20

of the long-suffering of God. So you will pay the penalty, not having used it as you ought. Is God a lover of mankind? But He is also a just judge. Does He forgive sins? But He also repays each according to his works. Does He pass over iniquities, take away lawlessness? But He also makes an examination. How then are these things not contradictory? They are not contradictory, if we divide them by their times. He takes away lawlessness here both through the font and through repentance; He makes an examination of deeds there through fire and torments. "If, therefore, having done," he says, "a few evil things, and for one of them I am cast out and fall from the kingdom, for what reason do I not do all evil things?" The argument of an ungrateful servant; but nevertheless we will resolve this argument also. Do not do evil things, that you may benefit yourself; for from the kingdom we shall all alike fall, but in Gehenna we shall not all pay the same penalty, but one a greater, another a milder. For if both you and he were contemptuous, both he who did many things and he who did few will alike fall from the kingdom; but if you were not 62.36 contemptuous in the same way, but one more and the other less, in Gehenna you will feel the difference. "Why then," he says, "does He threaten those who have not given alms, that they will go away into the fire, and not simply into the fire, but into that prepared for the devil and his angels?" For what reason, and why? Because nothing so provokes God as to wrong His friends. For if one must love his enemies, the one who turns away from those who love him, and in this is worse than the Greeks, of what punishment will he not be worthy? So here the magnitude of the sin has reasonably caused such a one to go away with the devil. For woe, he says, to the one who does not practice almsgiving. And if this was so in the Old Testament, much more in the New; if where the possession and enjoyment and care of money was permitted, such great provision was made for helping the poor, how much more, where we are commanded to cast everything away! For what did they not do? They gave tithes, and again other tithes; they assisted orphans, widows, proselytes. But someone, admiring a certain person, said to me, "So-and-so gives tithes." With how much shame is this filled, if what among the Jews was not a matter of wonder, this has become wonderful among Christians? If then it was a danger to neglect tithes, consider how great it is now. Drunkenness, again, does not inherit the kingdom. But what is the argument of the many? "Therefore if both I and he are in the same things, it is no small consolation." What then should we say? First of all, you and he will not receive the same punishment; and in the second place, this is not even a consolation. For the fellowship of sufferings has consolation then, when the terrible things are moderate; but when it goes beyond measure, and puts us into a state of ecstasy, it no longer allows one to have consolation. For tell the one being tortured and having entered the pyre, that "So-and-so also suffers this"; but he will not even perceive the consolation. Did not all the Israelites perish together? What consolation did this bring them? Did not this very thing rather grieve them? Therefore they also said: We have perished, we have been utterly destroyed, we are consumed. What sort of consolation, then, is this? In vain do we console ourselves with these hopes. There is only one consolation, not to fall into that unquenchable fire; but having fallen in, it is not possible to find consolation, where there is the gnashing of teeth, where there is weeping, where the worm does not die, where the fire is not quenched. For will you conceive of any consolation at all, tell me, being in such affliction and distress? For you will then be in yourself. Let us not, I beg and entreat, deceive ourselves in vain, and console ourselves with these words, but let us do those things which will be able to save us. It is set before us to sit together with Christ, and do you split hairs about these things? For if there were no other sin, for these words how much punishment ought we to have undergone, that we are so sluggish, that we are so wretched and indolent, as to say these things when so great an honor is set before us? Oh how much you will groan, when you hear then those who have succeeded being called to the kingdom and being honored! when you see from slaves and from the lowborn a few

20

τῆς μακροθυμίας τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ὥστε δίκην δώσεις, οὐκ εἰς δέον αὐτῇ χρησάμενος. Φιλάνθρωπος ὁ Θεός; ἀλλὰ καὶ δίκαιος κριτής. Ἁμαρτίας συγχωρῶν; ἀλλὰ ἀποδίδωσιν ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ. Ὑπερβαίνει ἀδικίας, ἐξαιρεῖ ἀνομίας; ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐξέτασιν ποιεῖται. Πῶς οὖν οὐκ ἐναντία ταῦτα; Οὐκ ἐναντία, ἂν τοῖς χρόνοις αὐτὰ διέλωμεν. Ἐξαιρεῖ ἀνομίας ἐνταῦθα καὶ διὰ λουτροῦ καὶ διὰ μετανοίας· ἐξέτασιν ποιεῖται τῶν πεπραγμένων ἐκεῖ διὰ πυρὸς καὶ βασάνων. Ἂν τοίνυν ἐργασάμενος ὦ, φησὶν, ὀλίγα κακὰ, καὶ δι' ἓν αὐτῶν ἐκβάλλωμαι καὶ τῆς βασιλείας ἐκπίπτω, τίνος ἕνεκεν οὐκ ἐργάζομαι πάντα κακά; Ἀγνώμονος οἰκέτου ὁ λόγος· πλὴν ἀλλ' ὅμως καὶ τοῦτον ἐπιλυσόμεθα τὸν λόγον. Μὴ ἐργάζου τὰ κακὰ, ἵνα σαυτὸν ὠφελήσῃς· βασιλείας μὲν γὰρ πάντες ὁμοίως ἐκπεσούμεθα, ἐν δὲ γεέννῃ οὐ τὴν αὐτὴν δώσομεν δίκην πάντες, ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν μείζονα, ὁ δὲ ἡμερωτέραν. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ σὺ κἀκεῖνος κατεφρονήσατε, καὶ ὁ τὰ πολλὰ καὶ ὁ τὰ ὀλίγα ὁμοίως ἐκπεσεῖσθε τῆς βασιλείας· εἰ δὲ οὐχ 62.36 ὁμοίως κατεφρονήσατε, ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν μεῖζον, ὁ δὲ ἔλαττον, ἐν τῇ γεέννῃ τῆς διαφορᾶς αἰσθήσεσθε. Τί οὖν, φησὶν, ἀπειλεῖ τοῖς ἐλεημοσύνην μὴ δεδωκόσιν, εἰς τὸ πῦρ ἀπελεύσεσθαι, καὶ οὐχ ἁπλῶς εἰς τὸ πῦρ, ἀλλ' εἰς τὸ ἡτοιμασμένον τῷ διαβόλῳ καὶ τοῖς ἀγγέλοις αὐτοῦ; τίνος ἕνεκεν, καὶ διὰ τί; Ὅτι οὐδὲν οὕτω τὸν Θεὸν παροξύνει, ὡς τὸ τοὺς φίλους ἀδικεῖν. Εἰ γὰρ τοὺς ἐχθροὺς φιλεῖν δεῖ, ὁ καὶ τοὺς φιλοῦντας ἀποστρεφόμενος, καὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων κατὰ τοῦτο χείρων ὢν, τίνος οὐκ ἔσται κολάσεως ἄξιος; Ὥστε ἐνταῦθα τὸ μέγεθος τοῦ ἁμαρτήματος μετὰ τοῦ διαβόλου τὸν τοιοῦτον εἰκότως ἐποίησεν ἀπελθεῖν. Οὐαὶ γὰρ τῷ ἐλεημοσύνην, φησὶ, μὴ ἐργαζομένῳ. Εἰ δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς Παλαιᾶς τοῦτο ἦν, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἐπὶ τῆς Καινῆς· εἰ ἔνθα συγκεχώρητο χρημάτων κτῆσις καὶ ἀπόλαυσις καὶ ἐπιμέλεια, τοσαύτη πρόνοια ἐγένετο τῆς εἰς τοὺς πένητας βοηθείας, πόσῳ μᾶλλον, ἔνθα κελευόμεθα πάντα ῥῖψαι! Τί γὰρ οὐκ ἐποίουν ἐκεῖνοι; ∆εκάτας, καὶ πάλιν δεκάτας ἑτέρας παρεῖχον· ὀρφανοῖς, χήραις, προσηλύτοις ἐπήρκουν. Ἀλλὰ ἐμοί τις θαυμάζων τινὰ ἔλεγε· ∆εκάτας δίδωσιν ὁ δεῖνα. Πόσης αἰσχύνης τοῦτο γέμει, εἰ ὃ ἐπὶ τῶν Ἰουδαίων οὐκ ἦν θαυμασμοῦ, τοῦτο ἐπὶ τῶν Χριστιανῶν θαυμαστὸν γέγονεν; Εἰ τότε κίνδυνος ἦν, τὸ δεκάτας ἀπολιπεῖν, ἐννόησον ὅσον ἐστὶ νῦν. Ἡ μέθη πάλιν οὐ κληρονομεῖ τὴν βασιλείαν. Ἀλλὰ τίς ὁ τῶν πολλῶν λόγος; Οὐκοῦν εἰ κἀγὼ κἀκεῖνος ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῖς, οὐ μικρὰ παραμυθία. Τί οὖν ἂν εἴποιμεν; Μάλιστα μὲν, οὐ τῆς αὐτῆς σὺ κἀκεῖνος ἀπολαύσεις τιμωρίας· ἄλλως δὲ, οὐδὲ παραμυθία τοῦτό ἐστι. Τότε γὰρ ἡ κοινωνία τῶν παθῶν ἔχει παραμυθίαν, ὅταν σύμμετρα ᾖ τὰ δεινά· ὅταν δὲ ὑπερβαίνῃ, καὶ ἐν ἐκστάσει ἡμᾶς ποιῇ, οὐκέτι ἀφίησι λοιπὸν ἔχειν παραμυθίαν. Εἰπὲ γὰρ τῷ καταικιζομένῳ καὶ εἰς τὴν πυρὰν ἐμβεβηκότι, ὅτι Καὶ ὁ δεῖνα τοῦτο πάσχει· ἀλλ' οὐδὲ αἰσθήσεται τῆς παραμυθίας. Οὐχὶ πάντες ὁμοῦ ἀπώλοντο οἱ Ἰσραηλῖται; ποίαν τοῦτο αὐτοῖς παραμυθίαν ἔφερεν; οὐχὶ μᾶλλον αὐτὸ τοῦτο αὐτοὺς ἐλύπει; ∆ιὸ καὶ ἔλεγον· Ἀπολώλαμεν, ἐξολώλαμεν, παρανηλώμεθα. Ποία τοίνυν αὕτη παραμυθία; Μάτην ἑαυτοὺς παραμυθούμεθα ταύταις ταῖς ἐλπίσι. Μία μόνη παραμυθία ἐστὶ, τὸ μὴ ἐμπεσεῖν εἰς τὸ πῦρ ἐκεῖνο τὸ ἄσβεστον· ἐμπεσόντα δὲ οὐκ ἔνι παραμυθίας τυχεῖν, ἔνθα ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων, ἔνθα ὁ κλαυθμὸς, ἔνθα σκώληξ ἀτελεύτητος, ἔνθα πῦρ ἄσβεστον. Ἐννοήσεις γὰρ ὅλως τινὰ, εἰπέ μοι, παραμυθίαν, ἐν τοσαύτῃ θλίψει καὶ στενοχωρίᾳ ὤν; ἐν σαυτῷ γὰρ ἔσῃ λοιπόν. Μὴ, δέομαι καὶ παρακαλῶ, μὴ ἑαυτοὺς εἰκῆ ἀπατῶμεν, καὶ τούτοις τοῖς λόγοις παραμυθώμεθα, ἀλλὰ ταῦτα πράττωμεν, ἅπερ ἡμᾶς σῶσαι δυνήσεται. Συγκαθίσαι τῷ Χριστῷ πρόκειται, καὶ σὺ περὶ τούτων ἀκριβολογῇ; Εἰ γὰρ μηδὲν ἕτερον ἦν ἁμάρτημα, ὑπὲρ τῶν ῥημάτων τούτων πόσην κόλασιν ἡμᾶς ἐχρῆν ὑποστῆναι, ὅτι οὕτω νωθεῖς, ὅτι οὕτω ταλαίπωροι καὶ ῥᾴθυμοί ἐσμεν, ὡς καὶ τοσαύτης προκειμένης τιμῆς ταῦτα λέγειν; Ὢ πόσα στενάξεις, ὅταν ἀκούσῃ τότε τοὺς κατωρθωκότας καλουμένους ἐπὶ βασιλείαν καὶ τιμωμένους! ὅταν ἴδῃς ἀπὸ δούλων καὶ ἀπὸ δυσγενῶν ὀλίγα