Making The Face Firm

Fili hominis, obfirma faciem tuam super filias populi tui quae prophetant de corde suo... Primum de eo quod dicitur: Obfirma faciem tuam, requirendum. Deinde si Dominus dederit, investigare debemus filias populi prophetantes de corde suo, et facientes ea, in quibus eas Dei sermo corripiat. Et quod sit alia facies praeter hanc corporis nostri faciem, licet ex multis manifestum sit, attamen et ex his, quae Apostolus memorat, indicatur: Nos vero omnes revelata facie gloriam Domini speculantes, in eamdem imaginem transformamur a gloria in gloriam, quasi a Domini spiritu. Hanc faciem corporalem omnes homines habemus revelatam, nisi forte calamitatibus et angustiis premimur. Vultus autem ille, de quo sermo Apostoli est, in multis tectus est, et in paucis revelatus. Qui enim fiduciam habet in vita immaculata, in sensu sano, in fide vera, iste tantummodo non habet confessionis, fraudulentiae, peccatique velamen; sed propter puram conscientiam, revelata facie gloriam Domini contemplatur. Procul autem absit a nobis, ut velatam habeamus hanc faciem. Haec pauca de facie, ut possimus intelligere quid sit, quod sequitur: Obfirma faciem tuam super filias populi tui. Ista facies, id est, principale ( ἡγεμονικὸν) cordis nostri, nisi obfirmata fuerit super eo, quod intelligendum est, ut quomodo videt, sic annuntiet gentibus, illud quod aspicitur, non videtur. Impossibile quippe est, ut aliquis sine obfirmatione vultus, vagus, fluctuabundus, circumlatus omni vento doctrinae, videat quod debet, videat ut debet. Oportet enim volentem intelligere habere faciem, in eo quod intelligere nititur, obfirmatam: ob hanc semper causam prophetaturis primum jubetur, ut faciem suam obfirment; ut nostram autem et nos possimus obfirmare faciem in Evangelio, in Lege, in Prophetis, in apostolis, obfirma eam super Christo, et non super saeculi negotiis. Sed cum in mundialibus curis anima nostra versetur, cum semper ardeat habendi fame, non obfirmamus faciem nostram super ea, quae imperavit Deus, sed super ea, quae Dei sunt adversa praeceptis. Quis, putas, in nobis immundus est ob obfirmationem faciei super his, quae interdicta sunt? Quis in tantum sollicitus et cautus, ut diebus ac noctibus in ea obfirmet cordis sui faciem, quae jubentur? Nunc quoque si intellecturi fuimus praesentem scripturam quomodo prophetae dicatur: Obfirma faciem tuam super filias populi tui, ut videat ea quae dicturus est, debemus obfirmare intelligentiam, plenum in intentatione cordis habere tractatum, quod sit hoc, quod significetur, ut tandem ratione superati, recedamus a littera. Ac secundum communem quidem intellectum, videntur quaedam filiae populi prophetantes hoc quod sequitur admisisse peccatum. Assumentes cervicalia consuebant; consuentes non ponebant ea sub capite, sed sub cubito audientium, et velaminibus quibusdam tegebant capita universae aetatis. Haec sunt, quae prophetantibus filiabus populi reputantur quasi magna peccata. Quis autem potest in verbo consistens dicere, quia si quis cervicalia consuat, et consuta sub cubito ponat alterius, delinquat, et a Deo corripiatur? Quis potest asserere, quia si quis velamina faciat ad tegendum caput universae aetatis, impie agat? Invitis nobis ab ipsa Scriptura necessitas imponitur, ut ab apicibus litterae recedentes, verbum, et sapientiam, et voluntatem ejus requiramus ad aperienda peccata, quae clausa sunt, ad illuminanda quae caligant, ut possimus a maledicto extranei fieri, omni cubito manuum, sive manus. Qui in victu corporis occupati sunt, et ne per somnium quidem spirituales videre delicias, quas nos habere vult sermo divinus dicens: Delectare in Domino, et dabit tibi petitiones cordis tui; qui non noverunt voluntatem beatorum, de qua scribitur: Torrente voluptatis tuae potabis eos: requirunt quasi amatores luxuriae, et non amatores Dei, semper in corporalibus esse deliciis. Signum autem mihi videtur voluptatis carneae, sub cubito manuum cervical assutum. Quia enim in tempore discumbendi ad beneficia corporalia videmur uti consutis quibusdam, et acu pictis sub cubito manuum nostrarum, forsitan sermo divinus per istius modi figuram et argumentum eos culpat magistros, qui per vaniloquentiam, et beatas quasque repromissiones, multitudinem audientium libidini, vitiis, voluptatique permittunt. Debet enim Dei verbum, et Deus homo ea proferre, quae saluti sunt audienti, quae illum hortentur ad continentiam, ad conversationem sanorum actuum, ad cuncta, quae homo studiosus laborum, et non libidinum, debet incumbere, ut possit ea consequi, quae a Deo sunt repromissa. Cum ergo aliquis aptus moribus populi, ut placeat eis, quibus aures pruriunt, loquitur quae gratanter accipiant, loquitur quae vicina sunt voluptati, talis magister consuit cervicalia sub omni cubito manus. Sequitur hoc peccatum habentem, ut faciat etiam amictus ad velandum caput omnis aetatis. Cujus autem rei figura sit etiam velamen, cautius consideremus. Qui fiduciam habet, et vere vir est, velamen non habet super caput suum, sed intecto capite orat Dominum, intecto capite prophetat: per signum corporalis rei etiam spiritalem latenter ostendens, ut quomodo non habet velamen super caput carnis suae, ita non habeat velamen super principale cordis sui. Si quis vero confusionis velamen gerit, et peccati, iste quasi muliebria velamina habet super caput suum. Itaque cum aliquis docuerit ea, quae aurem populi mulceant, et strepitum potius laudatorum, quam gemitum moveant, si blandus inimicus palpaverit potius quam secuerit vulnera, talis homo amictus contexit in capite. Cum autem in luxuriosam orationem dicentis se sermo fuderit, et in lascivum persultaverit eloquium, contexit velamen super caput omnis aetatis; non modo puerorum et juvenum, verum et senum. Quomodo enim faciat signa et portenta ad decipiendos, si fieri potest, etiam electos falsus Christus, et falsus propheta: similiter et hi, qui ad voluptatem meditata deportant, et ista semper inquirunt, quae delectent potius audientes, quam convertant a vitiis, faciunt velamina super caput non modo puerorum et juvenum, sed, si fieri potest, senum quoque et patrum, intantum ut etiam eos decipiant, qui juxta laborem animae in spiritali aetate et senio processerunt Origenes, Homila Tertia Ezekial, Interprete Hieronymo Source Migne PG 13.687c-690a

Make firm your face over the daughters of your people who prophesy from their own hearts... 1 First we shall look into that which is said, 'Make firm your face,' and then, if the Lord allows, we shall investigate the daughters of the people who prophesy from their own hearts, and do things for which the word of the Lord corrects them. Now what the other faces might be apart for this bodily face we possess has been made manifest in many places, but from these, let what the Apostle mentions be declared: 'But we all with uncovered face looking on the glory of the Lord, being transformed into that image, from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord.' 2 This bodily face which all of us men have is uncovered, unless perhaps because of calamity and distress we hide it away, but the face of which the Apostle speaks is hidden in many ways and is rarely revealed. For he who has confidence in the immaculate way, in good sense, in true faith, he alone does not wear the veil of guilt and deceit and sin, but because of a pure conscience he contemplates the glory of the Lord with the face uncovered. May it be far from us that we should have this face covered. And with these things briefly said about the face, so we may understand what follows: 'Make firm your face over the daughters of your people.' The face, then, that is the ruling part of the heart, which unless it has been been made firm about what should be understood, it does not appear how it may see what it should that it might announce it to the people. For it is impossible that someone who does not have a firm face, but a wandering one that shifts about, and is tossed about by the winds of teaching, 3 shall see what he should and shall see as he should. It is necessary to understand the will as the face, which is made firm by the struggle to understand, because of which, for the cause of prophesying, it is always first commanded that the face be made firm. And so even we can make our face firm, in the Gospel and the Law and the Prophets and in the Apostles, making it firm concerning Christ, and not about worldly affairs. For when our soul is turned to worldly cares, when it is always burning with a hunger for things there, we do not make our face firm in what God has commanded, but for those things which are inimical to His teaching. Do you not think that he who has been made unclean among us is he who strengthens his face over those things which are prohibited? And who is the man so intently concerned and prudent over those things which are commanded, so that day and night he makes firm the face of his heart concerning those things? Now also, if we are to understand this present passage of Scripture, how it was said to the prophet: 'Make firm your face over the daughters of your people,' we should make firm our understanding, so that it might look on the things which are to be said, having the intent of our heart fully taut about what this may be and what it means, so that with elevated reason, we pass beyond the letter. According to a certain sort of common understanding, these daughters of the people who prophesy appear to be those who have permitted sin. They embroider the cushions, and do not place them under the head but beneath the arm of the hearer, and they cover the head with a covering that endures. 4 These things, which the prophesying daughters of the people did, are reputed to be weighty sins. But who is able to speak a word about what they are? Because if someone embroiders a cushion, and places it beneath the arm of someone else, should they be corrected by God? And will insist that because someone makes a covering to cover the head for all time, he acts wickedly? Even to those who are unwilling among us, this Scripture imposes the necessity of withdrawing from the sense of the letter to seek its word and wisdom and will for the uncovering of sins which are hidden, and the illumination of what is obscure, so that we can remove ourselves from the exterior curse of every arm or hand. Those who have been seized by the conquest of the body, and in a dream do not look on spiritual joys, which the Divine word wishes us to have, saying, 'Delight in the Lord, and He shall give to you the petition of your heart,' they who do not know the wish of those who are blessed, when it is written: 'A torrent of your joy you shall give them to drink,' 5 they seek as lovers of luxury, and not lovers of God, since they always have their pleasures in the body. Now to place the cushion beneath the arm seems to me to be a sign of carnal pleasure. For when for a time we recline for the sake of corporeal goods, we appear as having something embroidered and decorated with the needle beneath the arm, so perhaps the Divine word by the manner of this figure and argument reproves those teachers who through vain eloquence and certain pleasing promises, permit a multitude of lusts and vices and pleasures to those who listen to them. For it is of the word of God and the God man to offer those things which save to those who hear, which exhort them to continence and to their conversation to a sound life, and to everything which belongs to a studious man of labour, and not of lust, whence the things that are required are those that lead to what has been promised by God. When, then, someone is aware of the ways of people, and so that he might gratify them who have vile ears he speaks what may please them, that is, he speaks of things which lead to pleasure, such a teacher embroiders the cushion to be placed under the arm. It then says that with this sin there is also made a covering that veils the head forever. Let us carefully consider what this veil could be a figure of. He who has faith, and truly is a man, he has no veil upon his head, but with his head uncovered he prays to the Lord, and with his head uncovered he makes prophecy. By the corporeal sign the hidden spiritual thing of the matter is revealed, so that he who does not have a veil upon the head is he who does not have a veil upon the principle part of his heart. If, however, someone bears the veil of confusion, and sin, he is as one who has a woman's veil upon his head. Thus when someone teaches things which softly caress the ears of the people, and he incites a clamour of praise rather than groans, and he strokes rather than cauterises wounds, such a man weaves a covering for the head. And when with luxurious rhetoric he pours out his speech and he makes his eloquence dance about in pleasure, he weaves an enduring veil for the head, and not only for boys and youths, but truly even for the old. For as the false Christ and the false prophet shall make signs and portents for deceiving, if it were possible, even the elect, 6 so likewise these have meditated to carry off with pleasure, and so always seeking what delights those who listen, rather than what turns them from evil, they make a veil for the head, and not only for boys and youths, but even, if it is possible, for the old, even for fathers, inasmuch as they can deceive those who because of the labour of the soul have advanced in spiritual age and seniority. Origen, from the Third Homily on Ezekiel, translated by Jerome 1 Ezek 13.17 2 2 Cor 3.18 3 Ephes 4.14 4 Ezek 3.18 5 Ps 36.4, Ps 35.9 6 Mt 24.24