No one among us thinks that tortures are inflicted by anyone other than ourselves.

When the interior person perseveres according to the image of the Creator, then a person is born, and twice is the person made a person according to the exterior and the interior kind.

This is the meaning: Son of man, those people who sit before you have put impurities in their hearts, whether in their thoughts… or their idols—it is a scandal, and it means ruin and torment—and their iniquities are placed before their very faces.

Those dissatisfied with any facet of your creation are unsound in mind, as I was when many things that you made displeased me. Because my soul did not dare to be dissatisfied with my God, it would not identify as yours whatever dissatisfied it. In this way it had strayed into a belief in two substances, and it got no rest but recounted the opinions of others. Recoiling from that error, it had made for itself a god inhabiting the boundless area of all space, and it had considered that god to be you, and had set it in its heart and had become again the shrine of its idol, deserving of your loathing. But after you stroked my ignorant head and closed my eyes so that they should not see vanity, I retired from myself a little, and my madness was lulled to sleep. I awoke in you and saw you infinite in a different way, and that vision was not with the eyes of the flesh.

It is quite clear that God works in people’s hearts to incline their wills to whatsoever way he wills: either to good in accordance with his mercy or to evil in accordance with their evil merits, and this, indeed, by his own judgments, sometimes manifest, sometimes hidden, but always just. You must keep this conviction firm and unshaken in your heart that in God there is no injustice. Accordingly, when you read the truth of the Scriptures and find that people are led astray by God or that their hearts are dulled and hardened by him, have no doubt that it was their previous evil merits that made them suffer their just penalties.

You must believe that there were evil merits in that person whom God permits to go astray and to become hardened. But for the person on whom he has mercy, you must acknowledge with an unswerving faith that this is a case of the grace of God who is not rendering evil for evil but good for evil.

Which of the two, patience or power, do you find in the words of Scripture? Whichever you choose, even if you admit both, you must surely see that the false speech of this prophet is both sin and punishment for sin. Will you also say that the words, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet, should be interpreted as though God deserted him that he might be deceived in return for past misdeeds and thus err? Say what you will, he was punished for sin in such a way that he sinned prophesying something false.

Each one kindles the flames for himself and makes supplications, while he has no desire to correct his errors with penitence but remains in the areas that deserve to be burned in flames.

I want to have them as my people and to be their God, attending to them with every care.

It is not easy for God to pardon idolaters…. Ezekiel also denounces this wrath of God on those who sin against God. He says, And the word of the Lord came to me saying, ’son of man, when a land shall sin against me so as to transgress grievously, I will stretch forth my hand on it, and I will break the staff of the bread thereof; and I will send famine on it and destroy man and beast out of it. And if these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, shall be in it, they will not deliver sons or daughters; themselves alone shall be saved.’

Do you think it is true that the word applies not to the inhabitants of the earth but to the earth itself?

Thanks to the churches which reach to the limits of the world, the entire earth cries out with joy toward the God of Israel, and it is capable of good acts in its borders.

Even though it is a punishment of the mother to be sent into exile, to be deprived of her children or at least to see her children bound for another province, in the same sort of way our mother the earth is chastised for her sins by God when people and beast are removed from her.

As the experts in medical art put it, in order to perform certain healings in the body, it is necessary to inflict not only a cut but also a burn. Homilies on

Those who are not healed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, he baptizes with fire, because they are not able to be purified by the purification of the Holy Spirit.

Those who are of Abraham are not children of Abraham; although they are of his seed, they are not his children, because they are sinners. In the same way those whose actions resemble the wonder of Daniel are of Daniel, and those who imitate the patience of Job become Job.

Noah was near to the world’s flood, because the whole earth had polluted the ways of the Lord, but he was not able to spread it abroad; but his children, who happen to be of the same virtue and from the seed of the human race, he had protected. Daniel also calmed the captivity of the people of Israel without even crying. But Job, not because of his sins but because of his trial, freed neither house nor children.

Who was more righteous than Noah, who, when the earth was replete with sins, was alone found righteous on the earth? Who more glorious than Daniel? Who stronger in firmness of faith for enduring martyrdom, happier in God’s favors, who when he fought so often conquered and when he conquered survived? Who was more diligent in good works than Job, stronger in temptations, more patient in suffering, more submissive in fear, more true in faith? And yet God said that, if they should ask, he would not grant. When the prophet Ezekiel interceded for the sins of the people, God said, Whatever land shall sin against me, so as to transgress grievously, I will stretch forth my hand on it, and will break the staff of bread thereof, and will send famine upon it and will destroy people and beast out of it. And if these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, shall be in it, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered. Therefore, not all that is sought is in the prejudgment of the seeker but in the decision of the giver, and human opinion takes or assumes nothing to itself unless the divine pleasure also assents.

The work of the monastic life is poverty and trouble and separation…. Noah must be taken as representing the personification of self-denial, and Job as representing labors and Daniel as representing separation; if a person possess these three rules of conduct the Lord dwells in him.

Daniel is unique in being included among the three just men whom God says he will deliver, doubtless showing three special types of just people, when he says he will so deliver them as not to deliver their children with them, but they only shall be delivered: namely, Noah, Daniel and Job.

Now I suppose it is not easy to find in God’s Scripture so weighty a testimony of holiness given of any one as what is written of his three servants, Noah, Daniel and Job, whom the prophet Ezekiel describes as the only men able to be delivered from God’s impending wrath. In these three men he no doubt prefigures three kinds of people to be delivered: in Noah, I suppose, are represented righteous leaders of nations, by reason of his government of the ark as a type of the church; in Daniel, people who are righteous in continence; in Job, those who are righteous in wedlock—to say nothing of any other view of the passage, which it is unnecessary now to consider. It is, at any rate, clear from this testimony of the prophet, and from other inspired statements, how eminent were these worthies in righteousness.

Ezekiel the prophet mystically distinguishes them from one another when he foretells that there are only three men who will be delivered when the time of plagues comes, namely: Noah, Daniel and Job. For surely in Noah, who steered the ark over the waves, he shows those who are set over the church; in Daniel, who was zealous to live continently in the royal court, he shows the continent or virgins; in Job, who while married exhibited a wonderful example of patience to all, he shows the life of the virtuous married people.

No one may despair, though hitherto he may have been careless, of setting his hopes on nothing else, after God’s mercy, but on his own virtue. For if these were no better for such a kindred, even though they were of the same house and lineage with Christ, until they gave proof of virtue, what favor can we possibly receive, when we plead with righteous kin and brethren, unless we are exceedingly dutiful and have lived in virtue?… But even if it is Ezekiel who does the pleading, he will be told, though Noah comes, and Job and Daniel, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters.… For it is true that the prayers of the saints have the greatest power, but only on condition of our repentance and amendment of life.

Considering all these things, let us prepare for our departure from here. For even if the day of general consummation never comes to us, the end of each one is at the doors, whether they are old or young; and it is not possible for people, after they have gone from here, either to buy oil any more or to obtain pardon by prayers, though he who does the pleading be Abraham, or Noah, or Job or Daniel. While we have opportunity, let us store up for ourselves beforehand much confidence, let us gather oil in abundance, let us remove all into heaven, that in the fitting time, and when we most need them, we may enjoy all; by the grace and love toward people.

Yes, if we do the will of Christ, we shall find rest, but if not, nothing will save us from eternal punishment, if we fail to heed his commands. Furthermore, the Scripture also says in Ezekiel, Though Noah and Jacob and Daniel should rise, they shall not save their children in captivity. If even such upright men as these cannot save their children by their uprightness, what assurance have we that we shall enter God’s kingdom if we fail to keep our baptism pure and undefiled? Or who will plead for us if we are not found to have holy and upright deeds? 2

Who will cry aloud, spare your people, O Lord, and do not give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them: what Noah and Job and Daniel, who are reckoned together as men of prayer, will pray for us, that we may have a slight respite from warfare, and recover ourselves, and recognize one another for a while and no longer, instead of being a united Israel, be Judah and Israel, Rehoboam and Jeroboam, Jerusalem and Samaria, in turn delivered up because of our sins, and in turn lamented?

Abbot Moses said, Separation from material things, that is, voluntary poverty, and endurance with patience and understanding are the possessions of a monk…. Noah is the personification of voluntary poverty, Job the personification of endurance with patience, Daniel the personification of understanding. Accordingly, if the deeds of these three holy men are in any person, the Lord is with him, dwelling with him, receiving him and driving away from him every temptation and every tribulation that comes from the enemy.

It is a crime, unbearably conceited and enormously wicked, that anyone should think himself so good that he supposes the wicked can be saved through him. God, speaking of a certain land and a sinful people, said, If these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, shall be in it, they shall deliver neither sons or daughters; but they only shall be delivered. I think that nobody would be so presumptuous as to dare to compare himself with such men. Though a person tries to please God in this world, it is the greatest kind of unrighteousness to boast of his own righteousness. Hope is therefore removed in that false opinion by which we believe that a countless multitude of the damned can be saved by the intercession in this world of a few good people.

There will be no one then, the text is saying, able to rescue from there a victim of his own indifference, whether brother or father or mother. Why do I say brother or father or mother? Not even the just themselves, who have good grounds for confidence, will be of any assistance to us then if we have now been guilty of indifference…. See the magnitude of the threat and the kind of just people he brought forward as examples. These men, you see, at a critical time proved a source of salvation even to others: Noah saved his wife and sons when that terrible deluge overwhelmed the world; Job likewise proved a source of salvation even to others; and Daniel rescued many from death when that awful barbarian in his quest for things beyond human nature wanted to do away with the Chaldeans, the magi and Gazarenes…. Rather, we should make this alone the object of attention: if we have virtuous forebears, to imitate their virtue; if the contrary is true and we come from disreputable forebears, not to think any handicap results from this but to fall to the labors virtue involves, no harm ensuing from this, to be sure.

You are sadly mistaken if you think that just because you are descendants of Abraham according to the flesh you will share in the legacy of benefits that God promised would be distributed by Christ. No one can in any way participate in any of these gifts, except those who have the same ardent faith as Abraham and who approve of all the mysteries…. As people who have cut your souls off from this hope, it is necessary that you know how to obtain pardon of your sins and a hope of sharing in the promised blessings. There is no other way than this, that you come to know our Christ, be baptized with the baptism that cleanses you of sin (as Isaiah testified) and thus live a life free of sin.

Those teachers deceive both themselves and you when they suppose that those who are descendants of Abraham according to the flesh will most surely share in the eternal kingdom, even though they are faithless sinners and disobedient to God, suppositions that the Scriptures show have no foundation in fact.

All those who are sinners in the church, who have tasted the Word of God and have transgressed it, deserve prayers, but each one will be punished in accordance with his or her degree.

As far as all these things are concerned, neither the teaching of spiritual parents nor political leaders were able to liberate us, unless the children approved and their imploring helped their own efforts; for justice for the just will be on him, and the iniquity and the sin of the sinner will linger on him.