THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
Therefore those who turn aside from this must inevitably suffer shipwreck. The Apostle shows this to us by an example: "Of such are Hymenaeus and Alexander" (v. 20). By their example he brings us to our senses.
Do you see that even in those times there were men who taught perversely, sought out many things, turned aside from the faith, and submitted everything to examination by their own reasonings? A man who has suffered shipwreck remains naked and deprived of everything. In the same way, one who has fallen away from the faith has nothing left. He has nowhere to stand and nothing on which to rest.
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He does not live a life from which he can derive any profit. For what use is the rest of the body when the head has been injured? If faith without life is nothing, still more is the converse true: life without faith is nothing. If God, for our sake, overlooks what is His, still more must we, for His sake, forget what is ours.
This is what happens when someone falls away from the faith. He stops nowhere, but is tossed here and there until he sinks again into the deep. "Whom," he says, "I delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme." Do you see that investigating divine things by human reasonings is blasphemy? And rightly so. What does human reasoning have in common with them?
But how does Satan teach them not to blaspheme? If he teaches others not to blaspheme, then he ought much more to teach himself this. If he cannot teach himself this even now, neither can he teach others. The Apostle did not say, "that he may teach them not to blaspheme," but, "that they may learn not to blaspheme." Satan does not accomplish this, but it comes about as a consequence of his actions.
Likewise, in another place, the Apostle says of the fornicator, "to deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh." This is not said with the purpose of saving the body, but "that the spirit may be saved" (1 Cor 5:5). That is, the expression is impersonal.
How does this happen? As executioners, though themselves filled with countless crimes, bring others to their senses, so here this is said of the evil demon. But why did you not punish them yourself, as you punished Bar-Jesus, and as Cephas punished Ananias, but delivered them to Satan? Not in order to subject them to punishment, but to teach them.
Still, he himself also had power to punish. For example, he says, "What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod?" (1 Cor 4:21). Again he says, "But that you should do what is good, though we may seem not to be what we ought" (2 Cor 13:7). And again, "for edification, and not for destruction" (2 Cor 13:10).
Why, then, does he summon Satan for punishment? So that a stronger rebuke may be joined to the severity of the punishment. Or rather, the Apostles themselves instructed unbelievers, but delivered apostates to Satan. But why did Peter himself punish Ananias? Because Ananias was both an unbeliever and one who was testing him.
Thus, so that unbelievers might know that they cannot hide, the Apostles punished them themselves. But those who already knew this and afterward fell away from the faith, they delivered to Satan. They showed that such men had been protected not by their own power, but by the Apostles’ care, and that they were delivered to Satan as soon as they fell into pride.
It is like kings, who strike enemies with their own hands, but hand over criminals from among their own subjects to executioners. So it is here. From this it becomes clear that this was done through the Apostles’ care. Besides, it was no small thing to be able to command the devil. Through this it became evident that the devil is subject and, even against his will, obeys the Apostles. Thus this also greatly contributed to the manifestation of the gifts of grace.
Hear how he delivered the guilty man to Satan: "When you are gathered together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, together with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 5:4). Therefore the guilty man was at once cast out of the common assembly and separated from the flock. He remained alone and naked, and was handed over to the wolf.
As the cloud marked the camp of the Hebrews, so the Spirit marks the Church. Therefore whoever was cast out from her was burned in the fire. The guilty man was cast out from her by the judgment of the Apostles. Thus the Lord also delivered Judas to Satan: "And after the morsel, Satan entered into him" (Jn 13:27).
One may also say that, when they wished to correct someone, they did not punish him themselves. But they punished the incorrigible themselves. Or, if not this, then they handed the guilty over to others for punishment in order to be more feared. Thus Job also was delivered to Satan, not for sins, but for his greater glorification.
Much of the same kind occurs even now. Since priests do not know all sinners, nor those who partake unworthily of the Holy Mysteries, God often does this and delivers them to Satan. When illnesses occur, when slanders arise, when sorrows and misfortunes come, and when similar calamities overtake men, this happens for this reason. Paul reveals this to us when he says, "For this reason many of you are weak and sick, and many sleep" (1 Cor 11:30).
How can this be, you will say, when we approach the Mysteries once a year? The whole evil lies precisely in this: you measure your worthiness in approaching the Mysteries not by purity of thoughts, but by the interval of time. You regard it as a sign of piety that you do not approach them often. You do not know that approaching unworthily, even if it happens only once, means insulting the holy thing. But approaching worthily, even often, is saving.
Boldness does not consist in approaching often, but in approaching unworthily, even if someone should do this only once in his whole life. Yet we are so senseless and wretched that, while committing a thousand transgressions throughout the whole year, we care nothing about freeing ourselves from them. We think it enough if we do not often dare to approach the Body of Christ in a way that insults Him. We do not consider that those who crucified Christ crucified Him only once.
Does sin become smaller because it happened only once? Judas betrayed Christ once. What then? Did that save him? Why do we measure this matter by intervals of time? Let a pure conscience be for us the time when we ought to approach the Mysteries.
The Mystery celebrated at Pascha contains nothing greater than the one celebrated now. It is one and the same. The grace of the Spirit is the same. It is always Pascha. Those of you who are initiated into the Mysteries know this. On Friday, on Saturday, on the Lord’s Day, and on the day of the martyrs, one and the same sacrifice is offered.
"For as often," he says, "as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death" (1 Cor 11:26). He did not limit the sacrifice by a boundary of time. Why, then, you will say, is it called Pascha then? Because Christ suffered for us then.
Therefore no one should approach the first sacrifice in one manner and the last in another. They have one power, one dignity, one grace, and one and the same Body. One is not holier than the other, and the last is not inferior to the first. You yourselves also know this, because then you see nothing unusual except these worldly veils and a splendid, crowded assembly.
Nevertheless, those days have a certain advantage in this respect: from them the saving day takes its beginning for us, since on that day Christ was slain. Apart from this, with respect to the Mysteries, they have no advantage. When you approach even bodily food, you wash your hands and rinse your mouth. But when you intend to approach spiritual food, do you not wash your soul, but come filled with impurity?
How, you will say? Are the forty days of fasting not enough to cleanse us from the heavy burden of sins? Tell me, what benefit comes from this? If someone intended to place fragrant ointment somewhere, and for this purpose cleaned the place, but then, shortly after placing it there, added dung to it, would the fragrance not be destroyed? So it happens with us.
At the time when we approached the Mystery, we were, as far as our strength allowed, worthy of it. But afterward we defile ourselves again. What benefit do we receive from this? We say this even about those who are able to cleanse themselves during the forty days.
Let us not, I beseech you, neglect our salvation, lest our labor be in vain. A man who turns away from his sin and returns to it again, acting as before, is like "a dog that returns to its vomit" (Prov 26:11). If we act in this way, and if we attend to ourselves in this way, we shall be able to be made worthy of the future rewards. May we all receive them by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.