[Ezekiel] is not carried away by the greatness of the visions, but he falls on his own face through knowing the fragility of the human being.

What then would have become of this man if he had seen the Lord’s glory as it is, who seeing the likeness of that glory but unable to bear it fell on his face? In this matter we must think with deep sorrow and ponder with tears to what wretchedness and weakness we have fallen who cannot bear that very good that we were created to behold. But here is something else for us to consider within ourselves from the prophet’s act. For as soon as he saw the likeness of the glory of God, the prophet fell on his face. Since we cannot see this likeness through the spirit of prophecy, we must continually acknowledge it and punctiliously contemplate in holy Scripture, in divine counsels and in spiritual precepts. We, who when we perceive something of God, fall on our faces because we blush for the evil acts we remember committing.

The divine voice commanded the prophet as he lay and bade him rise. But he could in no way have risen if the Spirit of the Almighty had not entered into him, because by the grace of almighty God we can indeed try to perform good works but cannot carry them through unless he who commands us helps us.

The authority of preaching must not be offered to us who still lie in the confusion of infirmity.

It is a mark of great mercy that God sends him to such as these and that he does not despair of their salvation; and it is a mark of the trust of the prophet that he does not fear to go to such as these also.

We see ruined cities, razed forts, ravaged fields, and nevertheless we still follow our ancestors in transgressions; we are not changed from this their pride that we saw. And they indeed at a time of pleasure. But we—which is more serious—sin at a time of being lashed. But almighty God, judging transgression, first snatched away our ancestors and then called them to judgment. He still awaits our penitence; he sustains us that we may return to him.

He says whether they hear or refuse, not out of ignorance but in case any of the obstinate should say that the prediction was what made them disobedient in the first place. He therefore expresses himself in terms of whether they will and it may be. For though they had been obstinate towards his servants,^[1] they ought to have shown reverence to the dignity of the Son.

Are there not revilings in Ezekiel directed against the people, when the Lord says, you dwell among scorpions?

The soul that enjoys the watering that comes from the words of God produces in abundance, flourishes and teems with the fruit of the Spirit. But when a soul has become dry, is left uncared for and needs such watering, it becomes desert, its vines grow wild, it produces an abundance of thorns. And these thorns have the natural characteristics of sin. For where there are thorns, there will you find snakes, serpents, scorpions and every power of the devil.

There can be no bad without good, no good without bad in the church. My friends, before your time on earth is over, recall these examples. Strengthen yourselves to bear with the bad. If we are the offspring of God’s chosen ones, we must live according to their example. The good have never refused to bear with the bad.

Perhaps you fear the looks of your relatives sitting around and are afraid to offend them as they press and crowd around your beds. The Lord says through the prophet, Be not afraid of them, be not dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. You must also be unafraid and constant; do not fear their faces or be broken by their display.

Do not think yourselves to be deceived if you are sent to those who do not hear what you are saying. You must understand that I am preaching to you because they are of unsound mind and they gather together against you and they surround you, leaving no escape to you. For they do this because they are faithless and spurn the commands of God. ^[1] THE ATTITUDE OF THE ONE SENT. GREGORY the Great: Humble authority must be in the superior and free humility in the inferior. ^[1]

Every one who sins, what does he do but provoke the anger of his Creator against himself? We know that every time we sin in deed, in word, in thought, we make God angry with us. And yet he delays, he waits in mercy and first of all demands patience of himself, only then giving the word of exhortation to his preachers for us. Everyone who preaches rightly, if he is heard, appeases the anger of our Creator, who has been provoked by his sinful people.

You must not imitate those whom you are sent to correct, in case the same sin should merit exactly the same punishment.

If God were to stand up as the avenger of sin, the church would lose many of its saints and certainly would be deprived of the apostle Paul.

The scroll symbolizes the prophets and the apostles. In it the Old Testament was written on the reverse and the New on the obverse. Moreover, the scroll symbolizes the secret, the spiritual teaching—and in such a dignified manner that it may be read on both sides. In reality it is of such a kind that there is a connection between reading the outside and understanding the inside.

As the order of preachers is signified by the prophet, so the pages of holy Scripture are meant by the book that he received. For the rolled book is the obscure speech of holy Scripture, which is enveloped in a profundity of sayings so that it is not easily penetrated by the understanding of all. But the book is spread out before the prophet because the obscurity of holy Scripture is opened for the preachers.

I take it to be similar in the case of the book mentioned by Ezekiel, in which had been written lamentation, mourning and woe. The whole book contains the woe of those perishing, and the mourning of those being saved and the lamentation of those in between. John, too, who eats one roll on which there is writing on the back and the front,^[1] considered the whole Scripture as one book, which is thought to be sweet at the start, when one chews it, but bitter in the perception of each of those who come to know it.

Let not the multitude of our wounds reduce us to desperation, because the power of the healer is greater than the magnitude of our feebleness.

In the scroll of Ezekiel, who is truly a type of the Savior, no other prophet (I mean of major prophets) is called Son of man. The title is given strictly to Ezekiel. In Ezekiel after almost every twenty or thirty verses it says regularly, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Ezekiel. Someone may ask, Why is that so frequently repeated in the prophecy? Because the Holy Spirit descended on the prophet but again withdrew from him. Whenever it says the word came, it indicates that the Holy Spirit departed from him and came back again to him.

In saying that without holy Scripture we shall be exhausted by hunger and thirst, he shows that its words are our food and drink. But it must be observed that they are sometimes food, sometimes drink. For in more obscure matters that cannot be comprehended unless they are explained, holy Scripture is our food, because whatever is expounded that it may be understood is as if chewed that it may be swallowed. But in plainer sayings it is drink. For we do not swallow drink by chewing. Therefore we drink plainer statutes because we attempt to understand them without exposition.

Unless we eat the open book first, we cannot teach the children of Israel.

With an open mouth the Lord has provided bread, so that the beginnings of his will may be in us and that we may reach the perfection of blessedness that comes from God.

Whenever almighty God offers his hand to the mouth of our hearts, he invariably opens our understanding and instills the food of holy Scripture into our senses.

The eating of the book is the initial reading and the simple narrative. But when we have done some hard meditating on it and when we have laid it in the treasure store of the memory, our belly is spiritually filled and our inward parts are satiated, so that like the apostle Paul^[1] they are filled with compassion.

What are the bowels of the belly if not the interior of the mind, right intention, holy desire, a will humble before God and conscientious to its neighbor?

Honey can be understood as the explicit teaching of wisdom, whereas the comb can represent that known to be stored in the depth, as it were, of the cells. Undoubtedly both are found in the divine Scriptures. They added to my mouth,^[1] for they were indeed proclaiming with their mouths the wisdom that they had swallowed with their throats. The prophet Ezekiel speaks in the same way of the Lord.

Just as he contemplated that vision in spirit, so he now felt its taste in spirit.