Gregory the Dialogist — Commentary on Scripture

Isaiah 35:7

The Lord makes a promise about holy church through another prophet, saying, “The reed and the rushes will become green and luscious.” I remember explaining elsewhere that reeds must be interpreted as scribes and rushes surely as hearers. But because both rushes and reeds are apt to grow beside the moisture of water and both benefit from the same water, and a reed is indeed used for writing while it is impossible to write with a bulrush, what must we understand by the bulrush and the reed except that there is one doctrine of truth which nourishes many hearers?

HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:1.11

Isaiah 39:1-2

Often the care of government when undertaken distracts the heart in many different directions. The ruler finds himself unequal to the task of dealing with particular things when his mind becomes confused, having its attention diverted by so many different things.… When one, because of this, neglects the business of self-examination, that person does not even consider the losses it is suffering or know how great they are. For neither did Hezekiah believe himself to be sinning when he showed to the strangers who came to him his storehouses of spices. He fell under the anger of the judge, however, and his future offspring were condemned because of what he supposed himself to be doing lawfully. Often, when means are abundant and many things can be done for subordinates to admire, the mind exalts itself in thought. But in so doing, it also provokes the anger of the judge, even though the acts of iniquity may have not been overt. For the one who judges us is within, as is that which is judged. When, then, in our hearts we transgress, what we are doing within ourselves is hidden from men. A…

Often the care of government when undertaken distracts the heart in many different directions. The ruler finds himself unequal to the task of dealing with particular things when his mind becomes confused, having its attention diverted by so many different things.… When one, because of this, neglects the business of self-examination, that person does not even consider the losses it is suffering or know how great they are. For neither did Hezekiah believe himself to be sinning when he showed to the strangers who came to him his storehouses of spices. He fell under the anger of the judge, however, and his future offspring were condemned because of what he supposed himself to be doing lawfully. Often, when means are abundant and many things can be done for subordinates to admire, the mind exalts itself in thought. But in so doing, it also provokes the anger of the judge, even though the acts of iniquity may have not been overt. For the one who judges us is within, as is that which is judged. When, then, in our hearts we transgress, what we are doing within ourselves is hidden from men. And yet in the eyes of the Judge we sin.

PASTORAL CARE 1:4

Isaiah 40:3

"I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said." You know, dearest brothers, that the only-begotten Son is called the Word of the Father, as John testifies when he says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And from your own manner of speaking you recognize that the voice sounds first, so that the word may afterward be heard. Therefore John asserts that he is the voice, because he precedes the Word. And so, going before the coming of the Lord, he is called a voice, because through his ministry the Word of the Father is heard by men. He also cries out in the wilderness, because he announces the comfort of the Redeemer to abandoned and forsaken Judea. But what he cries out he indicates when he adds: "Make straight the way of the Lord." The way of the Lord is made straight to the heart when the word of truth is humbly heard. The way of the Lord is made straight to the heart when one's life is prepared according to his commandment.

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 7

Isaiah 40:3

It is well said that he sent them before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to come. For the Lord follows his preachers, because preaching comes first, and then the Lord comes to the dwelling place of our mind, when words of exhortation run ahead, and through these truth is received in the mind. For thus Isaiah says to these same preachers: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God.

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 17

Isaiah 40:5

All flesh, that is, every man can not see the salvation of God in Christ in this life. The Prophet therefore stretches his eye beyond to the last day of judgment, when all men both the elect and the reprobate shall equally see Him.

Isaiah 40:9

The high mountain is the summit of doctrine and practice. Let one rise up who hurries to anoint the king. Let him reach into the heights. Let him rise up in lofty practice, in lofty contemplation, in the wisdom of the Word, in the power of love. He who is the One anointed by preaching is so great that he can be scarcely reached, even by the highest places.… The highest heights are the power of perfect conversation, and this is achieved by many perfectly.

SIX BOOKS ON 1 KINGS 6:114

Isaiah 42:14

“I spoke as if giving birth.” For as we already have said, giving birth with pain expels that which was developing deep within for a long time. The one who was always silent speaks out now like one giving birth, for the coming judge withheld revenge from being inflicted on humans for a long time; for he shows the extent to which he kept contained within the pressure of endurance, like a headache. So no one, when God hides this light, should despise him or criticize him when God flashes down from heaven to burn up those who have contempt for him. For the one who does not long for pardon then without a doubt he will burn as punishment. So we accept the time of calling through heavenly grace, while indulgence still prevails, and may we flee the wrath that is all around, making an improvement in our lifestyle.

MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 10:31

Isaiah 43:2

For the rivers overflow those whom the active business of this world confounds with perturbation of mind. But one who is sustained in mind by the grace of the Holy Spirit passes through the waters and yet is not swamped by the rivers, because in the midst of crowds of peoples he so proceeds along his way as not to sink the head of his mind beneath the active business of the world.

LETTER 7:4

Isaiah 43:24

But because sweat is usually wiped away from workers by a cloth, the labor of God can also be expressed by the name of cloth—He who indeed always remains quiet and unchangeable in Himself, yet nevertheless declares that He labors when He bears the harsh depravities of men. Whence He also says through the prophet: "I have labored in enduring." Now God appeared in the flesh, He labored from our infirmity. When unbelievers saw this labor of His passion, they refused to venerate Him. For they disdained to believe that He whom they saw mortal in the flesh was immortal in His divinity.

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 22

Isaiah 49:14

For who does not know that the memory of God is not affected by forgetting or restored by recollection? But when leaving something he passes it by, so that in the manner of human minds he is said to forget, and when after a long time he looks up what he wanted, in the habit of our mutability he is said to have recollected. By what arrangement of divinity does oblivion limit the power of the one whom the very notion of memory does not suit? For only past or absent things can be recollected. How can God remember past things, since the very things that pass in themselves are always present, standing by for his command? Or how can he recollect absent things when everything that is present to him [is present] by its essence?

MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 32:5

Isaiah 49:18

The clothes of the church are all who are joined to it in the unity of faith.

MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 27:38

Isaiah 51:23

Hence another prophet says concerning unclean spirits: Who said to your soul, Bow down that we may pass over. For the soul stands upright when it desires heavenly things, and is by no means bent toward the lowest things. But when malign spirits see it standing in its uprightness, they cannot pass through it. For their passing through is to scatter unclean desires upon it. Therefore they say, Bow down that we may pass over, because if the soul does not cast itself down to desiring the lowest things, their perversity by no means prevails against it; and they cannot pass through her whom they fear standing rigid against them in heavenly intention.

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 31

Isaiah 51:23

Concerning these enemies indeed it is spoken through the prophet, for they say to your soul, “Bow down that we may cross over.” The sublime soul is indeed straight, standing tall, while the humbled one is bent, since through the heavenly quality of virtues and the heavenly longing it is lifted into the higher places, but when it is deflected to the love of this world, it fell to where the enemy attacked it and easily laid it waste. So they say to the souls, “bow down that we may cross over,” that is, to see if they bring it down to act or think in a worldly way or infiltrate its mind with mean thoughts and upset it with the warfare of vices. From this we can learn just how far away we ought to be from worldly action, word and thought.

SIX BOOKS ON 1 KINGS 5:57

Isaiah 53:5

No one usually brings hardship on himself. For example, the prophet insinuates the severity of [Christ’s] hardship when he says, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” For dying does not [necessarily] entail suffering what a condemned nature is capable of suffering. Therefore, the severity of the hardship he brought on himself comes to the fore in that he did not have by nature a body that could suffer; and yet, so that he might free us by his suffering, he humbly assumed the very thing that would allow him to suffer.

SIX BOOKS ON 1 KINGS 4:80

Isaiah 55:13

For in the hearts of the saints, instead of the baseness of earthly thoughts, the loftiness of heavenly contemplation rises up. Now the thorn is of a very fiery nature, while the cypress is of a moderate strength. Instead of the brier the myrtle comes up, when the minds of the righteous turn from the lasciviousness and heat of vices to the coolness and temperance of thoughts that do not desire the earthly things but with heavenly desires extinguish the flames of the flesh.

MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 18:20

Isaiah 56:10

Sometimes in sacred speech preachers are understood by dogs. For the tongue of a dog, when it licks a wound, heals it, because holy teachers too, when they instruct us in the confession of our sin, touch as it were the wound of the mind through their tongue; and because by speaking they rescue us from sins, by touching wounds as it were they restore us to health. For that by the name of dogs the tongue of preachers is signified, the Lord says through the Psalmist: "The tongue of your dogs from enemies, from him." For from the unbelieving Jews the holy preachers were chosen, who, coming against thieves and robbers in defense of the truth, gave great barkings, so to speak, for the Lord. Against this it is said of certain reprobates: "Dumb dogs, not able to bark." Because therefore holy preachers condemn sins, but approve the confession of sins, saying: "Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be saved," dogs lick the sores of Lazarus.

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 40

Isaiah 56:11

For often church leaders do not have foresight, and they fear to lose favor with human beings and fear to say the right things freely and according to the voice of truth. They in no way act with the attention of the pastors of the flock but are more like hired hands who flee when the wolf approaches, while they themselves quietly hide.

LETTER 1:24

Isaiah 57:1-2

The malice remaining in the world deserves no better than to have those who could be of profit quickly taken away. It is to spare the elect the sight of worse evils that they are removed when the end of time approaches.… It is not our belief, however, that all the elect are taken out of this world, leaving only the perverse to continue on, for sinners would never turn to sorrow and repentance if there were no good examples to motivate them.

DIALOGUE 3:37

Isaiah 58:14

“I will lift you up upon the high places of the earth.” For he is lifted up on the high places of the earth who treads under foot through looking down on them in his mind, even the very things of the present world, which seem lofty and glorious. But, having been suddenly dashed from this summit of things by the whirlwind of this trail, I have fallen into fears and tremors, since, even though I have no fears for myself, I am greatly afraid for those who have been committed to me. On every side I am tossed by the waves of business and sunk by storms, so that I may truly say, “I am come into the depth of the sea, and the storm has overwhelmed me.” After business I long to return to my heart; but driven from there by vain tumults of thoughts, I am unable to return.

LETTER 5

Isaiah 60:8

For death indeed climbs in through the windows and enters houses, in that through the body's sense lust comes and enters the dwelling of the mind. Quite to the contrary is this which we have often cited from Isaiah concerning the righteous: "Who are they who fly like clouds and like doves come to their windows?" The righteous are said to be like clouds since they are raised above earthly contagions, just as doves go to their own windows, since each one does not pay much attention to their exterior senses, and fleshly lust does not catch them when they are far from home.… For the holy person who receiving the senses of his body like servants to help him is in control of them; and the fairest judge sees sins before they come and closes the windows to the plundering death of the body, saying, "I have made a covenant with my eyes, that I should not gaze at a young woman."

MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 21:2