Homilies on Jeremiah 14.8–14.18

And you will also understand in this way how he “is judged and disputed with in all the earth.” Who does not judge the Christian teaching? Which of the nations does not examine it, even if simply? Which of the Jews does not speak about the Christians? Which of the Greeks? Which of the philosophers? Which of the unlearned? Everywhere Jesus is judged and put on trial; and by some he is condemned, by others not condemned. If he is not condemned, he becomes accepted: you open the windows to him, he comes in to you; you believe in him, he dines with you. But if, on hearing about Christianity, you do not accept it, you have done nothing else than condemn Jesus as a liar, as having led men astray, as not speaking the truth, by not having believed the word he teaches. “As what kind of man did you bear me, a man judged and disputed with in all the earth?” Those who wholly disbelieve condemn him; but those who do not disbelieve but doubt about him dispute about him. Jesus suffers two things among men: he is condemned by unbelievers, and disputed about by the double-minded. If you bear “the image of the heavenly,” having put off “the image of the man of dust,” you are not earth that condemns him, nor earth in which he is condemned, nor any longer earth that disputes about him.

“My strength has failed among those who curse me.” The apostle says of the Savior that “he was crucified in weakness.” And the prophet says things similar to these in “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We announced before him as a child, as a root in thirsty ground; we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty, but his form was without honor, failing beyond the sons of men. A man in affliction and in pain, and knowing how to bear sickness, because his face was turned away; he was dishonored and not esteemed. He bears our iniquities and suffers pain for us, and we reckoned him to be in pain and in affliction and in ill-treatment. But he was wounded for our iniquities, and made sick for our sins; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, by his bruise we were healed.” So he took on the weakness of our sins and bore us, and came to those who cursed him, and his strength failed at the hands of those who cursed him, as he came down from heaven. For at the same time he took on the form of a servant and emptied himself, as the apostle said: “he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” So he says, “My strength has failed among those who curse me.”

Let us see whether, the Word himself granting it, we can say something else clearer than what has been said on “My strength has failed among those who curse me.” “He was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world.” “The true light” is the Son of God, “which enlightens every man coming into the world.” And whoever is rational shares in the true light; and every human being is rational. So among all human beings who share in the Word, in some the strength of the Word has increased, in others it fails. If you see a soul subject to passion and sinful, you will see there the strength of the Word failing; but if you see a holy and righteous soul, you will see the strength of the Word bearing fruit daily, and you will apply to the righteous what is said about Jesus. For not only in himself did “Jesus advance in wisdom and stature and favor with God and men,” but also in each of those who receive advancement in wisdom, stature, and favor, “Jesus advances in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and men.” So the Word, the Son of God, who is in the one who said, “Woe is me, mother,” and the rest, says that “my strength has failed among those who curse me.” Whoever curses the Word at once receives punishment for cursing the Word, for blaming the teaching of Jesus; for the strength of Jesus fails in such a person, and there is no strength of the Word in him. As again, conversely, if you bless Jesus and receive him, his strength undergoes the opposite of what it suffered in those who cursed him; for as there it failed in those who curse, so here it grows in those who bless.

“So be it, Lord, when they go aright, if I did not stand before you in the time of their evils.” What is “So be it, Lord”? Let whoever can gather such a thing for himself. “Master, Lord, when they go aright,” may the strength that fails in those who curse come about, when, having repented after speaking evil of me, they turn to the straight way and walk in it. “So be it, Master, when they go aright, if I did not stand before you.” Then he pleads in defense of those who speak evil of him, saying: “if I did not stand before you in the time of their evils.” He stood before the Father, being “the atonement for our sins,” and interceded for them in the very time of our evils. For he did not stand forth after the time of our evils, but “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” “If I did not stand before you in the time of their evils, in the time of their afflictions, for good against the enemy.” And in the time of their affliction, he says, the one from the enemy, I stood before you on their behalf. And who is the enemy but “our adversary the devil,” who afflicted us? And clearly, in the time of his enmity against human beings, our Savior stood before the Father and prayed about our captivity, so that we might be redeemed and rescued from the enemy. Let either the Savior or the prophet have said these things; for the prophet too can have said such things and prayed for the people “in the time of their evils.”

After this God answers the people accused by the prophet or by Christ, and says to it: “Your strength is iron and a covering of bronze”: hard, unyielding, not to be beaten out. “Your strength is iron and a covering of bronze”: your strength is, as it were, cutting and dividing, not a strength for good. “And I will give your treasures for plunder, in exchange for all your sins.” What “treasures” of sinners does God give “for plunder,” and give them “in exchange for all” their “sins”? Is it those they lay up for themselves on earth? For every human being lays up treasure: if he is base, on earth; if good, in heaven, as we have been taught by the Gospel. Or does he say to that people, “I am going to give your treasures for plunder because of your sins”? What treasures of that people were given for plunder? See: one of the treasures is Jeremiah, another treasure Isaiah; Moses too was a treasure. These treasures God took from that people, and through Christ, who said, “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits,” gave them to us. “I will give,” then, “your treasures for plunder because of your sins.” And he gave the treasures of that people to us; for “they were first entrusted with the oracles of God,” and then after them we were entrusted, the oracles of God having been taken from them and given to us. And we say that “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits” was spoken by the Savior and has been fulfilled. Not that the Scripture was taken from them, but now they no longer have the law and the prophets, because they do not see the meaning in them. For they have the books; but how was the kingdom of God taken from them? The meaning of the Scriptures was taken from them. No interpretation of the law or the prophets is any longer preserved among them, since, because of Christ's coming, there was fulfilled: “Say to that people: You will indeed hear and never understand, and you will indeed see and never perceive; for the heart of this people has grown fat.” There has also been fulfilled what was said by Isaiah: “The Lord will take away from Judea and from Jerusalem the strong man and the strong woman, the giant and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, and the diviner, and the wise master builder, and the intelligent hearer.” All these God took away from them and gave, if indeed we receive them, to us from the nations. So much on “And I will give your treasures for plunder.” “In exchange for all your sins, and in all your borders.” As if he said: because of your sins, which have reached all your borders; for there is no border of that people that has not been filled with sin. And how were all their borders not to be filled with sin, since, as far as it depended on them, they killed righteousness, if Christ is righteousness; killed wisdom, if Christ is wisdom; killed truth, if Christ is truth? For by condemning the Son of God to death they cast away and lost all these. And my Lord Jesus, having risen from the dead, no longer appeared to those who killed him; for we do not have it in the history that he appeared to those who killed him, but he appeared, risen from the dead, to believers only.

“And I will enslave you among all your enemies in a land you did not know.” That people has been enslaved among its enemies, and has come to be in a land it did not know. “For a fire has been kindled from my anger; it will burn upon you.” After this, and after the words of the threats spoken to the people, the one who prayed earlier completes his prayer and joins this to what was said before: “You know, O Lord; remember me and visit me, and acquit me of those who persecute me, not in long-suffering.” Let the prophet say this, persecuted by those whom he rebuked, hated by those who could not contain the truth; for he became an enemy to those who heard him by telling them the truth. And let our Savior too say the same, who was also persecuted by the people and says, “not in long-suffering.” What is “not in long-suffering”? You have always been long-suffering toward the people over their sins, but over what they have dared against me, do not be long-suffering. And truly God was not long-suffering. If you examine the times of the passion and of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the city, and how God forsook that people because they killed Christ, you will see that he no longer used long-suffering toward the people. If you wish, hear: from the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar to the destruction of the temple, forty-two years were completed. For a short time had to be allowed for repentance, above all for the sake of those of the people who were going to believe from the signs and wonders that would be done by the apostles.

“Know how I have received reproach for your sake from those who reject your words.” Let it be the prophet, speaking and despised for what he said, rejected by sinners; for he himself says, “I continued being mocked.” So he was reproached by those who rejected the words spoken by God through him, and he prays to be helped by God because he was reproached, saying: “Know how I have received reproach for your sake from those who reject your words; make an end of them.” Let the prophet say it; but “make an end of them” fits better when said by the Savior; for an end came upon Jerusalem and the people because of what befell our Savior from the people's plotting. After this, since the prophets suffered much for rebuking, for carrying the word as envoys, and for receiving God's commands, it is necessary to remind the hearers about their life, their promises, and our own purpose, so that, as far as we can, if we wish to have rest with the prophets, we may emulate the works of the prophets. What I mean is this. We often say in our prayers: “God almighty, give us our portion with the prophets, give us our portion with the apostles of your Christ, so that we may be found with Christ himself.” But saying this, we do not perceive what we are praying for; for in effect we say: “Grant us to suffer what the prophets suffered; grant us too to be hated as the prophets were hated; give us such words as will make us hated; grant us to fall into as many hardships as the apostles.” For to say, “Give me a portion with the prophets,” without having suffered what the prophets suffered and without being willing to suffer it, is unjust. To say, “Give me a portion with the apostles,” without being willing to say truly, from the disposition of Paul, “in labors far more, in beatings far more, in prisons more abundantly, in deaths often,” and the rest, is the most unjust of all. If, then, we wish to be with the prophets, see the lives of the prophets: from rebuking, from reproving, from censuring, they were tried, disputed with, condemned. “They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they died by the sword, they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, wandering in deserts,” when there were many synagogues of the Jews; and these were “wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth.” What is strange, then, if someone who wishes to emulate the prophetic life, rebuking and reproving the sinner, is spoken ill of, hated, plotted against? Just as at the present time † something of the kind had to happen in the church of God. The one condemned was condemned; so-and-so, † sitting …, was doing such things; there had to be a church judgment, and there was; the one entrusted with it did the work he had to do. That man goes about speaking ill of the one who vindicated the truth. But let us not do this; let us not lend our ears to those who, because they have been cast out, speak ill of the one who cast them out, or of the one who voted with him, even when injustice has been proved and has taken place †. The wonderful apostles, insulted ten thousand times for the truth, say: “I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and distresses, for Christ's sake.” Only may I, when insulted, know that I am insulted for nothing else than for Christ; when in hardships, know that the cause of the hardships is Christ. May I, when reviled, know that the pretext for the reviling is nothing else than that I vindicate the truth and plead for what is written, so that everything may be done according to the word of God; that is why I am slandered. So let all of us too, as far as we can, hasten to the prophetic life, to the apostolic life, not fleeing what is troublesome; for if an athlete flees the trouble of the contest, he will not receive the sweetness of the crown.

“And your word will be to me for gladness.” It is not now, but “will be”; for at present your word is to me for prisons, for lawsuits, for troubles, for slanders, for pains; but the end of these will be gladness. “And your word will be to me for gladness and joy of my heart, for your name has been called upon me, O Lord almighty.” Even if Christ says this, the name of the Father has been called upon him. “I did not sit in the council of them as they played.” If ever the prophet saw the council of those not in earnest but playing, he fled rather than gathered with them, rather than hastened to an assembly of players. So you must understand the difference between a council of those who play and of those in earnest. This council is earnest and does everything with earnestness and things worthy of earnestness, and according to the saying: earnestness is the word, earnestness is the life; and it is in every way a council not of players but of those in earnest. But when the council, abandoning earnestness about necessary things, gives its leisure to the games of this age and to games that come from wickedness, it becomes a council of players. So this one says: “I did not sit in the council of them as they played, but I was reverent before the face of your hand.” Two courses being set before me, to sit in a council of players and so offend you, God, and not please you, or to rise from a council of players and do what was dear to you, I chose rather to rise from the council of the players and be your friend than, by doing the opposite, to become an enemy of your blessedness. “I did not sit in the council of them as they played, but I was reverent before the face of your hand.” And our Savior did not sit “in the council of them as they played,” but rose and left them. And a sign that the Savior rose from a council of players is his having said, “Your house is left to you desolate.” For the Word of God has left the council of the Jews and made for himself another council and assembly, the church from the nations.

“I sat alone.” Here too the words are arranged with purpose. When there is a multitude of sinners and they do not bear the righteous man who lives righteously, there is nothing absurd in fleeing the council of wickedness and imitating the one who said, “I sat alone,” and imitating Elijah too, who says: “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it.” But perhaps, if you examine “I sat alone” more deeply, you will find a meaning worthy of prophetic depth. When we imitate the life of the many, so that our life is not withdrawn, better, and exceptional compared with the many, I cannot say “I sat alone,” but “I sat with many.” But when my life becomes hard to imitate, so that I become so great that no one is like me in character, in word, in deeds, in wisdom, then I can say, because I alone am such and no one has imitated me, “I sat alone.” So even if you are not a presbyter, not a bishop, not honored with any church office, you may say this: you may emulate “I sat alone” and take up such a life as to say, “I sat alone.” “For I was filled with bitterness.” If “narrow and hard is the way,” … your feast is kept with bitter herbs; for when you keep the feast, it says, “you shall eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs.” We must consider what the word means in saying that the one who keeps the feast to God must eat “unleavened bread with bitter herbs.” The apostle explained the unleavened bread; the interpretation is not mine; but the consequent interpretation must be similar to the apostolic explanation. The apostle explained the unleavened bread, saying: “Let us keep the feast not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” We must give the account of the bitter herbs consistently with the unleavened bread being of sincerity and truth. Have sincerity and truth, and there will be bitter herbs for you, and you eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth with bitter herbs, like Paul. Since he ate the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, he also ate bitter herbs. How did he eat bitter herbs? Saying, “I have become your enemy by telling you the truth.” How did he eat bitter herbs? “In toil and hardship, in sleepless nights often, in hunger and thirst, besides other things.” The law said, “You shall eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs”; it did not say, “You shall eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs until you are filled,” as is said of certain other things, “You shall eat and be filled.” But the prophet goes further, saying not that he ate bitterness, but “I was filled with bitterness”: as far as possible I partook of bitter things, so as to partake of the fullest bitter herbs.

“Why do those who hate me prevail?” He had many troubles; he suffered from those who would not hear the truth, and they were stronger than he here in this age, since the kingdom of God is not of this age but from better regions, as the Savior says: “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have fought, that I might not be handed over to the Jews.” So those who grieved the prophet prevailed over him in this world. For that they are strong, look at the martyrs. The judge sits judging and living in luxury in the courtroom; the Christian, in whom Christ is judged, is filled with bitterness, is oppressed by the unjust man, and is condemned.

“My wound is severe; whence shall I be healed?” Those who prevail over me strike me, and my wound is severe. Whether he prophesies the Lord's cross (for the cross is a severe wound, as far as those who crucify him are concerned), or it is said of all the righteous, in whom he receives a severe wound, or you hear it of the prophet (for he too suffered what is recorded in the prophecy), it admits the same meaning according to the text that says, “My wound is severe.” “Whence shall I be healed?” If the Savior says, “Whence shall I be healed?”, he prophesies the resurrection from the dead after the severe wound; and if it is taken of the righteous man, after the wounds healing comes again. “It has become to me like deceitful water that has no faithfulness”; for the wound does not remain, but passes away. “Therefore thus says the Lord: If you return, I will also restore you.” This again is said to each one whom God will call to return to him. And a mystery seems to me to be shown here in “I will restore you.” No one is restored to a place where he has never been; restoration is to one's own. For example, if a limb of mine is dislocated, the physician tries to restore the dislocated limb. When someone is outside his country, whether justly or unjustly, and recovers the right to be in his country again according to the laws, he has been restored to his own country. Understand the same for me in the case of a soldier cast out of his own rank and restored. So he says here to us who have turned away that, if we return, he will restore us. For the end of the promise is of this kind, as is written in the Acts of the Apostles in “until the times of the restoration of all things of which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,” in Christ Jesus, to whom be the glory and the power for ages of ages. Amen.