Ezekiel 44 · The Lantern

The East Gate Assigned to the Prince

And he brought me back the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, the one facing east; and it was shut.

Who is this gate, if not Mary? Is it not closed because she is a virgin? Mary is the gate through which Christ entered this world, when He was brought forth in the virginal birth and the manner of His birth did not break the seals of virginity.

But just as He who was conceived kept her who conceived still virgin, in like manner also He who was born preserved her virginity intact, only passing through her and keeping her closed.

On the contrary, It is written (Ezekiel 44:2): "This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it; because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it." Expounding these words, Augustine says in a sermon (De Annunt. Dom. iii): "What means this closed gate in the House of the Lord, except that Mary is to be ever inviolate?

And the LORD said to me: This gate will be shut; it will not be opened, and no man will come in by it, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has come in by it; and it will be shut.

As for the leader — the leader, he will sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; by way of the porch of the gate he will come in, and by its way he will go out.

Each one of us asks for "daily bread" and when asking for "daily bread" does not receive either the same bread or the same measure. So without ceasing, thanks to pure prayers and a clean conscience, in the works of justice, we eat daily bread. And if anyone is less pure, he eats the daily bread in another way.

Christ himself is a virgin, and his mother is also a virgin; though she is his mother, she is a virgin still. For Jesus has entered in through the closed doors, and in his tomb—a new one hewn out of the hardest rock—no one is laid either before him or after him.… Mary is the east gate, spoken of by the prophet Ezekiel, always shut and always shining and either concealing or rev…

Without seed the Son of God was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and in the Virgin's womb he formed for himself a fleshly body, animate with a reasonable and intelligent soul. From it [he came] forth in one substance but in two natures, perfect God and perfect man. It preserved undefiled, even after birth, the virginity of her that bore him.

And he brought me the way of the north gate before the house; and I looked, and see: the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD. And I fell on my face.

And the LORD said to me: Son of man, set your heart and see with your eyes and hear with your ears all that I am speaking with you concerning all the statutes of the house of the LORD and all its instructions; and set your heart on the coming into the house, with every going out of the sanctuary.

Reproof of the Levites

And say to the rebellion, to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord GOD: Enough for you of all your abominations, house of Israel —

in your bringing in sons of a foreigner, uncircumcised of heart and uncircumcised of flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to profane it, my house, when you bring near my bread, the fat and the blood; and they broke my covenant, alongside all your abominations.

And you have not kept the charge of my holy things, but have set others to keep my charge in my sanctuary for you.

Thus says the Lord GOD: No son of a foreigner, uncircumcised of heart and uncircumcised of flesh, will come into my sanctuary — no son of a foreigner who is in the midst of the sons of Israel.

But also he who holds heretical thoughts in his mind and arranges blasphemous assertions against the knowledge of Christ in his heart, this man is "uncircumcised" in "heart." But he who guards a pure faith in the sincerity of conscience, he is circumcised in heart; of whom it can be said: "blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God."

(Verse 9 and following) Thus says the Lord God: Every uncircumcised foreigner in heart and in flesh shall not enter my sanctuary, every foreign son who is among the sons of Israel.

When the mind is longingly involved with one of these stirrings—this depends on the urgency of the matter at the time of supplication and is the result of great eagerness—the gaze of its stirring is drawn by the eye of faith inside the veil of the heart, and the entries of the soul are fenced off, keeping out alien thoughts, which are called "strangers," who are not permitted b…

But the Levites who went far from me when Israel went astray, who went astray from me after their idols — they will bear their iniquity.

And they will be servants in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house and serving the house. They will slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they will stand before them to serve them.

Because they served them before their idols and became for the house of Israel a stumbling block of iniquity, therefore I have lifted my hand against them, the utterance of the Lord GOD, and they will bear their iniquity.

And they will not draw near to me to serve as priests to me, or to draw near to any of my holy things, to the holiest of holy things; and they will bear their humiliation and their abominations that they did.

And I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all its service and for all that is done in it.

The Duties of the Priests

But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from me — they will draw near to me to serve me, and they will stand before me to bring near to me the fat and the blood, the utterance of the Lord GOD.

They will come into my sanctuary, and they will draw near to my table to serve me, and they will keep my charge.

And it will be, when they come to the gates of the inner court, that they will wear garments of flax; and no wool will come upon them while they serve in the gates of the inner court and inward.

Headdresses of flax will be on their head, and undergarments of flax will be on their loins; they will not gird themselves with what makes sweat.

And when they go out to the outer court, to the outer court to the people, they will strip off their garments in which they serve and lay them in the holy chambers; and they will put on other garments and will not sanctify the people with their garments.

And their head they will not shave, and loose hair they will not let grow; they will surely trim their heads.

And wine no priest will drink when they come to the inner court.

And a widow or a divorced woman they will not take for themselves as wives, but virgins from the seed of the house of Israel; and the widow who is a widow of a priest, they may take.

And they will instruct my people between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean they will make them know.

And over a dispute they will stand for judgment; by my judgments they will judge it. And my instructions and my statutes at all my appointed times they will keep, and my sabbaths they will sanctify.

And to a dead person he will not come, to be defiled — except for father and for mother and for son and for daughter, for brother and for a sister who has not belonged to a man; for these they may defile themselves.

And after his cleansing they will count seven days for him.

And on the day he comes to the holy place, to the inner court, to serve in the holy place, he will bring near his sin offering, the utterance of the Lord GOD.

And it will be for them as an inheritance: I am their inheritance. And a holding you will not give them in Israel: I am their holding.

The grain offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering — they will eat them; and every devoted thing in Israel will be theirs.

And the first of all the firstfruits of everything, and every contribution of everything from all your contributions, will be for the priests; and the first of your dough you will give to the priest, to let a blessing rest on your house.

Any carcass or torn thing, of bird or of beast, the priests will not eat.

Ezekiel44

The East Gate Assigned to the Prince

Reproof of the Levites

The Duties of the Priests