Eyes of the mind; ears in our power

Origen went on: Uncover my eyes, and I will consider the wonders of your law — not as though his eyes were covered, but our eyes are the mind. It belongs to Jesus alone to uncover, so that we may be able to behold the things written and to understand the things said in a hidden way.

The outer man has ears, and the inner man is said to have ears. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. All had the ears of sense, but not all had succeeded in having the inner hearings cleansed. These ears are not in our power; those are in our power. And since it is in our power to have those ears, for this reason the prophet says: Hear, you deaf, and you blind, look up to see. And who is deaf but my servants, and who is blind but those who lord it over them? And the slaves of God were blinded.

That it is in our power to become deaf [lacuna] (let us attend; what is said is about to touch all of us; the inner man must be described so that the blood may be found) — that it is in our power to become deaf according to those hearings, hear the prophet saying: The sinners have been alienated from the womb; they have gone astray from the belly; they have spoken falsehoods. Wrath is theirs according to the likeness of the serpent, as of a deaf asp that stops her ears, which will not listen to the voice of charmers, of a drug being mixed by a wise man.