beyond. Wherefore also he adds, saying, Ver. 22. Nay much more, those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: Ver. 23. And those members of the body which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. a In every clause adding the term body, and thereby both consoling the one and checking the other. "For I affirm not this only "," saith he, "that the greater have need of the less, but that they have also much need. Since if there be any thing weak in us, if any thing dishonourable, this is both necessary, and enjoys greater honour." And he well said, which seem, and, which we think; pointing out that the judgment arises not from the nature of the things, but from the opinion of the many. For nothing in us is dishonourable, seeing it is God's work. Thus, what in us is esteemed less honourable than our genital members? Nevertheless they enjoy greater honour. And the very poor, even if they have the rest of the body naked, cannot endure to exhibit those members naked. Yet surely this is not the condition of things dishonourable; but it was natural for them to be despised rather than the rest. For so in a house the servant who is dishonoured, so far from enjoying greater attention, hath not even an equal share vouchsafed him. By the same rule likewise, if this member were dishonourable, instead of having greater privileges, it ought not even to enjoy the a The Text of the Editions seems apparently should be transposed, and here slightly corrupt. The word μovo the second negative omitted. 12.23. |