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On David and Saul

HOMILY 1. On David and Saul, and on forbearance, and on the need to spare one's enemies, and not to speak evil of them even when absent.

1. When some chronic and hard inflammation happens to become indurated in our bodies, it requires much time and labor, and much wisdom 54.676 from medicines, so that its swelling may be safely reduced. This may also be seen in the case of the soul. For when one wishes to uproot a passion that has been rooted and has long dwelt in the soul, an exhortation of one or two days is not sufficient for this correction, but it is necessary to discourse often and for many days on this subject; if indeed we intend not to speak publicly for ambition and pleasure, but for profit and benefit. For this reason, what we did in the case of oaths, discoursing to you for many successive 54.677 days on the same subject, this we shall also do in the case of anger, and we shall offer continuous counsel concerning it according to our ability. For this seems to me to be the best method of teaching, not to cease counseling about anything, until we see the counsel brought to fruition in action. For he who discourses today on almsgiving, tomorrow on prayer, after that on gentleness, then again on humility, will be able to establish neither of these in his hearers, by continually leaping from this to that, and again from that to another; but he who is to establish what is said in his listeners must not cease exhorting and counseling about the same things, nor leap to another topic, until he sees the former exhortation well rooted in them. This is what teachers also do; they do not lead the children on to syllables, until they see the knowledge of the letters established in them. Recently, then, having read to you the parable of the hundred denarii and the ten thousand talents, we showed what a great evil it was to bear a grudge. For he whom the ten thousand talents did not destroy, a hundred denarii drowned, and it revoked the pardon that was given, and rejected the gift, and brought him who had been released from his accounts back into the court, and from there cast him into prison, and so handed him over to an undying punishment. Today, however, we will guide our discourse to another subject. For it were right, if justice were done, that he who speaks about gentleness and meekness, should provide from his own home and from himself examples of this good philosophy, so as to teach both through his words, and to instruct through his deeds. But since we are far from possessing this virtue, having drawn one of the saints into our midst, and having set him before your eyes, we will make our exhortation clear and powerful to you, as if encouraging you and ourselves to imitate some archetypal image, the virtue of the just man. Whom then should one bring forward when discoursing on gentleness? Whom else, but him who received testimony from above and was especially admired for this? For "I have found," it says, "David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart." And when God declares, no pretext is left for those who would contradict. For that vote is incorruptible, since God judges neither with favor nor with enmity, but by the bare virtue of the soul

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De Davide et Saule

ΟΜΙΛΙΑ Αʹ. Εἰς τὰ κατὰ τὸν ∆αυῒδ καὶ τὸν Σαοὺλ, καὶ περὶ ἀνεξικακίας, καὶ τοῦ δεῖν

φείδεσθαι τῶν ἐχθρῶν, καὶ μηδὲ ἀπόντας λέγειν κακῶς. αʹ. Ὅταν χρονία τις καὶ σκληρὰ φλεγμονὴ τοῖς σώμασιν ἐναποσκιῤῥωθεῖσα τύχοι, πολλοῦ μὲν χρόνου καὶ πόνου, πολλῆς δὲ τῆς ἀπὸ τῶν φαρμάκων δεῖται 54.676 σοφίας, ὥστε ἀσφαλῶς αὐτῆς χαλασθῆναι τὸν ὄγκον. Τοῦτο καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ψυχῆς ἔστιν ἰδεῖν. Ὅταν γὰρ πάθος ἐῤῥιζωμένον καὶ πολὺν ἐμφιλοχωρῆσαν τῇ ψυχῇ χρόνον βούληταί τις πρόῤῥιζον ἀνελεῖν, οὐκ ἀρκεῖ μιᾶς, οὐδὲ δύο ἡμερῶν πρὸς τὴν διόρθωσιν ταύτην παραίνεσις, ἀλλὰ χρὴ πολλάκις καὶ ἐπὶ πολλαῖς ταῖς ἡμέραις περὶ ταύτης διαλέγεσθαι τῆς ὑποθέσεως· εἴ γε μὴ μέλλοιμεν πρὸς φιλοτιμίαν καὶ τέρψιν, ἀλλὰ πρὸς κέρδος καὶ ὠφέλειαν δημηγορεῖν. ∆ιὰ δὴ τοῦτο, ὅπερ ἐπὶ τῶν ὅρκων ἐποιήσαμεν, πολλὰς ἐφεξῆς 54.677 ἡμέρας περὶ τῆς αὐτῆς ὑποθέσεως διαλεχθέντες ὑμῖν, τοῦτο καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ὀργῆς ἐργασώμεθα, καὶ συνεχῆ περὶ αὐτῆς ποιησώμεθα συμβουλὴν κατὰ δύναμιν τὴν ἡμετέραν. Καὶ γὰρ οὗτος ἄριστος διδασκαλίας εἶναί μοι δοκεῖ τρόπος, τὸ μὴ πρότερον ἀφίστασθαι συμβουλεύοντας ὑπὲρ ὁτουοῦν, ἕως ἂν εἰς ἔργον τὴν συμβουλὴν ἐξελθοῦσαν ἴδωμεν. Ὁ γὰρ σήμερον μὲν περὶ ἐλεημοσύνης, αὔριον δὲ περὶ εὐχῆς, μετ' ἐκείνην δὲ περὶ ἐπιεικείας, εἶτα πάλιν περὶ ταπεινοφροσύνης διαλεγόμενος, οὐδέτερον τούτων ἐν τοῖς ἀκροαταῖς κατορθῶσαι δυνήσεται, ἀπὸ τούτου πρὸς ἐκεῖνο, καὶ πάλιν ἀπ' ἐκείνου πρὸς ἕτερον συνεχῶς μεταπηδῶν· ἀλλὰ χρὴ τὸν μέλλοντα κατορθοῦν ἐν τοῖς ἀκούουσι τὰ λεγόμενα, μὴ πρότερον ἀφίστασθαι περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν παραινοῦντα καὶ συμβουλεύοντα, μηδὲ ἐφ' ἕτερόν τι μεταπηδᾷν, ἕως ἂν ἴδῃ τὴν προτέραν παραίνεσιν καλῶς ἐν αὐτοῖς ῥιζωθεῖσαν. Τοῦτο καὶ οἱ διδάσκαλοι ποιοῦσιν· οὐ πρότερον ἐπὶ τὰς συλλαβὰς τοὺς παῖδας ἄγουσιν, ἕως ἂν τῶν στοιχείων τὴν γνῶσιν ἐν αὐτοῖς κατορθωθεῖσαν ἴδωσι. Πρώην μὲν οὖν ὑμῖν τὴν παραβολὴν ἀναγνόντες τῶν ἑκατὸν δηναρίων, καὶ τῶν μυρίων ταλάντων, ἐδείκνυμεν ὅσον ἦν κακὸν τὸ μνησικακεῖν. Ὃν γὰρ οὐκ ἀπώλεσε τὰ μυρία τάλαντα, τοῦτον ἑκατὸν δηνάρια κατεπόντισε, καὶ τὴν δοθεῖσαν συγγνώμην ἀνεκαλέσατο, καὶ τὴν δωρεὰν ἀπεκρούσατο, καὶ ἀπαλλαγέντα τῶν εὐθυνῶν εἰς τὸ δικαστήριον πάλιν εἰσήγαγε, κἀκεῖθεν εἰς τὸ δεσμωτήριον ἐνέβαλε, καὶ οὕτως ἀθανάτῳ αὐτὸν παρέδωκε τιμωρίᾳ. Σήμερον δὲ ἐφ' ἑτέραν ὑπόθεσιν τὸν λόγον χειραγωγήσομεν. Ἔδει μὲν γὰρ, εἴπερ δίκαιον ἐγίνετο, τὸν λέγοντα περὶ ἐπιεικείας τε καὶ πραότητος, οἴκοθεν καὶ παρ' ἑαυτοῦ τὰ παραδείγματα παρέχειν τῆς καλῆς ταύτης φιλοσοφίας, ὥστε καὶ διὰ τῶν λόγων διδάσκειν, καὶ διὰ τῶν ἔργων παιδεύειν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ πολὺ ταύτης ἀποδέομεν τῆς ἀρετῆς ἡμεῖς, ἕνα τινὰ τῶν ἁγίων ἑλκύσαντες εἰς μέσον, καὶ πρὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν στήσαντες τῶν ὑμετέρων, ἐναργῆ τινα καὶ δυνατὴν ὑμῖν ποιησόμεθα τὴν παράκλησιν, ὥσπερ ἀρχέτυπόν τινα εἰκόνα, τὴν ἀρετὴν τοῦ δικαίου μιμεῖσθαι παρακελευόμενοι καὶ ὑμῖν καὶ ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς. Τίνα οὖν εἰς μέσον ἀγαγεῖν χρὴ περὶ ἐπιεικείας διαλεγόμενον; Τίνα δὲ ἄλλον, ἀλλ' ἢ τὸν μαρτυρίαν ἄνωθεν δεξάμενον καὶ ἐπὶ τούτῳ μάλιστα θαυμασθέντα; Εὗρον γὰρ, φησὶ, ∆αυῒδ τὸν τοῦ Ἰεσσαὶ, ἄνδρα κατὰ τὴν καρδίαν μου. Ὅταν δὲ ὁ Θεὸς ἀποφαίνηται, οὐδεμία τοῖς ἀντιλέγουσιν ὑπολέλειπται πρόφασις. Ἀδέκαστος γὰρ ἡ ψῆφος ἐκείνη, οὔτε πρὸς χάριν, οὔτε πρὸς ἀπέχθειαν τοῦ Θεοῦ κρίνοντος, ἀλλὰ τῇ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀρετῇ γυμνῇ