In the very beginning of this command, whereby the prophet is sent to preach, the calling of the Gentiles and the banishing of the people of Israel is clearly meant.

What does that show, if not that God was speaking through the prophet? Now it is we clergy who were above all terrified by the prophet’s words, that is, the leaders whom God appointed to speak to his people, and so we begin by seeing our own faces in those words. For as the reader intoned them we had a kind of mirror held up to us in which we could inspect ourselves, and inspect ourselves we did. Inspect yourselves, too, then.

Here he clearly shows the distinction between apostolic and prophetic labors. Prophets have committed to them the responsibility of only one race, from which they were to have arisen and whose native language they knew. Apostles… have all the nations and peoples of the world entrusted to them, according to the command of the Lord.^[1]

Why should I speak of only one people? If I send you to different nations, my authority and power will still overcome every difficulty.

From this we learn now and then that it is a mark of the grace of God to resist shamelessness.

The Lord says to the prophets that he has made their face a brazen city and a stone of adamant and an iron pillar,^[1] so that they will not be afraid of the insults of the people but by their stern composure disarm the effrontery of those who sneer at them. A finely strung mind is more readily overcome by insult than by terror.

Just as shame is laudable in a bad person, it is reprehensible in a good one. For a sinner to blush is a sign of wisdom, but for a good person to blush is a sign of foolishness.

When the prophet is sent to admonish the exiled people, this means not only the physical exile but also what has taken place in their mind. For they had come from Jerusalem to Babylon. And what is called Jerusalem, but the vision of peace, and what is Babylon but confusion? Whoever falls from right deeds to wicked actions comes, as it were, from Jerusalem to the city of Babylon, since he descends from a good endeavor to vice. For he has abandoned the summit of good contemplation and lives in the midst of the exile of confusion.

We must note that the teaching of God must first be fashioned in our heart and heard and understood carefully, and only then can it be laid before the people.

For the place of God is everywhere in which he finds hospitality, for surely the Son is the place of the Father as much as the Father is the place of the Son.

The first order of celestial beings are deemed worthy of the divine banquet, indeed of much communion and cooperation with God^[1], by their conformity to him, as far as attainable, in their excellent habits and energies. They know preeminently many Divine matters and participate as far as they may in divine science and knowledge. Therefore theology has transmitted its hymns to those on earth, in which are divinely shown the excellence of its most exalted illumination. For some of those hymns, to speak in material terms, cry out as a voice of many waters and blessed is the glory of the Lord from his place.^[2]

Did you see how great is the holy dread in heaven and how great the arrogant presumption here below? The angels in heaven give him glory; these heretics on earth carry on meddlesome investigations. In heaven they honor and praise him; on earth we find curious busybodies. In heaven they veil their eyes; on earth the busybodies are obstinate and shamelessly try to hold their eyes fixed on his ineffable glory. Who would not groan, who would not weep for them because of this ultimate madness and folly of theirs?

The hearts of sinners were the place of the evil spirit, but when in their anger at themselves they return to life through penitence, they become the place of the glory of the Lord. For now they turn on themselves, now with tears of repentance they censure the evils that they have committed. Therefore the blessing of glory in praise of the Lord is heard where before resounded the injury of the Creator from love of this present age. And the hearts of sinners, which before had been an alien and sinful place, now become to the Lord his dwelling place. For those who are converted from their sins to the Lord not only bewail with tears the wicked deeds they have committed but also move on to the heights, through wondrous works, so that they become sacred creatures of almighty God. They are therefore able to fly to the heights on signs and virtues, so that they abandon the earth completely, and with the gifts that they have received, they reach for the heavens through sheer desire.

It is better and truer to have understood the voice that one has heard than one that one has seen.

Why is it that these winged creatures beat their wings in turn one to another? It is because all the saints by turns touch themselves with their virtues and rouse themselves to make progress through considering one another’s virtue. For all things are not given to one person lest he fall through being puffed up with pride. But to this individual is given what is not given to you, and to you is given what is denied to that person, so that while that one considers the good that you have and he has not, he sets you before himself in his thoughts; and again, whereas you see that that one has what you have not, you set yourself behind him in your thoughts, and what is written is come to pass: In humility count others better than yourselves.^[1]

The noise of the wheels is the speech of the Testaments. Then the noise of the wheels is heard after the noise of the sacred creatures’ wings because, after the speech of the preachers has been received, when the virtues of the saints fly up to pursue higher things and encourage each other on to progress, the posture of holy church is raised up, and the pages of the sacred Testaments are read throughout the world.

There are two movements through which our hearts are moved. One movement is from fear, the other from charity; the one results from the lamentations of the penitent, the other from the fervor of those who love. Therefore the first movement happens after the word of preaching, when we bewail the sins that we have committed; after the noise of the wings and the wheels, there is the second movement, when with much weeping we seek the heavenly blessings of which we hear.

For the hand of the Lord was on the prophet, strengthening him, so that he could take the name of a sentinel and teach what he taught.

It is sweet to be among human beings, except for one who has tasted none of the joys of heaven, because the less he understands the eternal, the more delightfully he rests amid the temporal. But if anyone has already tasted with the mouth of his heart that sweetness of heavenly rewards, those choirs of angels singing hymns, the incomprehensible vision of the holy Trinity, for him what he sees within becomes sweeter the more that all he sustains outside turns bitter.

Speech is freely accepted by the hearer that is offered by the preacher with compassion of spirit. Thus when iron is joined with iron, it is first dissolved so that afterwards it is in turn held by itself. But if it does not first soften, it will in no way be able to hold itself strongly. Thus the prophet first sat with the captive people and showed himself mourning in their midst, so that when by making this gracious gesture out of charity he showed himself to them as gentle, he immediately held them through the firmness of his speech.

He who was to be a sentinel and to tell the words of God to the people had to be quiet for some time, and to grieve at the things he saw and have nothing in his consciousness in respect of which he would be reproved in other things.

We do our very best to warn them, as you do, not to be deluded, for we know full well that whoever can speak out the truth and fails to do so shall be condemned by God.

Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for the members of the house of Israel, so that you may hear from my mouth and warn them. That means, Look, I have made you a warning and a caution, so that you may say what I command to the just and to sinners, that the just may grow in discretion and the sinners in penitence.

An emperor ought not to deny freedom of speech, and a bishop ought not to conceal his opinions. Nothing so much commends an emperor to the love of his people as the encouragement of liberty in those who are subject to him by the obligation of public service. Indeed, the love of liberty or of slavery is what distinguishes good emperors from bad, while in a bishop there is nothing so perilous before God or so disgraceful before people as not to speak his thoughts freely. For it is written, I spoke of your testimonies before kings and was not ashamed,^[1] and in another place, Son of man, if I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel, to the intent (it says) that if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity because you have not given him warning (that is, not told him what to guard against), his righteousness shall not be remembered, and I will require his blood at your hand. Nevertheless, if you warn the righteous person not to sin and he does not, then the righteous shall surely live because you have warned him, and you shall deliver your soul.

You must be, he says, like a watchman, who is placed on top of some hill, with orders to announce for himself beforehand any invasions by barbarians. And you must be set up as if on a watchtower, on the highest point of prophecy, and what you foresee, you must tell out to the people.

If we carefully heed the lessons that are read at the consecration of bishops, we have a means of rousing ourselves to the greatest compunction. What Gospel text is it, except the one I mentioned a little while ago? Peter, Peter, tend my sheep, and again, feed my sheep.^[1] Did Christ say, cultivate the vineyards by your presence, arrange the country estates yourself, exercise the cultivation of land? He did not say this, but feed my sheep. Now what kind of a prophetic text is read at the consecration of a bishop? It is this: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. It did not say a steward of vineyards or country estates or the manager of fields; doubtless it is a watchman of souls.

Sometimes when we preach, our sermons seem rather harsh to many, and what we speak about as a rule is taken by some as if it were produced from a hard attitude. For they say, how severely and bitterly the bishop has preached! not knowing that for bishops speaking is more a matter of obligation than of desire. Speaking, I say, is more a matter of obligation— not because the desire to preach the truth is lacking but because the silence that comes from not speaking is driven away by the punishment of the law…. This, then, is the preacher’s situation—that he should not be silent with respect to the sins of another if he wishes to avoid sinning himself, and that he should correct his brother by reproving him so that he may not destroy what is priestly in himself…. Consequently it is better to correct the sinner by rebuking him than to accept the sinner’s misdeed by keeping quiet. This is the position in which we have been placed: if we told sinners that their crimes were not their own, the guilt of their crimes would also implicate us. For this is in fact what the Lord says through the prophet: And you, son of man, I have given you as a watchman to the house of Israel, and you shall hear the word from my mouth. When I say to the sinner, ’You shall die the death, and you do not speak so that the impious may beware of his way, the wicked himself shall die in his own wickedness, but I will require his blood from your hand,’ and so forth. Clearly these words are plain and obvious. They soil the watchmen with criminal blood when he keeps silence, and they are not satisfied that the evildoers’ own evil doing condemns him unless they also incriminate the one who was unwilling to rebuke the evil in question. So, then, how great the iniquity of the sinner is! The sinner sins, and the bishop is convicted; he kills himself by his own sins, and his blood is required from the hand of the bishop…. What is a watchman? A watchman is one who, while standing (as it were) on a lofty pinnacle, looks out on the people around him so that no enemy falls unexpectedly on them but so that, as he keeps careful watch, the populace live in harmony and peace.

The office of bishop is the highest order in the church. Episcopos means overseer, because with the help of divine grace he guards the Lord’s flock from his high seat like a most careful shepherd. As the prophet Ezekiel says, I have made you a watchman over the house of Israel.

The life of a watchman must always be high and circumspect. Let it be high lest he succumb to love of earthly things, and circumspect lest he be struck by the missiles of a hidden life from every side.

Just as the well-being of the churches causes us gratification, so we are deeply saddened whenever we learn of any liberties taken with, or acts committed against, canon law and ecclesiastical discipline. We cannot excuse ourselves to him who wished us to be on the watch if we do not repress such practices with the vigilance we should. We cannot excuse ourselves if we permit the unsullied body of the church (which we are bound to keep clean from all dirt) to be defiled by contact with those who pursue evil ends. For the very union of the members gets inharmonious elements in it through carelessness.

The words are addressed to the Jews, since it was to them that the prophet Ezekiel had been sent at that time; and today, too, after the coming of our Savior, the words apply to pagans and to Jews and to those who once believed but then denied their faith. The prophet’s words are applicable to those who sin without perceiving their sin, since a sinner who has received baptism, even though he may be dead toward his soul, because he does not perceive his sin, yet he is alive to God because of the grace of baptism that he possesses.

A threat is not made against people but against sins, nor is it made against those who are converted from their imperfections but against those who remain in their sin.

We are constrained; we show ourselves to be defendants, we who are called priests, who above those sins that are our own also add the deaths of strangers, because we kill as many as we daily see go to their deaths, because of our silence and indifference.

You have frequently heard in the holy Scriptures in what great danger bishops are placed, if they are unwilling to carry out what the apostle urges on them…. But when we reprove someone, if the person we reprove is bad, he fixes his attention on the one he is being reproved by and happily and more readily acknowledges what has to be put right in his reprover than in himself. And if he can find something true to say against the one who is reproving him, he is delighted. How much better to rejoice about his own healthy condition when he has been put right than about another person’s illness when he is rebuked!

It is of the greatest importance that the superior [in a religious community] be convinced that if he fails to offer his brother the proper guidance, he will draw on himself heavy and inescapable wrath, for his blood will be required at his hands.

Whenever we preach something hard, we do not do so because we believe that you have done something of the sort, but we denounce things that you have not done, in order to be able to cure those matters in which you may have been overcome. It often happens that we fear to do great wrongs but more quickly fail to guard against slight ones.

It is necessary for us to rebuke, either in secret or in public, those who are careless. Now if the one whom we reprove is wicked, when we do so he will notice by whom he is rebuked, and he will more readily recognize what is being corrected in the one who is reproving him than in himself.

If he does this, he goes out from there, not by physical withdrawal but defended by his behavior; he has done what he had to do, even if the other person did not heed the warning he should have heeded.

We learn from Ezekiel that, provided the guardian gives warning as to what it is necessary to avoid and it is necessary to choose, he delivers his own soul, even if no one pays any attention to him.

We must learn by experience how great must be the order and consideration of speech in the mouth of a shepherd. For a teacher must consider what he says, to whom he says it, when he says it, how he says it and how much he says.

Thus it happens that all things are changed, pass away and perish. No one considers anyone more base than himself or more lowly than God. If there is a time at which anyone can legally place God second to his blood and marriage relatives, there is no time in which God must lawfully be placed ahead of them. But if, because it is true, there is no time whatever in which he should not be given preference, there is no time when he can lawfully be placed second to them. Indeed, there is no time, not even at the point of death, because the prophet says that even the just person will perish on the day he errs.

Because the preacher was silent to the just person who fell into sin, he is held guilty of his blood…. But it may be asked whether the preaching should be given to the just person after he has fallen or before he falls. The preacher must watch lest he come into error and undoubtedly even before he falls.

The one who does not hear perishes, but the other who hears and is converted to repentance saves his soul.