Exposition of Psalm 122

1. Just as unclean love inflames the soul and summons it, doomed to perish, toward coveting earthly things and chasing after things that pass away, and casts it down into the depths and plunges it into the abyss, so holy love lifts it to the things above, sets it aflame for things eternal, and rouses the soul toward those things that neither pass away nor die, and lifts it from the depth of hell to heaven. Yet every love has its own force, nor can love lie idle in the soul of one who loves; it must lead somewhere. But do you wish to know what kind of love it is? Look where it leads. We are not, then, urging you to love nothing, but urging you not to love the world, so that you may freely love him who made the world. For a soul bound by earthly love has, as it were, birdlime on its wings; it cannot fly. But once it is cleansed of the foulest affections of this world, then, with its wings spread and its two pinions freed from every hindrance—that is, the two commandments of the love of God and the love of neighbor—it flies. Where does it fly, if not by rising up to God in its flight, since it rises by loving? Before it is able to do so, it groans on earth, if the desire to fly is already within it, and it says: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly away and be at rest (Ps 55:6 (54:7))? But where will it fly, if not away from the midst of scandals, where even this man was groaning whose voice this is that I have called to mind? Away, then, from the midst of scandals, away from mingling with evil men, away from the chaff with which the grain is mingled, it wishes to fly, where it need not endure union and fellowship with any wicked man, but may live in the holy fellowship of the angels who are citizens of the eternal Jerusalem.

2. [v. 1.] This psalm, then, which today we have undertaken to expound to your holiness, longs for that very Jerusalem—that is, this man who in this psalm ascends; for it is a Song of ascents, which we have often told your charity is not a song of those going down but of those going up. This man, then, wishes to ascend. And where does he wish to ascend, if not to heaven? What does 'to heaven' mean? Does he wish to ascend in order to be with the sun and the moon and the stars? Far from it. Rather, in heaven there is the eternal Jerusalem, where our fellow citizens, the angels, dwell; from those very fellow citizens of ours we are pilgrims on earth. In our pilgrimage we sigh; in the city we shall rejoice. But in this pilgrimage we have also found companions who have already seen that city and who invite us to run toward it. Over these this man rejoices, who also says: I rejoiced at those who said to me: We will go into the house of the Lord (Ps 122:1 (121:1)). Brothers, let it come to your charity's mind, if perhaps some festival of the martyrs and some holy place is named, where on a fixed day the crowds flow together to celebrate the solemnity—how those crowds rouse one another, how they exhort one another and say: Let us go, let us go. And they ask: Where shall we go? And the answer is given: To that place, to the holy place. They speak to one another, and as if set on fire they make, one by one, a single flame; and that single flame, made out of the conversation of those who kindle one another, sweeps them away to the holy place, and the holy thought sanctifies them. If, then, holy love sweeps men away like this to a temporal place, what kind of love must that be which sweeps men away, all in one accord, to heaven, saying to one another: We will go into the house of the Lord? Let us run, then, let us run, for we will go into the house of the Lord. Let us run, and let us not grow weary, because we shall arrive there where we shall not be wearied. Let us run into the house of the Lord, and let our soul rejoice in those who say these things to us. For those who say these things to us saw the homeland before us, and from afar they cry out to those who come after: We will go into the house of the Lord; walk, run. The apostles saw it, and they said to us: Run, walk, follow; We will go into the house of the Lord. And what does each one of us say? I rejoiced at those who said to me: We will go into the house of the Lord. I rejoiced in the prophets, I rejoiced in the apostles. For all of these said to us: We will go into the house of the Lord.

3. [v. 2.] Our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem (Ps 122:2 (121:2)). See, you have the house of the Lord, if you were asking what the house of the Lord is. In that house of the Lord, the one who built the house is praised: he himself is the delight of all who dwell in the house; he himself is the sole hope here and the reality there. So then, those who run, what ought they to think? That they are, as it were, already there and standing there. For it is a great thing to stand there among the angels and not to fail. For he who fell from there did not stand in the truth (See Jn 8:44). Whoever have not fallen stand in the truth; and he stands who enjoys God, while he who wishes to enjoy himself falls. But who wishes to enjoy himself? He who is proud. Therefore that man who always wished to stand in the courts of Jerusalem said: In your light we shall see light (Ps 36:9 (35:10))—not 'in my light'; and: With you is the fountain of life (Ps 36:9 (35:10))—not 'with me.' And what did he add? Let not the foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of sinners move me. There all those who work iniquity have fallen; they have been driven out and could not stand (Ps 36:11-12 (35:12-13)). If, then, those men could not stand because they were proud, ascend in humility, so that you may say: Our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem. Consider what you will be there; and although you are still on the way, set this before your eyes, as if you were standing there, as if you were already rejoicing without ceasing among the angels, and as if there were fulfilled in you what was said: Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they will praise you forever and ever (Ps 84:4 (83:5)). Our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem. Which Jerusalem? For this present Jerusalem too is usually so called; but this Jerusalem is the shadow of that one. And what is great about standing in this Jerusalem, when this Jerusalem could not stand but was turned into ruin? Is it, then, as something great that the Holy Spirit utters this from the inflamed heart of this lover, when he says: Our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem? Is it not that Jerusalem to which the Lord said: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you (Matt 23:37)? What great thing, then, was this man coveting—to stand among those who were killing the prophets and stoning those sent to them? Far be it that one who loves like this, who burns like this, who so wishes to come to that Jerusalem our mother, of whom the apostle speaks as eternal in the heavens (See Gal 4:26), should think of this present Jerusalem in that way.

4. [v. 3.] Hear at last—do not take it on my word; hear what follows, and what Jerusalem it points out to our minds. For when he had said: Our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem, as though it were said to him: Of which Jerusalem do you speak? Of which Jerusalem are you speaking? he at once added: Jerusalem, which is built as a city (Ps 122:3 (121:3)). Brothers, when David was saying these things, that city was complete; it was not being built. I do not know, then, what city he is speaking of, which is now being built, to which living stones run in faith, of whom Peter says: And you, like living stones, are built up into a spiritual house (1 Pet 2:5)—that is, the holy temple of God. What does it mean, like living stones be built up? You live, if you believe; and if you believe, you become the temple of God, since the apostle Paul says: For the temple of God is holy, which you are (1 Cor 3:17). This city, then, is now being built; stones are cut from the mountains by the hands of those who preach the truth, and they are squared so as to enter into the everlasting structure. Still many stones are in the craftsman's hands; may they not fall from the craftsman's hands, so that they may be built up complete into the structure of the temple. This, then, is the Jerusalem which is built as a city: its foundation is Christ. The apostle Paul says: For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus (1 Cor 3:11). When a foundation is laid in the earth, walls are built up above it, and the weight of the walls presses downward, because the foundation is laid below. But if our foundation is in heaven, let us be built toward heaven. Bodies built this structure of this basilica, which you see has risen up so wide; and because bodies built it, they laid the foundation below; but since we are built up spiritually, our foundation has been laid on high. Let us run, then, to where we are built up; for of that very Jerusalem it was said: Our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem. But of which Jerusalem? Of Jerusalem, which is built as a city. He said too little to show which Jerusalem he meant when he said it is built as a city; that could still be understood as the bodily one. For what if someone should stand up and say: Even at the time of David, when these things were being said and sung, that city was already complete; but he saw in the spirit that it would fall and be built again. For that city was conquered, and the captive people were carried over into Babylon, and this is called in the Scriptures the deportation to Babylon (See 2 Kgs 24-25; Matt 1:11). And Jeremiah prophesied that after seventy years of captivity that city which had been destroyed by those who waged war against it could be rebuilt (See Jer 25:11-12; 29:10). Perhaps someone says: This is what David saw in the spirit—that the city of Jerusalem would fall to those who waged war against it and could again, after seventy years, be rebuilt; and that is why he said: Jerusalem, which is built as a city; so do not think that the city is meant which consists of the saints, as of living stones. What follows, to remove all doubt? For he says: Our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem. But which Jerusalem do I mean? Is it, he says, this one which you see standing, raised up with bodily walls? No; rather, Jerusalem, which is built as a city. Why not 'a city,' but as a city—except that this structure of walls, which was in Jerusalem, was a visible city, just as it is properly called a city by everyone, while that other is built as a city, because those too who enter into it are like living stones (1 Pet 2:5); for they are not truly stones, are they? As those men are like stones, yet not stones, so that city is like a city, yet not a city; for he said it is built. Indeed, by the word 'building' he wished us to understand the structure and framework of bodies and walls. For a city is properly understood as consisting of the men who dwell in it. But he made clear to us that he called the city a town by saying it is built. And because a spiritual building has a certain likeness to a bodily building, it is therefore built as a city.

5. But let what follows speak and take away all doubt, since we must not take it in a fleshly way: Jerusalem, which is built as a city. Its sharing is in the selfsame (Ps 122:3 (121:3)). Now then, brothers, whoever lifts up the gaze of the mind, whoever lays aside the darkness of the flesh, whoever cleanses the eye of the heart, let him lift it up and see the selfsame. What is the selfsame? How shall I put it, except as the selfsame? Brothers, if you can, understand the selfsame. For whatever else I say, I do not say the selfsame. Yet let us try, by certain neighboring words and meanings, to lead the weakness of the mind to think about the selfsame. What is the selfsame? That which is always in the same way; which is not now one thing and now another. What, then, is the selfsame, except that which is? What is that which is? That which is eternal. For that which is always now in one way and now in another is not, because it does not abide; it is not altogether nonexistent, but it does not exist in the highest degree. And what is that which is, except he who, when he was sending Moses, said to him: I am who am (Exod 3:14)? What is this, except he who, when his servant said: Behold, you send me; if the people say to me: Who sent you? what shall I say to them? (See Exod 3:13), would give no other name than: I am who am; and added, and said: You shall say therefore to the children of Israel: He who is has sent me to you (Exod 3:14). Behold the selfsame: I am who am: He who is has sent me to you. You cannot grasp it; it is much to understand, much to lay hold of. Hold on to what was made for your sake, the one whom you could not grasp. Hold on to the flesh of Christ, into which you, sick and left half-dead from the wounds of robbers, were lifted, so that you might be brought to the inn and there be healed (See Luke 10:30-34). Let us run, then, to the house of the Lord, and come to the city where our feet may stand—the city which is built as a city, whose sharing is in the selfsame. For what ought you to hold on to? That Christ was made for your sake, since he is himself the Christ; and Christ himself is rightly understood as: I am who am, in the way that he is in the form of God. There where he did not count it robbery to be equal to God (Phil 2:6), there is the selfsame. But that you might be made a sharer in the selfsame, he himself first became a sharer of you; and the Word was made flesh, so that the flesh might share in the Word. And because the Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us (See Jn 1:14) came from the seed of Abraham, and it was promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob that in their seed all the nations would be blessed (See Gen 22:18; 26:4)—and from this we see the Church spread throughout the whole world—God speaks to the weak. He sought firmness of heart when he said: I am who am; he sought firmness of heart and a raised keenness of contemplation when he said: He who is has sent me to you. But perhaps you do not yet have contemplation: do not fail, do not despair. He who is willed to be a man, as you are; and so he went on to say to Moses, as though Moses were afraid of the name. What name? Which is: Is. And the Lord said to Moses: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: this is my name forever (Exod 3:15). Do not despair of yourself because I said: I am who am, and: He who is has sent me to you; for you now waver, and amid the changeableness of things and the variability of human mortality you cannot perceive what the selfsame is. I am coming down, because you cannot come up. I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. In the seed of Abraham hope for something, so that you may be strengthened to see the one who came to you in the seed of Abraham.

6. This, then, is the selfsame, of which it was said: You will change them, and they will be changed; but you are the same, and your years will not fail (Ps 102:26-27 (101:27-28)). Behold the selfsame, whose years do not fail. Brothers, do not our years fail daily, and never stand still at all? For those that have come are already no more; and those that are to come are not yet; the former have already failed, and the latter, which are to come, will fail. In this very one day, then, brothers—behold, what we are now speaking is in a moment. The past hours have gone by, the future ones have not yet come; and when they have come, they too will pass and fail. What are the years that do not fail, except those that stand still? If, then, the years stand still there, and those very years that stand still are one year, and that one year that stands still is one day; because that one day has neither rising nor setting, is neither begun from yesterday nor shut off by tomorrow, but that day always stands still—and you call that day what you will: if you wish, it is years; if you wish, it is a day; whatever you think it, still it stands still. Of that very stability that city is a sharer, whose sharing is in the selfsame; rightly, then, since it becomes a sharer of that stability, does this man who runs there say: Our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem. For all things stand still there, where nothing passes away. Do you too wish to stand still there and not pass away? Then run there. No one has the selfsame of himself. Pay attention, brothers. What a body has is not the selfsame, because it does not stand still in itself. It is changed through the ages, changed through changes of place and time, changed through diseases and bodily failings: it does not, then, stand still in itself. The heavenly bodies do not stand still in themselves: they have certain changes of their own, even if hidden; certainly they are moved from place to place, they rise from the east to the west, and again come round to the east: they do not, then, stand still; they are not the selfsame. The human soul itself does not stand still either. By how many changes and thoughts it is varied! by how many pleasures it is altered! by how many desires it is buffeted and torn apart! The very mind of man, which is called rational, is changeable; it is not the selfsame. Now it wills, now it does not will; now it knows, now it does not know; now it remembers, now it forgets: therefore no one has the selfsame of himself. He who wished to have the selfsame of himself, so as to be, as it were, the selfsame to himself, fell: the angel fell, and was made the devil. He poured pride into man, and by envy cast down with himself the one who was standing (See Wis 2:24). These wished to be the selfsame to themselves; they wished to rule over themselves, to be lords over themselves; they refused to have the true Lord, who truly is the selfsame, to whom it is said: You will change them, and they will be changed; but you are the same. Now then, after so much faintness, after so many diseases, difficulties, and labors, let the soul, humbled, return to the selfsame, and let it be in that city whose sharing is in the selfsame.

7. [v. 4.] For there the tribes went up. We were asking where one who has fallen goes up; for we said that it is the voice of a man ascending, of the Church ascending. Do we suppose where he goes up? where he goes? where he is lifted up? There, he says, the tribes went up. Where did the tribes go up? Into the city whose sharing is in the selfsame. There, then, one ascends, into Jerusalem. But the man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among robbers (See Luke 10:30). Had he not gone down, he would not have fallen among robbers. But since by going down he fell among robbers, let him by going up come to the angels. Let him ascend, then, for the tribes ascended. But what are tribes? Many know, many do not know. But let us too who know come down to those who do not know what tribes are, so that they may ascend with us where the tribes ascended. Tribes can by another name be called courts, but not properly. And so tribes cannot properly be called by another single name, but by a neighboring word they are called courts. For if we say 'courts' properly, only those courts are understood that are in individual cities, one to each city; whence 'curials' and 'decurions,' that is, because they are in a court (curia) or in a tenth-part (decuria); and you know that individual cities have individual courts of this kind. But there were, or at some time there used to be, in these cities too, courts of the peoples; and one city has many courts, just as Rome has thirty-five courts of the people. These are called tribes. The people of Israel had twelve of these, according to the sons of Jacob.

8. Twelve were the tribes of the people of Israel; but there were evil ones there, and there were good ones there. For how evil were the tribes that crucified the Lord! How good were the tribes that knew the Lord! Those tribes, then, which crucified the Lord, are the tribes of the devil. So when he said here: For there the tribes went up, lest you should understand all the tribes, he added: the tribes of the Lord (Ps 122:4 (121:4)). What does the tribes of the Lord mean? Those that knew the Lord. For out of those very twelve evil tribes, there were good ones there from the good tribes that knew the builder of the city; and these were the grains among those tribes, grains that were mingled among the chaff. But they ascended, not with the chaff, but as tribes purified, chosen, as the tribes of the Lord. There the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord. What does the tribes of the Lord mean? A testimony for Israel. What this is, brothers, hear: A testimony for Israel, that is, those in whom it is known that he is truly Israel. For what is Israel? The interpretation of its name has already been given, and let it be given often; for perhaps, even if it was given recently, it has slipped your minds. By saying it, let us see to it that it does not slip even the minds of those who have not known how, or have not been willing, to read: let us be their book. 'Israel' is interpreted 'seeing God'; or rather, when the word is examined more carefully, 'Israel' is interpreted thus: 'There is, seeing God'—both: 'There is, seeing God.' For man in himself is not; for he is changed and turned, if he does not share in him who is the selfsame. Then he is, when he sees God. For then he is, when he sees him who is; and by seeing him who is, he himself too, after his own measure, comes to be. So then he is Israel; Israel is seeing God. The proud man, therefore, is not Israel, because his sharing is not in the selfsame, because he wishes to be the selfsame to himself. He who wishes to be his own beginning is not Israel. Every feigned man, therefore, is not Israel, because every proud man must necessarily be feigned. This I say, brothers: every proud man must necessarily wish to seem what he is not; otherwise, my brothers, it cannot be. And would that the proud man wished to seem what he is not in such a way as to wish to seem, for example, a flute player when he was not a flute player. For he would soon be put to the proof; it would be said to him: Play; let us see whether you are a flute player. He could not; he would be found to have wished falsely to seem what he was not. If he said he was eloquent, it would be said to him: Speak, and prove it. If he spoke, he is found not to be what he professed. But the proud man—what is worse—wishes to seem just when he is not; and because it is difficult to understand justice, it is difficult to recognize the proud. The proud, then, wish to seem what they are not: therefore their sharing is not in the selfsame; they do not belong to Israel, who is 'seeing God.' Who, then, belongs to Israel? He who is a sharer in the selfsame. Who is he who shares in the selfsame? He who confesses that he is not what God is, and that from him he has whatever good he can have; that of himself he is nothing but sin, and that from him he has justice. Such is the man in whom there is no guile. And the Lord, seeing Nathanael, what did he say? Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile (Jn 1:47). If, then, those are true Israelites in whom there is no guile, those tribes ascend to Jerusalem in whom there is no guile. And they are themselves a testimony for Israel; that is, through them it is recognized that there were grains among that chaff, when, the threshing floor being seen, the whole was thought to be chaff. There were, then, grains there; but when they shall have ascended to that height of splendor, when the threshing floor shall have been winnowed (See Matt 3:12), then there will be a testimony for Israel; then all the evil will say: Truly there were just men among the evil, when all seemed to us to be evil, and we thought all were such as we ourselves were. A testimony for Israel. Where do they ascend? why do they ascend? To confess to your name, O Lord. Nothing more magnificent can be said. As pride presumes, so humility confesses. As he is a presumptuous man who wishes to seem what he is not, so he is a confessor who does not wish to seem what he himself is, and loves what God is. To this, then, the Israelites ascend, in whom there is no guile, because they are true Israelites, because in them is the testimony for Israel; to this they ascend, to confess to your name, O Lord.

9. [v. 5.] For there seats sat in judgment. A strange riddle, a strange question, if it is not understood. He says 'seats,' which the Greeks call thrones. The Greeks call seats thrones, as it were seats of honor. So then, my brothers, it is no wonder if men sit on seats, on chairs; but how can we understand that the seats themselves sit? As if someone were to say: Let the chairs sit here, or let the seats sit here. One sits on a chair, one sits on seats, one sits on chairs; the seats themselves do not sit. What, then, is this: For there seats sat in judgment (Ps 122:5 (121:5))? Surely you often hear God saying: Heaven is my throne; but the earth is my footstool (Isa 66:1). In Latin the whole is put thus: Heaven is my seat. Who are these, if not the just? who are the heavens, if not the just? Whoever is heaven, they themselves are heavens; for as the one Church, so the churches; they are so many as to be one; so too the just: the just are heaven in such a way that they are heavens. And in them God sits, and out of them God judges. And not without cause was it said: The heavens declare the glory of God (Ps 19:1 (18:2)). For the apostles were made heaven. Whence were they made heaven? Because they were justified. As the sinner was made earth, to whom it was said: You are earth, and to earth you shall go (Gen 3:19), so those who were justified were made heaven. They bore God, and out of them God flashed miracles, thundered terrors, rained down consolations. They were, then—they were—heaven, and they declared the glory of God. For that you may know that they themselves were called heaven, it says there in the same psalm: Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Ps 19:4 (18:5)). You ask whose; and you will find: the heavens'. If, then, heaven is the seat of God, but the apostles are heaven, they too were made the seat of God; they are the throne of God. It was said in another place: The soul of the just man is the throne of wisdom (See Wis 7:27-28). A great thing, a great thing was said: The throne of wisdom is the soul of the just man; that is, in the soul of the just man wisdom sits as on its chair, as on its throne, and from there judges whatever it judges. So then they were thrones of wisdom, and therefore the Lord said to them: You will sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt 19:28). So they too will sit upon twelve seats, and they themselves are the seats of God: of them indeed it was said: For there seats sat. For there seats sat. Who sat? The seats. And what are the seats? Those of whom it was said: The soul of the just man is the seat of wisdom. What are the seats? The heavens. What are the heavens? Heaven. What is heaven? Of which the Lord says: Heaven is my seat. And the just themselves are seats, and they have seats; and in that Jerusalem the seats will sit. For what purpose? In judgment. You will sit, he says, upon twelve seats—O you seats—judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Judging whom? Those below who are on earth. Who will judge? Those who were made heaven. But those who will be judged will be divided into two parts; one will be at the right hand, the other at the left. The saints will judge with Christ. For he will come into judgment with the elders of the people, says Isaiah (Isa 3:14). There are some, then, who will judge with him; others who will be judged by him and by those who will judge with him. These, then, will be divided into two parts: one will be set at the right hand, to whom will be counted up the alms they gave; the other will be set at the left, to whom will be counted up cruelty and the barrenness of mercy. And to those set at the right hand it will be said: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Why? I was hungry, he says, and you gave me to eat. And they: When did we see you hungry? And he: When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me (Matt 25:34-40). So then what is it, brothers? Those will judge of whom it was said that they should make friends of the mammon of iniquity, so that they too, he says, may receive you into the eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9). The saints will sit with the Lord to attend to those who showed mercy, and will take them, set apart at the right hand, into the kingdom of heaven; and this is the peace of Jerusalem. What is the peace of Jerusalem? That the bodily works of mercy be joined to the spiritual works of preaching, and that peace come about by giving and receiving. For the apostle, who said that these alms are a matter of giving and receiving, says: If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great matter if we reap your fleshly things (1 Cor 9:11)? And of this very thing he says in another place: He who gathered much had nothing over; and he who gathered little had no lack (2 Cor 8:15; see Exod 16:18). Why did he who gathered much have nothing over? Because what he had more than enough of, he gave to the needy. And what does it mean: He who gathered little had no lack? Because he received from the one who had more than enough, so that there might be, he says, equality (2 Cor 8:14). This is the peace of which it is said: Let there be peace in your strength.

10. [v. 6.] For when he had said: For there seats sat in judgment, seats over the house of David—that is, over the family of Christ, to whom in due time they gave food—he at once said, as though to those very seats: Ask for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem (Ps 122:6 (121:6)). O you seats, who already sit to judge, and have been made the seats of the Lord who judges (since those who judge ask questions, and those who are judged are questioned): Ask, he says, for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem. By asking, what will they find? That some have shown mercy, others have not. Those whom they find to have shown mercy, these they will call to Jerusalem; for these are for the peace of Jerusalem. Love is a strong thing, brothers; love is a strong thing. Do you wish to see how strong love is? Whoever, through some necessity, has not been able to fulfill what God commands, let him love the one who fulfills it, and in that one he fulfills it. Let your charity attend. For example, a man has a wife whom he cannot send away; he must obey the apostle who says: Let the husband render to his wife her due; and: Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed (1 Cor 7:3, 27). It comes to his mind that better is that life of which the same apostle says: I would that all were as I myself am (1 Cor 7:7). He looks to those who have done this; he loves them, and in them he fulfills what he cannot in himself. Love is a strong thing. It is itself our virtue; for if we are not in it, whatever else we have profits us nothing. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, says the apostle, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. He adds another great thing: And if I distribute all my substance, and if I hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor 13:1, 3). But if there be love alone, which finds nothing to distribute to the poor, let it love: let it give only a cup of cold water (See Matt 10:42); as much will be reckoned to it as to Zacchaeus, who gave half of his estate to the poor (See Luke 19:8). Why is this? The one gave so little, the other gave so much, and as much will be reckoned to him? Just as much, plainly. For the means were unequal, but the love was not unequal.

11. Those, then, ask questions; you, consider what you are. Now behold, it has been said to us: We will go into the house of the Lord. We have surely rejoiced in those who said to us: We will go into the house of the Lord. See, then, whether we are going. For we go not by our feet, but by our affections. See whether we are going; let each one of you ask himself what he is like toward the holy poor man, toward the needy brother, toward the needy beggar: let him see whether his heart is not narrow. For the seats that will sit in judgment must question you, and they must find the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem. And how do they ask? As the seats of God. God asks. If anything is hidden from God, it can also escape those seats when they ask anything. Ask for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem. But what are the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem? And abundance, he says, for those who love you (Ps 122:6 (121:6)). He turns his voice to Jerusalem herself. There is abundance for those who love her. Abundance out of want: here in want, there abundant; here weak, there strong; here needy, there rich. Whence made rich? Because they gave here what they received from God for a time, and received there what God will afterward repay forever. Here, my brothers, even the rich are poor. It is good for a rich man to recognize that he is poor: for if he thinks himself full, that is a swelling, not a fullness. Let him recognize that he is empty, so that he may be able to be filled. What does he have? Gold. What does he not yet have? Eternal life. Let him attend to what he has, and see what he does not have. Brothers, out of what he has, let him give, so that he may receive what he does not have; let him buy out of what he has that which he does not have. And abundance for those who love you.

12. [v. 7.] Let there be peace in your strength. O Jerusalem! O city that are built as a city, whose sharing is in the selfsame, let there be peace in your strength, let there be peace in your love; for your strength is your love. Hear the Song of Songs: Love is strong as death (Song 8:6). A great saying, brothers: Love is strong as death. The fortitude of love could not be expressed more magnificently than by saying: Love is strong as death. For who resists death, brothers? Let your charity attend. One resists fire, waves, the sword; one resists powers, one resists kings: death comes alone—who resists it? Nothing is stronger than it. Therefore love has been compared to its strength, and it was said: Love is strong as death. And because love itself kills what we were, so that we may be what we were not, love works in us a certain death. By that very death he was dead who said: The world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal 6:14); by that very death those were dead to whom he said: For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3). Love is strong as death. If, then, it is strong, it is mighty and of great power, and it is itself the strength, and through it the weak are ruled by the strong, the earth by heaven, the peoples by the seats; therefore: Let there be peace in your strength, let there be peace in your love. And through this strength, through this love, through this peace, let there be abundance in your towers—that is, in your high places. For few will sit in judgment; but many set at the right hand will make up the people of that city. For many will belong to each of the high ones, by whom they are received into the eternal dwellings; and there will be abundance in her towers. But the fullness of delights and the sufficiency of riches is God himself, the selfsame himself, the very one whose sharing is the city's sharing in the selfsame: he himself will be our abundance too. But whence? Through love, that is, through strength. And in whom is love, brothers? In him who does not seek his own things in this life (See 1 Cor 13:5; Phil 2:21). Hear the apostle who has love; he says: Please all men in all things, as I also please all men in all things (1 Cor 10:33). Where, then, is what you said: If I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ (Gal 1:10)? And now you say that you please, now you exhort that they too should please? But he did not set up the end so that anyone should please for his own sake and not for love's sake. He who seeks his own glory does not seek the salvation of others. For he says: As I also please all men in all things, not seeking what is profitable to me, but to the many, that they may be saved (1 Cor 10:33).

13. [v. 8.] So here too, when he was speaking of love, he says: For the sake of my brothers and my kinsmen, I spoke peace concerning you (Ps 122:8 (121:8)). O Jerusalem, city whose sharing is in the selfsame, I, in this life and on this earth, I, poor, a pilgrim and groaning, not yet fully enjoying your peace, and preaching your peace—I do not preach it for my own sake, as the heretics do, who, seeking their own glory, say: Peace be with you, and do not have the peace they preach to the peoples. For if they had peace, they would not be tearing unity apart. I, he says, spoke peace concerning you. But why? For the sake of my brothers and my kinsmen: not for the sake of my own honor, not for the sake of my money, not for the sake of my life; for: To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Phil 1:21). But I spoke peace concerning you, for the sake of my brothers and my kinsmen. For he himself desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ; yet he who would preach these things to his kinsmen and brothers said: To remain in the flesh is necessary for your sake (Phil 1:23-24). For the sake of my brothers and my kinsmen, I spoke peace concerning you.

14. [v. 9.] For the sake of the house of the Lord my God, I sought good things for you (Ps 122:9 (121:9)). I did not seek good things for my own sake: for then I would be seeking them not for you, but for myself; and so I would not have them either, because I would not be seeking them for you; but: For the sake of the house of the Lord my God, for the sake of the Church, for the sake of the saints, for the sake of the pilgrims, for the sake of the needy, that they may ascend—since we say to them: We will go into the house of the Lord—for the sake of that very house of the Lord my God, I sought good things for you. These things, brothers, fuller and necessary, take up, eat, drink; grow strong, run, lay hold.

Exposition of Psalm 123

1. I have undertaken to consider with your holiness, in order, the songs of one who ascends; of one who ascends and loves, and ascends precisely because he loves. Every love either ascends or descends. For by good desire we are lifted up to God, and by evil desire we are cast down into the depths. But because we have already fallen by evil desire, it remains for us, if we recognize the one who did not fall to us but came down to us, to ascend by clinging to him; for by our own strength we cannot. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself said: No one ascends into heaven except him who descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven (Jn 3:13). He seems to have said this of himself alone. Did the rest, then, remain behind, because he alone ascended who alone descended? What ought the rest to do? To be united to his body, so that there may be one Christ, who descended and ascended. The head descended, and ascends with the body; clothed in his Church, which he presented to himself without spot or wrinkle (See Eph 5:27). He alone, then, ascends. But we too, when we are with him in such a way that we are his members in him, then he alone is with us also, and therefore one, and always one. Unity joins us together into one; and they alone do not ascend with him who have refused to be one with him. But now, since he who has been set in heaven, with his flesh raised up and made immortal—the flesh through which he was for a time mortal—and suffering in heaven none of the persecutions, none of the malicious deeds and reproaches that he endured on this earth when he deigned to bear all things for us; yet, in compassion for his body laboring on earth, he said: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4)—no one was now touching him, and yet he cried out from heaven that he was suffering persecution—we ought not to be without hope, but rather to presume with great confidence that, if through love he is with us on earth, through that same love we too are with him in heaven. But we have said how he himself is with us on earth; we have spoken of his voice sounding from heaven: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?—when Saul was not touching him at all, nor even seeing him. But how is it shown that we too are with him in heaven? By the same apostle Paul saying: If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; savor the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:1-3). So he too is still below, and we are already above: he is below by the compassion of love, we are above by the hope of love. For by hope we have been saved (Rom 8:24). But because our hope is sure, although it is yet to be, it is so spoken of concerning us as if it were already done.

2. [v. 1.] Let this singer, then, ascend; but let this man sing out of each of your hearts, and let each one be this man. For when you say it individually, since you are all one in Christ, it is one man who says it: not, 'To you, Lord, we have lifted up our eyes,' but: To you, O Lord, I have lifted up my eyes (Ps 123:1 (122:1)). You ought indeed to suppose that each one of you is speaking; but it is that one above all who speaks, who is also spread throughout the whole world. It is that one who speaks, who says elsewhere: From the ends of the earth I have cried to you, when my heart was in anguish (Ps 61:2 (60:3)). Who is it that cries from the ends of the earth? what one man is spread out as far as the ends of the earth? Each man can cry out in his own region; but from the ends of the earth? But the inheritance of Christ, of which it was said: I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession (Ps 2:8), it is this that cries out and says: From the ends of the earth I have cried to you, when my heart was in anguish. Let our heart be in anguish, and let us cry out. Whence should our heart be in anguish? Not over those things which even the evil suffer here—because, for example, they suffer loss: for if the heart is in anguish over that, it is ashes. Because you have lost some one of your own by the will of God, if over that the heart is in anguish, what is great in it? Over this the hearts of unbelievers too are in anguish; these things are suffered also by those who have not yet believed in Christ. Whence should the heart of a Christian be in anguish? Because he does not yet live with Christ. Whence should the heart of a Christian be in anguish? Because he is a pilgrim and longs for his homeland. If your heart is in anguish over that, then even if you have been happy according to this world, you groan; and if all prosperous things flow together, and this world smiles on you from every side, yet you groan, because you see yourself set in a pilgrimage; and you feel that you have happiness already according to the eyes of fools, but not yet according to the promise of Christ: seeking that, you groan; seeking that, you long; and by longing you ascend, and by ascending you sing the Song of ascents, and by singing the Song of ascents you say: I have lifted up my eyes to you, who dwell in heaven.

3. Ascending, where was he to lift up his eyes, except there where he was tending and longing to ascend? For he ascends from earth to heaven. Behold the earth below, which we tread with our feet; behold also the heaven above, which we see with our eyes; and ascending we sing: I have lifted up my eyes to you, who dwell in heaven. Where, then, are the ladders? For we behold such great intervals between heaven and earth, so great a separation, such great expanses of space: we wish to ascend there, and we see no ladders. Are we perhaps deceiving ourselves, because we sing the Song of ascents, that is, the song of ascension? We ascend to heaven if we think of God, who has made an ascent in the heart. What is it to ascend in the heart? To make progress toward God. As everyone who fails does not descend but falls, so everyone who makes progress ascends—but only if he so makes progress as not to grow proud; if he so ascends as not to fall. But if in making progress he grows proud, in ascending he falls again. But that he may not grow proud, what ought he to do? Let him lift up his eyes to him who dwells in heaven; let him not attend to himself. For every proud man attends to himself, and he seems great to himself who pleases himself. But he who pleases himself pleases a foolish man; for he himself is a fool when he pleases himself. He alone pleases safely who pleases God. And who is it that pleases God? He whom God has pleased. God cannot displease himself; let him please you too, so that you may please him. But he will not be able to please you unless you have displeased yourself. But if you displease yourself, take your eye off yourself. For why do you attend to yourself? For if you truly attend to yourself, you find in yourself something that displeases you; and you say to God: My sin is ever before me (Ps 51:3 (50:5)). Let your sin be before you, so that it may not be before God; and do not be before yourself, so that you may be before God. For just as we wish that God may not turn his face away from us, so we wish that he may turn his face away from our sins: for both are sung to him in the Psalms. Do not turn your face away from me (Ps 27:9 (26:9)): this is the voice of the psalm, so it is our voice; and he who says: Do not turn your face away from me—see what he says in another place: Turn your face away from my sins (Ps 51:9 (50:11)). If you wish him to turn his face away from your sins, you yourself turn your face away from yourself, and do not turn it away from your sins. For if you do not turn your face away from them, you yourself are angry at your sins; but if you do not turn your face away from your sins, you acknowledge them, and he pardons them.

4. But take your eyes off yourself, lift them to him, and say: I have lifted up my eyes to you, who dwell in heaven. Brothers, if we understand heaven in a bodily way, as this thing we see with our bodily eyes, we shall truly err so far as to think that we cannot ascend there except by setting up ladders or some contrivances; but if we ascend spiritually, we ought to understand heaven spiritually; if the ascent is in our affection, heaven is in justice. What, then, is the heaven of God? All holy souls, all just souls. For the apostles too, although they were on earth in the flesh, were heaven; because the Lord sitting in them was walking through the whole world. So then he dwells in heaven. How? As he says in another psalm: But you dwell in the holy place, the praise of Israel (Ps 22:3 (21:4)). He who dwells in heaven dwells in the holy place; what is the holy place, except his temple? For the temple of God is holy, which you are (1 Cor 3:17). But all who are still weak and walk according to faith (See 2 Cor 5:7) are, according to faith, the temple of God; one day they will also be, according to form, the temple of God. How long are they the temple according to faith? As long as Christ dwells in them through faith; as the apostle says: that Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts (Eph 3:17). But there are already heavens in whom God now dwells through form, seeing him face to face: all the holy angels, all the holy Virtues, Powers, Seats, Dominions, that heavenly Jerusalem from which we groan in our pilgrimage, and which by longing we pray for: there God dwells. There this man lifted his faith, there he ascended by affection, by longing; and that very longing makes the soul sweat out the filth of its sins and be cleansed of every stain, so that it too may become heaven; because it lifted its eyes to him who dwells in heaven. For if we understand that bodily heaven which we see with our eyes to be the dwelling of God, then God's dwelling will pass away, because heaven and earth will pass away (See Matt 24:35). And then, before God made heaven and earth, where did he dwell? But someone says: And before God made the saints, where did he dwell? God dwelt in himself, he dwelt with himself, and God is with himself. And when he deigns to dwell in the saints, the saints are not the house of God in such a way that, if it were taken away, God would fall. For we dwell in a house in one way, God in the saints in another: you dwell in a house; if it is taken away, you fall; but God so dwells in the saints that, if he himself departed, they would fall. Whoever, then, so bears God as to be the temple of God, let him not think that he so bears God as to make God afraid that he might withdraw himself. Woe to that man if God withdraws himself, because he himself falls; for God abides ever in himself. The things in which we dwell contain us; the things in which God dwells, he himself contains. See now how great is the difference between our dwelling and God's; and so let the soul say: I have lifted up my eyes to you, who dwell in heaven—so that it may understand that God has no need of heaven to dwell in, but heaven has need of him, that it may be inhabited by him.

5. [v. 2.] What, then, follows, since he said: I have lifted up my eyes to you, who dwell in heaven? How have you lifted up your eyes? Behold, as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, and as the eyes of a maidservant are on the hands of her mistress, so are our eyes on the Lord our God, until he have mercy on us (Ps 123:2 (122:2)). We are both servants and a maidservant: he is both master and mistress. Or what do these words mean? and what do these likenesses of things mean? Let your charity attend a little. It is no wonder if we are servants and he is master; but it is a wonder if we are a maidservant and he is a mistress. But neither is this a wonder, that we are a maidservant; for we are the Church: nor is that a wonder, that he too is a mistress; for he is the strength and the wisdom of God. Hear, then, the apostle saying: But we preach Christ crucified: to the Jews indeed a stumbling block, but to the Gentiles foolishness; but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the strength of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:23-24). So that now the people may be the servant, and the Church the maidservant; Christ the strength of God and the wisdom of God: you have heard both: Christ the strength of God and the wisdom of God. When, then, you hear 'Christ,' lift up your eyes to the hands of your master; when you hear 'the strength of God and the wisdom of God,' lift up your eyes to the hands of your mistress: because you are both a servant and a maidservant; a servant, because you are the people; a maidservant, because you are the Church. But that maidservant has found great dignity with God: she has been made a wife. But until she comes to those spiritual embraces, where she may securely enjoy to the full the one whom she has loved and for whom she has sighed in this long pilgrimage, she is a betrothed; and she has received a great pledge, the blood of the bridegroom, for whom she securely sighs. Nor is it said to her: Do not love—as is sometimes said to a virgin already betrothed but not yet married: and rightly is it said: Do not love; when you have been made a wife, then love—rightly is it said, because the desire is over-hasty and out of order, and not chaste, to love one whom she does not know whether she will marry. For it can happen that one man betroths and another takes her to wife. But since there is no other who may be set before Christ, let her love him securely; and before she is joined to him, let her love and sigh from afar and from a far-off pilgrimage. He alone will take her to wife, because he alone gave such a pledge. For who can take a woman to wife in such a way as to die for her whom he wishes to marry? For if he were willing to die for her, there would be no one to marry her. But he, secure, died for the bride whom, rising again, he was to marry. Nevertheless, brothers, meanwhile let us be as servants and a maidservant. It was indeed said: I will not call you servants, but friends (Jn 15:15): but did the Lord perhaps say this to the disciples only? Hear the apostle Paul saying: And so now, he says, he is no longer a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God (Gal 4:7). He was speaking to the people, he was speaking to the faithful. So then now, in the name of the Lord, redeemed by his blood, washed in his bath, we are sons—we are a son; for we are so many as to be one in him. What, then, does it mean that we still speak as servants? Can we have as great merit in the Church—although already made sons out of servants—as the apostle Paul himself had? And yet what does he say in his Letter? Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus (Rom 1:1). If he still calls himself a servant, through whom the Gospel was preached to us, how much more ought we to acknowledge our condition, so that his grace may be the greater in us? For first he made servants of those whom he redeemed. For that blood is a price for servants, a pledge for the bride. Acknowledging, then, our condition—even though we are already sons through grace, yet servants on account of being creatures, since the whole of creation serves God—let us say: 'As the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, and as the eyes of a maidservant are on the hands of her mistress, so are our eyes on the Lord our God, until he have mercy on us.'

6. He said too why, just as servants have their eyes on the hands of their master, and as maidservants have their eyes on the hands of their mistress, so, he says, are our eyes on the Lord our God. And, as though you were asking: For what purpose? Until, he says, he have mercy on us. What kind of servants, then, did he wish us to understand, brothers, who have their eyes on the hands of their masters; and what kind of maidservants, who have their eyes on the hands of their mistress, until their mistress has mercy on them? Who are these servants and maidservants, who thus have their eyes on the hands of their masters, except those who are ordered to be beaten? Our eyes are on the Lord our God, until he have mercy on us. How? As the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, and as the eyes of a maidservant are on the hands of her mistress. So both the men and the women, until either the master or the mistress have mercy. Suppose, then, that some master has ordered a servant to be beaten: the servant is flogged, he feels the pain of the blows; he watches the hands of his master, until he says: Spare him. For by 'hand' he means power itself. So what do we say, brothers? Our Lord ordered us to be beaten, and our mistress the wisdom of God ordered us to be beaten; and in this life we are flogged, and this whole mortal life is our flogging. Hear the voice of the psalm: For iniquity you have chastised man; and you have made my soul waste away like a spider (Ps 39:11 (38:12)). Attend, brothers, how frail the spider is, so that by a light touch it is crushed and dies. And lest we should think that we have only our flesh frail through the weakness of mortality, he did not say: You have made me waste away—lest we should understand it of the flesh; but he said: You have made my soul waste away like a spider. For nothing is frailer than our soul set in the midst of the temptations of this world, in the midst of the groanings and birth-pangs of troubles; nothing is frailer than it, until it cleaves to the heavenly solidity and is in the temple of God, whence it no longer falls; for first, in order that it might come to this frailty and wasting away, it was made frail like a spider, and was cast out of paradise. Then the servant was ordered to be beaten. My brothers, see from what we are flogged. In all who from the beginning of the human race were born, in all who now are, in all who shall hereafter be born, Adam is flogged. Adam is flogged, that is, the human race; and many have so hardened themselves that they do not even feel their blows. But those of that very race who have been made sons have received a sense of pain: they feel that they are flogged, and they know who ordered them to be flogged; and they have lifted up their eyes to him who dwells in heaven; and so their eyes are on the hands of their Lord, until he have mercy, as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, and as the eyes of a maidservant are on the hands of her mistress. You see some happy in this world, laughing, boasting; they are not flogged: nay rather, they are flogged worse; by this very thing they are beaten more heavily, in that they have already lost their sense. Let them wake up, and be flogged; let them feel that they are flogged, let them know that they are flogged, and grieve that they are flogged. For he who adds knowledge adds sorrow; this Scripture has said (Eccl 1:18). Therefore the Lord in the Gospel: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matt 5:5).

7. [v. 3.] We shall hear the voice of a man who is flogged; and let these be the words of each one of us even when things go well with us. For who would not understand that he is flogged when he is sick, when he is in prison, when perhaps in chains, when perhaps he suffers robbers? When some troubles are inflicted on him by wicked men, he feels that he is flogged. It is a great perception, to see that one is flogged even when things go well with one. For Scripture does not say in Job: Human life abounds in temptations; but it says: Is not human life on earth a temptation? (Job 7:1) It called the whole of life itself a temptation. So your whole life on earth consists of your blows. Lament as long as you live on earth: whether you live happily, or are set in some tribulation, cry out: I have lifted up my eyes to you, who dwell in heaven. To the hands of the Lord, who ordered you to be beaten, to whom you say in another psalm: For iniquity you have chastised man; and you have made my soul waste away like a spider (Ps 39:11 (38:12)); cry out to the hands of the one who beats, and say: Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us (Ps 123:3 (122:3)). Are these not the words of one who is flogged: Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us?

8. For we have been greatly filled with contempt. Our soul has been very greatly filled; a reproach to those who abound, and contempt for the proud (Ps 123:3-4 (122:3-4)). He who is despised is held in contempt. All who wish to live devoutly according to Christ must necessarily suffer reproaches, must necessarily be held in contempt by those who do not wish to live devoutly, whose happiness is wholly earthly. Those are mocked who call 'happiness' what they cannot see with their eyes, and it is said to them: What do you believe, you madman? Do you see what you believe? Has anyone come back from the dead and reported to you what goes on there? Behold, I see what I love, and enjoy it. You are despised, because you hope for what you do not see; and he despises you who, as it were, holds what he sees. Look closely whether he himself holds it: do not be troubled; see whether he holds it, that he may not exult over you; lest, while you think him happy in the present, you lose the true happiness to come: do not be troubled; look closely whether he holds it. Either this slips away from him, the thing that he holds, or he himself slips away from the thing he holds; one must necessarily pass: either he himself through his goods, or his goods through him. Through whom do his goods pass? Through one who, while alive, will be brought down. Who passes through his own goods? He who dies amid his riches; for when he dies, he does not carry them with him to the underworld. 'I have my house,' he boasts. You ask: Which house of yours? The one my father left me. And he, whence did he have this house? Our grandfather left it to him. Go back also to the great-grandfather, and from there to the great-great-grandfather, and already he cannot say the names. Are you not rather frightened by this—that you notice that many have passed through that house, and that none of them took it with him to the eternal home? Your father left it here; he passed through it: so you too will pass through. If, then, you only pass through in your house, it is an inn for those passing through, not a dwelling for those who stay. And yet, because we hope for the things that are to come, and sigh for the happiness to come, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be, although we are already sons of God (See 1 Jn 3:2)—because our life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3)—we have been filled with contempt, that is, with scorn, by those who seek or have happiness in this world.

9. Our soul has been very greatly filled; a reproach to those who abound, and contempt for the proud. We were asking who they are who abound; he explained it to you when he said the proud. For what is a reproach is the same as contempt; and what is those who abound is the same as the proud. It is a repetition of the same thought: a reproach to those who abound, and contempt for the proud. Why do the proud abound? Because they wish to be happy here. What then? When they too are wretched, do they abound? But perhaps when they are wretched, they do not exult over us. Let your charity attend. They exult, perhaps, when they are happy, when they boast in the pomp of their riches, when they boast in the windiness of false honors; then they exult over us, and as it were say: Behold, things go well with me, I enjoy present things; let those depart from me who promise what they do not show; what I see, I hold; what I see, I enjoy; let things go well with me in this life. You, be more secure; for Christ has risen, and has taught you what he will give in the other life: be sure that he gives it. But that man exults, because he holds. Bear with him as he exults, and you will laugh at him as he groans: for afterward the time will come when these very men will say: These are the ones whom we once held in derision (Wis 5:3). These are the words of the Book of Wisdom; for Scripture has revealed to us what these very men will say who now mock us, and who despise us, and by whom we are filled with reproach and contempt: what words they will then have, when they will be despised by the truth. For they will see flashing at the right hand those whom they had held in contempt while mingled with them, when there shall have been fulfilled in them what the apostle said: When Christ your life shall appear, then you too will appear with him in glory (Col 3:4); and they will say: These are the ones whom we once held in derision, and as a byword of reproach. We fools thought their life madness, and their end without honor: how have they been counted among the sons of God, and how is their lot among the saints? And they will go on in that discourse and add: So we have strayed from the way of truth, and the light of justice did not shine for us, and the sun did not rise for us. What has pride profited us? and what has the boasting of riches brought us? (Wis 5:3-8) Then you do not exult over them, because they already exult over themselves. Until that comes to pass, brothers, let us lift our eyes to him who dwells in heaven; and let us not take our eyes off him, until he have mercy on us, and free us from every temptation and reproach and contempt.

10. To this is added that sometimes even those who are under the lash of temporal unhappiness exult over us. You find someone, for the deserts of his iniquities—whether by the hidden judgment of God or by a manifest condemnation—sent to prison, made to wear a chain: and he himself exults. And when it is said to him: Why did you not live well? behold to what you have come by living badly—he answers: Why do those who live well suffer these things? But they suffer for this reason, that they may be tested, that they may be exercised by temptations, that they may make progress through their floggings; for God flogs every son whom he receives (See Heb 12:6; Prov 3:12). And if he flogged his Only-begotten, who was without sin, and handed him over for all (See Rom 8:32), how ought we to be flogged, who have done what we are flogged for? When we have said these things, they still grow proud even over their unhappiness, and, afflicted but not yet humbled, they answer and say: These are the words of empty Christians, who believe what they do not see. If they too exult, what do we think, brothers—as though they were not mentioned in this psalm, when it said: a reproach to those who abound, and contempt for the proud—since Christians are exulted over even by those who do not abound, but who, though they are in want and hardship, themselves do not cease to exult? Surely, then: a reproach to those who abound: or is it perhaps that no one is found who exults even when set in calamity? Did not the robber exult, who was crucified with the crucified Lord (See Luke 23:39)? So then, if even those who do not abound exult, why does the psalm say: a reproach to those who abound? If we examine carefully, they too abound. Whence do they abound? For unless they abounded, they would not be proud. For one abounds in money, and from that is proud; another abounds in honors, and from that is proud; another thinks he abounds in justice, and from that grows proud, which is worse. Those who seem not to abound in money seem to themselves to abound in justice against God; and, set in calamities, they justify themselves, accuse God, and say: What have I committed, or what have I done? And you say: Look back, recall your sins, if you have done nothing. The conscience is a little tickled, and he returns to himself, and thinks over his evil deeds; and when he has thought over his evil deeds, not even so will he confess that he suffers what he deserves: but he says: Behold, I have plainly done many things; but I see that many have done worse, and suffer nothing bad. He is just against God. So he too abounds; he has a breast full of justice; since to him God seems to do evil, and he himself seems to suffer unjustly. And if you gave him a ship to steer, he would go to shipwreck with it: yet he wishes to shake God out of the governance of this world, and himself to hold the helm of creation, and to distribute to all sorrows and joys, punishments and rewards. Unhappy soul! And why do you wonder? he abounds, but he abounds in wickedness, abounds in malice; and the more he abounds in wickedness, the more he seems to himself to abound in justice.

11. But indeed the Christian man ought not to abound, but ought to recognize himself as poor; and if he has riches, he ought to know that those are not the true riches, so that he may long for others. For he who longs for false riches does not seek the true; but he who seeks the true is still poor; and rightly he says: I am poor and in pain (Ps 69:29 (68:30)). Again, that man who is both poor and full of wickedness—whence is he said to abound? Because it displeases him that he is poor, and that very justice seems to abound in his heart against the justice of God. And what is the abundance of our justice? However much justice there may be in us, it is some kind of dew compared to that fountain; compared to that great fullness, they are certain drops that soften our life and dissolve hard iniquity. Now let us long to be fattened from the full fountain of justice, let us long to be satisfied with that richness of which it is said in the psalm: They will be inebriated with the richness of your house, and you will give them to drink of the torrent of your delight (Ps 36:8 (35:9)). But while we are here, let us understand that we are needy and in want, not only of these riches which are not the true riches, but also of health itself. And when we are well, let us understand that we are weak. For as long as this body hungers and thirsts, as long as this body is wearied by keeping awake, wearied by standing, wearied by walking, wearied by sitting, wearied by eating; wherever it turns for relief from weariness, there it finds another weariness: there is not, then, perfect health, not even in the body itself. So those are not riches, but beggary; because the more they abound, the more want and greed grow. This is not health of the body, but weakness. We are daily soothed by the medicines of God, because we eat and drink: the things set before us are themselves medicines. Brothers, if you wish to see what disease holds us: one who fasts for seven days is consumed by hunger. So that hunger is there; but you do not feel it, because you tend to it daily: so not even our health itself is perfect.

12. Let your charity attend to how we understand ourselves to be needy, so that we may rejoice toward him, and lift our eyes to him who dwells in heaven. Those are not the true riches; they increase desire all the more in those who possess them. That is not true health of the body; for a weakness is carried about everywhere, deficient: wherever it turns, it fails. In its very aid you will find no firmness: it grows tired standing; it wishes to sit; will it endure even by sitting? The very thing it chose for itself so as not to be wearied—there it has its failing. It is wearied by keeping awake, it is about to sleep: does it not fail because it has slept? It is wearied by fasting, it is about to refresh itself: if it refreshes itself too much, from that it fails. In nothing can this weakness persevere. What of justice? How much justice is there amid so many temptations? We can refrain from murder, from adultery, from theft, from perjury, from frauds: but can we refrain from wicked thoughts? can we refrain even from the suggestions of evil desires? What, then, is our justice? Let us, then, hunger for the whole, thirst for the whole—for true riches, true health, and true justice. What are the true riches? That heavenly dwelling in Jerusalem. For who is called rich on this earth? When a rich man is praised, what is said? He is very rich; he lacks nothing. The praise of the one praising is the sure praise: for that is not so, when it is said: He lacks nothing. Look closely whether he lacks nothing. If he desires nothing, he lacks nothing: but if he still desires greater things than those he has, riches have come to him for this, that want might grow. But in that city there will be true riches, because there nothing will be lacking to us; because we will neither be in need of anything, and there will be true health. What is true health? When death shall have been swallowed up in victory, and when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality (See 1 Cor 15:53-54); then there will be true health, then there will be true and perfect justice, so that we can not only do nothing evil, but not even think it. But now, needy, poor, in want, in pain, we sigh, we groan, we pray, we lift our eyes to God: since both those who are happy in this world despise us—for they abound—and those who are unhappy in this world despise us; because they too abound, and there is justice in their heart, but a false one. Therefore they do not arrive at the true, because they are filled with the false. But you, that you may arrive at the true, be in want and a beggar for justice itself; and hear the Gospel: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied (Matt 5:6).

Exposition of Psalm 124

1. [v. 1.] You now know well, dearest brothers, that a song of ascents is a song of our ascension, and that this same ascension is made not by the feet of the body but by the affections of the heart. This we have very often impressed upon you; nor must the same things be repeated too often, so that there may be room to say things not yet said. This psalm too, then, which you have now heard sung to you, is headed A Song of ascents. That is its title. Sing, then, as you ascend: and sometimes it is as if one sings, sometimes as if many; because the many are also one, since Christ too is one, and in Christ the members of Christ make one with Christ, and the head of all these members is in heaven. But the body, even though it labors on earth, is not cut off from its head. For from above the head looks out and provides for the body. For if it did not provide, it would not say to that persecutor, still Saul, not yet Paul: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4) And these things you know very well, and they are familiar to you. But let them not be recalled with weariness to those from whom they have not slipped, so that through their patience they may return to the heart even of those from whom they had slipped; for they are wholesome, and to be said more often. So whether one sings, or many sing—and many men are one man, because there is unity; and Christ, as we have said, is one, and all Christians are members of Christ.

2. What, then, do these sing? these members of Christ, what do they sing? For they love, and by loving they sing, by longing they sing. Sometimes they sing with tribulation, and sometimes they sing exulting, when they sing in hope. For our tribulation is in the present world, but our hope is of the world to come: and unless, in the tribulation of the present world, the hope of the world to come consoles us, we perish. So our joy, brothers, is not yet in reality, but already in hope. But our hope is so sure, as if the reality were already accomplished: for we do not fear, since Truth promises. For Truth can neither be deceived nor deceive: it is good for us to cleave to it; it sets us free, but only if we abide in its word. For now we believe, then we shall see: when we believe, hope is in this world; when we shall see, the reality will be in the world to come. But we shall see face to face (See 1 Cor 13:12): and we shall then see face to face, when we have hearts made clean. For blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). But whence are hearts made clean, except through faith, as Peter says in the Acts of the Apostles: cleansing their hearts by faith (Acts 15:9). But our hearts are cleansed through faith, so that they may be fit to grasp the vision. For we now walk by faith, not yet by sight; as the apostle says: As long as we are in the body, we are pilgrims away from the Lord. And what does we are pilgrims mean? For we walk by faith, he says, not by sight (2 Cor 5:6-7). He, then, who is a pilgrim, and walks by faith, is not yet in the homeland, but is already on the way; but he who does not believe is neither in the homeland nor on the way. So then let us walk as though we are on the way; for the very King of the homeland was made the way. The King of our homeland is the Lord Jesus Christ; and there is truth, but here is the way. Where are we going? To the truth. By what way do we go? By faith. Where are we going? To Christ. By what way do we go? Through Christ. For he himself said: I am the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6). But he had once said to those who believed in him: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (Jn 8:31-32). And you will know, he says, the truth, but if you abide in my word. In what word? As the apostle says: This is the word of faith which we preach (Rom 10:8). So first there is the word of faith; and if we abide in that word of faith, we shall know the truth, and the truth will set us free. The truth is immortal, the truth is unchangeable: the truth is that Word of which it is said: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And who sees this, except one with a clean heart? Whence are hearts made clean? And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (Jn 1:1, 14). So then, that the Word abides in itself is the truth to which we come, and which sets us free; but that the word of faith is preached, in which the Lord wishes us to remain, so that we may know the truth, this is: The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. You believe in Christ born in the flesh, and you will come to Christ born of God, God with God.

3. Those whom we read of sing exulting; these members of Christ sing this psalm exulting. And who exults here, except in hope, as I said? Let that very hope be sure for us too, and let us sing exulting. For those who sing are not strangers to us, nor is our voice absent from this psalm. So hear it as though you were hearing yourselves; so hear it as though in the mirror of the Scriptures you were looking at yourselves. For when you look at the Scriptures as a mirror, your face is made glad: when you find yourself like, in the exultation of hope, to certain members of Christ which sang these things, you too will be among those very members, and you will sing these things. Why, then, do these sing these things exulting? Because they have escaped. So it is in hope that they sing. For while we are here and are pilgrims, we have not yet escaped. Certain members have indeed gone ahead from that body of which we too are members, who can sing in truth. And this the holy martyrs have sung: for they have already escaped, and are in exultation with Christ, about to receive bodies now incorrupt, those very same bodies which were at first corruptible, in which they suffered punishments; from these will come for them the adornments of justice. So then, whether they are already in reality, or we in hope joining our affection to their crowns, and longing for such a life as we do not have here, but cannot have unless we have longed for it here, let us all sing together, and say: Unless the Lord had been among us (Ps 124:1 (123:1)). For they looked back on certain tribulations which they suffered, and considered, now set in that place and in blessedness and in security, through what they had passed, where they had come; and because it was difficult to be freed from there unless the hand of the deliverer were present, in joy they said: Unless the Lord had been among us. So they began to sing: they had not yet said from what they had escaped; so great is their exultation: Unless the Lord had been among us.

4. Let Israel now say: Unless the Lord had been among us (Ps 124:1 (123:1)). Let him say it now, because he has now escaped. For this psalm sets before us, to be gazed at, those who escape—that is, those who have already escaped. Let us too set them in our heart as already triumphing; and as though we too were there, as was said in the earlier psalm: Our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem (Ps 122:2 (121:2)). They were not yet there, but were on the way: but so great was the gladness of those hastening, and so great the hope of arriving, that, though still set on the way and laboring, they already seemed to themselves set there. So let us too now set ourselves in that triumph which will be in the world to come, when we shall exult over death now ended, now consumed; when we shall say: Where, O death, is your striving? where, O death, is your sting? (1 Cor 15:55; see Hos 13:14) now joined to the angels, and exulting with our King, who willed to be the first to rise again, although he did not refuse to be the first to die. For many died before him, but no one rose again before him unto eternity. But exulting with him, set there too in hope and in heart, because we have escaped, let us think what we have escaped—what scandals, what tribulations of the world, what persecutions of all the pagans, what deceits of all the heretics, what suggestions of the devil, what conflicts of the desires. Who would escape all these, unless the Lord had been among us? Let Israel now say; for Israel says securely: Unless the Lord had been among us. When? When men rose up against us (Ps 124:2 (123:2)). Do not, then, wonder: they were conquered; for they were men: but the Lord was among us, it was not a man that was among us; but men rose up against us. And yet men would oppress other men, were it not that in these men who could not be oppressed there was not a man, but the Lord.

5. [v. 3.] So then: Unless the Lord had been among us, when men rose up against us. For what would men do to you, exulting and singing, and securely holding everlasting blessedness? what would men rising up against you do to you, unless the Lord were among you? what would they do? Perhaps they would have swallowed us up alive (Ps 124:3 (123:3)). They would have swallowed us up alive; they would not first have killed us and so swallowed us up. O monstrous! O cruel! The Church does not swallow up like this: to Peter it was said: Kill and eat (Acts 10:13); not: Swallow up alive. How, then, does Peter—that is, the Church—kill, and so eat? and how would these who rose up against us perhaps have swallowed us up alive, unless the Lord had been among us? Because no one enters into the body of the Church unless first killed. What was, dies, so that what was not may be. Otherwise, he who is not killed and eaten by the Church can be in the number of the people that is seen by human eyes; but in the number of the people that is known to God, of which the apostle says: The Lord knows who are his (2 Tim 2:19), he cannot be unless eaten, nor can he be eaten unless first killed. A pagan comes, idolatry still lives in him; he is to be grafted into the members of Christ: that he may be grafted in, he must be eaten; but he cannot be eaten by the Church unless first killed. Let him renounce the world, then he is killed; let him believe in God, then he is eaten. How, then, would they have swallowed us up alive, unless the Lord had been among us? For many persecutors arose at one time, and now they are not lacking. They rise up one by one, and sometimes they swallow men up alive, but those in whom the Lord is not. Therefore, before all else, those men said: Unless the Lord had been among us; because many are swallowed up in whom the Lord is not. These are they who are swallowed up alive, who know that it is evil, and consent with the tongue. For certain persecutors arose, and said to men: Offer incense; if you do not, we kill you. They loved this life, and the sweetness of this life held them. They did not love more the things God promised than the things they saw on earth. For they were ordered to believe the things they did not yet see; the things they loved, they saw. Retaining more the things they saw, they shut the Lord out of their hearts; and because the Lord was not in them, they were swallowed up alive. What does it mean, they were swallowed up alive? By offering incense to idols, knowing that an idol is nothing. For if they thought an idol were something, they would be swallowed up dead: but when they think an idol is nothing, and know that all those things of the pagans are empty, they live; and yet, when they do what the persecutors want, they are swallowed up alive. But they are swallowed up alive for this reason, because the Lord is not in them. But those in whom the Lord is are killed and do not die. But those who consent and live are swallowed up alive, and once swallowed up, they die. But those who suffered, and did not yield to the tribulations, exult and say: Let Israel now say; let him say it exulting, let him say it securely: Unless the Lord had been among us, when men rose up against us, perhaps they would have swallowed us up alive.

6. [v. 4.] When their fury was kindled against us (Ps 124:3 (123:3)). You know, brothers, that in one of the earlier psalms, at the very beginning of the songs of ascents, a certain man who had begun to ascend asked for help against the cunning tongue, and said: Lord, deliver my soul from unjust lips, and from a deceitful tongue (Ps 120:2 (119:2)). For first, when a man has begun to ascend and make progress, at the very outset of his ascent he suffers cunning tongues, flattering unto destruction, flattering unto evil persuasion: What are you doing? why are you doing this? Can one not live otherwise? can God not be served otherwise? You are the only one who wishes to be what others are not! And if you have found others who are with you, what does that flattering and cunning tongue say? Behold, those men could; perhaps you will not be able. You undertake it; you will fail: and it was better not to begin than to have begun and failed. The cunning tongue still flatters. If you persevere, the cunning and flattering tongue is conquered, it begins to be openly raging; and what flattered in order to seduce, threatens in order to terrify. But if the Lord is in you, and you have not abandoned Christ from your heart; just as by sharp arrows and desolating coals (See Ps 120:4 (119:4)) you conquered the cunning tongues—that is, by the words of God with which your heart was pierced through, and by the examples of the just who from the dead were brought to life, who from sinners were made just, as coals come back to life from death—just as, then, you conquered with arrows and desolating coals those who cunningly flattered and by flattering sought to seduce, so will you conquer these who now angrily threaten, because by flattering they could not seduce. They were conquered when they flattered; let them be conquered also when they threaten. But how are they conquered, unless because the Lord was among us? It is plain that you did not conquer, but he conquered who is in you. You bear such an Emperor, and are you conquered? Is he not the one you bear, who said: I have conquered the world (Jn 16:33)? did he not, dying first, conquer the devil, since he was always above all creation, because the Word is God with God? Why did he conquer, except to teach you to fight with the devil? And yet, even when you have been taught, unless he who first conquered for you is in you, you are conquered. Unless the Lord had been among us, when men rose up against us, perhaps they would have swallowed us up alive. When their fury was kindled against us: now they are angry, now they openly rage: perhaps the water would have drowned us (Ps 124:4 (123:4)). By 'water' he means sinful peoples; and we shall see in what follows what kind of water. But whoever had consented to them, the water would have covered him. For he would die by the death of the Egyptians, he would not cross over by the example of the Israelites. For you know, brothers, that the people of the Israelites crossed through the water, and that very water covered the people of the Egyptians (See Exod 14:21-28). The water, he says, would have drowned us.

7. [v. 5.] But what kind of water is this? It is a torrent; it flows with force, but it will pass away. For those rivers are called torrents which swell with sudden rains: they have great force; whoever runs into one is swept away—but one in whom the Lord is not; for one in whom the Lord is, his soul crosses the torrent. The torrent still flows, but the soul of the martyrs has already crossed. Still, as long as this world runs on by being born and dying, it is a torrent: hence persecutions, from this torrent. From this torrent that first one drank, our head, of whom it was said in the psalm: He drank from the torrent on the way (Ps 110:7 (109:7)). From the torrent, that water which signifies the persecuting people, from there he drank who said to the disciples: Can you drink the cup which I am to drink? (Matt 20:22) He drank from the torrent on the way. What does it mean, he drank on the way? He drank in passing, he did not stick fast. He drank on the way; for of him it was perhaps said: And he did not stand in the way of sinners (Ps 1:1). He drank in passing. And what was said of this? Therefore he will lift up his head (Ps 110:7 (109:7)). From the torrent, he says, he drank on the way; therefore he will lift up his head. For our head has now been lifted up, because from the torrent he drank on the way; for our Lord suffered. If, then, our head has now been lifted up, why does the body fear the torrent? Without doubt, because the head has been lifted up, the body too will say afterward: Our soul has crossed the torrent: perhaps our soul has crossed water without substance (Ps 124:5 (123:5)). See what kind of water he was speaking of: perhaps the water would have drowned us. But what kind of water is without substance? What does it mean, without substance?

8. First, what does it mean: perhaps our soul has crossed? The Latin translators expressed as best they could what the Greeks say. For the Greek copies have ara; because it is a word of one who doubts, it was indeed expressed by the word of doubt, which is perhaps; but it is not quite that. We can render it by a word indeed less correctly joined in Latin, but suited to your understandings. What the Punic-speakers say, iar—not 'wood,' but when they doubt—this the Greeks render by ara, and this the Latin-speakers can or are accustomed to say: 'Do you suppose,' when they speak thus: 'Do you suppose I escaped this?' If, then, one says: 'Perhaps I escaped,' you see that it does not have that sense: but what I said, 'Do you suppose,' is said in common speech; in correct Latin it is not so said. And I was able to say it while expounding to you; for I often say even words that are not correct Latin, so that you may understand. But in Scripture this could not be put, since it would not be Latin; and, Latin failing, there was put in its place a word that would not have that sense. Yet understand it to be said thus: Do you suppose our soul has crossed water without substance? And why do they say: Do you suppose? Because the greatness of the danger makes it scarcely credible that one has escaped. They endured great slaughter, they were in great perils; they were so utterly pressed that they almost consented while alive, almost were swallowed up alive: so now, escaping, now secure, but recalling the very greatness of the danger: Do you suppose, they say, our soul has crossed water without substance?

9. What is water without substance, except the water of sins, without substance? For sins have no substance: they have want, not substance; they have neediness, not substance. In this water without substance that younger son lost all his substance. For you know that the younger son went into a far country, and said to his father: Give me the portion of the substance that falls to me (Luke 15:12). What do you want? It is better kept with your father; it is yours: you wish to squander it; you wish to set out farther off. Give me; but give me. He gave it to him. Having set out into a far country, living prodigally with harlots, he lost all his substance: he remained in want, he fed swine; in his want he remembers his father's riches. Unless want had struck him, he would not long for that fullness. So let all consider their sins, let them see whether their sins themselves have substance. For what did the sinner provoke God (See Ps 10:13 (9:34))? If you do not see your sin before you do it, at least when you have done it, consider it. The sweetness of this world makes the throat sweet for a time; afterward it will be turned into great bitterness. Behold, you have sinned, and made a profit: what is it, that you have made a profit? In order to make a profit, you offended God; in order to increase your money, your faith was diminished, and your gold increased. What have you lost, and what have you gained? What you gained is called gold; what you lost is called faith: compare faith with gold; if faith were for sale in the market, would it have a price? You think of your gains, you do not think of your losses? Do you rejoice over your chest, and not lament over your heart? Something or other abounds in your chest; but see what has been diminished in your heart. When you open your chest, you will find coins that were not there: well, that you rejoice that what was not there is there. Attend to the chest of your heart; faith was there, and it is not. If you rejoice over the one, why do you not lament over the other? You have lost more than you have gained. Do you wish to see what you have lost? It could not be taken from you even by shipwreck. For sometimes men lose everything at sea, and come out naked. Many were shipwrecked with Paul (See Acts 27): lovers of this world suffered shipwreck, and all came out naked; they lost both what they had outside, and found the house of their heart empty: but Paul bore in his heart the patrimony of his faith; by no waves, by no storms could it be taken from him; he came out naked, and came out rich. Such riches we ought to seek. But I do not see them, you say to me. Foolish soul, you do not see them with the eyes of your flesh; have the eye of the heart, and you see them. But you do not see faith. Why, then, do you see it in another? Why do you cry out when it is broken for you, if you do not see it? Let someone break faith with you; you cry out. So you wish it to be shown to you, and then you see it; when you are asked to show it, then you do not see it? What you cry out that another does not have toward you, lament that you do not have toward another. And see that the sin you commit is without substance. For what is gained from sin seems to be substance. But even this is not gained. For he has gold who knows how to use gold; but he who does not know how to use gold is had, he does not have; he is possessed, he does not possess. Be lords of gold, and not slaves of gold: for both God made gold, and he made you above gold; gold he made for your help, and you for his image. See what is above you, and you trample on what is below you. What, then, have you gained? Do you wish to see how the water is without substance? Take with you to the underworld what you have gained: what will you do? You have gained gold, you have lost faith: after a few days you go out of this life, the gold which you gained with your faith lost, you cannot carry with you; your heart, empty of faith, goes out to punishments, which, full of faith, would have gone out to a crown. Behold, what you have done is nothing, and for nothing you offended God. The water that drowned you is without substance. For what did the sinner provoke God (See Ps 10:13 (9:34))? Let those who do iniquity be confounded in vain (See Ps 35:26 (34:26)). For no one does not do iniquity in vain; but no one considers it.

10. Men go about, they hear that common proverb; and the proverbs of God lie asleep in them. What proverb? 'I prefer what I hold to what I hope for.' O unhappy man, what do you hold? Behold, you say: I prefer what I hold; hold it so as not to lose it, and say: I prefer what I hold. But if you do not hold it, why do you not hold that which you cannot lose? What, then, do you hold? Gold. Hold it, then; if you hold it, let it not be taken from you against your will. But if you too are dragged by your gold where you do not wish, and therefore a greater plunderer seeks you out, because he has found a lesser plunderer; therefore a greater eagle seeks you out, because you first caught the hare: the lesser was prey to you, you will be prey to the greater. Men do not see these things in human affairs; they are blinded by such great greed. It is a strange thing, brothers; those who consider it shudder. The more powerful seeks the weaker, and seeks to oppress him, for no other reason than that he has something to take from him: he sees that man suffer tribulation under him, for no other reason than because of what he has; and this very thing, for the sake of which the other suffers tribulation, he heaps up for himself. He did not consider, when he was persecuting the other; the other was fleeing, the other was being tormented, the other was afraid, the other was looking for where to hide himself: whence would he suffer these evils, except because he had something? At least in him learn what to flee: for the thing that tormented him, with you persecuting lest it be taken from you, will likewise torment you, with another persecuting. You notice that he is fat: if you seek him out because he is fat, fear to grow fat, lest another seek you out. And all things are done in vain: seek the end; darkness meets you: seek the reason; nothing meets you.

11. [v. 6.] So let those exult and rejoice in the Lord who say: Our soul has crossed water without substance, and let them receive their substance. They lost it living prodigally; but was the Father made poor? Let them return, and they will find there the riches which in a far-off pilgrimage they consumed with harlots; let them escape the water without substance, and say: Blessed be the Lord, who did not give us as a prey to their teeth (Ps 124:6 (123:6)). For the persecutors were hunters, and they set bait in the trap. What bait? The sweetness of this life, that each one, for the sweetness of this life, might put his head into wickedness, and be caught in the trap. Not those in whom the Lord was, those who say: Unless the Lord had been among us; they were not caught in the trap. Let the Lord be in you, and you too will not be caught in the trap; cry out: Blessed be the Lord, who did not give us as a prey to their teeth.

12. [v. 7.] Our soul, like a sparrow, has been snatched from the trap of the hunters (Ps 124:7 (123:7)). Because the Lord was in that very soul, therefore the soul, like a sparrow, has been snatched from the trap of the hunters. Why like a sparrow? Because, like a sparrow, it had fallen incautiously; and it could afterward say: God will pardon me. O unstable sparrow, fix your feet rather on the rock, do not go to the trap. You are caught, you are consumed, you are crushed. Let the Lord be in you, and from greater threats he will snatch you, from the trap of the hunters. Just as, if you see a bird as though already falling into the trap, you make a greater noise, that it may fly from the trap: so too the martyrs—perhaps some of them were already stretching their necks toward the sweetness of this life; the Lord who was in them made the noise of the pains of hell, and the sparrow was snatched from the trap of the hunters: Our soul, like a sparrow, has been snatched from the trap of the hunters. And what then? Will that trap last forever? The trap was the sweetness of this life: they did not stick fast in the trap, and they were killed; once they were killed, the trap was broken; the sweetness of this life no longer remained, by which they might again be caught, but it was shattered: was the sparrow too shattered? Far from it; because it was not in the trap: The trap has been shattered, and we have been snatched away.

13. [v. 8.] So let them cry out, because they have been snatched away; let them fly to God, let them triumph in God, because they have been snatched away: since the Lord was in them, that they might not be caught by the trap. Why was the trap shattered, and we snatched away? Do you wish to know why? Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Ps 124:8 (123:8)). For if this help were not there, the trap would indeed not remain forever; but the sparrow, once caught, would be crushed. For this life will pass away; and those who have been caught by its sweetness, and through this sweetness have offended God, will pass away with this life. For the trap will be shattered; be sure of it: all the sweetness of this present life will cease to be, when the lot of its place is fulfilled; but it is needful not to stick fast, so that when the trap is shattered, you may then exult and say: The trap has been shattered, and we have been snatched away. But lest you think you can do this by your own strength, attend to whose work it is that you be snatched away (for if you grow proud, you fall into the trap), and say: Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

14. The psalm has been treated, and, as far as the Lord has deigned to help, expounded, as I think. You know very well that a sermon is owed to your charity tomorrow also; be present, and help us by your prayers. For you ought to remember our promise; nor would I say what I was about to treat, were I not wishing to be helped by the zeal of your faith and your prayers. For you remember that I promised you to treat of what was said in the Gospel: The Law was given through Moses; Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (Jn 1:17). For heretics, especially the Manichees, are accustomed to find fault with the Law, and to say that God did not give it. This passage must be expounded, so that it may be recognized both that God gave the Law, and that the Law was given through Moses; so that it would not save, for a definite reason. The Law did not save, so that the giver of the Law himself, as Emperor, might be longed for, to grant pardon to sinners; and the Law was indeed given through Moses, but Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. To this I wished to make you attentive. The mercy of the Lord will be present, not from our merits, but perhaps for the merit of your longing; nor from our resources, but from the abundance of his gifts: so that a matter quite necessary for men set in the New Testament may be so treated that the enemy may find no hiding places at all where he may conceal himself to deceive the faithful.

Exposition of Psalm 125

1. [vv. 1-2.] This psalm, which belongs to the number of the songs of ascents (about which title we have already said many things in others, and we do not wish to repeat them, lest we dull you rather than instruct you), teaches us, as we ascend and lift our souls to the Lord our God by the affection of love and devotion, not to look at men who prosper in this world with a happiness that is false and windy and altogether seductive; where they nourish nothing but pride, and their heart freezes hard against God, and becomes hard against the rain of his grace, so that it may bear no fruit. For presuming that all things abound for them which seem necessary to this life, and beyond what is necessary, they are puffed up; and although by their iniquity they are lower than all men, by their pride they think themselves higher than all men. And would that they at least counted themselves to be such as other men. But by gazing at these men sometimes and attending to them too much, even those who worship God waver and totter, as though the reward for which they worship God had perished, when they see themselves in labors, in want, in hardship, in disease, in pain, in some necessity, and see others have health of body, abound in temporal things, rejoice in the safety of their own, flourish in the brightness of honors—those who not only do not worship God, but even oppose all men; attending to them, they totter, and say within themselves what is plainly written in a certain psalm: How does God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these very sinners, abounding in this world, have obtained riches. And it follows: Have I then in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent? (Ps 73:11-13 (72:11-13)) Have I perhaps been foolish, in wishing to live justly and to conduct myself innocently among men, when I know that those who refuse to keep innocence have such great happiness, and, happy through iniquity, exult over the just?

2. But who said that there in the psalm? One whose heart was not yet upright. For that psalm of which we have just given testimony begins thus—not the one which we have now undertaken to consider and treat, but the one where it was said: How does God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these very sinners, abounding in this world, have obtained riches. Have I then in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent? (Ps 73:11-13 (72:11-13)) That psalm, then, where you see that the soul is in peril, where you see that the feet totter, begins thus: How good is the God of Israel to the upright in heart! But my, he says, feet were almost moved, my steps had well-nigh slipped. Why? Because I was jealous over sinners, beholding the peace of sinners (Ps 73:1-3 (72:1-3)). So from there he said that his feet were moved and his steps had well-nigh slipped, in a fall toward ruin away from God, because he gazed upon and looked closely at the happiness of sinners, and saw that they had peace, but he had labor. But he related this when he had already escaped, when, his heart now set right, he had cleaved to God; he related his past perils. So then: Good is the God of Israel: but to whom? To the upright in heart. Who are the upright in heart? Those who do not find fault with God. Who are the upright in heart? Those who direct their own will to the will of God; who do not try to bend the will of God to their own will. It is a brief command, that a man direct his heart. Do you wish to have an upright heart? Do what God wills; do not wish to make God do what you will. They are crooked in heart, then—that is, they do not have an upright heart—who sit and dispute how God ought to have acted; not by praising what he did, but by finding fault. They wish to correct him: it is too little that they are unwilling to be corrected by him; and they say: God ought not to have made the poor, but only the rich ought to have existed; and they alone should live. Why was the poor man made? why does he live? He finds fault with the God of the poor. How much better it would be to be a poor man of God, and to be rich from God; that is, to follow the will of God, and to see that one's poverty is temporal and will pass away, but that spiritual riches will come to one in such a way that they can in no way pass away; and to have in the riches of the heart faith, if it does not fall to one to have gold in one's chest? For if one had gold in one's chest, one would fear the thief, and would lose the gold from the chest even against one's will; but one would not lose faith from one's heart, unless one drove it out from there oneself. But it can quickly be answered, beloved. God made the poor man, to test the man; and God made the rich man, to test him by the poor man. And all things that God made, he made rightly. And if we cannot see his counsel, why he made this thus and that thus; it is good for us to submit to his wisdom, and to believe that he did well, even if we do not yet know why he did it: and we will have an upright heart, so as to presume and trust in the Lord, and our feet will not be moved, and there will come to be in us, as we ascend, that with which this psalm began: Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion; they will not be moved forever (Ps 125:1 (124:1)).

3. Who are these? Those who dwell in Jerusalem. They will not be moved forever, who dwell in Jerusalem (Ps 125:1 (124:1)). If we understand this Jerusalem, all who dwelt there were shut out by wars and by the overthrow of that city: now you look for a Jew in the city of Jerusalem, and you do not find one. Why, then, will those who dwell in Jerusalem not be moved forever, except because there is another Jerusalem, about which you are accustomed to hear many things? She is our mother, for whom we sigh and groan in this pilgrimage, that we may return to her. We had wandered from her, and had no way: her King came, and was made the way for us, that we might be able to return to her. She is that Jerusalem where our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem (Ps 122:2 (121:2)), as you heard in the earlier psalm of the songs of ascents, already expounded and treated for you who were present; for whom that man sighed who sang: Jerusalem, which is built as a city; whose sharing is in the selfsame (Ps 122:3 (121:3)). Those, then, who dwell there will not be moved forever. But those who dwelt in this present Jerusalem were moved; first in heart, afterward in exile. When they were moved in heart and fell, then they crucified the King of that heavenly Jerusalem. They were already spiritually outside, and they were shutting the King himself outside. For they cast him out of their city, and crucified him outside (See Heb 13:12). And he himself cast them out of his city, that is, the eternal Jerusalem, the mother of us all, which is in the heavens.

4. What is this Jerusalem like? He briefly describes it. Mountains are round about it (Ps 125:2 (124:2)). Is it some great thing, that we are in that city which mountains have surrounded? Is this our whole happiness, that we will have a city which mountains have surrounded? For do we not know mountains? or what are mountains, except swellings of the earth? There are, then, other mountains, lovable mountains, lofty mountains: the preachers of truth, whether angels, or apostles, or prophets. They are round about Jerusalem; they encircle it, and make, as it were, a wall for it. About these lovable and delightful mountains Scripture speaks constantly. Take notice when you hear or read: in many places you find delightful mountains, more than we are able to mention. Yet, as far as the Lord prompts, it delights us to say many things about these mountains; and the divine testimonies from the holy Letters have occurred to us. They are the mountains that are illumined by God: and they are illumined first, so that from them the light may come down to the valleys, or to the hills, which are not of such height as the mountains. They are those through whom Scripture is held out to us in advance, whether in prophecy, or in the apostles, or in the Gospel. They are the mountains of which we sing: I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, whence help will come to me (Ps 121:1 (120:1)); because from the holy Scriptures we have help in this life. But because these mountains are not protected by themselves, nor do they provide for us of themselves, our hope ought not to be in the mountains, lest we be accursed, who put our hope in man (See Jer 17:5); he had already said: I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, whence help will come to me; My help, he says, is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Ps 121:1-2 (120:1-2)). They are the mountains of which he likewise says: Let the mountains receive peace for your people, and the hills justice (Ps 72:3 (71:3)). The mountains are great, and the hills are lesser. So the mountains see, the hills believe: those who see have received peace and brought it to those who believe. For those who believe receive justice; because the just man lives by faith (Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17). The angels see, they announce what they see, and we believe. That John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1): he was seeing, he preached to us that we might believe. And through the mountains receiving peace, the hills received justice: for of those mountains, what does he say? He did not say: 'They have peace of themselves,' or 'they establish peace,' or 'they generate peace'; but 'they receive peace.' Whence they receive peace is the Lord. So then lift up your eyes to the mountains for the sake of peace, that your help may be from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Again, mentioning those mountains, the Holy Spirit says this: You who give light wondrously from the eternal mountains (Ps 76:4 (75:5)). He did not say: The mountains give light; but: You who give light from the eternal mountains: through these mountains which you willed to be eternal, preaching the Gospel, you give light, not the mountains. Such, then, are the mountains round about Jerusalem.

5. And that you may know what kind of mountains are round about it: where Scripture mentions good mountains, very rarely and with difficulty—or perhaps never—does it not at once name the Lord there too, or signify him along with them, lest hope remain in the mountains. Behold, see how many things I have mentioned. I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, whence help will come to me: and that you may not remain there: My help, he says, is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Again: Let the mountains receive peace for your people: when he said let them receive, he showed that there is another fountain of peace, whence they receive. Again: Giving light from the mountains: but he said: You; You who give light wondrously from the eternal mountains. Likewise in this place, when he had said: Mountains are round about it; that you might not again remain in the mountains, he at once added: And the Lord is round about his people (Ps 125:2 (124:2)): that your hope might not be in the mountains, but in him who gives light to the mountains. For when he dwells in the mountains, that is, in the saints, he himself is round about his people; and he himself has walled his people with a spiritual fortification, that it may not be moved forever. But when Scripture speaks of those evil mountains, it does not add the Lord to them. Such mountains, as we have already often told you, signify certain great souls, but evil ones. For do not think, brothers, that heresies could have been made by some small souls. Only great men made heresies: but the greater they were, the more they were evil mountains. For they were not the kind of mountains that would receive peace, so that the hills might receive justice; but they received dissension from the devil their father. They were mountains, then; take care not to flee to such mountains. For men will come, and will say to you: That man was a great man, and that one was a great man. What a man Donatus was! what a man Maximian is! and what was that Photinus! and what was that Arius! All these I have named as mountains, but shipwrecking ones. You see that some flame of speech shines from them, and some fire is kindled from them. If you are sailing in a ship, and suffer the night, that is, the darkness of this life; let them not deceive you, and do not steer your ship there: there are rocks there, there great shipwrecks happen. So when these mountains have been praised to you, and it has begun to be urged upon you that you come to those very mountains, as to a help, and there find rest; answer: In the Lord I trust; how do you say to my soul: Migrate to the mountains like a sparrow? (Ps 11:1 (10:2)) For it is good for you to lift up your eyes to those mountains whence help may come to you from the Lord, that you may escape like a sparrow from the trap of the hunters, not migrate to the mountains. For a sparrow is an unstable thing; it is quickly moved, it quickly flies here and there. But you, trust in the Lord, and you will be like Mount Zion; you will not be moved forever, and you will not migrate to the mountains like a sparrow. Did he there name the mountains in such a way as to speak of the Lord?

6. But love such mountains, in which the Lord is. But then those mountains love you, if you do not put your hope in them. See, brothers, what the mountains of God are like. For they are so named in another place: Your justice is like the mountains of God (Ps 36:6 (35:7)). Not their justice, but your justice. Hear such a mountain, the apostle: That I may be found in him, he says, not having my own justice which is from the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ (Phil 3:9). But those who wished to be mountains through their own justice, like certain Jews or the Pharisees their leaders, are reproved thus: For being ignorant of the justice of God, and wishing to establish their own, they have not been made subject to the justice of God (Rom 10:3). But those who are made subject are high in such a way as to be humble. And because they are great, they are called mountains; but because they are subject to God, they are valleys: and because they have a capacity for devotion, they receive an abundance of peace and transmit the overflow to the hills. Yet now you, see which mountains you love. If you wish to be loved by the good mountains, do not put your hope even in the good mountains. For what kind of mountain was Paul? when is such a one found? (We are speaking of the greatness of men.) Can anyone of such great grace easily be found? And yet he feared lest that sparrow should put its hope in him: and what does he say? Was Paul crucified for you? (1 Cor 1:13) But lift up your eyes to the mountains, whence help may come to you; because: I planted, Apollos watered: but your help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth; because God gave the increase (1 Cor 3:6-7). So then, mountains are round about it. But just as mountains are round about it, so also the Lord is round about his people, from this time now and forevermore (Ps 125:2 (124:2)). If, then, mountains are round about it, and the Lord is round about his people, the Lord binds his people together into one bond of love and peace, so that those who trust in the Lord like Mount Zion may not be moved forever: and this is, from this time and forevermore.

7. [v. 3.] For the Lord will not leave the rod of sinners over the lot of the just, so that the just may not stretch out their hands to iniquity (Ps 125:3 (124:3)). Now indeed the just labor somewhat, and now sometimes the unjust have dominion over the just. In what ways? Sometimes the unjust attain to the honors of this world: when they have attained them and have been made either judges or kings—because God does this for the discipline of his people, for the discipline of his people—it cannot but be that the honor due to power be shown to them. For God has so ordered his Church that every power ordained in the world has its honor, and sometimes from those who are better. But for the sake of example I name one thing; from this infer the ranks of all the powers. The first and daily power of man over man is that of master over slave. Nearly all households have power of this kind. There are masters, there are also slaves; the names are diverse: but 'men' and 'men' are equal names. And what does the apostle say, teaching slaves to be subject to their masters? Slaves, obey your masters according to the flesh (Eph 6:5; Col 3:22): for there is a master according to the spirit. He is the true and eternal master; but these are temporal, according to time. You, when you walk on the way, when you live in this life, Christ does not wish to make you proud. It has happened to you that you became a Christian, and have a man as master: you did not become a Christian for this, that you might disdain to serve. For when, at Christ's command, you serve a man, you do not serve him, but the one who commanded it. And he says this: Obey your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in simplicity of heart; not serving to the eye, as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul, with good will (Eph 6:5-7). Behold, he did not make slaves into free men, but bad slaves into good slaves. How much the rich owe to Christ, who orders their household for them! so that if there was an unbelieving slave there, Christ may convert him, and not say to him: Leave your master; you now know him who is the true master: he is perhaps impious and unjust, you are now a believer and just; it is unworthy that one who is just and a believer should serve one who is unjust and an unbeliever. He did not say this to him, but rather: Serve; and to strengthen the slave, he said this: By my example serve; I first served the unjust. For the Lord, enduring such great things in his passion, from whom did he endure them, except a master from servants? and from whom, except from bad servants? For if they had been good servants, they would have honored their master. But because they were bad servants, they did him injury. He, what did he do in return? He repaid love for hatred. For he says: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). If the Lord of heaven and earth, through whom all things were made, served the unworthy, prayed for those who raged and were furious, and showed himself a physician in his coming (for physicians too, though better in skill and in health, serve the sick); how much more ought a man not to disdain to serve with his whole soul, and with all his good will, and with all love, a master, even an evil one? Behold, the better serves the worse, but for a time. But what I have said of master and slave, understand this of powers and kings, of all the heights of this world. For sometimes the powers are good, and fear God; sometimes they do not fear God. Julian was an unbelieving emperor, an apostate, unjust, an idolater: Christian soldiers served an unbelieving emperor; where it came to the cause of Christ, they acknowledged none but him who was in heaven. If ever he wished them to worship idols, to offer incense, they set God before him: but when he said: Draw up the battle line, go against that nation; they at once obeyed. They distinguished the eternal master from the temporal master; and yet they were subject, for the sake of the eternal master, even to the temporal master.

8. But will it always be so, that the unjust rule the just? It will not be so. For see what this psalm says: For the Lord will not leave the rod of sinners over the lot of the just. The rod of sinners is felt for a time over the lot of the just; but it is not left there, it will not be forever. The time will come, when one God is acknowledged; the time will come, when Christ, appearing in his brightness, will gather before himself all the nations, and divide them, as the shepherd divides the kids from the sheep: he will set the sheep at the right hand, the kids at the left (See Matt 25:31-33). And you will see there many slaves among the sheep, and many masters among the kids; and again many masters among the sheep, many slaves among the kids. For it is not the case that, because we have thus consoled slaves, all slaves are good; or that, because we have thus repressed the pride of masters, all masters are bad. There are good faithful masters, and there are bad ones: there are good faithful slaves, and there are bad ones. But as long as good slaves serve bad masters, let them bear it for a time: For the Lord will not leave the rod of sinners over the lot of the just. Why is this? So that the just may not stretch out their hands to iniquity: so that the just may for a time bear the unjust ruling, and may understand that this is not everlasting, but may prepare themselves to possess the everlasting inheritance. What inheritance? Where every domination will be destroyed, and every power, so that God may be all in all (1 Cor 15:28). Keeping themselves for this, and contemplating this in their heart, and still holding it in faith, and enduring so as to see it, they do not stretch out their hands to iniquity. For if they saw that the rod of sinners is always over the lot of the just, they would think within themselves, and say: What does it profit me that I am just? The unjust man will always have dominion over me, and I will always be a slave? So I too will do iniquity; because it profits nothing to hold to justice. But that he may not say this, faith is instilled in him, that the rod of sinners can be over the lot of the just for a time: the Lord will not leave it over the lot of the just, so that the just may not stretch out their hands to iniquity; but let them keep their hands from iniquity, and bear iniquity, not do it. For it is better to bear injustice than to do it. Whence will it not be forever? Because the Lord will not leave the rod of sinners over the lot of the just.

9. [v. 4.] This is what those who are upright in heart think, of whom I spoke a little before, who follow the will of God, not their own will. But those who wish to follow God make him go before, and themselves follow; they do not make themselves go before, and him follow: and in all things they find him good, whether correcting, or consoling, or exercising, or crowning, or purifying, or illumining, as the apostle says: We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good (Rom 8:28). And therefore it follows: Do good, O Lord, to the good, and to the upright in heart (Ps 125:4 (124:4)).

10. [v. 5.] But just as the upright in heart turns away from evil, and does good (See Ps 37:27 (36:27)), because he is not jealous over sinners, beholding the peace of sinners (See Ps 73:3 (72:3)); so the man of crooked heart, who is scandalized at the ways of the Lord, turns away from God, and does evil, and is baited by the sweetness of the world, and, ensnared and caught by it, pays bitter penalties. But for one who turns away from God, whose discipline he refused to bear, by the judgment of God the false happiness of the wicked becomes for him a true snare. Whence he immediately adds: But those who turn aside the Lord will lead away into strangulation with the workers of injustice (Ps 125:5 (124:5)): that is, whose deeds they imitated; because they loved the present joys of the wicked, and did not believe in the punishments to come. Those, then, who are upright in heart, and do not turn aside, what will they have? Let us now come to the inheritance itself, brothers, since we are sons. What shall we possess? what is the inheritance? what is our homeland? what is it called? Peace. By this we greet you, this we announce to you, this the mountains receive, and the hills justice (See Ps 72:3 (71:3)). It is Christ himself: For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the dividing wall of the partition (Eph 2:14). Because we are sons, we will have an inheritance. And what will that very inheritance be called, except peace? And see that those are disinherited who do not love peace: but those do not love peace who divide unity. Peace is the possession of the devout, the possession of heirs. And who are the heirs? Sons. Hear the Gospel: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God (Matt 5:9). Hear too the conclusion of this psalm: Peace upon Israel (Ps 125:5 (124:5)). 'Israel' is interpreted 'seeing God'; 'Jerusalem' is interpreted 'vision of peace.' Let your charity understand: 'Israel' is interpreted 'seeing God'; 'Jerusalem' is interpreted 'vision of peace.' Who will not be moved forever? Those who dwell in Jerusalem. They will not be moved forever, then, who dwell in the vision of peace. And peace upon Israel. So Israel, who is 'seeing God,' is 'seeing peace': and Israel is itself also Jerusalem; because that people of God is itself the city of God. If, then, seeing peace is the same as seeing God; rightly God himself is also peace. So then, because Christ the Son of God is peace, therefore he came to gather his own, and to separate them from the wicked. From what wicked? Those who hate Jerusalem, who hate peace, who wish to tear apart unity, who do not believe in peace, who proclaim a false peace among the people, and do not have it. To these the answer is given, when they say: Peace be with you: And with your spirit—they speak falsely, and hear falsely. To whom do they say: Peace be with you? those whom they separate from the peace of the whole world. And to whom is it said: And with your spirit? Those who embrace dissensions, and hate peace. For if there were peace in their spirit, would they not love unity, and abandon dissension? So, proclaiming falsehood, they hear falsehood. Let us proclaim truth, and hear truth. Let us be Israel, and embrace peace; because Jerusalem is the vision of peace, and we are Israel, and peace upon Israel.

Exposition of Psalm 126

1. [v. 1.] As you already remember, this psalm, as we treat them in order, is the one hundred twenty-sixth, which is among those psalms whose title is A Song of ascents. It is, as you know, the voice of those who ascend: where to, except to that heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of us all, which is in the heavens (See Gal 4:26)? She who is heavenly is also eternal: but this one which was on earth had a shadow of her. And so this one fell, that one abides: this one fulfilled the time of its preaching, that one holds the eternity of our restoration. From her we are pilgrims in this life, for her return we sigh: wretched and laboring so long, until we return to her. Nor have the angels our fellow citizens abandoned us in our pilgrimage, but they have announced to us that the King himself would come to us. And he came to us, and was held in contempt among us by us, and afterward was with us: and he taught us to be held in contempt, because he was held in contempt; he taught us to endure, because he endured; he taught us to suffer, because he suffered; and he promised that we would rise again, because he rose again, showing in himself what we ought to hope for. If, then, brothers, the ancient prophets, our fathers, before the Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh, before he had died, risen again, and ascended into heaven, nevertheless sighed for that city; how much ought we to long for that to which he himself has gone before us, and from which he has never departed? For the Lord did not so come to us as to desert the angels: he both remained with them and came to us; he remained with them in majesty, he came to us in the flesh. But where were we? If he is called our redeemer, we were held captive. Where, then, were we held, that he should come to redeem captives? where were we held? Perhaps among barbarians? Worse than barbarians is the devil and his angels. They formerly held the human race: from them he redeemed us, who gave for us not gold nor silver, but his own blood.

2. But how man had come into captivity, let us ask the apostle Paul. For he especially groans in this captivity, sighing for the eternal Jerusalem; and he has taught us to groan by that same Spirit by whom he too, filled, was groaning. For he says this: The whole creation groans together and is in pain until now. And again: For the creation was made subject to vanity, he says, not of its own will, but because of him who made it subject, in hope (Rom 8:22, 20). He called the whole creation, in men even not yet believing, but who would nevertheless believe, the creation groaning in labors. Is it then only in those who have not yet believed? does not the creation groan and travail in those too who have believed? And not only that, he says, but we ourselves too, having the firstfruits of the spirit—that is, we who already in spirit serve God, who already in mind have believed in God, and in that very faith have given certain firstfruits, that we may follow our firstfruits—therefore we ourselves too groan within ourselves, awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body (Rom 8:23). So he himself was groaning, and all the faithful groan, awaiting the adoption, the redemption of their body. Where do they groan? In this mortality. What redemption do they await? That of their body, which has gone before in the Lord, who rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. Before this is rendered to us, we must groan—even the faithful, even those who hope. So it follows there, and he says; when he had said: And we ourselves too groan within ourselves, awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body; as though it were said to him: What good, then, has Christ done you, if you still groan; and how has the Savior saved you? he who groans is still sick: he added and said: For by hope we have been saved. But hope which is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we await it through patience (Rom 8:24-25). Behold why we groan, and how we groan; because what we hope for, we indeed already await, but do not yet hold, and until we hold it, we sigh in time, because we long for what we do not yet hold. Why? Because by hope we have been saved. The flesh now taken from us in the Lord has been saved, not in hope, but in reality. For our flesh has risen and ascended saved in our head; in the members it is yet to be saved. Let the members rejoice securely, because they have not been deserted by their head. For he said to the laboring members: Behold, I am with you, even to the consummation of the world (Matt 28:20). So it came about that we were turned toward God. For we had no hope but toward this world; and from that, wretched slaves, and twice wretched, because we had both placed our hope in this life, and, having our face toward this world, had our back against God. But when the Lord has turned us, so that we now begin to have our face toward God and our back to this world, we who are still on the way nevertheless attend to the homeland: and when we perhaps suffer some tribulation, yet we hold to the way, and are carried by the wood; the wind is indeed rough, but it is a favorable wind; with labor indeed, but it quickly leads, quickly brings through. Because, then, we were groaning over our captivity, and even those who have already believed groan; but we had forgotten how we became captives, and yet are reminded through Scripture: let us ask the apostle Paul himself; for he says: For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin (Rom 7:14). Behold whence we became captives, because we were sold under sin. Who sold us? We ourselves, who consented to the seducer. We were able to sell ourselves, we are not able to redeem ourselves. We sold ourselves by consenting to sin, we are redeemed by faith in justice. For innocent blood was given for us, that we might be redeemed. Whatever blood that one shed in persecuting the just, what kind of blood did he shed? He shed the blood of the just indeed; the blood of the prophets, of our fathers, of the just he shed, and of the martyrs: yet all of them coming from the stock of sin. He shed the one blood of him who was not justified, but born just: when that blood was shed, he lost those whom he held. For those for whom innocent blood was given have been redeemed; and, turned back from captivity, they sing this psalm.

3. When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion, we were made like those consoled (Ps 126:1 (125:1)). This he meant to say: We were made rejoicing. When? When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion. Which Zion? That very Jerusalem, and the eternal Zion. How is Zion eternal, how is Zion captive? In the angels eternal, in men captive. For not all the citizens of that city are captive; but those who are pilgrims away from it, they are captive. Man is a citizen of Jerusalem, but, sold under sin, he became a pilgrim. From his stock was born the human race, and the captivity of Zion filled the lands. And how is this captivity of Zion a shadow of that Jerusalem? The shadow of that Zion which the Jews received in an image, in a figure, was in the captivity in Babylon; and after seventy years that people returned to its city (See Jer 29:10; 2 Chr 36:21-23). The seventy years signify all the time that is rolled around in seven days: but when all time shall have passed, then we too return to our homeland; just as that people, after seventy years, returned from the captivity of Babylon. For Babylon is this world: for 'Babylon' is interpreted 'confusion.' See whether the whole of human life is not confusion. Whatever men do in vain hope, when they have come to know what they do, they blush. Why do they labor? for whom do they labor? For my sons, one says. And they, for whom? For their sons. And they, for whom? For their sons. So no one for himself. From this confusion, then, those had already been turned back to whom the apostle says: For what glory had you in those things in which you now blush? (Rom 6:21) So this whole life of human affairs, not pertaining to God, is confusion. In this confusion, in this Babylon, Zion is held captive: but the Lord turns back the captivity of Zion.

4. And we were made, he says, like those consoled: that is, we rejoiced, as though receiving consolation. Consolation is only for the wretched, consolation is only for those who groan, who mourn. Why like those consoled, except because we still groan? We groan in reality, we are consoled in hope: when reality has passed, from groaning there will come eternal joy, where there will be no need of consolation, because we will be wounded by no misery. But why does he say as though consoled, and does not say 'consoled'? This word like is not always set down to express likeness: when we say like, it is sometimes referred to a true property, sometimes to a likeness; here it is referred to a true property. But examples must be given to us even from the common speech of men, so that it may be easily understood. When we say: As the father lived, so too the son; we say this for likeness: and: As the beast dies, so man dies; this is said for likeness. But when we say: He acted like a good man; is he not a good man, but merely has the likeness of a good man? He acted like a just man; this 'like' does not deny that he is just, but shows his property. You acted like a senator: So am I not a senator, if he should say: On the contrary, because you are one, you acted like a senator; and because you are just, you acted like a just man; and because you are good, you acted like a good man. So because these men too were truly consoled, they rejoiced like those consoled; that is, their joy was great, as of those consoled, the one who died consoling those who would die. For all of us in dying groan: he who died consoled us, that we might not fear to die. He rose first, that we might have what we could hope for. Because, then, he rose first, he gave us hope: because, set in misery, we were consoled by hope; hence great joy. And the Lord turned back our captivity, so that now from captivity we may hold to the way, and go to the homeland. Now, then, redeemed, let us on the way not fear our enemies lying in wait. For he redeemed us for this, that the enemy might not dare to lie in wait for us, if we do not depart from the way. For Christ himself was made the way (See Jn 14:6). Do you wish not to suffer robbers? He says to you: I have paved the way for you to the homeland; do not depart from the way. I have fortified the way in such a manner that the robber dare not approach you; do not depart from it, and the robber dare not approach you. Walk, then, in Christ, and sing rejoicing, sing as one consoled; because he has gone before you, who commanded you to follow.

5. [v. 2.] Then our mouth was filled with joy, and our tongue with exultation (Ps 126:2 (125:2)). The mouth, my brothers, which we have in the body, how is it filled with joy? It is not usually filled, except either with food, or drink, or some such thing put into the mouth. Our mouth is sometimes filled: and there is more that we say to your holiness; when we have our mouth full, we cannot speak. But we have an inner mouth, that is, in the heart, whence whatever proceeds, if it is evil, defiles us; if it is good, cleanses us. For about that very mouth you have heard, while the Gospel was being read. For the Jews were exulting over the Lord, because his disciples ate with unwashed hands (See Matt 15:1-2). They exulted, who had cleanness outside, and inside were full of stains; they exulted, whose justice was only in the eyes of men. But the Lord sought our inner cleanness; and if this be present, it must be that the things outside too are clean. Cleanse, he says, the things that are within, and the things that are outside will be clean (See Matt 23:26). The Lord himself says in another place: Rather, give alms, and behold, all things are clean to you (Luke 11:41). But whence does almsgiving proceed? From the heart. For if you stretch out your hand, but do not have mercy in your heart, you have done nothing; but if you have mercy in your heart, even if you have nothing to stretch out with your hand, God accepts your almsgiving. But those wicked men sought cleanness outside. Of such was also that Pharisee who had invited the Lord, when there came the woman who was a sinner and notorious in the city, who washed the Lord's feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, anointed them with ointment. So the Pharisee, who had invited the Lord, and had no cleanness except outwardly in the body, but in his heart was full of iniquity and rapine, said within himself: If this man were a prophet, he would know what woman has come to him at his feet (See Luke 7:39). Whence did he know whether he knew or did not know? But he supposed that he did not know, because he did not repel her from himself. For if such a woman had come to the Pharisee himself, he who held cleanness as it were in the flesh would have blown her away, repelled her, cast her off; lest the unclean should touch the clean, and contaminate his cleanness. Because the Lord did not do this, he therefore believed that he did not know what kind of woman had come to him at his feet; but the Lord not only knew her, but was hearing her thoughts: for even if the touch of the body does something, O unclean Pharisee, could the flesh of the Lord be polluted by the touch of the woman, or rather the woman be cleansed by the touch of the Lord? But the physician was allowing the sick woman to touch the medicine; and she who had come knew the physician; and she who was accustomed perhaps to be brazen in her fornication was made more brazen for her salvation. She burst into the house where she had not been invited; but she had wounds, and she had come there where the physician reclined. But that man who had invited the physician seemed to himself to be healthy; therefore he was not being cured. You now know what follows in the Gospel, how that Pharisee was put to confusion, when he showed him that he both knew that woman, and had heard his thought.

6. But let us return to what was just now read from the Gospel, which pertains to the present verse where it was said: Our mouth was filled with joy, and our tongue with exultation: for we are asking what mouth, and what tongue. Let your charity attend. The Lord was exulted over, because his disciples were eating with unwashed hands (See Matt 15:2). The Lord answered them as was fitting, and, calling the crowds, said: Hear, all of you, and understand. Everything that enters into the mouth does not defile a man, but what comes out (Matt 15:10-11). What is this? When he said: What enters into the mouth, he meant to point to none but the mouth of the body. For foods enter, and foods do not defile men; because: All things are clean to the clean (Titus 1:15); and: Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected that is received with thanksgiving (1 Tim 4:4). Certain things had been set down for the Jews in a figure, and were called unclean (See Lev 11). But after the Light himself came, the shadows were removed, we are not held in the letter, but made alive in the spirit: and the yoke of observance was not imposed on Christians which had been imposed on the Jews; because the Lord said: For my yoke is sweet, and my burden is light (Matt 11:30): and: All things, says the apostle, are clean to the clean: but to the unclean and the unbelieving nothing is clean; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled (Titus 1:15). What did he wish to be understood? To a clean man both bread and pork are clean, to an unclean man neither bread nor pork. But to the unclean, he says, and the unbelieving nothing is clean. Why is nothing clean? But both their mind and their conscience, he says, are defiled: because if what is within is unclean, what is outside can in no way be clean. If, then, for those whose inner parts are unclean, the outer parts cannot be clean; if you wish the outer parts to be clean, cleanse the inner parts. For there is the mouth which will be filled with joy for you, even when you are silent: for when you are silent and rejoice, your mouth cries out to God. But see whence you rejoice. If you rejoice over the world, with unclean joy you cry out to God: but if you rejoice over your redemption, as this psalm said: When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion, we were made joyful; then your mouth is filled with true joy, and your tongue with exultation: it is plain that you rejoice in hope, and your joy is accepted with God. In that very joy, or in that very mouth which we have within, we both eat and drink: as from this mouth for the refreshment of the body, so from that mouth for the refreshment of the heart. For hence: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied (Matt 5:6).

7. But if nothing makes a man unclean except what comes out of the mouth, and when we hear this in the Gospel we understand only the mouth of the body; it is absurd and exceedingly foolish that we should then think a man is not made unclean when he eats, but think him unclean if he vomits. For the Lord says: Not what enters into the mouth, but what comes out, defiles (See Matt 15:11). When, then, you eat, you do not become unclean; and when you vomit, you are made unclean? When you drink, you are not unclean; and when you spit, you are unclean? For when you spit, something comes out of your mouth; when you drink, something enters into your mouth. What did the Lord mean: Not what enters into the mouth, but what comes out, defiles? Going on in the same place, according to another evangelist, he said what the things are that proceed from the mouth; so that you may understand that he was speaking not of the mouth of the body, but of the mouth of the heart. For he says: For from the heart come forth evil thoughts, fornications, murders, blasphemies; these are the things that defile a man: but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man (Matt 15:19-20). So those things, my brothers, how do they come out of the mouth, except because they come out of the heart, as the Lord himself says? For it is not when we speak them that they then defile us. Let no one say: When we speak, they come out of our mouth, because words and sounds come out of our mouth; and when we speak evil things, we are made unclean. What if someone does not speak, but only thinks evil things, is he clean, because nothing has proceeded from the mouth of his body? But God has already heard from the mouth of the heart. Behold, my brothers, attend to what I say. I name theft: I have just now named theft; has theft defiled me because I named it? Behold, it came out of my mouth, and did not make me unclean. But the thief rises in the night, and says nothing with his mouth, and by doing it becomes unclean. Not only does he not speak, but he even presses on the crime in total silence; and he so fears his voice may be heard, that he does not even wish his footsteps to make a sound: is he, then, clean because he is so silent? But I say more, my brothers. Behold, he still lies on his bed, he has not yet risen to commit the theft; he keeps awake, and waits for men to sleep: he already cries out to God, he is already a thief, he is already unclean, the crime has already proceeded from the inner mouth. For when does the crime proceed from the mouth? When the will to do it is resolved upon. You resolved to do it; you said it, you did it. If you have not committed the theft outwardly; perhaps the one from whom you were planning to take it did not deserve to lose it: and he has lost nothing, and you will be condemned for the theft. You resolved to kill a man; you said it in your heart, murder sounded from your inner mouth: the man still lives, and you are punished as a murderer. For what you are before God is the question, not what you have not yet appeared to be before men.

8. Surely, then, we know, and we ought to know, and to hold, that there is a mouth of the heart, and there is also a tongue of the heart. That very mouth is filled with joy: in that very mouth within we pray to God, when the lips are closed and the conscience is open. There is silence, and the breast cries out: but to whose ears? Not of man, but of God. Be secure, then; he hears who has mercy. And again, when no man hears the evil things, if they proceed from your mouth, do not be secure, because he hears who condemns. Susanna was not heard by the unjust judges, she was silent and prayed (See Dan 13:35, 42-43). Her mouth was not heard by men, her heart cried out to God. Was it because her voice did not proceed from the mouth of the body that she therefore did not deserve to be heard? She was heard; when she prayed, no man knew. So then, brothers, think about what we have in the inner mouth. See there that you say nothing evil within, and you do nothing evil outside: for nothing can be done by a man outside, except what has been said within. Guard the mouth of the heart from evil, and you will be innocent: the tongue of your body will be innocent, your hands will be innocent; your feet too will be innocent, your eyes will be innocent; all your members will serve as soldiers of justice, because a just commander has held the heart.

9. [vv. 2-3.] Then they will say among the nations: The Lord has done great things in dealing with them. The Lord has done great things in dealing with us; we were made joyful (Ps 126:2-3 (125:2-3)). See, brothers, whether Zion does not now say that among the nations, throughout the whole world; see whether men do not run to the Church. In the whole world our price is received; 'amen' is answered. So they say among the nations, the captives of Jerusalem, those of Jerusalem who will return, the pilgrims, sighing for their homeland. What do they say? The Lord has done great things in dealing with us; we were made joyful. Did they themselves deal with themselves? They dealt badly with themselves, because they sold themselves under sin. The Redeemer came, and dealt well with them: and the Lord has done great things in dealing with them. The Lord has done great things in dealing with us; we were made joyful.

10. [v. 4.] Turn back, O Lord, our captivity, like a torrent in the south (Ps 126:4 (125:4)). What this is, let your charity attend. He had already said: When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion. He was speaking as though of the past: but it usually happens that, speaking of the past, the Prophet foretells the future. For he was speaking as though of the past, when in another psalm he said: They have dug my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones (Ps 22:16-17 (21:17-18)). He did not say, they will dig; he did not say, they will number; he did not say, they will divide my garments among themselves; he did not say, over my garment they will cast lots: these things were to come, and were sung as though done. For all things that are to come are already done for God. Here, then, when he said: When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion, we were made like those consoled; then our mouth was filled with joy, and our tongue with exultation; that he might show that he was thinking of future things under the figure of the past, he said: Then they will say among the nations. They will say is now of the future. The Lord has done great things in dealing with us; we were made joyful. When they were sung, these things were to come, and now are seen as present. So he prays as though of future things, who was foretelling future things as though past: Turn back, O Lord, our captivity. So the captivity was not yet turned back, because the Redeemer had not yet come. So then, when the Psalms were sung, what was prayed for then has now been done: Turn back, O Lord, our captivity, like a torrent in the south. As torrents are turned back in the south, so turn back our captivity. We were asking what this is; but it will be made plain now, with the Lord helping, by your prayers. In a certain place Scripture, when it was commanding and admonishing about good works, said: Like ice in fair weather, so will your sins be dissolved (See Sir 3:15). So sins were binding us. How? As cold binds water so that it does not flow. And bound by the cold of sins, we had frozen. But the south is a warm wind: when the south wind blows, the ice melts, and the torrents are filled. But torrents are the name for the rivers of winter; for, filled with sudden waters, they flow with great force. So we had frozen in captivity; our sins were constraining us: the south wind blew, the Holy Spirit; our sins were forgiven us, we were loosed from the cold of iniquity; like ice in fair weather, our sins are dissolved. Let us run to the homeland, like torrents in the south. For we have long labored, and we labor even while doing good. For this very human life which we have entered is wretched, full of labors, of sorrows, of perils, of hardships, of temptations. Do not be seduced by the joy of human affairs; notice the things to be wept over in human affairs. The child who is born could have laughed first: why does it begin to live with weeping? It does not yet know how to laugh; why does it already know how to weep? Because it has begun to go into this life. But if it is one of those captives, here it weeps and groans; but joy will come.

11. [v. 5.] For it follows: Those who sow in tears will reap in joy (Ps 126:5 (125:5)). In this life, which is full of tears, let us sow. What shall we sow? Good works. The works of mercy are our seeds: of which seeds the apostle says: But in doing good let us not grow weary; for in due season we shall reap, never tiring. So then, while we have time, let us do good to all, but especially to those of the household of faith (Gal 6:9-10). Speaking, then, of those very alms, what does he say? But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly (2 Cor 9:6). So he who sows much will reap much: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and he who sows nothing will reap nothing. Why do you long for broad estates, where you may sow many seeds? You have no broader place in which to sow than Christ, who willed to be sown in. Your land is the Church; sow as much as you can. But you have little to do it with. Do you have the will? Just as it would be nothing, what you have, if good will were not present; so too, because you do not have, do not be sad, if you have good will. For what do you sow? Mercy. And what will you reap? Peace. But did the angels say: Peace on earth to rich men? Rather: Peace on earth to men of good will (Luke 2:14). In Zacchaeus there was great good will, in Zacchaeus great love. He received the Lord into his lodging, received him rejoicing, and promised that he would give half of his estate to the poor, and that, if he had taken anything from anyone, he would repay fourfold (See Luke 19:6-8); so that you may understand that he kept half for himself for this reason, not that he might have something to possess, but that he might have wherewith to repay debts. Great good will; he gave much, he sowed much. So then that widow who put in two mites, did she sow little (See Mark 12:42-44)? On the contrary, as much as Zacchaeus. For she had lesser means, but she had an equal will. She put in two mites out of as great a will as Zacchaeus put in half his estate. If you attend to what they gave, you find them different: if you attend to what they gave it from, you find them equal; she gave whatever she had, and he gave what he had.

12. Suppose someone does not have even two coins: is there something cheaper that we may sow, so that we may reap that harvest? There is: Whoever gives a cup of cold water to a disciple will not lose his reward (See Matt 10:42). A cup of cold water costs not two coins, but is free; yet sometimes it is free in such a way that one man has it and another does not: if, then, he who has it gives it to him who does not have it, he has given as much—if he gave what he gave out of full love—as much as she in the two mites, as much as Zacchaeus in half of his goods. For not without reason did he add cold, in order to point to a poor man. Therefore he said: A cup of cold water, lest anyone make an excuse even from this, that he had no wood to heat the water with. Whoever gives a cup of cold water to one of the least will not lose his reward. What if he does not have even this? Let him be secure, even if he does not have even this: Peace on earth to men of good will (Luke 2:14): only let him fear this, lest he have something and not do it. For if he has and does not do it, he has frozen within; his sins have not yet been dissolved like a torrent in the south, because his will is cold. What good are the great goods that we possess? Let a fervent will come, now thawed by the warmth of the south wind; even if he has nothing, all is reckoned to him. How much do beggars provide for themselves! Let your charity attend to how almsgiving is done. Surely those on whom you do almsgiving are beggars; beggars are in need. You attend perhaps to your brothers, if they are in need of anything; you bestow, if Christ is in you, even on strangers. But if they are beggars, who make a profession of asking, in their hardship even they have something to provide for one another. God has not deserted them, that they may be tested, for they do works of mercy. This man cannot walk; he who can walk lends his feet to the lame man; he who sees lends his eyes to the blind man; and he who is young and healthy lends his strength to the old or the sick man, he carries him: the one is in need, the other is rich.

13. Sometimes even a rich man is found poor, and something is provided for him by a poor man. Someone or other comes to a river, the more delicate the richer he is; he cannot cross: if he crossed with his limbs bared, he would grow cold, fall sick, die: a poor man, more exercised in body, approaches, and carries the rich man across; he does almsgiving toward the rich man. So do not think those only to be poor who do not have money. In whatever a man is poor, there look at him; for perhaps you are rich in that in which he is poor, and you have something to lend. Perhaps you lend your limbs, and it is more than if you lent money. He is in need of counsel, you are full of counsel; in counsel he is poor, you are rich. Behold, you neither labor nor lose anything; you give counsel, and you have provided almsgiving. Now, my brothers, when we speak, you are toward us as poor men; and because God has deigned to give to us, we give to you from that; and we all receive from him who alone is rich. So, then, the body of Christ holds together, the allied members are so joined and made one in love and in the bond of peace, when each provides what he has to him who does not have it: in what he has, he is rich; in what the other does not have, he is poor. So love one another, so cherish one another. Do not attend to yourselves alone; but attend to those in need around you. But because these things are done with labors and hardships in this life, do not grow weary. In tears you sow, in joy you will reap. For what, my brothers? The farmer himself, when he goes forth with his plow and carries the seed, is not the wind sometimes cold, and the rain a deterrent? He looks at the sky, sees it gloomy, trembles with cold, and yet goes forth and sows. For he fears that while he looks at the gloomy day and waits for a glad day, the season may pass, and he may not find what to reap. Do not delay, my brothers; sow in winter, sow good works even while you weep; because those who sow in tears will reap in joy. They cast their seeds, good will and good works.

14. [v. 6.] Going they went, and wept, casting their seeds (Ps 126:6 (125:6)). Why did they weep? Because they were among the wretched, and they were wretched. It is better, my brothers, that no one be wretched, than that you do works of mercy. For he who, in order to do works of mercy, wishes there to be wretched people, has a cruel mercy: just as, if a physician, in order to exercise his art, wished there to be many sick people, it would be a cruel medicine. It is better that all be healthy, than that the physician's art be exercised. So it is better that all, blessed, reign in that homeland, than that there be those on whom mercy is spent. Yet as long as there are those on whom it may be spent, let us not cease, in this hardship, to cast our seeds. Even if we sow with weeping, yet with joy we will reap. For in that resurrection of the dead each one will receive his sheaves, that is, the fruit of the seed, the crown of joys and exultation. Then there will be the triumph of those rejoicing, and exulting over death itself, over which they groaned: then they will say to death: Where, O death, is your striving? Where, O death, is your sting? (1 Cor 15:55; see Hos 13:14) But why do they already rejoice? Because they carry their sheaves. Because going they went, and wept, casting their seeds. Why casting their seeds? Because those who sow in tears will reap in joy.

15. By this psalm we have exhorted you especially to do works of mercy, because by this one ascends; and you see that he sings the song of ascents who ascends. Remember; do not love to descend and not to ascend, but think about ascending: for he who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among robbers. Had he not gone down, he would not have fallen among robbers (See Luke 10:30). So now Adam went down, and fell among robbers: for we are all Adam. But a priest passed by and despised him; a Levite passed by and despised him; because the Law could not heal. A certain Samaritan passed by, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ: for it was said to him: Do we not say truly that you are a Samaritan, and have a demon? (Jn 8:48) He did not say: I am not a Samaritan; but he said: I do not have a demon (Jn 8:49). For 'Samaritan' is interpreted 'guardian.' If he said: I am not a Samaritan; he would be saying: I am not a guardian. And who else would be the guardian? Then, setting forth the parable: The Samaritan passed by, and did mercy with him (See Luke 10:33-34), as you know. He lay wounded on the way, because he went down. The Samaritan, passing by, did not despise us: he cared for us, lifted us onto his beast, into his flesh; brought us to the inn, that is, to the Church; entrusted us to the innkeeper, that is, to the apostle; gave two denarii wherewith to care for us, the love of God and the love of neighbor: for on these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets (See Matt 22:40). And he said to the innkeeper: If you spend anything more, on my return I will repay you (Luke 10:35). The apostle spent more; for although it was permitted to all the apostles to receive, as soldiers of Christ, their pay from Christ's provincials, he labored with his own hands, and gave his own rations to the provincials (See 1 Cor 9:7-15; Acts 20:34). All has been done: if we went down, and were wounded; let us ascend, let us sing, and let us make progress, that we may arrive.

Exposition of Psalm 127

1. [v. 1.] Among all the songs whose title is A Song of ascents, this psalm received something more in its title, which is added: of Solomon. For it is headed thus: A Song of ascents, of Solomon. And so its title, more unusual than the rest, has made us attentive, so that we ask why of Solomon has been added. For what A Song of ascents is need not be repeated often; for many things have been said on this, since the voice of one ascending sings, in the affection of devotion and love, to that heavenly Jerusalem, for which we sigh as long as we are pilgrims, and where we will rejoice when we have returned from our pilgrimage. To her everyone who makes progress ascends; from her everyone who fails falls. Do not seek to ascend with the feet, nor think that you descend with the feet: by loving God, you ascend; by loving the world, you fall. These, then, are the songs of those who love, who burn with a certain holy desire. They are aflame who sing these things from the heart, whose burning heart is found also in their ways, in good conduct, in works according to the commandments of God, in contempt for temporal things, in love for things eternal. But why of Solomon has been added, I will tell your charity as far as the Lord has inspired.

2. Solomon in his time was the son of David, that great man, through whom the Holy Spirit worked many holy precepts and wholesome admonitions and divine mysteries in the divine Letters. For Solomon himself was a lover of women, and was reproved by God: and that desire was so much a snare to him that he was even forced by women to sacrifice to idols, as Scripture testifies of him (See 1 Kgs 11:1-8). But if, when he fell, the things that were said through him were blotted out, it would be judged that he himself had said them, that they were not said through him. So in this too the mercy of God and his Spirit acted most excellently, that whatever good was said through Solomon should be attributed to God; but the sin of the man, to the man. What wonder that Solomon fell among the people of God? Did not Adam fall in paradise? Did not the angel fall from heaven, and become the devil? Therefore we are taught that our hope is to be placed in no man. For this Solomon too had built a temple to the Lord, in a type indeed and a figure of the future Church and of the body of the Lord (See 1 Kgs 6); whence he says in the Gospel: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up (Jn 2:19): because, then, he had built that temple, the true Solomon built a temple for himself—our Lord Jesus Christ, the true peacemaker. For the name 'Solomon' is interpreted 'Peacemaker': but he is the true peacemaker, of whom the apostle says: For he is our peace, who made both one (Eph 2:14). He is the true peacemaker, who joined to himself the two walls coming from different directions, for which he was made the cornerstone: the people coming from the circumcision of believers, and the people coming from the foreskin of the Gentiles and of those of them who believed; he made one Church out of two peoples, he was made for them the cornerstone, and therefore is truly the peacemaker. Because, then, he is the true Solomon; but that Solomon, son of David by the woman Bathsheba, king of Israel, bore a figure of this peacemaker, when he built the temple (See 2 Sam 12:24; 1 Kgs 6): therefore, lest you should think that Solomon who built the house for God to be meant, Scripture, showing you another Solomon, began thus in the Psalm: Unless the Lord build the house, in vain have they labored who build it (Ps 127:1 (126:1)). The Lord, then, builds the house, the Lord Jesus Christ builds his house. Many labor in building; but if he does not build, in vain have they labored who build it. Who are they who labor in building? All who in the Church preach the word of God, the ministers of God's Sacraments. We all run, we all labor, we all build now; and before us they ran, labored, built: but unless the Lord build the house, in vain have they labored who build it. Therefore, seeing some men collapse, the apostles—and Paul in particular—say: You observe days, and years, and months, and seasons; I fear for you, lest perhaps I have labored over you in vain (Gal 4:10-11). Because he knew that he himself was being built within by the Lord, he lamented over those, because he had labored over them in vain. We, then, speak outside; he builds within. How you hear, we observe; what you think, he alone knows who sees your thoughts. He builds, he admonishes, he frightens, he opens the understanding, he applies your perception to faith: and yet we too labor as workmen; but unless the Lord build the house, in vain have they labored who build it.

3. But what is the house of God is also the city. For the house of God is the people of God; for the house of God is the temple of God. And what does the apostle say? For the temple of God is holy, which you are (1 Cor 3:17). But all the faithful, who are the house of God—not only those who are now, but also those who were before us and have already fallen asleep, and those who will be after us, who are yet to be born among human affairs until the end of the world—the faithful gathered into one, innumerable, but numbered by the Lord, of whom the apostle says: The Lord knows who are his (2 Tim 2:19); those grains which now groan among the chaff, which are to make one mass, when the threshing floor at the end has been winnowed (See Matt 3:12): so the whole number of the holy faithful, of men to be changed so that they become equal to the angels of God, themselves joined also to the angels, who now are not pilgrims, but await us, when we shall return from our pilgrimage; all together make one house of God, and one city. This is Jerusalem. It has guardians: as it has builders, laboring that it may be built, so it has also those who guard. For to guarding belongs what the apostle says: I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his cunning, so your minds too be corrupted from the chastity which is in Christ (2 Cor 11:3). He was guarding, he was a guardian; he was watching, as much as he could, over those over whom he was set. And bishops do this. For the higher place is set for bishops precisely so that they may oversee, and as it were guard the people. For what is called in Greek 'bishop' (episcopus) is interpreted in Latin 'overseer'; because he oversees, because he looks from above. For just as a higher place is made for the vinedresser to guard the vineyard, so too a higher place is made for bishops. And from this high place a perilous account is rendered, unless we stand here with this heart, that in humility we be beneath your feet, and pray for you, that he who knows your minds may himself guard you. For we can see you coming in and going out; but we so far cannot see what you think in your hearts, that we cannot even see what you do in your homes. How, then, do we guard? As men; as much as we can, as much as we have received. And because we guard as men, and cannot guard perfectly, will you therefore remain without a guardian? Far from it. For where is he of whom it is said: Unless the Lord guard the city, in vain has he labored who guards it (Ps 127:1 (126:1))? We labor in guarding, but our labor is in vain, unless he guards who sees your thoughts. He guards when you keep awake, he guards also when you sleep. For he slept on the cross once, and rose; he no longer sleeps. Be Israel; for he who guards Israel does not sleep, nor will he slumber (Ps 121:4 (120:4)). Come, brothers, if we wish to be guarded under the shadow of God's wings, let us be Israel. For we guard you by the office of stewardship; but we wish to be guarded along with you. We are as it were shepherds to you, but under that Shepherd we are sheep along with you. We are as it were teachers to you from this place; but under that one Master, in this school, we are fellow disciples with you.

4. [v. 2.] If we wish to be guarded by him who was humbled for our sake, and exalted to guard us, let us be humble. Let no one arrogate anything to himself. No one has anything good, except he has received it from him who alone is good. But he who would arrogate wisdom to himself is a fool. Let him be humble, that wisdom may come and illumine him. But if, before wisdom comes into him, he thinks himself wise, he rises before the light, and walks in darkness. And what does he hear in this psalm? It is in vain for you to rise before the light (Ps 127:2 (126:2)). What does it mean: It is in vain for you to rise before the light? If you rise before the light rises, you must necessarily remain in vanity, because you will be in darkness. Our light, Christ, has risen; it is good for you to rise after Christ, not to rise before Christ. Who rise before Christ? Those who wish to set themselves before Christ. And who are they who wish to set themselves before Christ? Those who wish to be lofty here, where he was humble. Let them, then, be humble here, if they wish to be lofty there, where Christ is lofty. For he says of those who had cleaved to him in faith, among whom we too are, if we too believe in him with a pure heart: Father, he says, those whom you have given me, I will that where I am, they too may be with me (Jn 17:24). A great gift, a great grace, a great promise, my brothers! And who does not wish to be with Christ, where Christ is? But Christ is now lofty: do you wish to be there where he is lofty? Be humble, where he too was humble. Therefore the Light himself says to them: The disciple is not above the master, nor the servant above his lord (Matt 10:24). Those who wished to be disciples above the master, and servants who wished to be above their lord, wished to rise before the light; they went in vain, because they did not go after the light. To them, then, this psalm says: It is in vain for you to rise before the light. Such were the sons of Zebedee, who, before they were humbled according to the Lord's passion, were already choosing places for themselves where they would sit, one at the right hand, the other at the left: they wished to rise before the light; therefore they went in vain. The Lord called them back to humility, when he heard this, and said to them: Can you drink the cup which I am to drink? (Matt 20:22) I came to be humble, and do you wish to be lofty before me? By the way I go, follow there, he says. For if you wish to go this way, by which I do not go: It is in vain for you to rise before the light. And Peter had risen before the light, when he wished to give the Lord counsel, that he should not suffer for us. For the Lord had spoken of his passion, in which we were to be saved, of that very humility; for he suffered as a humble man: when, then, he spoke of his coming passion, Peter was terrified, who a little before had called him the Son of God; he feared lest he should die, and said to him: Far be it from you, Lord; be merciful to yourself: this shall not happen (Matt 16:22). He wished to rise before the light, and to give the light counsel. But what did the Lord do? He made him rise after the light: Get behind me, Satan! (Matt 16:23) For Satan, precisely because you wish to rise before the light. Get behind me, so that I may go before, you follow: by the way I go, may you go; not by the way you wish to go, may you wish to lead me there.

5. So to those who wished to rise before the light, the Psalm says: It is in vain for you to rise before the light. And when shall we rise? When we have been humbled: Rise after you have sat down (Ps 127:2 (126:2)). Rising signifies exaltation, sitting signifies humility. In some places sitting is understood as the honor of judging, in others it shows humility. How is sitting in the honor of judging? You will sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt 19:28). How is sitting a sign of humility? At the sixth hour the Lord, wearied, sat at the well (Jn 4:6). The weariness of the Lord was the weakness of the Lord, the weakness of strength, the weakness of wisdom: but that very weakness is humility. So if he sat from weakness, that sitting signifies humility. And his very sitting, that is, his humility, itself made us safe; because: What is weak of God is stronger than men (1 Cor 1:25). Therefore he says in a certain psalm: Lord, you have known my sitting down and my rising up (Ps 139:2 (138:2)); that is, my humility, and my exaltation. Why, then, do you wish to be exalted before the light, O sons of Zebedee? For let us speak thus, and name them rather, who are not angry at us; because these things were written about them precisely so that others might beware the pride in which they were rebuked. Why, then, do you wish to rise before the light? It is in vain for you. Do you wish to be exalted before you are humbled? Your Lord himself, who is your light, was humbled that he might be exalted. Hear Paul saying: Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal to God (Phil 2:6). Why was it not robbery for him? Because it was his nature, because he was born to this, that he should be equal to the one by whom he was begotten. But what did he do? For our sake he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man. He humbled himself, becoming obedient even to death, even the death of the cross (Phil 2:7-8). This is his sitting down. But hear his rising: For which cause God also exalted him, and gave him a name which is above every name (Phil 2:9). Now you hasten to that name; rise, but after you have sat down. You wish to rise, but first sit down: and rising from humility, you come to the kingdom. For if you snatch the kingdom prematurely, you fall from the kingdom before you rise. Can you drink, he says, the cup which I am to drink? And they: We can. And he: You will drink, he says, my cup; but to sit at my right hand, or at my left, he says, is not mine to give you: it is prepared for others by my Father (Matt 20:22-23). What does it mean, it is not mine to give you? It is not mine to give to the proud; for this they still were. But if you wish to receive it, do not be what you are. It is prepared for others; you too be others, and it is prepared for you. What does it mean: Be others? First be humbled, you who already wish to be exalted. So they understood that humility would profit them, and they were corrected. So let us too hear this, because this psalm says: Rise after you have sat down.

6. But lest anyone think that he sits for this purpose, to be honored; to show that by that sitting he wished to commend humility; lest anyone think he was ordered to sit either to judge, or to feast and rejoice, and there seek a greater pride; for the signifying of humility he added: You who eat the bread of sorrow (Ps 127:2 (126:2)). Those, then, eat the bread of sorrow who groan in this pilgrimage. They are in the valley of weeping. For God makes ascents in the heart. But where does he set them? Ascents, he says, he has set in his heart (Ps 84:5 (83:6)). Who? God. If ascents in the heart, that is why they sing a song of ascents. Let us be humbled in the world: let us ascend. How? In heart. For the very ascent of the heart rises from the valley of weeping. In the valley, he says, of weeping (Ps 84:6 (83:7)). As the mountains have been raised up, so the valleys have sunk down: for valleys is the name for the low places of the earth; but hills are the higher places, yet lower than mountains; the very lofty places of the earth are called mountains. It is a small thing: he did not say: Rise from a hill; nor did he say: From a plain; but: From a valley, so that there might be something lower than the plain is. If, then, in the valley of weeping you eat the bread of sorrow, and you say: My tears have been my bread day and night, while it is said to me daily: Where is your God? (Ps 42:3 (41:4)) you rise well, because you have sat down.

7. And as though you were to say: When shall we rise? now we are ordered to sit; when will our rising be, as the Lord's was. Attend to him who has gone before you: for if you do not attend to him, it is in vain for you to rise before the light. When was he exalted? When he died. So hope for your exaltation too after death, hope for it in the resurrection of the dead, because he rose again and ascended. But where did he sleep? On the cross. When he slept on the cross, he bore a sign—nay, he fulfilled what was signified in Adam: for when Adam slept, a rib was taken from him, and Eve was made (See Gen 2:21-22); so too the Lord, when he slept on the cross, his side was struck with a lance, and the Sacraments flowed out, from which the Church was made (See Jn 19:34). For the Church was made the spouse of the Lord from his side, as Eve was made from the side. But just as she was made only from the side of one sleeping, so this one was made only from the side of one dying. If, then, he rose only after dying, do you hope for exaltation except after this life? But that this psalm may teach you, as though you asked: When shall I rise? perhaps before I have sat down? When I have given, he says, sleep to his beloved (Ps 127:2 (126:2)). God gives this, when his beloved have slept; then his beloved will rise, that is, Christ's. For all will rise, but not as his beloved. The resurrection of the dead is for all; but what does the apostle say? We shall indeed all rise, but we shall not all be changed (See 1 Cor 15:51). Those rise to punishments; we rise as our Lord rose, that we may follow our head, if we are his members. But if we are his members, then we are his beloved, then to us belongs that resurrection which has gone before in the Lord, so that the light rose before us, we after the light: because it is in vain for us to rise before the light, that is, to seek the heights before we die; since Christ our light was not exalted in the flesh except after he died. Established, then, as his members, and in his members his beloved, when we have received sleep, then we will rise in the resurrection of the dead. One has risen, no more to die. Lazarus rose, but to die again (See Jn 11:43-44); the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue rose, but to die again (See Mark 5:41-42); the widow's son rose, but to die again (See Luke 7:14-15): Christ rose, not to die again. Hear the apostle: Christ, rising from the dead, dies no more, and death will no longer have dominion over him (Rom 6:9). Hope for such a resurrection; and for this be a Christian, not for the sake of the happiness of this earth. For if for the sake of the happiness of this life you wish to be a Christian, when that light of yours did not seek worldly happiness here; you wish to rise before the light; you must necessarily persevere in darkness. Be changed, follow your light; by the way it rose, rise: sit first, and so rise, when he has given sleep to his beloved.

8. [v. 3.] As though you were to ask again: To which beloved? Behold, the inheritance of the Lord is sons, the reward, the fruit of the womb (Ps 127:3 (126:3)). When he says the fruit of the womb, these sons have been brought forth in travail. There is a certain woman, in whom is spiritually shown what was said to Eve: In groaning you will bring forth (See Gen 3:16). For the Church, the spouse of Christ, brings forth sons; and if she brings forth, she travails. As a figure of her, Eve too was called the mother of the living (See Gen 3:20). Among the members of the travailing one was he who said: My little children, with whom I am again in travail, until Christ be formed in you (Gal 4:19). But not in vain did she travail, nor in vain did she bring forth: there will be a holy seed in the resurrection of the dead; the just will abound, who are now scattered throughout the whole world. The Church groans over them, the Church travails with them: but in that resurrection of the dead the offspring of the Church will appear, the pain and groaning will pass away. And what will be said? Behold, the inheritance of the Lord is sons, the reward, the fruit of the womb. The reward of this fruit, not this fruit; the reward of this fruit of the womb. What is that reward? To rise from the dead. What is that reward? To rise, after you have sat down. What is that reward? To rejoice, after you have eaten the bread of sorrow. Of what womb? Of the Church: in whose womb, because Rebecca bore her type, those two twins, as two peoples, struggled (See Gen 25:22-23). One mother held in her inward parts the disagreeing brothers not yet born: they beat upon their mother's inward parts with internal discords; she groaned, she suffered violence; but in bringing forth she distinguished those twins whom, pregnant, she had carried. So too now, brothers, as long as groaning has been given to the Church, as long as the Church travails, the good and the evil are themselves within her. But the fruit of the womb was in Jacob, because the mother loved him. Jacob I have loved, says God, but Esau I have hated (Mal 1:2-3; Rom 9:13). Both came forth from one womb; one deserved to be loved, the other to be reproved. In his beloved, then, the fruit will be. So the reward, the fruit of the womb.

9. [v. 4.] As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the sons of those who have been shaken out (Ps 127:4 (126:4)). Whence, then, has this inheritance come about, brothers? whence has so great an inheritance come about, of which it is to be said at the end: Behold, the inheritance of the Lord is sons, the reward, the fruit of the womb? Certain men were shaken out from the hand of the Lord, like arrows, and went far, and filled the whole earth, whence the saints sprout up. For this is the inheritance of which it is said: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession (Ps 2:8). And how is this possession extended and grows even to the ends of the earth? Because as arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the sons of those who have been shaken out. From the bow the arrows are shaken out, and the more strongly the shooter shakes it out, the farther the arrow goes. But what is stronger than the Lord shooting? From his bow he sends his apostles: there could be no remainder to which the arrow, shot by one so strong, would not reach; it reached even to the ends of the earth. Therefore no farther, because there is nothing beyond the human race. For he has such great strength that, even if there were beyond it somewhere for the arrow to be extended, he would shoot the arrow there. But the sons of those who have been shaken out are such as those who were shaken out. For it has been asked about this phrase, even by those who treated these things before us, why they are called the sons of those who have been shaken out, or who are to be understood as the sons of those who have been shaken out; and it seemed to some, as I just said, that the sons of those who have been shaken out are the sons of the apostles.

10. Let your charity attend a little. It has been asked why the apostles were shaken out: it has been said by some that they were called shaken out because the Lord commanded them: If you go out of the city in which they do not hear you, shake the dust off your feet (See Matt 10:14). But another says: Then they ought not to have been called sons of those who have been shaken out, but sons of those who shook out: for the Lord made shakers-out of those to whom he said: Shake the dust off your feet; not shaken-out ones. Subtly indeed, as though wishing to contradict the preceding opinion, did he by whom these things had already been treated and said. Nevertheless, as far as the Lord helps, seeking how those too could rightly be called shaken out, to whom the Lord said: Shake the dust off your feet; we find that it could be said not absurdly. For although they themselves shook out, they shook out themselves. This I say: he who shakes out either shakes out himself, or something else: if he shakes out something else, he is a shaker-out, not shaken out; but if he shakes out himself, he is both a shaker-out and shaken out. Attend; I will say this more plainly, if I can. If he shakes out something else, he is a shaker-out, not shaken out; if he is shaken out by another, he is shaken out, not a shaker-out: but if he shakes out himself, he is a shaker-out, because he shakes out himself; and shaken out, because he is shaken out by himself. It is asked, then, whom the apostles shook out? Surely themselves: for from their feet they shook the dust. But someone says: They did not shake out themselves, but the dust. This is plainly said captiously. For in two ways we say that something is shaken out: either that which is shaken out from it, or that from which it is shaken out. For we say both: The dust has been shaken out; and: The garment has been shaken out. Some hold and shake out a garment, and the dust which had clung to it leaps out from it. What do you say of the dust? The dust has been shaken out. What do you say of the garment? The garment has been shaken out. If, then, both what leaped out by being shaken out from it, and that from which leaped out what had clung, are called shaken out; both the dust has been shaken out, and the apostles have been shaken out. Why, then, should the sons of the apostles not be called sons of those who have been shaken out?

11. But there is another opinion which we ought not to pass over. For perhaps it was set down rather obscurely, so that it might generate many understandings, and men might depart the richer, because they found shut up what could be opened in many ways, than if they had found it opened in one way. We say that something too is shaken out, so that what is perhaps hidden may come out of it. For in one way we say a garment is shaken out, so that they may shake the dust out of it; and in another way we say a sack is shaken out, so that what was lurking inside may come out. So I understand, brothers, as far as I can, that the sons of those who have been shaken out are perhaps the apostles themselves, called the sons of the prophets. For the prophets contained shut up and covered mysteries: they were shaken out, so that from them manifest things might proceed. Suppose, then, that a prophet said, as indeed he did: The ox knew its owner, and the ass its master's manger; but Israel has not known me (Isa 1:3). This for now occurs to me at present, that I might say it of a prophet: if something else had occurred, I would have said this. But a man hearing this, if he thinks of the ass and the ox, and the cattle and beasts that he sees, he will be handling outwardly something or other set, as it were, in a wrapping; what is there he does not know. The ass and the ox signify something. What, then, is said to the man who already wishes to pronounce? Wait; what you touch is shut up, shake out the wrapping: the prophet has woven something or other under those veils of names; and he signifies some ass or other, some ox or other. For the ass, as a figure of the people of God, is God's beast, carrying its rider the Lord, that he may not stray on the way: and that ox of which the apostle says: You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain. Is it about oxen that God is concerned? he said. But for our sake Scripture says it (1 Cor 9:9-10; Deut 25:4). So everyone who preaches the word of God, admonishes, rebukes, frightens; he treads out the threshing floor, and fulfills the office of the ox. The ox came from the nation of the Jews; for from there were the preachers, the apostles: the ass too came from the nation of the foreskin, that is, from the Gentiles. For it came to carry the Lord: and therefore the Lord sat on the ass, which had never carried a man; since to the Gentiles neither the Law nor the prophets had been sent. So because our Lord Jesus Christ willed to be our food, and was therefore born and placed in a manger: The ox knew its owner, and the ass its master's manger (Isa 1:3). But would these things come out, unless the sack were shaken out? Unless the prophecy, wrapped up, were examined with diligence applied, would the covered things come out to us? So all these things were shut up before the Lord came. The Lord came and shook out those shut-up things, and they were made manifest; the prophets were shaken out, and the apostles were begotten. Because, then, when the prophets were shaken out the apostles were begotten, the apostles are sons of those who have been shaken out. They themselves, set in the hand of the mighty one like arrows, reached even to the ends of the earth. Whence it is to be said at the end: Behold, the inheritance of the Lord is sons, the reward, the fruit of the womb. Because for this reason this inheritance is gathered from the ends of the earth: because: As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the sons of those who have been shaken out; that is, the sons of the prophets, the apostles, were like arrows in the hand of a mighty man. If he is mighty, he shot mightily; if he shot mightily, those he shot reached even to the ends of the earth.

12. [v. 5.] Blessed is the man who has filled his desire from them (Ps 127:5 (126:5)). Come, my brothers, who fills his desire from them? He who does not love the world. He who is full of the desire of the world has no room for what they preached to enter. Pour out what you carry, and become capable of receiving what you do not have. That is, you desire riches; you cannot fill your desire from them: you desire honors on earth, you desire the things which God has given even to beasts—that is, temporal pleasure, and health of body, and such things; you will not fill your desire from them. But if you desire as the deer desires the fountains of waters (See Ps 42:1 (41:2)); if you say: My soul desires and faints for the courts of the Lord (Ps 84:2 (83:3)): you fill your desire from them; not because they can now fill such a desire, but because, by imitating such men, you come to him who filled their desire.

13. He will not be confounded, when he speaks to his enemies in the gate (Ps 127:5 (126:5)). Brothers, let us speak in the gate, that is, let all know what we speak. For he who does not wish to speak in the gate wishes to hide what he speaks; and perhaps he wishes to hide it because it is evil. If he is confident, let him speak in the gate; as it is said of Wisdom: But in the gates of the cities she speaks boldly (See Prov 1:21). As long as the innocent hold to justice, they will not blush: this is to preach in the gate. And who is it that preaches in the gate? He who preaches in Christ; for Christ is the gate by which we enter into that city. I lie, if he did not himself say: I am the door (Jn 10:9). If he is the door, he is also the gate. For a house has a door; a city's door is a gate, a house's gate is a door. But perhaps it is not well said 'gate,' if it is not well said 'city' of what was called a house. For both were said a little before: Unless the Lord build the house, in vain have they labored who build it; and lest, hearing 'house,' you should think it something small: Unless the Lord, he says, guard the city, in vain has he labored who guards it. That, then, is the house which is the city. So it has a door as a house, and a gate as a city. He, then, who is the door of the house is the gate of the city. So if Christ is the gate of the city, he is not confounded who stands in Christ, and so preaches. But he who preaches against Christ, the gate is shut against him. Who are those who preach against Christ? Those who deny that arrows were sent from the hand of the mighty one, and reached even to the ends of the earth; and that this is the inheritance of the Lord, of which it was said: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession (Ps 2:8). It was preached, it was heard, before it came to pass; and now that it has come to pass they refuse to acknowledge it. Those, then, who dispute against Christ are outside the gate; because they seek their own honors, not Christ's. But he who preaches in the gate seeks Christ's honor, not his own; and therefore he who preaches in the gate says: Do not presume upon me; for not through me, but through the gate, you will enter. But those who wish men to presume upon themselves do not wish them to enter through the gate: no wonder if the gate is shut against them, and idle they knock that it may be opened. Be present, then, in mind, brothers, also for tomorrow's sermon, which, by our promise, with the Lord helping, is to be rendered to you from the Gospel concerning the dove. In whose name we promised it, in his mercy we will render it. But that we may be able to be fit renderers, lest we have been bold promisers, pray for us.

Exposition of Psalm 128

1. [vv. 1-4.] As the apostle says, dearest brothers: We compare spiritual things with spiritual; but the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:13-14); care must be taken lest natural men, not perceiving the things that are of the Spirit of God, be scandalized rather than edified by this psalm. For briefly (though we heard it when it was sung), because it is brief, I run through it, not treating it, but reading it. And see that if anyone covets, as a great thing from God, such things as this psalm contains; and perhaps, not because he has been deserted by him, but because he is the more loved, has not received them; and sees that those things which he here hears to be the rewards of those who fear God abound to those who do not fear God: his steps totter, and his footsteps are poured out in a fall, and he says in his heart that he has feared God without cause, when he did not deserve those gifts which he promised to those who fear him; and besides, even those received them who not only did not fear him, but even blasphemed him. For see what it says: Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways (Ps 128:1 (127:1)). You will eat the labors of your fruits; you are blessed, and it will be well with you. So far we can here, although natural men, think of the blessedness of the world to come; but see what follows: Your wife is like a fruitful vine, on the sides of your house. Your sons are like new olive plantings, around your table. Behold, thus will the man be blessed who fears the Lord (Ps 128:2-4 (127:2-4)). How? That his wife may be like a fruitful vine on the sides of his house, and his sons may surround his table, like a planting of olives. So then, have those lost their reward who, for God's sake, refused even to take wives? But he who refused to take a wife says: God will bless me in another way. On the contrary, either he will bless you thus, or he will not bless you: the sentence is plainly stated: Behold, thus will the man be blessed who fears the Lord.

2. What, then, does this mean, brothers? Lest, by desiring temporal and earthly happiness, we lose the heavenly, the Prophet has set up for us, as it were, a wrapping. This wrapping has something or other inside. But your charity remembers that, when I was treating for you the earlier psalm, the one before this, we ran into a certain obscure verse, where it was said: As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the sons of those who have been shaken out (Ps 127:4 (126:4)); and when we asked who the sons of those who have been shaken out are, it seemed to us, with the Lord prompting, as we believe, that the sons of those who have been shaken out are called the apostles, the sons of the prophets: because the prophets spoke in riddles, and covered the meaning with figures of things, as with wrappings of mysteries; which meaning could not come forth to men unless those wrappings were shaken out: whence those were called sons of those who have been shaken out, who came forth from the prophets when they were shaken out. So let us too shake out this psalm, lest we be deceived by the wrappings, and, touching what is inside and not seeing it, perhaps say 'wood' for 'gold,' or 'earthenware' for 'silver.' Let us shake it out, if it seems good to your charity: the Lord will be present, that what is inside may come forth; especially, my brothers, because we are celebrating the birthdays of the martyrs. How many evils the martyrs suffered, how many ruins, how many torments, the squalor of prisons, the tightness of chains, the savagery of beasts, the burning of flames, the goads of insults! Would they have suffered all these things, unless they saw something or other toward which they were stretching, which does not belong to the happiness of this world? But it is shameful that we should celebrate the birthdays of the martyrs—of these servants of God, that is, who despised this world for the sake of everlasting happiness—and take what is here written for present happiness, so that if it happens to some faithful man of God, a citizen of that Jerusalem, even after taking a wife to have no sons, we should say: This man does not fear the Lord; for if he feared the Lord, his wife would be like a fruitful vine in his house, not barren, so as to bear none; and if this man feared the Lord, his sons would surround his table, like olive trees. For if we say such things, we are natural men, not perceiving the things that are of the Spirit of God. Let us too begin to shake out, so that we too may be sons of those who have been shaken out. For if we are sons of those who have been shaken out, we will be in the hand of the mighty one like arrows, and he will hurl us, by his command, into the hearts of men who do not yet love, so that, struck by the arrows of the words of God, they may love. For if we begin to preach such things to them: Sons, or my brothers, fear the Lord, that you may have sons and grandsons, that your house may rejoice; we do not shoot so that that eternal Jerusalem may be loved: they will remain in the love of earthly things, and, seeing these things abound to the impious, even if they do not dare to us, they say in their heart: 'Why does the man who does not fear God have a house full of sons?' And perhaps another says to him: 'You do not yet know what may happen to him; what if he buries them, because he does not fear God, and more were born to him for this, that he may suffer greater grief at their death?' But if you say such things, he will answer you: 'I have known an impious man, a pagan, sacrilegious, a worshipper of idols (and perhaps he has known one and speaks truly, and has known not one, nor two or three), whom, an old man, decrepit, dead on his bed, a crowd of sons and grandsons carried to the grave. Behold, he did not fear the Lord, and the most fertile offspring of his house closed his eyes.' What shall we say to this? Nothing evil could happen to him, that he should bury his sons while living, since now, dead, he has been carried by his sons to a glorious tomb.

3. Let us shake it out, then, let us shake it out, if we wish to be sons of those who have been shaken out: let something come forth here. For there is a certain man who is thus blessed; and no one fears the Lord except one who is in the members of that man: and there are many men, and there is one man; for there are many Christians, and one Christ. The Christians themselves, with their head, which has ascended into heaven, are one Christ: not he one and we many, but we many too in that one are one. So Christ is one man, head and body. What is his body? His Church, the apostle saying: Because we are members of his body (Eph 5:30); and: But you are the body of Christ and members (1 Cor 12:27). Let us understand, then, the voice of this man, in whose body we are one man; and there we will see those true goods of Jerusalem. For he said thus at the end: And may you see the goods that are of Jerusalem (Ps 128:5 (127:5)). But if you attend to these goods with the earthly eye—an abundance of sons and grandsons, and the fertility and fecundity of a spouse—these are not the goods of that Jerusalem; because these goods are in the land of the dying, but that is the land of the living. Do not hold it as a great thing if you have sons who will die, even if not before you, certainly after you. Do you wish to have sons who will never die, and will always live with you? Be in the body of him of whom it was said: But you are the body of Christ and members.

4. For that the Psalm itself might show this—that it is so obscure as to warn that it be knocked upon, so covered as to wish to be shaken out—it began from the plural: Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways. He speaks to the many; but because those many are one in Christ, it goes on and now says in the singular: You will eat the labors of your fruits. Above he had said: Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways: why now: You will eat the labors of your fruits; and not, you all will eat? and why: the labors of your [singular] fruits; and not: the labors of your [plural] fruits? Has he so quickly forgotten that he was speaking to the many? But if you have already shaken it out, what has it answered you? When I address many Christians, I understand one in one Christ. So you are many, and you are one; we are many, and we are one. How are we many, and one? Because we cleave to him whose members we are; and whose head is in heaven, that the members may follow.

5. So let him now describe; since it is plain whom he describes. Thus all that follows will be plain: only fear the Lord, and walk in his ways, and do not be jealous of those who do not walk in his ways, when you see them to be unhappily happy. For the men of this world are unhappily happy: but the martyrs were happily unhappy. For they were unhappy for a time, but happy for eternity; and in that very thing, that they were unhappy for a time, they were thought more unhappy than they were. For what does the apostle say? As though sorrowful, yet always rejoicing (2 Cor 6:10). Why always? Both here and there: indeed both here and there. For here, whence do we rejoice? From hope. There, whence will we rejoice? From the reality. Great joy has the hope of one rejoicing. And if rejoicing in hope, see what follows: patient in tribulation (Rom 12:12). So the martyrs were patient in tribulation, because they rejoiced in hope. But because what is promised was not yet present, what does the apostle say? For hope which is seen is not hope: but if we hope for what we do not see, we await it through patience (Rom 8:24-25). Behold why the martyrs bore all things: because what they did not see, they awaited through patience. Those who killed them loved what they saw: those who were killed sighed for the things they did not see, and hastened to lay hold of the things they did not see; and that they were killed too slowly, they reckoned to be delays for themselves.

6. So then, brothers, Felix the martyr, both truly happy in name and in crown, whose day is today, despised the world. Or was it perhaps because he feared the Lord that he was happy on this account, that he was blessed on this account, because his wife was like a fruitful vine in the land, and his sons surrounded his table? He has all these things perfectly, but in the body of him who is here described: and because he so understood it, he despised present things, that he might receive future things. But you should know, brothers, that he did not suffer the death that the other martyrs suffered. For he confessed, he was put off to torments; on another day his body was found lifeless. For they had shut him in prison, but the body, not the spirit. Him whom the executioners were preparing to torture there, they found absent; they lost their savagery. He lay lifeless, without feeling toward them, that he might not be tortured; with feeling toward God, that he might be crowned. Whence he too is happy, brothers, not only in name, but also in the reward of eternal life, if he loved these things.

7. So let us hear this psalm as though it were said of Christ: and let us all, cleaving to the body of Christ and made members of Christ, walk in the ways of the Lord; and let us fear the Lord with a chaste fear, a fear that abides forever and ever. For there is another fear which love casts out, John saying: Fear is not in love; but perfect love casts out fear (1 Jn 4:18). He does not say of every fear that it is cast out by love; for you have a psalm saying: The fear of the Lord is chaste, abiding forever and ever (Ps 19:9 (18:10)). So one fear abides, another is cast out. The fear that is cast out is not chaste; but that which abides is chaste. What is the fear that is cast out? Deign to take notice. Some fear only for this, lest they suffer something evil on earth, lest sickness befall them, lest loss, lest bereavement, lest the loss of someone dear, lest exile, lest condemnation, lest prison, lest some tribulation; for this they fear and tremble: this fear is not yet chaste. Hear further. Another fears not to suffer on this earth, but fears hell, with which the Lord too frightened. You heard when the Gospel was read: Where their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched (Mark 9:48). Men hear these things; and because they are truly to come for the impious, they fear, and restrain themselves from sin. They have fear, and through fear they restrain themselves from sin. They fear indeed, but they do not love justice. But when through fear they restrain themselves from sin, a habit of justice comes about, and what was hard begins to be loved, and God grows sweet: and the man now begins to live justly for this reason, not because he fears punishments, but because he loves eternity. Fear, then, has been cast out by love; but a chaste fear has succeeded it.

8. What is this chaste fear? According to which we ought, my brothers, to understand what was said: Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways. If I can speak worthily of this chaste fear, with the Lord our God helping, many perhaps will be set aflame by this chaste fear into a chaste love. Nor can I perhaps explain it, except by setting forth some likeness. Suppose some chaste woman, fearing her husband: suppose another, an adulteress; and she too fears her husband. The chaste woman fears lest her husband depart; the adulteress, lest he come. What if both are absent? The one fears lest he come; the other, lest he delay. Absent in a certain way is he to whom we are betrothed, absent is he who gave us the pledge, the Holy Spirit, absent is he who redeemed us by his blood; that bridegroom, than whom nothing is more beautiful, who appeared as it were unsightly in the hands of his persecutors, of whom Isaiah said a little before: And we saw him, and he had no form nor comeliness (Isa 53:2). So is our bridegroom unsightly? Far from it: for how would the virgins love him, who did not seek husbands on earth? So to his persecutors he appeared unsightly; and unless they thought him unsightly, they would not leap upon him, would not beat him with scourges, would not crown him with thorns, would not dishonor him with spittle: but because he appeared unsightly to them, they did these things to him; for they had not the eyes by which Christ might be seen as beautiful. To what kind of eyes did Christ appear beautiful? What kind of eyes was Christ himself seeking, when he said to Philip: So long a time I have been with you, and you have not seen me? (Jn 14:9) These eyes are to be cleansed, that they may be able to see that light; and yet, even lightly grazed by its splendor, they are kindled with love, so that they wish to be healed, and to be made enlightened. For that you may know that Christ who is loved is beautiful, the Prophet says: Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men (Ps 45:2 (44:3)). His beauty surpasses all men. What is it we love in Christ? The crucified members, the pierced side, or love? When we hear that he suffered for us, what do we love? Love is loved. He loved us, that we might love him in return; and that we might be able to love him in return, he visited us with his Spirit. He is beautiful, and he is absent. Let the bride ask herself whether she is chaste. We are all among the members, my brothers; we are among his members, therefore we are one man. Let each one see what kind of fear he has, whether the one which love casts out, or a chaste fear abiding forever and ever. He has just now proved it; I speak, and he will prove it. Our bridegroom is absent; ask your conscience: do you wish him to come, or do you still wish him to delay? See, brothers: I have knocked at the doors of your breasts; the voice of those who dwell within he has heard. What the consciences of each one have just now said could not reach my ears, because I am a man: he who is absent in bodily presence, but present in the vigor of his majesty, has heard you. How many, if it is said to them: Behold, now Christ, tomorrow the day of judgment; do not say: 'Would that he might come!' For those who do say it love much: and if it is said to them: He will delay; they fear lest he delay, because their fear is chaste. But as now it is feared that he may delay, so when he comes it will be feared that he may depart. But this fear will be chaste, because tranquil and secure. For we will not be deserted by him, when he has found us, since he sought us before we sought him. So a chaste fear, my brothers, has this: it comes from love. But that fear which is not yet chaste fears his presence and punishments. By fear it does whatever good it does; not by fear of losing that good, but by fear of suffering that evil. It does not fear lest it lose the embraces of the most beautiful bridegroom, but it fears lest it be cast into hell. This fear is good, it is useful; it will not indeed abide forever and ever: but it is not yet that chaste fear abiding forever and ever.

9. In what is it chaste? Now again I ask something, that you may ask yourselves. If God, coming, were to speak to us with his own voice (although he does not cease to speak through his Letters), and were to say to a man: You wish to sin, sin; do whatever delights you; whatever you have loved on earth, let it become yours; whoever you are angry at, let him perish; whoever you wish to plunder, let him be plundered; whoever to strike, let him be struck; whoever to condemn, let him be condemned; whoever to possess, may you possess: let no one resist you, let no one say to you: What are you doing? no one: Do not do it; no one: Why have you done it? Let all those earthly things which you have coveted abound to you, and live in them, not for a time, but always: only my face you will never see. My brothers, whence did you groan, except because a chaste fear, abiding forever and ever, has now been born? Why was your heart struck? If God were to say: You will never see my face: behold, you will abound in all this earthly happiness, you will have an abundance of all things, temporal goods will flow around you; you do not lose them, you do not desert them; what more do you want? A chaste fear would indeed weep and groan, and say: On the contrary, let all things be taken away, and let me see your face. A chaste fear would cry out from the psalm, and say: O God of hosts, convert us; and show your face, and we shall be saved (Ps 80:7 (79:8)). A chaste fear would cry out from the psalm, and say: One thing I have asked of the Lord. See how this chaste fear burns, this true love, this sincere love. One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek. What? That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. What if for the sake of earthly happiness? Hear what follows: That I may contemplate the delight of the Lord, and be protected as his temple (Ps 27:4 (26:4)); that is, to be his temple, and to be protected by him, this one thing I have asked of the Lord. If you ask this one thing, if you exercise your heart toward this one thing, and fear to lose only this, you will neither envy earthly happinesses, and you will hope for that true happiness, and you will be in the body of him to whom it is sung: Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways.

10. You will eat the labors of your fruits. O you, O you—you many who are one—you will eat the labors of your fruits. It seems, as it were, to speak perversely to those who do not understand: for it ought to have said: You will eat the fruit of your labors. For many eat the fruit of their labors. They labor in a vineyard, they do not eat the labor itself; but they eat what is born of their labor. They labor about fruit-bearing trees; who eats labors? But what those trees have brought forth, the fruit of the labor, this gladdens the farmer. What does it mean: You will eat the labors of your fruits? Now we have labors, the fruit will come later. But because the labors themselves are not without joy, on account of the hope of which we spoke a little before: rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation (Rom 12:12); now our very labors gladden us, and make us glad through hope. If, then, our labor could be eaten, and could gladden; the fruit of that labor, when eaten, what will it be like? They ate their labors, who going went and wept, casting their seeds: how much more gladly will they eat the fruits of their labors, who coming will come with exultation, carrying their sheaves (Ps 126:6 (125:6))? And that you may know, brothers, that this labor is eaten, in the earlier psalm you heard it said to the proud, who wished to rise before the light, that is, before Christ, not through the humility by which Christ rose; it was said to them: Rise after you have sat down (Ps 127:2 (126:2)): that is, be humbled, and rise from there; because he too came to be humbled, who was exalted for your sake. And what was said? You who eat the bread of sorrow. This is the labor of the fruits, the bread of sorrow. For unless it were eaten, it would not be called bread: but unless this bread had some sweetness, no one would eat it. With how great a sweetness he weeps in groaning, who prays! The tears of those who pray are sweeter than the joys of the theaters. And hear the flame of desire by which that bread is eaten, of which he here says: You who eat the bread of sorrow. In another place this lover, whose voice in the Psalm we very often recognize, says: My tears have been my bread day and night (Ps 42:3 (41:4)). Whence have tears become bread? While it is said to me daily: Where is your God? For before we see him who loved us, who gave us a pledge, to whom we are betrothed, the pagans exult over us, and say: 'Where is what the Christians worship? Let them show us what they worship. Behold, I show them my god, and let them show me their God.' When the pagan says this to you, you find nothing to show him; because there is nothing to show. So you turn back, and weep to God; because you sigh for him before you see him, and groan with longing for him; and because you weep in longing for him, those very tears are sweet, and will be for food for you, because they too have become for you bread day and night, while it is said to you daily: Where is your God? But your God will come, of whom it is said: Where is he? and will wipe away the tears, and he himself will succeed in place of the bread of tears, and will fatten you forever; because the Word of God will be with us, on whom the angels feed (See Ps 78:25 (77:25)). Meanwhile, now the labors of the fruits, afterward the fruit of the labor. You will eat the labors of your fruits; you are blessed, and it will be well with you. You are blessed is of the present; it will be well with you is of the future: when you eat the labors of your fruits, you are blessed; when you have come to the fruit of your labors, it will be well with you. What did he say? For if it will be well with you, surely you will be blessed; and if you will be blessed, surely it will be well with you. But there is a difference between hope and reality. If hope is so sweet, how much sweeter will the reality be!

11. Now let us come to this: Your wife: it is said to Christ. So his wife is his Church; his Church, his wife, is we ourselves. Like a fruitful vine. But in whom is it a fruitful vine? For we see many who enter these walls who are barren; we see that many enter these walls who are drunkards, usurers, slave-dealers, who seek out fortune-tellers, who go to enchanters and enchantresses when their head aches. Is this the fertility of the vine? is this the fruitfulness of the wife? It is not. These are thorns, but it is not everywhere thorny. It has a certain fertility, and it is a fruitful vine; but in whom? On the sides of your house. Not all are called the sides of the house. For I ask what the sides are: what shall I say? Are they walls, like strong stones? If he were speaking of this bodily dwelling, perhaps we would understand these as the sides. We call the sides of the house those who cleave to Christ. For not without cause, even in daily speech, do we say of someone who perhaps acts badly from the counsels of evil friends; of him we say: 'He has bad sides.' What does it mean, 'He has bad sides'? Evil men cleave to him. So too of another: 'He has good sides: he lives by good counsels.' What is this? He is governed by good counsels. So the sides of the house are those who cleave to Christ. Nor without cause was the spouse herself made from the side (See Gen 2:21-22). When the man slept, Eve was made; when Christ died, the Church was made: and she from the side of the man, when the rib was drawn out; and this one from the side of the man, when the side was struck with a lance, and the Sacraments flowed out (See Jn 19:34). So your wife is like a fruitful vine. But in whom? On the sides of your house. In others who do not cleave to Christ, it is barren. But neither will I count those in the vine.

12. Your sons. Who is the wife, they themselves are also the sons. In these fleshly marriages and unions, the wife is one and the sons are others: in the Church, who is the wife, they themselves are the sons. For the apostles belonged to the Church, and were among the members of the Church. So they were in his spouse, and were the spouse according to the portion which they held among the members. Why, then, is it said of them: When the bridegroom has departed from them, then the sons of the bridegroom will fast (See Matt 9:15)? So they are both the spouse and the sons. I say a wonderful thing, my brothers. In the words of the Lord we find that the Church is both his brothers, and his sisters, and his mother. For when his mother and brothers were announced to him standing outside; because they stood outside, they bore a type. What is the type of the mother? The synagogue. What is the type of the fleshly brothers? The Jews standing outside. And the synagogue stands outside. For Mary is among the sides of his house, and his kinsmen coming from the blood relationship of the Virgin Mary, who believed in him, are among the sides of his house; not insofar as they were joined by fleshly blood relationship, but insofar as they heard the word of God and did it. For this the Lord answered and said: Who is my mother, or who are my brothers? (Matt 12:48) Whence some have tried to say that Christ did not have a mother, because he said: Who is my mother? Why? So then Peter and John and James, and the other apostles, did not have fathers on earth? And yet what does he say to them? Call no one your father on earth; for one is your Father who is in heaven (Matt 23:9). What, then, he was teaching the disciples about a father, this he himself showed about a mother. For the Lord wishes that we set God before earthly blood relationships. Defer to your father, because he is your father; defer to God, because he is God. Your father begot you by lending his flesh; God created you by applying his power. Let not the father be angry when God is set before him; rather let him rejoice that so much is deferred to himself, that one was found who ought to be set before him. So what shall I say? The Lord, what does he say? Who is my mother, or who are my brothers? And he stretched out his hands toward his disciples, and said: Behold my mother and my brothers. They were brothers; how were they mother? He added: And whoever does the will of my Father, he is my brother, and sister, and mother (Matt 12:48-50). Take it: brother, on account of the male sex which the Church has; sister, on account of the women whom Christ has here among his members: but how mother, except because Christ himself is in Christians, whom Christians the Church daily brings forth through Baptism? So in whom you understand the spouse, in them the mother, in them the sons.

13. So let it be said what kind the sons ought to be. What kind? Peaceable. Why peaceable? Because: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God (Matt 5:9). Because, then, in the olive there is the fruit of peace: for oil signifies peace, because it signifies love; without love there is no peace: and it is plain that those who divided peace did not have love. Whence I have already expounded to your charity why the dove brought leaves with fruit to the ark (See Gen 8:11); to signify that those too who are baptized outside, just as that wood was baptized outside the ark, if they have not leaves only, that is, words only, but have also fruit, which is love, the dove itself carries them back to the ark, and they come to unity. Such, then, the sons ought to be, around the table of the Lord, like a planting of olives. It is a perfect thing, a great blessedness: now who would not wish to be there? When you see someone who is a blasphemer have a wife, sons, grandsons, and you perhaps not have them, do not be jealous; see that it is fulfilled in you too, but spiritually. Or are you perhaps not among the members? If you are not there, lament that you are neither here nor there. But if you are there, be secure; for even if there and not here, it is more fruitful there than here.

14. If, then, we have, why do we have? Because we fear the Lord. Behold, thus will the man be blessed who fears the Lord. That is the man who is men; and the men themselves are the man: because the many are one, because Christ is one.

15. [vv. 5-6.] May the Lord bless you out of Zion (Ps 128:5 (127:5)). For you had begun to take notice: Behold, thus will the man be blessed who fears the Lord: now perhaps your eyes were going among those who do not fear the Lord, and were seeing there fruitful wives, sons in abundance going around their father's table; I know not where you were going: May the Lord bless you, but out of Zion. Do not seek those blessings which are not out of Zion. Did the Lord not bless such men, my brothers? This is a blessing of the Lord: or if it is not from the Lord, who will take a wife, if the Lord does not will it? who could be healthy, if the Lord does not will it? or who could be rich, if the Lord does not will it? He gives those things: but do you not see that he gave them to the cattle too? So that blessing is not out of Zion. May the Lord bless you out of Zion; and may you see the goods that are of Jerusalem. For those goods are not of Jerusalem. Do you wish to see that they are not the goods of Jerusalem? It was said to the birds too: Increase and multiply (Gen 1:22). Do you wish to hold as a great thing what was given to the birds? It was given indeed by the voice of God—who would not know it? But use these goods, if you receive them; and think rather how to nourish those who have been born, than that they be born. For it is not now happiness to have sons, but to have good ones. Labor over nourishing them, if they have been born; but if not born, give thanks to God. Perhaps you will be less anxious, and yet you have not remained barren of that mother. Perhaps through you are born spiritually, of that mother, those who are like new plantings of olives going around the table of the Lord. So may the Lord console you, that you may see the goods of Jerusalem. For those goods are. Why do they are? Because they are eternal. Why do they are? Because there is the king: I am who am (Exod 3:14). But these things are goods, and are not: for they do not stand still; they slip away, they flow. Sons are little ones; you fondle the little ones, the little ones fondle you: do they stand still in that? But you wish that they grow, you wish that age be added. But see that when one is added, another dies. When boyhood comes, infancy dies; when youth comes, boyhood dies; when manhood comes, youth dies; when old age comes, manhood dies; when death comes, every age dies. As many stages of age as you wish, so many deaths of ages you wish at once. So these things are not. Then are sons born to you on earth to live with you, or rather to shut you out and to succeed you? Do you rejoice over those who are born, that you may be shut out? For the boys, once born, say this, as it were, to their parents: Come, think of going hence, let us too perform our mime. For the whole life of temptation of the human race is a mime; because it was said: Every living man is utter vanity (Ps 39:5 (38:6)). And yet, if there is rejoicing over sons who will succeed; how much should there be rejoicing over sons with whom we will abide, and over that father to whom we are born, who will not die, but that we may live forever with him? These are the goods of Jerusalem, because they are. May the Lord, then, bless you out of Zion; and may you see the goods that are of Jerusalem. For those goods which you attend to, you see as a blind man. May you see, but those goods which are seen by the heart. And how long shall I see the goods of Jerusalem? All the days of your life. But if your life be eternal, you will see the goods of Jerusalem forever. But if, my brothers, these are goods, you do not see them all the days of your life: for when you go out of the body, you do not die. Your life perseveres: the body dies, but the life of the spirit perseveres. The eyes do not see, because he has departed who through the eyes was seeing. Wherever is he who through the eyes was seeing, he sees something. For that rich man was not dead who on earth was clothed in purple and fine linen; if he were dead, he would not be tormented among the dead. It would perhaps have been desirable for him to die, but to his own harm he lived among the dead. For he was tormented, and did not see those goods which he had left on earth: behold, his life was such, and he did not see those goods (See Luke 16:19-25). So then desire such goods as you may see all the days of your life, that is, that you may live forever with those goods.

16. What, then, are those goods, brothers, take notice. Can these be called goods: there is gold, there is silver, there is a pleasant estate, there are marbled walls, there are paneled ceilings? Far from it. These the poor have more abundantly in this life. For it is more for a poor man to see the starry sky than for a rich man to see a gilded ceiling. Brothers, then, what is that good with which we are kindled, for which we sigh, with which we are inflamed, for the sake of obtaining and seeing which good we sustain such great labors—as you heard when the apostle was read, that all who wish to live devoutly in Christ Jesus suffer persecution (2 Tim 3:12)? For it is not the case that, because the devil does not now rage through kings, Christians therefore do not suffer persecution. If the devil is dead, the persecutions are dead; but if that adversary of ours lives, whence does he not suggest temptations? whence does he not rage? whence does he not procure threats or scandals? Oh, if you begin to live devoutly, you will see that everyone who wishes to live devoutly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. For the sake of what, then, do we suffer such great persecutions? For if in this life only we have hope in Christ, says the apostle, we are more wretched than all men (1 Cor 15:19). For the sake of what were the martyrs condemned to the beasts? what is that good, can it be told? whence, or what tongue may tell it? or what ears may hear it? And indeed, neither has the ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man (1 Cor 2:9). Let us only love, let us only make progress: for you see that battles are not lacking, and we battle with our own desires. We battle outside with unbelieving and disobedient men; we battle within with suggestions, with fleshly disturbances: everywhere we still battle, because the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul (See Wis 9:15); we still battle, since if the spirit is life, yet the body is dead on account of sin. But what is to come? But if the Spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, he will give life also to your mortal bodies, on account of his Spirit who dwells in you (Rom 8:10-11). So when our mortal members have been given life, then nothing will resist our spirit. There will be no hunger, there will be no thirst, because these arise from the corruption of the body. You refresh yourself because something fails from you. The desires of fleshly delights battle against us. We carry death in the weakness of the body: but when death itself has been turned into that unchangeableness, and this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, what will death then hear? Where, O death, is your striving? where, O death, is your sting? (1 Cor 15:55; see Hos 13:14) And perhaps it dies, and it will be said: Do any enemies remain? No; it follows: the last enemy, death. When this has been destroyed, immortality will succeed. If there will be no enemy, death will be destroyed as it were last (1 Cor 15:26). Our good, for which we sigh, will be peace. Behold the good, brothers: a great good is called peace. You were asking what it was called: is it gold, is it silver, or an estate, or a garment? It is peace: not such peace as men have among themselves, faithless, unstable, changeable, uncertain; nor such peace as one single man has within himself. For we said that a man battles even with himself; until he tames all his desires, he still battles. What kind of peace, then? Which the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard (1 Cor 2:9). What kind of peace? Of Jerusalem, because Jerusalem is interpreted 'vision of peace.' So then may the Lord bless you out of Zion; and may you see the goods that are of Jerusalem, and may you see them all the days of your life. And may you see, not your sons only, but the sons of your sons (Ps 128:6 (127:6)). What does it mean, your sons? Your works which you do here. Who are the sons of your sons? The fruits of your works. You do alms, they are your sons: on account of the alms you receive eternal life, they are the sons of your sons. May you see the sons of your sons; and there will be what follows, with which it is concluded: Peace upon Israel. This peace is preached to you by us, it is loved by us, and we desire that it be loved by you. To that peace come those who have here too been peaceable. Those are peaceable here too, who are so there too; who go around the table of the Lord like a new planting of olives, that the tree may not be barren, such as that fig tree was where the hungry Lord found no fruit (See Matt 21:18-19). And you see what happened to it. It had leaves only, it had no fruit: such are those who have words, and do not have deeds. The Lord, coming hungry, found there nothing to eat; because the Lord hungers for our faith and good works. Let us feed him by living well, and he will feed us by granting that we live forever.

Exposition of Psalm 129

1. The psalm which we have sung is brief: but as it is written in the Gospel of Zacchaeus, short in stature, and great in deed (See Luke 19:3); as it is written of that widow who put two mites into the treasury, small money, but great love (See Mark 12:42-44): so this psalm too, if you count the words, is brief; if you weigh the meanings, is great. So it will not be able to detain us longer to the point of weariness. Why? Let your prudence take notice, and let Christian attention be present: let the word of God sound to the willing and the unwilling, in season and out of season. It finds a place for itself, it finds hearts where it may rest, it finds soil where it may sprout and bear fruit. For that many are evil and unjust whom the Church bears until the end, is plain: and these are they for whom the word of God is superfluous; and either it falls on them as seed is trodden on the way, and gathered by the birds; or it falls on them as seed on rocky places, where it has not much soil, comes up at once, and, the sun being hot, withers, because it has no root; or as among thorns, which, even if it sprouts and tries to rise into the air, is yet choked by the multitude of thorns. But such are those who despise the word of God like the way, or who rejoice for an hour, and, tribulation having come, like the heat of the sun, wither; or who, by the thoughts and cares and anxiety of this world, as by the thorns of avarice, choke what had begun to sprout in them. But there is also good soil, into which the seed, when it has fallen, brings forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some a hundredfold (See Matt 13:3-8): whether little or much, all will be in the barn. There are, then, such people, and for these we speak. For these Scripture speaks, for these the Gospel does not keep silent. But let those others too hear, lest perhaps they be one thing today, another tomorrow; lest perhaps they be changed by hearing, and either plow the way, or clear the stones, or pull out the thorns. Let the Spirit of God speak, let him speak to us, let him sing to us; whether we wish to dance, or do not wish, let him himself sing. For just as one who dances moves his limbs to the song; so those who dance to the command of God obey the sound by their works. Therefore to those who refused to do this, what does the Lord say in the Gospel? We sang to you, and you did not dance; we mourned, and you did not lament (Matt 11:17). So let him sing; we trust in the mercy of God, that there will be those over whom he will console us. For those who are obstinate, persevering in malice, although they hear the word of God, daily disturb the Church with scandals. Of such this psalm speaks; for it began thus:

2. [vv. 1-3.] Often have they assailed me from my youth (Ps 129:1 (128:1)). The Church speaks of those whom she endures, and as though it were said: Is it only now? The Church is of old; from the time that the saints are called, the Church is on earth. At one time the Church was in Abel alone, and he was assailed by his evil and lost brother Cain (See Gen 4:8). At one time the Church was in Enoch alone, and he was translated from among the wicked (See Gen 5:24). At one time the Church was in the house of Noah alone, and it bore all who perished in the flood, and the ark alone floated on the waves, and escaped to dry land (See Gen 7). At one time the Church was in Abraham alone, and how much he bore from the wicked, we know. The Church was in Lot alone, the son of his brother, and in his house in Sodom, and it bore the iniquities and perversities of the Sodomites, until God freed him from their midst (See Gen 19). The Church began to be also in the people of Israel; it bore Pharaoh and the Egyptians. There began to be also in that very Church, that is, in the people of Israel, a number of the saints: Moses and the other saints bore the wicked Jews, the people of Israel. We have come also to our Lord Jesus Christ, the Gospel was preached, he said in the Psalms: I announced and spoke, they were multiplied above number (Ps 40:5 (39:6)). What does it mean, above number? Not only did those believe who belong to the number of the saints; but they entered also above number: many just, but more unjust; and the just bore the unjust. When? In the Church. Is it only now, from the time when she counts, from the time when she calls to mind? Therefore, lest the Church should now wonder, or lest anyone in the Church, wishing to be a good member of the Church, should wonder, let him hear the Church herself his mother saying to him: Do not wonder at these things, son: Often have they assailed me from my youth.

3. It is a great affection for the Psalm to have begun thus: Often have they assailed me from my youth. As though it were already saying something: for it seems not to have begun, but to have answered. But whom did it answer? Those thinking and saying: How many evils we endure, how many scandals daily grow more frequent, when the wicked enter into the Church and we bear them? But let the Church answer for certain ones, that is, let her answer with the voice of the stronger to the complaints of the weaker, and let the firm strengthen the infirm, and the grown-up the little ones, and let the Church say: Often have they assailed me from my youth. Let Israel now say: Often have they assailed me from my youth. Let her say it, let her not fear it. For what does it avail, that when she had said: Often have they assailed me, she added: from my youth? Now indeed the old age of the Church is assailed, but let her not fear: let her say: Often have they assailed me from my youth. Did she therefore not come to old age, because they did not cease assailing? could they destroy her? Let Israel now say; and let Israel console herself, let the Church herself console herself by past examples, and say: Often have they assailed me from my youth.

4. Why did they assail me? For they could not prevail against me. Upon my back the sinners built; they made their injustice long (Ps 129:2-3 (128:2-3)). Why did they assail me? Because they could not prevail against me. What does it mean, they could not prevail against me? To build. What does it mean, they could not prevail against me? I did not consent with them to evil. For every evil man persecutes the good man precisely because the good man does not consent with him to evil. Let someone do something evil; let the bishop not rebuke it, and he is a good bishop: let the bishop rebuke it, and he is a bad bishop. Let him plunder something; let the one from whom he plunders be silent, and he is good: let him at least speak and reprove, even if he does not demand it back, and he is bad. He who reproves the plunderer is bad, and he who plunders is good! Let him walk on: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die (1 Cor 15:32; Isa 22:13). On the contrary the apostle: Evil conversations corrupt good morals. Be sober, you just, and do not sin (1 Cor 15:33-34). The word sounds, the discourse sounds, contradicting his lust: but he, the friend of his own lust, and the enemy of the discourse contradicting his beloved, is hostile, and hates the word of God. Avarice has been made his friend, God his enemy. For God contradicts avarice, and wills that nothing be possessed by avarice. 'Let me be possessed,' avarice cries. Why do you wish to be possessed by avarice? It commands hard things, I command light things: its burden is heavy, my burden is light; its yoke is rough, my yoke is gentle (See Matt 11:30). Do not wish to be possessed by avarice. Avarice commands you to cross the sea, and you obey: it commands you to commit yourself to the winds and the storms; I command you to give to the poor man before your door out of what you have: you are lazy to do the good work before you, and energetic to cross the sea. Because avarice commands, you serve; because God commands, you hate. And what then? When he has begun to hate, he begins to wish to accuse those from whom he hears good precepts, and to wish, by his suspicions, to seek out crimes of the servants of God. Those who say these things to us, do they not themselves not do them? And these things, whether they are done or not done, are said to be done; and the things that are done well are said to be done badly: and the things we endure are charged to our fault. What do we answer? Do not attend to me; attend to this discourse: he himself speaks to you through anyone whomsoever; to him you are an enemy. Agree with your adversary, while you are with him on the way (See Matt 5:25): you have made the word of God your adversary. Do not attend to the fact that he speaks to you: evil is the one through whom he speaks to you; but he is not evil who speaks to you, the word of God. Accuse God, accuse him, if you can.

5. Do you believe, brothers, that those of whom it is said: Often have they assailed me from my youth, have come so far as not even to hesitate to accuse God himself? You accuse the avaricious man, and he accuses God because he made gold. Do not be avaricious. And God would not make gold. Now this remains, that because you cannot restrain your evil works, you accuse the good works of God: the creator and maker of the world displeases you. He would not have made even the sun; for many quarrel at their windows over the lights, and drag one another to court. Oh, if only we would restrain our vices! because all things are good, because good is the God who made all things; and his works praise him, considered as good by one who has the spirit of considering, the spirit of devotion and wisdom. On every side God is praised by his works. How do his works praise him through the mouth of the three young men? what was left out? The heavens praise, the angels praise, the stars praise, the sun and moon praise, the days and nights praise, whatever sprouts from the earth praises, whatever swims in the sea praises, whatever flies in the air praises, all mountains and hills praise, cold and heat praise; and all the other things which God made, you heard that they praise God (See Dan 3:57-88): did you hear there that avarice praises God, that luxury praises God? These do not praise, because he himself did not make them. There men praise God; God is the creator of man. Avarice is the work of an evil man; man himself is the work of God. And what does God will? To kill in you what you yourself have made, and to save what he himself has made.

6. Do not lend at interest. You accuse Scripture, which says: He who has not given his money at interest (Ps 15:5 (14:5)). I did not write that, it did not come out of my mouth first: hear God. And he says: Let the clergy not lend at interest. And perhaps he who speaks to you does not lend at interest: but if he does lend at interest, grant that he too lends at interest; does he who speaks through him lend at interest? If he does what he tells you, and you do not do it; you go into the fire, he into the kingdom. If he does not do what he tells you, and equally does the evil things which you do, and tells the good things which he does not do; both equally go into the fire (See Matt 23:3). The hay will burn, but the word of the Lord abides forever. Does the discourse burn which has spoken to you through him? Either he is a Moses who speaks to you, that is, a good and just servant of God; or he is a Pharisee sitting in the seat of Moses. You heard also of these: What they say, do; but what they do, do not wish to do (Matt 23:3). You have no way to excuse yourself, when the word of God speaks to you. Because you cannot kill the word of God, you seek to accuse those through whom the word of God speaks to you. Seek as much as you wish, say as much as you wish, blaspheme as much as you wish: Often have they assailed me from my youth; but let Israel say: Often have they assailed me from my youth. Usurers too dare to say: I have nothing else to live on. This the robber too would say to me, caught at the throat; this the burglar too would say, caught about another's wall; this the pimp too would say to me, buying girls for prostitution; this the sorcerer too would say, chanting evils, and selling his wickedness; whatever such thing we tried to forbid, all would answer that they had nothing to live on, that they fed themselves from it; as though this very thing were not most of all to be punished in them, that they have chosen an art of wickedness whereby to pass their life, and wish to feed themselves from that very thing by which they offend him by whom all are fed.

7. But when you have cried this out and said it, they answer: If so, we do not come here; if so, we do not enter the Church itself. Let them come, let them enter, let them hear: Often have they assailed me from my youth. For they could not prevail against me: upon my back the sinners built: that is, they could not bring it about that I consent; they brought it about that I carry. How splendidly it was said, how excellently it signified: For they could not prevail against me: upon my back the sinners built. They deal with us, first, that we consent to them in evil deeds: if we do not consent: Bear with us, they say. So because you could not prevail against me, climb onto my back; I have to carry you until the end comes: for so it has been commanded me, that I bring forth fruit with endurance (See Luke 8:15). I do not correct you, I bear you: or perhaps, while I bear you, you correct yourself. If you do not correct yourself until the end, I bear you until the end; and until the end you will be upon my back, for a time. Will you be upon my back forever? For he will come who shakes you off from there: the time of harvest will come, the end of the world will come; God will send the reapers. But the reapers are the angels: they separate the evil from the midst of the just, as the weeds from the wheat; the grain they will store in the barn, but the chaff they will burn with unquenchable fire (See Matt 13:30, 39-42). I have carried as long as I could, now rejoicing I pass into the barn of God, and securely I sing: Often have they assailed me from my youth.

8. For what could they do to me, in that they assailed me from my youth? They exercised me, they did not crush me. They availed for me like fire to gold, not like fire to hay. For fire, applied to gold, takes away the dross; applied to hay, it turns it to ashes. For they could not prevail against me, because I did not consent, because they did not make me such as they themselves are. Upon my back the sinners built, they made their injustice long. They made something for me to endure, and did not make one to whom I should consent. So now their injustice is far from me. The evil are mingled with the good, not only in the world, but even within the Church itself the evil are mingled with the good. You know it, and have proved it; and you will prove it more, if you are good. For when the plant had grown and made fruit, then the weeds appeared (Matt 13:26). The evil in the Church appear to no one, except to him who is good. So you know that they are mingled, and Scripture always and everywhere says that they will not be separated except at the end. So, mingled as they are, they are far from one another. So then, lest anyone, from the fact that the evil are mingled among the good, should think that iniquity is next to justice: They could not, he says, prevail against me; that is, they spoke, and spoke evilly: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die (1 Cor 15:32; Isa 22:13). Evil discourses did not corrupt good morals: in what I heard from God, I did not yield to the discourses of men. The sinners made for me something to carry, not one to be mingled with, and their iniquity has become far from me. For what is so near as two men in one Church? what so far as iniquity from justice? For where there is consent, there is nearness. Two are bound and sent to the judge; a robber, and one bound with him: the one criminal, the other innocent, are bound by one chain, and are far from each other. How far are they from each other? As far as crime is from innocence. Behold, these are far from one another. Another robber in Spain commits crimes, nearest to him is one who commits them in Africa. How near? As near as crime is joined to crime, as robbery is joined to robbery. Let no one, then, fear the evil mingled with him in body. Let him be far from them in heart, and securely he carries what he does not fear: They made their injustice long.

9. [v. 4.] What occurs? Those flourish who reign wickedly; and, to use the speech of the common people, the wicked thunder, they are exalted in haughtiness, in slanders. What then? always this? No. Hear what follows: The just Lord will cut down the necks of sinners (Ps 129:4 (128:4)). Let your charity attend. The Lord, he says, the just one, will cut down the necks of sinners. Who would not tremble? For who has not sinned? The just Lord will cut down the necks of sinners. Into the heart of all who hear, trembling enters, if they believe the Scripture of God. For if men beat their breasts without cause, they lie in beating their breasts, if they are just; and in that they lie to God, they become sinners. If, then, they truly beat their breasts, they are sinners. And which of us does not beat his breast? and which of us does not strike his eyes to the ground, like that Publican, and say: Lord, be merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18:13)? If, then, all are sinners, and no one is found without sin; the sword upon the neck is to be feared by all, because the just Lord will cut down the necks of sinners. I do not think, my brothers, that he means the necks of all sinners; but in the member which he strikes, there he indicates which sinners he strikes. For he did not say: The just Lord will cut down the hands of sinners; or, The just Lord will cut down the feet of sinners, he did not say: but because he wished the proud sinners to be understood, and the proud are all stiff-necked, who not only do evil, but do not even wish to acknowledge it, and when they are rebuked, justify themselves (Behold, you did it; at least acknowledge what you did: God hates the sinner, do you too hate him; join yourself to God, together let us both persecute your sin. No, he says: I did well, God did badly. What is this? I have done nothing evil, he says: because Saturn did it, because Mars did it, because Venus did it; I did nothing, the stars did it. You justify yourself, you accuse God who made the stars, who adorned the heaven): therefore, since you justify your sin, and grow proud against God, because you make yourself free of fault, and God in fault, and so raised your neck, and ran against God, as it is written in Job (he was speaking of the impious sinner): Running against God on the thick neck of his shield (Job 15:26); and there he named the neck; because you so raise yourself, and do not strike your eyes to the ground, and beat your breast, and say: Lord, be merciful to me a sinner; but you boast of your merits, and wish, says God, to contend with me in judgment, to enter into judgment with me; when you ought, in your guilt, to make satisfaction to God, and to cry to him what is cried in another psalm: If you mark iniquities, O Lord; Lord, who will endure it? (Ps 130:3 (129:3)) to cry to him what is cried in another psalm: I said: Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (Ps 41:4 (40:5)): since you do not wish to say these things, but justify your deeds against the word of God; there comes upon you what Scripture goes on to say: The just Lord will cut down the necks of sinners.

10. [v. 5.] Let them be confounded, and turned backward, all who hate Zion (Ps 129:5 (128:5)). Those who hate Zion hate the Church: Zion is the Church. And those who enter the Church feignedly hate the Church. Those who do not wish to observe the word of God hate the Church: Upon my back they built. What will the Church do, except carry them until the end?

11. [v. 6.] But what does he say of them? It follows: Let them become like the grass of the housetops, which withered before it was plucked up (Ps 129:6 (128:6)). The grass of the housetops is the grass that grows on roofs, on a tiled terrace. It is seen on high, and has no root. How much better it would be born lower, and would grow green more luxuriantly? As it is, it is born higher, to a quicker withering. It has not yet been plucked up, and it has withered: they have not yet been finished in the judgment of God, and already they have not the sap of greenness. Attend to their works, and see that they have withered. But they live, and are here: so they have not yet been plucked up. They have withered, but not yet been plucked up: they have become like the grass of the housetops, which withered before it was plucked up.

12. And the reapers will come, but they do not fill their sheaves from those. For the reapers are to come, and to gather the wheat into the barn, and to bind the weeds, and cast them into the fire. So too the grass of the housetops is cleared away, and whatever is plucked up from there is cast into the fire; because even before it was plucked up it withered. The reaper does not fill his hands from it. For it follows and says: The reaper has not filled his hand, nor his bosom he who gathers the sheaves (Ps 129:7 (128:7)). But the reapers are the angels (Matt 13:39), the Lord says.

13. [v. 8.] And those passing by on the way did not say: The blessing of the Lord be upon you; we have blessed you in the name of the Lord (Ps 129:8 (128:8)). For you know, brothers, that when one passes by people working, it is the custom to say to them: The blessing of the Lord be upon you. And this custom was more in the nation of the Jews. No one passed by and saw some doing some work in the field, or in the vineyard, or in the harvest, or anything of this kind; it was not allowed to pass without a blessing. There are some who gather the sheaves, others who pass by on the way. Those who gather the sheaves do not fill their hands from those; because the grass of the housetops is not gathered into the barn. Who are those who gather the sheaves? The reapers. Who are the reapers? The Lord said: But the reapers are the angels. Who are those passing by? Those who have already passed by this way, that is, through this life, from here to the homeland: the apostles were those passing by in this life, the prophets were those passing by. Whom did the prophets and apostles bless? Those in whom they saw the root of love. But those whom they found prominent on the rooftops and proud on the neck of their shield, they spoke against them what they were to be, but did not give the blessing upon them. So all those evil ones whom the Church carries, you who read in the Scriptures find marked as accursed, belonging to antichrist, belonging to the devil, belonging to the chaff, belonging to the weeds. And many innumerable things are said of them by way of likeness: For not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt 7:21). You find no Scripture that speaks well of them, because those passing by on the way did not bless them. The prophets, passing by, said all evil things of them. Behold, this man too whom we carry, David, passed by on the way; you heard what he said of them: The just Lord will cut down the necks of sinners. Let them be confounded, and turned backward, all who hate Zion. Let them become like the grass of the housetops, which withered before it was plucked up. The reaper has not filled his hand, nor his bosom he who gathers the sheaves. These things he said of them. So this passer-by did not bless over them, and there was fulfilled, even through him, what he himself said: And those passing by on the way did not say: We have blessed you in the name of the Lord. And these passers-by, whether prophets, or patriarchs, or apostles, whoever passed by, if we live well, brothers, blessed us in the name of the Lord. When, you say, did Paul bless me? when did Peter bless me? Attend in the Scriptures, see whether you live well, and see there that you were blessed. All who live well have blessed you. And how did they bless? In the name of the Lord; not in their own name, like the heretics. For those who say: What we give, this is holy; wish to bless in their own name, not in the name of the Lord. But those who say: None sanctifies except God, nor is anyone good except by the gift of God; they bless in the name of the Lord, we in his name: because they are friends of the bridegroom, they do not wish to be adulterers of the bride (See Jn 3:29).

Exposition of Psalm 130

1. [vv. 1-3.] Since we presume that you keep watch not only with the eyes of the body, but also with the heart, we must sing with understanding: Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice (Ps 130:1-2 (129:1-2)). For this is the voice of one ascending, belonging to the song of ascents. So each one of us ought to see in what depth he is, from which he cries to the Lord. Jonah cried from the depth, from the belly of the whale (See Jonah 2:1-2). He was not only under the waves, but even in the entrails of the beast; and yet that body and those waves did not shut off his prayer from reaching God, and the belly of the beast could not hold back the voice of the one praying. It penetrated all things, it burst through all things, it reached the ears of God: if indeed it should be said that, bursting through all things, it reached the ears of God, when the ears of God were in the heart of the one praying. For where does he not have God present, whose voice is faithful? Yet we too ought to understand out of what depth we cry to the Lord. For this mortal life is a depth for us. Whoever has understood himself to be in the depth cries, groans, sighs, until he is rescued from the depth, and comes to him who sits above all the deeps and above the Cherubim, above all that he created, not only bodily but also spiritual things; until the soul comes to him, until his image, which is man, is freed by him—the image which in this depth, tossed as it were by constant waves, has been worn away: and unless it is renewed and repaired by God, who impressed it when he formed man (Man could be capable of his own fall; he is not capable of his own resurrection), it is always in the depth; unless it is freed, as I said, it is always in the depth. But when it cries out of the depth, it rises from the depth, and the very cry does not allow it to be very far down. For they are deeply in the depth who do not even cry out of the depth. Scripture says: The sinner, when he comes into the depth of evils, despises (Prov 18:3). Now see, brothers, what kind of depth it is where God is despised. When someone has seen himself overwhelmed with daily sins, pressed down by certain heaps and masses of iniquities, if it is said to him that he should pray to God, he mocks. In what ways? First he says: If God were displeased by misdeeds, would I be living? If God cared about human affairs, in the face of such great crimes as I have committed, would I not only be living, but even have it well with me? For this usually happens to those who are deeply in the depth, and prosper in their iniquities: and the more they seem to be happy, the more they are sunk in the depth; for happiness is deceptive, and is itself the greater unhappiness. Then men are also accustomed to say this: Since I have already done many things and damnation threatens, I lose this, that I do not do whatever I can; and: Since I am lost by this, why do I not do whatever I can? As desperate robbers are accustomed to say: The judge will kill me for ten murders just as for five, just as for one; why do I not now do whatever comes my way? This is: The sinner, when he comes into the depth of evils, despises. But the Lord Jesus Christ, who did not despise even our depths, who deigned to come even to this life, promising the remission of all sins; roused man even from the depth, that he might cry out of the depth under the masses of sins, and that the voice of the sinner might reach God: whence does one cry, if not out of the depth of evils?

2. And see that the voice of the sinner cries out of the depth: Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication (Ps 130:1-2 (129:1-2)). Whence does he cry? Out of the depth. Who, then, is it that cries? The sinner. And in what hope does he cry? Because he who came to loose sins gave hope even to the sinner set in the depth. Therefore what follows after these words? If you mark iniquities, O Lord; Lord, who will endure it? (Ps 130:3 (129:3)) Behold, he has revealed out of what depth he cries. For he cries under the masses and waves of his iniquities. He looked around at himself, he looked around at his life; he saw it covered on every side with disgraces and crimes: wherever he looked back, he found nothing good in himself, no serenity of justice could meet him. And when he saw such great and so many sins on every side, and the troops of his crimes, as though terrified, he cried out: If you mark iniquities, O Lord; Lord, who will endure it? He did not say: I will not endure it; but, who will endure it? For he saw nearly the whole of human life barked at all around by its sins, all consciences accused by their thoughts, no chaste heart found presuming on its own justice. If, then, a chaste heart cannot be found that may presume on its own justice; let the heart of all presume on the mercy of God, and say: If you mark iniquities, O Lord; Lord, who will endure it?

3. [vv. 4-6.] But why is there hope? Because with you there is forgiveness (Ps 130:4 (129:4)). And what is this forgiveness, except sacrifice? And what is the sacrifice, except what was offered for us? Innocent blood, poured out, blotted out all the sins of the guilty: so great a price given redeemed all captives from the hand of the captivating enemy. So with you there is forgiveness. For if with you there were no forgiveness, if you wished to be only a judge and were unwilling to be merciful, you would mark all our iniquities, and seek them out; who would endure it? who would stand before you, and say: I am innocent? who would stand in your judgment? So there is one hope: Because with you there is forgiveness. For the sake of your law I have endured you, O Lord (Ps 130:4-5 (129:4-5)). What law? The one that made men guilty? For a holy, just, good law was given to the Jews; but it could make them guilty (See Rom 7:12). A law was not given that could give life, but one that might show his sins to the sinner (See Rom 3:20; Gal 3:21). For the sinner had forgotten himself, nor did he see himself; a law was given to him, that he might see himself. The law made him guilty; the Giver of the law freed him: for the Giver of the law is the Emperor. A law was given to frighten and bind into guilt; and the law did not loose from sins, but showed the sins. And perhaps, set under that very law, this man noticed in the depth how much he had done against the law, and so he cried out, saying: If you mark iniquities, O Lord; Lord, who will endure it? So there is a law of the mercy of God, a law of the forgiveness of God. That was a law of fear, there is another law of love. The law of love grants pardon to sins, blots out the past, admonishes about the future; on the way it does not desert its companion, it becomes the companion of him whom it leads on the way. But one must agree with the adversary, while one is with him on the way (See Matt 5:25). For the word of God is your adversary, as long as you do not agree with it. But you agree, when it begins to delight you to do what the word of God says. Now what was an adversary becomes a friend: so, the way being finished, there will be no one to hand you over to the judge. So for the sake of your law I have endured you, O Lord; because you deigned to bring a law of mercy, to forgive me all my sins, to give me admonitions for the rest, that I might not offend you: in those very admonitions, if perhaps I stumble in anything, you have given me a remedy by which I may pray to you, saying: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). This law you have established for me, that as I forgive, it may be forgiven me. For the sake of this law I have endured you, O Lord. I waited for when you would come and free me from all distress, because in that very distress you did not desert the law of mercy.

4. Hear what law he means, if you have not yet understood that he now means the law of love; hear the apostle: Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6:2). Who bear one another's burdens, except those who have love? Those who do not have love are a burden to themselves; but those who have love bear one another. Someone has injured you, he asks pardon: if you do not forgive, you do not bear your brother's burden; if you forgive, you bear the weak man. And you too, if perhaps you fall into some weakness, as a man, he ought to bear you as you bear him. Hear what came before: Brothers, he says, if a man be overtaken in some fault, you who are spiritual instruct such a one in a spirit of gentleness. And lest perhaps, because he had admonished the spiritual, they should seem secure to themselves, he at once added: Looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Then what I mentioned, he added: Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6:1-2): whence he says: For the sake of your law I have endured you, O Lord. Deer are said, when they cross straits to nearby islands for the sake of pasture, to place their heads upon one another; and one, who is in front, alone carries the head and does not place it upon another: but when he too has grown tired, he takes himself from the front part and returns to the rear, that he too may rest upon another: and so all carry their burdens, and reach what they desire; and they do not suffer shipwreck, because love is, as it were, a ship for them. So love carries burdens; but let it not fear being pressed down by such burdens: let each one take care that he not be pressed down by his own sins. For when you bear your brother's weakness, his sins do not burden you. Plainly, if you consent, then your own sins press you down, not another's. For whoever consents to a sinner is weighed down not by another's sins, but by his own. For consenting to another's sin becomes your own sin; and there is no reason why you should complain that another's sins press you down. For it is said to you: They press you down, but they are your own. You saw a thief, you ran with him (See Ps 50:18 (49:18)). What is this? With your feet you walked to the theft; rather, in mind you joined yourself to the thief: what was his alone became yours; because it pleased you. But if it displeased you, and you prayed for him, and, being asked, gave pardon, that you might be able with a free brow to say in your prayers, which the heavenly Jurist dictated to you: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12); you have learned to bear your brother's burdens; that another too may bear what is yours, and there may be fulfilled in you what the apostle says: Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6:2). So securely you sing what was just now said: For the sake of your law I have endured you, O Lord.

5. But he who does not keep this law neither endures the Lord; nor, if he wished to endure, is there a reason why he should endure; in vain he endures. For the Lord is to come, and to find your sins; but that you have lived in perfect justice, he is not to find. Murders perhaps (for they are grave and far greater) he is not to find; adultery he is not to find, thefts he is not to find, plunder he is not to find, sorceries he is not to find, idolatry he is not to find; these he is not to find. Will he, then, find nothing? Hear the word of the Gospel: Whoever says to his brother: You fool. From these most minute sins of the tongue, who refrains? But perhaps you say: They are small. He will be liable, he says, to the fire of hell (Matt 5:22). If it seemed to you small or slight to say to your brother: You fool, at least let the fire of hell seem to you great: if you despised the lesser sin, at least be deterred by the greatness of the punishment. But you say: They are lesser, they are minute, without which this life cannot be. Heap up the minute things, and they make a huge pile. For grains too are minute, and yet they make a mass: and drops are minute, and yet they fill rivers, and sweep away masses. So that man too, considering how many minute daily sins a man commits, if nothing else, at least through thoughts and the tongue, attends to how many they are; and if he attends to how minute they are, he sees that through many minute things a great pile is made; and not thinking, as it were, of his former sins, but of human frailty itself, now ascending he cries: Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If you mark iniquities, O Lord; Lord, who will endure it? I can avoid murders, adulteries, plunder, perjuries, sorceries, idolatry; but can I avoid the sins of the tongue? can I avoid the sins of the heart? It is written: Sin is iniquity (1 Jn 3:4). Who, then, will endure it, if you mark iniquities? if you wish to deal with us as a severe judge, not a merciful father, who will stand before your eyes? But with you there is forgiveness; for the sake of your law I have endured you, O Lord. What is that law? Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6:2). Who bear one another's burdens? Those who faithfully say: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12).

6. My soul has endured for your word (Ps 130:5 (129:5)). No one endures, except one who has not yet received what was promised: for he who has already received, what does he endure? We have received the remission of sins; but the kingdom of heaven was promised to us: our debts have been blotted out; but our reward is still to come: we have received pardon; but eternal life we do not yet hold. But he who gave pardon, he himself also promised life eternal. If it were our word, we ought to fear: because it is the word of God, it does not deceive. So securely we hope in the word of him who cannot deceive. My soul has hoped in the Lord, from the morning watch even until night (Ps 130:6 (129:6)). What does he say? did he hope in the Lord for one day, and is his whole hope finished? From the morning watch even until night, it has hoped in the Lord. This morning watch is the end of the night; from this even until night my soul has hoped in the Lord. So it is to be understood, lest we think we are to hope in the Lord for one day: From the morning watch even until night. What, then, do you think, brothers? This is it: From the morning watch even until night my soul has hoped in the Lord: because the Lord through whom our sins were forgiven us rose from the dead in the morning watch, that we might hope that this will come to pass in us, which went before in the Lord. For now our sins have been forgiven, but we have not yet risen: if we have not yet risen, there has not yet come to pass in us what went before in our head. What went before in our head? That the flesh of that very head rose; the spirit of that head, did it die? But what died in him rose. And he rose on the third day; and in a certain way the Lord said this to us: What you have seen in me, hope for in yourselves; that is, because I have risen, you too will rise.

7. But there are those who say: Behold, the Lord has risen; is it therefore to be hoped that I too can rise? Surely for that reason: for the Lord rose in this, which he received from you. For he would not rise unless he had died, and he would not have died unless he bore flesh. What did the Lord receive from you? Flesh. What did he himself come as? The Word of God, which was before all things, through whom all things were made. But that he might receive something from you, the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (See Jn 1:14). He received from you what he might offer for you; just as the priest receives from you what he may offer for you, when you wish to appease God for your sins. Now it has been done, so it has been done. Our priest received from us what he might offer for us: for he received flesh from us; in that very flesh he was made the victim, was made the holocaust, was made the sacrifice. In the passion he was made the sacrifice; in the resurrection he renewed that which had been slain, and gave it as your firstfruits to God, and said to you: All your things are now consecrated, since such firstfruits of you have been given to God; hope, then, that there will come to pass in you too what went before in your firstfruits.

8. So because he rose from the morning watch, our soul has from this begun to hope: and how long? Until night; until we die. For every death of ours in the flesh is, as it were, a sleep. You have begun to hope from the time the Lord rose; do not cease to hope until you go out of this life. For if you do not hope until night, all that you had hoped for is blotted out. For there are men who begin to hope, but do not persevere until night. They begin to suffer some tribulations, they begin to suffer temptations, they see evil and unjust men flourish in temporal happiness: and because they hoped such things from the Lord, that they might here be happy, they attend to those who have committed crimes having what they themselves desired to have; and their feet fail, and they cease to hope. Why? Because they did not begin to hope from the morning watch. What is this? They did not begin to hope from the Lord that which went before in the Lord from that morning watch: but they hoped from the Lord that, if they were Christians, they would have a house full of grain, wine, oil, silver, gold; that none of them would die untimely; that if anyone had no sons, he would receive them; if he had not taken a wife, he would take one; that not only no woman in his house would miscarry, but not even his cattle; that his casks would not turn sour, that his vineyard would not be struck by hail. He who so hoped in the Lord notices that those who do not worship the Lord abound in these things, and his feet fail (See Ps 73:2 (72:2)), and he does not hope until night; because he did not begin to hope from the morning watch.

9. Who, then, begins thus to hope from the morning watch? He who hopes from the Lord that which he began to show from the morning watch in which he rose. For before, no one had risen to live forever. Let your charity attend. The dead were raised before the coming of the Lord: for Elijah too raised a dead man (See 1 Kgs 17:21-22), and Elisha (See 2 Kgs 4:34-35); but they rose again to die again. Those whom the Lord himself raised rose to die again; whether that young man, the widow's son (See Luke 7:14-15), or that girl of twelve years, the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue (See Mark 5:41-42), or Lazarus (See Jn 11:43-44): they were raised otherwise, all to die again; once they were born, but twice they died. No one had risen never to die, except the Lord. But when did the Lord rise never to die? From the morning watch. Hope this too from the Lord, that you will rise, not as Lazarus rose, not as the widow's son and the ruler of the synagogue's daughter rose, not as those whom the ancient prophets raised; but hope that you will rise as the Lord did, so that after the resurrection by which you will have risen, you may no longer fear that you will die: and you have begun to hope from the morning watch.

10. But hope until night, until this life is finished, until there is the night of the whole human race at the setting of the world. Why until this point? Because after this night there will no longer be hope, but the reality itself. For hope which is seen is not hope, the apostle says: for what a man sees, why does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we await it through patience (Rom 8:24-25). If, then, we ought patiently to await what we do not see, let us hope until night, that is, until the end of this our life or of the world. But when this night has passed, then will come what we hoped for; and we will no longer hope, nor yet will we be in despair. For there is a reproach of those who despair, and sometimes we detest a man, and say: He has no hope. It is not always evil to have no hope. While we are in this life, it is evil to have no hope; for he who now has no hope will afterward have no reality. So now we ought to have hope. But when the reality has come, will there be hope? For what a man sees, why does he hope for it? The Lord our God will come, first to show to the human race that very form in which he was crucified and rose again, that the devout and the impious may see it: let the devout see, and rejoice that they have found what they believed before they saw; and let the impious blush that they did not believe what they will see. Blushing, they will be condemned, and rejoicing, they will be crowned. To the confounded it will be said: Go into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels; to those rejoicing it will be said: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matt 25:41, 34): which when they have received, there will no longer be hope, because the reality will be held. So, hope being done with, that night will pass; but until that comes to pass, from the morning watch let our soul hope in the Lord.

11. And he returns to this: From the morning watch let Israel hope in the Lord. From the morning watch even until night, my soul has hoped in the Lord. But what has he hoped? From the morning watch let Israel hope in the Lord. Not only let Israel hope in the Lord, but, from the morning watch let Israel hope. Do I, then, find fault with the hope of the world, when one hopes from God? No; but there is another hope proper to Israel. Let not Israel hope, as its highest good, for riches, not for health of body, not for an abundance of earthly things: rather, he is to have tribulation here, if perhaps it happens to him to suffer some troubles for the sake of the truth. For the martyrs did not fail to hope in God, and yet they suffered such things as robbers, as the wicked, suffer: thrown to beasts, burned with fires, struck with the sword, torn with claws, bound with chains, killed in prison—suffering all these evils, did they not hope in the Lord? or did they hope for this, that, lacking these evils, they might enjoy this life? Not at all; because they hoped from the morning watch. What is this? They considered that morning watch in which their Lord rose, and saw that before he rose he too had suffered such things as they were suffering, and they did not despair that they too, after such sufferings, would rise to eternal life. Israel has hoped in the Lord, from the morning watch even until night.

12. [vv. 7-8.] Because with the Lord is mercy, and with him is plentiful redemption (Ps 130:7 (129:7)). Magnificently! it could not be better said in its place, on account of what he said: From the morning watch let Israel hope in the Lord. Why? Because from the morning watch the Lord rose; and the body ought to hope this, which went before in the head. But lest this thought be suggested: It was allowed to the head to rise, because it was not pressed down by sins, there was no sin in it; what shall we do? Shall we hope for such a resurrection as went before in the Lord, when we are weighed down by our sins? But see what follows: Because with the Lord is mercy, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he himself will redeem Israel from all his iniquities (Ps 130:7-8 (129:7-8)). So if he was pressed down by his own sins, the mercy of God is at hand. For that one went before without sin, in order to blot out the sins of those who follow. Do not presume upon yourselves, but presume from the morning watch. See your head risen and ascended into heaven. In him there was no fault, but through him your faults will be blotted out: He himself will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Because Israel could sell himself, and become sold under sin; he cannot redeem himself from his iniquities. He could redeem who could not sell himself: he who committed no sin, he himself is the redeemer from sin. He himself will redeem Israel. Whence will he redeem? From this iniquity, or from that? From all his iniquities. So let one about to come to God not fear some of his iniquities: let him only come with a full heart, and now cease to do what he formerly did, and not say: That iniquity is not forgiven me. For if he says this, on account of that very thing which he thinks is not forgiven him, he does not convert himself, and by doing the rest, even that which he did not fear is not forgiven him. Because I have committed, he says, a great crime, and it cannot be forgiven me; I will now do the rest too: for I lose this, that I do not do it. Do not fear: you are in the depth, do not despise to cry out of the depths to the Lord, and to say: If you mark iniquities, O Lord; Lord, who will endure it? Mark him, and wait for him, and endure for the sake of his law. What law did he give you? Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. Hope that you will rise, and then be in every way without sin, since he rose who was first without sin. Hope from the morning watch. Do not say: I am not worthy on account of my sins. You are not worthy; but with him is plentiful redemption, and he himself will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Exposition of Psalm 131

1. In this psalm there is commended to us the humility of the servant of God, the faithful one, in whose voice it is sung—which is the whole body of Christ. For we have often admonished your charity that it should not be taken as the voice of one man singing, but of all who are in the body of Christ. And because all are in his body, he speaks as one man: and he is one who is also many. For they are many in themselves, they are one in him who is one. But this is also the temple of God, of which the apostle says: For the temple of God is holy, which you are (1 Cor 3:17); all who believe in Christ, and so believe as to love. For this is to believe in Christ, to love Christ: not as the demons believed (See Jas 2:19), but did not love; and therefore, although they believed, they said: What have we to do with you, Son of God? (Matt 8:29) But let us so believe as to believe in him, loving him, and let us not say: What have we to do with you? but rather let us say: We belong to you; you have redeemed us. So all who so believe are like living stones, of which the temple of God is built (See 1 Pet 2:5); and like the imperishable wood of which that ark was framed, which could not be submerged in the flood (See Gen 6:14). But this is the temple, that is, the men themselves, where God is asked and hears. For whoever prays to God outside the temple of God is not heard unto that peace of the heavenly Jerusalem, even if he is heard unto certain temporal things, which God has granted even to the pagans. For the demons too were heard, that they might go into the swine (See Matt 8:31-32). To be heard unto eternal life is another thing, and is granted only to him who prays in the temple of God. But he prays in the temple of God who prays in the peace of the Church, in the unity of the body of Christ; which body of Christ consists of many believers throughout the whole world: and therefore he is heard who prays in the temple. For he prays in spirit and in truth who prays in the peace of the Church; not in that temple where there was a figure (See Jn 4:23-24).

2. For according to the figure the Lord cast out of the temple those men who were seeking their own things, that is, who went into the temple for selling and buying (See Jn 2:14-16). But if that temple was a figure, it is plain that the body of Christ too, which is the true temple of which that was the image, has mingled in it buyers and sellers, that is, those seeking their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ (See Phil 2:21). But they are cast out from there by the scourge of cords. For the cord signifies sins, as it is said through the prophet: Woe to those who drag sins as a long rope (Isa 5:18). But those drag sins like a long rope who add sins to sins; who, when they have committed one sin, in order to cover it, commit another. For just as, that a rope may be made, fiber is added to fiber, and it does not go straight, but is twisted: so all crooked deeds, which are sins, when they are added to one another, and sin upon sin, and sin is knotted to sin, a long rope is made. Of these the paths are crooked, and their steps winding (See Prov 2:15). But what is that rope good for, except that by it the hands and feet of each one may be bound, and he be cast into the outer darkness? For you remember that it was said of a certain sinner in the Gospel: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 22:13). There would be nothing with which his hands and feet might be bound, unless he himself had made the rope for himself. Whence most plainly it is written in another place: Each one is bound by the cords of his own sins (Prov 5:22). So because men are flogged by their own sins, therefore the Lord made a scourge of cords, and with it drove out of the temple all who were seeking their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ (See Phil 2:21).

3. So it is the voice of this temple in the Psalm. In this temple, as I said, God is asked, and hears in spirit and in truth; not in that bodily temple. For there was a shadow there, in which might be shown what was to come: therefore that has now fallen. Has, then, the house of our prayer fallen? Far from it. For that temple which fell could not be called this house of prayer, of which it was said: My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations (Isa 56:7). For you heard what the Lord Jesus Christ said: It is written: My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations; but you have made it a den of robbers (Matt 21:13). Did those who wished to make the house of God a den of robbers bring it about that the temple should collapse? So too those who live badly in the Catholic Church, as far as in them lies, wish to make the house of God a den of robbers; nor do they thereby overthrow the temple. For the time will come when, by the rope of their own sins, they are cast outside. But this temple of God, this body of Christ, this congregation of the faithful has one voice, and as one man sings in the Psalm. We have already heard his voice in many psalms; let us hear it in this one too. If we wish, it is our voice; if we wish, with the ear we hear him singing, and we sing with the heart. But if we do not wish, we will be in that temple like buyers and sellers, that is, seeking our own things: we enter the Church, not for the things that please the eyes of God. Let each one in your number see how he hears, whether he hears and mocks, whether he hears and casts it behind him, whether he hears and is in harmony, that is, perceives here his own voice, and joins the voice of his heart to the voice of this psalm. Yet the voice of this psalm is not silent; let those be instructed who can, rather who wish; let those who do not wish not hinder. Let humility be commended to us; from there it began.

4. [v. 1.] O Lord, my heart is not exalted (Ps 131:1 (130:1)). He offered a sacrifice. Whence do we prove that he offered a sacrifice? Because humility of heart is a sacrifice. It is said in another psalm: For if you had wished a sacrifice, I would surely have given it (Ps 51:16 (50:18)). He wished to make satisfaction enough to God for his sins, he wished to propitiate him, that he might receive pardon for his sins: and, as though seeking how to propitiate him: If you had wished, he says, a sacrifice, I would surely have given it; in holocausts you will not delight. So in vain he was seeking either rams, or bulls, or some such victim, with which God might be appeased. What then? because God does not delight in holocausts, does he not receive a sacrifice, and is appeased without sacrifice? If there is no sacrifice, there is no priest. But if we have a priest in heaven, who intercedes for us with the Father (for he entered into the holy of holies, within the veil, where the priest in the figure did not enter except once a year, as the Lord too in all time was offered once. He offered himself, he the priest, he the victim, and entered into the holy of holies once, and now he dies no more, nor will death have dominion over him any longer), we are secure, because we have a Priest; there let us offer a victim (See Heb 9:7, 11-12, 24-28; Rom 6:9). Let us see what sacrifice we ought to offer; because our God does not delight in holocausts, as you heard in the psalm. But there it follows and shows what he offers: A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit: a contrite and humbled heart God does not spurn (Ps 51:17 (50:19)). If, then, a humbled heart is a sacrifice to God, he offered a sacrifice who said: O Lord, my heart is not exalted. See in another place one offering thus: he says to God: See my humility and my labor, and forgive all my sins (Ps 25:18 (24:18)).

5. O Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lifted up on high; nor have I walked in great things, nor in wonders above me (Ps 131:1 (130:1)). Let this be said more plainly, and be heard. I was not proud, I did not wish to become known to men as it were in wonders; nor did I seek anything above my strength, whereby I might boast among the unskilled. Let your charity attend; a great thing is commended. As that Simon the magician wished to walk in wonders above himself, therefore the power of the apostles delighted him more than the justice of Christians. But when he saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands and through their prayers God gave the Holy Spirit to the faithful; and because then by a miracle the coming of the Holy Spirit was shown, so that all upon whom the Holy Spirit came spoke with tongues which they had not learned (nor is the Holy Spirit not now given because those who believe do not speak with tongues. For then it was necessary that they should speak with tongues, to signify that all tongues would believe in Christ. When what was signified was fulfilled, the miracle was taken away): when, then, Simon saw this, he wished to do such things, not to be such; and you know that he even thought the Holy Spirit could be bought with money. So he was of those who enter the temple to buy and sell; he wished to buy what he was arranging to sell: and truly, my brothers, because he was such, he had so entered to them. The Lord cast out of the temple those who were selling doves; but the dove signifies the Holy Spirit: so Simon wished to buy the dove, and to sell the dove; the Lord Jesus Christ came, who dwelt in Peter, and with the scourge of cords cast out the evil merchant (See Acts 8:13-23).

6. So there are men whom it delights to work miracles, and they demand a miracle from those who have made progress in the Church; and they themselves who seem to themselves to have made progress wish to do such things, and think they do not belong to God if they do not do them. But our Lord God, who knows what to grant to whom, and that the framework of the body may be kept in peace, addresses the Church through the apostle: The eye cannot say to the hand: I have no need of you; or again the head to the feet: I have no need of you. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? if the whole body were hearing, where would be the smelling? (1 Cor 12:21, 17) So in our members, brothers, you see how the individual members have their own office. The eye sees, and does not hear; the ear hears, and does not see; the hand works, and neither hears nor sees; the foot walks, and neither hears nor sees, nor does what the hand does. But in one body, if there is health, and the members do not quarrel among themselves, the ear sees in the eye, the eye hears in the ear; nor can it be objected to the ear that it does not see, so that it be said to it: You are nothing, you are lesser; can you see and distinguish colors, which the eye does? For the ear answers from the peace of the body, and says: I am where the eye is, I am in that body; in myself I do not see, in him with whom I am I see. So when the ear says: The eye sees for me; the eye says: The ear hears for me; the eyes and ears say: The hands work for us; the hands say: The eyes and ears see and hear for us: the eyes and ears and hands say: The feet walk for us: when all in one body work, if there is health there and the members are in harmony, they rejoice and rejoice together with one another. And if there is some trouble in any member, they do not desert one another, but suffer together with one another (See 1 Cor 12:26). Is it the case that, because in the body the foot seems as it were far from the eyes (for they are placed on high, while it is placed below), when perhaps the foot has trodden on a thorn, the eyes desert it; and is it not the case, as we see, that the whole body is contracted, and the man sits down, the spine of the back is curved, that the thorn which has stuck in the sole may be sought? All the members do what they can, that from the lowest and tiny place the thorn which had stuck may be drawn out. So then, brothers, whoever in the body of Christ cannot raise a dead man, let him not seek that, but let him seek not to be in discord in the body; just as, if the ear should seek to see, it can be in discord. For what it has not received, it cannot do. But if it should be objected and said to him: If you were just, you would raise a dead man, as Peter raised one. For in Christ the apostles seem to have done greater things than the Lord himself (See Jn 14:12). But whence can it be that the branches are worth more than the root? But how do those seem to have done as it were greater things than he? At the voice of the Lord the dead rose, at the shadow of the passing Peter a dead man rose (See Acts 5:15). This seems greater than that. But Christ could do it without Peter, Peter could not except in Christ: For without me, he says, you can do nothing (Jn 15:5). So when a man who makes progress hears this, as it were a slander objected by ignorant pagans, by men not knowing what they say; let him answer in the framework of the body of Christ and say: You who say: You are not just, because you do not work miracles; you could also say to the ear: You are not in the body, because you do not see. You too, he says, would do as Peter also did. But Peter did it also for me, because I am in that body in which Peter did it: in him I can do what he can do, from whom I am not divided; what I can do less, he suffers with me, and what he can do more, I rejoice together with him. The Lord himself cried out from above for his body: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4) and no one was touching him, but for his body laboring on earth the head cried out from heaven.

7. If, then, brothers, each one acts justly in what he can, and does not envy in that which another can do more, but rejoices with him as one set with him in one body, that voice of the Psalm belongs to him: O Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lifted up on high; nor have I walked in great things, nor in wonders above me. For what exceeded my strength, he says, I did not seek, I did not stretch myself out there, I did not wish to be magnified there. For how to be feared is this exaltation from an abundance of graces, lest anyone grow proud over the gift of God, but rather keep humility, and do what is written: The greater you are, the more humble yourself in all things, and before God you will find grace (Sir 3:18): how to be feared, then, is pride over the gift of God, must again and again be commended to your charity, especially because the very brief psalm permits us to speak. The apostle Paul, although from a persecutor he became a preacher, obtained a more abundant grace in all apostolic labor than the other apostles, that God might the more show that what he gives is his, not man's. As physicians are accustomed to show the power of their art in desperate cases: so the Lord Jesus Christ, our physician and savior, in a desperate case, in one who had been a persecutor of the Church, showed the greatness of his art, so that he not only made him a Christian, but also an apostle; nor only an apostle, but, as he himself says, made him labor more than all those others (See 1 Cor 15:10). So he was of most excellent grace. And you see, brothers, that now in the Church the Letters of the apostle Paul flourish more than those of his fellow apostles. For the others did not write, but only spoke in the Church: for the things that are brought forward by those who err under their name, because they are not theirs, are disapproved, nor are they accepted by the Church. But the others who did write, neither wrote so much, nor with such great grace. Since, then, he was of great grace, and had deserved great gifts from God, what does he say in a certain place? On account of the greatness of the revelations, lest I be exalted. Attend, I tell you a fearful thing: On account of the greatness, he says, of the revelations, lest I be exalted, there was given to me a thorn of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me (2 Cor 12:7). What is this, brothers? Lest he be exalted as a young man, he was buffeted as a child. And by whom? By an angel of Satan. What is this? He is handed over, vehemently driven by a certain bodily pain: but bodily pains are very often sent by the angels of Satan; but they cannot do this unless permitted. For holy Job too was thus tested. Satan was permitted to test him, and struck him with a wound, so that he rotted with worms (See Job 2:7). For the unclean one was permitted, but the holy one was being tested. The devil does not know how many good things come about from him, even when he rages. Raging, he entered the heart of Judas; raging, he handed over Christ; raging, he crucified him; and, Christ being crucified, the whole world was redeemed. Behold, the savagery of the devil harmed the devil, but profited us. For by raging, he lost those whom he held, redeemed by the blood of the Lord, which, while he raged, he poured out. If he knew that he would suffer such great loss, he would not pour out on the earth the price by which the human race was redeemed. So then that angel of Satan was as it were willingly permitted to buffet the apostle; but yet the apostle was being cured. And because that which the physician had applied was troublesome to the sick man, he asked the physician to take it away. As when the physician applies to the inward parts some strong, troublesome, and burning poultice, by which yet he is to be cured whose inward parts were swollen; when the man has begun to burn and be tormented by the medicine, he asks the physician to take it away: but the physician consoles him, admonishes him to patience, because he knows how useful is what he has applied. So too the apostle goes on and says, when he had said: There was given to me a thorn of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me. And he said beforehand why: Lest I be exalted by the greatness of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me. On account of which I asked the Lord three times, he says, that he would take it from me (2 Cor 12:7-8). This is to say: I asked the physician to take from me the troublesome poultice which he had applied to me. But hear the voice of the physician: And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for you; for strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9). I know what I have applied, I know whence you are sick, I know whence you are healed.

8. If, then, dearly beloved, the apostle Paul could be exalted by the greatness of the revelations, unless he received an angel of Satan to buffet him; who can be secure about himself? He seems to walk more safely who has received less, provided he does not perversely seek what he has rightly not received: let him seek that without which he cannot be in the body of Christ, or without which it goes badly with him there. For a healthy finger is safer in the body than a bleary eye. The finger is a tiny thing; the eye is a magnificent thing, it can do much: and yet it is better to be a finger and be healthy, than to be an eye and be disturbed, bleary, blinded. So let no one seek in the body of Christ anything but health. According to health let him have faith; from faith his heart is cleansed, from the cleansing of the heart he will see that face of which it was said: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). And both he who has worked miracles, and he who has not worked miracles in the body of Christ, ought to rejoice in nothing but the face of God. The apostles returned, and said to the Lord, when they had been sent by the Lord: Behold, Lord, in your name even the demons are subject to us (Luke 10:17). The Lord saw that pride from the power of miracles might tempt them; and he who had come as a physician to heal our swellings and to bear our weaknesses, at once said: Do not rejoice in this, that the demons are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). Not all good Christians cast out demons; yet the names of all are written in heaven. He did not wish them to rejoice in that which they had as their own, but in that in which they held salvation along with the rest: he wished the apostles to rejoice in that in which you too rejoice. Let your charity attend. No one of the faithful has hope, if his name is not written in heaven. The names of all the faithful who love Christ, who walk his way humbly, which he himself, humble, taught, are written in heaven. Of anyone, however contemptible in the Church, who believes in Christ, and loves Christ, and loves the peace of Christ, the name is written in heaven; of anyone whom you despise. And what is there like between him and the apostles, who worked such great miracles? And yet the apostles are restrained from rejoicing in their own good, and are bidden to rejoice in that in which that contemptible man too rejoices.

9. [v. 2.] Not undeservedly, my brothers, with this humility he says: O Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lifted up on high; nor have I walked in great things, nor in wonders above me. If I did not think humbly, but exalted my soul; as one weaned from milk upon his mother, so be the recompense in my soul (Ps 131:1-2 (130:1-2)). For he seems to have bound himself, as it were, with a curse. As in another place in a psalm he says: O Lord my God, if I have done this; if there is iniquity in my hands, if I have repaid with evil those who repaid me, let me deservedly fall empty before my enemies (Ps 7:3-4 (7:4-5)), and the rest: so he seems to have said here too: If I did not think humbly, but exalted my soul. Go on; as though he were to say: Let that befall me. As there too: If I have repaid with evil those who repaid me, let that befall me; what? Let me deservedly fall empty before my enemies: so here too: If I did not think humbly, but exalted my soul; as one weaned from milk upon his mother, so be the recompense in my soul. Attend. You know that to certain weak ones the apostle says: I gave you milk to drink, not food: for you were not yet able; but neither are you able even now (1 Cor 3:2). There are weak ones who are not fit for strong food; they wish to stretch themselves to that which they cannot grasp: and if they have begun somehow to grasp something, or have seemed to themselves to grasp what they did not grasp, they are exalted by it, and grow proud by it; they seem to themselves to be, as it were, wise. But this befalls all heretics; who, being natural and carnal men, by defending their crooked opinions, which they could not see to be false, were shut out from the Catholic Church. I will tell your charity what I can. Our Lord Jesus Christ, you know, is the Word of God, according to that saying of John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: this was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing (Jn 1:1-3). So he is bread; from him the angels live. Behold, bread is prepared for you; but grow from milk, that you may come to bread. And how, you say, do I grow from milk? What Christ became for your weakness, this first believe, and hold firmly. As, then, a mother, when she sees her son less fit to take food, gives him those very foods, but passed through her own flesh: for it is the same bread by which the infant is fed, by which his mother too is fed; but for the table the infant is less fit, for the breast he is fit. So the bread from the table is passed through the mother's breast, that thus the same nourishment may reach the little infant. So our Lord Jesus Christ, when he was the Word with the Father, through whom all things were made; who, though he was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal to God (See Phil 2:6); such as the angels might grasp after their own measure, and on whom in heaven the Powers and Virtues, the intellectual spirits, might feed; but man, weak and wrapped in flesh, lay on the earth, nor could the heavenly bread reach him: that man might eat the bread of angels (See Ps 78:25 (77:25)), and the manna might come down to a truer people of Israel: The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14).

10. Wherefore to these very weak ones, whom he calls natural and carnal (See 1 Cor 3:1-3), the apostle Paul says this: Did I say that I knew anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified? (1 Cor 2:2) For Christ existed even not crucified: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1). And because that very Word was made flesh (Jn 1:14), that very Word was crucified: but it was not changed into man; man was changed in him. Man was changed in him, that he might become better than he was, not that he might be turned into the very substance of the Word. So through that which was man, God died; and through that which was God, man was raised up, and rose, and ascended into heaven. Whatever man suffered cannot be said not to have been suffered by God, because God was God by assuming man; but he was not changed into man: just as you cannot say that you did not suffer injury, if your garment is torn. And when you complain either to friends or in court, you say this to the judge: He has torn me: you do not say: He has torn my cloak; but: He has torn me. If your garment could and deserved to be called 'you,' which is not you, but your garment; how much more did the flesh of Christ, the temple of the Word united with the Word, deserve to hear that whatever it suffered in the flesh, God himself suffered: although the Word could neither die, nor be corrupted, nor be changed, nor be killed; but whatever of these was suffered, was suffered in the flesh? And do not wonder that the Word suffered nothing: not even the soul of a man can suffer anything when the flesh is killed, the Lord himself saying: Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul (Matt 10:28). If the soul cannot be killed, could the Word of God be killed? And yet what does he say? He scourged me, he buffeted me, he struck me, he tore me to pieces: none of this happens in the soul; and yet he says only, me, on account of the unity of that fellowship.

11. So our Lord Jesus Christ, the bread, made himself milk for us, becoming incarnate and appearing mortal; that in him death might be ended, and that we might not stray from the Word, believing in the flesh which the Word became. From this let us grow, let us be nourished by that very milk; before we are strong enough to grasp the Word, let us not depart from the faith of our milk. But those heretics, wishing to dispute about that which they could not grasp, said that the Son is less than the Father, and said that the Holy Spirit is less than the Son; and they made degrees, and brought into the Church three gods. For they cannot deny that the Father is God, nor can they deny that the Son is God, nor can they deny that the Holy Spirit is God. But if God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are unequal, and are not of the same substance; there is not one God, but three gods. So, disputing about what they could not grasp, they were lifted up into pride; and there came to pass in them what is said in this psalm: If I did not think humbly, but exalted my soul; as one weaned from milk upon his mother, so be the recompense in my soul. For the mother is the Church of God, from which they were separated: there they ought to have been suckled and nourished, that they might grow to grasp the Word, God with God, in the form of God equal to the Father.

12. There was seen here, indeed, by those who treated these things before us, another opinion too, and another understanding in these words, which I will not pass over in silence to your charity. For they said this: Every proud man displeases God, and the human soul ought to humble itself, lest it displease God, and with its whole heart to look upon what was said: The greater you are, the more humble yourself in all things, and before God you will find grace (Sir 3:18). But again there are certain men who, when they have heard that they ought to be humble, let themselves go, wish to learn nothing, thinking that if they learn anything they will be proud; and they remain in milk alone. These Scripture reproves, saying: And you have become such as need milk, not solid food (Heb 5:12). For God wishes us to be so nourished by milk that we do not remain there; but, growing through milk, that we may come to solid food. So a man ought not to lift up his heart into pride, but ought to raise it into the doctrine of the word of God. For if the soul were not to be raised, it would not be said in another voice of a psalm: To you, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul (Ps 25:1 (24:1)). And unless the soul pours itself out above itself, it does not come to the vision of God, and to the knowledge of his unchangeable substance. For now, while it is still in the flesh, it is said to it: Where is your God? (Ps 42:3 (41:4)) But its God is within, and is spiritually within, and is spiritually on high; not as it were by intervals of place, as by intervals certain places are higher. For if such a height is to be sought, the birds surpass us toward God. So God is high within, and spiritually high; nor does the soul come to touch him, unless it passes beyond itself. For whatever you think of God according to the body, you greatly err. You are much an infant, if you think of God, even according to the human soul, that God either forgets, or is so wise as to become foolish, or does something and repents of it: for all these things are set down in the Scriptures, that God might be commended to us who are sucklings; not that we should hear these things of him in the proper sense, and understand as though God repents, and now learns something he did not know, and understands what he did not understand, and remembers what he had forgotten. For such things belong to the soul, not to God. Unless, then, it passes beyond even the measure of its own soul, it will not see that God is what is; who said: I am who am (Exod 3:14). And so that man to whom it was said: Where is your God, what did he say? My tears have been my bread day and night, while it is said to me daily: Where is your God? But that he might find his God, what did he do? These things I meditated, he says, and I poured out my soul above myself (Ps 42:4 (41:5)). That he might find God, he poured out his soul above himself. So it is not said to you thus: Be humble, so that you may not be wise. Be humble, on account of pride; be high, on account of wisdom. Hear a clear sentence on this matter: Do not be made children in your minds; but in malice be infants, that in your minds you may be perfect (1 Cor 14:20). Surely it is explained, my brothers, where God wished us to be humble, where high: humble, for the avoiding of pride; high, for the grasping of wisdom. Take milk, that you may be nourished; be so nourished, that you may grow; grow so, that you may eat bread. For when you have begun to eat bread, you will be weaned, that is, you will no longer need milk, but solid food. And he seems to have said this: If I did not think humbly, but exalted my soul; that is, if I was not in mind, but in malice, a little child. Signifying this, he said the foregoing words: O Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lifted up on high; nor have I walked in great things, nor in wonders above me. Behold, that in malice I was a little child. But because in understanding I was not a little child: If I did not think humbly, but exalted my soul; let there be recompensed to me what is recompensed to the little child who is weaned from his mother, that I may now be fit to eat bread.

13. And this opinion too, then, brothers, does not displease, because it is not against the faith. Yet it moves me, that it was said not only: As one weaned from milk, so be the recompense in my soul; but it was added: As one weaned from milk upon his mother, so be the recompense in my soul. Here something or other of this kind occurs to me, so that I see that it is a curse. For he is weaned not as an infant, but as one already somewhat grown: but he who is weak in earliest infancy, which is true infancy, is upon his mother; if perhaps he is weaned from the milk, he is destroyed. So not in vain was it added, upon his mother. For all can be weaned by growing. He who grows, and so is weaned, it is good for him; but he who is still upon his mother, it is destructive. So, brothers, we must take care and fear lest anyone be weaned before the time. For every grown child is separated from milk. But let no one be separated from milk then, when he is still upon his mother. But when he is carried in his mother's hands, who was carried in the womb (for he was carried in the womb, that he might be born; he is carried in the hands, that he might grow), he needs milk; he is still upon his mother. So let him not wish then to exalt his soul, when perhaps he is less fit to grasp food, but let him fulfill the precepts of humility. He has where to exercise himself: let him believe in Christ, that he may be able to understand Christ. He cannot see the Word, he cannot grasp the equality of the Word with the Father, the equality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Word he cannot yet see; let him believe this, and suck. He is secure, because when he has grown, he will eat what he could not before he grew by sucking: and he has where to stretch himself. Do not seek things higher than you, and do not search out things stronger than you (Sir 3:21); that is, things which you are less fit to grasp. And what shall I do, you say? shall I remain thus? But the things that the Lord has commanded you, think on those always (See Sir 3:22). What has the Lord commanded you? Do mercy, do not abandon the peace of the Church, do not put hope in man, do not tempt God by desiring miracles. If there is already fruit in you, you recognize that with the good you endure the weeds until the harvest (See Matt 13:30); that with the evil you can be for a time, not forever. The chaff is here mingled with you for this time on the threshing floor; in the barn it will not be with you. These things which the Lord has commanded you, think on those always. You will not be separated from milk as long as you are upon your mother; lest you die of hunger before you are fit to eat bread. Grow; your strength will be strong, and you will see what you could not, and grasp what you did not grasp.

14. What then? when I have seen what I could not see, and grasped what I could not grasp, will I now be secure? will I be perfect? No, as long as you live here. This is our perfection, humility. You heard with what the apostolic reading just now concluded, if it stuck in your memory; how that man who received the buffet, lest he be exalted in the revelations on account of the very greatness of the revelations, because he could be exalted unless he received an angel of Satan: and yet he to whom such great things were revealed, what does he say? Brothers, I do not consider that I myself have laid hold (Phil 3:13). Paul says: Brothers, I do not consider that I myself have laid hold; he who for this received the angel of Satan buffeting him, lest he be exalted in the greatness of his revelations (See 2 Cor 12:7). Who dares to say that he has comprehended? Behold, Paul has not laid hold, and says: I do not consider that I have laid hold. And what do you say, O Paul? I still run, he says, that I may lay hold. Is Paul still on the way, and do you think yourself in the homeland? But one thing, he says, forgetting the things that are behind. Do this too, and forget your past evil life. If vanity once delighted you, let it not delight you. Forgetting the things that are behind, he says, stretched out toward the things that are before, according to my intention I follow toward the palm of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:13-14). I hear the voice of God from above, and I run that I may lay hold. For he did not let me remain on the way, because he does not cease to address me. So, brothers, God does not cease to address us. For if he ceases, what is it that we are doing? what is it that the divine readings and the divine songs are doing? So forget the things that are behind, and stretch yourselves out toward the things that are before. Suck the milk in such a way that you grow toward food. When, then, you have come to the homeland, you will rejoice. And still attend to the apostle following toward the palm of the heavenly calling. For he says: As many of us, then, as are perfect, let us be of this mind. I do not speak, he says, to the imperfect, to whom I cannot yet speak wisdom, who are still given milk to drink, not fed with solid food; but I speak to those who already eat solid food. They now seem to be perfect, because they understand the equality of the Word with the Father: yet they do not yet see as it is to be seen, face to face; still in part, in a riddle (See 1 Cor 13:12). So let them run, because when the way is finished, then we return to the homeland: let them run, let them stretch themselves out. As many of us, then, as are perfect, let us be of this mind; and if you are of any other mind in anything, this too God will reveal to you (Phil 3:15). If perhaps you err in something, why do you not return to the milk of your mother? Because if you are not exalted, if you do not exalt your heart, if you do not walk in wonders above you, but keep humility, God will reveal to you that in which you are of another mind. But if this very thing in which you are of another mind you wish to defend, and obstinately to maintain, and against the peace of the Church; there comes upon you this curse which he spoke: when you are upon your mother and are separated from the milk outside, you will die of hunger outside the womb of your mother. But if you persevere in Catholic peace, if perhaps you are of another mind than you ought to be, God will reveal it to you who are humble. Why? Because God resists the proud, but to the humble he gives grace (See Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5).

15. [v. 3.] Therefore for this the psalm concluded: Let Israel hope in the Lord, from this time now and forevermore (Ps 131:3 (130:3)). For what is written in Greek, heos tou aionos, is rendered, from this time now and forevermore. But the word 'age' (saeculum) does not always signify this present age, but sometimes eternity; because 'eternal' is understood in two ways; 'unto eternity,' that is, either always without end, or until we come to eternity. So how is it to be understood here? Until we come to eternity, let us hope in the Lord God; because when we have come to eternity, there will no longer be hope, but the reality itself will be.

Exposition of Psalm 132

1. [vv. 1-2.] It would indeed have been just, dearly beloved, that we should rather hear my brother and colleague, present to us all. And now he did not refuse, but deferred it: and so I make this known to your charity, that you may hold him to his promise along with me. But it was not unreasonable to your charity that I should be the first to obey his bidding: for he forced me to be now his hearer, on this condition indeed, that I too be his, since in that very love we are all his hearers, who is the one Master in heaven for us (See Matt 23:8-10). So apply your mind to the Psalm, which, as you know, we have to treat in order. It too is headed A Song of ascents; and somewhat longer than the others under the same title. So let us not delay, except where necessity compels; that we may be able, if the Lord permits, to expound the whole. For you too ought not to hear everything as though untaught; you ought to help us somewhat from past hearings, that it not be necessary for everything to be said by us as though new. And new indeed we ought to be, because oldness ought not to creep upon us; but we must also grow and make progress. For of this very progress the apostle says: Even though our outer man is corrupted, yet the inner is renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:16). Let us not so make progress that from new we become old, but let the newness itself grow.

2. Remember, O Lord, David, and all his meekness. As he swore to the Lord, vowed a vow to the God of Jacob (Ps 132:1-2 (131:1-2)). David, according to the truth of the things done, was one man, king of Israel, the son of Jesse. He was indeed meek, as the divine Scripture shows and commends him, and so meek that he did not repay even his persecutor Saul evil for evil. And he kept toward him such great humility that he confessed him to be the king, but himself a dog: and not insolently nor proudly, though he was more powerful in God, did he answer the king; but he sought rather to appease him by humility than to provoke him by pride. Saul too was given into his power, and this by the Lord God, that he might do to him whatever he wished: but because it had not been commanded him to kill, but he had only been given into his power (and it is allowed a man to use his own power); he turned what God had granted him rather to gentleness. For if he wished to kill, he would be rid of his enemy: but how would he say: Forgive me my debts, as I also forgive my debtors (See Matt 6:12)? Saul entered the cave where David was, not knowing that David was there: he entered for the needs of the belly. David rose gently and slowly behind him, cut off a little piece from his garment, that he might show it to him, that he might know that he had had him in his power; and that he had spared him not from necessity, but from will, and had been unwilling to kill him (See 1 Sam 24:3-11). Perhaps it is that very meekness he commended just now, saying: Remember, O Lord, David, and all his meekness. This according to the truth of the things done, which the divine Scripture, as we said, contains. But we are accustomed in the Psalms not to attend to the letter, as in all prophecy, but through the letter to search out mysteries. And your charity remembers that we are accustomed to hear in all the Psalms the voice of a certain man; who is one having a head and a body. But the head is in heaven, the body on earth: but where the head has gone before, the body too is to follow. And I no longer say who is the head, who are the body; because I speak to those who know.

3. So the humility of David is commended, the meekness of David is commended; and it is said to God: Remember, O Lord, David, and all his meekness. For what purpose remember, O Lord, David? As he swore to the Lord, vowed a vow to the God of Jacob. So remember for this, that he may fulfill what he promised. David himself vowed as though having it in his power, and asks God to fulfill what he vowed: there is the devotion of one vowing, but there is the humility of one praying. Let no one presume by his own strength to render what he has vowed: he who exhorts you to vow, he himself helps you to render. So let us see what he vowed, and from this we understand how David is to be taken in the figure. Now 'David' is interpreted 'Strong in hand.' For he was a great warrior. Presuming indeed upon the Lord his God, he finished all his wars, laid low all his enemies, with God helping him, as the dispensation of that kingdom required; yet prefiguring a certain one strong in hand for warring down the enemies, the devil and his angels. But these enemies the Church wars down. And how does she war them down? By meekness. For by meekness our King himself conquered the devil. He raged; the other endured: he was conquered who raged; he conquered who endured. In this meekness the body of Christ, which is the Church, conquers its enemies. Let it be strong in hand, let it conquer by working. But since the body of Christ is both a temple, and a house, and a city; and he who is the head of the body is both the inhabitant of the house, and the sanctifier of the temple, and the king of the city: as the Church is all those, so Christ is all these. What, then, have we vowed to God, except that we be the temple of God? We can offer him nothing more pleasing than to say to him what is said in Isaiah: Possess us (See Isa 26:13). Indeed, in these earthly possessions it is the head of the household who is benefited, when the possession is given to him: not so is the possession which is the Church; the possession itself is benefited, that it be possessed by such a one.

4. [vv. 3-5] What, then, does he say: As he swore to the Lord, vowed a vow to the God of Jacob? Let us see what vow. To swear is to promise firmly. Attend to this vow, that is, what he had vowed, with what ardor he vowed it, with what love, with what longing; and yet, to fulfill it, he prayed to the Lord, saying: Remember, O Lord, David, and all his meekness. In this meekness he vowed a vow, that he might be the house of God: If I shall enter into the tabernacle of my house, if I shall go up onto the couch of my bed. If I shall give sleep to my eyes. It seemed too little to say, sleep to my eyes: And slumber to my eyelids; and rest to my temples (Ps 132:3-5 (131:3-5)), if I shall give them, until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. Where did he seek a place for the Lord? If he was meek, he sought it in himself. For what is the place of the Lord? Hear the prophet: Upon whom will my Spirit rest? Upon the humble, and quiet, and trembling at my words (Isa 66:2). Do you wish to be the place of the Lord? Be humble, and quiet, and trembling at the words of God, and you yourself will become what you seek. For if there is not done in you what you seek, what does it profit you in another? God indeed sometimes works through an evangelist only the salvation of another, if the evangelist says and does not do; and there comes to be, through his tongue, a place for the Lord in another, but he himself does not become a place for the Lord. But he who does well the things he teaches, and so teaches, becomes a place for the Lord together with the one whom he teaches: because all who believe make one place for the Lord. For the Lord has a place in the heart; because there is one heart of all who are joined in love.

5. How many thousands believed, my brothers, when they laid the prices of their goods at the feet of the apostles (See Acts 4:34-35)! But what does Scripture say of them? Surely they became the temple of God; not only the temple of God individually, but all of them together the temple of God. So they became a place for the Lord. And that you may know that one place was made for the Lord in them all, Scripture says: They had one soul and one heart toward God (Acts 4:32). But many, that they may not make a place for the Lord, seek their own things, love their own things, rejoice in their own power, covet their private property. But he who wishes to make a place for the Lord ought to rejoice not in the private, but in the common. This they did with their private goods; they made them common. What they had as their own, did they lose it? If they alone had it, and each one had his own; he would have only this, which he had as his own: but when he made common what was his own; the things too that were the others' became his own. Let your charity attend: because on account of those things which we possess individually, there arise lawsuits, enmities, discords, wars among men, tumults, dissensions against one another, scandals, sins, iniquities, murders. On account of what? On account of those very things which we possess individually. Do we quarrel on account of those things which we possess in common? This air we breathe in common, the sun we all see in common. Blessed, then, are those who so make a place for the Lord that they do not rejoice in their private property. So such a one he was describing, who said: If I shall enter into the tabernacle of my house. This was private. He knew that by the private he was hindered from making a place for the Lord, and he mentions the things that belonged to himself: I will not enter into the tabernacle of my house, until I find: what? when you have found a place for the Lord, will you enter into your tabernacle? Or will that very place be your tabernacle, where you have found a place for the Lord? Why? Because you yourself will be the place of the Lord, and with those who will be a place for the Lord, you will be one.

6. Let us, then, brothers, abstain from the possession of private property; or from the love of it, if we cannot from the possession; and we make a place for the Lord. It is much for me, someone says. But see who you are, about to make a place for the Lord. If some senator wished to have lodging at your house—I do not say a senator, but the procurator of some great man according to the world—and said: Something in your house offends me; even if you loved this thing, you would yet take it away, that you might not offend him, for whose friendship you were striving. And what does the friendship of a man profit you? Perhaps there you would find not only no help, but even danger. For many were not in danger before they were joined to the great; they longed for the friendships of the great, only to run into greater dangers. Securely long for the friendship of Christ: he wishes to lodge with you; make a place for him. What is, make a place for him? Do not love yourself, love him. If you love yourself, you shut yourself against him; if you love him, you open to him: but if you open and he enters, you will not perish by loving yourself, but you will be found with the one who loves you.

7. If I shall enter into the tabernacle of my house, if I shall go up onto the couch of my bed. For the private property itself, where a man rests, makes men proud; therefore he said: If I shall go up. In the thing which each one possesses as private, it must be that he is proud: for from it a man stretches himself against another man, when both are flesh. What is man, brothers? Flesh. And what is another man? Other flesh. And yet the rich flesh stretches itself against the poor flesh; as though that flesh brought anything when it was born, or took anything away when it dies. To this end it had more, that it might swell more. But this man who wishes to find a place for the Lord says: If I shall go up onto the couch of my bed.

8. If I shall give sleep to my eyes. For many, when they sleep, do not make a place for the Lord. Such the apostle rouses: Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead; and Christ will give you light (Eph 5:14); and in another place: But let us who are of the day be sober and watchful: for those who sleep, sleep by night; and those who are drunk, are drunk by night (1 Thess 5:8, 7). By night he means iniquity, in which those fall asleep by coveting these earthly things. And all those happinesses of the world that are seen are the dreams of those who sleep. And just as one who sees treasures in his sleep is rich while sleeping; but he will wake, and be poor: so all these vain things of this world, in which men rejoice, they rejoice in while asleep: they will wake when they do not wish, if they do not now wake while it is useful; and they will find that those were dreams, and have passed away, as Scripture says, like the dream of one rising (Ps 73:20 (72:20)): and in another place: They have slept their sleep, and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands (Ps 76:5 (75:6)). They have slept their sleep, the sleep is finished, and they have found nothing in their hands; because in their sleep they were seeing transitory riches. So this man who wishes to find a place for the Lord said also: If I shall give sleep to my eyes. But there are some who do not sleep, but doze. They draw themselves back somewhat from the love of temporal things, and again roll back into it; like those dozing, they frequently nod the head. Wake up, shake off sleep; by dozing you are about to fall. The Psalm does not wish him who wishes to find a place for the Lord to give sleep to his eyes, nor slumber to his eyelids.

9. And rest, he says, to my temples. From the rest of the temples sleep comes to the eyes. The temples are about the eyes. As a coming sleep, there is a heaviness of the temples. For in men about to sleep the temples begin to grow heavy; and when they have felt their temples grow heavy, sleep is already imminent: which, if it is to be given to the eyes, they give rest to their temples, and sleep comes; if they do not give rest to their temples, sleep does not come. So when something temporal has begun to delight you toward sin, your temples are already heavy. Do you wish to wake, and not to sleep, nor to doze? Do not trust yourself to such delight; it will have greater pains than sweetnesses. By this thought, as it were rubbing your brow, you shake off sleep, and prepare a place for the Lord.

10. Until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. Although sometimes the tabernacle of God is called the house of God, and the house of God the tabernacle of God: yet, more distinctly, dearest brothers, the tabernacle is taken to be the Church according to this present time; but the house is the Church, the heavenly Jerusalem, where we will go. For a tabernacle is as it were of those campaigning and fighting: the tabernacles of soldiers are in array, on expedition; whence soldiers are called tent-companions (contubernales), as it were having and dwelling in the same tents. So as long as we have an enemy with whom we may fight, we make a tabernacle for God. But when the time of fighting has passed, and there has come that peace which surpasses all understanding, as the apostle says: And the peace of Christ which surpasses all understanding (Phil 4:7); for however much you think of that peace, the mind, still set in this heaviness of the body, grasps it less: when that homeland has come, it will now be a house, no adversary will tempt, so that it should be called a tabernacle. We will not go forth to fight, but will remain to praise. For what is said of that house? Blessed are those who dwell in your house; forever and ever they will praise you (Ps 84:4 (83:5)). In the tabernacle we still groan, in the house we will praise. Why? Because groaning belongs to those on pilgrimage, praise to those now abiding in the homeland. Here first let a tabernacle be sought for the God of Jacob.

11. [v. 6.] Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah (Ps 132:6 (131:6)). Of what it? The seat of the Lord. We heard of it in Ephrathah. We found it in the fields of the wood. Did he hear there, where he found; or did he hear in one place, and find in another? Let us, then, ask what Ephrathah is, where he heard; likewise let us ask what is in the fields of the wood, where he found. 'Ephrathah,' a Hebrew word, is interpreted in Latin 'Mirror,' as those have handed down who translated the Hebrew words set in the Scriptures into another tongue, that the meaning might reach us. For from Hebrew they translated into Greek, and from Greek they were translated for us into Latin. For there were those who kept watch over the Scriptures. If, then, Ephrathah is 'mirror,' that house which was found in the fields of the wood was heard of in a mirror. A mirror has an image: all prophecy is an image of things to come. So the future house of God was foretold in the image of prophecy. For we heard of it in a mirror, that is: We heard of it in Ephrathah. We found it in the fields of the wood. What are the fields of the wood? The fields of the forests. For it is not as is commonly said: That estate (saltus), for example, having so many centuries of land. A 'saltus' properly is a place still uncultivated and wooded. For some manuscripts have, in the fields of the forest. What, then, were the fields of the wood, except the uncultivated nations? what were the fields of the wood, except where there were still the brambles of idolatry? Yet just as there were brambles of idolatry there, there we found a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. What we heard of in Ephrathah, we found in the fields of the wood; what was foretold in an image to the Jews was made manifest in the faith of the Gentiles.

12. [v. 7.] We will enter into his tabernacles (Ps 132:7 (131:7)): whose? The Lord God of Jacob's. Those who enter in order to dwell, they are the ones who enter in order to be dwelt in. Into your house you enter that you may dwell, into the house of God that you may be dwelt in. For better is the Lord, who, when he begins to dwell in you, will make you blessed. For if you are not dwelt in by him, you will be wretched. That son who said: Give me the portion of the patrimony that falls to me (Luke 15:12), wished to be in his own power. It was well kept with the father, that it might not be squandered with harlots. He received it, it came into his power; setting out into a far country, he poured out all with harlots. At last he suffered hunger, remembered his father; he returned, that he might be filled with bread. So enter, that you may be dwelt in; and not as though you were your own, but his: We will enter into his tabernacles.

13. We will adore in the place where his feet stood (Ps 132:7 (131:7)). Whose feet? The Lord's, or those of the very house of the Lord? For it is the house of the Lord where he says it ought to be adored. We will adore in the place where his feet stood. Outside his house God does not hear unto eternal life. For he belongs to the house of God who is framed together in love with the living stones. But he who has not love makes a collapse; and when he collapses the house stands. For let no one threaten the house where he has begun to be as it were a stone, if he should wish to collapse, as though he did some harm to the house. For so too the first people of the Jews had grown proud, saying: For God will not defraud our father Abraham, to whom he promised such great things of his seed: and they did all evil things as though secure of the promise of God, that not for the merits of those who committed crimes, but for the merits of Abraham he would spare them, and gather the sons of Abraham, however evil, into his house unto eternal life. But what does John say? Brood, he says, of vipers. When the very sons of Abraham came to him, to be baptized in the water of repentance, he did not say to them: Brood of Abraham, but of vipers. For they were such as those whom they imitated; not sons of Abraham, but sons of the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Girgashite, the Jebusite, and of all who offended God: they were their sons, because they followed their deeds. Brood of vipers, who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, then, fruit worthy of repentance. And do not say: We have Abraham for our father. For God is able from these stones to raise up sons to Abraham (Matt 3:7-9). I know not what stones he saw then in the fields of the wood, from which sons of Abraham were raised up. For they are sons rather who imitated his faith, than who were born of his flesh. So let no one threaten the house of God, as though to say: I withdraw myself, and the house will collapse. For it is good for him that he be built in, and have love. For if he himself collapses, the house will stand. And so, brothers, the house of God is in those whom he predestined and foreknew would persevere. Of them it was said: Where his feet stood. For there are those who do not persevere, nor do his feet stand in them. They are not, then, the Church; they do not belong to that tabernacle now, then house. But where did his feet stand? Because iniquity has abounded, the love of many will grow cold. In those in whom love grows cold, his feet do not stand. But what did he go on to say? But he who perseveres to the end, he will be saved (Matt 24:12-13). Behold those in whom his feet stood: in that place adore, that is, be of such as those in whom the feet of the Lord stood.

14. But if you wish to understand it of the house itself: Where his feet stood, of the house; let your feet stand in Christ. But your feet will then stand, if you persevere in Christ. For what is said of the devil? He was a murderer from the beginning, and did not stand in the truth (Jn 8:44). So the feet of the devil did not stand. Likewise of the proud, what does he say? Let not the foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of sinners move me. There they fell who work iniquity; they were driven out, and could not stand (Ps 36:11-12 (35:12-13)). So the house of God is one whose feet stand. Whence that rejoicing John, what does he say? He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom stands and hears him. If he does not stand, he does not hear him. And he rejoices with joy on account of the voice of the bridegroom (Jn 3:29). Deservedly he stands, because he rejoices on account of the voice of the bridegroom: for if he rejoiced on account of his own voice, he would fall. So now you see why those have fallen who rejoice at their own voice. For that friend of the bridegroom said: This is he who baptizes (See Jn 1:33). Certain men say: We baptize: rejoicing at their own voice, they could not stand; and they do not belong to that house of which it is said: Where his feet stood.

15. [v. 8.] Arise, O Lord, into your rest (Ps 132:8 (131:8)). To the sleeping Lord he says: Arise. You already know who slept, and who rose again. For he himself says in a certain place in a psalm: I slept troubled (See Ps 3:5 (3:6)). Well is it said to him: Arise, O Lord, into your rest. You will no longer be troubled; because Christ, rising from the dead, dies no more, and death will no longer have dominion over him (Rom 6:9). It is his voice in another psalm: I slept and took rest, and rose up, because the Lord will receive me (Ps 3:5 (3:6)). He himself slept, to him it is said: Arise, O Lord, into your rest, you and the ark of your sanctification: that is, arise, that the ark of your sanctification too may arise, which you have sanctified. He himself is our head; his ark, his Church: he rose first, the Church too will rise. But the body would not dare to promise itself resurrection, unless the head first rose. Arise, O Lord, into your rest, you and the ark of your sanctification. And the body of Christ which was born of Mary has been understood by some as the ark of sanctification; so that he would be saying this: Arise, O Lord, into your rest, you and the ark of your sanctification. Arise with your body, that those who did not believe may touch it. Arise, O Lord, into your rest, you and the ark of your sanctification.

16. [v. 9.] Let your priests be clothed with justice, and let your saints rejoice (Ps 132:9 (131:9)). When you arise from the dead, and go to the Father, let that royal priesthood be clothed with faith (See 1 Pet 2:9), because the just man lives by faith (See Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17); and, having received the pledge of the Holy Spirit, let the members rejoice in the hope of the resurrection, which went before in the head: for the apostle says to them: Rejoicing in hope (Rom 12:12).

17. [v. 10.] For the sake of David your servant, do not turn away the face of your Christ (Ps 132:10 (131:10)). This was said to God the Father: For the sake of David your servant, do not turn away the face of your Christ. The Lord was crucified in Judea; he was crucified by the Jews; troubled by them, he slept. Among whose raging hands he slept, he rose to judge them: and he says in a certain place: And raise me up, and I will repay them (Ps 41:10 (40:11)). And he repaid, and is to repay. For how great things the Jews afterward suffered, when the Lord was slain, they themselves know. From the very city where they slew him, all were driven out. What then? did all even of the stock of David perish, and of the tribe of Judah? No: for some of them believed, and many thousands of men of them believed, and this now after the resurrection of the Lord. They raged, to crucify him, and afterward they began to see miracles done in the name of the crucified one; and they trembled the more that the name of him could do so much, who as it were in their hands could do nothing; and, pricked in heart, now believing that a hidden divinity had been in him whom they had thought like other men, and asking counsel of the apostles (See Acts 2:37), they heard: Do penance, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38). So because Christ rose to judge those by whom he was crucified, and turned away his face from the Jews, and turned it to the Gentiles; God is as it were entreated for the sake of the remnant of Israel, and it is said to him: For the sake of David your servant, do not turn away the face of your Christ. If the chaff is condemned, let the grains be gathered. Let the remnant be saved (See Isa 10:22; Rom 9:27), as Isaiah says. And plainly the remnant were saved: from there were the twelve apostles, from there more than five hundred brothers to whom the Lord showed himself after the resurrection (See 1 Cor 15:6); from there so many thousands baptized, who laid the prices of their goods before the feet of the apostles (See Acts 4:34-35). So there was fulfilled what here God was entreated: For the sake of David your servant, do not turn away the face of your Christ.

18. [v. 11.] The Lord swore the truth to David, and he will not repent of it (Ps 132:11 (131:11)). What is, he swore? He confirmed by himself the thing promised. What is, he will not repent of it? He will not change it. For God does not suffer the pain of repentance, or is deceived in anything, so as to wish to correct that in which he erred. But just as a man, when he repents, wishes to change what he did; so where you hear that God repents, hope for that very change. God works it otherwise, although he calls it by the name of repentance, otherwise than you: for you do it because you had erred; but he does it because he avenges, or because he frees. He changed the kingdom of Saul, when he repented, as it was said: and in that very place where Scripture says: He repented; there a little after it is said: For he is not as a man, that he should repent (1 Sam 15:11, 29). So when he changes his works by his unchangeable counsel; on account of that change, not of counsel, but of work, he is said to repent. But this he so promised, that he would not change it. Just as it is said also that: The Lord swore, and he will not repent of it: You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek (Ps 110:4 (109:4)): so this too, because it was so promised, that it would not be changed, because it was necessarily to come to pass and to remain; he said: The Lord swore the truth to David, and he will not repent of it: Of the fruit of your womb I will set upon your throne. He could have said: Of the fruit of your loins: why did he wish to say: Of the fruit of the womb? And that too, if he said it, he would say truly: but he wished to say more significantly: Of the fruit of the womb; because Christ was born of a woman, whom a man did not approach.

19. [v. 12.] What then? The Lord swore the truth to David: Of the fruit of your womb I will set upon your throne. If your sons shall keep my covenant, and these my testimonies which I shall teach them; their sons too shall sit forever upon your throne (Ps 132:11-12 (131:11-12)). If your sons shall keep, their sons too shall sit forever. The parents earn merit for the sons. What if his sons should keep, and their sons should not keep? Why is the blessedness of the sons promised to the merit of the fathers? For what does he say: If your sons shall keep, their sons too shall sit forever (he did not say: If your sons shall keep, they shall sit upon your throne; and if their sons shall keep, they too shall sit upon your throne: but he said: If your sons shall keep, their sons too shall sit upon your throne), except that he wished the sons here to be understood as their fruit? If your sons, he says, shall keep my law, and your sons shall observe these my commandments which I shall teach them; their sons too shall sit upon your throne: that is, this will be their fruit, that they sit upon your throne. For now, brothers, all we who labor in Christ, all we who tremble at his words, who in whatever way try to do his will, and groan asking him to help us, that we may fulfill what he commands; do we already sit on those seats of blessedness which are promised us? No: but holding to the commandments we hope this will come to pass. That very hope is spoken of as in sons; because the hope of a man living in this life is his sons, his fruit is his sons. For this reason men too, excusing their avarice, say that they keep for their sons what they keep; and unwilling to give to the needy, they excuse themselves under the name of devotion, because their sons are their hope. For all men who live according to this world say that their hope is to beget and leave sons. Therefore under the name of sons he set that very hope, and said: If your sons shall keep my covenant, and these my testimonies which I shall teach them; their sons too shall sit forever upon your throne: that is, they will have such fruits, that hope will not deceive them, that they may come there where they hope to come. So now they are as it were fathers, men of future hope: but when they have obtained what they hope for, they are sons; because that which they obtain, they have brought forth and begotten in good works. And this is kept for them in the time to come, because posterity itself is accustomed to be called by the name of sons.

20. Or if you take the sons themselves as men, understand it said of them too. If your sons shall keep my covenant, and these my testimonies which I shall teach them; so that this is the sense: If your sons shall keep my covenant, and these my testimonies which I shall teach them, and their sons, that is, if they shall keep them; so that here you make a pause, and then add, they shall sit forever upon your throne, that is, both your sons and their sons, but all, if they shall keep them. What then if they do not keep them? has the promise of God perished? No: but it was said and promised for this reason, because God foresaw; what, except that they would believe? But lest anyone should as it were threaten the promises of God, and wish to put it in his own power whether what God promised would be fulfilled; therefore he also said he swore: in which he showed that it will without doubt come to pass. How, then, did he set there: If they shall keep? Lest you now boast of the promises, and let yourself not keep them. Then you will be a son of David, if you keep them; but if not, you will not be a son of David. To the sons of David God promised. Do not say: I am a son of David, if you degenerate. If the Jews, who are born of that very stock, do not say it (rather, they do say it, but they rave. For the Lord plainly says: If you are the sons of Abraham, do the deeds of Abraham (Jn 8:39). Thence he denied that they were sons, because they did not do the deeds); how do we say that we are sons of David, who are not of his stock according to the flesh? It remains that we are not sons except by imitating his faith, except by worshipping God as he worshipped. If, then, what you do not hope for through stock, you are unwilling to attain through deeds; how will it be fulfilled in you that you will sit upon the throne of David? and if it is not fulfilled in you, do you think it will not be fulfilled? And how did he find it in the fields of the wood? and how did his feet stand? Whatever, then, you may be, that house will stand.

21. [v. 13.] Because the Lord has chosen Zion; he has chosen it beforehand for a dwelling for himself (Ps 132:13 (131:13)). Zion itself is the Church, it is also that Jerusalem to whose peace we run, which is a pilgrim not in the angels, but in us, which from its better part awaits the part that is to return; from which the Letters have come to us, which are daily recited. That very city is Zion, which the Lord has chosen beforehand.

22. [v. 14.] This is my rest forever and ever (Ps 132:14 (131:14)). Now they are the words of God. My rest; there I rest. How God loves us, brothers, that because we rest, he says that he rests! For he himself is never troubled, nor rests in that way; but he says that he rests there, because we will have rest in him. Here I will dwell, because I have chosen it beforehand.

23. [v. 15.] Blessing I will bless her widow, and I will fill her poor with loaves (Ps 132:15 (131:15)). Every soul that understands itself to be deserted by all help, except that of God alone, is a widow. For how does the apostle describe a widow? But she who is truly a widow and desolate has hoped in the Lord (1 Tim 5:5). But he was speaking of those widows whom we all so call in the Church. But he had said: She who lives in pleasures is dead while living; and he did not count her among the widows. But describing the holy widows, what does he say? But she who is truly a widow and desolate has hoped in the Lord, and continues in prayers and supplications night and day. There he added: But she who lives in pleasures is dead while living (1 Tim 5:5-6). Whence, then, is she a widow? Because she has no help from anywhere, except from God alone. Those who have husbands are as it were proud of the help of their husbands: widows seem deserted, and their help is stronger. So the whole Church is one widow, whether in men, or in women, whether in the married, or in married women, whether in the young, or in the old, or in virgins: the whole Church is one widow, deserted in this world, if she feels it, if she knows her widowhood; for then help is at hand for her. Do you not recognize this widow in the Gospel, my brothers, when the Lord said that one ought always to pray, and not to faint? There was a certain judge in a city, he said, who neither feared God nor reverenced man; and a certain widow appealed to him daily, and said: Avenge me of my adversary. And by appealing daily the widow wore him down. For the judge himself said within himself, who neither feared God nor reverenced man: Even though I do not fear God, nor am abashed before man, yet on account of the weariness which this widow gives me, I will avenge her (Luke 18:2-5). If a wicked judge heard the widow, that he might not suffer weariness; will God not hear the Church, whom he exhorts to entreat him?

24. Likewise: I will fill her poor with loaves: what is this, brothers? Let us be poor, and then we will be filled. Many, presuming upon the world and proud, are Christians; they adore Christ, but are not filled: for they are filled, and abound in their pride. Of such it is said: A reproach to those who abound, and contempt for the proud (Ps 123:4 (122:4)): these abound; and therefore they eat, but are not filled. And what was said of them in the psalm? All the rich of the earth ate and adored (Ps 22:29 (21:30)). They adore Christ, they venerate Christ, they supplicate Christ; but they are not filled with his wisdom and justice. Why? Because they are not poor. But the poor, that is, the humble of heart, the more they hunger, the more they eat; and the more they hunger, the more they are empty of the world. He who is full rejects whatever you are about to give him; because he is full. Give me a hungry man, give me those of whom it was said: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be filled (Matt 5:6); and these will be the poor of whom he now says: And I will fill her poor with loaves. Because in that very psalm where it was said: All the rich of the earth ate and adored; it was said there too of the poor, and exactly in the way it is said in this psalm: The poor shall eat, and shall be filled, and shall praise the Lord, those who seek him (Ps 22:26 (21:27)). Where it was said: All the rich of the earth ate and adored; there it was said: The poor shall eat, and shall be filled. Why is it that, when the rich were said to have adored, they were not said to be filled; but when the poor were spoken of, they were said to be filled? And whence are they filled? this fullness, brothers, of what kind is it? God himself is the bread. The bread, that it might become milk for us, came down to the earth; and he said to his own: I am the living bread, who came down from heaven (Jn 6:51). Therefore there in the psalm: The poor shall eat, and shall be filled. With what shall they be satisfied? Hear what follows: And shall praise the Lord, those who seek him.

25. So be poor, be among the members of that widow, let your help be in the one God alone. Money is nothing; you will not have help from it. Many have been cast headlong on account of money, many have perished on account of money: many on account of much money were sought out by robbers; they would be safe, if they had not the reason why they should be sought. Many presumed upon more powerful friends: those upon whom they presumed fell, and dragged down with them those who presumed upon them. Look at the examples of the human race. What great thing is it that is told you? We do not speak of these things only from these Scriptures; read them in the world. Take care not to presume upon money, upon a man as friend, upon honor and the boasting of the world. Take away all these: but if you have them, give thanks to God if you despise them. But if you are puffed up by them, do not wait until you are the prey of men; you are already the prey of the devil. But if you do not presume upon these things, you will be among the members of that widow, who is the Church, of whom it was said: Blessing I will bless her widow: you will also be poor, of such as those of whom it was said: And I will fill her poor with loaves.

26. But sometimes—which must not be passed over in the saying—you find a proud poor man, and a humble rich man: we suffer such daily. You hear a poor man as it were groaning under a rich man, and when the more powerful rich man oppresses him, then you see him humble: sometimes not even then, but proud even then; whence you see what he would be, if he had something. So the poor man of God is in the soul, not in the purse. Sometimes a man goes forth having a full house, fertile lands, many estates, much gold and silver, knows that one must not presume upon them, humbles himself to God, does good with them; so his heart is raised to God, that he knows that those riches not only profit him nothing, but even hinder his feet, unless God rules and God comes to his aid: and he is counted among the poor who are filled with loaves. You find another, a beggar, puffed up, or not puffed up only because he has nothing, yet seeking something to be puffed up by. God does not attend to the means, but to the desire: and he judges him according to the desire by which he gapes after temporal things, not according to the means, which it does not fall to him to attain. Whence of the rich the apostle says: Command the rich of this world not to be proud-minded, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who provides us all things abundantly to enjoy. What, then, should they do with their riches? It follows and says: Let them be rich in good works; let them give readily, share. And see that here they are poor: Let them lay up, he says, for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of the true life (1 Tim 6:17-19). When they have laid hold of it, then they will be rich; but while they do not yet have it, let them know themselves to be poor. So it comes about that all the humble of heart, set in the twofold love, whatever they have in this world, God counts among his poor, whom he fills with loaves.

27. [vv. 16-17.] Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will exult with exultation (Ps 132:16 (131:16)). We are now at the end of the Psalm; let your charity attend a little. Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will exult with exultation. Who is our salvation, except our Christ? What, then, is: Her priests I will clothe with salvation? As many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ (Gal 3:27). And her saints will exult with exultation. Whence will they exult with exultation? Because they are clothed with salvation: not in themselves. For they were made light, but in the Lord; for before they were darkness (See Eph 5:8). And therefore he added: There I will raise up a horn for David (Ps 132:17 (131:17)): that one may presume upon Christ, that will be the height of David. For the horn signifies height: and what kind of height? Not fleshly. Therefore all the bones are wrapped in flesh: the horn goes beyond the flesh. Spiritual height is the horn. And what is spiritual height, except to presume upon Christ; not to say: I do it, I baptize; but: This is he who baptizes? There is the horn of David. And that you may know that there is the horn of David, attend to what follows: I have prepared a lamp for my Christ. What is the lamp? You already know the words of the Lord about John: He was a burning and shining lamp (Jn 5:35). And what does John say? This is he who baptizes (See Jn 1:33). In this, then, the saints will exult, in this the priests will exult; because all that is good in them is not theirs, but his who has the power of baptizing. So he comes securely to his temple, everyone who has received Baptism; because it is not man's, but his in whom the horn of David has been raised up.

28. [v. 18.] But upon him my sanctification will flourish (Ps 132:18 (131:18)). Upon whom? Upon my Christ. For when he says my Christ, it is the voice of the Father, who says: Blessing I will bless her widow, and I will fill her poor with loaves. Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will exult with exultation. He who says: There I will raise up a horn for David, is God. He himself says: I have prepared a lamp for my Christ, because he is both our Christ, and the Father's Christ: he is our Christ, when he saves us and rules us, as he is also our Lord, but the Son of the Father; he is Christ both ours and the Father's. For if he were not the Father's Christ, it would not have been said above: For the sake of David your servant, do not turn away the face of your Christ. But upon him my sanctification will flourish. Upon Christ it flourishes. Let no man take it to himself, because he himself sanctifies; otherwise it will not be true: But upon him my sanctification will flourish. The glory of sanctification will flourish. So the sanctification of Christ is in Christ himself, the power of the sanctification of God is in Christ. For what he said, it will flourish, he wishes to pertain to glory: for when trees flourish, then they are beautiful. So sanctification is in Baptism; thence it flourishes and is bright. Whence has the world yielded to this beauty? Because it flourishes in Christ: for set it in the power of man; how does it flourish, when all flesh is hay, and all the glory of the flesh is as the flower of hay (See Isa 40:6; 1 Pet 1:24)?

Exposition of Psalm 133

1. [v. 1.] The psalm is brief; but very well known and famous. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell as one (Ps 133:1 (132:1)). So sweet is this sound, that even those who do not know the Psalter sing this very verse. It is as sweet as the love is sweet which makes brothers dwell as one. And this indeed, brothers, does not need interpretation or exposition—how good and how pleasant it is to dwell as one; but the things that follow have something to be opened to those who knock. Yet, that the understanding of the whole fabric of the Psalm may come down to us from this verse, let us first consider this again and again: whether it was said of all Christians: How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell as one; or whether there are certain definite and perfect ones who dwell as one, and this blessing does not belong to all, but to certain ones, from whom, however, it comes down to the rest.

2. For these words of the Psalter, this sweet sound, this gentle melody, as much in song as in understanding, has even given birth to monasteries. By this sound were roused the brothers who longed to dwell as one; this verse was their trumpet. It sounded throughout the whole world, and those who were divided were gathered together. The cry of God, the cry of the Holy Spirit, the prophetic cry was not heard in Judea; and it was heard in the whole world. Against this sound they were deaf, among whom it was sung; and those were found with open ears, of whom it was said: Those to whom it was not announced of him, will see; and those who have not heard, will understand (Isa 52:15; Rom 15:21). Yet, dearly beloved, if we consider, from that wall of the circumcision this blessing was first born. For did all the Jews perish? And whence the apostles, the sons of the prophets, the sons of those who have been shaken out (See Ps 127:4 (126:4))? As we speak to those who already know. Whence those five hundred who saw the Lord after the resurrection, whom the apostle Paul mentions (See 1 Cor 15:6)? Whence those hundred and twenty who were together in one place after the resurrection of the Lord and his ascension into heaven (See Acts 1:15), upon whom, set in one place, the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, sent from heaven (See Acts 2:1-4); so sent, as he was promised? All these were from there: and they themselves first dwelt as one, who sold all that they had, and laid the prices of their goods at the feet of the apostles (See Acts 4:34-35), as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: And it was distributed to each one as anyone had need; and no one said anything was his own, but all things were common to them (Acts 4:35, 32). And what is, as one? And they had, he says, one soul and one heart toward God (Acts 4:32). So they first heard: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell as one. They first heard, but did not alone hear. For this love and unity of brothers did not come as far as them only. For this exultation of love came also to those who followed, and a vow to God. For something is vowed to God, and it was said: Vow, and render to the Lord your God (Ps 76:11 (75:12)). But it is better not to vow, than to vow and not render (See Eccl 5:5). But the mind ought to be eager, both to vow and to render; lest, when it thinks itself less fit to render, it be slow to vow. Plainly it will never render, if it thinks it will render from its own resources.

3. From the voice of this psalm the Monks too are named, that no one may insult you Catholics over this name. When you begin rightly to insult the heretics over the Circellions, that they may be saved by being shamed; they insult you over the monks. First, if they are to be compared, you see; if there is need of your words, then you labor. There is no need, except that you admonish each one to attend; let him only attend, and compare. What need is there of your words? Let the drunken be compared with the sober, the headlong with the considerate, the raging with the simple, the wandering with the gathered. But yet they are accustomed to say: What does the name of monks mean? How much better do we say: What does the name of Circellions mean? But they are not called Circellions, they say. Perhaps we call them by a corrupted sound of the name. Shall we tell you their whole name? Perhaps they are called Circumcellions, not Circellions. Plainly, if they are so called, let them explain what they are. For they are called Circumcellions, because they wander around the cells: for they are accustomed to go this way and that, having nowhere a seat; and to do what you know, and what they know, whether they will or not.

4. Yet, dearly beloved, there are also those who are false monks; and we know such: but the devout brotherhood has not perished on account of those who profess what they are not. For there are false monks just as there are also false clergy, and false faithful. All the kinds, my brothers—the three which we once commended to you, and, as I think, not once—have their good ones, have their bad ones. For of those three kinds it was said: Two in the field; one will be taken, and one left: and two in the bed; one will be taken, and one left: and two women at the mill; one will be taken, and one left (See Luke 17:34-36; Matt 24:40-41). In the field are those who govern the Church. Whence the apostle says (see whether he was not in the field): I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase (1 Cor 3:6). But in the bed he wished those to be understood who loved quiet; for by the bed he wished quiet to be understood; not mingling themselves with crowds, not with the tumult of the human race, serving God in leisure: and yet from there too one will be taken, and one left. There are upright ones there, and there are reprobate ones there. Do not be terrified when reprobate ones are found there; for some too lie hidden, who are not found out except at the end. Likewise two women at the mill he named from the name of the feminine gender; for he wished the common people to be understood. Why at the mill? Because they are engaged in this world, where the mill is understood; because this world turns like a millstone: woe to those whom it crushes. So there the good faithful are engaged, that one of them is consumed, the other taken. For lovers of the world, defrauders, dissemblers, do certain actions of the world. But others are there as the apostle says: And let those who use this world be as not using it; for the figure of this world passes away: I wish you to be without anxiety (1 Cor 7:31, 32). Do you hear who will be taken from the mill? For surely many sins seem to belong to the rich. For when they do more, and administer more, and a larger household depends on them, it is difficult that they not contract more sins; and of them it was said that it is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle than for a rich man into the kingdom of heaven (Matt 19:24). And when the disciples were saddened for those of whom they now despaired, the Lord consoled them, saying: The things that are impossible for men are easy for God (See Luke 18:27). But how does God make that easy? Hear the apostle, if you do not neglect what he commanded: Command, he says, the rich of this world not to be proud-minded (1 Tim 6:17). For you find a poor man growing proud, a rich man humble; a Christian considering well that all those things pass by and flow away, that he brought nothing into this world, can take nothing away from the world; thinking how that rich man who burned in the flame among the dead longed for a drop to be dripped on him from the finger of the one who had coveted the crumbs from his table (See Luke 16:19-25). Thinking these things, they do what the apostle says: Neither to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who provides us all things abundantly to enjoy. Let them be rich, he says, in good works, let them give readily, share, lay up. And what gain from it for them? Let them lay up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of the true life (1 Tim 6:17-19). Behold who will be taken from the mill. But such a rich man as that one was who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted splendidly daily, and despised the poor man lying at his gate, will be left. Because from the mill one will be taken, and one left.

5. So Ezekiel too speaks of three persons, in whom not absurdly we understand these three kinds: When the Lord sends the sword into the land, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job be in their midst, they will not free sons or daughters; but they themselves alone will be saved (See Ezek 14:13-14, 20). They were freed long ago, but in these three names he signified certain three kinds. Noah signifies the rulers of the Church, because he steered the ark in the flood (See Gen 7). But Daniel chose the quiet life, to serve God in celibacy, that is, not seeking a wife (See Dan 1:8; 6:10). He was a holy man, leading his life in heavenly desires; tested in many things, and found pure gold. How quiet he was, who even among the lions was secure! So in the name of Daniel, who is also called a man of desires (See Dan 9:23)—but surely of chaste and holy ones—are signified the servants of God, of whom it is said: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell as one. In the name of Job is signified that one woman from the mill who will be taken. For he had a wife, he had sons, he had many riches; and he had so many things in this world, that the devil objected this to him, that not for nothing, but on account of the things he had received, did he worship God. The adversary objected this to the holy man: and in his temptations it was proved how, for nothing, Job worshipped God, and not on account of the things he had received, but on account of him who had given. And so, all things being lost in a sudden affliction and temptation, his inheritance lost, his heirs lost, his wife alone left to him, not for consolation, but for temptation, he said what you know: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has been done: blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). There was fulfilled in him what we daily sing, if we also accord with it in our ways: I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall ever be in my mouth (Ps 34:1 (33:2)). So in these three names were signified three kinds of men, and again in those three in the Gospel which I have mentioned.

6. What, then, do those say who insult us over the name of monks? Perhaps they will say: Ours are not called Circumcellions: you call them so by an insulting name; for we do not call them so. Let them say what they call them, and you will hear. They call them Agonistics. We too acknowledge it as an honorable name, if the reality also agreed. But meanwhile let your holiness see this: those who say to us: Show where the name of monks is written, let them show where the name of Agonistics is written. We call them so, they say, on account of the contest (agon). For they contend; and the apostle says: I have fought the good fight (2 Tim 4:7). Because there are those who contend against the devil, and prevail, they are called the agonistic soldiers of Christ. Would, then, that they were soldiers of Christ, and not soldiers of the devil, by whom, thanks be to God, more is feared than the roaring of a lion. These too dare to insult us, because the brothers, when they see men, say: Thanks be to God. What is, they say, 'Thanks be to God'? Are you so deaf that you do not know what 'Thanks be to God' is? He who says: Thanks be to God, gives thanks to God. See whether a brother ought not to give thanks to God, when he sees his brother. For is there not occasion for rejoicing, when those who dwell in Christ see one another? And yet you laugh at our 'Thanks be to God': men weep over your 'Praises to God.' But you have surely given a reason for the name, why you call them Agonistics. So be it, as you call them; so be it, we wholly favor it. May the Lord grant that they contend against the devil, and not against Christ, whose Church they persecute. Yet because they contend, you say Agonistics: and you found whence you might name them, because the apostle said: I have fought the good fight. Why, then, should we too not name them monks, since the Psalm says: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell as one? For 'monos' means one: and not one in just any way; for in a crowd too there is one, but one along with many can be called 'one,' but cannot be called 'monos,' that is, alone: for 'monos' is one alone. Those, then, who so live as one, that they make one man, so that there is truly in them what is written, one soul and one heart (See Acts 4:32); many bodies, but not many souls; many bodies, but not many hearts; are rightly called 'monos,' that is, one alone. Whence too that one man was healed at the pool. Let those who insult the name of monks answer us and explain why that man who was found having been thirty-eight years in his weakness answered the Lord thus: When the water is stirred, I have no one to put me down; another goes down before me (Jn 5:7). One went down, now another did not go down. One alone was healed; he figured the unity of the Church. Deservedly do those insult the name of unity, who have cut themselves off from unity. Deservedly does the name of monks displease them, because they are unwilling to dwell as one with the brothers; but, following Donatus, they abandoned Christ. These things about 'one,' and 'one alone,' your charity has heard; now let us rejoice with the Psalm, that we may see what follows. It is brief; it can be run through by us, as far as the Lord prompts. For I think that from what has been said, the things that follow can be clear, although they seem obscure.

7. [v. 2.] Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell as one. He who said 'Behold' was pointing it out. We too see it, brothers, and we bless God; and we pray that we too may say: Behold. And to what it is like, let the Psalm say. Like the ointment on the head, which ran down onto the beard, the beard of Aaron; which ran down onto the hem of his garment (Ps 133:2 (132:2)). What was Aaron? A priest. Who is the priest, except the one priest, who entered into the holy of holies? Who is this priest, except he who was both victim and priest? except he who, when he found in the world nothing clean to offer, offered himself? On his head is the ointment, because the whole Christ is with the Church: but the ointment comes from the head. Our head is Christ; crucified and buried, raised up, he ascended into heaven; and the Holy Spirit came from the head. To where? To the beard. The beard signifies the strong; the beard signifies the young, the vigorous, the eager, the brisk. Therefore when we describe such men: He is a bearded man, we say. So that first ointment ran down onto the apostles, ran down onto those who sustained the first onslaughts of the world: so the Holy Spirit ran down onto them. For those too who first began to dwell as one suffered persecution: but because the ointment had run down onto the beard, they suffered, but were not conquered. For the head, having already suffered, had gone before, from which the ointment ran down. With such an example going before, who could conquer the beard?

8. Of that beard was holy Stephen. And this is not to be conquered, that love be not conquered by enemies. For they seemed to themselves to have conquered, who persecuted the saints. They struck, they were struck; they killed, they were killed. Who would not think that those conquered, these were conquered? But because love was not conquered, therefore the ointment ran down onto the beard. Attend to Stephen. Love raged in him: it raged against them, when they heard; it prayed for them, when they stoned. For what did he say, when they heard? Stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you have always resisted the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51). See the beard. Did he flatter? did he fear? When they heard those things which were said against them: for Stephen as it were raged; he raged with his mouth, with his heart he loved; and love itself was not conquered in him: for they, shrinking from the word, like darkness fleeing from light, began to run to stones, to stone Stephen. As before the words of Stephen stoned them, so afterward their stones stoned Stephen. When ought Stephen to have been more angry, when he was being stoned, or when he was being heard? Behold, he was made gentle while being stoned, and raged while being heard. Why did he rage while being heard? Because he wished to change those by whom he was being heard. When the stones came upon him, love was not conquered: because the ointment had run down from the head onto the beard, and he had heard from the head itself: Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you (Matt 5:44). He had heard from the head itself hanging on the cross, and saying: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). So then the ointment had run down from the head onto the beard; because he too, when he was being stoned, on bent knee said: Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge (Acts 7:60).

9. So they were as it were the beard. For many were strong, and suffered many persecutions. But if the ointment had not run down from the beard too, we would now have no monasteries. But because it ran down also onto the hem of the garment; for he says thus: Which ran down onto the hem of his garment: the Church followed, from the garment of the Lord she gave birth to monasteries. For the priestly garment signifies the Church. It is that garment of which the apostle says: That he might present to himself a glorious Church, having neither spot nor wrinkle (Eph 5:27). It is cleansed, that it may not have a spot; it is stretched out, that it may not have a wrinkle. Where does the fuller stretch it out, except on the wood? We see daily that tunics are as it were crucified by the fullers: they are crucified, that they may not have a wrinkle. What, then, is the hem of the garment? my brothers, in the hem of the garment what are we to receive? The hem is the end of the garment. What are we to receive in the end of the garment? Or is it because at the end of the times the Church was to have brothers dwelling as one? or do we understand in the hem perfection, because in the hem the garment is finished; and those perfect, who know how to dwell as one? They are perfect who fulfill the law. But how is the law of Christ fulfilled by those who, as brothers, dwell as one? Hear the apostle: Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6:2). This is the hem of the garment. How, my brothers, do we understand which hem he means, to which the ointment could run down? I do not think that he wished the hem of the garment to be understood as at the sides. For there are hems at the sides. But the ointment could run down from the beard to the hem which is at the head, where the opening for the head is. Such are those who dwell as one: that just as through those openings the head of a man enters, that he may clothe himself; so through fraternal concord Christ enters, who is our head, that he may be clothed, that the Church may cleave to him.

10. [v. 3.] What else does he say? Like the dew of Hermon, which ran down onto the mountains of Zion (Ps 133:3 (132:3)). He wished this to be understood, my brothers, that it is the grace of God that brothers dwell as one; not from their own strength, not from their own merits, but from his gift, but from his grace, like dew from heaven. For the earth does not rain for itself, or rather, whatever it brings forth withers, unless rain comes down from above. He says in a certain place in a psalm: A voluntary rain you will set apart, O God, for your inheritance (Ps 68:9 (67:10)). Why did he say voluntary? Because not by our merits, but by his will. For what good did we sinners deserve? what good did we, the wicked, deserve? From Adam, Adam; and upon Adam many sins are born. Whoever is born, is born Adam, condemned from one condemned, and he has added, by living badly, upon Adam. For what good did Adam deserve? And yet, merciful, he loved; and the bridegroom loved, not the beautiful, but that he might make her beautiful. So he called the dew of Hermon the grace of God.

11. But you ought to know what Hermon is. It is a certain mountain far separated from Jerusalem, that is, from Zion. And so it is strange that he says thus: Like the dew of Hermon, which ran down onto the mountains of Zion; when Mount Hermon is far separated from Jerusalem: for it is said to be beyond the Jordan. So let us seek something from the interpretation of Hermon. For it is Hebrew, and we have the interpretation from those who knew that tongue. 'Hermon' is said to be interpreted 'Light lifted up.' For the dew is from Christ: for there is no light lifted up, except Christ. How was he lifted up? First on the cross; afterward in heaven. He was lifted up on the cross, while he was being humbled; but his humiliation could not but be lofty. The dispensation of the man was becoming less and less, which was signified in John; the dispensation of God in our Lord Jesus Christ was growing: which is shown even by their birthdays. For he was born, as the Church hands down, on the eighth day before the Kalends of July, when the days now begin to diminish: but the Lord was born on the eighth day before the Kalends of January, when the days now begin to grow. Hear John himself confessing: He must increase, but I must diminish (Jn 3:30). And their sufferings indicate this. The Lord was lifted up on the cross; John was diminished by the cutting off of his head. So the light lifted up is Christ: thence is the dew of Hermon. But whoever you are who wish to dwell as one, desire this dew, be rained on from it. Otherwise you will not be able to hold what you profess, nor will you be able to dare to profess it, unless he thunders; nor will you be able to remain, unless his rich nourishment does not fail you: for that very nourishment runs down onto the mountains of Zion.

12. Now the mountains of Zion, the great in Zion. What is Zion? The Church. And who are the mountains there? The great. What the mountains signify, this the beard signifies, this the hem of the garment signifies. The beard is understood only in the perfect. So they do not dwell as one, except those in whom the love of Christ has been made perfect. For those in whom the love of Christ is not perfect, even when they are in one place, are hateful, are troublesome, are turbulent, by their anxiety they disturb the rest, and seek what to say about them; just as in the yoke a restless beast not only does not pull, but even breaks with its kicks what is yoked. But if it has the dew of Hermon, which runs down onto the mountains of Zion, it is quiet, peaceable, humble, patient, and pours out a prayer instead of a murmur. For murmurers are all magnificently described in a certain place in the Scriptures: The heart of a fool is like the wheel of a cart (See Sir 33:5). What is: The heart of a fool is like the wheel of a cart? It carries hay, and murmurs: for the wheel of a cart cannot rest from creaking. So are many brothers; they do not dwell as one except in body. But who are those who dwell as one? Those of whom it was said: And they had one soul and one heart toward God: and no one said that anything was his own, but all things were common to them (Acts 4:32). They are designated, they are described, who belong to the beard, who belong to the hem of the garment, who are counted among the mountains of Zion. And if there are other murmurers there, let them remember the saying of the Lord: One will be taken, and one left (See Luke 17:34).

13. Because there the Lord commanded the blessing (Ps 133:3 (132:3)). Where did he command it? Among the brothers who dwell as one. There he commanded the blessing, there they bless the Lord who dwell in concord. For in discord you do not bless the Lord. In vain you say that your tongue sounds a blessing of the Lord, if you do not sound it with the heart: with the mouth you bless, and with the heart you curse. With their mouth they blessed, and with their heart they cursed (Ps 62:4 (61:5)). Are these not our words? Certain men were signified. You bless the Lord, when you pray; and you go on in your prayer, and you curse your enemy. Is this what you heard from the Lord himself: Love your enemies (Matt 5:44)? But if you do it, and love your enemy, and pray for him, there the Lord commanded his blessing; there you will have life forever, that is, unto eternity. For many, loving this life, curse their enemies: for what, except for this life, except for worldly conveniences? Where has your enemy straitened you, that you are forced to curse? On earth you are straitened; migrate, dwell in heaven. How, you will say, do I dwell in heaven, a man clothed in flesh, given over to the flesh? Go before in heart, that you may follow in body. Do not hear it as a deaf man: Lift up your hearts. Have your heart on high, and no one will straiten you in heaven. And therefore another psalm follows well.

Exposition of Psalm 134

1. [v. 1.] Behold now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, you who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God (Ps 134:1 (133:1)). Why did he add, in the courts? The courts are understood as the more spacious areas of the house. He who stands in the courts is not straitened, is not pressed; in a certain way he is widened out. Remain in the breadth, and you can love your enemy; because you do not love those things in which you suffer straits from an enemy. How will you be understood to stand in the courts? Stand in love, and you stand in the courts. In love there is breadth, in hatred there is straitness. Hear the apostle: Wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man who works evil (Rom 2:8-9). But of the breadth of love, what does he say? Because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom 5:5). Where you hear a pouring out, understand breadth; where you hear breadth, understand the courts of the Lord; and you will have the true blessing of the Lord, when you do not curse your enemies. For the Spirit addresses those who suffer tribulation, that they may glory in tribulations; and says to them: Behold now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord. What is: Behold now? In this time. For after the tribulations are over, it is plain that we will have leisure for the blessing of the Lord, as it was said: Blessed are those who dwell in your house; forever and ever they will praise you (Ps 84:4 (83:5)). Those who will then bless without failing, here begin to bless the Lord; here in tribulations, in temptations, in troubles, amid the adversities of the world, amid the snares of the enemy, amid the deceits and assaults of the devil. This is: Behold now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, you who stand in the house of the Lord. What is, you who stand? You who persevere. Because it was said of a certain one who was an archangel: And he did not stand in the truth (Jn 8:44): and it was said of the friend of the bridegroom: But the friend of the bridegroom stands, and hears him, and rejoices with joy on account of the voice of the bridegroom (Jn 3:29).

2. [v. 2.] So: You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God, in the nights lift up your hands to the holy place, and bless the Lord (Ps 134:2 (133:2)). It is easy to bless in the days. What is, in the days? In prosperous things. For night is a sad thing; day is a glad thing. When it goes well with you, you bless the Lord. When you long for a son and he is born, you bless the Lord. Your wife has been freed from the danger of childbirth; you bless the Lord. Your son was sick, he is freed; you bless the Lord. Your son was sick; perhaps you sought an astrologer, a fortune-teller: perhaps not from your tongue, but from your conduct went out a curse against the Lord; it went out from your conduct and your life. Do not boast that with your tongue you bless, if with your life you curse. How, you say, do I curse with my life? Because your life is attended to, and it is said: Behold a Christian, behold what kind Christians are. Christ is blasphemed on account of you. Behold, since your life curses, what does it profit that your tongue blesses? So bless the Lord. When? In the nights. When did Job bless? When it was a sad night. All that he possessed was taken away; the sons were taken away for whom they were kept: how sad a night! But let us see whether he does not bless in the night: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has been done: blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). How dreadful a night! Struck with a sore from head to foot, rotting he was melting in himself. Then Eve dared to tempt him: Say something against your God, and die. Hear him blessing in the nights: You have spoken, he says, like one of the foolish women. If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil things? (Job 2:9-10) Behold what is: In the nights lift up your hands to the holy place, and bless the Lord. What did Job say? You have spoken like one of the foolish women. Rotting Adam repelled Eve, as it were saying: Let it suffice that on account of you I was made mortal. You prevailed in paradise, but you are conquered on the dunghill. Great grace of God! But whence is this, except because the dew of Hermon had rained upon that soul, and the Lord had given sweetness, that our earth might give its fruit (See Ps 85:12 (84:13))? In the nights lift up your hands to the holy place, and bless the Lord.

3. [v. 3.] May the Lord bless you out of Zion, he who made heaven and earth (Ps 134:3 (133:3)). He exhorts many to bless, and he himself blesses one, because out of many he made one; because it is good and pleasant for brothers to dwell as one (See Ps 133:1 (132:1)). Plural number, brothers; but singular, to dwell as one: therefore: May the Lord bless you out of Zion, he who made heaven and earth. Let none of you say: It has not reached me. Whom do you suppose he meant when he said: May the Lord bless you out of Zion? He blessed one: be one, and the blessing reaches you.

Exposition of Psalm 135

1. [v. 1.] It ought to be very sweet to us, and we must rejoice in its sweetness, that to which this psalm exhorts us. For it says: Praise the name of the Lord. And the very reason why it is just that we should praise the name of the Lord, it at once added: Praise the Lord, you servants (Ps 135:1 (134:1)). What is more just? what more worthy? what more pleasing? For if the servants do not praise the Lord, they will be proud, ungrateful, irreligious. And what do they bring about by not praising the Lord, except that they may feel the Lord to be severe? For an ungrateful servant, if he refuses to praise his Lord, does not thereby bring it about that he is not a servant. Whether you praise or do not praise, you are a servant: but if you praise, you will appease him; if you do not praise, you will offend him. So it is a good and useful exhortation; whence we ought rather to be busy about how God is to be praised, than to doubt that he is to be praised. Praise, then, the name of the Lord. The Psalm exhorts us, the Prophet exhorts us, the Spirit of God exhorts us, finally the Lord himself exhorts us, to praise the Lord. For he does not grow by our praises, but we do. God is neither made better, if you praise him; nor worse, if you blame him: but you, by praising the good, will be better; by blaming, worse: but he remains good, as he is. For if he teaches his servants—those who have deserved well of him, the preachers of his word, the rulers of his Church, the venerators of his name, the obeyers of his command—to have in their conscience the sweetness of their good life, that they may not be corrupted by praises, nor broken by the blame of men; how much more does he himself, unchangeable above all things, who teaches these things, not become greater if you praise him, nor less if you blame him? But since it is expedient for us to praise the Lord, mercifully he commands us to praise him, not arrogantly. Let us hear, then, what he says: Praise the name of the Lord, praise the Lord, you servants. For you do nothing unfitting, you servants, by praising the Lord: even if you were always servants only, you ought to praise the Lord; how much more ought you servants to praise the Lord, that you may deserve to be also sons?

2. [v. 2.] But since it is written in another psalm: Praise befits the upright (Ps 33:1 (32:1)); likewise it is written elsewhere: Praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner (Sir 15:9); and likewise elsewhere it is said: The sacrifice of praise will glorify me, and there is the way in which I will show him the salvation of God; and consequently: But to the sinner God said: Why do you declare my just decrees, and take up my covenant through your mouth? But you have hated discipline, and cast my words behind you (Ps 50:23, 16-17 (49:23, 16-17)): lest perhaps anyone, because it was said: Praise the Lord, you servants, even if in this great house there be a bad servant, should think that the praise of the Lord profits him, he at once subjoins and teaches what kind those ought to be who ought to praise the Lord: You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God (Ps 135:2 (134:2)). You who stand, not who collapse. But those are said to stand who persevere in his commandments, who serve God in faith unfeigned, and firm hope, and sincere love, and honor his Church, and do not give offense by living badly to those who wish to come, and find on the way stones of offense. So: You who stand in the house of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Be grateful; you were outside, and you stand inside. Since, then, you stand, is it a small thing for you, where he is to be praised who raised you up as you lay, and made you stand in his house, and acknowledge him, and praise him? is this a small benefit, that we stand in the house of the Lord? Here meanwhile, in this pilgrimage, in this house, which is also called the tabernacle of pilgrimage, because here we stand, should we be ungrateful at all? Should we not consider that here we stand? should we not consider what we had been made? should we not consider where we lay, and to where we were gathered? should we not consider that all the impious did not seek the Lord, and he himself sought them who did not seek him, he himself roused them when found, he himself called them when roused, he himself led them in when called, and made them stand in his house? Whoever considers these things and is not ungrateful, despises himself altogether before the love of his Lord, by whom such great things have been bestowed on him: and since he has nothing to repay God for such great benefits, what remains for him but to give thanks, not to repay? To that very giving of thanks belongs both to take the cup of the Lord, and to call upon his name. For what shall the servant repay the Lord, for all the things which he has repaid to him (See Ps 116:12-13 (115:12-13))? So: You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God, praise the Lord.

3. [v. 3.] What shall I say as to why you should praise? Because the Lord is good. Briefly, in one word, the praise of the Lord our God is set forth: The Lord is good. But good, not as the things he made are good. For God made all things good (See Gen 1:31): not only good, but even very good. Heaven and earth and all the things that are in them he made good, and made them very good. If he made all these things good, what kind is he who made them? And yet, although he made good things, and he who made is much better than the things which he made; you find nothing better to say of him, except that the Lord is good: if indeed you understand good in the proper sense, from whom the rest are good. For he made all good things: he himself is the good whom no one made. He is good by his own good, not by a good shared from elsewhere: he is good by his very self as good, not by cleaving to another good (See Ps 73:28 (72:28)). But for me to cleave to God is good, who did not need one by whom he might be made good; but the rest needed him that they might be made good. Do you wish to hear how singularly he is good? The Lord, when asked, said: No one is good, except God alone (Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19). This singularity of his goodness I neither wish to pass over briefly, nor am I able fittingly to commend. I fear lest, if I pass over it quickly, I be found ungrateful: likewise I fear lest, when I have undertaken to explain it, I be wearied out under so great a burden of the Lord's praise. Yet so, brothers, receive me both praising and not sufficient, that even if the explanation of his praise is not fulfilled, the devotion of the praiser may be accepted. Let him himself approve that I wished, let him pardon that I did not fulfill.

4. I am held by an unspeakable sweetness, when I hear: The Lord is good; and when all the things I see outwardly are considered and surveyed, since all things are from him, even when these things please me, I return to him from whom they are, that I may understand that the Lord is good. Again, when I have entered to him, as far as I can, I find him more inward and higher to me; because the Lord is good in such a way that he does not need those things whereby he might be good. Finally, those things I do not praise without him; but him I find perfect without those things, not in need, unchangeable, seeking no one's good whereby he might be increased, fearing no one's evil whereby he might be diminished. And what more shall I say? I find in creation heaven good, the sun good, the moon good, the stars good; the earth good, the things that are born on the earth and rest on roots, good; the things that walk and move, good; the things that fly in the air and swim in the waters, good. I call man too good: for a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good (Luke 6:45). I call the angel too good, who did not fall by pride and become the devil; but cleaves by obeying to him by whom he was made. All these I call good, but yet with their own names; heaven good, an angel good, a man good: but when I refer myself to God, I think it better to say nothing than 'good.' For the Lord Jesus Christ himself said: A good man; and he himself likewise said: No one is good, except God alone. Did he not spur us to seek and to distinguish what it is to be good by another good, and good by one's own self? How good, then, is he from whom are all good things? You will find absolutely no good that is not good from him. The good making good things, just as he is in the proper sense, so too is good in the proper sense. For the things he made are not nonexistent; nor is an injury done to him when we say that the things he made are not. For why did he make them, if the things he made are not? or what did he make, if what he made is not? Since, then, even those things which he made exist, yet one comes to his comparison; and as though he alone existed, he said: I am who am (Exod 3:14); and: You shall say to the children of Israel: He who is has sent me to you. He did not say: 'The Lord God, that almighty one, merciful, just': which, if he said it, he would surely say truly. Removing from the midst all the things by which God could be named and called, he answered that he himself is called 'to be'; and as though this were his name: This you shall say to them, he says: He who is has sent me. For he is in such a way that, in comparison to him, the things that have been made are not. With him not compared, they are; since they are from him: but compared to him, they are not, because true being is to be unchangeable, which he alone is. For 'is' is, just as the good of goods is good. Consider, and see that whatever else you praise, you praise it because it is good. He is mad who praises what is not good. If you praise a wicked man in that very thing in which he is wicked, will you not too be wicked? If you praise a thief in that very thing in which he is a thief, will you not too be a partaker? If you praise a just man in that very thing in which he is just, do you not too have a part therein by praising? For you would not praise the just man, unless you loved him; you would not love him, if you had nothing from it. If, then, whatever else we praise, we praise it because it is good; no greater and better and firmer cause could be given you for praising God, than because he is good. So: Praise the Lord, because he is good.

5. How long shall we speak of his goodness? Who can conceive or embrace with his heart how good the Lord is? But let us return to ourselves, and acknowledge him in ourselves, and praise the maker in his works; because we are not fit to contemplate him: and if we will sometime be fit to contemplate him, when our heart has been cleansed by faith, that at last it may rejoice in the truth; now, since he cannot be seen by us, let us see his works, that we may not remain without his praise. So I have said: Praise the Lord, because he is good; sing to his name, because it is sweet (Ps 135:3 (134:3)). Perhaps he would be good and not sweet, if he did not give you the ability to taste. But he showed himself such to men, that he even sent bread from heaven (See Ps 78:24-25 (77:24-25)), and gave his equal Son, who is what he himself is, to be made man, and to be slain for men; that through that which you are, you might taste what you are not. For it was much for you to taste the sweetness of God; because it was remote and too high, but you were too cast down and lying in the depths. In this great separation a Mediator was sent. You could not come to God as man; God was made man: that, since as a man you can come to a man, you who could not come to God, might come to God through a man; and there was made a mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (See 1 Tim 2:5). But if he were only man, by following that which you are, you would never arrive; if he were only God, by not comprehending that which you are not, you would never arrive: God was made man, that by following the man, which you can, you might come to God, which you could not. He himself is the Mediator, thence he was made sweet. What is sweeter than the bread of angels? How is the Lord not sweet, when man ate the bread of angels (See Ps 78:25 (77:25))? For man does not live from one thing, and the angel from another. He himself is the truth, he himself is the wisdom, he himself is the power of God: but how the angels enjoy these, you cannot. For how do they enjoy them? As it is: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, through whom all things were made. But how do you reach it? Because the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (Jn 1:1, 14). For that man might eat the bread of angels, the Creator of angels was made man. So sing to his name, because it is sweet. If you have tasted, sing; if you have tasted how sweet the Lord is, sing; if what you have tasted tastes good, praise. Who is so ungrateful either to the one cooking or to the one feeding, that, when he has been delighted by some dish, he does not return thanks by praising what he tastes? If we are not silent about these things, shall we be silent about him who gave all things? Sing to his name, because it is sweet.

6. And hear now his works. For perhaps you were straining to see the good of all goods, the good from which are all goods, the good without which nothing is good, and the good which without the rest is good; you were straining to see it, and perhaps in straining the keenness of your mind you were failing. For this I conjecture from myself; so I suffer. But even if there is someone—as can happen, and very much can—stronger than I in the keenness of mind, and who fixes the gaze of his heart long upon that which is; let him praise as he can, and in the way we cannot, let him praise. Yet thanks to him who in this psalm tempered his praise, so that it might be both of the strong and of the weak. For in that sending of his servant Moses, when he said: I am who am; and: You shall say to the children of Israel: He who is has sent me to you: because for the human mind to grasp that very 'to be' was difficult, and a man was being sent to men, though not by a man; God at once tempered his praise, and said this of himself which could be grasped sweetly; he did not wish to remain in that for which he was praised, which the praiser could not reach. Go, he says, say to the children of Israel, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has sent me to you: this is my name forever (Exod 3:15). Surely, Lord, you have that name; because you also said: I am: He who is has sent me to you: whence have you now changed the name, so as to say: The God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? Does not his reason seem to answer you, and say: What I said: I am who am; is true, but you do not grasp it: but what I said: I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob; is both true, and you grasp it? For that I am who am pertains to me, but that the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob pertains to you: and if you fail in that which I am to myself, grasp what I am to you. And lest perhaps anyone should think that what God said: I am who am; and: He who is has sent me to you, is alone his eternal name; but that what he said: I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, is a temporal name: God did not take care, when he had said: I am who am; and: He who is has sent me to you, to say that this is his name forever; because even if he did not say it, it would be understood. For he is, and truly is, and by that very thing that he truly is, he is without beginning and without end. But because that which is for the sake of man is: I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, lest there human anxiety should arise, because this is temporal, not everlasting, he made us secure, because from temporal things he leads us through to eternal life. This, he says, is my name forever, not because Abraham is eternal, and Isaac is eternal, and Jacob is eternal, but because God makes them eternal afterward without end: for they had a beginning, but they will not have an end.

7. In Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, think of his whole Church, think of all the seed of Israel: but all the seed of Israel, not only that which is of the flesh, but also that which is of faith. For the apostle was speaking to the Gentiles, to whom he said: If, then, you are Christ's, then you are the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise (Gal 3:29). So we are all blessed in the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He blessed a certain tree, and made it an olive, as the apostle said—the holy patriarchs themselves, whence the people of God flowered: but this olive tree was pruned, not cut down, and from it the proud branches were broken off; this is the blasphemous and impious people of the Jews. Yet good and useful branches remained; for thence the apostles. And when useful branches had been left there, by the mercy of God the wild olive of the Gentiles too was grafted in, to which the apostle says: But you, though you were a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and were made a partaker of the richness of the olive. Do not boast against the branches: but if you boast, you do not bear the root, but the root you (Rom 11:17-18). This is one tree belonging to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; and what is more, the wild olive grafted in belongs more to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob than the broken branches. For they, by the breaking off, are no longer there; the wild olive was not there, and is there: they deserved by pride to be broken off, this one deserved by humility to be grafted in; they lost the root, this one held it. When, then, you have heard of the Israel of God, the Israel belonging to God, do not make yourselves strangers to it. You were indeed a wild olive, but you are an olive, partakers of the richness of the olive. For do you wish to know in Abraham and Isaac and Jacob how the wild olive is grafted in, lest you think that you do not belong to this tree, because you do not belong carnally to the seed of Abraham? When the Lord marveled at the faith of that centurion who was not of the people of Israel, but was of the people of the Gentiles: Therefore, he says, I say to you, that many will come from the east and the west. Behold, now the wild olive is in the hand of the grafter: Many will come from the east and the west. We see what he carries to be grafted; let us see where he grafts it: And they will recline, he says, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. We see both what he grafted, and where he grafted it. Of the proud natural branches, what does he say? But the sons of the kingdom will go into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 8:10-12). A thing foretold, a thing fulfilled.

8. [v. 4.] So: Sing to the Lord, because he is sweet. And attend to what he did concerning us. Because the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel for a possession for himself (Ps 135:4 (134:4)). Praise, sing, because he did these things. I speak such things as you can grasp. The other nations he set under angels; the Lord chose Jacob for himself, Israel for a possession for himself. He made his own nation a field, which he might cultivate, which he himself might sow: although he himself founded all the nations, the rest he committed to angels, but this one he appointed to be possessed and kept by himself; this people, this Jacob. By his own merit, or by his own grace? Of those not yet born he says: Because the greater will serve the lesser (Gen 25:23; Rom 9:12); the apostle said it. What merit could those not yet born have, before any of them had done anything good or evil? So let not Jacob exalt himself, let him not boast, let him not attribute it to his own merits. He was foreknown beforehand, predestined beforehand, chosen beforehand: not chosen by his own merits, but found and made alive by the grace of God. So too all the nations: for that it might be grafted in, what did the wild olive deserve by the bitterness of its berries, by its wild barrenness? For it was wood of the forest, not of the Lord's field; and yet he, by his mercy, grafted in even the wild olive into the olive. But the wild olive was not yet grafted in, when the Lord chose Jacob for himself, Israel for a possession for himself.

9. [v. 5.] And what does the Prophet say? Because I have known that the Lord is great (Ps 135:5 (134:5)). With his mind flying to things above, raised from the flesh, transcending creation, he knew that the Lord is great. Not all can know by seeing: let them praise what he did: He is sweet; the Lord chose Jacob for himself; Israel for a possession for himself. And from this praise him; for I too have known that the Lord is great. The Prophet was speaking, who entered into the sanctuary of God, who perhaps heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter (See 2 Cor 12:4); who said what could be said to men, and held with himself what could not be said. So let both that which we can be heard, and that which we cannot be believed. As to what we can, let it be heard: Because the Lord chose Jacob for himself, Israel for a possession for himself; as to what we cannot, let it be believed, that he himself knew that the Lord is great. If we said to him: We ask you, explain his greatness; would he not perhaps answer us: He whom I see is not very great, if he can be explained by me? So let him return to his works, and tell us. Let him have in his conscience the greatness of the Lord, which he saw, which he commended to us to be believed; to which he could not bring our eyes: and let him enumerate certain things which here the Lord did; that even to us, who cannot see his greatness as he saw it, it may grow sweet from his works, which we can grasp. Because I, he says, have known that the Lord is great, and our God is above all gods. What gods? As the apostle says: Even if there are those that are called gods in heaven and on earth; as there are many gods and many lords; yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord of ours, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him (1 Cor 8:5-6). Let men be called gods: for it was said: God stood in the synagogue of gods (Ps 82:1 (81:1)). It was said: I said: You are gods and all sons of the Most High (Ps 82:6 (81:6)): is he not God above men? But what great thing is it, if God is above men? He is God above the angels too: because the angels did not make God, God made the angels; and it must be that he who made is above all that he made. So this man, knowing the greatness of the Lord, and seeing that he is above all creation, not only bodily, but also spiritual: A great King, he says, above all gods. He himself is the supreme God who has no god above himself. Let him tell his works, those are grasped.

10. [v. 6.] All things whatsoever he willed, the Lord did, in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in all the deeps (Ps 135:6 (134:6)). But who can comprehend these things? who can enumerate the works of the Lord in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in all the deeps? Yet even if we cannot comprehend all things, we ought unshakenly to believe and to hold that whatever of creatures is in heaven, whatever on earth, whatever in the sea and in all the deeps was made by the Lord; because all things which he willed, he did in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in all the deeps, as we have already said. Not all the things he made was he compelled to make, but all things whatsoever he willed, he did: the cause of all the things he made is his will. You build a house, because if you were unwilling to build, you would remain without a dwelling: necessity compels you to build a house, not free will. You make a garment, because if you did not make it, you would walk naked: so to make a garment you are led by necessity, not by free will. You plant a hill with vines, you scatter seed, because unless you did it, you would not have food: all these things you do by necessity. God made by goodness, he needed none of the things he made; therefore all things whatsoever he willed, he did.

11. Do you suppose we too have something which we do by free will? For the things we have spoken of, we do by necessity; because if we did not do them, we would remain in want and need. Do we find something which we do by free will? We do plainly find it, when by loving God we praise him. For this you do by free will, when you love what you praise; for not by necessity, but because it pleases. Whence God pleased the just and holy of God, even while scourging them. When he displeases all the wicked, he pleased them; and under his scourge, set in hardship, in labors, in wounds, in want, they praised God: he did not displease them even while tormenting them. This is to love freely, not as it were with the receiving of a reward set before one; because that reward of yours, the highest, will be God himself, whom you love freely: and you ought so to love that you do not cease to desire him for a reward, who alone can satisfy you; as Philip desired, when he said: Show us the Father, and it is enough for us (Jn 14:8). Rightly, because we do this by free will, and ought to do it by free will, because we do it being delighted, we do it by loving; because even if we are rebuked by him, he ought never to displease us, who is always just. This that praiser of his said: In me, O God, are your vows, which I will render of praise to you (Ps 56:12 (55:12)). And in another place: Freely will I sacrifice to you (Ps 54:6 (53:8)). What is: Freely will I sacrifice? Freely will I praise you. Because: The sacrifice of praise, he says, will glorify me (Ps 50:23 (49:23)). If you were compelled to offer to your Lord a sacrifice pleasing and acceptable to him, as formerly sacrifices were vowed in the shadow of things to come; perhaps you would not find in your herd a bull pleasing, and among the goats a he-goat worthy of the altar of the Lord, nor in your fold a ram worthy as a victim for your Lord; and not finding one you would be busy as to what to do, and would perhaps say to God: I wished, and I had it not. Can you say of praise: I wished, and I had it not? To have wished it is to have praised. For God does not seek words from you, but the heart. Finally, you can say: I had no tongue either. If anyone is struck dumb by some illness, he had no tongue, and yet he had praise. For if God had bodily ears, and needed the sound of your body, then when you remained without a tongue, you would remain without praise too: but now, because he seeks the heart, looks at the heart, within is the witness, the judge, the approver, the helper, the crowner; it is enough that you offer the will. When you can, you confess with the mouth unto salvation; but when you cannot, you believe with the heart unto justice (See Rom 10:9-10): with the heart you praise, with the heart you bless, with the heart you lay the sacred victims on the altar of conscience; and it is answered to you: Peace on earth to men of good will (Luke 2:14).

12. That God, then, who is almighty, did in heaven and on earth all things whatsoever he willed; you in your house do not do all the things you wish: he did in heaven and on earth all things whatsoever he willed; you, do even in your field all the things you wish. You wish many things, and you cannot in your house do all the things you wish: perhaps your wife contradicts, your sons contradict, sometimes even a little slave by his stubbornness contradicts, and you do not do what you wish. But I do, you say, what I wish; because I take vengeance on the disobedient and the contradicting. Not even this do you do when you wish: sometimes you wish to take vengeance, and you cannot; sometimes you threaten, and before you do what you threaten, you die. Do we suppose you do in yourself what you wish? do you bridle all your desires? Perhaps you bridle them; but do you bring it about that the very desires which you bridle do not arise? Surely you wish this, not to be tickled by the trouble of your desires; and yet the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that you do not do the things that you wish (Gal 5:17). You in yourself do not do what you wish; but our God in heaven and on earth did all things whatsoever he willed. May he give you grace, that in yourself you may do what you wish; for unless he helps, you do not even in yourself do what you wish. For when even that man did not do in himself what he wished, who said: The flesh lusts against the spirit, but the spirit against the flesh, so that you do not do the things that you wish; when he groaned over himself, saying: I delight in the law of God according to the inner man; but I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members (Rom 7:22-23): because not only in his house, nor only in his field, but in his flesh or in his spirit he did not fulfill the things he wished, he cried out to God, who did all things whatsoever he willed in heaven and on earth; and said: Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? and that good and that sweet one, as though answering him, he at once subjoined: The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:24-25). This sweetness, then, love, this sweetness praise. Understand the God who did all things whatsoever he willed in heaven and on earth; he himself will do in you too what you wish, with him helping you will fulfill your will. But while you cannot, confess; when you can, give thanks: as you lie, cry out; when raised up, do not be proud. So he did in heaven and on earth all things whatsoever he willed, in the sea and in all the deeps.

13. [v. 7.] Raising up clouds from the end of the earth (Ps 135:7 (134:7)). We see these works of the Lord in his creation: for clouds come from the end of the earth to the middle, and rain; whence they have risen you do not know. So the Prophet points it out: from the end of the earth, whether from the lowest, or from the encircling of the ends of the earth, he rouses clouds from where he wills, yet from the earth. He made lightnings into rain. For lightnings without rain would terrify you, and give you nothing. He made lightnings into rain. There are lightnings, you tremble; it rains, you rejoice. He made lightnings into rain; he who terrified, he himself acted that you might rejoice. Who brings forth winds from his treasuries: by hidden causes, whence you do not know. For that the wind blows, you feel; by what cause it happens, or from what treasury of reason it has been brought forth, you do not know: yet you owe to God the devotion of believing that it would not blow unless he commanded who made it, unless he brought it forth who created it.

14. [vv. 8-12.] So we see these things in this creation; we praise, we marvel, we bless God: let us see what he did among men for the sake of his people. Who struck the firstborn of Egypt. For those things were said as divine which you would love, and there were things said which you would fear: attend, that even when he is angry, he does what he wills. He struck the firstborn of Egypt, from man even to beast. He sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and against all his servants (Ps 135:8-9 (134:8-9)). You know, you have read, how great things the hand of the Lord did through Moses in Egypt, to terrify, to crush, to cast down the proud Egyptians. Against Pharaoh and against all his servants. It is too little in Egypt; what after the people were led out from there? Who struck many nations: which possessed the land that God wished to give to his people. And slew strong kings; Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan (Ps 135:10-11 (134:10-11)). All these things, as the Psalm mentions them briefly, so we read them in other books of the Lord, and great is the hand of the Lord there. When you see what was done against the impious, take care lest it be done against you: for it was done against them for this, that you might pass over, and not imitate them, and not suffer such things. Yet see that the scourge of the Lord is over all flesh. Do not think that you are not seen when you sin, do not think that you are despised, do not think that the Lord sleeps: attend to the examples of the benefits of God, when you recall them; and when you recall the vengeance of God, fear. He is almighty, both to console and to chastise. Therefore these things are useful when they are read. But when the devout man sees what the impious man suffered, he purges himself from all impiety, lest he too come into such punishment and such vengeance. So you have rightly received these things. What then did God do? He drove out the impious: And gave their land for an inheritance, an inheritance for Israel his servant (Ps 135:12 (134:12)).

15. [v. 13.] Then the exultation of his praise: O Lord, your name is forever (Ps 135:13 (134:13)); after all these things which you did. For what do I see of the things you did? I look upon your creation which you made in heaven, I look upon this lower part where we dwell; and from here I see your benefits, of the clouds, the winds, the rains. I attend to your people: you led them out of the house of slavery, and did signs and wonders among their enemies, you punished those whom they endured as troublesome, you cast the impious out of their land, you slew their kings, you gave their land to your people; I have seen all things, and, filled with praise, I said: O Lord, your name is forever.

16. [v. 6.] These things, indeed, as they were written according to the letter, we see, we know, we praise. But if they signify something, let me not be burdensome, while I explain it as I can. Behold, in men themselves I can recognize that in heaven and on earth he did all things whatsoever he willed. For by the heaven, the ethereal heaven, I understand spiritual men; by earth, carnal men: of these two, as of heaven and earth, the Church of God consists; and to the spiritual belongs preaching, to the carnal belongs compliance. For the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament announces the works of his hands (Ps 19:1 (18:2)). But if the people of God were not the earth of God, the apostle would not say: You are God's building, God's tillage: as a wise architect I laid the foundation; another builds upon it (1 Cor 3:9-10). So we are the building of God, and we are the field of God. Who, he says, plants a vineyard, and does not partake of its fruit? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase (1 Cor 9:7; 3:6). So both in his Church, and in his preachers, and in his peoples, as in heaven and on earth, he did all things whatsoever he willed. It is too little in them: In the sea and in all the deeps he did all things whatsoever he willed. The sea is all the unbelievers, all who do not yet believe, and in them he did all things whatsoever he willed. For the unbelievers do not rage, except by permission; nor is vengeance taken on them, when they are perverse, unless he commanded who made all the nations. Suppose that it is sea, and not earth; is it therefore alien from the power of almighty God? And in the sea and in all the deeps he did what he willed. What are the deeps? The hidden hearts of mortals, the deep thoughts of men. How does God do there too what he wills? Because the Lord questions the just and the impious: but he who loves iniquity hates his own soul (Ps 11:5 (10:6)). And where does he question him? Elsewhere it is written: In the thoughts of the impious there will be questioning (Wis 1:9). So, and in all the deeps he did all things whatsoever he willed. The good heart is hidden, the evil heart is hidden; there is a deep both in the good heart and in the evil heart: but these are bare to God, from whom nothing is hidden. He consoles the good heart, he torments the evil heart. So he did all things which he willed in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in all the deeps.

17. [v. 7.] Raising up clouds from the end of the earth. What clouds? The preachers of the word of his truth. Of which clouds, in another place, being angry at his vineyard, he says: I will command my clouds not to rain rain upon it (Isa 5:6). And it is too little to have roused clouds from Jerusalem or from Israel, which he sent to preach his Gospel in the whole world; of which clouds it was said: Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Ps 19:4 (18:5)); this is too little: but because the Lord himself says: This Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matt 24:14); he rouses clouds from the end of the earth. For, the Gospel growing, whence will there be preachers of the Gospel at the ends of the earth, unless he rouses clouds there from the end of the earth? But of those clouds, what does he work? He made lightnings into rain: he bent threats to mercy, from terrors he watered. How did he water from terrors? When God threatens you through a prophet and through an apostle, and you fear; did not the flash terrify you? But when by repenting you are corrected, and acknowledge that this is done by mercy, the terror of the lightning is turned into rain. Who brings forth winds from his treasuries. The same preachers I think to be both clouds and winds: clouds, on account of the flesh; winds, on account of the spirit. For clouds are seen, winds are felt and not seen. Finally, since we see that the flesh is of the earth: The clouds, he says, he rouses from the end of the earth. He had expressed whence he rouses the clouds: he comes to the winds, because the spirit of man is not known whence it comes: Bringing forth, he says, winds from his treasuries. Attend a little, and let us see the rest.

18. [v. 8.] Who struck the firstborn of Egypt from man even to beast. May our firstborn be safe to the Lord, since he himself gave them to us. But a troublesome punishment it is, and an exceedingly terrible blow, the death of the firstborn. What are our firstborn? These our morals, by which we now serve God, these are our firstborn. For we have as firstfruits faith itself, from which we begin. For to the Church it was said: You will come, and pass over from the beginning of faith (See Song 4:8): and no one begins to live well, except from faith. So our faith is in our firstborn. When our faith is guarded, the rest can follow. For that men are purified daily by making progress to the better, and by living better, the inner man himself being renewed day by day, as the apostle says: Even though our outer man is corrupted, yet the inner is renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:16); this comes about because the firstborn faith lives, of which firstborn faith the apostle too says: And not only that, but we ourselves too, having the firstfruits of the spirit; that is, now giving to God the firstfruits of our spirit, that is, faith itself as our firstborn; yet we groan within ourselves, awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body (Rom 8:23). If, then, it is a great grace of God that our faith be preserved; it is a great punishment to kill the firstborn, when men, set in the affliction of the Church, lose faith. For they afflict the Church, that they may destroy faith: for Egypt itself is interpreted 'affliction.' Whoever, then, afflict the Church, whoever bring scandals into the Church, even if they are called Christians, their firstborn die. They will be unbelievers, they will be empty, having the name only and the sign: but in the heart they have buried their firstborn; so much so, that when you say something to such a one, for the sake of a good life, for the sake of the hope of eternal life, and on account of the fear of eternal fire, he sneers within himself; or if he is such as to dare to do so before you, he twists his mouth and says: Who has come back here from there? men say to themselves what they wish. And he is a Christian; but because, by afflicting, his firstborn has been slain, his faith is dead: and this from man even to beast. I will say, brothers, what I think. I understand men to be spiritually signified as the learned, on account of the rational soul, which is man: but beasts, the unlearned; yet having faith, for otherwise they would not have firstborn. There are learned men who afflict the Church, by making schisms and heresies. Accordingly you do not find faith in them either, since they have become Egypt, that is, affliction to the people of God. Their firstborn have been slain: they drag after themselves the unlearned crowds; these are the beasts. So in this affliction by which the Church is afflicted, faith dies in those who afflict: the firstborn die both in the learned themselves and in the unlearned; because God slew the firstborn of the Egyptians from man even to beast.

19. [v. 9.] He sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and against all his servants. Pharaoh is the king of the Egyptians. Attend to the name, and see how God does these things. The king in every nation is first; Egypt is 'Affliction,' Pharaoh is 'Dissipation.' So Affliction has Dissipation for its king; because those who afflict the Church afflict her, having been dissipated. For in order to afflict, they are dissipated: since the king leads, the people follow; dissipation goes before, affliction follows. Hear, hear these names, full of typical interpretation and wisdom: you do not find one of these names which interprets anything good, where God exercised his anger.

20. [vv. 10-11.] He struck many nations, and slew strong kings. Say what kings and what nations? Sihon king of the Amorites. Hear names pregnant with mysteries. Sihon the king, he says: of the Amorites he slew. He slew indeed; and now too let him slay from the hearts of his servants, and from the temptations of his Church, nor let his hand cease in slaying such kings and such peoples: for 'Sihon' is interpreted 'Temptation of the eyes'; the Amorites are interpreted 'Embittering ones.' Now here see whether we can understand how the embittering ones have temptation of the eyes for their king. The temptation of the eyes is nothing but a lie: it has color, it does not have truth. Now what wonder is it if the embittering ones have such a king, a lying king? For unless lying and pretense go before, there are no embittering ones in the Church; for they embitter precisely because they feign. The temptation of the eyes goes before, embittering follows: and in the devil himself it went before; for the temptation of the eyes is that he transfigures himself as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14). May the hand of the Lord slay both him and them; him, that he may not lead astray; them, that they may be corrected. For in each man that king is slain, when he condemns pretense, and loves truth. The hand of God does not cease to do this. For just as he did literally then, so he does now spiritually, that he may fulfill what then he prophetically foretold. He slew also another king and another people of his: And Og king of Bashan. And how evil is this one too! 'Og' is interpreted 'shutting off'; 'Bashan' is interpreted 'confusion.' That king is evil who shuts off the way to God. For this the devil does; always by setting up his fictions, by setting up his idols, by setting up himself as necessary through the possessed, fortune-tellers, augurs, soothsayers, magicians, the rites of demons, he shuts off the way. Just as through Christ it is brought about that the way may be open, which had been shut off; for through him a certain redeemed man says: And in my God I shall leap over the wall (Ps 18:29 (17:30)): so the devil does nothing else but shut off the way, that there may be no belief in God. For if there is belief in God, the way is open; and Christ himself is the way (See Jn 14:6): but if there is no belief in God, the way is shut off. But if it has been shut off, because there is no belief; what remains, except that when he comes in whom they did not believe, those who did not believe should be confounded? Why? Because the shutting off goes before, and confusion follows: the shutting off goes before as king, confusion follows as the people. Those whom he now shuts off, that they may not believe in Christ, when Christ has appeared, all will be confounded, and their iniquities will set themselves against them face to face. Then the confounded impious will say: What has pride profited us (Wis 5:8)? Great mysteries, my brothers. Dissipation is the king of affliction; they are dissipated that they may afflict. Great mysteries. Temptation of the eyes, that is, deceit, is the king of the embittering ones; for they deceive that they may embitter. Shutting off is the king of confusion; for they are shut off that they may not pass over to faith, and when he comes in whom we believe, they will be confounded. And all the kingdoms of Canaan God slew. 'Canaan' is interpreted 'prepared for humiliation.' Humility as it were signifies something good, but only if the humility be useful: for evil humiliation is penal. For if humiliation did not pertain to punishment, it would not be said: He who exalts himself will be humbled (Luke 14:11): for no benefit is bestowed on him, when he is punished that he may be humbled. So Canaan is now proud. Every impious man, every unbeliever exalts his heart; he does not wish to believe in God. But this exaltation is prepared for humiliation on the day of judgment; then he will be humbled, when he does not wish: for they are vessels of wrath, which have been completed for destruction (See Rom 9:22). Now let them exalt themselves, chatter, stretch themselves over the faithful, mock the faithful, blaspheme Christians; let them say: These things they say about the day of judgment are old wives' tales. This their elation is prepared for humiliation. When the judge shall come, who now, being announced, is mocked; then he who now is proud, not usefully, but penally will be humbled. But now he is not humbled, but is prepared for humiliation, that is, prepared for damnation, prepared as a victim.

21. [v. 13.] All these things, then, God overthrew; bodily then, when our fathers were led out of the land of Egypt; he overthrows spiritually now, nor does his hand cease until the end. Therefore, lest you think these powers of God ceased, accomplished then: O Lord, your name, he says, is forever. That is, your mercy does not cease, your hand does not cease forever to do these things, which then you foretold by figuring them: For all those things happened to them in figure; but they were written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Cor 10:11). O Lord, your memorial is from generation to generation (Ps 135:13 (134:13)). This generation and another generation: the generation by which we are made faithful, and are reborn through Baptism; the generation by which we shall rise from the dead, and, joined to the angels, shall live forever. Your memorial, O Lord, both over this generation and over that generation: because neither now has he forgotten us, so as to call us; nor then will he forget us, so as to crown us. Your memorial, O Lord, is from generation to generation.

22. [v. 14.] Because the Lord has judged his people. He certainly fulfilled all those things in the people of the Jews. Have his works now remained over, after he led his people into the land of promise? Plainly he will still judge: The Lord has judged his people, and he will be entreated in his servants (Ps 135:14 (134:14)). He has already judged that very people; apart from the judgment to come, the people of the Jews has been judged. What is, has been judged? The just have been separated from there, and the unjust have remained. But if I lie or am thought to lie, because I said: It has already been judged; hear the Lord saying: For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see; and those who see may become blind (Jn 9:39). The proud have been blinded, the humble have been enlightened. He has judged, then, his people. That very judgment Isaiah spoke: And now you house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. This is too little, but what follows? For he has sent away his people, the house of Israel (Isa 2:5-6). The house of Jacob is the house of Israel; for he who is Jacob is himself Israel. You know the holy Letters, and I think it comes to your mind that Jacob himself, when he saw the angel wrestling with him, then received the name to be called Israel (See Gen 32:24-28). He is one man, whether Jacob or Israel; he is one person: the house of Jacob and the house of Israel, one nation, one people; this he invites, and this he sends away. And now indeed you have already slain Christ, O house of Jacob; you have already slain Christ, you have already wagged your head before the cross, you have already mocked him hanging, you have already said: If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross (Matt 27:40). The physician has already prayed for the frenzied: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). Surely you have already done all these things, and now believe in him whom you slew, drink the blood which you shed. And now you house of Jacob, by the testimony of Isaiah I wish to expound what he said here: Because the Lord has judged his people, and he will be entreated in his servants. For he is understood to have judged his people, by separating in his own people the good from the evil, the faithful from the unbelieving, the apostles from the lying Jews. This he signified, as I had begun to say, saying through the Prophet: Now after all those evil things of yours, O you house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. Why do I say to you: Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord? Lest, by remaining in Judaism, you do not come to Christ. For why? Was not Christ always prophesied there? But now he has sent away his people, the house of Israel. Come, house of Jacob, because he has sent away his people the house of Jacob; come, house of Israel, because he has sent away his people the house of Israel. Which has come, and which has been sent away, except that this is the judgment, that those who do not see may see; and those who see may become blind (Jn 9:39)? The Lord, then, has judged his people. So he separated, and will he not find there those whom he may restore into his kingdom? Plainly he will find them: And he will be entreated in his servants. He has not rejected, says the apostle, his people, whom he foreknew. And whence does he prove it? For I too am an Israelite (Rom 11:2, 1). So the Lord has judged his people, by separating the good from the evil: this is: And he will be entreated in his servants. By whom? By the Gentiles. For how many nations have come by believing! how many estates, how many deserted places now come! There come from there I know not how many, they wish to believe, we say to them: What do you wish? They answer: To know the glory of God. Believe me, brothers, that we marvel and rejoice at such a voice of country folk. They come from I know not where, roused by I know not whom: what do I say, by I know not whom? Rather I know by whom; because: No one comes, he says, to me, unless the Father has drawn him (Jn 6:44). They come suddenly from the forest, from the desert, from the most remote and steep mountains to the Church, and most of them, and nearly all of them, have this voice, that we may see God truly teaching within: the prophetic Scripture is fulfilled by which it was said: They will all be teachable by God (Isa 54:13; Jn 6:45). What do you desire, we say to them? And they: To see the glory of God. For all have sinned, and need the glory of God (Rom 3:23). They believe, they are consecrated, they demand that clergy be ordained for them. Is it not fulfilled: And he will be entreated in his servants?

23. [vv. 15-17.] Finally, after all this arrangement and dispensation, the Spirit of God turns himself to reproaching and mocking the idols, which are now mocked even by their own worshippers: The idols of the nations are silver and gold (Ps 135:15 (134:15)). With God doing all these things, who in heaven and on earth did all things whatsoever he willed, who judged his people, and will be entreated in his servants; what remains for the figment, except to be laughed at, not adored? He was perhaps about to say 'the idols of the nations,' that we might despise all those things; was he about to say the idols of the nations are stones and wood, plaster and earthenware? I do not say these things; the material is cheap: that which they greatly love, or which they greatly honor, I say: The idols of the nations are silver and gold. Surely it is gold, surely it is silver; is it because silver shines, gold shines, that they therefore have eyes and see? Just as it is silver, just as it is gold, useful perhaps to the avaricious, not to the religious; rather, not even useful to the avaricious, but useful to one who uses it well, and by spending it acquires a heavenly treasure: yet now, since these things are senseless, why do you men make gods of silver and gold? The gods you make, do you not see that they do not see (See Wis 15:15)? They have eyes, and they will not see; they have ears, and they will not hear; they have nostrils, and they will not smell; they have a mouth, and they will not speak; they have hands, and they will not work; they have feet, and they will not walk (Ps 135:16-17 (134:16-17)). All these things the craftsman, the silversmith, the goldsmith was able to make—both eyes, and ears, and nostrils, and a mouth, and hands, and feet; but he could give neither light to the eyes, nor hearing to the ears, nor voice to the mouth, nor sense to the nostrils, nor motion to the hands, nor a path to the feet.

24. [v. 18.] O man, you laugh now, without doubt, at what you made, if you have come to know him by whom you were made. But of those who have not come to know him, what is said? Let all who make them become like them, and all who trust in them. And do you believe, brothers, that there is expressed in them a certain likeness of the idols, not indeed in their flesh, but in their inner man? For they have ears, and do not hear: for to them God cries: He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Matt 11:15). They have eyes, and do not see: for they have the eyes of the body, but do not have the eyes of faith. Finally, this prophecy is fulfilled throughout all the nations: see how it was said by the prophet. I mention nothing allegorical, nothing figured: hear the proper, express, simple, manifest prophecy foretold, see it fulfilled. The Lord prevailed, he says, against them; the prophet Zephaniah says it. Against those who resist, against those who rebel, and by the slaying of the faithful make martyrs, though without knowing it; the Lord prevailed against them. And how did he prevail? In his Church we see that he prevailed against them. They wished to extinguish, to kill a few Christians; they shed blood: from the blood of the slain so many rose up, by whom those killers of the martyrs were overcome. Yet even now they seek where to hide their idols, who at first butchered Christians on account of idols. Did not the Lord prevail against them? See whether he does what follows: The Lord prevailed against them. And what did he do? He destroyed all the gods of the nations of the earth; and they will adore him, each one from his own place, all the islands of the nations (Zeph 2:11). What is this? Was it not foretold? was it not fulfilled? is it not seen as it is read? And those who have remained have eyes, and do not see; nostrils, and do not smell. They do not perceive that fragrance: We are the good fragrance of Christ, as the apostle says, in every place (2 Cor 2:14-15). What does it profit, that they have nostrils, and do not smell the so sweet fragrance of Christ? Truly it has come to pass in them, and truly it was said of them: Let all who make them become like them, and all who trust in them.

25. [vv. 19-20.] But daily they believe through the miracles of Christ the Lord, daily the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf are opened, the nostrils of the senseless are inspired, the mouths of the dumb are loosed, the hands of the paralyzed are bound up, the feet of the lame are set straight, from these stones sons of Abraham are raised up (See Matt 3:9): to all of whom let it now be said: House of Israel, bless the Lord. All are sons of Abraham; and if from these stones sons of Abraham are raised up, it is plain that those are more the house of Israel who belong to the house of Israel, who belong to the seed of Abraham, not by flesh, but by faith: House of Israel, bless the Lord. But grant that it is said of that house, and that the people of Israel is called; from there the apostles believed, and thousands of the circumcised. House of Israel, bless the Lord; house of Aaron, bless the Lord; house of Levi, bless the Lord (Ps 135:19-20 (134:19-20)). Bless the Lord, you peoples, that is, the house of Israel in general; bless, you prelates, that is, the house of Aaron; bless, you ministers, that is, the house of Levi. What of the other nations? You who fear the Lord, bless the Lord (Ps 135:20 (134:20)).

26. [v. 21.] So let us all with one voice say what follows: Blessed be the Lord out of Zion, who dwells in Jerusalem (Ps 135:21 (134:21)). Out of Zion and Jerusalem. Zion is 'Watching,' Jerusalem is 'Vision of peace.' In which Jerusalem is he now about to dwell? In that one which fell? No, but in that mother of ours, which is in the heavens, of which it was said: Many are the sons of the deserted, more than of her who has a husband (Isa 54:1; Gal 4:27). So now the Lord is out of Zion, because we watch until he comes: yet now, as long as we live in hope, we are in Zion. The way being finished, we will dwell in that city, which will never collapse; because both the Lord dwells in it, and guards it: which is the vision of peace, the eternal Jerusalem, of that peace, my brothers, for the praise of which the tongue does not suffice, where we will feel no enemy any more, neither in the Church, nor outside the Church, nor in our flesh, nor in our thought. Death will be swallowed up in victory, and we will have leisure to see God in eternal peace, made citizens of Jerusalem, the city of God (See 1 Cor 15:54).

Exposition of Psalm 136

1. [v. 1.] Confess to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy is forever (Ps 136:1 (135:1)). This psalm contains the praise of God, and in all its verses it ends in the same way. Accordingly, although here many things are said in praise of God, yet most of all his mercy is commended, with whose most plain commendation he willed no verse to be closed, by which the Holy Spirit composed the Psalm. But I remember that in the one hundred fifth psalm, which begins similarly—since the manuscript which I was looking at does not have forever (in aeternum), but his mercy is for the age (in saeculum)—I asked what we ought rather to understand: for in the Greek language it is written what can be interpreted both 'for the age' and 'forever.' But what I there discussed, as I could, it is long to weave over again here too. But in this psalm even that same manuscript does not have for the age, which most have; but, his mercy is forever. And although, after the judgment by which at the end of the age the living and the dead are to be judged, the just being sent into eternal life, but the wicked into eternal burning (See Matt 25:46), there will not thereafter be those of whom God still has mercy; yet his mercy can rightly be understood to be forever, which he bestows on his holy and faithful ones: not because they will be wretched forever, and therefore will forever need his mercy; but because the very blessedness which he mercifully grants to the wretched, that they may cease to be wretched, and begin to be blessed, will have no end, therefore his mercy is forever. For that we will be just from unjust, healthy from weak, alive from dead, immortal from mortal, blessed from wretched, is his mercy. But that we will be so, will be forever: so his mercy is forever. Accordingly: Confess to the Lord, that is, by confessing praise the Lord; for he is good. Nor for this confession are you about to receive anything temporal; for his mercy is forever, that is, the benefit which he mercifully bestows on you is eternal. But where it has: For he is good, the Greek has chrestos: not as in the one hundred fifth psalm; what there is: For he is good, the Greek has agathos. Therefore some have interpreted that as, For he is sweet. But he is not just somehow good, but most excellently good.

2. [vv. 2-3.] Then it follows: Confess to the God of gods; for his mercy is forever. Confess to the Lord of lords; for his mercy is forever (Ps 136:2-3 (135:2-3)). Who, then, are the gods and lords, of which gods and lords he is God and Lord, who is the true God; is rightly often asked. And we find it written in another psalm that men too are called gods, as it is: God stood in the synagogue of gods; but in the midst he distinguishes the gods: and a little after: I said: You are gods and all sons of the Most High; but you will die like men, and fall like one of the princes (Ps 82:1, 6-7 (81:1, 6-7)). Which testimony the Lord too mentions in the Gospel, saying: Is it not written in your Law, that, I said: You are gods? If he called those gods to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken; do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, You blaspheme, because I said: I am the Son of God (Jn 10:34-36)? So not because all are good, but because the word of God came to them, they were called gods. For if it were because all were good, he would not so distinguish them. For when he had said: God stood in the synagogue of gods; he did not say: In the midst he distinguishes gods and men, as if showing what difference there is between gods and men: but: In the midst, he says, he distinguishes the gods. Then it follows: How long will you judge iniquity? and the rest: which surely he says not to all but to certain ones, because he says it distinguishing; and yet in the midst he distinguishes the gods.

3. But it is asked, if men to whom the word of God came are called gods, whether the angels too are to be called gods; since to just and holy men the greatest reward is promised, equality with the angels. And in the Scriptures indeed I do not know whether it can, or can easily, be found, that angels are openly called gods; but when it had been said of the Lord God: Terrible above all gods, why he said this, he at once added, as it were by way of exposition: For the gods of the nations are demons (Ps 96:4-5 (95:4-5)). Above such gods he said the Lord is terrible in his saints, whom he made heavens, by whom the demons might be terrified. For so it follows: But the Lord made the heavens. So not: Gods without addition; but: The gods of the nations are demons: yet above he says: Terrible above all gods; he does not say, above all the gods of the nations, although he wished this to be understood, by adding what follows: For the gods of the nations are demons. But this in Hebrew is said not to be so written; but: The gods of the nations are images. And if this is true, all the more are the Seventy to be believed to have interpreted by the divine Spirit, by which Spirit those things too were said which are in the Hebrew letters. For by the working of the same Spirit, this too had to be said which was said: The gods of the nations are demons: that we might understand that thus too it was set down in the Hebrew: The gods of the nations are images; so that the demons which are in the images might rather be signified. For as to the images themselves, which in Greek are called idols, by which name we now use for the Latin, they have eyes and do not see; and the rest which are said of them precisely because they lack all sense: wherefore they cannot even be terrified, because, except for the things that have sense, they surely cannot be terrified. How, then, was it said of the Lord: He is terrible above all gods, for the gods of the nations are images, unless by the images are understood the demons, which can be terrified? Whence the apostle too says: We know that an idol is nothing (1 Cor 8:4): for this he referred to the earthly matter lacking sense. Likewise, lest anyone should think there is no living and sentient nature which delights in the sacrifices of the nations, he added: But the things which the nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. I do not wish you to become companions of the demons (1 Cor 10:20). If, then, nowhere in the divine words is it found that the holy angels are called gods, this cause especially occurs to me, lest by that name men should be built up to this, that they should render the ministry or service of religion (which in Greek is called liturgy, or latria) to the holy angels; which they themselves do not wish to be rendered by men, except to that God who is the God both of themselves and of men. Whence much more usefully they are called angels, who in Latin are called messengers; that by a name not of substance, but of office, we may sufficiently understand that they wish us to worship that God whom they announce. So the whole of this question the apostle briefly resolves, where he says: For even if there are those that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth; as there are many gods and many lords, but for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him (1 Cor 8:5-6).

4. [v. 4.] So let us confess to the God of gods, and the Lord of lords; for his mercy is forever. Who alone does great wonders (Ps 136:4 (135:4)). Just as in the last parts of all the verses there is set: For his mercy is forever; so at the heads of all, although it is not set, it must be supplied: Confess. Which appears more evidently in the Greek. But it would appear in the Latin too, if our interpreters could have rendered the same expression. Which indeed in this verse they could, if they said, to him doing wonders: for what we have: Who did wonders; the Greek has, to him doing wonders; where necessarily Confess is supplied. And would that they had added at least the pronoun, so as to say: To him who does; or, to him who did; or, to him who established: because even so it would easily be understood that Confess must be supplied. But now it has become so obscure, that one who either has not known how to look at the Greek manuscript, or has neglected it, can think: Who made the heavens, Who established the earth, Who made the lights, for his mercy is forever, was said as though for this reason he made these things: Because his mercy is forever: when to his mercy belong those whom he frees from misery; but not so that we should understand it to have been of his mercy to make heaven and earth and the lights, since that is of his goodness, who created all things very good (See Gen 1:31). But he created, that all things might be; this indeed is of his mercy, that he cleanse us from our sins, and free us from misery forever. So then the Psalm addresses us: Confess to the God of gods, confess to the Lord of lords; confess to him who alone does great wonders; confess to him who made the heavens in understanding; confess to him who established the earth upon the waters; confess to him who alone made the great lights. But why we should confess, he sets at the ends of all the verses: For his mercy is forever.

5. [vv. 5-10.] But what is: Who alone does great wonders? is it because he did many wonders through angels and through men? There are certain great things which God alone does, and he himself sets them out, saying: Who made the heavens in understanding, Who established the earth upon the waters, Who alone made the great lights (Ps 136:5-7 (135:5-7)): therefore here too he added, alone, because the other wonders which he is about to tell, he did through men. For when he had said: Who alone made the great lights; what those same lights are, he went on and opened: The sun for power over the day, the moon and the stars for power over the night (Ps 136:8-9 (135:8-9)). Then he begins to tell what he did through angels or through men: Who struck Egypt with their firstborn (Ps 136:10 (135:10)); and the rest. So the whole of creation God made, not surely through some creature, but alone. Of which creation he mentioned certain more excellent parts, from which we might think of the whole, the intelligible heavens and the visible earth: and since there are also visible heavens, by mentioning their lights he warned us to take the whole bodily heaven as made by him.

6. Although as to what he says: Who made the heavens in understanding, or, as others have interpreted, in intelligence, it can be asked whether he meant in this way to signify the intelligible heavens, or that God made the heavens in his own understanding, or in his own intelligence, that is, in his Wisdom, as it is written elsewhere: You made all things in Wisdom (Ps 104:24 (103:24)), in that way intimating the only-begotten Word. But if it is so, that we take God to have made the heavens in his own understanding, why does he say this only of the heavens, when he made all things in that same Wisdom? Or was it to be expressed there only, so that in the rest too it could be understood, though unspoken: so that this is the sense: Who made the heavens in understanding, Who established the earth upon the waters; so that here too you supply, in understanding: Who alone made the great lights, the sun for power over the day, the moon and the stars for power over the night; surely, in understanding? How, then, alone, if this in understanding, or in intelligence, is the same as in Wisdom, that is, in the only-begotten Word? Or is it because the Trinity is not three gods, but one God, that it is referred to what God alone made, because he did not make creation through a creature?

7. But what is: Who established the earth upon the waters (Ps 136:6 (135:6))? For it is an obscure question; because the earth seems heavier, so that it is believed not to be carried by the waters, but rather to carry the waters. About which matter, lest we seem contentiously to defend our Scriptures against those who think they have found out these things by sure reasonings; whether it be so, or otherwise, we have what we may understand from close at hand: that the earth which is inhabited by men and contains the land animals, which in another way is called in the Scriptures 'the dry land,' as it is written: Let the dry land appear, and God called the dry land earth (Gen 1:9-10), is founded upon the waters, in that it stands out above the surrounding waters. For a city said to be coastal, founded upon the sea, does not have the sea beneath it in the way that there are waters beneath the vaults of caves, or beneath ships floating above them; but it is said to be 'upon the sea' because it stands out above the sea lying below. So Pharaoh was said to have gone out upon the water: for so the Greek has, which some Latin copies have, to the water (See Exod 7:15); so the Lord sat upon the well (See Jn 4:6): in that both were higher than the river and the well; the one beside the river, the other beside the well.

8. But if these sayings signify also something else, which pertains more to us: God made the heavens in understanding, his spiritual saints, to whom he granted not only to believe, but also to understand divine things: those who cannot yet do this, and hold the most firm faith alone, are as it were figured below the heavens by the name of earth. And because in the Baptism which they received they stand firm with unshaken belief, therefore it was said: He established the earth upon the waters. Likewise, because it is written of the Lord Jesus Christ that in him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden (Col 2:3); but that these two, that is, wisdom and knowledge, differ somewhat from each other, other words of the Scriptures too testify, especially holy Job speaking, where in a certain way each is defined; for he says: But he said to man: Behold, devotion is wisdom, but to abstain from evil is knowledge (Job 28:28): not unfittingly we understand wisdom to be in the knowledge and love of that which always is, and abides unchangeably, which is God. For as to what he says: Behold, devotion is wisdom, it was said in Greek theosebeia: which, that it may be wholly expressed in Latin, can be said 'worship of God.' But to abstain from evil, which he said to be knowledge, what else is it than, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, as in the night of this world, to conduct oneself cautiously and prudently (See Phil 2:15); so that, by abstaining from iniquity, one may not be confounded by the darkness, distinguished by the light of one's proper gift? So when in a certain place the apostle wished to show the harmonious variety of graces in the men of God, he set these two first, saying: To one indeed is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; this I think to be: The sun for power over the day: To another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; this is, the moon. Then in a certain way I think the stars are mentioned in what is said: To another faith in the same Spirit, to another the gift of healings in the one Spirit, to another the workings of powers, to another prophecy, to another the discerning of spirits, to another kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues (1 Cor 12:8-10). For there is none of these which is not necessary in the night of this world: when it has passed, these will not be necessary: therefore, for power over the night. For he says for power, whether over the day or over the night, so that there might be power to shine by day or by night; which in spiritual gifts is understood thus, because he gave power to become sons of God (See Jn 1:12). Who struck Egypt, with their firstborn. He struck the world too, with the things that are thought foremost in the world.

9. [vv. 11-26.] Who led Israel out of their midst. He led his saints and faithful too out of the midst of the wicked. With a mighty hand and a lofty arm. What is mightier, what is loftier than he of whom it was said: And the arm of the Lord, to whom has it been revealed (Isa 53:1)? Who divided the Red Sea into divisions. He divides too, so that one and the same Baptism is for some unto life, for others unto death. And led Israel through the midst of it. He leads too his renewed people through the bath of regeneration. And shook off Pharaoh and his power in the Red Sea. He swiftly destroys too the sin of his own and its guilt through Baptism. Who led his people through in the desert. He leads us through too in the dryness and barrenness of this world, that we may not perish in it. Who struck great kings, and slew strong kings. He strikes and slays too from us the diabolical and harmful powers. Sihon king of the Amorites. 'Useless shoot' or 'burning Temptation,' which is the interpretation of Sihon; king of the Embittering ones, which is the interpretation of the Amorites. And Og king of Bashan. 'Heaping up,' which is the interpretation of Og; and king of Confusion, which is the interpretation of Bashan: for what does the devil heap up, except confusion? And gave their land for an inheritance, an inheritance for Israel his servant (Ps 136:11-22 (135:11-22)). He gives too those whom the devil possessed, as an inheritance to the seed of Abraham, which is Christ. Because in our humiliation he was mindful of us. And redeemed us from our enemies (Ps 136:23-24 (135:23-24)): by the blood of his Only-begotten. Who gives food to all flesh; that is, to every race of men, not only of the Israelites, but also of the Gentiles: of which food it is said: My flesh is truly food (Jn 6:55). Confess to the God of heaven, for his mercy is forever. Confess to the Lord of lords, for his mercy is forever (Ps 136:25-26 (135:25-26)). What he says here: To the God of heaven, I believe he wished to say in another way what he had already said above: To the God of gods: for what he then subjoined there, this too he repeated here: Confess to the Lord of lords. But even if there are those that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth; as there are many gods and many lords; yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we toward him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him (1 Cor 8:5-6); to whom we confess, for his mercy is forever.

Exposition of Psalm 137

1. [v. 1.] I do not think you have forgotten that we commended to you—rather, reminded you—what everyone instructed in the holy Church ought to know: whence we are citizens, and where we are pilgrims, and that the cause of our pilgrimage is sin, but the gift of our return is the remission of sins and the justification of the grace of God. You have heard and you know that two cities, mingled together for the time in body, but separated in heart, run through these volumes of the ages until the end; one whose end is eternal peace, and is called Jerusalem; the other whose joy is temporal peace, and is called Babylon. You hold too the interpretations of the names, if I am not mistaken: that Jerusalem is interpreted 'Vision of peace'; Babylon, 'Confusion.' Jerusalem was held captive in Babylon, not the whole of her; for her citizens are also the angels. But as to what pertains to the men predestined to the glory of God, who are to be by adoption coheirs of Christ, whom from that very captivity he redeemed by his blood: that this portion of the city of Jerusalem is held captive in Babylon on account of sin, but begins to go out from there first in heart by the confession of iniquity and the love of justice, then afterward at the end of the age to be separated also in body, we commended in that psalm which we first here treated with your charity, which begins thus: A hymn befits you, O God, in Zion; and to you a vow will be rendered in Jerusalem (Ps 65:1 (64:2)). But today we have sung: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered Zion (Ps 137:1 (136:1)). See that in that one it was said: A hymn befits you, O God, in Zion; but here: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered Zion: that Zion, where a hymn befits God.

2. What, then, are the rivers of Babylon, and what is our sitting and weeping in the remembrance of Zion? For if we are citizens from there, we do not only sing this, but also do it. If we are citizens of Jerusalem, that is, of Zion, and in this life, in this confusion of this world, in this Babylon, we dwell not as citizens but are held as captives; we must not only sing these things, but also do them, with a devout affection of heart, with a religious longing for the eternal city. This city too which is called Babylon has its lovers, who care for temporal peace, and hope for nothing beyond, and fix their whole joy there, end it there, and we see them labor very much for the earthly commonwealth: but even in it whoever conduct themselves faithfully, if they do not there seek pride and perishing elation and hateful boasting; but show true faith, which they can, as long as they can, to whom they can, as far as they see earthly things, and as far as they understand the form of the city; God does not let them perish in Babylon: for he predestined them as citizens of Jerusalem. God understands their captivity, and shows them another city, for which they ought truly to sigh, for which they ought to strive in all things, to the obtaining of which they ought, as far as they can, to exhort their fellow citizens who are pilgrims with them. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ says: He who is faithful in a little, is faithful also in much: and again he says: If you have not been faithful in what is another's, who will give you what is your own (Luke 16:10, 12)?

3. Yet, dearly beloved, attend to the rivers of Babylon. The rivers of Babylon are all the things that are loved here and pass away. Someone, for example, has loved to practice farming itself, to grow rich from it, to occupy his mind there, to take pleasure from it; let him attend to the outcome, and see that what he loved is not the foundation of Jerusalem, but a river of Babylon. Another has said: It is a great thing to be a soldier; all farmers dread those who soldier, defer to them, tremble at them: if I am a farmer, I will fear the soldier; if I am a soldier, I will be feared by the farmer. O madman, you have cast yourself into another river of Babylon, and one more turbulent and more rapacious. You wish to be feared by a lesser man; fear a greater: he who fears you can suddenly become greater than you; but he whom you must fear will never be lesser. To be an advocate, he says, is a great thing, most powerful eloquence; to have in all matters dependents hanging on the tongue of their eloquent patron, and from his mouth hoping either for losses or gains, either death or life, either ruin or safety. You do not know where you have cast yourself: this too is another river of Babylon; and what sounds much, the noise of the water beats against the rocks. Attend that it flows, attend that it slips away; and if you attend that it flows and slips away, beware that it sweeps you off. To sail and to trade is a great thing, says another; to know many provinces, to take gains from every side, not to be beholden to any powerful man in the city, always to travel, and to feed the mind with the variety of business and nations, and to return rich with the increase of gains. This too is a river of Babylon. When will your gains stand still? when will you be free of presumption, when will you be secure from the things you acquire? The richer you are, the more fearful. By one shipwreck you will come out naked, and rightly you will lament yourself in the river of Babylon, because you were unwilling to sit and weep by the rivers of Babylon.

4. So the other citizens of holy Jerusalem, understanding their captivity, attend to the human wishes and the diverse desires of men, sweeping people this way and that, dragging, driving them into the sea: they see these things, and do not cast themselves into the rivers of Babylon; but they sit by the rivers of Babylon, and weep by the rivers of Babylon, either over those who are swept away, or over themselves who have deserved to be in Babylon: sitting, however, that is, humbled. By the rivers, then, of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered Zion. O holy Zion, where all stands and nothing flows! who has cast us headlong into these things? why did we abandon your Founder and your fellowship? Behold, set amid things flowing and slipping away, scarcely can anyone swept away by the river escape, if he can hold onto a piece of wood. Humbled, then, in our captivity, let us sit by the rivers of Babylon, let us not dare to cast ourselves into those rivers; nor let us dare, in the evil and sadness of our captivity, to raise ourselves up proudly, but let us sit, and so weep. Let us sit by the rivers of Babylon, not under the rivers of Babylon: let our humility be such as not to submerge us. Sit by the river, not in the river, not under the river: but yet sit humble, do not speak as in Jerusalem. For there you will stand; because of that very hope another psalm speaks, and sings, saying: Our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem (Ps 122:2 (121:2)). There you are raised up, if here, by repenting and confessing, you have humbled yourself. In the courts, then, of Jerusalem our feet were standing; but by the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept, when we remembered Zion. Thence you ought to weep, by remembering Zion.

5. For many weep with a Babylonian weeping, because they also rejoice with a Babylonian joy. Those who rejoice over gains and weep over losses, both are of Babylon. You ought to weep, but by remembering Zion. If you weep by remembering Zion, then even when it goes well with you according to Babylon you ought to weep. Therefore it is said in a certain psalm: I found tribulation and sorrow, and I called upon the name of the Lord (Ps 116:3-4 (114:3-4)). What does he mean by saying: I found? Some tribulation, as it were, to be sought, he found as though sought. And when he had found it, with what gain did he find it? He called upon the name of the Lord. It makes a great difference whether you find tribulation, or are found by tribulation. For he says in another place: The sorrows of hell found me (Ps 18:5 (17:6)). What is: The sorrows of hell found me? What is: I found tribulation and sorrow? When suddenly sadness seizes you, your worldly affairs by which you were delighted being disturbed: when that sudden sadness finds you, from a quarter where you did not think you could be made sad, it happens, and you are made sad; the sorrow of hell has found you. For you thought yourself above; yet you were below: and when the sorrow of hell found you, there you found yourself below, you who thought yourself above. For you found yourself grievously affected with sorrow, with the sadness of some evil, from which perhaps you had presumed you would not be made sad; the sorrow of hell found you. But when it goes well with you, when all worldly things smile, none of yours has died, nothing in your vineyard has perhaps either withered, or been struck by hail, or appeared barren, your cask has not turned sour, your beast has not suffered a miscarriage, you have not been dishonored in any dignity which you hold according to the world, on every side your friends both live and keep their friendship for you, dependents are not lacking, your sons obey, your slaves tremble, your wife is in accord, the house is called happy; there find tribulation, if you can, so that, having found tribulation, you may call upon the name of the Lord. The divine word seems to teach something perverse, to weep in gladness, and to be glad in grief. Hear one glad in grief: We glory, he says, in tribulations (Rom 5:3). But one weeping in gladness, see whether he has found tribulation. Let each one attend to his very happiness, in which his soul has exulted, and in a certain way swelled with joy, and lifted itself up, and said: I am happy: let him attend whether that happiness does not flow away, whether he can be sure of it that it abides forever. But if he is not sure, and sees that what he rejoices over flows away; it is a river of Babylon: let him sit above it, and weep. But he will sit and weep, if he has remembered Zion. O that peace which we will see with God! O that holy equality of the angels! O that vision and beautiful spectacle! Behold, in Babylon the things that hold us are beautiful: let them not hold us, let them not deceive us. One thing is the solace of captives, another the joy of the free. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered Zion.

6. [v. 2.] On the willows in the midst of it we hung up our instruments (Ps 137:2 (136:2)). The citizens of Jerusalem have their instruments, the Scriptures of God, the precepts of God, the promises of God, a certain meditation on the world to come; but when they dwell in the midst of Babylon, they hang up their instruments on her willows. Willows are unfruitful trees; and they are set here in such a way that nothing good can be understood of the willows; though elsewhere perhaps something can. Now understand barren trees, growing by the rivers of Babylon. These trees are watered by the rivers of Babylon, and bear no fruit. As there are men greedy, avaricious, barren of good work; so the citizens of Babylon, being even the trees of that region, are fed by these pleasures of passing things, as though watered by the rivers of Babylon: you seek fruit, and nowhere find it. When we endure such men, we are conversant with those who are in the midst of Babylon. For there is much difference between the midst of Babylon and the outer parts of Babylon. There are those who are not in the midst of it, that is, are not overwhelmed by so great a desire of the world and by its delights. But those who, to say it plainly and briefly, are very much evil, are in the midst of Babylon, and barren trees, like the willows of Babylon. When we see them, and find them so barren that it is difficult for us to see in them anything by which they could be led to right faith, or to good works, or to the hope of the world to come, or to the desire of liberation from the captivity of mortality; we know the Scriptures which we might tell them: but because we find no fruit in them from which we might begin, we turn our face away from them, and say: These men do not yet have understanding, do not grasp; whatever we tell them, they will take amiss and adversely. So by deferring the Scriptures concerning them, we hang up our instruments on the willows: for we do not consider them worthy to carry our instruments. So we do not, by inserting them, fasten our instruments on them, but by deferring, we hang them up. For the willows of Babylon are unfruitful trees, fed by temporal pleasures, as though by the rivers of Babylon.

7. [v. 3.] And see whether the Psalm does not follow with this: On the willows, he says, in the midst of it we hung up our instruments. For there those who led us captive asked of us the words of songs; and those who carried us off, a hymn (Ps 137:2-3 (136:2-3)): you supply, asked of us. The words of songs and a hymn asked of us those who led us captive. Who led us captive, brothers? whom have we felt at some time to be our captors? That Jerusalem indeed felt the Babylonians, the Persians, the Chaldeans, and the men of those nations and regions to be her captors; and this afterward, not when these psalms were being sung. But we have already told your charity that all the things which according to the letter happened in that city were our figures: and it can easily be shown that we are captives. For we do not yet breathe in the airs of that freedom; for we do not yet enjoy the purity of truth, and that wisdom which, abiding in itself, renews all things (See Wis 7:27). We are tempted by the delights of temporal things, and daily we wrestle with the suggestions of unlawful pleasures: scarcely do we breathe even in prayer; we understand that we are captives. But who led us captive? what men? what nation? what king? If we are redeemed, we were captives. Who redeemed us? Christ. From whom did he redeem us? From the devil. So the devil and his angels led us captive; nor would they lead us, unless we consented. We were led captive. I have said who our captors are. They are also the robbers wounding that traveler who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; whom, wounded and half-dead, they left (See Luke 10:30). Him our guardian, that is, the Samaritan (for 'Samaritan' is interpreted 'Guardian'), to whom it was objected by the Jews and said: Do we not say truly that you are a Samaritan, and have a demon? (Jn 8:48) and of the two objections he rejected one, and held one: I, he said, do not have a demon (Jn 8:49); but he did not say: I am not a Samaritan: for if that Samaritan does not guard, surely we perish: the Samaritan, then, passing by, saw the wounded and injured man left by the robbers, and, as you know, gathered him up. As sometimes by the name of robbers are set down those who inflicted on us the wounds of sins, now by the consent of our captivity; so they are also called our captors.

8. These, then, who led us captive, the devil and his angels, when did they say to us, and when did they ask of us the words of songs? What, then, do we understand? That when such men question us, in whom the devil works, he himself is to be understood to question us, who works in them. The apostle says: And you, when you were dead in your offenses and sins, when you lived in them according to the world of this age, according to the prince of the power of this air, the spirit who now works in the sons of unbelief, among whom we too, he says, were once conversant (Eph 2:1-3). He shows that, being redeemed, he had now begun to go out from Babylon. But yet what does he still say? That we contend with our enemies. And lest we be angry at the men who bring persecutions upon us, the apostle took our attention away from the hatred of men, and directed it to a struggle with certain spirits, whom we do not see, and with whom we contend. For he says: Your wrestling is not against flesh and blood; that is, against the men whom you see, by whom you seem to suffer evils, who bring persecutions upon you: for we are commanded to pray for them. Your wrestling is not, he says, against flesh and blood, that is, against men; but against the principalities, and powers, and rulers of this world of darkness (Eph 6:12). What did he say, of this world? Of the lovers of the world. These he called also darkness, that is, the wicked, the criminal, the unbelieving, the sinners; to whom, now believing, he gives congratulation in this way, so as to say: For you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord (Eph 5:8). So he established that we have a wrestling with those principalities; they led us captive.

9. But just as the devil entered into the heart of Judas, that he might betray the Lord (See Jn 13:27), but would not enter unless he gave him place; so many evil men of the midst of Babylon, by carnal and unlawful desires giving place to the devil and his angels in their hearts, that he may work in them and through them, sometimes question us, and say to us: Expound to us your reasoning. Many pagans say these things to us: Expound the reasoning, why Christ came, and what Christ profited the human race? Are not things in human affairs worse since Christ came than they were before, and were human affairs more prosperous then than now? Let the Christians tell us what good Christ brought? whence do they think human affairs more prosperous, because Christ came? For you see: if the theaters and amphitheaters and circuses stood unharmed, if nothing fell of Babylon, if there were an abundance of pleasures flowing around for men about to sing and dance to base songs, if the lust of the fornicators and harlots had quiet and security, if he did not fear hunger in his house who shouts that the mime-actors be clothed; if all these things flowed on without ruin, without any disturbance, and there were great security of trifles, then the times would be happy, and Christ would have brought great happiness to human affairs. But because iniquities are cut down, that, cupidity being uprooted, the love of Jerusalem may be planted; because bitternesses are mixed into the temporal life, that the eternal may be desired; because men are instructed by scourges, receiving a fatherly discipline, lest they find a judiciary sentence; Christ brought no good, and Christ brought labors. And you begin to tell a man how great goods Christ did, and he does not grasp it. For you set before him those who do what you have just now heard in the Gospel, sell all their things and give to the poor, that they may have treasure in heaven and follow the Lord (See Matt 19:21): you say to him: Behold what Christ brought. How many do these things, distributing their goods to the needy, and becoming poor, not by necessity, but by will, following God, hoping for the kingdom of heaven! These men mock as fools: And such goods, they say, did Christ bring, that a man should lose his goods, and, when he gives to the needy, remain needy himself? What, then, will you do? You do not grasp the goods of Christ: for another has filled you, who is the adversary of Christ, to whom you have given place in your heart. You look back to former times, and as it were the old times seem to you to have been happier, which were as olives hanging on the tree, the winds blowing, as it were enjoying a certain freedom of the breeze in a certain wandering desire of their own. The time came for the olive to be put into the press: for it was not always to hang on the tree: now the year is at its end. Not without cause are certain psalms inscribed: For the presses (See Ps 8:1 (8:1); Ps 81:1 (80:1); Ps 84:1 (83:1)): on the tree freedom, in the press pressure. For when human affairs are crushed and pressed, you notice that avarice grows; notice that continence too grows. Why are you so blind that you see the dregs flowing through the streets, but do not see the oil in the vats? And this not without cause. For those who behave badly are publicly known; but those who turn to God, and are purified from the filth of evil desires, are hidden: because even in the press, or from the press, the dregs flow openly, the oil is strained out secretly.

10. You acclaim these things, and rejoice at these things; because you can now sit by the rivers of Babylon, and weep. But those who led us captive, when they enter into the hearts of men, and question us through the tongues of those whom they possess, and say to us: Sing to us the words of songs; render to us the reasoning of the coming of Christ, and what is the other life. I wish to believe; teach me the reasoning why you command me to believe. I answer him and say: O man, how do you not wish me to command you to believe? You are full of evil desires: if I tell those goods of Jerusalem, you do not grasp them; you must be emptied of that with which you are full, that you may be able to be filled with that of which you are empty. So do not readily tell this man anything; he is a willow tree, he is a barren tree: do not strike the instrument that it may sound, but rather hang it up. But he will say: Tell me, sing to me, render me the reasoning. Do you not wish, he says, that I learn? You do not hear with a good mind, you do not knock in such a way that it is fitting it be opened to you. He has filled you who led me captive, he himself questions me about you. He is cunning, he seeks deceitfully: he does not seek what he may learn, but what he may reprove. So I will not tell, I will hang up my instrument.

11. [v. 4.] But what will he still say? Sing to us the words of songs, sing to us a hymn, sing to us of the songs of Zion. What do we answer? Babylon carries you, Babylon contains you, Babylon nourishes you, Babylon speaks through you; you do not know how to grasp anything but what shines for a time, you do not know how to meditate on things eternal, you do not grasp what you ask. How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land (Ps 137:4 (136:4))? Truly, brothers, so it is. Begin to wish to preach the truth, however little you know, and see how necessary it is that you suffer such mockers, exactors of the truth, full of falsehood. Answer those who exact of you what they cannot grasp, and say from the confidence of your holy song: How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land?

12. [v. 5.] But see how you conduct yourself among them, O people of God, O body of Christ, O noble pilgrimage (you are not from here, you are from elsewhere); lest, when those who say to you: Sing to us the words of songs, tell us a hymn, sing to us of the songs of Zion, are as it were loved by you, and you seek their friendships, and fear to displease such men; Babylon begin to delight you, and you forget Jerusalem. Fearing this, then, see what he subjoins, see what follows. For this man who was singing suffered; and this man is we, if we will: he suffered men everywhere questioning such things and flattering with adulation, biting in their reproof, falsely praising, exacting what they do not grasp, unwilling to pour out that with which they are full; and amid crowds of such men, as though in peril, he raised his mind to the remembrance of Zion, and such a soul bound itself by a certain oath, and said: If I forget you, O Jerusalem; amid the words of the captors, amid the words of the deceitful, amid the words of those who question evilly, who seek and are unwilling to learn.

13. Behold, from there was that rich man who questioned the Lord: Good Master, what shall I do to obtain eternal life (Matt 19:16)? Did he not, asking about eternal life, as it were ask for a song of Zion? Keep the commandments, the Lord said to him. And he, out of haughtiness, when he had heard: I have already fulfilled all these, he said, from my youth (Matt 19:17, 20). And the Lord told him something of the songs of Zion, and he knew that he would not grasp it; but he gave us an example, how many ask as it were for counsel toward eternal life, and praise us so long as we answer what they ask. He gave a lesson from him, as though we were to say sometime to such men: How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land? Behold he says: Do you wish to be perfect? Go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me (Matt 19:21). That he may learn many songs of the songs of Zion, let him first cast off his hindrances, walk unencumbered, lest he be weighed down by any burden; and he will learn something of the songs of Zion. But that man went away sad. Let us say after him: How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land? And he indeed went away; yet the Lord gave hope to the rich. For the disciples, made sad, said: Who then can be saved? And he answered them: What is impossible for men, is easy for God (Matt 19:25-26). For the rich too have a certain way of their own, and they have received a song of Zion, a song of which the apostle says: Command the rich of this world not to be proud-minded, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who provides us all things abundantly to enjoy. Adding what they ought to do, he now touches the instrument, he does not hang it up: Let them be rich in good works, let them give readily, share, lay up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of the true life (1 Tim 6:17-19). This song of the songs of Zion the rich have received: first, not to be proud-minded. For riches exalt; and those whom they exalt, those rivers carry off. What, then, is commanded these men? Before all things, not to be proud-minded. What riches do, this let them beware in riches; let them beware pride in riches. For that itself is the evil which riches especially bring to incautious men. For gold is not evil, which God created; but the avaricious man is evil, abandoning the Creator, turned to the creature. So let him beware this there, lest he be proud, and sit by the river of Babylon. For this was said to him: Not to be proud-minded: so let him sit. Nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches: so let him sit by the rivers of Babylon. For if he hoped in the uncertainty of riches, he is dragged off by the river of Babylon. But if he has humbled himself, and not been proud, and not hoped in the uncertainty of riches, he sits by the river, sighs for the eternal Jerusalem, remembering Zion; and that he may come to Zion, he gives out. Behold you have the song which the rich have received of the songs of Zion. Let them work, let them touch the instrument, let them not be idle, when they have found a man saying to them: What is this you do? you lose your goods by giving out so much; lay up treasure for your sons. When they have seen that he does not grasp it, and understood that he is a willow tree, let them not readily tell why they act, and what they do; let them hang up their instruments on the willows of Babylon. But apart from the willows let them sing, let them not cease, let them work. For they do not lose what they give out. They entrust it to a servant, and it is safe; do they entrust it to Christ, and it perishes?

14. You have heard the song of the rich of the songs of Zion; hear too the song of the poor. The same Paul speaks: We brought nothing into this world, but neither can we take anything away: having food and covering, with these let us be content. For those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and many desires, foolish and harmful, which plunge a man into ruin and destruction. These are the rivers of Babylon. For the root of all evils is avarice; which some coveting have made shipwreck of the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows (1 Tim 6:7-10). Are these songs, then, contrary? They are not contrary. See what was said to the rich: Not to be proud-minded, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, to do good works, to give, to lay up for themselves a good foundation for the future. But to the poor what was said? Those who wish to become rich fall into temptation. He did not say, those who are rich; but: Those who wish to become rich. For if they were already rich, they would hear the other song: the rich man hears that he may give out, the poor man hears that he may not desire.

15. [v. 5.] But when you are conversant among such men, who do not grasp the song of Zion, hang up, as I said, your instruments on the willows in the midst of it; defer what you are about to say. They begin to be fruitful trees, the trees are changed, and they will have good fruit: then it is now permitted to us to sing in the ears of those who hear. But when you are conversant among these clamorers, questioning evilly, resisting the truth, bind yourselves not to wish to please them, lest you forget Jerusalem; and let your one soul say, made one out of many by the peace of Christ, let that very captive Jerusalem say, acting here on earth: If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten (Ps 137:5 (136:5)). He bound himself vehemently, my brothers: Let my right hand be forgotten; he obligated himself dreadfully. Our right hand is eternal life, our left hand is temporal life. Whatever you do for the sake of eternal life, the right hand works. If into the love of eternal life in your works you mix the desire of temporal life, or of human praise, or of some worldly advantage; your left hand has known what your right hand does. And you know it is in the precept of the Gospel: Let not your left hand know what your right hand does (Matt 6:3). If, then, he says, I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten. And truly so it happens: he foretold, he did not wish it: To such men who forget Jerusalem, this happens which he said; their right hand forgets them: for eternal life abides in itself; they remain in temporal delight, and make for themselves a right hand of what is a left hand.

16. Attend to these things, brothers; on account of the right hand let me instill this in you, as far as the Lord grants, for the salvation of all. You remember perhaps that I once treated here of certain men who make what is a left hand into a right hand; that is, who have more temporal goods, and place blessedness in them, not knowing what true happiness is, the true right hand. These Scripture calls foreign sons, as it were citizens not of Jerusalem, but of Babylon: for the psalm says in a certain place: O Lord, free me from the hand of foreign sons, whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity. For it follows and says: Whose sons are like new plants established; their daughters adorned like the likeness of a temple; their storerooms full, overflowing from this into that; their sheep fruitful, multiplying in their goings forth; their oxen fat: there is no breach of the fence, nor outcry in their streets (Ps 144:11-14 (143:11-14)). Is it, then, sin to have this happiness? No; but to make that a right hand, when it is a left hand. Therefore, going on, what does he say? They have called blessed the people that has these things. Behold whence their mouth has spoken vanity, because they have called blessed the people that has these things. You indeed are a citizen of Jerusalem, who do not forget Jerusalem, lest your right hand forget you; behold those who have spoken vanity have called blessed the people that has these things: tell me a song of Zion. Blessed, he says, is the people whose God is the Lord himself (Ps 144:15 (143:15)). Question your hearts, brothers, whether you desire the goods of God, whether you desire that city Jerusalem, whether you covet eternal life. Let all this earthly happiness be a left hand to you; let that be your right hand which you will have forever: and if you have a left hand, do not presume upon the left hand. Do you not rebuke one who wishes to eat with the left hand? If you think an injury is done to your table when a guest eats with the left hand; how is an injury not done to the table of God, if you make what is a right hand into a left hand, and what is a left hand into a right hand? What then? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten.

17. [v. 6.] Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, unless I remember you (Ps 137:6 (136:6)). That is, let me be struck dumb, he says, unless I remember you. For why does he speak, why does he make a sound, who does not sound the songs of Zion? That is our tongue, the song of Jerusalem. The song of the love of this world is a foreign tongue, a barbarous tongue, which we learned in captivity. So he will be dumb to God, who has forgotten Jerusalem. And it is too little to remember; for the enemies too remembered her, wishing to overthrow her. What is this city, they say? who are the Christians? and what kind are the Christians? O that there were no Christians! The captive crowd has already conquered its captors, and yet they murmur, and rage, and wish to slay among themselves the holy city on pilgrimage: just as Pharaoh wished to slay that very people, when he killed the males that were born, and left the females; he choked the virtues, he nourished the desires. So it is too little to remember: see how you remember. For some things we remember with hatred, some with love. So when he had said: If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten. Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, unless I remember you; he at once added: If I do not set Jerusalem before me at the beginning of my joy. For there is the highest joy, where we enjoy God to the full, where we are secure of a cohering brotherhood and a citizen fellowship. No tempter there will violate us, no one will be able to strike us toward any enticement, nothing there will delight us but the good. There all need will die, there the highest happiness will arise. If I do not set Jerusalem before me at the beginning of my joy.

18. [v. 7.] And he turns himself to the Lord against the enemies of that city: Remember, O Lord, the sons of Edom (Ps 137:7 (136:7)). Edom is the same who is also Esau: for you heard just now, when the apostle was read: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated (Mal 1:2-3; Rom 9:13). There were two sons in one womb, both twins, in the womb of Rebecca, sons of Isaac, grandsons of Abraham: both were born; one for the inheritance, the other for disinheritance. But this Esau was the enemy of his brother, because the younger son got ahead of his blessing; and it was fulfilled: The greater will serve the lesser (Gen 25:23). Who, then, is the greater, and who is the lesser, and who is the greater who will serve the lesser, we now understand. The people of the Jews seemed the greater, the people of the Christians the lesser in time. And see how the greater serves the lesser. They carry our books; we live by their books. But that you may understand in general, brothers, the greater and the lesser; the carnal man is called the greater, and the spiritual man is called the lesser; because first is the carnal, and afterward the spiritual. You have the apostle plainly saying: The first man, of the earth, earthly; the second man, of heaven, heavenly. As the earthly, such also the earthly; and as the heavenly, such also the heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of him who is of heaven (1 Cor 15:47-49). But there above he had said: But not first what is spiritual, but what is animal; afterward, the spiritual (1 Cor 15:46). And he calls animal the same one whom he shows to be carnal. The man who is born begins to be animal, begins to be carnal. If he turns himself from the captivity of Babylon to the return to Jerusalem, he is renewed, and there comes about a certain renewal according to the new and inner man; and he becomes lesser in time, greater in power. So Esau is all the carnal, but Jacob all the spiritual: the lesser are the elect, the greater those reprobate. Does Esau too wish to be chosen? Let him become lesser. But he was called Edom from a certain red food of lentils, that is, a certain rosy food. The lentil was well cooked, mashed; this Esau coveted from his brother Jacob, and yielded to him his primacy, conquered by the desire of eating that lentil (See Gen 25:29-34). But he yielded the food of pleasure, and took the honor of dignity. So by a certain agreement between them it came about that the one is greater, the other lesser, so that the greater might serve the lesser; and he was called Edom. But it is interpreted, as far as those say who knew that tongue, Edom, 'Blood': for in Punic too Edom is said to mean 'blood.' Do not wonder: to the blood belong all the carnal. Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor 15:50). There Edom does not belong; there belongs Jacob, who lacked the carnal food, and took the spiritual honor. But that one became an enemy. All the carnal are enemies of the spiritual: all such, coveting present things, persecute those whom they see meditating on things eternal. Against these, this man, looking toward Jerusalem, and asking God that he be rescued from captivity, what does he say? Remember, O Lord, the sons of Edom. Free us from the carnal, from those who imitate that Edom, who are the elder brothers, but are enemies. They were born first; but those born later have conquered for the primacy: because the desire of the flesh cast them down; the despising of desire raised these up. They live, and envy, and persecute.

19. Remember, O Lord, the sons of Edom, in the day of Jerusalem (Ps 137:7 (136:7)). The day of Jerusalem in which she labored, in which she was led captive; or that day of the happiness of Jerusalem, in which she is freed, in which she arrives, in which she is joined to eternity? Remember, he says, O Lord, do not forget, the sons of Edom. Of whom? Of those saying: Empty it out, empty it out, even to the foundation in her. Remember, then, that day, when they wished to overthrow Jerusalem. For how many persecutions the Church has suffered! How the sons of Edom, that is, carnal men, subject to the devil and his angels, worshipping stones and wood, following the desires of the flesh, were saying: Extinguish the Christians, take away the Christians, let not one remain; overthrow them even to the foundation! Were not these things said? And when these things were said, the persecutors were reproved, the martyrs were crowned. Of those saying: Empty it out, empty it out, even to the foundation in her. The sons of Edom say: Empty it out, empty it out; and God says: Serve. Whose words can prevail, except God's, who said: Because the greater will serve the lesser? Empty it out, empty it out, even to the foundation in her.

20. [v. 8.] And he turns himself to her: Unhappy daughter of Babylon (Ps 137:8 (136:8)). Unhappy in your very exultation, in your very presumption, and in your enmities: unhappy daughter of Babylon. The city itself is called Babylon and daughter of Babylon: just as there is Jerusalem and daughter of Jerusalem, and just as there is Zion and daughter of Zion, by this manner the Church is called both Church and daughter of the Church. On account of succession she is called daughter, on account of precedence she is called mother. There was a first Babylon; did the same people remain in it? By the succession of Babylon there was made a daughter of Babylon. O unhappy daughter of Babylon, you! Blessed is he who will repay you your recompense. Unhappy you, blessed he.

21. [v. 9.] For what have you done, and what will be repaid to you? Hear: Blessed is he who will repay you your recompense which you repaid to us. What recompense does he mean? For this the Psalm closes with: Blessed is he who will hold and dash your little ones against the rock (Ps 137:9 (136:9)). He calls her unhappy, but blessed the one who will repay her the recompense which she repaid to us. We ask, what recompense: Blessed, he says, is he who will hold and dash your little ones against the rock. That is the recompense. For what did this Babylon do to us? We have already sung in that psalm: The words of the wicked have prevailed against us (See Ps 65:3 (64:4)). For when we were born, this confusion of this world found us little ones; and it choked us, while still infants, with the vain opinions of various errors. An infant is born who will be a citizen of Jerusalem, and in the predestination of God is already a citizen, but for the time held captive; when he learns to love, what is it but what his parents whisper to him? They instruct and teach him avarice, plunder, daily lies, the various cults of idols and demons, the unlawful remedies of charms and amulets. What will the infant yet do, a tender soul, attending to what the grown-ups do, except to follow what he has seen them do? So Babylon persecuted us, the little ones; but God gave us the knowledge of himself when we were now grown up, that we might not follow the errors of our parents. Which I mentioned then too as foretold by the prophet: To you the nations will come from the end of the earth, and will say: Truly our fathers worshipped a lie, a vanity which did not profit them (Jer 16:19). Now, as young men, they say what, as little ones, they had been slain by following those very vanities: but by casting away the vanities, and coming to life again toward God, let them make progress, and repay Babylon. What recompense will they repay her? The one she repaid us. Let her little ones in turn be choked; rather, let her little ones in turn be dashed, and die. Who are the little ones of Babylon? The evil desires as they are born. For there are those who struggle with an old desire. When a desire is born, before evil habit gives it strength against you, while the desire is little, by no means let it receive the strength of evil habit; while it is little, dash it. But you fear lest, though dashed, it does not die; dash it against the rock: but the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4).

22. Brothers, let the instruments not cease in working; sing to one another the songs of Zion. As gladly as you have heard, so the more gladly do what you have heard; if you do not wish to be the willows of Babylon, fed from her rivers, and bearing no fruit. But sigh for the eternal Jerusalem; where your hope goes before, let your life follow: there we will be with Christ. Christ is now our head; he governs us now from above: he will embrace us with himself in that city; we will be equal to the angels of God. We would not dare to suspect this of ourselves, unless Truth promised it. This, then, covet, brothers, this think on day and night. Whatever of the world smiles happily, do not presume upon it: do not gladly converse with your desires. The enemy is greater, let him be slain against the rock: the enemy is small, let him be dashed against the rock. Both slay the greater against the rock, and dash the lesser against the rock. Let the rock conquer. On the rock be built, if you do not wish to be carried off either by the river, or by the winds, or by the rain. If you wish to be armed against temptations in the world, let the desire of the eternal Jerusalem grow and be strengthened in your hearts. The captivity will pass, happiness will come, the last enemy will be condemned, and with the King, without death, we will triumph.

Exposition of Psalm 138

1. [v. 1.] The title of this psalm is brief and simple, nor does it detain us, since we know whose figure David bore, and recognize in him ourselves too, because we too are members of that body. Let us, then, recognize here the voice of the Church, and at the same time rejoice that we have deserved to be in her, whose voice as she sang we have heard. The whole title is: Of David himself. Let us see, then, what David himself says.

2. I will confess to you, O Lord, with my whole heart (Ps 138:1 (137:1)). The title of a Psalm is accustomed to indicate to us what goes on within: but here, since the title does not indicate this, but only indicates to whom it is sung; what goes on in the whole Psalm the first verse announces: I will confess to you, O Lord, with my whole heart. Let us, then, hear this confession. But first I remind you that confession in the Scriptures, when we confess to God, is accustomed to be said in two ways, either of sins, or of praise. But the confession of sins all know; the confession of praise few take note of. For the confession of sins is so well known, that in whatever place of the Scriptures it has been heard: I will confess to you, O Lord; or: We will confess to you: at once, by the habit of so understanding it, the hands run to beat the breast; so much do men not usually understand confession to be other than of sins. But was even our Lord Jesus Christ himself a sinner, who says in the Gospel: I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth (Matt 11:25)? For he went on and said what he confessed; that we might understand the confession of praise, not of iniquity: I confess, he says, to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to little ones. He praised the Father, he praised God, because he does not despise the humble, but despises the proud. And here we are about to hear such a confession, of the praise of God, and of thanksgiving. I will confess to you, O Lord, with my whole heart. My whole heart I place on the altar of your confession, I offer you a holocaust of praise. For a sacrifice is called a holocaust where the whole is burned: for in Greek holon in Latin is said 'whole.' See how he offers a spiritual holocaust, who says: I will confess to you, O Lord, with my whole heart. Let the flame of your love, he says, kindle my whole heart: let nothing in me be left to me, nor anything by which I may look back to myself; but let me wholly glow toward you, wholly burn toward you, wholly love you, as one set on fire by you. I will confess to you, O Lord, with my whole heart; for you have heard the words of my mouth. Of which mouth of mine, except of my heart? For there we have the voice which God hears, which the human ear does not know at all. Surely those who accused Susanna were crying out, and did not lift their eyes to heaven; she was silent, and cried out with her heart: whence she deserved to be heard, thence they to be punished (See Dan 13:35, 42-43, 60-62). So there is a mouth within; there we ask, thence we ask: and if we have prepared a lodging or house for God, there we speak, there we are heard. For he is not set far from each one of us, in whom we live, move, and are (See Acts 17:27-28). Nothing makes you far from God but iniquity alone: cast down the dividing wall of sin, and you are with him whom you ask. You have heard, he says, the words of my mouth; I will confess to you.

3. And before the angels I will sing to you (Ps 138:1 (137:1)). Not before men will I sing, but before the angels will I sing. My psaltery, my joy: but my joy concerning lower things is before men; my joy concerning higher things is before the angels. For the impious man does not know the joy of the just: There is no rejoicing for the impious, says the Lord (Isa 57:21). The wicked man rejoices in the tavern, the martyr rejoices in the chain. How rejoiced that holy Crispina, whose solemnity is celebrated today? She rejoiced when she was seized, when she was led to the judge, when she was put into prison, when she was brought out bound, when she was lifted onto the scaffold, when she was heard, when she was condemned; in all these things she rejoiced: and the wretched thought her wretched, who rejoiced before the angels.

4. [v. 2.] I will adore toward your holy temple (Ps 138:2 (137:2)). What is your holy temple? Where we will dwell, where we will adore. For we run, that we may adore. Our heart, pregnant, is in travail, and seeks where it may give birth. What is that place where God is to be adored? what world? what building? what seat, finally, in heaven and among the stars? We seek in the holy Scriptures, and we find in the words of Wisdom: I, she says, was with him; I was she in whom he rejoiced daily (Prov 8:30). And she tells his works, and sets out for us his seat. Which? When he made the clouds strong above, she says, when he set apart his seat above the winds (See Prov 8:28). But his seat is his temple. Where, then, shall we go? Are we to adore above the winds? If he is adored above the winds, the birds surpass us. But if we understand the winds as souls, that is, souls signified by the name of winds, as Scripture says in a certain place: He flew above the wings of the winds (Ps 18:10 (17:11)); that is, above the powers of souls: whence the soul too is called a breath of God, as it were a wind, not that this wind is to be understood by which we feel the body driven, but that by its name something invisible is signified, which can neither be discerned by the eyes, nor felt by the ears, nor led by smell, nor tasted by the palate, nor handled by the hand; which is surely a certain life, by which we live, which is called the soul: if we understand these winds, there is no reason to seek visible wings, that we may fly with the birds to adore toward the temple of God; but above ourselves we will find God sitting, if we wish to be faithful to him. See whether this is not so: For the temple of God is holy, says the apostle, which you are (1 Cor 3:17). Yet certainly, what is manifest, God dwells in the angels. So when our joy concerning spiritual things, not concerning earthly goods, takes up a song to God, that it may sing before the angels; that very congregation of angels is the temple of God, we adore toward the temple of God. The Church below, and the Church above: the Church below in all the faithful, the Church above in all the angels. But the Lord of the angels descended to the Church below, and the angels ministered to him on earth while he ministered to us (See Matt 4:11; Mark 1:13). For I came not, he says, to be ministered to, but to minister (Matt 20:28). What did he minister to us, except that which even today we eat and drink? Since, then, the Lord of the angels ministered to us, let us not despair of being equal to the angels one day. For he, greater than the angels, descended to man, and the Creator of the angels took up man, the Lord of the angels died for man. I will adore, then, toward your holy temple: I understand your temple not made with hands, but which you made for yourself.

5. And I will confess to your name, in your mercy and your truth (Ps 138:2 (137:2)). In these two we confess: for so it is read in another psalm too: All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (Ps 25:10 (24:10)). In these two we confess; in your mercy, and in your truth. By mercy you looked upon the sinner, by truth you rendered your promise. In your, then, mercy and truth I will confess to you. These too I, after my strength, render back, which you gave me, doing mercy and truth; mercy in coming to aid, truth in judging. By these we are helped by God, by these we win God's favor. Rightly, then, are mercy and truth all the ways of the Lord. There are no other ways by which he may come to us; there are no other ways by which we may come to him.

6. Because you have magnified above all your holy name (Ps 138:2 (137:2)). What manner of thanksgiving is this, brothers? He magnified his holy name above Abraham. For Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for justice (See Gen 15:6). All the other nations sacrificed to idols, served demons. From Abraham was born Isaac; God was magnified over that house: thence Jacob; God was magnified, who says: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Exod 3:6): thence the twelve sons, thence the people of Israel freed from Egypt, led through the Red Sea, exercised in the desert, the Gentiles being cast out, settled in the land of promise. The name of the Lord was magnified over Israel. But thence too the Virgin Mary, thence the Lord Christ, dead on account of our sins, rising again on account of our justification (See Rom 4:25), filling the faithful with the Holy Spirit, sending them to preach among the nations: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near (Matt 4:17): and behold he magnified above all his holy name.

7. [v. 3.] On whatever day I shall call upon you, quickly hear me (Ps 138:3 (137:3)). Why quickly? Because you said: While you are still speaking I will say, Behold, I am here (Isa 58:9; 65:24). Why quickly? Because I now no longer ask for earthly happiness, I have learned holy desire from the new testament. I do not ask for land, not fleshly fruitfulness, not temporal health, not the subjection of enemies, not riches, not honors; none of these I ask: therefore quickly hear me. Because you have taught what I should ask, give what I ask. Let us say to this man: Do you ask for something like this? Let us hear, let him pour out his petition, and let us see what he asks; and let us learn through him to ask, that we may deserve to receive. You had come to the Church, about to ask I know not what today. What do we think you had come to ask? You had come with your desire, I know not what, would that an innocent one, even if a fleshly one. But remove iniquity, remove carnality; learn what to ask, attend to what you are celebrating today. You celebrate the birthday of a holy and blessed woman, and perhaps you desire earthly happiness. She, on account of holy desire, let go the happiness she had on earth; she let go her sons weeping and grieving over her as over a cruel mother, because she, who was hastening to the divine crown, had as it were lost human compassion. But did she not know what she desired, what she trampled on? Rather she knew how to sing before the angels of God, and to desire their fellowship, a holy and pure friendship, where she would no longer die, where she would know the judge with whom a lie could not prevail. What then? in that life are there no goods? Rather, there alone are goods, goods not mixed with evils; securities in which you may rejoice as much as you wish, and no one says to you: Restrain yourself. But here to rejoice over earthly goods is troublesome, and exceedingly perilous; lest you so rejoice as to cleave to them, and by rejoicing wickedly perish. For why does God mix tribulations with earthly joys, except that, feeling tribulation and bitterness, we may learn to desire eternal sweetness?

8. What, then, does he ask, let us see; by what merit he said: Quickly hear me. For what do you ask, that you may be quickly heard? You will multiply me. In many ways multiplication can be understood. There is the multiplication of earthly generation, according to the first blessing of our nature, which we have heard: Increase, and multiply, and fill the earth, and have dominion over it (Gen 1:28). Did he wish to be multiplied thus, who said: Quickly hear me? And that multiplication indeed is fruitful, and comes only from the blessing of the Lord. But what shall I say of the other multiplications? One is multiplied in gold, another in silver, another in cattle, another in household, another in possessions, another in all these. Many are the earthly multiplications; but happier is that of sons: although to avaricious men even fruitfulness itself is troublesome. For they fear lest those be left poor who could have been born many. Which anxiety has driven very many to impiety, so that they forget that they are parents, and, stripped of all human affection, expose their sons, that they may make them strangers; that she who bore them should cast them away, and she who did not bear them should gather them up; that the one should despise them, the other love them; the one a mother in vain by the flesh, the other truer by will. Since, then, there are many multiplications, and many kinds of multiplications, what multiplication does he seek who said: Quickly hear me? For he says: You will multiply me. We wait to hear in what. Hear, then: In my soul. Not in my flesh, but in my soul: You will multiply me in my soul. Is there still something to be added, lest perhaps even multiplication in the soul does not at once signify happiness? For by cares men are multiplied in the soul. He seems multiplied in soul, in whom even vices are multiplied. One is only avaricious, another only proud, another only luxurious; this one is both avaricious, and proud, and luxurious: he is multiplied in his soul, but to his own harm. That multiplication is of want, not of abundance. So what is it, you who said: Quickly hear me, and have taken yourself away from every body, from every earthly thing, from every worldly desire, that you may say to God: You will multiply me in my soul? Explain further what you desire: You will multiply me, he says, in my soul, with virtue (Ps 138:3 (137:3)). An expressed vow, an expressed desire, cut around from all confusion. If he said: You will multiply me; you would think of I know not what earthly things: he added, in my soul. Again, lest you think of vices in the soul, he added, with virtue. There is nothing further you should desire from God, if you wish with a good and true brow to say: Quickly hear me.

9. [v. 4.] Let all the kings of the earth confess to you, O Lord (Ps 138:4 (137:4)). So it will be, and so it is, and daily it comes to pass; and it is shown not to have been said in vain, except that it was to be. Let all the kings of the earth confess to you, O Lord. But let them too, when they confess to you, when they praise you, not desire earthly things from you. For what will the kings of the earth desire? Do they not already have the empire itself? Whatever more a man desires on earth, his desire goes as far as the empire. What more can he have? A higher loftiness is needed. But perhaps the higher, the more perilous. And so kings, the greater the earthly loftiness they are in, the more they ought to be humbled before God. What do they do? Because they have heard all the words of your mouth! O Lord, all the words of your mouth! In I know not what nation the Law and the Prophets were hidden, all the words of your mouth. But in the nation of the Jews alone were all the words of your mouth: which nation, praising it, the apostle says: What, then, has the Jew more? or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way. First indeed, because the eloquence of God was entrusted to them (Rom 3:1-2). There were the words of God. But give me that Gideon, a certain holy man in the time of the Judges; see what kind of sign he asked of the Lord: I will set, he said, a fleece on the threshing floor; let the fleece be rained upon, let the threshing floor be dry (See Judg 6:37). And it was done: the fleece alone was rained upon, the threshing floor was dry. He asked again for a sign: Let the whole threshing floor be rained upon, and let the fleece alone be found dry (See Judg 6:39). And this too was done: the threshing floor was rained upon, the fleece dry. First the fleece rained upon, the threshing floor dry; afterward the threshing floor rained upon, the fleece dry. What does the threshing floor seem to you, brothers? Is it not the world? What the fleece? As it were the Jewish nation in the midst of the world, having the sacrament of grace, not in manifestation, but in the cloud of secrecy, as it were the rain in the fleece under a veil. The time came when the rain should be revealed on the threshing floor; it was made manifest, not covered. So there came to pass what was said: Let all the kings of the earth confess to you, O Lord; because they have heard all the words of your mouth. What is it, Israel, that you were hiding? how long were you hiding it? The fleece was wrung out, and from you went forth the rain. Christ alone is the sweetness of the rain: him alone you do not recognize in the Scriptures, on account of whom the Scriptures were made. But truly let all the kings of the earth confess to you, O Lord; because they have heard all the words of your mouth.

10. [v. 5.] And let them sing in the ways of the Lord, because great is the glory of the Lord (Ps 138:5 (137:5)). Let the kings of the earth sing in the ways of the Lord. In what ways let them sing? Of which it was said above: In your mercy and your truth; since all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth. So let not the kings of the earth be proud, but let them be humble. Then let them sing in the ways of the Lord, if they are humble: let them love, and they will sing. We know that travelers are singers; they sing, and hasten to arrive. There are evil songs, as it were of the old man; but the new song belongs to the new man. So let the kings of the earth too walk in your ways, let them walk and sing in your ways. What let them sing? Because great is the glory of the Lord: not of the kings.

11. [v. 6.] See how he wished the kings to sing in the ways, humbly bearing the Lord, not exalting themselves against the Lord. For if they exalt themselves, what follows? Because the Lord is lofty, and looks upon the lowly (Ps 138:6 (137:6)). Do the kings, then, wish to be looked upon? Let them be humble. What? if they exalt themselves into pride, can they lie hidden from his eyes? Lest perhaps, because you have heard, he looks upon the lowly, you should wish to be proud, and say in your soul: God looks upon the lowly, he does not look upon me; I will do what I wish. For who sees me? It is hidden from man; God does not wish to see me, because I am not lowly, but he looks upon the lowly: I do what I wish. O importunate man, would you say this, if you knew what you ought to love? Behold, if God should be unwilling to see you, do you not fear this very thing, that he does not wish to see you? If you greet some greater patron of yours, and, intent on something else, he does not see you, how does your soul grieve? But if God does not see you, do you think yourself secure? The Savior does not see you, and the despoiler does see you. And yet God himself too sees you. Do not think yourself unseen; rather, ask that you may deserve to be seen by him by whom you are seen. For it was said: The eyes of the Lord are upon the just (Ps 34:15 (33:16)). Because not upon the unjust, then let the unjust do what they wish: The eyes of the Lord are upon the just. Let it follow further: And his ears toward their prayers. So the unjust, who thought themselves secure because the eyes of the Lord were not upon them, do they not fear that his ears too are not toward their prayers? Is it not better that both his eyes be upon us, and his ears toward our prayers? But when you do those things over which you do not wish the eyes of the Lord to be, you do not deserve also the ears of the Lord for your prayers; and yet by doing evil, you do not turn away from yourself the eyes of the Lord. For what follows there? But the face of the Lord is upon those who do evil. But to what end? To destroy their memory from the earth (Ps 34:16 (33:17)). Do you see that you are seen? do you see that you cannot lie hidden? Since, then, whatever you do you are seen, why do you not do that whereby you may deserve to please? So here too what? Because great is the glory of the Lord; because the Lord is lofty, and looks upon the lowly. But the lofty he as it were does not look upon: for he looks upon the lowly. The lofty, what? He knows from afar. What, then, does the proud man gain for himself? That he be seen from afar; not that he be not seen. And do not think that you ought therefore to be secure, because he sees you less well who sees you from afar. For you, what you see from afar, you do not see well: God, even if he sees you from afar, sees you perfectly, and is not with you. This you bring about, not that you be seen less perfectly; but that you be not with him by whom you are seen. But what does the humble man gain for himself? The Lord is near to those who have crushed their heart (Ps 34:18 (33:19)). So let the proud man exalt himself as much as he wishes; surely God dwells on high, God is in heaven: do you wish him to draw near to you? Humble yourself. For he will be as much higher than you, as you are more lifted up: but the lofty he knows from afar.

12. [v. 7.] If I shall walk in the midst of tribulation, you will give me life (Ps 138:7 (137:7)). It is true: in whatever tribulation you are, confess, call upon him; he frees you, he gives you life. But yet we ought here to understand something better, whereby we may now more familiarly cleave to God, and say to him: Quickly hear me. For he had said: The lofty he knows from afar: and the lofty proud do not know tribulation. They do not know, I say, the tribulation of which it is said in another place: I found tribulation and sorrow, and I called upon the name of the Lord (Ps 116:3-4 (114:3-4)). For what great thing is it, if tribulation finds you? If you can do anything, you yourself find tribulation. And who is there, you say, who finds tribulation? or who would even seek it? You are in the midst of tribulation, and you do not know it? Is this life a small tribulation? If it is not a tribulation, it is not a pilgrimage; but if it is a pilgrimage, either you love the homeland too little, or without doubt you are in tribulation. For who would not be in tribulation, not to be with that which he desires? But whence does this tribulation not seem so to you? Because you do not love. Love the other life, and you will see that this life is a tribulation: with whatever prosperity it shines, with whatever delights it abounds and overflows; since that joy most sure, without any temptation, which God keeps for us at the end, is not yet present, without doubt it is a tribulation. So let us understand the tribulation of this too, brothers. If I shall walk in the midst of tribulation, you will give me life. He does not say it as though to say: If perhaps some tribulation befall me, you will free me from it. But how? If I shall walk in the midst of tribulation, you will give me life; that is, you will not otherwise give me life, unless I shall have walked in the midst of tribulation. If I shall walk in the midst of tribulation, you will give me life. Woe to those who laugh; blessed are those who mourn (See Luke 6:25, 21): If I shall walk in the midst of tribulation, you will give me life.

13. Above the wrath of my enemies you have stretched out your hand, and your right hand has saved me (Ps 138:7 (137:7)). Let the enemies rage; what can the enemies do? Take away money, despoil, proscribe, send into exile, torture with pains and torments; finally, if they are permitted, even kill: is there anything more? But you, O Lord, above the wrath of my enemies you have stretched out your hand: above what the enemies can do to me, you have stretched out your hand. For the enemies cannot separate me from you; but you avenge more, because you still defer me: Above the wrath of my enemies you have stretched out your hand. Let the enemy rage as much as he can, he does not separate me from God: but you, O Lord, do not yet receive me, you still grind me down in pilgrimage, you do not yet give your joy and sweetness; you have not yet inebriated me with the richness of your house, and with the torrent of your delight you have not yet given me to drink. For with you is the fountain of life, and in your light we shall see light (See Ps 36:8-9 (35:9-10)). But behold I have given the firstfruits of the spirit, and have believed in you, and serve the law of God in my mind; yet within ourselves we still groan, awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body (See Rom 8:23). This life God gave to us when we sinned, where it is even necessary that Adam be ground down in the sweat and labor of his face, when the earth brings forth for him thorns and thistles (See Gen 3:18-19). Could any enemy procure more? Above the wrath of my enemies you have stretched out your hand: but yet not unto despair. For it follows: And your right hand has saved me.

14. It can also be understood thus, above the wrath of my enemies you have stretched out your hand: the enemies were angry, you avenged me on the enemies. The sinner will see and be angry, he will gnash with his teeth and waste away (Ps 112:10 (111:10)). Where are those who said: Let the name of the Christians perish from the earth? Surely they either die, or are converted. So above the wrath of the enemies you have stretched out your hand, as long as that was said which is written: My enemies have spoken evils of me, when will he die and his name perish (Ps 41:5 (40:6))? when will the name of the Christians be blotted out from the earth? When they say these things, some have believed, some have perished, a few fearful ones have remained. How great a wrath of the enemies raged, when the blood of the martyrs was poured out! How they thought to blot out the name of the Christians from the earth! Above the wrath of my enemies you have stretched out your hand, and your right hand has saved me. Behold, those who persecuted the martyrs seek out the memorials of the martyrs, either where they may adore, or where they may inebriate themselves; yet they seek them. Above the wrath of my enemies you have stretched out your hand, and your right hand has saved me. According to desire your right hand has saved me. There is a certain salvation in the right hand; for there is another salvation in the left: temporal and fleshly salvation is in the left hand; eternal salvation with the angels is in the right hand. Therefore Christ, now set in that very immortality, is said to sit at the right hand of God (See Mark 16:19). For God does not have in himself a right hand or a left; but the right hand of God is said to be that happiness which, because it cannot be shown to the eyes, has received such a name. By this your right hand you have saved me, not according to temporal salvation. For Crispina was killed; but did God therefore desert her? He did not make her safe in the left hand, but made her safe in the right. How great torments the Maccabees endured (See 2 Macc 7)! But the three young men, walking in the midst of the fires, praised God (See Dan 3:24-25). The salvation of the former in the right hand, of the latter in the left hand too. So sometimes he does not save his saints in the left hand; but he always saves in the right hand. But the impious he very often saves in the left hand, he does not save in the right. For those who persecuted Crispina were healthy in body: she was killed, they live. Their salvation in the left hand, hers in the right: And your right hand has saved me.

15. [v. 8.] O Lord, you will repay for me (Ps 138:8 (137:8)). I do not repay; you will repay for me. Let the enemies rage as much as they please; you will repay what I cannot. O Lord, you will repay for me. Attend to it in our head himself. For he left us an example, that we might follow his footsteps. Who committed no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return, saying: O Lord, you will repay for me: when he was judged, he did not threaten; but commended himself to him who judges justly (1 Pet 2:21-23). What is: O Lord, you will repay for me? I, he says, do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and judges (Jn 8:50). Not avenging yourselves, dearly beloved, the apostle says: but give place to wrath. For it is written: Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, says the Lord (Rom 12:19). O Lord, you will repay for me.

16. There is here another understanding not to be neglected, and perhaps rather to be chosen. O Lord Christ, you will repay for me. For if I repay, I have plundered; you, what you did not plunder, you have paid: O Lord, you will repay for me. See him repaying for us. There came those who exacted tribute; they exacted the tribute of a didrachma, that is, two drachmas on one man: they came to the Lord, that he might pay the tribute; rather, not to him, but to the disciples; and it was said to them: Does your Master not pay tribute? They reported it to him. And he: The kings of the earth, from whom do they exact tribute? from their sons, or from strangers? They answered: From strangers. So, then, he said, the sons are free. But yet, lest we scandalize them, he said to Peter, go, cast a hook into the sea, and the first fish that comes up, open its mouth, and you will find a stater (Matt 17:24-27); that is, two didrachmas. A stater is a kind of weight, having four drachmas. You will find it there; give it to them for me and you. O Lord, you will repay for me. Rightly we have the first fish caught with the hook, seized with the hook; the first rising from the sea, the firstborn from the dead. In his mouth we find two didrachmas, that is, four drachmas: in his mouth we find the four Gospels. By these four drachmas we are freed from the exaction of this world; through the four Gospels we will not remain debtors: for there all our sins are paid. So he repaid for us: thanks to his mercy. He owed nothing; he did not pay for himself, but he paid for us. Behold, he says, the prince of this world comes, and in me he will find nothing (Jn 14:30). What is, in me he will find nothing? He will find no sin in me; he has no reason to kill me. But that all may know, he says, that I do the will of my Father, arise, let us go hence (Jn 14:31). What is, arise, let us go hence? That is, not by necessity, but by will I suffer, paying what I do not owe: O Lord, you will repay for me.

17. O Lord, your mercy is forever (Ps 138:8 (137:8)). What should I desire? Not the day of men. I have not labored following you, O Lord, and I have not coveted the day of man; you know (See Jer 17:16). Behold, the holy martyr Crispina, if she desired the day of men, would deny Christ: she would live longer here, but would not live forever. She preferred to live forever, than to live a little longer in time. Finally, O Lord, your mercy is forever; I do not wish to be freed for a time. Your mercy is forever, by which you freed the martyrs, and so quickly took them from this life. O Lord, your mercy is forever.

18. The works of your hands do not despise (Ps 138:8 (137:8)). I do not say, O Lord: Do not despise the works of my hands; I do not boast of my works. I sought the Lord with my hands in the night before him, and I was not deceived (See Ps 77:2 (76:3)); but yet I do not commend the works of my hands: I fear lest, when you look, you find more sins than merits. This alone I ask, this I say, this I desire to obtain: The works of your hands do not despise. See your work in me, not mine; for if you see mine, you condemn; if you see yours, you crown. Because whatever good works of mine there are, they are to me from you, and therefore are yours rather than mine. For I hear from your apostle: By grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God; not of works, lest perhaps anyone be lifted up. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus in good works (Eph 2:8-10). So, whether in that we are men, or in that we have been changed from our impiety and justified, O Lord, the works of your hands do not despise.

Exposition of Psalm 139

1. We had prepared for you a short psalm, which we had ordered to be sung by the Reader; but on the spot, as it seems, being confused, he read one instead of the other. We have preferred to follow, in the Reader's error, the will of God, rather than our own in our own purpose. If, then, we shall have detained you somewhat in its length, do not impute it to us; but believe that God willed us not to labor fruitlessly. For not in vain did we receive, in our first sin, the punishment, that in the sweat of our face we should eat bread (See Gen 3:19). Only attend, if it is bread. And it is bread, if it is Christ: I am, he says, the living bread who came down from heaven (Jn 6:51). Whom we have manifest in the Gospel, let us seek him also in the Prophets. Him those do not see over whose heart a veil is still set (See 2 Cor 3:15), of which your charity heard yesterday. But for us, because the evening sacrifice of the Lord's cross tore the veil, that the secrets of the temple might now lie open; as long as Christ is preached to us, even if with labor and sweat, the bread must be eaten.

2. But our Lord Jesus Christ speaks in the Prophets sometimes from the person of our head, who is Christ himself the savior, sitting at the right hand of the Father (See Mark 16:19); who also, for our sake born of a virgin, and under Pontius Pilate, suffered such things as you know (See Luke 23); with innocent blood poured out, which is our price, he redeemed the guilty from the captivity in which we were held by the devil, forgiving us our offenses, and by that very price, his own blood, blotting out the bond by which we were held debtors (See Col 2:14). He is the ruler and bridegroom and redeemer of the Church, our head. And surely if he is the head, he has a body. But his body is the holy Church, which is also his spouse; to whom the apostle says: But you are the body of Christ and members (1 Cor 12:27). So the whole Christ is head and body, as it were a complete man: because the woman too was made from the man, and belongs to the man; and it was said of the first marriage: The two will be in one flesh (Gen 2:24). But the apostle interprets that this was not said in vain of those two men, as a mystery, except that in them Christ and the Church were already figured. For the apostle expounds it thus: The two will be, he says, in one flesh: this is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and the Church (Eph 5:31-32). He says too that Adam himself is the form of the one to come: Who is, he says, the form of the one to come (Rom 5:14). If, then, Adam is the form of the one to come; just as from the side of the sleeping man Eve was made (See Gen 2:21-22), so from the side of the sleeping Lord, that is, dying in the passion, and on the cross struck by the lance, flowed the Sacraments, by which the Church would be formed (See Jn 19:34). For of that future passion of his he says thus in another psalm: I slept, and took rest; and I rose up, because the Lord will receive me (Ps 3:5 (3:6)). So sleeping is understood as the passion. Eve from the side of the sleeping man, the Church from the side of the suffering man. So our Lord Jesus Christ speaks in the Prophets sometimes from his own voice, sometimes from our voice, because he makes himself one with us; as it was said: The two will be in one flesh. Whence the Lord himself too says in the Gospel, when he was speaking of marriage: So then they are now not two, but one flesh (Matt 19:6). One flesh, because he took flesh from our mortality: but not one divinity; because he is the Creator, we the creature. Whatever, then, the Lord speaks from the person of the assumed flesh, belongs both to that head which has now ascended into heaven, and to these members which still labor in the earthly pilgrimage: for which laboring members, when Saul was persecuting them, he cried out from heaven: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me (Acts 9:4)? Let us, then, hear the Lord Jesus Christ speaking in prophecy. For these Psalms were sung long before the Lord was born of Mary, not before the Lord existed: for he is always the Creator of all things; but at one time also born of a creature. Let us believe that divinity, and, as far as we can, understand it equal to the Father. But that divinity equal to the Father was made a partaker of our mortality, not of its own, but of ours; that we too might be made partakers of his divinity, not of our own, but of his.

3. [v. 1.] O Lord, you have proved me, and have known me (Ps 139:1 (138:1)). Let the Lord Jesus Christ himself say this, let him too say: O Lord, to the Father. For the Father is not his Lord, except because he deigned to be born according to the flesh. He is the Father of God, the Lord of the man. Do you wish to know of whom he is the Father? Of the Son equal to himself. The apostle says: Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal to God (Phil 2:6). Of this form God is the Father, of the form equal to himself, of the only-begotten Son born of his own substance. But for our sake, that we might be remade, and be made partakers of his divinity, restored to eternal life, because he himself, as I said, was made a partaker of our mortality; what does the apostle say of him there, where he had said: Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal to God? But he emptied himself, he says, taking the form of a servant; made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man (Phil 2:7). But he was in the form of God equal to the Father; and he took the form of a servant, by which he would be less than the Father. Whence he says both in the Gospel: I and the Father are one; and: Because the Father is greater than I. I and the Father are one (Jn 10:30), according to the form of God; the Father is greater than I (Jn 14:28), according to the form of a servant. So because he is both Father and Lord—Father of the form of God, Lord of the form of a servant—let him say it himself, and let us not wonder, nor be scandalized, because the only Son of God says: O Lord, you have proved me, and have known me. You have proved, and have known: not because he did not know, but because he had made known to others. You have proved me, he says, and have known me.

4. [v. 2.] You have known my sitting down and my rising up (Ps 139:2 (138:2)). What is here the sitting down? what here the rising up? He who sits humbles himself. So the Lord sat in the passion, he rose in the resurrection. You, he says, have known this: that is, you willed it, you approved it; according to your will it was done. But if you wish to take the voice of the head from the person of the body, let us too say: You have known my sitting down and my rising up. For a man sits, when he humbles himself in penance; but he rises, his sins forgiven, when he is raised up in the hope of eternal life. Therefore in another psalm too it is said: Rise after you have sat down, you who eat the bread of sorrow (Ps 127:2 (126:2)). The penitents eat the bread of sorrow, who sing in another psalm, and say: My tears have been my bread day and night (Ps 42:3 (41:4)). What, then, is: Rise after you have sat down? Do not be exalted, unless you have been humbled. For many wish to rise before they have sat down; they wish to seem just, before they have confessed that they are sinners. So if you take it from the person of our head, understand thus: You have known my sitting down and my rising up, my passion and my resurrection. If from the person of the body: You have known my sitting down and my rising up; before your eyes I both confessed my sins, and was justified by your grace.

5. [vv. 3-4.] You have understood my thoughts from afar: my path and my boundary you have searched out, and all my ways you have foreseen (Ps 139:3-4 (138:3-4)). What is, from afar? While I am still in pilgrimage, before I come to that homeland, you have known my thought. Attend to that younger son; for he too was made the body of Christ, the Church coming from the Gentiles. For the younger son had gone into a far country. For a certain head of a household had two sons: the elder had not gone far, but was working in the field, and signifies the saints in the Law doing the works and precepts of the law (See Luke 15:11-32). But the human race which had turned aside into the worship of idols had gone into a far country on pilgrimage. What is so far from him who made you, as the figment which you have made for yourself? So the younger son set out into a far country, carrying with him his substance, and, as we know in the Gospel, he squandered it living prodigally with harlots; and, suffering hunger, he attached himself to a certain prince of that region; and he set him over the feeding of swine, with whose husks he longed to be filled, and could not. After labor, and threshing, and tribulation, and want, the father came to his mind, and he wished to return; and he said thus: I will arise, and go to my father. I will arise, he said; for he had sat down. So recognize here his voice, saying: You have known my sitting down and my rising up. I sat in want, I rose in the desire of your bread. You have understood my thoughts from afar. For I had set out far; but where is he whom I had deserted not? You have understood my thoughts from afar. Therefore the Lord says thus in the Gospel, that his father ran to meet him as he came (See Luke 15:20). Truly, because he had understood his thoughts from afar. My path and my boundary you have searched out. My path, he says: which, except the evil one which he had walked, to desert his father, as though he could be hidden from the eyes of the avenger; or rather that he would be ground down in that want, or be set to feeding swine, unless the father wished to scourge him while far off, that he might receive him near? So, as a fugitive caught, with the lawful vengeance of God following him—God, who avenges himself in our affections, wherever we go and wherever we proceed; so, as a fugitive caught, he speaks: My path, and my boundary you have searched out. What is, my path? By which I set out. What is, my boundary? As far as I came. My path and my boundary you have searched out. That far boundary of mine was not far from your eyes: I had gone far, and you were there. My path and my boundary you have searched out.

6. And all my ways you have foreseen. He did not say, you have seen; but, you have foreseen. Before I went them, before I walked them, you foresaw them; and you permitted me to go my ways in labor, that, if I were unwilling to labor, I might return to your ways. Because there is no guile in my tongue (Ps 139:4 (138:4)). Why did he say this? Because, behold, I confess to you; I walked my path, I became far from you; I departed from you, with whom it was well for me, and to my own good it was ill for me without you. For if it were well with me without you, I would perhaps be unwilling to return to you. So this man, confessing his sins, the body of Christ saying that it is justified, not in itself, but in his grace, said: There is no guile in my tongue.

7. [v. 5.] Behold, you, O Lord, have known all things, the last and the ancient (Ps 139:5 (138:5)). You have known my last things, when I fed swine; you have known my ancient things, when I asked of you the portion of my substance. The ancient things were for me the beginnings of the last evils. Ancient was the sin, when we fell; the last was the punishment, when we came into this laborious and perilous mortality. And would that this might be the last for us! It will be the last, if we now wish to return. For there is another last thing for certain impious men, to whom it will be said: Go into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). But we, brothers, have thus far deserted God: let our labor up to the mortality of this life suffice. Let us remember the bread of our Father, let us recall the blessedness of our Father's house; let not the husks of the swine, the doctrines of demons, delight us. Behold, you, O Lord, have known all things, the last and the ancient: the last, to where I came; the ancient, where I offended you. You formed me, and set your hand upon me. You formed me: where? In this mortality; now unto the labors to which we are all born. For no one is born, except whom God has formed in his mother's womb; nor is there any creature of which he is not the maker. But you formed me in this labor: and you set your hand upon me; the avenging hand, weighing upon the proud. For he so wholesomely cast down the exalted, that he might raise up the humble. You formed me, and set your hand upon me.

8. [v. 6.] Your knowledge has been made wondrous from me: it has prevailed; I shall not be able to reach it (Ps 139:6 (138:6)). Something which is indeed obscure, but is understood with no small sweetness, hear with attention. Moses, the holy servant of God, with whom God spoke through a cloud—because, speaking in time, he surely spoke to his servant through an assumed creature; that is, not through his own substance, but through some assumed bodily creature, through which those voices were made, and sounded to human and mortal ears (For so God then spoke, not as he speaks in his own substance. For how does he speak in his own substance? The speech of God is the Word of God; the Word of God is Christ: that Word does not sound and pass away, but always abides unchangeably the Word, through which all things were made (See Jn 1:3). To which Word it is said (for it is also the Wisdom of God): You will change them, and they will be changed; but you are the same (Ps 102:26-27 (101:27-28)). And in another place, when Scripture said of Wisdom: Abiding in herself, she says, she renews all things (Wis 7:27). So that Wisdom, standing—if it should be said even 'standing': but it is said on account of unchangeableness, not on account of immobility—and always being in the same way, varied by no place, by no time, nowhere otherwise than here or there, never otherwise than now or before, is itself the speech of God. But that speech which was made to Moses, was made to a man through syllables, through passing sounds. But these things would not be made, unless God assumed such a creature, through which he might emit speech and voices of this kind): Moses the holy one knew that this speech of God was made through certain assumed bodily creatures; and he desired and coveted to see the very form of God, and said to God speaking with him: If I have found grace before you, show me yourself (See Exod 33:13). When he coveted this vehemently, and wished, by a certain (if it should be said) friendly familiarity, by which God himself deigned to treat him, to wring it from God, that he might see his majesty and face, in whatever way the face of God can be spoken of; he said to him: You cannot see my face: for no one has seen my face, and lived. But I will place you in a cleft of the rock, and I will pass by, and I will place my hand over you; but when I have passed by, you will see my hinder parts (Exod 33:20-23). And from these words another riddle was born, that is, a certain obscure figure of things. When I have passed by, you will see my hinder parts, says God; as though on one side he has a face, on another a back. Far be it from us to think any such thing of that Majesty. For he who thinks this of God, what does it profit him that the temples are closed? He fashions an idol in his own heart. So there are in those words great mysteries. The Lord was speaking, as I said, through a creature, as he willed, to his servant. There was understood the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ himself. Who indeed, according to the form of God, by which he is equal to the Father (See Phil 2:6), is likewise invisible to human eyes, as the Father too is. For if human wisdom cannot be seen with the eyes, can the Power and Wisdom of God be seen with fleshly eyes? But because the Lord was, at an opportune time, to assume flesh, that he might appear even to fleshly eyes, for the wholesome end of healing the mind within, when it was needful so to appear; foretelling this to Moses figuratively, he said: You cannot see my face; you will see my hinder parts, but when I have passed by (See Exod 33:20-23): but that you may not see my face, my hand will be over you. What was it for the Lord to pass by, except what the evangelist says: But when the hour had come, that Jesus should pass from this world to the Father (Jn 13:1)? For the Pasch itself signifies the passing. For what in the Hebrew word is called Pasch, in Latin is interpreted 'Passing.' What is: You will not see my face, but you will see my hinder parts? Whose person did that Moses bear, when it was said to him: You will not see my face, but you will see my hinder parts, and this when I have passed by: but that you may not see my face, I will set my hand over you? Did he call his face his first things? and in a certain way his hinder parts, the passing of his passion from this world? He appeared to the Jews; they did not recognize him. Moses bore their person, when it was said to him: You cannot see my face. Whence they did not see God set in the flesh. Because the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them. For of them Isaiah had said: Make fat the heart of this people, and weigh down its eyes (Isa 6:10): and it is their voice in another psalm: Because your hand was heavy upon me (Ps 32:4 (31:4)). So that they might not then recognize the divinity of Christ (for if they had recognized it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (See 1 Cor 2:8): but the Lord not being crucified, his blood would not redeem the world), what did God do, except what the apostle says, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, where he exclaims: O depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how incomprehensible are his judgments, and unsearchable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him? For from him, and through him, and in him are all things; to him be glory forever and ever (Rom 11:33-36). The apostle says this; because above he had said: Blindness in part has come upon Israel, that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter, and so all Israel might be saved (Rom 11:25-26). So the Jews were blinded in part, deservedly for their pride, because they called themselves just; and, blinded, they crucified the Lord. He set his hand over them, that they might not see him, until he passed by, namely from this world to the Father. Let us see whether, after he passed by, they saw his hinder parts. The Lord rose, he appeared to his disciples and to all who had already believed in him; not to those by whom he had been crucified, because he had set his hand over them, until he passed by. But he ascended into heaven, forty days having been spent with his disciples. But, the day of Pentecost being fulfilled, he sent them the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to speak in the tongues of all, who had been born in one, and had learned only one (See Acts 2:1-11). Thousands of those who had crucified the Lord were amazed, and shuddered at so great a miracle: pricked in heart at so great a miracle, they asked counsel of the apostles, what they should do, after Christ was preached to them, as they wondered whence unlearned men spoke in all tongues. So, Christ being announced to them through the apostle Peter—Christ whom they had despised on the cross, whom they had mocked as a mortal man; over whom they exulted because he did not come down from the cross, when surely it was much greater what he did, to rise from the tomb, than to come down from the cross—Christ, then, being announced to them, they said: What shall we do (Acts 2:37)? Those who had raged against the Lord whom they saw, now ask counsel of salvation; and it was said to them: Do penance, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; and your sins will be forgiven you (Acts 2:38). Behold, they saw his hinder parts, whose face they could not see. For his hand was over their eyes; not always, but until he passed by. After he passed by, he took away his hand from their eyes: the hand being taken from their eyes, they say to the disciples: What shall we do? First savage, afterward devout; first angry, afterward fearful; first hard, afterward bent; first blind, afterward enlightened.

9. I think that in this psalm too we recognize voices of this kind even of the Gentiles recalling their own unbelief. For God has shut up all in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all (Rom 11:32). You formed me, and set your hand upon me. Your knowledge has been made wondrous from me: it has prevailed; I shall not be able to reach it. As it were, you set your hand upon me: you became wondrous to me; I do not comprehend you with whom I was. How easy for me was the face of my father, when I said: Give me my substance, which falls to me (Luke 15:12). Behold, having set out into a far country and ground down by hunger, it is much for me, and labor is before me; I cannot grasp what I let go. For your knowledge, he says, has been made wondrous from me. From my sin it came about that it was made wondrous to me, and existed incomprehensible to me. For there was for me an easiness of contemplating you, when I had not by pride deserted you. Your knowledge has been made wondrous from me: it has prevailed; I shall not be able to reach it: but you supply, from me. I shall not be able to reach it from myself. So when I shall be able, I shall not be able except from you.

10. [v. 7.] Behold, you find that the fugitive far off does not lie hidden from the eyes of him from whom he flees. And where will he now go, whose boundary has been searched out? See what he says: Where shall I go from your Spirit? For the Spirit of the Lord has filled the world (See Wis 1:7): who can flee in the world from that Spirit, with which the world is full? Where shall I go from your Spirit? and where shall I flee from your face? He seeks a place where he may flee from the wrath of God. What is the place that will receive a fugitive from God? Men who receive fugitives ask of them, from whom they have fled; and whatever servant they find of some less powerful master, they receive as it were without any fear, saying in their heart: This man does not have such a master as can search him out. But when they have heard of a powerful master, either they do not receive him, or they receive him with great fear: because even a powerful man can be deceived. Where is God not? who deceives God? whom does God not see? from whom does God not demand back his fugitive? Where, then, will this fugitive go from the face of God? He turns himself this way and that, as it were seeking a place for his flight.

11. [v. 8.] If I shall ascend, he says, into heaven, you are there; if I shall descend into hell, you are present (Ps 139:8 (138:8)). At last you have known, evil fugitive, that in no way can you become far from him from whom you wished to go far. Behold, he is everywhere: you, where will you go? He found counsel, and this inspired by him who now deigns to call him back. If I shall ascend into heaven, you are there; if I shall descend into hell, you are present. If I lift myself up, I find you the represser; if I hide myself, I find you the searcher; and not only the searcher, but the investigator. For if I grow proud of my justice, you are there, whose is the true justice. If by sinning I come into the depth of evils, and despise confessing (See Prov 18:3), saying: Who sees me? for in hell who will confess to you (Ps 6:5 (6:6))? there too you are present, to avenge. Where, then, shall I go, that I may flee from your face, that is, that I may not feel you angry?

12. [v. 9.] He found this counsel: So will I flee, he says, from your face, so will I flee from your Spirit; from the avenging Spirit, from the avenging face, so will I flee. How? If I shall take up my wings straight on, and shall dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea (Ps 139:9 (138:9)): so can I flee from your face. If in the uttermost parts of the sea he wishes to flee from the face of God, will he who flees not be there, of whom he said: If I shall descend into hell, you are present? It is a wonder if he is not in the uttermost parts of the sea, who is not absent even among the dead. But I know, he says, how I may flee from your wrath. My wings are to be taken up not crookedly, but straight on, that I may neither be raised into proud presumption, nor sunk into lost despair. What wings does he wish to take up, except two wings, the two precepts of love? On which two precepts the whole Law and the Prophets hang (See Matt 22:40). These wings, he says, these feathers, if I shall so take up, and shall dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, I can flee from your face to your face, from the face of the angry one to the face of the appeased one. For what is the uttermost part of the sea, except the end of the world? Thither let us now fly by hope and desire, having the wings of the twofold love: let there be no rest for us, except in the uttermost part of the sea. For if we wish rest elsewhere, we will be cast headlong into the sea. Let us fly until the sea is ended, let us suspend ourselves on the wings of the twofold love: let us meanwhile fly to God by hope, and let us premeditate by faithful hope that end of the sea.

13. [v. 10.] But who may lead us through, attend: that very one whose face, angry, we wish to flee. For what follows? If I shall descend into hell, you are present. If I shall take up my wings straight on. I shall take up, he says: so he had lost them. If I shall take up my wings straight on, and shall dwell in the last parts of the sea. For even there your hand will lead me through, and your right hand will bring me (Ps 139:10 (138:10)). Let us meditate on this, dearest brothers; let this be our hope, let this be our consolation. Let us take up by love the wings which we lost by cupidity. For cupidity has become the birdlime of our wings; it dashed us down from the freedom of our air, that is, of those free breezes of the Spirit of God. Dashed down from there, we lost our wings, and were as it were taken captive in the power of the fowler: thence he redeemed us by his blood, whom we fled that we might be caught. He nourishes wings for us from his precepts; we now raise them without birdlime. Let us not love the sea, but let us fly to the uttermost parts of the sea. Let no one be afraid; but let no one presume upon his own wings: because even the winged, unless he himself raises us, unless he himself leads us, will be cast headlong into the depths of the sea, wearied and tired, as it were presuming upon our own strength. So there is need that we have wings, and there is need that he himself lead us through; for he is our helper. We have free choice; but by that very free choice, what can we do, unless he helps who commands? For even there your hand will lead me through, and your right hand will bring me.

14. [v. 11.] And considering the length of the way, what did he say to himself? And I said: Perhaps the darkness will trample me (Ps 139:11 (138:11)). For behold, I have now believed in Christ, I am now raised up by the two wings of the twofold love, and the iniquity of this world abounds; and because iniquity has abounded, the love of many grows cold. So the Lord said: Because iniquity will abound, the love of many will grow cold (Matt 24:12). In this life, amid so many scandals, amid so many sins, amid such crowds of daily temptations, of daily evil suggestions, what do I do, he says? how shall I come to the uttermost parts of the sea? I hear with terror from the Lord: Because iniquity will abound, the love of many will grow cold: then he added: He who perseveres to the end, he will be saved (Matt 24:13). Attending to the length of the way, I said to myself: Perhaps the darkness will trample me. And the night is illumination in my delights. The night has become illumination for me: because in the night I had despaired of being able to cross so great a sea, and to overcome so great a way, and to come to the end by persevering to the end. Thanks to him who sought me the fugitive, who struck my back with the blow of the scourge, who, by calling me, called me back from destruction, who made the night illumined for me. For it is night as long as this life is lived. How is the night illumined? Because Christ descended into the night. Christ took flesh from this world, and illumined the night for us. For that woman had lost a drachma (See Luke 15:8); she lit a lamp. The Wisdom of God had lost a drachma. What is the drachma? A coin, on which coin was the image of our Emperor. For man was made to the image of God (See Gen 1:27), and had perished. And what did the wise woman do? She lit a lamp. The lamp is of clay, but it has a light by which the drachma may be found. So the lamp of wisdom, the flesh of Christ, was made of clay; but it shines by his Word, it finds the lost. And the night is illumination in my delights: the night has become for me in my delights. Our delight is Christ. See how we now rejoice over him. These shouts of yours, these joys of yours, whence are they, except from delights? But whence these delights, except because the night has been illumined, except because Christ the Lord is preached to us? Because he sought you before you sought him, and found you that you might find him. And the night is illumination in my delights.

15. [v. 12.] Because the darkness will not be darkened by you (Ps 139:12 (138:12)). Do not, then, darken your own darkness; and God does not darken it, but rather illumines it: because it was said to him in another psalm: You will light my lamp, O Lord; my God, you will illumine my darkness (Ps 18:28 (17:29)). But who darken their darkness, which God does not darken? Evil men, perverse men: when they sin, they are surely darkness; while they do not confess the sins they committed, but moreover defend them, they darken their darkness. So now if you have sinned, you are in darkness: but by confessing your darkness, you will deserve to have your darkness illumined; but by defending your darkness, you darken your darkness. And when will you escape from a double darkness, you who labored in the single? But whence does the Lord not darken our darkness? Because he does not let us have our sins unpunished: he scourges us in these labors, and instructs us. This whole misery of the human race in which the world groans, know, brothers, that it is a medicinal pain, not a penal sentence. You see that pain is everywhere, everywhere fear, everywhere necessity, everywhere labors. Avarice grows, but among the evil. If for this God here instructs us with such scourges, that our darkness may not be darkened; let us acknowledge that we are under the punishment of the scourge, and let us bless God who mixes bitternesses with the sweetness of temporal life, lest, blinded by the delight of temporal delights, we should not desire the eternal delights, nor wish the sea to be ended and to dwell in the last parts of the sea. So let the waves of the sea rage; the more the waves of the sea rage, the more that dove suspends itself with its wings. So God does not darken our darkness; because he mixes scourges with our sins, and bitternesses with our crooked sweetnesses. Let us not darken our darkness by defending our sins; and the night is illumination in our delights. Because the darkness will not be darkened by you.

16. And the night will be illumined like the day. The night like the day (Ps 139:12 (138:12)): the day for us is the prosperity of the world, the night for us is the adversity of the world: but if we acknowledge that we suffer adversities deservedly for our sins, and the scourges of the Father are sweet to us, lest the sentence of the judge be bitter; we will so have the darkness of this night as the light of this night. If it is night, how is there light there? It is night, because here the human race goes astray: it is night, because we have not yet come to that day which yesterday and tomorrow do not confine; but it is a perpetual day, without rising, because without setting. So it is night here; but this night has a certain light of its own, and its own darkness. We have said why in general it is night: what is the light of this night? The prosperity and happiness of this world, temporal joy, temporal honor, is as it were the light of this night. But adversity and the bitterness of tribulations or lowliness are as it were the darkness of this night. In this night, in this mortality of human life, men have light, men have darkness; light, prosperity; darkness, adversity. But when Christ the Lord has come, and dwelt in the soul through faith, and promised another light, and inspired and granted patience, and admonished a man not to be delighted by prosperous things, lest he be broken by adverse ones; the faithful man begins to use this world indifferently, neither to be exalted when prosperous things happen, nor to be broken when adverse things are present, but everywhere to bless the Lord; not only when he abounds, but also when he loses; not only when he is healthy, but also when he is sick; so that there may be in him that true song: I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall ever be in my mouth (Ps 34:1 (33:2)). If, then, always, both when this night shines, and when this night is dark; when prosperity smiles, when adversity is sad, let his praise ever be in your mouth: and there will come to you what was just now said: As his darkness, so also his light. His darkness does not trample me, because his light does not exalt me.

17. Behold, you have his light in Job: he abounded in all things. The light of the night is first described in his riches: with how many things and how great abundance he overflowed, was the light of his night. The enemy thought that such a man worshipped God for this reason, because he had granted him all those things; and he asked that they be taken from him: the darkness of that night was made which first had light. Yet he knew, whether there was light there or darkness, that it was a night in which he was a pilgrim away from his God; and he had as his inner light God himself, by which inner light he held indifferently either the darkness of that night, or the light. Therefore, because in the light of that night, that is, in the abundance of things, he worshipped God, when all his things were taken from him, after his darkness was made, what did he say? The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has been done: blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). I am in a certain night of this life: my Lord, he says, dwells in my heart; he illumined this night for me with certain consolations, when he gave abundance of temporal things: he withdrew that very temporal light, and the night was as it were darkened. But because as his darkness, so also his light: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has been done: blessed be the name of the Lord. I am not sad in this night, because as his darkness, so also his light. Both pass away, that those who rejoice may be as not rejoicing, and those who weep as not weeping (See 1 Cor 7:30); because as his darkness, so also his light.

18. [v. 13.] Because you have possessed my reins, O Lord (Ps 139:13 (138:13)). Not without cause: As his darkness, so also his light. The possessor is within: he holds not only the heart, but also the reins; not only the thoughts, but also the delights. So he himself possesses that whence something of light might delight me in the night; he himself holds my reins: I do not know how to be delighted except by the inner light of his wisdom. What then? are you not delighted by the prosperity of things, by the happiness of the times, by honors, by riches, by household? I am not delighted, he says. Why? Because as his darkness, so also his light. Whence comes to you this indifference, that as his darkness, so also his light is to you? whence? Because you have possessed my reins, O Lord; you took me up from my mother's womb (Ps 139:13 (138:13)). While I was in my mother's womb, I did not hold indifferently the darkness of that night and the light of that night. For the womb of my mother was the custom of my city. What is that city? The one that first bore us in captivity. We know that Babylon of which we spoke yesterday, from which set out all who believe and sigh for that light, the heavenly Jerusalem. So I said: From my mother's womb I was taken up by the Lord; thence the darkness of this night and the light of this night became indifferent to me. But he who is in the womb of that mother Babylon rejoices in the prosperous things of the world, is broken by the adversities of the world; he does not know how to rejoice unless something prosperous happens according to time, nor does he know how to be made sad unless something adverse happens according to time. Now go out of the womb of Babylon, begin to sing a hymn to the Lord: go out, and be born; God will take you up from your mother's womb. Which God? That God of the apostle Paul, who said: But when it pleased God, who set me apart from my mother's womb, to reveal his Son in me (Gal 1:15-16). For who was his mother? The synagogue. And there what had he learned, except what the Jews themselves and that very people had and had learned? The name of the praise of God had remained in them; but deeds were not found in them: there were in them the words of God, as leaves on a tree, and fruit nowhere. Such a fig tree, as you know, when the Lord found it, he withered with a curse (See Matt 21:19). For he found on it leaves, and found no fruit: it figured a certain tree for us. For the time of those fruits was not yet: did the maker of heaven and earth not know what all men knew? So he who set apart Paul from his mother's womb, he himself set us apart too from our mother's womb. From which our mother? That Babylon. Taken up, then, from that womb, let us now begin to have another hope. He has promised, brothers, why you should rejoice; bear fruit, set in another hope. We now know no evil except to offend God, and not to be led to those things which he promised; nor do we know any good except to win God's favor, and to be led to those things which he promises. What are those goods of this world, and the evils of this world? Let us hold them indifferently; because now, taken up from the womb of that our mother, holding them indifferently, we say: As his darkness, so also his light. Neither does the happiness of the world make us blessed, nor adversity wretched. It is needful to hold to justice, to love faith, to hope in God, to love God, to love also the neighbor. After these labors we will have unwearying light, we will have a day without setting: whatever is bright or dark in this night passes away. Because you have possessed my reins, O Lord; you took me up from my mother's womb.

19. [v. 14.] I will confess to you, O Lord, because you have been made wondrous terribly. You have been made wondrous terribly (Ps 139:14 (138:14)): by this very thing, that we marvel at you, you are terrible; with trembling we rejoice. For we fear lest, exalting ourselves over your gifts through pride, we deserve to lose what we received by humility. I will confess to you, O Lord, because you have been made wondrous terribly: wondrous are your works, and my soul knows them greatly. Now my soul knows greatly; because you took me up from my mother's womb: but before, your knowledge had been made wondrous from me; it had prevailed, nor could I reach it. So from myself it had prevailed, nor could I reach it. Whence now does my soul know greatly, except because the night is illumination in my delights? except because your grace came to me, and illumined my darkness? except because you have possessed my reins? except because you took me up from my mother's womb?

20. [v. 15.] My bone is not hidden from you, which you made in secret (Ps 139:15 (138:15)). He says his bone: what is commonly called 'ossum' is in Latin called 'os.' This is found in the Greek. For we could here think it to be 'os' (mouth), from which come 'ora' (mouths); not 'os' (bone) with the short vowel, from which come 'ossa' (bones). It is not, then, hidden, he says, my bone, from you, which you made in secret. I have in secret a certain bone. For let us rather speak thus: it is better that the grammarians reprove us, than that the people not understand. So there is, he says, a certain bone of mine within in secret; you made within a bone for me in secret, and it is not hidden from you. For you made it in secret; but did you hide this even from yourself? This bone of mine, made by you in secret, men do not see, men do not know; but you know, who made it. What, then, does he mean by 'bone,' brothers? Let us seek it; it is in secret. But because, Christians in the name of the Lord, we speak to Christians, now we find what such a bone is. It is a certain inner firmness; because in bones firmness and strength are understood. So there is a certain inner firmness of the soul, where it is not broken. Whatever torments, whatever tribulations, whatever adversities of this world rage on every side; that which God made firm in secret cannot be broken in us, does not yield. For by the Lord there has been made a certain firmness of our patience, of which it is said in another psalm: But yet my soul will be subject to God; for from him is my patience (Ps 62:5 (61:6)). And attend to the apostle Paul, having this kind of firmness within: As though sorrowful, he says; yet always rejoicing (2 Cor 6:10). Whence as though sorrowful? By insults, reproaches, persecutions, scourges, blows, stonings, prisons, chains. Who would not then think them wretched? Nor would those persecutors rage against them, unless they thought they were made wretched by their persecutions. For they conjectured them from their own weakness, who did not have the hidden bone within: but those who had it seemed sorrowful to men outwardly, but within rejoiced in God; from whom their bone was not hidden, which he had made in secret. But the same apostle Paul opens this bone made by God in secret, in these words: And not only that, he says, but we also glory in tribulations (Rom 5:3). Is it too little that you are not sorrowful, but you even glory? Let it suffice you not to be sorrowful. It is too little, he says, for Christians: he made such a bone for me in secret, that it is too little not to be broken, unless I even glory. Whence do you glory? In tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience. See how that firmness was formed within in the heart: Knowing that tribulation works patience, patience proof, proof hope; but hope does not confound: because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom 5:3-5). So that hidden bone was formed and made firm, that it makes us even glory in tribulations. But we seem wretched to men, because what we have within is hidden from them. My bone is not hidden from you, which you made in secret: and my substance, in the lower parts of the earth. Behold, my substance is in the flesh, my substance is in the lower parts of the earth; and yet I have within a bone, which you formed, which makes me not yield to all the persecutions of this lower region, where my substance still is. For what great thing is it if an angel is strong? It is a great thing if the flesh is strong. And whence is the flesh strong, whence is the earthen vessel strong, except because a bone was made there in secret? And my substance in the lower parts of the earth.

21. [v. 16.] What of those who are less firm? For it is Christ who speaks, as I have already commended. But many things were said from the person of the body; hear also from the person of the head: and he does not as it were distinguish, so as to introduce those persons, now the head, now the body. For if he distinguishes, he as it were divides; the two will not be in one flesh. But if two are in one flesh (See Gen 2:24); do not wonder if two are in one voice. When our Lord Jesus Christ suffered, the disciples did not yet have that inner bone; the strength of patience was not yet made firm in them: and they were hidden from themselves, they did not know their own strength; and Peter dared to promise fellowship in death with the Lord's passion, and did not know himself to be sick; but the physician knew the sick man. But what happened? With you, he said, even unto death. Amen I say to you; before the cock crows, you will deny me three times (Matt 26:35, 34). The answer of the physician was found truer than the presumption of the sick man. Of these, then, he says: My bone is not hidden from you, which you made in secret: in those in whom that bone is made firm within, and especially the strength of suffering in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ himself, who, when he willed, sat; when he willed, rose; when he willed, slept; when he willed, woke; because: I have power, he says, to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it again (Jn 10:18). What of those in whom that fortitude was not formed and made firm? what does he say of them? See what he says to God the Father: My imperfect part your eyes saw. My imperfect part, my Peter promising and denying, presuming and failing: yet your eyes saw him. For that the Lord himself too looked back upon him, as it is written in the Gospel, now after the third denial reminded what the Lord had foretold him, he went out, and wept bitterly (See Luke 22:61-62): that weeping was from the looking-back of God; because: My imperfect part, he says, your eyes saw. For that imperfect one, wavering in the Lord's passion, without doubt would have perished: but your eyes saw him; not only him, but also all who were imperfect, until they were made firm by Christ's resurrection. For it appeared to their eyes that what was dead had not perished in the Lord; and that bone was made in their secret, so that they themselves now no longer feared to die. My imperfect part your eyes saw; and in your book all will be written (Ps 139:16 (138:16)): not only the perfect, but also the imperfect. Let not the imperfect fear, only let them make progress. Nor, because I said: Let them not fear, let them love imperfection, and remain there where they were found. Only let them make progress, as much as is in them. Daily let them add, daily let them advance: yet let them not withdraw from the body of the Lord; that, framed together in one body, and in these members, they may be able to deserve that this voice was said of them: My imperfect part your eyes saw; and in your book all will be written.

22. By day they will go astray, and no one in them (Ps 139:16 (138:16)). The day here was still our Lord Jesus Christ: whence he said: Walk, while you have the day (Jn 12:35). But by day his imperfect ones will go astray. They too thought our Lord Jesus Christ to be only a man; not to have in himself a hidden divinity, not to be secretly God, but to be only what he seemed: this they too thought. For even Peter himself (for we speak especially of him, in whom an example of weakness not despaired of is set before us): the same Peter had said to the Lord, when he asked what men said he was: You are the Christ the Son of the living God. And the Lord had said to him: Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father who is in heaven (Matt 16:16-17). Why? Because he had called him the Son of God. There, a little after, in the same place, in the very context of the words, the Lord began to speak of his coming passion. But that Peter, who had now confessed him the Son of God, feared lest he should die like a son of man. He was the Son of God, he was also the son of man: Son of God, in the form of God, equal to the Father; son of man, in the form of a servant, by which he is less than the Father (See Phil 2:6-7). He was to come to the passion surely from the form of a servant (See Phil 2:7); why did Peter fear lest in the form of a servant the form of God should perish, and did he not rather presume that from the form of God the form of a servant would come to life again? He said to him: Far be it from you, Lord; be merciful to yourself (Matt 16:22). And the Lord, who had called him blessed in that voice: Get behind me, Satan, he said; for you do not savor the things of God, but the things of men (Matt 16:23). A little before, because he had said: You are the Christ the Son of the living God; he heard: Flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father who is in heaven: therefore the rock, therefore blessed. But now, because he had answered not from the revelation of the Father, but from the weakness of the flesh, he was called Satan; You do not savor, he said, the things of God, but the things of men. And this was Christ, brothers: he had walked among them, had commanded the winds, before their eyes had trodden upon the waves (See Matt 14:25), before their eyes had raised a man four days dead, before their eyes had done such great miracles; and yet they trembled in his passion, as though they had lost him in whom they had vainly presumed. But by day they will go astray, and no one in them. No one at all, not even he who had said: With you even unto death (Matt 26:35). For he had said to them: The hour will come, that you will leave me alone, and each one will go his own way: but I am not alone, because the Father is with me (Jn 16:32). With him was the Father, and he with the Father; and in him the Father, and he in the Father; and he and the Father one; and they feared when he died. Why, except because by day they went astray, and there was no one in them? By day they will go astray, and no one in them.

23. [v. 17.] But what is, they will go astray by day? Will they perish? And where is: My imperfect part your eyes saw, and in your book all will be written? When, then, did they go astray by day? When they did not understand the Lord set here. And what follows? But to me your friends have been greatly honored, O God (Ps 139:17 (138:17)). The very same who went astray by day, and there was no one in them, have been made your friends, and have been greatly honored to me. That bone was made in them in secret after the Lord's resurrection, and they suffered for the name of him in whose passion they trembled. But to me your friends have been greatly honored, O God; their princedoms have been greatly strengthened. Made apostles, made leaders of the Church, made rams leading the flocks, their princedoms have been greatly strengthened.

24. [v. 18.] I will number them, and they will be multiplied above the sand (Ps 139:18 (138:18)). Through those who went astray by day, and there was no one in them, behold there has been born this so great multitude, which now, like the sand, cannot be numbered, except by God. For he said: They will be multiplied above the sand; and yet he had said: I will number them. Those very ones, numbered, will be multiplied above the sand. For the sand is numbered by him, by whom the hairs of our head are numbered (See Matt 10:30). I will number them, and they will be multiplied above the sand.

25. I rose up, and am still with you. I rose up, and am still with you (Ps 139:18 (138:18)), what is it? I have now suffered, he says, I have been buried; behold I have risen, and they still do not understand me to be with them. I am still with you, that is, not yet with them; because they do not yet acknowledge me. For so it is read in the Gospel, that after the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he appeared to them they did not at once know him (See Luke 24:16; Jn 20:14). There is also another sense: I rose up, and am still with you: so that he wished to signify this time, in which he is still in secret at the right hand of the Father, before he is revealed in the brightness in which he will come to judge the living and the dead.

26. [vv. 19-20.] And then he says what, meanwhile, through this whole time, while he has now risen and is still with the Father, he suffers here through the mingling of sinners in his body, which is the Church, and through the separation of heretics. For it follows and says: If you slay sinners, O God; you men of blood, depart from me, because you will say in thought: They will take their cities in vanity (Ps 139:19-20 (138:19-20)). The order of the words seems to be connected thus: If you slay sinners, O God, they will take their cities in vanity. For he wishes them to be understood as slain, when by the pride with which they are puffed up, they lose the grace by which they live. For the holy Spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and will take himself from thoughts that are without understanding (Wis 1:5). So sinners are slain, because, darkened in understanding, they are alienated from the life of God (See Eph 4:18). For they lose confession on account of pride: and so in them, when slain, there comes to pass what is written: From a dead man, as from one who is not, confession perishes (Sir 17:28). And so they take their cities in vanity, that is, their vain peoples, following their vanity; when, puffed up with the name of justice, they persuade men that, the bond of unity being broken, they should follow them, the blind and unskilled following them as though more just. And because they very often find from this an occasion of separating themselves from the unity of Christ, while they accuse the evil, with whom they pretend they are unwilling to have communion; and because it can happen that they not only defame the innocent, whom they pretend to flee as evil, but also say true things about certain evil men like themselves, among whom the wheat of Christ groans, the bond of unity being kept (See Matt 13:24-30): therefore he interposed: You men of blood, depart from me, because you will say in thought, they will take their cities in vanity; that is, therefore they will seduce their peoples into their own separation, to be corrupted by their own vanity, because you will say in thought: You men of blood, depart from me: so that, namely, the sinners slain in spirit deservedly for their pride, may therefore take their cities, that is, their peoples, in vain, that is, may lead them over into the vanity of error by separating, and, as though offended by the mingling of the chaff, may, the unity being broken, desert the wheat; because he admonishes the wheat itself, that is, the good faithful, that before the winnowing, which will be at the last, they should not openly separate themselves from the evil, lest they desert the good who are still mingled with them; but by good conduct and unlikeness of life should as it were silently say to them: You men of blood, depart from me. For he says this to them by the voice of God, which voice is in thought, just as God says it in the thought of his holy people. But who are the men of blood, except those who hate their brothers; as John says: He who hates his brother is a murderer (1 Jn 3:15)? So, not understanding this, the slain sinners—how God says to the evil in the thought of the good: You men of blood, depart from me—accuse in them the communion of the evil; and by separating themselves through these slanders, they take their cities in vanity. This voice, which is now said to the evil in the thought of the good, will be open on that day, when it is said to them by our head himself: I never knew you; depart from me, all you who work iniquity (Matt 7:23).

27. [v. 21.] But now the body of Christ, which is the Church, says: What is it that the proud slander me with, as though another's sins stained me, and therefore, by separating themselves, take their cities in vanity? Did I not hate those who hated you, O Lord (Ps 139:21 (138:21))? Why do worse men exact of me even a bodily separation from the evil, so that before the time of harvest the wheat too is uprooted together with the weeds (See Matt 13:29-30); so that before the time of winnowing I lose the endurance of bearing with the chaff; so that before all kinds of fish come, at the end of the age as it were to the shore, to be separated (See Matt 13:47-48), I break the nets of peace and unity? Are the Sacraments which I receive the evil men's? do I communicate with their life and deeds by consenting? Did I not hate those who hated you, O Lord; and did I not waste away over your enemies? did I not, when the zeal of your house consumed me, see the senseless, and waste away (See Ps 69:9 (68:10); Ps 119:139 (118:139))? did weariness not hold me from the sinners who forsake your law (See Ps 119:53 (118:53))? For who are your enemies, except those who by their life show how they hate your law? These, then, since I hated them, why do those slander me who take their cities in vanity, that the sins of those whom I hated, and over whom by the zeal of God's house I wasted away, can be imputed to me? But where is: Love your enemies (Matt 5:44)? Or is it because he said your (enemies), not God's? Do good, he says, to those who hate you: he does not say, those who hate God. Therefore this man, going on, said: Did I not hate those who hated you, O Lord? he did not say, those who hate me. And I wasted away over your enemies: your he said; not, mine. But those who hate us for this reason, and are enemies to us for this reason, because we serve God, what else do they but hate him, and are his enemies? Ought we, then, not to love such enemies of ours? Or do they not suffer persecution for the sake of God, to whom it is said: Pray for those who persecute you (Matt 5:44)? So attend to what follows.

28. [v. 22.] With a perfect hatred I hated them (Ps 139:22 (138:22)). What is, with a perfect hatred? I hated in them their iniquities, I loved your creation. This is to hate with a perfect hatred, that you neither hate men on account of their vices, nor love vices on account of men. For behold, see what he adds: They have become enemies to me. Now he shows them to be enemies not only of God, but his own. How, then, will he fulfill in them both what he himself said: Did I not hate those who hated you, and what the Lord commanded: Love your enemies? How will he fulfill this, except by that perfect hatred; so that he hates in them this, that they are wicked, and loves this, that they are men? For even in the time of the Old Testament, in which the carnal people was restrained by visible punishments, a man belonging by understanding to the New Testament, the servant of God Moses, how did he hate those who sinned, when he prayed for them? and how did he not hate them, when he slew them, except because with a perfect hatred he hated them? For with that perfection he so hated the iniquity which he punished, that he loved the humanity for which he prayed.

29. [v. 23.] Since, then, the body of Christ, to be separated even bodily from the impious and wicked at the end, now meanwhile groans among them; and since those slain sinners, by slandering the good as it were over the communion of the evil, and by separating themselves from the good and innocent as it were on the occasion of the evil, so take their cities in vanity, that many evil men still remain who do not follow their separation, but, to be borne by the good until the end, remain in the same mingling: what does the body of Christ do amid these things, bearing fruit a hundredfold, or sixtyfold, or thirtyfold with endurance (See Matt 13:8, 23)? What does the close one of Christ do in the midst of the daughters, like a lily in the midst of thorns (See Song 2:2)? What are her voices? what her conscience? what the beauty of the king's daughter within (See Ps 45:13 (44:14))? Behold, hear what she says: Prove me, O God, and know my heart (Ps 139:23 (138:23)). You, God, you prove, you know; not man, not the heretic, who neither knows how to prove, nor can know my heart, where you prove and know that I do not consent to the deeds of the evil, and they think I can be contaminated by the sins of others: so that, while I in my far-off pilgrimage do what in another psalm I groan, that is, am peaceable with those who hate peace (See Ps 120:6-7 (119:6-7)), until I come to that vision of peace, which is interpreted Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all, the eternal city in the heavens; they themselves, by quarreling and slandering and separating themselves, take, not indeed in eternity, but in vanity their cities. Prove me, then, O God, and know my heart; search me, and know my paths. For what purpose this? Attend to what follows.

30. [v. 24.] And see, he says, if there is a way of iniquity in me, and lead me in the eternal way (Ps 139:24 (138:24)). Search, he says, my paths, that is, my counsels and my thoughts: and see if there is a way of iniquity in me, whether by doing or by consenting; and lead me in the eternal way. What else does he say, than, lead me in Christ? For who is the eternal way, except he who is the eternal life? For he is eternal who said: I am the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6). If, then, you have found anything in my way which displeases your eyes, since my way is mortal; you lead me in the eternal way, where there is no iniquity: because even if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just. He is the propitiation for our sins (1 Jn 2:1-2); he is the eternal way without sin; he is the eternal life without punishment.

31. Great mysteries, brothers. How the Spirit of God speaks with us! how he makes delights for us in this night! What is this, we ask you, brothers? whence are they the sweeter, the more obscure? He prepares for us a draught toward his love, by certain wondrous ways. He makes his very sayings wondrous, so that, although we said the things you already knew, yet, because they were dug out of those places which seemed obscure, the knowledge itself became as it were new. Did you not know, brothers, that in the Church of God the evil must be borne, and schisms must not be made? Did you not already know that within those nets which catch good and bad fish, one must endure to the shore, nor must the nets be broken (See Matt 13:47-48); because on the shore the good will be separated for the vessels, and the evil cast out? You knew these things already; but these verses of this psalm you did not understand: what you did not understand has been expounded, and what you knew has been renewed.

Exposition of Psalm 140

1. The lords my brothers, and in them the Lord of all, have commanded that I bring this psalm to you to be understood, as far as the Lord grants. Let him help by your prayers, that I may say the things which it behooves me to say, and you to hear; that the divine word may be useful to us all. For it is not useful to all; because not all have faith (See 2 Thess 3:2). But faith is in the soul as a good root which leads the rain into fruit: but faithlessness, and diabolical error, and cupidity, the evil root of all evils (See 1 Tim 6:10), like the root of thorns, turns even sweet rain into pricks.

2. What this psalm has, I believe you noticed when it was sung; that the body of Christ, set among the evil, complains and groans, and pours out a prayer to God: for it is its voice in all such prophecy, as of that needy one, that is, one in want, not yet satisfied, hungering and thirsting for justice (See Matt 5:6), for whom a certain fullness, promised, is kept at the end. Meanwhile here let it now hunger and thirst, groan and knock and seek. Let it not be delighted by the enticements of pilgrimage, let it not think this world its homeland, from which Christ came that it might be freed: because Christ willed to be our head, the head, namely, of a certain body. For it cannot be called a head, where there is no body of which it is the head. Accordingly, if Christ is the head; he is also the head of some body. The body of that head is the holy Church, in whose members we are, if we love our head. Let us, then, hear the voices of the body of Christ, that is, our voices, if we are in the body of Christ; for whoever is not there, will be among those among whom that body groans. Accordingly, either you will be in that body, to groan among the evil; or you will not be in that body, and will be among those, among the evil, among whom the body groans, which groans among the evil: either a member of Christ, or an enemy of the body of Christ. Nor are these enemies and adversaries of the body of Christ understood in one way, or do they act in one way. For cunning is he who reigns in them, and who uses them as his vessels. But many are freed from him, and pass over into the body of Christ; and who they are, and how many they will be, he knows who redeemed them by his blood while they knew it not. But there are certain ones who will persevere in their malice, not belonging to the body of Christ; and these too are surely known to him, to whom nothing is unknown. Meanwhile those who are now framed together with his members, not yet having the future resurrection, in which all groaning perishes, and praise succeeds, in which all tribulation will die, and there will be exultation without end; not yet, then, having this in reality, but yet holding it in hope, groan from a certain desire, and pray to be freed from evil men, among whom it is necessary that even the good live: for separation is not yet safe for anyone. For the separation will be his who does not know how to err. What is, who does not know how to err? That he neither casts the evil to the right hand, nor the good to the left. But in this life it is difficult that we know ourselves; how much less ought we to bear a hasty sentence about anyone? For if today we know an evil man, tomorrow what he will be we do not know; and perhaps the one we vehemently hate is our brother, and we do not know it. Securely, then, let us hate in the evil the malice, and love the creature; that we may love what God made there, and hate what the man himself made there. For God made the man himself; but the man made the sin. Love what God made, hate what the man made: for so you will persecute what the man made, that what God made may be freed.

3. [v. 1.] To the end, a Psalm of David himself. By 'the end' do not understand anything other than what was set before you by the apostle: For the end of the Law is Christ, unto justice for everyone who believes (Rom 10:4). So when you hear the Psalm say: To the end, let your hearts be turned to Christ. For the title of the Psalm is as it were the herald of the Psalm, as though saying: Behold, he will come; thence I am about to speak, about to sing of Christ. For 'of David himself' too I understand only as him who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh (See Rom 1:3). Meanwhile, on account of his lineage, the name fits. His fleshly lineage is from David; his spiritual lineage above David. And not only before David, but before Abraham; nor before Abraham only, but before Adam; nor before Adam only, but before heaven and earth, before all the angels, before all Powers and Virtues, before all things visible and invisible. Why? Because that these might be, all things were made through him, and without him was made nothing (Jn 1:3). So because he is of the seed of David, not according to the divinity, by which he is the Creator of David himself, but according to the flesh; he deigned to be called David in prophecy: look toward that very end, because the Psalm is sung to David himself; and hear the voice of his body, and be in his body. Let the voice which you heard become yours, and pray, and say what follows.

4. [v. 1.] Take me out, O Lord, from the evil man (Ps 140:1 (139:2)): not from one, but from the whole kind; nor from the vessels only, but from the prince himself, that is, from the devil himself. For why from the man, if from the devil? Because he too is called a man in a figure: An enemy man came, and oversowed weeds; and when the servants had said to the head of the household: Did you not sow good seed? Whence have weeds appeared? the answer was given: An enemy man did this (Matt 13:25, 27-28). From this evil man, then, pray, as much as you can, that you may be freed: For you have not a wrestling against flesh and blood; but against the principalities and powers, and rulers of this world of darkness (Eph 6:12), that is, the rulers of sinners. Which indeed we too were; for we have just now heard the voice of the apostle: You were once darkness; but now light in the Lord (Eph 5:8). Now, then, made light, not in ourselves, but in the Lord, let us pray not only against the darkness, that is, against the sinners, whom the devil still possesses; but also against their prince himself the devil, who works in the sons of unbelief. From the unjust man rescue me. This is, from the evil man; which is, from the unjust man. For he said 'evil' precisely because 'unjust'; lest perhaps you should think some unjust man to be good. For there are many unjust men as it were not harmful; they are not savage, are not harsh, are not persecuting and inflicting pressures on men: but yet they are unjust for this, because in some other way they are luxurious, drunken, given over to pleasures. How does he harm no one who does not spare himself? For he is innocent who does not harm; but not he who harms himself. But how can one who harms himself not harm you? But you answer: In what does he harm me? For he has not invaded my property, or attacked my safety: he feeds on his own luxury, is delighted by his own pleasures; but if he has defiled pleasures, he himself is defiled; what does it matter to me, to whom he is not troublesome? He harms you at least even by example, because he lives with you, and invites you to what he does. When you see him perhaps prospering in those filthy things, are you not drawn by the delight of such deeds? Even if you do not consent, at least you have found something to overcome. How, then, did he not harm you, you who labor to conquer what he made in your heart? So every unjust man is evil, and must necessarily be harmful, whether he be smooth, or whether he be fierce. Whoever runs into him, whoever is caught in his snares, will find how harmful is what he thought gentle. For indeed, brothers, even thorns do not prick at their roots. Pull thorns from the earth, handle their roots, and see whether you feel pain: yet that from which you feel pain on the surface, proceeded from that root. And so let men not please you as it were gentle and smooth, yet lovers of carnal pleasures, and followers of defiled desires; let them not please you. Even if they still seem gentle, they are the roots of thorns. For by such deeds, through luxury, they very often pour out what they had: and how do they seek to fill up what they poured out? Do they now spare from plunder and thoughts of fraud, from seeking out every kind of malice? Now you see the evil man, whom you before thought gentle. When you saw him get drunk, he was good: now you see a thief, you fear a robber; the thorns have come forth from those roots. When you felt the gentle roots of thorns, then, if you could, you would burn them, and there would be nothing from which would come forth what now pricks you. Accordingly, my brothers, body of Christ, or members of Christ, groaning among such evil men; whomever you find prone to be carried into evil lusts and pernicious pleasures, then rebuke, and then chastise, then burn. Let the root be burned, and there is nothing from which a thorn may come forth. But if you cannot, be sure that you will have them as enemies. They can be silent, can hide their enmities, cannot love you. But since they cannot love you, and it is necessary that those who hate you seek evils for you; let not your tongue and heart be idle to say to God: Take me out, O Lord, from the evil man: from the unjust man free me.

5. [v. 2.] Who have thought injustices in their heart (Ps 140:2 (139:3)). For what, because they do not dare to bring it out on the tongue, and keep it in the heart? For he said it on account of those who very often speak good things on their lips. You hear the voice of a just man; but it is not the heart of a just man. For what did it profit to add this, that he said: Who have thought injustices in their heart? From these free me; there let your most powerful hand be to rescue me. For it is easy to avoid open enmities; it is easy to be turned away from a ready and manifest enemy, whose iniquity is now even on his lips: he is troublesome, he is hidden, he is hard to avoid, who carries good things on his lips, and hides evils in his heart: Who have thought injustices in their heart. All the day they set up wars. What is, wars? Against which I would fight all the day they set up for me. For from such hearts is born whatever there is against which the Christian fights. If sedition, if schism, if heresy, if turbulent contradiction, this bursts forth only from those thoughts which were covered: and when the lips spoke good things, all the day they set up wars. You hear peaceable words; but the setting-up of war does not depart from their hearts. For what was said, all the day, signifies without intermission, that is, all the time.

6. [v. 3.] They have sharpened their tongues like serpents (Ps 140:3 (139:4)). If you still seek the man, look at the likeness. In a serpent there is especially cunning and the guile of harming; therefore it also creeps. For it does not even have feet, that its footsteps might be heard when it comes. In its going there is as it were a smooth trail, but it is not straight. So, then, they crawl and creep to do harm, having hidden venom and under a smooth touch. And therefore it follows: The venom of asps under their lips. Behold that 'under their lips'; so that we may notice one thing under the lips, another on the lips. Whom he also openly makes plain in another place, where he says: Who speak peace with their neighbor; but evils in their hearts (Ps 28:3 (27:3)).

7. [v. 4.] Preserve me, O Lord, from the hand of the sinner; from unjust men rescue me (Ps 140:4 (139:5)). They are the same, they are known: here there is no need to understand, but to act; there is need to pray, not to seek out who they are. But how you may pray against men of this kind, he opens to you in what follows. For many pray against the evil unskillfully. Who have thought, he says, to supplant my steps. This can still be taken carnally. Each one has an enemy; in business he thinks to do him fraud, and to take from him money, who is engaged in common business: each one has a neighbor as enemy, and thinks to bring evil upon his house, to diminish something of his property; and surely he thinks it by guile, thinks it by fraud, with the devil's machinations he is eager to fulfill these very things; no one doubts it. But yet it is not on account of these things that these men are to be guarded against, but lest by lying in wait for you they lead you to themselves; that is, separate you from the body of Christ, and make you of their own body. For as Christ is the head of the good, so the devil is their head. Who have thought, he says, to supplant my steps. What is, to supplant my steps? Not as though that you should err in the business which you have with him, and he deceive you in the case which you have in common with him in the forum. He has supplanted your steps, if he has hindered you in the way of God, so that what you intended rightly may totter, or slip from the way, or fall in the way, or withdraw from the way, or remain in the way, or turn back to where it came from. Whatever such thing he does to you, he has supplanted you, deceived you. Against snares of this kind pray, lest you lose your heavenly patrimony, lest you lose Christ your coheir, because you will live forever with him who made you an heir. For he did not make you an heir to one whom, when dead, you may succeed, but with whom you may live forever.

8. [v. 5.] The proud have hidden a trap for me (Ps 140:5 (139:6)). He has briefly unfolded the whole body of the devil, when he said, the proud. Hence it is that they very often call themselves just, when they are wicked. Hence it is that nothing is so harmful to them as to confess their sins. They are the ones who, since they are false-just, must necessarily envy the true-just. For no one envies another in that which he does not wish either to be or to seem. Another envies you because you are rich; either he wishes to be rich that he may envy you, or he wishes to be thought rich: another envies you because you are illustrious and noble; either he aspires to be this, or he desires to be thought this. And so all things that seem and are thought good in this world; what each one wishes to have, and in what he wishes to excel, or the fame of which thing he catches at, in that he envies you. But those who are false-just wish to seem just, when they are not; and it is necessary that whomever they see truly just, they envy him, and do this with him, how he may lose that in which he glories. Hence come all the seductions and supplantings. This the devil himself first willed, who, falling, envied the man who stood: and because he himself lost the kingdom of heaven, he was unwilling that man should arrive there, and is unwilling; and he does this now, that man may not arrive there, from which he himself was cast down (See Wis 2:24). Since, then, he himself is proud, and therefore envious because proud, his whole body is a body of such men. But let us pray against him, who cannot be corrected, and for those who can, that we may say to the unjust man: Why do you envy the just, O unjust man? Because you wish to seem just? Quickly do what is better, and you will more easily be what you wish to seem. Be just: so you will love the one you envied; because what you grieve that he is, you too will be, and you will love yourself in him, and him in yourself. For if you envied a rich man, it would not be in your power to be rich; if you envied some honorable noble senator, it would not be in your power to be noble and illustrious; if you envied a handsome man, you would never make yourself handsome; if you envied a strong and vigorous man, you would never give yourself strength: if you envy a just man, the matter is in your will; be what you grieve that another is. For you are not about to buy what you are not and another is; it is free, it costs little: Peace on earth to men of good will (Luke 2:14).

9. But those proud have hidden a trap: they sought to supplant my steps. And what did they do? And they have stretched out ropes as traps for my feet (Ps 140:5 (139:6)). What ropes? This word is well known in the Scriptures, and we find elsewhere what ropes signify. The Lord made a scourge of cords, with which he drove out of the temple (See Jn 2:15) those who were behaving badly there; and he signified to us how we should understand ropes: because: Each one is bound by the cords of his own sins (Prov 5:22), says another Scripture; and plainly Isaiah: Woe to those who drag sins like a long rope (Isa 5:18)! But why is it called a rope? Because every sinner persevering in his sins adds sins to sins; and when he ought to be corrected by the accusing of his sin, by defending it he doubles what by confessing he could take away, and very often wishes to be fortified by other sins on account of those he committed. He has committed adultery, and lest he be killed, he prepares murder; he adds sin to sin. Again, if it happens to him to commit murder, now he who feared one crime, fears two: and surely, when he sees himself fearing more things than before he feared, he does not think to diminish what he has done, but to add what he has not yet done; he seeks perhaps even sorcery. Behold, he has three. From there, who could now reckon? who could finish the rope of sins? And it is excellently called a rope: for that a rope may be made, more is added; and straight threads are not added, but twisted. Crookedness, connected with itself, is led out in length, and he does not think to cut off what he wove badly; but to add, to prolong, to stretch out in length: so that he may have at the end something with which his hands and feet may be bound, and he be cast into the outer darkness (See Matt 22:13). But these their sins they stretch out for the just, when they persuade them to do the evil things which they themselves do. Therefore he said: They have stretched out ropes as traps for my feet; that is, they wished to cast me down by their own sins. And where this? Beside the paths they have set a scandal for me: not in the paths, but beside the paths. Your paths are the precepts of God. They set scandals beside the paths; you, do not withdraw from the paths, and you will not run into the scandals. Nor do I wish you to say: God should forbid them to set scandals for me beside the paths, and they would not set them there. On the contrary, God permitted them to set scandals beside the paths, and you, do not withdraw from the paths. Beside the paths they have set scandals for me.

10. [v. 6.] And what remains? what remedy amid such great evils, in these temptations, in these perils? I said to the Lord, You are my God (Ps 140:6 (139:7)). They are men, and not mine; you are both God, and mine. I said to the Lord, You are my God. A great voice of prayer; it stirs confidence. Is he not their God too? For whose God is he not, who is the true God? But yet he is properly theirs, who enjoy him, who serve him, who are gladly under him. For the evil too, although unwilling, are under him. They call upon God, by whom they may be crowned; under him they flee, by whom they may be condemned. And the wicked man who does not wish to have the Lord his God, where will he flee from the God of all? It is good for him, then, to be converted to the God of all, and by conversion to make him his own; and, set among such sinners, seducers, hypocrites, the proud, let him say to God, whom by his conversion he made his God: I said to the Lord, You are my God. Receive in your ears, O Lord, the voice of my supplication. It is indeed a simple sentence, and easy to understand: but yet it is perhaps pleasant to consider why he did not say: Receive in your ears my supplication; but, as it were more evidently expressing the affection of his soul, he said, the voice of my supplication, the life of my supplication, the soul of my supplication, not what sounds in my words, but that from which my words live. For other noises without a soul can be called sounds, cannot be called voices: a voice properly belongs to the living, belongs to those who live. But how many entreat God, and do not feel God, nor think well of God? They can have the sound of supplication, cannot have the voice; because life is not there. Of this man who was living, because he understood his God, and saw from whom he would be freed, and felt from whom he would be freed, that was the voice of his supplication.

11. [v. 7.] Commending it to the ears of God, let him say: O Lord, Lord (Ps 140:7 (139:8)). You O Lord, Lord, that is, you most truly Lord, not such lords as men, not such lords as those who buy with a money-bag; but such a Lord as bought with blood. O Lord, Lord, the strength of my salvation: that is, you who give strength to my salvation. What does it mean, the strength of my salvation? He was complaining of the scandals and snares of sinners, of the malicious men, vessels of the devil, barking around and lying in wait around, of the proud envying the just, among whom it is necessary to lead our life, while we live here in this our pilgrimage. But the Lord foretold that such scandals would abound, and said: Iniquity will abound, and because iniquity will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he at once added a consolation: He who perseveres to the end, he will be saved (Matt 24:12-13). This man attended, and feared; and, troubled by the abundance of iniquities, he looked to hope: because he who perseveres to the end, he will be saved. He stretched himself to persevere, and saw a long way; and because to persevere is a great thing and difficult, he prayed for the perfection of his perseverance to him by whom it was commanded him to persevere. Surely I will be saved, if I persevere to the end; but perseverance belongs to strength, that I may deserve salvation: you are the strength of my salvation, you make me persevere, that I may come to salvation. O Lord, Lord, the strength of my salvation. And whence do I hope that you are the strength of my salvation? You have overshadowed over my head in the day of war. Behold, now I still fight: I fight outside against the feigned good, I fight within against my desires; since I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:23-25). So, laboring in this war, he looked to the grace of God; and because he had now begun to glow and grow dry, he found as it were a shade under which to live: You have overshadowed over my head in the day of war; that is, in the heat, lest I be wearied, lest I grow dry.

12. [v. 8.] Do not hand me over, O Lord, from my desire to the sinner (Ps 140:8 (139:9)). Behold for what your shade will avail me, that I may not suffer heat from myself. And what would that sinner do to me, however much he raged? For the wicked raged against the martyrs; they dragged them, bound them with chains, shut them in prisons, struck them with the sword, exposed them to beasts, consumed them with fires: all these things they did; but God did not hand them over to the sinners, because they were not handed over from their own desire. So pray for that, as much as you can, that God may not hand you over from your desire to the sinner. For you, by your desire, give place to the devil. For behold, the devil has set forth gain, and invited to fraud: you cannot have gain, unless you commit fraud. But gain is the bait, fraud the snare. So attend to the bait in such a way that you see also the snare: because you cannot attain the gain, unless you commit fraud; but if you commit fraud, you will be caught. I do not say, you will be caught, because you will be found out: for sometimes you will not be found out, at least by men; but by God? You will be caught, and dragged off, and slain. For everyone who does such things destroys himself. There, then, is the bait, there too is the snare; bridle your desire, and you will not fall into the snare: but if the desire of the bait conquers you, it puts your neck into the snare, and the fowler of souls will catch you. Do not hand me over from my desire to the sinner. Hence he is overshadowed in the day of war. For desire makes the heat; but the Lord's shade tempers desire, that we may be able to restrain that to which we were being swept, that we may not so glow as to be led to the snare. They have thought against me; do not abandon me, lest perhaps they be exalted. You have in another place: Those who press me will exult if I am moved (Ps 13:4 (12:5)). Such are these too, because such is the devil himself. When he has seduced a man, he rejoices, he triumphs over him; he himself is exalted, because the other has been humbled. But why has the other been humbled? Because he was evilly exalted: and he who triumphs over him will be humbled. For such are all who rejoice over evil; they seem to themselves for a time to glory, to be proud, to raise the neck. Let not their exaltation delight you; they have the bait in their throats and the hook: there is that by which they are delighted, there is that by which they are dragged off. Do not abandon me, lest perhaps they be exalted: that is, that they may not triumph over me, may not rejoice over me.

13. [v. 9.] The head of their circuit, the labor of their lips will cover them (Ps 140:9 (139:10)). Me, he says, the shade of your wings will cover: for you have overshadowed me in the day of war. Them, what will cover? The head of their circuit: that is pride. What is, their circuit? That they go around, and do not stand; that they go in a circle of error, where the journey is without end. For he who goes in length begins somewhere, ends somewhere: he who goes in a circle ends nowhere. This is the labor of the impious, which is shown more evidently in another psalm: The impious walk in a circuit (Ps 12:8 (11:9)). But the head of their circuit is pride; because the beginning of all sin is pride (See Sir 10:13). But whence is pride the labor of their lips? For every proud man is feigned, every feigned man a liar. Men labor to speak a lie: for they would speak the truth with all ease. For he labors who feigns what he says. For he who wishes to speak the truth does not labor: for the truth itself speaks without labor. So of the man he said this to God: Your shade will protect me; their own lie will cover them: but their lie itself is the labor of their lips. Behold, he has been in travail with injustice, has conceived sorrow, and brought forth iniquity (Ps 7:14 (7:15)). For in every evil work there is labor, and every evil work, thought out, has a lie as its leader. For there is no truth, except in good work. And therefore, because all labor in a lie, what did Truth cry out? Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Matt 11:28). It is the voice crying to those who labor in another psalm: Sons of men, how long heavy of heart? why do you love vanity, and seek a lie (Ps 4:2 (4:3))? Hear plainly in another place the labor in a lie: They have taught their tongues to speak a lie; to act wickedly they have labored (Jer 9:5). The head of their circuit, the labor of their lips will cover them.

14. [v. 10.] Coals of fire will fall upon them on the earth, and you will cast them down (Ps 140:10 (139:11)). What is, on the earth? Here, still in this life; here coals of fire will fall upon them, and you will cast them down. What are coals of fire? We know these coals. Or are these others, and others those of which we are about to speak? For these I see avail for punishment; but those which I am about to mention, for salvation. For it was said of certain coals, when a man asked for help against a deceitful tongue: What may be given to you, or what may be added to you against a deceitful tongue? The sharp arrows of the mighty one, with desolating coals (Ps 120:3-4 (119:3-4)): that is, the words of God piercing the heart, and destroying the oldness, and begetting love; and the examples of men who were dead and came to life again, and were black, and were made shining. For coals are darkness; the color shows it. But when the flame of love has approached them, and they have come to life again from the dead, let them hear from the apostle: For you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord (Eph 5:8). These are the coals, brothers, which we look upon, when, pierced by the arrow of God, we wish to change our life, and the evil tongues of men hinder us, of which kind he was here just now complaining; and they wish to seduce us from the way of truth, and rather to lead us into their errors, and to say to us that if we profess it, we will not fulfill it. We attend to those coals. He who was yesterday a drunkard, today is sober; he who was yesterday an adulterer, today is chaste; he who was yesterday a plunderer, today is a giver: all these are coals of fire. The examples of the coals come to the wound of the arrows (for I am not afraid to say wound, when the spouse herself cries out: I am wounded by love (See Song 2:5)), and there comes about a wasting of the hay; on account of which they are called desolating coals. The hay is wasted, but the gold is purified; and the man changes life from death, and begins to be himself too a glowing coal: such a coal as was the apostle, who was first a persecutor and blasphemer and injurious (See 1 Tim 1:13), black and extinguished; but having obtained mercy, he was kindled from heaven: the voice of Christ kindled him; all his blackness perished in him, he began, fervent in the spirit by which he was kindled, to kindle. Are such, then, the coals of fire that we are to understand here too, which fall upon these evil men, and cast them down? Plainly we are not forbidden to have this understanding. I see here shining for us a not improbable and not reprehensible opinion: I understand those coals to fall upon these, that they may be cast down. For upon some they come, that they may be kindled; upon others, that they may be cast down: for the coal itself said: To some we are the fragrance of death unto death, to some we are the fragrance of life unto life (2 Cor 2:16). For they see the just glowing in spirit, white with light, and by envying them they fall; this is what it means that coals of fire will come upon them on the earth, and they will be cast down. What is, on the earth? They are still here in this life; apart from that punishment which is kept for the impious, these coals cast them down, before the eternal fire comes: Coals of fire will fall upon them on the earth, and will cast them down. In miseries they will not subsist. Misery comes to them and they do not endure it: but the just man subsists; as he subsists who says: But we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, patience proof, proof hope; but hope does not confound: because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom 5:3-5). But when upon them there has fallen some pressure, some misery, they do not subsist; they fall. For when such men suffer pressures of this kind, they are not able to endure, they fall into evil iniquities; because they are handed over from their own desire to the sinner.

15. [v. 11.] A man full of tongue will not be set straight upon the earth (Ps 140:11 (139:11)). A man full of tongue loves lies. For what is pleasure to him, except to talk? For he does not attend to what he speaks, so long as he speaks. It cannot be that this man be set straight. What, then, ought the servant of God to be like, kindled by those coals, and himself made a wholesome coal? what ought he to be like? That he wish rather to hear than to speak, as it is written: But let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak (Jas 1:19): and, if it can be, let him desire this, not to have the necessity of speaking, and saying, and teaching. For behold, I say to your charity: my brothers, we now speak to you, that we may teach you something: how much better would it be if we all knew, and no one taught another; so that there were not one speaking, another hearing, but all hearing that one to whom it is said: To my hearing you will give exultation and gladness (Ps 51:8 (50:10))? Whence too that John did not so rejoice because he preached, and because he spoke; but he rejoiced because he heard: for he says: But the friend of the bridegroom stands, and hears him, and rejoices with joy on account of the voice of the bridegroom (Jn 3:29). And so, brothers, I would quickly say to your charity, wherein let each one prove himself: not that he should not speak, but that he should demand of himself the office of speaking; but let him have the joy of silence in his will, the voice of teaching in necessity. For when is there need of the voice of teaching? When you have an unskilled man, when you have an unlearned man. If it always delights you to teach, you always wish to have an unskilled man whom you may teach: but if you are well-disposed, and wish all to be learned, you do not wish always to have those whom you may teach; and the exercise or proof of your teaching will not be in your will, but in necessity. Let your joy be in the hearing of God, let your necessity be in your speaking; and you will not be a man full of tongue, that you may not fail to be set straight. Why do you wish to speak, and not wish to hear? You always go outside, you refuse to return within. For he who teaches you is within: when you teach, you as it were go outside to those who are outside. For from the inner one we hear the truth, and to those who are outside our heart we speak. For that we are said to have in our heart those of whom we think, is said according to a certain image which we have impressed of them. For if they were altogether within, they would surely know what was in our heart; and so there would be no need for us to speak to them. But if this delights you, what you do outside; see lest you swell outside, and be unable to return through the narrow gate (See Matt 7:13), and your God be unable to say to you: Enter into the joy of your Lord (Matt 25:21): but say to you, because what you loved was outside: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the outer darkness (Matt 22:13). For where he shows that it is evil to be cast outside, there he shows that it is good to enter within. For to the good servant what did he say? Enter into the joy of your Lord. But to the evil servant: Cast him into the outer darkness. So let us not love the outer things more, but the inner: let us rejoice in the inner; but in the outer let us have necessity, not will. A man full of tongue will not be set straight upon the earth.

16. Evils will hunt the unjust man to destruction (Ps 140:11 (139:12)). Evils come, and he does not subsist; therefore he said: They will hunt to destruction. For to many good men, to many just men evils have happened; and evils as it were found them. For therefore he said: They will hunt, because each one wishes to hide himself from evil: but when he is found by evil, he is as it were made into a hunt. But do only the evil flee from evils, when they are sought by evils? Was it not also said to the good: If they persecute you in this city, flee to another (Matt 10:23)? So when the evil persecuted the good, that is, our martyrs, when they seized them, they hunted them; but not to destruction. For the flesh was pressed, the soul was crowned; and the soul was cast out of the flesh, nor was anything done to the flesh that would harm it afterward. Let the flesh be burned, let the flesh be struck, let the flesh be torn; was it therefore withdrawn from the Creator, because it was given into the hands of the persecutor? Will he who created it from what was not, not restore it better than it was? So whenever the just were captured, the evil indeed hunted them, but not to destruction. But those who will not be set straight and are full of tongue, evils will hunt them to destruction. Why? Because in miseries they will not subsist.

17. [v. 12.] I have known that the Lord will do the judgment of the needy (Ps 140:12 (139:13)). This needy man is not full of tongue: for he who is full of tongue wishes to abound, knows not how to hunger. But those are needy to whom it is said: Knock, and it will be opened to you; seek, and you will find; ask, and it will be given to you (Matt 7:7): that one is needy, of whom it is said: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied (Matt 5:6). They groan among the scandals of the evil, they pray to their head, that they may be rescued from the evil man, and freed from the malicious man, and rescued from the hands of the unjust. They, then, are those whose cause the Lord will not neglect: and if now they suffer pressures, their glory will appear, when their head has appeared. For to such men, set here, it is said: You are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3). So we are poor, our life is hidden; let us cry out to the bread: for there is a living bread which came down from heaven (See Jn 6:51); and he who refreshes us on the way, will satisfy us in the homeland. For now, that we may endure, we are refreshed: for it is necessary that we hunger, until we are satisfied. I have known that the Lord will do the judgment of the needy. This man was sure that the Lord will do the judgment of the needy, and the cause of the poor. He will show the unjust how he loves his just; he will show the rich how he loves his poor. By the rich he meant the proud; by the poor he meant the humble: by the rich he meant those who, through abundance, do not seek; by the poor he meant those who, through desire, sigh. The Lord will do their cause.

18. [v. 13.] But yet the just will confess to your name (Ps 140:13 (139:14)). And when you do their cause, and when you do their judgment, they will confess to your name: they will attribute nothing to their merits, will attribute the whole only to your mercy. But yet the just will confess to your name. And because they will confess to your name, so that however just they have been, they take nothing to themselves of their own, attribute nothing to themselves of their own; what will come to pass, that they may set their heart straight? Because when they bend toward themselves, they twist the heart; but when they intend toward the Lord, they set the heart straight. And where will pleasure be, where rest, where joy, where blessedness? In themselves? No; but in him in whom they are light. But now light in the Lord (Eph 5:8), he said. Therefore see what follows, see with what he concludes: The upright will dwell with your countenance. For it went ill with them in their own countenance; it will go well with them with your countenance. When they loved their own countenance, in the sweat of their countenance they ate bread (See Gen 3:19). Let them return, and, the sweat wiped away, their labors ended, their groaning perishing, your countenance will come to them abounding in sufficiency. They will seek nothing further, because they have nothing better; they will no longer desert you, nor be deserted by you. For after the resurrection, what was said of the Lord? You will fill me with gladness with your countenance (Ps 16:11 (15:11)). Without his countenance he would not give us gladness. For this we cleanse our countenance, that we may rejoice at his countenance. For we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be: we know that when it appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 Jn 3:2); because the upright will dwell with your countenance. Do we suppose with the countenance of the Father, and not with the countenance of the Son? or with the countenance of the Son, and not with the countenance of the Father? or is the countenance of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in a certain way one? Let us see whether the Son himself does not promise us his countenance, with which he will make us glad. Now the Lord God inspired that this chapter in the Gospel be read, which would bear witness to this psalm. For the Lord himself says: He who hears my precepts, and keeps them, he it is who loves me: and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will show myself to him (Jn 14:21). What reward did he promise, dearly beloved? Did they not see him, to whom he promised to show himself? was he not before them? was not the face of his flesh present to their eyes? What is it that he wished to show to those who saw him? But because the disciples saw such a one as the Jews crucified; but God was hidden in that flesh; men could see the man, but could not see God, although in the man; because blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God (Matt 5:8); he gave the form of man both to the devout and to the impious; he kept the form of God for the cleansed and devout, that we may rejoice in him, and it may go well with us forever with his countenance.

Exposition of Psalm 141

1. You have heard, brothers, our admonition and request from the mouth of the apostle, when his Letter was just now read. For he says: Be instant in prayer, watching in it; praying at the same time for us too, that God may open to us a door of the word, to speak his mystery, that I may make it manifest, as it behooves me to speak (Col 4:2-4). Deign to count these words as mine too. For there are in the holy Scriptures deep mysteries, which are hidden for this, that they may not become cheap; are sought for this, that they may exercise; are opened for this, that they may feed. The psalm which we have just now sung, in many sentences is somewhat obscure. When, with the Lord helping, the things that have been said begin to be dug out and expounded, you will see that you hear this which you already knew. But for this reason they were said in manifold ways, that the variety of expression might take away weariness of the truth.

2. For what more, brothers, or more wholesome, are you about to hear and to know, than: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind (Matt 22:37); and: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:39)? But lest you think these two precepts small: On these two precepts the whole Law and the Prophets hang (Matt 22:40). Whatever, then, is wholesomely conceived in the mind, or brought forth by the mouth, or carved out from any divine page, has no end except love. But this love is not just any kind. For evildoers too are entangled with one another by the fellowship of a lost conscience, and are said to love one another, to be unwilling to depart from one another, to be reconciled by their conversations, to long for one another when absent, to rejoice at one another's presence. This love is hellish: it has birdlime, by which to cast down into the depths; not wings, by which to lift up to heaven. But what is the love by which it is set apart and distinguished from the other things that are called loves? That which is called the true love of Christians has been defined by Paul, and so circumscribed by certain bounds of its own, although it is infinite in its divinity, that it is altogether distinguished from the others. For the end, he says, of the precept is love (1 Tim 1:5). He could say only this far. For in other places where he was speaking as though to those who knew, he said only this far: The fullness of the law, he says, is love (Rom 13:10); and he did not say what kind of love. He did not say it there, because he said it elsewhere: for not everywhere can or ought all things be said. So here: The fullness of the law is love. You were asking perhaps, what love? what kind of love? You hear in another place: The end of the precept is love from a pure heart (1 Tim 1:5). Now see whether robbers have among themselves love from a pure heart. A pure heart in love is this, when you love a man according to God; because you ought also to love yourself in such a way that the rule does not err: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:39). For if you love yourself badly and uselessly; so loving your neighbor too, what do you provide for him? But how do you love yourself badly? As Scripture suggests, which flatters no one, and convicts you that you do not love yourself; rather convicts you that you even hate yourself: But he who, he says, loves iniquity, hates his own soul (Ps 11:5 (10:6)). If, then, you love iniquity, do you think that you love yourself? You err: so, loving your neighbor too, you will lead him to iniquity, and your love will be a snare for the loved one. Love, then, from a pure heart is that which is according to God, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned (1 Tim 1:5). This love, defined by the apostle, has two precepts; of the love of God, and of the love of neighbor. In no Scriptures seek anything else, let no one teach you anything else. Whatever is obscure in Scripture, this is hidden there: whatever is plain there, this is open there. If it were nowhere open, it would not feed you: if it were nowhere hidden, it would not exercise you. This love cries out from a pure heart, from the heart of such men, in these words, as he here now prays. And who this is, I would quickly say: it is Christ.

3. But you are about to hear words which are unworthily taken of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one who understands little will think that I rashly said it is the person of Christ in this psalm. For how can it be of our Lord Jesus Christ, of that spotless lamb, of him in whom alone no sin was found, who alone could most truly say: Behold the prince of this world comes, and in me he will find nothing (Jn 14:30), that is, no fault, no guilt; who alone paid back what he did not plunder (See Ps 69:4 (68:5)); who alone poured out innocent blood, the only Son of God taking flesh, not by which he himself would be diminished, but by which he would increase us: how, then, is it rightly taken of this person: Set, O Lord, a guard to my mouth, and a door of restraint about my lips, that you may not bend my heart to evil words, to excuse excuses in sins (Ps 141:3-4 (140:3-4))? For most plainly this is the sense: Guard, O Lord, my mouth by a certain door and gate of your precept, that my heart may not be bent to evil words. What evil words? Those by which sins are excused. Lest, he says, I prefer to excuse my sins, rather than to accuse them. These words do not fall upon our Lord Jesus Christ himself. For what sins did he commit, which he ought rather to confess than to defend? These are our words. Yet surely Christ speaks. If they are our words, how does Christ speak? And where is the love of which I was speaking? Do you not know that it has made us one in Christ? Love cries out to Christ concerning us, love cries out concerning Christ for us. How does love cry out to Christ concerning us? And it will be, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21). How does love cry concerning Christ for us? Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me (Acts 9:4)? You, says the apostle, are the body of Christ and members (1 Cor 12:27). If, then, he is the head, we the body, one man speaks; whether the head speaks, or the members, one Christ speaks. And it belongs to the head to speak even in the person of the members. Notice our own custom. First, how only the head can speak in our members: but now notice how our head speaks in the person of all the members. In a tight place someone treads on your foot: You tread on me, says the head. Someone has wounded your hand: You have wounded me, says the head. No one touched your head, but the unity of the framework of your body speaks. The tongue, which is in the head, has taken up the person of all your members, it discharges the word for all. So then let us hear Christ speaking; but let each one recognize there his own voice, as cleaving to the body of Christ. For sometimes he is about to say words in which none of us finds his own person, but they belong to the head alone; yet he does not separate himself from our words and take it to his own proper things, or from his own proper things not return to ours. For of him and of the Church it was said: The two will be in one flesh (Gen 2:24). Whence he himself too says in the Gospel about this very thing: So then they are now not two, but one flesh (Matt 19:6). These things are not new; you have always heard them from us: but on occasions they must be recalled, first because the very Scriptures which we treat are so interwoven with one another, that many things are repeated in many places; and it is useful. For the care of the world has thorns, and chokes the seeds; it is needful that what the world forces us to forget be more often recalled by the Lord.

4. [v. 1.] O Lord, I have cried to you, hear me (Ps 141:1 (140:1)). This we can all say. This I do not say, the whole Christ says: but it was said rather from the person of the body; because, when he was here, bearing flesh, he prayed, and from the person of the body he prayed to the Father, and when he prayed drops of blood dripped from his whole body. So it is written in the Gospel: Jesus prayed with intent prayer, and sweated blood (See Luke 22:44). What is the flowing-out of blood from the whole body, except the passion of the whole Church of the martyrs? O Lord, I have cried to you, hear me: attend to the voice of my supplication, while I cry to you. You thought the business of crying already finished, when you said: I have cried to you. You have cried, now do not be secure. If the tribulation is finished, the cry is finished: but if the tribulation of the Church and of the body of Christ remains until the end of the age, let it not say only: I have cried to you, hear me; but: Attend to the voice of my supplication, while I cry to you.

5. [v. 2.] Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight; the lifting up of my hands an evening sacrifice (Ps 141:2 (140:2)). That this is usually understood of the head himself, every Christian recognizes. For with the day now declining toward evening, the Lord on the cross laid down his soul, to take it up again; he did not lose it unwillingly. But yet there too we were figured. For what of his hung on the wood, except what he took from us? And how can it be that God the Father at any time send away and desert the only Son, who is surely one God with him? And yet, fixing our weakness on the cross, where our old man, as the apostle says, was nailed to the cross with him (See Rom 6:6), from the voice of that man of ours he cried out: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me (Matt 27:46; Ps 22:1 (21:2))? That, then, is the evening sacrifice, the passion of the Lord, the cross of the Lord, the offering of the saving victim, the holocaust accepted by God. That evening sacrifice made, in the resurrection, a morning gift. So a prayer purely directed from a faithful heart rises as incense from a holy altar. Nothing is more delightful than the fragrance of the Lord: so let all who believe smell.

6. [v. 3.] Our old man, then—these are the apostle's words—was nailed to the cross with him; that the body of sin might be emptied, he says, that we might no longer serve sin (Rom 6:6). Hence in that very psalm, when it had been said: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, far from my salvation; it was at once added: The words of my sins (Ps 22:1 (21:2)). What sins, if you attend to the head? And yet that it was his voice in the psalm, he himself testified on the cross; he said the very words, he pronounced the very verse. No room is left for human conjecture, no opening for denying to any Christian whatever. What I read in the psalm, this I hear from the Lord. In that very psalm too I recognize what I read in the Gospel: They have dug my hands and my feet; they have numbered all my bones. But they considered and looked upon me; they divided my garments among themselves, and over my garment they cast lots (Ps 22:16-18 (21:17-19)). All these things, as foretold, so done; as we have heard, so we have seen. So if our Lord Jesus Christ, figuring us in the love of his body, although he himself was without sin, said: The words of my sins; but said this from the person of his body: who dares, among his members, to say that he has no sin, except one who has dared to lift himself up under the name of false justice, and to accuse Christ of falsehood? Confess, then, O member, what your head pronounced for you. That we may confess it, that we may do it, and not justify ourselves before the sight of him alone who is just, who justifies the impious (See Rom 4:5); he subjoined now the voice of his body: Set, O Lord, a guard to my mouth, and a door of restraint about my lips. He did not say, a bar of restraint; but, a door. A door is both opened and closed: so if it is a door, let it both be opened and be closed; let it be opened to the confession of sin, let it be closed to the excuse of sin. For so it will be a door of restraint, not of ruin.

7. [v. 4.] For what does this door of restraint profit us? what does Christ pray from the person of the body? That you may not bend, he says, my heart to evil words. What is, my heart? The heart of my Church, the heart surely of my body. Attend to those words where the rule is fixed for us: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me (Acts 9:4)? when no one had touched him. I was hungry, and you fed me; I thirsted, and you gave me drink: and the rest. And they: When did we see you hungry or thirsty? And he: When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me (Matt 25:35, 37, 40). These things ought not to be unusual for Christians, especially for those in whom the rules are fixed for understanding the rest; and they will either not be troubled, or be quickly corrected. So as there the just are about to say: Lord, why did you say: I was hungry, and you gave me to eat? when did we see you hungry? and he will answer: When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me; so here too let us say to Christ within, in our inner man, who deigns to dwell there through faith (See Eph 3:17). For he is not absent from us, and there is one to whom we may say, since he himself says: Behold, I am with you, even to the consummation of the age (Matt 28:20). Let us, then, say to him too, since we have taken his voice in this psalm: for it is his voice, which no one denies: The lifting up of my hands an evening sacrifice. Say, then, consequently: Set, O Lord, a guard to my mouth, and a door of restraint about my lips; that you may not bend my heart to evil words, to excuse excuses in sins. Why do you pray thus, O Lord? what sins of yours are you about to excuse? He answers: When one of my members prays thus, I pray thus: as there he answered: When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me.

8. But when your heart has not been bent, O member of Christ, when your heart has not been bent to evil words, to excuse excuses in sins, with men working iniquity; and you will not combine with their elect. For this follows: And I will not combine with their elect. Who are their elect? Those who justify themselves. Who are their elect? Those who seem just to themselves, and despise the rest, as that Pharisee in the temple said: God, I give you thanks, that I am not as the rest of men (Luke 18:11). Who are their elect? This man, if he were a prophet, would know what woman has come to him at his feet (See Luke 7:39). Do you recognize the voice of that other Pharisee, who had invited the Lord, when that woman who was a sinner in the city came and approached his feet? That shameless woman, once brazen for fornication, more brazen for salvation, burst into another's house. But he who reclined there was not another's. Not as a stranger did she follow some guest, but as a maidservant her Lord. She approached the feet, because she longed to follow his footsteps; she washed them with tears, wiped them with her hair. What are the feet of Christ, except those by which he traversed the whole world? How beautiful are the feet of those who announce peace, who announce good things (Isa 52:7; Rom 10:15)! So how many have taken up the feet of the Lord, that by taking up the just man in the name of a just man, they might receive the reward of a just man; and they took up a prophet in the name of a prophet, that they might receive the reward of a prophet! And whoever gives, he says, to one of these least a cup of cold water, only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you, he will not lose his reward (Matt 10:41-42). So he who with such kindness took up the feet of the Lord, what did he spend, except what he had superfluous in his house? Rightly, because the hairs are as it were superfluous, with them she wiped the feet of the Lord. Your superfluous things become necessary to you, if with them you have served the feet of the Lord. So she wished to be cured, conscious of a great wound. But is the wound great, and the physician small? But the Pharisees were unwilling to be touched by the unclean, they avoided all contact with sinners; and if ever by necessity they were touched, they washed themselves. And they almost baptized at every hour not only themselves, but also their vessels, their beds, their cups, their dishes, as the Lord mentions in the Gospel. So when that Pharisee knew this woman—who surely, if she approached the feet of that Pharisee, he would repel, lest his holiness be polluted; for he had holiness in body, not in heart (See Matt 23:25-26); and because he did not have it in heart, surely he had a false one in body—because, then, he would have repelled her, when the Lord did not do this, he supposed that he did not know who she was, and said within himself: This man, if he were a prophet, would know what woman has come to him at his feet. He did not say, he would have repelled her: but, he would know who she was; as though it were a consequence that, if he knew, he would repel her. So from this, that he did not repel her, he suspected for certain that he also did not know. But the Lord so had his eyes on that woman, that he had his ears on the heart of the Pharisee. And so, having heard his thought, he set forth the parable which you know. Two debtors there were to a certain creditor; one owed him five hundred denarii, the other fifty: when both had nothing to repay, he forgave both. I ask of you, he said, which of them loved him more? And he answered, now compelled by the truth to bring forth a sentence against himself: I believe, he said, Lord, that he to whom he forgave more. And turning to the woman, he said to Simon: Do you see this woman? I entered your house: you gave me no kiss; but she has not ceased to kiss my feet: you gave me no water for my feet; but she has washed my feet with her tears: you gave me no oil; but she has anointed me with ointment. For which reason I tell you: many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much (Luke 7:41-47). Why? Because she confessed, because she wept, because her heart was not bent to evil words to excuse excuses in sins, she did not combine with their elect, that is, with those who defend themselves.

9. For neither would this woman herself, if her heart were bent to evil words, lack a defense of her sins. Do not those equal to her in baseness, but not equal in confession—harlots, adulteresses, the shameless—daily defend their sins? If they have lain hidden, they deny; but if they have either been caught and convicted, or have done it publicly, they defend it. And how easy is their defense, how quick, but how headlong, how daily, and how sacrilegious! Oh, if God did not wish it, I would not do it! God willed this, fortune willed this, fate willed this. She does not say: I said: Lord, have mercy on me (Ps 41:4 (40:5)); not as that sinful woman coming to the feet of the physician: Heal my soul, for I have sinned against you. And this defense, my brothers, is of what kind of people? Not only of the unlearned, but also of the learned. They sit, and reckon the stars; they attend to, describe, conjecture the intervals, courses, revolutions, positions, motions. They seem learned, great. All this learned and great thing is a defense of sin. You will be an adulterer, because you have Venus thus: you will be a murderer, because you have Mars thus. So Mars is the murderer, not you; and Venus the adulteress, not you. See lest both for Mars and for Venus you be condemned. For God who is to condemn, knows that it is you who say: Not I, to the judge who knows. Moreover, that very astrologer who even sells you the tales of your snares, that you may not procure death even for free (for you buy death from the astrologer at a price, you who have despised life from Christ for free): that same astrologer himself, if he sees his wife behaving a little too wantonly, or shamelessly attending to some strangers, or repeatedly going back to the window; does he not seize her, beat her, and give discipline in his own house? Let his wife answer him: If you can, beat Venus, not me. Will he not answer: Fool, one thing is what befits the ruler, another what is set forth for the buyer? So who are their elect? The elect of the evil, the elect of the impious, with whom one must not combine, that is, with whom one must not have fellowship. But who are they? Those who reckon themselves just, and despise the rest as sinners, as those Pharisees were: or, because their very sins are either manifestly caught or done publicly, defending and asserting them, lest any fault be attributed to them; and that they themselves may be judged to have done nothing evil, but all of it God, who, they say, either so created man, or arranged the stars, or neglects human affairs. These are the defenses of the elect of the world. But let the member of Christ say, let the body of Christ say, let Christ say from the person of his body: You will not bend my heart to evil words, to excuse excuses in sins, with men working iniquity; and I will not combine with their elect.

10. You know, brothers—which must not be passed over—that the more eminent just men, as it were holding in themselves the first degree of justice, are called Elect among the Manichees. Those who know, recognize it; those who did not know, hear it. Indeed all the saints are the elect of God, and we have this in the Scriptures; but they usurped that name for themselves, and applied it as it were more familiarly to themselves, so that they may now be called, as it were properly, the elect. Who are these elect? To whom, if you say: You have sinned; at once they bring forth that impious defense, worse and more sacrilegious than the rest: Not I sinned, but the race of darkness. What is this race of darkness? That which waged war with God. And does it sin, when you sin? It, he says, because I am mingled with it. For God who mingled you, what did he fear? For they say this, that that race of darkness rebelled against God, before the world was made; and he, taking care lest his kingdoms be laid waste by the hostile onslaught of the approaching enemy, sent here his members, his substance, this which he himself is; if gold, gold; if light, light: whatever it is, this he sent, and mingled it, they say, with the inward parts of the race of darkness, and from it fashioned the world. And we souls, they say, are of those very members of God; but we are pressed here by the inward parts of the race of darkness, and whatever we are said to sin, that race sins. They seem indeed to excuse themselves from sin; but they do not excuse their God from the crime of fear, nor the very substance of their God from the crime of corruptibility. For if God is incorruptible, if unchangeable, if uncontaminable, if unstainable, if impenetrable, what was that race going to do to him? Let it have made what onslaught it wished; how would it terrify the impenetrable, the inviolable, the uncontaminable, the unchangeable and the incorruptible? If, then, God is such, he is cruel; because without cause he sent you here, to whom no harm could be done. Why did he send you? Behold, the race of darkness could not harm him; but he gravely harmed you, and he himself, more than it, was your enemy: although it too could harm you. You could be pressed, you could be made captive, you could be defiled, you could be corrupted: so he too could be. For a fragment, as it were, and a small portion of his very nature convicts the mass. Such as that is which he sent here, such is that which remained there. This they themselves say: they confess that there are two substances; one that, and one this. Their books have this; and if they deny it, they are read out, and convicted.

11. What then? That in this one beginning I may say nothing more, may say no worse things, may say no more criminal things: in this very beginning by which they bring in war, see how they are warred down; and where they say war was waged against God by the race of darkness, they themselves are caught in the war of their own words. For there is nothing they can say, or where they may flee. But you wish, O wicked man, false elect, to defend your sin, so that when you have done something evil, you may seem not to have done it: you seek into whom you may pour back your sin, and you pour it back into the race of darkness. But attend to God, whether you do not pour it back into him. For if that race of darkness which you imagine could speak, it would say this to you: Why do you accuse me? Could I do anything to your God, or could I not? If I could, I am stronger than he: if I could not, why did he fear me? If he did not fear, why did he send you here, to suffer such great things here, since you are his member, since you are his substance? if he did not fear, he envied; if he did this not from fear, he did it from cruelty. How unjust, then, is he, to whom no harm could be done, and he brought it about that his members should here be so harmed? Or could he be harmed? Then he is not incorruptible. When, then, you wish to defend yourself about your sin, you cannot praise God. In the praise of God you would not be straitened, unless you boasted in your own. Pass over to your own blame, and you will praise God. Return to the words of the Psalms which you abhor, say: I said: Lord, have mercy on me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (Ps 41:4 (40:5)). I said, I sinned; not fortune, not fate, not the race of darkness. If, then, you have sinned, now see how the praise of God lies open, in which you were straitened, when you wished to defend yourself. Better are you straitened in your sins, and widened out in his praise. Now, then, your sin being confessed, see how God is praised: because he is both just, when he punishes you persevering; and merciful, when he frees you confessing. You will not, then, he says, bend my heart to evil words, to excuse excuses in sins; so that I may say that the race of darkness did what I did.

12. With men working iniquity. What iniquity? Let us tell some wicked iniquity of theirs. Hear the wicked, public iniquity of the Manichees, which they confess. They say it is more expedient for a man to be a moneylender than a farmer. You ask the reason, and they render an account. See whether that reason is not to be called madness. For he who gives money at interest, they say, does not harm the cross of light: but he who, they say, is a farmer, greatly harms the cross of light. You ask what cross of light? Those members, they say, of God which were captured in that battle, are mingled with the whole world, and are in trees, in herbs, in fruits, in produce. He afflicts the members of God who cuts the earth with the furrow; he afflicts the members of God who pulls up an herb from the earth; he afflicts the members of God who plucks fruit from a tree. Lest he commit these false murders in the field, he commits true murders in moneylending. He does not hold out bread to a beggar. See whether there can be a greater iniquity than this justice. He does not hold out bread to a beggar: you ask, why? Lest the life which is in the bread, which they call a member of God, the divine substance, that beggar receive, and bind it in the flesh. What then of you? what? why do you eat? Do you not have flesh? But we, they say, because we are illumined by the faith of the Manichee, by our prayers and psalms, we who are the elect, purify from it the life which is in that bread, and send it to the treasuries of the heavens. Such are the elect, that they are not to be saved by God, but saviors of God. And it is Christ himself, they say, crucified in the whole world. I in the Gospel had taken Christ as Savior; but you in your books are saviors of Christ. You are plainly blasphemers of Christ, and therefore not to be saved by Christ. So that a morsel may not be given to a beggar, and the member of God may weep in the morsel, the beggar will die of hunger! A false mercy in the morsel commits a true murder in the man. But who are their elect? You will not bend my heart to evil words, and I will not combine with their elect.

13. [v. 5.] The just man will correct me in mercy, and will rebuke me (Ps 141:5 (140:5)). See the sinner, the confessor: he wishes to be corrected mercifully, rather than to be praised deceitfully. The just man will correct me in mercy: if he is just, if he is merciful, when he sees me sinning. This surely certain members of Christ say, concerning certain members of Christ they say, in one body they say it. The Lord deigns to speak from the person of the corrector, nor does he refuse the person of the corrected or to be corrected: for all the members are in him, and he himself says: The just man will correct me. What just man will correct you? The head corrects all the members. The just man will correct me in mercy, and will rebuke me. He will rebuke, but in mercy: he will rebuke, but does not hate; and the more he rebukes, because he does not hate. And why does this man give thanks for it? Because: Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you (See Prov 9:8). The just man will correct me: because he persecutes? Far from it: this man rather is to be corrected, if he corrects out of hatred. Why, then, does he correct? In mercy. And he will rebuke me: in what? In mercy. But let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head. What is: Let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head? My head will not grow great from adulation. False praise is adulation; false praise of the adulator, this is the oil of the sinner. Therefore men too, when they mock someone with false praise, say even this of him: I have anointed his head. So love to be rebuked by the just man in mercy; do not love to be praised by the sinner with mockery. Have oil with you, and you will not seek the oil of the sinner. For those wise virgins carried oil with them (See Matt 25:4): the wise virgins carried oil with them, that is, their conscience bore witness to them. Oil is glory, it shines, it glitters on the surface. But the glory ought to be good, and a true glory, that it may be there within in its vessels. Hear what is in the vessels: But let a man prove himself, and then he will have glory in himself, and not in another (Gal 6:4). What is, 'in his vessels'? Hear the apostle himself: For this is our glory, the testimony of our conscience (2 Cor 1:12).

14. Finally, because you are in the body of Christ, and still bear a certain mortality; be yourself just to yourself, and in yourself be just. You are a sinner, take vengeance on yourself; return to your conscience, exact punishments of yourself, torment yourself. For so you offer sacrifice to God. For if you had wished a sacrifice, I would surely have given it, says the sinner, in holocausts you will not delight (Ps 51:16 (50:18)). What then? does he accept no sacrifice? A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God does not spurn (Ps 51:17 (50:19)). Humble your heart, crush your heart, torment your heart; and you will correct it in mercy: for you do not hate yourself, when you rage against yourself. You will be just in the part that corrects, although you are still a sinner in the part to be corrected: for in that part in which you displease yourself, you are unjust; in that in which what is unjust in you displeases you, you are just. Do you wish to see how just you are? This in you displeases you which also displeases God: now you have joined yourself to the will of God, and you hate in yourself not what he made, but what he hates. From this, that you hate in yourself what you have done, which he too hates who did not do it, you have begun to be severe toward yourself; he will be merciful: he will spare, because you did not spare. So, since you are joined to his eyes, and delight together in his law, and rebuke in yourself what his law rebukes, and this in you displeases you which also displeases the eyes of God, see how just you are: but from this, that, fallen, you have done the things that displease God, and by a certain frailty of human weakness slip into them, and still bear the weakness of the flesh, and groan with the conscience of a certain struggle, in this part you are wicked and a sinner.

15. How, you will say, in one part just, in one part a sinner? what is it you say? We labor, we seem to speak contraries, unless the apostolic authority comes to our aid. Hear this from the apostle, lest you accuse me as one who understands evilly: For I delight, he says, in the law of God according to the inner man (Rom 7:22). Behold the just man. Is he not just who delights in the law of God? Whence, then, a sinner? I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin (Rom 7:23). I still wage war against myself, I am not yet wholly restored to the image of my maker; I have begun to be recarved, and in that part in which I am reformed, what is deformed displeases me. So as long as I am thus, what do I hope? Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:24-25). The grace of God which has now begun to recarve, the grace of God which pours in sweetness, that you may now through the inner man delight in the law of God: thence the rest will be healed, whence these too were healed. Groan, still wounded, chastise yourself, displease yourself.

16. I do not so fight, he says, as one beating the air; but I chastise my body and bring it into servitude, lest perhaps, preaching to others, I myself be found reprobate (1 Cor 9:26-27). Does he who chastises the body hate the body? If anyone chastises a slave, does he hate the slave? if anyone beats a son, does he hate the son? And, to say something more closely connected, your flesh is as it were your wife. This the apostle himself says: No one ever hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ also the Church (Eph 5:29). Surely the flesh is as it were a wife, and no one hates his own flesh. Yet what does he say in another place? The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (Gal 5:17). It lusts against you, as your wife; love and chastise it, until there comes about, in one reformation, one concord. When will this be? Since now you cry out: Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? will this body be separated from you, and then will you be secure? And what is: Within ourselves we groan, awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body (Rom 8:23)? So it is restored from mortality to immortality, and no longer resists, because there is no mortality to resist. Therefore chastise your body; now tame what you will afterward receive; now let it fail, that then it may suffice. For in this life it cannot be restored, as long as it is borne mortal. Let it not put you down, let it not break you off; bear it, instruct it, chastise it: it will be restored at the end. And because no one ever hated his own flesh, the flesh too will rise again. But how? shall I then too struggle? It is necessary, he says, that this corruptible put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality (1 Cor 15:53).

17. So when it is said: He will correct me, and will rebuke me; whether it be a brother, or a neighbor, or one nearby, or you yourself, you ought to be rebuked and corrected in mercy. But let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head. But what shall I do, you say to me? I endure flatterers, they do not cease to make a din; they praise in me things I do not want, they praise in me what I count little, they reprove in me what I hold dear—flatterers, deceivers, beguilers. A great man, for example, is Gaius Seius; great, learned, wise: but why a Christian? For great learning, and great letters, and great wisdom. If great wisdom, approve that he is a Christian: if great learning, he chose learnedly. Finally, what you blame, this pleases him whom you praise. But what? That praise does not sweeten; it is the oil of the sinner. But he does not cease to speak. Let it not fatten your head; that is, do not rejoice at such things; that is, do not nod assent, do not consent, do not be gladdened by it: and if he has brought the oil of adulation, yet let your head remain whole, not puffed up, not swollen. For if it is puffed up and swollen, it makes a weight and casts you down headlong. But let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head.

18. Because still even my prayer is in their good pleasure (Ps 141:5 (140:5)). Wait; now they blame me, says Christ. In the first times of the Christians, the Christians were reproved on every side. Still wait; and my prayer will be in their good pleasure. The time will come, when there will be more than thousands of men beating their breast and saying: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). Now how many have remained who blush to beat their breast for themselves? So let them reprove; let us bear it. Let them reprove, hate, accuse, detract: Still even my prayer is in their good pleasure; the time will come, when my prayer will please them. For they will raise themselves up as it were just by their own strength; they will be conquered in the struggle: because they proudly raised themselves up, they will be dashed down, dragged off by their sins, they will see themselves wicked, the things said through the Prophets will be fulfilled; the judgment will begin to be feared, the keenness of the soul will turn itself to the conscience of sins, and that prayer will please them: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. O wordy defense of iniquity! Surely now the peoples say this, and the thunder of the peoples beating their breasts does not rest. Rightly do the clouds thunder, in which God now dwells. Where is that wordiness, where is that boasting: I am just, I have done nothing evil? Surely, when in the holy Scriptures you have contemplated the rule of justice, however much you have made progress, you will find yourself a sinner. You have made progress, you now worship one God; very well: you do not fornicate from him to idols, to astrologers, to fortune-tellers, to soothsayers, to augurs, to sorcerers; for that is fornication from the Lord God: you are now in some number of the members of Christ. Now begin to see also those sins of human fellowship. You do not kill anyone, you do not commit adultery with anyone's wife, you do no injury to your wife by going to another, you do not contaminate yourself with any worst corruption, you have kept your hands from theft, your tongue from perjury, your heart from coveting your neighbor's property: now you are just. Attend to the rest; do not now grow proud. Do you sin nothing with your tongue? do you not slip into a hard word? But what great thing do you say? What great thing? He who says to his brother: You fool; will be liable to the fire of hell (Matt 5:22). Now all that pride trembles. Behold, now he does not greatly do that whereby God may be blasphemed by some impiety; he does not rush upon anyone to harm him, he does not do to another what he is unwilling to suffer: what of the tongue? who tames it? But behold, you have now bridled even it: although who is so great as to perfect this in every way? but behold, you have now bridled even it: what do you do about your thoughts? what do you do about the tumult and troop of rebelling desires? You do not give them your members. So I believe, and see: but yet thoughts sometimes incline and carry you away, very often in prayer on bent knees. You prostrate your body, you bend your neck, you confess sins, you adore God: I see where the body lies, I ask where the mind flits. I see the members lying: let us see whether the conscience stands, let us see whether it is fixed on him whom it adores; whether it is not very often, by thoughts, as by the heat of the sea, snatched away, and lifted by a storm into one thing and another. Now if you were speaking with me, and suddenly turned yourself to your slave, and left me—I do not say one from whom you were asking something, but one with whom you were speaking as an equal—would I not reckon an injury done to me? Behold what you do daily to God. Of what kind, did I just now say, brothers? Now even him who worships only God, who confesses Christ, who knows the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit as one God, who does not fornicate after him, who does not adore demons, who does not seek helps for himself from the devil, who holds the Catholic Church; of whose fraud no one complains, over whose pressure the weak neighbor does not groan; who does not tempt another's wife, who is content with his own, or who is content not even with his own, but as is permitted and as the apostolic discipline allows, where there is the consent of both, or where she has not yet been taken to wife. He who is now such, is yet caught in those things which I have said.

19. [v. 6.] So the time has come which was said: Still even my prayer is in their good pleasure; whether that which he taught, or that by which he intercedes for us. In all these daily sins, then, what hope is there, except that with a humble heart we say in the Lord's prayer, which is now in our good pleasure, of those who do not defend their sins, but confess them: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12); and that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just, that he himself may be the propitiation for our sins (See 1 Jn 2:1-2)? Now let the proud speak; they are conquered in number, conquered by the peoples, the whole earth from the sun's rising to its setting praising the name of the Lord. What do the few who dispute otherwise accomplish? They are the judges of the impious. But what is it to you? See what follows: Their judges were swallowed up beside the rock (Ps 141:6 (140:6)). What is: They were swallowed up beside the rock? But the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4). They were swallowed up beside the rock. Beside, that is, compared—the judges, great, powerful, learned: they are called their judges, as it were judging about morals, and bringing forth a sentence. Aristotle said this. Join him to the rock, and he is swallowed up. Who is Aristotle? Let him hear: Christ said it; and among the dead he trembles. Pythagoras said this, Plato said this. Join them to the rock, compare their authority to the evangelical authority, compare the puffed-up to the crucified. Let us say to them: You wrote your letters in the hearts of the proud; he fixed his cross in the hearts of kings. Finally, he died, and rose again: you are dead, and I do not wish to ask how you may rise. So: Their judges were swallowed up beside that rock. They seem to say something, until they are compared to the rock. Therefore if any of them is found to have said this which Christ also said; we give him congratulation, we do not follow him. But he was before Christ. If anyone speaks true things, is he before the very Truth? O man, attend to Christ, not when he came to you, but when he made you. Even a sick man can say: But I fell into my bed before the physician had come to me. Surely the physician came later for this reason, because you fell first.

20. See, then, the text of the Psalm: Still even my prayer is in their good pleasure. But there will be many who contradict: Their judges were swallowed up beside the rock. What then will there be? They will hear my words, because they have prevailed (Ps 141:6 (140:6)). My words have prevailed over their words. Certain things were said by them eloquently, but by me truly. One thing is to praise a talkative man, another to praise a truthful one. They will hear my words, because they have prevailed. Whence have they prevailed? Which of them was caught in a sacrifice, when by these laws those things were forbidden, and did not deny it? Which of them was caught adoring an idol, and did not cry out: I did not do it, and fear lest he be convicted? Such ministers the devil had. But whence have the words of the Lord prevailed? Behold, I send you as lambs in the midst of wolves. Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but fear him who can send both body and soul into the fire of hell (Matt 10:16, 28). He gave fear, he subjoined hope, he kindled love. Do not, he said, fear death. Do you fear death? I die first. Do you dread lest even a hair of yours perish? I rise first whole in the flesh. Rightly you have heard his words, because they have prevailed. They spoke, and were killed; they fell, and stood. And what came about from so many deaths of the martyrs, except that the very words prevailed, and, the earth being as it were watered by the blood of the witnesses of Christ, the crop of the Church sprouted everywhere? They will hear, he says, my words, because they have prevailed. Whence have they prevailed? We have already said: when they are preached by those who do not fear. Who do not fear what? Neither exiles, nor losses, nor death, nor the cross. For not death alone; but not even the cross, than which death nothing seemed more execrable. This the Lord himself took up, lest his disciples should not even fear death, but should not even shudder at the kind of death. So when these things are said by those who do not fear, they have prevailed.

21. [v. 7.] What then of those deaths of all the martyrs, what did they do? Hear: As the thickness of the earth is broken up over the earth, our bones have been scattered beside hell (Ps 141:7 (140:7)). Beside hell the bones of the martyrs were scattered, that is, the bodies of the witnesses of Christ. For the martyrs were killed, and as it were those prevailed who killed them. They prevailed by persecuting, that the words of Christ might prevail by being preached. And what came about from the deaths of the saints? As the thickness of the earth is broken up over the earth, our bones have been scattered beside hell. What is, the thickness of the earth is broken up over the earth? We know that the thickness of the earth is the things that are contemptible. The things that are as it were contemptible to men, make the earth fruitful. For it was said in a certain psalm that the deaths of the saints lay unburied; and there was no one to bury them (See Ps 79:2-3 (78:2-3)). But all those deaths became the thickness of the earth. As the earth takes a certain richness from contemptible and cast-off things; so from what this world despised, the earth took thickness, that from it the crop of the Church might sprout the more fruitfully. You know already, brothers, that the contemptible things of this earth, by which the earth grows fat, I neither wish to name, nor is it fitting to say: there is a certain fattening of the earth, and a certain richness; and it is contemptible to men, and as it were filthy, and is cast away. But what did he do here, that I may now use his words too? From the earth he raised up the needy, and from the dunghill he exalted the poor man; that he might set him with the princes, with the princes of his people (Ps 113:7-8 (112:7-8)). For he was prostrate on the earth; as the fatness of the earth, he was broken up over the earth: so lay that Lazarus full of sores, but yet was lifted up by the angels into the bosom of Abraham (See Luke 16:20-22). Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Ps 116:15 (115:15)). As it is contemptible to the world, so it is precious to the farmer. For there he knows the usefulness and the rich sap, and knows what he aims at, what he chooses, from which a fertile crop rises: but this world despises it. Do you not know that God chose the contemptible things of the world, and the things that are not, as the things that are, that the things that are might be brought to nothing (1 Cor 1:28)? From the dunghill was raised up Peter, and Paul; and when they were killed, they were despised: now, the earth being fattened from them, the crop of the Church rising up, behold what is noble and chief in the world, the emperor comes to Rome; whither does he hasten? to the temple of the Emperor, or to the memorial of the Fisherman? For as the thickness of the earth is broken up over the earth, our bones have been scattered beside hell.

22. [v. 8.] Because to you, O Lord, are my eyes: in you I have hoped; do not take away my soul (Ps 141:8 (140:8)). For they were tormented in the persecutions, and many failed. And because he said of the captivity of persecution: As the thickness of the earth is broken up over the earth, our bones have been scattered beside hell: it occurs that many failed and many were in peril; and as it were in the midst of the tribulations of the persecutions the voice of one praying was sent forth: Because to you, O Lord, are my eyes. I do not care what those who stand around threaten; to you, O Lord, are my eyes. I fix my eye more on your promises than on their threats. I know what you suffered for me, what you promised me: To you, O Lord, are my eyes: in you I have hoped; do not take away my soul.

23. [v. 9.] Guard me from the trap which they have set for me (Ps 141:9 (140:9)). What was the trap? If you consent, I spare you. In the trap is set the bait of this life: if a bird loves this bait, it falls into the trap: but if the bird is such as to say: And the day of man I have not coveted, you know (See Jer 17:16); its eyes will not withdraw from God, and he himself will pluck its feet from the snare (See Ps 25:15 (24:15)). Guard me from the trap which they have set for me, and from the scandals of those who work iniquity. He said two things, both to be distinguished from each other: the persecutors, he said, set a trap; but the scandals are from those who consented and apostatized; and from both he wishes to be guarded. On this side the threateners rage, on this side the consenters slip: I fear lest this man be such as I should fear; lest that man be such as I should imitate. These things I do to you, if you do not consent: Guard me from the trap which they have set for me. Behold, your brother has now consented: And from the scandals of those who work iniquity.

24. [v. 10.] The sinners will fall into his nets (Ps 141:10 (140:10)). What is it, then, brothers: The sinners will fall into his nets? But not all sinners: certain sinners, who are so far sinners that they so love this life as to prefer it to eternal life, will fall into his trap. But what do you say? Do you suppose that such men as these fall into his nets? But what of your disciples, O Christ? Behold, when the persecution was raging, when they all left you alone, and each one went his own way (you foretold this, because you foresaw it: for not because you foretold it, did you do it, or did you deny yourself in anyone): but behold, those who clung to you, in your temptation and persecution, in which the enemies sought you to be crucified, failed. And that one bold man who had promised you that he would be with you even to death, indeed heard from the physician what was going on in himself the sick man. For, feverish, he had said he was healthy; but the physician was touching the vein of his heart. It came to the temptation, it came to the proving, it came to the accusation; and now he himself, questioned not by some great power, but by the lowest servant, and that a woman, questioned by a maidservant, succumbed. He denied three times. The first denial made, when he was reminded, he denied again: the second denial made, when he was reminded, he denied a third time. This the Lord had foretold; he had not commanded it, had not compelled it. Or if Peter is therefore thought to have acted rightly, because the Lord had foretold this; then Judas too who betrayed him acted rightly, because the Lord had foretold this too. Far from it, my brothers; this is the voice of those elect, who even defend their sins rather than confess them. Let us rather attend to Peter himself. If he sinned nothing, why did he weep? Let us not ask about Peter, except the tears of Peter: we find no more faithful witnesses about him. He wept bitterly (Matt 26:75), he says. He was not yet fit for the passion: You will follow me afterward (Jn 13:36), it was said to him. He was still to be firm, confirmed by the Lord's resurrection.

25. So it was not yet the time that those bones should be scattered beside hell. For see how many failed, even those first ones clinging to his mouth; they too failed. Why this? I am alone, until I pass over. For this follows in the Psalm. Above he had said: Guard me, O Lord, from the trap which they have set for me, and from the scandals of those who work iniquity. From the trap, and from the scandals; both from those who terrify, and from those who have lapsed. But because in his passion even those first ones, who were to be the leaders of the Church and the pillars of the earth, failed; what he says in another psalm had not yet come to pass: I have confirmed its pillars (Ps 75:3 (74:4)). What does he say: I am alone, until I pass over? This voice is from the person of the head: I am alone, until I pass over. What is, alone? In the passion you alone suffer, you alone are killed by the enemies. I am alone, until I pass over. What is, until I pass over? The evangelist says: But when the hour had come that Jesus should pass over from this world to the Father (Jn 13:1). What is, then, until I pass over, except, from this world to the Father? For then I confirmed its pillars, that is, the pillars of the earth, when in my resurrection they plainly learned that death is not to be feared: until, then, I pass over, I am alone: when I have passed over, I will be multiplied; many will imitate me, many will suffer for my name. I am one, until I pass over; many in me will be one when I have passed over. I am alone, until I pass over. Hear too the mystery of his word. According to the Greek manner of speech, Pascha seems to signify suffering; for 'paschein' is said 'to suffer': but according to the Hebrew tongue, as those have interpreted who knew it, Pascha is interpreted 'Passing-over.' For even if you ask the Greeks well, they deny that Pascha is Greek. There does sound in it 'pascho,' that is, 'I suffer,' but it is not usually inflected thus: for suffering in Greek is called 'pathos,' not 'pascha.' So Pascha, as those say who knew it, and who interpreted for us what we might read, is interpreted 'passing-over.' Therefore, the Lord's passion approaching, as though he spoke with that very word, the evangelist said: When the hour had come that Jesus should pass over from this world to the Father. So Pascha sounded here in this verse: I am alone, until I pass over. After the Pascha I will no longer be alone, after the passing-over I will not be alone. Many will imitate, many will follow: and if they follow afterward, what will it be? I am alone, until I pass over. What is it that the Lord says in this psalm: I am alone, until I pass over? what is it we have expounded? If we have understood it, attend to his own words in the Gospel: Amen, amen I say to you, he says, unless a grain of wheat falling into the earth dies, it itself remains alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit (Jn 12:24). He said this there, where he also said: When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself (Jn 12:32). Unless a grain of wheat, he says, falling into the earth dies, it itself remains alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. So to that grain a great crop was owed: but wait, let it still be put to death; for a grain, unless it falls into the earth and is put to death, remains alone.

26. So he was alone, before he was put to death. Therefore Peter too did not yet have such strength: he was to receive the strength of following, he did not have that of going before (See Jn 13:36). For on account of Christ, that is, on account of the confession of the name of Christ, by which we are Christians, no one died before Christ: lest perhaps it occur to you. For many died and are martyrs, many prophets suffered such things; yet they did not die because they foretold Christ, but because they spoke the sins of men against them, and resisted their iniquities more freely: and they are reckoned among the martyrs. For justly, if not for the confession of the name of Christ, yet for the truth they were killed. But so far for the name itself, that is, for the confession of the name of Christ, no one died before that grain fell into the earth, from whose person it was said: I am alone, until I pass over, that even John himself, who had recently been killed, given by the wicked king to the dancing girl, was not killed for this, because he confessed Christ (See Matt 14:6-11). He could surely have been killed for that too, and by many. If he was killed for something else by one man, how much more could he have been killed for Christ by those very men who killed Christ? For John was bearing witness to Christ. Those who heard Christ wished to kill him, and did not kill the one who bore witness. For if an attack were made on John on account of Christ, he would not deny it. (For there was in him great strength, by which he was called the friend of the bridegroom (See Jn 3:29). Great grace in him, great excellence: Among those born of women none has risen greater than John the Baptist (Matt 11:11).) So an attack was made on the one who did not have such strength: an attack is made on Peter, none is made on John. For Peter received that very strength afterward; but then he was weak. For the name of Christ he is questioned who did not have strength: he who had strength does not suffer persecution for Christ; lest for the name of Christ he should go before Christ. He is not killed by the Jews, who bore free witness to Christ, whom the Jews killed; and he is killed by Herod, because he said to him: It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife (Matt 14:4). For his brother had not died without offspring. For the law of truth indeed, for equity, for justice: therefore holy, therefore a martyr; but yet not for that name by which we are Christians. Why this, except that it might be fulfilled: I am alone, until I pass over?

Exposition of Psalm 142

1. To the solemnity of the martyrs, as the devotion of your gathering, so the sermon of our service is owed. But your charity ought to remember how many things were said yesterday. For not because, through the eagerness of your inner mouth, you were present through the whole sermon as though fresh, ought we therefore to forget the common weakness: first, because the excellent words ought to be honored, as it is written: But the excellent words of wisdom are the words of the Lord God. Through us, as through little vessels, they are ministered to you: and if the vessels are of clay, yet the bread is heavenly. The apostle says: We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the eminence of the power may be God's (2 Cor 4:7). But what is the treasure, the same is also the bread. For if the treasure and the bread were not the same, it would not be written elsewhere of that very treasure: A desirable treasure rests in the mouth of the wise; but the foolish man swallows it down (See Prov 21:20). Whence we admonish your charity that the things which by hearing you store, as in the belly of memory, you should as it were ruminate again by turning them over and thinking. For this is: A desirable treasure rests in the mouth of the wise; but the foolish man swallows it down: briefly he said: The wise man ruminates, the fool does not ruminate. But what is this, plainly and in Latin? The wise man thinks over the things he has heard; but the foolish man hands over to forgetfulness the things he has heard. For not for any other reason were those animals which ruminate called clean in the Law, those which do not ruminate unclean: for every creature of God is clean (See 1 Tim 4:4). To the Maker God the pig is as clean as the lamb. For he created all things very good (See Gen 1:31): and: Every creature of God is good (1 Tim 4:4), the apostle says; and: All things are clean to the clean (Titus 1:15). So although in nature both are clean; yet in signification the lamb signifies something clean, the pig signifies something unclean: the lamb signifies the innocence of the wisdom that ruminates; the pig signifies the uncleanness of the folly that forgets. A short Psalm was said for the solemnity; let us see whether it can be treated briefly too.

2. [v. 1.] With my voice I cried to the Lord (Ps 142:1 (141:2)). It would suffice: With my voice I cried to the Lord; perhaps not in vain was added, my. For many cry to the Lord, not with their own voice, but with the voice of their body. So let the inner man, in whom Christ has begun to dwell through faith (See Eph 3:17), cry to the Lord with his own voice, not in the noise of the lips, but in the affection of the heart. Not where man hears does God hear: unless you cry with the voice of lungs and sides and tongue, man does not hear you; your thought is a cry to the Lord. With my voice I cried to the Lord; with my voice I entreated the Lord. What he said, I cried; he expounded, when he said, I entreated. For even those who blaspheme cry to the Lord. In the earlier verse he set down the cry, in the following one he expounded the cry. As though it were demanded: With what cry did you cry to the Lord? To the Lord, he says, I entreated: my cry, my entreaty; not reviling, not murmuring, not blasphemy.

3. [v. 2.] I will pour out my prayer before him (Ps 142:2 (141:3)). What is, before him? In his sight. What is, in his sight? Where he sees. But where does he not see? For we say thus: Where he sees, as though somewhere he does not see. But in this assembly of bodily things both men see, and animals see: but he sees even where man does not see. For your thought no man sees, but God sees. There, then, pour out your prayer, where he alone sees who rewards. For in secret the Lord Jesus Christ commanded us to pray: but if you recognize your chamber, and cleanse it, there you ask God. But when you pray, he says, do not be as the hypocrites, who stand in the streets and lanes praying, that they may be seen by men. But you, when you pray, enter into your chamber, and shut the door, and entreat your God in secret; and he who sees in secret will repay you (Matt 6:5-6). If men are to repay, pour out your prayer before men: if God is to repay, pour out your prayer before him, and shut the door, lest the tempter enter. The tempter does not cease to knock, that he may break in; if he finds it shut, he passes by. Therefore the apostle, because it is in our power to shut the door—the door of the heart, not of the walls; for there too is the chamber—because, then, it is in our power to shut this door: Do not give place, he says, to the devil (Eph 4:27). For if he has entered and possessed it, notice that you shut it negligently or neglected to shut it.

4. But what is it to shut the door? This door has as it were two leaves; of desire, and of fear. Either you desire something earthly, and through this it enters; or you fear something earthly, and through this it enters. So shut the door of fear and of desire against the devil, open it to Christ. How do you open those leaves to Christ? By desiring the kingdom of heaven, by fearing the fire of hell. Through the desire of the world the devil enters, through the desire of eternal life Christ enters: through the fear of temporal punishments the devil enters, through the fear of eternal fire Christ enters. Behold, the martyrs shut the door against the devil, opened it to Christ. This world promised them many things: they laughed, they shut the leaf of desire against the devil. This world threatened beasts, fires, crosses: they did not fear, they shut the leaf of fear against the devil. Let us see whether they opened them to Christ: He who has confessed me, he says, before men, I too will confess him before my Father, who is in heaven (Matt 10:32). So they loved the kingdom of heaven, where Christ will confess them. How will he confess them? Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matt 25:34). He will confess them set at the right hand. Let us see whether they also opened to Christ the leaf of fear, which they shut to the devil. In one and the same place the Lord admonishes this, that it be both shut to the devil, and opened to himself. Do not, he says, fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul (Matt 10:28): he admonished that the leaf of fear be dashed in the devil's face. So is nothing to be feared? Is not, then, an entrance of fear opened to Christ, which was shut to the devil? He at once added, as though saying: You have shut him out, open to me: But fear him, he says, who has power to kill both soul and body in the fire of hell (Matt 10:28). Now, then, if you have believed, and opened to Christ, shut against the devil. Christ is within, there he dwells: pour out your prayer before him, do not seek that he hear you from afar. For the Wisdom of God is not far away, which reaches from end to end mightily, and orders all things sweetly (Wis 8:1). So within, with you, before him pour out your prayer: there are his ears. Because neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the deserted mountains; for God is the judge (Ps 75:6-7 (74:7-8)): but if he is the judge, see what cause you bear in your heart.

5. [v. 3.] I will pour out my prayer before him; my tribulation I will announce in his sight (Ps 142:2 (141:3)). It is a repetition, both in the two earlier verses, and in these following ones; there are two sentences, but each said twice. The one is that: With my voice I cried to the Lord, with my voice I entreated the Lord: the other is: I will pour out my prayer before him, my tribulation I will announce in his sight. For what is, before him; is, in his sight: and what is, I will pour out my prayer; is, I will announce my tribulation. When do you do this? One set in persecution speaks: While my spirit failed from me. Why did your spirit fail, O martyr set in tribulation? That I might not arrogate to myself my own strength, that I might know that another works in me that very strength. But when they hand you over to the judges (so the Lord admonished those whom he wished to make martyrs), do not think what you will speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you (Matt 10:19-20). So let your spirit fail, let the Spirit of God speak. Rightly he wished to make them poor in spirit: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:3). Blessed, then, are the poor in their own spirit, rich in the Spirit of God. For every man who follows his own spirit is proud. Let him subject his own spirit, that he may take in the Spirit of God. He was going up to the summit, let him settle in the valley. If he goes up to the summit, the water flows off him: if he settles in the valley, he will be filled with it, and he becomes that belly of which it was said: Rivers of living water will flow from his belly (Jn 7:38). So while my spirit failed from me, in your sight I announced my tribulation, made humble, confessing to you while my spirit failed, when I am full of your Spirit.

6. And perhaps men heard that my spirit failed in me, and despaired of me, and said: We have caught him, we have crushed him: And you knew my paths. They thought me cast down, you saw me standing. Those who persecuted and had seized me thought my feet entangled: but their feet were bound, and they fell; but we rose up, and were set upright (See Ps 20:8 (19:9)). For my eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he himself will pluck my feet from the snare (See Ps 25:15 (24:15)). I persevered by walking: For he who perseveres to the end, he will be saved (Matt 10:22). They thought me crushed, but I was walking. Where was I walking? In the paths which they did not see, who thought me captured; in the paths of your justice, in the paths of your precepts. For you knew my paths; the persecutor did not know them: for he would not envy me in them, but would walk with me in them. What are these paths, except those ways of which it is said in another place: The Lord knows the way of the just, and the way of the impious will perish (Ps 1:6)? He did not say: The way of the impious he does not know: He knows that of the just, but that of the impious will perish. For what he does not know, perishes. In many places of the Scripture we find that for God to acknowledge is to preserve; for God to acknowledge is to keep; not to acknowledge is to condemn. For whence is he who knows all things going to say at the end: I do not know you (Matt 7:23)? Let them not rejoice from this and say: We will not be punished, because the judge does not know us. They are already punished, if the judge does not know them. So the ways which were said the Lord knows, these here are called paths, when he says: You knew my paths. For every path is a way; not every way is a path. Why, then, are those ways called paths, except because they are narrow? The way of the impious is broad, the way of the just is narrow.

7. What is the way, the same is also the ways: just as what is the Church, the same is the churches; and what is heaven, the same is the heavens. They are said in the plural, and said in the singular. On account of the unity of the Church, one Church: One is my dove, one is she of her mother (Song 6:9). On account of the fraternal congregations through the various places, there are many churches: The churches, he says, of Judea which are in Christ rejoiced that he who once persecuted us now preaches the faith which once he laid waste; and in me they glorified God (Gal 1:22-24). So he said churches, and so he says one Church: Be without offense to the Jews, and to the Greeks, and to the Church of God (1 Cor 10:32). So then both ways, and way; and paths, and path. Why paths, and why path? As we rendered an account why churches and church, we ought to render an account of this too. The paths of God were so called, because the precepts are many: and because those same many precepts are brought back to one, since the fullness of the law is love (See Rom 13:10); therefore these ways, in the many precepts, are gathered into one, and it is called one, because our way is love. Let us see whether love is a way. Let us hear the apostle: And still a more eminent way I show you (1 Cor 12:31). What do you call, O apostle, the more eminent way? What I call, hear: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal: and if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries, and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing: and if I distribute all my goods to the poor, and if I hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor 13:1-3). So he called love the more eminent way. This great way, brothers, has a great wonder. This way surely, because it is the more eminent, is also the more excellent; for that is eminent which is high. Nothing is higher than the way of love, and none walk in it but the humble. So these paths he calls the precepts of love. You, he says, knew my paths: you know that what I suffer for you, I suffer out of love; you know that love in me endures all things; you know that even if I hand over my body to be burned, I have that without which it profits a man nothing.

8. But who knows these ways of a man, my brothers, except truly he to whom it was said: You knew my paths? For all human deeds are before the eyes of men; it is uncertain with what heart they are done. And how many impious men, measuring themselves, from themselves say of us that we seek these things in the Church—honors, praises, temporal advantages? How many say that I therefore speak to you, that you may acclaim and praise me, and that I have this end and this intention when I speak? And how do I show them that I do not speak with that intention? It remains for me to say: You knew my paths. How do they know what not even you know? How do they know what I scarcely know? For neither do I judge myself: for he who judges me is the Lord (See 1 Cor 4:3-4). Peter presumed something of himself, not knowing it, and the physician saw something else in his strength. So let it be cried to the Lord devoutly and purely, because it is truly cried: You knew my paths. But do you wish him to lead you through those paths? Be gentle, be meek; do not be fierce, do not be proud, do not be of stiff and raised neck, like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding (Ps 32:9 (31:9)). For when you are gentle, when you are meek, the Lord mounts you, and will lead you through his ways: for he will direct the meek in judgment, he will teach the meek his ways (See Ps 25:9 (24:9)). You, then, knew my paths.

9. In this way in which I was walking, they have hidden a trap for me (Ps 142:3 (141:4)). This way in which he was walking is Christ: there they hid a trap, who persecute in Christ, on account of the name of Christ. There, then, they have hidden a trap for me. What do they envy in me? what do they persecute in me? That I am a Christian. If, then, they persecute this, that I am a Christian: In the way in which I was walking, they have hidden a trap for me. As far as in them lies, in the way in which I was walking they themselves hid a trap for me: as far as pertains to their desire, as far as pertains to their effort, as far as pertains to their wish, in that very way they wished me to have a trap by which I might be caught. But the Lord knows the way of the just (Ps 1:6); and you knew my paths. This indeed they wished; but you do not permit them to set a scandal in you, because you are my way. For the heretics too wish to hide a scandal for us in the name of Christ, and they themselves are deceived. What they think to set in the way, they set outside the way, because they themselves too are outside the way: they cannot set a trap where they themselves are not. But this was said according to their desire, according to their wish and opinion: for expressly in another place it was said: Beside the paths they have set scandals for me (Ps 140:5 (139:6)). This which was said, in the way; was said according to their desire and wish: that which was said, beside the way, that is, beside the paths; was said according to the truth. For in reality they do not set it in the path, do not set it in the way itself, because Christ is the way (See Jn 14:6): but indeed beside the paths they set it. Christ does not allow them to set it in the way, lest there be no way by which we may go: yet he allows them to set it beside the way, that we may not turn aside from the way. The pagan thinks he sets a scandal in the way, when he says to me: You worship a crucified God. He reproves the cross of Christ, which he does not understand. He thinks he sets in Christ what he sets beside the way. I will not go out from Christ, and I will not fall from the way into the trap. Let him exult over the crucified Christ; let me see on the foreheads of kings the cross of Christ. What he mocks at, there I am saved. Nothing is prouder than a sick man who derides his medicine. If he did not deride it, he too would receive it, and be healed. That cross is a sign of humility; but he, in excessive pride, does not recognize whence the swelling of his soul may be healed. But if I recognize it, I walk in the way. So far am I from blushing at the cross, that I do not have the cross of Christ in a hidden place, but bear it on my forehead. We receive many Sacraments in one way and another: some, as you know, we receive in the mouth, some we receive over the whole body. But because on the forehead one blushes, he who said: He who is ashamed of me before men, I will be ashamed of him before my Father, who is in heaven (Matt 10:33; Mark 8:38); that very ignominy, which the pagans deride, he set in a way in the place of our shame. You hear a man insult the shameless, and say: He has no forehead. What is: He has no forehead? He is shameless. Let me not have a bare forehead; let the cross of my Lord cover it. So in the way in which I was walking, they have hidden a trap for me, as far as in them lies; for they set it beside the way: but I will be safe, if I do not withdraw from the way. Do you not know that you walk in the midst of snares (See Sir 9:13)? says Scripture. What is, in the midst of snares? In the way of Christ, both on this side snares, and on that side snares; snares on the right, snares on the left: snares on the right, the prosperity of the world; snares on the left, the adversity of the world: snares on the right, promises; snares on the left, terrors. You, walk in the midst of snares, do not withdraw from the way: let neither the promise catch you, nor the terror dash you down. In this way in which I was walking, they have hidden a trap for me.

10. [v. 4.] I considered toward the right hand, and saw (Ps 142:4 (141:5)). He considered toward the right hand, and saw: he who considers toward the left hand is blinded. What is it to consider toward the right hand? Where those will be to whom it will be said: Come, blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom (Matt 25:34). For there will be some on the left, to whom it will be said: Go into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). So, with the whole world raging and threatening in the persecutions, the insults and terrors of men growing more frequent on every side, he, despising present things, looked toward future things, attended toward the right hand where he would be; there he meditated on being, thither he attended, and saw, and therefore bore all things: but those who persecuted did not see. Therefore, when he said: I considered toward the right hand, and saw; he went on and said: And there was no one who knew me. For when you endure all things, who knows what you attend to; whether you direct your eye toward the right hand, or toward the left? In what you endure, if you seek the praise of men, you have attended toward the left: in what you endure, if you seek the promises of God, you have attended toward the right. You have attended toward the right, you will see: you have attended toward the left, you will be blinded. But even when you see toward the right, there will be no one to acknowledge you. For who consoles you, except the Lord to whom you say: And you knew my paths? Nor was there one who knew me.

11. Flight has perished from me (Ps 142:4 (141:5)). He says, as it were, that he is hemmed in: Flight has perished from me. Let the persecutors exult, he is overwhelmed, he is captured, he is hemmed in, he is conquered; flight has perished from him. From him flight has perished, who does not flee. But he who does not flee suffers whatever he can for Christ; that is, he does not flee in mind. For it is allowed to flee in body, it is granted, it is permitted, the Lord saying: If they persecute you in one city, flee into another (Matt 10:23). So he who does not flee in mind, from him flight has perished. But it matters why he does not flee; because he is hemmed in, because he is captured, or because he is strong: for from the captive too flight has perished, and from the strong flight has perished. What flight, then, is to be guarded against? what flight is to perish from us? That of which the Lord says in the Gospel, that the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep: but the hireling, and one who is not the shepherd, when he sees the wolf coming, flees (Jn 10:11-12). When he sees the robber, why does he flee? Because he has no care for the sheep (Jn 10:13). Such a flight had perished from this man; whether we take this voice from the person of the head himself, of that Christ the Lord, who died for all; or from his members, our martyrs, because they too suffered for the brothers. Hear John saying: For as he laid down his life for us, so we too ought to lay down our lives for the brothers (1 Jn 3:16). But when they lay it down, Christ lays it down; because when they suffer persecution, he himself cries out: Why do you persecute me (Acts 9:4)? Flight has perished from me; and there is no one who seeks out my soul. So is there no one who seeks his soul? He sees men wishing to rage to his death, wishing to pour out his blood; how is there no one who seeks his soul? And this is taken in two ways. As 'flight perishes' is taken in two ways, because both from the captive and from the strong flight perishes; so in two ways the soul of a man is sought, either by persecutors, or by lovers. So, then: There is no one who seeks my soul: of those he said: Surely they persecute my soul, and they do not seek my soul. But if they seek my soul, they will find it cleaving to you: and if they know how to seek it, they know also how to imitate it. For that you may know that the soul of a man is sought also by persecutors, hence it is said elsewhere: Let those be confounded and put to shame who seek my soul (Ps 35:4 (34:4)).

12. [v. 5.] I cried to you, O Lord; I said: You are my hope (Ps 142:5 (141:6)). When I was enduring, when I was in tribulation, I said: You are my hope. My hope here; therefore I endure. But my portion, not here, but in the land of the living. God gives a portion in the land of the living; but not anything of himself, outside himself. What will he give to one who loves him, except himself?

13. [v. 6.] Attend to my prayer; for I have been brought very low (Ps 142:6 (141:7)). Brought low by the persecutors, brought low in confession. He humbles himself invisibly, brought low by enemies visibly. So he is raised up by him visibly and invisibly. Invisibly the martyrs are now raised up: visibly they will be raised up, when this corruptible has put on incorruption in the resurrection of the dead (See 1 Cor 15:53), when even this very thing, against which alone the persecutors could rage, will be restored. Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul (Matt 10:28). And what perishes? what do they kill? Or is even this permitted them, that what they have killed should perish? It will not perish. Hear the Lord's own promise: Amen I say to you, a hair of your head will not perish (Luke 21:18). Why, then, are you anxious about the rest of the members, where there will not be the loss of a hair?

14. Rescue me from those who persecute me (Ps 142:6 (141:7)). From whom do you think he prays to be rescued? From the men who were persecuting? Are then those men themselves our enemies? We have other invisible enemies, who persecute otherwise. Man persecutes, that he may kill the body; another persecutes, that he may ensnare the soul. And therefore through his vessels—because of him it was said: He works in the sons of unbelief (Eph 2:2)—through his vessels, that is, men in whom he works, he carries out the persecution of the body, that within there may come about the ruin of the heart. For if, the body falling, the soul stands, the trap has been broken, and we have been freed (See Ps 124:7 (123:7)). So there are also other enemies of ours, from whom we ought to entreat God to rescue us, lest they seduce us, whether broken by worldly troubles, or led on by enticements. Who are these enemies? Let us see whether they are plainly described by some servant of the Lord, by some perfect soldier who has joined battle with them. Hear the apostle saying: You have not a wrestling against flesh and blood (Eph 6:12). Do not, as it were, turn your hatreds upon men, and reckon them your enemies, and think yourselves ground down by their enmities: these men whom you fear are flesh and blood; You have not a wrestling against flesh and blood. So he wished to say, despising the mortality of men. And against whom? Against the principalities, he says, and powers, and rulers of this world, of this darkness (Eph 6:12). You had been terrified, when you heard, rulers of the world. If the rulers of this world, are you going to go beyond the world, where you do not suffer them? are you going to go beyond the world, where you may be rescued from them? So take the rulers of the world and of this darkness, not as rulers of heaven and earth; for that is the building of God. Heaven and earth are called the world, and evil men are called the world. Why are these too the world? Because they love the world: and therefore darkness, because impious. And so now, many of that very number believing, what does the apostle say? You were once darkness; but now light in the Lord (Eph 5:8). Before, then, you were light, when you were darkness, attend to what ruler you had. What ruler do the wicked have, except the devil, as the devout and faithful have Christ as ruler? So he called the devil and his angels the rulers of the world, that is, the rulers of the lovers of the world, the rulers of sinners, which is, of this darkness: these we have as enemies, from whom we ought to entreat the Lord that we may be rescued.