Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah — Homily 11
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] Who is it that says, "Because of me the whole earth has been laid utterly waste"? Christ says these things, before whose coming many sins had indeed been committed by the people, but not such sins as to cause them to be utterly forsaken and handed over into a captivity of long duration. But when they had filled up "the measure of their fathers" and had added, to the killing of the prophets and the persecuting of the righteous, the slaying of "the Christ of God," then came to pass the word, "Your house is left to you." And it is because of him that they have suffered these things, and "the whole earth has been laid utterly waste."
[§2] But if you wish also to hear in a loftier sense the words, "Because of me the whole earth has been laid utterly waste," look at the earth within you, in what manner it was laid waste when Jesus came; for it was laid waste "when the members that are upon the earth were put to death," and the earth no longer works its own works, no longer are there produced in the righteous person the works of the flesh in which the flesh once flourished — no longer fornication, no longer uncleanness, not licentiousness, not idolatry, not sorcery, and the rest. And the Savior too says, "Do you think that I came to cast peace upon the earth? I did not come to cast peace, but a sword." For truly, before he came, there was no sword upon the earth, nor did "the flesh lust against the spirit, nor the spirit against the flesh"; but when he came and we were taught which things are of the flesh and which are of the spirit, the teaching, having become as it were a sword upon the earth, divided the flesh and the earth from the spirit; and "the earth was laid waste" when we carry about the dying of Jesus in the body, and we no longer live according to the flesh but the spirit lives, and we sow nothing unto the flesh but all things unto the spirit, so that we may not reap corruption from the flesh but from the spirit eternal life.
[§3] And it is said to those who have sinned, "You sow wheat and you reap thorns"; for even if they discourse in the oracles of God, those who do not discourse rightly in them, nor live in the way they ought, nor believe, are sowing wheat and reaping thorns. And these things are most of all to be understood with reference to the heterodox, who engage with the Scriptures and reap thorns not from the Scriptures but from their own inventions. "Their lots will not profit them." These things others also have expounded. And since we do not reject their exposition, we in good conscience bring it forward into the midst, not as though we had found it ourselves, but as having learned a good lesson. This word will profit both you and us, if we attend to what is written — we who seem to be certain persons appointed from the clergy and set over you, so that some desire to come to this clerical order. But know that the clerical order does not by any means save; for many even among the presbyters will perish, and many even among the laity will be shown to be blessed. Since, then, there are some in the clergy who do not live in such a way as to be profited and to adorn the clerical order, for this reason, say those who have expounded, it is written, "Their lots will not profit them." For that which profits is not the mere sitting in the presbytery, but the living worthily of the place, as the word demands. The word demands that both you live well and we. But, if it must be so put, "the mighty shall be mightily tested"; more is demanded of me than of the deacon, more of the deacon than of the layman, and he to whom has been entrusted the rule over all of us, the very rule of the Church, is required to give account still more. For this reason the apostle, to whom the great things have been entrusted, listen, says: "Let a man so account of us, as of ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Here, moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." And so it is a rare thing to be found a faithful and good steward. Jesus, "who knows all things before their coming to be," says, "Who then is the faithful and prudent steward, whom his lord shall set over his household, to give them their measure of grain in due season?" Then he blames certain stewards and says, "But if the wicked servant begin to say, My lord delays his coming, and begin to beat his fellow-servants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and be drunken, the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he does not expect and in an hour that he does not know, and shall cut him in two, and shall appoint his portion with the unbelievers." So much, then, for the words "Their lots will not profit them."
[§4] But let us look also at what follows, a necessary rebuke, which it is good to take up under the moral head, saying, "Be ashamed of your boasting, of the reproach before the Lord." There are certain things in which, through folly, we boast, though they are not worthy of boasting. For instance, if someone boast that he is rich and has acquired much, it may be said to him, "Be ashamed of your boasting." If someone boast in this outward nobility, it will be said to him, "Be ashamed of your boasting." If someone boast in the costliness of garments, in the building of a richly furnished house, such boasting is foreign to the boasting of the saints; therefore it will be said to such a one, "Be ashamed of your boasting." Hear the word of the prophet Jeremiah bidding us not to boast, not even in wisdom; for "let not," he says, "the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches, but let him that boasts boast in this, to understand and to know that I am the Lord." Do you wish to boast, and while boasting not to hear, "Be ashamed of your boasting"? Boast as the apostle does, and say, "But far be it from me to boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Do you wish to boast, so that it may not be said, "Be ashamed of your boasting"? Listen to Paul boasting, and learn when he says, "Most gladly, therefore, will I boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." Hear what boastings he boasts: "in labors more abundantly" (which of us can say this?), "in prisons more exceedingly, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one, thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck." We learn, then, that there are also differences among boastings, in that some boastings are worthy of shame, of which that apostolic saying might be spoken, "and their glory is in their shame"; for in the things whereof they ought to be ashamed, in these they think to be glorified.
[§5] After these things let us look at what concerns the loincloth. For "Thus," it says, "says the Lord: Go and acquire for yourself a linen loincloth, and put it around your loins, and do not pass it through water. And I acquired a loincloth according to the word of the Lord and put it around my loins. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Take the loincloth that is around your loins, and arise and go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in the cleft of the rock." After some days he comes there, and finds this loincloth rotted through. And the Lord adds to it, giving the occasion for the interpretation of the loincloth, saying: "Just as the loincloth clings to the loins of a man, so did I cause the house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to myself, says the Lord, that they might become for me a renowned people and a boast and a glory, and they did not listen to me." Therefore the prophet is taken up in the place of God, girding around his loins the linen loincloth, as God girds the people; for "I caused to cling to myself," he says, "this people," meaning that the people, as it were, becomes God's loincloth.
But why does the people become God's loincloth around his loins? Let him who is able, reading Ezekiel and beholding God, as it were, given a bodily form by the word — and in what manner the parts of him from the loins downward are fire, but the parts from the loins upward are amber — let him search out the word, why the lower part of God is fire. The things from the loins and from generation, these are fire. For all things that are in generation have need of the purification that comes from fire, all things in generation have need of chastisement. But the things above the loins and beyond generation, these are matter as in its purest and most precious state; for amber is said to be more precious than gold. Since, then, the Scripture uses these figures, that it may teach that the upper body of God is more precious and the lower body more inferior, for this reason it introduced God as composed of fire and amber. [And there is a body of God † and he himself] each of us is fire while in generation; we are not the amber; but if we ascend and make progress (for it is possible to pass from being today among the lower parts, so as to become the upper body of God), then, having passed through the fire, we shall be amber, the amber about the higher body of God. He clings, then, around his loins, the linen loincloth. To what end? That it may be shown that the people is, as it were, a covering of God; for against those who wish to accuse God the people stands, and as it were shields him and does not permit anything absurd to be said in matters concerning God. But when we sin, then, just as the prophet lays aside this loincloth and condemns it to the river Euphrates that it may there be destroyed, so the sinner is cast off from the loins of God and, being cast out, is cast out into the river Euphrates, the river of Mesopotamia, where the Assyrians are enemies to Israel, where the Babylonians are, and there he is destroyed. For though there are so many rivers, the prophet is sent from Judea to the river Euphrates to transact this business and to carry away a little linen loincloth.
But why also "linen"? Because it has its origin from the earth; for it is a plant springing up from the earth, then, after being cultivated, carded and washed and scoured and worked much, that it may become such as to become a loincloth or whatever else. And we too, then, all of us have our origin as the loincloth of God, and having our origin from the earth, we have need of much working, that we may be carded, that we may be washed, that we may cast off the color of the earth; for one is the color of the linen at its origin, another that which comes from the working. For the color of the linen at its origin is rather black, but from the working it becomes most brilliant. Some such thing, then, comes upon us also who are in generation. We are black at the beginning of our believing, wherefore at the beginning of the Song of Songs it is said, "I am black and beautiful." And at the beginning we resemble Ethiopians in the soul. Then we are scoured, that we may become more brilliant, according to the words, "Who is this that comes up made white?" And we become "brilliant and clean linen"; then also we are woven into the loincloth of God, when we are worthy to cling to God. God does not lay us aside. He laid aside the first people, "the whole house of Judah" and "the house of Israel." It came to be no longer used; for he no longer girds himself with them. In their place God girded himself with us; for he did not, having cast off the loincloth, remain naked, but wove for himself another loincloth. This loincloth is the Church that is from the nations; and let it know that "if God did not spare the former ones, how much more will he not spare it either when it sins," unless it be worthy of the loins of God; "but he that clings to the Lord is one spirit" in Christ Jesus, to whom is the glory and the might unto the ages. Amen.