John Chrysostom, On the Harlot and the Pharisee

In meretricem et in pharisaeum

On the harlot and on the Pharisee.

61.709 Today the Pharisee invited the Master to a meal, mixing honor with insult; but the harlot feasted him with faith. For while he was in the house of Simon, behold, a harlot woman. A frenzied figure, a harlot woman in the city, the war within the walls, the un-ironed arrow, the bird-lime of the young, the whetstone of desire, the awakening of passions, the retail selling of the body, the unprofitable commerce, the ruinous business, which procures death both for the one selling and for the one buying, the net of youth, the uncovered snare.

For the eye of a harlot is a snare for sinners; the repository of licentiousness, who sells herself, and enslaves those who buy, the many-headed lioness, the stench of the city, the plague that creeps over every sense, the fish-hook of the eyes, the death that wanders about, the marketplace of loss, the desire for destruction, the smell of death, the very putrid gangrene. Behold, a woman in the city, the plague of the inhabitants, the tyranny of marriages, the overthrow of modesty, the battle of husbands and wives, the wastefully expensive table, the emptying of purses, the outflow of money, the loss of labors, the winepress of heirs, which grape-treaders, treading, danced out their own nakedness. Behold, a woman in the city, who was a sinner. But that sinner ran to righteousness, and consumed her sins 61.710 as thorns in a fire. The thicket has become a paradise, the lioness a lamb, the stench, ointment, the destruction a treasure, the crow a dove, the harlot a virgin, a sister of Christ, a bride of the Word. For standing behind Jesus, the disciple of the woman with the issue of blood, she wet his feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair, and kissed his footprints with her lips, and anointed them with costly ointment.

She brought all the weapons of sin to the king, asking for peace; and she brought the full armor of evils to the feet of the Master. And since she had long ago undone many into passion with forced tears, now with true tears, having beseeched the Master, she undid herself; and she who had deviously braided her hair, and immodestly towered it up, with her hair as with a linen cloth, wiped the feet of Christ, not whitening the Master, but sanctifying herself. For she was confessing through her hair how many she had hooked and fished for death through it. And she anointed with costly ointment. Why? Because formerly, anointing herself with perfume, she had mired many; likewise also, by using spices badly, she transformed her lovers into scent-tracking hounds. But now, using the ointment well, and bringing the ointment to the true one, she washed away the satanic perfumes. Then as the Lord received her doing these things, Simon whispered, becoming an accountant of the Master's goodness. The Master says to him: Simon, you 61.711 who invited me for honor, and dishonored me, as I did not expect; Two debtors were to a certain creditor, you and she, not borrowers from me nor debtors, but debtors, being doubly liable, because having received both the natural loan and the principal of the law, in both you have offended the benefactor. The one owed five hundred denarii, -you, the Pharisee, who has heavier and more numerous sins of the soul; Since the tax collectors and the harlots go before you into the kingdom of heaven; -and the other fifty, the way of the harlot being liable.

In meretricem et in pharisaeum

Εἰς τὴν πόρνην καὶ εἰς τὸν Φαρισαῖον.

61.709 Σήμερον ὁ Φαρισαῖος εἰς ἄριστον τὸν ∆εσπότην ἐκάλεσε, τιμὴν ὕβρει κεράσας· ἡ δὲ πόρνη αὐτὸν τῇ πίστει εἱστίασεν. Ὄντος γὰρ αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ τοῦ Σίμωνος, ἰδοὺ γυνὴ πόρνη. Μανικὸν σχῆμα, γυνὴ πόρνη ἐν τῇ πόλει, ὁ ἐντοίχιος πόλεμος, τὸ ἀσιδήρωτον βέλος, ὁ τῶν νέων ἰξὸς, ἡ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἀκόνη, ὁ τῶν παθῶν ἐξυπνιασμὸς, ἡ καπηλεία τοῦ σώματος, ἡ ἀνωφελὴς ἐμπορία, ἡ ἐπιζήμιος πραγματεία, ἡ καὶ τῇ πωλούσῃ καὶ τῷ ἀγοράζοντι θάνατον προξενοῦσα, τὸ τῆς νεότητος δίκτυον, ἡ ἀσκέπαστος παγίς.

Ὀφθαλμὸς γὰρ πόρνης παγὶς ἁμαρτωλῶν· ἡ τῆς ἀκολασίας ἐνθήκη, ἡ ἑαυτὴν πωλοῦσα, καὶ τοὺς ἀγοράζοντας δουλαγωγοῦσα, ἡ πολυκέφαλος λέαινα, ἡ δυσωδία τῆς πόλεως, ὁ λοιμὸς ὁ κατὰ πάσης ἕρπων αἰσθήσεως, τὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἄγκιστρον, ὁ περιφερόμενος θάνατος, ἡ ἀγορὰ τῆς ζημίας, ἡ ἐπιθυμία τῆς ἀπωλείας, ἡ τοῦ θανάτου ὀσμὴ, ἡ πολύσηπτος γάγγραινα. Ἰδοὺ γυνὴ ἐν τῇ πόλει, ὁ λοιμὸς τῶν οἰκητόρων, ἡ τυραννὶς τῶν γάμων, ἡ ἀνατροπὴ τῆς σεμνότητος, ἡ τῶν ἀνδρογύνων μάχη, ἡ κακοδάπανος τράπεζα, ἡ τῶν βαλαντίων κένωσις, ἡ τῶν χρημάτων ἐκροὴ, ἡ τῶν καμάτων ἀπώλεια, ἡ τῶν κληρονόμων ληνὸς, ἣν ληνοβάται πατοῦντες τὴν ἑαυτῶν γύμνωσιν ὠρχήσαντο. Ἰδοὺ γυνὴ ἐν τῇ πόλει, ἥτις ἦν ἁμαρτωλός. Ἀλλ' ἡ ἁμαρτωλὸς ἐκείνη τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ προσέδραμε, καὶ ὡς ἐν πυρὶ ἀκάνθας τὰς ἁμαρ 61.710 τίας ἀνήλωσεν. Ὁ δρυμὸς παράδεισος γέγονεν, ἡ λέαινα ἀρνίον, ἡ δυσωδία μύρον, ἡ ἀπώλεια θησαυρὸς, ἡ κορώνη περιστερὰ, ἡ πόρνη παρθένος, ἀδελφὴ Χριστοῦ, νύμφη τοῦ Λόγου. Στᾶσα γὰρ ὄπισθεν τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἡ τῆς αἱμοῤῥοούσης μαθήτρια, δάκρυσι τοὺς πόδας ἔβρεξε, καὶ ταῖς θριξὶν ἐξέμαξε, καὶ τοῖς χείλεσι κατεφίλει τὰ ἴχνη, καὶ μύρῳ πολυτίμῳ ἤλειφεν.

Ὅλα τὰ ὅπλα τῆς ἁμαρτίας τῷ βασιλεῖ προσήνεγκεν, εἰρήνην αἰτῶν· καὶ τὴν πανοπλίαν τῶν κακῶν τοῖς ποσὶ τοῦ ∆εσπότου προσήγαγε. Καὶ ἐπειδὴ πάλαι ἠναγκασμένοις δάκρυσι πολλοὺς εἰς πάθος ἐξέλυσεν, ἀληθινοῖς νῦν δάκρυσι τὸν ∆εσπότην δυσωπήσασα, ἑαυτὴν ἀπέλυσε· καὶ ἡ τὰς τρίχας κακομηχάνως πλέξασα, καὶ ἀσέμνως πυργώσασα ταῖς θριξὶν ὡς ὀθόνῃ, τοῦ Χριστοῦ τοὺς πόδας ἐξέμασσεν οὐ τὸν ∆εσπότην λευκαίνουσα, ἀλλ' ἑαυτὴν ἁγιάζουσα. Ἐξωμολογεῖτο γὰρ διὰ τῶν τριχῶν, ὅσους δι' αὐτῶν ἀγκιστρεύσασα εἰς θάνατον ἡλίευσε. Καὶ μύρῳ ἤλειφε πολυτίμῳ. ∆ιὰ τί; Ἐπειδὴ πάλαι μυριζομένη πολλοὺς ἐβορβόρωσεν· ὁμοίως καὶ τοῖς ἀρώμασι κακῶς χρησαμένη, εἰς κύνας ῥινηλάτας τοὺς ἐραστὰς μετεσκεύαζε. Νῦν δὲ τῷ μύρῳ καλῶς χρησαμένη, καὶ τῷ ἀληθινῷ τὸ μύρον προσκομίσασα, τὰ σατανικὰ μυρίσματα ἀπενίψατο. Εἶτα ὡς ὁ Κύριος αὐτὴν προσεδέξατο ταῦτα πράττουσαν, ὁ Σίμων ἐψιθύριζε, ∆εσποτικῆς ἀγαθότητος λογοθέτης γινόμενος. Λέγει αὐτῷ ∆εσπότης· Σίμων, ὁ 61.711 ἐπὶ τιμῇ καλέσας με, καὶ ἀτιμάσας με, ὡς οὐ προσεδόκησα· ∆ύο χρεωφειλέται ἦσαν δανειστῇ τινι, σὺ καὶ αὐτὴ, ἐμοῦ οὐ χρεῶσται οὔτε ὀφειλέται, ἀλλὰ χρεωφειλέται, διπλοῖ ὑπεύθυνοι τυγχάνοντες, ὅτι καὶ τὸ φυσικὸν δάνειον, καὶ τοῦ νόμου τὸ κεφάλαιον λαβόντες, εἰς ἀμφότερα τῷ εὐεργέτῃ παρεπέσατε. Ὁ εἷς ὤφειλε δηνάρια πεντακόσια, -σὺ ὁ Φαρισαῖος, ὁ βαρύτερα, καὶ πλείονα ἔχων τὰ ψυχικὰ ἁμαρτήματα· Ἐπειδὴ οἱ τελῶναι καὶ αἱ πόρναι προάγουσιν ὑμᾶς εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν· -ὁ δὲ ἕτερος πεντήκοντα, ὁ ὑπεύθυνος τῆς πόρνης τρόπος.