Homilies on Genesis, 1–17

Homily 4

HOMILY 4 "God said, 'Let a firmament be made in the middle ofthe water, and let it keep one body ofwaterfrom the other.' This is what happened." 1 ITNESSING AS I DO, dearly beloved, your daily gathering here with such enthusiasm, I am filled with deep satisfaction, and I do not fail to praise the loving God for your progress. I mean, just as hunger is a sign of bodily health, (39d) so, too, interest in listening to the divine sayings would be taken by anyone as a sure pointer to spiritual wellbeing . Accordingly, our Lord Jesus Christ too, in the Beatitudes pronounced on the Mount, declared, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will have their fill."2 So who could adequately commend you, now that you have already received this blessing from the Lord of all, and are looking forward to so many more good things from him? Our Lord, you see, is like that: when he sees a soul seeking the things of the Spirit with great desire and earnest zeal, he bestows on it his graces in abundance. (2) Hence, with a view to your greater benefit, I, too, look forward to being the occasion of an instructive sermon that will lead to an increase (4oa) in your love. I mean, for you and your improvement we undergo any effort so that you too may climb more rapidly to the heights of virtue and become teachers about life in God to all those who associate with you, and that we may feel comfortable in more forthright speech seeing that our effort was not in vain or to no purpose. On the conI . Gn 1.6. "Firmament" reflects the Greek and Latin versions' attempts to grapple with a difficult original notion. Chrysostom in commenting later in the homily on v.7 is unwilling to reach precision on its meaning. 2. Mt 5.6. 52 ST.JOHN CHRYSOSTOM trary, this spiritual seed germinates day by day; what happened with the Sower in the Gospel has not happened in our case. You remember that in the parable one lot survived and three perished: the handful of seeds that were scattered along the road did not germinate, those that fell among thorns were strangled, and the others that were sown on stony ground and stayed on the surface were unable to bear any fruit, (4ob) whereas finally through God's love we look forward to a yield from the seed that was sown on good ground-some a hundredfold , some sixty, some thirty.3 (3) This increases our enthusiasm, this enlivens our understanding -to know that it is not idly or in vain that we are delivering our remarks, but that you welcome what we have to say with attentive hearing and alert minds. In saying this I am not flattering you, my dear people; I am simply gauging your enthusiasm from what was said yesterday. I mean, I could see you were all agog at the instruction given and made every effort lest by chance any part of the sermon should pass unheeded ; in particular, the flood of applause was eloquent testimony of the favor my words found with you. When someone listens to the spoken word willingly, obviously it is riveted in his memory; he stores it up in the recesses of his mind and makes sure it does not escape him. (4oc) So, too, who could worthily praise you or bless us for preaching to willing ears? Scripture says, remember, "Blessed is the one who preaches to willing ears." 4 This is one of the fruits of fasting, this is a remedy which works towards the salvation of our souls. And if in the beginning, and from the introduction, this strength is revealed, how much greater do you suppose the benefit will be in the days to come? Just be sure, I beseech you, to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" 5 and allow the enemy no way of undermining your salvation. Remember that it drives him to distraction to see the spiritual riches you now have, and he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking some3 . Cf. Mt 13.3-8. 4. Sir 25.9 in a variant of the LXX. 5. Phil 2.12. HOMILY 4 53 one to devour.6 But if you are careful, he will, with the grace of God, wreak no harm. (4...