HOMILY XL] HOMILIES ON PHILIPPIANS. 237 Ver. 12. "Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect : but I press on,.if so be that I may. apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus." " Not that I have already obtained." What means " already obtained " ? He speaks of the prize, but if he who had endured such sufferings, he who was persecuted, he " who had in him the dying of the Lord Jesus," was not yet confident about that resurrection, what can we say ? What meaneth, " if I may apprehend " ? What he before said, " If I may attain to the resurrection of the dead." (2 Cor. iv. 10.) If I may appre hend, he saith, His resurrection ; i.e. if I may be able to endure so great things, if I may be able to imitate Him, if I may be able to become conformed to Him. For example, Christ suf fered many things, He was spit upon, He was stricken, was scourged, at last He suffered what things he suffered. 1 This is the entire course. Through all these things it is needful that men should endure the whole contest, and so come to His resurrection. Or he means this, if I am thought worthy to attain the glorious resurrec tion, which is a matter of confidence, in order to His resurrection. For if I am able to endure all the contests, I shall be able also to have His resurrection, and to rise with glory. For not as yet, saith he, am I worthy, but " I press on, if so be that I may apprehend." My life is still one of contest, I am still far from the end, I am still distant from the prize, still I run, still I pur sue. And He said not, I run, but " I pursue." For you know with what eagerness a man pur sues. He sees no one, he thrusts aside with great violence all who would interrupt his pur suit. He collects together his mind, and sight, and strength, and soul, and body, looking to nothing else than the prize. But if Paul, who so pursued, who had suffered so many things, yet saith, " if I may attain," what should we say, who have relaxed our efforts? Then to show that the thing is of debt, he saith, " For which also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus." I was, he saith, of the number ofthe lost, I gasped for breath, I was nigh dead, God apprehended me. For He pursued us, when we fled from Him, with all speed. So that he points out all those things ; for the words, " I was appre hended," show the earnestness of Him who wishes to apprehend us, and our great aversion to Him, our wandering, our flight from Him. So that we are liable for a vast debt, and no one grieves, no one weeps, no one groans, all having returned to their former state. For as before the appearance of Christ we fled from God, so now also. For we can flee from God, not in place, for He is everywhere ; and hear the 1 [i.e. the well-known sufferings, the Passion. J. A. B.] Prophet, when he says, " Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee fromThy pres ence " ? (Ps. cxxxix. 7.) How then can we flee from God? Even as we can become distant from God, even as we can be removed afar off. "They that are far from Thee," it says, " shall perish." (Ps. Ixxiii. 27.) And again, "Have not your iniquities separated between Me and you?" (Isa. lix. 2.) How then comes this removal, how comes this separation ? In purpose and soul : for it cannot be in place. For how could one fly from Him who is everywhere present? The sinner then flies. This is what the Scripture saith, " The wicked fleeth when no man pursueth him." (Prov. xxviii. i.) We eagerly fly from God, although He always pursueth us. The Apostle hasted, that he might be near Him. We haste, that we may be far off. Are not these things then worthy of lamenta tion ? Are they not worthy of tears ? Whither fliest thou, wretched and miserable man? Whither fliest thou from thy Life and thy Sal vation ? If thou fly from God, with whom wilt thou take refuge? If thou fly from the Light, whither wilt thou cast thine eyes ? If thou fly from thy Life, whence wilt thou henceforth live ? Let us fly from the enemy of our Salvation ! Whensoever we sin we fly from God, we are as runaways, we depart to a foreign land, as he who consumed his paternal goods and departed into a foreign land, who wasted all his father s substance, and lived in want. We too have substance from our Father ; and what is this ? He hath freed us from our sins ; He hath freely given to us power, strength for works of virtue ; He hath freely given to us readiness, patience ; He hath freely given to us the Holy Ghost in our baptism ; if we waste these things we shall henceforth be in want. For as the sick, as long as they are troubled with fevers, and badness of their juices, are unable to arise or work, or do anything, but if any one sets them free, and brings them to health, if they then work not, this comes from their own sloth ; thus too is it with us. For the disease was heavy and the fever excessive. And we lay not upon a bed, but upon wickedness itself, cast away in crime, as on a dunghill, full of sores, and evil odors, squalid, wasting away, more like ghosts than men. Evil spirits encompassed us about, the Prince of this world deriding and assaulting us ; the Only-Begotten Son of God came, sent forth the rays of His Presence, and straightway dis pelled the darkness. The King, who is on His Father s throne, came to us, having left His Father s throne. And when I say having left, think not of any removal, for He filleth the heavens and the earth, but I speak of the econ omy; He came to an enemy, who hated Him, who turned himself away, who could not endure