Healing And Sacrifice

Volo, mundare. Et praecepit ei, ut et offerret munera, secundum quod praeceperat Moses. Quae illa? Per turturum, aut duos pullos columbarum. Omnis enim justitia in his est duobus: in abstinentia rerum malarum, et in opere rerum bonarum. Per turturem ergo jubet populum, ab infidelitate mundatum, sanctitatem offerre Deo in abstinentia rerum malarum: quoniam castitas spiritualis animae abstinentia est malorum, ut non coeat cum spiritu alieno, nec inspirationis ejus suscipiat semen, ne generat opera simila spiritui malo. Per columbam autem omne opus significat bonum, nascens ex caritate: quoniam caritas omne opus generat bonum. Qui ergo proximum summ diligit sicut se, nullum bonum subducit proximo suo, sicut nec sibi. Cum ergo has duas justitias impleverit quis, ab omni malo se abstinens, quod est castitatis, et omne bonum faciens, quod est caritatis, manifestus efficitur ille talis, quia ab infidelitatis lepra mundatus est, Sic enim populus emundatus, et talia sacrifica offerens Deo, factus est in testimoniam contra incredulos sacerdotes, qui gloriantes in litera legis, repulerunt auctorem legis, purificantem populum a peccatis, quem lex purificare non potuit. Et si tu complexus fueris verbum Dei cordis affectu, et tuam nihilominus animam attingit verbum, quoniam diligentes se diligit, sicut dicit in Proverbiis Salomon, et ab omni te infidelitatis lepra mundat. Cum autem te emundaverit, praecipit tibi, ut sacerdotibus te ostendas mundatum, castigans teipsum ab omni coninquinatione operis mali, et expandens caritatem tuam ad omnes per opera bona, ut per haec sacrificia a sacerdotibus cognoscaris, quia mundatus es, cum viderint te non facientem alteri quod pati non vis, sed adhuc et facientem omnibus quae tibi vis fieri. Si autem harum justitiarum sacrifica non obtuleris Deo, manifestus es omnibus, quia non es mundates, sed adhuc in priore infidelitate manes leprosus. Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum, Homilia XX Source: Migne PG 56.750

I will, be clean. 1 And He commands him to offer gifts as Moses commanded. What are they? A pair of turtledoves, or two young doves. 2 All righteousness is in these two things: in abstinence from evils and in good works. A pair of turtledoves, therefore, he commands the people, cleansed from unfaithfulness, to offer in purity to God in the abstinence from evils things, because spiritual chastity is the abstinence of the soul from evils, that it not associate with a foreign spirit, nor receive the seed of its inspiration, lest it produce works similar to the evil spirit. By the dove is signified every good work which is born from love, because love produces every good work. Therefore he who loves his neighbour as himself, 3 brings no good to his neighbour that he does not to himself. When, then, someone fulfills these two types of righteousness, he abstains from every evil, which is chastity, and does every good, which is love, and it is manifest He does this, since he is cleansed from the leprosy of unfaithfulness. So indeed a people cleansed offer such sacrifices to God, which are witness against the unbelieving priests, who glorying in the letter of the Law, have rejected the author of the Law, a people purified from sin, whom the Law was not able to purify. And if you are embraced by the word of God in the depths of your heart, and the word touches your soul, because He loves the lovers of Him, as Soloman says in Proverbs, 4 He cleanses you from every leprosy of unfaithfulness. And when He has cleansed you, He commands you that you show your gifts to the priest, that by these sacrifices you are recognised by the priests that you have been cleansed, that is, when they see you not doing to another what you do not wish done to yourself, and doing to all what you do wish done to yourself. For if you do not bring these sacrifices of righteousness to God, you make manifest to all that you have not been cleansed, but that you yet remain a leper in unfaithfulness. Opus Imperfectum on Matthew, from Homily 20 1 Mt 11.28 2 Lev 14.22 3 Mt 22.37, Lev 19.18 4 Prov 8.17