Homilies on Isaiah — Homily 4 (Isaiah 6:1–7 — the Seraphim; head-lemma lost)
Latin source: Origen's Greek homilies on Isaiah, surviving only in Jerome's Latin translation (c. 380/381), from the reading text of W. A. Baehrens (ed.), Origenes Werke VIII (GCS 33, Leipzig, 1925), pp. 242–289. This English translation is released into the public domain.* * * * *
1. It is impossible to find the beginning of God. The beginning of God's movement you can nowhere grasp—not you, I say, and not anyone else, nor any other of the things that have subsistence. The Savior alone and the Holy Spirit, who have always been with God, see His "face"; and perhaps also the "angels", who "continually see the face of the Father who is in heaven", see also the beginnings of His works. And so too before men "the Seraphim hide their feet"; for the "last things", such as they are, cannot be recounted. "Who has announced concerning the last things?" says the Scripture. The things that we see—granting even that we do see something—are the middle things. What existed before the world we do not know; yet certain things did exist before the world. What is to follow after the world we do not apprehend for certain; yet other things will be after the world. Those things, therefore, that are written—"in the beginning God made heaven and earth. But the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss; and the Spirit of God was borne over the waters"—these are apprehended; those "waters", over which the "Spirit of God" brooded, belonged to the world. But also the "darkness", which "was over the abyss", is not unbegotten; for both were created out of nothing. Hear God saying in Isaiah: "I am God, who framed light and made darkness". Hear wisdom proclaiming in Proverbs: "before all the abysses I was born". These were not unbegotten; but when or how they were born, I do not know. For by the "Seraphim" are "veiled" the first of God's works, that is, the "face of God"; and likewise also the "feet". The things that after the last age are to be for ages of ages, who can expound? It belongs to garrulous men to promise knowledge of these things—men who do not know that a human being can grasp only those things that are the middle things. And the things that after the world, up to the consummation, are to be in the judgment—concerning the punishments, concerning the recompense—of these too many things are hidden from us. This is because of what is written: "with two they veiled the face". But not only did they "veil", they also "covered over", that is, "veiled", so that neither might even a little of the first things be seen—I mean of the "face"—nor might even a little of the "last things" be recognized, that is, of His "feet". "And with two they were flying". The middle things are laid open for contemplation. "And they cried out one to another", not "one" to many, but "one to another". For to hear the holiness of God, which is announced by the Savior, according to the dignity of the matter no one can except the Holy Spirit; just as, in turn, to indwell the sanctity of God, which is announced by the Holy Spirit, no one can except the Savior alone. On this account "they cried out one to another and said: Holy, Holy, Holy!" It does not suffice for them to cry ‘Holy!’ once, nor twice, but they take up the perfect number of the Trinity, that they may manifest the multitude of the holiness of God, which is the repeated commonalty of a threefold holiness; to the holiness of the Father is joined the holiness of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. "For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one". He who "sanctifies" is the Savior, according to this—that as a man He receives holiness from God the Father. And so they say: "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Sabaoth!". And "Sabaoth" is interpreted, as Aquila has handed down, the Lord of armies.
2. "The whole earth is full of His glory". Once the "house" was full of "glory", but now to those who are upon the "earth" it is prophesied by the Seraphim that it shall come to pass that Christ will fill "the whole earth" with the "glory" of God. For in all who by their manner of life glorify God, there is "His glory", and thus "the whole earth is full of the glory" of God. Once "the whole earth was" not "full of the glory" of God, but one corner of the earth, when it was said: "God is known in Judea, in Israel His name is great". Glory be to God, "who sent His Son", that "the whole earth might become full of His glory". But what does it profit you if the "earth" is "full" of the "glory" of God because of the churches of the blessed who are everywhere, but you yourself are not a partaker of the "glory" of the "fullness of God"? You too, therefore, labor and strive in all things, seeking the "glory" of God, that it may dwell and find a place also in you, and that you too may become, together with "the whole earth" in which is the "glory" of God, "full of His glory". How does the fullness of the "glory" of God come about through each one of us? If the things I do, the things I speak, are done unto the "glory" of God, then my word and my act become "full" of the "glory" of God. If both my going out and my coming in are unto the "glory" of God, if my food, if my drink, if "all" that I do "is done unto the glory of God", then I too am a partaker of this saying: "the earth is full of His glory". When therefore I have done all these things, "the lintel was lifted up by the voice with which they cried out". It is a blessed thing, then, for each one of us so to labor that he may become a partaker of the door and of the "lintel" of the door, which is according to the understanding of Christ God. For it is not, I think, unseemly to say that the flesh is called the door and the Word the "lintel".
3. "The lintel was lifted up by the voice with which they cried out, and the house was filled with smoke", with that good "smoke" from the "glory" of God. "And I said: O wretched me, for I am pricked with compunction!". Before you "see the vision", do you not confess yourself to be "wretched", O Isaiah? He does not say: so long as "Uzziah" lived did it never come into my mind that I was "wretched"; for I begin to know that I am "wretched" when I "see the vision", when "Uzziah the leprous king" is "dying" for me, and I say: "O wretched me!"? Now I too begin to confess to the Lord and to say of my very self: "O wretched me!", as Isaiah says: "O wretched me!". And close to this the Apostle too says: "wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?". It is a blessed thing, then, that I should confess myself "wretched". If I humble myself and, repenting, weep over my sins, God will hear me and give me a deliverer, and I say: "thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!". In truth let us say from the heart: "wretched me". Let each one call to mind the causes of his miseries and his offenses, and let us say, rising to prayer, mindful indeed as though confessing, but forgetful as though no longer committing them, and let us say: "wretched me, for I am pricked with compunction!". He is not "pricked with compunction" before he "saw the vision", before "Uzziah died"; when he begins to do penance, at once he says: "for I am pricked with compunction". If anyone is without feeling "in respect of the inner man", though he be a sinner, he is not "pricked with compunction"; but just as, though you apply a goad to the outer members, the dead body does not feel it, in the same way also, even if you apply the divine words to a sinner who has been put to death through sin and does not do penance, he is neither sorrowful nor repentant, nor has he "the sorrow that works confession, the sorrow that is according to God". But if anyone wishes to be saved and hears the words of one reproving and correcting him, at once he says: "O wretched me". Nor does it suffice to say: "wretched me"; there must be added to it: "because I am pricked with compunction". And would that he might be "pricked with compunction" yet more! For the more we are "pricked with compunction", the more the bonds of our sins are loosed from us. On this account that Ahab gained no great profit, because he was not much "pricked with compunction", but he was indeed "pricked with compunction", yet only once. For which reason it was said: "have you seen how Ahab has been pricked with compunction!" But if anyone be such that he does not cease to be "pricked with compunction", he says likewise as the Apostle: "I am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God", and: "to me, the least of all the saints, this grace was given", and: "faithful is God, for Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the first". Do you see that he was much "pricked with compunction", not once but always—that in writing and speaking and acting he was "pricked with compunction"? As also Isaiah in the present passage, who says: "O wretched me, for I am pricked with compunction, because, since I am a man and have unclean lips, I dwell also in the midst of a people that has unclean lips". Note also another thing: that the sins of Isaiah were not also in deeds, but only in words; for which reason he says: "because, since I am a man and have unclean lips". But there was also "a people having unclean lips"; it did not befit him to accuse the "people" and to say that there were more sins in it than of "unclean lips".
4. "And I saw with my eyes the King, the Lord of Sabaoth". If ever we have thought about God while we are still sinners, we too say what the prophet now says: "and one of the Seraphim was sent to me". How good is God! Because, He says, I hear Isaiah confessing—for he said: "O wretched me!"—because I hear him repenting—for he says: "I am pricked with compunction"—because he has declared his own offenses, saying: "since I am a man and have unclean lips, I dwell also in the midst of a people having unclean lips", I too, "while he is yet speaking, say: behold, I am present". "And one of the Seraphim was sent to me, and in his hand he had a coal". A "coal" is brought to the prophet, that through the burning of fire his "lips" might be purged, which had at some time sinned. Who is this "one of the Seraphim"? My Lord Jesus Christ: He, according to the dispensation of the flesh, was sent, having in His hand a "coal" and saying: "I came to send fire upon the earth, and would that it were already kindled!"
5. "And one of the Seraphim was sent to me, and in his hand he had a coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar". Not by just any "fire" simply and by chance is the prophet purged, but by that which is "from the altar" of God. If you have not been purged by the "fire" of the "altar", there remains for you that fire of which it was said: "depart from me into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels". Not such is the "fire" that is "from the altar". All are to be delivered to the "fire", but not all to one "fire": some the "fire" "from the altar" awaits, others "that" which "is prepared for the devil and his angels". Let the reproving word, therefore, touch the "lips" of our mind and soul, that we too may say: "and it touched my mouth". If I shall have cleansed "my mouth", so that I speak nothing idle, nothing foolish, nothing base, nothing scurrilous—to name them all at once—nothing of those things that are forbidden, then I can say: "it touched my mouth". But so long as I "have unclean lips" and carry on unclean affairs, because of the words of sin "the fire from the altar does not touch me", nor "is one of the Seraphim sent to me".
6. "And He said: behold, this has touched your lips, and it has taken away your iniquities, and has purged your sins round about". Let the divine word bite us, let it burn up our souls, and let us say as we hear: "was not our heart burning within us?", that "our iniquities and sins may be taken away", and that, made clean, with clean mouth and clean heart and a whole clean conscience, we may give thanks to almighty God in Christ Jesus, "to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen!"