By Water & Blood

Homily 8.8: The burn by fire

The fourth law is where it is said that if a burn by fire arises on the skin, and afterwards, when the burn has been healed, it becomes shining and white with redness, or at least whitish, and its appearance lower than the rest of the skin, this he says is leprosy which has broken out in the burn. See, then, whether there is not a burn in every soul that receives the fiery darts of the evil one; or whether everyone who burns with carnal love is not burned with fire. These, then, are burns and kindlings of fire. But he too suffers a burn who is kindled by desire for human glory, and he who is inflamed by the heats of anger or fury. But if perhaps the soul is cured of these wounds through faith, and after recovering health, despising him who said, “Behold, now you have been made well; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you,” it begins to bring out from the scar that has formed over it the fruit of the old vice, and the scar is not made level with the skin of the rest of the body but is lower, and still keeps the colour which it had at the time of the leprosy, his leprosy has blossomed again in the burn, and therefore he is judged unclean by the priest.