Homilies on 2 Corinthians 27.1–27.4

[End of Homily 26:] ... of the saints do not have this pitiable and lowly authority, but that far greater one. For they set demons before them and torture them, and release the bound from those most bitter chains. What is more fearful than this court? Though no one is seen, though no one presses on the demon's sides, there are cries and convulsions, scourgings, tortures, burning tongues, because the demon cannot bear that wonderful power. And those who once wore bodies master bodiless powers; dust and bones and ashes rend those invisible natures. For this reason no one would ever travel abroad to see royal courts, but many kings have often travelled abroad for the sake of this sight. For the martyrs' shrines of the saints furnish traces and tokens of the judgment to come, as demons are scourged and men are chastised and set free. Do you see the power of the saints, even when dead? Do you see the weakness of sinners, even when alive? Flee wickedness, then, so that you may master such powers, and pursue virtue with all earnestness. For if the things here are such, consider how great the things to come are. And continually held by this love, lay hold of eternal life; which may we all attain, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, might, honor, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

[Homily 27.] ["I have become a fool; you compelled me"] [2 Cor 12:11]. Having completed his discourse about his own praises, he did not stop there, but defends himself again and asks pardon for what has been said, saying that the thing was a matter of necessity, not of choice. But nevertheless, even though there was necessity, he calls himself a fool. At the beginning he said, "Receive me as a fool," and, "as in foolishness"; but now, removing the "as," he calls himself a fool. For having established by what he said what he wished, he now at last confidently and unsparingly [grapples with all such failing, teaching all] never to praise oneself when there is no necessity, since even when there was a cause Paul called himself a fool. Then he turns the whole cause of what was said not on the false apostles but on the disciples: "You compelled me." For if they [had boasted but] had not done this with your error, nor been destroying you, I would not have been led to lower myself to these words; but since they were corrupting a whole church, looking to your advantage, I was compelled to become a fool. And he did not say, "For I feared that they, having carried off the first place among you, might sow their own things"; he set this down above, saying, "I am afraid lest, as the serpent deceived Eve, so your minds may be corrupted" [2 Cor 11:3]; but here not so, but with more authority and greater license, having from what had been said the boldness. "For I ought to have been commended by you." Then he sets down the reason too, and he does not again speak of revelations, nor of the signs only, but also of the trials: "For in nothing was I behind the super-apostles." See how again [he speaks with more confidence]: for before he said, "I reckon that I am in nothing behind" [2 Cor 11:5]; but here he says it declaratively; as I said, after the proofs he speaks confidently at last. Yet not even so does he depart from measure, nor from his own character. For as though he had said something great and beyond his own worth, in numbering himself with the apostles, so he is again moderate, and adds, saying, "even though I am nothing. The signs of an apostle were worked among you" [2 Cor 12:12]. Do not look at this, he says, whether I am mean and small, but whether you did not enjoy the things you ought to have enjoyed from an apostle. And he did not say "mean," but what was lower, "nothing." For what profit is there in being great and helping no one? As there is no gain in a skilled physician who heals none of the sick. Do not examine this, then, he says, that I am nothing, but consider this, that in what you ought to have received benefit, I fell short in nothing, but I gave the proof of my apostleship. So there was no need of words from me. And he said these things not needing to be commended (for how could he, who thought even heaven small compared with his longing for Christ?), but desiring their salvation. Then, so that they may not say, "And what is it to us, even if you were in nothing behind the super-apostles?" he therefore added that "among you the signs of an apostle were worked, in all endurance, and in signs and wonders." Oh, what a sea of achievements he passed over in a few words! And see what he sets down first: endurance. For this is the proof of an apostle, to bear everything nobly. This he gives briefly, in a short word; but the signs, which were not his own achievements, at greater length. For consider how many prisons, how many stripes, how many dangers, how many [plots, how many storms of trials], how many civil wars, foreign wars, how many pains, how many assaults [he set down] by the name of endurance; and again by the signs, how many dead [raised, how many other wonders]. Hearing these things, let us learn, if we fall into the necessity of such narratives, to cut short our achievements; which he himself did.

Then, so that some may not say, "Even if you are great and did much, yet not as much as the apostles did in the other churches," he added, "For in what were you inferior to the other churches?" [2 Cor 12:13]. You shared in no less grace than the rest, he says. "But perhaps," someone might say, "why does he turn his word to the apostles, leaving off the battle with the false apostles?" Wishing abundantly to raise up their spirits, and to show that he is not only better than those men, but not even inferior to the great apostles. For this reason, when he speaks about those men, he says, "I more"; but when he compares himself with the apostles, he says it is enough not to have fallen short, though he labored more than they. And from this he shows that they insult those apostles too, when they hold in second place one who is their equal. "Except that I myself was not a burden to you." Again he set down the rebuke with great weight. And what follows is more burdensome: "Forgive me this wrong!" But nevertheless the weight carries words of love too, and praise of them, if indeed they think it a wrong to themselves that the apostle would not consent to take anything from them, nor dared to be supported from there. If you charge this, he says (he did not say, "You charge it wrongly," but with great sweetness), I ask pardon: forgive me this sin. And see his wisdom: since this, continually turned over, brought them reproach, he continually softens it. For above, having said, "As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped," he said again, "Because I do not love you? God knows. But so that I may cut off the occasion from those who want an occasion, and so that in what they boast of they may be found just as we are" [2 Cor 11:10–12]. And in the first letter, "What then is my reward? That in preaching the gospel I may make the gospel free of charge" [1 Cor 9:18]. And here, "Forgive me this wrong." For everywhere he avoids showing that it is because of their weakness that he does not receive; that is why here too he says thus: if you think this an offense, I ask pardon. And he said these things both striking and healing. For do not say, "If you wish to strike, why do you defend yourself? If to heal, why do you strike?" For this belongs to wisdom: both to cut and to bind up the wound.

Then, so that he may not seem, as they said before too, to keep turning it over continually in order to receive, he heals it in the first letter too, saying, "But I have not written this so that it may be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void" [1 Cor 9:15]; but here more sweetly and gently. How and in what way? "Here for the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you; for I do not seek what is yours, but you. For children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children" [2 Cor 12:14]. What he says is this: it is not because I do not receive that I do not come; but I came a second time, and I have prepared to come this third time, "and I will not be a burden to you." And the reason is noble. For he did not say, "Since you are stingy," ... but, "For I do not seek what is yours, but you." I seek greater things: souls instead of money, salvation instead of gold. Then, since the thing still carried a suspicion, as though he were pained with them, he therefore sets down a reasoning too. For since it was likely that they would say, "Is it not possible to have both us and what is ours?" he adds the defense with great grace, saying, "For children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children"; putting parents and children in place of teachers and disciples, and showing that he does as a matter of debt what was not a matter of debt. For Christ did not so command [1 Cor 9:14]; but sparing them he says this; that is why he even adds more. For he did not say only that children ought not to lay up treasure, but also that parents ought to do so. Since, then, I must give, "I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls" [2 Cor 12:15]. For the law of nature commanded parents to lay up for their children; but I not only do this, but give myself besides. And this is the excess: not only not to receive, but to give besides, and not simply, but with great generosity and out of want; for "I will be spent" is the language of one hinting at this. For even if I must spend my very flesh, I will not spare it for your salvation. And what follows is with a charge and with love at once: "If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less?" And I do these things, he says, for those who are loved, and who do not love in the same way. Consider, then, how many steps the thing has. He ought to have received, but he did not receive: see the first achievement. And while in want: the second. And while preaching to them: the third. And he gives besides: the fourth. And not simply gives besides, but with intensity: the fifth. And not money only, but himself: the sixth. And for those who do not greatly love him: the seventh. And for those he greatly loves: [the eighth.]

Let us too, then, emulate this man. For it is a great charge not to love; but it becomes greater when someone, being loved, does not love. For [if] the one who loves the one who loves him has nothing more than the tax collectors [Matt 5:46], the one who does not even have this would be lower even than the wild beasts. What are you saying, man? You do not love the one who loves you? And for what do you live? Where will you be useful from now on? In what affairs? In public ones? In private ones? Not at all; for nothing is more useless than a man who does not know how to love. Even robbers and murderers and housebreakers have often respected this law, and having only shared salt, have changed, altering their ways because of the table; but you, sharing not only salt but words and deeds, comings in and goings out, do you not love? Those who love shamefully spend whole fortunes on prostitutes; but you, having an honorable love, are you so cold and weak and unmanly as not to consent to love even without expense? "And who," someone says, "will be so wretched, who such a beast, as to turn from and hate the one who loves him?" You do well to disbelieve because of the absurdity of the thing; but if I show that there are many such, how shall we bear the shame from then on? For when you speak ill of the one you love, when you hear another speak ill and do not defend him, when you envy him when he is well approved, what love is this? And yet not even this is enough to show friendship, not envying, as neither is not being hostile, nor not making war; but one must also applaud and increase the one who loves. But when someone does and says everything so as to pull down his neighbor, what could be more wretched than this soul? Yesterday and the day before a friend, and you shared words and table; then all at once, since you saw your own member well approved, throwing off the mask of friendship you put on that of enmity, or rather of madness. For it is plain madness to be stung by the good things of one's neighbors; for this belongs to madmen and rabid dogs. For like them these too leap at the faces of all, provoked by envy. It is better to have a serpent rolling in one's entrails than envy creeping within. For that one can often be vomited out by drugs and soothed by food; but envy does not roll in the entrails, but turns in the bosom of the soul, and is a passion hard to wipe out. And the serpent within would not touch human bodies when food is set before it; but envy, even if you set ten thousand tables before it, [devours the soul,] dragging it about; and it is not possible to find any comfort for it by which it will cease from its madness, except one only: the misfortune of the one who prospers. So it is relieved, or rather, not even so. For even if this man suffers harm, seeing another prospering it is held by the same pains; and everywhere wounds, everywhere blows. For it is not possible, moving about on earth, not to see people well approved. And so great is the excess of the disease that even if one shuts [the envious man] up at home, [he envies] the men of old who are dead. And for worldly men to suffer this is harsh, yet not so terrible; but that even those who have been freed from the uproars of the world should be held by this disease, this is harder than all. And I wished to keep silent; but if silence would also remove the shame that comes from the facts, there would be gain in saying nothing; but if, even if I keep silent, the facts will cry out more loudly than my tongue, no harm will come from my words, as though our evils were being paraded, but perhaps gain and some benefit. For this disease has laid hold even of the church; this has turned everything upside down, and split the coherence of the body, and we stand against one another, envy arming us. For this reason the perversion is great. For if, when all build up, it is enough if those who are taught stand firm, when we all pull down, what will be the end?

What are you doing, man? You think it profitable to pull down your neighbor's affairs; but before his you pull down your own. Do you not see the vine-dressers, the farmers, how they all run to one goal? One has dug, others have planted, another has heaped earth around the root, another ..., another drives off the cattle; and all look to one thing, the preservation of the plant. But here it is not so; but I plant, and another shakes and loosens it. Let it at least be well fixed, so that it may become stronger than the plotting. You are not destroying my work, but undoing your own. I planted; you ought to have watered. If, then, you shake it, you have pulled up the root and have nothing on which to show your watering. "But do you see the one who plants well approved?" Do not be afraid; neither am I anything, nor you. "For neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything" [1 Cor 3:7]; the work is of the one God. So you fight and make war against him, by pulling up what has been planted. Let us become sober at last, then; let us be watchful. I do not fear the war from outside so much as the battle within. For a root too, when it is well fitted into the earth, will suffer nothing from the winds; but if it is shaken itself, a worm gnawing it within, it will fall even with nothing [else touching it]. How long shall we gnaw the root of the church like worms? For such thoughts are born from the earth, or rather not even from the earth but from dung, having rottenness for their mother; and they do not keep away from the despicable flattery of women. Let us at last become noble men, let us become athletes of philosophy, let us drive away the great flood of these evils. For I see the multitude of the church now lying like a dead body. And as in a body that has recently died one can see eyes, and hands and feet and neck and head, but none of the members doing its own work, so here too all who are present are believers, but the faith is not active; for we have quenched its warmth and made the body of Christ dead. And if what has been said is dreadful, it is far more dreadful when it appears in deeds. For we have the names of brothers, but the deeds of enemies; and all being called members, we stand apart like wild beasts. I have said these things not wishing to parade our affairs, but to shame you and turn you away from them.

So-and-so went into a house and enjoyed honor; though you ought to give thanks to God that your member is honored and God is glorified, you do the opposite. Do you speak ill [of him] to the one who [honored him]? Did you hear a brother praised, whether among men or among women, and were you grieved? Add to the praises; so you will praise yourself too. But if you pull down the praise, you have first spoken ill of yourself. When you hear him praised, become a sharer in what is said, if not by your life and virtue, then by rejoicing in his good things. So-and-so praised him? Admire him too; so he too will praise you as kind and gentle. Do not fear that you are pulling down your own affairs by praising others; for this happens rather in accusations. For the race of men is contentious; and when he sees you speaking ill, he heightens the praises, wishing to sting you by this, and blames the accusers to himself and slanders them to others. Do you see how much disgrace we cause ourselves? How we destroy the flock and tear it apart? Let us at last become members, let us become one body; and let the one who is praised push away the praises and transfer them to his brother, and the one who hears another praised, let him rejoice with him. If we gather ourselves together so, we shall draw the Head to ourselves as well; but if we are divided from one another, we shall drive away the help from there too; and when that departs, the body will suffer great damage, not being held together from above. So that this may not happen, then, let us drive away jealousy and envy, and, despising the glory of the many, embrace love and concord. For so we shall obtain both the present and the future good things; which may we all attain, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, might, honor, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.