Patristic Wisdom: Looking to All Saints' Sunday

And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matt. 5:1–12)

Not without cause did the Lord mention higher up hungering and thirsting for justice. He instructs us so to thirst in our desire for justice that for its sake we should despise the world’s persecutions, the punishments of the body, and death itself. He is proclaiming the martyrs above all, those who for the justice of faith and the name of Christ endure persecutions in this world. To them a great hope is promised, namely, the possession of the kingdom of heaven. The apostles were chief examples of this blessedness, and all the just people who for the sake of the justice of the law were afflicted with various forms of persecution. By the merit of their faith they have reached the heavenly kingdom. … Not only should we patiently endure all the criminal treachery of the persecutors that can be contrived in a time of persecution for Christ’s name against the just, and the various reproaches that can be heaped upon us, and the punishments that can be applied to the body, but we should even welcome them with the joy of exultation in view of the coming glory. For He says this: “Rejoice in that day and exult; I tell you that your reward in heaven is great.” How glorious is the endurance of this persecution, the reward for which the Lord says is laid up in heaven! And so, taking into consideration the reward of the proposed glory, we should be ready with devout faith for every endurance of suffering, so that we may deserve to be made sharers in the glory of the prophets and apostles, through Christ our Lord, who is blessed in the ages of ages. Amen.

Chromatius, Tractate on Matthew 17.8–9

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Reformation Sunday

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?” Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:31–36)

Obscure as yet and not wholly clear is the word, none the less it is replete with force akin to those before it, and though after other fashion wrought will go through the same reflections. For it too persuades those who have once believed gladly to depart and remove from the worship according to the law, instructing that the shadow is our guide to the knowledge of Him, and that leaving the types and figures, we should go resolutely forward to the Truth Itself, i. e., Christ the Giver of true freedom and the Redeemer. Ye shall know therefore (He says) the Truth, if ye abide in My Words, and from knowing the Truth ye shall find the profit that is therefrom. Take then our Lord as saying some such thing as this to the Jews (for we ought I think to enlarge our meditation on what is now before us, for the profit’s sake of the readers): A bitter bondage in Egypt, (He says) ye endured, and lengthened toil consumed you who had come into bitter serfdom under Pharaoh, but ye cried then to God, and ye have moved Him to mercy towards you, bewailing the misfortunes which were upon you ye were seeking a Redeemer from Heaven: forthwith I visited you even then, and brought you forth from a strange land, liberating you from most savage oppression I was inviting you unto freedom. But that ye might learn who is your aider and Redeemer, I was limning for you the mystery of Myself in the sacrifice of the sheep, and bidding it then to prefigure the salvation through blood: for ye were saved by anointing both yourselves and the doorposts with the blood of the lamb. Hence by advancing a little forth from the types, when ye learn the Truth, ye shall be wholly and truly free. And let none (He says) doubt about this. For if the type was then to you the bestower of so great goods, how does not the Truth rather give you richer grace?

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of John 5.5.32

This is what he means: The subject of what I am talking about is not corporeal bondage. I want to talk to you about real freedom. In one instance a master, at his discretion, drives away from the house a servant in whom he sees an evil will and subjects him to any punishment he considers to be appropriate. But… no master drives away his son from the house. So, one who is a slave to sin, since he is far removed from all divine goodness, is given a perpetual punishment. But the one who has been made worthy of freedom and has been given the status of son always enjoys divine goodness and can never be removed from it. If you, he says, are freed through me and are made worthy of the title of sons, then you will possess real freedom.

Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on John 3.8.34–36

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way. (Matthew 22:15–22)

Where did [the Pharisees] go? To the Herodians. For he did not say, “they advised” but “they took counsel.” And from the time when they came together with the Herodians, it appears that they mulled over with them a counsel of entrapment of this kind. A farmer does not need the help of that person whose land he possesses. Whoever has righteousness needs the support of nobody except God. He who walks in the iniquities of the devil needs the help of the devil. For a farmer of God does not seek after the aid of the devil, but a farmer of the devil does not find the aid of God, even if he asks for it. Did you ever see a thief ask of God that he succeed in his thievery? Or did one going to fornication place the sign of the cross in his forehead so that he would not be arrested for his crime? But if he did it, not only is he not helped, but he still further is betrayed because the righteousness of God does not know how to give support to misdeeds. So also those who desired to assault Christ quite appropriately did not hasten to the servants of God (that is, religious people) but to the Gentiles (that is, to the Herodians).

The conspiracy matched the conspirators. But who could give counsel against Christ except for the devil, who was the adversary of Christ? For the priests thought to themselves, “If we alone went and asked Christ, even if Christ said that it is not right to pay tribute to Caesar, nonetheless nobody will believe us when we speak against him, for already everybody knows that we are his enemy. But the testimony of enemies is rejected at a trial as suspect, even if it is true.” But they did not want to ask Christ by themselves because they were greatly suspected of hostility against Christ, lest by chance they be suspected of laying a trap for him and not be able to do so. For a manifest enemy is better than a pretend friend. As long as the enemy is feared, he is easily avoided, but as long as the pretend friend is not recognized, he prevails. Therefore, they sent their disciples to him,since they were less well known and less suspected, so that they might easily deceive him in a hidden manner or, if they were caught, they might be less embarrassed in front of him.…

But Jesus, aware of their malice, did not answer calmly in line with their speech but spoke harshly in line with their cruel conscience because God speaks more to the soul than to the body and replies to wills, not words. “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the money for the tax.” And they brought him a coin. He said to them, “hypocrites,” so that they could find in their heart among themselves what they heard in the ear so that they would consider that he knew the human heart and so they would not dare to complete what they were contemplating to do. Therefore, see that the Pharisees indeed flattered him in order to destroy him, but Jesus routed them in order to save them, because an angry God is more useful for a human being than an appeased human being is.

Incomplete Commentary on Matthew, Homily 42

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.” ’ But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:1–14)

And so he sent his servants to invite his friends to the marriage feast. He sent once, and he sent again, because first he made the prophets, and later the apostles, preachers of the Lord’s incarnation. He sent his servants twice with the invitation, because he said through the prophets that his only Son’s incarnation would come about, and he proclaimed through the apostles that it had. Because those who were first invited to the marriage banquet refused to come, he said in his second invitation: See, I have prepared my meal; my oxen and fatlings have been slain, and everything is ready. What do we take the oxen and fatlings to be but the fathers of the Old and New Testaments? Since I am speaking to everyone, I must also explain these words of the gospel reading. We call animals fatlings when they are well fed; fatlings have been fattened up.

It was written in the Law, You shall love your friend and hate your enemy. At that time permission was granted to the righteous to put down the enemies of God and their own with as much strength as they had, and to strike them down with the power of life and death. There is no doubt that this is forbidden in the New Testament: Truth himself tells us, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. What then do the oxen represent but the fathers of the Old Testament? When the Law consented to their killing their adversaries in return for their hatred, if I may say so, what else were they but oxen striking down their enemies with the horn of their physical strength? And what do the fatlings signify but the fathers of the New Testament? When they receive the gift of inner fatness, they flee their earthly desires and are raised to the heights on the wings of their contemplation. What else is having your thoughts on low things but a kind of mental leanness? But there are those who through their understanding of heavenly things are now being nourished by their holy desire for the things of heaven. Receiving the food of inner delight, they are being fattened, so to speak, with a more abundant sustenance. The psalmist was longing to be well-fed with this fatness when he said: May my soul be filled as with marrow and fat!

Because the preachers sent to proclaim the Lord’s incarnation, first the prophets and later the holy apostles, endured the persecution of unbelievers, it was said to those who were invited but refused to come, My oxen and fatlings have been slain, and everything is ready, meaning, ‘Reflect on the deaths of the fathers who went before you, and think about correcting your lives.’ We should note that in the first invitation nothing was said about oxen and fatlings, but in the second they are said to be already slaughtered. When we refuse to listen to his words, almighty God adds examples, so that we may more easily hope for everything we believe to be impossible, the more that we hear that others have already accomplished it.

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But since you have already come into the house of the marriage feast, our holy Church, as a result of God’s generosity, be careful, my friends, lest when the King enters he find fault with some aspect of your heart’s clothing. We must consider what comes next with great fear in our hearts: But the king came in to look at the guests, and saw there a person not clothed in a wedding garment.

What do we think is meant by the wedding garment, dearly beloved? For if we say it is baptism or faith, is there anyone who has entered this marriage feast without them? A person is outside because he has not yet come to believe. What then must we understand by the wedding garment but love? That person enters the marriage feast, but without wearing a wedding garment, who is present in the holy Church, and has faith, but does not have love. We are correct when we say that love is the wedding garment because this is what our Creator himself possessed when he came to the marriage feast to join the Church to himself. Only God’s love brought it about that his only-begotten Son united the hearts of his chosen to himself. John says that God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son for us.

And so the One who came to us out of love made known that this love is the wedding garment. Every one of you who belongs to the Church, who has believed in God, has already come in to the marriage feast; but he has not come in a wedding garment unless he preserves the gift of love. And surely, my friends, if any one of you was invited to a marriage feast, he would change his clothing and show by his dress how he rejoices with the bridegroom and bride; he would be ashamed to appear in contemptible clothing among those rejoicing and celebrating the festive occasion. We come to God’s marriage feast and do not care to change the clothing our hearts wear. The angels rejoice, the chosen are taken up to heaven! In what frame of mind do we look upon this spiritual feast if we do not possess the wedding garment, love, that is alone becoming?

Gregory the Great, Forty Gospel Homilies 38

In Praise of Hymnals

The last thing I want to define is “the Christian hymnal.” My heart aches as I see this increasingly being neglected by congregations.

The Christian hymnal is one of the great depositories of the Christian life and experience. The men and women behind these hymns were writing out of deep spiritual experiences. The poetry of some hymns may not be perfect. In fact, some may be very difficult to sing. Pushing the hymnal aside, however, is to forfeit one of the great spiritual treasures of the Christian Church. The hymnal connects us with our Christian heritage, a legacy that should not be denied to this generation of Christians. If we are going to press on to be hundredfold Christians, on to Christian perfection and the crucified life, we need this vital connection to the historic Church.

Show me the condition of your Bible and your hymnal and I will accurately predict the condition of your soul. Our souls need to be nurtured and cultivated, and nothing does that better than the Christian hymnal. I cannot imagine a Christian not spending quality time in the hymnal. Hardly a morning passes when I don’t kneel down with an open Bible and a hymnal and sing comfortably off-key the great hymns of the Church.

I often counsel young Christians, after they have their Bible and their Bible reading established, to get a hymnal. If a young Christian would spend one year reading through and meditating on the hymns of Isaac Watts alone, he would have a better theological education than four years in Bible college and four years in seminary. Isaac Watts and others like him were able to put theology into their hymns. These hymn writers—both men and women—set their generation singing theology. And the theology of the heart bursts forth in melodious adoration and praise.

A. W. Tozer, The Crucified Life: How to Live Out a Deeper Christian Experience 17–18

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

“But you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right.’ Hear now, house of Israel: Is my way not right? Is your way right? When the righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits a transgression, then he shall die by it. He shall die by the transgression which he committed. But when a lawless person turns from his lawlessness which he committed, and he does justice and righteousness, this one has kept his life. And he has turned away from all his ungodliness which he did, he will surely live. He should certainly not die. But the house of Israel say: ‘The way of the Lord is not right.’ Is my way not right, O house of Israel? Is it not your way that is not right? I will judge you each according to his way, O house of Israel,” says the Lord. “Turn around, and turn away from all your impious acts, and they will not become a punishment of injustice for you. Throw away from yourselves all your impious acts by ⌊which⌋ you were impious to me, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel? Because I do not desire the death of the dying,” says the Lord. (Ezekiel 18:25–32 LXX)

If, then, any hope of salvation is still left to you, if any slight remembrance of God, if any desire for future rewards, if any fear of the punishments reserved for the unrepentant, come back quickly to sobriety; raise your eyes to the heavens; return to your senses; cease your wickedness; shake off the drunkenness that has drenched you; stand up against him who has overthrown you. Have the strength to rise up from the earth. Remember the Good Shepherd, how He will pursue and deliver you. And if there be but “two legs, or the tip of an ear,” leap back from him who has wounded you. Remember the compassion of God, how He heals with olive oil and wine. Do not despair of salvation. Recall the memory of what has been written, how he that falls rises again, and he that is turned away turns again, he that has been smitten is healed, he that is caught by wild beasts escapes, and he that confesses is not rejected. The Lord does not wish the death of the sinner, but that he return and live. Be not contemptuous as one who has fallen into the depths of sins.

There is still time for patience, time for forbearance, time for healing, time for amendment. Have you slipped? Rise up. Have you sinned? Cease. Do not stand in the way of sinners, but turn aside; for then you will be saved when turning back you bewail your sins. In fact, from labors there is health; from sweat, salvation. So take heed, lest, in wishing to keep your contracts with others, you transgress your covenants with God which you confessed before many witnesses. Do not, therefore, because of certain human considerations, hesitate to come to me. For, receiving my dead, I shall lament; I shall care for him; “I shall weep bitterly for the devastation of the daughter of my people.” All welcome you; all will aid you in your sufferings. Do not lose heart; be mindful of the days of old. There is salvation; there is amendment. Have courage; do not despair. There is no law which passes sentence of death without pity, but grace, exceeding the chastisement, awaits the amendment. Not yet have the doors been closed; the Bridegroom listens; sin is not the master. Again take up the struggle; do not draw back, but pity yourself and all of us in Jesus Christ, our Lord, to whom be glory and might, now and forever, for ages of ages. Amen.

Basil of Caesarea, Letter 44

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Seek out the Lord, and when you find Him, call upon Him.
And if ever He approaches you,
Let the ungodly abandon his ways,
And the man of lawlessness his counsels,
And let him return to the Lord,
And He will be shown mercy,
Because He will forgive your sins abundantly.
“For My counsels are not like your counsels,
Or My ways like your ways,” says the Lord,
“But as the heaven is far off from the earth,
So My way is far off from your ways,
And your thoughts from My mind.” (Isaiah 55:6–9 LXX)

[W]e can very clearly perceive that God brings salvation to mankind in diverse and innumerable methods and inscrutable ways, and that He stirs up the course of some, who are already wanting it, and thirsting for it, to greater zeal, while He forces some even against their will, and resisting. And that at one time He gives his assistance for the fulfillment of those things which he sees that we desire for our good, while at another time He puts into us the very beginnings of holy desire, and grants both the commencement of a good work and perseverance in it. Hence it comes that in our prayers we proclaim God as not only our Protector and Savior, but actually as our Helper and Sponsor. For whereas He first calls us to Him, and while we are still ignorant and unwilling, draws us towards salvation, He is our Protector and Savior, but whereas when we are already striving, He is wont to bring us help, and to receive and defend those who fly to Him for refuge, He is termed our Sponsor and Refuge. Finally the blessed Apostle when revolving in his mind this manifold bounty of God’s providence, as he sees that he has fallen into some vast and boundless ocean of God’s goodness, exclaims: “O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are the judgments of God and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord?” Whoever then imagines that he can by human reason fathom the depths of that inconceivable abyss, will be trying to explain away the astonishment at that knowledge, at which that great and mighty teacher of the Gentiles was awed. For if a man thinks that he can either conceive in his mind or discuss exhaustively the dispensation of God whereby He works salvation in men, he certainly impugns the truth of the Apostle’s words and asserts with profane audacity that His judgments can be scrutinized, and His ways searched out. This providence and love of God therefore, which the Lord in His unwearied goodness vouchsafes to show us, He compares to the tenderest heart of a kind mother, as He wishes to express it by a figure of human affection, and finds in His creatures no such feeling of love, to which he could better compare it. And He uses this example, because nothing dearer can be found in human nature, saying: “Can a mother forget her child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?” But not content with this comparison He at once goes beyond it, and subjoins these words: “And though she may forget, yet will not I forget you.”

John Cassian, Conference 13.17

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” (Matthew 18:21–35)

Now the servants alone are the stewards of the Word, but the king, making a reckoning with the servants, demands from those who have borrowed from the servants, whether a hundred measures of wheat or a hundred measures of oil, or whatever in point of fact those who are outside of the household of the king have received; for he who owed the hundred measures of wheat or the hundred measures of oil is not found to be, according to the parable, a fellow-servant of the unjust steward, as is evident from the question—how much owest thou to my lord? But mark with me that each deed which is good or seemly is like a gain and an increment, but a wicked deed is like a loss; and as there is a certain gain when the money is greater and another when it is less, and as there are differences of more or less, so according to the good deeds, there is as it were a valuing of gains more or less. To reckon what work is a great gain, and what a less gain, and what a least, is the prerogative of him who alone knows to investigate such things, looking at them in the light of the disposition, and the word, and the deed, and from consideration of the things which are not in our power cooperating with those that are; and so also in the case of things opposite, it is his to say what sin, when a reckoning is made with the servants, is found to be a great loss, and what is less, and what, if we may so call it, is the loss of the very last mite, or the last farthing. The account, therefore, of the entire and whole life is exacted by that which is called the kingdom of heaven which is likened to a king, when “we must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he hath done, whether good or bad;” and then when the reckoning is being made, shall there be brought into the reckoning that is made also every idle word that men shall speak, and any cup of cold water only which one has given to drink in the name of a disciple.

Origen, Commentary on Matthew 14.8

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes! “If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire. (Matthew 18:1–9)

Here the Lord not only repressed the apostles’ thoughts but also checked the ambition of believers throughout the whole world, so that he might be great who wanted to be least. For with this purpose Jesus used the example of the child, that what he had been through his nature, we through our holy living might become—innocent, like children innocent of every sin. For a child does not know how to hold resentment or to grow angry. He does not know how to repay evil for evil. He does not think base thoughts. He does not commit adultery or arson or murder. He is utterly ignorant of theft or brawling or all the things that will draw him to sin. He does not know how to disparage, how to blaspheme, how to hurt, how to lie. He believes what he hears. What he is ordered he does not analyze. He loves his parents with full affection. Therefore what children are in their simplicity, let us become through a holy way of life, as children innocent of sin. And quite rightly, one who has become a child innocent of sin in this way is greater in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives such a person will receive Christ.

Epiphanius the Latin, Interpretation of the Gospels 27

The humility of Christ’s Passion is a stumbling block to the world. Human ignorance is contained especially in this statement: that it will not accept the Lord of eternal glory in light of the ugliness of the cross. What else in the world is as dangerous as not receiving Christ?

Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on Matthew 18.2

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

O Lord, remember me and visit me, and hold me guiltless before those who pursue me, not for forbearance. Know how I received reproach concerning you by those who reject your words. Make an end of them, and your word shall be to me as merriment and delight to my heart, because your name has been invoked upon me, O Lord Almighty. I did not sit in the assembly of those who mock, but I was reverent at the presence of your hand. I was seated by myself because I was filled with bitterness. Why do those who grieve me prevail over me? My wound is severe. How will I be healed? When it came, it came to me like false water without faith. Because of this, this is what the Lord says: “If you return, then I will restore you, and you will stand before my presence. And if you bring out what is valued from the worthy, you will serve as my mouth. And they will turn to you, and you will not turn to them. And I will give you to this people as a fortified bronze wall, and they will fight against you, and they will not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from the hand of evildoers, and to redeem you from the hand of the plague.” (Jeremiah 15:15–21 LXX)

The wonderful Apostles who were insulted many times for the truth say, I am content with weaknesses, with insults and hardships, persecutions and calamities for the sake of Christ. I know that the basis of hardships is Christ when I am insulted if I know that I am insulted only for nothing other than for Christ, when I am in hardships, when I am abused if I know that the cause of abuse is none other than that I am a champion for truth and an ambassador for the Scriptures so that everything happens according to the Word of God. For this I am blasphemed.

And thus let all of us, as far as our ability allows, strive for the prophetic life, for the apostolic life, not avoiding what is troublesome. For if the athlete avoids what is troublesome about the contest, the sweetness of the crown will never be his.

Whenever there may be a great number of sinners and they do not forbear the righteous living righteously, there is nothing improper in avoiding the council of evil to imitate the one who said, I have sat alone, to imitate also Elijah who said, Lord, they have killed your Prophets, they have pulled down your altars, and I was left alone, and they seek my life to take it.

But perhaps if you examine more deeply the words, I sat alone, you will find a kind of sense worthy of the prophetic depth. Whenever we imitate the life of the masses so that it has not been set off and is not greater and more special than the masses, I cannot say, I have sat alone, but I sat with the masses. But when my life becomes hard to imitate so that I become so great that no one resembles my habits, my doctrine, my practices, my wisdom, then I can say, because I am one of a kind and no one imitates me, I sat alone. Thus it happens also that you who are not a presbyter, you who are not a bishop, nor a person honored by some ecclesiastical title can say this, I sat alone. You can strive after and adopt a life so as to say, I sat alone.

Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah 14.14.4–5; 16.1–2