The Man Of Bronze

Et introduxit me illuc: et ecce vir cujus erat species quasi species æris. Sed quaerendum nobis est cur de hoc viro dicitur, Cuius species erat quasi species aeris. Cuncti autem novimus, fratres, metallum aeris valde esse durabile, atque omnimodo sonorum. Quid est ergo quod aspectus Mediatoris Dei et hominum speciei comparatur aeris, nisi hoc quod aperte novimus, quia unigenitus Filius, formam servi accipiens, fragilitatem carnis humanae per resurrectionis suae gloriam vertit in aeternitatem, quia in eo caro facta est iam sine fine durabilis? Nam surgens a mortuis iam non moritur, mors ei ultra non dominabitur. Quid est autem, quod ipsa eius incarnatio sonoro metallo comparatur, nisi quod per eamdem assumptionem humanitatis nostrae insonuit omnibus gloria maiestatis suae? Et quasi aspectum aeris  habet in corpore, quia Deus mundo innotuit ex carne. Unde et per Ioannem dicitur: Habebat in vestimento et in femore suo scriptum: Rex regum, et Dominus dominantium. Quid enim vestimentum eius est, nisi corpus quod assumpsit ex Virgine? Nec tamen aliud eius vestimentum est, atque aliud ipse. Nam nostrum quoque vestimentum caro dicitur, sed tamen ipsi nos sumus caro, qua vestimur. Hoc autem vestimentum illius longe ante Isaias aspiciens per crucem passionis sanguine cruentatum, dixit: Quare rubrum est indumentum tuum, et vestimenta tua quasi calcantium in torculari? Cui ipse respondit: Torcular calcavi solus, et de gentibus non est vir mecum. Solus enim torcular in quo calcatus est calcavit, qui sua potentia eam quam pertulit passionem vicit. Nam qui usque ad mortem crucis passus est, de morte cum gloria surrexit. Bene autem dicitur: Et de gentibus non est vir mecum, quia hi pro quibus pati venerat passionis eius esse participes debebant, qui pro eo quod illo tempore necdum crediderant, de ipsis in passione queritur, quorum vita in illa passione quaerebatur. Per femur vero propagatio carnis est. Quia ergo per propagationem generis humani, sicut generationum ordines Matthaeo, vel Luca narrantibus describuntur, in hunc mundum venit ex virgine, et per incarnationis suae mysterium quia Rex esset et Dominus cunctis ubique gentibus indicavit, in vestimento et femore scriptum habuit:  Rex regum, et Dominus dominantium. Unde enim in mundo innotuit, ibi de se lectionis scientiam infixit. Praedicatio ergo eius ex carne, quasi quidam sonitus ex aere est. Dicatur igitur recte: Cuius species quasi species aeris. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, In Ezechielem Prophetam, Liber II, Homilia I Source: Migne PL 76.941d-942c

And he led me in, and behold a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze. 1 It must be asked by us why it is said about this man: 'whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze.' We know, brothers, that of all metals bronze is certainly the most hard and altogether sonorous. Why, then, is the sight of the Mediator of God and man compared to the appearance of bronze, unless this which we know, that the only begotten Son, receiving the form of a servant, changed the fragility of the human flesh through the glory of His resurrection to that which is eternal, because in Him that flesh is now made durable without end? For rising from the dead, now not dead, death would no more rule over Him. 2 And why is it that His incarnation may be compared to sonorous metal, unless that by the assumption of our humanity he resounded to all with the glory of His majesty?  And as the appearance of bronze is His body because God became known in the world from the flesh. Whence it is said by John, 'He had on his vestment and thigh written: 'King of kings, and Lord of lords.' 3 What, then, is His vestment but His body which He took up from the Virgin? Yet His vestment is not one thing and He is something else. For it is said our vestment also is flesh, but we are the flesh with which we are vested. Long before Isaiah saw this vestment of His stained with the blood of His passion, saying: 'Why is your covering red, and your vestment like those who tread out the wine press? To which He responds 'Alone I have trodden out the wine press, and from the peoples there is no man with me.' 4 Alone indeed he trod the winepress, He who with His power conquered that passion which He underwent. For He who suffered even to death on the cross, rose from death in glory. And well it is said: 'And from the peoples there is no man with me,' because those for whom He came to suffer His passion should have been participants, they who during that time did not yet believe, questioning those things of the passion, whose life in that passion was being sought. Now through the thigh the flesh is propagated. Because, therefore, of the propagation of the human race, as told in the order of the generations in the accounts of Matthew or Luke, in this world He came from a virgin, even through the mystery of His incarnation, and He declared that He was King and Lord of all peoples everywhere, having written on the vestment and the thigh:'The King of kings and Lord of lords.' Whence becoming known in the world, there concerning Himself He fixed the understanding of what was read. Therefore His foretelling from the flesh is as bronze resounding, and rightly it may be said, 'Whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze.' Saint Gregory the Great, On the Prophet Ezekiel, Book 2, from Homily 1 1 Ezek 40.3 2 Rom 6.9 3 Apoc 19.16 4 Isaiah 63.2-3