Gregory the Dialogist — Commentary on Scripture

Proverbs 1:5

There are indeed many who know how so to control their outward advancement as by no means to fall inwardly thereby. Whence it is written, “God casts not away the mighty, seeing that he also himself is mighty.” And it is said through Solomon, “A man of understanding shall possess governments.” But to me these things are difficult, since they are also exceedingly burdensome, and what the mind has not received willingly it does not control fitly. Lo, our most serene lord the emperor had ordered an ape to be made a lion. And, indeed, in virtue of this order it can be called a lion, but a lion it cannot be made. Wherefore his piety must … himself take the blame of all my faults and shortcomings, having committed a ministry of power to a weak agent.

LETTER 5

Proverbs 1:24-28

“Then they will call upon me, and I will not listen; they will arise early in the morning and will not find me.” You see how they cry out that it be opened for them; driven by sorrow at their rejection, they call twice upon him who has dominion over them, saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us.” They offer entreaties, but they are unknown to him. God abandons them as unknown persons. He does not recognize them now because of their sins.

FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 10 (12)

Proverbs 1:28

"But I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper." Behold, he calls through himself, he calls through angels, he calls through the fathers, he calls through the prophets, he calls through the apostles, he calls through pastors, he calls also through us, he often calls through miracles, he often calls through scourges, he sometimes calls through the prosperity of this world, he sometimes calls through adversity. Let no one despise, lest while the one called makes excuses, when he wishes to enter he may not be able. Hear what Wisdom says through Solomon: "Then they shall call upon me, and I will not hear; they shall rise early, and shall not find me."

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 36

Proverbs 1:32

Solomon says, “The turning away of the simple shall kill them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.” So Paul admonishes, saying, “They that buy will be as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as though they used it not.” So may the things that are supplied be of service to us outwardly only so as not to turn our minds away from desire of supernal delight; and thus the things that afford us comfort in our state of exile may not abate the mourning of our soul’s pilgrimage. May we, who see ourselves wretched in our severance from the things that are eternal, not rejoice as though we were happy in the things that are transitory.

PASTORAL RULE 3:26.27

Proverbs 2:14

“Seeing the city, [Jesus] wept over it, saying, ‘If only at least you had known.’ ” He did this once when he proclaimed that [Jerusalem] would perish. Our Redeemer has not stopped doing this daily through his elect when he observes that certain persons have adopted corrupt habits after having lived good lives. He mourns for those who do not know why they are mourned for, who, in Solomon’s words, “rejoice in doing evil, and delight in what is worse.” If they recognized their impending condemnation, they would mourn for themselves!

FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 39

Proverbs 3:9

It is written, “Honor the Lord from your just labors.” It is no honor to the Lord to take evilly in order to give well. Hence also it is said through Solomon, “Whoever offers a sacrifice of the substance of the poor is as though he slew a son in his father’s sight.”

LETTER 106

Proverbs 3:16

The church says by the voice of the elect, “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.” The left hand of God—that is, prosperity in the present life—the church has put under her head, in that she presses it down in the intentness of her highest love. But the right hand of God embraces her, because in her entire devotion she is encompassed with his eternal happiness. Therefore, it is said again through Solomon, “Length of days is in her right hand, but in her left hand riches and glory.” In speaking, then, of riches and glory being placed in her left hand, he showed the manner in which they are to be esteemed. Thus the psalmist says, “Save me with your right hand.” He does not say, “with your hand,” but “with your right hand” to indicate that it was eternal salvation that he sought. Again it is written, “Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed in pieces the enemies.” For the enemies of God, though they prosper in his left hand, are dashed to pieces with his right; since for the most part the present life elevates the bad, but the coming of eternal bliss condemns…

The church says by the voice of the elect, “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.” The left hand of God—that is, prosperity in the present life—the church has put under her head, in that she presses it down in the intentness of her highest love. But the right hand of God embraces her, because in her entire devotion she is encompassed with his eternal happiness. Therefore, it is said again through Solomon, “Length of days is in her right hand, but in her left hand riches and glory.” In speaking, then, of riches and glory being placed in her left hand, he showed the manner in which they are to be esteemed. Thus the psalmist says, “Save me with your right hand.” He does not say, “with your hand,” but “with your right hand” to indicate that it was eternal salvation that he sought. Again it is written, “Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed in pieces the enemies.” For the enemies of God, though they prosper in his left hand, are dashed to pieces with his right; since for the most part the present life elevates the bad, but the coming of eternal bliss condemns them.

PASTORAL RULE 3:26.27

Proverbs 5:1

“Attend to my wisdom, and bow your ear to my prudence, that you may guard your thoughts. For, indeed, nothing is more fugitive than the heart, which deserts us as often as it slips away through evil thoughts. Therefore, the psalmist says, “My heart has failed me.” Yet, when he returns to himself, he says, “Your servant has found his heart to pray to you.” When, therefore, thought is kept under guard, the heart which was inclined to fly away is found.

PASTORAL RULE 3:14.15

Proverbs 5:9

Who are more strange to us than the evil spirits, separated from the lot of the heavenly fatherland? What else is our honor but to have been created in the image and likeness of our Creator, though we are made in bodies of slime? And who else is more cruel but that rebel angel who through pride smote himself with the punishment of death and who, though himself lost, has deliberately brought death on the race of humankind? He, therefore, gives his honor away to strangers, who, being created in the image and likeness of God, devotes the span of his life to the commands of the malignant spirits. He, too, gives his years to the cruel, who expends the span of the life which he has received obeying the will of an adversary who dominates him for evil. .

Proverbs 5:9

For who are more alien to us than evil spirits, who are separated from the lot of the heavenly country? And what honor is ours, though made in bodies of clay, that we are yet created after the image and likeness of our Maker? Or who is more cruel than the apostate angel, who has both afflicted himself with the pain of death through pride, and still, though lost himself, brought death to the human race? He who, being made after the image and likeness of God, gives his honor to aliens therefore devotes the seasons of his life to the pleasures of evil spirits. He also surrenders his years to the cruel one who spends the space of life accorded him after the will of the ill-domineering adversary.

PASTORAL RULE 3:12.13

Proverbs 6:1-2

To be surety for a friend is to take charge of the soul of another on the surety of one’s own behavior. Your hand is bound to a stranger, and your mind is bound with the care of a responsibility which you previously did not hold. But you are snared with the words of your mouth and caught with your own speeches, because, while you are compelled to speak good things to those who are committed to you, you must yourself observe the things that you say. You are therefore snared with the words of your mouth, being constrained by the requirement of reason not to let your life be relaxed to what agrees not with your teaching. Thus before the strict Judge you are compelled to accomplish as much in deed as it is plain you have required of others by your words.

Pastoral Rule 3:4.5

Proverbs 6:3-4

Whoever is put over others for an example of life is admonished not only to keep watch himself, but also to arouse his friend. For it is not enough for him to keep watch by living well, if he do not also remove from the indolence of sin the person he is set over. For it is well said, “Give not sleep to your eyes, nor let your eyelids slumber.” To give sleep to the eyes is to cease from earnestness and thus to neglect altogether the care of our charges. The eyelids slumber when our thoughts, weighed down by sloth, connive at what they know should be reproved. To be fast asleep is neither to know nor to correct the deeds of those committed to us. To slumber, rather than to sleep, is to know what things are to be blamed and still through laziness of mind not to amend them by appropriate rebukes. Yet the eye through slumbering passes into the deepest sleep; since for the most part, when one who is over others does not cut off the evil that he recognizes, he eventually, as his negligence deserves, will not even recognize what is done wrong by his charges. Therefore, those who are over oth…

Whoever is put over others for an example of life is admonished not only to keep watch himself, but also to arouse his friend. For it is not enough for him to keep watch by living well, if he do not also remove from the indolence of sin the person he is set over. For it is well said, “Give not sleep to your eyes, nor let your eyelids slumber.” To give sleep to the eyes is to cease from earnestness and thus to neglect altogether the care of our charges. The eyelids slumber when our thoughts, weighed down by sloth, connive at what they know should be reproved. To be fast asleep is neither to know nor to correct the deeds of those committed to us. To slumber, rather than to sleep, is to know what things are to be blamed and still through laziness of mind not to amend them by appropriate rebukes. Yet the eye through slumbering passes into the deepest sleep; since for the most part, when one who is over others does not cut off the evil that he recognizes, he eventually, as his negligence deserves, will not even recognize what is done wrong by his charges. Therefore, those who are over others must be warned to watch earnestly within and round about and to strive to become living creatures of heaven.

PASTORAL RULE 3:4.5

Proverbs 9:1

We may also not inappropriately interpret the “pillars of heaven” as the churches themselves. Being many in number, they constitute one catholic church spread over the whole face of the earth. So, too, the apostle John writes to the seven churches, meaning to denote the one catholic church replenished with the Spirit of sevenfold grace, and we know that Solomon said of the Lord, “Wisdom has built her a house; she has hewn out her seven pillars.” And to make known that it was of the seven churches he had spoken, which sedulously introduced the very sacraments themselves also, he says, “She has killed her sacrifices, she has mingled her wine, she has also set forth her table.”

MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 4:17.43

Proverbs 9:17

What does water signify but human knowledge? This is in accord with Solomon’s words implying the voice of heretics: “Stolen waters are sweeter.” What does the Lamb’s raw flesh indicate but his humanity that has been thoughtlessly and irreverently disregarded? Everything which we think of profoundly we cook, as it were, in our minds. The flesh of the Lamb was not to be eaten raw or boiled in water, because our Redeemer is not to be judged merely a human being, nor are we to use human science to explain how God could have been made man.

FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 22

Proverbs 11:26

It is well said by Solomon, “He that hides corn shall be cursed among the people.” To hide corn is to retain with oneself the words of sacred preaching. And everyone that does so is cursed among the people, because through fault of his silence he is condemned in the punishment of the many whom he could have corrected.

PASTORAL RULE 3:25.26

Proverbs 12:7

Let us abandon the selves we have made by sinning. Let us continue to be the selves we have become by grace. You see a person who was proud: if he has turned to Christ he has become humble, he has abandoned himself. If a person of unrestrained desires has changed to a life of self-restraint, he has certainly denied what he was. If a miser, one who previously seized what belonged to others, has ceased to go around looking for gain and learned to be generous with what belongs to him, beyond any doubt he has abandoned himself. He is the generous person he was created to be, not the one he would become through his wickedness. This is why it is written, “Change the wicked, and they will be no more.” The wicked who have been changed will be no more, not because they will altogether cease to exist in their essential being. [Rather,] they will cease to exist in their guilty state of ungodliness.

FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 32

Proverbs 14:3

It is the way of haughty preachers that they are more desirous of strictly reproving their hearers even when distressed than they are to cherish them in a kindly manner. For they study more to chide and reprove faults than to encourage goodness with praise. They are anxious to appear superior to other people, and they are better pleased when anger raises their feelings than when love makes them equal. They always want to find something to smite sharply with reproof. As it is written, “In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride,” because really he knows how to smite sharply but not to sympathize with humility.

MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 5:24.34:40

Proverbs 14:26

Strength is never shown except in adversity, and so patience is immediately made to succeed to strength. For every person proves himself in a much truer sense to have advanced in strength in proportion as he bears with the bolder heart the wrongs of other persons.

MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 1:5.33

Proverbs 15:7

The heart of the wise is always consistent, because, while it rests in good convictions, it directs itself constantly to good deeds. But the heart of the foolish is inconsistent, because, while it shows itself as variable and changeable, it never remains what it was.

PASTORAL RULE 3:18.19

Proverbs 16:32

Taking cities is a smaller victory because the places we conquer are outside of ourselves. A greater [victory] is won by patience, because a person overcomes himself and subjects himself to himself, when patience brings him low in bearing with others in humility.