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of sin, and it dissuades the sinner from bringing an unjust accusation against his neighbor; and it renders the one spoken against free from the accusation; and it becomes an arbiter of peace and a teacher of friendship, abhorring the slanderer's intent. Let us too, abhorring the deed, learn to say: The one who secretly slanders his neighbor, him I drove away.

But that you may learn, beloved, how slander is a worker of no truth, pay attention both to the designation of the name itself, and make your discernment by the accompanying saying. For slander is a teacher of accusation; but the word "secretly" demonstrates the falsehood and lack of boldness of the matter. For if it is true, it is good to rebuke to the face, and with boldness to make peace; but if you bring the accusation secretly, it is false, working evil suspicion against your neighbor, being unable even to prove the things you bring forward. It is good, therefore, to drive away the slanderer as a liar and a thief, so that by troubling the peaceful soul, we may not make it hostile towards its neighbor through slander. Therefore, the one who secretly slanders his neighbor, him I drove away. With a proud eye and an insatiable heart, with such a one I did not eat. And that pride is hateful even before God himself, hear the Scripture saying: God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And again elsewhere: Pride is hateful before the Lord and men.

And, Why is earth and ashes proud? And in many places you will find pride to be abominable and greatly hated. So also here it says, With a proud eye 55.635 and an insatiable heart, with such a one I did not eat; since pride is most harmful and detrimental, not only to the one who has embraced it, but also to the one who feigns it for a little while. And he joined the insatiable in heart to the proud one, as the intention of both is one, both of the one who exalts himself against his neighbor and of the one who is likewise insatiable against his neighbor.

5. It is good, therefore, beloved, for us to put away pride, and to take up

humility, so that we might not hear, He who exalts himself will be humbled, but that we might hear, He who humbles himself will be exalted; and to be content with commensurate self-sufficiency, and not through insatiability of heart to turn aside from righteousness, so that we may not hear: Because of the multitude of your iniquity your hinder parts were uncovered, your heels made an example. Let us flee, therefore, the company of the proud and the insatiable in heart, so that by the habit of fellowship with them we do not become imitators of their evil. Let us practice, therefore, doing and saying: With a proud eye and an insatiable heart, with such a one I did not eat. And these things are said as from the person of the just one; but again, as from the person of God, the Holy Spirit, making the response, says: My eyes are upon the faithful of the land, that they may sit with me. For truly the eyes of God are upon the faithful, watching over them, so that they may not fall away from the truth. But if you wish to learn how what is said is true, consider the blessed apostles, and see them as the faithful of the earth, in that through their faith the whole world has been filled with the preaching of salvation. For their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. For the whole world, having partaken of their faith, is filled, possessing the inexhaustible wealth of piety. These faithful, therefore, sit with the Master, hearing: You twelve will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of

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ἁμαρτίας, τὸν δὲ ἁμαρτάνοντα ἀνατρέπει μὴ ἄδικον ἐπιφέρειν κατὰ τοῦ πλησίον κατηγορίαν· ἐλεύθερον δὲ καὶ τὸν καταλαλούμενον τῆς κατηγορίας ἀπεργάζεται· εἰρήνης δὲ βραβευτὴς καὶ φιλίας καθηγητὴς γίνεται, τὴν τοῦ καταλάλου προαίρεσιν μυσαττόμενος. Μάθωμεν καὶ ἡμεῖς τὸ ἔργον μυσαττόμενοι λέγειν· Τὸν καταλα λοῦντα λάθρα τοῦ πλησίον αὐτοῦ, τοῦτον ἐξεδίωκον.

Ἵνα δὲ μάθῃς, ἀγαπητὲ, πῶς ἡ καταλαλιὰ οὐδεμιᾶς ἀληθείας ἐστὶν ἐργάτις, πρόσχες καὶ αὐτῇ τῇ τοῦ ὀνόμα τος προσηγορίᾳ, καὶ τῷ ἐπακολουθοῦντι ῥητῷ τὴν διά κρισιν ποιούμενος. Ἡ μὲν γὰρ καταλαλιὰ κατηγορίας ἐστὶ διδάσκαλος· τὸ δὲ, Λάθρα, τὸ ψευδὲς τοῦ πράγματος καὶ ἀπαῤῥησίαστον ἐπιδείκνυται. Εἰ γὰρ ἀληθὲς, καλὸν τὸ εἰς πρόσωπον ἐλέγχειν, καὶ μετὰ παῤῥησίας εἰρηνο ποιεῖν· εἰ δὲ λάθρα, φέρεις τὴν κατηγορίαν ψευδῆ, κακὴν ὑπόνοιαν κατὰ τοῦ πλησίον ἐργαζόμενος, μηδὲ ἐλέγξαι τὰ ὑπὸ σοῦ προφερόμενα δυνάμενος. Καλὸν οὖν ὡς ψεύστην καὶ λωποδύτην τὸν κατάλαλον ἀποδιώκειν, ἵνα μὴ τὴν εἰρηνεύουσαν ψυχὴν ταράσσοντες, πολεμικὴν αὐτὴν πρὸς τὸν πλησίον διὰ τῆς καταλαλιᾶς ἐργαζώμεθα. Τὸν καταλαλοῦντα οὖν λάθρα τοῦ πλησίον αὐτοῦ, τοῦ τον ἐξεδίωκον. Ὑπερηφάνῳ ὀφθαλμῷ καὶ ἀπλήστῳ καρδίᾳ, τούτῳ οὐ συνήσθιον. Ὅτι δὲ ὑπερηφανία μι σητὴ καὶ παρ' αὐτῷ τῷ Θεῷ, ἄκουε τῆς Γραφῆς λεγού σης· Ὁ Θεὸς ὑπερηφάνοις ἀντιτάσσεται, ταπεινοῖς δὲ δίδωσι χάριν. Καὶ πάλιν ἀλλαχοῦ· Μισητὴ ὑπερηφα νία ἐναντίον. Κυρίου καὶ ἀνθρώπων.

Καὶ, Ἵνα τί ὑπερηφανεύεται γῆ καὶ σποδός; Καὶ πολλαχοῦ εὑρή σεις τὴν ὑπερηφανίαν βδελυκτὴν καὶ πάνυ μεμισημένην. Οὕτως οὖν καὶ ἐνταῦθά φησιν, Ὑπερηφάνῳ ὀφθαλμῷ 55.635 καὶ ἀπλήστῳ καρδίᾳ, τούτῳ οὐ συνήσθιον· ὡς πάνυ βλαβερωτάτης καὶ ἐπιζημίου τῆς ὑπερηφανίας οὔσης, οὐ μόνον αὐτῷ τῷ ταύτην ἀνειληφότι, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ πρὸς ὀλίγον αὐτὴν ὑποκρινομένῳ. Ἐπισυνῆψε δὲ καὶ τὸν ἄπληστον τῇ καρδίᾳ τῷ ὑπερηφάνῳ, ὡς μιᾶς οὔσης τῆς τῶν ἀμφοτέρων προαιρέσεως, τοῦ τε κατὰ τοῦ πλησίον ἐπαιρομένου καὶ τοῦ ὁμοίως κατὰ τοῦ πλησίον ἀπλη στευομένου.

εʹ. Καλὸν οὖν, ἀγαπητοὶ, ἀποθέσθαι ἡμᾶς τὴν ὑπερηφα νίαν, ἀναλαβεῖν δὲ

τὴν ταπεινοφροσύνην, ἵνα μὴ ἀκούσω μεν, Ὁ ὑψῶν ἑαυτὸν, ταπεινωθήσεται, ἀλλ' ἀκούσω μεν, Ὁ ταπεινῶν ἑαυτὸν, ὑψωθήσεται· ἀρκεσθῆναι δὲ καὶ τῇ συμμέτρῳ αὐταρκείᾳ, καὶ μὴ τῇ ἀπληστίᾳ τῆς καρδίας ἐκκλῖναι τῆς δικαιοσύνης, ἵνα μὴ ἀκούσωμεν· ∆ιὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῆς ἀδικίας σου ἀνεκαλύφθη τὰ ὀπίσθιά σου, τοῦ παραδειγματισθῆναι τὰς πτέρνας σου. Ἀποφύγωμεν οὖν καὶ τὴν δίαιταν τῶν ὑπερηφά νων καὶ τῶν ἀπλήστων τῇ καρδίᾳ, ἵνα μὴ τῇ συνηθείᾳ τῆς πρὸς αὐτοὺς κοινωνίας μιμηταὶ τῆς κακίας αὐτῶν γενώμεθα. Ἀσκῶμεν οὖν τὸ πράττειν καὶ λέγειν· Ὑπερηφάνῳ ὀφθαλμῷ καὶ ἀπλήστῳ καρδίᾳ, τούτῳ οὐ συνήσθιον. Καὶ ταῦτα ὡς ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ δικαίου λέγεται· πάλιν δὲ ὡς ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον τὴν ἀπόκρισιν ποιούμενόν φησιν· Οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου ἐπὶ τοὺς πιστοὺς τῆς γῆς, τοῦ συγ καθῆσθαι αὐτοὺς μετ' ἐμοῦ. Ἀληθῶς γὰρ οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπὶ τοὺς πιστούς εἰσι, προσέχοντες αὐτοῖς, ἵνα μὴ ἔξω γένωνται τῆς ἀληθείας. Εἰ δὲ βούλει μαθεῖν ὡς ἀληθές ἐστι τὸ εἰρημένον, κατανόησον τοὺς μακαρίους ἀποστόλους, καὶ βλέπε τούτους πιστοὺς ὄντας τῆς γῆς, τὸ καὶ διὰ τῆς αὐτῶν πίστεως ὅλην τὴν οἰκουμένην πεπληρῶσθαι τὸ κήρυγμα τῆς σωτηρίας. Εἰς πᾶσαν γὰρ τὴν γῆν ἐξῆλθεν ὁ φθόγγος αὐτῶν, καὶ εἰς τὰ πέρατα τῆς οἰκουμένης τὰ ῥήματα αὐτῶν. Καὶ γὰρ πᾶσα ἡ οἰκουμένη τῆς αὐτῶν πίστεως μεταλαβοῦσα πεπλήρωται, ἀκένωτον ἔχουσα τὸν πλοῦτον τῆς εὐσεβείας. Οὗτοι οὖν οἱ πιστοὶ συγκαθέζονται τῷ ∆εσπότῃ, ἀκούοντες· Ὑμεῖς δέ οἱ δώδεκα καθίσεσθε ἐπὶ δώδεκα θρόνοις κρίνοντες τὰς δώδεκα φυλὰς τοῦ