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the departure of the unmerciful? have you heard of the dwelling place of those who do not show mercy? do you know where the cruel are sent? have you learned to what distant country those who oppress and afflict the weak depart? Do you wish to hear again to what rest and luxury they go? Into the fire prepared for the devil and his 60.689 angels. Unmerciful, shudder and put on bowels of compassion; merciless, tremble and learn to be merciful, tyrants, be dizzy and cease from your wickednesses; robbers, be terrified and do not long for plunder. Let us all consider the fearful hour of the accountant, and let each of us turn away from our wicked way; let us imitate the Ninevites, and let us be ready, as the Lord commanded. I could have spoken and revealed also concerning those who in debauchery have stained their garments, and with shame are cast out of the royal wedding and that joy and glory into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. But for now let us render the things that follow concerning the unmerciful; for the tragedy concerning them still remains. For the five foolish virgins were also shut out because of this same lack of mercy, and not on account of their virginity; for they happened to be virgins; not because of fasting, not because of vigils or a deficiency in psalmody, not for a lack of asceticism or the wasting away of the body; for they accomplished all these things with much struggle, and showed many labors, and bore the burden of the day and the scorching heat; but because of a lack of mercy.

For this is the mother of all evils, the begetter of hatred, the one who provokes God the Father, the one who drives away the Holy Spirit. Lack of mercy, which shows Christ, the meek and calm and giver of peace and unwrathful, as being angry according to what is written: Then He will speak to them in His wrath. Then, when? Clearly when with much affliction and grief He will speak to them, Depart from me, you cursed ones. Have you seen of what good things lack of mercy becomes the agent? For its fruit is hatred of brethren, its produce is love of money, its service is unwillingness to share, its festival has filled God with affliction, its storehouse is full of cruelty, in its marketplace all things are cheap, but there is a failure and famine of God's mercy and compassion and love for mankind; its inhabitants are those on the left hand, its disciple is the unmerciful rich man, who loathed the poor Lazarus once lying at his gate; its friends and female disciples are the five foolish virgins, its citizens sell and buy every kind of thing without mercy and love; whence also they will hear, I do not know you. Its heirs will hear, Depart from me; its merchants possess all things except the love for mankind of God; just as the aforesaid foolish virgins accomplished all things, virginity, fasting, psalmody, vigils, continence, sleeping on the ground, dry diet, prayer, not bathing, many labors and sweats, silence; but upon all these they acquired a terrible and destructive possession, the God-hated lack of mercy, which rendered all their aforesaid virtues and sweats useless.

O lack of mercy, hater of brothers and hater of God; O lack of mercy, storehouse of God's wrath; O lack of mercy, having as a dwelling the outer fire, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Have you seen a possession that appears small but makes many and great virtues and accomplishments disappear? Believe me, brothers, I am fearful and trembling, considering how that one passion rendered all those accomplishments useless and unacceptable, and made the contestants unrecognizable; for they heard, Amen I say

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τῶν ἀσπλάγχνων ἀποδημίαν; ἠκούσατε τὸ κατοικητήριον τῶν μὴ ἐλεούντων; ἔγνωτε ποῦ ἐκπέμπονται οἱ ἀπηνεῖς; ἐμάθετε εἰς ποίαν χώραν μακρὰν ἀποδημοῦσιν οἱ καταπονοῦντες καὶ θλίβοντες τοὺς ἀδυνάτους; Βούλεσθε πάλιν ἀκοῦσαι εἰς ποίαν ἀνάπαυσιν καὶ τρυφὴν ἀπέρχονται· Εἰς τὸ πῦρ τὸ ἡτοιμασμένον τῷ διαβόλῳ καὶ τοῖς 60.689 ἀγγέλοις αὐτοῦ. Ἄσπλαγχνοι, φρίξατε καὶ ἐνδύσασθε σπλάγχνα οἰκτιρμῶν· ἀνελεήμονες τρομάξατε καὶ μάθετε ἐλεεῖν, τύραννοι ἰλιγγιάσατε καὶ παύσασθε ἀπὸ τῶν πονηριῶν ὑμῶν· ἅρπαγες, πτήξατε καὶ ἐπὶ ἅρπαγμα μὴ ἐπιποθῆτε. Πάντες ἐννοῶμεν τὴν φοβερὰν ὥραν τοῦ λογοθέτου, καὶ ἕκαστος ἀποστρέψωμεν ἀπὸ τῆς ὁδοῦ ἡμῶν τῆς πονηρᾶς· μιμησώμεθα τοὺς Νινευΐτας, καὶ γενώμεθα ἕτοιμοι, ὡς ὁ Κύριος ἐνετείλατο. Εἶχον ἂν εἰπεῖν καὶ φανερῶσαι καὶ περὶ τοὺς ἐν ἀσωτίᾳ τοὺς χιτῶνας μολύναντας, καὶ μετ' αἰσχύνης τοῦ βασιλικοῦ γάμου καὶ τῆς χαρᾶς ἐκείνης καὶ δόξης ἐκβαλλομένους εἰς τὸ σκότος τὸ ἐξώτερον, ὅπου ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων. Ἀλλ' ἀποδώσωμεν τέως τὰ περὶ τῶν ἀσπλάγχνων τὰ ἀκόλουθα· ἔτι γὰρ ὑπολείπεται ἡ περὶ αὐτῶν τραγῳδία. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ αἱ πέντε μωραὶ παρθένοι παρὰ τῆς αὐτῆς ἀσπλαγχνίας ἀπεκλείσθησαν, οὐχὶ δὲ διὰ τὴν παρθενίαν· παρθένοι γὰρ ἐτύγχανον· οὐ διὰ νηστείαν, οὐ δι' ἀγρυπνίαν οὐδὲ διὰ ψαλμῳδίας ὑστέρησιν, οὐ διὰ σκληραγωγίας ἢ τήξεως σώματος ἔλλειψιν· πάντα γὰρ ταῦτα κατώρθωσαν ἐν πολλῷ ἀγῶνι, καὶ κόπους πολλοὺς ἐπεδείξαντο, καὶ τὸ βάρος τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ τὸν καύσωνα ἐβάστασαν· ἀλλὰ δι' ἀσπλαγχνίαν.

Αὕτη γὰρ ἡ μήτηρ πάντων τῶν κακῶν, ἡ γεννήτρια τοῦ μίσους, ἡ τὸν Θεὸν καὶ Πατέρα παροξύνουσα, ἡ τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἀποδιώκουσα. Ἀσπλαγχνία, ἡ τὸν Χριστὸν, τὸν πρᾶον καὶ γαληνὸν καὶ τῆς εἰρήνης χορηγὸν καὶ ἀόργητον ὡς ὀργιζόμενον ἀποδεικνύουσα κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον· Τότε λαλήσει πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἐν ὀργῇ αὐτοῦ. Τότε, πότε; ∆ηλονότι ὅταν μετὰ πολλῆς θλίψεως καὶ λύπης λαλήσει πρὸ αὐτοὺς, Πορεύεσθε ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, οἱ κατηραμένοι. Εἶδες οἵων ἀγαθῶν πρόξενος ἡ ἀσπλαγχνία γίνεται; Ταύτης γὰρ καρπὸς μισαδελφία, ταύτης γεώργημα φιλαργυρία, ταύτης ἡ θεραπεία τὸ ἀμετάδοτον, ταύτης ἡ πανήγυρις Θεοῦ θλῖψιν πεπλήρωκε, ταύτης ἡ ἀποθήκη ἀπηνείας μεστὴ, ἐν τῇ ταύτης ἀγορᾷ πάντα εὐθηνὰ, ἀστοχία δὲ καὶ λιμὸς ἐλέους Θεοῦ καὶ εὐσπλαγχνίας καὶ φιλανθρωπίας· ταύτης οἰκήτορες οἱ ἐξ εὐωνύμων, ταύτης μαθητὴς ὁ ἄσπλαγχνος πλούσιος, ὁ τόν ποτε πτωχὸν Λάζαρον πρὸς τὸν πυλῶνα αὐτοῦ παρακείμενον βδελυσσόμενος· ταύτης φίλαι καὶ μαθήτριαι αἱ πέντε μωραὶ παρθένοι, ταύτης οἱ πολῖται πᾶν εἶδος πωλοῦσι καὶ ἀγοράζουσι χωρὶς ἐλέους καὶ ἀγάπης· ὅθεν καὶ ἀκούσονται τὸ, Οὐκ οἶδα ὑμᾶς. Ταύτης οἱ κληρονόμοι ἀκούσονται τὸ, Πορεύεσθε ἀπ' ἐμοῦ· ταύτης οἱ ἔμποροι πάντα κέκτηνται χωρὶς τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ φιλανθρωπίας· ὥσπερ καὶ αἱ προειρημέναι μωραὶ παρθένοι πάντα κατώρθωσαν, παρθενίαν, νηστείαν, ψαλμῳδίαν, ἀγρυπνίαν, ἐγκράτειαν, χαμαικοιτίαν, ξηροφαγίαν, προσευχὴν, ἀλουσίαν, κόπους καὶ ἱδρῶτας πολλοὺς, σιωπήν· ἐπὶ πᾶσι δὲ τούτοις προσελάβοντο δεινὸν κτῆμα καὶ ὀλέθριον, τὴν μισόθεον ἀσπλαγχνίαν, ἥτις πάσας αὐτῶν τὰς προειρημένας ἀρετὰς καὶ ἱδρῶτας ἀνονήτους ἀπέδειξεν.

Ὢ ἀσπλαγχνία μισάδελφε καὶ μισόθεε· ὢ ἀσπλαγχνία ὀργῆς Θεοῦ ἀποθήκη· ὢ ἀσπλαγχνία κατοικητήριον ἔχον τὸ πῦρ τὸ ἐξώτερον, ὅπου ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων. Εἶδες κτῆμα μικρὸν μὲν φαινόμενον καὶ ἀφανίζον πολλὰς καὶ μεγάλας ἀρετὰς καὶ κατορθώματα; Πιστεύσατέ μοι, ἀδελφοὶ, ἔμφοβός εἰμι καὶ ἔντρομος, ἐννοῶν πῶς τὸ ἓν ἐκεῖνο πάθος πάντα ἐκεῖνα τὰ κατορθώματα ἀνόνητα καὶ ἀπρόσδεκτα ἀπέδειξεν, καὶ τοὺς ἀγωνιστὰς ἀγνωρίστους ἐποίησεν· ἤκουσαν γὰρ τὸ, Ἀμὴν λέγω