Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah — Homily 20
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] All the things written about God, even if they seem inappropriate on their face, must be understood to be worthy of a good God. For who will not say that it is unfitting for such things to be referred to God — that He has anger, that He employs wrath, that He repents, and indeed even that He sleeps? Yet each of these, in the judgment of one who knows how to "hear dark sayings," will be found worthy of God. For His anger is not fruitless, but as His word instructs, so also His anger instructs; for those who are not instructed by the word He instructs by anger. And it is necessary for God to make use of what is called anger, just as He makes use of what is named "word"; for neither is His word such as is the word of all others. For no one's word is a "living being," no one's word is "God," no one's word "was in the beginning" with Him with whom the Word was, even if He alone † be from some beginning. So too the anger of God is called anger, but not as is the anger of just anyone. And just as the Word of God has something foreign to it beyond every word of anyone whatsoever, and has, foreign to it, the being God, and the being a living being while being Word, the subsisting according to itself, the ministering to the Father — so, since the so-called anger of God has once been named, it too has something foreign and alien to all the anger of the one who is circumscribed. So also His wrath has something proper to it; for it is the wrath of the purpose that reproves, wishing to turn the one reproved through the reproof. The word also reproves, as the word instructs; but the word does not reprove in the way that wrath reproves. For those who are not benefited by the reproof that comes from the word will need the reproof that comes from wrath.
We were saying that there is also a certain repentance of God that on its face seems inappropriate, since it is written: "I have repented that I anointed Saul to be king." And you will inquire worthily also into the repentance, and do not suppose that His repentance has any kinship with the repentance of those who repent. For as His word had something exceptional, His anger something, His wrath something surpassing, and none of these had any kinship with the things of the same name, in the same manner also His repentance is homonymous with our repentance; and things are homonymous of which the name alone is common, but the account of the essence corresponding to the name is different. Only the name, therefore, is common to the wrath of God and the wrath of anyone whatsoever, and only the name is common to the anger of anyone whatsoever and the anger of God. So too it must be understood in the case of repentance. And whoever is able will inquire what the repentance of God accomplishes, what it accomplished. It cast down Saul, who was reigning lawlessly, and raised up as king for the people the man after God's own heart; for He said, on account of that good repentance: "I have found a man after my own heart, David the son of Jesse." But all these are for me a preamble, because the beginning of the reading from Jeremiah runs thus: "You have deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived."
[§2] For we inquire whether perhaps, as the wrath of all others is evil but that of God is reproving, and the anger of all others is grievous but that called God's is instructive, and the repentance of all of us accuses the weakness of the reasoning that preceded the repentance, whereas in the case of God His repentance does not accuse God, but the external circumstances in view of which the repentance is taken up — so too must one understand that the deception of God is also of a different kind from our deception, by which we deceive. What then is the deception on God's part, which the prophet, having understood it — when he ceased being deceived, having come to know the benefit that comes from having been deceived — utters, "You have deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived"?
And first I will make use of a Hebrew tradition, which has come to us through a certain man who fled on account of faith in Christ and because he had ascended above the Law, and who came to where we dwell. Now he used to relate something — whether an apparent fable or an account able to draw its hearers to the words "You have deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived." He used to say something of this sort: God does not act as a tyrant, but reigns as king, and reigning He does not use force, but persuades, and He wishes those under Him to offer themselves willingly to His governance, so that the good of anyone may not be by necessity, but according to his own free choice. Which Paul too, understanding, said in the Epistle to Philemon, to Philemon concerning Onesimus: "that your good may not be by necessity but by free choice." The God of the universe was therefore able to make what is reckoned good in us, so that we might of necessity give alms and of necessity be temperate, but He has not willed it. Therefore He does not command us out of grief or of necessity to do the things we do, so that what is done may be voluntary. He seeks, so to speak, a way by which someone might do willingly the things God wills. Now the tradition told me also something of this kind: He wished to send Jeremiah to prophesy to all the nations and, before all the nations, to the people. But since the prophecies had something rather gloomy in them — for they announced punishments, with which each would be punished according to his desert — and since He knew the disposition of the prophet, who did not wish to prophesy the worse things to the people of Israel, on this account He arranged to say: "Take this cup, and you shall give to drink to all the nations to whom I send you." God therefore commanded Jeremiah to take a cup, and urging him on to take the cup of the unmixed wine, He says: "and I will send you to all the nations, holding this cup of the unmixed wine." But Jeremiah, having heard that he was being sent to all the nations, that he was to minister to them a cup of anger, a cup of punishments, not suspecting that Israel too was about to drink from the cup of punishment, was deceived and took the cup to give drink to all the nations; and having taken the cup, he heard: "and you shall give to drink first the ..." Since, then, he expected one thing, but another met him, on this account he says: "You have deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived."
Similar to this account he rendered also in the case of Isaiah; for that one too, not knowing what he was about to be commanded to say to the people, hears God saying, according to what is written: "Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people?" And he, it says, answered: "Behold, here am I; send me." He hears: "Go and say to this people, 'By hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive. For the heart of this people has grown fat,'" and what follows. Since, then, not knowing what he was about to prophesy and that he was about to threaten the people, he said such things as "Behold, here am I; send me," on this account, it says, in what follows, "A voice of one saying, 'Cry out,'" he did not answer as ready to do what was commanded, but said, "What shall I cry?" For he was wary lest again he should hear, as in the case of the former prophecy, "Go and say to this people, 'By hearing you shall hear and shall not understand.'" "What," then, "shall I cry?" "All flesh is grass, and all its glory as the flower of grass," and what follows. In these things he heard nothing against Israel. These things that man told us, handing down the words "You have deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived."
[§3] But I pray that the things I receive from those who give may not merely be kept, nor that I may "bury in the earth the talent" of those who speak to me, nor "tie up in a napkin the mina" of those who teach something useful, but that I may make an increase of the lessons which I receive from the one who hands down and is able to hand down useful things. I pray to make the mina — whether of gospel or of apostle or of prophet or of law — manifold. Having heard these things, then, I was considering with myself concerning the words "You have deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived." And considering, I pray to find something true bearing on the passage. Perhaps, then, just as a father wishes to deceive a son who is still an infant, for his benefit, since he cannot be helped otherwise unless the child is deceived; as a physician contrives to deceive the sick man, who cannot be healed unless he accepts words of deception — so also the God of the universe, since He has set before Him to benefit the human race. Let the physician say to the sick man: You must be cut, you must be cauterized, you must suffer other, more grievous things — that man would not offer himself. But sometimes he says something else, and he has hidden beneath the sponge that cutting, dividing iron, and again he hides, so to name it, beneath the honey the nature of the bitter and the unpleasant drug, wishing not to harm but to heal the one being treated. With such drugs the whole of divine Scripture is filled. And some things are wholesome that are hidden, and some things are bitter that are hidden. If you see a father threatening as though he hated his son and saying fearful things to the son and not displaying his affection, but hiding his love toward the son, you will see that he wishes to deceive the infant; for it is not expedient for the son to be aware of the father's love, of the friendly disposition; for he would be enfeebled and not instructed. On this account he hides the sweetness of his affection, but shows the bitterness of the threat.
Something of this kind God does, by analogy with a father and a physician. There are certain bitter things, which heal even the most righteous and the wisest ... For everyone who has sinned must be punished for his sins. "Be not deceived, God is not mocked." "Whether fornicator or adulterer or effeminate or abuser of himself with mankind or thief or drunkard or reviler or robber, they shall not inherit the kingdom of God." If this is understood and pressed precisely by those who are unable to see the physician's iron beneath the sponge, by those who are unable to perceive the bitter drug beneath the honey, someone will lose heart. For which of us is not conscious to himself of having drunk without deliberation and become drunk? Which of us is pure from theft and from not having procured the necessities of life as he ought? But observe what the word says: "Be not deceived, for these shall not inherit the kingdom of God." The mystery pertaining to this passage must be kept hidden, so that the multitude may not lose heart, so that one may not, having learned the facts, await his departure not as rest but as punishment. Or who will be found a Paul, able to say, "For it is far better to depart and be with Christ"? My own wood must be burned in me. For I know that, if I go out, my own wood must be burned in me. And I have as wood my revilings, I have as wood my drunkennesses, as wood my thefts, and countless other pieces of wood I have built onto my building. Do you see that all these things escape the notice of the many of those who have believed, and rightly escape notice? And each of us supposes, since he has not committed idolatry, since he has not committed fornication (would that we might be pure even in such things), that upon being released from life he will be saved. Do we not see that "we must all be presented before the judgment seat of Christ, that each may receive the things done through the body according to what he did, whether good or evil"? Do we not see Him who said, "But you have I known out of all the tribes of the earth; on this account I will take vengeance upon you for all your practices" — not some but not others?
Since, therefore, the physician sometimes conceals the physician's iron beneath the soft and tender sponge, and the father too conceals his affection through the appearance of the threat, and of deceptions some remove the fatty tumors and the varicose veins and whatever else harms the constitution of the body, while this one strips away lack of instruction and slackness — such a thing the prophet has understood God to do, mystically, and, seeing the things in which he had been deceived by God for a good end, he says: "You have deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived." He led him to so great a grace, to praying and saying to God: Deceive me, if this is expedient. For one is the deception that comes from God, another the deception that comes from the serpent. Observe what the woman says to God: "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." And the deception that came from the serpent took Adam and his wife out of the paradise of God; but the deception that came upon the prophet who said, "You have deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived," led him to so great a grace of prophecy, to the increasing in him of the power, to his being perfected and being able to minister, without fearing man, to the will of the word of God. Understanding these things, then, let us also, both for the present and for the future, pray to be deceived by God. Only let not the serpent deceive us. And elsewhere something akin to this is written, since it is said in Isaiah: "For the Lord mingled for them a spirit of error." There too you will attend to what the spirit of error does when it is mingled by God. And it is well that God has not given the spirit of error unmixed, but, as the prophet named it, mingled it.
[§4] I wish to venture and to give an example of those who have been benefited by being deceived. There are some who practice chastity and purity for this reason, and others who practice single marriage for this reason, since they have expected that the one who has had marital intercourse perishes, that the one who has married twice perishes. Let us compare with ourselves what profits the woman of single marriage: to have been deceived and to suppose that the twice-married woman is punished and delivered to eternal punishment, so that she may remain of single marriage and pure; or to know the truth and marry twice? I think that, in the judgment of anyone whatsoever who sees the consequence, one can say that it was indeed more blessed to be pure and not to marry twice, without being deceived, and to see that the twice-married woman too shares in a certain salvation, though not in so great a blessedness as she would have who, though free to marry twice, kept herself pure; but if she cannot do this, it is better to have been deceived, as though the twice-married perish, and through the deception to keep herself pure, than to have known the truth and to have come to be in the lesser rank of the twice-married. Something of this kind you will find also in the case of certain who practice chastity and complete purity. And many other things too might be found that are done by us by way of deception and that benefit us. And how many who are reckoned wise, having found the truth about punishment and having gone through, as it were, the things of the deception, have come to be in a worse manner of life? It profited them to think, as they thought before, concerning "their worm shall not die" and that "their fire shall not be quenched" and that "they shall be a spectacle to all flesh" and that "the chaff shall be burned up with unquenchable fire"; but if, imagining something else contrary to their first conception, they should "come to despise the riches of God's kindness and forbearance and long-suffering," observe whether it is not truly on this account — since they did not think themselves deceived — that they "have stored up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath and revelation and righteous judgment of God," which they would not have stored up had they been deceived. These things are on account of the deception from God, since the prophet said: "You have deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived."
But let us pass on separately also to the words "I was deceived." Why did he not say only "You have deceived me, Lord," but added also "and I was deceived"? It is possible sometimes to conceive of someone working the deception, but of another who guards against being deceived and is not deceived. But when the one works the deceiving, and the other does not guard against being deceived but falls into the deception, he might say: "You have deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived." And I, coming to this passage, would say some such things as these: whatever the serpent may say to me, even if he speaks true things to me, even if he wishes to deceive me, I regard his words with suspicion, being persuaded that, whether he deceives me or speaks truly, he harms me. For even his truth harms; nothing beneficial comes from the serpent, since "an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruits." But whatever God may say to me, and I am persuaded that it is God who speaks, I am ready to offer myself. He speaks truly — I accept it; He wishes to deceive me — willingly I am deceived, let God alone deceive me. And since I offer myself, being persuaded that it is God who speaks, both to be deceived, and I do not meddle, wishing, if deceived, to be deceived not by another but by God — on this account I say that not only did You work the deceiving, but that I too have undergone being deceived by You, and in accordance with this I say, "You have deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived." And what follows upon God's being the one who deceives and man's being the one deceived? "You prevailed and were able." Then He prevails over me, if Christ, having deceived me at the beginning while I am still an infant, is also able to prevail. But if He does not prevail, then I have need of toils. "You prevailed and were able."
[§5] Next to these he says: "I became a laughingstock, all the day I continued being mocked." And upon this passage I used to hear these things: that Jeremiah came to be in the times of the most sinful men (for under him at any rate the captivity took place). And they were so sinful as to mock and laugh and scoff, whenever the prophet spoke the prophetic preamble, the "Thus says the Lord." Those who heard laughed and mocked at what was said. The one who had been deceived and benefited from being deceived guarded himself against saying "Thus says the Lord." Therefore he too, wishing to deceive with a view to being benefited from the deceiving, used to say: I speak to you my own words, since you do not hear the words of the Lord. Then those men lent their ears as to the words of Jeremiah, and heard words of God. These things the one who handed down the passage to me told me, examining the preambles and the beginnings of the prophecies. Now the beginning of the prophecy of Jeremiah is, among us, as the Seventy have handed it down — I do not know with what in view — "The word of God which came upon Jeremiah the son of Chelkias, of the priests," but in the Hebrew and the remaining editions it is "The words of Jeremiah son of Chelkias," and all agreed in saying "The words of Jeremiah son of Chelkias." Why, then, "The words of Jeremiah"? Because his preamble, in speaking to those who were unwilling to hear, was: Hear my words.
And we too sometimes do such things, whenever it appears profitable to us. Sometimes we bring forward arguments to those from among the nations, wishing to bring them to the faith, and if we see that they are prejudiced against Christianity and abominate the name and hate to hear that this word is of Christians, we do not pretend to speak a beneficial word of Christians. But when that word has been constructed by us according to our ability, and we seem to win over the hearer, who has not casually heard what was said, then we confess that this praiseworthy word was a word of Christians. And we do something similar to the one who said no longer "Thus says the Lord" but: Hear the words of me, Jeremiah. These things on account of "I became a laughingstock."
And do we too grow indignant, if ever we are laughed at while speaking, where Jeremiah, being such a man, says, "I became a laughingstock, all the day I continued being mocked"? Why do I say Jeremiah? Even my own Jesus was mocked; for "the Pharisees," it says, "being covetous, heard all these things, and mocked Him." But "the Lord mocks" all those who mock the words of God. "I became a laughingstock." Observe what sort of lives the prophets lived, at one point being laughed at, at another endangered and cast down and stoned by the people, being killed, hated, driven out; and they suffered and endured all things, that, according to the will of God, "seeking the glory that is from the Only One," preaching the word, they might attain the end that is from God. "All the day I continued being mocked." This is an accusation against those of that generation, that not even for a few days did the prophet cease being mocked, but "all the day he continued being mocked."
[§6] "Because with my bitter word I shall laugh." There is a certain laughter that is promise, of which promise the patriarch Isaac is the namesake; for he is interpreted "Laughter." And that laughter is promise is clear from the words "Blessed are those who weep now"; and the promise is "for they shall laugh." Just as it is a promise that "they shall be called sons of God," and "they shall see God," and "they shall inherit the earth," and "theirs is the kingdom of heaven," so laughter is a promise; to which promise the contrary is the weeping that is called blessed. And you will inquire whether, with this good laughter, according to one and another conception, the weeping that is called blessed sings in harmony, while there is opposed to it another weeping, laid up, over which those bewailed with the contrary woes lament. For "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep"; for one is the weeping that is called blessed, another the weeping laid up for those who have lived badly. But whether that one too has some beneficial end, I do not know. What do I say? Hear Paul. When he taught, he set himself to grieve his hearers by his speaking. And he confesses that he was then most of all gladdened, when someone was grieved by him; for he says: "And who is it that gladdens me, if not the one grieved by me?" And if anyone is competent to move the soul of a hearer, especially of one who has sinned, he prays to speak such words as, being announced from power and array and divinity and holy conceptions, will shake the soul of the hearer and move it to mourning and to weeping and to tears, so that the speaker rejoices, † when he sees the audience delighted and full because of what is said. For where he leads to promises, as "through the narrow and afflicted way of being grieved unto life," also through weeping he leads to the laughter that is called blessed. But when he does not accomplish this, I fear lest he should say such things as: "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep."
And to what purpose has this been said by me, save that, wishing to hint that he says, "with my bitter word I shall laugh," I might also set forth a laughter of weeping, and that weeping which those who laugh here shall weep — God perhaps contriving to engender weeping in them? For "there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth." And this God contrives, seeing that the one who weeps over his own sins, the one who laments over his own transgressions, has already come to a perception of his own evils. Would that each of us, at each sin, said: "I will wash my bed every night, with my tears I will drench my couch." Would that each of us said, weeping over his own sins: "My tears became bread to me by day and by night." If my word here is rather bitter — and bitter because I am afflicted on account of it — the hearers are displeased. Those who are reproved, when they are burdened at the speaker, I know that upon my bitter word the end is to laugh, and to laugh the laughter of those who are called blessed. And knowing this perhaps the prophet said: "Because with my bitter word I shall laugh"; already "a bitter word," but I do not laugh already, but "with my bitter word I shall laugh."
[§7] "Faithlessness and misery I will call upon." The righteous man calls upon God, and the unrighteous man too calls upon wisdom; for it says, "It shall be, when you call upon me, but I will not hearken to you." There it is the unrighteous; but the righteous too clearly at times call upon wisdom: "and everyone who shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." But here the prophet says, "Faithlessness and misery I will call upon," calling upon faithlessness as one calls upon God, calling upon misery as one calls upon the Lord. Is it then a good thing that you call upon, Jeremiah, when you proclaim and say, "Faithlessness and misery I will call upon"? But we must consider the compacts that we make and the breaking of them (their "faithlessnesses"), that it is possible sometimes to make compacts wrongly; and after making compacts wrongly, would that we might call upon faithlessness. And so likewise, if I consider "the broad and spacious way that leads to destruction," and that in journeying along it I am not miserable, I move away "from the broad and spacious way" and come "to the narrow and afflicted one," and being miserable I say, "Misery I will call upon." I am about to break the compacts with the world and with worldly affairs, so that I may take up heavenly compacts. "Faithlessness I will call upon." And so, having left the way of "the broad and spacious road" and coming "to the narrow and afflicted one," so that I may become miserable like Paul, I say, "Misery I will call upon." For not every man will say, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?", but he who has understood the body of death, he who wishes to be delivered from the body of this death, will say, "Wretched man that I am." But he who loves the body, the many, he who disbelieves in the age to come, does not say, "Wretched man that I am," but counts himself blessed that he is a man, and blessed at being in the body of death. If then I am able, having understood how Paul said, "Wretched man that I am," not yet having called upon misery, I will call upon it by breaking the compacts made with wickedness, and I say like Jeremiah, "Faithlessness and misery I will call upon." For he did not say, "Faithlessness toward God I will call upon."
I wish to give an example from Scripture of a righteous person who breaks compacts, in order to show how that one in deed called upon faithlessness. Judith made compacts with Holofernes, that going out for a certain number of days she would pray to God, and after so many days she would offer herself to the bed of Holofernes. These compacts Holofernes accepted. He released Judith to her prayers outside the camp. What ought Judith to have done? To keep the compacts or to break them? It is agreed that she should break them; for to break those made with Holofernes was blessed in the sight of God. Judith was about to break the compacts made with Holofernes; she was about to say, "Faithlessness I will call upon"; and indeed she did call upon faithlessness. Would that I too might become such a one, so as to say, "Faithlessness I will call upon," and I will call upon faithlessness toward the serpent, faithlessness toward the devil. The serpent once made compacts with Eve, and she was a friend to him and the serpent to the woman. But God, being good, contrived that these compacts should be dissolved and this evil friendship scattered, and as a good God he says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed." Let us then hear with a right mind how God makes enmity toward the one, in order to make friendship toward Christ; for it is impossible to be at once a friend of opposites. And just as "no one can serve two masters," so no one can be at once a friend both "of God and of mammon," a friend both of Christ and of the serpent. But it is necessary that friendship toward Christ also make enmity toward the serpent, and that friendship toward the serpent beget enmity toward Christ.
"Faithlessness and misery I will call upon." But that you may understand still better the phrase "Misery I will call upon," let me describe something that happens among the ascetics. For often, when it is open to a man to marry and to have no difficulty, when the flesh rises up against the spirit, someone chooses not to use the liberty of marrying, but to be miserable and to labor, "to buffet the body with fastings and to bring it into bondage" "by abstinence from certain foods," and in every way "to put to death the deeds of the body by the spirit." Does not such a one, then, call upon misery, when it is possible for him to give himself over to luxury and pleasure and not to call upon misery? If then anyone is able to imitate the prophet, let him also call upon faithlessness, as we have explained, and let him call upon misery in his ascetic disciplines. And it happens that the account concerning Jeremiah is also true, that he lived in chastity; for the Lord said to him, "You shall not take a wife, nor shall you beget children." And he lived in chastity; for he called upon faithlessness and misery.
[§8] "For the word of the Lord became to me a reproach." Blessed Jeremiah, having no other reproach than the word of the Lord. But we wretches have reproaches not on account of the word of the Lord, but on account of our own sins, and we are reproached for the things in which we stumble and have stumbled, and we are reviled for our vices. But the Savior does not wish us to be reproached with such reproaches, saying, "Blessed are you when they reproach you and persecute you and say every evil word against you for my sake." "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy." "The word," then, he says, "of the Lord became to me a reproach and a mockery all the day."
Then consider how the prophets are right-minded men, and do not hide their own sins as we also do, and speak not only concerning those then living, but concerning all the generations, if they have sinned. And I hesitate to confess my sins before these few here, since those who hear will be about to condemn me. But Jeremiah, having suffered something sinful, was not ashamed, but recorded his own sin; for it was a sin, what was brought in with the words, "And I said: I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak in his name." You were taught "to do all things in the name of the Lord," to act in the name of God; and yet you say, "May I not name the name of the Lord"? But what sort of name are you about to name? "The name of other gods you shall not call to remembrance in your hearts," and you say, "I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak in his name"? He speaks then having suffered something human, which we too are often in danger of having suffered. And especially if anyone is conscious that, on account of teaching and the word, he once was miserable and suffered and was hated, he often says: I withdraw; what have I to do with troubles? If from this I am even involved in troubles—from teaching, from putting forth the word—why do I not rather withdraw to the desert and to quiet? Something of this sort the prophet also suffered, saying, "And I said: I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak in his name."
But herein the Lord is good, who prevents such sins in men of such stature. He did not permit the prophet to speak truly in saying what lies before us, but in this too he made Jeremiah call upon faithlessness and break what had been said. For he said, "I will not name [any longer in his name] the name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak in his name." But he says, "It became in my heart as a burning fire, blazing in my bones, and I am utterly enfeebled and cannot bear it." The word of the Lord became a fire burning his heart. "And it became in my heart as a blazing fire, burning in my bones." He cast off the sin which he had committed in saying, "I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak in his name," and Jeremiah cast off the sin at the very moment of speaking. Would that I too, at the very moment of sinning and speaking a sinful word, might perceive that "a fire has come to be in my heart, burning and blazing, so that I cannot bear it."
The word is about to venture something, but I do not know whether it is expedient for such an audience and such a one: it has said that there is a kind of fire, a fire not perceptible to the senses, that chastises the one chastised with pain to the point of his not bearing it. For he said, "It became in my heart as a blazing fire" and "burning" not in my heart only but also "in my bones, and I am utterly enfeebled and cannot bear it." I fear lest such be what is laid up for us, becoming a fire, as it came to be in the heart of Jeremiah. But we have not suffered it. If we had suffered this, and the two fires were set before us—this fire and the outer fire which we see upon those burned by the rulers of the nations—we would choose that fire rather than this. For that fire burns the surface, but this burns the heart, and beginning from the heart it penetrates to all the bones, and penetrating to the bones it comes upon the whole of the one being burned, and it comes in such a way that the one being burned cannot bear it. Who, upon this fire, can say, "and I cannot bear it"? I know that even robbers have been able to endure this fire, the pain from this fire. Another is the pain from the fire which Jeremiah described, saying, "And it became in my heart as a burning fire, blazing in my bones, and I am utterly enfeebled and cannot bear it." That fire the Savior kindles, who said, "I came to cast fire upon the earth." And since the Savior kindles that fire, therefore for those who are beginning to hear him he begins from the fire and first casts fire upon their heart; which Simon and Cleopas confess, saying concerning his words, "Was not our heart burning within us on the way, as he opened to us the Scriptures?" Here the heart is burned with fire, both Simon's and Cleopas's. Hear them saying, "Was not our heart burning?"
Who is now worthy to receive that fire in the heart, so that he may not receive it there? I wish to describe who it is that has this fire in the heart. Describe for me two who have committed the same kind of sin, the foul and unclean fornication, and of these two who have fornicated, the one not grieving nor pained nor stung, but suffering what is said in Proverbs concerning the harlot woman, "who, whenever she has acted, washes herself and says she has done nothing amiss." But look for me at the other, who after the fall cannot contain himself, but is chastised in his conscience, tormented in his heart, unable to eat and drink, fasting not by decision but by the anguish of repentance. Describe for me such a one "the whole day going about downcast and worn down, roaring from the groaning of his heart, seeing his sin before him" continually, convicting him in his presence. And behold such a one chastised not for one day nor for one night, but for a long time. Which of the two do you prefer? Which do you say has hopes with God? Is it that one who fornicated and was not concerned, but "grew callous, having given himself over to licentiousness," or this one who after the single sin mourns and laments? This one is † of hopes. The more he is burned by the fire of grief, so much the more is he pitied, and there is for him a sufficient time of chastisement, as much as the time of chastisement given to that one who fornicated and grieved. And since there is for this one a profitable time of chastisement here, therefore he contrived to chastise the one who has fornicated, and when he had chastised him with grief and saw the grief was sufficient, he says, "Lest such a one be swallowed up with too much grief, confirm your love toward him." Let each of us examine his own conscience, and let him see what he has sinned; for he must be chastised. Let him pray to God that this fire that was in Jeremiah may come upon him, and then the one that came upon Simon and Cleopas, so that he may not be reserved for the other fire; for if he has not received the fire here but has both sinned and been unconcerned, he will be reserved for that fire.