For there are eunuchs who were born of their mother's womb, etc., v. 12. I would very much like to say something strong about the eunuchs. Do not think highly of yourself, eunuchs by nature! It may be that you are involuntarily chaste, because your chastity has not been subjected to temptation and has not been proven by experience. That which is done by natural inclination is not worthy of approval, and that which is done by free will is praiseworthy. What honor is there to the fire that it burns? Burning is its natural property. Or the water that flows down? This property is given to it by the Creator. What honor does the snow have for being cold? To the sun, what shines? It shines against its will. Show me that you wish well. And this you will show if, being carnal, you become spiritual, if, carried away by the weight of the flesh, you are inspired by your mind, if you, born low, turn out to be heavenly; if you, bound by the flesh, appear above the flesh. And so, since it is not commendable to understand this about one bodily thing, I demand something else from the eunuchs. Do not commit adultery in relation to the Divine! Ye who have been united to Christ, do not dishonor Christ! Those who have been perfected by the Spirit, do not make the Spirit equal to yourselves! "If I were still pleasing men," says Paul, "I would not be a servant of Christ (Gal. 1:10), if he had served a creature, he would not have been called a Christian. For why is the name Christian important? Is it not because Christ is God (if only I accept this name not out of passion, as a person attached to Christ by earthly love)? Although I revere Peter, yet I am not called a Petrian, I also revere Paul, but I have never yet been called a Paulian. I do not agree to borrow the name from man, being created from God. Thus, if you are called a Christian because you acknowledge Christ to be God, then be called and be a Christian both in name and in deed. And if you are called in the name of Christ because you love Christ, then you attribute to Him no more than if you had adopted to Him one of the other names that are given to people by occupation or providence. You see these lovers of horse lists: they get their name from their color and from the side on which they stand. But you know these names without my reminder. If you are called a Christian in the same sense, then your name is very insignificant, even if you are proud of it. If God is a creature, then you still serve the creature, and not the Creator. If the Holy Spirit is a creature, then you were baptized in vain, and although in two parts you are healthy (or rather, in those you are not healthy), yet in one you are in extreme danger. Imagine that the Trinity is one pearl, having the same appearance and equal brilliance everywhere, if any part of this pearl is damaged, then all the pleasantness of the stone will be lost. When you dishonor the Son in order to honor the Father, the Father does not accept your honor. The Father will not be glorified by the disgrace of the Son. If a wise son rejoices his father (Proverbs 10:1), how much more will not the honor of the son be an honor for the father? And if you accept this: "Do not seek glory in the dishonor of the father" (Sir. 3:10), then the father will not be glorified by the disgrace of his son. If you dishonor the Holy Spirit, then the Son does not receive your honor, for although the Spirit is not as the Son from the Father, yet from the same Father. Either give honor to everything, or dishonor the whole thing, in order at least to show a mind that agrees with itself. I do not accept your half-hearted piety, I want you to be wholly pious (and how else I wish for this! forgive the movement of the heart — painful and for those who hate!). Thou wast my member, and though thou hast now been cut off, yet perhaps thou shalt again be a member, wherefore I speak with condescension. "This is what is for the eunuchs, that they preserve chastity in the reasoning of the Divine; for fornication and adultery are called not only sin in the discourse of the body, but also all sin, and especially iniquity in the discourse of the Divine. Perhaps you will ask how we can prove this? It is said: "They committed fornication by their deeds" (Psalm 105:39). Here you also see the shameless deed of fornication. It is also said: "And she committed adultery with a tree" (Jeremiah 3:9). You see that there is also a religion () adulterous. Therefore, while preserving bodily chastity, do not commit fornication in your soul. Do not make it appear that you are unwittingly observing carnal chastity, because you are not chaste in that in which you have the opportunity to be a fornicator. Why have you done wickedness above? Why do you all strive for evil in such a way that one and the same thing has already been called either eunuch or impious? Join in with men, and finally reason as is proper for a husband. Avoid women's meetings, do not add shameful teaching to a shameful name. Is it desirable that I continue the word, or is it enough that I have already said? However, let the eunuchs also be honored by the following words of Christ, for they serve to their praise.

For there are eunuchs, – says Christ, – who were born from their mother's womb in this way; and there are eunuchs who are castrated from people; and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever is able to contain it, let him bear it, v. 12. It seems to me that the word, deviating from the corporeal, depicts the higher by means of the corporeal, for it was little, perhaps even extremely weak and unworthy of the word, to stop the concept at the corporeal eunuchs only, and we must imagine something worthy of the spirit. Thus, some seem to be naturally disposed to good. When I say, "By nature," I do not degrade desires, but I presuppose both, both the inclination to good, and the will which sets in motion the natural inclination. And others are such that they are purified by teaching, removing the passions in them, and I understand them as eunuchs, who are castrated from people; When the word of instruction, separating the good from the evil, and removing the one and prescribing the other (as, for example, in the commandment, "Turn away from evil and do good" (Psalm 33:15), builds up spiritual chastity in them. who have made themselves kingdoms of heaven. Others had no teachers, but became praiseworthy teachers for themselves. Your mother did not teach you what she ought to teach, nor did your father, nor the priest, nor the bishop, nor anyone else who is entrusted with teaching, but you yourself, having set your mind in motion, having kindled the spark of good with your free will, having distorted yourself, cut off the root, destroyed the instruments of sin, acquired such a habit in virtue that it became almost impossible for you to aspire to evil. Therefore, I praise this kind of eunuchs, even more than other kinds.

Whoever can contain, let him contain. Choose anything: either follow the teacher, or be a teacher for yourself. Only one thing is shameful if the passions are not cut off, and no matter by whom they are cut off, do not make a difference in this. For the instructor is a creature of God, and you are from God. Though the instructor anticipates thy honor, though the good be thy own work, in both cases it is equally good; let us only cut off passions from ourselves. In order that no root of sorrow may arise and cause harm (Heb. 12:15), let us only follow the image, let us only venerate the Prototype. Cut off the passions of the body, and cut off the passions of the soul, for the more honest the soul is than the body, the more honest it is to purify the soul than the body. If the purification of the body is one of the laudable deeds, then see how much more important and higher is the purification of the soul. Cut off Arian impiety, cut off Sabellian unbelief, and unite no more than is proper, and do not divide wickedly, do not unite the Three into one Person, and do not make the Other Three by nature. It is commendable to confess the One, if you understand unity well; it is commendable to confess the Three, if you divide correctly, that is, if you allow the separation of the Persons, and not the Godhead. This I enjoin to the laity, this I command to the priests, as well as to those who are entrusted with authority. Help the word, all who have been given the opportunity by God to help. It is a great thing to prevent murder, to punish adultery, to curb predation; incomparably higher to inspire piety and teach sound teaching. My word, striving for the Holy Trinity, will have no so much power as your behavior, if you stop the mouths of the malevolent, help the persecuted, stop murderers, prevent murder; I have in mind not only bodily, but also spiritual murder, for every sin is the death of the soul.

With this let the discourse end, there remains a request to those gathered here. Men and women, superiors and subordinates, old men, young men and virgins, people of all ages! Endure all damage concerning property or the body, only do not tolerate that the doctrine of the Godhead should suffer damage. I worship the Father, I worship the Son, I worship the Holy Spirit, or rather, I, who say this, I worship both before all, and after all of you, and with all of you, in the very Lord our Christ, to whom be glory and dominion forever. Amen.

HOMILY 38. On the Epiphany or the Nativity of the Savior

Christ is born — glorify! Christ from heaven – come out to meet you! Christ on earth — ascend! Sing praises to the Lord, all the earth (Psalm 95:1)! And I say to both of them together: Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth rejoice (11) for the sake of the heavenly, then the earthly! Christ in the flesh — rejoice with trembling and joy, with trembling because of sin, with joy because of hope. Christ of the Virgin, keep your chastity, wives, that you may become mothers of Christ! Who does not worship the Eternal from the beginning? Who does not glorify the Last? Again the darkness is dispelled, again the light appears; again Egypt was punished with darkness, again Israel was illuminated with a pillar. Let those who sit in the darkness of ignorance see the great light of knowledge (Matt. 5:16). The old things have passed away, now all things are new (2 Corinthians 5:17). The letter yields, the spirit prevails; Shadows pass away, and truth takes their place. Melchizedek comes; He who is born without a mother is born without a father, the first time without a mother, the second without a father. The laws of nature are violated, the heavenly world must be filled. Christ commands, let us not resist. Clap all nations with your hands (Psalm 46:2); for unto us a child is born, a son is given unto us; the dominion is upon His shoulders, for He is lifted up with the cross, and they shall call His name "The Great Council, the Council of the Father the Angel" (Isaiah 9:6). Let John declare: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord" (Matt. 3:3)! And I will proclaim the power of the day. The Bodiless One is incarnated. The word hardens. The Invisible becomes visible, the Intangible becomes tangible. Childless begins. The Son of God becomes the son of man; Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8).

Let the Jews be offended, the Greeks laugh, the heretics blunt their tongues! Then they will believe when they see Him ascend into heaven; but if not, then certainly, when they see Him coming from heaven and sitting down to judge. But this will be later, and now is the feast of the Theophany, or Nativity, for this day is called in one way or another, and two names are given to one celebration, because God appeared to men through birth. He is God, as the Eternal and the Eternal of the Ever-Bearing, the Highest of Guilt and Word (for there is no Word that is higher than the Word); and He appears for our sake, having been born afterwards, so that He who gave existence would also grant well-being, or rather, that we, who had fallen from well-being through sin, might be returned to it again through the incarnation. And from the appearance is the name of the Epiphany, and from birth – the Nativity. Such is our triumph, this is what we celebrate now, the coming of God among men, that we may transmigrate, or (more precisely) return to God, yes, having laid aside the old man, let us put on the new (Ephesians 4:22, 23), and as we died in Adam, so shall we live in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:22), being born, crucified, buried, and rising with Christ. For it is necessary for me to undergo this salutary change, so that just as from the pleasant the sorrowful arises, so from the sorrowful the pleasant arises again. And when sin abounded, grace abounded (Rom. 5:20). And if eating was the guilt of condemnation, then how much more did not Christ's suffering justify it?

And so, let us celebrate not magnificently, but divinely, not peacefully, but peacefully, not our feast, but the feast of Him Who became ours, or rather, the feast of our Lord, not the feast of infirmity, but the feast of healing, not the feast of creation, but the feast of recreation. How can this be fulfilled? Let us not crown the vestibules of houses, compose faces, decorate the streets, saturate the eye, resound the ear with pipes, unanimate the sense of smell, defile the taste, comfort the touch — these are the short paths to vice, these gates of sin. Let us not be like women, neither by soft and waving garments, whose all grace is useless, nor by the play of stones, nor by the glitter of gold, nor by the artifice of coloring, which makes natural beauty suspicious and invented to desecrate the image of God. Let us not indulge in feasting and drunkenness, with which, as I know, voluptuousness and debauchery are associated (Rom. 13:13), for the lessons of bad teachers are bad, or, rather, from unsuitable seeds and fields are worthless. Let us not cover high couches with tree branches, arranging sumptuous meals to please the belly, let us not highly appreciate the fragrance of wines, chef's spices, and the great value of incense. Let neither the land nor the sea bring us a gift of expensive mud - so I have learned to call luxury goods! Let us not try to outdo one another in intemperance (and everything that is superfluous and beyond need, in my opinion, is intemperance), especially when others, created from the same dust and composition with us, hunger and endure want. On the contrary, let us leave all this to the pagans, pagan pomp and pagan celebrations. They also call gods those who delight in fat, and in accordance with this they serve the deity with gluttony, as cunning inventors, priests, and worshippers of evil demons. But if we who worship the Word should enjoy anything, let us enjoy the word and God's law, and the stories about other things, as well as about the causes of the present celebration, so that our pleasure may be our own and not alien to Him Who created us.

Or, if you like, I, who am now your master of the feast, will offer you, the good partakers of the feast, a word about it, as abundantly and generously as I can, so that you may know how a stranger can treat the natural inhabitants, the peasant can treat the city dwellers, the unfamiliar with luxury can treat the luxurious, the poor and homeless can treat the famous in abundance. I will begin with this: those who wish to enjoy what is offered, let them purify their minds, and their ears, and their hearts, because I have the word of God and God, so that they may go out of here, having really enjoyed something not in vain. The word itself will be very full and at the same time very brief, so that it will not grieve you with scarcity, nor will it bore you with excess.

God has always been, is, and will be, or, rather, always is, for the words were and will be signified by the divisions of our time and are inherent in the transitory nature, and the Eternal is always. And by this name He calls Himself, conversing with Moses on the mountain, because He concentrates in Himself the whole being, which has not begun and will not cease. As a sea of essence, indefinable and infinite, extending beyond all conception of time and nature, by the mind alone (and that is very vague and insufficient, not in the reasoning of what is in Himself, but in the reasoning of that which is around Him), through the sketching of certain outlines, He is shaded into a single form of reality, which flees before it is caught, and he who eludes before he is conceived, embracing with radiance the dominion in us, if it is purified, as the swiftness of flying lightning illuminates the eye with radiance. And this, it seems to me, in order to attract to Himself those who are comprehensible (for the utterly incomprehensible is hopeless and inaccessible), and to amaze the incomprehensible, and through wonder to arouse a greater desire, and through the desire to purify, and through purification to make them Godlike; and when we become such, we can converse as with eternal ones (the word dares to utter something bold) — to converse with God, Who has entered into union with the gods and has been known by them, as much as He knows those whom He knows (1 Cor. 13:12).

Thus, the Divinity is infinite and incomprehensible. In Him this one thing is perfectly comprehensible – His infinity; although some consider it an attribute of nature to be either completely incomprehensible or completely comprehensible. But let us examine what constitutes the essence of simple nature; for simplicity does not yet constitute his nature, just as in complex beings complexity alone does not constitute nature. Reason, considering the infinite in two respects, in relation to the beginning and in relation to the end (for the infinite extends beyond the beginning and the end, and is not contained between them)

But what for us is time, measured by the course of the sun, so for the eternals is eternity, something extended with eternal beings, and as it were a certain temporal motion and distance.

Let our curiosity about God now be limited to this, because there is no more time to expand, and the subject of my speech is not theology, but God's economy. And when I call God, I mean the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, just as we do not divide the Godhead beyond this number of Persons, so as not to introduce a multitude of gods, so as not to limit it to a smaller number, so that we are not condemned for the poverty of the Godhead, when we fall either into Judaism, defending one-man rule, or into paganism, defending plurality. In both cases, evil is equal, although from opposite causes. Such is the Holy of Holies, which is hidden from the Seraphim themselves, and is glorified by the three Holy Things, which converge into one Lordship and Divinity, about which another person was beautifully and very highly inquisitive before us.

But since it was not enough for Goodness to exercise only in the contemplation of Itself, but it was necessary that the good should be poured out, go further and further, so that the number of those who were beneficent should be as great as possible (for this is the property of the highest Goodness), then God invents, first, angelic and heavenly powers. And thought became a deed that is filled with the Word and done by the Spirit. Thus came the second Lights, the servants of the First Lightness, whether by them we understand either rational spirits, or as it were an immaterial and incorporeal fire, or some other nature that is closest to the above. I would like to say that they are immovable to evil and have only one movement towards good, as being around God and directly illumined by God (for the earthly enjoys secondary illumination); but to recognize and call them not immovable, but difficult to move, the angel urges me because of his brightness, and because of his exaltation he has become and is called darkness, with the apostate forces subordinate to him, which, through their separation from good, have become the perpetrators of evil and draw us into something else.