THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
Therefore God has called us not in order to destroy us, but to save us. How is it clear that He wills precisely this? It is said: 'He gave His Only-begotten Son' (Jn 3:16). He so greatly desires our salvation that He gave His Son. He did not simply give Him, but gave Him over to death.
From such reflections hope is born. Do not despair, then, O man, when you come to God, Who did not spare even His Son for your sake. Do not fear present afflictions. He Who delivered up the Only-begotten to save you and snatch you from Gehenna, will He spare anything else for your salvation?
Therefore we must expect every good thing. We would not be afraid if we had to stand before a judge who would judge us, if he had shown such love for us that he had slain his own son for us.
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Let us then await every good and great thing, because we have received the chief thing, if we believe. But we see the example. Therefore let us also love Him. It would be utter madness not to love Him Who has so greatly loved us.
He says the same in another place: 'whether we watch or sleep' (1 Thess 5:6). Yet by sleep he means one thing there and another here. Here he means bodily death. There he means negligence in life.
What is said here has this meaning: do not fear dangers. Even if we die, we shall live. Do not fall into despair because you suffer. You have a sure pledge. He would not have delivered up His Son if He did not have exceedingly great love for us.
Therefore, even if you die, you will live, because He Himself also died. Thus whether we die or live, we shall live together with Him. I find not the slightest difference in this. It is all the same to me whether I live or die, because we shall live with Him.
Let us therefore do everything for that life. Let us accomplish everything with our gaze fixed upon it.
Beloved, vice is darkness, death, and night. Because of it we do not see what we should see, nor do what we ought to do. As the dead are disfigured and foul-smelling, so the souls of those sunk in evil are filled with great impurity.
Their eyes are closed and their mouths are shut. They lie motionless on the bed of vice and deserve far more pity than those whom death has overtaken. The latter are dead to everything. These are insensible to virtue, but alive to evil.
If someone strikes a dead man, he does not feel it and does not avenge himself. He lies like a dried tree. Just so, in truth, is the soul that has lost its life. Every day it receives countless wounds and feels none of them. It remains insensible to all.
One would not err by comparing such people to the mad, the drunken, or the insane. Yet vice contains all these things in itself and is worse than all of them.
A madman receives great forbearance from the onlooker, because his illness does not arise from choice, but from nature alone. But where will one who remains in evil find forbearance?
Whence, then, is evil? Why are there so many evil people? You ask whence? Tell me yourself: whence come evil diseases? Whence madness? Whence heavy sleep? Is it not from carelessness?
If natural illnesses take their beginning from the will, how much more do deliberate ones. Whence drunkenness? Is it not from lack of self-restraint in the soul? Whence madness, if not from excessive heat? And this heat, is it not from an increase of the elements, στοιχείων, in us?
And is the increase of these elements not from inattention? When we bring the parts of our constitution out of proportion, either by deficiency or excess of something within us, we kindle this fire.
Again, if we remain inattentive after this flame has already been kindled, then we produce in ourselves a conflagration which we can no longer extinguish.
So it is with evil. When at the beginning we do not set an obstacle before it and do not cut it off, afterward we can no longer restrain it. On the contrary, it becomes stronger than our powers.
Therefore I implore you, let us always act so that we never fall asleep. Have you not seen that long watches have often remained useless because the guards gave themselves to sleep for a short time?
Through that brief sleep they ruined everything, giving great boldness to the one attempting theft. Just as we do not watch thieves as much as they watch us, so the devil most of all watches us, lies in wait, and gnashes his teeth.
Therefore let us not fall asleep. Let us not say: nothing threatens us from this side or from that. Often we are robbed from where we did not expect it. So also with evil: we can perish from where we did not expect.
Let us examine everything carefully. Let us not become drunk, and we shall not fall asleep. Let us not be filled to excess, and we shall not doze. Let us not madly rush after outward goods, and we shall remain sober. Let us fortify ourselves on every side.
Those who walk on a stretched rope cannot be even a little careless, because from that little carelessness great harm comes. If they make a misstep, they immediately fall down and perish.
So we too must not remain careless. We walk a narrow path, surrounded on both sides by precipices, where two feet cannot stand together. Do you see how much vigilance we need?
Do you not see that those who walk on a path surrounded by precipices not only step carefully with their feet, but also watch attentively with their eyes? Even if a man's foot seems to step carefully in a given place and stands firmly, an eye troubled by looking into the abyss can cast him down.
He must attend both to himself and to how he steps. For this reason it is said: 'Neither to the right nor to the left' (Prov 4:27). Deep is the abyss of evil. Great are the precipices. Thick is the darkness below. Narrow is the path.
Let us attend to ourselves with fear. Let us walk with trembling. No one walking on such a path gives himself to laughter or burdens himself with drunkenness. He walks such a path soberly and attentively.
No one walking such a path carries anything unnecessary. Blessed is the one who, well girded, can pass through safely. In such a case no one binds his feet, but leaves them free.
But we bind ourselves with countless cares and lay countless worldly burdens upon ourselves. Since we are inattentive and distracted, how can we hope to pass along so narrow a path?
He did not simply say that the path is narrow. He expressed wonder: 'How narrow is the path!' That is, it is exceedingly narrow, just as we do when speaking of very astonishing things.
Again He says: 'Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leads to life' (Mt 7:14). He rightly said narrow. When we must give account for words, thoughts, deeds, and everything, then truly such a path is narrow.
We make it still narrower by fattening and broadening ourselves, and by stepping with a careless foot. A narrow path is difficult for everyone, but especially for the corpulent. By contrast, one who has made himself lean will not even feel the constraint. He who has learned to constrain himself will not complain of constraint.
Therefore let no one expect to see heaven amid ease. This is impossible. Let no one hope to pass the narrow path amid luxury. This cannot be. Let no one walking on the broad path hope to attain life.
If you see someone delighting himself with baths, costly tables, or many servants, do not think yourself unhappy because you lack these things. Rather, pity him, because he is walking the path of destruction.
What benefit is there from that path, when it ends in sorrow? By contrast, what harm is there from that constriction, when it leads into rest?
Tell me, if one man, summoned to the royal palace, walked through narrow and slippery passages, while another, condemned to death, was dragged through the middle of the square, whom would we call blessed? Whom would we pity? Would it not be the one going on the broad road?
So also now let us count as blessed not those who live in luxury, but those who do not live in luxury. The latter hasten to heaven, while the former go to Gehenna.
Perhaps many of them will laugh at our words. But this is why I especially weep and lament: they do not know what one should laugh at, nor what one should most of all weep over. They confuse, pervert, and distort everything. Therefore I weep for them.
What are you saying, O man? You are to rise, give account of your deeds, and undergo the strictest punishment. Yet you pay no attention to this, but concern yourself with excess and drunkenness, and beyond this you laugh?
But I weep over you, knowing what misfortunes await you and what punishment must overtake you. Therefore I especially weep because you laugh. Weep with me, then. Lament with me over your misfortunes.
Tell me, if someone of your household died, would you not turn away from those who laughed at his death and consider them enemies? On the contrary, would you not love those who wept and grieved with you?
If your wife lay dead, you would turn away from the one who began to laugh. Yet when the soul in you has died, you turn away from the one who weeps over it, while you yourself laugh?
Do you see how the devil has disposed us to be foes and enemies to ourselves? Let us rise at last. Let us open our eyes. Let us awaken. Let us concern ourselves with eternal life. Let us break off the long sleep.
There is judgment. There is punishment. There is resurrection and examination of deeds. The Lord comes on the clouds. 'Before Him is a consuming fire, and around Him a mighty tempest,' says the Psalmist (Ps 49:3).
A river of fire flows before Him. There is the worm that does not die, the fire that is not quenched, the outer darkness, and the gnashing of teeth.
Even if you are vexed at this a thousand times, I shall not cease to speak of it. If the prophets did not fall silent when they were being stoned, how much more must we endure displeasure.
We must not speak a discourse to please you, lest, for deceiving you, we ourselves be cut in pieces. There, the torment is eternal and without consolation. There will be no defender.
'Who will pity a charmer bitten by a serpent?' (Sir 12:13). When we do not pity ourselves, who will pity us? Tell me, if you saw someone piercing himself with a sword, could you ever spare him? No.
All the more, when we have the possibility of correction and do not correct ourselves, who will pity us? No one. Let us have mercy on ourselves.
When we pray to God and say, 'Have mercy on me, O Lord,' let us say this also to ourselves, and let us have mercy on ourselves. It lies in our power for God to have mercy on us. He Himself has granted this to us.
If we do what is worthy of mercy and worthy of His love for mankind, then God will have mercy on us. But if we do not have mercy on ourselves, who will pity us?
Have mercy on your neighbor, and you will be shown mercy by God Himself. How many people come to you every day, saying, 'Have mercy on me,' and you do not even turn around.
How many are naked, how many maimed, and we do not bend toward their supplications, but turn away. How then do you wish to be shown mercy, when you yourself do nothing worthy of mercy?
Let us be compassionate. Let us be merciful, that in this way we may please God and be counted worthy of the good things promised to those who love Him. May this be by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.