The Purpose of Sin's Ashes and the Body's Nature

Accepting. Thus indeed it is said concerning David: 'doing judgment and justice' (Ps 72:2).... Job... 'if you also marvel at faces in secret' (Job 27:19); for every bribetaker does not accept the things of those providing from the visible, but in secret, often also in a disguised manner, according to that, he wishes to come together. And he brings fear, saying that if someone dares to hide the thing of partiality by craft, but God, being angry through the onslaught against the sinners, will shake them, instead of 'he will let the passion be provided to them.'

He says the onslaught with the impulse of passion is like the movement of the swirling waters according to the dawnings, so that what he says briefly is such: 'do you bring his movement, if he is indignant?' Similar to this is what is brought in Zechariah, said to the sinners: 'the Lord shall go in the whirlwind of his wrath' (Zech 9:4). And the whirlwind of wrath signifies the anger because of their sins, for he himself is... The 'shall go' might perhaps be similar to that said in Genesis concerning Adam, that he heard God walking just as he was sinning (Gen 3:8); through this he receives a sensation of the departure of God because he no longer has anything luminous in himself. For those lengthening themselves from God hear: 'the Lord is far from the ungodly' (Ps 144:5), not in place of this being said, but in distancing the one being good and the one being bad from Him. And these things are because of the 'shall go in the whirlwind.'

Let us return to the beginning, to those 'marveling at faces in secret,' whom also the anger of God according to a whirlwind will shake, as it was given; and upon them also fear falls from God, and this is for benefit, so that they may know that a threat is brought against them as sinners. And of this fear, which I say according to the threat, is another by which it is said: 'the fear of the Lord surpassed all' (Ps 112:7), which is primarily reverence. For there is no other fear of God or heightened respect, through which those having it become lacking; 'for there is no deficiency to those fearing him' (Ps 115:11). But the passive fear follows the sinners. For another of this kind is said to be sent upon sinners for punishment; observe...

Otherwise, it signifies nothing else through the name of fear or the avoidance of wrath. This is not a passion of God; for it is said, 'I sent away the wrath' (Ps 106:42/implied); a passion is not sent away. But your boasting shall pass away like ashes. The word shows the state after the wrath of those sinning, being brought to nothing in the revelation occurring through the wrath, the conceit of those judging secretly being consumed.

Since ashes signify worthlessness, it is to be learned from one of the twelve prophets saying, 'And you shall trample down the lawless and they shall be as ashes under your feet' (cf. Zephaniah/Prophetic imagery). For ashes are something burning that has lost its own power. Indeed, a threat regarding burning is brought in Deuteronomy, as through the fruits being hindered because the land has lost its own power. And it is for some benefit that sins are burned up; just as thorns and thistles, being burned, do not bring a little harm, so also the sins—even if they are burned according to what is said, 'the lawlessness shall be burned like fire and shall be consumed by fire like dry stubble' (Matt 13:40)—they no longer defile the soul, but are called out toward repentance according to what is said in the Gospel: 'If the powers that happened in you had occurred in Tyre and Sidon, long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes, they would have repented' (Matt 11:21).

For if anyone receives in his mind the salvation-fire, about which the Savior said, 'I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what do I want, if it is already kindled' (Luke 12:49), he burns up the former sins; and sitting, instead of 'having ceased from sinning,' he is turned toward repentance, choosing a somewhat severe and rigorous life. But the body is clay. Man is composed of soul and body. And there is a time when the body is led away as a slave by the soul and, in a certain way, is no longer being treated as clay, but being a servant to the soul along with reason and with the mind acting.

But when someone cares for nothing of his salvation, his soul, turning toward wickedness and serving the flesh, doing such things as do not differ from an irrational animal, he shows that his body is clay, as nothing helping from the soul's movements. For the body is something distinct from the soul, as the Savior himself taught, saying: