Following without weariness; desire God’s day
'Behold, they say to me: Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come. But I did not grow weary following after you.' Jesus says to you: 'Take up your cross and follow me,' and 'Leave all things and follow me,' and 'Whoever does not leave father and mother and follow after me is not worthy to be my disciple.' If then you become such that you always follow Jesus, you will also follow, and as long as you follow you will not grow weary; for 'there will be no toil in Jacob, nor will pain be seen in Israel.' There is no labor for the one following Jesus; the very following takes away the labor.
Therefore he himself says, so that we may no longer grow weary—having grown weary before we began to follow him: 'Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' If then, laboring, we come to him and follow him, we will say: 'But I did not grow weary following after you.'
And it is consequent for us to say also: 'I did not desire a human day.' There is a day of a human, and there is a day of God. Let each of us desire the day of the resurrection of the holy ones, not that day concerning which it is written: 'Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord; and this is darkness and not light.' Who is the one who says: 'And I did not desire a human day'? The clarity of the word will convict us that we have desired a human day. Often when we have fallen sick and come into a fantasy of death, at the departure we beg the brothers who watch over us and say: Ask for me a leave, ask for me to remain in life. Saying these things we do not desire a holy day of God, but a human day. Therefore putting away love of the body and the desire for a human day, let us seek to see that day in which we will obtain the blessedness in Christ Jesus, to whom be the glory and the power unto the ages. Amen.
Greek
«Ἰδοὺ αὐτοὶ λέγουσι πρός με· ποῦ ἐστιν ὁ λόγος κυρίου; ἐλθέτω. ἐγὼ δὲ οὐκ ἐκοπίασα κατακολουθῶν ὀπίσω σου. ὁἸησοῦς σοι λέγει· <ἆρον τὸν σταυρόν σου, καὶ ἀκολύθει μοι>,καὶ <ἄφες πάντα, καὶ ἀκολούθει μοι<, καὶ>ὅστις οὐ καταλείψει τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὴν μητέρα, καὶ ἀκολουθεῖ ὀπίσω μου, οὐκ ἔστι μου ἄξιος εἶναι μαθητής<.
ἐὰν οὖν γένῃ τοιοῦτος ὥστε πάντοτε ἀκολουθεῖν τῷ Ἰησοῦ, καὶ ἀκολουθήσεις θήσεις καὶ ὅσον ἀκολουθεῖς οὐ κοπιάσεις· «οὐκ ἔσται« γὰρ «μόχθος ἐν Ἰακώβ, οὐδὲ ὀφθήσεται πόνος ἐν Ἰσραήλ. οὐκ ἔστι κόπος ἀκολουθοῦντι Ἰησοῦ, αὐτὸ τὸ ἀκολουθεῖν περιαιρεῖ τὸν κόπον. διὰ τοῦτο αὐτός φησιν, ἵνα μηκέτι κοπιῶμεν, κοπιάσαντες πρὸ τοῦ ἄρξασθαι αὐτῷ ἀκολουθεῖν· «δεῦτε πρός με πάντες οἱ κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι, κἀγὼ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς. ἐὰν οὖν κοπιῶντες ἔλθωμεν πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ ἀκολουθήσωμεν αὐτῷ, ἐροῦμεν· «ἐγὼ δὲ οὐκ ἐκοπίασα κατακολουθῶν ὀπίσω σου. Τούτῳ δὲ ἀκόλουθόν ἐστιν εἰπεῖν ἡμᾶς καὶ τὸ «ἡμέραν ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἐπεθύμησα.
ἔστι τις ἡμέρα ἀνθρώπου, ἔστι τις ἡμέρα τοῦ θεοῦ. τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς ἀναστάσεως τῶν ἁγίων ἐπιθυμησάτω ἕκαστος ἡμῶν, μὴ ἐκείνην περὶ ἧς γέγραπται· «οὐαὶ οἱ ἐπιθυμοῦντες ἡμέραν κυρίου· καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶ σκότος καὶ οὐ φῶς. τίς ἐστιν ὁ λέγων· «καὶ ἡμέραν ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἐπεθύμησα«; ἡ σαφήνεια τοῦ λόγου ἐλέγξει ἡμᾶς, ὅτι ἡμέραν ἀνθρώπου [οὐκ] ἐπεθυμήσανεν. πολλάκις νοσήσαντες καὶ ἐν φαντασίᾳ θανάτου γενόμενοι ἐπὶ τῆς ἐξόδου παρακαλοῦμεν τοὺς ἐπισκοποῦντας ἡμᾶς ἀδελφοὺς καί φαμεν· αἴτησαί μοι κομίατον, αἴτησαί μοι ἐπιμένειν τῷ βίῳ. ταῦτα λέγοντες οὐχ ἡμέραν ἐπιθυμοῦμεν ἁγίαν θεοῦ, ἀλλ᾿ ἡμέραν ἀνθρώπου. διόπερ ἀποθέμενοι τὴν φιλοςωίαν καὶ τὸ ἐπιθυμεῖν ἀνθρωπίνην ἡμέραν, ζητήσωμεν τὴν ἡμέραν ἐκείνην ἰδεῖν, ἐν ᾗ τευξόμεθα τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ μακαριότητος, ᾧ ἐστιν ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας.
Ἀμήν.
About this text
Origen on Jeremiah. Twenty Greek homilies survive. This page publishes the Pass B English for Homilies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Homily 8 remains a machine draft and is not shipped yet. The rest of the volume is still being translated.
English follows Erich Klostermann, Origenes Werke III (GCS, 1901). A second transcription of that same edition (First1KGreek TEI) was checked; where the TEI drops or garbles a line, the page image wins. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition of the Greek. Homilies that survive only in Jerome’s Latin are not on this page yet. When they are, they will be marked at those homilies.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Klostermann, Origenes Werke III (GCS, 1901) (Greek · Homilies 1–20 Greek (this page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20))
- Checked print Archive.org page image and DjVu of GCS III (Greek · Same print as the copy-text)
- Checked print First1KGreek TEI of GCS III (Greek · Same print; encoding errors deferred to the page image)
Where the prints differ
- Homily 1.1 — The TEI omits Ἑβραῖον. English follows the GCS page image: Jonah is “a Hebrew prophet.”
- Homily 1.5 — The TEI dropped Ἰσαάκ. English follows the GCS page image: Isaac born of promise.
- Homily 1.11 — The TEI/OCR of this line is garbled. English follows the GCS page image and the quoted verse: “I have sanctified you.”
- Homily 3.2 — The TEI gaps Matthew 5:45 (sun on the evil and [gap]; rain on [gap] and the unjust). English follows the Gospel wording.
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.