1

In ebriosos

HOMILY 14. Against Drunkards.

The evening spectacles move me to speak; but the fruitlessness of my previous labors holds back my impulse again and dulls my zeal. For even a farmer, when his first seeds do not sprout, is more hesitant to cast them a second time upon the same fields. For if after so many exhortations, which we have not ceased to offer you in the time past, and successively during these seven weeks of the fast, night and day testifying 31.445 to you the Gospel of the grace of God we have not ceased, no benefit has resulted; with what hopes shall we speak today? O how many nights you have kept vigil in vain! how many days you have gathered in vain! if indeed it was in vain. For he who has made progress in good works, then reverts to his old habit, not only has lost the reward for his labors, but is also deemed worthy of a heavier condemnation; because, having tasted the good word of God, and having been deemed worthy of the knowledge of the mysteries, he has betrayed everything, enticed by a brief pleasure. For the least is pardonable for mercy; but the mighty, it says, will be mightily tested. One evening, and one attack of the enemy has undone and destroyed all that labor. What zeal, then, for the present discourse? So that I would have been silent, know well, if I had not feared the example of Jeremiah, who, not wanting to speak to a disobedient people, suffered those things which he himself recounted: that there was a fire in his inward parts, and he was weary on all sides, and could not bear it. Licentious women, having forgotten the fear of God, having despised the eternal fire, on such a day, when they ought to have been sitting in their houses because of the remembrance of the resurrection, and taking thought of that day, on which the heavens will be opened, and the judge will appear to us from the heavens, and trumpets of God, and resurrection of the dead, and righteous judgment, and recompense to each according to his work; instead of having these things in their thoughts, and cleansing their hearts from evil imaginations, and wiping away with tears their former sins, and preparing themselves for the meeting with Christ on the great day of His appearing, shaking off the yoke of the service of Christ, throwing from their heads the coverings of modesty, despising God, despising His angels, putting to shame every male gaze, tossing their hair, trailing their tunics, and at the same time playing with their feet, with a wanton eye, with unrestrained laughter, driven mad for dancing, inviting upon themselves all the licentiousness of young men, in the martyria before the city having formed choirs, a workshop of their own indecency they have made the hallowed places.

They defiled the air with their whorish songs, and they defiled the earth with their unclean 31.448 feet, which they beat in their dances, having set up a crowd of youths as a theater for themselves, truly haughty and utterly frantic, leaving no excess of madness untried. How can I be silent about these things? And how can I lament them worthily? Wine has caused us the loss of these souls; wine, the gift from God given for the comfort of weakness to the temperate; but now become a weapon of licentiousness for the debauched. Drunkenness, the self-chosen demon, cast into souls out of pleasure, drunkenness, the mother of vice, the opposite of virtue, the brave man

1

In ebriosos

ΟΜΙΛΙΑ Ι∆ʹ. Κατὰ μεθυόντων.

Κινεῖ μέν με πρὸς τὸν λόγον τὰ ἑσπερινὰ θεά ματα· κατέχει δέ μου πάλιν τὴν

ὁρμὴν, καὶ ἀπαμ βλύνει τὴν προθυμίαν τῶν προλαβόντων πόνων τὸ ἄκαρπον. Ἐπεὶ καὶ γεωργὸς, τῶν πρώτων αὐτῷ σπερμάτων μὴ ἐκφυέντων, ὀκνηρότερός ἐστι πρὸς τὸ δεύτερον ταῖς αὐταῖς ἀρούραις πάλιν ἐγκαταβάλ λειν. Εἰ γὰρ ἐπὶ τοσαύταις παραινέσεσιν, ἃς ἔν τε τῷ προλαβόντι χρόνῳ παρακαλοῦντες ὑμᾶς οὐ διελίπομεν, καὶ ἐφεξῆς τῶν ἑπτὰ τούτων τῆς νη στείας ἑβδομάδων νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας διαμαρτυρό 31.445 μενοι ὑμῖν τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον τῆς χάριτος τοῦ Θεοῦ οὐκ ἐπαυσάμεθα, οὐδὲν γέγονεν ὄφελος· ἐπὶ ποίαις ἐλπίσι διαλεχθῶμεν σήμερον; Ὢ πόσας νύκτας εἰκῆ ἠγρυπνήσατε! πόσας ἡμέρας εἰκῆ συνηθροίσθητε! εἴ γε καὶ εἰκῆ. Ὁ γὰρ ἐν προκοπῇ γενόμενος ἀγαθῶν ἔργων, εἶτα παλινδρομήσας πρὸς τὴν ἀρχαίαν συν ήθειαν, οὐ μόνον τὸν ἐπὶ τοῖς πεπονημένοις μι σθὸν ἐζημιώθη, ἀλλὰ καὶ βαρυτέρας ἀξιοῦται τῆς κατακρίσεως· ὅτι, γευσάμενος καλὸν Θεοῦ ῥῆμα, καὶ γνώσεως μυστηρίων ἀξιωθεὶς, πάντα προέδω κεν, ἡδονῇ βραχείᾳ δελεασθείς. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἐλάχιστος συγγνωστός ἐστιν ἐλέους· δυνατοὶ δὲ, φησὶ, δυνατῶς ἐτασθήσονται. Μία ἑσπέρα, καὶ μία προσβολὴ τοῦ ἐχθροῦ πάντα τὸν πόνον ἐκεῖνον διέλυσε καὶ ἠφάνισε. Ποία οὖν προθυμία τοῦ νῦν λόγου; Ὥστε κἂν ἐσιώπησα, εὖ ἴστε, εἰ μὴ ἐφοβούμην τὸ ὑπόδειγμα τοῦ Ἱερεμίου, ὃς, πρὸς ἀπειθῆ λαὸν φθέγγεσθαι μὴ βουλόμενος, ἔπαθεν ἐκεῖνα ἅπερ αὐτὸς διηγήσατο· ὅτι ἐγένετο αὐτῷ πῦρ ἐν τοῖς ἐγκάτοις, καὶ παρεῖτο πάντοθεν, καὶ οὐκ ἠδύνατο φέρειν. Γυναῖκες ἀκόλαστοι, ἐπιλαθόμεναι τοῦ φόβου τοῦ Θεοῦ, τοῦ πυρὸς τοῦ αἰωνίου κατα φρονήσασαι, ἐν ἡμέρᾳ τοιαύτῃ, ὅτε αὐτὰς ἐχρῆν διὰ τὴν ἀνάμνησιν τῆς ἀναστάσεως καθῆσθαι ἐν τοῖς οἵ κοις, καὶ ἔννοιαν λαμβάνειν τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης, καθ' ἣν ἀνοιγήσονται μὲν οἱ οὐρανοὶ, ἐπιφανήσεται δὲ ἡμῖν ὁ κριτὴς ἐξ οὐρανῶν, καὶ σάλπιγγες Θεοῦ, καὶ ἀνάστασις νεκρῶν, καὶ κρίσις δικαία, καὶ ἀντί δοσις ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὸ ἔργον αὐτοῦ· ἀντὶ τοῦ ταῦτα ἔχειν ἐν τοῖς διαλογισμοῖς, καὶ καθαίρειν μὲν ἑαυτῶν τὰς καρδίας ἀπὸ πονηρῶν ἐνθυμήσεων, ἐξ αλείφειν δὲ τοῖς δάκρυσι τὰ προημαρτημένα, ἑτοιμά ζεσθαι δὲ πρὸς τὴν ἀπάντησιν τοῦ Χριστοῦ κατὰ τὴν μεγάλην ἡμέραν τῆς ἐπιφανείας αὐτοῦ, ἀποσει σάμεναι τὸν ζυγὸν τῆς δουλείας τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ῥίψα σαι ἀπὸ τῶν κεφαλῶν τὰ τῆς εὐσχημοσύνης καλύμ ματα, καταφρονήσασαι τοῦ Θεοῦ, καταφρονήσασαι τῶν ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ, καταναισχυντήσασαι πάσης ἄῤ ῥενος ὄψεως, σοβοῦσαι τὰς κόμας, σύρουσαι τοὺς χι τῶνας, καὶ τοῖς ποσὶν ἅμα παίζουσαι, ὀφθαλμῷ ἀσελγεῖ, γέλωτι ἐκκεχυμένῳ πρὸς ὄρχησιν ἐκμανεῖσαι, πᾶσαν νέων ἀκολασίαν ἐφ' ἑαυτὰς προσ καλούμεναι, ἐν τοῖς πρὸ τῆς πόλεως μαρτυ ρίοις χοροὺς συστησάμεναι, ἐργαστήριον τῆς οἰ κείας αὐτῶν ἀσχημοσύνης τοὺς ἡγιασμένους τόπους πεποίηνται.

Ἐμίαναν μὲν τὸν ἀέρα τοῖς ᾄσμασι τοῖς πορνικοῖς, ἐμίαναν δὲ τὴν γῆν τοῖς ἀκαθάρτοις 31.448 ποσὶν, ἣν ἐν ταῖς ὀρχήσεσι κατεκρότησαν, θέατρον ἑαυταῖς νεανίσκων ὄχλον περιστησάμεναι, σοβάδες ὄντως καὶ παράφοροι παντελῶς, μανίας οὐδε μίαν ὑπερβολὴν ἀπολείπουσαι. Ταῦτα πῶς μὲν σιωπήσω; πῶς δὲ κατ' ἀξίαν ὀδύρωμαι; Οἶνος ἡμῖν τῶν ψυχῶν τούτων τὴν ζημίαν ἐποίησεν· οἶνος, τὸ παρὰ Θεοῦ δῶρον εἰς παραμυθίαν τῆς ἀσθενείας δεδομένον τοῖς σωφρονοῦσιν· ὅπλον δὲ νῦν γενόμενον ἀκολασίας τοῖς ἀσελγαίνουσιν. Μέθη, ὁ αὐθαίρετος δαίμων, ἐξ ἡδονῆς ταῖς ψυ χαῖς ἐμβαλλόμενος, μέθη, κακίας μήτηρ, ἀρετῆς ἐναντίωσις, τὸν ἀνδρεῖον