Homilies on Luke

Contents

Reading pages: 0–5 · 6–9 · 10–13 · 14–16 · 17–20 · 21–24 · 25–29 · 30–34 · 35–38 · 39

1. 0Jerome explains that he translates Origen’s thirty-nine homilies on Luke at his correspondents’ request, as a lighter work than Origen’s great commentaries.
2. 1Luke’s “many have tried” shows that many gospels were written but the church receives only four; true sight of the Word belongs to faith, and every lover of God is a “Theophilus.”
3. 2Zechariah and Elizabeth show that one who has ceased to sin can be called without sin, and that true righteousness is righteousness before God, done blamelessly and without vainglory.
4. 3Divine beings are seen only when they choose to appear and only by the pure in heart, as Christ in the flesh was truly seen only by his disciples.
5. 4The angel’s promise of John shows true greatness to be greatness of soul before God, and the spirit and power of Elijah in John still go before Christ’s coming into every believer’s soul.
6. 5Zechariah’s silence prefigures the silence of prophecy in Israel, whose observances without the Word are like his mute nods, a warning to Gentile believers not to prove unworthy of their adoption.
7. 6Elizabeth hid from modesty; Christ was born of a betrothed virgin so that his birth would be hidden from the devil; the angel’s “full of grace” is a greeting unique to Mary; and Christ’s greatness now fills the world.
8. 7At Mary’s visit the unborn Christ sanctifies John and fills Elizabeth with the Spirit; Origen rejects the claim that Mary married Joseph after Jesus’ birth and urges the catechumens to persevere.
9. 8Mary magnifies the Lord by making her soul, the image of Christ who is God’s image, great; the “lowliness” God regarded is the virtue of humility.
10. 9Mary’s three-month stay trained the unborn John; Scripture speaks of a “fulfilled time” only at the births of the righteous; and Zechariah’s tongue, bound by unbelief, was loosed to prophesy.
11. 10Zechariah, taught by the hidden presence of Christ during Mary’s stay, prophesies of Christ and John; Christ delivers us from spiritual enemies without fear, and benefited even the patriarchs and the heavenly powers.
12. 11John’s growth “in spirit” is the spiritual growth God commands of all; his upbringing in the desert and his food were as new as his birth; and Christ’s enrolment in Augustus’s census signifies his enrolling believers in the book of life.
13. 12The shepherds who receive the angel’s news stand for the church’s pastors and for the angels set over nations, who could do little for their charges until Christ came.
14. 13The angels’ hymn shows that the guardian angels, unable to heal humanity themselves, rejoice at the coming of the true Physician; each church has a visible and an invisible bishop; the ass at the manger stands for the Gentiles who know the Lord.
15. 14Christ’s circumcision and presentation were for our sake; “their purification” leads Origen to distinguish the “defilement” of bodily birth from sin, to explain the baptism of infants by it, and to speak of Mary’s womb as opened only at Christ’s birth.
16. 15Simeon, led by the Spirit, held the Christ who alone frees from the prison of the body, so that he could depart in peace; whoever comes to the church in the Spirit may likewise take Jesus in his arms.
17. 16Simeon’s “fall and rising” answers those who reject the Creator as cruel, for the same is said of Christ; in each believer the evil must fall so that the good may rise.
18. 17Joseph is called Jesus’ father for the sake of the genealogy; the “fall and rising” happen in the same person; Christ is a sign spoken against by heretics; the sword in Mary’s soul is doubt at the passion; and Anna is held up as a model of widowhood, with remarriage said to exclude from the kingdom though not from salvation.
19. 18Christ, who had emptied himself, is “filled with wisdom” even as a child; he is found not among kinsfolk but in the temple among the teachers, and his calling the temple his Father’s refutes those who separate the Creator from the Father of Jesus.
20. 19The child Jesus, filled with wisdom before twelve, shows a divine presence in a sinless human soul; his parents’ sorrowful search signifies the search for the hidden meaning of Scripture, and he is found in the temple, questioning the teachers in order to teach them.
21. 20Jesus’ words about being in his Father’s things refute the heretics and show that the true temple is the souls and churches that belong to the Father; his subjection to Joseph and Mary teaches obedience to parents and to the church’s clergy, and his growth in wisdom calls us to spiritual maturity.
22. 21Luke dates John’s call by Roman and Jewish rulers because the Gospel was for the nations and for Israel; the desert is the soul without peace, and the way to be prepared for the Lord is the spacious human heart.
23. 22The filling of valleys and levelling of mountains is fulfilled when Christ comes into the soul; John’s warning to the “brood of vipers” is addressed to catechumens; and the stones from which God raises children to Abraham are the Gentiles, once hardened by idolatry.
24. 23The axe at the root signifies the cutting off of unbelieving Israel; the two tunics are the old and new man; and the tax collectors point to the powers who will examine souls after death, while angels too are present in the church and are taught by its preaching.
25. 24Christ’s baptism with the Spirit is invisible, and his baptism with fire is a purifying river after death, given only to those who have kept their baptism of water and the Spirit.
26. 25The people’s suspicion that John was the Christ shows the danger of love without measure, seen also in excessive claims made for Paul and for Origen himself; God alone is to be loved with the whole heart, and Christ is loved in the Father and the Father in him.
27. 26Christ is spirit to those who turn to him and fire to sinners; his winnowing wind is temptation, which does not make but reveals chaff and wheat, so the foundations must be laid before persecution comes.
28. 27John preached more than is written and showed prophetic freedom in rebuking Herod; at Christ’s baptism heaven was opened for the remission of the world’s sins, and the Spirit in the form of a dove is the gentle, soaring Spirit given to believers.
29. 28Matthew’s descending genealogy, with its sinful ancestors and women, shows Christ taking on sinners’ condition, while Luke’s ascending genealogy follows his baptism; Christ at thirty, like Joseph, gathers the wheat of the Scriptures for the hungry.
30. 29Jesus was full of the Spirit beyond all others; the devil’s stone offered as bread stands for heretical doctrine; and Christ, tempted as man, now no longer subject to death, is God, and believers who become like him will become divine.
31. 30In the second temptation the devil shows Christ his own kingdom, the people ruled by sin, and offers it for worship; Christ refuses, wishing to reign over all only so that they may worship God alone.
32. 31The devil quotes Ps 91 against Christ, as heretics misuse Scripture, though the psalm speaks of the saints, not of Christ, and its next verse promises that the righteous will trample the devil.
33. 32Christ returns “in the power of the Spirit” after defeating the tempter; in the Nazareth synagogue he reads Isaiah’s prophecy of himself, whose poor and captives are the nations, and the hearers are urged to fix the eyes of their souls on him.
34. 33Nazareth, which rejected Jesus, stands for the Jews and Capernaum for the Gentiles; the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian prefigure the Gentile church and its cleansing in baptism.
35. 34The parable of the Good Samaritan, following an earlier presbyter’s allegory, shows Christ the true “guardian” caring for wounded humanity, bringing it into the church and entrusting it to the church’s angel; and it calls us to imitate him.
36. 35The parable of the adversary on the way is read of the demon who accompanies each person, the angelic rulers of nations, Christ the judge, and the prison after death where debts of sin must be paid unless forgiven, so we must free ourselves from the adversary while still on the way.
37. 36Martyrs lose their soul in order to save it, and the soul joined to the Lord becomes spiritual; the kingdom of God is within those whom God rules, while others are ruled by sin and passion.
38. 37The tied colt is the soul bound by sins and ridden by no rational master until Christ’s disciples loose it for him; the apostles’ garments are their teaching and works, and if believers fall silent the stones will cry out.
39. 38Christ’s weeping over Jerusalem fulfils his own beatitude and also laments the baptized who fall into sin; his expulsion of those who sold doves warns teachers not to sell the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
40. 39Against the Sadducees, the risen do not marry but are like the angels, and the blessings of children promised in Scripture are spiritual; “render to Caesar” means casting off the earthly image and restoring God’s image, which God asks of us in order to give back more.