St. John Chrysostom: "It Is Not Enough to Leave Egypt: One Must Also Travel to the Promised Land"

 


It is not enough to escape evil, if we are to attain the kingdom of the heavens, but many works of virtue are needed. So that we might escape Gehenna, we must cleave from wickedness; so that we might attain the kingdom, we must cleave to virtue….Not doing good is a part of evil; for this is idleness, and idleness is a part of evil; rather, not a part, but the foundation and root of wickedness; for idleness has taught all evil...For to not do good is to do evil….

Because of this, the blessed Paul, too, leading us from wickedness, leads us towards virtue. For what is the use, tell me, of cutting away all the thorns, if you do not plant good seeds? For, the toil remaining incomplete, it turns again to our loss….He who does not weep does not, because of that, laugh, but he is in a middle state. So, too, here, he who is not bitter is not thereby good, nor he who is not wrathful thereby compassionate; but another effort is needed so that we might obtain the good.

 

Source: St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians XVI.1-2, in PG 62:111-113.  St. John is here commenting on Eph 4:31-32.  The title of this post is a purported quote from this homily, though I did not find it therein; the quote is in Thomas Merton, Life and Holiness (Garden City, NY: Image Books, 1964), 15.  The image of the Coptic Sower icon was found by an image search; it appears to have originally been offered for sale on Etsy, but the link is dead.

Translation ©2024 Brandon P. Otto.  Licensed via CC BY-NC.  Feel free to redistribute non-commercially, as long as credit is given to the translator.



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