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On the laborers of the eleventh hour

Of the same John Chrysostom on those of the eleventh hour

God constructed man from two natures, I mean of soul and body. And to each he provided suitable things for healing; to the body, skilled physicians and various preparations of medicines; but to the soul, wise teachers and the aids of the divine scriptures. But the difference between each of these things is great. For so much is <the scripture> better than the art, as the soul given from heaven is than the earth-born body. He, therefore, who suffers in body comes to the workshops of physicians, showing the matter before the word, in order to purchase uncertain health. And I have said uncertain, because often the physicians also wish to but are not able.

For they are not masters of nature. And the sick man strives to escape his suffering, and the desired health does not come, not having received the command of the master. For without God's assent, the zeal of both is fruitless. But he who comes to the church, in order to heal a soul much-wounded by sins, does not fail in his own purpose. He does not contrive money for the entreaty of these physicians. For they do not make merchandise of the gifts of Christ. For they hear him saying: “Freely you have received, freely give,” and they provide the healing to each one without charge. They heal, therefore, and do not fail, because Christ himself, who has the authority, works with them. O the wondrous swiftness of those who are healed! O the ineffable goodness of the one who heals! Someone comes here, despaired of by countless verdicts, already seeing <himself> in the very abyss of death; and having received the bath of grace, he immediately returns healthy and robust, renewed like a noble eagle, having stripped off the former oldness of life. Another, after baptism, having slipped again into the passions of the flesh and stained the garment of grace, and having exchanged the freedom of the soul for the slavery of sin, and having become a plaything of unrestrained pleasures, having abstained from no kind of wickedness, comes to the hospital of the church, not daring, like the publican, to look up to heaven, having his own conscience as the accuser of his deeds, already foreseeing the dreadful <gathering> before the judge of all, the swiftest opening of the books, the proclaimed sins of each one, the fierce and unquenchable fire of Gehenna, the all-devouring and unending worm, the grim and much-groaning Tartarus, the frightful gnashing of teeth, the unceasing wailing of those being punished, the inconsolable torment of the outer darkness.

To him who comes here, considering, fearing, and trembling at all these things, immediately Christ the philanthropic master comes to meet him, as the father to the son who devoured his paternal substance, and with words of compassion and kindness he calms the tempest of the storm-tossed one. Saying what? “Man, are you despondent? Why do you cast down your thought as though helpless? Why having fallen do you remain in your fall [shipwrecked and incurably sick], being weak? ‘Does not he who falls rise up? Or he who turns away, does he not return?’ You have worked many evils and committed countless sins. But the multitude of your transgressions does not overcome the skill of the physician. I am exceedingly philanthropic, he says. For I am born good from good by nature. If having sinned you repent, I am not angered, being entreated by your return. If

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In operarios undecimae horae

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἰωάννου τοῦ Χρυσοστόμου εἰς τοὺς περὶ τὴν ἑνδεκάτην ὥραν

Ἐκ δύο φύσεων ὁ θεός, ψυχῆς λέγω καὶ σώματος, τὸν ἄνθρωπον

κατεσκεύασεν. Ἑκατέροις δὲ πρὸς θεραπείαν παρέσχεν τὰ πρόσφορα· τῷ μὲν σώματι ἰατροὺς ἐμπείρους καὶ ποικίλα κατασκευάσματα φαρμάκων· τῇ δὲ ψυχῇ διδασκάλους σοφοὺς καὶ τῶν θείων γραφῶν βοηθήματα. Πολὺ δὲ τὸ διαλλάττον ἑκατέρου τοῦ πράγματος. Τοσούτῳ γὰρ τέχνης κρεῖττόν ἐστιν <ἡ γραφή>, ὅσῳπερ ἂν καὶ τοῦ γηγενοῦς σώματος ἡ ἐξ οὐρανῶν δοθεῖσα ψυχή. Ὁ τοίνυν τὸ σῶμα παθὼν εἰς τὰ τῶν ἰατρῶν ἐργαστήρια παραγίνεται, πρὸ τοῦ λόγου τὸ χρῆμα δεικνύς, ἵνα ἀγοράσῃ ὑγείαν τὴν ἄδηλον. Ἄδηλον δὲ εἴρηκα, ἐπειδὴ πολλάκις καὶ οἱ ἰατροὶ βούλονται καὶ οὐ δύνανται.

Οὐ γὰρ δεσπόται τῆς φύσεως. Καὶ ὁ ἄρρωστος τὸ πάθος φυγεῖν ἀγωνίζεται, καὶ ἡ ποθουμένη ὑγεία οὐκ ἔρχεται μὴ δεξαμένη τοῦ δεσπότου τὴν κέλευσιν. Θεοῦ γὰρ μὴ ἐπινεύοντος ἑκατέρων ἄπρακτος ἡ σπουδή. Ὁ δὲ εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν παραγενόμενος, ἵνα τὴν πολύτρωτον ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις θεραπεύσῃ ψυχήν, οὐκ ἀστοχεῖ τῆς οἰκείας προθέσεως. Οὐ χρήματα ἐπινοεῖ πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἰατρῶν τούτων δυσώπησιν. Οὐ γὰρ καπηλεύονται τοῦ Χριστοῦ τὰ χαρίσματα. Αὐτοῦ γὰρ ἀκούουσιν λέγοντος· «δωρεὰν ἐλάβετε, δωρεὰν δότε», καὶ ἀνάργυρον παρέχουσιν ἑκάστῳ τὴν ἴασιν. Θεραπεύουσι γοῦν καὶ οὐκ ἀποτυγχάνουσιν, ἐπειδὴ συνεργεῖ αὐτοῖς αὐτὸς ὁ τὴν ἐξουσίαν ἔχων Χριστός. Ὢ τῆς παραδόξου τῶν θεραπευομένων ὀξύτητος! Ὢ τῆς ἀφράστου τοῦ θεραπεύοντος ἀγαθότητος! Ἔρχεταί τις ἐνταῦθα μυρίαις ψήφοις ἀπεγνωσμένος, ἤδη βλέπων <ἑαυτὸν> εἰς αὐτὸν τὸν τοῦ θανάτου βυθόν· καὶ λαβὼν τῆς χάριτος τὸ λουτρόν, εὐθὺς ὑγιαίνων καὶ εὔρωστος ἐπανέρχεται, ἀνακαινισθεὶς ὡς ἀετὸς εὐγενής, τὴν προτέραν τοῦ βίου ἀπεκδυσάμενος παλαιότητα. Ἕτερος μετὰ τὸ βάπτισμα πάλιν εἰς τὰ τῆς σαρκὸς κατολισθήσας παθήματα καὶ μολύνας τὸ τῆς χάριτος ἔνδυμα, καὶ τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ἐλευθερίαν τῇ τῆς ἁμαρτίας δουλείᾳ ἀνταλλαξάμενος, ἡδονῶν δὲ ἀκολάστων γενόμενος παίγνιον, μηδενὸς εἴδους φαυλότητος ἀποσχόμενος, εἰς τὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας θεραπευτήριον παραγίνεται, ἀνανεῦσαι ὡς ὁ τελώνης εἰς οὐρανὸν μὴ τολμῶν, ἔχων τῶν πεπραγμένων κατήγορον τὴν οἰκείαν συνείδησιν, ἤδη προθεωρῶν τὴν φοβερὰν ἐπὶ τοῦ κριτοῦ τῶν ἁπάντων <συναγωγήν>, τὴν ὀξυτάτην τῶν βίβλων ἀνάπτυξιν, τὰ ἑκάστου σαλπιζόμενα ἁμαρτήματα, τὸ τῆς γεέννης σφοδρὸν καὶ ἄσβεστον πῦρ, τὸν παμφάγον καὶ ἀτελεύτητον σκώληκα, τὸν ἀμειδῆ καὶ πο λυστένακτον τάρταρον, τὸν φρικτὸν τῶν ὀδόντων τρισμόν, τὸν τῶν κολαζομένων ἄπαυστον κωκυτόν, τοῦ ἐξωτάτου σκότους τὴν ἀπαραμύθητον βάσανον.

Ταῦτα πάντα ἐνταῦθα παραγινομένῳ, ἐνθυμουμένῳ καὶ φοβουμένῳ καὶ τρέμοντι, εὐθὺς Χριστὸς ὁ φιλάνθρωπος δεσπότης προϋπαντᾷ, ὡς ὁ πατὴρ τῷ καταφαγόντι τὴν οὐσίαν τὴν πατρικὴν υἱῷ, καὶ λόγοις εὐσπλαγχνίας καὶ χρηστότητος γαληνιᾷ τοῦ χειμαζομένου τὸν κλύδωνα. Τί λέγων; «Ἄνθρωπε, ἀθυμεῖς; Τί ὡς ἀβοήθητος καταφέρεις τὸν λογισμόν; Τί πεσὼν ἐναπομένεις τῷ πτώματι [ναυαγοῦντι καὶ ἀμετανόητα νοσοῦντι] ἀσθενῶν; «Μὴ ὁ πίπτων οὐκ ἀνίσταται; ἢ ὁ ἀποστρέφων οὐκ ἐπιστρέφει;» Πολλὰ εἰργάσω κακὰ καὶ ἀναρίθμητα ἔπραξας ἁμαρτήματα. Ἀλλ' οὐ νικᾷ σοῦ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν παραπτωμάτων τὴν τέχνην τοῦ ἰατροῦ. Φιλάνθρωπος, φησί, λίαν εἰμί. Ἀγαθὸς γὰρ ἐξ ἀγαθοῦ φύσει γεγέννημαι. Εἰ ἁμαρτήσας μετανοεῖς, οὐκ ὀργίζομαι τὴν ἐπιστροφὴν δυσωπούμενος. Εἰ