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to the bridegroom; and I closed the doors, and my five I did not permit to enter. For it is my work to close doors before men and not to allow them to enter into that eternal life. As many as I persuade to become my disciples, and teach not to buy oil, they cannot enter there, nor be separated from me.

5. O this terrible and harsh beast, that I may say again, what a multitude it deceived not to have mercy, making them sons of Gehenna. Hear, O unmerciful ones, you who close your hearts from those who are in need; hear, you who do not share and who do evil; for just as those who do not show mercy are disciples of mercilessness, so also are those who oppress and do evil, those who inflict loss, who strike, who imprison, and especially the innocent, those who strip, who seize, who enslave free brothers, those who starve their own slaves and leave them naked and strike them unsparingly, those who unjustly seize from widows and orphans and grow rich; all these are children and disciples of mercilessness. For God, the compassionate and merciful, commanded to forgive those liable to judgment and unworthy of punishment. Those who oppress the innocent, what should they suffer? Hear, you who do not share, whose friends you are, you do not know; hear, O merciless ones, whose disciples you have become by your will; 60.691 hear, you who tyrannize and oppress brothers, whose servants and ministers you are, and having learned what kind of rest and gift he has prepared for you there, rivers, pits, and chasms, and outer darkness, and gnashing of teeth, and other similar things, shudder, tremble, be dizzy; and abandoning this shameless and God-hating and brother-hating mercilessness let us become disciples of the compassionate and merciful God who has mercy on all and forgives all. As many of you as are disciples and friends of mercilessness, put on hearts of compassion; as we have opportunity, let us learn to be merciful and to sympathize, let us learn to forgive; you who once tyrannized, cease, and extort from no one, and be content with your wages; you who think soft thoughts and of mercilessness, put on hearts of compassion, as Christ commands through the mouth of Paul; you who build the greatest houses, and gather there all the things considered good by the hands and sweat of the poor through fasting and lack of wages, remember what the insatiable, ill-advised rich man before you heard, lamenting like a despairing poor man, and saying, 'What shall I do, for I have no larger barns?' Calling to mind his sentence that came from God, open your treasures, and give alms; make for yourselves a treasure that does not fail in heaven, as the Lord commands. You who have gathered deceitful wealth from usury and injustice, make for yourselves friends from mammon, as the Master urges, so that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings; you who do injustice, all of you consider Him who executes judgment for the oppressed and shudder; you who defraud laborers of their wages, remember the one who says, 'He who deprives a laborer of his wages is like one who sheds blood;' and that the one defrauded by you cries out, 'And the cries of those who reaped your fields have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.'

You who strike brothers, cease, but rather begin to strike your own faces, remembering the unbearable judgment of those who slapped the sinless Lord, and also of the one who scourged him, and groan, because often in the brother who is struck, Christ is hidden, being slapped again also by you. For indeed those who are slapped by us have put on Christ, as the Apostle says, that 'As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ,' for whom he also died, with whom also

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νυμφίῳ· καὶ ἐγὼ ἔκλεισα τὰς θύρας, καὶ τὰς ἐμὰς πέντε οὐ συνεχώρησα εἰσελθεῖν. Ἐμὸν γὰρ ἔργον ἐστὶ κλείειν θύρας ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ μὴ ἐᾷν εἰσελθεῖν εἰς ἐκείνην τὴν αἰώνιον ζωήν. Ὅσους πείσω γενέσθαι μου μαθητὰς, καὶ διδάξω μὴ ἀγοράζειν ἔλαιον, ἐκεῖ οὐ δύνανται εἰσελθεῖν, οὐδὲ χωρισθῆναι ἐξ ἐμοῦ.

εʹ. Ὢ τοῦ δεινοῦ τούτου καὶ χαλεποῦ θηρίου, ἵνα καὶ πάλιν εἴπω, πόσον πλῆθος ἠπάτησε μὴ ἐλεεῖν, ποιῆσαν αὐτοὺς υἱοὺς γεέννης. Ἀκούσατε ἀνελεήμονες οἱ τὰ σπλάγχνα κλείοντες ἀπὸ τῶν χρείαν ἐχόντων· ἀκούσατε, οἱ ἀμετάδοτοι καὶ κακοποιοί· ὥσπερ γὰρ οἱ μὴ ἐλεοῦντες τῆς ἀσπλαγχνίας τυγχάνουσι μαθηταὶ, οὕτω καὶ οἱ θλίβοντες καὶ κακοποιοῦντες, οἱ ζημιοῦντες, οἱ τύπτοντες, οἱ φυλακίζοντες, καὶ μάλιστα ἀναιτίους, οἱ ἐκδύοντες, οἱ ἁρπάζοντες, οἱ καταδουλοῦντες ἀδελφοὺς ἐλευθέρους, οἱ λιμοκτονοῦντες τοὺς ἑαυτῶν δούλους καὶ γυμνοὺς καταλιμπάνοντες καὶ ἀφειδῶς τύπτοντες, οἱ ἐκ χηρῶν καὶ ὀρφανῶν ἀδίκως ἁρπάζοντες καὶ πλουτοῦντες· πάντες οὗτοι τῆς ἀσπλαγχνίας τέκνα καὶ μαθηταὶ τυγχάνουσιν. Ὁ Θεὸς γὰρ ὁ εὔσπλαγχνος καὶ ἐλεήμων περὶ τῶν ὑποδίκων καὶ ἀναξίων τιμωρίας ἐκέλευσεν ἀφιέναι. Οἱ ἀναιτίους καταπονοῦντες, τί πάθωσιν; Ἀκούσατε, οἱ ἀμετάδοτοι, τίνος φίλοι τυγχάνοντες οὐ γινώσκετε· ἀκούσατε, ἄσπλαγχνοι, τίνος μαθηταὶ γνώμῃ γεγόνατε· 60.691 ἀκούσατε, οἱ τυραννοῦντες καὶ καταπονοῦντες ἀδελφοὺς, τίνος ὑπηρέται καὶ ὑπουργοὶ τυγχάνετε, καὶ μαθόντες ὁποίαν ἀνάπαυσιν καὶ δωρεὰν ἡτοίμασεν ὑμῖν ἐκεῖθεν, ποταμοὺς, λάκκους, καὶ χάσματα, καὶ σκότος ἐξώτερον, καὶ βρυγμὸν ὀδόντων, καὶ ἕτερα ὅμοια, φρίξατε, τρομάξατε, ἰλιγγιάσατε· καὶ καταλιπόντες ταύτην τὴν ἀναίσχυντον καὶ μισόθεον καὶ μισάδελφον ἀσπλαγχνίαν γενώμεθα μαθηταὶ τοῦ εὐσπλάγχνου καὶ ἐλεήμονος Θεοῦ τοῦ πάντων ἐλεοῦντος καὶ πάντα συγχωροῦντος. Ὅσοι μαθηταὶ καὶ φίλοι ἐστὲ τῆς ἀσπλαγχνίας, ἐνδύσασθε σπλάγχνα οἰκτιρμῶν· ὡς καιρὸν ἔχομεν, μάθωμεν ἐλεεῖν καὶ συμπαθεῖν, μάθωμεν συγχωρεῖν· οἱ ποτὲ τυραννήσαντες, παύσασθε, καὶ μηδένα διασείσητε, καὶ ἀρκῆσθε τοῖς ὀψωνίοις ὑμῶν· οἱ τὰ μαλακὰ φρονοῦντες καὶ τὴν ἀσπλαγχνίαν, ἐνδύσασθε σπλάγχνα οἰκτιρμῶν, καθὼς κελεύει ὁ Χριστὸς διὰ τοῦ στόματος Παύλου· οἱ τὰς μεγίστας οἰκίας οἰκοδομοῦντες, καὶ συνάγοντες ἐκεῖ ἅπαντα τὰ νομιζόμενα ἀγαθὰ διὰ χειρῶν καὶ ἱδρώτων τῶν πενήτων ἀσιτείᾳ καὶ ἀμισθίᾳ, μνημονεύσατε τί ἤκουσεν ὁ πρὸ ὑμῶν ἀχόρταστος πλούσιος ὁ κακοσύμβουλος, ἀποδυρόμενος δίκην πένητος ἀπεγνωσμένου, καὶ λέγοντος, Τί ποιήσω, ὅτι οὐκ ἔχω πλατυτέρας ἀποθήκας; Τούτου τὴν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἐλθοῦσαν ἀπόφασιν εἰς μνήμην ἐλθόντες, ἀνοίξατε τοὺς θησαυροὺς ὑμῶν, καὶ δότε ἐλεημοσύνην· ποιήσατε ἑαυτοῖς θησαυρὸν ἀνέκλιπον ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, καθὼς προστάσσει ὁ Κύριος. Οἱ τὸν ἐμπαίκτην πλοῦτον ἐκ τόκου καὶ ἐξ ἀδικίας συλλέξαντες, ποιήσατε ἑαυτοῖς φίλους ἐκ τοῦ μαμωνᾶ, καθὼς παρακελεύεται ὁ ∆εσπότης, ἵνα ὅταν ἐκλίπητε, δέξωνται ὑμᾶς εἰς τὰς αἰωνίας σκηνάς· οἱ ἀδικοῦντες, ἐννοήσατε πάντες τοῦ ποιοῦντος κρῖμα τοῖς ἀδικουμένοις καὶ φρίξατε· οἱ μισθοὺς μισθωτῶν ἀποστεροῦντες, μνήσθητε τοῦ λέγοντος, Ὁ ἀποστερῶν μισθὸν μισθωτοῦ, ὡς ὁ ἐκχέων αἷμα· καὶ ὅτι ὁ ἀπεστερημένος ἀφ' ὑμῶν κράζει, Καὶ αἱ βοαὶ τῶν ἀμησάντων τὰς χώρας ὑμῶν εἰς τὰ ὦτα Κυρίου Σαβαὼθ εἰσελήλυθε.

Οἱ τύπτοντες ἀδελφοὺς, παύσασθε, μᾶλλον δὲ ἄρξασθε τύπτειν τὰ ἑαυτῶν πρόσωπα, μνημονεύοντες τὸ ἀφόρητον κρῖμα τῶν ῥαπισάντων τὸν ἀναμάρτητον Κύριον, ἔτι δὲ καὶ τοῦ φλαγελλώσαντος τοῦτον, καὶ στενάξατε, ὅτι πολλάκις ἐν τῷ τυπτομένῳ ἀδελφῷ ἐγκρύπτεται ὁ Χριστὸς ῥαπιζόμενος πάλιν καὶ ὑπὸ σοῦ. Καὶ γὰρ οἱ παρ' ἡμῶν ῥαπιζόμενοι τὸν Χριστὸν ἐνδέδυνται, καθώς φησιν ὁ Ἀπόστολος, ὅτι Ὅσοι εἰς Χριστὸν ἐβαπτίσθητε, Χριστὸν ἐνεδύσασθε, δι' ὧν καὶ ἀπέθανε, μεθ' ὧν καὶ