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Quod frequenter conveniendum sit

OF OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS JOHN, ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, CHRYSOSTOM, A Homily spoken in the martyrium at the old rock, with a few gathered because of the winter; on the necessity of assembling continually, and not despairing of salvation while being in sins, but showing repentance.

63.461 What is this? When the whole city ought to be present today, not even a very small part of the assembly has met with us? Is the mud perhaps to blame, and the rain? Away with it! not the mud, but an indolent and listless mind. For what excuse could those who stayed away have, when the martyrs despised life itself, but they did not even venture through mud in order to be present? How shall I bless you who have come? how shall I pity those who stayed away, both for their absence and for the reason of their absence? For it is clear that being nailed to worldly cares, and kindling more strongly within themselves the love of money that ruins everything, they have missed this good festival. But even if they are not present, it is necessary to speak to the absent as well; for it is clear that they will hear these things through you who are present. Until when this madness for money? For how long will the never-extinguished furnace attack and burn everything down? Do you not know that this flame begets that unquenchable fire? This wasting disease brings forth that venomous worm? But if you despise Gehenna, and these words do not shake your mind because the punishment is still to come; let even present things persuade you. Did you not know what kind of fruit the love of money recently produced? Are the reminders not before your eyes? Is the proof of so great a catastrophe not still ringing in your ears?

Our whole city is filled with the wreckage of that shipwreck; and wherever you may go, just as when a great ship has been sunk, one man having saved the plank, another the oar, another the sail, another some part of the cargo, they hold and carry it about; so indeed also from the earthquake that recently befell us here, one distributing the house, another the fields, another the slaves, another the silver, another the gold, they have made the sight of the disaster widespread, and have caused the reminders of the turmoil to be scattered everywhere. And he who spent sleepless nights, and endured countless toils and dangers, and gathered so many sins from such greed, has become a homeless, city-less fugitive in exile, and is in want of necessary food; and each day he sees the ultimate danger hanging over him, imagining swords and executioners and pits, living a life more grievous than ten thousand deaths; while others revel in his possessions, and those who formerly flattered him now plot against him. Are these things not sufficient, then, to chasten even the most insensitive person? But after so great a blow, after so great a storm, after so great a catastrophe, after such a great change and one so great, appearing before our eyes, which had not occurred at all thirty days ago, are you again mad for these things? And what excuse could you have, or what defense? And not only are you mad, but you do not even come, that you may learn this very thing.

For I am speaking to the absent as if they were present, being stupefied with great despondency, because they are made better neither by the fear of things to come, nor by the experience of things present; but seizing, being covetous, like worms in some dung-heap, caught up and buried in the filth of these cares, not even once

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Quod frequenter conveniendum sit

ΤΟΥ ΕΝ ΑΓΙΟΙΣ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ, ΑΡΧΙΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΥΠΟΛΕΩΣ, ΤΟΥ ΧΡΥΣΟΣΤΟΜΟΥ, Ὁμιλία λεχθεῖσα ἐν τῷ μαρτυρίῳ τῷ ἐπὶ τῇ παλαιᾷ πέτρᾳ, ὀλίγων συλλεγέντων διὰ τὸν χειμῶνα· εἰς τὸ δεῖν συνεχῶς συνάγεσθαι, καὶ μὴ ἀπαγορεύειν τὴν σωτηρίαν ἐν ἁμαρτήμασιν ὄντας, ἀλλὰ μετάνοιαν ἐπιδείκνυσθαι.

63.461 Τί τοῦτο; τὴν πόλιν ἅπασαν παρεῖναι δέον σήμερον, οὐδὲ τὸ

πολλοστὸν ἡμῖν ἀπήντηκε τοῦ συλλόγου μέρος; Τάχα ὁ πηλὸς αἴτιος καὶ ὁ ὑετός; Ἄπαγε· οὐχ ὁ πηλὸς, ἀλλ' ἡ ῥᾴθυμος καὶ ἡ ἀναπεπτωκυῖα γνώμη. Τίνα γὰρ ἂν ἔχοιεν συγγνώμην οἱ ἀπολειφθέντες, ὅπου γε οἱ μὲν μάρτυρες καὶ αὐτῆς τῆς ζωῆς κατεφρόνησαν, αὐτοὶ δὲ ὑπὲρ τοῦ παραγενέσθαι οὐδὲ πηλοῦ κατετόλμησαν; Πῶς μακαρίσω τοὺς παραγενομένους ὑμᾶς; πῶς ταλανίσω τοὺς ἀπολειφθέντας ἐκείνους, διά τε τὴν ἀπόλειψιν, διά τε τὴν αἰτίαν τῆς ἀπολείψεως; Εὔδηλον γὰρ ὅτι βιωτικαῖς προσηλωμένοι φροντίσι, καὶ τὸν ἅπαντα λυμαινόμενον τῶν χρημάτων ἔρωτα σφοδρότερον ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἀνάπτοντες, τῆς καλῆς ταύτης ἀπελείφθησαν ἑορτῆς. Ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ μὴ πάρεισιν, ἀναγκαῖον καὶ πρὸς ἀπόντας διαλεχθῆναι· εὔδηλον γὰρ ὅτι δι' ὑμῶν ταῦτα ἀκούσονται τῶν παρόντων· μέχρι πότε τῶν χρημάτων ἡ λύσσα; μέχρι τίνος ἡ μηδέποτε σβεννυμένη κάμινος πάντα ἔπεισι καὶ καταφλέγει; οὐκ ἴστε ὅτι αὕτη ἡ φλὸξ ἐκεῖνο τίκτει τὸ ἄσβεστον πῦρ; αὕτη ἡ τηκεδὼν ἐκεῖνον γεννᾷ τὸν σκώληκα τὸν ἰοβόλον; Εἰ δὲ καταφρονεῖς γεέννης, καὶ οὐ διασείει σου τὴν διάνοιαν ταῦτα τὰ ῥήματα διὰ τὸ μέλλειν ἔτι τὴν κόλασιν· κἂν τὰ παρόντα πειθέτω σε. Οὐκ ἔγνωτε οἷον τὸν καρπὸν ἡ φιλοχρηματία πρώην ἐπεδείξατο; οὐ πρὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ὑμῶν ἐστι τὰ ὑπομνήματα; οὐκ ἔναυλος τῆς τοσαύτης καταστροφῆς ἡ ἀπόδειξις;

Πᾶσα ἡ πόλις ἡμῖν τῶν λειψάνων τοῦ ναυαγίου ἐκείνου ἐμπέπλησται· καὶ ὅπουπερ ἂν ἀπέλθῃς, ὥσπερ πλοίου μεγάλου καταποντισθέντος, ὁ μὲν τὴν σανίδα, ὁ δὲ τὴν κώπην, ὁ δὲ τὸ ἱστίον, ὁ δὲ μέρος τι τῶν ἀγωγίμων διασώσαντες ἔχουσι καὶ περιφέρουσιν· οὕτω δὴ καὶ τοῦ πρώην ἐντεῦθεν ἐπενεχθέντος σεισμοῦ, ὁ μὲν τὴν οἰκίαν, ὁ δὲ τοὺς ἀγροὺς, ὁ δὲ τὰ ἀνδράποδα, ὁ δὲ τὸ ἀργύριον, ὁ δὲ τὸ χρυσίον διανειμάμενοι, πλατεῖαν τῆς συμφορᾶς τὴν ὄψιν εἰργάσαντο, καὶ πανταχοῦ τοῦ κλόνου τὰ ὑπομνήματα διασπαρῆναι παρεσκεύασαν. Καὶ ὁ μὲν νύκτας ἀΰπνους διατελέσας, καὶ μυρίους πόνους καὶ κινδύνους ὑπομείνας, καὶ ἁμαρτήματα τοσαῦτα συναγαγὼν ἀπὸ τῆς τοιαύτης πλεονεξίας, ἄοικος, ἄπολις πρὸς τὴν ὑπερορίαν φυγὰς γέγονε, καὶ τῆς ἀναγκαίας ἀπορεῖ τροφῆς· καὶ καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν τὸν περὶ τῶν ἐσχάτων κίνδυνον ἐπικρεμάμενον ὁρᾷ, ξίφη καὶ δημίους καὶ βάραθρα φανταζόμενος, μυρίων θανάτων χαλεπωτέραν ζωὴν ζῶν· ἕτεροι δὲ τοῖς ἐκείνου κτήμασιν ἐντρυφῶσι, καὶ οἱ πρὸ τούτου κολακεύοντες αὐτὸν, ἐπιβουλεύουσι νῦν. Ταῦτα οὖν οὐχ 63.462 ἱκανὰ καὶ τὸν σφόδρα ἀναίσθητον σωφρονίζειν; Ἀλλὰ μετὰ τοσαύτην πληγὴν, μετὰ τοσοῦτον χειμῶνα, μετὰ τοσαύτην καταστροφὴν, μετὰ τοσαύτην μεταβολὴν καὶ τηλικαύτην, τὴν πρὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν φαινομένην, τὴν πρὸ τριάκοντα οὐδ' ὅλως γεγενημένην ἡμερῶν, πάλιν ταῦτα μαίνεσθε; καὶ ποίαν ἂν σχοίητε συγγνώμην, ἢ τίνα ἀπολογίαν; Καὶ οὐ μαίνεσθε μόνον, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ παραγίνεσθε, ἵνα αὐτὸ τοῦτο μάθητε.

Ὥσπερ γὰρ πρὸς παρόντας τοὺς ἀπόντας διαλέγομαι, πολλῇ τῇ ἀθυμίᾳ κεκαρωμένος, ὅτι οὐ τῷ φόβῳ τῶν μελλόντων, οὐ τῇ πείρᾳ τῶν παρόντων γίνονται βελτίους· ἀλλ' ἁρπάζοντες, πλεονεκτοῦντες, ὥσπερ ἔν τινι κοπρίᾳ σκώληκες, τῷ φορυτῷ τῶν φροντίδων τούτων ἀπειλημμένοι καὶ ἐγκατορωρυγμένοι, οὐδὲ ἅπαξ