49

"And I will come and heal her." But if one is lazy and does not wish to approach the Lord, even when He comes to him and says to him: "Follow me," (116) let him follow Him as the tax collector once did, having left behind his tax booth and greed; and, I know well, He will make him an evangelist instead of a tax collector. And if he is paralyzed for many years by love of pleasure and carelessness and sloth, and he should see either the Lord Himself or His disciple coming and saying to him: "Do you want to be made well?", let him, immediately accepting the word with great joy, say: "Yes, Lord, but I have no one to put me into the pool" of repentance. And if he hears: "Rise, take up your mat, and follow me," let him, rising at once, run at the heels of the One who called him from above.

But if each one does not wish, either like the prostitute, to love Christ, or like the prodigal son, to return to Him in fervent repentance, or even like the hemorrhaging and bent-over woman, to approach Him, what does he say, making excuses for his sins: "Those whom He foreknew, these He in any case - and He called"? Perhaps to one in such a state, someone might reasonably say that God, being pre-eternal and knowing all things before He made them, also foreknew you, that you would not obey Him when He called, that you would not believe His promises and His words; but nevertheless, even knowing these things, "He came down, bowing the heavens," and becoming man for your sake, He came to where you are lying down; and visiting you many times each day, sometimes through Himself, and sometimes through His servants, He exhorts you to rise up from the fall in which you lie and to follow Him as He ascends to the kingdom of heaven and to enter with Him into it. Who then, tell me, (117) is the cause of your destruction and your disobedience? You who are disobedient and unwilling to follow your Lord, or God Himself who formed you, because as the foreknower He knew you, that you would not obey Him, but would persist in your hardness and unrepentant heart? I think you will certainly say that He is not the cause, but I myself. For the foreknowledge of God is not the cause of our hardness, but our disobedience.

For He foreknows all things, both things past and present together, and things that are to come until the consummation, and He sees them as if they already exist; for indeed with Him and in Him all things subsist. And just as in a theater today the king watches both the runners and the boxers, but is the cause neither of the victory for the victors nor of the defeat for the defeated, but the zeal of the boxers, or otherwise their laxity, is the cause of their victory or defeat, so understand it with me also in the case of God Himself. For having honored us with free will, and having given commandments that teach us rather how we ought to stand against our opponents, He leaves each one to his own choice either to resist and conquer the enemy or to be lax and be miserably defeated by him. And He does not leave us alone, for He knows the weakness of human nature, but He Himself is also present with us and indeed is an ally to those who choose to fight, and He mystically provides us strength and He Himself works the victory over the enemy more than we do. This is something the earthly king cannot do; for being a weak man himself, he is rather in need of those under his authority, just as we also are in need.

But God, being strong and invincible, is an ally to those who indeed wish of their own choice, as has been said, to fight the enemy (118) and He establishes them as victors over the wicked devil, but He does not compel those who are unwilling to fight or wrestle and run, so that He might not take away the free will of our rational nature made in His image and reduce us to the order of irrational beings. Thus, therefore, God watches us as if we were in a theater, just as indeed the earthly king watches those competing in the theater

49

"Κἀγώ ἐλθών θεραπεύσω αὐτην". Εἰ δέ ὀκνηρός τίς ἐστι καί προσελθεῖν τῷ ∆εσπότῃ οὐ βούλεται, κἄν ἐρχομένῳ πρός αὐτόν καί λέγοντι αὐτῷ· "Ἀκολούθει μοι", (116) ὡς ὁ τελώνης ποτέ ἀκολουθησάτω αὐτῷ, τό τελωνεῖον καί τήν πλεονεξίαν καταλιπών· καί, εὖ οἶδα, ἀντί τελώνου εὐαγγελιστήν αὐτόν ἀπεργάσεται. Κἄν παράλυτος ἐπί πολλούς χρόνους τῇ φιληδονίᾳ καί ἀμελείᾳ καί ῥαθυμίᾳ κατάκειται καί ἤ αὐτόν τόν ∆εσπότην ἤ μαθητήν αὐτοῦ ἐλθόντα ἴδοι καί λέγοντα αὐτῷ· "Θέλεις ὑγιής γενέσθαι", μετά περιχαρείας εὐθύς τόν λόγον ἀποδεξάμενος εἰπάτω· "Ναί, Κύριε, ἀλλά ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἔχω, ἵνα εἰς τήν κολυμβήθραν" τῆς μετανοίας "ἐμβάλῃ με". Καί ἐάν ἀκούσῃ· "Ἔγειραι καί ἆρον τόν κράββατόν σου καί ἀκολούθει μοι", εὐθύς ἀναστάς κατά πόδας τρεχέτω τοῦ καλέσαντος ἄνωθεν.

Εἰ δέ γε μή βούληται ἕκαστος, ἤ ὡς ἡ πόρνη, φιλεῖν τόν Χριστόν, ἤ ὡς ὁ ἄσωτος υἱός, ἐπαναστρέφειν ἐν μετανοίᾳ θερμῇ πρός αὐτόν, ἤ κἄν ὡς ἡ αἱμορροοῦσα καί συγκύπτουσα, τούτῳ προσελθεῖν, τί καί λέγει προφασιζόμενος προφάσεις ἐν ἁμαρτίαις· "Οὕς προέγνω, τούτους ἐκ παντός - καί ἐκάλεσε"; Τάχα τῷ οὕτως ἔχοντι εἴποι τις ἄν εὐλόγως, ὅτι ὁ Θεός, προαιώνιος ὤν καί εἰδώς πάντα πρό τοῦ ποιῆσαι αὐτά, προέγνω καί σέ, ὅτι καλοῦντι οὐχ ὑπακούσεις αὐτῷ, ὅτι οὐ πιστεύσεις ταῖς ἐπαγγελίαις καί τοῖς λόγοις αὐτοῦ· ἀλλ᾿ ὅμως, καί ταῦτα εἰδώς "κατῆλθε κλίνας τούς οὐρανούς" καί γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος διά σέ ἦλθεν ἔνθα κατάκεισαι· καί πολλά καθ᾿ ἑκάστην ἐπισκεπτόμενός σε, ποτέ μέν δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ, ποτέ δέ καί διά τῶν δούλων αὐτοῦ, παρακαλεῖ σε διαναστῆναι τοῦ ἐν ᾧ κατάκεισαι πτώματος καί ἀκολουθῆσαι αὐτῷ ἐπί τήν βασιλείαν ἀνερχομένῳ τῶν οὐρανῶν καί συνεισελθεῖν αὐτῷ ἐν αὐτῇ. Ποῖος οὖν, εἰπέ μοι, (117) τῆς ἀπωλείας σου καί τῆς σῆς παρακοῆς ἐστιν αἴτιος; Σύ ὁ ἀπειθῶν καί μή θέλων ἀκολουθεῖν τῷ ∆εσπότῃ σου, ἤ αὐτός ὁ πλάσας σε Θεός, ὅτι ὡς προγνώστης ᾔδει σε ὡς οὐχ ὑπακούσεις αὐτῷ, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπιμείνῃς τῇ σκληρότητί σου καί ἀμετανοήτῳ καρδίᾳ; Οἶμαι, πάντως ἐρεῖς ὅτι οὐκ ἐκεῖνος αἴτιος, ἀλλ᾿ αὐτός ἐγώ. Οὐ γάρ ἡ πρόγνωσις τοῦ Θεοῦ αἰτία τῆς ἡμετέρας σκληρότητος, ἀλλ᾿ ἡ ἡμετέρα ἀπείθεια.

Προγινώσκει γάρ τά πάντα, τά τε παρελθόντα ὁμοῦ καί τά ἐνεστῶτα, καί τά μέχρι τῆς συντελείας γενήσεσθαι μέλλοντα καί οὕτως αὐτά καθορᾷ ὡς ἤδη ὄντα· καί γάρ παρ᾿ αὐτῷ καί ἐν αὐτῷ τά πάντα ὑφέστηκε. Καί καθάπερ ἐν θεάτρῳ σήμερον τούς τρέχοντας ὁμοῦ καί τούς πυκτεύοντας ὁ βασιλεύς καθορᾷ, ἀλλ᾿ οὔτε τοῖς νικῶσι τῆς νίκης οὔτε τοῖς ἡττωμένοις τῆς ἥττης αἴτιος ταύτης ἤ ἐκείνης καθίσταται, ἡ σπουδή δέ τῶν πυκτευόντων, ἤ ἄλλως ἡ τούτων χαύνωσις, αἰτία τῆς νίκης ἤ τῆς ἥττης αὐτῶν ὑπάρχει, οὕτω μοι νόει καί ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Τῷ γάρ αὐτεξουσίῳ τιμήσας ἡμᾶς, ἐντολάς τε δούς διδασκούσας ἡμᾶς μᾶλλον τό ὅπως χρή πρός τούς ἀντιπάλους ἀντικαθίστασθαι, ἀφίησιν ἕκαστον αὐτοπροαιρέτως ἤ ἀνθίστασθαι καί νικᾶν τόν ἐχθρόν ἤ χαυνοῦσθαι καί ἡττᾶσθαι ἐλεεινῶς ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ. Καί οὐκ ἀφίησι μόνους ἡμᾶς, οἶδε γάρ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως τήν ἀσθένειαν, ἀλλά καί αὐτός ἐκεῖνος συμπάρεστιν ἡμῖν καί μέντοιγε πολεμεῖν προαιρουμένοις συμμαχεῖ καί ἰσχύν μυστικῶς ἐμπαρέχει ἡμῖν καί τήν κατά τοῦ ἐχθροῦ νίκην αὐτός μᾶλλον, ἤ ἡμεῖς ἐργαζόμεθα. Ὅπερ ὁ ἐπίγειος βασιλεύς ποιεῖν οὐ δύναται· ἀσθενής γάρ καί αὐτός ἄνθρωπος ὤν, δέεται μᾶλλον τῶν ὑπό χεῖρα, καθάπερ δεόμεθα καί ἡμεῖς.

Ὁ δέ γε Θεός, ἰσχυρός ὤν καί ἀήττητος, τοῖς βουλομένοις μέν αὐτοπροαιρέτως, ὡς εἴρηται, τῷ ἐχθρῷ πολεμεῖν (118) συμμαχεῖ καί νικητάς αὐτούς ἀποκαθιστᾷ τοῦ πονηροῦ διαβόλου, μή βουλομένους δέ πολεμεῖν ἤ παλαίειν καί τρέχειν οὐκ ἀναγκάζει, ἵνα μή τό αὐτεξούσιον τῆς κατ᾿ εἰκόνα λογικῆς ἡμῶν φύσεως ἀντανέλῃ καί εἰς ἀλόγων τάξιν ἡμᾶς καταγάγῃ. Οὕτω τοιγαροῦν ὁ Θεός ὡς ἐν θεάτρῳ ὄντας ἡμᾶς καθορᾷ, καθά δή καί ὁ ἐπίγειος βασιλεύς τούς ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ ἀγωνιζομένους