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On the dance of Herodias

On the dance of Herodias, and on the beheading of John the Forerunner and Baptist.

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1. Just as a man who loves the desert, in some wooded place shaded by trees, lulled by the melodious cries of the birds and the pleasant-sounding streams of the waters, has a gentle disposition, such a one is pleasing to all men; so also we, in the preceding days, comforted by the gentle breeze of the Spirit, discoursed to you about almsgiving. But when the Gospel proclaimed the madness of Herod, and the licentiousness of women, and the revelry of foolish men, and a profane table, and an unholy gift, and an ungodly deed, and the burial of a most venerable body, I have become a different person. For I become speechless, beloved, whenever I bring before my own eyes the things done by Herod; if indeed it is possible to call those things deeds, and not wounds, the 59.522.50 deeds of him who has done such things. In that, it says, time Herod the tetrarch heard the report of Jesus, and said to his servants, This is John, whom I beheaded. He has been raised from the dead, and because of this the powers are at work in him. He confesses the murder of the prophet, which he is not able to deny; and he knew that the one whom he killed was a prophet, and a just man.

For if he had not known, he would not have said that he had been raised from the dead, and because of this the powers were at work in him. O evil conscience; in whatever murder, does the same man bear witness against himself? O evil conscience living with a defiled soul, and punishing until death, 59.523 and after death judging inexorably. And for what reason did he kill the prophet? Because he became a preacher of the truth, and wanted to undo his lawless deed through rebuke; and he who, as king, ought to have been a guardian of the commandments of God, himself broke the laws through the unmixed disorder of his pleasures. For he is a king who sends forth just laws, but first does them, and does not counterfeit them. For how else would he regulate the world ruled by him into good order, unless he bridles the hard-to-rein race of men with just laws as with reins? But Herod, being a king not of peoples, but of pleasures, or rather a slave of pleasures (for to whom a man is overcome, to this he is also enslaved), not only broke the law of God, but also contrived a murder unjustly. And whom did he murder? A just man, than whom a greater has not been raised among those born of women, as the Lord also testified; a man who dwelt in the desert, a desert uninhabited, waterless, fruitless, impassable, treeless, without pasture, without grass. But John dwelt in the desert, not fleeing the common and kindred race of men, but fleeing from seeing and hearing the abominable evil deeds of men. This man neither sowed, nor ever reaped; wherefore he had neither bread, nor wine, nor a table, nor a bed, the servant of pleasures, nor the soft goose-featherings that weaken and relax the bodies of the effeminate, he had no lampstand, no lamp, no table, no stool, no cup, no platter. For being outside of the world, he used none of the things of the world. And he dwelt, not under a golden-roofed house, but under a self-roofed rock. For him, the ground was both table, and stool, and bed, and locusts were his meat, and wild honey his cake; for him, the cup of his hand was a bowl, and the wine of gladness, the rock-born and most transparent water. Herod, having seized this man, bound him. For Herod, it says, having seized John, bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias

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In saltationem Herodiadis

Εἰς τὴν ὄρχησιν τῆς Ἡρωδιάδος, καὶ εἰς τὴν ἀποτομὴν τῆς κεφαλῆς Ἰωάννου τοῦ Προδρόμου καὶ Βαπτιστοῦ.

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αʹ. Ὥσπερ τις ἀνὴρ φιλέρημος ἔν τινι τόπῳ ἀλσώδει ὑπὸ δένδρα σκιαζόμενος, ταῖς τῶν ὀρνέων καλλιφώνοις κλαγ γαῖς, καὶ ταῖς τῶν ὑδάτων εὐήχοις ῥοαῖς κυλινδούμενος πρᾶον ἔχει τὸ φρόνημα, πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ὁ τοιοῦτος ἀρέσκει· οὕτω καὶ ἡμεῖς ταῖς προλαβούσαις ἡμέραις τῇ πραείᾳ τοῦ Πνεύματος αὔρᾳ παρακαλούμενοι, τὰ περὶ ἐλεημοσύνης ὑμῖν διελεγόμεθα. Ὅτε δὲ τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον ἐκήρυξε τὴν Ἡρώδου παραφροσύνην, καὶ γυναικῶν ἀσέλγειαν, καὶ κῶμον ἀνδρῶν παραφρόνων, καὶ τράπε ζαν ἐναγῆ, καὶ δῶρον ἀθέμιτον, καὶ ἔργον ἀνόσιον, καὶ κηδείαν σώματος σεμνοτάτου, ἄλλος ἐξ ἄλλου γεγένημαι. Ἐνεὸς γὰρ γίνομαι, ἀγαπητοὶ, ὅταν ὑπ' ὄψιν ἐμαυτοῦ ἀγάγω τὰ ὑπὸ Ἡρώδου γεγενημένα πράγματα· εἴ γε ἔστιν ἐκεῖνα λέγειν πράγματα, καὶ μὴ τραύματα, τοῦ 59.522.50 τοιαῦτα δεδρακότος πράγματα. Ἐν ἐκείνῳ, φησὶ, τῷ καιρῷ ἤκουσεν Ἡρώδης ὁ τετράρχης τὴν ἀκοὴν Ἰησοῦ, καὶ εἶπε τοῖς παισὶν αὐτοῦ, Οὗτός ἐστιν Ἰωάννης, ὃν ἐγὼ ἀπεκεφάλισα. Αὐτὸς ἠγέρθη ἀπὸ τῶν νεκρῶν, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο αἱ δυνάμεις ἐνεργοῦσιν ἐν αὐτῷ. Ὁμολογεῖ τοῦ προφήτου τὸν φόνον, ὃν οὐ δύ ναται ψεύσασθαι· καὶ ᾔδει ὃν ἀπέκτεινεν, ὅτι προφήτης ἐστὶ, καὶ ἀνὴρ δίκαιος.

Εἰ μὴ γὰρ ἐγίνωσκεν, οὐκ ἂν ἔλεγεν αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐγηγέρθαι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τὰς δυνάμεις ἐν αὐτῷ ἐνεργεῖν. Ὢ συνειδήσεως κακῆς· ἐπὶ οἱῳδήποτε φόνῳ ὁ αὐτὸς μαρτυρεῖ ἑαυτῷ; ὢ συνειδήσεως κακῆς συζώσης ψυχῇ μιαρᾷ, καὶ κολαζούσης ἕως θανά 59.523 του, καὶ μετὰ θάνατον ἀπαραίτητα κρινούσης. Καὶ διὰ ποίαν αἰτίαν ἀπέκτεινε τὸν προφήτην; Ὅτι κήρυξ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐγένετο, καὶ τὴν παράνομον αὐτοῦ πρᾶξιν διὰ τοῦ ἐλέγχου ἐβούλετο λύειν· καὶ ὃν ἔδει ὡς βασιλέα φύλακα εἶναι τῶν ἐντολῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ, αὐτὸς τῇ ἀκηράτῳ τῶν ἡδονῶν ἀταξίᾳ τοὺς νόμους παρέλυε. Βασιλεὺς γὰρ ἐκεῖνός ἐστιν, ὁ νόμους δικαίους ἐκπέμ πων, πρῶτον δὲ πράττων, οὐδὲ παραχαράττων. Πῶς γὰρ ἂν ἄλλως τὸν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ἀρχόμενον κόσμον εἰς εὐταξίαν ῥυθμίσειεν, ἐὰν μὴ δικαίοις νόμοις καθάπερ ἡνίαις τὸ δυσήνιον γένος τῶν ἀνθρώπων χαλιναγωγήσῃ; Ἡρώδης δὲ βασιλεὺς ὢν οὐ λαῶν, ἀλλ' ἡδονῶν, μᾶλλον δὲ δοῦλος τῶν ἡδονῶν (Ὧ γάρ τις ἥττηται, τούτῳ καὶ δεδούλω ται), οὐ μόνον τὸν νόμον τοῦ Θεοῦ παρέλυεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ φόνον ἀδίκως ἐτέκταινε. Καὶ τίνα ἐφόνευσεν; Ἄνδρα δί καιον, οὗ μείζων ἐν γεννητοῖς γυναικῶν οὐκ ἐγήγερται, καθὼς καὶ ὁ Κύριος ἐμαρτύρησεν· ἄνδρα, ὃς ἔρημον ᾤκει, ἔρημον, ἀοίκητον, ἄνυδρον, ἄκαρπον, ἄβατον, ἄδενδρον, ἀβότανον, ἀχλοηφόρον. Ἔρημον δὲ ᾤκει ὁ Ἰωάννης, οὐ φεύγων τὸ ὁμόφυλον καὶ συγγενὲς τῶν ἀν θρώπων γένος, ἀλλὰ φεύγων τὸ βλέπειν καὶ ἀκούειν τὰ μυσαρὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων κακοπραγήματα. Οὗτος οὔτε ἔσπειρεν, οὔτε ἐθέρισέ ποτε· διὸ οὔτε ἄρτον εἶχεν, οὐκ οἶνον, οὐ τράπεζαν, οὐ κλίνην τὴν τῶν ἡδονῶν ὑπηρέτην, οὐ τὰ μαλακὰ χηνοπλούματα ἐκλύοντα καὶ χαυνοῦντα τῶν ἀνδρογύνων τὰ σώματα, οὐ λυχνίαν εἶχεν, οὐ λύχνον, οὐ τράπεζαν, οὐ σκάμνον, οὐ ποτήριον, οὐ πίνακα. Ἔξω γὰρ ὢν τοῦ κόσμου, οὐδενὶ τῶν τοῦ κόσμου ἐκέχρητο. Ὤκει δὲ, οὐχ ὑπὸ οἶκον χρυσόροφον, ἀλλ' ὑπὸ πέτραν αὐτόροφον. Τούτῳ καὶ τράπεζα, καὶ σκάμνος, καὶ κλίνη τὸ ἔδαφος ἦν, καὶ κρέα αἱ ἀκρίδες, καὶ πλακοῦς τὸ μέλι τὸ ἄγριον· τούτῳ φιάλη ἡ τῆς χειρὸς κοτύλη ἐτύγχανε, καὶ οἶνος εὐφροσύνης, τὸ πετρογενὲς καὶ διειδέστατον ὕδωρ. Τοῦτον κρατήσας ὁ Ἡρώδης, ἐδέσμει. Ὁ γὰρ Ἡρώδης, φησὶ, κρατήσας τὸν Ἰωάννην, ἔδησε, καὶ ἔθετο ἐν φυλακῇ διὰ Ἡρωδιάδα