Homilies on Hebrews 3.6–4.4

If, then, I show you that there is another gift much greater than this, and that, though it is possible for you to receive it, you do not receive it, so that you are justly deprived of these too, what will you say? And yet this gift it is possible not for one or for two, but for all to have. I know that you are gaping and astonished, if you are going to hear that it is possible for you to have a gift greater than raising the dead and giving sight to the blind and doing the things done in the time of the apostles; and perhaps it even seems unbelievable to you. What then is this gift? Love. But believe me; for this word is not mine, but Christ’s, speaking through Paul. For what does he say? “Be zealous for the greater gifts; and I show you a still more excellent way.” What is “still more excellent”? What he says is this. The Corinthians were then proud of their gifts, and those who had tongues, the least gift, were puffed up against the rest. He says, then, “Do you want gifts at all? I show you a way of gifts, not simply surpassing, but surpassing beyond measure.” Then he says, “If I speak with the tongues of angels, but have not love, I am nothing; and if I have faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” Have you seen the gift? Be zealous, then, for this gift. This is greater than raising the dead; this is much better than all the others. And that this is so, hear what Christ says when speaking with the disciples: “By this all will know that you are my disciples.” Then, showing by what, he did not say the miracles, but what? “If you have love among one another.” And again he says to the Father, “By this they will know that you sent me, if they are one.” And he himself said to the disciples, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another.” Such a person, then, is more … and more illustrious than those who raise the dead; and rightly. For that is wholly of God’s grace, but this is also of your own earnestness. This truly belongs to a Christian; this shows the disciple of Christ, the crucified, who has nothing in common with the earth; without this not even martyrdom can profit anything. And that you may learn this, see it clearly. The blessed Paul took two summits of virtue, or rather three, those in signs, those in knowledge, those in life; and without this he said these things are nothing. How these things are nothing, I will tell you. “If I give away all I have,” he says, “but have not love, I am nothing.” For it is possible even for one who feeds the poor not to be loving, and for one who empties out his money. These things have been said by us sufficiently in the passage about love; but now, as I said, let us be zealous for the gift, let us love one another, and we shall need nothing else for the achievement of virtue, but all things will be easy for us without sweat, and we shall achieve everything with great zeal. “But see,” someone says, “even now we love one another; for one has two friends, or three, another four.” But this is not to love for God’s sake, but for the sake of being loved. To love for God’s sake does not have this as the beginning of love; such a person will be disposed toward all as toward brothers, loving those of the same faith as genuine brothers, and pitying heretics and Greeks and Jews, as brothers by nature but worthless and useless, wasting away and weeping on their behalf. In this we shall be like God, if we love all, even our enemies, not if we work signs. For we admire God too when he works wonders, but much more when he shows loving-kindness, when he is long-suffering. If, then, even in God’s case that is worthy of great admiration, much more in men’s case it is plain that this makes us admirable. Let us be zealous for this, then; and we shall have nothing less than Paul and Peter and those who raised countless dead, even if we cannot drive away a fever; but without love, even if we work greater signs than the apostles themselves, even if we throw ourselves into countless dangers for the faith, there will be no profit for us. And it is not I who say these things, but he himself, the nursling of love, knows them; let us obey him, then. For so we shall be able to obtain the promised good things; which may we all share, by the grace and loving-kindness 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.

“For not to angels did he subject the world … But someone has testified somewhere, saying, What is man, that you remember him? or the son of man, that you visit him? You made him a little lower than the angels.” I wished to know clearly whether some of you listen to what is said with due earnestness, whether we are not throwing the seeds by the wayside; for so I would have given my teaching more eagerly. We shall speak even if no one listens, because of the fear laid upon us by the Savior: “Testify,” he says, “to this people; and if they do not listen, you yourself will be blameless.” But if I were persuaded of your earnestness, I would speak not only from fear but would do it with pleasure too. For now, even if no one listens, even if the thing is without danger for me since I fulfill my own part, still the toil does not come with pleasure. For what profit is it, when I am not accused, but no one is profited? But if some should give heed, we shall receive not so much benefit from not being punished as from your progress. How then shall I know this? I shall watch some of you who do not attend very closely, and meeting them privately I shall question them; and if I find any holding some of what has been said (I do not say all, for this is not very easy for you, but even a little out of much), it is plain that I no longer doubt about the many. And we ought indeed, without warning … but it is welcome if even so we could succeed; or rather, even so I can come upon you unguarded. For that I will question you, I have said beforehand; but when I will question you, I do not make plain: perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps after twenty or even thirty days, perhaps after fewer, perhaps after more. So too God has made the day of our end unknown; he has left it unclear to us whether it will come today or tomorrow, or after a whole year, or after more years, so that by the uncertainty of the expectation we may keep ourselves always in virtue; and that we shall depart he has said, but when, he has not. So I too said that I will question you, but did not add when, wishing you to be always on the alert. And let no one say, “I heard these things four weeks ago, or five, or more, and I cannot retain them.” For I want the hearer to retain them so as to have an unforgetting memory, not one that fades, and not to spit out what is said. For I want you to retain them, not that you may tell me, but that you may profit; and this is what I am eager for. But since all that had to be said for safety’s sake has been said by us, it is necessary now to begin on the sequence. What then is set before us to speak of today? “For not to angels,” he says, “did he subject the world to come, about which we are speaking.” Does he speak of some other world? No, but of this one. That is why he added, “about which we are speaking,” so as not to let the mind wander off to seek some other. How then does he call it “to come”? Just as elsewhere he says, “who is a type of the one to come,” speaking of Adam and Christ in the Epistle to the Romans, and calling Christ according to the flesh “to come” relative to the times of Adam (for he was to come); so now too, since he said, “And when he brings the firstborn into the world,” so that you may not think he speaks of another world, he confirms it from many places, and especially by calling it “to come”; for the world was to come, while the Son of God always was. This world, then, that was to come into being, he subjected not to angels but to Christ. And that it is said to the Son, he says, is plain; for no one would say that it was said to angels. Then he brings in another testimony too, and says, “But someone has testified somewhere, saying.” Why did he not give the prophet’s name, but hid it? He does this in other testimonies too, as when he says, “And when again he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, And let all the angels of God worship him”; and again, “I will be to him a Father”; and, “of the angels, Who makes his angels spirits; but of the Son, And in the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth.” So here too he says, “But someone has testified somewhere, saying.” And this very thing, I think, hiding and not setting down the one who spoke the testimony, but bringing it in as something current and well known, is the mark of one showing that they were very experienced in the Scriptures. “What is man, that you remember him? or the son of man, that you visit him? You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of your hands; you subjected all things under his feet.”

These things, even if they are said of humanity in common, would nevertheless fit Christ according to the flesh more properly. For “you subjected all things under his feet” belongs to him rather than to us. For the Son of God visited us when we were nothing, and, taking what is ours and uniting it to himself, became higher than all. “For in subjecting all things to him,” he says, “he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.” What he says is this. Since he had said, “until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet,” and it was likely that they were still distressed, he then, after inserting a few things, brought in this testimony confirming that one. For so that they might not say, “How has he put the enemies under his feet, when we have suffered so much?”, he had already hinted at it sufficiently in the former passage; for “until” showed not what happens at once but what happens in time; but here he pursues it further. Do not, he says, think that because they have not yet been subjected they will not be subjected; for that they must be subjected is plain, since the prophecy was spoken for this: “For in subjecting all things to him,” he says, “he left nothing that is not subject to him.” How then are not all things subjected? Because they are going to be subjected. If, then, all things must be subjected but are not yet subjected, do not be distressed or troubled. For if you suffered these things when the end had come and all things had been subjected, you would rightly be pained; “but now we do not yet see all things subjected to him”; the King has not yet fully prevailed. Why then are you troubled when you suffer ill? The preaching has not yet overcome all; it is not yet the time for complete subjection. Then again another encouragement: the very one who is to have all subjected has himself already died and suffered countless things. “But we see Jesus,” he says, “made a little lower than the angels because of the suffering of death.” Then the good things again: “crowned with glory and honor.” Have you seen how he fitted it all to him? For “a little” would fit him rather, who was only three days in Hades, but not us who are corrupted for a long time; likewise “with glory and honor” will fit him much more than us. Again he reminds them of the cross, eager to achieve two things: to show his care, and to persuade them to bear everything nobly, looking to the Teacher. For if he who is worshiped by angels, he says, endured to be a little lower than the angels for your sake, much more ought you, who are lower than the angels, to bear everything for his sake. Then he shows that the cross is glory and honor, as he himself too calls it glory, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.” If, then, he calls glory what he suffered for his slaves, much more should you what you suffer for the Master. Do you see how great the fruit of the cross is? Do not fear the thing; it seems gloomy to you, but it gives birth to countless good things. From these he shows the profit of the trial. Then he says, “so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” “So that,” he says, “by the grace of God.” He suffered these things because of God’s grace toward us: “He who did not spare his own Son,” it says, “but gave him up for us all.” For what reason? He did not owe us this, but did it by grace. And again in the Epistle to the Romans he says, “Much more did the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound for the many.” “So that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone”: not for the believers only, but for the whole world; for he died for all. And what if not all believed? He fulfilled his own part. And he rightly said, “might taste death for everyone,” and did not say “might die”; for as one who truly tasted it, so, having spent a little interval in it, he rose at once. By saying, then, “because of the suffering of death,” he signified a real death; and by “better than the angels” he made plain the resurrection. For just as a physician who has no need to taste the food prepared for the sick man tastes it first himself out of his care for him, to persuade the sick man to venture boldly on the food, so Christ too, since all men feared death, persuading them to venture boldly on death, himself tasted it, having no need. “For the ruler of this world is coming,” he says, “and finds nothing in me.” So both “by grace” and “might taste death for everyone” establish this. “For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the founder of their salvation through sufferings.”

Here he speaks about the Father. Do you see how “through whom” is again fitted to him? He would not have done this if it belonged to inferiority and suited the Son only. What he says is this: he has done what is worthy of his loving-kindness by showing the firstborn more illustrious than all, and setting him as an example to the others, like a noble athlete who surpasses the rest. “The founder of their salvation,” that is, the cause of salvation. Do you see how great the difference is? He too is Son, and we are sons; but he saves, and we are saved. Have you seen how he both brings us together and separates us? “Bringing many sons to glory,” he says: here he brought them together. “The founder of their salvation”: and again he separated them. “To make perfect through sufferings.” So sufferings are perfection and the cause of salvation. Do you see that suffering ill is not the mark of those forsaken? And if God honored the Son first in this, in leading him through sufferings, truly his taking flesh and suffering what he suffered is much greater than making the world and bringing it out of nothing. And that too was of loving-kindness, but this much more. And showing this, he himself says, “that in the ages to come he might show … his kindness, and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” “For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the founder of their salvation through sufferings.” It was fitting for him, he says, who cares for all and brought all things into being, to give up the Son for the salvation of the rest, the one for the many. But he did not say it so, but “to make perfect through sufferings,” showing that he who suffers for someone not only benefits that person, but himself also becomes more illustrious and more perfect. And this too he says to the believers to encourage them. For Christ too was glorified then, when he suffered. But when I say “he was glorified,” do not think that an addition of glory came to him; for the glory of his nature he always had, receiving nothing in addition. “For he who sanctifies,” he says, “and those who are sanctified are all from one; for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brothers.” See again how he brings them together, honoring and consoling them, and making them brothers of Christ in this, that they are from one. Then again, guarding himself and showing that he speaks of what is according to the flesh, he added, “he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified.” Do you see how great the difference is? He sanctifies, we are sanctified. And above he called him “the founder of their salvation.” For there is one God, from whom are all things. “For which reason he is not ashamed to call them brothers.” Do you see how he again shows the superiority? For by saying, “he is not ashamed,” he shows that the whole belongs not to the nature of the thing, but to the affection of one who is not ashamed, and to his great humility. For even if they are from one, yet he sanctifies and we are sanctified; and the difference is great. He is from the Father as a genuine Son, that is, from his essence; we as creatures, that is, from what was not. So the difference is great. That is why he says, “He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will declare your name to my brothers.” For when he put on the flesh, he put on the brotherhood too, and the brotherhood came in together with the flesh. But this he cites fittingly; what does “I will put my trust in him” mean? And what follows is fitting too: “Here am I and the children whom God has given me.” For just as here … “your name to my brothers”; and again he shows the superiority, and that the difference is great, by what follows: “Since, then, the children,” he says, “share in blood and flesh.”

Do you see where, he says, the likeness lies? In the flesh: “He himself likewise shared in the same things.” Where are those who say that he came in appearance and not in truth? For he did not say only that he shared in these things, and then fall silent (though if he had said so, it would have been enough), but he showed something greater, adding “likewise.” Not in imagination nor in an image, he says, but in truth; for otherwise “likewise” is not preserved. Then, having shown the brotherhood, he sets down the cause of the dispensation too: “so that through death,” he says, “he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” Here he shows the wonderful thing, that by that through which the devil prevailed, by this he was defeated; and with that which was his strong weapon against the world, death, with this Christ struck him; and he displays the greatness of the power of the one who conquered. Do you see how much good death has done? “And might deliver,” he says, “those who through fear of death were all their life subject to slavery.” Why do you shudder … he is not [terrible any longer], but he has been trampled down, despised; he is cheap and worth nothing. And what is, “who through fear of death were all their life subject to slavery”? What is this, he says? That he who fears death is a slave and submits to everything so as not to die. Or this: that all were slaves of death, he says, and were held fast because it had not yet been undone; or, if not this, that men lived with continual fear. For always expecting to die and fearing death, they could not perceive any pleasure while this fear was with them; for this he hinted at by saying, “all their life.” Here he shows that those who are deprived of country and property and all else live more pleasantly and more freely than those who were in luxury of old, who suffered nothing of the kind, who prospered; since those were all their life under this fear and were slaves, while these are freed from it and laugh at what those shudder at. For just as if someone were to fatten with much luxury a prisoner who was to be led away to death and was always expecting this, such a thing was death of old. But now it has become as if someone, casting out that fear, urged a man to contend in the games with luxury besides, and, setting the contest before him, promised to lead him no longer to death, but to a kingdom. Which of these would you have wished to be, those being fattened in the prison while expecting the sentence every day, or those who contend much and toil willingly so as to bind on the diadem of the kingdom? Do you see how he lifted up their soul and made them soar? And he shows not only that death has ceased, but that through it the one who always waged and displayed that truceless war against us, I mean the devil, has been brought to nothing. For he who does not fear death is outside the devil’s tyranny. For if “skin for skin, and all that a man has he will give for his life,” when someone resolves to despise even this, whose slave will he be any longer? He fears no one, dreads no one, is above all and freer than all. For he who despises his own life much more despises the rest. And when the devil finds such a soul, he will be able to work nothing of his own in it. For what, tell me, will he threaten, loss of money and dishonor and exile from country? But these are small to one who “does not count even his life dear,” according to the blessed Paul. Do you see that by casting out the tyranny of death he also undid the devil’s strength? For he who knows how to discourse wisely at length about the resurrection, how does he fear death? How does he shudder any longer? Do not, then, be distressed, saying, “Why have we suffered this and that?” For so the victory becomes more glorious; and it would not have been glorious if he had not undone death by death. And this is the wonderful thing, that he conquered him by the very things by which he was strong, showing everywhere his resourcefulness and skill. Let us not, then, betray the gift given to us. “For we did not receive,” he says, “a spirit of cowardice, but a spirit of power and love and self-control.” Let us stand nobly, then, laughing at death.