Fifty Spiritual Homilies
Fifty Spiritual Homilies
continued
HOMILY XLVIII
Concerning perfect faith in God. 1. THE Lord in the gospel, wishing to bring His own disciples to a perfect faith, said, He that is faithful in little, is faithful also in much; and he that is unfaithful in little, is unfaithful also in much. What is the little? and what is the much? The little are the promises of this world, which He has undertaken to supply to those who believe Him, such as food, raiment, and the other things which are for the refreshment or health of the body, and so on; enjoining that we should not be anxious at all concerning these, but with confidence in Him to trust that the Lord is always a provider for those who take refuge in Him. The much are the gifts of the eternal and imperishable world, which He has undertaken to supply to those who believe Him, and who are incessantly anxious concerning those things, and who ask Him for them. Because He has given commandment to that effect. Seek ye only, He says, His kingdom and righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you, that in this way each one may be proved by these little and temporal things, whether he believes God; because He has undertaken to supply them, while we are free from anxiety about such things and are only concerned about eternal things to come.
2. Then it is manifest that he believes concerning things imperishable, and is really seeking eternal good things, if he preserves his faith sound concerning the things of which we have spoken. For every one of those who obey the word of truth ought to prove and examine himself, and indeed to let himself be examined and proved by spiritual men, how far he has believed and given himself to God, whether really and truly according to His word, or in fancied justification and faith, imagining that he has faith within him. A man is proved and tested by the question whether he is faithful in the little, that is, concerning temporal things. How that is done, I will show you. Do you say that you believe the kingdom of heaven to be vouchsafed to you, and that you have been born from above and made a son of God, and a fellow-heir of Christ, to reign with Him through all eternity, and to take pleasure in light unspeakable during endless and innumerable ages like God? No doubt you will say, “Yes; that was why I withdrew from the world and have given myself to God.” 3. Examine yourself, then, whether earthly cares do not still hold you, and much thought concerning the food and clothing of the body, and other attentions and refreshments, as though you came by them of your own power, and were to make provision for yourself, when you were enjoined to have no anxiety at all concerning yourself. If you believe that you will receive things immortal, eternal, abiding, and abounding, how much more do you not believe that the Lord will supply you with these passing and earthly things, which God has given even to ungodly men, and to beasts and birds, even as He gave you commandment that you should not be anxious at all about them, saying, Take no thought what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed; for after all these things do the Gentiles seek! But if you still have anxiety concerning these things, and have not trusted yourself wholly to His word, know that you have not yet believed that you shall receive the good things eternal, which are the kingdom of heaven, although you imagine that you believe, while you are still found unfaithful in the small things that perish.
And again, as the body is of more value than raiment, so is the soul of more value than the body. Do you believe, then, that your soul is receiving healing at Christ’s hand from the eternal wounds which with men are incurable, the wounds of the passions of sin, for the sake of which healing the Lord also came hither, that He might now cure the souls of the faithful of those incurable wounds, and cleanse them from the foulness of the leprosy of evil,—He, the only true physician and healer? 4. You will say, “Certainly I believe it. For this I stand, and this is my expectation.” Know, then, after searching yourself, whether bodily ailments do not carry you off to earthly physicians, as if Christ, whom you believed, could not heal you! See how you deceive yourself, because you imagine that you believe, when you do not yet believe, as you ought, in truth. For if you believed the eternal, irremediable wounds of the immortal soul, and its disorders of evil, to be cured by Christ, you would have believed Him able to cure also the temporary disorders and maladies of the body, and would have had recourse to Him only, to the neglect of medical attentions and remedies. He who created the soul has made the body also; and He who heals that immortal part, is able to cure the body also of its temporary disorders and maladies.
5. But you will say, no doubt, “God has given to the body for its healing the herbs of the earth and its drugs, and has prepared the appliances of physicians for the disorders of the body, ordaining that the body which is of the earth should be cured by the various specifics of the earth. I agree with you that this is so. But take heed, and you will know how the matter stands,—to whom these things are given, and for whom God, has ordained them, according to His great and infinite kindness and love towards man. When man fell from the commandment which he had received, and came under the sentence of wrath, and was banished, as it were, into captivity and disgrace, or to toil in some mine, from the pleasure of paradise into this world, and came under the power of darkness, and was reduced to unbelief by the error of the passions, he fell thenceforward under the disorders and maladies of the flesh, instead of being free from disorder and malady, as before. And certainly all that are born of him have fallen under the same disorders. 6. God, therefore, ordained these remedies for the weak and unbelieving, not willing to destroy utterly the sinful race of men, because of His great loving-kindness, but gave medicine to the men of the world, and to all who are without, for solace, and healing, and care of the body, and permitted them to be used by those who could not yet entrust themselves wholly to God.
But you, a monk, who have come to Christ, and desire to be a son of God, and to be born from on high of the Spirit, and are expecting promises higher and greater than the first man had, for all his freedom from disorder, even that God should please to give you the presence of the Lord,—you, who are become a stranger to the world, ought to possess a belief, and a conception, and a manner of life, new and strange beyond all the men of the world. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, for ever. Amen.
HOMILY XLIX
It is not enough to have got rid of the pleasure of this world, unless a man gets the blessedness of the other. 1. WHEN a man has quitted his home, and renounced this world, and has rid himself of the pleasure of the world, and of possessions, and of father and mother, for the Lord’s sake, and has crucified himself, and made himself a stranger and poor and needy, but does not find in himself divine comfort instead of the comfort of the world, nor feel the pleasure of the Spirit in his own soul instead of the temporal pleasure, and is not clothed in the inward man with the garments of the light of the Godhead instead of those garments that perish, and does not know to satisfaction, instead of this temporal and carnal fellowship, the fellowship of the heavenly Bridegroom in his own soul, and has not the joy of the Spirit within instead of the tangible joy of this world, and does not receive the solace of heavenly grace and a divine repletion in the soul in the appearing to him of the glory of the Lord, as it is written; and, in short, instead of this temporal enjoyment, does not obtain even now in his own soul an enjoyment incorruptible, greatly to be desired; this man is become salt without savour; this man is beyond all men miserable; this man has been deprived of things here, and failed to enjoy divine gifts. He does not know divine mysteries through the working of the Spirit in the inner man.
2. For this is the reason why a man is made a stranger to the world, in order that his soul may pass in mind into another world and age, according to the apostle. Our conversation, he says, is in heaven; and again, Though we walk on earth, we do not war after the flesh. Therefore, one who renounces this world must firmly believe that we ought in mind to pass even now through the Spirit into another age, and there to have our conversation and pleasure and enjoyment of spiritual good things, and to be born of the Spirit in the inner man, as the Lord said, He that believeth in Me, hath passed from death unto life. Because there is another death besides the death that is seen, and another life besides the life that is seen. The scripture says, She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth; and, Let the dead bury their dead; Because the dead shall not praise Thee, O Lord, but we, the living, shall bless Thee.
3. For as the sun, when he has risen upon the earth, is all there upon the earth, but when it comes to sunset, he gathers all his beams together, betaking himself to his own home; so the soul which is not begotten from above of the Spirit is all on the earth, spread abroad in thought and mind all over the earth, even to the ends of it; but when it is permitted to receive the heavenly birth and fellowship of the Spirit, it gathers all its thoughts together, and taking them still with it, enters in unto the Lord, into the dwelling from heaven, not made with hands, and all its thoughts become heavenly and pure and holy, making their way into the divine air. Delivered from the prison of the darkness of the wicked ruler, who is the spirit of the world, the soul finds pure and divine thoughts, because it has seemed good to God to make man partaker of the divine nature.
4. If, then, you are going to withdraw from all the affairs of this life, and if you persevere in your prayer, shall you not esteem this labour rather to be full of rest, and shall you not consider the little affliction and pain to be charged with joy and recreation exceeding great? If your body and your soul had been consumed away hour after hour throughout life for the sake of good things so great, what did that come to? Oh, the unspeakable compassion of God, that He bestows Himself in free gift upon those who believe, that in a little space of time they should inherit God, and God should dwell in man’s body, and that the Lord should find a fair home in man! As God created the heaven and the earth for man to dwell in, so He created man’s body and soul for a dwelling for Himself, to inhabit and take His rest in the body as in His own house, having for His fair bride the lovely soul, made after His own image. The apostle says, I have espoused you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ; and again, Whose house we are.
As the husband with diligence treasures up all good things in his house, so the Lord lays up and treasures in the soul and body, which are His house, the heavenly wealth of the Spirit. Neither the wise by their wisdom nor the prudent by their prudence were able to comprehend the subtilty of the soul, or to speak of it as it is, but only those to whom through the Holy Ghost that comprehension is revealed, and the exact knowledge concerning the soul is declared. Consider here, and discern, and understand, how. Listen. He is God; the soul is not God. He is the Lord; it is a servant. He is Creator; it is a creature. He is the Maker; it the thing made. There is nothing common to His nature, and to that of the soul. But by reason of His infinite, unspeakable, inconceivable love and compassion, it pleased Him to dwell in this thing of His making, this intelligent creature, this precious and extraordinary work, as the scripture says, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures, for His wisdom and fellowship, for His own habitation, for His own precious and pure bride.
5. When such good things are set before us, and such promises have been promised, and such has been the good pleasure of the Lord towards us, let us not neglect, O my children, nor delay to press to the life eternal, and to give up ourselves entirely to pleasing the Lord. Let us, then, beseech the Lord that by His own power of Godhead He would deliver us from the prison of the darkness of the passions of shame, and would cause His own image and handiwork to shine up, making the soul sound and pure, and so we may be permitted to have the fellowship of the Spirit, glorifying the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, for ever. Amen.
HOMILY L
It is God that works wonders through His saints. 1. WHO was it that shut the doors of heaven? Elias? or was it God in him, who commanded the rain? I trow that He who wields power over heaven was Himself seated in his mind, and that by his tongue the Word of God forbade rain to come down upon the earth, and spake again, and the gates of heaven were opened, and the rain came down. Likewise also Moses put down a rod, and it became a serpent, and he spake again and it became a rod; and he took ashes of the furnace and sprinkled, and it became boils; and again he smote, and there came lice and frogs. Could the nature of men do these things? He spake to the sea, and it was divided; to the river, and it was turned into blood. Well, it is plain that a heavenly power was dwelling in his mind, and did these signs through Moses.
2. David, how was he able, unarmed, to engage in battle with such a giant? And when he hurled the stone at the Philistine, by David’s hand the hand of God guided the stone, and it was the divine power itself that slew him and gained the victory. David could never have done it: he was too weak in body. Joshua, the son of Nun, when he came to Jericho, besieged it seven days, unable to do anything by his own nature; but when God commanded, the walls fell down of themselves. And when he entered into the land of promise, the Lord said to him, “Go forward to battle”; Joshua answered, “As the Lord liveth, I will not go without Thee.” And who is it that commanded the sun to stand still another two hours in the conflict of battle?—his nature alone, or the power that was with him? And Moses, when he engaged with Amalek, if he stretched out his hands towards heaven unto God, smote Amalek, but if he dropped his hands, Amalek prevailed.
3. But when you hear of these things happening, let not your mind travel far away; but since these things were a figure and shadow of the realities, apply them to yourself. When you shall stretch out the hands of your mind, and your thoughts, towards heaven, and shall be minded to cleave to the Lord, Satan shall get the worst of it with your thoughts. And as at Jericho the walls fell by the power of God, so now also the walls of evil that hinder your mind, and the cities of Satan, and your enemies, shall be utterly destroyed by the power of God. Thus, in the shadow, the power of God was continually present with the righteous, doing visible wonders; and the divine grace dwelt in them inwardly as well. Likewise upon the prophets also it wrought, and ministered the Spirit in their souls, to prophesy, and to speak, when there was need to say great things to the world. For they did not speak at all times, but when the Spirit that was in them would. Yet the power was always with them.
4. If, then, the Holy Ghost was poured out to such an extent upon the shadow, how much rather upon the New Covenant, upon the cross, upon the coming of Christ, where the outpouring and drunkenness of the Spirit took effect. It says, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh. This is what the Lord Himself meant when He said, I will be with you until the end of the world. For every one that seeketh, findeth. If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him with power and much assurance, as the apostle says. Such things, then, are found by measure, and time, and much labour, and patience, and affection towards Him, the senses of the soul being exercised, as the scripture says, through good and through evil, that is, through the crafts and plots and manifold besetments and lyings in wait of evil on the one hand, and on the other through the various gifts and divers helps of the working and power of the Spirit. He who discovers the plotting of evil, defiling the inward man by means of the passions, and is not acquainted himself with the help of the Holy Spirit of truth, strengthening his infirmity, and renewing his soul in gladness of heart, such an one goes his way without discernment, not discovering as yet the manifold dispensation of the grace and peace of God. And on the other hand, he who is helped by the Lord, and is found in spiritual mirth and heavenly gifts of grace, if he should imagine that he is no longer liable to be injured by sin, is deceived without his knowing it, not discerning the subtilty of evil, and not understanding the gradual growth of infancy to maturity in Christ. For through the supply of the Holy and Divine Spirit faith increases and makes progress, and at the same time every stronghold of wicked thoughts passes gradually to complete casting down.
Every one of us, therefore, ought to search whether he has found the treasure in this earthen vessel, whether he has put on the purple of the Spirit, whether he has seen the King and found rest in His near presence, or still serves in the outermost parts of the house. The soul has many members, and great depth; and besides, sin has come in and taken possession of all its members and of the ranges of the heart. Then, when man seeks, grace comes to him, and takes possession, it may be of two members of the soul. So the inexperienced man, being comforted by grace, imagines that grace has taken possession of all the members of his soul, and that sin is rooted out. But the greatest part is still under the power of sin, and only one part under grace; and he is cheated and knows it not.
We might write at greater length concerning these things to your sincerity of disposition, but we have given you thus briefly a starting point, that like men of understanding you may go to work upon it and search out the power of the words and become yet more understanding in the Lord, and increase your singleness of heart in His grace and in the power of the truth, so that holding fast your own salvation with all certainty, and being delivered from all interference of wickedness and craft of the adversary, you may have the privilege to be found unfallen and uncondemned in the day of judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever. Amen.