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we have been instructed by the Master's voice, this we have now also been taught in the riddle of Ecclesiastes, that it is the same time both to receive the saving 5.383 plant of faith and to pluck out the weed of unbelief. What has been said in part concerning the achievement according to faith, one might consistently understand this also with respect to all virtue. A time to plant temperance and to pluck out the plant of licentiousness. Thus also when justice is planted, the unjust shoot is uprooted, and the plant of humility has overthrown pride, and love, having sprouted, has withered the evil tree of hatred. Therefore just as it also happens from the opposite: injustice, when it abounds, has made love grow cold, and all other things in the same way, so that we do not linger speaking of each particular, thinking similarly we will not be mistaken. Again the next saying is in harmony with those previously examined. For, it says, a time to kill and a time to heal. This has been clearly interpreted beforehand in the prophetic saying, which says from the person of God, that I will kill and I will make to live. For if we do not kill enmity in ourselves, we will not heal the loving disposition in us that has been sickened by hatred. Thus also all the remaining things, which live for evil against us, I mean the evil array of the passions and this civil war which wages war against us through pleasures and takes us captive to the 5.384 law of sin, it is a time to kill. For the murder of such things becomes a healing for the one who has been weakened through sin. Physicians say that intestinal worms and certain other such creatures are generated within the inward parts from bad humors, whose life becomes a disease for the body; but if those things were to be destroyed by some administration of medicine, the sick person will recover again to health. Such passions of the body are analogous to the sicknesses of the soul. When anger is sucking from within or, through resentfulness, is weakening the tone of the soul and the thoughts, or the evil regimen gives life to the beast of envy or any other such evil, the one who perceives that his soul is nourishing a beast within him will make timely use of the destructive medicine for the passions. And this is the teaching from the gospel, so that when those things have been slain, healing comes upon the one who was afflicted. A time to tear down and a time to build up. These things it is also possible to learn in the things said by God to the prophet Jeremiah, to whom the power was given from God first to tear down and to uproot and to dig up and then to set up and to build up and to plant. For 5.385 it is necessary first for the buildings of wickedness in us to be ruined and then to find a time and a wide space for the construction of the temple of God which is being built in souls, whose material is virtue. For if anyone builds on this foundation gold and silver and precious stones, these are called virtue; but by wood and hay and stubble the nature of wickedness is interpreted, which is prepared for nothing other than consumption by fire. Therefore when the buildings are of hay and stubble, that is, of injustice and pride and the remaining wickedness of life, the word commands first to bring these to destruction, and then so to make the gold of virtue the material for the construction of the spiritual house. For it is not possible for silver to be joined with stubble or for gold to be attached to hay or the pearl to wood, but if this is to be, the other must by all means be destroyed. For what fellowship has light with darkness? Therefore let the works of darkness first be torn down and then the bright buildings of life will be constructed. A time to weep and a time to laugh. This saying is clarified by the evangelical voice which came from the person 5.386 of the Lord, which says that Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Now therefore is the time to weep, but the time to laugh is laid up through hope; for present sorrow is the mother of the gladness that is hoped for

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παρὰ τῆς δεσποτικῆς φωνῆς ἐπαιδεύθημεν, τοῦτο νῦν καὶ ἐν τῷ αἰνίγματι τοῦ ἐκκλησια στοῦ ἐδιδάχθημεν, ὅτι ὁ αὐτὸς καιρός ἐστι τό τε σωτήριον τῆς 5.383 πίστεως φυτὸν παραδέξασθαι καὶ τὸ τῆς ἀπιστίας ἀποτῖλαι ζιζάνιον. ὃ δὲ ἐπὶ μέρους περὶ τοῦ κατὰ τὴν πίστιν κατορθώ ματος εἴρηται, τοῦτο καὶ ἐπὶ πάσης ἀρετῆς ἀκολούθως ἄν τις νοήσειε. καιρὸς τοῦ φυτεῦσαι τὴν σωφροσύνην καὶ ἐκτῖλαι τὸ τῆς ἀκολασίας φυτόν. οὕτω καὶ δικαιοσύνης φυτευθείσης ἀπορριζοῦται τὸ ἄδικον βλάστημα, καὶ τὸ τῆς ταπεινοφροσύνης φυτὸν τὸν τῦφον ἀνέτρεψεν ἥ τε ἀγάπη βλαστήσασα τὸ πονηρὸν τοῦ μίσους δένδρον ἐξήρανεν. ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ἐναντίου γίνεται· ἡ ἀδικία πληθυνομένη τὴν ἀγάπην κατέψυξε, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον, ἵνα μὴ τὰ καθ' ἕκαστον λέγοντες διατρίβωμεν, ὁμοίως νοοῦντες οὐ σφαλησόμεθα. Πάλιν ὁ ἐφεξῆς λόγος σύμφωνος τοῖς προεξητασμένοις ἐστί. Καιρὸς γάρ, φησί, τοῦ ἀποκτεῖναι καὶ καιρὸς τοῦ ἰάσασθαι. τοῦτο δὲ σαφῶς ἐν τῷ προφητικῷ ῥητῷ προηρμή νευται, ὃ ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ θεοῦ φησιν, ὅτι Ἐγὼ ἀποκτενῶ καὶ ζῆν ποιήσω. ἐὰν γὰρ μὴ ἀποκτείνωμεν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς τὴν ἔχθραν, οὐκ ἰασόμεθα τὴν ἀγαπητικὴν διάθεσιν τὴν ἐν ἡμῖν διὰ τοῦ μίσους νοσήσασαν. οὕτω καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ πάντα, ὅσα ἐπὶ κακῷ καθ' ἡμῶν ζῇ, λέγω δὴ τὴν κακὴν τῶν παθημάτων παράταξιν καὶ τὸν ἐμφύλιον τοῦτον πόλεμον τὸν καθ' ἡμῶν διὰ τῶν ἡδονῶν στρατευόμενον καὶ αἰχμαλωτίζοντα ἡμᾶς τῷ 5.384 νόμῳ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, καιρός ἐστι τοῦ ἀποκτεῖναι. ὁ γὰρ τῶν τοιούτων φόνος ἴασις γίνεται τοῦ διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐξασθενήσαντος. φασὶν οἱ ἰατροὶ τὰς ἕλμινθας καὶ ἄλλα τινὰ τοιαῦτα θηρία ἔσωθεν ἐκ κακοχυμίας ἐνζωογονεῖσθαι τοῖς σπλάγχνοις, ὧν ἡ ζωὴ νόσος τῷ σώματι γίνεται· εἰ δὲ ἐκεῖνα διά τινος φαρμακοποσίας ἀναιρεθείη, πάλιν εἰς ὑγείαν ὁ κάμνων ἀναρρωσθήσεται. ἀναλογεῖ τὰ τοιαῦτα τοῦ σώματος πάθη πρὸς τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀρρωστήματα. ὅταν ὁ θυμὸς ἔνδοθεν ἐκμυζῶν ἢ διὰ τῆς μνησικακίας τῆς ψυχῆς τὸν τόνον καὶ τοὺς λογισμοὺς ἐκνευρίζων ἢ τὸ τοῦ φθόνου θηρίον ἢ εἴ τι ἄλλο τοιοῦτον κακὸν ἡ κακὴ δίαιτα ζωογονήσῃ, ὁ αἰσθόμενος ὅτι θηρίον τρέφει ἔνδοθεν αὐτῷ ἡ ψυχὴ εὐκαίρως χρήσεται τῷ ἀναιρετικῷ τῶν παθῶν φαρμάκῳ. τοῦτο δέ ἐστιν ἡ ἐκ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου διδασκαλία, ὥστε ἐκείνων φονοκτονηθέντων ἐπιγενέσθαι τῷ πεπονηκότι τὴν ἴασιν. Καιρὸς τοῦ καθελεῖν καὶ καιρὸς τοῦ οἰκοδομῆσαι. ταῦτα καὶ ἐν τοῖς πρὸς τὸν προφήτην Ἱερεμίαν παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ῥηθεῖσιν ἔστι μαθεῖν, ᾧ δέδοται θεόθεν ἡ δύναμις εἰς τὸ πρότερον καθαιρεῖν καὶ ἐκριζοῦν καὶ κατασκάπτειν καὶ τότε ἀνορθοῦν καὶ ἀνοικοδομεῖν καὶ καταφυτεύειν. χρὴ 5.385 γὰρ πρότερον ἐν ἡμῖν ἐρειπωθῆναι τὰ τῆς κακίας οἰκοδομή ματα καὶ τότε καιρόν τε καὶ εὐρυχωρίαν εὑρεῖν πρὸς τὴν τοῦ ναοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ κατασκευὴν τοῦ ἐν ταῖς ψυχαῖς οἰκοδομουμένου, οὗ ἡ ὕλη ἀρετὴ γίνεται. εἴ τις γὰρ ἐποικοδομεῖ ἐπὶ τὸν θεμέλιον τοῦτον χρυσίον καὶ ἀργύριον καὶ λίθους τιμίους, ταῦτα ἡ ἀρετὴ ὀνομάζεται· ξύλῳ δὲ καὶ χόρτῳ καὶ καλάμῃ ἡ τῆς κακίας ἑρμηνεύεται φύσις, ἥτις εἰς οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἢ εἰς πυρὸς δαπάνην παρασκευάζεται. ὅταν οὖν ἐκ χόρτου καὶ καλάμης τὰ οἰκοδομήματα ᾖ, τουτέστιν ἐξ ἀδικίας τε καὶ ὑπερηφανίας καὶ τῆς λοιπῆς τοῦ βίου κακίας, πρότερον ταῦτα εἰς ἀφανισμὸν ἀγαγεῖν ὁ λόγος διακελεύεται, εἶθ' οὕτω τὸ χρυσίον τῆς ἀρετῆς ὕλην τῆς κατασκευῆς τοῦ πνευματικοῦ οἴκου ποιήσασθαι. οὐ γὰρ ἔστι τῇ καλάμῃ συμφυῆναι τὸν ἄργυρον ἢ τῷ χόρτῳ τὸ χρυσίον προσλιπανθῆναι ἢ τὸν μαργαρίτην τῷ ξύλῳ, ἀλλ' εἰ μέλλοι τοῦτο εἶναι, χρὴ πάντως ἀφανισθῆναι τὸ ἕτερον. Τίς γὰρ κοινωνία φωτὶ πρὸς σκότος; οὐκοῦν καθαιρεθήτω πρότερον τὰ τοῦ σκότους ἔργα καὶ τότε κατασκευασθήσεται τὰ φωτεινὰ τοῦ βίου οἰκοδομήματα. Καιρὸς τοῦ κλαῦσαι καὶ καιρὸς τοῦ γελάσαι. σαφηνίζεται οὗτος ὁ λόγος τῇ εὐαγγελικῇ φωνῇ τῇ ἐκ προσώπου 5.386 τοῦ κυρίου γεγενημένῃ, ἥ φησιν ὅτι Μακάριοι οἱ πενθοῦντες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ παρακληθήσονται. νῦν οὖν ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ κλαῦσαι καιρός, ὁ δὲ τοῦ γελάσαι δι' ἐλπίδος ἀπόκειται· ἡ γὰρ παροῦσα κατήφεια τῆς ἐλπιζομένης εὐφροσύνης μήτηρ