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"Tharra took his sons Abram and Nachor, his son Haran's son Lot, and his daughter-in-law Sarah, his son Abram's wife, and led them from the land of Chaldea to journey into the land of the Canaanites. He went as far as Charran and settled there.'
Sm) HANK [282] yoU vERY MUCH both for receiving kindly [283] my words about prayer yesterday and for 4) assembling with such enthusiasm for listening. This it is, you see, that renders us, too, more eager and prompts us to spread before you in more generous measure this spiritual banquet. Likewise in the case of a farmer, when he sees the soil and the seeds sprouting a crop, he doesn't stop exerting himself daily by way of providing the necessary attention and being vigilant day and night in case anything should undermine his efforts. Well, in just the same way I too see this spiritual soil of yours so fertile and this spiritual seed sown in the recesses of your mind; and so I am deeply satisfied and at the same time I have extreme anxiety, knowing as I do the wickedness of the crafty enemy of our salvation. You see, he is like the pirates at sea: when they see a ship laden with much cargo and carrying untold wealth, then in particular they give free rein to their scheming so as to sink that cargo and leave the crew empty-handed and bereft of everything. Well, in this fashion the devil too, when he sees great spiritual wealth amassed—lively zeal, an alert mind—and this wealth daily increasing, he bites his lip and grinds his teeth, and like a pirate he goes about turning over countless schemes in his
1. Gen 11.31 in an expansion of the LXX text, presumably to provide his audience with some of the details Chrysostom has lost by omitting the genealogy in this ch. 11. Speiser notes (Genesis, 79) that this LXX spelling of the city we know as Haran retains a form older than the Hebrew; the NT also adopts it (Acts 7.2, 4).
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mind so as to discover some slight chink in our armor, render us empty and bereft, and strip us of all our spiritual wealth.
(2) For this reason, pray, let us stay alert, I beseech you, and the more our spiritual resources increase, the more let our spirit of vigilance be intensified; let us strengthen our defences on all sides against his assaults, and through an ir reproachable lifestyle let us win favor from God and thus render ourselves superior to the devil's shafts. He is, remember, an evil beast, and has manifold wiles: when he does not succeed in enticing us to wickedness from the outset and ensnaring us through deception (after all, he doesn't apply force or constraint—far from it—but only deception: when he sees us indifferent, he trips us up), when, then, he does not succeed in undermining our salvation in an open way through wickedness itself, frequently through the very works of virtue that we perform he casts his net and unbeknown to us plunders all our wealth. What, then, is it that I am saying? You see, it is necessary to explain it very clearly so that you may be instructed in his schemes and avoid the harm coming from them. When he sees us showing no interest in barefaced wickedness but rather shunning licentiousness and embracing sobriety, and furthermore rejecting greed, showing distaste for injustice, scorning indulgence, and instead devoting ourselves to prayer and fasting and showing zeal for almsgiving, then he devises another scheme by which he can undermine all our resources and render such good deeds fruitless. I mean, those who with great effort survive his wiles he causes to form an inflated opinion of their good deeds and have regard for human glory, his purpose being to make them lose true glory. You see, the person who has some experience of spiritual things and loses sight of them to consider human glory takes his reward from that source already and no longer has God as his debtor; he enjoyed commendation from the people from whom he sought to be praised, and so deprived himself of the rewards promised from the Lord, preferring the passing [284] esteem of his peers to that of the Creator of all.
(3) The Lord himself anticipated this in his teaching on
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prayer, almsgiving, and fasting in these words: "When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face in case your fasting becomes obvious to people instead of your Father in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you";? and again, "When you give alms, don't blow your own trumpet," he says, "as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and the open streets so as to be praised by people. Truly, I say to you, they already have their reward." Do you see how the person looking for the former reward loses the latter, whereas the one who practices virtue and aims at avoiding people's attention will gain recompense from the Lord publicly on that dread day. "Your Father," the text says, "who sees in secret-will reward you publicly." Don't worry, he says, about the fact that not a single human being commended you, and you practiced virtue unnoticed; instead, set your mind on this fact that the Lord's generosity will be so great before long, not in a private fashion nor in secret—rather, he will sing your praises and reward you in the presence of the whole human race from Adam till the end of time, and will bestow on you recompense for your works of virtue. So what degree of excuse would those people deserve who submit to the effort virtue involves, and then for the sake of that passing, vain and futile glory that comes from their peers deprive themselves of esteem from on high?
(4) Let us therefore make ourselves secure, I beseech you, and whatever spiritual deed we have the privilege to perform let us be careful in every way to conceal it completely in the recesses of our mind so that we may win the regard of that unsleeping eye and not render ourselves unworthy of the Lord's esteem for the sake of the esteem of human beings and the flattery often given with favors in view. Both failings, you see, are ruinous and a risk to our salvation—performing spiritual deeds while having an eye to human glory, and nourishing self-importance from whatever good one is able to achieve. Hence it is necessary to be quite alert and to apply to ourselves unremittingly the remedies from Sacred Scrip2. Matt 6.17-18.
3. Matt 6.2.
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ture so as not to fall foul of these ruinous weaknesses. You see, even if a person was above reproach in countless ways and accomplished every virtue, and yet became filled with self-importance, that person would be the most pitiable and wretched of all. This was made clear to us in what that wellknown Pharisee went through, flattering himself by comparison with the Publican and frittering away all the wealth of his virtue through his own words, rendering himself emptyhanded and bereft, and suffering a startling and novel shipwreck: having reached the very port he lost all his precious cargo.' In other words, suffering this misfortune from prayers offered wrongly is like meeting with shipwreck in the middle of the harbor. For this reason, of course, Christ too instructed his disciples in these words: "When you have done everything, say, We are unprofitable servants,"® to forewarn them in his wish that they keep themselves at great distance from that ruinous passion. See, dearly beloved, how the person with his mouth open for human glory and performing the works of virtue on that account has no benefit from it either, and the fact that despite practicing every example of virtue, if he seems to give himself credit for it, he finishes up empty-handed and bereft of everything?
(5) So, let us shun all these ruinous weaknesses, I beseech you; let us concentrate on that unsleeping eye, and neither have the same values as our peers nor seek after the commendation that comes from them, [285] but rather be content with the commendation that comes from the Lord. "His praise is not from human beings but from God,"® says Scripture. The more we advance on the way of virtue, the more we cause ourselves to be temperate and restrained. You see, even if we advance to the very pinnacle of virtue, we will
(provided we compare this in all gratitude to the kindnesses coming from the Lord) see clearly that we have contributed not even the slightest part of the benefits coming to us. Each of the saints, after all, was conspicuous for this. For proof of 4. Cf. Luke 18.9-14. me Lake 17 Oe 6. Rom 2.29.
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it, listen to the world's teacher, that towering spirit, how despite such great achievements, despite such wonderful testimony from above ("This man is a vessel of election as far as I am concerned," Scripture says, remember'), he does not lose sight of his own failings but ponders them insistently, and the sins for which he was quite sure he had received forgiveness in baptism he does not even allow himself to forget but cries aloud, "I am the least of all the apostles, I am not worthy to be called an apostle."* Then for the purpose of our learning the extraordinary degree of his humility, he added, "for the reason that I persecuted the Church of God."
(6) O Paul, what are you doing? In his characteristic generosity the Lord relented and cancelled all your sins—and are you reviving them? Yes, I know, he says, I am aware of the Lord's forgiveness of me—yet whenever I recall my doings and see the ocean of the Lord's loving kindness, then I realize perfectly that it is due to his grace and loving kindness that I am what I am. After saying, remember, "I am not worthy to be called an apostle for the reason that I persecuted the Church of God," he added, "by the grace of God, however, I am what I am"; while I did betray such terrible folly, he says, yet his ineffable goodness and grace granted me forgiveness.
Do you see his contrite spirit, constantly recalling the memory of his sins before baptism? Well, let us in our turn imitate this, and our sins after baptism let us remember each day, constantly recall them in our memory and never allow them to recede into oblivion for us. They will prove sufficient restraint, you see, to lead us to reform and self-control. Why do
I mention Paul, a man of such quality and calibre? Are you prepared to see also those people in the Old Testament particularly blessed in this regard, showing restraint despite countless deeds of virtue and outspokenness beyond telling?
Listen to the words of the patriarch, despite his converse with God, after the promise made to him: "'As for me, however, I am dust and ashes.'"!° 7. Acts 9.15.
8. I Cor 15.9. g. I Cor 15.10.
10. Gen 18.27.
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(7) Since, however, I have made mention of the patriarch, let us put before your good selves today's reading, if you don't mind, so as to explain it and thus see the extraordinary degree of the good man's virtue. "Tharra," the text says, "took his sons Abram and Nachor, his son's son Lot, and his daughter-in-law Sarah, his son Abram's wife, and led them from the land of Chaldea to journey into the land of the Canaanites.
He went as far as Charran and settled there. Tharra lived two hundred and five years in Charran, and died in Charran."!! Let us attend precisely to the reading, I beseech you, so as to manage to grasp the sense of the writings. Note, in fact, right in the beginning there seems to be a question in the words used; whereas this blessed author—Moses, I mean
—-says, [286] "Tharra took Abram and Nachor and led them from the land of Chaldea to journey into the land of the Canaanites. He went as far as Charran and settled there," blessed Stephen used the following words in praising the Jews: ""The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he settled in Charran
... and after his father died he led him there to settle.'"!? So what does that mean? Is Sacred Scripture contradicting itself ? Not at all; rather, you need to understand from this that since the son was godfearing, God appeared to him and bade him move there. His father Tharra, though he happened to be a heathen, nevertheless for the affection he had for his son agreed to accompany him in his migration; he went to Charran, settled there and thus ended his lite. Then it was that the patriarch moved to Canaan at God's bidding. Of course,
God did not transfer him from there until Tharra passed on.
(8) It was then, remember, after the latter's demise, Scripture says, "The Lord said to Abram: 'Go forth from your country, your kindred and your father's house, onwards to a land that I will show you. I will make you into a mighty nation; I will bless you and magnify your name, and you will be blessed. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who 11. Gen 11.31—32, the LXX extending Tharra's lifespan by inserting the former "in Charran" in v. 32.
12 PACISU Tan Ae
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curse you; all the tribes of the earth will be blessed in you.'"!8
Let us study each of these words precisely so as to see the godfearing character of the patriarch's attitude. Far from passing the expression idly by, let us consider how much force there is in the direction. "'Go forth,'" he says, "'from your country, your kindred and your father's house, onwards to a land that I will show you.'" Leave behind you, he is saying, what is obvious and accepted, and choose rather what is not clear or apparent. Notice how from the very beginning the good man was trained to prefer the less obvious to the more obvious, and future realities to those which are to hand.
(g) It was, in fact, no slight thing that he was ordered to do—to leave his country where he had lived for so long, all his kindred and the whole of his father's household, and go to a place he didn't know and didn't understand. I mean, he didn't explain what the place he wanted him to migrate to was like; instead, he put to the test the patriarch's godfearing spirit with the vagueness of his command: "'Onwards to a land that I will show you,'" he says. Consider, I ask you, dearly beloved, how the command required a detached attitude that was not handicapped by any attachment or habit.
If in these days, despite the growth in religion, there are many people so hidebound by custom that even under pressure of necessity they would times without number opt to endure everything rather than move from the place where they first had their home (something you can see not only in the case of people generally but also in the case of those who have fled public hubbub and chosen the life of monks), well, much more at that time was it likely that the good man had difficulty with the command and found it unpalatable? Go
13. Gen 12.1—3, verses of whose significance Von Rad says: "The transition from primeval history to sacred history occurs abruptly and surprisingly in vv. 1-3. All at once and precipitously the universal field of vision narrows; world and humanity, the entire ecumenical fulness, are submerged, and all interest is concentrated upon a single man .
. What is promised to Abraham reaches far beyond Israel; indeed, it has universal meaning for all generations on earth" (Genesis, 150). For us it is significant that Chrysostom, with his more moral and less dogmatic concerns, has taken 31 homilies to exhaust the primeval history and reach the patriarchal narratives.
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forth, he says, leave your kindred and your ancestral home, "'onwards to a land that I will show you.'" Whom, in fact, would these words not have disturbed? He reveals to him neither the place nor the country; he just tests the just man's attitude with his vague command. You see, if anyone else had been so bidden, anyone of a hundred, he would have said:
All right, you bid me leave the country I'm now living in, my kindred, my ancestral home. Why don't you make clear to me
[287] the country you order me to travel to, so that I may be in a position to know how great the distance? How, after all, tell me, is it going to become clear that that place will be shown to be better and more prosperous than the one I'm leaving?
(10) The just man, on the contrary, neither said any of those things nor contemplated them; instead, with a full realization of the magnitude of the command he preferred what was unclear to what he was in possession of. If, of course, he did not have a lofty intention and wise attitude and had not been schooled in every way to obey God, he would have found no little further obstacle in the fact of his father's death. You know, after all, that many people often choose on account of their families' tombs to die in those same places where their forebears finished their days. Accordingly, it was likely that this good man, had he in fact not been extremely godfearing, would also have reasoned this way: My father left his home for love of me, ignored longstanding customs, proved superior to all other claims and came as far as this place (as if to say, For my sake he finished his days in exile), so shouldn't I in turn be anxious to pay him the same compliment after his death instead of leaving my father's tomb with his kindred and going off? Still, none of these considerations proved sufficient to blunt his purpose; rather, his love of God made everything appear light and easy to him.
(11) Perhaps he could have given thought to this consideration (if, that is, he had wanted to submit his personal interests to human reasoning), namely, how can I make tracks at my age, hastening as I now am towards the end of my days?
Unaccompanied by my brother, and not having my kindred
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with me, but separated from all those who by family ties are my support, how can I in this desolate and lonely condition take possession of a foreign place without even knowing where my wandering will stop? If it should be my misfortune to lose my life halfway through the journey, what will be the good of this terrible upheaval? Who will lay out for burial this old man, this refugee, friendless and homeless? Perhaps my wife will summon the neighbors to show some compassion and meet necessary expenses from some voluntary contributions. Would it not be far preferable for me, with so little time left to me to live, to end my days remaining here rather than, in my old age, be dragged hither and yon, the object of everyone's jibes, as though incapable at my advanced age of living in tranquility instead of shifting from place to place and never stopping anywhere?
(12) This just man, on the contrary, far from entertaining any of these thoughts, hastened to obey the command. Perhaps, however, someone would say that these words were sufficient encouragement for him, "'Onwards to the country that I will show you. I will make you into a mighty nation and I will bless you.'" Had he not been godfearing, well, this very remark would have been particularly effective in rendering him slow to respond; he could have said, had he been like most people, Why do you guide me to a foreign land and bid me take possession of someone else's country? If you really intend to make me great, why on earth not do it to me here?
Why would you not grant me blessing while living in my ancestral home? If it should be my misfortune, before the destination you intend, that I perish from being overcome by the effort of the journey and end my days, what good comes to me from your promises?
(13) He was loath, however, to give thought to any of these notions; instead, he was like a loyal servant in having ears only for the command. He obeyed it without any meddlesome curiosity and was in fact perfectly assured [288] that God's promises were unfailing: "'I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and magnify your name, and you will be blessed.'" The scope of the promise is extraordinary: "'I will
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make you a great nation; I will bless you and magnify your name.'" Not only will I place you at the head of a great nation and cause your name to be great, but as well, "'I will bless you and you will be blessed.'" I will favor you with so much blessing, he says, that it will last for all time. "'You will be blessed'" to such an extent that everyone will be anxious to thrust themselves into your company in preference to the highest honor. See how God right from the very beginning foretold to him the notoriety he would later confer upon him.
"'T will make you a great nation;'" he said, "'I will magnify your name, I will bless you and you will be blessed.'" Hence the Jews too found in the patriarch grounds for self-importance and endeavored to establish their kinship with him in the words, "'We are children of Abraham.'"!* For you to learn, however, that on the basis of their evil ways they are in fact unworthy of such kinship, Christ said to them, "'If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham.'"!> John, too, son of Zechariah, when those anxious to be baptized flocked to the Jordan, said to them, "'Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that benefits repentance, and don't presume to say, We have Abraham for our father. I tell you, after all, that God can raise up children to Abraham even from these stones.'"'!®
Do you see how great his name was in everyone's estimation?
For the time being, however, before the sequel the just man's godfearing qualities are demonstrated in the way he believed the words coming from God and accepted without demur everything, difficult though it seemed.
(14) "'I will bless those who bless you,'" he said, "'and curse those who curse you; all the tribes of the earth will be blessed in you.'" See God's considerateness in giving him an index of such great love: I will consider as friends those friendly to you, and as enemies those showing enmity to you—something even children hardly manage to achieve in regard to their parents, treating as friends and enemies the 14. Cf. John 8.33.
15. John 8.39.
16. Matt 3.7-9.
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same people as they do. Marvelous, therefore, dearly beloved, is God's favor for the patriarch; I will bless those who bless you, he says, and curse those who curse you. "'All the tribes of the earth will be blessed in you.'" Notice the addition of still further liberality: all the tribes of the earth, he says, will be anxious to be blessed in your name, and on the basis of your title will rank their own status more elevated.
(15) Do you hear, dearly beloved, the command the Lord gave to this Chaldean, this old man, ignorant as he was of Law, unacquainted with Prophets and beneficiary of no other teaching?!" Do you see the scope of the commands? How he stood in need of a sublime and youthful spirit to perform them? Now consider the patriarch's rightmindedness in the way Scripture [289] makes it clear to us: "Abram set out as the Lord God had told him, and Lot traveled with him.'?® It did not simply say, "Abram set out," but "as the Lord God had told him." He did everything, it says, in accordance with the command. God told him to leave everything, kindred and house together, and he left them; he told him to go to a land he did not know, and he agreed; he promised to make him into a mighty nation and to bless him, and he believed that this too would happen. As the Lord God had told him, so he set out—that is to say, he believed the words coming from God, with no hesitation or uncertainty, but rather with mind and purpose firmly decided he set out; hence he enjoyed great favor from the Lord.
(16) "Lot traveled with him," the text adds. Although God had said, "'Go forth from your country, your kindred and your father's house,'" why did he bring Lot with him? It was not that he was disobedient to the Lord; but perhaps because
Lot was young and Abram held the place of a father in his regard, and because he was reluctant on the grounds of love and equity to be separated from the good man, Abram could not bear to leave him behind out of this sense of responsibility. From now on Lot took the place of a son to him, since at 17. Whether or not Chrysostom is referring to the threefold division of the Hebrew Bible, there seems some little prolepsis on his part here.
18. Gen 12.4.
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his advanced age he was without children owing to Sarah's infertility. In particular the youngster's values were quite in keeping with the just man's: does this not emerge from the fact that, in associating himself with the just man when he had the choice of the two brothers, he showed great insight in making the wise decision as to which of his uncles it would be to whom he should entrust his fortunes? Likewise his choice of exile was itself further proof of the nobility of his values; even if eventually he seemed to fail in some matters when he appropriated the prime lands,'® nevertheless he lost no time in following the good man's footsteps. Hence the good man took him as companion in his travels, and Lot enthusiastically preferred exile to life at home.
(17) Then, for us to know that it was to no youngster that the Lord's commands to the patriarch were addressed but to someone already pressing old age, a stage when most people are inclined to be reluctant about traveling, Scripture adds,
"Now, Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Charran." Do you see how, far from age or anything else capable of winning him over to remaining at home proving a deterrent for him, his love for God proved superior to everything.
You see, whenever a soul is alert and vigilant, it cuts through all obstacles and becomes completely the possession of the loved one; it is not upset by any apparent difficulties in its path, but passes them all by, not stopping until it gains the object of its feverish search. For this reason, too, of course, this just man, though vulnerable to impediment from old age and many other factors, broke through all restraints like a young man in his prime, impatient of any obstacle, and thus pressed on in haste to implement the Lord's command. No other way is open to you to implement your plan, after all, if you really want to give evidence of some deed of manly valor, than to make a direct assault initially on everything likely to offer you resistance in such a project. Such, in fact, this good man realized clearly, and he gave every impediment the slip, entertaining no thought of custom, kindred, ancestral home,
19. Cf. Gen 13.11.
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burial grounds or even old age, concentrating on one thing alone—how to succeed in fulfilling what was commanded by the Lord. There was scope for recognizing in the exploit plenty of grounds for alarm, a man of advanced age going into exile with his wife, [290] herself by now well on in years, and a pack of servants, not knowing where his journeyings would finish up. Sull, if anyone cautiously entertained thoughts like that, what extreme difficulties there were in the journey in those times: it wasn't possible, as it is today, to mingle with people without apprehension and so to engage in travel lightly, since every place had a government different from the next and there were difficulties for people traveling from one lot of rulers to the next, as you passed from kingdom to king- » dom almost as each day passed.
(18) So this would have been sufficient obstacle for the good man, too, if he had in fact not had great love and obedience of the command. But as it was, he broke through all these impediments like a spider's web: his faith stiffening his resolve, and with reliance on the trustworthiness of the guarantor, he took to the road. "Abram," the text goes on, "took his wife Sarah, his brother's son Lot, and all the possessions they had acquired in Charran, and set out to travel to the land of Canaan."*° See the precision of Scripture in the way it recounts everything to us so that we may learn through every detail the good man's godfearing qualities: "He took his wife Sarah," the text says, "his brother's son Lot, and everything they had acquired in Charran." It was not without purpose that it said, "everything they had acquired in Charran"; rather, it was for us to learn that the patriarch carried nothing with him from the Chaldeans, but bequeathed all those legacies to his brother and left in the condition of carrying only the things he had been able to acquire in Charran.
Now, the remarkable man did this, not to show the esteem he had for those latter possessions, nor because he happened to resemble a miser, but for the purpose of being able to show
20. Gen 12.5. Chrysostom omits the mention given by the Hebrew and LXX among the list of Abram's possessions of the people (psyche) they had also acquired.
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everyone through his prosperity God's provident care for him: the one who uprooted him from the land of the Chaldeans and in turn bade him move his dwelling from there was the same who day by day increased his prosperity and removed every problem, with the result that this itself proved to be an index of his godfearing attitude—that he traveled along that route carrying such things with him. Each single onlooker, you see, very likely wanted to find out the reason for the just man's departure. Then, being told that he was going into foreign parts at God's bidding and had left behind his own property, they learnt the truth of it from the events themselves and came to know the godfearing qualities of the just man's obedience as well as the extraordinary degree of God's provident care for him.
(19) "He set out," the text says, "to travel to the land of Canaan." How did he come to know that the destination of his traveling would be the land of the Canaanites whereas the effect of the command was, "'Onwards to the land I will show you'"??! Perhaps God revealed this as well to him by bringing into his mind an image of the land he wanted him to move to. In other words, his reason for speaking vaguely in giving him the order, "'Onwards to the land I will show you," was to reveal to us the just man's virtue. Then, after he had expended his own resources with great generosity,
God in his turn communicated to him knowledge of the land where he wanted him to settle. You see, since he foresaw the extent of the just man's virtue, consequently he uprooted him from his home, bidding him take not even his own brother, because he wanted Abram to become instructor at that time to everyone in Palestine and shortly after to those in Egypt.
Do you see how the roots of virtue and the roots of evil are not to be found in nature but in the disposition of the will?
See, after all, these two, the patriarch and Nachor, [291] were in fact brothers in the order of nature, whereas they were not 21. Chrysostom with his characteristic 'precision' detects the inconsistency and does not 'pass it idly by'; his solution, of course, cannot invoke the findings of modern criticism as to the presence of various editorial hands at this point.
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so by disposition: although the latter rivaled his brother in virtue, yet he had been ensnared in error ahead of time, whereas Abram demonstrated daily to everyone through his own behavior his progress in virtue under God's help.
(20) "Abram reached the land of Canaan, and traveled through the length and breadth of the land as far as the place of Suchem by the lofty oak."?? Scripture informs us of the part of the country where the good man now settles. Then, for us to learn what conditions were like there, it adds, "Now, the Canaanites inhabited the land at that time." It was not without purpose that blessed Moses communicated this further fact; instead, it was for us to learn in this case, too, the patriarch's wise attitude in that, as these places had already been overcome by the Canaanites, he was forced to reside wherever luck would have it, in the manner of a nomad and refugee, like some despicable outcast. Yet he made no difficulty of this condition nor said, Why should this be? I passed my days in Charran in such esteem and attention—and now
I'm obliged to go about on sufferance like an exile, a refugee, a stranger, and look for repose in a wretched hovel; and far from being able to find it there, I am obliged to pass my time in tents and shacks, and put up with all other kinds of hardships. Is this all God meant when he said, "'Onwards, and I will make you into a great nation'"? It's a promising beginning for me, to be sure; what improvement is there to look forward to? This, however, wasn't the way the just man presumed to express himself or consider changing his mind; on the contrary, with mind quite made up and unshakable faith he trusted in God's promises and constantly maintained an unflinching resolve—hence he was in turn promptly rewarded with encouragement from on high.
(21) But in case we protract the instruction to, great length, let us stop at this point and conclude the sermon, leaving the recommendation with your good selves—to imitate this just man's attitude. Observe the comparison: this just man, despite its being a most unlikely invitation, was asked to leave
22. Gen 12.5b—6.
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one country for another and displayed such obedience, without age proving an obstacle or any of the other factors we have enumerated, and without his being made slow to obey by the inconvenience of the time or any other thing capable of discouraging him, and on the contrary the old man broke through all hindrances and sped off in haste like a sprightly youth, in the company of his wife, his brother and his retinue, to give effect to the command issued by God. We, on the other hand, are not called to leave one country for another, but to leave earth for heaven; we don't display the same enthusiasm about obeying, but rather propose in many cases trifling and pointless excuses, nothing being sufficient to win us over—neither the magnitude of the promises, nor the vileness of visible realities in being earthly and passing, nor the dignity of him who invites us. Instead, we give evidence of such indifference as to prefer these passing realities to those that last forever, earth to heaven, and things that fade even before being espied to those that can never come to an end.
To what extreme, after all, tell me, would our folly reach in amassing these possessions? What madness is this, to be beset each day by pressing desire without at any time having one's fill but rather being in worse condition than drunken sots? I mean, just as they burn the more [292] with thirst the more deeply they drink their wine, and kindle a harsher flame, so too do these people fail to check their desire by surrendering themselves to the tyranny of the desire for possessions, but rather the flame is fanned more ardently and the furnace kindled more savagely, the more possessions they acquire.
(22) Don't we see that our predecessors, despite their gaining possession of the whole world, so to speak, were snatched from it naked and bereft after gaining this solitary legacy; that an account was demanded of them for their guilt and responsibility for everything? While essential differences were frequently distinguishable, each person nevertheless took his leave burdened with the sins of all, carrying punishment for them along with deep wrath, and unable to find any consolation from any quarter. Why, then, tell me, are we so careless in regard to our own salvation and have as little interest in
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ZO our own soul as if it were someone else's? Don't you listen to Christ's words, "What will a person give in exchange for his soul?" and again, "What good will it be for a person if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul?"23 After all, surely you have nothing equal in value to it. Even if you mention the whole world, you'll be saying nothing. What good is it, as Christ said, to gain the whole world and yet suffer the loss of our souls, which is more part of us than anything else?
This soul of ours, therefore, which is so important, which requires us to be so caring in its regard—why do we neglect it to such an extent that it is daily torn asunder, sometimes beset with our desire for material possessions, sometimes cut to pieces with licentiousness, at other times put to shame with anger, and tortured in divers fashion with every single passion, and why do we never or only at the last moment show it any consideration? Who would any longer judge us worthy of excuse or acquit us of imminent punishment?
(23) For this reason, I beseech you, while we still have time, let us cleanse the soul's filth with generous almsgiving, and by this means quench the fire of our sins. Scripture says, remember, "Water will extinguish a blazing fire, and sins are purged away by alms."** Nothing, in fact, nothing else will be so successful in snatching us from the fire of hell as generosity in this. If we give evidence of it in accord with the laws given us by him, without doing anything for effect but rather out of love for God, we will be able both to wash away the filth of our sins and also win loving kindness from God, thanks to the grace and mercy of his only-begotten Son, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, power and honor, now and forever, for ages of ages. Amen.
23. Matt 16.26.
24. Sir 3.30.