HOMILY XX. EPRES. CHAP. V. 22, 23, 24. Wives, submit yourselves unto your V. 24. own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church: and He is the Saviour of the body. Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. A certain wise man, setting down a number of things in the rank of blessings, set down this also in the rank of Ecclus. a blessing, A wife agreeing with her husband. And 25, 1. 23. 27. Gal. 3, 28. elsewhere again he sets it down among blessings, that a vid. 40, woman should dwell in harmony with her husband. And indeed from the beginning, God appears to have made special provision for this union; and discoursing of the twain Gen. 1, as one, He said thus, Male and female created He them; and again, There is neither male nor female. For there is no relationship between man and man so close as that between man and wife, if they be joined together as they should be. And therefore a certain blessed man too, when he would express surpassing love, and was mourning for one that was dear to him, and as his own soul, did not mention father, nor mother, nor child, nor brother, nor friend, but 2 Sam.1, what? Thy love, saith he, fell upon me, as the love of women. For indeed, in very deed, this love is of all empires the most absolute: for others indeed may be strong, but this passion has not only strength, but unfadingness. For up there is a certain love deeply seated in our nature, which 26. λεύων 2 ἔπεσιν ἐπ' ἐμί. Chrys. ἐθαυμαστώθη. Sept. ours. Adam the sole origin of mankind. 313 XX. imperceptibly to ourselves knits together these bodies of HOMIL. Thus even from the very beginning, from man sprang woman, and afterwards from man and woman sprang both man and woman. Perceivest thou the close bond and connection? And how that God suffered not any extraneous nature to enter in from without? And mark, how many providential arrangements He made. He permitted the man to marry his own sister; or rather not his sister, but his daughter; nay, nor yet his daughter, but something more than his daughter, even his own flesh. And thus the whole He framed from one beginning, gathering all together, like ävabev stones in a building, into one. For neither on the one hand did He form her from without, that the man might not feel towards her as towards an alien; nor again did He confine marriage to her, that man might not", by contracting himself, and making all centre in himself, be cut off from the rest. Thus as in the case of plants, they are of all others the best, which have but a single stem, and spread out into a number of branches; (since were all confined to the root alone, all would come to nothing, whereas again had it a number of roots the tree would be no longer beautiful;) so, I say, is the case here also. From Adam singly he made the whole race to spring, preventing them by the strongest necessity from being ever torn asunder, or separated; and afterwards, making it more restricted, he no longer allowed sisters and daughters to be wives, that we may not in a reverse way contract our love to one point, and thus in another manner be cut off from one another. Hence Christ said, He which Mat. 19, made them from the beginning, made them male and female. For great evils are hence produced, and great benefits, both to families and to states. For there is nothing which so tempers our life together as the love of man and wife. For this many will lay aside even their arms, for this they will give up life itself. And Paul would never without a reason and without an object have spent so much pains on this subject, as when he says here, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. And why so? Because when they are in harmony, the children too * συστέλλων ἑαυτὸν καὶ συνάγων. There is another reading which applied these words to the woman συστέλλουσα ἑαυτὴν 4. 314 How wives must submit to husbands, and yet to the Lord only. EPHES. are well brought up, and the domestics are in good order, V. 24. and neighbours, and friends, and relations partake of the vid. Luke fragrance. But if it be otherwise, all is turned upside down, and thrown into confusion. And just as when the generals of an army are at peace one with another, all things are in due subordination, whereas on the other hand, if they are at variance, every thing is turned upside down; so, I say, is it also here. Wherefore, saith he, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. Yet how strange! for how then is it, Lord, that Thou sayest elsewhere, 'If one bid not farewell both to wife and 14, 26. to husband, he cannot follow me?' For if it is their duty to submit themselves, as unto the Lord, how saith He, that they must depart from them for the Lord's sake? Yet their duty indeed it is, their bounden duty. But the word as is not necessarily and universally expressive of exact equality. He either means this, ' as knowing that ye are servants to vid. Col. the Lord;' (which by the way is what he says elsewhere, that, even though they do it not for the husband's sake, yet must they primarily for the Lord's sake;) or else he means, ' when thou obeyest thy husband, think thou obeyest him as serving the Lord.' For if he who resisteth these external Rom. authorities, those of governments, I mean, resisteth the ordinance of God, much more does she who submits not herself to her husband. Such, saith the Scripture, was God's will from the beginning. 3, 18.24. 31, 2. Let us take as our groundwork then, that the husband occupies the place of the head, and the wife the place of the body. Ver. 23, 24. Then, to shew by arguments also that the husband is the head of the wife, he adds, as Christ also is of the Church, and He is the Saviour of the body. Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so also let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Then after saying, The husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is of the Church, he further adds, and He is the Saviour of the body. For indeed the head is the saving health of the body. He had already laid down beforehand for man and wife, the ground of their love, and their provident care, assigning to each their proper place, to the one that of authority and forethought, to the other that of submission. As then the His pattern shews no pain too great for a man to bear for his wife. 315 XX. Church, that is, both husbands and wives, is subject unto HOMIL. Christ, so also ye wives submit yourselves to your husbands, as unto God. Ver. 25. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church. Thou hast heard how great the submission; thou hast extolled and marvelled at Paul, how, like an admirable and spiritual man, he tempers together our whole life. Thou didst well. But now hear what he also requires at thy hands; for again he is employing the same pattern. Husbands, saith he, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church. Thou hast seen the measure of obedience, hear also the measure of love. Wouldest thou have thy wife obedient unto thee, as the Church is to Christ? Take then thyself the same provident care for her, as Christ takes for the Church. Yea, even if it shall be needful for thee to give thy life for her, yea, and to be cut into ten thousand pieces, yea, and to endure and undergo any suffering whatever, refuse it not. Though thou shouldest undergo all this, yet wilt thou not, no, not even then, have done any thing like Christ. For thou indeed art doing it for one to whom thou art already knit; but He for one who turned her back on Him and hated Him. In the same way then as He laid at His feet her who turned her back on Him, who hated, and spurned, and disdained Him, not by menaces, nor by violence, nor by terror, nor by any thing else of the kind, but by his unwearied affection; so also do thou behave thyself towards thy wife. Yea, though thou see her looking down upon thee, and disdaining, and scorning thee, yet by thy great thoughtfulness for her, by affection, by kindness, thou wilt be able to lay her beneath thy feet. For there is nothing more absolute than these chains, and especially for husband and wife. A servant, indeed, one will be able, perhaps, to bind down by fear; nay not even him, for he will soon start away and be gone. But the partner of one's life, the mother of one's children, the foundation of all one's joy, one ought never to chain down by fear and menaces, but with love and good temper. For what sort of union is that, where the wife trembles at her husband? V. 27. 316 Christ chooses a spouse of all the most unsightly, to make her fair. EPHES. And what sort of pleasure will the husband himself enjoy, if he dwells with his wife as with a slave, and not as with a free-woman? Yea, though thou shouldest suffer any thing on her account,do not upbraid her; for neither did Christ do this. Ver. 26. And gave Himself, he says, for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it. ibid. So then she was unclean! So then she had blemishes, so then she was unsightly, so then she was worthless! Whatsoever kind of wife thou shalt take, yet shalt thou never take such a bride as the Church, when Christ took her, nor one so far removed from thee as the Church was from Christ. And yet for all that, He did not abhor her, nor loathed her for her surpassing deformity. Wouldest thou hear her deformity ver. 8. described? Hear what Paul saith, For ye were sometimes darkness. Didst thou see the blackness of her hue? What blacker Tit. 3, 3. than darkness? But look again at her boldness; living, saith he, in malice and envy. Look again at her impurity; disobedient, foolish. But what am I saying? She was both foolish, and of an evil tongue; and yet notwithstanding, though so many were her blemishes, yet did He give Himself up for her in her deformity, as for one in the bloom of youth, as for one dearly beloved, as for one of wonderful beauty. And it was in Rom. 5, admiration of this that Paul said, For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; and again, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And though such as this He took her, He arrayed her in beauty, and washed her, and refused not even this, to give Himself for her. 7.8. the Ver. 26, 27. That He might sanctify and cleanse her, he "with proceeds, by the laver of the water by the word; that He wash- might present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. ing." E. V. 19. By the laver He washeth her uncleanness. By the word, Mat. 28, saith he. What word? In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And not simply hath He adorned her, but hath made her glorious, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Let us then also seek after this beauty ourselves, and we shall be able to create it. Seek not thou at thy wife's hands, things which are not hers. Seest thou that the Church had all things at her Lord's |