Chapter X: Part II: The King’s House (1)

“Thou art Peter.”
(_Homilies on St. Matthew_, liv., vol. ii., p. 108.)

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... _Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas._ Since thou hast proclaimed _My_ Father, He says, so will I name _thy_ father to thee: which was almost saying, ‘As thou art the son of Jona, so am I the Son of My Father’. For it was superfluous to say, ‘Thou art the son of Jona’; but as He had spoken of the Son of God, in order to show that as Peter is the son of Jona so He is the Son of God, of the same substance as the Begetter, He added further: _And I say to thee thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church_—that is, on the faith of this confession. Then He shows him many men who are ready to believe, and He strengthens Peter’s will and makes him pastor. _And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it._ ‘If they shall not prevail against _it_, how much less against Me. So be not troubled, for thou art soon to hear that I am to be betrayed and crucified.’ He goes on to speak of another honour: _And I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven_. What does _And I will give thee_ signify? As the Father gave thee to know Me, so do _I_ also give it to thee. He did not say: ‘I will invoke the Father,’ although the power shown forth was so great and the gift was so unutterably magnificent, but _I will give thee_. Tell me what hast Thou given? The keys of the kingdom of heaven, that whatsoever thou dost bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou dost loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. How, then, was it not His to give to sit on His right and on His left Who said, _I will give_? Do you see how He leads Peter up to the most ineffable knowledge, how He reveals Himself, and shows Himself to be the Son of God, through that double promise? For that which belongs only to God, namely, the remission of sins, the setting up of an immutable Church in the midst of waves, and making a fisherman more enduring than the hardest rock, with the whole world against him, these are the things which He promises to give, as the Father said to Jeremias: _I have made thee a pillar of iron and a wall of brass_; but Jeremias was commissioned for one people, whilst Peter is charged with the whole universe. I would ask those who wish to depreciate the dignity of the Son, which were the greater gifts to Peter, those of the Father or those of the Son? The Father vouchsafed to Peter the manifestation of the Son, but the Son’s gift it was to make known that manifestation of the Father and of Himself throughout all the world, and He entrusted to a mortal man authority over the whole kingdom of heaven, giving those keys to him who propagated the Church in all parts of the earth and showed it forth more powerful than heaven. _For heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away._ How, then, was the Giver of such gifts, the Worker of such triumphs, in any way less than the Father? I speak of them, not separating the works of the Father from the Son, _for all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made_, but in order to silence the shameless tongue of those who would so venture. Consider the authority which He manifests here throughout all He says. _I say to thee, thou art Peter: I will build My Church: I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven._ And at the time when He said these things, He charged them to tell no man that He was the Christ. Why did He thus charge them? That when those who took scandal were removed, the work of the Cross over, and all His other sufferings completed, when there was no man left to disturb or trouble the faith of the multitude in Him, His worship, undefiled and immutable, might be grafted on the minds of those who listened. For it was clear that His power had not yet shone forth. On this account He willed to be preached by them at a time when the unerring truth of deeds and the strength of things accomplished should support the testimony of the Apostles. For there was a difference between seeing Him, now working wonders in Palestine, now despised, now driven about (more especially at the time when the Cross was about to follow the wonders accomplished), and seeing Him adored and trusted by the whole world, His former suffering no more. This is why He enjoined them to tell no man. For that which has once been rooted and is then torn up, would with difficulty, if planted again, be received by the many, but that which has once been secured, and which remains immutable, and is not threatened from any quarter, is in easy progress and gives good promise of growth. If, indeed, those who enjoyed many signs, and who took part in these ineffable mysteries, were scandalised by merely being told of the Cross, and not those only, but Peter too, the head of all,[14] consider what the multitude were likely to suffer when they learnt that He was the Son of God, and saw Him spit upon and crucified, and yet did not know the sacred nature of these high mysteries, and had not received the Holy Ghost. If He said even to the disciples, _I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now_, how much more would the rest of the people have fallen if He had revealed to them the secret of these hidden things before the due time. On this account, then, He orders them to be silent. And that you may see how much there was to be learnt after these things to complete the teaching, when those who offered scandal were removed, consider the behaviour of Peter, the chief of all. For this very Peter, after wonders so great, showed himself weak enough to deny Our Lord and to fear a poor maid-servant. Then, when the crucifixion was accomplished, and he had received clear proof of the resurrection, and there remained nothing to scandalise or terrify him, he embraced the unspeakable teaching of the Spirit in order to leap with greater eagerness than a lion upon the Jewish people, although he was threatened by a thousand dangers and deaths. It was reasonable, therefore, that He bade them not to tell the multitude before the Cross, since He did not venture to impart everything before the Cross even to those who were to teach. _I have many things to say, but you cannot bear them now._ And they were ignorant concerning many things spoken by Him which He did not clearly explain before the Cross. But when He rose from the dead, then they came to a knowledge of some of the things which He had said.

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“Peter Rose Up.”
(_Homilies on Acts of Apostles_, _Benedictine Edition_, iii., tom. ix.,
p. 23.)

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_And in those days Peter rose up in the midst of the disciples and said._ As one eager and as entrusted by Christ with the flock, and as the first of the choir, he ever first begins to speak. _And the number of names together was_, he says, _about a hundred and twenty_. _Men and brethren, this Scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost spake before._ Why then did he not singly ask of Christ to give him some one in the place of Judas? And why do they not make the election of themselves? Peter had now become better than his old self. This is what we may say on the subject. We will give two reasons why their asking for one to fill up their band was no chance but a matter of revelation: the first, that they were engaged about other things; the second, that this was the greatest proof of Christ’s presence with them. For being absent He made the election as He would have done if present. And this was no small matter of consolation. But observe Peter doing this with common consent; nothing authoritatively, nothing arbitrarily. And he did not say simply thus: ‘Instead of Judas we elect this man,’ but consoling them about what had passed, see how he manages his discourse. For what had happened had caused no small distress. And do not wonder at this. For if many at present twist about this fact, what may we expect that they said? _Men and brethren_, he says: if the Lord called them brethren, how much more he?... This is why he began by saying, _Men and brethren, we must choose one of us_. He commits the judgment to the multitude, both to invest with respect those who were chosen, and to escape himself odium from the rest.... What, then, might not Peter himself have elected? Certainly. But he does not do so, that he might not seem partial. Moreover, he had not as yet received the Spirit. _And they appointed two, Joseph that is called Barsabas and Matthias._ He did not appoint them, but all. He introduced the matter, showing that it was not even his own, but from above, according to prophecy. So that he was an interpreter, not a master.

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Built upon the Rock.
(_Homily before he went into exile_,[15] tom. iii., p. 415.)

Numerous are the waves, and great the tossing of the sea, but we have no fear of going down, for we stand upon the rock. Let the ocean rage as it will, it is powerless to break the rock. Let the waves roll, they cannot sink the bark of Jesus. Tell me, what should we fear? Death? _To me to live is Christ and to die gain._ Is it exile perchance? _The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness of it._ Is it confiscation of property? We brought nothing with us into the world, and it is clear that we can take nothing away with us. I despise what the world fears, and hold its good things in derision. I do not fear poverty, nor do I desire riches. I am not afraid of death; I do not pray to live, if it be not for your good. This is why I speak of what is now taking place, and exhort your charity to be of good cheer. For no man shall be able to separate us. No man can part that which God has joined together. If, speaking of man and wife, He says: _On this account a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh; for that which God has joined together man shall not separate_; if you cannot dissolve marriage, how much less shall you be able to break up the Church of God. You may fight her, you will not be able to harm the object of your attack. ‘But whilst you make me more illustrious, you are undermining your own strength by fighting against me.’ It is hard for you to kick against a sharp goad. You do not take the edge off it, but you make your own feet bloody; and the waves do not break through the rock, but are dissolved in foam. There is nothing more powerful than the Church, O man; give up fighting her, lest she overpower your strength. Wage not war against heaven. If you fight a man, you conquer or are conquered. But if you fight the Church, you cannot conquer. For God is stronger than all. _Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?_ Are we stronger than He? Who will venture to subvert the order which God has established? You know not His power. He looks down upon the earth and causes it to tremble. He commands, and that which was shaken becomes firm. If He can establish in peace a city torn by factions, how much more is He able to establish the Church! The Church is stronger than heaven. _Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away._ What words? _Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it._

If you distrust words, believe in facts. How many tyrants have wished to get the better of the Church! How many frying-pans, and furnaces, and fangs of wild animals, and sharp swords have there not been! Yet they have not succeeded. Where are the oppressors? Silence and oblivion have passed over them. But where is the Church? It is more dazzling than the sun. _Their_ deeds are no more, hers are immortal. Now, if being few they were not conquered, how will you get the better of them, now that the world is filled with the service of God? _Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass_; and with good reason. The Church is more pleasing to God than heaven; He did not take a body from heaven, but He _did_ take flesh of the Church.[16] Heaven is made for the Church, not the Church for heaven. Be not disturbed by anything which has taken place. Gain me the grace of an immutable faith. See you not Peter walking upon the waters, beginning to doubt and being on the point of drowning, not through the surging waves, but through the weakness of his faith? Did we come here by vote of man? Did a man bring us in, that a man might displace us? I say this, not out of pride, nor to boast—God forbid!—but wishing to give courage to what is faint in you. Since the city has become quiet, the devil aimed at disturbing the Church. Wretched and most wicked demon, you could not master walls, and do you think to shake the Church? Is the Church made up of walls? The Church is in the multitude of the faithful. What an array of immutable pillars, not clasped by iron, but bound by faith! I say not that so vast a multitude is more ardent than fire, but if it consisted of one, you would not overcome that one. You know what wounds the martyrs inflicted on you. Many a time a tender maiden has been brought into court; she was softer than wax, and she became harder than a rock. You tore her sides, yet you took not her faith. The flesh languished whilst the strength of faith was not weakened: the body was being spent, the spirit was renewed: the physical frame was perishing, yet piety endured. You have not conquered a single woman, and do you hope to conquer so numerous a people? _Do you not hear the Lord saying, Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst of them_. Where is _not_ this people whom charity binds? I have a proof of it. Am I in good heart by my own strength? I hold His written word. This is my staff, this is my courage, this is to me a calm harbour. Even if the world be troubled, I hold that written word; I look up to those words, they are a wall of strength to me. What are they? _I am with you always until the consummation of the world._ Christ is with me, what shall I fear? If waves are raging against me, and the fountains of the deep and the passions of princes, all these things are more insignificant than a cobweb. And if it were not for your charity, I would not refuse to depart to-morrow, for I always say, ‘Lord, may Thy will be done’; not what this man or that man wishes, but as Thou wilt. This is my tower of defence, this is my immutable rock, this is my sure staff. If this be God’s will, so be it. If He wish me to remain here, I am grateful to Him. Wherever it may be, I give Him thanks.

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The Priest a Man, not an Angel.
(_Homily on Peter and Elias_, _Benedictine Edition_, tom. ii., p. 730.)

Why is it that so few are here to day? We commemorate the martyrs, and no one comes; the distance has made man soft, or rather not the distance, but their softness has been the impediment. Just as nothing can hinder readiness and alertness of will, so everything serves as a hindrance to an irresolute and desponding man. The martyrs shed their blood for the truth: can _you_ not make light even of a long way? They laid down their head for Christ: will _you_ not even come out of the city for your Lord? He died for you, and are you lukewarm in His service? You are commemorating the martyrs, and are you discouraged and remiss? You should come and see the devil humbled, and the martyr triumphing, God glorified, and the Church crowned. What is your excuse? ‘I am a sinner and I cannot come.’ That is the very reason why you should come so that you may not be quite lost. Tell me what man is without sin? This is why there is a sacrifice, and a Church, and prayer, and fasting. Because the soul has many wounds, therefore remedies have been devised for them, and for every single wound of the soul a corresponding medicine has been prepared. You have the Church offering sacrifices, the prayers of the fathers, the administration of the Holy Spirit, the memory of the martyrs, the assembly of the faithful, and many things of the kind which have power to recall you from iniquity unto justice. If you do not come to invoke the martyrs, what excuse have you got?... You say, ‘I am a sinner and cannot come’. _Because_ you are a sinner, come. Or do you not know that those very men who stand before the altar have contracted sins? They are clothed in flesh and blood, yet we do not refuse to teach when we cast our eyes on the ocean of God’s goodness. If you enter in, you have not this against you, for you are subject to teaching. As for us, the higher our dignity, the greater is our guilt. It is one thing for the man, who is subject to teaching, to sin, and another for the teacher. Nevertheless, we do not refuse to impart discipline, or fall into negligence under pretext of humility. It was a divine ordering that priests themselves should fall into sin. Now listen to what I mean. If the teachers themselves, if priests had not sinned and been subjected to the ordinary passions of life, they would have become inhuman and relentless towards others. Therefore, He designed that priests, too, and rulers should be under the dominion of their feelings, so that from what they themselves experience they should extend pardon to others. God has always pursued this course, not only now but of old: He allowed those to whom He was going to entrust His Church and His people to fall into sin, so that on account of their own shortcomings they might become merciful to others. If they had _not_ sinned, they would not have made a single excuse for sinners, but, wholly merciless, would have excluded all from the Church. Let me show you by an example that it _is_ so, and that I do not speak from conjecture. Peter was to be entrusted with the keys of heaven and with the multitude of the people. For what were the Lord’s words to him? _Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall_ _be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven._ For Peter was somewhat severe, and if he had been faultless how would he have excused his disciples? This was why the Divine Goodness brought about a certain fall on his part, that from what he himself experienced, he might become kind to others. And consider the man who is allowed to fall into sin,—Peter, the chief of the Apostles, the irremovable foundation, the immutable rock, the leader of the Church, the sure harbour, the invincible pillar. Peter it was who had said to Christ, _Even if I should die with Thee I will not desert Thee_; Peter who had confessed the truth by divine revelation: _Thou art Christ the Son of the living God_: this Peter going in on the night of Christ’s betrayal and standing by the fire to warm himself, a certain maid-servant went up to him and said, _Yesterday thou wert with this man_, and Peter answered, _I know not the man_. Just before he had said, _Even if I should die with Thee_; now he denies Him and says, _I know not the man_. O Peter! is this thy promise? Thou hast not endured torments nor stripes, but at a single word from a maid-servant—thou hast denied. Wilt thou deny, Peter? As yet there are neither torments, nor stripes, nor blows, nor angry passions, nor princes, nor outstretched swords, neither edicts, nor threatening emperors, nor sentence to death, neither prisons, nor precipices, nor seas. There are none of these things, yet thou hast already denied Him: _I know not the man_. Again the maid said to him, _Yesterday thou wert with this man._ And he answered her: _I know not the man_. Who is making thee deny? No one in authority, but a woman, and she a poor doorkeeper, a captive unworthy of an answer: at _her_ word thou deniest! This is wonderful indeed! A maid-servant, a harlot going up to Peter disturbed his faith. Peter, the pillar, suffered no temptation: she only opened her mouth and that pillar was shaken, that bulwark was moved. What seest thou before thee, Peter, whilst thou deniest? A miserable maid-servant, a wretched doorkeeper. This is what thou seest, and dost thou deny? Now for the third time she says: _Yesterday thou too wert with this man_, and he denied for the third time. And Jesus looking at him, recalled his own words to his mind, and he began to weep tears of contrition for his sin. Still Jesus pardoned him, knowing that as a man he had had a human weakness. But as I have said, on this account He was about to entrust him with a whole people, so that, not being hard or without sin, he might not be without mercy for his own brethren. He fell into sin, that, considering his own fault and his Lord’s pardon, he also might extend a merciful forgiveness to others, which, according to divine dispensation should reconcile them to God. He who was to be entrusted with the Church was allowed to sin; the pillar of the churches, the harbour of faith, Peter the teacher of the world, was allowed to sin in order that his forgiveness might become the basis of mercy for others. Why do I say these things? Because we priests who sit upon a throne and teach are fettered by sins. This is why neither angel nor archangel has been entrusted with the priesthood, for _they_ are without sin, in order that they should not through severity at once strike down sinners amongst the people. A man born of man was entrusted with this throne, a man held subject himself to pleasure and to sin, so that in receiving a sinner, mindful of his own failings, he might be gentler to that sinner. For if the priest were an angel and were to receive a dissolute man, he would kill him on the spot, not being acquainted with this passion. On this account if an angel had the sacerdotal authority, he would not teach, but he would kill the man in anger through his not being an angel: for this reason it was a man with the knowledge and experience of his own faults, that he might pardon sinners, and not be moved by anger, that the Church might not be vacant through the Synagogue.

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The Authority of the Priest.
(_On the Priesthood_,[17] b. iii., c. iv., p. 24.)

The priesthood performs its functions on earth but ranks with heavenly things. And indeed most rightly, for neither man, nor angel, nor archangel, nor any other created power has ordained this series of actions, but the Paraclete Himself, and He it is Who has inspired those still in the flesh to represent visibly the ministry of angels. Therefore, since the priest stands in the very heavens in the midst of those powers, he should be as pure as they. The ordinances before the law of grace, such as bells and fringes, and precious stones on the breast, those on the shoulders, the mitre, the girdle, the long garment, the gold plate, the holy of holies, the intense quiet of the holy place, were awful and sacred, but if anyone would examine those of the law of grace, he would find the former terrible ordinances were as nothing, and that what was then said concerning the law was in this also true, that _even that which was glorious in this part was not glorified by reason of the glory that excelleth_. For when you see the Lord sacrificed and lying before you, and the priest standing over the sacrifice making supplication, and all present dyed in the precious Blood, do you feel as if you were still amongst men and on earth, and not rather transported straight into heaven? Casting aside from your mind every carnal thought, do you not consider the things of heaven with a naked soul and a pure heart? Oh, what a wonder this is! What man-loving kindness of God! He Who is sitting with the Father above is received in that hour into the hands of all men. And He gives Himself to those who wish to hold Him to their hearts in close embrace, and all do this through their eyes. Now would these things appear to you worthy of contempt, as if a man could possibly feel anger against them? Would you like to realise the surpassing sacredness of this holy place through another wonder? Picture Elias to yourselves, an immense crowd surrounding him, the sacrifice lying upon stones, all men holding their breath, and the prophet alone in prayer, then fire coming swiftly from heaven upon the offering. This is a marvel which is most awe-inspiring. Pass on from this to the rites which are now being carried out, and you will see not marvels alone but things beyond awe itself. For the priest is standing there, not bringing down fire but the Holy Spirit: and he makes a long prayer of supplication, not that fire from above may consume the offering, but in order that grace, coming down upon the sacrifice, may through it enkindle all souls, and make them purer than silver purified in the fire. Now, such being this most tremendous rite, who that is not utterly mad and out of his mind will be able to show contempt for it? Do you not know that never could soul of man have borne that fire of the sacrifice, but all would have been consumed if it had not been for an abundant assistance of God’s grace? If, indeed, anyone would consider what a great thing it is for a man still clothed in flesh and blood to be able to approach nearer to that high and perfect nature, he would then clearly see what honour the grace of the Spirit has vouchsafed to confer upon the priest. For through his ministry both these things are accomplished and other things which, in regard to our dignity and salvation, are in no way inferior. Dwellers on the earth, sojourners here, are entrusted with the things of heaven, and have received an authority which God has given neither to angels nor to archangels. Not to them are those words said: _Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose shall be loosed_. It is true that those in power on earth have authority to bind, but in the case of bodies only: now _that_ chain affects the soul, and penetrates into heaven, so that whatsoever the priest does here below, God ratifies it above; the Lord of all sanctions the action of His servants. What indeed did He give to them if not all authority in heaven? _Whose sins_, He says, _you shall forgive they are forgiven, and whose sins you shall retain they are retained_. What could be greater than this authority? The Father has given all judgment to the Son: now I see them set over all judgment by the Son as if they were already in heaven, and had passed beyond nature, and had thrown off our passions also, to so great an authority have they been raised. Thus, if a king entrusts to one of his subjects power to throw into prison those whom he chooses, and to release them, that man will be an object of singular distinction to all. He who receives from God an authority greater in proportion as heaven surpasses earth and souls bodies, has seemed to some to be favoured with an honour so small as to make it credible that some one might look down upon the gift of men so trusted. God forbid such unreason, for it _is_ a consummate unreason to despise so exalted an authority, without which we can arrive neither at salvation nor at the promised goods. If a man cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven unless he be born again of water and the Spirit, and if he who does not eat the Flesh of Christ and does not drink His Blood shall have no part in eternal life, and all these things are brought about by no one else, but only by those sacred hands, those of the priest, I mean, how without them will it be possible for a man either to escape hell-fire or to reach the crowns which are laid up for us? For priests are those who have been trusted with throes of the Spirit, and they generate through baptism: through them we put on Christ and unite ourselves to the Son of God, and become members of that august Head. Hence they might justly be held by us in greater veneration than not rulers and kings only, but than our own fathers. These have generated us by ties of the flesh and of inclination: priests are the authors of our birth from God, of that blessed regeneration of our true liberty, and of our adoption according to grace. Priests amongst the Jews had power to cleanse the leprosy of the body, or rather not at all to cleanse it, but only to proclaim who _were_ cleansed, and you know how sought after the priestly office then was. Now these have received power with regard to, not the leprosy of the body, but impurity of the soul, not to examine it when cleansed but to entirely effect the cleansing. Hence, those who hold them in contempt would be under a worse curse and would deserve a greater chastisement than Dathan and his companions. The latter, indeed, even if they claimed an authority which did not belong to them, were still impressed with its being something extraordinary, and showed this by desiring it with great warmth; but the former, since a better order has been brought about and divine worship has received so wonderful an increase, have ventured on a deed the opposite to that of the others, of much greater audacity. To desire undue honour and to disregard it are not forms of showing contempt; but the one is as far removed from the other as is the measure of contempt from admiration. What soul so unhappy as to disregard goods so great? I cannot say, unless anyone should be goaded on to it by a demon. Now I will go back to my starting-point. God has given greater power to priests than to parents, according to nature, not only for chastising but also for conferring benefits, and there is as great a difference between the two as between this present life and the life to come. Earthly parents generate for this present life, priests for the life to come: the former are unable to preserve their children from death even of the body or to ward off illness from them; but the latter have often saved a soul which was sick and about to be lost, procuring for some a milder chastisement, and keeping others out of trouble from the first, not only by teaching and advising, but also by helping them with prayer. Not only do they generate us anew, but after this they have authority to remit sins. _Is any man sick among you_, the Apostle says, _let him call in the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick man, and the Lord shall raise him up, and whatever sins he may have committed shall be forgiven him_. So parents in the order of nature can do nothing to help their children if these should chance to offend people in high places; but priests have reconciled them not to rulers or kings only, but to God Himself, Who was angered against them. After this will anyone venture to accuse us of folly? For my part I conceive that what has been said will inspire the souls of hearers with such respect that they will no longer charge with folly and audacity those who shrink from acquiring this honour for themselves, but those who seek and pursue it.

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The Priest a Shepherd of Souls.
(_On the Priesthood_, b. vi., c. i.)

You have heard what is to be expected here on earth, but how shall we bear what is to come hereafter, when we shall be compelled to answer for everyone who has been entrusted to us? The punishment there does not stop with shame, but is a chastisement which never ends. If I began by quoting the words, _Render obedience and submission to those who are over you, and who are responsible for your souls, as giving an account for them_, I will not now withhold them. Fear of this judgment keeps me in a state of perpetual trembling. If, indeed, for scandalising one, and that one the least of all, it is better for a man to have a millstone about his neck and to be cast into the sea; and if all who inflict a blow upon the conscience of their brethren sin against Christ Himself, what will be the suffering on their account of those who destroy not one, or two, or three, but so great a multitude? It will not do to throw the blame on want of practice or to take refuge in ignorance, or to allege necessity or main force: it would be easier for a subject, if he required it, to make use of this excuse for his own sins than for rulers in those of others. What is meant by this? That he whose part it is to correct the ignorance of others, and to guard against the devil’s coming attack, may not allege his own ignorance, or say, ‘I did not hear the trumpet,’ or ‘I did not foresee war’. As Ezechiel said, this is the very reason why he is seated in his place, that he may sound the trumpet to others and warn them of coming troubles. On this account the chastisement is inexorable, even if only one be lost. For if, when the sword is brandished, the watchman does not sound the trumpet to the people, nor signal to them (he says), and the sword appearing destroys a life, that life has been lost through the man’s own lawlessness, but I will require his blood at the watchman’s hand.[18] Cease, then, to push us into that inevitable judgment. _We_ have to do, not with armies and kingdoms, but with an action which requires angelical goodness. The soul of a priest should be purer than the very rays of the sun, so that the Holy Spirit may never leave him to himself, that he may be able to say: _I live, not I, but Christ liveth in me_. If dwellers in the desert, who are removed from the cares of city, market-place, and all that these entail, and are ever in rest and peace, are unwilling to presume of their security in such a life, but add numberless cautions, fortifying themselves on all sides, ardent to do and to speak with much care, so that they may approach God as fearlessly and purely as it lies in human capacity to do, what think you the power and strength of the priest should be, to enable him to put off all defilement from his soul and to preserve spiritual beauty undamaged? For he ought to be much purer than they, and the more so as he incurs greater necessities than they, which may sully his purity, unless by constant watchfulness and strenuous effort he makes his soul inaccessible to their influence. Thus, there are fair faces, and luxurious movements, and a studied walk, and a mincing tone of voice, and painted eyes, and rouged cheeks, beautiful plaits, dyed hair, rich clothes, variegated golden ornaments, fine precious stones, the perfume of scents, and all other things of the kind, dear to the female sex, which are calculated to upset a soul that is not armed in the austerity of wisdom. It is no wonder if a man be troubled by _these_ things; but that the devil should be able by the contrary things to wage war against the souls of men and to wound them,—_this_ is most surprising and embarrassing. Already some who have escaped the former snares have allowed themselves to be taken by that which was so different. For an unstudied address, neglected hair, a dirty garment, a disordered appearance, a careless demeanour, a natural manner, frank language, an unartificial gait, an artless voice, a life of poverty, the being despised, and unprotected, and in solitude, have inspired a man at first with pity, and from that have led him to utter destruction. And many who have escaped the former snares, the snares of gold, and perfume, and clothes, and the rest which go with them, as I said, have fallen into these so far removed from those, and have been lost. Now, when the battle strikes on the spectator’s soul, and weapons of war surround him on all sides, whether by poverty or by riches, by adornment or by simplicity, by a studied manner or by unaffectedness, or in any other of the ways which I have enumerated, whence is refreshment to come to him who is thus hemmed in? How are we to meet the case, not of being taken by force, for this is not so very difficult, but of keeping our mind in tranquillity from impure thoughts? I pass over honours, which are the causes of a thousand evils. Those which come from women lower the tone of the tempered mind, and often work ruin whenever a man is not wholly on his guard against such plottings. And as to honours coming from men; if they be not received with much high-mindedness, they involve a man in two opposite sufferings—the slavishness of flattery and the foolishness of boasting. On the one hand, he is forced to stoop to those who serve him; on the other, he is puffed up against his inferiors through these honours of theirs, and thrust into an abyss of folly. _We_ say this, but the harm of it can only be properly ascertained by experience. And, necessarily, things much worse and more dangerous than these would happen to those who are in the midst of the fight. The lover of the desert is exempted from all this, for if a foolish thought _did_ suggest something of the kind to him, this imagination is weak and easily overcome, because the flame of the eyes is not fed by outward things. Now the monk fears for himself alone: even if he were obliged to think of others, these would be very few. Or if they were many, they would be fewer than those in churches, and give their superior little anxiety, not through their small numbers alone, but because they are removed from worldly business, and have neither children, nor wife, nor anything else of the kind to trouble about. It is this and the common life which have made them disposed to obey their rulers. Thus they are able to see and to correct their faults, for the constant watchfulness of the teacher is no slight thing towards increase of virtue. Now, the majority of men under the priest’s charge are taken up with worldly cares, and this makes them slack in the fulfilment of their spiritual duties. Hence the teacher should scatter the seed, so to speak, day by day, in order that the teaching by constantly falling should take root in the listener’s mind. For superfluous wealth, and great power, and the softness arising from luxury, and many other things joined to these, suffocate the seeds, and often the density of thorns does not allow the seed to shoot forth so as to be seen. Moreover, excessive tribulation, the necessities of poverty, constant reproaches, and everything else of the kind which is opposed to the former things, lead a man away from a holy zeal. Not even the smallest part of sins incurred can become manifest to them. How should it not be so when they know not the greater number even by sight? Thus onerous are a priest’s duties towards the people. But if anyone would consider duties towards God, he will find the others nothing at all, so much more careful and diligent a zeal do these require. For what sort of man should he be who rules an entire city—and why do I say a city?—the whole world rather—and has to propitiate God for the sins of all—not the sins of the living only, but those of the dead also. I hold that the courage of Moses and Elias is all insufficient for this ministry. Entrusted as if with the world itself, and the father of all, the priest thus approaches God in order to extinguish wars in every place and to appease strife, to bring about peace and plenty, and to ask both privately and publicly a speedy deliverance from the evils which are pressing upon every man. He himself ought to be as much above what he asks for as the ruler should be in everything above the ruled. Now, what place are we to assign to him when he calls down the Holy Spirit, and offers up the most tremendous Sacrifice, and continually holds in his grasp the common Lord of all? What purity shall we not expect him to have, what piety? Think what the hands should be which thus minister! What the tongue which utters those words! What should be purer or holier than the soul which receives so great a Spirit? Then angels surround the priest, and the sanctuary and all the place about the Sacrifice are filled with heavenly powers in honour of Him Who is lying there. And this can be sufficiently believed from the rites. But I once heard some one say that an old man, who was held in veneration and accustomed to revelations, told him he himself had been made worthy of this vision. At the time of the sacrifice he had suddenly seen a multitude of angels, as many as his eye could grasp, in shining garments surrounding the altar, bending low, as a man might see soldiers in the presence of the king, and this I believe. And another man told me, not what he had learnt from a third person, but what he himself had been allowed to see and to hear. This was it. When the departing, who have chanced to partake of the mysteries with a pure conscience, draw their last breath, angels, serving them as a body-guard for the sake of what they have received, lead them out of this world. Do you not tremble to come with this soul to this holy sacrifice, and to be at these solemn rites the man in soiled garments whom Christ cast out from the rest of the guests? The soul of the priest should be a light of justice to the world, but ours is so surrounded with the darkness of an evil conscience as to be always overclouded and unable to look fearlessly at its Lord. Priests are the salt of the earth; who could bear easily with our folly and our ignorance in everything if you were not accustomed to give us an exaggerated love? And it is not enough that he who has been entrusted with so wonderful a ministry should be pure; he should also be wise and experienced in many things; he should know worldly business not less than those engaged in the midst of it, and still be further removed from all things than monks in their desert. As he must come into contact with men who are married and have children to bring up, and keep servants and have much wealth, who are engaged in public business, who are in power, he should be many-sided. I say many-sided, not a schemer, neither a flatterer nor a hypocrite, but made up of much liberality and fortitude, knowing how to lend a useful hand whenever circumstances demand it, at once kind and austere. All subjects are not to be used in the same way, since the children of physicians deem it not good to apply one treatment to all the sick, nor has the pilot only one course at his command against the wind. Storms are ever hanging over _this_ bark, and these storms assail not only from without, but arise also within, and we need to have much condescension and much care. All these things which are different in themselves have one end in view—the glory of God and the strengthening of the Church.

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One Sacrifice.
(_Homilies on Epistle to the Hebrews_,[19] xvii.)

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