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slanderers, haters of God, (14__412> insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” For this reason God gave them up to vile passions, that their bodies might be dishonored among themselves. And what follows these things? “The wrath of God,” he says, “is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,” and what follows.

36 (36th). Announcing this desolation of the soul, the Lord also said: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you; how often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Behold, your house is left to you desolate.” And Isaiah again, seeing us, the so-called monks, performing only the bodily services, but despising the spiritual ones, and for this reason being puffed up, said: “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of God, you people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? I am full of the burnt offerings of rams; and the fat of lambs, and the blood of bulls and goats, I do not desire. For who has required this from your hands? You shall no longer tread my court. If you bring fine flour, it is in vain; incense is an abomination to Me. Your new moons (14__414> and Sabbaths, and the great day I cannot endure. Fasting and idleness and your feasts, my soul hates. You have become to me a surfeit; I will no longer bear them. When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you. And if you multiply your prayer, I will not listen to you.” Why? “For your hands,” he says, “are full of blood”; since “whoever hates his brother is a murderer.” For this reason, all ascetic practice that does not have love becomes foreign to God.

37 (37th). For this reason also, reproving our hypocrisy, he said long ago: “This people honors me with their lips; but their heart is far from me, and in vain do they worship me,” and so forth. And what our Lord said, lamenting the Pharisees, I hear concerning us, the hypocrites of today, who have been deemed worthy of so much grace, and are in a worse state than they. Or do we not also tie up heavy and “hard to bear” “burdens,” and lay them on men’s shoulders, but we ourselves are not willing to move them with our “finger”? Or do we not also do all our works to be seen by men? Or do we not also love “the first place at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi’”; and do we not fight to the death those who do not earnestly bestow these things upon us? Or have we not also taken up the key of knowledge, and shut up (14__416> “the kingdom of heaven before men,” neither entering ourselves, nor allowing them to enter?

Or do we not also travel “sea and land to win one proselyte, and when he is won,” we make him “twice as much a son of hell as ourselves?” Or are we not also “blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel?” Or do we not also cleanse “the outside of the cup and dish,” but our “inside” is full of “extortion and greed,” or rather “self-indulgence?” Or do we not also tithe rue and mint and every herb, and pass over justice and the love of God? Or are we not also like the unmarked tombs, “which indeed appear beautiful outwardly to men, but inside are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness and all uncleanness?” Or do we not also build “the tombs” of the Martyrs, and adorn the “monuments”

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καταλάλους, θεοστυγεῖς, (14__412> ὑβριστάς, ὑπερηφάνους, ἀλαζόνας, ἐφευρετὰς κακῶν, γονεῦσιν ἀπειθεῖς, ἀσυνέτους, ἀσυνθέτους, ἀστόργους, ἀσπόνδους, ἀνελεήμονας· οἵτινες τὸ δικαίωμα τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπιγνόντες, ὅτι οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα πράσσοντες ἄξιοι θανάτου εἰσίν, οὐ μόνον αὐτὰ ποιοῦσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ συνευδοκοῦσι τοῖς πράσσουσι». ∆ιὰ τοῦτο παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς ὁ Θεὸς εἰς πάθη ἀτιμίας, τοῦ ἀτιμάζεσθαι τὰ σώματα αὐτῶν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς. Καὶ τί τὸ ἐπὶ τούτοις; "Ἀποκαλύπτεται», φησίν, "ὀργὴ Θεοῦ ἀπ᾽ οὐρανοῦ ἐπὶ πᾶσαν ἀσέβειαν καὶ ἀδικίαν ἀνθρώπων», καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς.

36 (λστ'). Ταύτην τῆς ψυχῆς ἐρήμωσιν καὶ ὁ Κύριος μηνύων, ἔλεγεν· "Ἱερουσαλήμ, Ἱερουσαλήμ, ἡ ἀποκτείνουσα τοὺς προφήτας, καὶ λιθοβολοῦσα τοὺς ἀπεσταλμένους πρὸς αὐτήν· ποσάκις ἠθέλησα ἐπισυναγαγεῖν τὰ τέκνα σου, ὡς ὄρνις τὰ νοσσία αὐτῆς ὑπὸ τὰς πτέρυγας, καὶ οὐκ ἠθελήσατε; Ἰδοὺ ἀφίεται ὁ οἶκος ὑμῶν ἔρημος». Ὁ δὲ Ἡσαΐας πάλιν, ὁρῶν ἡμᾶς τοὺς δῆθεν μοναχοὺς τὰς σωματικὰς λειτουργίας ἐπιτελοῦντας μόνον, καταφρονοῦντας δὲ τῶν πνευματικῶν, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τετυφωμένους, ἔλεγεν· "Ἀκούσατε λόγον Κυρίου, ἄρχοντες Σοδόμων· προσέχετε νόμον Θεοῦ, λαὸς Γομόρρας. Τί μοι πλῆθος τῶν θυσιῶν ὑμῶν; Πλήρης εἰμὶ τῶν ὁλοκαυτωμάτων κριῶν· καὶ στέαρ ἀρνῶν, καὶ αἷμα ταύρων καὶ τράγων οὐ βούλομαι. Τίς γὰρ ἐξεζήτησε ταῦτα ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν ὑμῶν; Πατεῖν τὴν αὐλήν μου οὐ προσθήσεσθε. Ἐὰν φέρητε σεμίδαλιν, μάταιον· θυμίαμα, βδέλυγμά μοί ἐστι. Τὰς νουμηνίας (14__414> ὑμῶν καὶ τὰ σάββατα, καὶ ἡμέραν μεγάλην οὐκ ἀνέχομαι. Νηστείαν καὶ ἀργίαν καὶ τὰς ἑορτὰς ὑμῶν, μισεῖ ἡ ψυχή μου. Ἐγενήθετέ μοι εἰς πλησμονήν· οὐκέτι οὐ μὴ ἀνοίσω. Ὅταν τὰς χεῖρας ἐκτείνητε πρός με, ἀποστρέψω τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς μου ἀφ᾽ ὑμῶν. Καὶ ἐὰν πληθύνητε τὴν δέησιν, οὐκ εἰσακούσομαι ὑμῶν». ∆ιὰ τί; "Αἱ γὰρ χεῖρες ὑμῶν», φησίν, "αἵματος πλήρεις»· ἐπειδὴ "ὁ μισῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ, ἀνθρωποκτόνος ἐστί». ∆ιὰ τοῦτο πᾶσα ἄσκησις ἀγάπην μὴ ἔχουσα ἀλλοτρία τοῦ Θεοῦ καθίσταται.

37 (λζ'). ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὴν ὑπόκρισιν ἡμῶν ἐλέγχων πόρρωθεν ἔλεγεν· "Ὁ λαὸς οὗτος, τοῖς χείλεσί με τιμᾷ· ἡ δὲ καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἀπέχει ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ, μάτην δὲ σέβονταί με», καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. Καὶ ἅπερ δὲ ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν ἔλεγε ταλανίζων τοὺς Φαρισαίους, περὶ ἡμῶν ἐγὼ ἀκούω, τῶν νῦν ὑποκριτῶν, τῶν τοσαύτης χάριτος ἀξιωθέντων, καὶ χείρω ἐκείνων διακειμένων. Ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ ἡμεῖς δεσμοῦμεν "φορτία" βαρέα καὶ "δυσβάστακτα», καὶ ἐπιτίθεμεν ἐπὶ τοὺς ὤμους τῶν ἀνθρώπων, τῷ δὲ "δακτύλῳ" ἡμῶν οὐ θέλομεν κινῆσαι αὐτά; Ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ ἡμεῖς πάντα τὰ ἔργα ἡμῶν ποιοῦμεν πρὸς τὸ θεαθῆναι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις; Ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ ἡμεῖς φιλοῦμεν "τὴν πρωτοκλισίαν ἐν τοῖς δείπνοις καὶ τὰς πρωτοκαθεδρίας ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς, καὶ καλεῖσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων "Ῥαββί, Ῥαββί»· καὶ τοὺς ταῦτα ἡμῖν μὴ σφόδρα ἀπονέμοντας ἕως θανάτου πολεμοῦμεν; Ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ ἡμεῖς ἤραμεν τὴν κλεῖδα τῆς γνώσεως, καὶ κλείομεν (14__416> "τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων», μηδὲ αὐτοὶ εἰσερχόμενοι, μηδὲ αὐτοὺς ποιοῦντες εἰσελθεῖν;

Ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ ἡμεῖς περιάγομεν "τὴν θάλασσαν καὶ τὴν ξερὰν ποιῆσαι ἕνα προσήλυτον, καὶ ὅταν γένηται" ποιοῦμεν αὐτὸν "υἱὸν γεέννης διπλότερον ἡμῶν;" Ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ ἡμεῖς "ἐσμεν ὁδηγοὶ τυφλοί, τὸν κώνωπα διυλίζοντες, καὶ τὴν κάμηλον καταπίνοντες;" Ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ ἡμεῖς καθαρίζομεν "τὸ ἔξωθεν τοῦ ποτηρίου καὶ τῆς παροψίδος», τὸ δὲ "ἔσωθεν" ἡμῶν γέμει "ἁρπαγῆς καὶ πλεονεξίας», μᾶλλον δὲ "ἀκρασίας;" Ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀποδεκατοῦμεν τὸ πήγανον καὶ τὸ ἡδύοσμον, καὶ πᾶν λάχανον· καὶ παρερχόμεθα τὴν κρίσιν καὶ τὴν ἀγάπην τοῦ Θεοῦ; Ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐσμεν ὡς τὰ μνημεῖα τὰ ἄδηλα, "ἔξωθεν μὲν φαινόμενοι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις δίκαιοι, ἔσωθεν δὲ ὄντες μεστοὶ ὑποκρίσεως καὶ ἀνομίας καὶ πάσης ἀκαθαρσίας;" Ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ ἡμεῖς οἰκοδομοῦμεν "τοὺς τάφους" τῶν Μαρτύρων, καὶ κοσμοῦμεν τὰ "μνημεῖα"