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rewards? Because he preached without effort, living in luxury and good cheer? Because he opened his mouth and moved his tongue while sitting at home? But this was easy even for the common person and for one utterly reclining and living a soft and dissipated life. But now for his wounds, his deaths, his journeys on land and sea, for his very despondency, his tears, his pains—for he says, "for three years, night and day, I did not cease to admonish each one of you with tears"—with much boldness he will receive the rewards and the crowns. Therefore, considering and reflecting on these things, how great is the gain of a painful and toilsome life, rejoice and be glad, traveling from your earliest years a profitable road, full of countless crowns, and through continuous and frequent sufferings. For indeed, the varied and manifold sickness of the body, more grievous than ten thousand deaths, did not cease to besiege you continually, and showers of revilings and insults and slanders did not cease to be brought against you, and frequent and continuous despondencies and fountains of tears have troubled you all the time. And each of these things, even by itself, has sufficed for great benefit to those who have endured. For Lazarus, from his sickness alone, shared the same end as the patriarch. And to the publican, the revilings of the Pharisee brought a righteousness surpassing that of the Pharisee. And the chief of the apostles, by tears, corrected the wound of that grievous sin. When, therefore, for each of the aforementioned, each one of these sufferings by itself appears to have been sufficient, consider how many rewards you yourself will receive, having endured them all together with great excess and for all time. For nothing, nothing so makes men illustrious and enviable and fills them with countless good things, as a multitude of temptations and dangers and toils and despondencies, and being continually plotted against even by those from whom one least ought to be, and bearing all things meekly. Since indeed for the son of Jacob, nothing so made him blessed and esteemed as that slander at that time and the prison and the chain and the hardship resulting from it. For great indeed was his achievement of self-control, when he overcame the licentiousness of the Egyptian woman and spurned that wretched woman calling him to an unjust union. But this was not so great as his sufferings. For what praise is it, tell me, not to commit adultery, nor to defile a bed in no way belonging to him, nor to wrong his benefactor, nor to cover his master's house with shame? But that which made him great is especially this: the danger, the plot, the madness of the captive woman, the violence brought against him, the inescapable prison, the death which the adulteress contrived for him, the nets which she spread from every side, the accusation, the slander, the chain, the failure to obtain any justice, after so great a contest for which he ought to have been crowned, to be led as a convict and a culprit to the fortress and to be shut up with those who had committed the worst sins, the squalor, the iron, the misery of the prison. Then I see him more resplendent than when, sitting on the throne of Egypt, he distributed the grain to those in need and ended the famine and became a common harbor for all. Then I see him glorious, when the fetters and manacles were upon him, than when he was clothed in splendid garments with such power. For the one was a time of enterprise and much commerce, I mean that of the prison, but the other was of luxury and ease and honor, having much pleasure but not much profit. For this reason I do not count him as blessed for being honored by his father, as for being envied by his brothers and having enemies living with him. For from his earliest years a grievous war is fanned against him, while his enemies have nothing to accuse him of, but are consumed and bursting because of his greater

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ἀμοιβάς; Ὅτι ἀπραγμόνως ἐκήρυξε τρυφῶν καὶ ἐν εὐθυμίᾳ διάγων; Ὅτι στόμα διῆρε καὶ γλῶσσαν ἐκίνησεν οἴκοι καθήμενος; Ἀλλὰ τοῦτο καὶ τῷ τυχόντι ῥᾴδιον ἦν καὶ τῷ σφόδρα ἀναπεπτωκότι καὶ τὸν ὑγρὸν καὶ διαλελυμένον ζῶντι βίον. Νῦν μέντοι τῶν τραυμάτων, τῶν θανάτων, τῶν δρόμων τῶν κατὰ γῆν καὶ θάλατταν, τῆς ἀθυμίας αὐτῆς, τῶν δακρύων, τῶν ὀδυνῶν-τριετίαν γάρ, φησί, νύκτα καὶ ἡμέραν μετὰ δακρύων νουθετῶν ἕνα ἕκαστον ὑμῶν οὐ διέλειπον-μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς παρρησίας λήψεται τὰς ἀντιδόσεις καὶ τοὺς στεφάνους. Ταῦτα οὖν ἐννοῶν καὶ λογιζόμενος, ὅσον τοῦ ὀδυνηροῦ καὶ ἐπιμόχθου βίου τὸ κέρδος, χαῖρε καὶ εὐφραίνου τὴν ἐπικερδῆ καὶ μυρίων γέμουσαν στεφάνων ἐκ πρώτης ἡλικίας ὁδεύων ὁδὸν καὶ διὰ συνεχῶν καὶ πυκνῶν παθημάτων. Καὶ γὰρ ἡ τοῦ σώματος ἀρρωστία ἡ ποικίλη καὶ παντοδαπὴ καὶ μυρίων θανάτων χαλεπωτέρα οὐκ ἐπαύσατο συνεχῶς πολιορκοῦσα καὶ λοιδοριῶν δὲ καὶ ὕβρεων νιφάδες καὶ συκοφαντίαι οὐ διέλειπον κατὰ σοῦ φερόμεναι, ἀθυμίαι τέ σοι πυκναὶ καὶ συνεχεῖς καὶ πηγαὶ δακρύων διὰ παντὸς ἠνώχλησαν τοῦ χρόνου. Τούτων δὲ ἕκαστον καὶ καθ' ἑαυτὸ ἤρκεσε τοῖς ὑπομεμενηκόσιν εἰς ὠφέλειαν πολλήν. Ὅ τε γὰρ Λάζαρος ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρρωστίας μόνης τῆς αὐτῆς ἐκοινώνησε τῷ πατριάρχῃ λήξεως. Καὶ τῷ τελώνῃ δὲ αἱ λοιδορίαι τοῦ Φαρισαίου δικαιοσύνην ὑπερβαίνουσαν τὸν Φαρισαῖον ἐκόμισαν. Ὅ τε κορυφαῖος τῶν ἀποστόλων ἀπὸ δακρύων τὸ ἕλκος τῆς χαλεπῆς ἐκείνης ἁμαρτίας διώρθωσεν. Ὅταν οὖν ἑκάστῳ τῶν προειρημένων ἕκαστον φαίνηται καὶ μόνον ἓν τῶν παθημάτων τούτων ἀρκέσαν, ἐννόησον πόσας αὐτὸς λήψῃ τὰς ἀμοιβὰς πάντα ὁμοῦ μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς ὑπερβολῆς ὑπομείνας καὶ διὰ παντὸς τοῦ χρόνου. Οὐδὲν γὰρ οὐδὲν οὕτω λαμπροὺς ποιεῖ καὶ ζηλωτοὺς καὶ μυρίων ἐμπίπλησιν ἀγαθῶν, ὡς πειρασμῶν πλῆθος καὶ κίνδυνοι καὶ πόνοι καὶ ἀθυμίαι καὶ τὸ διηνεκῶς ἐπιβουλεύεσθαι καὶ παρ' ὧν οὐδαμῶς ἐχρῆν καὶ πράως ἅπαντα φέρειν. Ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Ἰακὼβ οὐδὲν οὕτως ἐποίησε μακάριον καὶ εὐδόκιμον ὡς ἡ συκοφαντία τότε ἐκείνη καὶ τὸ δεσμωτήριον καὶ ἡ ἅλυσις καὶ ἡ ἐντεῦθεν ταλαιπωρία. Μέγα μὲν γὰρ αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ τῆς σωφροσύνης κατόρθωμα, ὅτε τῆς αἰγυπτιακῆς ἀκολασίας περιεγένετο καὶ τὴν ἀθλίαν γυναῖκα ἐκείνην ἐπὶ τὴν ἄδικον καλοῦσαν αὐτὸν ὁμιλίαν διεκρούσατο. Ἀλλ' οὐχ οὕτω μέγα τοῦτο ὡς τὰ παθήματα. Ποῖον γὰρ ἐγκώμιον, εἰπέ μοι, τὸ μὴ μοιχεῦσαι, μηδὲ μιᾶναι εὐνὴν οὐδαμόθεν αὐτῷ προσήκουσαν, μηδὲ ἀδικῆσαι τὸν εὐεργετήσαντα, μηδὲ αἰσχύνῃ περιβαλεῖν τοῦ προστάτου τὴν οἰκίαν; Ἀλλὰ τὸ ποιῆσαν αὐτὸν μέγαν ἐκεῖνο μάλιστά ἐστιν, ὁ κίνδυνος, ἡ ἐπιβουλή, ἡ μανία τῆς αἰχμαλώτου, ἡ ἐπενεχθεῖσα βία, τὸ ἄφευκτον δεσμωτήριον, ὁ θάνατος, ὅνπερ αὐτῷ κατεσκεύασεν ἡ μοιχαλίς, τὰ δίκτυα ἃ πανταχόθεν ἀνεπέτασεν, ἡ κατηγορία, ἡ συκοφαντία, ἡ ἅλυσις, τὸ μηδενὸς τυγχάνειν τῶν δικαίων, μετὰ τὸν τοσοῦτον ἆθλον, ὑπὲρ οὗ στεφανοῦσθαι ἐχρῆν, ὡς κατάδικον καὶ ὑπεύθυνον ἐπὶ τὸ ὀχύρωμα ἄγεσθαι καὶ μετὰ τῶν τὰ ἔσχατα ἡμαρτηκότων κατακλείεσθαι, ὁ αὐχμός, τὸ σιδήριον, ἡ τοῦ δεσμωτηρίου ταλαιπωρία. Τότε αὐτὸν ὁρῶ λαμπρὸν μειζόνως ἢ ὅτε ἐπὶ τοῦ θρόνου τῆς Αἰγύπτου καθήμενος τὸν σῖτον διένειμε τοῖς δεομένοις καὶ τὸν λιμὸν ἔλυσε καὶ κοινὸς λιμὴν ἅπασιν ἐγένετο. Τότε ὁρῶ αὐτὸν φαιδρόν, ὅτε αὐτῷ αἱ πέδαι καὶ χειροπέδαι περιέκειντο ἢ ὅτε ἐν ἱματίοις λαμπροῖς τὴν τοιαύτην δυναστείαν περιεβέβλητο. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ πραγματείας ἦν καιρὸς καὶ ἐμπορίας πολλῆς, ὁ τοῦ δεσμωτηρίου λέγω, ὁ δὲ τρυφῆς καὶ ἀνέσεως καὶ τιμῆς πολλὴν μὲν ἔχων τὴν ἡδονὴν οὐ πολὺ δὲ τὸ κέρδος. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο οὐδὲ οὕτως αὐτὸν μακαρίζω τιμώμενον ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρός, ὡς φθονούμενον ὑπὸ τῶν ἀδελφῶν καὶ συναίκους ἔχοντα πολεμίους. Καὶ γὰρ ἐκ πρώτης ἡλικίας χαλεπὸς αὐτῷ ἀναρριπίζεται πόλεμος, τῶν πολεμούντων ἐγκαλεῖν μὲν ἐχόντων οὐδέν, τηκομένων δὲ καὶ διαρρηγνυμένων διὰ τὸ πλείονος