Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Woe to those who disdain Zion,
        and to those who trust in the mountain of Samaria.
They picked the rulers of the nations,
        and they entered.
O house of Israel, walk, all of you, and see,
        and pass through from that place to Hamath Rabbah,
        and go down from that place to Gath of foreigners,
the nobles from all these kingdoms,
        if their borders are greater than your borders.
Those who are coming to a bad day,
        who are drawing near and holding false sabbaths,
those laying down to sleep upon beds of ivory
        and living luxuriously upon their beds,
and eating kids from the flocks
        and suckling little calves from the midst of herds,
those clapping to the music of the instruments,
        since they considered them as having stood and not as fleeting,
those drinking filtered wine
        and those anointing themselves with first-rate myrrh,
and they would not suffer anything
        because of the ruin of Joseph.
On account of this, now they will be captives
        from the beginning of the mighty ones,
and the neighing of horses
        will be removed from Ephraim. (Amos 6:1–7 LXX)

It is not that we esteem the crimes of the poor as less serious, but a greater hatred of your crimes strikes you, whom greater wealth has magnified. For what is the point of your being more illustrious in respect to public honor and wealth? It behooved you to have a greater zeal for religion. But now you strive to be rich no less in impiety than in money. Therefore, the lamentations will lay hold of you, but serious ones. For with respect to the divine judgment, some mercy may be applied to them that are of little account, “but the mighty shall be mightily tormented.” Therefore, among such great misfortunes of the lands, which experience such things either on account of lost strength or on account of the calamities that are already invading, you trust in the defenses and fortification of your locations (namely, in Zion and Samaria) thinking that you will be guarded against the wrath of the judge. Woe to you who are wealthy in Zion, and who trust in the mountain of Samaria, you nobles, heads of the people who enter the house of Israel with a great pomp. For you have never prostituted yourself more than in the time of adversities, so great was the greed for excess that filled you. When the power of your nation was already for the most part destroyed, nevertheless you swell with opulence and are abandoned to luxury within your besieged cities.

Julian of Eclanum, Commentary on Amos 2.6

The Lord now threatens for the reasons that the prophetic message lists above: because of those who sleep on ivory beds and frolic on their couches, who eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the herd, who sing to the sound of the harp and drink wine in bowls, who anoint themselves with the best ointment. In addition to all this, they suffer in no way concerning the destruction of his people, the people begotten from the line of Joseph. And he says: Because they have done these sorts of things, now they will go away at the head of those who are transmigrating. And the meaning is: Punishment will not be put off until the future, nor is it prophesied about times far distant. What my word predicts has now fallen on them; it is about to come. They will go at the beginning of those transmigrating, that is, the princes and the powerful to whom he had said above: “Hear this word, you fat cows who are on the mountain of Samaria.” And again: “Woe to you who are wealthy in Zion and who trust in the mountain of Samaria; you nobles, heads of the peoples who enter the house of Israel with great pomp.” You who are first in riches will be the first to bear the yoke of captivity, according to what is written in Ezekiel: “Begin from my sanctuary.” Not from the holy ones, as many people think, but from the destruction of the temple, which was the holy place. For “the mighty will be tormented mightily,” and to whom more is entrusted more will also be demanded from him.

Jerome, Commentary on Amos 3.6

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Amos the Prophet by Gustav Dore

Hear now these things, you who are destroying the poor man in the morning
        and are oppressing the beggars of the land,
who are saying, “When will the month passes
        and we will do business,
and the Sabbaths,
        and we will open the treasury,
to make a small measure, to increase the weight,
        and to make an unjust yoke,
to acquire beggars with silver,
        and a humble one for sandals,
        and we will trade from every kind of produce?”
The Lord swears by the arrogance of Jacob;
        He will not forget all your works. (Amos 8:4–7 LXX)

What shall be said to this by those of us who are buyers and sellers of corn, and watch the hardships of the seasons, in order to grow prosperous, and luxuriate in the misfortunes of others, and acquire, not, like Joseph, the property of the Egyptians, as a part of a wide policy, (for he could both collect and supply corn duly, as he also could foresee the famine, and provide against it afar off,) but the property of their fellow countrymen in an illegal manner, for they say, “When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell, and the sabbaths, that we may open our stores?” And they corrupt justice with divers measures and balances, and draw upon themselves the ephah of lead. What shall we say to these things who know no limit to our getting, who worship gold and silver, as those of old worshiped Baal, and Astarte and the abomination Chemosh? …

Join with us, divine and sacred person, in considering these questions, with the store of experience, that source of wisdom, which you have gathered in your long life. Herewith instruct your people. Teach them to break their bread to the hungry, to gather together the poor that have no shelter, to cover their nakedness and not neglect those of the same blood, and now especially that we may gain a benefit from our need instead of from abundance, a result which pleases God more than plentiful offerings and large gifts. After this, nay before it, show yourself, I pray, a Moses, or Phinehas today. Stand on our behalf and make atonement, and let the plague be stayed, either by the spiritual sacrifice, or by prayer and reasonable intercession. Restrain the anger of the Lord by your mediation: avert any succeeding blows of the scourge. He knows to respect the hoary hairs of a father interceding for his children. Entreat for our past wickedness: be our surety for the future. Present a people purified by suffering and fear. Beg for bodily sustenance, but beg rather for the angels’ food that comes down from heaven. So doing, you will make God to be our God, will conciliate heaven, will restore the former and latter rain: the Lord shall show loving-kindness and our land shall yield her fruit; our earthly land its fruit which lasts for the day, and our frame, which is but dust, the fruit which is eternal, which we shall store up in the heavenly winepresses by your hands, who presents both us and ours in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for evermore. Amen.

Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 16.19–20

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

For that reason, this is what the Lord says: “Look, I shall seek out my sheep and watch over them. Just as the shepherd seeks his flock on the day when there is darkness and a cloud in the midst of the separated sheep, so I will seek out my sheep and drive them away from everywhere they were scattered on the day of cloud and darkness. And I will bring them out of the nations and gather them from the countries and lead them into their land, and feed them on the mountains of Israel and in the valleys and in every dwelling place of the land. I will tend them in a good pasture, in Israel’s high mountain. And their sheepfolds will be there and they will sleep, and there they will rest in good delight, and they will feed in a rich pasture upon Israel’s mountains. I shall tend my sheep, and I shall give them rest, and they will know that I am the Lord.” This is what the Master, the Lord, says: “I shall seek the perishing and return the stray and bind up the crushed and strengthen the faint and guard the strong and tend them with justice.” And you sheep, this is what the Master, the Lord, says: “Look, I shall bring judgment between sheep and sheep, rams and he-goats. And was it not enough for you that you were grazing the good pasture and trampling the rest of your pasture with your feet, and drinking the stagnant water and stirring up the rest with your feet? And my sheep were grazing on the tramplings of your feet, and they were drinking water troubled by your feet!” ‘On account of this, this is what the Master, the Lord, says: “Look, I will judge between strong sheep and weak sheep. You kept pushing by your ribs and shoulders and you kept butting with your horns, and you were afflicting all the faint. But I shall save my sheep, and they will never again become plunder, and I shall judge between ram against ram. And I shall raise up one shepherd over them and he is shepherding them: my servant David; and he shall be their shepherd, and I, the Lord, shall become their God, and David a ruler in their midst; I, the Lord, have spoken. (Ezekiel 34:11–24 LXX)

We must ponder the fact that everyone, as much as he can, as much as he is in a position to, should strive zealously to make known to the Church he has undertaken to serve both the dreadfulness of the coming judgment and the sweetness of the kingdom. One who is not in a position to offer encouragement to everyone at the same time should instruct individuals, as much as he can, he should offer instruction in personal talks, he should seek for profit in the hearts of his children through simple encouragement. We must consider what was said to the apostles, and by the apostles to us: You are the salt of the earth. If we are salt, we should season the hearts of believers. You who are shepherds, consider that you are pasturing God’s flock. Of them the psalmist said: Your flock shall dwell in it. We often see a block of salt put out for brute animals; they are to lick it and be made better. A priest among his people should be like a block of salt in the midst of brute animals. A priest must be careful about what he says to individuals, to counsel each one in such a way that anyone associated with the priest may be seasoned with the taste of eternal life as if by contact with salt. We are not the salt of the earth if we do not season the hearts of those who hear us. One who does not withhold his preaching gives this seasoning to his neighbor. But then we truly preach what is right to others, if our words are revealed in our actions, if we ourselves are pierced by divine love, and if we wash away with our tears the stains of human life which we daily acquire, since we cannot live without sin. Then do we truly feel remorse if we diligently ponder the deeds of our ancestors so that when we have regarded their renown, our own lives may appear mean in our eyes. Then do we truly feel remorse, when we diligently examine God’s commandments, and strive to advance by the means we know those whom we reverence used for their own advancement.

Gregory the Great, Forty Gospel Homilies 19

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

“Because this command that I am commanding you today is not excessive nor far from you. It is not in the sky above, saying, ‘Who will go up for us into the sky and take it for us and upon hearing it, will we do it?’ Nor is it across the sea, saying, ‘Who will go over for us to the other side of the sea and take it for us and make it audible to us, and we will do it?’ The word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart and in your hands to do it. See now, I have given before you today life and death, good and evil. If you listen to the commands of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his ordinances and his judgments, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in all the land into which you are entering there to take possession of it. And if your heart turns away and you do not listen, and in wandering you worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall certainly be destroyed, and you shall be not long-lived on the land into which you are crossing over the Jordan there to take possession of it. I call to witness against you today both heaven and earth. I have given life and death before you, the blessing and the curse; you should choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, to love the Lord your God, to listen to his voice and to be close to him. For this is life for you and the length of your days, for you to dwell on the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, to give to them.” (Deut 30:11–20 LXX)

Behold, man, you have before you ‘Water and fire, life and death, good and evil,’ heaven and hell, the legitimate king and a cruel tyrant, the false sweetness of the world and the true blessedness of paradise. Power is given to you through the grace of Christ: ‘Stretch forth your hand to whichever you choose.’ ‘Choose life, that you may live’; leave the broad way on the left which drags you to death, and cling to the narrow path on the right which happily leads you to life. Do not allow the wideness of that road on the left to keep you or give you pleasure. To be sure, it is spacious and level, adorned with different kinds of flowers; but its flowers quickly fade and even between the flowers poisonous serpents frequently lie hidden, so that when you hurry on to these false joys you are struck by their deadly venom. This way is spacious, but it is not long. You pay attention to the kind of road you are walking, and do not notice what kind of a land you are reaching. If you listen to me, you withdraw yourself from death, for if you do not believe in Christ you will perish in hell, as the Lord Himself said in the Gospel: ‘Wide and broad is the way that leads to death, and many there are who enter that way.’ Truly, it gives pleasure for a time, but it deceives for all eternity. On the other hand, the road on the right should not sadden or frighten you: it is indeed narrow, but it is not long. The rejoicing on the wide path does not last long, and neither does the labor on the narrow way; after a short, broad path the former drags one into eternal straightened circumstances, while after brief difficulties the latter leads to endless bliss.

Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 151.5