Homilies on Leviticus 4.2–4.9

But let us see what the things are about which we ought now to say something, as best we can. “And the Lord spoke,” he says, “to Moses, saying: Any soul that sins, and passing by passes over the commandments of the Lord, and lies to his neighbour about a deposit, or partnership, or robbery; or has harmed his neighbour in any way, or has found something lost and lies about it, or has sworn unjustly about any one of all the things a man may do, so as to sin in them: then it shall be, when he has sinned and transgressed, that he shall restore the robbery which he robbed, or the injury by which he harmed, or the deposit which was entrusted to him, or the lost thing which he found, of anything about which he swore unjustly; and he shall restore the principal itself, and shall add fifths besides, and shall give it to him to whom it belongs, on the day he is convicted.” Up to this point, meanwhile, the kinds of sin are set out; afterwards its purification through victims is commanded. If any are weak and incapable of the deeper mystery, let them be built up from the letter, and know that if anyone passing by passes over the commandments of the Lord, and lies to his neighbour about a deposit, or partnership, or robbery, he will be established as guilty of an enormous sin. But far be it from the church of God that I should believe there is anyone in this assembly of saints who would act so wretchedly as to deny his neighbour's deposit, or defile a partnership with fraud, or himself plunder another's goods, or receive goods robbed by others, and, if they are demanded of him, swear against his conscience about them. Far be it, far be it, I say, that I should think these things of any of the faithful. I say confidently of you, then, that you did not so learn Christ, nor were you so taught; nor indeed does the law itself prescribe these things for the saints and the faithful. Do you wish to know that these things are not said to the saints and the righteous? Hear the Apostle distinguishing them: “The law,” he says, “is not laid down for the righteous, but for the unjust and insubordinate, for the wicked and defiled, for parricides, matricides,” and those like them. Since, then, the Apostle says that the law is laid down for men of this kind, let the church of God, which far be it from being stained with such crimes, leave the letter to others and be built up more holily by the Spirit.

Let us see, therefore, now what the deposit is which each of the faithful has received. I think that we have received from God as a deposit both our soul itself and our body. And do you wish to see another, greater deposit which you have received from God? To your very soul God has entrusted his image and likeness. This deposit, then, must be restored by you as whole as it is agreed to have been received by you. For if you are merciful, as your Father in heaven is merciful, the image of God is in you, and you keep the deposit whole. If you are perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect, the deposit of God's image remains in you. Likewise in all the rest: if you are devout, if you are just, if you are holy, if you are clean of heart, and if all the things which are present in God by nature subsist in you by imitation, the deposit of the divine image is safe with you. But if you act to the contrary, and instead of merciful you show yourself cruel, instead of devout impious, instead of kind violent, instead of peaceful turbulent, instead of generous a robber, then, having cast away the image of God, you have taken up in yourself the image of the devil, and have denied the good deposit entrusted to you by God. Or was this not what the Apostle, under a mystery, commanded his chosen disciple Timothy, saying: “O Timothy, guard the good deposit”? I add this too: that we have received Christ the Lord as a deposit, and we have the Holy Spirit as a deposit. We must see to it, then, that we do not use this holy deposit unholily, and, when sins solicit us to consent to them, swear that we have not received the deposit. For surely if we have it in us, we cannot consent to sin. But also the rational sense itself which is in me has been entrusted to me, so that I may use it for the understanding of divine things; my talent, memory, judgment, reason, and all the movements that are within me seem to have been entrusted to me by God, so that I may use them in what the divine law has commanded. But if we turn a skilful and sharp talent to evil arts, and misuse the things of God in what God does not want, this is to forswear the deposit and to turn benefits into faithlessness.

Let us now see what “partnership” too is to be understood as. Do you think there is anyone who needs to be warned according to the letter not to deceive a partner by fraud, perhaps in a money account or some other kind of partnership? That soul is of the lowest wretchedness into which this kind of fraud can still fall. Nevertheless, since there is much frailty in man, let us warn about these things too, since the Apostle was not reluctant to command them either. For he says: “Let no one defraud his brother in business, since God is the avenger of all these things.” But now let us inquire what the partnership of the spirit also is. Hear the Apostle speaking of it in these very words: “If there is any comfort of love, if any partnership of the spirit, if any affections of compassion, fulfil my joy.” You see how the apostle Paul understood the law of partnership. Hear also John, how he speaks in one and the same spirit: “And we have partnership,” he says, “with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” And again Peter says: “You have become partakers,” he says, “of the divine nature,” that is, partners. And again the apostle Paul says: “For what partnership has light with darkness?” But if light has no partnership with darkness, then light can have partnership with light. If, then, partnership with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit has been given us, we must see to it that we do not deny this holy and divine partnership by sinning. For if we do the works of darkness, it is certain that we have denied the partnership of the light. But the Apostle also calls us partners of the saints; and no wonder. For if we are said to have partnership with the Father and the Son, how not also with the saints, not only those who are on earth but also those who are in the heavens? Since Christ too through his blood made peace for heavenly and earthly things, so as to join earthly things in partnership with the heavenly. This he plainly indicates where he says that there is joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance; and again when he says that those who rise from the dead will be like the angels of God in heaven, and when he promises the kingdom of heaven fully to human beings. Whoever, then, by his evil deeds and evil thoughts is separated from union with them, breaks and denies this partnership. After this robbery is spoken of. There are evil robbers and good ones; and the good are those of whom the Saviour says that they seize the kingdom of heaven by force. But there are also evil robbers, of whom the prophet says: “And the plunder of the poor is in your houses.” And the Apostle declares bluntly, saying: “Do not be deceived: neither adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor men who lie with males, nor thieves, nor robbers will possess the kingdom of God.” There is, however, also a culpable robbing according to the spiritual understanding, just as those others laudably seize the kingdoms of heaven. For example, let us say: if a man not yet purged of vices, not yet separated from profane and sordid deeds, wishes to thrust himself secretly into the gathering of the saints and the perfect, and to hear the discourse in which perfect and mystical things are treated, such a man wrongly seizes the knowledge of secret and perfect things. For we must remember the Saviour's precept in which he says that no one puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the wineskins will burst and the wine will be lost: showing that the secrets of the new mysteries, which the world has come to know through Christ, ought not to be entrusted to souls not yet renewed but persisting in the oldness of the letter.

The lawgiver then adds: “Or if he has harmed his neighbour in anything, or has found something lost.” The law of the letter seems here to command that if anyone finds what another has lost, and it is sought, he should return it and not perjure himself about it. This too is a useful edification for the hearers. For many think it is without sin if they keep what they have found belonging to another, and say: “God gave it to me; to whom should I return it?” Let them learn, then, that this sin is like robbery, if anyone does not return what he has found. Nevertheless, if the lawgiver had wished only what is thought to be according to the letter to be understood, he could have said, “If he has found what had perished,” or “what someone had lost.” But now, when he says “he has found perdition,” he wished us to understand something more. Those who sin greatly are called “perdition” in the Scriptures, as we read it said in the prophet Ezekiel: “You have become perdition, and you shall not stand for ever.” It is possible, then, to show who by much seeking finds perdition: as, for example, let us say, heretics, in order to construct and defend their doctrines, search and discuss much in the divine Scriptures, so that they find perdition. For when they have sought many testimonies by which to support what they wrongly think, they must be said to have found perdition for themselves. But if perhaps one of them, hearing the word of God treated in the church in the catholic manner, comes to his senses and understands that what he had found is perdition, he shall restore, it says, what he found. Both the one who found perdition and the one who found robbery, and also the one who denied the deposit, and everyone who in any way harmed his neighbour's soul or swore unjustly: “He shall restore,” it says, “the principal itself, and shall add fifths besides, and give it to him to whom it belongs,” according, of course, to the explanation which we gave earlier about adding the fifths. “And he shall offer,” it says, “to the Lord a ram from the sheep without blemish, at a price, for that in which he transgressed, and the priest shall pray for him before the Lord, and it shall be forgiven him for any one of all the things that he did and in which he transgressed.” We said earlier what it is to offer a ram, and that one bought at the price of the holy shekel. Now it remains for us to state this difference: that there he set the price of the holy shekel, but here he says only “a price”, and he designated neither the amount of the price nor the name of the money. For earlier, where the law was given concerning the sin committed in holy things, we said that the holy shekel was named, and that “shekel” is the name of a coin; as elsewhere an obol, elsewhere a drachma, elsewhere a mina, or a talent, or a mite, or a denarius is mentioned. Here, then, none of these is named, but the ram is only said to be offered “at a price”. For there is a difference between sinning in holy things and sinning outside holy things. Do you wish to see this very distinction elsewhere too? Hear how in the books of Kingdoms Eli the priest says to his sons: “If anyone sins against a man, the priest will entreat for him. But if he sins against God, who will entreat for him?” Likewise also the apostle John says: “There is a sin unto death; I do not say that one should pray for that.” Since, then, we ought to learn from the spiritual law the differences of sins, in which sins a ram is only to be bought and in which it is to be purchased with the holy shekel, let us also inquire who those are who sell the rams. I think that those who sell rams for sacrifice are the same as those who sell oil for the lamps of the virgins, of whom the wise virgins said to the foolish: “Go to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.” Who else, then, sell either oil for the lights or rams for the sacrifices but the holy prophets and apostles, who, when I have sinned, show me and give me counsel how I ought to correct my errors and amend my sins? Isaiah sells me a ram to sacrifice for sin when he says to me, as in the person of God: “I do not want burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of lambs, and the blood of goats and bulls.” And a little later he adds: “Take away wickedness from your souls, from the sight of your eyes; learn to do good, rescue the one who suffers injury, judge for the orphan and justify the widow; and come, let us reason together, says the Lord. And if your sins are like scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and if like crimson, I will make them like white wool.” Daniel too sells me a ram when he says that “there is no place to sacrifice before you, that we may find mercy. But with a contrite soul and a spirit of humility may we be received, as in a multitude of fat lambs; so let our sacrifice be in your sight today.” David too sells us a ram for sacrifice when he says: “A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God does not despise.” Since, then, each of the prophets, or of the apostles too, has given counsel to those who transgress by which they may correct or amend their sin, they will rightly be seen to have sold them rams for sacrifice. And what price they take from the buyers, I think, is this: zeal for reading, vigils for hearing the word of God, and, above all, as the worthiest price, obedience, of which the Lord says: “I desire obedience rather than sacrifice, and hearkening to my word more than burnt offerings.”

After this there follows: “And the Lord spoke,” he says, “to Moses, saying: Command Aaron and his sons, saying: This is the law of the burnt offering. This burnt offering shall be in its burning on the altar all night until morning, and the fire of the altar shall burn on it and shall not be put out. And the priest shall put on a linen tunic, and shall put linen drawers about his body; and he shall take away the victim which the fire has consumed, and the burnt offering, from the altar, and shall put it beside the altar; and he shall take off his robe and put on another robe; and he shall carry the victim that has been burned outside the camp to a clean place. And the fire on the altar shall burn and shall not be put out, and the priest shall burn wood on it in the morning, and shall heap the burnt offering on it, and shall lay on it the fat of the peace offering; and the fire shall always burn on the altar and shall not be put out.” Hear that there must always be fire on the altar, you too, if you wish to be a priest of God, as it is written: “For you shall all be priests of the Lord.” For to you too it is said: “A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people for God's possession.” If, then, you wish to exercise the priesthood of your soul, let the fire never depart from your altar. This is what the Lord too commands in the Gospels: “Let your loins be girded, and your lamps always burning.” Let the fire of faith and the lamp of knowledge, then, always be kindled for you. And what the Lord said in the Gospel, “your loins girded,” is the same as what the lawgiver now commands, that the priest be girded with linen drawers, and so, having laid aside the old ashes, renew the sacred fires. For we too ought to say: “Behold, the old things have passed away, and all things have become new.” For he is girded with linen drawers, or, as it is said elsewhere, wears breeches, who has bound wantonness and loose lust with the girdle of chastity. For before all things the priest who attends the divine altars ought to be girded with chastity, and he will not be able to purge the old and restore the new unless he is clothed in linen. Of linen it has often been said already, and especially when we were speaking of the priestly garments, that this kind holds the form of chastity, because the origin of flax is so drawn from the earth and brought forth from the earth that it is conceived from no mixing. It must be observed, however, that the priest uses some garments while he is in the ministry of the sacrifices, and others when he goes out to the people. This Paul did, the most knowing of high priests and the most skilled of priests. When he was in the gathering of the perfect, as if placed within the Holy of Holies and clothed in the robe of perfection, he said: “We speak wisdom among the perfect, but a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are being destroyed; but we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which none of the rulers of this age knew. For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty.” But after this, as if going out to the people, he changes his robe and puts on another, far inferior to that one. And what does he say? “I decided,” he says, “to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” You see, then, how this most learned priest is clothed. When he is to go among the perfect, as into the Holy of Holies, he uses one robe of teaching. But when he goes out to those who are not capable, he changes the robe of the word and teaches lesser things; and some he gives milk to drink, as little children; others he feeds with vegetables, as weak; and for others he prepares strong food, namely for those “who, according to their capacity to receive, have their senses trained to distinguish good and evil.” So Paul knew how to change robes, one for the people, another in the ministry of the holy things. But our Lord and Saviour himself, the high priest of high priests and the priest of priests, of whom the Apostle says that he is “the high priest of the good things to come,” hear how he did these things first, and so left them to his disciples to imitate. The Gospel relates of him and says that “he spoke to the crowds in parables, and without parables he did not speak to them. But privately he explained them to his disciples.” You see how he himself taught that the high priest ought to use some garments when he goes out to the crowds, and others when he ministers in the holy things to the learned and perfect. Hence we must pray and act so that Jesus does not find us such, so unprepared and so bound by the cares of the world, that he speaks to us in parables with the crowds, so that seeing we do not see and hearing we do not hear; but rather that we may deserve to be found among those to whom he says: “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.”

After this: “This,” he says, “is the law of the sacrifice which the sons of Aaron the priest shall offer before the altar before the Lord. He shall take from it a full handful of the fine flour of the sacrifice with its oil, and with all its incense, which are for the sacrifice, and shall lay on the altar the victim, an odour of sweetness, its memorial to the Lord. And what is left of it Aaron and his sons shall eat. It shall be eaten unleavened in a holy place; in the court of the tabernacle of witness they shall eat it. It shall not be baked leavened; I have given it to them as their portion from the victims of the Lord. They are holy of holies, as is the sin offering and the offence offering. All the males of the priests shall eat it. A perpetual ordinance for your generations from the victims of the Lord. Everyone who touches them shall be sanctified.” In what is set before us, the manner of sacrificing is given to the priests, and observances by which God might be seen to be worshipped, or the people purified, or also by which provision might be made for the priests and ministers in what was necessary for their living. For a measure is set for the fine flour to be offered in the sacrifice, which is called the tenth part of an ephah; oil is poured on it, and incense is laid on it. But when it has come to the altar, the priest, he says, shall take a full handful of it, so that he encloses within the fullness of his hand both the oil that was poured in and the incense that was laid on, so that this may be a libation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness. The rest, he says, let it remain for the priests to eat; but the law handed it over to be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the tabernacle, so that none of it is leavened. For this, he says, I have given as a portion to the priests, and these are holy of holies. He wished this also to be observed, that only males should eat of it, and no woman touch it. He adds this too, that whoever touches them is sanctified. But if we wish now to ask those who hold to the obvious meaning about each point, for what reason this was said in this way or that in another way, they will satisfy us with a peremptory answer, saying: “So it seemed good to the lawgiver; no one questions his Lord.” And so, yielding to them in the rest, let us ask about this last saying, that they may tell us how everyone who touches the sacrifice of the holy things is sanctified. If a murderer touches it, if a profane man, if an adulterer, if one guilty of incest, will he be sanctified? For he made no exception, but said: “Everyone who touches them shall be sanctified.” For let us suppose that even now the state of that temple were intact, victims were offered, sacrifices consumed. Someone wicked, unjust, impure enters the temple, finds the flesh of the sacrifices set out, and touches it: will he at once be declared sanctified? By no means: neither the nature of the thing nor the truth of religion admits this. And therefore we must return to the Gospel and apostolic explanations, so that the law can be understood. For unless the Gospel has taken away the veil from the face of Moses, his face cannot be seen, nor his sense understood. See, then, how in the church the disciples of the apostles stand by what Moses wrote and defend it, showing that it can be fulfilled and was written reasonably; whereas the teachers of the Jews, following the letter, make these things both impossible and unreasonable.

Therefore the sacrifice for which all these sacrifices had gone before in type and figure, the one and perfect sacrifice, is Christ, who was sacrificed. If anyone touches the flesh of this sacrifice, he is at once sanctified. If he is unclean, he is cleansed; if he is under a scourge, he is healed. So, indeed, did that woman understand whom I mentioned a little earlier, who suffered a flow of blood: that he was the flesh of the sacrifice, and the flesh of the holy of holies; and because she truly understood what the flesh of the holy of holies was, therefore she approached. And she does not dare to touch the holy flesh itself, for she had not yet been cleansed, nor had she grasped the things that are perfect; but she touched the fringe of the garment by which the holy flesh was covered, and by her faithful touch she drew power from the flesh, which both sanctified her from uncleanness and healed her of the scourge she suffered. Do not the words of Moses seem to you better able to stand in this order, when he says: “Everyone who touches the holy flesh shall be sanctified”? For this flesh, which we have expounded, all who believed from the Gentiles have touched. He too touched it who said: “For we too were once foolish and unbelieving, going astray, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness and humanity of God our Saviour shone forth, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” And elsewhere he says: “And such indeed you were, but you were justified, you were sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” For if, as we said, anyone touches the flesh of Jesus in the way we expounded above, and approaches Jesus with full faith and all obedience, as the Word made flesh, this one has touched the flesh of the sacrifice and has been sanctified. And he too touches the flesh of the Word of whom the Apostle says: “But solid food is for the perfect, those who according to their capacity to receive have their senses trained to distinguish good and evil.” He too, then, touches the flesh of the Word of God who examines its inner parts and can explain its hidden mysteries. And if we had such understanding, we could discern by spiritual interpretation each thing written in the law, and bring out into the light of subtler knowledge the sacrament covered in each saying; if we could so teach the church that nothing of what has been read remained ambiguous and nothing was left obscure, perhaps it could be said of us too that we have touched the holy flesh of the Word of God and have been sanctified. In this way I take also what was said, that all the males of the priests shall eat it. For no woman, no remiss and dissolute soul, will be able to eat the holy flesh of the Word of God. A male is sought to eat it. Indeed it is the males who are brought into the count; never are women, never are little children counted; hence the Apostle too said: “But when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.” Such a male, then, and such a man is sought, who can eat the holy flesh, and eat it not in just any place, but in a holy place, within the court of the tabernacle. Let those hear this who divide the church and, introducing foreign and perverse doctrines, think they can eat the sacred flesh outside the temple of God and outside the Lord's court. Profane are their sacrifices, which are carried on contrary to the law of the commandment. It is commanded to be eaten in a holy place, within the courts of the tabernacle of witness. The courts of the tabernacle of witness are those which the wall of faith surrounds, which the columns of hope hold up, which the breadth of love widens. Where these things are not, the holy flesh can neither be had nor eaten.

And it is well that the things too which are offered from the sacrifice of fine flour are offered by the full handful with oil and incense, for an odour of sweetness to the Lord. The apostle Paul briefly explained this passage to the Philippians, saying: “I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, for an odour of sweetness, an acceptable victim, pleasing to God.” In this he shows that the mercy which is shown to the poor pours oil on God's sacrifice, while the ministry rendered to the saints lays on it the sweetness of incense. But it is commanded that this be done with a full hand. For so the same Apostle says that “he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. But he who sows in blessing will also reap from blessing eternal life.” There is, however, something in the sacrifice itself which is called the “memorial”, which is said to be offered to the Lord. If I could meditate on the law day and night and retain all the Scriptures in memory, I would have offered to the Lord the memorial of my sacrifice. Certainly, if we cannot do everything, let us at least commit to memory the things that are now taught in the church or that are read, so that, going out of the church and doing works of mercy and fulfilling the divine precepts, we may offer to the Lord a sacrifice with incense and oil for a memorial. Be taught by these things, then, that, like clean animals, as if chewing the cud, you should call back to memory what you have heard in the church and compare in your heart what has been said. But if any things remain beyond your memory and surpass your understanding, do what the authority of the present commandment prescribes, saying: “And what is left over of these, Aaron and his sons shall eat.” If anything has remained over and exceeded your understanding or your memory, keep it for Aaron: that is, reserve it for the priest, reserve it for the teacher, so that he may eat it, he may examine it, he may expound it; as the same Moses says elsewhere too: “Ask your fathers, and they will tell you; your elders, and they will say to you.” For they know how these unleavened loaves ought to be eaten, and expounded in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.