Homilies on Leviticus 8.3–8.10

Now let us inquire also why the woman who renders service to those born into this world is said to become unclean not only when she has received seed but also when she has given birth. Hence for her purification too she is commanded to offer young pigeons or turtledoves for sin at the door of the tabernacle of witness, so that the priest may make propitiation for her; as though she owed propitiation and purification from sin because she rendered service to a human being born into this world. For so it is written: “And the priest shall make propitiation for her, and she shall be cleansed.” I dare say nothing in such matters; yet I perceive that certain hidden mysteries are contained in them, and that there is something of a hidden secret for which the woman who has conceived from seed and given birth is called unclean, and, as if guilty of sin, is commanded to offer a victim for sin, and so to be purified. And the one who is born himself, whether of male or female sex, Scripture declares of him that he is not clean from filth, even if his life is of one day. And so that you may know that there is some great thing in this, and such that it has not come to the mind of any of the saints, none of all the saints is found to have kept a feast or a great banquet on his birthday; no one is found to have had rejoicing on the birthday of his son or daughter. Only sinners rejoice over a birth of this kind. For we find in the Old Testament Pharaoh, king of Egypt, celebrating his birthday with festivity, and in the New Testament Herod. Yet each of them stained that very festivity of his birthday by shedding human blood. For the one beheaded the chief of the bakers, the other the holy prophet John in prison. But the saints not only do not keep festivity on their birthday, but, filled with the Holy Spirit, curse this day. For so great and so excellent a prophet (I mean Jeremiah, who was sanctified in his mother's womb and consecrated a prophet to the nations) would not have set down anything idly in books that will remain for ever, unless it contained some secret and was full of great mysteries, where he says: “Cursed be the day on which I was born, and the night in which they said: Behold, a male. Cursed be he who brought the news to my father, saying: A male is born to you. Let that man rejoice like the cities which the Lord destroyed in wrath and did not repent.” Does it seem to you that the prophet could have called down such grave and burdensome curses unless he knew that there was something in this bodily birth which seemed worthy of such curses, and for which the lawgiver charged so many uncleannesses, on which he consequently imposed fitting purifications? But it is a long task, and one for another time, to explain the testimonies we have taken from the prophet; for our purpose now is to discuss not Jeremiah but the reading from Leviticus. Job too, speaking not without the Holy Spirit, cursed the day of his birth, saying: “Cursed be the day on which I was born, and the night in which they said: Behold, a male. Let that night be darkness, and let the Lord not seek it again, nor let it come into the days of the year, nor be numbered among the days of the months.” But if it does not seem to you that Job speaks this by a prophetic and divine Spirit, consider it from what follows; for he added: “But let him curse it who cursed that day, who is to slay the great sea monster.” You see, then, how in the Holy Spirit he foretold the great sea monster which the Lord was to kill, of which that sea monster of Jonah was a type; hence the Lord too, who was to kill that sea monster, the devil, says: “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so the Son of Man must be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” And if you wish to hear what other saints too thought about this birth, hear David saying: “In iniquities,” he says, “I was conceived, and in sins my mother bore me”: showing that whatever soul is born in the flesh is polluted by the filth of iniquity and sin; and that for this reason that was said which we have already mentioned above: that no one is clean from filth, even if his life is of one day. To these things this too can be added, that one may ask why, since the baptism of the church is given for the remission of sins, according to the observance of the church baptism is given even to little children; since surely, if there were nothing in little children that ought to pertain to remission and pardon, the grace of baptism would seem superfluous. “Any woman, then, who has conceived seed and borne a male shall be unclean seven days”; just as she too who, according to the days of her purification, is separated for seven days from everything clean. For she spends seven days in unclean blood, and thirty-three days in clean blood; but this in the birth of a male; in the birth of a female she spends double the days. She begins, then, to be in clean blood from the eighth day, and she is in clean blood thirty-three days, that is, three tens and three units. And when she who has given birth has begun to be in clean blood, then she circumcises the infant: “For on the eighth day,” it says, “you shall circumcise the flesh of his foreskin.” This is the law of the letter; but you, seek what circumcision the Apostle preaches, which he bids us both receive and have. “For we,” he says, “are the circumcision, who serve God in the spirit.” And as for what he says in the Psalm, “Sinners are estranged from the womb,” consider whether he does not say this of those who receive that circumcision with which the Apostle forbids us to be circumcised; and it is then that sinners are estranged from the womb, when they are circumcised not in the spirit but in the flesh. For “those who are circumcised in the law have fallen from grace.” The woman, then, who having conceived seed has borne a male is said to become unclean; but she who has borne a female will be not only unclean but doubly unclean. For she is written to remain in uncleanness for twice seven days.

But meanwhile, she who has borne a male: on the eighth day the one who was born is circumcised, and she becomes clean. It is quite a laborious matter, in this shortness of time, to touch on these things one by one; yet, so that we may say something in passing, this week can be seen as the time of the present life. For the world was completed in a week of days. In it, as long as we are placed in the flesh, we cannot be wholly pure, unless the eighth day comes, that is, unless the time of the age to come arrives. Yet on that day he who is male, and has acted manfully, is purified at once at the very coming of the age to come, and at once the mother who bore him is made clean. For she will receive back in the resurrection a flesh purified of vices. But if he had nothing manly in himself against sin, but was slack and effeminate in his actions, whose sin is such as is not forgiven either in the present age or in the one to come, he passes through one week and another in his uncleanness, and only when the third week begins to dawn is he purified from the uncleanness which she contracted by bearing a female. The victims which are commanded to be offered for such uncleanness are distinguished in two ways. First a lamb of a year old without blemish is commanded to be offered as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for sin. But a second victim is commanded: “If,” it says, “her hand does not find what suffices for a lamb, let her take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for sin.” Hence it seems remarkable that the offering of Mary had not the first victim, that is, a lamb of a year old, but the second; as one whose hand did not suffice for the first. For so it is written of her: “His parents came,” it says, “to offer a victim for him, according to what is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” But in this too it is shown that what is written is true, that Christ Jesus, though he was rich, became poor for our sakes. Therefore, then, he chose a poor mother of whom to be born, and a poor homeland, of which it is said: “And you, Bethlehem, are least among the thousands of Judah,” and the rest. But we are forced to run through these things briefly, and not to discuss each thing that is written, since indeed we are hastening to treat something also of the laws of leprosy which have been read.

We find, then, that six kinds of human leprosy are set forth; and these six kinds are described in this way. Either a scar appears on the skin of the body, and a whitish mark, and then the contagion of leprosy appears on the skin of his body. Or the leprosy breaks out in bloom and covers all the skin, the contagion from his head to his feet. Or a third kind: an ulcer arises on the skin of the flesh and is healed, and in the very place of the ulcer a white scar appears. Or a burn by fire arises on the skin of the flesh, and afterwards, when the burn is healed, it will be shining white, or white with redness. The fifth kind, when the contagion of leprosy appears in a man or a woman on the head or in the beard. The last kind is written when the contagion of reddish leprosy appears on a bald head, or a bald forehead, which is leprosy breaking out on the bald head or forehead. These things, to use a short form of exposition, since our purpose now is to admonish the hearers briefly from what has been read, and there is no time to discuss each thing clearly, seem to me to be referred to each kind of sin, and in them we must look at the stains of the soul which befall it from sins. It must be said first, then, that by these are designated the sins which we commit while placed in this life; of which some can be cured now and some cannot. And secondly it must be understood that those very sins also are signified which pass with us after this life, and that among them some are so fixed in souls that they cannot be abolished, while others are such as can receive purification, according to the inspection and judgment of that high priest from whom hidden things cannot be concealed, and who will dispose the souls of each according to whether he sees in them stains of leprosy that are expiable or inexpiable. To gather the differences of this matter from the present reading, and to search out one by one, according to the indication of this Scripture, the things that can move us, this extempore discourse, as I said above, does not allow. For these things could scarcely be set in order and composed in many volumes by those from whom the Lord has drawn away the veil in the reading of the Old Testament. Let us, then, according to our powers, carry out as much as is fitting to bring forward, the apostle Paul opening the way of understanding to us, in which he says that the law has a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things; and according to which he declares that what seems written in the law about oxen is to be taken not of oxen, for which God has no care, but of the apostles. From this we are taught by logical consequence that what is written about leprosy too is a shadow, having in other things the image of the truth. Let us apply first, then, if it seems good, the very shadow of Scripture, and then inquire about its truth. In wounds of bodies, after they have been cured, there sometimes remains a mark of the wound itself, which is called a scar. For there is scarcely anyone who is so cured that no sign of the wound he received seems to remain. Pass now from this shadow of the law to its truth, and see how the soul which has received the wound of sin, even if it is cured, nevertheless has a scar of sin remaining in the place of the wound. This scar is seen not only by God, but also by those who have received from him the grace by which they can perceive the sicknesses of souls, and discern which soul has been so cured that it has cast off in every way the trace of the wound inflicted, and which has indeed been cured but still bears, in the very trace of the scar, signs of the old disease. That there are wounds of the soul Isaiah teaches, saying: “From the feet to the head there is no wound, nor bruise, nor festering sore,” speaking these things, no doubt, of the offences of the people: since there are some to whom the remedy of a poultice can still be applied. But that others are such great sinners that no cure can be applied to them the same prophet indicates in this way: “It is not possible,” he says, “to apply a poultice, nor oil, nor bandages.” And that bruising and the wound of pain through corruption are applied to the soul for the sake of cure Jeremiah teaches, saying: “Thus says the Lord: I have raised up the bruising of your wound with pain; there is none to judge your judgment; you have been healed with pain, there is no profit in you. All your friends have forgotten you, nor will they ask after you any longer; because I have struck you with the wound of an enemy, with a strong chastisement, for all your iniquity, because your sins have been multiplied. Why do you cry out over your bruising? Your pain is violent; because of the multitude of your iniquities your sins have prevailed, and have done these things to you. Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured, and all your enemies shall devour their own flesh; and those who afflicted you shall be in affliction, and all who plundered you I will give up to plunder; because I will bring back your health, and from the pain of your wound I will call you back, says the Lord.” Remember more carefully what you have heard from the prophet said about wounds and scars and swellings. For these are necessary for us for the exposition of the scars or wounds or other such things which are mentioned in the inspections of leprosy. We shall add, however, what the same Jeremiah mentions in another place too about the wounds of the soul and their cures, in which, however, traces of the wounds have remained after the scar has formed, in these words: “Behold, I will bring on its scar, and at the same time I will cure them, and I will show them peace and faith, and I will turn the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Jerusalem.” If, then, we have learned sufficiently from the prophet about the wounds and scars of souls, and the cures and healings which are applied by God as physician, look now at that soul of which the Lord says, “I have brought on its scar.” After the wounds, no doubt, he brings the scar and health. “And I will cure them, and I will show them peace and faith.” If, then, after the knowledge and medicine of God, after the manifestation of peace and faith which we have received through Christ, some sign of a former sin rises again in this scar, or some mark of an old error is renewed, then there appears on the skin of our body the contagion of leprosy, which must be inspected by the high priest according to what the lawgiver has set out.

The second kind of leprosy is “if,” it says, “it breaks out on the skin so as to cover all the skin of the body from the head to the feet, wherever the priest looks.” When, then, it has covered all the skin of the body, the priest declares him clean from the contagion. But on whatever day living colour appears in him, he is again judged unclean, because living colour has appeared in him which he did not have before. About this some before me have also said that by “living colour” is indicated the reason of life which is in a human being; while it is not yet established in the soul, if any sin occurs there, it is not reckoned, because the one who transgresses seems not yet capable of reason. But when reason has found place and time in him, if he then does anything against reason, he is seen to be rightly culpable. But we, considering more carefully what is written, think that these things are rather to be taken of those whose sense is occupied or overwhelmed by frenzy, or madness, or in any other way, and who act against reason. These, then, are called clean from leprosy, that is, free from sin, who have no awareness of their actions or movements. But if perhaps living colour of the body appears in him, that is, if the health of his sense has been restored in him, and after this he does anything against reason, right, and justice, sin is said to be reckoned to him from the moment when living colour, that is, the sense of living reason, appeared in him.

The third law about lepers is when an ulcer is brought out on the skin of the body, and in the place of the ulcer a white scar with redness is found. The cause of an ulcer is when a filthy and harmful humour abounds in the body. So too in the soul, ulcers are understood as those things that boil up from unclean desires or filthy thoughts. If perhaps these have been cured through the grace of faith and the remission of sins, and the soul has been made healthy, yet a scar remains; and if that scar does not have the same colour as the body but is whiter, it is declared to be leprosy. For desire is so bright and clear to those who see that it shows signs of the sin still remaining in it even to those who see from afar; and perhaps of a sin such as is unto death; and therefore the scar is described as not only white but also reddish. And as to his saying that the scar itself appears lower, it is certain that a stain of sin of this kind makes the soul low and dejected.

The fourth law is where it is said that if a burn by fire arises on the skin, and afterwards, when the burn has been healed, it becomes shining and white with redness, or at least whitish, and its appearance lower than the rest of the skin, this he says is leprosy which has broken out in the burn. See, then, whether there is not a burn in every soul that receives the fiery darts of the evil one; or whether everyone who burns with carnal love is not burned with fire. These, then, are burns and kindlings of fire. But he too suffers a burn who is kindled by desire for human glory, and he who is inflamed by the heats of anger or fury. But if perhaps the soul is cured of these wounds through faith, and after recovering health, despising him who said, “Behold, now you have been made well; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you,” it begins to bring out from the scar that has formed over it the fruit of the old vice, and the scar is not made level with the skin of the rest of the body but is lower, and still keeps the colour which it had at the time of the leprosy, his leprosy has blossomed again in the burn, and therefore he is judged unclean by the priest.

The fifth kind of leprosy is when the contagion appears on the head, or in the beard of a man or a woman, so that the appearance of the contagion is lower than the skin of the body; and this is the leprosy of the head or of the beard. See, then, whether it can be that leprosy of the head is thought to be in one who does not have Christ as head but someone else, for example Epicurus, who preached pleasure as the highest good: does not the head and beard of such a man seem to you unclean? And he too who, when he ought to be a man and act as one perfect, is perhaps easily and like a boy conquered by sin, must also be said to have leprosy of the beard; because, when he ought to conquer the evil one and walk in the priestly honour which is signified by the beard, hindered by the vices of youth, he suffers leprosy of the beard. And it has often been said that a woman in the Scriptures signifies the soul which can not so much put forth the seed of the word as receive it; this soul is designated as having leprosy on the head if it has a husband, who is the head of the woman, that is, a teacher, who is polluted and unclean, following Marcion, or Valentinus, or someone of that kind.

The sixth and last kind of leprosy is set down, which arises on baldness at the back or front of the head; these things, as far as they are in themselves, are clean. For so the law too said: “If anyone's hair falls from his head, he is bald, he is clean. But if it falls from his forehead, he is bald in front, and he is clean.” And these things are fittingly referred to the soul, so that when it casts off and lays aside what is dead by its nature, it is said to be clean. But if after this the things that had previously been purified seem to sprout again more filthily and lower than the dignity of purity requires, they will render the soul unclean and leprous. And this now applies generally to every leper in whom there is the contagion of leprosy and it appears lower than the rest of the skin; for every vice of the soul is lower than its other virtues. The law, which is spiritual, decrees certain other things. “Let his garments,” it says, “be unsewn, and his head uncovered, and his mouth covered.” By this it signifies that one who is leprous in soul, that is, who is pierced through with sins, ought not to sew coverings for himself and cover the shameful things of sin. For just as one whose garments are unsewn shows the shame of his body naked and uncovered, so one who is hemmed in by any sins ought not to cover his evils and crimes with any patches of words or veils of excuses, lest he become a whitewashed tomb, which outwardly appears beautiful to men, but inside is full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. The divine law, then, wishes the sinner not only not to sew his garments, but also not to cover his head: so that if there is any offence of the head, that is, if anything has been committed against God, if there has been sin in the faith, not even these things should be kept covered, but be made public to all, so that by the intercession and correction of all he may be amended and merit pardon. Yet this leper is commanded to cover only his mouth. What is this, that he is commanded to have all the parts of his body bare, and to cover only his mouth? Is it not plain and open that for him who is in the leprosy of sin speech is shut, the mouth is shut, so that confidence of speech and the authority to teach are excluded? For to the sinner God said: “Why do you recount my righteous deeds and take up my covenant in your mouth?” Let the sinner, then, keep his mouth shut, because he who has not taught himself cannot teach another; therefore he is commanded to cover his mouth, who by doing evil has lost the freedom to speak. “He shall be unclean,” it says, “and shall sit apart outside; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.” It is clear that everyone unclean is cast out of the assembly of the good and separated from the camp of the saints; and therefore he says, “his dwelling shall be outside the camp.” But if perhaps he has been cleansed, he does not come to the priest of his own accord, by himself; but he is brought, it says, by another, and does not enter the camp. For it was not fitting that on the day he was being cleansed he should enter the camp before what was appropriate had been done for him. For this reason, it says, the priest will go out to him outside the camp. For to him who cannot yet enter the camp, he always goes out who can go out of the camp, who says: “I came out from God and have come into this world.” The priest, then, goes out to him and considers whether he has now recovered health, whether he has been purged of the contagion of leprosy. And when the priest has seen him, he commands that two living birds be taken for the one who is being cleansed, and cedar wood, and twisted scarlet, and hyssop. These two birds too seem to me to have some likeness to the two goats, of which one is offered to the Lord and the other sent out into the desert; for so here too, of the two birds one is sacrificed and the other released into the open field. Here too, then, he who is purged of leprosy gives some part to be cast out into the desert, while the other part is offered to the Lord for him. Yet he who is being purged of leprosy and offers the birds does not yet offer at the altar even that one which is offered to the Lord for him, as he would turtledoves or doves. For on that same day the one who is being purged of leprosy is not yet made worthy of the divine altar. For this reason the lawgiver commands that on the same day on which he is purged two birds be taken for his purification. I think that here too there is hidden the meaning of that hen through which the purification of the sinner is brought about, of which it is written: “How often I wished to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!” Yet the one who is being purified needs to be purified by the cedar wood. For it is impossible that the leprosy of sin be purged without the wood of the cross. Let the wood also be applied, on which the Saviour, as the apostle Paul said, stripped the principalities and powers, triumphing over them on the wood. Twisted scarlet is joined too for the cleansing of this leprosy, and hyssop is added. The twisted scarlet holds the figure of the sacred blood which came forth from his side through the wound of the lance. And hyssop: physicians say that this kind of herb has the nature of rinsing and purging any filth from the corruption of harmful humour that has settled in men's chests. Hence, necessarily, in the purging of sins the figure of this kind of plant has been taken up. And as for scarlet, we find it recorded in the divine volumes that it has often been taken as an aid to salvation, as in the childbirth of Tamar, when one, it says, first put out his hand. “And the midwife, taking scarlet, tied it on his hand, saying: This one will come out first.” And Rahab the harlot too, when she had received the spies and was receiving the pact of salvation, they said to her: “Put as a sign a scarlet cord, and you shall tie it in this window through which you let us down.” Observe also, however, that the priest himself is not said to sacrifice the bird; for the one who was a leper is not yet worthy that the priest himself should sacrifice for him. For this reason too the bird's blood is not offered at the altar, but it says that the bird will be killed in an earthen vessel, in which living water has been put, so that water too may be taken for the purification, and the fullness of the mystery may be fulfilled in water and blood, which is said to have come out of the Saviour's side; and also what John sets down in his Epistle, saying that purification is made in water and blood and spirit. Hence here too I see all these things fulfilled. For the spirit is that bird which is killed, and the living water which is in the vessel, and the blood which is poured over it; not that we think the grace of baptism is to be repeated through these things, but that every purification of sins, even this which is sought through penance, needs the help of him from whose side water and blood came forth. See, then, how both the living bird, and the cedar wood, and the twisted scarlet, and the hyssop are dipped in the blood of the bird and in the living water, so that, sprinkled from this and purified by the water and blood in which that bird too was dipped which is sent out into the field, and sprinkled seven times before the Lord, the one who is being purified may be made clean from all the uncleanness with which he had been possessed by the contagion of leprosy.