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of our Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, power, honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

49.33 HOMILY TWO, Delivered in Antioch in the old

church so-called, when he was a presbyter, concerning the calamity that had occurred in the city, on the occasion of the riotous destruction of the statues of Theodosius the pious and great emperor; and on the saying of the

Apostle, "Charge those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty;" and against covetousness.

1. What shall I say, and what shall I speak? The present season is for tears, not for words; for lamentations,

not for sermons; for prayer, not for public speaking; so great is the magnitude of what has been dared, so incurable the wound, so great the injury, and beyond all healing, and in need of help from above. Thus Job, having lost everything, sat upon the dunghill, and his friends, having heard, came, and seeing him from afar, they rent their garments, and sprinkled dust, and lamented greatly. Now, all the surrounding cities ought to have done this, and to have come to our city, and to have mourned what has happened with all sympathy. He sat on a dunghill then, this city sits in a great snare now. For just as then the devil danced upon the flocks and herds and all the substance of the righteous man, so now he has raged through the whole city. But God has permitted it both then and now; then, so that He might make the righteous man more glorious by the magnitude of his trials, and now, so that He might make us more sober-minded by the excess of this affliction. 49.34 Allow me to bewail the present circumstances. We have been silent for seven days, like the friends of Job; allow me to open my mouth today, and to lament this common calamity. Who has bewitched us, beloved? Who has envied us? From whence has come so great a change? Nothing was more august than our city; nothing has become more pitiable now. A people so orderly and gentle, and like a tamed and docile horse, always yielding to the hands of rulers, has suddenly kicked up against us now, so as to work such evils as it is not even lawful to speak of. I mourn and lament now, not because of the magnitude of the expected threat, but because of the excess of the madness that has occurred. For even if the emperor should not be provoked, nor be angered, nor punish and take vengeance, how shall we bear, tell me, the shame from what has happened? The word of my teaching is interrupted by lamentation; I am barely able to open my mouth, and to part my lips, and to move my tongue, and to utter words; so much, like a bridle, the weight of despondency turns back my tongue, and takes hold of my words. Nothing was formerly more blessed than our city; nothing 49.35 has become more joyless now. Like bees buzzing around a honeycomb, so the inhabitants of the city used to fly about the marketplace every day, and all men formerly counted us blessed for this multitude. But behold, now this honeycomb has become desolate; for as smoke drives away those bees, so fear has driven away these bees; rather, what the prophet said, lamenting over Jerusalem, this we too shall say in due season now: The city has become to us like a terebinth that has cast its leaves, and as a garden that has no water. For just as a garden, when the irrigation fails, shows its trees bare of leaves and stripped of fruit, so indeed has our city become now; for since the help from above has forsaken it, it stands desolate, stripped of almost all its inhabitants. Nothing is sweeter than one's homeland, but nothing has now become more bitter; all flee the city that bore them as if it were a trap,

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ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, δι' οὗ καὶ μεθ' οὗ τῷ Πατρὶ ἅμα τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι δόξα, κράτος, τιμὴ, νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.

49.33 ΟΜΙΛΙΑ ∆ΕΥΤΕΡΑ, Λεχθεῖσα ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ ἐν τῇ παλαιᾷ

λεγομένῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ, ὄντος αὐτοῦ πρεσβυτέρου, περὶ τῆς συμβάσης συμφορᾶς ἐν τῇ πόλει, ἐπὶ τῇ ἀταξίᾳ τῆς καταστροφῆς τῶν ἀνδριάντων τοῦ Θεοδοσίου τοῦ εὐσεβοῦς βασιλέως τοῦ μεγάλου· καὶ εἰς τὸ ῥητὸν τοῦ

Ἀποστόλου, Τοῖς πλουσίοις παράγγελλε ἐν τῷ νῦν αἰῶνι μὴ ὑψηλοφρονεῖν· καὶ κατὰ πλεονεξίας.

αʹ. Τί εἴπω καὶ τί λαλήσω; δακρύων ὁ παρὼν καιρὸς, οὐχὶ ῥημάτων· θρήνων,

οὐχὶ λόγων· εὐχῆς, οὐ δημηγορίας· τοιοῦτον τῶν τετολμημένων τὸ μέγεθος, οὕτως ἀνίατον τὸ ἕλκος, οὕτω μέγα τὸ τραῦμα, καὶ πάσης ἰατρείας μεῖζον, καὶ τῆς ἄνωθεν δεόμενον βοηθείας. Οὕτω μὲν ὁ Ἰὼβ ἅπαντα ἀποβαλὼν, ἐπὶ τῆς κοπρίας ἐκάθητο, καὶ ἀκούσαντες οἱ φίλοι παρεγένοντο, καὶ ἰδόντες αὐτὸν πόῤῥωθεν, τὰ ἱμάτια διέῤῥηξαν, καὶ σποδὸν κατεπάσαντο, καὶ μέγα ἀνῴμωξαν. Νῦν τοῦτο τὰς πόλεις ἁπάσας τὰς κύκλῳ ποιῆσαι ἐχρῆν, καὶ πρὸς τὴν πόλιν τὴν ἡμετέραν ἐλθεῖν, καὶ θρηνῆσαι τὰ γεγενημένα μετὰ συμπαθείας ἁπάσης. Ἐκεῖνος ἐπὶ τῆς κοπρίας ἐκάθητο τότε, αὕτη ἐν μεγάλῃ παγίδι κάθηται νῦν. Καθάπερ γὰρ τότε ὁ διάβολος εἰς τὰ ποίμνια καὶ τὰ βουκόλια, καὶ πᾶσαν ὠρχήσατο τοῦ δικαίου τὴν οὐσίαν· οὕτω νῦν εἰς τὴν πόλιν ἅπασαν ἐβάκχευσεν. Ἀλλ' ὁ Θεὸς καὶ τότε καὶ νῦν συνεχώρησε· τότε μὲν, ἵνα τὸν δίκαιον λαμπρότερον ποιήσῃ τῷ μεγέθει τῶν πειρασμῶν, νῦν δὲ, ἵνα ἡμᾶς σωφρονεστέρους ἐργάσηται τῇ τῆς θλίψεως ταύτης 49.34 ὑπερβολῇ. ∆ότε μοι θρηνῆσαι τὰ παρόντα. Ἐσιγήσαμεν ἡμέρας ἑπτὰ, καθάπερ οἱ φίλοι τοῦ Ἰώβ· δότε μοι στόμα διᾶραι σήμερον, καὶ τὴν κοινὴν ταύτην ὀδύρασθαι συμφοράν. Τίς ἡμῖν ἐβάσκηνεν, ἀγαπητοί; τίς ἡμῖν ἐφθόνησε; πόθεν ἡ τοσαύτη γέγονε μεταβολή; Οὐδὲν τῆς πόλεως τῆς ἡμετέρας σεμνότερον ἦν· οὐδὲν γέγονε ἐλεεινότερον νῦν. ∆ῆμος εὔτακτος οὕτω καὶ ἥμερος, καὶ καθάπερ ἵππος χειροήθης καὶ τιθασσὸς, ἀεὶ ταῖς τῶν ἀρχόντων εἴκων χερσὶν, ἐξαίφνης τοσοῦτον ἡμῖν ἀπεσκίρτησε νῦν, ὡς τοσαῦτα ἐργάσασθαι κακὰ, ἃ μηδὲ εἰπεῖν θέμις. Ὀδύρομαι καὶ θρηνῶ νῦν, οὐ διὰ τὸ μέγεθος τῆς προσδοκωμένης ἀπειλῆς, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὴν ὑπερβολὴν τῆς γεγενημένης μανίας. Εἰ γὰρ μὴ παροξυνθείη βασιλεὺς, μηδὲ ὀργισθείη, μηδὲ κολάσειε καὶ τιμωρήσαιτο πῶς οἴσομεν, εἰπέ μοι, τὴν αἰσχύνην τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν γεγενημένων; ∆ιακόπτεταί μοι τῆς διδασκαλίας ὁ λόγος τῷ θρήνῳ· μόλις ἰσχύω διᾶραι στόμα, καὶ ἀνοῖξαι χείλη, καὶ κινῆσαι γλῶτταν, καὶ ῥήματα προέσθαι· οὕτω καθάπερ χαλινὸς ὁ τῆς ἀθυμίας ὄγκος ἀποστρέφει μου τὴν γλῶτταν, καὶ τῶν ῥημάτων ἐπιλαμβάνεται. Οὐδὲν τῆς πόλεως τῆς ἡμετέρας πρότερον μακαριώτερον ἦν, οὐδὲν 49.35 ἀτερπέστερον γέγονε νῦν. Καθάπερ μέλιτται κηρίον βομβοῦσαι, οὕτω τὴν ἀγορὰν περιίπταντο καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν οἱ τὴν πόλιν οἰκοῦντες, καὶ πάντες ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ τῷ πλήθει τούτῳ πρότερον ἐμακάριζον. Ἀλλ' ἰδοὺ νῦν τὸ κηρίον τοῦτο γέγονεν ἔρημον· καθάπερ γὰρ τὰς μελίττας ἐκείνας καπνὸς, οὕτω τὰς μελίττας ταύτας φόβος ἀπήλασε· μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ ὃ περὶ τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ θρηνῶν ὁ προφήτης ἔλεγε, τοῦτο καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς καιρὸν ἐροῦμεν νῦν· Ἐγενήθη ἡμῖν ἡ πόλις, ὡς τερέβινθος ἀποβεβληκυῖα τὰ φύλλα, καὶ ὡς παράδεισος ὕδωρ μὴ ἔχων. Καθάπερ γὰρ παράδεισος τῆς ἀρδείας ἐπιλιπούσης, ἔρημα τῶν φύλλων καὶ γυμνὰ τῶν καρπῶν τὰ δένδρα δείκνυσιν, οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἡ πόλις ἡμῶν γέγονε νῦν· τῆς γὰρ ἄνωθεν βοηθείας ἐγκαταλιπούσης αὐτὴν, ἕστηκεν ἔρημος, γυμνὴ τῶν οἰκητόρων γενομένη σχεδὸν ἁπάντων. Οὐδὲν πατρίδος γλυκύτερον, ἀλλ' οὐδὲν πικρότερον νῦν γέγονε· πάντες τὴν ἐνεγκοῦσαν ὥσπερ παγίδα φεύγουσιν,