Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 17.5–17.7

Then, leading them further away from swearing by God, he says, “Neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King,” still speaking from the prophetic writings and showing that he is not opposed to the ancient ones; for they had the custom of swearing by these, and he shows this custom toward the end of the Gospel. But see, I beg you, from what he exalts the elements: not from their own nature, but from God’s relation to them, which is spoken of by way of condescension. For since the tyranny of idolatry was great, so that the elements might not seem to be honorable in themselves, he set down the reason we have mentioned, which again passed over to the glory of God. For he did not say, “because heaven is beautiful and great,” nor, “because the earth is useful,” but, “because the one is the throne of God, and the other his footstool,” on every side pressing them toward the Master. “Nor by your head,” he says, “for you cannot make one hair white or black.” Here again it is not out of admiration for man that he led them away from swearing by the head (for then he himself would have been worshiped), but bringing the glory up to God and showing that you are not master even of yourself, and so not of oaths by your head either. For if no one would give his own child to another, much more will God not give up his own work to you. For even if the head is yours, it is the possession of another; and you are so far from being its master that you will not be able to do even the very least thing in it. For he did not say, “You cannot pull out a hair,” but, “you cannot even change its quality.”

“What then,” someone says, “if someone demands an oath and brings compulsion to bear?” Let the fear of God be stronger than the compulsion. For if you are going to put forward such excuses, you will keep none of the commands. For about the wife too you will say, “What then if she is quarrelsome and extravagant?” And about the right eye: “What then if I love it and am on fire?” And about the licentious look: “What then if I cannot help looking?” And about anger against a brother: “What then if I am rash and cannot control my tongue?” And so you will simply trample on everything that has been said. And yet in the case of human laws you nowhere dare to put this forward, nor to say, “What then if such and such?” but willingly or unwillingly you accept what is written. Besides, you will never even undergo compulsion. For he who has heard the beatitudes above and has made himself such as Christ commanded will undergo no such compulsion from anyone, being respected and revered by all.

“But let your yes be yes and your no no; what is more than these is from the evil one.” What then is what is more than yes and no? The oath, not perjury. For that is agreed upon, and no one needs to learn that it is from the evil one, and that it is not something more but something contrary; but “what is more” is the excess, what is added over and above, which is the oath. “What then,” someone says, “was it from the evil one? And if it was from the evil one, how was it law?” You will say this same thing about the wife too: how is what was formerly permitted now reckoned adultery? What then can one say to this? That the things said then belonged to the weakness of those who received the laws; since to be served with the savor of sacrifice is quite unworthy of God, just as lisping is unworthy of a philosopher. Such a thing, then, has now been reckoned adultery, and swearing from the evil one, now that the things of virtue have advanced. But if these had been laws of the devil from the beginning, they would not have achieved so much. For if those had not run on before, the present things would not have been received so easily. Do not, then, demand their excellence now, when their use has passed away, but then, when the time called for them; or rather, if you will, even now. For even now their excellence is shown, and especially by the very thing for which it is slandered by us. For that they appear such now is their greatest praise. For if it had not nourished us well and made us fit for the reception of greater things, they would not have appeared such. Just as the breast, when it has fulfilled its whole part and is sending the child on to a more perfect table, afterward appears useless; and the parents who formerly thought it necessary for the child slander it with countless jests; and many not only slander it with words but also smear it with bitter drugs, so that when words cannot remove the child’s untimely attachment to it, things may quench the longing;

so too Christ said that they are from the evil one, not to show that the Old Testament belongs to the devil, but so as to lead them away from the old meanness with great intensity. And this he says to them; but in the case of the senseless Jews who persisted in the same things, he smeared the city as it were with a kind of bitterness, the fear of captivity, and made it inaccessible. And since not even this was able to restrain them, but they again longed to see it, running like a child to the nipple, he hid it away completely, both destroying it and leading most of them far away from it; just as many people with cattle shut the calves away and by time persuade them to give up their old habit of milk. But if the Old Testament were the devil’s, it would not have led them away from idolatry, but on the contrary would have led them into it and thrown them into it; for this is what the devil wanted. But as it is, we see the opposite done by the Old Testament. And this very thing, the oath, was legislated in old times for this reason, that they might not swear by idols: “For you shall swear,” it says, “by the true God.” So the law achieved no small things but very great ones. For their coming to solid food was the work of its zeal.

“What then,” someone says, “is not swearing from the evil one?” Very much so indeed; but now, after so great a philosophy; but then not. “And how could the same thing be,” someone says, “now good, now not good?” But I say the opposite: how could it not be good and not good, when all things cry it out, the arts, the fruits, all the other things? See, at any rate, how this happens first of all in our own nature. For to be carried is good in the first stage of life, but afterward ruinous; to eat chewed food is good at the beginning of our life, but afterward full of disgust; to be fed on milk and to run to the nipple is useful and saving at the beginning, but afterward ruinous and harmful. Do you see how the same things appear good because of the times, and again not such? For to wear a child’s garment is good for a lad, but for one who has become a man, shameful. Do you want to learn from the opposite too how the things of a man are in turn unfitting for a child? Give the child a man’s garment, and there will be much laughter, and greater danger, since he will often trip as he walks. Give him public affairs to handle, and trade, and sowing, and reaping, and again there will be much laughter. And why do I say these things? For murder, which is agreed by all to be an invention of the evil one, when it seized the fitting occasion, caused Phinehas, who did it, to be honored with the priesthood. For that murder is that one’s work, hear what he says: “You want to do the works of your father; he was a murderer from the beginning.” But Phinehas became a slayer, and “it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” it says. And Abraham, becoming not only a slayer but a slayer of his child (which was much worse), was the more approved. And Peter too wrought a double slaying, but nevertheless what was done was spiritual. Let us not, then, examine things simply, but let us seek out with all precision the time, the cause, the intention, the difference of persons, and whatever else accompanies them; for there is no other way of reaching the truth.

And let us be eager, if we wish to attain the kingdom, to show something more than the old commands, since it is not possible to lay hold of heavenly things otherwise. For if we reach only the same measure as the ancients, we shall stand outside these doors. “For unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” But nevertheless, even with so great a threat laid down, there are some who not only do not surpass that righteousness but even fall short of it. For they not only do not flee oaths but even swear falsely; they not only do not avoid the licentious look but even fall into the wicked deed itself, and they dare all the other forbidden things without feeling, waiting for one thing only, the day of punishment, when they will pay the utmost penalty for their offenses; which belongs only to those who have ended their life in wickedness. For of those one must despair, and expect nothing else but punishment from then on; but those who are still here will be able to fight again, and to conquer, and to be crowned easily.

Do not lose heart, then, O man, nor dissolve your good zeal; for the commands are not burdensome. What toil is it, tell me, to avoid an oath? Is it an expense of money? Is it sweat and hardship? It is enough only to will it, and the whole is done. And if you put forward habit to me, for this very reason above all I say that the achievement is easy. For if you set yourself in another habit, you have achieved the whole. Consider, at any rate, that among the Greeks many who stammered corrected their halting tongues by much practice, and others whose shoulders rose and moved in a disorderly way cured it by continually placing a sword over them. For since you are not persuaded by the Scriptures, I am compelled to shame you from those outside. This God too did with the Jews, saying, “Go to the isles of Kittim, and send to Kedar, and know whether nations will change their gods, and they are no gods.” And he often sends them to irrational creatures too, saying, “Go to the ant, O sluggard, and emulate its ways, and go to the bee.” This, then, I too now say to you: consider the philosophers of the Greeks, and then you will know how great a punishment we deserve who disobey the divine laws, when they have toiled countless times for human decorum, while you do not show the same zeal even for heavenly things. And if after this you should say that habit is terribly able to steal upon even the very zealous, I too agree with this; but I add this as well, that as it is terrible at deceiving, so it is easy to correct.

For if you set many guards over yourself at home, such as your servant, your wife, your friend, being easily pushed and driven by them all, you will give up the wicked habit. And if you achieve it for only ten days, you will need no further time, but the whole will lie secure for you, rooted again by the firmness of the best habit. When, then, you begin to correct this, even if you transgress the law once, even twice, even three times, even twenty times, do not despair; but rise up again, take hold of the same zeal, and you will certainly win. For perjury is no ordinary evil. And if swearing is from the evil one, how great a punishment will perjury bring?

Did you praise what was said? But I have no need of applause, nor of noise, nor of din. I want one thing only, that, listening with quiet and understanding, you do what is said. This is applause to me, this praise. But if you praise what is said and do not do what you praise, the punishment is greater, the accusation heavier, and for us shame and ridicule. For the present gathering is not a theater, nor are you sitting now watching tragic actors, only to applaud. This place is a spiritual school. That is why the one thing aimed at is to achieve what is said and to show obedience by deeds. For then we shall have gained everything; as it is, we have even given up hope at last. For I have not ceased exhorting these things both to those who meet me in private and to you when I speak in common, and I see nothing at all come of it, but you still holding to the first elements; which is enough to put great weariness into the teacher. See, at any rate, Paul too vexed for this reason, that his hearers were spending a long time on the first lessons. “For though by this time you ought to be teachers,” he says, “you need someone to teach you again the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God.” That is why we too lament and mourn. And if I see you persisting, I shall forbid you from now on to set foot on these sacred thresholds and to share in the deathless mysteries, as I forbid those who commit sexual immorality and adultery and those charged with murders. For it is better to offer the customary prayers with two or three who keep the laws of God than to drag along a multitude of lawbreakers who corrupt the others too.

Let no rich man puff himself up at me here, let no powerful man raise his eyebrows. All these things are to me a fable and a shadow and a dream. For none of those who are now rich will stand by me there, when I am accused and charged with not having vindicated the laws of God with the vehemence that befits me. For this, this destroyed that wonderful old man too, although he offered a blameless life; but nevertheless, because he overlooked the laws of God being trampled, he was punished together with his sons and paid the grievous penalty. And if, where the tyranny of nature was so great, he who did not treat his own sons with fitting courage paid so grievous a penalty, what pardon shall we have, who are free of that tyranny and corrupt everything by flattery? So that you may not destroy us as well as yourselves, then, be persuaded, I beg you; and setting over yourselves countless examiners and auditors, rid yourselves of the habit of oaths, so that, advancing from here by a road, you may achieve all the rest of virtue with ease, and enjoy the good things to come; which may we all obtain, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the might, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.