1. Certain men, reading the writings of the sacred utterance, when they penetrate its more sublime sentences, are wont with a swollen mind to despise the lesser commandments which are given to the weaker, and to wish to change them into another meaning. But if they rightly understood the high things in it, they would not hold the least commandments in contempt, because the divine precepts so speak in certain things to the great, that nevertheless in certain things they suit the little ones, who by increments of understanding grow, as it were, by certain steps of the mind, and come to understand greater things. Whence now it is said to the holy prophet: (Ezek. 3:1) 'Son of man, whatsoever thou findest, eat.'
For whatever is found in Sacred Scripture must be eaten, because both its small things compose the simple life, and its great things build up subtle understanding. There follows: (v. 1) 'Eat this volume, and go, speak to the children of Israel. And I opened my mouth, and he fed me with that volume.' 3. Sacred Scripture is our food and drink. Whence also the Lord threatens through another prophet: 'I will send a famine into the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the Lord' (Amos 8:11). He, then, who says that we are worn down by hunger and thirst when his utterance is withdrawn, shows that his words are both our food and our drink. But it must be noted that they are sometimes food, sometimes drink.
For in more obscure matters, which cannot be understood unless they are expounded, Sacred Scripture is food, because whatever is expounded that it may be understood is, as it were, chewed that it may be swallowed. But in more open matters it is drink, for we swallow drink without chewing. The more open commandments, then, we drink, because we are able to understand even things not expounded. But because the prophet Ezekiel was about to hear many obscure and perplexing things, it is by no means said to him of the sacred volume, 'drink,' but 'eat.' As if it were openly said: Consider thoroughly and understand—that is, first chew, and then swallow.
But in the words of the sacred utterance this order of our study ought to be kept, that we come to know these things to this end: that, pricked with compunction over our iniquity, recognizing the evils we have done, we may avoid doing others. 4. And when now, from the great practice of tears, confidence concerning the remission of our sins has begun to arise, let us through the words of God which we understand draw others too to life. For to this end they are to be understood: that they may both profit us, and with spiritual intention be conferred upon others. Whence well it is now said: 'Eat this volume, and go, speak to the children of Israel.' As if it were said to him of the sacred food: Eat and feed, be filled and give forth, receive and scatter, be strengthened and labor. 5. And it must be noted that the prophet adds, saying:
And I opened my mouth, and he fed me with that scroll. That the mouth is in the heart another Prophet testifies, saying: Deceitful lips in the heart, and with the heart have they spoken evil (Ps. XI, 3). We therefore open the mouth when we prepare our understanding for the meaning of the sacred word. And so at the voice of the Lord the prophet opens his mouth, because at the inbreathing of the Lord's precept the desires of our heart gape open, that they may take something from the food of life. Yet this very taking is not of our own strength, unless he himself feeds us who commanded that he be eaten. For he is fed who cannot eat by himself.
And because our weakness is not fit to grasp heavenly words, he himself feeds us, who dispenses to us in due season a measure of wheat, so that in the sacred word, while today we understand what yesterday we did not know, tomorrow also we may comprehend what today we do not know, and thus by the grace of the divine dispensation we are nourished with daily food. For Almighty God, as it were, stretches out his hand to the mouth of our heart as often as he opens up understanding to us and puts the food of the sacred utterance into our senses. He therefore feeds us with the scroll when, by his dispensing, he opens up to us the meaning of Holy Scripture and fills our thoughts with its sweetness. Whence it is also added: VERSE 5. — And he said to me:
Son of man, your belly shall eat, and your bowels shall be filled with this scroll which I give you. In the old translation it does not read, Your belly shall eat, but, Your mouth shall eat, and your bowels shall be filled. For our mouth eats when we read the word of God; but our bowels are filled when we understand and keep those things over which we labor in reading. In the later translation, however, which we believe to be the truer, it is written: Your belly shall eat, and your bowels shall be filled. Now in the sacred utterance the belly is sometimes wont to be put for the mind. Whence through Jeremiah it is said: My belly, my belly, I am in pain (Jer. IV, 19). And because he had said this of the spiritual and not the bodily belly, he added:
The senses of my heart are troubled (ibid.). For it would not have pertained to the salvation of the people if the prophet had proclaimed that he was grieved in his bodily belly. But he grieved in the belly who felt the affliction of his mind. Yet why do we bring forward the example of the prophet, when we have a plainer testimony of the Lord? And it is necessary that when Truth speaks through his very self, the prophet should be silent, for the lamp has no brightness in the sun. For he says: He that believes in me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water (John VII, 38). For because from the mind of the faithful holy preachings flow down, as it were from the belly of believers rivers of living water run forth.
But what else are the bowels of the belly than the inward things of the mind, that is, right intention, holy desire, humble will toward God, devout will toward one's neighbor? Whence now it is rightly said: Your belly shall eat, and your bowels shall be filled; because when our mind has received the nourishment of truth, our inward parts no longer remain empty, but are satisfied with the food of life. Let us weigh, my dearest brethren, how loving is this promise, in which it is said: Your belly shall eat, and your bowels shall be filled with this scroll which I give you. For many read, and yet are hungry from that very reading. Many hear the voice of preaching, but after the voice they depart empty.
Whose belly, though it eats, yet their bowels are not filled; for although in mind they perceive the understanding of the sacred word, yet by forgetting and by not keeping what they have heard, they do not store these things in the bowels of the heart. For hence it is that through another prophet the Lord rebukes certain men, saying: Set your hearts upon your ways. You have sown much, and brought in little; you have eaten, and are not filled; you have drunk, and are not inebriated (Hag. I, 6). He sows much in his heart but brings in little, who through reading or even through hearing comes to know many things of the heavenly commandments, but by working negligently bears little fruit. He eats and is not filled, who, hearing the words of God, covets the gains or the glory of the world.
But he is well said not to be filled, because he hears one thing and hungers after another. He drinks and is not inebriated, who inclines his ear to the voice of preaching, but does not change his mind. For through drunkenness the senses of drinkers are wont to be changed. He therefore who is devoted to knowing the word of God, but desires to obtain the things of this world, drinks and is not inebriated. For if he were inebriated, without doubt he would have changed his mind, so that he would no longer seek earthly things, and would no longer love the vain and transitory things he had loved. For of the elect it is said through the Psalmist: They shall be inebriated with the plenty of your house (Ps. XXXV, 9). Because they are so filled with the love of Almighty God that, their mind being changed, they seem to be strangers to their very selves, fulfilling what is written:
Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself (Matt. XVI, 24). He denies himself who is changed for the better, and begins to be what he was not, and ceases to be what he was. But we often see certain persons, at the voice of preaching, as though pricked to conversion, having changed their habit and not their soul, so that they took on the religious garb, yet did not trample their former vices; being savagely driven by the goads of anger, growing hot with the pain of malice unto the harm of a neighbor, being proud before human eyes because of certain goods displayed, greedily seeking the gains of the present world, and having confidence of holiness from the mere outward habit which they assumed.
To whom what else is to be said, except that which the excellent master speaks to certain who keep the outward things of the law, saying: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature (Gal. V, 6; VI, 15)? For it is not of great merit if anything be done concerning us outwardly in the body, but it is greatly to be weighed what is done in the mind. For to despise the present world, not to love the transitory, to prostrate the mind inwardly in humility before God and neighbor, to keep patience against injuries inflicted, and, patience being kept, to drive away from the heart the pain of malice, to bestow one's own upon the needy, by no means to covet what belongs to another, to love a friend in God, and
for God's sake to love those who are enemies, to mourn over the affliction of a neighbor, not to exult over the death of one who is an enemy — this is the new creature, which the same teacher of the Gentiles seeks with a watchful eye among other disciples, saying: If then any be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away; behold, all things are made new (2 Cor. V, 17). For to the old man it belongs to seek the present world, to love the transitory out of concupiscence, to lift up the mind in pride, not to have patience, out of the pain of malice to think upon the harm of a neighbor, not to give one's own to the needy, and to seek what belongs to others in order to multiply it, to love no one purely for God's sake,
to render enmities for enmities, to rejoice over the affliction of a neighbor — all these belong to the old man, which indeed we draw from the root of corruption. But he who now surmounts these things, and changes his mind into kindness toward the Lord's precepts, of him it is rightly said: For the old things are passed away, behold, all things are made new. Then therefore new things are made in our minds, when the vices of the old man pass away from us; and then the vices of the old man pass away, when the belly eats the precept of the sacred word, and the bowels are filled to the marrow.
For often we have seen certain persons devote themselves with their whole mind to the study of holy reading, and, amid the Lord's words recognizing in how many things they had offended, slay themselves in tears, be afflicted with continual sorrow, take delight in none of the prosperities of this world, so that to them the present life became a burden and the very light became loathsome; scarcely admitting to common conversation, and difficultly relaxing their soul from the rigor of discipline, rejoicing, for love of the Creator, only in mourning and silence. Their belly ate the sacred scroll, and their bowels were filled, because the precepts of life which their understanding could grasp their memory did not lose, but the soul gathered up in God kept these ever by mourning and by recalling. 12.
And it very often happens that all such persons, from the gift of heavenly grace, receive also the word of teaching, so that the food of interior life which they themselves sweetly ruminate within, they also gently feed to their neighbors. From whose mouth indeed preaching is so much the sweeter to the hearers, the more their action is not contrary to their preachings, because from their own life they take what through the tongue they confer upon their neighbors. Whence rightly here also the prophet subjoins: IBID. — And I ate it, and it became in my mouth as sweet as honey. The book which filled the bowels became sweet in the mouth as honey, because those know how to speak sweetly of the Almighty Lord who have learned truly to love him in the bowels of their heart.
For in his mouth Holy Scripture is sweet whose life's bowels are filled with its commandments, because it is pleasant for him to speak of which has been inwardly impressed upon him for living. For the discourse has no sweetness which a reprobate life gnaws within the conscience. Whence it is necessary that he who speaks the word of God should first take care how he lives, so that afterward he may gather from his life what things and in what manner he is to say. For to preach, the conscience of holy love builds up more than the exercise of speech, because by loving heavenly things the preacher reads within himself how he may persuade that earthly things ought to be despised.
For he who inwardly weighs his own life, and by his example outwardly builds up others by admonishing them, dips, as it were, the pen of the tongue in the heart, in that which by the hand of the word he outwardly writes for his neighbors. Whence the admirable preacher, when he had said many things to his disciples by exhorting, because within himself he suffered no contrariety from his conscience, securely added: If there be any virtue, if any praise of discipline, think on these things; which you have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, these do, and the God of peace shall be with you (Phil. IV, 8, 9). There follows: VERSE 4. — And he said to me: Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and you shall speak my words to them.
In that which the Lord says to the prophet, You shall speak my words to them, what else does he do than impose upon his mouth a bridle of governance, that he presume not to say outwardly what he has not first heard within? For the false prophets spoke their own and not God's words, of whom it is written: Do not hear the words of the prophets that prophesy to you, and deceive you; they speak the vision of their own heart, not out of the mouth of the Lord (Jer. XXIII, 16). And again: I did not speak to them, and they prophesied (ibid., 21). From which it is also to be gathered that whatever expositor, in the explanation of the sacred utterance, composes something by lying in order perhaps to please his hearers, speaks his own and not the Lord's words, if indeed he lies out of zeal to please or to seduce.
For if, seeking the power in the Lord's words, he himself understands otherwise than he through whom they were uttered, even if under another understanding he seeks the buildings-up of charity, they are the Lord's words that he says, because for this alone God speaks to us through the whole of Sacred Scripture, that he may draw us to the love of himself and of a neighbor. There follows: VERSES 5-7. — For you are not sent to a people of deep speech and unknown tongue, to the house of Israel; nor to many peoples of deep speech and unknown tongue whose words you could not hear. And if you were sent to them, they would hear you. But the house of Israel will not hear you, because they will not hear me.
In the very beginning of the command by which the prophet is sent to preach, the vocation of the Gentiles and the repulsion of the Israelites is openly designated for him. For when it is said: You are not sent to many peoples of deep speech and unknown tongue whose words you could not hear, and immediately it is subjoined: And if you were sent to them, they would hear you, the obedience of the Gentiles is openly declared, which at some time was to follow the voices of the preachers without delay. And when it is subjoined: But the house of Israel will not hear you, because they will not hear me, the hardness of Judea is designated, which both knew and would not follow the words of the preachers. But the unknown tongue of the Gentiles made no delay in obeying, although it was foreign to the utterance of the law. And it is well said:
They will not hear you, because they will not hear me, according to that which is written: He that despises you, despises me (Luke X, 16). The cause also why they do not hear is subjoined, when it is said: VERSE 7. — For all the house of Israel are of a hard forehead and a hard heart. When the house of Israel is declared to be of a worn (i.e. brazen) forehead, what else is to be perceived or thought, except that frequent guilt wears away the forehead of the heart in shamelessness, so that the more often it is committed, the less does the soul of the one committing it blush?
And therefore the sinner sometimes comes to such hardness of heart that he is no longer sensible under correction, because he who has grown hard by the habit of sinning in no way feels the word of the corrector, that is, the hand of one who touches, just as to Judea also, sinning ever more frequently, it is said: You have had the forehead of a harlot woman, you refused to blush (Jer. III, 3). Or certainly the forehead is worn that is accustomed to the deeds of this world, because just as there are some who prefer quiet to all the rewards and honors of the world, so there are some who, in order to seem to be something earthly in this world, sweat over labors, insist on lawsuits, mingle in quarrels.
And although they feel that they fail in body amid labors, yet overcome by love of earthly things, they are wearied with delight. To whom it is said through the prophet: Ephraim is a heifer taught to love treading out the grain (Hos. X, 11). For she, accustomed to treading in the threshing-floor, even if she is released from labor, returns of her own accord. So to certain depraved minds nothing is more laborious than if it be commanded them not to labor in the arts of this world. For often certain persons, driven back from earthly action, beseech that they may return, ask to be pressed, and count it a grave peril they have incurred that they are quiet. They are therefore of a worn forehead who not only do not flee labors, but do not even blush to seem out of place when the labors are denied them. There follows: VERSE 8.
— Behold, I have made your face stronger than their faces, and your forehead harder than their foreheads. Just as modesty is praiseworthy in what is evil, so it is reprehensible in what is good. For to blush at evil is of wisdom, but to blush at good is of foolishness. Whence it is written: There is a shame that brings sin, and there is a shame that brings glory (Sir. IV, 25). For he who blushes by repenting of the evils he has done, comes to the liberty of life. But he who blushes to do good, falls from the state of rectitude, and tends toward damnation, as is said through the Redeemer: He who is ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his majesty (Luke IX, 26).
And there are some who already conceive good things in mind, but do not yet openly contradict evils. These indeed, because they are good in mind, but have no authority in speech, are unfit for the defense of truth. For he ought to be the defender of truth who neither fears nor blushes to speak what he rightly perceives. Whence to the prophet it is now promised as a great gift: Behold, I have made your face stronger than their faces, and your forehead harder than their foreheads. But what is the sinner, except one wounded? And what the preacher, except a physician? If therefore the sinner who lies in his wound does not blush, why should the physician blush who by remedies provides health? But it often happens that the preacher is reverently heard;
but sometimes he is so despised by the perverse, as if he spoke nothing of use to them. Whence rightly now it is said: VERSE 9. — I have made your face as an adamant and as a flint. Adamant and flint are both hard; but one of them is precious, the other cheap. Adamant is taken for ornament, flint is trodden by travelers. And it often happens that those whom we behold hearing their correction too humbly, we are shy to say certain things to. But sometimes it comes about that those whom we see set aside their rebuke and hold it in contempt, we are afraid to bring the word of preaching to.
But if we are rightly wise, both toward those by whom we behold ourselves honored, and toward those by whom we see ourselves despised, we take up the authority of exhortation or of rebuke, so that we neither ought to blush at the humility of the former, nor to dread the pride of the latter. Let it therefore be said: I have made your face as an adamant, that is, if you are honored by your hearers; I have made your face as a flint, if you are trampled and despised by your hearers, so that neither by the honor bestowed may the tongue be reined in through modesty, nor through contempt may it be silent through weakness. There follows: IBID. — Do not fear them, neither be dismayed at their faces, for they are a provoking house.
This has already been said above. But it is to be noted how harsh a house is held to be, whose harshness is so frequently repeated. The sinner therefore is to be rebuked, and never to be feared, because they are a provoking house. For man ought to have been feared, if he himself had feared the Author of all as a man ought. For he who has not had the sense of reason unto the fear of God, is by so much in nothing to be feared, by how much he is not what he ought to have been. There follows: VERSES 10, 11. — And he said to me: Son of man, all my words which I speak to you, receive in your heart, and hear with your ears; and go, enter to the transmigration of the children of your people. Watchfully must it be observed that by the voice of the Lord it is said to the prophet that he should first hear his words, and afterward speak. For we hear the words
of God, if we do them. And then we rightly speak them to our neighbors, when we ourselves have first done them. This the evangelist Mark well confirms, when he narrates a miracle done by the Lord, saying: They bring to him one deaf and dumb, and they beseech him that he would lay his hand upon him (Mark VII, 32). Whose order of cure he intimates, adding: He put his fingers into his ears, and spitting he touched his tongue, and looking up to heaven he groaned, and said to him: Ephphetha, which is, Be opened. And immediately his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke rightly (ibid., 33 ff.). For what is it that God the Creator of all, when he wished to heal one deaf and dumb, put his fingers into his ears, and spitting touched his tongue?
What by the fingers of the Redeemer, except the gifts of the Holy Spirit, are designated? Whence, when in another place he had cast out a demon, he said: If by the finger of God I cast out demons, surely the kingdom of God is come upon you (Luke XI, 20). Concerning which matter it is described that he said through another evangelist: If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then the kingdom of God is come upon you (Matt. XII, 28). From both which places it is gathered that the finger of God is called the Spirit. To put the fingers therefore into the ears, is by the gifts of the Holy Spirit to open the mind of the deaf to obeying. But what is it that spitting he touched his tongue? Saliva is to us the wisdom received from the mouth of the Redeemer in divine utterance. For saliva flows down from the head into the mouth.
That wisdom therefore which he himself is, when our tongue is touched by it, is soon formed into the words of preaching. Who looking up to heaven groaned; not because he himself needed a groan, who gave what he asked, but he taught us to groan toward him who presides over heaven, so that both our ears may be opened through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the tongue may be loosed by the saliva of the mouth, that is, by the knowledge of divine discourse, unto the words of preaching. To whom soon it is said, Ephphetha, that is, Be opened; and immediately his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed. In which matter it is to be noted that on account of the closed ears it was said, Be opened.
But to whomever the ears of the heart have been opened unto obeying, from what follows without doubt the string of his tongue also is loosed, so that the good things which he himself has done he may speak as also to be done by others. There too it is well added: And he spoke rightly. For he speaks rightly who first by obeying has done those things which by speaking he admonishes are to be done. But as to the prophet's being sent to admonish the transmigration of the people, not only that transmigration is to be understood which was of that people in body, but also that which had been made in mind. For he had come from Jerusalem to Babylon. And what is Jerusalem but the vision of peace, what is Babylon but confusion?
But whoever falls from right works into perverse deeds, since he flows down from a good pursuit to vices, comes as it were from Jerusalem to the city of Babylon. For he has forsaken the height of good contemplation, and lies in the transmigration of confusion. This is wont often to happen to those who, when they do good things, glory in these of their own virtue. Whence the Psalmist, that he might not migrate captive from the vision of peace, that is, from good actions, to Babylon, supplicating the Lord, says: My helper, I shall not migrate (Ps. LXI, 7). For if he had trusted in himself, by falling from the works of justice he would have migrated.
But neither are those to be despaired of who have fallen from the state of rectitude into a depraved action, because behold, the prophet is sent to the transmigration of Babylon. And through another prophet the Lord says: And you shall come even to Babylon, and there you shall be delivered (Micah IV, 10). For often one, after he has fallen into the confusion of vices, blushing at the evils he has committed, returns to penitence, and by living well raises himself from his lapses. What then is this, but that he came even to Babylon, and there was delivered? He who, after being confused in mind he had committed perverse things, blushing at these very evils he had done, raises himself up against himself, and by working well returns to the state of rectitude.
In Babylon therefore is he delivered, who by divine grace is shown to be saved even out of confusion. The prophet therefore speaks to the transmigration, when he rebukes those who by transmigrating from the state of rectitude have fallen into the vices of error. There follows: VERSE 11. — And you shall speak to them, and shall say: Thus says the Lord God: if perhaps they will hear, and be still. That so often the difficulty of hearing is repeated by the divine voices, so that it is said, If perhaps they will hear, what else than the hardness of the transmigrated people is designated?
In which words there is great consolation for us, because if Almighty God, sending the prophet, declares that his words are hardly heard by a perverse people, why do we wretched ones grow sad, when often by our brethren we are despised in our admonition? For frequently we address the offenders, often we rebuke them, often we deal with them in gentle words, and yet if one hears, another disdains to hear: one in part receives the word of exhortation, and in part refuses to receive it; so that daily we may see fulfilled that which through another prophet the Lord narrates of what he did in anger, when he says: I rained upon one city, and upon another I did not rain.