1

In illud: Pater meus usque modo operatur

HOMILY 9. 63.511

By the same, on the necessity of not going to the horse-races or to the theaters. And having grieved them, then at the assembly on the Sunday after that one, having yielded the floor to a bishop who had arrived from Galatia, and having been silent, and in this having grieved them, he delivered this homily in the great church on the text, "My Father is working until now, and I am working."

1. I rebuked you sharply formerly, when I spoke about the theaters and the horse-races

for this reason I rejoice and am glad according to the apostolic voice that says, "And who is it that makes me glad but he who is made sorrowful by me?" For I see much fruit sprouting from this sorrow. Since even the medicines that correct sores first sting the wounds, and then deliver them from putrefaction; so too the word that touches a hearer makes a beginning of correction. For just as in our bodies, flesh that is once deadened feels no incision, no medicines, no cautery; therefore, even if countless things were done, it cannot return to health, having lost the beginning and basis of the cure; but that which feels iron and fire and medicines would quickly return to being healthy; so indeed also with souls, those that are disposed insensibly would not easily be changed, but those that know how to be ashamed and to blush and to be pained and to suffer during rebukes, provide us the greatest proof of their swift departure from wickedness.

Wherefore indeed the blessed Paul, knowing these things, greatly approved of those who were grieved, and rejoiced over them, but despaired of those not so disposed, saying, "Who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to licentiousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." For how could one who does not know how to feel pain ever be corrected, unless he first learns this very thing? Since, therefore, this has been achieved by you, we are very confident on behalf of your love; for if one discourse has so stung, and has brought you to such agony, as to be despondent and disturbed and troubled, it is quite clear that a second and a third, being added, will deliver you from all sickness. And that you may learn that I am not saying these things to flatter you, by what you demonstrated on the former day, by these things you testified to the truth of what was said by us. For you who were so stung, who so suffered, who so pained and desponded, on the coming of the Sunday after that one, you made our theater more brilliant, and the congregation larger and the zeal greater, and you were all in suspense, like young swallows hanging from the nest, and gaping for our tongue.

Then, when we yielded the discourse to our brother who had arrived from Galatia—honoring both him, and for his sake the law of the church which commands that strangers be so received, and also for his splendid gray hairs—you departed shouting down, being indignant, as if you had endured a long famine, and were longing for our 63.512 tongue, the one that cut, the one that rebuked, the one that touched, the one that pained; doing the same thing as if a child being beaten, being rebuked, would not even so depart from its mother, but would follow whimpering, holding on to the mother's garments from the side, and being dragged along by her with its wailing. For these reasons I leap and fly with pleasure, and myself blessed

1

In illud: Pater meus usque modo operatur

ΟΜΙΛΙΑ Θʹ. 63.511

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ, περὶ τοῦ μὴ δεῖν εἰς ἱπποδρομίας μηδὲ εἰς θέατρα ἀναβαίνειν. Καὶ λυπήσας αὐτοὺς, εἶτα τῇ συνάξει τῇ μετ' ἐκείνην τὴν κυριακὴν παραχωρήσας εἰπεῖν ἐπισκόπῳ ἀπὸ Γαλατίας ἀφιγμένῳ, καὶ σιγήσας, καὶ ἐν τούτῳ λυπήσας, ταύτην εἴρηκε τὴν ὁμιλίαν ἐν τῇ μεγάλῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ εἰς τὸ, Ὁ Πατήρ μου ἕως ἄρτι ἐργάζεται, κἀγὼ ἐργάζομαι.

αʹ. Σφόδρα καθηψάμην ὑμῶν πρῴην περὶ θεάτρων καὶ ἱπποδρομίας

διαλεχθείς· διὰ τοῦτο χαίρω καὶ εὐφραίνομαι κατὰ τὴν ἀποστολικὴν φωνὴν τὴν λέγουσαν· Καὶ τίς ἐστιν ὁ εὐφραίνων με, εἰ μὴ ὁ λυπούμενος ἐξ ἐμοῦ; Πολὺν γὰρ ὁρῶ καρπὸν ἀπὸ τῆς λύπης βλαστάνοντα ταύτης. Ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ φάρμακα τὰ διορθοῦντα τὰ ἕλκη πρότερον δάκνει τὰ τραύματα, καὶ τότε ἀπαλλάττει τῆς σηπεδόνος· οὕτω καὶ ὁ λόγος καθικνούμενος ἀκροατοῦ, ἀρχὴν ποιεῖται διορθώσεως. Καθάπερ γὰρ ἐπὶ τῶν σωμάτων τῶν ἡμετέρων ἡ μὲν ἅπαξ νεκρωθεῖσα σὰρξ οὐ τομῆς, οὐ φαρμάκων, οὐ καυτῆρος αἰσθάνεται· διόπερ οὐδ' ἂν μυρία γένηται, πρὸς ὑγίειαν ἐπανελθεῖν δύναται, τὴν ἀρχὴν καὶ τὴν ὑπόθεσιν τῆς θεραπείας ἀπολέσασα· ἡ δὲ αἰσθανομένη καὶ σιδηρίου καὶ πυρὸς καὶ φαρμάκων, ταχέως ἂν πρὸς τὸ ὑγιαίνειν ἐπανέλθοι· οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ψυχῶν, αἱ μὲν ἀναλγήτως διακείμεναι οὐκ ἂν ῥᾳδίως μεταβληθεῖεν, αἱ δὲ εἰδυῖαι καὶ αἰσχύνεσθαι καὶ ἐρυθριᾷν καὶ ἀλγεῖν καὶ ὀδυνᾶσθαι ἐν ταῖς ἐπιτιμήσεσι, μεγίστην ἡμῖν παρέχουσιν ἀπόδειξιν τοῦ ταχέως ἀποστήσεσθαι τῆς κακίας.

∆ιὸ δὴ καὶ ὁ μακάριος Παῦλος, ταῦτα εἰδὼς, τοὺς μὲν λυπηθέντας σφόδρα ἀπεδέχετο, καὶ ἔχαιρεν ἐπὶ αὐτοῖς, τῶν δὲ οὐχ οὕτω διακειμένων ἀπεγίνωσκε λέγων· Οἵτινες ἀπηλγηκότες ἑαυτοὺς παρέδωκαν τῇ ἀσελγείᾳ εἰς ἐργασίαν ἀκαθαρσίας ἁπάσης ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ. Ὁ γὰρ οὐκ εἰδὼς ἀλγεῖν πῶς ἂν διορθωθείη ποτὲ, πλὴν εἰ μὴ πρότερον τοῦτο αὐτὸ μάθοι; Ἐπεὶ οὖν τοῦτο ὑμῖν κατώρθωται, σφόδρα θαῤῥοῦμεν ὑπὲρ τῆς ὑμετέρας ἀγάπης· εἰ γὰρ μία διάλεξις οὕτως ἔδακε, καὶ εἰς τοσαύτην ἀγωνίαν κατέστησεν, ὡς καὶ ἀθυμεῖν καὶ θορυβεῖσθαι καὶ ταράττεσθαι, εὔδηλον ὅτι δευτέρα καὶ τρίτη προσγενομένη, πάσης ἀπαλλάξει τῆς ἀῤῥωστίας. Καὶ ἵνα μάθητε ὅτι οὐ κολακεύων ὑμᾶς λέγω ταῦτα, δι' ὧν τῇ προτεραίᾳ ἐπεδείξασθε, διὰ τούτων ἐμαρτυρήσατε τοῖς παρ' ἡμῶν εἰρημένοις ἀλήθειαν. Καὶ γὰρ οἱ οὕτω δηχθέντες, οἱ οὕτως ὀδυνηθέντες, οἱ οὕτως ἀλγήσαντες καὶ ἀθυμήσαντες, ἐπιούσης τῆς κυριακῆς τῆς μετ' ἐκείνην λαμπρότερον ἡμῖν τὸ θέατρον ἐποιήσατε, καὶ πλείονα τὸν σύλλογον καὶ μείζονα τὴν προθυμίαν, καὶ πάντες ἦτε μετέωροι, καθάπερ νεοττοὶ χελιδόνων τῆς καλιᾶς ἐκκρεμάμενοι, καὶ πρὸς ἡμετέραν κεχηνότες γλῶτταν.

Εἶτα ἐπειδὴ ἀδελφὸν ἡμέτερον ἀπὸ Γαλατίας ἀφικόμενον, καὶ δι' αὐτὸν τῆς ἐκκλησίας τὸν νόμον τὸν τοὺς ξένους οὕτως ὑποδέχεσθαι κελεύοντα, καὶ διὰ τὴν λαμπρὰν πολιὰν τιμῶντες, παρεχωρήσαμεν αὐτῷ τοῦ λόγου, καταβοῶντες ἀνεχωρεῖτε, δεινοπαθοῦντες, ὡς μακρὸν χρόνον λιμὸν ὑπομείναντες, καὶ τὴν ἡμε63.512 τέραν ποθοῦντες γλῶτταν τὴν τεμοῦσαν, τὴν ἐπιτιμήσασαν, τὴν καθικομένην, τὴν ὀδυνήσασαν· ταὐτὸν ποιοῦντες, οἷον ἂν εἰ παιδίον τυπτόμενον, ἐπιτιμώμενον, μηδὲ οὕτως ἀποσταίη τῆς μητρὸς, ἀλλὰ κλαυθμυριζόμενον ἕποιτο, τῶν ἱματίων τῆς μητρὸς ἐκ πλαγίων ἐχόμενον, καὶ ἐπισυρόμενον αὐτῇ μετὰ τῶν ὀδυρμῶν. ∆ιὰ ταῦτα σκιρτῶ καὶ πέτομαι ὑπὸ τῆς ἡδονῆς, καὶ μακάριον ἐμαυτὸν