Homilies on John 8.1–9.2

“That was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world.” For nothing prevents us from taking up the same words today as well, since the other day, because of [the length of the discussion about] doctrines, we could not go through [them fully]. Where, then, are those who say that he is not true God? For here he is called the true light, and elsewhere truth itself and life itself. But we shall go into that saying more clearly when we come to it. For the present we must say this much to your love: if he enlightens every man coming into the world, how is it that so many have remained unenlightened? For not all have recognized the majesty of Christ. How, then, does he enlighten every man? As far as it depends on him. But if some, willfully shutting the eyes of their minds, will not receive the rays of this light, their darkness comes not from the nature of the light but from the wickedness of those who willfully deprive themselves of the gift. For grace has been poured out on all, turning away neither Jew nor Greek nor barbarian nor Scythian, neither free nor slave, neither man nor woman, neither old nor young, but admitting all alike and calling them with equal honor. Those who will not enjoy this gift would rightly impute this blindness to themselves. For when the entrance is open to all and there is no one to hinder, if some by their own perversity remain outside, they perish through nothing else than their own wickedness.

“He was in the world”; but not as one of the same age as the world; far from it. That is why he added, “And the world came into being through him,” by this again leading you up to the existence of the Only-begotten before the ages. For whoever has heard that this whole universe is his work, however insensible he may be, even if he is an enemy and adversary of God’s glory, will certainly be compelled, willingly or unwillingly, to confess that the Maker is before his works. That is why I am always amazed at the madness of Paul of Samosata, how he dared to look so plain a truth in the face and opposed it, and willingly threw himself over the precipice. For he sinned not in ignorance but with full knowledge, suffering the same as the Jews. For as they, looking to men, betrayed the soundness of the faith, knowing that he is the only-begotten Son of God, but not confessing it because of the rulers, lest they should be put out of the synagogue, so they say that this man too sold his own salvation to gratify a certain woman. Terrible, truly terrible is the tyranny of vainglory. If bribery has this power even over the wise, much more has this passion, which is more violent than that. That is why Christ said to the Jews, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from men and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”

“And the world did not know him.” Here he calls “the world” the multitude that is corrupt and attached to earthly things, the common, turbulent, and foolish people. For the friends of God and the admirable men all recognized him, even before his coming in the flesh. Of the patriarch Christ himself says by name, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it and was glad.” And of David, refuting the Jews, he said, “How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand?” And often, in opposing them, he mentions Moses; and of the rest of the prophets the Apostle speaks. For Peter says that all the prophets from Samuel on knew him and foretold his coming from afar, saying, “And all the prophets from Samuel and those who came after him, as many as spoke, also proclaimed these days.” And to Jacob and to his father, as also to his grandfather, he both appeared and spoke, and promised to give many great good things, which he also brought to pass.

“How, then,” someone says, “did he himself say, Many prophets desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it? Did they then have no share in the knowledge of him?” Certainly they had; and I shall try to make this clear from the very saying from which some think they were deprived of it. “Many,” he says, [“desired to see”: so they knew that he would come] to men and would carry out the economy that he did carry out. For if they had not known, they would not have desired. For no one can conceive a desire for things of which he has not even a notion. So they knew the Son of God, and that he would come to men. What, then, are the things they did not see and did not hear? The things that you now see and hear. For even if they heard his voice and saw him, it was not in the flesh, nor living among men in this way, nor conversing with them with such freedom. Showing this, he did not say simply, “They desired to see me,” but what? “what you see”; nor, “to hear me,” but what? “what you hear.” So, even if they did not behold his coming in the flesh, they knew that it would be, and they desired it, and they believed in him without having seen him in the flesh. When, then, the Greeks accuse us, saying, “What was Christ doing in the former time, not caring for the human race? And why did he come at the last to take our salvation in hand, after neglecting us for so long?”, we shall say that before this too he was in the world, and provided for his works, and was known to all who were worthy. And if you say that he was not known, because at that time not all knew him but only those noble and virtuous men, then by the same reasoning you will not admit that he is worshiped by men now either, since not even now do all know him. But as at present no one would refuse to believe those who know him because of those who do not, so neither ought one to doubt, concerning former times, that he was known to many, or rather to all the noble and admirable men.

And if someone says, “Why, then, did not all attend to him, nor all serve him at that time, but only the righteous?”, I in my turn will ask why not even now do all know him. And why do I speak of Christ? Why did not all know his Father, either then or now? Some say that everything is carried along by chance; others entrust the providence of the universe to demons; there are some who invent another god besides him; and some of them blasphemously say that the opposing power is his, and think that his laws belong to some evil demon. What then? Shall we on this account say that he is not God, because there are some who say so, and confess that he is evil, since there are those who blaspheme him in this way too? Away with such derangement and utter madness! If we are going to judge doctrines by the verdict of madmen, nothing prevents our going mad ourselves with the most grievous madness. No one will say that the sun harms the eyes because of those whose sight is diseased; he takes his judgment from the healthy and says it gives light. No one will call honey bitter because it seems so to the taste of the sick. And will some, from the notions of the sick, vote that God does not exist, or is evil, or provides for us at one time and not at all at another? And who would say such men are healthy, and not out of their minds, deranged, and mad with the worst madness?

“The world did not know him,” he says. But those of whom the world was not worthy knew him. And having spoken of those who did not know him, he briefly set down the cause of their ignorance as well. For he did not say simply that no one knew him, but that “the world did not know him”: that is, men nailed to the world alone and minding the things of the world. For Christ too is accustomed to call them so, as when he says, “Holy Father, the world has not known you.” So the world was ignorant not only of him but also of his Father, as we were saying. For nothing so muddies the mind as being attached to present things. Knowing this, then, separate yourselves from the world, and break away from the things of the flesh as far as possible. For the loss you suffer from them is not in ordinary matters, but in the chief of all good things. For a man who clings vehemently to the affairs of this present life cannot genuinely lay hold of the things in heaven; whoever is eager about the one must fall from the other. “You cannot,” he says, “serve God and mammon; for one must hold to the one and hate the other.” The very experience of things cries this out. Those who have laughed at the desire for money are above all the ones who love God as they ought; just as those who admire that dominion are above all the ones whose love for him is duller. For a soul once [conquered] by love of money will dare to do and say anything that provokes God, since it has become the slave of another master, who commands everything contrary to God. [Knowing,] then, whose servants we are, let us love his kingdom alone; let us weep and lament over the former times in which we served mammon; let us throw off once for all his unbearable and heavy yoke and keep bearing Christ’s, which is light and very easy. For Christ commands us nothing like what mammon commands. Mammon orders us to become enemies to all; Christ, on the contrary, to embrace and love all. Mammon nails us to clay and brick-making (for that is what gold is) and does not let us breathe even a little at night; Christ frees us from this superfluous and foolish anxiety and commands us to gather treasures in heaven, not by injustice to others, but from our own righteousness. Mammon, after all our sweat and toil, cannot stand by us when we are punished there and suffer for obeying his laws, but even makes the flame fiercer; Christ, even if he commands us to give a cup of cold water, never lets us lose its wage and reward, but repays it with great abundance. How, then, is it not the height of folly to neglect so gentle a lordship, so full of good things, and to serve an ungrateful and unfeeling tyrant, who can benefit neither here nor there those who obey him and attend to him? And this is not the only evil, nor is this the only loss, that he does not defend us when we are punished; but besides this he surrounds those who obey him with countless evils, as I said. For one may see that most of those punished there are punished for this reason: that they served money and loved gold and did not help those in need.

So that we may not suffer this too, let us scatter, let us give to the poor; let us free our souls both from the harmful cares here and from the punishment laid up there because of them. Let us lay up [righteousness] in heaven instead of money on earth; [let us gather what can] travel with us to heaven, [what] can stand by us in our danger and make the Judge merciful then. May all of us have him gracious both now and on that day, and [enjoy] with great confidence the good things prepared in heaven for those who love him as they ought, [by the grace] and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, [through whom and] with whom be glory to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

“He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.” If you remember our earlier thoughts, we shall build what follows on them with greater eagerness, as doing so for great gain. For in this way the discourse will be easier for you to learn, since you remember what has already been said, and we shall not need much labor, since through your great love of learning you will be able to look more keenly into the rest. For the one who always loses what is given him will always need someone to teach him and will never know anything; but the one who keeps what he receives and so adds what remains will soon become a teacher instead of a disciple, useful not only to himself but to all others too. This is what I most expect this church to become, judging from this great love of hearing. Come, then, let us deposit the Lord’s silver in your souls as in a safe treasury, and unfold what has been set before us today, as the grace of the Spirit may grant.

He said, “The world did not know him,” speaking of former times. Now he comes down in his discourse to the times of the preaching and says, “He came to his own, and his own did not receive him,” calling the Jews “his own” here as his special people, or perhaps all men as made by him. And as above, perplexed at the folly of the many and ashamed for our common nature, he said that the world made through him did not recognize its Creator, so here again, [indignant] at the [ingratitude] of the Jews and of the [many], he sets down a heavier accusation, saying, “His own did not receive him,” and that when he had come to them. And not only he, but the prophets too said this very thing in wonder, and Paul later, astonished at the same things. The prophets cried out thus, speaking in the person of Christ: “A people whom I did not know served me; at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me. Foreign sons lied to me; foreign sons grew old and limped away from their paths.” And again: “Those to whom nothing was announced about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand”; and, “I was found by those who did not seek me.” And Paul, writing to the Romans, said, “What then? Israel did not obtain what it was seeking; but the elect obtained it.” And again: “What then shall we say? That the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to that law.” For it is truly worthy of amazement how those who were brought up in the prophetic books, who heard Moses every day saying countless things about the coming of Christ, and the rest of the prophets after him, and who moreover saw Christ himself [daily working miracles among them,] conversing with them alone, neither allowing his disciples for the time being to go into the way of the Gentiles or to enter a city of the Samaritans, nor doing so himself, but saying again and again that he had been sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, nevertheless, though they enjoyed the signs, heard the prophets [every day], and had him [admonishing] them continually, so blinded and deafened themselves that they could be led by none of these things to faith in Christ; while those from the Gentiles enjoyed none of these things, never heard the divine oracles, not even in a dream, so to speak, but were always unrolling the myths of madmen (for that is what the writings of the outside poets are), nailed to wood and stones, and knowing nothing good or sound either in doctrine or in conduct (for their life was even more impure and accursed than their doctrines; and very naturally. For when they saw their gods delighting in every wickedness, and worshiped with shameful words and still more shameful deeds, and regarded this as a festival and an honor, and worshiped moreover with unclean murders and the slaughter of children, how could they fail to emulate them?); yet these, having sunk to the very bottom of wickedness, suddenly, as though raised by some stage machine, appeared on high, shining from the very summit of heaven.

How, then, did this happen? Hear Paul saying. For that blessed man, searching this out exactly, did not desist until he found the cause, and he made it plain to the others. What, then, is it? And where did such blindness come from for them? Hear the man who was entrusted with this economy saying these things. What, then, does he say, as he resolves the perplexity of the many? “Being ignorant,” he says, “of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to the righteousness of God.” That is why they suffered this. And again he explains the same thing in another way, saying, “What then shall we say? That the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness attained righteousness, the righteousness that comes from faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to that law. [Why? Because they did not pursue it from faith, but as from works of the law.] They stumbled over the stone of stumbling.” What he says is this: the cause of these evils for them was their unbelief, and their pride gave birth to it. For since before this they had had more than the Greeks, by having received the law and knowing God, and the other things Paul mentions, when after Christ’s coming they saw [the Gentiles] called through faith to the same equal honor as themselves, and the man of the circumcision having nothing more after faith than the man from the Gentiles, they were stung by pride, came to envy, and [could not bear] the Master’s loving-kindness. And this came upon them from nowhere else than from arrogance, wickedness, and hatred of mankind.

For what harm, O most foolish of all men, [did you suffer] from the care shown to others? How were your good things lessened by others having a share in the same things? But wickedness is truly blind and cannot readily see anything it ought to see. Stung, then, at the prospect of having partners in the same confidence before God, they thrust the sword into themselves; and very naturally. “Friend,” he says, “I do you no wrong; I choose to give to these as also to you.” Or rather, these men are not even worthy of these words. For that laborer, even if he was vexed, could still speak of a whole day’s labors, hardships, heat, and sweat; but what could these say? Nothing of the kind; only sloth and profligacy and the countless evils for which all the prophets continually accused them, and for which they too, like the Gentiles, had offended God. Paul showed this when he said, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace.” This whole chapter he works out usefully and very wisely in that epistle. And earlier he shows that they deserve even greater punishment: “For as many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law,” he says; that is, more severely, since they have the law as their accuser along with nature. And not only for this reason, but also for having been the cause of God’s being blasphemed among the Gentiles: “For my name,” he says, “is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

Since, then, this above all stung them (for even to the believers of the circumcision the thing seemed strange; that is why they accused Peter when he came back to them from Caesarea, saying that he had gone in to uncircumcised men and eaten with them; and even after learning God’s economy, they still marveled that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles too, showing by their amazement that they would never have expected this strange thing); since, then, Paul knew that this touched them most, he does everything to empty out their conceit and to deflate their arrogance, which was greatly swollen. And see how he does it. Having discussed the Greeks, and having shown that they have no defense from any quarter nor any hope of salvation, and having exactly accused both the perversion of their doctrines and the impurity of their life, he turns his discourse to the Jews; and having listed everything the prophet said, that they were foul and deceitful and treacherous, and that “all together have become worthless, and there is none among them who seeks God, but all have turned aside,” and the like, he added, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may become accountable to God. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Why, then, do you exalt yourself, O Jew? Why are you high-minded? For your mouth too has been stopped, your confidence taken away, and you too, with the whole world, have become accountable, and stand like the others in need of being justified freely. Even if you had done right and had great confidence before God, even so you ought not to have envied those who were to be pitied and saved through God’s loving-kindness. For it is the height of wickedness to pine away at the good things of others, especially when this was not going to happen at any loss to you. If the salvation of others had harmed your good things, there would be some reason for grief; though not even then for one who has learned to live wisely. But if your rewards are neither increased when the other is punished nor lessened when he is well treated, why do you beat your breast because another is saved freely? As I said, even if you were among those approved, you ought not to be stung at the salvation that comes by grace to the Gentiles; but when you are liable to the Master for the same things, and have yourself offended him, and are vexed at the good things of others, and are proud as though you alone ought to share in grace, you would be liable not only for envy and arrogance, but for the utmost folly and all the most grievous torments.

[6.] For you have planted in yourself the root of all evils, pride. That is why a wise man said, “The beginning of sin is pride,” that is, its root and source and mother. So the first-formed man fell from that blessed life; so the devil who deceived him was brought down from that height of dignity. Hence the foul one, knowing that the nature of this sin can cast down even from heaven itself, came by this road when he was eager to bring Adam down from such great honor. For he puffed him up with the promise of equality with God, and so dashed him down and threw him into the very pits of Hades. For nothing so estranges us from God’s loving-kindness and hands us over to the fire of Gehenna as the tyranny of pride. When it is present, our whole life becomes unclean, even if we practice chastity, virginity, fasting, prayers, almsgiving, or anything else. “For everyone who is haughty of heart,” it says, “is unclean before the Lord.” Let us check, then, this puffing up of the soul and cut away this swelling, if we wish to be clean and to be freed from the punishment laid up for the devil. For that the boastful man must suffer the same as he, hear Paul saying, “Not a recent convert, lest he be puffed up and fall into the condemnation and snare of the devil.” What is “condemnation”? Into the same sentence, he says, into the same punishment. “How, then, could one escape this terrible thing?” someone says. By considering his own nature, the multitude of his sins, the magnitude of the torments there, and how transient are the things that seem splendid here, differing in nothing from grass and withering faster than the flowers of spring. If we continually stir up these thoughts within ourselves, and keep in memory those who achieved the greatest things, the devil will not easily be able to lift us up, though he strive ten thousand times, nor even trip us up at all. May God, the God of the humble, kind and gentle, grant both you and us a broken and humbled heart. For so we shall be able to accomplish the rest too with ease, to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.