Ezequiel 16
John Chrysostom · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Ezequiel 16:2
What do you say, prophet? God punishes, and shall I grieve for those whom he is punishing? Certainly. For God, who punishes, wants us to grieve, since he does not want to punish us, and he grieves when carrying out punishment. Do not rejoice at this. One will say, "If they are justly punished, we ought not to grieve." What we ought to grieve for is this, that they were found worthy of punishment. When you see your son undergoing medical or surgical treatment, do you not grieve? You do not say to yourself, "What is this?" This cutting is for health, to speed his recovery; it is for his deliverance, this burning? But for all that, when you hear him crying out and unable to bear the pain, you grieve, and the hope of health being restored is not enough to carry off the shock to nature. — HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 43
Ezequiel 16:3
If we are on the alert, these evils that came into life as a result of the sins of our forebears will in no way be able to harm us, because in fact they go no further than the level of terminology. It was the first formed human being who through the fall brought on the punishment of death and was responsible for spending his life in pain and distress, and it was he who was the cause of servitude. But Christ the Lord came and permitted all these evils to occur only at the level of terminology, provided we are of the right mind. You see, death is now not death but only carries the name of death—or, rather, even the very name has been abolished. — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 29:23
Ezequiel 16:8
Do not infer from these things that it is about punishment only, but also about the boundless longsuffering of God. — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 43:5
Ezequiel 16:23
I do marvel. You behave in the same way to me, who have been hitherto unknown to you, when even to the Father, of whom you have so much experience, you have done the very same. You have forsaken him, you have run to the devils, drawing to yourselves wicked lovers. With this Ezekiel too was continually upbraiding them. — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 43:1
Ezequiel 16:49
Do not ask those things from God that you receive from the devil. For it is God's part to give a contrite and humbled heart, sober, self-possessed and awestruck, full of repentance and compunction. These are his gifts, since it is these things that we most need. — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 6:9