John Chrysostom, On Matthew

brought these women into the midst. For she indeed bore the great king through those means; and David is not ashamed of these things. For it is not, it is not possible to be virtuous, or base, or obscure, or illustrious from the virtue or vice of one's ancestors; but if one must say something paradoxical, he shines more brightly who, not being from virtuous ancestors, became good. Let no one therefore be proud of these things; but considering the ancestors of the Lord, let him empty all pride, and be proud of his accomplishments; or rather, not even of these. For thus also the Pharisee became lower than the publican. For if you want to show your accomplishment to be great, do not be proud, and then you will have shown it to be greater; do not think that you have done anything, and you will have accomplished everything. For if when we are sinners, we think ourselves to be what we are, we become righteous, just like the publican; how much more when being righteous we consider ourselves to be sinners? For if humility makes righteous out of sinners; and yet that was not humility, but honest acknowledgment; if therefore honest acknowledgment has so much power for sinners, consider what humility will not work for the righteous? Therefore do not ruin your labors, nor cut short your sweats, nor run in vain, after countless courses emptying all your effort. For the Lord knows your accomplishments better than you. Even if you give a cup of cold water, He does not overlook it; even if you put down an obol, even if you only groan, He receives all things with much good will, and remembers, and appoints great rewards for them. But for what reason do you examine your own things, and bring them continually into our midst? Do you not know that if you praise yourself, God will no longer praise you? just as if you count yourself wretched, He will not cease proclaiming you among all? For He does not wish your labors to be diminished. What do I say, diminished? Indeed He does and contrives all things, so as to crown you even from small things, and goes about seeking pretexts by which you might be able to escape Gehenna. 5. For this reason even if you work the eleventh hour of the day, 57.37 He gives the full wage; Even if you have no starting-point for salvation, He says, I do it for my own sake, that my name may not be profaned. Even if you only groan, even if you weep, He Himself quickly seizes all these things as a starting-point for your salvation. Let us not therefore be lifted up, but let us call ourselves unprofitable, that we may become profitable. For if you call yourself approved, you have become unprofitable, even if you are approved; but if you name yourself unprofitable, you have become profitable, even if you are unapproved. Therefore it is necessary to forget one's accomplishments. And how is it possible, he says, not to know the things we know? What are you saying? Offending the Lord continually, you live in luxury and laugh, and do not even know that you have sinned, having given everything over to forgetfulness, but you cannot cast out the memory of your accomplishments? And yet fear is stronger. But we do the opposite; though we offend every day, we do not even take it to heart; but if we give a little money to a poor man, we turn this over and over, which is of the utmost foolishness, and the greatest loss for the one who gathers it; for a safe treasury of accomplishments is the forgetting of accomplishments. And just as with garments and gold, when we display them in the marketplace, we attract many plotters; but if we put them away at home and hide them, we will store everything in safety; so also with accomplishments, if we continually bear them in memory, we provoke the Lord, we arm the Enemy, we invite him to theft; but if no one knows them, but only He who ought to know, they will lie in safety. Therefore do not turn them over continually, lest someone take them away; which the Pharisee also suffered, carrying them on his tongue; whence the devil also snatched them away; and yet he remembered them with thanksgiving, and ascribed the whole to God. But not even this was enough for him. For it is not thanksgiving to reproach others, to seek honor before many, to rise up against those who have transgressed. For if you give thanks to God, be content with Him alone, and do not bring it out to men, nor

τὰς γυναῖκας ταύτας εἰς μέσον ἤγαγε. Καὶ γὰρ τὸν βασιλέα τὸν μέγαν αὕτη διὰ τῶν μέσων ἐγέννησε· καὶ οὐκ αἰσχύνεται ὁ ∆αυῒδ ἐπὶ τούτοις. Οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν, οὐκ ἔστιν οὔτε ἐξ ἀρετῆς, οὔτε ἀπὸ κακίας προγόνων εἶναι σπουδαῖον, ἢ φαῦλον, ἢ ἄσημον, ἢ λαμπρόν· ἀλλ' εἰ χρή τι καὶ παράδοξον εἰπεῖν, ἐκεῖνος ἐκλάμπει μειζόνως, ὁ μὴ τῶν σπουδαίων προγόνων ὢν, γενόμενος δὲ ἀγαθός. Μηδεὶς τοίνυν ἐπὶ τούτοις μέγα φρονείτω· ἀλλ' ἐννοήσας τοῦ ∆εσπότου τοὺς προγόνους, τὸ φύσημα ἅπαν κενούτω, καὶ ἐπὶ κατορθώμασι μέγα φρονείτω· μᾶλλον δὲ μηδὲ ἐπὶ τούτοις. Οὕτω γὰρ καὶ ὁ Φαρισαῖος τοῦ τελώνου γέγονεν ὕστερος. Εἰ γὰρ βούλει δεῖξαι μέγα τὸ κατόρθωμα, μὴ μέγα φρόνει, καὶ τότε μεῖζον τοῦτο ἀπέφηνας· μὴ νομίσῃς τι πεποιηκέναι, καὶ τὸ πᾶν εἰργάσω. Εἰ γὰρ ὅταν ἁμαρτωλοὶ ὦμεν, ἂν νομίσωμεν τοῦτο εἶναι ὅπερ ἐσμὲν, δίκαιοι γινόμεθα, ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ ὁ τελώνης· πόσῳ μᾶλλον ὅταν δίκαιοι ὄντες ἁμαρτωλοὺς ἑαυτοὺς εἶναι νομίζωμεν; Εἰ γὰρ ἐξ ἁμαρτωλῶν δικαίους ποιεῖ τὸ ταπεινοφρονεῖν· καίτοιγε οὐδὲ ταπεινοφροσύνη ἦν ἐκεῖνο, ἀλλ' εὐγνωμοσύνη· εἰ οὖν εὐγνωμοσύνη τοσοῦτον δύναται ἐπὶ ἁμαρτωλῶν, ἡ ταπεινοφροσύνη σκόπησον ἐπὶ δικαίων τί οὐκ ἐργάσεται; Μὴ τοίνυν λυμήνῃ τοὺς πόνους, μηδὲ ὑποτέμῃ τοὺς ἱδρῶτας, μηδὲ εἰκῆ δραμῇς, μετὰ τοὺς μυρίους διαύλους πάντα κενῶν τὸν πόνον. Καὶ γὰρ σοῦ μᾶλλον οἶδε τὰ κατορθώματα ὁ ∆εσπότης τὰ σά. Κἂν ποτήριον ψυχροῦ δῷς, οὐδὲ τοῦτο παρορᾷ· κἂν ὀβολὸν καταβάλῃς, κἂν στενάξῃς μόνον, μετὰ πολλῆς πάντα δέχεται τῆς εὐνοίας, καὶ μέμνηται, καὶ μεγάλους αὐτοῖς ὁρίζει μισθούς. Τίνος δὲ ἕνεκεν ἐξετάζεις τὰ σὰ, καὶ φέρεις ἡμῖν εἰς μέσον διηνεκῶς; Οὐκ οἶδας ὅτι ἐὰν ἐπαινέσῃς σαυτὸν, οὐκέτι σε ὁ Θεὸς ἐπαινέσεται; ὥσπερ οὖν ἂν ταλανίσῃς, οὐ παύσεταί σε παρὰ πᾶσιν ἀνακηρύττων; Οὐδὲ γὰρ βούλεταί σου τοὺς πόνους ἐλαττωθῆναι. Τί λέγω ἐλαττωθῆναι; Πάντα μὲν οὖν ποιεῖ καὶ πραγματεύεται, ὥστε καὶ ἀπὸ μικρῶν σε στεφανῶσαι, καὶ περίεισι προφάσεις ζητῶν δι' ὧν δυνήσῃ ἀπαλλαγῆναι τῆς γεέννης. εʹ. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο κἂν ἑνδεκάτην ὥραν ἐργάσῃ τῆς ἡμέρας, 57.37 ὁλόκληρον τὸν μισθὸν δίδωσι· Κἂν μηδεμίαν ἔχῃς ἀφορμὴν σωτηρίας, φησὶ, δι' ἐμὲ ποιῶ, ὅπως μὴ τὸ ὄνομά μου βεβηλωθῇ. Κἂν στενάξῃς μόνον, κἂν δακρύσῃς, ἁρπάζει ταῦτα πάντα ταχέως εἰς ἀφορμὴν τῆς σῆς σωτηρίας αὐτός. Μὴ τοίνυν ἐπαιρώμεθα, ἀλλὰ λέγωμεν ἑαυτοὺς ἀχρείους, ἵνα γενώμεθα εὔχρηστοι. Ἂν μὲν γὰρ εἴπῃς σαυτὸν εὐδόκιμον, γέγονας ἄχρηστος, κἂν εὐδόκιμος ᾖς· ἂν δὲ ἀχρεῖον ὀνομάσῃς, γέγονας εὔχρηστος, κἂν ἀδόκιμος ᾖς. ∆ιὸ ἀναγκαῖον ἐπιλαθέσθαι κατορθωμάτων. Καὶ πῶς δυνατὸν, φησὶν, ἅπερ ἐπιστάμεθα, ταῦτα μὴ εἰδέναι; Τί λέγεις; προσκρούων διηνεκῶς τῷ ∆εσπότῃ, τρυφᾷς καὶ γελᾷς, καὶ οὐδὲ οἶδας ὅτι ἥμαρτες, λήθῃ παραδοὺς πάντα, κατορθωμάτων δὲ οὐ δύνασαι ἐκβαλεῖν τὴν μνήμην; Καίτοι ἰσχυρότερον ὁ φόβος. Ἡμεῖς δὲ τοὐναντίον ποιοῦμεν· καθ' ἑκάστην μὲν ἡμέραν προσκρούοντες οὐδὲ εἰς νοῦν βαλλόμεθα· ἂν δὲ μικρὸν ἀργύριον πένητι δῶμεν, ἄνω καὶ κάτω τοῦτο στρέφομεν, ὅπερ ἐσχάτης ἐστὶν ἀνοίας, καὶ μεγίστη τοῦ συλλέγοντος ζημία· ἀσφαλὲς γὰρ ταμιεῖον κατορθωμάτων λήθη κατορθωμάτων. Καὶ καθάπερ τὰ ἱμάτια καὶ ὁ χρυσὸς, ὅταν μὲν ἐπ' ἀγορᾶς ταῦτα προθῶμεν, πολλοὺς ἐπισπώμεθα τοὺς ἐπιβούλους· ἂν δὲ ἀποθώμεθα οἴκοι καὶ κατακρύψωμεν, ἐν ἀσφαλείᾳ καταθήσομεν ἅπαντα· οὕτω δὴ καὶ τὰ κατορθώματα, ἂν μὲν συνεχῶς ἐπὶ τῆς μνήμης φέρωμεν, παροξύνομεν τὸν ∆εσπότην, τὸν Ἐχθρὸν ὁπλίζομεν, ἐπὶ τὴν κλοπὴν καλοῦμεν· ἂν δὲ μηδεὶς εἰδῇ αὐτὰ, ἀλλ' ὃν εἰδέναι χρὴ μόνον, ἐν ἀσφαλείᾳ κείσεται. Μὴ τοίνυν περίστρεφε συνεχῶς, ἵνα μή τις αὐτὰ ἀφέληται· ὃ καὶ ὁ Φαρισαῖος ἔπαθεν, ἐπὶ τῆς γλώττης αὐτὰ περιφέρων· ὅθεν καὶ ἥρπασεν αὐτὰ ὁ διάβολος· καίτοιγε μετ' εὐχαριστίας αὐτῶν ἐμέμνητο, καὶ τὸ πᾶν ἀνέθηκε τῷ Θεῷ. Ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τοῦτο ἤρκεσεν αὐτῷ. Οὐ γὰρ εὐχαριστία τὸ ὀνειδίζειν ἑτέροις, τὸ φιλοτιμεῖσθαι ἐπὶ πολλῶν, τὸ κατεξανίστασθαι τῶν πεπλημμεληκότων. Εἰ γὰρ εὐχαριστεῖς τῷ Θεῷ, ἀρκέσθητι μόνον αὐτῷ, καὶ μὴ ἐξενέγκῃς εἰς ἀνθρώπους, μηδὲ