Homilies on Ezekiel 13.1–13.4

We have been instructed by the bishops to discuss the word about the prince of Tyre, so as to speak of his praises and his faults; and we have also been ordered to treat something about King Pharaoh. So the prince of Tyre is lamented, and it must not be thought that he is a man. For no man was created in the midst of the cherubim, and, if we simply follow the letter, no man was brought up in the paradise of God. And although, as we said, no one was in the paradise of delight, now the prince of Tyre is said to have been born and brought up in the paradise of delight. Who is this prince of Tyre? Let us come to Daniel and, finding there an occasion for understanding, say that the princes about whom the question now is are not bodily ones; after Daniel, let us seek an example from the Apostle, and then call again on the testimonies of the prophets. With all these must also be joined the passage which Moses does not pass over in silence in Deuteronomy. Come, let us now unfold the examples, beginning from Daniel. “Your prince,” he says, “Michael,” and there again the prince of Israel; and in what follows, “Michael helped the prince of the kingdom” of the nations. To this the Apostle adds: “But glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” And for the prince of the Israelites to help the prince of the kingdom of the Greeks has perhaps already happened. For at the coming of my Lord Jesus Christ, the prince of Israel helped the prince of the kingdom of the Greeks, so that the nations might obtain salvation and those, by believing, might be saved. And so in this way a certain prince of the kingdom of the Persians is spoken of, as Michael is called the prince of the Israelites, and another the prince of the Greeks. These, then, are not men, nor are they named after the names of the places where they rule. Hence the Apostle too, as though he were not discussing men, says: “For we speak wisdom among the perfect, but not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are being destroyed; but we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which God predestined before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew. For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.” And that the rulers of this age crucified the Savior and Lord, prophecy bears witness, saying: “The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.” Hence elsewhere too in the Psalms it is written: “I said, You are gods, and all of you sons; but you will die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” And there the word concerns no bodily prince at all. So if there is a certain prince of the kingdom of the Persians, if Michael is prince of the Israelites, it follows that there is also a prince of Tyre; and it is of these princes that the prophetic word now speaks. And since we promised a testimony from Moses too, listen to what follows: “When the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God,” or, as it better reads, “according to the number of the sons of Israel; and his people Jacob became the Lord’s portion.” Tyre became the portion of one prince, Babylon of another, other nations of others; and in this way the princes took possession of all the boundaries of the nations. But if anyone, reading in the Scriptures, thinks it is said as of men, let him, as a spiritual man who judges all things and is judged by no one, understand more deeply. For certain things are recognized concerning Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians which do not fit his person. For he said: “By strength I will do it, and by the wisdom of understanding I will remove the boundaries of the nations, and I will shake the inhabited cities, and I will seize the whole world”; and: “I will ascend above the stars of heaven and the clouds,” and the rest, “and I will be like the Most High.” So much for Nebuchadnezzar. So too with the prince of Tyre and Pharaoh. For the real, bodily Pharaoh was never so driven by madness as to say: “The rivers are mine, and I made them.” This was read earlier in the prophecy against Pharaoh. Nor would the prophet ever have called that prince, that is, the bodily Pharaoh, a dragon, saying: “Behold, I am against Pharaoh, the dragon who sits in the midst of the rivers of Egypt, who says: The rivers are mine, and I made them.” But let this be kept for its proper place; we have taken it up now so that, through knowledge of the Scriptures, what seemed hidden might become plainer. Against these princes is our struggle. And the blessed apostles who had been sent to preach suffered their snares when they drew men away from those who held the boundaries of the nations. For example: the apostles entered Tyre, and the prince of Tyre persecuted them; they went up to Antioch, and the prince of the kingdom of Syria attacked them. He was the one who made war against them, not all those who were thought to, such as Judas the traitor. For just as Judas is not to be thought the principal betrayer of the Savior, so for all the apostles who suffered persecution another was the chief author of the persecution. For it is written of Judas: “And after the morsel Satan entered into him.” “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood.” We see those of flesh and blood who persecute us. Let us not hate them, but rather love them; though they wish to remain our enemies, let us pity them: they have a demon, they suffer madness. It is not so much those who persecute us who are against us, as those who have filled their hearts. But let us beg the Lord’s help, so that the efforts of so great an adversary, fighting against the human soul, may be weak, and let us say: “If it had not been that the Lord was with us when men rose up against us, perhaps they would have swallowed us alive.” So there is a certain prince of Tyre; and the prophecy does not teach us about Hiram (for this name is written in the third book of Kingdoms), nor about another prince of Tyre, nor about any man. It is not human words that teach us, but divine ones, and certain ineffable and sacred things under the persons of men. Pharaoh is a man; I am taught to understand something else by Pharaoh. Nabal of Carmel is a man, and Hiram is a man; but under their image I am taught something else. Who is so great and of such a kind as to climb up from bodily things, to contemplate invisible things from visible ones, and to be able to understand each of these according to the will of God?

Let us learn, then, who this prince is, so that, recognizing the lamentation, we may avoid what is now said over him. The prince of Tyre is lamented. How good God is, who mourns even those who have fallen away from him! And this too comes from the feeling of love. For no one laments one whom he hates; and the one who is lamented is lamented indeed as dead, but he is loved as one still sought, as one whom the living miss. And when Jerusalem is lamented it is written: “And it came to pass, after Israel was taken captive and Jerusalem laid waste, that Jeremiah sat weeping and lamented this lamentation over Jerusalem and said: How does the city sit alone that was full of people! She has become like a widow, she who was great among the nations; the princess among the provinces has become a tributary.” Nebuchadnezzar too is lamented. Where are the heresies? Where are those who say that these beings were created for destruction? They accuse the Creator so as to absolve themselves of charges. Take up this lamentation over the king of Babylon, and you will say: “How has the oppressor ceased! How has the exactor rested!” These words are spoken against the king of Babylon: “How has Lucifer, who rose in the morning, fallen from heaven, crushed to the earth!” Both that one fell from heaven, and this one, the seal of likeness, the crown of beauty, brought up in the paradise of delight. See, all are reported to have fallen from heaven, not to have descended; but my Lord descended from heaven, and he who descended is himself the Son of Man. But not as Satan did. For Satan did not descend from heaven, nor would anything bad have happened to him if he had descended. Hear Jesus saying: “I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven”: falling, not descending. But the Savior is not the only one to descend from heaven: daily a multitude descends and ascends upon the Son of Man. “For you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” And you too, await your ascent. Only rise from your fall and hear: “Arise, Jerusalem,” from your fall; hope that you will ascend into heaven, and beware lest it be said to you too: “Shall he who falls not rise again? Or shall he who turns away not turn back? Woe to those who turn with a very bad turning, says the Lord.” So this one too is one of those who fell, and a prince is lamented by a man, when a prince ought to have wept for a man. Ezekiel is a man, and a son of man; but the one who is lamented is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Take up your lamentation too over the king of Babylon and say: “How has the oppressor rested,” and the rest. Consider to what hope you have been called, you who, clothed with flesh, say: “You poured me out like milk and curdled me like cheese; you clothed me with skin and flesh, you knit me together with bones and sinews.” You, then, who grieved over your condition, behold, you lament, and he who is not clothed with flesh is lamented by you; for you have been called to that hope from which he fell. “By the sin of Israel salvation has come in to the Gentiles.” I will dare to say something more sacred: you will ascend to the place of the angels who fell, and the mystery once entrusted to them will be entrusted to you, of which it is said: “How has Lucifer, who rose in the morning, fallen?” But you have been made “the light of the world”; you, in his place, are Lucifer. Lucifer, who fell from heaven, was one of the stars; and you, if indeed you are of the seed of Abraham, will be counted among the stars of heaven. For God led Abraham outside and said to him: “Look: so shall your seed be.” And this will be when “the stars fall like leaves from heaven,” and there will be “one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. For star differs from star in glory; so also is the resurrection of the dead.” But do not boast against such branches, which fell through unbelief and were broken off; you stand by faith, and by faith you will ascend. And by this very thing, that you lament the prince of Tyre and bewail with lamentation the things we have set out above, be taught, lest perhaps, being found in those good things which the prince of Tyre had, you too begin to fall, if you have boasted a little and have not guarded your heart with all vigilance. For see what he says to the prince of Tyre: “You are the seal of likeness.” I want to know what he was, that he was called the seal of likeness. When you have made progress, you have received the seal; for God the Father truly sealed and sent him, and so believers are always sealed by the Lord. And a common saying has now come about, so that we say: “So-and-so has not received the seal, and so-and-so has the seal.” Who has the seal? He whom God has sealed. I will dare to say that he was sealed with this seal who baptizes in the Holy Spirit and fire, he who bestows the image of the heavenly, who lifts you to higher things, so that you no longer bear the image of the earthly. Beware, O man, lest on leaving this world you be stamped with the seal of the devil. For he too has a seal. “As we have borne the image of the earthly”: whence, or when, or by whom it was signified, we have borne the image of the earthly by this sign. The devil goes around and surveys all things, wishing himself to seal those subject to him. He seals the hearts of individuals, observing them, and imprints on them the figure of the earthly through sins, through vices, so that they bear the image of the earthly. Hear what Jesus answers when the image and inscription of Caesar is demanded; he who has ears to hear, let him hear. For because neither he nor his disciple had the image that was asked for, he teaches where the image sought can be found: “Go,” he says, “to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and open its mouth; and when you find a stater, take it and give it for me and for you.” Neither I have this image and inscription, nor you, if indeed you are truly my disciple, if the gates of hell do not prevail against you. So Jesus gives the image for himself in another way, taking it from the sea, where it was enclosed in a fish, like the fish of which it was read today, which cling to the scales of the dragon who sits upon the rivers of Egypt. For truly such fish cling there. How many fish are there today whose king is this one who reigns in many waters? For it is written of the invisible dragon that he is king of all that are in the waters; but you are not in the waters, but in the land that is promised to you. These things have been said so that we might sift more carefully what the seal of likeness is. How blessed he was in the time when he was the seal of likeness! You still lack becoming the likeness of the seal, and you are far from such a gift. God did say, “Let us make man in our image and likeness”; yet you have not yet attained the likeness: for God made man; in the image of God he made him. Where is the likeness of God? “When he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” In this way I also take what is said by the prophet, “O God, who is like you?” as in the saying, “Who, do you think, is the faithful and wise steward?” and likewise, “For when he appears, we shall be like him.” Who is it who is made like him? Very few have received the likeness, such as the apostles. “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” So this one who is now lamented was a seal, and “full of wisdom”; and you will lament him too, if you have become an Ezekiel. I do not know whether you too will be full of wisdom; meanwhile, the one who is lamented was full of wisdom, and was a crown of beauty. Consider what he was like who was a crown of beauty. Not simply beauty or glory was in him, but a crown of glory. Do not seek this beauty outside yourself, but in the region of the soul, where the faculty of thought and the intellect reside, where true beauty is. But if you wish to seek beauty where there is flesh and blood, fluids and veins, where there is bodily matter, you will not be able to find it. For true beauty is in the Savior, and so it has been distributed from him, according to his bounty and mercy, among all … “Gird your sword upon your thigh, O most mighty, in your comeliness and your beauty.” So there is a certain beauty in the ruling part of our heart and in the soul. And that such beauty reaches even to the human soul, let the prophet teach you, saying: “Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house, for the king has desired your beauty,” that is, the bridegroom. Who has so beautiful a soul, who possesses such beauty, who is so far from all ugliness, that it can be said to him, “The king has desired your beauty”? And you are still seeking this beauty and striving to please; but this one fell from the beauty he had into ugliness. And as we often see happen in bodies, that a woman lovely and beautiful of face loses her beauty through illness and loses the brightness of her face through old age, in the same way the soul that was beautiful loses its beauty through weakness and becomes deformed through old age. For when it has taken on the old man with his deeds, it loses its former beauty through his old age. Jesus came to transfer us from the old man and from the marks of old age (for a wrinkle is a sign of old age), as the Apostle says: “That he might present to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it might be holy and without blemish.” So it is possible to pass from old age and wrinkles to youth; and this is wonderful in this respect, that the body passes from youth to old age, but the soul, if it comes to perfection, is changed from old age into youth. Therefore, “though our outer man is wasting away, yet the inner is renewed day by day.” You had to know the beauty which the king desires; you had to know him who was once a crown of beauty; and you, when you have attained this glory, beware lest you fall, since this one too, who fell, was a seal of likeness, full of wisdom, and a crown of beauty. “In the delights of the paradise of your God you were defiled.” He does not say simply “in paradise,” but “in the paradise of delights.” I ask whether there are certain differences in paradise, so that one may be in the paradise of God and yet not be in the paradise of delights, like that thief who entered paradise with Jesus at the first hour. If I ask you whether you think he entered paradise or not, no doubt you will answer that he entered. Then if I ask you again, “Having entered paradise, then, was he at once received into the place of delights?” perhaps you will say that at the first hour he entered paradise, but was not placed in the paradise of God’s delights. But if you see him taking of the tree of life, and of all the trees which God did not forbid, so as to feed on every tree of paradise; if you see him eating the food both of that tree and of all that are not now forbidden, and I ask you whether you think he has been placed not only in paradise but also in the paradise of God’s delights, what else will you answer me but that he has been placed in the delights of paradise? To this blessedness you are hastening, you who seem to be lamenting. But this one who is lamented was once in the delights of God.

“You were clothed with every good stone: sardius and carbuncle, sapphire and beryl, and jacinth and jasper,” and the rest of the twelve stones. The exposition of this passage is difficult, and rises beyond our strength and its own nature. For who can set out the nature of each stone and describe its color or its power, so as to be able to find why these stones were chosen? Yet, though we are not such as to be able to understand everything, let us look at a few points: how he was clothed with these twelve stones. If anyone cares for the divine writings (to which we often exhort the young; but, as I see, we make no progress and only waste our time, for we have not been able to bring any of them to apply themselves to the sacred books), let him look for these twelve stones and the rest in the Scriptures. He will find them named in the Apocalypse too, in the same way and order. The one that is first there is placed first here, the second second, the third third, the fourth fourth, and so the order is kept up to the twelfth stone. Why, then, and upon what are these stones named in the Apocalypse? Upon the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, of course. And there it is said that the first gate is topaz, the second emerald, the third carbuncle, the fourth sapphire; and in this way one stone is assigned to each gate. If you understand the gates of Jerusalem and the gates of the daughter of Zion, where you too must sing to God (“For I will sing,” he says, “all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion”); if you notice how someone has been clothed with twelve stones and has entered Jerusalem, and entered through other gates, you will see twelve virgins. In the book of the Shepherd, in which the angel teaches repentance, twelve virgins have their names: faith, continence, and the others. You can read it if you wish. Then, when the tower is being built, once you have taken up the powers of the virgins, you will at the same time grasp what is said of the gates: for each virtue is an ornament to you; and in this way they build upon the foundation of Christ not only gold and silver but also precious stones. But it is forbidden to build wood, hay, and straw. So this twelfth stone is within.

And we have also been commanded to speak about Tyre, Sidon, and Pharaoh. The shortness of time did not allow us to complete even the earlier things we began, and what we want to set out must be touched on briefly, in the manner of a commentary. There is a threat against Sidon, which means “hunters.” “Our soul has been rescued like a sparrow from the snare of the hunters.” If you read it in Hebrew, you have “from the snare of the Sidonians.” So the Sidonians are hunters, and the threat made against them is made for your sake, since they want to catch you, and carefully watch how to tear the hearers of the Scriptures away from the Church, how to transfer them from the borders of Judah to the border of Sidon. But you, keep your heart with all vigilance, and learn that the threat against the hunters is for your sake. Of Pharaoh the discourse has already said something, declaring that he is the dragon sitting in the midst of the rivers and saying: “The rivers are mine, and I made them.” I know the differences between rivers, and I know rivers on which the dragon sits, on which the sons of Israel had been held captive, sitting and weeping, since they could not sing the song of Zion, according to what is written in the Psalms: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept.” And I know another river, whose stream gladdens the city of God, according to the voice of the psalmist, who says: “The stream of the river gladdens the city of God.” Do you want to hear who this river is whose stream gladdens the city of God? Jesus Christ our Lord is the river whose stream gladdens the city of God. He it is who says through Isaiah: “Behold, I turn toward you like a river of peace.” I know that certain rivers are promised which flow from this river. “For everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water which I will give,” says Jesus, “will never thirst, but it will become in him a river of water springing up to eternal life”; and: “Rivers …” “Three things are impossible for me to understand … the way of a serpent upon a rock”; “and the rock was Christ,” and there is no way of the serpent where Jesus is; so I cannot find the tracks of the dragon in these rivers. But there is a certain river which the dragon made: for the dragon speaks, and God threatens both the dragon and the rivers in which the dragon is: “The rivers are mine, and I made them.” Hear a heretic preaching with all cunning and ingenuity that Jesus Christ has not yet come. These are the rivers in which the dragon dwells; he made them, and the dragon says, “The rivers are mine, and I made them.” Therefore take careful heed when you drink water, lest perhaps you drink from that river in which the dragon sat; but drink of the living water, and of that river in which is the word of God, in which is our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.