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

NPNF (V1-14)St. Chrysostomhadst had great boldness with God, not even so to have envied those who should be pitied and savedthrough His lovingkindness. This is the extreme of wickedness, to pine at the blessings of others;especially when this was to be effected without any loss of thine. If indeed the salvation of othershad been prejudicial to thy advantages, thy grieving might have been reasonable; though not eventhen would it have been so to one who had learned true wisdom. 212 But if thy reward is not increasedby the punishment of another, nor diminished by his welfare, why dost thou bewail thyself becausethat other is freely saved? As I said, thou oughtest not, even wert thou (one) of the approved, to bepained at the salvation which cometh to the Gentiles through grace. But when thou, who art guiltybefore thy Lord of the same things as they, and hast thyself offended, art displeased at the good ofothers, and thinkest great things, as if thou alone oughtest to be partaker of the grace, thou art guiltynot only of envy and insolence, but of extreme folly, and mayest be liable to all the severest torments;for thou hast planted within thyself the root of all evils, pride.Wherefore a wise man has said, “Pride is the beginning of sin” ( Ecclus. x. 13 ): that is, itsroot, its source, its mother. By this the first created was banished from that happy abode: by thisthe devil who deceived him had fallen from that height of dignity; from which that accursed one,knowing that the nature of the sin was sufficient to cast down even from heaven itself, came thisway when he labored to bring down Adam from such high honor. For having puffed him up withthe promise that he should be as a God, so he broke him down, and cast him down into the verygulfs of hell. 213 Because nothing so alienates men from the lovingkindness of God, and gives themover to the fire of the pit, 214 as the tyranny of pride. For when this is present with us, our wholelife becomes impure, even though we fulfill temperance, chastity, fasting, prayer, almsgiving,anything. For, “Every one,” saith the wise man, “that is proud in heart is an abomination 215 to theLord.” ( Prov. xvi. 5 .) Let us then restrain this swelling of the soul, let us cut up by the roots thislump of pride, if at least we would wish to be clean, and to escape the punishment appointed forthe devil. For that the proud must fall under the same punishment as that (wicked) one, hear Pauldeclare; “Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the judgment, and the snare ofthe devil.” 216 What is “the judgment”? 217 He means, into the same “condemnation,” the samepunishment. How then does he say, that a man may avoid this dreadful thing? By reflecting upon218his own nature, upon the number of his sins, upon the greatness of the torments in that place,upon the transitory nature of the things which seem bright in this world, differing in nothing fromgrass, and more fading than the flowers of spring. If we continually stir within ourselves theseconsiderations, and keep in mind those who have walked most upright, the devil, though he striveten thousand ways, will not be able to lift 219 us up, nor even to trip 220 us at all. May the God whois the God of the humble, the good and merciful God, grant both to you and me a broken andhumbled heart, so shall we be enabled easily to order the rest aright, to the glory of our Lord Jesus212φιλοσοφεῖν .213ᾅ δου .214γεέννης .215 “Unclean,” LXX.216 1 Tim. iii. 6, 7 (partially quoted).217κρίμα , “condemnation,” E.V.218 al. “calculating.”219ἐ πᾶραι .220ὑ ποσκελίσαι (a gymnastic term like the preceding).56