Homilies on Ezekiel 3.1–3.8

First we must inquire into what is said: “Set your face firm.” Then, if the Lord grants it, we must investigate the daughters of the people who prophesy from their own heart and do the things for which the word of God rebukes them. That there is another face besides this face of our body is plain from many passages, but it is shown also from what the Apostle records: “But we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.” This bodily face all of us have unveiled, unless perhaps we are weighed down by calamities and distresses. But that face of which the Apostle speaks is covered in many and unveiled in few. For only one who has confidence through a spotless life, a sound mind, and true faith has no veil of confusion, deceit, and sin, but because of a pure conscience beholds the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. Far be it from us to have this face veiled! These few words about the face, so that we may understand what follows: “Set your face firm against the daughters of your people.” This face, that is, the ruling part of our heart, unless it is set firm on what is to be understood, so that as it sees it may announce to the hearers, does not see what is looked at. For it is impossible for anyone without setting his face firm, wandering, wavering, “carried about by every wind of doctrine,” to see what he ought and as he ought. So one who wishes to understand must have his face set firm on what he strives to understand; and for this reason those who are about to prophesy are always first commanded to set their face firm. And so that we too may set our face firm on the Gospels, on the law, on the prophets, on the apostles: set it firm on Christ, and not on the affairs of the world. But when our soul is busied with worldly cares, when it always burns with the hunger of possessing, we do not set our face firm on what God has commanded, but on what is opposed to God’s commands. Who among us, do you think, is clean of setting his face firm on things forbidden? Who is so careful and cautious that day and night he sets the face of his heart firm on what is commanded?

Now too, if we are to understand the present scripture, how it is said to the prophet, “Set your face firm against the daughters of your people,” so that he may see what he is to say, we must set our understanding firm and, with the effort of the heart, treat fully what is signified, so that, overcome at last by reason, we may depart from the letter. According to the common understanding, certain daughters of the people who prophesied seem to have committed the sin that follows. Taking pillows, they sewed them; and when they had sewn them, they put them not under the head but under the elbow of their hearers, and with certain veils they covered the heads of every age. These are the things reckoned as great sins in the daughters of the people who prophesied. But who, standing on the bare word, can say that if someone sews pillows and puts them, once sewn, under another person’s elbow, he sins and is rebuked by God? Who can assert that if someone makes veils to cover the head of every age, he acts impiously? Against our will, a necessity is laid on us by Scripture itself to depart from the tips of the letters and to seek its word, its wisdom, and its intent, in order to open the sins that are shut up and to light up what is dark, so that we may become strangers to the curse, as we recognize what it is that is cursed.

For it says: “Woe to those who sew pillows under every elbow of the hands” (or “of the hand”). Those who are taken up with the living of the body, and do not see even in a dream the spiritual delights (which the divine word does not want them to be without, when it says: “Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the requests of your heart”), who do not know the will of the blessed, of which it is written: “You will give them drink from the torrent of your pleasure,” seek, as lovers of luxury and not lovers of God, to be always in bodily delights. And the pillow sewn under the elbow of the hands seems to me a sign of fleshly pleasure. For since at the time of reclining for bodily enjoyments we seem to use certain sewn and embroidered things under the elbow of our hands, perhaps the divine word, by such a figure and token, blames those teachers who, through empty talk and blessed promises of every kind, give over the multitude of their hearers to lust, vices, and pleasure. For the Word of God and the man of God ought to put forward what serves the hearer’s salvation, what exhorts him to continence, to a way of life of sound actions, to all the things to which a man eager for labors and not for lusts ought to apply himself, so that he may obtain what God has promised. So when someone, adapting himself to the people’s ways to please those whose ears itch, says what they gladly receive, says what is close to pleasure, such a teacher sews pillows under every elbow of the hand. It follows that one who has this sin also makes coverings to veil the head of every age. Let us consider more carefully what the veil too is a figure of. He who has confidence and is truly a man has no veil on his head, but prays to the Lord with head uncovered and prophesies with head uncovered, showing hiddenly, by the sign of a bodily thing, a spiritual one too: that as he has no veil over the head of his flesh, so he should have no veil over the ruling part of his heart. But if someone wears the veil of confusion and of sin, he has, as it were, women’s veils over his head. So when someone teaches things that soothe the people’s ear and stir the noise of applause rather than groaning, if as a flattering enemy he has stroked the wounds rather than cut them, such a man has woven a covering on the head. And when the speaker’s words have poured themselves out into luxurious oratory and leapt about in wanton eloquence, he has woven a veil over the head of every age, not only of children and young men but also of old men. For just as the false Christ and the false prophet will perform signs and portents to deceive, if possible, even the elect, so also those who bring forth things devised for pleasure, and always seek what delights the hearers rather than what turns them from vices, make veils over the head not only of children and young men but, if possible, of old men and fathers too, so as to deceive even those who, through the labor of their souls, have advanced to spiritual age and old age. And the prophet could have said, “against the sons of your people who prophesy”; but as if all who weave veils and sew pillows under every elbow of the hand were women, and none among them were thought worthy of the name of man, the prophet says: “against the daughters of your people who prophesy from their own heart” and do the things that follow. For effeminate are the souls and wills of those teachers who always compose what is resonant and tuneful; and, to say what is true, there is nothing manly, nothing strong, nothing worthy of God in those who preach according to the favor and wishes of their hearers. Therefore he called all who sew pillows daughters rather than sons. And note the exactness of the word: he says “sewing on,” not “weaving.” Do you not know that the tunic of your Lord Jesus had nothing sewn in it, but was woven throughout? So these women sew sayings to sayings, fraudulently and cunningly, stitching on rather than weaving; and they make pillows, not on which to rest their heads, but their elbows, that is, so that their hands may not be at labor nor grow weary at work, but be at rest, at leisure, in deeds that serve pleasures.

That what we are saying is so, as we have understood it, the following word of the prophecy shows more clearly, saying: “Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am against your pillows, by which you turn souls there to dissolution.” He has opened the riddle that was hidden, showing plainly that the sewn pillows are made for the dissolution of souls. But who, holding to the word as it is read, can hear God threatening that he himself will tear apart such stitching and such pillows? For he says: “Behold, I”: I do not command, but I myself tear apart the pillows sewn under every elbow, so that you may no longer have them placed under your elbows. “And I will set free the souls which you overturn, their souls.” What overturning is it, then, to sew pillows and put them under elbows? But so that you may understand the mystery of the word, you will see that it is a great overturning to train a man to softness of body. Such are the words of the heretics, where there is no strict way of life. You will find the disciples of Valentinus loose in morals, tending to nothing strong, nothing manly; and likewise the followers of Basilides. Besides, they shamelessly teach, as if by precept, denial in what concerns their martyrdom. They do not teach what the men of the Church show, ready to take up the cross and follow the Savior. So the Son of God, who threatens with this word, tears apart these most wicked stitchings. Grant me, O Christ, to tear apart the pillows sewn for the luxury of souls.

But what else follows? “And I will tear apart the veils.” What does he declare he will tear apart? Not only the pillows but also the veils. And he will tear them apart so that the head may become bare, so that, having received confidence, with not only the face but also the head unveiled, the man of the Church may pray steadfastly. “I will tear apart your veils, and I will set my people free from your hand.” Although you overturn souls by pillows and veils, I, tearing these apart, will set my people free. God sets his people free through a strict way of life that withdraws from pleasures. “And they shall no longer be in your hands for overturning.” In your hands, you who deceive your hearers, these pillows shall no longer be. “And you shall know that I am the Lord.” If the pillows are not torn up, if I do not tear apart the veils, you will not know that I am the Lord. For delights and leisure and slackness do not allow him to be known who says, “I am the Lord.” “Because you have perverted the heart of the righteous unjustly.” Just as it was said in the passage about signs that they would deceive even God’s elect, so it often happens that heretics trip up even the righteous. For people love pleasure, because as soon as it appears it is calm and playful, delights the senses, and invites us to use it. We flee bitter things, though they are salutary, and, soothed by pleasures, we do not want to labor, not knowing that it is impossible for the same person to be a lover of pleasure and a lover of God. That is why the Apostle says of the worst people that they are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

“And I did not turn him away, so as to strengthen the hands of the wicked.” I did not turn away, but dispensed all things that served for edification. But these prophetesses, effeminate souls, turned people so as to strengthen the hands of the wicked, that is, so that the hand might grow stronger in iniquity, so that he might not turn at all from his evil way and live; that is, so that no one at all would be converted from his very evil way and live. “Therefore you will not see false things, you who teach falsehoods.” I will no longer let you go on with prosperous effort, so as to be able to insinuate what you say. “And you will not divine divinations any more; and I will set my people free from your hand.” We pray that God may set us too free from the hand of such teachers, who, wherever they are, speaking to the pleasures of their hearers, tear and divide the Church, because more people are lovers of pleasures than lovers of God. “And you shall know that I am the Lord.” If I overturn your divinations, if I make your lies fall silent, then you will know that I am the Lord. This is the first prophecy.

Another prophecy follows, which is put together thus: “And there came to me men of the elders of Israel, and they sat before my face.” The word of God touches on everything and leaves none of the orders established in the Church untouched; running through them all, it desires to heal all, as now in a way it speaks to the presbyters. For what went before was said about teachers. Therefore let us consider also what is said about the presbyters, examining ourselves, lest any of us be a presbyter such as is described below. “And there came to me men of the elders of Israel and sat before my face. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man.” Let us look at the accusation, so that we may know whether we detect it in ourselves. “Have not these men set their thoughts in their hearts, and set the punishment of their iniquities before their face? Shall I indeed answer them?” “Blessed are the pure in heart.” For those who have a pure heart do not set their thoughts in their hearts, but rather hold them in the word of God. But those who toil in worldly cares and seek nothing else but how to get through the present life set their thoughts in their hearts: for instance, if you see a man thinking of nothing but the business of the world, bodily gains, and an abundance of food, then from the things he lacks, about which he is anxious, over which he sighs, seeking with pain only his future sustenance, he has set the punishment of his thoughts in his heart. Reproving, then, certain presbyters of this kind, the divine word says to the prophet: “These men” (that is, the aforementioned presbyters) “have set their thoughts in their hearts, and set the punishment of their iniquities before their face.” Let none of you think that torments are inflicted on us by anyone other than ourselves. God does not make punishments; we ourselves prepare what we suffer. So let us appropriately use now too a testimony we have often used: “Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled.” It is no one else’s fire but your own, you who have heaped up wood, straw, and matter for the future burning.

So he says of the presbyters (far be it from us!): “These men have set their thoughts in their hearts, and set the punishment of their iniquities before their face. Shall I indeed answer them?” Is it fitting for me to answer these, who have come to you, the prophet, wishing to learn my words? “Therefore speak to them and say to them: Thus says the Lord: Man, man of the house of Israel.” We are all born men, but not all of us men are “man, man,” as I have very often noted, from what is written in Leviticus: “Man, man of the sons of Israel, or of the strangers who have been added among you.” Be men, men indeed; for not all men are men. Let us show from the Scriptures how some men are not men. “Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he was compared to senseless beasts and became like them.” This one is not “man, man,” but man-beast. “Brood of vipers, who showed you how to flee from the wrath to come?” Such a one is not “man, man,” but serpent-man. “They became horses mad for females; each one neighed after his neighbor’s wife”: and this one is not “man, man,” but man-horse. Far be it from us, then, to be such as to deserve to hear that we are not “man, man,” but something other than men! For if we are good and gentle, we double the name of man, so that there is in us not simply man but “man, man.” Consider whether we can find what it is that doubles the name of man. When this outer man is a man while the inner man is a serpent, there is not in us “man, man,” but only man. But when the inner man has persevered according to the image of the Creator, then the man is born, and such a one becomes, according to both the outer and the inner man, twice man, “man, man.” Further, if anyone who has been called to become “man, man” has set his thoughts in his heart and his punishment before his face, and comes to the prophet, “I,” says the Lord, “will answer him in the things in which his mind is held.” The present word teaches us that he could answer each one individually, not applying unsuitable medicines, but bringing forward whatever fits the nature of each disease. Notice what we are saying. Ten people go to a physician, having ten kinds of illness. He does not cure them all in the same way, but one in this way and another in that: for instance, he heals one with a plaster, gives another a different medicine, applies to some what is called cautery, treats one with a bitter and another with a sweet potion, and soothes the wounds of another with a thicker ointment. So too the word of God speaks according to the qualities of people, and does not thrust the mysteries of its wisdom on all indiscriminately. So he says: “I will answer him in the things in which his mind is held,” that is, so that I may cure those things in which his mind is held, “so that he may not make the house of Israel turn aside.” Whoever does not offer himself as an example of good life, but goes about perversely, by his own depravity, while he is inclined toward what he should not be, in a way makes God’s people too turn aside “according to their hearts, which have been estranged from me.” And one who does this does it in his thoughts, according to a heart estranged from God. That is why they are answered in the things in which their heart is held, and it is said: “Say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord Adonai: Turn, and turn yourselves away from your pursuits.” Because he promised to speak to them about the things in which their heart is held, he now speaks to them as to sinners, saying: “Turn, and turn yourselves away from your pursuits, and turn away your faces.” Does it not seem to you that he does this? Your faces are set firm on what they should not be; turn them, and set them firm on what is for your benefit. “Therefore, man, man of the house of Israel, and of the proselytes who come into Israel, whoever is estranged…” It can happen that even a “man, man,” whether one created “man, man” or one made a perfected “man, man,” becomes estranged, since according to the same Ezekiel even the righteous man sometimes turns from his righteousness and sins. If, then, such a man “sets his thoughts in his heart and the punishment of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire of him by me, I,” says the Lord, “will answer him in that in which he is held, and I will set my face firm against that man.” Consider how at the beginning he promised mercifully to answer; and then how, if the man comes again, not yet cured by the earlier words, “I will set my face firm,” he said, “against that man, and I will make him a desert.” For if he does not obey the words of admonition, but persists in sin, “I will make him a desert and a ruin, and I will remove him from the midst of my people.” Do not remove us, almighty God, from the midst of your people, but keep us in your people. He is justly cast out who does things deserving rejection, so as to be removed from God’s people, uprooted from it, and handed over to Satan. And in the present, indeed, one who goes out from God’s people can return again through repentance; but if he is uprooted from that people of which it is said in a certain parable that a man came, reclined, and entered who did not have a wedding garment, when the master of the house said to him, “Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?” and so they sent him, bound by the feet, into the outer darkness, he will return to his former place only with the greatest difficulty. But we shall not be uprooted; rather, both in the present and in the age to come we shall be planted in our Lord, and in him we shall bear most abundant fruit, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.