St. Chrysostom (homily 1 on the words of Isaiah, “I saw the Lord”), showing [that] the prayers of the just do not profit those who, without penitence, persevere in sin, brought forward the example of the Israelite people from Num. 20 and Deut. 1: but he then goes on thus. “And why do we recall that this happened to the whole people of the sin — nay [rather], [that] the sins of a few disobedient [men], nay of one, overcome the favor of [many] justly commanding? And this, again, thou wilt be able to perceive from the same Israelite people, which — while Moses administered the Commonwealth — when they had burst into the land of the foreigners, and joined battle with them, [see] how certain of them, raving [in lust] upon their women, brought in the disaster and destruction of the whole people. But that [thing] which I shall speak of happened in one — namely Achar, who, when he had taken up a variegated robe from the anathema, kindled the wrath of God even against the people. But I also conjecture [that] to some of those present the history is unknown. Wherefore it is necessary that, speaking briefly of this, I both admonish those who know, and teach those who do not. Achar, then, was one of the number of those who crossed the Jordan with Jesus [Joshua] son of Nun — [Joshua] who had before been chosen by God’s judgment to succeed Moses, and who bore the type and figure of our true Savior Jesus Christ. For as that [Joshua] led the people out of the desert, through the Jordan, into the promised land, so our Savior too led us over — out of the desert of ignorance and idolatry, through holy and salutary baptism — into the heavenly Jerusalem, to the mother of the firstborn, in which the mansions of true rest are prepared, where [is] a life ignorant of sedition, and peaceful. This [Joshua], then, when he had brought the Israelites across by the power of Him who had set him over the people, and had now moved the army to Jericho, contriving that new and admirable siege, the walls being about to fall, what does he say among the people? ‘This city shall be anathema, and whatever is in it, to the Lord of Sabaoth, except Rahab the harlot. Her ye shall save. Beware, therefore, of the anathema, lest ever, coveting, ye take of it, and destroy us. Consecrated are,’ he says, ‘all [the things] which are in the city’: for that is what ‘anathema’ means. Let no one, therefore, steal from those [things] which are consecrated to the Lord God, and destroy us from the earth.’ Perilous was the precept, [set forth] with much diligence both of God commanding and of Joshua bearing the law. For it could scarcely be that, in so great a multitude, this law should not be violated, since there were many things which impelled [them] to this. For either the instability of that people and desire of gain, or [the fact] that not all had heard the precept proclaimed, or the variety of the spoils — as [it were] a bait set forth, enticing [those] greedy of having — would easily have driven [them] to the transgression of the law. And nevertheless that law had been passed: and peril hung over the head of the transgressor. What, then, after these [things]? The walls fell, and whatever was in the city came into the hands of the besiegers. And so, while the whole people kept this precept, the transgression of one stirred up the wrath of God against the whole multitude. ‘The sons of Israel,’ it says, ‘sinned a great sin, and pilfered and took of the anathema, and Achar the son of Charmi took of the anathema, and the wrath of the Lord was angered against the sons of Israel.’ And yet [it was] one who had sinned. How, then, did the sons of Israel sin, and God was angry with the sons of Israel? Seest thou how the sin of one summons vengeance upon the whole people? How it rendered God a hostile enemy against the multitude? Since, therefore, the transgression of the law had been perpetrated, and no one was privy [to it], except God alone, who knows hidden [things], the vengeance indeed was deferred: but [the one] who had perpetrated this — although he seemed to lie hidden — was nonetheless burned by [his] conscience as by a fire. There came, therefore, the time in which [it] should come to pass, [that] which God had threatened, and in which the sin should come into the open. ‘Joshua sent,’ it says, ‘men from Jericho to Ai [Ga]. And there went up thither about three thousand men, and they fled from the face of the men of Ai, and [these] slew of them thirty-six men, and pursued them, and cut them down, and the heart of the people was frightened, and became like water.’ See the punishment of one sin. See the most bitter blow: one had sinned, and upon the whole people death and trembling rushed in. What [is] this, O good Lord? Thou alone [art] just, and thy judgments [are] right. Thou renderest judgment to each according to his own deeds. Thou, lover of the human race, hadst said [that] each shall die in his own sin, and [that] no one shall pay punishments for another. How, then, is this thy just judgment? All thy [things] are good, O Lord, and very good, and dispensed for our advantage. ‘A certain plague,’ he says, ‘is sin: through vengeance let it be published, and paraded before all, lest it corrupt all — that, when they shall have learned how great menaces one transgression has begotten, they may flee vengeance — an eternal vengeance otherwise to be taken from many. Seeing, therefore,’ it says, ‘[that] Joshua could not stop the flight, he rent his garments and prostrated himself on the earth, mournfully uttering those laments which the divine Scripture relates. What, then, did the Lord answer him? “Arise, why liest thou thus prostrate? Thy people has sinned, has transgressed my pact, and Israel will not be able to stand against the face of their enemies, until ye take away the anathema from your own selves.”’ He proclaims, therefore, this among the people; and [the one] who had perpetrated this is betrayed by God, [and] he confesses. ‘For Achar answered,’ it says, ‘to Joshua, saying: Truly I have sinned in the sight of the God of Israel, thus and thus I did. I saw in the spoil one beautiful variegated cloak, and two hundred silver didrachmas, and one golden tongue of forty didrachmas, and, coveting, I took [them], and behold, these are buried in the earth in my tent.’ He brings forth all into the open, after he had perceived that [Joshua] had judged all without a lie, nor did he distrust the witness [who was] betraying himself. But see the ignominious
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and pernicious death: ‘Joshua,’ it says, ‘drew Achar down into the valley, [and] his sons and daughters, and his calves, and his beasts of burden, and all his sheep, and his tent, and all whatsoever he possessed, and the people overwhelmed all these with stones.’ This [is] the reward of transgression — such a vengeance of God, which cannot be avoided through craft. Knowing these things, therefore, let us think [that] troubles are brought upon [us] by our sins, and, examining our crimes each single day, let us ascribe the cause not to another, but to ourselves: for not the negligence of princes only, but much more our own offenses, have called down [our] evils.” But this [example] R. P. Claudius Aquaviva, General Superior of the Society of JESUS — imitating [Chrysostom] and the others cited above — uses, in a certain letter, to exhort to the zeal of perfection and of charity, by that same example of Achan, thus: “If God exacts a most religious manner of life of us, so that the industry of the Society may be salutary for the helping of [our] neighbors, how much more severely will he require [it], that the Society itself not only decline nothing from [its] state through us, but rather, by [our] vigilance and striving, extend and raise itself from our [level] to greater [things]? To which end, surely, [it would be] no slight spur added to us, if we should think [that], out of us all, one body is compacted, and [that] there is such a consensus of the members among themselves, that each must fear, if by his own fault something of peril redound into all the rest of the body. It is plainly a wonder, and horrible, and worthy [as a thing] on account of which both ears of the hearers (as the scriptures say) should deservedly ring — to recall [that], among Israel — illustrious under Joshua [as] Leader, but glorying in God [as] Prince and Governor, and then led out by his command into the battle-line — on account of one Acham’s theft from the Jericho anathema, how [greatly] almost the whole camp was disturbed, [Israel] being routed by the enemy in [the loss of] three thousand of the bravest of Israel, and God severely denouncing, ‘Israel will not be able to stand before their enemies, and will flee them, because it is polluted with the anathema’ — and, [what is] far more horrific, ‘I will not be any more with you, until you crush him who is guilty of this crime’: And although the sacrilege was of one, yet (as Augustine notes) it afflicted and struck all. Whence, he says, let not each care for himself alone in the people, but let them mutually apply diligence to one another, and, as [members] of one body and of one man, let some members be solicitous for others. By which compact, surely, the eternal judge indicated how great the community of individuals in some assembly and sodality is, since none of them is reckoned alone by himself, but the individuals are as [it were] certain parts in a whole. Seest thou, says Chrysostom, how the sin of one summons vengeance upon the whole people? How it rendered God a hostile enemy against the multitude? But thy judgments are good, O Lord, and dispensed for our advantage. ‘A certain plague is sin: through vengeance it is published and paraded before all, lest it corrupt all — that, when they shall have learned how great menaces one transgression has begotten, they may flee vengeance, [an] eternal vengeance otherwise to be taken from many.’ For this reason, most holy men — who, endowed with the spirit of true humility, acknowledged themselves never stripped of human vices, and, inflamed with charity, glowed with zeal for [their] neighbors — thought their [own] sins (which is reported of Catherine of Siena, and others) to have given cause for all the evils by which the Church was vexed. But for us, whom not only that common bond of the one Church connects, but a certain closer nexus of the same institute and vocation still binds — how much more is it to be feared, lest that which is privately committed by individuals be atoned by a grave evil and wound of the whole body? Nor is it [only] atoned, but by the perilous imitation of the example it creeps further: for that thing slides more readily to ruin, once it has begun [to slip]. For this cause, moreover, I had said a little before [that] there is placed in each one of us a great power and faculty, that the Society may be in that state which answers to the wishes of us all — since we can not only obtain this from God by most chaste prayers (just as [we obtained] both the true religion for foreign nations, and the pristine splendor of the Church) but also we, who are associated by a closer bond, shall merit the divine benignity, [that] with what full eyes of mercy [God] may sometime look [upon it], and lift up the whole Society. Hence also let that [follow]: if each single member of this body polish and adorn itself with a better cultivation, [it is] consequent that, from the ornaments of the several parts, the brightness and beauty of the whole too may shine forth.” But rightly does Epictetus [say] (ch. 35): ἐὰν ὁ ἑταῖρος ᾖ μεμολυσμένος, καὶ τὸν συναναστρεφόμενον αὐτῷ μολύνεσθαι ἀνάγκη [ean ho hetairos ē memolysmenos, kai ton synanastrephomenon autō molynesthai anankē, “if a companion be defiled, it is necessary that he who consorts with him be defiled too”].