Asterius of Amasea, Homilies

had asked, he would not have missed the compassions that overflow the whole inhabited world. A proof of this argument are all the Hebrews who believed after the cross and in the font washed their souls and their hands together. But if those who crucified him were shown mercy, how would the one who betrayed him not have enjoyed amnesty? 13.6.2 Paul also once bound Christians, but later by bearing chains for Christ he absolved his crimes through suffering the same things; he sinned by stoning Stephen and consenting to his murderers, but by being stoned himself he wiped away the transgression. Matthew and Zacchaeus were once tax-collectors, but by their contempt for money, having trampled upon tax-collecting, the one received Jesus in his house, and even more in his soul, while the other was shown to be an evangelist and writer of the wondrous deeds. The tax-collector with the Pharisee is necessary to remember, the woman who lost the drachma and found it. 13.6.3 And from beginning to end, if someone should consider the people of every age in successive times, he will find that most were first entangled in sins, then changed their mind by an inclination toward the better. For it is proper to God and his alone to accomplish everything without transgression. But man, being subject to birth and decay and being susceptible to so many passions, could never be shown to be blameless if pardon were cut off. 13.6.4 Look at David the king of Israel, whom God appointed by choice, and adorned with the praises of testimony, saying: I have found a man after my own heart, David the son of Jesse. This man, after that glorious proclamation of praises, when he was caught by the passion of lust for a body and fell into those things which we all know, and came after the prophet's rebuke to a reckoning of his evil, he left written down for those who would come after the labor of his repentance. 13.6.5 And we behold the man, as in an image, in the psalter, now wasting his body with grief, and again making the night, the common rest from labors, a time for lamentations; and pouring his tears upon his bed as from the springs of his eyelids, and again having composed for us the fiftieth psalm, a model for propitiating God. His lamentation was not labored in vain, but his heavy groans drew down mercy, and he received back both the authority of his royal power and the boldness of supplication to God. 13.6.6 Likewise, that man who had been allotted to rule Nineveh was driven to destruction by the multitude of his sins together with the peoples he ruled, and the rebuke for his sin proclaimed that the appointed time for punishment was approaching in a little while. But when, having wisely afflicted themselves, they escaped the trial of disaster, the prophet of evils was grieved that he had not been true and behaved boorishly toward the mercy of God. 13.6.7 But He who everywhere, both by words and deeds, makes known to us how great is his benevolence toward men, caused the gourd to grow over the prophet's head as a shelter from the grieving ray, but while he was sleeping under its shade suddenly withered it. Then, as he was vexed upon awakening to what had happened, He reproaches and blames him. If he was so passionately distressed over the withered plant, would God not have compassion on so great a city that had come near to danger? 13.7.1 Learn then, you who are harsh and implacable, the goodness of him who created us and do not become bitter and severe judges of your fellow servants, until he comes who reveals the secrets of hearts and by his master's authority allots to each his state in the expected life. Do not pronounce grim sentences, so that you may not be subjected to similar ones and be gnawed by the words of your own mouths as if by the sharpest teeth. 13.7.2 For it seems to me that the evangelical saying also happens to be a preventive of this transgression, saying: Judge not, that you be not judged. For it does not cast out judgment and sound discernment, but it calls judgment the

ᾔτησεν, οὐκ ἂν τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν τῶν πάσης ὑπερχεομένων τῆς οἰκουμένης ἠστόχησεν. Τεκμήριον δὲ τοῦ λόγου πάντες Ἑβραῖοι οἱ μετὰ τὸν σταυρὸν πιστεύσαντες καὶ τῷ λουτρῷ τὰς ψυχὰς ὁμοῦ καὶ τὰς χεῖρας νιψάμενοι. Εἰ δὲ οἱ σταυρώσαντες ἠλεήθησαν, πῶς οὐκ ἂν ὁ προδοὺς τῆς ἀμνηστείας ἀπέλαυσεν; 13.6.2 Ἐδέσμει ποτὲ καὶ Παῦλος χριστιανοὺς, ἀλλὰ βαστάσας ὕστερον ἁλύσεις ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ ἐκ τῆς ταὐτοπαθείας ἔλυσε τὰ ἐγκλήματα· ἥμαρτε λιθάζων Στέφανον καὶ συνευδοκῶν τοῖς φονεύουσιν, ἀλλὰ λιθασθεὶς ἐξήλειψε τὸ πλημμέλημα. Ἐτελώνουν ποτὲ Ματθαῖος καὶ Ζακχαῖος, ἀλλὰ τῇ καταφρονήσει τῶν χρημάτων τὴν τελωνείαν πατήσαντες ὁ μὲν τῇ οἰκίᾳ τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἐδέξατο καὶ τῇ ψυχῇ πλέον, ὁ δὲ τῶν θαυμαστῶν πράξεων εὐαγγελιστὴς καὶ συγγραφεὺς ἀπεδείχθη. Ὁ τελώνης ὁ μετὰ τοῦ Φαρισαίου ἀναγκαῖος εἰς μνήμην, ἡ γυνὴ ἡ τὴν δραχμὴν ἀπολέσασα καὶ εὑροῦσα. 13.6.3 Ἐξ ἀρχῆς δὲ εἰς τέλος εἴ τις τοὺς ἀνθρώπους τοῦ βίου παντὸς ἐν τοῖς καθεξῆς χρόνοις λογίσαιτο, τοὺς πολλοὺς εὑρήσει πρότερον μὲν ἐνσχεθέντας ἁμαρτήμασιν, εἶτα τῇ πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον ῥοπῇ μετα θεμένους τῆς γνώμης. Θεοῦ γὰρ οἰκεῖον καὶ μόνου ἐξαίρετον πλημμελείας χωρὶς πάντα κατορθοῦν. Ἄνθρωπος δὲ ὑπὸ γένεσιν καὶ φθορὰν ἠγμένος καὶ τοσούτων ὑπάρχων δεκτικὸς παθῶν οὔποτ' ἂν ἀκατηγόρητος δειχθείη περικοπείσης συγγνώμης. 13.6.4 Ἀπόβλεψον πρὸς τὸν ∆αβὶδ τὸν βασιλέα τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, ὃν κατ' ἐκλογὴν ἐχειροτόνησεν ὁ Θεός, ἐπαίνοις δὲ τοῖς τῆς μαρτυρίας ἐκόσμησε λέγων· Ηὗρον ἄνδρα κατὰ τὴν καρδίαν μου ∆αβὶδ τὸν τοῦ Ἰεσσαί. Οὗτος μετὰ τὴν λαμπρὰν ἐκείνην τῶν ἐπαίνων ἀνάρρησιν, ἐπειδὴ τῷ πάθει τῆς σωμεραστίας ἑάλω καὶ περιέπεσεν ἐκείνοις οἷς γινώσκομεν ἅπαντες, ἦλθε δὲ μετὰ τὸν ἔλεγχον τοῦ προφήτου εἰς ἀναλογισμὸν τοῦ κακοῦ, ἀνάγραπτον ἀφῆκεν τοῖς εἰς ὕστερον ἐσομένοις τῆς μετανοίας τὸν μόχθον. 13.6.5 Καὶ θεωροῦμεν, ὡς ἐν εἰκόνι, τῷ ψαλτηρίῳ τὸν ἄνδρα, νῦν μὲν ἐκτηκόμενον τῇ λύπῃ τὸ σῶμα, αὖθις δὲ τὴν νύκτα καιρὸν θρήνων ποιούμενον, τὴν κοινὴν τῶν πόνων ἀνάπαυσιν· καὶ τῇ κλίνῃ τὸ δάκρυον ἐπιρρέοντα ὡς ἐκ πηγῶν τῶν βλεφάρων, καὶ πάλιν ἡμῖν τὸν πεντηκοστὸν ψαλμὸν ἐκπονήσαντα, τύπον τὸν ἱλασκόμενον Θεόν. Οὐ μὲν ὁ θρῆνος αὐτῷ μάτην ἐξεπονήθη, ἀλλ' οἱ βαρεῖς στεναγμοὶ τὸν ἔλεον ἐφειλκύσαντο, ἀπέλαβε δὲ καὶ τῆς βασιλικῆς αὐθεντίας τὴν ἐξουσίαν καὶ τῆς πρὸς Θεὸν ἱκεσίας τὴν παρρησίαν. 13.6.6 Ὁμοίως κἀκεῖνος ὁ τῆς Νινευὴ βασιλεύειν λαχὼν τῷ μὲν πλήθει τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν συνηλαύνετο πρὸς τὸν ὄλεθρον ὁμοῦ τοῖς ἀρχομένοις λαοῖς, καὶ ὁ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἔλεγχος ἐγγίζειν μετ' ὀλίγον τὴν προθεσμίαν τῆς τιμωρίας ἐκήρυττεν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ συνετῶς ἑαυτοὺς κακώσαντες ἔφυγον τὴν πεῖραν τῆς συμφορᾶς, ἐλυπήθη μὲν ὅτι μὴ ἠλήθευσεν ὁ τῶν κακῶν προφήτης καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἔλεον τοῦ Θεοῦ χαλεπῶς ἠγροικίσατο. 13.6.7 Ὁ δὲ πανταχοῦ καὶ διὰ λόγων καὶ πράξεων γνωρίζων ἡμῖν, ὅσην ἔχει τὴν πρὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους εὐμένειαν, φύει μὲν τὴν κολόκυνθαν ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς τῷ προφήτῃ σκέπην τῆς λυπούσης ἀκτῖνος, ὑποκαθεύδοντος δὲ τῇ σκίᾳ ἀθρόον ἀποξηράνας αὐτήν. Εἶτα ὡς δυσκόλως εἶχεν ἀφυπνώσας πρὸς τὸ συμβάν, ὀνειδίζει καὶ μέμφεται. Εἰ ὁ μὲν οὕτως ἐμπαθῶς ἐπιστυγνάζοι τῷ μαρανθέντι λαχάνῳ, ὁ Θεὸς δὲ οὐκ ἂν ἐπε κλάσθη τηλικαύτῃ πόλει ἐγγὺς ἐλθούσῃ κινδύνου; 13.7.1 Μάθετε οὖν, οἱ σκληροὶ καὶ δυσμείλικτοι, τὴν τοῦ κτίσαντος 13.7.1 ἡμᾶς χρηστότητα καὶ μὴ γίνεσθε τῶν ὁμοδούλων πικροὶ καὶ βαρεῖς δικασταί, ἄχρις ἂν ἀφίκηται ὁ τὰ κρυπτὰ τῶν καρδιῶν ἀποκαλύπτων καὶ κατ' ἐξουσίαν δεσποτικὴν ἑκάστῳ τῆς προσδοκωμένης ζωῆς ἀπο κληρῶν τὴν κατάστασιν. Μὴ σκυθρωπὰς ἐκφέρετε τὰς ἀποφάσεις, ἵνα μὴ ταῖς ὁμοίαις ὑποβληθῆτε καὶ τῶν οἰκείων στομάτων τοῖς λόγοις ὡς ὀδοῦσιν ὀξυτάτοις περιπαρῆτε. 13.7.2 ∆οκεῖ γὰρ μοὶ καὶ ἡ εὐαγγελικὴ πρόρρησις τούτου προφυλακτικὴ τυγχάνειν τοῦ πλημμελήματος λέγουσα· Μὴ κρίνετε, ἵνα μὴ κριθῆτε. Οὐ γὰρ τὴν κρίσιν καὶ τὴν εὐγνω μοσύνην ἐκβάλλει, κρίσιν δὲ ὀνομάζει τὴν