Recognition and Participation

And the eyes are full. Regarding those of whom the Word speaks, having become thickened by thinking of earthly and material things, bearing the image of the earthly, they are thinned through exhortations, admonitions, threats, and painful discipline, so that, as having become dust in the face of the Divine Spirit, which is called the tropical wind, all that is earthly, being dispersed by them by the breath of the Spirit, may become pure dust as their underlying substance, for whom it has happened to be earthly.

And if they also willingly follow this calling, the author says as if to a filthy city: 'Shake off your dust, Jerusalem' (Ps 17:43). But the Lord, or His imitator, the just, licks these even as mud in the streets. But this mud being licked will not be able to become an earthen vessel useful in the great house in which there are golden and silver and wooden and earthen vessels; but since the golden and silver are for honor and the wooden and earthen are for dishonor, the one cleansing himself from these becomes a vessel of honor, having been sanctified and made useful to the Master, prepared for every good work, while those who remain such mud in the streets—that is, the mire of pleasures and desires—are being freed from all roughness from the passions.

He who says these things, by instilling a uniformity through the licking, is now making them earthen vessels, if they should cleanse themselves by a spontaneous impulse as if to become vessels of honor, golden or silver. For just as some have become earthen vessels from golden and silver ones (For the precious sons of Zion, exalted with silver, how were they reckoned as earthen vessels of the work of hands? Ps 51:7), so from their own domestic choice they shall become golden or silver from earthen ones.

Regarding the second meaning of the name of knowledge, he shows both the knowing and the being known and being recognized by the one knowing the one being known. According to the former meaning, God knows all, and not only the diligent ones. For toward the lowly the Savior says: 'You justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts' (Mt 6:1); and in the prophet: 'Because I knew all your sins' (Ps 40:3). And according to the second meaning...

It is said that he recognizes only the righteous. For the Lord knew those who were his, but he ignored the wicked. The Savior says to them: 'Depart from me, workers of lawlessness, I never knew you' (Matt 7:23). And the people from the nations, not being known by the Savior, though he healed both demons and idols and practiced all manner of evil, having changed through repentance to serve Christ, came to him. And even the saying 'He did not know' is true. For it is not said: 'A people I do not know served me' (Matt 15:22). For he who is doing the works of wickedness is not known; but he who has ceased from sins was not known before, but is known now.

To this the apostolic word agrees, saying: 'But formerly, not knowing God, you served those which by nature are not gods; but now, having known God, and even more having been known by God' (Gal 4:8). For they did not know God, and they were unknown by him, but having known him, they were known by him. Perhaps it will seem to some that the spoken thing passes by: 'To the hearing of an ear I obeyed' (1 Sam 13:30), meaning to obey with an ear that obeys all things. But the ear is not intended to pass by or to be superfluous for the one obeying all things, so as to use a non-human and mortal hearing, but a divine ear added to the one approaching; for he added to me an ear for hearing.

'Alien sons have grown old' (Heb 1:6), and the following. God the Father, becoming the beginning and source of the good, becomes the source of those doing good works, and those who are found in doing what is necessary are truly sons of God, partakers of his only-begotten Son. But if those who did not draw near participate in the opposites (and these are the evils), they would be alienated from God, and the growing old would follow. For participating in virtue, in bright and imperishable wisdom and incorruption, they were finding constant renewal; but falling into wickedness, they would be growing old through their own corruption (if indeed it is so), being worn out.

And since the verse is about the Jews, they are not sitting by the oldness of the letter, nor are they falling by quantity, enduring the newness of the spirit, 'Alien sons and having grown old have become'; but they are also said to be double-minded and double-souled, reeling from their many tribulations. For to be double-minded...