Homilies on Exodus 12.1–12.4

On the glorified face of Moses, and the veil which he put over his face.

1. A reading of Exodus has been recited to us which may either spur us on to search out its meaning or drive us back. It spurs on minds that are eager and free; it drives back the idle and the preoccupied. For it is written: “For Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, and his face was glorified, and the colour of his countenance, and they were afraid to approach him.” And a little after: “Moses,” it says, “put a veil over his face. But when he went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took off the veil.” The Apostle, discussing these things with that magnificent sense which he uses in all else, of which he said, “But we have the mind of Christ,” says: “But if the ministry of death, engraved in letters on stones, was in glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which is being done away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be rather in glory?” And again a little after he says: “And not as Moses put a veil over his face, so that the sons of Israel might not look intently at the face of his countenance. For their minds were blunted, until this very day. For when Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart.” Who would not marvel at the greatness of the mysteries? Who would not dread the mark of a blunted heart? The face of Moses was glorified, but the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of his countenance; the people of the Synagogue could not look intently. But if anyone can have a way of life and conduct more eminent than the rest of the crowd, he can gaze on the glory of his countenance. For even now, as the Apostle says, a veil lies over the reading of the Old Testament; even now Moses speaks with glorified face, but we cannot gaze on the glory in his face. And we cannot for this reason, that we are still just the people, and have no more zeal, no more merit than the rest of the common folk. But since the holy Apostle says, “That same veil remains in the reading of the Old Testament,” the sentence pronounced by so great and so excellent an Apostle would have cut off from us all hope of understanding, had he not added: “But when one turns to the Lord, the veil …”; he says that the taking away of the veil is our turning to the Lord. From this we must gather the indication that as long as the meaning escapes us when we read the divine Scriptures, as long as what is written is obscure and closed to us, we have not yet turned to the Lord. For if we had turned to the Lord, the veil would without doubt be taken away.

But let us also see what this very turning to the Lord is. And so that we may know more clearly what one who has turned is, we must first say what one who has turned away is. Everyone who, when the words of the law are recited, is busy with common gossip has turned away. Everyone who, when Moses is read, is anxious about worldly business, money, and profits has turned away. Everyone who is gripped by cares for possessions and distended by greed for riches, who strives after the glory of the age and the honours of the world, has turned away. And also one who seems indeed a stranger to these things, but stands by and hears the words of the law, and though intent in face and eyes, yet wanders in heart and thoughts, has turned away. What, then, is it to turn? If we turn our backs on all these things and give our attention to the word of God with zeal, deeds, mind, and care, and meditate on his law day and night, and, setting all things aside, devote ourselves to God and exercise ourselves in his testimonies, this is to have turned to the Lord. You, then, if you want your son to learn the letters they call liberal, to know grammar or the discipline of rhetoric, do you not make him free and clear of everything? Do you not make him, setting aside everything else, give his attention to this one pursuit? Tutors, teachers, books, expenses: you let nothing at all be lacking, until he brings back the completed work of the study proposed. Who of us so turns himself to the studies of the divine law? Who of us has given such attention? Who seeks divine studies with as much zeal and labour as he has sought human ones? Why do we complain if we do not know what we have not learned? Some of you, as soon as they have heard the readings recited, immediately leave. There is no inquiry among yourselves about what has been said, no discussion, nowhere any memory of that commandment by which the divine law admonishes you: “Ask your fathers, and they will tell you; your elders …” … goes over what he hears, and discusses it, and what he cannot grasp asks about and learns, can scarcely come to the freedom of knowledge; but the one who hides his ears so as not to hear, and turns his back on the face of the reader, how is he to be said to have a veil laid over his heart, when not even the very veil of the letter by which the meaning is veiled, that is, the sound of the voice, has reached him? It is a clear figure, then, of how the face of Moses is made glorious: for what he speaks has glory; but it is covered and hidden, and all his glory is within.

Consider also what this means: that in the law the face of Moses is related to have been glorified, although covered with a veil, but his hand, put into his bosom, is recorded to have become leprous as snow. In this, it seems to me, the form of the whole law is most fully signified. For in his face the word of the law is signified, in his hand its works. Since, then, by the works of the law no one was to be justified, nor could the law bring anyone to perfection, therefore the hand of Moses becomes leprous and is hidden in his bosom, as though it would have nothing perfect in work; but his face is glorified, yet it is covered by a veil, because his word has the glory of knowledge, but hidden. Hence the prophet too says, “Unless you hear, your soul will weep in secret,” and David says, “The uncertain and hidden things of your wisdom you have made known to me.” In the law, then, Moses has only his face glorified; neither his hands have glory, but rather disgrace, nor his feet. Indeed, he is ordered to loose his sandal, so there was no glory in his feet, although this too was done not without the form of some mystery. For the feet are the last part of a man. It was shown, then, that in the last times Moses would loose his sandal, so that another might receive the bride, and she would be called “the house of the one whose sandal was loosed” to this very day. So Moses has nothing glorious in the law except his face alone. But in the Gospels he is glorified wholly and entirely. For hear what is said in the Gospels: “When Jesus had gone up a high mountain, taking with him Peter and John and James, he was transfigured there before them; and behold,” it says, “Moses and Elijah appeared in glory, talking with him.” Here it is not related that his face was glorified, but that he appeared wholly in glory, talking with Jesus; and there the promise he received on Mount Sinai is fulfilled for him, when it was said to him: “You shall see my back parts.” So he saw his back parts. For he saw what was done in the latter and last days, and rejoiced. For just as Abraham longed to see the day of the Lord, and saw it, and rejoiced, so Moses too longed to see the day of the Lord, and saw it, and rejoiced; and of necessity he rejoiced, because now he not only came down from the mountain glorified in face, but went up the mountain glorified wholly. Moses doubtless rejoiced that he now saw present the one of whom he had said, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from your brothers; you shall hear him as you hear me in all things,” and that he was keeping faith with his words. And lest he hesitate in anything, he hears the Father's voice saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear him.” Moses long ago said, “You shall hear him”; now the Father says, “This is my Son; hear him,” and shows present the one of whom he speaks. Moses also seems to me to rejoice for this reason: that he himself too in a way now puts off the veil, turned to the Lord, when what he foretold is clearly fulfilled; or when the time has come for what he had covered to be revealed through the Holy Spirit.

But the meaning of the holy Apostle must be reconsidered, and we must consider what he had in mind when, having said, “But if anyone turns to the Lord, the veil will be taken away,” he added, “Now the Lord is the Spirit”; by which he seems, as it were, to interpret what the Lord is. For who does not know that the Lord is spirit? But was the nature or substance of the Lord being discussed in this place, that he should say that the Lord is the Spirit? Let us take care, then, lest not only when Moses is read but also when Paul is read a veil lies over our heart. And clearly, if we listen negligently, if we bring no zeal to learning and understanding, not only the Scripture of the law and the prophets but also that of the apostles and the Gospels is covered for us with a great veil. But I fear that through excessive negligence and dullness of heart the divine books are not only veiled for us but also sealed; so that if a book is given to a man who does not know letters to read, he says, “I do not know letters”; if it is given to a man who knows letters, he says, “It is sealed.” Hence it is shown that we must not only apply zeal to learning the sacred letters, but also supplicate the Lord and entreat him day and night that the Lamb from the tribe of Judah may come and, taking the sealed book, deign to open it. For he it is who, opening the Scriptures, kindles the hearts of the disciples, so that they say: “Was not our heart burning within us when he opened the Scriptures to us?” May he, then, even now deign to open to us what it is that he inspired his Apostle to say: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” For my part, as far as I can perceive for the smallness of my understanding, I think that the Word of God, according to what is profitable for the hearers, as we have often said already, is called now the way, now the truth, now the life, now the resurrection, and sometimes is called flesh and sometimes spirit. For although he truly received the substance of flesh from the Virgin, in which he both endured the cross and inaugurated the resurrection, yet there is the place where the Apostle says: “Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him no longer.” Since, then, his word now too calls the hearers to a subtler and spiritual understanding, and wants them to perceive nothing carnal in the law, it is said: Whoever wants the veil taken from his heart, let him turn to the Lord, not as to the Lord as flesh (for this too he is, since “the Word became flesh”), but as to the Lord as spirit. For if he turns to the Lord as spirit, he will come from carnal things to spiritual, and will pass from slavery to freedom: “for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there too is freedom.” And so that what is said may become clearer still, let us use other thoughts of the Apostle as well. To some whom he had perceived to be incapable he says: “For I judged to know nothing among you except Christ Jesus, and him crucified.” To such people he did not say that the Lord is the Spirit, nor did he tell them that Christ is the wisdom of God. For they could not know Christ according as he is the wisdom of God, but according as he was crucified. But those to whom he said, “We speak wisdom among the perfect, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this world, who are being destroyed, but we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery,” had no need to receive the Word of God according as he became flesh, but according as he is wisdom hidden in a mystery. So too in this place, to those who are called from carnal to spiritual understanding it is said: “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there too is freedom.” And to show that he himself has already come to the freedom of knowledge and has been stripped of the slavery of the veil, he adds to these words and says: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord.” If, then, we too entreat the Lord to deign to take the veil from our heart, we can grasp the spiritual understanding, if only we turn to the Lord and seek the freedom of knowledge. But how can we find freedom, we who serve the world, who serve money, who serve the desires of the flesh? I reprove myself, I judge myself, I accuse my own faults; let those who hear see what they think of themselves. Meanwhile I say that as long as I am a slave to any of these things, I have not turned to the Lord, nor have I obtained any freedom, as long as such business and cares bind me. I am a slave of the business and care by which I am bound. For I know it is written that each one is made a slave to that by which he is overcome. Even if love of money does not overcome me, even if care for possessions and riches does not bind me, yet if I am greedy for praise and pursue human glory, if I hang on people's faces and words, wondering what this one thinks of me, how that one regards me, lest I displease one, whether I please another: as long as I seek these things, I am their slave. But I would wish at least to strive from this point, if I may become free, if I may be released from the yoke of this foul slavery and come to freedom according to the Apostle's admonition, saying: “You were called to freedom; do not become slaves of men.” But who will give me this manumission? Who will set me free from this most shameful slavery, except him who said, “If the Son sets you free, you will be truly free”? For I know that a slave cannot be granted freedom unless he serves faithfully, unless he loves his master. And therefore let us too serve faithfully, and love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength, so that we may be worthy to be granted freedom by Christ Jesus his Son our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.