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of men without sin, tell me? Or do you not know that even those who minister at the altar are nailed to sins? For they are clothed in flesh, and interwoven with a body; and we ourselves who sit upon the throne and teach are entangled in sins; but we do not despair of God’s love for mankind, nor do we attribute inhumanity to Him. For this reason God has also arranged for the priests themselves to be subject to passion, so that from what they themselves suffer, 63.625 they may grant pardon to others. Of how much madness and irrationality would this not be, that if a lyre-player or a dancer or some other such person calls us, we all run with haste, and are grateful to him for the invitation, and spend half of a whole day paying attention to him alone; but when God speaks to us through prophets and apostles, we yawn, we scratch ourselves, and we feel dizzy; and while at the horse-races, with no roof overhead to keep out the rain, most people stand raving while heavy downpours fall, and the wind whips the water into their faces, and they scorn the cold and the rain and the length of the journey, and nothing keeps them at home, nor prevents them from crossing over there; but to go to the church, the rain and the mud become an obstacle for us. And if they are asked who Amos or Obadiah is, or what is the number of the prophets or of the apostles, they cannot even open their mouths; but on behalf of horses and charioteers, and sophists and orators, they compose defenses more skillfully. And how are these things tolerable, tell me? I have often advised not to go up to the theaters. You heard, you were not persuaded; you went up to the theater, you disregarded my word; do not be ashamed to enter again and hear. I heard, and I did not keep it, he says; how can I enter and hear? At least you know this very thing, that you did not keep it, at least you are ashamed, at least you blush, at least with no one rebuking you, you apply the bridle, at least you have my word rooted in you, at least when I am not present, my teaching convicts you. You did not keep it? Rather, enter, so that hearing again you may keep it. If a medicine is applied to you, and does not cleanse you, do you not apply it again the next day? Let there be a woodcutter, O man, and let him wish to cut an oak; he takes an axe, then he strikes the root; if he gives one blow, and the tree does not fall, does he not give another blow, not a fourth, not a fifth, not a tenth? So you should do also. These things I say, not to make you more negligent, but to make you more diligent. You have entered the church, man, you have been deemed worthy of the fellowship of Christ; unless you are dismissed, do not depart. For if you depart before the dismissal, you are liable as a runaway. You spend the whole day on bodily things, and you are not occupied for two hours on spiritual things? You often go to the theater, and you do not leave until the dismissal; and you enter the church, and depart before the divine mysteries? Fear the one who said, He that despises a thing, shall be despised by it. And while standing beside a king, you do not endure to even simply smile; but while standing beside the Master of all things, you do not stand with fear and trembling, but you laugh when He is often angered? do you not consider that in this way you provoke him more greatly than by your sins? For God is not so accustomed to turn away from those who sin, as from those who are not humbled after their sin. What are you doing, man? Standing in church, you scrutinize the beauties of women, and you do not shudder at thus insulting the temple of God? Does the church seem to you to be a brothel and more dishonorable than the marketplace? For in the marketplace you are afraid and ashamed to be seen scrutinizing a woman; but in the temple of God, while He Himself is speaking to you and threatening concerning these things, you dare such things at the very time when you hear not to do them, and you do not shudder nor are you amazed, making your heart and your eyes a workshop of iniquity? It were better for such men 63.626 to be blind, than to use their eyes for these things. Consider near whom you are standing during the sacred and awesome liturgy, man, with whom you are about to call upon God;

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ἀνθρώπων ἄνευ ἁμαρτίας, εἰπέ μοι; Ἢ οὐκ οἶδας ὅτι καὶ αὐτοὶ οἱ τῷ θυσιαστηρίῳ προσεδρεύοντες ἁμαρτίαις εἰσὶ προσηλωμένοι; σάρκα γάρ εἰσιν ἐνδεδυμένοι, καὶ σώματι συμπεπλεγμένοι· καὶ ἡμεῖς αὐτοὶ οἱ ἐπὶ θρόνου καθήμενοι καὶ διδάσκοντες, ἁμαρτίαις συμπεπλέγμεθα· ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀπογινώσκομεν τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ φιλανθρωπίας, οὐδὲ ἀπανθρωπίαν αὐτῷ περιάπτομεν. ∆ιὰ γὰρ τοῦτο καὶ αὐτοὺς τοὺς ἱερεῖς πάθει δουλεύειν παρεσκεύασεν ὁ Θεὸς ἐξ ὧν αὐτοὶ πάσχωσι, 63.625 καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις συγγνώμην δίδωσι. Πόσης οὐκ ἂν εἴη ταῦτα παραπληξίας καὶ ἀλογίας, ὅτι, ἂν μὲν κιθαρῳδὸς ἢ ὀρχηστὴς ἢ ἄλλος τις τῶν τοιούτων ἡμᾶς καλέσῃ, μετὰ σπουδῆς ἅπαντες τρέχομεν, καὶ χάριν αὐτῷ τῆς κλήσεως ἴσμεν, καὶ ἡμέρας ὁλοκλήρου τὸ ἥμισυ μέρος ἀναλίσκομεν ἐκείνῳ προσέχοντες μόνῳ· τοῦ δὲ Θεοῦ διὰ προφητῶν καὶ ἀποστόλων ἡμῖν διαλεγομένου χασμώμεθα, κνώμεθα, καὶ ἰλιγγιῶμεν· καὶ ἐν μὲν ἱπποδρομίαις, οὐκ ὀρόφου ἐπικειμένου τοῦ τὸν ὑετὸν στέγοντος, οἱ πλείους πολλῶν ὄμβρων καταφερομένων, καὶ ἀνέμου τὸ ὕδωρ εἰς τὰς ὄψεις ῥιπίζοντος, ἑστήκασι μαινόμενοι, καὶ ψύχους καὶ ὑετοῦ καὶ μήκους ὁδοῦ καταφρονοῦσι, καὶ οὐδὲν αὐτοὺς οὔτε οἴκοι κατέχει, οὔτε ἐκεῖ κωλύει διαβῆναι· εἰς δὲ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν ἀπελθεῖν ὁ ὑετὸς ἡμῖν καὶ ὁ πηλὸς κώλυμα γίνεται. Κἂν μὲν ἐρωτηθῶσι, τίς ἐστιν ὁ Ἀμὼς ἢ ὁ Ἀβδίας, ἢ ποῖος τῶν προφητῶν ὁ ἀριθμὸς ἢ τῶν ἀποστόλων, οὐδὲ χᾶναι δύνανται· ὑπὲρ δὲ ἵππων καὶ ἡνιόχων, καὶ σοφιστῶν καὶ ῥητόρων δεινότερον τὰς ἀπολογίας συντιθεῖσι. Καὶ πῶς ταῦτα ἀνεκτὰ, εἰπέ μοι; Παρῄνεσα πολλάκις εἰς θέατρα μὴ ἀναβαίνειν. Ἤκουσας, οὐκ ἐπείσθης· ἀνέβης εἰς τὸ θέατρον, παρήκουσάς μου τοῦ λόγου· μὴ αἰσχυνθῇς πάλιν εἰσελθεῖν καὶ ἀκοῦσαι. Ἤκουσα, καὶ οὐκ ἐτήρησα, φησί· πῶς δύναμαι εἰσελθεῖν καὶ ἀκοῦσαι; Τέως αὐτὸ τοῦτο οἶδας, ὅτι οὐκ ἐτήρησας, τέως αἰσχύνῃ, τέως ἐρυθριᾷς, τέως μηδενὸς ἐλέγχοντος τὸν χαλινὸν ἐπιφέρεις, τέως τὸν λόγον μου ἔχεις ἐῤῥιζωμένον, τέως μὴ φαινομένου μου, ἡ διδασκαλία μου καθαιρεῖ σε. Οὐκ ἐτήρησας; μᾶλλον εἴσελθε, ἵνα πάλιν ἀκούσας τηρήσῃς. Φάρμακον ἐὰν ἐπιτεθῇ σοι, καὶ μὴ καθαρίσῃ σε, τῇ ἄλλῃ ἡμέρᾳ οὐκ ἐπιτίθης αὐτὸ πάλιν; Ἔστω τις δρυτόμος, ὦ ἄνθρωπε, καὶ θελέτω τεμεῖν δρῦν· λαμβάνει ἀξίνην, εἶτα κόπτει τὴν ῥίζαν· ἐὰν δῷ μίαν πληγὴν, καὶ μὴ πέσῃ τὸ δένδρον, οὐ δίδωσιν ἄλλην πληγὴν, οὐ τετάρτην, οὐ πέμπτην, οὐ δεκάτην; Οὕτω καὶ σὺ ποίει. Ταῦτα λέγω, οὐχ ἵνα ὑμᾶς ῥᾳθυμοτέρους ἐργάσωμαι, ἀλλ' ἵνα σπουδαιοτέρους καταστήσω. Εἰσῆλθες εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, ἄνθρωπε, ἠξιώθης τῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ συντυχίας· ἐὰν μὴ ἀπολυθῇς, μὴ ἐξέλθῃς. Ἐὰν γὰρ πρὸ τῆς ἀπολύσεως ἐξέλθῃς, ὡς δραπέτης εὐθύνῃ. Τὴν ὅλην ἡμέραν ἐν τοῖς σωματικοῖς ἀναλίσκεις, καὶ δύο ὥρας ἐν τοῖς πνευματικοῖς οὐκ ἀσχολῇ; Εἰς θέατρον πολλάκις ἀπέρχῃ, καὶ ἕως τῆς ἀπολύσεως οὐ κατέρχῃ· καὶ εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν εἰσέρχῃ, καὶ πρὸ τῶν θείων μυστηρίων ἐξέρχῃ; Φοβήθητι τὸν εἰρηκότα, Ὁ καταφρονῶν πράγματος, καταφρονηθήσεται ὑπ' αὐτοῦ. Καὶ βασιλεῖ μὲν παρεστὼς, οὐδὲ ἁπλῶς μειδιάσαι ἀνέχῃ· τῷ δὲ τῶν ἁπάντων ∆εσπότῃ παρεστηκὼς, οὐχ ἵστασαι μετὰ φόβου καὶ τρόμου, ἀλλὰ γελᾷς αὐτοῦ πολλάκις ὀργιζομένου; οὐκ ἐννοεῖς ὅτι τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ταύτῃ μειζόνως παροξύνεις αὐτόν; Οὐ γὰρ οὕτω τοὺς ἐξαμαρτάνοντας, ὡς τοὺς μὴ μετὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν συστελλομένους ἀποστρέφεσθαι εἴωθεν ὁ Θεός. Τί ποιεῖς, ἄνθρωπε; ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ ἑστὼς, κάλλη γυναικῶν περιεργάζῃ, καὶ οὐ φρίττεις οὕτως ἐνυβρίζων εἰς τὸν ναὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ; Πορνεῖόν σοι δοκεῖ εἶναι ἡ ἐκκλησία καὶ τῆς ἀγορᾶς ἀτιμοτέρα; ἐν ἀγορᾷ μὲν γὰρ δέδοικας καὶ αἰσχύνῃ φανῆναι γυναῖκα περιεργαζόμενος· ἐν δὲ τῷ ναῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ, αὐτοῦ διαλεγομένου σοι καὶ ἀπειλοῦντος ὑπὲρ τούτων, τοιούτων κατατολμᾷς κατ' αὐτὸν τὸν καιρὸν, καθ' ὃν ἀκούεις μὴ ταῦτα ποιεῖν, καὶ οὐ φρίττεις οὐδὲ ἐξέστηκας, ἐργαστήριον παρανομίας τὴν καρδίαν ἀποτελῶν καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς; Βέλτιον τοὺς τοιούτους 63.626 πηροὺς εἶναι, ἢ εἰς ταῦτα κεχρῆσθαι τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς. Ἐννόησον τίνος πλησίον ἕστηκας, ἐν τῇ ἱερᾷ καὶ φρικώδει μυσταγωγίᾳ, ἄνθρωπε, μετὰ τίνων μέλλεις καλεῖν τὸν Θεόν·