Homilies on 1 Thessalonians 6.4

Do you see that the lament arises not from companionship but from unbelief? “But the children are not equally distinguished when their father has died.” Why? They have God as Father, and are they not distinguished? How many can I show you who were brought up by widows and became men of proven worth? And how many who were under fathers and were ruined? For if you bring them up from their earliest age as they ought to be brought up, they will enjoy far more than the benefit of a father’s protection. For that this is a widow’s work, I mean bringing up children, hear Paul saying, “if she has brought up children”; and again, “She will be saved through childbearing” (he did not say “through her husband”), “if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control.” Put the fear of God into them from their earliest age, and it will preserve them better than any father; this will be an unbreakable wall. For when the guard sits inside, we need none of the devices from outside; but when he is not there, all things from outside are in vain. This will be wealth to them and glory and good order; this will make them distinguished, not on earth only, but also in heaven. For do not look, I beg you, at those girt with golden belts, nor at those carried on horseback, nor at those shining in the palace because of their fathers, nor at those who have attendants and tutors. For perhaps these things make widows beat their breasts over their orphans, thinking: This son of mine too, if his father were alive, would have enjoyed such happiness; but now he is in dejection and dishonour, and of no account. Do not think these things, woman; but open the gates of heaven in your thought, learn the palace there, see the king seated there, consider whether these men on earth can be more distinguished there than your son, and then groan. But if some on earth are in good repute, this is of no account. You can, if you will, enrol him as a soldier in heaven, in that [army] … They are not carried on horseback, but on clouds; they do not walk on the earth, but are caught up into heaven; they have not boys going before them, but the angels themselves; they do not stand beside a mortal king, but beside the immortal one, the King of kings and Lord of lords; they have no leather belt about the loins, but that unspeakable glory through which they become more distinguished than kings and all who have ever been in good repute. For in that palace not wealth, not noble birth, not anything else, but virtue alone is sought; and when it is present, nothing is lacking for them to obtain the first places. Nothing is difficult for us, if we are willing to live wisely. Look up to heaven, and see how much brighter it is than the roof of the palace. And if the floor of the palace above is so much more majestic than the things below that this is thought mud compared with that, if one should be counted worthy to see the palace itself exactly, what happiness would he not deserve? “But she who is a widow indeed,” it says, “and left alone, has set her hope on God.” To whom is this said? To those who have [no] children: that they are rather the more approved, and have greater occasion to please God; that all their bonds have been loosed; there is no one holding them back, no one forcing them to drag those chains. You have been parted from your husband, but you have been united to God; you do not have your fellow servant as companion, but you have the Master. When you pray, do you not converse with God, tell me? When you read, hear him conversing with you. And what does he say to you? Words far more desirable than your husband’s. For even if your husband flatters you, the honour is not great, for he is a fellow servant; but when the Master courts the slave woman, then the courtship is great. How then does he court us? Hear by what means he does this. “Come,” he says, “to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And again he cries through the prophet, saying, “Will a woman forget to have mercy on the offspring of her womb? But even if she should forget, yet I will not forget you, says the Lord.” What love these words carry! And again, “Turn to me”; and again elsewhere, “Return to me, and you will be saved.” And if one wished to gather from the Song of Songs too: “my fair one, my dove,” as he converses with each soul fittingly. What is sweeter than these words? Do you see God’s converse with men? And what, tell me? Do you not see how many children of those blessed women have departed and are in tombs? How many have suffered harder things, and have lost sons together with their husbands? Let us attend to these things, let us take thought for these things, and nothing will be grievous to us; but we shall spend all our time in spiritual joy, and we shall enjoy the eternal good things; which may we all obtain, by the grace and loving-kindness, and so on.

[Homily 7] “But we do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, that you may not grieve as the rest who have no hope.” Many things grieve us from ignorance alone, so that, if we learn them well, we shall drive off the pain. Paul at least, indicating this, said, “I do not wish you to be ignorant, that you may not grieve as the rest who have no hope.” Of what do you not wish them to be ignorant? Of the doctrine of the resurrection, he says. And why do you not mention the punishment laid up for ignorance of the doctrine of the resurrection? Because this is plain and acknowledged from that; and meanwhile, with that, this too will be no small gain. For since they did not disbelieve the resurrection, but nevertheless lamented, he therefore speaks so. And he speaks one way to unbelievers and another to these; for those who were asking about the times and seasons plainly knew it. “For if we believe,” he says, “that Jesus died and rose and lived, so God will also bring with him through Jesus those who have fallen asleep.” Where are those who reject the flesh? For if he did not take flesh, neither did he die; and if he did not die, neither did he rise. How then does he urge us from these things to faith? Would it not rather be nonsense and deceit, according to them? For if dying belongs to sin, and Christ did not sin, how does he now urge us? And why does he also say, “like the rest who have no hope”? As if he said: Whom do you lament, men? Over whom do you grieve? Over sinners, or over those who simply die? So whom do those others lament? But all these things become stale to them … “The firstborn,” he says, “from the dead,” that is, the first fruits. So there must be others too. And see how here he sets down nothing from reasoning, since they were docile; but writing to the Corinthians he first advanced many things from reasoning too, and then added, “You fool, what you sow is not made alive.” For this is more authoritative, but when he speaks to the believer; but what force would it have toward the outsider? “So,” he says, “God will also bring with him through Jesus those who have fallen asleep.” Again, “fallen asleep”; nowhere does he say “died.” But in the case of Christ he put “died,” since he also spoke of the resurrection; but here, “those who have fallen asleep through Jesus,” meaning either those who fell asleep in the faith of Jesus, or that through Jesus he will bring those who have fallen asleep, that is, the faithful. Here the heretics say that he means the baptised. Where then does “so” stand? For Jesus did not fall asleep through baptism. And why does he say “those who have fallen asleep”? So that he speaks not of the general resurrection but of a particular one. “He will bring those who have fallen asleep through Jesus,” he says; and in many places he speaks so. “For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep,” speaking of the faithful; and “those who have fallen asleep in Christ”; and again, “the dead will rise.” Then his word is not about the resurrection only, but about both the resurrection and the honour in glory. All, he says, will enjoy the resurrection; but not all will be in glory, but “those in Christ.” Since then he wishes to comfort them, he comforts them not with this only, but also with the great honour and the speed, since they knew that. For that he wishes to comfort them with the honour he says as he goes on: “and so we shall always be with the Lord,” and that “we shall be caught up in clouds.” And how do the faithful fall asleep through Jesus? Plainly by having Christ within themselves. And “will bring with him” shows them brought from many places. “For this we declare to you,” he says, “by the word of the Lord.” He was about to say something strange; therefore he also sets down what makes it credible. “By the word of the Lord,” he says; that is, we speak not from ourselves, but having learned from Christ, “that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep.” Which he says in the letter to the Corinthians: “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” Here he established the credibility of the resurrection by the manner too. And since the thing seems to be difficult, he himself shows that, just as it is easy for the living to be taken up, so also for the departed. And “we” he does not say of himself; for he was not going to remain until the resurrection; but he means the faithful. Therefore he added, “who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep”; as if he said: Do not think it any labour when you hear that the living at that time will by no means precede those who have been dissolved, who have rotted, who have been dead ten thousand years: it is God who does it. But just as it is easy for him to bring those who are whole, so too those who have been dissolved. But there are some who disbelieve the thing, since they do not know God. For what, tell me, is easier: to bring from nothing into being, or to raise again what has been dissolved? But what do they say? “So-and-so,” someone says, “was shipwrecked and drowned, and when he fell many fish received him, and each of the fish ate a limb. Then of these very fish, one was eaten by another in this bay, another in that, and this one by another. And again those who ate the fish that had eaten the man died in other places, perhaps themselves devoured by wild beasts. When there has been such confusion and dispersion, how will the man rise again? Who is it that gathers the dust?” Why do you say this, man, and weave strings of nonsense, and set it down as impossible? For tell me, if he does not fall into the sea, if a fish does not eat him, nor is the fish eaten again by ten thousand men, but the man is buried and laid in a coffin, and neither worms nor anything else disturbs him, how will what has been dissolved rise? How will the dust and the ashes be joined together? Where will the bloom of the body come from? Is this not impossible? If then those who raise these difficulties are Greeks, we shall say ten thousand things to them. Why? For there are among them those who lead souls even into plants and shrubs and dogs: tell me, which is easier, to take back one’s own body or another’s? Others again say that things are consumed by fire, and that there is a resurrection of garments and shoes, and they are not laughed at; others bring in atoms. But with those we have no argument; but to the faithful, if indeed we must call faithful those who ask, we shall nevertheless say the apostolic word: that all life comes from corruption, all plants, all seeds. Do you not see how great a trunk the fig tree has, how great branches, and leaves … folded and embosomed? This tree, then, so great and of such a kind, comes from that grain that was cast down, after it has first itself decayed; and unless it rots and is dissolved, none of these things will be. Tell me, how does this come about? And the vine too, so beautiful both to see and to enjoy, comes from that ugly [seed]. And what, tell me? Is not the water that comes down from above one? And how is it changed into so many things? For this is more wonderful than the resurrection. For there the seed is the same, and the same plant underlies it, and the kinship is great; but here, tell me, how is a thing that has one quality and one nature turned into so many? In the vine it becomes wine, and not wine only, but leaves and sap; for not the cluster only, but the rest of the vine too is nourished by it; again in the olive it becomes oil, and the other things, so many that one cannot tell. And the wonderful thing: here moist, there dry; here sweet, there sour; there astringent, elsewhere bitter. How, tell me, is it turned into so many things? Tell the reason; but you could not. And in your own case, tell me (for it is nearer), how is this seed that is cast down shaped and formed into eyes, into ears, into hands, into heart, into so many things? Are there not ten thousand differences in the body, of shapes, sizes, qualities, positions, powers, proportions? How are sinews and veins and flesh and bones and membranes and arteries and joints and cartilages, and all the other things, more numerous than these, which the sons of physicians describe in detail, that hold our nature together, and these from the one seed? Does this seem to you much harder than these things: how the moist and soft is congealed into the hard and cold, the bone? How into the hot and moist, the blood, being united? How into the cold and soft, the sinew? How into the cold and moist, the artery? Where do these come from, tell me? Do you not raise difficulties about these? Do you not see every day resurrection and death taking place in the ages of life? Where did youth go? Where did old age come from? How is it that the old man cannot make himself young, yet begets another, a child very young, and what he cannot provide for himself he provides for another? This can be seen in trees and in animals too. And yet what provides for another ought first to provide for itself. But these things human reasoning demands; but when God creates, let everything give way. If these things are so impossible to explain, and impossible beyond measure, the thought has now come to me of those madmen who busy themselves about the bodiless generation of the Son. The things that happen every day, that are put into our hands, that have been examined ten thousand times, no one has yet been able to find out; how then, tell me, do they busy themselves about that unspeakable and inexpressible generation? Has not the mind grown weary treading the void in such things? Has it not been turned about in ten thousand dizzinesses? Has it not been struck dumb? And yet not even so are they taught. Unable to say anything about grapes and figs, they busy themselves about God. For tell me, how is that grape-stone dissolved into leaves and branches? How was it not in it before, nor seen? “But it is not the grape-stone,” someone says, “but the earth that does everything.” And how does the earth bring forth nothing of itself without it? But … let us not be foolish: what comes into being belongs neither to the earth nor to the grain, but to the Lord of both the earth and the seeds. Therefore he made these things come into being both without them and with them: the one showing his power, when he said, “Let the earth bring forth the herb of grass”; the other, to show his power along with himself [through them], and teaching us to be hardworking and industrious. Why have these things been said to us? Not idly, but so that we may believe the resurrection too; and when something [is beyond us], that we may not be vexed nor indignant, but turning back with good sense and reining in our reasoning, may take refuge in the power and resourcefulness of God. Knowing these things, then, let us put a bridle on our reasonings; let us not overstep the boundaries and measures of knowledge given to us. “For if anyone thinks,” it says, “that he knows anything, he does not yet know as he ought to know.” I do not say this only of God, but of every matter. For if you wish to learn about the earth, what do you know, tell me? How great is its measure? How great its size? What its position? What its substance? What sort of place? Where does it stand, and on what? But you could say none of these things. That it is cold and dry and black you could say, but nothing further. What about the sea? You will fall into perplexity in the same way, not knowing where it begins and where it ends, on what it is borne, what supports its floor, what place it has, whether there is land beyond it, or whether it ends in water and air. But of what is in it, what do you know? Shall I mention the air? the elements? But you will say nothing. I leave these. Do you wish us to choose the smallest of plants, the fruitless grass that we all know? Tell me how it is born. Is not water what underlies it, and earth, and dung? What makes it appear so fair, and have a wonderful colour? Where does that beauty go, that it so withers? It is not the work of water, not of earth. Do you see that faith is needed everywhere? How does the earth give birth? How does it travail, tell me? But you could say none of these things. Be taught, man, by the things below and the things here, and do not be curious and busy about heaven, and would it were only heaven, [but even] the Master of heaven. You do not know the earth, tell me, from which you were born, in which you were reared, which you inhabit, which you tread, without which you cannot even breathe, and do you busy yourself with things so far removed? Truly “man is vanity.” And if someone commands you to go down into the deep and search out what is on the floor of the sea, you will not endure the command; and when no one compels you, do you yourself wish to grasp the unsearchable abyss? No, I beg you; but let us sail above, not swimming with our reasonings; for we shall quickly grow weary and be drowned; but using the divine Scriptures, let us spread the sails of faith as on a ship. If we sail in these, the Word of God will be present to you as helmsman; but if we swim in human reasonings, no longer. For to which of those who swim so will a helmsman be present? So the danger is double: that there is no ship, and that the helmsman is absent. For if even the vessel without a helmsman is dangerous, when both are absent, what hope of salvation is there? Let us not then throw ourselves into manifest danger, but let us go on what is safe, fastening ourselves to the sacred anchor. For so we shall sail into the calm harbour with much merchandise and with all safety; and may we obtain the good things laid up for those who love him, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, and so on.

[Homily 8] “For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. [For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command,] with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord.” The prophets, wishing to show the credibility of what they say, say this before all else: “The vision which Isaiah saw”; and again, “The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah”; and again, “Thus says the Lord,” and all such. And many even see God himself seated, as far as it was possible for them to see. But Paul, not having seen him seated, but having Christ speaking in himself, said in place of “Thus says the Lord,” “Since you seek proof of the Christ who speaks in me”; and again, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,” showing that nothing is his own; for the apostle utters the words of the one who sent him. And again, “And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.” Those things, then, he uttered all by the Spirit; but this which he now says he also heard expressly from God; just as that saying too, which he spoke when conversing with the presbyters of the Ephesians, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” he heard from what is unwritten. Let us see then what he says now too. “For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, [and with the trumpet of God,] from heaven.” Which Christ too says of that time: “The powers of the heavens will be shaken.” Why with a trumpet? For on Mount Sinai too we see this, and angels there too. And what does the voice of the archangel mean? As he said in the case of the virgins: “Arise, the bridegroom has come.” Either he means this, or that, as with a king, so it will be then, with angels serving at the resurrection. For he says, “Let the dead rise,” and the work is done, not because the angels have strength for this, but by his word; as if a king commanded and said, “Let those who are shut in come out,” and the servants bring them out, no longer by their own strength, but they do it by that voice. This Christ says elsewhere too: “He will send his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from their ends.” And everywhere you see the angels running about. The archangel, then, I think is the one set over those who are sent, crying this: “Make all ready, for the judge is here.” What is “at the last trumpet”? He shows here that there will be many trumpets, and that at the last the judge descends. “And the dead in Christ,” he says, “will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” [Why] shall we be caught up? For the sake of honour. For when a king is driving into a city, those in honour go out to meet him, but the condemned remain within awaiting the judge; and when a loving father arrives, his children, and those worthy to be children, are taken out in a carriage to see and kiss him, but those of the servants who have offended remain within. We are carried on the Father’s carriage; for he too received him up in clouds, and we shall be caught up in clouds. Do you see how great the honour is? We both go to meet him as he descends, and, most blessed of all, so we shall be with him. “Who will tell of the mighty acts of the Lord, make all his praises heard?” Of how many good things he has counted the human race worthy! The departed rise first, and so the meeting takes place together. Abel, who died before all, will then meet him together with the living. So those [living] will have nothing more in this, but the one who has decayed, who has so many years in the earth, will meet him with them, and all the others too. For if those men waited for us so that we might be crowned, as he says writing elsewhere, “God having foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect,” much more do we wait for them; or rather, they waited, but we no longer; for the resurrection happens “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” And saying that they are gathered shows this: that they rise everywhere, but are gathered by the angels. To rise, then, is the work of God’s power, commanding the earth to give up its deposit, and no one serves in it, just as when he called Lazarus then, “Lazarus, come out”; but bringing them belongs to the servants. But if angels gather and run about, how are these caught up here? They are caught up after he descends, after they are gathered; for this happens all together, with no one knowing. For when they see the earth shaken, dust mingled, bodies being raised perhaps everywhere, with no one serving in it, but the command sufficing to empty the whole earth, full as it is (for consider what it is that all those from Adam to his coming should stand then with wives and children); when they see so great an uproar on the earth, then they will know. For just as in the dispensation in the flesh they had foreseen nothing, so then too. When then these things happen, then too there will be the voice of the archangel commanding and crying to the angels, and the trumpets, or rather the sound of the trumpets. What trembling then, what fear will seize those left on the earth? For “one woman is taken and one is left; and one man is taken and one is let go.” What will the soul of those be, when they see some taken up and themselves let go? Will not these things be able to shake them more fearfully than any Gehenna? Let us suppose now in our discourse that this is present. For if a sudden death, or earthquakes in cities, and threats so affect our souls, when we see the earth broken open and full of all those people, when we hear the trumpets, when the voice of the archangel, brighter than any trumpet, when [we see] the heaven drawn up together, when [we see] God himself, the king of all, arriving, what will our soul be? Let us shudder, I beg you, and fear, as if these things were already happening; let us not comfort ourselves with the delay; for when it must certainly happen, the delay profits nothing. How great the trembling! How great the fear then! Have you ever seen those led away to death? What do you think their soul is like as they walk the road to the gate? Worse than how many deaths? What would they not choose to do and to suffer, so as to be delivered from that mist of the cloud? I have heard many of those who were called back by the emperor’s clemency after being led away say that they did not even see men as men, their soul being so troubled and struck and beside itself. If then bodily death so frightens us, when eternal death comes, what shall we suffer? And why do I speak of those led away? A crowd stands around then, most of them not even knowing them. If anyone looked into their souls, no one is so cruel, no one so bold, no one so brave, who does not have it cast down, unstrung by fear and dejection. And if, when others are put to this death, which differs nothing from sleep, those who share nothing in it are so affected, when we ourselves fall into greater things, what will our state be? It is not possible, it is not possible, believe me, to express the feeling in words. “Yes,” someone says, “but God is loving, and none of these things will happen.” Then it has been written in vain. “No,” he says, “but only as a threat, so that we may be self-controlled.” If then we are not self-controlled, but remain wicked, will he not bring the punishment, tell me? Then will he not give the good their rewards either? “Yes,” he says, “for that befits him, to do good even beyond what is deserved.” So those things are true and will certainly be, but the things of punishment not certainly, but for the sake of threat and fear? How I am to persuade you I do not know. If I say, “Their worm will not die, and the fire will not be quenched,” if I say, “They will go away into eternal fire,” if I bring forward the rich man already punished, you will say it is all threat. How then shall I persuade you? For this reasoning is satanic, granting a useless favour and making men careless. How then shall we root it out? Whatever we say from the Scriptures, you will say it is for the sake of threat. But one might say this about things to come; about things that have come to pass and reached their end, no longer. You have all heard about the flood: were those things too said for the sake of threat? Did it not come to pass and happen? Those men too said many such things; and while the ark was being built for a hundred years, and the timbers were being joined, and the righteous man was crying out, no one believed. But since they did not believe the threat in words, they underwent the punishment in deeds. This we too shall suffer, if we do not believe. For this reason he compares his coming to the days of Noah; since just as some disbelieved that flood, so also the flood of Gehenna. Was that a threat? Did it not become a deed? Then will the one who then brought punishment so suddenly not much more bring it now? For what happens now is certainly no less than what happened then. How? Because then, it says, “the sons of God went in to the daughters of men,” and the mixings were the terrible thing; but now there is no kind of wickedness that has not been dared. Do you believe, then, that the flood happened, or does it seem nonsense to you? And yet the mountains too where the ark rested bear witness, the mountains of Armenia. … But out of great abundance I will bring the argument to another thing clearer than that. Has any of you ever stayed in Palestine? For now I will speak no longer words but facts; although the former things too were clearer than facts; for whatever Scripture says is more trustworthy than what is seen. Has any of you ever stayed in Palestine? I think so. What then? Bear me witness, you who have seen the places, before those who have not been there. For above Ascalon and Gaza, up to the very end of the river Jordan, there is a large and fertile land; or rather there was, for now it is not. This land was like a paradise. “For Lot saw,” it says, “all the region around the Jordan, that it was well watered, like the paradise of God.” This land, then, so flourishing, rivalling all lands, surpassing in abundance the paradise of God, is now more desolate than all deserts; and trees stand, and bear fruit; but the fruit is a reminder of God’s wrath. For pomegranates stand, I mean the tree and the fruit, with a bright appearance, holding out many hopes to one who does not know; but if they are taken into the hands, when broken open they show no fruit, but much dust and ash stored within. Such too is the whole land; and if you find a stone, you will find it reduced to ash. And why do I speak of stone and wood and earth, when even the air and the waters shared in the calamity? For just as when a body has been set on fire and burnt up, the shape remains, and the outline, in the look of the fire, and the bulk and the proportion, but the strength no longer; so there one can see earth, but having nothing of earth, but all ash; trees and fruits, but having nothing of trees or fruits; air and water, but nothing of air or water; for these too have been reduced to ash. And yet how could air ever be set on fire? How could water, remaining water? For wood and stones can be burnt, but air and water in no way. For us it is not possible, but for the one who made them it is possible. Therefore the air is nothing other than a furnace, the water a furnace; everything fruitless, everything barren, everything an image of the wrath that has gone before, a proof of the wrath to come. Are these too threats of words? Are these too mere noises of words? For to me even the former things are not incredible, but the things not seen are as credible as the things seen; but for the unbeliever these too are enough to supply faith. If anyone disbelieves Gehenna, let him consider Sodom, let him think of Gomorrah, the punishment that took place and still remains. This is a proof that the punishment is everlasting. Are these words burdensome? And are those not burdensome, when you say that there is no Gehenna, but God merely threatened? When you weaken the hands of the people? You who disbelieve force me to say these things. Had you believed the words of Christ, I would not have been forced to bring forward the faith that comes from facts; but since you have fled from those, you will be persuaded at last whether you will or not. For what can you say about Sodom? Do you wish to learn the cause for which these things happened then? There was one sin, grievous and accursed, but nevertheless one: the men of that time were mad for boys, and for this reason they paid this penalty. But now ten thousand sins equal to these, and more grievous than these, are committed. Then will he who for one sin poured out such wrath, and was neither moved by Abraham’s supplication nor by Lot dwelling there, who for the honour of his servants gave up his own daughters to outrage, spare us when there are so many sins? These things are truly laughable, nonsense, error, and devilish deceit. Do you wish me to bring forward another example? You have surely heard of Pharaoh, the king of the Egyptians; so you know also the penalty he paid, and how with his very chariots and horses, with his whole army, he was drowned in the Red Sea. Do you wish to learn other things too? For he perhaps was ungodly; or rather not perhaps, but truly he was ungodly. Do you wish to see some of those who believed and attended to God, but whose life was not upright, punished? Hear Paul saying, “Let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed sexual immorality, and there fell in one day [twenty-three thousand. Nor grumble, as] some of them grumbled, and perished by the destroyer. [Nor let us test the Lord,] as some of them tested him, and perished by the serpents.” If sexual immorality had such force, if grumbling, what will our deeds not do? And if he does not exact a penalty now, do not wonder: for they did not know Gehenna; therefore they were punished with immediate penalties; but whatever you sin, even if you pay no penalty, you will pay it there. Then did he punish so heavily those who were more childish and did not stumble so much, and will he spare us? It would make no sense. For even if we commit the same sins as they, we deserve greater punishment. Why? Because we have enjoyed greater grace. But when [we commit both more and greater sins], what then? Those men (and let no one think that I say this admiring them or excusing them, far from it; for when God punishes, the one who casts the opposite vote does it from a devilish mind; so I say this not praising them nor excusing them, but showing our wickedness); those men, then, even if they grumbled, were going into a desert; but we, having a homeland and being in our own houses, grumble. And those, even if they committed sexual immorality, had just come out of the evils of Egypt, and had scarcely heard such a law; but we have received the saving doctrines from our forefathers; so that we deserve greater punishment. Do you wish to hear other things too, all that they suffered in Palestine: famines, plagues, wars, captivities, those under the Babylonians, those under the Assyrians, the evils at the hands of the Macedonians, those under Hadrian and Vespasian? I wish to tell you something, beloved, but do not leap away; or rather before this I will say another thing. There was once a famine, it says, and the king was walking on the wall; then a woman came up and uttered these words to him: “King, this woman said to me, Let us cook your son today and eat him, and mine tomorrow; and we cooked and ate; and she no longer gave her own.” What is more grievous than this calamity? Again elsewhere the prophet says, “The hands of compassionate women have boiled their children.” The Jews then paid such a penalty; will we not pay much more? Do you wish to hear of other calamities of theirs too? Go through the works of Josephus, and you will learn that whole tragedy, if perhaps we may persuade you from these things that there is a Gehenna. For consider: if they were punished, why are we not punished? Or how is it reasonable that we are not punished, stumbling worse than they? Or is it plain that it is because the punishment is laid up for us? And if you wish, I will tell, person by person, how they were punished. Cain killed his brother. The sin was terrible, of course; but he paid a penalty, and a grievous one, worth [many] deaths, for which he would have chosen to die even ten thousand times; for hear him saying, “If you drive me from the land, I shall also be hidden from your face, and everyone who finds me will kill me.” Tell me then, do not many do the same things as he now too? For when you kill not a brother in the flesh but a spiritual brother, have you not done the same thing? For what if it is not with a sword but in another way, when, able to relieve his hunger, you look on? What then? Has no one envied his brother now? Has no one cast him into dangers? But here they have not paid a penalty. But they will pay. Then will the one who had heard no written laws nor prophets, nor seen great signs, pay so great a punishment, and the one who has done the same things in another way, and is not brought to his senses even by so many examples, be unpunished? And where is the justice of God? Or where his goodness? Again, a man who gathered sticks on the sabbath was stoned; and yet this commandment was small, and less important than circumcision. Then was the one who gathered sticks on the sabbath stoned, while those who have often done ten thousand lawless things have gone away unpunished? If then there is no Gehenna, where is the justice, where the impartiality? And yet he charges them with many such things, that they do not keep the sabbaths. Again another, Achan son of Carmi, who stole what was devoted, was stoned with his whole family. What then? Has no one committed sacrilege since then? Saul again, sparing contrary to God’s will, underwent so great a punishment; has no one spared since then? Would that this were all! Do we not rather devour one another like wild beasts, contrary to God’s will? And no one has fallen in war [for it]. Again, the sons of Eli, since they took the meat before the incense, paid a most grievous penalty along with their father. Has there then been no father careless about his children, nor wicked children? But no one has paid a penalty. When then will they pay, if there is no Gehenna? Again one could list ten thousand other things. And what? Did not Ananias and Sapphira, because they stole from what they had dedicated, pay the penalty at once? Has no one then done these things since then? How then have they not paid the same penalty? Do we persuade you that there is a Gehenna, or do you need more examples? Then we shall come to unwritten examples too, things happening now in life; for it is necessary for us to gather this thought together from every side, so that, by indulging ourselves in vain, we may not harm ourselves. Do you not see many in calamities, crippled in body, suffering ten thousand terrible things, and others in good repute? Why do some pay the penalty for murders and others not? Hear Paul saying, “The sins of some are evident, [going before them to judgment,] but the sins of some follow after.” How many murderers have escaped? How many grave robbers? But let these be. How many do you not see punished with a grievous punishment? Some have been given over to long sickness, some to continual tortures, some to ten thousand other terrible things. When then you see someone who has dared the same things as they, or even far more, and has not paid a penalty, will you not confess Gehenna even against your will? Pick out those here who have been grievously punished before you, consider that God is no respecter of persons, and that you, having done ten thousand evils, have suffered nothing of the kind, and you will have the thought of Gehenna. For God has so sown it in us that no one has ever been ignorant of this. For poets and philosophers and storytellers, and in short all men, have spoken about the requital there, and have said that many are punished in Hades. And if those are myths, ours are not. I have said these things not simply wishing to frighten you, nor to weigh down your souls, but to bring you to your senses and to make them lighter. I too myself would wish that there were no punishment, and I most of all. Why? Because each of you fears for his own soul; but I shall render account also for this charge; so that it is most of all impossible for me to escape. But it cannot be that there is no punishment and Gehenna. What am I to do? Again they raise objections and say, “Where then is God’s loving-kindness?” Everywhere. But I will speak about this at another time, so as not to confuse our words about Gehenna. Meanwhile, what we have gained from what has been said, let it not flow away; for it is no small gain to be persuaded about Gehenna. For the memory of such words, like a bitter medicine, will be able to scour away all wickedness, settling continually in your mind. Let us use it, then, so that, having from here a pure heart, we may be counted worthy to see the things that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man”; which may we all obtain, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, might, honour, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.