[8.] These things also let us listen to, beloved; that we may not despise those who are offended, nor, "cause any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ;" that we may not betray our own salvation. And say not thou to the when thy brother is offended, "this or that, whereby he is offended, hath not been forbidden; it is permitted." For I have something greater to say to thee: "although Christ Himself have permitted it, yet if thou seest any injured, stop and do not use the permission." For this also did Paul; when he might have received, Christ having granted permission, he received not. Thus hath our Lord in His mercy mingled much gentleness with His precepts that it might not be all merely of commandment, but that we might do much also of our own mind. Since it was in His power, had He not been so minded, to extend the commandments further and to say, "he who fasts not continually, let him be chastised; he who keeps not his virginity, let him be punished; he that doth not strip himself of all that he hath, let him suffer the severest penalty." But he did not so, giving thee occasion, if thou wilt, to be forward in doing more. Wherefore both when He was discoursing about virginity, He said, "He that is able to receive, let him receive it:" and in the case of the rich man, some things He commanded, but some He left to the determination of his mind. For He said not, "Sell what thou hast," but, "If thou wilt be perfect, sell."
But we are not only not forward to do more, and to go beyond the precepts, but we fall very short even of the measure of things commanded. And whereas Paul suffered hunger that he might not hinder the Gospel; we have not the heart even to touch what is in our own stores, thoughwe see innumerable souls overthrown "Yea" saith one, "let the moth eat, and let not the poor eat; let the worm devour, and let not the naked be clothed; let all be wasted away with time, and let not Christ be fed; and this when He hungereth." "Why, who said this?" it will be asked. Nay, this is the very grievance, that not in words but in deeds these things are said: for it were less grievous uttered in words than done in deeds. For is not this the cry, day by day, of the inhuman and cruel tyrant, Covetousness, to those who are led captive by her? "Let your goods be set before informers and robbers and traitors for luxury, and not before the hungry and needy for their sustenance." Is it not ye then who make robbers? Is it not ye who minister fuel to the fire of the envious? Is it not ye who make vagabonds and traitors, putting your wealth before them for a bait? What madness is this? (for a madness it is, and plain distraction,) to fill your chests with apparel, and overlook him that is made after God's image and similitude, naked and trembling with cold, and with difficulty keeping himself upright.
"But he pretends," saith one, "this tremor and weakness." And dost thou not fear lest a thunderbolt from heaven, kindled by this word, should fall upon thee? (For I am bursting with wrath: bear with me.) Thou, I say, pampering and fattening thyself and extending thy potations to the dead of night and comforting thyself in soft coverlets, dost not deem thyself liable to judgment, so lawlessly using the gifts of God: (for wine was not made that we should be drunken; nor food, that we should pamper our appetites; nor meats, that we should distend the belly.) But from the poor, the wretched, from him that is as good as dead, from him demandest thou strict accounts, and dost thou not fear Christ's tribunal, so full of all awfulness and terror? Why, if he do play the hypocrite, he doth it of necessity and want, because of thy cruelty and inhumanity, requiring the use of such masks and refusing all inclination to mercy. For who is so wretched and miserable as without urgent necessity, for one loaf of bread, to submit to such disgrace, and to bewail himself and endure so severe a punishment? So that this hypocrisy of his goeth about, the herald of thine inhumanity. For since by supplicating and beseeching and uttering piteous expressions and lamenting and weeping and going about all day, he doth not obtain even necessary food, he devised perhaps even l this contrivance also, the disgrace and blame whereof falls not so much on himself as on thee: for he indeed is meet to be pitied because. he hath fallen into so great necessity; but we are worthy of innumerable punishments because we compel the poor to suffer such things. For if we would easily give way, never would he have chosen to endure such things.
And why speak I of nakedness and trembling? For I will tell a thing yet more to be shuddered at, that some have been compelled even to deprive their children of sight at an early age in order that they might touch our insensibility. For since when they could see and went about naked, neither by their age nor by their misfortunes could they win favor of the unpitying, they added to so great evils another yet sterner tragedy, that they might remove their hunger; thinking it to be a lighter thing to be deprived of this common light and that sunshine which is given to all, than to struggle with continual famine and endure the most miserable of deaths. Thus, since you have not learned to pity poverty, but delight yourselves in misfortunes, they satisfy your insatiable desire, and both for themselves and for us kindle a fiercer flame in hell.
[9.] And to convince you that this is the reason why these and such like things are done, I will tell you of an acknowledged proof which no man can gainsay. There are other poor men, of light and unsteady minds and not knowing how to bear hunger, but rather enduring every thing than it. These having often tried to deal with us by piteous gestures and words and finding that they availed nothing, have left off those supplications and henceforward our very wonder-workers are surpassed by them, some chewing the skins of worn-out shoes, and some fixing sharp nails into their heads, others lying about in frozen pools with naked stomachs, and others enduring different things yet more horrid than these, that they may draw around them the ungodly spectators. And thou, while these things are going on, standest laughing and wondering the while and making a fine show of other men's miseries, our common nature disgracing itself. And what could a fierce demon do more? Next, you give him money in abundance that he may do these things more promptly. And to him that prays and calls on God and approaches with modesty, you vouchsafe neither an answer nor a look: rather you utter to him, continually teazing you, those disgusting expressions, "Ought this fellow to live? or at all to breathe and see this sun?" whereas to the other sort you are both cheerful and liberal, as though you were appointed to dispense the prize of that ridiculous and Satanic unseemliness. Wherefore with more propriety to those who appoint these sports and bestow nothing till they see others punishing themselves, might these words be addressed, "Ought these men to live, to breathe at all, or see the sun, who trangress against our common nature, who insult God?" For whereas God saith, "Give alms, and I give thee the kingdom of heaven," thou hearest not: but when the Devil shews thee a head pierced with nails, on a sudden thou hast become liberal. And the contrivance of the evil spirit pregnant with so much mischief, hath wrought upon thee more than the promise of God bringing innumerable blessings. If gold were to be laid down to prevent the doing of these things or the looking upon them when done, there is nothing which thou oughtest not to practise and endure, to get rid of so excessive madness; but ye contrive every thing to have them done, and look on the doing of them. Still askest thou then, tell me, to what end is hell-fire? Nay, ask not that any more, but how is there one hell only? For of how many punishments are not they worthy, who get up this cruel and merciless spectacle and laugh at what both they and yourselves ought to weep over; yea, rather of the two, ye who compel them to such unseemly doings.
"But I do not compel them," say you. What else but compelling is it, I should like to know? Those who are more modest and shed tears and invoke God, thou art impatient even of listening to; but for these thou both findest silver in abundance and bringest around thee many to admire them.
"Well, let us leave off," say you, "pitying them. And dost thou too enjoin this?" Nay, it is not pity, O man, to demand so severe a punishment for a few pence, to order men to maim themselves for necessary food and cut into many pieces the skin of their head so mercilessly and pitifully. "Gently," say you, "for it is not we who pierce those heads." Would it were thou, and the horror would not be so horrible. For he that slays a man does a much more grievous thing than he who bids him slay himself, which indeed happens in the case of these persons. For they endure more bitter pains when they are bidden to be themselves the executors of these wicked commands.
And all this in Antioch, where men were first called Christians, wherein are bred the most civilized of mankind, where in old time the fruit of charity flourished so abundantly. For not only to those at hand but also to those very far off, they used to send, and this when famine was expected.
[10.] What then ought we to do? say you. To cease from this savage practice: and to convince all that are in need that by doing these things they will gain nothing, but if they modestly approach they shall find your liberality great. Let them be once aware of this, even though they be of all men most miserable, they will never choose to punish themselves so severely, I pledge myself; nay, they will even give you thanks for delivering them both from the mockery and the pain of that way of life. But as it is, for charioteers you would let out even your own children, and for dancers you would throw away your very souls, while for Christ an hungered you spare not the smallest portion of your substance. But if you give a little silver, you think as much of it as if you had laid out all you have, not knowing that not the giving but the giving liberally, this is true almsgiving. Wherefore also it is not those simply who give whom the prophet proclaims and calls happy, but those who bestow liberally. For he doth not say simply, He hath given, but what? (Psalms chapter 112, verse 8) "he hathdispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor." For what profit is it, when out of it thou givest as it were a glass of water out of the sea, and even a widow's magnanimity is beyond thy emulation? And how wilt thou say, "Pity me, O Lord, according to thy great pity, and according to the multitude of thy mercies blot out my transgression," thyself not pitying according to any great pity, nay, haply not according to any little. For I am greatly ashamed, I own, when I see many of the rich riding upon their golden-bitted chargers with a train of domestics clad in gold, and having couches of silver and other and more pomp, and yet when there is need to give to a poor man, becoming more beggarly than the very poorest.
[11.] But what is their constant talk? "He hath," they say, "the common church-allowance." And what is that to thee? For thou wilt not be saved because I give; nor if the Church bestow hast thou blotted out thine own sins. For this cause givest thou not, because the Church ought to give to the needy? Because the priests pray, wilt thou never pray thyself? And because others fast, wilt thou be continually drunken? Knowest thou not that God enacted not almsgiving so much for the sake of the poor as for the sake of the persons themselves who bestow?
But dost thou suspect the priest? Why this thing itself, to begin with, is a grievous sin. However, I will not examine the matter too nicely. Do thou it all in thine own person, and so shalt thou reap a double reward. Since in fact, what we say in behalf of almsgiving, we say not, that thou shouldest offer to us, but that thou shouldest thyself minister by thine own hands. For if thou bringest thine alms to me, perhaps thou mayest even be led captive by vain-glory, and oftentimes likewise thou shall go away offended through suspicion of something evil: but if ye do all things by yourselves, ye shall both be rid of offences and of unreasonable suspicion, and greater is your reward. Not therefore to compel you to bring your money hither, do I say these things; nor from indignation on account of the priests being ill-reported of. For if one must be indignant and grieve, for you should be our grief, who say this ill. Since to them who are spoken ill of falsely and vainly the reward is greater, but to the speakers the condemnation and punishment is heavier. I say not these things therefore in their behalf, but in solicitude and care for you. For what marvel is it if some in our generation are suspected, when in the case of those holy men who imitated the angels, who possessed nothing of their own, I mean the Apostles, there was a murmuring in the ministration to the widows (Acts VI I.) that the poor were overlooked? when "not one said that aught of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things common?" (Acts chapter 4, verse 32)
Let us not then put forward these pretexts, nor account it an excuse that the Church is wealthy. But when you see the greatness of her substance, bear in mind also the crowds of poor who are on her list, the multitudes of her sick, her occasions of endless expenses. Investigate, scrutinize, there is none to forbid, nay, they are even ready to give you an account. But I wish to go much farther. Namely, when we have given in our accounts and proved that our expenditure is no less than our income, nay, sometimes more, I would gladly ask you this further question: When we depart hence and shall hear Christ saying, "Ye saw me hungry, and gave me no meat; naked, and ye clothed me not;" what shall we say? what apology shall we make? Shall we bring forward such and such a person who disobeyed these commands? or some of the priests who were suspected? "Nay, what is this to thee? for I accuse thee," saith He, "of those things wherein thou hast thyself sinned. And the apology for these would be, to have washed away thine own offences, not to point to others whose errors have been the same as thine."
In fact, the Church through your meanness is compelled to have such property as it has now. Since, if men did all things according to the apostolical laws, its revenue should have been your good will, which were both a secure chest and an inexhaustible treasury. But now when ye lay up for yourselves treasures upon the earth and shut up all things in your own stores, while the Church is compelled to be at charges with bands of widows, choirs of virgins, so journings of strangers, distresses of foreigners, the misfortunes of prisoners, the necessities of the sick and maimed, and other such like causes, what must be done? Turn away from all these, and block up so many ports? Who then could endure the shipwrecks that would ensue; the weepings, the lamentations, the wailings which would reach us from every quarter?
Let us not then speak at random what comes into our mind. For now, as I have just said, we are really prepared to render up our accounts to you. But even if it were the reverse, and ye had corrupt teachers plundering and grasping at every thing, not even so were their wickedness an apology for you. For the Lover of mankind and All-wise, the Only-Begotten Son of God, seeing all things, and knowing the chance that in so great length of time and in so vast a world there would be many corrupt priests; lest the carelessness of those under their rule should increase through their neglect, removing every excuse for indifference; "In Moses' seat," saith He, "sit the Scribes and the Pharisees; all things, therefore, whatsoever they bid you, these do ye, but do not ye after their works:" implying, that even if thou hast a bad teacher, this will not avail thee, shouldest thou not attend to the things which are spoken. For not from what thy teacher hath done but from what thou hast heard and disobeyed, from that, I say, doth God pass his sentence upon thee. So that if thou doest the things commanded, thou shalt then stand with much boldness: but if thou disobey the things spoken, even though thou shouldest show ten thousand corrupt priests, this will not plead for thee at all. Since Judas also was an apostle, but nevertheless this shall never be any apology for the sacrilegious and covetous. Nor will any be able when accused to say, "Why the Apostle was a thief and sacrilegious, and a traitor;" yea, this very thing shall most of all be our punishment and condemnation that not even by the evils of others were we corrected. For this cause also these things were written that we might shun all emulation of such things.