Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah — Homily 2
Greek source: Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah (Ὁμιλίαι εἰς τὸν Ἰερεμίαν), from the public-domain critical text of Erich Klostermann, GCS 6 = Origenes Werke III (Leipzig, 1901); digital text accessed via the First1KGreek project. This English translation is released into the public domain.
[§1] "God did not make death, nor does he delight in the destruction of the living; for he created all things that they might exist, and the generative forces of the world are salutary, and in them there is no poison of destruction, nor is the kingdom of Hades upon the earth." Then, passing over a little of the text, I will say whence death entered: "but by the envy of the devil death entered into the world." If, then, God has made everything that is best concerning us, while we ourselves have created for ourselves wickedness and sins — for this reason here too the beginning of the reading in the prophet says, as it were in a manner of raising a difficulty, to those who have acquired in their soul a bitterness contrary to the sweetness which God fashioned for it: "How were you turned to bitterness, O alien vine?" As if it said: God did not make lameness, but made all men sound of foot; what, then, has become the cause of those who are lamed? And God made all the members sound at the outset, but what has become the cause of some suffering harm? In the same way the soul came to be "according to the image" not of the first man only, but of every man. For the words "let us make man according to our image and likeness" reach unto all men. And just as in Adam there is that which is prior — which most people understand as the "according to the image" of what was taken up together with him, when because of sin he bore "the image of the man of dust" — so in all men the "according to the image of God" is prior to the worse image. We, being sinners, "have borne the image of the man of dust"; let us, repenting, "bear the image of the heavenly man." Yet the creation came to be in the image of the heavenly man. Here, then, the word is at a loss, speaking reprovingly to those who sin: "How were you turned to bitterness, O alien vine? For I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true." It has been said in what precedes, and taking up a few points again I will persuade you that God planted a good vine, the soul of man, but each one, having turned aside, has become contrary to the will of the one who created him. "But I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly" — not "true" in part, nor partly true and partly false, but — "I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true; how were you turned?" — When I made you wholly a true vine, how were you turned to bitterness and become an alien vine?
[§2] After this let us look at the words: "though you wash yourself with nitre and multiply soapwort for yourself, you are stained in your iniquities before me, says the Lord." Did some sinful soul suppose that, by taking nitre and washing herself with perceptible nitre, she would cease from the stain and cease from sin? And did someone imagine that, by taking this soapwort which springs up from the earth, and washing and scrubbing himself with it, his soul would be cleansed — since here the word says to her who was turned to bitterness and became an alien vine: "though you wash yourself with nitre and multiply soapwort for yourself, you are stained in your iniquities before me, says the Lord"? But one must know that the word has every power; and just as it has the power of every writing, so the word has the power of every medicine, and it is the power of everything that cleanses, and is most effective for scouring: "for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword." And whatever you may say, where there is need, this lies in the power of the word. There is, then, a certain word that is nitre, and there is a certain word that is soapwort, which, when spoken, cleanses such filth. But since not every sin is healed by such a word which is nitre, and by such a word which is soapwort — but there are sins that need neither nitre nor soapwort — it is said to her who thinks she has sins such as can be washed away by nitre and soapwort: "though you wash yourself with nitre and multiply soapwort for yourself, you are stained before me in your iniquities, says the Lord." And just as of wounds there are some that are healed with a poultice, and others healed with oil, and others need a bandage and are thus made whole, but there are other wounds concerning which it is said: "there is no poultice to apply, nor oil, nor bandages; but your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire" — so there are certain sins which defile the soul, and for these sins a man needs a word of nitre, a word of soapwort; but there are certain sins which are not healed in this way, for they are not even comparable to filth. Therefore the Lord in Isaiah, knowing the differences of sins, see how he says: "the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse away the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning." Filth and blood: filth by a spirit of judgment, blood by a spirit of burning. If you have sinned, though not "unto death," you are defiled. "The Lord will wash away," then, "the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse away the blood from their midst." Then there is the correspondence: for "the filth" a "spirit of judgment," and for "the blood" a "spirit of burning"; and the many of us, when we commit worse sins, have need not of nitre nor of multiplying soapwort, but of the spirit of burning.
[§3] For this reason Jesus baptizes (perhaps now I find the meaning) "in [the] Holy Spirit and fire." Not that he baptizes the same person "in the Holy Spirit and fire," but the holy one "in the Holy Spirit," while the one who, after believing, after being counted worthy of the Holy Spirit, has again sinned, he washes in "fire" — so that the same person is not baptized by Jesus "in the Holy Spirit and fire." Blessed, then, is the one baptized in the Holy Spirit and having no need of the baptism that comes from fire. But thrice-wretched is that one who has need to be baptized with fire. Yet Jesus has both. For "there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall come up out of the root." A "rod" upon those who are punished, a "flower" upon the righteous. Thus "God is a consuming fire," and "God is light": a consuming fire to sinners, light to the righteous and holy. And "blessed is the one who has a part in the first resurrection," the one who has kept the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Who is the one saved in another resurrection? The one who has need of the baptism that comes from fire, when he comes to that fire, and the fire tests him, and that fire finds wood, hay, and stubble, so as to burn them up. Therefore, since these things are said, let us with all our power gather together the words of the Scriptures, and lay them up in our heart, and try to live according to them, if perchance we may be able to become pure before our departure, and, having prepared our works for the departure, may go forth in those very good things and be taken up in them and be saved in Christ Jesus, to whom is the glory and the might unto the ages of ages. Amen.