Asterius of Amasea, Homilies

of compassion she was asking for mercy; and so poured out, that she both wet his feet and with her hair again wiped away the moisture, she showed every humble reverence. 13.10.4 And to speak concisely, with all her senses and with the members that had sinned, the woman labored at her repentance; and she who lamented her sins so publicly and openly, what she did in private at her leisure, one may infer and see. But our promise professes repentance, while our practice shows nothing laborious, but we have the same state of life that we lived even before the sin. 13.10.5 For there is a similar cheerfulness and the same clothing and lavish enjoyment of the table and long sleep, relaxed to satiety, and successive occupations and cares which bring about forgetfulness in the soul of its own proper care. We bear only the name of repentance, fruitless and ineffectual; separating ourselves from the mysteries and from the communion of the ineffable holy things, but making no effort for the return to them, but as if despising the enjoyment of something cheap. 13.10.6 Consider, O man, of what great things you were deemed worthy, from the participation of which you have been separated. If you had been a partaker of a royal table, and then, having given offense, you were cast out from that honor, for how much money would you purchase being a friend and table-companion again? Whose doors would you not have troubled, supplicating, being at a loss, groaning, considering life unlivable, showing the anguish of your deep grief by the wasting and condition of your face; moving every stone, as the saying goes, until you had set right the misfortune for yourself? 13.10.7 But he who is separated from intimacy with God and has fallen from a truly high honor, what great and noteworthy thing has he done to show the humility of an afflicted soul? It is not consistent for one who says he is sick to pursue the same life as those who are healthy. For the regimen of the sick is one thing, and the life of the healthy is another. 13.11.1 You see how great is the change of the one in good health to the conduct of the one who is weak; for the latter, sensing the sickness in his condition, lies down in a small room, having withdrawn from every customary care; he neglects farming, even though he is very much a farmer; the money-maker and merchant gives up concern for wealth. He is nourished with water and bread, even if before he set a table full of luxury and Sybaritic. he does not rejoice in the usual things with his children, having been separated from his wife; he is with the doctors night and day and with many fees he hastens to the beloved gain, his health. These things does the one sick in body. 13.11.2 But does he who is ill in soul, having approached the bodiless Physician and having pretendedly confessed and shown his weakness, leave the disease to spread and fester, so that it may be diffused through the whole mass? But be sober, know yourself; you have grieved God, you have provoked your Creator, who has authority over the present life and is Lord and judge of the future one. Have you been made ill by luxury? By fasting, heal the enjoyment. Did licentiousness harm the soul? Let self-control become the medicine for the sickness. 13.11.3 Has covetousness, full of matter, worked an intellectual fever? Let almsgiving empty the fullness, for the sharing of things that are full is a purification. Did the seizure of others' things harm us? Let what was seized return to its own master. Did a lie bring us near to destruction—for he says, "you will destroy those who speak lies"? Let truth, being practiced, stop the danger. 13.11.4 Does a transgressed oath bring the flying, airy sickle of Zechariah, threatening its cutting? Let us put on the whole armor of repentance, that we may beat back the edge of the sickle. Did someone impiously serve heretical doctrines? With the mind of right opinion let him put superstition to flight. For this is repentance: a release and destruction of the things formerly done in practice or thought in disposition. 13.12.1 But he who knows the of the

συμπαθείας ᾔτει τὸν ἔλεον· καὶ τοσοῦτον προχεομένη, ὥστε καὶ βρέχειν τοὺς πόδας καὶ τῇ κόμῃ πάλιν ἐκμάττουσα τὴν ὑγρότητα πᾶσαν εὐλάβειαν ταπεινὴν ἐπεδείκνυτο. 13.10.4 Ἵνα δὲ συνελὼν εἴπω, πάσαις ταῖς αἰσθήσεσι καὶ τοῖς μέλεσι τοῖς ἡμαρτηκόσιν ἡ γυνὴ τὴν μετάνοιαν ἐξεπόνει· ἡ δὲ δημοσία καὶ εἰς τοὔμφανες οὕτως ὀδυρομένη τὰς ἁμαρτίας τίνα κατ' ἰδίαν ἐπὶ σχολῆς ἔπραττεν, ἔξεστιν τεκμηράμενον συνορᾶν. Ἡμῶν δὲ ἡ μὲν ὑπόσχεσις μετάνοιαν ἐπαγγέλλεται· ἡ δὲ πρᾶξις οὐδὲν ἐπίπονον δείκνυσιν, ἀλλὰ τὴν αὐτὴν ἔχομεν τοῦ βίου κατάστασιν ἣν καὶ πρὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐζῶμεν. 13.10.5 Φαιδρότης γὰρ ὁμοία καὶ ἐσθὴς ἡ αὐτὴ καὶ τραπέζης ἀπόλαυσις δαψιλὴς καὶ ὕπνος μακρὸς καὶ λελυμένος εἰς κόρον, ἀσχολίαι δὲ καὶ φροντίδες ἐπάλληλοι λήθην ἐμποιοῦσαι τῇ ψυχῇ τῆς οἰκείας ἐπιμελείας. Μόνον δὲ τὸ ὄνομα τῆς μετανοίας ἐπιγραφόμεθα ἄκαρπον τε καὶ ἀνενέργητον· τῶν μὲν μυστηρίων ἑαυτοὺς χωρίζοντες καὶ τῆς κοινωνίας τῶν ἀπορρήτων ἁγιασμάτων, οὐδεμίαν δὲ σπουδὴν τῆς ἐπιστροφῆς τῆς πρὸς αὐτὰ ποιούμενοι, ἀλλ' ὡς εὐώνου καταφρονοῦντες τῆς ἀπολαύσεως. 13.10.6 Ἐννόησον, ἄνθρωπε, πηλίκων ἀξιούμενος ἐχωρίσθης τῆς μετουσίας ἐκείνων. Εἰ βασιλικῆς σὺ τραπέζης μετέχων ᾖς, εἶτα προσκρούσας τῆς τιμῆς ἀπερρίφης, πόσων ἂν ἐξωνήσω χρημάτων τὸ πάλιν γενέσθαι φίλος καὶ ὁμοτράπεζος; Τίνων δὲ θύρας οὐκ ἂν διώχλησας ἱκετεύων, ἀπορούμενος, στένων, ἀβίωτον νομίζων τὸν βίον, τῇ τήξει καὶ σχέσει τοῦ προσώπου τῆς ἐν τῷ βάθει λύπης τὴν ὀδύνην ἐκφαίνων· πάντα λίθον, τὸ τοῦ λόγου, κινῶν, μέχρις οὗ σαυτῷ τὴν συμφορὰν ἐπηνώρθωσας; 13.10.7 Ὁ δὲ τῆς πρὸς Θεὸν οἰκειώσεως χωρισθεὶς καὶ τῆς ὄντως ὑψηλῆς τιμῆς ἐκπεσὼν τί μέγα καὶ ἀξιόλογον ποιήσας ψυχῆς κεκακωμένης ἐνδείξηται ταπεινότητα; Οὐκ ἔστιν ἀκόλουθον νοσεῖν λέγοντα τὴν αὐτὴν ζωὴν μετιέναι τοῖς ὑγιαίνουσιν. Ἄλλη γὰρ δίαιτα τοῦ ἀρρώστου καὶ ἕτερος βίος τοῦ ὑγιαίνοντος. 13.11.1 Ὁρᾷς ὅση ἐστὶν ἡ τοῦ εὐεκτοῦντος μεταβολὴ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ ἀσθενοῦντος διαγώγην· οὗτος μὲν γὰρ τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἕξιν ἀρρωστίας αἰσθόμενος ἐν δωματίῳ σμικρῷ κατακεῖται πάσης συνήθους ἀναχωρήσας φροντίδος· ἀμελεῖ γεωργίας καὶ σφόδρα γεωργικὸς ὑπάρχων· ἀφίησι πλούτου μέριμναν ὁ χρηματιστὴς καὶ φιλέμπορος. Ὕδατι καὶ ψωμῷ διατρέφεται, εἰ καὶ πρότερον τρυφῆς γέμουσαν καὶ συβαριτικὴν παρετίθετο τράπεζαν. παισὶν οὐκ ἐπευφραίνεται τὰ συνήθη γαμετῆς χωρισθείς· τοῖς ἰατροῖς σύνεστιν νύκτωρ τε καὶ μεθ' ἡμέραν καὶ πολλοῖς μισθοῖς πρὸς ἀγαπητὸν κέρδος σπεύδει τὴν ὑγιείαν. Ταῦτα ὁ τοῦ σώματος ἄρρωστος. 13.11.2 Ὁ δὲ τὴν ψυχὴν κακῶς διακείμενος τὴν ἀσώματον περινοστήσας τῷ ἰατρῷ καὶ προσποιητῶς ὁμολογῶν καὶ δεικνὺς τὴν ἀσθένειαν καταλιμπάνει νέμεσθαι καὶ σφακελίζειν τὸ πάθος, ἵνα πρὸς τὸν ὅλον ὄγκον διαχεθῇ; Ἀλλὰ σωφρό νησον, γνῶθι σαυτόν· Θεὸν ἐλύπησας, τὸν ∆ημιουργόν σου παρώργισας, τὸν καὶ τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς τὴν ἐξουσίαν ἔχοντα καὶ τῆς μελλούσης Κύριον καὶ κριτήν. Ἀπὸ τρυφῆς ἐκακώθης; νηστείᾳ θεράπευσον τὴν ἀπόλαυσιν. Ἀκολασία τὴν ψυχὴν ἔβλαψεν; σωφροσύνη γενέσθω τῆς ἀρρωστίας φάρμακον. 13.11.3 Πλεονεξία πολύϋλος τὸν νοητὸν εἰργάσατο πυρετόν; ἐλεημοσύνη κενωσάτω τὴν πλησμονήν, καθάρσιον γὰρ τῶν πεπληρωμένων μετάδοσις. Ἔβλαψεν ἡμᾶς ἁρπαγὴ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων; ἐπανελθέτω πρὸς τὸν ἴδιον δεσπότην τὸ ἅρπαγμα. Ψεῦδος ἡμᾶς ἐγγὺς τῆς ἀπωλείας ἤγαγεν ἀπολεῖς γάρ, φησί, τοὺς λαλοῦντας τὸ ψεῦδος; ἀλήθεια μελετηθεῖσα στησάτω τὸν κίνδυνον. 13.11.4 Ὅρκος παραβαθεὶς ἄγει πετόμενον τὸ διαέριον τοῦ Ζαχαρίου δρέπανον τὴν τόμην ἀπειλοῦν; ἐνδυσώμεθα πᾶσαν τὴν πανοπλίαν τῆς μετανοίας, ἵνα τὴν ἀκμὴν ἀποκρουσώμεθα τοῦ δρεπάνου. Αἱρετικοῖς δόγμασιν ἀσεβῶς τις ἐδούλευσεν; ὀρθῆς δόξης φρονήματι τὴν δεισιδαιμονίαν φυγαδευσάτω. Τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν ἡ μετάνοια· λύσις καὶ ἀφανισμὸς τῶν πρώην ἢ κατὰ πρᾶξιν ἐνεργουμένων ἢ κατὰ διάθεσιν νοουμένων. 13.12.1 Ὁ δὲ γνωρίζων τὸ τῆς