Patristic Wisdom: Looking to St. Michael and All Angels

Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:17–20)

The authority, however, which they bore to reprove evil spirits, and the power of crushing Satan, was not given them that they might themselves so much be regarded with admiration, as that Christ might be glorified by their means, and be believed on by those whom they taught, as by nature God, and the Son of God; and invested with so great glory and supremacy and might, as to be even able to bestow upon others the power of trampling Satan under their feet.

But they, it says, in that they were counted worthy of so great grace, “returned rejoicing, and saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” For they confess the authority of Him Who honored them, and wonder at the supremacy and greatness of His power. But they seem to have rejoiced, not so much because they were ministers of His message, and had been counted worthy of apostolic honors, as because they had worked miracles. But it would have been better for them to have reflected, that He gave them the power to work miracles, not that they might be regarded by men with admiration on this account, but rather that what they preached might be believed, the Holy Spirit bearing them witness by divine signs. It would have been better, therefore, had they manifestly rejoiced on account of those rather who had been won by their means, and had made this a cause of exultation. Just as also the very wise Paul gloried in those who had been called by his means, saying, “My joy and my crown.” But they said nothing at all of this kind, but rejoiced only in that they had been able to crush Satan.

And what is Christ’s reply? “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” That is, “I am not unaware of this: for inasmuch as you set out upon this journey, so to speak, by My will, you have vanquished Satan. ‘I saw him fall like lightning from heaven.’” And this means that he was cast down from on high to earth: from overweening pride to humiliation: from glory to contempt: from great power to utter weakness. And the saying is true: for before the coming of the Savior, he possessed the world. All was subject to him, and there was no man able to escape the meshes of his overwhelming might. He was worshiped by every one. Everywhere he had temples and altars for sacrifice, and an innumerable multitude of worshipers. But because the Only-begotten Word of God has come down from heaven, he has fallen like lightning: for he who of old was bold and arrogant, and who contended with the glory of Deity; he who had as his worshipers all that were in error, is put under the feet of those that worshiped him.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke 64

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Eugene Burnand, “Parable of the Dishonest Steward”

He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’ Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’

So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Luke 16:1–13)

Anyone may readily learn the meaning and view of the Savior’s words from what follows. For He said, “If you have not been faithful in what is another’s, who will give you what is your own?” And again, we say what is another’s is the wealth we possess. For we were not born with riches, but, on the contrary, naked; and we can truly affirm in the words of Scripture, “that we neither brought anything into the world, nor can we carry anything out.” For the patient Job also has said something of this kind: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb; naked shall I return.” It is therefore no man’s own by right of nature that he is rich and lives in abundant wealth, but it is a thing added on from the outside, and is a chance matter. And if it cease and perish, it in no respect whatsoever harms the definitions of human nature. For it is not by virtue of our being rich that we are reasonable beings, and skillful in every good work, but it is the property of our nature to be capable of these things. That therefore, as I said, is another’s which is not contained in the definitions of our nature, but, on the contrary, is manifestly added to us from the outside. But it is our own, and the property of human nature to be fitted for every good work, for as the blessed Paul writes, “We have been created for good works, which God has prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

When therefore any are unfaithful in what is another’s, in those things namely, which are added to them from the outside, how shall they receive that which is their own? How shall they be made partakers of the good things which God gives, which adorn the soul of man, and imprint upon it a divine beauty, spiritually formed in it by righteousness and holiness, and those upright deeds which are done in the fear of God.

Let those of us then who possess earthly wealth open our hearts to those who are in need. Let us show ourselves faithful and obedient to the laws of God and followers of our Lord’s will in those things which are from the outside, and not our own, that we may receive that which is our own, even that holy and admirable beauty which God forms in the souls of men, fashioning them like unto Himself, according to what we originally were.

Cyril of Alexandria, Homilies on the Gospel of St. Luke 109

Repentance and Reconciliation

Yesterday, I gave an example from 2 Maccabees of Jason the high priest introducing foreign practices into Jewish life with disastrous results. After the debacle, Jason was ousted as high priest in favor of Melenaus. While Jason made a successful attack on Jerusalem to regain the position, he overstepped, killing innocent people, so that the Greeks turned against him, forcing him to flee and die in exile. Antiochus, for his part, “dared to enter the most holy temple in all the earth.… With defiled hands he took the holy vessels, and with profane hands he pulled down the things dedicated by other kings to increase the glory and honor of the place” (2 Macc 5:15–16). With booty in tow, he left Jerusalem and sent Apollonius, commander of the Mysians, with an army of 22,000 men, with orders to slaughter all the grown men and to sell the women and young boys as slaves, resulting in the killing of a great number of people (2 Macc 5:24–26).

Amidst the apostatizing priests and later carnage and mayhem from invading forces, we have a sublime message concerning a marvelous truth, wisely acknowledging the ties and priorities between God’s people and His dwelling place.

But the Lord did not choose the nation because of the place, but the place because of the nation. Therefore the place also itself shared in the misfortunes that befell the nation, and later had a share in its benefits; and what was forsaken in the wrath of the Almighty was restored again in all its glory by the reconciliation of the great Lord. (2 Macc 5:19–20)

Evidently, at this time Jerusalem and the temple were held as the linchpin or identity of Judaism—that God had chosen Israel because He placed His name in Jerusalem. The writer reminds his readers that they had things backwards: God had first chosen the nation (Deut 7:6), then afterward had chosen a place to put His name as a dwelling place whereat He might be called (Deut 12:5). While the desecration and looting of the temple was a great tragedy, the greater tragedy was the malaise of the nation concerning the holy things coupled with the loss of human life. Later teaching from Jesus describes the continued downward trajectory of the leaders’ spiritual condition, becoming stagnant and twisted to the extent that the gold of the temple was held in higher esteem than the temple itself (Matt 23:16–17); however, at this time, there seemed to be an understanding that the Lord would and did restore the former glory of the city, temple, and nation upon becoming reconciled with His people.

While we continue on this earth, our sins and trespasses separates us from Him. Isaiah describes the condition this way: But your sins stand between you and your God, and He turned His face from you because of your sins, so as to have no mercy (Isa 59:2). Yet in spite of this great wall, the promise of restoration continues as a theme throughout Scripture. Beginning with Adam’s fall, the Lord had promised action (Gen 3:15); and by virtue of the One promised, a means of atonement and reconciliation was available. Presented with the facts, sinners have opportunity to repent (Isa 59:12–14). We see this continuing even in the churches of Revelation mentioned in yesterday’s post as the Lord warns:

• Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else… (Rev 2:2)
• Repent, or else… (Rev 2:16)
• I will cast her into a sickbed,… unless they repent of their deeds. (Rev 2:22)
• Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. (Rev 3:3)
• As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. (Rev 3:19)

This seems like a who lot of Law being dropped on the people them, and our sinful flesh fights against it; but we need to understand that He has already accomplished the victory for us. By grace through faith, we are reconciled to God (Rom 5:10–11); and when His people repent, He fights for them:

He put on righteousness as a breastplate and placed the helmet of salvation on His head. He clothed Himself with the garment and covering of vengeance, as a recompense of recompenses, even a rebuke to His adversaries. Those from the west shall fear the name of the Lord, and those from the east, His glorious name; for the wrath of the Lord shall come like a violent river; it shall come with anger. (Isa 59:17–19)

For Judas Maccabeus and the faithful of Israel, their day eventually came as hostilities ceased with the Greeks through a truce. To be sure, it was a temporary peace, but the Lord was true to His promise. We know what would happen later when the God Himself came, offering the kingdom of heaven: they rejected Him and His gift outright. But God was still faithful to His word: to those who received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believed on His name. Those are they who received ultimate reconciliation and peace.

Enhancing the Worship Experience

History is replete with examples of clerical leaders attempting to “enhance the worship experience” by applying elements of the surrounding culture. The usual impetus for such a change stems from some combination of maintaining a base by appeasing dissatisfied attendees and building up numbers by attracting indifferent onlookers. Practices and patterns from leading or trending entities are often borrowed under the assumption that pragmatic or appealing elements of the populace will sufficiently engage, energize, and build the local church. Is this strategy wise? What are the effects of such changes?

The first example is an account from Israel’s history during the reign of Antiochus I Epiphanes (175–164 ʙᴄ). The account begins in 2 Maccabees 4:10–12.

When the king assented and Jason seized the high priesthood, he at once changed his countrymen over to the Greek way of life. He set aside the royal benefits to the Jews brought about through John, the father of Eupolemus, the ambassador who established friendship and alliance with the Romans. He also renounced and destroyed conformity to the laws, and created a new civic life contrary to the customs. For he eagerly founded a gymnasium under the citadel itself, and persuaded the most noble of the young men to wear the Greek cap.

Jason, brother of Onias the high priest, usurped the position and instituted sweeping changes to Hellenize the Jews in an effort to make the nation more amenable to their Greek overlords. Continuing the account in verse 13, what was the result?

So there was the fullest expression of Hellenization and the adoption of foreign customs because of the surpassing wickedness of Jason, who was ungodly and not a true high priest. Therefore the priests were no longer eager to serve at the altar, but they despised the temple and neglected the sacrifices. Instead, they hastened to take part in the unlawful proceedings in the wrestling-school after the invitation to the discus. They counted the honors of their fathers as nothing, but regarded Greek honors as the best. For this reason, difficult circumstances overtook them, and those whose way of life they admired and wished altogether to assimilate became their enemies and punished them.

Jason was wildly successful in his attempt to turn the culture, but instead of making life better for the Jews, the enterprise imploded as the priests abandoned godly worship for worldly adulation; and the Greek, seeing how they were being emulated, disdained the effort even becoming hostile. So much for good intentions.

Would Christians fare any better? We might believe so because of the presence of the Holy Spirit and all that, but 250 years after the above, St. Paul starts a church whose members decided that they could do what they please (just like the culture) necessitating a letter with scathing remarks like:

• For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.
• you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?
• It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife!
• Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?… I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers!
• For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk.

Maybe we can give the church in Corinth a pass, since they had not yet matured and received the benefit of all the apostolic writings, but fast forward 30+ years:

• But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
• [Y]ou allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
• Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

Jesus Himself identifies what these churches from Revelation 2–3 have allowed from the culture, condemns it all, and calls for repentance. Sadly, we believers are just as prone to tweak things in a worldly way.

When a church tries to assimilate processes, programs, or principles from the world, nothing good happens. We should be asking, “What has God told us that He wants?” He gave Moses a pattern for His habitation and its furnishings (Exod 25:9, 40). He gave clear instructions of what was acceptable worship in His holy place (Lev 1–7). He provided acceptable prayers and songs to be used or emulated when coming before Him. Perhaps these should be learned and revered before seeking fresh approaches.

What we are and have is not of this world. Attempts to add the world to the mix makes it useless for everyone. Why do we insist on chasing after the new and shiny? Because it’s new and shiny—and because we think we know better than God how things should work in our community. The fact is that we are more likely to tear down with our own hands what God has wrought while turning away the world because we are not offering anything but what the world already has. In other words, to borrow from a Hank Hill meme, “You’re not making Christianity any better. You’re just making culture worse.”

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” So He spoke this parable to them, saying: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:1–10)

Let us rejoice, therefore, that this sheep, which was lost in Adam, is raised up in Christ. The shoulders of Christ are the arms of the Cross: it is there that I deposited my sins, it is on the noble neck of this gallows that I rested. This ewe is unique in gender, not specifically; for “all of us are one body,” but many members, and that is why it is written, “You are the body of Christ, and members of his members." For “the Son of man came to save what had perished,” that is to say, all, since “as all die in Adam, so in Christ all receive the life.” He is therefore a rich shepherd, since all of us are one hundredth of His share.

He possesses the innumerable herds of angels, the archangels, the dominions, the powers, the thrones, and others, which He has left on the heights. And since they are reasonable, it is not without motive that they rejoice at the redemption of men. Moreover, it is still a stimulant to be good, to know that your conversion is pleasant to the troops of angels, each of whom must seek patronage or fear disgrace. Be you also joy for the angels; they are looking forward to your return.

Ambrose, Exposition of the Gospel of Luke 7.209

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Luke 14:25–35)

The Father did not send the only-begotten Son, the living God, to judge the world but to save the world. True to Himself and faithful to the will of the good God His Father, He points to a doctrine whereby we may be made worthy of becoming His disciples with his severe decree. He says, “If any man comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, and his wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” This hatred teaches the virtue of piety by withdrawing us from distractions and does not lead us to devise hurtful schemes against one another. “Whoever,” says the Lord, “does not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.” Receiving the baptism of water, we make this same agreement when we promise to be crucified and to die and to be buried with Him.

Basil the Great, Concerning Baptism 1.1

We are therefore given most clearly to understand, that when God calls us unto Him, to make us partakers of His bounty, we must disregard the lusts that are of the flesh, and minister to the flesh, and set no value whatsoever upon the things of this world, but exerting all our force must advance unto those things which will never have to be abandoned, and which fill us with all blessedness, as God bestows with bounteous hand upon us His gifts, and like one welcoming us to a costly banquet, admits us to the right of rejoicing with the rest of the saints in the hope of future blessings. For the things of earth, are but of little value and last only for a time, and belong to the flesh solely, which is the victim of corruption. But those things which are divine and spiritual constantly and without ceasing accompany those who have once been counted worthy of receiving them, and reach onward to unending worlds.... To work in us therefore a mind incapable of being broken, and make us careless of every worldly matter for our love of Him, He commands us to hate even our relatives according to the flesh, and our own self also, if, as I have just said, the season call us thereto.

Cyril of Alexandria, Homilies on the Gospel of St. Luke 105

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14:7–14)

For when, He says, a more honorable man than you comes, he that invited you and him will say, “Give this man a place.” O! what great ignominy is there in having to do so! It is like a theft, so to speak, and the restitution of the stolen goods. He must restore what he has seized; for he had no right to take it. But the modest and praiseworthy man, who might without fear of blame have claimed the dignity of sitting among the foremost, does not seek it, but yields to others what might be called his own, that he may not even seem to be overcome by empty pride; and such a one shall receive honor as his due: for he shall hear, He says, him who invited him say, “Come up here.” …

If then anyone wishes to be set above others, let him win it by the decree of heaven and be crowned by those honors which God bestows. Let him surpass the many by having the testimony of glorious virtues; but the rule of virtue is a lowly mind that does not love boasting. Indeed, it is humility. And this the blessed Paul also counted worthy of all esteem for he writes to such as are eagerly desirous of saintly pursuits, “Love humility.” And the disciple of Christ praises it, thus writing; “Let the poor brother glory in his exaltation: and the rich in his humiliation, because as the flower of the grass he passes away.” For the sober and temperate mind is exalted with God: for “God,” it says, “will not despise the contrite and abased heart.”

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke 102

Knowing Our Place

Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at the footstool of His feet; for He is holy. (Psalm 99:5 LXX)

We believe that this verse pertains to you, oh people, inasmuch as you can grasp the divine mysteries which lead you to a reverent knowledge of God insofar as your minds can comprehend them. Extol God’s glory, knowing that when you have elevated your mind and have transcended every noble idea with regard to knowledge of Him, what we discover and worship is not the greatness of Him we seek, but the footstool of His feet. For us this signifies the submission and poverty of our minds in comparison to Him who is incomprehensible.

Gregory of Nyssa, On the Inscriptions of the Psalms 9

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Peter Paul Rubens, “The Fall of the Damned”

And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.” (Luke 13:22–30)

We must however next inquire who we are to understand by those who say unto Christ, ‘We have eaten and drunk in Your presence, and You have taught in our streets?’ Such an assertion then would suit the Israelites, to whom also Christ said, “you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves cast out.” But how then were they eating and drinking before God? I answer, by performing the service enacted in the law: for when offering unto God sacrifices by the shedding of blood, they ate and made merry. And they heard also in their synagogues the writings of Moses, interpreting God’s messages: for constantly he prefaced his words with, ‘Thus says the Lord.’ These then are they who say, “We have eaten and drunk in Your presence, and You have taught in our streets.” But the worship by the shedding of blood is not sufficient for justification, nor indeed does a man wash away his stains by having become a hearer of the divine laws, if he does nothing of what has been commanded. And in another way, as long as they refused to accept the faith, which justifies the wicked, nor would follow the evangelic commands, by means of which it is possible to practice the excellent and elect life, how could they enter the kingdom of God? The type therefore profits not: for it justifies no man, and it is a thing impossible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sins.

With the above named, you may number certain others also as able to say to the Judge of all, “we have eaten and drunk in Your presence, and You have taught in our streets.” And who again are these? Many have believed in Christ, and celebrate the holy festivals in His honor; and frequenting the churches they also hear the doctrines of the Gospel: but they lay up in their mind of the truths of Scripture absolutely nothing. And it is with difficulty that the practice of virtue is brought with them even to this extent, while of spiritual fruitfulness their heart is quite bare. These too shall weep bitterly, and gnash their teeth; for the Lord shall deny them also. For He has said, that “not every one that says unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of My Father Who is in heaven.”

But that the Jews were about to fall utterly from their rank of being in a spiritual sense His household, and that the multitude of the Gentiles should enter in their stead, He shewed by saying, that “there shall come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, many who received the call, and shall rest with the saints; but they shall be driven away: and whereas they once had the first rank, they shall now take the second, by reason of others being preferred before them.” Which also happened; for the Gentiles have been honored far above the Jews. For the latter were guilty both of disobedience and of the murder of the Lord: but the former honored the faith that is in Christ; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke 99

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. (Luke 12:49–53)

We affirm therefore that the fire which is sent forth by Christ is for men’s salvation and profit: God grant that all our hearts may be full thereof. For the fire here is, I say, the saving message of the Gospel, and the power of its commandments, by which all of us upon earth, who were so to speak cold and dead because of sin, and in ignorance of Him Who by nature and truly is God, are kindled unto a life of piety, and made “fervent in spirit,” according to the expression of the blessed Paul. And besides this we are also made partakers of the Holy Spirit, Who is as fire within us. For we have been baptized with fire and the Holy Spirit. And we have learned the way thereto, by what Christ says to us: for listen to His words; “Truly I say to you, that except a man is born of water and spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” … Would you see the effects of this divine and rational fire? Hear then again His words: “Or do you think that I am come to give peace upon earth? I tell you, no, but division.” And yet Christ is our peace, according to the Scriptures. “He has broken down the middle wall: He has united the two people in one new man, so making peace: and has reconciled both in one body unto the Father.” He has united the things below to them that are above: how therefore did He not come to give peace upon earth? What then do we say to these things?

That peace is an honorable and truly excellent thing when given by God. For the prophets also say; “Lord, grant us peace: for You have given us all things.” But not every peace necessarily is free from blame. There is sometimes, so to speak, an unsafe peace, and which separates from the love of God those who, without discretion or examination, set too high a value upon it. As for instance: the determination to avoid evil men, and refuse to be at peace with them;—by which I mean not submitting to entertain the same sentiments as they do;—is a thing profitable and useful to us. And in like manner the opposite course is injurious to those who have believed in Christ, and attained to the knowledge of His mystery. To such it is unprofitable to be willing to follow the same sentiments as those who wander away from the right path, and have fallen into the net of heathen error, or been caught in the snares of wicked heresies. With these it is honorable to contend, and to set the battle constantly in array against them, and to glory in holding opposite sentiments; so that even though it be a father that believes not, the son is free from blame who contradicts him, and resists his opinions. And in like manner also the father, if he be a believer, and true unto God, but his son disobedient and evilly disposed, and that opposes the glory of Christ, is also free from blame, if he disregard natural affection, and disowns him as his child. And the same reasoning holds with respect to mother and daughter: and daughter-in-law and mother-in-law. For it is right that those who are in error should follow those who are sound in mind: and not, on the contrary, that those should give way whose choice is to entertain correct sentiments, and who have a sound knowledge of the glory of God.

And this Christ has also declared to us in another manner; “He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me: and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me.” When therefore you deny an earthly father for your piety’s sake towards Christ, then shall you gain as Father Him Who is in heaven. And if you give up a brother because he dishonors God, by refusing to serve Him, Christ will accept you as His brother: for with His other bounties He has given us this also, saying; “I will declare Your Name to My brethren.” Leave your mother after the flesh, and take her who is above, the heavenly Jerusalem, “which is our mother:” so will you find a glorious and mighty lineage in the family of the saints. With them you will be heir of God’s gifts, which neither the mind can comprehend, nor language tell. Of which may we too be counted worthy by the grace and loving-kindness of Christ, the Savior of us all; by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke 94