Homilies on Ezekiel 1.1–1.10

Not everyone who is a captive endures captivity because of his own sins. For when the whole multitude of the Jews had been abandoned by God on account of sin, and had been seized by Nebuchadnezzar, driven from the holy land, and led all the way to Babylon, the few righteous who were among the people nevertheless endured captivity not for any fault of their own, but so that the sinners who had been crushed under the yoke of captivity might not be wholly without help. For let us suppose that, when the sinners had been carried off to Babylon, the righteous had stayed behind in their ancient territory: the result would have been that the sinners never obtained a remedy. So God, merciful and kind and a lover of humankind, arranged to mingle the kindness of his visitation even with the punishments by which he punishes sinners, and not to crush the wretched with punishment beyond measure. Our God is always like this: he torments the guilty, but like a loving father he joins mercy to the torments. If you wish to recognize that what we say is true, see what happened in Egypt through the famine. Had he wished only to kill the Egyptians and to punish them with torment in the seven-year famine, he would certainly have done what he wished: Joseph would not have gone down to Egypt, Pharaoh would not have seen a dream about what was going to happen to Egypt, nor would the chief of the cupbearers have shown the king that there was someone who could interpret the king’s dream. But now, as you see, God scourges as a father, and spares not only Israel but also the Egyptians, although they are strangers to him, because of his own gentleness. And it is clear that the work of the good God is exercised upon them when Joseph goes down to Egypt, when Pharaoh is warned by dreams, when the chief of the wine points out the interpreter, when the interpreter explains what was seen, and so, the crops having been gathered in the time of plenty, the want of the later famine is overcome. From all of which it is plain that the anger which the heretics find fault with in the Creator is not immoderate. We could indeed recount many stories to prove what I have said; but so as not to seem to stray from my subject, I shorten my discourse. For my purpose is to explain the passage about the people of Israel having been led captive because of its sins.

And lest anyone perhaps think that sinners handed over by God are no longer governed by him, and that once reduced to captivity they no longer obtain his providential care and mercy, let us consider the present passage more carefully. Daniel did not sin; Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael were free of sin; and yet they were made captives, so that, placed there, they might comfort the captive people, and by the exhortation of their voice restore to Jerusalem, as penitents, those who had been chastened for a time. For they paid the penalty of slavery for seventy years, and so afterwards returned to their own homes, because the holy word of the prophets had lifted up their downcast spirits. Yet these four were not the only prophets in the captivity: Ezekiel too was one of them, and Zechariah son of Berechiah prophesied in the time of the captivity under King Darius. We shall also find that Haggai and many other prophets prophesied in those same times; from which it is shown that God not only punishes sinners but also mingles mercy with punishments. If you doubt it, hear the voices of those who suffer torments, how even in their torments they speak in a holy way of God’s mercy: “You will feed us with the bread of tears, and give us tears to drink in measure.” It does not say simply “in tears,” but “in tears and in measure.” For God’s mercy is in weight. If it were not useful for the conversion of sinners to apply torments to sinners, God, who is merciful and kind, would never punish crimes with penalties; but like a most indulgent father he rebukes his son in order to teach him; like a most provident master he chastises a playful pupil with a stern brow, lest, feeling himself loved, he perish. See what Solomon, wisest of all, thinks of God’s rebukes: “My son, do not lose heart under God’s discipline, nor faint when you are rebuked by him. For the Lord rebukes whom he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives.” “For there is no son,” says the Apostle, “who, if he has sinned, is not scourged by his father.” And to this he admirably added: “Persevere in discipline. God offers himself to you as to sons. For what son is there whom the father does not rebuke? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become sharers, you are illegitimate and not sons.” But perhaps there is someone who, offended by the very name of anger, will find fault with it in God. We will answer him that God’s anger is not so much anger as a necessary dispensation. Hear what the work of God’s anger is: to reprove, to correct, to amend: “Lord, do not reprove me in your anger, nor rebuke me in your wrath.” The one who says this knows that God’s wrath is not useless for health but is applied for this purpose: to cure the sick, to amend those who have scorned to hear his word. Therefore he does not pray not to be amended by such remedies, nor not to recover his former health by a medicine of punishment; it is as if a servant already under the lash should beg his master, promising to do what he is commanded, and should say: “Lord, do not reprove me in your anger, nor rebuke me in your wrath.” All that is God’s is good, and we deserve to be rebuked. Listen to the one who says: “I will reprove them in the hearing of their affliction.” We have heard what concerns tribulation in order to be amended. In the curses of Leviticus too it is written: “If after these things they do not obey, nor turn to me, I will add seven plagues upon them for their sins. But if after this they are not converted, I will correct them.” All God’s dealings that seem bitter serve for instruction and remedy. God is a physician, God is a father; he is a master, not a harsh one: he is a gentle master. If you come to those who were punished according to the words of the Scriptures, compare Scripture with Scripture, as the Apostle also teaches you, and you will see that where things are thought most bitter, there they are most sweet. It is written in the prophet: “He does not punish twice for the same thing in judgment.” He punished once in judgment by the flood; he punished once in judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah; he punished once in judgment upon Egypt and the six hundred thousand Israelites. Do not think that this vengeance was a punishment for sinners in such a way that after death and penalties they must again be met with penalty. They were punished in the present so that they might not be punished forever in the future. See the poor man in the Gospel: he is oppressed by squalor and want, and afterwards he rests in Abraham’s bosom. He received his evil things in his life. How do you know whether those who were killed in the flood did not receive their evil things in their life? How do you know whether Sodom and Gomorrah were not repaid their evil things in their life? Hear the testimony of the Scriptures. Do you wish to learn the testimony of the Old Testament? Do you wish to be taught by the New? “Sodom will be restored to its former state”; and do you still doubt whether the Lord is good in punishing the Sodomites? “It will be more tolerable for the land of the Sodomites and Gomorrahans on the day of judgment,” says the Lord, taking pity on the Sodomites. So God is kind, God is merciful. He truly “makes his sun rise on the good and the evil, and truly sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”: not only this sun which we see with our eyes, but also that sun which is beheld by the eyes of the mind. I was evil, and the sun of righteousness rose for me. I was evil, and the rain of righteousness came upon me. God’s goodness is present even in what is thought bitter.

The prophet, then, has been placed in the city; and see what he beholds, so that he may not feel the pains of the captivity. Below he sees toils, but lifting his eyes upward he looks up at the heavens opened, he sees heavenly things unlocked for him, he sees the likeness of the glory of God, he sees the four living creatures, about which there is much discussion and whose interpretation is difficult. He sees the charioteer of the four living creatures. He sees wheels that hold one another. The charioteer of the four living creatures is not wholly fiery: <he is fiery> up to the loins, and from there to the top he shines with the gleam of amber. For God does not have torments only; there are also refreshments in him. He punishes sinners, but through those ministries which are below. For the prophet did not see fire in the head, or in those members which rise from the boundary of the loins to the top. The Lord is fiery, but from the loins to the feet, to show that those who are engaged in generation need fire. For the loins signify sexual union. Levi was still in the loins of his father Abraham when Melchizedek met him. And in the psalm it is said: “Of the fruit of your loins I will set upon my throne.” The Lord is fiery from the loins downward. For the works of generation and of lust are chastised by the punishments of Gehenna. God is fiery, but not wholly fiery. His upper parts are amber. Amber is more precious not only than silver but even than gold. But Scripture set amber as an image of brightness, not because God is really amber. And just as God is not amber such as was seen, so he is not fire such as appeared from the loins to the end of the feet. This fire consumes, and it is not stated what it consumes, so that you may seek and find what it is that is consumed by the fire of God. “Our God is a consuming fire.” What does this fire consume? Not the wood that we see, not hay perceptible to the senses, not the straw that is seen; but if you have built on the foundation of Jesus Christ the wood of the works of sin, the hay of the works of sin, the straw of the lower works of sin, the fire comes and tests all these. What is this fire which the law proclaims and the gospel does not pass over in silence? “The fire will test what sort of work each one’s is.” What is this fire, O Apostle, that tests our works? What is this fire, so wise that it preserves my gold, shows my silver more brilliant, leaves unharmed the precious stone that is in me, and consumes only the evil things I have done, the wood, hay, and straw that I have built on top? What is this fire? “I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were kindled!” Jesus Christ says, “how I wish it were already kindled.” For he is good, and he knows that if this fire is kindled, wickedness will be consumed. It is written in the prophets: “He will sanctify him in burning fire, and it will devour the forest like hay.” And again: “The Lord of hosts sends dishonor upon your honor, and a burning fire is kindled upon your glory”; that is, so that you may be glorified, fire is sent upon the works of your sins. Do you wish to learn further from the prophet that the torments of the good God are appointed for the benefit of those who endure them? Listen to the same prophet saying: “You have coals of fire; you will sit upon them; they will be a help to you.” These things ought to be hidden and not brought into the open, but the heretics drive us to bring into public what should be concealed; for they are usefully hidden from those who are still little children in the age of the soul, who need the fear of teachers, who must be corrected by threats and terrors so that they may attain goodness, so that through bitter remedies they may at last cease from the wounds of sins. For the mysteries of God are always covered with certain veils for the sake of hearers who are little children. “How great is the abundance of your sweetness, Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you.” The God of the law and the prophets hides the abundance of his goodness, not from those who love him but from those who fear him. For they are little children and cannot learn to their own profit that they are loved by the Father, lest they grow slack, lest they despise the goodness of God. So when you hear of the captivity of the people, believe that it really happened as the history relates, but that it also went before as a sign of something else and signified a mystery that follows. For you too, who are called faithful, who behold peace (for Christ is our peace), dwell in Jerusalem. But if you sin, God’s visitation will abandon you, and you will be handed over as a captive to Nebuchadnezzar and, handed over, be led to Babylon. For when your soul has been confused by vices and passions, you are carried off to Babylon, since Babylon means “confusion.” And if you repent again and through the conversion of a true heart obtain God’s mercy, Ezra is sent to you to lead you back and have Jerusalem rebuilt. For Ezra means “helper,” and the helping word is sent to you so that you may return to your homeland. There is a mystery also in what is said in a riddle by Daniel, and is recounted by the Apostle, who both hides and reveals: “In Adam we all die, and in Christ we are all made alive.” For Adam was in paradise, but the serpent was the cause of his captivity, and brought it about that he was cast out, whether from Jerusalem or from paradise, and came into this place of tears. The serpent is an enemy, the adversary of truth. But the adversary was not created as such from the beginning, nor did he at once go upon his breast and belly, nor was he cursed from the start. Just as Adam and Eve did not sin as soon as they were made, so the serpent too was once not a serpent, when he dwelt in the paradise of delight. Hence, falling afterward because of his sins, he deserved to hear: “You were the seal of likeness, a crown of beauty, born in the paradise of God, until iniquity was found in you; you walked blameless in all your ways.” Of him Job also records that he grew proud in the sight of almighty God. For Lucifer, who rose in the morning, fell from heaven and was crushed upon the earth. See the harmony of the prophetic and the gospel word. The prophet says: “Lucifer, who rose in the morning, fell from heaven and was crushed upon the earth.” Jesus says: “I saw Satan falling from heaven like lightning.” What difference is there between saying lightning or Lucifer falling from heaven? As far as the matter goes, the whole agreement concerns the one who falls. For God did not make death, nor did he work wickedness. He granted free choice to both man and angel in all things. Here it must now be understood how through freedom of choice some have climbed to the summit of good things, while others have fallen into the depth of wickedness. But you, O man, why do you not wish to be left to your own choice? Why are you vexed to strive, to labor, to contend, and through good works to become yourself the cause of your salvation? Or would it delight you more to rest asleep and at leisure in everlasting prosperity? “My Father,” says the Lord Jesus Christ, “is working until now, and I am working”; and does working displease you, who were born for works? Do you not want your work to be righteousness, wisdom, chastity? Do you not want your work to be courage and the other virtues? So those are led into captivity who because of their sins have deserved the punishments of slavery. And Jesus Christ came “to proclaim release to the captives and sight to the blind.” He cries to those who are in chains, “Come out,” and to those who live in darkness, “See.” We too were in the chains of sins, we too once lived in darkness, contending against the rulers of the darkness of this world; Jesus came, proclaimed by the voices of all the prophets, saying to the bound, “Go out,” and to those placed in darkness, “Look.”

If you wish to hear Ezekiel, the son of man, preaching in the captivity: he too was a type of Christ. “And it came to pass,” he says, “in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth of the month, and I was in the midst of the captivity by the river Chebar, and the heavens were opened.” So Ezekiel, when he was thirty years old, saw the heavens opened by the river Chebar. And the Lord Jesus Christ, as he began, was about thirty years old, by the river Jordan, and the heavens were opened. And throughout the whole prophecy it is said to Ezekiel, “Son of man.” But who is a son of man as my Lord Jesus Christ is? Let those answer me who mock his birth as a phantom: why is Christ called the Son of Man? I affirm that he was a son of man. For one who took on human sufferings must have received birth before his suffering. Nor could he have received human feelings, words, habits, the cross, and death, if he had not received the beginning of humanity. And it would follow that those who take away his birth would take away his passion too, and simply say: Jesus was not crucified. But now you confess the cross, and are not ashamed to preach one crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles; and yet you are ashamed to confess his birth, which is less of a stumbling block than suffering or death. Surely it is less of a stumbling block that Jesus was born than that he died; or if the Christian faith does not fear a stumbling block, why are you afraid to say the lesser things, when you have dared to confess the greater? Especially since his birth is not believed to have come from the seed of a man and a woman coming together in the ordinary way, but according to the word of the prophet who says: “Behold, a virgin will conceive in the womb and bear a son, and his name will be called Emmanuel.” This “Emmanuel” does not sound as a mere name but signifies a thing: for at the coming of Jesus we say, “The Lord is with us.” Not without reason, then, does Ezekiel prophesy in the thirtieth year. For his name too is a figure of Christ: Ezekiel means “the rule of God,” and the rule of God is none other than Christ Jesus. He is also written as the son of Buzi, which means “contempt.” If you go to the heretics and hear them scorning the Creator and counting him as nothing, and even accusing him, you will see that, according to them, our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of a most despised Creator. But if anyone resists, will I not ask him why it is written that in the thirtieth year of Ezekiel’s life the heavens were opened and he saw the visions contained in his book? What use is the number of the years to me, unless that I may learn that in the thirtieth year the heavens were opened both to the Savior and to the prophet, and, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, may recognize that all that is written is the words of the same God? For “the words of the wise are like goads, and like nails driven deep, because they were given to those who are pricked, by one shepherd.” I too, investigating as far as my understanding allows the phrase “in the fourth month, on the fifth of the month,” pray God that I may understand it in a way that agrees with the intent of his Scriptures. The new year is already at hand for the Jews, and the first month among them is counted from the beginning of the new year. The Passover is kept in the reckoning of the new year: “This month shall be for you the beginning of months, among the months of the year.” From this year count me the fourth month, and understand that Jesus was baptized in the fourth month of the new year. For we know that the Lord’s baptism took place in the month the Romans call January, which is the fourth month from the new year according to the reckoning of the Hebrews. And because he had taken a body made up of the four elements of the world, receiving also human senses, perhaps for this reason he saw the vision in the fourth month and on the fifth day of the month.

“And I was in the midst of the captivity.” It seems to me that the words “And I was in the midst of the captivity” are said thus. “And I”: as if, according to the history, the prophet says, “I too, who was not held in the sins of the people, was in the midst of the captivity”; but according to the allegory, Christ says, “I too came to the place of captivity, I came to those regions where the slaves, where the captives were held.” You have words of our Savior of this kind in the prophets, as he complains that we do not make ourselves men worthy of his dispensation, especially we who are thought to believe in him. For he says to his Father: “What profit is there in my blood, while I go down into corruption? Will the dust confess you, or declare your truth?” I find also another such word, spoken through the prophet in the person of our Savior as he seeks souls full of righteousness, full of divine thoughts, full of holy fruits, and seeking the true clusters of truth, but finds a great many sinners, barren of good things, and therefore says: “Woe is me, for I have become like one who gathers straw at the harvest, and like gleanings at the vintage, when no cluster is left to eat the first-ripe fruit.” “Woe is me”: the words “woe is me” are not the voice of the firstborn of all creation, not the voice of the divinity, but of the human soul which he assumed. Hence he adds: “Woe is me, my soul, for the godly man has perished from the earth, and there is none who sets things right among men. All go to law for blood; each one afflicts his neighbor.” These things have been mentioned because the prophet says: “And I was in the midst of the captivity by the river Chebar,” which means “heaviness.” Heavy is the river of this world, as is also said in a holy way elsewhere. For the simple he explains the history too; but for those who hear the Scriptures spiritually he signifies the soul which has fallen into the whirlwinds of this life. “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows in the midst of it we hung up our instruments, for there those who led us captive asked us for the words of songs.” Such are the rivers of Babylon, by which they sit remembering the heavenly homeland, mourning and lamenting, where they hang up their instruments on the willows of the law and of the mysteries of God. It is written in a certain book that all believers receive a crown of willow. And in Isaiah it is said: “They will spring up like grass in the midst of water, and like willows by flowing water.” And at God’s festival, when his tabernacles are set up, they set willow branches in fixing the tabernacles.

“By the river Chebar”: by this heaviest river of the world. “And the heavens were opened.” The heavens were closed, and at the coming of Christ they were opened, so that, once they were unlocked, the Holy Spirit might come upon him in the form of a dove. For he could not come to us unless he had first come down upon one who shared his nature. “Jesus ascended on high, he led captivity captive, he received gifts among men. He who descended is the same who ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints.”

“The heavens were opened.” It is not enough for one heaven to be opened: many are opened, so that angels may come down, not from one but from all the heavens, to those who are to be saved. “Angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man,” and “they came to him and ministered to him.” The angels came down because Christ had come down first; they were afraid to come down before the Lord of all powers and things commanded it. But when they saw the prince of the heavenly army dwelling in earthly places, then they entered by the opened way, following their Lord and obeying the will of him who appointed them as guardians of those who believe in his name. Yesterday you were under a demon, today under an angel. “Do not despise,” says the Lord, “one of these least ones who are in the Church. For truly I say to you that their angels always see the face of the Father who is in heaven.” Angels serve your salvation; they have been granted for the ministry of the Son of God, and they say among themselves: “If he came down, and came down into a body, if he was clothed with mortal flesh and endured the cross and died for men, why do we rest? Why do we spare ourselves? Come, all you angels, let us go down from heaven.” Therefore … praising God, when Christ was born. All things are full of angels. Come, angel, receive one converted by the word from his former error, from the teaching of demons, from iniquity that speaks on high; and receiving him like a good physician, cherish and instruct him. He is a little child; today an old man is born, becoming a child again. Receive him, granting him the baptism of the second regeneration, and call to yourself the other companions of your ministry, so that all together you may train in the faith those who were once deceived. “For there is greater joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous who have no need of repentance.” All creation exults, rejoices, and applauds those who are to be saved. For “the expectation of the creation awaits the revelation of the sons of God.” And although those who have tampered with the apostolic Scriptures do not want such words to be in their books, by which the Creator’s Christ might be proved, nevertheless all creation awaits the sons of God, when they will be freed from sin, when they will be taken out of the devil’s hand, when they will be born again by Christ. But it is now time to touch on some points of the present passage. The prophet saw not a vision, but “visions of God.” Why did he see not one but many visions? Hear the Lord promising and saying: “I have multiplied visions.”

“The fifth of the month.” This is the fifth year of the captivity of King Jehoiachin. In the thirtieth year of Ezekiel’s life and the fifth of Jehoiachin’s captivity, the prophet is sent to the Jews. The most merciful Father did not despise them, nor did he leave the people unadmonished for a long time. It is the fifth year. How much time had passed? Five years had gone by since they had been serving as captives. At once the Holy Spirit came down and opened the heavens, so that those who were pressed under the yoke of captivity might see what was seen by the prophet. For when he says, “And the heavens were opened,” in a way they too beheld with the eyes of the heart what he had seen even with the eyes of the flesh.

“And the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, the son <of Buzi>, the priest.” The word of the Lord, which in the beginning was with God the Father, God the Word; the word which makes believers gods. For if he called them gods to whom the word of God came, and Scripture cannot be broken, then all to whom the word of God came became gods. Ezekiel too was a god, because the word of God came to him. “I said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High. But you will die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” Where in the New Testament do you have a promise of this kind? If one had to set the two Testaments apart and speak of gods at variance with each other (which it is wicked even to suspect, but we speak by way of an improper usage), I would boldly say that much greater kindness to humankind is shown in the Old Testament than in the New. “I said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High.” He does not say, “… gods.” But if you sin, listen to what follows: “But you will die like men.” This is not the fault of the one who calls to salvation; the one who invites to divinity and to adoption into the heavenly nature is not the cause of death; but what is said, “But you will die like men, and fall like one of the princes,” rests on our sin and our crime. There were many princes, and one of them fell, of whom it is also written in Genesis: “Behold, Adam has become,” not “like us,” but “like one of us.” So when Adam sinned, then he became “like one.”

“And the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel son of Buzi.” Even if you wish to understand these words as spoken of the Savior, do not be afraid: in this way too the allegory has its meaning. The word of the Lord came to him who was being born of the virgin, that is, to the man; the Word ever abiding in the Father; so that both might become one, and the man whom he put on for the mystery and the salvation of all humanity might be joined to his divinity and to the nature of the only-begotten God. “The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel son of Buzi, the priest, in the land of the Chaldeans.” The Chaldeans dispute about heavenly things; the Chaldeans calculate the nativities of men. “In the land of the Chaldeans”: as if he said, of those who assert fate, of those who claim the causes of the universe for the circuit of the stars. This error, then, and this perversity of mind are signified figuratively by the land of the Chaldeans. “In the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar. And the hand of the Lord came upon me there.” Both the word of the Lord came to the prophet and the hand, so that he might be adorned both with deeds and with words. “And I saw visions.” I will touch on some points; and although what I have said could suffice, given the shortness of time, I will nevertheless sample the chief points of the whole body of the vision.