Thrown Down

Et vidi, et cecidi in faciem meam. Quid ergo de hoc viro fieret, si ita ut est ejus gloriam vidisset, qui similitudinem gloriae illius videns, sed ferre non valens, cecidit? Qua in re cum magno moerore pensare et considerare cum lacrymis debemus in quantam miseriam et infirmitatem cecidimus, qui et ipsum bonum ferre non possumus ad quod videndum creati sumus. Est tamen et aliud quod de prophetae facto consideremus in nobis. Propheta enim mox ut gloriae Domini similitudinem vidit, in faciem suam cecidit. Cujus similitudinem gloriae quia nos per spiritum prophetiae videre non possumus, hanc assidue cognoscere et sollicite contemplari in sacro eloquio, in coelestibus monitis, in praeceptis spiritualibus debemus. Qui cum aliquid de Deo conspicimus, in faciem nostram cadimus, quia ex malis erubescimus, quae nos meminimus perpetrasse. Ibi enim cadit homo, ubi confunditur. Unde et Paulus quasi quibusdam in facie jacentibus dicebat: Quem ergo fructum habuistis tunc in illis, in quibus nunc erubescitis? Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, In Ezechielem Prophetam, Liber Primus, Homilia VIII Source: Migne PL 76.869b-c

And I saw and I fell on my face... 1 Why, then, did it happen to this man, that, as if had looked on His glory in the seeing of the likeness of His glory, not being able to bear it, he fell? We should think on this matter with great grief and consider it with tears, for into great misery and weakness we have fallen who are not able to bear that same good for which we were created. However, there is something in this act of the prophet that we should consider for ourselves. For as soon as the prophet saw the likeness of the glory of the Lord, he fell on his face. Which likeness of His glory, because we are not able to see it through the inspiration of prophecy, we should carefully know and anxiously contemplate in holy words, in heavenly warnings, and in spiritual teachings. We who see something concerning God, we fall on our faces, because we are ashamed of the wickedness which we remember we have done. And there where a man falls, there he is confounded. Whence even Paul, as if to certain folk thrown down on their faces, said, 'So what reward did you have in these things, over which now you blush?' 1 Saint Gregory the Great, On the Prophet Ezekiel, Book 1, from Homily 8 1 Ezek 1.28 2 Rom 6.21