Gregory the Dialogist

But let us now hear what happened to the blind man who was asking, or what he himself did. It follows: "Immediately he saw, and followed him." He sees and follows who puts into practice the good that he understands. But he sees and does not follow who indeed understands the good, but disdains to do good works. If therefore, dearest brothers, we now recognize the blindness of our pilgrimage, if by believing in the mystery of our Redeemer we sit by the wayside, if by praying daily we seek light from our Creator, if having been illuminated after our blindness we now see that same light through understanding, let us follow in our works the Jesus whom we perceive in our mind. Let us observe where he walks, and by imitating hold to his footsteps. For he follows Jesus who imitates him. For this reason he says: "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead." Again he admonishes on this point, saying: "If anyone serves me, let him follow me." Let us therefore consider where he walks, that we may deserve to follow. Behold, though he is Lord and Creator of the angels, about to take up our nature which he created, he came into the womb of the Virgin. Yet he did not wish to be born in this world through the wealthy; he chose poor parents. Hence even a lamb to be offered for him was lacking; his mother found young doves and a pair of turtledoves for the sacrifice. He did not wish to prosper in the world; he endured reproaches and mockeries; he bore spitting, scourging, blows, a crown of thorns, and the cross; and because we fell from inner joy through delight in bodily things, he showed with what bitterness one returns there. What therefore ought man to suffer for himself, if God endured such things for men? He therefore who has now believed in Christ, but still pursues the gains of avarice, is lifted up in the pride of honor, burns with the torches of envy, pollutes himself with the filth of lust, desires the prosperous things that are in the world—he disdains to follow the Jesus in whom he has believed. For he walks by a different path, if he seeks joys and pleasures, when his guide showed him the way of bitterness. Let us therefore call back before our eyes the sins we have committed; let us consider how terrible is the judge who comes to punish these things; let us form our mind for lamentation; let our life become bitter for a time in repentance, lest it feel eternal bitterness in punishment. For through weeping we are led to eternal joys, as Truth promises when it says: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." But through joys one arrives at weeping, as this same Truth attests when it says: "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep." If therefore we seek the joy of reward at our arrival, let us hold to the bitterness of repentance on the way. And so it happens that not only does our life advance toward God, but this very conversion of ours kindles others to the praise of God. Hence it is added there: "And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God."

Let us consider what profit we have made for God—we who, having received a talent, were sent by him to trade. For he says: Trade until I come. Behold, he has already come; behold, he seeks profit from our trading. What profit of souls shall we show him from our trading? How many sheaves of souls shall we bring before his sight from the harvest of our preaching?

Let us place before our eyes that day of such great severity, when the Judge will come and settle accounts with his servants to whom he entrusted the talents. Behold, in terrible majesty, he will be seen among the choirs of angels and archangels. In that great examination, the multitude of all the elect and the reprobate will be brought forth, and what each one has done will be shown. There Peter will appear with converted Judea, which he drew after himself. There Paul, leading the converted world, so to speak. There Andrew will lead Achaia after himself, there John will lead Asia, Thomas will lead India, converted, into the sight of their king. There all the rams of the Lord's flock will appear with the gains of souls, who by their holy preaching draw after themselves a flock made subject to God. Therefore, when so many shepherds with their flocks have come before the eyes of the eternal Shepherd, what shall we wretches say, who return to our Lord empty-handed after the business, who have had the name of shepherds and do not have the sheep we ought to show from our nurturing? Here we are called shepherds, and there we lead no flock.

That the overthrow of Jerusalem which was accomplished by Vespasian and Titus, the Roman princes, is described while the Lord weeps, no one who has read the history of that destruction is unaware. But first we must ask what it means that is said: "Seeing the city, he wept over it, saying: If you had known, even you." For the Redeemer first wept over the ruin of the faithless city, which the city itself did not know was coming upon it.

But since we know that Jerusalem has now been destroyed and through its destruction has been changed for the better, we ought to draw some likeness inwardly from external things and fear the ruin of morals from the ruined buildings of walls. For seeing the city, he wept over it, saying: If you had known, even you. This he did once, when he announced that the city would perish. This our Redeemer never ceases to do daily through his elect, when he considers that certain people have passed from a good life to wicked ways. For he mourns those who do not know why they are mourned, because, according to the words of Solomon: "They rejoice when they have done evil and exult in the worst things." If they had recognized their damnation which hangs over them, they themselves would mourn with the tears of the elect.

(Hom. 39. in Ev.) The merciful Redeemer wept then over the fall of the false city, which that city itself knew not was about to come upon it. As it is added, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou (we may here understand) wouldest weep. Thou who now rejoicest, for thou knowest not what is at hand. It follows, at least in this thy day. For when she gave herself up to carnal pleasures, she had the things which in her day might be her peace. But why she had present goods for her peace, is explained by what follows, But now they are hidden from thy eyes. For if the eyes of her heart had not been hidden from the future evils which were hanging over her, she would not have been joyful in the prosperity of the present. Therefore He shortly added the punishment which was near at hand, saying, For the days shall come upon thee.

(ut sup.) By these words the Roman leaders are pointed out. For that overthrow of Jerusalem is described, which was made by the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus.

This too which is added, namely, They shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, is now witnessed in the altered situation of the same city, which is now built in that place where Christ was crucified without the gate, whereas the former Jerusalem, as it is called, was rooted up from the very foundation. And the crime for which this punishment of overthrow was inflicted is added, Because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

(ut sup.) For our Redeemer does not cease to weep through His elect whenever he perceives any to have departed from a good life to follow evil ways. Who if they had known their own damnation, hanging over them, would together with the elect shed tears over themselves. But the corrupt soul here has its day, rejoicing in the passing time; to whom things present are its peace, seeing that it takes delight in that which is temporal. It shuns the foresight of the future which may disturb its present mirth; and hence it follows, But now are they hid from thine eyes.

(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.

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.