LXXXVIII 1154 The lives of Christians should confound gainsayers. about this camp, dressing your But if ye ever rouse yourselves wound others, I will both teach HOMIL. Therefore each day I go wounds, healing your sores. up, and become fit even to you this art of war, and instruct you how to handle these weapons, or rather your works themselves will be weapons to you, and all men will immediately submit, if ye would become merciful, if forbearing, if mild and patient, if ye would shew forth all other virtue. But if any gainsay, then we will 1 à Tap' also add the proof of what we can shew on our part', bringing you forward, since now we rather are hindered (at least as to your part) in this race. ἑαυτῶν. And mark. We say that Christ hath done great things, having made angels of men; then, when we are called upon to give account, and required to furnish a proof out of this flock, our mouths are stopped. For I am afraid, lest in the place of angels, I bring forth swine as from a stye, and horses mad with lust. I know ye are pained, but not against you all are these things spoken, but against the guilty, or rather not even against them if they awake, but for them. Since now indeed all is lost and ruined, and the Church is become nothing better than a stable of oxen, and a fold for asses and camels, and I go round seeking for a sheep, and am not able to see it. So much are all kicking, like horses, and any wild asses, and they fill the place here with much dung, for like this is their discourse. And if indeed one could see the things 2σúva spoken at each assemblage', by men, by women, thou wouldest see their words more unclean than that dung. ξιν. Wherefore I entreat you to change this evil custom, that the Church may smell of ointment. But now, while we lay up in it perfumes for the senses, the uncleanness of the mind we use no great diligence to purge out, and drive away. What then is the advantage? For we do not so much disgrace the Church by bringing dung into it, as we disgrace it by speaking such things one to another, about gains, about merchandise, about petty tradings, about things that are nothing to us, when there ought to be choirs of Angels here, and we ought to make the Church a heaven, and to know nothing else but earnest prayers, and silence with listening. The Pastor's desire to purify his Flock. 1155 XXVII. 61. This then let us do at any rate, from the present time, MATT. that we may both purify our lives, and attain unto the promised blessings, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory world without end. Amen. HOMILY LXXXIX. MATT. xxvii. 62-64. Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while He was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest His Disciples come and steal Him away, and say to the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error should be worse than the first. EVERY where deceit recoils upon itself, and against its will supports the truth. And observe. It was necessary for it to be believed that He died, and that He rose again, and that He was buried, and all these things are brought to pass by His enemies. See, at any rate, these words bearing witness to every one of these facts. We remember, these are the words, that that deceiver said, when He was yet alive, (He was therefore now dead,) After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be sealed, (He was therefore buried,) lest His Disciples come and steal Him away. So that if the sepulchre be sealed, there will be no unfair dealing. For there could not be. So then the proof of His Resurrection has become incontrovertible by what ye have put forward. For because it was sealed, there was no unfair dealing. But if there was no unfair dealing, and the sepulchre was found empty, it is manifest that He is risen, plainly and incontrovertibly. Seest thou, how even against their will they contend for the proof of the truth? Precautions of the Jews establish the Resurrection. 1157 XXVII. 65. 66. But mark thou, I pray thee, the disciples' love of truth, MATT. how they conceal from us none of the things that are said by His enemies, though they use opprobrious language. Behold, at any rate, they even call Him a deceiver, and these men are not silent about that. But these things shew also their savageness, (that not even at His death did they let go their anger,) and these men's simple and truthful disposition. But it were worth while to enquire concerning that point also, where He said, After three days I will rise again? For one would not find this thus distinctly stated, but rather the example of Jonah. So that they understood His saying, and of their own will dealt unfairly. What then saith Pilate? Ye have a watch, make it as v.65.66. sure as ye can. And they made it sure, sealing the stone, and setting the watch. He suffers not the soldiers alone to seal; for as having learnt the things concerning Christ, he was no longer willing to cooperate with them. But in order to be rid of them, he endures this also, and saith, "Do ye seal it as ye will, that ye may not have it in your power to blame others." For if the soldiers only had sealed, they might have said, (although the saying would have been improbable and false, yet nevertheless as in the rest they cast aside shame, so in this too they might have been able to say,) that the soldiers, having given up the Body to be stolen, gave His disciples opportunity to feign the history concerning His Resurrection, but now having themselves made it sure, they are not able to say so much as this. Seest thou how they labour for the truth against their will? For they themselves came to Pilate, themselves asked, themselves sealed, setting the watch, so as to be accusers, and refuters one of another. And indeed when should they have stolen Him? on the Sabbath? And how? for it was not lawful so much as to go out'. And even1 Exod. 16, 29. if they transgressed the Law, how should they have dared, who were so timid, to come forth? And how could they also have been able to persuade the multitude? By saying what? By doing what? And from what sort of zeal could a Not to the Jews, for it was often plainly declared to the Disciples, as St. Chrysostom himself observes a little LXXXIX. 1158 Improbability of a pretended Resurrection. HOMIL. they have stood in behalf of the dead? expecting what recompense? what requital? Seeing Him yet alive and merely seized, they had fled; and after His death were they likely to speak boldly in His behalf, unless He had risen again? And how should these things be reasonable? For that they were neither willing nor able to feign a resurrection, that did not take place, is plain from hence. He discoursed to them much of a Resurrection, and continually said, as indeed these very men have stated, After three days I will rise again. If therefore He rose not again, it is quite clear that these men (having been deceived and made enemies to an entire nation for His sake, and come to be without home and without city) would have abhorred Him, and would not have been willing to invest Him with such glory; as having been deceived, and having fallen into the utmost dangers on His account. For that they would not even have been able, unless the Resurrection had been true, to feign it, this does not so much as need reasoning. For in what were they confident? In the shrewdness of their reasonings Nay of all men they were the most unlearned. But in the abundance of their possessions? Nay, they had neither staff nor shoes. But in the distinction of their race? Nay, they were mean, and of mean ancestors. But in the greatness of their country? Nay, they were of obscure places. But in their own numbers? Nay, they were not more than eleven, and they were scattered abroad. But in their Master's promises? What kind of promises? For if He were not risen again, neither would those be likely to be trusted by them. And how should they endure a frantic people. For if the chief of them endured not the speech of a woman, keeping the door, and if all the rest too, on seeing Him bound, were scattered abroad, how should they have thought to run to the ends of the earth, and plant a feigned tale of a Resurrection? For if he stood not a woman's threat, and they not so much as the sight of bonds, how were they able to stand against kings, and rulers, and nations, where were swords, and gridirons, and furnaces, and ten thousand deaths day by day, unless they had the benefit of 1 porns the Power and Grace' of Him Who rose again? Such miracles and so many were done, and none of these things 1 |