{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4738","native_reference":{"book_number":330,"chapter_from":1,"chapter_to":1,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":9,"verse_to":9},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Gregory the Dialogist</b>: \"And they had faces and wings on four sides, and their wings were joined one to another.\" They have faces and wings in four directions, because in preaching throughout all regions of the world they demonstrate whatever they perceive concerning the humanity and whatever concerning the divinity of our Redeemer. For when they preach the incarnate God everywhere, they display their face in the four parts of the world. And when they announce that He is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, they fly everywhere with the wing of contemplation. Their wings are joined one to another, because all their virtue and all their wisdom, by which they transcend other men through the flight of their contemplation, is mutually joined together in peace and unanimity. Hence it is written: The wisdom that is from above is first indeed pure, then peaceable. Hence also Truth says to these same preachers of His: Have salt in yourselves, and have peace among you. Therefore the wing of the living creatures is joined one to another, because the virtue and wisdom of the holy preachers is mutually united together in the peace of charity and concord. But the wing of one would be divided from another if, in that by which each one soars into wisdom, he refused to have peace with another.</p><p>\"They did not turn back when they went, but each one walked straight before its face.\" The feathered creatures, namely the holy preachers, when they advance, by no means turn back, because they pass from earthly actions to spiritual things in such a way that they are in no way turned back again to those things which they left behind. For to advance is, as it were, for them to go along a certain path, always moving in mind toward better things. On the contrary, it is said of the reprobate that they turned back in heart to Egypt. And Truth says through Himself: No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. For to put one's hand to the plow is, as it were, to open up the soil of one's heart through a certain plowshare of compunction for bringing forth fruit. But he looks back after the plow who, after the beginnings of good work, returns to the evils which he left behind. Because this by no means happens to God's elect, it is rightly now said through the prophet: They did not turn back when they advanced.</p><p>He indicates why they do not turn back when he adds: \"Each one was going before its own face.\" For eternal things are before us, temporal things behind us, because we find those as we advance, and we leave these behind us as if behind our back as we depart. Hence that great winged creature who had flown to the secrets of the third heaven said: \"But one thing, forgetting what lies behind and stretching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the prize of the heavenly calling.\" For stretched forward to the things ahead, he had forgotten the things behind, because, despising temporal things, he was seeking only those which are eternal. Therefore the holy living creatures go before their own face, because they no longer look back with any desire upon the things they have left behind, and in the eternal things they seek, they place the foot of good work under the eyes of their contemplation.</p><p>Whoever, therefore, has already decided to walk before his own face must consider with great deliberation that looking back occurs in one way through deed and in another way through thought. For there are some who deliberate on great things, and, conscious of their sins, they carefully consider distributing much of what they possess to the needy, so that they may redeem their faults before God's eyes through the bowels of mercy. And they begin to do these works, but often as they are doing them, fear of poverty strikes their mind, and fearing that they may become needy themselves, they become tight-fisted toward the needy and suspend themselves from the good work they had begun. These indeed have turned back while walking, because they refused to walk before their own face. Against these it is rightly said through Solomon: \"Because of the cold, the sluggard refused to plow; therefore he will beg in summer, and it will not be given to him.\" For he who now neglects to do good works because of fear and torpor of mind, when the sun of justice shines forth in judgment as if in summer, will beg for life but will not receive it, because he scorned to do good works for its sake. Another, having despised the desires of the flesh, carefully considers leaving all things and subjecting himself to the service of almighty God, and deliberates on restraining himself under the bridle of continence and chastity; but when he sees that others have fallen even after chastity, he fears to do that very thing he had deliberated upon. And so it happens that he returns backward through thought, who, looking toward what lies ahead, was already advancing to higher things with the steps of his mind. Of such a one it is well said through Solomon: \"He who observes the wind will not sow; and he who considers the clouds will never reap.\" Indeed, by the name of wind is meant the malign spirit, who drives the mind with temptations; and by the designation of cloud is expressed the sinner, who is moved by the impulse of temptation. He who watches the wind, therefore, does not sow, and he who considers the clouds never reaps, because he who fears the temptations of the malign spirit and observes the falls of the wicked despairs of himself, and is neither exercised now in the good seed of work, nor will he afterward be refreshed by the gift of just retribution. There are, moreover, some who indeed do the good works they know, and while doing these, deliberate on better things; but reconsidering the better things they had deliberated upon, they change their minds; and indeed they do the good things they had begun, but they succumb from the better things they had deliberated upon. These indeed appear to stand in their work before human judgments, but before the eyes of almighty God they have fallen in their deliberation. Hence it often happens that even their good work pleases God less, because when the foot of the mind is inconstantly placed on the better step of deliberation, this very inconstancy of thought accuses it. But because all who are perfect observe themselves with great subtlety of discretion, lest they ever slip back to worse things either in deed or in thought, they ceaselessly consider how much they progress daily; rightly it is said of them: \"They did not turn back when they walked, but each one walked before its own face.\"<br/><i>— Homilies on Ezekiel, Book 1, Homily 3</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: (Verses 8, 9) And they had four wings, and their wings were joined one to another. They did not turn back when they walked, but each one moved forward before its face. The Gospels are joined to each other and cling together, and they fly to and fro throughout the whole world, running here and there, without end to their flight, never surpassing or receding, but always proceeding to further things. And both Paul and Virgil say: Forgetting the things that are past, and reaching forth towards those things that are still to come.<br/><i>— Commentary on Ezekiel</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"47ddb3e09cd1287dc3f1ad9b262b188ac2ff170fe9b05b873c804b248e4ae4c0","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4738,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"70c697ef519ba9b1ce0562f308dc69ecf4d3965050a315b6fa8cb44b810dbc3f","translator":null,"work":null}