By Water & Blood

Homily 8.11: The cleansing of the leper

But notice also how, when he said above, “This is the law of the leper on the day on which he is cleansed,” he now adds to all these things and says, “and he shall be clean.” For if, having once cast off the leprosy, he has been cleansed, how shall he still be clean? But see that even if someone is cleansed from sin and is no longer in the work of sin, yet the very traces of the crime committed need purification, both that which we have expounded and the others which are commanded in what follows. For we observed that, after what is written of the leper, “on the day on which he is cleansed”, among the other things commanded it is said a third time, “and he shall be clean,” and again at the end it is written, “and he shall be cleansed.” Hence it seems to me that there are certain differences in purification itself, and, so to speak, certain advances of purgation. For it can be said even of one who ceases from sin, “and he shall be clean”; but he will not at once seem so clean as to have reached the summit of purity. Indeed he adds to what he had said, “on whatever day he is cleansed”: “and the living bird,” it says, “shall be sent out into the field, and he who is being purified shall wash his garments.” And after this: “he shall shave,” it says, “all his hair.” And he adds: “and he shall be washed in water.” And after this it is added: “And he shall be clean.” For it would not have sufficed that he had said in the response, “he shall be clean,” had he not added these things too. This one, then, who is being purified from leprosy had filthy garments until now, even after the sprinkling, and now he is commanded to wash them. Yet these garments do not seem to me to have been of altogether bad weave. Otherwise he would have commanded them to be thrown away rather than washed. In this it is shown that his way of life was neither altogether estranged from God, nor kept entirely pure and whole; for he would not wash the garments unless they had been filthy, nor again use them once washed if they had been of a weave wholly foreign.

And as to his being commanded to shave all his hair, I think he is commanded to cast off whatever of dead work sprang up in the soul while it was placed in sins (for this is now called hair). For it is fitting for the sinner, if he truly wishes to be purified, to shave off and cast away everything that was born in him, whether in counsel, or in word, or in deed, and not allow anything to remain. But the saint ought to keep all his hair, and, if possible, a razor ought not to come up on his head, lest it cut off any of his wise thoughts, or words, or works. Hence indeed it is said of Samuel too that a razor did not come up on his head; and so of all the Nazirites, who are righteous; because the righteous man, as it is written, “whatever he does shall prosper, and his leaf shall not fall.” Hence too the hairs of the head of the Lord's disciples are said to be numbered: that is, all their actions, all their words, all their thoughts are kept with God, because they are righteous, because they are holy. But every work, every word, every thought of sinners must be cut off. And this is what is said: “That all the hair of his body be shaved, and then he shall be clean.” But observe this too, that it is not enough for him after purification to have washed his garments or shaved all his hair, unless he has also been washed in water. For he must cast off all filth, all uncleanness, not only from his garments but also from his own body, so that no stain of the extinguished leprosy may remain in him. Purified now, then, a third time, he is at last made worthy to enter the camp of the Lord; yet he is not at once permitted to enter his own house, but it is said that he shall remain outside his house seven days, and shave all the hair of his head and beard and eyebrows; as if it had not sufficed that he had earlier shaved all his hair, it is now added that he shave all the hair of his head and beard and eyebrows.

For the same thing seemed to have been said in his saying that all the hair was to be shaved. But this repetition does not seem to me empty. For he wishes to admonish the sinner, after he has become clean, after he has received the remission of sins through penance, about the purging of his head, beard, and eyebrows, as if he were saying to him: “Behold, now you have been made well; see that you do not again contract a fault of the head.” For it is a sin of the head to think about the divine doctrines otherwise than the faith of the church holds. In the beard, that he may remember that he has laid aside the sins of manly age, and, converted, become as an infant. In the eyebrows, that he may cast down arrogance and bend the wrongly raised eyebrow to the humility of Christ. In this way, then, all the hair of the body is shaved a second time. And just as these things are doubled, so it is not enough to have washed the garments once in the first purification, but he is commanded a second time to wash his garments and his body with water, and then, a fourth time, it is added: “and he shall be clean.” These things are done while he is now placed within the camp, yet still outside his own house. For it says: after seven days, on the eighth day, he shall take for himself two lambs. Now another does not take them, but he takes them for himself. “Two lambs,” it says, “without blemish, and one ewe a year old without blemish, and three tenths of fine flour mixed with oil, and one cup of oil”; after this, purified by a fifth purification, he will be brought to completion. Of these two lambs, one is sacrificed and is said to be for offence, “in the place,” it says, “in which the sin offering is slaughtered and where the burnt offerings are made, in a holy place.” Behold, he who has been able to reach the fifth purification is now made worthy to offer a sacrifice, and his victim becomes holy of holies.

The other lamb becomes a burnt offering, in which the priest is also said to make propitiation for him, so that he may be purged. The first lamb, then, which is for offence, seems to me to hold the form of that very virtue which he who was in sins took up, by which he could drive away from himself the inclination to sin and bear repentance for his old evils; and the second lamb to hold the figure of that virtue now recovered, by which, all vices cast away and put to flight far off, he offered himself whole and entire to God, and became worthy of the divine altars. The ewe, which is taken after the lambs, as far as we can conjecture in such difficult places, I think signifies the fruitfulness of one who has turned from sin and offered himself wholly to God, who after all things abounds in the offspring of good works and is strong in the fruits of innocence. The meaning of this purification, then, that is, of conversion from sin, is divided into three. The first is the victim by which sins are loosed. The second, that by which the soul is turned to God. The third is that of fruitfulness and the fruits which he who is said to be converted shows in works of piety. And because these victims are three, therefore he adds that three measures of a tenth of fine flour are also to be taken, so that we may understand everywhere that purification cannot happen without the mystery of the Trinity. And see that here, in the fifth purification, coarse flour is not taken, but this one who is being purified from sins now has fine flour; fine flour is assigned to him, from which he may now have clean bread, and this is mixed with oil. And his oil too is divided for two uses: one with which the fine flour is mixed, the other of which the priest takes the whole measure of the cup, as it says. In this, as I think, both his bread is made rich through mercy, and the oil by which the true light and the fire of knowledge is kindled is put on his head by the hands of the priest.

For so it says: “And the priest who cleanses him shall set him before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of witness.” You see that it belongs to the priest to set firm the one who is converted from sin, so that he may be able to be stable and no longer waver nor be moved by every wind of doctrine. He sets him, then, not only within the camp, but at the very door of the tabernacle of witness before the Lord. And after the victims have been offered for purification, according to what was said above, he applies, it says, also the cup of oil, and sets it apart before the Lord. “And the priest,” it says, “shall take some of the blood and put it on the tip of his right ear, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot.” And after this, it says, the priest shall take not the cup of oil itself but some of it: “And he shall pour it into his left hand, and the priest shall dip his finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord”; and again: “Of what remains in his left hand he shall put on the right ear of the one who is being purified, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot.” And after this: “What is left of the oil,” it says, “the priest shall put from his hand on the head of the one who is being purified.” You see how it belongs to the last and highest purification for the ear to be purified, so that the hearing may be kept pure and clean; and the right hand, so that our works may be clean and nothing unclean and filthy be mixed with them. And the feet too must be purified, so that they may be directed only to good work and no longer incur the falls of youth. And the priest sprinkles some of the oil seven times before the Lord. For after all the things that were celebrated for the one purified, after he was converted and reconciled to God, after the victims were sacrificed, it was in order that he should also invite upon him the sevenfold power of the Holy Spirit, according to him who had said: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and strengthen me with a guiding spirit.” Or certainly, since the Lord in the Gospel testifies that the hearts of sinners are besieged by seven demons, the priest fittingly sprinkles seven times before the Lord in the purification, so that the expulsion of the seven evil spirits from the heart of the one purified may be declared by the oil shaken from the fingers seven times.

So, then, to those converted from sin purification is given through all the things we said above; but the gift of the grace of the Spirit is signified by the image of the oil, so that the one who is converted from sin may not only obtain purgation but also be filled with the Holy Spirit, by whom he may receive again the first robe and the ring, and, reconciled to the Father in every way, be restored to the place of a son, through our Lord Jesus Christ himself, to whom be glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen. [Heading of the next homily:] On the sacrifices of propitiation, and on the two goats, of which one is the Lord's lot and one is for the sending away, which is sent into the desert, and on the high priest's entrance into the Holy of Holies.