The Purpose of Festivities and the Call to Virtue

Whether poor or rich. And these things are only to this extent.

What could we say regarding the forgiveness of debts Luke 7:41, which the steward of injustice used as a consolation for himself among the evil ones, negotiating with his fellow slaves? For it is not easy to transform the written word into a consistent allegory. But what appeared to me after much observation is this: All people, as many as we negotiate with regarding the remission that is coming to us, by giving or forgiving what is foreign, we find ourselves acquiring profit. But I say 'foreign' refers to the things of the Master. For nothing is our own, but all are the possessions of His lordship.

Therefore, whenever anyone, sensing the end and the transfer from this place, lightens the burden of sins through small acts of kindness, or by forgiving debts to debtors or providing prosperity to the needy, giving the things of the Master, he acquires many friends who are to bear witness to his goodness before the Judge, and through their testimony, he prepares a welcome for his arrival. For those who have suffered well are said to bear witness before the Judge, not with voices as if teaching those who are ignorant, but as those who exclude the sinners from the punishment of the deed done against them. In the same way as the blood of Abel was said to cry out to God Genesis 4:10, so also the good work shall be said to bear witness to the one who has done well in Christ Jesus our Lord; to whom be the glory through the ages of ages. Amen.

Regarding the same man according to greed: Christian men and men who are partakers of a heavenly calling; you, the separated people, and all who have come out of the cities to sit together for the present harmonious feast; for I encompass you all in a general proclamation. Did each of you, having set his mind upon it, realize and understand for whose sake we have been gathered? Instead of being honored as witnesses by the magnificent decorations of houses and by these annual assemblies, and for what purpose we look...

Having seen these things, our fathers established a rule; and did they leave the law strong for those who follow?

Or was this expressed to us with a little more density in the mind, so that through our zeal for piety, these festivities are gathered as a common instruction for souls, so that honoring the witnesses, we might imitate the endurance of the martyrs for piety; so that, placing the ear of those gathered as students, we might learn something useful, which we did not know before, whether the security of a dogma, or the solution of a perplexing Scripture, or some word restoring the state of morals? (3.1.2)

But you seem to me to be abandoning the care of virtue and fleeing from the diligence concerning the soul, to turn all your concern toward the service of Mammon and the busyness of worldly affairs; some mingling with others, and some having run off to foreign things, and some recording those striving at the marketplaces, so that they might slander one another. (3.1.3)

But redirect your desire toward the Church; leave behind the love of silver, the marketplace, and the frenzied woman. Turn away from her as an unseemly companion who has attached herself to the crowd, beautifying herself with foreign materials and the flowers of the apothecary. Love this divine and soberly-sently ordered one, who looks on with dignity and without distraction. (3.1.4)

For thus Solomon says in the book of Proverbs: Do not abandon her, and she will endure for you. Love her and she will keep you. Do not pass by her in contempt, nor consider the things set before us at this table to be worthless, because it is possible for you to acquire possessions easily; but rather desire more, for we do not sit as shopkeepers carrying a yoke or a basket, but we seek one profit: the salvation of the disciple. (3.1.5)

There was read to us from the Acts of Paul a word to Festus and Agrippa, from Paul, the faithful apostle and wise orator. You have certainly seen, O listener, if... (3.2.1)