The conquering power of evil is on the increase. This is characteristic of the last times. Innocent babies are now not even allowed to be born, so corrupted are the moral standards. Or if born, no one educates them, so desolate are studies. Or if trained, no one enforces the training, so impotent are the laws. In fact, the case for modesty which we are now beginning to treat, has in our time become an obsolete subject. So much is this so that modesty is considered to be not the renunciation of the appetites but merely in their mild constraint. People these days are thought to be chaste if they are not too chaste.

The Lord’s teaching required both unity and love. They embraced all the prophets and the law in two commandments. But what sort of unity, what sort of love, is preserved or contemplated by the mad fury of discord that rends the church, destroys faith, disturbs peace, scatters charity, profanes religion? This evil began long ago, my brothers in the faith. Now its cruel havoc has increased, now the poisonous plague of heretical perversity and schism is beginning to spring up and put out new shoots. So it must be at the end of the world, as the Holy Spirit forewarns and foretells through the apostle.

He had said in the former epistle that the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith.^[1] And elsewhere in this epistle he foretells that something of this kind will afterwards happen; and here again he does the same thing: This know, that in the last days perilous times shall come. And this he pronounces not only from the future but from the past: As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses. And again from reasoning: In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver. But why does he do this? In order that Timothy may not be troubled, nor any one of us, when there are evil men. If there were such in the time of Moses and will be in later times, it is no wonder that there are such in our times.

We do not think that in this passage he used his verbs in the present tense for the future, because, in fact, he was warning his correspondent to avoid these persons. Yet he had a purpose in saying: In the last times shall come on dangerous days. He demonstrates that the times will be dangerous by prophesying that evil men will become more numerous as the end draws near. They are already numerous at present. But what does that signify if they will be even more numerous after us and most numerous of all when the end itself is imminent, although it is not known how far off it is? Indeed, those last days were spoken of even in the first days of the apostles when the Lord’s ascension into heaven was a recent happening. . . . So there were last days even then! How much more now is this so, even if there remained as many days to the end as have already passed from the ascension of the Lord to this day, or even if there remain more or less days to come!

We see his prediction^[1] verified to such an extent, dearly beloved, that there is no more fidelity in the fear of God, in laws of justice, in charity or in good works. Blessed Paul foretold this. . . . Therefore, let us consider, dearly beloved, whether almost the whole world is not filled with these vices. Why? We reply: Because no one has any fear of the future or trembles within himself over the day of the Lord and God’s wrath, the punishment prepared for unbelievers and the eternal torments to come for the unfaithful.

The Lord says, My teaching is not mine but my father’s, and he sent me.^[1] About the robbers he says, Anyone who speaks on his own authority is seeking his own glory.^[2] Yet are the Greeks: Lovers of self, arrogant. In calling them wise, Scripture is not attacking the real sages but those masquerading as sages.

There isn’t anyone, after all, who doesn’t love himself. But we have to look for the right sort of love and avoid the wrong sort. You see, anyone who loves himself by leaving God out of his life and leaves God out of his life by loving himself, doesn’t even remain in himself but goes away from himself. . . . Listen to the apostle giving his support to this understanding of the matter. In the last days, he says, dangerous times will loom up. What are the dangerous times? There will be people loving themselves. That’s the core of the evil. So let’s see if they remain in themselves by loving themselves; let’s see, let’s hear what comes next: There will be people, he says, loving themselves, lovers of money. Where are you now, you that were busy loving yourself? Obviously, you’re outside. Are you, I’m asking you, are you money? Obviously, after loving yourself by neglecting God, by loving money you have even abandoned yourself.

Since I have already given an example of love [amor] used in a good sense, someone may want an example of the same word used in a bad sense. If so, let him read the text, Men will be lovers [amantes] of self, covetous [amatores pecuniae].

The apostle also showed how much incontinency is to be dreaded by including it among the signs of apostasy, when he said, In the last days shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves. Then, after enumerating several forms of iniquity, he adds, slanderers, incontinent.^[1] Also, for selling his birthright for one portion of food, Esau was charged with incontinency as the greatest of evils.^[2] The first disobedience befell men as a consequence of incontinency.

Virgins are a beautiful pattern to believers and to those who shall believe. But the name alone, indeed, without works, does not introduce one into the kingdom of heaven. Only if one is truly a believer can one be saved. But if one is called a believer yet does not evidence his belief through works, he cannot possibly be a believer. . . . Similarly, merely because a person is called a virgin, if he remains destitute of the excellent and comely behavior suitable to virginity, he is no virgin and cannot possibly be saved.

Faith without works is fitly called a mere form without power. For as a fair and ruddy body, when it has no strength, is like a painted figure, so is a right faith apart from works. For let us suppose anyone to be covetous, a traitor, heady and yet believes correctly. Of what advantage is it, if he lacks all the qualities fitting to a Christian, if he does not the works that characterize godliness but outdoes the Greeks in impiety? What good when he becomes a mischief to those with whom he associates or when he causes God to be blasphemed and the doctrine to be slandered by his evil deeds?

You heard just now, when that reading was read, that Simon Magus was baptized and yet did not lay aside his evil mind. He had the form of the sacrament, but the power of the sacrament he did not have. Listen to what the apostle says about the godless, having, he says, the form of godliness, while refusing its power. What is the form of godliness? The visible sacrament. What is the power of godliness? Invisible charity.

Shut out the evil love of the world so that you may be filled with the love of God. You are a vessel, but you are still full. Pour out what you have that you may receive what you have not. . . . It is good for us not to love the world in order that the sacraments may not remain in us for our damnation rather than as the mainstays of our salvation. The mainstay of salvation is to have the root of love, to have the power of godliness, not the external form alone.

Some of the disciples of Marcus^[1] wandered about among the faithful, deceived many silly women and defiled them. They boasted of being so perfect that no one was able to come up to the greatness of their knowledge. No one, not even Peter or Paul, or any other of the apostles. They imagined that they knew more than all others and alone imbibed the greatness of the knowledge and the unspeakable Power. They thought of themselves as on a height above all Power, and so they felt free to do all things without fear of anyone in regard to anything.

Avoid men, also, when you see them loaded with chains and wearing their hair long like women, contrary to the apostle’s precept,^[1] not to speak of beards like those of goats, black cloaks and bare feet braving the cold. All these things are tokens of the devil. Such a one was Antimus, who Rome groaned over some time ago. And Sophronius is a still more recent instance. Such persons, when they have once gained admission to the houses of the highborn, and have deceived silly women laden with sins, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, feign a sad face and pretend to make long fasts while at night they would feast in secret.

Let us direct the mind’s gaze and, with the Lord’s help, let us search out God. The word of the divine canticle is, Seek God and your soul will live.^[1] Let us seek him who is to be found, and in doing so let us seek him who has been found. He has been hidden so that he may be sought for and found. He is immeasurable so that, even though he has been found, he may still be sought for. . . . Therefore it was not thus said, Seek his face always, as about certain men: always learning and never attaining to a knowledge of the truth, but rather as that one says, When a man ends, then he is beginning.^[2]

It is a good thing . . . to defer to one’s betters, to obey those set over one, to learn not only from the Scriptures but from the example of others how one ought to order one’s life, and not to follow that worst of teachers, one’s own self-confidence. Of women who are thus presumptuous the apostle says that they are carried about with every wind of doctrine,^[1] ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Who are these? The magicians in the time of Moses. But how is it their names are nowhere else introduced? Either they were handed down by tradition or it is probable that Paul knew them by inspiration.

A great deal of foolishness has been written about how Paul could have known the names of these two men who resisted Moses. Particularly absurd is the notion that he had access to some information or writing now lost to us.

Paul takes the story of Jannes and Jambres not from holy Scripture but from an unwritten Jewish tradition.

Do they not resist this truth, men corrupted in mind, reprobates concerning the faith, who respond and speak iniquity, saying, We have it from God that we are men but from our own selves that we are just? What are you [Pelagians] saying? You deceive your own selves, not protecting but jettisoning free will, from the height of haughtiness through empty expanses of presumption into the depths of a drowning deep in the sea. Without doubt it is your pronouncement that man of himself does justice. This is the height of your presumption.

The sins of the wicked come about in three ways. Either they are bound up with sacrileges or vices or crimes. For they commit sacrilege when they do not believe rightly concerning God and depart from the true faith either because of fear of temporal misfortunes or desire for temporal advantages or by blindness or perversity of heart alone. They sin by vice when unrestrained or obscene in themselves; they live in a shameful fashion. Then they sin by crimes when they cruelly harm others, either by damages or some kind of oppression. The blessed apostle calls both of them reprobate whether sinning capitally in faith or in works, saying about those who contradict the true faith, Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so they also oppose the truth, people of depraved mind, unqualified in the faith.

For if errors flourish at first, they do not continue to the end, for so it is with things that are not fair by nature but fair in appearance. They flourish for a time and then are detected and come to nothing. But this does not happen to our teaching. Of this you are a witness. For in our doctrines there is no deceit. For who would choose to die for a deceit?

The growth that the heretics enjoy will only be in numbers, not in depth or substance.

The only progress which heretics will make is in impiety, for they cannot simulate genuine piety for very long.

For those whom the Manichaeans lead astray are Christians who have already been born of the gospel, whose profession has been misled by the heretics. They make riches with inconsiderate haste but without good judgment. They do not consider that the followers whom they gather as their riches are taken from the genuine original Christian society and deprived of its benefits. . . . This recalls what the prophet said of the partridge, which gathers what it has not brought forth, In the midst of his days they shall leave him, and in the end he shall be a fool.^[1] In other words, he who at first misled people by a promising display of superior wisdom shall be a fool, that is, shall be seen to be a fool. He will be seen when his folly is manifest to all, and those to whom he was at first a wise man he will then be a fool.

I did not say these things, he says, and not do them. I was not a philosopher in words only.

Two consolations appear here, says Paul: I displayed sufficient steadfastness, and in doing so was not forsaken. It cannot be said that God abandoned me. Rather he rendered my crown more radiant.

Paul’s point in recalling these events is to show the divine help, thus adding spirit to the disciple.

When you flee Egypt, you come to these steep ascents of work and faith. You face a tower, a sea and waves. The way of life is not pursued without the waves of temptation. The apostle says, All who wish to live piously in Christ will suffer persecution. Job also, no less, declares, Our life upon earth is a temptation.^[1]

Here he calls afflictions and sorrows persecutions. Anyone who pursues the course of virtue should not expect to avoid grief, tribulation and temptations.

If the road is narrow and difficult, how can it be that My yoke is easy and my burden is light?^[1] He says difficult because of the nature of the trials but easy because of the willingness of the travelers. It is possible for even what is unendurable by nature to become light when we accept it with eagerness. Remember that the apostles who had been scourged returned rejoicing that they had been found worthy to be dishonored for the name of the Lord.^[2]

Many are the devices secretly plotted against me and through me patched up against the faith of apostles. I am however comforted by the sufferings of the saints, prophets, apostles, martyrs and men famous in the churches in the word of grace and besides these by the promises of our God and Savior. For in the present life he has promised us nothing pleasant or delightful, but rather trouble, toil, and peril and attacks of enemies.

In another place the apostle says, And all those who will live godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Then, to help prevent people from renouncing godliness when they are persecuted, he urges them to cling to the faith. You, therefore, continue in the things you have learned and been assured of.^[1] Just as brothers become strongly knit together when one helps another, so faith and godliness, coming from the same family, cohere together. A person who gives his attention to one of the two is strengthened by the other.

Persecution, therefore, will never be lacking. For, when our enemies from without leave off raging and there ensues a span of tranquillity—even of genuine tranquillity and great consolation at least to the weak—we are not without enemies within, the many whose scandalous lives wound the hearts of the devout. . . . So it is that those who want to live piously in Christ must suffer the spiritual persecution of these and other aberrations in thought and morals, even when they are free from physical violence and vexation.

What sort of people, though, are those who, being afraid to offend the ones they are talking to, not only don’t prepare them for the trials that are looming ahead but even promise them a well-being in this world which God himself hasn’t promised to the world? He foretells distress upon distress coming upon the world right up to the end, and do you wish the Christian to be exempt from these distresses? Precisely because he’s Christian, he is going to suffer more in this world.

All who want to live piously in Christ suffer persecution, says the apostle. They are under attack from the enemy. For this reason, with Christ’s help, everyone who travels the journey of this life should be armed unceasingly and always stand in camp. So if you want to be constantly vigilant so that you may know you serve in the Lord’s camp, observe what the same apostle says, No one serving as God’s soldier entangles himself in worldly affairs, that he may please him whose approval he has secured.

Do not seek on the journey what is being kept for you in your fatherland. Because it is necessary for you to fight against the devil every day under the leadership of Christ, do not seek in the midst of battle the reward which is being saved for you in the kingdom. During the fight you ought not to look for what is being kept for you when victory has been attained. Rather pay attention to what the apostle says, Anyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ can expect to be persecuted, and again, We must undergo many trials if we are to enter the reign of God.^[1]

Abba Germanus said: Since you have given us the remedies for every illusion, and since the diabolical snares that used to trouble us have been disclosed to us by your teaching and by the Lord’s gift, we beseech you likewise to explain to us completely this phrase from the Gospel, My yoke is easy and my burden is light.^[1] For it seems quite contrary to the words of the prophet, which say, On account of the words of your lips I have kept to hard ways.^[2] Indeed, even the apostle says, All who wish to live devoutly in Christ suffer persecution. Whatever is hard and has reference to persecution, however, can be neither light nor easy. Abba Abraham said, We shall demonstrate by the easy proof of experience itself that the words of our Lord and Savior are most true, if we set out on the path of perfection in lawful manner and in accordance with the will of Christ. . . . For what can be heavy or hard to the person who has taken up Christ’s yoke with his whole mind, is established in true humility, reflects constantly upon the Lord’s suffering and rejoices in all the hardships that come upon him?

And the blessed Mark the Monk has said, Every virtue on being achieved is called a cross, when it fulfills the Spirit’s commandment. That is why all those who wish in the fear of the Lord to live in Jesus Christ, will suffer persecution.

I am amazed that your charity is so overcome with tribulation from scandals, no matter from what occasion they arise, that you say you desire to be freed from the labors of your bishopric and prefer to live in silence and leisure rather than continue handling those problems which were entrusted to you. But, as the Lord said, Blessed is he that perseveres to the end.^[1] From what will this blessed perseverance come if not from the virtue of patience? For, according to the teaching of the apostle, All who want to live piously in Christ will suffer persecution. Persecution is to be reckoned not only as that which is done against Christian piety by the sword or fire or by any torments whatever, for the ravages of persecution are also inflicted by differences of character, the perversity of the disobedient and the barbs of slanderous tongues.

Paul permeated the corpus of his writings, which is made up of fourteen letters, with the aroma of Christ alone, if I may speak of Christ in this way. Whatever you read there either reveals the hidden mysteries of the faith, or shows the results of good works, or promises the joys of the heavenly kingdom, or lays bare the tribulations he sustained in preaching these things, or relates the divine consolation he received in the midst of his tribulations or suggests by a general exhortation that all those who wish to live a good life in Christ will not lack persecutions. . . . He knew most clearly and foretold with an unrestrained voice that his being killed for the Lord’s sake was nothing else but a most acceptable and pure sacrificial offering made to the Lord. Therefore Paul too glorified God, as did the rest of the apostles, for they too loved Christ with a pure heart and took care of Christ’s sheep with a sincere intent.

Do not allow yourself to be distressed, he says, if some people prosper, while you are in the midst of suffering. Such is the nature of the case. From my own instance you may learn that it is impossible for man, in his warfare with the wicked, not to be exposed to tribulation. One cannot be in combat and live luxuriously. One cannot be wrestling and feasting.

Make progress, make progress in well-doing, for, according to the apostle, there are certain people who go from bad to worse. If you are progressing, you are advancing. Progress in well-doing, progress in good faith, progress in good deeds. Keep singing. Keep advancing. Do not wander. Do not return. Do not remain stationary.

These ignorant men are drunk, not with wine but with their own wickedness. They make a profession of priesthood and glory in their threats. Do not believe them. When we are tried, let us humble ourselves, not being made captive by them. . . . So we, when we are tried by these things, must not become separated from the love of God.

Suppose a counselor reprimands a brother under his care, instructing him in the fear of God and desiring to correct his error. Yet suppose another intervenes and wishes to defend the offender, so as to turn his heart astray again. One who thus intervenes sins against his own soul, because he led astray the person who could have been corrected. He threw to the ground the one who was rising. He deceived with evil persuasion the one who was tending to better things. Going astray himself, he led others astray too.

Read the divine Scriptures constantly. Never, indeed, let the sacred volume be out of your hand. Learn what you have to teach. . . . Do not let your deeds belie your words, lest when you speak in church someone may mentally reply, Why do you not practice what you preach? He is a fine and dainty master who, with his stomach full, reads us a homily on fasting. Let the robber accuse others of covetousness if he will. The mind and mouth of a priest of Christ should be at one.

It may happen that even with the assistance of holy men, or even if the holy angels themselves take part, no one rightly learns those things which pertain to life with God unless he is made by God docile to God. . . . Medicines for the body which are administered to men by men do not help unless health is conferred by God, who can cure them without medicines. Yet they are nevertheless applied even though they are useless without his aid. And if they are applied courteously, they are considered to be among works of mercy or kindness. In the same way, the benefits of teaching profit the mind when they are applied by men where assistance is granted by God, who could have given the gospel to man even though it came not from men nor through a man.^[1]

For he who knows the Scriptures as he ought is not offended at anything that happens. He endures all things patiently, referring them partly to faith and to the incomprehensible nature of the divine dispensation, and partly knowing reasons for them and finding examples in the Scriptures. . . . Know this, however, that God dispenses all things, that he provides for all, that we are free agents, that some things he works and some things he permits. Indeed, God wills nothing evil to be done, for all things are not done by his will but some by ours also. All evil things are done by ours alone, all good things by our will conjointly with his influence. Thus, nothing is without his knowledge. Therefore he works all things. You then knowing this can reckon what things are good, what are evil and what are indifferent.

Paul here lays out four reasons why Timothy ought to be steadfast, if he will recall them: first, because of the teacher from whom he learned; second, the time when he learned it; third, the source from which the teaching came; and finally, the sublime purpose for which he learned it.

For if the days of a man should be as many as all the days of the world from Adam to the end of the ages and he should sit and meditate upon the holy Scriptures, he would not comprehend all the force of the depth of the words. And man cannot rise up to the wisdom of God.

By Scripture we may disprove what is false, be corrected, be brought to a right understanding, and be comforted and consoled.

The usefulness of Scripture lies in its detailing of what one ought to do, either to convict sinners or to clarify what correction is necessary for penitents or to teach what can bring persons to righteousness.

Indeed the words of Scripture, the very breath of God, are true and very dependable,^[1] whether concerning favors or punishments.

The Scripture is given by inspiration of God, as the apostle says. The Scripture is of the Holy Spirit, and its intention is the profit of men. For every Scripture, he says, is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. The profit is varied and multiform, as the apostle says—for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Such a gift as this, however, is not within any man’s reach to lay hold of. Rather, the divine intention lies hidden under the body of the Scripture, as it were under a veil, some legislative enactment or some historical narrative being cast over the truths that are contemplated by the mind.

The Scriptures are holy, they are truthful, they are blameless. . . . So we have no grounds at all for blaming Scripture if we happen to deviate in any way, because we haven’t understood it. When we do understand it, we are right. But when we are wrong because we haven’t understood it, we leave it in the right. When we have gone wrong, we don’t make out Scripture to be wrong, but it continues to stand up straight and right, so that we may return to it for correction.

To search the sacred Scripture is very good and most profitable for the soul. For, like a tree which is planted near the running waters,^[1] so does the soul watered by sacred Scripture also grow hearty and bear fruit in due season. This is the orthodox faith. It is adorned with its evergreen leaves, with actions pleasing to God.

This is why the exhortation of the Scripture is given: that the man of God may be rendered complete by it. Without this he cannot grow to maturity. You have the Scriptures, he says, in place of me. If you would learn anything, you may learn it from them.

Here is why meditation on the law is necessary, my beloved, along with an uninterrupted conversion with virtue: that the saint may lack nothing but be perfect to every good work. For by these things comes the promise of eternal life, as Paul wrote to Timothy, calling constant meditation exercise, and saying, Exercise yourself unto godliness.

Concerning the coming judgment of human beings, living and dead, the blessed Paul says this, I bear witness in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power. At his coming, from the body of the first man which God fashioned from the earth, up until the bodies of all human beings which began to live when they were infused with a soul, all will be raised by him by whose action they were created. In the resurrection, individual bodies will be restored to their individual souls, which they began to have in the wombs of their mothers, in order that they might begin to live—in order that, in the examination of the just judge, souls might receive in their very same individual bodies their reward, of the kingdom or of punishment, in those bodies in which they had led a good or evil life in this world.

Whether you are in danger, in prison, in chains or going to your death, at that very time do not hesitate to admonish. Do not withhold your admonition. For it is then most seasonable, when your rebuke will be most successful, when the circumstance is at hand. Exhort, he says. After the manner of physicians, having shown the wound, he makes the incision, he applies the remedy. If you omit either of these, the other becomes useless. If you rebuke without convicting, you will seem to be rash, and no one will tolerate it. After the matter is proved, one will submit to rebuke. But before this, he will be headstrong. If you convict and rebuke, but vehemently, but do not apply exhortation, all your labor will be lost. For conviction is intolerable in itself if consolation is not mingled with it.

Reprove applies to those who persist in their sin, that they might be led to understand it as sin. Rebuke is aimed at those actually engaging in sin. Exhort is directed to those who might be led back to their former state after penitence.

Accordingly, the apostle says, What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of meekness?^[1] He mentioned a rod first, striking those who were astray as with an almond rod, that he might afterwards comfort them with the spirit of meekness. So the man whom the rod deprived of the heavenly sacraments was restored by meekness.^[2] He gave similar instructions to his disciple also, saying, Reprove, exhort, rebuke, two stern words and one gentle, but stern only that he might soften them. To bodies sick with excess of gall, bitter food and drink taste sweet and, on the other hand, sweet dishes taste bitter. Similarly when the mind is wounded, it sickens under the attentions of an unctuous flattery and is again tempered by the bitterness of correction.

In his teaching the abbot is ever to observe this rule of the apostle: Reprove, beseech, correct. This consists in a judicious timing: to mix gentleness with sternness—at one time to show the severity of a master, at another the tenderness of a father. Use rigor with the irregular and the turbulent, but win to better things the obedient, mild and patient. RULE OF ST.

It is our duty and obligation to remember and heed the special day of Easter Sunday every year. St. Paul taught his disciple Timothy to be aware of dates, saying, Stand ready in season and out of season. Paul wrote that, of course, so that Timothy would do things when they were supposed to be done and avoid the blame for doing things at the wrong time.

Let it always be your season, not merely in peace and security and when sitting in the church.

Therefore, let food, and bathing, and banqueting, and the other necessities of life have a definite time. But let instruction about the love of truth from above have no set hour—let all the time belong to it. In season, out of season, reprove, entreat, rebuke, Scripture says. And the prophet, On his law he will meditate day and night.^[1] And Moses too asked the Jews to do this continually.

Every occasion constitutes an opportune time for preaching.

The opportune time for preaching and teaching is when the sinner needs the prophylaxis that will lead him to repentance. The sinner will be helped at exactly the right moment between the intention to sin and the commission of sin and will turn to penitence instead.

Every occasion is appropriate for teaching, so long as this is done boldly and with forethought.

Preaching is always appropriate, whether to those who hear willingly or not.

I know that it is written, In the multitude of words you shall not avoid sin.^[1] But would that I were to speak only by preaching your word and by praising you, Lord! Not only would I avoid sin, but I would obtain a good reward, no matter how many words I spoke in this way. For the blessed Paul would not command a sin to his own true son in the faith, to whom he wrote, Preach the word, be urgent in season, out of season. For are we to say that a man did not speak many words, who not only in season but also out of season did not keep silent, O Lord, respecting your word? But they were not many, therefore, because they were only what was necessary.

Pastoral guides must also see to it with careful concern that not only should nothing evil proceed from their lips but that not even what is proper be said in excess or in a slovenly manner. Often the force of what is said is wasted when it is enfeebled in the hearts of the hearers by a careless and offensive torrent of words. Indeed, this sort of loquacity defiles the speaker himself, inasmuch as it takes no notice of the practical needs of the hearer. . . . Thus Paul also, admonishing his disciple to be constant in preaching, said: I charge you before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, by his coming and his kingdom: preach the word, be instant in season, out of season. When he was about to say out of season, he premised it with in season, for if being in season is not combined with being out of season, the preaching destroys itself in the mind of the hearer by its worthlessness.

You can understand the desire of the prodigal son to be sated with pods in this way.^[1] When rational nature exists in irrationality, it simply desires. If it does not get more convincing reasons, then it accepts any reason at all. Since the pods taste sweet and make the body fat, they do not bind the bowels. They are the specious words of lovers of matter and the body, who say that pleasure is a good, itching at their ears and running after myths.

For there are certain persons who have not only their ears and their tongues but even, as I now perceive, their hands too, itching for words. They delight in profane babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called,^[1] and strifes about words,^[2] which tend to no profit. Paul is the preacher and establisher of the Word cut short.^[3] The teacher of the fishermen calls to question all that is excessive or superfluous in discourse.

The apostle was cognizant of these sinful tendencies of the will, and besides his numerous admonitions to defend the faith and to preach the word, he said in his epistle to Timothy: There will come a time when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but having itching ears, will heap up to themselves teachers according to their lusts, and they will turn away from hearing the truth and turn aside rather to fables. When they will no longer endure sound doctrine in their eagerness for godlessness, they will gather teachers together for these things which they desire. They will compile a doctrine that fits in with their desires, since they are no longer eager to be taught. They want to bring together teachers for that which they already desire in order that this large number of teachers whom they have sought and assembled may satisfy the doctrines of their own passionate desires.

All the most foolish heretics who want themselves to be called Christians try to color the impertinencies of their inventions. At this human sensibility especially shudders, with the occasion of the sentence of the Gospel where the Lord says, I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.^[1] These were the very things that at that time the disciples could not bear, and the Holy Spirit taught such things as an unclean spirit pales to teach and preach openly, by whatever impertinence he may be moved. These are the ones that the apostle foresees in the Holy Spirit and says, For there will be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine, but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, itching to hear, and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth but will be turned to fables.

He did not add next something like he will deliver me out of the mouth of the lion, for he saw in the spirit that his death was all but at hand. So he adds to his words, And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. He says: The Lord will deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom,^[1] indicating his speedy martyrdom, which he foretells even more clearly in the same writing, when he says, For I am even now ready to be sacrificed, and the time of my dissolution is at hand.

Paul does not say libor but delibor, that is, enduring death in the confession of Christ as a libation of wine is poured out on behalf of honoring God.

Paul calls his destruction a libation, as if his blood were poured out for the sake of true religion.

Let me say something about this; I am helped, you see, by their words, which have gone out to the ends of the whole wide world. Notice first of all his holy act of pouring himself out. He said he was being immolated, not that he was dying. It is not because one who is immolated doesn’t die but that not everyone who dies is immolated. So being immolated he is dying for God. The word is taken from sacrifice. Everything that is sacrificed is slaughtered for God.

Hear Paul the apostle first acknowledging grace and afterwards seeking what was owed. What is the acknowledgment of grace in Paul? He was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and contumelious, he says, but I obtained mercy.^[1] He said that he was unworthy to obtain it, but that he obtained it not by his own merits but by the mercy of God. Hear him now ready to receive what is owed, he who had first accepted unmerited grace. He says, For I am even now ready to be sacrificed, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice. Now he demands what is owed. Now he exacts what is to be paid. For look at the following words: Which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me in that day.

He is desirous to console the despondency of his disciple and therefore bids him be of good cheer, since he was going to his crown, having finished all his work and obtained a glorious end. . . . As a father whose son was sitting nearby, bewailing his orphan state, might console him, saying, Weep not, my son; we have lived a good life, we have arrived at old age, and now we leave you. . . . These things then he wrote to console Timothy. Indeed the whole epistle is full of consolation and is a sort of testament.

If anyone should think it out of all reason that a godly man should suffer grievously so that someone else should be put right, let him reflect that this life is a contest and a striving ground for virtue. The victors’ chaplets are splendid in exact proportion, therefore, to the pains with which they are won. That is why Paul was allowed to fall into countless afflictions. The purpose was that the crown of victory which he should bear off might be the greater.

For in a contest there is much labor needed. After the contest victory falls to some, to others disgrace. Is the palm ever given or the crown granted before the course is finished? Paul writes well when he says, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but to all who love his appearing.

Turn, O my soul, into your rest: for the Lord has been bountiful to you.^[1] The brave contestant applies to himself the consoling words, very much like to Paul, when he says: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. For the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice. These things the prophet also says to himself: Since you have fulfilled sufficiently the course of this life, turn then to your rest, for the Lord has been bountiful to you. For, eternal rest lies before those who have struggled through the present life observant of the laws, a rest not given in payment for a debt owed for their works but provided as a grace of the munificent God for those who have hoped in him.

For I am of the opinion that no creature can be perfect according to true and consummate justice. Moreover, no one denies that one individual differs from another individual. I know that there are different measures of justice among men, that one individual is greater or lesser than another individual and that individuals who are not just in comparison with other individuals can still be called just according to their own standard and measure. The apostle Paul, the chosen vessel, who labored more abundantly than all of the apostles, was certainly just when he wrote to Timothy: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. For the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just judge, will give to me in that day; yet not to me only, but also to those who love his coming. Timothy, who was his disciple and follower, who was guided by him in the way of life that he was to follow and the course he was to pursue in the acquisition of virtues, was also a just man. Are we to suppose for a moment that both of them possessed the one and the same measure of justice? Or that he who labored more abundantly than all of them does not have greater excellence?

There is, of course, the passage where he speaks of immortality after good works, as if he really demands it as his due, for he says: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall render to me at that day. Do you think, perhaps, that because he said shall render he meant that it was his due? But when he ascended on high and took captivity captive, he did not render but gave gifts to men.^[1] How could the apostle speak presumptuously as of a debt being paid back to him, unless he had first received grace which was not due to him, being justified by which, he fought the good fight? TO SIMPLICIAN—ON

As someone has said, you will scarcely ever find that when a person prays, some empty and external reflection does not impede him, causing the attention which the mind directs on God to be sidetracked and interrupted. So it is a great and most wholesome struggle to concentrate on prayer once begun, and with God’s help to show lively resistance to the temptations of the enemy, so that our minds may with unflagging attention strain to be ever fastened on God. Then we can deservedly recite Paul’s words: I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.

You should not grieve that I shall depart, to be invested with that crown which will by Christ be placed upon my head. But if I continued here, truly you might rather grieve and fear lest I should fail and perish.

The martyr’s own struggles surpass our mortal nature. The prizes they won go beyond our powers and understanding. They laughed at the life lived on earth. They trampled underfoot the punishment of the rack. They scorned death and took wing to heaven. They escaped from the storms of temporal things and sailed into a calm harbor. They brought with them no gold or silver or expensive garments. They carried along no treasure which could be plundered but the riches of patience, courage and love. Now they belong to Paul’s choral band while they still await their crowns, because they have escaped henceforth the uncertainty of the future.

He calls the crown of righteousness that which has been prepared for the righteous, which is given by a just sentence. When? On that day. By whom? By the just judge. I have known him as just; I have known him as the judge. I trust in his judgment. I look for a sentence. In this way Paul offers consolation to all children of faith.

While we await the fullness of time, the souls await their due reward. Some await punishment and others glory. And yet in the meantime the one group is not without harm nor the other without gain. For the former will be dismayed upon seeing that the reward of glory has been stored up for those who keep the law of God, that the chambers of those souls are being preserved by the angels, that shame and ruin will be the punishments of their negligence and rebellion, so that they may gaze on the glory of the Most High and blush to come into his sight, for they have profaned his commandments.

I have received the letter of your Reverence^[1] in which you urge on us the great good of loving and longing for the coming of our Savior. In this you act like the good servant of the master of the household who is eager for his lord’s gain and who wishes to have many sharers in the love which burns so brightly and constantly in you. Examining, therefore, the passage you quoted from the apostle where he said that the Lord would render a crown of justice not only to him but to all who love his coming, we live as uprightly as he and we pass through this world as pilgrims while our heart constantly expands with this love, and whether he comes sooner or later than he is expected, his coming is loved with faithful charity and longed for with pious affection.

The holy man demands judgment because he is certain of the Lord’s mercy. As Paul has it: As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just Judge, will render to me in that day. He walks in his innocence because . . . he puts his trust in the Lord. The presumption he shows is not in his own powers but in God’s generosity.

Now indeed we must treat of the divine Scriptures, what the universal Catholic Church accepts and what she ought to shun: Genesis, one book; Exodus, one book; Leviticus, one book; Numbers, one book; Deuteronomy, one book; Joshua [Son of] Nave, one book; Judges, one book; Ruth, one book; Kings, four books [1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings]; Paralipomenon [Chronicles], two books; Psalms, one book; Solomon, three books: Proverbs, one book, Ecclesiastes, one book, Canticle of Canticles [i.e., Song of Songs], one book; likewise Wisdom, one book; Ecclesiasticus [Sirach], one book; Isaiah, one book; Jeremiah, one book, with Ginoth, that is, his Lamentations . . . Job, one book; Tobit, one book; Esdras, two books [i.e., Ezra and Nehemiah]; Esther, one book; Judith, one book; Maccabees, two books.

But the canonical Scriptures are as follows: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua the Son of Nun, the Judges, Ruth, the Kings, four books, the Chronicles, two books, Job, the Psalter, the five books of Solomon [Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, Sirach], the Twelve Books of the [Minor] Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Tobit, Judith, Esther, Ezra, two books [i.e., Ezra and Nehemiah], Maccabees, two books, the Gospels, four books, the Acts of the Apostles, one book, the Letters of Paul, fourteen, the Letters of Peter the apostle, two, the Letters of John the apostle, three, the Letters of James the apostle, one, the Letter of Jude the apostle, one, the Revelation of John, one book.

[It has been decided] that nothing except the canonical Scriptures should be read in the Church under the name of the divine Scriptures. But the canonical Scriptures are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, four books of Kings, Paralipomenon, two books, Job, the Psalter of David, five books of Solomon, twelve books of the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Tobit, Judith, Esther, two books of Esdras, two books of the Maccabees.

The whole canon of the scriptures, however, in which we say that consideration is to be applied, is contained in these books: the five of Moses . . . and one book of Joshua [Son of] Nave; one of Judges; one little book that is called Ruth . . . then the four of Kingdoms, and the two of Paralipomenon. . . . [T]here are also others too, of a different order . . . such as Job and Tobit and Esther and Judith and the two books of Maccabees, and the two of Esdras. . . . Then there are the prophets, in which there is one book of the Psalms of David, and three of Solomon. . . . But as to those two books, one of which is entitled Wisdom and the other of which is entitled Ecclesiasticus and which are called “of Solomon” because of a certain similarity to his books, it is held most certainly that they were written by Jesus Sirach. They must, however, be accounted among the prophetic books, because of the authority deservedly accredited to them.

A brief addition shows what books really are received in the canon. These are the things of which you desired to be informed verbally: of Moses, five books, that is, of Genesis, of Exodus, of Leviticus, of Numbers, of Deuteronomy, and Joshua, of Judges, one book, of Kings, four books, and also Ruth, of the prophets, sixteen books, of Solomon, five books, the Psalms. Likewise of the histories, Job, one book, of Tobit, one book, Esther, one, Judith, one, of the Maccabees, two, of Esdras, two, Paralipomenon, two books.

That besides the canonical Scriptures nothing be read in church under the name of divine Scripture. But the canonical Scriptures are as follows: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua the Son of Nun, the Judges, Ruth, the Kings, four books, the Chronicles, two books, Job, the Psalter, the five books of Solomon [Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, Sirach], the Twelve Books of the [Minor] Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Tobit, Judith, Esther, Ezra, two books [Ezra and Nehemiah], Maccabees, two books, the Gospels, four books, the Acts of the Apostles, one book, the Letters of Paul, fourteen, the Letters of Peter the apostle, two, the Letters of John the apostle, three, the Letters of James the apostle, one, the Letter of Jude the apostle, one, the Revelation of John, one book.

Let this be sent to our brother and fellow bishop, Boniface [Pope St. Boniface I], and to the other bishops of those parts, that they may confirm this canon, for these are the things that we have received from our fathers to be read in church.