Homilies on the Psalms — Homily 23 — Psalm 77 (LXX; MT 78), Homily VI: vv. 38–43 (God's compassion)
Greek source: Origen's homilies on the Psalms, preserved in a single manuscript (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. graec. 314, 12th century), from the reading text of L. Perrone et al. (eds.), Die neuen Psalmenhomilien. Eine kritische Edition des Codex Monacensis Graecus 314, Origenes Werke XIII (GCS NF 19; Berlin, 2015), pp. 420–432. Psalms are numbered as in the Septuagint. This English translation is released into the public domain.Tome 2, on the 77th Psalm, Homily 6
1. It is by deeds rather than by words that it becomes plain that God "is the compassionate one". For who, considering the world, and especially the affairs upon earth and the many sins among human beings, does not marvel at the patience and kindness of God? He bears with so many and such great offenses and does not use his power against human beings. For, "judging" as he does "little by little, room" he gives "for repentance". And who, considering the things dispensed in each generation, does not see the compassions of God when he sent the prophets to those who were sinning, and by sending them turned back those who were stumbling? And who, seeing that even in the times of what is thought to be wrath and punishment he calls to repentance, does not marvel at the compassion of God? For never has he used his wrath unmixed against human beings. For instance, he resolved to bring a flood, since "all flesh had corrupted the way of God upon the earth". But having willed to bring the flood, in the five hundredth year he began to proclaim that the flood would come, and he taught Noah and made him build the ark for a hundred years. What then did he want through the hundred years of the building of the ark, but to turn human beings back, so that there might be no need of the ark?
But also when he was about to overthrow Sodom and Gomorrah, the most impious of cities, he sent angels to Lot, who said: are there any "here belonging to you, sons or sons-in-law or daughters", so that you may take them along? And the loving-kindness was spoken through the angels, so that human beings might again be saved. And he wished also to save perfectly all who came out of Sodom. Therefore he said: "Do not look around at what is behind, nor stand still in the surrounding country; save yourself to the mountain, lest you be taken along with them". And if some did not believe Lot as he preached, they perished by their own doing; if the wife turned back to what was behind, transgressing the commandment, she herself did this.
At one time he wished also to lead a people out of the land of Egypt, a people being punished by the Egyptians. And God, the lover of humankind, since he is compassionate, spared even the Egyptians: "For his all-powerful hand, which also created the world out of formless matter, was not at a loss to send upon them a multitude of bears or bold lions, or newly created unknown beasts full of rage, either breathing out a fiery blast or scattering the stench of smoke"; but "judging little by little" he gave "room for repentance". And with locusts and flies and gnats, and with the death of birds, he punished the Egyptians, wanting nothing else than to turn them back and have them go along with the people.
See, then, that when they persisted in sin, he made the death of the firstborn the last scourge. But also when the Egyptians pursued the people and he granted the people to pass through the Red Sea, what else did he want but to save the Egyptians, if they did not pursue but fled along with them and came out with them? But since they did not want this, and after all these things wished to pursue, they perished by their own doing. And why must I tell the things of each generation? For long would be the time needed by one who meant to go through how God, being always compassionate according to his own love for humankind, did what he did with kindness.
Yet I will set forth one thing more. He decreed to bring a famine upon the Egyptians. Bring the famine, O God, for the Egyptians deserve to be destroyed by famine! "But I do not wish," he says, "to punish them utterly. What then do I do? I arrange by dispensation that Joseph go down from the holy land, and I make use of the sin of his brothers, and by occasion of dreams I cause him to become known in the prison. I show Pharaoh, the king of the Egyptians, what is about to happen. But since the things about to happen, if spoken but not understood, or even if understood but not understood by one wise and holy, would have profited Egypt nothing, what do I do? I arrange that Joseph interpret the dreams, that he be entrusted with the grain, that he gather the grain of the years of plenty, so that Egypt may not be utterly destroyed by famine." And what indeed? Was it not that "all turned aside, they became worthless" and "all were falling short of the glory of God", in the times of the coming of the Savior as well? But not even so did the compassionate God forsake the human race. And what has he done? From the heavens he sent his holy Child. And to suffer what? Not to die for the righteous, "for scarcely" among us "will anyone die for a righteous man", but to die for sinners, to die for the world, so that he might "take away the sin of the world".
See how great is the compassion of God, or rather "the multitudes of the compassions" of God: he did not spare the Only-begotten, the only Son he had, his image, but handed him over for us all, and handed him over so that those from the nations might be saved and called. And after all these things we sin again, and God is the compassionate one. Heresies too have arisen, and they speak evil of the Creator, and God is no less compassionate. He does not punish their blasphemy, for he says: "Some of them will repent; they will come out 'of the snare of the devil', 'having been taken captive by him to do his will'." And for the sake of the repentance of those who turn back from the heresies, God bears with it and is patient while he is reviled and spoken evil of. But we wretched ones grow indignant if a human being ever reviles us, not seeing that God, "when reviled", does not punish. If then he, when reviled, does not punish, we too ought not to revile in return the one who reviles us, nor speak evil of him, nor take revenge; otherwise we do not become sons of the patient God.
The compassions of God and his patience have a limit, and I will say something rather bold, but true: it is not expedient that his compassion should remain forever. For if his compassion remains forever and he does not destroy the world, and heaven and earth do not pass away, the kingdom of heaven will not be established. It is necessary, therefore, that the world be destroyed, so that the righteous may receive the promises. And indeed, paradoxical as it is, I will say that it is in accordance with the compassion of God that the destruction of the world comes about, in accordance with the compassion of God that his wrath too comes, and in accordance with his compassion that his anger too arrives. For if wrath did not come, how would those be disciplined who need wrath to discipline them? If anger did not arrive, how would those be reproved who need anger to reprove them? Having understood these mysteries, the prophet said: "Lord, do not reprove me in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath". And I think that it is as with a physician: being compassionate he cuts, being compassionate he administers hellebore, being compassionate he cauterizes. For the end of these things appears so; so wrath, so anger, so punishments are fitting to God who does these things. But I do not want to need even a perceptible physician to cut me, nor do I wish to need a man to cauterize me. Rather I do everything so as not to need cauteries and incisions, nor to need hellebore for a cure.
But if in bodily matters I avoid being subjected to grimmer treatments that are more painful to my body, what shall I do about the wrath of God and his wonders? Let us not, then, despise his compassions, lest it be said to us too: "Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God". For one stores up wrath for himself by doing the works of wrath. One stores up for himself "wood" by building sins that resemble wood; one stores up for himself "hay", another "straw", through such things, through sins. And he is going to say to those who have stored up such things: "Walk in the light of your fire and in the flame which you have kindled".
2. Since, then, "he is the compassionate one, he will make propitiation for their sins and will not destroy". How will he make propitiation for their sins? In creating the things that are, and being about to make the universe, he made "the firstborn of all creation" the "propitiation through faith in his own blood". For just as our Savior is "righteousness", as he is "truth", as he is "wisdom", as he is "sanctification", as he is "the light of the world", as he is "the light of human beings", as he is the physician of souls, so is he also "propitiation". He will therefore make propitiation for our sins. Therefore he is the "Lamb of God", as propitiation "taking away the sin of the world". But also if anyone sins, he says, "we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world".
"And he will multiply to turn away his anger": what "will he multiply in order to turn away anger"? For he has left unsaid what is multiplied, and has said that he "will multiply" what he has left unsaid for this purpose, for the sake of "turning away his anger". For whenever I, on my part, do the works of the anger of God, I need works that thrust the anger of God away from me. And works can thrust away the anger of God, not few and ordinary ones, but great and strong ones. A multitude of works must come about in me so that I may thrust away from myself the anger of God, which draws near to me because of sin. And for doing the works I need "God who strengthens me in Christ Jesus", so that the words "he will multiply to turn away his anger" may also be fulfilled. For he will multiply good works for me, he will multiply for me the best way of life, he will multiply for me a vigorous life, to turn away his anger. And unless he first multiplies good things for me, it is impossible, without good things being multiplied for me, for his anger to be turned away from me. "And he will not kindle all his wrath": by some things he will multiply to turn away his anger, and by others he will keep all his wrath from being kindled.
For all the wrath is great and fearful; therefore it is written: "He will not kindle all his wrath". It could have been written, "no one (τις) will kindle his wrath", but as it is, it is written: "He will not kindle all (πᾶσαν) his wrath". For against each person the wrath is kindled to the extent required by the material kindled for him, which holds the sins each has committed. And the wrath is kindled in proportion to my "wood", in proportion to my "hay", to my "straw". However, in our case he will not "kindle all his wrath", but perhaps against one alone among the things that are he "will kindle all his wrath": for against the devil he "will kindle all his wrath".
And "he remembered that they are flesh, a spirit going forth and not returning". We are composed of spirit and soul and body. And being composite, we ought to be ruled by the better part, the spirit, but for the most part we ourselves are ruled by the flesh. The soul is saved if it is ruled by the spirit, but perishes if it is ruled by the flesh. Since, then, we are composite and ruled by the flesh, God remembers "that they are flesh". For of those others he does not remember that they are spirit, for they are spiritual, judging all things but themselves judged by no one. Let us, then, become such ourselves, so that he may not remember of us that we are flesh.
I have often called to mind the words "My spirit shall not remain in these men forever, because they are flesh". Akin to that text is "And he remembered that they are flesh". The sinner becomes wholly flesh, for his soul becomes flesh. Even if, being in doubt about the spirit, I do not know what to say, still the sinner becomes wholly flesh, and the righteous man becomes wholly spirit. For this reason, when the resurrection comes about for those for whom it comes about, his flesh is no longer flesh, for it is changed and becomes spirit; therefore "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God". For when the saint inherits the kingdom of God, he is no longer flesh, he is no longer blood, since "a natural body is sown, a spiritual body is raised".
I was saying in my discourse that the righteous man is wholly spirit, and that the sinner becomes wholly flesh, that his soul becomes flesh. For cleaving to the flesh and abandoning the spirit, it becomes like the flesh, and flesh. I said then, in doubt, that I do not know what I should say about the spirit. The prophet has taught me what one must say about the spirit. For "he remembered", he says, "God did, that they are flesh". And so that you may not think that the spirit too becomes flesh, he says: "a spirit going forth and not returning". For "the spirit" leaves the flesh and the soul and "returns to God who gave it", as is written in Ecclesiastes. For this reason, if we are punished, the spirit is not punished with us. "For fear rather him who can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna": the spirit, therefore, does not perish.
3. And when you read "How often they embittered him in the desert and provoked him to anger in a waterless land", know that you too, as often as you leave God and go off into the desert, empty of God, and into sin, having come to be in the desert, you embitter God. As often as there is present to you in the church "a spring of water welling up to eternal life", and you, being slack about the assemblies and neglecting to be given drink, go off into the waterless land, you too, coming to be in the desert, embitter God.
Since, then, those who embitter God are in the waterless land, seek a spring, lest it be said of you too: "Me they have forsaken, the spring of living water".
And those who embitter God "in the desert" and provoke him to anger "in a waterless land" turn back and tempt "God". For they were in sin when they were in Egypt, working at clay amid bodily evils; having left Egypt they came out, and they sinned again. Therefore the words "they turned back" are well said, for "they turned back" to the sin which they had left. So too if even today you see someone from the nations believing, and after seeming to believe and hearing the words of God, turning back again to his own sin, what else will you say of him, but that he "is a dog that has turned back to its own vomit" and "a sow that has washed in a wallow of mire"?
"They turned back", then, these too, "and tempted God and exasperated the Holy One of Israel". And we too always tempt God if we sin. For we are not content with the signs we have seen for salvation, and, not being content with the words that urged us on to virtue, we tempt God again, wanting to see new signs, and we "exasperate the Holy One of Israel", not remembering his hand which has watched over us, and the day on which he redeemed us from the hand of the oppressor. Which oppressor, if not then Pharaoh, and now the spiritual Pharaoh, the devil? For the one who truly oppresses us, the adversary, is the devil. And we do not remember what signs of his he set in Egypt, and what they were. For in us too, in this Egypt, he has done signs; for me, for instance, each of the benefits of God is a sign.
If ever I fell ill and was freed from the illness through the patience of God, so that, rising up from the illness, I might be able to live well, this sign has come to be for me from God. If ever I was in dangers of whatever kind and was rescued, I received a sign from God, as I say. If ever I have seen visions, and the things to come have truly been shown to me and have turned out according to what was seen, then this is a sign for me, this is a marvel for me. Or else: since we do not see the one who is present, for this reason we say there are signs among us. How often have we prayed, and received what we prayed for: is this not a sign, to have obtained in prayer? But being faithless, we do not remember "in Egypt", the world, "his signs" upon us "and his wonders in the plain of Tanis". It is called Tanis, and it is a city of Egypt, a city where they particularly abhor the head and cast it away from the bodies. So, being in Egypt, they abhor the head; and the head of human beings is Christ, "and the head of Christ is God". Such, then, are the Egyptians, abhorring the head, as in the metropolis of Egypt, in what they did, since they do not hold fast to the head, "from which the whole body, joined and knit together", grows "with the growth" of Christ. For this reason let us cherish and revere so great a head, because "the head of every man is Jesus Christ", to whom belong the glory and the might to the ages of ages. Amen.
On the 77th Psalm, Homily 6