Exhortation to Martyrdom

Contents

1. 1Origen opens by applying Isaiah's “affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope” to his friends Ambrose and Protoctetus, mature believers now facing trial.
2. 2The sufferings of the present are light compared with the eternal glory God generously gives those who compete lawfully and love him with their whole soul.
3. 3Those who love God with their whole soul long to be freed from the body, like Paul's cry in Romans 7 and the psalmist's thirst for God in Psalm 42.
4. 4Origen urges his friends to rejoice in persecution, to calm a troubled soul with the Psalms, and not to fear mortal men when God is present everywhere.
5. 5Piety toward the one God is a contest only God's people undertake; faith in the heart is not enough without confessing him with the mouth.
6. 6Origen distinguishes outwardly bowing to idols from inwardly serving them, and warns that denying Christ in court, even without belief, is still bowing to idols.
7. 7Denial and an oath by the emperor's Fortune are grave sins; not even the sun, a creature itself, would wish to be worshiped instead of God.
8. 8When false prophets of impiety speak against us, we should be deaf to them, as the psalmist was, when there is no hope of correcting them.
9. 9God calls himself jealous as a wise bridegroom shows jealousy to keep his bride, the soul, from unfaithfulness to false gods.
10. 10Confession unites the martyr with Christ and denial cuts the denier off from him; each receives back the measure he gave.
11. 11The measure of confession is full only if one resists every inner temptation, every word of compromise, all mockery, and attachment to family and possessions.
12. 12At baptism we agreed to the gospel's terms: to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and lose our life for Christ; only Christ's blood could ransom a lost soul.
13. 13Martyrs will pass through the heavens behind Christ and know face to face things greater than Paul heard in paradise and greater than the angels have seen.
14. 14Addressing the wealthy Ambrose, Origen says those who leave the most for Christ in martyrdom receive a hundredfold, even becoming fathers of holier children in heaven.
15. 15Martyrs who give up wealth, family, and reputation, like those who endure the worst tortures, deserve first place among martyrs.
16. 16Christ's promise of a hundredfold reward does not include a wife, because in the resurrection there is no marriage.
17. 17At their instruction and baptism believers chose to serve the Lord and renounced Satan; to deny now is to break a covenant with God himself.
18. 18The whole world and the angels watch the martyrs' contest; those who deny will hear the taunts of Isaiah 14 from the powers of Hades.
19. 19When neighbors mock us, we can pray the words of Psalm 44 and say that we have not forgotten God or turned back.
20. 20This life is a place of affliction for the soul; the psalm assures us that God knows whether we have been faithful to him.
21. 21Martyrdom must be inward as well as outward; the martyr can say with the psalm, “For your sake we are put to death all day long,” and fear God alone.
22. 22The dead who chose death for piety are rightly praised, like the aged Eleazar in 2 Maccabees, whose words Origen urges his friends to make their own.
23. 23The seven Maccabean brothers, tortured one after another before their mother, encouraged each other with the thought that God was watching.
24. 24The second brother was flayed and, refusing to eat idol sacrifices, told the tyrant that God would raise them to eternal life.
25. 25The third to sixth brothers endured their tortures in hope of the resurrection and warned Antiochus that he was fighting against God.
26. 26Antiochus tried bribery on the youngest brother, but his mother urged him to endure, and he went to death pronouncing God's judgment on the tyrant.
27. 27The mother of the seven bore her sons' deaths with courage, showing that love for God is stronger than every other love and than any torture.
28. 28Martyrdom is the only fitting return for God's gifts; it is the “cup of salvation” of the Psalm and the cup Jesus asked his disciples if they could drink.
29. 29Jesus' prayer “let this cup pass” was not cowardice; Origen suggests he declined only a particular form of death, while the martyr's death is “precious in the sight of the Lord.”
30. 30Since baptism cannot be repeated, martyrdom is a second baptism; the souls of martyrs at the heavenly altar minister forgiveness to those who pray, as priests offering themselves.
31. 31The martyrs' blessedness begins with a wintry trial; only those who endure it will hear the words of the Song of Songs, “the winter is past.”
32. 32The devil cannot persuade Christians to worship idols, so he tries force; they must not trade Christ's light yoke for the yoke of demons.
33. 33The three youths, Mordecai, Daniel, and Job are models for refusing to worship idols or men, even at the threat of fire or lions.
34. 34Jesus' warnings of persecution and his command not to fear those who kill the body were given to the apostles and apply to martyrs, whom Christ will confess before the Father.
35. 35Being confessed by Christ before the Father and the angels far outweighs any suffering; Origen suggests Christ as divine Son confesses before the Father and as Son of Man before the angels.
36. 36Ambrose and Protoctetus, carrying Christ's cross before rulers, will pass the cherubim and flaming sword into paradise, which hold back only those who have built with denial.
37. 37Christ's sword and fire divide the heavenly from the earthly in us; Ambrose must “hate” wife, children, and his own life, in the Gospel's sense, so as to gain them for eternity.
38. 38Ambrose's children will be cared for by God, and he will help them more as a martyr than by staying alive, if they prove to be his true children in deeds.
39. 39Christians hated by the world should endure to the end, not love the passing world, and see that they may have been spared for a martyr's baptism in their own blood.
40. 40Denial sets a table for demons and cuts one off from the Lord's table and cup; whoever denies the Son loses the Father, but whoever confesses has him.
41. 41Those who have passed from death to life should expect the world's hatred, lay down their lives as Jesus did, and boast in their afflictions.
42. 42Those who share Christ's sufferings share his comfort and triumph; the martyr's departure is the true day of salvation, and ministers must commend themselves by endurance.
43. 43Christians must show their knowledge by pure and patient lives, bearing dishonor and slander as Paul did, disciplined but not killed, rejoicing though seeming sorrowful.
44. 44Like the Hebrews Paul praised, Christians should accept the loss of their goods with joy, since they have a better and eternal possession.
45. 45Sacrificing is not indifferent: demons feed on the smoke of sacrifices, so those who sacrifice share the guilt for the evils demons do.
46. 46Names are not mere conventions: calling God “Zeus” or the sun “Apollo” invokes demons, so God must be called only by the names Scripture gives him.
47. 47The soul, akin to God, naturally longs for him; so we should not hesitate to lay aside the body in martyrdom and rest with Christ, contemplating the Word.
48. 48The persecution is the storm that will show whether each has built on the rock, Christ; the spiritual powers that beat on such a house will themselves be defeated.
49. 49Persecution tests whether the word fell on rocky ground or good soil; those who endure bear fruit a hundredfold and should despise the cares and riches of this world.
50. 50Martyrs' blood cries out to God like Abel's, may even ransom others, and exalts the martyr, who glorifies God by his death as Peter did.
51. 51Origen closes by hoping his words help his friends, and that they may be strengthened by even greater wisdom from God.