Heal me, Lord—you alone are my boast
Then again a prayer stands thus: 'Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my boast.' They say to me: 'Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come.' And I answer: I did not tire out following behind you, and I did not long for a day of man—you know.
Only the physician who came for the sick, who says, 'The strong have no need of a physician, but those who are badly off,' can hear from every soul that wants healing: 'Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed.' If some other promises a medicine of souls, you cannot truthfully address him with that prayer. The woman with the flow of blood spent everything on physicians and was healed by none of them; it was not fitting to say to any of them, 'Heal me, Lord,' but only to the one whose garment-fringe is enough to touch.
So I say to him: 'Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed.' If you heal, healing follows from you, and I am saved. Whoever else would save me does not save me; only if Christ saves is salvation true. 'A horse is a lie for salvation,' and everything besides God is a lie for salvation. Therefore: 'Save me, Lord, and I shall be saved'—if I can also renounce every boast and say, 'you are my boast,' fulfilling: 'Let the wise not boast in wisdom, nor the strong in strength, nor the rich in riches, but let the one who boasts boast in this: understanding and knowing that I am the Lord.' Blessed is the one who has put away every lower boast—birth, beauty, body, wealth, glory—and is satisfied with the one boast: 'you are my boast.'
Greek
Εἶτα πάλιν εὐχή ἐστιν οὕτως ἔχουσα· «ἴασαί με, κύριε, καὶ ἰαθήσομαι· σῶσόν με, καὶ σωθήσομαι,ὅτι καύχημά μου σὺ εἶ. ἰδοὺ αὐτοὶ λέγουσι πρός με· ποῦ ἐστιν ὁ λόγος κυρίου; ἐλθέτω.
ἐγὼ δὲ οὐκ ἐκοπίασα κατακολουθῶν ὀπίσω σου, καὶ ἡμέραν ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἐπεθύμησα, σὺ ἐπίστασαι. μόνῳ τῷ ἐληλυθότι διὰ τοὺς κακῶς ἀλλ᾿ οἱ ἰατρῷ καὶ λέγοντι·«οὐ χρείαν ἔχουσιν οἱ ἰσχύοντες ἰατροῦ ἀλλ᾿ οἱ κακῶς ἔχοντες« ἔστιν εἰπεῖν τεθαρρηκότως πάντα τὸν βουόμενον θεραπευθῆναι ἀπὸ τοῦ νοσεῖν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ·«ἴασαί με, κύριε, καὶ ἰαθήσομαι. εἰ δέ τις ἄλλος παρὰ τοῦτον ἐπαγγέλλεται τὴν τῶν ψυχῶν ἐατρικήν, οὐκ ἂν λέγοις ἐκείνῳ ἀληθεύων· «ἴασαί με, κύριε, καὶ ἰαθήσομαι. καὶ γὰρ ἐκείνη ἡ «αἱμορροοῦσα« ἐδαπάνησε «τὰ παρ᾿ αὐτῆς πάντα« εἰς τοὺς ἰατρούς, καὶ «οὐκ ἴσχυσεν ὑπ᾿ οὐδενὸς αὐτῶν θεραπευθῆναι«· πρὸς οὐδένα γὰρ ἐκείνων εὔλογον ἦν εἰπεῖν· «ἴασαί με, κύριε, καὶ ἰαθήσομαι«, ἢ πρὸς μόνον, οὗ ἀρκεῖ ἅψασθαι «τοῦ κρασέδου τοῦ ἱματίου. λέγω οὖν πρὸς τοῦτον· «ἴασαί με, κύριε, καὶ ἰαθήσομαι«· ἐὰν γὰρ ἰάσῃ, τὸ τέλος ἐπακολουθήσει τῇἀπὸ σοῦ ἰάσει, ἡ θεραπεία, ὥστ᾿ἄν με σωθῆναι.
ὅσοι δὲ ἄλλοισώσουσιν, οὐ σωθήομαι· μόνη δὲ καὶ ἀληθῶς σωτηρία, ἐὰν σώσῃ χριστός, ἐπεὶ τότε σωθήσομαι. «ψευδὴς ἵππος εἰς σωτητίαν«, ψευδῆ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα παρὰ τὸν θεὸν εἰς σωτηρίαν. διὰ τοῦτο αὐτῷ εἴποιμι ἄν· «σῶσόν με, κύρις, καὶ σωθήσομαι. καὶ λέγω τοῦτο, ἐὰν καὶ τὸ ἑξῆς δυνηθῶ λέγειν τῷ ἀποτετάχθαι παντὶ καυχήματι, ἵνα εἴπω· «ὅτι καύχημά μου εἶ σύ«, ἣ ὅτε πληρῶ τὴν λέγουσαν ἐντολήν· «μὴ καυχάσθω ὁ σοφὸς| ἐντῇ σοφίᾳ αὐτοῦ, μηδὲ ὁ ἰσχυρὸς ἐν τῇ ἰσχύϊ αὐτοῦ, μηδὲ ὁ πλούσιος ἐν τῷ πλούτῳ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλ᾿ἂ ἐν τούτῳ καυχάσθω ὁ καυχώμενος, τοῦ συνιεῖν καὶ γινώσκειν ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι κύριος. μακάριος οὖν ὁ ἀποταξάμενος πάσῃ τῇ κάτω καυχήσει, οἷον ἐπὶ καλουμένῃ εὐγενείᾳ καὶ ἐπὶ κάλλει καὶ τοῖς σωματικοῖς πράγμασιν, ἐπὶ πλούτῳ, ἐπὶ δόξῃ, καὶ ἀρκο΄μενος μιᾷ καυχήσει ἵνα εἴπῃ· «ὅτι καύχημά μου εἶ σύ.
About this text
Origen on Jeremiah. Twenty Greek homilies survive. This page publishes the Pass B English for Homilies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Homily 8 remains a machine draft and is not shipped yet. The rest of the volume is still being translated.
English follows Erich Klostermann, Origenes Werke III (GCS, 1901). A second transcription of that same edition (First1KGreek TEI) was checked; where the TEI drops or garbles a line, the page image wins. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition of the Greek. Homilies that survive only in Jerome’s Latin are not on this page yet. When they are, they will be marked at those homilies.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Klostermann, Origenes Werke III (GCS, 1901) (Greek · Homilies 1–20 Greek (this page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20))
- Checked print Archive.org page image and DjVu of GCS III (Greek · Same print as the copy-text)
- Checked print First1KGreek TEI of GCS III (Greek · Same print; encoding errors deferred to the page image)
Where the prints differ
- Homily 1.1 — The TEI omits Ἑβραῖον. English follows the GCS page image: Jonah is “a Hebrew prophet.”
- Homily 1.5 — The TEI dropped Ἰσαάκ. English follows the GCS page image: Isaac born of promise.
- Homily 1.11 — The TEI/OCR of this line is garbled. English follows the GCS page image and the quoted verse: “I have sanctified you.”
- Homily 3.2 — The TEI gaps Matthew 5:45 (sun on the evil and [gap]; rain on [gap] and the unjust). English follows the Gospel wording.
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.