To the words (Luke 12:49); and: (Matt. 10:34)

Child-loving mothers, while their newborn children are in the most tender and helpless infancy, feed their dear little ones with milk from their own breasts, as the simplest and easiest food; and when they grow up and begin to understand enough to process softer food with their teeth, then initially the mothers, having crushed the hard bread and turned it into a soft and tender mass, like a brain, put the ready-made food into their mouths. Church teachers do the same. They do not offer difficult and incomprehensible thoughts to those who are infants in the matter of understanding, but like mothers, offering them mental breasts, they give them the opportunity to feed on pure verbal milk. And then, when babies grow in understanding to the ability to understand more sublime thoughts, they gradually reveal to them the more mysterious sides of the teaching. Paul did this too. To those who were still infants in the matter of faith, he said in his letter: “He fed you with milk, and not with solid food” (1 Cor. 3:2). And our Lord still uses this very method: distributing the Gospel Scriptures in accordance with the condition of the listeners, in previous days He offered us, like babies, soft and light verbal food, and now, recognizing the power of our understanding as stronger, He introduces us to higher truths. What exactly does He say (in the current Gospel reading)? “I came to bring down fire on the earth” and: “I came not to bring peace, but a sword.” Those who are immature in their minds think that the Lord came to destroy everything with fire and cut everyone with the sword. But let us, having admitted for a while the justice of such an infantile understanding of the words of Christ, let us talk with the Lord himself in His own words in order to explain the words of the Lord to infants. “I have come to bring down fire on the earth.” You came to bring down fire on the earth, O Lord, and you did not bring peace to the earth, but a sword? Sin has enslaved us, death has gained dominance over us, fiery Gehenna threatens us, a horde of evil demons has taken up arms against us, and we were waiting for You as the intercessor promised by the prophets, and You came with these words: “I have come to bring down fire on the earth” and: “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword”? Our faith is weak, we are unable to resist the onslaught of demons, we do not have the weapon of faith, the devil stole the helmet of our truth from us, tearing it off Adam in paradise. And so, each of us, finding ourselves helpless, calls on You for help: “Enter, O Lord, into litigation with those who litigate with me, overcome those who fight with me; take your shield and armor and rise up to help me; Draw your sword and block the path of those who pursue me; say to my soul: “I am your salvation!”" (Ps. 35:1-3). And You, having come to our aid, say: “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword”? Where is the prayer of the saints for peace, raised to You: Lord our God, give us Your peace? After all, You gave us everything. We asked for peace, prayed for silence, did not want war, rejected the sword. And when you come, you say: “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” A terrible horde of demons has armed itself against us here: having cut us all with the double-edged sword of sin, it has cast us into hell. That is why we demand Your mercy; the whole face of the saints cried out to You, saying: “Shepherd of Israel! listen; you who lead Joseph like sheep, who sit on the Cherubim, show Yourself... raise up Your power, and come to save us” (Ps. 79:2, 3). Do you say: “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword”? Where is Your promise that said: “I send the world to him like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream for your enjoyment” (Isaiah 66:12)? Or where is the prediction of the holy fathers, expressed in these words: “Behold, the Lord will come and destroy the war”? Since the war was broken, we expected peace and help, but You came and said: “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword”? You sent prophets ahead of You, sent patriarchs, armed them with weapons of righteousness, so that they could resist the attacks of the devil and, having crushed the war, established peace in the world, as one of them said with gratitude: “Blessed is the Lord, my stronghold, who teaches my hands to fight and my fingers to fight” (Ps. 143:1). And when they, defeated, showed their rear to the enemy, calling on You, calling You for help and saying: “Lord! Bow down your heavens and come down” (Ps. 143:5), - You, having bowed the heavens and appearing on earth to save and pacify the human race, say: “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword”? How do You please the peacemakers so that they will be called sons of God? Why do You, who teaches others to make peace, say about Yourself: “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword”? Our sins have drawn us into enmity with God; We needed a mediator to resolve this hostility and give us the desired peace. And our father Job prayed for a mediator, saying: “There is no mediator between us who would lay his hand on both of us” (Job 9:33), - and You, having appeared as a mediator to end the hostility, say the completely opposite: “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword”? Where, finally, can we expect peace? “Yes, of course,” the Lord answers, “I came to bring down fire on the land trampled under your feet. Since the devil sowed sinful tares in the hearts of people, I came to bring down fire to the earth, consuming these tares. That is why I came to bring down fire on the earth and I want, since it has already ignited, to cleanse My land. I need to destroy the bitter and evil offspring of the devil in order to revive the heavenly seed with moisture in a pure soul. That is why I came to bring down fire on the earth. Having first created man from the earth, I implanted in the depths of his heart a divine spark of fire, so that with this fire the love of God would be kindled in him. And so, since this spark of Divine fire and this warmth could not be called out in order to receive the gracious ignition of the Holy Spirit - because the devil killed the souls of people with the cold of wickedness - then I needed to bring down fire to the earth in order to put an end to this winter generated by the devil in the souls and, giving peace and silence to the soul, to make it blooming and fruitful again.” And so He (the Lord) enters his (the devil’s) courtyard, hiding the shepherd under the sheep’s clothing of the body, having neither a club nor a staff with Him, threatening for the previous error, so that the frightened sheep would not again run away from its shepherd. He enters the house of the Pharisee, not as God, not as a King, not as the Sun of righteousness, but as man to man, as lamb to lamb; shares his meal, grazes with him, eats grass together, approaches, condescends to the one who has already fallen under the power of sin, so that, sharing his fall with him, he can raise the fallen one with Himself. And when He entered (the house of the Pharisee), He did not wash according to the custom of the Pharisee. He did this for two reasons: firstly, to give the sheep a reason to talk to the shepherd, and secondly, to destroy the Jewish teaching on this subject and establish the spiritual. “But the Pharisee,” says the evangelist, “was surprised when he saw that He did not wash his hands” (Luke 11:38). He was surprised, not praising the teacher, but perplexed about what had happened, not praising, but condemning. Thus, beloved, the creature condemned its Creator and the clay showed the potter his mistake. But the Pharisee said this without looking with the hidden eyes of the heart of the Chief of the angels, seraphim and cherubim who came to him. Of course, if only he had seen Him, he would have fallen at His knees, wet His feet with his tears and said: “Be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13)! Thou hast brought everything from non-existence to being; by Thy word the heavens are established, and by the Spirit of Thy mouth all their power; You hold the waters of the sea in a bag; You lay in the treasury of the deep; The whole earth trembles for you; The whole universe is shocked by you: this is what the Pharisee could say. But without thinking anything like that, without saying anything, he condemned the Teacher. And just as the Lord gave the Samaritan woman a reason to ask Him for eternal water by the fact that He himself asked her for water for Himself, so He calls the Pharisee into a conversation in the same way: imperceptibly He begins to turn the sheep to Himself and leads it from error to the truth. “Now,” He says, “you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and platter, but your insides are full of robbery and wickedness” (Luke 11:39). That is: you now decorate the body, but defile the souls. But what is the pleasure of having a golden vessel if the drink it contains is deadly? Isn't that what harlots are like? Their faces bloom with colors, but their souls perish. Do they not, by rouging their faces with purple paint, create with their fingers the likeness of the fire that threatens them, when they should sprinkle their very hearts with the blood of Jesus and whiten their souls with His Spirit, so that the color of the soul shines like a rose in union with a lily? Instead, they rub their faces to inflame the hearts of young men with violent lust. “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter, but your insides are full of robbery and deceit.” John said: Why do you wash your body with water, but do not cleanse your sins with the Spirit? And I decide to add, beloved, that there is no benefit to a person, even if he cleanses both body and spirit, if at the same time he forgets about alms. Just as a vessel washed both outside and inside, but not filled with drink, cannot quench anyone’s thirst, just as a dish washed both outside and inside will not satisfy the hungry unless food is put on it, so a person, even if he was completely clean both outside and inside, will not feed the Lord unless he feeds a slave like himself. That is why the Lord adds this instruction: “Better to give alms from what you have, then everything will be clean for you,” He says (Luke 11:41). He is pleased not so much with valuable offerings as with unfeigned sacrifices from a pure heart. You may be poor, but don’t shout that you don’t have gold and silver to give alms to. Give me what you have. And two mites justify: remember the widow who was justified more than those whose sacrifices were much richer. God does not count money, but tests conscience. Alms cleanses the sins of fornicators and accumulates good rewards. Almsgiving whitens souls and prepares (eternal) pleasures. Oh, alms, life of souls, guide of the soul, most beautiful weapon! Throw in gold and you get Christ. Give silver and receive the Holy Spirit. Scatter the copper and the poison of sin will be thrown out with it. Wait 1 alms and put out the fire. Give out your garments so that you may be healed in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion throughout the age of ages. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and classified in the Minya edition as Spuria.