Homilies on Jeremiah and 1 Kings 28

Homily 6 : Jeremiah 5.3–5

HOMILY 6 Jeremiah 5.3–5 On “Lord your eyes are toward faith,” up to, “I will go to the strong and I will speak to them.” ord, he says, your eyes are toward faith.1 As the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,2 for from unrighteous things he turns them, so the eyes of the Lord are toward faith, for he turns them away from unbelief. Thus it has been well stated, by one who understands, what he says in the prayer: Lord, your eyes are toward faith. (2) Here then it is written: Lord, your eyes are toward faith. But since, if someone of understanding hears a wise saying, he will praise it and add to it,3 let us see how much there is to make from the statement: Lord, your eyes are toward faith. Paul says, But now these three remain, faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.4 As eyes of the Lord are toward faith, eyes of the Lord are toward hope, eyes of the Lord are toward love. But since he is the spirit of power and of love and of self-control,5 just as eyes of the Lord are toward love, so eyes of the Lord are toward power, so it is that eyes of the Lord are toward self-control 6 .l.l.leyes of the Lord are on righteousness,7 so it is that eyes of the 62 1. Jer 5.3. 2. Ps 33(34).16. 3. Sir 21.15. 4. 1 Cor 13.13. 5. 2 Tim 1.7. 6. After “self-control,” Klostermann believes there is missing text, something , he believes, such as this: “. . . but since there is also a ‘righteousness from faith,’ (Rom 10.6), as the ‘eyes’ of the Lord are ‘toward faith’ [or on the righteous ]l.l.l.lso it is that.l.l.l.” While Nautin is silent, see Schadel’s discussion, 267, n. 63. 7. Ps 33.16. HOMILY 6 63 Lord are on all virtues. If therefore you want to anticipate the rays of the spiritual eyes of God on you, take up virtues, and just as there will be the text, Lord, your eyes are toward faith, so also, Lord, your eyes are toward each of the goods which you may acquire. And if you are of such greatness that the eyes of the Lord shine on you, you will say, The light of your countenance was impressed upon us, O Lord.8 2. Then let us note what is said concerning sinners: You have whipped them, but they did not suffer.9 Those perceivable whips, when applied to the living body, whether those whipped want them or not, cause pain in them. But the whips of God are of a kind that some of those whipped suffer pain, but others who are whipped do not. (2) Let us see if we can determine what it means to suffer pain and not to suffer pain from the whips of God, and why those with evil natures are those who do not suffer pain from the whips of God, but blessed are those who do suffer pain from the whips of God. For Wisdom says, Who will place whips on my thoughts and seals of prudence on my lips so that they may not spare me in my errors, and my sins will not pass me by? 10 Note especially the passage, Who will place whips on my thoughts? Thus there are whips to whip the thought. The whips of God whip the thought. For the11 Word, by guiding the soul to a perception12 of how it has sinned, whips it. But he whips the blessed man who suffers pain from the whips, for the words reach him and he does not complain about the one who reproves him. But when someone is found, let us say, without sensitivity it will be said about him: You have whipped them, but they did not suffer. Though the same word is said reprovingly to touch, so to speak, the thoughts of one who has “defiled the conscience”13 by some sin, if one person who hears does suffer pain from that word so that it is said about him, you have seen that such a man was moved deeply,14 and another 8. Ps 4.7(6). 9. Jer 5.3. 10. Sir 23.2, 22.27. 11. “The,” I have added. 12. “Perception...