Open my eyes
Today at Matins:
From a Homily by Origen, Priest
“Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy from their own hearts.” This saying can apply to those who teach in the Church, if their teaching is contrary to the truth. Those who teach what our Lord Jesus Christ taught speak the word of Jesus the Son of God not from their own hearts but inspired by the Holy Spirit. If they agree with the will of the Holy Spirit, who spoke through the Apostles, they speak not from their own hearts but from the heart of the Holy Spirit, who spoke through Paul, through Peter, and through the rest of the Apostles. On the other hand, those who read the Gospel and interpret it according to their own ideas, misunderstanding the Lord’s words, are false prophets, speaking against the Gospel out of their own hearts.
“Woe to those who prophesy from their own hearts and follow their own spirit.” There are two sins, one of the heart, the other of the spirit. Let us look first at the better alternative, so as to be able to consider also its opposite. The Apostle says: “I will pray with my spirit; I will pray also with my mind.” (Now the mind has its dwelling in the heart.) “I will sing psalms with my spirit; I will sing them also with my mind.” We are possessed then of both spirit and mind. The saint prays with the spirit and also with the mind, and sings psalms with the spirit and also with the mind, but false prophets prophesy from their own hearts, not following the Spirit of God but their own spirit. For there is a certain spirit that dwells in men, and God forbid that I should follow it. May I, on the contrary, understand the Holy Spirit of God and follow my Lord Jesus.
The prophets, then, who prophesy from their own hearts and follow their own spirit rather than God’s see nothing at all. For we have within us other eyes that are better than the eyes of our bodies. These eyes either see the Lord Jesus, who created them to contemplate him, or else they are completely blind. If I am a sinner I see nothing; I am incapable of looking at the light of truth. As the Lord says: “It is for judgement that I have come into this world, so that the blind may see, and those who see become blind.” If I am righteous I receive God’s grace, and I too am called a seer just like the Prophets of old. Blessed are those whose eyes the Lord opens, so that they can see the wonders of God’s law, according to the Prophet’s entreaty: “Open my eyes that I may behold the wonders of thy law.”
