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Catecheses ad illuminandos

Of our father among the saints John, Archbishop of Constantinople, Chrysostom, catechetical homilies to those about to be enlightened and to the newly enlightened and on the inscription

of the Acts of the Apostles.

First Catechesis to those about to be enlightened. 1.1 The present season is of spiritual joy and gladness; for behold,

the longed-for and lovely days of the spiritual nuptials have come to us. For no one would err in calling what is now happening a wedding, and not only a wedding but also a certain wondrous and strange military enlistment. And let no one think what has been said is contradictory, but let him hear the blessed Paul, the teacher of the world, using both these examples, and at one time saying: "I have espoused you to one husband, to present a pure virgin to Christ"; and elsewhere, as if to soldiers about to go out to war, so he puts on their weapons and says again: "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil".... 1.2 Today there is joy in heaven and on earth. For if over one repenting sinner there is such delight, over so great a multitude at once having scorned the snares of the devil, and being eager to be enrolled in the flock of Christ, how much more joy is there among the angels and archangels and all the powers above and all those on earth. 1.3 Come then, let us discourse as to a bride about to be led into the sacred bridal chambers, and pointing out to you the surpassing wealth of the bridegroom and the ineffable love for humanity which he displays toward her, and let us show her from what she is being delivered, and what she is about to enjoy. And if you please, first let us lay bare her circumstances, and see in what state she was and in what condition the bridegroom receives her; for thus most of all will be shown the infinite love for humanity of the common master of all. For not having fallen in love with her shapeliness nor her beauty, nor the bloom of her body did he so receive her, but rather ugly and misshapen and shameful, and in every way and filthy, and, one might almost say, wallowing in the very mire of sins, thus he led her into the bridal chamber. 1.4 But let no one, hearing these things from us, fall into a fleshly crassness; for our discourse is about the soul and its salvation. For not even that heaven-high soul, the blessed Paul, when he said: "I have espoused you to one husband, to present a pure virgin to Christ," did he hint at anything else to us than that those souls who came to piety, he espoused to Christ like a certain pure virgin. 1.5 Knowing these things precisely, then, let us learn clearly her former ugliness, so that we may marvel at the Master's love for humanity. For what could be uglier than she, who abandoned her own place of honor and forgot her nobility from above, who displayed her worship for stones and wood and irrational things and things more dishonorable than these, and who intensified her ugliness by the savor of burnt offerings and the gore of blood and smoke? For from this, then, also the varied swarm of pleasures, revelries, drunkenness, licentiousness, all shameful practices in which also the demons worshipped by them rejoice. 1.6 But she who was in such a state and into the very

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Catecheses ad illuminandos

Τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἰωάννου ἀρχιεπισκόπου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως τοῦ Χρυσοστόμου ὁμιλίαι κατηχητικαὶ πρὸς τοὺς μέλλοντας φωτίζεσθαι καὶ πρὸς νεοφωτίστους καὶ εἰς τὴν ἐπιγραφὴν

τῶν πράξεων τῶν ἀποστόλων.

Κατήχησις πρώτη πρὸς τοὺς μέλλοντας φωτίζεσθαι. 1.1 Χαρᾶς καὶ εὐφροσύνης πνευματικῆς ὁ παρὼν καιρός· ἰδοὺ γὰρ

παραγεγόνασιν ἡμῖν αἱ ποθειναὶ καὶ ἐπέραστοι τῶν πνευματικῶν γάμων ἡμέραι. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἂν ἁμάρτοι τις γάμον ὀνομάζων τὰ νῦν γινόμενα, καὶ οὐ γάμον μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ στρατολογίαν τινὰ θαυμαστὴν καὶ παράδοξον. Καὶ μὴ νομίσῃ τις ἐναντία εἶναι τὰ εἰρημένα ἀλλ' ἀκουέτω τοῦ μακαρίου Παύλου τοῦ τῆς οἰκουμένης διδασκάλου ἀμφοτέροις τούτοις κεχρημένου τοῖς παραδείγμασι καί ποτε μὲν λέγοντος· «Ἡρμωσάμην ὑμᾶς ἑνὶ ἀνδρὶ παρθένον ἁγνὴν παραστῆσαι τῷ Χριστῷ»· ἀλλαχοῦ δὲ καθάπερ στρατιώταις μέλλουσιν εἰς πόλεμον ἐξιέναι οὕτω τὰ ὅπλα περιτιθέντος καὶ λέγοντος πάλιν· «Ἐνδύσασθε τὴν πανοπλίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ πρὸς τὸ δύνασθαι ὑμᾶς στῆναι πρὸς τὰς μεθοδείας τοῦ διαβόλου».... 1.2 Σήμερον χαρὰ γίνεται ἐν οὐράνῳ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς. Εἰ γὰρ ἐπὶ ἑνὶ ἁμαρτωλῷ μετανοοῦντι τοσαύτη γίνεται ἡδονή, ἐπὶ πλήθει τοσούτῳ ἀθρόον τῶν μὲν τοῦ διαβόλου παγίδων καταγελάσαντι, εἰς δὲ τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ποίμνην ἐγγραφῆναι σπουδάσαντι πόσῳ μᾶλλον χαρὰ γίνεται τοῖς ἀγγέλοις καὶ τοῖς ἀρχαγγέλοις καὶ πᾶσι ταῖς ἄνω δυνάμεσι καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. 1.3 Φέρε τοιγαροῦν καθάπερ μελλούσῃ νύμφῃ εἰς τὰς παστάδας εἰσάγεσθαι τὰς ἱερὰς διαλεχθῶμεν καὶ ὑμῖν ὑποδεικνύντες τοῦ νυμφίου τὸν ὑπερβάλλοντα πλοῦτον καὶ τὴν ἄφατον φιλανθρωπίαν ἣν περὶ αὐτὴν ἐπιδείκνυται, καὶ αὐτῇ δείξωμεν οἵων ἀπαλλαττομένη, τίνων ἀπολαύειν μέλλει. Καὶ εἰ δοκεῖ, πρῶτον τὰ κατ' αὐτὴν γυμνάσωμεν καὶ ἴδωμεν ἐν τίσιν αὐτὴν οὖσαν καὶ ὅπως αὐτὴν διακειμένην ὁ νυμφίος προσίεται· οὕτω γὰρ μάλιστα καὶ τοῦ κοινοῦ πάντων δεσπότου δειχθήσεται τὸ ἄπειρον τῆς φιλανθρωπίας. Οὐδὲ γὰρ τῆς εὐμορφίας αὐτῆς οὐδὲ τοῦ κάλλους ἐρασθεὶς οὐδὲ τῆς ὥρας τοῦ σώματος οὕτως αὐτὴν προσήκατο ἀλλὰ δυσειδῆ μᾶλλον καὶ ἄμορφον καὶ αἰσχρὰν καὶ πανταχόθεν καὶ ῥυπαρὰν καὶ σχεδὸν εἰπεῖν ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ βορβόρῳ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων κυλιομένην, οὕτως εἰς τὴν νυμφῶνα εἰσήγαγεν. 1.4 Ἀλλὰ μηδεὶς ταῦτα ἀκούων παρ' ἡμῶν, εἰς σωματικὴν παχύτητα καταπιπτέτω· περὶ γὰρ ψυχῆς ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος καὶ τῆς ταύτης σωτηρίας. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἡ οὐρανομήκης ἐκείνη ψυχὴ ὁ μακάριος Παῦλος, ἡνίκα ἔλεγεν· «Ἡρμοσάμην ὑμᾶς ἑνὶ ἀνδρὶ παρθένον ἁγνὴν παραστῆσαι τῷ Χριστῷ» ἕτερόν τι ἡμῖν ᾐνίξατο ἢ ὅτι τὰς τῇ εὐσεβείᾳ προσελθούσας ψυχὰς ἐκείνας, καθάπερ τινὰ παρθένον ἁγνὴν ἥρμοσε τῷ Χριστῷ. 1.5 Ταῦτα τοίνυν ἀκριβῶς εἰδότες, μάθωμεν σαφῶς τὴν προτέραν αὐτῆς ἀμορφίαν ἵνα θαυμάσωμεν τοῦ δεσπότου τὴν φιλανθρωπίαν. Τί γὰρ ἂν εἴη ταύτης δυσειδέστερον, τῆς τὴν οἰκείαν προεδρίαν καταλιπούσης καὶ τῆς ἄνωθεν εὐγενείας ἐπιλαθομένης, τῆς περὶ λίθους καὶ ξύλα καὶ τὰ ἄλογα καὶ τὰ τούτων ἀτιμότερα τὴν θεραπείαν ἐπιδεικνυμένης καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς κνίσης καὶ τοῦ λύθρου τοῦ αἵματος καὶ τοῦ καπνοῦ τὴν ἀμορφίαν ἐπιτεινούσης; Ἐντεῦθεν γὰρ λοιπὸν καὶ ὁ ποικίλος τῶν ἡδονῶν ἑσμός, οἱ κῶμοι, αἱ μέθαι, αἱ ἀσέλγειαι, πάντα τὰ αἰσχρὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα οἷς καὶ οἱ ὑπ' αὐτῶν θεραπευόμενοι δαίμονες χαίρουσιν. 1.6 Ἀλλὰ ταύτην τὴν οὕτω διακειμένην καὶ εἰς αὐτὴν τὴν