Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 32.8–33.5

Let us take care of this, then; for great is its wealth and great the wonder. It provides true freedom and makes it seen even in slavery, not freeing men from slavery, but showing slaves, while they remain slaves, more venerable than free men, which is much more than giving freedom; not making the poor man rich, but showing him, while he remains poor, better off than the rich. And if you wish to work signs too, be freed from offenses, and you have accomplished everything. For sin is a great demon, beloved; and if you take this out, you have done something greater than those who drive out ten thousand demons. Hear Paul speaking and putting virtue before signs: “But be zealous,” he says, “for the greater gifts; and I show you a still more excellent way.” And when he was about to speak of this way, he did not speak of raising the dead, nor of cleansing lepers, nor of anything else of the kind; but in place of all these he set love. Hear Christ too saying, “Do not rejoice that the demons obey you, but that your names are written in heaven.” And before this again: “Many will say to me in that day, ‘Did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons, and do many mighty works?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I do not know you.’” And when he was about to be crucified, he called the disciples and said to them, “By this all will know that you are my disciples,” not if you cast out demons, but “if you have love for one another.” And again, “By this all will know that you sent me,” not if these men raise the dead, but if they are one. For the signs often benefited another but harmed the one who had them, lifting him up to arrogance and vainglory, or in some other way; but with works it is not possible to suspect anything of the kind, but they benefit both those who pursue them and many others. Let us work these, then, with great care. For if you change from inhumanity to almsgiving, you have stretched out the hand that was withered. If you leave the theaters and go to church, you have set right the lame foot. If you turn your eyes away from a harlot and from another’s beauty, you have opened them when they were blind. If instead of satanic songs you learn spiritual psalms, you have spoken though you were mute. These are the greatest miracles, these the wonderful signs. If we continue working these signs, we ourselves shall become great and admirable through them,

and we shall draw all the wicked to virtue, and shall enjoy the life to come; which may we all obtain, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the might for ever and ever. Amen.

“[Behold,] I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Since he had made them confident about necessary food, and opened everyone’s houses to them, and given their entrance a venerable bearing, commanding them to enter not as vagrants and beggars but as far more venerable than those who received them (for he showed this by saying, “The laborer deserves his wage,” and by commanding them to inquire who is worthy and to stay there, and by enjoining them to greet those who received them, and by threatening those who did not receive them with those incurable evils), since, then, he had in this way cast out their anxiety, and armed them with the display of signs, and made them as it were of iron and adamant, freeing them from all worldly things and liberating them from every passing care, he now tells them also of the evils that would befall them; not only those that would happen a little later, but also those that would be long afterward, preparing them from far in advance for the war against the devil. For much was achieved by this: first, that they should learn the power of his foreknowledge; second, that no one should suspect that these terrors came upon them through the weakness of their teacher; third, that those who endured them should not be dismayed by their happening unexpectedly and contrary to hope; fourth, that they should not be troubled at hearing these things at the very time of the cross. For they did suffer this very thing then, when he reproached them and said, “Because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart; and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’” And yet he had not yet said anything about himself, such as that he would be bound and scourged and put to death, so as not to confound their mind by this too; but for the time he foretells what would befall them. Then, so that they might learn that this law of war is new and the manner of the battle strange, sending them naked, with one tunic, unshod, without staff, without belt and bag, and commanding them to be fed by those who received them, he did not stop his discourse even here, but, showing his unspeakable power, he says: Even going out in this way, display the gentleness of sheep, and that though you are about to go to wolves; and not simply to wolves, but into the midst of wolves. And he commands them to have not only the gentleness of sheep, but also the innocence of the dove. For in this way above all I will display my strength, when sheep overcome wolves, and, being in the midst of wolves and receiving countless bites, are not only not consumed but even change them; which is much more wonderful and greater than killing them: to change their purpose and reshape their mind; and that when they were only twelve, and the world was full of wolves. Let us be ashamed, then, who do the opposite, who attack our enemies like wolves. For as long as we are sheep, we conquer; but if we become wolves, though we are ten thousand, we are defeated; for the shepherd’s help departs from us. For he shepherds not wolves but sheep; and he leaves you and withdraws, for you do not let his power be shown. For if, when you are ill treated, you display gentleness, the whole trophy is reckoned to him; but if you go after them and box with them, you overshadow the victory. But consider, I pray you, who they are who hear these hard and toilsome commands: the timid and untrained, the unlettered and ignorant, the obscure in every way, those never brought up in the laws outside, who did not readily throw themselves into the marketplaces; the fishermen, the tax collectors, those full of countless shortcomings. And if these things were enough to disturb even the lofty and great, how were they not enough to cast down and dismay those wholly inexperienced, who had never imagined anything noble? But it did not cast them down. “And very reasonably,” someone might perhaps say; “for he gave them authority to cleanse lepers and drive out demons.” But I would say this: that this very thing was especially able to disturb them, that even while raising the dead they were going to undergo these incurable things, courts and arrests and wars from all and the common hatred of the world, and to await such terrors while working such miracles. What, then, is the consolation for all these things? The power of the one who sends them. That is why he set this before everything, saying, “Behold, I send you.” This is enough for your consolation; this is enough for your confidence, and for fearing none of the things that come upon you.

Do you see authority? Do you see power? Do you see might that cannot be fought? What he means is this: Do not be troubled, he says, that, sending you among wolves, I command you to be as sheep and as doves. For I could have done the opposite, and let you suffer nothing terrible, nor be placed as sheep under wolves, but made you more fearsome than lions; but it is better that it be so. This makes you more glorious too; this proclaims my power too. This he said to Paul too: “My grace is sufficient for you; for my power is made perfect in weakness.” It is I, then, who have made you to be so. For when he says, “I send you out as sheep,” he hints at this. Do not lose heart, then; for I know, I know clearly, that in this way above all you will be invincible to all. Then, so that they might contribute something of their own too, and everything might not seem to be of grace, nor they be thought to be crowned idly and in vain, he says, “Be therefore wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” “And what could our wisdom do,” someone says, “in so many dangers? How shall we be able to have wisdom at all, deluged by so many waves? For however wise a sheep may become in the midst of wolves, and so many wolves, what more will it be able to accomplish? However innocent a dove may become, what will it profit with so many hawks attacking?” With the irrational creatures, nothing; but with you, the greatest things. But let us see what wisdom he requires here. That of the serpent, he says. For as it gives up everything, and even if its body must be cut off does not cling to it much, so as to preserve its head, so you too, he says, give up everything except the faith, whether money or body, even if you must give up life itself. For that is the head and the root; and if that is preserved, even if you lose everything, you will recover everything again with greater splendor. For this reason he commanded one to be neither simple and guileless only nor wise only, but blended both, so that they might become virtue: taking the wisdom of the serpent, so as not to be struck in a vital part, and the innocence of the dove, so as not to retaliate against those who wrong us nor take vengeance on those who plot against us; since again wisdom is of no use unless this is present. What, then, could be more strenuous than these commands? Was it not enough to suffer ill treatment? No, he says; I do not even permit you to be indignant. For this is the dove. It is as if someone threw a reed into the fire and commanded it not to be burned by the fire, but to quench the fire. But let us not be troubled; for these things came to pass and were fulfilled and were shown in the very deeds, and they became wise as serpents and innocent as doves, being not of another nature but of the same as we. Let no one, then, think the commands impossible. For he above all others knows the nature of things; he knows that boldness is quenched not by boldness but by gentleness. And if you wish to see this happening in fact, read the book of the Acts of the Apostles, and you will see how often, when the people of the Jews rose up against them and were gnashing their teeth, these men, imitating the dove and answering with fitting gentleness, put an end to their rage, quenched their madness, and broke their onset. For when they said, “Did we not strictly charge you not to speak in this name?”, though they could have worked countless miracles, they neither said nor did anything harsh, but defended themselves with all meekness, saying, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge.” Did you see the innocence of the dove? Look at the wisdom of the serpent: “For we cannot but speak what we have seen and heard.” Do you see how we must be exact on every side, so as neither to be humbled by dangers nor provoked by anger. That is why he also said, “Beware of men; for they will deliver you up to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.” For again he prepares them to be watchful, everywhere assigning to them the suffering of ill treatment and leaving the doing of it to others, so that you may learn that victory lies in suffering ill, and that the splendid trophies are set up from this. For he did not say, “Box back, you too, and resist those who wish to mistreat you,” but only, “You will suffer the utmost things.” Ah, what … philosophy! For it is very worthy of wonder how, hearing these things, they did not leap away at once, men who were afraid of every noise and had never gone beyond that lake on which they fished; and how they did not reflect and say to themselves, “And where shall we flee then? The courts are against us, the kings against us, the governors, the synagogues of the Jews, the peoples of the pagans, rulers and ruled.” For from here he foretold to them not only Palestine and the evils in it, but also opened up the wars of the world, saying, “You will be brought before kings and governors,” showing that he was going to send them later as heralds to the Gentiles too. “You have made the world our enemy; you have armed all who dwell on earth against us, peoples, tyrants, kings. And what follows is much more terrible, when men are going to become murderers of brothers and children and fathers because of us. For brother will deliver brother to death,” he says, “and the father his child; and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.” How then, they might say, will the rest believe, when they see children killed by fathers because of us, and brothers by brothers, and everything filled with pollution? Will they not drive us out everywhere as destroyers, seeing the earth filled with the blood of kinsfolk and with such murders? A fine peace indeed we shall give, bringing it into the houses, filling them with so many slaughters! For if we were many, and not twelve; if we were not untrained and unlettered, but wise and orators and skilled speakers; or rather if we were kings ourselves, having armies and an abundance of money, how could we persuade anyone while kindling civil wars, and wars much harsher than civil wars? For even if we despise our own safety, which of the others will heed us? But they neither thought nor said any of these things, nor demanded an account of the commands, but only yielded and obeyed. And this was not of their virtue only, but also of their Teacher’s wisdom. For see how he joined a consolation to each of the terrors: in the case of those who did not receive them he said, “It will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that city”; and here again, having said, “You will be brought before governors and kings,” he added, “for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.” And this is no small consolation, to suffer these things for Christ’s sake, and for the conviction of those men? For God, even if no one pays heed, is seen everywhere doing his own part. And he consoled them with these things, not because they desired vengeance on others, but so that they might have confidence that they would have him everywhere present with them, the one who had foretold and foreknown these things, and that they would suffer them not as wicked men and destroyers. And besides these he adds another consolation, and no small one, saying, “But when they deliver you up, do not be anxious how or what you are to speak; for what you are to speak will be given you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” For so that they might not say, “How shall we be able to persuade when such things are happening?”, he commands them to be confident about their defense too. And elsewhere he says, “I will give you a mouth and wisdom”; but here, “It is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you,” raising them to the dignity of the prophets. That is why, when he had spoken of the power given, he then added the terrors, the murders and slaughters. “For brother will deliver brother to death,” he says, “and the father his child; and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.” And he did not stop even there, but added what is much more terrible, enough to shake a rock: “And you will be hated by all.” And here again the consolation is at the door: “for my name’s sake,” he says, you will suffer these things. And besides this again another: “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” And besides, these things were enough to raise up their spirits, if the power of the preaching was going to be kindled so greatly that nature would be dishonored and kinship cast out and the word preferred to all, driving all things before it by force. For if the tyranny of nature cannot stand against what is said, but is dissolved and trampled underfoot, what else will be able to overcome you? Yet it does not follow, because these things will be, that your life will be free from fear; you will have as common foes and enemies those who inhabit the world.

Where now is Plato? Where is Pythagoras? Where is the string of the Stoics? For he [Plato], though he had enjoyed great honor, was so put to the test that he was even sold, and achieved nothing of what he wished, not even with one tyrant; but he also betrayed his disciples and ended his life pitiably. And the refuse of the Cynics all passed away like a dream and a shadow. And yet nothing of the kind ever befell them; but they even seemed illustrious because of the philosophy outside, and the Athenians publicly dedicated the letters of Plato sent by Dion, and they spent all their time in ease, and were rich in no small money. So, at any rate, Aristippus bought expensive harlots; another wrote wills, leaving no ordinary estate; another walked on high when his disciples made a bridge of themselves; and the man of Sinope, they say, even behaved indecently in public in the marketplace. For these are their venerable deeds. But nothing of the kind is here, but intense chastity and exact decorum, and war against the whole world for the truth and for godliness, and being slaughtered every day, and after this the splendid trophies. “But there are some,” someone says, “who were generals among them too, such as Themistocles and Pericles.” But these too are children’s toys compared with the deeds of the fishermen. For what could you say? That he persuaded the Athenians to board their ships when Xerxes was marching against Greece? But here, not when Xerxes was marching, but when the devil with the whole world and countless demons was attacking these twelve, not at one moment but throughout their whole life, they prevailed and conquered; and, what is wonderful, not by killing their opponents, but by changing and reshaping them. For this above all one must observe everywhere: that they did not kill or destroy those who plotted against them, but, taking them equal to demons, made them rivals of angels, freeing human nature from this wicked tyranny, and driving those accursed demons that confound everything out of the midst of marketplaces and houses, or rather even out of the desert itself. And the choirs of monks bear witness, whom they planted everywhere, cleansing not only the inhabited world but even the uninhabited. And, what is more wonderful still, they did not do these things in an equal battle, but accomplished everything by suffering ill. For they had them in their midst, twelve untrained men, binding, scourging, dragging them about, and were not able to stop their mouths; but as it is impossible to bind a sunbeam, so also their tongue. And the reason was that it was not they who were speaking, but the power of the Spirit. So, at any rate, Paul too conquered Agrippa and his court, and Nero, who surpassed all men in wickedness. “For the Lord stood by me,” he says, “and strengthened me, and I was rescued from the mouth of the lion.” But marvel at them too, how, having heard, “Do not be anxious,” they believed and accepted it, and none of the fearful things dismayed them. And if you say that he gave them sufficient consolation by saying, “It is the Spirit of your Father who speaks,” for this very reason I am most amazed at them, that they did not doubt nor seek release from the terrors; and that though they were going to suffer these things not for two or three years but throughout their whole life. For saying, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved,” was the act of one hinting at this. For he wishes not only his own gifts to be brought in, but the good deeds to come from them too. Consider, at any rate, from the beginning how some things are his and others the disciples’. For to work signs is his; but to acquire nothing is theirs. Again, to open all the houses belongs to the grace from above; but to require nothing beyond need, to their philosophy: “for the laborer deserves his wage.” To grant the peace is of God’s gift; to seek out the worthy and not to enter everyone’s house without distinction, of their self-control. Again, to punish those who do not receive them is his; but to withdraw from them with gentleness, not reviling nor insulting, belongs to the meekness of the apostles. To give the Spirit and to make them free of anxiety belonged to the one who sends; but to become as sheep and doves and to bear everything nobly, to their vigor and understanding. To be hated, and not to fall, and to endure, is theirs; to save those who endure, the one who sends. That is why he said, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

For since the many are accustomed to be vehement at the beginning but to slacken afterward, for this reason he says, I seek the end. For what is the use of seeds that bloom at the beginning but wither a little later? That is why he requires lasting endurance of them. For so that no one might say that he did everything himself, and that it was no wonder that they became such men, since they suffered nothing burdensome, for this reason he tells them that there is need of your endurance too. For even if I snatch you out of the first dangers, I am keeping you for other, harsher ones; and after those again others will follow; and you will not cease being plotted against as long as you breathe. For this he hinted at when he said, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” For this reason too, having said, “Do not be anxious what you are to speak,” elsewhere he says, “Be ready to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” For when the contest is among friends, he commands us too to take thought; but when there is a fearful court, and raging mobs, and fears on every side, he provides his own support, so that they may take courage and speak out, and not be terrified nor betray what is just. For it was a very great thing that a man occupied with lakes and hides and the tax office, when tyrants were seated and satraps and spearmen standing by, and swords bared, and all standing with them, should enter alone, bound, looking down, and be able to open his mouth. For they did not even grant them speech or defense about the doctrines, but tried to cudgel them to death as common destroyers of the world. “For these men who have turned the world upside down,” it says, “have come here too”; and again, “They act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Christ Jesus.” And everywhere the courts were taken over beforehand by such suspicions, and there was need of much support from above to show both that the doctrine they preached was true and that they did not damage the common laws; and neither, in their zeal to speak about the doctrine, to fall under suspicion of overturning the laws, nor again, in their zeal to show that they were not overturning the common order, to corrupt the exactness of the doctrines; all of which you will see accomplished with fitting understanding in Peter and in Paul and in all the rest. For they were accused throughout the world as seditious, revolutionaries, and innovators; but nevertheless they repelled this suspicion too and put on the opposite, being proclaimed by all as saviors and guardians and benefactors. And all these things they achieved by great endurance. That is why Paul too said, “I die every day”; and he remained in danger to the end. What, then, would we deserve, who have so many examples and grow soft and fall down in peace? No one persecutes us; we are commanded to be saved in peace, and not even this can we do. And they, when the world was on fire and the pyre was kindled over the whole earth, went in and snatched those who were burning out of the midst of the flame; but you cannot even keep yourself. What boldness, then, shall we have? What pardon? There are no scourges, no prisons, no rulers, no synagogues, nor anything else of the kind pressing on us; quite the opposite, we rule and hold power. For there are pious emperors, and many honors for Christians, and precedence and glory and ease; and not even so do we prevail. But they, being led away every day, both teachers and disciples, and bearing countless weals and continual marks, lived in more delight than those who dwell in paradise; while we, who have not suffered anything like this even in a dream, are softer than any wax. “But they,” someone says, “worked miracles.” Did this, then, keep them from being scourged? Did it keep them from being driven out? For this is the wonderful thing, that they often suffered such things even from those they had benefited, and not even so were they troubled, receiving evil for good; but you, if you do someone some small kindness and then meet with something painful, are troubled and disturbed, and repent of what you did.