The Apostle's Peripatetic Ministry and the Corruption of Priests

He was contending from place to place, city from city, enduring earthly labors, facing the dangers from the sea, speaking wisely to inflammatory crowds, and defending himself before angry judges. He was leading the Hebrews into the knowledge of Christ through the Scriptures honored among them, and shaming the Greeks with external words and the unwritten laws of nature; he was confirming Christians, building up converts, and nourishing them with appropriate instruction, just as gardeners tend the young plants with the measured and accustomed flow of waters. Let us learn what most clearly demonstrates his strength in words.

Athens is a city presiding over Achaia, a hearth of words, as those who speak well of it have said, and an ancient workshop of wise men and of those living in words. Since therefore Paul, having run through Illyricum and scattered the sparks of faith everywhere—which, having received from the Spirit, he kept unquenchable—he came according to the necessity of the period to the wise Athenians. And it was a matter worthy of much concern, how the tentmaker might discourse the words concerning God to those who are worthy of ruling all men together according to education.

But, being uplifted by greatness of nature and the wealth of the heavenly gift, he did not take hold of one of the sheltered buildings, nor, sitting at one workshop, did he perform a dialogue, as the first of the philosophers among them were accustomed to do with those approaching; rather, running up to the Areopagus, where there was a harsh and fearful council judging with deadly trials, he found a great multitude gathered there, and stood there lecturing against the rhetoricians according to their customs, those who contended with them daily.

Taking the beginning from an inscription which was attached to an altar, and from there effectively announcing the unknown God to them and concluding with the whole Word, he abstained so much from arguing like a layman about external wisdom, that he converted Dionysius, the most prominent of the Areopagites, along with his wife, and made slaves for Christ, turning many from one altar and one small inscription into many altars.

Descending...

From there, where the warring demon of the Greeks had most power, he moved to the neighboring city, Corinth, the metropolis of Achaia. Speaking in the synagogues, he drove away the salvation-teaching, not just one of the many or those succeeding, but the chief synagogue leader along with his whole household. Having conquered the law from its peak and exalted the cross as a high trophy, he left that city having bowed to Christ.

As time passed and the word of piety was obstructed, he acted like a general, daily seizing cities, villages, and fields, cutting the sinews of the former tyrant. He moved from Corinth to the land of the Pisidians, then seized Lycaonia and the cities of Phrygia, and having visited Asia from there, then Macedonia. He was a common teacher of the inhabited world, benefiting those seeing him by his tongue, and those far away by letters. Only his knee did not tire from traveling, nor his tongue failing, as he unceasingly explained the mysteries of the gospel to enemies and friends.

But such was his teaching; what of the other philosophy of life? He who always persevered in the word and served the gospel, not even taking bread he consumed for free from anyone, but having the struggle against myriads of enemies by day, and by night the toil and the labor of his craft, so that he might have sustenance there, yet appears to all as an apostle driven forth, an unwearied herald, even sparing the bread of those he was hosting.

Let us hear these words, priests, you who do not merely share in the altars, but enrich yourselves from them and feast, making the sacred property your own private possession, and commanding the subordinates like slaves for the sake of Christ. Priesthood is not lordship, but rather for the one who understands, a service; it is not a claim of princely insolence, but an economy of pious ministry. Did not the law-giving Paul not have the authority to eat and drink from the sacred things, and even a little so...