We wish to understand the words spoken to Jerusalem with much menace, which run thus: "Who will spare you, O Jerusalem? Or who will be sorrowful for you? Or who will turn aside to ask after your peace? You have turned away from me, says the Lord. You shall go backward, and I will stretch out my hand against you and destroy you, and I will no longer let you go. And I will scatter them in a dispersion." Then: "I have been made childless." Perplexity has seized me. I take as an illustration a man who has been declared an enemy of the one who reigns upon the earth, because for such a person it is not permitted even to impart mercy, lest anyone seem to give offense to the king who has condemned him. And it is not permitted even to show mercy to such a one; some go still further and do not even show sorrow over him, lest by showing sorrow they seem to be displeased with the sentence passed by the king. If you have grasped this, look with me at the one condemned by God on account of his own many sins, and consider such a person: though there are legions of angels appointed to help the nature of human beings, he is pitied by none. For each of the angels, seeing that the one who has condemned him is God, that the one from whom he has turned away is the Creator, that the nature of the sins is such that the good God was compelled — so to speak — to bring the verdict against the one who has sinned, each of those who see does not spare, does not show sorrow, does not pity, does not turn back to intercede for peace toward such a one.
Let this Jerusalem, then (for so it shall be spoken according to the letter), have sinned against my Jesus, and have done such things, that Jesus should say concerning her: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not. Behold, your house is left to you." Let this Jerusalem be forsaken, as she has been forsaken. Let the angels who ever help Jerusalem — through whom also the law of Moses was ordained, "ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator" — let them forsake Jerusalem and say: her sins have become great, they have killed Jesus, they have laid their hands upon Christ. As long as the sins were still smaller, we could still make request and intercede concerning them, we could spare Jerusalem; who will spare her in this case? "If a man sinning sins against another man, then they shall pray for him; but if he sins against the Lord, who shall pray for him?" "Jerusalem has sinned a sin; therefore she has become an object of tossing." And it is said to this very one first: "Who will spare you, O Jerusalem? And who will be sorrowful for you?" We do not show sorrow over Jerusalem and over her calamities and over the things that befell all that people; "for by their trespass salvation has come to us, to provoke them to jealousy." Since their trespass became so great a sin that it was said by the voice of the Lord, "Who then will spare you" — I too say to her who killed my Jesus — "Who will spare you, O Jerusalem? And who will be sorrowful for you?"
I pass over from the letter — although I have had a road, which the word has given — to each soul that has already been counted worthy to see peace; for after the divine lessons you have become Jerusalem, having formerly been Jebus. The history says that the name of that place was Jebus, and afterward it changed its name and became Jerusalem. Jebus, the children of the Hebrews say, is interpreted "trodden down." Jebus, then, the soul trodden down by the opposing powers, has been changed and become Jerusalem, "Vision of peace." If, then, when you have been changed from Jebus into becoming Jerusalem, you have sinned and "trodden down the Son of God and counted the blood of the new covenant a common thing" (as she did, so also you), and are in grievous sins, it will be said also concerning you: "Who will spare you, O Jerusalem? And who will be sorrowful for you?" — if you become such as to betray Jesus. Each of us when he sins, and especially if he sins the greater sins, sins against Jesus. And if he is also an apostate, then all the more does he do to Jesus spiritually the things which Jerusalem did to him bodily. Therefore, "of how much worse punishment do you think he will be counted worthy who has trodden down the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant a common thing, by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" If you have trodden down the Son of God and insulted the Spirit of grace, who "will spare you? Who will be sorrowful for you? Who will turn aside to ask after the things that make for your peace?" The very Son of God, who asks after the things that make for your peace, the soul of the sinner has betrayed; who is able to intercede, turning back again concerning peace? Knowing, then, that "it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and have fallen away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame" — let us do everything, so that it may not be said also concerning us: "Who will spare you, O Jerusalem? And who will be sorrowful for you? Or who will turn aside to ask after your peace?"
Let this Jerusalem, then (for so it shall be spoken according to the letter), have sinned against my Jesus, and have done such things, that Jesus should say concerning her: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not. Behold, your house is left to you." Let this Jerusalem be forsaken, as she has been forsaken. Let the angels who ever help Jerusalem — through whom also the law of Moses was ordained, "ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator" — let them forsake Jerusalem and say: her sins have become great, they have killed Jesus, they have laid their hands upon Christ. As long as the sins were still smaller, we could still make request and intercede concerning them, we could spare Jerusalem; who will spare her in this case? "If a man sinning sins against another man, then they shall pray for him; but if he sins against the Lord, who shall pray for him?" "Jerusalem has sinned a sin; therefore she has become an object of tossing." And it is said to this very one first: "Who will spare you, O Jerusalem? And who will be sorrowful for you?" We do not show sorrow over Jerusalem and over her calamities and over the things that befell all that people; "for by their trespass salvation has come to us, to provoke them to jealousy." Since their trespass became so great a sin that it was said by the voice of the Lord, "Who then will spare you" — I too say to her who killed my Jesus — "Who will spare you, O Jerusalem? And who will be sorrowful for you?"
I pass over from the letter — although I have had a road, which the word has given — to each soul that has already been counted worthy to see peace; for after the divine lessons you have become Jerusalem, having formerly been Jebus. The history says that the name of that place was Jebus, and afterward it changed its name and became Jerusalem. Jebus, the children of the Hebrews say, is interpreted "trodden down." Jebus, then, the soul trodden down by the opposing powers, has been changed and become Jerusalem, "Vision of peace." If, then, when you have been changed from Jebus into becoming Jerusalem, you have sinned and "trodden down the Son of God and counted the blood of the new covenant a common thing" (as she did, so also you), and are in grievous sins, it will be said also concerning you: "Who will spare you, O Jerusalem? And who will be sorrowful for you?" — if you become such as to betray Jesus. Each of us when he sins, and especially if he sins the greater sins, sins against Jesus. And if he is also an apostate, then all the more does he do to Jesus spiritually the things which Jerusalem did to him bodily. Therefore, "of how much worse punishment do you think he will be counted worthy who has trodden down the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant a common thing, by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" If you have trodden down the Son of God and insulted the Spirit of grace, who "will spare you? Who will be sorrowful for you? Who will turn aside to ask after the things that make for your peace?" The very Son of God, who asks after the things that make for your peace, the soul of the sinner has betrayed; who is able to intercede, turning back again concerning peace? Knowing, then, that "it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and have fallen away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame" — let us do everything, so that it may not be said also concerning us: "Who will spare you, O Jerusalem? And who will be sorrowful for you? Or who will turn aside to ask after your peace?"
Source: HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 13