{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4743","native_reference":{"book_number":330,"chapter_from":1,"chapter_to":1,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":14,"verse_to":14},"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>: There follows: And the living creatures went and returned in the likeness of flashing lightning.</p><p>Since it was said above, \"They did not turn back when they walked,\" for what reason is it now said, \"The living creatures went and returned\"? These statements seem very much contrary to each other, because they went and did not return, and they went and returned. But we recognize more quickly how this should be understood if we carefully distinguish the two lives, namely the active and the contemplative. For we can remain fixed in the one, but we are by no means able to hold the mind attentive in the other. For when we leave behind our sluggishness and rouse ourselves to the pursuit of good work, where else do we go but to the active life? From which we should by no means turn back afterward, because whoever returns after it to the sluggishness of negligence, to the wickednesses of depravity which he had left behind, undoubtedly does not know how to be a heavenly creature. But when we rise from the active life to the contemplative, because the mind cannot long stand in contemplation, but sees everything that it perceives of eternity through a mirror and in an enigma, as if furtively and in passing, the soul, repelled by its own weakness from the immensity of such great loftiness, slips back into itself. And it is necessary that it return to the active life and exercise itself continually in the practice of good work, so that when the mind cannot rise to contemplate heavenly things, it may not refuse to do whatever good things it can. And so it happens that, aided by its own good actions, it rises again to contemplation toward higher things and receives the nourishment of love from the pasture of contemplated truth. And because the weakness of corruption itself cannot hold itself long in this, returning again to good works, it is fed by the memory of God's sweetness, and is nourished outwardly by pious acts and inwardly by holy desires. For hence it is said of perfect men returning after their contemplation: \"They shall pour forth the memory of your sweetness.\" For they strive always to pour forth the sweetness of intimate delight, which they can somehow touch by foretasting as if from a flash of light, by recalling and speaking of its memory. Hence the Psalmist also aptly admonishes us, saying: \"Light has risen for the righteous, and gladness for the upright of heart. Rejoice, you righteous, in the Lord, and confess to the memory of his holiness.\" He says again: \"How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord!\" Which indeed he would by no means have known how great it was unless he had somehow tasted it by contemplating. Hence he says again: \"I said in my ecstasy, I am cast out from the sight of your eyes.\" For unless he had been raised up in an excess of mind and known the sweetness of eternal delight, while still held in this world he would not discern how far cast out he lay. Therefore the living creatures shown go and do not return, and they go and return; because holy men both do not fall from the active life which they have grasped into iniquities, and they slip back from the contemplative life, which they cannot hold continuously, into the active. For as was said, overcome by the very weight of their weakness, repelled back to themselves they return, so that by going they may learn what to desire, and by returning they may know where they lie. By going they may understand where they are not yet; by returning, what they are.</p><p>But how these holy creatures return is demonstrated when it is added: \"In the likeness of flashing lightning.\" Now the returning creatures are fittingly compared to flashing lightning, because when holy men soar upward to contemplate heavenly things, when they bind the firstfruits of their spirit in love of the heavenly homeland, but weighed down by the burden of human interaction they return to themselves, they proclaim to their brethren the heavenly goods which they were able to contemplate at least through a mirror, and they kindle their souls with love of that inner brightness, which they are able neither to see as it is nor to speak of as they saw it. Yet speaking, they strike and set fire to the hearts of their hearers with their words. Therefore they return like flashing lightning, who, when they speak of heavenly things, because through them the light from above flashes forth, inflame the minds of their hearers with love of the heavenly homeland. Thus in the manner of flashing lightning, when they strike by speaking, they scatter the fire of spiritual desire.</p><p>The holy creatures also go and return in another way. For they go when they are sent forth in preaching to instill the grace of heavenly gift, and they perform miracles before unbelievers so as to draw them to faith; but they return, because, attributing these things to the power of the Almighty Lord, they do not ascribe to themselves what they have done. For when they perform wondrous deeds, they are lightning, because they shake the hearts of those who behold, terrify, illuminate, and kindle them. Hence it is written: \"Your arrows will go forth in the light, in the splendor of the lightning of your weapons.\" The Lord's arrows are the words of the Saints, which strike the hearts of sinners. But these arrows have armor. You know, brethren, that fighting men hurl arrows, but they are protected by armor. Therefore when they add miracles to their words, they fortify themselves as if with armor, lest they themselves be struck: \"Your arrows will go forth in the light,\" because the words of God go out openly. But because the deeds of miracles ought to accompany the teachings of holy doctors, it is rightly added: \"In the splendor of the lightning of your weapons,\" because when you add to them the armor of miracles, they flash lightning upon the minds of persecutors, so that they do not presume to persecute them. And so these creatures go and return in the likeness of flashing lightning, because after the saints perform miracles among men, after they kindle the hearts of hearers with scattered light, they return to give glory to their Author, so that they may render praise to Him through whom they know themselves able to do such things.</p><p>Thus Peter, when he had healed the man who had been lame from his mother's womb and performed a sign at which all who recognized it greatly marveled, said: \"Why do you marvel at this, or why do you gaze at us, as though by our own power or might we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Son Jesus.\" And a little later: \"Through faith in His name, this man whom you see and know, His name has strengthened.\" Indeed, performing the sign, he struck the eyes of the onlookers with the light of the miracle; but preserving humility and returning praise to the Author, he went back, as it were, to where he had come from, because the flash of lightning shows where it originated. And so the holy living creatures, when they come to perform signs and when they return inwardly within themselves to render glory to their Author, are lightning, because both by displaying miracles and by offering examples of humility, they strike and set ablaze the minds of those who behold them.</p><p>In all that they do, they always return to the praise of the Creator for this reason: that they may persist with true stability in the virtue they have received. For if they attributed anything to themselves, they could not stand in that which they had received. Hence it is also well said through Solomon: \"To the place from which the rivers go out, they shall return, that they may flow again.\" For whether in virtues or in teaching, what else are holy men but rivers that water the dry land of carnal hearts? But whether in the work they do or in the words of their teaching, they would quickly dry up if they did not always carefully return through the intention of the heart to the place from which they go out. For if they do not return inwardly to the heart and bind themselves with the chains of desires in the love of the Creator, both the hand fails from what it was doing and the tongue dries up from what it was speaking. But inwardly they always return through love, and what they pour forth in public by working and speaking, they draw in secret from the fountain of love. For by loving they learn what they bring forth by teaching. Therefore the rivers return to the place from which they go out, that they may flow again, because they always draw the water of wisdom from the source where it rises, lest when it has run it be dried up. Through all that we do, therefore, let us return with a careful mind to the fountain of true light. Let us give thanks to our Creator for the good things we receive, and let us humbly say to him with the prophet Isaiah: \"All our works you have worked for us.\" For our good works are the works of him whose heart it did not suffice to raise us up unless he also bowed down himself for us. For if God, coeternal with the Father before the ages, had not become man in time, when would temporal man have tasted eternal things? Therefore the descent of truth became the ascent of our humility. Let us give him glory, let us give him praise, who lives with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, through all ages of ages. Amen.<br/><i>— Homilies on Ezekiel, Book 1, Homily 5</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: But the burning coals and the lamps running among the animals are interpreted from that place of Isaiah: And the fire shall eat the flesh as the grass, and I will sanctify them in the burning fire (Isaiah 5:24). And it is written elsewhere: Burning coals shall fall upon them (Psalms 140:11). And against deceitful lips, it is said in another psalm: 'What shall be given to you, or what shall be added to you, to a deceitful tongue? Sharp arrows of the powerful, with coals of desolation.' (Psalms 119:3-4). And in another place: 'You have coals of fire, you shall sit upon them, they shall be to you for help.' (Isaiah 47:14). Whatever creature we behold, it reflects the knowledge of God, as the Creator is recognized through his creatures. And from the midst of living beings comes the splendor of fire and lightning. For if you study the Gospels, amidst the letters and humble history, you will discover the sacraments of the Holy Spirit.<br/><i>— Commentary on Ezekiel</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"858375593f5cc9ca3ea94776d8586917e241709a74189b27cc201ba460eec096","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4743,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"7f820cee2a11ec5c135aaaeb82f1c0fbd1319c3867016b3817b9b24897c88cb2","translator":null,"work":null}