Homilies

Contents

Only the letter's Greek text is staged (about 950 words). The beginning of the letter (col. 94) was keyed in from the interleaved text of the 2014 OCR because the library scans lack that column; one or more lines may be missing after the opening sentences.

Reading pages: 43–65 · 67–93

1. 43The end of Amphilochius's first oration urges Christians to live so that their gentleness, detachment, and purity convert outsiders; the second oration, on the Presentation of Christ, opens with praise of virginity.
2. 45Amphilochius praises honourable marriage as the root from which virginity itself springs, insisting that virginity and marriage are not rivals but need each other.
3. 47Amphilochius argues that the law 'every male that opens the womb shall be called holy' is fulfilled in Christ alone, who opened the Virgin's womb without intercourse, unlike Cain, Esau, and Reuben.
4. 49Answering an objection, Amphilochius holds that Mary's virginity remained intact, the 'gate' shut yet open to the Lord's power; he then praises the three orders of virginity, marriage, and widowhood, and holds up the widow Anna as a model.
5. 51Anna is praised as the crown of widows, surpassing the widow of 1 Timothy, a prophetess who confessed the infant Jesus as God, creator of the world.
6. 53Anna's prophecy presents the infant as the Lord of creation and of Israel's history, both child and eternal; Amphilochius praises her widowhood, in which she kept faith with her dead husband and did not remarry.
7. 55Amphilochius allows a second marriage for a young childless widow, following 1 Tim 5:14, but calls it superfluous when there are children; he then begins on Simeon's prophecy, imagining Mary's protest and Simeon's reply.
8. 57Simeon's 'sign spoken against' is the cross, where Christ was mocked and denied; the 'sword' through Mary's soul is the grief and doubt that pierced her at the cross before the resurrection; the cross is a sign foretold in both Testaments.
9. 59The end of Oration 2 cites Ezekiel's sign on the foreheads; Oration 3, on Lazarus, begins: of all Christ's miracles, the raising of Lazarus four days dead alone could not be slandered by his enemies.
10. 61Christ delayed so that the raising of Lazarus might be undeniable; he answers Martha's grief and half-faith with 'I am the resurrection and the life', and asks where Lazarus lies so that the whole crowd may follow and witness.
11. 63Martha protests that Lazarus already stinks; Christ weeps to reveal the crowd's thoughts, has the stone rolled away so that the stench proves real death, and calls Lazarus out with authority.
12. 65Christ raised Lazarus with a single word, restoring his body and recalling his soul from Hades, and had him unbound before witnesses; the homily ends with the Palm Sunday acclamation. Oration 4, on the sinful woman, begins.
13. 67Oration 4 opens by recalling Christ at Zacchaeus's table: the Good Shepherd eats with sinners to seek the lost sheep and bring it back to the fold.
14. 71Christ accepted the Pharisee's invitation so that the sinful woman might teach repentance; Amphilochius describes woman as Eve's heir and explains that marriage was given after the fall as a remedy against death, for lawful union, not for pleasure.
15. 75The sinful woman reasons that only Jesus can save her, goes to him not for bodily healing but for the soul's, and without a word confesses all her sins with tears at his feet.
16. 77The sinful woman washes Christ's feet with tears, wipes them with her hair, and anoints them with myrrh, surpassing Abraham's hospitality, the ungrateful Jews, and even kings and Magi.
17. 79Christ honours the woman's repentance; Amphilochius rebukes the Pharisee who, judging her and doubting Christ's knowledge, showed less insight than the Samaritan woman.
18. 81Amphilochius rebukes the Pharisee for judging the woman and Judas for calling her anointing a waste; God pours out his gifts without counting the cost, and the devil grieves at the woman's salvation.
19. 83Christ defends the woman: she has anointed him for burial, while Judas, an apostle, sells his Master for thirty pieces of silver; her memory will last wherever the Gospel is preached.
20. 87Christ contrasts Simon's neglect with the woman's tears, kisses, and myrrh, and declares her many sins forgiven; Amphilochius urges his hearers to imitate her repentance.
21. 89Oration 4 ends with a call to clothe oneself in chastity; Oration 5, for Holy Saturday, celebrates Christ's descent to Hades to free the dead, and the signs of mourning in creation at the crucifixion.
22. 91Christ prayed for those who crucified him; Amphilochius taunts those who sealed and guarded the tomb of a dead man, arguing that if Christ were a mere man there would be nothing to fear, and that he who raised Lazarus will surely rise himself.
23. 93Oration 5 ends: the unbelievers do not see the miracles, while the faithful stand with Mary at the empty tomb.