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In patrem tacentem

ORATION 16.

To his father, who was silent because of the plague of hail.

A. Why do you destroy an order which is praised? Why do you do violence to a tongue 35.936 that is subject to law? Why do you call forth a speech that yields to the Spirit? Why, leaving the head, have you hastened to the feet? Why, passing by Aaron, do you put forward Eleazar? I do not accept that a spring be stopped, and a torrent be borne along; that the sun be hidden, and a star be shown; that grey hair should retire, and youth make laws; that wisdom be silent, and inexperience behave boisterously. Nor is the greater rain in every case more useful than the lesser; for what if? If the one, being more violent, washes away the soil, and in addition to the principle, damages the farmer; while the other, being gently poured and sinking into the depths, enriches the field, and benefits the ploughman, and nourishes the ear of corn to ripe fruit. Neither in speeches is the more copious more profitable than the wiser. For the one, perhaps having given a little pleasure, departed, and was dissolved along with the smitten air, having been able to do nothing beyond this, and has bewitched the gluttonous ear with eloquence. But the other passed into the mind and, opening his mouth wide, filled it with the Spirit, and was seen to be greater than his birth, and cultivated many things in a few syllables.

B. And I am not yet speaking of the true and first wisdom, for which this wondrous husbandman and shepherd is pre-eminent. The first wisdom is a laudable life, purified for God, or being purified, for Him who is most pure and most brilliant, and who demands from us only one sacrifice, that of purification, which Scripture is fond of calling a contrite heart, and a sacrifice of praise, and a new creation in Christ, and a new man, and such things. The first wisdom is to despise the wisdom that lies in speech, and in turns of phrases, and in counterfeit and superfluous antitheses. But may it be mine to speak five words in church with understanding, rather than ten thousand in a tongue, and with the indistinct voice of a trumpet, which does not rouse my soldier to the spiritual war. This is the wisdom I praise, this I embrace, through which the ignoble were glorified, and for which the despised were preferred, and with which fishermen caught the whole world in the nets of the Gospel, by a word consummated and cut short, conquering the wisdom which is brought to nought. For not he who is wise in word, is wise to me, nor he who has a well-turned tongue, but an unstable and uneducated soul, like 35.937 tombs, which being fair and beautiful on the outside, are full of rotting corpses within, and conceal a great stench; but he who utters few things about virtue, but demonstrates many by his actions, and adds credibility to his word through his life.

C. Better to me is beauty that is seen than that which is painted in words; and wealth which the hands possess, than that which dreams invent; and wisdom, not that which is made splendid by speech, but that which is proven by deeds. For a good understanding have all they that do it, it says, but not they that proclaim it; and of this wisdom the most accurate test is time, and old age is truly a crown of boasting. For if one must not call a man blessed before his death, as it seems to Solomon and to me, and it is uncertain what the coming day will bring forth, since our life below has many turns, and the body of our humiliation is moved up and down and changes; how is not he also who has passed the greater part of his life blamelessly, and is already, as it were, at the harbours of the common

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In patrem tacentem

ΛΟΓΟΣ Ιςʹ.

Εἰς τὸν πατέρα σιωπῶντα διὰ τὴν πληγὴν τῆς χαλάζης.

Αʹ. Τί λύετε τάξιν ἐπαινουμένην; τί βιάζεσθε γλῶσ 35.936 σαν νόμῳ δουλεύουσαν; τί προκαλεῖσθε λόγον εἴκοντα πνεύματι; τί τὴν κεφαλὴν ἀφέντες, ἐπὶ τοὺς πόδας ἐσπεύσατε; τί τὸν Ἀρὼν παρατρέχοντες, τὸν Ἐλεάζαρ προβάλλεσθε; Οὐ δέχομαι πηγὴν φράσ σεσθαι, καὶ χείμαῤῥον φέρεσθαι· ἥλιον κρύπτεσθαι, καὶ ἀστέρα δείκνυσθαι· τὴν πολιὰν ὑποχωρεῖν, καὶ τὴν νεότητα νομοθετεῖν· τὴν σοφίαν σιωπᾷν, καὶ τὴν ἀπειρίαν νεανιεύεσθαι. Οὔτε ὑετοῦ πάντως ὁ πλείων, τοῦ ἐλάττονος χρησιμώτερος· τί γάρ; Εἰ ὁ μὲν σφοδρότερος ὢν, παρασύρει τὴν γῆν, καὶ προσζη μιοῖ τῷ κεφαλαίῳ τὸν γεωργόν· ὁ δὲ ἠρέμα χεόμενος, καὶ εἰς τὰ βάθη δυόμενος, πιαίνει τὴν ἄρουραν, καὶ ὀνίνησι τὸν ἀρόσαντα, καὶ τρέφει στάχυν εἰς καρπὸν ὥριμον. Οὔτε ἐν λόγοις ὁ δαψιλέστερος, τοῦ σοφωτέρου λυσιτελέστερος. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἴσως ὀλίγον εὐφράνας ἀπῆλθε, καὶ ὁμοῦ τῷ πληγέντι ἀέρι διελύθη, μηδὲν δυνηθεὶς ὑπὲρ τοῦτο, καὶ τὴν λίχνον ἀκοὴν τῇ εὐγλωττίᾳ κατεγοήτευσεν. Ὁ δὲ εἰς τὸν νοῦν δι έβη καὶ πλατύνας τὸ στόμα ἐπλήρωσε Πνεύματος, καὶ τῆς γεννήσεως ὤφθη μακρότερος, καὶ πολλὰ ἐν ὀλίγαις συλλαβαῖς ἐγεώργησε.

Βʹ. Καὶ οὔπω λέγω τὴν ἀληθινὴν σοφίαν καὶ πρώ την, ἣν ὁ θαυμάσιος ὅδε γεωργὸς καὶ ποιμὴν τὰ πρῶτα φέρεται. Σοφία πρώτη, βίος ἐπαινετὸς καὶ Θεῷ κεκαθαρμένος, ἢ καθαιρόμενος, τῷ καθαρωτάτῳ καὶ λαμπροτάτῳ, καὶ μόνην ἀπαιτοῦντι παρ' ἡμῶν θυσίαν, τὴν κάθαρσιν, ἣν δὲ καρδίαν συντετριμμένην, καὶ θυσίαν αἰνέσεως, καὶ καινὴν ἐν Χριστῷ κτίσιν, καὶ νέον ἄνθρωπον, καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα, τῇ Γραφῇ καλεῖν φίλον. Σοφία πρώτη, σοφίας ὑπερορᾷν τῆς ἐν λόγῳ κειμένης, καὶ στροφαῖς λέξεων, καὶ ταῖς κι βδήλοις καὶ περιτταῖς ἀντιθέσεσιν. Ἐμοὶ δὲ γέ νοιτο πέντε λόγους ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ λαλῆσαι μετὰ συν έσεως, ἢ μυρίους ἐν γλώσσῃ, καὶ φωνῇ σάλπιγ γος ἀσήμῳ, τὸν ἐμὸν ὁπλίτην οὐκ ἐγειρούσῃ πρὸς τὸν πνευματικὸν πόλεμον. Ταύτην ἐπαινῶ τὴν σο φίαν ἐγὼ, ταύτην ἀσπάζομαι, δι' ἣν ἀγεννεῖς ἐδοξά σθησαν, καὶ εἰς ἣν ἐξουθενήμενοι προετιμήθησαν, καὶ μεθ' ἧς ἁλιεῖς τὴν οἰκουμένην ὅλην τοῖς τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου δεσμοῖς ἐσαγήνευσαν, τῷ συντε τελεσμένῳ καὶ συντετμημένῳ λόγῳ, τὴν καταργου μένην σοφίαν νικήσαντες. Οὐ γὰρ ὁ ἐν λόγῳ σοφὸς, οὗτος ἐμοὶ σοφὸς, οὐδὲ ὅστις γλῶσσαν μὲν εὔστροφον ἔχει, ψυχὴν δὲ ἄστατον καὶ ἀπαίδευτον, ὥσπερ 35.937 τῶν τάφων, ὅσοι τὰ ἔξωθεν ὄντες εὐπρεπεῖς καὶ ὡραῖοι, μυδῶσι νεκροῖς τὰ ἔνδον, καὶ πολλὴν δυσωδίαν περικαλύπτουσιν· ἀλλ' ὅστις ὀλίγα μὲν περὶ ἀρε τῆς φθέγγεται, πολλὰ δὲ οἷς ἐνεργεῖ παραδείκνυσι, καὶ τὸ ἀξιόπιστον τῷ λόγῳ διὰ τοῦ βίου προστίθη σιν.

Γʹ. Κρείσσων ἐμοὶ εὐμορφία θεωρουμένη τῆς ἐν λόγῳ ζωγραφουμένης· καὶ πλοῦτος, ὃν αἱ χεῖρες ἔχουσιν, ἢ ὃν οἱ ὄνειροι πλάττουσιν· καὶ σοφία, οὐχ ἡ τῷ λόγῳ λαμπρυνομένη, ἀλλ' ἡ διὰ τῶν ἔργων ἐλεγχομένη. Σύνεσις γὰρ ἀγαθὴ πᾶσι τοῖς ποιοῦσιν αὐτὴν, φησὶν, ἀλλ' οὐ τοῖς κηρύττουσιν· ταύτης δὲ βάσανος ἀκριβεστάτη τῆς σοφίας χρόνος, καὶ στέφανος ὄντως γῆρας καυχήσεως. Εἰ γὰρ οὐ χρὴ μακαρίζειν πρὸ τελευτῆς ἄνθρωπον, ὡς Σολο μῶντι κἀμοὶ δοκεῖ, καὶ ἄδηλον ὃ παρὰ τῆς ἐπιούσης τεχθήσεται, πολλὰς στροφὰς ἐχούσης ἡμῶν τῆς κάτω ζωῆς, καὶ τοῦ τῆς ταπεινώσεως σώματος ἄνω καὶ κάτω κινουμένου καὶ μεταπίπτοντος· πῶς οὐχὶ καὶ ὁ τὸ πολὺ τοῦ βίου κενώσας ἀμέμπτως, καὶ οἷον ἤδη πρὸς λιμέσιν ὢν τοῦ κοινοῦ τῆς