Testimonia

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Homily IV. on the giving of thanks (περὶ εὐχαριστίας), is on text 1 Thess. v. 16.  Our Lord, it is remarked, wept over Lazarus, and He called them that mourn blessed.  How § 4. is this to be reconciled with the charge “Rejoice alway”?  “Tears and joy have not a common origin.  On the one hand, while the breath is held in round the heart, tears spontaneously gush forth, as at some blow, when an unforeseen calamity smites upon the soul.  Joy on the other hand is like a leaping up of the soul rejoicing when things go well.  Hence come different appearances of the body.  The sorrowful are pale, livid, chilly.  The habit of the joyous and cheerful is blooming and ruddy; their soul all but leaps out of their body for gladness.  On all this I shall say that the lamentations and tears of the saints were caused by their love to God.  So, with their eyes ever fixed on the object of their love, and from hence gathering greater joy for themselves, they devoted themselves to the interests of their fellow-servants.  Weeping over sinners, they brought them to better ways by their tears.  But just as men standing safe on the seashore, while they feel for those who are drowning in the deep, do not lose their own safety in their anxiety for those in peril, so those who groan over the sins of their neighbours do not destroy their own proper cheerfulness.  Nay, they rather increase it, in that, through their tears over their brother, they are made worthy of the joy of the Lord.  Wherefore, blessed are they that weep; blessed are they that mourn; for they shall themselves be comforted; they themselves shall laugh.  But by laughter is meant not the noise that comes out through the cheeks from the boiling of the blood, but cheerfulness pure and untainted with despondency.  The Apostle allows us to weep with weepers, for this tear is made, as it were, a seed and loan to be repaid with everlasting joy.  Mount in mind with me, and contemplate the condition of the angels; see if any other condition becomes them but one of joy and gladness.  It is for that they are counted worthy to stand beside God, and to enjoy the ineffable beauty and glory of our Creator.  It is in urging us on to that life that the Apostle bids us always rejoice.”

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