Problems Of Following

Καὶ πορευομένων αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ εἶπέν τις πρὸς αὐτόν, ἀκολουθήσω σοι ὅπου ἐὰν ἀπέρχῃ. καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς: αἱ ἀλώπεκες φωλεοὺς ἔχουσιν καὶ τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κατασκηνώσεις, ὁ δὲ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἔχει ποῦ τὴν κεφαλὴν κλίνῃ. Δὶο καὶ τὸν γραμματέα τοῦτον ἐπαγγελλόμενον ἀκολουθήσειν αὐτῷ, καὶ τῷ μὲν ῥήματι βοῶντα, τῇ δὲ διανοίᾳ μὴ σχολάζοντα, ἀλλ' ἐν ἑτέροις ἀφελκόμενον ὁρῶν ὁ Κύριος, ἐδυσώπει διὰ τοῦ ἐλέγχου· καὶ οὔτε ὡς ἀπορεπόμενος τοῦτον ἐδίωκεν, οὔτε ὡς ἀγνοῶν ἐπλανᾶτο ὑπὸ τῶν τούτου ῥημάτων· ἀλλὰ καὶ ὡς εἰδὼς ἤλεγχε, καὶ ὡς παιδεύων διωρθοῦτο. Μονονουχὶ γὰρ τοῦτο λέγων ἐδίδασκεν, ὡς ἅρα οὐδεὶς δύναται τῷ Λόγῳ ἀκολουθεῖν ἀναπαυόμενος ἐν ἀλόγοις, οὐδὲ τῶν ἀλόγων ὁ φίλος δύναται τὸν Λόγον δεχεσθαι, οὐδὲ ὁ τὰ ἄλογα φανταζόμενος δύναται τοῦ Λόγου μεταλαμβάνειν ἔννοιαν. Ἀμέλει ἐκ τῆς τόλμης τὸ γνώρισμα τῆς προπετείας καὶ ἀπαιδευσίας ἔξεστιν αὐτοῦ καταμαθεῖν. Εἰ γὰρ ἠπίστατο τοῦ Λόγου τὴν δύναμιν, οὐκ ἂν ὅλως φαντασίαν εἰλήφει πνευματικοῦ Λόγου, οὐκ ἂν ἄνθρωπος ὤν ἐξισοῦν ἑαυτὸν ἐτόλμα τῇ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἀκαταλήπτῳ δυνάμει λέγων·Ἀκολουθεῖν μὲν γὰρ ἁπλούστερον τῷ Σωτῆρι πρὸς τὸ τῆς διδασκαλίας αὐτοῦ ἀκούειν δυνατὸν τῇ ανθρωπίνῃ φύσει, καὶ τοῦτο κατὰ τὴν αὐτου φιλανθρωπίαν· συνεκτείνεσθαι δὲ καὶ συντρέχειν αὐτῷ πανταχοῦ, τοῦτο καὶ ἀδύνατον καὶ τολμηρὸν τῷ ἐπαγγελλομένῳ. Οὔτε γὰρ ἀναπαυομένῳ αὐτῷ παρὰ τῷ Πατρὶ συνεῖναι δυνάμεθα· πῶς γὰρ, ἄλλης φύσεως τυγχάνοντες; οὔτε πανταχοῦ αὐτῷ ὄντι συνδραμεῖν οἷον τε. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἀχώρητος, οἱ δὲ χωρητοί· καὶ ὁ μὲν ἐν τῷ παντὶ μεμετρημένην ἔχομεν τὴν σύστασιν· καὶ ὁ μὲν Κύριος ἀκινήτως καὶ ἀμεταβάτως κινεῖ τὰ πανταχοῦ , καὶ τὰ ὅλα διοικεῖ· ἄνθρωποι δὲ, μεταβαίνοντες ἁφ' οὖ κινούμεθα, λειπόμεθα τῇ ἀπολείψει τοῦ τόπου πρὸς τὴν ἀμετάβατον πανταχοῦ τῆς θεότητος αὐτοῦ παρουσίαν. Ἀλλ' ὁ Κύριος κατ' ἀμφότερα τοῦτον διορθοῦται, καὶ τὸ μὲν ἀνέτοιμον τῆς προθέσεως διελέγχει, τὴν δὲ τῆς θεότητος αὐτοῦ μεγαλειότητα παιδεύει, λέγων· Αἱ ἀλώπεκες φωλεοὺς ἔχουσι, καὶ τὰ ἐξῆς. Ἴσον δὲ τούτῳ εἰπεῖν ἐστι, τὰ μὲν γενητὰ πάντα χωρητὰ τυγχάνει, καὶ τόποις διίστατι, ὁ δὲ Λόγος ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀχώρητον ἔχει τὴν δύναμιν· ὥστε τοῦ μεν λέγειν, ὅτι Ὅπου ἐὰν ἀπέρχῃ ἀκολουθήσε σοι, παῦσαι· εἰ δὲ μαθητεύεσθαι θέλεις, ἀπόστα τῶν ἀλόγων, οἰκειώθητι δὲ τῷ Λόγῳ· ἀδύνατον γὰρ τὸν ἀλογίᾳ συνόντα Λόγου γενέσθαι μαθητήν. Ἅγιος Ἀθανάσιος, Τὸ Κατὰ Λουκαν Ἐπαγγελιον Source: Migne PG 26.1400d-1401c

It happened that He was walking with them in the way and someone said to Him, 'I shall follow you wherever you may go.' Jesus said to him: 'Foxes have their holes, and the birds the dwelling places of the sky, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest His head.' 1 As the passage says, this fellow promised to follow Him, but as one crying out to Him with words and with no sense in the mind, for the Lord observing him being dragged away into other things, He shamed him with reproof, and that not as one turning away and driving him off, nor as one bewildered by the ignorance of his words, but He reproved as one with knowledge, and corrected as one with learning. For when He said these things, He taught that no one is able to follow the Word if they are resting in irrational things, nor is it possible that the lover of irrational things receive the Word, nor may the one who mixes with irrational things come to knowledge of the Word. Certainly the man's statement came from recklessness, and temerity and ignorance. For if the power of the Word is doubted, one has not at all grasped the understanding of the spiritual Word, nor when he was a man, would he have dared to say that he by himself was going to equal the incomprehensible power of the Saviour, saying ' I will follow you wherever you may go.' To follow the Saviour simply by attendance to His teaching is certainly possible for human nature, and this on account of His mercy, but when this is extended to a going with Him everywhere, that certainly is not possible, and it exhibits the recklessness of the promise. One is not able to repose with Him in the lap of the Father. For how does one acquire that different nature? Nor are we able to go with Him who is everywhere. He is not circumscribed by anything, and we are. He is in everything and outside everything; we however in everything have a certain set measure. He, the Lord, is immovable and immutable, and moves all things, and rules over all things; but being men we are changed by what moves us, and by this are certainly inferior to Him whose deity is present everywhere and changeless. So the Lord concerning both of these things corrects him, and reproves the low and uninformed promise. Teaching the greatness of His deity, He says, 'Foxes have their holes, etc' And perhaps by these things He means all things that come to be are contained in a place and set apart in a place, but the power of the Word of God is not contained by any place, so that when such a thing is said as 'I will follow you wherever you may go,' it must be restrained. Thus if you wish to learn, restrain yourself from irrational things and apply yourself to the Word. It is not possible that he who dwells with irrational things walks as a pupil of the Word. Saint Athanasius, On the Gospel of St Luke, Fragment 1 Lk 9.57-58