Orations 18.1–19.5

No one is sick while Paul is contending; for with his handkerchiefs even his memorials mow down diseases. No one, then, is sick while Paul is contending. A strong medicine for illnesses is the contest of the tentmaker. Therefore bright is Paul's festival; wonderful are the spectacles of the man of Tarsus. All things leap for joy while Paul, the boxer of piety, contends: the paradise in which he dwelt; the heaven to which he was caught up; the world he made wise; the deep he sanctified; the sun with which he ran his course; the basket he made illustrious; the creation he conquered; the church he made as wide as the sea; the prison he lit up; the tomb he adorned. All things see Paul's contests: the tentmaker's courses; the athlete's wrestlings; the boxer's marks; the soldier's trophies; the helmsman's cargo; the farmer's vineyard; the physician's medicine chest; the eagle's flight; the demons' fall; the devil's shame; the synagogues' desolation; the idols' overthrow; the might of the cross; the bridle of the voice; the catch of the lightning; the daring of his madness; the kindness of his calling; the orthodoxy of his answer; the surgery of his blindness; the birth-pangs of the font; the boldness of his preaching; his forgetting of the law; his study of the Word. For Paul, the undefeated soldier, conquered in war and thundered everywhere with authority. Creation shot arrows, and faith put on a breastplate. Tarsus bore him, but paradise snatched him up. Damascus gave him new birth, but the world called him blessed. Rome buried him, but heaven crowned him. The marks pricked his body, but every tongue praised his contest. At once the rays of feasts rise, and everything of Paul's is full of wonder. His letters are nets of salvation; his handkerchiefs sickles for sufferings; his tongue the flute of the crucified one; his fall the raising of the world; his blindness the sharp sight of faith; his basket the dragnet of the gospel; his wounds the healings of the world; his courses the bringers of prizes; his shipwreck the rudder of the church; his chains the bond of love; his blood a libation of love for mankind; his tomb the nobility of the Romans; his memory the boast of the orthodox.

Truly there is nothing in life like apostolic grace. The law too had many wonders; but when the sun rose, the lamp went to sleep. There is nothing in life like the apostles. They served the Word; they touched the formless one made flesh; they followed him walking who is present everywhere; they heard the voice of him who calls the things that are not as though they were; they netted the world with their tongue; they went round the ends of the earth like eagles; they uprooted error like tares; they burned the altars like thorns; they put the idols to death like wild beasts; they put the demons to flight like wolves; they gathered the church like shepherds; they heaped up the orthodox like ears of grain; they treated the heresies as refuse, like chaff; they withered Judaism like grass; they sawed up Hellenism like timber; they ploughed the world with the cross; they sowed the word like wheat; they lit up all things like morning stars. For this reason the Lord just now cries to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you.” O Paul, like the sun you lit up all things by your preaching; like the moon you drove away the darkness of ignorance; like an eagle you ran up to heaven; like a pearl you flashed in the deep. “My grace is sufficient for you.” See your victories, and proclaim my might. “My grace is sufficient for you.” Rulers raged; peoples rose up; kings condemned; cities were in uproar; Jews lay in wait; Greeks were furious; swords were sharpened; bonds were made ready; and Paul stood, the rock of afflictions, crying: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” O head, not with hair, but with victories, abounding!

Consider, I beg you, Paul's contests, and you will be numb at his crowns. He won the Romans by a letter; he netted the Corinthians through the cross; he turned the Galatians back by rebuke; he razed the Artemis of the Ephesians; he netted the Athenians through an altar; at Philippi he won the jailer; at Antioch he preached vehemently; at Iconium he was buried under a snowfall of stones; at Lystra he poured forth feet for the lame man; at Troas he brought Eutychus to life; on the island he triumphed over the viper; in Cyprus he blinded the magician; at Jerusalem he pleaded for the cross. Places ran out, but his course did not grow numb. Dangers poured in on him from every side as from springs. Dangers from rivers, and they did not sweep away his heap of virtues. Dangers from robbers, and they did not plunder the treasure of faith. Dangers from his own people; but the man of earth was bold as one of heaven. Dangers from Gentiles; but they did not storm the wall of the gospel. Dangers in the city; but they did not trip up the crowned victor of the world. Dangers in the desert; but the theatre of the Gospels watched the victory. Dangers at sea; but they did not sink the boat of endurance. Dangers among false brothers; but he won angels from among the Jews. Truly the devil ran out of temptations, and Paul did not run out of crowns.

Let us marvel, then, at all Paul's members. O head, citadel of the virtues! O eyes that saw the holy Trinity as in a mirror! O tongue, thunder of theology! O marks brighter than stars! O hands that fashioned members! O feet, the goal of the gospel course! O words, physicians of souls! O letters, dragnet of salvation! O breast, sea of cares! O sweat, watering the church! O man, pillar of faith! O treasure that enriched the world! O physician who operated on error! O dead man who never dies! O apostle, silent in the tomb and crying from heaven: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” To him be glory and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Strong is the net of the apostolic fishing; wonderful the casting-net of Andrew's memory; unceasing the dragnet of the immortal dead. For the snares do not grow old with time, which not art but grace has woven. For though the fishermen have departed, the tools of the spiritual fishermen do not grow old with time, nor the dragnet in which they catch the world. Those who haul are not seen, and the nets are full. They did not acquire a rod, which time destroys; they did not let down a line, which age breaks; they did not forge a hook, which rust consumes; they did not put on bait, the trap for fish; they did not sit on a rock, which the waves shake; they did not go up into a boat, which a storm breaks up; they did not catch fish, the unreasoning creatures of nature. But just as the art is paradoxical, so the tools are paradoxical and newer. Instead of a rod they stretch out the preaching; instead of a line they let down the memory; instead of a hook they lower the power; instead of bait they put on the wonders; instead of a rock they fish from heaven; instead of a boat they have taken the altar; instead of fish they catch kings; instead of a dragnet they have spread out the gospel; instead of art they use grace; instead of the sea they pass through life; instead of nets they haul in with the cross. Who ever saw dead men fishing and living men being caught? O the power of the Crucified! O divine dignity! O apostolic beneficence! For there is nothing in life like apostolic grace.

Life has seen many wonderful and paradoxical things. It saw blood crying out after it was shed, and murder shouting without a tongue; nature split by envy; the earth defiled by daring; a fratricide sending his brother from the same mother to death, and the door of death opened by jealousy. It saw an ark become the womb of nature in its shipwreck. It saw an old man arming himself against his own flesh by faith. It saw one sacrificing a son not slain, and offering one not put to death. It saw a hut wider than heaven, and God contained under a tent. It saw a theft become the mother of blessings, and a wrestling of the Maker with his servant. It saw envy among brothers, and slavery bringing kingship. It saw dreams preparing a throne, and famine drawing the plotters. It saw fire bedewing a bush, and a rod the mother of wonders. It saw waves made solid, and the deep lit up. It saw roads improvised, and a pillar of cloud guiding the famous multitude of the people. It saw a rod blossom without earth, and heaven make manna into bread. It saw a lawgiver command the elements, and a letter gushing with curse. It saw a man bridle the sun with a word, and a barren woman conceive a prophet through prayer. It saw a handful of flour richer than deep cornfields, and a cruse of oil more abundant than springs. It saw a prophet taken up in an immaterial chariot, and the bones of the dead a medicine of life. Life saw these and many other wonderful things; but they passed like a shadow and green grass, and went to sleep like a lamp. For when the sun rose, the shadow ran past; for there is nothing like the apostles.

They served God the Word; they touched the formless one made flesh; they followed him walking who is everywhere; they reclined with the uncircumscribed one; they heard the voice of him who made all things by a word; they netted the world with their tongue; they went round all the ends of the earth with the word; they uprooted error like tares; they reaped the altars like thorns; they put the idols to death like wild beasts; they put the demons to flight like wolves; they gathered the church like a flock; they heaped up the orthodox like grain; they treated the heresies as refuse, like chaff; they withered Judaism like grass; they burned up Hellenism like timber; they ploughed nature with the cross; they sowed the word like wheat; they lit up all things like morning stars. Therefore the Master cried to them: “You are the light of the world.” You have as your sunrise the virginal birth; as your dawn the womb of baptism; as your brightness the grace of the Crucified; as your rays the paradoxical tongues; as your day the age to come; as your noon the hour of the cross; as your setting the dwelling of the tomb; as your evening temporary death; as your shining forth the resurrection of the dead. “You are the light of the world.” See the stars, and be amazed at their brightness.

Therefore today Andrew, having found the common Master like a treasure of light, cried to Peter his brother: “We have found,” he says, “the Messiah.” O excess of brotherly love! O reversal of order! Andrew sprang into life after Peter, and before Peter he made his catch for the Gospel. “We have found,” he says, “the Messiah.” The word comes from great joy; bright is the good news of the finding. We have found, he says, the treasure: flee, Peter, the poverty of circumcision; strip off the rags of the law; throw off the yoke of the letter; deny all these things as small, and the present things as dreams: Bethsaida as a mean place; the casting-net as a tool of poverty; the boat as a chamber of shipwreck; the trade as … ; the fish as merchandise for gluttony; the land as a sea of tumult; the race as branches of corruption; the world as a market for the belly; the temple as a den of robbers; Jerusalem as a graveyard of the prophets; the nation as raving against God; Caiaphas as father of a wicked council. We have found the Messiah, whom the prophets proclaimed beforehand, whom the law trumpeted beforehand. We have found the treasure of the law: flee, Peter, the famine of the letter. We have found the Messiah, whom the signs foreshadowed; whom Micaiah saw on the throne of glory; whom Isaiah beheld above the seraphim; whom Ezekiel saw above the cherubim; whom Daniel beheld on the clouds; whom Nebuchadnezzar saw in the furnace; whom

Abraham received in his hut; whom Jacob did not let go until he was blessed; whose back Moses saw on the rock. Him we have found, begotten without beginning and made manifest in the last times; the treasure whose wealth cannot be emptied, whose riches cannot be robbed, whose existence is without beginning, and whose finding is new. “We have found the Messiah,” which is translated Christ. Many have been christs, anointed ones, but all were slaves to death. Abraham was an anointed one, but he was dissolved in the tomb; Isaac was an anointed one, but his memory is in bones; Jacob was an anointed one, but he became death's by-work; Moses was an anointed one, but we do not even know where he was buried; David was an anointed one, but all are spoils. All were anointed, but captives of death. But one is the Christ, who is God by nature and man through compassion, who sealed the Virgin's womb by his birth and made the fishermen springs of healing. To him be might and kingship and glory and worship, with his undefiled, consubstantial, and co-equal Father and the all-holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages.