44

knows, how will it narrate the things beyond itself? Therefore it is a time to be silent about these things; for in these matters silence is better. But it is a time to speak of those things through which our life advances toward virtue, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the power forever. Amen.

HOMILY 8

A time to love and a time to hate. Who, then, will be so purified in hearing, as to receive purely the discourse on loving, contributing nothing to himself of sordid friendship? Perhaps our ears too need the 5.417 fingers of Jesus, so that through the divine touch of the true Word the hearing faculty of our soul may be freed from all filth that obstructs the hearing, so as both to understand praiseworthy friendship and to accept in the soul, what is the time to love and what is the time to hate. I do not think this time is other than that which is advantageous. For the benefit from each of these, at least in my judgment, is the timeliness of the use of both, so that if it should happen outside of what is profitable, what happens would also be outside the proper time. But first, I think, it is necessary to understand the meaning of these two sayings, I mean, of loving and of hating, so that we might thus comprehend in our discourse their timely use. Affection is an internal disposition concerning what is desired, operating through pleasure and attachment, while hatred is an alienation from what is unpleasant and an aversion from what causes pain. It is possible to use each of these dispositions both profitably and for the opposite, and generally every life according to virtue and vice has its beginning from this. For wherever we incline with love, that we make our own in our souls, and from whatever we are disposed to hate, from that we are estranged. For whether the soul's disposition be toward the good or toward the evil, what is loved is somehow mixed with the soul. And whatever it may be 5.418 that hatred falls in between, it has worked a separation from it, whether from the good or from the worse. Therefore we must examine what is by nature lovable and what is hateful, so that by using such a disposition of the soul in its proper time we might become estranged from evils through hatred and might be mingled with the nature of good things. And would that human nature were educated in this before all things, I mean, the discernment of the beautiful and of what is not so! For the passions would not have gained entrance into our life, if from the beginning we had recognized the beautiful. But now, making irrational sense the first criterion of the beautiful, we are brought up with the judgment concerning existing things that arises at the beginning, and for this reason we are inseparably attached to the things thought to be beautiful by the senses, having made our disposition toward these things firm for ourselves by being brought up with them. That appears beautiful to men which imparts some pleasure to the eyes through good color, whether in inanimate matter or in animate spectacles. A melody is beautiful to the hearing, and in juices and in vapors such-and-such a thing is defined as beautiful, on the one hand by taste, on the other by smell. But the most oppressive and irrational of all is touch, through which licentious pleasure takes precedence over nature in the vote for the beautiful. Since, therefore, the senses are brought forth with us as soon as we are born, and with these 5.419 we are brought up from our earliest life, and great is the affinity of the faculty of sense for the irrational life; for all such things are seen also in irrational creatures; but the mind is somehow hindered from its proper activity by infancy, not yet having room, but is in a way crushed by the dominance of the more irrational sense; for this reason the errant and mistaken use of the disposition to love becomes the beginning and foundation of a life according to vice. For since our nature is somehow twofold, being a mixture of the intelligible and the sensible, consequently our life is also twofold, suitably for each of the elements in us

44

οἶδε, τὰ ὑπὲρ ἑαυτὴν πῶς διηγήσεται; οὐκοῦν καιρὸς τοῦ ταῦτα σιγᾶν· κρείττων γὰρ ἐν τούτοις ἡ σιωπή. καιρὸς δὲ τοῦ λαλεῖν, δι' ὧν ὁ βίος ἡμῖν πρὸς ἀρετὴν ἐπιδίδωσιν, ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν, ᾧ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν.

ΟΜΙΛΙΑ Ηʹ

Καιρὸς τοῦ φιλῆσαι καὶ καιρὸς τοῦ μισῆσαι. τίς ἄρα οὕτως ἔσται τὴν ἀκοὴν κεκαθαρμένος, ὥστε καθαρῶς δέξασθαι τὸν περὶ τοῦ φιλῆσαι λόγον, μηδὲν τῆς ῥυπαρᾶς φιλίας ἑαυτῷ συνεισφέροντα; τάχα καὶ τὰ ἡμέτερα ὦτα χρῄζει τῶν 5.417 δακτύλων τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, ἵνα διὰ τῆς θείας ἐπαφῆς τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ λόγου ἐλευθερωθῇ παντὸς ῥύπου τοῦ τὴν ἀκοὴν ἐμφράσσοντος ἡ ἀκουστικὴ τῆς ψυχῆς ἡμῶν δύναμις, ὥστε καὶ συνιέναι τὴν ἐπαινετὴν φιλίαν καὶ τῇ ψυχῇ παραδέξασθαι, τίς ὁ καιρὸς τοῦ φιλῆσαι καὶ τίς ὁ καιρὸς τοῦ μισῆσαι. οὐκ οἶμαι τοῦτον ἄλλον εἶναι καιρὸν πλὴν τοῦ συμφέροντος. ἡ γὰρ ἀφ' ἑκατέρου τούτων ὠφέλεια, κατά γε τὴν ἐμὴν κρίσιν, ἡ εὐκαιρία τῆς χρήσεως ἀμφοτέρων ἐστίν, ὡς εἴ γε ἔξω τοῦ λυσιτελοῦντος γένοιτο, ἔξω ἂν εἴη καὶ τοῦ καιροῦ τὸ γινόμενον. Πρότερον δέ, οἶμαι, χρὴ νοῆσαι τῶν δύο τούτων ῥημάτων τὸ σημαινόμενον, τοῦ φιλῆσαι λέγω καὶ τοῦ μισῆσαι, ἵν' οὕτως καὶ τὴν εὔκαιρον αὐτῶν χρῆσιν τῷ λόγῳ κατανοήσω μεν. φίλτρον ἐστὶν ἡ ἐνδιάθετος περὶ τὸ καταθύμιον σχέσις δι' ἡδονῆς καὶ προσπαθείας ἐνεργουμένη, μῖσος δὲ ἡ πρὸς τὸ ἀηδὲς ἀλλοτρίωσις καὶ ἡ τοῦ λυποῦντος ἀποστροφή. ἔστι δὲ τούτων ἑκατέρᾳ τῶν διαθέσεων καὶ λυσιτελῶς καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἐναντίων χρήσασθαι, καὶ ὡς ἐπίπαν πᾶς ὁ κατ' ἀρετὴν καὶ κακίαν βίος ἐντεῦθεν τὴν ἀρχὴν ἔχει. ὅπου γὰρ ἂν τῇ ἀγάπῃ ῥέψωμεν, ἐκεῖνο ταῖς ψυχαῖς οἰκειούμεθα, καὶ πρὸς ὅπερ ἂν μισητικῶς διατεθῶμεν, τούτου ἀλλοτριούμεθα. εἴτε γὰρ πρὸς τὸ καλὸν εἴτε πρὸς τὸ κακὸν ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς γένοιτο σχέσις, κατακιρνᾶταί πως τῇ ψυχῇ τὸ ἀγαπώμενον. ὅ τι δ' ἂν ᾖ 5.418 καὶ οὗπερ ἂν παρεμπέσῃ διὰ μέσου τὸ μῖσος, τούτου τὸν χωρισμὸν κατειργάσατο, εἴτε τοῦ καλοῦ εἴτε τοῦ χείρονος. οὐκοῦν ἐπισκεπτέον ἂν εἴη, τί μὲν ἀγαπητόν, τί δὲ μισητόν ἐστι τῇ φύσει, ὡς ἂν ἐν καιρῷ τῇ τοιαύτῃ τῆς ψυχῆς διαθέσει χρησάμενοι τῶν τε κακῶν ἀλλότριοι διὰ τοῦ μίσους γενοίμεθα καὶ τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀγαθῶν συγκραθείημεν. καὶ εἴθε τοῦτο πρὸ πάντων ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐπαιδεύετο φύσις, τὴν τοῦ καλοῦ λέγω καὶ μὴ τοιούτου διάκρισιν! οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἔσχεν πάροδον κατὰ τῆς ζωῆς ἡμῶν τὰ πάθη, εἰ ἐξ ἀρχῆς τὸ καλὸν ἐγνωρίζομεν. νυνὶ δὲ τὴν ἄλογον αἴσθησιν τοῦ καλοῦ κριτήριον παρὰ τὴν πρώτην ποιούμενοι συντρεφόμεθα τῇ κατ' ἀρχὰς ἐγγινομένῃ περὶ τῶν ὄντων κρίσει καὶ τούτου χάριν δυσ αποσπάστως ἔχομεν τῶν τῇ αἰσθήσει νομισθέντων εἶναι καλῶν, βεβαίαν ἑαυτοῖς τὴν περὶ ταῦτα σχέσιν τῇ συντροφίᾳ ποιήσαντες. καλὸν φαίνεται τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, ὃ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς τινα ἡδονὴν διὰ τῆς εὐχροίας ἐντίθησιν, εἴτε ἐν τῇ ἀψύχῳ ὕλῃ εἴτε ἐν τοῖς ἐμψύχοις θεάμασι. καλὸν τῇ ἀκοῇ τὸ μελῴδη μα, καὶ ἐν τοῖς χυμοῖς τε καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀτμοῖς τὸ τοιόνδε καλὸν ὁρίζεται τὸ μὲν ἡ γεῦσις, τὸ δὲ ἡ ὄσφρησις. τὸ δὲ πάντων βαρύ τατόν τε καὶ ἀλογώτατόν ἐστιν ἡ ἁφή, δι' ἧς ἡ ἀκόλαστος ἡδονὴ ἐν τῇ τοῦ καλοῦ ψήφῳ προτερεύει τῇ φύσει. ἐπεὶ οὖν αἱ μὲν αἰσθήσεις ἡμῖν εὐθὺς γινομένοις συναποτίκτονται, καὶ ταύ 5.419ς παρὰ τὴν πρώτην ζωὴν συντρεφόμεθα, πολλὴ δέ ἐστι τῇ αἰσθητικῇ δυνάμει πρὸς τὴν ἄλογον ζωὴν ἡ οἰκείωσις· πάντα γὰρ τὰ τοιαῦτα καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀλόγοις ὁρᾶται· ὁ δὲ νοῦς ἐμποδίζεταί πως πρὸς τὴν οἰκείαν ἐνέργειαν ὑπὸ τῆς νηπιότη τος μήπω χωρούμενος, ἀλλ' ἐκθλίβεται τρόπον τινὰ τῇ ἐπικρατήσει τῆς ἀλογωτέρας αἰσθήσεως· διὰ τοῦτο ἡ πεπλανημένη τε καὶ διημαρτημένη τῆς ἀγαπητικῆς διαθέσεως χρῆσις ἀρχὴ καὶ ὑπόθεσις τοῦ κατὰ κακίαν γίνεται βίου. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ διπλῆ τίς ἐστιν ἡμῖν ἡ φύσις τῷ νοητῷ τε καὶ αἰσθητῷ συγκεκραμένη, διπλῆ κατὰ τὸ ἀκόλουθόν ἐστιν ἡμῖν καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἑκατέρῳ τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν καταλλήλως