THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
He concluded the epistle with prayer. Prayer is a great and saving good, and a safeguard for our souls. Yet it is a great good when we do what is worthy of it, and when we do not make ourselves unworthy of it.
Therefore, when you come to the priest and he says to you, May God have mercy on you, child, do not rely on the words alone. Add works also, and do what is worthy of mercy.
God will bless you, child, if you act worthily of blessing. He will bless you if you are merciful to your neighbor. For what we wish to receive from God, we must first give to our neighbors. If we deprive our neighbors of this, how do we wish to receive the same from God?
Read more (1465 words)
"Blessed," He says, "are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" (Mt 5:7). If even men show mercy to such people, much more will God. But He will not show mercy to the merciless: "For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy" (Jas 2:13).
Mercy is a good deed. Why then do you not show it to another? You wish to receive forgiveness of sins. Why do you not forgive the one who has sinned? You approach God asking for the kingdom of heaven, yet you do not give silver to the one who asks.
This is why we do not receive mercy: we ourselves do not show mercy. But you will say, Is it not also an act of mercy to show mercy to those who do not show mercy? But will a man be merciful if he shows mercy to someone cruel, savage, and causing countless evils to his neighbor?
But you will say, Did not the laver of baptism save us, though we had committed countless evils? Yes, but it delivered us from them not so that we should do them again, but so that we should not do them.
"We died to sin," says the Apostle. "How can we still live in it? What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means" (Rom 6:15). It delivered you from them so that you would no longer return to such dishonor.
So also physicians cure those with fever from their illness, not so that, by misusing their health, they may fall ill again and suffer disorder. It would be better to remain sick than to seek healing in order to throw oneself again upon a sickbed.
Rather, they cure them so that, having learned the sufferings of illness, they may not fall into the same condition, but may guard their health more carefully and do everything that preserves it.
Where then, you will say, is God's love for mankind, if He does not wish to save the wicked? Often and from many I hear that God loves mankind and will certainly save all. Let us not deceive ourselves in vain.
I have remembered a promise once given to you. Let us now take up this subject. Earlier I spoke with you about Gehenna and postponed the discourse on God's love for mankind. Today it is good to fulfill that promise.
That there will be Gehenna, I think, we have sufficiently proved. We set forth the flood and the other former calamities, and said that He who did all this cannot leave present sinners unpunished. If He so punished those who sinned before the law, He certainly will not leave unpunished those who have committed far greater transgressions under grace.
So the question was proposed: how is God good, how does He love mankind, if He punishes? We postponed speaking of this so as not to burden your attention with many subjects. Now, then, let us pay this debt and show how God remains good even when He punishes.
These words can also be directed by us against heretics, so listen attentively. God created us, though He had no need of us. That He had no need of us is clear from the fact that He created us afterward, and not from eternity.
If He had needed us, He would have created us earlier. But if He existed without us, and we came into being at a later time, then He created us without having any need of us.
He created heaven, earth, sea, and all that exists for us. Tell me, is this not the work of His goodness? Much could be said about this, but for brevity let us say that He "makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous" (Mt 5:45).
Is this not a work of goodness? No, you say. Once I asked a Marcionite the same thing: Is this not a work of goodness? He answered me, If God did not require an account for sins, it would be a work of goodness. But since He requires an account, it is not a work of goodness.
He is no longer here, but we will repeat what was said then, and say even more. I prove decisively that if God did not require an account, He would not be good. But since He requires an account, He is good.
Tell me, if He did not require an account from us, could human life continue? Would we not turn into wild beasts? Even now, when the fear of judgment and punishment hangs over us, we have surpassed fish by devouring one another. We have outdone lions and wolves by plundering one another.
What confusion and disorder would our life not be filled with, if He did not require an account from us and we were convinced of this? What would the fabled labyrinth be in comparison with the disorders in our world? Would you not see countless acts of lawlessness and disorder?
Who would finally respect his father? Who would not insult his mother? Who would not be given over to every pleasure and every vice? That this is so, I will try to convince you by presenting the example of a single household.
How? In this way. Suppose one of you who asks this question had slaves, and I announced to them that, however much they resisted their masters' authority, even if they struck them with insults, plundered all their property, overturned everything, and treated them as enemies, the masters would not threaten them, punish them, torment them, or even grieve them with an unpleasant word.
What do you think? Would this be a work of goodness? On the contrary, I think it would be a work of extreme cruelty. Such unseasonable indulgence would expose not only wife and children to outrage. Even before that, it would allow the guilty themselves to perish.
They would become drunkards, debauched, shameless, insolent, and more senseless than all beasts. Tell me, is it a work of goodness to trample down the nobility of the soul, and to destroy both them and one another?
Do you see that the very requirement of an account is a work of great goodness? But why do I speak of servants, who are too inclined to these vices? If someone had sons and allowed them to do everything without correcting them, tell me, whom would they not become worse than?
Therefore, if among men punishment is a work of goodness, and impunity a work of cruelty, is it not so with God? Consequently, He prepared Gehenna precisely because He is good.
Do you wish me to show you God's goodness from another side also? Besides everything already said, the fear of punishment does not allow the good to become evil. If all expected one and the same outcome, all would become evil. But now the good find no small consolation even in this.
Listen to what the prophet says: "The righteous will rejoice when he sees vengeance; he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked" (Ps 58:10). He does not rejoice in this, no. Rather, fearing lest he himself suffer the same, he will take care for greater purity of life.
Thus this requirement of an account is a work of great care. Yes, you say, but He should only threaten, and not punish. No. If even when He sets forth punishment, you say that it is only a threat and therefore become more careless, what carelessness would you not reach if it were truly only a threat?
If the Ninevites had known that the punishment appointed for them was only a threat, they would not have repented. But since they repented, the threat remained only in words.
Do you also want the punishments appointed for sinners to be only a threat? This depends on you yourself. Amend yourself, and they will remain only a threat. But if you despise the threat, which may it not be, you will experience it in deed.
Those who lived before the flood, if they had feared the threat, would not have experienced it in deed. So also we, if we fear the threat, will not experience it in deed.
May this not happen to us. Rather, may the God who loves mankind grant us all to be instructed by these things and to attain the ineffable good things. May we all be counted worthy of them by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ. With Him to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.