Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifth Sunday in Lent

This is what the Lord says, who makes in the sea a way and a path in the raging water, who leads out chariots and horse and a mighty multitude; but they have gone to sleep, and they will not rise; they are extinguished like quenched flax. “Do not call to mind the former things, and do not consider the ancient things. Look! I will do new things that will now spring forth, and you will perceive them, and I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the waterless place. The beasts of the field will bless me, Sirens and the daughters of sparrows, because I provided water in the wilderness and rivers in the waterless place, to give my chosen race to drink, my people whom I have preserved, to tell of my virtuous acts.” (Isaiah 43:16–21 LXX)

The Lord who destroyed and cast down Babylon and brought down its strongest ones from power, and who took captive all the Chaldeans who were sailing blissfully on the waves of this world, has found the way in the mighty waters of the Red Sea, so that His people were delivered and passed through from Egypt. Or, He who made a way in the Red Sea has found a path even in the mighty waters of the Jordan river, so that both the departure from Egypt and the entry into the promised land contained a miracle. He himself drowned the chariots and the horses and the entire army of Pharaoh in the deep, which have slept in perpetual sleep. They were broken and extinguished as flax in a brief space of time and in an instant and a moment; for flax that has not yet been ignited, because of the lightness of its substance, is immediately put out and extinguished in a glimmering spark.

Therefore, I command this to you, that amongst My signs and miracles, by which the most powerful city of Babylon was torn down, and by which a way was opened for my people in the Red Sea and the Jordan, remember not things of old, because in the gospel I will do much greater things. In comparison with those things, the past things ought to be silent. For I will no longer find a way in the Red Sea, but in the wilderness of the whole world. Not just one river or fountain will burst forth from the rock, but many rivers, not to refresh thirsty bodies, as before, but souls. Thus what we read above is fulfilled: “You will drink water from the fountains of salvation.”

Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 12.43.14

For this reason, I did not want you to wonder at those things in the future, but there are certain newer wonders that are in no way inferior to the wonders done in old times, and like a light they shine forth among all, and you will know these things when they happen. And what does He mean when He says: I will make a way in the wilderness? Clearly He is speaking again about the church that He established among the nations, which was then a wilderness concerning the knowledge of God before the Christ came to dwell, who said: “I am the way.” And He says I will make a way in that place that was once a wilderness, just as I once made a way through the Red Sea. Rivers of divine words will flow from the teaching of the Holy Spirit into the dry land, just as rivers “gushed out” in the wilderness for Moses. But, indeed, the water that flowed was physical and perishable, but the water that now flows is from the inspired abundant supply of the rational and spiritual water.

Eusebius of Caesarea, Commentary on Isaiah 43

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Second Sunday in Lent

And this happened: Jeremiah ceased speaking all those things that the Lord had appointed for him to speak to all the people, and the priests and the false prophets and all the people captured him, saying “You will surely be put to death!.” Because you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, “This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be deserted by its inhabitants!” Then all the people assembled against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. And the rulers of Judah heard this matter, and they went up from the house of the king to the house of the Lord, and they sat in the entrance of the new gate. And the priests and the false prophets said to the rulers and to all the people, “A judgment of death be upon this man, because he prophesied against this city, as you heard in your ears.” And Jeremiah said to the rulers and to all the people, saying, “The Lord sent me to prophesy all the words that you have heard against this house and against this city. And now make your ways and your works better, and listen to the voice of the Lord, and the Lord will desist from the calamities that he has spoken against you. And look! I am in your hands; do to me as is expedient and as is best to you. But you must surely know that if you slay me, you are bringing innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and upon those who dwell in it, for the Lord has truly sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.” (Jeremiah 33:8–15 LXX [Jer 26:8–15])

Jeremiah prophesied these words of the Lord within the temple: “I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth,” and immediately with a turbulent uproar an entire mob was assembled by the prophets, priests and people against Jeremiah in the temple, where the prophet was being held by force of the priests, the prophets and the mob. And when the princes of the city who live in the royal house heard this, they went or “came up” from the king’s house to the house of the Lord.…

While the princes of the city were sitting at the gate in the presence of the people and the priests and prophets were accusing the prophet Jeremiah and threatening him with the death penalty, Jeremiah spoke with prudence, equity, humility and persistence to the princes and to all the people who were being stirred up by the factions of the priests and pseudo-prophets. With prudence, because he said that he was sent by the Lord to speak against the temple and the city and to advise them that if they would listen to his counsel and repent, then the Lord also would commute the sentence of judgment against them. With humility, since he says, “Behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as is good and right in your eyes.” And with persistence: “In truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.” In other words, he says, “If you are angry that I have spoken against the temple and the Lord’s city, and if you are concerned about the welfare of the city and the temple, then why do you pile up sins on sins and make both the city and its inhabitants guilty of my blood?” Therefore, if the difficulties of our circumstances ever require of us humility, let us take on this humility in such a way that we do not abandon truth and perseverance. For it is one thing to be insulting in an arrogant and judgmental way, which is a sign of foolishness; but it is something else to warn of an impending danger so that you take nothing away from the truth.

Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah 5

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

This was the vision of the likeness of the Lord’s glory. And I saw and fell on my face and I heard the voice of one speaking. And he said to me, “Son of man, stand upon your feet and I will speak to you.” And the spirit came upon me and took me up and lifted me up and made me stand on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. And he said to me, “Son of man, I am dispatching you to the house of Israel who provoke me, they and their fathers who have provoked me up to the present day. And you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says!’ whether they hear or are terrified, because it is a rebellious house, and they will know that you are a prophet in their midst. And you, son of man, do not be frightened by them or confounded by them, because they will incite and gather against you, and you dwell in the midst of scorpions; do not be frightened by their words or be confounded by their face, because it is a rebellious house. And you shall tell them my words, whether they hear or are terrified, because it is a rebellious house. (Ezekiel 2:1–7 LXX)

It is a sign of great mercy that God sends him to people like these, and that He does not give up hope for their salvation; and it is also a sign of the prophet’s boldness that he does not fear to go to such as these. Now we should understand of a hard face and of an obstinate heart in accordance with what is said to the sinner: “Your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brazen.” They are the ones who are rebuked in what follows for having a stony heart, which God says He will remove and shall put in its place a fleshly one, so that it might receive God’s precepts with their own softness.

Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel 1.2.4

But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching. (Mark 6:4–6)

Can and cannot may denote something which is contrary to the will, as in the text: He could do no deed of power there because of unbelief, that is, the unbelief of those who should have received Him. For since a healing requires both faith in the patient and power in the Healer, when one of the two was absent the other was impossible. But probably this use of cannot is related to the sense of something unreasonable. For healing is not reasonable in the case of those who would afterwards be injured by unbelief. The same sense applies to the saying, The world cannot hate you, as well as to the saying, How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For how is either of these things impossible, except that it is contrary to the will? There is a somewhat similar meaning in the texts which imply that a thing impossible by nature is possible to God if He so wills—as that a man cannot be born a second time, or that the eye of a needle will not let a camel through it. For what could prevent either of these things happening, if God so willed? And besides all this, there is the absolutely impossible and inadmissible, such as what we are now examining. For as we assert that it is impossible for God to be evil or not to exist—for this would indicate weakness in God rather than strength—or for the non-existent to exist, or for two and two to make both four and ten, so it is impossible and inconceivable that the Son should do anything that the Father does not do.

Gregory Nazianzen, On the Son, 2 10–11

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Palm Sunday

And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” (Matt 27:39–43)

O cross most abominable, most execrable! Did not God rescue the prophets from their dangers? Did God not save the righteous? Why not Him? What could equal this folly? The coming of dangers upon the prophets and saints did not injure their honor before God. But what happened to this incomparable person? By what He said and what He did He offended all our expectations to the utmost. He was forever correcting beforehand our assumptions about him. Even when all these ignominies were said and done, they could not prevail, even at that time. The thief who had lived depraved in such great wickedness, who had spent his whole life in murders and house breakings, when these things had been said, only then confessed Him. When He made mention of His kingdom, the people bewailed Him. These things that were done seemed to testify the contrary in the eyes of many who knew nothing of the mystery of God's dispensations. Jesus was weak and of no ostensible power; nevertheless truth prevailed even by the contrary evidences.

So hearing all these things, let us arm ourselves against all temptations to anger and outrage. Should you perceive in your heart a swelling of pride, seal your breast against it. Set your hopes only upon the cross. Call to mind the humbling things that were then taking place. Then you will cast out as dust all rage by the recollection of the things that were done to him.

Consider His words. Consider His actions. Remember that He is Lord and you are His servant. Remember that He is suffering for you, and for you individually. You may be suffering only on your own behalf. He is suffering on behalf of all by whom He had been crucified. You may be suffering in the presence of a few. He suffers in the sight of the whole city and of the whole people of the covenant, both of strangers and those of the holy land, to all of whom He spoke merciful words.

Even His disciples forsook Him. This was most distressing to Him. Those who previously paid Him mind suddenly deserted Him. Meanwhile His enemies and foes, having captured Him and put Him on a cross, insulted Him, reviled Him, mocked Him, derided Him and scoffed at Him. See the Jews and soldiers rejecting Him from below. See how He was set between two thieves on either side, and even the thieves insulted Him and upbraided Him.

John Chrysostom, The Gospel of Matthew Homily 87.2

“Let Him come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him.” What a deceitful promise! Which is greater: to come down from the cross while still alive or to rise from the tomb while dead? He rose, and you do not believe. Therefore, even if He came down from the cross, you would not believe. Further, it seems to me that this would usher in the evil spirits. As soon as the Lord was crucified, they sensed the power of the cross and realized their own strength was broken. They were acting in this way to get him to come down from the cross. But the Lord, knowing the snares of His adversaries, remained on the cross that He may destroy the devil.

Jerome, Commentary on Matthew 4.27.42

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

“‘Why have we fasted, but You did not see it? Why have we humbled our souls, but You did not know it?’ Because in the days of your fasts, you seek your own wills, and mistreat those under your authority. If you fast for condemnations and quarrels, and strike a humble man with your fists, why do you fast to Me as you do today, so your voice may be heard in crying? I did not choose this fast, and such a day for a man to humble his soul; nor if you should bow your neck like a ring and spread sackcloth and ashes under yourself, could you thus call such a fast acceptable. I did not choose such a fast,” says the Lord; “rather, loose every bond of wrongdoing; untie the knots of violent dealings; cancel the debts of the oppressed; and tear apart every unjust contract. Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house. If you see a naked man, clothe him, nor shall you disregard your offspring in your own household. Then your light shall break forth as the morning, and your healing shall spring forth quickly. Your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of God shall cover you. Then you shall cry out, and God will hear you. While you are still speaking, He will say, ‘Behold, I am here.’” (Isaiah 58:3–9a LXX)

After he has taught what sort of fasting he disapproves of, he shows what sort he gladly welcomes. He says, Loose the bands of impiety, undo the little bundles that oppress, or, as the Septuagint has translated more clearly, “the knots of hard securities,” which our own people, deceived by the ambiguity of the word, that is, συναλλαγματων, translated as “exchanges” instead of “handwritten documents.” But it means little bundles of papers in which are contained the false charges of moneylenders, and by which the poor are oppressed by debt. … The prophet is not instructing, therefore, that no one demand back what is owed, especially what he has given justly and demanded back justly; otherwise he would be proclaiming rebellion against the tribune. But when there is an unjust “security,” when a poor man is oppressed by a malicious charge, there the little bundles of “securities” and all the bonds of “iniquity” must be shattered.

Or at any rate, one should say this: that the discourse is about fasting, and fasting brings affliction and humiliation to the soul, but affliction of body is a prayer for pardon of one’s sins. Holy Scripture teaches that we should forgive our debtors, so that the heavenly Father may also forgive us our debts. Ancient history narrates that in the seventh, or fiftieth year of remission, which is the true jubilee, all property reverts to the owners, and the original liberty is given back to slaves, and all accounts, which they commonly call “securities,” become null and void. But if this is commanded under the law, how much more under the gospel, when all things that are good are doubled, and we are commanded not to gouge out an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth, but to offer our cheek to the one who slaps. And what is more, in order that we may know that what we have said above, “You extort from all your debtors,” is written about creditors, and it is joined more clearly concerning debtors, Let those who are broken go free, that is: those who are broken by poverty, whom want has afflicted, leave them free to beg, and break asunder every burden by which they are oppressed.

But someone could possibly say, “I have no debtors. What should I do in order that my fasting is accepted?” It follows, Break your bread with the hungry. Not many loaves of bread, lest you should plead your poverty as an excuse, but one loaf of bread. Not even the whole thing, but a piece of bread that you would have eaten if you were not fasting, so that your fast does not fatten his wallet but satisfies his soul. And he has nicely added your, lest you should give your alms by stealing from others. “For the redemption of the soul is a man’s own wealth”; and in another place, “Honor the Lord out of your just labors.” Of course, if you do not have bread, and there is a very large number of hungry people, give from that which you will suffer no harm, in which there are no expenses.

St. Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 58.18

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Christmas Day

Because of this, my people will know my name in that day, that I myself am the one who speaks. I am present as an hour upon the mountains, as the feet of one who brings the good news of peace, as the one who brings the good news of good things, for I will make your salvation heard, saying, “O Zion, your God will reign!” For the voice of those who guard you will be lifted up, and with their voice they will be cheerful together, for eyes will look to eyes, when the Lord shows mercy to Zion. Let the deserted places of Jerusalem break forth together with cheer, because the Lord has shown mercy to her and has rescued Jerusalem. The Lord will reveal his holy arm before all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation that is from our God. (Isaiah 52:6–10)

When the Jewish people were led into captivity and the city was burned, an inhabitant of Jerusalem was either rare or nonexistent. But after the one who spoke first in the prophets and was in the beginning with God, God the Word, dwelt among us and became flesh, the deserts of Jerusalem were refreshed, and he came, of whom it is written, “He shall build my city and lead back the captivity of my people.” Thus Jeremiah does not lament for her: “How does the city that was filled with people sit solitary! She has become as a widow, she who was magnified among the nations.” Instead she hears David singing, “When the Lord converted the captivity of Zion, we became as comforted ones,” and a little later, “We were made to rejoice.”.

And that we may know that these things are not being said about the Jewish people, but about all who will come to believe in the Lord through the apostles, he records and says, He who has comforted her, or “has had mercy upon her,” and he who “has delivered” or redeemed her, has himself prepared or “revealed his holy arm in the sight of all the Gentiles, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” From this it is clear that the arm of the Lord is being revealed to all nations, and all the ends of the earth are seeing his salvation, when the spiritual Jerusalem, that is, the church, which had been forsaken by the Jews, is built by the apostles.

Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 14

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday in Advent

Rejoice, thirsty deserted land! Let a deserted land be cheerful, and let it blossom like a lily. And the desolate places of the Jordan will blossom and rejoice. The glory of Lebanon was given to it, and the honor of Carmel. And my people will see the glory of the Lord and the exaltation of God. Be strong, hands at ease and feeble knees! Give comfort, fainthearted in mind! Be strong; do not be frightened! Look, our God is repaying judgment, and he will repay! He himself will come and save us! Then blind people’s eyes will be opened, and dumb people’s ears will hear. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the stammerer’s tongue will be clear, because water has broken forth in the desert, and a ravine in a thirsting land. And the waterless place will turn into marshes, and there will be a spring of water in the thirsty land; there birds’ cheerfulness will be a dwelling of reed and marshes. A pure path will be there, and it will be called a holy path, and certainly no impure person will pass by there, nor will there be an impure path there, but those who are scattered abroad will walk on it; they will certainly not be misguided. And there will be no lion there, and certainly none of the evil beasts will come up to it or be found there, but rather a people will walk in it that are redeemed and gathered because of the Lord; and they will return and come into Zion with cheerfulness, and eternal cheerfulness will be over their head. There will be praise and rejoicing, and cheerfulness will overtake them; pangs and sorrow and groaning have fled away! (Isaiah 35:1–10 LXX)

Now the reason the eyes will be opened, the ears will hear, the blind will leap and the tongue of the mute will be free, is because the waters of the baptism of the Savior have broken out or “burst forth” in the onetime desert of the church, and streams or torrents in the wilderness, namely, the various spiritual graces; and that which was dry land has been turned into a pool and swamp, so that not only has burning thirst ended, but it has become passable by boat and well watered, and it has very many springs, for which the deer longs. The one who drinks from them is able to bless the Lord, as it is written: “Bless the Lord from the springs of Israel.” In the dens of the souls of the Gentiles, in which dragons dwelt before, there will be reeds and bulrushes, on which is written the faith of the Lord, and on which formerly weary limbs may rest; or “there will be a joy of birds and a sheepfold for flocks,” that the doves might receive wings, and the lowly ones who remain may hurry to the heights and be able to say with the Psalmist, “The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want; he makes me lie down in the place of pasture, he has led me out to the waters of refreshment”.

There will be there a path and a most clean way, which shall be called holy, and which itself says of itself, “I am the way,” through which he who is polluted shall not be able to pass. This is also why it is said in the psalm: “Blessed are the blameless in the way.” And this way, that is our God, will be for us so straight and level and flat that it shall hold no error, and the foolish and the senseless are able to walk on it, to whom wisdom speaks in Proverbs, “If anyone is a little one, let him come to me, and to the foolish she said: ‘Come and eat my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mixed for you, leave infancy, and live, and walk by the ways of prudence.’”

Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 10

Patrist Wisdom: Looking to the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

Cursed is the man who puts his hope in man, and who will strengthen the flesh of his arm in him, and withdraws in his heart from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert. He shall not see when good things come, but shall dwell in salt lands along the sea and in the desert, in a salt land where no one dwells. But blessed is the man who puts his trust in the Lord, for the Lord shall be his hope. He shall be like a flourishing tree alongside the waters which spreads its roots toward the moisture. He will not fear when the burning heat comes, for He shall be like the root in a grove in the year of drought. He shall not fear, for he shall be like a tree that does not cease yielding its fruit. (Jer 17:5–8)

Let this be said concerning the Jews and heretics who have their hope in a man, namely, their own “Christ,” whom they do not believe to be the Son of God but a mere man who is going to come. As opposed to this, the ecclesiastical man “who trusts in the Lord” listens to this: “Know that the Lord is God!” He trusts in the Lord, and so he is compared with that tree about which the first psalm sings: “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.” Furthermore, “by water”—by the grace of the Holy Spirit, by diverse gifts, “that sends out its roots by the stream”—it receives abundance from the Lord. Or, on another note, we can also say that we have been transferred from the drought of the Jews to the everlasting grace of baptism.

He says, “It does not fear when heat comes”—either a time of persecution or the day of judgment; and “its leaves remain green,” or it will have “leafy branches”—so that it has no fear of drought but sprouts forth with the grace of all the virtues. And it is not afraid when the “time” or “year” of drought comes, when the Lord in His anger commands the clouds not to rain on Israel. And what follows, “it does not cease to bear fruit,” can be used to explain that passage that is written in Mark where the Lord comes to a fig tree and does not find any fruit on it, since it was not the time for figs, and then He curses it so that it may never produce fruit. For he who trusts in the Lord, and whose trust is the Lord, is not afraid even in the time of Jewish drought; instead, he always bears fruit, since he believes in Him who died for us once for all and will not die again and who says, “I am life.”

Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah 3

Patristic Wisdom for Christmas Eve

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” (Luke 2:8–15)

Look not therefore upon Him Who was laid in the manger as a babe merely, but in our poverty see Him Who as God is rich, and in the measure of our humanity Him Who excels the inhabitants of heaven, and Who therefore is glorified even by the holy angels. And how noble was the hymn, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and among men good will!” For the angels and archangels, thrones and lordships, and high above them the Seraphim, preserving their settled order, are at peace with God: for never in any way do they transgress His good pleasure, but are firmly established in righteousness and holiness. But we, wretched beings, by having set up our own lusts in opposition to the will of our Lord, had put ourselves into the position of enemies unto Him. But by Christ this has been done away: for He is our peace; for He has united us by Himself unto God the Father, having taken away from the middle the cause of the enmity, even sin, and so justifies us by faith, and makes us holy and without blame, and calls near unto Him those who were afar off: and besides this, He has created the two people into one new man, so making peace, and reconciling both in one body to the Father. For it pleased God the Father to form into one new whole all things in Him, and to bind together things below and things above, and to make those in heaven and those on earth into one flock. Christ therefore has been made for us both Peace and Goodwill.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke 2

Truly alert, they did not say, Let us see the child, let us find out what is being announced; but: “Let us see the word that has been made.’ “In the beginning was the Word.” “And the Word was made flesh.” The Word that has always been, let us see how it was made for us. “And see this word which was made, which the Lord has made, and has made known to us.” This same Word made itself, inasmuch as this same Word is the Lord. Let us see, therefore, in what way this same Word, the Lord Himself, has made Himself and has made His flesh known to us. Because we could not see Him as long as He was the Word, let us see His flesh because it is flesh; let us see how the Word was made flesh. “So they went with haste.” The ardent longing of their souls gave wings to their feet; they could not keep pace with their yearning to see Him: “So they went with haste.” Because they ran so eagerly, they find Him whom they sought.

Jerome, On the Nativity of the Lord

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

O Lord, teach me, and I will know. Then I saw their purpose. For I did not know I was like an innocent lamb led to be sacrificed. They plotted an evil device against me, saying, “Come, let us put wood in his bread, and destroy him root and branch from the land of the living, so his name might not be remembered any longer.” But, O Lord, You who judge righteously, who tests minds and hearts, let me see Your vengeance on them, for I have revealed my righteous plea to You. (Jer 11:17–19 LXX)

There is agreement among all churches that these things were spoken by Christ under the persona of Jeremiah. The Father made known to Him how He ought to speak and showed Him the intentions of the Jews. Like a lamb led to the slaughter, Christ opened not His mouth, and He “did not know”—“sin” should be supplied, according to what was said by the apostle: “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin.” And they said, “Let us throw wood into his bread”—that is, the cross into the body of the Savior (for He Himself said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven”), and “let us eradicate him”—or “wipe him out”—“from the land of the living.” For they were contemplating this wickedness in their mind, in order to blot out His name forever. But the Son, according to the sacrament of His assumed body, speaks to the Father and invokes His justice. He praises God’s righteousness and calls on God, who examines the heart and mind, to render to this people what they deserve, saying, “Let me see your vengeance on them”—on them, that is, who persist in wickedness, not on them who turn to repentance. Concerning this latter group, Christ says on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And to the Father, he reveals and discloses his cause, namely, that He is crucified, not because He is deserving but because of the wickedness of the people, as He says: “The ruler of this world is coming, and he finds nothing against me.”

Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah 2.11

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.” (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. (Eph 4:1–16)

The love Paul requires of us is no common love, but that which cements us together, and makes us cleave inseparably to one another, and effects as great and as perfect a union as though it were between limb and limb. For this is that love which produces great and glorious fruits. Hence he says, there is “one body”; one, both by sympathy, and by not opposing the good of others, and by sharing their joy, having expressed all at once by this figure. He then beautifully adds, “and one Spirit,” showing that from the one body there will be one Spirit: or, that it is possible that there may be indeed one body, and yet not one Spirit; as, for instance, if any member of it should be a friend of heretics: or else he is, by this expression, shaming them into unanimity, saying, as it were, “You who have received one Spirit and have been made to drink at one fountain, ought not to be divided in mind”; or else by spirit, he means their zeal. Then he adds, “Even as you were called in one hope of your calling,” that is, God has called you all on the same terms. He has bestowed nothing upon one more than upon another. To all He has freely given immortality, to all eternal life, to all immortal glory, to all brotherhood, to all inheritance. He is the common Head of all; “He has raised all” up, “and made them sit with Him” (Eph. 2:6). You then who in the spiritual world have so great equality of privileges, how is it that you are high-minded? Is it that one is wealthy and another strong? How ridiculous must this be? For tell me, if the emperor someday were to take ten persons, and to array them all in purple, and seat them on the royal throne, and to bestow upon all the same honor, would any one of these, think you, venture to reproach another, as being more wealthy or more illustrious than he? Surely never. And I have not yet said all; for the difference is not so great in heaven as here below we differ. There is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” Behold “the hope of your calling. One God and Father of all, who is overall, and through all, and in all.” For can it be, that you are called by the name of a greater God, another, of a lesser God? That you are saved by faith, and another by works? That you have received remission in baptism, while another has not? “There is one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.” “Who is over all,” that is, the Lord and above all; and “through all,” that is, providing for, ordering all; and “in you all,” that is, who dwells in you all.

John Chrysostom, Homily on Ephesians 11

But this whole building up by which the body of the Church is increased through its parts will be completed in mutual love for itself.… A child grows up and, unperceived, matures in time to full age. The hand will have increased its size, the feet will undergo their growth, the stomach, without our knowledge, is filled out, the shoulders, although our eyes are deceived, have broadened, and all the members throughout the parts thus increase according to their measure yet in such a way that they appear not to be increased in themselves but in the body. So, therefore, it will be in the restoration of all things when Christ Jesus, the true physician, shall come to heal the body of the whole Church which is now scattered and torn apart. Each one, according to the measure of his “faith and recognition of the Son of God” (whom he is said to recognize because he had known him earlier and afterward had ceased to know him) will receive his place and will begin to be that which he was, yet not so that, as another heresy has it, all are placed in one age, that is all are transformed into angels, but each individual member is perfected in accordance with its measure and duty so that, for example, the rebellious angel begins to be that which it was created and human beings, who were cast out of paradise, are again restored to the cultivation of paradise. But all these things will happen in such a way that they are mutually joined among themselves in love. And while member rejoices with member and is delighted in the advancement of another, the body of Christ, the Church of the first-born, will dwell in the heavenly Jerusalem which the apostle calls the mother of the saints in another passage (cf. Gal. 4:26).

Jerome, Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians 4

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:14–19)

We must investigate, therefore, how “all paternity in heaven and on earth has been named from” God “the Father.” And at the same time, before anything is examined it should be noted that he did not say, “from whom all paternity in heaven and on earth” has been born, or created, but “from whom all paternity in heaven and on earth is named.” For it is one thing to be worthy of the title “paternity” but another to have participation in its nature.… When I occupy myself with the rest, that is, where I might also read the term paternity of the Gentiles, I do not, nevertheless, now discover another occurrence except for the testimony of the twenty-first Psalm where it is written, “And all the paternities of the Gentiles shall worship in His sight” (Ps. 21:28), and that of the twenty-eighth, “Bring to the Lord, O paternities of the Gentiles, bring to the Lord the sons of rams” (Ps. 28:1). As, then, God bestows the name of His essence and of His substance as well on other elements so that they themselves also are said to exist (not that they exist according to nature—for there was a time when all things did not exist and, if He wished, they might be turned into nothing again—but as they are said to exist they have the gift by the goodness of God), so also the name of paternity has been imparted to all from Himself.

But to make this clearer, let me cite the testimony of the Scriptures. The Lord says in Exodus, “I am who I am,” and, “You shall say this to the sons of Israel, ‘He who is sent me’” (Exod. 3:14). Was God alone and there were no other things? There were certainly angels, heaven, earth or the seas, and Moses himself to whom the Lord was speaking, and Israel and the Egyptians to whom and against whom he was sent as leader and adversary. How does God lay claim to the common appellation of substance as peculiar to Himself? The reason is, as we have said, that other things receive substance by the mediation of God, but God—who always is and does not have His beginning from another source but is Himself the origin of Himself and the cause of His own substance—can not be understood to have something which has existence from another source. Warmth, indeed, is something which belongs to fire, but something which has been warmed is something else. Fire cannot be understood without heat; other things which become warm from fire borrow its heat and, if the fire should withdraw, the heat gradually decreases and they return to their own nature and are by no means referred to as warm.

It is in this sense also that it is said in the Gospel to the man who thought of the Savior not as the Son of God but as a good teacher, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one, God” (Mark 10:18). We certainly read also of a good land, a good man, and a good shepherd. No one, however, is good by nature except God alone. Other things acquire goodness from his goodness so that they may be designated good. As, therefore, the good alone causes good, and the immortal alone imparts immortality, and He who is true alone bestows the name of truth, so also the Father alone, because He is the creator of all things and is the cause of the substance of all things, grants to others that they may be said to be fathers. From earthly things, we may contemplate heavenly things. Adam, whom God formed first and was his creator and Father, certainly knew that he owed the fact that he existed to God the Father. Again those who have been born from Adam understand him from whom they have their origin to be their father. Whence also in the Gospel according to Luke when little by little the generation has been reckoned backward from Christ to David and Abraham Scripture says at the end, “of the son of Seth, of the son of Adam, of the son of God” (Luke 3:38), so that it shows that the designation of paternity on earth has its origin in the first instance from God.…

We can say, therefore, that because God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to His substance and the only begotten is Son not by adoption but by nature, other creatures also merit the name of paternity by adoption. We know, furthermore, that whatever we say of the Father and the Son has been said of the Holy Spirit. Our Savior also knew Himself to be a father when he said, “Son, your sins are forgiven,” and, “Daughter, your faith has made you well,” and “My little children, yet a little while I am with you” (Mark 2:5; Matt. 9:22; John 13:33). All who are just are adopted as sons through the Holy Spirit.

Jerome, Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians 3

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Palm Sunday

The Lord gives Me the tongue of the learned, so as to know when to speak a word at a fitting time; and He causes My ear to listen each morning. The Lord’s instruction opens My ears, and I am not disobedient, nor do I contradict Him. I gave My back to whips, and My cheeks to blows; and I turned not away My face from the shame of spitting. The Lord became My helper; therefore, I was not disgraced. But I made My face like a solid rock and knew I would not be ashamed. For He who pronounces Me righteous draws near. Who is he who judges Me? Let him oppose Me at the same time. Who is he who judges Me? Let him come near Me. Behold, the Lord will help Me. Who will harm Me? (Isa 50:4-9a)

The Jews, separating this chapter from what has been said previously, wish to refer it to the person of Isaiah, in that he would say that he received the word from the Lord and how he put up with a lazy and wandering people and called them back to salvation, and in the manner of small children who are trained early in the morning, Isaiah recited what he heard from the Holy Spirit.... But these verses should be applied to the person of the Lord in which the older book is fulfilled, since according to the dispensation of the flesh that Christ assumed, He was trained and accepted the lash of discipline so that He would know when He ought to speak and when to keep quiet. And He who in His passion was silent, through the apostles and apostolic people speaks throughout the whole world.

To Christ was added through the grace of the ear things that He did not have by nature, that we might understand that we ought to accept with the ears not of our body but of the mind.... The breast that contained God was beaten.... This discipline and training opened His ears that He was able to communicate the knowledge of the Father to us.... We learned more fully in the gospel that the Son, according to the flesh He took on, spoke the mystery that He had heard from the Father.

Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 14.2

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ comes before us, when He would show how to suffer, who when He was struck bore it patiently, being reviled He reviled not again, when He suffered He threatened not, but He gave his back to the smiters and His cheeks to buffetings, and He turned not his face from spitting; and at last, He was willingly led to death, that we might behold in Him the image of all that is virtuous and immortal, and that we, conducting ourselves after these examples, might truly tread on serpents and scorpions and on all the power of the enemy.

Athanasius, Letter 10.7

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourth Sunday in Lent

I held My peace, and I will not always be silent and restrain Myself. Now I will be steadfast, like a woman in labor. I shall amaze and dry up together. I will make the rivers into coastlands and dry up marsh-meadows. I will bring the blind by a way they did not know and will cause them to tread paths they have not known. I will turn darkness into light for them, and make crooked places straight. These things I will do for them and not forsake them. But they turned back. You be greatly ashamed who trust in carved images, who say to the molded images, “You are our gods.” (Isa 42:14-17 LXX)

The prophetic words are describing the glorious advent of the Savior, of which the Apostle Paul also speaks, “In accordance with the illumination of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” He compares him to a very mighty man who will wage war against his adversaries and stir up jealousy... And the meaning is,

For a long time I carried you as you transgressed often, but I who had previously held my peace will no longer keep silent. And just as a woman in labor brings forth an infant into the light and brings into the open what was previously being held confined within, so I will now bring forth my grief and dissimulation that I always had because of your evil deeds, and I will destroy your plans. At one time I will swallow up every nation and all the pride of the mountains and the swelling up of your hills, and I will reduce to a desert the grass, of which it was said above, “Truly the people is grass,” that is, both the princes and the ignoble common people.

And when I will have dried you up and destroyed you from head to foot, at that time I will cause rivers of my teaching to flow to the islands of the Gentiles, and will reduce to dryness your standing pools, or “marshes.” Accordingly, the knowledge of the Scriptures will be among the Gentiles, and the dryness of doctrine among you. And I will lead the blind by the way which they did not know before. We also read about this above, “I have given you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, that you may open the eyes of the blind” (Isa 42:6). They will be led by the way of which Christ speaks: “I am the way”; or I will make them walk on the way of the knowledge of God and in the paths of the prophets.

At that time their darkness will be turned to light, and crooked things will be turned to straight so that they understand what they read, and view with the eyes of their hearts the bright light of Christ in the Old Testament.

And at the same time he adds, These things have I done, or “will I do,” to them. I am not promising additional things to come, but delivering on what I had previously promised. But while I am saying these things, the Jewish people have been turned back, so that they did not believe the one who made the promises, and they were confounded by their own errors, and they neglected God’s promise, the people who had previously believed in idols.

Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourth Sunday in Lent

And in that day, you will say, “I will bless You, O Lord. Although You were angry with me, You turned away Your anger and had mercy on me. Behold, God is my Savior and Lord. I will trust in Him and be saved by Him. I will not be afraid, for the Lord is my glory and my praise. He has become my salvation.” You will draw water with gladness from the wells of salvation. In that day, you will say, “Praise the Lord; call upon His name. Declare His glorious things among the Gentiles and make mention that His name is exalted. Sing to the name of the Lord, for He has done great things. Declare this in all the earth. Exult and be glad, O inhabitants of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel is exalted in her midst.” (Isaiah 12:1–6 LXX)

You who had previously said in the desert, when you came up out of the land of Egypt and the Red Sea was dried up, “Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnificent,” and the rest, now that the tongue of the sea of Egypt has been struck and its river has dried up, cut up, and laid low, you glorify the Lord and say, I will confess to you, O Lord, because I who deserved your anger and fury have attained mercy; for You are my Savior, that is, Jesus, and I will not have confidence in idols, nor will I fear things that are not to be feared, but You are my strength and my praise, You who have become my salvation. Let the most depraved heresy hear that He has become the Lord for those who are saved and those for whom He was not the Lord before. Consequently, we understand creation and becoming in the Scriptures not always as the establishment of those things that did not exist before, but as, occasionally, grace, for those who merited that He become their God.

The one whom he above called “Emmanuel,” then “take away the spoils, hasten to plunder,” and other terms, he now calls Savior, lest there appear to be another besides Him whom Gabriel announced to the Virgin, saying, “And you will call His name Jesus, for He will save His people.” He also prophesies that waters must be drawn out of His fountains—not out of the waters of the rivers of Egypt, which were struck, nor out of the waters of the rivers of Rezin, but out of the fountains of Jesus, for this is what savior expresses in the Hebrew language. This is why Jesus himself cried out in the Gospel, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me, and let anyone who believes in me drink; as the Scripture has said, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his belly.’ This,” says the evangelist, “he said of the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed in him were about to receive.” And in another Gospel he says, “The one who drinks from the water that I will give him will never thirst again, for the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” We should understand the Savior’s fountains to be the Gospel teaching, about which we read in the sixty-seventh Psalm, “In the churches bless God the Lord, from the fountains of Israel.”

The apostles and the remnant of Israel are commanding these things to those who have believed from the Gentiles, that they confess to the Lord alone, and call upon His name, after they have forsaken their idols. Let them declare all His works to the unbelievers, that they may know that He alone is exalted, to whom one must sing that He has done great things, and let His mercy be declared in all the earth.

Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 4.12

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

O Lord, teach me, and I will know. Then I saw their purpose. For I did not know I was like an innocent lamb led to be sacrificed. They plotted an evil device against me, saying, “Come, let us put wood in his bread, and destroy him root and branch from the land of the living, so his name might not be remembered any longer.”

But, O Lord,
You who judge righteously,
Who tests minds and hearts,
Let me see Your vengeance on them
For I have revealed my righteous plea to You.

Jeremiah 11:17–19 LXX (Je 11:18–20)

It is the consensus of all the church that these words are spoken by Christ through the person of Jeremiah. For the Father made it known to him how he should speak and revealed to him the zealotry of the Jews—he who was led like a lamb to the slaughter, not opening his mouth and not knowing. But the word sin is implicitly added to this last phrase, in agreement with what was said by the apostle: “When he did not know sin, he was made to be sin on our account.” And they said, “Let us put wood on his bread,” clearly referring to the cross on the body of the Savior, for he is the one who said, “I am the bread that descended from heaven.”

They also said “let us destroy (or eradicate) him from the land of the living.” And they conceived the evil in their soul that they would delete his name forever. In response to this, from the sacrament of the assumed body, the Son speaks to the Father and invokes his judgment while praising his justice and acknowledging him as the God who inspects the interior and the heart. He asks that the Father would return to the people what they deserve, saying, “Let me see your vengeance on them,” obviously referring only to those who continue in sin, not to those who repent. Concerning the latter, he said on the cross: “Father forgive them, for they do not realize what they are doing.” He also “disclosed his cause” to the Father, that he was crucified not because he deserved it but for the sins of the people, as he declared: “Behold, the prince of the world came and found nothing against me.” The Jews and our Judaizers believe that all of this was said only by Jeremiah, arguing from prophecy that the people have sustained these evils in their captivity. But I fail to see how they hope to prove that Jeremiah was the one crucified, since such an event is nowhere recorded in Scripture. Perhaps it is just a figment of their imagination.

Jerome, Six Books on Jeremiah 2.110

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

 

Spoils of the Temple, Jean-Guillaume Moitte

So the Lord said, “These people draw near to Me and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me, and they worship Me in vain, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men. Therefore behold, I will proceed to remove this people, and I shall remove them. I shall destroy the wisdom of the wise and hide the understanding of the intelligent.” (Isaiah 29:13–14)

But if we are impure and unfaithful, all things are profane to us, either due to heresy inhabiting our hearts or to a sinful conscience. Moreover, if our conscience does not accuse us and if we have pious trust in the Lord, “we will pray with the spirit and we will pray with the mind; we will sing with the spirit and sing with the mind,” and we will be far removed from those about whom it is here written: “their minds and consciences are polluted.”

“They claim to know God, but they deny him with their deeds. They are accursed, disobedient and repelled by every good deed.” It is about these persons whose minds and consciences are polluted, who claim to know God but deny him with their deeds, that it is said in Isaiah: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” See how they honor God with their lips while fleeing from him in their heart; professing belief in God with words, their works deny him.

Jerome, Commentary on Titus 1.15-16

First, then, I assert that none other than the Creator and Sustainer of both man and the universe can be acknowledged as Father and Lord; next, that to the Father also the title of Lord accrues by reason of His power, and that the Son too receives the same through the Father; then that “grace and peace” are not only His who had them published, but His likewise to whom offense had been given. For neither does grace exist, except after offense; nor peace, except after war. Now, both the people by their transgression of His laws, and the whole race of mankind by their neglect of natural duty, had both sinned and rebelled against the Creator. Marcion’s god, however, could not have been offended, both because he was unknown to everybody, and because he is incapable of being irritated. What grace, therefore, can be had of a god who has not been offended? What peace from one who has never experienced rebellion? “The cross of Christ,” he says, “is to them that perish foolishness; but unto such as shall obtain salvation, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” And then, that we may know from where this comes, he adds: “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.’”

Tertullian, Against Marcion 5.5

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Prophet Isaiah

Seek the Lord, and when you find Him,
    call upon Him when He draws near to you,
let the ungodly leave his ways,
    and the transgressor his counsels;
and let him return to the Lord, and he shall find mercy;
    for He shall abundantly pardon your sins.
“For My counsels are not as your counsels,
    nor are My ways as your ways,” says the Lord.
“But as the heaven is distant from the earth,
    so are My ways distant from your ways,
    and your thoughts from My mind.” (Is 55:6–9 LXX)

Seek Him while He can be found, while you are in the body and as long as an opportunity for repentance is provided, and seek Him not in any particular place but in faith. Just how God is to be sought we learn elsewhere.… “Taste of the Lord in goodness, and in simplicity of heart seek Him” [Wis. 1:1].… For it is not enough to seek the Lord and while there is a time of repentance to find Him and call on Him while He is near—unless the ungodly also leave their former ways and leave the old ways of thinking for the Lord.

Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah

“For my counsels” we read “are not as your counsels nor my ways as your ways; but far as is the Heaven from the earth, so far are my thoughts from your mind, and my counsels from your counsels.” Now if we admit to our favor household slaves when they have often offended against us, on their promising to become better, and place them again in their former portion, and sometimes even grant them greater freedom of speech than before; much more does God act thus. For if God had made us in order to punish us, you might well have despaired, and questioned the possibility of your own salvation. But if He created us for no reason than His own good will, and with a view to our enjoying everlasting blessings, and if He does and contrives everything for this end, from the first day until the present time, what is there which can ever cause you to doubt? Have we provoked Him severely, so as no other man ever did? this is just the reason why we ought especially to abstain from our present deeds and to repent for the past, and exhibit a great change. For the evils we have once perpetrated cannot provoke Him so much as our being unwilling to make any change in the future. For to sin may be a merely human failing, but to continue in the same sin ceases to be human, and becomes altogether devilish.

John Chrysostom, Letter to the Fallen Theodore

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Léonard Gaultier (c. 1576/1580)

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Then Jesus called a little child to Himself and set him in their midst. He then said, “Amen, I tell you that unless you change and become as little children, you will in no way enter the kingdom of heaven. But whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Mt 18:1–4)

The Lord teaches that we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless we revert to the nature of children, that is, we must recall into the simplicity of children the vices of the body and mind. He has called children all who believe through the faith of listening. For children follow their father, love their mother, do not know how to wish ill on their neighbor, show no concern for wealth, are not proud, do not hate, do not lie, believe what has been said and hold what they hear as truth. And when we assume this habit and will in all the emotions, we are shown the passageway to the heavens. We must therefore return to the simplicity of children, because with it we shall embrace the beauty of the Lord's humility.

Hilary of Poitiers, On Matthew

Just as this child whose example I show you does not persist in anger, does not long remember injury suffered, is not enamored inordinately by the sight of a beautiful woman, does not think one thing and say another, so you too, unless you have similar innocence and purity of mind, will not be able to enter the kingdom of heaven. Or it might be taken in another way: “Whoever therefore humiliates himself like this child is greater in the kingdom of heaven,” so as to imply that anyone who imitates Me and humiliates himself following My example, so that he abases himself as much as I abased Myself in accepting the form of a servant, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jerome, Commentary on Matthew

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Rembrandt, “Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem”

Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who stood in the house of the Lᴏʀᴅ, and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! The Lᴏʀᴅ do so; the Lᴏʀᴅ perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring back the vessels of the Lᴏʀᴅ’s house and all who were carried away captive, from Babylon to this place. Nevertheless hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people: The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries and great kingdoms—of war and disaster and pestilence. As for the prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, the prophet will be known as one whom the Lᴏʀᴅ has truly sent.” (Je 28:5–9)

Jeremiah could have said to Hananiah, “You speak falsely, and you are deceiving the people. You are not a prophet but a  false prophet.” But if he had said that, the false prophet could have said the same things in return to Jeremiah. Therefore Jeremiah avoids causing insult and speaks to him as if he were a prophet. “Not only are you and I prophets,” he says, “but before us there were many other prophets, such as Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, and others. They prophesied against many countries and against not small kingdoms but great ones, announcing to them war, adversity, and the deprivation of all things. there were others, of course, who promised peace and prosperity. But the truth of each message is confirmed not by the adulation that accompanies the lie but by the outcome of the events.” Thus, through the examples of others, Jeremiah speaks about himself and about Hananiah, asserting that the truthfulness of a prophet is shown when the final outcome of events has come to pass. The Lord also said this same thing through Moses: that a prophet is proven by the end result of his prophecy.*

Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah

* Deuteronomy 18:21–22