Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and the Epistle to the Hebrews

NPNF (V1-14)St. Chrysostomthe summit of excellencies, we may obtain the promised goods. Which may it come to pass thatwe all attain to, through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom and withwhom, to the Father and the Holy Ghost, be glory world without end. Amen.10Homily III.John i. 1“In the beginning was the Word.”[1.] On the subject of attention in hearkening it is superfluous to exhort you any more, so quicklyhave you shown by your actions the effects of my advice. For your manner of running together,your attentive postures, the thrusting one another in your eagerness to get the inner places, wheremy voice may more clearly be heard by you, your unwillingness to retire from the press until thisspiritual assembly be dissolved, the clapping of hands, the murmurs of applause; in a word, allthings of this kind may be considered proofs of the fervor of your souls, and of your desire to hear.So that on this point it is superfluous to exhort you. One thing, however, it is necessary for us tobid and entreat, that you continue to have the same zeal, and manifest it not here only, but that alsowhen you are at home, you converse man with wife, and father with son, concerning these matters.And say somewhat of yourselves, and require somewhat in return from them; and so all contributeto this excellent banquet. 41For let no one tell me that our children ought not to be occupied with these things; they oughtnot only to be occupied with them, but to be zealous about them only. And although on account ofyour infirmity I do not assert this, nor take them away from their worldly learning, 42 just as I donot draw you either from your civil business; yet of these seven days I claim that you dedicate oneto the common Lord of us all. For is it not a strange thing that we should bid our domestics slavefor us all their time, and ourselves apportion not even a little of our leisure to God; and this toowhen all our service adds nothing to Him, (for the Godhead is incapable of want,) but turns out toour own advantage? And yet when you take your children into the theaters, you allege neither theirmathematical lessons, nor anything of the kind; but if it be required to gain or collect anythingspiritual, you call the matter a waste of time. And how shall you not anger God, if you find leisureand assign a season for everything else, and yet think it a troublesome and unseasonable thing foryour children to take in hand what relates to Him?Do not so, brethren, do not so. It is this very age that most of all needs the hearing these things;for from its tenderness it readily stores up what is said; and what children hear is impressed as aseal on the wax of their minds. Besides, it is then that their life begins to incline to vice or virtue;41ἔ ρανον , a feast to which all the guests contributed.42 al. “study.”21