Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 19.6–19.11

But what we must above all observe is this: that in each of the words he mentioned virtue as a whole, and included in it not bearing grudges as well (for the hallowing of his name is the precision of a perfect way of life; and the doing of his will again shows this same thing; and being able to call God Father is a demonstration of a blameless way of life; and in all these is included the duty of letting go our anger against those who have offended); but nevertheless he was not content with these, but wishing to show how much zeal he has for the matter, he puts it separately too, and after the prayer mentions no other commandment than this, saying thus: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” So the beginning is from us, and we ourselves are masters of the judgment upon us. For so that not even any of the senseless might be able to complain when he is judged, small or great, he makes you, the one accountable, master of the verdict; “and as you yourself have judged for yourself,” he says, “so I too judge for you. And if you forgive your fellow servant, you will obtain the same favor from me”; and yet this is not equal to that. For you forgive because you need it, but God needing nothing; you forgive a fellow servant, but God a servant; you, being accountable for countless evils, but God, being sinless. But nevertheless even so he shows his love for mankind. For he could have forgiven you all your offenses even without this; but he wants you to be benefited from this too, giving you on every side countless occasions of gentleness and love for mankind, casting out what is beastly in you, quenching your rage, and on every side gluing you to your own member. For what would you be able to say? That you have suffered some evil unjustly from your neighbor? For these are what sins are; since if it were justly, the thing is not even a sin. But you too are coming to receive forgiveness for such things, and for much greater ones. And even before the forgiveness you have enjoyed no small gift, being taught to have a humane soul and trained in all gentleness. And besides these a great reward will be laid up for you there: to be asked for an account of none of your offenses. What punishment, then, should we not deserve, when, having the power, we betray our own salvation? And how shall we deem ourselves worthy to be heard in other matters, when we are unwilling to spare ourselves in those of which we are masters?

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, to the ages. Amen.” Here he plainly teaches us our own meanness and quells our pride, teaching us to decline the contests and not leap into them. For so our victory will be more splendid and the devil’s defeat more ridiculous. For when dragged in we must stand nobly; but when not called, we must keep quiet and wait for the time of the contests, so that we may show both our freedom from vainglory and our nobility. And here he calls the devil “the evil one,” bidding us have a war against him that admits no truce, and showing that he is not such by nature. For wickedness is not among the things that come from nature, but among those that arise from choice. And he is called so by preeminence, because of the excess of his wickedness, and because, though wronged by us in nothing, he wages a war against us that admits no truce. That is why he did not say, “Deliver us from the wicked,” but, “from the evil one,” teaching us nowhere to be ill disposed toward our neighbors for what we suffer from them, but to transfer our enmity from them to him, as the cause of all evils. Having, then, made us watchful by the mention of the enemy, and cut out all our indolence, he again encourages us and raises our spirits, reminding us of the King under whom we are ranked, and showing that he is more powerful than all. “For thine,” he says, “is the kingdom and the power and the glory.” So if the kingdom is his, we need fear no one, since there is no one who opposes him and divides the rule with him. For when he says, “Thine is the kingdom,” he shows that even the one who wars against us is subject, even if he seems to oppose, God permitting it for the time. For he too is among all things, even if among those dishonored and those who have offended; and he would not dare to attack any of his fellow servants without first receiving the authority from above. And why do I speak of [fellow servants]? He did not even venture to attack swine until he himself permitted it, nor flocks nor herds until he received the authority from above. “And the power,” he says. So even if you are ten thousand times weak, you ought to be confident, having such a one as King, who is able to accomplish everything easily even through you. “And the glory to the ages. Amen.” For he not only frees you from the terrible things that come upon you, but is able to make you glorious and illustrious too. For as his power is great, so his glory is unspeakable, and all of them are boundless and have no end. Do you see how he has anointed the athlete on every side and made him confident?

Then, as I said before, wishing to show that he turns away from and hates grudge-bearing more than anything, and accepts above all the virtue opposite to this vice, he reminded us of this good deed again after the prayer too, leading the hearer to obedience to this commandment both from the punishment laid down and from the honor appointed. “For if you forgive men,” he says, “your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive, neither will he forgive you.” For this reason he again mentioned the heavens and the Father, so as to shame the hearer by this too, if, being of such a Father, he should turn into a wild beast, and, called to heaven, should have an earthly and worldly mind. For we must become sons not by grace only but also by works. And nothing makes us so like God as being forgiving to the wicked and to those who wrong us; as indeed he had already taught when he spoke of the sun rising on the evil and the good. For this reason too in each of the words he bids us make our prayers in common, saying, “Our Father,” and “Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth,” and “Give us bread,” and “Forgive us our debts,” and “Lead us not into temptation,” and “Deliver us,” everywhere bidding us use this plural word, so that we may not have even a trace of anger against our neighbor. What punishment, then, would they deserve who after all these things not only do not forgive themselves but even call on God to take vengeance on their enemies, transgressing this law as it were diametrically, and that while he does and arranges everything so that we may not quarrel with one another? For since love is the root of all good things, removing on every side what ruins it, he brings us together and glues us to one another. For there is not, there is not anyone, whether father or mother or friend or anyone else whatever, who has loved us as much as the God who made us. And this is clear above all both from the benefits he gives every day and from what he commands.

But if you tell me of the griefs and pains and evils of life, consider how many times you offend him every day, and you will no longer wonder even if more evils than these come upon you; but if you enjoy some good thing, then you will wonder and be amazed. But as it is, we look at the misfortunes that come upon us, but do not consider the offenses we commit every day; that is why we are distressed. For if we had reckoned up precisely the sins of only one day, then we would have known well of how many evils we are guilty. And to leave aside the other offenses each has committed privately, let me speak of those committed today. And yet I do not know what each of us has sinned; but nevertheless such is the abundance of offenses that even one who knows everything precisely could not take them all from these alone. Who of us was not indolent in praying? Who was not proud? Who did not seek vainglory? Who did not speak ill of his brother, or entertain wicked desire, or look with licentious eyes, or remember an enemy with passion and make his heart swell? But if, while in church and in a short time, we have become guilty of so many evils, what shall we be when we go out from here? If in the harbor the waves are so great, when we go out into the strait of evils, I mean the marketplace and public affairs and the cares of the household,

shall we be able to recognize ourselves at all? But nevertheless God has given us a short and easy road, free of all toil, for release from so many and such great sins. For what toil is it to forgive the one who has pained us? Rather, the toil is not to forgive, but to hold on to the enmity; since being freed from rage both produces great relief and is very easy for the one who is willing. For we need not cross a sea, nor travel a long road, nor climb over mountain peaks, nor spend money, nor strain the body; it is enough only to will, and all sins are loosed. But if you not only do not forgive yourself but even plead with God against him, what hope of salvation will you have left, when, at the very moment when you ought to propitiate him, you provoke him even then, wearing the bearing of a suppliant but uttering the cries of a wild beast, and hurling those darts of the evil one against yourself? That is why Paul too, when mentioning prayer, sought nothing so much as the keeping of this commandment: “lifting up holy hands,” he says, “without anger and disputing.” For if when you need mercy you do not let go your anger even then, but remember it vividly, and that knowing that you are driving the sword against yourself, when will you be able to become humane, and to spit out the poison of this wickedness of the evil one?

And if you have not yet seen the greatness of this absurdity, reckon it as happening among men, and then you will see the excess of the insult. For if someone came to you, a man, asking to be shown mercy, and then, in the middle of it, lying on the ground, saw an enemy and, leaving off entreating you, began to beat him, would you not make your anger greater? Reckon that this happens in the case of God too. For you too, while entreating God, leave off the supplication in the middle and beat your enemy with words, and insult the laws of God, calling on the one who legislated letting go all anger against those who have pained us, and asking him to do the opposite of his own commands. Is it not enough for your punishment that you transgress God’s law, but you even beg him to do this? Has he forgotten what he commanded? Is it a man who said these things? It is God, who knows all things and wants his own laws kept with all precision, and who is so far from doing what you ask that he turns away from you and hates you, who say these things, for the mere saying of them, and exacts the utmost penalty. How then do you ask to obtain from him the very things he bids you with great zeal to abstain from?

But there are some who have come to such a pitch of unreason that they not only pray against their enemies, but even curse their children, and would taste their very flesh if it were possible; or rather, they do taste it. For do not tell me that you did not fix your teeth in the body of the one who pained you; you have done something much worse, as far as it lay with you, asking that wrath be brought down from above upon him, that he be handed over to deathless punishment and overturned with his whole house. Than what bites are these not more grievous? Than what arrows not more bitter? This is not what Christ taught you; he did not bid you bloody your mouth so. For such tongues are more grievous than mouths bloodied with human flesh. How then will you kiss your brother? How will you touch the sacrifice? How will you taste the Master’s blood, with so much poison in your mind? For when you say, “Dash him down, overturn his house, destroy everything,” and pray countless ruins upon him, you are no different from a murderer, or rather from a man-eating wild beast. Let us cease, then, from this disease and madness, and let us show the kindness he commanded toward those who have pained us, so that we may become like our Father who is in heaven. And we shall cease if we remember our own sins, if we examine all our offenses precisely, those at home, those outside, those in the marketplace, those in church.

For if for nothing else, at least for our negligence here we deserve to undergo the utmost penalty. For while prophets are singing, and apostles hymning, and God speaking, we wander outside and bring in the tumult of worldly affairs; and we do not give the laws of God as much quiet as the spectators in the theaters give silence to the letters of the emperor. For there, when these letters are read, consuls and prefects and senate and people all stand upright, listening quietly to what is said; and if in the middle of that deepest silence someone suddenly leaps up and shouts, he pays the utmost penalty as one who has insulted the emperor; but here, when the letters from heaven are read, there is great tumult on every side. And yet the one who sent the letters is much greater than this emperor, and the theater more august; for it is not of men only but of angels too, and the victories which the letters announce are much more awesome than those on earth. That is why not men only, but angels and archangels and the companies of the heavens and all on earth are bidden to give praise: “Bless the Lord,” it says, “all his works.” For the achievements are not small, but surpass all human speech and mind and thought. And these the prophets proclaim every day, each in a different way announcing this splendid trophy. For one says, “You ascended on high, you led captivity captive, and received gifts among men,” and, “The Lord strong and mighty in battle.” Another says, “He shall divide the spoils of the strong.” For he came for this, to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind. And raising the shout of victory over death, he said, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O Hades, is your sting?” Another again, announcing the deepest peace, said, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” And one calls Jerusalem, saying, “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion, for behold, your King comes to you, meek, mounted on a beast of burden and a young colt.” Another proclaims his second coming too, saying, “The Lord whom you seek will come, and who will endure the day of his coming? Leap like calves let loose from bonds.” And another again, amazed at such things, said, “This is our God; no other shall be reckoned beside him.” But nevertheless, while these and many more things are being said, when we ought to shudder and not even think ourselves to be on earth, we make a din as in the middle of the marketplace, we cause disturbance, and talking of things that do not concern us at all, we spend the whole time of the assembly.

When, then, in small things and great, in hearing and in doing, outside and inside and in church, we are so indolent, and besides all these pray against our enemies too, from where shall we have hope of salvation, adding to so many sins another grievous one, equal to them all, this lawless prayer? Why, then, is it right to wonder if something unexpected and painful happens to us, when we ought to wonder when it does not happen? For that belongs to the natural sequence of things, but this is beyond all reason and expectation. For it is beyond reason that men who have become God’s enemies and provoke him enjoy sun and rain and all other things, men who surpass the cruelty of wild beasts, who rise up against one another and bloody their tongues by biting their neighbors, after the spiritual table and so many benefits and countless commands. Considering these things, then, let us vomit out the poison, dissolve our enmities, and make the prayers that befit us; instead of the beastliness of demons, let us take the gentleness of angels; and however much we have been wronged, considering our own sins and the reward laid up for us for this commandment, let us soften our anger, let us calm the waves, so that we may both pass through the present life untroubled, and, departing there, find the Master such as we have been toward our fellow servants. And if this is heavy and fearful, let us make it light and desirable, and let us open the splendid doors of boldness toward him; and what we could not accomplish by abstaining from sins, let us accomplish by having been gentle toward those who have sinned against us (for this is neither heavy nor burdensome); and by doing good to our enemies, let us store up for ourselves beforehand much mercy. For so in the present life too all will love us, and before all others God will love us and crown us and deem us worthy of all 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 to the ages of ages. Amen.