Oration III.

To Those Who Had Invited Him, and Not Come to Receive Him. (About Easter a.d. 362.)

I.  How slow you are, my friends and brethren, to come to listen to my words, though you were so swift in tyrannizing over me, and tearing me from my Citadel Solitude, which I had embraced in preference to everything else, and as coadjutress and mother of the divine ascent, and as deifying man,1    S. Gregory very frequently uses this very strong expression to bring out the reality and intimacy of the Christian’s Union with Christ as the result of the sanctifying grace by which all the Baptized are made “partakers of the Divine Nature” (2 Pet. i. 4). I had especially admired, and had set before me as the guide of my whole life.2    The passage might also be rendered “had preferred to every other kind of life.”  How is it that, now you have got it, you thus despise what you so greatly desired to obtain, and seem to be better able to desire the absent than to enjoy the present; as though you preferred to possess my teaching rather than to profit by it?  Yes, I may even say this to you:  “I became a surfeit unto you before you tasted of me, or gave me a trial”3    Isa. i. 14.—which is most strange.

II.  And neither did you entertain me as a guest, nor, if I may make a remark of a more compassionate kind, did you allow yourselves to be entertained by me, reverencing this command if nothing else; nor did you take me by the hand, as beginning a new task; nor encourage me in my timidity, nor console me for the violence I had suffered; but—I shrink from saying it, though say it I must—you made my festival no festival, and received me with no happy introduction; and you mingled the solemn festival with sorrow, because it lacked that which most of all would have contributed to its happiness, the presence of you my conquerors, for it would not be true to call you people who love me.  So easily is anything despised which is easily conquered, and the proud receives attention, while he who is humble before God is slighted.

III.  What will ye?  Shall I be judged by you, or shall I be your judge?  Shall I pass a verdict, or receive one, for I hope to be acquitted if I be judged, and if I give sentence, to give it against you justly?  The charge against you is that you do not answer my love with equal measure, nor do you repay my obedience with honour, nor do you pledge the future to me by your present alacrity—though even if you had, I could hardly have believed it.  But each of you has something which he prefers to both the old and the new Pastor, neither reverencing the grey hairs of the one, nor calling out the youthful spirit of the other.

IV.  There is a Banquet in the Gospels,4    S. Luke xiv. 16. and a hospitable Host and friends; and the Banquet is most pleasant, for it is the marriage of His Son.  He calleth them, but they come not:  He is angry, and—I pass over the interval for fear of bad omen—but, to speak gently, He filleth the Banquet with others.  God forbid that this should be your case; but yet you have treated me (how shall I put it gently?) with as much haughtiness or boldness as they who after being called to a feast rise up against it, and insult their host; for you, though you are not of the number of those who are without, or are invited to the marriage, but are yourselves those who invited me, and bound me to the Holy Table, and shewed me the glory of the Bridal Chamber, then deserted me (this is the most splendid thing about you)—one to his field, another to his newly bought yoke of oxen, another to his just-married wife, another to some other trifling matter; you were all scattered and dispersed, caring little for the Bridechamber and the Bridegroom.5    S. Matt. xxii. 10.

V.  On this account I was filled with despondency and perplexity—for I will not keep silence about what I have suffered—and I was very near withholding the discourse which I was minded to bestow as a Marriage-gift, the most beautiful and precious of all I had; and I very nearly let it loose upon you, whom, now that the violence had once been done to me, I greatly longed for:  for I thought I could get from this a splendid theme, and because my love sharpened my tongue—love which is very hot and ready for accusation when it is stirred to jealousy by grief which it conceives from some unexpected neglect.  If any of you has been pierced with love’s sting, and has felt himself neglected, he knows the feeling, and will pardon one who so suffers, because he himself has been near the same frenzy.

VI.  But it is not permitted to me at the present time to say to you anything upbraiding; and God forbid I ever should.  And even now perhaps I have reproached you more than in due measure, the Sacred Flock, the praise-worthy nurselings of Christ, the Divine inheritance; by which, O God, Thou art rich, even wert Thou poor in all other respects.  To Thee, I think, are fitting those words, “The lot is fallen unto Thee in a fair ground:  yea Thou hast the goodliest heritage.”6    Ps. xvi. 6.  Nor will I allow that the most populous cities or the broadest flocks have any advantage over us, the little ones of the smallest of all the tribes of Israel, of the least of the thousands of Judah,7    1 Sam. xxiii. 23. of the little Bethlehem among cities,8    Mic. v. 2. where Christ was born and is from the beginning well-known and worshipped; amongst those whom the Father is exalted, and the Son is held to be equal to Him, and the Holy Ghost is glorified with Them:  we who are of one soul, who mind the same thing, who in nothing injure the Trinity, neither by preferring One Person above another, nor by cutting off any:  as those bad umpires and measurers of the Godhead do, who by magnifying One Person more than is fit, diminish and insult the whole.

VII.  But do ye also, if you bear me any good will—ye who are my husbandry, my vineyard, my own bowels, or rather His Who is our common Father, for in Christ he hath begotten you through the Gospels9    1 Cor. iv. 15.  I.e., the Elder Gregory.—shew to us also some respect.  It is only fair, since we have honoured you above all else:  ye are my witnesses, ye, and they who have placed in our hands this—shall I say Authority, or Service?  And if to him that loveth most is due, how shall I measure the love, for which I have made you my debtors by my own love?  Rather, shew respect for yourselves, and the Image committed to your care,10    Gen. i. 27. and Him Who committed it, and the Sufferings of Christ, and your hopes therefrom, holding fast the faith which ye have received, and in which ye were brought up, by which also ye are being saved, and trust to save others (for not many, be well assured, can boast of what you can), and reckoning piety to consist, not in often speaking about God, but in silence for the most part, for the tongue is a dangerous thing to men, if it be not governed by reason.  Believe that listening is always less dangerous than talking, just as learning about God is more pleasant than teaching.  Leave the more accurate search into these questions to those who are the Stewards of the Word; and for yourselves, worship a little in words, but more by your actions, and rather by keeping the Law than by admiring the Lawgiver; shew your love for Him by fleeing from wickedness, pursuing after virtue, living in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, drawing your knowledge from Him, building upon the foundation of the faith, not wood or hay or stubble,11    1 Cor. iii. 12. weak materials and easily spent when the fire shall try our works or destroy them; but gold, silver, precious stones, which remain and stand.

VIII.  So may ye act, and so may ye honour us, whether present or absent, whether taking your part in our sermons, or preferring to do something else:  and may ye be the children of God, pure and unblamable, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation:12    Phil. ii. 15.  and may ye never be entangled in the snares of the wicked that go round about, or bound with the chain of your sins.  May the Word in you never be smothered with cares of this life and so ye become unfruitful:  but may ye walk in the King’s Highway, turning aside neither to the right hand nor to the left,13    Num. xxi. 22; Isa. xl. 3. but led by the Spirit through the strait gate.  Then all our affairs shall prosper, both now and at the inquest There, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom be the glory for ever.  Amen.

ΛΟΓΟΣ Γʹ. Πρὸς τοὺς καλέσαντας, καὶ μὴ ἀπαντήσαντας.

Αʹ. Πῶς βραδεῖς ἐπὶ τὸν ἡμέτερον λόγον, ὦ φίλοι καὶ ἀδελφοὶ, καίτοι γε ταχεῖς εἰς τὸ τυραννῆσαι, καὶ τῆς ἡμετέρας ἀκροπόλεως ἀποσπᾶσαι τῆς ἐρημίας, ἣν ἐγὼ πάντων μάλιστα ἠσπασάμην, καὶ ὡς συνεργὸν καὶ μητέρα τῆς θείας ἀναβάσεως, καὶ θεοποιὸν, διαφερόντως ἠγάσθην τε καὶ παντὸς τοῦ βίου προεστησάμην; Πῶς ὃ λαβεῖν ἐποθεῖτε περιφρονεῖτε λαβόντες, καὶ βελτίους ἐφάνητε ποθεῖν ἀπόντας, ἢ ἀπολαύειν παρόντων, ὥσπερ κρατῆσαι μᾶλλον τῆς ἡμετέρας φιλοσοφίας ἢ ὄνασθαι ταύτης θελήσαντες; Ἢ καλόν μοι καὶ τοῦτο εἰπεῖν: ἐγενήθημεν ὑμῖν εἰς πλησμονὴν, πρὶν γευσθῆναι, καὶ πεῖραν δοῦναι: τὸ παραδοξότατον.

Βʹ. Καὶ οὐδὲ ὡς ξένους ἡμᾶς συνηγάγητε, ἢ συνήχθητε μεθ' ἡμῶν, ἵν' εἴπω τι συμπαθέστερον, ταύτην, εἰ μή τι ἄλλο, τὴν ἐντολὴν αἰδεσθέντες: οὐδὲ ὡς ἀρχομένους ἐχειραγωγήσατε, οὐδὲ ὡς δειλοὺς ἐθαρσύνατε, οὐδὲ ὡς βιασθέντας παρεκαλέσατε: ἀλλ' ἀνέορτον ἡμῖν, ὀκνῶ μὲν εἰπεῖν, εἰρήσθω δὲ ὅμως, πεποιήκατε τὴν ἑορτὴν, καὶ προοιμίοις οὐκ ἀγαθοῖς ἡμᾶς ἐδεξιώσασθε: καὶ τῇ πανηγύρει κατήφειαν κατεμίξατε, τὸ μέγιστον εἰς ἡδονὴν οὐκ ἐχούσῃ τοὺς ἐμοὺς νικητὰς ὑμᾶς, οὐ γὰρ ἐραστὰς εἰπεῖν ἀληθές. Οὕτως εὐκαταφρόνητον ἅπαν τὸ ῥᾳδίως νικώμενον: καὶ θεραπεύεται μὲν τὸ ὑψηλὸν, ἀτιμάζεται δὲ τὸ Θεῷ ταπεινούμενον.

Γʹ. Τί βούλεσθε; Κριθῶ πρὸς ὑμᾶς, ἢ κριτὴς γένωμαι; ἐνέγκω ψῆφον, ἢ δέξωμαι; Καὶ γὰρ νικήσειν ἐλπίζω, κρινόμενος, καὶ καταψηφιεῖσθαι δικαίως ἀποφαινόμενος. Τὸ δὲ ἔγκλημα, ὅτι μὴ τοῖς ἴσοις μέτροις ἀμείβεσθε τῆς ἀγάπης ἡμᾶς, μηδὲ τῆς εὐπειθείας τὴν τιμὴν ἀντιδίδοτε, μηδὲ τὸ μέλλον ἐγγυᾶσθε τῇ νῦν προθυμίᾳ, μόγις καὶ μετὰ ταύτης πιστευθῆναι δυνάμενον: ἐπειδὴ θερμότερος ἅπας ἀρχόμενος. Ἄλλος δὲ ἄλλο τι προτιμότερον τίθεσθε καὶ τοῦ παλαιοῦ καὶ τοῦ νέου ποιμένος, μήτε τὴν πολιὰν αἰδούμενοι, μήτε τὴν νεότητα προσκαλούμενοι.

Δʹ. Δεῖπνόν ἐστιν ἐν τοῖς Εὐαγγελίοις λαμπρὸν, καὶ δεξιὸς ἑστιάτωρ, καὶ φίλοι, καὶ τὸ συμπόσιον ἥδιστον: υἱοῦ γὰρ γάμος. Καὶ ὁ μὲν συγκαλεῖ, οἱ δὲ οὐ συνέρχονται: ὁ δὲ ἀγανακτεῖ: καὶ παρίημι τὰ ἐν μέσῳ διὰ τὸ δύσφημον: ἀλλ' ὃ μέτριον εἰπεῖν, δι' ἄλλων πληροῖ τὸ συμπόσιον. Τοῦτο μὲν οὖν ἀπευχόμεθα: ὑμεῖς δὲ τοσοῦτον ἐκείνων γεγόνατέ μοι (πῶς εἴπω πράως;) ὑψηλότεροι ἢ θρασύτεροι, ὅσον οἱ μὲν κεκλημένοι τοῦ δείπνου κατεξανίστανται, καὶ κατὰ τοῦ κεκληκότος ὑβρίζουσιν: ὑμεῖς δὲ, οὐ τῶν ἔξωθεν ὄντες, οὐδὲ τῶν κεκλημένων ἐπὶ τοὺς γάμους, ἀλλ' αὐτοὶ συγκαλέσαντες ἡμᾶς, καὶ τῇ ἱερᾷ ταύτῃ τραπέζῃ προσδήσαντες, καὶ τοῦ νυμφῶνος τὴν λαμπρότητα παραδείξαντες, ἔπειτα καταλιπόντες ἡμᾶς τοῦτο γὰρ ὑμῶν τὸ γενναιότατον: ὁ μὲν ἐπὶ τὸν ἴδιον ἀγρὸν, ὁ δὲ ἐπὶ τὸ ζεῦγος τῶν βοῶν τὸ νεώνητον, ὁ δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν γυναῖκα τὴν νεόνυμφον, ὁ δὲ ἄλλος ἐπ' ἄλλο τι τῶν μικρῶν διεσπάρητε καὶ ἀπεπηδήσατε, μικρὰ τοῦ νυμφῶνος καὶ τοῦ νυμφίου φροντίσαντες.

Εʹ. Διὰ τοῦτο ἀθυμίας ἐνεπλήσθην καὶ ἀπορίας: οὐ γὰρ ὃ πέπονθα, σιωπήσομαι: καὶ μικροῦ μὲν ἀνέσχον τὸν λόγον, ὃν δωροφορῆσαι διενοούμην τῷ γάμῳ, τὸ κάλλιστον ὧν εἶχον καὶ τιμιώτατον: μικροῦ δὲ ὑμῖν ἐπαφῆκα τοῖς ποθουμένοις, ἐπειδή γε ἅπαξ ἐξεβιάσθην: ἅτε δὴ λαμπρᾶς οὕτω λαβόμενος ὑποθέσεως, καὶ τοῦ φίλτρου τὴν γλῶσσαν θήγοντος, ὃ δὴ θερμότατον εἰς κατηγορίαν καὶ εὐπορώτατον, ὅταν γένηται ζῆλος, λύπην ἐκ τῆς ὑπεροψίας προσλαβὼν ἀπροσδόκητον. Εἴ τις ὑμῶν οἴστρῳ πληγεὶς ὑπερώφθη, γνωρίζει τὸ πάθος, καὶ συγγνώσεται τοῦτο παθοῦσι, καὶ ταύτης ἐγγὺς γενομένοις τῆς ἀπονοίας.

#2ʹ. Ἀλλ' ἐμοὶ μὲν οὔτε νῦν θεμιτόν ἐστιν ὑμῶν τι καθάψασθαι, μήτ' ἄλλοτε γένοιτο. Καὶ ταῦτα ἴσως ὑπὲρ τὸ μέτριον καθηψάμην, τῆς ἱερᾶς ποίμνης, τῶν ἐπαινετῶν Χριστοῦ θρεμμάτων, τῆς θείας κληρονομίας, δι' ἣν πλούσιος σὺ, κἂν ᾖς πένης. Κἀκεῖνά σοι πρέπειν ἡγοῦμαι τὰ ῥήματα: Σχοινία ἐπέπεσέ σοι ἐν τοῖς κρατίστοις: καὶ γὰρ ἡ κληρονομία σου κρατίστη σοί ἐστι: καὶ οὐ παρήσω ταῖς ἀριθμουμέναις τῶν πόλεων, οὐδὲ τῶν ποιμνίων τοῖς πλατυτάτοις ἔχειν τι πλέον ἡμῶν τῶν ὀλίγων τῆς ἐλαχίστης φυλῆς ἐν υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ, τῶν ὀλιγοστῶν ἐν χιλιάσιν Ἰούδα, τῆς μικρᾶς Βηθλεὲμ ἐν πόλεσιν, ἐν ᾗ Χριστὸς γεννᾶται, νῦν τε καὶ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς καλῶς καὶ γινωσκόμενος καὶ σεβόμενος: παρ' οἷς Πατὴρ ὑψοῦται, καὶ Υἱὸς ἰσάζεται, καὶ Πνεῦμα ἅγιον συνδοξάζεται: συμψύχοις, τὸ ἓν φρονοῦσι, μηδὲν τῆς Τριάδος ζημιουμένοις, ἢ ὑπερτιθεῖσιν, ἣ ἀποτέμνουσιν: ὡς οἱ κακοὶ διαιτηταὶ καὶ μετρηταὶ τῆς θεότητος, δι' ὧν ἕν τι πλέον, ἢ καλῶς ἔχει, σεμνύνουσι, τὸ πᾶν ἐλαττοῦντες καὶ καθυβρίζοντες.

Ζʹ. Ὑμεῖς δὲ, εἴ τι χαρίζεσθέ μοι, τὸ ἐμὸν γεώργιον, ἢ ἄμπελος ἡ ἐμὴ, τὰ ἐμὰ σπλάγχνα, μᾶλλον δὲ τοῦ κοινοῦ Πατρὸς ἡμῶν, οὓς οὗτος ἐν Χριστῷ διὰ τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου ἐγέννησεν, αἰδεῖσθε μὲν καὶ ἡμᾶς: δίκαιον γὰρ, οἳ πάντων ὑμᾶς προετιμήσαμεν: ὑμεῖς μάρτυρες, καὶ οἳ ταύτην ἡμῖν ἐγχειρίσαντες τὴν εἴτε ἡγεμονίαν, εἴτε διακονίαν: καὶ εἰ τῷ πλεῖον ἀγαπήσαντι πλέον ὀφείλεται, πῶς μετρήσω τὴν ἀγάπην, ἧς ὑποχρέους ὑμᾶς διὰ τῆς ἐμῆς ἔλαβον; αἰδεῖσθε δὲ πλέον ὑμᾶς αὐτοὺς, καὶ τὴν πιστευθεῖσαν εἰκόνα, καὶ τὸν πιστεύσαντα, καὶ τὰ Χριστοῦ πάθη, καὶ τὰς ἐκεῖθεν ἐλπίδας, πίστιν μὲν ἔχοντες ἣν παρειλήφατε, καὶ ᾗ συνετράφητε, μεθ' ἧς καὶ σώζεσθε, καὶ σώζειν ἄλλους πιστεύεσθε: οὐ γὰρ πολλῶν, εὖ ἴστε, τὸ ὑμέτερον καύχημα. Τὸ δὲ εὐσεβὲς μὴ ἐν τῷ πολλάκις περὶ Θεοῦ λαλεῖν, ἀλλ' ἐν τῷ τὰ πλείω σιγᾷν εἶναι τιθέμενοι: γλῶσσα γὰρ ὄλισθος ἀνθρώποις μὴ λόγῳ κυβερνωμένη: καὶ ἀκινδυνοτέραν ἀκοὴν ἀεὶ λόγου νομίζοντες, ὥστε τι μανθάνειν ἥδιον, ἢ διδάσκειν περὶ Θεοῦ: τὴν μὲν ἀκριβεστέραν τούτων ἐξέτασιν τοῖς οἰκονόμοις τοῦ λόγου παραχωροῦντες: αὐτοὶ δὲ λόγῳ μὲν εὐσεβοῦντες ὀλίγα, ἔργῳ δὲ πλείονα, καὶ τῇ τηρήσει τῶν νόμων μᾶλλον ἢ τῷ θαυμάζειν τὸν νομοθέτην τὸ περὶ αὐτὸν φίλτρον ἐπιδεικνύμενοι, φεύγοντες κακίαν, διώκοντες ἀρετὴν, πνεύματι ζῶντες, πνεύματι στοιχοῦντες, τούτῳ τὴν γνῶσιν ἕλκοντες, ἐποικοδομοῦντες τῷ θεμελίῳ τῆς πίστεως, μὴ ξύλον, μηδὲ χόρτον, μηδὲ καλάμην, ὕλην ἀσθενῆ καὶ ῥᾳδίως δαπανωμένην, ἡνίκα ἂν πυρὶ κρίνηται τὰ ἡμέτερα, ἢ καθαίρηται: ἀλλὰ χρυσὸν, ἄργυρον, λίθους τιμίους, τὰ μένοντα καὶ ἱστάμενα.

Ηʹ. Ταῦτα πράσσοιτε, καὶ τούτοις ἡμᾶς δοξάζοιτε εἴτε παρόντες εἴτε ἀπόντες, εἴτε μεταποιούμενοι τῶν ἡμετέρων λόγων, εἴτε ἄλλο τι προτιμότερον ἄγοντες: καὶ γίνοισθε τέκνα Θεοῦ καθαρὰ καὶ ἀμώμητα, ἐν μέσῳ γενεᾶς σκολιᾶς καὶ διεστραμμένης: καὶ μὴ περιπλέκοιτο ὑμῖν τὰ τῶν κύκλῳ περιπατούντων ἀσεβῶν σχοινία, μηδὲ σειραῖς τῶν οἰκείων ἁμαρτιῶν περισφίγγοισθε, μηδὲ ταῖς βιωτικαῖς μερίμναις συμπνίγοιτο ὑμῖν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ἄκαρποι γίνοισθε: ἀλλ' ὁδῷ πορεύοισθε βασιλικῇ, μὴ ἐκκλίνοντες εἰς δεξιὰ, μηδὲ εἰς ἀριστερὰ, καὶ διὰ τῆς στενῆς ὡς πλατείας ὑπὸ τοῦ Πνεύματος ὁδηγούμενοι: καὶ τὸ ἡμέτερον εὖ ἕξει νῦν τε καὶ εἰς τὴν ἐκεῖθεν ἐξέτασιν, ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἡμῶν: ᾧ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν.