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Possessing the Land.
(Homilies on Second Epistle to Corinthians, ix., vol. iii., p. 110.)
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Since, then, the things which we see are temporary, but the things which we do not see eternal, let us turn our minds to these. For what excuse should we have for choosing passing things instead of eternal ones? If the present time be indeed pleasant, it does not last, whilst the pain which it produces endures relentlessly.
How will those who have been made worthy of the Spirit be justified, enjoying so great a gift, if they remain crawling upon the earth and clinging to it? For I hear many men making use of foolish speeches, such as: ‘Give me to-day and take to-morrow; for, if things are what you pretend hereafter, it is one thing against another; but, supposing there is no hereafter at all, it is two things instead of nothing’. What is more senseless or more idle than such words? We are talking about heaven and the ineffable goods of eternity, and you bring before us the arguments of a racing-course, and are not ashamed to speak words worthy of madmen. Do you not blush so to cleave to present things? Will you not desist from madness and foolishness, and from wasting your youth? That heathens should speak in this way is not astonishing, but what will believing men who so rave have to say for themselves? Would you call in question those immortal hopes or doubt them altogether?
And what is your excuse? ‘Who has ever come,’ you say, ‘and told us about the next world?’ No man ever did; but God, Who is the most worthy of belief, has revealed these things. ‘But we cannot see them.’ Neither can you see God; and do you doubt His existence because you cannot see Him?’ ‘I believe in it most thoroughly,’ you say. Now, then, if an unbeliever ask you, ‘Who has ever come from heaven and told us these things?’ what will you answer? How do you know that there is a God? ‘From visible things,’ you reply; ‘from the order which is in the whole creation; from the fact that this is evident to all.’ Therefore, apply the same argument to that which concerns judgment. ‘How am I to do this?’ you ask. I will tell you, and you will say if I am right. Is God just, and does He give to each one according to his works, or, on the contrary, is it His wish that the wicked should do well and feast, and the good be in trouble and want? ‘Certainly not,’ you say; ‘for not even a man would suffer this.’ Then where are those who are upright here to enjoy good things? Where are the wicked to suffer, if there is to be no future life and no retribution after this world? Do you see that so far it is one against one, and not two things instead of one? I am showing you that the just will have not one thing rather than another, but two things rather than nothing, and that with sinners and those who feast here just the reverse is the case. For those who feast in this world have not even one thing against another, but those who persevere in virtue have two things instead of nothing. Who will be in refreshment—those who misuse this present life or those who lead an ascetic one? You say the former, but I point out the latter, and call in as witnesses those very people who have enjoyed present things, and they will not be ashamed of what I am going to say. For they have often cursed match-makers and the day on which the marriage-tie was completed, and have envied the unmarried. Many young men, who could easily have married, have desisted for no other reason except its irksomeness. I say this, not in disparagement of marriage—for it is honourable—but against those who misuse it. For if married people have often called their life insupportable, what shall we say of those who have fallen into the abysses of lust, and who have led a life more slavish and miserable than any captivity?—of those who have rotted in luxury, and drawn down a hundred disorders upon their body? ‘Still,’ you answer, ‘it is pleasant to be somebody.’ Nothing in the world is bitterer than this servitude. The vain man and he who wishes to please all-comers is more servile than any slave; whereas he who looks down upon vainglory is exalted above all, and troubles himself not with what others say. ‘But having money is delightful.’ We have often shown you that those are in greater plenty and refreshment who have given up these things and are rather possessors of nothing. ‘But drunkenness is pleasant.’ Who would say so? Therefore, if poverty is pleasanter than riches, the unmarried rather than the married life, obscurity rather than reputation, fasting than feasting, it follows that those have the most who do not cleave to present things. I mean that the one, although he may be torn with numberless cares, rests on a good hope; whereas the other, even if he enjoy luxury a thousand times over, has fear of the future to spoil and mar his pleasure. And this is indeed not a slight punishment, as it is destructive to feasting and enjoyment. Together with these there is a third sort of punishment. What is this? That earthly feasting is seen to have no real existence, since nature and the action of time disprove it; whereas eternal things not only do exist, but remain unchanged. Do you see that it is not only two things against nothing, but three, five, ten, twenty, or a thousand against nothing. In order to teach you this from an example, take the case of Dives and Lazarus: the one enjoyed the present life and the other eternal life. Now, does it seem to you that you can set the one thing against the other: to be chastised for ever and to suffer hunger for a short time; to be sick in a perishing body, and to be burnt in a fierce fire with an immortal body; to be crowned, and to feed on eternal goods after short suffering, and to be tortured endlessly after a brief enjoyment of temporal things? Who would say so? What would you have me reckon? Quantity, quality, order, God’s determination respecting each of us? How long will you speak as an insect might who is always wallowing in the mire?
It does not belong to consistent men to throw away so precious a soul for anything whatsoever, when a little labour is required to conquer heaven. Shall I show you by another example that a formidable tribunal is awaiting us there? Open the door of your conscience and see the judge who is sitting in your mind. If you exercise judgment upon yourself, selfish as you are, and could not bear the judgment not to be just, how much more will God have a care for the righteous, and judge every man impartially rather than allow all things to be carried out for nothing and in vain! Who, indeed, would say this? No man whatsoever, but heathens, barbarians, poets, philosophers, and all the human race will agree with us in these matters, if not in the same way, and will admit that there is some kind of tribunal in hell, because the thing is so clear and evident.
‘And why,’ you ask, ‘does He not chastise in this world?’ In order that He may show forth His own long-suffering, and give us an opportunity of salvation by contrition; that He may not use harshness with our race, nor deprive of salvation those who may be saved by a perfect conversion. If He immediately chastised sins and destroyed sinners, how would Paul have been saved or Peter, the chief teachers of the world (οἱ κορυφαῖοι τῆς οἰκουμένης διδάσκαλοι)? How would David have reaped salvation from his repentance? or the Galatians? or many others? This is why He does not demand the payment of every penalty here, but some of the whole number, nor all there, but one man pays in this world and another in the next, in order that He may arouse the most insensible through those whom He chastises, and prove the future state through those whom He does not chastise. See you not how many men have received their punishment here—those, for instance, who were buried by the tower, those whose blood Pilate used for the sacrifices, those amongst the Corinthians who died a premature death for partaking unworthily of the mysteries; or again, Pharaoh, or those amongst the Jews who were slaughtered by the Gentiles, or so many others then, and now, and at all times? And, again, many great sinners have departed hence without paying any penalty here, like the rich man in Lazarus’ case, and numerous others. This he does, and so leads unbelievers to future things, and makes believers more fervent. For God is a just, and a strong, and a long-suffering judge, and remembers not His anger day by day. Yet, if we misuse His long-suffering, a time will come when He will be patient no more, and will instantly apply the penalty. Let us not then encounter chastisement during endless ages for the enjoyment of one moment, which is our present life, but let us labour during this critical moment that we may be crowned for ever. Do you not see that this is how the majority of men act in worldly things? And they choose a short labour in preference to a long rest, even if the issue be unfavourable to them. Here there is equality of labour and gain, or, on the other hand, there is often endless labour and a small harvest, or none at all; whereas in the case of the kingdom the travail is little, and the pleasure great and never-ending. For consider, the husbandman toils all the year round, and towards the end of it he is often defrauded of the fruits of his many labours. Again, the sailor and the soldier are in wars and toils till extreme old age, and it often chances that each dies, the one without his wealth of cargoes, the other losing his life as well as victory on the battlefield. Now, tell me what excuse shall we have if we choose labours in worldly things, that we may rest for a while, or not even that, because hope is uncertain, whereas in spiritual things we do the very contrary, and draw down upon us an unspeakable chastisement for the sake of short ease?
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