Leo Presbyter, On Pentecost

On mid-pentecost (homily 10)

He permitted them nor were they, having shut up his servant peter in prison, and bound him on all sides, and appointed soldiers to guard him carefull

Of faith. what then did the blind man say to the jews? it has not been heard, he says, since the world began that anyone opened the eyes of a man born

Dripping? does he who spread out the folds of the heavens need writing tablets? was it necessary for him who inscribed the tablets with his finger to

Do you condemn yourselves? judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment. where there is hymn-singing, is there flesh-eating? what d

Having crushed and thus destroyed impiety he who there shamed nebuchadnezzar and here struck herod he who there burned the babylonians and here took

He received from the jews, he would not have sharpened the sword of lawlessness, he killed james with a sword, he bound peter with two chains, intendi

he received from the Jews, he would not have sharpened the sword of lawlessness, he killed James with a sword, he bound Peter with two chains, intending after the Passover to bring him up to the people. O Jewish Passover, always mixed among innocent blood. They crucified the Lord Christ before the Passover, they wanted to kill his disciple Peter after the Passover. O impure Passover, O synagogue, friend of blood-drinking. Well did Solomon many years ago call the synagogue of the Jews a leech. Why? As a drawer of others' blood. Intending after the Passover to bring him up to the people. And why not during the Passover? They supposedly honor the feast of the Passover. O honor filled with hubris. If it is not lawful to kill during the Passover, neither should you bind during the Passover. Do you think you honor the feast by storing up murder? You hold the victim, and do not deem it lawful to sacrifice? O reverence filled with condemnation, or rather O lawlessness preserved by some even until now, having taken its beginning from there and not seeking to find an end. For do we not know that often some of those in power who are being examined, having shut up some innocent person in a public prison, as soon as the precious Passover arrives, they supposedly release them at once from the public prison, devising another, harsher prison, either keeping them with themselves and strangling them with hunger, or shutting them in the house of the insatiably gaping extortioner, not understanding that this is not to honor the feast, but to insult the Lord Christ. You wish to celebrate the feast, free your fellow servant from false accusation; for then one truly celebrates the feast, not when one puts on a new silk robe, but when one frees an afflicted soul. But to God be grace for ever and ever. Amen.

παρὰ Ἰουδαίων ἐλάμβανεν, οὐκ ἂν τὸ φάσγανον τῆς παρανομίας ὤξυνεν, Ἰάκωβον ἀνεῖλε μαχαίρᾳ, Πέτρον δυσὶν ἁλύσεσι συνέδησε βουλόμενος αὐτὸν μετὰ τὸ πάσχα ἀναγαγεῖν τῷ λαῷ. Ὦ πάσχα Ἰουδαϊκόν, ἀεὶ μεταξὺ αἱμάτων ἀθῴων μιγνύμε νον. Τὸν δεσπότην Χριστὸν πρὸ τοῦ πάσχα ἐσταύρωσαν, τὸν μαθητὴν αὐτοῦ Πέτρον μετὰ τὸ πάσχα ἀνελεῖν ἐβούλοντο. Ὦ πάσχα ἄναγνον, ὦ συναγωγὴ αἱματοποσίας φίλη. Καλῶς ὁ Σολομὼν ἐκ πολλῶν τῶν χρόνων τὴν τῶν Ἰουδαίων συναγωγὴν βδέλλαν προσηγόρευσεν. ∆ιὰ τί; Ὡς ἀλλοτρίων αἱμάτων ἑλκύστριαν. Βουλόμενος αὐτὸν μετὰ τὸ πάσχα ἀναγαγεῖν τῷ λαῷ. ∆ιὰ τί δὲ μὴ ἐν τῷ πάσχα; Τιμῶσι δῆθεν τὴν ἑορτὴν τοῦ πάσχα. Ὦ τιμὴ ὕβρεως πεπληρωμένη. Εἰ οὐκ ἐξὸν ἐν τῷ πάσχα φονεῦσαι, μηδὲ δήσητε ἐν τῷ πάσχα. Τὴν ἑορτὴν δοκεῖτε τιμᾶν τὸν φόνον θησαυρίζοντες; Τὸ θῦμα κατέχετε καὶ θύειν οὐ νομίζετε; Ὦ εὐλάβεια κατακρίσεως πεπληρωμένη, μᾶλλον δὲ ὦ παρανομία ἄχρι τῆς δεῦρο παρά τινων φυλαττομένη, ἐκεῖθεν ἀρχὴν λαβοῦσα καὶ τέλος εὑρεῖν μὴ ἐπιζητοῦσα. Ἦ γὰρ οὐκ ἴσμεν ὅτι πολλάκις τινὲς τῶν ἐν δυναστείᾳ ἐξεταζομένων ἀνεύθυνόν τινα ἐν φυλακῇ δημοσίᾳ κατακλείσαντες, μόνον ἐπιστῇ τὸ τίμιον πάσχα, εὐθέως δῆθεν τῆς δημοσίας φυλακῆς ἀπαλλάττουσιν, ἑτέραν φυλακὴν χαλεπωτέραν ἐπινοοῦντες ἢ παρ' ἑαυτοῖς φυλάττοντες καὶ λιμῷ ἄγχοντες ἢ εἰς τὸν οἶκον τοῦ ἐκβιβαστοῦ συγκλείοντες τοῦ ἀκόρεστα κεχηνότος, μὴ συνορῶντες ὅτι τοῦτο οὐκ ἔστι τὴν ἑορτὴν τιμῆσαι, ἀλλὰ τὸν δεσπότην Χριστὸν ὑβρίσαι. Θέλεις ἑορτάσαι, τῆς συκοφαντίας ἐλευθέρωσον τὸν σύνδουλόν σου· τότε γάρ τις κυρίως ἑορτάζει, οὐχ ὅτε σηρικὴν στολὴν ἐγκαινίζει, ἀλλ' ὅτε τεθλιμμένην ψυχὴν ἐλευθερώσει. Τῷ δὲ θεῷ χάρις εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.