Lest certain persons should perhaps in silent thought reproach me, that I presume to examine the so profound mysteries of the prophet Ezekiel, mysteries untouched by the great expositors, let them acknowledge in what mind I do this. For I undertake this not out of rashness, but out of lowliness. For I know that very often I have understood many things in the sacred discourse, which I could not understand alone, when placed in the midst of my brethren. From which understanding I have also studied to understand this too, that I might know by whose merit understanding was given to me; for it is plain that this is given to me on account of those to whom it is given through my being present.
From which it comes about, God granting it, that both understanding grows and pride diminishes, while for your sake I learn that which I teach among you; because (I confess the truth) very often I hear together with you what I speak. Whatever therefore in this prophet I shall have understood too little, is of my own blindness; but if I shall have been able rightly to understand anything, it is of the divine gift and of your reverence. But often, through the grace of the almighty Lord, certain things in His discourse are better understood when the word of God is read more secretly, and the mind, conscious of its own faults, while it recognizes what it has heard, is smitten with the dart of grief and pierced with the sword of compunction, so that nothing pleases it but to weep and to wash away the stains of its sins with flowing tears.
Among which things it is also sometimes caught up to the contemplation of loftier realities, and in the desire of them is tormented with a sweet weeping. The soul grieves that it is here, where it still lies prostrate through its infirmity, and that it is not yet there where, illumined, it may vigorously flourish and no longer draw back the eye of the mind to the darkness of mortality. Hence therefore, hence is kindled ardor in the mind, and from ardor arises mourning; and because it cannot yet cleave to heavenly things, wearied by its own fervor, it rests in tears. But it is one thing when the matter concerns the advancement of a single person, and another when it concerns the edification of many. Those things, therefore, are to be set forth, God granting it, in the discourse of teaching, which compose the life and morals of the hearers.
Now therefore, whatever in the words of the prophet may edify us toward the zeal of good action, let us pursue it, as we have begun. EZEK. XL, 4. — «Son of man, see with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears.» When one is led to the testimony of spiritual things, what is it that, when it is said «See with the eyes,» there is added «thine,» and when it is subjoined «hear with the ears,» there is joined «thine»? But it must be known that the eyes and ears of the body are present also to carnal men, and are theirs by the use of things that are seen bodily. But the eyes and ears of the heart belong only to spiritual men, who see invisible things through the understanding, and hear the praise of God without sound. These ears the almighty Lord was seeking, when He said: «He that hath ears to hear, let him hear» (Luke VIII, 8).
For who could there be then in that people, who did not have the ears of the body? But when it is said: «He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,» it is openly shown that He was seeking those ears which all could not have. Let it therefore be said: «Son of man, see with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears.» In the earlier part of our discourses we have already said why the prophet, as often as he is led to see spiritual things, is called son of man. But lest this have slipped from the memory, I briefly repeat it: because by this appellation he is ever reminded what he is out of his infirmity, lest he be exalted by the greatness of contemplation.
And it is to be noted that it is a different thing to say «See with thine eyes, hear with thine ears,» and yet that he is called son of man. But by these words what else is openly said to him, unless: «Behold spiritual things spiritually, and yet remember thy carnal infirmities»? Hence it is also that very often he who is caught up more in contemplation, it happens that he is the more wearied in temptation; as is wont often to happen to certain persons who make good progress, whose mind, while either compunction affects it, or contemplation seizes it above itself, straightway also temptation follows, lest he be exalted concerning those things to which he has been caught up.
For by compunction or contemplation he is lifted up to God, but by the weight of his temptation he is beaten back to himself; so that temptation may weigh him down, lest contemplation puff him up; and again contemplation may lift him up, lest temptation drown him. For if contemplation should so raise him up that temptation were utterly wanting, the mind would fall into pride. And if temptation should so press him that contemplation did not lift him up, he would fall fully into fault. But by a wondrous dispensation, the soul is balanced in a certain mean, so that it neither be proud in good things nor fall in evil ones. Whence also, through blessed Job, it is said of the Lord: «And He weigheth the waters by measure» (Job XXVIII, 25).
For to weigh the waters by measure for God is to keep the sense of souls in humility between prosperity and adversity, between gifts and temptations, between the highest and the lowest things. Thus Elijah had brought down fire from heaven, had bound up the waters from heaven, and yet, terrified by the fear of a single woman, was fleeing through the deserts (3 Kings XVIII, 38; XVII, 1; XIX, 3). An angel appears to him as he flees, offers him food, foretells because a long journey remains, and yet does not shake the fear from his heart (3 Kings XIX, 4, 8); because in the mind of the prophet there was a great guardian of fortitude — that very infirmity of fear. There follows (v. 4): «Set thy heart upon all the things which I shall show thee, for thou art brought hither that they might be shown to thee. Declare all the things which thou seest to the house of Israel.»
«Set thy heart.» As if it were said: Consider. «For thou art brought hither that they might be shown to thee, and declare all the things which thou seest.» That is: therefore art thou brought that thou mayest see, and therefore thou seest that thou mayest declare; because whoever profits by seeing spiritual things, it behooves that he impart these also to others by speaking. He indeed sees that he may declare, who, in that wherein he profits within himself, takes care also to preach concerning the advancement of his neighbor. Whence also elsewhere it is written: «He that heareth, let him say, Come» (Rev. XXII, 17). For to whomsoever the voice of the calling God is now made in the heart, it is necessary that it break forth in voice to his neighbors through the office of preaching; and therefore let him call another, because he himself has already been called. Whence also the bridegroom in the Song of Songs speaks, saying:
«Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the friends hearken; make me hear thy voice» (Cant. VIII, 13). For in gardens holy Church dwells, in gardens dwells every soul which is now filled with the greenness of hope and the charity of good works. For dry is the hope of this world, since all things that are loved here wither with haste; and Peter the apostle admonishes us to hasten, saying: unto «an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away» (1 Pet. I, 4).
«Thou that dwellest in the gardens... make me hear thy voice.» She therefore who now dwells in the gardens, it behooves that she make the bridegroom hear her voice, that is, that she send forth the song of good preaching, in which He whom she desires may delight, because «the friends hearken» — namely, all the elect, who, that they may revive unto the heavenly homeland, desire to hear the words of life. But now let the prophet open to us those things which he sees. There follows (v. 5): «And behold a wall on the outside round about the house on every side.» Very often in the sacred discourse the Lord Himself incarnate is wont to be called a wall, from the defense of His protection, just as it is said of holy Church through the prophet: «A wall and a bulwark shall be set in it» (Isai. XXVI, 1). For He Himself is a wall to us, who surrounds us by guarding us on every side.
But the bulwark of our wall were all the prophets, who, before the Lord appeared in the flesh, were sent to prophesy for the building up of faith. In holy Church, therefore, the Lord is set as a wall to us, and His prophets as a bulwark, because to us, whom He Himself perfectly protects, the words of the prophets also came for the construction of faith. Whence also the wall is fittingly placed first, and the bulwark afterward, because we who are called from among the Gentiles, unless we had first come to know the Lord, would by no means have received the sayings of His prophets. And it is to be noted that this wall of the spiritual building is said to be on the outside. For a wall which is constructed for the fortification of a building is wont to be placed not within, but without.
What need, then, was there that it should be said «on the outside,» since a wall is never wont to be placed within? Because it is necessary that, being placed without, it may defend the things which are within. But in this word what is openly shown, unless the Lord's incarnation itself? For as a wall God is within us, but as a wall God-man is without. Whence it is said to Him through a certain prophet: «Thou wentest forth for the salvation of Thy people, that Thou mightest save Thine anointed» (Habak. III, 13). For this incarnate wall, namely the Lord, would not be a wall to us, if He had not been on the outside, because He would not protect us within, if He did not appear without. But neither is this to be passed over carelessly, that the same wall is said to be set round about the house on every side.
For the house of God is not only the holy angels, of whom the Psalmist says: «Lord, I have loved the beauty of Thy house, and the place of the tabernacle of Thy glory» (Ps. XXV, 8), but we too are it, whose minds He deigns to inhabit. And this wall is on every side round about the house, because the Only-Begotten of the Father, who above is the strength of the angels, He Himself below was made the redemption of men: there a fortitude lest they fall, here to us a help that we may rise after our fall. But if by the house of God in this place is signified only the multitude of redeemed men, on every side and round about the Lord is a wall to us, because, that He might perfectly guard us, He showed all the things which He taught, as it is written: «which Jesus began to do and to teach» (Acts I, 1).
For because He came to call us to the heavenly homeland, He assuredly taught us to despise transitory goods and not to fear temporal evils. Whence He also did not despise reproaches, endured injuries, did not fear death, did not flee the gibbet of the cross; and when they would have seized Him and made Him king, He straightway fled (John VI, 15); intimating to us by these examples nothing else than that we ought both not to dread the adversities of this world and to shun its prosperities — because His goods very often occupy the mind more than His evils disturb it. Before His Passion He heard insults, and yet returned not insults; He long bore His betrayer in silence, and did not refuse to give a kiss to him who feignedly greeted Him; He took upon Himself death, that we might not fear to die;
He showed forth the resurrection, that we might believe that we can rise again. After His Passion also He called to the grace of faith those who had crucified Him, and returned a gift for their iniquity. He therefore who by His own example instructed us concerning all things, was made a wall to us round about and on every side. There follows (Ibid.): «And in the hand of the man a reed of measure of six cubits and a handbreadth.» In the past reading (Hom. above, n. 14) we have already said that by the reed sacred Scripture is signified. Which reed is said to be of measure, because in it we measure every action of our life, that we may see, namely, either how much we are advancing, or how far distant we are from advancement. For often, doing something, we already believe ourselves to be of some merit;
but when we return to the words of God and hear the sublime precepts, there we recognize how much we fall short of perfection. The reed, therefore, is of measure, because by the hand of those who write, the life of the hearers is measured. Which reed is said to be in the hand of the man, either because the sacred discourse is in the power of the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, or certainly because that which He willed to be written He fulfilled by doing it. But the same reed is described to be of six cubits and a handbreadth. For there are two lives, in which the almighty God instructs His own through the sacred discourse, namely the active and the contemplative. And by the six cubits what else is expressed than the active life? because on the sixth day God perfected all His works (Gen. II, 2).
But the handbreadth, which is said to be above the six cubits, is already of the seventh, and yet is not a cubit. The active life, therefore, is signified by the six cubits, the contemplative by the handbreadth, because the former we perfect by work, but of the latter, even when we strive after it, we are scarcely able to attain some little. For the active life is: to give bread to the hungry, to teach the word of wisdom to him who knows it not, to correct the erring, to recall the proud neighbor to the way of humility, to take care of the sick, to dispense to each what is expedient for them, and to provide for those committed to us how they may be able to subsist.
But the contemplative life is indeed to retain with the whole mind the charity of God and of one's neighbor, but to rest from outward action, to cleave to the sole desire of the Creator, so that it now delights to do nothing, but, all cares being trodden underfoot, the mind burns to see the face of its Creator; so that it now knows how to bear with sorrow the weight of the corruptible flesh, and with all its desires longs to be present at those hymn-singing choirs of angels, to be mingled with the heavenly citizens, to rejoice in eternal incorruption in the sight of God. In the handbreadth, therefore, the hand and the fingers are stretched out.
But somewhat of the measure of the cubit is touched by the handbreadth, because however much the mind may burn with love, however much it may have stretched itself toward God with virtue of thought, it does not yet perfectly see that which it loves, but is still only beginning to see that which it loves; because, as the most mighty preacher says: «We see now through a glass in a riddle, but then face to face» (1 Cor. XIII, 12). And: «Now I know in part, but then I shall know even as I am known» (Ibid.). Of the seventh cubit, therefore, we touch the handbreadth, because, placed in this life, we taste only the beginnings of inmost contemplation. For the active life, because it can be perfectly held, and on the sixth day man was created (Gen. I, 27), who ought to work good things, the reed has six cubits.
Well did two women rightly signify these two lives, namely Martha and Mary (Luke X, 40): of whom the one was busied about frequent ministry, but the other sat at the feet of the Lord and heard the words from His mouth. And when Martha complained against her sister that she neglected to help her, the Lord answered, saying: «Martha, thou art busied and troubled about many things; but one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her» (Ibid. 41, 42). Behold, the part of Martha is not reproved, but that of Mary is praised. For He does not say that Mary chose a good part, but the best, so that even the part of Martha might be shown to be good. But why the part of Mary is the best, is subjoined when it is said: «which shall not be taken away from her.»
For the active life fails with the body. For who in the eternal homeland shall reach out bread to the hungry, where no one hungers? Who shall give drink to the thirsty, where no one thirsts? Who shall bury the dead, where no one dies? With the present world, therefore, the active life is taken away; but the contemplative is here begun, that it may be perfected in the heavenly homeland, because the fire of love which here begins to burn, when it shall have seen Him whom it loves, will blaze the more in love of Him. The contemplative life, therefore, is by no means taken away, because, the light of the present world being withdrawn, it is perfected. These two lives also, as has been said before us (by Augustine, Bk. XXII against Faustus, cc. 54, 55), the two wives of blessed Jacob signified, namely Leah and Rachel (Gen. XXIX, 16).
For Leah is interpreted «laborious,» but Rachel «a sheep,» or «the beginning seen.» But the active life is laborious, because it sweats in work; the contemplative, however, in simplicity pants after seeing the sole Beginning — namely, Him who says: «I am the Beginning, who also speak to you» (John VIII, 25). But blessed Jacob had indeed desired Rachel, yet in the night received Leah; because, namely, everyone who is converted to the Lord desires the contemplative life, longs for the rest of the eternal homeland; but first it is necessary that in the night of the present life he work the good things which he can, and sweat in labor — that is, receive Leah — that afterward he may rest in the embraces of Rachel, unto the seeing of the Beginning.
But Rachel was seeing, but barren; Leah, however, blear-eyed, but fruitful; Rachel beautiful and unfruitful, because the contemplative life is comely in the soul, but while it desires to rest in silence, it begets no sons by preaching. It sees and does not bring forth, because while it loves the pursuit of its own rest, it kindles itself less in the gathering of others; and as much as it beholds inwardly, it does not suffice to open it to others by preaching. But Leah is blear-eyed and fruitful, because the active life, while it is occupied in work, sees less, but while now by word, now by example, it kindles its neighbors to its own imitation, it begets many sons in good work.
And if it cannot stretch the mind in contemplation, yet from that which it does outwardly, it is able to beget followers. Rightly, therefore, in the measure of the reed, first the six cubits, and afterward the handbreadth, is spoken; because first the active life is exercised, that afterward one may come to the contemplative. But it must be known that just as the good order of living is that from the active one should tend to the contemplative, so very often the mind is usefully bent back from the contemplative to the active, so that, by that which contemplation has kindled in the mind, the active may be held the more perfectly. The active life ought therefore to send us on to the contemplative, and yet sometimes, from that which we have inwardly beheld in mind, it may better recall us from the contemplative to the active.
Hence it was that this same Jacob, after the embraces of Rachel, returned to Leah, because even after the vision of the Beginning the laborious life of good work is not to be utterly forsaken. 12. Now in the contemplative life there is a great straining of the mind, when it lifts itself up to heavenly things, when it stretches its spirit toward spiritual matters, when it strives to pass beyond all that is seen bodily, when it constrains itself that it may be enlarged. And sometimes indeed it prevails, and overcomes the resisting darkness of its own blindness, so as to touch by stealth and faintly something of the uncircumscribed Light; yet at once, beaten back, it returns to itself, and from that light, to which by aspiring it had passed over, it sinks back with sighing to the darkness of its own blindness.
This the sacred history well signifies, which relates that blessed Jacob wrestled with an angel. For when he was returning to his own kindred, he met on the way an angel, with whom he had a great contest in that wrestling (Genesis XXXII, 24). For he who strives in wrestling sometimes finds himself the stronger, and sometimes finds the one with whom he contended to be the weaker. The angel therefore signifies the Lord, and Jacob, who contends with the angel, expresses the soul of every perfect man set in contemplation. This soul, namely, when it strives to contemplate God, being set as it were in a certain struggle, at one moment as it were prevails, because by understanding and perceiving it tastes something of the uncircumscribed Light;
but at another moment it succumbs, because in tasting it again fails. The angel therefore is, as it were, conquered, when God is apprehended by the inmost understanding. 13. But it is to be noted that this same conquered angel touched the sinew of Jacob's thigh, and made it wither at once, and from that time Jacob limped upon one foot; because, namely, when almighty God is now known through desire and understanding, He dries up in us every pleasure of the flesh. And we who before, as though leaning upon two feet, seemed both to seek God and to hold fast the world, after the recognition of God's sweetness have one foot left sound in us, while the other limps; because it is necessary that, the love of the world being weakened, the love of God alone should grow strong in us.
If therefore we hold fast the angel, we limp upon one foot; because while the strength of inmost love grows in us, the strength of the flesh is without doubt weakened. For everyone who limps upon one foot leans only upon that foot which he keeps sound; because he whose earthly desire has already been dried up, supports himself with all his strength upon the single foot of the love of God. And he stands upon it, because the foot of the love of the world, which he was wont to set upon the ground, he now carries lifted up from the earth. And we too, therefore, if we return to our own kindred, that is, to our spiritual fathers, let us hold fast the angel on the way, that by inmost sweetness we may lay hold of God.
For the sweetness of the contemplative life is exceedingly lovely, which carries the soul away above itself, opens heavenly things, shows that earthly things are to be despised, and lays bare spiritual things to the eyes of the beholder, while it hides bodily things. Whence the Church well says in the Song of Songs: I sleep, and my heart waketh (Canticles V, 2). For to the waking heart it sleeps, because, in that it advances inwardly in contemplating, it rests from restless outward work. 14. But amid these things it must be known that, so long as one lives in this mortal flesh, no one so advances in the power of contemplation as to fix the eyes of the mind upon that very uncircumscribed ray of light.
For almighty God is not yet beheld in His own brightness, but the soul contemplates something beneath that brightness, whereby, being refreshed, it makes progress, and afterwards attains to the glory of His vision. For thus Isaiah, when he confessed that he had seen the Lord, saying: In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, at once added: And the things that were beneath Him filled the temple (Isaiah VI, 1). When Uzziah, the proud and presumptuous king, dies, the Lord is seen; because when the pride of this world is slain from the desire of the mind, then the mind itself contemplates the glory of God. And it is to be noted that the Lord sits upon a throne high and lifted up.
For what is His throne but the angelic or human creature, over which He presides through the understanding which He gave? And this throne is called high and lifted up, because both human nature advances, raised up to heavenly glory, and the angelic creature, since it is now made firm in heaven that it may not fall, many spirits having fallen, is thereby lifted up from that whence it was also confirmed. But His temple is the same as His throne, because the Eternal One dwells there where He sits. We therefore are His temple, in whose minds He deigns to dwell. But the things that were beneath Him filled the temple, because whatever is now beheld of Him is not yet Himself, but is beneath Himself. Thus Jacob saw an angel, and confesses that he saw the Lord (Genesis
XXXII, 30), because when we behold His ministries, it is already much that we are raised above ourselves. But it is to be noted that it says: They filled the temple; for although an angel appears, yet he satisfies the desire of the weak mind, so that if it cannot yet attain what is greater, it may nevertheless already marvel at the lesser which it sees. The things therefore that are beneath Him fill the temple, because, as has been said, even when the mind has made progress in contemplation, it contemplates not yet what He Himself is, but that which is beneath Himself. In which contemplation, namely, the taste of inward rest is already touched. And because this is, as it were, a certain part of it, and cannot now be perfect, it is rightly written in the Apocalypse: There was made silence in heaven, as it were for half an hour (Apocalypse VIII, 1).
For heaven is the soul of the just man, as the Lord says through the prophet: Heaven is my throne (Isaiah LXVI, 1). And, The heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm XVIII, 1). When therefore the rest of the contemplative life is exercised in the mind, silence is made in heaven, because the din of earthly deeds is stilled from the thought, so that the soul may apply its ear to the inmost secret.
But because this rest of the mind cannot be perfect in this life, the silence made in heaven is by no means called a whole hour, but as it were half an hour; so that not even this half hour is fully felt, since the word "as it were" is prefixed; because as soon as the soul begins to lift itself up and to be flooded with the light of inmost rest, the din of thoughts returning all too quickly, it is confounded within itself, and being confounded is blinded. The contemplative life therefore, which is there called as it were half an hour, is in the prophet Ezekiel called not a cubit, but a hand-breadth. Behold, dearest brethren, while we desire to set forth the reasons of each life, we have spoken somewhat too widely by digression.
But to good minds, to whom each of these lives is lovely to be practiced, it ought not to be burdensome to hear. There follows: IBID. — And he measured the breadth of the building with one reed, the height also with one reed. 15. Almighty God, who is neither stretched by great things nor straitened by the least, thus speaks of the whole Church at once as though He were speaking of a single soul. And often what is said by Him of one soul, nothing hinders it from being understood of the whole Church at once. The breadth therefore of the building pertains to charity, of which the Psalmist says: Thy commandment is exceeding broad (Psalm CXVIII, 96). For nothing is broader than to receive all in the bosom of love, and to endure no straitness of hatred.
For charity is so broad that in the amplitude of its love it can embrace even enemies. Whence also it is enjoined: Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you (Luke VI, 27). It is also to be considered by us that breadth is extended in equality, but height in loftiness. Breadth therefore pertains to the charity of the neighbor, height to the understanding of the Creator. But the breadth and the height of the building are measured with one reed, because, namely, each soul, as far as it has been broad in the love of the neighbor, so far also will it be high in the knowledge of God. For while it dilates itself alongside through love, it exalts itself higher through knowledge;
and it becomes as lofty above itself as it extends itself alongside into the love of the neighbor. And because the building which God inhabits is perfected of the angelic and human nature at once, by this—that the angelic creature is above, and the human still below—both these creatures can be signified by the breadth and the height of the building, because the one still dwells in the lowest, but the other remains in the sublime. But both are measured with one reed, because the humility of men is at some time brought to equality with the angels. Whence it is written: They shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be as the angels of God in heaven (Matthew XXII, 30). And whence it is said through John: The measure of a man, which is that of an angel (Apocalypse
XXI, 17); because man is brought to that height of glory in which the angels rejoice to be made firm. The breadth therefore of the building is as great as the height, because whichever of the elect now labor in the lowest places shall at some time not be unequal to those most blessed spirits. But let us amid these things return to the mind, and with all the marrow of our heart love God and neighbor. Let us be enlarged in the affection of charity, that we may be exalted in the glory of loftiness. Let us have compassion through love on the neighbor, that we may be joined through knowledge to God. Let us condescend to the least brethren on earth, that we may be made equal to the angels in heaven; because the man who signs the Redeemer by his image measures the breadth of the building with one reed, the height also with one reed.
Now therefore He measures our manners, weighs our works, considers our thoughts, that afterwards without end He may render recompense—Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten of the Father, who lives and reigns with Him in the unity of the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.