How much Ezra’s prayer, tears and sorrow accomplished is shown when it relates that a very great crowd of weeping people of both sexes and of all ages immediately gathered around him. They were weeping either because those who had sinned were doing penance for their sin or because those who had remained pure were sorrowing over the transgression and downfall of their brothers. But whether it was the former or the latter or both groups who were weeping, all are shown to have been greatly troubled by the prayers and laments of their pontifex,^[1] since even the women and children are said to have been present here as well. The event can also be understood to have happened in this way, namely, that first those who were innocent and righteous flocked to Ezra when he says, And all who feared the word of God concerning this transgression of those who had come up from captivity gathered around me,^[2] but now those who had sinned also came to do penance, together with their wives and children.

The ninth month is the one that is called Casleu [Chislev] by the Hebrews and December by the Romans. Who does not know that this month comes in the middle of winter and is rainy and surprisingly stormy? Hence we should note all the more carefully that when the people assembled in the middle of winter, it is recorded that they trembled because of their sin and the rain. For when they noticed that the rains were pouring down more than was usual even for this wet season, they were brought back to their conscience and understood that this had happened because of their sins and that heavenly wrath was imminent. Admonished by this disturbance of the sky, they grew frightened, and for this reason they had not dared to carry on their business in their own homes but sat down in the courtyard of the Lord’s house and put on penitential and humble garb. This was done as a lesson for those who, even when the elements are stirred up and weather deteriorates into violent winds, floods of rain, heavy snowstorms, parching drought or even the death of people and animals, and when the judge himself threatens the force of his anger through open signs, do not at all seek to correct their behavior so as to placate that judge and escape the destruction hanging over them but instead merely busy themselves to find some means to avoid or overcome the adverse conditions raging outside on account of their sins.

First they put away the unlawful wives, and only then do they offer a ram on their behalf so that, cleansed from the crime, they might approach the altar in a state of purity. For it is difficult for a person’s offering to be acceptable to God if he does not first strive to abandon the misdeed for which he offers it, as Isaiah says: Cease to act perversely; learn to do well.^[1] And because they who were the first to sin were the descendants or brothers of the high priest, it is right that they offer a ram from their flock as a punishment for their crime in order that by such a victim they might indicate that they themselves who were seen to be the teachers and rulers of the people, as it were the leaders of a flock of followers, had arranged to sacrifice themselves with respect to their former way of life and, purged by appropriate penance, to offer themselves to God through a better way of life. Meanwhile, it should be noted with what great art of warfare the devil constantly assails the faithful and how he never leaves them any time secure from battle. For consider how those who could not be overcome by misfortunes were overcome by enticements; they conquered their public enemies when the Lord’s temple was built and dedicated but were conquered by a desire for Gentile women, so that they did not keep the temples of their own hearts and bodies worthy for God to inhabit. Very clearly there is a complete allegorical interpretation of this for our own times. For we see that the minds of the faithful are tempted inwardly with much greater danger now when they are seduced and enticed by their own lust than when they were previously tempted outwardly when their brutal opponent was raging against their constancy by sword and fire. But the mercy of the Lord will be present, so that just as it then endowed those people with the virtue of patience against open battles of those who raged against them, in the same way it may also give us the protection of caution against the snares of enticements that catch us unawares. Accordingly, when the pontifex^[2] and all those who feared the Lord acted zealously, those who had sinned were pricked in the heart,^[3] and they cast out their foreign wives. Once they expelled the baseness of self-indulgence, the beauty of chasteness returned; once they cast out the debris of the vices, the flowers and spices of the virtues were strewn in the Lord’s city.

Now Ezra himself was clearly a type of the Lord Savior too, inasmuch as he restored sacred Scripture, recalled the people out from captivity to Jerusalem, enriched the Lord’s house with greater gifts, appointed leaders and guardians beyond the river Euphrates who were familiar with God’s law and purified the descendants of the exiles from their foreign wives. For the Lord restored sacred Scripture, because when the scribes and the Pharisees either had defiled it by their traditions or taught that it should be understood according to the letter alone, he showed it was full of spiritual meaning, according as to whether it was written by Moses or by the prophets; and by sending the Holy Spirit on them he also caused the New Testament to be written down by apostles and apostolic men. He led the people out from captivity in Babylonia and brought them now liberated to Jerusalem and the promised land, not only because by suffering on that one occasion on the cross he redeemed the world through his own blood, and descending into hell he rescued all true Israelites [i.e., the elect] he found there and, leading them to the walls of the heavenly city, granted them the joys of inheritance they had once been promised; but also because daily gathering the faithful from the turmoil of this world, he calls them together to the fellowship of the holy church and the eternal kingdom. He increased the riches of the temple with gold and silver and precious vessels that either the people of Israel or rulers of the Persians had sent there through him, because by bringing those who believe in him from both peoples [i.e., Jews and Gentiles] into the church, he does not cease to adorn and glorify her always through the splendor of their faith and good works. He appointed leaders and guardians for all the people beyond the river who knew and taught God’s law because in the holy church, which not only has been cleansed in the river of sacred baptism but also by the sincerity of its faith has transcended the Babylonian river (that is, the turmoil of this changing world), he placed apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers.^[1] He purified the descendants of the exiles from their foreign wives because he forbade that those who by professing the faith had renounced the world should be enslaved any more to the enticements of the world. He also cast out the children of these mothers from the assembly of the returned exiles in case by chance when they grew up they might follow the faithlessness of their mothers rather than the faith of their fathers, because he taught that even those of our works that seem good to people are spurious if they are mixed with carnal pleasure or originate from the contagion of human favor, and so are not worthy of the fellowship of those who, completely renouncing the world with their whole mind, move on to the things of heaven and who rejoice not to be weakened by temporal enticements but on the contrary to be made stronger through adversities and to be prepared by them for their heavenly rest.