Homilies on Jeremiah 5.5–5.17

So we from the nations say about ourselves, repenting of the false things we thought true: “Truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains”; and about Israel, which will be saved after us: “But through the Lord our God is the salvation of the house of Israel.” Then, confessing the sins in which our fathers were and we ourselves were when we worshipped idols, we say: “But shame has consumed the labors of our fathers from their youth, their sheep and their oxen, their sons and their daughters.” “Shame has consumed the labors of our fathers,” and the rest of what is said. So if the wicked labor and the false work of the fathers is to be consumed, shame must come; for before shame the labor of the fathers, and what follows, is not consumed. For this reason let us consider the differences among those who sin. There are those who sin and are not ashamed, nor abashed at their sins, nor blush. Such are those who “have become callous and have given themselves up to all licentiousness and all impurity.” For [you see] among those from the nations how at times they list their acts of sexual immorality and their adulteries as feats of valor, not even ashamed to confess they have done such things, and they do not call them sins. As long as they are not ashamed, their labors are not consumed; their sins are not consumed. The beginning of good things is for someone to be ashamed of what he was not ashamed of before. That is why I do not think it is a curse that is spoken in the prophets in “Let all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back.” For he prays that those insensible to the works of shame may come to awareness, so that, being ashamed, they may be able to consume their labors and their sins.

The irrational movements of the fathers he called “sheep” and “calves.” For not all irrational things are praiseworthy; some are blameworthy, like the sheep of the fathers who sinned; but some irrational things are praiseworthy, for example: “My sheep hear my voice.” These too were sheep, to which we have the corresponding meaning, having the good shepherd in our souls. For when the Savior says, “I am the good shepherd,” I do not hear it only as everyone hears it, that he is the shepherd of those who believe (and that is sound and true), but also that in my own soul I ought to have Christ within me, the good shepherd within me, shepherding the irrational movements in me, so that they no longer go out to pasture at random, but, being led by the shepherd, these things that were once foreign to him may become his own. So now, if the shepherd is in me, he rules my senses; they are no longer under an alien mind, or under Pharaoh, or under Nebuchadnezzar, but under the good shepherd.

“Shame,” then, “has consumed the labors of our fathers from their youth, their sheep and their oxen.” There is something in us that tills us, and it tills either badly (to say “badly” of the one who tills) or well. If it tills badly, it is a labor of the fathers consumed by their shame; if it tills well, it is not a labor of the fathers, but a labor from which the firstborn are brought up to the altar of God. “Their sons and their daughters,” these say. Whose? The sons and the daughters of “them,” that is, “of the fathers,” are consumed by their shame. We have often spoken of the offspring of the soul: that thoughts are sons, and the works and deeds done through the body are daughters. Since, then, there are wicked thoughts, such as those from the nations thought, and there are also wicked works, for this reason sons and daughters are consumed by those who made them, if shame for their sins arises in them. But may it not be ours to beget sons and daughters for the consuming that comes from shame.

After this those who make confession say, “We have lain down in our shame”; and after that they say, “and our dishonor has covered us.” We have often spoken about the veil that lies over the face of those who do not turn to the Lord. Because of this veil, “whenever Moses is read,” the sinner does not understand him; for “a veil lies over his heart.” Because of the veil, if the Old Testament is read, the hearer will not understand. Because of the veil, the gospel too is veiled to those who are perishing. We were saying, then, about the veil, that shame is the veil. For as long as we have “the works of shame,” clearly we have the veil, according to what is said somewhere in the forty-third Psalm: “And the shame of my face has covered me.” I have shown that the one who does not have works of shame does not have a veil, such as Paul was when he said: “But we all, with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror.” Paul, then, has an unveiled face; for he does not have works of shame. The one who is not like Paul has a veiled face. As, then, it is said there in the forty-third Psalm, “The shame of my face has covered me,” in the same way it is said here: “Our dishonor,” he says, “has covered us.” As long as we do works of dishonor, we have a veil lying over our heart. If we wish to put off the veil that comes from dishonor, let us come to the works of honor and understand what the Savior said: “that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father”; let us understand too what the apostle says: “Through transgression of the law you dishonor God.” The righteous man, as he honors the Father, honors the Son. Dishonor, when I dishonor the Son (the very dishonor by which I dishonor the Father or the Son), becomes a covering over my face, and I say, “And our dishonor has covered us.” For this reason, understanding the veil that lies on us from the works of shame, from the deeds of dishonor, let us take off the veil. It lies with us that the veil be taken away; it is no one else's doing. For “whenever Moses turned to the Lord, he took off the veil.” Do you see how Moses is sometimes taken to stand for the people too? As long as he did not turn to the Lord, being a symbol of the people that does not turn to the Lord, he had a veil lying on his face; but when he turned to the Lord, becoming a symbol of those who turn to the Lord, then “he took off the veil.” And it was not as if God ordered him, “Put on the veil” (for the Lord did not say to Moses, “Put on the veil”); rather Moses, seeing that the people could not look on his glory, then put “the veil on his face,” and did not wait for God to say, “Take off the veil,” “whenever he turned to the Lord.”

This, then, is written so that you too, who put the veil on your face through the works of dishonor and shame, may yourself bring about the removal of the veil. If you turn to the Lord, then you take away the veil, and you will no longer say, “Our dishonor has covered us.” For example, anger lying on our soul against someone lies as a veil over our face. For this reason, if we wish to say in prayer, “The light of your face has been signed upon us, O Lord,” let us take away the veil and do that apostolic saying: “I wish, then, that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.” If we take away anger, we have taken away the veil; and so if we take away all the passions. But as long as these are in our mind, in our reasoning, the veil and the dishonor lie on the inner face, our ruling faculty, so that we do not see the glory of God shining. It is not God who hides his glory from us, but we who lay the veil of wickedness on our ruling faculty.

“For we have sinned before our God, we and our fathers.” Would that we too might say this, as these do in the prophet's personification: “We have sinned.” “We have sinned” is not the same as “we are sinning.” Let the one still in sin not say “we have sinned”; but let the one who sinned before but has repented thoroughly say “we have sinned,” as in Daniel too there is written the confession of those who no longer sin, saying, “We have sinned, we have done lawlessly”; and in the Psalms the prophet says, “Do not remember against us our ancient iniquities.” So let us too confess our sins, not, I hope, yesterday's, not those of three days ago, but, I hope, in confessing let us confess sins committed fifteen years ago, by having had no sin after them for fifteen years. But if we sinned yesterday, we are not yet trustworthy in confessing our sins, nor is there room for these sins of ours to be wiped out. “For we have sinned, we and our fathers, from our youth until this day.” Let those earlier words be taken in another way, as teaching about the best manner of confession; but these words are an accusation of sinning for a long time. “From youth,” he says, “until this day, and we did not obey the voice of the Lord our God.” “We have sinned, and we did not obey” up to the present. Then, having turned and having a beginning of conversion, they say, “We have sinned, and we did not obey.” For we do not obey at once, as soon as we wish to obey; there is still need of time, just as with wounds for healing, so too with conversion, to turn completely and purely to God.

After this God says about Israel: “If Israel returns to me, says the Lord, he shall indeed return”; that is, if he returns completely, he will be returned with a true return, not if he only, as it were, begins to return. Then he says: “And if he removes his abominations from his mouth, and reverences my presence, and swears, ‘The Lord lives,’ in truth and in judgment and in righteousness, then the nations shall bless themselves in him.” If they do these things, “the nations shall bless themselves in him.” What things must they do, so that the nations may bless themselves in him? “If he removes his abominations from his mouth.” And what is removing the abominations from the mouth? Whatever we say wrongly is an abomination in our mouth. Let us, then, remove the abominations from our mouth, removing slanders, vain words, idle words, and words that will cause us to be accused “on the day of judgment; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” If, then, we wish that there come to us “And the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him they shall praise God in Jerusalem,” let us do what was said at the beginning. And what is first? To remove “the abominations from” our “mouth.” Next is also “You shall reverence my presence.” Let us do this second, not simply so as to be reverent; for perhaps there is a reverence that arises, but not before the presence of God. Those, at any rate, who fear without understanding, though they intend to fear, are not reverent before the presence of God. But all who are reverent with understanding, by always seeing and picturing to themselves “the face of the Lord set against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth,” these are the ones who reverence the presence of God.

“If he removes his abominations from his mouth, and reverences my presence, and swears, ‘The Lord lives,’ in truth and in judgment and in righteousness.” Let us who swear look at ourselves, how we swear not with judgment but without judgment, so that our oaths come about from habit rather than from judgment. We are carried away, at any rate; and rebuking this the Word says: “And if he swears, ‘The Lord lives,’ in truth and in judgment and in righteousness.” We know that it is said in the Gospel by the Lord to the disciples, “But I say to you, do not swear at all”; but let us look at this saying too, and, if God grants it, both will be examined together. For perhaps one must first swear “in truth and in judgment and in righteousness,” so that after this, having made progress, one may become worthy not to swear at all, but to have a “yes” that needs no witnesses that it is so, and to have a “no” that needs no witnesses that it is truly “no.” “And he swears,” then, “‘The Lord lives,’ in truth.” In the one who swears I look first for no falsehood, but the truth, so that he may swear with truth; but we wretches even perjure ourselves. But granted it is “with truth”: even so an oath is not rightly made unless it is “in judgment.” For suppose I swear from habit: I do not swear “in judgment.” If one must bring the God of the universe and his Christ into such an oath about some matter, how great must the matter be for me to kneel and swear? I might do this sometime to heal unbelief that has arisen in some people about my word; but if I swore just as it happened, I would sin. “If,” then, “he swears, ‘The Lord lives,’ with truth and in judgment,” not without judgment, “and in righteousness,” not unjustly, “then the nations shall bless themselves in him.” He united both, those from the nations and Israel; he spoke about the nations, he spoke also about Israel.

He goes on: “And the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him they shall praise God in Jerusalem. For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to those who dwell in Jerusalem.” He has spoken to those from the nations, he has spoken also to those from Israel; he speaks to those from Judah. I remember the figurative interpretations given recently about Judah and those who dwell in Jerusalem. For we, if God grants it, dwell in Jerusalem. Since “where the treasure is, there the heart is too,” if we lay up treasure in heaven, we also have our heart in the Jerusalem above, about which the apostle says: “But the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother, as it is written,” and the rest. “Thus,” then, “says the Lord to the men of Judah and to those who dwell in Jerusalem: Break up fallow ground for yourselves, and do not sow among thorns.” This word is said especially to those who teach, so that they do not entrust what is said to their hearers before they have broken up fallow ground in their souls. For when, “having put their hand to the plough,” they have broken up fallow ground in the souls of those who listen, like “the good and fair soil,” then they sow, not among thorns. But if, before the plough and before breaking up fallow ground in the ruling faculty of the hearers, someone takes the holy seeds, the teaching about the Father, about the Son, about the Holy Spirit, the teaching about the resurrection, the teaching about punishment, the teaching about rest, about the law, about the prophets, and, in a word, about each of the things written, and sows, he transgresses the commandment that says, first, “Break up fallow ground for yourselves,” second, “and do not sow among thorns.” But one of the listeners will say: “I do not teach; I am not subject to this commandment.” You too, become your own farmer, and do not sow among thorns, but break up for me the field that the God of the universe has entrusted to you. Examine the field; see where the thorns are, where “the cares of life, and the deceit of wealth,” and love of pleasure are. And having noted the thorns in your soul, seek the rational plough, about which Jesus says, “No one who puts his hand to the plough and turns back is fit for the kingdom of God.” When you have sought and found it, gathering from the Scriptures the pure working oxen, plough and break up the ground; and so that it may no longer be old, make it new by “putting off the old man with his practices and putting on the new, which is being renewed in knowledge”; you will make fallow ground for yourself. And if you make the fallow ground, take seeds from those who teach, take seeds from the law, take them from the prophets, from the gospel writings, from the apostolic words; and having taken these seeds, sow the soul through memory and meditation. These things will seem to spring up of themselves; but in truth they will not spring up of themselves after being remembered; God will make them grow: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” And if anyone has been able to understand the Scriptures, he has broken up fallow ground, and having broken it up has sown, not among thorns. These seeds are arranged by God not to become ears of grain suddenly, but, as in the Gospel according to Mark, “first the blade, then the ear,” then it becomes ready for harvest. When it becomes ready for harvest, those sent out to the harvest will come; when it becomes ready for harvest, those will come to whom the Word says: “Lift up your eyes and see the fields, that they are white already for harvest.” So he says to us: “Break up fallow ground for yourselves, and do not sow among thorns.” But if, before you cleanse your soul, while you still have thorns, you come to one who is able, or is thought able, to teach, and ask for spiritual lessons and seeds, you transgress the commandment that says, “Do not sow among thorns.”

And next to this it is said: “Be circumcised to your God, circumcise the foreskin of your heart.” “Be circumcised to your God”: “to your God” is added of necessity. You will understand it from the example of the perceptible: people are circumcised, perceptibly I mean, not only those of the circumcision according to the law of Moses, but many others as well. The priests of the Egyptians are circumcised for idols; but that circumcision is a circumcision for idols and is not a circumcision done to God; while that of the Jews perhaps, and certainly at that time, was done to God. So if the Word says, “Be circumcised to your God,” once you have understood the literal sense, pass over to the figurative sense too, so as to find how, among those circumcised in the figurative sense (so that perhaps some of them could say, “We are the circumcision”), some are circumcised to God, and others are circumcised, but not to God. For there are other teachings besides the teaching of the truth, besides the teaching of the church. Philosophers circumcise their morals and their heart, so to speak, and are self-disciplined; those from the heresies are self-disciplined, and a circumcision comes about for them. But it is a circumcision, yet not to God; for with them the circumcision comes about by a false teaching. But when you are in communion according to the church's rule, according to the purpose of sound teaching, you are not merely circumcised, but circumcised “to God.” “Be circumcised,” then, “to your God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart.” Who does not pass over these words as clear? And yet there is a foreskin of the heart, and it must be circumcised. One who examines the saying carefully will investigate such things as these in the passage: the foreskin is born with us, circumcision is acquired, and what has come from birth circumcision removes. If, then, the Word commands the removal of “the foreskin of the heart,” there must be something born together with the heart, which it calls a foreskin, which must be removed so that one may be circumcised in “the foreskin of the heart.” If someone understands “We were by nature children of wrath, like the rest,” if someone understands “the body of humiliation” in which we have been born, if someone understands “No one is clean from filth, even if his life be one day; his months are numbered,” he will see how we have been born with uncleanness and a foreskin of our heart.

But so that it may be said by way of a simpler example, able to bring you to see “the foreskin of the heart,” I will point out that in early youth false opinions inevitably arise in the soul; for it is not possible for a human being to receive true doctrines from the beginning. The divine Word provided history and a Scripture according to the letter, so as to nourish the one born to Abraham according to the flesh first in the words according to the flesh, and he becomes first the one from the slave woman, so as afterwards to be able to be born the one from the free woman, the one through the promise. Why this was mentioned: the foreskin of the heart, which comes before circumcision, can be understood. We need, then, to take up the Word who cleanses doctrines and removes everything that has arisen in us through false opinion. This, then, is to put off the foreskin of our heart; for if the heart is what holds our ruling faculty, where the thoughts are, from which “evil thoughts come out,” then the one who removes the evil thoughts removes “the foreskin of the heart”; the one who puts off false opinion has been circumcised in “the foreskin of his heart,” and, being circumcised, becomes a “man of Judah and one who dwells in Jerusalem.” But if someone does not put off “the foreskin of his heart,” let us see what the Word threatens him with: “Lest,” he says, “my wrath go forth like fire and burn, and there be none to quench it.” So the wrath of the Lord goes forth like fire upon those not circumcised to God, upon those who have not put off “the foreskin” of their “heart,” “and there will be none to quench it because of the wickedness of” their “practices.” That fire has as its fuel the wickedness of our practices. Where there is no wickedness of practices, the fire has nothing to feed on. And that the fuel of that fire is the wickedness of practices, hear the prophet saying: “And there will be none to quench it because of the wickedness of your practices.” “Declare in Judah, and let it be heard in Jerusalem; say, declare, signal with the trumpet on the land, and cry aloud.” These things that are announced, he says, say in Judah, to those from the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Christ; “for it is evident that our Savior has arisen from Judah.”

“Signal with the trumpet on the land.” The lofty word, which rouses the hearer, which prepares him for the war against the passions, for the war against the workings of the opposing powers, which prepares him for the heavenly feasts (for the trumpet is used for both these things), is taken as a trumpet. In Numbers such a word is a trumpet; as the Word commands me, and anyone else to whom it is given (it is given to whoever wishes and seeks the meaning of the Scriptures), it commands to make “silver trumpets of beaten work.” So the Word says: “Signal with the trumpet on the land, and cry aloud; say: Gather, and let us enter the fortified cities.” The Word of God does not wish us to enter an unwalled city, but the one that is the church of the living God, walled by the power of the Word (for he is the wall) … it is in the seventeenth Psalm that God is also a wall. “Take up your things and flee to Zion”: all of you who are outside Zion, “take up your things and flee to Zion; hasten, do not stand still”; you who are making progress, hasten to the watchtower, “for I am bringing evils from the north, and a great destruction.” Of the evils brought “from the north,” the north of the adversary, as has often been said, whoever is found not to have hastened nor entered “the fortified cities,” not to have been in the churches of God, but standing outside, will himself be caught and slain by the enemies. And who is the enemy? Let us see from what follows how it is said: “A lion has come up from his lair; destroying, he has set out against nations.” This is the enemy we must flee. A lion is hunting us. Who is he? Peter teaches, saying: “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour; resist him, firm in the faith”; and according to the ninth Psalm, “he lies in wait in secret, he lies in wait like a lion in his lair.” And this lion lies in wait not by day, but when night comes; for according to the hundred and third Psalm: “You made darkness and it was night; in it all the beasts of the forest will prowl, young lions roaring to snatch and to seek their food from God.”

“A lion,” then, “has come up from his lair.” Where? When? He is below, having fallen; he has come down to the lowest parts of the earth. “A lion has come up from his lair.” You are a human being: you are higher than the devil; for you are better than he, whoever you are; he is below because of his wickedness. “A lion,” then, “has come up from his lair; destroying, he has set out against nations”: having come up “from his lair,” the place fitting for his punishment, “destroying, he has set out against nations; he has gone forth from his place to make your land a desolation.” He wants your land, about which we were speaking a little earlier. He wants to graze on each one of us. So he comes “to make your land a desolation,” so that the lion may trample the seeds, so that he may make your land desert. “And your cities will be pulled down so as not to be inhabited. For these things gird yourselves with sackcloth.” Since, then, a lion has come up, and a lion threatens you and wishes to destroy your land, gird yourself with sackcloth, weep and mourn, call on God in prayer that he may destroy this lion from you and you may not fall into his mouth. For “as when the shepherd snatches from the mouth of the lion two legs or the tip of an ear”: this lion seeks to seize you by the ears, so that, setting false words before you through your appetite for novelty, he may draw you away from the truth; he wishes to snatch your feet from the truth and devour you. But you, gird yourself with sackcloth, beat your breast, weep and wail, seeing the enemy at hand, so that “the fierce anger of the Lord” may turn away from you, and, the anger having turned away, you may be free of care, the lion no longer creeping in on you, because you have entered the fortified city, and may glorify God who delivers you in Christ Jesus, to whom be the glory and the power for ages of ages. Amen.