John Chrysostom, On 2 Timothy

4. Let us not, then, consider this, how we may offer and pray with clean hands, but how the things being offered may also be clean. For this is a laughing matter; as if someone, having washed a dish all over, were to fill it with unclean gifts, is this not mockery and laughter? Let the hands be clean; and they will be, if we not only wash them with water, but first with righteousness; this is the purification of hands. But if we are full of injustice, even if you wash them ten thousand times, there is no gain. Wash yourselves, he says, be clean. What then? Did he add, Go to the springs, go to the baths and the lakes and the rivers? None of these things; but what? Take away your wickedness from your souls; that is, Be clean. This makes one free from pollution, this is true purity. For that one offered no great benefit, but this one grants us confidence before God; and it is possible for adulterers and thieves and murderers to have that one, and sluggish and dissolute men and fornicators and those who have consorted with harlots, and especially these. For these are the ones who care for the purity of the body most of all, constantly smelling of perfumes, wiping clean the tomb; for the body is a tomb to them, the soul within being dead. So that it is possible for them also to pursue this purity, but the inner one no longer. It is no great thing, if you wash the body 62.635; this is a Jewish purification, unprofitable and useless, when the inner part is not. Let someone have a gangrene or a spreading of wounds, let him wash his body all over; what is the profit? what is the end? But if no one can benefit the gangrene in the body from the surface which is washed on the outside and made to disappear; when the gangrene is in the soul, what shall we profit from the purity of the body? Nothing. We need pure prayers; but prayers cannot be pure if the soul that gives them birth is defiled. For nothing so defiles a soul as greed and rapine. But there are some who in the evening, after working countless evils during the day, bathe and enter the church with great confidence, stretching out their hands, as if having put everything away through the pool of waters. If this were so, it would be a great gain to bathe every day; if this were so, I myself would not have ceased bothering the baths, if it made men pure and freed them from sins. This is laughter and nonsense, games and children's toys. God is not disgusted by the filth of the body, but by the impurity of the soul; for hear Him saying: Blessed are the pure in heart; is it in the body? by no means, but, The pure in heart; for they shall see God. And what does the Prophet say? Create in me a clean heart, O God; and again, Wash your heart from wickedness. It is a great good to be in the habit of good things. See how these things are small and unprofitable. And when the soul has been preoccupied by a habit, it does not depart from it, nor does it endure to approach prayer without first fulfilling it. For example, what I mean is: We have established for ourselves the habit of washing and praying, and it is not possible to do this without washing, but we do not pray with pleasure if we do this with unwashed hands, as if we are about to offend God, and being under a bad conscience. If this small thing has such a tyranny, and is by all means fulfilled each day; if we had established ourselves in the habit of almsgiving, and determined always to fulfill this, never to enter a house of prayer with empty hands, the matter would have been accomplished. For great is the tyranny of habit, both in good things and in bad; we will no longer need exertion, as it draws us. Many have established the habit of signing themselves continually, and they no longer need a reminder, but even when the mind is often wandering elsewhere, as if by

δʹ. Μὴ τοίνυν τοῦτο σκοπῶμεν, ὅπως καθαραῖς προσφέρωμεν καὶ εὐχώμεθα χερσὶν, ἀλλ' ὅπως καὶ τὰ προσφερόμενα ᾖ καθαρά. Ἐπεὶ τοῦτο γέλως ἐστίν· ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις τὸν πίνακα περιπλύνας δώρων ἀκαθάρτων τοῦτον ἐμπλήσειεν, οὐχὶ χλευασία τοῦτό ἐστι καὶ γέλως; Ἔστωσαν αἱ χεῖρες καθαραί· ἔσονται δὲ, ἂν μὴ ὕδατι αὐτὰς ἀπονίπτωμεν μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ δικαιοσύνῃ πρότερον· τοῦτο χειρῶν καθάρσιον. Ἂν δὲ γέμωμεν ἀδικίας, κἂν μυριάκις αὐτὰς περιπλύνῃς, κέρδος οὐδέν. Λούσασθε, φησὶ, καθαροὶ γένεσθε. Τί οὖν; ἆρα προσθεὶς εἶπε, Πορεύεσθε ἐπὶ τὰς πηγὰς, πορεύεσθε ἐπὶ τὰ βαλανεῖα καὶ τὰς λίμνας καὶ τοὺς ποταμούς; Οὐδὲν τούτων· ἀλλὰ τί; Ἀφέλετε τὰς πονηρίας ὑμῶν ἀπὸ τῶν ψυχῶν ὑμῶν· τουτέστι, Καθαροὶ γένεσθε. Τοῦτο ἀπηλλάχθαι ποιεῖ μολυσμοῦ, αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ὄντως καθαρότης. Ἐκείνη μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲν μέγα ὤνησεν, αὕτη δὲ παῤῥησίαν ἡμῖν χαρίζεται τὴν πρὸς τὸν Θεόν· κἀκείνην καὶ μοιχοὺς καὶ κλέπτας καὶ ἀνδροφόνους ἔχειν δυνατὸν, καὶ βλᾶκας καὶ ἐκλύτους ἄνδρας καὶ πόρνους καὶ ἡταιρηκότας, καὶ μάλιστα τούτους. Οὗτοι γάρ εἰσιν οἱ τῆς τοῦ σώματος καθαρότητος ἐπιμελόμενοι μάλιστα πάντων, μύρων ὄζοντες συνεχῶς, ἀποσμύχοντες τὸ σῆμα· σῆμα γάρ ἐστιν αὐτοῖς τὸ σῶμα, τῆς ψυχῆς ἔνδον οὔσης νεκρᾶς. Ὥστε ταύτης μὲν τῆς καθαρότητος κἀκείνοις μετιέναι δυνατὸν, τῆς δὲ ἔνδον οὐκέτι. Οὐδὲν μέγα, ἐὰν τὸ σῶμα ἀποπλύ 62.635 νῃς· Ἰουδαϊκός ἐστιν οὗτος ὁ καθαρμὸς, ἀνόνητος καὶ ἀνωφελὴς, τοῦ ἔνδον οὐκ ὄντος. Ἔστω τις σηπεδόνα ἔχων ἢ νομὴν τραυμάτων, περιπλυνέτω τὸ σῶμα· τί τὸ κέρδος; τί τὸ πέρας; Εἰ δὲ τὴν ἐν σώματι σηπεδόνα οὐδὲν ὠφελῆσαι δυνήσεταί τις ἀπὸ τῆς ἐπιφανείας τῆς ἔξωθεν περικλυζομένης καὶ ἀφανιζομένης· ὅταν ἐν ψυχῇ ἡ σηπεδὼν ᾖ, τί ἀπὸ τῆς τοῦ σώματος καθαρότητος ὀνήσομεν; Οὐδέν. Εὐχῶν ἡμῖν δεῖ καθαρῶν· εὐχαὶ δὲ οὐκ ἂν γένοιντο καθαραὶ, τῆς τικτούσης αὐτὰς ψυχῆς οὔσης μιαρᾶς. Οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτω ποιεῖ ψυχὴν μιαρὰν, ὡς πλεονεξία καὶ ἁρπαγή. Ἀλλ' εἰσί τινες οἳ κατὰ τὴν ἑσπέραν, μυρία διὰ τῆς ἡμέρας ἐργαζόμενοι κακὰ, λουόμενοι εἰσίασιν εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς παῤῥησίας τὰς χεῖρας ἀνατείνοντες, ὡς τὸ πᾶν διὰ τῆς τῶν ὑδάτων κολυμβήθρας ἀποθέμενοι. Εἰ τοῦτο ἦν, μέγα τὸ κέρδος ἦν τὸ καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν λούεσθαι· εἰ τοῦτο ἦν, οὐκ ἂν οὐδὲ αὐτὸς ἐπαυσάμην τὰ βαλανεῖα διενοχλῶν, εἰ καθαροὺς ἐποίει καὶ ἁμαρτημάτων ἀπήλλαττε. Γέλως ταῦτα καὶ λῆρος, παίγνια καὶ παίδων ἀθύρματα. Οὐκ ἀποστρέφεται σώματος ῥύπον ὁ Θεὸς, ἀλλ' ἀκαθαρσίαν ψυχῆς· ἄκουε γὰρ αὐτοῦ λέγοντος· Μακάριοι οἱ καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ· ἆρα τῷ σώματι; οὐδαμῶς, ἀλλ', Οἱ τῇ καρδίᾳ καθαροί· ὅτι αὐτοὶ τὸν Θεὸν ὄψονται. Ὁ δὲ Προφήτης τί φησι· Καρδίαν καθαρὰν κτίσον ἐν ἐμοὶ, ὁ Θεός· καὶ πάλιν, Ἀπόπλυναι ἀπὸ κακίας τὴν καρδίαν σου. Μέγα ἀγαθὸν ἐν συνηθείᾳ ἀγαθῶν εἶναι. Ὅρα πῶς ἐστι μικρὰ ταῦτα καὶ ἀνόνητα. Καὶ ἐπειδὰν προληφθῇ ἐν συνηθείᾳ ἡ ψυχὴ, οὐκ ἀφίσταται, οὐδὲ ἀνέχεται μὴ πρότερον αὐτὰ πληρώσασα προσελθεῖν τῇ εὐχῇ. Οἷόν τι λέγω· Ἐν συνηθείᾳ κατεστήσαμεν ἑαυτοὺς τοῦ νίπτεσθαι καὶ εὔχεσθαι, καὶ οὐκ ἔνι μὴ νιψάμενον τοῦτο ποιῆσαι, ἀλλ' ἡδέως οὐκ εὐχόμεθα, εἰ ἀνίπτοις χερσὶ τοῦτο ποιοῦμεν, ὡς προσκρούειν μέλλοντες Θεῷ, καὶ ὑπὸ συνειδὸς πονηρὸν ὄντες. Εἰ τὸ μικρὸν τοῦτο τοσαύτην ἔχει τὴν τυραννίδα, καὶ πάντως ἐκπληροῦται καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν· εἰ ἐν ἐλεημοσύνης συνηθείᾳ κατεστήσαμεν ἑαυτοὺς, καὶ τοῦτο πληροῦν ἀεὶ ὡρίσαμεν, μηδέποτε εἰσιέναι κεναῖς ταῖς χερσὶν εἰς οἶκον εὐκτήριον, κατώρθωτο ἂν τὸ πρᾶγμα. Μεγάλη γὰρ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς καὶ ἐν τοῖς κακοῖς τῆς συνηθείας ἡ τυραννίς· οὐ δεησόμεθα πόνου λοιπὸν, αὐτῆς ἑλκούσης ἡμᾶς. Ἐν συνηθείᾳ πολλοὶ κατέστησαν τοῦ σφραγίζειν ἑαυτοὺς συνεχῶς, καὶ οὐκέτι δέονται τοῦ ὑπομιμνήσκοντος, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ νοῦ πολλάκις ἀλλαχοῦ ῥεμβομένου, καθάπερ ὑπό