33

war calls, there they present themselves and they march, and they endure all things with readiness; much more must we, the soldiers of Christ, be thus prepared, and be drawn up in battle-array against the war of the passions. There is no persecution now, may it never come to be; but there is another war, that of the desire of money, that of envy, that of the other passions. Describing this war, Paul says: For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood. This war is always present. For this reason, He wills that we always stand armed. Stand therefore, he says, having girded your loins; which itself is also of the present time; and has shown that one must always be armed. For great is the war through the tongue, great through the eyes; let us therefore restrain this; great is the war of desires. For this reason, He begins from there to arm the soldier of Christ. For stand, he says, having girded your loins; and he added, In truth. Why 63.53, In truth? For desire is mockery and falsehood, as David also said somewhere: My loins are filled with mockeries. The thing is not pleasure, but a shadow of pleasure. For this reason, Having girded, he says, your loins in truth; that is, with the true pleasure, with temperance, with modesty. And he exhorts these things, knowing the absurdity of sin, and wishing all our members to be fenced about. For an unjust wrath, he says, shall not be guiltless; and He wills that we put on a breastplate and a shield. For wrath is a beast that easily leaps forth, and we need ten thousand fences and partitions to overcome and restrain it. And for this reason especially God built this part for us as if out of certain stones, of bones, having placed these as a support for it, so that it might never burst, nor easily cut through and destroy the whole animal. For it is fire, he says, and a great storm, and no other member could withstand this violence. And the sons of physicians also say that for this reason the lung has been placed under the heart, so that leaping into it, being 63.54 soft, as into some sponge, the heart may rest, and not be injured by the frequency of its leapings against the resisting and hard breast-bone; therefore we need a strong breastplate, so as always to keep this beast in quietness; and we also need a helmet. For since the reasoning faculty is there, and from this it is possible either to be saved, if the right things are done, or to be destroyed, if the wrong things are done; for this reason he says, And the helmet of salvation. For the brain is by nature soft; wherefore it is also covered from above as by a shell, by the cranium. And it becomes for us the cause of all good and evil, whether it knows what is right, or what is not so. And our feet and hands also need weapons; not these hands nor these feet, but again those of the soul; the former to practice what is right, the latter to walk where they ought. Let us therefore arm ourselves thus, and we will be able to overcome our enemies, and to be crowned with the wreath of victory, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

HOMILY VI.

Wherefore, as the Holy Spirit says, Today if you hear his voice,

hear, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness; where your fathers tempted me, they tested me, and saw my works for forty years.

Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

As I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.

1. Having discoursed concerning hope, Paul, and having said, that We are his house, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end; he shows next that we must surely

33

πόλεμος καλῇ, ἐκεῖ παραγίνονται καὶ ὁδοιποροῦσι, καὶ πάντα μετὰ προθυμίας ὑπομένουσι· πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἡμᾶς τοὺς τοῦ Χριστοῦ στρατιώτας οὕτω παρασκευάζεσθαι χρὴ, καὶ παρατάττεσθαι πρὸς τὸν πόλεμον τῶν παθῶν. Οὐκ ἔστι διωγμὸς νῦν, μηδὲ γένοιτο γενέσθαι ποτέ· ἀλλ' ἕτερος πόλεμός ἐστιν, ὁ τῆς τῶν χρημάτων ἐπιθυμίας, ὁ τῆς βασκανίας, ὁ τῶν ἄλλων παθῶν. Τοῦτον τὸν πόλεμον διηγούμενος ὁ Παῦλός φησιν· Οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν ἡ πάλη πρὸς αἷμα καὶ σάρκα. Ἀεὶ οὗτος ὁ πόλεμος ἐνέστηκε. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἀεὶ ὡπλισμένους ἡμᾶς ἑστάναι βούλεται. Στῆτε οὖν, φησὶ, περιζωσάμενοι· ὅπερ καὶ αὐτὸ ἐνεστῶτός ἐστι καιροῦ· καὶ ἐνέφηνεν, ὅτι ἀεὶ δεῖ ὁπλίζεσθαι. Πολὺς γὰρ ὁ πόλεμος διὰ γλώσσης, πολὺς δι' ὀφθαλμῶν· τοῦτον τοίνυν κατέχωμεν· πολὺς ὁ τῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἐκεῖθεν ἄρχεται καθοπλίζειν τὸν στρατιώτην τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Στῆτε γὰρ, φησὶ, περιζωσάμενοι τὴν ὀσφὺν ὑμῶν· καὶ ἐπήγαγεν, Ἐν ἀληθείᾳ. ∆ιὰ 63.53 τί, Ἐν ἀληθείᾳ; Ἐμπαιγμὸς γάρ ἐστι καὶ ψεῦδος ἡ ἐπιθυμία, ὥς που καὶ ὁ ∆αυῒδ ἔφη· Αἱ ψύαι μου ἐπλήσθησαν ἐμπαιγμάτων. Οὐκ ἔστιν ἡδονὴ τὸ πρᾶγμα, ἀλλὰ σκιὰ ἡδονῆς. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο, Περιζωσάμενοι, φησὶ, τὴν ὀσφὺν ὑμῶν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ· τουτέστιν, τῇ ἀληθινῇ ἡδονῇ, τῇ σωφροσύνῃ, τῇ κοσμιότητι. ∆ιὰ ταῦτα δὲ παραινεῖ, εἰδὼς τῆς ἁμαρτίας τὴν ἀτοπίαν, καὶ βουλόμενος ἡμῶν τὰ μέλη πάντα περιπεφράχθαι. Θυμὸς γὰρ, φησὶν, ἄδικος οὐκ ἀθωωθήσεται· καὶ θώρακα ἡμᾶς περικεῖσθαι βούλεται καὶ ἀσπίδα. Θηρίον γάρ ἐστιν εὐκόλως ἐπιπηδῶν ὁ θυμὸς, καὶ μυρίων θριγκίων καὶ διαφραγμάτων ἡμῖν δεῖ πρὸς τὸ περιγενέσθαι καὶ κατασχεῖν. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μάλιστα ἡμῖν τοῦτο τὸ μέρος, ὥσπερ ἔκ τινων λίθων, τῶν ὀστέων ᾠκοδόμησεν ὁ Θεὸς, ἔρεισμα αὐτῷ περιθεὶς ταῦτα, ὥστε μὴ διαῤῥῆξάν ποτε, μηδὲ διατεμὸν εὐκόλως τὸ πᾶν λυμήνασθαι ζῶον. Πῦρ γάρ ἐστι, φησὶ, καὶ ζάλη μεγάλη, καὶ οὐκ ἂν ἕτερον μέλος ταύτην τὴν βίαν ἀνάσχοιτο. Λέγουσι δὲ καὶ ἰατρῶν παῖδες τούτου χάριν ὑπεστορῆσθαι τὸν πλεύμονα τῇ καρδίᾳ, ὥστε εἰς ἁπαλὸν αὐτὴν οὖσαν 63.54 καθάπερ εἴς τινα σπόγγον ἐναλλομένην, διαναπαύεσθαι τὴν καρδίαν, ἀλλὰ μὴ εἰς τὸ ἀντίτυπον καὶ σκληρὸν τὸ στέρνον, καταβλάπτεσθαι τῇ πυκνότητι τῶν ἁλμάτων· δεῖ τοίνυν ἡμῖν θώρακος ἰσχυροῦ, ὥστε διαπαντὸς ἐν ἡσυχίᾳ τοῦτο τὸ θηρίον διατηρεῖν· δεῖ δὲ ἡμῖν καὶ περικεφαλαίας. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἐκεῖ τὸ λογιστικὸν τυγχάνει, καὶ ἀπὸ τούτου ἢ σωθῆναι δυνατὸν, ἐὰν τὰ δέοντα γίγνωνται, ἢ ἀπολέσθαι ἔνι, εἰ τὰ μὴ δέοντα· διὰ τοῦτό φησι· Καὶ τὴν περικεφαλαίαν σωτηρίου. Ὁ γὰρ ἐγκέφαλος φύσει μέν ἐστιν ἁπαλός· διὸ καὶ αὐτὸς καθάπερ τινὶ ὀστράκῳ, τῷ βρέγματι καλύπτεται ἄνωθεν. Πάντων δὲ ἡμῖν αἴτιος γίνεται τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ τῶν κακῶν, εἴτε τὰ δέοντα γνοὺς, εἴτε τὰ μὴ τοιαῦτα. Καὶ οἱ πόδες δὲ καὶ αἱ χεῖρες ὅπλων ἡμῖν δέονται· οὐχ αὗται αἱ χεῖρες οὐδὲ οὗτοι οἱ πόδες, ἀλλὰ πάλιν οἱ τῆς ψυχῆς· αἱ μὲν μελετῶσαι τὰ δέοντα, οἱ δὲ ἵνα πορεύωνται, ἔνθα χρή. Καθοπλίσωμεν τοίνυν ἑαυτοὺς οὕτω, καὶ δυνησόμεθα περιγενέσθαι τῶν πολεμίων, καὶ τὸν στέφανον τῆς νίκης ἀναδήσασθαι, ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἡμῶν, μεθ' οὗ τῷ Πατρὶ ἅμα τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι δόξα, κράτος, τιμὴ, νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.

ΟΜΙΛΙΑ ΣΤʹ.

∆ιὸ, καθὼς λέγει τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, Σήμερον ἐὰν τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ

ἀκούσητε, μὴ σκληρύ νητε τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν, ὡς ἐν τῷ παραπι κρασμῷ, κατὰ τὴν ἡμέραν τοῦ πειρασμοῦ ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ· οὗ ἐπείρασάν με οἱ πατέρες ὑμῶν, ἐδοκίμασάν με, καὶ εἶδον τὰ ἔργα μου τεσσα ράκοντα ἔτη. ∆ιὸ προσώχθισα τῇ γενεᾷ ἐκείνῃ, καὶ εἶπον· Ἀεὶ πλανῶνται τῇ καρδίᾳ· αὐτοὶ δὲ οὐκ ἔγνωσαν τὰς ὁδούς μου. Ὡς ὤμοσα ἐν τῇ ὀργῇ μου, Εἰ εἰσελεύσονται εἰς τὴν κατά παυσίν μου. αʹ. ∆ιαλεχθεὶς περὶ ἐλπίδος ὁ Παῦλος, καὶ εἰπὼν, ὅτι Οἶκος αὐτοῦ ἐσμεν, ἐάνπερ τὴν παῤῥησίαν καὶ τὸ καύχημα τῆς ἐλπίδος μέχρι τέλους βεβαίαν κατάσχωμεν· δείκνυσι λοιπὸν ὅτι βεβαίως χρὴ