κατά ίουδαίων - δʹ

God is not worshipped in the synagogue.

Heaven forbid!

From now on it remains a place of idolatry.

But still, some people pay it honor as a holy place.

Let me tell you this, not from guesswork, but from my own experience.

Three days ago - believe me, I am not lying - I saw a free woman of good bearing, modest, and a believer. A brutal, unfeeling man, reputed to be a Christian - for I would not call a person who would dare to do such a thing a sincere Christian - was forcing her to enter the shrine of the Hebrews, and to swear there an oath about some matters under dispute with him.

She came up to me, and asked for help. She begged me to prevent this lawless violence. For it was forbidden to her, who had shared in the divine mysteries, to enter that place. I was fired with indignation, I became angry, I rose up, I refused to let her be dragged into that transgression, I snatched her from the hands of her abductor.

I asked him if were a Christian, and he said he was. Then I set upon him vigorously, charging him with lack of feeling, and the worst stupidity. I told him, he was no better off than a mule, if he - who professed to worship Christ - would drag someone off to the dens of the Jews who had crucified him.

I talked to him a long time...

Drawing my lesson from the Holy Gospels.

I told him first, that it was altogether forbidden to swear, and that it was wrong to impose the necessity of swearing on anyone. I then told him, that he must not subject a baptize believer to this necessity. In fact, he must not force even an unbaptized person to swear an oath.

After I talked with him at great length... and had driven the folly of his error from his soul... I asked him, why he rejected the Church and dragged the woman to the place where the Hebrews assembled. He answered, that many people had told him, that oaths sworn there were more to be feared.

His words made me groan, then I grew angry, and finally I began to smile. When I saw the devil's wickedness, I groaned, because he had the power to seduce men. I grew angry, when I considered how careless were those who were deceived. When I saw the extent and depth of the folly of those who were deceived, I smiled.

I told you this story...

because you are savage and ruthless in your attitude...

toward those who do such things, and undergo these experiences.

If you see one of your brothers falling into such transgressions, you consider that it is some-one else's misfortune, not your own. You think you have defended yourselves against your accusers, when you say: "What concern of mine is it? What do I have in common with that man"? 

When you say that, your words manifest the utmost hatred for mankind, & a cruelty which benefits the devil. What are you sáying? You are a man and share the same nature! Why speak of a common nature, when you have but a single head, Christ? Do you dare to say, you have nothing in common with your own members?

In what sense do you admit, that Christ is the head of the Church? For certainly it is the function of the head, to join all the limbs together, to order them carefully to each other, & to bind them into one nature.

But if you have nothing in common with your members...

then you have nothing in common with your brother...

nor do you have Christ as your head.


~chrysostomus~
against the jews
homily 1