Gregory the Dialogist

To which the weeping Lord rightly says: "If you had known, even you"—understand: you would weep—you who now, because you do not know what threatens, rejoice. Whence it is also added: "And indeed in this your day, the things that are for your peace." For when it gave itself to the pleasures of the flesh and did not foresee the evils to come, it had in its day those things which could be for its peace. But why it had present goods for peace is made clear when it is said: "But now they are hidden from your eyes." For if the evils which threatened had not been hidden from the eyes of its heart, it would not have been joyful in present prosperity.

The sentence which follows fittingly applies to the soul about to perish: "And indeed in this your day, the things that are for your peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes." Here the perverse soul has its own day, which rejoices in transitory time. For such a soul the things present are for peace, because while it rejoices in temporal things, while it is exalted by honors, while it dissolves in carnal pleasure, while it is terrified by no fear of future punishment, it has peace in its day, which will have the grave scandal of its damnation in another's day. For there it will be afflicted, where the just will rejoice; and all the things which now are for its peace will then be turned into the bitterness of strife, because it will begin to quarrel with itself as to why it did not dread the damnation it suffers, why it closed the eyes of its mind from foreseeing the evils to follow. Hence it is told: "But now they are hidden from your eyes." For the perverse soul, devoted to present things, dissolved in earthly pleasures, hides from itself the evils to follow, because it refuses to foresee future things which would disturb its present joy; and while it abandons itself to the delights of the present life, what else does it do but go to the fire with closed eyes? Hence it is well written: "In the day of good things, do not be forgetful of evil things." And therefore it is said through Paul: "Let those who rejoice be as though not rejoicing," because even if there is any joy of the present time, it is to be experienced in such a way that the bitterness of the following judgment never departs from memory, so that while the fearful mind is pierced through by fear of final vengeance, as much as present joy now prevails, so much will the wrath that follows afterward be tempered. For hence it is written: "Blessed is the man who is always fearful; but he who is hard of mind will fall into evil." For the wrath of the following judgment will then be borne all the more severely, the less it is feared now even amid sins.

"They shall not leave in you a stone upon a stone"—even the very relocation of that city now testifies, because while it is now built in the place where the Lord had been crucified outside the gate, that former Jerusalem, as it is said, was utterly destroyed. From what fault the punishment of its destruction was inflicted upon it is added: "Because you did not know the time of your visitation." For the Creator of all things deigned to visit it through the mystery of his incarnation, but it did not remember the fear and love of him. Whence also through prophecy, in rebuke of the human heart, the birds of heaven are brought forward as testimony, when it is said: "The kite in the sky has known its time; the turtledove and the swallow and the stork have kept the time of their coming, but my people has not known the judgment of the Lord."

Concerning these, what follows can also be aptly understood: "They shall surround you and press you in on every side." For malignant spirits press in upon the soul on every side, when they bring back to it the iniquities not only of deed, but also of speech and moreover of thought, so that she who formerly spread herself abroad through many crimes may at the end be pressed in on all sides in retribution. There follows: "And they shall cast you to the ground, and your children who are in you." Then the soul is cast to the ground through the knowledge of its guilt, when the flesh which it believed to be its life is compelled to return to dust. Then her children fall into death, when the illicit thoughts which now proceed from her are scattered in the final punishment of life, as it is written: "In that day all their thoughts shall perish." These harsh thoughts can also be understood through the signification of stones. For there follows: "And they shall not leave in you stone upon stone." For when a perverse mind adds a yet more perverse thought to a perverse thought, what else does it do but place stone upon stone? But in the destroyed city stone is not left upon stone, because when the soul is led to its punishment, the whole structure of its thoughts is scattered.

Why it suffers this is added: "Because you did not know the time of your visitation." Almighty God is accustomed to visit every wicked soul in many ways. For He visits it continually through His commandment, sometimes through affliction, and sometimes through a miracle, so that it may hear the truths it did not know, and yet if still proud and contemptuous, it may return pricked by pain, or overcome by benefits may blush at the evil it has done. But because it does not recognize the time of its visitation, it is handed over at the end of life to those enemies with whom it will be bound in the fellowship of perpetual damnation at the eternal judgment, as it is written: "When you go with your adversary to the magistrate on the way, make an effort to be freed from him, lest perhaps he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer cast you into prison." For our adversary on the way is the word of God, contrary to our carnal desires in the present life. He is freed from it who humbly submits to His commandments. Otherwise the adversary will hand him over to the judge, and the judge will hand him over to the officer, because from the contempt of the Lord's word the guilty sinner will be held liable at the examination of the judge. The judge hands him over to the officer, because He permits the malignant spirit to drag him away for punishment, so that he himself may exact the soul driven from the body for punishment, the soul that willingly consented to him for sin. The officer casts him into prison, because through the malignant spirit he is thrust back into hell until the day of judgment comes, from which point he himself also will be tormented together in the fires of hell.

(Hom. 39. in Ev.) Or else; The evil spirits lay siege to the soul, as it goes forth from the body, for being seized with the love of the flesh, they caress it with delusive pleasures. They surround it with a trench, because bringing all its wickedness which it has committed before the eyes of its mind, they close confine it to the company of its own damnation, that being caught in the very extremity of life, it may see by what enemies it is blockaded, yet be unable to find any way of escape, because it can no longer do good works, since those which it might once have done it despised. On every side also they inclose the soul when its iniquities rise up before it, not only in deed but also in word and thought, that she who before in many ways greatly enlarged herself in wickedness, should now at the end be straitened every way in judgment. Then indeed the soul by the very condition of its guilt is laid prostrate on the ground, while its flesh which it believed to be its life is bid to return to dust. Then its children fall in death, when all unlawful thoughts which only proceed from it, are in the last punishment of life scattered abroad. These may also be signified by the stones. For the corrupt mind when to a corrupt thought it adds one more corrupt, places one stone upon another. But when the soul is led to its doom, the whole structure of its thoughts is rent asunder. But the wicked soul God ceases not to visit with His teaching, sometimes with the scourge and sometimes with a miracle; that the truth which it knew not it may hear, and though still despising it, may return pricked to the heart in sorrow, or overcome with mercies may be ashamed at the evil which it has done. But because it knows not the time of its visitation, at the end of life it is given over to its enemies, that with them it may be joined together in the bond of everlasting damnation.

(ut sup.) When He had related the evils that were to come upon the city, He straightway entered the temple, that He might cast out them that bought and sold in it. showing that the destruction of the people arose chiefly from the guilt of the priests.

For they who sat in the temple to receive money would doubtless sometimes make exaction to the injury of those who gave them none.

(Hom. 39. ut sup.) But our Redeemer does not withdraw His word of preaching even from the unworthy and ungrateful. Accordingly after having by the ejection of the corrupt maintained the strictness of discipline, He now pours forth the gifts of grace. For it follows, And he was teaching daily in the temple.

(ut sup.) Mystically, such as the temple of God is in a city, such is the life of the religious in a faithful people. And there are frequently some who take upon themselves the religious habit, and while they are receiving the privilege of Holy Orders, are sinking the sacred office of religion into a bargain of worldly traffic. For the sellers in the temple are those who give at a certain price that which is the rightful possession of others. For to sell justice is to observe it on condition of receiving a reward. But the buyers in the temple are those, who whilst unwilling to discharge what is just to their neighbour, and disdaining to do what they are in duty bound to, by paying a price to their patrons, purchase sin.

(ut sup.) And these make the house of God a den of thieves, because when corrupt men hold religious offices, they slay with the sword of their wickedness their neighbours, whom they ought to raise to life by the intercession of their prayers. The temple also is the soul of the faithful, which if it put forth corrupt thoughts to the injury of a neighbour, then is it become as it were a lurking place of thieves. But when the soul of the faithful is wisely instructed to shun evil, truth teaches daily in the temple.

Having described this, what the Lord did is added: because, entering the temple, he began to cast out those selling and buying in it, saying to them: It is written that my house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. For he who foretold the evils to come and immediately entered the temple to cast out from it those selling and buying, clearly made known that the ruin of the people came chiefly from the fault of the priests. Indeed, in describing the destruction but striking at those selling and buying in the temple, he showed by the very effect of his work whence the root of perdition sprang. Moreover, as we have learned from another evangelist as witness, doves were being sold in the temple. And what is received through doves except the gift of the Holy Spirit? But he expels the sellers and buyers from the temple, because he condemns either those who grant the imposition of hands for a gift, or those who strive to buy the gift of the Spirit.

After the destruction of the city is completed, which we have applied to the likeness of a perishing soul, it is immediately added: "And entering the temple, he began to cast out those selling and buying in it." Just as the temple of God is in the city, so also is the life of religious persons among the faithful people. And often some take up the habit of religion, and when they receive a place in the sacred orders, they turn the office of holy religion into a commerce of earthly business. Those selling in the temple are they who bestow for a reward what rightly belongs to certain persons. For to sell justice is to maintain it in exchange for receiving a reward. Those buying in the temple are they who, while refusing to render to their neighbor what is just, and while disdaining to do what is rightly owed, give a reward to patrons and buy sin.

About this temple it is soon added: "My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves." For those who sat in the temple to receive gifts, it was certainly not doubtful that they would seek to harm those who gave nothing. Therefore the house of prayer had been made a den of thieves, because they knew how to stand in the temple for this purpose: either to eagerly pursue bodily those not giving gifts, or to kill spiritually those who did give.

To them it is rightly said: "My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves," because when perverse men sometimes hold a place of religion, there they slay with the swords of their malice where they ought to have given life to their neighbors through the intercession of their prayer.

The temple and house of God is also the very mind and conscience of the faithful. If at any time it brings forth perverse thoughts in injury to a neighbor, it is as though robbers are dwelling in a cave and killing those who walk by in simplicity, when they thrust swords of injury into those who are guilty of nothing. For the mind of the faithful is no longer a house of prayer but a den of thieves when, having abandoned the innocence and simplicity of holiness, it strives to do that by which it might harm its neighbors.

But because our Redeemer does not withhold the words of preaching even from the unworthy and ungrateful, after he maintained the vigor of discipline by casting out the perverse, he soon showed the gift of grace. For it is added: "And he was teaching daily in the temple." We have run through these things briefly, treating them according to the historical sense.

But because against all these perverse things we are ceaselessly instructed by the words of our Redeemer through the sacred pages, what is reported to have been done is still being done now, when it says: "And he was teaching daily in the temple." For when he subtly instructs the mind of the faithful to guard against evils, Truth teaches daily in the temple.

But we must know that we are truly instructed by the words of truth if we look upon our final evils with fear and without ceasing, according to what is said by a certain wise man: "In all your works remember your last end, and you will never sin." Indeed, we ought to consider daily what we have heard from the voice of our same Redeemer: "If only on this day of yours you knew the things that are for your peace; but now they are hidden from your eyes." For while the strict Judge waits and does not yet extend his hand in striking, while there seems to be a certain security of time before the retribution of final vengeance, we ought to consider the evil that follows, and considering it, groan; groaning, avoid it; and look upon the sins we have committed without ceasing; looking upon them, weep; and weeping, wipe them away. Let no joy of passing prosperity dissolve us, nor let transitory things obstruct the eyes of our mind, nor lead us blind to the fire. For if it be considered strictly, from the mouth of Truth it is known how weighty is the reproach, when it is said to the negligent one who does not look ahead to future things: "If only on this day of yours you knew the things that are for your peace; but now they are hidden from your eyes."

(in Hom. 35. in Evang.) God denounces the woes that shall forerun the destruction of the world, that so they may the less disturb when they come, as having been foreknown. For darts strike the less which are foreseen. And so He says, But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, &c. Wars refer to the enemy, commotions to citizens. To show us then that we shall be troubled from within and without, He asserts that the one we suffer from the enemy, the other from our own brethren.

But that the end will not immediately follow these evils which come first, it is added, These things must first come to pass; but the end is not yet, &c. For the last tribulation is preceded by many tribulations, because many evils must come first, that they may await that evil which has no end. It follows, Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, &c. For it must needs be that we should suffer some things from heaven, some from earth, some from the elements, and some from men. Here then are signified the confusions of men. It follows, And great earthquakes shall be in divers places. This relates to the wrath from above.

(in Hom. 35.) Look at the vicissitudes of bodies. And famine. Observe the barrenness of the ground. And fearful sights and great signs there shall be from heaven. Behold the variableness of the climate, which must be ascribed to those storms which by no means regard the order of the seasons. For the things which come in fixed order are not signs. For every thing that we receive for the use of life we pervert to the service of sin, but all those things which we have bent to a wicked use, are turned to the instruments of our punishment.

"There will be great earthquakes in various places"—behold the look of wrath from above; "there will be pestilences"—behold the disorder of bodies; "there will be famine"—behold the barrenness of the earth; "terrors from heaven and storms"—behold the disorder of the air. Because therefore all things are to be brought to an end, before the end all things are disturbed; and we who have sinned in all things are struck in all things, so that what is said may be fulfilled: "And the world will fight on his behalf against the senseless." For all things that we received for the use of life we have turned to the use of sin, but all things that we bent to the use of wickedness are turned against us for the use of vengeance. Indeed we turned the tranquility of human peace to the use of vain security; we loved the pilgrimage of earth as if it were our homeland's dwelling; we reduced the health of bodies to the use of vices; we twisted the abundance of plenty not to the necessity of the flesh but to the perversity of pleasure; we forced even the serene enticements of the air to serve our love of earthly delight. Rightly therefore it remains that all things strike us together, which all together served our vices in evil subjection, so that as many joys as we previously had unharmed in the world, so many torments from it we are afterward compelled to feel.

But it should be noted what is said: "Terrors from heaven and storms." Since winter storms usually come according to the order of the seasons, why are storms predicted here as a sign of destruction, unless because the Lord announces that storms will come that in no way keep the order of the seasons? For those that come in an orderly fashion are not a sign; but storms are a sign that confound even the appointed times of the seasons themselves. This we too have recently experienced, because we saw the entire summer season turned into winter rains.

(Hom. 35. in Evang.) Because the things which have been prophesied of arise not from the injustice of the inflictor of them, but from the deserts of the world which suffers them, the deeds or wicked men are foretold; as it is said, But before all these things, they shall lay their hands upon you: as if He says, First the hearts of men, afterwards the elements, shall be disturbed, that when the order of things is thrown into confusion, it may be plain from what retribution it arises. For although the end of the world depends upon its own appointed course, yet finding some more corrupt than others who shall rightly be overwhelmed in its fall, our Lord makes them known.

(ut sup.) Or, for a testimony, that is, against those who by persecuting you bring death upon themselves, or living do not imitate you, or themselves becoming hardened perish without excuse, from whom the elect take example that they may live. But as hearing so many terrible things the hearts of men may be troubled, He therefore adds for their consolation, Settle it therefore in your hearts, &c.

(ut sup.) As if the Lord said to His disciples, "Be not afraid, go forward to the battle, it is I that fight; you utter the words, I am He that speaketh."

(ut sup.) We are the more galled by the persecutions we suffer from those of whose dispositions we made sure, because together with the bodily pain, we are tormented by the bitter pangs of lost affection.

(ut sup.) But because of the hard things foretold concerning the affliction of death, there immediately follows a consolation, concerning the joy of the resurrection, when it is said, But there shall not an hair of your head perish. As though He said to the martyrs, Why fear ye for the perishing of that which when cut, pains, when that can not perish in you, which when cut gives no pain?

(Mor. 5. c. 16.) He who preserves patience in adversity, is thereby rendered proof against all affliction, and so by conquering himself, he gains the government of himself; as it follows, In your patience shall ye possess your souls. For what is it to possess your souls, but to live perfectly in all things, and sitting as it were upon the citadel of virtue to hold in subjection every motion of the mind?

(Hom. 35. in Ev.) By patience then we possess our souls, because when we are said to govern ourselves, we begin to possess that very thing which we are. But for this reason, the possession of the soul is laid in the virtue of patience, because patience is the root and guardian of all virtues. Now patience is to endure calmly the evils which are inflicted by others, and also to have no feeling of indignation against him who inflicts them.

It follows: "But you will be betrayed by parents and brothers, and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death." Evils inflicted by strangers cause lesser pain. But those torments rage more fiercely within us which we suffer from those in whose minds we had confidence, because along with bodily harm, the evils of lost love torment us. Hence it is that the Lord says through the Psalmist concerning Judas His betrayer: "Indeed if my enemy had cursed me, I would have borne it; and if he who hated me had spoken great things against me, I would certainly have hidden myself from him. But you, a man of one mind with me, my guide and my acquaintance, who took sweet food together with me, we walked in the house of God with agreement." And again: "The man of my peace in whom I trusted, and who ate my bread, has greatly plotted treachery against me." As if He says in plain words about His betrayer: I bore his transgression all the more gravely because I perceived it from one who seemed to be mine. All the elect, therefore, because they are members of the supreme Head, also follow their Head in sufferings, so that they feel those very people as adversaries in their death from whose life they had confidence, and their reward of labor increases all the more as the gain of their virtue profits from another's loss of love.