Numbers 16:47

A man clearly worthy to be proposed that all should follow him was he, for when a terrible death on account of the rebels was spreading over the people, he offered himself between the dead and the living, that he might arrest death, and that no more should perish. A man truly of priestly mind and soul, who as a good shepherd with pious affection offered himself for the Lord's flock. And so he broke the sting of death, restrained its violence, refused it further course. Affection aided his deserts, for he offered himself for those who were resisting him.

Then Moses encouraged the high priest to offer incense in the camp and to pray for the people: "For the people have already begun to be destroyed." Moses saw in spirit what was happening, and therefore Aaron departed to offer incense for the people. He stood between the living and the dead, and the Lord's fury was alleviated. If you know the course of history and have been able to perceive with your eyes, so to speak, the priest standing in the middle between the living and the dead, rise now to the loftier heights of these words. See how the true priest, Jesus Christ, took the censer of human flesh, put fire on the altar which doubtless is that splendid soul with which he was born in the flesh, further added incense which is his pure spirit, stood between the living and the dead and did not allow death to proceed any farther.

"And the plague ceased," it says, or, as we said is read in other copies, "the breaking," which also better fits the true interpretation; for a "breaking" is what happens, as it were, in vessels of clay. Sinners, then, become vessels of clay, as the prophet Jeremiah indicates in the Lamentations, saying: "The sons of Zion, who were honorable and lifted up in gold, how are they counted as vessels of clay, the works of the potter's hands?" And: "In a great house," says the Apostle, "there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, and some indeed unto honor, but others unto dishonor." There are, then, vessels of clay unto dishonor, which also can be broken. But let us consider more carefully what the Apostle says in what follows concerning these very vessels of clay: "If anyone," he says, "shall have cleansed himself from these, he will be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and useful to the Lord, prepared for every good work." In which he seems to show that both the vessel itself, which is made, and the one by whom it is made, is one and the same man. Understand, therefore, that the purpose of the man is what he works, but the remaining part of the man is the vessel itself, which is made either unto honor or unto dishonor. When, therefore, our sense chooses the things that are good and draws us to a good manner of life, it makes us a useful vessel. But when our purpose has grown neglectful and has fallen away from good things, we are made a vessel unto dishonor. If, therefore, our understanding is of clay and always thinks of clay and of earthly things, we are made a vessel of clay and the work of the potter's hands. And perhaps for this reason such a man is rebuked by the Apostle, as one who, having a sense of clay and earthly, inquires about great things and about those which he cannot grasp, and says: "Why then does he still complain? For who resists his will?" To whom the Apostle, as to one of clay, replies: "Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God? Does the thing formed say to him who formed it: Why hast thou made me thus?" Moreover, either our body is called a vessel of clay, or also the letter of the law, in that place where the Apostle says: "But having this treasure in vessels of clay"; for both may be taken in this saying: both that the Lord bestows on us, placed in a body, the treasure of grace through the Holy Spirit,…