St. John Chrysostom Homilies on Matthew- Homily XII 5

5. Forasmuch then as our house is there, there let us store up all, and

   leave nothing here, unless we lose it. For here, though you put a lock

   on it, and doors, and bars, and set thousands of servants to watch it;

   though you get the better of all the crafty ones, though you escape

   the eyes of the envious, the worms, the wasting that comes of time;

   which is impossible;--death at any rate you will never escape, but

   will be deprived of all those things in one moment of time; and not

   deprived of them only, but will have to transfer them into the hands

   often of your very enemies. Whereas if you would transfer them into

   that house, you will be far above all. For there is no need to apply

   either key, or doors, or bars; such is the virtue [527] of that city,

   so inviolable is this place, and by nature inaccessible to corruption

   and all wickedness.

   How then is it not of the utmost folly, where destruction and waste is

   the lot of all that is stored, there to heap up all, but where things

   abide untouched and increase, there not to lay up even the least

   portion; and this, when we are to live there forever? For this cause

   the very heathens [528] disbelieve the things that we say, since our

   doings, not our sayings, are the demonstration which they are willing

   to receive from us; and when they see us building ourselves fine

   houses, and laying out gardens and baths, and buying fields, they are

   not willing to believe that we are preparing for another sort of

   residence away from our city.

   "For if this were so," say they, "they would turn to money all they

   have here, and lay them up beforehand there;" and this they divine from

   the things that are done in this world. For so we see those who are

   very rich getting themselves houses and fields and all the rest,

   chiefly in those cities in which they are to stay. But we do the

   contrary; and with all earnest zeal we get possession of the earth,

   which we are soon after to leave; giving up not money only, but even

   our very blood for a few acres and tenements: while for the purchase of

   Heaven we do not endure to give even what is beyond our wants, and this

   though we are to purchase it at a small price, and to possess it

   forever, provided we had once purchased it.

   Therefore I say we shall suffer the utmost punishment, departing

   there naked and poor; or rather it will not be for our own poverty

   that we shall undergo these irremediable calamities, but also for our

   making others to be such as ourselves. For when heathens see them that

   have partaken of so great mysteries earnest about these matters, much

   more will they cling themselves to the things heaping much fire upon

   our head. For when we, who ought to teach them to despise all things

   that appear, do ourselves most of all urge them to the lust of these

   things; when shall it be possible for us to be saved, having to give

   account for the perdition of others? Hear you not Christ say, that

   He left us to be for salt and for lights in this world, in order that

   we may both brace up [529] those that are melting in luxury, and

   enlighten them that are darkened by the care of wealth? When therefore

   we even cast them into more thorough darkness, and make them more

   dissolute, what hope shall we have of salvation? There is none at all;

   but wailing and gnashing our teeth, and bound hand and foot, we shall

   depart into the fire of hell, after being full well worn down by the

   cares of riches.

   Considering then all these things, let us loose the bands of such

   deceit, that we may not at all fall into those things which deliver us

   over to the unquenchable fire. For he that is a slave to money, the

   chains both here and there will have him continually liable to them;

   but he that is rid of this desire will attain to freedom from both.

   Unto which that we also may attain, let us break in pieces the grievous

   yoke of avarice, and make ourselves wings toward Heaven; by the grace

   and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and

   might forever and ever. Amen.

Be still and know that I am God!

May you be blessed.

+William

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Excerpt of Homilies on Gospel of St. Matthew by St. John Chrysostom

Homily XI: 7    

Thus having said, "He shall baptize with

   the Holy Spirit and with fire," and having there promised great

   blessings; unless you, released wholly from the former things, grow

   supine, he has added the fan, and the judgment thereby declared. Thus,

   "think not at all," said he, "that your baptism suffices, if you become

   ordinary persons hereafter:" for we need both virtue, and plenty

   of that known self-restraint.  Therefore as by the axe he urges

   them unto grace, and unto the font, so after grace he terrifies them by

   the fan, and the unquenchable fire. And of the one sort, those yet

   unbaptized, he makes no distinction, but said in general, "Every tree

   that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down," punishing all

   the unbelievers. Whereas after baptism He works out a kind of division,

   because many of them that believed would exhibit a life unworthy of

   their faith.

   Let no man then become chaff, let no one be tossed to and fro, nor lie

   exposed to wicked desires, blown about by them easily every way. For if

   you continue wheat, though temptation be brought on you, you will

   suffer nothing dreadful; no, for in the threshing floor, the wheels of

   the car, that are like saws,  do not cut in pieces the wheat; but

   if you fall away into the weakness of chaff, you will both here

   suffer incurable ills, being smitten of all men, and there you will

   undergo the eternal punishment. For all such persons both before that

   furnace become food for the irrational passions here, as chaff is for

   the brute animal: and there again they are material and food for the

   flame.

Be still and know that I am God.

In Christ,

+William

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Excerpts from St. John Chrysostom from the Gospel of Matthew speaking on John the Baptist and his exhortation to the Pharisees in calling them a ‘Brood of Vipers’ when they came to see hear him speak in the desert.

Excerpt 1

Homily XI 3:   For to flee from wickedness is not enough, but you must show forth 

also great virtue. For let me not have that contradictory yet ordinary case, that 

refraining yourselves for a little while, you return unto the same wickedness. For 

we are not come for the same objects as  the prophets before. No, the things that 

are now are changed, and are more exalted, for as much as the Judge hereforth is 

coming, His very self, the very Lord of the kingdom, leading unto greater self-

restraint, calling us to heaven, and drawing us upward to those abodes. For this 

cause do I unfold the doctrine also touching hell, because both the good things 

and the painful are forever. Do not therefore abide as you are, neither bring 

forward the accustomed pleas, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the noble race of your 

ancestors."

Excerpt 2

See how for the time he drew them off from their vain imagination about things 

of the body, and from their refuge in their forefathers; in order that they might 

rest the hope of their salvation in their own repentance and continence? See how 

by casting out their carnal relationship, he is bringing in that which is of faith?

6. See you how great is the wisdom of the Baptist? how, when He Himself is 

preaching, He said everything to alarm, and fill them with  anxiety; but when 

He is sending men to Him, whatever was mild and apt to recover them: not 

bringing forward the axe, nor the tree that is cut  down and burnt, and cast 

into the fire, nor the wrath to come, but remission of sins, and removing of 

punishment, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, 

and adoption, and brotherhood, and a partaking of the inheritance, and

an abundant supply of the Holy Spirit. For all these things he obscurely 

denoted, when he said, "He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit;" at 

once, by the very figure of speech, declaring the abundance of the grace 

(for he said not, "He will give you the Holy Spirit," but "He will baptize you 

with the Holy Spirit"); and by the specification of fire on the other hand 

indicating the vehement and uncontrollable quality of His grace.

And mark again how he rouses the hearer, by putting that first which was 

to take place after all. For the Lamb was to be slain, and sin to be blotted out, 

and the enmity to be destroyed, and the burial to take place, and the 

resurrection, and then the Spirit to come. But none of these things does he 

mention as yet, but that first which was last, and for the sake of which all the 

former were done, and which was fittest to proclaim His dignity; so that when 

the hearer should be told that he was to receive so great a Spirit he might search 

with himself, how and in what manner this shall be, while sin so prevails; that 

finding him full of thought and prepared for that lesson, he might thereupon 

introduce what he had to say touching the Passion, no man being any more 

offended, under the expectation of such a gift.

Wherefore he again cried out, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which bears the 

sin of the world." He did not say, "which remits," but, that which implies a more 

guardian care, "which hears it." For it is not all one, simply to remit, and to take 

it upon Himself. For the one was to be done without peril, the other with death.

In short explanation what is being taught is that; simply believing and fleeing 

from doing wicked things is not enough, we must also bear good fruit, destroy 

the carnal and build the spirit and by God’s grace we are saved. 

Jesus the Christ said: if you love me, keep my commandments.  This is the task 

of every Christian on earth not simply of clergy, monks, and nuns.

Be still and know that I am God!

May you be Blessed.

+William

Monk Michael

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