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of any other minister, but he himself through himself speaks with us the unworthy, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah the prophet who says: Not an ambassador, not an angel, but the Lord himself will come and save us. And likewise David also proclaimed about this, saying, that the Lord himself will recount it in the writing of the peoples.

Whence the holy apostle, reproving us, wrote more sharply, saying: For this reason we must pay more careful attention because of the speaking Lord. For if the word spoken through an angel was binding, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard. For this reason we must pay more careful attention. Why then, tell me, Paul? Because he does not speak to us through an angel nor through any other powers, as he did to the ancients, but the Lord himself of angels and of every breath speaks and recounts and proclaims the Father's command, as if a poor man. Who will not shudder? Who will not marvel? And who will not be filled with compunction at so great a goodness and condescension of the lover of mankind?

3. Will we, by saying these things, persuade you, or at least some from the multitude, to pay more careful attention to God who is speaking? I believe there are many among you who pay attention with toil and without distraction; who also will hear the Lord saying to the Father, that These also have believed that you sent me; Father, keep them in your name.

But those who have not believed will hear, You are not of my sheep; for my sheep hear my voice. Did you not shudder hearing such things? How long will you be dull of heart? How long will you be infants in understanding? How long will you not pay attention to the one speaking, and stand as is fitting for Christians, having your hearts lifted up, but have made the church an ox-stall and a praetorium and a tavern? Beware lest the fearful saying of the Apostle be fulfilled in you, which says: And as they did not see fit to have God in their knowledge, he gave them over to impurity. But we, leaving behind those who have lost heart, about whom Solomon spoke as from the person of the Lord, that I spoke, and you did not hear, I stretched out words, and you did not pay attention, let us return to the subject at hand, and approach the ambo, and hear what the Lord God will speak in us, the great evangelist, who proclaims to us on earth the heavenly command of the Father. And it is clear that he will speak peace to his people, as the God of peace; or as a good one he calls to himself those who are weary, and as a just king he helps those who weep; he blesses unto repentance, he pronounces woe upon those who live in hypocrisy, he blesses those who are watchful, and pronounces woe upon the slothful; he glorifies the compassionate as he is compassionate, and he blesses the merciful as he is merciful Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy60.687 But as one who is a stranger to pitilessness and alien to harshness, and has no part in any evil, he thrusts away and banishes pitilessness, and turns away from the harsh and the unmerciful and those who do not share; and he will reason with them, sometimes through himself, sometimes through the patriarch Abraham or through other saints. He himself accuses and reproaches those who are then to be found on the left, as being able to show mercy, and not having shown mercy. For the judge does not demand the debt of mercy from the unable; for such people are in need of others; but from those who have abundantly received the gifts of God, and have forgotten the giver, and boast as if they had not received, to them

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ἄλλου τινὸς λειτουργοῦ, ἀλλ' αὐτὸς δι' ἑαυτοῦ διαλέγεται πρὸς ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀναξίους, πληρῶν τὴν προφητείαν Ἡσαΐου τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος· Οὐ πρέσβυς, οὐκ ἄγγελος, ἀλλ' αὐτὸς ὁ Κύριος ἥξει καὶ σώσει ἡμᾶς. Ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ∆αυῒδ περὶ τούτου προεκήρυξε λέγων, ὅτι Αὐτὸς ὁ Κύριος διηγήσεται ἐν γραφῇ λαῶν.

Ὅθεν ὁ ἱερὸς ἀπόστολος καθαπτόμενος ἡμῶν ἐντρεπτικώτερον ἔγραψε, λέγων· ∆ιὰ τοῦτο δεῖ περισσοτέρως ἡμᾶς προσέχειν διὰ τὸν λαλοῦντα Κύριον. Εἰ γὰρ ὁ δι' ἀγγέλου λαληθεὶς λόγος ἐγένετο βέβαιος, καὶ πᾶσα παράβασις καὶ παρακοὴ ἔλαβεν ἔνδικον μισθαποδοσίαν, πῶς ἡμεῖς ἐκφευξόμεθα τηλικαύτης ἀμελήσαντες σωτηρίας, ἥτις ἀρχὴν λαβοῦσα λαλεῖσθαι διὰ τοῦ Κυρίου, ὑπὸ τῶν ἀκουσάντων εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐβεβαιώθη. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο δεῖ περισσοτέρως ἡμᾶς προσέχειν. ∆ιὰ τί ἄρα, εἰπὲ, Παῦλε; ∆ιότι οὐ δι' ἀγγέλου οὐδὲ δι' ἄλλων τινῶν δυνάμεων διαλέγεται πρὸς ἡμᾶς, καθὼς καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἀρχαίους, ἀλλ' αὐτὸς ὁ τῶν ἀγγέλων καὶ πάσης πνοῆς Κύριος διαλέγεται καὶ διηγεῖται καὶ διαγγέλλει τὸ πρόσταγμα τοῦ Πατρὸς, ὥσπερ τις πένης. Τίς οὐ φρίξει; τίς οὐ θαυμάσει; τίς δὲ οὐ κατανυγῇ ἐν τῇ τοσαύτῃ ἀγαθότητι καὶ συγκαταβάσει τοῦ φιλανθρώπου;

γʹ. Ἆρα ταῦτα λέγοντες πείσομεν ὑμᾶς, ἢ κἄν τινας ἐκ τοῦ πλήθους, περισσοτέρως προσέχειν τῷ λαλοῦντι Θεῷ; Πιστεύω εἶναι πολλοὺς ἐξ ὑμῶν προσέχοντας ἐμπόνως καὶ ἀμετεωρίστως· οἵτινες καὶ ἀκούσονται τοῦ Κυρίου πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα λέγοντος, ὅτι Καὶ οὗτοι ἐπίστευσαν, ὅτι σύ με ἀπέστειλας· Πάτερ, τήρησον αὐτοὺς ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί σου.

Οἱ δὲ μὴ πιστεύσαντες ἀκούσουσιν, Ὑμεῖς οὐκ ἐστὲ ἐκ τῶν προβάτων τῶν ἐμῶν· τὰ γὰρ ἐμὰ πρόβατα τῆς φωνῆς ἀκούει τῆς ἐμῆς. Ἆρα οὐκ ἐφρίξατε τοιαῦτα ἀκούοντες; ἕως πότε βαρυκάρδιοι; ἕως πότε νήπιοι ταῖς φρεσίν; ἕως πότε οὐ προσέχετε τῷ λαλοῦντι, καὶ στήκετε ὡς πρέπει Χριστιανοῖς, ἄνω τὰς καρδίας ἔχοντες, ἀλλ' ἐποιήσατε βουστάσιον καὶ πραιτώριον καὶ καπηλεῖον τὴν ἐκκλησίαν; Βλέπετε μή πως ἐφ' ὑμᾶς πληρωθῇ τὸ φοβερὸν τοῦ Ἀποστόλου ῥητὸν τὸ λέγον· Καὶ καθὼς οὐκ ἐδοκίμασαν τὸν Θεὸν ἔχειν ἐν ἐπιγνώσει, παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς εἰς ἀκαθαρσίαν. Ἡμεῖς δὲ καταλιπόντες τοὺς τὴν καρδίαν ἀπολωλεκότας, περὶ ὧν ὁ Σολομὼν ὡς ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ Κυρίου ἔλεγεν, ὅτι Ἐλάλουν, καὶ οὐκ ἠκούετε, ἐξέτεινον λόγους, καὶ οὐ προσείχετε, ἐπὶ τὸ προκείμενον ἐπανέλθωμεν, καὶ τῷ ἄμβωνι προσπελάσωμεν, καὶ ἀκούσωμεν τί λαλήσει ἐν ἡμῖν Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς, ὁ μέγας εὐαγγελιστὴς, ὁ τὸ οὐράνιον τοῦ Πατρὸς πρόσταγμα διαγγέλλων ἡμῖν ἐπὶ γῆς. ∆ῆλον δὲ, ὅτι λαλήσει εἰρήνην ἐπὶ τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ, ὡς Θεὸς εἰρήνης· ἢ προσκαλεῖται πρὸς αὐτὸν ὡς ἀγαθὸς τοὺς καταπονουμένους, καὶ ἀντιλαμβάνεται ὡς βασιλεὺς δίκαιος τοὺς κλαίοντας εἰς μετάνοιαν μακαρίζει, ταλανίζει τοὺς ἐν ὑποκρίσει βιοῦντας, μακαρίζει τοὺς γρηγοροῦντας, καὶ ταλανίζει τοὺς ῥᾳθύμους· δοξάζει τοὺς εὐσπλάγχνους ὡς εὔσπλαγχνος, καὶ μακαρίζει τοὺς ἐλεήμονας ὡς ἐλεήμων Μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθή60.687 σονται Ὡς δὲ ἀλλότριος τῆς ἀσπλαγχνίας καὶ ξένος τῆς ἀπηνείας, καὶ ἀμέτοχος πάσης κακίας, τὴν ἀσπλαγχνίαν ἀπωθεῖται καὶ ἐξορίζει, καὶ ἀποστρέφεται τοὺς ἀπηνεῖς καὶ ἀνελεήμονας καὶ ἀμεταδότους· καὶ συνερεῖ λόγον μετ' αὐτῶν, ποτὲ μὲν δι' ἑαυτοῦ, ποτὲ δὲ διὰ τοῦ πατριάρχου Ἀβραὰμ ἢ καὶ δι' ἑτέρων ἁγίων. Τοὺς μέλλοντας τότε ἐξ εὐωνύμων εὑρίσκεσθαι αὐτὸς ἐγκαλεῖ καὶ ὀνειδίζει, ὡς δυναμένους ἐλεῆσαι, καὶ μὴ ἐλεήσαντας. Οὐ γὰρ παρὰ ἀδυνάτων ἀπαιτεῖ ὁ κριτὴς τὸ χρέος τοῦ ἐλέους· οἱ γὰρ τοιοῦτοι ἄλλων ἐνδεεῖς τυγχάνουσιν· ἀλλὰ παρὰ τῶν ἀφθόνως τὰς τοῦ Θεοῦ δωρεὰς εἰληφότων, καὶ τοῦ δεδωκότος ἐπιλαθομένων, καὶ καυχωμένων ὡς μὴ λαβόντων, πρὸς τούτους