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afflicted, we weep, even if he is wealthier than all, and so much the more, by how much the wealthier he is. For the perception of terrible things becomes sharper, when one is in abundance of necessities. For the one who is hindered from enjoyment on account of poverty has his necessity as a consolation; but the one who has the power to use everything, and is hindered by sickness, is all the more inflamed by this very thing. How then is it not absurd if, when we see someone afflicted with a bodily disease, to count him wretched, even if he is wealthy, but when the soul is ill-disposed, the soul, than which nothing is equal or more precious to us, to call him blessed on account of a little money, or on account of temporary honor, or on account of another of the things that remain here and with this life, or rather, that often leave us even before this life? Do not, I beseech you. These are the causes of our confusion, these of our turmoil. On this account many accuse God, on this account they think the world is without providence. For if they knew that there is no good in the present life, except virtue alone, not wealth, not money, not health, not power, nothing else, and that there is no evil in the present life, except vice alone and wickedness and perversion of soul, not poverty and disease, and insolence, and slanders, and the other things that are thought to be terrible, they would never have uttered these things, which they do now, they would never have lived in despondency, they would never have called blessed those whom they ought to call wretched, they would never have called wretched those whom they ought to call blessed, they would not have been disposed toward human affairs as if they were real things. For to call men blessed for much flesh, and an abundant manger, and much sleep, is nothing other than to think of them as brute beasts; since for them too this is well-being, or rather, even among the brute beasts this is a vice. At any rate, many asses and horses have been ruined, living in idleness and gluttony. Then, in the case of brute animals, for whom all excellence is in the good condition of the body, this is harmful; but in the case of human beings, for whom all authority is in the nobility of the soul, shall we consider this a virtue, and will we not be ashamed before heaven, and the angels who are kin to our soul? Do you not blush before the very nature and fashioning of the body? For God did not fashion it for us as for the brute beasts, but as was fitting for what was going to serve a rational and immortal soul. For why did God make the eyes of all the brute beasts to look downward, but for you He placed them in your head as in a citadel? Is it not because they have nothing in common with heaven, but for you especially a law was laid down from the beginning both from God and from nature to look around at the things above? 50.753 Why did he make your body upright, but theirs again stooping downward? Is it not again for the same reason, and teaching you from your very fashioning, to have nothing in common with the earth, nor to be attached to present things? Let us not then betray our noble birth, nor slip down to the base nature of the brutes, lest he say of us also: A man being in honor did not understand. For to define prosperity by luxury, and wealth, and glory, and present things, is not the act of those who have considered their own noble birth, but of men who have become horses and asses. But may it not be 50.754 that any such are present here, in a holy choir and spiritual theater, and a God-fearing assembly. For on this account we enjoy a divine hearing each day, so that, cutting away the overgrown passions of the mind as with a sickle by the word, we may become fruit-bearing trees, and bear ripe fruit, to be laid up in the royal storehouse, bringing glory to the common Master and husbandman of our souls, and to us immortal life, which may we all attain, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, and power, and honor, unto ages of ages. Amen.

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προκατειλημμένον, δακρύομεν, κἂν πάντων εὐπορώτερος ᾖ, καὶ τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον, ὅσῳπερ ἂν εὐπορώτερος ᾖ. Ἡ γὰρ αἴσθησις δριμυτέρα γίνεται τῶν δεινῶν, ὅταν ἐν ἀφθονίᾳ τις τῶν ἀναγκαίων ᾖ. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ παρὰ πενίαν κωλυόμενος τῆς ἀπολαύσεως, ἔχει τὴν ἀνάγκην παραμυθίαν· ὁ δὲ κύριος ὢν πάσῃ κεχρῆσθαι, καὶ κωλυόμενος ὑπὸ τῆς ἀῤῥωστίας, αὐτῷ τούτῳ μᾶλλον ἐμπίπραται. Πῶς οὖν οὐκ ἄτοπον εἰ μὲν νοσήματι σωματικῷ προκατειλημμένον ἴδοιμέν τινα, ταλανίζειν αὐτὸν, κἂν εὔπορος ᾖ, ψυχῆς δὲ κακῶς διακειμένης, ψυχῆς, ἧς ἡμῖν ἴσον οὐδὲν οὐδὲ τιμιώτερον, μακαρίζειν δι' ὀλίγα χρήματα, ἢ διὰ πρόσκαιρον τιμὴν, ἢ δι' ἄλλο τῶν ἐνταῦθα μενόντων καὶ μετὰ τῆς ζωῆς ταύτης, μᾶλλον δὲ πολλάκις καὶ πρὸ τῆς ζωῆς, ἡμᾶς ἀπολιμπανόντων; Μὴ, παρακαλῶ. Ταῦτα τῆς ταραχῆς ἡμῖν αἴτια, ταῦτα θορύβου. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο τοῦ Θεοῦ κατηγοροῦσι πολλοὶ, διὰ τοῦτο τὸν κόσμον ἀπρονόητον νομίζουσιν. Ὡς εἰ ᾔδεσαν ὅτι οὐδὲν ἀγαθὸν ἐν τῷ παρόντι βίῳ, ἀλλ' ἢ ἀρετὴ μόνον, οὐ πλοῦτος, οὐ χρήματα, οὐχ ὑγίεια, οὐ δυναστεία, οὐκ ἄλλο οὐδὲν, καὶ ὡς οὐδὲν κακὸν ἐν τῷ παρόντι βίῳ, ἀλλ' ἢ κακία μόνον καὶ πονηρία καὶ διαστροφὴ ψυχῆς, οὐ πενία καὶ νόσος, καὶ ἐπήρεια, καὶ συκοφαντίαι, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα, ἃ νομίζεται εἶναι δεινὰ, οὐκ ἄν ποτε ταῦτα ἐφθέγξαντο, ἅπερ νῦν, οὐκ ἄν ποτε ἐν ἀθυμίᾳ διήγαγον, οὐκ ἄν ποτε ἐμακάρισαν οὓς ταλανίζειν ἐχρῆν, οὐκ ἄν ποτε ἐταλάνισαν οὓς μακαρίζειν ἔδει, οὐκ ἂν ὡς περὶ ὄντων τῶν ἀνθρώπων διέκειντο. Τὸ γὰρ ἐπὶ πολυσαρκίᾳ, καὶ δαψιλεῖ φάτνῃ, καὶ ὕπνῳ πολλῷ μακαρίζειν ἀνθρώπους οὐδὲν ἕτερόν ἐστιν, ἢ ὡς περὶ ἀλόγων διακεῖσθαι· ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐκείνων τοῦτό ἐστιν ἡ εὐπραγία, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀλόγοις κακία τοῦτό ἐστι. Πολλοὶ γοῦν καὶ ὄνοι καὶ ἵπποι διεφθάρησαν, ἐν ἀργίᾳ καὶ ἀδηφαγίᾳ ζῶντες. Εἶτα, ἐπὶ μὲν τῶν ἀλόγων ζώων, οἷς ἡ πᾶσα ἀρετὴ ἐν εὐεξίᾳ σώματος, βλαβερὸν τοῦτο· ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, οἷς πᾶν τὸ κῦρος ἐν τῇ τῆς ψυχῆς εὐγενείᾳ, ἀρετὴν τοῦτο θησόμεθα, καὶ οὐκ αἰσχυνθησόμεθα τὸν οὐρανὸν, καὶ τοὺς τῆς ψυχῆς ἡμῶν συγγενεῖς ἀγγέλους; οὐκ ἐρυθριᾷς καὶ αὐτὴν τοῦ σώματος τὴν φύσιν καὶ τὴν διάπλασιν; οὐ γὰρ ὥσπερ τοῖς ἀλόγοις, οὕτω καὶ ἡμῖν αὐτὸ διετύπωσεν ὁ Θεὸς, ἀλλ' ὡς πρέπον ἦν μέλλον ψυχῇ λογικῇ καὶ ἀθανάτῳ διακονεῖν. ∆ιὰ τί γὰρ τοῖς μὲν ἀλόγοις πᾶσι κάτω νεύοντας ἐποίησε τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ὁ Θεὸς, σοὶ δὲ καθάπερ ἐν ἀκροπόλει τῇ κεφαλῇ φέρων αὐτοὺς ἐγκατέθηκεν; οὐκ ἐπειδὴ ἐκείνοις μὲν οὐδὲν πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν κοινὸν, σοὶ δὲ μάλιστα τὰ ἄνω 50.753 περισκοπεῖν νόμος καὶ παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ παρὰ τῆς φύσεως ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐτέθη; ∆ιὰ τί σοὶ μὲν τὸ σῶμα ὄρθιον ἐποίησεν, ἐκείνοις δὲ πάλιν κάτω νενευκός; οὐχὶ διὰ τὴν αὐτὴν αἰτίαν πάλιν, καὶ ἀπ' αὐτῆς τῆς διαπλάσεως παιδεύων σε, μηδὲν κοινὸν ἔχειν πρὸς τὴν γῆν, μήτε προστετηκέναι τοῖς παροῦσι πράγμασι; Μὴ τοίνυν καταπροδῶμεν τὴν εὐγένειαν, μηδὲ πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἀλόγων δυσγένειαν ἐξολισθήσωμεν, ἵνα μὴ καὶ περὶ ἡμῶν εἴπῃ· Ἄνθρωπος ἐν τιμῇ ὢν οὐ συνῆκεν. Τὸ γὰρ τρυφῇ, καὶ πλούτῳ, καὶ δόξῃ, καὶ τοῖς παροῦσι πράγμασι τὴν εὐημερίαν ὁρίζεσθαι, οὐκ ἔστιν ἐπεσκεμμένων τὴν οἰκείαν εὐγένειαν, ἀλλ' ἀνθρώπων ἵππων καὶ ὄνων γενομένων. Ἀλλὰ μὴ γέ 50.754 νοιτό τινας τοιούτους ἐνταῦθα παρεῖναι, ἐν ἁγίῳ χορῷ καὶ θεάτρῳ πνευματικῷ, καὶ συλλόγῳ θεοσεβεῖ. ∆ιὰ γὰρ τοῦτο καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν θείας ἀπολαύομεν ἀκροάσεως, ἵνα καθάπερ δρεπάνῃ τῷ λόγῳ, τὰ ὑλομανοῦντα πάθη τῆς διανοίας περικόπτοντες, ἔγκαρπα δένδρα γενώμεθα, καὶ καρπὸν ἐνέγκωμεν ὥριμον, εἰς ἀποθήκην ἀποτιθέμενον βασιλικὴν, δόξαν φέροντα τῷ κοινῷ ∆εσπότῃ καὶ γεωργῷ τῶν ἡμετέρων ψυχῶν, καὶ ἡμῖν ζωὴν τὴν ἀθάνατον, ἧς γένοιτο πάντας ἡμᾶς ἐπιτυχεῖν, χάριτι καὶ φιλανθρωπίᾳ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, μεθ' οὗ τῷ Πατρὶ ἅμα τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι δόξα, καὶ κράτος, καὶ τιμὴ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.