Exhortation to the Greeks 11.110–12.123

Look a little, if you will, from the beginning at the divine benefaction.

The first man played in paradise, free, since he was a child of God. But when he fell prey to pleasure (the serpent, creeping on its belly, is an allegory of pleasure, an earthly vice, turning toward matter) and was led astray by desires, the child, becoming a man through disobedience and disregarding his Father, was ashamed before God. See what pleasure could do! The man who was free through his simplicity was found bound by sins. The Lord wished to set him free from his bonds again; and, binding himself in flesh (this is a divine mystery), he subdued the serpent and enslaved the tyrant, death; and, most wonderful of all, that man who had been led astray by pleasure, who was bound by corruption, he showed to be set free, with outstretched hands.

O mystic wonder! The Lord has been laid low, and man has risen; and he who fell from paradise receives a greater prize for obedience: the heavens. So it seems to me that, since the Word himself has come to us from heaven, we need no longer go to human teaching, busying ourselves about Athens and the rest of Greece, and Ionia too. For if our teacher is he who has filled all things with holy powers, with creation, salvation, benefaction, lawgiving, prophecy, and teaching, this teacher now instructs us in all things, and the whole world has already become Athens and Greece through the Word. For you surely will not believe a poetic myth that records Minos of Crete as the familiar friend of Zeus, and then disbelieve us, who have become disciples of God and have taken up the truly real wisdom, which the leaders of philosophy only hinted at, but which the disciples of Christ have both grasped and proclaimed. And indeed, so to speak, the whole Christ … is not divided: there is neither barbarian nor Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, but a new man, refashioned by the Holy Spirit of God.

The other counsels and precepts are meager and concern particular matters: whether to marry, whether to take part in public life, whether to have children. But the only universal exhortation, one clearly for the whole of life, at every moment and in every circumstance, directed toward the supreme end, life, is godliness. According to it alone it is necessary to live, so that we may live forever. Philosophy, as the elders say, is a long-drawn-out counsel, wooing an everlasting love of wisdom; but “the commandment of the Lord is far-shining, enlightening the eyes.” Receive Christ, receive sight, receive your light, “so that you may know well both God and man.” “Sweet” is the Word who has enlightened us, “more than gold and precious stone; more desirable than honey and the honeycomb.” For how could he not be desirable, who has made clear the mind buried in darkness and sharpened the “light-bearing eyes” of the soul? For just as, “if there were no sun, it would be night everywhere in spite of the other stars,” so, if we had not known the Word and been lit up by him, we would be no better than fattened birds, fed in darkness and nourished for death. Let us receive the light, so that we may receive God; let us receive the light and become disciples of the Lord. This indeed he promised the Father: “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will sing your praise.” Sing praise and tell me of your Father, God; your stories will save, your song will teach me. Until now I went astray, seeking God; but since you light my way, Lord, I find God through you and receive the Father from you; I become your fellow heir, since you were not ashamed of your brother.

Let us remove, then, let us remove the forgetfulness of truth. Taking away the ignorance and darkness that stand in the way like a mist over the eyes, let us behold the God who truly is, first singing to him this cry: “Hail, Light!” A light has shone on us from heaven, on us who were buried in darkness and shut up in the shadow of death, a light purer than the sun, sweeter than life here. That light is eternal life, and whatever shares in it lives. Night fears the light and, sinking in fear, yields to the day of the Lord. All things have become sleepless light, and the setting has turned into a rising. This is what the new creation meant. For “the Sun of righteousness,” who drives his chariot over all things, visits all humanity alike, imitating the Father, who “makes his sun rise on all people,” and he sprinkles on them the dew of the truth. He has changed the setting into a rising and crucified death into life; snatching the human being from destruction, he has lifted him up to the sky, transplanting corruption into incorruption and changing earth into heaven. He is God's farmer, “giving favorable signs, and rousing the peoples to” good “work, reminding them of” true “livelihood,” and granting us the truly great, divine, and inalienable inheritance of the Father, deifying the human being by heavenly teaching, “putting laws into their minds and writing them on their hearts.” What laws does he write?

“That all shall know God, from the least to the greatest; and I will be merciful to them,” says God, “and I will not remember their sins.” Let us receive the laws of life; let us obey God who exhorts us; let us learn of him, so that he may be merciful; let us pay him, though he needs nothing, a grateful reward, obedience, as a kind of rent to God for our dwelling here. “Gold for bronze, a hundred oxen's worth for nine”: for a little faith he gives you this great earth to cultivate, water to drink and other water to sail, air to breathe, fire to serve you, the world to live in; and he has permitted you to send a colony from here to heaven. All these great and many works and gifts he has hired out to you for a little faith. Then those who believe in sorcerers accept amulets and incantations as if they could save; and will you not bind on the heavenly one himself, the saving Word, and, trusting in God's incantation, be freed from the passions, which are diseases of the soul, and be torn away from sin? For sin is eternal death. Or else, completely toothless and blind like moles, you live in darkness doing nothing but eat, wasting away in corruption. But there is, there is a truth that cries out, “Light shall shine out of darkness.” Let the light shine, then, in the hidden part of the human being, in the heart, and let the rays of knowledge rise, bringing to light and making shine the hidden inner man, the disciple of the light, the friend and fellow heir of Christ; especially when the most honored and revered name of a good father comes to be known by a pious and good child, a father who gives gentle commands and enjoins what is saving on his child. Whoever obeys him gains in every way: he follows God, he obeys the Father, he knew him when he was astray, he loved God, he loved his neighbor, he fulfilled the commandment, he seeks the prize, he claims the promise.

God's purpose is always to save the flock of humankind. For this reason the good God sent the Good Shepherd. The Word, unfolding the truth, has shown human beings the height of salvation, so that they may either repent and be saved, or refuse to obey and be judged. This is the proclamation of righteousness: good news to those who obey, judgment to those who disregard it. The trumpet “of mighty din,” when it sounds, gathers soldiers and proclaims war; and shall not Christ, having breathed a song of peace to the ends of the earth, gather his own soldiers of peace? He has gathered, man, by his blood and by the Word, a bloodless army, and entrusted to them the kingdom of heaven. The trumpet of Christ is his gospel; he has sounded it, and we have heard. Let us arm ourselves for peace, “putting on the breastplate of righteousness,” taking up the shield of faith, putting on the helmet of salvation, and let us sharpen “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” So the apostle draws us up in peaceful battle order. These are our invulnerable weapons; armed with them, let us take our stand against the evil one; let us quench the fiery darts of the evil one with the watery blades dipped by the Word, repaying his benefits with thankful blessings and honoring God with the divine Word. “For while you are still speaking,” he says, “he will say, Here I am.”

O this holy and blessed power, by which God shares citizenship with human beings! It is better, then, and nobler to become at once an imitator and a servant of the highest of all beings; for no one will be able to imitate God except by serving him in holiness, nor to serve and revere him except by imitating him. The heavenly and truly divine love comes to human beings in this way, when somewhere in the soul itself the truly beautiful, rekindled by the divine Word, is able to shine out; and, greatest of all, salvation runs together with the genuine wish for it, will and life being, so to speak, yoked together. Therefore this exhortation of truth alone is likened to the most faithful of friends, remaining with us to our last breath, and becoming a good escort for the whole and perfect spirit of the soul as it departs for heaven. Why then do I exhort you? I am eager that you be saved. This is what Christ wills; in a single word he grants you life. And who is he? Learn in brief: the Word of truth, the Word of incorruption, who regenerates the human being, bringing him back to the truth; the goad of salvation, who drives out corruption, who chases away death, who has built a temple in human beings, so that he may set up God in human beings. Purify the temple; leave your pleasures and idleness to wind and fire like a short-lived flower, and wisely cultivate the fruits of self-control; and dedicate yourself to God as first fruits, so that you may be not only a work but also a grace of God. Both befit the friend of Christ: to be seen worthy of the kingdom, and to be deemed worthy of it.

Let us flee, then, from custom; let us flee it like a dangerous headland, or the threat of Charybdis, or the Sirens of myth. It strangles the human being, turns him from the truth, leads him away from life; it is a snare, a pit, a trench; custom is a greedy evil. “Keep the ship clear of that smoke and wave.” Let us flee, shipmates, let us flee this wave; it belches fire; it is a wicked island heaped with bones and corpses, and on it sings a lovely harlot, Pleasure, delighting in vulgar music: “Come here, much-praised Odysseus, great glory of the Achaeans; bring your ship to land, so that you may hear a diviner voice.” She praises you, sailor, and calls you much-sung, and the harlot claims for herself the glory of the Greeks. Let her feed on the dead; a heavenly spirit comes to your help. Pass by Pleasure; she beguiles. “Let no woman with trailing robes deceive your mind, coaxing with wheedling words, seeking your nest.” Sail past the song; it works death. Only be willing, and you have conquered destruction; bound to the wood, you will be freed from all corruption. The Word of God will be your pilot, and the Holy Spirit will bring you to anchor in the harbors of heaven. Then you will behold my God, and be initiated into those holy mysteries, and enjoy the things hidden in heaven, kept for me, “which neither ear has heard, nor have they entered into the heart” of anyone. “And indeed I seem to see two suns, and a double Thebes,” said someone raving in Bacchic frenzy for idols, drunk with undiluted ignorance. I would pity him in his drunken madness and invite one so out of his mind to a sober salvation, since the Lord too welcomes the repentance of a sinner …

… and not his death. Come, madman, not leaning on the thyrsus, not crowned with ivy; throw away the headband, throw away the fawnskin; come to your senses. I will show you the Word and the mysteries of the Word, describing them in terms of your own imagery. This is the mountain beloved by God, not a subject for tragedies like Cithaeron, but dedicated to the dramas of truth; a sober mountain, shaded by pure woods. On it revel not the sisters of Semele “the thunderstruck,” the maenads, who are initiated into the unholy distribution of flesh, but the daughters of God, the fair lambs, who proclaim the holy rites of the Word, gathering a sober chorus. The chorus is the righteous; the song is a hymn to the King of all. The maidens play the harp, angels give glory, prophets speak; the sound of music is sent forth; they run swiftly after the sacred band; those who have been called hasten, longing to receive the Father. Come to me, old man, you too; leave Thebes, throw away your prophecy and your Bacchic revelry, and be led by the hand to the truth. See, I give you the wood to lean on. Hurry, Tiresias, believe; you will see. Christ shines more brightly than the sun, and through him the eyes of the blind see again. Night will flee from you, fire will be afraid, death will be gone. You will see the heavens, old man, you who do not see Thebes.

O truly holy mysteries! O pure light! I am led by torchlight to behold the heavens and God; I become holy by being initiated. The Lord is the hierophant, and he seals the initiate, giving him light, and commends to the Father the one who has believed, to be kept forever. These are the Bacchic rites of my mysteries. If you wish, be initiated too, and you will dance with the angels around the unbegotten and imperishable and only true God, while the Word of God joins us in the hymn. This eternal Jesus, the one great High Priest of the one God, who is also Father, prays for human beings and exhorts them: “Hear, you countless tribes,” or rather, all of humankind who are rational, both barbarians and Greeks. “I call the whole human race, whose creator I am by the will of the Father. Come to me, to be ranked under one God and the one Word of God; and not only do you surpass the irrational animals by reason, but I grant you alone of all mortals to enjoy the fruit of immortality. For I will, I will to give you a share in this grace too, supplying the benefit in full: incorruption. And I grant you the Word, the knowledge of God; I grant you myself, complete. This is what I am, this is what God wills, this is the symphony, this is the harmony of the Father, this is the Son, this is Christ, this is the Word of God, the arm of the Lord, the power of the universe, the will of the Father. O you who of old were images, but not all resembling the original, I want to restore you to the archetype, so that you may become like me. I will anoint you with the ointment of faith, by which you cast off corruption, and I will show you the naked form of righteousness, by which you ascend to God. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Let us hasten, let us run, you God-beloved and godlike images of the Word; let us hasten, let us run, let us take up his yoke, let us mount toward incorruption; let us love Christ, the good charioteer of human beings. He led the colt under the yoke together with the old one; and having yoked the pair of human beings, he guides the chariot to immortality, hastening to God to fulfill plainly what he signified in a figure, formerly driving into Jerusalem, but now into the heavens: a most beautiful sight for the Father, the eternal, victorious Son. Let us then be ambitious for what is good, and become men beloved by God, and acquire the greatest of good things, God and life. The Word is our helper; let us take courage in him, and may no desire for silver and gold, nor for glory, ever come upon us so strongly as the desire for the Word of truth himself.

For it is not pleasing to God himself if we make least of what is worth most, and prefer the open outrages of ignorance, stupidity, idleness, and idolatry, and the utmost impiety. For not without reason do the sons of the philosophers think that everything the foolish do is sacrilege and impiety; and describing ignorance itself as a form of madness, they confess that the many are simply mad. So the Word does not allow us to doubt which of the two is better, to be sane or to be mad. Rather, holding fast to the truth, we must follow God with all our strength, being of sound mind, and consider all things to be his, as they are; and, having learned that we too are the most beautiful of his possessions, entrust ourselves to God, loving the Lord our God, and considering this our work through our whole life. And if “friends have all things in common,” and the human being is dear to God (for he is indeed God's friend, the Word being mediator), then all things belong to the human being, because all things belong to God, and all things are common to both friends, God and the human being. It is time, then, for us to say that only the godly [Christian] is rich and self-controlled and noble, and in this way an image of God with likeness; and to say and believe that he has become “just and holy with wisdom” through Christ Jesus, and to that extent …

… already like God. The prophet does not hide this grace when he says: “I said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High.” For it is us, us whom he has adopted, and of us alone that he wishes to be called Father, not of the disobedient. And indeed this is how it is with us, the followers of Christ: as are our intentions, so are our words; as are our words, so are our actions; and as are our deeds, such is our life. The whole life of those who have known Christ is good. Enough words, I think, even if I have gone on at some length, out of love for humankind, pouring out whatever I had from God, as I called you to the greatest of good things, salvation. For about the life that has no end whatever, words too are unwilling ever to stop revealing the sacred mysteries. But for you this final point still remains: to choose what is profitable, judgment or grace. For my part, I do not think it right even to doubt which of the two is better; nor is it lawful to compare life with destruction.