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wounds, and may I receive the medicine, May I enter unto the only life, I who by a most worthless life have cut myself off from life; may I, the condemned, enter unto the philanthropic judge. Before the resurrection from the dead, may I settle my accounts, before the terrible judgment, may I escape the judgment, before the dreadful tribunal, may I steal away from the scourges; before I see Christ pronouncing judgment judicially, may I see him conversing philanthropically; before I fear him punishing, may I entreat him present. I am not the first to dare to speak with him; for already another, as I have heard, a Samaritan woman, lawless under the law, met the spring at the spring, and went away having drawn up knowledge of God. And again another woman of the Canaanite race, a free offspring of the accursed and servile seed, having come in supplication against a demon tyrannizing her only-begotten, returned having received authority over the demon, and the mother became a physician to her daughter, and that harsh and barbarous demon dared no longer to approach the maiden, fearing the command of Christ's voice. Let me, therefore, imitate this one, and come before the one who bestows all things and is able and willing; I will use the habit of shamelessness for my own advantage; I will stand by the Savior as he dines, uninvited, just as a city having the form of many feasting; I will loosen my hair, and bewail my own wretchedness; I will let down the intricate nets, so that I may hunt for him who unsparingly bestows mercy; I will weep well once, I who have often laughed badly; I will weep now before the philanthropic judge, so that I may not weep in vain at the last; I will mourn now for a little, so that I may not mourn much then; I will wash Christ's feet with tears, so that he may wash away my iniquities with his words; I will wipe away the tears with my tresses, so that from this some sanctification may also be added to them; I will kiss the unstained footprints, which even the sea kissed, so that with chaste kisses I may spit out the venom from licentious kisses; I will embrace the divine limbs, the virginal, those from a virgin, so that into my own condemned limbs from those holy limbs I may channel a certain drop of righteousness.

The compassionate one will be inclined by these things; he will pity her falling at his feet, whom he did not punish when she was sinning; he will pity her kneeling, whom while she was dancing disorderly he continually benefited; he will pity her wanting to be saved, whom finding her perishing he bore gently. He cannot bear to overlook genuine tears, he cannot but appear to me also as what he is by nature, compassionate; a sigh coming up from the depth of the soul has great power with him; repentance has great boldness before him; he will surely speak to me also something gentle and calm, and fitting for his divinity. These things the wise woman contemplated, these things the faithful woman did. And having adorned herself with a woman's cloak, maidenly but not whorishly, and thus hiding her whole form which before this was exposed to all, as in a theater, and having looked around on all sides carefully, so that no whorish appearance might enter with her before the Lord to accuse her, she ran into the room of the Pharisee, and having stood by the master's feet, she fulfilled her premeditated plan. For having brought, it says, an alabaster flask of myrrh, and standing behind at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the myrrh, speaking in her silence, and crying out in her quietness, and uttering with her soul to the one who knows how to hear suffering souls, and not uttering mouths, such a supplication, as is likely, writing with her tears: I was cast out like a lost sheep; but I recognized you, Master, my shepherd and Lord; I willingly became prey to wild beasts, but I came to my senses to escape the bitter bites of the wolf; I was shipwrecked many times willingly, but I was saved from the shipwreck, holding fast to your presence as an anchor. But I have no boldness;

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ἕλκη, καὶ λαβῶ τὸ φάρμακον, Εἰσέλθω πρὸς τὴν μόνην ζωὴν, ἡ διὰ τῆς φαυλοτάτης ζωῆς ἐμαυτὴν ἀποσχοινίσασα τῆς ζωῆς· εἰσέλθω πρὸς τὸν φιλάνθρωπον δικαστὴν ἡ κατάκριτος. Πρὸ τῆς ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀναστάσεως λύσω τὰς εὐθύνας, πρὸ τῆς φοβερᾶς κρίσεως διαφύγω τὴν κρίσιν, πρὸ τοῦ φρικτοῦ βήματος ὑποκλέψω τὰς μάστιγας· πρὶν ἴδω τὸν Χριστὸν δικαστικῶς ἀποφαινόμενον, ἴδω φιλανθρώπως διαλεγόμενον· πρὶν φοβηθῶ κολάζοντα, κολακεύσω παρόντα. Οὐ πρώτη τὴν πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁμιλίαν τολμῶ· ἤδη καὶ ἄλλη, ὡς ἤκουσα, γυνὴ Σαμαρεῖτις, ἐν νόμῳ παράνομος, συνέτυχεν ἐπὶ τῆς πηγῆς τῇ πηγῇ, καὶ ἀπῆλθε θεογνωσίαν ἀντλήσασα. Καὶ πάλιν ἑτέρα τις γυνὴ τῶν Χαναναίων γένους, τοῦ καταράτου καὶ δουλικοῦ σπέρματος ἐλεύθερον βλάστημα, ἐν ἐντυχίᾳ εἰσελθοῦσα κατὰ δαίμονος τυραννοῦντος αὐτῆς τὴν μονογενῆ, ἀνέστρεψε λαβοῦσα τὴν ἐξουσίαν κατὰ τοῦ δαίμονος, καὶ γέγονεν ἡ μήτηρ τῇ θυγατρὶ ἰατρὸς, καὶ ὁ δαίμων ὁ ἀπηνὴς οὗτος καὶ βάρβαρος οὐκ ἐτόλμησεν οὐκέτι πλησιάσαι τῇ κόρῃ, φοβηθεὶς τῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ φωνῆς τὸ διάταγμα. Μιμήσωμαι τοίνυν κἀγὼ ταύτην, καὶ γένωμαι παρὰ τὸν πάντα χαριζόμενον καὶ δυνάμενον καὶ ἑλόμενον· χρήσωμαι τῇ συνηθείᾳ τῆς ἀναιδείας πρὸς τὸ ἐμοὶ συμφέρον· ἐπισταθῶ τῷ Σωτῆρι ἑστιωμένῳ αὐτόκλητος, καθάπερ πόλιν ὑπὸ πολλῶν εὐωχουμένων ἔχουσα μορφήν· λύσω τὰς κόμας, καὶ θρηνήσω τὴν ἐμαυτῆς ἀθλιότητα· χαλάσω τὰ πολύπλοκα δίκτυα, ἵνα θηράσω τὸν ἔλεον ἀφειδῶς χορηγοῦντα· κλαύσω καλῶς ἅπαξ, ἡ γελάσασα πολλάκις κακῶς· κλαύσω νῦν ἐπὶ τοῦ φιλανθρώπου κριτοῦ, ἵνα μὴ κλαύσω τὸ τελευταῖον ἀνόνητα· θρηνήσω νῦν ὀλίγον, ἵνα μὴ θρηνήσω τότε πολλά· κατακλύσω τοῦ Χριστοῦ τοὺς πόδας τοῖς δάκρυσιν, ἵνα μοι ἀποκλύσῃ τὰς ἐμὰς ἀνομίας τοῖς ῥήμασιν· ἀπομάξω τοῖς πλοκάμοις τὰ δάκρυα, ἵνα προσγένηταί τις ἐκ τούτου καὶ τούτοις ἁγιασμός· καταφιλήσω τὰ ἄχραντα ἴχνη, ἅπερ καὶ τὸ πέλαγος κατεφίλησεν, ἵνα τοῖς σώφροσι φιλήμασιν ἀποπτύσω τὸν ἐκ τῶν ἀσελγῶν φιλημάτων ἰόν· περιπτύξομαι τὰ θεῖα μέλη, τὰ παρθενικὰ, τὰ ἐκ παρθένου, ἵνα τοῖς ἐμοῖς μέλεσι τοῖς κατακρίτοις ἐξ ἐκείνων τῶν ἁγίων μελῶν ἐποχετεύσω δικαιοσύνης σταγόνα τινά.

Ἐπικαμφθήσεται πρὸς ταῦτα ὁ εὔσπλαγχνος· ἐλεήσει προσπίπτουσαν, ἢν ἁμαρτάνουσαν οὐκ ἐκόλασεν· ἐλεήσει γονυπετοῦσαν, ἣν ἄτακτα χορεύουσαν εὐεργετῶν διετέλεσεν· ἐλεήσει σωθῆναι βουλομένην, ἣν ἀπολλυμένην εὑρὼν ἔφερε πράως. Οὐ φέρει δάκρυα γνήσια παριδεῖν, οὐ δύναται καὶ περὶ ἐμὲ μὴ φανῆναι, ὅπερ πέφυκεν, εὔσπλαγχνος· μεγάλα δύναται παρ' αὐτῷ ἐκ τοῦ βάθους τῆς ψυχῆς ἀνερχόμενος στεναγμός· μεγάλην παῤῥησίαν ἔχει πρὸς αὐτὸν ἡ μετάνοια· λαλήσει πάντως καὶ πρὸς ἐμὲ ἥμερόν τι καὶ γαληνὸν, καὶ πρέπον αὐτοῦ τῇ θεότητι. Ταῦτα ἐμελέτησεν ἡ σοφὴ, ταῦτα ἔπραξεν ἡ πιστή. Καὶ τῷ γυναικείῳ περιβολαίῳ στολισαμένη, παρθενικῶς, ἀλλ' οὐ πορνικῶς, καὶ οὕτω κρύψασα πᾶσαν αὐτῆς τὴν μορφὴν τὴν πρὸ τούτου πᾶσι προκειμένην, ὡς ἐν θεάτρῳ, καὶ περισκοπήσασα πανταχόθεν ἀσφαλῶς, ἵνα μή τι σχῆμα πορνικὸν συνεισέλθῃ αὐτῇ πρὸς τὸν Κύριον κατηγοροῦν αὐτὴν, εἰσέδραμεν εἰς τὸ τοῦ Φαρισαίου δωμάτιον, καὶ τοῖς δεσποτικοῖς παραστᾶσα ποσὶν, ἐπλήρου τὴν προμελετηθεῖσαν βουλήν. Κομίσασα γὰρ, φησὶν, ἀλάβαστρον μύρου, καὶ στᾶσα παρὰ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ ὀπίσω, κλαίουσα ἤρξατο βρέχειν τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ τοῖς δάκρυσι, καὶ ταῖς θριξὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτῆς ἐξέμασσε, κατεφίλει τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἤλειφε τῷ μύρῳ, λαλοῦσα τῇ σιωπῇ, καὶ βοῶσα τῇ σιγῇ, καὶ φθεγγομένη τῇ ψυχῇ πρὸς τὸν εἰδότα ψυχῶν ὀδυνωμένων ἀκούειν, καὶ μὴ φθεγγομένων στομάτων, τοιαύτην ἱκεσίαν, ὡς εἰκὸς, τοῖς δάκρυσι γράφουσα· Ἐῤῥίφθην ὡς πρόβατον ἀπολωλός· ἀλλ' ἐπέγνων σε ∆εσπότην, τὸν ἐμὸν ποιμένα καὶ Κύριον· ἐγενόμην θηριάλωτος βουληθεῖσα, ἀλλ' ἔλαβον αἴσθησιν ἐκφυγεῖν τῶν πικρῶν δηγμάτων τοῦ λύκου· ἐναυάγησα πολλάκις ἐθέλουσα, ἀλλ' ἐσώθην ἐκ τοῦ ναυαγίου, κρατήσασα τὴν σὴν παρουσίαν, ὡς ἄγκυραν. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἔχω παῤῥησίαν·