the crucified orator 718 in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life” (Gen 3:17-18). Now He says something quite different: “I will never again curse the ground.” Beforehand, touched within by pain in the heart, He said: I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them” (Gen 6:6-7). Now, completely appeased and calm, entirely good and gracious, He proclaims something different: “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done”(Gen 8:21). Why such a sudden and miraculous change in someone who is unchangeable? Because “the Lord smelled the pleasing odor,” say the Scriptures [Gen 8:21]. It is as if they were saying: Hitherto, God was so angry and furious that He completely destroyed the world while the harsh smell of the crimes of men filled His nostrils. However, when the fragrance of thanksgiving, the odor of supplication, the aroma of prayer reinvigorated His nostrils, immediately, as if transformed into someone else, He holds back His right hand, and promises the most abundant fecundity of the earth and the safety and peace of the human race. “I will never again curse the ground,” He said, “neither will I ever again destroy every living creature.” O blessed aroma, which so perfectly reconciled the earth and its inhabitants with God! But here one may ask: Where did this aroma so pleasant to God come from? From the flesh of immolated animals or from somewhere else? The first is ruled out, since smoke and an unpleasantly strong smell typically come forth from the burning of meat. Therefore, there was a different origin of this aroma, and indeed it was so abundant, that its intensity checked the strong smell of the [burning] flesh. Affirming this [fact] strongly, the Bishop74 [John Chrysostom], famous for his golden eloquence, declared: “Thanks to its very intense aroma, the disposition of the one offering the sacrifice removed 74 St. Stanislaus has in mind St. John Chrysostom.
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