THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
He rightly added this. If the sufferings of our neighbors encourage us, what consolation will the sufferings of the Master not give us? What will they not do for us? Notice how, without enumerating everything, he indicated everything in this addition by the word “contradiction,” rendered “reproach” in the synodal text.
Blows on the cheek, mockeries, insults, revilings, reproaches, all these he called “contradiction.” Not only these, but also everything that occurred throughout the whole life of His teaching. Beloved, let us constantly remember this. Let us keep it in mind night and day.
Let us know that this will bring us great blessings, and that from this we shall receive great benefit. The sufferings of Christ and the Apostles are a great, truly great, consolation for us. Christ considered this path to virtue so beautiful that He Himself walked it, though He had no need to do so.
He regarded affliction as so profitable for us that it was, as it were, a source of joy. Listen to what Christ Himself says: “He who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me” (Mt 10:38). By such teaching He suggests this: if you are a disciple, imitate the Teacher.
This belongs to a disciple. If He went by the sorrowful path, while you go by the joyful one, then you are not walking the path He walked, but another. What kind of follower are you, if you do not follow? What kind of disciple are you, if you do not imitate the Teacher?
So Paul also says: “We are weak, but you are strong; you are honored, but we are dishonored” (1 Cor 4:10). Is it reasonable, he says, for your aims to be contrary to ours, while you are disciples and we are teachers?
Therefore, beloved, affliction is a great good. It accomplishes two very great things: it cleanses sins and makes us courageous. But what, you say, if it overcomes and destroys? No, affliction does not do this, but our sloth.
How so? If we are watchful, if we pray to God that He not allow us “to be tempted beyond our strength” (1 Cor 10:13), and if we are always devoted to Him, then we shall stand courageously and endure the struggle.
So long as we have Him as our helper, even if temptations stronger than every storm attack us, they will be like hay and leaves easily carried away by the wind. Listen to Paul, who says: “In all these things we more than conquer through Him who loved us” (Rom 8:37).
And again: “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18). And again: “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor 4:17).
See what dangers, shipwrecks, continual afflictions, and all such things he calls light. Imitate this adamant, as though he were not clothed with a body at all. Are you in poverty? But not as Paul was, tested by hunger, thirst, and nakedness.
He did not suffer this for one day only, but endured it constantly. How is this known? Listen to what he himself says: “Even to this present hour we hunger and thirst, and are naked” (1 Cor 4:11). O how much that man suffered.
He had already become renowned through preaching, and had already struggled for twenty years when he wrote this. “I know,” he says, “a man in Christ who fourteen years ago, whether in the body I do not know, or outside the body I do not know, God knows, was caught up to the third heaven” (2 Cor 12:2).
And elsewhere: “Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem” (Gal 1:18). Listen again to what he says: “It would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void” (1 Cor 9:15). And not only this, but listen further: “We have become as the refuse of the world” (1 Cor 4:13).
What is worse than hunger, cold, and plots from brothers, whom, however, he calls false brothers? Did they not call him a destroyer of the universe, a deceiver, and a fraud? Did they not beat him with scourges?
Beloved, let us keep this in mind. Let us ponder it and remember it. Then we shall never lose heart, even if we are wronged, robbed, or subjected to countless other misfortunes. May God grant us prosperity in heaven, and all things here are bearable.
May God grant us to attain blessedness there, and nothing here matters at all. This is a shadow and a dream. Whatever it may be, in comparison with the future and what is expected there, nothing is grievous, either in kind or in duration.
What can we compare with the torments there, with the unquenchable fire, with the undying worm? What here can be compared with the gnashing of teeth, the confinement in outer darkness, the wrath, the sorrow, and the groaning?
And as to time, what are even tens of thousands of years in comparison with boundless and unending ages? Is this not a small drop before a boundless abyss? And the good things there? They are incomparably superior to those here.
“Eye has not seen,” says the Apostle, “nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man” (1 Cor 2:9). These too will continue unto endless ages. Is it not worth suffering a thousand times for them?
Is it not worth being killed, being burned, enduring a thousand deaths, and bearing everything terrible in word and deed? For if it can happen that we shall live while burning in fire, should we not endure everything to be counted worthy of those promised good things?
But why do I say these things in vain to people who do not even wish to give up attachment to money? They regard money as though it were immortal. If they give only a little from much, they think they have fulfilled everything.
No, this is not almsgiving. Almsgiving is the gift of that widow who offered “what she had, all her living” (Mk 12:44). If you do not wish to give as much as that widow, then at least give all that is superfluous.
Let you have everything sufficient, but without excess. Yet no one gives even what is superfluous. When you have many servants and silken garments, all this is superfluous. There is neither necessity nor benefit in what we can live without.
This is excess, something added from without. Let us see, if you will, what we cannot live without. If we have only two servants, we can live. If some live entirely without servants, what excuse can we have if we are not content with two?
We can also have a brick house with three rooms, and this will be enough for us. Tell me, are there not people who, with children and wife, occupy only one room? So let you have two servants, if you wish.
But, they say, is it not shameful for a free woman to walk with only two servants? No, it is not shameful for a free woman to walk with two servants. It is shameful to walk with many.
Perhaps you laugh as you hear this. Believe me, it is shameful to walk with many. Like sellers of sheep, or dealers in slaves, you think it something great to walk accompanied by a multitude of servants. This is pride and vainglory.
The other is prudence and modesty. A free woman should not be distinguished by the multitude following her. What virtue is there in having many slaves? This does not belong to our soul, and what does not belong to the soul does not make it free.
When the soul is content with little, then it is truly free. When it needs much, then it is a slave and worse than slaves. Tell me, do not the angels traverse the universe alone? Do they need someone to follow them?
Are they worse than we are because they do not need this, while we do? If not needing attendants belongs to angels, then who is closer to the angelic life? Is it the woman who needs many servants, or the one who needs few?
And is this shameful? It is shameful to do something wicked. Tell me, who draws more attention from those in the marketplace? Is it the woman accompanied by many, or the one accompanied by few? More than the latter, is it not the one who goes out alone, without any pomp?
Do you see how the first is shameful? Who draws more attention in the marketplace? Is it the one wearing beautiful garments, or the one dressed simply and without affectation? Who draws more attention in the marketplace?
Is it the one riding mules with gilded coverings, or the one who goes out simply, as it happens, yet decently? Is it not true that we pay no special attention to the latter, even when we see her?
But many not only try to see the former, they even ask: who is she, and where is she from? I will not mention how much envy is born from this. Tell me, then, which is more shameful: to be watched, or not to be watched?
When is there more shame? When everyone looks at her, or when no one looks? When people try to find out about her, or when they take no interest at all? Do you see that we do all this not from shame, but from vainglory?
Yet it is impossible to wean you from this. Therefore it will be enough for me to impress on you that simplicity is not shameful. Only sin is shameful, though no one considers it shameful. Rather, people consider everything shameful except sin.
Our clothing should correspond to need, not excess. Still, so that we do not grieve you too much, I only urge that we should have neither gilded garments nor fine coverings. I do not say this. These are not my words, but those of blessed Paul.
Listen to how he exhorts women to adorn themselves: “not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly clothing” (1 Tim 2:9). With what, then, Paul? Teach us. Perhaps they will say that only garments of gold are costly, and that silk is not costly.
Teach us, then, with what exactly. “Having,” he says, “food and clothing, let us be content with these” (1 Tim 6:8). Clothing should be such as only covers us. God gave it to us for this, that we might cover nakedness.
Any inexpensive garment can do this. Perhaps now you are laughing while wearing silken garments. Truly, this is worthy of laughter. What did Paul command, and what do we do? I address this word not only to women, but also to men.
Everything we have beyond this is superfluous. Only the poor have no excess, and perhaps even this is by necessity. If it were possible, perhaps they would not refuse excess. Yet whether in outward appearance only or in reality, at least they have no excess.
So let us also wear clothing that satisfies necessity. Indeed, what purpose does abundance of gold serve? It is fitting for those who act on the stage. It is their clothing, the clothing of those wanton women who do everything to display themselves.
Let an actress or dancer deck herself out. She wants to attract everyone to herself. But one who has dedicated herself to piety should not adorn herself in this way. She has another adornment, far better.
You also have your own spectacle. Adorn yourself fittingly for that spectacle. Clothe yourself in that attire. What is your spectacle? Heaven, the choir of angels. I speak not only of those dedicated to virginity, but also of those in the world.
This spectacle is open to all who believe in Christ. Let us speak what can give pleasure to these spectators, and dress so that they may rejoice. Tell me, if a prostitute abandoned gold ornaments and garments, laughter, jesting, and indecent expressions, and dressed in simple clothing, what would happen?
If she adorned herself without affectation, went out, spoke pious words, conversed about chastity, and said nothing improper, would not everyone rise up? Would not the spectacle be disrupted? Would they not cast her out as one unable to suit the crowd?
Would they not reject her as speaking of things alien to that satanic spectacle? So also, if you enter the heavenly spectacle dressed in garments proper to her, the spectators will cast you out. There, these golden garments are not needed, but others.
What are they? Those of which the prophet says: “Her clothing is woven with gold” (Ps 44:14). One must not make the body white and shining, but adorn the soul, because it struggles and contends. “All the glory of the King’s daughter is within,” says the prophet.