Homilies on Ezekiel 9.1–9.5

Whoever reads at the beginning of the prophecy how Jerusalem was rebuked as having her root and birth from the land of Canaan, an Amorite father and a Hittite mother, will think, if he also reads what we are now trying to interpret, that the same things are repeated and one word preached twice. But the diligent reader, to whose care the meaning of divine Scripture belongs, who compares the past with the present and puts word together with word, will see a difference that is not accidental. For there it says, “Your root and your birth are from the land of Canaan,” which is not said in the present passage; “your father … and your mother a Hittite,” which is not now indicated in the same way. And again, there it is put first, “Your father an Amorite,” and second, “Your mother a Hittite”; but here, “Your mother a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.” There the word is spoken as to one woman, here as to many. For he does not say, as above, “your mother,” but “the mother of you all.” So when sin spreads, and wickedness goes further, and sinners tear their sins apart among themselves, then the sinner is not one, but in one there are many; whereas at the beginning, when sinning was just starting, there were not yet such multitudes as there are now. Hence it seems useful to me to withdraw a little from the present passage and to consider the nature of sin and of the virtues. Where there are sins, there is multitude, there are schisms, there heresies, there dissensions; but where there is virtue, there is singleness, there union, from which “all the believers had one heart and one soul.” And to say it more plainly: the beginning of all evils is multitude, but the beginning of good things is a drawing together, a reduction from crowds into singleness. For instance, all of us, if we are to be saved, are drawn into union, so that we may be made perfect in the same mind and the same judgment, and be one body and one spirit. But if we are such that unity does not hold us together, and it can be said of us, “I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas,” and we are still split and divided by wickedness, we will not be among those who are brought back into union. For as the Father and the Son are one, so those who have one spirit are drawn together into union. For the Savior says: “I and the Father are one”; and: “Holy Father, I ask that as I and you are one, so these too may be one in us.” And in the Apostle we read: “Until we all attain to the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness, in the unity of Christ.” And again: “Until we all come to the unity of the body and spirit of Christ.” By which it is signified that virtue makes one out of many, and that it is necessary for us to become one through it and to flee multitude. These things have been said because in the previous reading it was written, “Your father, and your mother, and the root of your birth,” but in the present one, “the mother of you all and the father of you all.” There, although the word was about an Amorite father and a Hittite mother, we did not learn that Jerusalem had sisters; but here he added: “The mother of you all,” he says, “a Hittite, and the father of you all an Amorite; and your elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters, who dwells on your left; and your younger sister, who dwells on your right, is Sodom.” As virtue makes me a son of Abraham if I live according to it (for one who does the works of Abraham is a son of Abraham), so vices make me a son of the devil. “Everyone who commits sin is born of the devil.” Virtue also makes me have Christ as a brother, so that when I am good and of good conduct he may say to his Father: “I will tell your name to my brothers; in the midst of the Church I will sing to you.” And he says to her who was able to announce his words: “Go and tell my brothers.” And as virtue makes the Lord Jesus my brother, so wickedness acquires many brothers, sinners, and begets these very brothers for me when it has grown. For when sinful Jerusalem was at her beginning, she did not yet have Samaria as her sister, Sodom was not yet her sister; but when she advanced in crime, as the previous passage showed, she came to be between two sisters, the elder Samaria and the younger Sodom. Who are these two sisters of sinful Jerusalem? Schism and the separation of the people made Samaria. For at the time when the ten tribes withdrew, saying, “We have no portion in David, nor inheritance in the son of Jesse,” two golden calves were set up by Jeroboam, and Samaria became a split; and it grew the more after the captivity of the ten tribes, when guards were sent by the Assyrians to the land of Israel, who are called Samaritans. For “somer” means “guard” in the Hebrew tongue. So, as I had begun to say, Samaria is not yet my sister as long as I am far from sins; but when I sin, two sisters grow up for me, the elder Samaria and the younger Sodom. Let us consider whose figure they bear. All who promise divine words, but do not have in themselves the truth of preaching that they promise, are figuratively named Samaria in the Scriptures. “Woe,” he says, “to those who despise Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria; you have gathered the vintage of the rulers of the nations.” As if he said: woe to those who despise the Church and trust in the arrogance and swollen words of the heretics. For this is to despise Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria. So if we, men of the Church, sin, the heretics with their depraved doctrines are no strangers to us. For whoever sins believes badly. If our conduct is bad, Sodom is our sister. For the Gentiles are Sodom. And so, when we offend, we are brothers of heretics and of Gentiles, because Samaria is taken to mean heresy, and Sodom paganism. Samaria dwells on the left of sinful Jerusalem, Sodom on the right. For with her the sin that is committed in deed is the more honorable, and so Sodom is on her right. And again Samaria is not far off, since she dwells on her left; and she is rebuked who walked with her daughters and sisters in all iniquities, and walked so far that by comparison her offenses made their iniquities righteousness. Hence I must know the iniquities of the Sodomites, so that, being taught, I may guard myself against them, and not be caught by ignorance of what the iniquities of the Sodomites are.

“Nevertheless the iniquities of Sodom your sister.” What iniquity? Pride. “In fullness of bread and in abundance she and her daughters lived in luxury, and they did not take up the hand of the poor and needy.” That sins are unequal is doubted by no one who uses the Scriptures. For some are said by them to be great, others lesser. And since they are unequal, that is, small or very great, someone may perhaps ask which is the greatest of all sins; and the ready answer is taken up, that the greatest of all sins is sexual immorality, or uncleanness, or some stain of lust. These too are truly abominable and polluted, but not such as this sin which is now condemned by Scripture as the greatest of all, and from which we ought to guard ourselves. What, then, is the sin greater than all sins? Surely that for which the devil too fell. What is this sin in which such loftiness fell? “Lest, being puffed up, he fall into the judgment of the devil,” says the Apostle. Being puffed up, pride, arrogance: this is the sin of the devil, and because of these offenses he moved from heaven to earth. Hence “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” And “why is earth and ashes proud,” that a man should be lifted up by arrogance, forgetting what he will be, in how fragile a vessel he is contained, in what dung he is immersed, and what refuse he always casts out from his flesh? For what does the son of Sirach say? “Why is earth and ashes proud?” and: “In his life he has cast out his entrails.” Pride is greater than all sins, and the chief sin of the devil himself. If ever Scripture describes the devil’s sins, you will find them flowing from the fountain of pride. For he says: “By strength I will do it, and by the wisdom of understanding I will remove the boundaries of the nations, and I will feed on their strength, and I will shake the inhabited cities, and I will seize the whole world like a nest, and take it away like broken eggs.” See his words, how proud, how arrogant they are, how he counts everything as nothing. Such are all who are puffed up with boasting and pride. The material of pride is riches, rank, and worldly glory. Often, for one who does not know how to hold an office in the Church, the priestly order and the levitical grade are a cause of pride. How many, once made presbyters, have forgotten humility, as if they had been ordained precisely in order to stop being humble! Rather they ought to have pursued humility because they had attained rank, as Scripture says: “The greater you are, the more humble yourself.” And: “Make yourself beloved of the assembly; bow your head to one of higher rank.” “They have made you a leader; do not be lifted up; be among them as one of them.” One must be humble, one must be lowly, one must flee pride, the head of all evils. Consider in the Gospel with what condemnation the pride and boasting of the Pharisee is struck. “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: God, I thank you that I am not like other men, robbers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week.” But the tax collector, humbly and meekly standing far off, did not dare even to lift his eyes, and said: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” “And the tax collector went down to his house justified.” Not simply justified, but justified in comparison with the Pharisee. For every word, order, and connection of Scripture must be observed most carefully. It is one thing to be justified, another to be justified from another. That the tax collector was justified from the Pharisee is like the justifying of Sodom and Samaria in comparison with sinful Jerusalem. And we must know this, that on the day of judgment each of us is justified by one person and condemned by another. Even when we are justified from another, that righteousness counts not so much as praise as a charge. For instance, if I am found to have the sins of Sodom, and another is brought forward who has committed twice as many crimes, I am justified indeed, but not justified as a righteous man: in comparison with one who committed more, I am judged righteous, though I am far from righteousness. Woe to the man who is justified by many sinners! As, on the contrary, very blessed is he who is shown to be righteous in comparison with the righteous. We find it set down in Scripture as praise to be better than the good: for instance, “none did what was right before the Lord as this one did,” and “none kept the Passover as Josiah did.” From which it is shown that a comparison of the righteous is made, and that he is truly righteous who deserves to be justified in this way. Would that I too, compared with the wise, may be found wise, and be judged righteous among the righteous. For I do not want to be justified by the wicked, because such righteousness is a charge against me.

I have said this by anticipation, because in what was read it is said: “You have justified your sisters by all your iniquities which you have done.” For Samaria and Sodom were justified by the iniquities of Jerusalem. “By all your iniquities which you have done you have justified them above yourself.” Therefore let us attend more carefully, so that we can recognize that on the day of judgment all of us are to be justified by those worse than ourselves, and in turn others are justified by us. There is one alone who is justified by all, and he himself justifies no one. For instance, Sodom is justified by Jerusalem, because Jerusalem committed worse crimes than she, and perhaps Jerusalem by some other city worse than herself. So someone will be justified by the Antichrist, being compared with him and found less than he in iniquity and crimes. But the worst is the demon, and wretched, as they say, is he who is justified by him; perhaps even his father is justified by him, being found much more wicked than he. But my Lord Jesus Christ, according to the dispensation of the flesh which he bore for our salvation, is justified by Abraham, by Isaac, by Jacob, and by the rest of the prophets. For when all the righteous and the prophets and all the blessed are put in comparison, the contrary is found of what is said of Sodom and Jerusalem, and I glorify our Savior the more. What I mean is this, and, God granting it through your prayers, I will give an explanation from the Scriptures. Sodom committed sin; Samaria too sinned; Jerusalem was overwhelmed by iniquities; but the lesser sins are justified by the greater, after the example by which Sodom is justified by her sister Jerusalem. So, as iniquity justifies, so righteousness sometimes condemns. But wait a little, I ask, until you are taught how righteousness is said to condemn. My iniquity is righteousness in comparison with a greater iniquity. So too my righteousness is reckoned iniquity in comparison with a manifold righteousness. Therefore “no living being will be justified in your sight.” Though Abraham was righteous, and Moses righteous, and each of the illustrious men righteous, yet in comparison with Christ they are not righteous. Their light, set beside his light, is found to be darkness. And as the light of a lamp is dimmed by the rays of the sun, and darkens like some other blind matter, so, though the light of all the righteous shines before men, it does not shine before Christ. For it is not said simply, “Let your light shine,” but “let it shine before men.” Before Christ the light of the righteous cannot shine. As the brightness of the moon and the twinkling stars of heaven glow in their stations before the sun rises, but are hidden when the sun has risen, so the light of the Church, like the light of the moon, shines and is bright before that true light of the Sun of righteousness rises; but when Christ comes, it will grow dark before him. It is also said elsewhere: “The light shines in the darkness.” What is the light that shines in the darkness? … The light shines in the darkness. In what darkness? Where “our struggle is against the rulers of the darkness.” One who examines these things more carefully and more deeply cannot be puffed up, seeing his light reckoned as darkness in comparison with a greater light. What is my righteousness, even if I were the apostle Paul? What is my chastity, even if I were Joseph? What is my courage, even if I were Judas Maccabeus? What is any other virtue, or wisdom, even if I should appear a Solomon, in comparison with God and with those who are better? So, as we had begun to say, iniquity justifies, and righteousness condemns, by comparison with others. That is why it is said to God: “That you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged.” If God wishes to save me, he does not bring his own light into the judgment; if he wishes me to be unharmed, he does not bring forward the light of his Christ, for otherwise he will punish me; but he brings forward the light of lesser ones and compares with me those who are inferior. The more he compares with me those who are greater and better, the more righteous I will be, if they are found to be less than I. The same is to be understood of what the Apostle says: “There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory; so is the resurrection of the dead.” For instance, even a bright star shines not in the presence of a brighter star but of a dimmer one. Which of us can shine like the moon? Who can flash with the light of the brighter stars? According to what is written in Daniel: “They will shine like the stars for ever.”

And we discuss these things of necessity, so that we may withdraw far from pride; for the sin of Sodom is the iniquity of pride. Where this pride of Sodom your sister comes from, and what roots it has, he adds: “In fullness of bread and in abundance they lived in luxury.” If you attend only to the letter, there was great abundance in Sodom of old. For their land was like the paradise of God and like the land of Egypt. But if you climb from the fleshly understanding to the spiritual, so as to see how the pride of Sodom overflowed in fullness of bread and abundance, you will gain profit both for the duties of life and for correcting certain greater things by greater. Let us first set out what was read many days ago: the rich man clothed in fine linen and purple, rejoicing every day in delights and luxury, and Lazarus, worn out with the decay of sores and the stench of worms, seeking to relieve his hunger with the crumbs that fell from his table. This example falls opportunely into this place now, so that it may become clear what the rich man’s iniquity was. He was wealthy; he abounded in delights. For Scripture did not accuse him of possessing riches through iniquity; the divine word did not charge him with giving to harlots, nor with being a murderer or committing any other crime. But if you consider what is written in the present passage and what is said in the Gospel, you will see that his greatest sin among all sins was pride: abounding in fullness of bread and in abundance, he had no feeling of compassion for the man who lay at his gates worn out with sores; but he was so lifted up in pride, despising poverty, that he took no account of the punishments to come, nor of the common rights of humanity: that a man ought to think humanly and, in view of a like condition of his own, in some way have pity in others’ calamities. So that rich man too is a Sodomite. For if the sins of Sodom were such that she lived in fullness of bread and in abundance, and the rich man described in the Gospel is such, no one doubts that the rich man is a Sodomite. And as Sodom and the daughters of the Sodomites were proud, so are arrogant souls; and the daughters of the Sodomites are all who do not know the saying: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

“This was hers and her daughters’.” Then follows another offense of Sodom, of which we must speak, lest we be found in a like crime. “And she did not take up the hand of the poor and needy.” Consider carefully the list of Sodom’s sins. If I myself do not help the hand of the poor and needy according to my means, I have the sin of Sodom. Another accusation follows: “And she boasted proudly.” The boasting of glory too is a Sodomite crime. There are certain Egyptian sins, certain Sodomite ones; there are others that are Babylonian, Assyrian, Moabite, Ammonite. “Who is wise and will understand these things? Or who is understanding and will know them?” Whenever we read what is written about the overthrow of the Sodomites, let us not say, “Wretched Sodomites, whose land no longer bears fruit, wretched and much to be lamented, who suffered such mournful and dreadful things”; rather let us turn this word into our own hearts, let us search our kidneys and our thoughts, and then we will see that those whom we lament are contained within us, and that the sins of Sodom and of Egypt and of Assyria, and all the others which Scripture enumerates in rebuke, dwell in us. We promised above that we would say something greater from Scripture. To Sodom, offending in fullness of bread, in abundance and delights, and in sins of this kind, the law speaks: “Take heed to yourself, lest, when you have eaten and drunk and are full, and have built good houses, and your sheep and oxen have multiplied, and you are multiplied in silver and gold, you forget the Lord God.” And in another place: “He ate and drank and was filled and grew fat, and the beloved kicked.” Similar to these is what Solomon says in Proverbs: “Appoint for me what is necessary and sufficient, lest being full I become a liar and say, Who sees me? or being needy I steal and swear by the name of God.” And, simply put, nothing so lifts one into arrogance as riches and fullness and the food of great wealth, and rank too and power. But passing on to higher things, one can see that I often nourish pride if I understand the divine word, if I am wiser than others. For “knowledge puffs up”: not I but the Apostle says it. And so I fear lest I myself be lifted up. Gifts too are given for what is profitable. If they are given for what is profitable, who is the one for whom they are not profitable? And hear why they are not profitable: the lesser man takes on a puffing up and a certain self-satisfaction, so that he thinks he stands out among the rest. So fullness of bread and abundance are often the material of arrogance. But often, too, the charge of pride arises from spiritual gifts, and there is no difference between the two cases. So great a man as the apostle Paul needed the blows of an angel of Satan, so that, being buffeted, he might not be lifted up overmuch; for though by prayer and entreaty to God he had often obtained what he asked for many, when he asked for this too and did not obtain what he asked, it was said to him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So one who still lives in the human race and in this present light must fear not only the things that are thought good in the world, but also those that are truly good, because we cannot bear great things. As proof of this statement I put forward the story of David, in which it is written that he committed sin against Uriah. Before Uriah no offense is found in David: he was a blessed man, and blameless in the sight of God. But because, conscious of a spotless life, he said what he ought not to have said: “Hear, O Lord, my righteousness; attend to my prayer. Give ear to my prayer, which is not from deceitful lips. Let my judgment come forth from your face; let your eyes see what is right. You have tested my heart and visited it by night; you have tried me with fire, and no iniquity was found in me”; and because he said that God’s visitation was granted him on account of his conscience and the blessedness of his life, he was tempted, stripped of help, so that he might see what human weakness can do. For when God’s protection withdrew, that most chaste man, that man admirable in purity, who had heard, “If the young men are clean, especially from women,” and had received the Eucharist as one who was clean, could not persevere, but was found in that very crime for which he had applauded himself as continent. So if anyone, conscious of his purity, glorifies himself, not remembering the saying, “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” he is abandoned, and, abandoned, learns by experience that in those good things of which he was conscious it was not so much he himself who was their cause as God, who is the fountain of all virtues. From this it appears that both fullness of bread and spiritual gifts breed pride in one who cannot bear them. Therefore let us flee from Sodom and her sins; let us flee from Samaria and the crimes for which wretched Jerusalem is chastised, so that in all things, God supplying us with strength, we may attain humility and righteousness in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.