Who Is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved?
Who Is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved? Late Antiquity Clement of Alexandria GreekThose who bestow speeches of praise upon the rich as so many gifts would, in my judgement, rightly be held not only flatterers and slavish men—pretending to confer favours that are no favours, and at great cost—but also impious and treacherous: impious, because, neglecting to praise and glorify the one perfect and good God, from whom are all things and through whom are all things and unto whom are all things, they fasten His honour upon men who wallow in a profligate and miry life and are, in the sum of the matter, subject to the judgement of God; and treacherous, because, although abundance is of itself enough to puff up the souls of those who possess it, to corrupt them, and to turn them aside from the road by which salvation may be reached, these men still further confound the minds of the rich by exalting them with the pleasures of immoderate praise, and by preparing them to despise everything whatsoever except the wealth for which they are admired—channelling, as the saying is, fire upon fire, pouring vanity upon vanity, and heaping pride upon wealth, a heavier burden laid upon a nature already heavy, when rather it should have been lessened and cut away, as a perilous and deadly sickness. For to the man who is lifted up and magnified there is fixed, by way of contrast, the opposite change and fall into lowliness, as the divine word teaches. To me, on the other hand, it seems far more humane than to court the wealthy in slavish fashion and to praise them to their hurt, to help them toward life and to work out their salvation in every possible way—on the one hand by asking it of God, who surely and gladly grants such things to His own children, and on the other by healing their souls through the word, by the grace of the Saviour, enlightening them and leading them on to the possession of the truth; for he alone who attains this, and is made bright by good works, will carry off the prize of eternal life. And prayer too needs a soul that is vigorous and continues unflagging unto the last day of life; and the citizen's life needs a disposition that is good and steadfast and reaches out to all the commandments of the Saviour.
Now it is likely that the cause of salvation's seeming harder for the wealthy than for those who have no money is not single but manifold. For some, hearing offhand and without consideration the Lord's saying, that more easily shall a camel pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man into the kingdom of heaven, despair of themselves as not destined to live, and so, surrendering everything to the world and clinging to the life here below as though it alone were left to them, they fall the further from the road that leads there, no longer troubling to inquire either whom the Master and Teacher addresses as rich, or how that which is impossible with men becomes possible. Others have understood this rightly and fittingly, but, neglecting the works that bear upon salvation, have not made the preparation that is required for attaining what they hope for. I say both these things concerning those of the rich who have perceived both the power of the Saviour and the glorious salvation; but for the uninitiated in the truth I care little.
It behoves, then, those who are disposed to love the truth and to love their brethren—neither rashly and arrogantly looking down upon the rich who are called, nor again cringing to them out of their own love of gain—first to remove from them by the word the empty despair, and to show, with the requisite exposition of the Lord's sayings, that the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven is not utterly cut off from them, if they obey the commandments; and then, when they have learned that the dread they feel is groundless and that the Saviour gladly receives them if they are willing, to point out and to lead them, as in a mystery, by what kind of works and dispositions they may attain the hope, since it is neither impossible for them nor, on the other hand, won at random. But just as it is with athletes—if we may compare small and perishable things with great and incorruptible—so let the man who is rich after the world's fashion reckon also in his own case. For of athletes, one, despairing of being able to conquer and to win crowns, did not so much as enter his name for the contest at all; another, who cast that hope into his mind, but would not submit to the toils, the training, and the suitable diet, ended uncrowned and missed his hopes. So let no man who is clothed with this earthly covering proclaim himself at the outset shut out from the Saviour's contests, provided he is faithful and discerns the greatness of God's loving-kindness; nor again, remaining unexercised and unstruggling, let him hope to share without dust and sweat in the crowns of incorruption. Rather let him submit himself, taking the word for his trainer and Christ for the steward of the games. Let his appointed food and drink be the New Covenant of the Lord; his exercises, the commandments; his comeliness and adornment, the good dispositions—love, faith, hope, knowledge of the truth, gentleness, meekness, compassion, gravity—so that, when the last trumpet shall sound the end of the course and his departure hence as from the stadium of life, he may stand before the Judge of the games a victor with a good conscience, acknowledged worthy of the country above, into which he returns with crowns and angelic proclamations.
May the Saviour, then, grant us, beginning the discourse from this point, to contribute to the brethren what is true and fitting and salutary, first toward the hope itself, and second toward the means of attaining the hope. And He grants what is sought by those who ask, and teaches those who ask, and looses ignorance and shakes off despair, bringing in once more the very same sayings concerning the rich, which become their own interpreters and sure expositors. For there is nothing like hearing again the very words which until now have troubled us in the Gospels, when we listened to them without examination and amiss, through childishness.
And as He was going forth into the road, one ran to Him and knelt down, saying: Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said: Why callest thou Me good? None is good save one, God. Thou knowest the commandments: Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and mother. And he answering said to Him: All these have I kept from my youth. And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him and said: One thing thou lackest; if thou wilt be perfect, sell whatever thou hast and distribute to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. And he, becoming sad at the saying, went away grieving; for he had much property and lands. And Jesus, looking round, said to His disciples: How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! And the disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus, answering again, said to them: Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! More easily shall a camel pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man into the kingdom of God. And they were exceedingly astonished and said: Who then can be saved? And He, looking upon them, said: What is impossible with men is possible with God. Peter began to say to Him: Lo, we have left all and have followed Thee. And Jesus answering said: Verily I say to you, whosoever shall leave what is his own, and parents and brethren and possessions, for My sake and for the sake of the Gospel, shall receive a hundredfold. Now, in this present time, lands and possessions and houses and brethren—with persecutions—to what end? But in the world to come there is life eternal. The first shall be last, and the last first.
These things are written in the Gospel according to Mark; and in all the other acknowledged Gospels likewise, though perhaps in each the wording varies a little here and there, yet all display the same agreement of meaning. But we must clearly understand that the Saviour teaches His own people nothing in a merely human way, but everything by a divine and mystical wisdom; and so we must not listen to His words in a fleshly manner, but search out and learn the hidden meaning in them with worthy inquiry and understanding. For even the things that seem to have been set forth plainly by the Lord Himself to His disciples are found, no less than what was uttered in riddling fashion—nay, even now still more—to require careful attention, by reason of the surpassing excess of wisdom in them. And if even the things thought to have been explained by Him to those within, and to the very children of the kingdom who are called by Him, still need fuller consideration, surely those things which seemed to have been brought forth simply, and were on that account not even questioned by the hearers, yet which bear upon the whole end itself of salvation, and are veiled in a wondrous and supercelestial depth of meaning—these it does not befit us to receive superficially with the ears, but rather, letting our mind down into the very Spirit of the Saviour and into the secret of His meaning.
For our Lord and Saviour was asked, and gladly, a question most fitting to Himself—Life concerning life, the Saviour concerning salvation, the Teacher concerning the chief of the doctrines taught, the Truth concerning the true immortality, the Word concerning the Father's word, the Perfect One concerning the perfect rest, the Incorruptible concerning the sure incorruption. He was asked concerning the very things for the sake of which He came down—the things which He trains, which He teaches, which He bestows—in order to show the theme of the Gospel, that it is the gift of eternal life. And He foreknows, as God, both what He is about to be asked and what one will answer Him. For who should foreknow more than the Prophet of prophets and the Lord of every prophetic spirit? And being called good, taking from this very first word the cue, He begins thence His teaching also, turning the disciple toward God the good and first and only Steward of eternal life, which the Son gives us, having received it from Him.
Therefore the greatest and most fundamental of the lessons that bear upon life must straightway from the very beginning be laid up in the soul: to know God the eternal, the giver of things eternal, the first and supreme and one and good God. And Him it is possible to gain through knowledge and apprehension; for this is the unchanging and unshakeable beginning and foundation of life, the knowledge of God who truly is and who bestows the things that are—that is, the eternal things—from whom both being itself belongs to all others and the receiving of permanence. For ignorance of Him is death, but the knowledge of Him, and intimacy with Him, and love toward Him, and likeness to Him, alone is life.
Him, then, He bids the man who would live the true life to know first, whom none knows save the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him. Next, He bids him learn the greatness of the Saviour after Him, and the newness of the grace, since indeed, according to the Apostle, the Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ; and the things given through a faithful servant are not equal to those bestowed by a genuine Son. If, then, the Law of Moses had been sufficient to furnish eternal life, in vain would the Saviour Himself come and suffer for us, running through humanity from birth to the sign of the cross; and in vain would the man who had done all the lawful commandments from his youth ask immortality of another, kneeling down. For not only had he fulfilled the Law, but also straightway, beginning from earliest age; since what is great or surpassingly splendid in an old age barren of those wrongdoings which youthful desires beget, or boiling anger, or love of money? But if a man, in the leaping of youth and the heat of that age, has shown a ripe judgement older than his years, this is a wonderful and distinguished athlete, and hoary in mind. Yet none the less this man is firmly persuaded that, while he lacks nothing toward righteousness, he is wholly in need of life; wherefore he asks it of the only One able to give, and toward the Law he has confidence, but the Son of God he supplicates. He is transferred from faith to faith; as one tossing perilously and lying at anchor dangerously in the Law, he shifts his moorings to the Saviour.
Jesus, then, does not convict him as not having fulfilled all that is of the Law, but loves him and warmly welcomes him for his ready obedience in the things he had learned; yet He says that he is imperfect as regards eternal life, inasmuch as he has not fulfilled the things that are perfect, and that he is a worker of the Law, but idle as regards the true life. Those things, then, are indeed good—who denies it? For the commandment is holy—as far as a certain tutelage, which with fear and a preliminary discipline leads him on toward the supreme legislation and grace of Jesus; but Christ is the fulfilment of the Law unto righteousness to everyone that believeth, not making men slaves as a slave, but sons and brethren and joint-heirs—those who do the will of the Father.
If thou wilt become perfect. He was not, then, yet perfect; for nothing is more perfect than the perfect. And divinely the if thou wilt declared the self-determination of the soul conversing with Him. For the choice lay with the man as free, but the giving with God as Lord. And He gives to those who are willing and exceedingly earnest and who ask, that thus their salvation may become their own. For God does not compel—since force is hateful to God—but to those who seek He provides, and to those who ask He grants, and to those who knock He opens. If thou wilt, then—if thou truly willest and dost not deceive thyself—acquire what thou lackest. One thing thou lackest, the one thing, that which is Mine, the good thing, that which is already above the Law, which the Law does not give, which the Law does not contain, which is proper to the living. Indeed, the man who had fulfilled all the things of the Law from his youth and had vaunted himself with overweening pride was not able to add this one thing to the whole, the Saviour's special gift, in order to receive the eternal life which he longed for; but, displeased, he went away, vexed at the precept of the life for which he was begging. For he did not truly will life, as he professed, but clothed himself only in the appearance of a good purpose, and while he was able to busy himself about many things, the one thing—the work of life—he was unable and unwilling and too weak to accomplish. Such a thing the Saviour also said to Martha, who was busy about many things and was distracted and troubled with serving, and was blaming her sister because, leaving the service, she sat at His feet, keeping a disciple's leisure: Thou art troubled about many things, but Mary hath chosen the good part, and it shall not be taken from her. So too He bade this man, leaving his over-busyness, cleave fast and sit close to the one thing, the grace of Him who adds eternal life.
What then was it that urged him to flight and made him desert the Teacher, the supplication, the hope, the life, the labours already accomplished? Sell what thou hast. And what is this? It is not what some receive offhand—a command to fling away the substance that he has and to part with his possessions—but rather to banish from the soul the opinions about possessions, the attachment to them, the excessive desire, the morbid excitement and disease about them, the cares, the thorns of life which choke the seed of life. For it is neither great nor enviable to be without possessions for no purpose, apart from a principle of life—for in that case those who have nothing at all, but are destitute and beggars of their daily bread, the poor flung along the roads, who know neither God nor the righteousness of God, would, by the mere fact of utter want and helplessness of livelihood and lack of the smallest things, be most blessed and most beloved of God and alone possessed of eternal life. Nor is it anything new to renounce wealth and bestow it on the poor or on one's country, which many did before the Saviour's coming, some for the sake of leisure for letters and a dead wisdom, others for the sake of empty fame and vainglory—men like Anaxagoras and Democritus and Crates.
What then is it that He enjoins as new and proper to God, and alone life-giving, which did not save those of former times? But if the new creation, the Son of God, declares and teaches something special, it is not the outward act, which others have done, that He prescribes, but something else signified through it—greater and more divine and more perfect: to strip the very soul and disposition of the passions that lie within, and to cut out by the roots and cast forth the things alien to the mind. For this is the lesson proper to the faithful, and this the teaching worthy of the Saviour. For those of former times, who despised outward things, let go their possessions and threw them away; but their soul's passions, I think, they even further intensified; for they fell into haughtiness and boastfulness and vainglory and contempt of other men, as though they had wrought something beyond man. How then would the Saviour have counselled those who are to live forever the things that would harm and ruin them as regards the life He promises? And there is this further point: a man may, after unloading his property, none the less still have the desire and craving for money inbred and living with him, and, having cast off the use of it, may yet, being in want and at the same time longing for what he has squandered, be doubly grieved—both by the absence of service and by the presence of regret. For it is unattainable and impossible for one who is in need of the necessities of life not to have his mind broken and to be drawn away from the better things, while he attempts to procure these somehow and from any source.
And how much more useful is the contrary—that a man, possessing enough, should both not suffer hardship about his property and should also aid those whom it is fitting to aid? For what fellowship would be left among men, if no one had anything? And how would this doctrine not be found openly contrary to, and at war with, many other good doctrines of the Lord? Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that, when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal habitations. Lay up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, nor thieves break through. How could a man feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty and clothe the naked and gather in the homeless—things which He threatens with fire and outer darkness against those who do them not—if each of us were himself first destitute of all these things? But indeed He Himself is a guest with Zacchaeus and Levi and Matthew, the rich men and tax-gatherers, and He does not bid them give up their money, but, imposing the just use and taking away the unjust, He proclaims: Today is salvation come to this house. So He praises their use of it that, with this addition, He even enjoins the sharing—to give drink to the thirsty, bread to the hungry, to receive the homeless, to clothe the naked. But if it is not possible to fulfil these needs except from money, and yet He bids us part with money, what else would the Lord be doing than exhorting one and the same thing both to give and not to give, to feed and not to feed, to receive and to shut out, to share and not to share—which is the most irrational of all things?
Therefore money is not to be flung away—money which can profit even our neighbours; for possessions are things to be possessed, and money is a thing useful and prepared by God for the use of men; and it lies ready and is set before us, like some material and instruments, for good use by those who know how. The instrument, if thou usest it with skill, is a thing of skill; if thou lackest the art, it suffers from thy want of culture, though it is itself without blame. Such a thing too is wealth—an instrument. Thou canst use it justly; it serves toward righteousness. Another uses it unjustly; again it is found a servant of unrighteousness. For it is its nature to serve, not to rule. We must not, then, blame that which, having of itself neither good nor evil, is blameless; but rather that which has the power both of using these things well and ill, according to its choice—and on this very account is the responsible thing. And this is the mind of man, having within itself a free judgement and the self-determination of the handling of the things given. So let a man not do away with his possessions rather than the passions of the soul, which do not allow the better use of what he has, in order that, becoming good and noble, he may be able to use even these possessions nobly. To renounce, then, all that one has, and to sell all that one has, must be understood in this way, as spoken with reference to the passions of the soul.
For my part, I would say this also. Since some things are within the soul, and some without, and if the soul use them well these too seem good, but if ill, evil—the one who bids us alienate what we have, does He deprecate those things which, when removed, the passions still remain, or rather those things which, when removed, the possessions also become useful? He, then, who has cast off worldly abundance can still be rich in passions, even when the material is not present; for the disposition works its own effect, and chokes and presses the reason, and inflames it with its congenital desires. It has, then, been of no advantage to him to be poor in money while rich in passions. For he has not cast off the things to be cast off, but the things indifferent; and he has cut himself off from the serviceable things, but has kindled the inborn material of vice by the want of outward things. We must, then, renounce the possessions that are harmful, not those which, if a man know the right use, can also be of profit; and those things are of profit which are administered with prudence and temperance and piety. But the injurious things must be thrust away; the outward things do no harm.
So, then, the Lord brings in the use of outward things also, bidding us put away not the things of livelihood, but the things that use them ill; and these were the soul's infirmities and passions.
The wealth of these, when present, is deadly to all, but when destroyed, salutary. Of this the soul must be made clean—that is, made poor and naked—and so at last hear the Saviour saying: Come, follow Me. For He Himself becomes the way to the man pure in heart; but into an impure soul the grace of God does not steal; and impure is the soul that is rich in lusts and in travail with many loves and worldly things. For the man who holds his possessions and gold and silver and houses as gifts of God, and ministers from them, to the God who gives, toward the salvation of men, and knows that he possesses these for his brethren's sake rather than his own, and is master of his possessions rather than their slave, not carrying them about in his soul, nor bounding and circumscribing his own life within them, but ever labouring at some good and divine work—and who, if at any time he must be deprived of them, is able with a gracious mind to bear their loss equally as he bore their abundance—this is the man who is called blessed by the Lord and named poor in spirit, a ready heir of the kingdom of heaven, not a rich man unable to live.
But the man who carries his wealth in his soul, and in his heart bears gold or land instead of the Spirit of God, and ever makes his possession boundless, and at every moment looks to the more, bent downward and fettered in the snares of the world—being earth and destined to depart into earth—whence can he be able to desire and have a care for the kingdom of heaven, a man who carries not a heart but a field or a mine, and who will of necessity be found among the things he has chosen? For where the mind of a man is, there is also his treasure.
Now the Lord knows of treasures of two kinds—the one good, for the good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good; and the other evil, for the bad man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil, because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. As, then, with Him there is not one treasure only, as also with us, the one that gives a sudden great gain in the finding, but also a second, the unprofitable and unenviable and hard to win and harmful—so also there is wealth of one kind, of good things, and of another, of evil things, if indeed we know that wealth and treasure are not in their nature bound up with one another. And one kind of wealth might be worth possessing and worth winning, and another not worth possessing and to be cast off; in the same way poverty too is a thing to be deemed blessed—the spiritual poverty. Wherefore Matthew also added: Blessed are the poor—how? In spirit. And again: Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after the righteousness of God. Wretched, then, are the opposite poor, having no share in God, and a still smaller share in human possession, and untasted of God's righteousness.
So that we must understand the rich, who shall hardly enter into the kingdom, in a thoughtful manner, not crudely nor boorishly nor fleshly; for it was not so spoken. Nor does salvation rest upon outward things—whether they be many or few, small or great, glorious or inglorious, esteemed or unesteemed—but upon the virtue of the soul: faith and hope and love and brotherly love and knowledge and meekness and freedom from pride and truth, of which salvation is the prize. For a man will not live by reason of beauty of body, nor on the contrary perish; but he who uses the body given him chastely and according to God shall live, and he who corrupts the temple of God shall be corrupted. A man may be ugly and yet wanton, and may be handsome and yet chaste. Neither does strength and size of body give life, nor does any defect of the limbs destroy; but the soul that uses these supplies the cause in either direction. Endure, then, He says, when smitten on the face—which a man both strong and in good health can obey, and again a man weak by nature can transgress through incontinence of mind. So too a man poor and without livelihood might at times be found drunk with his desires, and a man rich in money sober and poor in pleasures, persuaded, intelligent, pure, chastened. If, then, the thing that is chiefly and first to live is the soul, and if virtue springing up about it saves, while vice kills, then it is already plainly clear that the soul, when poor in those things by which a man is corrupted through wealth, is saved, and when rich in those things which wealth wears away, is killed; and let us no longer seek elsewhere the cause of our end, save in the soul's condition and disposition toward obedience to God and purity, and toward transgression of the commandments and the gathering of vice.
The man, then, who is truly and nobly rich is the one rich in virtues, and able to use every fortune in a holy and faithful manner; but the spurious rich man is the one rich after the flesh, who has transferred his life into outward possession—the possession that passes and perishes and belongs now to one and now to another, and in the end to no one anywhere. And again, in the same way, there is a genuine poor man and another spurious and falsely-named poor man—the one poor after the spirit, which is the proper thing, the other after the world, which is the alien thing. To the man, then, who is not poor after the world but rich in passions, the man poor after the spirit and rich after God says: Depart from the alien possessions that are in thy soul, that, becoming pure in heart, thou mayest see God—which, in another phrase, is to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And how shalt thou depart from them? By selling. What then? Shalt thou take money in exchange for possessions, making an exchange of wealth for wealth, turning thy manifest substance into silver? By no means; but, in place of what before was present in the soul which thou longest to save, introducing instead another wealth that makes godlike and supplies eternal life—the dispositions according to God's commandment—in return for which there shall be left thee a reward and honour, continual salvation and eternal incorruption. Thus thou dost nobly sell thy possessions, the many and superfluous things that shut heaven against thee, taking in exchange for them the things that are able to save. Let the fleshly poor, who are in need of them, have those things; but do thou, having received the spiritual wealth in their stead, possess now treasure in the heavens.
The man of much money and obedient to the Law, not understanding these things rightly, nor how the same man can be both poor and rich, and have money and not have it, and use the world and not use it, went away gloomy and downcast, leaving the rank of the life which he was able only to desire but not to attain, having himself made the difficult thing impossible for himself. For it was difficult that the soul should not be led about and dazzled by the delicate things that belong to manifest wealth and by its flowery enchantments; but it was not impossible, even in the midst of this, to lay hold of salvation, if a man would transfer himself from sensible wealth to the wealth that is intelligible and taught of God, and would learn to use the indifferent things nobly and properly, and as one would who is hastening toward eternal life. And the disciples too at first were themselves frightened and panic-stricken when they heard. Why, pray? Was it because they too possessed much money? But they had long since left even these very things—their little nets and hooks and the serviceable skiffs—which were all they had. What then made them say in fear: Who can be saved? They heard rightly and as disciples what was said by the Lord parabolically and obscurely, and they perceived the depth of the words. As far as the want of money went, they were of good hope as regards salvation; but since they were conscious to themselves of not having yet perfectly laid aside their passions—for they were but newly learning, and lately enlisted by the Saviour—they were exceedingly amazed and despaired of themselves no less than that man of much money who clung so terribly to a possession which he preferred to eternal life. It was, then, wholly a thing worthy of the disciples' fear, if both the man who possessed money and the man big with passions—of which they too were rich—were alike to be driven from heaven; for salvation belongs to souls passionless and pure.
But the Lord answers that what is impossible with men is possible with God. This too, again, is full of great wisdom: that a man, exercising and labouring by himself toward passionlessness, accomplishes nothing, but if he becomes plainly exceedingly desirous of this and earnest, he prevails by the addition of the power from God. For to willing souls God breathes His aid; but if they fall away from their eagerness, the Spirit given of God is also drawn back. For to save the unwilling is the part of one who uses force, but to save those who choose is the part of one who bestows grace. Nor does the kingdom of God belong to the sleeping and the sluggish, but the violent take it by force; for this alone is a noble violence, to do violence to God and to seize life from God. And He, knowing those who hold on violently—or rather steadfastly—yielded; for God rejoices to be overcome in such things. Therefore, when the blessed Peter, the chosen, the eminent, the first of the disciples, for whom alone with Himself the Saviour pays the tribute, heard these things, he quickly seized and grasped the saying. And what does he say? Lo, we have left all and have followed Thee. Now if by all he means his own possessions—leaving, perhaps, four obols, as the saying goes—he magnifies himself, and would, in declaring the kingdom of heaven a worthy equivalent for these, be unawares making a poor bargain; but if, as we are now saying, casting away the old intelligible possessions and the diseases of the soul, they follow in the track of the Teacher, this would now apply to those who are to be enrolled in the heavens. For this is truly to follow the Saviour—to pursue His sinlessness and perfection, and, as before a mirror, to adorn and order the soul after Him, and to dispose all things in all respects alike.
And Jesus answering said: Verily I say to you, whosoever shall leave what is his own, and parents and brethren and possessions, for My sake and for the sake of the Gospel, shall receive a hundredfold. But neither let this trouble us, nor that which is harder still than this, uttered elsewhere among His sayings: He that hateth not father and mother and children, and besides his own soul also, cannot be My disciple. For the God of peace, who exhorts us even to love our enemies, does not introduce hatred and dissolution from those dearest to us. But if we must love our enemies, then by analogy, ascending from them, we must love also our nearest kin; or if we must hate our blood-relations, the argument, descending, much rather teaches us to thrust away our enemies—so that the sayings would be convicted of doing away with one another. But they do not do away with one another, nor anything like it; for it is from one and the same mind and disposition, and with the same end, that a man would hate his father and love his enemy—the man who neither takes vengeance on an enemy nor reveres his father more than Christ. For in the one saying He cuts away hatred and the doing of evil, and in the other the shame-faced regard for one's kin, if it should be harmful to salvation. If, then, a man's father or son or brother be godless and become a hindrance to faith and an obstacle to the life above, let him not be in concord nor of one mind with him, but let him dissolve the fleshly kinship for the sake of the spiritual enmity.
Suppose the matter to be a lawsuit. Let thy father seem to stand by thee and say: I begot thee and reared thee; follow me and join with me in wrongdoing, and obey not the law of Christ—and whatever else a blasphemous man and dead in nature might say. And from the other side hear the Saviour: I begot thee anew, when thou wast ill-begotten by the world unto death; I set thee free, I healed thee, I ransomed thee. I will give thee a life unceasing, eternal, supercosmic. I will show thee the face of God the good Father. Call no man on earth thy father; let the dead bury their dead, but do thou follow Me; for I will lead thee up to rest and to the enjoyment of unspeakable and unutterable good things, which neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor hath entered into the heart of men—into which angels desire to look down and to behold the good things which God hath prepared for the saints and for the children that love Him. I am thy nourisher, giving Myself as bread, whereof he that tastes shall no more make trial of death, and supplying day by day the drink of immortality. I am the teacher of supercelestial lessons; for thy sake I contended with death and paid out thy death, which thou owedst for thy former sins and for thine unbelief toward God. Having heard both sides of these arguments, judge for thyself and cast thy vote for thine own salvation. And if a brother say the like, or a child, or a wife, or whosoever, let Christ the conqueror be in thee before all; for it is for thee that He contends.
Canst thou be also superior to thy money? Say so, and Christ does not lead thee away from thy possession; the Lord does not grudge it. But dost thou see thyself overcome by it and overthrown? Leave it, fling it away, hate it, renounce it, flee. And if thy right eye offend thee, quickly pluck it out; better is the kingdom of God with one eye than the fire with both whole; and if it be a hand, or a foot, or the soul, hate it; for if it perish here for Christ's sake, it shall there be saved.
Of like meaning with this is also what follows: Now, in this present time, lands and possessions and houses and brethren—with persecutions—to what end? For He calls neither the moneyless nor the homeless nor the brotherless to life, since He has called the rich also; but in the manner we have said before, and with brethren in the same way—as Peter with Andrew, and James with John, the sons of Zebedee—but with brethren of one mind both with one another and with Christ. And the having each of these things with persecutions He disapproves. Now persecution is of one kind that comes upon us from without, from men driving the faithful either through enmity or through envy or through love of gain or by diabolical agency; but the most grievous persecution is from within, sent forth out of each man's very soul, which is ravaged by godless desires and manifold pleasures and base hopes and corrupting dreams, whenever, ever reaching after the more and raging with wild loves and burning, it is bled, as it were by goads or stings, by the passions that beset it, into mad pursuits and despair of life and contempt of God. This persecution is heavier and more grievous, springing from within, ever present, from which the persecuted cannot even flee; for he carries his enemy about within himself everywhere. So too the burning that falls upon us from without works a testing, but that from within works death. And war that is brought from abroad is easily dissolved, but that in the soul is measured out unto death. If, with such a persecution, thou hast sensible wealth, and blood-relations as brethren, and the other pledges, leave the whole possession of these things that is to thy hurt; procure peace for thyself, set thyself free from a long persecution, turn from those things toward the Gospel, choose the Saviour before all, the advocate and comforter of thy soul, the president of life without end. For the things seen are temporal, but the things not seen are eternal; and in the present time they are swift to perish and unsure, but in the world to come there is life eternal.
The first shall be last, and the last first. This is of much yield in respect of its inner meaning and explanation, yet does not at present demand investigation; for it inclines not only toward the men of many possessions, but simply toward all men who once for all give themselves over to faith. So let this for the present be laid aside. But the matter before us, I think, has been shown in nothing inferior to the promise—namely, that the Saviour has in no way shut out the rich on the very ground of wealth and the encompassing of possession, nor has He fenced off salvation from them, provided they are able and willing to bow themselves to the commandments of God, and prefer their own life to transient things, and look toward the Lord with a fixed gaze, like men who have their eyes on the nod of a good helmsman—what he wills, what he commands, what he signals, what watchword he gives to his own sailors, where and whence he announces the harbour. For what wrong does a man do, if, attending with his mind and being thrifty before he came to faith, he gathered a sufficient livelihood? Or what is even more free from reproach—if he was straightway settled by God, who apportions fortune, into a household of such men, and into a family abounding in money and prevailing in wealth? For if, on account of his involuntary birth in wealth, he is driven from life, he is rather wronged by the God who begot him, in being deemed worthy of transient luxury but deprived of eternal life. And why should wealth ever have sprung up out of the earth at all, if it is a furnisher and procurer of death? But if a man is able to bend within the bounds of his power over his possessions, and to think moderately and to be temperate, and to seek God only, and to breathe God, and to live as a citizen with God, this man stands poor beside the commandments—free, unconquered, free from disease, unwounded by riches; but if not, sooner shall a camel pass through a needle than such a rich man come into the kingdom of God. Let the camel passing through a narrow and contracted way before the rich man signify also something loftier—which it is the Saviour's mystery to learn in the exposition concerning first principles and theology;
nevertheless let the apparent and primary meaning, for the sake of which the parable was spoken, be brought forward. Let it teach the well-to-do that they must neither neglect their own salvation as though already condemned beforehand, nor again sink wealth in the deep, nor condemn it as a plotter and enemy against life, but learn in what manner and how wealth is to be used and life acquired. For since neither does a man wholly perish because he is rich and fearful, nor is a man wholly saved because he is confident and trusts that he shall be saved, come, let us consider what hope the Saviour outlines for them, and how the thing not hoped for may become assured, and the thing hoped for may come into possession.
The Teacher, then, being asked which is the greatest of the commandments, says: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole soul and with thy whole strength—that there is no commandment greater than this, and very fittingly. For it is given concerning the first and the greatest—God Himself, our Father, through whom all things came to be and are, and unto whom the things that are saved return again. By Him, then, having been first loved, and having obtained our coming into being, it is not holy to lead any other thing as elder and more honourable—since we render only this small grace in return for the greatest things, and have nothing else whatever to devise as a recompense to a God who lacks nothing and is perfect—but rather, by the very loving of the Father, to draw incorruption into our own strength and power. For the more a man loves God, the more also and the more inwardly does he steal into God.
And second in order, and in nothing less than this, He says is the commandment: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself—and therefore God above thyself. And when the man conversing with Him asked, Who is my neighbour? He did not, in the same manner as the Jews, define beforehand the blood-relation, or the fellow-citizen, or the proselyte, or the one likewise circumcised, or the one using one and the same law; but He leads by His discourse a certain man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and shows him pierced through by robbers, flung half-dead upon the road, passed by by a priest, overlooked by a Levite, but pitied by the Samaritan—the reproached and excluded man—who passed not by chance, as those others did, but came furnished with the things the man in peril needed: wine, oil, bandages, a beast, payment for the innkeeper—part given at once, part promised besides. Which, He said, of these became neighbour to the man who suffered the dreadful things? And when the man answered, He that showed mercy upon him—He said: Go thou therefore and do likewise, since love buds forth into well-doing.
In both commandments, then, He introduces love, but has divided it by rank; and in the one He attaches the primacy of love to God, and in the other assigns the second place to the neighbour. And who else would this be save the Saviour Himself? Or who has had more mercy on us than He—on us who by the world-rulers of darkness were all but done to death with our many wounds, fears, desires, angers, griefs, deceits, pleasures? Of these wounds the only physician is Jesus, who cuts out the passions utterly by the roots—not as the Law does, the bare effects, the fruits of the evil plants, but laying His axe to the very roots of vice. He it is who poured the wine, the blood of the vine of David, upon our wounded souls; He who brought and lavished the oil, the mercy from the Father's bowels; He who has shown the unbreakable bonds of health and salvation—love, faith, hope; He who has commanded angels and principalities and powers to serve us at a great reward, because they too shall be set free from the vanity of the world at the revelation of the glory of the sons of God. Him, then, we must love equally with God. And he loves Christ Jesus who does His will and keeps His commandments. For not everyone that saith to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father. And: Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? And: Blessed are ye who see and hear the things which neither righteous men nor prophets did, if ye do the things which I say.
First, then, is the man who loves Christ; and second, the man who honours and cherishes those who have believed in Him. For whatever a man does to a disciple, the Lord receives it as done to Himself, and accounts it all His own: Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and ye gave Me to eat, and I was thirsty and ye gave Me to drink, and I was a stranger and ye took Me in, I was naked and ye clothed Me, I was sick and ye visited Me, I was in prison and ye came to Me. Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying: Lord, when saw we Thee hungry and fed Thee, or thirsty and gave Thee drink? When saw we Thee a stranger and took Thee in, or naked and clothed Thee? Or when saw we Thee sick and visited Thee, or in prison and came to Thee? Answering, the King shall say to them: Verily I say to you, inasmuch as ye did it to one of these the least of My brethren, ye did it to Me. And again, on the contrary, those who did not provide these things for them He casts into the eternal fire, as not having provided them for Himself. And elsewhere: He that receiveth you receiveth Me; he that receiveth you not rejecteth Me.
These He names children and little ones and infants and friends, and little here, in respect of their future greatness above. Despise not, He says, one of these little ones; for their angels do always behold the face of My Father who is in heaven. And in another place: Fear not, little flock; for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom of heaven. In the same way too He says that the least in the kingdom of heaven—that is, His own disciple—is greater than the greatest born of women, John. And again: He that receiveth a righteous man or a prophet in the name of a righteous man or a prophet shall receive their reward; but he that gives a disciple to drink, in the name of a disciple, a cup of cold water, shall not lose his reward. So this reward alone is the one not lost. And again: Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that, when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal habitations. By nature He declares unjust every possession which a man holds for himself as his own, and does not lay out in common for those in need; but out of this injustice it is possible to work also a just and salutary thing—to give rest to one of those who have an eternal habitation with the Father.
See, first, how He has not bidden thee be asked, nor wait to be importuned, but thyself to seek out those who shall be well treated, being worthy disciples of the Saviour. Noble too is the saying of the Apostle: For God loveth a cheerful giver—one who rejoices in giving and sows not sparingly, that he may not so also reap, but shares without grumblings and without distinctions and without grief, which is pure beneficence. But better than this is the saying spoken by the Lord in another place: Give to everyone that asketh thee; for such liberality is truly of God. But this saying surpasses all divinity—not to wait to be asked, but oneself to seek out who is worthy to be well treated, and then to appoint so great a reward for the sharing—an eternal habitation.
O noble commerce! O divine market-place! A man buys incorruption with money, and, giving the perishing things of the world, receives in exchange an eternal abode of these things in the heavens. Sail to this fair, if thou art wise, O rich man; and if need be, go round the whole earth; spare not perils and toils, that here thou mayest buy a heavenly kingdom. Why do transparent stones and emeralds gladden thee so much, and a house that is fuel for fire or a plaything of time or a casual ruin of an earthquake or an insult of a tyrant? Desire to dwell in the heavens and to reign with God; this kingdom a man shall give thee, imitating God; receiving here a little, he shall make thee his fellow-dweller there through all the ages. Beseech that he may receive; hasten, strive, fear lest he slight thee; for he is not commanded to receive, but thou to provide. And indeed the Lord did not say, Give, or Provide, or Do good, or Help, but: Make a friend; and a friend is made not from one giving, but from a whole repose and a long fellowship; for neither faith nor love nor endurance is of one day, but he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
How, then, does the man give these things? Because, for the honour and goodwill and intimacy of that man, the Lord gives; for I will give not only to My friends, but also to the friends of My friends. And who is this friend of God? Do not thou judge who is worthy and who unworthy; for it is possible for thee to err about the opinion. As the matter is in the doubtfulness of ignorance, it is better to do good even to the unworthy for the sake of the worthy, than, by guarding against the less good, not to fall in even with the earnest. For by sparing, and pretending to test who will or will not reasonably receive, it is possible for thee to neglect some of the friends of God, whose penalty is fiery and eternal chastisement; but by giving out to all in turn who are in need, it is wholly necessary that thou shouldst find some one of those also who are able to save with God. Judge not, therefore, that thou be not judged; with what measure thou metest, with the same shall it be measured to thee again; a good measure, pressed down and shaken together, running over, shall be given to thee. Open thy bowels to all who are enrolled as disciples of God, looking not haughtily at the body, nor heedlessly disposed toward age, nor, if a man appears without possessions or ill-clad or ill-favoured or weak, being on that account vexed in soul and turning away. This is an outward form put about us under pretext of our entrance into the world, that we may be able to enter into this common school; but within dwells hidden the Father and His Son, who died for us and rose again with us.
This visible form deceives death and the devil; for the inward wealth and beauty are unseen by them; and they rave about the poor flesh, which they despise as weak, being blind to the possessions within, not knowing how great a treasure we carry in an earthen vessel, walled about by the power of God the Father and the blood of God the Son and the dew of the Holy Spirit. But be not thou deceived, who hast tasted of the truth and been deemed worthy of the great redemption; but, contrary to other men, muster for thyself an army unarmed, warless, bloodless, free from anger, undefiled—God-fearing old men, God-loving orphans, widows armed with meekness, men adorned with love. Win such men with thy wealth, as bodyguards both of thy body and of thy soul, of whom God is the general—through whom even a ship sinking is lightened, steered by the prayers of the saints alone; and disease at its height is mastered, driven off by the laying on of hands; and the assault of robbers is disarmed, despoiled by godly prayers; and the violence of demons is shattered, convicted by strenuous commands.
All these are active soldiers and sure guardians—none idle, none useless. One is able to entreat God for thee; another to console thee in sickness; another to weep and groan in sympathy for thee to the Lord of all; another to teach some of the things useful for salvation; another to admonish thee with frankness; another to counsel thee with goodwill; and all to love truly, without guile, without fear, without hypocrisy, without flattery, without dissembling. O sweet ministries of those who love! O blessed services of those who are bold! O sincere faith of those who fear God alone! O truth of words among those who cannot lie! O beauty of works among those who are persuaded to serve God, to persuade God, to please God! They seem not to touch thy flesh, but each his own soul; not to speak to a brother, but to the King of the ages dwelling in thee.
All the faithful, then, are noble and fit for God and worthy of the title which they wear about them like a diadem. Nevertheless there are already some even among the chosen who are more chosen, and so much the more by how much the less conspicuous, in a manner hauling themselves out of the surge of the world and bringing themselves up to a safe place, not wishing to seem holy, and, if any call them so, ashamed, hiding in the depth of their mind the unspeakable mysteries, and disdaining to have their own nobility beheld in the world—whom the word calls light of the world and salt of the earth. This is the seed, the image and likeness of God, and His genuine child and heir, sent here as on a kind of foreign sojourn by the great economy and proportion of the Father; for whose sake both the visible and the invisible things of the world have been created—some for service, some for exercise, some for instruction to him; and all things are held together so long as the seed remains here, and, when it has been gathered in, all things shall most swiftly be dissolved.
For what further need is there? Behold the mysteries of love, and then thou shalt gaze upon the bosom of the Father, whom the only-begotten God alone declared. And God Himself is love, and for love's sake became visible to us. And His ineffable part is Father, but His sympathy toward us became Mother. In loving, the Father became womanly; and a great sign of this is He whom He begot of Himself; and the fruit born of love is love. For this reason also He Himself came down; for this reason He put on man; for this reason He willingly suffered the things of men, that, measured to our weakness, He might measure us again in turn to His own power those whom He loved. And being about to be poured out as a libation, and giving Himself as a ransom, He leaves us a new covenant: My love I give to you. And what is this, and how great? For each one of us He laid down His soul, the equivalent of all; and this He demands of us in return, on behalf of one another. But if we owe our souls to the brethren, and have agreed to such a covenant with the Saviour, shall we still shut up and hoard the things of the world, the poor and alien and fleeting things? Shall we shut one another out from the things which after a little while the fire shall have? Divinely and inspiredly John says: He that loveth not his brother is a murderer, the seed of Cain, the nursling of the devil; he has not the bowels of God, he has not the hope of better things, he is unsown, he is barren, he is no branch of the ever-living supercelestial vine, he is cut off, he awaits the fire all at once.
But do thou learn the more excellent way, which Paul points out, unto salvation: Love seeketh not her own, but is poured out upon the brother; about him she is in a flutter, about him she is soberly mad. Love covereth a multitude of sins; perfect love casteth out fear; vaunteth not herself, is not puffed up, rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth. Prophecies shall be done away, tongues shall cease, healings are left behind on earth. But these three abide: faith, hope, love; and the greatest of these is love. And rightly. For faith departs when by direct vision we are persuaded, seeing God; and hope vanishes when the things hoped for are rendered; but love comes together unto fullness and grows the more when the perfect things have been delivered up. If a man cast this into his soul, he can—even though he be born in sins, even though he have done many of the forbidden things—by increasing love and taking pure repentance, fight back the things in which he has stumbled. Let not this be left thee for despair and recklessness,
if thou shouldst learn who the rich man is that has no place in the heavens, and in what manner a man, using what he has, might escape both the ill report of wealth and its difficulty as regards life, and might be able to taste the eternal good things—even though he should have, whether through ignorance or weakness or involuntary circumstance, after the seal and the redemption, fallen into certain sins or transgressions, so as to be wholly carried away. For not even such a man has been utterly condemned by God. For to everyone who in truth has turned with his whole heart toward God the doors stand open, and the Father, thrice glad, receives a son truly repenting; and true repentance is no longer to be liable to the same things, but utterly to root out of the soul the sins for which a man has condemned himself to death; for when these have been done away, God again will take up His dwelling in thee. For there is, He says, great and surpassing joy and festival in heaven to the Father and the angels over one sinner who turns and repents. Wherefore also He cries: I will have mercy and not sacrifice; I desire not the death of the sinner, but his repentance; though your sins be as scarlet wool, I will make them white as snow; though they be blacker than darkness, I will wash them and make them white as wool. For to God alone is it possible to grant forgiveness of sins and not to reckon transgressions, seeing that the Lord enjoins even us each day to forgive the brethren who repent. And if we, being evil, know how to give good gifts, how much more the Father of mercies, the good Father of all comfort, who is full of compassion and full of mercy, who is by nature long-suffering, and waits for those who turn. And to turn is in truth to cease from sins, and no longer to look to the things behind.
Of the sins already committed, then, God gives forgiveness; but of those to come, each man himself to himself. And this is to repent: to condemn the things past and to ask of the Father an amnesty for them—who alone of all is able to make what has been done as though undone, blotting out the former sins by His own mercy and the dew of the Spirit. For by whatever things I find you, He says, by these will I also judge; and at every point the end of all things cries aloud; so that even to the man who has done the greatest good things throughout his life, but at the end has run aground upon vice, all the former toils are profitless, when at the catastrophe of the drama he has been thrown out of the contest; while it is possible for the man who has lived worse and slovenly before, if afterward he repents, to overcome a long-continued evil polity by the time after repentance—but there is need of much exactness, just as bodies worn by a long sickness need a regimen and greater attention. Thou thief, wouldst thou receive forgiveness? Steal no more. Thou adulterer, burn no more. Thou fornicator, henceforth be chaste. Thou robber, restore, and restore over and above. Thou false witness, practise truth. Thou perjurer, swear no more; and cut short the other passions, anger, desire, grief, fear, that thou mayest be found at thy departure already beforehand reconciled here with thine adversary. It is, then, perhaps impossible all at once to cut off congenital passions, but with the power of God and human supplication and the help of brethren and sincere repentance and continual practice it is set right.
Wherefore thou, the proud and powerful and rich, must by all means set over thyself some man of God as a trainer and helmsman. Reverence at least one, fear at least one, practise to listen at least to one who speaks frankly and is at once both astringent and healing. For neither is it good for the eyes to remain forever undisciplined, but they must at times even weep and be smarted for the sake of greater health. So too for the soul nothing is more destructive than continual pleasure; for it is blinded by the melting away, if it remain unmoved by the frank-speaking word. Fear this man when he is angry, and grieve when he groans, and revere him when he ends his anger, and forestall him when he deprecates punishment. Let him keep awake for thee many nights, interceding for thee with God and charming the Father with his accustomed litanies; for He does not hold out against His children when they entreat with their bowels. And he will pray purely, being preferred by thee as an angel of God, and grieved in nothing by thee, but for thee; this is unfeigned repentance. God is not mocked, nor does He attend to empty words; for He alone searches the marrow and reins of the heart, and hears those in the fire, and listens to those supplicating in the belly of the sea-monster, and is near to all who believe and far from the godless, unless they repent.
And that thou mayest take courage, having thus truly repented, that there remains for thee a worthy hope of salvation, hear a tale that is no tale, but a true account concerning John the Apostle, handed down and preserved in memory. For when, after the death of the tyrant, he passed from the island of Patmos to Ephesus, he used to go also, when summoned, to the neighbouring regions of the nations—in some to appoint bishops, in some to set whole churches in order, and in some to ordain to the clergy some one of those signified by the Spirit. Coming, then, to one of the cities not far off, whose name some also tell, and having in other things refreshed the brethren, at last, looking upon the bishop who had been appointed, and seeing a young man of vigorous body, comely in face, and ardent in soul, he said: This man I commit to thee with all earnestness, before the Church and Christ as witness. And when the bishop accepted and promised everything, he again charged and adjured him in the same terms. Then he set off for Ephesus, but the elder, taking home the young man committed to him, reared, kept, and cherished him, and at last enlightened him; and after this he relaxed his greater care and watchfulness, as having set over him for a perfect safeguard the seal of the Lord. But to the young man, who had taken his liberty before the time, there attached themselves certain idle and dissolute youths of his own age, practised in evils; and first they led him on by costly banquets, then they took him out with them by night for clothes-stealing, and then they thought fit to have him share in something greater still. And he little by little grew accustomed, and through the greatness of his nature, like a hard-mouthed and strong horse, swerving from the straight road and taking the bit between his teeth, was carried the more violently down the precipices. Despairing utterly of salvation in God, he no longer planned any small thing, but, since once for all he had perished, deemed it right to suffer the same as the rest. Taking these very men, then, and forming a band of robbers, he was a ready captain of robbers, most violent, most bloody, most cruel. Time passed, and on the occurrence of some need they sent for John. And he, when he had settled the other matters for which he had come, said: Come, bishop, give back to us the deposit which I and Christ committed to thee before the Church over which thou dost preside, as witness. The bishop at first was confounded, thinking himself slandered about money which he had not received, and could neither believe concerning what he did not have, nor disbelieve John. But when John said: I demand back the young man and the soul of the brother—the elder, groaning deeply and even shedding tears, said: He is dead. How, and by what death? He is dead to God, he said; for he turned out wicked and abandoned, and, in sum, a robber, and now, instead of the Church, he has taken to the mountain with a like band of soldiery. Rending his garment and with a great wail smiting his head, the Apostle said: A fine guardian, truly, of the brother's soul did I leave! But let a horse be brought me at once, and let someone become my guide for the road. He rode off, just as he was, from the very church. And when he came to the place, he was seized by the outpost of the robbers, neither fleeing nor begging off, but crying out: For this I have come; lead me to your chief. He, meanwhile, armed as he was, waited; but when he recognized John approaching, he turned to flight in shame. But John pursued with all his might, forgetting his own age, crying out: Why dost thou flee from me, child—thine own father, the unarmed, the old man? Pity me, child; fear not; thou hast still hopes of life. I will give account to Christ for thee; if need be, I will willingly endure thy death, as the Lord endured death for us; for thee I will give my own soul in exchange. Stand, believe; Christ has sent me. And he, hearing, first stood looking down, then threw away his weapons, then, trembling, wept bitterly; and embracing the old man as he came up, he pleaded with his lamentations as best he could, baptized a second time in his tears, and only kept hidden his right hand. But John, pledging and swearing that he had found forgiveness for him from the Saviour, beseeching, kneeling down, kissing that very right hand as now cleansed by repentance, led him back to the Church; and, supplicating with abundant prayers, and contending together with him in continual fastings, and charming down his mind with manifold spells of words, he did not depart, as they say, before he had restored him to the Church—giving a great example of true repentance and a great token of regeneration, a trophy of a visible resurrection.
. . .
. . . rejoicing with bright faces, hymning, opening the heavens. And before all the Saviour Himself comes forward to meet and welcome him, holding out a light unshadowed and unceasing, guiding him into the bosom of the Father, into eternal life, into the kingdom of heaven. Let a man believe these things, both the disciples of God and God the surety, the prophecies, the Gospels, the apostolic words; living by these and lending his ears and exercising the works, he shall behold, at his very departure, the end and the demonstration of the doctrines. For he who here welcomes the angel of repentance will not then repent, when he leaves the body, nor be put to shame when he sees the Saviour approaching with His glory and host; he does not dread the fire. But if a man chooses to remain ever sinning in his pleasures, and prefers the luxury here to eternal life, and turns away when the Saviour offers forgiveness, let him blame no longer either God or wealth or his own fall, but his own soul that perishes willingly. But to him who looks toward salvation and longs for it and asks for it with importunity and violence, the good Father in the heavens will grant the true cleansing and the unchanging life. To whom, through His Son Jesus Christ, the Lord of the living and the dead, and through the Holy Spirit, be glory, honour, power, eternal majesty, both now and unto generations of generations and unto the ages of the ages. Amen.