Беседа о священномученике Фоке и против еретиков, и на 141 псалом: «голосом моим к Господу воззвал я, голосом моим к Господу помолился» *10

Transfer of the relics of the holy martyr, a call to participate in the celebration. The fight against heretics is not directed against people, but against error; it does not destroy people, but heals them. The meekness of Christ before the servant of the high priest. The prophet’s denunciation of Jeroboam is an example of God’s long-suffering and a lesson for people to forgive personal offenses. The Church calls on everyone, and if admonitions to heretics are useless, the fault lies with their corrupted will. Heretics reinterpret Holy Scripture only to their own destruction, without harming either God with their blasphemies or the dignity of Scripture. Holy Scripture not only assigns the name God to the Father, but also to the Son. The name Lord is not lower than the name God. 1. Yesterday our city was brilliant, brilliant and magnificent, not because there were columns in it, but because there was a martyr who came to us in triumph from Pontus. He saw your hospitality, and filled you with blessing; he praised your diligence and blessed those present. I called those who gathered and took part in its fragrance blessed, and those who were absent I called unfortunate; but so that their loss does not remain incorrigible, we glorify him again on another day, so that those who were absent due to negligence would double the blessing from the martyr with zeal. As I have often said, I will never stop saying: I do not demand punishment for sin, but I prepare medicine for the weak. Were you away yesterday? Come today, though, so that you can see him going to his own place. Did you see him walking through the marketplace? See him floating on the sea, so that both elements (air and water) are filled with his blessing. Let no one shy away from this sacred celebration - let no virgin remain at home, nor let the wife linger in the home; Let us leave the city empty and move to the tomb of the martyr; after all, the kings rejoice with us. What justification does a private person have when kings leave the royal palaces and sit at the tomb of a martyr? Such is the power of martyrs that it seizes not only private people, but also those who wear diadems; she is the shame of the pagans, she is the reproach of their error, she is the destruction of demons, she is our nobility and the crown of the Church. I rejoice with the martyrs and dance, looking at their trophy instead of meadows, because instead of springs they bled blood; their bones are exhausted, and their memory grows younger every day. Just as it is impossible for the sun to go out, so it is for the memory of the martyrs, because Christ himself said: “heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). However, we will postpone the praise of the martyr until a convenient time: and what has been said is sufficient because of the zeal of those who had to gather and make the day of the holiday brilliant. As I said yesterday, so I say again today: for a martyr there will be no glory from the presence of many, but for you blessing will be profit from the presence of a martyr. Just as he who looks at the sun does not make this luminary brighter, but illuminates his own eyes, so he who venerates a martyr does not make him more glorious, but he himself receives an enlightening blessing from him. Let us make the sea a Church again, going out there with lamps, combining fire with water and filling the water with fire. Let no one be afraid of the sea; the martyr was not afraid of death, but you are afraid of water? However, we have said enough about this subject; Let us now offer you an ordinary meal from what we read today. Although your bodies are cramped, let your soul be inspired; I look not at your cramped conditions, but at your zeal. The troubled sea is pleasant for the helmsman, and the overflowing Church is pleasant for the teacher; in these waters there is no salinity, no underwater stone, no monsters, but the sea and moisture, full of fragrance; here are ships sailing not from earth to earth, but from earth to heaven, containing not money, not gold and not silver, but faith, love, jealousy and wisdom. 2. Let us therefore carefully guide the ship, which never perishes or is shipwrecked. But listen carefully to what is being said; the psalm today leads us to battle with heretics, not in order to overthrow those standing, but to raise up those lying; This is precisely our war: it does not make the living dead, but it prepares the living from the dead, abounding in meekness and great humility. I persecute not by deed, but by word, not a heretic, but a heresy; I do not turn away a person, but I hate error and want to attract (the erring) one to myself; I am not waging war against a creature, because the creature is the work of God, but I want to correct the mind, which is corrupted by the devil. Just as a doctor, when treating a sick person, does not fight against the body, but destroys the damage to the body, so if I fight with heretics, I do not fight with the people themselves, but I want to destroy delusion and cleanse rottenness. I am accustomed to endure persecution, and not to pursue, to be persecuted, and not to persecute. So Christ conquered, not crucifying, but crucified, not striking, but accepting blows. “If I said bad,” He says, “show what is bad; What if it is good that you beat Me” (John 18:23)? The Lord of the universe is justified before the servant of the high priest, having received blows on his lips, from which the word came and tamed the sea and raised the four-day-old Lazarus from the dead, from which evil fled, from which illnesses and sins were resolved: this is the miracle of the Crucified. Having the power to send lightning, to shake the earth, to wither the hand of a slave, He did nothing of the kind, but even justifies himself and overcomes with meekness, teaching you, a man, never to become indignant, so that you, even if you were crucified, even if you received blows, would say the same as your Master: “If I said bad, show that it is bad; What if it’s good that you beat Me”? And look at His love for mankind, how He avenges the insults of slaves, but allows the insults to Himself. There was once a prophet who denounced the wicked king and, coming, said: “altar, altar,” listen (1 Kings 13:2)! Since King Jeroboam stood sacrificing sacrifice to idols, the prophet, having arrived, turns his speech to the altar. What are you doing, prophet? Do you leave the person and talk to the altar? Yes, he says. Why? Since man has become more insensitive than a stone, I leave him and talk with it, so that you will know that the stone listens, but man does not listen. Listen to the altar, listen, and immediately “the altar fell apart” (1 Kings 13:5). The king “stretched out... his hand”, wanting to seize the prophet, but could not bend it (1 Kings 13:4). Do you see that the altar listened more than the king? Do you see that he left the wise and converses with the foolish, so that through the obedience of the latter he can correct the insensibility and malice of the former? The altar was broken, but the king’s anger was not broken. But look at what happened: the king stretched out his hand to grab the prophet, and immediately “his hand became numb” (1 Kings 13:4). Since he was not corrected by the punishment of the altar, he learns obedience to God through his own punishment. Sparing you, I wanted to pour out my anger on the stone, but since the stone did not become a teacher for you, then you accept the punishment. And “she stretched out... her hand, and immediately became numb.” She then became the trophy of the prophet, and the king could not bend her. Where is the tiara? Where are the porphyries? Where is the armor? Where are the shields? Where is the army? Where are the spears? God commanded, and all this perished; The nobles stood by, not having the strength to help, but becoming only spectators of the blow. And “he stretched out... his hand... and became stiff”; when it became dry, then it bore fruit. Look at the example of the tree that was in paradise and the tree of the godfather. Just as that tree, being in blossom, produced death, and the tree of the cross, being dry, gave birth to life, so it was with the hand of the king: when it was in blossom, then it produced wickedness, and when it became dry, then it brought about obedience; these are the wonderful works of God! But, as I said, when He himself received blows, he did no harm to the one striking; and when his servant was threatened with insult, He punished the king, teaching you to take revenge for insults to God, and to let insults pass by you yourself. Just as I let My insults pass, but avenge yours, so you avenge Mine, and let yours pass. But turn your ears to me with intensity (after all, listeners need to have intense ears when it is time for exploits), so that you know exactly how I bind, how I resolve the sins of my opponents, how I fight and how I defeat. If those sitting at the spectacle bend down when two people fight, strain their gaze, stand on their toes in order to see the fight filled with shame, in order to see the fight that is shameful to imitate, then much more should we listen carefully to the Divine Scriptures. If you praise a fighter, then why don’t you become a fighter yourself? If you are ashamed to become a fighter, then why do you imitate their praise? But here the struggle is not the same, but it is common to everyone and useful for both those speaking and those listening. I fight with the heretic in order to make you warriors, so that you, not only when you sing, but also when you talk, stop their mouths. What does the prophet say? “With my voice I cried to the Lord, with my voice I prayed to the Lord” (Ps. 142:1). Pay attention: does this word really seem to give rise to a fight? Look how I weave the crown and the subject of the competition. “With my voice I cried to the Lord, with my voice I prayed to the Lord.” Here call the heretic to me, whether he is present or not. If he is present, then let him learn from our voice; and if he is not present, then let those who listen through you know. However, as I said, I do not persecute him who is present, but I accept him persecuted not by you, but by my own conscience, in the words of the one who said: “The wicked flees when no one is pursued” (Prov. 28:1). The Church is the mother of her children, who accepts them and opens her depths to strangers. The common place of the spectacle was Noah's Ark, but the Church is better than that. He accepted foolish animals and kept them foolish, but this one accepts foolish animals and changes them. For example: if a heretic fox comes here, I make him a sheep; whether a wolf comes in, I make him a lamb, as much as depends on me; if he doesn’t want to, then this is not at all from me, but from his own unreasonableness. So Christ had twelve disciples, and one became a traitor, but not from Christ, but from his own corrupted will. So Elisha had a student who loved money, but not because of the weakness of the teacher, but because of the negligence of the student. I throw seeds; if you are a rich land that receives seeds, then you will reward the ear; and if you are a barren stone, then this is not at all from me: whether you listen or don’t listen, I will not stop singing a spiritual song to you and watering your wounds, so that I don’t hear on that day: “You wicked servant... you should have given my silver to the merchants” (Matthew 25:26-27). “With my voice I cried to the Lord, with my voice I prayed to the Lord.” 3. What are you saying, heretic? Who is the prophet talking about, and who does he call Lord and God? We are talking about one person. Heretics, reinterpreting the Scriptures on their own and always seeking arguments against their salvation, do not feel how they are pushing themselves into the abyss of destruction: and he who glorifies the Son of God does not make Him more glorious, and he who slander does not harm him, because an incorporeal Being has no need of our glorification; but just as he who calls the sun bright does not add light to it, and he who calls it dark does not diminish its essence, but only in his judgment represents an example of his own blindness, so he who calls the Son of God not a Son, but a creature, presents evidence of his own madness, and he who recognizes His (divine) being shows his own prudence; and neither this one benefits Him, nor does the other harm Him, but one fights against his salvation, and the other for his salvation. They, as I said, reinterpreting the Scriptures, skip the rest, and look to see if there is a reason somewhere that seems to contribute somewhat to their illness. Don't tell me that Scripture is the reason for this; It is not Scripture that is the reason, but their foolishness, just as honey is sweet, but the patient considers it bitter, but this is not a reproach for honey, but a complaint about illness. Likewise, madmen do not see objects, but this is not the fault of visible objects, but the perverted judgment of a madman. God created heaven so that we would look at the creation and worship the Creator, and the pagans would deify the creation; but the cause is not the creation, but their unreasonableness, and just as a foolish person does not receive benefit from anyone, so a prudent person receives benefit from himself. What is the same with Christ? However, Judas did not benefit from Him either. What is more wicked than the devil? However, Job received the crown. Christ did not benefit Judas because he was foolish, nor did the devil harm Job because he was prudent. I say this so that no one condemns the Scriptures, but it is the foolishness of those who interpret evilly what is said well. After all, the devil also talked with Christ from the Scriptures. But the fault is not Scripture, but the mind, which badly interprets what is said well. Wanting to prove that the Son is less than the Father, heretics go around looking for strange expressions, and about these names: God and Lord, they say that the Father is God, and the Son is the Lord, they separate these names and attribute the name God to the Father, and the name Lord to the Son, as real dividers of the Divinity and distributors of lots. Does Scripture ascribe to the Son the title: Lord? Is this what it says? Didn’t you hear how the psalm spoke today to one person: “With my voice I cried to the Lord, with my voice I prayed to God”? So it calls him both Lord and God. Who do you think is God – the Son or the Father? Of course you will say that these names belong to the Father. So the Son is God, and the Father is Lord. Why do you separate these names, and add one there, and separate the other here? And Paul (oh, if you listened to Paul and were blessed!) says: “But we have one God the Father, from whom are all things... and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things” (1 Cor. 8:6). Did he call the Son God? But how? Lord. Well, tell me, is God more important than the Lord, and the Lord less than God? Listen, I beg you, with intense attention; If I prove that the Lord and God are one, what will you say? Are you saying that God is greater and the Lord is less? Listen to the prophet who says: “The Lord who made the heavens is the God who formed the earth” (Is. 45:18); The Lord is heaven, and God is earth; He used the words Lord and God about the same person. And again: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord thy God is one Lord” (Deut. 6:4). Twice - Lord, and once - God; and first - the Lord, then - God, and again - the Lord. If the latter were lower, and the first higher, then about the great Being he would not use the expression less before the greater, but, having said more, he would be content and would not add less. Did you understand what I said? I will repeat the instruction, since this is not a spectacle for show, but a lesson for spiritual contrition, not so that you leave here unarmed, but so that you return armed. God, you say, you heretic, is higher, and the Lord is lower? I pointed out to you the prophet who says: “The Lord who created the heavens is the God who formed the earth.” I point you to Moses, who says: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God, there is one Lord.” How can one be one if there are two names, one of a lesser and the other of a greater being? A being is certainly neither greater nor less than itself, but equal and inseparable. “The Lord your God is one Lord”; Here I prove to you that the name Lord is the same as God. In general, if the Lord is lower and God is higher, then what should His name be: the lesser - Lord, or the greater - God? If he says: What is my name? what do you say, heretic? Would you say that Lord is the name of the Son, and God is the name of the Father, as more appropriate? But if I prove to you that the lesser name Lord serves as His distinctive name, then what will you do? “Let them know that your name is the Lord,” says the prophet (Ps. 83:19). Did he say: God? Although if the name God is greater, then why didn’t the prophet say: “Let them know that your name is God”? If His own and characteristic name is God, and alien to Him, as inferior, is Lord, then why did he say: “Let them know that your name is Lord,” a small, lesser, lower name of His dignity, and did not say the great and lofty name worthy of His being? So that you know that this is neither small nor inferior, but has the same power: “let them know that your name is Lord, you are the only one highest in all the earth.” 4. But you do not retreat from the battle, but again say that the name God is greater, and the Lord is less? So, if I show that the Son is called by this great name, what do you say? Will you stop the fight? Will you fall behind the competition? Will you acknowledge your salvation? Will you be free from madness? Did you understand what I said? Since the name Lord is attributed to the Son, and God to the Father, as a greater one, then if I show you that the Son is called by this greater name - God, the battle is over - I conquer you with your weapon and on your wings I become higher than you. You said that the name God is greater, and the Lord is less; I want to prove that less became not the Father if He was greater, and greater did not become the Son if the Son was less. Listen to the prophet who says: “This is our God, and no one else can compare with Him. He found all the ways of wisdom... After this He appeared on earth and spoke among people” (Bar.3:36-38). What do you say to this? Will you refute these words? But you cannot - the truth remains shining with its own light and blinding the eyes of heretics who do not want to believe it. Although this competition is deep and the heat is great, this word is greater, superior to the inconvenience of those listening, and the heat is quenched by the dew of teaching; and if we meet once or twice a week, the listener must not be careless. When you leave here and someone asks you: what did the teacher talk about? - you will say: against heretics; if he says: what was he talking about? - and you are not able to answer, then shame on you is the greatest; and if you answer, you will prick him; if he is a heretic, you will correct him; if it is a careless friend, you will attract him; if the wife is intemperate, admonish her, - and you are obliged to answer the wife: “Wives,” they say, “keep silent in churches... If they want to learn something, let them ask... their husbands” (1 Cor. 14:34-35). When you come home and your wife asks you: what did you bring me from church? - tell her: not meat, and not wine, and not gold, and not the clothes that decorate the body, but the word, making the soul wise. When you come to your wife, offer a spiritual meal; say in advance, while your memory is fresh: let us enjoy the spiritual, and then we will enjoy the sensory meal, because if we arrange our affairs in this way, we will have God among us, both blessing the meal and crowning us. For all this, let us thank the Father himself, with the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. Pronounced in Constantinople and, if the mention that Chrysostom was accustomed to endure persecution himself, and not to persecute others, is considered an indication of the exile of Chrysostom, then in the time between his first and second exile, i.e. at the end of 403 or at the beginning of 404; but the transfer of the relics of St. Foki is celebrated on July 22. 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