On Mid-Pentecost (Homily 10)

A sermon of Leontius, presbyter of Constantinople, on Mid-Pentecost, and on the man blind from birth, and on Saint Peter, shut up in prison by Herod

For those who love the Lord, there is no lack of a time for festival; for indeed, even today as we celebrate, angels rejoice, archangels leap for joy, and all the heavenly powers celebrate with us. And we celebrate not because we have been delivered from Egyptian bondage like the children of the Jews, but because we have been deemed worthy of a spiritual banquet as children of Zion. We celebrate not because we have been freed from making bricks, but because we enjoy the blessing. We celebrate not because Pharaoh has been sunk, but because the devil has been vanquished. We celebrate, to put it briefly, not because Moses parted the sea, but because the Lord Christ broke down the middle wall of enmity, as one can hear from the blessed Paul saying: For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has broken down the middle wall of the partition. And what middle wall of partition did the Lord Christ break down? Which one? The one which Adam built by his disobedience, having hired the earth-eating dragon as the worker of enmity. For this reason we celebrate today, because Christ the mediator has broken down the partition of enmity. For the present feast today is in the middle. In the middle of what? Of the Lord's resurrection and of the coming of the Holy Spirit. It announces this one, and is not separated from that one; it proclaims this one, and embraces that one; it speaks theology of that one and speaks of the Lord concerning this one; for the Lord is the Spirit. Truly, for those who love the Lord, there is no lack of a time for festival; for we obey Paul who says: Therefore let us celebrate, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And by the leaven of wickedness and malice the apostle does not mean that which is prepared from the threshing-floor and wheat and flour, but that which is put forth from Jewish malice and wickedness, which is always turning sour in impiety, unseasoned and useless as not possessing the salt of knowledge. For what festival of the Jews has not become a cutting off? And what assembly of theirs has not become a heresy? And what Passover of theirs has not dug a chasm for the righteous? For you have just heard from the two evangelists John and Luke, the genuine fellow-disciples, the brothers tightly bound by God, the like-minded friends, the spiritual orators, who have rightly divided the divine oracles. For Luke wrote not only the Gospel but also the Acts of the Apostles. Why? So that we might be gladdened, while the Jews are put to shame. For even if they shut up Peter, the chiefest of the apostles, as you just heard, in prison, binding him with two chains and guarding him with four quaternions of soldiers, so that after the Passover, having sacrificed him like a calf, they might tear him to pieces, yet nevertheless Christ, who raised himself from the dead, who is reproached by them today as unlettered, also wondrously freed Peter from the prison, so that the leopard-like beasts might know that, laboring in vain, they were found empty of hope. For neither by shutting up the Lord Christ in a tomb, and setting the military guard, and rolling a great stone to the sepulchre, and carving a skillful seal, were they able to hold him, except for as long as he himself willed

In mesopentecosten (homilia 10)

Λεοντίου πρεσβυτέρου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως λόγος εἰς τὴν μεσοπεντηκοστὴν καὶ εἰς τὸν ἐκ γεννητῆς τυφλὸν καὶ εἰς τὸν ἅγιον Πέτρον

ὑπὸ Ἡρῴδου ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ ἀποκλεισθέντα Τοῖς φιλοῦσι τὸν κύριον ἑορτῆς οὐ λείπει καιρός· ἤδη γὰρ καὶ σήμερον ἡμῶν ἑορταζόντων ἄγγελοι μὲν ἀγάλλονται, ἀρχάγγελοι δὲ σκιρτῶσιν, καὶ πᾶσαι αἱ οὐράνιαι δυνάμεις σὺν ἡμῖν ἑορτάζουσιν. Ἑορτάζομεν δὲ οὐχ ὅτι τῆς Αἰγυπτιακῆς δουλείας ἐλυτρώθημεν ὡς Ἰουδαίων παῖδες, ἀλλ' ὅτι τῆς πνευματικῆς εὐωχίας κατηξιώθημεν ὡς Σιὼν τέκνα. Ἑορτάζομεν οὐχ ὅτι τῆς πλινθοποιΐας ἀπηλλάγημεν, ἀλλ' ὅτι τῆς εὐλογίας ἀπολαύομεν. Ἑορτάζομεν οὐχ ὅτι ὁ φαραὼ βεβύθισται, ἀλλ' ὅτι ὁ διάβολος ἠφάνισται. Ἑορτάζομεν, ἵνα συντόμως εἴπω, οὐχ ὅτι Μωϋσῆς τὴν θάλασσαν ἔρρηξεν, ἀλλ' ὅτι ὁ δεσπότης Χριστὸς τὸ μεσότοιχον τῆς ἔχθρας κατέλυσεν, ὡς ἔστιν ἀκοῦσαι τοῦ μακαρίου Παύλου λέγοντος· Αὐτὸς γάρ ἐστιν ἡ εἰρήνη ἡμῶν, ὁ ποιήσας τὰ ἀμφότερα ἓν καὶ τὸ μεσότοιχον τοῦ φραγμοῦ λύσας. Καὶ ποῖον μεσότοιχον φραγμοῦ ἔλυσεν ὁ δεσπότης Χριστός; Ποῖον; Ὅπερ ὁ Ἀδὰμ ᾠκοδόμησε τῇ παρακοῇ ἐργάτην τῆς ἔχθρας τὸν γηφάγον δράκοντα μισθωσάμενος. Τούτου γὰρ χάριν ἑορτάζομεν σήμερον, ὅτι ὁ μεσίτης Χριστὸς τὸν φραγμὸν τῆς ἔχθρας κατέλυσεν. Μέση γὰρ ἡ παροῦσα ἑορτὴ σήμερον. Μέση τίνος; Τῆς δεσποτικῆς ἀναστάσεως καὶ τῆς τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐλεύσεως. Ταύτην μηνύει, κἀκείνης οὐ χωρίζεται· ταύτην κηρύσσει, κἀκείνην ἀσπάζεται· ἐκείνην θεολογεῖ καὶ ταύτην κυριολεκτεῖ· ὁ γὰρ κύριος τὸ πνεῦμά ἐστιν. Ὄντως τοῖς φιλοῦσι τὸν κύριον οὐ λείπει ἑορτῆς καιρός· πειθόμεθα γὰρ Παύλῳ τῷ λέγοντι· Ὥστε ἑορτάζωμεν μὴ ἐν ζύμῃ παλαιᾷ μηδὲ ἐν ζύμῃ κακίας καὶ πονηρίας, ἀλλ' ἐν ἀζύμοις εἰλικρινείας καὶ ἀληθείας. Ζύμην δὲ πονηρίας καὶ κακίας οὐ τὴν ἀπὸ ἅλωνος καὶ σίτου καὶ ἀλεύρου πεπτομένην ὁ ἀπόστολος λέγει, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀπὸ κακίας καὶ πονηρίας Ἰουδαϊκῆς προβαλλομένην, τὴν ἀεὶ ὀξίζουσαν ἐν ἀσεβείᾳ, τὴν ἀνάρτυτον καὶ ἀνωφελῆ ὡς τὸ ἅλας τῆς γνώσεως μὴ κεκτημένην. Ποία γὰρ ἑορτὴ Ἰουδαίων οὐ γέγονεν ἐκκοπή; Ποία δὲ αὐτῶν πανήγυρις οὐ γέγονεν αἵρεσις; Ποῖον δὲ αὐτῶν πάσχα οὐκ ὤρυξε δικαίοις χάσμα; Ἤκουες γὰρ ἀρτίως τῶν δύο εὐαγγελιστῶν Ἰωάννου καὶ Λουκᾶ, τῶν γνησίων συμφοιτητῶν, τῶν θεοσφίγκτων ἀδελφῶν, τῶν ὁμοπίστων φίλων, τῶν πνευματικῶν ῥητόρων, τῶν καλῶς μερισαμένων τὰ θεῖα λόγια. Ὁ γὰρ Λουκᾶς οὐ μόνον τὸ εὐαγγέλιον ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς Πράξεις τῶν ἀποστόλων συνεγράψατο. ∆ιὰ τί; Ἵνα ἡμεῖς μὲν φαιδρυνθῶμεν, Ἰουδαῖοι δὲ καταισχυνθῶσιν. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ τὸν κορυφαιότατον τῶν ἀποστόλων Πέτρον, καθὼς ἀρτίως ἤκουες, εἰρκτῇ κατέκλεισαν, ἁλύσεσι δυσὶ καταδήσαντες καὶ τέτρασι τετραδίοις στρατιωτῶν φυλάσσον τες, ἵνα μετὰ τὸ πάσχα δίκην μόσχου καταθύσαντες διασπαράξωσιν, ἀλλ' ὅμως ὁ ἑαυτὸν ἐγείρας ἐκ νεκρῶν Χριστός, ὁ ὡς ἀγράμματος παρ' αὐτῶν σήμερον ὀνειδιζόμενος, καὶ τὸν Πέτρον ἐκ τῆς φυλακῆς παραδόξως ἠλευθέρωσεν, ἵνα γνῶσιν οἱ παρδάλεοι θῆρες ὅτι ματαιοπονοῦντες κενοὶ τῆς ἐλπίδος εὑρέθησαν. Οὔτε γὰρ τὸν δεσπότην Χριστὸν τάφῳ κατακλείσαντες, καὶ τὴν στρατιωτικὴν κουστωδίαν παρακαθίσαντες, καὶ λίθον μέγαν τῷ μνημείῳ ἐπικυλίσαντες, καὶ σφραγῖδα ἔντεχνον κολάψαντες, ἠδυνήθησαν αὐτὸν κρατῆσαι, εἰ μὴ ὅσον αὐτὸς βουληθεὶς