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of glory and power and of majesty; you converse with me and speak words of immortality to one who is weak and humble and unworthy to live. How do you brighten my soul, that has been defiled, and make it a light, both undefiled and divine? How do you make my wretched hands radiant, which I, having sinned, defiled with the pollutions of sin? How do you transform my lips with the splendor of your divinity, refashioning them from unclean to holy? And my filthy tongue, O Christ, how do you cleanse it and by the chewing of your flesh make it a partaker of you? How do you deem me worthy both to see and to be seen by me, and to be held in my hands, you who hold all things, you who are unseen by all the heavenly orders (133) and unapproachable to Moses, the first among the prophets? For he was not counted worthy to see your face, nor any other among men, lest he die. You, therefore, the incomprehensible, you, the only ineffable, you, the uncontainable by any and unapproachable by all, how am I counted worthy, O Christ, both to hold and to love and to see and to eat and to have you in my heart, and remain unburnt, rejoicing and at the same time trembling, and hymning your great, O Christ, love for mankind? Therefore the blind and the carnal, who do not know you, being insensible, or rather showing their own weakness and darkness and the deprivation of all good things, my Savior, how do they dare to say: Why does a man need to have the priesthood, unless he gains one of these three things: either the food of the body, or the acquisition of gold, or a high throne of a rich episcopacy? O darkness, O hardness of heart, O utmost poverty, O great misery, O profound ignorance, O earthly and empty and vain names, O audacity, O mindset of Judas the traitor! For as to him the awesome things of the Lord's supper and of the undefiled body were counted as nothing, but he considered a little silver to be better, so also these, preferring corruptible things to the incorruptible and divine, choose the strangulation of the soul. Tell me, O foolish ones, if you understand this! Who, having acquired Christ, needs anything more

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δόξης τε καί δυνάμεως καί τῆς μεγαλωσύνης˙ προσομιλεῖς μοι καί λαλεῖς λόγους ἀθανασίας τῷ ἀσθενεῖ καί ταπεινῷ καί τοῦ ζῆν ἀναξίῳ. Πῶς μου λαμπρύνεις τήν ψυχήν, τήν κατεσπιλωμένην, καί φῶς αὐτήν ἀποτελεῖς, ἄχραντόν τε καί θεῖον; Πῶς λαμπροφόρους ἐκτελεῖς τάς ἀθλίας μου χεῖρας, ἅς ἁμαρτών ἐμόλυνα μολυσμοῖς ἁμαρτίας; Πῶς ἀλλοιοῖς τά χείλη μου αἴγλῃ θεότητός σου, ἐξ ἀκαθάρτων ἅγια ταῦτα μετασκευάζων; Γλῶσσάν μου δέ τήν ῥυπαράν, Χριστέ, πῶς ἐκκαθαίρεις καί μασησμῷ τῆς σῆς σαρκός σοῦ μέτοχον ἐργάζῃ; Πῶς καί ὁρᾶν με ἀξιοῖς καί παρ᾿ ἐμοῦ ὁρᾶσθαι καί ταῖς χερσί μου, ὁ κρατῶν τά σύμπαντα, κρατεῖσθαι, ὀ πᾶσιν ἀθεώρητος τάξεσιν οὐρανίαις (133) καί τῷ Μωσῇ ἀπρόσιτος, τῷ ἐν προφήταις πρώτῳ; Οὐ γάρ ἰδεῖν τό πρόσωπον τό σόν κατηξιώθη, οὐδ᾿ ἐν ἀνθρώποις ἄλλοις τις, ἵνα μή ἀποθάνῃ. Σέ οὖν τόν ἀκατανόητον, σέ τόν ἄφραστον μόνον, σέ τόν ἀχώρητον παντί καί ἀπρόσιτον πᾶσι, πῶς καί κρατεῖν τε καί φιλεῖν καί ὁρᾶν καί ἐσθίειν καί ἔχειν ἐν καρδίᾳ μου, Χριστέ, καταξιοῦμαι καί διαμένω ἄφλεκτος χαίρων ἅμα καί τρέμων καί ἀνυμνῶν σου τήν πολλήν, Χριστέ, φιλανθρωπίαν; Οἱ οὖν τυφλοί καί σαρκικοί, οἱ μή γινώσκοντές σε, ἀναισθητοῦντες, μᾶλλον δέ τήν ἰδίαν δεικνύντες ἀσθένειαν καί σκότωσιν καί τῶν καλῶν ἁπάντων, Σῶτήρ μου, ἀποστέρησιν, πῶς τολμῶσι τοῦ λέγειν˙ Τί δέ καί χρῄζει ἄνθρωπος ἱερωσύνην ἔχειν, ἐάν μή ἕν τῶν τριῶν τύτων κερδάνῃ˙ ἤ τήν τροφήν τοῦ σώματος ἤ πορισμόν χρυσίου ἤ θρόνον ἐκ τῶν ὑψηλῶν ἐπισκοπῆς πλουσίας; Ὤ σκότους, ὤ πωρώσεως, ὤ πτωχείας ἐσχάτης, ὤ ἀθλιότητος πολλῆς, ὤ ἀγνοίας μεγάλης, ὤ γεηρῶν τε καί κενῶν ματαίων ὀνομάτων, ὤ τόλμης, ὤ φρονήματος Ἰούδα τοῦ προδότου! Ὡς γάρ ἐκείνῳ τά φρικτά τοῦ δεσποτικοῦ δείπνου καί τοῦ ἀχράντου σώματος εἰς οὐδέν ἐλογίσθη, ἀλλά κρεῖσσον ἡγήσατο ἀργύρια ὀλίγα, οὕτω καί οὗτοι τά φθαρτά τῶν ἀφθάρτων καί θείων προτιμῶντες ἐκλέγονται τήν ψυχικήν ἀγχόνην. Εἴπατέ μοι, ὦ μάταιοι, εἰ ἐπίστασθε τοῦτο! Τίς τόν Χριστόν κτησάμενος ἑτέρου πλέον χρῄζει