When in the course of events he had brought an end to the war with the Philistines, despising his people’s cowardice and scorning the enemy bands, Samson went off to Gaza. This city was in the territory of the Philistines, and he lived there in a certain lodging house. The people of Gaza immediately took note and hastily surrounded his lodging place, putting a guard at all the doorways so that he could not plan to flee by night. When Samson became aware of their preparations, he anticipated the plot they had laid for the nighttime, and taking hold of the columns of the house, lifting all the wood framework and the weight of the tower on his strong shoulders, he carried them up to the top of a high mountain which faced Hebron, where the Hebrew people dwelled.

Why was the mighty man Samson rejected by God, he who was set apart and consecrated to God while still in the womb; whose birth was announced by an angel, like John, the son of Zacharias; who was granted great power and worked great wonders [and who by the supernatural strength which God poured into his body smote a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass and became a saviour and judge unto Israel]? Was it not because he defiled his holy members by union with a harlot? For this reason God departed from him and surrendered him to his enemies. ASCETICAL HOMILIES 10.^[1]

She who had once prostituted herself for money, cleverly and craftily amid the banquet cups and the charms of her love, in admiration, as it were, of his preeminent bravery, began to question him about it and to ask him how it was he so excelled others in strength. Then, too, as though she were fearful and anxious, she begged him to tell his beloved what bond precisely would put him in the power of another. But he was still prudent and strong-willed, and he countered deceit with deceit against the harlot’s treachery, saying that if he were bound with supple green boughs^[2] he would be as weak as other men. When they learned this, the Philistines had Delilah put boughs on him like chains while he slept. Then, as if suddenly awakened, the hero felt his famed and customary strength, broke his bonds and fought back against the many who had their strength untrammeled. LETTER 35.^[3]

Why? Did not the woman Delilah’s love of money deceive Samson, the bravest man of all? So he who had torn apart the roaring lion with his hands; who, when bound and handed over to his enemies, alone, without help, burst his bonds and killed a thousand of them;^[4] who broke the cords interwoven with sinews as though they were but the slight threads of a net; he, I say, having laid his head on the woman’s knee, was robbed of the decoration of his victory-bringing hair, that which gave him his might. Money flowed into the lap of the woman, and the favor of God forsook the man.^[5]

Love of money, then, is deadly. Money is seductive, as it defiles those who have it and does not help those who do not.

After a short time, Delilah, like one who had been made fun of, began to complain passionately and to ask again and again what his real skill was, demanding proof of his affection for her. Samson, still strong of purpose, laughed at her tricks and suggested to her that if he were bound with seven brand-new ropes he would come into the power of his enemy. This also was tried, in vain. The third time he pretended that she had drawn him out regarding the mystery, but in reality, being nearer to a fall, he said that his strength would leave him if seven hairs of his head were cut and woven into a coverlet. This, too, deceived the tricksters.

Later, when the woman boldly deplored the fact that he mocked her so many times and when she lamented that she was unworthy to be entrusted with her lover’s secret and a betrayal, she gained his confidence by her tears. And just since it was due that a man of bravery who had been invincible all this time should pay the price, he opened up the wounded recesses of his soul: the strength of God was in him; he was holy to the Lord and by his command he let his hair grow, for, if he cut it, he would cease to be a Nazarene^[1] and would lose the use of his strength! When the Philistines discovered his weakness, through the woman, they gave her, the slave of their price, the reward for the treachery and thus concluded the affair. LETTER 35.^[2]

Was, then, the hair of his head of such importance that, so long as it remained, his strength should endure unconquered, but when his head was shorn the man should suddenly lose all his strength? It is not so, nor may we think that the hair of his head has such power. There is the hair of religion and faith; the hair of the Nazarite perfect in the law, consecrated in sparingness and abstinence, with which she (a type of the church), who poured ointment on the feet of the Lord, wiped the feet of the heavenly Word,^[3] for then she knew Christ also after the flesh. That hair it is of which it is said: Your hair is as flocks of goats,^[4] growing on that head of which it is said: The head of the man is Christ.^[5] And in another place: His head is as fine gold, and his locks like black pine trees.^[6]

And so, also, in the Gospel our Lord, pointing out that some hairs are seen and known, says, But even the hairs of your head are all numbered,^[7] implying, indeed, acts of spiritual virtues, for God does not take care for our hair. Though, indeed, it is not absurd to believe that literally, seeing that according to his divine Majesty nothing can be hidden from him.

But what does it profit me, if God himself knows all my hairs? That rather abounds and profits me, if the watchful witness of good works rewards me with the gift of eternal life. And, in fine, Samson himself, declaring that these hairs are not mystical, says: If I be shorn, my strength will depart from me. ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 2, PROLOGUE 13-16.^[8]

But this triumph must be a lesson to him not to make alliances with foreigners. That woman of another race I interpret as the law of the flesh, so wily with its alluring nets. If this law proves stronger than the law of the mind, it will drag him into the dominion of sin. The evil counsel of its pleasant words weakens with its deceitful guile the male spirit. It blinds the eyes of the mind and shaves the head; it plunders and disarms faith. I would not have our boy a Samson in this respect, becoming involved in a love encounter immediately followed by captivity, enervation and blindness, even though the strong Samson later recovered his strength when his hair grew again. For he was led by the hand from the mill to be the sport of the vaunting enemy, and though physically blind he used his mind’s eye and summoned God to take vengeance. Then, when his hair restored his strength, he brought down that house of the enemy. Once his hands, more powerful than any stone, gripped the pillars of the house in their fierce embrace, the roof collapsed upon him when its props were torn from the earth. Yet even in his death God’s powerful hero involved the foe in destruction, and by a glorious death [he] avenged the disgrace of his life as a slave. He had lived a life of subservience under an exultant foe, but even as he fell he conquered the eclipsed enemy, destroying more thousands at his death than he had killed in his life.

I pray that our son^[9] may imitate Samson’s death by his own, that while remaining in the flesh he may conquer that flesh and live for God, subduing the sins of the flesh. I would not have him devoting his heart in enslavement to the flesh’s joys as to the wiles of that criminal woman, to become subsequently the property of the foe, stripped of the strength of grace.