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

NPNF (V1-14)St. Chrysostom481give account. “For” (it says) “he that taketh away a livelihood” ( Ecclus. xxxiv. 22 ) and askethbread, it says. 3277[7.] Let us at length keep our hands to ourselves, or rather, let us not keep them, but stretchthem out honorably, not for grasping, but for alms-giving. Let us not have our hand unfruitful norwithered; for the hand which doeth not alms is withered; and that which is also grasping, is pollutedand unclean.Let no one eat with such hands; for this is an insult to those invited. For, tell me, if a man whenhe had made us lie down on tapestry 3278 and a soft couch and linen interwoven with gold, in a greatand splendid house, and had set by us a great multitude of attendants, and had prepared a tray 3279of silver and gold, and filled it with many dainties of great cost and of all sorts, then urged us toeat, provided we would only endure his besmearing his hands with mire or with human ordure, andso sitting down to meat with us—would any man endure this infliction? Would he not rather haveconsidered it an insult? Indeed I think he would, and would have gone straightway off. But now infact, thou seest not hands filled with what is indeed filth, but even the very food, and yet thou dostnot go off, nor flee, nor find fault. Nay, if he be a person in authority, thou even accountest it agrand affair, and destroyest thine own soul, in eating such things. For covetousness is worse thanany mire; for it pollutes, not the body but the soul, and makes it hard to be washed. Thou therefore,though thou seest him that sitteth at meat defiled with this filth both on his hands and his face, andhis house filled with it, nay and his table also full of it (for dung, or if there be anything moreunclean than that, it is not so unclean and polluted as those viands), dost thou feel as if forsooththou wert highly honored, and as if thou wert going to enjoy thyself?And dost thou not fear Paul who allows us to go without restraint to the Tables of the heathenif we wish, but not even if we wish to those of the covetous? For, “if any man who is called aBrother” ( 1 Cor. v. 11 ), he says, meaning here by Brother every one who is a believer simply,not him who leads a solitary life. For what is it which makes brotherhood? The Washing ofregeneration; the being enabled to call God our Father. So that he that is a Monk, if he be aCatechumen, is not a Brother, 3280 but the believer though he be in the world, is a Brother. “If anyman,” saith he, “that is called a Brother.” ( 1 Cor. v. 11 .) For at that time there was not even atrace of any one leading a Monastic life, but this blessed [Apostle] addressed all his discourse topersons in the world. “If any man,” he says, “that is called a Brother, be a fornicator, or covetousor a drunkard, with such an one, no not to eat.” But not so with respect to the heathen: but “If anyof them that believe not,” meaning the heathen, “bid you and ye be disposed to go, whatsoever isset before you eat.” ( 1 Cor. x. 27 .)3277καὶ ἄρτον αἰτῶν, φησί . There is great variation in the mss. of this passage: and possibly the true reading is lost. St.Chrys. partly quotes Ecclus. xxxi. 22 of the Septuagint ( xxxiv. 22 of our Version), “ He that taketh away his living slayethhis neighbor, and he that defraudeth the hireling of his hire is a blood-shedder. ” As the text stands we must suppose thathe is alluding to sayings which had become proverbial, and that his hearers would supply the words, “ is a murderer ” ; or “is the same. ”3278ταπήτων3279πίνακα3280It will be observed that the word πιστὸς , “ believer, ” means “ one who believes and is baptized ” : as opposed to theunbaptized, even though they believed and were so religious as to devote themselves to an ascetic life. Also, that at this timethere were those who had given themselves up to an ascetic life and still deferred their Baptism, see St. Greg. Naz. Hom. xl.18. In the later form of the text, this clause has been altered to “ So that a Catechumen, even though he be a Monk, is not abrother. ”696