Homilies on Hebrews 21.1–21.3

“But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great contest of sufferings: partly being made a public spectacle by reproaches and afflictions, and partly becoming partners of those who were so treated. For you sympathized with the prisoners, and accepted the plundering of your possessions with joy, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession in heaven, and an abiding one.” The best physicians, when they have made a deep incision and increased the pains by the wound, soothing the suffering part and calming and reviving the troubled soul, do not go on to make another incision, but soothe even the one already made with gentle medicines that are able to remove most of the pain. This is what Paul too did … having pierced their souls and stung them with the remembrance of Gehenna, and having convinced them that whoever has insulted the grace of God must certainly perish, and having shown this from the laws of Moses, that they will perish, and [be punished] more severely … and having said, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”: so that the soul, giving up through great fear, might not be swallowed up by grief, he comforts them with praises and encouragement, and brings them zeal from their own record. “For remember,” he says, “the former [days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great contest] of sufferings.” Great is the encouragement that comes from deeds; for one who begins a thing ought to advance as he goes on. As if he said: when you were being brought in, when you were in the rank of disciples, you showed such eagerness, such nobility; but now no longer. And one who encourages encourages best in this way, from what is the hearers' own. And see: he did not simply say, “[a contest] you endured,” but with the addition, “great.” And he did not say “trials,” but “contest,” which is a name of praise and of the highest commendation. Then he also lists them in detail, broadening his speech and multiplying the praises. How? “Partly,” he says, “being made a public spectacle by reproaches and afflictions.” For reproach is a great thing for reaching the heart, and able to twist the soul and darken the reasoning. For hear what the prophet says: “My tears have become bread to me day and night, while they say to me every day, ‘Where is your God?’” And again: “If an enemy had reproached me, I would have borne it.” For since the human race is very vainglorious, it is for this reason easily caught by this. And he did not simply say, “by reproaches,” but this too with great intensity: “being made a public spectacle,” he says. For when someone is reproached privately, it is painful; but much more when it is before all. For consider how great an evil it was for those who had left the meanness of Judaism and gone over, as they thought, to the best way of life, and had despised the ways of their fathers, to suffer ill at the hands of their own kin, and to have no help at all. I cannot say, he says, that you suffered these things and were grieved, but rather that you rejoiced greatly. And he made this clear by saying, “And partly becoming partners of those who were so treated; for you sympathized with the prisoners.” And he brings the apostles themselves forward. Not only, he says, were you not ashamed in your own sufferings, but you even shared with the others who suffered these things. This too is the language of one encouraging them. He did not say, “You bore my afflictions, you shared with me,” but simply, “You sympathized with the prisoners.” Do you see that he speaks about himself and the others who were bound? So little did you think the bonds to be bonds; but like noble athletes, so you stood, that not only did you need no encouragement in your own trials, but you even became an encouragement to the others. “And [accepted] the plundering of your possessions [with joy …].” … [full assurance] of faith. Then he also gives the reason, encouraging them not only toward the contests, but also not to be shaken from the faith. For you already saw your [possession], which is not seen, as if it were seen; which was a mark of sincere faith, and you showed it by your very deeds. Now, to be plundered was perhaps due to the violence of those who plundered, and no one could have prevented it; so that this does not yet make clear that you endured the plundering for the sake of the faith. And yet even this is clear; for it was possible, if you had wished, not to be plundered, by not believing. But you did what is much greater than this: you bore such things even with joy; which was wholly apostolic, and worthy of those noble souls who rejoiced when they were scourged. “For they went away,” it says, “from the presence of the council rejoicing, that they had been counted worthy to be dishonored for his name.” And the one who bears it with joy shows that he has some reward, and that the thing is not a loss but a gain. And the word “accepted” shows their voluntary endurance. How then did you choose and accept it? “Knowing,” he says, “that you have for yourselves a better possession in heaven, and an abiding one.” What is “abiding”? Secure, not thus perishable…

Then, having praised them, he says, “Do not, then, throw away your boldness, which has a great reward.” What are you saying? He did not say, “You threw away your boldness; recover it,” so that they would not lose heart, but, “You have it; do not throw it away”; which cheered them the more and made them strong. “You have it,” he says; for to recover what has been thrown away needs more toil, but not to lose what one holds does not. But to the Galatians he writes the opposite: “My little children, for whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you”; and rightly. For they had grown more careless, so that they needed a sharper word; but these needed … “Do not, then, throw away your boldness,” he says. So they were in great boldness toward God. “Which has,” he says, “a great reward.” What is this? Then, he says, we shall receive these things. Therefore, if it is laid up for the future, one must not seek it here. Then, so that no one might say, “Look, all that was ours has been taken,” he has therefore anticipated them, and with their own assumption, all but saying this: if you know that you have a better possession in heaven, seek nothing here. “For you have need of endurance,” not of an added contest, so that you may remain in the same course, so that you may not throw away what was entrusted to you. You need nothing else but to stand as you have stood, so that, having come to the end, you may receive the promise. “For you have need of endurance,” he says, “so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.” So you need one thing only: to wait out the delay, not to contend again. You stand, he says, at the very crown; you have borne all the contests: the bonds, the afflictions; your possessions were plundered. What then? From now on you stand ready to be crowned; bear only this, the delay of the crown. What a great encouragement! He encourages them as one might speak to an athlete who has thrown everyone and has no opponent left, and is then about to be crowned, but cannot bear that interval of time in which the president of the games comes and places the crown on him; and he, having no patience, would like to go out and run away, as unable to bear the thirst and the burning heat. Hinting at this, then, what does he say? “For yet a very little while, and the one who is coming will come and will not delay.” For so that they might not say, “And when will he come?” he encourages them from the Scriptures; for when he says elsewhere too, “Now salvation is nearer to us,” he comforts them, since the time remaining is short. And he says this not from himself but from the Scriptures. And if it was said from that time, “A very little while, and the one who is coming will come and will not delay,” it is clear that he is nearer now. So that even the waiting has no small reward. “But the righteous one,” he says, “shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” This is a great encouragement, when one shows people who have accomplished everything losing it through a little indolence. “But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen.” For in this he used the expression, “proof of things not seen”; for “proof” is said of things that are very plain. Faith, then, is the sight of things not plain, he says, and brings the things that are not seen to the same full assurance as the things that are seen. So one cannot disbelieve the things that are seen, nor again can there be faith unless one is more fully assured about the things unseen than about the things seen. For since things in hope seem to have no substance, faith gives them substance; or rather, it does not give it, but is itself their being. For example, the resurrection has not come, nor does it exist in substance, but hope makes it subsist in our soul. This is “the substance of things hoped for.” If, then, it is the proof of things not seen, why do you want to see them, so that you fall from faith and from being righteous, if indeed “the righteous shall live by faith”? But if you want to see them, you are no longer believers. “You have toiled,” he says, “you have contended”; I say this too; but wait; for this is faith; do not seek everything here.

These things were said to the Hebrews, but they are a common exhortation also to many of those gathered here. How, and in what way? To the faint-hearted, to the small-souled. For when they see the wicked prospering and themselves faring badly, [they grow faint, though they ought to bear it nobly, since they will see] the punishment and the vengeance [of the wicked], when they receive the rewards of their own labors. “Yet a very little while, and the one who is coming will come and will not delay,” Paul said then. Let us too, then, say this to the careless: there will certainly be punishment; [the Lord] will certainly come; the things of the resurrection are already at the doors. “How is it clear?” someone says. I do not say from the prophets; for my word now is not only to Christians; but even if it is a Greek, I am quite confident, and I will offer the proofs and teach him. And how, listen. Christ foretold many things. If those did not come to pass, do not believe these either; but if they all came to pass, why do you doubt about the rest? And yet it would have been very unreasonable to believe about those when none had come to pass, rather than to disbelieve these when all have come to pass. But rather let me make the matter plain by example. Christ said that Jerusalem would be taken, and taken with a capture such as never before, and that it would not rise again; and the prediction came to pass in fact. He said that there would be great tribulation, and it came to pass. He said [that, as a grain of mustard seed is sown, so] the preaching [would spread]; and this we see running over the world every day. He said that those who left father or mother or brothers or sisters would have fathers and mothers too; and this too we see fulfilled in fact. He said, “In the world [you will have tribulation; but take courage, I have overcome] the world,” that is, no one will get the better of you; and this too we see come to pass in the event. He said that the gates of Hades would not prevail against the church, even though it was persecuted, and that no one would quench the preaching; and the experience of events bears witness to this prediction too. And yet he seemed very unbelievable saying these things then. Why? Because all were words, and he had not yet offered any proof of what was said. So now they have become much more credible. He said that when the gospel had been preached among all the nations, then the end would come; and see, we have now come near the end. For the greater part of the world has been evangelized; so the end is now at hand. Let us tremble, beloved. But why, tell me, are you anxious about the consummation? For it is indeed near; but each one's life and death is much nearer. “For the days of our years,” it says, “in them are seventy years; and if in strength, eighty years.” The day of judgment is near; let us fear even so. “A brother does not redeem; will a man redeem?” We shall repent much there; but “in death no one will confess to him.” That is why it says, “Let us come before his face with confession,” that is, before his coming. For here whatever we do has force, but there no longer. If someone, tell me, set us in a burning furnace for a short time, would we not undergo anything to be freed, even if we had to give up money, even if we had to undergo slavery? How many have fallen into severe diseases and would readily have chosen to give everything to be freed, if the choice had been offered? If, then, a short disease here grieves us so, what shall we do there, when there will be no profit from repentance? With how many evils are we now filled, and do not perceive it, … wronging, accusing, slandering, being stung by our neighbors' reputations. And see the grievous thing: when someone wishes to undermine his neighbor's good name, he says, “So-and-so said such and such about him; God forgive me, do not examine me, I am only repeating what I heard.” [If you do not believe it, why] do you say it at all? Why do you say it? Why do you make it credible by spreading the report? Why do you ferry along a word that is not true? You do not believe it, and you call on God not to examine you? Do not speak, then, but be silent, and you are rid of all fear. But I do not know from where this disease has fallen upon people. We have become babblers; nothing stays in our soul. Hear a wise man advising and saying, “Have you heard a word? Let it die with you; be of good courage, it will not burst you”; and again, “A fool hearing a word is in labor, like a woman giving birth to a child.” We are ready for accusations, prepared for condemnations. Even if we had done no other evil, this would be enough to destroy us and lead us away to Gehenna. Hear the prophet saying this: “You sat and spoke against [your brother].” [“But it was not I,” you say,] “but that one.” You, rather; for if you had not said it, another would not have heard; and even if he was going to hear it, you would not be the cause of the sin. When you ought to cover over and hide your neighbors' failings, do you parade them under the pretext of love of goodness? You do not become an accuser, but a babbler, a chatterer, a fool. What a terrible thing! You shame yourself along with him, and do not perceive it? See how many evils arise from this: … you make yourself [liable] to punishment. Do you not hear Paul saying about widowed women, “And not only idle, but also [gossips and busybodies], going around the houses and saying what they should not”? So even when you believe what is said against your brother, you ought not to say it even then, much less when you disbelieve it. But you look everywhere to your own interest, fearing to be examined by God? Fear, then, lest you be examined for the babbling too. For here you cannot say, “May God not examine me for the babbling”; for the thing is babbling. Why did you parade it? Why did you make the evil greater? This can destroy us. That is why Christ said, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.” But we take no account of this, nor does the case of the Pharisee bring us to our senses. He said a true thing, “I am not like this tax collector,” and said it with no one listening, and he was condemned. If he was condemned for saying what was true, and saying it with no one listening, those who say false things, and about things they are not [sure of, like] gossiping women, what terrible thing will they not suffer? What will they not endure? From now on let us set a door and a bar on our mouth; for countless evils have come from babbling; households have been [overturned]. Do not meddle with your neighbor's affairs, O man. “But you are talkative, and have a failing?” Talk about your own affairs to God; in this way the failing will no longer be a failing but an advantage. Talk about your own affairs to friends, to your truest friends and righteous ones, those in whom you have confidence, so that they may pray for your sins. If you speak of other people's affairs, you have profited nothing, gained nothing, but you have even perished; if you confess your own to the Master, you have a great reward: “For I said,” it says, “I will confess against myself my lawlessness to the Lord; and you forgave the ungodliness of my heart.” Do you want to judge? Judge your own affairs. No one accuses you if you condemn yourself; but he does accuse you if you do not condemn yourself; he accuses you if you do not convict yourself; he accuses you if you do not grieve. Have you seen so-and-so angry, provoked, or doing something else improper? At once think of your own affairs too; and in this way you will not condemn him harshly, and you will free yourself from the burden of your sins. If we order our own life in this way, if we conduct our life in this way, if we condemn ourselves, we will perhaps not sin much, but we will do much good, being gentle and moderate, and we will enjoy all the good things promised to those who love God; may we all attain these, by the grace and love for humankind 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.