THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
Thus, having first touched upon the women, the Apostle then turns his discourse to the men: "Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman." It is proof of extreme corruption when both sexes are depraved. The man was appointed to be the instructor of the woman, and the woman was commanded to be the helper of the man. Yet they act toward one another as enemies.
Notice what strong expressions the Apostle uses. He did not say that they had mutual love and desire, but, "they burned in their lust for one another." Do you see that everything came from an excess of desire, which could not remain within its proper bounds?
Everything that transgresses the laws established by God desires what is unusual and unlawful. Many, having lost appetite for ordinary food, often eat earth and small stones. Others, tormented by strong thirst, often drink even muddy water. So the Gentiles boiled over with this unlawful love.
If you ask whence such intensity of passion came, I answer: from the fact that they were abandoned by God. And whence did this abandonment by God arise? From the lawlessness of those who abandoned God.
"Men committing shame with men." When you hear, says the Apostle, that they were inflamed, do not think that they had only the disease of desire. Everything depends chiefly on carelessness, which inflamed the passions.
Therefore he did not say, "having been tempted," or "having fallen," as he expressed it elsewhere (Gal 6:1). What did he say? "Committing." They considered sin an occupation, not a simple one, but one they performed with zeal.
Nor did he simply say "desire," but "shame" above all, because they shamed nature and trampled upon the laws.
See what great confusion arose on both sides. Not only was the head put below, but the feet were above. People became enemies to themselves and to one another. They opened a kind of cruel war, more lawless than any civil war, a war varied and manifold.
They divided it into four kinds, all vain and criminal. Thus their struggle was not twofold or threefold, but fourfold. Consider for yourself.
Two, I mean the woman and the man, were to become one, as it is said: "The two shall become one flesh" (Gen 2:24). This was called forth by the desire for communion, which also joined the two sexes to one another.
The devil destroyed this mutual inclination and gave it another direction. In this way he divided the sexes from one another, and contrary to God's law made two parts from one whole. For God said, "The two shall become one flesh," but the devil divided the one flesh into two.
This is the first war. Again, each of these two parts began to war both with itself and against the other. Women began to inflict outrage not only upon men, but also upon women. Men rose up against one another and against the female sex, as usually happens in some night battle.
Do you see the second and third war, the fourth and the fifth? Yet there is another besides these. They also rose up against nature itself.
Since the devil saw that desire itself most of all joins the sexes, he strove to tear apart this bond. He wished to destroy the human race not only by the unlawful wasting of seed, but also by mutual struggle and rebellions.
"Receiving in themselves the recompense which was due for their error." See how the Apostle again passes to the source of evil, the ungodly teaching. He says that shame was the recompense for this lawlessness.
If, when speaking of Gehenna and punishment, the Apostle had spoken to impious people who chose such a life, he would have seemed unworthy of belief and even laughable. Therefore he explains that the punishment is contained in this pleasure itself.
Do not be surprised that they do not feel this, but experience enjoyment. The insane and those seized by the illness of mental derangement torment themselves greatly and are in a pitiable condition. Yet they laugh and rejoice in the very deeds over which others weep for them.
But we do not say that because of this they are freed from punishment. On the contrary, for this very reason they are in a most terrible torment, because they do not recognize their own condition. It is not the sick who must judge the state of things, but the healthy.
It is known that in antiquity such a thing was even considered lawful. One Gentile lawgiver forbade slaves to rub themselves dry with oil and to practice sodomy, granting this privilege only to free men. Better said, he granted this shameful deed.
In general, the Gentiles did not consider this matter shameless. As something honorable and higher than the condition of slaves, they reserved it only for free men. So thought the wisest people of Athens and the great Solon among the Athenians.
One can find many other philosophical writings infected with the same disease. Yet because of this we will not call such a thing lawful. On the contrary, we recognize as pitiable and worthy of many tears those people who accepted this law.
What prostitutes do, those who practice sodomy also do, or rather they commit something more disgraceful. Intercourse with prostitutes, though lawless, is natural. Sodomy is both unlawful and contrary to nature.
If there were no Gehenna and no threatened punishment, this would be worse than any punishment. If they enjoy it, that only shows the intensification of the punishment.
If I saw a naked man running, having smeared his whole body with mud, and not only not being ashamed but boasting of it, I would not rejoice with him. I would weep for him more than he, because he does not feel his shame.
To make the outrage clearer to you, hear another example from me. Suppose someone exposed a maiden as having had intercourse with irrational animals in her chamber. Suppose that afterward she continued to delight in such intercourse. Would she not be worthy of tears, especially because she could not be freed from this disease, since she did not recognize the vice?
Of course this is clear to everyone. If that lawlessness is grievous, then this, sodomy, is no less so, because suffering outrage from one's own is more grievous than from strangers.
I affirm that such people are worse than murderers, because it is better to die than to live after such outrage. The murderer tears the soul from the body, but this man destroys both soul and body together.
Whatever sin you name, none will be equal to this lawlessness. Those who fall into it, if they recognized what they were doing, would accept countless deaths just to avoid being subjected to this sin.
There is nothing, nothing more irrational and grievous than such outrage. If Paul, speaking of fornication, said, "Every sin that a man commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against his own body" (1 Cor 6:18), what should be said of this madness? It is so much worse than fornication that it cannot even be expressed.
I do not merely say that you have become a woman. I say more: you have destroyed your existence as a man. You were not changed into female nature, nor did you preserve the nature you had. You have become a common traitor to both natures.
You are worthy of banishment from both men and women, and of stoning, because you have insulted both sexes.
To understand how great this sin is, consider the following. If someone came to you and announced that he would make you a dog instead of a man, would you not flee from him as from the most harmful of men?
But you have made yourself not a dog instead of a man, but an animal more contemptible than a dog. A dog is still useful for something. The man who gives himself to debauchery is useful for nothing.
Tell me, if someone threatened to make men bear and give birth to children, would we not be filled with anger? Yet now those who give themselves to such frenzy act much worse against themselves.
It is not the same thing, first, to be changed into female nature, and second, while remaining a man, to become a woman. Better said, such a person becomes neither one nor the other.
If you wish to know the excess of the evil in another respect, ask why legislators punish those who make others eunuchs. You will learn that it is for no other reason than for the mutilation of nature, although they do not inflict such outrage upon a man as is inflicted by sodomy.
For those who are castrated remain useful in many cases even after castration. Meanwhile there is nothing more depraved than a man who has become a prostitute. Not only the soul, but also the body of one who has admitted such outrage becomes worthless and worthy of banishment from everywhere.
What Gehennas are sufficient for such people? If, hearing of Gehenna, you laugh and do not believe, then remember the fire of Sodom. We see, even in the present life, a likeness of Gehenna.
Since many were ready not to believe those who appeared after the resurrection and announced that an unquenchable fire exists even now, God instructed them by events of the present life. Such was the burning of Sodom and its destruction by fire.
Those who have been there know this, having seen with their own eyes the traces of divine punishment and of heavenly lightning.
Understand, then, how great the sin was that moved Gehenna to appear before its time. On the other hand, since many despised words about Gehenna, God showed them in deed its likeness in a certain new form.
That rain was extraordinary, just as the intercourse of the Sodomites was contrary to nature. It flooded the earth, just as lust had flooded their souls.
In its action this rain was the opposite of ordinary rain. Not only did it fail to stir the womb of the earth to bring forth fruits, but it also made it incapable of receiving seeds. Such too was the intercourse of the men of the land of Sodom, which made their bodies more barren.
What is filthier, what is more repulsive, than a man who has become a prostitute? What frenzy, what madness! Whence did this lust invade, insulting human nature like enemies, or rather far more terribly than enemies, as the soul is superior to the body?
O you more senseless than irrational beings, and more shameless than dogs! Even among them such intercourse never occurs, because nature knows its limits. But you, shaming your own role, have made it more dishonorable than irrational beings.
Whence, then, did this evil arise? From luxurious living, from ignorance of God. Whenever people cast away the fear of God, then every good also abandons them.
Therefore, so that this may not happen, let us keep the true fear of God before our eyes. Nothing, nothing destroys a man so much as being loosed from this anchor. Likewise, nothing saves so much as always holding fast to it.
If, when we have a man before our eyes, we approach sins with less boldness and often do nothing improper, being ashamed before more honorable servants, then consider what security we shall enjoy when we have God before our eyes.
With such a disposition, the devil will nowhere attack us, because his labor would be useless. But when the devil notices that we wander outside and roam without a bridle, then, using our beginning as his opportunity, he will finally gain the ability to separate us entirely from the flock.
What negligent slaves endure, we too will undergo when we depart from God's commandments. Such slaves leave the necessary tasks for which their masters sent them to the marketplace. Without need and in vain they stop with passersby and waste their free time there.
So we too stand, admiring wealth, bodily beauty, and the rest that does not concern us. Those slaves likewise watch the shows of tricksters, and then, returning late, suffer cruel beatings at home.
Many, following others who commit similar depraved acts, have even abandoned the path lying before them. But let us not do this, because we have been sent to accomplish many necessary things.
If we neglect them, stop, and gaze with wonder at useless objects, then, after spending all our time idly and in vain, we too shall be subjected to cruel punishment.