10 Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.
“As what kind of man, judged and disputed over all of the earth, did you bear me?” If you see with me those martyrs who are judged in every place, those who submit to judges in each district, you will see in what way Jesus Christ is judged in each of the martyrs. For he is the one who is judged in those who testify to the truth, and you will be persuaded, he says, to accept this when you see that you are not in prison when you are in prison, but himself, you are not punished when you are punished, but himself, you do not thirst, but himself. “I was in prison and you visited me, hungry and you gave me something to eat, thirsty and you gave me drink.” Hence, if a Christian is judged not for something else, not for his own sins but because he is a Christian, Christ is the one judged. Thus, over all the earth Jesus Christ is judged. And as often as a Christian then is judged, Christ is the one judged, not only before proceedings such as these. But suppose a Christian is slandered and accused unjustly for something, then too Christ is judged unjustly.
Such is our life, we whose existence is so transitory. Such is the game we play on earth. We do not exist, and we are born, and being born, we disintegrate and disappear. We are a fleeting dream, an apparition without substance, the flight of a bird that passes, a ship that leaves no trace on the sea. We are dust, a vapor, the morning dew, a flower growing but a moment and withering in a moment. “A person’s days are as grass. As the flower of the field, so shall he flourish,” beautifully, as described by holy David in meditating on our weakness. And again in these words: “Declare to me the fewness of my days.” And he defines the days of people as the measure of a span. What would you say to Jeremiah, who, complaining about his birth, even blames his mother, and that, too, for the failings of others. I have seen all things, says the Preacher, I have reviewed in thought all human things, wealth, pleasure, power, unstable glory, wisdom that evades us rather than is won; then pleasure again, wisdom again, often revolving the same objects, the pleasures of appetite, orchards, numbers of slaves, store of wealth, serving men and serving maids, singing men and singing women, arms, spearmen, subject nations, collected tributes, the pride of kings, all the necessaries and superfluities of life, in which I surpassed all the kings that were before me. And what does he say after all these things? Vanity of vanities. ON HIS BROTHER ST.
Jeremiah also bewails his birth in these words: “Woe is me, my mother! Why have you borne me, a man of contention in all the earth? I have not benefited others, nor has anyone benefited me. My strength has failed.” If, then, holy people shrink from life whose life, though profitable to us, they themselves consider unprofitable, what ought we to do who are not able to profit others and who feel that our lives, like money borrowed at interest, grow more heavily weighted every day with an increasing mass of sins? “I die daily,” says the apostle. Better certainly is this saying than those who say that meditation on death is true philosophy, for while they praise the study, he exercises the practice of death.
This synecdoche can be understood concerning Jeremiah, who shall be judged only in the land of Judea, out of the entire world. He corresponds to the true Lord our Savior, who says in the Gospel: “I have come into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see and those who see may be blinded,” about whom it was also written: “Behold, this child is set for the ruin and resurrection of many in Israel and for a sign of contradiction.” For which of the philosophers and pagans and who among the heretics does not judge Christ by applying their laws to his birth and suffering and resurrection and substance? Nor is it strange for Christ to be saying, according to the truth of his assumed body, “Woe is me, my mother,” when, in another location, it is obviously a speaker who corresponds to his person who says, “Woe is me, for I have become as one who gathers the stubble at harvest and as a cluster of the vine having no first fruit to eat.” And lest we think that the weakness of these groans reflects on the Word of God, who is indeed the person that mourns, immediately he continues, “Woe is me, my soul that perishes from the earth in reverence.” It is not that we wish to divide Christ into two persons, like the impious do, but rather that one and the same Son of God sometimes speaks according to the flesh and sometimes according to the Word of God.
(Verse 10) Woe to me, my mother, why did you give birth to me as a man of strife (or judgment), a man of discord (or one who judges), in the whole world? This can be understood συνεκδοχικῶς from Jeremiah, that he was judged not in the entire world, but in the land of Judah. Truly, it belongs to the Lord, the Savior, who speaks in the Gospel: I have come into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind (John 9:39), of whom it is written: Behold, he is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (Luke 2:34). For who of the philosophers, who of the pagans, who of the heretics does not judge Christ, affirming the laws of his nativity, passion, and resurrection? No wonder, in accordance with the truth of his assumed body, Christ says: Woe to me, my mother; when in another place it clearly pertains to his person what is said: Woe to me, for I have become like one who gathers stubble in the harvest, and like a cluster of grapes in the vineyard, having no ear of grain to eat as the firstfruits. And so that we may not attribute the worthlessness of our groans to the Word of God, who is this one who weeps, it immediately follows: Woe to me, for my soul has perished in returning from the earth: not because we divide the Persons, as the wicked do; but so that the one and the same Son of God may speak now according to the flesh, now according to the Word of God.
I have not lent, and no one has lent to me; everyone curses me. In the Septuagint: I have not profited, and no one has profited me. In Theodotion: I have not owed, and no one has owed me. The sense of all these is from the perspective of Christ: No one has offered themselves to receive my debt; and no one has lent to me in supporting the holy and the poor, making me their debtor. Whether I have not profited, and no one has profited me; for no one has desired to receive as much as I have desired to give. No one has been of use to me; for the salvation of the creature is the profit of the Creator. Or certainly no one should have, nor could have, benefitted me: No one has given me as much as I desired to receive, nor made me indebted to them in any way. And this bears repeating: No one should have benefitted me, which means: How could I owe interest to someone who did not deign to receive interest? Everyone, he says, curses me. For who among the heretics and the wanderers does not curse Christ, by believing perverse things and blaspheming even more perversely?
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Jeremiah 15:10