Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews

⁶ “For consider,” says he, “Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” For if the sufferings of those near us arouse us, what earnestness will not those of our Master give us! What will they not work in us!

And passing by all [else], he expressed the whole by the [word] “Contradiction”; and by adding “such.” For the blows upon the cheek, the laughter, the insults, the reproaches, the mockeries, all these he indicated by “contradiction.” And not these only, but also the things which befell Him during His whole life, of teaching.

For a great, a truly great consolation are both the sufferings of Christ, and those of the Apostles. For He so well knew that this is the better way of virtue, as even to go that way Himself, not having need thereof: He knew so well that tribulation is expedient for us, and that it becomes rather a foundation for repose. For hear Him saying, “If a man take not his cross, and follow after Me, he is not worthy of Me.” If you are a disciple, He means, imitate the Master; for this is [to be] a disciple. But if while He went by [the path of] affliction, thou [goest] by that of ease, thou no longer treadest the same path, which He trod, but another. How then do you follow, when you follow not? How shall you be a disciple, not going after the Master? This Paul also says, “We are weak, but you are strong; we are despised, but you are honored.” How is it reasonable, he means, that we should be striving after opposite things, and yet that you should be disciples and we teachers?

7. Affliction then is a great thing, beloved, for it accomplishes two great things; It wipes out sins, and it makes men strong.

What then, you say, if it overthrow and destroy? Affliction does not do this, but our own slothfulness. How (you say)? If we are sober and watchful, if we beseech God that He would not “suffer us to be tempted above that we are able”, if we always hold fast to Him, we shall stand nobly, and set ourselves against our enemy. So long as we have Him for our helper, though temptations blow more violently than all the winds, they will be to us as chaff and a leaf borne lightly along. Hear Paul saying, “In all these things” (are his words) “we are more than conquerors.” And again, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” And again, “For the light affliction which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

Consider what great dangers, shipwrecks, afflictions one upon another, and other such things, he calls “light”; and emulate this inflexible one, who wore this body simply and heedlessly. You are in poverty? But not in such as Paul, who was tried by hunger, and thirst, and nakedness. For he suffered this not for one day, but endured it continually. Whence does this appear? Hear himself saying, “Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked.” Oh! How great glory did he already have in preaching, when he was undergoing so great [afflictions]! Having now [reached] the twentieth year [thereof], at the time when he wrote this. For he says, “I knew a man fourteen years ago, whether in the body, or out of the body, I know not.” And again, “After three years” (he says) “I went up to Jerusalem.” And again hear him saying, “It were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.” And not only this, but again also in writing he said, “We have become as the filth of the world.” What is more difficult to endure than hunger? What than freezing cold? What than plottings made by brethren whom he afterwards calls “false brethren”? Was he not called the pest of the world? An Impostor? A subverter? Was he not cut with scourging?

8. These things let us take into our mind, beloved, let us consider them, let us hold them in remembrance, and then we shall never faint, though we be wronged, though we be plundered, though we suffer innumerable evils. Let it be granted us to be approved in Heaven, and all things [are] endurable. Let it be granted us to fare well there, and things here are of no account. These things are a shadow, and a dream; whatever they may be, they are nothing either in nature or in duration, while those are hoped for and expected.

For what would you that we should compare with those fearful things? What with the unquenchable fire? With the never-dying worm? Which of the things here can you name in comparison with the “gnashing of teeth,” with the “chains,” and the “outer darkness,” with the “wrath,” the “tribulation,” the “anguish”? But as to duration? Why, what are ten thousand years to ages boundless and without end? Not so much as a little drop to the boundless ocean.

But what about the good things? There, the superiority is still greater. “Eye has not seen,” (it is said,) “ear has not heard, neither have, entered into the heart of man”, and these things again shall be during boundless ages. For the sake of these then were it not well to be cut [by scourging] times out of number, to be slain, to be burned, to undergo ten thousand deaths, to endure everything whatsoever that is dreadful both in word and deed? For even if it were possible for one to live when burning in the fire, ought one not to endure all for the sake of attaining to those good things promised?

9. But why do I trifle in saying these things to men who do not even choose to disregard riches, but hold fast to them as though they were immortal? And if they give a little out of much, think they have done all? This is not Almsgiving. For Almsgiving is that of the Widow who emptied out “all her living.” But if you dost not go on to contribute so much as the widow, yet at least contribute the whole of your superfluity: keep what is sufficient, not what is superfluous.

But there is no one who contributes even his superabundance. For so long as you have many servants, and garments of silk, these things are all superfluities. Nothing is indispensable or necessary, without which we are able to live; these things are superfluous, and are simply superadded. Let us then see, if you please, what we cannot live without. If we have only two servants, we can live. For whereas some live without servants, what excuse have we, if we are not content with two? We can also have a house built of brick of three rooms; and this were sufficient for us. For are there not some with children and wife who have but one room? Let there be also, if you will, two serving boys.

10. And how is it not a shame (you say) that a gentlewoman should walk out with [only] two servants? It is no shame, that a gentlewoman should walk abroad with two servants, but it is a shame that she should go forth with many. Perhaps you laugh when you hear this. Believe me it is a shame. Do you think it a great matter to go out with many servants, like dealers in sheep, or dealers in slaves? This is pride and vainglory, the other is philosophy and respectability. For a gentlewoman ought not to be known from the multitude of her attendants. For what virtue is it to have many slaves? This belongs not to the soul, and whatever is not of the soul does not show gentility. When she is content with a few things, then is she a gentlewoman indeed; but when she needs many, she is a servant and inferior to slaves. Tell me, do not the angels go to and fro about the world alone, and need not any one to follow them? Are they then on this account inferior to us? They who need no [attendants] to us who need them? If then not needing an attendant at all, is angelic, who comes nearer to the angelic life, she who needs many [attendants], or she who [needs] few? Is not this a shame? For a shame it is to do anything out of place.