her salvation grieved him. For he saw through her that the race was finally turning to repentance, and he is bitten and vexed, no longer having a net by which he might hunt man; therefore he also incited you to murmur. "To what purpose," he says, "is this waste? For it could have been sold for much." Already a sale, Judas? Already a rehearsal of betrayal, a beginning of evil riddles? But Jesus does not rebuke his sickness, nor does he expose his love of money, lest he should set back the coming betrayal. But Christ, rebuking, says: "Why do you trouble the woman? Why, in addition to her previous evils, do you vex the woman? The race of women has toiled enough; let no one hinder their salvation, let no one trouble her who has washed with myrrh the feet that walked upon the earth for her sake. For you have the poor with you, but receive me also with the poor; for for your sakes I became poor, though I was rich, that you by my poverty might become rich. You destroy me, and I do not complain; this woman prepares me for burial, and you murmur? For in pouring this myrrh on my body, she has done it for my burial. Are you not ashamed then, Judas, that she, being a sinner, honors me with myrrh, while you, being an apostle, insult me by a sale? And while the woman prepares things for the tomb, the disciple betrays him to death. The woman is a sinner, I know; but she had nothing to give me but a fountain of tears, propitiating the fountain with a fountain, offering to a poor teacher an immaterial atonement. But you also appraise, wretched man, the myrrh, saying it is worth three hundred denarii; but you appraise it not that you might praise her generosity, that she spent all the wealth gathered from evil deeds on the price of myrrh, but so that by murmuring you might show what a dreadful evil you have fallen into, having lost so much. But it is no great thing, if you resent the loss of three hundred denarii, when for thirty you sold me, the Lord. For what, he says, are you willing to give me, and I will deliver him to you. Wretched man, does a slave sell his master? The order is reversed; and while I buy you from sin with my own blood, you sell me for thirty obols? Then does a man sell God? But grant that he sells, who is the buyer? And for how much will someone buy God? And why do you make the matter so cheap? Does someone sell God in the form of a man for thirty obols, as a servant, as a barbarian? At least distinguish, for how much the indwelling God, and for how much the apparent man? "What," he says, "are you willing to give me?" What do you want to receive? For they have nothing to give worthy of God. And they set for him, he says, thirty pieces of silver. For thirty obols does one sell a physician who charges no fee, a physician who gives sight to the blind, who raises the lame to run? I say these things, that I may instruct your mind, that you trouble the woman, that she honored the one free among the dead, even before his death as one dead, that through the myrrh she prefigured the grace of the burial and the resurrection. But you will have the noose as the fruit of your betrayal, while her memory, wherever the gospel is preached, will be indelible. He spoke, and the deed so came to be; for the myrrh of Aaron, of Eleazar has ceased and the horn has become idle, but her alabaster jar extends through all time, having the unemptied fragrance of memory. But thus to Judas, and to the murmuring Pharisee Christ speaks thus: "Simon, I have something to say to you." O ineffable grace! O unspeakable love for mankind! God and man converse, and he proposes a problem and a rule of philanthropy, dissolving his wickedness. "For Simon," he says, "I have something to say to you; I have something to say which I said to none of the ancients, not to a patriarch, not to a prophet, not to a lawgiver. For then I sought eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, demanding justice; but since you cannot bear justice, I bring in grace instead of the law, I will tell you an unspoken mystery." But he says, "Teacher, say it." "Two debtors were indebted to one man." See the wisdom of God;

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ἐλύπησεν αὐτῆς ἡ σωτηρία. Εἶδεν γὰρ δι' αὐτῆς λοιπὸν τὸ γένος πρὸς μετάνοιαν μεταβαλλόμενον καὶ δάκνεται καὶ ἀνιᾶται οὐκ ἔχων λοιπὸν δίκτυον δι' οὗ θηράσει τὸν ἄνθρωπον· ὅθεν καί σε εἰς τὸ γογγύσαι παρώρμησεν. Εἰς τί, φησίν, ἡ ἀπώλεια αὕτη; Ἠδύνατο γὰρ πραθῆναι πολλοῦ. Ἤδη πρᾶσις, Ἰούδα; Ἤδη προδοσίας μελέτη, κακῶναἰνιγμάτων ἀρχή; Ἀλλ' ὁ Ἰησοῦς οὐκ ἐλέγχει αὐτοῦ τὴν νόσον, οὐ γυμνοῖ τὸ φιλάργυρον, ἵνα μὴ τὴν μέλλουσαν προδοσίαν ἀνακρούσηται. Χριστὸς δὲ ἐπιπλήττων λέγει· Τί κόπους παρέχετε τῇ γυναικί; Τί πρὸς τοῖς προλαβοῦσι κακοῖς κακίζετε τὴν ἄνθρω πον; Αὐτάρκως ἔκαμε τὸ τῶν γυναικῶν γένος· μηδεὶς αὐτῶν τὴν σωτηρίαν ἐμποδιζέτω, μηδεὶς κοπούτω τὴν λούσασαν μύρῳ τοὺς πόδας τοὺς ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς βαδίσαντας ἐπὶ γῆς. Τοὺς πτωχοὺς γὰρ ἔχετε μεθ' ἑαυτῶν, λάβετε δὲ κἀμὲ μετὰ τῶν πτωχῶν· δι' ὑμᾶς γὰρ ἐπτώχευσα πλούσιος ὤν, ἵνα ὑμεῖς τῇ ἐμῇ πτωχείᾳ πλουτήσητε. Ἀναιρεῖτέ με καὶ οὐκ ἐγκαλῶ· ἐνταφιάζει με αὕτη καὶ γογγύζετε; Βαλοῦσα γὰρ αὕτη τὸ μύρον ἐπὶ τοῦ σώματός μου πρὸς τὸ ἐνταφιάσαι με πεποίηκεν. Οὐκ αἰδῇ οὖν, Ἰούδα, ὅτι αὕτη μὲν ἁμαρτωλὸς οὖσα μύροις με τιμᾷ, σὺ δὲ ἀπόστολος ὢν πράσει με καθυβρίζεις; Καὶ ἡ μὲν γυνὴ τὰ πρὸς τάφον ἑτοιμάζει, ὁ δὲ μαθητὴς τῷ θανάτῳ προδίδωσιν. Ἁμαρτωλός ἐστιν ἡ γυνή, οἶδα· ἀλλ' οὐδὲν εἶχέ μοι χαρίσασθαι ἢ πηγὴν δακρύων, πηγῇ τὴν πηγὴν ἐξευμενίζουσα, ἀκτήμονι διδασκάλῳ ἄϋλον ἱλαστήριον προσκο μίζουσα. Ἀλλὰ καὶ δοκιμάζεις, ἄθλιε, τὸ μύρον τριακοσίων δηναρίων ἄξιον λέγων· δοκιμάζεις δὲ οὐχ ἵνα αὐτῆς τὴν μεγα λοψυχίαν ἐπαινέσῃς, ὅτι ὅλον τὸν ἐκ κακῶν συναχθέντα πλοῦτον εἰς τιμὴν μύρου κατανάλωσεν, ἀλλ' ἵνα γογγύζων δείξῃς ὡς ἀπεύκτῳ περιέπεσας κακῷ τοσοῦτον ζημιωθείς. Ἀλλ' οὐ μέγα, εἰ τριακοσίων δηναρίων στέρησιν δυσχεραίνεις, ὅπου τριάκοντα λαβὼν ἀπέδου με τὸν κύριον. Τί γάρ, φησί, θέλετέ μοι δοῦναι, κἀγὼ ὑμῖν παραδώσω αὐτόν. Ἄθλιε, δοῦλος δεσπότην πωλεῖ; Ἀντέστραπται ἡ τάξις· καὶ ἐγὼ μὲν σὲ τῆς ἁμαρτίας τῷ οἰκείῳ ὠνοῦμαι αἵματι, σὺ δὲ μὲ τριάκοντα ἀπεμπολεῖς ὀβολῶν; Εἶτα δὲ ἄνθρωπος θεὸν πωλεῖ; ∆εδόσθω δὲ ὅτι πωλεῖ, τίς ὁ ὠνούμενος; Πόσου δέ τις ἀγοράσει θεόν; Τί δὲ καὶ εὔωνον ποιεῖς τὸ πρᾶγμα; Τριάκοντά τις ὀβολῶν θεὸν πωλεῖ ἐν ἀνθρώπου μορφῇ, ὡς οἰκέτην, ὡς βάρβαρον; Κἂν διάκρινον, πόσου μὲν τὸν ἐνοικοῦντα θεόν, πόσου δὲ τὸν φαινόμενον ἄνθρωπον; Τί μοι, φησί, θέλετε δοῦναι; Σὺ τί θέλεις λαβεῖν; Ἐκεῖνοι γὰρ οὐδὲν ἔχουσι δοῦναι ἀντάξιον θεοῦ. Καὶ ἔστησαν αὐτῷ, φησί, τριάκοντα ἀργύρια. Τριάκοντα ὀβολῶν ἄμισθόν τις ἰατρὸν πωλεῖ, ἰατρὸν τυφλοὺς ὀμματοῦντα, χωλοὺς πρὸς δρόμον ἐγείροντα; Ταῦτα λέγω, ἵνα σου κατηχήσω τὴν διάνοιαν, ὅτι κόπους παρέχετε τῇ γυναικί, ὅτι τὸν ἐν νεκροῖς ἐλεύθερον καὶ πρὸ τοῦ θανάτου ὡς νεκρὸν ἐτίμησεν, ὅτι διὰ τοῦ μύρου τῆς ταφῆς καὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως τὴν χάριν προεσήμανεν. Ἀλλὰ σὺ μὲν καρπὸν τῆς προδοσίας τὸν σχοῖνον ἕξεις, ταύτης δὲ ἡ μνήμη, ὅπου ἂν κηρυχθῇ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, ἀνεξάλειπτος ἔσται. Εἶπε καὶ γέγονε τὸ ἔργον οὕτως· ὅτι τὸ τοῦ Ἀαρών, τὸ τοῦ Ἐλεάζαρ πέπαυται μύρον καὶ τὸ κέρας ἤργησε, τὸ δὲ ἀλάβαστρον ταύτης παντὶ τῷ αἰῶνι συνεπεκτείνεται ἀκένωτον ἔχον τῆς μνήμης τὴν εὐωδίαν. Ἀλλὰ πρὸς μὲν τὸν Ἰούδαν οὕτως, πρὸς δὲ τὸν φαρισαῖον γογγύζοντα Χριστὸς οὕτως λέγει· Σίμων, ἔχω σοί τι εἰπεῖν. Ὢ χάριτος ἀφράστου! Ὢ φιλανθρωπίας ἀρρήτου! Θεὸς καὶ ἄνθρωπος κοινολογοῦνται καὶ προτίθησι πρόβλημα καὶ κανόνα φιλανθρωπίας ἐκλύων αὐτοῦ τὴν πονηρίαν. Σίμων γάρ, φησίν, ἔχω σοί τι εἰπεῖν· ἔχω εἰπεῖν ὃ μηδενὶ τῶν παλαιῶν εἶπον, οὐ πατριάρχῃ, οὐ προφήτῃ, οὐ νομοθέτῃ. Τότε μὲν γὰρ ὀφθαλμὸν ἀντὶ ὀφθαλμοῦ, ὀδόντα ἀντὶ ὀδόντος ἐζήτουν τὸ δίκαιον ἀπαιτῶν· ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ οὐ δύνασθε φέρειν τὸ δίκαιον, χάριν ἀντεισάγω τῷ νόμῳ, ἀλάλητόν σοι μυστήριον ἐρῶ. Ὁ δέ φησι· διδάσκαλε εἰπέ. ∆ύο χρεωφειλέται ἦσαν ἑνὶ ἀνδρί. Ὅρα θεοῦ σοφίαν·

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