Homilies and Sermons 11.1–12.1

God is good and the giver of good things to the worthy; the devil is wicked and the maker of every kind of evil. And as freedom from envy follows the good, so envy accompanies the devil. Let us guard, then, brothers, against the passion of envy, lest we become sharers in the works of the adversary and be found condemned with him in the same judgment. For if the one who is puffed up falls into the condemnation of the devil, how will the envious man escape the punishment prepared for the devil? For no passion more destructive than envy grows in human souls, which, while it pains outsiders least, is the first and proper evil of the one who has it. For as rust consumes iron, so envy consumes the soul that has it. Or rather, as they say vipers [are born by eating through the womb that bears them], so envy naturally consumes the soul that is in labor with it. For envy is grief at the prosperity of one's neighbor. That is why the envious man is never without pain, never without sorrow. Is his neighbor's land [fruitful]? Is his house abundantly supplied with everything for life? Do delights not fail the man? All these are food for the disease and an addition to the pain of the envious. So he differs nothing from a naked man wounded by everyone. Is someone brave? In good health? These strike the envious man. Is another more graceful in form? Another blow to the envious man. Does so-and-so surpass most in the advantages of the soul? Is he looked up to and emulated for prudence and power of speech? Is another rich, generous and splendid in his gifts and in sharing with the needy, and much praised by those he benefits? All these are blows and wounds, striking him in the middle of the heart. And the hard thing about the disease is that he cannot even speak of it; he hangs his head, is dejected, confused, bewails his lot, and is destroyed by the evil. But asked about his suffering, he blushes to make his misfortune public: "I am envious and bitter; my friend's good things wear me down; I lament my brother's good cheer; I cannot bear the sight of others' good things, but make my neighbors' prosperity my misfortune." This is what he would say if he wished to tell the truth. Choosing to say none of it, he keeps the disease in the depths, smouldering and [consuming] his [inward parts] …

[2] So he neither calls in a physician for the disease nor can find any remedy to ward off the passion, though the Scriptures are full of such cures; but he waits for one relief of the evil: if he should see one of those he envies fall. This is the limit of his hatred: to see the one he envies wretched instead of blessed, the one he emulated become pitiable. Then he makes truce and is a friend, when he sees him weeping, when he beholds him mourning. And he does not [share the joy of] one in good cheer, [but weeps with one who mourns]; he pities the change of his life, from what to what he has fallen, not from humanity and sympathy, praising his former state in words, but to make his misfortune heavier for him. He praises the child after its death and extols it with countless eulogies, how beautiful to look at, how quick to learn, how apt for everything, though he would not have granted it a word of praise while it lived. But if he sees many joining in the praise, he changes again and envies the dead. He admires the wealth after it is lost. The beauty of the body, or [its health after sickness], he extols. In short, he is an enemy of what is present and a friend of what is lost.

[3] What could be more destructive than this disease? It is the corruption of life, the defilement of nature, enmity toward the things given us by God, opposition to God. What drove the demon who began evil mad for the war against men? Was it not envy? Through it he was clearly convicted of fighting against God, being vexed at God for his munificence toward man, and avenging himself on man since he could not on God. Cain is shown doing the same, the first disciple of the devil, taught by him envy and murder, sister lawlessnesses, which Paul too joined when he said … He saw the honor from God, and was inflamed to jealousy, and killed the one honored, to strike at the one who honored him. Unable to fight God, he fell to fratricide. Let us flee, brothers, a disease that teaches fighting against God, the mother of murder, the confusion of nature, ignorance of kinship, the most unreasonable misfortune. Why are you grieved, man, when you have suffered nothing terrible? Why do you war against one who is enjoying some good things and has diminished nothing of yours? And if you are vexed even when you are benefited, are you not plainly envious of your own advantage? Such was Saul, who made the very excess of the benefits he received the occasion of his war against David. First, delivered from his madness by that all-harmonious and divine music, he tried to pierce his benefactor with a spear. Then, saved with his whole army from the enemy and freed from the shame of Goliath, yet because the women dancing in the victory celebration attributed to David ten times the share in what had happened ("David has struck down his ten thousands, and Saul his thousands"), for this one word, and the testimony that came from the truth itself, he first tried to become a murderer with his own hand and to kill him by ambush; then, having made him a fugitive, not even so did he stop his enmity, but finally marched against him with three thousand chosen men and searched the deserts. And if he had been asked the reason for the war, he would certainly have named the man's good deeds. Even when, at the very time of the pursuit, he was caught sleeping and lay ready for slaughter before his enemy, and was again saved by the righteous man, who refrained from laying hands on him, not even by this benefit was he bent; but again he enlisted troops and again pursued, until, caught a second time by the same man in the cave, he made the other's virtue more splendid and his own wickedness more evident. Envy is the most unmanageable kind of enmity. For good deeds make other enemies gentler; but the envious and malicious man is provoked all the more by being well treated; and the greater the benefits he receives, the more he is vexed, pained and aggrieved. For he is more annoyed at his benefactor's power than grateful for what is done for him. What beast do they not surpass in harshness of character? Which of the untamed do they not exceed in savagery? Dogs that are fed become gentle; lions grow tame when they are tended; but the envious grow wilder for being attended to.

What made the noble Joseph a slave? Was it not his brothers' envy? Here one may well marvel at the unreasonableness of the disease. Fearing the fulfilment of his dreams, they made their brother a slave, as though a slave would never be bowed down to. And yet if the dreams were true, what device could prevent the predictions from coming to pass altogether? And if the visions of the dreams were false, why did you envy the one who was mistaken? But as it was, by God's dispensation their cleverness was turned against them. For by the very means by which they thought to hinder the prediction, they were shown to be paving the way for its fulfilment. For if he had not been sold, he would not have come to Egypt, would not, through his chastity, [have been the object of plots and] been thrown into prison, would not have become acquainted with Pharaoh's servants, nor interpreted the dreams by which he received the rule of Egypt, and was bowed down to by his brothers who came to him because of the famine. Pass in thought to the greatest envy, aroused over the greatest things, which arose from the madness of the Jews against the Savior. Why was he envied? For his miracles. And what were the wonders he worked? The salvation of those in need. The hungry were fed, and the one who fed them was warred against; the dead were raised, and the one who gave life was envied; [demons were driven out, and the one who commanded them] was plotted against; lepers were cleansed, the lame walked, the deaf heard, the blind saw, and the benefactor was driven out. And at last they handed over to death the one who gave life, scourged the liberator of men, and condemned the judge of the world. So far did the evils of envy go. And with this one weapon, from the foundation of the world to the end of the age, the devil, the destroyer of our life, wounds and overthrows all, he who rejoices in our destruction, who fell through envy and casts us down with himself through the same passion. Wise, then, was he who did not allow one even to dine with an envious man, speaking from the fellowship of the dinner about all the fellowship of life together. For as we take care to put easily kindled material as far as possible from fire, so … we must draw away our friendships, putting ourselves outside the range of envy's arrows. For it is not otherwise possible to be entangled with envy except by coming near it through familiarity. For according to Solomon's saying, "a man's jealousy comes from his companion." And so it is. The Scythian does not envy the Egyptian, but each his fellow countryman; and among fellow countrymen he envies not those he does not know but those most familiar; and among acquaintances, neighbors and fellow craftsmen and other close associates; and among these again, those of his age, relatives and brothers. In short, as blight is the peculiar disease of grain, so envy is the sickness of friendship. One thing indeed one might even praise in this evil: that the more [violent it is, the more painful it is] to the one who has it. For as arrows shot violently, when they strike something strong and resistant, come back on the one who shot them, so the movements of envy, doing no harm to the one envied, become blows to the envious man himself. For who by grieving ever diminished his neighbor's good things? Rather, he consumed himself, wasting away with grief. Those sick with envy have even been thought more destructive than venomous creatures themselves, since these inject their venom through a wound, while some think the envious inflict harm through their eyes alone, so that bodies in good health, blooming from the prime of youth to the height of beauty, waste away under their envious glance, and their whole bulk is destroyed at once, as if some destructive and corrupting flux were at work. I dismiss this account as vulgar, brought into the women's quarters by old women; but I say this: that the demons who hate the good, when they find wills akin to themselves, use them in every way for their own purpose, so that they even use the eyes of the envious in the service of their own will. Do you not shudder, then, to make yourself the servant of a destructive demon, but receive an evil through which you will become the enemy of those who do you no wrong, and the enemy of God who is good and free from envy?

[5] Let us flee an unbearable evil. It is the serpent's teaching, the demons' invention, the enemy's sowing, the pledge of punishment, the hindrance of piety, the road to Gehenna, the loss of the kingdom. The envious are somehow evident even from their face. Their eye is dry and lustreless, their cheek dejected, their brow contracted, their soul confused by the passion, having no criterion of truth in matters. No virtuous action is praiseworthy to them, no power of speech adorned with dignity and grace, nothing else enviable and admired. As vultures fly to what stinks, passing over many meadows and many pleasant and fragrant places, and flies pass by what is healthy and hurry to a sore, so the envious do not even look at the splendors of a life and the greatness of its achievements, but fasten on what is rotten; and if someone happens to stumble, as human things are many, they publish it, and want people known by this, like bad painters who mark the forms of those they paint by a crooked nose or some scar or mutilation, whether from nature or from an accident. They are clever at spitting on what is praiseworthy by twisting it to the worse, and slandering virtue by the vice next to it. They call the brave man rash, the self-controlled insensible, the just harsh, the prudent knavish. The magnificent they slander as vulgar, the liberal as prodigal, and again the thrifty as stingy. In short, no form of virtue lacks a name among them borrowed from the opposite vice. What then? Shall we stop our discourse at the accusation of the evil? But this is only half of the cure. For to show the patient the greatness of the disease, so as to give him a care proportionate to the evil, is not useless; but to stop there, without leading him to health, is nothing else than to abandon the patient to his sickness. What then? How could we avoid catching the disease at all, or escape it if we have been drawn in? First, if we judge nothing human great or extraordinary: not wealth among men, not glory that fades, not bodily health. For we do not define the good as lying in what passes away, but we have been called to share in eternal and true goods. So the rich man is not to be envied for his wealth, nor the ruler for the bulk of his rank, nor the strong man for the vigor of his body, nor the wise man for the [abundance] of his speech. For these are instruments of virtue for those who use them well, not having blessedness in themselves. One who uses them badly is pitiable, like one who wounds himself with the sword he took to defend himself against enemies; but one who handles what he has well and according to right reason, and is a steward of what is God's, and does not store it up for his own enjoyment, deserves to be praised and loved for the brotherly love and generosity of his character. Again, someone excels in prudence, is honored with the word of God, and is an interpreter of the sacred oracles: do not envy such a one, nor ever wish the expounder of holy things to be silent, if by the grace of the Spirit some approval and praise from the hearers follow him. For the good is yours, and the gift of teaching was sent to you through your brother, if you are willing to receive it. Then again, no one stops up a gushing spring, and no one covers his eyes when the sun shines, nor envies these, but wishes himself the enjoyment of them; but when spiritual speech gushes in the church, and a pious heart [overflows] from the gifts of the Spirit, do you not receive the benefit gratefully? But the applause of the hearers stings you, and you would have wished there were neither anyone benefited nor anyone praising. What defence will this have before the judge of our hearts? We must think that the good of the soul is good by nature; and the one who abounds in wealth, and is proud of power and bodily health, but uses well what he has, we should love and cherish as possessing the instruments of life in common, if he handles them according to right reason: so as to be generous to the needy with the supply of his money, to give the service of his body to the sick, and to consider all the rest of his abundance no more his own than any of those in need. But the one not so disposed toward these things we should count wretched rather than enviable, if he has greater occasions for being wicked. For this is to perish with greater equipment and effort. For if wealth is provision for injustice, the rich man is pitiable; if it is service for virtue, envy has no place, since the benefit from it is set before all in common; unless someone, through excess of wickedness, envies even himself his good things. In short, if you rise above human things in your reasoning and look to what is truly good and praiseworthy, you will be far from judging any of perishable things best and enviable. For one so disposed, and not struck with amazement at worldly things as though they were great, it is impossible that envy should ever come. But if you are altogether eager for glory, and wish to stand out above the many, and therefore cannot bear to be second (for this too is an occasion for envy), then turn your ambition, like a stream, to the acquisition of virtue. Do not wish to be rich by every means at all costs, nor to be well thought of for worldly things. For these are not in your power; but be just, self-controlled, prudent, brave, and enduring in sufferings for piety. So you will both save yourself and have greater fame for greater goods. For virtue is in our power and can be acquired by one who labors; but abundance of money, bodily beauty and the bulk of rank are not in our power. If, then, virtue is a greater and more lasting good, and has the acknowledged preference of all, it is what we must pursue; and it [cannot] grow in the soul unless it is [cleansed] of the other passions, and above all of envy …

Do you not see how great an evil hypocrisy is? This too is a fruit of envy. For duplicity of character arises in men chiefly from envy, when, keeping hatred in the depths, they show a surface gilded with love, like rocks under the sea, which, covered by a little water, become an unforeseen evil to the unwary. If, then, death too flowed upon us from there as from a spring, loss of good things, estrangement from God, confusion of laws, and the overthrow of all the good things of life together, let us obey the apostle, and not [become conceited, provoking one another,] envying one another, but rather be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God also forgave us, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom be glory to the Father with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

On the beginning of Proverbs.

Good is the reward of obedience. Let us, then, obey a kind Father, who sets before us contests drawn from the oracles of the Spirit; like experienced huntsmen who want to test a young hound's running on rough ground. He has set before us for exposition the opening of Proverbs. How hard to track down the meaning of this text is, is known to anyone who has given it even a little attention. Still, we must not shrink from the attempt, setting our hope on the Lord, who, through the prayers of our shepherd, will give us speech in the opening of our mouth. We know that the most wise Solomon composed three treatises in all: these Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, each written with its own aim; but all were written for the benefit of human beings. Proverbs is a training of character and a correction of the passions, and in general a teaching for life, containing frequent counsels about what is to be done. Ecclesiastes touches on the study of nature and reveals to us the vanity of the things in this world, so that we may not spend the cares of the soul on vain things. The Song of Songs shows the manner of the souls' perfecting; for it contains the harmony of bride and bridegroom, that is, the soul's intimacy with God the Word. But let us return to the matter at hand.

[2] “The proverbs of Solomon son of David, who reigned in Israel.” Outside writers give the name “proverb” (paroimia) to the more popular sayings, and mostly to things said along the roads; for among them a road is called oimos, which is why they defined a proverb as a wayside saying that stays in common use and can be transferred from a few cases to more that are like them. Among us, however, a proverb is a useful saying delivered with a moderate veiling, containing much that is useful at once but also hiding a great deal of meaning in its depth. Hence the Lord too says: “These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in proverbs, but will tell you plainly”; since proverbial speech does not have its meaning on the surface, but indicates its intent obliquely to the more alert. “Proverbs of Solomon,” then: that is, words of exhortation, useful along the whole road of life. He added the writer's name so as to draw the hearer by the distinction of the person. For the credibility of those who are eminent in life … and makes the learners more attentive. “Proverbs of Solomon,” then, that Solomon to whom the Lord said: “Behold, I have given you a prudent and wise heart; there has been none like you before you, and after you none like you shall arise”; and again: “The Lord gave Solomon wisdom and very great understanding, and breadth of heart like the sand by the sea. And Solomon's wisdom was multiplied beyond the understanding of all men of old, and beyond all the wise of Egypt.” So necessary is the addition of the name: “Proverbs of Solomon son of David.” The father too is added, so that you may know that Solomon was wise, born of a wise father who was a prophet, trained in the sacred writings from infancy, and that he did not obtain rule by lot, nor force his way into a kingship that did not belong to him, but received his father's scepter by his father's just decision and God's vote. He became king of Jerusalem. Nor is this said idly: chiefly to distinguish those of the same name, and then also because of the building of the celebrated temple, so that you may recognize its builder and the author of the whole ordering of the city, of its laws and its good order. It also contributes much to the acceptance of the exhortations that the writer of the book is a king. For if kingship is lawful authority, it is clear that counsels given by a king, at least by one truly worthy of the title, carry much lawful weight, since they aim at what benefits all in common and are not composed with a view to his own advantage. For in this a tyrant differs from a king: the one looks everywhere to his own interest, the other provides what is beneficial to his subjects. He also enumerates the useful things that come from the book, what they are and how many, for those who are taught.

[3] And first, from the Proverbs one may “know wisdom and instruction.” Wisdom is knowledge of things divine and human and of their causes. So whoever speaks of God aright has known wisdom, as blessed Paul also says: “We speak wisdom among the perfect, yet not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God foreordained before the ages.” And whoever perceives the Creator from the construction of the world, he too has known God through the wisdom of the world. “For his invisible things from the creation of the world” … us in the thought of God; through which he says: “God by wisdom founded the earth”; and: “When he prepared the heaven, I was present with him”; and: “I was beside him, fitting things together; I was the one in whom he rejoiced.” For in all these, personifying wisdom for us so as to present the knowledge of it vividly, he speaks in her person. And in general the words “The Lord created me the beginning of his ways” are said of the wisdom displayed in the world, which all but utters a voice through the things that are seen, saying that it came from God and that so great a wisdom does not adorn what has been made by chance. For as “the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands” (they declare it without a voice), for “there is no speech, nor are there words, whose voices are not heard,” so too there are certain words of the primordial wisdom, which was laid down together with creation before the other things in the work of making. Silent, it cries out its own Creator and Lord, so that through it you may run up to the thought of the only wise one.

[4] There is also a human wisdom, the experience of the affairs of life, according to which we call wise those who are skilled in each of the useful arts. That is why the writer gives much of the book to exhortation to … wisdom: “Wisdom is sung in the streets, in the squares she speaks boldly, on top of the walls she …” For seeing the love of honor in human beings, and that we all naturally welcome what is conspicuous, he rouses souls by the praises of wisdom not to lay claim to her sluggishly or as a side matter. He says that she is much spoken of everywhere: in the roads, in the marketplaces, in the strongholds of the city. That is why he speaks of gates and squares and walls: by the ways out and the squares he hints at her conspicuousness, by the walls at the benefit that comes from her and her sufficiency for complete security of life. And wishing to make us her intimates, he says: “Say that wisdom is your sister”; and again: “Love her, and she will keep you.” Then, showing her common benefit, and that the benefit from her is offered to all alike: “She has slaughtered her sacrifices,” he says; that is, she has prepared solid food for those whose senses of the soul are trained by practice. “She has mixed her wine in a bowl,” the wine that gladdens the heart of man. By the bowl he means the common and public sharing of good things, from which all may equally draw what is possible and proportioned to each. “And she has prepared her table.” He says everything figuratively, showing us spiritual things through bodily ones. For he calls the rational food of the soul a table, to which he calls together “with a lofty proclamation,” that is, with doctrines that have nothing low or degraded. “Whoever is foolish, let him turn aside to me.” For as the sick need medicine, so the foolish need wisdom. And: “It is better to trade in her than in treasures of gold and silver”; and: “She is more precious than costly stones; nothing precious is worthy of her”; and: “Son, if you become wise for yourself, you will be wise also for your neighbors”; and: “For a wise son, his doings will prosper.” In short, you can learn the truth of what is said by reading at leisure what Solomon says about wisdom. But since “wisdom will not enter a soul that devises evil,” he first cleanses through divine fear the souls of those who are to keep company with wisdom. For to throw the mysteries of salvation to anyone at all, and to receive all alike, people who have neither a pure life nor an examined and exact doctrine, is like pouring costly ointment into a dirty vessel. Therefore “the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.” Fear purifies the soul, as the prophet prays: “Nail my flesh with your fear.” For where fear dwells, there all purity of soul is established, and all wickedness and unholy action flees, since the members of the body cannot be moved to wrong actions, being nailed down by fear. For just as one who has bodily nails driven into him is inactive, held fast by the pains, so one seized by the fear of God cannot use his eye for what he should not, cannot move his hands to forbidden actions, cannot do anything at all, small or great, contrary to what is fitting, held as if by a pain …