Homilies on 2 Thessalonians 1.1

[Argument] Having said in the first letter, “We pray night and day to see you,” and “We could not bear it, but were left alone at Athens,” and “I sent Timothy,” by all these he shows the longing he had to come to them. Since then he perhaps had not managed to go and to supply what was lacking in their faith, for this reason he adds the second letter, filling up by writing what was left wanting from his absence. That he did not go one can infer from this; for writing he says, “Now we ask you, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” For in the first letter too he said, “Concerning the times and the seasons you have no need to have anything written to you.” So if he had come, he would have had no need to write; but since the question was put off, for this reason he adds this letter, as he says also in the letter to Timothy, “[They] upset [the faith of some, saying that the resurrection has already happened].” And they did this so that the faithful, no longer hoping for anything great or splendid, might give up in their toils. For since hope sustained them and did not let them give way to their present troubles, the devil, wishing to cut away this as it were an anchor, since he could not persuade them that the things to come were false, came by another road, and setting up certain corrupt men, tried to deceive those who listened to them into thinking that those great and splendid things had come to an end. At that time they said that the resurrection had already happened; but now they said that the judgment and the coming of Christ were at hand, so as to make Christ himself liable to the charge of falsehood, and, persuading them that there is no longer any requital, nor judgment seat, nor punishment and penalty for those who have done evil, to make those men bolder and these more downcast. And what was worst of all, some tried simply to report sayings as spoken by Paul, and others even to forge letters as written by him. Therefore, walling off every approach from them, he says, “Not to be troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter as if from us.” “Neither by spirit,” he says, hinting at the false prophets. “How then shall we know?” someone says. By the addition; for this is why he added, “The greeting with my own hand, Paul’s, which is a sign in every letter; this is how I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” He does not say that this is the sign (for others could probably imitate this), but that I write the greeting with my own hand; as is the case with us now too; for from the signature the letters of the senders become known. And he exhorts them, who were deeply pickled in evils, both praising them for the present and from the future; and urging them on by the punishment and the requital of the good things prepared for them, he goes through the subject more clearly, not revealing the time itself, but making plain the sign of the time, the Antichrist. For a weak soul is most fully assured, not if it simply hears, but if it learns something more. And Christ too takes great care about this, when, sitting on the mountain, he discussed everything about the consummation with the disciples in detail. Why? So that those who bring in antichrists and false christs might have no room. And he himself sets down many signs: one, and the greatest, saying, when the gospel has been preached to all the nations; another, so as not to be deceived about his coming: “Like lightning,” he says, “he will come,” not hidden in some corner, but shining everywhere; it needs no one to announce it, so bright is it, just as lightning needs no one to announce it. And somewhere he spoke about the Antichrist too, when he said, “I have come in my Father’s name, and you did not receive me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him.” And he said that the successive and unspeakable calamities were a proof of this; and that Elijah must come. The Thessalonians, then, were perplexed about these things at that time, but their perplexity has become useful to us; for these things are useful not only to them but to us too, so that we may be rid of childish myths and old wives’ nonsense. Or have you not often heard, when you were children, some saying many things about the name of the Antichrist, and about his bending his knees? For the devil sows these things in our minds while they are still tender, so that the teaching may grow up with us, so that he may be able to deceive us. Paul, then, would not have passed these things over when speaking about the Antichrist, if they had been useful. Let us not then seek these things. For he will not come bending his knees, but “exalting himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God as God, proclaiming himself to be God.” For just as the devil fell through pride, so too the one energised by him is anointed for pride. Let us all then, I beg you, be eager to be far from this passion, so that we may not fall into his condemnation, so that we may not come into the same punishment, so that we may not [incur] his penalty. “Not a recent convert,” he says, “lest, puffed up with conceit, he fall into the condemnation of the devil.” So the one who is puffed up pays the same penalty as the devil. “For the beginning of pride,” it says, “is not to know the Lord”; the beginning of sin is pride, the first impulse and movement toward evil; perhaps indeed both root and foundation. For “beginning” signifies either the first impulse toward evil, or its constitution; as one might say, “the beginning of self-control is abstaining from a perverse sight,” that is, the first impulse; and if we say, “the beginning of self-control is fasting,” that is, the foundation and structure. So too pride is the beginning of sin; for every sin begins from it, and is held together by it. For that whatever good things we do, this wickedness does not let them remain and not fall away, but is as it were a root that does not let them stand unshaken, is plain from this: see how much the Pharisee did, but nothing profited him; for he did not cut out the root, but it ruined everything. From pride comes contempt of the poor, desire for money, love of rule, longing for glory; such a man is quick to avenge insult. For the proud man does not bear being insulted even by his superiors, much less by his inferiors; and the one who does not bear being insulted does not bear suffering ill either. See how pride is the beginning of sin. And how is not knowing the Lord the beginning of pride? Naturally; for the one who knows God as one ought to know him, who knows [how far] the Son of God humbled himself, is not exalted; but the one who does not know these things is exalted; for pride anoints for arrogance. For tell me, from what do these who war against the church claim to know God? Is it not from arrogance? See into what a precipice not knowing the Lord has cast them. For if God loves a contrite spirit, on the contrary he opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. No evil then is equal to pride: it makes a man a demon, insolent, a blasphemer, a perjurer; it makes him long for deaths and murders. The proud man always lives with griefs, always is indignant, always is distressed; there is nothing that can satisfy his passion; even if he sees the emperor bowing down and doing obeisance, he is not satisfied, but is inflamed the more. For just as lovers of money, the more they take, the more they need, so too the arrogant, the more honour they enjoy, the more they desire; for the passion grows in them (for it is a passion), and a passion knows no limit, but stops only when it kills the one who has it. Do you not see drunkards, that they are always thirsty? For it is a passion, not a desire of nature, but a perverted disease. Do you not see those they call ravenous, that they are always hungry? For it is a passion, as the sons of physicians say, that has already gone beyond the bounds of nature. So too the busybodies and the curious do not stop at whatever they learn; for it is a passion, and has no limit. Again, those who delight in sexual immorality do not stop either (“For to a man who is a fornicator,” it says, “all bread is sweet; he will not cease until he is swallowed up”); for it is a passion. But these are passions, yet not incurable, but having a cure, and much more than bodily ones; for if we will, we can quench them. How then is it possible to quench arrogance? By coming to know God. For if it arises from not knowing God, if we know him, all arrogance is driven away. Think of Gehenna, think of those far better than you, think of how many penalties you owe God; if you think of these things, you have quickly humbled your mind, quickly bent it. But can you not do these things? Are you weaker? Think of present things, of human nature itself, how man is nothing. When you see a dead man carried through the marketplace, orphan children following, a widow downcast, consider the nothingness of present affairs, and that they differ nothing from shadows and dreams. But you do not wish this? Think of the very rich, of those simply perishing in wars; look around at the houses of the great and famous, now brought down to the ground; think how much power they had, and now not even a memory of them remains. For every day, if you will, you find examples of these things: successions of rulers, confiscations of the rich. “Many tyrants have sat on the ground, and one never suspected has worn a diadem.” Do these things not happen every day? Are not our affairs like a wheel? Read, if you will, both our own writings and those of outsiders (for those too are full of these examples), if you despise ours out of arrogance; if you admire the writings of the philosophers, go to them; they will teach you, narrating ancient calamities, and the poets, and the orators, and the sophists, and all the historians. From every side you find examples, if you will. And if you wish none of these, consider our very nature, from what it is composed and where it ends; consider, when you sleep, of what worth you are: will not even a small creature be able to kill you? For to many something from the roof or some other danger has often been the cause [of death]. And what? Are you not less than all the beasts? But what do you say? That you are master by reason? But see, you do not have reason; for pride is a proof of irrationality. And in what are you proud, tell me? In bodily vigour at all? But the prizes for that are among the irrational animals. This is found among robbers and murderers and grave robbers too. In intelligence, then? But it is not the mark of intelligence to be proud; by this first of all you deprive yourself of becoming intelligent. Let us humble our minds, let us become moderate and lowly and gentle; for Christ blessed such above all, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”; and again he cried, saying, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.” Therefore he washed the feet of the disciples, giving us an example of humility. Let us be eager to gain from all these things, so that we may be able to obtain the good things promised to those who love him, by the grace and loving-kindness … [Homily 2] “Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Most men do and contrive everything to obtain some favour with rulers and with those greater than themselves, and they count this a great thing, and think themselves blessed if they obtain what they are eager for. And if obtaining favour with men is so great a thing, how great would it be to find favour with God? Therefore he always puts this at the head of his letter, and prays for this, knowing that if this is present, nothing grievous will remain, but whatever is difficult will all be resolved. And so that you may learn: Joseph was a slave, young, inexperienced, unsophisticated, and was suddenly entrusted with the management of a household, and gave account to an Egyptian man. And you know how hot-tempered and unforgiving that nation is; and when rule and authority are added, the anger is greater, lifted up by the authority. And this is plain from what he did afterwards. For when his mistress accused Joseph, he put up with it; and yet using force is not the mark of those who hold the garments, but of the one who has been stripped of them. For he ought to have said: if you raised your voice, he would have fled; and if he had been conscious of guilt, he would not have waited for his master’s arrival. But nevertheless he considered nothing of the kind, but irrationally gave everything over to his anger and threw him into prison; so unreasoning a man was he. And yet it was possible to infer the young man’s goodwill and good sense from other things too; but nevertheless, since he was very irrational, he considered nothing of the kind. The one, then, who had such a wicked master, and was entrusted with the service of a whole household, and was a stranger, alone and inexperienced, since God had poured much favour upon him, passed through everything as if the trials were nothing: his mistress’s false accusation, the danger of death, the prison; and finally he came to the royal throne. This blessed man, then, saw how great is God’s favour; and therefore he prays it for them. And he arranges something else too; for, wishing to make them well disposed toward what comes later in the letter, so that, even if he rebukes, even if he reproves, they may not leap away, he therefore reminds them before everything of the grace of God, smoothing their hearts, so that, even if there is affliction, remembering the grace by which they were saved from greater things, they may not despair in lesser ones, but may have comfort from it; as writing elsewhere too he said, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” “Grace to you,” he says, “and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is fitting.” See the excess of humility: by saying “we ought to give thanks,” he gives them to reason and consider that if others, for your good deeds, do not admire you first but God, much more do we. And besides, he lifts up their spirits too, because they suffer things deserving not tears or laments, but thanksgiving to God. And if Paul gives thanks for others’ good things, what will those suffer who not only do not give thanks, but even waste away with envy? “Because your faith grows abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another increases.” “And how is it possible for faith to grow?” someone says. How? When we suffer something terrible for it. It is a great thing to be established and not be carried away by reasonings; but when winds beat against us, when rains burst down, when a grievous storm rises on every side, when the waves come one upon another, and then we are not shaken, it is a proof of nothing else than of its having grown, and grown abundantly, and become higher. For just as in the flood all the stony and low places were quickly hidden, but whatever was above did not reach them; so too faith that has become lofty is no longer dragged down. Therefore he did not say “grows,” but “your faith grows abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another increases.” Do you see that this too contributes toward afflictions, to be fenced together, to hold to one another? From this too came great encouragement. Afflictions shake weak love and faith, but make the strong stronger. For the soul in pain, when it is weak, would add nothing; but the strong one adds most of all then. And see the love: they did not love one and not another, but it was equal from all; for he hinted at this by saying, “of every one of you for one another,” that it is equally balanced, as of one body. For now too we find love among many, but this love becoming a cause of division. For when we are joined two and three together, and the two, or three or four, are very bound to one another, but draw themselves away from the rest, through having them to flee to and confiding everything to them, this is a division of love, not love. For tell me, if the eye were to transfer the forethought it has for the whole body to the hand, and turning away from the other members attended to it alone, would it not ruin the whole? Naturally. So we too, if we confine to one or two the love that ought to extend to the whole church of God, ruin ourselves and them and the whole. For these things are not of love, but schisms of division, and tears torn apart. For even if I tear away a part from the whole man and take it, the piece is united to itself, and is continuous and joined; but even so it is a piece torn off, since it is not united to the rest of the body. For what is the profit if you love so-and-so vehemently? The love is human; but if it is not human, but you love for God’s sake, love all; for God commanded us to love even our enemies. And if he commanded us to love our enemies, how much more those who have grieved us in nothing? “But I do love,” someone says. But not so; or rather you do not even love; for when you speak evil … “I do none of these things,” he says. But when, hearing someone spoken ill of, you do not stop the mouth of the speaker, do not disbelieve what is said, do not check it, of what friendship is this a proof? “And the love of every one of you for one another increases,” he says, “so that we ourselves boast of you in the churches of God.” In the first letter, at least, he says that all the churches of Macedonia and Achaia resounded, having learned of their faith: “So that,” he says, “we have no need to say anything; for they themselves report concerning you what kind of entrance we had to you”; but here he says, “so that we boast.” What then is the meaning of what is said? There he says that they need no teaching from you; but here he did not say that we teach them, but that we boast and take pride. If then we both give thanks to God for you and boast before men, much more ought you to do this for our good deeds. For if your good deeds are worthy of boasting for others, how are they worthy of laments for us? One cannot say so. “So that we ourselves,” he says, “boast of you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith.” Here he shows that much time has passed; steadfastness appears over much time, not in two or three days. And he does not speak simply of steadfastness; for not yet to enjoy the good things promised is itself a mark of steadfastness; but now he speaks of a greater steadfastness. What is this? That through the persecutions. That he hints at this is plain from what he adds and says: “in all your persecutions and the afflictions that you endure.” For they lived with enemies continually trying to harm them from every side, and they showed a firm and unmoved steadfastness. Let those be ashamed who change their doctrines for the patronage of men. For while the preaching was still at its beginning, poor men living by their daily work took up enmities against men in public life and the first of the city, when there was no emperor or ruler anywhere who was a believer, and [endured] war … “[This is] evidence of the righteous judgment of God.” See how he gathers comfort for them. He said, “We give thanks to God”; he said, “We boast before men.” These things are good; but what the one in pain seeks most is this: deliverance from evils, and punishment of those who treat him ill. For when the soul is weak, it seeks these things most of all; but the philosophic soul does not even seek this. What then is it that he says, “evidence of the righteous judgment of God”? He has already hinted at the requital on both sides, of those who do ill and of those who suffer it; as if he said: so that, when he crowns you and punishes them, God’s justice may be shown. At the same time he comforts them too, showing that they are crowned for their own toils and sweat and by the rule of justice. But he puts their part first. For even if one greatly desires vengeance, yet he reaches for the prizes first. Therefore he adds, saying, “so that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering.” So this happens not because those who do wrong are stronger, but because one must enter the kingdom so. “For through many afflictions,” it says, “we must enter the kingdom of God.” “Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted, with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power.” “Since indeed” here stands for “since,” which we too use in matters that are thoroughly acknowledged and beyond dispute; in place of “it is entirely just.” If it is just with God, he says, to avenge himself on these, he will certainly avenge himself; as if he said: if God cares about affairs, if God takes thought. So he himself sets down this “since indeed” as about things acknowledged; as if someone said, “if God hates the wicked”; saying it so in order to force them to say that he does hate them; for such verdicts above all are indisputable; as even those men themselves know that it is just. For if this is just among men, much more with God. “To repay with affliction,” he says, “those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted, with us.”