Introduction
The following text, “A Homily on the Feast of the Beheading of the Honorable Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John,” was written by George Scholarios, who later became known as Gennadios II, Patriarch of Constantinople. Scholarios (ca. 1405–1472) was one of the most important Greek theologians and intellectuals of the fifteenth century. He was deeply involved in the theological controversies surrounding the Council of Florence and initially supported union with the Latin Church before becoming one of the most prominent opponents of the union. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, he became the first Patriarch of Constantinople under Ottoman rule, taking the monastic name Gennadios. His patriarchates were troubled and relatively brief, and by the autumn of 1465 he had withdrawn permanently to the Monastery of the Forerunner on Mount Menoikeion, where he devoted himself to prayer, study, and writing. It was during this final period of his life that many of his most important surviving works were composed.
This homily is dated 15 June 1466. The manuscript heading itself identifies it as having been written at the Monastery of the Forerunner on Mount Menoikeion near Serres. It was therefore composed only a few months after Scholarios had made his final withdrawal from Constantinople and entered the more secluded monastic period in which he produced much of his later theological and ascetic writing. The editors of Scholarios's complete works specifically note that the homily was written to be read, rather than preached, and describe it as an expression of gratitude toward the Honorable Forerunner, combining historical reflection with ascetic exhortation.
The text is preserved in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Grec 1289, commonly referred to as Parisinus Graecus 1289. It occupies folios 218v–227 of the manuscript. The Biblissima and Pinakes catalogues identify Scholarios not only as the author but also as the scribe, and the manuscript is recognized as one of the important autograph witnesses to his works. The manuscript itself is a fifteenth-century Greek codex containing a substantial collection of Scholarios's writings, including theological treatises, homilies, hymns, and other works.
The homily itself is more than a retelling of the Gospel account of John's death. Scholarios moves between the biblical narrative, theological interpretation, moral exhortation, and praise of the Forerunner. Herod, Herodias, the Pharisees, John the Baptist, Christ, and the events surrounding John's martyrdom become occasions for examining obedience to divine law, repentance, the proper use of authority, the dangers of the passions, and the relationship between suffering and salvation. John is presented not merely as the prophet who announced Christ's coming, but as the Forerunner even in death, whose martyrdom is understood in relation to Christ's own Passion and to the salvation of humanity.
A Homily on the Feast of the Beheading of the Honorable Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John
1. The blessed John, the Forerunner and Baptist, having come to stand at the boundary between type and truth, and being, as it were, a bond between the two ages, naturally provides abundant material for those who wish to praise him. Some, according to the honors rendered to him throughout the year, each having its own particular occasion for the wonders associated with it, divide their discourses according to these occasions; while others, taking his entire history as their subject, attempt in a single discourse to encompass matters that require many discourses. But I, who owe him gratitude not only for the benefits bestowed upon all by nature, but also for many personal benefits, shall now make the end of his earthly struggles the subject of my contribution, insofar as I am able. This will not be altogether inappropriate to him, since I am not considering so much the order of the discourse as the intention of the speaker in a manner worthy of God; while for me it is also particularly fitting, since I am considering well both the present time of all things and my own circumstances, which aptly lead to this subject.
But let my own circumstances be left aside. For it is not fitting to become entangled in matters of such great magnitude. Since the beginnings of the second coming of Christ are becoming clearly manifest, what subject could be more fitting for the discourse than the death of the Baptist, and thereby also the sufferings of Christ Himself, if ever there has been a time when these things should be brought before the soul and tongue of those who care to be conformed to Christ and to prepare themselves for His coming? For just as He then rose after dying and suffering, was glorified and ascended into the heavens, having descended in soul even to Hades, so now also He suffers, dies, and is dishonored in the few souls devoted to life who direct everything toward Him. After a little while, as one may reasonably conjecture, He is destined to appear gloriously to the world, bringing judgment and bringing about the end of all human affairs and of all for which He has contended.
The one, therefore, who then went before Christ when He was born and died, and who now shares in the sufferings and death of pious souls, fittingly also goes before the second coming of Christ, and gives us material appropriate to the present time, bringing to its proper conclusion our hymns to Him; for whereas then he had suffered beforehand for Jesus, now he suffers together with those who nobly suffer for His sake.
2. My discourse, then, is for this reason. Hence it will require no assistance from those who hear it—for there will be few who are able to contribute, since I have already expressed the lament concerning this matter in a discourse of its own. Rather, as one who is well acquainted with you and well disposed toward you, I shall use every means at my command: with the voice of the Forerunner, with the sword wielded against him by truth, and with the power of the Gospel words, which derive their own strength from the divine Word, I shall display the weakness of those who oppose them.
And you, Forerunner of our salvation and herald of the good proclamation sent into the world, in return for your guidance, loosen for me, with God's help, the difficulties that stand in the way of my coming to your sacred mountain and the solitude there; and for the dreadful turmoil of the cities, grant me a second grace, so that I may approach the crowns prepared for you at your end, which we have fashioned for you from the words of the Gospel, and repentance and peace, those good provisions for the journey, so that I may order the remainder of my life, and, if it should be necessary, die with the truth, according to your will. Arm my heart with your zeal, that same zeal which imprisoned and slew tyrants and kings, and which, in all things, fittingly mirrors your own philosophy; and to all who honor your departure, or even to our present discourse, grant the same grace, that it may both be spoken and be of benefit.
3. The whole course of John's struggles had been brought to its fitting completion: some of them he undertook of his own will, being moved toward the good by his own choice and thirsting for God without restraint; others he endured because he was moved by God, in keeping with the purpose of the salvation of the whole world. These included his separation from his parents; his flight from the world and withdrawal to God—for the things that befell him by divine providence before his birth, at his birth, and during his upbringing were themselves a prelude to the good things that followed; his long dwelling in the wilderness; his unusual nourishment from trees and small creatures, accompanied by extraordinary austerity and every other form of hardship; the nakedness of his body, continually exposed to cold and heat—for with only his belt and his hair he scarcely covered the surface of his flesh, and not all of it, nor even thickly; his dwelling among the wild beasts, which at first he fought against relentlessly, but which afterward even left their tracks behind and returned to their natural timidity before the dominion of the one who had been restored to his natural mastery over them; and, amid such confinement of the body, the expansion of divine grace within his soul, his continual understanding of God, and the spiritual delight he received from the angels, which cannot be adequately expressed in words or measured against the divine ministry.
Then came his return to the world, bringing with him the discipline of the wilderness, under the guidance and inspiration of the Spirit; the turning of the people toward repentance, as they were baptized in water and laid aside their personal stains—for the ancestral stains transmitted along with nature, by which every misfortune was necessarily accompanied, were to be washed away through the baptism of Christ, which prefigured His death, accomplished for the release from these things. There was his clear prophecy concerning the One who was coming and had long been awaited from afar, confirming the proclamation made while he was still in the womb and unknown to the many; and there was also the testimony rightly given concerning his superiority over all those who had been born. For the prophets were greater than other men by many measures, yet John had prophesied in the same manner as they, while also being deemed worthy to see and baptize Him, laying his hands upon Him, receiving Him and not permitting Him to withdraw, and to see and hear the testimony from above, which made known not only to himself but to all who were present the One who until then had willed to remain hidden.
For he had foreseen and foretold that the One who would come was far greater and more divine than himself, while preserving the proper order of the Lord: eternally begotten and existing according to His divinity, yet according to the flesh and in His visible manifestation born and coming after him. Truly inspired, as was demonstrated by his very works, John foretold these things. Yet when Christ was present, he did not recognize Him merely because He was walking the same earth and appearing among the same people, since He still wished to remain hidden even from John himself. Then, for the first time, John recognized Him and ministered to Him, and was the first to enter into the order of those who would become His disciples, no longer announcing One who was yet to come, but exhorting them to receive Him who had already come. And the things that the prophets of old had long desired to see but had not seen—for the time had not yet come—he now witnessed as they were being accomplished in reality, and he rejoiced and ministered to them. By his testimony, some were persuaded to believe, being worthy of belief, while to others he was even offensive; and the works of the devil greatly labored against him, gratifying the father whom they had chosen in place of the true Father and Master. For John called them “offspring of vipers,” while the Savior gave them an even more explicit designation: He had come to save them as His own children, but found them rebellious and more devoted to the one who was destroying them.
When such struggles had been brought to completion by him, exceeding every measure of praise and every commendation, it remained that he should also be crowned, bringing his life to an end in a manner worthy of such a one.
4. It was necessary, then, that the death of Jesus should come first and that He should die first, so that the Forerunner might be not only a forerunner to those living in the common salvation, but also to those beneath the earth who were destined to be saved and to partake of the fruit of the economy; indeed, he was a forerunner in every respect, even of the order of the angels who minister to the divine dispensations, with the economy of life in the flesh according to the angels being rightly fulfilled. It was necessary also that he demonstrate his love for the Master as pure as he had shown it to be, yielding to none of the disciples in this respect. He was therefore to be the first to lay down his soul for the Master whom he loved, even before receiving the clearest manifestation of His divinity in Christ, which came to those others only later. It was necessary that the Baptist of Christ should also be conformed to Christ's sufferings; and just as He willingly went to His death, so he too should receive such a death as the reward for his advocacy of the laws—not being crucified as Christ was to be, nor mocked, nor having His side pierced (for such things were required by the purpose and work of the economy, and therefore had been foretold from afar in this very manner), but suffering pain in his head alone. Thus, while he grieved over what he knew was about to be revealed, he also rejoiced in another way, considering the benefit that would thereby come to the inhabited world.
Since these things, then, had to be so arranged, so they also came to pass; and these are the subject of this day's observance and of what is performed and spoken on it. The pretext, then, was not so much the punishment as the crowns: the longstanding hatred of Herodias and what had occurred at the banquet at that time. But the true cause was the plots of those guardians of the law who, while putting Jesus to death on the grounds that He was violating the laws—because they thought He was abolishing the Sabbath when He was not—allowed Herod to transgress the law without restraint. For they could not tolerate John proclaiming Jesus everywhere after that heavenly and glorious testimony, raising up the fame that was fitting for Him, while he himself continued to live and enjoy such great respect even with Herod. They feared that the whole multitude of Jews might also be drawn to Herod's side, and this fear was indeed quite reasonable, for they saw Herod paying very close attention to John, spending time with him gladly, listening to him with pleasure, and obeying him in many matters; for he knew him to be a holy and righteous man, and for that reason he held him in very high regard.
5. The fine guardians of the law, then, were flattering Herod and, although they had ample power to do so, were not cleansing him of the pollution of his transgression; rather, they wished in this way to set him against John, who was turning him away from it and seeking to break that goodwill. For how could they allow him to offer sacrifices on his birthday and have so many people dining with him? Why did they not exclude him from the sacred things, so that the adulteress might have a pretext, not only to prevent John, whom he loved, from thinking in this way, but much more to prevent the others, whom it would not be right to lead astray? But while they remained silent and tolerated the transgression, it was because they were lying in wait for the righteous and wise advocate of the laws, who had no need to defend the laws with the same zeal as they did, but was moved by God-loving goodwill and desired to save the souls of those around him. Herod, for his part, seemed even so to tolerate John when he advised him like a father, and the virtue of the man had advanced so far in opposing the passion of licentiousness that even the woman who shared in that passion was being driven not merely to disobey, but to kill him. When she attacked him with still greater violence, Herod restrained her, gratifying the righteous man, but he did not kill him, nor would he have been able to do so, had not everything that followed come together: the opportune day, on the one hand, being joined to the crown of the righteous man and, on the other, to the destruction of those who transgressed, so that they themselves might become guilty both of their shameless transgression and of the murder of the one who desired to save and cleanse them.
God could indeed have brought the drama to an immediate end, just as He could have sent legions of angels, had He wished, and overturned the entire city; He could even have caused the sun to be darkened without harming anyone, by having the moon, in a wondrous manner, move across it, and thereby caused the whole inhabited world to be plunged into darkness. But just as that drama had been written in this way and had to take place in this way, so also what had been ordained concerning John had long been determined; and by one and the same course of events, God was preparing for the prophet the prizes of virtue and for Herod the punishment befitting his wickedness, without forcing either the former toward piety or the latter toward the opposite disposition, but assigning to each what belonged to his own inclination and what each had chosen for himself.
For neither was Judas going to have a defense on the grounds that Christ had to suffer those things, nor on the grounds that His suffering was for the salvation of humanity, which was the Master's sole purpose. Rather, through wickedness, envy, love of glory, and love of money, he betrayed his Teacher, and, when he sat down to eat bread with Him, he received Satan as his companion—not one who was then attempting for the first time to enter him, but one who was then firmly established within him. This is what happens to all who partake unworthily of divine things: instead of receiving grace, they receive its opposite, if there is anything in them that has cast grace away. So here also, the necessity that John be crowned through martyrdom does not remove the punishment from the one who killed him.
6. All things, then, converge in due course by which what was destined to come might be accomplished. Our Lord Jesus, for His part, was about to become merely incidental to the murderers on the occasion of the great feast of Passover. For Pilate was not the one who was putting Him to death; indeed, he repeatedly wished to release Him and, when those wicked men would not consent, washed his hands with water. Our Lord Himself told him that those who handed Him over were guilty of the greater sin. For Pilate was a foreigner and served other religious practices, whereas they were Jews and devotees of Moses. And among them was the disciple who had devised the beginning of the drama, the one who said, “What will you give me, and I will hand Him over to you?” Perhaps, if he had not succeeded in this, and if he had been the one to make the offer, he might have said it differently: “What will you give me, and you will hand Him over to me?”
So here also, while a birthday was being celebrated and the banquet held for that occasion was taking place, the Prophet was merely incidental. And just as the disciple who was among those at the secret supper, consumed by anger against his Nourisher and Teacher, betrayed Him, so too Herodias, through the dancing of the girl, contrived the murder of the Prophet. The one valued his betrayal at thirty pieces of silver, while the other valued the girl's dancing at the golden head of the Prophet.
And if John is the Baptist, what gives you the audacity, woman, to kill the Baptist? And if, when half the kingdom was offered to you, you valued the head as its equal, why do you so readily take it away and declare dead a treasure worth so much? “At a time,” he says, “when everyone praised the Baptist and his baptism, and he was held in great esteem by all; but ever since he baptized Jesus, openly proclaiming Him and desiring to bear witness to Him, those who are guardians of our customs and laws are now being honored with the same punishments and have been judged worthy of the same penalties. Yet no teacher of the law has ever caused me such a great disturbance, nor has anyone made such an effort to dissolve the bond between me and my brother Philip. I do not, therefore, exchange the head for its worth, but for the passion that has seized me with such great force and that holds the queen as a slave."
7. It was rightly, then, that our Lord rebuked those who, while pretending to observe the law, were violating it: they strained out gnats while swallowing camels, and their own transgressions were far greater, since they sinned with greater knowledge while allowing others to do what they themselves were able to prevent. They even went so far in their zeal for the law that, from the tithe of the law down to the smallest fruits, they exacted penalties exceeding the measure of the offenses, stripping the homes of the poor, the orphans, and the widows, and plundering them like enemies. O wise champions of strict observance of the law! You cry out against Christ for releasing the Sabbath restriction, because He cleansed a leper, gave sight to a blind man on the Sabbath, and restored the power of walking to a man who had long been confined to his bed; yet you indulge Herod, flattering him shamelessly while he transgresses the law so greatly and destroys both himself and the woman he loves. Do you permit him to live with her in violation of the law of marriage, or, while he violates the law before your eyes, do you neither become indignant nor exclude him from the fellowship of the pure, but even share his table and his salt? Is this, O wretched men, a relaxation of the law concerning the Sabbath, or the restoration of those who are in a bad state? Surely Moses himself, who legislated the observance of rest on the Sabbath, would not have relaxed the law in such a way, would he? For under such an understanding he would have established the law for no other purpose than to make people inhuman instead of God-loving; and Moses would then have been neither divine nor even Moses. If he had not added, “unless someone is able to give sight to a blind man and thus do good to those in need,” this is precisely what all lawgivers do: they leave it to those who are willing and able to judge rightly to apply the laws according to circumstances, circumstances which, being many and innumerable, they could neither gather together nor properly set down in writing.
Therefore those who know how to judge rightly, and who are guided by necessity, make good use of the strictness of the laws for the sake of doing good. They do not invalidate the laws or find fault with those who established them, but where the letter of the law cannot agree with what is according to nature and reason, and with what is simply good and beneficial, they give precedence to these things instead—as the one who established the law himself would have done had he been present, and as he would have been grateful even if absent to one who judged so humanely and wisely. But let us leave aside the Lord's other superiority and the proper order of the two laws; you would hardly learn this from people such as these, in whom it is least apparent. Let them, then, reproach the very one who gave and guarded the law in this manner. But you, clinging to the literal words of the law precisely where you least ought, display an irrational zeal before the multitude, who praise your stubbornness without perceiving the passion behind it; and, envying those who are treated with leniency, you cling to the letter of the law. Yet where there was a need either to profit through transgression, or to submit through fear, or to show favor through friendship and personal advantage, there you set aside both the letter and the purpose of the lawgiver, and natural justice itself disappears.
Thus also you tolerated Herod when he took his brother's wife contrary to the law, even though she had children by him. Does this not seem to you something dreadful and utterly incongruous? And then, when he proceeds unlawfully to kill the Baptist, you are delighted, no doubt, with the killing of the man whom you had previously favored, although he had done no wrong, adding evil to evil in a far more grievous manner—defending the Baptist, who was united to Christ both by birth and by choice, while at the same time grieving Jesus Himself and opening a door to the murder being plotted against Him.
Or perhaps you claim necessity as your excuse, while attributing everything to the adulteress—the banquet, the dancing, the promises of a reward, and the oath made upon them—and, being completely overcome by the passion of licentiousness, you remove from your midst the one who was turning you away from it and admonishing you, thereby making yourself worse even than another.
8. Having thus treated those who were near to him and even his whole race with such favor, the king became guilty of a much greater crime through his oath and those who were dining with him. “You are worthy,” they said, “of such oaths, you who are guarded by your companions at table. To break an oath in fear, and to kill an innocent man—do you not fear the judgment? If you were ashamed of the one whom you formerly approached as a holy man and to whom you often gave orders, what has now happened to you? Why do you not rather expose the wickedness that has long been concealed under royal authority? For you will suffer more on your own account, even if you should have the opportunity to do good to such a man again through goodwill. But if you have no excuse to offer, how can you kill one who has done no wrong and who has previously been treated with such honor? Or will you invoke necessity, while the girl takes everything upon herself—the banquet, the dancing, the anger, the promise of the reward, and the oath made concerning them—and while the passion of licentiousness has completely mastered you, you remove from your midst the one who turns you away from it and admonishes you, making yourself even worse?”
What excuse could you possibly have, or what sort of madness of mind, that you should be persuaded by such arguments to stretch the laws so tightly that they serve as an excuse for committing evil, while you honor those who violate them and reproach those who guard them? You were accustomed to observing the laws properly, not to abolishing them; you honored the sacred things, you respected the priests, and you reproached those who transgressed the laws. Yet now, when something contrary to nature, contrary to reason, and simply evil and harmful has arisen, you make this your pretext, whereas you ought rather to have done what the lawgiver himself would have done had he been present and had he judged the matter with understanding. We have already demonstrated elsewhere the whole superiority of the Lord and the perfection of His laws. You would never have been able to discover such things in this way.
But you, who are so exacting in matters of the law where it is least necessary, display an irrational zeal before the multitude, who praise your stubbornness without understanding the passion that possesses you; and while you hate those who are treated with leniency, you cling to the letter of the law. Yet where there is a need either to profit through transgression, to submit through fear, or to grant favors through friendship and personal advantage, there you set aside both the letter and the purpose of the lawgiver and disregard what is just. Thus you also tolerated Herod when he unlawfully took his brother's wife, although offspring had been left behind. Does this seem to you a small matter, or even something harmless? And then, contrary to all reason, you proceed to kill the Baptist, whom you had previously honored and whose counsel you had followed, adding evil to evil and making the latter more grievous than the former, while you are able to restrain the Baptist, who is united to Christ both by birth and by his ministry, and yet grieve Jesus Himself and open the way for the murder that is being plotted against Him.
9. Herod, then, did such things at the banquet and appeared as such a man to those who were present and dining with him, and so the story has been handed down. For the account of history, being truthful and just, cannot proceed beyond what has happened and what is seen. But the blessed John, having been conceived, born, and brought up for the service of the mystery concerning Jesus, and having dwelt for many years in the wilderness, was sent forth from there to announce the presence of the Lord and to cry out, “Prepare His way,” being the voice that runs before the Word and the lamp before the Light. In this respect also he surpassed all the prophets, for he alone, together with Christ and because of Christ, had been prophesied of in such a glorious manner. He fulfilled his entire ministry as was fitting, and then, because of Him, he was sacrificed and offered up. An executioner, sent from the banquet, draws the angel-like soul from that sacred flesh and brings back the head, bearing it to the girl as the prize of her dancing; and she, in turn, gives it to her mother as a delightful spectacle, so that from then on she might sin without rebuke, with everyone knowing what she had done and no one turning her away.
O blessed life, and more blessed still its end! For having nothing with which to reproach him, yet unable to endure his instruction—for the scheme of the Pharisees and lawyers against Herod and his consort was known only to them—they kill the noble man, or rather, they transfer him from this life, whom Herod had loved so greatly. For what could be more delightful to a soul devoted to philosophy than to die, and to die with virtue? O what joy was his when he saw the executioner and the sword being prepared, and, before he had clearly perceived the blow descending, he was released on a light wing, carrying away no burden from his union with the body. Thus, if the ancestral impediment had not dragged him down to Hades, he would have dwelt there together with Moses and the others, although far more fortunate than they, because his hopes were clearer and the expectation of his return from there was nearer; and he might even have gone directly to heaven. But the path to heaven was still entirely untrodden, since he remained the Forerunner of the Master of all. For this very reason he had also descended there in the manner of the fathers, so that, finding some of the true children ready, and receiving others who were to be brought up in due order, with birth itself assisting the process, he might gather them together until he should come again and, restoring their bodies in far greater splendor, bring about the perfection of their nature and thereby accomplish for them the perfection of blessedness, so that thereafter they might rejoice in double garments and receive double crowns for their contests.
As for the other prophets, as many as the Jews repaid with a similar recompense, the people put them to death with great shamelessness and even greater bitterness. John, however, was released from prison by the executioner alone, who thereby gave him an end suited to his dwelling in the wilderness. For the wilderness differs in no way from a prison for those who know how to treasure up their riches there; nor is a prison any less capable of giving delight to one who knows how to philosophize and is accustomed to it than the broadest wilderness. And when the limits of life have been fulfilled, it makes no difference to those who philosophize well whether they are released by a beast devouring them in the wilderness or by an executioner killing them in prison.
The excess, then, of the Jews' shamelessness toward Jesus after these things was an excess of wretchedness for those who committed them; an excess of humiliation, in human terms, for Him who was humbled by such and so great contests; an excess of goodness in Him who assumed human nature in order to save it by such means; and an excess of good fortune for those who were destined to be saved through these things and who would not be saved without them. For, since all these things were necessary, they had been foretold from afar according to the purpose and end of the Savior, and it was permitted that they should come to pass in this way, as I have said. Moreover, for those who were destined to show piety toward Christ through many kinds of suffering, there needed to be a great force within their reasoning, persuading them both to be courageous and to endure nobly, since nothing could be stronger than the thought that the Master Himself had endured these things on their behalf, so that they too might be hung upon crosses like the thieves and receive such rewards for their sufferings.
And thus they themselves, being first well fortified in their thoughts by such examples, might immediately receive from heaven the extraordinary philosophy, so that what remained would no longer be endurance but contempt for every disposition toward the things that would follow.
10. For these reasons, O blessed Baptist and Forerunner of Christ, we who have heard your voice come together today, and before hearing the Word, we who have raised our eyes toward the truth look to you, the lamp, before being wholly seized by the Light. We do not regard you as having passed away, but as being present to all; and since we have already come to you as you complete your noble transition, we are here—not keeping company with Herod and his companions at the banquet, nor dancing before the executioner, nor receiving the gift of your head, the reward of an age-long iniquity (far be such things from us), but accompanying your disciples and following along as they cover your body with earth, while we gather together, mourning with those who are terribly afflicted by the manner of your unjust death, those who became nourished by your baptism and by your words concerning the Master, as they proclaim salvation from God throughout all the earth, where they have heard and seen Him and have rightly proclaimed Him, being deprived of such a great treasure, you who were so beautiful, and now mourning with those who, because of their sacred love for you, are moved by the grief that comes from your death. We come together with you as sharers in the most blessed lot of both your birth and your life and your death, since all these things were exceedingly useful according to God and for the common good of humanity; and through them we too rejoice in such instruction and guidance, and we regard your death as the final work of your children. For we have been made your children no less than they, and, through your accounts of these things, you delight us as though you were present and living among us; and from above you look upon us and guide us, having the authority, with good reason and great boldness, to persuade Him who is capable of all things. For these reasons we honor this day, and for these reasons the discourse being offered here has also been brought forward.
11. Do not let us, then, fail to offer you whatever you might wish to receive from us, your children, in these very songs and hymns, without which you would not have been pleased even with what is now being offered to you. You therefore desire that those who are devoted to this present life neither transgress wantonly, nor enter into unlawful marriages, nor, giving themselves over to their natural passions, become enslaved to them; rather, that they should have a vigilant reason and a sober mind, not clouded by the smoke of the passions of the flesh, and that they should not allow themselves to be enslaved, some to desire, others to anger, and to the offspring of these passions, thereby destroying their love for God and for their neighbor. Nor do you wish them to bind themselves by oaths, but to do what is good without oaths, so that their willing obedience may be all the more honorable, and, when it comes to evil, to be even more sparing with the tongue, so as not to bring themselves through rashness into a position of necessity, either by willingly transgressing or, while unwilling to do what is wrong, by acting impiously in some other way, or by thinking that those who govern such matters do not know how to judge rightly and judging them unjustly.
And these things you especially desire them to observe who differ from the multitude by the order of their calling; while those appointed over sacred matters you desire neither to permit them to transgress nor to cease trying by every means to bring them back, without being concerned for their own safety, enslaved to necessity, or fearful for their lives. For when truth and justice are extinguished by such toleration, and souls are destroyed by those who commit these things, those who have the power to save and deliver them will have to give account to God if they treat His word lightly. But if, after they have done everything that ought to be done, those people are unwilling to be persuaded, let them have nothing further in common with them, but let them withdraw from them as they would from the heathen and from tax collectors. Let them themselves uphold the Gospel law of their own life, and become for others what they themselves wish to be: corrective to those who have gone astray, moved by divine love and by no passion; and, when others do things to them out of love, let them not become angry, nor, instead of being grateful, slander them, nor, when the passion of envy conceals itself beneath the appearance of truth, approach it and become a stumbling block both to themselves and to those who are outside.
Yet you desire that they should yield to their children wherever necessity and good reason require it, taking into account the necessities imposed by circumstances and knowing well how to preserve the distinction between divine laws and human ones, doing everything that is good, though not judging everything in the same way, but regarding the divine laws as eternal and everlasting, while assigning human laws to their proper times. Nor should they be equally rigid in both cases or, in every instance, insist upon strictness rather than exercising leniency. For just as those who are quick to abandon the divine commandments are called by everyone, after Paul, profane traffickers in sacred things, so those whose consciences have been hardened are called by everyone among the more lenient ones without mercy.
You desire all of them to make the common things their own, to place deeds above words, to regard circumstances as saying nothing, to show gentleness in their zeal, to prefer suffering wrong to doing wrong, to place God before everything, and, regulating both speech and life according to the divine rule, to live securely.
12. You love those who repent when they sin; for you yourself went about preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, since it was neither possible for people to be saved without repentance, nor possible, if they truly repented, for them not to be saved. For our Jesus, whose Forerunner you came in life, did not come to call the righteous, those who are ready for salvation, but sinners to repentance, and through it to lead them to salvation; He did not come to judge the world, but to save it. And He Himself, with the Kingdom already opened, now admits those who repent to it. You, however, prepared them for repentance by announcing that the Kingdom would immediately be opened to them. For previously repentance did not immediately bring with it the Kingdom, nor did it achieve the precise fulfillment of the end—for the road to it had been closed by a most formidable barrier, the transgression of our forefathers. Rather, it was like an appeal made by those who had lived virtuously to the goodness of the justly disciplining God, asking that He not disregard the personal righteousness found in them on account of the common sin of the human race, in which even those not yet born were destined to share, since they were to spring from such seeds. And rightly did they think in this way, becoming even prophets, when divine clemency revealed these things in deed. As David says, “Mercy and truth have met one another; righteousness and peace have kissed one another,” which had been separated from one another in former times. But once the barrier had been removed through the divine Incarnation and the exceedingly powerful and wise economies concerning it, the possession of the Kingdom is now near at hand for those who repent, and attaining it is placed in the hands of each according as he desires to repent. For this reason you proclaimed to all the nearness of the Kingdom, so that they might be more eager for repentance, since there would no longer be any delay in receiving the blessings that come from it.
And repentance, whenever it follows immediately upon a transgression, not only releases one from guilt and opens the door of salvation—when everything required for true repentance is rightly brought about—but also makes one more secure for the future, as divine grace fortifies those who have been cleansed by its presence, just as it withdraws when someone, remaining unrepentant, persists in serving evil. Such a person inevitably falls into evils that are many times worse. This is evidently what happened to Herod. For if he had fled headlong from the pollution of licentiousness by heeding your counsels, he would not, once abandoned to himself, have been overtaken by such a multitude of evils.
13. You desire that everyone, if it were possible, should attain the surpassing life of perfection and wisely undertake, according to his own will, what has been entrusted to him—for He says, “If anyone wishes to follow after Me”¹¹—and, if it were possible, that all should choose this of necessity, entrusting the difficulty that accompanies such a way of life to the providence of God. But if it is not possible for everyone to have such courage, at least let those who have been specially chosen, who have consecrated themselves, fulfill their promises in deed and, having put their hand to the plow, not turn back. For such people are held accountable not because they did not put their hand to the plow, but because, having put it there, they turned back. And even if they are unable to cultivate your field with the utmost care and gather its fruit in abundance for the benefit of the whole world and of the body—for yours are better than every imitation¹⁶—let them nevertheless bring forth as much fruit as their way of life permits, and let them not merely have the appearance and order of those who have chosen this way of life, while being abandoned when they ought to repent and left empty of the fruits of repentance, nor let them be adorned merely with the virtues of their teachers, as the Pharisees once laid claim in words to Abraham and to their kinship with him, while in their deeds they were like illegitimate children and had no concern for him.
Simply put, you desire and pray that we should observe the laws of the common Father and Master, for you came as our Forerunner and in your own deeds gave us the example of obedience to those laws; that we should willingly lay down our souls for Him, not merely turning away from the destruction of our bodies and this present life, but from the destruction of our souls. Such are the deeds in which you rejoice, and such are the songs with which you delight; such are the fruits of your struggles on our behalf that we all ought to bring to you, and all of us do bring them, since the end is near and everything appropriate to the end.
But I, O divine and sacred head, O blessed soul who shines among the choir of spirits from the earth, concerning this boldness of mine, I have defended some things and offered supplications in the preface; I shall add nothing further. As for everything else, it is enough for me that God knows, even in silence, and that you add your prayers for us; for to Him belongs glory unto the ages. Amen.
Source: Oeuvres complètes de Georges Scholarios / publiées pour la première fois par Louis Petit, X. A. Siderides, Martin Jugie v.1. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
