Homilies on Leviticus — Homily 10 (Lev. 16 (continued) — the fast of the Day of Atonement; the scapegoat)
Latin source: Origen's Greek homilies on Leviticus, surviving only in Rufinus of Aquileia's Latin translation (c. 403–405), from the reading text of W. A. Baehrens (ed.), Origenes Werke VI (GCS 29, Leipzig, 1920), pp. 280–507. This English translation is released into the public domain.On the fast that takes place on the Day of Atonement, and on the goat that is "sent away into the wilderness."
1. We indeed, who are of the Church, rightly receive Moses and read his writings, understanding this about him: that he is a prophet, and that, by God's revealing to him, he wrote down in symbols and figures and allegorical forms the mysteries to come, which we teach to have been fulfilled in their own time. But whoever does not receive in him a meaning of this kind, whether he be one of the Jews or even one of our own, cannot show him to be a prophet at all; for how will he prove him a prophet, whose letters he asserts to be commonplace, aware of nothing future and containing no hidden mystery? And so, as this man who thinks in this way reads these things, the divine word rebukes him and says: "Do you suppose you understand what you read?" There is, then, the law, and all the things that are in the law, according to the Apostle's judgment, "imposed until the time of correction"; and just as those whose craft it is to make figures out of bronze and to cast statues, before they produce the true work of bronze or of silver or of gold, first form a model of clay after the likeness of the image to come — which model is indeed necessary, but only until the principal work is completed; and when that work has been finished for the sake of which the model of clay had been formed, its use is no longer sought — something of this sort understand also in those things which were either written or done "in a type" and figure of things to come in the law and the prophets. For the very craftsman and author of all things came, and transferred "the law, which had the shadow of the good things to come," to "the very image of the realities." But lest perhaps the things we say seem hard to be proved to you, examine them one by one. Formerly there was Jerusalem, that great royal city, where a most famous temple had been built to God. But after he came who was the true temple of God and said of the temple of his body, "Destroy this temple," and who began to open the mysteries of the "heavenly Jerusalem": that earthly one was destroyed, where the "heavenly" one appeared, and in that temple there did not remain "stone upon stone," from the time that the flesh of Christ became the true temple of God. Formerly there was a high priest purifying the people "with the blood of bulls and goats"; but from the time the true high priest came, who by his own blood should sanctify believers, that former high priest is nowhere, nor has any place been left to him. Formerly there was an altar, and sacrifices were celebrated; but when the true lamb came, who "offered himself as a victim to God," all those things, as set in place for a time, ceased. Does it not then seem to you that, according to the figure which we set forth above, they were as it were forms fashioned out of clay, through which the images of the truth were expressed? And so, finally, the divine dispensation took care that both the city itself and the temple and all those things should alike be overthrown; lest perhaps one still "a little one and a suckling in the faith," if he saw those things standing firm, while he gazes astonished at the rite of the sacrifices and the order of the ministrations, should be carried away by the very sight of the diverse forms. But God, providing for our weakness and willing to multiply his Church, caused all those things to be overthrown and utterly removed, so that, without any hesitation, once those had ceased, we might believe these to be true, for which the type had gone before in those.
2. Hence now some things must also be said by us to those who think that, according to the command of the law, the fast of the Jews too must be fasted by them; and first of all I will use the words of Paul, who says that, if anyone wishes to keep some one thing of the observances of the law, "he is bound to perform the whole law." Whoever therefore observes these fasts, let him also go up "three times in the year" to Jerusalem, that "he may appear before the temple of the Lord," that he may present himself to the priest; let him seek out the altar, which has been turned to dust; let him offer victims with no high priest standing by. For it is written that the people, fasting, should offer "two goats" as a sacrifice, over which lots must be cast, so that one of these should become "the Lord's lot" and be offered as a victim to the Lord, but of the other the lot should be that it be sent away "alive into the wilderness," the one that also has upon itself the sins of the people. All these things you must fulfill accordingly, you who wish to observe the fast according to the precept of the law; concerning which things a discussion was indeed made by us, as far as we could, in the earlier debate. Yet since the word of God is rich and, according to the judgment of Solomon, is to be "inscribed upon the heart" not simply, but doubly and "triply," let us try even now to add some things to those which were spoken a while ago according to our strength, that we may show how, "in a type of things to come," here too one goat was offered to the Lord as a victim and the other was sent away "alive." Hear in the Gospels Pilate saying to the priests and the people of the Jews: "Which of the two do you wish that I release to you, Jesus who is called Christ, or Barabbas?" Then all the people cried out that he should release "Barabbas," but hand Jesus over to death. Behold, you have the goat which was sent away "alive into the wilderness," bearing with itself the sins of the people that cried out and said: "Crucify, crucify!" This, then, is the goat sent away "alive into the wilderness," and the other is the goat that was offered to the Lord as a victim to make propitiation for sins, and made true propitiation for the peoples who believe in him. And if you should also inquire this — who it is that led this goat "into the wilderness," so that it might be proved in him also that he was washed and made clean — Pilate himself can be taken as the "man made ready." For he was the judge of that very nation, who by his sentence sent him out "into the wilderness." But hear how he was washed and made clean. When he said to the people, "Do you wish that I release to you Jesus, who is called Christ?" and all the people had cried out, saying, "If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar," then, it says, "Pilate called for water and washed his hands before the people, saying: I am clean from the blood of this man; see you to it." So then he will be seen, with his hands washed, to have been made clean. Ours, therefore — that is, we who do not "serve the shadow and the copy," but the truth — this is the Day of Atonement for us, on which the remission of sins has been given to us, when "Christ our Passover has been sacrificed." How then, having come to know the truth, "do we turn back again to the weak and beggarly elements of this world, to which you wish to be enslaved anew from the beginning, observing days and months and seasons and years?" Hear how the prophet too rejects a fast of this kind and says: "This is not the fast I have chosen, says the Lord, nor a day for a man to humble his soul." You, if you wish to fast according to Christ and "to humble your soul," every time of the whole year lies open to you; nay rather, have all the days of your whole life "for humbling your soul," if indeed you "have learned" from the Lord our Savior "that he is meek and humble of heart." When, then, is there for you no day of humiliation, you who follow Christ, who is "humble of heart" and the master of humility? You, therefore, if you wish to fast, fast according to the precept of the Gospel, and observe in your fasts the evangelical laws, in which the Savior commands concerning fasts in this manner: "But you, if you fast, anoint your head and wash your face." And if you inquire how you should "wash your face," the Apostle Paul teaches how you may "with unveiled face behold the glory of the Lord, transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." "Anoint" also "your head," but take care that it be not with the oil of sin: for "let not the oil of the sinner make fat your head." But "anoint your head" with the oil of exultation, with the "oil of gladness," with the oil of mercy, so that, according to the command of wisdom, "mercy and faith may not forsake you." For this reason also the Apostle Paul, wishing to draw us away from these visible and earthly things and to lift up our minds and senses to the heavenly, cries out and says: "If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth." Does he not openly say to you: do not seek Jerusalem on the earth, nor the observances of the law, nor the fast of the Jews, but the fast of Christ? For, fasting, you ought to approach your high priest Christ, who assuredly is not to be sought on the earth, but in the heavens, and through him you ought to offer a victim to God. Do you wish me to show you still further what kind of fast you ought to fast? Fast from every sin, take no food of malice, partake of no feasts of pleasure, grow warm with no wine of luxury. Fast from evil deeds, abstain from evil words, hold yourself back from the worst thoughts. Do not touch the stolen loaves of perverse doctrine. Do not covet the deceitful foods of philosophy, which would seduce you from the truth. Such a fast is pleasing to God. But "to abstain from foods which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by the faithful," and to do this together with those who crucified Christ, cannot be acceptable to God. The Pharisees too were once indignant at the Lord, because his disciples did not fast. To whom he replied that: "the sons of the bridegroom cannot fast, as long as the bridegroom is with them." Let those, then, fast who have lost the bridegroom; we, having the bridegroom with us, cannot fast. Yet we do not say this in order to loosen the reins of Christian abstinence; for we have the days of Lent consecrated to fasts, we have the fourth and sixth day of the week, on which we solemnly fast. There is indeed for the Christian the liberty of fasting through all time, not by the superstition of observance, but by the virtue of self-restraint. For how is chastity kept uncorrupted among them unless it is supported by the tighter aids of self-restraint? How do they devote effort to the Scriptures, how do they apply themselves to knowledge and wisdom? Is it not through the self-restraint of the belly and the throat? How does anyone "make himself a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven," unless he cuts back the abundance of foods, unless he employs abstinence as his handmaid? This, then, is the Christian's reason for fasting. But there is still another, a religious one, whose praise is proclaimed even in the writings of certain of the Apostles. For we find in a certain little book a saying of the Apostles: "Blessed is he who also fasts for this, that he may feed the poor." This man's fast is very acceptable with God and truly worthy enough; for he imitates him "who laid down his soul for his brethren." Why, then, do we mix new garments with old rags? Why do we put new wine into old wineskins? "The old things have passed away: behold, all things have been made new," through Christ our Lord, "to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."