Untitled - Saints' Books

Lam.
CHAP, iv.] Chastisement of the Sinful Priest. 75
my familiar, who didst take sweetmeats together
with me.
The Prophet Jeremias weeps and exclaims: They that
were fed delicately, . . . they that were brought lip in scarlet,
have embraced the dung. 1 Oh
!
what
a misery, what a
horrible thing, to see the man that fed on celestial food
and was clad in purple wearing the sordid garment of
sin, and feeding on filth and !
dung By the word
croceis the interpreters (resting on the Hebrew text that
were brought up in scarlet*} understand the purple; and
priests are said to be honored with the purple on account
of their regal dignity: You are a chosen nation, a kingly
priesthood?
II.
Chastisement of the Sinful
Priest.
But let us now see the chastisement that awaits the
sinful priest a chastisement proportioned to the grievousness
of his sin. According to the measure of the sin
shall the measure also of the stripes be* St. John Chrysostom
gives up as lost the priest that commits a single mortal
5
sin after his elevation to the priesthood. Terrible in
deed are the threats that the Lord has pronounced, by
the mouth of Jeremias, against priests who fall into sin.
For the prophet and the priest are dejiled, and in my house I
have found their wickedness, saith the Lord. Therefore,
their way shall be as the slippery way in the dark ; for they
err and fall therein! What hope of life would you give
to him who, without light to guide his steps, should
1 "
Qui vescebantur voluptuose,
. . .
qui nutriebantur in croceis,
amplexati sunt stercora !" iv. 5.
2 "
3 "
4 "
educati fuerunt."
Qui in purpura
Vos autem genus electum, regale Sacerdotium." i Pet. ii. 9.
Pro mensura peccati erit et plagarum modus." Deiit. xxv. 2.
5 "Si
privatim pecces, nihil tale passurus es; si in Sacerdotio peccas,
periisti."
In Act. Ap. horn. 3.
6 "
Propheta namque et Sacerdos polluti sunt, et in domo mea inveni
malum eorum, ait Dominus. Idcirco via eorum erit quasi lubricum in
tenebris; impellentur enim, et corruent in ea." -Jer.
xxiii. n.