Homily 20 — Hebrews 10, verses 26 to 31

“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fiery indignation that will devour the adversaries.” [a]

Trees that have been planted, and have had the benefit of every other kind of care, the hands and the labors of the farmer, and yet give no return for all that labor, are pulled up by the roots and handed over to the fire. Something of the same kind happens in the case of our illumination too. When Christ has planted us, and we have enjoyed the watering of the Spirit, and then we show no fruit, fire awaits us — the fire of hell — and a flame that is never put out.

So Paul, having urged them to love and to bearing the fruit of good works, and having pressed them with the gentler considerations — and what are these? That we have an entrance into the holy of holies, “the new way which he has inaugurated for us” (Hebrews 10, verse 20) — now does the same again from the grimmer ones. This is how he speaks. He had said, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10, verse 25). That was enough to comfort them, and so he added, “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth.” Good works are needed, he means — yes, they are very greatly needed. “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins.”

You were cleansed. You were set free from the charges against you. You became a son. If, then, you return to your former vomit, what awaits you instead is excommunication, and fire, and everything of that kind. For there is no second sacrifice.

At this point we are attacked once more, both by those who do away with repentance and by those who put off coming to baptism. The second group say it is not safe for them to come to baptism, since there is no second forgiveness. The first claim it is not safe to give the mysteries to those who have sinned, if there is no second forgiveness. [c]

What, then, shall we say to them both? That he does not do away with repentance, or with the making of peace with God that comes through repentance, nor does he push away the fallen and throw them down into despair. He is not such an enemy of our salvation. What, then? He does away with the second washing. He did not say, “there is no more repentance,” or “there is no more forgiveness,” but there is “no more sacrifice” — that is, there is no second cross. That is what he means by sacrifice. “For by one sacrifice,” he says, “he has perfected forever those who are made holy” (Hebrews 10, verse 14) — not like the Jewish rites. That is why he has said so much all the way through about the sacrifice, that it is one, only one. He wanted to show not only that in this it differed from the Jewish rites, but also to make people more steadfast, so that they would no longer look for another sacrifice according to the Jewish law.

“For,” he says, “if we sin willfully.” See how ready he is to pardon! He says, “if we sin willfully,” so there is pardon for those who sin unwillingly. “After the knowledge of the truth”: he means either the knowledge of Christ, or of all the teachings. “There remains no more sacrifice for sins” — but what? “A certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fiery indignation that will devour the adversaries.” By “adversaries” he means not only the unbelievers, but also those who do what is against virtue. Or else he means that the same fire that receives “the adversaries” will receive those of the household as well.

Then, to express how it devours, he speaks of it as though it were alive: “a fiery indignation that will devour the adversaries.” A wild beast that has been provoked, and is very fierce and savage, will not rest until it can seize someone and eat him up. In the same way that fire, as though goaded by fury, does not let go of whatever it can seize, but devours it and tears it to pieces.

Next he adds the reason for the threat as well: that it is well founded, that it is just. For it helps to make a threat believed when we show that it is just. [e]

For, he says, “Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses” (verse 28). “Without mercy,” he says: there is no pardon there, no pity, even though it is the law of Moses — for it was he who laid down most of it. What does “on the testimony of two or three” mean? If two or three bore witness, he means, the offender was punished at once.

If, then, under the old covenant there was such heavy punishment when the law of Moses was treated with contempt, “how much worse punishment, do you think, will he be judged to deserve, who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant a common thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (verse 29).

And how does someone trample underfoot the Son of God? When he has shared in him in the mysteries, he means, and then has committed sin — has he not trampled him underfoot? Has he not despised him? We take no account of people who are trampled underfoot; in the same way, those who sin have taken no account of Christ, and that is how they came to sin. You have become the body of Christ, and do you hand yourself over to the devil, so that he tramples you underfoot?

“And has counted the blood a common thing,” he says. What does “common” mean? It means “unclean,” or having nothing more than other things have.

“And has insulted the Spirit of grace.” For whoever does not accept a kindness insults the one who does the kindness. He made you a son, and you want to become a slave. He came to live with you, and you bring wicked thoughts in to him. Christ wanted to stay with you, and you trample him down by overeating, by drunkenness.

Let us listen, all of us who share in the mysteries unworthily; let us listen, all who come to that Table unworthily. “Do not give what is holy to the dogs,” he says, “lest in time they trample it under their feet” (Matthew 7, verse 6) — that is, lest they despise it, lest they reject it. Yet Paul did not say this, but something more fearful than this. For he grips their souls with what is fearful, since fear is suited to turning people around no less than comfort is. And at the same time he shows the difference, and the punishment, and sets the judgment that awaits them before their eyes as though it were plain to see: “How much worse punishment, do you think, will he be judged to deserve?” Here too he seems to me to be hinting at the mysteries.

Next he adds testimony, saying, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (verses 31 and 30). “For” it is written, “Vengeance belongs to me, I will repay, says the Lord. And again, The Lord will judge his people.” Elsewhere it is said, “Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men” (Sirach 2, verse 18). But if you do not repent, you will “fall into the hands” of God. That is fearful; to “fall into the hands of men” is nothing. What he means is this: when we see anyone punished here, let us not be terrified at the things of the present, but shudder at the things to come. “For as his mercy is, so is his wrath.” And, “His indignation will rest upon sinners” (Sirach 5, verse 6). [g]

At the same time he hints at something else as well. For “Vengeance belongs to me,” he says, “I will repay.” This is said about their enemies, the ones who are doing evil, not about those who are suffering evil. Here he is comforting them too, almost saying: God lives and remains forever, so even if they do not receive their due now, they will receive it later. They are the ones who ought to groan, not we. We will fall into their hands, but they into the hands of God. For it is not the one who suffers wrong who suffers the harm, but the one who does it; and it is not the one who receives a kindness who is helped, but the one who does it.

Knowing these things, then, let us be patient when we suffer evil, and eager when it comes to kindness. And this will happen if we think little of wealth and honor. Whoever has stripped himself of these passions is the most generous of all people, and richer even than the one who wears the purple.

Do you not see how many evils come through money? I do not mean how many come through greed, but simply through our attachment to these things. For example, if someone has lost his money, he lives a life more wretched than any death. Why do you grieve, man? Why do you weep? Because God has freed you from endless watching? Because you no longer sit trembling and afraid? Suppose someone chained you to a treasure and ordered you to sit there forever, keeping watch over other people’s goods: you would be upset, you would be disgusted. And now, after you have bound yourself with the heaviest of chains, do you grieve when you are set free from the slavery? Truly, our sorrows and joys are matters of imagination. For we guard these things as though they belonged to someone else.

Now what I have to say is for the women. A woman often has a garment woven with gold. She shakes it out, wraps it in linen, keeps it carefully, trembles over it, and gets no enjoyment from it. For either she dies, or she becomes a widow. Or even if neither of these things happens, she is afraid that by wearing it all the time she will wear it out and lose it, and so she loses it in another way, by sparing it. “But she hands it on to someone else.” That is not certain either. And even if she does hand it on, the next woman will treat it in just the same way. If anyone searched their houses, he would find the most costly garments and other choice things tended with special honor, as though they were living masters. For she does not wear them as a matter of course, but fears and trembles, driving off the moths and the other creatures that usually eat them, laying most of them away in perfumes and spices, not allowing everyone the honor of seeing them, but often arranging them carefully herself, together with her husband.

Tell me: did Paul not have good reason to call greed “idolatry” (Colossians 3, verse 5)? For these women show as much honor to their garments and their gold as idolaters do to their idols.

How long will we stir up the mud? How long will we be stuck fast in the clay and the brickmaking? As they toiled for the king of the Egyptians, so we toil for the devil, and we are flogged with far heavier lashes. For as far as the soul surpasses the body, so far does anxiety surpass the welts of a whipping. We are flogged every day; we are full of fear, of anxiety, of trembling. [i]

But if we will groan, if we will look up to God, he sends us not Moses, nor Aaron, but his own Word, and a pierced heart. When this word has come and taken hold of our souls, he will free us from the bitter slavery; he will bring us out of Egypt — out of useless and empty striving, out of a slavery that brings no gain. For they at least went out having received gold ornaments, the wages of their building; but we receive nothing. And I wish it were nothing! For in fact we do receive something — not ornaments of gold, but the evils of Egypt: sins and chastisements and punishments.

Let us learn, then, to be taken advantage of; let us learn to be mistreated. This is what it means to be a Christian. Let us think little of golden clothes, let us think little of money, so that we may not think little of our salvation. Let us think little of money, and not think little of the soul. For it is the soul that is chastised, the soul that is punished. Those things stay here, but the soul departs to the world beyond. Tell me, why do you cut yourself to pieces without noticing it?

These things I say to those who cheat others. And it is right to say something also to those who are cheated. Bear their cheating with a generous spirit; they are ruining themselves, not you. They rob you of your money, but they strip themselves of the goodwill and help of God. And whoever is stripped of that, even if he clothes himself with all the wealth of the world, is the poorest of all people; just as the one who is poorest of all, if he has this, is the richest of all. For “the Lord,” it says, “is my shepherd, and I will lack nothing” (Psalm 23, verse 1). [j]

Tell me now: if you had a husband, a great and admirable man, who loved you deeply and cared for you, and you knew that he would live forever and never die before you, and that he would give you everything to enjoy in safety as your own — would you then have wanted to own anything? Even if you had been stripped of everything, would you not have thought yourself the richer for having him?

Why, then, do you grieve? Because you have no property? But consider that an occasion of sin has been taken away from you. Or is it because you had property and have lost it? But you have gained the goodwill of God. “And how have I gained it?” He has said, “Why do you not rather suffer wrong?” (First Corinthians 6, verse 7). He has said, “Blessed are those who bear all things with thankfulness.” Think, then, how great a goodwill you will enjoy if you show these things in your actions. For only one thing is required of us — “in everything to give thanks” to God — and then we have everything in abundance. I mean this: have you lost some seven and a half thousand pounds of gold? Give thanks to God at once, and by that word of thanksgiving you have gained ten times as much.

For tell me, when do you count Job blessed? When he had so many camels and flocks and herds, or when he spoke those words, “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away” (Job 1, verse 21)? That is why the devil brings losses on us: not only to take away our goods — he knows that is nothing — but to force us through them to speak some blasphemy. So in the case of blessed Job too, he did not strive only to make him poor, but to make him a blasphemer as well. At any rate, when he had stripped him of everything, notice what he says to him through his wife: “Say some word against the Lord, and die” (Job 2, verse 9). And yet, you accursed one, you had already stripped him of everything! “But this is not what I was striving for. I have not yet accomplished the thing I did all this for. I was striving to strip him of God’s help; that is why I stripped him of his goods too. This is what I want; the other is nothing. If I do not win this, he has not been harmed at all — he has even been helped.” Do you see that even that wicked demon knows how great the loss is in this matter? [l]

And see him plotting his treachery through the wife. Listen to this, you husbands who have wives that love money and drive you to blaspheme God: remember Job. But let us look, if you will, at his great self-control, how he silenced her. “Why,” he says, “have you spoken like one of the foolish women?” (Job 2, verse 10). Truly, “bad company corrupts good character” (First Corinthians 15, verse 33) — at all times, but especially in disasters; that is when those who give bad advice are strong. For if the soul is inclined to impatience even by itself, how much more when there is someone urging it on? Is it not pushed into a pit?

A wife is a great good, and also a great evil. Because a wife is a great good, notice from which side the devil tries to break through the strong wall. “Stripping him of his property did not capture him; the loss has had no great effect.” That is why he says, “Surely he will curse you to your face” (Job 2, verse 5). You see what he was aiming at. If, then, we bear our losses thankfully, we will recover even these things; and if we do not recover them, our reward will be greater. For when Job had wrestled nobly, then God gave these things back to him as well. When God had shown the devil that it is not for these things that Job serves him, then he gave them back to him too.

For that is what he is like. When God sees that we are not riveted to the things of this life, then he gives them to us. When he sees that we value spiritual things more highly, then he also gives us material things. But not first, so that we will not break away from the spiritual; and to spare us he does not give us material things, to keep us away from them even against our will. “Not so! If I receive them, I am satisfied, and I am all the more thankful.” That is false, man. That is exactly when you will be most careless. “Then why does he give them to many people?” What makes it clear that he gives them? “Well, who else gives them?” Their own cheating, their own plundering. “Then how does he allow these things?” Just as he also allows murders, thefts and violence. [m]

“What, then, about those who inherit an estate from their fathers, and are themselves full of countless evils?” And what of it? “How does God let them enjoy these things?” Surely in the same way as he allows thieves and murderers and other evildoers. For now is not the time of judgment, but the time for the best way of life. And what I said just now, I say again: those who have enjoyed every good thing and do not even then become better will suffer greater punishment. For not all will be punished alike. Those who remained wicked even after his kindnesses will suffer greater punishment; those who did so after poverty, not so. And to show that this is true, hear what he says to David: “Did I not give you all your master’s goods?” (Second Samuel 12, verse 8). So whenever you see a young man who has received his father’s inheritance without labor and goes on being wicked, be sure that his punishment is increased and the vengeance made more severe.

So let us not try to be like these people. But if anyone has inherited virtue, if anyone has gained spiritual wealth, let us strive to be like him. For it says, “Woe to those who trust in their riches” (compare Psalm 49, verse 6); “Blessed are those who fear the Lord” (Psalm 128, verse 1). Tell me, to which of these would you want to belong? Surely to those who are called blessed. Then strive to be like them, not the others, so that you too may obtain the good things stored up for them. May we all obtain them, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.