ACC ~ Matthew 21 v43 - 45

KILLING GOD TO SIN WITH IMPUNITY

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: The man who commits a grave sin is likely to commit an even worse sin because he no longer hopes in God, as Solomon suggests: “When a wicked man enters the depths of evil, he becomes contemptuous.” [1] The sick will abstain from potentially harmful foods until their fever moderates and they begin to have hope that a cure is imminent, but if they are convinced that their disease is incurable, they will eat whatever they like. Likewise, as long as a man sins only venially and retains some hope for salvation, he will abstain from evil as far as possible, but if he begins to despair as a result of committing serious sins, he will come to have no doubt that he has already been done in by the judgment of God. Pathetic is the man who does not realize that there is a gradation of punishments for the evil, each one receiving his punishment according to the measure of his evil, just as there is a gradation of glory for the good, each one receiving a reward according to the measure of his goodness. For God is as unlimited in his range of punishments for the evil as he is in his rewards for the good.

The priests of the old covenant who had already ceased to have any hope in God because they were filled with every evil raised their hands against God himself, inasmuch as they knew Christ to be the Son of God, because they had given up on abstaining from evil. Does this astonish you? Truly every evil man, insofar as his will is concerned, raises his hand against God and kills him, for whoever does not hesitate to provoke God’s wrath, or despises his commandments, or treats his name with contempt, or utters blasphemies against him, or murmurs against him, or looks toward heaven with an angry countenance or raises his arrogant hand against God in anger, would certainly also kill him if it were possible, just in order to be able to sin with impunity. HOMILY 40. [2]

[1] Prov 18:3.

[2] PG 56:858-59.

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