7. Let us, therefore, not despond, nor give ourselves up by reason of our distress; but
let us wait, expecting a favourable issue; and let us give heed to the things that are now about
to be spoken. For it is my purpose to discourse to you again to day respecting contempt for
death. I said to you, yesterday, that we are afraid of death, not because he is really formidable;
but because the love of the kingdom hath not kindled us, nor the fear of hell laid hold of us;
and because besides this we have not a good conscience. Are you desirous that I should
speak of a fourth reason for this unseasonable distress, one which is not less,1290 and truer
than the rest? We do not live with the austerity that becometh Christians. On the contrary,
we love to follow this voluptuous and dissolute and indolent life; therefore also it is but
natural that we cleave to present things; since if we spent this life in fastings, vigils, and
poverty of diet, cutting off all our extravagant desires; setting a restraint upon our pleasures;
undergoing the toils of virtue; keeping the body under1291 like Paul, and bringing it into
subjection; not “making provision for the lusts of the flesh;”1292 and pursuing the strait and
narrow way, we should soon be earnestly desirous of future things, and eager to be delivered
from our present labours. And to prove that what I say is not untrue, ascend to the tops of
the mountains, and observe the monks who are there; some in sackcloth; some in bonds;
some in fastings; some shut up1293 in darkness. Thou wilt then perceive, that all these are
earnestly desiring death, and calling it rest. For even as the pugilist is eager to leave the sta-
dium, in order that he may be freed from wounds; and the wrestler longs for the theatre to
break up, that he may be released from his toils; so also he who by the aid of virtue leads a
life of austerity, and mortification, earnestly longs for death in order that he may be freed
from his present labours, and may be able to have full assurance in regard to the crowns
laid up in store, by arriving in the still harbour, and migrating to the place where there is
were not prepared to communicate, b. xv., c. iv., sec. 3, vol. v., p. 155, new Ed. The term was evidently derived
from the Apostolic phraseology, τὸ ποτήριον τῆς εὐλογίας, 1 Cor. x. 16. It is used in the plural, for portions of
the consecrated bread, both at communion, and when reserved to be sent to the sick, or to other churches.
1290 M. (and Ben. and Bas. Tr. apparently) read οὐκ žλαττον τῶν προτ™ρων ‡ληθεστ™ραν; “not less the true
one than those aforesaid.” This use of the comparative, however, seems unusual.
1291 ὑπωπι€ζων, the same word as used by St. Paul, 1 Cor. ix. 27, which alludes to the bruising of the face, or
the parts under the eye, in the Greek games of boxing. Some read ὑποπι™ζων, “pressing down,” as indeed do
some copies of the text and commentators, and among them St. Chrysostom ad loc., but this has less authority
in its favor.
1292 Rom. xii. 14; Matt. vii. 14.
1293 This word may perhaps belong to the whole series of penances. St. Chrysostom is not recommending
such austerities at all, but urging them to imitate in some measure a life which they already honored and esteemed
holy. See on Rom. xiv. 23, Hom. XXVI. fin., where he accuses them of leaving religion to monks and hermits.
Also on Rom. viii. 11, Hom. XIII. Mor. Tr. p. 229.
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Homily VI