Orations (other than the Theological Orations) 37.9–37.24

What of the Pharisees? To them the saying seems harsh. For other things too that are right displease both the Pharisees of that time and the Pharisees of today. For it is not only descent but also way of life that makes a Pharisee; so too I know an Assyrian and an Egyptian, the man who by his choice ranks himself with them. What then do the Pharisees say? “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry.” Do you only now learn this, Pharisee, that “it is not expedient to marry”? Did you not know it before, when you saw the widowhoods and the orphanhoods, the untimely deaths, the mourning that follows close on the applause, the tombs beside the bridal chambers, the childlessness and the bad children, the births unfinished and the infants left motherless, and all the … that goes with these? Is it expedient to marry? I too accept it: “for marriage is honourable and the bed undefiled”; but it is expedient for the moderate, not for the insatiable and those who wish to give the flesh more honour than is due. When marriage is only this, marriage and union and the desire for a succession of children, marriage is good, for it brings in more people who are pleasing to God. But when it kindles matter and surrounds itself with thorns and becomes, as it were, a road of vice, then I too say: “It is not expedient to marry.”

Marriage is good, but I cannot say that it is higher than virginity. For virginity would be nothing great if it were not better than something good. Do not be angry, you women who are under the yoke: “we must obey God rather than men.” But be bound to one another, virgins and wives, and be one in the Lord, and each other's ornament. There would be no unmarried person if there were no marriage; for where did a virgin come from into this life? Marriage would not be revered if it did not bear virgins as fruit both for God and for life. You too, then, honour your mother, from whom you were born; and you too honour her who is from a mother, though not a mother herself. A mother she is not, but she is a bride of Christ. Visible beauty is not hidden; the invisible is seen by God. “All the glory of the king's daughter is within, clothed in golden fringes, embroidered,” whether with deeds or with contemplations. She who is under the yoke is in part Christ's; the virgin is wholly Christ's. Let the one not be wholly bound to the world; let the other not belong to the world at all. For what is a part for her who is under the yoke is the whole for the virgin. Have you chosen the angels' way of life? You have been ranked with the unwedded; do not be brought down into the flesh, do not be brought down into matter, do not be wedded to matter, even though otherwise you remain unmarried. An eye that commits fornication does not keep virginity; a tongue that commits fornication has union with the evil one; feet that walk disorderly accuse of disease or danger. Let the mind too be virgin; let it not roam, not wander, not carry within it images of evil deeds, for the image too is a part of fornication; let the soul not form idols of what is hateful.

But he said to them, “Not all receive this saying, but those to whom it is given.” Do you see the loftiness of the thing? It is found almost beyond receiving. For how is it not higher than flesh, that one born of flesh should not beget for the flesh? How is it not angelic, that one bound to flesh should not live according to the flesh, but be higher than nature? The flesh bound her to the world, but reason led her up to God; the flesh weighed her down, but reason gave her wings; the flesh fettered, but longing set free. Be wholly stretched out towards God in your soul, virgin (and this very thing I lay down as law for men and women alike), and let nothing else appear beautiful to you of the things the many find beautiful: not family, not wealth, not throne, not power, not the beauty that makes a show in a fine complexion and the composition of the limbs, the plaything of time and disease. If you have emptied the whole power of love towards God, if you do not have two objects of desire, the transient and the invisible, then you have been so wounded by the chosen arrow and have so learned the beauty of the Bridegroom that you can say with the bridal drama and song: “You are sweetness, and altogether desire.”

Look at the streams enclosed in lead pipes: because they are so tightly confined and driven towards one point, they often go so far beyond the nature of water as even to move upward, always pushed from behind. So, if you compress your longing and are joined wholly to God, you will move upward; you will not fall down, you will not be scattered; you will remain wholly Christ's, until you see Christ, your Bridegroom. Keep yourself unapproachable in word, in deed, in life, in thought and in movement. On every side the evil one busies himself about you; he spies out everything, where he may strike, where he may wound, in case he finds something uncovered and ready for a blow. The purer he sees you, the more eager he is to stain you; for on a bright garment stains are more conspicuous. Let not eye draw eye, nor laughter laughter, nor familiarity night, nor night ruin. For what is drawn away and stolen little by little does harm unnoticed for the present, but it ends in the sum of vice.

“Not all,” it says, “receive this saying, but those to whom it is given.” When you hear “to whom it is given”, do not fall into a heretical notion; do not bring in the natures, the earthly, the spiritual and the intermediate. For some are so badly disposed as to think that some people are of a nature wholly perishing, others of a nature being saved, and others so constituted that their choice leads them to worse or better. That one person has more aptitude than another, or less, I too accept; but aptitude alone is not enough for perfection: reason is what calls it out, so that nature may come into act, as a flint struck with iron, and so fire is produced. When you hear “to whom it is given”, add: it is given to those who are called and who incline in this direction. For when you hear, “not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy”, I advise you to understand the same. For since there are some so proud of their achievements as to ascribe all to themselves and nothing to him who made them and gave them wisdom and supplies good things, the word teaches them that even to will well needs help from God; or rather, that even to choose what is right is something divine and a gift of God's love for man. For there must be both: that it is in our power, and that salvation is from God. That is why it says “not of him who wills”, that is, not of him who wills alone, nor of him who runs alone, but also of God who shows mercy. Then, since willing too is from God, it rightly ascribed the whole to God. However much you run, however much you contend, you need him who gives the crown. “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, they watch in vain who guard it.” “I know,” it says, “that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,” nor victory to those who fight, nor harbours to those who sail well; it belongs to God both to bring about victory and to bring the ship safe into harbour.

This is also said and understood elsewhere, and perhaps it is necessary to add to what has been said what has occurred to me, that I may share my wealth with you too. The mother of the sons of Zebedee, moved by a mother's love, made a request without knowing the measure of what she asked, but pardonably, through the excess of her affection and the goodwill owed to children. For nothing is more tender-hearted than a mother; and I say this that I may lay down a law that mothers be honoured. Their mother, then, asked Jesus that one might sit at his right hand and one at his left. But what of the Saviour? He first asks whether they can drink the cup that he himself was about to drink. And when this was professed and the Saviour accepted it (for he knew that they too were being perfected by the same, or rather that they would be perfected), what does he say? “The cup you will drink; but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to give, but it is for those to whom it has been given.” Is the ruling mind, then, nothing? Nothing the labour? Nothing the reasoning? Nothing the philosophy? Nothing the fasting? Nothing the keeping of vigil, the sleeping on the ground, the shedding of fountains of tears? Is it for none of these, but by some kind of lot, that a Jeremiah is sanctified and others are estranged from the womb?

I fear that some absurd reasoning may also creep in, as though the soul had lived elsewhere and had then been bound to this body, and as though it is because of that former life that some received prophecy while others, those who had lived badly, are condemned. But since to suppose this is quite absurd and not according to the church's teaching (let others play with such doctrines; for us it is not safe to play with such things), there too add to “and to whom it is given” the words “to those who are worthy”: those who have not only received from the Father to be such, but have also given it to themselves.

“For there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs from their mother's womb,” and so on. I should very much like to have something manly to say about the eunuchs. Do not be proud, you who are eunuchs by nature. For your chastity is perhaps involuntary: it has not come to the test, nor has your self-control been proved by experience. For good that comes from nature is unproved; good that comes from choice is praiseworthy. What thanks does fire get for burning? It has burning by nature. What thanks does water get for flowing downward? It has this from its Maker. What thanks does snow get for its coldness, or the sun for shining? It shines even if it does not wish to. Give me the willing of what is better. You give it if, being flesh, you become spiritual; if, dragged down by the lead of the flesh, you are given wings by reason; if, having been made lowly, you are found heavenly; if, bound to flesh, you show yourself above flesh.

Since, then, to set the mind on bodily things is not praiseworthy, I ask something else of the eunuchs: do not commit fornication against the Godhead. Joined to Christ, do not dishonour Christ. Being perfected by the Spirit, do not make the Spirit of equal honour with yourselves. “If I were still pleasing men,” Paul says, “I should not be a servant of Christ.” If I worshipped a creature, I should not be named a Christian. For why is the name Christian precious? Is it not because Christ is God? Unless I feel this way merely as a man, bound to him by friendship. And yet I honour Peter too, but I do not hear “Petrian”; and Paul, but I have not heard “Paulian”. I do not accept being named after men, since I was born of God. So if you are called a Christian because you have taken him to be God, may you be so called and may you remain in the name and in the reality. But if you are called after him because you are fond of Christ, you give him no more than the other names that are taken from some pursuit or affair. [18] Look at these people who are devoted to the horse races: they are named after the colours and the factions they belong to; you know the names even if I do not say them. If you hear “Christian” in this sense, the title is very small, even if you pride yourself on it; but if it is because you have taken him to be God, show by your works that you have. If the Son is a creature, even now you worship the creature instead of the Creator. If the Holy Spirit is a creature, you were baptized in vain; you are sound in two parts, or rather not even in those, and in the one you are in complete danger. Suppose the Trinity to be one pearl, alike on every side and shining equally: whatever happens to a part of the pearl, the whole beauty of the stone is destroyed. So when you dishonour the Son in order to honour the Father, he does not accept your honour; the Father is not glorified by the dishonour of the Son. If “a wise son gladdens a father”, how much more is the honour of the Son the honour of the Father! And if you accept this too, “My child, do not glorify yourself in your father's dishonour”, so neither is the Father glorified in the dishonour of the Son. If you dishonour the Holy Spirit, the Son does not accept your honour. For even if he is not from the Father as the Son is, yet he is from the same Father. Either honour the whole or dishonour the whole, so that you may be consistent with yourself. I do not accept your half-piety. I want you to be wholly pious, but as I wish. Forgive my feeling: I grieve even for those who hate me. You were my member, even if you are now cut off; and perhaps you will become so again; that is why I speak kindly. This I say for the eunuchs, that they may be chaste regarding the Godhead.

For it is not only sin concerning the body that is called fornication and adultery, but any sin whatever, and above all transgression against the divine. Where can we show this? Perhaps you demand it. “They committed fornication,” it says, “in their practices.” Do you see a shameless act of fornication too?

“They committed adultery,” it says, “with the wood.” Do you see an adulterous kind of worship too? Do not, then, commit adultery in the soul while being chaste in body; do not show that your chastity of the flesh is involuntary by being unchaste where you are able to commit fornication. Why have you made impiety your own? Why are you all carried towards the worse, so that it is now the same thing to be called a eunuch or impious? Be with the men; think something manly at last; flee the women's quarters; let the shame of what you proclaim not be added to the shame of the name. Do you want us to persevere in the discourse a little longer? Or have you had enough of what has been said? But let the eunuchs also be honoured by what follows, for the passage is laudatory.

“For there are eunuchs,” it says, “who were born so from their mother's womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive it, let him receive it.” The passage seems to me to leave bodies behind and to figure higher things through bodies. For to stop the passage at bodily eunuchs would perhaps be petty, very weak, and unworthy of the word; we must conceive something worthy of the Spirit. Some, then, seem to incline to the good by nature. When I say nature, I do not dishonour choice, but I posit both: the aptitude for the good, and that which brings the natural aptitude into act. Others there are whom the word purifies by cutting away the passions. These I take to be the ones made eunuchs by men, when the teaching word, separating the better from the worse, sending away the one and enjoining the other (as in “Turn away from evil and do good”), produces spiritual chastity. I praise this eunuchry too, and I greatly praise teachers and taught alike, because the former cut well and the latter were cut still better.

“And there are those who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” Others did not meet with teachers, but became praiseworthy teachers of themselves. No mother taught you what is right, no father, no presbyter, no bishop, nor anyone else entrusted with teaching; but, stirring up the reason within you, kindling the spark of the good by your choice, you made yourself a eunuch: you cut out the root, you banished the instruments of vice, you acquired such a habit of virtue that a movement towards the worse became almost impossible for you. Therefore I praise this eunuchry too, and perhaps more than the others. He who is able to receive it, let him receive it. Choose whichever portion you wish: either follow the teacher or become your own teacher. One thing alone is shameful: that the passions not be cut off. As for how they are cut off, make no distinction. The one who teaches is God's creature, and you too came from there; whether the teacher carries off the credit or the good becomes your own, it is equally good.

Only let us cut ourselves off from the passions, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble us. Only let us follow the image, only let us reverence the archetype. Cut off the passions of the body; cut off those of the soul too. For as the soul is more precious than the body, so it is more precious to purify the soul than the body. If the purifying of the body is praiseworthy, consider how much greater and loftier is that of the soul. Cut off the Arian impiety; cut off the false doctrine of Sabellius. Neither join more than is right nor divide wrongly; neither contract the three into one person nor make three natures alien to one another. Both the one is praiseworthy, rightly understood, and the three, rightly distinguished, when the division is of persons and not of Godhead. [23] These things I lay down as law for laypeople, these I enjoin on presbyters, these on those entrusted with rule. Help the word, all you who have from God the power to help. It is a great thing to restrain murder, to punish adultery, to correct theft; much greater to establish piety by law and to bestow sound doctrine. My word, fighting for the Holy Trinity, will not have as much power as your decree, if you silence those who are ill-disposed, if you help the persecuted, if you restrain the murderers, if you prevent killing; I mean not only of the body but also of the soul. For every sin is death of the soul. Let the word stop here.

For the rest, let there be a prayer for those who have come together. Men and women together, ruled and rulers, old men and young men with virgins, every age: bear every loss, of money and of body; only one thing do not accept, the loss of the Godhead. I worship the Father, I worship the Son, I worship the Holy Spirit; or rather, we worship, I first before all, who say this, and I after all and with all, in Christ our Lord himself, to whom be the glory and the might for ever. Amen.