Homilies on Colossians 8.5

Let us then give thanks in everything, whatever happens; for this is thanksgiving. To do this in prosperity is nothing great, for the very nature of things pushes one to it; but when we give thanks while in extremities, then it is marvellous. For when we give thanks for things at which others blaspheme and complain, see how great the philosophy is. First, you have gladdened God; second, you have shamed the devil; third, you have shown that what happened is nothing. For at once you give thanks, and God cuts short the pain, and the devil departs. If you complain, the devil stands by you, as having accomplished what he wanted, and God, as blasphemed, abandons you, and the trouble is intensified; but if you give thanks, the devil departs, as gaining nothing, and God, as honoured, honours you more greatly in return. And it is not possible for a man who gives thanks in evils to feel the evils. For the soul rejoices as one that is succeeding; at once it has a bright conscience, it delights in its own praises; and a bright soul cannot be gloomy. In the other case, along with the misfortune, conscience too presses on him, scourging him; but here it crowns and proclaims him. Nothing is holier than that tongue which gives thanks to God in evils; truly it falls short in nothing of the tongue of the martyrs: it is crowned just as the martyr is. For over it too stands an executioner, compelling it to deny God through blasphemy; the devil stands over it … If then someone bears the pains and gives thanks, he has obtained the crown of martyrdom. For example, the child is sick, and the mother gives thanks to God: this is a crown to her. What torture is despondency not worse than? Yet it does not force her to utter a bitter word. The child dies; again she gave thanks? She has become a daughter of Abraham. For if she did not slay it with her own hand, yet she was pleased with the sacrifice, which is equal; for she was not indignant when the gift was taken. Again the child fell sick; she did not make amulets? It is reckoned to her as martyrdom; for she sacrificed her son in her resolve. For what if those things are of no use, but are deceit and mockery? Still there were those who persuaded her that they help; and she chose rather to see the child dead than to put up with idolatry. Just as, then, she is a martyr, whether this is done in her own case or her child's or her husband's or that of any other of her dearest, so the other woman is an idolater. For it is clear that she would have sacrificed, if it were possible to sacrifice; or rather she has already performed the act of sacrifice. For amulets — even if those who make money from them philosophize endlessly, saying, “We invoke God and do nothing more,” and such things, and “The old woman is a Christian and a believer” — the thing is idolatry. Are you a believer? Make the sign of the cross; say, “This is my only weapon, this my remedy; I know no other.” Tell me, if a doctor came and, leaving aside the remedies of medicine, used incantations, would we call him a doctor? Not at all; for we do not see the remedies of medicine. So here too we do not see those of Christianity. Other women again hang on the names of rivers, and dare countless such things. See, I say and forewarn you all, that if anyone is caught, I will not spare again, whether he makes an amulet or an incantation or anything else of such an art. “What then,” she says, “is the child to die?” If it lives in that way, then it has died; but if it dies without those things, then it has lived. As it is, if you see your son given to harlots, you pray that he may be buried, and say, “What use is it to live?”; but when you see him in danger for his salvation, do you wish to see him alive? Did you not hear Christ saying, “He who loses his life will find it, and he who finds it will lose it”? Do you believe what was said, or do they seem fables to you? Tell me, if someone said, “Take him to an idol's temple, and he will live,” would you put up with it? “No,” she says. Why? “Because that compels idolatry; but here there is no idolatry, only an incantation,” she says. This is the satanic thinking, this the devilish craft: to cover up the error and give the poison in honey. Since he knows that he will not persuade you that way, he has gone by this road, to amulets and old wives' fables; and the cross is dishonoured, and the letters are preferred to it; Christ is cast out, and a drunken, babbling old woman is brought in; our mystery is trampled, and the devil's error dances. “Why then,” she says, “does God not refute it?” He has refuted the help from such things in many places, and did not persuade you; now he leaves you to the error: “For God gave them up,” it says, “to a reprobate mind.” Not even a Greek with sense would put up with these things. It is said that a certain demagogue at Athens once had these things hung on him; then a philosopher, his teacher, seeing it, rebuked him … For we are in so wretched a state as to believe even in these things. “And why are there not now those who raise the dead,” someone says, “and perform healings?” Why, I do not yet say; but why are there not now those who despise the present life? Why do we serve God for wages? When human nature was weaker, when the faith had to be planted, there were many such; but now he does not want us to depend on these signs, but to be ready for death. Why then do you cling to the present life? Why do you not see the things to come? For this life you put up even with idolatry, but for that one you will not even restrain your despondency? That is why there are no such men now: because that life has appeared worthless to us, since for it we do nothing, while for this one there is nothing we refuse to endure. And what of that other absurdity, ash and soot and salt? And again the old woman is brought in. Truly a laughingstock and a shame. And “an eye,” she says, “has snatched the child.” How long these satanic things? How will the Greeks not laugh? How will they not mock, when we tell them, “Great is the power of the cross”? How will they be persuaded when they see us needing the things they themselves laugh at? Is it for this that God gave doctors and medicines? “What then, if they do not heal, and the child departs?” Where does it depart, tell me, wretched and miserable woman? To the demons? To some tyrant? Does it not depart to heaven? Not to its own Master? Why then do you grieve? Why weep? Why mourn? Why do you love the child more than your Master? Do you not have this too through him? Why are you ungrateful, loving the gift more than the giver? “But I am weak,” she says, “and I cannot bear the fear of God.” Yet if in bodily evils the greater hides the lesser, much more in the soul: if fear were present, fear would have dissolved fear, and grief grief. Was the child beautiful? But however beautiful it was, it is not more lovely than Isaac; and he too was an only son. Was it born to you in old age? So was he. But is it handsome? However handsome, it is not more lovely than Moses, who drew even a barbarian's eye to love, and that at an age when beauty does not yet show; and yet his parents cast this beloved child into the river. You see your child lying dead, and hand it over to burial, and go to the tomb; but they did not even know whether it would be food for fish, or for dogs, or for some other of the beasts that feed in the sea; and they did this knowing nothing yet of the kingdom or of the resurrection. “But it is not an only child; it has gone after many others too.” But not as with Job, where the misfortune came all at once and was gloomier: not with a roof falling, not while they were at table, not with misfortunes announced one after another. “But it was loved by you.” But not more than Joseph, who became the food of a wild beast; yet Jacob bore that misfortune, and the one after it, and the one after that. The father wept, he mourned, but he stopped at these words, saying, “Joseph is not, Simeon is not, and will you take Benjamin? All these things have come upon me.” Do you see how the tyranny of famine persuaded him to disregard his children? And with you does the fear of God not prevail as much as famine did? Weep, I do not forbid it; but say nothing blasphemous and do nothing blasphemous. Whatever your child is like, he is not like Abel; but Adam said nothing of the kind. And yet that misfortune was grievous; for what is more grievous than that a brother had killed his brother? But I have remembered other fratricides opportunely, as when Absalom killed Amnon, the firstborn. And David the king loved his child, and sat in sackcloth and ashes; but he brought neither diviners nor enchanters, though there were such then, as Saul shows, but he besought God. Do this too: what the righteous man did, do also, and say the same words when the child dies: “I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” This is philosophy, this is tender love. However much you love your child, you do not love it as much as he did then; for in that blessed man the longing for its mother was at its height, even if the child came from adulteries. And you know that children share in the love felt for those who bore them. And so great was his love that he wished it to live, though it would be an accuser to him; but nevertheless he gave thanks to God. What do you think Rebekah suffered when the brother threatened Jacob? She did not grieve her husband, but bade him send Jacob away. Consider things worse than these when you suffer something terrible, and you will have sufficient consolation; reckon: what if he had died in war? What if in a fire? And whatever we suffer, let us consider worse things, and we will have enough consolation; and let us always look around at those who have suffered worse, and whether we ourselves ever suffered heavier things. So Paul too exhorts, as when he says, “You have not yet resisted to blood”; and again, “No temptation has taken you but such as is human.” Whatever we suffer, then, let us look around at worse things; for we will find them, and so we will be thankful. And above all let us give thanks continually for all things; for so these things too will cease, and we will live for the glory of God and obtain the promised good things, which may we all obtain, by the grace and lovingkindness … [Homily 9] “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing yourselves with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord; and whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Having exhorted them to be thankful, he also shows the way. What way is this? The one we discussed with you lately. What does he say? “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Or rather not only this way, but another too. For I said that we must count over those who have suffered worse things, and … and give thanks that those things did not befall us; but what does he say? “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,” that is, the teaching, the doctrines, the exhortation, in which he says that the present life is nothing, nor its good things. For if we see these things, we will yield to none of the hardships. “Let it dwell,” he says, “in you richly”: not simply, but with great abundance. Hear, all you who live in the world and preside over wife and children, how he entrusts to you especially the reading of the Scriptures, and not simply nor casually, but with great earnestness. For just as one who is rich in money can bear a fine and a penalty, so one who is rich in the doctrines of philosophy will bear not only poverty but all misfortunes easily, and more easily than the other. For there, in paying off the fine, the rich man must be diminished and exposed, and if this happens often he will no longer be able to bear it; but here it is not so; for we do not use up our sound thoughts when we must bear something unwelcome, but they remain always. And see the understanding of this blessed man. He did not simply say, “Let the word of Christ be in you,” but what? “Let it dwell,” and “richly.” “In all wisdom teaching and admonishing yourselves.” He calls virtue wisdom, rightly; for humility and almsgiving and all such things are wisdom, as their opposites are folly; for cruelty too comes from folly. Hence in many places Scripture calls all sin folly: “The fool said,” it says, “in his heart, There is no God”; and again, “My wounds have become foul and festered because of my folly.” For what, tell me, is more foolish than a man who clothes himself in garments but overlooks his own brothers naked? Who feeds dogs but overlooks the image of God in famine? Who does not see that human affairs are nothing, and clings to them as if they were immortal? Just as nothing is more foolish than such a man, so nothing is wiser than one who achieves virtue. For see how wise he is: he shares what he has, he is merciful, humane; he has recognized that nature is common; he has recognized the use of money, that it is worth nothing, and that one should spare one's own body rather than money. Therefore, despising glory, he is also a philosopher; for he knows human affairs. Philosophy is the knowledge of things divine and human. So he knows what things are divine and what are human, and keeps away from the latter and practises the former; he knows also to give thanks to God in all things; he thinks the present life nothing; that is why he neither delights in good fortune nor grieves at the opposite. Do not wait for another teacher: you have the oracles of God; no one teaches you as they do. For a teacher often hides many things through vainglory and envy. Hear, I beg you, all you who … If you want nothing else, at least get the New Testament, the Acts of the apostles, the Gospels, as constant teachers. If grief befalls, dip into them as into a chest of medicines … for the trouble, whether loss or death or the bereavement of your own; or rather do not merely dip into them, but take them all up, hold them in your mind. This is the cause of all evils: not knowing the Scriptures. We go to war without weapons; and how ought we to be saved? It is well if we are saved with them, let alone without them. Do not throw everything on us; you are sheep, but not irrational, rather rational; Paul entrusts much to you too. Those who are being taught do not spend all their time learning, otherwise they are not being taught; if you are always learning, you will never learn. Do not come as one who will always be learning, for then you will never know; but as one who will finish learning and teach another. Tell me, do not all people stay at their lessons for fixed periods, and in short in all the arts? So we all fix a definite time; but if someone is always learning, it is a sign that he has learned nothing. This reproach God spoke to the Jews: “Carried from the womb, and taught until old age.” If you did not always expect this, everything would not have gone backward so. If it were possible for some to have learned and others to be about to learn, our work would have advanced; you would have given place to others and would have joined in the work with us. Tell me, if some went to a schoolmaster and then stayed forever learning the letters, would they not give the teacher much toil? How long are we to discourse to you about life? In the apostles' time it was not so; they constantly moved on, making those who had learned first into teachers … they were able to go round the world by not being tied to one place. How much teaching do you think your brothers in the fields need, and their teachers? But you hold me nailed here. For before the head is well disposed, it is superfluous to go on to the rest of the body. You throw everything on us. You ought to learn from us only, and your wives from you, and your children from you; but you leave everything to us. That is why the toil is great. “Teaching,” he says, “and admonishing yourselves with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” See also how Paul avoids being burdensome. Since reading involves labour and much tedium, he did not lead them to the histories but to psalms, so that you might at once delight your soul by singing and steal away the labour. “With hymns,” he says, “and spiritual songs.” But now your children choose satanic songs and dances, like cooks and caterers and dancers; but no one knows a single psalm; the thing even seems a shame and mockery and a laughingstock. From there all evils are kept alive. For in whatever soil the plant stands, such is the fruit it bears: if in sandy and salty soil, fruit of that kind; if in sweet and rich soil, again fruit like it. So teachings are a kind of spring. Teach your son to sing those psalms full of philosophy, for example about self-control at once, or rather first of all about not keeping company with the wicked, right from the beginning of the book (for that is why the Prophet began from there, saying, “Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly”; and again, “I have not sat with the council of vanity”; and again, “The evildoer is set at nought before him, but he glorifies those who fear the Lord”); about keeping company with the good (and you will find these things there, and many others); about controlling the belly, about restraining the hands, about not being greedy; that money is nothing, nor glory, and all such things. When you have led him into these from childhood, little by little you will lead him to higher things too. The psalms have everything; but the hymns again have nothing human. When he has learned in the psalms, then he will also know hymns, as a more divine thing. For the powers above sing hymns; they do not sing psalms. “For a hymn is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner,” it says; and again, “My eyes are on the faithful of the land, that they may sit with me”; and again, “He who practises pride shall not dwell in the midst of my house”; and again, “He who walks in a blameless way, he ministered to me.” So take care that your children mix not only with no bad friends, but not even with bad servants. For countless evils befall free children when we set corrupt slaves over them. For if, enjoying a father's love and so much philosophy, they are hardly kept safe, what will they become under servants? These treat them as enemies, thinking their own masters will be milder if they make them fools and worthless and of no account. Before all else, then, let us be eager about these things. “I loved,” he says, “those who love your law.” Let us too emulate him and love these. And again, so that the children may be chaste, let them hear the Prophet saying, “My loins are filled … everyone who goes whoring from you.” And that one must control the belly, let them hear again: “And he killed,” it says, “the fattest of them, while their food was still in their mouth.” And that one must be above gifts, they will learn from this: “If riches flow in, do not set your heart on them”; and that one must master the love of glory, they will find this too: “Nor will his glory go down after him”; not to envy the wicked: “Do not be envious of evildoers”; to think powers nothing: “I saw the ungodly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and lo, he was not”; to think present things nothing: “They called the people blessed who have these things; blessed is the people whose God is the Lord”; that we do not sin with impunity, but he repays according to our works. And why does he not repay every day? “God is a judge,” it says, “righteous and strong and longsuffering”; that humility is good: “Lord,” it says, “my heart is not exalted”; that pride is evil: “Therefore,” it says, “pride took hold of them to the end”; and again, “The Lord resists the proud”; and again, “Their injustice will come out as from fat”; that almsgiving is good: “He scattered, he gave to the poor; his righteousness endures forever”; that showing mercy is praiseworthy: “Good is the man who has pity and lends.” And you will find there many more doctrines full of philosophy than these: for example, that one must not speak evil: “He who secretly slanders his neighbour, him I drove out.” What the hymn of those above is, what the cherubim say, the faithful know. What did the angels say below? “Glory to God in the highest.” That is why hymns come after the psalmody, as something more perfect. “With psalms,” he says, “hymns, songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.” Either he means that God gave us these things by grace; or, with the songs sung in grace; or, admonishing and teaching yourselves in grace; or that they had these gifts in grace; or it is an explanation: from the grace of the Spirit, he means. “Singing in your hearts to God”: not simply with the mouth, he says, but with attention. For this is singing to God, but the other is singing to the air, for the voice is simply scattered. Not for display, he says. Even if you are in the marketplace, you can collect yourself and sing to God, with no one hearing. For Moses too prayed thus and was heard; for God says, “Why do you cry to me?” And yet he said nothing, but cried in his mind, with a contrite heart; that is why God alone heard him. For nothing prevents a person even while walking from praying in the heart and being above. “And whatever you do,” he says, “in word or in deed, do all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” For if we do so, nothing will be defiled, nothing unclean, where Christ is invoked. If you eat, if you drink, if you marry, if you travel, do all in the name of God, that is, calling on him as helper; pray to him first before everything, and so set your hand to things. Do you want to say something? Put this first. That is why we too put the Lord's name first in our letters. Wherever the name of the Lord is, all things are auspicious. For if the names of consuls make documents secure, much more the name of Christ. Or he means this: say and do all things according to God; do not bring in the angels. Do you eat? Give thanks to God, both before and after. Do you sleep? Give thanks to God, both before and after. Do you go into the marketplace? Do the same: nothing worldly, nothing of the common life. Do all things in the name of the Lord, and all will prosper for you. Wherever the name of God is placed, all is auspicious. If it casts out demons, if it drives away diseases, much more will it make things easy. And what is it to do in word or in deed? Either asking for something or doing anything whatever. Hear how Abraham sent his servant in the name of God; David slew Goliath in the name of God. Wonderful is his name, and great. Again Jacob, sending his sons, says, “May my God give you favour before the man.” For he who does this has God as his ally, without whom he dared do nothing. As then God is honoured by being invoked, he will honour him in return by making things easy. Invoke the Son, give thanks to the Father. For when the Son is invoked, the Father is invoked, and when the Father is thanked, the Son is thanked. Let us learn to fulfil these things not in words only, but also in deeds. Nothing is equal to this name; it is wonderful everywhere: “Your name,” it says, “is ointment poured out.” He who says it is at once filled with fragrance. “No one can say ‘Lord Jesus,’” he says, “except in the Holy Spirit.” Such things this name works. If you say, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” with faith, you have accomplished everything. See how much you have done: you have created a man, and you have wrought all the rest from baptism. So too, when diseases are commanded, the name is fearful. That is why the devil brought in the things of the angels, envying us the honour. Such are the incantations of demons. Even if it is an angel, even if an archangel, even if the cherubim, do not put up with it; for not even these powers would accept it, seeing the Master dishonoured. “I honoured you,” he says, “and said, ‘Call on me’; and do you dishonour him?” When you sing this incantation with faith, you will drive away both diseases and demons; and if you do not drive away the disease, it is not from weakness, but because it is not expedient. “According to your greatness,” it says, “so is your praise.” Through this name the world was converted, the tyranny was dissolved, the devil … the heavens were opened. And why do I say the heavens? We were born again through this name. If we have it, we shine. This makes both martyrs and confessors; let us hold it fast as a great gift, so that we may live in glory, and please God, and be counted worthy of the good things promised to those who love him, by the grace and lovingkindness …