John Chrysostom

There are many people even today who in imitation of them want to be remembered for such achievements, by building splendid homes, baths, porches and avenues. I mean, if you were to ask each of them why they toil and labor and lay out such great expense to no good purpose, you would hear nothing but these very words—so as to ensure their memory survives in perpetuity and to have it said that “this is the house belonging to so-and-so,” “this the property of so-and-so.” This, on the contrary, is worthy not of commemoration but of condemnation: hard on those words come other remarks equivalent to countless accusations—“belonging to so-and-so the grasping miser, despoiler of widows and orphans.” So such behavior is calculated not to earn remembrance but to encounter unremitting accusations, achieve notoriety after death and incite the tongues of onlookers to calumny and condemnation of the person who acquired these goods. But if you are quite anxious for undying reputation, I will show you the way to succeed in being remembered for every achievement and also, along with an excellent name, to provide yourself with great confidence in the age to come. How, then, will you manage both to be remembered day after day and also become the recipient of tributes even after passing from one life to the next? If you give away these goods of yours into the hands of the poor, letting go of precious stones, magnificent homes, properties and baths. This is undying reputation; this remembrance proves that you are a provider of countless treasures; this remembrance relieves you of the burden of sins and procures for you great confidence with the Lord. After all, consider, I ask you, even the very words everybody would be likely to say about the dispenser of such largesse—so generous and kind, so gentle and good. Scripture says, remember, “He distributed his goods as gifts to the poor; his righteousness lasts forever.” That, after all, is what material wealth is like: the more it is given away, the more it remains, whereas if it is clung to and locked up in safe keeping, it destroys even the people who cling to it. “He distributed his goods as gifts to the poor,” it says, remember. But listen to what follows as well: “His righteousness lasts forever.” It took one day for him to distribute his wealth, and his goodness continues for all time and earns an undying remembrance.

Accordingly, let us condition ourselves to not be easily distracted from the task of approaching God constantly with our prayers day and night, and especially at night. Night is the time when there is no one to hinder us, when there is great peace of mind, when there is complete repose. It is also the time when all turmoil is left outside the house, when no one is likely to put us off or distract us from entreaty, and when our mind happens to be set at rest and is able to propose everything precisely to the physician of souls. I mean, if blessed David, king as he was as well as inspired author and beset with so many worries, clad in mantle and crown, could say, “At midnight I rise to praise you for the rulings of your justice,” what should we say who, despite leading a private and carefree life, do not even do the same as he? In other words, since by day he had much on his mind, a great mass of business, terrible confusion, and could not find a suitable time for the proper kind of prayer, he prayed during the time of respite that others devote to sleep, lying on soft beds, tossing and turning. On the contrarythe king, though caught up in such responsibility, devoted the time to prayer, conversing privately with God, directing sincere entreaties to him of the most intense kind, and thus he achieved whatever he set his mind to. Through these prayers he was successful in wars, inflicting defeat and adding victory to victory. He enjoyed, you see, an invincible weaponry, an ally from on high sufficient not merely for battles conducted by human beings but also for the cohorts of the demons.

Therefore, let us listen to what the prophet says about this: “Your knowledge is too wonderful for me.” But let us see what he says further on: “I will give you thanks, for you are fearful and wonderful.” Why “fearful”? We wonder at the beauty of columns, mural art, the physical bloom of youth. Again, we wonder at the open sea and its limitless depth, but we wonder fearfully when we stoop down and see how deep it is. It was in this way that the prophet stooped down and looked at the limitless and yawning sea of God’s wisdom. And he was struck with shuddering. He was deeply frightened, he drew back, and he said in a loud voice, “I will give you thanks for you are fearfully wondrous; wondrous are your works.” And again, “Your knowledge is too wondrous for me; it is too lofty and I cannot attain to it.”Do you see how prudent the servant is and how grateful is his heart? What he is saying is this: “I thank you that I have a Master whom I cannot comprehend.” And he is not now speaking of God’s essence. He passes over the incomprehensibility of his essence as if it is something on which everybody is agreed. What he is speaking of here is God’s omnipresence; and he is showing that this is the very thing that he does not understand, namely, how God is present everywhere. To prove to you that he is speaking of God’s omnipresence, listen to what follows: “If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to hell, you are present.” Do you see how God is everywhere present? The prophet did not know how this was true but he shudders, he is upset, he is at a loss when he so much as thinks about it.

Do you see how holy Scripture knows how to call human only the person practicing virtue and does not think the others are human, calling them instead flesh at one time and earth at another? Hence at this place, too, in promising to list the genealogy of the good person it says, “Noah was a human being.” You see, he alone was a human being, whereas the others were not human beings; instead, while having the appearance of human beings they had forfeited the nobility of their kind by the evil of their intention, and instead of being human they reverted to the irrationality of wild animals. Sacred Scripture assigns the names of wild beasts to human beings, rational creatures that they should be, in the event of their lapsing into evil and falling prey to irrational passions. Listen, for example, to its words, “They turned into rutting horses.” See how it gives them the animal’s name on account of their unbridled lust. Elsewhere, on the other hand, it says, “Poison of serpents on their lips”; here it highlights their resemblance to the animal’s trickery and duplicity. Again, it calls them “dumb dogs.” And again, “Like a deaf adder that blocks its ears,” referring to their stopping their ears against instruction in virtue. You would find many other names imposed by sacred Scripture on people seduced by their indifference into bestial passions.