ACC ~ Acts 14 v15

CORRECTING A WONDER WORKER. BASIL THE GREAT: We find a reason for some illnesses in the saints, such as in the apostle, for, lest he appear to go beyond the bounds of nature and lest anyone consider him to possess, in his nature, something greater and more excellent than is fitting—which was the case among the Lycaonians, who offered him crowns and bulls—he was struck with illness in order to show his nature was human. THE LONG RULES 55.4.

THE USELESSNESS OF SACRIFICES. ANONYMOUS: Now he who made heaven and earth and all that is in them and gave to us all what we need would himself have no need of any of these things he offers to those who believe that he has given them. But as for those who believe that they offer to him sacrifices through blood and incense and holocausts and that they revere him with such honors, they seem to me to be no different from those who display the same lavish munificence to deaf idols that are incapable of receiving honor. To think that they offer anything to one in need of nothing! LETTER TO DIOGNETUS 3.4-5.

MY FLESH FOR THE LIFE OF THE WORLD. ORIGEN: To sacrifice son or daughter, beast or booty is something completely foreign to us; to offer one’s very self to God and to be pleasing not by another’s work but by one’s own is something more perfect and more illustrious than all vows. Whoever does the latter is an imitator of Christ, who gave to us the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and to serve our needs he gave the sky above and the ground below, the moon and the stars. The rains, the winds and all in the world he gave to us. But after all this, he gave his very self. “So much did God love the world that he gave his only begotten Son,” “for the life of the world.”What then shall a human do of any greatness when he sacrifices himself to God after God has already sacrificed himself to him? HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 24.2.6.

Acts