Lamentações 4
Origen of Alexandria · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Lamentações 4:20
As to the mention of that shadow under which the church says that it desired to sit, … Jeremiah says, "Under his shadow we shall live among the Gentiles." You see, then, how the prophet, moved by the Holy Spirit, says that life is afforded to the Gentiles by the shadow of Christ; and indeed how should his shadow not afford us life, seeing that even at the conception of his very body it is said to Mary, "The Holy Spirit shall come on you, and the power of the most High shall overshadow you"? — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 3:5
Lamentações 4:20
Just as in his coming now he fulfilled that law that has a shadow of good things to come, so also by that future glorious advent will be fulfilled and brought to perfection the shadows of the present advent. For thus spoke the prophet regarding it: "The breath of our countenance, Christ the Lord, to whom we said, that under your shadow we shall live among the nations," at the time, that is, when he will more worthily transfer all the saints from a temporal to an everlasting gospel, according to the designation, employed by John in the Apocalypse, of "an everlasting gospel." — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4:1.25
Lamentações 4:20
I think, indeed, that Jeremiah the prophet, also, understanding what was the nature of the wisdom of God in him, which was the same also that he had assumed for the salvation of the world, said, "The breath of our countenance is Christ the Lord, to whom we said, that under his shadow we shall live among the nations." And inasmuch as the shadow of our body is inseparable from the body and unavoidably performs and repeats its movements and gestures, I think that he, wishing to point out the work of Christ's soul, and the movements inseparably belonging to it and which accomplished everything according to his movements and will, called this the shadow of Christ the Lord, under which shadow we were to live among the nations. For in the mystery of this assumption the nations live, who, imitating it through faith, come to salvation. David also, when saying, "Be mindful of my reproach, O Lord, with which they reproached me in exchange for your Christ," seems to me to indicate the same. And what else does Paul mean when he says, "Your life is hidden with Christ in God," and again in another passage, "Do you seek a proof of Christ, who speaks in me?" And now he says that Christ was hidden in God. The meaning of this expression, unless it is shown to be something such as we have pointed out above as intended by the prophet in the words "shadow of Christ," exceeds, perhaps, the apprehension of the human mind. But we see also very many other statements in Holy Scripture respecting the meaning of the word shadow, as that well-known one in the Gospel according to Luke, where Gabriel says to Mary, "The Spirit of the Lord shall come on you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you." And the apostle says with reference to the law that they who have circumcision in the flesh "serve for the similitude and shadow of heavenly things." And elsewhere, "Is not our life on the earth a shadow?" If, then, not only the law that is on the earth is a shadow, but also all our life that is on the earth is the same, and we live among the nations under the shadow of Christ, we must see whether the truth of all these shadows may not come to be known in that revelation, when no longer through a glass and darkly, but face to face, all the saints shall deserve to behold the glory of God and the causes and truth of things. And the pledge of this truth being already received through the Holy Spirit, the apostle said, "Yes, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet from now on, we know him no more." — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2:6.7
Lamentações 4:20
He who sits on the white horse is called Faithful, not because of the faith he cherishes but of that which he inspires, because he is worthy of faith. Now the Lord Jehovah, according to Moses, is faithful and true. He is true also in respect of his relation to shadow, type and image; for such is the Word who is in the opened heaven, for he is not on earth as he is in heaven; on earth he is made flesh and speaks through shadow, type and image. The multitude, therefore, of those who are reputed to believe are disciples of the shadow of the Word, not of the true Word of God who is in the opened heaven. Therefore Jeremiah says, "The Spirit of our face is Christ the Lord, of whom we said, In his shadow shall we live among the nations." Thus the Word of God who is called faithful is also called true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war, since he has received from God the faculty of judging in very righteousness and very judgment and of apportioning its due to every existing creature. For none of those who have some portion of righteousness and of the faculty of judgment can receive on his soul such copies and impressions of righteousness and judgment as to come short in no point of absolute righteousness and absolute justice, just as no painter of a picture can communicate to the representation all the qualities of the original. This, I conceive, is the reason why David says, "Before you shall no living being be justified." He does not say, no human, or no angel, but no living being, since even if any being partakes of life and has altogether put off mortality, not even then can it be justified in comparison with you who are, as it were, life itself. Nor is it possible that one who partakes of life and is therefore called living should become life itself, or that one who partakes of righteousness and, therefore, is called righteous should become equal to righteousness itself.Now it is the function of the Word of God, not only to judge in righteousness but also to make war in righteousness, that by making war on his enemies by reason and righteousness, so that what is irrational and wicked is destroyed, he may dwell in the soul of one who, for his salvation, so to speak, has become captive to Christ and may justify that soul and cast out from it all adversaries. We shall, however, obtain a better view of this war that the Word carries on if we remember that he is an ambassador for the truth, while there is another who pretends to be the Word and is not, and one who calls itself the truth and is not, but a lie. Then the Word, arming himself against the lie, slays it with the breath of his mouth and brings it to naught by the manifestation of his coming. — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2:4
Lamentações 4:20
By a certain mystic word in Holy Scriptures, this first coming in the flesh is called his shadow, just as the prophet Jeremiah declares, saying, "The Spirit of our countenance, Christ the Lord, of whom we said to ourselves, 'In his shadow we shall live among the nations.' " — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 8:4