Christ's purchase and the renunciation of omens
Chrysostom is explaining the baptismal renunciation of Satan, contrasting Christ's generous purchase of us with human slave-buying, and then listing what belongs to Satan's pageantry, especially omens.
Consider God's love for humanity. We, before we pay the price, ask those who are being sold, and when we learn that they are willing, then we pay the price. But Christ did not do this. He paid the price for all of us—his precious blood. For it says, “You were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20). Yet even so he does not force those who are unwilling to serve him. If you are not grateful, he says, and do not wish of your own accord to have his lordship inscribed upon you, I do not compel or force you.
We would not choose to buy wicked servants. And if we ever did choose to, we would buy them with evil intent, and we would pay a price suited to such servants. But Christ, buying ungrateful and lawless servants, paid the price of a prime slave—or rather far more, and so much more that no word or thought can present its magnitude. For he did not give heaven and earth and sea, but he laid down what is more precious than all these—his own blood—and so he bought us back. And after all this he does not demand witnesses from us or written documents, but he is satisfied with a bare word. If you say from the heart, “I renounce you, Satan, and your pageantry,” he has received the whole.
Let us say this, then: “I renounce you, Satan,” as those who are about, on that day, to be asked for this word, and let us guard it, so that we may return this deposit intact at that time. Satan's pageantry is theaters and horse races, and every sin, and observance of days, and omens and chance encounters.
And what are chance encounters? someone says. Often a man goes out of his house, sees a one-eyed man or a lame man, and takes it as an omen. This is Satan's pageantry. For it is not the meeting of a person that makes the day evil, but living in sins. When you go out, then, guard one thing only: that no sin meets you. For this is what trips us up, and apart from this the devil cannot harm us.
What are you saying? You see a man and take an omen, and you do not see the devil's snare—how he makes you an enemy of one who has done you no wrong? How he makes you hostile to your brother for no just cause? God commanded you to love even your enemies, but you turn away from one who has done you no wrong, having nothing to accuse him of, and you do not consider how much laughter, how much shame—or rather how much danger—there is?
Shall I say something even more ridiculous? I am ashamed and I blush, but I am compelled for your salvation to say it. If a virgin meets you, he says, the day becomes unprofitable; but if a prostitute meets you, the day is favorable and good and full of much business. Do you cover your faces and strike your foreheads and bow down to the ground? But not now while the words are being spoken—rather when the deeds are being done!
See here too how the devil hid his deceit, so that we turn away from the chaste woman and welcome and love the licentious one. For since he heard Christ saying, “Whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her” (Matthew 5:28), and saw many overcoming licentiousness, wishing by another road to cast them again into sin, through this observance he persuaded them to give heed willingly to prostitute women.
Greek
Καὶ σκόπει Θεοῦ φιλανθρωπίαν. Ἡμεῖς μὲν γὰρ πρὶν ἢ τὴν τιμὴν καταβαλεῖν, ἐρωτῶμεν τοὺς πωλουμένους, καὶ ἐπειδὰν μάθωμεν, ὅτι βούλονται, τότε τὴν τιμὴν καταβάλλομεν· ὁ δὲ Χριστὸς οὐχ οὕτως, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν τιμὴν κατέβαλεν ὑπὲρ ἁπάντων ἡμῶν, τὸ τίμιον αὐτοῦ αἷμα· Τιμῆς γὰρ, φησὶν, ἠγοράσθητε· καὶ ὅμως οὐδὲ οὕτως ἀναγκάζει μὴ βουλομένους αὐτῷ δουλεῦσαι, ἀλλ' εἰ μὴ χάριν ἔχεις, φησὶ, καὶ παρὰ σαυτοῦ καὶ ἑκὼν θέλεις ἐπιγράψασθαι τὴν δεσποτείαν, οὐκ ἀναγκάζω οὐδὲ βιάζομαι. Καὶ ἡμεῖς μὲν οὐκ ἂν ἑλοίμεθα πονηροὺς οἰκέτας πρίασθαι· εἰ δὲ καὶ ἑλοίμεθά ποτε, αἱρέσει κακῇ τούτους ἀγοράζομεν, καὶ τοιαύτην καταβάλλομεν τιμήν· ὁ δὲ Χριστὸς ἀγνώμονας οἰκέτας ἀγοράζων καὶ παρανόμους, πρωτείου δούλου τιμὴν κατέβαλε, μᾶλλον δὲ πολλῷ μείζονα, καὶ τοσούτῳ μείζονα, ὡς μηδὲ λόγον μηδὲ ἔννοιαν αὐτῆς παραστῆσαι τὸ μέγεθος· οὐ γὰρ οὐρανὸν καὶ γῆν καὶ θάλασσαν δοὺς, ἀλλὰ τὸ πάντων τούτων τιμιώτερον, τὸ ἑαυτοῦ αἷμα καταθεὶς, οὕτως ἡμᾶς ἐξηγόρασε· καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα πάντα οὐ μάρτυρας ἡμᾶς, οὐκ ἔγγραφα ἀπαιτεῖ, ἀλλ' ἀρκεῖται ψιλῇ τῇ φωνῇ, κἂν εἴπῃς ἀπὸ διανοίας· Ἀποτάσσομαί σοι, Σατανᾶ, καὶ τῇ πομπῇ σου, τὸ πᾶν ἀπείληφε. Τοῦτο τοίνυν λέγωμεν. Ἀποτάσσομαί σοι, Σατανᾶ, ὡς ἐκεῖ μέλλοντες, κατὰ τὴν ἡμέραν ἐκείνην, ταύτην ἀπαιτεῖσθαι τὴν φωνὴν, καὶ φυλάξωμεν αὐτὴν, ἵνα σώαν τὴν παρακαταθήκην ταύτην ἀποδῶμεν τότε· πομπὴ δὲ σατανική ἐστι θέατρα καὶ ἱπποδρομίαι, καὶ πᾶσα ἁμαρτία καὶ παρατήρησις ἡμερῶν, καὶ κληδόνες καὶ σύμβολα. Καὶ τί ποτέ ἐστι σύμβολα; φησί. Πολλάκις ἐξελθών τις τὴν οἰκίαν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ, εἶδεν ἄνθρωπον ἑτερόφθαλμον ἢ χωλεύοντα, καὶ οἰωνίσατο. Τοῦτο πομπὴ σατανική· οὐ γὰρ ἡ ἀπάντησις τοῦ ἀνθρώπου πονηρὰν ποιεῖ τὴν ἡμέραν γενέσθαι, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἐν ἁμαρτίαις ζῇν. Ὅταν τοίνυν ἐξέλθῃς, ἓν μόνον φύλαξαι, μὴ ἁμαρτία σοι ἀπαντήσῃ· αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἡμᾶς ὑποσκελίζουσα, χωρὶς δὲ ταύτης οὐδὲν ὁ διάβολος ἡμᾶς βλάψαι δυνήσεται. Τί λέγεις; ἄνθρωπον ὁρᾷς, καὶ οἰωνίζῃ, καὶ οὐχ ὁρᾷς τὴν πάγην τὴν διαβολικὴν, πῶς ἐκπολεμοῖ σε τῷ μηδὲν ἠδικηκότι; πῶς ἐχθρός σε καθίστησι τῷ ἀδελφῷ ἐξ οὐδεμιᾶς δικαίας προφάσεως; Καὶ ὁ μὲν Θεὸς καὶ τοὺς ἐχθροὺς φιλεῖν ἐκέλευσε, σὺ δὲ καὶ τὸν οὐδὲν ἠδικηκότα ἀποστρέφῃ μηδὲν ἔχων ἐγκαλεῖν, καὶ οὐκ ἐννοεῖς πόσος ὁ γέλως, πόση ἡ αἰσχύνη, μᾶλλον δὲ πόσος ὁ κίνδυνος; Εἴπω καὶ ἕτερον καταγελαστότερον; Αἰσχύνομαι μὲν καὶ ἐρυθριῶ, ἀναγκάζομαι δὲ ὅμως διὰ τὴν ὑμετέραν σωτηρίαν εἰπεῖν· Ἐὰν ἀπαντήσῃ παρθένος, φησὶν, ἄπρακτος ἡ ἡμέρα γίνεται· ἐὰν δὲ ἀπαντήσῃ πόρνη, δεξιὰ καὶ χρηστὴ καὶ πολλῆς ἐμπορίας γέμουσα. Ἐγκαλύπτεσθε, καὶ τὸ μέτωπον ἐκρούσατε, καὶ πρὸς τὴν γῆν κατεκύψατε; ἀλλὰ μὴ νῦν τῶν ῥημάτων λεγομένων, ἀλλὰ τῶν πραγμάτων γινομένων. Ὅρα γοῦν καὶ ἐνταῦθα, πῶς τὸν δόλον ἔκρυψεν ὁ διάβολος, ἵνα τὴν μὲν σώφρονα ἀποστρεφώμεθα, τὴν δὲ ἀκόλαστον ἀσπαζώμεθα καὶ φιλῶμεν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἤκουσε τοῦ Χριστοῦ λέγοντος, ὅτι Ὁ ἐμβλέψας γυναικὶ πρὸς τὸ ἐπιθυμῆσαι, ἤδη ἐμοίχευσεν αὐτὴν, καὶ εἶδε πολλοὺς περιγενομένους ἀκολασίας, βουλόμενος δι' ἑτέρας ὁδοῦ πάλιν ἐμβαλεῖν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, διὰ ταύτης τῆς παρατηρήσεως, ἑταιρίσι γυναιξὶν ἡδέως προσέχειν ἀνέπεισε.