He that honors the Priest, will honor God also; and he who has learned
to despise the Priest, will in process of time insult God. He that
receives you, He says, receives Me. Matt. 10:40 Hold my priests in honor
Sirach 7:31, He says. The Jews learned to despise God, because they
despised Moses, and would have stoned him. For when a man is piously
disposed towards the Priest, he is much more so towards God. And even if
the Priest be wicked, God seeing that you respect him, though unworthy
of honor, through reverence to Him, will Himself reward you. For if he
that receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a
prophet’s reward Matt. 10:41; then he who honors and submits and gives
way to the Priest shall certainly be rewarded. For if in the case of
hospitality, when you know not the guest, you receive so high a
recompense, much more will you be requited, if you obey him whom He
requires you to obey. The Scribes and Pharisees, He says, sit in Moses’
seat; all therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and
do, but do not do after their works. Matt. 23:2-3
Do you not know what the Priest is? He is an Angel of the Lord. Are they
his own words that he speaks? If you despise him, you despise not him,
but God that ordained him. But how does it appear, you ask, that he is
ordained of God? Nay, if you suppose it otherwise, your hope is rendered
vain. For if God works nothing through his means, thou neither hast any
Laver, nor art partaker of the Mysteries, nor of the benefit of
Blessings; you are therefore not a Christian. What then, you say, does
God ordain all, even the unworthy? God indeed does not ordain all, but
He works through all, though they be themselves unworthy, that the
people may be saved. For if He spoke, for the sake of the people, by an
ass, and by Balaam, a most wicked man, much more will He speak by the
mouth of the Priest. What indeed will not God do or say for our
salvation? By whom does He not act? For if He wrought through Judas and
those other that prophesied, to whom He will say, I never knew you;
depart from Me, you workers of iniquity Matt. 7:22-23; and if others
cast out devils Psa. 6:8; will He not much more work through the
Priests?
Since if we were to make inquisition into the lives of our rulers, we
should then become the ordainers of our own teachers, and all would be
confusion; the feet would be uppermost, the head below. Hear Paul
saying, But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of
you, or of man’s judgment. 1 Cor. 4:3 And again, Why do you judge your
brother? Rom. 14:10 For if we may not judge our brother, much less our
teacher. If God commands this indeed, you do well, and sinnest if you do
it not; but if the contrary, dare not do it, nor attempt to go beyond
the lines that are marked out.
After Aaron had made the golden calf, Corah, Dathan, and Abiram raised
an insurrection against him. And did they not perish? Let each attend to
his own department. For if he teach perverted doctrine, though he be an
Angel, obey him not; but if he teach the truth, take heed not to his
life, but to his words. You have Paul to instruct you in what is right
both by words and works. But you say, He gives not to the poor, he does
not govern well. Whence do you know this? Blame not, before you are
informed. Be afraid of the great account. Many judgments are formed upon
mere opinion. Imitate your Lord, who said, I will go down now, and see
whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, and if
not, I will know. Gen. 18:21 But if you have enquired, and informed
yourself, and seen; yet await the Judge, and usurp not the office of
Christ. To Him it belongs, and not to you, to make this inquisition. You
are an inferior servant, not a master. You are a sheep, be not curious
concerning the shepherd, lest you have to give account of your
accusations against him. But you say, How does he teach me that which he
does not practice himself? It is not he that speaks to you. If it be he
whom you obey, you have no reward. It is Christ that thus admonishes
you. And what do I say? You ought not to obey even Paul, if he speaks of
himself, or anything human, but the Apostle, that has Christ speaking
in him. Let not us judge one another’s conduct, but each his own.
Examine your own life.
But you say, He ought to be better than I. Wherefore? Because he is a
Priest. And is he not superior to you in his labors, his dangers, his
anxious conflicts and troubles? But if he is not better, ought thou
therefore to destroy yourself? These are the words of arrogance. For how
is he not better than yourself? He steals, you say, and commits
sacrilege! How do you know this? Why do you cast yourself down a
precipice? If you should hear it said that such an one has a purple
robe, though you knew it to be true, and couldest convict him, you
decline to do it, and pretend ignorance, not being willing to run into
unnecessary danger. But in this case you are so far from being backward,
that even without cause you expose yourself to the danger. Nor think
you are not responsible for these words. Hear what Christ says, Every
idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the
day of judgment. Matt.12:36 And do you think yourself better than
another, and do you not groan, and beat your breast, and bow down your
head, and imitate the Publican?
And then you destroy yourself, though thou be better.
Be silent, that you cease not to be better. If you speak of it, you have
done away the merit; if you think it, I do not say so; if you dost not
think it, you have added much. For if a notorious sinner, when he
confessed, went home justified, he who is a sinner in a less degree, and
is conscious of it, how will he not be rewarded? Examine your own life.
Thou dost not steal; but you are rapacious, and overbearing, and guilty
of many other such things. I say not this to defend theft; God forbid!
Deeply lament if there is any one really guilty of it, but I do not
believe it. How great an evil is sacrilege, it is impossible to say. But
I spare you. For I would not that our virtue should be rendered vain by
accusing others. What was worse than the Publican? For it is true that
he was a publican, and guilty of many offenses, yet because the Pharisee
only said, I am not as this publican, he destroyed all his merit. I am
not, you say, like this sacrilegious Priest. And dost not thou make all
in vain?
This I am compelled to say, and to enlarge upon in my discourse, not so
much because I am concerned for them, but because I fear for you, lest
you should render your virtue vain by this boasting of yourselves, and
condemnation of others. For hear the exhortation of Paul, Let every one
prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone,
and not in another. Gal. 6:4
If you had a wound, tell me, and should go to a physician, would you
stay him from salving and dressing your own wound, and be curious to
enquire whether the physician had a wound, or not? And if he had, would
you mind it? Or because he had it, would you forbear dressing your own,
and say, A physician ought to be in sound health, and since he is not
so, I shall let my wound go uncured? For will it be any palliation for
him that is under rule, that his Priest is wicked? By no means. He will
suffer the destined punishment, and you too will meet with that which is
your due. For the Teacher now only fills a place. For it is written,
They shall all be taught of God. Jn. 6:45; Isa. 54:13 Neither shall they
say, Know the Lord. For all shall know Me from the least to the
greatest. Jer. 31:34 Why then, you will say, does he preside? Why is he
set over us? I beseech you, let us not speak ill of our teachers, nor
call them to so strict an account, lest we bring evil upon ourselves.
Let us examine ourselves, and we shall not speak ill of others. Let us
reverence that day, on which he enlightened us.
He who has a father, whatever faults he has, conceals them all. For it
is said, Glory not in the dishonor of your father; for your father’s
dishonor is no glory unto you. And if his understanding fail, have
patience with him. Sirach 3:10-12 And if this be said of our natural
fathers, much more of our spiritual fathers. Reverence him, in that he
every day ministers to you, causes the Scriptures to be read, sets the
house in order for you, watches for you, prays for you, stands imploring
God on your behalf, offers supplications for you, for you is all his
worship.Reverence all this, think of this, and approach him with pious
respect. Say not, he is wicked. What of that? He that is not wicked,
does he of himself bestow upon you these great benefits? By no means.
Everything works according to your faith. Not even the righteous man can
benefit you, if you are unfaithful, nor the unrighteous harm you, if
you are faithful. God, when He would save His people, wrought for the
ark by oxen. 1 Sam. 6:12 Is it the good life or the virtue of the Priest
that confers so much on you? The gifts which God bestows are not such
as to be effects of the virtue of the Priest. All is of grace.
His part is but to open his mouth, while God works all: the Priest only
performs a symbol. Consider how wide was the distance between John and
Jesus. Hear John saying, I have need to be baptized by You Matt. 3:14,
and, Whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose. Jn. 1:27 Yet
notwithstanding this difference, the Spirit descended. Which John had
not. For of His fullness, it is said, we all have received. Jn. 1:16Yet
nevertheless, It descended not till He was baptized. But neither was it
John who caused It to descend. Why then is this done? That you may learn
that the Priest performs a symbol. No man differs so widely from
another man, as John from Jesus, and yet with him the Spirit descended,
that we may learn, that it is God who works all, that all is God’s
doing. I am about to say what may appear strange, but be not astonished
nor startled at it.
The Offering is the same, whether a common man, or Paul or Peter offer
it. It is the same which Christ gave to His disciples, and which the
Priests now minister. This is nowise inferior to that, because it is not
men that sanctify even this, but the Same who sanctified the one
sanctifies the other also. For as the words which God spoke are the
same which the Priest now utters, so is the Offering the same, and the
Baptism, that which He gave. Thus the whole is of faith. The Spirit
immediately fell upon Cornelius, because he had previously fulfilled his
part, and contributed his faith. And this is His Body, as well as that.
And he who thinks the one inferior to the other, knows not that Christ
even now is present, even now operates. Knowing therefore these things,
which we have not said without reason, but that we may conform your
minds in what is right, and render you more secure for the future, keep
carefully in mind what has been spoken. For if we are always hearers,
and never doers, we shall reap no advantage from what is said. Let us
therefore attend diligently to the things spoken. Let us imprint them
upon our minds.
Let us have them ever engraved upon our consciences, and let us
continually ascribe glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
Ghost.
Homily 2 on 2nd Timothy
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