John Chrysostom, On the Delights of Future Life

driving out demons, and making diseases flee, and uplifting whole cities, and leading peoples here. So great is the power of this authority, not only of the rulers when they are living, but also when they have died, so that no one comes here by compulsion, but all by choice and longing, and 51.349 it is not withered by any time. Do you see how not in vain I said this theater is more venerable than the royal courts? For the things there are like withering leaves, and passing shadows; but the things given here imitate adamant, or rather, are even stronger than it, since they are immortal and immovable and never yield to any change, and come without fear to those who love them, delivered from battle and strife, and envy and law-courts, and plots and slander. For worldly things have many who envy them; but spiritual things, the more they come to, the more they display their own abundance. And you can learn this from this discourse. For the word, which I pour out upon all, if I keep it at home with myself, I become poorer; but if I pour it out upon all, as if casting seeds into a clean field, I increase my abundance, I make my wealth greater, making all of you more resourceful, while I myself become in no way poorer in this, but even greatly richer; which is not the case with money, but quite the contrary. For if, having gold laid up, I should choose to distribute it to all, I would no longer be able to have my former abundance, since it is diminished by the division. 3. Since, therefore, the excellent things of the spiritual are so many, and have great facility, since they come freely to all who wish for them, let us rather love these, leaving the shadows, and not pursuing the cliffs and the rocks. For indeed, in order that God might intensify this love, even before the death of the person possessing these things, he allotted death to them along with it. What I mean is this: not when the one who possesses these things dies, do they also then die, but even while he is still alive these things wither and die, so that their perishable nature might lead away even those who love them intensely and are mad about them from this harsh madness, training their nature, and teaching them through experience that they are more feeble than a shadow, and thereby dissolving their love. For example: wealth is not only destroyed when the rich man dies, but it departs even more so while he lives. Youth leaves the one who has it not only when he has died, but even while he is still breathing it is gone, being destroyed on the path of age, and giving way to old age. Beauty and comeliness together, while the woman is still living, have died, and have passed over to deformity; glories, powers, again likewise; honors, offices, are ephemeral and temporary, and more mortal than the people who have them; and just as it is possible to see the daily deaths of bodies, so also of things. And this has come to pass, so that despising the present things, we may hold on to the things to come, and be suspended from the enjoyment of those things, and walking on the earth, we may spend our time in heaven in our desire. For God made these two ages, the present one, and the one to come; the one visible, the other invisible; the one perceptible, the other intelligible; the one having corporeal rest, the other incorporeal; the one in experience, the other in faith; the one in hand, the other in hope; and he commanded the one to be a stadium, the other a prize; and 51.350 to this one he allotted wrestling-grounds and labors and sweats, but to that one crowns and prizes and rewards; he made the one a sea, the other a harbor; and the one short, the other ageless and immortal. Since, therefore, many men preferred the perceptible things to those intelligible ones, he allotted to these things the

δαίμονας ἀπελαύνουσα, καὶ νοσήματα δραπετεύειν παρασκευάζουσα, καὶ πόλεις ὁλοκλήρους ἀναπτεροῦσα, καὶ δήμους ἐνταῦθα ἄγουσα. Τοσαύτη τῆς ἀρχῆς ταύτης ἡ δύναμις, οὐχὶ ζώντων τῶν ἀρχόντων μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τελευτησάντων, ὡς ἀνάγκῃ μὲν μηδένα, γνώμῃ δὲ καὶ πόθῳ πάντας ἐνταῦθα ἐλθεῖν, καὶ 51.349 μηδενὶ μαραίνεσθαι χρόνῳ. Ὁρᾶτε ὡς οὐ μάτην τουτὶ τὸ θέατρον σεμνότερον ἔφην εἶναι τῶν βασιλικῶν αὐλῶν; Τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἐκεῖ φύλλοις ἔοικε μαραινομένοις, καὶ σκιαῖς παρατρεχούσαις· τὰ δὲ ἐνταῦθα διδόμενα τὸν ἀδάμαντα μιμεῖται, μᾶλλον δὲ κἀκείνου στεῤῥότερα, ἅτε ἀθάνατα ὄντα καὶ ἀκίνητα καὶ οὐδεμιᾷ εἴκοντά ποτε μεταβολῇ, καὶ τοῖς ἐρῶσιν αὐτῶν ἀδεῶς ἐπιόντα, μάχης ἀπηλλαγμένα καὶ φιλονεικίας, καὶ φθόνου καὶ δικαστηρίων, καὶ ἐπιβούλων καὶ συκοφαντίας. Τὰ μὲν γὰρ βιωτικὰ πολλοὺς ἔχει τοὺς φθονοῦντας· τὰ δὲ πνευματικὰ, ὅσον ἂν εἰς πλείονας ἔλθῃ, τοσοῦτον μᾶλλον τὴν εὐπορίαν ἐνδείκνυται τὴν ἑαυτῶν. Καὶ τοῦτο ἔξεστιν ὑμῖν ἐκ τοῦ λόγου τούτου μαθεῖν. Τὸν γὰρ λόγον, ὃν εἰς πάντας ἐκχέω, ἂν μὲν οἴκοι κατάσχω παρ' ἐμαυτῷ, ἀπορώτερος γίνομαι· ἂν δὲ εἰς πάντας ἐκχέω, ὥσπερ εἰς ἄρουραν καθαρὰν βάλλων τὰ σπέρματα, ἐπιτείνω μου τὴν εὐπορίαν, πλείονα ποιῶ τὸν πλοῦτον, ἅπαντας ὑμᾶς εὐπορωτέρους ἐργαζόμενος, αὐτὸς δὲ οὐδὲν ἐν ταύτῃ πενέστερος γινόμενος, ἀλλὰ καὶ πλουσιώτερος μειζόνως· ὅπερ ἐπὶ χρημάτων οὐκ ἔνι, ἀλλὰ τοὐναντίον ἅπαν. Εἰ γὰρ ἔχων χρυσίον ἀποκείμενον, εἰς πάντας αὐτὸ διανεῖμαι ἑλοίμην, οὐκέτι ἂν δυναίμην ἔχειν τὴν προτέραν εὐπορίαν, τῇ διαιρέσει ταύτης ἐλαττουμένης. γʹ. Ἐπεὶ οὖν τοσαῦτα τῶν πνευματικῶν τὰ ἐξαίρετα, καὶ πολλὴν ἔχει τὴν εὐκολίαν, ἅτε πᾶσι τοῖς βουλομένοις δωρεὰν παραγινόμενα, τούτων μᾶλλον ἐρῶμεν, τὰς σκιὰς ἀφέντες, καὶ μὴ τοὺς κρημνοὺς καὶ τοὺς σκοπέλους διώκοντες. Καὶ γὰρ ἵνα τοῦτον τὸν ἔρωτα ὁ Θεὸς ἐπιτείνῃ, καὶ πρὸ τῆς τελευτῆς τοῦ κεκτημένου ταῦτα ἀνθρώπου θάνατον αὐτοῖς συνεκλήρωσεν. Οἷόν τι λέγω· οὐχ ὅταν ὁ κεκτημένος ταῦτα τελευτήσῃ, τότε καὶ αὐτὰ τελευτᾷ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ζῶντος ἔτι μαραίνεται ταῦτα καὶ ἀποθνήσκει, ἵνα τὸ ἐπίκηρον αὐτῶν καὶ τοὺς σφόδρα αὐτῶν ἐρῶντας καὶ περὶ αὐτὰ μεμηνότας τῆς χαλεπῆς ταύτης ἀπαγάγῃ λύττης, παιδεύοντα αὐτῶν τὴν φύσιν, καὶ διδάσκοντα διὰ τῆς πείρας, ὅτι σκιᾶς ἐστιν ἀδρανέστερα, καὶ ταύτῃ τὸν ἔρωτα καταλύοντα. Οἷον ὡς ἐπὶ παραδείγματος· ὁ πλοῦτος οὐχὶ τοῦ πλουτοῦντος μόνον τελευτῶντος καταλύεται, ἀλλὰ καὶ ζῶντος μᾶλλον ἀπέστη. Ἡ νεότης τὸν ἔχοντα οὐχὶ τελευτήσαντα μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐμπνέοντα ἔτι ἀπολιποῦσα οἴχεται, ἐν τῇ τῆς ἡλικίας ὁδῷ καταλύουσα, καὶ τῷ γήρᾳ παραχωροῦσα. Τὸ κάλλος ὁμοῦ καὶ ἡ εὐμορφία, ἔτι ζώσης τῆς γυναικὸς, ἐτελεύτησε, καὶ πρὸς ἀμορφίαν μετέστη· αἱ δόξαι, αἱ δυναστεῖαι πάλιν ὁμοίως· αἱ τιμαὶ, αἱ ἀρχαὶ, ἐφήμεροι καὶ πρόσκαιροι, καὶ τῶν ἐχόντων αὐτὰ ἀνθρώπων θνητότεραι· καὶ ὥσπερ σωμάτων θανάτους ἔστι καθημερινοὺς ὁρᾷν, οὕτω καὶ πραγμάτων. Τοῦτο δὲ γέγονεν, ἵνα τῶν παρόντων ὑπερορῶντες, τῶν μελλόντων ἐχώμεθα, καὶ τῆς ἐκείνων ἐκκρεμώμεθα ἀπολαύσεως, καὶ ἐν τῇ γῇ βαδίζοντες, τῷ πόθῳ ἐν οὐρανοῖς διατρίβωμεν. Καὶ γὰρ δύο τούτους αἰῶνας ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς, τὸν μὲν παρόντα, τὸν δὲ μέλλοντα· τὸν μὲν ὁρατὸν, τὸν δὲ ἀόρατον· τὸν μὲν αἰσθητὸν, τὸν δὲ νοητόν· τὸν μὲν σωματικὴν ἔχοντα ἀνάπαυσιν, τὸν δὲ ἀσώματον· τὸν μὲν ἐν πείρᾳ, τὸν δὲ ἐν πίστει· τὸν μὲν ἐν χερσὶ, τὸν δὲ ἐν ἐλπίσι· καὶ τὸν μὲν εἶναι στάδιον ἐκέλευσε, τὸν δὲ βραβεῖον· καὶ 51.350 τούτῳ μὲν σκάμματα καὶ πόνους καὶ ἱδρῶτας συνεκλήρωσεν, ἐκείνῳ δὲ στεφάνους καὶ ἔπαθλα καὶ ἀμοιβάς· τὸν μὲν πέλαγος, τὸν δὲ λιμένα κατεσκεύασε· καὶ τὸν μὲν βραχὺν, τὸν δὲ ἀγήρω καὶ ἀθάνατον. Ἐπεὶ οὖν πολλοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων τῶν νοητῶν ἐκείνων τὰ αἰσθητὰ προετίμων, συνεκλήρωσε τούτοις τὸ