Homilies on Jeremiah 10.0–12.0

Homily 10. On “Make it known to me, O Lord, and I shall know” as far as “Gather all the beasts of the field, and let them come to devour it.”

If the oracles of God are in the law and the prophets, in the Gospels and the apostles, the one who is being taught by the oracles of God will have to record God as his teacher; for God is the one “who teaches man knowledge,” as is written in the Psalms too. And the Savior also testifies that one must not record anyone on earth as teacher, saying: “And do not call anyone on earth teacher; for you have one teacher, your Father who is in heaven.” And “the Father who is in heaven” teaches either by himself, or through Christ, or in the Holy Spirit, or, for example, through Paul, or through Peter, or through some other of the saints; only let the Spirit of God and the Word of God be present and teach. Why have I said this? Since the prophet says, “Make it known to me, O Lord, and I shall know”; for I shall not know unless you make it known to me; but if I know because you make it known to me, “then I shall see their practices,” and understand what each one does and of what purpose he is. So the prophet. Then let us see what the Savior says in the prophet: “I, like an innocent lamb led to be slaughtered, did not know. They devised a plan against me, saying: Come, let us put wood into his bread, and let us wipe him out from the land of the living, and his name shall be remembered no more.” As the prophet Isaiah too says, Christ “was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so he does not open his mouth.” There Isaiah speaks about him, but here Christ says about himself: “I, like an innocent lamb led to the slaughter to be sacrificed, did not know.” He did not say what he did not know. For he did not say, “I did not know evil,” nor, “I did not know good,” nor, “I did not know sin,” but simply, “I did not know.” He has left it to you, then, to examine what he did not know. And learn what he did not know from “him who knew no sin he made to be sin for us”; for to know sin is to sin, as to know righteousness is to act righteously. So the one who proclaims the things of righteousness but does not act righteously has not known righteousness.

“They devised a plan against me, saying: Come, let us put wood into his bread.” That the Jews crucified him is clear, and we proclaim it openly. But how you will fit this to “They devised a plan against me, saying: Come, let us put wood into his bread” is a task to understand. The bread of Jesus is the word by which we are nourished. Since, then, while he was teaching among the people, they wished to add a stumbling block to his teaching by crucifying him, they said, “Let us put wood into his bread.” For when to the word of Jesus' teaching is attached that the teacher was crucified, wood has been put into his bread. They, then, having taken counsel out of treachery, may say: “Come, let us put wood into his bread.” But I will say something more paradoxical: the wood put into his bread has made the bread better. I take an example from the law of Moses: the wood thrown into the bitter water made it sweet. So the wood of the passion of Jesus Christ, coming into the word, has made his bread sweeter. Before the wood came into his bread, at any rate, when it was bread only and there was no wood in his teaching, “his voice” had not “gone out into all the earth.” But since the bread gained power through the wood put into it, for this reason the word of his teaching has spread over the whole world. And then the wood was a symbol of the passion of Jesus, through which the bitter water becomes sweet; for I say that the law, when not understood, is bitter water; but if the wood of Jesus comes, and the teaching of my Savior comes to dwell, the law of Moses is sweetened and becomes most pleasant when read and understood. So they said: “Come, let us put wood into his bread.”

And they also say, “Let us wipe him out from the land of the living, and his name shall be remembered no more.” So they killed him, as if blotting out his name. But Jesus knows how he dies and why. That is why he says: “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” So the death of Jesus becomes an ear of wheat, making what was sown manifold and abundant. As if, by supposition, he had not been crucified nor died, the grain of wheat would have remained alone, and many would not have come from it. Notice his words, whether he did not mean this: “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” The death of Jesus bore all these as fruit; and if his death bore so many as fruit, how many will his resurrection bear?

“O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously, who test the reins and the hearts, may I see your vengeance upon them.” He prays this prophetically, to see the vengeance of God upon them; for “Jerusalem has been surrounded by armies, and its desolation has drawn near,” and it has been said to her, “Behold, your house is left to you.” “May I see,” then, “your vengeance upon them, for to you I have revealed my cause. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the men of Anathoth who seek my life, who say: You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord, or else you will die by our hands. Behold, I will visit them: their young men shall die by the sword, and their sons and their daughters shall perish by famine. And there shall be no remnant of them; upon those who dwell in Anathoth in the year of their visitation.” The name of Anathoth is taken here as a figure; but the whole Jewish mystery is spoken of figuratively in it; for Anathoth is interpreted “Hearkening.” Since, then, God's hearkening was in that people, as was also the kingdom of God, and in the case of the kingdom there came to pass “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits,” in the same way it came to pass that “the men of Anathoth,” those in the Hearkening, sought the life not of Jeremiah (for the history does not say that men of Anathoth sought the life of Jeremiah: we have the books of Kingdoms, and Scripture mentions Jeremiah there, but nothing of the kind is said in them, nor in Chronicles; for we have the very book of the prophet, and the men of Anathoth said nothing), but these things are said about Christ. “Who seek my life, who say: You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord.” The Jews forbade Jesus to teach. “Or else you will die by our hands. Behold, I will visit them: their young men shall die by the sword, and their sons and their daughters shall perish by famine.” Not then did they perish by the sword; but after his coming a famine has now come upon them, “not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.” For “Thus says the Lord almighty” is no longer spoken among them. This is the famine: that there is no longer prophecy; and why do I say prophecy? Not even teaching. Even if wise men are named among them ten thousand times, there is no longer a word of the Lord among them, since it has been fulfilled: “The Lord will take away from Judea and from Jerusalem the strong man and the strong woman, the giant and the strong man, and the man of war, and the judge and the prophet, and the diviner and the elder, and the captain of fifty, and the wonderful counselor, and the wise master builder, and the intelligent hearer.” There is no longer anyone among them who can say, “As a wise master builder I have laid a foundation.” The master builders have passed over; they have come to the church; they have laid the foundation, Jesus Christ. On this those after them also build.

So that people is left “in famine”; for he brings “evils upon those who dwell in Anathoth in the year of their visitation.” “You are righteous, O Lord, that I should plead with you; yet I will speak my judgments to you. Why does the way of the ungodly prosper? All who commit faithlessness have flourished.” We still ask whether the God who gave the law and the prophets is good, seeing that “the way of the ungodly prospers” and he does not punish the ungodly. “All who commit faithlessness have flourished.” The very people who speak against the Creator and blaspheme him “have flourished, have been planted and taken root, have begotten children and borne fruit.” How much fruit has Marcion had, begetting children; how much Basilides; how much Valentinus! For this is what is prophesied and said about the ungodly in “they have begotten children and borne fruit.” “You are near in their mouth, but far from their reins.” They name the name of Jesus, but do not have Jesus; for they do not confess him as they should. “And you, O Lord, know me; you have seen me, you have tested my heart before you. Purify them for the day of their slaughter.” What shall I do to make this clear? He calls the punishments a purification of those who are punished; for he says, “Purify them for the day of their slaughter.” Through their being slaughtered, purify them; “for the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives.”

“How long will the land mourn, and the grass of the field wither, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it?” Here too the prophet speaks as though the earth were alive, saying that the earth mourns because of the wickedness of those who walk on it. So in the case of each of us the earth either mourns or rejoices: either it mourns “because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it,” or it rejoices because of the virtue of those who dwell in it. So in the case of each of us the element itself either rejoices or mourns; and perhaps the other elements too. I will say the same of water, and of the angel appointed over the water, so that I may explain the earth too, mourning or not mourning. For it is not this body, “the earth,” that mourns “because of those who dwell in it”; but understand for me that, in the ordering of the universe, someone is appointed over the earth, another appointed over the waters, another over the air, and a fourth over fire. In this way go up with me in thought to the whole ordering, that among living things and among the heavenly stars. An angel is appointed over the sun, another over the moon, another over the stars. These angels, with whom we are, in so far as we are earth, either rejoice if we act righteously, or mourn over us when we sin. The earth mourns, he says, because of those who dwell in it. He called the angel “earth” by the same name as the earth itself. For just as “the thing made by hands is accursed, and he who made it,” not because the lifeless thing itself is accursed, but what sits by the lifeless statue and bears its name is called “the thing made by hands,” so I will say that the angel appointed over the earth is called earth, and the angel appointed over water is called water, as it is said: “The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and were afraid; the depths were troubled, the multitude of the sound of waters; the clouds gave forth a voice, for your arrows pass through.”

“I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance, I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies.” See for me the one who was “in the form of God,” being in the heavens; see his house above the heavens. If you wish to see something still higher (that he is “in the Father”), see that his house is God. He leaves “father and mother,” the “Jerusalem above,” and comes to the region around the earth, and says: “I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance.” For that was his inheritance: the regions with the angels, the rank with the holy powers. “I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies.” He handed over his soul into the hands of the enemies of the soul: into the hands of the Jews who killed him, into the hands of rulers gathered against him, into the hands of kings, when “the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.”

“My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest.” This inheritance of his on earth, which he inherited, turned savage against him, and the inheritance, the Jews, became wild against him “like a lion in the forest.” It is not surprising if his inheritance then became “like a lion in the forest”; even now there are lions in the forest wanting to curse Jesus, blaspheming him, and plotting against those who believe in him. “My inheritance,” then, “has become to me like a lion in the forest. It has raised its voice against me; therefore I have hated it. Is my inheritance a hyena's cave to me?” He prophesies about this inheritance: has the inheritance become a hyena's cave, a cave of the hyena, the most savage animal, that feeds on the dead, that haunts tombs, that eats carcasses? “Is my inheritance a hyena's cave to me? Or a cave round about it? Go.” Since they have become such, I command you angels to go and gather the beasts and hand them over to the beasts. “Go and gather all the beasts of the field, and let them come to devour it.” “The beasts of the field” have come; they devour that people. See their hearts devoured by the opposing powers. If Jesus did not spare them but said, “Go, gather the beasts,” how much more will he not spare us? If we do not do the law of God, the word of the Gospel, he will say again: Go, gather the beasts and hand her over. But we have boldness to say in our prayers: “Do not give to the beasts a soul that confesses to you.” Let us confess our trespasses, repenting, and we shall not be handed over to the beasts, but to holy angels who will be our nurses, carrying us in their bosoms, bringing us over from this age to the one to come in Christ Jesus, to whom be the power and the glory for ever. Amen.

Homily 11. On “Because of me the whole land has been utterly laid waste” and on “the loincloth.”

Who is the one who says, “Because of me the whole land has been utterly laid waste”? Christ says this, before whose coming the people committed many sins, but not such that they were entirely forsaken and handed over to a long captivity. But when they filled up “the measure of” their “fathers,” and added to having slain the prophets and persecuted the righteous the killing of “the Christ of God,” then “your house is left to you” came to pass. And because of him they suffered these things, and “the whole land has been utterly laid waste.”

But if you wish to hear “Because of me the whole land has been utterly laid waste” in a higher sense too, see how the land in you was laid waste when Jesus came; for it was laid waste when “the members that are on the earth were put to death,” and the land no longer works its own works; the works of the flesh, by which the flesh flourished, no longer happen in the righteous man: no more sexual immorality, no more impurity, no licentiousness, no idolatry, no sorcery, and the rest. And the Savior too says: “Do you think that I came to bring peace on the earth? I came not to bring peace, but a sword.” For truly, before he came, there was no sword on the earth, nor did “the flesh lust against the spirit, nor the spirit against the flesh”; but when he came and we were taught what belongs to the flesh and what to the spirit, the teaching, having become like a sword on the earth, divided the flesh from the spirit. And “the land” was “laid waste” when we carry about the dying of Jesus in the body, and no longer live according to the flesh, but the spirit lives, and we sow nothing to the flesh but everything to the spirit, so that we may not reap corruption from the flesh, but eternal life from the spirit.

It is said to those who have sinned: “Sow wheat and reap thorns”; for even if they occupy themselves with the oracles of God, those who do not occupy themselves with them well, nor live as they should, nor believe, sow wheat and reap thorns. This can be understood especially of those of other opinions who read the Scriptures and reap thorns, not from the Scriptures but from their own notions. “Their lots will not profit them.” Others too have explained this; and since we do not reject their explanation, we fairly bring it forward, not as having found it ourselves, but as having learned a good lesson. This word will profit both you and us, if we heed what is written, we who seem to be of the clergy, sitting in front of you, so that some wish to attain to this clergy. But know that the clerical lot does not by any means save; for many presbyters too will perish, and many lay people will be shown to be blessed. Since, then, there are some in the clergy who do not live so as to be profited and to adorn the clergy, for this reason, say those who have explained it, it is written: “Their lots will not profit them.” For what profits is not simply sitting in the presbytery, but living worthily of the place, as the Word requires. The Word requires both you and us to live well. But if one must speak thus, “the mighty will be mightily tested”: more is required of me than of the deacon, more of the deacon than of the lay person, and still more is required of the one entrusted with the church's government over all of us. That is why the apostle, who was entrusted with great things, says, listen: “Let a man so regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.” And so rare is it to find a faithful and good steward. Jesus, “who knows all things before they come to be,” says: “Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord will set over his household to give the measure of grain in due season to his servants?” Then he blames certain stewards and says: “But if the wicked servant begins to say, ‘My lord delays his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the lord of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in two, and put his portion with the unbelievers.” So much on “Their lots will not profit them.”

Let us look also at the necessary rebuke that follows, which it is good to take up for the moral sense, saying: “Be ashamed of your boasting, of the reproach before the Lord.” There are things in which, through folly, we boast, which are not worthy of boasting. For example, if someone boasts that he is rich and has acquired much, it might be said to him: “Be ashamed of your boasting.” If someone boasts of this outward noble birth, it will be said to him: “Be ashamed of your boasting.” If someone boasts of costly clothes, of building a richly furnished house, the boast is foreign to the boasting of the saints; so it will be said to such a one: “Be ashamed of your boasting.” Hear the word of the prophet Jeremiah commanding us not to boast even of wisdom: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom,” he says, “nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches; but let him who boasts boast in this, to understand and know that I am the Lord.” Do you wish to boast, and in boasting not to hear, “Be ashamed of your boasting”? Boast like the apostle and say: “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Do you wish to boast, so that it may not be said, “Be ashamed of your boasting”? Listen to Paul boasting, and learn when he says: “Most gladly, then, will I boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Hear what boasts he boasts: “in labors far more” (which of us can say this?), “in prisons more abundantly, in deaths often. Five times I received from [the Jews] forty lashes less one; three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked.” We learn, then, that there are differences among boasts too, so that some boasts deserve shame, about which that apostolic saying might be spoken: “and their glory is in their shame”: in the things they ought to be ashamed of, in these they think they are glorified.

After this let us look at the matter of the loincloth. For “thus says the Lord: Go and get yourself a linen loincloth, and put it around your loins, and do not put it in water. And I got a loincloth according to the word of the Lord and put it around my loins. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Take the loincloth that is around your loins, and arise and go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in the cleft of the rock.” After some days he goes there and finds this loincloth rotted. And the Lord adds, giving a starting point for the interpretation of the loincloth, saying: “As the loincloth clings to a man's loins, so I made the house of Israel and all the house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord, to be for me a people of renown and a boast and a glory; but they did not listen to me.” So the prophet is taken in place of God, girding the linen loincloth around his loins, as God does the people; for “I made this people cling to me,” he says; the people becomes, as it were, God's loincloth. But why does it become a loincloth for God around his loins? Whoever is able, reading Ezekiel and seeing God, in the account, as it were given a body, and how his parts from the loins down are fire, and those from the loins up are amber, let him search out the reason why what is lower in God is fire. The things of the loins and of generation, these are fire. For all things in generation need the cleansing that comes from fire; all things in generation need punishment. But the things above the loins, which have gone beyond generation, are like a most pure and precious material; for amber is said to be more precious than gold. Since, then, Scripture uses examples in order to teach that the upper body of God is more precious and the lower body inferior, for this reason it introduced God as made up of fire and amber. […] Each of us in generation is fire; we are not the amber; but if we go up and make progress (for it is possible to pass over from being today among the lower things so as to become the upper body of God), having passed through the fire we shall be the amber around the higher body of God. So he makes the linen loincloth cling around his loins. Why? To show that the people is, as it were, a covering for God; for the people stands against those who wish to accuse God, and as it were defends him with a shield, and does not allow anything absurd to be said in the things concerning God. But when we sin, just as the prophet takes off this loincloth and condemns it to the river Euphrates so that it may rot there, so the sinner is cast away from God's loins and, being cast out, is thrown into the river Euphrates, the river of Mesopotamia, where the Assyrians, Israel's enemies, are, where the Babylonians are, and there he rots. For though there are so many rivers, the prophet is sent from Judea to the river Euphrates to take the trouble to carry away a little linen loincloth. And why “linen”? Because it has its origin from the earth; for it is a plant that springs from the earth, and then, after being cultivated, it is carded and washed and scrubbed and goes through much labor, so as to become fit to be a loincloth or anything else. So all of us too have our origin like God's loincloth, and, having our origin from the earth, we need much preparation, to be carded, to be washed, to put off the color of the earth; for the color of linen from its origin is one thing, and that from the working another. The color of linen from its origin is rather dark, but from the working it becomes most bright. Something of this kind, then, reaches us too who are in generation. We are dark at the beginning of believing; that is why at the beginning of the Song of Songs it is said, “I am dark and beautiful.” And at the beginning we resemble Ethiopians in soul. Then we are scrubbed, so as to become brighter, according to “Who is this who comes up made white?” And we become “linen bright and pure,” and then we are woven into God's loincloth, when we are worthy to cling to God. God does not put us off. He put off the first people, “all the house of Judah” and “the house of Israel.” It became useless; for he no longer girds himself with them. God has girded himself with us in their place; for having cast off the loincloth, he did not remain naked, but wove himself another loincloth. This loincloth is the church from the nations; let her know that “if God did not spare the former ones, how much more will he not spare her if she sins,” if she is not worthy of God's loins. “But he who clings to the Lord is one spirit” in Christ Jesus, to whom be the glory and the power for ever. Amen.

Homily 12. On “And you shall say to this people: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Every wineskin shall be filled with wine” as far as “and your eyes shall run down with tears, because the Lord's flock has been crushed.”