Homilies on First Thessalonians

And what has now come into my mind to say to you, that I will utter. And what is this? When you are involved in poverty and sickness, if from no other quarter, at least from those who beg, who wander through the narrow streets, learn to give thanks to the Lord. For they, spending their whole life in begging, do not blaspheme, are not angry, nor impatient, but make the whole narrative of their beggary in thanksgiving, magnifying God, and calling Him merciful. He indeed that is perishing with hunger, calls Him merciful, but you who are living in plenty, if you cannot get the possessions of all, call Him cruel. How much better is he! How will he condemn us! God has sent the poor through the world, as common teachers in our calamities, and consolation under them. Have you suffered anything contrary to your wishes? Yet nothing like what that poor man suffers. You have lost an eye, but he both his. You have long labored under disease, but he has one that is incurable. You have lost your children, but he even the health of his own body. You have suffered a great loss, but you are not yet reduced to supplicate from others. Give thanks to God. You see them in the furnace of poverty, and begging indeed from all, but receiving from few. When you are weary of praying, and dost not receive, consider how often you have heard a poor man calling upon you, and hast not listened to him, and he has not been angry nor insulted you. And yet thou indeed actest thus from cruelty; but God from mercy even declines to hear. If therefore thou, yourself from cruelty not hearing your fellow-servant, expectest not to be found fault with, do you find fault with the Lord, who out of mercy does not hear His servant? Do you see how great the inequality, how great the injustice?

Let us consider these things constantly, those who are below us, those who are under greater calamities, and so we shall be able to be thankful to God. Life abounds with many such instances. And he who is sober, and willing to attend, gains no small instruction from the houses of prayer. For on this account the poor sit before the vestibule both in the churches and in the chapels of the Martyrs, that we may receive great benefit from the spectacle of these things. For consider, that when we enter into earthly palaces, we can see nothing of this kind; but men that are dignified and famous, and wealthy and intelligent, are everywhere hastening to and fro. But into the real palaces, I mean the Church, and the oratories of the Martyrs, enter the demoniacs, the maimed, the poor, the aged, the blind, and those whose limbs are distorted. And wherefore? That you may be instructed by the spectacle of these things; in the first place that if you have entered drawing after you any pride from without, having looked upon these, and laid aside your arrogance, and become contrite in heart, so you may go in, and hear the things that are said; for it is not possible that he who prays with an arrogant mind should be heard. That when you see an aged man, you may not be elated at your youth, for these old men were once young. That when you boast highly of your warfare, or your kingly power, you may consider that from these are sprung those who have become illustrious in kings' courts. That, when you presume upon your bodily health, taking heed to these, you may abate your lofty spirit. For the healthy man who continually enters here will not be highminded on account of his bodily health; and the sick man will receive no slight consolation.

But they do not sit here only on this account, but that they may also make you compassionate, and you may be inclined to pity; that you may admire the lovingkindness of God; for if God is not ashamed of them, but has set them in His vestibules, much less be thou ashamed; that you may not be highminded on account of palaces upon earth. Be not ashamed, when called upon by a poor man; and if he should draw near, if he should catch your knees, shake him not off. For these are certain admirable dogs of the Royal Courts. For I do not call them dogs as dishonoring them— far be it— but even highly commending them. They guard the King's court. Therefore feed them. For the honor passes on to the King. There all is pride—I speak of the palaces on earth— here all is humility. You learn especially from the very vestibules that human beings are nothing. From the very persons who sit before them, you are taught that God delights not in riches. For their sitting and assembling there is all but an admonition, sending forth a clear voice regarding the nature of all men, and saying that human things are nothing, that they are shadow and smoke. If riches were a good, God would not have seated the poor before His own vestibule. And if He admits rich people also, wonder not for He admits them not on this account, that they may continue rich, but that they may be delivered from their encumbrance. For hear what Christ says to them, “You cannot serve God and Mammon”; and again, “It is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven”; and again, “It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.” On this account He receives the rich, that they may hear these words, that they may long for the eternal riches, that they may covet things in heaven. And why do you wonder that He does not disdain to seat such at His vestibules? For He does not disdain to call them to His spiritual Table, and make them partakers of that Feast. But the maimed and the lame, the old man that is clothed in rags and filth, and has catarrh, comes to partake of that Table with the young and the beautiful, and with him even who is clothed in purple, and whose head is encircled with a diadem— and is thought worthy of the spiritual Feast, and both enjoy the same benefits, and there is no difference.